Service for Ike victims

Our Church is involved in thousands of humanitarian projects in hundreds of countries around the world, most of which are not Church-related. These include aid for disaster areas such as the Southeast Asian tsunami, cyclones in Myanmar, Hurricane Katrina, and the recent Hurricane Ike. Some ways we can help is by donating money or time in the efforts of clean up and first aid. We can also put together "hygeine kits" to be sent for relief of victims with no homes or very little resources.

So last night we and several other families spent our Family Home Evening time assembling these hygeine kits to be sent mainly to recent Ike victims in Houston. Every family brought a bunch of one item to add to the kits (towels, toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap, combs), and then we put them together in ziploc bags to be sent to the Church storehouse in Naperville, IL, and then to the disaster area.

We had a great time. The children learned about service to those in need, and we all had a good time visiting and eating lots of goodies. Thanks to the King family, the Price family, the Christiansen family, the Upton-Rowley family, the Reade family, and the Schilt family! And especially thanks to April for putting this all together!

Our master assembly line for the hygeine kits- children hard at work!

Still going... the children proved much more efficient at this process than I did.


Elin obviously enjoyed the service project, and especially the pumpkin cheesecake.

Sometimes You Just Have To Laugh

As all parents know, with small children there is never a dull moment (or a free moment for that matter). But I've found that's alright, because usually whatever mischief our children are getting into, it almost always puts a smile on my face. Whether it's making a mess, rearranging the house, or a "sibling quarrel", it almost always makes me laugh (almost).

Nate and Elin had their first DQ dilly bars yesterday. I think they both enjoyed them thoroughly. After raising who I thought was the messiest-eating toddler in the world, I thought Elin would surely be neater during meal-time. I was dead wrong. Elin is much worse, usually getting parts of her meal in her hair, down her back, and somehow in her diaper (???). Sometimes we're happy to eat outdoors in the backyard to ease the clean-up process, then straight to the tub!

When Elin takes some play-time in her room, she has developed the habit of pulling every wipe out of the baby-wipes container... individually. I'm not sure why she gets joy out of this, but let me tell you, it's sure a joy putting them all back in!


Elin has also been a big fan of peek-a-boo, and now her favorite way to play is with her garbage basket (don't worry, we don't put dirty diapers in this!). And yes, we've had a few bumps and bruises playing this way.


Peek-a-boo... Look at this belly!

Nate's Froggy Home

Nate has always been very interested in small creatures- from spiders (which I very much dislike) to small mammals. Because of our proximity to a field and pond, we often get large populations of frogs migrating nearby. Nate loves this, and almost everyday he has a new frog friend, which he knows he must let go back to its "family" after not too long. But he always struggles with where to put his new friends. So yesterday we built a homemade frog/toad "aquaterrarium"... complete with water, rocks, plants, and a sun-warming rock. He then had to find small crickets for the frog. He learned that frogs/toads are amphibians and therefore need to be able to go in and out of water, and the new home needs to accomodate this. He's very proud of his froggie's new (temporary) home. In fact, he's so proud, he then wanted to make one for the large banana-spider in our window well. So we did.

Nate admiring his new froggie home.

In fact, we can't get him away from it.

Here's our toad... desperately seeking his freedom.

She Cracks Me Up

Well, Elin loves her older brother and wants (sometimes to my dismay) to be just like him. Nate takes swimming lessons and he is required to wear goggles. They even have the 2-year-old classes do it- so cute. Anyway from that, stems these pics. Nate left his goggles on the floor and Elin really wanted them on so, I humored her . . .

Potty Mouth? (at least it's clean!)

Every now and then, something comes out of Nathaniel's mouth that is not very good. It's not so much naughty words as talking back when he is frustrated or on the naughty spot. Well, April decided to take this "dirty mouth" situation into her own hands before it becomes a habit. I'm not sure if it worked. I know Nate is an ambitious little one, but I didn't imagine he was so determined that he would actually eat the soap. I guess we'll have to find some new techniques.

Our Very Own Chiquitita!

In our home, we have a fairly regular family ritual- kitchen dancing. These are some truly fun and crazy times in our house. We dance to all sorts of music- from Peter, Paul & Mary, to Erasure, to the Beach Boys, and, of course, ABBA. I grew up listening to ABBA- I can remember times my sister and I would play the record as loud as we could and sing along. Well, I never thought I'd be seeing Nate do the same thing, but here he is. His favorite song is Chiquitita. This is so funny! Enjoy! (be sure to "pause" the sidebar music so you can hear the video)

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And here is Elin following in her big brother's footsteps. I'm not sure where she learned to shake like this, but it wasn't me. It must come from April's side :)