The woes of taking family pictures

Yesterday we went to the temple. It was a good thing to get us out of the house and yet still be Sabbath worthy. We decided it would be fun to try to get a pic while we were there. We grabbed a guy sitting outside and asked him to take a picture for us. He was very kind and said he would. THEN as if on cue, the boys started to scatter. "Quick, a guy has a camera, let's make this as hard as we can for him." I know they have some kind of communication through their thoughts. Anyway, so we finally get them all together and the guy taking the picture was actually really good. He was engaging with the boys and I was hopeful that we would get at least one good picture. Hmmmmm.
This was our first pic. I like it. I even like the fact that Sage was so enchanted with the temple that he couldn't take his eyes off of it.
So, here we are on our next try. I love the temple in the background. This pic just made me laugh. I love the look on Spikes face. TOTAL Spike. And Sage's eyes were going through withdrawls from not looking at the temple. Either that or Spike and Sage just can't be out of the spotlight for too long.
We decided to try one more. Okay, three boys this time. EZ is playing a bit of peek-a-boo, either that or Spike just wanted to scoot him out of the picture, you can never tell with those two. The light at that moment was too great for Star's eyes and the look on Sage's face says exactly how he feels about the current situation.

So, it seemed we had a little pattern going on. First pic...one kid off. Second pic...two kids off. Third pic....three. We decided just to take what we had and run with it. Family pictures with a big family...It's all good, we love them all. One of these days we are going to get professional pics again. And then we will have to pay for a bunch of pictures that are off.

Having a "O" Day

You remember in the mission field when we had "P-days". Well, today I had an "O-day". I organized!
It was great. I decided to fight the paper fight. Sometimes I feel like I have pilerea. (That is the disease where you just can't help but make piles everywhere.) I have piles of mail in my kitchen and on my piano. I have piles of papers from school covering my buffet. I have piles of books on my side tables. Piles, piles, piles.
So for the last few weeks I have been making plans to change all of that. I am going to tackle the piles. I bought some shelves, some file folders, some drawers, and a few other organizational things and I have a plan.
At the beginning of the year I set out this year to be an organization year. Well, for the past few months I have been off track, but I have officially stepped back on the train. YEA! I feel good. Maybe if I actually get my system working well I can get some time back for reading books, or writing them.

Back to School

So, the boys headed back to school this week. It's been great! These are my four in elementary school. (Although Sage isn't officially in school, he attends a RECC program at an elementary school.) Blue Tiger started 4th grade, Puppy is in Kindergarten, and EZ is in 2nd grade. He was a little disappointed to not be going to a new school. He really enjoyed where he went to summer school and wanted to go back there. Star started 7th grade and Spike 6th. Man, am I old enough to have two middle schoolers? Both were a little nervous on their first day. Spike because everything was new and unknown, Star because he didn't want Spike bugging him every 10 seconds. (He told me after the second day that he didn't see Spike much at school. Just on the bus. THAT he can handle.) Spike has had a great couple of days and is now just excited about school. YEA!

When each of my boys started kindergarten I always wanted to know all about their day when they got home. Most of the time I got answers like. "It was good." Or "Yes, I made friends." But not with Puppy. As soon as he saw me he started talking and it was non-stop talk for a good 15 to 20 minutes. And then later when Dad asked him he did it again. All about different stuff than I had heard about. Every sentence was followed by "Yeah, it was so awesome!" I'm glad he likes it. He hasn't gotten homework yet, which has been heartbreaking for him. He REALLY wanted some last night and cried when I pulled out some worksheets for him. It wasn't from school, it's just not the same.

Sage hasn't officially started. He starts at the beginning of next week. We have enjoyed hanging out and doing stuff together. Wow, it is so much easier with just one coming along with me. For that reason, I do enjoy having the boys in school.

Family Reunion

We just got back from an awesome family reunion. What could be better than a family reunion in the happiest place on earth? Unfortunately we didn't take a lot of pictures because we were too busy making sure none of the boys were wandering away. But we had a ton of fun, and the pics we did get prove it!
Not a great family pic, but hey, for us I thought it was pretty good. Here is Spike with two of his beautiful cousins. He LOVES Space Mountain. In fact we stayed an extra day just to go and ride it again. (This is not a figurative statement. I didn't get to ride it and really wanted to, and Spike really wanted to ride it again. Our AWESOME cousin (from the other side of the family) got our cool hotel room for an extra day just in case and we couldn't resist using it. And our other AWESOME cousins got us into the parks on their employee passes. So we went to Epcot as well. SO COOL!)

This is Sage in our hotel pool. I mean bathtub. Our suite had two master bedrooms each with a tub like this. Boy I think we all enjoyed this tub, but none quite so much as Sage. He was scared to death when I first turned on the jets, but once he saw the bubbles multiplying he was all about the jets. Our suite was so cool. Even Blue Tiger questioned why we got to stay in such a cool hotel room. I told him how great it is to have family in the right places and reminded him that one day (when he is rich and has his own limo) this will be everyday stuff to him. He liked that idea.Here are Star, Spike and Blue Tiger on Splash mountain with cousins and aunts. They loved it so much and talked about it so much Puppy decided it was his favorite ride. (Even though he never did go on it.) Because we stayed the extra day, we had to book it home quickly. We barely stopped on the way home so Dad could make it back in time to go to work. Whahoo! It was a long trip, but the boys did really well. I am so glad they are such good travelers.

A note about Star's hat. We went to "The Laugh Floor" which is an interactive comedy act. Star got to participate, we all loved watching him and are sure he got "chosen" because of his hat. (The claw... he is chosen...) BAH!

Blue Tiger also got chosen to have a conversation with "Crush" from Finding Nemo. (Another interactive show. It's so cool to have cartoons talking to you.) He asked a really good question and was told he was "muy intelegente" I have to agree with that statement. What fun!

We Will Rock You

It's funny.
Our little Sage is learning to speak. He still is at the stage where sometimes I can understand certain words he is saying and sometimes I have no clue. But this morning after the older boys (and admittedly me) had been singing "We Will, We Will, Rock You!" I heard a sweet little voice singing the words. At first I couldn't convince myself that it was Sage. Certainly it must have been Puppy. But no...their voices are so different. I wasn't mistaking it. I went and spied on my little Sage and sure enough it was him. As clear as a bell each of the letters are letters that he can and does pronounce correctly. I laughed and laughed and sang along with him. I will have to teach him the "I'm a little teapot" version that Star brought home with him from Scout camp. There are those of my sons who know the real words, but I much prefer that version.
What was even better was listening to him destroy the pronunciation of every word as he sang "I Am A Child Of God". But he got the melody correct...hey you can't have everything.

Blue Tiger is Brilliant

Okay, today Puppy comes crying and running to me and says. "Mom I don't want to be touched!" Blue Tiger was chasing him so I asked him to come sit down and talk to me. I asked him why he was so insistent that he touch Puppy. He told me he was sure Puppy was lying to him and he could prove it. So, I asked the logical question. "How can you prove it by touching him?"

He went on to explain to me that there is a spot on your neck where you can feel your heartbeat and he came up with the idea that if you could ask the person a question while touching that spot you could see if their heart beat faster when they answered the question. And if it did, they were lying.

Okay I sat there with my mouth to the floor for what felt like a very long time and then asked where he had heard this. "I just thought of it." My mouth was still on the floor.

That's when I told him about lie detectors and praised him repeatedly for being so brilliant. He told me I could stop talking about him now and asked if he could play Pokemon.