A New Look

Benjamin has undergone a few changes recently:

1. He lost his two front teeth a few weeks ago -- both came out within days of each other. So we've been telling him that he should be a vampire for Halloween, since the hole in the middle of his teeth makes his side teeth look like fangs!

2. Two weeks ago I walked past Benjamin's open backpack and noticed there were some papers inside. (Sometimes we all forget about unloading backpacks on Fridays.) Among the papers was a note from the school nurse . . . he had not passed his vision screening.

As soon as I mentioned the note, he broke down into tears and insisted that he did NOT need glasses. I tried telling him the story of when I got glasses and how much clearer everything looked, but he didn't want to hear it. Ryan and I would try to casually bring it up over the next week, and every time he got upset. Based on some of his comments, I think he was worried that kids would make fun of him once he got glasses.

When I scheduled his eye appointment, I tried to get him in last Thursday (almost a week after I found the note). It turned out to be a blessing that the soonest I could get him in was a week later -- just a few days ago. Benjamin came home on Friday of last week and excitedly announced that a friend in his class has glasses now.

"Oh," I said, "does that mean that now you are okay about getting glasses?"

"No, Mom. Now I WANT to get glasses!" was his reply. And he's been excited ever since!

He got a little nervous when we got to the appointment, and started to tell the doctor that he didn't need glasses. This worried me for a minute, but then he warmed up and had a good appointment. I loved seeing his face light up when Dr. Bird held lenses up in front of Benjamin and he noticed how much clearer everything was!

Once we picked out some frames, it took about 45 minutes for the office to make the lenses. Since it was near dinner time and I had all the kids with me, I opted to head home and was planning on bringing Benjamin back after dinner to pick up the glasses. Later we realized Ryan could just pick them up on his way home from work . . . I've never seen Benjamin so anxious for his dad to get home!



I'm so glad he was happy for his new glasses! All evening long, he kept lifting the glasses up and down -- looking at things in a "before and after" way. And my favorite was when he said, "I wish we had school tomorrow {we were out for Fall Break}. I want to show everyone my glasses!"

I took some pictures over the weekend of his new look.

going to The Brick Oven for dinner

after church on Sunday

I was trying to get a candid shot as he finished walking home from church . . . it didn't work for the purpose of showing off his glasses. But I had to include it because I thought the hap-hazard look was so cute!

Yummy

It appears that a lot of our activities lately have been centered around food:

1. For our Family Home Evening activity last Monday, we made caramel apples. It was fun, but the caramel was thick and got way too hard after we dipped the apples. After talking to a friend, I realized that we neglected to put any milk in the caramel when we heated it up! Can you tell I've never made caramel apples before?


So on Tuesday while the boys were at school, I peeled off the rock-hard caramel and re-heated it along with some milk this time. It turned out much nicer, and we were all able to enjoy a yummy treat that night :)


2. Thursday and Friday was Fall Break for the kids. We didn't do any big activities, but we did make some candy corn sugar cookies. They were so easy to make, and I love how they turned out! They look so cute, and are the perfect size to have 2 or 3 and not feel bad about it!



3. Friday night Ryan took us out to dinner. I guess we were in a celebratory mood, since we had just found out that the First Lady of Utah, a.k.a. the Governor's wife, is coming to the school concert (that I'm in charge of) next week! Woohoo! The boys unanimously chose The Brick Oven, and we were even lucky enough to get in without waiting (not sure how we were so fortunate -- there were TONS of people waiting)! We had a great night of pizza, pasta, and balloon "animals"!

Elizabeth loved her flower, and kept sniffing it!

Joshua got a sword that he also used as a light saber

An alien sat on Benjamin's head part of the time

Nathan got a pumpkin fresh off the vine

Family Update

Although we've stayed plenty busy, there hasn't been anything special to really write about. So I thought I'd sit down and do a general update.

I've been staying very busy with PTA, which I enjoy. It is so rewarding to be in the school and have students say, "Hi, PTA!" when they see me :) We've been working on all the preparations for our upcoming "Choose Today" Family Concert. The concert itself was given to us from Utah's First Lady and her Uplift Utah initiative. It is to celebrate Red Ribbon Week in helping kids make good choices and staying drug and alcohol free. But there has been a lot of other prep work to find the venue, figure out the logistics of moving kids on and off the stage, advertising the event, inviting guests, and so on. Yesterday I was floating on air because I acquired some fun banners, prizes, and radio ads from Parents Empowered, and then I got a call from the Mayor's office and learned that he IS able to come to our concert! Wahoo!

Elizabeth is growing up quickly. She is getting even more independent and wants to do everything herself. On Sunday she climbed out of her crib for the first time, but luckily she hasn't repeated that yet. I guess I need to start thinking about what to do in her room (sheets and decorating) when we take out the crib and put in a regular bed.

Although I took this picture because I thought her new leggings looked so cute, this pretty much sums up Elizabeth -- always happy and ACTIVE!

Elizabeth talks a lot, and is using complete sentences. It seems that almost everyday she says at least one thing that surprises me because it sounds so mature. She plays with her friend, Izzy, a lot. Although there are still some times when "playing together" involves Izzy doing one thing, and Elizabeth jumping on her bike and riding down the sidewalk and totally ignoring Izzy because the bike is so fun!

Elizabeth and Izzy

Nathan just finished his requirements to receive his Bear in Cub Scouts. He had the chance to go to a district-wide Writer's Symposium last week and really enjoyed that opportunity. I can't believe that he will be turning 10 in just a couple of weeks -- time flies so quickly!

Benjamin ran from the school to Seven Peaks and back for running club earlier this week. I was very impressed! He is excited to be Luigi for Halloween this year. Although he fought piano lessons a lot at the beginning of the school year, he is doing well and I've even heard him admit that he LIKES piano!

Joshua is fun to have around in the mornings. He is my good helper on errands and in general he is a good brother to Elizabeth. He's pretty funny about going to school: He eats lunch and then it is time to take him. I will usually let him know when he has about 10 minutes left before we need to get in the car. He will have been taking his sweet time the whole meal. Then all of a sudden he clears his food (even if he hasn't eaten it all), and insists that we leave that instant so we won't be late. He gets so focused on "not being late", even though we have never been late, and most of the time we get there 10 minutes early! I've tried to remind him of that, but so far he is still fixated on "not being late"!

Ryan had fun taking the 3 boys to the BYU vs. Utah State game a few weeks ago. I think he is enjoying not having to work on wiring the basement every night anymore, and now can enjoy the fruits of his labors!

I was able to find time to make a Christmas gift for Elizabeth. The apron was a Sewing Group project, and then I came home and whipped up the pot holders while catching up on the DVR!

He Gets It!

The highlight of my day today happened on a quick trip to the school. I walked past Nathan's classroom on my way to deliver something to the library, and I noticed that there were mock newspaper pages hanging in the hall. Each student had customized their pages with articles all about them.

Nathan's newspaper page was up above my eye level, so the first article I read was the one in the bottom corner (this is my paraphrasing):

My Hero
My hero is my mom because she can do anything she puts her mind to.

I almost started crying right there. Not because he chose me as his hero (which is pretty amazing since I feel he and I clash a lot at home), but because HE GETS IT! I hope that my children learn that they can do anything, if they set the goal and work for it. It made me so happy to know that he is catching on to my example and is starting to get it.

This school year has been a hard adjustment for Nathan academically. He is still doing really well, getting high scores in all subjects. But he is struggling with the fact that he actually has to work, and is not just breezing through his work in 30 seconds like he has in K-3. I hope he "puts his mind" to working hard and enjoying the challenges he will have this year and in all the years of school to come!

Toothless

Benjamin lost both of his top front teeth in less than a week's time!

Here he is after losing the first one, showing off how the 2nd one can lay horizontal!



A lot of children must have lost their teeth the same night, because when Benjamin checked his special tooth pillow the next morning, the tooth fairy had not come. He was getting up to practice the piano before school and it was still dark. He was happy to see that the tooth fairy came while he was practicing!

Now that the other tooth is gone, Benjamin looks like a little vampire when he smiles!