The Lance Family

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
FALL BREAK

This year for fall break we decided to have a stay-cation. We had plans to do three things in as many days. Our first day was to go to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden with the Abbotts. We hadn't been to the Treehouse for a really long time and the kids had a blast. I think we were there for over three hours and they didn't want to leave. They dressed up, played giant chess, rode pretend horses and had tea parties.

The second day we headed up Nine Mile Canyon to see the Indian petroglyphs that are there. It was quite a long drive to get up to the first site and the roads were awful! After driving on the extremely bumpy dirt roads most of the afternoon, one of our tires decided it had had enough and went flat. James and my dad changed the tire quite quickly, but the drive home was even longer because we were had to drive slowly with the spare on. We still were able to see most of the sites. They are quite remarkable and you can get right up close to them. The kids had fun climbing all over the rocks and hiking the trails. Jacob sat in a plant that he is allergic to and had a pretty bad rash on his bum for the next few days.

The tire situation kind of put a damper on our third day of fun, so while everyone else went up to Crystal Hot Springs we stayed home and had two new tires put on the van. I guess this is the year of tire adventures for our van.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween lasted forever this year by falling on a Monday. We had parties every night except Sunday that weekend and then on Monday we had James' work party and regular trick-or-treating. The first party was our ward chili dinner and trunk-or-treat. The second was Tante Jo's pumpkin carving party. Lia's pumpkin had the evil queen from Snow White, Jacob had Harry Potter's initials on his and Seth had the Fire Lion symbol from his Ninjago legos. The third party was James' work party. They kids filled two bags each with candy and James' won 100.00 for the "Sir Robin" costume that I made for him several years ago. He finally works with people geeky enough to get the Monty Python reference. He even had the coconuts halves tied to his belt and the Sir Robin music playing on his iphone. It was pretty funny. That night James and John took the kids out trick-or-treating while Courtenay and I passed out candy here at the house and chatted. I made all of the kids' costumes this year. Lia was Mulan and I even made up my own pattern for her dress. She was super cute, but a lot of people still didn't know who she was, which was kind of disappointing. Jacob was Harry Potter and everyone knew who he was. He was the cutest Harry Potter I've ever seen! Seth was Kai, the red ninja from his Lego Ninjago sets. His costume was a bit of a thorn in my side because I made the shirt too short and was too lazy to make another one. They all looked great though and loved their costumes.

SETH IS A WOLF

Seth worked really hard over the last two months and earned his Wolf rank in the cub scout program. He had to drink "wolf's blood" to show that he could be a true wolf. It was just a fruit drink, but he looked a little unsure about the whole thing. He also earned his chess belt loop and his bicycling belt loop and his first gold arrow point. It was a pretty good night for him!

LIA'S BIRTHDAY

Lia turned three this year. She had been waffling back and forth over whether to have a princess cake or a Tinker Bell cake. At the last minute she scraped everything and asked for a purple, pink and white, My Little Pony cake and that's what she got. Her birthday fell on a Sunday this year and we had a dinner planned up in Logan with Grandma Baerwaldt, so we packed up the cake and the presents and had a little party for Lia up in Wellsville. We gave her a Little Mermaid dress-up dress and she got a new church dress from Grandma Debbie, a princess from Jana and a My Little Pony set from John and Court. We also celebrated with my family the next Sunday with a joint party for Lia and Caleb. At that party she got Tinker Bell shoes from Amy, a Tinker Bell doll and lunchbox from Grandma Henderson and a big pack of gum and lip gloss from the Abbotts. The gum and the lip gloss were a total hit! The gum was gone in less than three hours the next day and the lip stuff was smeared liberally all over her face and the kitchen counters.

Lia is getting to be such a big girl. She had a potty training relapse and I ended up taking away one of the prizes she had earned when she first started training. She finally started listening to her body again was able to earn the doll back. She is getting a little sassy and has been in time out quite a few times in the last little while. She is also learning and watching her brothers and being curious about the world. She can't say her "L"s or the "th" sound so her name is Yia and Seth is Seff. She is getting slightly better at pronouncing the real sounds though. I think I'm going to miss her asking me if she can sit on my "yap". She loves her grandmas and prefers them to just about any one else including me sometimes. She loves to snuggle when she's tired. And she is so good and beautiful. I love her!! Happy Birthday Lia Bia!

FIRST SNOW

Last week we had our first snow of the year. I tried to make the boys finish their school work before they could go out and play, but the sun was melting the snow too fast and I didn't want them to miss it. They ended up playing outside for over an hour. They even made a snowman without any help from me except at the end when they needed to put the accessories on. They also made snow angels, threw snowballs, and ate a fair amount of the snow. It was a glorious day for playing in the snow. It wasn't too cold and the snow was wet enough to pack. Just an hour or so after they came in the snow was all melted so I'm glad I let them go out.

THANKSGIVING

We had kind of a progressive Thanksgiving dinner this year. We started at noon with hors d'oevures at John and Courtenay's. Dinner was at our house and it was so fun to have our table extended to the max and everyone gathered around it. We had a meat smorgasbord, John made salmon for the hors d'oevures, and for dinner James made smoked pulled pork and Debbie made a turkey. We each got three candy corn and had to tell something we were grateful for for each one. Lia's grateful list was pretty awesome. She is thankful for princesses, necklaces and crowns this year. Do you think she's obsessed? :) Jacob was grateful for our new house and Seth was grateful that he was able to be baptized. We ended the day by having desserts at my parent's house in Draper. I provided an apple pie and pumpkin bars, but I think we were all a little too full to really enjoy them.

My mom and I checked over the Black Friday ads to make our plan of attack for the next day. We boycotted going to any store on Thanksgiving day and decided to head out at 5:30 Friday morning. It turned out to be the best Black Friday shopping ever. Because so many stores opened the night before, most of the cutthroat people were already done shopping and were in bed. We had very few checkout lines to deal with and our usual breakfast place was nearly empty. Plus, we still found everything we set out to get! It was awesome!

DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS

I started decorating for Christmas yesterday. James went out and put lights on our house. We haven't had lights on the outside of our house since the first year we were married so it was a pretty big deal that we got them up this year. I pulled out our tree and found that it still won't light up at the top, my dad came and looked at it and can't figure out what's wrong with it either. We might be getting a new tree during the after Christmas sales this year. Our old tree looks itty-bitty in our new house anyway so I suppose it's ok that we'll probably get a new one. Another thing that was kind of disheartening was that in my effort to get everything into boxes when we moved, I donated a lot of our Christmas decorations. Now I have a huge house to decorate and nothing to decorate with. Oh well, we still have a few key decorations and James' mom might have another tree we can use until we can get a bigger one. I'll just have to get creative and make do with what I have! We are hosting the Saris family Sinterklaas party at our house this year and I'd love to have most everything decorated by next Sunday. We'll see how it goes.

]]> 10/09/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.248 2011-10-10T02:39:49Z 2011-10-11T18:39:50Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net

I have been putting off potty training Lia for pretty much the last year. She was already expressing interest in using the potty last year at this time, but I was sooo not ready to deal with wet and messy underwear. Then with the move and being displaced for several months, it just seemed like the time was never right. About a month and a half ago I thought that I had better get serious about potty training her and we bought pull-ups and underwear. She liked the underwear, but didn't like keeping them dry. Then two weeks ago, after going back to pull-ups full time, James had her put on underwear one morning. That day she told me several times that she needed to go potty and only had one accident. Since then she has been virtually accident free, aside from the few close calls when she piddles a little in her panties before telling me she needs to go. I am so proud of her and so glad that the potty training has been fairly stress free and really positive.

JACOB AND SETH'S SCHOOL

This month Jacob and Seth have been doing really well in school. Because of a few hitches with our charter school, we decided to change schools this month. We changed over to the Washington Online school, which is part of the Washington County School District. We are still using the same curriculum, but the new school is much more flexible and much more relaxed. We are enjoying it quite a bit so far. I moved Jacob up to the first grade phonics and language arts because he is already reading fairly well. Seth is learning his multiplication facts right now. He knows how to solve his 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, and 11 times tables. We are trying to think of good ways to help him memorize the rest. Both boys are really enjoying their science and history lessons. With the new school we will also be starting a sign language course. I'm hoping they love that too!

LIA'S BIG GIRL BED

Because Lia decided to be potty trained, I thought that it was time for her to move out of her crib into a regular bed. I had primed and painted an old bed frame that Seth used as his first big boy bed. I also got really cute bedding for it when we first bought the house. So, over conference weekend, I took apart her crib and set up her new bed. She was so excited and had to get on and jump on it a few times to try it out. Later that afternoon she told me that she needed to take a nap in her new bed. Unfortunately, she quickly discovered that she could get in and out of her bed by herself and the nap only lasted about 10 minutes. Other than not napping much anymore, she hasn't had any problems transitioning to the new bed and loves that she doesn't have to wait for someone to come get her out in the morning. I have the port-a-crib set up in my craft room for visiting cousins, so I just put her in that on the days when she really needs a nap.
Here are some before and after pictures:

ZOO AND PLANETARIUM FUN

Last Friday, we were able to go to the zoo with our new school. The weather was perfect and the kids were really interested in actually learning about some of the different animals we saw. Usually they just rush through as fast as possible, so it was nice to kind of slow down and read about the different animals. Just a few days ago we went to the planetarium with the Abbotts. We saw a 3D IMAX movie about oceanic dinosaurs. They kids were a little freaked out during one scene when a giant shark mouth came right out of the screen at us. Lia was so funny, she kept putting her 3D glasses on upside down and hiding in her seat whenever there was a "scary" scene.

SOME HOUSE PROGRESS

We have done a few projects on the house in the last little while. We cleaned out half of the basement and then stained the concrete floor so that it is a little more livable than just regular bare concrete. James plans to have a little hobby workshop down there and we put up three more storage shelves for some of our stuff. I need to move our bookshelves and unpack our books and then we can clean out and stain the other half of the basement in anticipation of letting the kids play down there in the winter. I plan to bring their scooters and bikes down there and possibly hang some swings and get a slide so they can have a warm place to play. We also cleared out the garage enough to park both of our cars in it. That was a major milestone for James! He's been looking forward to it since we moved in.

The last project we completed was planting our front flower beds. I really hope that everything we planted out there lives through the winter. The soil out here is very dense and clay-like and has a high salt content. I think everything we bought said it was hardy and salt tolerant. The beds look really nice and we can finally get the HOA people off our backs for not having them planted. I'm not sure why they decided to get on our case about it, the house has been here for 5 years and apparently nothing has ever been planted in the beds. Dumb HOA.

DECORATING

In addition to the house projects mentioned above, I have been doing a few things to liven up the house a bit and make it seem less brown and beige. I added some beautiful curtains to the living room. I love the pop of red color that they add to the room.

I also recovered the dining room chairs in a greeny-teal color that just makes me smile because it's so happy.

I also found a desk chair for my kitchen desk at the DI for $4.00. I had been looking for one for a while, but needed something that didn't have an ugly back since that's what you would see most of the time. This chair has a piece of solid wood that attaches the chair back to the seat so it was great! I reupholstered the chair in some fabric I had left over from another chair project and it looks pretty cute. I still want to paint or stain the wood to complement the wood in our kitchen a little better.

HARRY POTTER MANIA

The kids have been really interested Harry Potter lately. We let them watch the first movie and they have the Lego Harry Potter Wii game. Jacob is even going to be Harry for Halloween. I decided to get the first book on CD to listen to in the car. Seth read along with the CDs and would fill us in whenever the disks would skip. When the book was through the first thing they said was "Let's get book #2 now!!" They have been using chopsticks as magic wands and running around the house casting spells on each other. The planetarium was clearing out Harry Potter hats and scarves, so I bought one for Jacob to wear with his costume. The boys have been using the hat as the "Sorting Hat" and acting out many different scenes in the story. It is so fun to watch them use their imaginations! I'm definitely going to get the CDs of book #2 soon!

]]> 09/19/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.247 2011-09-12T22:24:07Z 2011-09-19T15:56:05Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
SETH RIDES A BIKE

Seth has learned how to ride a two-wheel bicycle without training wheels!! He is so proud of himself and we are so proud of him too. It only took him two evenings worth of trying before he finally figured it out. At first he was pretty reluctant to even try because he was so afraid of falling down. Luckily, he hasn't had any spectacular wipeouts yet, but I'm sure we'll have a few of those as time goes on.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

James and John have been trying to put together some sort of campout for Labor Day this whole summer, but it never seemed to come together. We figured that most of the campgrounds would be full and we weren't willing to pack everything up on the off chance that something would be open. So we decided to have a little stay-cation instead.

On Friday night we all had dinner together and watched episodes of Burn Notice until nearly midnight.

Saturday, James and John took Jacob and Seth shooting while the girls (and Everett) went garage sale-ing. We picked up a few fun things at the sales and the boys had a great time shooting. It was Jacob's first time shooting and I think he had fun when he wasn't being scared by the noise of the guns going off. That evening we had a mini-home-made carnival. We hand-dipped corn dogs and since we had the oil ready and some left over batter, we fried up some cheese sticks and pickles too. The food was delicious. After dinner we let the kids play some carnival games. Courtenay had them do a penny toss and jump the "Alligator Pit". I had them drop paper clips in a jar while standing on a chair, and knock over a stack of cans with bean bags. Then everyone did tricks on the trampoline. The kids got prizes for each game they played. After the games, we had cotton candy and funnel cakes for dessert! The mini-carnival might turn into a yearly tradition because it was so fun and because no one should eat that much fried food in one night more than once a year!

Sunday, we had dinner at Grandma Debbie's house to welcome Joseph home from his Air Force training. Dinner was a fantastic meal of hawaiian pork, rice, macaroni salad and tropical jello salad. The boys played Bionicles almost all night with Jared and Lia convinced Grandma Debbie to sing the entire Disney songbook to her.

Monday, James and John decided to take a bike ride up to the mountain bike park that was built here in Eagle Mountain. So Court and I took all the kids out for another round of garage sales. The guys said the biking was fun although James' bike got a flat tire somewhere along the way and I don't think he had anything to fix it with and probably had to walk home. In the afternoon we met up with my family at Camp Floyd for the Labor day activities that were going on there. They had people dressed up in Civil War garb and several activities for the kids to do. They were able to dip candles, put up a soldiers tent, hold a real civil war gun, and try on uniforms and go through some drills with an officer. Seth was able to complete the Camp Floyd boy scout program an got a patch for doing all the required activities. The other kids also did a scavenger hunt and everyone received a candy stick when they finished. I was a little worried that there wouldn't be enough to do at Camp Floyd, but we ended up spending 4 hours there that afternoon. For dinner, we had both sides of the family come to our house for a hot dog BBQ. We were going to have a water fight too, but it ended up being overcast and cool that day. I think everyone had fun anyway!

HOVENWEEP

Last week, on a whim, we decided to join my parents on their trip to the Four Corners area. They were taking my nieces Hannah and Maggie since Maggie is learning about the American Indians in history this year. We drove out on Friday morning and made it to Hovenweep National Monument in the mid-afternoon. After putting up our tent, we hiked around the Little Ruins Canyon and were able to see several ancient Puebloan ruins there. The boys earned their Junior Ranger patches and enjoyed hiking around with their cousins. Lia stuck to Grandma Henderson like glue! She wouldn't let me help her with anything. James found a cool slot canyon on a side hike he went on, so we all had to explore it before we left. It was pretty narrow. The kids thought it was awesome.

MESA VERDE

On Saturday we headed to Mesa Verde National Park. The weather was cold and windy on our drive up the mesa, but as we reached the top it cleared up and we were able to have a picnic lunch. We hiked down to the Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling. It was amazing to see the houses built right inside of a really inhospitable looking cliff. No one knows why the Ancient Puebloans decided to build in such precarious places. The National Park Service had rebuilt one of the Kivas at the dwelling and we were able to go down a ladder and see what a Kiva would have looked like back then. After the hike we went back up to the museum and the boys completed their Junior Ranger requirements there. We also decided to drive the Mesa Top Loop, which has several pithouses and overlooks of more cliff dwellings. The kids were starting to fall apart at this point so we went pretty quickly through the drive. The most impressive place on the drive was the Sun Point overlook. From that spot we could see 7 or 8 cliff dwellings across the canyon. The grandest dwelling was the Cliff Palace. I think next time we go to Mesa Verde we are going to have to get tickets to see that particular site. It looked totally amazing from clear across the canyon so I'm sure it is even more awesome up close. We drove home with a thunder storm at our backs. The lightning was lighting up the sky and the surrounding mountains. We were a little worried that we were going to have to try and sleep through a huge storm, but again the weather cooperated nicely and we didn't have a drop of rain the whole night.

* One funny thing about this trip: As we were driving to Mesa Verde, I was reading to the kids about what we were going to see there. For some reason I could not pronounce "cliff dwelling" or "Puebloan". I kept saying "cwiff dwelling" and "pwebloan". Everyone was mispronouncing them on purpose by the end of the drive. It was pretty funny.

THE ANASAZI HERITAGE CENTER

On Sunday we packed up our camp and prepared for the drive home. We stopped at a museum called the Anasazi Heritage Center. I'm so glad we stopped there. They had several hands on activities for the kids and a lot of great information about the sites we'd seen and the people who lived there. The kids were able to complete a Junior Archeology booklet and get a badge. They were also able to grind corn, use a loom, hold bones and arrowheads, and look through microscopes. The museum was a great way to cap off the trip.

RAIN GUTTER REGATTA

Seth's cub scout pack held a Rain Gutter Regatta this last week. It's kind of like the pinewood derby but the boys make boats instead of cars and at least so far it's not quite as competitive as the pinewood derby. The boats are powered only by the boys blowing on the sails. Seth won his first race but then lost the next two. I think he needed a little more practice blowing on the sail correctly. All the boys had a great time. Seth and I decorated his boat with Lego Ninjago emblems and flames. He called it the "Fire Dragon". His boat won "Best in Show" in the little awards they gave out at the end of the races.

SETH THE BOBCAT

At the same pack meeting as the Rain Gutter Regatta, Seth earned his Bobcat rank. The cub master gave him two bottles of liquid. One was "The Spirit of the Bobcat" and the other was "Dew gathered at midnight on the night of the full moon". If the boy has really completed all the requirements for his Bobcat rank he can mix the two liquids together and the concoction will glow, revealing the true "Spirit of the Bobcat". Seth was so happy when his bottle immediately began to glow super bright after mixing the liquids. He was then awarded his Bobcat patch. He has also been working hard on the requirements for his Wolf rank and was able to get 2 beads to show his progress toward it. On top of all that he also earned his Map and Compass Belt loop and pin, his Geography belt loop and his Art belt loop. We are so proud of all the hard work he's been putting into scouting.

]]> 08/14/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.246 2011-08-08T03:57:03Z 2011-08-15T04:54:31Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
TRIP TO SIDNEY

Our crazy month began with a trip out to visit Jenni and Justin in Sidney, NE. We left on Monday the 11th and made pretty good time until we were just out of Rawlins, WY, when I heard a strange sound at the back of the car and then the tire pressure light turned on. I pulled over to discover that the passenger side back tire was completely flat. I had never changed a tire on our van before so I pulled out the manual and started working out getting the spare ready. A nice police officer stopped and helped me get the spare on and I slowly drove the 25 miles back to Rawlins. James called ahead to a tire place there and we had new tires installed fairly quickly. All in all the tire fiasco extended our travel time by almost 4 hours. We finally made it to Sidney though and enjoyed a lovely week with Jenni and her family. We went to visit Chimney Rock, swam at the pool in Sterling, CO, played at the park, had Jenni take pictures of the kids, and watched an amazing Nebraska thunderstorm. Jenni and I even snuck in a kids free evening to see the final Harry Potter movie. During the week we found out that James' Grandpa Baerwaldt had suffered a major stroke and was in the hospital. Jenni considered driving back with me to see him, but decided not to. We got home on Sunday the 17th.

SETH IS A CUB SCOUT

The day after our trip to Sidney, Seth attended his first Cub Scout day camp. They went up to Jeremiah Johnston Day Camp in Hobble Creek Canyon.
Here's a not-so-brief summary of what he told me they did that day:

Archery: Super awesome. Shot at bag targets, but none of his arrows hit. He needs more practice.

BB Guns: Cooler than archery. Shot at cans. Had to wear safety glasses, but they were hard to see through. Didn't hit any cans. Wants dad to buy him a BB gun now.

Knot Tying: Learned several knots, but he couldn't remember all of them.

Jousting: Had long lances with soft stuff on the ends. Had to get on a wiggly platform and try and knock the other guy off. Seth had fun, but fell off his platform a lot.

Row Boats: They were HARD, the water kept pushing up the oars and it took a lot of muscle to get the boats going. It took a really long time to finish. They were supposed to play tag by bonking into another boat, but getting the boats going was so hard that It was not as fun as the boys thought it would be.

Making swords: Made swords out of water noodles. Then they had a battle. Seth was on the blue team. They were called the Narnian team. They fought against the white team. They wore tunics with castles on them and the other teams had crowns on theirs. If you got hit you had to kneel down for 10 seconds and then you were alive again. Then at the end, they grouped together and fought the grown-ups. The kids won both times. The Battle was the best thing of the day!

Making Boats: Raced boats that they made out wood and paper. You had blow on the sails to make the boat go. Seth won two times in a row because his boat had three sails on it.

Compass and treasure hunting: Learned how to use a compass. Then went on two treasure hunts using the compasses to find the treasure. The treasure maps were made out of fake animal skins. Tootsie Rolls were the treasure for both hunts.

Flag Ceremony: Sang a song to get their wiggles out and then sang a patriotic song. Then stood at attention and watched the flag get taken down.

Rock Wall: Seth tried out the rock wall, but was only able to go up four rocks. Maybe next year he'll be a little taller so he can go a little higher.

Trading Post: Seth would have gotten a sling shot, but didn't have enough money. He ended up with with a wooden catapult and a bag of skittles.

Seth was quite nervous to go to camp and took his Lion with him in the car, but once he was there he really had a great time. I think scouts is going to be so awesome for him, especially in getting him to try new things.

GRANDPA BAERWALDT

The same day as Seth's cub camp, we got the call that Grandpa Baerwaldt had passed away. He had a horrible time in the hospital, he fought against all the things the doctors were trying to do to help him. Grandma and several of their children decided enough was enough and had them take him off all the monitors so that he could be peaceful. They took him out of the ICU and into the hospice part of the hospital and he passed away 3 hours later. We will miss him seeing him sitting in his chair playing with his great grandchildren. We will miss his wonderful smile. We will miss his hard working spirit. His funeral was held on Friday the 22nd. He was buried with full military honors and the kids thought the gun salute was pretty cool. He was a wonderful man and we can't wait to see him again someday.

PARTY ALL THE TIME

Since most of the family was here for the funeral we had lots of family dinners and get-togethers. In the midst of all of the hub-bub Seth celebrated his 8th birthday. He had a Lego Ninjago themed friend party on his birthday. He invited Dalin and Gabe and three new friends from our ward here; Colton, Ben, and Cameron. They had a blast making ninja headbands, throwing ninja stars, picking up Legos with chopsticks, and practicing ninja stealth by playing hide and seek. It was a really fun party. That night we had my family over for cake and ice cream. The Abbott's couldn't be there because Aaron's grandfather had also passed away and they were in California for the funeral. Seth designed his own cake for the family party. I put his design into cake form and it turned out really well. On the cake there are four pillars, one for each of the Ninjago ninjas, and the Sensei standing at a gate waiting for them to return from their quest to gather the golden weapons. Seth was inundated with Legos and some other presents, but mostly Legos! I think he got eight Lego related presents.

JACOB'S GRADUATION

Jacob has been participating in an at-home preschool this year called Utah Upstart. The software he used was developed by The Waterford Institute and the program was paid for by the state. The program was absolutely amazing. Jacob could do everything on it by himself and it basically taught him how to read. Over the course of the year he had to use the program 15 minutes a day 5 days a week. He almost always went over the required time because he was having so much fun listening to the songs and playing the games. On the 29th of July he had a little graduation ceremony where he had to take a short test and we had to give the software back. I really, really would have loved to keep the software for Lia to use while we do school with the boys this year. She was finally getting to the point where she could do the program by herself. Unfortunately, it costs nearly 500.00 to buy the software. We'll just have to wait until she's 4 years old and sign her up for it too! I am so proud of the progress that Jacob made with the Waterford program and I am excited to start kindergarten with him and continue teaching him this year.

CAMPING WITH THE LANCES

Mom and Dad Lance decided to have a mini family reunion with just the immediate Lance family. We drove up to Paris, Idaho and stayed at a place called Pioneering Adventures. Usually they have groups doing mini Handcart treks and showing them different pioneering skills, but while we were there they weren't doing any of that. We just set up our tents and camped in the yard. We enjoyed some awesome camping foods (stew, breakfast burritos, ribs, beans and dutch oven potatoes). We also went hiking to a glacier lake. The hike was just right for the kids and the lake was really pretty. You could actually see the glacier going down right into the water. Jeremy and Jared jumped off a rope swing into the water. They are a little crazy, because the water was REALLY cold. The boys (including Seth) went off in the afternoon to do some shooting. James forgot to take pictures of Seth shooting. I wish he had taken some. Seth had a great time being with the men. The guys also had a lot of fun riding around on 4 wheelers. Jacob, Lia, Amelia, Phillip and Everett had a great time exploring the yard. There were goats, peacocks and chickens to look at and a tire swings to play on. Amelia decided that she wants a pet goat and she's going to name him "Horny". She couldn't figure out why we were all laughing when she told us that. Later that evening it was threatening to rain and we made the rushed decision to pack up and head home. We left at about 9:00 p.m. and didn't get home until 1:00 in the morning. It's good that James was okay with driving, because I couldn't stay awake!

FUN WITH THE CALLS

Jenni came out on the 21st to attend Grandpa's funeral. She stayed a few days with Mom and Dad and then came to stay with us because we have more room here. We have loved having her and the kids here. I feel so spoiled to get nearly a month of Jenni time. I miss having her close by. The kids have been really good for the most part, as long as they get semi-decent sleep. They have been playing dress-up, Legos, pretend family, building forts, and having a great time. We took them to the new splash park here. Everyone had a good time, except Lia and Phillip didn't really want to get splashed, so they just wandered around the perimeter of the park. Jenni left on the 8th in the evening and stayed at a hotel in Rock Springs that night. She made it home Tuesday afternoon. Our house has been a little boring since they left, although it has been slightly quieter. :) 6 kids can make a lot of noise!

SETH'S BAPTISM

We are so proud of Seth for making the choice to be baptized. He was very excited and looked so handsome in his white clothes. He was the only child in our ward to be baptized this month so we were in charge the whole program. John and my mom both gave talks and all the cousins sang a song together. James gave Seth a wonderful blessing during his confirmation. We had everyone over for lunch afterward and had a good time visiting and playing together.

DAY AT THE LAKE

Yesterday we spent the day up at Deer Creek Reservoir. Our ward had reserved a beach area and we all went up to have fun playing in the water, riding in kayaks and boats and eating good food. Lia didn't really want to get wet so she and I spent the day on the shore just splashing at the edge of the water. Jacob and Seth had fun swimming and they really enjoyed riding on a speed boat. They even went with James in a tube that was pulled behind the boat and they didn't fall off. That was the best part of the day for them. James went for a turn in one of his friends kayaks. Watching him paddle around reminded me of when he used to practice flipping his kayak in the pool at the Stadium Terrace Apartments when we were in college. Everyone was exhausted and hungry from being in the sun all day, so we stopped for some ice cream on our way home and went to bed early that night.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Tomorrow is not the official first day of school (the 22nd is the official first day), but our online school should be turned on and we will start some classes so that we can get ahead for the school year. Jacob is extremely excited to be a kindergartener. He even has an apple on his desk upstairs for the teacher. When I thanked him for the apple he looked surprised and said, "What?? You're going to be my teacher?" I had thought that we had made it pretty clear that I would be his teacher this year, but apparently it never really sunk in for him. Seth is excited to see what this year will bring, especially in Science and History. I'm a little nervous about trying to teach 2 children at the same time. I hope the boys cooperate and help me out, if they do I think we'll be just fine.

]]> 07/03/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.245 2011-07-04T02:04:34Z 2011-07-04T02:45:17Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
Yesterday we got all of our food storage unpacked and relatively organized. That cleared up a big patch in the basement. I think we are about half way done with the boxes that are down there. The garage will probably be our next big push so that we can actually start parking our cars in it. James is getting excited about that prospect.

We are slowly getting to know some of our neighbors and people in our ward. The ward has a ton of kids in it and we are hoping that Seth and Jacob will make some new friends fairly quickly. Today we talked to the bishop about Seth turning 8 at the end of the month and found out that his baptism date will be the 6th of August. I can't believe he'll be 8 this month. I was even contacted by the Cub Scout leader and it looks like Seth will be able to go to his first Cub Scout day camp in mid August. That is going to be the beginning of a new adventure for me since I know practically nothing about scouting. Seth is also helping me plan his ninja themed birthday party, he's got some great ideas for what he wants to do. It should be a lot of fun.

Jacob keeps telling me he misses our old house because the water tasted better there! The water isn't very good here, but we do have a filter. He just has to remember to drink from the fridge or the special tap in the kitchen sink. He is also loving being able to play outside by himself if he wants too. I don't have to worry as much about him running out onto a busy street or being nabbed by nasty people. We are trying to get our trampoline fixed and put up some swings. Hopefully, that will be even more incentive for him and Seth to be outside.

I am absolutely loving the fact that Lia has her own room here. She consistently sleeps in until 9:00 in the morning since her brothers aren't waking her up and I can actually get a few things done in the morning before I have to worry about her. I have also been encouraging her to use the potty as much as possible, but we aren't trying any hard core potty training yet. I still don't think I'm ready to deal with that kind of mess, even if she is ready. Right now the only reason she even tries to go is so that she can get a potty treat. We might have to move a non-candy incentive here pretty soon. Maybe we'll do that when I actually get serious about it.

James has been carpooling to work with his friend who lives two subdivisions over. It saves on gas and I think it makes the commute a little more enjoyable for both of them. We are also glad that John and Courtenay are so close to us. They came over on Friday and had dinner with us and were able to stay pretty late since it's only a 5 minute drive to their house from ours. Now all we have to do is convince all our other family to move out here too! It would be perfect. :)

I'll have to get some pictures up on my next post. I'm trying to get some before and after shots organized so that you can see the progress we are making, but they aren't quite ready yet. (A.K.A. I haven't taken any after pictures at all.) So look for that to be coming sometime soon-ish.
]]> 05/29/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.244 2011-05-30T01:31:53Z 2011-05-30T03:04:08Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net

We have a new house!! On May 24th, we signed the closing papers on the house. James and I both had cramps in our hands after signing so many documents. They made us sign with our middle initials and neither of us are used to signing that way. Every signature required more thought than usual. But the deed is done and we are homeowners again.

James and I have been over to the new house almost every day since then. We are planning to paint several rooms, coat and seal the garage floor, possibly stain the basement floor, and get things cleaned really well before we move in. Yesterday we had our new fridge delivered and installed. We are also planning to install a gas line in the kitchen and add a new gas range in the next little while.

While we are staying with my parents, James decided to take advantage of my dad's workshop and attempt a wood working project. He made awesome wooden totes for the cubbies in the mudroom area. They are all sanded and primed and just waiting for me to decide what color to paint them. Yesterday I found a really cute entry way rug and I might paint the totes to match that. (Dark teal and green if you are wondering.) I also bought a ginormous clock to put on the high shelf in the family room. It looks really great, but I have a lot more decorative stuff to buy to fill up that space.

Friday was our last day of school for the year. We have a had a fun year, but are ready for a little break. Moving and trying to teach school from home is a little stressful. I'm excited for next year when we'll have a dedicated school room and Jacob will be joining us as a Kindergarten student. We spent our last day of school at the zoo with Marrisse and her family. It was a great way to end the year.

Today we went to our new ward. There are soooo many kids and every one was really friendly. The primary leader actually said that they were missing a lot of people because of the Memorial Day Weekend so next week there should be even more kids. Seth has already made a new friend. Jacob was a little bit shy at first and wouldn't let me leave him, but halfway through Primary he was doing much better and stayed by himself the rest of the time. Lia had a great time in nursery, but had two poopy diapers and the second one was a blow out and got all over the inside of her dress. Of course I had to take her dress off, but didn't have anything else for her to wear except her jacket. She walked around in her tights and her jacket for the rest of the meeting. I feel kind of bad for the ladies in nursery who discovered the blow out. Lia certainly made an unforgettable first impression.

We are hoping to have everything ready for us to move in Wednesday or Thursday the 8th or 9th of June. We are getting really excited to finally be settled in our new place.

]]> 05/03/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.243 2011-05-03T13:29:04Z 2011-05-03T14:54:23Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
We have started the process of the purchase of the home. We have our financing started, and an inspection scheduled for Wednesday. After that the bank needs to order an appraisal and then we just have to wait on the bank finishing up everything on their side. Our official closing date is June 24th, but we are hoping to be in the house by the end of May instead!

I'll give you a brief run down of the layout of the house and then I have a bunch of pictures that I hope will actually upload so you can see it.

When you come to the front of the house there is a cute little patio area that will be good for a bench and some cute planting containers. Then you come in the front door through a small entryway and into the living room. On your left is the hallway to the main floor bedrooms, these will be James' office, my craft room, and the master bedroom. On your right is a split stair case to the basement and upper level. Upstairs there is a loft area that will be our school room, the boy's bedroom, a toy room, and Lia's bedroom. There is also a bathroom upstairs and two on the main level. When you come into the livingroom/great room from the entrance you are facing the fireplace. On the opposing wall is all the hookups for the TV and entertainment center. The kitchen is on the right of the main entrance, past the stairs. It is LARGE!!! It has a huge pantry, a desk area, and an island. Off the kitchen is the entryway from the garage. There are six cubbies for coats and bags and opposite that is the laundry room. Also off the kitchen is the door to the backyard. There is a large deck, an in-ground trampoline. We have big plans for garden boxes and an outdoor kitchen out there too. The basement is unfinished, but there is plumbing roughed in for another bathroom, and framing for another bedroom. There is also a huge open space that I am going to turn into an indoor playground for the kids to use in the winter. The basement has walk-out double doors leading to a concrete pad. The lot was originally flat, but the people who built the house must have really wanted a walkout basement, so they dug a large pit around the basement doors and put retaining stones all around it. Unfortunately they used poor quality rock for their retainers, the rock is splitting and cracking, and the wall is a bit of a mess. Fixing that is something we are going to have to address in the near future.

So that's a quick tour of the house. Now I'll try and get the pictures in here so you can see what it all looks like.

The Front of the house

Cute Front Patio

James' office (My craft room is next door and looks about the same.)

The Master Bedroom

The Master Bathroom (Heaven!!)

The Living Room from the first landing on the stairs

The Kitchen!

The Cubbies in the garage entry

The Laundry Room

The Entry Way

The School Room Loft

The Boy's Room

Lia's Room

The Pit of Despair

One side of the basement

The Garage is alive with the sound of storage space! James is in love with it I think.

]]> 04/09/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.242 2011-04-09T08:31:05Z 2011-04-09T09:33:42Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
On March 29, we signed the papers that turned our house over to the new owners. We had a few more days after that to get all of our stuff out. We decided that since we didn't know where we are going to end up that we would use portable storage units. We didn't want to have to pack and unpack into a regular storage unit and then pack and unpack again when found the right place. The units came and they seemed so small that I had no idea how we were going to get all of our stuff into them. We had a packing party on Saturday the 26th and got nearly everything we owned into the two units. It was a packing miracle. Luckily, we decided to take our mattress with us or we never would have gotten everything in.

On Friday, April 1st we carted what was left over to my parent's house, cleaned the house, and locked the door for the last time. We had the kids with us and tried to take a family picture in the empty space, but of course the batteries were dead in the camera. James took a few snap shots on his iphone, maybe I can post them later. We were both trying not to get too emotional about leaving our home of the last ten years. I mean we brought home all three of our babies to that house and we worked so hard to get it looking nice, it was really hard to say goodbye. James drove home with the kids in the van and they played a game called "Who did what in that house?" The kids, apparently, thought it was great. I wish I had an audio recording of them playing it, since I was driving the other car and didn't get to hear them.

We are now semi-comfortably installed at my parent's house. The kids are all together in the guest bedroom and James and I are sleeping on our mattress on the floor of the loft. My mom and dad have worked really hard to get us enough space and storage so we don't feel like we are all living on top of each other. It's taken us this whole week to kind of wind down and get back some sense of normalcy. We've had a lot of late/interrupted nights and early mornings.

The kids love being here. (For those of you who have never been to my parent's house or haven't been for the past few years, you might not know that my sister bought the house I grew up in and my parent's built a new house in the back yard on top of the huge 3 car garage/shop they built several years ago. (Did that make sense?)) Anyway, the two houses are just a few steps from each other and the kids have had a great time playing with their cousins, jumping on the trampoline, and running around in the backyard. Luckily, Marrisse and I timed things pretty well and my kids each have a cousin nearly the same age to play with. (If only Sophie, who is Seth's age, had been a boy it would have been beyond perfect. Luckily, they still get along pretty well even though Sophie likes all sorts of yucky girl things.)

Living here has really made both James and I want to find a house here in Draper, but everything with even a few of the things we'd like to have in a house is way out of our price range. (Dang hoity-toity, expensive Draper!) Needless to say, we still haven't found a house we love yet and we are starting to get antsy about it. Our main dilemma is that if we can't find something then we are going to build, but we don't know when to say, "Ok, let's stop looking and just build what we want." I mean what if the perfect house comes onto the market the day after we are locked in with the builders!! This is the kind of thinking that gets us in trouble. Neither James nor I are especially good at making any sort of major decisions. It took us 5 years of waffling back and forth to finally decide to sell our old house. We have serious decision making issues! We keep hoping that the perfect solution will appear magically, or that we will get some seriously good vibes about building, or something like that! I keep saying, "Let's give it one more week", but one more week of looking means one more week of waiting if we end up building. It's a tough spot to be in.

It seems like I've been writing forever and not really saying anything. I guess I better try and get some sleep. I'll just finish by saying that even though we currently don't have a home of our own, we are very blessed to have such a great family that is willing to put up with us for as long as we need them to. Thanks Mom and Dad!!
]]> 03/26/2011 tag:www.thelances.net,2011://1.240 2011-03-26T23:14:28Z 2011-03-27T03:53:27Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
Right now our house is piled with boxes. That's right! We are moving. After 10 great years in this house, we decided it was time for a change (and time for a garage). We put the house on the market at the beginning of January and received the offer on it in late February. Our closing date is on the 29th, so we are packing like mad people. We don't know where we'll be moving to for sure. We are looking at houses all over, but have only found one that we like well enough to put an offer on and the people who are selling it were being wishy-washy, and once we put the offer in they decided to take the house off the market. :( Our other option is to build a new house, we have started that process, but it is more cost effective to buy a house that is already built and has landscaping, window coverings and what not. Needless to say we are going to be homeless for a little while. We are planning to stay at my parent's house for a bit and then if the homelessness continues we might move to James' parent's so that we aren't a burden to any one for too long.

James and I are not used to having our lives in so much turmoil. We usually like to have everything as neat and planned out as possible. Not having a firm plan of where we are going next is really eating at us. Hopefully something will pop up soon that will provide the right mix of house, neighborhood, yard, garages and all the other things we are looking for in our next place.

We'll keep you posted as things move forward with whatever we end up doing.
]]> 09/19/2010 tag:www.thelances.net,2010://1.237 2010-09-20T02:49:43Z 2011-03-15T19:02:43Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
APRIL

    The most momentous thing that happened in April was that James lost his job.

MAY

    Still no job and not many prospects. We hunkered down for what looked like might be a long dry spell in the finance department.
    Seth finished his first homeschool year and was able to complete 99% of all his work for the year. (The school only requires 90% so we did really well!)
    James hosted an Elder's Quorum BBQ and it was extremely cold and not many families showed up, but it was some good food and those who came were good company.
    My sister, Amy, had her baby. A little girl named Annika. She is a really good baby, mostly happy and content.

JUNE

   Still no job and a few prospects, but nothing extremely promising.
   Since James had so much time off we totally thought we'd go and do a lot of fun, free stuff, but as it turned out we only ended up doing one or two things while he was out of work. One of those things was to visit the Kenecott Copper Mines. The kids had a great time checking out the giant excavating equipment and playing in the visitor center.
    We had two water parties, one with Seth and Jacob's friends and one at Tante Jo's house. The boys had a marvelous time getting wet, Lia on the other hand didn't like it much!
    James and my Dad took the boys camping for the Stake's Father and Son's outing. It poured the entire time!   I hadn't packed very well for rain so they were quite soggy and cold, but they toughed it out by playing games and telling stories in the tent.

JULY

    Still no job at the beginning of the month, but one prospect looked pretty good and by the end of the month James was finally employed. He is working for another internet company as a programmer, he seems to like the job okay, but he's back to commuting to Provo everyday. :(
    James' Aunt Mary passed away after a long and painful battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease. The funeral turned into a mini family reunion and we camped one night up in Wellsville so that we could join in the fun.
    James' brother John and his wife Courtenay welcomed their baby boy into the world the day before the 4th of July. Everett Michael was born on the 3rd. He was a pretty big baby weighing in at a little over 9 pounds. He is an alert little guy and if he isn't asleep he always has eyes wide open to see what's going on. He also inherited the same hairline that James, John and Jacob all have. When I look at Everett he always reminds me of Jakes.
    The Fourth of July was a nice easy holiday this year.   We decided not to go to any parades and just spent the day letting the kids play with their cousins. They made patriotic hats and had a "Grandpa Parade". That's where my dad hooks his little trailer up to his riding lawn mower and drives the kids back and forth over the lawn while they throw candy at each other. It was perfect!
    Since the Father and Son's campout had been pretty miserable as far as campouts go, James, my dad and my brother-in-law, Aaron, decided to take the boys up to Big Cottonwood Canyon for another camping trip. The boys had sooooo much fun. They played in the stream, went hiking, rode their scooters, ate good food and got EXTREMELY dirty. James said he had to bathe them twice when they got home, changing the water between each bath.
    Not wanting to be left out of having fun, my mom, my aunt and I decided to go on a little impromptu trip to Disneyland. It was so last minute that we booked the hotel room the day before we left. Just as I was packing my car to head out to pick up my mom, I got a call saying that my sister Marrisse and her two youngest girls (Sophie and Katrina) had decided to come. So within the space of about an hour she packed, drove her two oldest girls to stay with their cousins and made it to my house, where we packed all her stuff into my car and headed out. It was a little bit insane! We had a great trip though. The weather was cool and we weren't quite prepared, I didn't have a jacket and Sophie had only shorts to wear. Luckily, it warmed up a little in the afternoons. We took everything kind of slow and just enjoyed the parks and all the girly company!
    The next week was the week that James was offered a job. He got the confirmation of it on Tuesday morning, and then made the mistake of mentioning Disneyland. So Tuesday afternoon, we had the car and the kids packed up headed out for another quick trip to Disneyland and a few days in Gilroy to visit James' grandparents. It hadn't even been a week since my trip with my mom, aunt, and sister! That was a little bit unreal. We had another fun trip. You'd think I would have been tired of it by then, but I wasn't. We stayed two and a half days in the park. It was blistering hot, a far cry from the jacket wearing weekend before. The kids soaked themselves in the water in Bug's Life Land and had such a great time. Seth rode the Grizzly River Run for the first time and wanted to go again and again, unfortunately it had a long line because it was so hot outside. We also heard a little blurb about Disney's time share vacation club. The kids got to play in an air conditioned play room for about an hour and had snacks and drinks and at the end they gave us some universal fast passes for listening to them. It was a nice break from the heat. In Gilroy we didn't really do anything except for chat with family and enjoy being spoiled by grandma's cooking! I think James' really needed a few down days to relax before starting up his new job. It would have been the ultimate ideal except for the 13 hour drive home. Luckily, we had over 10 hours of DuckTales episodes for the kids to watch while we drove. I think they all have the theme song memorized. I know I do!
    Seth celebrated his 7th birthday by having a sleepover with his best friends, Dalin and Gabe. They played Nintendo DS, built Legos, ate pizza and talked until nearly midnight. Seth said it was the best party ever! We had two other parties for Seth, one for my family and one for James'. Seth was itching to buy a "big" Lego so he asked everyone to give him money. He ended up with nearly 50.00. James and I decided to get him an Imaginext toy instead of the Lego he had originally asked for because the Legos tend to break and parts get lost and so on and so forth. Anyway, Seth loved it so much that he spent all his money on buying the rest of the Imaginext set instead of a Lego. I guess it was a good decision on our part. :)

AUGUST

    Back to the grindstone. James settled into his new job and we were relieved when his first paycheck hit our account.
    Seth and I started the new school year on the 18th and got right into it. Second grade is a lot more reading and writing. Seth loves the reading and hates the writing. I hope he gets over the whole handwriting stumbling block soon. Jacob was accepted into an online preschool, but they have been extremely slow in getting the materials to us. They say they might have them to us by the end of October, but I wish they had been more in line with the regular school year, because Jacob is bored.
    James' dad came to visit and we had many, many nights of dinners and talking. Jenni and Justin came out to see dad and to be around for Everett's baby blessing. Then Mom and Dad and Jeremy and Jared went back to Jordan, Jenni and Justin left for home the next day and Joseph left the same day to go to some Air Force training (whew, that was a lot of "J" names in one sentence!). We went from a flood of Lances to a drought in the space of just two days.

SEPTEMBER

    More work and more school. We are just plugging away at life right now. The weather has been distinctly fall-like and we've spent a few nice evenings sitting on the front steps watching the kids ride their bikes on the sidewalk in front of the house. Seth desperately needs a new bike. His knees pretty much touch the handle bars of his current one. He, however, is deathly afraid of the idea of riding a big bike without training wheels, so we are going to put off getting him a new one until next spring.
    We took a quick trip out to Nebraska over Labor day weekend to visit my sister-in-law, Jenni and her family. Seth spent the first night barfing his guts out and I wasn't feeling so hot myself. James took the kids to a farmer's market where he found some amazing jalapeno jelly and some good local honey. The guys all went shooting on Saturday afternoon and the girls just chatted and played with the kids. Sunday was quiet and nice and topped off with some fabulous smoked pork with all the fixin's. It was a short trip, but so nice to visit with Jenni. I really miss that girl!
    Well, that pretty much brings us up to date. The kids are all growing up happy and healthy, and James and I are doing our best to help them. I'll try and get to some individual updates on kids soon, but don't hold your breath. :)

Editors Note: This post has been stewing since September. It is missing pictures, but I thought I'd just throw it out so we can talk about the holidays... which we are also way behind on.
]]> 04/20/2010 tag:www.thelances.net,2010://1.234 2010-04-20T22:35:13Z 2010-04-21T01:34:39Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net EASTER VACATION

We decided to spend Easter Vacation with John and Courtenay, camping on the beach in Southern California. It had only been a month since we had gone to Disneyland and both James and I thought the trips were a little too close together. We didn't feel like we needed another vacation quite so soon. On top of not really feeling the need to go on another vacation, the weather report for the week was extremely grim. It was supposed to rain 3 of the 5 days we were there and we almost called the trip off. Luckily, we decided to go ahead with it -- rain or no rain.

We pulled out Tuesday afternoon after spending the morning with my Alannah, my first roommate in college, and her family. It was so good to see Alannah and to chat with her for a few hours. I wish we had had more time together! The wind as we drove South was absolutely amazing. Our car usually averages about 21-24 miles to the gallon, but with the head wind we only got 14 miles to the gallon on the way down there. I pretty much had the gas pedal floored the whole time. We stopped in Barstow that night and woke up early the next day to get to Legoland when it opened at 10:00 am.

LEGOLAND

When we went to Legoland in November they gave us free return tickets that expired on the 31st of March. So the kids and I decided to go again this trip and just hit the few rides we missed last time (James didn't want to go very badly). The park wasn't nearly as enjoyable this time, it was much more crowded and really none of the rides there are worth standing in any sort of line for. We only ended up riding about 6 rides this time. The boys had a good time, but I think that that may have been our last trip to Legoland for a long time (or ever). It's just not worth the money. If you can get in free then do it, but I would never pay their full prices.

CAMPING

Our day at Legoland had been overcast and dreary. With rain in the forecast, we really wanted to get to the campground and set up the tent before it started, so we left at about 4:00 pm. At 4:30 the skies completely cleared, the sun was shining and the wind began to die down. We got to the campsite, set up our tent and enjoyed a grilled dinner of hotdogs with John and Courtenay. James tried to get us to the beach that night to watch the sunset, but we were all too slow and missed it by just a few minutes. We went to bed that night and it rained from about 2:00 in the morning until 6:00 or so, right before we got up to get ready for our day at Disneyland. I think I was the only one that actually got wet in the rain, because I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (it wouldn't be a camping trip if I didn't have to pee every single night whether I had anything to drink the evening before or not!) Courtenay may have been up too, but at least she has the excuse of being pregnant!

DISNEYLAND

The sun came up bright and warmish for our day at Disneyland. James and I had even bought the kids rain coats and umbrellas before leaving because we didn't want them to be miserable in the rain, but we never used them the entire trip. I was expecting Disneyland to be extremely crowded because of it being Easter Weekend and all, but the weather forecast must have scared a lot of the people away. We were able to ride pretty much everything we wanted to. We noticed on our last trip that Seth and Jacob were both centimeters away from being tall enough to ride some rides they had never been on, so we put taller shoes on both of them this time. Jacob was able to ride Star Tours, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. He liked Star Tours ("Is this almost over Mom?"), he loved Splash Mountain ("That was totally awesome!"), and he did not like Big Thunder Mountain ("That ride almost made me DIE!!!").

Seth was able to ride the Indiana Jones ride for the first time. The wait in line was a little nerve wracking for him. He was totally worried about "looking into the Eyes of Mara." He had his eyes closed almost the entire ride. We got him to open them twice, once at the beginning and then again at the end for the boulder scene. The boulder scene really is the best of the whole ride and I think he liked that part. He says he's not going to ride it again until he's 10 years old though, so maybe it was a little too intense for him.

James and John left Courtenay and me at Disneyland for a few hours while they went off to have a culinary experience in Los Angeles. They ate at Phillipe's, which is the home of the original French Dip sandwich and the went to Galco's Soda Pop Stop, which is a store dedicated to sodas of all kinds. I think that store has something like 140 different kinds of root beer. I thought James would go to town and buy a bunch of soda, but he only came out with about 10 or 12 bottles. The boys had a good time, but they said that the food may not have been worth the three hour drive back and forth to LA.

While they were gone, Courtenay and I, had lunch (Court got some Gluten Free pizza that she said was pretty good), watched the show at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon and had an ice cream dessert. Then we watched and danced along with the parade, rode Small World, went to Toon Town and then watched a guy make caramel apples in the candy shop on Main Street. It sounds like a lot, but we took our time getting places and just enjoyed the nice weather and the magic of Disneyland.

That night everyone was pretty wiped out. I broke one of my most important Disneyland rules, which is to eat earlier rather than later. We didn't have dinner until after 8:00 pm. We were actually going to leave the park and eat dinner on our way home, but Seth (and John) really wanted to see the fireworks. So we decided to stay and eat in the park. Seth fell asleep in the stroller as we walked to get our food :| , luckily he perked up again after eating. The fireworks were awesome as usual and we had a great spot to watch them. Jacob slept through them, but Lia thought they were pretty cool.

We didn't make it back to the campground until after midnight. I had the inspired idea to bring everyone's jammies with us to Disneyland and we put them on the kids before we left the park, so when we got to the campground all we had to do was slide the sleeping kids into their beds. I think Courtenay wished she had brought her jammies too, she was pretty tired and swollen from walking around all day.

BEACH DAY

The next day we just spent chilling in our campsite and playing on the beach. It was a beautiful day! I took Lia and went to get groceries while the rest of the group spent the afternoon burying each other in the sand and playing in the water. Both Jacob and Seth were wet and had sand in all their cracks and crevices when they got back. After we got back from the grocery store, I put Lia down for her nap and enjoyed a peaceful couple of hours, sitting in the sun and reading. It was pretty close to heaven! James and John grilled some fish tacos for a late lunch/early dinner and then we headed back down to the beach to watch the sunset.

EASTER EGG HUNT

I thought it would be fun to stage an Easter egg hunt in our campsite for the kids. John and Courtenay took Seth and Jacob on a hike while I hid the eggs. Lia thought the eggs on the ground were pretty interesting and ventured out to pick up a few of them. When she realized that they had candy in them she got really brave and even walked over grass to get a few. (She hates grass and will not touch it at all if she can help it!). The boys found the eggs pretty quickly and I let them have the candy for their car treat on the drive home that day.

GOING HOME

We drove to St. George on Saturday and stayed the night there before continuing home the next day. We were able to listen to the Sunday morning session of General Conference in the car as we drove. Stopping in St. George was really nice. We left at about 10:00 am and pulled into our driveway just before 2:00 pm. We unpacked the car and then went over to James' mom's house for Easter dinner.

The trip was so fun! If I did it again, I'd leave out Legoland and spend more time at the beach (I'm not sure I could leave out Disneyland though;)). I liked having all of our busy and tiring activities at the beginning of the trip so that we could be more relaxed at the end. The beach was beautiful and the weather cooperated quite well. We were all very glad that we didn't cancel it!!
]]> 04/08/2010 tag:www.thelances.net,2010://1.233 2010-04-08T21:41:40Z 2010-04-08T23:26:32Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
DISNEYLAND IN FEBRUARY

I convinced (whinned, pleaded and guilted) James into buying annual passes for Disneyland again this year and we decided to make our first trip at the end of February. We left on Wednesday night, stayed again at the fabulous Whiskey Pete's hotel outside of Vegas. I think the kids believe that a stay at Whiskey Pete's is a mandatory stop in any trip to Disneyland. It's a crappy hotel, but for 25.00 a night you can't complain too much.

We rolled into Disney about 12:00 in the afternoon and walked to the park. The weather on the first day was GORGEOUS. It was about 70-72 degrees and sunny, I think it was the best weather day I've had at the park for a while. We planned on spending most of the day in California Adventure, but we had to get Jacob's picture taken for his annual pass in Disneyland. Since we were there we rode Buzz Lightyear and Star Tours and then headed over to California Adventure. We rode Toy Story Mania, and a couple of other rides but the kids were unusually tired so we left the park fairly early and went to get some food. Later that night I picked my mom up from the airport so she could join us for the rest of the trip.

I wanted to make this trip a little more memorable for the kids so I concocted a Disneyland Detectives hunt. I worked on it for hours and hours and bought props and made a cute bag and everything. I was a little obsessive about it for at least 2 weeks leading up to us leaving. It was AWESOME!

We did the hunt with a family from our ward, who have kids the same ages as ours and who happened to plan a trip to Disneyland at the same time as we did (the red-headed boys in the pictures are theirs). We all did the hunt together. I had made up rhyming clues and placed them in envelopes. Each clue led to a ride or place of interest in the park. Along with the clues, the kids got props to help them get into the spirit of things. (Swords, bandanas, eye patches, etc.)

We spent 4 hours riding some of Disneyland's greatest rides, having treats and snacks, and when the hunt was over, the big prize was that the boys got to go to the LEGO store in Downtown Disney to pick out a Lego. They were so excited that they practically ran all the way to the Lego Store. The hunt was a big success and I am thinking about trying to market it somehow, but I'm not sure where to start with that. If any one with kids ages 3-10 (or older if they are good sports) wants to try it out, send me an email. It was totally fun and definitely a unique Disney experience.

Friday evening and into Saturday we got rained on several times. The rain came in short bursts about once an hour, so it wasn't awful, but not the most fun either. We were still able to enjoy the parks and they were much less crowded due to the rain. It was fun to share this trip with my mom and our friends.

MARCH

March was a quiet month for us. We spent our time doing normal things, school, work, joyschool, playing, cleaning, cooking, church callings, etc...

LIA

Lia finally decided to walk a little bit and has steadily improved over the last month. She still crawls a lot of the time because it is faster for her, but she's making good progress. She has also started talking quite a bit and the words are almost decipherable. I was actually a little bit worried about her speech, because she seemed to be quite a bit behind where the boys were at her age. I finally told James about my concerns and of course the very next day she started making more and more comprehensible words. I'm not concerned any more, if her speech keeps improving at this rapid rate she'll be talking in full sentences by the end of the summer. Lia has amazing hair. It is so long and thick. When it is wet it reaches halfway down her back. She hates letting me style it though, so she has bed-head almost all the time. Luckily, it doesn't get too tangled so when she does let me style it, it's not a painful ordeal. Lia also discovered books over the last few months and will pick one up, crawl over to which ever adult is closest, snuggle into their lap, and proceed to tell the story to us in baby talk. Her favorites right now are The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.

SETH

Seth and Jacob have been enjoying being brothers lately. They play so well together and are such good friends. When I tell people that Seth is homeschooled, the question I get most often is about socialization. I don't really worry about it because he has Jacob to play with. I don't think Seth would have any trouble fitting in with other kids his age and I think that he is better at talking to adults then some kids are. We still love our school at home. I am glad that we worked really hard at the beginning of the year so that we can take school a little more easy now. Seth learned about his body and ocean life in the last two science units. History is one of his favorite subjects and we are starting a unit on Ancient India, which will be interesting for me too since I know practically nothing about India (ancient or modern). We re-registered with the Virtual Academy to do second grade with them next year. I am looking forward to it. I almost wish that we could just keep doing lessons during the summer. I plan on doing some sort of summer bridge type of thing, but it would be easier just to keep on going and not have to have such a big break between grades.

JACOB

Jacob continues to be a delight. He has a wonderful imagination. I told him about St. Patrick's Day and wearing green, and he went to his room and picked out his outfit for the occasion. He wore it to his St. Patrick's Day preschool party too. It was so hilarious. (By the way, Jacob calls those electric green jammies his "Booger Suit". Isn't that great?) Jakes wants to play outside a lot and is happy that the weather is turning warmer. I think a swing set is high on our list of things to purchase this year, both boys would love it. I love Jacob because he is content in whatever situation he happens to be in. He plays well with Seth, but also plays equally well all by himself. He can find things to do whether he's indoors or out. He has a caring and tender heart. I hate to chastise him when he does something wrong, because he takes it so seriously and acts so hurt when I do it. Luckily, I don't have to do it that often.

LEGO PARTY

I almost forgot to include a little blurb about the Lego party we had in March. Seth is a little obsessed with Legos right now, and of course Jacob is too since Seth is. They invited their friends over to build Legos, watch the new Clutch Powers Lego movie and just have fun. We decorated with Legos and tried to find Lego fruit snacks and candies, but couldn't find either anywhere and so settled for Easter candy instead. We had pizza during the movie and a Lego building race. Each of the boys got a new small Lego set as their favor/prize. It was a lot of fun and Seth is already looking forward to his Lego birthday party that is coming up in the oh-so distant future! ("When is my birthday again Mom?")

That's it for this letter, I'll be writing another soon to chronicle our beach camping trip over spring break.
]]> 02/08/2010 tag:www.thelances.net,2010://1.232 2010-02-08T16:28:57Z 2010-02-09T01:12:49Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net DECEMBER

We had a whirlwind December. It seemed like one day it was the first of the month and the next Christmas was already over and we were headed into the new year. We put up our tree the first Saturday of the month and it was a little sad this year. The top strand of lights didn't work and I was just not in the mood to unstring it, find a strand that did work and then restring it again. So we just left it. The kids did all the decorating this year too. I usually let them decorate the bottom and then redistribute the ornaments once they are done, but this year we just left all the ornaments on the bottom. It seemed fitting that since there were no lights on the top that there were no ornaments either. It was also funny that Seth's highest reach just happened to coincide with the spot where the lights no longer worked. Each of the boys got to have a turn putting the star on the top. They were very proud of their work! This is the last year we will be using this tree. We got it when we were newlyweds, it was one of the trees that flanked my Opa's coffin when he died right before Christmas in 2000. It's been a great tree, but the time had come to let it go. My parents gave us one of their pre-lit trees that they no longer had room for. Hopefully next year I'll be in a better mood at Christmas and the new tree will be done up right!

SINTERKLAAS

We celebrated Sinterklaas at Marrisse's house this year. We just had desserts and candy. The kids were all hepped up on sugar by the time the presents showed up. It was extremely noisy and chaotic! The kids enjoyed all their presents and couldn't wait for the next day for Sinterklaas to come again to put more presents in their shoes. I did a little Sinterklaas presentation for Jacob's preschool class. We made paper wooden shoes, talked about who Sinterklaas is and then at the end they had some treats in the shoes we made. I think they liked it, but it's hard to gauge what a bunch of 3 year olds like.

CHRISTMAS

We had a quiet Christmas Eve this year. Marrisse's family was out of town and Amy was celebrating with Christians family, so it was us and Chris and Andrew. We watched "A Christmas Story" and let the kids open their Christmas eve presents. We have been trying to follow James' family tradition of giving jammies on Christmas Eve, but this year the kids had so many pairs of jammies alread I decided to get them slippers instead. Jacob got light-up Buzz Lightyear slippers, Lia got some pink strippey ones, and apparently no stores wanted to carry slippers for Seth's size this year, so he ended up with a pair of slip-on shoes. (It was probably a good thing that there were no slippers for him. We've gotten a lot more use out of the shoes than we ever would have gotten from slippers.)

We nearly had a catastrophe this year with the boys and "Santa". We don't make Santa a big secret around here, we let the boys believe what they want to believe. They ask us, "Is Santa Santa real?" and we say "What do you think?". We try and help them see that Santa came about because of someone who was trying to be Christlike. Anyway, "Santa" usually leaves the boy's stockings at the end of their beds on Christmas Eve so that on Christmas morning they have something to play with before they come barging into our bedroom at the break of dawn. This year I took the stockings in at about 10:30 thinking that the kids were pretty well asleep by that time and they were. I left the stockings there and tip-toed out. At about 11:30, just after I had finished laying out the Christmas tree stuff and was heading to bed myself, they both woke up, saw the stockings and thought it was morning! We are extremely lucky that they were both still quite tired and we were able to talk them into going back to sleep without opening their stocking presents. It could have been very bad!

Christmas Day was nice and relaxing, the boys didn't wake up too early and we took our time opening our family presents. The boys got two more Imaginext sets and Lia loved playing with the wrapping paper, but was not very interested in any of the toys she got. Then we headed over to my mom's and had breakfast and more present opening. Then we had the traditional Henderson family lay-about. We gave my dad an air-compressed rocket launcher so he and the boys went out and shot a few rockets together. It was bitterly cold so they didn't stay out long. We had a nice dinner of sandwiches with smoked roast beef (that James froze his butt off preparing) and some left over turkey and ham. It was a good day.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

We had fun ringing in the New Year with John and Courtenay. Lia made it until 9:00 and the boys stayed up all the way until midnight. Jacob kept himself busy making a huge track with our Geotrax set. Seth burned his brains and the night away playing on the Wii. The adults played card games and talked. I took a pretty cute video that I might post on Youtube for you all to see, but it probably won't happen today. The boys were pretty proud of themselves for getting to stay up so late. Unfortunately, we paid for it over the next few days with bouts of extreme crankiness.

JACOB TURNS FOUR

Jacob turned four mid-way into January. He had a friend party with his preschool friends and a family party on his actual birthday. He decided on a submarine theme, because the toy he really wanted for his birthday was an Imaginext submarine. For his friend party we had some fun "underwater" games and I attempted to make submarine cake pops (they were a visual disaster, but tasted good). We had both sides of the family over for a spaghetti dinner to celebrate on his actual birthday. We made two kids of sauce, regular meat sauce and a delicious sausage-pumpkin sauce. For the cake, I made a really cute submarine. Jacob thought it was awesome. I also made him an appliqued shirt that sort of matched the cake. Our house was filled to the brim with people. Jacob loved all the attention. His favorite presents were the submarine (of course) and a super hero cape that Courtenay made that had a "J" on it for Jacob.

MAKING QUILTS

I made two quilts and a baby blanket for charity so that we could get a free day a Disneyland, for their "Give a day, Get a day" promotion this year. Seth helped me pick out the fabric and sew the baby quilt. The quilts turned out pretty cute. We just got our certificates for the free day, so you know what that means... Disneyland here we come! We have a trip scheduled for the end of this month. I'm putting together a special treasure hunt for the kids to do while we are there. I'm so excited. I'll let you know how that goes in our next letter.

LIA'S UPDATE

Lia is growing so fast. She is so cute and chubby right now. She has been teething up a storm, sprouting at least 7 new teeth since I wrote last. She still isn't walking yet, but she's getting closer. She took a tiny, falling step just the other day and can stand up on her own for a few seconds. She still isn't talking much either, well I should say that she "talks" all the time, we just can't understand her yet. Her favorite things to say are "Hi", "Uh-oh", "Mama", "Dad", and "No". The boys have been working pretty hard to get her to say their names, but they both have pretty hard names for a baby to say. She also learned how to fold her arms for prayers and does it better than the boys sometimes. James was teasing me the other day, when he unloaded all the pictures from the camera, that we have other kids besides Lia. I'll admit that I take a lot of pictures of her, but I can't help it, she's just so darn cute!! I've made a pact with myself that for every 10 pictures I take of Lia I'll take at least one or two of the boys. :)

JACOB'S UPDATE

Jacob became a Sunbeam in church this year. He had nearly a whole extra year in Nursery because of his January birthday. He likes being in Primary, especially because I'm in there with him. He is so good at learning the songs, even though he doesn't actually sing in church. I'll hear him later singing his heart out, on key and he usually remembers most of the words too. Jacob has a great imagination. He loves to be the super hero and has an outfit to go with whatever hero he is being that day. He also loves to talk, but only when he has you all to himself. Then he just jabbers away non-stop. He gets really frustrated with me when he thinks I'm not paying enough attention to what he is saying. "Mom! Listen! I'm talking to you!!!" Jacob also surprised me one morning by writing his first name on his white board downstairs. We had never even talked about writing letters so he just wrote it from what he remembered his name looking like. Of course he wrote right to left and backward, but it was still pretty awesome. He is so fun!

SETH'S UPDATE

Seth is the big man around here. He loves to help me take care of Lia, and also loves to think up games and adventures to play with Jacob. He is doing really well in school. He's very good at math (even though he hates it), he's right on track with where he needs to be with reading, and he loves all of the history and science and Art lessons we do. He has been playing once a week with his friend Dalin from church. Their family is made up of two boys and a girl just like ours and they are all nearly the same ages too. It's been good for Seth to have someone besides Jakes to play with. That's one thing I worry about with homeschooling, whether or not he'll have some friends, but so far he seems to have no trouble fitting into whatever social situation he finds himself in. He's such a nice boy.

]]> 12/03/2009 tag:www.thelances.net,2009://1.228 2009-12-04T05:23:17Z 2009-12-06T23:51:34Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net LIA TURNS ONE!!

This photo was taken by my sister in law, Jenni. Check her out at Apple Green Photography

My baby girl turned one mid-November. She spent the day motoring around while I made her birthday cake. In the afternoon the mail came and she got a card from Grandma Jean. I ripped the envelope open slightly and then let her do the rest. When she finally got the card out and opened it she said, "Oh, wow!" It was so cute. She doesn't really talk much yet, so I was pretty surprised by it.

I made her a deliciously gooey chocolate cake, decorated with a cute squirrel. I got the idea from a really cute shirt my mom had given Lia. It wasn't as fancy as some of the cakes I've done, but it tasted great and wasn't too complicated to put together.

We had a dinner that night with some of the Lance clan. John, Courtenay, and Joseph all came. It was a nice little party.

The next Monday we had a party with my side of the family. Another dinner and more cake were served. Amy made the cake that night and it was pretty cute too. Lia enjoyed all of the wrapping paper and a few of the gifts.

Lia is such a joy! She is almost always happy. She has been teething lately and so has been a little bit cranky, but it's usually nothing a little snuggling and/or tickling can't take care of. She loves to pull things out of drawers, boxes, cupboards, etc. All my kids have gone through this stage, but Lia is different in that she almost always puts away whatever she has taken out before moving on to her next adventure. I hope that means she's going to be a tidy child. I could use a little tidiness around here.

This photo was taken by Jenni too

She is starting to make more noises that sound like words, her favorite right now is to toss something off her highchair tray and then say "Uh-oh". I was also feeding her some M&M's today and when I didn't give her one as fast as she thought I should, she frantically began doing the hand sign for "more". I have been trying to teach her that sign for a while now, but it didn't seem like she was catching on. I guess I underestimated her or maybe she just needed the right incentive (a.k.a. chocolate). She is so adorable. I know moms always say that about their kids, but she really is!!

LEGOLAND

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we packed up the kids and the car and headed down to Southern California to take the boys to Legoland. It was a great theme park for them. Seth is just the right age to really enjoy it. He was tall enough to go on all the rides and none of them were scary for him at all.

Jacob could ride most of the rides and really enjoyed himself too. He was very sad that he was too short to ride on the Dragon roller coaster, but then later on we found the Dinosaur Coaster and he was happy as a clam to be able to ride that one.

Legoland has some really strange height requirements and Lia was not able to ride a single ride, even though most of the rides are more tame than any of the rides she's been on at Disneyland. The boys had both been doing chores and other things to save up money and were able to buy a Space Police Lego set. Buying the Lego was apparently Jacob's favorite part of the whole day. Legoland is a nice park, it is small, uncrowded and caters to really young kids. We rode almost every single ride in the park in less than 7 hours on a Saturday. I was really worried that we wouldn't have time to do everything, but I think we only missed four rides. Seth can't wait to go back again. I think Legoland is something we might do every other year or something until the boys lose interest, although we may go again in the next year because James and I got free return tickets. All I can say about it is that it's definitely not Disneyland. There is no "Magic" there!

THANKSGIVING

After Legoland, we headed North to spend Thanksgiving with James' Grandma and Grandpa Lance. It was a wonderfully relaxing week! No cleaning, no cooking, free babysitting, good conversations, great food, and beautiful weather. Pure Heaven!

On Monday we took the kids to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. We've been there several times, but this time they had a new seahorse exhibit that was really fascinating. The boys really loved the gigantic tank with the Hammerhead sharks in it.

Tuesday and Wednesday were just spent kicking around. Lia developed a fever on Tuesday night and was not her usual cheerful self for three days. I suspect it was just a teething fever, because she had not other symptoms and a little Ibuprofen was all it took to make her happy again. Seth and Jacob got to play with Josh and Julia who are James' cousins, but Josh and Seth are only 4 years apart in age. Josh has a lot of Legos and was therefore dubbed the Lego King. Seth and Jacob would have to loved to just play at Josh's house the whole time. They did get to have a sleep over and they even made up their own secret club together.

On Thursday there was a flurry of activity as four sets of cooks tried to all work at once in Grandma's kitchen. Eventually, everyone was able to cook everything they had planned and we were only slightly late for the beginning of the Thanksgiving festivities. We ate outside, which was extremely strange for me. It was a gorgeous day! Dinner was served in stages with a little bit of entertainment between each stage. Appetizers were first, followed by a reading from a Pilgrim's letter and the "Thankful Game" in which each person gets three kernels of corn and has to tell something they are thankful for for each kernel. Seth and Jacob were so cute and both, un-prompted, said they were thankful for their brother. I had my turn right after them and kept getting choked up because they were so wonderfully sincere and innocent. Then came soup, salads, a nice break to chat and then the big meal. Of course most of us were so stuffed, that I'm not sure we did the dinner justice. Thank goodness for leftovers! After dinner we had more conversations, games, and sang some Thanksgiving songs. Dessert was great and we had multiple yummy selections to choose from. It was the busiest day of our whole trip, but also the nicest.

On Friday we had another down day where we just hung out mostly. I went to one store for some Black Friday deals, but I didn't even leave the house until nearly noon, walked in, found what I wanted and then only waited for about 10 minutes to check out. Next year I might have to do my shopping like that too, it was much nicer than getting up at 4 in the morning and fighting the crowds. I did miss not being with my mom, aunts and sisters though. Lia and her Great Grandma Jean enjoyed some bonding time at the piano too. The picture below is just one of those moments that you want to freeze in time and even the photo doesn't quite capture all the meaning of the moment.

We had originally planned to leave on Saturday so that we would have plenty of time to get home if we hit any weather, but when we looked at the weather reports it was supposed to snow over Donner Pass on Saturday and be totally clear on Sunday. Needless to say, we decided to leave on Sunday instead. So Saturday we went to the beach in Monterrey because the kids had been too tired and cranky to go on Monday. The ocean was really rough due to a small storm that had come through on Wednesday. There were a bunch of surfers out taking advantage of the great waves. The tide pools were also really fun. We saw a sea cucumber that was almost completely covered in shells, some hermit crabs, and some sea stars. The boys had a great time running on the beach and carving maps into the sand. Just before we were about to leave Jacob got some sand in his eye. He kept trying to rub it out, but his hands were covered in sand too. I took him a little way into the water to rinse his hands off, of course a big wave happened to hit while we were out there. As I was trying hold Jacob out of the water and walk backwards quickly to get away from it, I lost my balance and fell down. Man, that water was cold. Luckily, Jacob didn't get any wetter than he already was, but I was pretty much drenched from the waist down. Soggy jeans and a cool breeze don't mix very well! I am really thankful that our car has heated seats and I wasn't too cold on the way back to Grandma's.

Our drive home was nearly uneventful, although we did have our first throw-up-in-the-car-on-a-trip incident. Luckily, it wasn't stinky throw-up or it might have been an even longer drive. Another first for this trip was Seth and Jacob fighting in the car. I have memories of monumental car fights from when I was a kid and I guess I just took it for granted that my kids just didn't fight in the car, because they never have before. Then we made the fatal mistake of moving Jakes to the back seat next to Seth so they could both hear the book we had playing on the portable DVD player. It was all "Mom, he's looking at me!", "Mom, he's looking out my window!", "Mom, he's touching me!", "Mom, he won't let go of the middle seat belt!" from there on out. We moved Jakes seat back up to the front, the first chance we got. I guess my kids are angels in the car only because they usually can't get too close to each other! :)

ONE FUNNY SETH STORY

The day after spending Thanksgiving with James' cousins, one of whom is named Jordan, Seth had a revelation. He came to us and said, "You know that guy in the green shirt last night? His name was Jordan." We said, "Yes, his name is Jordan." Seth replies, "That's just like where Grandma Debbie and the Punkles live. In Jordan." We said, "Yep, his name is just like the name of the country." To that Seth says, "So why don't you just call me "America", and Jacob "South America"." We were laughing so hard. I'm sure the hilarity doesn't quite translate in the telling, but it was sooo funny. What a Goofball!

]]> 11/03/2009 tag:www.thelances.net,2009://1.227 2009-11-01T22:43:07Z 2009-11-04T05:27:07Z

Miekka http://www.thelances.net
(Heavy on pictures, light on words, isn't that what blogging should be about anyway??)

Father and Sons Camp Out

James took the boys up to the Stake property for the annual Father and Sons Camp Out. They had a great time roasting marshmallows and learning about bear safety. I think the boys were a little freaked out that a bear might actually come in their camp, but James gave them glow sticks and then they forgot all about bears...

Lia is Crawling

Lia began crawling on August 20th and hasn't stopped since. She loves being able to move around on her own. She also just recently began pulling herself up on things, but she is pretty scared of falling down, so I think walking is still a way off for her.

School at Home

We started our home school on the 24th of August. We have had so much fun. I have been chronicling some of our adventures on my personal blog, so if you want to read about what we've been learning go here: Miekka's Blog. Seth has made wonderful progress in reading and loves the History and Science classes the most.

Labor Day in Yellowstone

We spent Labor Day weekend camping in Yellowstone with John, Courtenay and Joseph.

Jacob tried to impale himself on a low branch sticking out of a tree.

Seth did the Junior Ranger and Young Scientist programs and got a lot of school hours for doing them.

(If you want more details of the school aspect of the trip go here: Yellowstone School .)

Lia spent most of the time in the front carrier and was so glad when we finally left her crawl around one of the visitor centers at the end of the trip.

We hiked, saw tons of wildlife, had some great camping food, and enjoyed good company.

The Elephant Parade

Every year the Barnum and Bailey Circus comes to Salt Lake. The day before the Circus begins they have an Elephant Parade that is free to the public. We actually heard about it in time to go see it this year. The gave out clown noses and circus signs. The parade itself was only about 10 minutes long. (Which is actually a great length for a parade in my opinion.) The kids had a great time watching the elephants lumber past and playing around with their clown noses.

Seth's Loose Tooth

Seth lost his second tooth right as he was going to bed one night. It was really convenient because he didn't have to wait a whole day for the Tooth Fairy to come. He just popped the tooth under his pillow and went to sleep. The Tooth Fairy left him a dollar this time. Seth loves to stick his tongue through the hole in his teeth and is developing a tiny lisp. His big boy teeth are coming in quickly, and a little bit crooked. I hope some more of his teeth fall out soon so those big guys have room to come in!

Visiting Jenni in Nebraska

I packed up the car and braved a nine hour drive with 3 kids by myself, so that we could visit Jenni in Nebraska. We were supposed to leave on Friday, but the weather reports said a big storm was supposed to hit that day, so we postponed til Monday. The weather ended up being great on the drive there and back. The kids were wonderful on the drive too, I have awesome travelers!! We helped Jenni and Justin get moved into their new house and had fun playing with Amelia and Phillip. My major contribution for the week was helping Jen install new track lighting in her kitchen. It looked really nice when we were done. Jenni also did a photo shoot of the kids while we were there and we ended up with some really cute shots. I hardly got my camera out the whole time we were there, so if you want to see some of the pictures Jenni took go here: Apple Green Photography

Jacob's Joy School

Jacob has been part of a neighborhood Joy School this year. He likes it for the most part. Some days he tells me that he doesn't want to go, but he's been pretty clingy lately about everything so it's not too surprising. Once he gets settled in he has a great time and loves to play with his friends. The days I am in charge of Joy School are a little challenging, because then I have 2 hours of Joy School on top of the 5 hours of Seth's school. Luckily, I only have to teach every 4 weeks so it's not too bad. The picture below shows Jacob holding a loaf of bread that he made one day in Joy School. He was pretty proud of himself!

Lia's Piggy Tails and Talking

Lia has quite the head of hair for an 11 month old. Jenni put a pony tail in Lia's hair while we were visiting and it was pretty cute. I, however, have never been a fan of the single shaft of hair sticking out of the top of a baby's head. I tried piggy tails on her next. They are so cute and they make her look more like a little girl than a baby. Lia puts up quite a fuss when I do her hair, so it doesn't happen very often. She let Courtenay do it for Halloween though, maybe it's only when mom does it that she has to scream about it.

Lia has also been making more and more sounds that actually sound like words. She says "Hi" when we go in to get her in the morning and when James comes home from work, it makes his day I think! She is getting better at saying "Mama" and "Mom", but usually only when she's cranky or hungry. She also has mastered the roar of a lion and the screeching of a monkey. I'm working on dog and cat sounds with her and for some reason I like to teach my kids to say that they are "one" so they can say it on their first birthday. Seth was really awesome at it, Jakes would barely do it, and I think Lia is somewhere in between the two. We only have 10 days to find out though! Gosh, that is sneaking up on me.
One more funny thing that Lia has been doing lately is that whenever I try and take a picture of her and she sees the orange red-eye reduction light come on, she will scrunch her eyes closed because she knows the flash is coming next. About half of the pictures I've taken lately have her face all scrunched up. It's pretty hilarious to watch

Swim Lessons

Jacob and Seth both had swim lessons this last month. Jacob did really well, except for the times when he didn't want to stay with his teacher. He loved jumping in the water and had the best stance for the game "Chop, Chop, Timber!" That's where the kids have to pretend that they are trees and the teacher "cuts" them down and then they have to jump into the water. Jacob would stand straight and tall with his hands way above his head in perfect diving formation. Of course when the time came to actually jump into the water, all that form went out the window and he just jumped in...

Seth was in a Level 2 class this year, but I think it was a little much for him. Over half of the kids in his class could already swim a little, but Seth had only done one Preschool level before this and hadn't learned any swimming yet. He made some great progress though and even got to go in the big lap pool and swim a little. I will have him retake this level again so he can get more confident.

Halloween

This year Seth dressed up as Snake Eyes from GI Joe, Jacob was Buzz Lightyear and Lia was a super cute bumblebee. Halloween seemed to go on forever. We had three different days of celebrations.

On Thursday, we went with the Abbotts to their school parade and then headed over to a Joy School party. The party was really fun, we sang songs, bobbed for apples, decorated cookies, pinned the face on the pumpkin and ate jack-o-lantern pizza.
On Friday, we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat and Chili cook-off. The kids got a sack-full of candy each and we had great food. John and Courtenay joined us for the evening, they were dressed up as Cinderella and Captain Hook. Courtenay was the star of the evening and had her own entourage of kids following her around all night. My family also had their annual pumpkin carving party that night so we made a token appearance after the ward party.

On Saturday, we spent the day in Santaquin with Courtenay's family. The men all went shooting in the morning, while the kids played and the women fixed spooky hors d'oeuvres for the party. We were also going to go on a hay ride, but found out they weren't doing them that day. We had a Halloween carnival, with games, treats and prizes and then the kids went trick-or-treating and filled their sacks again. Needless to say, we have a lot of candy!! I am pretty tired of Halloween and am glad it's over for this year.

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