So Incredibly Thankful...Again

What is it with Marcus almost dying the day before Thanksgiving? Right now he's two for three.

This afternoon we were headed to my sister's house to participate in my niece's production of "Rikki Tikki Tavi," and like usual, when I told the kids to get in the car, Alyssa got on her scooter and started cruising up and down the side walk, Ethan ran around the grass, and Marcus got on his big wheel and joined Alyssa. I don't know why "Get into the car" translates to "Run around the neighborhood" in their language, but this always seems to happen.

I was able to corral Ethan into the car, and while I was strapping him into his car seat, I heard Alyssa say, "Marcus! Stop! Come back!" And when I ducked out of the van, I saw Marcus riding his bike straight into the middle of the busy street that our street is perpendicular to, with Alyssa running after him.

I screamed "Stop! Stop!" while running up the side walk. I don't know if I was talking to Marcus and Alyssa, or to the cars who were passing them as they stood in the center of the right lane. I counted four cars that went by while I ran, screaming, and when I reached them I scooped Marcus into my arms as Alyssa pulled the big wheel to the sidewalk. Then, once I had everyone safe in the car, I dumped the scooter and big wheel over the fence into the back yard, where they will stay. Forever.

So once again, we are incredibly thankful to have three beautiful, healthy, and alive children this Thanksgiving season.

Cabin Fever

On Thursday we headed to Brian's parent's cabin for the weekend where we:

ate lots of yummy (easy to prepare) food,

hung out with a blue marshmallow,

saw some deer,

read a little bit, and watched a ton of movies.
It was fabulous!

Monthly Review

Yesterday Alyssa had her first group monthly review at MCP. Each month we meet with our advisor to report on how things are going and where we are in our lesson plans, but every few months we have a group show and tell, where each child can report on something they've been learning about. Alyssa made a ziggurat (ancient Mesopotamian temple) out of blocks and talked a bit about it. She also shared a book she wrote a couple of weeks ago (all on her own) about her new Moxie doll that she was so excited to finally earn enough money to buy. She was so excited to share her ziggurat, and she practiced what to say about it, but when it came time for her turn, she just said, "I made a ziggurat....And here's my book..." and then she read her book.

(For the life of me, I can not get this picture to not be sideways. Sorry!)

All of the kids were so cute. Most of them shared poems they had either memorized or written themselves, a couple shared reports they had done on animals, and there was one little boy who read a story he wrote summarizing most of the story of Star Wars. He also had a stack of papers with him that turned out to be recipes for Strawberry Waffles. From the amused look his mom had, the recipe idea was all his own. He actually drew and wrote on each paper, instead of making copies. The recipe had a picture of a brown square with lines in it (the waffle, of course) with a big, bloody looking smear across the top of it, and across the top of the paper it said to get a waffle, put strawberries on it and whipped cream on it. I can't find the paper, but I wish I could so I can copy it - his spelling was so cute!

Up and Running

I started setting up another blog a few months ago to post videos to, but then I never did anything to it. I know a lot of people just put videos on their normal blog, but I don't want to do that, because I don't want to have to edit the written content of video posts when I have my blog printed. Yeah, it might not make sense, but when do I ever really make sense? So now, Jacks Family Movie Productions is now officially in use, if you're interested in seeing our family in action.

Sorry For The Fuzziness

This is what happens when Brian helps get the kids ready for bed.

And they love it!

Happy Birthday Marcus!

Marcus celebrated his second birthday Friday (and Saturday). For only having one other birthday before, this kid knew exactly what to do. We had a pile of french toast with a candle stuck in the top for breakfast, sang him happy birthday, and the second I set the plate in front of him, he blew out the candle. He was a pro unwrapping presents - definitely a pro at being excited about the presents. Brian's grandma even gave him two loaves of banana bread, which he loves, and he opened them up and screamed, "Nana bud! Nana bud!" and danced around the living room.

He also got a Spiderman boppy thing that he loved even before it was unwrapped, a Fisher Price "cd player," a train track set to supplement Ethan's train track set so they don't keep fighting over the curvy and straight pieces, and a semi-truck car carrier. Between us, grandmas and grandpas, and aunts and uncles, the kid made out pretty well.

He actually took a nap right before his party on Saturday, and then woke up, and went back to sleep, spending the first half hour of his party sleeping on Brian's lap.

He loved his cake. Ethan suggested the dinosaur cake, and he was quite happy with that. He also loved his cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Before I could frost them, he got to one and ate the top off of it. So I frosted that one last, and took some of the leftover frosting from the dinosaur cake to put an "M" on the top of his special, half-eaten cupcake. Then, when I left all of the cupcakes on the counter until the party, with specific instructions to everyone to leave them alone, I found Marcus reaching for globs of frosting from his cupcake, even though it was on the second row from him. I just thought it was hilarious that he left all of the other cupcakes alone.

Marcus is the sweetest little guy. He is still such a cuddler, and he loves to give hugs and kisses. Brian's dad is one of his favorite people. He adores "Bampa" and can even recognize his truck when we're traveling around town. He loves to help me cook. He always pushes a chair into the kitchen so he can stand beside me and help put ingredients in or stir for me. Sometimes he won't give up the spoon for me to have a turn. Oh, he also loves books. He loves to sit and look at the pictures of any book. We are extremely glad to have Marcus in our family!

Ruffles and Stuff

I stumbled upon a new blog this afternoon. It's called Ruffles and Stuff and it's written by a lady named Disney. This woman is a genius! She buys frumpy clothes at thrift stores and turns them into adorable clothes for herself and her daughter. I've spent the last hour just drooling over each post, thinking, "I want a dress like that" or "Oh, I want to make something like that so bad!" We actually had a very productive morning, but it doesn't look like it, because I let the kids raid the Halloween candy bucket after lunch while I was skimming through post after post, and the dining room looks like a sugared-up tornado blew though. You think I would have noticed Ethan and Marcus coming to me every five seconds, asking, "Mom, could you open this please?" and "Momo! grunt," respectively.

But no, I was too busy looking at things like:

This dress made out of a thrift store skirt

This lamp shade

A scarf made out of a t-shirt

A bolero made from a shirt that had gotten too short for her


This picture, made form an old frame and twigs from her yard

And this cute shirt made out of dollar store thermal underwear

I want to spend a few more hours on her site, getting ideas for ways to make my life more "ruffly," recycled, and pretty, but it's going to have to wait until later. Brian just called to say he's on his way home (early today!) and I have to clean up all the candy wrappers and lunch dishes so it doesn't look like I've been loafing for the past hour and a half.

edited to add: And from her site, I found Wardrobe Refashion, where everyone makes a pledge to recycle and refashion their old clothes, instead of throwing them out and buying new ones. I don't know if I'll be hard core enough to take the challenge, but it would be fun to try. I've actually got a bag of clothes that have been waiting to go to Goodwill for a month or so. I think I'll go take a look at what I can do.

Thankful Tree

{2009}
Some of the things on the list: friends, Dad and Mom, our family, our ward, fishing, computers, good food, Book of Mormon, our swing set, to have Brian live with us, sleep, music, exercise, we have such good kids, date night, Jesus, America, home school, our car, the Gospel, work, happy people. There's also a lot of scribbly leaves that the boys did which could mean anything.

Halloween Fun

Last night we went to a carnival and trunk-or-treating at the church. Alyssa went through the maze four or five times, and she loved running around with her friends. She went around the parking lot with Emily McShane.


Brian and I went as the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter. It was fun wearing that costume again.

Marcus loves trick-or-treating. What? All I have to do is walk around the parking lot and people give me candy? Okay! He wore his eye patch last night, and he looked so cute!

Friday Halloween Fun

We went trick-or-treating at Brian's parent's house on our way to a carnival put on by the city of Richland.

Alyssa is a sun princess. Ethan is a Transformer. We took the boots off of him after a little while, because it was hard for him to walk in them. We tested them several times while we were making them, and he could easily walk around our house, but I guess tests are never quite like the real thing.

Marcus ended up being a pirate. He did not want to take his costume off at the end of the night. He threw such a fit and fought like crazy to get his arms back into the vest.

The carnival was a lot of fun. We took my nephew, Michael, because he was to be babysitting the kids while Brian and went to the Ransom's Halloween party afterward. At the carnival there was a hayride through Howard Amon Park, a maze, and a ton of games in the community center. The kids had a blast!

Brian and I went to the Ransom's party as a winged, but not-winged demon and a gypsy, respectively. Brian was winged, but not-winged, because I got him some rockin' demon wings from Value Village, but he couldn't get past the whole "fairy" thing associated with wings, so he didn't wear them after going to his parent's house. We painted his face dark, and he was wearing red eye contacts, which looked really cool.

We had a ton of fun at the Ransom's. Brian and NaDell kicked everyone's rears at Apples to Apples, then we played boys verses girls Catchphrase. I was really hungry, so I had two turkey sandwiches (sorry to anyone who didn't get one!) and a ton of NaDell's yummy pumpkin cookies.

Carving Pumpkins