Frank Lloyd Wright and a budding Interior Decorator

Sorry about the poor sound quality, but it is just my digital camara taking these videos. It was really fun to see my niece Abbey in the concert. Their music/drama director wrote an entire play including music about Frank Lloyd Wright. Abbey's line was about how you might not like his personallity, but you don't have to like him because he is Frank Lloyd Wright. His talent speaks for itself. Abbey was amazing, she cheered with the kids, hugged the teacher. It was very rewarding to see!

Sarah recently decorated Stephen's room. She got Harrison and Stephen to help color dinosaur posters, and made a border out of 12 by 12 construction paper(patterned in brown and blue) with dinosaur pictures on it. She even placed toy dinosaurs around the room and on bookshelves. When I was at their house on Sunday, Joshua had been playing with the dinosaurs on bookshelf, and Sarah saw that they were out of place. She aksed why they were in the wrong places on the shelf. It reminded me of how when Frank Lloyd Wright would visit houses that he had designed, he would get really upset if the furniture wasn't placed in the correct spots.

Enjoy!

It was supposed to be about planets,

But all we learned about was garbage. Harrison and Joshua are signed up for monthly classes at our children's museums. The latest one was called, "Our Big Blue Planet". But instead of talking about the planet, they just talked about garbage. It was really a unit on recycling. I think Harrison thought it was going to be about the solar system, not about how to take care of our earth.

Warming up peas

Counting as the peas warm up!
Here you go Emily!
Yum--peas and cheerios for dinner!
Harrison and Joshua love frozen peas, and Emily loves peas but not frozen. So Harrison and Joshua graciously share their peas, and even warm them up before giving them to Emily. The first time Harrison warmed up his peas, he put a pea in his mouth before he gave it to Emily. This reminded me of a very gross SNL skit (does this bring up any memories?) Now, Harrison just puts the peas in his hands and counts to 30, then puts them on Emily's place. They love having Emily around, and Emily loves being around them. She is very lucky to have two kind brothers!

Surfing Anyone?

Paddling to shore
Surfing anyone?
Wipe out!

Harrison and Joshua love Hawaii. About eighteen months ago, I did a preschool unit on Hawaii with Harrison, and ever since we have been fascinated with Hawaii. They are also big fans of the movie Surf's Up. So Joshua got the idea that the sled is like a surf board. He would slide down the hill "paddling" his way down the hill. I think that if he were seven, he would actually try to ride down the hill standing up, but thankfully he is only three. Then once at the botton, he stands up on the sled and then wipes out into the snow. So, since this spring break we aren't going to Hawaii, we thought we would bring Hawaii to us in form of sleds and snow!

Good News on the Graduate School Front

This semester the only class that I am taking is Field Experience. It is the course that is a precurser to student teaching. Because I am a graduate student, I only need to take this course once and obtain all my "Field Experience" hours in one year (120 total). It was an overwhelming experience because the first week that I started observing, it took about 3 1/2 hours total time to get in 1 1/2 hour of observation time. But I found out last week that my work as a Curator at Southern Utah University counted toward my observation hours--now I only have to complete 90 hours. Within the next two weeks I will have another 60 under my belt. (Mike is taking vacation, and I will be working--sound familiar anyone?) The second good news: I passed the Basic Skills Test without even studying! Illinois requires that teachers take three tests before certification, and now I only have two more to go. I think that I might study for the next ones, they sound a bit harder. I love teaching, and whats even better, after two weeks in the public schools, my children are really quite amazing!

Peace, Be Still

Anakin's favorite Bible story is when Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee. He loves the painting above and often says, "Peace, be still." Last Sunday he gave a talk in Primary and told the story. Lately, he has been waking up in the middle of the night with bad dreams. And he tells me about them, "Mommy Scary Larry ( a very scary tarantula) almost got me" or the dinosaurs. Tonight while I was putting him to bed he said, "Mommy one time I said 'Peace, be still' and they didn't get me." So tonight when we had prayers, we asked that when Anakin had bad dreams he could say, "Peace, be Still." May we have the spirit whisper to our souls --"Peace, be Still".

Wow, What a Week

As I look back at the week, I am amazed that we all survived. Thanks to great friends for helping me with my kids, and also their great children who play so well with my kids. Tuesday, Mike was home, so I went to work as usual, then rushed back and Mike went to work. Wenesday, it was my first time to observe in the classroom. So I dropped Gypsy and Anakin off at our neighbors, then rushed Luke off to school, then off to the school to observe, then back to pick up the kids, then back to pick up Lukeat school. That night we had their good friends over, so their Mom could enjoy a concert that their older daughter was in--Luke loves Tanner and Zachary, and Madison their almost three year old is like a little mother to Gypsy Girl very cute. Thursday, it was back to work, the kids stayed at the their friends, then it was off to the Library for story time. They read books about Valentines Day and made cards. Then it was off to visit their cousins and deliver their Valentines day bags. When they came in, I realized that my little gift was nothing compared to the stuffed animals, balloons that the girls walked home with. Friday, took Luke to school, came home for a quick visit, then it was off to meet with my other cooperating teacher. I am going to love working with her, and I am going to give a short lesson on Thursday, the next day that I go in to observe. I invited myself over to the Millers for dinner (they watched my kids). Anakin calls it the Millenial Falcon house b/c they have a transformer that changes from the Millenial Falcon to Han Solo. Saturday, we picked up their cousins for a fun, fun, fun, day. We did crafts, went to the movies, went to McDonalds, and of course they got to play, play, play. After I dropped them off, it felt so lonely. Sunday, I got the kids ready for church. It had been awhile since I've done it by myself. At one point everyone was crying while we were in the car. I am so proud that we made it to church! Thankfully, we sit next to a dear family that helped me with Gypsy Girl. I wouldn't have made it through Sacrament Meeting without them. Primary was busy, but the Stake came in to do Sharing Time, so we had a couple of extra hands, so we came home to a very chaotic house, very tired and in much need of rest. I did get to lie down for about five minutes before I heard someone yell, "Mommy, I need you!"

Great Day!

We had a great day at the Children's Museum! Luke's class was scheduled to go on a field trip to our local dinosaur museum, but he kept telling us that he wasn't going to go. I took him to that same museum and he just held onto my hand very tightly and wouldn't look at anything, but just stared straight ahead. So we decided to actually listen to him, and not make him go through the pain of the field trip. Pilot-boy had the day off, and we decided to go to into the city to a very fun Children's Museum. We brought along our dear friend, and had a great time with the water, pretend camping, a circus, going on rope bridges, and of course building a ship. The musem wasn't even crowded, and it was a great day to spend indoors.
Snipits:
After I posted Luke's picture Still Life #1, he took another picture and showed it to me, and said, "Can we call this Still Life #2". Anakin was walking around making wind type sounds, I asked him if he was the wind, but then in a very low deep voice he said, "No, I'm Darth Vader". Gypsy Girl has a cold, and is teething, so she just wants to be held. Mike is busy flying and being Captain, while I finally got my background check completed and will start observing tomorrow. One step closer to finishing my Master's degree!

Still Life #1

I wish that I could say that Luke artistically placed all these objects on our counter then took a picture of it. But in actuallity, we are naturally artistic in how we leave our cheerios, soda cans and glasses out on the counter (not to mention the target bag). Luke loves to take my camara and take pictures of almost everything. He is getting really quite good.

Snow Tunnels

We had quite a bit of snow this past two weeks, so we had a great opportunity to make snow tunnels. I told Luke that this was only a kind of cool tunnel, when he gets bigger he will make a super cool tunnels. I also wanted to say Thank You to the Millers for coming and shovelling me out of the snow storm. I had already gone out and shovelled twice, and I only had a about 1 yard 1/2 left of the driveway to shovel. I was hoping that a neighbor would shovel me out, then I had the impression to ask for the Millers to help me out. So in answer to my prayer, they called me up and asked if I needed help. I almost said no, but then I thought I really didn't want to finish shovelling. So Thank you!

Daddy, Daddy

"Anakin" crying for his Daddy, and trying to chase after him!
Shoveling Snow--What Fun!
Luke joins in the fun! We each have our own shovel, so the work goes pretty quickly!

Mike left for work this afternoon, and once Anakin realized he was gone he ran outside in the middle of the snowstorm looking for him. I brought him inside, then after getting on his coat, he went out again calling for daddy. He even started to run down the sidewalk in search of him. Finally, I asked him if he wanted to shovel, and he did. So we stayed outside and shovelled our driveway and our neighbors. It is amazing how service can cheer us up and help us even when we are missing our daddy.