Cora

Cora is starting Grad 9 this year.  She is 13 now.  6 weeks until her birthday.  She is a bit over 5' 2" and is 107 lbs.  She asked me why in the world would her grand children want to know how much she weighs.  Cora is a peacemaker.  Very often she will give up what she wants to have peace in our home with her siblings.  If we are coming back late at night from somewhere, Cora can't sleep in cars, and while the other two sleep, Dave and I talk, while Cora will quietly sing songs in the back seat.  She also can quote any movie ever seen.  Sometimes Cora and Leah have full conversations this way.  She is very helpful.  Cora will see that something needs to be done, laundry, dishes, etc and will do it with out being asked.

Cora is a giver.  And good at it.  She will start thinking months in advance for upcoming birthdays of her friends and  what to get them.  It is always perfect too.  It is a talent for sure. She is confident.  Cora can not be side track from what her goals are.  She would love to be a famous gymnast, loves to play basketball.  She loves climbing trees and being on the farm.  She is the most excited of all to move out there.  Cora is extremely loyal.  Even if a friend has treated her bad she will stick it out for a long time. (Yes mom I know where she got that:))  She is the oldest and as such does a little to much parenting with her siblings.  We have  to remind her often that we are the parents and we will take care of it.  She will stick up for and defend her sibling to death.  

Cora has a great personality and we often tease each other back and forth.  She does not get offended easy.  I think for this age she really understand things around her.  She appreciates boys but has no interest in them. She understand that they are show offy and full of hormones at this age.  She is not willing to settle.  I really look forward to seeing who her lucky husband will be.  Cora is not really a kids person.  She would way rather be outside working along side dad then stuck in the house with kids. She has a few families that she loves to babysit.  Cora is brave and strong.  She has always been great with elderly people.  Even as a young child she would like to talk to all the people in the seniors center when we would visit Grandma Minty. Had one friend there that they would draw pictures for each other.  One day we went in and found out he has passed away.  She was devastated.  She loves to read and loves Egyptian Mythology.  She tries very hard in school. Cora has some learning difficulties that she has figures out how to work past, but she has to work harder than most people.  But even at this age she understand how important school is. She was on the honor roll most of last school year, and accomplish her goal of principals honor roll, where she had to have an average above 85. She seems mature for her age, has a great head on her shoulders, but loves to play with dolls and little kids toys also. Like I said before I am not sure how I lucked out to be chosen to be her mom, but so grateful that I was.  I really look forward to what she is going to do and accomplish in this lifetime.

This has been fun for me.  The kids all have such unique personalities.  We have struggles and joys with each one, like any parent.  Sometimes you look back and think oh good that worked, or well that was certainly the wrong approach.  I am learning right along with them and probably mess up a lot.  But I love them all to death and am grateful for every one and every different thing about them.  I hope I remember to do this again before school next year.

Leah

Leah is a little over 5'1".  92 lbs and going into Grade 6.  She is 11 years old.  I have had a hard time deciding what to write about Leah.  She is constantly contradicting her previous behaviour.  90% of the time we have to ask and ask and fight and scold and threaten for her to do any work at all. Yet this whole week she has spent in the garage cleaning it up for Dad.  She likes to straighten other peoples house and do little favors for them.  I think the key is I can't ever ask her to do anything.  She is desperately looking forward to when she gets asked to babysit so she can earn money. And wants to do a youth talk so bad.  All this month if I have asked her to grab me something, or help with something it has been done first time.  Not table setting though.  She can avoid that like crazy.  Leah is very funny. She is very quick and witty.  Little quiet remarks that if you are not paying attention you can easily miss.  She is bizarre and off the wall.  She constantly makes us laugh.

She loves listening to the radio.  Her favorite station is 107.7 FM  The River.  When told this year that they might only get one gift for Christmas and it had to be something that they could either put in a box 5 months later of would use so much it was worth keeping out.  All Leah wanted was to become a Rewards Listener Member with the River.  Her life goal is to become a DJ on the radio.  We often tease Leah about being out in la-la land.  But shes not.  She is very aware of what is going on around her, will even pretend sometimes that she isn't but later she will say something that makes you know that she knows.  Usually she just doesn't let things bother her or doesn't care.  She is very bright in school.  Her grades are always high.  The thing that brings them down is she takes FOREVER to do anything.  Often gets dock for being distracted.  Leah is our little missionary.  She is never afraid to tell anyone about the church or tell them they should fast, say prayer, ask them where they were Sunday etc. She can get a little preachy sometimes but is not scared.  She loves sport and is good at them, which surprised us.  Leah is perfectly happy to be by herself.  She has always been like this.  I think she just needs down time.  We will often find her in her room or the corner of the basement, playing with Salia or her Calico Critters as she listens to the River by earphone.  Leah is either extremely happy and fun or angry.  She can hold a grudge and bring it up years later. She has great fashion sense.  Most of her clothes are hand-downs from the Smith's or Natalie. (Thank you so much you two same my life)  She will take whatever she has and come up with some awesome outfits.  Leah can quote you just about any movie or commercial she has ever seen or heard.  Even if it was only once.  We love being around her and enjoy her very unique take on the world.

Blake

It occurred to me the other day that my children's great-grand children will want to know what they were like as kids.  I always just blog things we did or things they say.  Not actually personality and stuff.  So today we start with Blake.

Blake right now is 8 years old.  He is 4' 4" and weighs 60 lbs.  Starting Grade 3.  Anything that Dad is doing it just the greatest.  He love working with his hands.  He will spend hours outside in the garage sanding, cutting, playing with nails and hammer, just about anything you can think of.  He has made some pretty neat stuff all on his own.  Blake also loves Lego.  A Lego gift is always the perfect thing.  Blake will sit down and figure it out right away.  He can be very caring.  He does not like anyone treating his family wrong.  He is a very huggy person and likes to be tucked into bed every single night.

Sometimes he can get angry.  He seems to get in a zone where it is almost uncontrollable for him.  We have to take him by the shoulders and look him straight in the eye before he listens to us and calms down.  He also gets scared at night a lot.  Any small thing in a movie will make him extremely nervous.  It then takes a long time to get Blake in bed.  He loves saying his prayers and reading his scriptures by himself at night.  Blake is a great reader.  He is a couple grades ahead in his reading levels.  He will cry for anyone.  If someone dies in a movie, even if it is the bad guy, he is brokenhearted.  If one of us is hurt, he cries while giving us a hug.  Blake is usually very embarrassed about this and doesn't like to have anyone tease him.  He loves being outside.  The very worst punishment I can give him is to take away his bike.  He rides it all the time.  Even if it is pouring rain. Blake is still figuring out exactaly who he is.  He loves to be friends with everyone, even if they are not the best choices.  He will know this and it will bug him what they do but he desperatly wants someone to ride bikes, swim, etc with.  But Blake does have mostly good friends.  He is starting to figure it out.  He always wants to go out to eat.  We go very little but that never stops him from asking.  Even if we went out that day for lunch, he will ask about dinner.  He likes to help me in the kitchen and mowing the lawn.  His sisters said he is a very caring person when he wants to be:)  We do have things we are working on, but over all Blake makes righteous decisions and can be very fun to be with.  I am sure in the next couple of days I will think of a thousand more things, but this is Blake right now.

Basket Ball Camp

 Cora had basket ball camp at the U of L this week.  It was 9-4, Monday though Friday.  She absolutely loved it.  Her best friend Meagan went also. Which worked great for me since we carpooled.

They decided it was going to be cool to wear their sock pulled all the way up.  It was pretty funny.  They went a couple days like this.

There was a lunch provided every day and they swam the last hour.  The camp is put on by the U of L girls team.  They asked if anyone had been to watch them play and Cora was the only one that had. Only a few had been to watch the boys.  There was 43 girls in the camp.

Every day they played bump twice. Cora got third then second every time.  Except the last day when they gave prizes. She was fighting for the title and it went on so long that they played paper-rock-scissors to determine the winner.  She lost.  The prize was a Pronghorn Jersey.  Cora was so disappointed.

She learned exactly what her strengths and weakness where, and how to use them to her advantage.  She is fast, and can out run most people.  She also has great awareness of all her teammates, and where they are.  Like she can see the big picture of the court while playing. Cora said she didn't have a great shot or dribble really well yet (although dribbling improved this week.  She was feeling better about it).  So what Cora's does is bring the ball down and out runs everyone.  She gets to the basket faster. And gets assists. 

I always wondered why they didn't play her as a guard at school.  I knew she was fast and shorter.  Cora plays a lot like I did.  I hope this year they give her the right position.

I enjoyed watching her interact with the other girls.  Cora has grown into a very strong, confident girl that holds her own.  She has great friends and is not deterred from what she wants.  She knows exactly who she is and what she stands for. Each night she was very exhausted.  One night I told her just to sit.  I did not expect her to help with dishes or anything.  But being the fantastic girl she is, not only did she do dishes, but folded laundry with me, and helped me get organized for canning. I have no idea what I did to deserve to be the one to raise her.  I could go on and on about this but won't.

Cora is excited for the upcoming basketball season.  I can't wait to see what she will do this year.

Camping in Radium

It was another wonderful camping trip to Radium.  This year Grandma Puzey and the Atwood's came along with us.  Which worked out awesome.  Blake had some one to play with and the girls played together.  No one was left out.  Our trip started very early. There had been a big lightning storm the night before we left.  Usually my kids sleep through everything.  This one was so close that it woke them all up several times, I kept checking on them and at 5 am it was so close we thought is was hitting our trees.  By this time everyone was in our room and wide awake.  We had planned to got to church in the Pass but had so much time we made it to Sparwood then stopped for church.  We were honestly shocked to see that our trees had not been hit during the night.  We made it to Radium with out incident and set up camp.

It rained the first night.  I was a little worried, checking the forecast it was supposed to be gloomy most of the week.  But it ended up being perfect.  Sunny and wonderful with cool nights. We hit the beach everyday but Wednesday. I had to ask the kids lots to build me a sand castle.  I finally built one myself.  The last day they finally did some and had lots of fun doing it.

The kids all got swimmers itch this year.  Dave got it by far the worse, his were even pussing a little.

Blake's birthday was Monday.  He loved his bow and arrows.  Ashton had brought his along and they did a little target shooting together.

We always do ice cream at Screamer and go out to eat once while we are there.  Ice cream was good as always.  How can you go wrong with ice cream:)  We went to a place called Outback Jacks, I think that was the name.  It had really neat rustic atmosphere and great food.  One night Jason made us pork ribs and potatoes and corn.  It was fabulous.  Wednesday we explored the town a bit and got the kids some souvenirs, then did the Hot Spring.  Thursday was a demo of glass blowing at Bavin Glass works. This is always fun and the kids were older so they didn't get restless.  

Grandma Puzey rode home with us.  The Atwoods had mentioned that they were going to the Frank Slide Interpretive Center.  We like to stop and do something on the way home to break up the trip and decided to copy them and do that this year.  It was neat but sad.  90 seconds is all it took and when they listed the people that died it was so and so with wife and 4 kids.  So many without names.  Nobody knows who they were.  That is sad to me.  We arrived home around 7:30, unloaded and started my days worth of laundry.  Radium is the perfect campground.  Sadly I have heard they are slowly phasing out the tent sites.  We will have to make it as much as possible before they do. There was lots of beach, campfires, roasting marshmallows, being together, and enjoying one another company.  Lots of memories made.

He's 8

Blake's baptism was yesterday.  He was really nervous.  Kept saying that he felt a lot of pressure.  He was also very nervous that he would have to do it more than once.  And he did.  His knee came up and they had to do it again.  He thought that was the most embarrassing thing ever.  We had to explain to him that it was not a big deal, Leah was baptized twice also and so are many others.

A few weeks ago we were going through boxes to see what the kids needed to for school.  I had thought about getting Blake a new tie or shirt for his special day, but didn't want to spend the money. Going through The Jones Store we found this awesome shirt and pants.  I loved the brown and blue plaid shirt, the tan cords were wonderful, and he had a brown tie with small blue strips already.  It was perfect.  New to him and saved me money.  Once again Kita saved the day:) Thank you.

He planned his day about a month ago.  We sat down and he decided who he wanted to talk, pray, sing, witness, etc.  Then he proceeded to call each of them and ask if they would do what he wanted.  I love that we live in a stake that lets us plan our own special day, instead of sharing it with lots of other kids.  We then decided  since Atwood's were coming clear from Cranbrook that day they would be hungry and we should feed everyone.  Funny thing, they stayed in Fort Macleod the night before and beat us all there.  I was glad we did the meal anyways.  It was nice to be together.  I made it simple.  Just Sloppy-Joe's, chips, fruit and water.  Then Blake requested cream puffs and mini brownies from Costco for dessert.  

That morning I thought I should probably come up with a centerpiece or something for the tables.  I wish I would have thought of it sooner, I would have loved to have Dave make me frames out of the old wood Dad gave me from the farm.  It would have looks awesome.  

Blake did very well, he didn't act silly or disrespectful.  It was a really nice afternoon.  Later he was a little sad.  When talking to him he said he didn't feel any different.  Dave explained to him that he wouldn't feel really different because he was already a good kid and making good choices.  Still I am glad for the step he has taken and for the maturity he has shown with calling everyone on his own and thanking people for the nice things they brought him.  He is a great kid and I am glad he is mine.

Good Works Boredom Buster

When Kita was up this summer she mentioned how some daughters of her friends held Princess Camps and other things during the summer.  This got us thinking and Cora and I sat down with a plan.  She decided to do it as a Value Project for YW and Excellence.  This has to be a 10 hour project that she comes up with.  We looked through  her Personal Progress book and it fit under Good Works.  She came up with a name and we were ready to start.

When all was done she had a little over 16 hours.  First she researched activities that she thought young girls would like to do.  Next she figured about how long each activity would take.  Then she made a supply list and we looked for stuff in our house and went to the store to price things out.  We knew she couldn't charge for the project but were thinking we would just have parents pay for supplies.  As it turned out we had stuff in the house and thought it wouldn't be to bad to cover the rest.

She typed up a list of activities and the dates it was to be held on to give to parents in the ward that she wanted to invite.  Only one person ever got back to us, but she had two girls and brought a friend so it ended up being perfect.  

Cora planned an activity day, where they did obstacle courses and games outside.  Everyone seems to absolutely love this dress up in huge clothes game.  We have played it with every age group of kids and it is always a hit for some reason.  

There was a craft day.  They painted clay pots and had a treasure hunt. And lots more. Last was a princess day.  They made cupcakes and did a fashion show with our dress-up box. 

The cupcakes were delicious. I think the girls had a fun time.  With set up and clean up and the time the girls were there it really added up.

They had a lot of fun icing them as well.

Decorating crowns and wands.

They made place mats.

The girls had one cupcake for the Chocolate Milk Party and then took the other two home in their baskets.

It was a lot of work.  Cora enjoyed every moment of it and really had fun with these three cute little girls.

When she was all done and everything was all cleaned up, Cora was exhausted.  She just wanted to sit down for the first time that day.  Being the super sympathetic mother that I am, I laughed at her.  I told her that is what every mom feels like at the end of the day.  They are tired of picking up toys and listening to the demands of the kids.  That is why bed time is so nice and we get so frustrated when kids don't go to bed.  Who at the end of the day doesn't want to put their feet up and read a book?  Cora's Good Works Boredom Buster was a great success.  Thank you to Kita for the idea.  Thank you to Mandy for driving her kids here every day so Cora could do this project.  Thank you to Macy, Jordyn, and Katie for coming and being so fun.

August long

Why does the August long weekend not have a name?  Just August Long or Civic Holiday.  Couldn't anyone think of a cool name, like Last Chance Before School or It's Hot Go Swimming or Less then Half-way to Christmas.  OK maybe that is why nobody named it:)  Anyways we spent this day quietly at home.  Leah's closet was in desperate need of a clean.  This is MOST of her clothes.  In the end we took a black garbage sac full to charity and a white sac to the garbage.  Seriously, it was crazy.  Oh and another sac full or clothes that are too big.  Why would you keep a closet full of 3 sizes of clothes. Well I have a in-my-dreams-someday-I-will-get-into box in the basement, but I am not 11.  In my box the pants are not really short because I have grown out of them.  We got it done though.

Dave took Blake back out to the farm again.  They did not stay long.  Dave is getting a little frustrated.  He has gone out twice to doing cutting and the weather is not cooperating.  Soon it could be to late. The girls and I cleaned, ran, and did church stuff.  Then I made this amazing cake.  A couple days ago I pinned from a friend this caramel cake with caramel icing.  If you are a caramel lover this is a must try.  It is still on my Pinterst  Dessert and Drink board, so go repin it and make it.  It takes a little extra time, but soooo worth.  Even Dave said it was good after asking me a number of times why I couldn't just make chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing. Usually I can't make cake from scratch.  I don't know why I can make pie or bread or anything else but not cake from scratch:(  But this turned out.  Light and fluffy and very good.  Now go make it. And enjoy.

Dad's Make the Best Heros!!!

Every boy needs a hero.  

And what better person to look up to then your own dad.  Blake likes to dress like Dave and to go anywhere with him.  This morning I asked if he was sure he wanted to go to the farm since it was supposed to rain all day.  I asked him what he was going to do.  He said he was going to work.  I reminded him again that it would be wet.  He said, "Mom, Dad works doesn't he?  Even in the rain.  So I can too.  I'm going to work with him."  He loves the farm and being out there.  I do think most of the Blake's day is spent on the 4-wheeler not working:), But he loves the idea of doing what his Dad does.

And really I wouldn't have it any other way.  He does have the coolest Dad in the world.!!!  

I know that Dave loves it just as much as Blake.  He is always asking who is coming with him that day.  And trying to figure out chores that they can do together.  Even little mundane tasks.  I know sometimes it slows Dave down but these kids are learning such valuable lessons that it is worth it .  I am so glad to be married to someone that understand and appreciates that.  Like Dave always says, "We are raising kids not (choose the one that fits the moment) mowing lawn/paining fences/building walls/etc" I could not agree more.  We may have streaks in out lawn.  The dishes may have taken 20 minutes longer.  We may have paint on the sidewalk that Dave had to fix:).  But we are trying to teach our kids to work and love doing it.  To love being together and wanting to spend an eternity with each other.  Some days are better than others, but I pray every day that we can make it.  That we are instilling strong testimonies in these little spirits entrusted to us.  It is a scary task.  A HUGE responsibility, but we keep trying and plugging along.  

Sorry that took an unexpected sappy turn.