Scarletta

Me, "Scarlet, it looks like you got a sun tan today."
Scarlet, "No, that's just maple syrup sticking to my head."

***

Scarlet calls in from the porch, "Mom, how does it go, Jesus then President Monson, then Santa? How does it go?"

***

Me, "Scarlet, what do you want on your toast?"
Scarlet, "Turkey, and honey and chocolate chips."

***

We were walking under apple trees full of blossoms and we could hear the buzzing of so many bees. Scarlet had just fallen down and she was whiny and tired and crying. Then she stopped crying out of nowhere and said, "Mom, do bees sting ostriches?" (We tell her not to be an ostrich when she's being loud and whiny.)

Seasons of Change

This was a blustery fall morning. The girls packed all kinds of things (dolls, limes, Despereaux, notebooks) in their bike baskets, then went for a ride. 

Scarlet got a wand in her workbox one morning and changed Timmy into "a freckle, and a pig."

Scarlet loves to hold a blanket and suck her thumb- she'll often show me a part of her blanket to smell. The last time she did this I said, 

"What does it smell like? 

I don't smell anything, it just smells clean to me." 

Scarlet answered, "It smells like chocolate and marshmallows."

Autumn 

by Rainer Maria Rilke

The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,


as if orchards were dying high in space.


Each leaf falls as if it were motioning "no."



And tonight the heavy earth is falling

away from all other stars in the loneliness.



We're all falling. This hand here is falling.


And look at the other one. It's in them all.



And yet there is Someone, whose hands


infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.

Timmy Quotes

Timmy while watching politics tonight, "This is kind of weird. It's kind of awesome."

Timmy talking about going to morning ball at 6am everyday, "I don't even know until I sit up if I'm going to go or not. I sit on the side of the bed and wait, then either go, or lay back down."

Quotes By Tim

Tim, "I'll have another baby if it doesn't cry."

Tim again, "Seriously Jane, if you do, I'll shoot your pet chicken with my 22."

Tim in Maui, "Places like this are 20% to experience and 80% to talk about."

Tim some more, "How many deer have you seen on this trip?"

Sarra, "None."

Tim, "I've seen a million."

Quote Quote Quote

When tucking in Scarlet before bed, Tim asked, "Do you want to say the prayer?"

Scarlet: "No, Heavenly Father isn't home."

Tim: "Where did he go?"

Scarlet: "He's at Jesus' house."

After being gone for 3 days, Tim was snuggling Ezra and made this conclusion:

"Ya, I get the sensation that I want to eat him."

I LOVE This Kid

"Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart."

~Winnie the Pooh

Best apron ever. Thanks Jods.

My kids are Uno junkies, and Ezra happens to be awesome at Uno...

...except for when he eats the cards.

He looks way too grown up in this one.

I've never taken this long to get a baby book done :0)

Thanks for the album Momma.

Uncle J

Jared telling me about seeing The Staves open for Bon Iver:

Me: Were they good?

Jared: "Yeah, it was like Stevie Nicks times three."

Cubby

Scarlet went to stay with Grammy for a few days and as she was leaving Jacobs said, "Mom I blew a white dandelion and do you know what I wished for? I wished that Scarlet will have fun at Grammy's house."

I love picturing him outside alone having a nice little dandelion wish for his little sis. Before Scarlet left she told me that she likes hamsters on her hamburgers now. She meant to say MUSTARD! She also told me that pigs say "wink, wink". I always thought they went "oink oink" which makes me think of Jared doing his obnoxious rendition of the oink oink.

“It sometimes seems that we live as if we wonder when life is going to begin. It isn’t always clear just what we are waiting for, but some of us sometimes persist in waiting so long that life slips by—finding us still waiting for something that has been going on all the time. … This is the life in which the work of this life is to be done. Today is as much a part of eternity as any day a thousand years ago or as will be any day a thousand years hence. This is it, whether we are thrilled or disappointed, busy or bored! This is life, and it is passing.”

Elder Richard L. Evans

Besties

The kids found this piece of beehive and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Cool enough to get out the microscopes (30 x magnification microscopes are great).

Every Wednesday us three get to spend the evening in the city together. Jane and Charlie entertain each other the whole time. It reminds me of being with my best friend Linds when I was a kid- it didn't matter what we were doing or where (usually waiting for a ride), it was fun b/c we always had fun being together. 

Jane quotes:

Jane: This chapstick smells sneaky?

Me: What do you mean sneaky?

Jane: It reminds me of something sneaky Emma and I did once but I can't 

remember. She was 7 and I was 6.

One time we were at the University library and I was getting nerdy excited about all the new books. We picked out a thousand, but then they told us we couldn't check books out from that part of the library. Then out of no where, in response to my frustration, Jane comes up with this obscure Anne of Green Gables line:

"Mom, you know there are some things that cannot be expressed in words."

If any one wants, feel free to call Jane to hear her say this line from Chicken Run:

"I don't want to be a pie, I don't like gravy." 

Maybe I will post a video b/c her accent is bang on.

Jane had a special two weeks at Grammy's house trip. It was her first time by herself but I'm pretty sure her fears are long gone now. Grammy did a few sewing projects with her. These owls are one of them. She made one for all five of the kids. They all pack them around all over the place.

This is one of Charlie's latest projects. He has some small survival projects going on. These are fire starters. You cut out one egg section and it's a handy-dandy-ready-to-go-light-your-fire-quick-thing. He  was awesome about doing it totally on his own. It was cute watching him out the window, while he gathered all his materials.

Charlie is an expert Fat Boother. He loves doing it so much. This one was particularly believable:

Dresses that "Dance"

Grammy sewed Jane and Scarlet special Easter dresses. Aunt Jenny sewed one for Isabelly too- it was her first sewing project and it turned out so cute! It was fun for the girls to all match.

Aunt Jenny always makes sure the girls have fancy hair. It's a good thing someone around here is a hair professional. I just leave their hair wild and free. 

After Jane's was done, she bopped around with a huge smile.

Scarlet loves to wear dresses. Especially if we have music on.

She loves to sit like this when she wears dresses because it "makes a cupcake".

Timmy: "Scarlet are you pretty like mommy?"

Scarlet: "No, I'm WAY prettier."

QUOTES

Jane (8) and Charlie (7) and Jacob (5) often disappear into "playland" for hours. Today, Charlie emerged and I asked him about the game. Here's what I found out:

Charlie: "Jane is always the daughter of a chief and I'm always a famous orphan. Jacob is the cowboy. Usually I'm 18 but today Jane made me  be 11."

Me: "Why are you a famous orphan?" 

Charlie: "Because we pretend I can draw my dot to dot pictures without the dots. But then Jane says fine

then I get to climb higher trees an make friends with cougars."

Me: "What about Jacob?"

Charlie: "I let him tie me up twice."

I Love Being A Momma

"Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world"

           

 ~Sister Julie B. Beck~       

Such an Honor

Charlie, "Mom in my imagination I have lots of servants. Do you want to know which servant you are?"

Me, "Which one?"

Charlie, "You're my cook."

The next day I inquired further into this servant thing. I asked, "If I'm the cook, what kind of servant is dad in your imagination?"

Charlie, "He's just a servant but you are the cook for all my friends, every single one."

Quote TIme

 

Tim talking with the kids:
"Baby Ezra has one job in this family, do you guys know what it is?
Get chubby!!"

Jane asked me if babies grow in your stomach. I told her they grow in this thing called a uterus. She joyously proclaimed how lucky girls are because, "Girls get to have a  uterus and hips!"


Jacob had so many questions about babies when Ezra came home. He walked into our bedroom and saw the pack'n play and said, "Cool, is that his new cage?"
Then he asked, "Mom, did he come out wearing that one (onesie) or did you put that on him?" I answered,  "He came out naked, all babies do." Then all four of them died laughing. Apparently that's the funniest thing ever.
Lastly, Jacob said, "I like him mom, he's just like Baba."
"Why?" I asked.
He replied, "Because he's so sleepy."

Each day Jacob asks if I want to know his new favorite part about the baby. First it was his ears, then his fingers, then his tummy... The picture below shows him measuring his body parts against the tiny baby's. "Mom! My ear is this big and Ezra's is only this big!"


Now for my personal favorite, which happens to be on video. The minute we got home from the hospital we told Scarlet how the baby came out. Instantly she looked at my tummy and says in an excited squealy voice, "There's more?" Happens every time. I proceed to tell her no, there isn't any more but she keeps pressing the issue saying, "He wants his friend mom. He wants his friend." over and over.


In the car on the way to our vacation I started laughing at something and Jane told me that my laugh was weird. I think I don't laugh enough because it sounded strange to her for me to laugh really hard. Then Charlie agrees and says, "Ya, it's not contagious at all! But my laugh is contagious. One time I was laughing and Jane didn't even know why and she started laughing."

Scoopy

In this video she is quoting Proverbs 16:24. Jacob has been learning it for our recitation day tomorrow and somehow Scarlet picked it up all on her own and surprised us.

Scarlet is wild- she bosses all of us around, all day! We all get such a kick out of her new phrases, like today when she said, "Are you kidding me?" She does this thing where she repeats herself about 4000 times when she wants something- its like demands on auto pilot. My personal favorite is when she repeats, "I'm hungry mom." Over and over and over and over. Even after she has just had a bowl of oatmeal, applesauce, potato soup, a cheese biscuit and a some yogurt. So we've learned that I'm hungry really means "I'm so tired, please put me to bed immediately." She LOVES to dance- especially if she has a "princess" (dress that twirls) on. Anytime I wear a dress or skirt she asks me, "Are you a princess mom? Does that one dance?" This means she wants me to twirl so we can find out if my dress is a princess our not (if it twirls or not), if it's not a princess than it's useless to even try to dance. You can't dance without a "princess".

Music From Heaven

Our friend Jody told us to make these homemade bagels and they were tasty tasty. Here is the recipe if you want to try them. They are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Yum. Jane enjoyed the part when you drop them into a boiling water bath while they were still in dough form.

Jane is in the most beautiful stage right now. She is so happy and cooperative and helpful and sweet. 

She will be baptized when she turns eight in January, so we have been spending time with her preparing for that. She is genuinely studying and working hard to understand what being baptized means for her. She memorized this really long scripture about baptism and I didn't even know she was doing it.  She came up to me and said, "mom, watch this" and then recited it to me. I was shocked and asked her how she learned it and she told me it was because she reads it to Scarlet every night before bed (they share a queen size bed) so now she knows it by heart. Cuteness.

Another cute Jane moment was last Monday. We do history on Mondays and we were having a rather mundane lesson on ancient Egypt, nothing overly exciting. When we finished, I was tidying the table and getting things ready for the next lesson and Jane, out of now where, gives me a juicy hug and says, "I'm so happy I get to be in home school." If you educate your kids at home, then you know how good that kind of moment feels. It was a victorious feeling. 

On Saturday Tim and I took Jane out on a special date. We went to see a strings trio called the Ivory Strings. The trio is a violin, cello and piano. Our friend Rachael is the violinist and she was thoughtful enough to invite us- she knew Jane might be interested in seeing the cellist. Anyways, it was an amazing evening. Rachael and the cellist are in the symphony so we knew it would be good, but we didn't fully understand how good. It was unreal good. They played in someone's home so it was an intimate setting and the music was heavenly, literally. One song in particular that changed my life was called, Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla, arr. Jose Bragato. We looked at their music during the intermission and I seriously didn't know music with that many notes existed- the page was just black and covered with notes! I was so happy that Jane had the chance to experience such an inspiring evening and that we got to share it with her.