Happy Halloween

Today is a rainy day again.  We had a lot of rain Saturday night too.  So things are getting very soggy.  A branch on one of the trees fell.  Thankfully it fell between the car and fence, so nothing was hurt.  Andrew has enjoyed using a little bow saw cutting into the log and even cut a section off of it.  He likes doing things he sees his dad do.

Last week Ruth enjoyed going to Activity Days.  I am thankful that she has friends she can be with at church functions.  Andrew had Pack Meeting.  He earned two belt loops, his first things awarded him in Cub Scouts.  He was happy about it.

We had lots of fun at the park last week.  Caleb and I played a couple of times with friends.  Then Saturday late afternoon we went to the park as a family.  The kids rode their bikes on the track.  Spencer rode the tricycle around the 1/2 mile track.  Then Caleb ran chasing him to get a turn on the tricycle.  Caleb ran all around the track.  They took turns on the tricycle after that.  It was a beautiful day and many were at the park.  It was nice to spend time together.  Then this week when I went for walks Monday and Tuesday I asked Caleb if he wanted to run again, so he did.  He will run around one time, 1/2 mile, with a few stops and pauses, and then he waits for me to catch up and gets back into the stroller.  Andrew is loving to run too.  Last week for a PE free choice day he told me he ran 7 laps on the 1/6 mile track at school, without stopping.  He wants to run the turkey run the school is doing in November.  

Friday we had the missionaries over for dinner.  They are good young men.  

Saturday we decided to put the bunk bed back together.  We have had three twin beds in the boys room, with the bunk bed apart.  Their room was crowded, but it worked.  Now that the boys are older we decided to try the bunk bed again.  They are all happy to have all the extra floor space in their room.  And they have been pretty good about not playing on the top bunk much.

Saturday we also took time to go to the new Waco Stake Center building, before we went to the park.  Neal had a key and we were able to go inside.  It is such a beautiful building.  It is bigger than I thought it was from the outside.  It is going to be really special to be able to attend church there.  This Sunday will be our first week meeting there.  There is still a lot to get ready for that day though.  Tonight the ward leaders are meeting at the building to access what we need to do to be ready for our meetings Sunday.  Then Saturday our ward is meeting to do any work that is needed.  I am sure we will be ready.  Neal has already packed up the clerks and bishop office things and will get the boxes moved over tonight.  (Right now it is all in our bed room, so I will be happy when it gets moved.)  As a Relief Society presidency we met Monday to go through things at the old building to see what we needed to move.  Hopefully we can get that done by Saturday.  I took pictures of the outside of the building finally.  I didn’t feel I could show the beauty of the inside in pictures, so I didn’t take any of the interior.  You will have to come and see it yourself.  (We would love to have visitors, it has been a long time since any one has come to see us.)

The front of the building on the chapel side. 

From the other side of the front

The back of the building

Last Sunday was a little sad for me to think about leaving our other church building.  We have meet there for over 8 years, while we have been in Texas, and there are so many memories there.  Then last night we had a ward dinner and trunk or treat for the kids, at the old building.  It was nice to be there, but I know that might be the last time I am there for a long time since our ward wont be meeting there.  The party was a lot of fun.  The kids were so excited about dressing up.  Andrew was happy I had finished his costume, I stayed up late Monday getting it done.  Ruth looked cute as a cowgirl and Spencer couldn’t decide what dragon costume to use.  Caleb had a hard time deciding on a costume.  For preschool yesterday morning he dressed up as a monkey, then last night he decided to try the lion.  He liked the lion so much he wore it today to story time at the library.  He is a cute lion.  Although last night the lion, tiger and dragon were getting a bit too excited with seeing who was the scariest.  I had to remind them to be nice to princesses and fairies, we didn’t need any little girl scared at the ward party!

Caleb the lion

Andrew the tiger

Spencer the dragon, in both costumes at once

Ruth the cowgirl, in her boots!

A growl that turned into a laugh!

A pretty mean tiger!

Caleb is being amazing with his self motivated search for knowledge.  His favorite toy right now is an alphabet puzzle.  He plays with the letters, puts them in order, says their names over and over.  He is trying so hard to memorize it.  He sees letters around and likes to say them.  He is also amazing in his math skills.  Spencer was doing his home work last night and said a problem out loud and Caleb answered it, Caleb was looking at another paper that had the answer, but he still knew what all the numbers names are.  He counted to 50 today while looking at a poster at the library.  I think he is trying to catch up with Spencer.  It is fun to help him learn.

Happy Fall Time

Yesterday I bought some flowers.  That is one of the things that is nice about living here, we can plant annuals in the fall and enjoy them through the winter.  Last year I had pansies last from October until June.  I plan on planting them later today.  The weather has finally cooled down and I am enjoying the nice fall days.  

Last week I had wrote that I was going to try to talk to someone new at story time.  I did.  It turned out kind of funny though, here I was trying to extend myself to talk to people who aren’t associated with church and I found out she was LDS and in the other ward in the area!  But, I am glad that I talked to her. I even saw her in the church building Sunday and said hi again.  I will keep trying to make new friends.

Andrew has been so happy lately.  It has been fun to hear him humming or even singing as he plays and does things.  I am reminded of a General Conference talk recently that said “A child that sings is a happy child.”  He came home from scouts last week happy saying they had learned a new song for Pack meeting this week.  Yesterday was his school music program.  He did a great job.  He was able to play on a xylophone and had fun with that.  It was a cute program they did where they told stories to music.  The kids all did an excellent job.  Andrew also told me about a cool project they did at school with making different land forms.  His group was assigned to make a display on plateaus. He was excited about it and just really is enjoying school right now.  Monday evening he taught our Family Home evening lesson and put together some nice thoughts.  He is growing and learning so much right now.

Ruth is enjoying school too.  She is keeping up with her studies just fine and likes to spend time doing origami when she can.  Andrew is also into doing origami.  They have found a web site that they like looking at to see new things to make out of paper.  They are getting good at it.  On Thursday Ruth said their social studies class was talking about the Boston Tea Party and her teacher brought in tea to treat the kids with to go along with the lesson.  Ruth said that she declined having some.  I think it was the first time she had been offered it and was happy that she wasn’t even tempted to drink it.  Sweet tea is so common around here in the south, everyone has it all the time it seems.  She also said the two other LDS kids in class didn’t have any either.  I am glad that she has an understanding of what we try to teach her about the Word of Wisdom.  This week they are doing the Red Ribbon Week to teach the kids about staying away from drugs.  Ruth told me the principle was talking to the kids and said that he heard once that the analogy that our bodies are temples and we need to keep them special and clean.  She thought that was cool he would say that.  We showed her the scriptures by Paul in the New Testament that talk about that and saying that is probably where her principle had seen it.

Spencer is so bouncy and excited about life.  He loves doing the ASL with his teacher.  He is always showing me new phrases and words he learns.  He is getting good at spelling with his fingers too.  I think it has been good for him.  One day I showed him a short video clip from the church web site of someone signing the Book of Mormon.  He thought it was fun to watch a real person doing lots in sign.  Sunday was Spencer’s choice for treat and he wanted to make pumpkin cut out sugar cookies.  Everyone got so excited about them.  All the kids helped to decorate them.  

Caleb is growing up too.  He is talking a lot.  He loves to count and is focused on learning the alphabet.  He was so into playing with his letter puzzle yesterday he didn’t want to break for lunch.  He still likes to cuddle a lot and that is nice, but he is also getting very independent and not always wanting to do what we ask him to.  He loved going to preschool yesterday.  He has so many friends and enjoys being with them.  Friday we went to the children’s museum with friends.  He is also learning the days of the week better.  He has memorized what we do on each day.  So this morning he said to me “today is Wednesday, we will go to the library.”  I think it is great he is learning well.

Saturday afternoon I had a surprise visit from my friend Kathy.  She contacted me Saturday morning and asked if they could come over.  It was so fun to see her. She was someone who was a good friend to me when we first moved here and made my first two years in Texas bearable.  I am thankful she takes time to keep in touch with me when she comes down to visit family here in the area.  Her kids are getting so big too!  We had a nice visit.

We had a Relief Society presidency meeting last week.  We are still trying to figure out what is going on with the new building.  It will be interesting to make the change to meeting in a new place.  I heard last night at my book club gathering that the keys to the building have been passed out to the Bishops.  It is going to be neat to go there in two weeks.  Book club was different this month.  We did cook books.  Everyone brought a cook book to show and something they had made from it.  It was fun to eat and chat. 

Well, I have gotten results of medical tests back.  The CT scan didn’t show any obstructions in my sinus cavity. I was given some nose spray to help clear the passages.  My blood work was great and didn’t show any problems.  In a way it is really nice to see that on paper I am healthy with no significant problems.  Then I wonder, why do I feel the way I do?  Maybe my biggest problem is mommy fatigue.  It is hard to keep up with four little ones and all their activities.  I need to do better at getting more sleep.  

I feel thankful for my little family and hope I can continue to guide them along in good things.

Rainy Weather

I feel like I survived another week!  Last week my friend  wanted to start doing piano lessons again.  We took a break with all the busy summer activities and her son leaving for a mission.  It was nice to have her come over again and talk about her piano playing.  She is doing well and I hope that I can continue to inspire her to learn.

We had fun playing at the park with out play group friends.  I am glad that so many came and we could have a fun time.  Caleb really likes playing with other kids!

We had dentist visits this week.  I went last Thursday and was thankful for a good check up.  I also was thankful that the dentist was able to smooth out a small chip on my front tooth my tongue kept getting hurt on.  It feels so much better.  Then yesterday I had Spencer and Andrew in for their check up.  They are both doing great.  The dentist commented to me that we are doing a great job teaching the boys good hygiene and also healthy eating.  He said he could tell they eat healthy food by the way their gums look.  Andrews front teeth are looking good and the dentist didn’t feel like we need to do anything right now for him.  Just wait and see how things go as the permanent teeth come in.  (To remember, he had two baby teeth pulled last May to make more space in his mouth for the teeth to come in.)  His four lower front teeth are nice and straight right now and look good.  It is amazing that they moved so much in a few months, just by giving them a little more room.

I have been dealing with problems with head aches and sinus pain a lot for awhile now.  I went to the doctor last week and talked about the pain again.  Yesterday I had a CT scan done on my sinus area.  Now I wait to see the results and see what is going on.  Five years ago I had a CT scan done because of similar complaints.  It showed I had polyps growing in my sinus cavity.  But the doctor felt they were small and not a big problem.  I wonder if they have grown and are what is causing the problem now.  I had such a bad head ache over the week end it made me nauseous and I vomited and felt awful most the week end.  I missed going to Stake Conference Sunday.  I did go Saturday evening but felt really bad afterwards.  I enjoyed the meeting and the good talks on missionary work.  

Sunday morning Neal took the kids to conference.  They all told me things about the meeting.  I thought it was good the kids were listening.  I was excited to hear that the new Stake center building is almost done and we will start meeting there the first week of November!  That will be so neat to meet in a new building and one that is so close to our home.  I drive by it all the time and it has been fun to watch it be built.  I had a friend say she had taken pictures every month to show the progress and it made me wish I had done the same.  I will try to remember to get a picture of the finished building.  It is pretty and I like the landscaping. 

Sunday afternoon Neal and the kids made some treats.  Ruth had carved a little pumpkin at Activity Days last week and we cooked it up.  Sunday they made it into cookies and a pie.

Monday the kids had a day home for Columbus Day.  They had fun playing together.  We went into the doctors office to get flu shots and I needed to have blood drawn for some lab work they wanted to do on me.  I was glad it all went well and I was feeling better Monday morning.  After sleeping a lot Saturday and Sunday and having Neal do all the work around the house (including cooking) I was able to get up and do things Monday.

Last night I decided to go to a PTA meeting.  It was interesting to hear about all the things they are doing.  I want to be more involved but am not ready to jump in and be in charge of anything.  I will try to volunteer for something this year.  Last year I did one volunteer thing, maybe this year I can do two things.  It is just hard for me to go to the school when I would need to find a babysitter for Caleb so I could go.  In Stake Conference our Stake President encouraged everyone to get more involved in the community, that way we can have friends to share things about the church with.  That was one motivator to go to the meeting too.  I feel that I don’t know many people outside of church and should make an effort to be friendlier to the people I do see.  So we are getting ready to go to story time at the library and I will try to talk to someone today. 

It has been raining a lot for a few days now.  Everything is soaked.  The kids have played outside in the rain on Monday and Tuesday.  I told them today that we will stay inside.  They have gotten so muddy and wet. I did a load of laundry yesterday with all their dirty clothes and was happy they cleaned up well. Today is cooler too and I don’t want them to get sick.  They did have lots of fun yesterday.  I had them come in after an hour and they all took baths, then we had dinner.  

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying your families!

Happy Fall

I enjoyed my birthday last Thursday.  The kids were so excited to have a birthday in the family it made it fun for me.  They sang to me and found little gifts to give me.  It is nice to be showered with love.  Neal gave me some beautiful flowers and I got a couple of new books.  Here’s to another year of life!

Thursday afternoon I went to a meeting.  In our ward our Bishop has been stressing the importance of reaching out to others, being united and helping invite people to come back to church.  Our Relief Society president felt that we needed to try to work with the other leaders in our ward to combine our efforts.  We had a meeting with the presidencies of Primary, Young Women and Relief Society.  I thought it was a positive meeting and helped to communicate with the other groups and what they are doing.  I also enjoyed being with wonderful women on my birthday.  

Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed listening to General Conference.  What a blessing it is to hear from a prophet of God and know that things are okay, even in the difficult times our country is experiencing.  Neal enjoyed watching the Priesthood session at home.  That was nice to hear it too and to keep him home with us.

Saturday morning was warm and I was out getting our food from the Bountiful Basket program.  I got hot helping with things and noted the temperature, it was 85 degrees. About an hour later we were sitting at home watching conference and Neal started opening windows.  He said that it felt nice outside, we checked the on line weather and it said the temperature was 65!  I was surprised at what the wind had blown in.  It stayed cooler all week end and felt so nice.  It has warmed up some, but the mornings are still cool.  I feel it is a blessing to finally have fall here!

On Friday I got a call from the principle at Ruth’s school.  I need to remember that principles don’t always call when there is a problem, I was worried at first.  Then he proceeded to tell me that they were changing the schedules of some of the GT students to group them better.  Ruth got an entire new schedule, with all new teachers, starting yesterday.  She said that it went well.  She was happy to have friends in her new classes, since she knows most of the GT students and that is a big part of her classes.  It was the end of the first term, so that is why they changed it when they did.  I hope that it goes well for her.  She got straight A’s for the first term. 

Andrew did well in his first term of school.  He got a 95 on his last spelling test.  We work on his words every day together.  He is struggling still with spelling and reading, but improving all the time.  I hope it can get better soon because I think it is slowing him down in other subjects.  He loves math and does very well with that.  He is enjoying his GT classes too.

Spencer loves school.  It is fun to hear his chatter at the end of the day.  He is always so full of energy and fun.  He is doing well learning to read.  He had high scores on everything, but for the first term of 1^st grade he will just get “S” or “U” on his report card.  I am sure next term it will be all A’s!

Spencer being a little silly with balloons on my birthday!

Caleb is learning too.  He enjoys going to his preschool class.  He had so much fun with it yesterday.  He is working hard learning his letters and numbers.  He will ask me about the days of the week too.  He is catching on to things so fast.  He said to me the other day “3 and 3 make 6 and 5 and 5 make 10”  I thought that was pretty good for a 3 year old to figure out just by looking at his apple slices and fingers.

Our garden is all coming up and I hope that things can grow well this fall.  I am trying to help the kids get their Halloween costumes ready.  They are all excited about it.  It is interesting to me that most animal costumes for children are for little kids, size 6 and smaller.  It has been a challenge to find something for Andrew.  Even in patterns I couldn’t find a larger child size.  I bought a small adult and will scale it down a little for Andrew.  He really wants to be a tiger.  That was hard to find fabric too.  Where is the orange tiger fabric?  I was seeing lots of pink and green tiger prints.  I found a black and orange “zebra” print that I bought.  I hope he thinks it is okay, I thought it looked like it would work.  That will be my next project.  Last week I made Ruth a new skirt.  It was really easy, I like easy patterns, and she loves it for the twirling capacity.  I enjoy sewing things for the kids.

Ruth in her new skirt.

October Is Here!

Last week we had the adventure of going to a Cub Scout Pack meeting.  They hold one every month.  It was Neal’s late day at work so I took the whole family to the church so Andrew could attend.  He had the opportunity to be in the color guard for the flag.  He is learning many things and enjoys going to scouts each week.  I enjoyed seeing the other families there and visiting with some I hadn’t seen for while since they are in the other wards.  (All four units in our building are combined for cub scout activities.)  I also felt a little overwhelmed with all the new information about scouts I need to learn.  Andrew has been going to scouts for over a month and I haven’t even looked at his book yet.  I need to get more involved.  I also took time this week to review the “Faith in God” program.  I hadn’t looked at Ruth’s book for almost a year and now Andrew has one.  Sometimes things get so busy I forget to do these things.  I committed to myself that I will do better at talking to the kids about their goals and their programs.  

Friday I enjoyed going to play group and visiting with other ladies.  That evening we had the missionaries over.  It is always a pleasure to have them in our home.  I was able to finish sewing a skirt for me.  I think it turned out nice.  I feel bad that I had the fabric sitting for over six months before I got to make it.  I was able to wear it to meetings over the week end.

Saturday afternoon I took Andrew and Spencer to the school carnival.  We had some fun.  The boys enjoyed playing games and doing activities.  Andrew won a bottle of soda pop at a ring toss and a large chocolate cake in the cake walk.  Spencer had fun dunking a teacher in the dunking machine, he did great throwing the ball.  

Saturday evening I went to the church for a Relief Society dinner then watched the General RS broadcast.  It was a nice evening.  I am grateful for friendships and also hearing our leaders speak. After the meeting a group of friends went out for frozen yogurt.  I was thankful to be included in all their activity.  We carpooled and I enjoyed talking while we drove around town too.

Sunday was the Primary Program at church.  The kids did a great job.  I enjoyed the singing.  The kids all said their parts really well.  Andrew even spoke up so we could hear him.  Caleb was sad he couldn’t get up and was pouting through most of the meeting.  I realized next year all four kids will be in Primary and involved in the program.

Caleb is my cute companion.  He stubbed his toes the other day and said he had “hurt his piggies.”  He also told me that he likes me, because I have soft hair.  My hair is still his comfort “blanket.”  I taught his little preschool Tuesday.  It was different to teach these kids.  They were all outspoken and not really wanting to do things with the group.  I hope they get better as the year goes on so I can enjoy it more when I teach.  

This morning Ruth asked me to walk her to her bus stop.  She said yesterday it was foggy and a bit spooky, today was clear, but it was nice to walk with her and help her feel better about being out there.  It is dark now when she leaves.  We enjoyed going to the library this morning.  Our garden is starting to come up.  Things are going well.

Ruth and Caleb had fun playing with play dough while we were at the carnival. 

Becky in her new skirt.

Ruth showing a fleece blanket that she tied.