Christmas Eve

WAY back when I was in high school, my mom decided to start our family Christmas tradition with a Christmas Eve dinner. She wanted to make sure that as we grew up, got married, and had children we would know that Christmas Eve was a special time with our family. And what a special time it is. We always have an amazing candle lit dinner, a program, and open a "special gift". Early on, the program was short and consisted of each of us playing a little something on the piano. As we got married we sometimes threw in our spouses. One year Rick and I even mixed things up with a recorder duet! Now that we have children we are off the hook and get to sit back and enjoy watching our children perform. This year in addition to the program we had a wonderful nativity program complete with speaking parts, vocal solos, and beautiful violin music. I'm so greatful to my mom for the traditions and memories that we have and continue to make.

All the grandkids in their new Christmas pajamas.

You may have noticed in the above picture that Noah was really doing his best posing for the camera!
The nativity cast.
Here are my little cuties!

Luke was the wisest wiseman, Noah was Joseph (and couldn't have been more pleased that Mia was Mary), Elijah was the happiest little shepherd (despite what he looks like in the picture), and Liv was a beautiful angel (just like she really is!).

I was so proud of Noah because his part included singing a solo. I was certain that he wouldn't want to do it so I made Luke practice it just in case. But, Noah practiced and practiced and performed his heart out that night. It might have been a little off pitch, but to me it was perfect. Elijah also sang a solo (which was suppose to be a duet with his partner shepherd who really just wanted to be a pirate and left the production in tears) and if you listened REALLY carefully, you could almost hear him! Oh well, it was the best a little shepherd boy could do.

The food was amazing, the program was great, the nativity was touching, but the best part of the evening was spending time with my family. The best gift ever!

Let the good times start!

Christmas is just three days away and I'm not sure who is more excited, me or the kids! Last night Chelsea invited us all over for the first of MANY parties yet to come. She totally out did herself with cookies, candy, and gingerbread houses. I'm not sure how she does it all while tending MY baby girl! The kids had a blast frosting cookies, decorating gingerbread houses, drinking caramel apple cider, playing together, and eating gumballs by the dozen. Thanks Chelsea. You are always one for a good time.

Are you smarter than a 4th grader?

I don't remember 4th grade being too hard, but in the last couple of weeks I have learned that apparently I am NOT as smart as a 4th grader. The first experiece that led me to believe this was a simple science experiment, growing a sugar crystal. When Luke brought the assignement home we woked together to follow the instructions, but after 4 days we still didn't have a crystal starting. My guess was that we didn't "saturate" the water enough, so we started over. Again after three days we still didn't have a crystal starting. I decided to look up some more detailed instructions online and was sure that we could get this darn crystal growing. Rick worked with Luke on the third attempt and once again we failed to grow a crystal. I tried once AGAIN, this time with a skewer (as opposed to yarn) rolled in sugar. This was the internet's best suggestion for getting your sugar crystal to grow. Four days later and nothing. Five days. Six days. Seven days, I poured out the whole sugary mess and called Luke's teacher to report that he would not be bringing in a sugar crystal, although we made many attempts!

Luke had strep throat the week of Thanksgiving and missed the whole week of classes leading up to the break. I stopped in one morining to get his homework and his teacher explained the math homework to me and said what a hard time the students were having catching on to the new way of doing multiplication. New way of doing multiplication? Don't we just multiply and regroup? Nope. That is WAY old school. Way 1980's. Now we use "friendly numbers", "communitive property", "half and double". There were seriously 5 different ways for the students to do their multiplication, none of which included regrouping. No wonder why the kids were having such a hard time. I couldn't even remember the many steps of each different way of doing things. I had to keep referring back to the teacher's copy that she made for me. I guess I understand that this new math isn't about knowing how do math, it is about UNDERSTANDING how to do math. Big difference. For instance, way back when kids start learning addition, they are now taught to do "double plus one", or "double minus two", or even "number families." Silly me, I still just add on my fingers! Back to the Thanksgiving math homework. I was getting annoyed to death with these new ways of doing things. At one point I thought that I had it broken down well enough

Me: Now you have it broken down and you just have to multiply 10 by 3.
Luke: I can't do that, mom.
Me. Yes you can. You know that when you multiply any number by 10 you just have to add a zero to the end of the number.
Luke: I know that, but we aren't suppose to do any double digit multiplication. I can't do 10 x 3.
Me: JUST WRITE IT DOWN!

Honestly? Luckily Luke was actually pretty good at this "new math" and figured most of it out without my help. But, even with Luke's help even I couldn't figure one question out. It was a story problem which not only did you need to figure out, but then it said "Sally got 1020 for her answer. What did she do wrong and how would you tell her to fix it." I HONESTLY couldn't figure it out.

What did Sally do wrong?

She doesn't know how to multiply and regroup.

Hilarity/Insanity

In raising children there seems to be a healthy dose of both hilarity and insanity. I've found the best thing to do is try to find the hilarity so as NOT to be driven to insanity.

For some reason I have been cursed with picky eaters. Dinners at our house have been unpleasant since Luke was about 3 years old. He is slowly growing out of his pickyness, just in time for Noah to pick it up. Let's just say that as INSANE as it can make me, there have been a couple of HILARIOUS moments with our picky eaters.

When Luke was about two years old I was tying to get him to eat some chicken noodle soup for lunch one day...

Me: Luke, you need to eat one bite of that soup or I am going to give you a spanking.
Luke: (with a big sigh) Just spank me, mom.

The rule in our house is no seconds or dessert until you eat everything on your plate...

Me: (seeing Noah slyly reach for the bowl of broccoli, which he happens to love) Noah, you may not have any more broccoli until you taste your chicken. And remember that you will not get dessert unless you eat everything on your plate.
Noah: (in a most unpleasant tone) Fine, then I won't eat any ice cream if I can't have more broccoli.

Sometimes my kids get upset about the MOST RIDICULOUS things...

Me: Noah, please go get me a towel. Noah, please go get me a towel. (I repeat many times to a child who apparently is deaf) Noah, please go get me a towel.
Elijah: (running into the room with a towel) Here, mama (yes, he still calls me mama!)
Noah: (throwing himself on the floor and yelling) I WANTED TO GET THE TOWEL!!!!!!
Me: Seriously???!!!

It seems that my life consits of wiping. Noses, bums, counter tops, floors, toilets etc. You name it, I've wiped it. Jack had been with us for four days while Chelsea was working, and on day four a funny little situation played out...

Jack: Aunt Olivia, I need to go to the bathroom.
Me: Ok, go get on the potty.
(Time elaspement of 5 minutes)
Jack: (calling from the bathroom) I'm dooooooone....
Me: Can't you wipe your own bum, Jack?
Jack: Nope
Me: Well who has been wiping your bum for the last few days?
Jack: (looks at me like I'm speaking Chinese)
Me: Jack, who wiped your bum yesterday when you were at my house?
Jack: I just went pee.
Me: Okay. (I then proceeded to wipe his bum and noticed that indeed he must have only gone pee for the past three days as was evident by what he had just done!)
Jack: (after getting off the toilet and witnessing what I just saw) Aunt Olivia, does log rhyme with dog?
Me: (Trying my HARDEST not to laugh) Sure does buddy.
(Sorry about the bathroom humor, but it was SERIOUSLY hilarious!!!!)

The other night my cousin Laura got married (CONGRATS LAURA!). Chelsea and Jack rode to Salt Lake with me and the boys, and on the way home Jack and Elijah could NOT stop fighting. They were fighting over singing/hurting ears, touching each other's car seats, pulling on each others car seats, coughing/hurting ears, who's penny was who's, being cold/hot...
After 40 minutes of the constant fighting I finally pulled over and got Elijah out of the car and put him in with Rick (who was following us). I had no sooner gotten back into the car when...

Jack: (Crying his eyes out) Now I don't have anyone to talk to. I'm lonely.

Chelsea and I just looked at each other and laughed... so we wouldn't go INSANE!

Happy Fall 'Yall

Okay, get ready for picture overload. I guess that is what happens when you don't blog for over a month. So much has been going on, here is a little taste of life around the Gunnerson's house this fall.

Livvy had her first taste of real food. That is if you can call rice cereal real food. She has since also had sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. She is getting way to big, and I find myself just holding and kissing her as much as I can.

Noah turned six on October 20th. The kids were all out of school for fall break so we decided to spend the day at This Is The Place State Park. It was such a nice day, and Noah was so happy to spend it with his best friend/batgirl... Mia.

Liv is such a great baby and just let me take her along all day.

All the kids working together to pull the handcart. They couldn't even budge it up this little hill!

The birthday boy!

It was a beautiful fall day.

Noah was fearless at the petting zoo. Actually I'm sure the animals were a little scared of him.

When we were at the petting zoo I just stood back and wondered why I pay to bring my kids to a petting zoo when we have two goats and a sheep of our own, and two neighbor dogs and cats who often come over for a visit. Basically we ARE a petting zoo!

Having fun in the leaves.

Aiming right for me...of course!

Oh I just love this handsome little face!

(Bruises, bumps, and scratches and all)

My mom had a wonderful fall party in her backyard for before we lost the warm afternoon sun. We ate delicious soup, visited, and enjoyed being together in the beautiful mountians.

Daddy's Girl

I guess it's only fair. I mean, all of my other children look like me (or my brother!). I couldn't expect to have that much strength in the gene pool. Eventually one of my children was bound to look more like their dad. Now Rick has one he can finally claim...his daughter! Yep, even though we thought that Liv looked just like me when she was born, the older she gets the more she starts to look like Rick. I hear it everywhere we go. "Wow, that baby sure looks like her daddy." "Oh my, she looks just like Rick!" "Well, isn't she daddy's little girl." Last night at dinner Rick was holding Liv on his lap and letting her suck on a piece of cantaloupe. Rick loves cantaloupe. I detest it. So here is further proof that Liv is truly turning out to be Daddy's girl. We were all laughing so hard at Liv sucking the juice out of her cantaloupe. Whenever Rick would take it away, she would instantly start crying until he put it right back up to her mouth. I took a darling video of her, but of course I cannot make it load. Fortunately, this picture is cute enough to get the idea!

Back to School

Where did the summer go? Didn't it just start? It's hard to believe that school is already here. I love the freedom and fun of summer, but I also love the structure and schedule of life during school. Both Luke and Noah have been very excited for school to start...and so have I!

This boy has been ready for school since his "BFF", Mia, went last year. Needless to say, he was extreemly excited to be going to Kindergarten.
I LOVE Noah's face in this picture. For all the trouble he gives me, he is very loving. He has been the MOST loving big brother Liv.
Noah gets on the bus at the babysitter's house since I am at work. Elijah, along with all of the other kids, walk him out to the bus stop. Poor Elijah was convinced that he was going to "tinderdarten", and was pretty disappointed when he wasn't going to school. Thankfully Marianne took pitty on him and started pre-school a week early so he could say he goes to school too.
Ready and waiting for the bus.
After I got Noah on the bus I drove to the school so I could see him go into class. As those kids walked by I could not believe how tiny they seemed. Noah is actually one of the bigger ones!
One week is in the books, and Noah has LOVED every minute of school. I was a little worried about Noah going to school because, let's be honest, he has um... "impulse control" issues. But, he has done SOOOOO well. My fears were unfounded. I asked him how he could be so good at school but still has a hard time making good choices at home. He told me he was good in school because he didn't want to go to the principal's office. He then proceeded to say we needed a principal at home!?!
Fouth grade. Last year in Elementary School. This boy has gotten so big. I am so lucky to have him as a help with the younger boys and especially Liv. This picture is actually a re-shoot of the first day of school. All of the pictures I took that morning didn't turn out too well with the sun and shadows.
Here's the best actual first day of school picture! He got glasses last school year once his teacher informed me that he couldn't see the blackboard. He looks so smart and grown-up in them.

Luke and I have been a little scared of 4th grade, based on all of the reports we have had from others. It didn't help when he found out that he got the most strict teacher in 4th grade! So far, Luke has really liked her and managed to stay out of trouble. You may not think that Luke is possible of getting in trouble in class, but you would be mistaken! He seems to have difficulty keeping his mouth shut! He is constantly in trouble for taking in class. A chip off the old block, I say! So far, so good for this year. He told me, "Mom, Mrs. Benoit doesn't know that I talk in class, so if I just don't do it then she will never know." Good idea. No need to let your history follow you into your new class! We'll see how the rest of the year goes.

What a fun time to see them so excited and eager to get to school and learn. I love it!