Study Buddies

Randy and Caden are "studying" together. Sometimes there are advantages to being a lefty - you can study in the same chair as your Dad without bumping elbows.

Randy is applying to George Wythe University. He is taking an extension class called American Foundation this coming semester. They will be studying the founding documents such as The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville's Democracy in America. He is going to be pretty busy this next semester as he is also taking 4 credits from BSU toward his second bachelor's degree.

What a great example for the kids!

Cub Scouts

Colin turned eight on Saturday. That makes him a Cub Scout and me the mother of a Cub Scout. It's so fun! He's been working hard it this week and has accomplished a lot.



Here he his earning his Bobcat tonight at pack meeting. He is pinning my first mother's pin on me. How exciting!
(I didn't realize quite how large I am getting until I saw this picture. Yikes! Tomorrow makes 17 weeks.)



On Wednesday, Colin set up a pretend library and his books kept falling over. We got to work on wolf achievement #5 and make him some awesome bookends. I think he's got some potential in wood working.

Music Man

Caden woke up this morning "singing" the train part of Orange Blossom Special. I don't know how to type what he said. Something like "err, errrrr, err, err buck, buck, buck, buck." How can you not wake up with a smile when that's your alarm clock. So funny!!




Of course, the little turkey won't do it again for me so I could get a movie. This is not today's picture, but it's classic Caden.


The big kids have been doing several Christmas Fiddle shows at nursing homes and care centers for the past two weeks. With all the practice and the shows, it's no wonder Caden can sing the songs.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

I haven't had time to find the pictures from Thanksgiving. We went to parents' house and had a wonderful time. I love to go home.
Keri posted these pictures of us Kelley girls on her blog so I borrowed them.






When you take pictures with Keri and Kylie you have to pose. This is Keri's signature tush pose. You can see that Keri and Kylie have a little more practice with posing for pictures than Katie and I do. I'm okay with that.

Hoedown Pictures

This is a picture of the Jammers doing the Patriotic Medley. It's my favorite song of the whole show. They play each of the armed forces songs and have the veterans from each stand while their song is played. It's AWESOME!
Colin and Robyn are on the front row in the center. They are standing next to each other.


This is Colin and the other contest winners playing Dill Pickle Rag.


Here is Grace in the practice room just before going onstage.

It's that time again - The Country Harvest Hoedown is here!

This is it. The BIG Weekend we've all been waiting for. Finally.
The Country Harvest Hoedown is tonight and tomorrow. I can't wait to see the show.

Colin, Robyn, and Grace are all in it and they have been practicing for months to get ready.



Yesterday, Colin and Robyn were on TV as the dress rehearsal was televised during the weather reports on the news. That was pretty cool.



Grace didn't go because it was WAY too early in the morning for a four year old. She and Caden had a good rehearsal anyway.
Uncle Mike wrote and said to make sure Caden learns something "manly" like the guitar. Caden is happy to comply. Every time Randy picks up his guitar to practice, Caden goes for his too. Admittedly, Caden's playing backup isn't too pleasant on the ears, but it sure it fun for the eyes to watch.
(He still can't wait to get his hands on a fiddle though.)

When is the good part of pregnancy?

I was feeling not so great the other morning and I said to my family, "Don't mind me, this is just the bad part of pregnancy." After saying that, I wondered when the good part of pregnancy was. Then I looked around and saw it all around me.

Here are a few examples of the good parts of pregnancy, yep they pretty muchly all happen AFTER it's all over.


Colin, Robyn, and Grace trying to hold down the leaf piles they've been working on when a big wind came up.

Caden insisting he get to try to ride the unicycle. I am pretty sure he'll learn it before I ever do. I've been working on it and it's just too darn scary! It's the one thing I didn't get done before I turned 30. I brought home Mike's unicycle and I worked on it unsuccessfully for days. Then one night after work, Randy hopped on it and rode around the block. He was the kids' hero that night. He totally cheated by not telling them that he has been able to unicycle for years. Sure made me look bad! Pretty funny though.

Grace working on learning to rollerblade. Robyn found them at the DI yesterday and the three big kids have been taking turns with them. They actually only fit Colin, but that hasn't stopped the girls from trying. Robyn is the best at it so far. Luckily, I learned to rollerblade as a child, rollerblading is not nearly as scary as unicycling. Randy said he married me for my rollerblading skills. I'd better dust them off and start practicing again. :)

How to Draw a Butterfly

Here are the step by step instructions on how to draw a butterfly according to Grace.



Here's what it looks like with all the steps put together.





I tried it and it's pretty fun to draw butterflies! Especially with such a great teacher as Grace.

Crazy Manimal!

Cader Bader is a crazy manimal! But he has beautiful big brown eyes so he gets away with everything.


He is not afraid of ANYTHING.


The girls and I made the cutest table display yesterday with some great little gourds and pumpkins we found at a farmers market. Today Caden put all the great little gourds and pumpkins down the vent! Even the adorable little warty one.
Randy saved the day by crawling under the house and pushing up on the vent so I could retrieve them. Hooray for Dads!



He thinks he is big like his brother and loves to get in on the computer games. Colin has been building a chess playing robot this week with the Lego Mindstorms and Caden loves to "help." I'll have to get a picture of it when all the bugs are worked out. Colin is building it for Robyn - she likes to play chess, but no one likes to play with her because she always wins so he is building her a robot. What a great brother! :)
I love to watch the things these little turkeys come up with.



One good feature about Caden is his impeccable table manners. He can use a spoon better than his three siblings put together. He is contrary even in that though - notice he is a little lefty!

School?

At our house we don't do "school". We have routines like get dressed, make your bed, brush your teeth. Then we have fiddle practice (which is what is going on now as I write this). Then Caden goes down for his nap and we gather for what we call school. It consists of a devotional of sorts where we have morning family prayer and then we study out of Gospel Principles together. Then we have "kids school" where I teach them whatever I feel like for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. Then they build things or draw or read while I study. Then we usually we have really great discussions about what we've each learned.
I have found that everyone remembers what they study themselves a lot better than they remember what they are "taught" plus, it really adds to the learning of the whole family when everyone learns what they are excited about and then teaches the rest of us.
For example, on Tuesday, we were studying the story of Daniel in the Lions Den as part of our study of Gospel Principles and Colin remembered that he had heard in The Story of the World that King Nebuchadnezzar had gone mad and ate grass. Somehow in my almost 30 years of life I'd never heard that story so we looked it up in the chapter of Daniel that I usually skip. Sure enough he was right on, as usual. So we talked about that for a minute.
Later that night we told Randy what we'd learned just before he picked up The Long Winter to read to us. Three pages into chapter 31 he read, "'Could we eat grass?' Carrie asked. 'No, Nebuchadnezzar,' Pa laughed." Then, of course, we all laughed. It was great. I have read that book at least three times and never got that reference before Colin taught me the story. I love it when our books talk to each other and when my kids teach me things!


Sometimes I do freak out a bit and get nervous that we will miss something or some crazy fear like that. At those times, I take it to the Lord in prayer and he always comes through for me.
Two Examples:
1 - Geography.
I have issues with geography because the only thing I remember about geography is sitting in that basement room that had a lot of rolled up maps on the wall in the Jefferson. We colored a lot, don't remember what, and I remember wishing I could be across the hall in the library or the cafeteria instead. How was I going to "teach" my kids geography?!!
I read somewhere that the best way to learn geography was to draw maps. My artistic skills were killed in kindergarten when the class laughed at the "flower" hands that I drew. Those weren't petals - they were fingers! How was I going to "teach" my kids to draw maps.
I prayed about it and later that day at "school" I pulled out the Draw Write Now books and drew myself a chicken. I CAN draw and it's fun! I finished up the chicken with a barn and some hills. Caden helped me with the "finishing touches."



I left the books out on the table and went to make lunch. They were still out that night so Colin took one to bed with him after prayers, scriptures and stories. He came down to the kitchen around 10:00 holding a map of Australia he'd drawn. God does answer prayers! I didn't even know that maps were in that book. Colin has since drawn many, many maps and has big plans for building an interactive web page using his pictures.



2-Long Division
I do fine at good old fashioned arithmetic. I love it. Robyn spends hours doing her math workbooks and we have great times together. Colin doesn't particularly care for workbooks - as a general rule, they bore him silly. He spends hours working out problems that matter to him. He adds the letters in the alphabet using either the corresponding number on the telephone pad or the number the letter is in the alphabet (1-26). He even can add roman numerals and binary numbers. I cannot "teach" him math. I searched for math books that we could find common ground with and I think I found one. It's Life of Fred. Problem is, you have to know long division before you start.
I prayed about math and, the next day, Colin asked me how many 22s were in 72. He had made himself a game and didn't want to count the 72 spaces. He knew that there were 22 spaces on the board so if he knew how many 22s were in 72 he wouldn't have to count so much. He now knows a bit about long division.



Life is so fun!

Number 5 is alive

Yes, it is true. We are expecting #5 to join our family around Memorial Day of next year.
Yes, it is WAY to early to announce anything, but I like the sympathy when I am feeling crappy so I usually tell early.
Yes, it was planned.
Yes, Caden and #5 will only be 23 months apart.




Caden likes this pregnancy so far - he loves eating crackers together in my bed. He's all about the food!




Aunt Keri has requested that we name this child after her, but my girls have been calling #5 Rosie for a long time. Grace came up with a compromise - Rosekeri. The boys have this crazy idea that #5 is a boy and that Keri is too girly for a boy's name. So we came up with the name Irek. What do you think?

Weekend Fun

My Kids are so very creative. :)  Here they are being "doggies."  Caden thought it was pretty funny.  I am not sure what the implications for the future are.  Hopefully he doesn't try it in Oreo's water dish.  

Last weekend we went to Gunfighter Skies. It was pretty awesome. We even got to see the Thunderbirds.  

Fall Pictures of Caden

Caden is getting to be such a big boy. He loved "helping" to plant the fall garden.



Baby Yoga!

Great Story!

This is a story that came through my email that I thought worth sharing. I'm down to 2348 marbles, I sure don't want to waste them. :)


3900 Saturdays

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet
solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the
unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours
of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a
typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life see ms
to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in
order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came
across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice.
You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting
business. He was
telling whom-ever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.'
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say

'Well, Tom , it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they
pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family
so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or
seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your
daughter's 'dance recital' he continued. ;'Let me tell you something that
has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain
his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'

'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average
person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live
less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the
number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.
Now, stick with me, Tom , I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any
detail', he went on, ' and by that time I had lived through over
twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.' 'I got to thinking that if I lived to be
seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went
to a toy store and bought eve ry single marble they had. I ended up having
to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles I took them home and put
them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to
my gear.'

'Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.
I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really
important things in life.

There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run
out to help get your priorities straight.'

'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my
lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out
of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have
been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little
more time.'

'It was nice to meet you Tom , I hope you spend more time with your family,
and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man,
K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I
guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the
antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to
work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. 'C'mon honey, I'm
taking you and the kids to breakfast.'
'What brought this on?' she asked with a smile. 'Oh, nothing special, it's
just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And
hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.

We filled the bean jar!

We finally earned enough beans in the bean jar to go swimming at the YMCA. It was quite a party - with cousins and everything! We started with lunch at Aunt Shelly's and then went over to the Y by her house. Hannah, Emma, and Dan were down visiting Grandpa and Grandma for the weekend so they all got to come too.
I think Caden had the most fun of all. He LOVED swimming. He is not one bit scared of the water.

Robyn's Essay on our Twin Falls Trip

A Couple of Pictures of Colin Because I Like Him

He sure is a handsome feller ain't he?






The boy loves his fiddle. He is currently combining his loves by creating a fiddle web page. Life doesn't get any better than that!

Learning all the Time

Yesterday, Robyn was reading her book in this chair. She got out to get a drink and when she came back, Caden had climbed in and was "reading" his book just like she had been. He didn't want to let her have the chair back, but they eventually came to a compromise.





Caden is getting pretty self reliant. He was playing in the sand pile and got hungry. No problem. He knows where the good snacks are - in the blackberry patch!


He was pretty excited that Grace was shucking some corn from Robyn's garden for dinner. It's delicious.


It looked good enough to eat. He was not happy when I took it in to cook it.

morning jam sessions

Here are a few pictures of morning fiddle practice. Everyone loves to jam with Dad! Dad can make everything more fun. Randy has been in charge of fiddle practice all summer - I love it! I hope he can keep it up when he starts his classes again this fall.