Just a few highlights of the last couple of weeks. Spencer has been playing with his friend Jonathan a lot more. Jonathan received a yo-yo for Christmas and the boys get together with their yo-yo’s and practice tricks. Spencer is getting pretty good with it. Jonathan has a DVD that shows them how to do things with the yo-yo’s and they are learning quickly. They also like to ride bikes. It is nice that they live close enough they can ride bikes to each others homes. Jonathan is in our ward and has been in cub scouts with Spencer, but he just turned 11. They are both in the same class at school too. Spencer enjoys going to cub scouts. Right now he is the only Webelos in the ward. He likes his leaders, Brother and Sister Crookston. They told him they would do some fun electives with him for the next month until more boys start turning 10 and joining them.
Spencer was in the National Geographic Bee that was held this morning. He took a written test last December and scored high enough on it to make it to the final 20 students in 4th and 5th grade in the school. I went to the Bee this morning and enjoyed watching it. Last week Spencer wanted to drop out and didn’t want to participate. I encouraged him and even bought a book from NG about how to study for the Bee. We had fun going through some example questions for him. He did a good job and participated in it. He didn’t make it into the semi-final round (they narrowed it down in 7 rounds of questions to a smaller group) but I am proud of him for doing it. A friend from our ward made it to the final two, but then answered the last question wrong. I enjoyed watching the Bee.
Spencer is number 9
Caleb plays with Charlie a lot. The boys are in the same school class and always come out of the school together. Charlie talks to us and walks with us a little bit before turning around and going home. He lives down the street from the school and walks by himself. The boys like to get together to play at each others homes. They also ride bikes together. Caleb also loves Monopoly right now. He always wants to play it, but most of the family is getting tired of playing, so he often will play by himself and play two players at once. He is creative in many things and one thing he has done is make a new Monopoly board that has places from “Caleb World” on it. He is still working on making all the cards for his new version.
Caleb and Charlie playing together
Andrew enjoyed having his friend Aiden come over to play. It was a first time for Aiden to come to our house to just spend some time with Andrew. He enjoyed seeing Andrew’s train projects and what he does with Lego. They enjoyed visiting. Andrew and Neal rode their bikes to Aiden’s home and then he rode back with them. It is a bit further to go but I think the boys could learn the route and ride to each others homes soon. Andrew is working hard with church things too and takes his responsibilities as a Deacon seriously. In the last month more boys turned 12 and we now have 12 Deacon’s in the ward. They are all involved with Boy Scouts too and Andrew enjoys that. Sunday Andrew, with the help of Spencer, made the family crepes. They turned out great and the boys were happy to do it for us. Andrew enjoys cooking. Often he will come help me make dinner, even when it isn’t his chore assignment.
Neal thought we should take a picture of Andrew and Spencer's fancy breakfast, they even got out candles.
The boys have enjoyed playing with their HexBugs. Neal helped them build hex-boxes for the bugs to run around in. We had a big piece of cardboard that they cut to make the boxes with. They like making towers out of blocks and then letting the bugs run around the tower and hit at the base until the tower falls. They really enjoy playing with them.
The boys with their Hex Bugs
One day Ruth came to me and showed me her pajama pants had ripped across the seat. She was sad that they were worn out. The next week I noticed an ad from a store that had flannel fabric on sale, so we went and bought some. On Monday the kids didn’t have school, for Martin Luther King day, and Ruth and I worked on her pajamas. We worked on them again last night and finished them. She did a lot of the sewing and I helped some with tricker parts, like the neck line and button hole. She is doing well with sewing and enjoyed making something. She likes to write and work on her stories every day after school. She is excited to do a State writing competition at the end of the month. The best part is that it is being held at her high school this year, so she doesn’t have far to go to attend.
I worked on getting some grain to put in storage to start off another year. I bought 50 pounds of oats while we were in Utah, since I can buy it in bulk there. Then we bought 80 pounds of rice and 250 pounds of wheat here. Neal helped me and we got it all packed up and put away. I do this about once a year to replace what we are using. It took time though to get it all done. We use dry ice to pack the grain into buckets and Caleb had an idea for a science fair project that he needed dry ice, so it worked out for him to have some to use. Spencer is also doing a project for the science fair. We need to work on them to get it all done.
This year in primary I was changed to teach the 7 year olds, I am teaching Caleb’s class. It has gone well, but very different from the 4 year olds I taught last year. Caleb loves having me for his teacher. Last week Neal and I gave the boys hair cuts. I have done a lot of yard work and winter clean up. I was pruning the fruit trees last week and I worry that they are already trying to bud. The weather has been dry and warm this winter. There isn’t any snow in the mountains. I worry what it will do to all of our trees. This week I enjoyed going to book club and had a great visit with the ladies. I am thankful for my friends. I look back and wonder what I do and where my times slips away, but it does. Life is good and we have so much to be thankful for.
I finished a puzzle, with Neal and Andrew's help
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