The Laundry Queen

At it again-- my cloth drawer is empty and the cloths are being folded in perfect squares and stacked just so. Mia loves to fold rags, towels, and blankets for me. It is so funny to see her in the middle of the kitchen floor going to town on those cloths. If I don't save them for her out of the laundry and stuff them into the kitchen drawer, she will find them and take them all out and fold them and stack them. Then she comes to me and says, "You're welcome".
She is also a meticulous room cleaner, though usually only upon request. She can make her bed without any blanket wrinkles, hang up all her shirts and put all the rest of the clothes in the right drawer. By contrast, when the boys are asked to clean their room, they shove all the toys onto the shelf in such a way that one hard look will have them come tumbling down; all clothes, clean or not, go into the laundry hamper; they have no idea what "making a bed" means to the rest of the world; and they feel that the room is clean when you can see more than half the carpet and any given time. Now if I can finish off by teaching her how to do the rest of the laundry, mop kitchen floors, and make a few basic recipes, we'll be in
business! Mia, you're the greatest!

Little Things

You know, I always mean to blog more. Most of my friends and family can get it done at least once a week, maybe more. It is not like I work full time outside the home or have some great project in the works, but somehow I am always startled when another month rolls around without a post. One of my friends had a book made that published all her posts and I thought...hmmm, if I actually did that on a regular basis - what a great journal! So here it goes again, more resolution to break out the camera more than every so often. A couple of days ago, my dear sister in law invited Mia over to play. It isn't very often that the twins are separated for play dates. It just takes twice as much effort and I think people feel bad just inviting one. They go everywhere together - exercise group (a babysitting co-op that lets us moms work out a few times a week), preschool co-op, even doctor and dentist appointments. (Hey, I am remembering why I don't get around to doing this very often). We always mean to do different things for them, but real life and practicality get in the way. I can count the number of times on one hand since they were born that I have had Wyatt all to myself. After consoling him about not going over to his cousins (with the promise of a popsicle and special mommy time), we headed home. I was really grateful for the chance to play with Wyatt one on one. I could do things that I wouldn't have done with both of them there, like play horsey on the trampoline. They get so upset if you do something with one child and then don't do the exact same thing with every child in the house and my back just can't take one hundred and two horse rides. We also worked on writing his name. We have worked on this only one other time in the past and were inturrupted several times by the handwriting queen herself, bragging on her latest essay. With just Wyatt there, he mastered the same skill we were so frustrated with before in minutes! There is so much in him that doesn't get seen because he is lumped in with louder sibs (not that I don't absolutely adore said siblings, however they can be LOUD). It was fun to see Wyatt express himself in fun ways! I love you bud!

Warm Fuzzy

After October's General Conference, we decided to start our own warm fuzzy jar, based off of some comments in President Monson's talk. At first the kids had a hard time distinguishing "service" from "chores". I explained that one you do to help someone else out and one you do because it is your responsibility. They have done pretty well with it and we have already filled it up once and had our reward - a family ice cream party. The kids got excited to fill it up again in anticipation of a family bowling outing. This morning I found the twins putting a warm fuzzy in the jar and asked, "what service did you do?" They must have figured out the system because Mia said, "I cleared Wyatt's cereal bowl and he cleared mine - that was very nice of him, don't you think?"

The "other" Don

We were especially grateful to be able to visit Don's grandparents while we were in Utah. Don's grandmother has been in a nursing home for about a year and has suffered the debilitating effects of a stroke. It was bittersweet as she could not communicate well, but we were glad the children got to give her hugs and see Great Grandpa Carlsen too! We love you guys!

Treehouse

On one of our last "Utah" days we visited the Treehouse Children's museum in Ogden. This place was amazing and made our local Children's Museum look like a McDonald's playplace in comparison. The kids had fun playing on the little play fire truck, playing in the rodeo room, the farm room where they practiced milking a fake cow, the music room, the doll's room, the midevil knights room, the states room, the oval office room, the train room, the doctors room, and especially the Lego room. My boys are addicted to Legos - something Snata has been made aware of this Christmas... All in all - great fun!

Temple Square

We went to Temple Square while we were in Utah. It was fun to be back in Utah...and a little wierd. The kids had a hard time walking "so far" and the cold weather gave the boys no small amount of asthma problems. I am glad we did it though. As you can see, the boys came home afterwards and crashed....

Snow Bunnies

Sledding for the very first time. The kids had a great time discovering snow and all the things you could do in it at the park outside my Grandpa Jackman's house thsi past November. They only lasted about a half an hour - but it sure was fun!