Precious Girls

I LOVE... LOVE... LOVE... these girls.  They are so precious to me.  They melt my heart every time that I am around them.  I hope they know how much I love them.  I am truly blessed to serve them. 

And, no, I'm not pregnant.  I'm not exactly sure why my shirt is puffed out like that!

The Tuba Man

Jonathan started playing the tuba this year in the 6th grade beginning band.  He has come a LONG way.  Those first few weeks were pretty miserable.  It kind of sounded like a sick elephant.  Practice time took a lot of patience for the rest of the family.

He recently had his first band concert.  We were excited to go hear him play "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" along with some of his practice scales.  The tubas performed with the euphoniums and trombones.  Those little tuba players were super cute when they walked on stage.  They had to balance their tuba stand and music binder along with their tuba.  One little boy lost his balance, and almost dropped his tuba.  He made a lot of noise, and it was hard for the audience not to giggle a little.

Jonathan was excited to tell me about some of the songs he was working on for an upcoming performance.  He said that he would be taking a field trip to "some beach" to play these songs.  Having been in band myself, I had a suspicion that his beach was really Sandy Lake Park.  When I asked him he thought that might be it.  I could see where he might get Sandy LAKE Park confused with a beach!

I am so glad that Jonathan is taking band this year.  I hope that he sticks with it, because I think there are so many wonderful skills that can be taken from the music program.

The Demonic Baby

Jessica brought home this crazy baby last week.  It, seriously, cried every 15 minutes.  I think she named him Gavin, but I called him "The Demonic Baby."  My own babies did not cry this much, and they were much easier to soothe. 

Jess had to wear a wrist band with a magnet on it.  When the baby cried, she had to scan the magnet across the baby's back.  It would make a chiming sound.  The chiming sound was confirmation that the baby recognized Jessie as his mother.  If the baby cried for more than two minutes, then it was recorded somehow and the student would get a lower grade.  There were special bottles and diapers.  You had to burp, feed, change and cuddle your demonic baby.  Should you damage your demonic baby (or should your dog lose her mind and decide to chew up demonic baby) you must pay $675.

The day that Jess received Demonic Baby, we decided to run over to Costco.  Actually, I was reviewing the frameboards at the optical center.  Baby was set to turn on at 5:00, and it was 4:45.  I asked Jess to stay far away from the optical center while I worked.  At precisely 5:00 Demonic Baby began to scream, and Jess didn't quite know how to make him stop.  She went crazy during the time we were in Costco.  Many people thought it was real, and many people just stared at us like we were crazy.  It was so embarassing! 

The craziest part of our Demonic Baby experience was bedtime.  As I've said before, Jessica takes medicine for insomnia.  I was concerned that she would not hear Demonic Baby crying in the middle of the night, and I didn't want her to get a lower grade because of this.  I decided that DB would sleep in our room.  I would just bring him into Jessie's room when he cried.  Sounds easy enough.  Imagine Fred's surprise when he came to bed, and found me curled up in bed sleeping next to DB.  When DB sleeps, he breathes really heavy.  Fred woke me up to find out a) why DB was in our bed, and b) why DB was breathing like that - it sounded like he had a cold.  By the way, the instructions said that you weren't supposed to sleep with DB, because you could damage him.  I figured that I slept with my infants when they were 4 pounds, and I managed not to damage them, so I should be okay. 

I just want to go on record as saying that the flour babies are much easier!

My Favorite Time Of The Day

I never thought that I would say it, but I just love the early morning when I'm getting my kids off for the day.  I love taking Jessie to early morning seminary in the wee hours of the morning when things are still calm.  At 5:45 a.m., the house is still quiet, and the chaos of the day hasn't begun.  I enjoy her enthusiasm for seminary, and love hearing about the lessons and the antics of her friends (usually the boys).  Unfortunately, she takes medicine for insomnia, so we monitor when she took her medicine and how many hours of sleep she was able to get each night.  Because of her sleep situation, I don't wake her up every morning for seminary.  I am supposed to ensure that she get 9 hours of sleep, which is almost impossible.  I try for 8 to 8 1/2 hours.  We do our best, though!

Jonathan rides his bike to school every morning.  My heart soars every morning when I walk him out. He has a bright red helmet that is really for skateboarding, so it is hideously ugly (in my eyes, of course).  However, Jonathan loves it!  I asked him if he would like a new helmet, but he is quite happy wearing his "special helmet."  Jonathan was recently diagnosed with PDD-NOS (which means that his diagnosis is really close to Asperger's), so this means that he is a creature of habit.  We have a morning routine that Jonathan makes sure happens EVERY morning.  Before Jonathan rides out on his bike, we always have a morning prayer, and then I watch to make sure that he gets down the street safely.

I am so thankful for my "alone" time with each of my kids in the morning.  I feel like we are working towards righteous goals.  During this time the kids voice concerns to me and we offer prayers of safety and gratitude.