Fun with straws and faces

Silly girls.

How I love silly girls.


And sometimes they are just super silly. Ava made this contraption with straws, and her little sidekick did what she does best, copied her sister. Also, Ava is in PJ's 'cause she had PJ day at school. She was so excited to wear her PJ's to school! When I dropped her off though, she said "I hope it really is pj day, or I will be embarassed!" So cute. That might have had something to do with the fact that when we piled into the car to go to school that morning, in a rush as always, I said to her "Ava! We forgot to get you dressed!" A momentary look of shock and fear crossed her face before she got my joke and laughed. It was so cute.

Michaela's Quilt

For one of her Young Women's requirements, Michaela decided to make a quilt. She had a lot of fun doing it, and she did it herself. I just showed her what to do, and she did a great job. I expected to have to spend a lot more time with her helping her than I did. She is either a natural or very good at following instructions! I explained each step once, showed her how to do it, then turned her loose. Except for a couple of problems, that was all I did!

She did get the pre-requisite training in ripping up seams, which even seasoned seamstresses still need to do now and then. She sewed one strip on upside down. After making her quilt, she said she wanted a sewing machine for Christmas! I told her I have my old one in a box; we can get it out, get it tuned up and then she and Payden can use that one whenever they want.

She tied this quilt, because we only had a couple of weeks. She did a fantastic job. I am so pleased that my daughters share some of my interests! It was fun to help her with this project, and she loves the quilt she made. It is hard to see in the pictures, but it is a yellow and white floral quilt in 12 inch squares. I made sure to let her know that I will teach her what I know, but that I was never trained; I taught myself what I know about sewing. Marlene did teach me how to tie a quilt, and for that I am very grateful. If my girls want to have perfect quilts and sewing projects, they will need to take classes or something! But maybe I am teaching them something more important; the joy of doing something for pleasure and not because of the outcome. Who said quilts need to be perfect anyway?

Our little tree

We always have our fake pretty tree, then a real tree for all our special ornaments. I love the smell of a real tree. This year, we don't have much room, so we got a little tree. A VERY little tree. More of a bush, really, but we love it, and it smells good. Please excuse the little one in underwear. We are casually potty training, and that night she was in undies.

Here is our finished masterpiece, with all our beloved ornaments.


Jason and I got all snazzed up to go to his office party. It is held in a country club in Draper and is lots of fun. We got a yummy, free dinner and a nice night out.

Congratulations David and Natalia!

In November, David and Natalia got married. We are so happy for them and excited for their future. And I am so excited to have another sister in law!

Traditions

This year when we were putting up Christmas decorations, I paid more attention to what my children were thinking and feeling about the whole deal.

Usually, I put up Christmas when they are gone or otherwise occupied. I would love to have a Norman Rockwell moment of family solidarity when decorating for Christmas, but lets be honest here. 4 children all clamoring around me saying "What can I put up?" "Let me do something!" and "Do you think this looks good here?" while fighting with each other over who got the last decoration to put up is not a perfect scene of Christmas joy.

But this year, with all the recent talk of traditions in the LDS realm, I decided to brave the chaos and let them help.

And I listened to them. All of them are so excited about Christmas this year. Even though we are in a new place away from friends and family, and they know we don't have much for presents this year. They are so in the spirit of it all. I know that part of what gets all of us excited are the traditions, but I hadn't realized how much the decorations we had were part of my children's idea of what Christmas means to them. Duh, I know, this is obvious, but it just really dawned on me that the things I have bought over the years just because I liked them or they matched have become so much more special to my children that I ever realized they would.

My children love the things we put out every year, recognize them and look forward to them. I listened to them say things like "this one is my favorite" and "I love this one" and "when did we get this one Mommy?" . I was able to focus on those things and not the chaos, and we came pretty close to a Norman Rockwell moment.

Then when all was decorated, they walked around oohing and ahhing, talking about Christmases past and their excitement for this year. And much of that excitement is due to our special things we use every year to decorate our house. So when one would come out of the box and I would think, "That one is getting old" or "I'm tired of looking at that one" I didn't voice it, and let the item be proudly displayed. I tend to like new decorations, but I don't think Christmas decorations should be new all the time. Sure, I will add some here and there, and occasionally one suffers an untimely death due to breaking, but taking out the same ones year after year are what makes our house look like Christmas to us. To my kids.

My favorite decoration that I own is a light up snow man that once graced my mom's house. The paint is worn off in many places, but I love it.

My kids feel the same way about our decorations. Traditions really are so important, no matter how big or small. They do create a sense of security, of belonging, of stability and love. I wonder what decorations each child will want when they start their own homes. I will be happy to give them to them, to continue the tradition in their homes with their children.

Except for my snowman. That one is mine!

Tattling

Corrine has picked up on the art of tattling, but hasn't quite got the whole gist of it yet. She has the tone of voice down pat, and the correct words. She must understand that when someone tattles, there is the chance of getting one of the others in trouble.

But what she doesn't get is that the person you are tattling on has to actually be doing the thing you are tattling about.

She will say things like "Ava's getting out of bed." or "Ava's touching the tree."
When Ava is not even near to doing those things.

It is so funny.

Language, honor, virtue and manners

Four things I believe that our society has lost over the years.

I could write a post about each of these four things, and maybe I will, but today I am thinking about language.

Last night, we watched A Christmas Carol, the version made in 1984. The special effects were laughable, but I couldn't get over the language used. (The movie got me thinking about the language, and then each of the other four things listed in my post followed language in my thoughts.) It is of course set in a time gone by, and the original story written by Dickenson, so one would expect the language to be "old fashioned". But that is precisely my point. I loved listening to the people in that movie speak, particularly Scrooge. The copious amount of beautiful vocabulary and the patterns of speach in that movie had me on the edge of my seat with enjoyment. I was happy to expose my children to such eloquent manners of expressing oneself.

Speaking during that era involved a lot of vocabulary that we have lost or forgotten about now.That vocabulary is wonderful and gorgeous and makes up a large part of why I love that era. But it isn't always the vocabulary that is distintive of that time. It is often the manner of phrasing and speaking that is different.
For example, a line from the movie last night spoken by Scrooge:

"Spirit, this is a fearful place. I wish to leave it."

Contrast that with what you might hear today:

" Hey, where the &*%$ am I? I wanna get out of here!"

Hmmm.

We shorten words, use slang, leave off letters altogether and even alter words in, I believe, and effort to be quicker in speach. I have often felt the frustration of not being able to properly express myself, that my existing vocabuly left much to be desired. Would that I could have at my disposal the language I heard in the movie last night. Expressing myself, I am sure, would not often be a problem.

I detest the language we use in modern day. I am guilty of using it, and sometimes when I listen to myself speak I notice how uneducated I sound. The language used by our society in modern times makes us, I believe, sound lazy, slothful, unintelligent and brash.

It is a pity that we have lost so much over the centuries.

Perhaps it is the language alone that keeps me coming back to those bygone eras, both in literature and film. Reading and watching (if the language is done well, such as in the movie we watched last night) things set in in the 1800's or early 1900's is always enjoyable to me. I have all of Jane Austen's works, and they are some of my favorites. I do love poetry, (if I can understand it; I have to comprehend what I am reading or I get bored) and the works of Shakespeare. (Although, Shakespeare borders on uncomprehendable sometimes, his era is too long past!) Any novel set in those times that gets the language right I devour. And I notice that while I am reading those things, I tend to think in and even sometimes borrow elements of their manner of speaking, both in syntax and vocabulary.

I encourage you to watch the version of A Christmas Carol we watched last night. Listen to the way that the characters speak, especially Scrooge. Compare that to how we speak today. And see if you don't agree with me. That we have lost something precious.