Caden is 6 months

Caden is 6 months old today.  Crazy how time flies.  We just got back from his well baby check.  He's a well baby.  He now weighs 17 lbs - no wonder I'm so tired.  It's time to get serious about feeding the boy solids.  I am not excited, it is soooo much easier to just nurse him.  

Gracie for Mitt

I was working on the descriptions of us for this blog yesterday and I asked Grace what she liked.  

She said,  "Mitt Romney."  

That's my girl!  

I took this picture of her on Saturday at the last nursing home performance.  She was up there fiddling away, then all of a sudden she walked over to me, sat down in my lap, and she was a sleep in less than one minute.  

Grace and I like to open Lexie's blog and snuggle while listening to "The Gracie Song."  Today Colin  figured out how to get it on my blog.  Oh, how wonderful to be the mommy of such a talented boy!  Thanks to Lexie for the inspiration and the great song.  

Seven years ago

Seven years ago at this moment I was in the labor and delivery room trying my darnedest to get this kid OUT!  He has always been a bit stubborn- obedient but on his own terms and on his own time schedule.  The darn kid waited until 13 minutes into his due date to finally arrive into this world.  He is paying now - he has to wait until tomorrow to open his presents.  Hah!  It coulda been today, oh! how I wanted it to be today those seven years ago.  

Work it Baby!

Caden is working on his muscles.  If he keeps at it he may get as strong as Uncle Glen someday.  :)  Perhaps I should follow his lead, I may need more muscles to keep him up in my arms when he wants to get down and explore while we are out watching the other kids play their fiddles in nursing home cafeterias.  I have issues with busy babies on nursing home cafeteria floors.  

You may notice from his head wear that he has been playing with the princesses this afternoon.   He is secure enough in his manhood to go along with it. 

Princesses and Babies

After breakfast this morning, the girls came back to the kitchen and very sweetly asked if there was anything they could do to help me. Oh boy, was there ever!! They picked up clutter, mopped floors, and wiped counters until the main floor looked great.
It turns out that they had talked it out together and decided that maybe if they helped me with all my jobs, then I'd have time to play with them. Great Thinking!!
After lunch I got to play "Princesses and Babies" with them. The first thing you have to do to play is don a princess dress. The girls were very surprised to find that I had one as nothing in their collection would even come close to fitting me. Of course, mine didn't fit quite like it did the last time I put it on. Goodness, that was 10+ years and four pregnancies ago. I am feeling good that I got that sucker over my hips. Luckily, I had a sweater to hid the fact that it is a sleeveless dress and the tiny little matter of the zipper not even coming close to zipping up all the way.
After we dressed, we took our babies and went to the royal ball where we danced with scarves to Vivaldi. Lovely time. Lovely.
Then we played a delightful game of tidy up the castle (yes, this was my idea). If you have never folded and put a way excessive amounts of laundry in you prom dress, you are so missing out! I think we should do it at least once a week. It was a fabulous way to put deposits in the emotional bank accounts of my girls and get my jobs done at the same time - BONUS!

Rock and Roll

Oh, the joys of motherhood!
My adorable little Gracie May blessed this evening by putting a rock up her nose. Oh, how we wished we were closer to Grandpa Byron tonight!! (He got to be quite a pro at removing items from eyes and noses thanks to Auntie Ky. Sometimes I think that Grace was supposed to be Auntie Ky's little girl, but she just couldn't wait to get here. Thank Goodness! I'm really glad she's mine!)
Anyway, in the absence of a loving Grandpa, we spent the evening at Primary Health waiting for the very nice PA to remove the rock. Grace was very brave and I pretended to be.
All is well that ends well.

Merry Christmas

We went to our ward Christmas Party on Saturday. I am sure that the Santa that was there was the "real" Santa. He was fabulous. He spent several minutes talking with each kid and never did ask them what they wanted for Christmas. He asked them things like what books did they like to read instead. It was great!


After the ward party (it was a breakfast party), we went to spread Christmas cheer with the Junior Jammers. The kids played their fiddles for two different care centers. It was so fun. The kids got to talk to the residents before and after the show and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Caden made lots of old ladies happy with his cute smile and a few hugs.

After the fiddle shows, we went to Great Grandma's for a quick visit. She was putting up her Christmas tree and her house was all very festive with all her decorations. We couldn't help but take a few more pictures.
It was a very busy and fun day!

Gingerbread House

My friend Julie surprised us with this beautiful gingerbread house yesterday.  I love it.  It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Grace's "secret pocket"

We had a library book a few weeks ago called "Crafty Detectives."  In it the kids learned how to make secret pockets.  This morning Grace made one pretty much all by herself.  She's a pretty darn tricky three year old!

Can't even tell it's there, can ya?  

It is there - see.

Here is a close up of the "delicate" stitching.  It's made to look even more "delicate" by my use of the macro focus on the camera while wearing Caden on my back.   It is impossible to hold still enough with Caden wiggling on my back.  

Colin's Museum

This is what my stairs look like today.  Apparently it is a beautiful display in a museum.  It looks to me like it's one of those modern art displays.  There is a second display on the next set of stairs, however it is not open to the public yet.  

The other day he hung a sign in the front room that said, "employees only beyond this point."  I am glad that the museum doesn't have any signs like that because my bedroom and the kitchen are on different floors and I need access to them both.  :)  

brown eyes

These eyes make me melt like a popsicle on the 4th of July!

boys at bedtime

Aren't my boys adorable.  I love watching Colin be a big brother.  He is very good at it.  Colin likes to watch Caden for me as I finish getting the girls to bed or brush my teeth or whatever I need to do.  It is very helpful.  In these pictures they are working on cracking a code in the November Friend magazine.  The light was off and they were working by lamp light so I took one picture with the flash and one without.  It was very cozy looking in the dark.  

Lucky Socks

These are my brand new lucky socks.  Randy bought them for me at Fred Meyer's after Thanksgiving sale.   I love Randy and I love lucky socks, especially these.  They are very soft.  

"What makes them lucky socks?", You ask.  Well, I don't exactly know.  I've just always had a pair of not plain old white socks that I call my lucky socks.  With lucky socks on and a Ticonderoga pencil, I could pass any test given to me in high school.  Now there are no specific tests to take, but I still like a good pair of lucky socks.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  We had Randy's parents, grandma, two brothers (Chris/Jack, and Jeremy), and sister Shelly and her family over for a lunch feast.  My turkey turned out very well and there was plenty of food to go with it.  Shelly out did herself with the pies bringing five different kinds and a pretzel salad.  Grandma's rolls were delicious and she did great with the sweet potatoes.  Great Grandma brought a yummy green bean casserole.  

We have been married eight Thanksgivings now and we are finally getting the hang of being adults.  I even had center pieces on the tables.  I am going to have to keep trying though - I forgot to turn the turkey drippings into gravy.  I am considering this year a great success even with the forgotten gravy.  Success being measured by the fact that the smoke alarm did not go off even once during the entire cooking process.  Wahoo!  Two years ago when we had Thanksgiving at my house, all the guests were waiting for the Turkey to be ready and as I slipped it back into the oven after checking it for about the tenth time, I spilled some drippings in the oven and we had to open all the windows and crank up all the fans to get the smoke out of the house.  Not pretty!  This year I had a meat thermometer so there was "no turkey tampering."  

I finished this hat while we were visiting.  It is so great to have children to inspire you to try new things.  

I wanted it to be my hat, but it is a little tight.  It fits Colin fabulously.  I will try again and we can have matching hats.

So Cute!

Goodness, I love these boys!

Crafty Kids

Robyn has been knitting on a spool this weekend.  She started this scarf yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning.  It turned out really cute.  Colin was inspired by her work and he is now working on one too.  I was inspired by her work so I went to Walmart and bought some knifty knitters so we could make hats too.  How fun!

Christmas Songs

The kids got Christmas songs today at their fiddle lesson!  Time sure does fly.  It seems like just yesterday that I was planting the garden.  

I can't wait for them to get good at the songs.  It is really fun to have a real talent to share at Great Grandma's Christmas party.  Ok, so I don't personally have any fun real talents, but I think it is alright to live vicariously through your children sometimes.  :)  

Country Harvest Hoedown

We haven't slept much and the kids and I have been sick so I am not at my blogging best right now, but I wanted to brag on the kids a bit anyway. 

We had a very fun, busy weekend!  The kids did three fiddle shows, one on Friday and two on Saturday.  They did SO GOOD!  I loved being their mommy!  My Parents and Keri came up to visit and of course we loved that.  We always love it when family comes to visit.  We got tickets for both sets of grandparents, great grandma Reeder, Uncle Jeremy, and Aunt Keri to see Saturday night's show.  It was very fun to have that much support.  The show was very good too.  

We didn't get many really good pictures.  I am hoping that maybe one of the Grandmas got better ones and that they will share them with me.  If you look really close in this one, you can see Colin's nose and one eye behind the girl standing next to Robyn.  He was one handsome cowboy!  This picture does almost show how cute Robyn and Grace were in their outfits.  

Kiddos in a Pumpkin

We carved pumpkins last night with the neighbors for family night. Grandpa Byron brought us three HUGE pumpkins when he was up to visit last time. We had a lot of fun turning them into jack o' lanterns.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I have a fabulous family! They made my birthday just wonderful this year. Randy and Colin made me breakfast while Robyn played "Happy Birthday" and a host of other songs for me on her fiddle as I got ready for the day.

Randy baked the cake. Grace frosted it. Robyn candled it. And Colin put the customary candy pumpkins on it. (I cannot have a birthday cake without candy pumpkins - it just wouldn't be my birthday without them.) It was delicious!
Randy got me the lovely sweater that I am wearing, the roses and two boxes of candy. The kids were extra happy all day, just for me because, like my mother, all I want for presents is happy children. They know that "When I choose to obey, I'll be happy all day." (It really does work out that way, even for Mommies, but that is another post in itself. Like should I get up and shower before the kids need me or sleep in and should I do the dishes right after dinner or let them pile up for a while.)
We spent the whole day just hanging 'round the house. It rained all morning so Randy and I worked on our goals for the year (I don't have much time left to get everything-I-am-going-to-do-before-I'm-thirty done.) Then, when it quit raining, the girls and I planted the spring flower bulbs and the garlic in the garden. Fun Stuff!

Mini Golf

We did mini golf for PE today. It was a fun course. The kids loved it. There are about eight families in our PE group and we get together once a week for something new. We have done soccer, basketball, softball, and hiking so far this year.

Hiking for PE

We went hiking for PE last week. The weather was perfect! Grace was a trooper, she kept right up with all the big kids.

Fabulous Book!!!

I am currently reading Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Highly recommended for everyone!! Fabulous, just fabulous.

Plato Quote

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind.
Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be rather a sort of
amusement; this will better enable you to find out the natural bent of the
child. ~ Plato

What About Socialization?!!

We took the car in to be serviced today at the dealership. After all four kids emerged from the van, the guy looked in and said, "Any more in there?" Apparently four kids is a lot.
We went in and got settled in for the wait with our free popcorn to watch TV in the kids lounge and an old lady poked her head in the room. She said she just wanted to look at my adorable children. (They are adorable, aren't they?!) Anyway we talked to her for a bit and she asked Colin if he was in first grade. He just shrugged his shoulders at her so I told her that we homeschooled. She looked at me very seriously and said, "Oh, I just don't think that is a good idea." It was very funny, but I didn't laugh. Luckily I have read about this happening enough to be prepared. I simply told her that we weren't going at it alone, we have a great co-op that we learn with and she left. There it is - I have had my first encounter with a complete stranger who knows what is better for my children than I do. People are very interesting.
We talked about this experience after scriptures tonight and did some role playing to help the kids know what to say when they are asked what grade they are in. Colin said next time he would say that he was in Core Phase, but he didn't know what to say if asked what that was. I explained a little about leadership education to them and told him that Core Phase was like the core of the Earth with the other phases around it. Then he wanted to know what Love of Learning was using the layers of the Earth analogy. I didn't know so we each went in different directions to find out. I found a Childcraft book about the Earth and Colin can back with two encyclopedias - the E and the W. We looked it up and talked about each phase with the proper layer of the Earth to compare it to.
I love that he knew where to look for the information and actually wanted the answer. His first thought was to Google it, but it was too late at night to get started with that. :)

(Mom and Dad - Thanks for those old books, they are getting some good use now. You guys are the best!)

What Does Home Schooling Look Like at the Reeder's House?

Really there is not such thing as a typical day of homeschooling. This is just a sketch of yesterday.
9:00 AM - Everyone up and working on their "Stop Sign Jobs" (ie make bed, say prayers, get dressed, comb hair, brush teeth, and go potty) Giant Marble Run already assembled in family room by Colin using the plastic marble run set.
9:30 AM - Breakfast of French Toast
10:00 AM - Robyn and Colin help Grace practice her fiddle while I feed Caden and get some reading done.
10:30 AM - I come back downstairs and find the giant orange extension cord winding it's way through the house. It is connected to the tape player which is connected to the stereo so Grace's fiddle tape can be in "surround sound." Tape didn't work so they hooked up the microphone to the stereo so Grace's actual fiddle playing could be in surround sound. Turns out one fiddle doesn't really need "surround sound." Good news is that Grace can actually play "Mississippi River." Bad news is that Caden cannot sleep to "Mississippi River."
10:35 AM - I go back up to rock Caden back to sleep while reading Anne of the Island.
11:35 AM - Back down stairs to see how "school" is going. Colin, Robyn, and Grace have been playing Monopoly in the kitchen. They are bidding on properties and making change and everything. By now the girls are tired of Monopoly so they are drawing and Colin is running the whole game. Caden wakes up and he gets to sit in his Bumbo seat and "play" Monopoly too.
11:40 AM - Girls and I write letters to Uncle Brad while the boys keep playing Monopoly. All kids regather to monopoly each time a property goes up for bid, otherwise Colin just moves everyone and pays and collects the money for each player. Caden is doing pretty good - his railroads get landed on a lot. Don't worry, Caden doesn't actually get to touch any choking hazards. He's the "angel" and Colin is the "bird dog." (See Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G Allen.)
12:00 PM - Play continues without Caden. I take Caden back upstairs to feed him and try for another nap. He must be growth spurting as he is a bottomless pit today. I finish Anne of the Island. It's pretty good, not my favorite in the series though.
12:30 PM - Caden sleeping, I sneak out and we all tidy up for lunch. Colin swears the Monopoly game is not over even though no one has played it with him for more than an hour. We carefully put elastics around each persons' money and properties so the game can continue later.
1:00 PM - Chicken Noodle soup for lunch. Caden wakes up again, darn it.
1:30 PM - We tidy up kitchen and call Grandma to get Uncle Brad's address for our letter. Aunt Keri answers - guess she wants to be a homeschooler too since she's home not at school, Too bad that is called truancy, not homeschooling. We mail the letter.
2:00 PM - Robyn practices her fiddle while I feed Caden and start Anne of Windy Poplars. Colin and Grace install an ultrasonic sensor on the robot they built with Dad during conference last weekend. They can't figure out how to attach the touch sensor. Dad will have to help with that another day.
2:30 PM - We work on making adorable pompom headband things for Halloween while listening to the Primary songs. Book of Mormon stories sounds good in surround sound. The "BOM BOMs" are really great if you crank the sub woofer up really loud. The rest of the songs don't sound so good with that much sub woofer. Caden doesn't sleep through really great Bom Boms.
3:00PM - We take a break from headband things. It's raining so kids take umbrella outside to play. I feed Caden and work on Anne.
3:30 - Snack time. Kids come in for cookies. I continue rocking and reading. Caden is like the emergency flashlight - he is quiet and sleeping as long as he is plugged in, as soon as he is unplugged to be put in his bed he wakes up and turns his little fusser on.
4:00 PM - Still rocking and reading. Kids are now using umbrella as a boat that takes them all around the world. The couch is China and my room is Michigan. I am not sure where everything else is. They gather treasure from each place and take it to a new place in there boat. They gather marbles from somewhere and bring them to Michigan. I am still working on Caden's nap so they go to the Great Lakes near Michigan (ie my bathroom) and build a new marble run using the wooden marble run this time.
5:00 PM - I give up on Caden's nap and he sits in the swing while I put the chicken in the oven for dinner. We finish the pompom headbands and turn on some clean up music. Caden goes to sleep in the swing. We get all things put back in the countries they belong and set the table for dinner.
5:50 PM - Dad still not home. We go out for a quick bike ride while we wait. Caden still sleeping so we open the windows and I stay close enough to hear while still watching the bike riders. Grace doesn't get stuck, not even once. Yay!
6:05 PM - Dad still not home. We make biscuits, warm up some veggies, and get the chicken out of the oven.
6:30PM - Dad's home and it's time to eat. Grace wakes Caden up on her way to the table. Poor Baby.
7:20PM - Dad and Caden bond over the guitar while Colin fiddles, I do the dishes, and the girls look through a magazine.
7:50PM - Bedtime jobs are done. Caden starving so he gets fed. Then family prayer and scripture study. Everyone giggles through scriptures, not sure why, but it was funny. Not exactly reverent, but fun.
8:15 PM - Colin and Robyn go to bed to read. Caden still nursing. It's Grace's night, so she gets to play memory with Dad.
9:00 PM - Grace goes to bed. Dad gets to bond with Caden again. They watch bits of the debate from the night before and I get to go for a walk with my friend, Julie.
10:00 PM - Kids still awake but in their rooms listening to CDs. Randy and I watch a 15 minute segment on Judaism in an attempt to learn more about other religions.
10:30 PM - lights out for everyone. Colin comes in one last time to tell us about Wilbur at the fair. (He just finished listening to Charlotte's Web.) Robyn needs one more drink and to talk about the Scripture Scouts CD she is listening too. Grace is asleep.
11:00 PM - Everyone sleeping peacefully.

The Monopoly game goes on today. Not surprisingly, Colin is winning. He has two houses and everyone else has morgaged all their properties. He pops in occasionally to ask how to make change when he needs a little help.
Robyn and Grace are doing crafts and reading. Robyn likes to read between the bookcase and the wall on a pile of blankets.
Happily, Caden is sleeping peacefully and no one is waking him up. Yay!

Today's Quote

"I don't care if you're right or wrong, as long as you're authentic."

Toothfairy visits Reeders' home

Colin lost his first tooth last week. Darn kids keep growing up on me! Isn't he cute?!!

Caden's Day

We finally got around to blessing Caden this past Sunday. Hooray! I was getting nervous that he wouldn't fit in the blessing outfit, but he did and everything went fine.

New Toys!


On Saturday, Colin got a bigger bike at a yard sale. What a deal. When Colin moved up, the girls got to move up too. Grace thinks she's really something with a big girl bike when she's only three.

Caden needs to learn to sit before he can inherit the trike so he got a Bumbo seat. Very cool! On Tuesday, I was wishing I could have a Bumbo seat so I could get the dishes done and feeling a bit sad knowing that my budget was not going to help that wish come true. Just at that sad moment, my darling husband came home with a $45 gift card to Babies R Us - a baby gift from the team at work. The timing was perfect. I couldn't believe it. The kids and I got the seat on the way home from fiddle lessons that very afternoon. Lovely, just lovely!

Gracie's reading!!! I tried to stop her so she could still be a baby, but no luck. Darn kids! :)
Thanks be to Aunt Katie who gave us a DK phonics book a long time ago and the Leapfrog videos The Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory.

Dentist or Engineer???

The kids have their fiddle lessons tomorrow and I have a class at the same time. I was freaking out about how I was going to get both done and Robyn looked at me and said, "Mom, Dad can take us." And so he CAN! What a revelation!

As the daughter of a dentist, it never even occurred to me to ask Randy such a thing. Engineers have more flexibility in their schedules. Randy has to put his hours in, but he has a lot more freedom to choose what those hours are on a daily basis. He can choose to go to work at 7:00 or 9:00. He can take his lunch earlier or later depending what is going on. He can even work from home if he so chooses. (He doesn't choose work from home often because the computer connection is much faster at work and Colin sidetracks him into playing Super Tux instead of working at home.) Whereas a dentist has to schedule months in advance or change a schedule that was made months in advance.

It was fine to be a dentist's daughter, however, I really like being an engineer's wife. It is good for me.

Here are a few pictures from this week. Robyn loves to read and Caden and Grace are a very willing audience.




Colin and I worked (actually it was more like playing) on food storage this week. We checked the dry pack canner out from the cannery and canned 100 #10 cans of wheat, spelt, rice, macaroni, oatmeal, onions,and beans. Whew!