#IAmAPioneer

July 24th is a holiday for the LDS church where we commemorate Brigham Young entering the Salt Lake Valley (through Immigration Canyon) and saying, "This is the Place!"  Those Mormon Pioneers definitely sacrificed a lot and left an amazing legacy for me, and others, to follow.  The LDS church is making a point to focus on modern day pioneers, and encourages others to leave their legacy for future generations.  During my readings on some modern pioneers from the website, I came accross this quote I really liked:
“A pioneer is not a woman who makes her own soap. She is one who takes up her burdens and walks toward the future.” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
I liked that definition, and I definitely know some modern day pioneers, including each member of my family.  So I got to thinking, what's my legacy?  What am I leaving behind?  My decision to homeschool our children definitely makes me feel like a pioneer.  As I prayed to know how to help my son while he was completing the 1st grade about 3 1/2 years ago, the thought to homeschool settled into my mind.  I recently found this quote, "The Holy Ghost can carry us to places and tasks that our mind will not allow."  I have definitely found this to be true, and following those promptings is a great way to be a pioneer.  While I was seeking out the avenue to homeschool, I was reading the Book of Mormon early one morning and I read 1 Nephi chapter 18, where Nephi is commanded to build a ship, not after the manner of men, but how it was revealed to him by the Lord.  Part of versus 2 and 3 read, "I did build after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me....Wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things."  These words sank deep into my heart, and I knew I had to trust God as I took this leap of faith to take my son out of school to teach him at home.  I doubt the pioneers knew the effect their choices would make to their posterity and the future of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  This scripture is my hope, and something I feel God lead me to as a promise - that if I would trust him, he would reveal great things for my family.  Being a pioneer takes courage and faith, but brings great blessings.  This is my small, simple story.  I know many of you have wonderful stories of greater faith and courage.  I would love to read yours in any sort of social media of your choosing - just write it and comment below where I could find it.  Cheers to pioneers!

Fireworks and birthday candles

Last weekend was another busy 4th - with the birth of our nation and the birth of our firstborn to celebrate.  We had a fun weekend of setting off and watching fireworks.  I love the neighborhood gatherings fireworks create.  Our family has the most amazing neighbors that have become some of our closest friends.  It's always fun to have an excuse to come together. 
When we watch the city fireworks, extended family comes together, and that's always fun as well.  This is especially so because we can celebrate Peter's birthday, as well as his cousin's, who was born just a few hours later on the 4th.  Adam really love the fireworks!  He yelled in excitement and giggled at the bright explosions.  I spent about as much time watching him enjoying the fireworks as I did watching show itself. 
Peter and Elsie prepared and celebrated the 4th of July by participating in a Patriot Camp.  They really loved learning about the founding of our country, learning sign language to our national anthem, memorizing the preamble of the constitution, and dipping candles, making butter, setting off a canon, and writing secret messages to name some favorites.  Kimball is excited to join them next year. 
Annnnd, Peter turned 10 through the excitement of everything else.  Yikes!  Are we really into double digits already?  He is getting bigger,  becoming more responsible, working harder, and becoming more and more aware of the world around him.  I guess that's what growing up is all about - seeing one's place in the wide, wide world, and learning to accept and fulfill one's personal mission.  I can see Peter taking little steps on this journey that I find myself continually adjusting for myself as well.
For his birthday, Peter was more than ready to retire his Lightening McQueen comforter for a new plaid and red blanket for his bed.  His grandma's each gave him some money which he has enjoyed spending on a new Nerf gun and bullets.  His dad also gave him a really cool flashlight.  It''s a father/son fetish.   
I am so proud of my little man and the choices he is making.  He is such a good example to his siblings - he is kind to them and sharing.  He works hard to bring peace into our home.  Peter is my right hand when we are in public, helping me look after my keys, purse, and children.  He is the perfect fit into our family - oh how we need Peter!  Happy birthday!   

Birthday Girl!

Anna turned three this past weekend.  Mike had been gone for several days and came home just in time to install a "big-girl" bed in her room for her birthday.  She has really enjoyed her new bed, mostly because it has more space area to pile-up her books and toys at night when she won't go to sleep.  Anna had a lot of fun listening to us sing Happy Birthday to You, getting a phone call from grandma and grandpa, going to the dollar store and picking out TWO birthday balloons, and getting a Sophia birthday cake (on clearance, such a blessing to me).  She wore a huge smile.
For her birthday dinner we had pizza sticks, a specialty of the local grocery store's.
That morning the neighbor's had a garage sale.  Elsie woke up especially excited and headed out the door in search of the perfect present for her sister.  She came back with a pillow pet and an elephant rocking toy.  Anna loved getting presents all day long from her siblings.

 Anna is full of sugar and spice.  She loves to sing and dance by herself.  She loves and idolizes her sister Elsie.  Anna also adores her little brother, Adam, and his binkie.  Her favorite song is Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, she loves to play with her friends in nursery, and she loves to have anyone's undivided attention (I think that's of why she loves her grandpa so much).  Anna is a little, but strong light in our home and we are so happy to have her in our family!

Baby Coons

While we were talking to our friends we met up with from Yellowstone, an interesting story came up.  Apparently they had some friends who found a pesky racoon hanging around their property this spring.  They caught it and drove it up to a canyon and let it loose, only to find a few days later two baby racoons in one of their trees.  These babies were obviously not in good conditions, and these people knew what good animal caretakers (aka, suckers!) these friends of ours were.  They came knocking on their door with these baby racoons and our friends took them in and nursed them back to health.  Now, about three months later, they have to frisky pet racoons living in their home!  A couple weeks after we got home from Yellowstone, we went over to their house to see their great pictures of Yellowstone and to hold and pet their baby racoons.  The kids had a blast.  Kimball especially couldn't leave those little coons alone.  Even Anna and Adam were excited about their animals.

Anna was unsure, but look how brave!

We took a ton of pictures.  Someday my kids are going to look back on this blog and for fear of them thinking I love one child more than another, I am putting pictures of ALL of them holding all the animals.  So, forgive the plethora of pictures and understand I'm just trying to be a loving and fair mom.

 We were all enjoying the racoons, when she brought out their pet turtle as well.  The kids were beside themselves.

Someone is One!

Adam turned one year old a few weeks ago.  He is doing big boy things like FINALLY sleeping through the night (mostly), saying some english words, and just barely started walking!  It is amazing how fast they seem to move from baby to toddler once they start walking and talking.  Adam says a few words like Mom, Dad, "side" (for outside), kitty, mow (for more) and Aaa (for Anna).  For weeks he was walking along the perimeter of our rooms, clinging to the wall,  or holding onto our hands (such backbreaking work!) but just this weekend he decided to go solo.  He has been so proud of himself, and we are so happy for him. 
We had a fun time celebrating his birthday.  Being child number 5, there weren't a lot of things he needed or more clutter that we wanted, so Mom and Dad gave him a toothbrush and balloon for his birthday.  He loves his toothbrush!  His siblings really spoiled him by raiding their bedrooms and wrapping up some of their old stuffed animals and toys they thought he would enjoy.  Afterwards we enjoyed some strawberry shortcake.

 

It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by.  One sleepless night after another, and eventually he's turn one, much faster than seems possible during those midnight hours.  Adam is getting more and more personality.  He is giggly and good humored, he hates to nap, and gets overtired often.  All the children love to play with him, and he loves all of our attention.  Good job walking Adam!

Fireflies!

No kidding!  Tonight my family and I saw fireflies, which is highly unusual for these parts.  Elsie was so excited, she was jumping up and down.  All of the kids had fun watching the blink-blinking of the insects.  It was a blast - almost as fun as fireworks, really.

Pygmy Goats

This post should have been done a month ago, but I wasn't on top of things enough (I rarely am).  My kids are still talking about the sweet little pygmy goats we saw and how fun it would be to have one as a pet.  These goats would make lovely pets, but Mom is feeling a bit too maxed out at the moment to add anything extra.  At least we got this one experience with lots of pictures.  Mike must have had the camera though.  He deserves to be in these pictures because he was the one who found this sweet pasture in the first place and took the kids to it.  

Kimball especially had a way with these goats.

Goofy Elsie

It takes one a while to figure out what's going on in this picture.  Elsie's got some crazy ideas!

Yellowstone!

 Our family made a second trip to Yellowstone a couple weeks ago.  This time, instead of three kids, we had five in tow.  We went in the spring with the hopes of seeing some wildlife, and we had some great success!  We have some dear friends who reserved us a campsite at Mammoth campgrounds and helped us capture some great finds in the animal department.  One of which was a nest of baby great-horned owls near our campsite.  Our friends had a nice camera, with a large lens, so he took some pictures and sent them to us.  He captured the picture of this baby owl, which is about 3 months old.  There were two babies in a very large nest.  It was fun to see them.  This was the on the top of my bucket list of things to see while at Yellowstone.  Peter also loves owls, so it was fun for the two of us.

 

Come to find out, Mammoth is also the Elk Maternity Ward for Yellowstone.  There were at least a dozen elk lounging around Mammoth, waiting for their babies to come.  while we were there, a couple baby elk were born, but we missed seeing them.  Apparently, one of the baby elk got eaten by a grizzly bear right near our camp site.  We were eating pancakes at the time, so we missed that too.  I'm not sure if I'm sad or happy about missing that one though.  At the end of our stay, there were a couple elk that meandered right through our camp ground, and we got some great pictures of them next to our trailer.  We saw bison and baby bison, several pronghorn, we had a close encounter with a deer on a hike, and another close look at a mama black bear with her three little cubs right off the road!  It was very thrilling and memorable.  The kids learned a lot just by watching.  Just as we were leaving, Elsie got really close to a Golden Mantel Squirrel and took a picture.  She was soooo excited about her "good find", and her ability to sneak up and take a good shot with her camera.  Definitely, the animals were the most memorable on this trip.  

Of course we also made sure we showed the kids Old Faithful and we saw some hot pots and such.  That was fun as well, but it rained the majority of the time we were there.          

Another fun thing we did while we were camping was go hiking.  We had fun on the suspension bridge on Hellroaring hike.  On our various hikes, we saw lots of flowers, wild strawberries, birds, a waterfall, and Peter even found a piece of petrified wood. 

 

Another memorable experience Mike and I had was meeting all sorts of people who thought we were such oddities because of our large family.  The first day our camp host said there was a guy from National Geographic taking pictures of people from various cultures touring Yellowstone.  Our host said he was going to recommend our family.  We never met the photographer, but I was surprised our number of children outweighed our very Caucasian backgrounds.  We got lots of looks, comments, and waves from lots of people.  I felt like I was one of the animals at times.  At one point, Mike had Anna on his back, Adam on the front, and was hiking with the two older ones while I carried Kimball a few feet behind.  A lady saw Mike and asked if he wouldn't mind turning to the side so she could take a picture of him!  As I watched the humerous event a few feet away, I was laughing and feeling appalled all at once.  Mike tells me he's famous now.  We also drove into Gardner one evening and treated ourselves to Pizza.  We made such a spectacle of ourselves!  Adam was knocking down everyone's waters, and we kept cleaning up spill after spill.  We were scrunched into this tiny booth (because that's all there was) with kids climbing on boosters and high chairs.  There was no room to set pizzas, so we just emptied the pizzas from the trays as they brought them.  While we were about 3/4 of the way through our meal, Mike told me to look around the room and see if I noticed anything.  I realized our rambunctious family was on one side of the restaurant, and everyone else had been seated on the other side of the restaurant.  I was pretty embarrassed and realized we needed to hurry up and eat so the poor restaurant could have their half of the building back!  It was a lot of work with young kids, and we made quite a spectacle of ourselves, but it was well worth the experiences and memories we made.  

We owe a big thank you to our friends who gave us their old family trailer.  We know when it was given, it was full of their own family memories, and it was more than just a trailer to them.  We are adding our own memories with it, and we are very grateful!

January Tea Time

For Elsie's birthday this year she wanted to celebrate it with cousins.  I asked my mom a month or so in advance if she wouldn't mind holding a little tea party for Elsie and her cousins for her birthday.  My mom, ever so nonchalantly, agreed.  As the day grew closer for the tea party, my mom kept mentioning little things over the phone like, "Oh hey, I just found these frozen macrons and picked them up," and "I ordered some cute hats for the party," as well as, "I just put a little cake in the freezer for the big day."  I slowly gathered this wasn't going to be a little tea party.  I told my mom I'd bring a bouquet of "garden" flowers down.  Elsie has a cousin whose birthday is about 10 days before her own, so we decided to make it a party for two.
I had stayed up way too late a couple nights sewing some aprons for Elsie and her cousin, Eden.  I'm not much of a seamstress, so it took longer than it should have, but they turned out really cute.  I had let Elsie pick out the material for her apron, and being the animal lover she is, she found one with deer on it.  It was nothing close to what I would have picked out for her, but it ended up turning out and really reflected her personality.
The tea party was drawing nearer, and Mike and I and the family drove down the night before and stayed at his brother's home.  From there we picked up another of Elsie's cousins and headed down to Nonny and Poppy's.  While we were headed down, we found out Eden had just come down with strep throat.  It was a devastating blow.  She took the party favors from Nonny's house and headed home, missing her own birthday party.  I think that is about the saddest thing for a little girl.
When we arrived, the spread was beautiful!  We all ate on beautiful china tea cups and enjoyed our choice of teas and hot chocolate, crustless sandwiches, pudding, cake, cookies, and mints (all of which were miniature bite-sized).  The girl's all donned on their cute hats from Nonny (complete with flowers and ribbons), and set their dolls they had brought in a miniature seat next to them.  We sat around the table and talked about general points of interest and said things like, "Thank you, but I shall have no tea," when we were full.  It was so fun, and Elsie was so impressed.  Afterwards she confided in me with a big smile, that she had no idea Nonny would give her such a fancy tea party. 
Elsie got some really thoughful presents also.  She is really into American Girl books and the mini-dolls.  My mom gave her a new mini-doll and Eden had given her a mini-doll as well that had been given to her.  I was so impressed by my sweet niece's dear heart.  Elsie loved them both.  Aunt Michelle gave her a miniature tea set that came with a set of paints (which we had so much fun with!), and I gave the aprons.  It was such a hit.
 Later, for our family birthday, Mike and I made a couch and two beds for her doll house and American Girl dolls, and her other grandma took her shopping and bought her a kitchen set for her doll house as well.  Elsie was really spoiled by both of her grandmas.  Each of them really went out of their way to make her feel grown-up and special.  Thanks again Nonny!
I can't find any pictures, so sorry!