Joseph Smith

While we are reading scriptures as a family, the girls each take turns reading with the family, while Joseph looks through some church-related books that he calls his 'scriptures'.  Last night while we were reading, Joseph came to a picture of the first vision and started saying, "Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith."

Of course, I immediately thought of what an intelligent boy I have, knowing that was a picture of Joseph Smith.  And he is.

After scriptures, we were kneeling to have family prayer when Joseph started naming the family members-- Rebecca Smith, Miriam Smith.  Hmmm, not quite right.  Now we need to have a lesson about what his last name is.  Or maybe Joseph is just setting his sights high...

A Weekend Alone

Jack left for a conference in San Francisco on Saturday, and since taking care of three kids over a long weekend (they had Monday off of school) didn't seem in keeping with 'taking it really, really easy' Jack's parents took the children for the weekend.

So what was I to do for three days, all by myself, without doing too much?

1. I had my good friend Laura over to visit and do a little scrapbooking. 
2. Go out to dinner without any of my children to feed or take care of!
3. Go to the adult session of Stake Conference without having to find a babysitter!
4. Try to catch up on my blogging.
5. Check the children's rooms before I go to bed, even though I know they are safely sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
6. Visit with Jack without noisy, exuberant children climbing all over me.
7. Slip into a row with only one seat left at Stake Conference.
8. Not worry about the bad influence the children sitting in front of me would be to my children (as they were literally having a fist fight while their parents sat on a different pew from them).
9. Lie on the couch watching BYUTV while I wait for the contractions to slow down.
10. Only reheat leftovers and frozen food to eat.  No cooking at all!

 I found that as I tried to relax during this weekend, I missed the children so much and was excited to have them home, sleeping in their own beds, climbing all over, and being noisy.  I love those kids!  Now I just have to wait a couple days before Jack gets home and we are all together again.

Joseph's First Date

Once you have more than one child, it becomes a balancing act to try to give each child the attention they need.  Jack and I have implemented taking the children on dates to be able to give them that one-on-one time that they need and we need to really get to know them.  We would trade off taking one of the girls on a date-- usually something simple like going out to breakfast or getting ice cream.  We figured Joseph needed to be old enough to realize what was going on before we would add him in to the rotation.

Over the past month or so, Joseph has wanted to go with us wherever we went.  He is really interested in being involved with all our family activities, so we decided it was time to start taking him on his own dates.  I thought for his first date, he would enjoy going over to the Orchard's Mall and riding the train around.  He was very excited to hold the tickets and pick out which color train car he would ride in.  He really liked the bumpy parts (going over the textured sidewalk) and watching the pictures on the walls as we rode by them.

Of course, he noticed the big picture of a pizza as we rode by the new pizza place they put in.  (Pizza is probably his favorite food.)  So after our train ride, we headed over for a slice of pizza.  He was thrilled to get his pizza and pick where to sit.  Good thing he is still so little-- the tables were crammed in there and he insisted on sitting right underneath that metal bar.

What a sweet boy!  I am so grateful to be able to watch him grow and mature.  Thanks for a fun first date.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

This year, Jack's birthday felt really thrown-together to me.  He almost had to be gone on a business trip, but luckily they decided that he could just call in for the meeting he needed to be at.  I was very glad he was going to be here for his special day, especially since birthdays are such a big deal for kids.  As adults (at least these two adults) it is okay to postpone celebrations and have a more relaxed birthday.

                            

Unfortunately, the call he needed to be on was going to be from 4 pm to 7 pm.  Hmm, pretty much the whole time the kids would be home and awake in the afternoon.  So we decided to celebrate the next day instead.

Then, at about 3 in the afternoon, Jack told me that he was only going to have to be on the phone call for a short segment of that time, only for the portion of the meeting that he was actually presenting.  That presented a dilemma.  The kids were excited about his birthday  and wanted to celebrate, but I hadn't done much of anything to prepare.  Luckily Jack just wanted a simple Applesauce Cake, so the kids helped me make his cake quickly so we could do Dad's birthday on the right day.  (Unfortunately I didn't have the right numbers for his cake, so we just improvised instead.)

When Jack saw the pictures from his birthday, he made a comment about how he looked silly in all of them.  But as I looked at them and thought about what was really going on in the pictures, I saw so much more.  I saw a Dad who loves to interact and play with his children.  I saw a man who could patiently listen to a 3-year-old tell him happy birthday about a hundred times a day for over a week.  I saw a man who was happy to receive hand-made cards and gift certificates from his children.  I saw a man who has matured and moved beyond self-centered desires to doing all he does for his family and others.  Jack, thanks for being you!

Whoo's in the Back Yard?

In the first few months after we moved in to this house, I remember thinking that I heard an owl in the early morning hours.  This didn't seem too far-fetched, since we live in an area where the homes were only starting to be built, and we were one of only 4 homes on our street.  I never saw an owl, though, and soon decided it was some other bird that I noticed outside that I must be hearing.  Then, after a while, it seemed like the hooting went away.

You can imagine my surprise when, just a couple weeks ago, I looked outside on a quiet Sunday morning and saw this owl sitting on our back fence.  Aren't owls supposed to be nocturnal?  It was about 11 am!  And it just sat there and looked at us until it got scared away by the camera and door.  I guess, even with all the new homes in the neighborhood, we can still say we live in the country since we have a resident owl around!

Water Fun

One afternoon I came into the kitchen and found Joseph standing on the stool, pouring water from a cup left on the counter into another one that he had gotten out of the drawer.  He was having great fun, but unfortunately not all the water made it into the new cup.  I told him he needed to clean up the mess and got him a towel.  He, very willingly, used the towel to clean up the water each time he spilled some.  I decided that this wasn't a bad activity but that perhaps we could find a better place for his experimentation, so I had him go outside and enjoy his water-pouring activities.  (He insisted on putting on his swimming suit, too!)

When the girls saw what Joseph was doing, they wanted to join the fun.  I told them they could play with him, but I was making dinner, so we weren't getting out the hose or putting on swim suits.  Oh, they only wanted to use some cups like Joseph!  Well, using the hose to fill the cups, by the time dinner was ready, all three kids were totally soaked.  (I wish I would have gotten another picture!)  It makes me happy that the kids play so well together!

Air Shows

Jack has always wanted to fly.  He loves to learn about aviation and be involved in anything to do with flying.  (Okay, so really he isn't that interested in going to look at old airplanes.  He wants to see the modern, up-to-date versions.)

So for two weekends in a row, we went to different airplane shows.  There is a cute little airport in Erie just a few minutes from our house.  They had an Air Fair going on with the Young Eagles program present.  This program is intended to get kids interested in aviation, so they have volunteer pilots take kids ages 8-17 up for a short airplane ride for free.  Rebecca was the only one old enough to fly, and she had a great time.  Jack didn't tell me until after she was back down that the plane was experimental (see the two wheels in front?  Somehow that is unusual.)  But she made it back down in one piece and had a good time.

While Jack was taking Rebecca on her flight, Joseph, Miriam and I found the pancake breakfast.  The kids were thrilled to get their teddy bear pancakes, complete with chocolate chips to make the face and buttons.  We also saw another family from our neighborhood, which surprised me until I remembered that the husband flies for Frontier.  I guess if you fly professionally, you are a little interested in airplanes.

After everyone had eaten, we walked around and saw some of the other planes on display.  The day was pretty hot, so after a while we called it a day so we could get out of the heat!

The next weekend was a fly-in at the Broomfield airport.  This was a much bigger deal, with overhead air shows, activities for the kids, fireworks, etc.  We didn't get any pictures since I stayed at home while Jack and the kids went, but they really had a great time.  They brought home a bag of free goodies, and they all talked about it for several days.