Jacob's To Do List

FYI, I haven't posted forever but that was Daniel, my "angel child" who did the previous post.


A few weeks ago I found this on our kitchen table and later learned that it was Jacob's. It says:

to do list
- go on mission to China
- teach

- come home
- have party
- get married
- be parent
- be grandpa
- die

There you have it - life in a nutshell from a 7 yr. old.

HI

so like, i haven't like updated my blog forever so i needed to tell you to check out my angel child's blog at www.danielmipottr.blogspot.com .

Happy Halloween!!

Abby was looking a little overwhelmed in her furry cat outfit. She found a bottle that Benjamin got from his teacher today and was searching for something good to drink.




Hannah enjoyed the Halloween festivities with 2 different costumes this year - a beautiful Belle dress (thanks Grammy & Aunt Jenna) and then as an Island Princess for Halloween night (thanks Grammy again).


Jacob was Indiana Jones - quite the dapper little guy.


Benjamin was a vampire - although he really wanted to be a Pharoah and his tightwad Mother wouldn't spend $30.00 for the costume - so he didn't leave his costume on for long.


Daniel was a crazy golfer - complete with a great hat we got for Shawn in Scotland.

What's a Mom to do???

Yesterday Hannah asked me if it is OK to hang things on the wall with tape. I told her sometimes tape takes the paint off so it isn't a good idea. So a little later when I went up to her room I found she had used a GLUE STICK to hang a picture of Jesus right by her bed. She then used crayon and pen to "decorate" and write "words" all around it.
What's a Mom to do??

Soccer Season

Soccer season has come and gone and a good time was had by all. We are 3 for 3 with sons whose favorite position is goalee. We spend our whole lives trying to teach them to be kind and not aggressive and then they start sports and are supposed to throw the whole thing out the window as we yell "get in there", "kick it", "faster", "harder", etc.. So far our kids haven't proven to be very aggressive at soccer and they all prefer the less competitive position of goalee. Hannah's last game was in the rain and she didn't really even notice since she was sporting her Barbie raincoat (thanks Aunt Mabel).

Abby's Blessing Day

Yesterday was Abby's blessing day. We borrowed a sweet Chinese dress from our friend Kim (thanks Kim!!) and she looked adorable. Hannah wanted to wear a cute Chinese dress so we let her wear one that we had for her and then the boys decided they wanted to wear their Chinese shirts so they did too. It was nice to recognize and honor her birth country in that way and the kids were all proud of her Chinese heritage. She slept peacefully during the blessing and the words spoken made it clear to all of us that she is definitely meant to be in our family and Heavenly Father loves and is mindful of her. What a touching blessing and a wonderful day! We had lots of family come and share their love with Abby - she's still a little wary of strangers (extended family included) but she is making great progress.

She is now wearing the dreaded helmet. Her head is flat on the back and somewhat misshapen from laying in a crib for far too many hours. Hopefully this will help her head grow into a better shape - she has to wear it 23/7 for a few months so we're praying she'll grow fast and it will be over sooner.

She's progressing so quickly. She took her first steps this weekend! When we got her she was barely sitting up and she has caught up so quickly. It has been fun to watch her conquer new tasks and then clap with us for her success. So fun!

Summer Fun with Cousins

Idon't know why I feel some need to "catch up" but I think I'll do a few posts from the summer and then maybe I can keep up on what is going on now.

We spent the 24th of July with my family and the kids all had great fun.

Hannah and Hadley enjoying the slides...


Some of the cousins playing after the parade.


Auntie Leesa and Abby



Abby checking out her cousin's ear.


Lindee and my sister Jenna. Aren't they so cute? People have said that she looks a bit like I did as a baby - lots of curly hair on top, big eyes and those adorable cheeks. She is such a sweet, happy baby. It is probably good we can't "special order" babies because I would be tempted to order at least one or two more just like her.

Public Service Announcement/ Olympic Hoopla

OK - why didn't anyone tell me that doing your own landscaping is a royal pain in the neck? It has been way more work, way more expensive, and way more dirt in my house than I had ever imagined. So I just feel it my duty to warn you that if you are considering building - just go ahead and budget that landscaping in and pay some nice professionals to do the job, or better yet, buy an existing home which is already landscaped. This is especially important if you have 4 young children and decide to have heart surgery one summer and then adopt a baby from China the next summer. You've been warned.




Oh how I love the Olympics!! This is our opening ceremonies party at Grampa and Grammy's cabin. It has been so very fun to watch the Olympics and all of the little stories about China. I'm the sentimental type who cries when they tell the personal interest stories, I cry for the winners and the losers, and I cry for the national anthem - ok, I've even been known to cry for commercials at times. I just love the whole thing - and adding the China factor has made it that much more meaningful for us this year. It motivates me to strive for greatness. I guess I've missed my chance at the Olympics (ha ha) but I intend to at least try and improve my level of fitness (or lack thereof) in the days ahead.

Mommy, the gerbil's tail fell off...

I made the mistake of reluctantly agreeing to 2 pet gerbils that we got from the preschool teacher. I was feeling like a bad Mom for not letting my children experience the joys, unconditional love, and responsibility of pet ownership. We had 2 kittens for a short time but one of the kids was allergic and a dog is out of the question at least until we have a fenced yard. So gerbils seemed doable. We picked them up on April Fool's day when Dad woke the kids up in the morning telling them to come into our closet and see the puppies. So then we got the cage and told them it was for a new bird at Dad's office and suprised them later. Their names are Emperor Palpatine and Pip (at least most recently, it changes).
Fast forward 3 weeks to yesterday. H. and her friend were playing upstairs and then came down and said "the gerbils got out of their cage" and while I was still processing that, since we were the only ones home and I would no sooner pick those things up than fly to the moon, she then added "one of the gerbil's tails fell off". I confirmed that with her friend - hoping she was flat out lying to me. Then I called S. and in my most panicked voice told him the story. He kindly offered to come home but I told him I'd wait the 20 minutes for the boys to come and deal with it.
A few minutes later H. came down with a little brown furry tail in her hand (ARGHHHHH!!) I think she was a bit suprised by my horrified reaction as I shrieked and told her to throw it in the garbage and we scrubbed her hands. She chuckled and told her friend "my Mom is scared of the gerbil's tail and it doesn't even move". I had to sit down and take a few deep breaths and then I ordered her to go up and shut her bedroom door (since that is where she claimed they were hiding) and then come downstairs.
When the boys got home from school they searched and couldn't find them and then I started contemplating who I could go and stay with until they were caught and back in their cage, or preferably out of my house. Dad got home later and fortunately found them hiding in H.'s room. However, I was reeling again later as I discovered blood on the baseboard inside of Hannah's closet where they must have been hiding. And then AGAIN, this morning, on the other side of her closet on the baseboard, on a cloth basket in her closet, and even on the carpet!! BLECH! I really don't do well with this kind of stuff. I thought of taking a photo for this blog but I haven't even been able to look at the little varmints yet.
Perhaps a dog wouldn't have been so bad...

Walking backwards off a cliff...

Surely all humans are born with the instinct to not walk off a cliff backwards. It is a very basic survival rule - passed down from caveman days. So when Shawn's adventurous sister and her family invited us to go rapelling for D & B's b-days I was fully intending to join only as the photographer. It was great fun watching everyone else defy gravity and literally walk backwards down a 25 - 30 ft. cliff. It was a little different story when they insisted that I give it a try. I have some issues with heights so I couldn't even look backwards until I was safely on the ground. It was scary but after I finished my second descent I decided it was really great fun. Beats the heck out of Chuck-E-Cheese for celebrating kids birthdays.

Happy Easter!!

Spring at last?? Oh, I hope so. We did enjoy Easter although it felt a little chilly for my blood. But apparently we won't have Easter this early again for another one to two hundred years. Whew!
We had a fun little Easter Egg hunt and lunch at Aunt Linda's. We really do miss our days in Kansas for the Baird's annual Easter Egg hunt. It was so ideal - just enough people but not too many, perfect place for hiding eggs and lots of food and good friends.

Not your Mother's Tubing...

We went tubing at Soldier Hollow and tubing has certainly been upgraded for this new generation of convenience. You hook your tube onto the tow rope and are pulled effortlessly up the hill and then you fly back down - at speeds that actually made me a little nervous, especially when my tube rotated and I couldn't see what was in front of me. Fortunately, we all survived the experience with no injuries and enjoyed chili and hot dogs in the lodge after.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!...Belated

We had some fun celebrating Chinese New Year this year. This party was with the Utah Valley Families with Children from China group. They went all out - dragon parade, crafts, yummy food, etc. Dad and Benj. stayed home but the rest of us had a great time.

Zion National Park

Wow! That is all I can really say about Zion. It really is spectacular. We went down for the weekend with the crew from Tesch Law Offices - a little office retreat. We got there late Friday afternoon and left early Sunday but it was a nice break.

We hiked Angel's Landing, actually we turned around at Scout Overlook - a 4 m. round trip hike - we skipped the last 1/2 mile to the top since it was narrow, steep and somewhat icy. With 4 little boys (our 3 and one of someone elses) we decided that might be a little risky.

Fun in the Snow

Since we live a mere 10 minutes from Soldier Hollow, a fabulous Winter Olympic site, we decided to take a little family outing to cross country ski for the afternoon. Daniel & Benjamin are "Little Vikings" so they ski twice a week but the rest of us are novices.
Hannah & Jacob tired of the skiing thing pretty quickly. Hannah was in tears whenever she fell down but she did a good job nonetheless. Jacob was a trooper also. After about 1/2 hr. they traded in their skiis for snowshoes and were much happier. We'll have to keep trying.