A family music video by Sam

Here is a video I made using imovie, I was just kind of goofing around with it, take a look, tell me what you think? The artist is M.I.A. and we got into her when we were in Europe.

let it be..

Isaiah has two moods: happy and whining - but mostly he's a happy kid. I stumbled upon isaiah playing with his "guys." i asked him what was going on and he said," this bad guy is in jail with his pet dinosaur." we finally bought makayah a pair of silky pajamas so she'd stay out of our drawers. she loves wearing these and will pose for us every time she puts them on. ready for winter! now, here's the top five: 1) we were all hanging out, munching on a bowl of grapes. isaiah took a small cluster and when he was done and the stem bare, he began to fling it to and fro, walking towards the staircase.he poked his head through the banister and flung his empty stem down towards the first floor. sam yelled out, "hey!" isaiah jerked his head around and stood frozen to the spot..."uh, oh." sam continued, "did you just throw the stem downstairs?" isaiah panicked and looked side to side, i'm sure he was trying to find the best escape route, and then he stammered, "no dad, it was a helicopter." sam stood up, "if i check and its not a helicopter..." isaiah threw his arms and legs out making a little x with his body, blocking the entrance to the stairway, "no dad! don't check!" sam stomped closer and closer, isaiah's eyes widening with each step. when he got within two feet of isaiah, isaiah made a run for it! he scurried down the hallway, ran into the safe haven of his room and slammed the door. sam didn't check, for all we know, it very well could've been a helicopter to him...but we did have a good laugh. 2) storytime began as it always does at the provo city library, with a magic genie puppet and a theme for the day. on this particular day, the theme just happened to be stop and go. the "teacher" as isaiah likes to call her, brought out a visual aid - a stop sign. isaiah who had pushed hisway through the chaotic crowd of kids, was of course, front and center - and very much smashed into the "teacher's" personal space. the "teacher held up the stop sign and asked the noisy bunch what the sign was. isaiah jumped up and down and yelled, "its an OCTAGON!" the "teacher", wide-eyed, looked at her assistant and whispered, "wow, what a smart kid!" now, i'd like to take credit for that, but i do not have any recollection of ever talking about octagons...who knows?? the first time i ever heard him speak of octagons was when he was in the kitchen helping me with dinner. he looked down at our chicken-wire patterned linoleum and said, "hey mom, there's octagons on the floor!" i don't know where he gets this stuff. :) 3) i suppose i can't leave out miss sassy pants. so, the sweet before the sour. she has learned to say prayers and it is so fun to hear her try to talk and try to pronounce things. if there is a word she can't say, she'll babble out something incoherent. that reminds me of a video i just took of her. we returned from the grocery store with a carton of yogurt. she loves yogurt and was trying to tell me she wanted some. i asked her what she wanted and it was so intense and growling, "grhugorwt!" it really sounded nothing like yogurt. lol. i'll have to post the video it was hilarious. 4) for some time now, makayah has taken to raiding my closet and makeup drawers. first she'll head toward my shoe rack, grab the pink heels, wrap a silky scarf around her neck, pull her purse up on her shoulders and wobble her way to the front door looking back over her shoulder, "Bye! Bye mom!" 5) But mostly she loves to make messes. we'd just returned from the grocery store and we brought in the groceries. as i left to get the second load of stuff, makayah had managed to open a carton of eggs and began splattering them across the kitchen floor. isaiah ran out to me, "mom! she's making a mess!!" a similar disastrous event involved yogurt. i got one small carton out for each of them, left for a second, and when i came back i found makayah had dumped her yogurt all over the floor and was now lapping it up on her hands and knees like a hungry kitten. all these events popped up into my head when i listened to president monson's talk during general conference. sure, it may not be the most fun to spend the afternoon wiping up slimy raw egg, or slimy yogurt up off the floor. and it does drive me crazy when isaiah gets into one of his whining moods or when makayah screams her lungs out to get our attention. but someday, i won't hear the sound of little boy's play-fighting noises, or new words being uttered and practiced. i know i will miss hearing their feet thud down the hallway, miss holding their little bodies during storytime, miss their tiny hands wrapped around my pinky. already, the evidence of isaiah's tall and heavy body is bittersweet, but its comforting that he still likes to snuggle. :) so, i cherish the moment, as president monson so wisely instructed, lucky for me, they are still so little. :) so bring on the dirty laundry, the sticky floors, and the smelly diapers, because a mommy is what i was meant to be.

Mama's Little Helpers

my excuse for not writing in a while...my kids have been driving me nuts. i feel like i've been running an endless race and have realized i've been going about things all wrong. but before i go on, the stories must be told because they are quite funny in retrospect. so here it is: for the past few months, makayah has forced me to take the role of cinderella. like there's not enough work for me to do already. i'm not sure if she intentionally destroys things to prove some point to me, or if she is just plain curious, "will the sticky, slimy, strawberry yogurt taste better if i lick it from my hair, or if i lick it off the kitchen floor?" what better way than to actually do it! next up, "lets splatter a carton of raw eggs on the floor, one by one - here and there, so there's less groceries for mommy to put away." great helper, right? but my favorite was when she and isaiah woke up especially early one morning, snatched a muffin, scuttled her way into our bedroom and sprinkled her muffin all along the side of our bed. thanks, babe. isaiah, my firstborn - and therefore far easier to train, is vigorously against mess-making and quietly ate his muffin at the kitchen table. makayah, i've noticed, is all about the attention-grabber. whatever it takes, from biting her brother to strutting around in princess dresses, sunglasses, and mommy's high heels. on the other hand, isaiah has taken a less-destructive, but equally annoying approach to getting our attention. his tactic - the whine coupled with fake crying. good grief! between the two, i'm just counting down until bedtime! but i have to admit, that both isaiah and makayah have provided great comic relief throughout the day, and i just can't stay mad.

Thank goodness for ECE

first off, i really love sam's creative design he's brought to the blog. i never had the time or patience to dilly dally with this spread or that song...and thankfully sam is great at it. with his greater interest and increased input, i've had more time to devote to some other pressing matters...like raising my kids! :) i've been feeling a little crazed lately and i don't think it has anything to do with the weather change, but more to do with the fact that makayah loves to dump her yogurt on the floor just to hear the squishy, splashy sound it makes. anyway, i've noticed that i tend to have times when i'm completely focused on my children and all my energy goes into being involved in their daily activities, and then things turn slightly and the backyardigans become my babysitter once again. lately, i've felt a little lost without a color-coded schedule on tacked onto the door of my fridge - yes, i'm a little ocd. BUT, it does help calm the nerves and create a more organized and productive feeling throughout the day. and i need that. the past couple of months being an early childhood educator, i know what i am supposed to do to really get the most out of this young age-hands on, age-appropriate activities. however as a full-time mother, sometimes you just need a break! so i will say, i do appreciate the television in MODERATION. the struggle is trying to find the right balance of actively being involved and taking that much needed break once in a while to work on non-household projects and hobbies. so once again, i've created an updated schedule to help me keep this balance and prevent me from falling into my uphill/downhill cycles. i finally broke out my preschool lesson plans from my byu preschool teaching days. and i think it may be helpful to some of you mommies who, especially during the winter, are scrambling for activities. here is the basic schedule and you can cut and paste where you like to fit your needs. every good and productive schedule needs to have an underlying theme to create a solid foundation. you can either ask you child what he/she is most interested in learning about, or if you child is too young to give you an answer, you can decide. since it happens to be the month of october, and the fact that isaiah is crazy about pumpkins, pumpkins it was. with the project approach, it is important to remember to include your theme into your hands-on activities. Theme for the Month: Pumpkins Monday:Art/Creative Focus Tuesday: Emergent Literacy Focus (Reading/Writing - for pre-preschool children it usually tends to focus on a letter of the alphabet or the letters in his/her name) Wednesday: Math and Science Focus Thursday: Library Day and Picnic/Playground Day Friday: Music Focus AND Movie and Popcorn Day This is a very general schedule intended to be flexible enough for the various families out there. however, i do have more detailed activities such as our "morning wake-up stretch", circle time, and accompanying story-time activities if you are interested. the hands-on themed activities are usually very simple, so keep that in mind. you don't have to wear your brain out trying to think of things to do. a simple nature walk with your child, noticing the changing colors of leaves, or crayon rubbings of various textures will suffice.

Ladies of our life