Non- Believers

There has been much discussion this holiday season about God, Jesus, and Santa. I was really hoping I had a few years before we really had to talk it over but Leah just can't let it go. Her dear friend has made many comments the past month or so about God and Jesus and it really started all the questions! Add to this the baby Jesus story in her preschool program and MANY Christmas songs and well......Keep in mind also, we are studying Ancient Times this year and with that comes much religious study including the bible. We have presented all this information simply as "myths" from this or that culture or "stories from the past". I tell Leah that it is not so important what she decides to believe, only that she respect that there will ALWAYS be others that believe differently. When she asks if Santa is real my go to answer is always, "I don't know, what do you think?" . This week, while driving home from piano she said, " Mom, are God and Santa the same thing?" "UMMMM AAAAA, GULP, what do you mean?" was my response trying not to say the wrong thing. That's all I need is my atheist kid going around the neighborhood telling all the kids that God is just Santa for adults. We live in a VERY MORMON neighborhood. She said, " They both give you stuff you want, and you get in trouble if you do bad stuff, and people talk to them(her friend has been telling her she will teach her how to ask God for things and he will give them to her. Even showed her a toy puppy she asked for and got!) I won't go into the rest of our discussion here but I will say that between the two of us we found SO MANY similarities between God and Santa. I was so surprised I had never made the connection before. And the end she decided that she did not want to believe in God or Santa. Mostly because of the punishment aspect it seems. She does not want "burn" or "get a rock" if she does something "wrong". I can just hear all the family members gasping now!!!! No SANTA!!!!!! When I tell people this story they always seem more concerned that my kids don't want to believe in Santa than that they don't want to believe in God. Funny. Stop fretting! Happiness, joy, giving, peace, family, togetherness do not need a label of God or Santa to be real. We will have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! The same stuff is under the tree if they believe or not. Although now I kinda want to just get them a bunch of rocks for fun!

Pip look-a-like

We fostered this cute little girl for less than 24 hours until she was snatched up by a family member! The girls sure had fun with her and we got the privilege of taking her on her first walk. It's so crazy to me when you come across a dog that has never been on a good long walk! What!? She was in heaven.

Pip!

A few photos of our new addition. I love him SOOO much! He really is the best dog I have ever met! And you all know how many dogs I meet. He is technically Leah's dog as she got him for a birthday present. But if I sit down, he is on my lap!

Christmas Recital

For the first time Leah walked right up to the microphone and announced her name and song! We did not manage to get it on video. Here is the rest.

grow box

Kate has become Dave's little shadow and wonderful helper in the yard this fall. She will help him "build" for hours! This little video is her "system" for building grow boxes. She repeats this cycle over and over.

Little Reader

Kate is very into reading books to her babies right now. She will line them up on the couch, bed or chair and read book after book to them. Sometimes it's a book she can actually read and in this case the baby usually "reads" the book and Kate praises her for it greatly! Funny to hear a toddler reading in what she thinks is a babies voice. Cutie pants.

Happy Halloween!

The first thing Leah said to me after finishing her song was , " I messed up twice!"

Perfectionism is a serious  struggle for her. She did great!!!!

Too much.

My computer is full! I need to empty all the pictures and videos off onto a hard drive. This means they will likely not be looked at for many years now. So her is the final dump of photos from this summer that I want to have easy access to. The new property, saying goodbye to Olive Juice- so many things should have their own posts. But for now....a jumbled mess of photos.

These are some photos from the 40!

Mary and Dave enjoyed some tree tipping.

Yes, this happened. Transporting the alpacas in the minivan.

My egg art. I wanted colorful eggs and I sure got them!

Kate really enjoyed picking and washing all the tomatoes this year.

She really will not leave these cats alone!

We said goodbye to our Olive Juice. Kate still talks about her most every day. She was a very sweet pain in my ass. I loved her so much and will miss her forever.

Leah really got into the owl pellet dissection! We still have all the bones....yuck!

Playing With Blocks

This is how we play with blocks in our preschool! Notice how Dave has all the blocks set up so the kids can easily grab them. Go Dave!

Kate's First Book!

Kate has been ready to read for a few months now. She knows all the letters and sounds they make well and "reads" to her babies all the time. I will admit I have been  putting it off. Not sure why but maybe it's hard for me to think of her being old enough to start reading. She is now only a few months younger than Leah was when she first started. So here we go! So far she LOVES it! Although she does not always like to start at the beginning of the book as you will see!

Lesson 1

Leah's reading ability has always amazed me. She has again reached a whole new level! I am also increasingly impressed with her comprehension and never ending drive to understand and define new and unusual words, then, actually use them in daily life!? What!? I kid you not, she uses the word "entreating" at least once a day now after starting this book last week. But watching her little 4 year old mouth read this is just too fun! She of course is on to lessons 2 & 3 now and can't wait for me to take videos of those as well. Stay tuned!

For Grandma Mason

Funny Pants!

Kate has developed quite the sense of humor. It seems she is always trying to make us laugh. I hope to catch some of her funnies on video soon. Just looking at these pictures makes me want to go wake her up and squeeze her!

Alpacas!

We are enjoying our new boys so very much!!!!

R.I.P. Sargon

  Out of 28 chicks we only ended up with 1 rooster. I would have preferred zero but it could have been much worse. Our good friend Craig came out and "Put the rooster to good use" last weekend.
   I will say I do sort of miss the crowing in the morning. But I never want to see my kids get attacked by a rooster so he had to go.
   So... yes... his name was Sargon. We are studying Ancient Times in history this year. This study began soon after we got our chicks and so far we have Sargon, Buddha, Confucius, Hammurabi, Cheops, Huang Di, Lei Zu, Anansi, and my favorite to hear Kate say, Shamshi-Adad.  We have only made it to the middle kingdom of Egypt and still have many more chickens that need names!