Surprise!

I generally like surprises but I am not a fan of the kind of surprise I got this week. On Monday, my smart and responsible first child came home from school and casually announced (not the first time),"Oh by the way, I need to build a catapult and it is due tomorrow." Surprise! This is the kind of announcement makes mothers cringe because it is loosely translated as, "I need you to stay up late to design, purchase material, and build my homework while I hang about and annoy, argue, and take credit for the final product because I procrastinated until last minute or I promise 'I just forgot' when I played video games all day on Saturday." Ugh!

Not today! I told him I was too busy to help him but if he designed it and determined what materials were needed I would take him to the store and finance the supplies. But that was all I was going to do to help. I admit that I did help "tweek" the design a bit but that was all I would do. He was going to use the hand saw and cut all the pieces (I was not about to allow a 13 yr old to use power tools, plus I figured it would build character), nail, and assemble everything himself. Fortunately for him, as we drove home we saw one of our neighbors in his garage using a table saw for some finish work. After some pleading and a pouty face he had compassion and cut the wood for him. I'm sure that saved him at least 2 hours. Now all he had to do was nail the pieces together.

As I was making dinner I heard whining from the garage. I resisted peeking in on him until after I was nearly done with preparing dinner. When I looked in on him, he was nearly in tears as the wood was splitting and he feared he would have to start over. Frankly, I had the same fear. Gratefully dad came home in time to rescue him. They glued and drilled and did whatever men do in the garage and ended up with a fine looking machine.

I have to admit I am proud of my son for pulling it off. He has a great mind if he would just apply himself...in a timely manner, instead of waiting until last minute. It will be fun to watch him grow up and make mistakes and have many successes.

My dwindling plastic dish supply

We have assorted plastic dishes for our young kids to use so that the breakable dishes don't get...well...broken. These plastic dishes have been dropped and thrown hundreds of times until child #4. He must have superhuman strength because many of these dishes have survived nearly 13 years and 4 kids. I am definitely frustrated as I really don't want to replace these dishes since he is our last child. This one is still usable but when his sister finds out...

Brunette Shirley Temple

Stand aside Shirley Temple. This brunnette has taken over. Our family has stick straight hair and does not hold curl longer than it takes to walk out of the bathroom. So when we decided to put curlers in Kate's hair we used the smallest rollers. We were very surprised to see the results. The amazing thing is that this was the end of the day. How did the curls remain? It was fun to see curls on her for a day.

The Perfect Mother Has Fallen

I have been the perfect mother to Micah who is now 22 months. I mean really, I should be. He is my fourth child. All that experience should make parenting a breeze, right? Micah has been one of those children that other parents have been secretly envious of. He is happy, quiet (speech delay - a blog for another day), peaceful, and plays calming by himself. Who wouldn't want a child like this.
Over the last few weeks I have felt my angelic halo has been slipping. No, I take that back. It has fallen off and completely shattered. Micah has decided that throwing is his new favorite pastime. It would be fine with me if he just threw a ball across the room. Or used soft, fluffy stuffed animals as a weapon. But, nooooo! He enjoys throwing heavy and hard things directly at people and animals. He will seek someone out (usually the cat or dog) just to throw something at them. I think he particularly enjoys throwing his sippy cup at me when I am asleep on the couch. What a sweet kid!
Just to spice things up he also enjoys hitting. Usually an open handed slap right across my face. Yesterday I put him in time-out for slapping me. After his mandatory 60 second time-out I talked to him about using nice hands. I get the impression it didn't click because he slapped me again while still sitting in time-out.
What is a perfect mom to do? Time-out (he was in time-out about 8 times yesterday) and showing him how to be gentle just isn't working. I've heard some people having success by hitting them back with a toy but I am not a fan of abuse. Do any of you have any suggestions? I am at my wits end.

This can mean only one thing...

I'm not sure who took this pic but it must be a sign.

Spring soccer is about to begin. Yea!

Blast Off!

My cub scout just completed his last cub scout derby. I'm a little sad to close this chapter.

The following are pics from previous years. I don't know why Seth looks younger in 2008 than he did in 2007.

2007

The year of the "Raingutter Regatta". As this ship requires no parental help to assemble Seth was free to creativity decorate his vessel. Glitter glue was an exciting addition.
Results: The ship did not seem to be sea worthy as the sail did not want to stay up and the boat flipped.

2008

The Pinewood Derby. Bruce (patiently) helped him with this awesome creation. Seth was sure this car was worthy of first place.

Results: He finished 4th. Not too bad!

2009

The space derby. Seth carved and painted this rocket himself. Doesn't it look cool. Green is his favorite color. I love this pic. Seth can't resist posing. Seth had high hopes for this derby as previous races failed to meet expectations.



Results: The first race ended disappointingly at take off. The rocket did not even move forward. Time for hero intervention. Hero dad used a cordless drill to wind the propeller. Now the planets have aligned, the tears have dried up, and the hope of an amazing take-off resumes. Ten, nine, eight...two, one. Blast off. The propeller spun furiously as it should but once again the rocket went nowhere. Finally the light bulb comes on. We were winding the propeller the wrong direction. Once we figured that out the rocket propelled itself forward but the race was pretty much done. So all-in-all Seth had a disappointing cub scout derby career. Maybe we will get it all figured out by the time Micah becomes a boy scout in 6 years.


Seth, we enjoy having you in our family. You are so much fun. You have just earned your Webelos rank. We are proud of you.

Draper Temple Open House

Our church has completed another beautiful temple in Draper, UT. We were fortunate enough to be able to take our three oldest children to the open house. The temple was majestic and beautiful! Kate was so excited. I seriously think that she was as excited about going to the temple as she would be to go to Disneyland. She was just giddy. Bruce couldn't wait to show her the bride's room. This is the room where the bride's get ready before they get married. There are a lot of mirrors, a beautiful ornate chandelier, and a gorgeous flowery rug. Simplistic beauty!
We are grateful for our marriage in the temple. We believe this binds our family together not just for this life but for eternity as well. I can't imagine a heaven without my dear husband and wonderful children. The following is a YouTube video tour and commentary about the temple.