Heartwarming

Last week we had parent-teacher conferences.  I can see from home how I think the kids are doing, so it was nice to hear from their teachers how they think the kids are doing.  Both school age kids are doing well and received good notes.  I cannot describe how much it warmed my heart to know how the teachers care for my children, or how it brought me to (good) tears to hear that a teacher is keeping an eye on faces and anticipates struggles to address before they become problems.  I know we are not alone in having a  stressful year, but a year ago, I didn’t know how relieved I could feel this time around.

Thank you to all the good teachers out there!  These parents love you!!

Highlights of the Day

Since March Marcia and Hinckley have been attending Jiu Jitsu classes over Zoom. Today they had their third (from home) belt testing online. They’ve earned their blue belts! It is a lot of work and they are learning great things.

While they were doing that Corban watched a video in the dining room on an iPad and played with his Mr. Potato Head.  When I checked in on him, I found that he had stuffed his remaining candy from Halloween in the trunk.

Never Gonna Give You Up

There may be a global pandemic disrupting our normal plans, but we don’t have to give up everything we love to do.

For Halloween, which is likely my favorite holiday, we still celebrated with the kids.

Kids dressed up as Harry Potter, Hermione, and Ron. I told them I was Mrs. Dursley on wash day, and Jacob said he was the coronavirus and fake coughed at them every time they asked where our costumes are.

We used dry ice in pink lemonade to make “potion” to drink with supper, sent the kids on a scavenger hunt on the property to gather candy and snacks to enjoy, while we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

I made us some dairy-free nut free candy bars. We were pleased that they taste good.

I hope you were all able to make the most of such a strange time to have Halloween.

Rainbow Aliens

I have spent a lot of time around little humans. All my life. The older I get, the more I wonder what is going on in their heads.

There are (few) moments that I catch a glimpse of a memory that lets me remember a hint of what was in my mind as a kid.

I often ask the little people in my home what they are thinking. I always ask what they dream about, when I go wake them up.

Mostly they don’t answer. However sometimes they do!

There was a stretch of time that Marcia the younger would look at me, grin really big, and say “rainbow aliens.”

The best I could understand, after asking her to describe them, was she was dreaming about light fractals, as seen on The Magic School Bus. Hooray for Ms. Frizzle!

Now, she mostly tells about dreams that involve her kindergarten classmates. And her teacher. Oh, how we wish her teacher could move up to first grade with her…. More stories from kindergarten are in order. At a later date.

As far as the youngest goes, he never answers. Mostly all I can figure is that Corban dreams of milk and Daddy. And probably of trying to be like the older two, too.

Hinckley, though, he always has an answer. And recently, he has to tell me all about his dreams before I can even ask. Sometimes he insists that he has to tell me all the details before I am allowed to say anything. At all.

This morning was one of those mornings.

He dreamed about roller skating. With Marcia. And it “was the best dream ever!”

Life is an adventure

I just want to share a few lines of “Boundin'” from Disney’s Pixar Short

“…
Now sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down,
When you find that you’re down well just look around:
You still got a body, good legs and fine feet,
Get your head in the right place and hey, you’re complete!

Now in this world of ups and downs…
So nice to know there are jackalopes around.”

We are here. We are still here.

Here we were on Halloween:

halloween2015

Yes that is a third shark.

For more information, watch this video:

Picture Time

 one month old

 still one month old

 Mar©ia wanted to play in the snow, first thing I saw her doing was trying to drive her car.

 Jacob showed her how to make a snow angel

 she had fun making one herself

 the went “sledding” in our back yard

 she loves the snow

 she made her first snowman

 the next snow fall, she asked if she could help shovel

 meanwhile, Hin©kley was inside warm and happy

 then when I looked out the window, they were standing next to her second snowman

 family shot after Hin©kley’s blessing

 I like this one because Mar©ia was holding Hin©kley’s hand

 happy little guy

 this is a better shot of the outfit

 Mar©ia really likes to play inside boxes these days

 she was hiding “where’d me go?”

 “SURPRISE!”

 two months old

 he has been working so hard to get his hand to his mouth

 about half the time now it ends up in his eye, poor boy

 happy guy

 great smile

 even when the picture turns out blurry

For unto us a child was born

Copyright2012 has arrived (5 ½ weeks ago), and he’s a BOY!

Hinckley Elias Thurman was born at 5:56 p.m. on 20 November 2012. He was 8 lbs, 4 oz and 19 3/4 inches long.

He is named for Gordon B. Hinckley and for his Great-Grandfather, Lern Elias Prickett.

All went well with labor and delivery.  If people are interested, perhaps I’ll tell our story, it’s not all that “exciting” of a story, but it is our story.  We were discharged from the hospital on the 22nd (Due Date a.k.a. Thanksgiving Day).  So, we had a pretty great Thanksgiving this year!

Now here are some of our favorite pictures since Hinckley came out:

family of 4

even Hin©kley stuck his tongue out

two hours old

Mar©ia wanted to participate in the bracelets picture

almost two

“Is he a doll?”

7:17am exactly two years old!

she asked for a white cake with color circles (sprinkles) and pink ice cream and to wear a shirt with hearts

we taught her how to climb in and out of the crib with a step-ladder while I recover from delivery

sleepy baby

happy baby

Hin©kley was crying, I tried everything to calm him, nursing, burping, cuddling, rocking, singing…nothing worked.  Finally I placed his “Happy” on him, and immediately he grabbed onto it and was asleep in 3 seconds!

after church

she loves her tongue in pictures

“Are we ready?”

“Mommy thinks I am Handsome”

“We are ready!”

Merry Christmas!

“cheese!”

just chilling

sister and brother

 

My how time flies

So, here we are with time passing us by.  All around us we are bombarded by numbers and what they might mean to us. Sometimes we embrace the numbers and sometimes we abhor the numbers.

Today’s numbers that caught my eye are 26, 14, and 11:42.  26 weeks of pregnancy have passed.  14 more weeks (give or take) to go.  Which, by the way means that Thanksgiving and delicious Turkey are only 14 weeks away!  And it was at 11:42  pm that I realized that I had let yet more time pass mee by, and I wanted to get a belly picture.

Now for a couple of today’s antics from Copyright2010.  While I was making supper, by the way, I was reminded why I do not cook with tuna, I heard a crash in the hall, and a slightly panicked voice.  I looked to find the stroller tipped onto the back side.

As a result of using tuna in supper, “someone” decided it was better worn than eaten, (while I agree that it was not really worth eating, I still would not have opted to wear it!) it became bath time.  Marcia the younger has figured out how to turn the water on and off and hotter and colder, well she was trying to turn the handle, and it came off in her hand.  I don’t quite think she was pleased with that.

Happy Birthday Husband!!!

As the title indicates, today is Jacob’s birthday.

And his best present this today was when Copyright2012 cooperated and allowed us to see him!

In 3D!  It was really cool to see all the parts of the baby.  We even got to see an eye lens!  We do have a screen capture of that. 

Just in case I was not clear enough before the picture, it’s a BOY!!!

Boy or Girl?

We asked and we got permission to have our exploratory ultrasound in one weeks time.  So, while they are checking everything out and making sure all the parts are in the right places and working well, we hope to see if ©2012 is a boy or a girl. We invite you to make your guess now. After we find out we will reveal the answer.

In an effort to help you make a guess, you might like to know that I (Marcia) am a GIRL, Jacob is a BOY, ©2010 is a GIRL.

Is ©2012 a BOY or GIRL?