Families

For Family Home Evening we've had our children covering topics found in For the Strength of Youth. Rachel covered "Family" last night. We've been trying to get them to gear it towards the little kids, but so far they've just read out of the pamphlet and some of the scriptures that go with it.

Rachel was quite creative last night. She decided to interview the different kids for their definition of a family and end in a group hug. The results were funny, cute and thoughtful. Here are her results:

Moroni (3): Family? Family is a herd of a family. Is a run of a family.

Ruth (5): It means we have a lot of kids, we have a mom and a dad and one of us is part of this family of mom's and dad's from birth.

Sam (7): Your brothers and sisters and mom and dad. There were two people on earth, Adam and Eve, who had a family ad one of the kids gets married, has a family and it keeps going on and on. All of the families are forever.

Ben (9): People that love. I think family should be nice to each other and having a family is nice and without a family... I don't know what would happen.

Mary (11): People that you grow up with.

Rachel (12): The interviewer - After interviewing everyone I had a little time to think, hearing what everyone thinks about the *word* family is like knowing what they think of *their* family. 'Cause we speak from experience and it's a hard thing to talk and think about since we are still experiencing it. You only have on family so it's nice to think about how much you appreciate it.

Rebekah (14): Basic social unit consisting of a parent and child; also eternal.

Joseph (15): People you're born with. And some are adorable children and others are nice too.

Kissing Boys

Ruth (4): I kiss boys a lot, but only if I have lipstick.

Sleeping

While my kids sleep an average amount of time, it seems like about half of the pictures I ever take are of them sleeping. Sometimes it's the funny way/spot they fell asleep. But sometimes, like in this photo, it just an ahhhhh moment... the kind that melts a mother's heart.

EEEWWW

Opening Scene: Cat vomit on floor

Me: Sam, I'd pay you to clean that up.

Sam: (looks at vomit, looks at mom) Okay, but can I wash my hands after?

The Day We've Been Waiting For

So Ruth, out of no where this morning, exclaimed that "the next day will be the day we've been waiting for. Obama will be elected out of office." I hope she's right.

Extra Lives

Ruth: Hey Joseph, I have two lives.

Joseph: So will you lose one if I kick you?

Ruth: Only if you kick me hard until I bleed and then I die. But don't do that 'cause I want both of my lives.

Joseph: Oh. Where'd you get your extra life?

Ruth: From Jesus. He gave his life to me. When I was sleeping.

Happy Baby

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I love being a mom!!!

Sharing

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Ruth decided to share her yogurt with Adam.

Things PARENTS Say

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"Okay... Who cut the kittens whiskers?"

Sleeping Babes

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Let sleeping babes lie.

Grasshoppers

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Adam has discovered our favorite cookies. Need I say more?

Full Mouth

Rebekah: "Sam, can you please not talk with your mouth full?"
Sam: "Ok. But my mouth's not full."
Rebekah: "[eye roll] Can you please not talk with food in your mouth?"

Growing Up

Okay, so I know it's really hard to see in this picture, so I'll just post the significance. Joseph's mark on our 'Growth Wall' has surpassed mine and Robert's.

He's going to eat all of them!!!

Ruth was watching Jurassic Park III (I know, not your typical movie for a 4-year old, but she started it from the Roku box). I peeked in on her and she said "Mom, 2 people already died. The dinosaur's so hungry. Soon he's going to eat all of them. Giggle giggle."
Should I be worried?

Christmas Fun at the Pool

This last weekend we took a last minute trip up to the Dells. We got a really good rate on a condo, took up food for dinner and breakfast and spent Friday and Saturday swimming away. Here are some pictures.

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Finally Snow

It's been unseasonably warm in Wisconsin. In fact, November was one of those record warm Novembers. We did have a little snow just before Thanksgiving, but it was gone awful fast. The kids put out a bowl to catch snow for snow cream, but we didn't get enough. Well last week we got our first real snow fall... okay a snow fall enough for snow cream and for Ben to get paid to shovel our walk. However, on Monday Ben was complaining about how little snow there was 'cause he wanted to play in it.
Fast forward to today. More snow when we woke up. Snow cream again. But it's supposed to really wail on us this afternoon and all day tomorrow. The kids can't wait for the snow plow to plow the dead end street. It usually packs it up into a huge hill and the kids have a snow fort in it all winter long. Until then they've been sledding down our sloped lawn.
Rachel bundled up Moroni and took him out to play. He really likes and tolerates being out in the cold. Most two year olds I have will go out for about 5 minutes and then want back in.
I was helping Sam into snow pants and snowboots and a coat. Then I steered him back to the garage to go get some gloves. He said, "Do I really need all this stuff?" Yeah, Sam, ya do!

A Cell You Can Eat

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Today I made a cell that you would be able to eat. Though I advise you not to because it was made out of all kinds of grows things put together. Though I like bread, Jello, grapes, bananas, and carrots. I don't like them together. The first thing I did was I went down to the storage room and got lemon jello. We mixed it up and then I put one bag in a plastic cup. The plastic cup stood for the cell wall. That one was the plant cell. I filled it with half of the jello and then I took my other bag and put it in a bowl (so it didn't spill) and I poured the rest of the jello into it. That one was the animal cell. The bags stood for the cell membrane and the jello would stand for the cytoplasm. Then I took the dried prunes out and we cut them open. The prunes would be the nucleus. I took some carrot shreds and stuffed the dried prunes with it. the shredded carrots stood for the chromosomes. Then I put one stuffed dried prune into each bag. Then I took one piece of bread and rolled it till it was really thin (like a tortilla). I folded it up a bunch. Then I cut it to squares. That was the ER. Then I took dried prunes and cut them up like raisins. Then I stuck them in between the bread. Those were the Ribosomes. Then I put one of each in the bags. Then I took some thin slices on banana, stacked them on top of each other and put some in each bag. The banana slices stood for the Golgi body. Then I put in some mandarin oranges. The mandarin oranges stood for the mitochondria. Then I got some grapes and put them in the plant cell bag. They stood for the chloroplasts. Then I tied them up and put them in the fridge to freeze a little. When I pulled them out they were my own edible cells. :D ~ Rachel

The Unit Box

When any of the kids (school age) complete a unit, they can pick a prize out of the unit box (or a can of soda or an ice cream). Sam completed a unit in Math today and we went out to the freezer to see what kinds of ice creams there were. Upon choosing a popsicle I let Ruth have one with him.

Sam said, "Ruth when you get older you have to complete a unit to get one... you can't just ask. That's what I used to do when I was a child, but now I have to complete a unit."

Special Delivery

Delivering Adam was SO exciting! Doctor Cardwell, who reminds me of Bruce Willis and my Brother-in-law Jim Butts - because he's tall, bald, and amazingly calm under pressure, asked me if I wanted to do the delivery. So as the baby started to crown, I kept wondering when I was supposed to jump in. But once the head was ready to emerge, the doctor stepped back and let me ease the head out of the baby chute. Then I had to turn the head to the left and press down so that the shoulder could emerge. Once the shoulder was through, Adam just slid right out. I pulled him out the rest of the way and he laid there on the bed while the doctor suctioned his mouth to clear out the baby juice. Then I handed him to the nurse and we went over to the warmer to clean all vernix off him. He occasionally cried, but calmed down right away and just laid there.

It was an amazing experience - if any of you have a doctor who is willing to let you do the delivery - you should definitely do it! The doctor stays right there to assist (so that you don't mess up). I was rather nervous about doing it, but Doctor Cardwell was so calm and helpful that I was able to just enjoy the experience without any worries.

Adam sleeps a lot right now and doesn't really cry much - he's a very contented baby and seems rather snuggly. The kids are SO excited. Ruth refused an opportunity to go jump on the trampoline this morning so that she could protect Wanda and the baby 'from lightning'. The whole family is thrilled to have Baby Adam finally join us.

I'm off work for two weeks to help Wanda and then I'll be off every Monday and Friday to help ease her back into the normal schedule. Wanda is up and moving today (she just went to the store for blue balloons) and seems to be recovering quickly. She's sore from the after-contractions of course, but she doesn't complain. We're looking forward to her mother visiting in a few weeks.

Name Change

After much discussion, voting, debate his full name is:
Adam Jacob Husted.