Nov. 15-Nov 22

I no particular order, some shenanigans from the past week.

 Tragon is so good with the girls.  When Auri and Brittyn are both here when they get home from school Tragon is so excited to play with them.  I have made that his "chore" after school to play with them and he has been very diligent is his play time with them.

 I think he was being an alligator and trying to get them as they jumped into the water...or something like that.  All I know is that Tragon has a gift with little kids and some day will be an amazing teacher or youth leader or something.  I hope he never loses his spark for fun and play (even though sometimes there is a time and place to not be silly--we are still learning the difference ;)

 Logan is Mr. Mature.  HI likes this outfit because it makes him feel like a college student.  Oh, that boy, I sure love him.  I want him to just be a kid and he wants so badly to be a grown up.  If he only knew, haha.

 We have loved the beautiful weather down here and being able to go outside as much as possible.  Rylea's first words each day are usually, "shoos (shoes) and a-side (outside)"  I love that she loves being outside and playing.

 Jaron and Auri enjoyed a papaya banana smoothie.  Seriously!  For how picky all these kids are they decided to love a papaya smoothie! (I had to gag it down, it was way too papaya-ey)

 Auri also wanted to be Elsa that day, not Anna.  :)

 I love having nieces that let me do their hair, especially since Rylea still has a few years before I will be able to do anything with hers.

 The boys love to take Rylea outside and play across the street the ahem, dangerous power boxes.

 Rylea is the store manager and the boys buy rocks from her.

 I thought I would post some of the school work, that way it ends up in our yearbook and I don't have to keep a whole bunch of papers.  I loved these stories by Damon.  My boys have some dang good penmanship for only K, 1st, and 3rd grade.  I'm so proud of how hard they work in school.

 Tragon did an excellent job on his color by number. He has been the most hesitant to color and write, but he has some dang awesome handwriting now too.

 We were able to pull our first tooth.  Logan had his first two teeth pulled by the dentist, but Damon's was loose enough and bugging him enough we just had to get it out.  We tried the floss and slamming the door, but floss was too slipper and just slipped right off the tooth.  In the end I had to get a rag and just rip it out.

 He was a trooper!  I had to tug pretty hard two or three times to finally get it out.  But he was one happy camper once it was gone.  He was excited for the tooth fairy to come, which luckily she did remember (thank goodness for timers on smart phones)

 Since we have 2:30 church we decided to go for a drive this morning and we went up to Baker Dam Recreational Area and went on a little "hike"  I love watching our boys enjoying nature.

 And Rylea girl just wanted to be right there with the boys and wouldn't let us hold her much.

 Morgan had a scout camp this weekend and I thought I would add those pictures too for memories.  :)  We have a favorite tinfoil dinner, it's a chicken cheese broccoli rice combo.  It's really good.

 It was really windy so they huddles in a little cave-like area, it was even too windy to even set up tents.  It was cold, but they all survived ;)

 A little exploring with the deacons.

I also had to teach a craft class the same day Morgan got back from scout camp.  I guess Tragon was having a rough time after dinner (see good handwriting for a kindergartner) because Dad had to say no for something and he didn't want to listen and got sent to his room.  Tragon has really been teaching and testing our patience lately.  His fuse is so short we never really know what's going to set him off.  I just wish he knew how special of kid he is.  We try to tell him, but when he's having a fit he never seems to remember.  Before bed he did change the sign to say "Dads are cool"  We just take it one day at a time. Until next time....

November 8th - 14th

It's much easier to stay on top of the blog thing if I do it on a weekly basis, I'm finding it a great blessing to have 2:30 church time because I feel like I have plenty of time to get it done on Sundays and I'm counting it as Family History...because it is! :)

 I think Tragon took this picture of us.  The weather has been so gorgeous lately and Rylea loves to be outside, so we have been spending a lot of time hanging out.

 We've been doing a lot of mopping and sweeping this week and found the perfect way to keep Rylea entertained.  She loves walking on the chairs if we make a "bridge" and then she turns the lights on and off.  :)

 We broke out the puzzles this week, Rylea liked them.  We will have to do that more often.

 So, sometime this past week, in fact I think it was Monday, Logan and Damon thought it would be funny to chase each other around the kitchen with food (Morgan and I were upstairs doing bath time with the littles) and Logan kept taking a drink of apple juice and then "spitting" it out like he was choking...yeah, apple juice is sticky and it was all over the kitchen.  So, their consequence was sweeping and mopping the floor every night for a week and they would trade off each day what part they would do.

 This is Damon wallowing in his first night of sweeping I think.  It's funny after the fact...not so funny when I'm tired and he won't get his job done.

 He did eventually get it done.  Also, this week, the boys had a free karate lesson and loved it.  I think we will put Logan and Damon in karate.  It's been good leverage this week to keep them motivated to stay on task.

 Our thankful tree is still going strong, we usually talk about what service we did at dinner time and most nights we remember to put the leaves up, I'm sure we are a couple days behind on the leaves by now, but at least we are still getting the service done.  :)

 Jaron had a dentist appointment and while we were waiting for them, Rylea was loving the train table.  It was fun to watch her play with toys.  She's been doing that more at home too.  Still, her favorite is a book and a pen or a stuffed animal.

 

 I was changing her diaper and she put her shoes on her hands.

 I love some of the funny looks she gives me.  I never know when she will be in the mood though, so I've only been able to capture a few of them.

 She loves to say hi to daddy in the faucet reflection when she's taking a bath.

And Tragon thought it would be funny to stuff the toys and stuffed animals in his jammies, he's such a funny kid.

This week has been interesting because we started watching Auri while Quel works.  So, instead of being down to 2 kids during the school day, I'm up to 4 kids three days a week.  :)  I really thought this week would be extra stressful, but I think watching Auri for a week a while back taught me a few things and I was able to avoid a lot of the stress from last time.  It's still hard, and a lot more time-demanding than it would have been normally, but I think Jaron loves having someone to play with everyday and so far the chaos has been manageable.  I know I have felt empowered as a mother in this role and have been able to bear my burden a little easier with a lot of prayer and faith.  In some ways I think it has helped me to stay focused as a mom and not just put the kids in front of the TV and do whatever I want (that would be a total disaster ahahaha).  I'm going to enjoy it and have fun and struggle through the hard days, and relish the good moments.  I know I'm where I should be doing exactly what I should be doing.  Until next time.....