Back in November we decided that it was time to find a different job, preferably one where Rock could work from home. He has loved working at Fog Creek, but his three hour commute into NYC was wearing on him too much. We also knew we wanted to go back to the west where it’s cheaper and closer to our immediate family. So…after a grueling interview process at several different companies Rock accepted a job at a company called TrackAbout. http://corp.trackabout.com/ They are paying him almost the same salary we are making now AND he gets to work from home! Now he’ll have more time to help out with our homeschool and to pursue his hobby of coding for the Kahn Academy. http://www.khanacademy.org/
Now instead of fabulous catered lunches overlooking New York Harbor, he’ll get to have chicken nuggets and apple slices overlooking the sandbox. But I’m so grateful he is willing to “sacrifice” to be at home with us! And I think he’s very happy to trade in his NYC walking shoes

For his slippers

His office will now be exactly 3 steps from his bedroom instead of 3 hours. Woohoo!

During this whole process, and after an actual interview in Boise, ID, Rock and I feel like Boise is the place for us next. It is right in the middle of both of our families, I have a brother and aunt in Boise, and we can afford a nice house with land for our boys to explore and run free on. (Reagan has informed us that he wants a yard like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. ie. climbing trees, lots of room to hide in and a stream with fish in it.) Rock and I both want a drier climate and with all the great amenities of the Boise area I think we’ll be happy there. We’ll probably move in June when our lease is up here. We have loved our time here in the East. And have loved spending time with all our eastern relatives. It’s been a huge growing experience for all of us. And now we are looking forward to being back in the west and near many of you again!

Every morning my kids work on memorizing the Declaration of Independence. So far they have memorized the first two paragraphs (When in the course of human events… and We hold these truths…). I want them to learn it because I didn’t and most of my generation didn’t. I want them to know and understand it’s important principles. Well this week our hard work paid off! I happened to be listening to some replays from the Republican debates on the radio and when Mitt Romney said the words, “all men are created equal and have a right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” Cade piped up in the backseat, “Hey mom! That’s from the Declaration!” I of course was grinning from ear to ear, thrilled that he recognized it so easily and that he was excited he knew something that presidential candidates know. How many 2nd graders do you know who can do that? I’m only partially bragging here. I think it is worrisome for the future of our country that most of my peers can’t even repeat the Declaration of Independence. How will these principles be passed on if we don’t even know them? Then a few days later I was listening to a talk show where they mentioned those words again and Levi, this time called out, “Mom! We know that!” Even my 4 year old, who hasn’t actually memorized it yet, recognizes the words. I have to say, it made this mother proud! I’m doing at least ONE thing right!

I have been remiss in my reporting of Christmas so here are some highlights from our Christmas break. I think it’s ridiculous that now days kids don’t get two weeks off at Christmas so we took a full two weeks off. First we decorated our house.

These are by far my favorite Christmas craft ever.

And I discovered these this year…

Then we decorated our annual gingerbread house.


Rock decided to go REALLY BIG this year. This home is on acreage!

At least Libby and the gingerbread house were photogenic.

Christmas Morning

They took a quick glance at the other stuff and then tore into the Legos. Santa finally got smart this year and got them exactly what they asked for instead of trying to get them something he figured they would really like instead, which usually ends up being discarded after a day or two and ignored the rest of the year. And just because he got them sleds this year it probably won’t snow much. But then that might have been an inadvertent gift to the snow shoveler in the family.

Levi, our friendly fashion advisor helped Liberty with her stocking stuffers.

It took her a while, but she finally got IN the tent about 3 hours after she first saw it.

And my favorite picture from Christmas morning this year…

The week after Christmas we just played. Me with my new Kindle and they with their new toys. We had great fun and still are! Thanks Santa!

This morning I was having a not very good mommy morning.  Things had been going wrong all morning and I was not at my most patient but I decided to do our Friday cooking project anyway.  Liberty was up in her crib crying to get up, but I figured we could hurry and get the fudge made before I went to get her.  After we poured the fudge into its pan I realized I had forgotten the vanilla and so I had to dump the fudge back into the bowl and re-beat it quickly before it hardened.  The beaters chose that exact moment to break and with a loud grinding noise came to a stop.  I was stressed out and frustrated.  As I looked up from my floundering fudge, there was Reagan holding Liberty all dressed (in matching clothes!) with a diaper change and everything.  (He just learned how to change diapers last week at his request).  I almost cried I was so thrilled at this wonderful helpful surprise.  And how awesome is that?!  He can change diapers and dress babies!  Woohoo!  Sometimes my 9 year old really surprises me with his thoughtfulness.  And he was flying sky high the rest of the day knowing that he’d made mom so happy. 

Today we tried pigtails for the first time and OH MY GOODNESS!  I just had to share her cuteness! (I was a little rushed so the part is not perfect, but still adorable!)

I know it’s pathetic, but I actually got a little weepy she’s so cute.  She’s a GIRL with PIGTAILS and she’s all mine! 

Twas the night before Christmas and all through our house EVERY creature was stirring, even the mouse.  The stockings were hung by the chimney with care and children ran wild all through the air. 

That’s how our night before Christmas went.  We did manage to keep the kids busy all morning cleaning the house for Santa’s arrival.   Always a good thing.  They clean better and work harder than any day of the year!  Seriously, you should ALL have your children clean the house for Santa.  It works wonders! 

Then it was time to wrap presents.  With a toddler around it was just easier to leave the wrapping until the very last minute so as to avoid rewrapping and ruined surprises thanks to curious little fingers.
I should have have seen it coming.  But I didn’t.  I never do see these train wrecks before they are upon me.   I took all three boys into our little office wrapping headquarters to wrap their gifts for Dad and siblings.  The floor was scattered with ribbons and bows, wrapping paper and boxes.  Not to mention scissors.  As soon as I shut the door they literally started bouncing off the walls.  It was like I’d just let them loose in a bouncer house.  All of their pent up Christmas energy just exploded in that little room.  If you had been listening outside the door this is what you would have heard.
”Stop fighting with those tubes!  They are NOT swords until the wrapping paper is gone!”  “Levi, don’t’ touch the scissors.”  “But I want to put on the bows!” tears, fits, etc.  “Cade, hand me the tape.”  “Cade, Hand Me the Tape!”  “CADE! HAND ME THE TAPE!” “Levi, don’t touch the scissors!” “No.  We are NOT changing the gift now-it’s Christmas Eve!!!  I don’t care if you changed your mind!” “Mom, Cade already gave me a clue about my present and I know what it is.”  (note: this happens every year. Cade canNOT keep a secret to save his life.) “Cade, next year you get to find out what you’re giving your brothers when they open it under the tree and NOT BEFORE!” 
At one point while I sat on the floor trying to help the older two wrap their presents, Levi ran around and around us with the red ribbon streaming out behind him as he jumped over scissors and dodged paper tubes.  I was so busy refereeing the wrapping between the other two that I didn’t notice till we were surrounded in several layers of ribbon.  Levi got to leave the room at that point and was only invited in to be the designated bow sticker and present-to-tree deliverer.  Next year maybe we’ll give gift cards instead.

Later we did our traditional nativity play.  Cade finally decided he no longer wanted to be a lowly shepherd and informed Reagan that he was ousting him out of the all important angel role.  His exact words to Reagan were, “I just don’t want to feel afraid anymore.” (referring to the shepherd’s fear of the angel) That didn’t go over too well as you can imagine.  They finally decided to split the deal and Reagan did the Mary/Joseph angel and Cade did the Shepherds angel.  Levi still wanted to be the camel.  Here for your watching enjoyment I give you the camel video from last year to refresh your memories of his talent in the role.

Liberty is almost 18 months old now and a woman of many talents and hobbies.  First, she loves shoes.  I am putting them on and taking them off of her all day long.  Even in her jammies.

Move over Imelda Marcos

She also loves to dance.

I’ve been wanting to capture one of our homeschooling days so you could sneak a peek into our home and see what it’s like. When I was first studying about homeschooling, seeing into other homeschoolers lives for a day was really helpful. Here is what one day at our house looked like a few weeks ago.  This day was Wednesday, November 9th.

I get up at 6:00, shower, pray and study the scriptures.

I wake the boys up between 7 and 7:30. Reagan and Cade have finally both reached the “I would rather sleep in” stage which I am mostly ok with as that hour from 6 to 7 is precious to me! Today it takes three tries to get them up. They climb out of bed and come down to the couch in their jammies and we cuddle on the couch and read a great illustrated version of the Jungle Book. Someone often ends up whining that he can’t see or there’s a scuffle and argument over who gets to sit next to Mom.  Today is one of those days. Once everyone is comfy and non-threatened, they listen peacefully to the story. This is often one of my favorite times in the day. I’ve always wanted to cuddle with them on the couch and blissfully read picture books as the school bus drives by our house. And now we do!

Then we say our family mission which, ironically enough, has a line in it about loving one another in word and deed. Too bad it hasn’t stopped the morning couch scuffle. Then we read the scripture we are memorizing which is 1 Nephi 3:7 this week and sing Nephi’s Courage to go with the scripture. We started memorizing a section of the Declaration of Independence too, “We hold these truths….”. They’ve got the scripture and the Declaration part down now, but we’ll review till next week. Next is family prayer, during which two boys end up in another shoving and pushing match because they can’t keep their arms and elbows to themselves. “There is beauty all around……”

Now it’s breakfast time. Usually it’s cold cereal because they can get it themselves. They get a hot breakfast about once a week if they’re lucky. Rock has to leave early in the morning, so he’s been recording our scripture reading for the day for the boys to listen to while they eat. This works really well and keeps the “Stop looking at me!” fighting down to a minimum. He asks the boys a question at the end to spark a discussion and we get to feel like Dad is there with us. Today we’re reading about the Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s choosing their new name and burying their swords. Lots of good stuff to discuss. Reagan loves this part of the Book of Mormon because he knows we’re close to the Stripling Warriors!

After breakfast they do their morning chores, get dressed and the older boys read their scriptures for 5 minutes. When I’m on the ball, I read to Levi from the Book of Mormon Reader, but today I’m not on the ball so he gets to play while I get Liberty up and get her breakfast. While she eats cheerios, the boys and I do the calendar and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

The first thing we do in the morning is individual work time. The boys do their spelling, reading, piano practice, and any projects they are working on. While they do their work, I spend time with Levi and Liberty. Just as I sit down to practice letters and numbers with Levi, Liberty climbs up on the kitchen table in the other room. “Ok Levi, put these numbers all in order before I get back.” Then I go rescue the table from Liberty. Levi gets all the numbers from 1-10 in order and the pictures that match. Woohoo! We celebrate and then I read the little ones a story. Reagan needs some help with something, so letters will have to wait.

Next is Language: grammar, memory work, writing, and, for Reagan, whose handwriting is horrible, some handwriting practice. Today Reagan is learning adjectives: “This, that, these, those!” we chant over and over. He loves this stuff. Who knew parts of speech could be so engaging. Handwriting, on the other hand is always a fight.  But this is a fight I’m willing to have and win right now.  Then review all the pieces he’s memorized.  For writing he works on a realistic fiction story he chose to write himself about wolves.  Whenever we learn about something in science, they write a narration for it or do something to show what they’ve learned.  This time he writes an awesome story.  It has taken days and he’s still not done, but he is really into it.  And for Reagan and writing this is a miracle!

Break time! We go outside and play in the leaves. Cade has decided to memorize the 13th Article of Faith today and so while I rake leaves, he walks in circles around me saying it over and over again while I correct his mistakes. “Ad-mo-ni-tion, Cade, not ‘admition.’” He starts over. Levi follows Liberty around the yard harassing her more then helping her. She finds a spot to sit down and eat leaves and for a minute I don’t have to worry about her running into the street. Reagan is winding up, getting ready to jump in the pile while swinging his ninja sword. “It’s not high enough, Mom.” I rake some more. Cade keeps walking in circles. “We believe all things, we hope all things … .” Reagan and Levi take turns jumping in the pile of leaves while Cade walks in circles chanting.  “So, um, Cade, you going to join us over here?” “Yeah, just a minute Mom, I gotta get this right first.” Oh boy. Levi is crying again (he’s been crying all day it feels like) because I didn’t fluff the leaf pile up sufficiently. I talk with Levi about asking for things without crying and he tries again. I fluff up the pile to his specifications and he jumps in happily. My neighbor jogs by and I’m glad she sees us at a good moment. Cade finally gets it right and we celebrate. He gets a few jumps in the pile and we go back inside.

Theoretically, Reagan plays with Liberty while I do language with Cade. Today, Reagan sneaks downstairs to get more LEGOS and never returns. So I hold Libby on my lap for Cade’s lesson. She holds her shoes grunting for me to put them on. I do and five minutes later she wants them off again. Then on, then off. We go on like this while Cade is writing down all the proper nouns he can think of in our family. Levi is crying again and so it’s time to bring out the big guns. “Here, Levi, come watch Barney!” He watches an episode and I go back to shoeing Libby and proper nouning with Cade. I am doing a preschool co-op with some other moms and so on Tuesday and Thursdays Levi goes to preschool. He loves it and it’s super helpful having him gone for a few hours. Every 5th week I teach preschool here. It gets a little crazy with nine kids in the house, but it works.

Time for History. Right now we alternate between history and science week.  It gives us more time to study things in depth. In October we took a break from studying the middle ages to learn about the Revolutionary War in preparation for a trip to Boston We just finished up the war, so I tell them that today they need to find some way to show me what they learned. We talk about several ideas but they want to write their own book about it. Oh boy. I had something a little smaller in mind so we could get back to the middle ages, but they are pretty gung ho about it. I guess the Vikings can wait.

Lunch time. I fed Libby and put her down while the boys worked on their war books so now I can read to them while they eat. We’re reading My Side of the Mountain, about a boy who leaves home to go live in the wilderness. Reagan would kill for this chance and we have an ongoing discussion about why it’s not possible for him to do this yet. It’s always a heated discussion and I wonder if I should have waited to read it to them. But it has a peregrine falcon in it so it was the perfect time for Cade.

After lunch they have quiet time for an hour or two. They read, play with LEGO’s or listen to books on tape. Cade is so excited about his Revolution book, he keeps working on it all through quiet time. And after quiet time the rest of the day is theirs to do what they want.  They usually head outside for the rest of the afternoon to climb trees, invent games and play in the dirt.

At 6:00 Dad gets home and we eat dinner.  After dinner Rock teaches the boys math.  I was teaching the boys math during the day, but we  decided to try having Rock do it at night. He loves math and I don’t.  This has been a tremendous help for our school days. They are much more relaxed because we don’t have to get through so much.  I have more time to spend with the little ones and we have more time to go with the flow instead of being so rushed.  We’ll see how it goes, but for right now it’s working well.
I put the little ones to bed while Rock does math.  Then the boys read till bedtime.  They cannot get enough reading.  Every second they get, they are reading.  They’ve been caught many times reading by nightlight lately.  I can’t even get mad at them because I used to do the same thing.  I loved December because I could open my blinds and read by Christmas lights! 

And that, is a day in the life at our house.

Day 3: Boston! 
By this time on our trip we were all tired out. We hadn’t been getting very good sleep. The 2nd night in the hotel was worse than the first night even though we separated all three boys. Rock had gotten no sleep due to a work release gone wrong and I didn’t get much more sleep than him. I suppose we were crazy to try and take on Boston, but we’d come this far and the boys (and I) were excited to see the sights, so we headed into town.

First stop: The  Boston temple!

Once in Boston we walked the Freedom Trail which takes you to most of the important historical sights.

Park Street Church

Granary Burying Ground where several big names are buried

Paul Revere

John Hancock

Samuel Adams

The Old South Meeting House, where the Boston Tea Party began

The boys LOVED the thought of the colonists dressing up as Indians here.

Paul Revere’s House

Our last stop was the Old North Church where hung the famous Two Lanterns. “One if by land, two if by sea.” This was another place I’ve longed to see all my life. Right there in that top window sat the two lanterns! That’s just so cool!

This huge statue of Revere stands in front of the church. He is truly larger than life now for my boys. A real hero for them.

Exhaustion took over at this point and we had to quit before we’d seen everything. The boys were really bummed they couldn’t go to Bunker Hill and reenact their favorite line, “Don’t shoot till you see the whites of their eyes!” and I was really bummed not to be able to see the sight where the Boston Tea Party happened. But both were too far away and I had a long night of driving ahead of me so we called it quits. Someday Rock and I will go back so I can take all the tours and go in every building!  To ease the disappointment we took the kids to Dunkin Donuts. My wonderful exhausted husband took all the kids in by himself so I could get a 20 minute nap in the car.


Yum.

I then drove home by myself with the kids (Rock was staying in Boston for a conference.) It was the worst traffic I have ever driven in. A four hour trip took five and the only way I made it home awake was by eating lots of sugar and Doritos! My system revolted from all that junk that I haven’t eaten in a long time and it made my long day a very long night as well.

But it was worth it! The boys loved the trip and really got a lot out of it, I think. Hopefully they’ll be able to remember this trip years from now, but if not, I hope it at least instilled in them an appreciation for their country and the great men and women who fought to make it free.

Yep, that’s right. Levi missed his second home in the ER too much and so today we had to take him back for a visit.
He was told over and over that on pain of death was he ever to touch Reagan’s pocket knife. Today the temptation became too great for him and he ended up with a BIG TIME natural consequence from of it. (And a very thorough tongue lashing from Dad.) While trying to close the knife he sliced his finger something awful. He tried to hide it by attempting to get his own band aid, but that didn’t work out too well for him and he had to call in a parent.
He is now so comfortable with the whole ER process that he just jabbered away telling the doctors and nurses all about his birthday plans and regaling them with renditions of The Itsy Bitsy Spider all while they were stitching him up. If only they served popcorn with the movie they put in for him, he’d never want to come home!
Do you think we could get some money out of the Guinness Book of World Records people when he wins ‘Most Stitches Before the Age of Five contest? By the way, for those who are curious, his total (after the five he got today) is now up to 30.

“Just call me Stitch.”