December - in pictures (with Benson Commentary)

"This is me going to get hit by a sled"
(or making a snow angel)

"This is my family"

"These are my kids"

"This is my friend, Batman"

"This is my family going SUPER fast down the hill"

"These are my Aunties"
(and mom)

"I want to open those Jammies again"
(Christmas Eve)

"This is Jaymeson and Benson"
(and the rest of the family on Mom's birthday)

"It's a big snowman and a small snowman and a little, tiny snowman!
Because we have scarfs on the snowmans."

"It's Santa Claus!"

"I'm giving Santa a hug!"
(He actually ran back after we left because he felt it was important.)

"We're getting on a sled and doing this.
Then the reindeers are going to fly"

"It Spiderman, ME, Spiderman!"

Steam Engine Education

While reading "Story of the World" today, we learned about Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin and other life altering events of the enlightenment.  The first one was the Steam Engine.

Me: So, a steam engine works because when you boil water, you get what?
Saryn: Steam!
Kienna: Beer!

I laughed so hard, Kienna thought for a second and then realized she was thinking of a whole other process involving apple juice and fermentation.  She obviously thought it was so interesting last time that she's trying to apply it in all situations.

"So, it's been like a year."

Goal:  Summarize events since last informative post (July-ish) in 10-15 sentences.  Go!

Much of the summer fun from last year included cousins - Alanna and her boys came for 6 weeks and we had a blast (Sundance Lake, Camping BY MYSELFwith 7 kids and many more fun posts that could come off of that)!  We also went camping with the Cahoon side, had an extended Cahoon reunion (like 130+ people) and topped it off with my my sister, Kimberly getting married on Aug 17 (more pictures and info to come - hopefully).

School was a big "to do" this year with trying the public system after homeschooling.  After a month, we took Kienna out and then (after much begging on her part - despite her love of her teacher and classmates) we took Saryn out in January.  We are currently trying to figure out what to do next fall as I have decided that homeschooling and public schools both have major perks, but doing both at the same time takes most of them away (as does teaching piano and theory).

Most of the difficulty in the decision making for the fall (between school and a teaching schedule) is due to arrival of Cahoon baby #6 (girl #4) coming in June!  We are extremely excited, surprised, busy and ecstatic because of this news that we received in the fall - and the kids are beyond thrilled, too!

The kids have been extremely busy with school, music lessons, swimming lessons and just helping out around the house.  Kaia has grown around 6 inches in the last year.  Both Kaia and Kienna are preparing to take music exams in June.  Saryn has started the piano and put violin on hold (Jaymeson, too, put guitar on hold until he's a little older) and has really simplified things for me in the process.  Jaymeson started Kindergarten and is enthusiastic and having a blast (today he did a science presentation to his class about an elastic guitar he made).  And Benson is a little monkey, but is as cute as can be (as I've shown in a few random posts).

Jarett and I were also able to go on a little week trip to Florida - which was awesome, but WAY too fast!

One sentence to spare - wow!  For those who know who long winded I like to be, this should be very impressive!!  Of course, with this "postlude" I've gone over, but hey, I'm not perfect!  Hopefully this will be the beginning of another spurt of posts... it really is a much better recording of life than facebook, and more likely to happen than journal writing.  Until next time...

Missing Benson - but this was the crew while camping

Camping with my kids and two nephews - actually much easier than I thought, and a ton of fun!

Sundance Lake with the Moody cousins

Favorite Camping Pic

Extended Cahoon Reunion - Grandma Joyce

Kim and Nathan get married!!

Camping Cahoon Style

First Day of School (Public System)

Saryn is the coolest older sister ever - reads books, but also plays "maps" and builds forts with these boys constantly

We cut down the trees in our side yard - my first time with a chain saw.  Super fun!

Jose...

Apparently when Benson tells us something exciting we have responded with "No Way, Jose!" too many times.  I

Now when we say "No way!", it has become Benson's standard response to say "Yes, Jose!"

He also dances constantly to every 'Frozen' song.  He knows all the moves that the characters do, and has them down to an art.

This kid brings such a fun energy to our house!

Singing "Let it Go"

Todays Quotes

Mom: Good morning Benson!  Are you the only one awake?
Benson: No, Jay and Saryn is awake... and the ladybugs are all dead.

(This continued on to a whole conversation about how he likes bugs, just not ladybugs.  Not sure where it all came from though.)


Mom:  Okay guys, let's quickly get your room clean - shouldn't take too long because we cleaned it yesterday and then we can have some fun.  Kienna and Saryn, however, you need to do your schoolwork because we didn't get ahead last week.*
Kienna: Yeah, that was YOUR fault mom.

*Last week we made it a goal to get two days of schoolwork done each day so they could have this week off while Kaia and Jaymeson were home.  Every day I printed out all assignments needed to be completed to achieve this goal.  I laid out their work, I reminded them at least 20-30 times per day that they wanted to work ahead.  I printed out a daily schedule of what needed to be accomplished.  Alas, by Wednesday, the kids were starting to fall behind on what their daily work load, let alone their goal of working ahead a week.  I suggested to Kienna that she keeps going on two days of math per day, but maybe just try to get her daily stuff done for her other core subjects and then at least she wouldn't have to do math for a week.  This is how this is suddenly my fault.  Oh, Kienna...

Mom:  Benson, I love you SO much *big hug*
Benson:  Mom, you just squeezed me so hard that it hurt my heart.


And one from a few weeks ago that I just remembered:

Benson:  Mom, those silly girls won't let me play with them. *gets teary*  It broke my heart.

Benson

Recently Benson has been cracking me up!  If he says something and I'm not sure what he means, he puts on a funny face and says, "awk-ward".  It he'll just randomly blurt it out when it's a quiet moment - just to make everyone laugh.

His other phrase he's just started to say has been "That's not the point!"  He says this especially when he's upset or we're singing the wrong words to a song.

I've been teaching him his alphabet.  Today is the letter 'W'.  I took out Jaymeson's home reading book that says "We love bananas"  Or "We love apples" on every page so that he could see a lot of 'W'.  I said, "what's this, Benson?"  His response, "Nos gustan bananas".  My dad had read him the book last weekend in Spanish and Benson thought it was so hilarious that he now calls bananas "gustan bananas" because that's what Grandpa calls them.

He's also pretty much potty trained!  It took a while for him to care, but once I bought him a Percy train (his favorite from Thomas the train), he started to do everything on his own and even asked him teacher in primary to take him to the bathroom yesterday.  Apparently we just need to stop him from taking ALL his clothes off each time.  I can't believe how much he is growing up.  He really cracks me up every day and is just so very cute!!

(The last picture is of him doing a pirate dance because he IS a pirate when he wears his pirate jammies)

Some Serious Updating (iPhone update #2)

I just Benson that he was so cute.  He didn't even pause before saying, "Mom, you so cute too!"  He's turning into such a sweet boy - with minor bursts of mischief.  Frequently.

 

This happens way more often than I would like.  On walls as well as bed spreads and couches.

Don't let his Superman cape deceive you.  He can be a "Super" handful.  I believe this picture was taken immediately after he had pulled the sink head out and flooded the entire kitchen floor (and leaking into the basement where the missionaries are living).  It's a good thing he's "Super" cute!

But when he falls asleep, he's SO cute!!

and when he sings...

 *I'll try to post this video again soon*

Speaking of flooding - Benson may have caused ours, but the High River flood has caused some incredible damage.  I've had the opportunity to go and help some people gut their basements a couple times now and it's so humbling to see the disaster out there.  Railroad tracks overturned, boats strewn across the highway and many houses a complete wreck.  It's put a new priority on "stuff" for me.  Family is really all that matters.

That's also why I've been so excited that my sister, Brittany has come home!!  She moved back in April and we have been in heaven to have her back around!

I love that my Dad is out there on the trampoline too.  He's such a great Grandpa.  It was his birthday in May and we were able to go bring him a Peanut Buster Parfait and surprise him at work.  It was so much fun!

Really the best thing these days is just hanging out and playing.

It's especially been fun to see the boys play so well together!!  Life is going to get much easier from here on out!

It might look like Jay wasn't having so much fun here, but he did it all by himself.  Lol.  He makes me laugh!

Of course, dinner and a movie in Pajamas always takes the cake on a nice relaxing evening!

We got to see Weird Al, Jenny Oaks Baker and the Piano Guys over the past few months.  I'm realizing how much that shows that we have a very diverse taste in music.  All 3 concerts were fantastic!!

 

This was after Time Out for Women.  Jenny Oaks Baker is my girls new hero!

 Weird Al is awesome!  He really puts on a show.  It's not just a concert.  Second time going, and hopefully won't be the last!  This was during the Jungle Cruise Ride song.  Hysterical!

We got to meet the piano guys after the concert and took pictures, but I haven't put them on the computer yet.  They are the most awesome, humble musicians ever and totally what I would love my family to be like one day.  This was during a trip to Vegas.  I think I could be a roadie for them.  Lol.  My girls need to see them perform live!

The older girls trained hard for the triathlon with me and have kept busy.  Kienna turned 9 last week (yikes) and we went to Calaway to celebrate.  It's been fun to spend some time with just them in both of these events!

The cake I made for the family party yesterday.  My darling Mother-in-law made cupcakes for the Calaway trip.  Saved me a LOT of craziness.

 Oh and we also were able to go to a ballet a few months back.  That was also a great event for just us girls (although we all could've done with a little more clothing on the dancers).

Grandpa Bucey broke his foot overworking - yet again, so we got to go with the Youth and help him plant his garden.  The kids had so much fun learning about gardening.

That's pretty much it.  With summer comes a much more lose schedule, but we're still trying to get our scripture study in, which goes SO smooth and we all look this happy all the time!  NOT!!!  But it's worth it (or so they tell me).  ;)

Best Mom Ever!

 I'm pretty sure I just won the "Mom of the Year" Award.  I was cleaning out my kids closet two days ago and found this Mother's Day card that Kaia wrote in Primary.  I was wondering why all the other kids gave me theirs and not her.  I guess I now know.

My favorite part is when she crosses out "smart" and puts "know-it-all".  And "When she is not lecturing me, it makes me so happy".  I also love that she crosses out the word 'rocks' in the "My mom rocks!" sentence.  Can't say this was my favorite card ever, but I know it was done "light-heartedly".  Still, when you feel it's a weakness, it's not the most fun to receive.  Either way, that's my Kaia.  She will always let you know where she's sitting.  I guess that can be a good thing, right?

Letter to Portugal

I figured that since I write in my blog about as often as I write Brooklyn who is on her mission in Portugal, I'd just take some of that letter and put it here for reference.  Enjoy:


I'm so sorry that I've been a terrible writer.  Technically I have no excuse, but life just goes SO fast.  Cleaning up from the floods etc. has been crazy!!  We've been in Vegas and then doing a complete re-organization of the house to get rid of any extras that we can send to the evacuees from the floods.  The kids are done school, but we've been having fun just chillin' and getting stuff done.  Jaymeson just got a guitar that is really sweet... Kaia is learning some Wicked songs on her violin and Kienna got the Les Mis book for cello.  I went and saw Les Mis and it was amazing!!  Benson is so crazy busy - and it just keeps getting worse.  Today he toilet papered my bathroom by dipping it all in the toilet and throwing it around the bathroom.  It looked like giant spitballs (but toilet water) stuck to the mirror, the shower and all over the floor.  It was SO gross.  We saw Piano Guys when we were in Vegas and it was amazing.  We also saw a Cirque de Soleil and had our minds blown (actually just about a week after we saw this performance, one of the people died while doing it - crazy!!). 

I got to clean the temple on Thursday night - it was SO awesome.  I actually got to go down under the font and dust the oxen which is SO cool, because how often do you get to go down there??! (I got to vacuum all the mens change rooms too, which I also never get to go in, but it just didn't have the same thrill behind it).  Somehow, life has seriously just been going 100 miles a minute and I feel like I never get a second to think... but it's been the good stuff.  Can't complain about that.

Speaking of time flying, Kienna turned NINE on Saturday.  We took a couple friends with us to Calaway Park and did a low-key birthday party there.  We went on Friday so that we could all volunteer for flood relief on Saturday.  I was really impressed with Kienna wanting to help babysit people's kids so they could go to High River on her birthday.  It's super exhausting and overwhelming to work there and see all that these people are losing.  It's motivated me to really clean out a lot of my house.  I don't need even half of what I have and it would be fantastic to have more room and space.  It's been a theme.  I actually went through all my clothes and am down to just a few outfits that work better.  I have very few clothes that fit right now regardless because I've finally been losing some weight.  In fact, I'm down about the same amount of weight as you are it seems.  I started at 199 in January and am down to 182.  It's been super encouraging to see it finally coming.

Well, that about sums up last week.  Hopefully I'll write again soon!!

Windstorm

A natural disaster?  No.  Just Jaymeson.  While I was tucking Benson in tonight, Jaymeson came up from behind me dragging a fan in from the hall.  He told me that he knew there was already a fan in his room, but I needed to get prepared, because he was going to start a wind storm!  He plugged in both fans and put them on high and kept asking me if I was too cold because it was a crazy storm.  He's so imaginative sometimes it really cracks me up!

PS - going to bed on a new mattress tonight.  Hope it helps my circulation and Jarett's back pain...

Fail Proof Recipe

I've loved my mom's Cowboy Cookie recipe for my whole life.  I've found that it's a very forgiving recipe and nothing could have proved that more than last night.

It was Family Home Evening and Jarett suggested making a quadruple batch of cookies as a family.  Of course, he had to take off after only a couple minutes, but he got the girls going on cracking the eggs and tidied up dinner while I got started. 

I softened the butter, added the sugar and vanilla and then the eggs.  Of course, the girls had spilled most of one of the eggs on the counter and floor, but I figured that 7 1/2 out of 8 eggs probably would've affect the recipe too much.  I was grateful that I was quadrupling the recipe, cleaned up the mess and moved on.

When I grabbed the flour, I put it on the counter and turned around to grab the measuring cups.  In that split second, Benson managed to climb up on the counter, open the flour and take the scoop out of it and dump a bunch in the bowl.  How much?  I have no idea.  I guesstimated that it was between 1/2 a cup and a full cup, added the rest and moved on.

I put the flour away, and grabbed the baking soda, baking powder and salt while I was already in the pantry.  (I can never remember if it's soda or powder that I add, so I took both out just to be safe).  I turned around again - to get the measuring spoons and consult the recipe.  I turned around and Benson had put literally half the box of Baking Soda into the bowl.  I may have told every one to evacuate the kitchen while I finished up at this point.  I had to take off the lid and rinse it off (causing more moisture in the recipe than normal), and start scooping out the baking soda, debating how much had already been dissolved and how much I should keep on to make sure I got my 4 tsp worth in there.  There was so much left that when I took a pinch of the dough to check on it, I started getting little burps of fizz from the excess Baking Soda.  It was BAD.

I started to lose it a little and just throw things in.  EVERYTHING in.  I knew the rest of the ingredients were all just 1 tsp (x4 - so 4 tsp), so I put them all in and then realized THERE IS NO BAKING POWDER IN THIS RECIPE!  It was already mixed in though, so there wasn't very much I could do.  In goes the oats and the chocolate chips.

As I put the dough on the cookie sheets, I noticed a fizzing type sound with each scoop of the spoon.  It was NOT going to be good.  BUT - I was pleasantly surprised.  It made a LOT of cookies (with Jarett's help, we got some monster sized cookies while I put the boys to bed... between the excess raising ingredients and the extra large scoops, he pretty much filled the entire cookie sheet like it was a cake) and they were good!  Good enough that I felt comfortable to bring some to Kienna's Cello teacher (who said they tasted fantastic) and we'll be freezing them to have over the next few weeks.

If that doesn't prove a recipe to be 100% fail proof, I don't know what does.  I think I could start a business like this.  Just ask me (with the 5 kids) to test a recipe.  If it makes it through, it's fail-safe!!

Sacrament Disruptions

Benson was on my lap during the passing of the sacrament today.  When he had a piece of bread he said (in full voice), "mmm, nummy lunch!"  During the water he specified that he wanted "that guy" which was a certain cup.

Soon he noticed that all the boys passing the sacrament had ties on, just like him.  He yelled out to the priests in front, "hey, guys!  Look a my tie!"

He may not be the most reverent, but he sure makes me laugh!