Cast Buddies

So, let me just say up front- This is not a joke. Although I seem to laugh when I talk about it because the timing of it all seems so unbelievable. Poor Hunter broke his arm on Saturday! He was riding his scooter down the hill and got going so fast that he missed his turn onto the grass, flew out into the street and crashed. This time Rob took him to urgent care and got the x-rays. He has a large break in the big bone, and a smaller fracture in the little bone. The doctor compared the break to what you would get if you took a green tree branch and bent it until it snapped. Hunter has been brave through it all, and took just one day off of school.

On Wednesday I took Sabrina to get a follow up x-ray and she still needs another two weeks in her cast. Our hurdle to overcome now is getting her to walk on it. She is very hesitant, although she made some good progress when my friend who is a physical therapist came to visit and pushed her a bit. Now that Tonya’s gone and it’s just Mom and Dad, Sabrina is trying to avoid walking.

On Thursday I took Hunter to get his cast on, and it will be four weeks until his follow up appointment, and six weeks until he’s allowed to do regular PE activities. That means he’s out of PE for the rest of the school year. He was pretty excited about that.

We had friends from Orange County visiting when this happened and the rest of the weekend was great fun. We were able to catch up with our friends, play, hike the canyons by our house picking up trash, watch an impromptu performance of Cinderella where the step-sisters ran wild, Cinderella sang, and a three-year-old prince chucked Cinderella’s slipper at her and ran away. It was super cute.

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An Historical Family Trip

The Mormon Battalion Museum in San Diego was upgraded and recently reopened. We made a family outing out of the opening day. It was very crowded, so we didn’t see much of the museum itself, we’ll have to go back another time and take a better look, but there were a lot of activities that we did enjoy. As a little background here are some passages from the article linked above:

About 500 men enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, and about 80 women and children traveled with them. They began their journey in the sweltering heat of Council Bluffs, Iowa, on 20 July 1846, leaving their loved ones behind. The battalion completed one of the longest infantry marches in American history—about 2,000 miles (3,220 km) through what are now seven states and into Mexico…

[In the museum]“They will find out about the major contributions by the pioneer Latter-day Saints in the settling of the West. They were instrumental in building part of the transportation corridor from San Diego to Salt Lake City where Interstate 15 now runs. In 1847 San Diego’s first courthouse was built by members of the Mormon Battalion from bricks they had fired.”

I showed Emma all I know about panning for gold. We did find a few gold specks!

I forget what this game is called, but Hunter could keep this thing going for hours if he wanted to.

The girls all made pioneer baby dolls that were authentic to how they would have been made by the pioneers.

We were all given some biscuit dough to wrap around a spool of wood on the end of a stick. Then we held it over the coals for a while to bake.

Sabrina thought they were pretty good! Too bad we found out after we ate them that there was also hand churned butter and homemade jam to put on them. Oh well.

Hannah took a turn at washing some laundry with a bucket and washboard.

The extra pioneer activities were part of the reopening and are not offered on a regular day, so it was a special treat to experience some history!

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Two Great Families

Recently, we decided to take another look at some of the TV shows we were watching. I realized that there were shows on our TV that didn’t set a good example for our kids on how they should interact with family and friends. So many shows are filled with sarcasm and witty one-liners, and don’t model what I consider acceptable interactions. As our oldest heads into the middle school years, I find myself becoming more and more conservative about what I allow into our home. (I can feel myself becoming a frumpy stick-in-the mud, but I’d rather be too frumpy than too lenient.)  I set our DVR to tape some different shows, and have two favorites:

19 Kids and Counting

I love the Duggars. I will put on an episode of this show to give myself motivation when I’m feeling overwhelmed or just want to cheer up. Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar are wonderful parents. At first I wondered how they could possibly be available to so many children, but I am now just in awe of them. Their family is morally strong and they truly love each other. They do their bible study, and try their best to follow it’s teachings. Their children know how to work, and understand it’s value.  The parents have positive attitudes and it extends to each of their children. I know that we are only seeing a glimpse of their real life, but I love watching their family. This season is a bit different as they have shown some of the struggles they deal with as their 19th baby was born very early and is spending months in the NICU. Every family has ups and downs and I find watching their journey an inspiration for how I parent my little -in comparison- family.

The Cosby Show

This is a classic from the 80’s that I still find relevant today. I really like the earlier seasons where the Huxtable kids are closer to the ages of my kids. I know they’re not a real family, but they do portray a happy, healthy one. There are lessons taught on stealing, cheating, judging others, following rules etc., but they are also really fun. One of the first episodes I watched with the kids was where the family sings and dances to “Night Time is the Right Time” and all of my kids were laughing so hard they rolled on the floor. I remember watching this show as a kid, and found some of the other shows from that time too, but they were just not as good as this one. I have seriously thought about going without cable altogether, but as long as I can find shows like these and avoid the junk, I think we’ll keep it. For now anyway.

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A Couple of Videos

First, I am loving this new Toyota Sienna. Very cool, except for the fake wood on the dash. Never been a fan of that…

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQjH3h2jOLY&feature=related

Next, a commercial that strives to change the stigma of personal injury law:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoDNdTXx-7U

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Christmas in Five Minutes

There’s something magical about Christmas, and every year we take a ton of pictures and video to try and capture it all. We rarely go back and look at the videos again though because it would take hours to get through them. This year Rob decided to put in several hours of work and consolidate the highlights of the day into five minutes. Before you watch this you should know that we like to make up names for who gave the gifts so that they aren’t all “from Mom & Dad.” It’s a tradition that started with Rob’s Dad and we have openly embraced it. (Don’t worry though, if you sent gifts, we didn’t make up names for you. The kids know who really sent them!) So pull up a pillow, and don’t blink or you’ll miss something. Rob did a wonderful job:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG7d5m4UjrA

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A Piano for Christmas

Since we have put off having our kids take piano lessons for way too long, and Rob and I both play a little piano and would like to play more, and since we have the floor space now, Rob and I combined our Christmas gifts this year and got a piano! We’ve heard that the Japanese pianos have the best sound, and would have loved to have a baby grand but they also cost twice as much. So to stay on budget we decided to get the best bang for the buck and rent this upright Kawai for 6 months to see how much it gets used before we commit to such a major piece of furniture with such a big price tag. It has been so much fun, and we plan to sign the kids up for lessons as soon as possible. The girls have all spent some time playing around on it. Hunter thinks playing the violin is enough, but we’ll see…

Rob and I have been playing too, and I have been surprised at how much has come back to me after not playing for years. I still can’t play a church hymn at singing speed, so don’t get any ideas church leaders ;). Our living room now has one piece of beautiful furniture, and eventually we’ll fill in with some places to sit, but for now I am content with hearing the sounds of music ringing through the house.

By the way, I just got a new calling as the Relief Society Meeting Coordinator. It used to be called the Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment Leader, but the name has recently changed. I haven’t had this calling since I was living in a married student ward, so I’m nervous. But I had some great examples in my friends Heidi and Michelle from our last ward, so I may need to call them for some pointers.

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