The weekend o' fun!

Thursday we went and did some sight seeing.  We went and toured the St. George tabernacle.  We learned that the windows were shipped from the Atlantic Coast around the tip of South America to California where they were then carried by wagon load to St. George.  Out of the several thousand panes of glass none were broken in transit or installation.  We learned that Mitt Romney's great-great-great grandfather, Miles Romney, designed and built the spiral staircase.  It was remarkable because it has no center support and is only connected on the top and the bottom of the staircase.  We learned how they had to lower the balcony 5 feet and used 200 men to do it.  (If you want to know more about that story you'll have to ask me.  Its too complicated to type up.)  We also toured the St. George Temple Visitors Center.  The kids were excited to be able to touch the Temple wall as well. 
 
This Friday and Saturday while Mom and I were in Las Vegas for a well needed girls weekend with my sister, Dad/Grandpa spent the weekend with the kids.  After coming back and hearing about all the events of their weekend I believe they had more fun than we did.

They started the weekend off with a trip to the library where they checked out Swiss Family Robinson movie.  Tyler had recently read it and wanted to see the movie.  Then for lunch they went to Chuck-O-Rama with Great Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids enjoyed their visit and all the food.  Hannah ended the dinner with a 8 inch tall bowl of ice cream covered in sprinkles and strawberry and the other two had root beer floats.

Later that day they went swimming at the local rec center for a few hours.  Then came home for dinner and a movie night.

Saturday the girls put together a Mickey Mouse puzzle and Tyler and Grandpa put together a wooden covered wagon. 

 They cooked hot dogs over a fire for lunch with Great Grandma and Grandpa.  Tyler was proud that he got to cook Great Grandma's hot dog.  They then spent the evening with a babysitter while Grandpa had some church meetings.

Red Cliffs Reserve

Note:  I'm going to try and use this as somewhat of a journal so I can remember all the stuff we do here in St. George.  Feel free to skip any and all parts you want.

Wednesday, the kids and I flew to visit my parents in St. George, UT.  We will be here until February.  The flight was uneventful and the kids were well behaved.  

Thursday, I let the kids get settled in and then we got down to business with school.  After 3 late nights they were quite the grumps but I felt we needed to start with some structure and not let the day descend into chaos.  

Friday, Mom and I went to Las Vegas to help my sister with her little one who had been in the hospital with RSV all week. Thankfully she was doing much better and was her cute and adorable self.  I enjoyed being able to play with her and get to know her some more.  It was nice to be able to sit and chat with my sister, too.  We returned home on Saturday.

While we were in Las Vegas, Dad and the kids went to the library, several parks and out to eat twice.  Tyler even got to play with some little boys his age down the street.  They are loving their time with their Grandpa.  

Sunday was church.  Karena was very apprehensive about attending a different church.  I assured her that she would enjoy it and even make some friends she could play with while we are here.  All the kids did great in their Primary classes and Karena came out feeling much less stressed.  Tyler was actually shocked that the boys he played with on Friday were in his class at church!

Since Monday was a holiday we took the opportunity to go on a family hike.  Dad took the kids and I to Red Cliffs Reserve.  It is this mild hike that goes in between two sets of mountains into a canyon.  We could not have asked for better weather.  It was a little chilly in the shade but gorgeous in the sun.  The kids had fun climbing the different mounds of rocks.  I had several heart attacks watching Tyler scramble up and down them and get so close to the edge. 

 

We ended up hiking next to a stream that due to all the shade was frozen over in many spots.  The ice was thick enough that grown men could walk across and not break through!  It had frozen into these amazing crystals.  I tried to get some shots of it.  Dad nor I had ever seen ice form like that in a river or stream.

Near the beginning of the hike we saw this fallen down Cottonwood tree that looked like an elephant head and trunk.  The head was even hollow so the kids could play inside.

Here are several other pictures I got during our walk.  The scenery was truly amazing!

The girls were pretending to be the animals that left the 3 claw marks down the rock.  Tyler is just being cool!

Karena peering through a hole she had just climbed up.

Kids standing on top of the rock that had the hole Karena was peeking through.

The end of the hike.  We could have gone farther but it was a little too difficult with kids.  The little notches above the man's head in the middle act like a ladder you have to climb to get to the next portion of the hike.  There were people rappelling off the mountain cliff on the right.

The evil, creepy looking tree walking back to the trail head.  It looks even creepier in black and white.

Mother's Day 2012

 This Mother's Day was fantastic!!  John and the kids all did a good job to make it really special.  It got started on Saturday when John got me some beautiful flowers.  Almost 2 weeks later they have just started to get brown and wilted. 

As with most things in our family most of Mother's Day revolved around food.  John made all the food that day.  He often (as in most of the time) takes over the meal preparation on Sunday.  This time though I was NOT allowed to help out in any way.  I tried but he kept kicking me out of the kitchen.  He made scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast with yummy muffins I bought at Sam's.  After breakfast I opened my presents and cards.  The kids all made me the cutest cards.  The kids got me a gift card to Kohl's and John bought me a a GPS.  I had asked for one for a future purchase (b-day, Christmas) so this was completely unexpected and very appreciated.  I have since used it a lot.  John even test drove it before he gave it to me.  He is now jealous of my GPS. 

For dinner John grilled steaks, made me a yummy and beautiful veggie salad (see below) a fruit salad, and roasted red potatoes.  Everything was perfection.

 The family right before dinner.

Karena had gone to Sam's with John on Saturday and decided she wanted to buy me a dessert.  At first she looked at the cakes (too expensive) and then settled on pie.  This particular pie was delicious and very interesting.  It was four fruit pies in one - cherry, peach, blueberry and apple.  They had each fruit in one quarter of the pie.  I tried a yummy combination of peach and cherry. 

I am very grateful for my wonderful family.  I love them all!  Thanks for making this Mother's Day very special.

School Plans: 2012-2013

It has been my intention the past year and a half to focus on a more classical approach to our homeschool in regards to history and literature.  The classical method focuses on teaching history in chronological order.  By the time a student would graduate from HS they would have made at least 3 passes through each age in history.  This year was to be the medieval times.  I also wanted to make it a point to study language arts using real literature.  So here were my requirements in no particular order of importance:

1 - Must be about medieval times.
2 - Must use real books to teach the subject.  I HATE textbooks.  Ask my mom.  She'll tell you.
2 - At least for history, it must be able to be used by all 3 kids at the same time.  I wasn't going to teach the same subject 2 or 3 times a day.
3 - I must be able to afford it.
4 - I have to feel good and excited about it.
5 - It had to have a daily plan.  I have learned that having just a list of books and activities does not help me.  I need structure and organization.

I found some that fit 2 - maybe 3 of those items.  I was frustrated.  I was getting ready to settle for something I didn't like and was too expensive.  I couldn't find anything else.

BUT then a few weeks back I was reading a blog post featuring a homeschool curriculum review for Trail Guide to Learning: Paths of Exploration.  It was one I remembered looking at several years ago when I first started this journey.  But the kids were too young then so I filed it away for the future.  Apparently I filed it away too well and never thought about it again.

   

I looked at it. It included not only history and literature but science, grammar, spelling, and geography all rolled into one amazing curriculum!  The only problem - it focuses on American history.  But after looking at it for several days I felt really good about it and really excited about it.  I decided to chuck the classical idea.  I have super high hopes for this year.  All three kids will learn side by side as we study Christopher Columbus, Jamestown, the Pilgrims, Lewis and Clark and Daniel Boone.  The only thing I have to add is cursive for the girls, some phonics for Tyler and math for everyone.  

Best part: I found it used and it was even cheaper!!!

Trick or Treat

We had a lot of fun this Halloween season. Here's some pictures from our Halloween adventures.

Our Pumpkins

Karena's Cat

Hannah's Ghost

Tyler's Monster

Our Costumes

Tyler the Pirate

Tyler sporting a chocolate pirate's beard and mustache

Karena the Plain Green M&M

Hannah the Orange Peanut M&M

Our Family in Costume at our church Trunk or Treat
John the Hunter
Me the Good Witch

Our Halloween Dinner

Hannah modeling my witch hat

Dinner in a Pumpkin
aka Brains!

Bones

Goblin Eyeballs

11 years ago!

11 years ago today John and I met. I looked like this:


Just thought you'd like to know.

Five Things Friday

1. Tuesday night we went out for ice cream. It was the kids reward for being quiet during conference and letting John and I listen. This is our second time doing this and I love watching a new tradition start.

Everyone but Tyler was done with ice cream. He was having a hard time eating his frozen skittles. So I took the girls and headed down a few stores to this new store that's opened up, Altar'd State. I love this store!!!! The girls and I had fun browsing the jewelry, belts, scarves and fluffy coats as Hannah called them. It was so much fun to watch them get so excited over truly girly stuff. They both found some hats they liked, but there was no mirror close by. So they would try on a hat, look at each other and then switch. I guess they figured they could tell what they each looked like in the hats by looking at the other one wearing it. Oh, to have an identical twin!

Then the boys showed up. Tyler tried to sneak in. He's a bad sneak but it makes watching him try to be a good one so funny. I ended up scaring the living day lights out of him instead! I showed John these overly expensive and amazingly gorgeous coats I will never buy but just dream about daily. We found the $300 boots I tried on the last time I was there. Still love them! The girls and I decided that if we have a few hours that we will have to have a girl outing at Christmas to that store.

2. For awhile now the kids have been giving John and I math problems to solve in our heads. Most of the time they are pretty easy. "What's 1,000 + 300?" Well, on the way home from ice cream they decided to up the difficulty. "What's 1,000 x 200 (so far I'm thinking I can do this) + 27 x 2, 097 (now I'm not so sure) x 400 + 84 (now they've officially stumped me)?" I start to get out the calculator on my phone. Then I realize they don't know the answer anymore than I do. "4,623,479," I lie. "WOW!!" "How'd you do that?" "You figured it out?!"

One day I'll let them in on my secret, but for a while I'm content being the math genius. (By the way, the real answer is 22,847,684.)

3. Karena slipped coming down the stairs yesterday. She's fine. Just a little bump on the head. She was supposed to be upstairs doing her schoolwork, so as I rocked her to calm her down I asked her why she was coming down stairs. "Because I don't know any other way to get down here," was her reply.

4. Have you ever read the blog, Diapers and Divinity. Stephanie runs a fantastic blog that I've been following for a while now. I'm not sure how I stumbled on to it but do know it was for her General Conference book club! You ought to try it sometime. Anyway, she's been running a series called, Find a Friend Friday, and today I'm that friend! Go check it out. Maybe you'll learn something new about me.

5. Tyler and I were working on his reading earlier in the week. He informed me that he didn't like to read. It was boring. I started to tell him about all the adventure stories he could read one day, the ones about pirates and cowboys. I went on and on about all the fun reading could bring.

Tyler: But Mommy, I like it better when you read it.
Me: What about when you go to college?
Tyler: You can come with me.
Me: What about when you are married and have a baby and your baby wants you to read her a story?
Tyler: I'll call you and you can read it.

I hope his wife doesn't mind.

The Remarkable Women of God

This is a powerful video from Seth Adam Smith's Blog. I hope you take the time to watch it.

Conference Meme

I've been reading the blog, Diapers and Divinity, for a while now. Her love of General Conference is contagious. She is hosting a Conference Meme. Quoting her, "A meme is a questionnaire of sorts that is a little bit “viral”– it gets passed around among several people online." If you want to link up with this click here. So here are my answers to this October General Conference Meme.

1. Who were your three favorite speakers? Which talk spoke to you the most?

I loved Elder Uchtdorf’s RS talk – especially the part about not being forgotten. Elder Christofferson’s talk on repentance was very insightful. I need to study that one more in depth. Elder Arden’s talk on time management hit me as something I need to work on more.

2. What was your favorite Hymn and why did it move you? Did the music enhance your General Conference experience? How?

I love the music of General Conference. I love it when they sing songs my kids know and hearing them sing along. “I Believe in Christ” and “Consider the Lilies” were two of my favorites. I also loved listening to the Primary Choir.

3. Which speaker was the best dressed? (Come on, we can have a little fun.)

I’m not sure. I did notice some hairstyles I liked from the different choir members.

4. Were there any topics that you felt like were repeated often? Any conference “themes”?

Scriptures – read them, use them, make them your friend.

Missionary Work – be prepared, don’t be afraid to be one

Being charitable

Families

5. Share a few of your favorite quotes from any of the talks (paraphrasing is fine).

“Scripture can calm an agitated soul” – Elder Scott

“It is the caring that counts.” – Sister Beck

“Before immortality there must be mortality.” – Elder Anderson

“It’s better to look up.” – Pres. Monson, quoted by Elder Cook of the Seventy

Speaking of the Book of Mormon, “Drink deeply and often.” – Elder Eyring

6. Name something(s) that made you smile or laugh during conference.

Pres. Monson’s stories, the 5 dollar bill and the temple speaker, his facial expressions this time were fantastic and his welcoming, “Hello!”

The fried chicken story

7. Was there any evidence that your children paid attention?

Amazingly yes! Karena has just soaked in conference this weekend. I knew she listened to Elder Bednar’s talk on family history but I didn’t know how much until Sunday morning. The kids love the games and stories on lds.org. Karena had asked to get on there before conference started back up again. The next thing I know she is hollering through the house, “Mom, how do you spell history?” She was trying to get to the website Elder Bednar mentioned in his talk. www.lds.org/familyhistoryyouth. She, John and eventually all the kids got on and spent another hour on that part of the website. She was a little disappointed to learn she couldn’t log in herself for another few months. (You have to be 8 first.)

8. What are some of your post-conference goals?

Read my scriptures with more purpose and diligence. Watch, read, or listen to a conference talk daily. Work on memorizing scriptures with my family. Be a better visiting teacher. Be more charitable to those around me.

Cheekwood

Why is it that a person will travel hundreds of miles and spend lots of money to see other parts of the country but fails to visit what's available in their own town? I've lived in this area since 1995 minus 4 years for college and have experienced very little of the historical and interesting sights it has to offer. I hope over the next few years to fix that. As of last week I am now one step closer to that goal.

We went on a family field trip to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Mansion. John took the day off and we all went. It was coordinated by our local homeschool group. We started with a garden tour, had a picnic lunch and then toured the mansion and some more of the grounds. I wasn't too thrilled with the mansion. It was a big house with a lot of big rooms. The art they had displayed though was beautiful. I wish I could have taken some pictures to remember. There was a lot of nature scenes. John was captivated by a few of them.

The gardens were spectacular. I'd like to go back in the spring and see more of what they have. We walked through these amazing herb gardens. Everything smelled delicious. I was very jealous. They even had a lime balm plant that smelled like fresh limes.

One of the displays they have up now is a small collection of model trains. There is probably only about 5 trains but their tracks pass by models of different historical buildings throughout Tennessee. All of the model buildings are made of found, natural substances. Acorns, sticks, leaves, bark, etc. It was very remarkable to see them all.

It was a fantastic day. The grounds are very large and we didn't get to see all that we wanted. I'm excited to go again and see more of what they have to offer.

The sun was shining just right there and the weather was gorgeous. I was able to get some great shots off there.

Water Lily

Morning Glory seed pods

Japanese Dogwood

The Model Train Exhibit

Family Pictures