Liberty’s coat is nice and warm….and big.

Who needs an air bag when you’ve got a coat like this?

The other day I found Liberty actually trying to make herself pink with a marker. 

Do you think we should go see a shrink?

Levi John Hymas turned the big Five this week.  He is STILL very much into foxes so we made him a fox cake.

He got one of the Lego characters he’s been wanting from his brothers.

And something he’s been dreaming of since last Christmas.

One of our Christmas traditions is to wrap up all our Christmas books (+ one new one) each year and put them under the tree to open each night of December. 

The new one this year was President Monson’s story of the train he gave to the neighbor boy down the street.  He told the story when I was a little girl and I Still remember it.  I was so excited to find that they made it into a children’s book!

Last night, Reagan got to read.

One of my favorites stories is The Last Straw by Paula Palangi McDonald.  It’s the story of a mother who wants to help her four small children stop fighting and feel the spirit of Christmas so they draw names to serve each other every week until Christmas Eve.  Each time they serve their person they put a piece of straw into a little wooden manger for the baby Jesus to sleep in Christmas Eve.  This mother’s approach had the desired affect and so we decided to implement it.  It is so fun to watch the kids serve each other and us.  But Reagan is by far the best at it.  He is always watching and waiting for the chance to serve.  He remembers every day when the rest of us sometimes forget.  This week he picked Liberty’s name. He has been giving her piggy back rides, changing her diaper and getting her breakfast, among other services.  But this one was my favorite. 

All on his own he set up a tea party for her.  He got them all dressed up (note the boa and purse, though the glasses and ties are a nice touch too), set the table and poured the water.  It was awesome!  I love my sweet, thoughtful, loving boy.  (And so does Liberty!)

Around our house we’re getting into the Christmas spirit.  We started by decorating our tree.


When Liberty saw the tree for the first time she said, “That’s a tree.  It is taller than me.”

Now the kids have the perfect hiding place to do their reading!


For those who are curious, Reagan is reading Lord of the Rings and Cade is reading Harry Potter 3. Rock recently fulfilled his life long dream of reading the Hobbit to the boys and Reagan decided to dive right into LotR. I was amazed. Never thought he’d make it past the first chapter, but he did!

We watched the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional on Sunday and when Liberty saw President Monson she said, “It’s President Monster!”

This year we are getting to see what a contrast there is between Christmas with a girl and Christmas with boys.  I blogged several years ago about Christmas with boys:

This is the nativity… after an explosion.

This is the nativity… after Liberty.

Sugar and spice and everything nice.  Sorry, but it’s true.

This is what Levi has been working on in school this year:

This Thanksgiving we are thankful to have so much family nearby.  We had the Byams, the Derek Wesels and Alli over for Thanksgiving. 

I used the opportunity to get my first nice set of dishes and a new tablecloth.  I love doing this kind of thing so I had lots of fun with it.  Here’s the spread!

Here are the place cards the kids helped me make.

Aren’t leave rubbings awesome!!!  I love fall!

And now for the most important part of Thanksgiving-the People!

Cute little Dustin in Liberty’s doll stroller.

Cutting the turkey

Too many screens!!!

Cleaning off the turkey.  I’m so glad Uncle Calvin was willing to do this most disgusting job! 

Dessert!  Alli was shocked at the number of yummy options. 

Lincoln REALLY got into his chocolate pie.

 
Liberty, on the other hand, was so tired, she couldn’t get into her chocolate pie.  She sat like this for at least a minute.

Hope you all had a happy, deliriously tiring Thanksgiving! 

Watching the destruction of Hurricane Sandy in our favorite East Coast states of New York and New Jersey was hard for us.  New Jersey will always have a special place in our hearts and so we decided to do something to help.  As a family we raked leaves here in Boise to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief.  Here’s our cool flyer:

We even made a website where people could go to sign up.  We passed out about 50 flyers, but only had a handful of people sign up.  We were able to raise over $100.00, though.  It was lots of work, but it was such a great experience for the kids.

I will say that it was more work to keep the kids on task and raking than it was to actually do the raking, but such is life with little kids.  And ironically enough, if I had to give out a “Hardest Worker” award it would go to Levi.  He is the smallest, but he worked hard MOST of the time.  Way to go Levi John!

We did let them play a little bit.

When we were done at Byams, Uncle Calvin made us his “internationally” famous pancakes.  They were very yummy and the boys are STILL talking about them.

Thank you to all those who helped us with this service project.  Our thoughts and prayers are still with you, New Jersey!

I recently started a Lego Club for my boys and several other kids with another homeschool mom.  So far it’s been lots of fun.

First challenge: write your name.

Next challenge: using just the legos from your kit, see how long a creation you can make.

We helped out at Aunt Janie’s farm last week with all the kids.  The kids had lots of fun and worked hard-mostly.

I didn’t anticipate how cold it would be so Aunt Janie let us borrow some hats. They were just a little bit too big. I love his ears.
 

We loaded three or four truck loads of wood! 

Even Liberty helped out.

We’ll be back to help out with the rest of the leaves!  Thanks for giving us a chance to serve, Byams!  Somehow you escaped without being in any of our pictures, but we’ll get you next time!

Reagan hit double digits last month!  It’s hard to believe it.  Seems like just yesterday…. ok, I won’t make you read a sappy mother’s trip down memory lane. 

Reagan has grown up quite a bit this year.  He is thoughtful and very aware of other’s feelings.  If he sees someone suffering or hurt in any way his heart is touched and he wants to help and often does.  Most of the time he is acutely aware of how his actions or what he says could affect someone.  Watch out when he sees any injustice in the world-it’s not pretty.  He has recently made a new best friend in our neighborhood/ward.  He is very much into politics and has a keen sense of his liberty and even, to his mother’s horror, asked his new best friend if he was a republican.  The world is very black and white for Reagan.  It’s a good thing he has his father, because the world is very black and white for me too, I’m afraid. 

I dropped him off at Webelos the other night and the thought struck me that now, especially in light of the new age requirements for missionaries, we have had Reagan in our home longer than we have left with him in our home.  The thought was sobering and sad to me.  Made me cry a little.  I thought of all we have left to teach him and it was overwhelming.  Then when I shared this sad, sobering thought with Rock, he just cheered and said, “We’re more than half way done!”  Typical.

Here are the birthday highlights.

Nine 10 year olds.  Believe it or not, it was much calmer than his 8th birthday party.

He had a Ninjago lego party.  That is a Ninjago figure cake. 

Letting Liberty help open presents.

Harry Potter #4.  We’ve been holding him off for a while now.  Thus the reaction.

Dart guns from his siblings.  They now have a full set again and enough darts to have a good war.  They’ve had a dart gun fight every day this week.

Levi had a good time at the party.  A sucker from the piñata AND birthday cake.  Go sugar overdose.

Happy Birthday, Reagan!  We love you!