Amanda Walking

Amanda followed in her sister's footsteps, literally, by choosing not to walk until past 13 months old. She's still not a full-time walker, but we're sure that's soon to come.

William's news is he packed the treats for Church all by himself today, on his own initiative, even. I guess he was hungry.

Gwen's news is she has a new favorite book series. It's Amanda and Oliver Pig. She has developed quite a fondness for trampolines lately. Maybe we'll see one in our yard someday soon.

DJ went out with Lyman on Friday for some Father-Son time. They played miniature golf and had a blast! He can't wait for Lyman to take him fishing now.

Jennifer's news is she's now the Den Leader for Wolves and Bears Cub Scouts. In our pack, that's only one boy right now. DJ will make two next month.

Lyman's news is he finished the Orson Scott Card Ender series and is now reading The Last Jihad.

Keep checking for more updates on our recent trips and other exciting news flashes!

Happy Father's Day!

One of the biggest issues to work out in a marriage is learning what your spouse expects and trying to live up to said expectations. I am happy to say Lyman and I are making great strides in this area. He knows when my birthday and Mother's Day are approaching to ask me what I want for gifts, if I want breakfast in bed, etc. I don't have outlandish requests, so I usually get what I ask for. This arrangement works great on the flipside as well.

A few days ago I asked Lyman what he wanted for Father's Day, what his expectation were. He said, "I don't know, nothing really." So I got away with making breakfast a little fancier - french toast with strawberry sauce AND powdered sugar - and an unwrapped CD from one of his favorite bands (Collective Soul). I did buy a couple of Father's Day cards, one from me, one from the kids, but they aren't signed yet. I also made him a yummy chocolate banana shake tonight. (Actually, I made it for me, but since it was 5+ cups of shake, I decided to share rather than save half of it for later.)

Just so there is no doubt, I want the world (or at least those that read this blog) to know that I love my husband dearly. I get such a kick out of watching him interact with our children. His methods are so different than mine. I admire his patience and gentleness. I love the little songs he makes up for the kids. They each have their own. Besides all that, he is intelligent, funny, and usually willing to follow all the directions I give him. I knew I had a winner when, before we were married, I told him I wanted 12 children and he was okay with that. I have the best Father for my children that I could ever hope for!!!

Amanda's Birthday

Yes, our baby is a year old now. She had a bunch of cousins visiting for the week of her birthday, lucky girl! It was a small, family party, with lots of balloons and this tough to blow out candle.

She loved being sung to, and it happened about five times that evening. She loved her presents - a box of tissues, a brush and comb set, a purple soccer ball. And some pretty princess shoes she picked out for herself.

Happy Birthday, little princess! We sure love you!

Books

I stole this from my sister-in-law, Lillian. I love books. Let's see how I've done with this list.

This comes via Yogamum. It’s a list of the 106 most unread books on shelves. The rules are to bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish. I'm also italicizing the ones I own but haven't started yet.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The [A] Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield

Hmm. Looks like I have more reading to do! These are the books I am currently reading:
Moby Dick (it's taking me awhile to get through this one!)
The Last Days by Joel Rosenberg
Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
The Book Thief by Markus Zukak
A Year with C. S. Lewis
Eldest by Christopher Paolini

New hobbies

It's been a busy few weeks for me. I am glad I have absolutely nothing on my schedule for this week, except playing with the kids!

Last week our Relief Society started creating a quilt. We were each assigned to make our own quilt block to contribute. Not having had much training, and even less success, with my sewing machine, I was daunted to say the least. With the help of some lovely ladies, here is what I managed to create:

I was so inspired, I decided to take up sewing and especially quilting for my new hobby. I started with sewing the badges on mine and DJ's scout shirts. Well, good thing I got a new seam ripper, because I didn't have any help with the scout shirts and it's going to take a few tries to get it looking good.

The other new hobby is hiking. I realized today it's not such a new hobby, because we did a few hikes while we were in Erie. Utah is a great place for hiking and I recently purchased a couple of books on great hikes with kids.

We started with the Jordan River trail. Since it is less than a mile from our house, it seemed the logical place to start. Saturday morning, we got all laced up and packed our water and snacks and headed out.

I think we went about a mile south along the river, ate our oranges and ZBars and headed home. There were lots of friendly walkers, bikers, and joggers sharing the trail with us. And a few dogs. It's a paved trail, which made it nice and easy for us to take the stroller for William and Amanda.

I love my laptop!

I know, two posts in the same week. But it is a different month.

I got a laptop when my very old (6 years) computer died a few weeks ago. It allowed us to have school outside earlier this week, thanks to a neighbor's wireless network.

We were talking about continents, and it was the coolest to pull up Google maps and show them a map of the world and have them pick out the continents. All while sitting on the hammock swing.

My other favorite part is taking the laptop into the kitchen. I taught a raw foods class last week and am doing a smoothie event this Saturday. Preparing for both has been made so much easier by having the laptop, internet, and my saved recipes, in the kitchen with me.

Amanda is our fourth child to learn how to walk using the below pictured walker. She's getting pretty good at it, but hasn't learned how to turn yet.

We were having a great time outside, until it started snowing again this week. Don't get me wrong, I love the cool weather and the excuse to stay inside and read books. But Amanda loves her swing in the backyard.

April is almost over?!?

Where did the last month go?

We took a trip to Logan, for my cousin Brad's wedding. It is always fun to get together with the Daines extended family.

I had a great birthday, doing just what I wanted to do - reading most of the day, shopping at Costco, and going out for a raw food feast.

William was trying to set a new personal best for how many stairs he could jump down - 6. He broke his foot on that attempt, the first metatarsal with a possible fracture of the second. It's been five days since the accident, and he's running at almost full speed again. I love how fast kids heal!

DJ and Gwennie got new bikes. DJ had a bit of a learning curve, now without training wheels, but he's doing great now. He begs to ride to Church every week.

Gwennie had one successful ride around the block on her bike the first week she had it and hasn't gotten out of the driveway since.

I got a new computer, as my old one died after 6 good years of service.

Amanda has started cruising on the furniture, and signing. She eats everything she can find on the floor and everything William gives her. She even tried to eat drywall joint compound yesterday.

The wallpaper is off of the kitchen walls! Hopefully we'll have some new paint up soon.

I have a new calling as the Cub Scout Committee Chairman. It was a lot of meetings the first month, getting trained and all. But I think it will be fun.

Lyman still is coasting without a calling in our Ward. He's keeping busy reading the Ender series. DJ also has read Ender's Game and is working on Ender's Shadow.

My list of books goes on and on. Some noteworthy ones are Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson), Saints (Orson Scott Card), and No Greater Love (Mother Teresa).

We got memberships to the Zoo and the Children's Museum this month. We also have tried out some new playgrounds. We are looking forward to consistent warm weather so we can plant our garden.