Poor Pluto

My mom & I thought this was a funny sign that they had up at the Air & Space Museum. I was impressed at the changes that they have already made to the exhibit on the planets in our solar system...

We made it!!!

On Saturday morning, we got the family up at 3:45 to make it to the Salt Lake Airport for a 6 a.m. flight. I flew by myself with our 4 kids to D.C. and I'm happy to say that we made it without incident (we even had to catch a connecting flight in Minneapolis and Luke came down with a fever the night before we left)!! Everyone that I talked to about my upcoming adventure with our 4 kids thought that I was crazy to attempt it. I also had many people at the airport and on the plane tell me that I was a brave person to attempt such a feat.

DH was able to get a gate pass at the Salt Lake Airport so that he could help accompany us through security and to the gate. Security is such a joke because we ALL had to take off our jackets AND shoes, walk through the metal detector, and then put everything back on again. (The temperature was only in the 40s when we left Salt Lake, so coming to the airport without jackets was not an option.)

I had everything planned out in advance to ensure that everyone would be able to manage their own things (each kid except Kitty carried their own backpack with their own snacks & activities for the plane). I took our stroller to gate-check it so that I could put Blondie in the seat and Kitty fits very nicely in the basket underneath. That way we would not have to worry about the 2 little ones getting separated and we could make it to our connecting flight in time.

Well, it turns out that Blondie did not want to ride in the stroller. She wanted to walk by herself and pull the child-size suitcase that we had brought to store extra diapers & clothes & our jackets in. This made for a little bit of an adventure in Minneapolis trying to get all the way from concourse G where we landed to concourse C where our connecting flight was located. And of course, the section of the airport that we were walking through did not have any walking sidewalks until we got to concourse C. We had many people pass us and smile and I could hear comments from people about how cute the kids were and how cute Blondie was as she is trying to pull this suitcase through the airport. Luckily we had plenty of time to get to our gate (we only had an hour layover, but our first flight arrived a few minutes early and we got off the plane rather quickly).


There were several people on both flights who made comments after the flight was over about how well behaved the kids were (and luckily we didn't have much screaming from Kitty who can throw some nice tantrums every now and then). In fact there were a couple of people on the last flight who were amazed to see that I had 4 kids with me - since they didn't hear much from them on the plane. Since we were occupying 4 seats, M&M had to sit across the aisle from the rest of us and she sat next to a very nice lady on the first flight who told me when the flight was almost over that she was very impressed with how prepared I was and with how many activities I had to occupy the kids' attention.

Needless to say that even though the kids were well-behaved for the most part (I could have done with a few less kicks to the seats in front of us), I was pretty tired by the time we got to D.C...

Carrots!!

This is the first year that I have ever had carrots grow in our garden. I have planted them in the past and have just never had any sprout and grow - our soil is just too hard and rocky. This year I still didn't have a lot of success, but I did get a couple of carrots that I picked last week and put in a soup I was making.

And our family's verdict - they tasted like carrots...
What more can you ask for?

"Train up a child"

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. - Proverbs 22:6

We are doing our best as parents and hope and pray that this scripture will hold true with our kids. Here is recent example of how much our children learn by example and regular family routines:

Kitty for several months now has been helping out with our bedtime routine. (It just took me a while to take pictures of it...) When we all go downstairs and announce that it is time for scriptures, she will go over to the bookshelf and hand out scriptures to everyone. She will even take her dad's scriptures downstairs if he is still down in the office. As soon as scripture time is over, we will say that it is time for family prayer and she will promptly get down on the floor and onto her knees.

The last 2 or 3 days Kitty has knelt down for prayer and then started babbling some words, says, "Amen", and then gets up from her knees and looks around at us with a big grin on her face. (Her first prayer :) We are all amazed at how quickly she learns and how much she wants to participate!

DAAAADDD!!!!

Kitty is quickly learning the routines in our house. The latest one that she has picked up takes place at dinner time. After I got the food and table ready for dinner this evening, I called the kids in from playing outside. After Kitty came in and saw what was going on, she ran to the top of the stairs and called out, "DAAAADDD!!!!". (I usually send one of the kids to tell DH that it is dinner time, which usually means they go to the top of the stairs and yell for him.) Unfortunately today, DH is sick and was laying down upstairs. I tried to tell Kitty that, but she didn't quite understand and went down the stairs to try and find him...

Here is Kitty showing off her goofy grin:

Sunday morning routine...

Every Sunday morning I have the kids line up so that I can fix their hair for church. This past Sunday I was fixing M&M's hair in the kids' bathroom and this is what was going on in M&M & Blondie's room next door:

Child #4

Kitty is becoming a very competent little girl who has learned to do many things on her own. She knows that if she wants to do something, it'll happen a lot sooner if she does it herself...

For example:
When Blondie is swinging in the baby swing, Kitty likes to push her.

When she wants to swing herself, she has many choices to choose from. She has been seen swinging on the big kid swing and climbing on the two-seater swings as well (her feet are not touching the ground in the picture to the left).
























She can also climb up the ladder and go down the slide all by herself...

Blonde hair

Blondie has such beautiful blonde hair - it is super straight and really shines when it is well-brushed. I can't help making comments about it all the time because it is so different from my own. The other day at dinner DH and I were talking about how blonde her hair was looking that day and we asked her rhetorically, "Where did you get such pretty blonde hair?"...

...To which Blondie responded, "Jesus gave it to me!"

Tongue-tied?

Blondie, being only 3 years old, is still learning new vocabulary and how to say things correctly. The other day she kept insisting that I was making "tapatoes" for dinner (a.k.a. potatoes). Even when DH got home from work she was still having a hard time with the name (she also keeps getting it confused with "tomatoes").

It made DH and I reflect back on some of the other kids' sayings. Luke always liked it when Dad went outside to "low the mawn" and M&M loved the story of Daniel in the "dion's len".

Calling all BYU and Utah Fans!!

There was an interesting editorial in the Deseret Morning News today that was written by the Athletic Directors from BYU and the University of Utah. For those of you who aren't aware, a new sports network has been started by the schools who are in the MWC to broadcast the games from these schools. So far, Comcast is the only major cable or satellite company that has chosen to pick up this network. So, according to this editorial, if you want to be able to watch these games and your network carrier does not currently have the sports station "the mtn", call your carrier and let them know that you would like them to start carrying the network.

Here is an excerpt from the article:
"Our message is, you can make a difference in these negotiations. In conversations with the MWC and CSTV we learned the satellite companies have questioned our fans' interest in our television product. As alumni and supporters, you have the power to affect the outcome of the negotiations.
We need your help. If you live in an area where your only option for getting the mtn. is through satellite distribution, contact the satellite companies. Let them know you are interested in satellite if they add the mtn. If you already subscribe to Dish or DirecTV, contact the company and tell them you want the mtn."

Here is a link to the editorial for those who want to read it:
U., Y. fans urged to call about mtn.

Sleeping kids, take 3

Either we're very good at tiring out our kids or they are just really good sleepers!!

If you haven't seen my first two blog entries on sleeping kids, click on the links below:
Sleeping kids
More sleeping kids...

New bike!

I just found this little 2-wheeler (with training wheels) at the D.I. for just a couple of dollars. Blondie absolutely loved it from the moment we saw it because it is just her size. She feels left out when her older brother and sister ride their 2-wheelers. Unfortunately, she still can't quite figure out the pedals but she looks cute on it! She was VERY excited to show it to her dad when he came home from work!