Fire Station with Novalee

This happened months ago. I kind of haven't really been doing much these last few weeks or maybe 15 weeks... :)

But it was a fun experience. Novalee kept telling me she was going to go to the fire station. On the day that she was going to go she said, "Mom today I'm going to go to the fire station." Which I'm sure I just said, "That's nice honey." But didn't really listen since she is four and still struggles with the concept of time. Yesterday is tomorrow, last year was a couple of months ago, you get the idea. :)

In my defense can I just say I never got any information about a field trip? I guess that is what happens when your kid misses the Friday before.

Then I got a text from a mom of one of the other girls at school asking me if it was okay if she drove Novalee to the station.

Holy freak out! I guess Novalee was right. So I told her that it was fine and I should probably come too since it was her first field trip.

So I quickly got myself ready and Sadie and drove the couple minutes over to the station. Anyways, crisis diverted. :) I made it, even if I had stank breath.

They first had a meeting and talked about fire safety. At one point Novalee raised her hand to ask a question and of course when all eyes were on her she took the opportunity to tattle on her brother. "Did you know my brother the other day played with matches?" Great... I'm definitely not winning the "Mommy of the Year" award.





After the trip through the fire truck they gave everyone a chance to hold the fire hose. Novalee did what she does best and upped the fun a little and tried to make the water go back and forth instead of just straight which quickly brought her turn to an end.


I guess fire stations disgust Sadie? Here she is gagging herself??? :)

Novie with some of her friends.

Jared's Soccer Season

We signed Jared up for Soccer this year. We thought it would be a fun outlet for him and he would enjoy getting outside, doing something physical.

I had no idea that he would learn so much.

He is our firstborn and so life has been a little catered to him. He struggles with not getting what he wants, when he wants and when he has a grand idea (like going to China for the day on an archaeological dig) he has a hard time understanding why a family with limited means and four other people in it would have a hard time dropping everything to just do it.

It was really very cool to see Jared have to learn through soccer that it wasn't ALL about him. The coach didn't play favorites and when Jared had a side ache or came late, the coach still expected him to warm up with or without the team. He expected him to work hard and play as a team member.

It was pretty cool. I think a lot of what he learned carried over to family life as well.

Plus he had the added benefit of picking up the soccer skills fairly quickly thus building up his self esteem. It was really just a great experience and I look forward to him doing more sports.

Here are pictures of him throughout the session.

Relaxing during a break at the last game, eating his baby sister's snack. I'm not sure about that face. :)



A friend from another team he played that he goes to school with.


Jared getting his award for being a team player. :)





Good Job Buddy we are proud of you!

Gratitude (Day 24)

Day 24-

Happy Thanksgiving. Wes says I should be done with this gratitude posting business since today is technically the day that we celebrate being grateful and not the last day of the month.

I couldn't agree more, mainly because this posting everyday business hasn't really been my favorite thing.

But just to cover all options, I'm just going to list things on this post for the next 7 days.

Day 24- I'm grateful that it is Thanksgiving and I get to practice gluttony once more. Wes was more loving and said I should write that I'm grateful to spend the day with family.

Day-25-30 in advance).

Day 25- I'm grateful to fun deals on Black Friday that I get to go spend money on. :) Wes has all these ideas for electronics to buy but really I'm just excited about JoAnns $1.49 per yard for flannel sale. :)

Day 26- I'm grateful for my wedding ring. I know that is silly but it happens to be the only piece of jewelry that I own that I'm not allergic to. It makes me glad that I can even wear it.

Day 27- I'm grateful that even though it rains and rains this time of year that we live in such a green and beautiful area.

Day 28-I'm grateful to be and to know that I am a daughter of our Heavenly Father.

Day 29- I'm grateful for this day because it means I get to go hear the baby's heartbeat again. :)

Day 30- This will be Jared's birthday. I'm grateful for him in so many ways. I'm grateful that he was my first born and that he broke me into parenting in the "sink or swim" type fashion. I love listening to his ideas, I love hearing him share his testimony and hearing him talk nicely about others. He is getting so big and I'm just grateful for all the time I've had with him so far.

Gratitude (Day 23)

Day 23-

My first job (where I actually earned money) was my most favorite job I've ever had. I worked at a video store as a cashier. It was fun and easy. It didn't really require a whole lot of effort.

But today I'm thankful for my least favorite job that I've ever had. Which was as an apartment manager. I was actually crazy enough to do it twice. There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about the job but I'm a get it done and be done kind of girl and an apartment managers job is never done.

But I'm grateful for it because it taught me a great deal about being a handywoman (my spell checker says that's not a word but handyman is a word. Something's wrong with that).

Anyways, my handiness came into play yesterday. Since we've moved in we've had a toilet that runs and runs. Wes was going to replace the flapper and other things in the tank but then he just cleaned it and said he felt it was running less. Which it did seem to help for about a day...

So I finally took a look. A little adjustment and a couple of prideful comments to my husband and the toilet works like new. :)

Man it's great being a capable woman. :)

Gratitude (Day 22)

Day 22- I'm grateful for Family Home Evening. It's something that we try to do without fail every week. It's very important to us as parents. The kids sometimes are into it and sometimes they just want to jump around and be crazy but I think they are always glad at the end of the lesson that we took time to spend just as a family, focus on each other.

Last nights lesson was about Thanksgiving and being grateful.

First we read a summary about how Thanksgiving came about.

Then we opened our gratitude bag. (We have been adding pieces of paper with things we are grateful for into a bag throughout this year during family home evening). So we read them and had some good laughs deciding who wrote what. Jared wrote on one, "I'm grateful for this egg." We are guessing it must have been Easter when he wrote it.

Then we sat in a circle and passed a stuffed animal around and took turns saying something nice about another person in the family and then giving them a turn.

It was pretty great last night. Jared got super sincere and was really getting into telling Wes and I how much he appreciates the things we do for him. (And I thought the kids didn't notice). Of course Novalee was just bouncing off the walls. But I think even Sadie could feel the extra special feelings of love in the room because she started going around giving everyone hugs and kisses. It was pretty great.

I'm grateful we take that time each week to try and strengthen our family and our testimonies. :)

Gratitude (Day 21)

Day 21- Today I'm grateful for laughter. Especially when Wes and I can laugh about the crazy things that go on in our house.

Last night, for example, Sadie wet on the floor not once but twice when Wes was changing her. Really I might have been laughing harder than Wes but it was pretty funny.

For whatever reason Wes lets Sadie escape sometimes during changings. When he is wrapping up the diaper she takes off. Last night Wes was just wrapping up the first stinky diaper that leaked on the floor when Sadie stood up and peed right in front of him. :) So great! :) I'm also grateful he is a good sport.

Gratitude (Day 20)

Day 20- The other day we hung up Christmas lights outside. Wes thinks I might have gone crazy this year since I'm so excited about Christmas and last year I was a little reluctant to begin the season of nonstop Christmas cheer.

I'm grateful that one, I feel excited about the Christmas season this year and two, that our lights turned out almost exactly how I imagined. Now Wes and I just need to agree on a lawn decoration to put in our front yard! We have a front yard! At Christmas! Maybe that's why I'm excited, this is the first year we could actually put lights up outside.

On another note: When I asked Wes what I should be grateful for, he said, "A sexy husband." :) Then he told me I didn't need to write that but alas here it is. :)