Morning routine

This morning Andrew got up and said, "I'm going to say my prayers so I can go downstairs and listen to the news and eat breakfast." No, I'm not making that up. I didn't know he knew the word "news," though I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what "news" means.

Speaking of breakfast, Kirk bought me an oat groat flaker, which I tried out yesterday. It connects to the Bosch mixer. I made "old fashioned rolled oats" from some oat groats and then made it into oatmeal this morning. The oatmeal was slightly more chewy than oatmeal you make from the store-bought rolled oats. It reminded Kirk of cracked wheat, but of course it tasted like oatmeal--at least the way we make it with brown sugar and milk instead of water. This all makes me wonder if the companies don't take out some of the oat bran or something when they make the rolled oats. The background to all of this is that we are tired of having to throw away pounds of oatmeal that went rancid. So we bought 50 pounds of oat groats, thinking that maybe they will store longer. You can make "quick oats" by putting the flaked oats in a blender and chopping them up more finely.

Toys

Lucy got one present this year: a doll. The boys enjoyed their marble towers and other things. We try to get toys that encourage creativity, but which mostly means that the toys all need to have 200 or more pieces each. We also got books for everyone. Here's a photo of Lucy and her doll.

Christmas

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. This morning Andrew prayed, "Help all the people who don't have anything, and help us to give some of our money to them." We thought that captured some of the best of the Christmas spirit: prayers for blessings and also prayers for us to bless the lives of others.

Random things

I always wondered what little boys did before the invention of guns. Now we know. Edward takes all sorts of things--but mostly paper--and folds or turns them into sharp pointed objects which he then throws. He says he is "slinging arrows."

This morning Andrew said, "I have to think." A few seconds later, he said, "OK. I'm all done. The breaker went off in my head."

Last week was our bump and bruises week. Andrew insisted on sledding down a snowboarding bump at the park and went flat on his face. Thankfully he is OK except for a some scrapes on his face. The day before, Edward was jumping on our couch and fell and hit one of his top teeth. The gum was bleeding all around the tooth, so I started to get hysterical (remember--Andrew knocked out all his top front teeth a week or so after Edward was born). Our dentist, who lives up the street, was kind enough to stop by later that day and look at Edward's mouth. It appears that he just bruised the gum and didn't damage the teeth. That was another blessing.

More snow and a sled

I got up this morning, and since it wasn't supposed to snow until the afternoon, got everyone in the car to go run errands. It was snowing, however, and then the car started to slide on the ice when we reached the bottom of our street. I persisted and ran an errand or two, but then, as we kept sliding on ice at every stop sign or stop light--along with all the other cars--decided to go home. We said lots of prayers and were thankful we didn't get in an accident. I stopped by the BYU Creamery to get milk and the manager was putting out the last pile of cheap plastic sleds, so I got a sled for the boys. They were thrilled. This is our first sled. After Lucy went down for a nap, we went outside. I shoveled snow and covered the steps from our back patio area to the backyard to make a ramp for the sled. Then I taught Andrew and Edward how to slide down; they didn't like the idea of dragging the sled back up afterward, though. They played outside for a very long time and I shoveled the 4-5 inches of snow off the driveway and sidewalk. Since we live on a corner, we have an extremely long sidewalk. It takes 45 minutes to an hour to clean off everything if you only have a few inches of snow.

I was trying to think of something funny or nice the boys said or did these past few days, but I can't remember much, and the few things I can remember shouldn't be repeated. Oh, here's one story. The other day Edward was looking at a cup and noticed it was chipped. He asked if it was broken, but I told him it was still OK. Then he said, "But I know what will happen when it gets broken." "What?" I asked, thinking that we will get another one or that we will throw the broken cup away. Edward then said, "You will get cross." "Oh, do I get cross when things get broken?" "Yes," he said.

Lucy is following her brothers' lead. She avoids the fun toys on the ground nearby and goes straight for the power cords, plugs, and outlets. 

Prayer for snow

Saturday it was supposed to snow here, so Kirk and I were talking about the weather at breakfast. Andrew must have been listening because he wanted to say a prayer, which he did. He asked for Heavenly Father to send snow and to "make the snow stick" to the ground so they could play in it. As Kirk was leaving for work, he started to get worried that we hadn't finished clearing off the last of the leaves from the lawn, and now we would have snow on top of them. Andrew then decided to say another prayer and ask that it not snow. I suggested that we pray that our lawn would be OK or that we would be able to clean up the leaves since we really do need the snow here in Utah. Andrew modified his prayer somewhat and Kirk left for work. A few minutes later I looked outside and realized that it still hadn't started snowing, so I thought I had better go answer a little boy's prayer. I pulled on some clothes, went out, and cleaned up the yard for an hour and a half. Andrew came out and helped after he got dressed. We got the leaves cleaned up and came back inside. About an hour later it started to snow. We got several inches of snow, with more on the way over the next few days. Andrew said a prayer of thanks--both for the snow and for the clean yard. I thought two things: (1) sometimes the faith of children is amazing, and (2) sometimes you have to work hard to answer someone's prayer if you are given the chance to do so.

Simple things

This week we celebrated Edward's 3rd birthday. I made a Space Shuttle cake for him. It was impressive with the candles at the rear so it looked like it was "blasting off." He was thrilled and called it his "birthday." Then, after cake and ice cream, we brought out some presents. That just floored him. He couldn't believe that he got cake and presents, too. We were wishing that at times we could maintain such a simple outlook on life.

Reading

As Andrew has been learning to read, I've been thinking a bit more about literacy, what it means, and the blessing it can be in our lives. Yesterday Andrew picked up the book Are You My Mother? and read the whole thing to Edward. He was thrilled and, even though we have been reading it to him since he was a baby, acted surprised when he read the different events in that book. From what he did and said, it appears that reading something yourself is different from having it read to you. He also said that now there were words with the pictures. Of course there always were, but now he could understand those symbols. When he reads he gets a bright light in his eyes and an excited look on his face. Edward sees the excitement and is trying his hardest to also learn to read, though we are still on the alphabet and sounds right now.

A prayer

I was helping Andrew with saying the family prayer, and he was insisting that I tell him everything to say even though he is perfectly capable of saying a prayer without help. I would say something that he could repeat word for word such as, "Bless us all to get better and not be sick." He would then say, "Bless us all to get better and not be sick." At one point I said, "Help Edward and me not to fight." He paused, and then said, "Help Edward and Mommy not to fight." 

"You have your hands full"

I had a man come to measure a window for new blinds to replace a very bent and broken one. He walked in and asked, "How many kids do you have?" I said, "Just these three," pointing to the boys running around and Lucy in my arms. He proceeded to tell me that he and his wife had nine children and later had adopted another one, for a total of 10 kids. In other words, in comparison, I had it easy. Well, after 30 minutes of watching Andrew and Edward bounce off the walls, run in and out of the house, talk and scream nonstop, and so on, his parting comment was, "You have your hands full." Maybe three of our kids equal 10 of someone else's children?

Thanksgiving

This week we continued our tradition of writing down things for which we are grateful. During the Family Home Evening before Thanksgiving we each take a blank sheet of paper and write something along the lines of "I am thankful for..." at the top. Then we set the timer for five minutes and write as many things as we can during that time. After we are done, we read our lists aloud and talk about them. I think the first year we did it, Kirk and I didn't have too much in common on the lists; but as the years have gone by, we increasingly are thankful for similar things. Besides the obvious things such as spouse, children, Jesus, the gospel, priesthood, and so on, we almost always are thankful for clean water, household appliances, a house, or a nice place to live. This year Andrew and Edward got to draw something for which they were thankful. It sort of worked. Andrew drew a cornucopia and Edward said he was thankful for Christmas trees and presents. 

A few nice things this week

On the way home from the airport Monday I began to get sick. As I got sicker and sicker I became worried because I was driving; I didn't know how I would make it home. I told the children I was sick and asked Andrew to say a prayer, which he did. We made it home safely (and without any throw up in the car) and said a prayer of thanks.

One day we were talking about Christmas and I asked the boys what gift Heavenly Father gave us. Andrew said, "Jesus." Later I asked Edward what we do at Christmastime and he said, "Give gifts to Daddy."

And finally, we had some good sharing moments. Andrew was helping me make applesauce and I gave him the tiny bit that we didn't bottle. He ate some and then saved the rest for Edward, who was taking a nap at the time. He didn't want his brother to miss out on eating applesauce. Another day, Edward was eating some chocolate and shared it with Andrew. Edward really loves chocolate, so that was generous of him.