Look Who's FOUR!

Rebekah had her birthday last week, and what an event that was!

A huge flower cake

A party outside

Brothers in the ball pit!

And new clothes with a doll to match!

Some random info about our beautiful girl:
♥She loves to help
♥She pretends to be shy in large group settings, but in home-like settings, she's very outgoing and lively.
♥She is very strong (she can knock me over if I'm not looking and she bowled over both her brothers in one shot today.)
♥She is learning to sound out words and is getting good at spelling them too!
♥She can count to 13.
♥She can say her Alphabet forward and backward.
♥She knows at least 2 articles of faith, but could probably recite most of them with a few little prompts.
♥She loves acting out scripture stories.
♥She is observant and notices when someone needs something, sometimes before they even notice themselves.
♥She is the best little table washer in our household. She can get the kitchen table clean in 5 seconds flat. (And it's cleaner than when her brothers spend 5 minutes cleaning it.)
♥Her favorite toy right now is her doll house, if we let her she would sit in front of it for hours at a time. (assuming her brothers didn't come in and bother her)
♥Her favorite clothes are anything Mom doesn't like. (She seems to lean towards tom-boy type clothes.)
♥Her favorite foods are pancakes, quesedillas, and macaroni and cheese.
♥She is a great blessing to our family, and we sure love this little four year old!

A tired girl

Rebekah fell asleep at the dinner table for the first time that I can remember. It was kinda funny. She nodded for a few minutes and then finally just gave up and laid her head down. She must have been very tired.

Camping trip

note: So as not to disclose our location to unwanted readers this post may have obscure descriptions.


This past week we decided to go on a family camping trip again. (I don't think I mentioned our first one to a state park near some water falls not too far away.) This was our second one with just our family at a state park. Because we have adopted children from the foster care system we get free access to state parks for 5 years including free camping. That's why we've been choosing state parks. This time we chose a state park almost 3 hours drive from our house. We chose this location because it was within 20 minutes of a temple Timothy and I hadn't been to before.



We were able to set-up camp and walk by a river and roast hotdogs and marshmallows. The children had napped in the van on the way there and even thought we put them to bed late it still took about 3 hours to get them to sleep. (That was the VERY frustrating part about the camping trip.) In the morning we packed up and got into church clothes and drove to the temple.

Timothy and I took turns doing a session while the other stayed out with the children. It was kind of a long day and we still had a 3 hour drive home. But, it was worth it. And it was nice to see this smaller temple that we hadn't seen before. They are all so beautiful and full of the spirit.

"I love to see the temple"

Making messes

Homemade play-dough

The children wanted to help me make play-dough. Their old play-dough had been drying out from being played with so much and also got left out a few times. We love making our own play-dough. It's cheap and we love the consistency of it, and there's only one color which means no fighting over colors!After we make play-dough we get to play with it!

Play-dough Recipe

1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
2 tsp. cream of tarter
1 Tblsp. vegetable oil
1 cup water
food coloring

Combine all dry ingredients and oil in a saucepan. Add food coloring to the water until desired color is reached. Gradually add water to other ingredients. Cook over low heat stirring continually until dough forms a ball and is no longer sticky. Cool and store in an air-tight container. (From an old Young Women Leader- Paige Nemrow)

Homemade finger-paint

We had this big long piece of brown paper that had been used as packing material in a package we got. I ironed it and then it was just begging to be finger-painted. So, I looked up a recipe online and made some finger-paint. We made 5 different colors.
And had a fun and messy time painting away!And making hand prints, then smearing them.

Finger-paint recipe

• One-cup flour
• 1 1/4 cups hot water
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• Two-tablespoons salt
• Food coloring or tempera paint

Mix the flour, salt, and cold water in a saucepan. Beat the mixtures (with whisk or rotary beater) until smooth. Add the hot water and boil it until the mixture is thick. Beat until smooth. Add food coloring to add color. Store this in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
(http://www.everythingpreschool.com/recipes/paint/finger.htm)

I enjoy doing things like this with my children, but I just don't do it enough. I wish I did it more often. I've found when I take time to involve them in an activity with me our whole day goes much more smoothly.

A Bike Riding Summer

Ready, set, go!

This summer we have gone on a lot of bike rides. We've collected enough bikes for the daycare kids and my kids to each have one to ride, so 2-3 days a week we ride our bikes either to the park or just around the neighborhood. The kids love it.

Hyrum only lasts about 1-2 houses down the street before he gives up trying to keep up with the kids. Then I stick his bike in the triple stroller with him on it and he pretends to ride while I push him in the stroller.