Changes

Where to start... sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. Thanksgiving was wonderful, we had Kristi and Mark's family join us which is always fun. As always seems to happen with that holiday no pictures so just imagine kids playing games, great food and fun conversation.
Now to the changes part. After much thought we have decided to home school Brandon and Travis. After you've picked yourself up off the floor I will go on to say that so far we love it. Our home is much louder and I have less computer and phone time but there is a wonderful feeling of peace here, it has been great. We started Dec 7th and are using the Thomas Jefferson Leadership Training method. We are all easing our way into this. Alex and I met with Brandon and Travis individually and they came up with a list of things that they would like to learn about. For now we are starting at 9:30, giving everyone time to be dressed and ready for the day, with a morning devotional including prayer, practice of the scripture mastery verse we are memorizing, a thought that typically comes from something that we have been reading individually (we rotate who gives this), then we read a chapter from a book of my choice. Right now we are reading "Give my Liberty! The Story of the Declaration of Independence" by Russel Freedman. It seemed a good place to start as Alex and I are working on educating ourselves on freedom and our Government. Speaking of which, we went to a book/study group last week on "The Coming Aristocracy" by Oliver DeMille (a book that gives one a lot to think about) and a comment was made by someone there asking if we had studied Plato or even actually read The Constitution of the United States in school. No one there had yet he said that he had talked to people about ten years older than him who had. Just in that short period of a time what and how we are taught has changed so much. Alex and I have now both read the Constitution and Alex is reading The Federalist Papers while I am reading "The Five Thousand Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen, so far I am learning a great deal. So we are all learning about Government and freedom and have had some very interesting discussions.
After our reading and discussion we all work together to do a few chores and then any project I have planned for the day. After lunch their time is their own. They have been having so much fun playing together and reading, reading, reading. It seems we go get more books from the library ever three or four days. They are both reading about the "wild west" and have learned about famous outlaws and lawmen. They are now reading the Sackett series. All this western reading has led to lots of gun battles out in the backyard, some of which were quite muddy as we have finally gotten our winter rain. As you can imagine they are having a blast.
So ...big changes in our daily schedule and another big change coming in April. That's right the end of April our family will be joined by a GIRL. We are very excited, not that another boy would not have been fun because it would have but a girl will be an exciting new adventure. My due date was moved to April 28th and things look good. We look forward to Alex's parents visit this week and of course Christmas. I'll post pictures of Christmas hopefully before too long. Maybe we'll even post a few of our book reports or other projects...

Halloween

Frederick was particularly delighted with the pumpkins. Of course to him they were balls but a very cool ball that could be cut open, stuff pulled out of it and then a burning candle put in. He did several dances of great joy throughout the process and especially when we put them outside and lit them. Brandon and Travis had fun too.

Travis did a face and Brandon did the skull. Frederick's was the small face. We also had a family Halloween party. Kristi's family was going to join us but due to illness had to cancel. It was a fun challenge to come up with a party menu that didn't involve candy for Brandon (he isn't eating candy for a year), eggs, dairy, soy, rice or wheat for Frederick. We had a great party with chex mix, jello jigglers, hot dogs, maple covered popcorn and root beer (we made sugar cookies with oat and barley flour too but they were quickly consumed Friday). We also made dark chocolate ice cream (with coconut milk and oat milk) but everyone decided they were too full for that so we saved it for tonight. The dry ice was also a big hit. All in all a great holiday for everyone!

Fall

My lungs aren't working well. They fill a rather important job and it is annoying when walking or caring the laundry to the laundry room leaves you panting and light headed. Luckily they work fine if I don't do too much, so I am being careful and limiting my physical activity (this happened when I was pregnant with Frederick but only lasted two weeks, it has been over three weeks so far this time). The first couple of weeks this was very frustrating but I feel more at peace now as my perspective has changed. First it was Alex getting annoyed at me and reminding me that this baby I am caring is much more important than the things I am trying to accomplish, many of which can be done by someone else. And that limiting the baby's oxygen while it's body is trying to form may not be the best of ideas. All true. This stage of pregnancy is interesting, I know I'm pregnant but I don't really have a way to tell how the baby is doing yet. I feel nauseous (less now) but looking at me you don't think "oh she is pregnant", you think "looks like she's been gaining a little weight." Once a month I can hear the baby's heartbeat but between visits I just have to hope things are progressing well. I am excited for when I can feel him/her move.

The second thing that helped my change of perspective was the blessing that my Dad and Alex gave me. Blessings are always wonderful, mainly because when I have them I am reminded that my Heavenly Father knows me and everything that is going on in my life. Not only that but most importantly He loves me and I and my concerns matter to Him.

Third I realized that this provides a wonderful opportunity for our family to grow stronger. Doesn't your love grow so much stronger for someone when you are serving them? This provides an opportunity for my boys to serve me and they are really stepping up. Brandon was quick to offer to stay home from school to help me during the day (he was only mildly disappointed when I assured him I would be fine). Alex has taken over the mopping and everyone now carries their own laundry basket into the laundry room on laundry day. Groceries are carried in for me and I only have to ask once for the boys to go through the house and clean up not only their stuff but things that Frederick got out too. Of course Fall has hit and with it comes lots of leaves. When the boys got home from school the other day I asked them to please rake up the leaves. They worked really hard and had fun in the piles after. I have such a wonderful family!

Swim, swim, swim

What a busy and wonderful weekend last week! Kristi and Mark blessed their newest son and so our parents came up for the weekend. It was great to see them and Brandon and Travis had an amazing time staying in their hotel with them several nights. We also had lots of swimming events.

The 16th was Brandon's swim-a-thon for swim team. He swam for two hours with only one quick bathroom break (he ran there and back because he didn't want to waste a moment). Brandon swam 130 lengths (about 2 miles)! We are very proud of his hard work and especially that he did the whole two hours and didn't stop early (many of the kids in his group did). This is Brandon at the end of his two hours! Thanks to to all of you who sponsored him and his fast swimming he raised quite a bit of money for his team.

Saturday was Brandon's first swim meet. He swam the 50 backstroke and 50 free style and did really well in both. Since it was his first meet he was teamed up with on older swimmer "buddy" (below) who made sure he was where he needed to be when he needed to be there. It was really fun to watch and very nice that his Grandparents were able to be there to see it all.

More Pictures

Here are a few more summer pictures:

Summer's over

We had a wonderful summer! So much fun with friends and family. We had a great time at Alex's family reunion and of course the kids took off like they had never been apart and had a blast. Frederick loved meeting his Berthrong cousins and mainly loved all the attention that was showered on him. We also went camping with some of our amazing friends, the trip could not have gone better. We made lots of plans to try to fit in other trips in August before school started but that didn't work out as instead I spent the last half of August battling terrible morning sickness. That's right I am pregnant and due May 3 (yes I know our three last kids will have a birthday within a week of each other). We are all very excited although I will be more excited when the morning sickness, that lasts all day every day, ends (sorry the last two days have been really bad but I'm hopeful it'll get better soon). Anyway that is why I have fallen behind in blogging. My boys are very helpful, we ended up telling Brandon and Travis earlier that we were going to because they were starting to get worried about me. Frederick just thinks it is funny and tries to make gagging sounds along with me. The funniest was when I went to change a stinky diaper and he laid down and started making retching sounds while laughing. It made me realize how often I was gagging and did make me smile. So our family is well. Brandon and Travis love school and Brandon has joined the city swim team (his first meet is in the middle of October). I am also on the look out for books for Brandon. He LOVES to read and just devours books and I have a hard time keeping ahead of him. He loved Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Harry Potter series, Fablehaven series, The Other Side of The Mountain series, Earagon series, and other books that I can't think of now. So if you have any ideas for a 9 year old boy (he can read anything and to him the longer the book the better but the challenge is to find books at a good reading level that are appropriate for his age level) pass them on to me please.

Here are a few camping pictures:

Walking

We have lots of pictures from July and August to post but first I had to get this video of Frederick up. Yesterday he decided that it was the day to start walking. Up until then he had only taken three step by himself. Yesterday he just took off, trying to walk everywhere. He still has a few spills but just gets up and takes off again. He likes to carry something as I think it makes him feel more secure.

Also a video of Brandon and Frederick on the "skid out Ferrari" breaking all the racing records. Of course I had just cleaned the floor (which is why all the chairs are up on the futon) but apparently a freshly mopped floor is helpful for racing. Frederick also likes to push Travis around on his car.

Frederick's words

Frederick is very vocal. He talks all the time in his own language but he does have quite a few English words too. "Da Da" he has said for quite awhile and he has a very enthusiastic "hi!" In addition he also now says "Ma Ma" and "this" (usually he is pointing at something exclaiming "this, this" until you let him have whatever has caught his attention). Dog is "daw" and cat is "at." On our camping trip this past weekend he also learned "hot" which he said very seriously and often while at the same time trying to push your hands away so that he could crawl into the "hot" fire. Alex also taught him how to blow a whistle on the camping trip and so now when you tell him something is hot he will say "hot" and start to blow on it. Lots of words for a little boy of 14 months!

Home Fun

Here are two other videos that didn't fit on the last post.

Summer

Summer has begun but not the way we had intended. Brandon and Travis missed the last week of school (yes the long awaited field trips and class parties) due to the flu. Anytime you utter the word flu everybody jumps back and you can see their eyes gain a haunted look as they try to escape as quickly as possible. It appears to not be the dreaded H1N1 (swine flu) but that was not ruled out before the boys and I had to cancel our trip to visit my parents in Southern CA. Brandon, being the first to get it was also the first to recover and although this did trigger some of Travis' lung issues he too is over it now. Frederick was the last hit and does still have it so we are waiting for him to recover (thanks to Tamiflu he was never as bad as Travis and Brandon). Basically we have spent the last two weeks in the house, it wasn't too hard when all the kids were miserable and just wanting to sleep and lay around but as they've recovered it has gotten a little crazier. Frederick has loved having his bothers home and they have invented lots of games. We have had fun as you can see from the videos. We have played lots of Dog-opoly (all the way until all but one player is bankrupt), Uno Attack, battleship, chess and of course Wii games. Much to the boys delight we also had a StarWars day where we watched all except the third StarWars movie in order in one day. That's the day Frederick learned how to have a light saber fight. Hopefully next week we will be out again but until then I'll very glad the boys get along so well and love to read and play games (in the last three days Brandon and Travis have started to wear a new path around the yard as they've begun running laps around the edge of the yard, Bree and Jayden think it's a great game).

Backyard Fun

Kristi and her kids were over on Wednesday and Bree was delighted to discover that little kids could throw her toy for her to play fetch. Saturday evening Frederick and I went outside with the camera to see if I could get a few good pictures of him. Bree wanted to play but I was ignoring her. Finally she gave up on me and decided to try Frederick. Frederick could not have been more delighted when Bree trotted up and dropped her toy in front of him. They both knew that something exciting was about to happen but Frederick wasn't quite sure what it was. At first he just held it out to her as she looked expectantly at him. Alex and I have often held Frederick as we've thrown Bree's toy so it didn't take Frederick too long to decide to throw it.

Below is as far as it went... a pretty good throw for him but not what Bree was hoping for. Bree just kept looking at him as Frederick got it again to try once more. He did throw it again with much the same results as the last throw so I stepped in and threw it for her. Frederick squealed with delight as Bree raced off after it. Much to Frederick's delight she brought it right back to him again.
I'm glad I had the camera to capture the fun!

One year olds

Here is Brandon on his first birthday. He weighed 28 lbs! Here is Travis on his first birthday. He was 19 lbs.

And here is Frederick on his first birthday at 21 lbs. Aren't they all so cute!

Frederick is 1

I can't believe a whole year has already passed. Frederick is such a joy as Brandon often says, "I can't believe Frederick has only been a part of our faimlyfor one year. It seems like he has always been here and something big would be missing if he wasn't." he is greatly loved by all and loves playing with his brothers.

We had a great party for him on Mother's Day with Kristi and Mark's family. Frederick has learned to point now and will silently demand to go places or have something. To him bigger is always better and he can tell if your holding out on him. Unfortunately he is a picky eater but because he likes things big you can sometimes trick him into eating something just by giving him the whole thing to bite pieces off by himself (he currently has four teeth on top and two on the bottom). He loves to be outside and with the beautiful spring weather we have spent a great deal of time out. At least a few times a day we go around the yard while Frederick carefully touches each flower.

Frederick often pulls himself up to standing to play and does crawl on his hand and knees. He can climb up the stair from our family room with no problem and has discovered the joy of climbing into the dishwasher while we are trying to unload the top dishes. It is fun to watch him grow and discover the world.

Travis is 7

Travis had a wonderful birthday the beginning of the month. He adds so much joy to our family and has learned so much this year. He is a friend to everyone and loves to do what is right. We are so proud of him and love him very, very much!
Travis had a Star Wars party with a few of his friends from school (and brothers of course).

Perhaps the biggest hit of the party was the clone mini marshmallow guns that Alex helped each boy make. They were really fun and the boys could blow those marshmallows way out there.

After defeating Darth Vader (a pinata) each boy was knighted a jedi and given his own lightsaber. It was a fun party and the weather could not have been better.

Spring Fun

For Easter Brandon and Travis got kites and then of course we had several weeks of no wind. When we finally had a windy day we had a great time flying their kites in the field across the street from our house. They really got them up high!

I had to add this picture of our street because the tree are so beautiful this time of year!