At our family Sunday school today the kids were so silly.  And its often like that at scripture study/FHE, really any time we are trying to teach spiritually. So, after giving up and putting everything away I was giving a lecture about how we al contribute to the spirit of a meeting and that the spirit can not fully be there unless we are all trying.  Ryan and I left with Luke soon after to go on a long walk since it was sunny and I wanted to get out of the house for a bit.  WE came home to wonderfulness.  BLake said he and RObbie were playing downstairs and said--do you want to surprise mom and dad--and they cleaned up the downstairs AND upstairs living rooms, set the table all fancy, made a chocolate cake, cut up the lettuce and made lemonade.  Then once we got home Hallie and Blake had us give them details on how to spice up the ground beef and make the taco shells and told us to go lay down.  Literally.  They made the full meal, and had the house cleaned.  It was heaven.

They all got the MVP award tonight.

Winter Wonderland of 2019

January hit and with it came ALOT of snow and its still coming almost end of February.  Probably the most since we've lived in Utah.  There have been quite a 2-3 storms that dumped a lot and then quite a few that were 1/2-1 inch of snow.  The canyons are packed with powderhounds and families like ours that need winter sports or everyone will be stir crazy--which is no bueno.   We haven't been sledding except once, but we have done a fair amount of skiing, especially once basketball ended.  And we've gone 3 weeks in a row and I keep getting more and more excited about going up.  Yesterday I didn't want  to leave and was sad that I'l miss next week's skiing since I'll be out of town.  It's just really fun to all do together.  It's a sport of all ages. The boys skied hard with James and Thomas the whole time, I'd see them from the lift, doing jumps off cliffs and takign steep slopes really fast.  Aubrie was babysitting but usually her and Hallie stay together and they aren't jumpers, they mostly bomb the hill.  Hallie especially skis so fast. Ryan has strapped Luke on the last two Saturdays while I "ski" with Clara--she actually skis faster than I do.  Yesterday we piggy backed onto Dave and Karla's babysitter at the Snowpine Lodge (the Pratts own and have renovated and it is INDCREDIBLE!).  They got an off duty employee that wanted to babysit for a bit and she watched Luke and Jacob.  It was so easy since its ski in ski out and it's right at the bunny hill so its so close.  It was ideal.   So yesterday we all just skied together for a run or two and then Ryan took Hallie for some more intense skiing and Clara and I went together for a few more runs.  She stopped halfway down the hill and said, "Mom, do you want to do the bumps and jumps track!!"  Sure.  And the first time I did it, its so narrow I couldn't really carve and I almost crashed.  Then it was easier every time after that.  I love hanging out individually with our kids.

Over the river and through the woods

Except the grandparents came to us. :)

Dad and mom are on their pre mission tour :) visiting each of their kids and grandkids for 10 days each.  Dad has never done anything like that before since he's always had work.  It was SUCH. A. TREAT.  They asked us to come up with a few projects to do while they are at each of the houses.  They spent 10 days at Curt's house over Christmas and then went to Driggs beginning of February to Jordans and then came down here to our house 2 weeks ago, spending a few days getting things cleaned up and ready in their Orem house and then they just settled in to our life here and we got to spend so much quality time with them. 

OVer lunch on Saturday as a family (this was a few hours after they took off headed to Houston) we brainstormed all the fun/helpful things we got to do with them.

Mom spring cleaned the kitchen twice (she redid it after Robbie exploded hot chocolate all over the stove)
Fixed our water softener and put in an access panel in the boys room so we can reach the back side of our utility area
Drove kids to school many of the days/picked up kids from school IN THE TRUCK!
Went to Grandparents day at the school (perfect timing!)
Upgraded our computer so we didn't have to get a new one (quadrupling our RAM and harddrive storage)
Helped fix the leak in our refrigerator that has been a problem for 7 monthsish
Helped install our new projector screen we found on an NPS run together for $6
Went to all of Robbie's basketball games and Hallie's game on Saturday
MOm had ad lots of chats with Aubrie, encouraged her to Valentine doorbell ditch all the YW (and took her to the store to get candy for candy grams to do it)--and then took for the the church parking lot to practice driving
Mom took the kids to Walmart MANY times (its one of their fave things to do with her)
We did a last minute date to Bombay House for Indian food and then watched "Buena Vista Social Club" and had IC the night before they left
Movie night to watch "Wonder"


And lots of other little things--scripture study, shows, answering and asking lots of questions/side conversations, etc. 

It is such a comfort to be around them.  They are so calming and steady.  Every once in awhile I would complain about the cost of something, or our trailer being stolen or something like that and dad's response was always "it is what it is".  Which is literally how he lives life--it is what it is and there isn't any desire or need to give unneeded worry, stress or effort on things that are unchangeable.

They leave to Adam ondi Ahman in a few weeks to be groundskeepers for 22 months and it really is an ideal mission for them.  And an incredible time to be there and have the spirit and holiness of that place soak in.

Grandparents day

It has been a very few times (maybe once prior) that the kids have had a set of their grandparents to go to grandparents day at the school.  I don't read the emails since they haven't ever lived by us so last night when one of the kids said, "are you going to my school tomorrow for grandparents day"--I didn't realize it was that time of year :).  Mom and dad rearranged a few things to make it happen and there were class songs, strings performance, lunch all together, visits to their classes with homemade cookies and lots of handwork/art work, etc all laid out in the atrium from each of the classes. It really made me so happy that the kids had mom and dad there and could show them around and mom and dad could see this huge part of their daily life--without Ryan and  I there.  I felt lucky.

 I love the kids' school.  I've said it so many times but I just do.  I feel like they just nail it when it comes to educating and creating a space for kids to feel loved, safe, super curious and well rounded.  Do they push the kids super hard to be reading by 4 or to be 2-3 grade levels above in math.  No.  and over the last several years, especially since homeschooling and reading so much about educating children, I've realized so often pushing kids in that way can harm their ability to learn in the long run.  Kids are naturally curious and want to learn about anything and everything if they are allowed the time, space, quiet, correct resources to do it.  I've watched things change for our kids over the last several years with regard to school.  They have always done well but I think its much less out of duty now and more because they genuinely like to be there and what/how they learn. And they can and want to learn and really enjoy it because their daily success is measured differently.  I've watched it happen over these last 3 years.

It would take me a few pages to explain their approach to math and reading especially, but I totally dig it.  Blake is our first to have "started" school in a Waldorf school--so its been his only experience with formal school and it is really working.  He has been read fairytales and fables for three years now and learned to draw, create, build and recite back what he's hearing and as many of the details as possible.  And they learn letters visually (like m is a mountain) and they really create through stories these visual images and they make letters with their bodies on the floor and then because of all the listening practice (they'll hear the same story every day for a week, so they really get the depth of the fable or fairytale) and his reading comprehension is phenomenal because of it.  Statistically, Waldorf schools don't have children reading until 1-2 grade and then they really take off and by 4-5 grade when most kids are finally labeled as a bad reader, they don't have that problem, because they waited till their brains are more developed and teach in a really thorough way.

THe school has pods in each of the grades areas with a completely stocked kitchen and outer area and it is AWESOME!  The call that common area the hearth at the school and each hearth has cool sitting areas and tables and lots of yummy, healthy food that the kids can always choose to go out to get some from the hearth mom (there are 2 per pod area), or if they need a time out in a positive way, they can go get some oatmeal or toast and tea or dried fruit and kind of take a pause.  Those hearth moms also can read to them or just talk about what they need to.  It's been so interesting to watch how the hearth has been utilized and all the kids see it as a warm, safe place (like hearths used to be back in the day).  And the kitchen is such a hub for learning, especially in the older grades, they use cooking, recipes, measurements, etc to teach math, etc.    Their gardening instructor, Ms. Bell, in the winter months uses the food from the farm the kids help at and teaches them how to cook different recipes during their gardening hours.

I went to put Luke down in the later afternoon after school and came out and was cracking up.  So "teenagerish" and winter cozy. After talking through some things about finances and headphone/music usage late last Sunday after the younger kids were in bed, Robbie decided to buy a used Ipod Nano from Elliot his best friend at school and he has been pretty excited about owning a gadget and listening to music that way. 

We have been trying some new things with Luke and sleeping--holding the bear when I nurse him so he'll have something in his crib that he feels secure and comfy with, and also watching him for tired signs and putting him down as soon as he acts tired (usually only awake for 3 hours at a time), and its been a better sleep situation for sure.  He slept 10 hours at a time for the last 4 nights as well as longer naps.  Sleep begets sleep.  If he naps well, he sleeps well.  WE also do a pretty specific bedtime routine with a bath (usually), a few books, a song and I hum and massage his legs and feet while I nurse him and then stop nursing him before he's totally asleep so he makes his final sleep ascent :) not nursing.  He is THEE cutest little chocha and we all are a little obsessed. 

WE called grandpa Haynie yesterday and invited him to come for Sunday dinner and grandma's tacos today.  He seemed a little surprised and glad for the invite.  We decided to only invite him so that Ryan and I as well as the kids could really interact with him.  And it was such a highlight.  He told lots of Pacheco stories (Where we lived up in the mountains--3 hours to get there by car and usually people went by foot, wagon or horse, no plumbing--all just used the town well, and no electricity (still)).  He told us about his days working for Aftosa out of la Cuidad de Mexico and spent some time going through the mountains to different villages on horse to try to vaccinate against the hoof/mouth disease for animals.  HE told the kids about how he met/"courted" and asked grandma to marry him.  We talked about the "nonsense" of Trump wanting to build a wall between us and Mexico and lots of other things.  We also watched a lot of the "Luz de las Naciones celebration the kids sang in the childrens choir.  He seemed to really enjoy that especially.  He is such a good good man.  I am so happy to spend time around him.  He has moved from their home in Orem of 50 years into the Risers home about 2 months ago and in a lot of ways is probably so lonely and ready for his next adventure and to be with grandma again.  He can't drive anymore and so many other freedoms are gone. TOnight we were talking about making dinner a regular thing and Hallie asked if we could have him come every Sunday.  He is such a good example to me of so many things, being valiant at the top of the list. 

Showing the kids Glen Calhoun (the Mexican cowboy:) who is also grandpa's dad.

Hallie is following in her older siblings footsteps and we told her she could plan a game night this weekend.  She was SO excited.  WE went and bought stuff to make sundaes together and she and Blake planed out activities (chase Blake, reverse charades, dance add on, making a commercial, etc and wrote them on slips of paper and each girl chose one out of a cup every 20-30 minutes and they would do whatever activity the slip of paper said.  They all just giggled the whole night.  I love the kids' friends a lot!

Hallie had the patience this morning ("I am fasting anyway mom") to get Luke really ready for church.  He looked sooooo cute.  I am really liking this 9:00-11:00 schedule!

Blake made a full body spiderman suit with mask and web (See below) today throughout the day.  SO creative