Sariah's Corner of the World

Just a quick hello

2012-01-28T12:56:00.001-07:00

It was so fun to finally get our first snow! Hagerman never gets much compared to the rest of the Magic Valley because we are so low in elevation and close to the river. But no snow at all by the middle of January is unusual! This year Leif was old enough to enjoy messing around in it.

The snow turned to rain the next day. It rained and it rained. We were then a soggy mess for awhile and we had a small lake in our backyard.

Reagan received mostly science related things for Christmas, including this chemistry set. He loves setting up his "laboratory" and reading his experiment book looking for the next great explosion. We've tried quite a few experiments together, but usually Reagan just goes at it on his own. At some point, he made a solution of dish soap, baking soda, iron fillings, vinegar, food coloring, etc., etc. A few days later, I told him to pour the concoction down the sink before it spilled on something and ruined it. Well, what do you know, but that concoction pitted the bottom of the kitchen sink and all the silverware, and plates and bowls that were in the bottom of the sink too. They all have permanent rust colored speckles. (When Joel installed the sink and faucet in this house I joked that I wanted to take them with us when we move. Ahem. They can keep the sink now.)

Hailey turned 14 this month! I. can't. believe. it.

The kids have been into taking "angelic" pictures of Leif. So cute. It almost makes me forget -----Oh my heck. How ironic. Just as I was typing that last sentence and I realized I hadn't heard from Lief in awhile. He climbed to top of the bookshelf in his room to get the Vaseline jar. ( I hide it up high in a basket up but I guess he's on to that hiding place) Of course he was smearing it all over his head. Off to give him a bath........

Tree hunting

2011-12-14T15:48:00.001-07:00

Our Christmas tree hunting expedition to the South Hills........

We found a tree for Grandma too. It makes me smile to remember-- Joel and Taylor had to leap across a creek to get to one of the trees, then throw the cut tree back over the creek to take it back to the car. :-)

We had a great time sledding, finding that "perfect tree" (ha ha-- if you wanted a perfect tree you'd go to the tree lot!), oohing and aahing over the spectacular lights and Mongolian camel at the house you pass as you come down the moutain, and having a chili dinner with our friends afterwards. What great memories!

What a Grandma!

2011-12-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

Grandma Clayton sang at the Christmas concert last night that was put on by the Magic Valley Chorale and Twin Falls Symphony. When her group performed their individual song it made me cry. It was very beautiful and touching, but now I realize that what was most beautiful of all, was the fact that my lovely Grandma was singing in it and I love her so much!!!

Tonight I happened to come upon these pictures from almost a year ago that I never shared. They illustrate perfectly what a talented and loving Grandma our family is blessed to have. Grandma made this Valentine doll for Heidi's birthday and it turned out so pretty.

The pink and red matched just right with the carousal cake that she also made. Grandma puts so much love and creativity into the things she makes for her grandkids and great-grandkids.

And this fall she was willing to endure the long drive to Oregon to have an adventure with us. We love her and our life is so much richer because of her!

Sonatina Festival 2012

2011-11-14T13:17:00.001-07:00

Saturday was the Sonatina competition at the college in Twin falls and the kids did an amazing job! All four of them made it to the top 2 for their level. This meant they were able to play off in the concert. Hailey came away with the trophy for level 10, Taylor won the trophy for level 11, Heidi earned the trophy for level 1, and Torsten was the first runner up for level 12!

Taylor with his buddy Henry. It was fun to see so many of our homeschool friends there at the competition. Many of them won awards too.

I asked our wonderful piano teacher, Barbarba Mix, to pose in a picture with the kids. I'm so grateful for such a talented teacher and for kids who love to play and practice the piano!

2011-11-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

Just a quick random post to try catching up with some October pictures, since we're now (unbelievably) almost a 1/4 of the way through November!

Part of the family in our Halloween garb. The boys were still in the showers getting cleaned up from a day of working on the tractor and hauling trees so I missed them.

Taylor captured some cheerful autumn colors in the Lower Salmon park.

Leif loves being pulled around the house in his clothing bin. We always laugh because he looks like a little package being delivered.

Hailey and Heidi were a big help in scraping Great-Grandma Bishop's house. It was an all day job! The next week, the local church painted it.

The same day the girls were helping me scrape the house, the boys were with Grandpa and Joel cutting and hauling away some weedy trees in Grandma's pasture. Here's Taylor and Reagan taking a load off to the burn pile across the road.

Lately, Leif really hates to miss out on anything, so he tries to escape a nap if at all possible. But eventually, that nap catches up.

Even if it has to happen in the standing position.

My little peanut

2011-10-30T15:31:00.000-06:00

I couldn't find Leif the other day so I went searching all over the house. I found him in the pantry. He had discovered the bag of peanuts from Costco and he'd decided they were easier to access if they were in a big pile on the floor.

I told Leif maybe he'd better sit in time out for a while.

Just joking. I didn't put him in time out! :-) (does your last baby ever get put in time out.....?)

Actually, Taylor was dusting and had taken all the pictures and the little chair off the shelf. He'd forgotten to put the stuff back and when I walked in, there was Leif sitting on the chair, looking at our old family portrait. The kids and I had a good laugh and had to take a picture.

Cross country--- our dabble into organized sports

2011-10-28T01:12:00.000-06:00

This year Torsten, Hailey and Taylor participated in cross country. Our town of Hagerman doesn't have a cross country program so we drove to our neighboring town of Buhl. Yes, we were out of district homeschoolers, but Buhl was very welcoming regardless. To be honest, I must admit that 40 mile round trip to Buhl got a little old sometimes, especially the 7 a.m. practices, but other than that complaint, it was a good experience for all. The kids enjoyed getting in shape, meeting new friends, and gaining appreciation for the grueling sport of running. Hailey said doing cross country made clogging seem like a piece of cake. (But then Hailey has always made clogging look like a piece of cake!)

Speaking of Hailey, here she is after a race getting a hug from Dad.

And with her friend Kia, a longtime friend she knows from both homeschooling and clogging.

Taylor getting close to the finish line........and then below that, clutching a bottle of Gatorade, wishing he could jump in a nice pool and cool off. Wow, the cool weather and frosty nights this week made me forget how recently we were HOT. It was a very hot afternoon this particular day. 2 girls fainted part way through the course and they had to call the ambulance. I was sitting in the shade of a tree with my water bottle thinking- "Seriously kids? It's really not too bad out here." No, no I wasn't actually thinking that. What I was thinking, is how did Joel stand it that season he ran cross country in Phoenix? That sounds like it would have been pure TORTURE.

And lastly, some nice action shots of Torsten running. Wohoo, go Torsten!!

The Historic Columbia River Highway--- it'll make a tree hugger out of you!

2011-10-17T21:47:00.000-06:00

2011-10-16T23:26:00.000-06:00

We loved our trip to Oregon so much that I have to share some more.......

Our first day there we went to the aquarium. It was so interesting! The amazingly beautiful jellyfish, sharks, seals and huge spider crabs......but in my opinion, one of the most memorable exhibits was the tide pool area where we were able to touch everything and marvel at the colors and textures of these strange creatures.

Afterwards, we visited a lighthouse that was very beautiful but was being infested with kelp flies that afternoon. It about drove us "buggy"!

Torsten took a nice picture of the misty coast from the penisula.

We explored the tidepools in the cove near the lighthouse and it was so exciting to make discoveries of our own, after seeing the creatures at the aquarium.

Tiny crabs....

Strange creatures that I'd never seen before...... This one that Taylor and I were examining looked like ancient dinosaur feet on the end of thick stems. I found out later it is a type of barnacle.

A cute little seal.......

The boys used their new GoPro camera to take this underwater video of an anemone. Let's see if my clip works.....

Now, the tide pools we found the next day, in a different area, were AMAZING, just dripping with starfish, anemones, urchins and large crabs. It was very close to dusk when we went out, because that was when the minus tide was the lowest, so the lack of light wasn't good for pictures but it was wonderful for discovering . We were picking our way around the rocks and reefs with only 2 flashlights for 5 people which made for a lot of excitement but not much safety. Next time, I would like to plan our trip around the tide so that we are there when extra low tide happens in the day instead of the night. We had 2 night/dark tidepooling expeditions during our stay and it made me a little nervous.

In love with Oregon.....

2011-10-11T17:00:00.049-06:00

We spent a week visiting the coast of Oregon. It's the first time my kids have ever seen and experienced the ocean. It was so amazing! I was feeling bad that they were so old before getting to the ocean, but in a way, it certainly made it very special. The first morning Leif, Reagan and I walked down to the foggy, stormy beach. It seemed so mysterious and unreal. Reagan was amazed and in awe said "The ocean is way bigger than I ever thought! I'm so glad you took me here Mom!" I whole heartedly agreed.

I grew up going to the ocean when my family lived in North Carolina, California and Okinawa, but it's been so long that it was all new again. I could spend hours watching the waves come rolling in and crash against the rocks.

The kids could spend hours jumping in the waves-- and they did.

I'll post more photos of Oregon later......this computer is taking forever to upload pictures.......

Driving under the influence....

2011-09-21T11:28:00.001-06:00

Well, I was pulled over last night, as I turned off the interstate to go into Jerome, for what the cop percieved as "driving under the influence". As soon as he walked up shining his flashlight in the windows and saw 6 kids, groceries, piano books and tennis shoes littering the interior of my Suburban, he was all ready changing his mind. Yes, I was driving under the influence. The influence of too many thoughts and conversations going on in my car, all at the same time, and at 10 o'clock at night! ("Mom, are we going to cross country practice tomorrow?".... "Can we stop at Wal-Mart so I can buy an MP3 player?"........hmmm....if I decide to stop at Wal-Mart should I get the dog a flea collar?....when am I going to have time to deal with the 3 boxes of fruit I just bought from Kristi?......what the heck was I thinking buying 3 boxes of fruit right before going to Oregon!....how late is going to be when we get all these groceries put away and I can go to bed?....) When the nice cop asked me if I realized I'd been driving on the fog line for a while and then on the rumble strip before turning onto the Jerome exit, I gave him a blank look. (I actually had to think what the heck a fog line was because I've never heard it referred to that way before.) Luckily he was very nice and the kids thought he was the nicest cop they'd ever met-- except for the very nice cop in Gooding who gave Reagan a sheriff sticker when I was pulled over for speeding, and the cop who pulled me over in Hagerman for speeding, he was very nice too. They've all been kind enough to forgo giving me a ticket.

This morning Reagan told me he thinks the cops never take me to jail because they know none of my kids can drive. "All of us would be stuck sitting in the car if you went to jail!" he explained. If that's the case, I'm in trouble as soon as Torsten gets his license. It will be jail time for me. Or maybe I'll just turn the driving over to him!

Blogging again.....

2011-08-29T13:50:00.000-06:00

I haven't been able to post or look at anyone's blog in almost a month, but Joel loaded a new browser and that finally solved the problem. So I'm back!

The month of August we've been enjoying ourselves in the great outdoors.

One afternoon we swam in the river near the Upper Salmon Falls dam,

Taylor and Torsten jumped from the Owsley Bridge,

Hailey and I kayaked to Blue Heart Springs,

On the way to the springs we passed Box Canyon creek. (below) The water is so cool and refreshing. I forgot to take pictures at Blue Heart but it was amazing. We peered over the side of our kayak with a snorkle mask to see about 12 feet below, springs bubbling up from the river bed floor in little pots.

Late one night we found a huge scorpion on our driveway that we caught in a jar. With it's tail unrolled it was almost 5 inches long.

I accidentally cooked it the next day when I left the jar in the afternoon sun. This picture is after it was cooked in the sun and then accidentally dropped in the garbage disposal. Somewhere in that process it lost it's head.

We had our yearly homeschool picnic at Niagara Springs. Here is Hailey with some of her best friends.

Leif playing with his friend Hyrum. It makes me laugh that Leif wouldn't touch the water at Roaring Springs this year because he thought it was too cold, but then he had fun playing in this water that is around 58 degrees. Brrrr!

My happy boy!

Taylor and his buddies having a moss fight. This is part of our Niagara Springs tradition too. Taylor is the one in the back with tons of moss on his head.

Oh, and here's another bug we found on our driveway late at night! It was almost as big as my palm! I really wanted one of the kids to hold it so I could get a picture showing the relative size but no one was willing. I've come to the firm conclusion that I'll never sleep in our yard without being in a tent. No way.

Some of the kids jumped from the 40 foot cliffs at Acid Lake. Hmm.....wonder if the lake got its name from that putrid green color?

Taylor's been working on his biking merit badge with his scout troop. One day he missed a bike ride, so Taylor decided to ride to Bliss and back all by himself to make up for it (18 miles). I was really worried because I know bike riders can be hard to see but I didn't want to hold back his ambition. I told him to wear a bright shirt and ride on the wrong side so he could see if a car was going to hit him. That way he'd have time to swerve off into the sage brush. I was still worried, so I took this picture before he left, thinking I wanted a picture of the last day of his life. Isn't that horrible?

To wrap this post up, all of us but Joel had a wonderful afternoon floating Billingsley Creek, Hailey, Torsten and Taylor started early morning training for cross country (they are running for Buhl), Reagan finished a session of swimming lessons, and Leif began skinny dipping lessons in the backyard.

It's been a great summer!!

Naptime mischief

2011-07-31T17:08:00.003-06:00

Joel and I took a nice Sunday nap today. Before going to bed, I made sure all the doors were securely closed so that Leif couldn't escape to the great outdoors.

I should have made sure the craft closet door was securely closed too.Leif discovered the wonderful scents of Mr. Sketch markers. It looks like he particularly liked blueberry. Too bad they're not washable.

2011-07-29T08:17:00.004-06:00

I find Leif's taste buds to be suprising. Sure, he loves popsicles, lollipops, and chips, sad-- but certainly not unexpected in our junk food society. Some of his other favorites though, make me laugh. For example: freshly ground wheat flour! Every time I grind some, he's up there on the counter sampling the batch.

"Hi there, I'm Mr. flour eater. Nice to meet you."

"Oh, excuse me...cough.....cough.....I think I inhaled this stuff! Cough."

Yes, he loves to eat flour.

He also LOVES mushrooms fried in butter. He can hardly wait as I'm cutting the mushrooms, and I have to keep telling him that they're almost done. He eats them so fast I can barely keep up! Another favorite of Leif's is baked kale. It's crunchy, garlicy goodness and simple to make. You stir kale leaves with olive oil and minced garlic and bake until they've started to crisp. I sprinkle a bit of salt on them before eating. Leif and I are the only ones on our family who find this really delicious, so maybe we're strange. You should try it and let me know what you think. :-)

Koosharem 2011

2011-07-27T19:41:00.040-06:00

We just got back from our annual July trip to southern Utah! I'm very glad we went. But I have to share a funny experience. The morning we were packing to go, it ended up being a bit rough and I began to think we should call the whole trip off. First, I walked/crashed into the bike rack on the back of the suburban 4 different times with my face and the last crash was a doozy! It gave me a huge purple goose egg on my forehead and I actually cried. Seriously, do I have peripheral vision problems or something??? I've decided it was probably just a case of being completely oblivious to my surroundings, and it scares me that I could be that oblivious. :-) Luckily, Joel reminded me to put some arnica cream on it and that took the swelling down quickly so I only had a bit of bruising.

And then, when we finally got packed and left, about a minute after we were on the freeway we had the suburban blow a radiator hose! Thankfully, Joel noticed the temperature gauge before we ruined the engine. He had to do some improvising, which included rerouting, and clamping, and stuffing tools down hoses, etc. It worked well enough for us to limp into Wendell for parts and coolant. So, almost 2 hours after we started, we were finally on our way. Phew!

Now for some Koosharem photos:

We all enjoyed some amazing storms and rainbows during our stay. That part of Utah always seems to have afternoon thunderstorms and they are so refreshing. Look close-- it's a double rainbow.And this sunset. Stunning!
Everyone played a lot of volleyball this year. Good times.
And of course, Uncle Thad had the pasture golf course set up. That's always a hit. It can be quite an adventure because if you hit the ball out of the mowed area, you are searching in the tall grass for your ball.
Heidi decided to do a scene from Anne of Green Gables-- you know, the Lady of Shalott funeral scene. The grass was so deep and lush.

The girls had fun putting flowers in Leif's hair and carrying him around.
Heidi had so much fun with her cousin, Sophia, that she went back to Phoenix with her for a few weeks. I miss my Heidi so much! I hope she's not dying of heat stroke. The end of July is probably not the best time of year to visit Phoenix but she really wanted to go.
Now of course, everyone in the family knows the real reason for going to Koosharem is for the fishing. At least for the menfolk! Here's Reagan with his catch. One day they caught 40 trout.
Taylor took some great flower pictures at the reservoir..........
Hailey captured a good one too......
I brought my sewing machine this year and I was so glad I did. I am notreally a fisher woman, in fact, I've never caught a fish in my life. So while everyone was fishing, Leif and I stayed home and did projects. Well, I did projects and Leif amused himself playing with people's shoes. Oh, speaking of shoes,I have to share this photo real quick, so I'm going off topic for a second. One night, back in Idaho, Leif wanted me to put his shoes on so we could go for a walk, but I was doing the dishes so I ignored his request. Next thing I knew, he was outside, sluffing along in Torsten's shoes, planning to go who knows where. My little cutie loves shoes and loves to escape. He's given me quite a few scares. And no, that is not a busy road he's standing in. Thank goodness!

So back to the original topic. I set up my machine in the attic "pink room". I love the old wall paper up there, though the room has a funny smell that everyone says comes from the bats that live behind the walls. It's such a neat old house.
I pieced some quilt blocks for my quilt along, sewed this table topper for cousin Karen.......... and a made a "hot potato" or "potato sack"......?I can't remember what the heck it's called, but it's supposed to cook potatoes in the microwave better than the normal method. I'll buy some potatoes soon so I can try it out. I know, I live in Idaho and I don't have any potatoes in the house. For shame!

While we're talking about potatoes, here I am mixing up a batch of funeral potatoes for dinner. (proof that I really was there)
One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting Capitol Reef. The colorful rock formations are so amazingly beautiful! It's nice to have the Fremont River flowing through the park to add some coolness and mud to the day. The water almost looks like chocolate milk to me.We're swimming in chocolate!Our annual mud tromp.....Leif had a go of it. I was surprised that he seemed to like it okay. Usually mud scares him. Normally even chocolate icing makes him nervous because it looks like mud.
The whole clan.
The Capitol Reef area was settled by Mormon pioneers and they planted orchards full of fruit trees. The park invites the public to pick fruit from the orchards when it's in season. After we ate a picnic, we crossed the bridge and picked apricots in the orchard area before the kids jumped back in the water. That water was a magnet! Not too cold and not too deep.
Aren't the cliffs fabulous?
The perfect shades of warm orange, corals and reds to pop in contrast against the blue sky and green trees.
After exploring a few caves, we headed home. We stopped in Torrey for ice cream. Delicious!Then back in Koosharem...............we had an impromptu barbershop on the porch as Karen cut everyone's hair and the guys told stories.
Okay, this is the end of what I think is my longest blog EVER. Better hit the sack.

2011-07-13T23:24:00.006-06:00

McCall was gorgeous. We only got to camp there one night but it was worth the drive. The only ugly part of the trip was from Glenns Ferry to Boise, (isn't that part always a drag?)but the next few hours from Boise to McCall were heavenly! Idaho's cool wet spring made for lush meadows and beautiful vistas. Lost the camera before I got any photos of the lake, but that's okay. We'll just have to go back.

Taylor ate some seriously dyed candy on the drive and ended up with a blue lips that made us all laugh. Here's his lips at least an hour after eating the candy. Hmmm....pictures too small to see much, but anyhow--I'm missing Taylor!! He's been off at scout camp since Monday. Taylor's the comic relief around our house and it's too quiet when he's gone.

2011-07-13T19:09:00.006-06:00

I'm having so much fun sewing along with the "Sewn" quilt blog. Leila posts a new block pattern every week and explains some quilting techniques too. It's perfect for a newbie quilter like me! Here are a few of the blocks:
This really has been the summer of sewing. Maybe it's because my garden is so small so I have more time? Who knows, but anyways, besides making quilts and bibs for friends' babies, I've finished a skirt for Hailey, for myself, and for my neighbor, made a quilted table runner for my Grandma, and a quilted pillow for my Mom, and did a few other misc. projects-- like this buttoned hand towel thing-a-ma-bobber that Leif can't pull off the stove and throw on the floor. I like these style of hand towels because Leif really enjoys throwing everything on the floor. Even things like ceramic bunny mugs, cell phones, and crock pot lids. It's a constant battle. You know, it'd be better if he threw hand towels on the floor, now that I think about it.

Okay, while I'm here, can I just confide that some times I consider giving up on this little blog because I am not organized enough to do it right! I can never figure out where the heck the camera is when I want to snap a quick picture, or where the camera is when I want to take pictures off of and put them on the computer, or where the card reader is, or where the charged batteries for the camera are hiding.......it never ends! Am I the only one with these types of problems? :-) A solution I've considered is to ask for my own camera this Christmas. Even a cheap little one would do the trick. Maybe then my camera card won't always be maxxed out with Lego movies and trampoline antics.........maybe. But I guess, until then, I can do more "literary" posts when I haven't any pictures to share.

June has flown.....

2011-07-01T08:12:00.003-06:00

June rushed by in a flurry of activities: clogging camp, Girls Camp, robotics camp, Climb Your Mountain camp, "real" camping at McCall, Music Fest, Roaring Springs, and lastly, attending a Shakespeare play at the outdoor theatre in Boise. Luckily, I didn't personally participate in all that, but my kids did and now we are all ready for the LAID BACK portion of summer-- you know, swimming, reading, and plain old playing with friends, and all that. (Okay, mowing the lawn, practicing the piano and a bit of math is included in that schedule too but that's to be expected.) Thanks to all the wonderful friends and family who hosted my children in town during June so that my driving time was lessened. I really appreciate you guys ! And the kids enjoyed some wonderful experiences!

Yummy breakfast that is practically dessert!

2011-06-21T07:53:00.001-06:00

I am trying to eat lower carb foods-- which means finding alternatives to my standard bowl of cereal for breakfast. I am really not a breakfast person. I'm not a big fan of fried eggs, waffles, sausages, bacon, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, etc. etc. Many of those aren't low carb anyway so that's okay!

So breakfasts since I've started this style of eating have consisted of cottage cheese with a handful or two of berries, deviled eggs, salad, raw almonds, scrambled eggs with lots of spinach, mushrooms and pepper jack cheese, and ummm......that's about it. A lot of that didn't seem very "breakfasty" though I don't mind it too much. But here's the "dessert for breakfast" concoction that I tried this morning and it was so delicious:

1/3 cup flaxseed meal
boiling water
real whipped cream
3 drops of stevia (natural sweetener)
a spoonful of triple berry mix (from Costco)

Pour the boiling water over the flaxseed meal to the consistency you like (it thickens). Add the berry mix and stevia and let the berries defrost for a minute or 2 in the hot cereal. Stir in some whipped cream. So yummy, full of fiber and low carb too!

Flying Ant Invasion

2011-06-14T03:37:00.006-06:00

I went out to the garage to finish up this quilt yesterday and realized I had a problem.

Flying ants were invading my whole garage! They were crawling all over the carpet, on my sewing desk, the ironing board, buzzing around the light fixture! Yuck!! I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed some more. When I finally gave up and started sewing I kept having one land on my hand or crawl on the quilt. It was so annoying that it actually struck me as funny.
But even though I'm complaining, actually, I am truly thankful that I have a space to sew and make a creative mess in. Really. Even if that space is a windowless garage that also contains a chest freezer, tubs of out of season clothes and Christmas decor, the electric piano (the garage makes a nice sound proof practice room for times when the baby is asleep) AND 500 flying ants. I'm just counting my blessings-- it could be black widows.

Thrifty summer shorts

2011-06-08T22:57:00.005-06:00

I made some shorts for Leif using a free pattern and free fabric. The fabric was a hand-me-down shirt given to Taylor that wasn't seeing much use. (My boys like the idea of collar shirts but never seem to wear them)

I know I could have picked up some summer shorts from Once Upon a Child and only paid 3 or 4 dollars......but hey, there's no creativity in that! And really, there is something so fun in making clothes for toddlers. Probably because they can make anything look cute.
I made some pants using this same pattern with some nubby navy linen from a free shirt I brought home for Joel (Joel didn't like the color, nor the fact that it was linen- he's just not a linen type guy). Well, the end product reminded me slightly of Russian peasant child pants-- but that's NOT why I'm refraining from showing you a picture. I just didn't happen to take a picture! I actually think Leif makes a cute Russian peasant child..... But since I don't have a picture of the peasant pants, I'll end with this.

2011-06-08T19:23:00.004-06:00

Have you ever worked with quilt basting spray? I just finished and my fingers are now sticking to the keys as I type. Stick. Stick. Stick! That's after washing my hands twice with soap! While I was still working on getting the quilt layers put together, the button pulled off the spray can because it was sticking to my finger.... and now my feet are sticking to the kitchen floor even though I put newspaper down to protect the floor from overspray.....sheesh! I don't know if I should be allowed around this stuff. :-)

Sewing as an antidepressent

2011-06-02T14:59:00.006-06:00

To keep myself from being immersed in self pity and sadness, I've been sewing and cleaning alot. Here is my latest completed quilt project and I'm all ready half done with another! Last time I made a baby quilt for a friend's baby, I didn't finish it until her baby was 2 years old. It helps that this onc is machine quilted.
I like the look of pieced backs, which turned out perfect because while sewing this, I misplaced some blocks, had to make more, then found the original blocks in my messy sewing area! I was able to use those extra blocks on the back. :-)

A Taylor post

2011-06-02T14:39:00.006-06:00

Taylor's tricks:
Taylor's photo:
Taylor's homemade key lime pie:He made it all by himself, from scratch, complete with beaten egg whites and a homemade crust. Taylor thought it was ugly, but it tasted delicious. Don't you think that's all that matters when it comes to dessert?

Little seamster

2011-06-02T13:14:00.004-06:00

I've been sewing everyday lately and I guess Leif 's been taking it all in. Just now as I was on the computer, the kids told me to go take a peek at Leif. There he was at the sewing machine putting pieces of fabric under the foot and moving various levers. He spent at least 20 minutes in there readjusting the fabric and pressing buttons on the machine! What a cutie. I like that better than when he decided to throw all my bobbins across the room, and then ate my chocolate stash and drooled chocolate all over the chair. You couldn't imagine him doing that could you?

2011-05-28T14:48:00.003-06:00

I was upstairs cleaning up some of our family's miscellaneous clutter in Mom's attic yesterday. Leif hadn't had a nap yet but he was being good and entertaining himself downstairs. Next thing I knew, he'd found himself a healthy snack and a comfortable spot to rest on top of the table.

Notice his arm in the chip bag.

Pyramid Project

2011-05-28T14:26:00.004-06:00

This past school year Jenny Hanson, Travis Hanson and I taught a science/math class for our Commonwealth school on Fridays. It was a great learning experience for me and I really enjoyed getting to know this wonderful group of kids! We had lots of great discussions, interesting field trips, and they worked hard on their presentations.

Randomness

2011-05-22T14:44:00.014-06:00

I don't feel like making multiple posts, so this will be very random......just warning you.

Leif having a grand time at Hop 2 it. Isn't that such a look of joy?
Heidi and Hannah having a fun time together.
In our science class that we had this spring, we had a great friend-- Jim Cornell, come lead a rat dissection for us.

I loved having someone there who could explain what we were looking at. The smell brought back memories of all our dissection projects at Shoshone Falls and looking back at those photos I realize how fast everyone is growing. sigh.I thought this was a cute photo of Grandpa Pearson with Leif. Every 5 years the dams are supposed to open the spill gates to make sure they are in working order. It was so amazing to watch all the water come spilling out. Here's a before picture-And AFTER, with the spill gates open.
The spill gate right before it opens.
Well, enough of the randomness. I need to go change a stinky diaper!

Lagoon 2011

2011-05-17T08:27:00.009-06:00

Our yearly trip to Lagoon for clogging finals was this weekend! The kids scored really well on their "Lonely Goatherd" dance and Hailey earned All Star All American for her Acapella and Acapella duet. Hailey with her friends Abby and Kia.
We had a fun time at the park but the hotel stay was awful- (Leif didn't want to sleep because he had a terrible cold, Heidi got a stomach ache in the middle of the night and moaned for a few hours, the curtains wouldn't close so the light from the parking lot was shining in my eyes, the beds felt like boards.....but enough complaining all ready! I should just know by now that when our family travels, it means sleepless nights.)

Because Heidi was still feeling a little woozy in the morning, she did kiddie rides with Leif and I all morning. We had fun riding the train, the sky ride and the little cars together.
Taylor shelled out the bucks for he and Joel to ride the Sky Coaster this year, which is a huge bungee jump done in the prone position, so our family calls it the Super Man. Oh WOW! It would have gave me a heart attack to do it, but they loved it. Here they are gearing up for the ride.
The beginning of their ascent up......up.......up. I'm glad Joel is brave enough to do fun things like that with Taylor, since I am a big chicken. I think I would have to be paid 5,000 dollars before I would consider doing this. And even then......I might back out. Hopefully this little video works.

2011-05-11T20:21:00.000-06:00

My mind has been feeling so unsettled lately. Mostly because I am worrying about Joel's job interviews and wondering where or IF we will be moving and if I should be collecting boxes or not. I really dislike not knowing what the next few months will hold because it makes it so hard to make plans. Do I start to raise some chicks, or not? Should I dig a small garden area here, or not? Should I sign Torsten up for Drivers Ed. here in Hagerman, or wait? On grey windy days, the weather doesn't help and I get depressed about it all. I never realized until the last few years that my mood is affected so much by the sunlight, or lack thereof! But today---- well, it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! So sunny, no wind (amazing!) the lilacs are blooming and the birds are out in full force, and this morning it was warm enough to do school on the trampoline. (That is no easy task, between the inclination for the kids to bounce when someone is trying to write, and then the cat attacking Heidi's feather pen and scratching Reagan. :-) Then this afternoon, we went to Great Grandma and Grandpa's house so the big kids could mow the lawn and do tractor work. While they worked on that, I took the 3 younger kids and the 3 neighbor kids to my parents so I could plant flowers. The combination of the dazzling colors of the dahlias and gerbera daisies and smelling fresh dirt, and hearing the kids happy chatter as they explored the canal and found snakes, snails, and plenty of mud, made for a light and happy heart.
Later in the day, I took the kids to their Wednesday night activity, which was loading and hauling wood for a widow in the ward, and as I drove down the sun dappled street, surrounded by green trees, fields,plateaus and crossed over pretty Billingsley Creek, I realized no matter where we live, it's all good. It's a beautiful world!

Recent happenings: Grandpa Pearson came to visit us for a week for Taylor's birthday. It was so fun to see him.He brought boxes of grapefruit and oranges from his back yard. Yum! I've made a gallon of fresh squeezed orange juice.

Torsten trying out our new 100 dollar mower. We now own 4 working mowers which comes in handy for mowing at all our grandmas' houses. All these mowers have been either free or very cheap and just required some tuneups and small parts. Yay to Joel for being such a handyman!

Big Leif baby, admiring one of his favorite people in the world.
The combined birthday party we had for Taylor, Kyler and Mom.Life is truly good.

Recent projects

2011-04-22T08:21:00.006-06:00

I've been in the sewing mood lately and it's been wonderful to get some projects accomplished.
Here is a picture of an owl purse that I actually finished at Christmas, but I thought I'd show it with the kitty purse that I just finished this week. I think I got better with practice, or maybe I just like the kitty fabric better..... or something. The owl was for Heidi who is not into pink anymore (sniff...sniff) and the kitty was for a sweet 5 yr.old friend of mine.
I sewed 2 pillows for Hailey and Heidi's room- the other 2 are from TJ Maxx. We've been working on their room lately, trying to make it more to a 13 year old's liking.
I started the flower pillow quite a while ago, but wasn't sure how I wanted to finish the edge. I wasn't happy with the zigzag applique look. I ended up doing a blanket stitch for the edge. I didn't get any photos of the Shakespeare costumes I've been sewing-- I will have to take some pictures tonight at the play. Torsten and Hailey are in "A Midsummer's Nights' Dream" production and it's playing at the Oakley Opera House today and tomorrow. I used to DETEST sewing costumes and grumble and moan the whole time, but now I find them kind of fun. Kind of. At least I find satisfaction in them when I am done instead of looking at the finished costume with resentment!

Currently I'm working on a baby quilt, bibs made from my scrap bin, and trying out scrappy paper piecing blocks . These are my favorite types of projects to do!

Lower Malad

2011-04-15T08:02:00.007-06:00

Taylor and Joel went over to look at the big flume at the Lower Malad power plant. The flume, which is a deep concrete ditch-like structure that normally transports water to the intake of the dam, was empty because the water was being diverted. So, of course, Joel and Taylor wanted to see how it looked without water in it. At the intake the water is usually about 30 feet deep.The water is sent down the hill to the power plant in this big pipe. Actually, Joel informs me the more accurate word is penstock. :-)The view north from the flume. The next dam down the line is the Bliss dam.
Joel strikes a pose.Grandpa Pearson, I was thinking of you when I posted today. I thought you'd enjoy seeing a bit of Joel's workplace.

2011-04-06T22:29:00.004-06:00

Leif loves to put on his little yellow galoshes so he can go outside and pet the dog or splash in the big mud puddle in our backyard.

Other times, he puts on Reagan's snow boots and stomps around the house, just for fun.
But his most favorite thing of all is daily rides with Dad on the motorcycle.

2011-03-31T23:07:00.003-06:00

Hailey and a friend, Hank, displaying the pictures they painted at the Creative Arts Center. My Modern Woodmen service club decided to make artwork for the Veterans hospital in Boise as the activity this month. I thought many of the projects turned out beautifully and hopefully they will help brighten up the halls for our Idaho servicemen who are staying there.

Box Canyon Hike

2011-03-30T08:13:00.011-06:00

We did a fun hike last week during spring break. I've been wanting to hike to Box Canyon Springs for quite a while now, but I kept putting it off because I'd heard it has lots of poison ivy (poison ivy and I go way back and it's not a good relationship) and really the trailhead is not very inspiring--- it looks like you are going to hike through an old dried up farm field, which you do for quite a while. But finally, it starts getting a little more interesting. Some lava rock outcroppings and fissures in the earth appear that are interesting to climb around and explore......Then the springs themselves come into view, where they mysteriously come up from the floor of the desert. The beautiful clean spring water around here always amazes every time I come across it. What a refreshing change from the Snake River.
The trail follows the rim of the canyon for a while, with a view of the creek in the valley below.
Then the trail descends to the valley floor-- can you see that lone figure down on the trail? It's Heidi.
Okay, I'd heard that Box Canyon was cool, but I really wasn't prepared for this gorgeous waterfall. Look at all that water!!
Mom, if you're reading this, I think I actually underestimated the width when I was describing it to you. :-)

I loved how green and lush it was by the falls, contrasting with the gray dormant hues of the desert.

I would brave the poison ivy in the summer to come back again to this little corner of Eden.

Washing coyote teeth

2011-03-25T12:53:00.007-06:00

Doing the laundry for a household with many kids can mean lots of rocks, sticks, bottle caps, crayons, gum, permanent markers, and coins make their way through the wash. But today when I pulled a coyote jawbone out of the dryer, complete with a furry nose and some canine teeth (that I had to disentangle the dryer sheet from--eeek), I decided I've seen it all! At the bottom of the dryer and washer I found a various assortment of coyote teeth that must have fell out of the jawbone during the spin cycle. :-)

Reading to sick kids

2011-03-04T22:50:00.005-07:00

This week everyone in the family (except me) had the fever, cough, nausea thing that is going around. Though the kids felt miserable, I have to say that I enjoyed skipping out on scouts, activity days, YM/YW, clogging, and 3 hours of piano lessons this week. Isn't it too bad that it requires a sickness in order for us to stay home,read and eat homemade soup? While the kids were laying around on the couch passing around the thermometer and eating Vitamin C drops, I read aloud to them Sid Fleischman's book- Chancy and the Grand Rascal. It was a wonderful book! Imagine Tom Sawyer, Paul Bunyon, and a touch of something I can't put my finger on, all rolled up in one book. Have you heard of Sid Fleischman? He also authored By the Great Horn Spoon, The Whipping Boy, and Jingo Django. We own them all and they each make a lively read aloud. Try Chancy and the Grand Rascal and see if doesn't make you want to go live on a little island in the middle of the river and raise a chicken to perch on your shoulder. :-)

Worn out

2011-02-22T15:01:00.005-07:00

Leif fell asleep on the floor in the boys room one night. If you know Leif, you know this is VERY unusual. Leif only sleeps in his crib, in his bedroom, IF you insist it is absolutely necessary and there are no other options. Otherwise he'd much rather be flushing the toilets, starting the washing the machine, finding my hidden chocolates in the sewing area, sharpening pens in the electric pencil sharpener or playing with knives, thank you very much. :-)

No need to panic

2011-02-22T14:26:00.004-07:00

The other day, Heidi wandered in from the backyard and started playing with Leif in the living room. 5 or 10 minutes later, Joel asked her if she had seen Reagan lately. Casually she remarked, "Oh, yah.....he's stuck in a tree. He needs help." We all turned and through the dining room window we could see Reagan's little legs and snow boots dangling and kicking from the branches of one of the pine trees. "Why didn't you tell us Heidi???!" "But I just did!" was her surprised reply.

Quick note to self: If I'm ever hanging from a cliff or stuck on a roof, make sure Heidi knows I want help NOW.........not in 5 minutes, not in 10.....

Kayaking

2011-02-09T14:54:00.010-07:00

The weather was so nice today!! With the sun out, the temperature warmed up to the high 30's and there was just a little breeze instead of the gales we've been having. Taylor, Heidi and Reagan all decided it was the perfect day to go kayaking to explore the opposite side of the river. Ever since autumn, when the big fire swept across the plateaus in the west, Taylor has wanted to get a closer look at the burned area and see if he could climb all the way to the top of one those plateaus.

When the kids finished up their school, they worked together to inflate a kayak, Heidi packed them all a lunch and using the red wagon, they carted the kayak down to the river.
At that point, Taylor called me on the cell phone to tell me they were at the dock and ready to launch. I brought them gloves and hats with ear flaps because the breeze was picking up and everyone was all ready getting cold. I found that rather funny because Reagan had originally planned on wearing a bathing suit. :-) My kids always want to run through the sprinkler in April and sometimes I let them, but I told Reagan that asking to swim in the river in February is a little ridiculous!
From the Suburban,I had fun viewing them through my binoculars. I could watch Heidi and Reagan scramble up a ravine and play among the boulders. I could see Taylor crest the top of the plateau and he called to tell me that from that vantage point he could see over a 100 windmills!I also watched a blue heron sitting on a log preening its feathers until it heard the kids and clumsily flapped its wings and flew further down river. I've loved blue herons ever since CJ Strike. They may be geeky, awkward looking birds with their legs trailing behind them as they fly, but I find them fascinating.

On days like this I remember how much I love living near the river. I'm so happy the kids like to get out and explore their big backyard.

Just popping in to say hello.....

2011-02-06T15:18:00.013-07:00

Yes, yes.....I know. I didn't start blogging any better!!! Sigh. My apologies. It was just a bit busy around here I guess. What were we doing during these bleak, grey days of winter? Let's see, in addition to 3 birthdays, 2 clogging performances, teaching a science class on Fridays, piano lessons, a Shakespeare feast, helping with Music Fest, swimming at Sligers, and various other sundry activities.......

--We were teaching Leif how to read and write. Since he says "baa baa" for bottle, and "ba" for ball and "WAAAAH!" for all the rest, we knew he was one smart cookie and ready for the 3 R's. Just look at that pencil grip. You know he's going to be a real scholar!
--We created a topographical map of India out of paper mache. It was fun to shape a big gooey mess into landforms and learn about interesting sounding places such as the Bay of Bengal, the Western Ghats and the Ganges river. Torsten enjoyed it too, he just misunderstood and thought I said "growl" at the camera.

--We had a fun India culture day with other homeschoolers, making Indian food, doing crafts and listening to a speaker.
--Taylor made some silly balloon hats for striking silly poses,
---And the kids favorite activity of all: skiing!! I relented and agreed to the normal 6 week program that we've done in the past. Now that we've moved to Hagerman it's added an additional 45 minutes to the drive. But who know if we'll be living close enough to do it next year so what's the price of a 100 gallons of gas compared to the memories being made? :-)
Here's a little movie of Taylor doing a jump on one of his favorite runs: Colt. Taylor is the second skier in the clip.

2011-01-15T09:25:00.005-07:00

Torsten's HTML class is finally over!!! Yay!!! I know he learned a lot but the down side was he seemed to be chained to the computer all day, every day. Now I'll have a chance to use the computer to blog a bit more.

Some happenings around here:

Leif is really enjoying himself with our electronic gadgets lately. He adores talking on phones and listening to the ring tones. The kids gave him a phone the other day which, after he got finished playing with it, he decided to throw in the toilet. We walked in the bathroom to find him happily stirring the phone around with the toilet brush as if it were some delicious soup he was concocting. Amazingly enough, the phone dried out and works perfectly! It must be built tight like Taylor's MP3 player which went through the washer and dryer 6 times and survived! Then there was the Dell laptop that Leif danced a jig on. Unfortunately, it didn't hold up as well as the MP3 player and it may officially be dead (unless Joel can perform another soldering iron miracle like he has in the past). And that brings us to the Toshiba laptop which Leif pottied on when he was running around naked after his bath. It works except we have to plug an external keyboard into it. Yes, Leif has certainly added his own wonderful element of baby chaos to our life and it wouldn't be the same without his cute baby face around here.

Torsten, Hailey, Taylor and Heidi started their 6 week skiing program. They love, love, love it! Taylor logs on to Pomerelle's site everyday to see what the snow depth is at the top of the mountain and see what the weather is up there. He even checks Pomerelle's weather report all summer long. Hmmm....sounds to me like he has some Grandpa Pearson genes in him. :-)

When we get the latest pictures downloaded from the camera I'll share some photos of our India activity day, but for now I need to go sweep up the Grapenuts that Leif just spilled all over the floor.....

2011-01-06T07:23:00.002-07:00

I'm starting to feel as if I'm stuck in a Christmas time warp around here! I haven't put away a single decoration yet, the Christmas tree is as green and healthy as ever, and just last night the little kids hung up more Christmas lights around the house! Reagan and Heidi were in the garage with me (that's my sewing room now) talking about whether Santa is real or not, while I was working on a project and listening to Christmas music (my "Christmas Cello" CD by Steven Sharp Nelson--it. is. so. beautiful. I'll probably end up listening to it all year!). I guess I was totally oblivious to the fact that they were digging in the Christmas boxes and pulling more stuff out!! AAaaaah!

This weekend I promise to break free of all these Christmas trappings. Otherwise before you know it, I'd find myself hanging Easter eggs from the tree and using the stockings for the Easter bunny candy......

2010-12-21T23:01:00.004-07:00

I'm so glad to have Jenny as my friend because she's always up for an outdoor adventure! Over on Jenny's blog she's posted pictures of our families enjoying the snow a few weeks ago as we cut Christmas trees. She's a much better photographer than I so hop on over there if you'd like.

Christmas Quilt

2010-12-20T23:02:00.013-07:00

I finished a simple Christmas quilt last week! Just in time for us all to snuggle under while we read "A Christmas Carol" aloud the past few days. So fun. The snuggling, the reading, and the sewing too.

Using charm squares and machine quilting, it came together very quickly.

I washed it after these photos were taken and it brought out even more of that wonderful quilted texture that I love. I declare, I think I'm really starting to catch the quilting bug which I never thought would happen. :-) The cutting and piecing process always seemed way too fussy, hand quilting took forever (I took a YEAR to finish a baby quilt for a friend!), I didn't know how to machine quilt, and I knew that taking quilts in to be quilted at a shop was way too expensive for my budget. But I've gained some patience over the years AND I've learned some quilting tricks on the Internet this fall.

I thought I'd take a minute and explain the simple "trick" I learned that allows a person to free motion quilt on any sewing machine, even one that doesn't have a way to lower the feed dog. First, you place masking tape over your feed dog, then, attach your embroidery foot or darning foot. (The one I use is an embroidery foot and it is circle shaped.)

Next, decide on the continuous random pattern you want to do and practice drawing it on paper. I looked on line for some ideas. Practice evenly feeding your fabric through your sewing machine -- too fast and you have huge stitches; too slow and your stitches are tiny. It's a matter of getting your hands and your foot in sync. I started out on some small projects I wasn't too emotionally attached to in case I completely made a mess of them. This site was particularly helpful in figuring out the whole process, with pictures to go with it.

One other thing that has helped me is using quilting gloves. It may sound a bit wimpy but it's actually a bit physically demanding to grip the quilt for an hour or two while you make the loopy-dee-loop pattern all over the place. The quilting gloves have grippy stuff on the fingers and they make it a piece of cake to keep control over the material. Some people don't like the gloves but I think they're great. I hate to admit this out loud because it makes me feel old, but I'm pretty sure I've inherited the arthritis gene that runs in my family. Just typing this post I can feel how stiff and creaky my fingers are and while doing handiwork they can get quite sore. Using gloves, I don't have to grip the fabric but just put my hands palm down on the fabric. This really helps with joint fatigue but it makes it all around easier too, no matter what the condition of your joints.

If you haven't tried machine quilting you should give it a whirl! It's addictive and quick. Even Taylor is begging me to let him try and I told him he could as soon as I get done with my projects that are due the 24 of December......

Cutting a Christmas Tree in the South Hills

2010-12-12T07:19:00.016-07:00

It was so much fun going to the South Hills to find a Christmas tree-- this year with the Hanson family. The mix of snow and sunshine was just perfect.
Heidi palling around with her best friend Hannah.

First off, we found a little table size tree for Grandma Clayton's house, .....then we found a bigger one for our house. Joel, the hooded, anonymous tree cutter, tying everything down. Joel's so nice to agree to this trip even though snow and cold isn't his favorite weather to gallivant around in. He still has a bit of Phoenix blood, even after all these years. :-)

Then after tramping around in the snow to find trees, and after Taylor's boots dried out from falling in a snow covered creek, we then had a blast sledding in the Diamond Field Jack area until dark! The boys loved the full body trash bag "sleds".
Hank, Taylor and Hagan having a great time doing silly stunts .....
....while Torsten filmed them.
I loved this saucer sled the best even though it always turned me around backwards. I screamed every time. Torsten enjoying some hot chocolate.To top the day off, some snow mobilers came riding up and asked to borrow our 5 dollar sleds in exchange for letting us use their very nice snow machines. Seriously?? Joel and Travis happily took them up on their offer and gave all the kids some 70 mile an hour sled rides.
The kids couldn't get enough of it, though one ride was more than enough for me.

Note Joel's smile-- yes, nice equipment like that warms him right up. :-)

Cat food anyone?

2010-12-06T10:53:00.003-07:00

Even though Leif has grown very picky about food lately, not wanting anything to do with peaches, applesauce, watermelon, pretzels, cheerios, grapes, cheese sticks, or a host of other foods, he's continued his love of cat food eaten on the sly (it's more fun that way) and we recently discovered he has a taste for pickled beets. I don't know if pickled beets and cat food would be considered a healthy diet for a 14 month old - or any age for that matter......

Motivated

2010-11-29T19:58:00.011-07:00

One afternoon in October, the kids raked and raked the back yard, bagging up all the walnut tree leaves and even some leaves from the adjacent yard. They ended up with over 11 bags of leaves!! I was soooo amazed that they did all that work without me asking them.

(Reagan was pretty amazed too....)

I looked out later to see all the of the bags deflated and scattered on the grass and a gargantuan pile of leaves next to the trampoline.....They were merrily jumping and diving into their freshly created leaf pile!
Come to find out, creating a huge pile had been their plan all along. Well, no wonder they were motivated to do so much work-- I should have known. Hmmm.......sigh...those leaves never did get cleaned up again until we did our final mow for the year.

2010-11-29T19:42:00.002-07:00

Lately Leif likes standing on his head. He'll just look around for a little while enjoying the new perspective. Even through the blurriness of this photo you can see to admire his fat little thighs and cute tippytoe feet. :-)

Remember the quilt I mentioned awhile back?

2010-11-25T00:31:00.007-07:00

"Hey, Taylor and Hailey- would you mind doing a photo shoot of the baby quilt I just finished? You know, outside in the sunshine with some nice snow and evergreens as a backdrop?" This was my request when I went into town today for last minute groceries. (I missed our normal shopping day because of Tuesday's snowstorm.)

When I downloaded the camera, this is what I found:

Hmmmm...... not quite what I was imagining. This is the back. Nice ski goggles Hailey.....

Oh, okay, here we go- this is the front of it.
So, weren't they sweet to help me out? Especially as it was only 13 degrees outside. :-)

Duckling

2010-11-25T00:20:00.004-07:00

Taylor enjoys using GIMP (gnu image manipulation program) to play around with our photos. I love how this picture of Aflack turned out. (Aflack grew to become a big white duck and, ever since our move, she resides on the farm with Grandma and Grandpa)

SNOW!!!!!

2010-11-22T08:19:00.007-07:00

Woohoo! We are so excited about the SNOW in Hagerman!!! The kids and I were starting to think that we'd have to go back to Twin Falls to experience some of this beautiful white fluff......not that Twin Falls is known for its record snow, but at least they've had some this year! So yesterday, Leif experienced 2 firsts: snow and hot chocolate. He liked only one of them and I bet you can guess which one it was......(hot chocolate!) The kids are working on a snow fort in the park and Heidi is back to making her favorite concoction of snow and maple syrup. The older kids are all ready getting excited about their favorite winter activity: skiing.
I was driving Torsten to seminary early this morning and individually marveling at the beauty of the vineyards, evergreens, blackberry bushes and cliffs with their new coats of white. The full moon made the snow on the distant plateaus glow a soft blue......so lovely.
I wanted to include snow pictures in this post, but the camera is presently incapacitated. So the pictures are vintage 2009.

October in Review

2010-11-04T08:38:00.011-06:00

Here's a few photos from October that I wanted to share before trying to catch up with November's fun. The computer is in hot demand around here with so many kids needing it for school reports, math and science lectures, etc. When I finally have my turn at it, it seems I just end up reading email and catching up on political stuff and friends blogs! So here's a quick recap of October.

Leif's first year to enjoy the autumn leaves. The kids had fun burying him too but I can't find the pic's.

Taylor made a beautiful cheesecake ALL BY HIMSELF! He loves cheesecake and I wasn't responding to his request to make one so he took matters into his own hands...
Halloween-
Leif as Baby Bear and Hailey the Gypsy

At the trunk or treat-
Reagan as Sherlock Holmes

Heidi the Indian

Taylor as himself....
Taylor and Torsten helped Grandpa do logs and clean roof gutters that day and didn't get back to the house in time to dress up. That was okay because this year the boys didn't have a cliff with trash to look for great costume props. (Did you know that at our last house people would throw things off the cliff, so the kids would hunt around in the rocks for interesting things to use- crutches, sunglasses, the pipe for Reagan's costume...etc. And yes, we bleached and disinfected that pipe!)

Here's a random silly picture, very typical of a day at our house. Kids doing school but getting distracted dressing up Leif and taking pictures-- and look at Taylor in the background.....he's walking around with his arms down the legs of his sweatpants looking like a pair of legs with a head. Yes, very typical.
To conclude I have to include another picture of Leif's birthday. Even though the quality is bad I love the happy look on the kids faces. The cute pumpkin cake was made by Grandma Clayton!

2010-10-30T14:43:00.006-06:00

We had our little 7 year old neighbor friend, Shaynee, spend the afternoon and evening with us while her parents went hunting. Shaynee is an only child and she loves coming over to our house because there is always something going on and someone to play with. That night the kids had a great time creating forts, being silly, and making a mess together: cutting and pasting, glittering and gluing for hours, making books and creating decorations to hang from the ceiling and windows. At one point Shaynee came giggling over to show me a long white string taped to her bum and a sign on her back that said "Kick me! I'm a mouse or a rat!!"

Since Shaynee was staying for dinner, I thought it would be festive to make a dinner-in-a-pumpkin meal. Years ago I made this dinner and I wasn't too impressed because it was very bland and tasteless. So this time I combined a bunch of recipes from the internet and added some of my own ingredients trying to spice it up a bit. It turned out pretty tasty! To the regular ingredients of hamburger, cream of chicken and rice I added: minced garlic, cayenne, diced celery, onions, kale and various hot peppers sauteed in butter. My picky kids ate it pretty well, though they didn't want the pumpkin flesh part added to their rice. Sometimes kids just don't know what they're missing! (The leftover cooked pumpkin was fed to the chickens- they don't like raw pumpkin, but they will gobble it up when it is cooked)

Rides with Dad

2010-10-30T14:30:00.003-06:00

Leif loves to hear his Daddy's motorcycle come putt-putting up the driveway at the end of a work day. Leif will stop what he's doing and listen expectantly, waiting for the front door open. He always wants a hug from Dad, to "talk" with him about the lights (Leif loves lights), and then usually Joel give him a ride on the motorcycle all around the yard. It's a fun routine for them both.

Turtle Applique quilt

2010-10-20T23:51:00.008-06:00

See this little flannel baby quilt? It's the project that got me back in the sewing groove. (See Leif? He's the munchkin that put me back in the baby groove--hehe. )

I finished this blanket 3 months ago and I didn't get around to taking a picture until today, hence the disheveled "just barely pulled out of the crib "look.

I enjoyed making this so much that I decided to tackle a little bit harder block type quilt that I'm working on now, whenever I have a spare moment. I'll share it soon. Hope these sewing posts don't bore everyone to tears. Sewing is my favorite hobby of the moment. I rotate through my hobbies on a regular basis-- do you?

Do the Mashed Potato

2010-10-20T23:37:00.003-06:00

Birthday boy before dinner.....

Birthday boy AFTER.

Leif loves those homemade mashed potatoes. Besides being tasty eating, he thinks they make a perfect hair gel!

"Oh what a mess I am!"

2010-10-20T01:31:00.009-06:00

My roses are putting forth their last beautiful hurrah before the killing frosts of November are here. 2 tone roses are my absolute favorite, especially pink and yellow ones.

Taylor took the rose pictures for me. When I see something pretty I often ask him get the camera out and be my photographer. He knows how to use the camera better than I do. Taylor also took the fall foliage shots in my last post. I think his favorite thing to shoot are interesting textures. After Taylor's photo sessions you always find closeup pictures like these on the camera:
Oh, and these kind of closeups too of course....he is eleven after all. I think this is particular photo is entitled "Self Portrait- the Startled Eyeball"
and this one, "Mein Scar".
However did we manage before the digital camera was invented?

2010-10-18T22:23:00.005-06:00

I spent all day Sunday crying over the unexpected death of my friend Sarah's beautiful 16 month old baby girl. The grief and sadness that I know their family is going through kept playing over and over in my heart. It seems like life can throw such breathtakingly hard experiences at us at a moment's notice. We just want to shout "Nooooo! Take this back, take it away.....I don't want to deal with this.....I can't.....

Sarah is the same friend who helped me move from Grand View to Shoshone Falls in 2007 and then this spring, she drove the 2 hour trip from Grand View to spend all day helping us move from Shoshone Falls to Hagerman. With her 4 children in tow she still managed to get more done than Joel and I put together. Sarah has literally helped shoulder my moving burdens twice now but I feel helpless to return the favor though hers is a burden that is ever so much heavier.

This morning when I woke up, the tears began again and I decided I needed to get out of the house. I put Leif in my backpack and off we went. Walking in the gorgeous fall weather I was reminded that God's handiwork is so wonderous and amazing - whether it is the smooth perfect skin of your baby's cheek or the flaming red autumn leaves glowing in the sun. Life is so fragile. It is so beautiful. So finite. It brings a bittersweet ache to my heart and I want to hug my family and treasure every moment I have with them. I need to embrace the beauty of each day. I pray that Sarah, her husband and their girls feel the warmth of God's love wrap around them and carry them through this.

Can't get a hold of me? I wonder why......

2010-10-15T08:45:00.005-06:00

I have decided I am waaaaay too irresponsible to have a cell phone for my "main" phone. The next time we move I am going back to a land line. I promise. In the meantime, apologies to everyone who can never get a hold of me. I am probably not answering the phone for a multitude of reasons.

Either:

a) the phone is in Las Vegas (when I myself am in Idaho)

b) the phone is in a USPS box in transit back to Idaho

c) the phone is lost for 2 days because it is hiding in the kids bathroom vanity amongst the cleaning supplies, set on vibrate mode so of course it cannot be heard as we fruitlessly call it over and over trying desperately to find it, seeing as how it is our only way to communicate with the outside world besides email.

OR

d) some other completely random and irresponsible reason

Yes, if I were the parent of myself I would be taking away my cell phone privileges right about now.

Sewing projects and new sink and faucet

2010-10-10T14:05:00.008-06:00

Saturday I practically had the whole house to myself because the boys were driving tractor for Grandpa and mowing their garden, Joel was on call all day, and Heidi and Reagan were playing with the neighbor girl. So I had a chance to sit down and play in the sewing room. Yay! One little project I finished was a new washable slipcover for our old high chair. This high chair has seen a lot of use, especially since it's actually a hand me down from my Mom. It still works great and I like it's small profile since our dining room is very petite. Unfortunately, the back seat is cobbled together with tape and Leif 's decided it's so much fun to try to EAT the tape off when I'm not looking. I used vintage-look fabric and ticking to make the removable cover up. It was a really simple project but I'm so happy with it. If you look close at the background you can see the faucet that Joel put in for me last month. I love it. We plan to take it along from house to house, like we've been doing with our bathroom faucets the last couple years. We are faucet freaks. Nothing makes a kitchen or bathroom feel nicer than a beautiful faucet. Joel also put in a 10 dollar sink I found at DI a few years ago and that has been stored in my Dad's barn. It's a big, deep, porcelain sink. I LOVE IT!! It's so much better than the very shallow stainless steel sink I had before. I am afraid I won't be able to take it with me. I actually suggested we try to take it when we move but Joel vetoed the idea. :-)

Here's another sewing project I finished recently: a skirt for Hailey.

She really likes this style of skirt and I like the fabric. I found the fabric at the Quilt Barn and I think it's from the Amy Butler line.If I find some time, I want to make another one for Heidi.

Making music

2010-10-09T09:31:00.003-06:00

For a few months now, Torsten has been working at the piano putting together some arrangements for his bell quartet. Heidi and Reagan were inspired to try making their own compositions and told us they wanted to perform them in a show for the family. They went in the bedroom and came back out all dressed up (okay, except for the camouflage pants), and proceeded to "play" their songs. It was sounding pretty discordant and part way through, Heidi stopped and peered closer at her notes, saying, "Hmmm.....I didn't know it would sound like this!!" It was a fun night and we had lots of laughs.But wouldn't it be so great to be able to just pick up an instrument and have the ability to make beautiful music? I've always dreamed of doing that with a cello or violin. Maybe in the hereafter we'll all have the opportunity to make the music of our heart.....

Overheard yesterday......

2010-10-08T17:30:00.004-06:00

Me: Hailey, you cleaned my room!!

Hailey: Well, I got done with all my school stuff early, so I thought I'd treat myself to some cleaning.......

No joke. This girl cleans Leif's bedroom, organizes the game cabinet and dejunks my purse FOR FUN!! I think she's addicted. What a wonderful addiction. :-) She certainly does not have her mother's disorganized genes nor her father's packrat genes. Hailey's her own unique person and she helps make the house run so much smoother. I would really be floundering with out her. Here she is dancing with Taylor, doing "Anchors Away" at the family reunion.

Squeeze of Joy!

2010-10-07T14:05:00.003-06:00

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" It's little Leif 's birthday! He turned 1 as of 10 minutes ago and we gathered around and sang Happy Birthday to him. We ended up doing it twice because his bewildered and amazed expression was just too funny. Reagan, who coined the fitting nickname "Squeeze of Joy" for Leif a few months ago, has been counting down the hours all morning until Leif's actual birthday time. All the kids love him so much! It makes me so happy that with every baby, our older children are head over heels for their newest sibling and whole heartedly welcome them into the family. It's embarrassing to admit that I was actually the jealous type- when my little brother Tad was born I did naughty things like tip his car seat over on purpose! So they must not get their sweetness from me.....

Later tonight I'll finish Leif's birthday post complete with pictures

Leif is One All Ready!

2010-10-07T08:36:00.014-06:00

It was one year ago today, our little Leif joined the Pearson family on a georgous fall day......

Everyone was so excited to see this cute little guy!
hold his hand... and marvel at his incredibly chubby cheeks.

Everyone likes snuggle time with Leif!
It's been amazing watching him grow this past year! There is 5 years between Reagan and Leif so every baby thing he does is new and exciting for the whole family. He's entertained us with his head bobbing and waving bye-bye.....

and his silly expressions.
We really enjoy his mischievous little personality,
and continue to marvel at his fat cheeks, that get kissed numerous times through the day.
Happy Birthday Leif! We love you!

hmmm.....I thought this was chocolate...

2010-09-15T23:28:00.003-06:00

I couldn't help myself. Had to put a picture of Leif from last week (before the reader was broken) Sorry if this blog is biased towards Leif- it is a baby-love condition that is not curable right now.

2010-09-15T21:53:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Leif decided the card reader is much more fun to play with when it is in 2 pieces. So, this blog will be picture-less until we go purchase a replacement at the computer store. In the meantime, I will paint you a picture of the different things going on at our house- just sit back and imagine:

We are raising 2 new chicks that we got from the T.F. county fair- a yellow chick and a brown chick. They were such cute fuzzy fluffballs for about a week, but are all ready in that homely awkward stage. (I do not remember the other chicks we've raised growing so fast!) Their feathers are falling out and looking strange and their necks are too long and they are all around UGLY. Poor things. Maybe we can be glad the picture card reader isn't working right now! I'm so glad human babies don't grow as fast as chickens. Speaking of babies....

Leif is walking and he has been for about a month now! I love. love. LOVE. watching him walk around in just a diaper so I can see his fat little thighs in action. The whole family is entertained by his newly mobile antics. Those squeezable little legs climb up into the dishwasher so he can throw the silverware across the kitchen, waddle to the nearest open toilet to splash around, or toddle into the bedroom and unload all the books off the shelf. He's very good at entertaining himself.

Heidi and Reagan are learning about the solar system and painting each of the planets. Heidi's Saturn turned out awesome- I have to come back and post a photo later. As the pictures are completed we're hanging them down the hallway and adding "space" words to a poster to help Reagan increase his reading vocabulary- atmosphere, crater, dangerous, astronaut, etc. They're both really enjoying this part of school!

Torsten, Hailey and Taylor have also returned to their school schedules. Their day includes work in math, grammar, vocabulary, word roots, Shakespeare, piano theory, HTML, everyday Latin, and read aloud in history and science with me. By the end of the day, the entire living room is strewn with books, markers, binders and papers of all sorts. It's too bad I can't post a picture of that. For fun, Taylor's been working on 2 new models, Hailey is working on pro level solos for clogging and Torsten is working on an arrangement of the Harry Potter theme song for his bell quartet. Oh, and can you believe it- Torsten is now old enough to be attending seminary! Which means early mornings and busy days around here.

Those early mornings get here much too quick, so I better quit rambling and go get some sleep. :-)

Family Tree Tote Bag

2010-08-31T20:19:00.012-06:00

Our Hatch family reunion this year spotlighted the best Grandmother of all time- Grandma Clayton. If you read this blog with any sort of regularity, you probably have an inkling why I think that she is so wonderful. Mom had the idea of giving her a family tree tote because Grandma loves bags and is always doing family history. So I took this little project on and had a fun time designing it and sewing it. I wanted to share pictures of the end product. Claire, the cat, also wanted to see my creation. Okay, to be completely honest, she just wanted to sniff it and sit on it. But I'll pretend she was admiring it.

The inside of the bag had a fun owl print,
and the back side had a pocket with the words, "I have a family tree, with branches by the dozens.." embroidered on it.

Some of the family leaves....
Presenting it to Grandma at the reunion. She's wearing her "star of the show" crown. :-)Doesn't she look cute? I love you Grandma Clayton!!! :-)

What a day!

2010-08-31T07:27:00.005-06:00

Did I ever tell you about Aug 13? The day we were packing up to camp at our big Hatch family reunion in Utah? The day I had a fever, sore throat, there was no water in the house, the neighbor girl put Leif's diaper on for me and it ended up being on sideways, but I didn't notice because since I didn't feel real well I had decided to take a small nap, and then Leif had a blow out, luckily only on linoleum surfaces- which he made sure included surfaces of the kitchen, dining room, AND pantry. Yes, that was quite a day. Joel and I ran him to the tub, because of course, by this time it was even on his head (Leif's personal record for a blowout), only to find that there was NO water coming out of the faucet. Luckily we remembered there is a river water spigot in the back yard, so I cleaned him up out in the grass while Joel jumped on the motorcycle to go off in pursuit of a fix for the well. With Joel gone, I decided to forgo the nap and continue working on packing tents, sleeping bags, air mattresses, jackets, swimming suits, clothes, and oh you know- the ten million things it seems you need for one weekend of camping. All was quiet as I packed and I thought to myself, "Self, why are you getting so much accomplished?? Oooh- Leif!! Where is the baby?" Well, he was found eating stash of Dove chocolates I keep under my side of the bed. By this time I was laughing helplessly because it was his messiest day ever and we still had no running water. A quick run back to the river water spigot then back to packing. Our house by this time was almost 90 degrees because I hadn't turned on the AC that day because I had expected us to be done with packing and gone before it got that hot. But getting sick that morning had slowed me down and so now we were packing in a raging hot house. Oh, it was a lovely, lovely day that I won't soon forget. I won't get into the details of that night and how I finally had Leif sleep in the bathtub at grandma's house-- don't worry, I made it very comfortable for him. But anyhoo, thanks for reading, and I hope you have yourself a good healthy day with plenty of clean running water.

p.s. 6 days later, after having a fever and sore throat for what seemed like eons, I went to the doctor and found out I had strep throat. So I am apologizing to the entire Hatch family for sharing more than just weekend memories. I hope none of you contracted any of my germs.

July in Review

2010-08-12T00:28:00.014-06:00

Here are a bunch of random things I wanted to post about last month, but didn't get around to. Because it is almost 1 in the morning, I am going to simplify by combining them into one big post!

*****
For my 35 birthday I wanted to float Billingsley Creek so Joel and I tried it out. (Okay, actually I wanted to take him to Blue Heart Springs but we were running short of time and the wind was picking up so I settled for Billingsley Creek) Pretty uneventful except for running into a huge pipe that crossed the whole creek. We had to squeeze the kayak under the pipe, then one of us at a time would get ON the pipe and then jump in the kayak from the other side. It's always fun to have an adventure...
******
And speaking of adventures: here is one of my best friends: Jenny. She's always up for an outdoor adventure!! ******
Baby eating strawberries AND grass at Niagara Springs. They make a yummy combo in case you were wondering.

******
Torsten went on his first big hike- a 30 miler up in the Sawtooths. He saw some beautiful country during that week. Those mountains make my heart swoon.

*********
Here we are milking Bessie while her owners were out of town. She really didn't care for the new routine. Who could blame her? We were in a hurry because we were losing daylight so at one point there were 3 of us milking her at the same time....after 40 minutes she adamantly backed out of the shoot and went back to the pasture. I think we were just to darn slow for her liking. (If you look carefully, you'll see Heidi milking on the other side.)

********
On our way to Koosharem we stopped in Manti to see the beautiful temple..........and run down the huge hill.
Breathtaking. The sky was georgous that day.
Leif and Farfar Pearson (that's Swedish for Grandpa, in case you're wondering) at the kitchen table in Koosharem.******
And now it is waaaaaay past my bed time so I'll say good night. Good Night! :-)
s

2010-08-04T18:45:00.003-06:00

The computer is finally not tied up by my kids working on their summer classes and my mind can't settle on anything in particular to blog about. Hmmmm..... I really think all creative brain cells have escaped my body in the last few months! Will they ever come back? Does their departure have anything to do with nursing a cute baby night and day? Can I also use that same "brain drain" excuse to explain my having to return TWICE in the same afternoon to the local dancewear store, first to retrieve the clogging shoe I forgot there and then to retrieve my credit card I had also forgot? My inquiring mind wants to know.But no matter the state of my brain the last few months, (okay, maybe it's never been in perfect running order) this little feller is certainly worth it. He's the love of our life right now!! :-)

Fishing near Koosharem Utah

2010-07-30T09:25:00.010-06:00

Lower Box Creek Reservoir was the fishing hole of choice this year. It's a very pretty drive and the fishing was great. Every day they caught their limit within a few hours.

Hailey's not sure she cares for fish kisses.
Taylor posing with the day's catch.

One of the days I took all the younger cousins for an "adventure" while everyone else fished. We thought it would be fun to walk around the reservoir. At the headwaters we found little waterfalls, a beaver dam and MUD. Lot's of MUD. That mud swallowed one of Reagan's flip flops, never to be found again. That's not the first flip flop Reagan has lost on an adventure, nor the second or third. That is why I try to pay no more than a dollar for his summer footwear. :-)

Abram and Reagan forging ahead through the muck. Abram almost lost his sandals too but fortunately we were able to retrieve his.

Sophie and Heidi enjoyed looking at the wildflowers with me and they also found quite a few geodes and interesting rocks.

2010-07-30T09:24:00.001-06:00

Hmmm....what is Leif up to?

Red Rock Country

2010-07-26T15:07:00.000-06:00

Our trip to Utah last week included an afternoon exploring Capitol Reef. Wow. It was so much fun! Truth be told, I wasn't too excited about visiting a hot desert full of a bunch of hot rocks, until we got there. (I'm a wimp when it comes to hot) But the miles of rock formations were so amazing, eerie and beautiful, all at the same time, that I was certainly won over. By the time we arrived, clouds and distant thunderstorms were moving in and it didn't turn out to be hot at all.

We walked up the Sulphur River.....

......enjoying the gruvuulous mud along the way.

Heidi and her sweet cousin, Sofia.

Leif was a happy little cherub the whole day.

Here's the whole gang!

We stopped for ice cream on the way home and Joel and I were asked if they were all ours. I hadn't thought until then of the picture we made as 11 of us piled in and out of the Suburban all day. :-)

Why haven't I blogged lately?

2010-07-14T21:04:00.001-06:00

Oh......no reason really, just busy with life I guess. :-) So what's life been made up of this summer?

In no particular order:

*Swimming and kayaking at Fischer Pond with the Hansons (to read more about that super fun day, check out Jenny's blog post)

*Hosting 4th of July weekend for family and friends.

*Milking a cow for a friend who was out of town. Believe me, we will NOT be getting a milk cow any time soon!

*Camping, kayaking, and 4-wheeling with numerous friends at Alturas Lake. Lovely, lovely place, that Stanley Basin. I would stay there a month or two if I could.

*Swimming at Niagara Springs with the Lundgrens and Hansons. Oh. Um. Jenny posted about that too, if you'd like to jump over to her blog again. Now the fact that a mother of 8 finds the time to blog about her family's summer adventures and I don't is pathetic. You are amazing Jenny!

*A very wet, cold camping trip at Green Canyon Hot Springs for a week of swimming lessons, again with the Hanson and Lundgren clans. Even though it blew so hard it broke tent poles, rained pretty much every day, and Jenny and I should have been awarded the prize for the messiest camp site, we had a FUN!

*Rafting rapids from Lower Salmon to Bliss in a borrowed whitewater raft. Good times, good times.

In between our outdoor fun, I have been squeezing in time to sew and and read a little, and trying to keep up with laundry.

Now, next time I post, I'll try to get a few photos on here because a story "without pictures" is certainly never as much fun.

Hope you are all enjoying SUMMER!

Our Favorite Water Park

2010-07-02T14:42:00.003-06:00

Do you know why Roaring Springs Water Park is our favorite? Because it's free! Well, once a year it is. Every year they are kind enough to host the Roaring Reader program which gives every child an entrance ticket after they track 600 minutes of reading. It has created a fun family tradition for us.

This year we were able to go the same day as many of our homeschool friends. Here is Reagan and his good buddy Lincoln trying to stay warm.

Hailey with her friends Kristen and Hannah. Taylor in the background giving me the "don't take a picture when I'm licking a cone" look.

Heidi and Katie enjoying a snowcone together.

I really wish I could have captured how happy Leif was to play in the fountain. He LOVED it! It was so much fun to see him trying to grab the water and splashing in the puddles. But my camera is just too darn slow for action shots. But I have managed to capture in the photo his radiant whiteness, inherited from his mother.

Hailey and Katie after they finished riding the scariest ride in the park: Avalanche. Katie liked it so much she rode it twice in a row!

And lastly, Leif and our sweet enduring Grandma, who comes along to places such as this, even when she probably wishes she could stay home and crochet or something. (But she's always too nice to say so.)

Quinoa Salad

2010-06-24T12:47:00.002-06:00

For lunch today, I experimented with quinoa. Yum.

Here was my concoction/recipe:

Saute portobello mushrooms in butter with minced garlic. Throw in grated carrot at the very end and saute about 30 seconds more. Rip up fresh spinach and toss in the warm mixture.

Cut up cucumber and toss with quinoa, mushroom mixture and add lemon juice, olive oil and soy sauce (or Braggs Liquid Aminos) to taste. I also added a grind of salt and pepper too.

Sorry, no pictures- but in my opinion it looked and tasted delicious and was super quick too!

Summer is......

2010-06-22T09:36:00.011-06:00

Catching frogs in the front yard,

Finding wild roses on our walks by the river,

A new kitty to play with, (isn't she the perfect Starlight replacement!!)

Cut-off shorts and skinned knees,

Snoozing in the shade during our annual Roaring Springs trip.

Grass for lunch

2010-06-09T14:59:00.011-06:00

"Aaahhhh, grass. I love to sit in grass. It makes me a happy baby."

"Oh yes, and it tastes delicious too!"

"Finger licking good, in fact."

"Uuagh.. hack... hack.. cough cough. Ahem, excuse me! I think that went down the wrong pipe."

"Oops. Sometimes it sticks a bit to my face....."

"But back to what I was saying.... grass is a delectable treat!"

Joys of Childhood

2010-06-08T06:45:00.003-06:00

What a fun combination-- Popsicles and sprinklers on the trampoline on a rare warm day. (Now I'm not saying this is safe.....just FUN.)

Torsten's Eagle project- Bikes for Refugees

2010-05-05T08:44:00.013-06:00

Torsten completed his Eagle project last month! His goal was to collect as many bikes as possible to fix and donate to the CSI Refugee Center. It turned out to be a really wonderful project. About 150 refugees and volunteers met at the Boys and Girls club to participate in activities and fix over 35 bikes. We had tarps and tools spread out all over the gym floor and about 20 volunteers working on getting the bikes back in working order.

While that was going on, refugee children and Modern Woodmen kids received bike helmets and safety instruction from the Safe Kids Coalition.

There were stations for the kids and grown ups alike to play relays and games and learn bike safety. Duck, Duck, Goose ended up being the favorite for many of the refugees.
This little guy was such a cutie!! Take a look at his name. He was adorable. Most of the refugees are coming from Bhutan/Nepal right now. I'm not sure what country Billy is from.

We had a lunch of delicious salads made by Modern Woodmen club leaders and food donated by Falls Brand and United Dairymen of Idaho. Mom and Grandma made the dessert.
After everything was cleaned up and put away we realized we needed a picture of all the bikes loaded on the trailer and ready to be delivered. There was one other trailer load in addition to this one. Kristy Dewsnup and her family put in many, many hours along side us to help this project be its best.

It was a long day- we started setting up at 8:30 am and finished cleaning up around 5 pm. Grandma kept little Leif happy and content that whole time. Leif adores her.
Wahoo! One Eagle project down. Only 3 more to go!

Our First Kayak Expedition

2010-04-26T23:24:00.007-06:00

So the kayaks came in the mail today. Used, tandem, inflatable kayaks off of Ebay to be exact.

We took them out to a local pond to give them a whirl. We don't have proper paddles yet, but the old canoe paddles worked fine in the mean time.
It was a pretty spring fed pond with gorgeous crystal clear water.

Hagerman seems to be full of beautiful water. I must admit that this place is really growing on me.
We had a great time!

Monday Night Explore

2010-04-20T07:16:00.014-06:00

Last week we went to visit 2 of the plants that Daddy works at.

It was a lovely walk.....
With a beautiful view.....

Fresh clean spring water pouring out of the flume.......

I cried a little bit at this point because I'm afraid of heights. But I wiped them away, and went on to enjoy the rest of the night. :-)

We happened upon a very cute little snake. I like snakes better than heights.
Oh.....except for that time I almost stepped on a rattler in the South Hills, when I was taking all the kids for a hike. I certainly didn't like that snake. No sirree.

Then, on our way to the other plant, we stopped by the Clear Lakes Fish farm to look at the sturgeon in the viewing pond.
Can you see the dark outline of a big fish next to Hailey's left arm? That's a sturgeon.My baby boy enjoyed it too and he got his first mosquito bite.
I should write that in his baby book.

TEA Party

2010-04-20T06:47:00.006-06:00

After morning school, the kids and I made signs and then drove over to attend the Twin Falls Tea Party last Thursday. It was a lot of fun and a great educational experience for everyone. The boys helped with the opening flag ceremony, and then all the kids went forward to help sing the Star Spangled Banner. One of our homeschooling friends, Truman Whitney, who is only 14, did an amazing speech. He did even better than the adults and he did it without any notes!

Here's my artist, Torsten, working on his poster. I love his lettering.

Discovering the Gorge

2010-04-12T08:55:00.008-06:00

I haven't been hanging around the "blog" much lately- a mixture of a little sadness, some sickness, and much busyness has contributed to my lack of writing, but I will work on getting back in the habit of posting! And now that it is getting a bit warmer outside I may actually have something to write about. c'mon spring...you can do it...you're aaalllmost here...

Yesterday the whole family went to take a look at the deep canyon near our house. Hailey mentioned the view of the falls at the beginning of the trail looks reminiscent of Hawaii. .....ahem...well....if you squint and imagine real hard. :-)

Along the trail there is this look out point with interpretive signs that huge birds must have read and interpreted as saying: poop on me. You just know the birds are thanking humans for building this right here for their perching and viewing comfort. (click the picture to see what I mean)
I've been wanting to take the kids on this hike ever since we moved here, but thought I'd wait until Joel was there to help me keep everyone away from the cliff edges. I'm glad we waited for him because there was a heck of a lot of cliffs and edges on this hike. The land falls away on both sides of the trail until you're walking on a thin wedge of plateau with canyons on either side. The water below actually gets more clear and beautiful as you walk further down river because of all the underground springs adding their fresh cold water to the river. I love it.

We walked until we could overlook the Upper Diversion.
Idaho Power sends this water to a little dam further downstream, one of the many that Joel is learning how to operate in this new area.

And speaking of Joel, he took this interesting shot of some lichens.It was so nice to get out and explore. It will be fun to discover all the beautiful little spots around here this summer.

Paper Dolls

2010-03-18T07:20:00.004-06:00

Here's a few pictures from the Modest Fashion Design activity we did in January. Using only tape, staplers and newspaper, the girls worked together to imagine and create fun outfits that were modest too. They came up with some real winners!

I'm still here.....

2010-03-02T05:59:00.005-07:00

Well, we are all still alive..... barely. Just kidding- actually I'm doing much better this week. I think I haven't cried for 3 days in a row now! So things are looking up. :-)

The last 2 weeks were pretty rough. We couldn't have gotten out of our last house without help from my mom and grandma. They were there helping almost every day: holding the baby making food, packing boxes, etc. And I'm also so grateful to my dad, and friends from Grand View and Twin Falls, who helped us load and unload the truck (multiple times), clean the house and even brought meals too.

We are still staying at my parents house while Joel and I finish getting the house ready. It's taking some prep work because as many of you know, this new house is less than half the size of our last one. It's smaller than our CJ Strike/Grand View house and smaller than our little house we owned in Twin Falls 5 years ago. I seriously didn't know how we would fit the beds and dressers into the bedrooms, let alone any of my sewing stuff and bookshelves and we have LOTS of books. Even if we didn't homeschool we would have tons of books- but homeschooling just adds a whole new dimension to our book owning tendencies. To help with the space issues, I am planning to turn the coat closet into a homeschool closet, Joel carpeted and I painted the storage room off of the garage to make a bedroom for the boys (it's actually turning out to be the best room in the house!), Mom and I turned part of the garage into a walk-in pantry/ storage room to house the crock pots, Bosch, Vita-Mix, micro-wave, griddle and bulk food, etc. My new kitchen doesn't have a dishwasher and it doesn't even fit my fridge either. Okay, I take that back. The fridge fits the spot as long as you don't need to open the doors. Sounds like a great way to help me shed that excess baby weight, doesn't it? But the kids insisted that our new house have a working fridge, so for now it is pulled out a foot or so into my 4X4 foot kitchen and continues to remind me of the beautiful, well designed, spacious kitchen I left behind.

I may be telling you a sob story but don't worry, I'm over the crying. Cried buckets and bucket the last few weeks and I'm pretty much all cried out. I'm even done crying about the fact that the previous tenants had 3 huge dogs that urinated all over the carpets and gave the house a horrible smell. Now everything seems strangely funny. A few months ago I never would have guessed our family would be living in a tiny stinky house in Hagerman and that I would get over it and that life would go on. Life has a way of doing that.

Pictures

2010-02-14T06:22:00.006-07:00

The last week it's been packing and boxes, trips to D.I. and back to packing some more......

Getting ready to leave our private little paradise....

The deer can enjoy their grapes in peace now.....
I was having one of those sleepless nights, so now I'm up looking through pictures of how gorgeous this place is in the summer......you know, just torturing myself. Luckily, it's currently gray, muddy and bleak. Otherwise I don't think they could drag me away......

And while I'm in the nostalgia mood......

Here's a picture of the view from the last house we lived in at CJ Strike Dam. And the living room--
Most you haven't seen this house because I didn't blog then and we lived so far out in the middle-of-no-where that it was quite a trip to visit us. The nearest town was about 7 or 8 miles away with a population in the vicinity of 4 or 5 hundred. Joel's sister Ammanda, Grandpa Pearson, Emily, the Johnsons, and all my family braved the horrific mosquitos, gnats, and wind to see us that year. I think Ammanda and Chop thought it was pretty horrible (the gnats were insane when they came) but even with the out of control insect population, I actually loved living there. Loved it. So maybe there's hope that I'll fall in love with Hagerman too!

Minty Fresh

2010-02-12T23:13:00.002-07:00

Nothing like spilling 2 fluid ounces of organic peppermint oil all over the top of your bedside table right before going to bed..... the bedroom smells so strongly like a candy cane factory that it's making my eyes water!

Crying my eyes out.....

2010-02-01T16:16:00.004-07:00

Well, I just had one of the most depressing days ever. This morning Idaho Power told us they are sending us to the Upper Salmon dam in Hagerman and they want us to our new place sometime in the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Move.

Move quickly.

Move a family of 8 to a much, much smaller house with less privacy.

One with a postage-stamp kitchen and no garden spot or fruit trees.

Do it with a new baby.

Start all over in a new ward.

I'm so bummed I want to go to bed and pretend it's just a nightmare..

Maybe tomorrow I can think of all the reasons this move might be good for us. Right now I can't think of any.

Baby Fresh

2010-01-29T11:41:00.003-07:00

As Leif grows I have been getting lots of comments that he is looks like Torsten. What do you think? When Torsten was a baby he was a strawberry blonde. Leif sometimes looks to have a touch of strawberry too.

Did I tell you I am using cloth diapers with baby #6? Did I tell you I am crazy? Just kidding. The crazy part was a joke, I think..... In the left corner of the picture there's a glimpse of what the diapers look like. I went with the Fuzzi Bunzs brand. They're pretty cute with adjustable snaps and elastics so they can grow with your baby until they're 18 months old. The jury's still out on whether I'd choose to do them again. Definitely more work than disposables but by my calculations we will be saving lots of money. And Leif seems to have less blowouts....

Hand Me Downs!

2010-01-25T12:01:00.010-07:00

Raise your hand if you love hand me downs! Count me in. I love hand-me-downs: clothes, cars, toys, you name it! Today, as I putter around the house, I am currently enjoying looking at the new-to-me couch that Lani gifted to our family this weekend. It's brown, leather, nicely worn in and comfortable, and SOOOOO much better than the couch it replaced! (Which by the way, that couch being replaced was a very appreciated hand me down from my Grandma that served us very well for 15 years.....) The old couch had a few broken springs and a denim slip cover on it that I made 10 years ago. (1o years?? Where does the time go?) Over the years that slip cover has become ripped, faded, and completely worn out. I've always tried to keep it covered up with throws and pillows to hide its worst spots, but it was getting to be ridiculous. And to be honest, I just didn't have it in me to sew a new slip cover right now!! Those things take me about a week. And that means a week of being home all day sewing, measuring, thinking, pinning, sewing some more, etc. And it usually means not much in the way of dinners being cooked, laundry done, and certainly no school. And with a new baby? No way. So my other option in the situation would be to buy a new couch. But anyone who knows my household knows we don't buy new furniture. (Monetarily it never seems justified- wouldn't want to use a credit card, nor dip into emergency savings for something as unimportant as a new couch. Though sometimes I wish new furniture could qualify as an emergency....!)That means the options always come down to making over something found at D.I. or some thrift store, a garage sale, or once in a very great while- stumbling across a usable dumpster discovery. (Yes, my mountain bike and Hailey and Heidi's dresser were both dumpster finds! Some day I should share the funny story of the bike found by our apartment's dumpster in Hailey) But those kinds of purchases, though very affordable, also require work. Lots of work. Paint, sanding, new knobs, sewing slipcovers, etc. So Lani, Thank You for giving us an awesome hand me down couch that was much needed and didn't require any work to make it look decent! We all love it, and I especially love knowing that it came from a sweet, dear friend.

Factual statistics of the Pearson household's Shabby Chic look:
(sometimes a little more shabby than chic...)

All beds frames in this house have been either given to us or traded for. (We trade for many, many things- including dental work and piano lessons.) The girls bunk bed was a gift from my father to my mother before they were even married. Funny gift you say? You have to know my dad.
All the dressers in this house have had previous owners. Some dressers are on their 3rd coat of paint.
Barstools and kitchen table were trade items.
Grandma C. gave us the piano.
Game cabinet, sewing table, and girls nightstand were antique fair finds. Antique fairs are still cheaper than new if you look for the deals!
Grandpa Pearson made the great benches for our kitchen table out of a neighbors torn down wooden fence. (I was helping him until I almost cut my arm off with the table saw! He decided to finish the rest with out help from me.)
And the list goes on and on.

So a big thank you to our kind community of friends and relatives, because sometimes it takes a village to furnish a house!

Liberty

2010-01-21T03:47:00.002-07:00

My mom proclaimed it the year of Liberty and Patriotism for our extended family! She gave all the mom's and dad's copies of the 5,000 Year Leap and made Liberty wall hangings and T-shirts for everyone. We are really so blessed to have the freedoms we do. What can we do this year to keep America the "shining city upon a hill, whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere?"

"We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the Constitution and Government ... bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit ... to our children." --President Millard Fillmore (1800-1874)

2010-01-06T23:11:00.002-07:00

Oh dear, this is not good. All these 40 degree temps we've been having, causing rain and mud the past few days, are making me feel as if spring is in the air. It's tricking me into thinking that any day I could see some cute little daffodils and fresh red rhubarb shoots poking out of the ground. I'm starting to daydream about soft breezes and longer days. Oooh, just thinking about spring makes my stomach do a little flip flop. But I can't get spring fever all ready-- it's only January 6th!! So c'mon Sariah. Enough with the wishful thinking. Think cold and icicles...think snow and sledding and hot chocolate....think rock solid chicken waterers....think icy windshields, dangerous sidewalks and warming the car up for 15 minutes before going any where.... because winter is certainly not close to over. In fact, I just realized it's been only 3 weeks since it officially started! Aaaaahhh!

Sleeping Beauties

2010-01-06T05:42:00.005-07:00

My longtime friend, Emily and her two daughters were able to come spend Christmas with us. We loved it and having them around really made it a great Christmas! Sunday afternoon, Emily and Leif settled down for a long winters nap to recover from the whirlwind of festivities.

The Matador and the Street Bum

2010-01-03T22:03:00.007-07:00

For the fall piano recital, all the kids dressed like their song so that the audience could attempt to match the piece of music to the student. Taylor made a handsome matador and had fun twirling his cape and playing the part! Torsten performed "The Alley Cat" duet with a friend, so he sewed some patches on his old jeans for a street bum outfit. (Torsten has unending patience for hand sewing and will voluntarily sew on all his scout patches and do his brothers too- what a kid!)

I know it's a little tardy to be posting about something that happened October 30, but when I ran across these pictures tonight, it reminded me how much we enjoy our dedicated and talented piano teacher. We have an amazing piano teacher who lets our family trade handyman and yardwork for piano and organ lessons. The boys do their part and mow her lawn in the summer, rake leaves and clean out the roof gutters. When I look back at 2009, this is one of the blessings I am very grateful for!

Leif's horse

2009-12-31T23:06:00.003-07:00

Grandma crocheted some very cute things for Christmas this year! Here is Leif riding his horse with some help from Torsten.
"Whoa there little pony!"

Hailey got her ears pierced!

2009-12-31T22:21:00.003-07:00

Hailey was excited to get her ears pierced the same day as her best friend Christina but she was sooooo nervous!

All done!
Hailey told me she's happy she did it but she'd never do it again--ever!

Christmas Concert

2009-12-31T22:06:00.006-07:00

Our homeschool handbell and chimes groups, Liberty Bells and Freedom Rings, put on some great Christmas concerts this year! Here is Torsten and some other fellow chimers performing in the lovely sanctuary at the Presbyterian church.
Afterwards, Hailey, her friend Katherine, and Taylor are helping to put the equipment away.
Grandma Clayton and baby Leif came to listen to the beautiful music too.

Patching kids jeans

2009-12-17T07:39:00.005-07:00

A few months ago I had just finished making a bib with a bird applique on it, when Heidi walked in with a hole in the knee of her jeans. I thought "hmmmm, why not?" The horizontal length of the bird covers the rip quite nicely.Last week Hailey needed a patch on her jeans too. She wanted a bird that was more nuetral, so this is what I came up with.
I use fusible iron-on backing to adhere the patch to the pants. This keeps the pieces from slipping around while you zigzag the edges.