A Forever Family

Two Hours

2012-01-22T07:33:00.001-06:00

While some were playing in the snow (or stuck on snowy roads), we were basking at the beach! Here are some of our favorite pictures from today's beach fun:

Jumping for joy because low tide is so much fun!

Even baby waves like to be run away from sometimes.

"Here's lookin' at you, Kid!"

There are many shovel-ready projects at the beach.

Big hugs!

Big smiles! (and there's Rebecca off in the distance)

There's a lot of blue in this picture! Blue eyes, blue shirt, blue sky, blue ocean...

Rebecca was our water courier today--and she loved helping everyone be happy!

Digging deep (he loved that he found water down there).

-OR-

Every child is a civil engineer at the beach.

Buddies.

Bonkers for Bananas

2012-01-17T18:50:00.002-06:00

For many months now we have kept a close eye on this plant. In fact, I think I have been watching it from the first time I set foot here! I anxiously waited for the bananas to look plump enough, and finally I could not wait any longer.

We went out and chopped off this bunch then chopped down the whole plant. I am so surprised to learn that each plant only produces bananas once. (although it may have a sprout growing nearby) Come to think of it, it seems I learned pineapples only produce one fruit as well, although I am not sure. (this is all so new to me)

We let the bananas sit in our kitchen for a couple weeks and now they are ready to be eaten and many to be frozen. They are the perfect size for little hands!

What is exciting is that we found that another of our plants is starting to grow a banana bunch as well. We will have fun watching this next one grow too!

Oh I Can't Wait

2012-01-15T12:54:00.002-06:00

Today is David's eighth birthday! Here is how our dapper young man looked today:

And here's our soon-to-be-baptizee showing that he doesn't want any squinty pictures taken of him--thus providing a great squinty picture!

And here is a video that we made and may use at David's baptism.

New Years Morning

2012-01-01T18:15:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year! Here are some pictures of our morning. The weather was so perfect. We took an early evening walk around our neighborhood and were dazzled by the beautiful night, the light was a just the right angle to make everything look beautifully green and then we had glimpses of the lake with the sun sparkling off the water.

Bird of Paradise

Sun through the palm.

Ten Years of Forever

2011-12-15T07:54:00.001-06:00

I love you!

Christmas

2011-12-13T10:32:00.002-06:00

I realized it has been a while since I posted. Even now I am thinking I need to be doing other things, but just had to post something. I am so amazed at the life I see around me. Still, it is a shock to see gardens growing, flowers blooming, and grass needing to be cut. Isn't it winter? These are some roses I cut from my own rose bush! I never knew how much I loved roses until I could go out and see my very own roses blooming. They are so beautiful, plump, and soft!

The children love this time of year. My favorite memory is seeing my children gathered by the Christmas tree to read books in the evening. Andrew can't get enough of the tree. Thankfully nothing has broken, but he will crawl over to the same ornament (a wooden bell) and pull it off. It is always the same ornament, and it has become something we laugh at.

Mingled with all the Christmas fun, we have fun at the beach too! One of the times we went, we found these beautiful shells! They were so perfect and we can't wait to go look for more. The beach always makes me feel like a treasure hunter, you never know what you will find.

The children helped decorate this year and I think they did a wonderful job. As you can tell, this picture is old (the advent calendar is still at the beginning)... We actually put our decorations up just before Thanksgiving. It helps at to the happy feelings of thankfulness that Thanksgiving is all about.

Here they all are, decorating away.

Morning in Paradise

2011-11-10T07:34:00.002-06:00

I often look out my windows and gaze at the life around me and think, "Am I really here?" I ride bikes with the children to school and see storks, egrets, and ibis and think, "I can't believe I live here!" It is so beautiful here.

Getting ready for school, I stepped out to breath in the beautiful morning.

We have many Hibiscus plants in our yard and many are starting to bust into bloom.

A butterfly tree in our yard is full of blossoms as well, and butterflies.

Another hibiscus.

Another reason I have been out in the mornings is to take care of our new little garden. This is our first time having a very own garden and I can see we need to protect it from other critters already.

We used sea shells to mark what the plants are... another use for all those shells the children bring home.

Sunrise in our backyard.

This is such an amazing place to live. If it weren't so beautiful, I might miss the snow a little, maybe.

Halloween

2011-11-01T18:33:00.001-05:00

A Tiger, Queen Lucy of Narnia, High King Peter, a Pumpkin, and a Geisha

Playtime is Together Time

2011-10-10T08:31:00.003-05:00

The other day I caught myself in a frustrated moment say to myself, "Sometimes I wish my children wouldn't pretend so much." I don't remember the situation, but when it is meal time, clean-up time, etc. sometimes I wish they would come back to reality and do the appropriate tasks... And yet, another side of me thinks it is so amazing that my children have such great minds that they can create so many things and have fun together.

David has saved this clay since a project he did last school year and has had so much fun creating many fun things. Rebecca joined him in the fun yesterday, and this is just one example of the fun things. They created "brains" (I guess along the Halloween theme), monsters, planes, a nest, and a shell. (you can see another creation on this post)

I love the eggs the snake is guarding.

Every now and then we get to pull out games and play together. I wish we could do this more often, but the littlest one tends to crawl over and tear the game up... I am sure we will have lots more time for fun in the future. I think Rebecca won this game! Way to go!

My times we take turns gathering and playing in Benjamin's fun room. He can create so many fun things with these tracks! Thanks to Grandma and others we have built up quite the collection!

There was a spot of soil that became exposed after many rainstorms, and what do you think happens? The children turn it into a fun place. Our area doesn't have dirt either. If you expose the dirt you see it is all sand! So we live in a giant sand box.

As I was looking at the school calendar this morning, I got excited seeing Christmas break coming, and Spring break in a few months, and ultimately Summer break. I love these times when we can be together and make memories.

Family is everything.

Family Heritage

2011-10-10T08:20:00.002-05:00

Recently my mother gave me a couple boxes of special family items. I sat down on the floor and felt like a child at Christmas seeing these special items. My heart filled as I held these special things in my hands and realized my great-grandparents held them as well. It made my extended family feel so much closer and more real to me.

Family near and far-- past, present, and future-- has always been very important to me. I feel so grateful to those who have gone before, and hope I can do well in helping those who will continue after me.

I pulled this cute little basket from my cupboard because I have felt it would be so beautiful with flowers in it. Every time I saw it or smelled these flowers I thought of my family from the past.

How thankful I am that I know we are a forever family. I will get to see these wonderful family members sometime in the future. What joy we will have hugging one another.

Thank you, Mom, for passing this heritage on to me.

Shells

2011-09-28T08:34:00.002-05:00

What can you do with the many shells we keep bringing home?

Something that jingles.

Rain!

2011-09-06T09:01:00.002-05:00

What do you do when it rains? Our children love getting in their swim suits and going to play in all the puddles! This was a perfect day to play as well. The rain poured down, and it was refreshing! Can we just say that we love our home? We do.

Stopped for the picture

Unsure of getting wet, but still wanting to play.

No hesitation here. This monkey loves water!

We continue our search for alligators, but get to see many other neat things along our way! Like a bird that doesn't float on the water, it swims! (Like Anhinga which you can see with its long neck sticking out of the water)

Up high in the look out tower to "ascertain our whereabouts". We tried to see if we could see alligators from above, but no luck. We did see a Purple Gallinule! (link here to see)

Smiles All Around

2011-09-01T20:19:00.003-05:00

"When we're helping we're happy, and we sing as we go..."

Benjamin loves helping and will step up to feed Andrew if I am not doing my job. I love seeing them being so happy together.

A new toy, thanks to G'pa and G'ma Siler. He loves it! There aren't many new things for this little one, so it is quite the treasure!

Apparently there was a party going on while we were all cleaning up. It was kind of like a Halloween party with "special" hats. Silly children, I had to capture a picture, although I think they will be embarrassed by them at certain points in their lives.

While the above party was going on, the other half of the family was working hard out in the yard to make our bushes beautiful. Look at those hard workers! The yard looks amazing thanks to them.

"I spy with my little eye something that is looking back at me... What do I spy."

A little video for grandparents to see how much a new toy is loved.

End of Summer Bang

2011-08-26T09:28:00.004-05:00

We have had a lot of fun playing in water that last bit of Summer break. The children had fun playing with water balloons, I was impressed that they did it all by themselves. I was unable to help them with all that I am doing around our home, and they figured out how to do it themselves.

For a long time Andrew would just crawl to the window and look outside at everything. He loves watching his brothers and sister as they play.

Benjamin was excited to join the balloon fun. They pretended the balloons were their babies.

We took one last trip to the beach before school started. Clark really had a lot of fun in the sand, as you can see his amazing sand picture!

David made a picture too, since we have been talking about jelly-fish safety he made a jelly-fish.

I was so amazed that we had the beach almost all to ourselves. We love getting to the beach in the morning when the sun is coming up and the weather is cool. It is a beautiful time.

Having fun together as we walk along the beach. Andrew became so relaxed he even fell asleep in my arms which hasn't happened in a long time.

The school started and I have half of my children in school now! My children seemed to jump right into the school thing, even at a new school.

We tried the bike riding thing, unfortunately the first day didn't go well, but we tried again the next day and found that riding the two miles to school by bike was faster than any other way. We received some amazed looks as I pulled three children on my bike (two in the trailer and one in an infant seat) and followed David on his bike. Rebecca is going to practice riding before she tries riding again.

The children are very excited that Rebecca has two class guinea pigs, Pinky and Cocoa (Cocoa is pictured)

And now we are already one week through school. I am always shocked at how fast time goes when school starts, I know that the holidays will be here soon. As my high school English teacher told us seniors, "Christmas is next week, and graduation is the next week." We didn't believe him, but here I am more than ten years later... Who knew time could fly so fast.

I feel like my children are growing fast and will be becoming adults, serving missions, going to college, and getting married sooner than I expect. At least we know we are a forever family, it makes growing up a lot easier.

"I love to see the Temple..."

2011-08-14T20:03:00.003-05:00

Our family has a tradition that the minute we see the temple we sing "I Love to See the Temple" (link to listen). This was our first trip to our new temple. The temple fills me with joy and peace, and I know it is the "House of the Lord". Everything is so light it is really like being in heaven.

My sister and I were able to be there together. What a neat experience to share with our families.

I loved that our children are excited to visit this new temple and that it was the high light of their day. I hope they will always remember the importance of the temple and that our family is a forever family.

Irresistible Morning

2011-08-12T18:41:00.002-05:00

Some mornings (or all mornings) you wake up and look at the world around you and all you see is beauty. I see mornings like this frequently at our house. As I see tiny details on dew covered flowers, it all amazes me.

The children love this little lantern, and I love the plants that surround it.

This flower smells so delicious and could keep my nose to it all day.

So beautiful yet dangerous.

This flower is what caught my attention for me to grab my camera. It is the first flower to bloom on this bush since we have lived here, and the morning was wet with dew.

Beautiful.

Dream Land

2011-08-06T13:20:00.002-05:00

Flowers the children picked for me from our yard, they smell so amazing.

We took our first trip to the beach and the children loved playing and splashing! We loved making castles and decorating them them shells, digging holes that fill with water, and just enjoying a beautiful morning. I still cannot believe all this is right where I live. The world is truly full of beauty.

A strange story: I love watching birds and trying to learn the different kinds. I was standing there on the beach when an ocean bird came into view. I was watching it fly closer overhead when it pause mid-air over my head (I thought I was doomed to have droppings land on my head), to my surprise it started regurgitating and dropped a fish on my head! We explored the fish and found it to be rubber, probably for fishing. I was so surprised that it purposefully dropped it on me. Pretty funny!

A New Home

2011-08-05T07:24:00.001-05:00

Meeting our new home.

Ready for a long drive!

Good bye Texas, we will miss you.

Wipe On and Off

2011-07-18T14:12:00.001-05:00

Being very helpful washing the walls, not even noticing that his pants fell down.

Wordless and Priceless

2011-07-08T20:38:00.000-05:00

Three Boys and a Girl

2011-07-05T07:12:00.002-05:00

(one boy not pictured)

Happy Fourth of July!

Graduation and Moving

2011-06-27T08:46:00.002-05:00

Our family has been busy this past month and will continue to be busy the next month or so. We are having a life changing experience in that we will be done with school soon and will be moving officially into the work-force! Hooray!

We are moving to the land of oranges and alligators. We are excited for this new adventure and are thankful for the blessings of Heaven in helping us through this process. There has been so much worry as the unknown has sat heavily for a long time, and now the pieces are starting to fall quickly into place.

May Pictures

2011-06-04T19:43:00.000-05:00

Our days in Texas are running out, and it looks like we're making the most of it (judging by our May pictures, link)! Come take a look:

Pre-K Graduation

2011-05-26T02:46:00.005-05:00

Our little girl had her Pre-K graduation ceremony last night. It was a fun evening remembering how much she's learned this last year: all the letters, to count to 100, extra-family social interaction, and how to READ!

Grand entrance.

Finding her seat.

Waiting for the program to begin.

The program had a few great songs; this was her favorite!

Her big brother showing support.

Creating

2011-05-20T14:58:00.002-05:00

Here is a post to show off our talents. David's picture was put up at the City Recreation Center for the Art Fair. He has a hidden pictures tree (like in the Friend).

Rebecca, Benjamin, and I were having fun playing games and doing puzzles. This is a fun puzzle she did all by herself, then you can play a search game with it.

I wasn't home for this, so may not know the story, but when I loaded the pictures up I had to laugh at this funny scene. David brought this clay home after he finished his Lochness Monster documentary. He has had fun creating many things with it. (notice there is even a worm for the fish)

I almost got rid of this shirt. I had it in the yard sale and it didn't get sold, I had it bagged up to give to a friend and ended up pulling it from the bag... Just had to keep it. Doesn't Andrew look cute! I love his calm, sweet eyes. (that is the way he is most of the time, with laughs for the funny things the children do)

Clark gave me this book for Mother's day, I started working on a painting for fun. I know it has many flaws, but it was so enjoyable to feel like I created something. I felt I learned new techniques as well.

Here is a close-up of the water, which is my favorite part.

My friend gave me this painting paper, which is fun to experiment on. This is the full picture.

I would be happy just to have the water, stump and grass in this picture. That is my favorite. Thanks, Clark for the fun.

Races and the Temple

2011-05-07T15:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was Friendship games and I was able to help David's class. Clark stayed home with the others and dropped by off and on to see the events. I really loved watching the children have so much fun competing.

Here is David waiting for his turn to race. He ran the 50 meter hurdles and the 50 meter race. Then they had other little competitions, and some fun games as well.

50 meter hurdles. There was the 100 meter race and 4x100 meter relay but David said he didn't qualify for that one.

They had a blow-up slide and these big balls for them to play in as well. Can you see David in the ball?

Rebecca after she ran.

Blob tag

Tug-of-war I was in charge of these five children. We had a fun time. I only wish I could have follow Rebecca around as well to take pictures of her in the sac races, etc.

Today we woke-up early and headed to the temple for an 8 a.m. session. I love how excited the children are to go to the temple. (and we don't even have the zoo to motivate anymore since our membership expired)

Fun in the Sun

2011-05-05T06:26:00.001-05:00

We have had a lot of fun playing outside. Yesterday was David's half day, which means Rebecca had no Pre-K as well. They loved playing in the sand box from lunch time until dinner time! They love that thing; and although I am cringing at all the sand they track around, I love seeing them play like this. We just put sand in it after a couple years of time-out from sand play.

When they aren't playing in sand, they are running around exploring together. Here it looks like they formed a train. We bought the sand because the children had picked up digging holes in the yard... I don't think the landlord would like that.

I wanted to capture a picture with all my children together, it was a little harder than I thought. Here are a few of the best that I could capture.

Easter!

2011-04-25T06:37:00.001-05:00

I meant to share just Easter, but I realized I haven't shared in awhile. We have had fun the past couple of Fridays/Saturdays playing in water as our temperature are up in the 90s. Our neighbors have started joining us and having water fun in the shade of our front yards! They had fun playing with the cones as buckets. David even found he could put the cone on his head with water in it and the water wouldn't come out until he lifted it!

Lifting the cone off, water falling down.

Water and rocks, a fun combination.

Andrew has grown so much and is almost to the point of squirming around.

Rebecca is so excited to wear her shrinky-dinks.

Benji wanted a picture taken of him too. (I don't know why it turned, probably because I loaded so many pictures...)

Easter egg coloring

I love my clown face!

David's cute eggs.

Everyone enjoyed helping Benji color his eggs.

In our family we have a tradition of hiding the Easter baskets and going on a search in the morning. Can you see one of the hidden baskets?

There it is!

While Benji explores his Rebecca looks for hers.

She found hers! By the way, the pile of stuff is optional get-rid-of things.

Exploring her basket while giving ideas to David on where to look.

By recommendation of Rebecca, David looked in his back-pack to find his basket!

Mmmm, the chocolate bunny!

Enjoying the treats.

David devouring his treats. By the way, by the end of the day all the candy in Rebecca and David's baskets was gone! Clark and I were very surprised... Perhaps we will request less candy from the Easter Bunny next year. (especially since Benji threw-up in the middle of the night from the lot of it!)

Andrew's first Easter. No basket or treats for you! Mommy ate enough to make his tummy upset.

Happy Easter to all!

Strong little Man

2011-04-13T08:25:00.004-05:00

My cousin's little boy had heart surgery 21 days ago and we have been praying with all our hearts for him. We are so thankful to see him doing so well. What an amazing family this is. Here is the first hand information:

http://thewheatleyroundup.blogspot.com/

General Conference

2011-04-05T19:30:00.002-05:00

This last weekend was General Conference. This year we set up our little tent, copied some work-pages from the computer, and had a few containers of treats at the ready. The children picked words to listen for, for example: church, and every time they heard the word they were rewarded with one of the treats. This worked quite well, and the children listened intently!

Toward the end the children got restless, then we remembered the BINGO papers we had printed off and switched our treat reward to that game. The children had fun and found all the words on their papers!

My first General Conference!

Pre-mid-post Conference activities.

Rolly-polly eyes

Creatures Big and Small

2011-03-28T08:39:00.002-05:00

My children are lovers of many different kinds of creatures, whether they be real or imaginary. Often on our walks to school or parks it isn't uncommon for us to stop frequently to look at a ladybug, rolly-polly, tiny millipedes, or even the big clumsy June bugs.

Now with butterflies and moths emerging from their hiding places, my children want to explore even more! They love to catch the bugs very carefully, examine them, and then let them go. They are good little explorers.

We have also had a fun trip to see the rodeo grounds. We loved seeing and touching big creatures. As you can see, we also enjoyed exploring the machinery as well.

Our littlest bug, munching away at his fingers.
I just want to kiss those cheeks all the time.

Prayers

2011-03-25T06:17:00.002-05:00

I just found out a couple days ago that my cousins little boy has gone in for his fourth open heart surgery. My heart fills with compassion and I pray that a miracle can happen for this little boy. He is about the same age as my little Benjamin.

Here is a link to their blog if you want the first hand information:

http://thewheatleyroundup.blogspot.com/

If anyone reads my blog, I hope that you will keep a prayer in your heart for this sweet little boy who has had to struggle so much.

Helping Japan

2011-03-15T20:02:00.003-05:00

Japan holds a very special place in my heart and I feel my life is changed after the earthquake that hit last week. I can't stop feeling for them, and praying for them. I received an email from the school I attended while I lived there and they gave some sites that people could donate to, I added the church to the list as well, since it always helps as well:

LDS Humanitarian Services
http://lds.org/service/humanitarian?lang=eng

If you live in Japan:
Donations to The Red Cross Japan
(http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/l4/Vcms4_00002070.html)

Donations to a group fund for NGOs working in disaster releif including Doctors Without Borders and Habitat for Humanity [Japanese only]
(http://www.janic.org/bokin/matomete14.php)

Donations through Citibank bank transfer
(http://www.citibank.co.jp/en/customernotices/customernoticesindex/customernoticepages/cust_031211_01.html)

If you live Outside Japan:

Donations to the Red Cross fund for Japan
(http://www.redcross.org/)

*Donations can also be made through iTunes

Donations to Doctor's Without Borders fund for Japan
(http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate)

Donations to NGO funds through Paypal
(https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12)

Donations through Global Giving
(http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-relief/ or by texting JAPAN to 50555 to donate $10. The donation will be added to your next cell phone bill)

Donations to International Medical Corps
(https://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=1967 or by calling (800) 481-4462. You can also text MED to 80888 to donate $10, which will be added to your next cellphone bill)

The Friend

2011-03-13T20:39:00.002-05:00

My children love looking at the pictures that are in the Friend that are drawn by other children. Just a couple Sundays ago, they brought home these pictures from their lessons. I felt they would be good to add to the Friend, but just in case we never see them, here they are:

By Rebecca, Joseph Smith seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

By David, President Monson our prophet.

By David, The Temple

26.2 Miles or More!

2011-02-27T10:05:00.002-06:00

Our school participates in Marathon Kids, where the children walk/run 26.2 miles over the course of a few months and also eat healthy. Our way of achieving this is to walk/run to school all year long, which ends up being more than 26.2 miles anyway. Walking to school doesn't even count all the walking they do on other occasions.

They were excited to participate in the Final Mile and earn a medal. They really did earn it!

CROP Out Hunger

2011-02-19T10:57:00.000-06:00

(click the above to go to the site)

Every year we have lived here, our Stake has been involved in supporting this. Not only is it fun to participate in the walk, but it is neat to feel we are donating to a valid cause.

Feel free to help out!

Long Lasting

2011-02-17T12:52:00.003-06:00

2011

Way back in 2005, we took a family trip to visit my brother. While we were visiting we visited a HUGE Goodwill store. We thought it was amazing! While we were there, we found this cute car and decided we could fit it in our car to bring home. Way back then we only had one child. This car has been a favorite with the children for many years.

The children love driving around and scooting, but best of all-they love pushing each other. Even now that some of them are getting too big to fit their legs in, they still love finding a way to ride around in (or on) this car.

I think everyone likes to push Rebecca because she has the best laugh that accompanies it. Her laugh is very contagious.

We loved that Goodwill and wish we could find one where we live. Thank you for the great fun, little car, you have made lots of memories and hope for many more!

2007

Always Giving

2011-02-12T14:54:00.002-06:00

When you look at this picture the first thought that probably comes to your mind is, "Oh cute, Maryann is so creative." At least that is what I imagine most people think about many of the cute edible things we give them, whether it be dessert or dinner.

The truth is, I never make them. All the compliments and gratitude should be given to Clark. Clark is the one I would like to direct your attention to. I know there are many men out there that are good husbands and fathers, but I feel I have claim on the best. I had been thinking of what the cute things I could do for some friends of mine, and he made these and wrapped them.

Or, we will have friends over for dinner and they will look at me and say, "Wow, this is delicious, thanks for having us." Then we will reveal that Clark did everything. He is amazing.

We start running out of things to eat, and I start thinking I need to figure out how to get my load of children to the store; every time, Clark comes to the rescue and lets me stay home. He will even take a few children with him and let me have quiet time.

When we are sitting at the table and I even look like I would like something, he will jump up and give me more or get me a drink. He is so considerate, and it isn't just because I am holding our baby- he does in any situation.

If he can, he will race around the car to open my door as well. This one has become harder for him to fulfill because of the children that also need help, but he will try if he sees a chance.

He is also very good at forgiving and forgetting. If there is a moment of contention or trouble he will deal with the moment, and then he can laugh and joke immediately after. I watch this in amazement because I tend to hold onto my negative feelings and have a really hard time just letting it go. But it never fails that he can get me laughing again when I have been upset.

Clark really helps build our family in many ways. I could keep going and writing more of the many things he does; but the point is, he is wonderful and we love him!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Felt Night

2011-02-07T13:15:00.002-06:00

I am excited to help Rebecca with her lesson tonight. We will tell a story from Elder Patrick Kearon's talk from last General Conference. (here is the talk) The story teaches us to be diligent in heeding what we know to be right. If we disregard what we have been taught, then we will have damaging consequences- just as Elder Kearon had painful consequences from disregarding what he knew would keep him safe (his shoes) and being stung by a scorpion.

There is protection in choosing the right and holding fast to the iron rod, which we know to be the word of God.

Captured!

2011-02-04T13:58:00.005-06:00

Andrew has been smiling up at me when I talk to him. It lights up my day and I just can't get enough of his smiles. Each time I get one it feels like a treasure. He is such a sweet boy. I finally caught a great big smile!

A few pictures, in reverse order. The news from the home-front is that we received snow. The children had fun playing in the inch that fell. They couldn't last very long, and looked so cold I just had to snap a picture. This look says it all: "Mommy, please warm me up."

Here is proof that the snow really did fall, and it was enough to play in!

Our Winter Wonderland.

Playing in the snow with sand toys.

How do you dress like a ballerina when it is cold?

Family Night!

2011-02-01T14:09:00.002-06:00

Not too long ago, the children and I were playing at a park and I saw these metal cage-like things in different places near by. I stood their staring at them wondering what they were. I couldn't see any food, if it was to feed the animals. I wasn't sure if it was a trap, but it looked so easy to escape... In the end I just turned my attention to playing and forgot about this strange thing.

Months went by, and we took a walk through our little path in our neighborhood. They have been changing it and adding things to make it more enjoyable all over. To my surprise I saw these "cages" again. I wondered again at what this strange thing could be. Clark happily chirped, "Oh, that is Frisbee golf. I played that with my colleagues in San Diego. " Since then, when we walk down there, we have seen a continuous flow of people playing through the course.

Finally, we took our turn. Although we don't have the right kind of frisbees, we still had fun playing. We also decided to stay away from the ponds and streams for fear of losing our frisbees in the water. David did really well; I think he had the nicest frisbee.

"This is the night we've waited for; Always a treat we have in store!
We love each other more and more With every family night ..."
~Family Night (link)

Benjamin had his own idea of how to play the game: Carry as many frisbees around as you can, then go and hand place them in the "hole". As you can glimpse, I had a fun time trying to through a frisbee with Andrew sitting in a front-carrier. The best part was being together and wandering through the woods. The children loved running around the area.

Rebecca had the cutest ensemble, and really did well throwing her disc. You might be wondering by now how many frisbees we have. We brought five, but who knows how many we have around our house... I have no idea why we have so many but it is really fun that we can all have our own!

On Sunday we had Andrews blessing. Here is our first ever family picture together! It is really hard to get everyone looking in the same direction, smiling, and looking presentable! We are so thankful for our little Andrew and the children love him to bits.

Make Your Cake 'N' Eat it Too

2011-01-30T07:23:00.002-06:00

We have loved having my parents to visit. Even though it is not an exciting adventure in exploring Texas, we have enjoyed playing and relaxing. Here are some pictures of the birthday fun that happened yesterday:

Since I had pulled out the camera, I decided to go crazy trying to take pictures. We are not very good at remembering to take pictures when visitors are here because we are wrapped up in just being together.
Andrew was sitting so cozily on my lap. I just love snuggling with that little lumpy boy. We have a hard time resisting urges to kiss his cheeks and fuzzy head.

After the party, we had some fun with marbles. My children make up what they call "stories" with anything, even marbles can be characters in a story, or dinner as well! They have such active imaginations, I think they were in that wonderful world all day yesterday. David and Rebecca are truly the best of friends.

The new ove'glove!

The fun new oil spray can! All the thanks goes to my parents for the great gifts!

The children and I tried to surprise Clark with a birthday sign while he was out jogging with my dad in the morning. We all worked together (except Andrew of course, too young).

Snuggling with Grandma.

Clark had his day, he made his own cake (you know he loves making desserts, how could I rob him of that joy), and he ate it too!
Here he is, ready to "blow".

The happy baker!

Happy Birthday to the greatest friend, husband, father, son, and whatever else he may be:
He is the best!

Evening Walk

2011-01-26T09:13:00.000-06:00

Little Mommy

2011-01-06T13:54:00.002-06:00

I finished doing Rebecca's hair and left the bathroom thinking the children would run off to go play. After a few minutes, I realized they were still in the bathroom and I was worried they were playing in the water (worry from experience). I peaked in and found Rebecca doing Benjamin's hair.
She has really picked up on mommy duties, perhaps we should start calling her "little mommy". She is very helpful, and sometimes too helpful (she has good intentions).

My Little Friend

2011-01-03T14:13:00.001-06:00

One month old and growing fast! No, he is not standing and about to fall over... The children are still thinking he is the best and cutest baby ever, and so am I. (next to my other three of course)

Pictures of Andrew, Christmas, and More

2011-01-01T13:32:00.003-06:00

We've put loads of pictures on our family website from December. We have pictures of Andrew, Christmas pictures, along with pictures of our normal day-to-day adventures.

To see pictures of Andrew, click here.

To see our December pictures, click here.

As always, you can access our picture portal to the past on our photos page (click here).

All My Babies

2010-12-28T15:49:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share a picture of our Christmas nativity. Unfortunately, as you can see, we were unable to have all the children together in a presentable manner. At least most of it looks cute. :-) The children did a great job.

Also, I just love looking down into Andrews face and seeing that all my children look like "our" children. They all have traits that look like each other. I decided to put the pictures all together to see if you can tell which child is which. The funny thing was that while I was putting this together David and Rebecca came in at separate times saying how cute Andrew was (the funny part was, none of the pictures I had up were of Andrew).

Now they are all up, plus one extra just for spice. Have fun!

2010 Siler Family Christmas Card

2010-12-21T07:23:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure you've been curious to see how we used the pictures from our Christmas photo shoot (click here) in our Christmas card. Well, wait no more!

We've placed our year-end family summary (a.k.a Christmas letter), along with our photo, on our family website (click here).

Holiday Clothes

2010-12-18T10:45:00.001-06:00

Here are our children in some new holiday clothes:

Let it snow: the wish of Utah expats living in Texas
Wearing clothes decorated by Grandma Siler
(Please note the little one hiding on the right)

New Holiday jackets/fleece they chose themselves!

Christmas Photo Shoot

2010-12-11T22:20:00.000-06:00

We had been putting off taking family photos for our do-it-yourself Christmas picture until little Andrew came. It turns out that we're too afraid to take him outside still, so we ended up doing it piecemeal anyway. Regardless, we think the pictures turned out wonderfully! (In fact, Walmart didn't want to let us print them because they questioned whether we had permission from the copyright holder. It took some convincing for them to finally hand the pictures over--we had to fill out some form, and the children vouched for it, too! All that trouble for an image we threw together in PowerPoint!)

Here are our favorites of the nearly-200 we took today (stay tuned for the official card collage):

The Coveted Squeeze!

Leaning in

A lot of love

Lean On Me

What is the youngest saying here?

Best Friends

Sidewalk Shot

Not Fence-sitters

Did you notice the boots?

Unto us a child is born...

One Week Old

2010-12-10T10:34:00.000-06:00

We had our little Andrew, and his family is completely in love with him.

8 lb and 21 inches of sweetness.

November Pictures

2010-11-30T20:15:00.000-06:00

Another month down, another set of fun pictures! Visit our family website to see shots of family fun, a found kitty, a painted masterpiece, rockets and robots, Fall, and Christmas decorating (click here).

Stomping Fun

2010-11-26T08:33:00.002-06:00

My children went out to play the other day and apparently we attracted a lot of attention when we actually play in our front yard. We had three different sets of friends come over to play with us in the time we were outside. The children loved to have friends join them. This might be an obvious concept to others, but it is something I still need to learn to do. Getting together with friends is hard for me, because I love when we just play together as a family. I do love seeing them make friends and play!

By the way, no baby yet.

A Rescued Kitten

2010-11-11T15:07:00.002-06:00

We had an experience last week where we found and helped a kitten. We had seen it and I brushed it off as a stray, but was curious since it really looked clean and well taken care of. We saw it the next day crying, and I decided it was not a stray. With the help of another woman who knows more about cats than I do, we took it to my house to shelter until we knew how to help it. Through the process of the day we found its owner.

The children enjoyed the time we were able to spend with this sweet cat and were happy to have had a day to feel like we owned a furry friend. Perhaps someday we will be able to completely fulfill that dream.

Hunt for Fun October

2010-10-31T12:55:00.000-05:00

We've put more than fifty photos of our October fun on our family website (click here). You can see things like butterfly catching, Smurf eating, costumes galore, and a jumping collage.

Birthday Fun

2010-10-22T20:38:00.001-05:00

Today was my birthday and decided to make a cake after Rebecca's pumpkin suggestion. The children loved it. We had a lot of fun.

The one little side seemed to be caving in, but it made a very nice spot for a stem.

Here is my little tiger growing big so quickly.

Butterflies, Ladybugs, and Leaves!

2010-10-18T13:49:00.000-05:00

I am sorry I haven't posted much, it seems I am struggling to keep up with everything these days. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks, in reverse order:

Yesterday, Rebecca was attended a birthday party for a friend she had only met once. Her parents just moved earlier in the year to San Antonio and they used to be our next-door neighbors at the blue apartment complex back in Provo.
Rebecca dressed up as "Ladybug Girl", which is a book about a little girl who pretends to be a super hero. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the house her ladybug wings were broken.

She looks cute even without her wings.

Earlier in the day, I had the opportunity to go to the temple and we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the temple grounds as well. The children love walking around on all the big rocks at the temple... not sure if that should be against the rules or not.

Before our temple outing, we spent the morning at the zoo. I thought this picture captured our children's personalities perfectly.

On Columbus day, we spent some time playing at the park between our appointments for the parent-teacher conferences. David has enjoyed this Fall season because the butterflies are coming through! He sometimes catches other things as well.

Here Rebecca is playing and having fun with other friends that showed up to play at the park as well. She loves to be with the younger children.

Even though we don't have the beautiful changing colors around us, we found out that some of the leaves are actually starting to fall! David and some friends found or made a pile of leaves and were having lots of fun playing in them.

As a side note, I saw them playing in the leaves and my first thought was, "Please don't! You will get dirty, and maybe even have bugs on you." Then I thought of how much fun children have and they don't mind those worries yet, so I let them go at it. I guess I am still learning to let them go and explore nature without a mother hen hovering.

David has been able to catch quite a few butterflies and moths with his net. He loves it! He is the most careful and gentle boy I know. Clark taught him how to use it without harming the insect, and he has followed those instructions very well.

This butterfly didn't fly away when he opened the net, so I had it crawl onto my finger and there it sat for maybe ten minutes before it flew off.

"And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which [the prophet] should speak unto them."
Mosiah 2:6

I thought it would be fun to have the children sit in a "tent" of sorts and watch conference. Clark remembered we had a little tent out in the garage that we have never used. I put it up and found it to be the perfect size. They enjoyed it.

New Pictures

2010-10-07T19:52:00.001-05:00

We've added new pictures to our family website; click here to take a look.

Perfect Little Book

2010-09-30T13:19:00.002-05:00

Our littlest one found the joy in this book weeks ago, and it has been a favorite since then. We play "hug" chase games, recite parts of the book--"Bobo!", and laugh and giggle about hugs.

We happen to have a little monkey that is perfect for hugging and Benjamin loves carrying it around. When he is sad, a hug from his little monkey will make him laugh. He loves this monkey and I am thankful he has learned to love reading as well!

Homemade Fun!

2010-09-28T13:18:00.003-05:00

Not too long ago, a friend asked us what we do for fun. As I sat their and thought about what our family does when we have breaks and vacations, my only reply was, "I think our family has a different view of what is fun." We don't go to theme parks, or travel great distances; in fact, the times we have the most fun are when we just stay home and play together. There is something relaxing about playing at a park, in the front yard, or even just inside with toys. The only other place we go to have fun would be when we travel to the temple and make the whole day a family day.

Fun does not have to cost, and in reality it shouldn't cost anything. All it takes to have a great day is creativity!

Here are some moments of fun:

The children love when we make anything from the wheat we grind. I think their fascination stems from seeing something come from what seems to be nothing.

For a boys day out, Clark took them to feed the ducks and found fun in exploring the area as well. Who knew a culvert could be so fun!

All I can say is "a bad hair day". We have some strange ducks.

We have loved having corn on the cob. The children love peeling and cleaning the corn, it makes it feel like we have our own garden. (which I hope to have someday...)

At first we cut the corn off for this little one, but he wouldn't eat it and kept reaching over to our plates wanting to take bites out of our corn. Finally we gave him his own and he devoured it! He must have great biting abilities!

Homemade fun, that is all it comes to.

New Pictures

2010-09-04T20:24:00.000-05:00

Here are some photos from our adventures from August! (click here)

Empty House

2010-08-27T13:02:00.002-05:00

It is a strange feeling to have my children off somewhere without me. We have entered into another school year and now David and Rebecca are gone. Here David is going to school, and the next one is Rebecca taking her turn going to school. We just love taking pictures by that funny sign...

Before school started we spent some time together.

The children loved getting to go to the circus, it really was amazing!

Family Home Evening Jam

2010-08-17T14:24:00.002-05:00

We have had fun creating things these past couple of family home evenings. Last week we decided to show our children how to make butter, and they were amazed! Yesterday we tried our hand at freezer jam, and the children are waiting anxiously for their first taste of jam that they helped to make!

I love seeing the excitement in the eyes of my children when we create something on our own. They love making our own flour from wheat we have stored as well. Perhaps someday we can have a garden and teach more of these preserving skills to our children.

July Fun

2010-08-11T14:06:00.001-05:00

We updated our family photos page if you would like to see some of the fun we had during July!
(click here or on the picture above)

A Great Two Years

2010-07-23T12:56:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday!

One of the cutest boys in the world! He fills our life with laughs, smile, hugs, and light.

We love Benjamin.

A Trim

2010-07-22T12:38:00.002-05:00

As I was getting ready the other morning I couldn't stand my hair any longer. I had debated about getting it cut, but really don't like going to hair salons. I grabbed the scissors and trimmed a few inches off my hair.
The things I love about short hair:
It feels so light and airy.
My hair is a bit curly and curls a lot more when it is short.

Well, that is only two reasons, but they are the ones that stand out to me.

I love short hair!

And the Result Is....

2010-07-20T14:33:00.001-05:00

It looks like we will be inviting another cute boy into our family. Although never feel quite certain until I see his little face and hold him in my arms.

A Fulfilled Dream

2010-07-16T08:04:00.002-05:00

My parents took me on a little trip and fulfilled one of my wishes of things to see in Texas. We were lucky to see the temple. The grounds are beautiful and the temple is amazing. There is such a peace throughout the whole grounds.

My last wish was to see the Gulf of Mexico. I have only seen the Pacific Ocean, granted it was from both sides of the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful and perfect day to stop and see the Gulf. We loved seeing the pelicans flying around as well. The children explored the shells. Now to explore other areas.

Laughs

2010-07-05T12:59:00.002-05:00

I was doing some cleaning while the children played together when I noticed Benjamin was out of sight. I walked around the corner to hear him laughing in the hallway looking at a doorknob. I realized, he noticed he could see himself in the doorknob. I tried to capture a bit of it, when David decided to join too:

I love seeing what the children find as funny. Who would have thought the doorknobs could be so entertaining.

June Pictures

2010-07-03T15:40:00.000-05:00

We've added pictures from our grand Texas adventures (click here).

Sunday Best

2010-07-02T07:25:00.002-05:00

This picture made me laugh. Every Sunday we ask David to change out of his church-going clothe and put on other nice Sunday clothes (that are easier to clean). A few Sundays ago I went to David's room to see if he was changing and setting his clothes away nicely... This is what I saw. He didn't put them away, but he lay them out so nicely, tie and all.

Endless Fun

2010-06-28T13:57:00.002-05:00

Every now and then we stop by the Library and trade our bag of books for more book and the children have weeks worth of fun reading them. Actually, they have a day or two worth of fun reading them, then rereading them the rest of the week we keep them.

I have found when I am struggling with the children being a little too wild for my sanity I sit down on the couch and say, "Who wants to read with me?" Then all three will run and find a book they want and we will sit and read for as long as each of us can handle. It is a nice quiet time activity and gives a bit of variety. My children love books.

Even our little one can sit and listen through a stack of books. I just need to get used to the piles of books I tend to find all over now...

Button Counting

2010-06-13T20:00:00.000-05:00

While helping the children get dressed for church this morning, this fun song popped into my head. We sung it so much before church, that it became quite stuck in our minds. The children and I decided to put this little film together because we loved the song so much:

Who knew buttons could be such fun?

Just Can't Help It

2010-06-01T13:26:00.002-05:00

I am often shocked at David's abilities. There is one talent that he just has to do everywhere he goes, he loves climbing. I often picture him climbing a coconut tree because I am sure he is capable of doing it. Here is proof over the last year or so that he just can't help his need to climb.

I don't think I have ever seen another child climb as much as this one!

He is incredible.

Bug Explorers

2010-05-24T12:53:00.002-05:00

This is a buggy time of year and my children don't waste a minute of it! Any time we are outside they are searching the ground to find another little crawler. Just this morning the children picked upwards of six rolly pollies on the way to school. They will let them crawl up and down their arms and on their shirts.
Last week they explored lady bugs and learned quite a bit about them. There are so many bugs: grasshoppers, caterpillars, butterflies, beetles... So much to explore.

New Pictures

2010-05-10T03:45:00.001-05:00

We've added pictures from our Texas Springtime adventures (click here).

Search and Find

2010-05-05T12:47:00.002-05:00

We had a fun Family Home evening using the Friend as our guide (click here). We read a few stories about our chosen topic to learn about, then our activity came from page 17, to guess the items we would see at church. Then Clark had a great idea to take each child around the house and take picture for the rest of us to guess. We really had fun! Some of the pictures were hard to guess, here are a few:

All on an Elephant

2010-04-27T13:17:00.001-05:00

I thought this compilation of pictures was funny. My children have such ideas and all with a bronze elephant.

Amazing!

2010-04-15T13:28:00.002-05:00

After years of living in Texas we have never gone out to do the Texas tradition of taking pictures in the bluebonnets. We have actually one seen them once before, because of the drought we have been in for a few years we didn't see many in recent years. We really wanted to capture it this year in case it is the last time we see it.

We found a field near our house and had fun seeing flowers all along the way. Some of those flowers are pictured in the previous post, but the ground was too wet to actually go into the field. Yesterday we finally did it. The children were cute and wanted to hold hands.

David loves finding thistles, which really are a beautiful flower.

I had no idea how big these flowers were. The children would go explore and when they were lying down, they would disappear in the flowers. As you can see, the flowers are almost as tall as Benjamin! Beautiful, just beautiful!

Texas Spring

2010-04-14T13:00:00.001-05:00

This year has been beautiful.

I love Spring.

New Pictures

2010-04-02T15:15:00.000-05:00

I took my youngest son grocery shopping today, and he was the most popular little boy in the store! It seemed that everyone we passed either smiled, said "hello," or tried to tickle him; he must be in that super-cute phase.

If you want verification of his (and his siblings') cuteness, take a look at our new pictures from our March escapades (click here).

Up, Up, Up

2010-03-22T14:29:00.004-05:00

There is only one way to go, and that is up. Benjamin is learning to climb and his diaper is a nice anchor when it comes to climbing. Now, how to get to the next rung of the ladder...

Safely Gathered In

2010-03-16T19:57:00.003-05:00

"Today was the best day!" This was the comment David made as we finished up canning wheat. Little by little we are gathering and storing. The children were very excited about doing this.
It feels good because it is right.

I really enjoyed reading about and learning about storing food. This is where I was able to learn the most, Provident Living: Family Home Storage.

Chalking Fun!

2010-03-11T14:09:00.002-06:00

Because the weather has been very beautiful for playing outside, we decided to do some drive-way art. We really had fun this time because my children are finally getting to an age where they can draw and write words. Here are a few examples:

I only helped a little with this, and was impressed with the results.

Lately we have enjoyed reading "Ladybug Girl" books, and the children wanted to pretend to be the characters from the book. I thought I would draw them:
Ladybug Girl, Bumblebee Boy, and Little Bug Boy

Of course we pretend to have pets too.

We feel so blessed to have had lots of rain, and pray that we can have more to keep us in a stable condition with the water, but we love the sunny days! There is something special about Texas sunshine! We love to go for walks/bike rides, chalk, play at the many parks in our area, and we are even learning how to jump rope. The joys of being a child and the freedom of the outdoors!

Nice Kitty, nice Kitty...

2010-03-09T12:15:00.002-06:00

Last night we had one of those Family Home Evenings that would be a great church video (as a good example).

Each person has their role down so nicely. The littlest one leading the music at our make-shift podium. Our oldest giving the lesson with a flannel board. Then, my favorite part, the game. We played a game called, "Nice Kitty, nice Kitty." We all sat in a circle and the person who is "it" pretends to be a cat and tries to get someone to laugh. The others would have to say, "Nice kitty, nice kitty", without smiling while the cat tries to make them laugh by being/doing what cats do.

I think we are all terrible at keeping straight faces and we would burst out laughing, not to mention we couldn't stop smiling the entire time! The children loved pretending too. We were rolling around on the floor.

Times like these help me to see the wonderful blessings of having a family. The joy is more than I could have imagined.

CROP Walk

2010-03-02T10:30:00.001-06:00

Each year, my family participates in the Austin CROP Hunger Walk (CROP stands for "Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty"). This is an event where participants raise donations from friends (you) in order to help combat the growing problem of hunger—both locally and world-wide. In addition, funds raised help victims of the recent earthquakes (e.g. in Haiti and Chile).

I'll be walking with my family and I'm looking to find friends who will either make donations to the organization or come and join me in the walk. 75% of the funds go toward global hunger resources and 25% stay local (Austin).

This is us last year.

"What can I do to help?" you ask: You can simply donate using the secure CROP Walk site (link), or you can join in on the fun this weekend, either Saturday or Sunday (location info, link), and raise sponsors/funds from other friends. (Here is my family's CROP Walk site: link.)

Want additional information? The CROP Walk website, www.cropwalk.org, has links for additional information.

-Additional Information-
Official Austin Website: www.main.org/cropwalk/ for more information.

Main CROP Website: www.cropwalk.org

You can make donations or join in the cause from any of the above sites, but it is easiest from my family's CROP site.

-CROP Walk Specifics-
The walk will be held on Saturday and Sunday (March 6 & 7) at Walter E. Long Park (map), at 9:30 am (Saturday) and 1:45 pm (Sunday).

What Could it Be?

2010-02-23T19:21:00.002-06:00

Just the other day, when we were enjoying a warm evening, a rumor started that we might get snow this week. I said that I didn't believe it and predictions have been wrong before. I knew it would be cold and that it would rain, so I wasn't surprised when we woke up to rain, but there was another sound with the rain: ice.

I walked David to school our heads turned from the ice that was blowing out of the north, and not long after that the ice became small and clumped up together to make big fluffy snowflakes. Here is the result:

We played in snow here for the first time,
and you can see we are well equipped with proper clothing.

Snow?

I heard a noise and came over to see Rebecca pelting the windows.

I think I won't be so hard on the weather predictions in the future! We had snow all day and there is still a little bit on the ground.

Books, Balls, and Tricks

2010-01-30T20:16:00.002-06:00

A little peek into what each of us have been doing during the month of January:

Maryann has taken up champion bowling (at least for one family night).

Clark is having a hard time blowing out all the candles for his birthday. David offers a little help.

David doing tricks in his new pajamas.

Benjamin discovered he can now play on our slide by himself.

Rebecca spends a lot of time reading stacks of books. She and Benjamin will sit by our book shelf and read letting mommy have some quiet time.

Creating

2010-01-17T16:22:00.002-06:00

My children had fun with a Christmas present that their Grandma gave to them. It really is fun to see what they come up with, they have such great imaginations. If only we could keep that big imagination our whole life.

Vacation Pictures

2010-01-05T22:08:00.001-06:00

We've placed loads of pictures from our Utah Christmas vacation on our family website (link). Come see rest stop adventures, an epic snowball fight, Christmas fun, and silly faces.

Come join the fun!

Happy Anniversary!

2009-12-15T13:45:00.003-06:00

Eight years ago today the "Clark and Maryann Siler family" was born. I feel it was the beginning of the happiest years of my life. Clark has been a wonderful blessing in my life and truly is my best friend. I couldn't have dreamed of a better life. I have a heart full of love and gratitude to our Heavenly Father who guided us together.

Families can be together forever.

(link to song)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-13T13:57:00.002-06:00

We made an ecard and letter for you to enjoy! Click here to read about how our family has gorwn and see the cute collage of pictures.
Have a "most exciting Christmas!"
(Children's Songbook, pg 51)

Preschool Day

2009-12-10T10:06:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I took my turn hosting our preschool group and we learned about the seasons. This was our craft. I found the idea online somewhere. They are ice cream cone Christmas trees. The children loved it and were able to do the whole craft themselves, with a little supervision. I loved seeing the children really enjoying the craft and all the other activities they did.

Cold days mean hot chocolate. A favorite treat of ours is hot chocolate with a peppermint stick in it. I let Benjamin try one, as you can see he really enjoyed it.

Here is a funny one of Rebecca. She was playing on my bed while I was reading and then I noticed the room got quiet. I turned and saw she had fallen asleep. I thought it was funny she fell asleep with the "Sleep Book", which just goes to show that it really should "be read in bed". I can't help but yawn just looking at the book.

Looking Like Christmas!

2009-11-30T10:38:00.002-06:00

Our little family has a tradition of decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. We are all home and can enjoy doing it together. The children loved helping to decorate the tree. Here I am putting the last touch of red bows on the tree and they sit and enjoy our basket of Christmas books that comes out with the decorations as well. There is something special in the air this time of year. I love Christmas!

Snuggle Bugs

2009-11-23T09:02:00.002-06:00

Rebecca has a cozy bed which is like a little cove under Davids bed. (this is the bed, plus the tent) Everyone loves to roll onto Rebecca's bed since it is so easy to crawl to. Benjamin especially loves snuggling down in her bed. I think he wishes he could join them in sharing a room.
Don't you want to jump in and get cozy too?

Feeling Relief

2009-11-14T19:57:00.002-06:00

Benjamin being funny.

This past week we had a follow-up appointment to the doctor for Benjamin. I really haven't enjoyed the visits to the doctor since our little one is very little. When I am at home with him I don't worry about his size because he is just right to me. He is active in crawling and trying to walk. He communicates in almost using recognizable words. Best of all, he has a great sense of humor and loves interacting and laughing with each of us. All this points to a very healthy little boy, even if he is very little in size.

The doctor has been informing us that these situations are worded as "failure to thrive" just because the child isn't following the growth curve. We have even taken a cystic fibrosis test (thankfully negative). We were also told to call an interventionist who would help us watch Benjamin.

This last visit came and as usual I had a prayer in my heart that perhaps this time we could hear some good news about his growth and health. We took him in and they weighed him and I couldn't believe my eyes! Benjamin had jumped 5 ounces in two weeks, which is an amazing jump since he hasn't grown very much in a long time. Then they told us the C.F. test was negative, and his wheezing (something he also had at the previous appointment) was gone. I was filled with gratitude and felt like I was walking in the clouds. We will still have to watch his growth, but I am so thankful to have at least one happy visit for Benjamin (although he did have to get his shots, poor boy)!

"Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all our doings (see Alma 37:37). . . . We are promised that if we pray sincerely for that which is right and good and in accordance with God's will, we can be blessed, protected, and directed (see 3 Nephi 18:20; D&C 19:38)."

David A. Bednar
"Pray Always, Ensign," Nov. 2008, 41

Growing Big

2009-11-12T14:06:00.002-06:00

We have updated our photos here, if you care to see some of the fun we have had this past month.

Rocks

2009-11-08T19:23:00.002-06:00

David loves rocks. Often when we are playing at the park, or going any where else, David will notice rocks and inspect them. Here is a bit of his collections, of course he didn't find many of those on the ground, but a few of them he has.
I love seeing my children learn and explore the beauties around them. David even made a museum, much like the one we visit, to go and look at rocks. He has quite a collection.

Halloween Fun

2009-11-05T08:03:00.003-06:00

The children loved making root beer and watching it bubble.

Thanks to Clark's brother, we had some great costumes for Halloween.

Flying

2009-10-26T08:03:00.002-05:00

David felt the weather was right, he changed his clothes and took flight.