Tuesday Night Lights

As we watched Carter play flag football, this was our beautiful background.  Yep...pretty darn ugly :)

Carter has been a really great job this year with his flag football team.  Definitely better than last year!  He has even made a few touchdown.

But we aren't banking on his awesome football skills....definitely gonna get that college education :)

When your 5 in an 8 year old world

This sweet muffin....

....hasn't been so sweet.  In fact, she had a very difficult summer.  Unfortunately, her older siblings had a lot of great stuff going on.  Birthday.  Baptism.  More birthday celebration.  Running stuff.

And someone was feeling neglected.

And became naughty.

And Mom and Dad didn't know what to do with their "SO SWEET" Peachy.

None of the tricks we used on the big kids worked.  Now what.

There were several days when all she had in her room was her bed and dresser.  All her toys, books, stuff had been put into timeout.  We didn't know what to do.

A neighbor and very good friend gave me a wise piece of advice.  "Love them when they least deserve to be loved". 

Right at that time, the big kids went back to school and our Peachy was inundated love.  More love than she could handle.  And she earned all her toys and books back.  She filled up her "Happy Chart" with stickers and earned a trip to Chuck E Cheese.

Our Peachy is back.  We missed her.

And Mom and Dad learned a very valuable lesson about love.

The Family Cow

Several years ago, our church offered a family relations class to all members with children.  Tim and I took the class.  We were amazed by the instructors; our current bishop and his wife.  WOWZERS...did we learn a lot of valuable parenting stuff from those two.

They told us the  story of their family cow.  The "cow" had to be milked every day.  Fed every day.  Taken care of every day.  Whether they were tired or sick or just plain lazy.  They do all these chores everyday because the cow provides a lot of valuable "stuff" (milk...butter...cream...beef).

The bishop related this "cow" to piano lessons.  Piano lessons are a pain to do everyday.  BUT they provide lots of valuable "stuff".  This little life lesson about hard work.  Sometimes we have to do things we don't like.  But we do it because it is good for us.

SO the Barlow family bought a cow to learn one aspect of hard work.  To learn about music and all of its benefits.

And piano lessons started last week.  I think I had to psych myself up more than the kids.

(excuse the blurry iphone picture)

Practicing has been one extra thing to do each day.  But I'm excited that we are learning about quarter notes and forte/piano.  Someday, I hope to look back when my children are playing beautiful hymns and know this was all worth it.  But for now, I'm listening to bad versions of "Peter Peter Pumpkkin-Eater".

B.M.W.

The 4th annual BMW (Barlow...Macdonald...Wilson) campout just concluded.  The last tent was put away and the dirty dishes washed.  The dirty feet still need a bath.  But the memories are firmly etched in everyone's memory.

These two families are very VERY dear friends.  Heck...they have to be if they will go camping with US, they must be.  We all have small(ish) children and are willing to conquer the mountains.

This year we headed up American Fork Canyon to Mutual Dell.  We loaded several wheel-barells full of essentials for a 12-hour stay.

By the time we unloaded everything, the kids were fighting in World War 3 against chipmunks and the playing preschool.  Faces and hands were filthy.  (Dirt=happy kids)  Giggles were echoing throughout the trees.  Campfire was the new eu-de parfume.  Moms were commenting on the beautiful fall foliage in camp chairs and Dads were talking football.  It really was heavenly.

Food ALWAYS tastes better when eaten outside by a campfire.  Then came the s'mores....mmmmm...the sticky goodness!

We had a fantastic snipe hunt and the little black creatures (aka Oreos) were waiting for the kids when they got back from the hunt.

Our kids did a great job sleeping in the tent and were excited to wake up and start exploring immediately.

  I was sad to leave our little slice of heaven.  Everyone was getting along nicely and weather was still crisp!  But we had to head home to wash everything and fulfill our other obligations for the day.

Lately

Most nights, we put the kids to bed and I follow suit (because the running alarm clock goes off early).

BUT because I don't have a running alarm clock (sniff...sniff), I can stay up a bit later than normal.  So many of my nights are spent like this....

Foot propped up, working on some sort of quilt and a football game in the background.  Wow...that is definitely an old lady sterotype.

But I did just finish this beauty.

Since we finished the basement, we are needing a few more blankets down there.  Perfect.....

First Day

It has been two weeks since the big kids started school and FINALLY someone was able to start preschool!  It has been a long wait!!!

But she loved it and is anxiously awaiting to go back!

Harvest Time

We've been reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingells Wilder as a family.  The kids love reading about Almonzo and his adventures.  We just finished the chapter on Harvest Time.  The chapter talked about how a frost was coming and the family spent dawn until dusk picking fruit and vegetables.  The book explained how important it was to gather ALL the food so they could survive through the winter.

In addition to our home vegetable garden, we have a plot at the church garden.  Last weekend, we picked the remaining vegetables.  The kids played "pioneer children" while we were there and picked all our veggies.  I think they started to understand HOW much food those pioneers had to pick.

We were all excited to reap our harvest.

Carter was in charge of cantaloupes this year.  We had 10 of them!

Abby's watermelon

Cantaloupe, corn, baby pumpkins and watermelon

Part of our harvest....we had already eaten a lot of it

Abby's watermelon...she was sad it had seeds in it!

Dinner....everything was from our garden (except the bacon in the green beans)...YUM!

Now we just need to get everything from the home garden.  I still have a lot of green beans, raspberries, and carrots.