Fluffy Stuff
Amelia enjoyed a lovely day at home on Monday. We enjoyed having her home. I watched a strapping young man, aged 8 months this past week. His name is Elliott. His mom is a single mother, 19 years old and putting herself through college. I decided the best way to help her was to watch Elliott when she has classes and her mom or grandma cannot watch him. He is a strong little guy. Amelia got to feed him a bottle of milk. That was the highlight of her day. The highlight of my day was getting a new iPhone 5s. A lady in town needed an iPhone 4s and wanted to pay $200. That was the cost of an upgrade on my plan. I love a good trade! New phone, no cost. With iCloud the switch was seamless. Within 5 minutes my new phone looked like my old phone, at least content wise!
Our new Family Home Evening wall plaque finally came in the mail. It was cheaper to buy one than all the raw materials here or to make a trip to Hobby Lobby. Amelia gave herself the goal to assign FHE duties for the next year. She told me the plaque will make it really easy to keep her goal. Justin gave a great lesson on Internet safety. Amelia recently started asking/pestering us to get the game Mine Craft. Essentially, it is like building cities with Lego blocks. We discussed our answer of, not right now, and then talked about what to do when the kids see crappy stuff on YouTube or the Internet on accident.
The kids spent most of the afternoons outside drawing with chalk, riding bikes, and racing each other. It was a heaven sent change of pace. Everett and Phillip discovered their Legos this week. We have some cute books that show how to make simple Lego figures. One afternoon they amused themselves for 2 hours with wood blocks and Legos. Later, the boys went outside in the alley and used the gas meters as rocket ships! Our alley filled with the yells of two little boys counting down and blasting off.
Evelyn started waking up several times at night just starving hungry. She got her first taste of rice cereal on Tuesday. Like most babies she was not a fan of it at all. I tried to use my fancy baby brezza purchased second hand this past summer. The processor attachment broke before I could even use it. Basically, it is a unit that steams, processes, and rices food for babies. I steamed up some apples which she seemed to like more than the rice. Amelia and Phillip took turns trying to force rice into her mouth. Poor kid was just a little bit upset by the treatment.
Scouts this week was a challenge. Justin was gone all day with training and then off to audit financials in Scottsbluff in the evening. That meant I took all the kids with me. We worked on the Engineer badge. The boys made simple electrical circuits out of a battery, foil, tape, clothes pin, and flashlight bulb. Everett and RJ were completely mesmerized with the contraption! They connected and disconnected the circuit about 20 times, each time with ohhs and ahhs. Reminded me a little of cavemen discovering fire. Next we talked about simple levers and made catapults out of rubber bands and Popsicle sticks.
My photography class went well this week. Justin was a trooper and took all the kids. When I left WW3 was going on in the kitchen. I tell you what dinner time is just about the hardest time of day. If I can make it through dinner then anything else is a breeze. A total of 10 ladies attended the first class. Four ladies could not make it so I am doing a make up class on Tuesday at my home. There were all kinds of levels and ages mixed into the class. Some knew a thing or two, others were still clutching camera manuals. It took me a long while to gather and organize my thoughts and create handouts.
Saturday I took some photos of Nora Betony's granddaughter. She just turned one two weeks ago. Her daughter, Jamie seems like a really nice lady. I think we are close to the same age. I offered to take Catalina's photos since I also took her baby ones when she was about 6 weeks old. Since all my studio stuff was out I started taking 6 mth photos of Evelyn. I was in high heaven dreaming up prop combinations. Sunday night I dreamed of a strawberry set up with Evelyn. Can't wait to show you. She has changed so much in the past couple weeks.
With all the snow the Bishop decided to only hold Sacrament meeting. Our numbers were few with most of the outlying families absent because of all the snow. I hear that Kimball got 12-16 inches compared to our 8 inches. As usual I did not get a darn thing out of the talks. It takes more effort to keep the kids quiet and reverent than I can manage. Several times folks laughed at jokes, I missed all the funny stuff and most of the content. I can tell you that Bishop spoke on Marriage. Everett amused himself by sticking his fingers up my nose and in my ears. Evelyn sang beautifully during the songs. She started babbling and singing this week. Her voice is so darn sweet, she coos at you then suddenly turns her cooing into animal screeches. Makes us all laugh.We invited the Hornbarger family over for dinner. They tasted delicious. Just kidding...kinda stringy. I made John and Courtenay's Bird Seed Poop waffles. You are right, the waffles are healthy. We made them unhealthy by adding pie filling cherry or blueberries, butter, and whipped cream. To put the unhealthy factor off the charts Justin cooked up to packages of sausages and a batch of eggs and cheese. It was splendid. The Hornbargers are one of the many new families in our ward. They moved from New Mexico, have 4 kids (3 girls, 1 boy), and are super amazing. Ian and Evelyn love to do photography as a hobby together. How can I convince Justin to join my photography obsession? If I have to shoot a deer to turn him to the light side I will. All our kids raised the roof with noise. It was impressive!
Some funnies of our week:
*I caught Phillip drinking Strawberry jam. He said, "Mom, I a vampire...I drink strawberry blood!" Said with a gruff voice.
*Justin and I were discussing a trip to Walmart with all the kids. Justin said well, why not, we like the pain. Phillip said, "I don't like pain! I don't want to go to the pain, I stay here with Daddy and no pain!" Everett was crying like a banshee when we pulled up to Walmart. Yep, Walmart is officially kid and parent torture. The ultimate pain train.
*While cleaning up the kid's room I told Amelia that sometimes Phillip can act like a turkey. She asked me if he acted like the same turkeys that get shot and caught?!
*Phillip was rolling around on the top of the couch. I commanded him to get down before he shatters the window. Then I muttered, if you do you will NEVER go to college. Justin piped in that maybe Phillip would have to go to Debtor's Prison. Phillip instantly whined that he did not want to go to prison.
*Phillip was pulling Evelyn's arm or leg, I told him to go sit in time out. He grumpily exclaimed: "Dang it!"
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