Fun with packing peanuts

Have you seen the packing peanuts made from rice? Well, my kids love them because when you lick them they will stick together and you can build things. My dad knows how much my kids enjoy these things so he brought a bag of them for us to Thanksgiving at my sister's house. We brought them home and the kids had a great time with them.

Wonderful hair styles

Seeing as how my sister is the hair person, the girls are always excited to have her do their hair instead of me. These are way out of my league so it was fun to see the girls enjoy the different styles! These were the ones they had for their cousin's baptism. Marissa and Emily slept in theirs and they were fine. Kemiah and Xiomara got different ones for Sunday but I didn't get pictures of them. Now that I think about it, they all had matching styles on the Sunday before Thanksgiving so that was fun, too!

Emily had at least 9 ponytails that all connected to each other. Wow.

Kemiah and Xiomara had the same style but I only got a picture of Kemiah. I really like how it goes up her head!


Marissa also enjoyed a different style. I hope it adds to the fun memories they make with their Aunt Alise!

First real hair cut

The kids and I went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving, so we had to get hair cuts. For Kemiah and Domonique this was a first. They both did great, so it was a pleasant experience. I was sad to see the blond ends cut from Kemiah's hair but it needed to be done. Domonique just had a bit off the back because she still doesn't really have anything on the top.

Kemiah before:



Kemiah after:


Domonique before:

Domonique after:



All the other kids had cuts, too. Ben's hair was really long so it was quite the change when she cut it off. The other girls just got bangs cut so I didn't take pictures of them. I also got my hair cut, of course. I just can't help myself but nothing crazy, just a straight cut right above my shoulders. Thanks Sis!

Both happy and sad

Emily had a loose tooth and since I don't like dealing with that, I decided to have my Dad take care of it while we were at my sister's house for Thanksgiving. He was happy to do it and Emily was ready for him to try. (I had already tried a little while back but it wouldn't come out for me.) This time it came out just fine so this is what she's looking like these days.


That other top tooth came out a while ago but hasn't started to grow in. Oh well.

Two days later, she fell down on the wood play set in the backyard and landed on her face. Her nose took most of the punishment but she also had a red spot on her forehead and a bit of a fat lip. Poor thing. I'm sure it will heal up just fine but the nose is tender for now.

Not the only one.

Although Marissa is the only dark haired child in our family, she is no longer the only left handed child. Domonique is certainly showing some left handed preferences and here's the proof!




My grandmother was left handed. I have an aunt who is left handed, as well as a cousin (and one of her daughters is as well). My younger sister is left handed. Kevin's mother is left handed and so is his brother. I guess you could say it's in the family so we aren't surprised.

Long over due!

Way back a while ago, Marissa got glasses. I finally took a before and after picture of her just so you could see. Of course, she isn't as good about wearing them as Ben is so she you'll see her more often than not without them on. I'm trying to get her to wear them more but maybe we need to have them adjusted again because she complained about them hurting behind her ears.

Seriously Hooked

Domonique is our first pacifier baby. She only gets it at nap time and night time (and some times when we are driving in the car), but recently she has figured out how to get it more often than that. I caught her in the act one day, getting at the pacifier that I keep in my backpack. She couldn't get it off the line that it was hooked on but that didn't stop her.

Putting it in upside down.

Turning it around.

Perfect!

Sweet silly baby girl!

Harvesting

It is that time of year again. Our neighbor came out to harvest the beans he had planted. We all heard the harvester start up, noisy old thing! We were all drawn outside to watch and eventually Ben asked if he could have a ride. Sure enough, Greg was willing to take the boy on a ride. Not only that, but then all the girls wanted a ride, so they all got to ride on the big harvester. When Ben got back he said, "I watched and figured out how it works." Then he proceeded to explain to me how it was all done. Once the machine was full, Greg brought it over to empty it and that was really fun to watch, too, but I didn't get any pictures of that part. I'm a slacker, for sure. I also only got pictures of Ben in the harvester but you can't really tell so just picture each of the kids up in this big machine. What a fun time! Thanks Greg!

No longer 3!

She's happy to move on to the number 4! On the 5th of this month we celebrated for most of the day her happy birthday. Due to Stake Conference training and adult session that night we didn't have cake and presents until Sunday. She was fine with that and we got to enjoy celebrating for two days!

She helped me make pancakes on Saturday morning, complete with stop lights, smiley faces, and even one with her initials. We all enjoyed them with vanilla ice cream and syrup. I ran out to the mail box to see if her card was there and, sure enough, it was there (because I didn't pick up mail on Friday). She enjoyed opening that and then I passed out balloons - always a hit!



We all worked outside with wood - stacking, hauling, splitting, etc. Then we came in for lunch - Ramen. Of which Kemiah didn't eat very much, which is actually nice because she threw up after that. We quickly got ready to go to the Stake Center for our meetings and the kids did great in one of the rooms watching movies!

Sunday we enjoyed Stake Conference, we were there in time to snag some chairs in the last row of soft seats. We ate doughnuts in the parking lot when we were done - it was lunch time. I wrapped the presents when we got home and made dinner - German pancakes. It was yummy and then we waited for Grandma and Grandpa Nichols to arrive with the cake. It was a cute little frog!



She enjoyed opening presents and was not at all impressed with the four green paper things that came in the card from Grandma and Grandpa Nichols. I think it was a great two day celebration!

Enough of that already.

It all started last Wednesday, in the middle of the night. Kemiah woke me up with a complaint about her head hurting and her tummy not feeling well. I sat her on the toilet, even though she said she didn't have to go. She went and then got a drink. Then she threw up the water onto the floor. I quickly faced her to the sink for anything else that might come out. She had a fever of 103.1 so I gave her medicine and hoped it would stay down. It did and she was fine the next day! Saturday she threw up again, without any warning, on the kitchen floor. Oh bother. I put her in the tub while I cleaned up the mess. Then cleaned her up. I hoped that was the end but it was only the beginning. I had intestinal pain on Monday. Domonique threw up Tuesday morning and had a fever of 101.3 in the afternoon. Marissa threw up Tuesday night. Kemiah woke up in the middle of the night with a fever on Wednesday. I was sick all that day, Marissa was recovering, and Ben decided he couldn't be left out so he threw up, too. Today we have all been recovering - trying to eat so we can have energy again. I had a doctor appointment so Kevin came home (a friend was going to watch the kids but I didn't want to spread the sickness) and while I was gone Emily threw up. The only one left is Xiomara. I don't know if she'll give in and throw up tomorrow or maybe we'll be done with all this nonsense! I know this is exactly what you wanted to hear about - but really that's what we've been up to the last week! Of course, we also celebrated Kemiah's 4th birthday on Saturday so maybe I'll work on that post tonight.

Imagine my dismay...

when I went out to the garden to dig up some potatoes to make potato chowder for dinner last night. These were the first things I found as I dug around.


You're kidding right? It would take a lot of these little babies to make the chowder I was planning on for dinner. What a bother. I moved to a different section of potatoes and hoped I would find something different. Fortunately, these grew much better so I was delighted to wash off five of the larger potatoes and they were just right in the chowder.

Artistic Side of the Boy

The past week or so Ben has really been getting artsy. We had a project for school but I wasn't very good about getting it going. A few days later Ben asked about the project and since he was done with all his school work for the day I decided he could go ahead and do the project. Here are the results.


He made the project a little more difficult than was necessary because he didn't want the back to look bad so he made two copies of the black paper to sort of frame the colored tissue paper so both sides look just as nice. He said he was disappointed with both of them, but I hope inside he's happy because I think they both turned out great.

He then drew a few pictures with colored pencils. The second one I didn't take a picture of because he didn't finish it and crumpled it up. We talked about it and he made the third one (second one pictured below, and for some reason blogger keeps loading it sideways so sorry you have to turn your head to see it right). He was disappointed in the perspective in the pictures (i.e. the bundles of wheat being so much taller than the man). We talked about it and figured out what he could do on the next one and he tried again. Once it was done, he still didn't like it. We talked more and decided he'd just keep trying.



That's how it goes some times. You do your best and then when you're done you decide how to do it better the next time. I'm a little concerned about his perfectionism but if we can keep working on it then maybe he won't be so hard on himself. And at the same time he'll be willing to push himself to do better and not settle for less.