I Love My (Mom's) Silhouette

Last year my mom bought a Silhouette cutting machine, and it's taken us all this long to get enough time to experiment and learn how to use it.  She's letting me borrow it for a bit, so the boys and I had fun decorating their walls this afternoon.

The boys have cars (Ethan's bed) and rockets (Marcus's bed) in their room, so my original plan was to put "Oh the Places You'll Go" type of quote on the wall, but I was having trouble picking which part of the book to use, so I asked Marcus what he wanted his wall to say.  He replied, "Um, a rocket ship," and that's when I let him take over.

We Googled rocket ship pictures, and that's where we got the rocket ship on the left.  The one on the right we designed and created ourselves.  When it was time to put things on the wall, Marcus told me where to place them, and we stuck them on together.  The only place I deviated from his plan was that wanted the words to say, "Lightning."  I thought, "...to infinity and beyond!" went better with the rockets, and I figured that the kids can't read yet, so it shouldn't bother him.  If he could read I would have totally put up, "Lightning."

Them when we were walking Ethan home from school we asked what he wanted on his wall and said that he wanted a dinosaur with a "bubble that says, 'Roar!'"  Finding a good dinosaur picture was hard!  He wanted a T-rex, but none of those were working, so we went with an alisaurus.

We made the volcano and the palm trees on our own.  I think the clouds just make the volcano.

It's funny that the little pictures don't look as big in the photos as they do in real life.  When you walk in the room, you see a large, cohesive scene - much better than in the pictures.  Oh, and Marcus' mattress is on the floor, because he still rolls out of bed.  I actually put his big rocket ship pillow beside his bed each night, because he usually rolls to the floor, and at least that helps him to have something soft for his head.  Next up, I'd like to do up their names to put at the head of their beds.  I'm excited for Alyssa to come home, because I can't wait to see what she comes up with for her wall!

School Bag in Hand, She Leaves Home in the Early Morning

Last week we made some serious decisions and some big changes.  On Monday I took Ethan to school, got Alyssa started on her school work, cleaned up after breakfast, and started laundry.  Alyssa wanted me to sit down beside her and walk her through her math work, and she was literally throwing a fit every time I told her to give it a try and ask me for specific help if she needed it.  Rebecca wasn't getting rocked to sleep sufficiently to stay asleep when I set her down.  Marcus wanted to watch something on Netflix and was upset when I said no.  The laundry...well, the laundry needed to be switched to the dryer, then hung up, and a new load needed to be put in, and this needed to happen a couple of times, because it was a big laundry day. 

I was upset with Alyssa, because I tried last year to wean her off of having me sit beside her saying, "Okay, what's the next step of the problem?  And what do we do now?"  I told her that now she's a third grader, and she needed to start doing more work on her own.  She knew how to do the work - she just didn't want to do it unless I was sitting beside her.  I was frustrated that Rebecca wasn't staying asleep, and I was almost falling asleep myself while trying to rock her.  I was also frustrated with Marcus, because he's at that stage where he bursts into wailing sobs when he doesn't get his way, and it's quite bothersome.  And the laundry...well, I've never really enjoyed doing the laundry. 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the dog.  (I always call Sadie "Dog" or reference her as "the dog" when I'm upset with her.)  We started the morning being woken up by her throwing up a sock.  She likes to eat socks - a lot.  I've looked it up, and apparently it's a Labrador thing, because a lot of them do it.  We've tried to keep the socks put away, but she always manages to down a few.  Mostly the boys'.  So she threw up a sock early that morning.  Brian and I cleaned it up, and we went back to bed for just a few minutes before we had to get up.  Then later I fed her breakfast and put her in her kennel so she could hang out with us while we ate our breakfast, and she threw up both her breakfast and another sock. So washing her bedding was added to the laundry routine for the day.

So I spent about 30 minutes trying to manage all of this while thinking, "There's too much going on in our lives right now.  Something has to go."  At first I thought it was the dog, but it didn't seem fair to make that decision without Brian, plus she really is a good dog, and she's getting better behaved all the time, and it would be sad to give up on her just as she's starting to settle down.  Then I thought, "Homeschool.  I don't think I can homeschool right now, and maybe it's not the best thing for Alyssa at the moment."  And throughout the morning I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I was going to take the steps to put Alyssa in school, and that if it was a wrong decision, please stop me. 

I was sad (very sad) when I signed her out of Mid Columbia Partnership, but then when I went to McGee to register her, it felt right.  And when I met her teacher I got so excited.  Her teacher is wonderful!  After talking with her I was so thankful that Alyssa would be in her class, because if there was ever a teacher that was perfect for Alyssa, it must be Mrs.  Halverson.  She's a happy, bubbly person, who seems to have just enough fun mixed in with the structure and work to make school enjoyable.  She also told me that her students were learning to be completely responsible for their own work, which is one of the reasons I'm sending Alyssa to school anyway.

I came home from registering Alyssa all excited, and I told her how much fun she would have.  Alyssa whined and moaned and cried.  We went in before school on Tuesday so Alyssa could meet Mrs. Halverson and learn about how the class works, then she had all day at home to get used to the idea.  She was so excited when Wednesday morning came, and she had a wonderful first day of third grade.

Here's the kids enjoying some popcorn after Alyssa's first day at McGee Elementary School

Now she's riding her scooter to school each morning with Ethan and a group of neighborhood kids.  She's doing all the work that's required of her during the day, and when she comes home she gets out her homework folder and starts on that without me having to ask.  She's making friends left and right and having a great time.

Over the last week I've enjoyed having that quiet time in the morning when Alyssa and Ethan are at school and Rebecca's taking a nap.  So far I've been catching up on the housework that I got behind on while Marcus watches PBS kids.  Then I put Marcus and Rebecca in the stroller and we walk to pick up Ethan before lunch.  I haven't been any less busy, but my brain has been able to slow down a lot.  There's been a couple of times that I've sat down to nurse Rebecca, and I've realized that I wasn't doing anything except sitting and nursing Rebecca.  I wasn't trying to figure out how much school work we had left, or trying to work switching and folding the laundry into our lesson schedule, or trying to think of what we need to accomplish today to be ready for our lessons tomorrow.  i was just sitting and snuggling with my baby.

I do miss Alyssa a lot, but I can see that she's growing in new ways and expanding her comfort zones, and I really feel that sending her back to school this year has been a good decision.


And in other news:

Rebecca found her thumb.

And Marcus fell asleep while running errands today.  I pulled him out of the car and tried waking him up by bribing him with Oreo cookies and having him stand and walk into the house, but he just collapsed on the driveway and fell back to sleep.

How Could I Have Missed This Gem?

I've been backing up our pictures and getting them ready to turn into photo books, and I came across the cutest picture of Ethan at his third birthday party.  I thought, "How could I have not put this on my blog?" but when I checked, it wasn't included in the post.

Oh, and he loved that dinosaur sweatshirt.  It was his absolute favorite, and even today when he saw the pictures of him in it, he said, "I really wish I could get that dinosaur shirt again."

Alyssa's First Day Of School

Isn't she gorgeous?!?  One of our rules this year is that we have to do her hair every day, which is something she has never let me do, even when she was a toddler.  But we made it four days in a row last week - a lifetime record!  Lately when I look at how beautiful she is or how tall she is getting, or watch her take care of Rebecca I think, "Who allowed her to grow up so fast?"

We've been having home school since Ethan started Kindergarten, but today is Alyssa's first day at MCP (Mid-Columbia Partnership). She has been beyond excited.  This year she's taking "Type To Learn," "Greek and Roman Mythology," and "P.E."  She's also going to participate in Destination Imagination on Thursday afternoons.  We opted for a short schedule at MCP this year, because of the FULL schedule she has at home. On top of her core curriculum classes, she has soccer two nights a week and ballet two nights a week.  Add to that what I am doing: taking Ethan to and picking him up from school, taking care of Rebecca, keeping up with the laundry and the dishes, etc., and you end up with a pretty full schedule.  We're busy, but at least we're not going crazy...yet.

Just after Ethan started Kindergarten Brian and I thought very seriously about sending Alyssa to public school this year.  One big reason is that it would make my life a lot easier, but we were also thinking that she might need a few more opportunities to make friends.  We thought long and hard - well, actually short and hard, because we had to decide fast - and we came to the conclusion that between MCP, ballet, and soccer, she'll have some good social interaction, and that because of MCP and K12, she has the opportunity for a better education by keeping her at home.  My sister gave me some good advice to just take it year by year.  I would love to home school the kids for their whole Kindergarten through High School careers, but there may come a time when sending them to public school will be a better opportunity for them.  We'll just have to see each year.

And for those of you wondering, because you probably are...Why are we sending Ethan to Kindergarten?  There are many reasons, actually.  For one, Kindergarten is fun!  Kindergarten teaches social and classroom rules.  The students learn how to listen to a teacher, how to respect others, how to take care of a classroom, how to be responsible with their homework.  So many things! And the biggest one of all: Ethan loves it!  It would make me sad to not have him at home, but we might end up sending him to school indefinitely.  I guess that's another thing we'll have to think about each year.  His personality was made for school.  He loves the structure and the work. 

Anyway, things are pretty busy over here, but we're enjoying it all - or maybe everything except the laundry...and the dishes.

"Brian, Can you Rock Rebecca While I Tuck The Kids In?"

I came back to find them both watching "Phineas and Ferb."  Her eyes were glued to the screen.  Just for reference, they're watching the episode where Phineas and Ferb make a rest stop for Santa and turn all of Danville into a big thank you card.  In this picture, they're watching Dr. Doofenshmirtz sing about how he really doesn't hate Christmas.

And speaking of Phineas and Ferb, guess what we're trying to be for Halloween?  The boys are the only ones not on board with the idea.  Ethan wants to be a t-rex, like he's been for the last two years, and Marcus keeps changing his mind.  But so far we've got Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Candace, Vanessa, and Perry the Platapuss.  We've just got to convince the main characters.

And Now back To Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging

Now that summer is over, I really hope to get back in the groove of posting.  The kids had the run of the computer during the last three months, and I hardly ever got on.  But such is the way of summer.

So to get caught up on all the happenings since my last post, here is a whole slew of pictures:

 Rebecca was blessed on August 7th.  My mom made her dress, Grandma Harris did the embroidery, and the buttons on the back are from one of my dad's old work shirts.  Rebecca is really a happy baby, but she cried through the whole blessing.  Brian said twice, "We bless you to be happy."

When all 6 of us kids were here, we headed to Carmichael Hill to go ice blocking.  Everyone brought a picnic dinner, and we had a great time.

We also had a cousin talent show.

 Alyssa read an excerpt on Cleopatra from one of her books on Ancient Egypt.  She is way into Ancient Egypt right now.  

 Ethan did cartwheelish things.

 And Marcus ran around in circles for a few minutes...literally a few minutes.  Other performances were: Tegel dancing to the song, "Dynamite," Analiese singing the song "Dynamite" while dancing, multiple cousins acting out the Harry Potter "Mysterious Ticking Noise" skit, Callie telling a story, Marian drawing a picture while telling a story, Kenna and Emma performing a skit, and there were a lot more that I can't remember.

That night Dad set up the projector so we could watch "Rio" in the back yard.  Mom, Kim, and I actually sat behind the screen and watched the mirror image of the movie.  It didn't make any difference, but when I watched it the next day on the television, it was weird to see things popping up from the "wrong" side of the screen.  When the movie was over, the slugs were out, and I apparently brought one home with me on my diaper bag (how does that happen?) because I found a big brown one in the family room the next morning, and we don't have slugs like that by our house.

I think Rebecca looks like either Tweedledee or Tweedledum from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" in this picture, or maybe the laughing guy from "Mary Poppins."  But maybe that's because I think newborns tend to look like bald old men.

I think babies look so precious when they sleep.

 If you tilt your head to left you can see that kids like to make sure that Becca is taken care of.  Sparkles (the pink dog) belongs to Alyssa, Tally-Dog (the brown) is Ethan's, and Pluto is Marcus's.  They're all sharing their toys.

Here is blurry attempt of trying to capture the cuteness of Rebecca in the baby carrier.  See how her little hands are balled up?  So cute!  She does that when she nurses, too.  She balls her hands into fists and rests them on her cheeks.

 Last weekend this pile of wood...

 ...turned...

 ...into...

...a bunch of race cars...

...and a beautiful pergola.  We're almost done filling it in with wood putty, then we'll paint it.

Ethan's First Day of Kindergarten

This is Ethan, all excited and ready to head to Kindergarten.  Please don't ask me why he's sideways.  I don't know.  Blogger just wants to put him in that way.  Ethan was very excited for his first day of kindergarten.  He was up and ready at 7:00, asking when it was time to leave.  School doesn't start until 9:00!  Every time Alyssa would try to give him advice - watch out for bullies, shut the bathroom door when you go, etc. - he would respond with, "I am all about school.  My favorite subjects are math and recess."  All morning long. 

This is Rebecca, all ready to go in the baby carrier.  It's really hard to take pictures of her when she's in the baby carrier, but she always looks so cute when I look down at her, so I try.  She fell asleep on the walk to school.  When we got there, I showed Ethan where his classroom door was, then took him to the playground and had him take me back to the door.  He then gave me his backpack and asked if he could go play.  He did fine finding his way back then, but apparently on his second day he ended up lining up with a first grade class.

After three days of school, Ethan is still excited to go each day.  His teacher seems awesome, and it looks like he's having a great time!