"Pentangle"

Here's Maddie's project that she turned in last week. She had to create a 3-dimensional creature using at least 6 different shapes. It had to be smaller than waist height and it had to be free-standing. She also had to name it and present a speech to the class that told about her creature. She named him "Pentangle". His mother was a Pentagon and his father was a triangle. Dave helped her make this and I think they did a really cute job!

Phillip Turns 3!

Phillip's birthday in a nutshell:

opening presents...

enjoying a birthday donut...

Having fun at the Magic House...

Not wanting to leave the Magic House...

Eating yummy birthday cake and ice cream!

Gravity Works!

Have you ever seen one of those demonstrations for a blender where they make ice cream? This is what sold my kids (and let's be honest, I was pretty awestruck too) on the cool blender that we now own. The intrepid salesman puts some ice and milk and fruit into the blender, pushes a magical button, it whirls and whirs and after the cycle is complete he promptly pulls the blender off the base, takes off the lid and turns it upside down over his over head to reveal how thick and "ice-creamy" his concoction has become, and yet how dry he remains. Very impressive in a sales pitch. Less impressive when you try this at home and fail to put in enough ice to thicken it up.

Thankfully it wasn't my own head, and thankfully I have a forgiving daughter who is a good sport. No future blender sales job for me. Looks like I'll be sticking to my day job!

I Love My Sisters!

"For when three sisters love each other with such sincere affection, the one does not experience sorrow, pain, or affliction of any kind, but the other's heart wishes to relieve, and vibrates in tenderness... like a well-organized musical instrument." ~ Elizabeth Shaw ~

"If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child." ~Linda Sunshine~

It was so good to get out west last month and see a lot of my family. I love my sisters. They are my best friends. I'm not exactly sure when the transition happened, because I don't remember being particularly close growing up. Maybe when we all grew up and started experiencing the same things, I'm not sure, but I'm so glad it happened, because I'm better for their influence in my life.

Kristin (or as Phillip refers to her: Uncle Sissy) - She has an amazing perspective. I love talking with her because she always makes things make sense and puts things in a way I might not have thought of before. She's very dedicated to whatever she does and does it 110% every time. She's beautiful and talented!

Jen (or as Phillip refers to her: "The other one Mommy") - You'd never know she was the baby of the family. She's such a great example. She's faithful and strong in her convictions. She's very organized and has probably never been late a day in her life. She's so loving and kind and a great mom!

Snow Canyon

I've always thought of St. George as this hot and insufferable desert because when I've ever gone there it's been in the summer months when it usually is hot and insufferable. This time though, The weather was cool and refreshing and I got to see a little bit more of it when we went up to snow canyon with my Dad. Absolutely amazing and breathtaking.

My Dad, Ryan, Sophie, Dave, and Maddie

Follow the leader

Venturing into a cave

My little monkeys

A Monkey's Uncle

The kids didn't have school on Friday because of "Good Friday", so in an effort to avoid cabin fever and save some of my ever so fleeting sanity (and of course be the cool mom-Not often do you get to kill those three birds with one stone), I decided to take them to "Monkey Joe's" for a little while. It's this place filled with all kinds of bounce-house-type inflatables where kids can bounce, climb, slide and otherwise get completely worn out to their heart's content. We'd been there one other time and so when I mentioned that we were going there all of the kids got very excited (you should have seen how quickly they got their chores done). The whole morning Phillip kept coming up to me saying: "Let's go to uncle Joe's!!!". The part that makes that even cuter is that he really does have an uncle Joe. Maybe next time we go out west he'll ask to go see his favorite monkey.

Outnumbered

(Left to Right: Sophie holding Livvy, Meg holding Leah, Emily, Maddie, Ryan, and Carter holding Phillip). We got to visit with my sister, Jen and her family for a day on our spring break trip out west. My kids get so excited to visit with their cousins. I didn't live around extended family growing up and didn't know my cousins very well. So, I love when my kids get to be around their cousins. Even though we don't live close to each other, they are able to pick right up where they left off and they get along so well. This picture makes me smile and realize how many of them there are!! Thankfully my sister has a great house where you can really spread out and not feel crowded. Jen has a great family and I really admire her. She's a great example to me. Even though we were only there a day, we had so much fun playing Settler's of Catan (Cities and Knights), eating at the Pizza Factory, and watching the kids enjoy each other.

Break A Leg!

March 7 - Kids perform in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

A friend of ours (Erin Rodabough) home-schools her kids and wanted to do a unit on Shakespeare. She got a bunch of the kids from our ward as well as some neighborhood friends and put together this amazing children's adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Thanks again to our awesome friends, Ben and Becca Munson for their amazing photography!

Sophie was Hermia

Maddie was Queen Titania

Ryan was Lysander

February in Review

I've got a lot of catching up to do. I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I've been pretty busy with PTO stuff, young womens, and I've recently been sucked into the wonderful world of facebook. So, in an effort to catch up and not bore with too many details, here is a quick rundown of our February:

February 14 - Valentine's Day

Valentine's day was a lot of fun. We had yummy banana crepes for breakfast and of course our traditional fondue for dinner with the kids.

February 19 - New Beginnings
Our young women did a great job for New Beginnings this year. Aren't they adorable? We had a great theme of "America's Next Top Values" and the girls all got to get dressed up, walk the "red carpet" and talk about the importance of the young women values. Such a great night!


February 20 - St. Louis Symphony

I got to go with Ryan on his 2nd grade class field trip to the St. Louis Symphony. It was really awesome and Ryan's favorite part was when they played the Harry Potter theme music. Another favorite part was getting to dress up. One of the little girls in his class was overheard telling another classmate: "Did you see Ryan? He looks like a workin' man!"

February 27th - Sophie's 11th Birthday!

Waking Sophie up with breakfast in bed.

Opening up presents - How do you like all our bed heads?

Gramma Joan and Papa Doug got to be here to celebrate.

Birthday cake of choice-fruit pizza!

Sophie, you continue to be such a blessing to all of us. You love to swim and are really great at it. You have improved so much this year and it has become something that you really love. You got the award for "Most Inspirational" on your swim team this year and it's no wonder. You are an inspiration! You have adjusted so well to life with diabetes, you are an example to all of us of having a positive attitude and not letting things get you down. You are such a huge help to me and I really love the time we spend together. Happy Birthday, babe. We love you!

BANAN-O-LANTERN?

Not quite sure what this banana ever did to Phillip, or if he just has a gripe with produce in general, or maybe he's trying to hone his fruit whittling skills.....

Notes to self:

1. Do not let Ryan "watch" Phillip if they get up at the crack of dawn,
and I want to try to sleep a few more minutes.

2. Keep all knives under lock and key

Confessions of a Mean Mom

Last week I went into Maddie's room and noticed a few candy wrappers on the floor. Being the super nice mom that I am, I thought I would do her a favor and pick them up for her. I started to do so and saw a few strays had made it under her bed, so I knelt down in order to retrieve them. As I did so I saw a very unpleasant sight. There, under her bed was stashed a pile of clean, folded laundry. Why she decided it would be easier to have to bend down and push these clothes under her bed instead of put them in drawers not two feet from her bed, I don't know. What I do know is that, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. You see, this is not the first time this has happened. Maddie seems to go out of her way to put things where they DO NOT go. I have found similar piles of laundry shoved in her closet, behind her bookcase, and UNDER her dresser, to name a few and I was at my whit's end. I went downstairs, grabbed some trash bags and proceeded to empty her entire wardrobe into them. Being the nice mom that I am, I did leave her with ONE outfit, ONE pair of PJ's and enough socks and undies to last a week.

Maddie was slightly stunned when I asked if she liked how I cleaned up her room when she got home from school that day, but also thought it was slightly humorous. We'll see how humorous it is after a few days of being seen in the same thing at school (Sophie seems a little more horrified about this than Maddie at the moment).

I started to question the rashness of my actions the next day, but then Maddie came out of her room kind of giggling and wearing an outfit that was NOT the one I gave her. In fact it was a BRAND NEW outfit I had given her the morning of the whole incident. Being the nice mom that I am I couldn't wait for a special occasion to give her this really cute outfit I got a great deal on. I asked her repeatedly where she got it (knowing it was not with all of the clothes I had unloaded the previous day). Finally she fessed up that she had gotten it from behind the chair in my bedroom where she had stashed it after I gave it to her. I guess that was just the validation I needed.

Being the super nice mom that I am, I have given her a way to earn back some if not all of her wardrobe. In order to earn clothes back she has to keep her room cleaned and things put away (WHERE THEY GO). At the end of one week she will earn a new outfit. At the end of two weeks she will earn back another, and so on and so forth.

There is one problem I did not foresee happening when this all began. A friend of mine did bring up the fact that she might not even care about having to wear just one thing and this might backfire on me. Very possibly a likely outcome, however we'll see how much she likes this outfit in four years......

Age progression - 4 years

After the rain

I had a really rotten day on Monday. I got an email that shook me to my core and I cried and cried and cried some more. I started to question some of the things in the email and then everything about myself. Was I not a good mother, friend, wife, yw president, person? Maybe I was doing it all wrong. I really let it affect me and depress me. My poor kids kept seeing my tear stained face and asking "are you o.k., mom?" "What's wrong". I definitely do not have a good poker face and can't conceal my feelings very well.

The next morning I woke up a little worse for the wear, but feeling a little better, got the kids off to school, but still couldn't shake a lot of the emotion from the previous day and then I had an amazing experience.

First I got a call from a friend who is going through quite a personal crisis in her life. Throughout the conversation she would say the nicest things to me which really uplifted me. I was so impressed and touched that even in the midst of trials she was reaching out to others (in this case, me) and serving them with her words of kindness. I thought, that is the key to happiness - forgetting myself or my problems and reaching out to others. I know this, but so easily forget it when it comes time to apply it.

No sooner had I hung up the phone with that friend, then another good friend of mine called that I don't get to talk to very often. She is the epitome of happiness and optimism. You can't help but feel better about life after talking with her. After our conversation I did feel better. I truly felt the tender mercies of the Lord. He can't take away all the painful things that might come into our lives, but he can provide experiences to remind us of his love for us. And really even though they are painful, trials can be building blocks for us to become stronger and more like the Savior. We can't have rainbows without a little rain.

Happy 35th Birthday, Dave

35 Things I love about you:

1. The dimple in your chin
2. Your blue, blue eyes
3. Your boyish smile
4. The way you make me laugh
5. Your mad "key-tar" skills
6. Your loyalty
7. Your drive (not talking about your car here)
8. Your eyelashes (thanks for giving them to the kids)
9. Your work ethic
10. Your pancakes every Saturday morning
11. Your love of movie-going (don't forget the popcorn)
12. Your kindness and service - always willing to lend a hand to others
13. You took me to Hawaii
14. Your easy-going nature (keep trying to rub off on me)
15. Your dedication to family
16. Your endless nicknames for the kids and me (Feline, Munch, Rionicle, Nuchacho, Buchen, to name a few)
17. Your long legs (may our children get them, please)
18. The way you communicate in movie lines ("But what will I wear?")
19. The invention of tweezers and how well you use them
20. Your patience with me and the kids
21. Your smoothies
22. The way you diffuse a tense situation with your quick-witted-ness
23. Playing Mario-Kart with me
24. The way you make me feel beautiful no matter how I might actually look
25. Your love of the Lord and church service
26. The way you father our 4 beautiful children
27. Your love of getting the mail in anticipation of something "good"
28. The way you kiss me in front of the kids, thereby grossing them out completely - one day they'll appreciate it....
29. You take over with the kids after a long day
30. That you do all the driving on road-trips
31. Your amazing back rubs
32. You don't care what others think
33. Your land-surfing skills
34. You don't sweat the small stuff
35. You picked me to take along on this amazing journey through life and the eternities.

Happy Birthday, babe!

My Hero

Christmas 2008

On Christmas Eve we had the Rodabough and Williams families over for dinner and then the kids did a reenactment of the nativity. From left to right: Natalie Rodabough and Maddie as angels, Caleb and Cannon Williams as shepherds, Sophie as Mary, Sam Rodabough as baby Jesus, McKay Rodabough and Ryan as Wise Men, and Aspen and Hallie Williams as angels - SO CUTE!!

The kids in their Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve.

Apparently Phillip thought that the bubbles he got in his stocking were one-time use only, as he dumped the whole thing in the tub.

The day after Christmas, we drove to Michigan to spend some time with Dave's family. Here's one pic with cousin Beatrice (Bea).

We took the kids ice skating for the first time. They (well, when I say "they" I mean the older three) really started to get the hang of it. Only a few bumps and bruises.

I actually got a picture of Phillip in the 28 seconds he lasted on the ice before deciding it was much more fun to have Dave chase him around the outside perimeter of the rink.