Weekend with Eli

Last week I had the privilege of watching Eli for 3 whole days. His parents got to go away for their anniversary (lucky them!) and I got to be the babysitter (lucky me!) We had a good time together. He's such a good kid. My kids like to smother him a little too much. You could tell he wasn't too fond of them at times, but he was a pretty good sport. My girls think all babies are like dolls -- you must hold them and feed them at ALL times.

Thursday night we had to treat Eli to some Cold Stone. They were giving out free ice cream for a Make-A-Wish promotion. We couldn't pass that up, so even though it was tough to squish it in between dinner and getting me to book club we made it work. I left Brandon in charge so I could go to book club. I love my book club to death, and couldn't miss out, plus I was in charge of the discussion this month. We read Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture." Love it, Love it, Love it!

Saturday we spent the morning in the car. We had to go down to Salt Lake to a hardware store to get more wood -- to start the next set of shutters! Then we drove out to West Valley City to drop off a bag of clothes to a mom who had posted an ad online needing clothes for her kids (I had 3 other bags I dropped off at DI the day before, and this is just the beginning!). And then we drove all the way over to Cottonwood Heights to look at some flooring for our kitchen. It didn't work out, so we're still looking for something there.

I'll also make a note here that Brandon got his birthday present a little early. I knew this was going to happen when I bought it so far in advance, but after all the driving around Saturday I couldn't hold it in any longer. I gave it to him a day late -- but we now have a portable GPS car navigation system. It should come in handy with some trips were planning to take, and all our day trips "down south."



This is Eli on a little walk we took together Thursday.

Homework

Coming from a homeschool perspective, I don't believe in homework. I'm not going to use this post as a soapbox, but just some background to let you know where I'm coming from. I found a wonderful book by Alfie Kohn called "Unconditional Parenting" -- I'd recommend to any parent. Alfie suddenly became one of my favorite authors, and when I saw he had also written a book called "The Homework Myth" I knew I'd have to read it. This book basically has the research to back up what my heart already knew. I thought I'd have to read this book to arm myself with data to use in conversations with teachers that tried to give my children homework I feel is inappropriate; however, that has not been the case. We got 2 wonderful teachers this year, both of whom made clear that they don't believe in unnecessary homework so it hasn't even been an issue for me. YEAH!

Well, lately, Chloe has been receiving the message from outsiders that she needs homework (this makes me squirm!) She keeps asking me why she isn't getting any. I explain my position, as well as her teachers. But this morning I was putting her lunch in her backpack and I found this note inside it:



I thought it was TOO funny! She's forging notes to her teacher to BEG for homework. Do you think she pulled my signature off? And don't you love the instruction to "take to Chloe" -- yeah, just bypass mom, she doesn't need to know about any of this!

And the Verdict Is...

I know some of you have been waiting to hear about what our future holds. We finally got the offical word yesterday that the deal is sealed, and they are moving Brandon's department to Riverton (about 40 miles SW of where we are). It looks like the move won't happen until April or so -- much later than we were expecting, but with all the delays that's probably a good thing. We still have some things to talk over, but it looks like chances are we will move too. Of course, there are some apprehensions that go along with it, but I feel up to the challenge! Some people like to put roots down, I like to have wings to fly. Let's see where the wind blows us.

Shutters!

It's been a long time in the making, but last night "we" (and I use that term loosely) FINALLY completed one window. This was about 99% Brandon's work, 0.5% Chloe, and 0.5% me -- so that's how I get to include myself. I'm not going to cover all the details; that's for Brandon's blog. He actually decided not to post instructions on the first one, and just use it as a practice. He'll start the next window sometime soon, and he'll document that one (for those of you just dying to learn how to make shutters). Since he already took pictures of it for his blog, I'll just "borrow" his pictures. BTW: you're only supposed to be looking at the shutters, not the messy scrapbooking center -- that doesn't even get used.

Friday Night With the Morris Family

I got to do a photo shoot of this cute little family yesterday. Their oldest daughter, Gloria, is one of Sophie's friends. It was really easy because the mom asked me to do it on Tuesday, so there wasn't much time to fret. We just did it in their backyard -- which makes things pretty simple, and I don't have to pick the location :) Plus, they're such photogenic people, which always helps.



After I got home, I noticed Brandon was over at our neighbors. They are building a shed and I had offered to help them. They told us they might need us on Saturday, but I guess they got ahead of schedule. I went right over there and I think I was just in time to help. We put the walls up, and I told Brandon it felt like we were doing an Amish barn raising.

* Latest Projects *

Can you guess what I've been up to lately? I know I'm pretty new to the blogging world, but I've felt like my blog was seriously outdated for a long time! It really frustrated me that the frames were so tiny. Now it is large enough for me to blow my pictures way up! I'll put more thought into my header sometime, but I just threw something together so I could get it up. I want to thank Brandon for all his technical help! He gets pretty excited when I ask him for help. It's very cute. Way cuter than watching him try to staple the tilt bar onto the shutters.

I spent all weekend working on my "real" website. I had put it together over the summer, but left a lot of things hanging. Wendy got married on Saturday, and since she was going to be handing out my business cards with my website address on it, I figured I better have something worthy of showing people. Of course, I waited till the very last minute and finished it Saturday evening. If you check out the galleries, you might recognize a face or two! So, those are the two big projects I've been working on. Now I guess I should return to scanning pictures -- I'll get them crossed off my list one of these days.

The Conclusion of Our Weekend

As if that primary parade wasn't enough excitement for one day, we also had a ward activity that same night. It was a swimming party at the rec center, including a light dinner. We had a good turnout. Brandon, the party pooper, stayed home because he had things to "worry" about. The kids just played in the pool and I got to visit. I complain a lot about the lack of activities our ward has. This will let them off the hook for awhile -- but not too long.


That is Chloe peeking through the sprays of water.

Now to be fair to Brandon, I'll explain why he was SOOO stressed out. His car was leaking antifreeze (more than normal), and it looked like it was leaking into the oil. He was pretty sure this was the death of his car. I'm not sure how staying home from a party helped the situation, but he's a strange one (which goes without saying). He also stayed home from work today to try to bring his stress level down, and to take his car into the shop. We got it there just fine, and they called to say they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I see this as a blessing. Brandon sees it as an incompetent mechanic who's just not finding the problem. We'll see how it works out, but I don't think we'll be buying a new car soon. I hope!

Primary Parade

On Saturday our stake had a primary parade. I was anticipating a simple little caravan of kids marching down the street, but these people went all out. They started at the stake center and walked a few blocks through the neighborhood to another church -- just about the right length for a bunch of kids. They had the whole route lined with flags, like they put out on all the holidays. The parents and other non-participants lined the street to watch the parade, and they even through candy! I made out pretty good.

It started with a police car:


followed by a marching band:


Then the grand marshalls (our stake presidency):

This is the color guard:

Each ward represented a country. Our ward was Italy. The kids were all dressed up as chefs, carrying pizza boxes or even pizza dough:

Here's Chloe marching in the parade. She was one of the lucky ones who got dough:

Sophie in her chef hat:

Chloe showing off her dough:

And at the end we all gathered at the park. They sang "Holding Hands Around the World" and then let off all these balloons, and served popsicles for refreshments.

Utah State Fair

Friday morning I got to babysit Eli again. He's so easy, not to mention that he went right to sleep once he got here. When he woke up it was time to eat, we went for a SHORT walk, and then it was time to go pick up the girls from school. I've never had a morning go so quickly! After we got Chloe and Sophie we drove down to Salt Lake and met Jason and Shalee at the State Fair.

First thing we did was get some food. Jason and Shalee hadn't had lunch yet, so they were a little hungrier. I let the girls get some snow cones, knowing that wouldn't fill them up, but they had just had lunch at school.

Then we went through all the exhibits. I've never seen so many "infomercial booths" in one place! We got to taste a really yummy smoothie, made with cabbage, celery and carrots plus the vitamin powder. Too bad you have to pay $450 for a blender to get your vegtables to taste so good. Of course, my favorite part was the photography exhibits. They had a guy doing a photoshop demonstration, so I stopped to watch that for awhile. I liked it, plus my feet really enjoyed the rest. After that it was time to go over to a tiger show. We didn't get seats, so we just had to stand, and I couldn't see where we were standing anyway, so I chose to go find a shady spot to sit in. Sophie got the best seat in the house -- on top of Jason's shoulders. He even gave her a little ride around afterwards.
By this point we had worked up another appetite so we stopped for some Pennsylvania Dutch funnel cakes. We got the apples and cream. Yum, yum, yum!
Then it was on to the animal buildings. They sure brought back a lot of memories of my old 4-H days. Not good memories, but memories nonetheless. Here's my super cool Sophie, in her super cool glasses by the cows.
And here's the gang coming out of the pig building.
We stopped to see a little bit of the magic show before heading home. It made for a long day, but I'm glad we ventured out.

One For Brandon

Yesterday Brandon called me from work to see if I'd like to go on a little hike on the hill just above our house. It sounded fun, and we talked about taking a picnic for dinner so I got that all ready and as soon as he got home from work we headed out. Brandon asked me if I was bringing my camera. I asked if he wanted me to, and his reply was, "If you're going to take pictures of Chloe mowing the lawn, you better take pictures of this." So, this post is for him.

We drove up to the Firebreak Road, but it was not the picturesque picnic scene I was hoping for. It would have been a nice hike, but nowhere to eat so Brandon offered an alternative. We drove over to "Cheese Park" on the north end of Bountiful. We've been there 3 times, but can't ever seem to remember how to get there, so the journey is part of the fun of going there. We found it and the gazebo was free so we set up our picnic there. While the girls ran over and played on the playground Brandon and I just got to visit -- and check out this picture I got of the two of us by using my knee as a tripod. Hey, it worked.


We had to pull the girls away from the playground to go on the hike, but we had a good time once we got going.

I was trying to get a picture of Sophie with the V hill (for Viewmont -- I know, nobody gets it, but it's the name of our high school). One of these days we'll make it all the way to the V, but that was not meant for this trip.

I was trying to get a picture of Brandon looking out at the lake. The lake didn't show up so well. I'll have to try that one again, but here's a view of the south end of Centerville.

And last, but not least, my Chloe -- just hiking along. This is the time of year we can enjoy these kind of things, so we'll probably be doing it more often -- before it turns too cold. It was a fun evening. Thanks for the idea, Brandon.

Lawn Mower

This is a picture of Chloe mowing the lawn yesterday. She pretty much did the whole thing -- I saw Brandon help her in a couple of the tough spots, but other than that she did it all!

A few days ago Sophie had a friend over to play. Her mom was just hanging out here a bit, and for some reason Chloe was in the mood to talk her ear off (yeah, not my Chloe, huh?) She was telling her how fun it is to mow the lawn, but her friend (whose mom is even stricter than me, if you can imagine!) won't let her mow the lawn until she's 14! Chloe thinks she's so lucky. Then we talked about how she has really nice parents, because not only do we let her mow the lawn, but she also gets to wash dishes, do laundry, and scrub the toilet. If only all children were so fortunate.

Labor Day

Our Labor Day was cold and rainy. It's a good thing we hadn't planned to do anything. Brandon just wanted to work on his latest project (the shutters). He got to do that. Our house has cooled off -- to the point we decided we needed HOT CHOCOLATE today.


Chloe has been hired as Brandon's assistant for working on the shutters, which is nice for her and it also gets me out of it :) But she does get a little tired of it after a while, and then she ditches him and finds something else to do. Today she decided to get out our crib mattress and fly down the stairs with it.


The girls had so much fun doing it, the thought eventually popped into Chloe's head that she was activity for FHE tonight. Oh, she could hardly wait. She was going to get the whole family to fly down the stairs. I was busy photographing the event. I'm terrible at taking pictures of moving objects indoors, but here they are nonetheless.