Glacier National Park

So since it's practically in our backyard, the kids had the day off from school, and we are not really sure what our future holds for us as far as location of living goes we thought we would take a little drive north and see what we could see. We saw beauty. We saw rugged peaks and crystal clear lakes. We saw long squiggly roads. We saw melting snow trickling off the mountains. We saw deer *of course* we saw happy kids and happy parents. We saw that family time really is the best time. We saw rocks of many colors. We saw water bridges, train tracks, and a boat. We saw that it's hard to eat lunch when there are so many places to wander. We saw our first successful rock skipping endeavor for many of us *including me!!* We saw that when we throw big sticks in the water they float. We saw a waterfall and watched as it went from turmoil to peace and stillness, from harsh noise to sweet silence.  Last but not least we saw about half-way home 2 happy little black bears just off the road. We stopped to look for a minute. We saw that we sure love our family and are so glad that we took the time to just be for a day and let go of all of the stress and demands of life.

Ben Hates Breakfast Food

Yes it's true, he does. He likes eggs and stuff but when it comes to sweet yumness he would rather not. So what do we do? When Dad goes out of town we subsist on pure breakfast carbs. Ben went for a scout training in Butte (his favorite past-time :) and we had German Pancakes with fruit sauce for dinner the first day and then pancakes again for dinner the next day. It was delicious. We also went to the school to ride scooters and play on the toys. We had a good time but we missed him. A lot.

 Our week was much the same as it has been but it sure dragged! The kids are getting pretty pumped to only have 10 school days left. 

The other day we had a little boy sneak into the fridge and help himself. When he heard us come he bailed! He is quick that's for sure!

Is this Your Kid?

So as part of the curriculum in 5th grade the kids have to do either band or orchestra and choir. In preparation for next year they had an instrument adventure night this last week where the 4th graders got to go and hear a little bit about why they do music and then they had all of the possible instruments in different rooms and the kids got to try them out. *Yes initially my germaphobic self panicked and said no way, but they sanitized the mouth piece between each kid so there wasn't any transfer.* William wanted to try the trumpet, french horn, tuba, and if there was time the saxaphone. All stringed instruments were a definite no. When we got there he decided he wanted to start with those ones but that he wanted to try them ALL. It took us 2 hours. The only ones we didn't try were the violin and the viola because I have a violin that he has played a few times and the viola is so similar. We started with the trumpet and went from there. When he got to the tuba and the teacher had him practice forming his lips and then making the buzzing noise first then he used the actual instrument. William did so great. After a minute the teacher turned to me and asked "is this your kid?" I was more than happy to claim the little dude, yes he is my kid! The teacher told me that he is meant to be a tuba player. He could sustain the lower notes and they were clear and deep. He had the other teacher that was working with another student stop to listen to William and was having him try some other notes. Then he was showing William all the cool things you could do with a tuba, that he could out play a trumpet or a flute. He was totally selling his point :) He spent about 5 minutes with him rather than the 2 that was allotted at the all the other stops. After each instrument the kids get a sticker and if they tried 3 instruments then they would get a prize. After he played and the teacher was putting on his tuba sticker he went to hand his card back then said wait, lets just put 1 more with it just so you know for sure :) Needless to say William is pretty pumped to be playing the tuba next year. The teacher and the guy over music education for the district told me to have him do it and stick with it because tuba scholarships are good ones to be able to get. I'm all about paying for college :). He HATED the flute "you can't see the hole?!" he didn't like the cello or the base because they hurt his shoulder, the oboe sounds like a duck"! It was a fun night and good to have a little one on one time with this kid. I sure love him and am so glad that he his mine!!!

In other news:

We did a little fishing yesterday afternoon because it was SO nice out. We didn't catch anything but the kids had a ton of bites. Brevick only threw his whole pole in the water once. (we are going with a win on that one) On Saturday we took a speed trip to Spokane for the Temple. Ben went and the kids and I played at a school playground. Good news they had a zip-line. We love zip-lines, just ask Ben. We got a nice layer of snow on Wednesday so that was disappointing, Ben made me turn the heat back on because we were all freezing. Last but not least, changes in this household are coming. Ben unfortunately lost his job last week so we are now looking into new places to go and new opportunities so that is always an exciting time. We are excited to see what the future holds for our family!!! 

Also to note, I blogged 3 weeks in a row so maybe the slump has been bested!

What Can You do with 10 Minutes?

Thank goodness a lot. This morning went like most every morning and after we walked the boys to school we were deciding how the day was going to go. Emmerlyn was having a bit of an emotional struggle so she was reflecting in her room. Brevick wanted to *NEEDED to* shower so I tossed him in. While he was in there I was doing some other things and thought, I should check my phone, now mind you, I had thought the other day I should look at my calendar and see what was on the schedule for Friday. I reasoned with myself at that point that I could worry about it later since of late we have had nothing on the calendar. Well I went to look and thankfully I did because my reminder for kindergarten roundup was blinking. We literally had 10 minutes to put ourselves together remember Brevick is in the shower, Emmerlyn is coming apart in her room and I am still in my
PJs trying to come to terms with the day. It was intense but we walked out the door at 8:29 and jogged to the school. We looked not as well as I like us to but good enough. Emmerlyn is pretty excited for kindergarten even though she says she is nervous (I don't think she is I think she is just trying to stir up drama). CRAZY!! I was sure ready for nap time.

 Afterschool snack building. Not pictured is Brevick who didn't have the patience put it together and just ate the components.

Screen Spleening

 So one of the exciting things with our lovely rental house is the impressive full yard of . . .dandelions. With these lovely flowers has also come bazillions of bees. So we need our screens to be in good working order. Luckily I have a guy for that. He went to work last getting the door up and going which I was giving a play by play of to the boys and told them that Dad was spleening the the screen. You can imagine how hard he laughed at me and then the boys. It is SPLINING. Who knew?

The Baby B

Yeah, don't go there. This is not an announcement. On to the point. . .

Brevick said our prayer for breakfast this morning and in it he prayed "I love my mom and dad and my people and these guys (gesturing to the boys) and 'Emalim' yeah and my friends and I'm done" hopefully Heavenly Father watches us pray too so he knows, what he means!a

William Says

So for FHE tonight *yes it's Thursday but That is the day that workedcbest for us this week * we talked about using kind words as opposed to saying rude or mean things. Toward the end of the lesson I asked the kids what they would do if somebody said something mean to you i.e. would you ignore it, say something nice, or return mean for mean* muttering almost under his breath William said "well I'd probably do the wrong thing"
10 points for honesty to that kid right there.

William Says

So William gave me an early Mother's day gift that was flowers that he planted in Scouts for me. As he handed them to me he said "happy Mother's Day! Oh, and could you try NOT to kill it? At least remember to water it." Touche buddy, you know me well.

So today as we I was getting in the car after activity days the kids were already in there and they were all putting on their sunglasses. I told them they didn't need them because it wasn't sunny outside and William said "yes we do." I said why and he replied "for protection" protection from what? "Everthing" as he slid his glasses into place.

Unplug and Play

So I have no pictures for this one but this last week Missoula has been doing an unplug and play initiative so we have enjoyed doing it too. This kids have attended 2 taekwondo classes (they loved it so much we are going to go again next week just to be sure then they want to be signed up for lessons). They did a jump rope clinic. They had another activity yesterday but since most of our group was too young we took a picnic to a fun park at played for a couple hours. Tonight there is going to be swimming!!!! They are pretty pumped for that!

A couple weeks ago the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation did a kids day and they had fun information about all kinds of stuff and a lot about bear safety (in light of the education we have received I have decided that we will just stay home where we can be the safest :) They also had some gun safety then the kids got to do a virtual bear hunt and shoot at the bears. Needless to say they had a great time and want to do it again next time! 

Now we are officially up to date!

Temple Trips

So last summer our family set a goal to attend the Temple once a month and let me tell you, it has been HARD!!! Moving to Missoula has made it easier so that is a huge blessing. We have a Temple only 3 hours away which sure helps for very quick trips. It is also nice to have one that is nearby our babysitters (AKA family). The kids and I took a spring break trip to stay with Jill for a few days and I was able to go in Rexburg and on the same day Ben left after work and drove to Spokane and went and came straight home so he could be to work in the early morning the next day. It worked out surpisingly well. We had lots of fun at Jill's house playing with all of her toys and their cousins and especially riding the four-wheeler *thanks Shane*. 

We were able to go down to Rexburg this last weekend and attend the IF Temple open house with our kids. They loved. . .riding the bus to the Temple. I hope someday they will look back and remember getting to be in the Temple but right now it is all about the bus! For our 11th Anniversary Ben and I went to the Temple (in the same Temple at the same time!!!) and did sealings. It was so needed and so good such a sweet tender mercy that we felt in our lives right now. We had a good quick trip and drove home, the kids only fought for 2 hours because "this drive isn't fun". Brevick threw-up 3 times.

Too Much Time

That title really could have multiple meanings because really too much time has passes since I updated our little journal here. Too much time has passed since we moved, too much time has passed since this big kids came to be part of our lives. But as I titled it I meant that you know how there are times in your life when you are so busy that you just don't know how in the world you are going to fit everything in and get everything done but then you do? There has come a time in my life as of late that I have lots of time and not lots of things to fill it with (I know I am asking for chaos with that statement) and I have found that nothing gets done. This has happened with this blog. . . so I will give a quick back log rundown and try to do better going forward.

We made cinnamon rolls for Ben's work

 Charley getting ready to leave for basketball. He had a great season and loved learning some new skills.

 The kids built this, I'm not sure if you could call it a snowman though. . . 

 Charley lost his first tooth!!! He has since lost another one. Now he has two very crooked big kid teeth coming in. Can't wait for that braces bill!

 This kind of parry was happening in here (PS I love seeing my kids read and snuggle together)

 Because this kind of puke party was happening out here. *No Emmerlyn is not all sweaty, she had taken a shower.* We survived a very yucky stomach bug of 5 this winter, thank heavens its over. Kudos to Ben he was throwing up in the night but still made it to work the next morning!

 Glamour shot with he pooch.

 Happy Valentines day! Since Ben is busy on V-day I am the one that puts it together Ben is in charge of our Anniversary. Sometimes we do a single date thing (like once) this year it was a family affair. So fun!! Naturally we celebrated it on a different day so Ben could attend.

 Making canvas art. Charley surprised us right before we started but calling home sick so he got to participate. He was a little annoyed because I kept trying to direct his creative pathway into the vision I had in mind for it. I relented.

 Happy St Patrick's day for Dad. We did a sorting and counting activity for preschool and then they put this together for him.

 PINEWOOD DERBY!!! right under toothpaste this is activity is the bane of my existence. William spent many Sacrament meetings fine-tuning his design plan and then Ben cut it out, William sanded and painted it, then I rescued the paint job when it went a little awry. He did great though he only lost one race in the preliminaries and then took 9th in the championship.

Ward Christmas party. Yeah we are throwing that out there. We had pancakes it was yummy. And sticky.

Budding hairstylist?

William's basketball shot. He really loved playing and has some things to work on over the summer to get better at. We loved going to watch him. *Basketball is far more tolerable when it is your own kid, sorry brothers*

Pre-church shenanigans. This only happens on the days when Ben has meetings and I am left to wrangle them by myself. It never fails also when they are in this kind of mood Ben has to help with the Sacrament so the Allen bench Banchies are all kinds of wild, so much for the Spirit.

Feeding lessons. Yes that is Brevick in the cheetah print coat.

Kissy red lip gloss, she picked it out!

Bounce house field trip, they were so brave little adrenaline junkies.

Why does this happen at bedtime?

I hate church day, but we make it!

Worms, Charley counted 110 on his way to school then we spent some time finding a few more.

Children's Museum. Charley LOVED this water table trying different ways to direct the water and watching what would happen when he did different things, maybe I have an engineer on my hands. He spent over an hour doing this. The rest of the bunch wandered from activity to activity but they had lots of fun.

William is working on his cooking skills. He was following a recipe.

Easter egg hunt.

Post Tax season building projects. (Poor Brevick had just smashed his finger) In case you are wondering like Brevick was, I am taking the picture!!!

So this is the quick and basic catch up!!! Now on to the present

Ben had a Birthday. . .

2 months ago.

As per the usual he was very busy but we thought him throughout the day as was relaxed and enjoyed our time. We baked him a supper yummy cake that I want again but everyone else didn't love it!

10! He turned 10!

10 years ago I held the most perfect little boy in my arms for the very first time.I had to wait because due to his early stressful arrival he was only in my room long enough to cut the cord before he was whisked away to be saved. It took some hours before I could go see him and when they asked if I felt good enough to go I sweetly lied to my nurse, choked down some nausea, exhaustion, and severe dizziness and said yes, I am ready to go! I knew if I told the truth they would make me wait but I didn't want to wait. I was ready to see him. When they put him in my arms like most new mothers, I couldn't believe this precious boy was really mine to have. He has been wonderful. I still can't believe I get to be his mom. He astounds me everyday and now he is 10 as I have been pondering on that recently (yes it makes me feel old but this post isn't about me ;) I am filled with such an urgency to cherish every moment with him because soon he will be grown and on his own and I will miss his smiles every single day!

William is one of the happiest people that ever there was. He is up before 6 everyday and loves to see what is in store for him. 

He loves his siblings, he is such an awesome oldest brother and oldest cousin. He loves babies and he loves to make people laugh, currently he also loves scaring people because he runs down the hall barking and it scares the wits out of Brevick and Emmerlyn,

William you are a great worker *when you want to be*

you love to earn things

you love to have adventures

you love scouts

you want to live in the country so you have room to explore and become a wild man. You are learning all you can about outdoor survival.

You love to shoot your BB gun

You are excited to take hunters ed this year

You like to start the car

you don't like shoveling the side walk but you do it anyway

you LOVE to read. Right now you are on a WWII kick and are absorbing all you can about it. You also like adventure stories and anything else you can get your hands on. You are infamous for reading over peoples shoulders.

You love basketball, soccer, and swimming and learning new sports, 

You love riding your bike, rollerblading or riding your scooter.

 If you don't remember or can no longer tell this is *as requested* a basic military base that is being attacked.