April Oaks - Write it Down

30 Days of Science - Day 24

2012-02-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

The next time you see a newspaper bag, save it. Use the bag to try this experiment. A newspaper bag won't be that exciting, but it's a cheap way to try it and test Bernoulli's Principle. Diaper Genie bags or these bags will be extra fun like what you saw in the video.

I asked Luke if he understood Bernoulli's Principle and how this windbag experiment worked. When he said yes, I asked him to explain it better to me. I thought he would give me the simple answer about air pressure, but instead he got into detail and started explaining how airplanes lift off the ground! I didn't even know the two were related! Albert Einstein once said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". I think of that every time Luke explains things to me because he can explain things so easily.

Oh and one more thing... did you know firefighters use this principle for getting smoke out of a house? You can read more about that as well as more on the windbag experiment here.

30 Days of Science - Day 23

2012-02-24T09:16:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I checked the kids out of school for a dentist appointment. They were so excited to be called on the intercom and get out of school. They both had huge smiles. Luke was especially excited because he loves going to the dentist. He loves it because he wants to be a dentist one day. Every time we go we remind everyone that he wants to be a dentist and that he would like to learn anything he can while he is there. We ask that everyone teach him what they are doing so Luke can learn. Luke learns all sorts of things about the tools and procedures. When the dentist (Dr. Troy Hardy) came out to look at the kids teeth, he spent a lot of time talking to Luke and answering Luke's questions. They brainstormed about some science experiment ideas and he explained that most teeth experiments have to be done with teeth that are immediately saved in a special solution that keeps that keeps them from drying out when they are out of the mouth. That was good to know. He also spent time showing Luke the x-rays and explaining what was happening in his mouth as well as Megan's. I couldn't help but take pictures with my iPhone when he let Luke stand next to him while he worked on Megan's mouth and he explained what he was doing. Luke was in heaven! He left with a giant smile on his face.

After the dentist we went to get lunch. I had been debating on taking the kids to a district science fair for the Salt Lake School District. I knew we wouldn't have time after school because of how much homework Luke had so I decided to have the kids eat their lunch on the way to the science fair. I didn't tell them where we were going. I told Megan it was more of a surprise for Luke but she would like it too. I gave them a clue that we were going to a school. Luke's energy level went up about 50 times when we pulled up to a school called the Salt Lake Center for Science Education. Luke said he would wake up a half hour early every day if he could go to that school.

We looked around the school a tiny bit as we walked to the gym where they were holding the science fair. Unfortunately the projects weren't all set up, but we were able to see plenty in the short amount of time we had. Luke amazes me because he understood all of the concepts and corrected me on a couple things I said. A man came over and gave Luke a mug with Einstein on it creating another huge smile on Luke's face. The man happened to be one of the founders of the school. We talked to him and and the director of the school. The school is for 6th grade and up, but he said next year, when Luke is in 5th grade, Luke could come and shadow a nice student and go to all of his classes with him for the day. The school sounds amazing but it would be a 20-30 minute drive each way.

It was a great little break from regular school. Obviously educational too. Everything we do, every where we go can be educational. It's fun to use the world as your classroom.

30 Days of Science - Day 22

2012-02-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

What is this, you ask?

It's three glow sticks that Megan is swirling around. I set the aperature on my camera low and turned off the flash to get the picture to work. We had a lot of fun with the glowsticks the other night when the LeBaron cousins came over.

If you read the link for Plasma TVs on day 19, you would understand better how glow sticks work. On that link there was a picture that shows how atoms emit light. Light sticks work from a chemical reaction. The light from that chemical reaction is called chemiluminescence. When the chemicals are mixed, the atoms are excited, causing electrons to rise to a higher energy level and then return to their normal levels. When the electrons return to their normal levels, they release energy as light. If you want to read more you can read under the header, How Does it Work on Steve Spangler's site.

When Luke chooses books from the library, he gets books I'm sure most people only read if they have to. This last week Luke chose a book called, How Atoms Work. This type of information used to be so boring to me. It still isn't my favorite but I have loved understanding more fully how things work. I'm absoulutely fascinated with scientists and how they ever came up with theories on these basic principles in the first place. It's amazing.

I thought it would be fun to make our own glow liquid. I started googling it and have decided it's probably a bit too dangerous for little kids. So for now, this YouTube video will have to do.

30 Days of Science - Day 21

2012-02-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Lady Liberty may not appreciate the angle of this photo.

Keith and I went to NYC in September for our anniversary. It was a great 3 day trip. The first day it rained so hard it was incredible. We were soaked! We might as well of jumped in a pool. It was also very foggy so we couldn't even see the Statue of Liberty until we got close to it and when we were on Liberty Island we couldn't see the city. Just minutes before I took this picture, the rain finally started to let up for a while. Despite the rain, we still had a good time. We went to the 911 memorial (it was the first month it was open), we also went to Cirque du Soleil at Radio City Hall, the Blue Man Group, Little Italy for some amazing desserts and a street fair, and some fun toy stores including the American Girl Place. It was a great trip. At the 911 memorial we got our picture by the Survivor Tree because I think it will be really interesting to compare photos 50 years from now.

Did you know that according to Einsteins theory of relativity a clock at the top of the Statue of Liberty would run slower than one sitting on the ground? It has to do with the fact that the earth is rotating, and the higher you are, the faster you are rotating around the sun. The faster you travel, the slower time moves. It's a complicated topic, but very interesting. Read this simple explanation of the theory of relativity on WikiAnswers. It's something interesting to think about the next time you are in a big city.

30 Days of Science - Day 20

2012-02-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Luke and Megan are getting good at skiing. Luke especially is getting really confident and doing really well. I keep telling him I want him to fall more often because that shows he is pushing his abilities and he will get better. A couple weeks ago when we went skiing we decided to take a picture of him after he fell for a blog post about gravity. I'm glad he can have a good attitude when he falls.

My 10 year old Luke has a science journal he writes in just for fun. His first entry is about gravity. He wrote this while we were in church. We have three hours of church so I let him do what he wants for most of the first hour. Here is what he wrote, in his own words:

Luke's Theory of Gravity
I predict that all energy attracts other energy. Something with more potential energy must be larger. Larger objects have more gravity, so the energy must be attracting other energy. Heat energy tends to go upward unlike my theory, but it vibrates therefore making the gas less dense, so more dense gasses can push their way through and creating pressure where there is no more room to go down, so it applies pressure on the less dense gas causing it to overcome gravity.

Want a fun anti-gravity experiment?
Watch, then try this. It's one of our favorites.

30 Days of Science - Day 19

2012-02-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went up to Park City a couple months ago, early in the morning to be on the news. My kids are the ones in the picture with newscaster, Casey Scotts hands on each of their shoulders. We were happy to go even though we had to get up around 5:00 a.m. because we got to go sledding at Gargoza Park. Unfortunately, it was so super cold (negative 6 degrees) that even with all of the layers of clothes I put on my kids, they were just too cold to have too much fun sledding. They only went down the hill twice and rode the mini snowmobiles for a couple minutes before they had enough. They did have fun being on the news though. I also think they enjoyed going to school to tell everyone all they had done before most of them had even woke up. My kids aren't very assertive so they stood in the back of the crowd during the filming. You could barely see them on camera, but they were really happy just being on TV.

TVs are interesting. The old TVs were much bigger than the newer TVs they have because they have big cathrode-ray tubes in them. When a video signal comes into the TV, the cathrode-ray tube shoots beams of energy (electrons) at the back of our TV screens. These beams are so precise that they can hit just one tiny red, green, or blue point on the screen and that color shines. The cathrode-ray tube hits thousands of these lights at a time and that creates the TV picture.

Newer Plasma TVs are much smaller because they use tiny compartments filled with gas (plasma). Plasma is an important element in florescent light. Electricity charges the gas, which creates energy that lights up the colors on the screen.

Ok, so here are the parts I don't understand yet. It absolutely baffles my mind how the video signal is sent in the first place. I'm also baffled by how telephones and radios work too. I understand the concepts of radio waves, but it still seems impossible to me. I told this to Luke once and he did a great job explaining it to me. Haha. He is so smart! I was so impressed with his knowledge but it still didn't help. I think the hardest thing for me is actually believing that these signals can be sent so efficiently. It's amazing to me! Perhaps I'll be interested in understanding more later, but for now I'm happy to simply pretend it's magic :)

30 Days of Science - Day 18

2012-02-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

This picture is from last year. Until today, we have sure been low on snow, haven't we? Because it's been so warm a lot of the snow we have had has been pretty wet. Usually Utah really does have the greatest snow on earth. It's light and powdery because of our dry climate.

We also (usually) get a lot of snow because because of the geography of our area. The storms we get here in Utah are formed out over the Pacific Ocean. Remember day 15 where we talked about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation? These storms travel across the continent, not bumping into any significant barriers until they reach the Wasatch mountain range which has peaks up to about 12,000 feet.

When these storm clouds get to the Salt Lake area they get even heavier because of the Great Salt Lake. Because the Great Salt Lake is relatively shallow (about 33 feet deep) and has a large surface area, it heats up faster than other deeper lakes. Remember Day 17? When the cold winds blow over the warmer water, the clouds passing overhead suck up the water vapors and produce even more precipitation. That precipitation falls as snow. Beautiful snow!

30 Days of Science - Day 17

2012-02-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Luke came up with an experiment he wanted to do.  He created a chart, wrote up what he was going to do, and kept track of his findings. Below I've typed up what he wrote since it's hard to read in this picture.

Question: Does water evaporate faster when the waters skin is greater?
Hypothesis: Water evaporates faster when the waters skin is greater.
Experiment: Take a cup and a bowl and put the same amount of water in each container. Whatever evaporates more in 6 days would have evaporated faster.
     Cup: 1 1/2 inches around at waters surface (he used a measuring tape around the perimeter)
     Bowl: 14 inches at waters surface
Analysis: The cup had 3/4 cups of water left and the bowl had 1/2 cup of water left.
Conclusion: Water with more surface area evaporates faster than with less.

Can you see his drawings at the bottom? He drew H2O molecules and wrote, enlarged to show detail.
I love it!

30 Days of Science - Day 16

2012-02-17T08:35:00.002-07:00

While listening to an AMAZING recording called "The Essence of Success" by Earl Nightingale, I heard something I really loved about Albert Einstein. I can't find a clip of the recording online so I'll type it out here. I've listened to it a dozen times, so it will be nice to have it be something I can read.

You know it's been said that if the universe is is an accident, we are accidents. But if there is meaning in the universe, then there is meaning in us also. And since it is believed that Dr. Einstein understood more about the laws governing the universe than any person who ever lived up until his time, lets go to him for some answers. He believed there was some sort of meaning in the way things are. He was sure of it. He said the more I study physics, the more I am drawn toward metaphysics. The word metaphysics simply means beyond physics. The study of what is beyond measure the invisible forces at work. ...Albert Einstein was so remarkable of a man, that it was as if he had arrived on this planet through some mistake in celestial navigation. And as a result, devoted his life to solving the problems of time and space, so that the mistake would not be repeated (he chuckles). Dr. Einstein belonged to no formal religion or sect, yet he was a deeply religious man in the cosmic sense. He believed that such magnificence of colossal order the great phychlatron(?) of the universe, as Ronald Clark puts it, could not have been an accident. And he addressed himself to the purpose of life. He answered the question, "why am i here" as well as it has been answered, I believe, when he said, man is here for the sake of other man only. Now he used the word man in it's classical sense, the idiomatic man, meaning human beings of both sexes, of course. So he said that we are here for the sake of others only. Is that the way you would have answered it? Do you believe you are here solely to serve others, being served and enjoying life as a result. We are here for the sake of serving others only, and to the extent that we serve others, will we know the joy of living. To many that will sound silly and square but that's what it comes down to nonetheless and sometimes it takes a long time to learn the truth of it. Millions never learn it and grow old and cry out in discontent wondering what is wrong with their lives. Our rewards in life will always be in direct proportion to our contribution this is the law that stands as the supporting structure of all economics and of our own personal well being.

I highly recommend you listen to anything of Earl Nightingale. He has so many incredible words of wisdom. You can find a lot of his recordings on YouTube.

30 Days of Science - Day 15

2012-02-16T12:34:00.001-07:00

Do you want to make it rain?

Here is what you'll need:

* A 2 liter bottle (cut the dome part off of the top carefully)

* Hot tap water

* Ice

1. Make sure the cap is screwed on tightly to the dome part of the 2 liter bottle you cut in two.

2. Fill the bottom part of your bottle about half full of water. If you notice my picture above, you'll see I didn't do quite as much water. It worked but might have worked better with more hot water.

3. Turn the top part of the bottle upside down and fill it with ice. Set this into the bottom part of the bottle and wait and see what happens.

You've now created a mini water cycle in your bottle and you can teach your kids about evaporation, condensation and precipitation. Evaporation is when the water turns to a vapor gas and rises (like steam). Condensation is when the gas turns back into water. When the hot water from below rises it cools as it hits the icy area and turns back into water droplets. This is the same thing that happens in nature when clouds are formed. Precipitation is when the water droplets in this experiment get heavier and heavier and finally fall. In nature, the water droplets get to heavy to float in the air (clouds) and create rain.

Luke found this experiment in a book our friends gave us called Pop Bottle Science. It comes in a cute kit but the best part is the book that you can buy here used. I highly recommend it.

Tooth Fairy

2012-02-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

I've decided that there must be more than one Tooth Fairy. I'm guessing there are lots of tooth fairies. Some girls we talked to today said they know for a fact there is one for each person. I had never heard that before, but it makes sense since the Tooth Fairy does different things for different people.

Megan heard from a friend at school that if you put your tooth in a glass of water the tooth fairy will dive into it to get the tooth. When she gets out of the water, the water will change to whatever color the fairy's dress is. I didn't believe Megan because I had never heard this and I wasn't sure the Tooth Fairy would be too happy about having to dive in a cup to get a tooth. I had good reason not to believe Megan because last week she tried to give the Tooth Fairy a fake tooth. She put a note under her pillow saying, Dear Tooth Fairy, Here is my FAKE tooth, please give me a FAKE dollar. The Tooth Fairy never came or gave her anything for that fake tooth, so I thought for sure this water thing must be wrong too.

I was wrong. When we woke up we found the water had turned blue and even had some glittery fairy dust in it!! Also, Megan got a Valentine from the Footh Fairy, some money and a tiny paint set! I guess the Tooth Fairy didn't mind diving in the water! Now we are wondering if you lose a tooth on Christmas if you would get a Christmas present. Does anyone know?

30 Days of Science - Day 14

2012-02-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

Luke doesn't ask for many things, but he saw a Galileo Thermometer in one of his books and got so excited about it he begged me to help him find one. I've never heard about these thermometers before, have you? If you look on Amazon you'll see they sell quite a few of these pretty thermometers. If you want to know how they work, you could read here.

Since getting this thermometer, Luke has decided to do his 4th Grade Famous Person report on Galileo. Galileo is pretty fascinating. It's been fun learning about him. Science as we know it barely existed before him, because the universities at that time were full of philosophers, who followed the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. These philosophers spent their time discussing how things MIGHT work, rather than testing their theories. Galileo rejected the traditional approach because he believed that an idea couldn't be accepted as true until it was tested and proven. This laid the foundation for our modern experimental method.

Galileo got in a lot of trouble for his discoveries. It's fascinating to read about the time period he lived in, in relation to science. Galileo was born in 1564 and at that time in Italy the Catholic Church controlled all aspects of life. The church was especially strict about areas in which the bible seemed to give guidance on what was true. One example of this was the idea that the earth was motionless at the center of the universe, with all the stars and planets moving around it. In 1600 a man named Giordano Bruno had been burned at the stake in Rome for claiming that the earth moved around the sun (an idea first published by Copernicus in 1543). Galileo was being led toward the same dangerous view as he studied with his telescope. Although Galileo was a good Catholic, he could not deny the evidence that Copernicus was right. He agreed with Cardinal Cesare Baronio, who said that the bible was a book about how people go to heaven, not about how heaven goes.

Well, that is just the start. His life is really interesting. You'll have to read about it. For starters watch this kids video on Brainpop about Galileo. Brainpop is an AMAZING website! The videos often make tough concepts easy to understand. Some videos are free. Others you have to have a subscription for. You can get a free subscription for a month though so try it out!!

30 Days of Science - Day 13

2012-02-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't have to buy diapers anymore, but I still do. It's all for fun though. Diapers make really fun science projects/ magic tricks.

You know the game where you take three cups, put a ball under one, and then move them around a lot trying to get the observer to loose track of the ball? Well, instead of a ball, try something similar with diapers.

Diaper Science

Get three cups (make sure they aren't see through).
Have your audience sitting down, because if they are standing they might be able to see in the cups.
Before you show anyone what you are doing, cut open a diaper and put the soft stuff inside the diaper into one of the cups. You don't need a lot, I usually use half of the diaper stuff (for lack of a better word).
I like to stack the cups together, and then bring the cups to my audience. I stack the cup with the diaper stuff on top because if it were stacked on the bottom or middle, you could tell there was something in the cup.
Have your audience sitting down, because if they are standing they might be able to see in the cups.
Pour quite a bit of water into the cup with the diaper stuff. I use 12 oz cups and fill them about 3/4 full (or half full for a 16 oz cup). Your audience should not know there is anything other than water in the cup.
Start moving the cups around and tell your audience to keep their eyes on the cup with the water in it.
When you are finished mixing the cups around, have the audience guess where the water is. Each time they guess, you take the cup and hold it up to pour the water out. Each time you attempt to pour the water out of each cup, nothing will pour out making it appear as if the water disappeared. The magic (science) is that the diaper stuff is made up of water absorbing polymers. When you are moving the cups around, the water is quickly being absorbed by the polymers. When you attempt to pour the water out, it doesn't pour out because the water and polymers have expanded together enough they don't pour out easily. Fun!

Remember we talked about water absorbing polymers before on day seven? Don't forget about how this type of science can be used to conserve water in the environment. It's neat stuff!

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-13T17:15:00.001-07:00

Megan has loved putting her Valentines together! She has had so much fun! We got the idea for her Valentine from a cute blog called The Brooding Hen.

Luke has no interest in creating Valentines so I did most of the work on his. Megan and I made his box with his supervision (haha). I figure most people buy their Valentines pre-made or even buy pre-made boxes for school so I think his teacher wouldn't care that I didn't have him do more. Hopefully I am right. His Einstein Valentine was made by the Jacks of Science and says, "Your More Special Than Relativity".

30 Days of Science - Day 12

2012-02-13T07:34:00.001-07:00

Luke really loves learning about alternative forms of energy. It's very surprising how much he likes learning about this stuff. This is a hand crank flashlight he loves. The US Department of Energy has a great site for kids to learn the basics about alternative energy. Here is the link.

30 Days of Science - Day 11

2012-02-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

Growing Bacteria.

I'm done with this experiment. This is our second time doing this and it gets pretty gross after a while. I suppose it's interesting seeing the different types of bacteria. It's also interesting seeing what has more bacteria. This past time Luke tested his hand, his friends hand, his mouth, his friend's mouth, the doorknob and the telephone.

I want to throw away the rest of his petri dishes and the rest of his agar solution but I won't. I'll just hope Luke has had enough for a long time. This picture only shows day 2 or 3. I've spared you from seeing the rest of the results.

If you want to do this you could Google home recipes where you use plastic cups and some sort of a gelatin solution. Or you could buy this.

30 Days of Science - Day 10

2012-02-11T08:00:00.001-07:00

This is a radiometer. When you put it in the sunlight the little flags spin around. It's so interesting when you understand what is going on and how it works. Read how it works at Steve Spangler's site, and then you could look up a video on YouTube.

30 Days of Science - Day 9

2012-02-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

I couldn't get my camera to focus on this very well. This is a broken tooth in front of a tooth holder my son got at school.

When Megan lost one of her teeth the other month, Luke begged her to let him buy her tooth. He even offered her $10! Even though the Tooth Fairy pays considerably less than Luke would have, Megan wouldn't sell because she was really excited to write the Tooth Fairy a note and ask her what she did with the teeth.

Luke wanted the tooth to test the effects of soda pop on teeth. Fortunately he lost his own tooth recently, and after it fell out, it split into two! Now he can do two experiments! He did a similar experiment a while back with chicken bones. He put one bone in root beer and the other in Coke. He expected for the one in Coke to make the bone become soft and bendable. That didn't really happen but the one in Coke did have some weird stuff come off of it. It was certainly rotting away faster than the one in root beer. Gross. When we know the results of this tooth experiment, I'll put the results in the comments.

By the way... the Tooth Fairy did answer Megan. Her one word answer to Megan's question was "castles". It was written with something that looked like sparkly silver glitter glue.

30 Days of Science - Day 8

2012-02-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

Luke loves freezing things. He is constantly freezing lego guys, cars, pennies and anything else small he finds. Luke experiments with the temperatures to freeze things at, he experiments with how much the water grows when it turns into ice, and he has even experimented with freezing different types of liquids including adding lots of salt to the water. Mainly, he just loves freezing things, but he is learning a lot in the process.

For older kids or super science nuts:
Did you know that scientists have recently made discoveries changing why they believe ice is slippery? It might seem like a simple question and answer, but apparently it's not. Here is a link from the NY Times showing old and new theories of why ice is slippery.

In our family, we especially love ice because we love to skate on it. Luke and Megan have been taking ice skating lessons and are doing great! I just found a website that talks about the science of hockey. I think Luke will really enjoy reading it.

30 Days of Science - Day 7

2012-02-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

These are water absorbing polymers or "jelly marbles". They start off small and solid about a quarter size of a pea, then you put them in water and they absorb the water and grow into a much bigger size.

Fun experiments:

There are lots of things you can do with these. My very favorite thing to do with these is make them vanish in water. If you don't add any extra color to them like the cup on the right, you can put the fully grown jelly marbles in a glass bowl and add water to make them vanish! The neat thing is, they don't really vanish, they just appear to be invisible. It's pretty interesting. Read how to do the hidden message trick with these on the Steve Splanger website.

Where to buy:

You can buy them at SteveSpangler.com or at Hobby lobby and other places in kits that look like this. Recently I saw them in the dollar store. They weren't sold as a science project. They were being sold fully grown, as a flower vase filler. Once you use them, you can let the water evaporate and keep them again for another time.

Conserving water in the environment:

These "jelly marbles" are an example of a hydrogel. Hydrogels are used in gardening as a way to conserve water. Imagine areas in the world with little water, being able to use these in their gardens to conserve water, and release it to plant roots when needed. Amazing. My grandpa Park used to travel to 3rd world countries and teach them how to farm. I doubt he ever knew about this though. I'll have to ask him. As always, Steve Spangler can teach you more.

2-2-2-2-2-2

2012-02-07T17:23:00.001-07:00

Today is the 2nd day of the 2nd week of the 2nd month of the 2nd year of the 2nd decade of the 2nd millennium. How cool is that?

30 Days of Science - Day 6

2012-02-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

Continuing on from yesterday's discussion on that fun word hydrophobic...
Luke would be so proud. I sound like a real geek even though it took a 10 year old to teach me all of this.

Another hydrophobic product is SOAP! Soap is actually a very long molecule that is hydrophobic (fearing water) on one end and hydrophillic (attracting water) on the other end. The water sticks to the end that attracts water and the oil sticks to the end that fears water. When you rinse the soap off your hands, the oils on your body stick to the soap, and the soap sticks to the water.

Try this really easy experiment on how soap cleans. Note: this picture shows our experiment within a minute or two of shaking the jars. Each had the same amount of blue food coloring. If you let them sit a lot longer the soap one does separate, although not as much. Make sure you watch the non-soap jar closely for a while right after you shake it. It's fun to watch it slowly separate.

30 Days of Science - Day 5

2012-02-06T07:49:00.000-07:00

Any clue as to what you are looking at here?

This is a picture of the inside of a plastic cup I'm holding with some magic sand and a little water in it. I love this picture because I think it is unusual and has good balance. I love photos of interesting textures like this one, or this one, or this one.

Magic sand is a lot of fun to play with. It's actually normal sand with a water resistant coating on it that makes it so it never gets wet. There are a few really fun things to try with magic sand. Let Steve Spangler teach you some fun ideas.

Magic sand is a hydrophobic product. Hydrophobic means "water fearing". Isn't that a fun word? If you buy the magic sand, you could first show regular sand and how it works, then tell your kids you have some sand that is afraid of water and bring out the magic sand and joke around about how scared the sand is of the water while you are playing with it.

30 Days of Science - Day 4

2012-02-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Most of the things I'll share on this 30 Days of Science are things my son has taught me. He is such a smart kid when it comes to science. Luke read about this experiment in a book and then had a blast trying it out and teaching me why it works.

Vibrating Coin Experiment
All you need is a empty water bottle, a quarter and a freezer. We don't have any of those measly quarters lying around so we had to use a gold dollar.

The experiment is really easy. However rather than type it out, I'll let you read how to do the experiment here. Make sure you read the short result section so you can explain what is happening to your kids, or if you have a little scientist like I do, have him read it and explain it to you :)

Tips:
*Rather than say the coin is vibrating you may choose to say the bottle is burping to get your kids to laugh and have even more fun. Why do kids like potty talk so much?
*When you are explaining about how the molecules speed up and start vibrating more you can talk about how heat is energy and that cold is simply the absence of heat. When the air gets colder the air molecules slow down. Isn't it interesting that heat is simply molecules moving around quickly? This is an important basic concept I didn't even remember/know until my son taught me.
*If you can't remember what exactly a molecule is read up here.

30 Days of Science - Day 3

2012-02-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

These are not regular beads, they are UV beads. They start out a nearly white color and then change in the sun. Luke's teacher from last year, Mrs. Crowder, did the neatest experiment with the beads. She taught the kids about sunscreen. She had the kids put various numbers of sunscreen on the beads. When you take the beads in the sun you can tell which ones have the most SPF protection by the amount of color they change. Luke was beyond excited about this science project! In addition to learning more about how sunscreen works, Mrs. Crowder taught the kids about the various UV rays.

Need a quick refresher course on UV rays or how sunscreen works? Read here.
Need a good place to buy the UV beads? I like buying from Steve Spangler. Don't forget to click on his experiment and video tabs.

30 Days of Science - Day 2

2012-02-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

I looked around my house the other day and noticed we had at least 8 science projects going on. My son Luke absolutely loves science and is constantly coming up with new things to try. Megan isn't passionate about science the way Luke is, but she has a great time, each time Luke does an experiment. I decided to do this 30 days of science as a fun way to share the experiments he is working on.

Can you guess what the experiment is here? About a year ago Luke begged me for days to buy a plant. He wanted to test the theory that plants grow towards sunlight. With this ivy plant he was able to discover first hand that the theory was correct. We rotate it from time to time or it would be leaning a little bit towards the light.

30 Days of Science - Day 1

2012-02-02T13:39:00.001-07:00

Anyone want to guess what you are looking at?

These are Insta-Worms! You can make them long, short, skinny, thick or even into little dots. It's a fun Chemistry experiment. We used a kit Luke got for his birthday. You can buy them from Steve Splangler. Make sure to click on the experiment and video tabs so can learn more. The Steve Spangler website is very informative if you click on all of the tabs.

There are also a lot of learning opportunities with this wacky stuff. It's a fun chemistry experiment. You take a liquid that is used to thicken pies and other things called sodium alginate (aka worm goo) and squeeze it out of a little bottle into a calcium solution. Immediately the liquid worm goo turns into a solid can look like a worm if you squeeze the liquid the right way. My picture shows a globby mess we had fun creating.

When you are playing with this fun kit you can talk about molecules. The sodium alginate (worm goo) is actually a long chain of molecules called a polymer. Later in this 30 days of science I'll show you some other really fun polymer activities.

For now, if you want an easy way to learn more about molecules and polymers you can read up here. Truthfully, I rarely know any of these science terms until I do a quick google search and start experimenting with my kids. My little scientist Luke teaches me a lot too. It's amazing how much I learn either from my kids or in an attempt to teach my kids.

$1,500 Scholarship!!!

2012-01-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

Today is a day we will never forget. Luke won the State Pinewood Derby Championship and got a $1,500 scholarship from America First. I can hardly believe it! Thank you so much America First! We almost didn't go to compete because Keith was so busy but he decided at the last second he could go. I'm so glad we did. It was a really exciting day.

If you know Luke, you know he is a really calm kid. He was fun to watch during the race. He looked calm but he was so nervous. He had butterflies in his stomach, his palms were sweaty and he tried to figure out what his heart rate was because he said it was racing.

Luke was able to do well competing against most people. This picture shows the first people he raced against today. Notice Luke's car is the red one that has already crossed the finish line.

This picture shows the qualifying heat with the top four cars. It was a really close race. Luke's car won by a fraction of a second.

For anyone who might be interested in what a winning Pinewood Derby car looks like, here are the top four cars.

Here are the top 32 cars and their times.

Megan raced too. She entered the open race where girls and adults could race. Megan got 9th place.

Luke plans on being a dentist and recently he decided he wants to get a PHD too. Whatever he does, this scholarship will come in handy. I'm so excited that he is able to say he got his first scholarship at 10! I'm really hoping this helps motivate him to want to get more scholarships. Luke really loves learning and loves telling people he is going to be a dentist or get a PHD. He also loves science. He is our science geek and everyone in his grade knows him by his love for science. Working on the Pinewood Derby car goes hand in hand with his love of science because Luke had to learn a lot about physics to make a fast car. It's pretty cool all of the things he learned in creating this car with his dad. Occasionally I've heard jokes about how the dads do all of the work. Obviously a lot of that is true because these boys can't use power tools and don't know how to use other tools well. However, the kids have the opportunity to learn so much too. In Luke's case, it was a lot more than learning how to cut, sand and paint the car. There is physics, math, geometry and other things that go into a fast car. It's been neat watching Luke and his dad together with this.

The Star People

2012-01-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

About 6 years ago I started a book for my kids. I never finished it and I'm pretty sure I never will. It was fun for a while, but I had a hard time getting the pictures I wanted as well as the time to finish it. Here are three of the pages that would have been in the book. It was going to be a story about Lukadukie, his star friends and the crazy adventures they had while trying to rescue the princess, Megalooska, who was locked in the ice castle. Lukadukie went lots of fun places including a world where everything turned yellow.

I think my kids would have loved being the stars of the book. When they were little I used to tell them stories about Lukadukie and Megalooska at bedtime. I'd make up whatever crazy things were on my mind and the kids would laugh and laugh and laugh. It was a lot of fun.

Reasons For Keeping a Journal

2012-01-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Reasons for keeping a journal…

1) FindYourself: Discover who you really are byrecording your feelings thoughts, opinions, beliefs, hopes, fears, experiences,etc. Writing in-depth about and toyourself helps clarify who you are, what you believe, and what you want to dowith your life.

2) Become Organized: When you know yourself clearly by writinghonestly and in detail, you mind becomes focused. You feel more at peace with yourself. And, journal writing can organize your dailylife, too, by recording things that you need or want to do. You know where you’re going. Journal writing helps you stop, think andplan carefully.

3) Solve Problems: Getting all of your thoughts on paper can make you think in new ways bytapping into your subconscious and getting all of your ideas on paper. This allows you to see a problem in a newlight and find solutions for it.

4) Become Creative: Jot down inspiring thoughts or ideas and collect them. Certain writing techniques can help you tapinto your subconscious and inspire poems, short stories, drawings, music, orwhatever you like to do to express yourself. The act of writing allows you to think and concentrate more so that yourmind works at a deeper, more intuitive level. Plus the journal itself can become an expression of your artisticabilities. You can fill your journalwith artwork, collages, stickers, mementos, magazine and newspaper clippings,and more, making it as much a part of you as the thoughts recorded in it.

5) Find Sanctuary: Writing to yourself in your journal is a great way to escape fromchaotic feelings or events; or just to escape from the mundanity of everydaylife and delve into your more exciting inner life. Separating yourself from the outside worldgives you a stronger sense of your own identity as an individual humanbeing. Taking time for yourself alsogenerates a great sense of peace and well-being, boosting your confidence andself-esteem.

6) Emotional Therapy: Your journal can act as your own best friendor a proverbial ‘shoulder to cry on’. Itis always there to listen and never criticizes or talks back. By unburdening yourself of difficult thoughtsfeelings, you lower stress. Problems don’tseem so bad when they become mere words on a page.

7) Enjoy Life: Life doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom. By recording things that make you happy,listing your favorite things about being alive, celebrating the good things inyour life, you become a happier person; more appreciative and grateful for whatyou do have, rather than depressed for what you don’t. Writing your perception of life as you’reliving it gives you a better sense of the world around you and your place init. Even the most mundane things canbecome profound and meaningful if you are to take the time to use all of yoursenses and record what you experience in your journal. Writing about the little things in life makesyou feel that you are living life to the fullest and that you are coming toknow everything life as to offer. Eachof us has our own unique sense of perception and set of experience, so use yourjournal to celebrate your uniqueness. Yourjournal saves your experiences so you’ll always remember them.

8) Timeline: As you keep a journal over months and years, it becomes a record of youraccomplishments, travels, personal growth; a time capsule capturing who youwere at certain moments in the past. Recording the who, what, when, where, why and how of pas events helpsyou remember details you probably would have forgotten had you not written themdown. Having a record of what you didwith your life gives you a feeling of accomplishment; that your life was notwasted.

9) Communicate Better: Without even realizing it, writing in yourjournal regularly will improve your writing and communication skills. You become better and better at expressingyourself on paper, which is the key to quality writing. Writing in a journal is much like talking toa close friend or telling a story. Andhaving your thoughts organized on paper allows you to communicate thosethoughts in a clearer way, whether speaking or writing.

10) Personal/Family History: Keeping a journal during the course of yourentire life creates a valuable record of who you were, what you did, what youthought, what you liked and disliked, your superstitions and quirks, etc. – it’sa record of your identity. Leaving yourjournal with friends or descendants after you’re gone helps them remember you(and probably know you better than before) from reading your journals. Imagine if your great-great-grandparents hadleft behind their journals (instead of, in most cases a few worn photographs,their names, dates of birth and death, and a few half-forgotten stories yourgrandma told you about them). You wouldknow so much more about what kind of people they were, even though you wouldnever meet them. You would know of theirstruggles and triumphs, their opinions and beliefs. You would know what life was like duringtheir time. You would know about otherrelatives or friends who shared time with them. You would know how they raised your great –grandparent and passed onfamily traditions. A journal is a linkto the past. Someday the present we areliving in now will become the distant past, too. Writing a journal is also a link to thefuture.

I didn't come up with these reasons and I unfortunately don't know who I should give credit to. I found these online back when I first started using the internet and back then I didn't even think to write down who the author was.

I love these reasons for keeping a journal. I have always been impressed by how well the person who wrote this was able to express their feelings on the subject. I completely agree with everything written above and could have never said it better myself. Tonight my sister Angie asked me to speak in her Relief Society about some of my thoughts on personal and family history. I'm excited because this is one of my favorite topics.

Sledding

2012-01-09T09:28:00.001-07:00

Photo by Kraig Oaks

My brother-in-law Kraig took this picture and I love it! He used a technique called HDR to make the colors really stand out. This was a neat day. We went to Vernal for our annual Christmas Tree Hunt with Keith's parents and his brother Kraig's family. After we got our tree Keith tied strings on to the kids sleds and ran up and down the road with them. As you can imagine the kids were in heaven. It was a lot of fun to see them having so much fun with their dad.

Sleepover #2

2012-01-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Oaks Girls

lots of fun - lots of noise - very little sleeping - smiles -

laughter - a bit of fighting - great memories :)

The three on the right got to sleep over. The two on the left just got to come and play a couple hours. Baby T slept the two hours he was at our house so does that count as his first sleepover?

Sleepover

2011-12-28T08:18:00.003-07:00

Keith and I gave Megan matching PJ's for her and her doll as well as 3 other sets that fit her cousins so she could have a really fun sleepover. Last night the Thorup cousins slept over. Friday we get the Oaks cousins. Aren't they cute together?

Notice the matching plates and cups for the girls and dolls for their special under the table tea party.

Thanks Santa!

2011-12-27T21:38:00.001-07:00

I love spoiling my kids. I wish I could spoil them as much as Santa does.

Megan's big gift was her American Girl doll. She named it Jane. She absolutely loves it and I LOVE watching her enjoy it. She took her doll to church Christmas morning and it was so much fun watching so many people watch her. Megan and her doll look alike and they both wore the same dress. You could tell people just loved watching her with her doll. I imagine many of the women flashed back to the days when they were little and had a special doll. I thought it was funny that Megan couldn't take her eyes off her doll during church and then I realized I was doing the exact same thing! I couldn't take my eyes off Megan! It was fun. Keith also had fun watching Megan. Keith had Megan sitting right next to him and he had her cuddled up in his arm. For a while whenever Megan would do something to her doll like stroke her hair, Keith would do the same to Megan. It was hilarious and the people behind us (especially Sister Mower) were laughing so hard!

Luke's main gift was his solar panel. He is such a fun little geeky kid. He loves anything science and lately is really interested in things that create electricity. Can you see his t-shirt? It says Ge Ni U S. Genius written from the periodic table. Luke saw that shirt in a magazine and was dying to have it! Another big hit from Santa was his Infared Thermometer. It's a laser-sighted infrared gun-style thermometer that can tell the temperature of anything by just pointing at it. It's pretty interesting and a great gift for our little scientist. After church Luke was really excited to tell people about his presents. I think he likes the surprised reactions he gets. As you can imagine he got some strange looks from people when he would tell them how excited he was to get a solar panel and a infared thermometer. His primary teacher said he wouldn't be surprised if Luke won the Nobel Peace Prize one day. Luke thought that was great.

Church on Christmas was really nice. I literally worried about going at 9:00 a.m. for half of the year but it worked out well. Keith and I tried to get the bishop to change the time to 10 or later but they wouldn't go for it. Obviously church and Jesus Christ are the most important things on Christmas, but I really think Christmas morning family traditions are important too. I was so scared we wouldn't be able to do everything we wanted before going to Church but because we got up at 6:30 and had as much done as we could the night before things worked out ok, and we got to church only a few seconds after it began. It was a nice service. I especially liked the things our bishop spoke about that day. He has a gentle way of inspiring me to want to serve more people.

Christmas Morning

2011-12-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

On our way to church :)

All I Want For Christmas...

2011-12-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

In an effort to get things to go our way, we sang two songs a lot this Christmas. No matter how hard we sang, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", we never were able to get that second front tooth out. It was loose though. I kept bugging Meg to pull it out because I always wanted a child with two missing front teeth on Christmas. She told me I could yank it out while she was sleeping but I just couldn't bring myself to do that.
We also tried really hard to get a white Christmas by singing "Let it Snow" over and over. That didn't work either. Christmas always feels strange without snow on the ground.

For Me

2011-12-09T09:35:00.004-07:00

Hello Blog. I've missed you. Lately I have been creating color boards on Pintrest. I've created them in Flickr and loved my color boards there, but I'm especially loving my color boards on Pintrest http://pinterest.com/oakapr/. Most of the pictures I use aren't mine. I just think each picture is interesting and even more interesting when it is next to pictures with the same color.

Thorup 5K

2010-06-10T18:07:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday our family participated in the “Thorup 5K”. It was my mom and sister Angie’s idea. It was SO MUCH FUN! I loved it. The kids rode bikes or sat in strollers. My kids had a lot of fun keeping up with Erin and Matt in the front of the group. Keith and I followed a bit behind. It was fun watching the kids have fun. We saw a snake on the trail and Keith tried to get it for the kids, but decided it wasn’t worth it. That is my only regret. I wish the kids could have seen the snake, they would have loved it.

We started at the Park City Resort, passed by the beautiful white farm everyone photographs, and ended at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church. I have always wanted to see inside that beautiful church so it was fun to end there.

Here are my parents and all but two of the kids:

Angie designed the t-shirts and did everything for the kids award ceremony. I love the t-shirt design. Didn't she do great?

Keith and I like to imagine which memories our kids will have when they are older. It’s so much fun to be together as a family and know this might be that one bold memory they have of a certain time of their life. We think they might especially remember pulling apart cat tails and watching them blow in the wind. Who knows?

SYTYCD

2010-06-01T14:07:00.001-06:00

Finally! My favorite show of all time is on. Are you watching this season?

Smartie Pants

2010-05-31T09:12:00.002-06:00

I've always known Luke was smart, but last night I realized he is smarter than I think. He is so quiet, I know it's hard for his teachers to know what he is capable of learning too.

Last night his uncle Matthew started explaining to Luke how he cut and broke his finger and the medical science of how his hand was healing. Matthew was going on in really great detail how your body heals itself and what doctors do to aide the healing. Luke (as usual) was completely focused on each word he said. Luke loves learning from Matthew (the last talk they had was on DNA).

As Matthew got to the part about his stitches, he told Luke the stitches are a special type of stitch his body can eat. Then he started explaining something about the white blood cells eating the stitches. Luke raised his hand and said, "Yeah, they are neutrophils right?"

The rest of us in the room started laughing because none of us even knew what neutrophils were. My dad commented that, up until then, he thought Matthew was completely boring Luke.

Matthew kept teaching Luke and talking to him about all sorts of things related to his hurt finger. He started talking to Luke about bone marrow, but gave Luke the short explanation of what it is. Luke stopped him and said, "Actually..." then Luke went on to explain how bone marrow is different in children and Luke was right. Hahahaha! My cute little boy!

I asked Luke where he learned this and he said it was all from a book he read. Although he is an excellent reader I am still surprised he not only remembered all of these medical words but could pronounce them right after reading the book by himself.

Luke has an incredible long term memory. Ironically, his short term memory is terrible. He amazes me.

It's going to be a fun summer...

2010-05-24T16:18:00.004-06:00

Today was a big day for Megan. She learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. It was so exciting to see her figure it out and ride down the sidewalk.

The other day Luke's friend learned how to ride a bike at our house too. He wanted to ride a bike, but had never riden one without training wheels. I gave him Luke's old 16" bike and told him to just try it. I didn't want to run up and down the street with him. After getting used to putting his feet down to stop him for a couple minutes he was riding all over the place. Because he learned so easy that way, I decided to have Megan try it that way. Today was her third day trying it by herself. I could tell she was close, but she was really scared. Christina and her kids came over, and when they got here Megan must have decided she wanted to show off because she immediately figured out how to ride her bike. I loved sharing that moment with Christina. She is such a great sister (in law) and friend.

By the way... do you notice the snow boots? It was snowing big giant snowflakes this morning and the snow stuck to the ground. It was an inch or two deep before it stopped. By 2:30 it almost felt like spring again. Crazy Utah weather. I personally loved the snow today, but I'm very excited for spring-like weather.

Fishing

2010-05-22T10:39:00.002-06:00

The kids have been taking a fishing class this spring. It's the neatest class and only $10 for 6 weeks. Fortunately for me, Keith has taken the kids each week and I've tagged along a couple times. Originally I thought I would be the one taking them and I was really nervous I'd have to touch the fish and the worms so I was really glad when Keith came. However, if Keith didn't come there have been plenty of volunteers to help and I would have been just fine. The volunteers have been amazing. Our kids have learned a lot.

Megan finally caught her first fish this week. Luke still hasn't caught one (and we've been to 4 classes). Megan caught her fish with a worm she found in the backyard. I had the kids dig for worms before the class and they loved it. Megan is such a cool girl (unlike me). She will touch bugs and worms and fish without a problem. I barely like to even look at them, but I'm trying to be tougher and at least fake my "love" for these things so my kids will enjoy it and not be scared of things.

Hello Again!

2010-05-22T10:25:00.003-06:00

Last night Amy and I went downtown to take HDR pictures. So fun! It rained a bit, but she didn't mind. I love that. We had a great time taking pictures and hanging out downtown. Here is my favorite picture of the night.

I've been busy and not at all busy at the same time. I really feel sad not recording more of my life here on my blog (or anywhere), but I don't at the same time. Does anyone have a clue what I mean? Life is good. I'm happy with what I'm doing and love hanging out with my kids. Hope you all have a great day!

30 Days of Pictures - Day 22

2010-04-22T09:58:00.004-06:00

*click*

I wish I could show you the picture in my mind. 30 Days of pictures is turning into 18 days of pictures. The retreat is coming along great. The hotel we are having the retreat at is so beautiful, new and fun. I love it!! All of the sudden we have about 100 people instead of 90. I think this is such a fun size group.

Tonight is the night! Hopefully I'll have time to take some great pictures of the retreat to share with you.

Retreat Classes

2010-04-20T17:14:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm behind on the 30 days of Photos thing. I'm insanely busy with last minute preparations for the retreat right now. There will be about 90 of us at the retreat. A perfect size retreat if you ask me. Wish me luck this week! It's going to be a lot of fun and a lot of work. Here is a peek at the classes. There are two pages for the two tracks (beginner and intermediate/advanced). We are extremely close to selling out but you can still get a ticket to the retreat if you want to come!

Blogger :(

2010-04-18T17:43:00.003-06:00

Why does Blogger always format my words so funny? It drives me nuts. I don't have time to change the weird type format below right now. Maybe later. Sigh.

ETA: I finally fixed it.

30 Days of Pictures - April 18

2010-04-18T16:59:00.003-06:00

Luke absolutely melted my heart today. These are his scriptures and this was the first scripture he has ever marked. On Sundays, in Sacrament meeting, I give Luke his scriptures to read while they are passing the sacrament. Sometimes Keith or I will give Luke a specific scripture to read, and sometimes we don't. Today Luke randomly turned to 3rd Nephi chapter 11 and kept reading for quite a while after the sacrament was passed. It was so sweet to see him genuinely interested in what he was reading. After a while Luke got excited and asked Megan if he could read her a scripture. She said no. Haha. I told her she really should listen so she did. Luke was really excited about this scripture because it reminded him of the Wise Man/Foolish Man song they sing in primary. I asked if he wanted to mark the scripture and after a lot of thought he said he did. He didn't want to mark it with the yellow crayon I had though. He wanted red.

I then showed him Helaman 5:12 (one of my favorite scriptures) which also has to do with that song. Luke got a big smile on his face after reading it and marked that one too.

Although it's surprising to me Luke can read scriptures and actually understand them, I shouldn't be surprised Luke chose to read 3rd Nephi for an extra amount of time today. That's the part in the Book of Mormon that Jesus visits the American Continent. The scripture he marked might not make a lot of sense unless you read the rest of the chapter. The rest of the chapter tells of the important things Jesus told the people in America, then at the end (the scripture Luke marked) basically says that it is wrong (evil) to add or take away from the things Jesus taught. You shouldn't change Christ's message.

One thing I absolutely love about my church is that we believe that Christ did visit the people in the Americas after he died and was resurrected. We believe that God loves all of his children. All of us. Everyone. The story of Christ visiting the Americas is so beautiful. He was loved and honored the short time he was here.

I haven't always been really good at reading my scriptures, but last year I spent more time than usual reading the Book of Mormon. I read it cover to cover. Normally I read a little here and a little there. I understand things so much better after reading it cover to cover. Not just names, places and facts, but spiritual concepts. One thing I realized is that there is a lot of symbolism in the scriptures for a reason. Symbolism helps us learn at our own level without having to understand everything at once. I think that is so neat.

30 Days of Pictures - Days 15-17

2010-04-18T08:06:00.001-06:00

Day 17
The sales clerk and others in the store were really curious why I bought so many of these. They are all for the Digital Scrapbook Retreat next week.

Day 16
I’m cheating with this picture because it’s actually from day 15, however it represents what I was doing on day 16. I’m working like crazy to get ready for the retreat at this beautiful hotel next week.

Day 15
Megan lost her first tooth today!!! She swallowed her first tooth today too.

30 Days of Pictures - Day 14

2010-04-14T17:57:00.000-06:00

Yummy!

30 Days of Pictures - Day 13

2010-04-13T15:45:00.002-06:00

Keith and his dad are building a deck for me :)

30 Days of Pictures - Day 12

2010-04-12T11:10:00.003-06:00

My little girl has been so excited for today. For months she has been asking when it would be crazy hair or pajama day at school. Today is finally the day. Isn't her hair fun? It's hard to tell here but the little specks are gold glitter. It's so cute in the sun.

30 Days of Pictures - Day 11

2010-04-11T15:02:00.002-06:00

Part of my little girl's Easter dress. Isn't it pretty?

30 Days of Pictures - Day 10

2010-04-10T16:26:00.002-06:00

The Digital Scrapbook Memories Retreat is coming up soon (April 22-24). I can't wait to give away the goodies and get rid of lots of boxes!

30 Days of Pictures - Day 9

2010-04-10T12:18:00.003-06:00

It's funny to me how in the Spring 70 degrees feels so warm, yet in the fall it feels so cold. I don't think it even hit 70 yesterday, but it felt like it. My little girl wanted to play in the sprinklers. I told her I didn't think it was a good idea because it was so cold so she came up with the brilliant plan to wear a jacket too! Haha! After playing in the sprinklers for a while she made mud puddles and played with her dolls in the mud for an hour. Do you remember this layout? She had a blast. I'm glad I let her do it.

30 Days of Pictures - Day 8

2010-04-08T22:04:00.004-06:00

I went to Star Mill today to take pictures. They have all sorts of antiques and great places for people pictures. Thanks for helping me find the place Jill!

I don't like Coke but I loved how these bottles looked.

30 Days of Pictures - Day 7

2010-04-07T13:14:00.002-06:00

My little girl likes to design clothes for her dolls. I think it's great! Sometimes her little 3 inch dolls have clothes made of bandaids and water balloons too. So funny. Her cousin N is her inspiration for these fun things.

30 Days of Pictures - Day 6

2010-04-06T20:26:00.003-06:00

I have had these plain white dishes forever. My walls are boring white too. I really should spice things up in this house. One day... not now.

30 Days of Pictures - Days 3-5

2010-04-05T19:45:00.005-06:00

Day 5 - We went ice skating and to the aquarium for the last day of Spring Break. The kids had a blast. Another camera phone picture :)

Day 4 - This was one of my favorite Easters EVER! I just loved this day. My kids were SO CUTE and SO EXCITED this morning looking for their Easter Eggs and Baskets. I got most of their excitement on video... yay! Another favorite part of my day was fixing Megan's hair. This is not a normal thing for me to say, but I got this new clipless curling iron for my birthday and I can not be any happier with it. It's the best thing ever. Isn't Megan's hair cute? Here she is with two of her cute Oaks cousins.

Day 3 -I cheated with this picture. I was so busy this day with a Digital Scrapbook Event I put on, I asked if anyone had a camera and could send me a picture. I just got the low resolution copy of the picture, but that is ok. I'm so glad she took it for me. Here I am with my new friends, Jan, Cathy and Sunny. Thanks for the picture Jan!

30 Days of Pictures - Day 2

2010-04-02T18:53:00.003-06:00

Another camera phone picture :)

My brother-in-law Matt went to Sundance with the kids and me today. It was so much fun. Tiring too. Megan is a lot better at skiing than last year, but that isn't saying much. She was daring enough to try skiing on her own a bit, but most of the time I held her. She was standing with her skis between mine while I pushed with all my might to turn both of us side to side down the mountain. Megan had a lot of fun so it was worth it. Luke was lucky to have Matthew because Megan and I were way too slow for him. Matthew even took him down a tiny sliver of a black diamond today. It must have been pretty darn short because Luke wasn't scared but according to Matthew he doesn't think Luke has ever skiied anything so steep. I think he might have, but who knows because I didn't see the hill. Matt is so awesome! He is extra giving and nice. I'm so glad we got to hang out with him today.

Sadly, this was our first ski outing this year. We didn't ski much this year for a few reasons. Hopefully we can get out more next year and I can help Megan get as good as Luke is on skis.

30 Days of Pictures - Day 1

2010-04-02T18:47:00.003-06:00

I'm starting the 30 Days of Pictures project again. Anyone else want to join? A bunch of us are posting our pictures on the DSM forum.

This first picture was taken on my camera phone. Out of pride, I must disclose that :) I went to my friend Lynette's house yesterday and fell in love with her green walls and cute decorations.

Interesting

2010-03-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

Found here.

For My Entire Life

2010-03-11T18:27:00.004-07:00

Yesterday Megan is in tears because she wants the new Barbie in the Mermaid Tail doll so bad.

Today as I was cleaning Megan's room I find Barbies everywhere. I said to her, "Wow! You have a lot of Barbies". She told me, "Yeah, but I don't ever play with them anymore". I asked why she would want a new doll if she didn't play with her old ones. She said, "It's because I have wanted the new one for my entire life ever since I found out there was one".

Very dramatic statement, don't you think? It's actually true though. Ever since she saw Noelle's doll two days ago, she has wanted one. Fortunately for her, she gets one tonight. Her dad is bringing her back one as a souvenir from California. She's going to be thrilled. I will be able to sleep well knowing I am teaching her that crying never works. Sigh.

Stonehenge

2010-03-10T16:28:00.003-07:00

Photo by Linda Cronin (click here to see her photos on Flickr)

Stonehenge has been on my list of places I want to go since I was a teenager. In my first scrapbook I have a picture of Stonehenge and wrote to the side, "My Dream Vacation". I haven't been quite as excited about it since my parents went there though. They said it was a disappointment because it is right off the freeway, but I would still love to go there. It seems like such an amazing place to be. My sister Angie served a LDS mission near here a few years back. One of her flats had a view of a castle. I have always wanted to see where she lived. Seems like such a beautiful place to visit.

As I have been looking up information on my ancestors I see (thanks to Google Earth) they lived within 5 miles of Stonehenge in Netheravon, Wiltshire, England. Do you think they ever played at Stonehenge? Wouldn't that be fun?

What parts of the world do you want to visit one day?

Romanitic Proposal

2010-03-07T17:05:00.005-07:00

I just read a beautiful marriage proposal between my third great grandparents on my Great Grandma Payne's (Elva Peck's) side of the family.

My third great-grandmother Charlotte Russon was born into a poor family in Worcestershire, England. When she was 17 a wealthy sheep owner, Peter Nebeker, offered to send Charlotte to live with his family in Utah. After a lot of consideration her parents consented to let her go and the Nebekers welcomed her and did all they could to make her happy.

Charlotte had only been at the Nebekers a short time when a young man from Lehi, Elisha Peck, came to see her - walking all 30 miles of the way. He had met her in England when he was a missionary there and saw her name in the Deseret News on a list of immigrants arriving from England. They had a happy reunion and corresponded with each other for the next year. Elisha came to see her in Salt Lake as often as possible. He was afraid to tell her he loved her, but he made up his mind to ask her to be his bride. He began by saying, "Lottie, I have been out here from England and you can't imagine how lonesome it is for me. My dear mother died when I was three and my father died when I was five. I have no one to care for me, only both of my sisters and they are both married. I love you with all of my heart, but I am only a poor boy. I have nothing on earth to offer you, only myself. It is sure hard for me to ask you to leave this beautiful home and plant, but it seems impossible for me to live without you. Dear Lottie, under these circumstances will you consent to be my wife?" When he had finished there were tears in both their eyes and she said, "Elder Peck, I have loved you from the first time we met at your home. I am also poor. I have nothing to give you, only myself. Do you think we can make a go of it with both of us having nothing?" He answered, "We are not afraid to try, are we?" Both of them laughed and he took her into his arms for the first time and kissed her.

Awww... what a legacy.

If anyone happens to Google my grandparent's names and finds this post, I'm trying to find information on Elisha's grandparents. Elisha's parents are Elisha Peck and Phebe Turner. Phebe's parents (who I am specifically looking for information on) are Thomas Turner and Ruth Rowles (although I've seen it listed on new.familysearch as Ruth Rowler).

Connected

2010-03-04T15:45:00.003-07:00

In my opinion, one of the most incredible stories from my church's history is the one of the Willie Handcart Company. The pioneers traveling in this company sufferered worse than anything I could ever possbily imagine being able to handle myself. They had to move to Utah because our church members were being persecuted back east. Church members were mobbed and murdered for their beliefs. On the journey to Utah, this company had problems and had to leave later than expected. Unfortunately, winter came earlier and much more severely than usual as they were crossing Wyoming. So many people died and they ran out of food. During coldest blizzards their food ration was reduced to an average of only 10 oz of flour a person. Can you imagine only eating a handful of flour each day as you are nearly freezing to death and watching your loved ones die around you?

I was able to visit some of the places where these pioneers suffered about 10 years ago. The first time was with a youth group I was partially in charge of and the second time was for a family reunion. Being there and hearing the stories of these people was absolutely an incredible spiritual experience. These people suffered so much, but had so much faith and love for God.

I just realized today how closely connected I am to a few of the people that traveled in that company. Since my early twenties, I knew my forth great grandparents brought their children across the plains in this handcart company. Their names were James and Mary Laird. I also knew my third great grandfather, Edward was one of those children. What I didn't realize until today, is that I have touched a hand, that touched a hand, that came across the country in the Willie Handcart Company. I knew my Great Grandma Park, whose grandfather was Edward Laird. Looking at the information I have on Edward, I can see that my great grandma grew up by him and knew him until he died when she was about 19. That's really neat to me. These ancestors seemed so old and so distant until I realized that today. I have loved someone, who has loved someone, who was in the Willie Handcart Company. Wow. I feel very connected.

Genealogy Week

2010-03-02T12:40:00.005-07:00

This isn't my picture. I just thought it was interesting. I got it off Flickr here. Wouldn't this be a fun picture to discover of your own ancestors?

I declare this week to be Genealogy Week. At least for me. If you read my last post you know I'm excited about tracing my roots. Seriously excited. As A.C. said on his blog, I have caught the genealogy bug. Oh how I hope it lasts. It is fun to be this excited about something.

Looking back to August 2008, I have some neat blog posts on genealogy. Back then the genealogy bug hadn't bit me and my enthusiasm died quickly. However, I'm really excited about the posts I posted back then. I posted some pretty pictures and collages of my ancestors. My favorite post is on August 29, 2008 where I discuss my deep Utah roots. It's pretty fascinating to me. If you are a blood relative, you should really read it. If you aren't a blood relative, it still might give you some great ideas on what to learn about your ancestors, and how to display the information gather.

In perfect timing for my self declared Genealogy Week, there is a show starting on NBC called Who Do You Think You Are. It premieres on March 5th. The show follows various stars as they learn about their roots. Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Spike Lee, Brooke Shields, Lisa Kudrow and others all have episodes where they are featured. Watch the previews here.

Exciting!

2010-03-01T19:13:00.003-07:00

If you know me, you know I LOVE everything to do with personal and family history. Personal history is super easy for me to keep up but a lot of details with family history are overwhelming to me. I'm interested in it, but in the past 10 years I haven't been able to motivate myself to research my roots. Part of the problem is I want to do things as quick as I can and the older people that are into doing family history don't have quick enough answers for me... until now.

My Grandpa Park is teaching a family history class at my church and the things he is teaching us about the New Family Search program are exciting. The New Family Search program is so much better than anything I have seen before. Still, even with how cool the program is, I was feeling overwhelmed with where to start until I met a really cool guy in St. George.

Last weekend I went to a family history expo in St. George to sell the Digital Scrapbook Memories CDs. I couldn't really leave my booth so I would occasionally ask people what they were learning at the conference. One guy (A.C. Ivory) stopped to buy some CDs for his mom and we ended up talking for a while. I was so impressed with him I can't even begin to explain. He is only 22 and knows tons about genealogy. He was asked to do a five generations chart before he left on his LDS mission and became hooked on genealogy. I was so excited to talk to him because I knew he would be the perfect resource for me. Because he is so young he is tech savvy and really understands the power of the internet and all of the computer programs out there. In the past years I have been taught by people that are much older than me and they teach me so slow I can't hardly stand it. If you are interested in tracing your roots you should follow A.C.'s blog. He is so cool and definitely the one for anyone tech savvy to go to for advice on genealogy.

Also at the expo, I talked to the guy next to me who has this really cool website (treeseek.com) that allows you to link your New Family Search info with his maps. My favorite was the fan chart shown above. Although it's much too small for you to see, I hope it gives you an idea of what it is. They print beautifully at large sizes. It was incredibly easy to create this chart using his website and I love the way it looks. As a matter of fact, I love it so much I spent half of the day making, printing, picking up, mailing and delivering fan charts to all of Keith and my grandparents and parents. The fan charts are incredible because they make it so easy to see where the holes in your family history are. Because of these fan charts I know where to start doing my family history. So cool!!! If you are an LDS youth leader you should have an activity for everyone to make these charts. I think it would be a great way for the youth to be able to visually see where they come from.

I Spy

2010-02-20T19:44:00.002-07:00

I created Luke's for his "star student" week in class. I liked it enough I decided to make one for Megan and mail them to their Grandma in Vernal.

Digi Olympics

2010-02-17T08:35:00.002-07:00

The Digi Olympics are in full swing at the Digital Scrapbook Memories site. Come play with us for a chance to win big prizes. This layout is one I completed for the Ski Jump Challenge. You are supposed to take a past layout or project and use part of it to complete a new layout.

Happy Valentines!

2010-02-11T20:56:00.003-07:00

Cute Megan loved making her class Valentines this year. She is so into it and loves every single part of putting the Valentines together. It's been so much fun watching her. At first I just had her draw some stuff on a paper. After I scanned her drawings in and started creating her Valentine she completely took over. I was actually a bit bummed because I had a fun idea for her card, but her design is so much better. She is going to be so excited to hand them out tomorrow.

Luke is the opposite. I had to force him to write what he wrote. His card is pretty simple, but I like it. I was proud of the way I altered the maze I found online.

Happy Valentines Day!

Isn't This Beautiful?

2010-02-06T10:05:00.003-07:00

I was looking through Flickr today and saw a picture of a Porpita. I think it is the most beautiful creature on earth, yet I didn't even know it existed until today. I love it's beautiful design and it doesn't hurt that they are my favorite color. What do you think? Isn't it beautiful? You can see where I found these pictures here.

LOVE this song...

2010-01-29T15:55:00.009-07:00

If you didn't like Megan Joy before, do you like her now after hearing this song? What do you think?

Ahhhh!!! I could listen to it over and over and over... I always knew she had major potential and hated hearing others didn't like her because I wanted to hear lots from her.

Keep listening at around the 2:30 mark. There is a very interesting change. Wasn't sure I liked it at first, but I do now.

Here is another song I have fallen in love with after hearing it on my friend Amy's blog. I have never heard of Megan Washington before. Have you? LOVE this song. The video is weird though - it's better to listen with your eyes shut.

Inspirational Dirty Jobs???

2010-01-25T18:16:00.005-07:00

I love the show Dirty Jobs, but who would ever expect to watch Mike Rowe give an incredibly inspirational video? Amy pointed this video out to me and I absolutely loved the message. I hope you do too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-udsIV4Hmc

Keith's dad, Lonnie is the greatest example of hard work. He is incredible. He works hard and doesn't complain. He will help anyone who needs help at home even after a long hard day (or week) at work. He will work through any labor dispute despite how it hurts him because he believes in hard work. He is amazing.

Flashback

2010-01-25T09:16:00.003-07:00

Did this really happen or was it just a dream?

It's hard to believe these kids were this little once. It seems so long ago. Sniff. Sniff. I'm so glad I took lots of pictures, scrapbooked plenty of layouts and wrote in my journal so I can remember these things.

Pictured above: Luke, Kaden, Patrick, Andrew, and Tanner.

Twenty Bucks

2010-01-21T07:59:00.002-07:00

Would you please give me $20? Seriously.

I have a large weight loss goal I want to accomplish by September 17, 2010. I am hoping some of you will give me an incentive and let me know you'll be waiting for a report. If I reach my goal I want you to pay me $20. If I don't, I'll have to pay you $20. Keith will be beyond angry if I have to pay out which is a good thing. My goal is not small, but I'm not ready to post it here. If you are willing to play along let me know and I can fill you in on what my exact goal is.

I was amazing at losing weight last year but gained it all back plus some. Lame!!! I know exactly why I gained it all. I have no excuse. If I don't maintain my weight I'll pay all of you that play along $20 on March 17th, 2011.

I'm going to hurry and post this before I chicken out.

Can I Have a Cookie?

2010-01-18T08:51:00.007-07:00

Megan asks,

Mom can I have a cookie?

I tell her yes, she grabs the cookie, looks at it then asks,

Can I eat it now too?

Hahaha! My kids are so funny. Keith and I are constantly surprised how often both of our kids do this. If I tell one kid they can play the Wii, I would expect both would think they could, but they always ask to make sure. They are so cute! I told the kids they never have to ask to get a drink of water or something healthy to eat, but they still ask. Usually after I remind them they don't have to ask, they will check and say, "Mom, I'm getting a drink because you told me I don't have to ask anymore, right?" Haha.

Lost Links

2010-01-16T16:41:00.005-07:00

Somehow the family blog links I had to the right have been lost. Sigh. That seemed to take forever to put together last time. If you are family (cousin, aunt, uncle, etc) please post so I can grab your blog address without having to sort through all of the comments. Thanks!!

Friends, I have your blogs saved in my google reader. It's so easy to check to see if you posted there. Well, unless your blog is private. I never get updates on private blogs, but at least I have your information saved there.

Also, if you are curious who my Hummer Pals are (linked at the right)...they are a group of girls who won honorable mentions for a contest with me in 2005 and we have been friends ever since. Check out their blogs, they are all really talented.

Random

2010-01-10T14:38:00.003-07:00

I saw the movie Leap Year last night. It was sooooo good. My mom and I think it will be one of those classic love story movies in the same class as While You Were Sleeping. Best of all it was PG!! How refreshing.

After almost a year of looking for a friend to go to the gym with I have finally found not just one, but three friends to go with plus I know two people that are at the gym at the time I go. Yay.

I miss working out with you Jennifer. I miss hanging out with you too.

Megan's reading has drastically improved this past month. So fun!!

I'm doing good with my 2010 goals so far and I'm so happy I'm doing them.

I have so much food storage thanks to gifts from my parents, in-laws and the things I have done over the past few years. More on that another day...

I spent an incredible amount of time reading the NieNie Dialogs this week. Thanks Lynette and the others that told me about it. I still have a lot more to read. NieNie was in a horrible plane crash that burned about 85% of her body. Her story is fascinating to me and I love reading about her courage. I wanted to read from the beginning so started reading her blog from the first post, switched to her sisters for a while and now I'm back to hers. It's interesting to see how she faces life and reflects on her faith in God.

I have also been reading Iron Heart. It's a true story of how a man survived a horrible car crash and was told he would never walk again. Now he is racing in Iron Man triathlons. It's so interesting to me to learn what it was like to wake up from a medically induced coma and deal with his problems. I started reading the "look inside" part of the book on Amazon and was hooked. It's an inspiring book.

I love having my kids around. I love talking to them. I love helping them. But why do they always seem to need me right when I sit down.

I am really excited about the retreat!

I'm excited about the Digi Olympics but it's so much work I'm a bit nervous about hosting it.

I took a free ice skating lesson the other week and the instructor taught us how to spin. It's not that hard, but I couldn't quite get the motion down more than once in the 10 or 15 minutes I practiced. I can't wait to try again.

Ice skating at Solitude is my favorite!!! I'm just nervous to go again after sliding my car off the road last year. I need to find a good time to go in the day, rather the night. The night is so beautiful though...sigh...

Why can't I keep my house clean? I need motivation to push a little harder each day.

I am so excited for spring and summer, but don't want the winter to end. It would be great if I could pick and choose which days were which season.

As long as it's winter I sure wish it would snow some more. We need more snow for sledding near my house.

Luke likes to read science and nature books. I love that about him. His newest book he got from the school library is called the Journey of a Light Beam.

I had a really yummy barbecue chicken sandwich at Red Robin yesterday. I wish I could have it again right now.

I'm really surprised neither of my kids have freckles. I always thought my kids would have lots of freckles like I did.

Artist Spotlight

2010-01-08T09:26:00.004-07:00

Today we started something new on the Digital Scrapbook Memories website. We will start featuring various artists in our online community. Today I chose to spotlight Lynette Wilkins. She is absolutely incredible. I love her style. The layouts above are some of my favorite layouts of hers.

Check out this week's artist spotlight here.

Let It Snow

2010-01-06T17:26:00.004-07:00

It should be no secret to those of you that know me, or read my blog that I love the snow. I haven't always loved the snow, but as I find more and more places to take my kids, I start to love the snow more and more. With enough layers, we are rarely cold (the one reason I may have not liked the snow before).

This year we have only been sledding twice and skating once. No skiing yet. Kind of sad. I'll get there though. I'm just starting the season of slow, I suppose.

I created this layout for this challenge.

Aunt Kim - This is for you!

2010-01-05T16:08:00.003-07:00

Kim, I don't even know if you read my blog, but if you do I hoped you might enjoy a post dedicated to you.

Megan loves the hair books you gave her for Christmas. Today she wanted a french twist. I obviously need a lot more practice. Trust me, I am not posting these because I think I did a good job. I know I didn't, but Megan thinks she looks so pretty. She is really excited. Hopefully by the time she really needs her hair to look good I'll have it figured out. Thanks for the books!!

Pass the Torch!

2010-01-04T09:05:00.006-07:00

Are you excited about the Winter Olympics? I am!!

Help pass this torch and you could win!

The image below was created for this challenge. These are my scrapbook layouts from the last Digi Olympics.

My Incredible Grandparents

2010-01-03T09:32:00.007-07:00

When I first started this blog, I had this great idea to spotlight someone in my family every week. Unfortunately, I didn't keep up with that more than a few weeks in a row. I still plan to do it, but maybe I won't tie myself down to a time limit this time. Over a year ago I asked my Grandma and Grandpa Thorup to write 100 things about themseves and give the list to me. Although they are great at keeping their own personal history (especially my grandpa), this assignment was a bit overwhelming to them. A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to go to lunch with them alone. Just the three of us. It was so nice. On our way to lunch I asked if we could stop by the store and buy a notebook so I could start writing down 100 things about them. We didn't get to 100 yet, but here is what we got so far. It was a lot of fun learning more about them, especially about their childhood. I love being with them!

I have been really lucky to be close to these grandparents all of my life. I spent a lot of time at their house and camping with them. We took a minimum of two camping trips together every year to places like Moab, Zions, and the Tetons. I grew up hiking with them. I love camping, hiking and everything about nature in great part because they introduced me to it's beauty and helped me enjoy it. Many of my favorite memories include them.

I haven't really proof read this but sometimes I feel like it's better to share things rather than sit on them and wait until you perfect them. If I waited to perfect every journal entry I ever created I would have next to nothing. Grandpa and Grandma, if you find any mistakes let me know!!!

100 Things about my grandma, Jeanne B. Thorup

1) Favorite color: red

2) Favorite place visited: Switzerland

3) Favorite place to visit more often: Colter Bay in the Tetons

4) Loves to look at scenery

5) Born in Provo, Utah

6) When she goes to a movie with beautiful scenery she often pays more attention to the scenery more than the movie.

7) December 14, 2009 – Ordered a chicken salad at Mimi’s café while dining with me (April) and Grandpa Thorup

8) Weighted 3.5 lbs at birth

9) She was so small at birth that the nurse handed her over to her parents in the palm of her hand.

10) She loves to hear the sound of water rushing

11) Wears glasses

12) Started wearing glasses at about 14.

13) She remembers the first time she had glasses she was so excited to see how clear the stars looked.

14) Favorite flower: a two-tone rose called a Double Delight (it’s red inside and white outside)

15) Favorite bird: hummingbird

16) She remembers her parents sitting on the back porch of her house on Evening Star and the hummingbirds would come right up to them when they sat still.

17) Loves the song, “Oh Holy Night”

18) Met her husband in the ward choir

19) At three years old she used to sing and dance on the stage. It was the time of Shirley Temple so her mom had her hair done up in ringlets and she wore lots of lots of cute costumes.

20) At three she sang, “On the Big Ship Lollipop”

21) Absolutely loves to look at any body of water but she is kind of scared of being in the water.

22) Had a very happy childhood

23) Was a popular girl in school and probably had all the boys ask her to dance

24) Used to help with her brother with Morris Code flags

25) She loves Olive Garden Salad Dressing (it is her favorite). She can’t find it anywhere else.

26) As a little girl in American Fork her fried almost drown when falling in a well. She couldn’t do anything to help but pray.

27) She had a big tree she used to spend a lot of time in when she was little. It was in the front of her house with big low branches. She says she used to live in it and her mother said she used to live in one too when she was a girl.

28) She was really close to her brother and he was her protector.

29) Used to sneak out of the house when her mom was asleep.

30) Used to love playing dress up.

31) She remembers cutting out paper dolls from the newspaper and playing with them.

32) She used to live within a couple feet of railroad tracks. The tracks were directly out her bedroom window.

33) As an adult she had a kid swim up to her in the swimming pool and tells her that she was the ugliest person he had ever seen. She is beautiful though (read #23).

34) Has a lot of good memories hiking the Narrows.

35) Doesn’t like contention.

36) Likes to laugh.

37) She is an optimist.

38) Used to have “a ball” in the trailer with her family and grandkids.

39) She had hepatitis when she was little so now she can’t give blood.

40-100 to come later :)

100 Things about my grandpa, D. Wallace Thorup

1) Favorite color: blue

2) Favorite place to visit (nearby) is Colter Bay in the Tetons

3) Absolutely loved visiting Switzerland

4) Can think of 50 places he has visited and loved.

5) Loves how unusual and beautiful the trees are in New Zealand.

6) Loves to travel.

7) He was the first one in his family to be born in a hospital.

8) He helped me (April) make a gorgeous wood chair.

9) December 14, 2009 he ordered a sweet and sour chicken wrap at Mimi’s café while dining with April and Grandma Thorup.

10) Loves woodworking and has ever since Jr. High School when he took a class.

11) Wears glasses.

12) Started wearing glasses around grade school age.

13) When he was Jr. High age he went downtown to the old Deseret Gym during the summer. He would swim, play handball and work in the woodshop there.

14) Rode the trolley to the Deseret Gym with other friends in the neighborhood.

15) The Peace Rose is his favorite flower next to a bright red rose.

16) His favorite bird is a cardinal.

17) He first saw a cardinal in Tennessee on his mission.

18) He wishes people sang Christmas carols all year long.

19) Sang base in a quartet on his mission in Nauvoo.

20) When he had a cold, he was so surprised with himself when he was able to sing the low note. He thought he could sing base better with a cold.

21) He had a high range because he also sang the high tenor in a men’s chorus at the University of Utah.

22) One of his favorite places is to drive along the west coast.

23) Once while driving on the coast he only gave Grandma 15 minutes to stop and look at the ocean because they were in a hurry. She thought that was terrible because she could have sat there for hours.

24) His favorite dessert is white cake with chocolate icing.

25) Was in the Navy.

26) The cook on his ship used to make the best peach pie.

27) After being at sea a long time they got weevils in their flour and had to eat them because there was nothing else. The weevils crunched when they ate them.

28) He never had to lock the doors of his house until he moved to his house on Evening Star Drive.

29) Built a club house out of lumber he got from all of the surrounding houses that were being built.

30) Remembers climbing up and down clothes shoots as a kid.

31) His father was rarely home even on Sundays because he was working a lot.

32) As a little kid he took a hammer and nails and put nails all around a drawer in the hall. When he was done, he couldn’t close the drawer.

33) Doesn’t like carrot cake all that much.

34) Favorite hike: Angels Landing in Zion’s National Park.

35) Likes to fix things.

36) Loved working in Centerville at the Burton Lab making intravenous systems. He was the project manager and loved the challenge.

37) Loves to play games.

38) Perfectionist.

39) Doesn’t like to go hunting or fishing.

40) He was 6’ tall when he was 12 years old.

41) He was diagnosed with a murmur in his heart at age 12 and the doctor suggested he didn’t play sports (which he didn’t mind too much).

42) Entered the ROTC in High School.

43) Was on a salt free diet as a teenager because he had nephritis (blood in the urine).

44) In the Navy in San Francisco he could have a day off each month if he gave blood.

45) He went into the service the day before he turned 18.

46) The first Christmas away from home he spent the whole day waiting to make a call at the Pepsi-Cola service station and never could get the call through. Later he missed his bus and hitched a ride with some really nice people who fed him dinner and treated him really well. He really appreciated those people and is sorry he didn’t remember their name.

47) The last month of his training for the Navy, the WWII ended.

48) Wears a size 14AA shoe

49) His shoe size is the same size as his brother.

50-100 to come later :)

2010 Goals!

2010-01-01T14:28:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year!!!

My 2010 goals are:

1) Create a scrapbook page for each month of the year.
2) Every day, write something positive about my day, in a book my friend gave me last year (or the year before).
3) Write something about each kid on their calendars each day.
4) Remember not to give up or be frustrated if I skip a day or two or more. I'll just pick up and start again!

There are plenty of goals I should be writing but unfortunately I'm not ready to tackle them. One day I'll get there.

Greatest Party!

2010-01-01T08:36:00.002-07:00

Luke had the greatest birthday party. As you can see from the pictures it was quite a while ago. I would totally recommend this “Scales and Tails” place to anyone. It was amazing!!! Because Luke was the birthday boy he got to help during the show from time to time. He was nervous a couple times but tried to be really brave. The pictures below are a bit out of order, but any you see of him looking nervous would have come first. He was always brave though, and never asked to have the snakes off of him until the boa constrictor started squeezing his arm too tight (look for that picture below). You’ll notice from other pictures that Luke wasn’t nervous for long. He had so much fun! His dad was out of town during his party so I had Luke write him an e-mail to tell him about it. Here is the message he wrote his dad:

I had a great birthday party! I got squished by a boaconstricter but it wasn`t hard. the snakes didn`t eat anybody and they were cool.

Ha ha. I love his summary of the party.

I asked Megan if she wanted a picture with the boa and she was so cute and said she wouldn’t be scared to hold its tail. Later she also got brave and got a picture by the middle of the snake as well as holding the smaller snake. I think Jonny was pretty nervous throughout the show but at the end he was even holding the snakes too! I didn’t realize when I was taking the picture of him that he was holding the snakes head with his fingers! Also, I’m not sure who gave him the snake and how the snake wrapped around his waist but he loved it.

Christmas Letters

2009-12-31T09:59:00.004-07:00

Christmas was so much fun this year. Last year and this year have been the best so far because my kids are such perfect ages. They get so excited and believe in all of the magic of Christmas. It's GREAT! They both kept track of the amount of days until Christmas by themselves thanks to a cute countdown calendar Megan made in kindergarten and some chocolate advent calendars my mom gave them. Megan's countdown calendar was a picture of Santa where you cut off part of his beard every day.

Normally Luke is the most patient one. My side of the family always opens at least one present on Christmas Eve and now they open all of their presents on Christmas Eve because that is when we are all together. It drives Keith nuts because he thinks all of the gifts should be opened on Christmas only. Last year Luke was offered presents to open at my parent's house on Christmas Eve and he didn't even want to open it! He said he wanted to wait, but soon changed his mind. This year he wasn't nearly as patient. He was so excited to go to my parent's and start opening presents he almost started crying when he found out we had to eat dinner first. Hahaha.

When we got home Christmas Eve night I have never seen Luke so anxious. We have a tradition (Keith insists on) to make cookies for Santa and write letters to Santa. Luke also had some reindeer food he made in cub scouts that he wanted to sprinkle on the lawn. I have NEVER seen Luke move so fast. He was so worried he wouldn't get in bed on time if he didn't move quickly. he wrote his letter to Santa in a few seconds, then without even asking (totally out of character for Luke) he ran outside by himself to sprinkle the reindeer food on the lawn. It threw me off guard to see the front door open and my cute little 8 year old outside in the dark by himself. It was so fun to watch! Before I knew it Luke was totally ready for bed and in his covers. A while after saying prayers with the kids I went back in to help quiet Megan down (cute little chatterbox) and rub Luke's head to help him fall asleep. Luke said to me in the most stressed out voice, "Mom, will you just go!". Hahaha! I thought I was helping!

Christmas morning was great except I kept waking up before everyone. So far this has happened every year. I got up at 4, then 5, then 6 and then I couldn't sleep anymore. At 7:15 I was so excited to see Megan wake up and come in our room. She got in bed and put her head on a pillow. I asked if she knew what day it was and she said, "Christmas" with such a cute little smile. Then she went to sleep AGAIN!!! I couldn't believe it! Finally about that time it was light enough to start reading, so I read for a half hour until Luke finally woke up and I got him to wake everyone else up. Traditionally on Christmas morning Keith tries to get us all to go back to sleep, then teases us for a while that he is too tired to get up. Finally he gets up, goes and checks on the front room, sets up the video camera and lets us come out in line (oldest to youngest). We have been lining up oldest to youngest ever since the first year Keith and I were married. Haha. This year while he was teasing us that he was too tired he let the kids go out and peek at the toys. We told them they couldn't go into the front room, but they could peak from the stairs. They were very obedient and only peeked for a second.

Ahhh! It was so much fun. Santa spoiled the kids for sure. I can't wait until next year.

About the letters at the top of this post... Cute Luke is always extremely thoughtful. He is always thinking of his sister. At the beginning of December when we would ask what he wanted all he would say is that he wanted a DS for Megan. Isn't that crazy? He is so nice!! We told him Megan should ask for that and he should ask for something else. He finally decided he wanted the New Super Mario Bros. for Wii. Still though, if anyone ever asked what he wanted he would always say he wanted a DS for his sister and Super Mario for himself. Megan is the opposite usually. She is super nice too, but she is more "normal" wanting everything under the sun. The list below is the list she wrote at the beginning of December. I love how she spells things. This list is one of her very first attempts to write words on her own. I think she did a GREAT job, but I translated for you just in case you can't read it.

The letters up at the top were written Christmas Eve to leave by the kids stockings. Keith and I weren't surprised by Luke's letter, but we were with Megan's. Both kids wrote their letters without any help. Megan is a sweet girl, but we thought she would ask for a million things. I love that she asked for something for Luke and said she was happy with whatever she got. Ahhh! Maybe we are teaching her right. Cute girl!

ETA: Megan says the bottom item is an Electronic Bug.

Enter to Win

2009-12-29T22:32:00.005-07:00

If you are interested in coming to the 2010 Retreat for Digital Scrapbook Memories, make sure you go here and enter to win!

Kind of Funny (and then a little deep)

2009-12-28T12:45:00.006-07:00

Megan and Luke were talking to each other the other day. As I was listening, Megan was talking about only having one hand and what that would be like. Luke then started to explain to her, why God would allow people to be severely handicapped. He explained that Satan can't tempt those people as easy and so even though it's really hard to be handicapped they are really lucky not to have to worry about being tempted.

Megan understood this to some extent, but not the full extent. She cracked me up when she started asking Luke questions. My favorite was this one, "So does that mean that people that only have one hand would have a harder time drinking coffee? And is that why Heavenly Father took his hand away?" She also went on to talk about a girl she saw on TV that didn't have a neck and how that would make it a lot harder to drink coffee too.

Hahaha. Looks like I need to keep working on this topic.

If you aren't a member of my church and you are curious what in the world I'm teaching my kids, you are welcome to ask. In short, we teach our kids not to smoke or drink coffee, tea and alcohol. We always follow that discussion up with the fact that you don't have to believe the same way as we do to be a good person. I really emphasize that because its hard for little kids to understand why something is wrong for one but ok for another.

Regarding seriously handicapped; this is a subject that is too hard to explain in a couple sentences, but I'll try. We believe God loves everyone so much. We are sent to Earth to gain a body, to be tried and tested. Some of the spirits that lived in Heaven were (possibly) so good that they don't need to be tested like the rest of us. Although some may view God as a horrible creature when he allows bad things like this to happen, we believe that it may be one of his most loving acts because these people can't be tempted by Satan the way the rest of us are. They will have a place in the highest part of heaven after they die. What greater reward could there be?

Wow!!

2009-12-17T14:17:00.001-07:00

Isn't this picture incredible? I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again... I LOVE the picture slideshows on msnbc.com!

Reed Payne

2009-12-15T13:31:00.005-07:00

My uncle, Reed Payne, passed away last week. He was my Grandma Park's only brother. I got teary at times during the funeral thinking of their original family together again. I'll really miss Reed. He is such an incredible man and I loved the times I was able to be with him. He will always have a special part in my heart. He played the piano at my wedding which meant so much to me. I wanted him to play at my wedding since I was a little girl and he played at my one of my aunt or uncles weddings. I think it was Aunt Andi's. Besides my wedding, my favorite time with him and my aunt Ruth was in Oregon. Keith and I were driving down the coast and stopped at a beautiful beach near California. I wanted to get our picture taken so I started walking towards the only other couple on the beach. Keith told me not to, but I went anyway. I'm so glad I did because it turned out to be Reed and Ruth!!! It was so much fun to see them there. We went to lunch at Pizza Hut and had a great time before we were on our way again.

My Uncle Reed wrote the music to the song, "When Joseph Went to Bethleham". It's published in the LDS Children's Songbook and is sung all over the world each Christmas. At his funeral, his son said that their family wondered if he had to a chance to meet and talk with Joseph yet and ask him if the words of the songs portrayed his true feelings. It gave me chills thinking of that because the idea of him doing that is so exciting. I love you Uncle Reed. I'll miss you. Give my Grandma a hug and kiss for me. I miss her so much.

You can listen to the song here. Also, I found out during the funeral that Reed's cousin (which would be my Grandma's cousin) composed the song, "Lord, I Would Follow Thee". Now that song has extra meaning for me.

Snowflakes

2009-12-10T08:38:00.004-07:00

Beautiful snowflakes are just another reason to love winter. Sure, winter has its drawbacks, but if you look for things to enjoy you could love winter too. When I saw these crystals on my car this morning, I hoped I could get a good picture to capture the beauty. I've really got to invest in a macro lens one day.

Hummm...

2009-12-03T11:54:00.002-07:00

Just not in the mood to blog lately. Hope you all are doing well! I do have a fun idea for a picture I want to take soon though... we'll see how quick I get it up.

Amy's Pictures

2009-11-17T16:36:00.002-07:00

Amy posted the pictures she took of the party here. Neither of us got any pictures of the yummy strawberries though...yummmm! Nice pictures Amy!!

Twilight/New Moon Party

2009-11-14T14:54:00.003-07:00

Last night we had a really fun party for the girls who help me a lot at Digital Scrapbook Memories. Amy and I planned the party together. The party was inspired by this one by Emily. Emily's party was inspired by this one by this one by the Hostess with the Mostess.

Amy made this incredible invitation. Isn't she awesome???

I didn't take pictures of our actual party table which is too bad. If Amy posts her pictures I'll link you to those pictures. I really like how the table turned out. We had a deep red table cloth with a black sheer runner, candles, a cupcake tray, chocolate dipped strawberries, water and popcorn in addition to what you see in the pictures below. There were also little signs around the house. All of the printed Twilight decorations came from the HWTM. It was so EASY to quickly print her designs. I loved it!! I really enjoyed Twilight but I'm not a giant fan like others. I haven't even read the second book yet (although I did get it today for $5). I just really wanted to do the party after seeing the cute drink labels. Haha!!! The one thing I did different with the printouts is I mounted the little signs on a black paper folded in half so I wouldn't have to buy (or find) picture frames. I really like how it turned out. Here are a couple pictures of the signs, drinks and licorice.

Thanks to all of you that help me with Digital Scrapbook Memories. Alisha, I wish you were closer so you could have come. Also, does anyone else worry after a party that not everyone got an invite that should have? We didn't hear from a couple girls who we sent invites to but we definately send the invites to everyone who has helped with DSM.

Zorbing

2009-11-06T07:57:00.002-07:00

Hahahahaha! This looks like so much fun. Or not. Hahaha. Have you heard of Zorbing yet?

By the way I took the image from this site.

Halloween

2009-11-02T17:03:00.004-07:00

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. My kids dressed up as a jellyfish and a Nintendo DS. They both loved their costumes which made me really happy. Luke had so many people at school at our church party running up to him to "play" his costume. He couldn't go more than a few feet without people saying how much they loved his costume. Keith said they trick or treated at someone's house we don't know and the lady said she saw our kids at school and came home and told her husband about the jellyfish and Nintendo DS. She had no idea that the two kids were from the same family. Ha ha. It made me feel good. I have a few friends who said they heard about our costumes from other people who didn't know us, but just were talking about their favorite costumes. Fun.

Luke got a bit overwhelmed with people "playing his costume". He really got pushed around a lot by nice but hyper kids, but he still had fun and liked most of the attention he got.

I got a cute picture of my niece and nephew too. Aren’t they cute?

Teaching Kids to Read

2009-10-20T13:27:00.011-06:00

Thanks to those of you who said they would like to read what I have to say about teaching kids to read. It’s one of my favorite subjects. I do not think I have all of the answers, nor do I think I’m an expert. I do think I have some great ideas though and I love sharing them. I think Stacy (Boquinha) hit the nail on the head when she said, “when our kids learn to read, it is as exciting as first words and first steps!”

You hear from everyone that you should be reading to your kids from the time they are babies. I absolutely believe this. Babies not only learn to love books, they also learn what words mean and what books are. I believe babies are so much more capable of learning than most people think. I love watching those videos of babies actually reading words. It’s incredible! I never even thought to try that. I don’t think teaching babies to read words is important, but it may be fun to do. I do think it’s important to recognize that babies can and should be learning all the time. This applies to lots of things not just reading.

The best advice I ever got was to let my kids turn the pages at their own pace. Help them learn how to turn the pages early on. Once they learn, don’t worry if they skip pages or go back. Just read any page they go to for as long as they let you. You don’t even have to read the words to make the book fun. You could take the baby’s finger and help them point to the things as you tell them what they are. Pretty soon they will be able to do it on their own. This helps babies learn to love books. It feels really unnatural not to read a book from cover to cover, but I think it’s really important to make reading fun. If reading from cover to cover isn’t fun for a baby, don’t do it that way.

I have no idea when most kids let their parents start reading books to them from cover to cover, but I remember wondering if it would ever happen for us. Just when I was about to abandon hope, it happened! They sat through one book, then another, then another… For my kids, I think the age was closer to three or four before they consistently started sitting quiet for all of the books. If you have a couple kids I think it’s great for the older one to practice listening while their younger siblings run around, disrupt and only pay half attention. This is a skill they will need once school starts and in all stages of life.

Parents should read with as much expression as they can. This is so important! Parents should try to make up voices for the different characters and change the level of sound for different parts of the book. For example, if a character is supposed to be really quiet, the parent should read really quiet. If a character is excited, a parent should read louder. It’s amazing how a wiggly toddler will suddenly start to pay attention when a parent changes noise levels. Again, don’t worry if they only pay attention to part of the book.

When reading with young kids, you should help them follow the words with their finger. This teaches them that the words you say associate with the letters on the page. They also learn the direction of reading (that we read from left to right, top to bottom).

Help your kids feel confident by letting them finish the sentences for you. There are probably some favorite books your kids read over and over. As they start to memorize the words it’s exciting for them to be able to “read” parts of the book. In reality, they aren’t really reading, they are just memorizing, but it still exciting for them. We all tend to enjoy the things we are good at so help your kids feel like they are really good at reading. My mom told me that she thinks the best thing she did for my siblings and me is to help us feel confident. Not just in reading but in all areas. I think she was right (and could write a ton on that subject too).

The first words my kids learned to read were stop and exit because you see those words everywhere and they are always written in the same shape and color. Again, it’s a confidence builder to be able to recognize those words.

Picture books with a word for each picture is a good thing for kids too. Although they are usually looking at the picture to guess the word, it still encourages confidence. I always let my kids read the word first, then I would congratulate them on reading the word right and read it again sounding out each letter so they could see how the letters made up the word.

My favorite way to instill confidence in my kids was when they started to learn their letters and sounds. In short books, with few words, I would find the only word that started with a certain letter then say, “find the word ________”. I would then repeat the word over and say the first sound lots of times. For example, for the word silly I would say, “Find the word silly. S-S-S-Silly”. My kids thought they were so smart and felt confident because they could easily find those words. It was fun!

My oldest was really motivated by computer games. I spent quite a bit of time playing cute Sesame Street educational computer games with him when he was only one. Eventually he got his own computer on the floor next to my desk. I wouldn’t let him play unless he read the words by himself. I got tired of reading everything for him, so at two I made him read words like stop, start, play, next, and begin. Eventually he learned other words too because he was motivated to play his games and I wouldn’t let him play unless he could do it on his own. To clarify, I may let my kids play more games or watch more TV than some, but I like to follow up with most everything they play and watch. I like to ask them questions and challenge them as they are playing or watching so that I know they are learning too. I’m not always consistent, but at least I make a good effort. I love PBS shows and the PBS website. Another AMAZING website is http://www.starfall.com/. MAKE SURE YOU TRY THAT SITE if you have a child between one and six. Older kids will like this site too especially if they aren’t reading really well. It is so much fun! Make sure your kids click on all of the pictures. It’s such an incredible resource for teaching kids letters and how to read.

Rhyming is another great way to teach toddlers important skills for reading. We used to rhyme in the car all the time to make a drive more fun. Eventually rhyming skills will give your kids confidence as they start spelling and reading. Each kid is different, but at 4 years old my kids would spell a certain word such as cat and I would say, “Wow! If you can spell cat, you can spell hat”. When they spelled hat, I would change to another rhyming word. It was really exciting for them to find out they could not only spell one word, but lots of words! This was my best way to help my kids learn to sound out words. Both of my kids usually got frustrated looking at books and trying to sound words out for more than a couple minutes. My goal was to always make learning fun for the kids. So if they got frustrated I would usually stop immediately. If I kept things fun, the kids learned faster.

Once my kids started to read I tried to help them read with expression. Usually they would read a sentence in a mono-tone voice, then I would re-read it with expression or ask them to re-read it with expression. It was really fun for my kids to learn what exclamation points and question marks meant early in their reading development. They loved yelling when a sentence had an exclamation mark. And they loved changing their voice when a question mark came up. It cracked me up as they were learning about question marks. When a question mark came up in a sentence, they read most of the sentence mono-tone then add a slightly higher tone for the last word. Ha ha. My youngest is still learning, but my oldest is really good at reading with expression. It’s really fun to listen to him read, it is never boring.

Although it really took years for my kids to learn to read it always felt like they learned overnight. It’s so much fun when something clicks and they finally get it! Both my kids could read and spell words pretty early but I didn’t view them as actually reading until they were about five and could read books. My youngest started reading a bit later than her older brother because I didn’t work with her quite as much (poor girl). I know she could have done what her brother did if I had worked with her more. She was only a couple months behind him though and is now so excited to read she is learning at lightning speed. The other day in church she was even reading the words to the hymn and singing a lot of the words right. It was so cute!

Another super cute thing my daughter does is watch PBS shows like Word World, Super Why and Word Girl with a paper and pencil. She writes down all of the words she sees in the show then has me quiz her on them later. I love it! She likes to bring me her papers and put stars by the correctly spelled words just like her brother’s second grade teacher does at the top of his spelling tests. I personally don’t really care if she spells words right though. I noticed that the teachers in school don’t really focus on correct spelling until about second grade. I was surprised by that first, but then I realized that they are trying to encourage kids to sound out words and there are a lot of English words that don’t sound the way they are spelled. I also think this gives the kids confidence to continue to try to spell. Again, we all like to do things we are good at and seem to stay away from things we don’t do well.

My brother-in-law Bruce said that his dad used to read chapter books without pictures to his kids at early ages. I have thought about this a lot and it seems to me that this must be a really important aspect of learning to read as well. I read somewhere that it lets you introduce a higher level of reading to your kids. I assume it trains your brain in a different way and helps you to learn to focus and comprehend things differently.

I certainly don’t have all of the answers, but I do believe a parent’s involvement is crucial. We should not be depending on the schools to teach everything to our kids. I do NOT mean that as a jab to public schools though. I just think parents and teachers should be working together. I am personally really happy with the public school my kids go to. I’m very impressed with the teachers and staff there. I spend as much time volunteering at my kid’s school as I can because I want to see what they are doing and being taught. So far, we have been blessed with incredible teachers and I have learned a lot about teaching my kids from them. I think my kids have the best of both worlds. They learn about so many different things at school that I would never even think of teaching them, and then when they get home I can reinforce the things they learn at school and teach them other fun things as we work on things at home or go out to explore and play.

Who else has a fun idea to share? I would love to hear anything you can add!

Awww...

2009-10-18T21:24:00.002-06:00

I just found this cancelled check while throwing away some of our super old papers. Keith bought me flowers a few weeks before we got engaged. Sigh. I really miss those fun dating days.

Random

2009-10-14T16:46:00.002-06:00

Just some random thoughts...

I got asked to be the cub committe chairperson. I never thought I would like this calling, but I'm pretty excited about it right now. I'm anxious to get everything organized and learn all about cub scouts. There are three cub scout dens in our pack: Wolfs, Bears and Weblows. I guess I'm in charge to make sure the den leaders have what they need, keep track of awards and organize monthly pack meetings. The boy scouts have tons of things online now making it totally easy to get started and keep things running. I love the computer!

I got released as the secretary for the Stake Relief Society. I really loved that calling. I mostly loved it because of the ladies I served with. I learned so much from them! I feel extremely lucky I was able to learn from them. It was a great experience! I'll especially miss attending all of the other wards in our stake. I loved going to church and meeting new people from time to time.

We have such great friends and family.

My kids are doing great in school. Megan is so excited to be in kindergarten. She just looks so proud when she is in line to go into the school. Luke has tons of homework this year, but doesn't complain!!! It's amazing! He's actually happy doing it. In kindergarten he'd have homework that would only take 3 minutes if he got to work but he would cry and cry and it would take an hour or two every day!!!

Megan can read now. It's so exciting! It's amazing to me how both of my kids seemed to learn to read overnight. Of course they didn't though. I have been working with them since they were babies (seriously). I LOVE to teach my kids how to read! It's so much fun. It feels like they learn overnight though because one day they are struggling and then all of the sudden something clicks and they get it. I've really got to write a blog post about teaching your kids to read. It's one of my favorite topics.

Luke got an award for "Reading Expression". I felt like it was an award for me too, because I work so hard to help my kids read like they are talking. Reading is so much more fun like that. One of these days I need to record Luke reading one of his favorite books. He reads it with so much expression it is absolutely so much fun to listen to.

I love volunteering in the kids classes at school. LOVE it!

Start or Begin?

2009-10-13T14:21:00.003-06:00

Like so many of you, I absolutely love the book, "Where the Wild Things Are". It's such a great story! There is one thing that is driving me CRAZY lately though. On the TV commercials the little boy says, "Let the wild rumpus start", but isn't it really supposed to be "Let the wild rumpus begin"??? I can't find our book. I'll have to clean the kids room and organize the bookshelf to find it. Until then, who has a copy who can check this out for me? It's driving me nuts!