We ARE animals

We learned about cells... animal and plant cells and we looked at them and how they are the same. I am using R.E.A.L. Science, and I really like the curriculum. They have some great ideas about how to teach the lessons and some really great hands on activities.

Ass you can see there are two different kinds of cells. Animal cells are round, and plant cells are rectangle and have chloroplast.

We used orange jello to be our cell, and then green grapes for chloroplast, and a strawberry for the nucleus. The boys had a great time and it was easy to see the difference in the types of cells.

And the great thing is that it was really good to eat after. Science can be really yummy!!!

A couple days after doing this the boys were being really crazy and wild. I asked them why they were acting like animals. They really got what the lesson was about, here is our conversations....

Me: Boys.... why are you acting like animals??!!!

Tommy: But mom... we are animals!

James: Yeah, our cells are round

Tommy: And we don't have chloroplast like plants do.

What do you say to that??? Nothing really... so I gave them apples and sent my little animals outside to play.

Benji.

I just can't get enough of this baby! He is just so dang cute. I suck on those cheeks daily!

And there really is something about baby toes. I suck on the toes too! {you know you want to....}

He was listening.

Tommy was listening as we talked about our bodies! Sometimes I don't realize it until later. I cut out these little guys as we talked about our family. Tommy took it in a little different direction.

The first guy is showing the skin.

The second guy... the nervous system

The third guy.... the muscles

The fourth guy... the bones

And the last guy... the digestive system

I know you can't really see it well, but he did a really good job with it and when you look at it you can see all the parts that he put.

I like seeing these little things. It makes me happy to know that they are listening... even sometimes when I don't think they are.

How I see beauty

I know these pictures may not look like much but this is how my four year old sees the world. He was taking pictures with my camera. This is what comes to mind when I see beauty. It's remembering to look at the world through the eyes of one who is not yet learned to be cynical. I love looking at the pictures that the boys take and seeing the world at their level. I love seeing what they find as beautiful. 

{all pictures were taken by Tim age 4}

Boys are gross

I know you can't see it real well so let me tell you what is in this bag.... it's a dissected owl pellet. The joy of science... this is what they boys did in their co-op class.

So... the bag... if you don't know what an owl pellet is let me enlighten you. This is what the owl is not able to digest. Bones.... hair. then the animal throws it up.

James thought it was so cool!!! Tommy pointed out the skull and the bones to me. I love that the boys are so into science and are learning so much in co-op.

{Some how the baggies both ended up in the garbage. Not sure how that one happen.}

Walking can be dangerous!

Poor Tim, went running out the front door and didn't quite make it.

It looks a lot better now... the poor boy had a bloody nose and what I thought might have been teeth... thankfully was just bits of apple.

It was a sad day. But Tim is a trooper and after getting cleaned up and a snuggle and he was ready to go to the park and play.

That's a boy for you.

He likes it too.

We have had the crud here.... Two of my freakish-ly health children were sick with a 102 degree temperature. So we are doing what we can to minimize the yuckiness we have been juicing our produce. The husband has made some wonderful juices. One of my personal favorite is grapefruit, apple, carrot and beet.

The boys will drink it as well. And even little Benji gets in on the action. so I mixed some of the juice up with some rice cereal and down it went. I could not shovel this in fast enough.

This boy likes his produce... in all shapes and forms.

6 Months Already!!!

I can't believe that my baby is half a year old!! These first 6 months have just flown by.  I love looking into his eyes and trying to figure out the future. I can't imagine him not being in this family.

I read this quote somewhere years before and it goes, "It's not a small thing when those so fresh from God love us so much" And I feel that. I feel the love that my Father in Heaven has for me when I look in those blue eyes. I feel His love when I see this baby smile at me.

He is a much needier baby than all the others. He likes to be held all the time. We are working on him being ok to play on his own for at least a couple minutes... Really.... I only pee when it's a total emergency.

He is a big boy... full of rolls! I love it! He thinks he is starving most days, and I have work hard to keep shoveling in the food. Speaking of food.... he is rather picky when it comes to that. He likes the fresh stuff. I get dirty looks and scowls... yes scowls... when I feed him the store bought stuff.  So I am mushing food for him. It's actually not to bad and at least I know he is getting fed well.

He is a good sleeper... when he sleeps. His favorite place is in my arms. He'll snuggle on down and drift away. He likes music and will sit and listen to what ever is on.

He is working on two more teeth... for those that are keeping count... that will be 6 teeth total!!!

He is noisy! He just babbles all day long. I think he likes to hear himself. He says da-da to most things but especially when dad walks by. And he'll copy what ever anyone is doing. He is so funny when he is talking, he definitely has an opinion and likes to be heard.

He is working on crawling. He'll get up on all fours and rock back and forth. He will also scoot himself backwards. He gets really frustrated when he get's himself stuck under the couch or the big chair.

Benji, you are such a joy and we love you!

Being a Pirate

The Museum here has a new Pirate exhibit. It's really cool to see all the  pirate stuff, and they have this huge pirate body and a place where you can put your face.

So with out further adieu....

Captain Tommy the Fierce!

 Captain Tim.... the short.

And Captain James the Aaaarrrrgggg!

We like the museum.

Over Your Head

{please don't look at all those wires.... I just realized how awful that looks!!}

I walked into the living room the other day to find the boys playing cards. I thought they were playing Go Fish... until I listen a little bit. They were playing a new game that James made up.

The game??? "Over Your Head"

Here is what I gathered from the game. You get to pick the points you want... any point from 3-18. You can ask for any card that you want and if you don't have it you say, "over your head"

And here is the funny part....

After you say "over your head" you pick up a card from the pile.... and then... you give the card to TIM!!!

So here is Tim with a hand ful of cards and no way to get ride of them.

How do you win the game?? Get ride of your cards.

I love it when the boys use their imaginations to come up with new games. {even if does involve Tim getting all the cars :) }

Pink is the Word.

I got my box!!!! Yeah for me! {sad for all the people who haven't gotten theirs because of the freaky weather} I met a really great girl named Sami. She is so funny, AND she does a give away every month!!! And she has been snowed in by the freaky weather... but she did get my box {yeah}

So I got mine and it was lunch time so I thought I would wait until after lunch and enjoy it then....

But a little peek won't hurt right???

Ooooo, all that pink. {look how pretty!!} Now that I had a peek I was going to wait until the baby was fed and then open all the goodness.

Yeah.... he is very pudgy, and having to wait a couple minutes to eat isn't going to kill him.

I got some fuzzy pink socks a great big pink diamond it doesn't look like much here but in the light it's so sparkly! She sent some white chocolate and some pink molds for the boys to make some candy with. I got some pink lemonade and some pink magnates. Some raspberry {pink}jello. I got some pink post-it notes. She never knew it but I have a secret love affair with office supplies!! I could walk around an office supply store like others can walk around a shoe store... sad I know but there you go. {I LOVE post-its!}

She sent a little book mark with a flip-flop on it, and some raspberry chocolate. {I hid and ate this.... don't judge... I didn't want to share} I got a new movie... Pretty in Pink {I love me some 80's!} and a really cool magazine all about... what else??? Pink decorating, which, by-the-way.... pink totally works!

And sadly, I got a glass pitcher. It broke in transit. Now Sami hates the postal service....

I L.O.V.E. swaps! It's so fun to get something in the mail that I didn't buy but is for me! Thank you again Mamarazzi for another fabulous swap!

Random Act of Kindness

3.5 years ago we had a tragedy in our family the husbands brother died in a helicopter crash. It was a devastating time for our family, but during those first few days my family experience a simple act of kindness that changed me forever.

We were living in Southern Arizona at the time and Benji was in Nevada. We got the call on a Thursday morning before the sun was up breaking the silence of the darkness. With in a few hours we were all packed up and driving to Nevada to be with all of the family.

My Aunt is in Nevada so we were just planning on staying with her. We went to Benji's house... just to be in a place where he was. We grabbed the hidden key not expecting anyone to be there. Much to our surprise there was someone there. Although Benji was not active in the Church, the people in his ward still took care of him. There was a woman, Kara, who was there checking on the dogs and making sure things around the house were ok.

I took the boys out back, they had been in the car for 9 hours and needed to get out and run for a bit. The husband sat inside and just took a break. Kara and the husband started taking. To there great surprise they had a great connection. The husband served a mission for the LDS church in New Zealand, and Kara's family was from New Zealand. They had been to the same places!

It was that little thing... and next thing we knew we where walking into her house.

Not knowing anything about us, and being 7 months pregnant she offered to house all 5 of us {little Benji wasn't born yet} I am certain that she followed the Spirit. Kara and her husband offered to watch the boys and even invited us to a family party that her parents were throwing.

Those few days of sadness and chaos there was peace in her home. I will forever be grateful to Kara and her husband Jason.

Her random act of kindness has made me be more aware of those around me. Of those going through a hard time and need a place of peace to rest there head. I may not be able to offer my home the way that she did, but I can be a friend with a shoulder to cry on. I can be a post to lean on. I can do something, small as it is to relieve a little suffering, or to bring a little peace in a troubled time.

States of Matter

WE have been learning the states of matter in science this quarter. The boys have been loving it. They love science and are so excited to do a project for the Science Fair. I'm happy that if they like something that it's something that they can really learn from. Currently James wants to be a Chemist... so I'm thinking I need to take a chemistry course because I'm pretty sure I slept through that class in High School.

Any way.... here are some things we've been working on.

A couple songs about the states of matter.


This one comes with a whole page the boys have been singing this all week.

And this one is on Youtube. It has a really good beat and some really good information. It's another one the boys really like.


We have done some science experiments... Can a solid and a liquid make a gas???

 We are about to find out.....

 In the bottle we have vinegar and in the balloon we have baking soda.

 Well yes... yes it does. The boys had a great time with this one!! We did it again with more vinegar and more baking soda. Because boys will be boys... they wanted to see it explode, unfortunately that didn't happen but the more we put in the bottle and balloon the bigger the balloon got.

The next one we did was a solid and a liquid.... {corn starch, and water} and what did it make???

After our scientific observations we concluded that it was indeed a liquid. And a messy one at that.

Science is great!

Tommy Says

Tommy is really funny and very quick witted. Here are some things that he has said lately that just make me giggle.

* "Mom, I have a secret lair with minions"

* Tommy: "Mom when I grow up I want to be Pharaoh."
  Me: "what will you do as Pharaoh?"
  Tommy: "have slaves and stuff, because that's what Pharaohs do"

* Speaking of Tim who was laying down on a bridge and not wanting to go on.... "Mom, I think he's dead or  something"

* "Mom!! Benji laughed like a human!"

He is always making me laugh with the funny things he says.

He is also very sweet and very thoughful. Here is a poem he wrote for me.
"I love you, if you love me, XOXO {hugs and kisses} cause your sweet, cause I think your neat"

I love you Tommy!!!!

Sick Day with Mamarazzi

Mamarazzi came to spend the day with me. I was so excited. The days were beautiful I was hoping to take her to the park, or maybe even the beach. The beautiful day greeted me with a smile. The boy on the other hand greeted me in that bathroom with an upset stomach.

While I was taking care if the baby and getting him down for a nap. Mamarazzi offered to watch the sick one.

Here she is reading a book. I'm sure she learned way more about dinosaurs than she ever wanted to know. But that's how she rolls... she was willing to help with anything!

I was off helping the sick one and so Mamarazzi stayed with Benjamin.

We almost had a catastrophe! {she was saved just in time!}{after you are done staring at the horror... look at those baby blues this kid got!}

She said she was just catching her breath, but I think she was trying to escape.....

I convinced her to come back in with a little chocolate.

After being stuck in the house for 3 days... this was boy number 2 that caught the yuckiness. Besides... I had some very important business to take care of!

I had to mail my box of pinkness of to my super cool swap partner {Sami.... {You will meet her soon :)}

What a long day it was! I'm so glad that Mamarazzi was her to help. And as you can see she is finally able to take a moment by herself and rest. ...Bed time is strictly observed in this house!!! so we were both off for the night.

Mamarazzi... come again and I will take you out somewhere!

{ps... if you want Mamarazzi to come to you house, all you have to do is ask!! }