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Showing posts from 2017

Two weeks before Christmas

It snowed multiple times this week. We didn't get a ton of snow, but it was enough. The kids skated on a frozen pond one day at nature group. They enjoyed that quite a bit. We made half and half barley and wheat bread this week. Other than with Sara, it was well received. Because Sara didn't like it we probably won't make it again. Most of the week we have been doing Christmas things. It feels like we have most everything ready, which is nice. Alison reminds me that we still have seven more things to do... Friday we went with Amy and Dave to The Last Jedi. It was pretty funny, and the characters seemed to develop into deeper characters throughout the movie. I won't spoil it, but generally we liked it. The kids were babysat by Loren and his family while we were there. It is sort of funny to Mike that Alison is in contact with them more than he is, but that is what home schooling does. On Saturday we went to a performance of the nutcracker. The kids enjoyed it,

the Gunks

Oh man, we started up a blog post last weekend, and somehow never completed it. I am posting this late, because better late than never. Timmy's arm brace is now off. His thumb is still a little bit tender, but he is taking it manfully. On Wednesday of last week we went to the library as part of Rea's date night to see Santa. The kids enjoyed it. On Friday we went to Star Ward Christmas at the Off Broadway Theatre. It was pretty funny. There was this part where a character was dressed up in a small person costume (because he was supposed to be far away from the audience, not because he was supposed to be an actual little person.), and he was trying to move a large rock, which ended up being very funny. Gideon is talking a lot this week. He mimics quite well, and he is so cute. We decided to strip the minerals off of our cloth diapers this week. It is an amazingly huge task. It took hours spread over the course of two days. Now that it is done, the diapers are softer, a

Gremlins must have stole our post from last week.

Apparently we forgot to post about the trip to California. We went for the entire week of Thanksgiving. It was fun, however we mostly all got sick and were throwing up the last half of the week. Timmy was the only person that remained immune to the sickness. Mike even got it (Gideon smearing vomit on his face probably was the deciding factor). The kids were pretty good on the drive there, but Gideon screamed for hours on the drive back. We spent the last week mostly trying to get back into the swing of things. The kids suffered from grandparent withdraw, and the after effects of the sickness made it difficult for the adults as well. On last Sunday the Peruvian Park ward tithing settlements began. Mike was gone for hours, and he will be up until about Christmas Sunday. It is the hardest part of his calling, but it only happens once a year, so the calling is still a relatively easy one. This week Mike also finished his Ion Award submissions - this year he was able to prepare thre

Beauty and Les Mis.

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On Monday we had a family night. we went to see Beauty and the Beast at the library. It was a play put on by some teenage theatrical group who did a pretty good job. It was free, so for the price it was amazingly good, despite a few technical difficulties. The actors got extra time to talk to the kids before it started, and afterward Sara got to meet her favorite characters, the three silly village girls who follow Gaston around. Everyone really enjoyed it for a special family night treat. Most of this week, other than that, we spent getting ready for our trip. We made lists and packed containers and filled our car with everything we  could need. The kids were so very excited and wanted to help, although there wasn't much they could do. On Friday Alison and Mike went to the play Les Miserables at Hillcrest Highschool. They did an amazing job. It is such a good play, and they performed it with no small amount of skill. We were really happy that we went. We have purchased a year

The Hard-Working Worm

This weekend, Gideon finally took his next steps (apparently he took his first step several weeks ago but hadn't repeated it until now). On Saturday he was standing up and saw something he wanted and took three solid steps before sort of collapse-shuffling the rest of the way. That evening he took another two steps, and Sunday afternoon he took one solid step and then collapsed on the next one. We're all very excited; he may be walking a bit by Thanksgiving! The bulk of Saturday we were participating in Extra Life, which is a charity event that Mike's work put on an instance of. It is to help the primary children's hospital. We raised over $1000 for the hospital. It was pretty fun. Mike liked best playing games with the kids. You can see some of the games we streamed here . Alison has been re-adapting to polyphasic sleep after giving it up when everyone was sick a couple weeks ago. If you've been polyphasic for more than a few months, you're supposed to be a

All God's Critters

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Gideon is a year old today! This week he has really started talking. He says very simple things, but he is actually communicating what he wants to now. Some of his favorite words are: "See!", which he says while showing us something that he is holding. The correct response is "Yes, I see it." After that happens, 50% of the time he will try to put the item in his mouth, but the other 50% of the time he will say "Throw!", and then throw it across the room. He is by far the best thrower that we have had in our family at this age. He still signs some of the time, but he mostly likes talking. He regularly summons his siblings by saying "Rea!", and he likes to say "Hi" and "Bye" to people. He also is still right on the cusp of walking. Any day he might decide that it is worth it and do it. He is not the type of baby to be bossed around, so we basically have to wait for him to be ready. Timmy has been singing "All Go

The Emeritus Eagles

On Tuesday we went to the ward trunk or treat and chili cook off. The kids enjoyed visiting all of the cars, and we all had a good time. The chili and the company both were good. Also on Tuesday Timmy told Mike and Alison that he was an emeritus eagle. It took a while to figure it out, but he meant American. On Wednesday we went over to Scott and Sheila's house. Mike was showing Scott the ins and outs of the laser cutter, and the whole family came over too. It was fun to talk to them. Sheila has an idea for a website for Mike to make. It sounds like a good idea, and perhaps it will be lucrative too. On Friday, Sara and Timmy both started throwing up. They felt better by Saturday, and then on Saturday Alison and Gideon started showing symptoms of a cold. We are not sure if we just have two independent sicknesses going through the house at the same time, or if they are related. Either way, the cold is lasting much longer than the vomiting. Mike and Alison have contin

The fall comes on little cat feet

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On Monday, we had a special treat. Grandma Julie came to town to spend a week at the cabin with her sisters, and we picked her up at the airport and went to the zoo all day. It was wonderful! Grandma said that she should start coming to Utah once a month, spending a day with us and a night with Patty before going home. We would sure love that! It was great to talk and play and see all the animals. This week Mike has begun getting ready for the Ion Awards again. He has three games this year that he hopes to have ready by December 1st. That is a month earlier than is usual, but he still hopes to have them all ready in time. He has also been doing more work on the website that he is making in his spare time. It is nearly ready to show off to the board game design community. Perhaps in a few weeks it will be done. Gideon is working on standing and walking and climbing on everything. This week he learned to stand for much longer at a time and once even picked up a foot while standing

Meerkat baby goes berserk!

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Gideon became a meerkat this week. He can crawl around, stand up on his two legs (without any support), and then squat back down to crawling all by himself. He seems to be closer to walking than he was before, and his balance is getting much better. This week Sara, Rea, and Timmy all drew all over their faces. It took quite a lot of scrubbing to get it all off. Perhaps this will be a learning experience for them. They also carved some pumpkins. We are not sure what they were supposed to look like, but they are pretty scary. On Thursday Rea invited some friends over for a Halloween party. It was supposed to be a costume party, but no-one showed up in costumes since they all cam straight from school. They cut corn tortillas in the shape of pumpkins and coated them with orange oil, and toasted them into chips. Rea was very excited about this recipe. Other than that they mostly played outside. It was Alison's type of party. Alison and Mike have been dreaming of making an onsen

Goose Game

Alison has been on an alternative sleep schedule since Monday this week. She has been sleeping 4.5 hours each night, and taking three 20 minute naps during the day. According to her research, it takes a few weeks to adjust to the new schedule, and after that she should feel normal again. On the first two days she felt pretty much normal, but Thursday and Friday she has felt sleepy during the day. She says that after having four children, it isn't anything that she hasn't experienced before, but she is looking forward to the adjustment period being over. If she isn't feeling normal again by the end of October she is going to go back to normal sleeping for a while to reconsider her plans. On Tuesday, a new DB technology - Firestore - was announced by google, and Mike is going to use it on the website that he is developing. It addresses some of the concerns that Mike had about the Firebase realtime DB. On Wednesday Timmy's cast came off. They put his hand into

Not to have anything planned

On Tuesday the kids and Alison went up to Nature Group, which was not at silver lake this time, so they didn't have to deal with snow. It was at a pond, and the kids did a nature scavenger hunt. They had fun looking at minnows and quacking like ducks. That evening, Mike brought his game to the BGDG to have it played in order to try for guild approval this week. It was found wanting. The rule document was not up to snuff. He will certainly work on it some time before the end of the year, and try again. Wednesday Alison went to writing group, and wrote her first draft of her first chapter of her book. She is rewriting it with the eventual goal of making it publishable. It went well. On Thursday we didn't have anything planned at all, so we built a fire, and after the kids went to bed we played a game of The Madness Place (one of Mike's board games). It was nice to not have anything planned for once. Friday we had a babysitter and went to a play. It was "Foreve

When Alison was a Rustler

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On Tuesday Alison and the kids went up to silver lake for their nature group. It was rather cold down here, so Alison rustled up all of the cold weather layers that weren't packed away and put them on the kids. Then they got up there and it was snowing, and she realized that it was not enough. Sara has not outgrown her inability to deal with cold. Despite her warm clothes and carrying around a hot sweet potato she was miserable within half an hour. Then Timmy started whining too, and Gideon (just because everyone else was.) It was not the most successful nature group ever. On Wednesday Alison came down with a cold, and in an attempt to get better faster before the primary program she tried to eat no grains nor dairy the entire time. She got better in two days, so it seems to have been successful (or maybe it was just a blessing). On Friday we went to the Stromberg's house for dinner. The kids played, and the parents talked, and it was very fun. I dropped off the 3d prin

Cold is warmer

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We missed posting last week, so this post will cover two weeks. Last weekend we went up to Silver Lake for a hike. We saw a moose in the wild, climbed on rocks and trees, took a nap in the woods, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Timmy really wants to go canoeing on the lake. I can't imagine dragging a canoe up there, but maybe one day... The kids did really well, and they hardly complained at all. After going to silver lake, the rest of the week we had a lot of meetings - Alison's calling, Mike's Board game design guild (BGDG), and Alison's writing group each claimed a weeknight. Mike tried to get his "Grab the Loot" game played with 6 players at BGDG, but there were not enough people there for that to happen. He has been preparing this game for submission to a publisher, and it wants some more playtesting at that player count. He is also trying to fit the game into a mint tin for the mint tin design contest. So far it is fitting, but he will perhap

The surgery and surrounding days

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This week Timmy has started drawing things that look more like things than like scribbles. He usually draws people and robots, and they have faces, limbs, heads, and other body parts. Sheila was gone until Wednesday, so we volunteered to keep babysitting Petra Monday and Tuesday. It's very easy to have her when we're at home; she plays happily with our kids and doesn't take much effort. Monday we picked up Grandma Julie at the airport and went to the zoo. We always love the zoo. However, this was not the best visit the grown ups have ever had. It was very hot, and Petra would wander away constantly and didn't like to hold hands. We saw the bird show and the elephant show, though, which was great. Rea finally got invited to participate in the bird show; she gave a water bottle to a cockatoo at the beginning so he could drink it and drop it, and then the trained raven picked it up and put it in the recycle bin. Rea has always raised her hand when they asked for volunt

Something can stop the Smooze.

On Tuesday we arrived home from vacation. Mike went to the board game design guild, and played someone else's game. After Tuesday we have spent most of the week getting back into the swing of things. Mike has been working from home on Wednesdays, so he did that the day after getting back. Friday we went to a play - The Grand Duke  by Gilbert and Sullivan. We like all of their plays, and this one was no exception. The ending was totally ridiculous, but most of them are fairly so, it was expected. Also on Friday Petra came over and played with us. She is coming over a few more times next week so that Scott can go to work even though Sheila is out of town right now. On Saturday we had Scott and the kids over, and the kids played Titanic in the canoe. It was fun to talk to Scott, and the kids had a fun time playing together. Timmy wanted to write this week that we played Smooze , which is that Mike is a giant evil sentient purple blob that is throwing balls of himself at peop

The eclipse

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This was the last week that the pool was open, so we went to the pool on Wednesday so that the kids could show Mike how much they improved their swimming this year. Rea can swim all over without any problem, and was jumping from the high dive board as well. Sara is now swimming very well, and Timmy is bravely walking away from the stairs and playing around in the area where he can touch. On Thursday we all went to the dentist, and only one person had a cavity. On Thursday we also got another quarter cow from a local farm. Our last one lasted 2 years, so we apparently eat about an 1/8 cow worth of beef each year. On Friday after work, we drove out to Grandma Sheila's and Grandpa Mike's house so that we could see the solar eclipse. We spent the weekend with them, going to the pool, their local waterfall, and also talking with family members. It was a fun trip. Some of Grandma Sheila's brothers came to see the eclipse as well, so we had a full house. The eclipse was re

Sara's big adventure

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The sunflowers that we planted this year are growing very big. Rea uses their leaves to hide under when it rains.  We plan on planting the seeds of the biggest one, and harvesting all of the rest of them for food. On Monday Alison and the kids played in the creek at the park where the pool is, and for the first time we met three other families at the place that we didn't even know. The big kids caught minnows, and one of the families had a dog. Gideon loved it, and tried to say dog a lot of times. He didn't sound exactly right, but he has remembered the word, and has been yelling it all week whenever we see a dog. On Tuesday Mike went to the BGDG meeting, and he played the Madness Place. It went well, and he got some new ideas. Now he just has to implement them. On Wednesday, Alison went to her writing group. It was nice for her to be in a different group with non-published authors. It makes her feel more confident about bringing her own writing some time. On Thursday M

The Whale Ride

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Last saturday we got Rea's bike working, so this week she rode it a lot. Sara has been reading a book every day to learn more about reading. We are hoping that if we do this enough she will start to like it. This week Timmy has been singing a lot of songs that he invented himself. Gideon will crawl across the whole house and play by himself now. That is fun. Alison attended her second League of Utah Writer's meeting this week. It was a write in at a coffee shop. She hadn't worked on writing at all since the last meeting, so it was fun to spend some time writing. On Thursday Mike's work had a summer party. We were all invited to Lagoon. We hung out in the water-park area for the first few hours, and then after dinner went on a bunch of kiddie rides. All in all it was a fairly fun time. The kids loved the whale ride the most. It was a bunch of whales that you sit in and go around a circle while bobbing up and down in a sine wave pattern. It was fun to see them h

Three things

To start this blog off, we will have each person talk about one topic of interest, and tell three things about it. First of, Gideon, who chooses "a-de de" as his topic. He has the following to say: A bu bu bu bu A de de Gi de de de de Timmy learned all about wolly mammoths this week. These are his top three facts: They have big feet They have fur They have nostrils They have a big head They have long legs They have furry things Their butts are furry They have fur all over They are so big (He did downward dog to show this) They keep their babies safe They put their trunks up and walk around for everyone to see like this (he put his hands above his head here) Sara wrestled with Daddy this week. Her top three things about wrestling are: We pinned him (Daddy) down Sara is five years old I (Sara) love wrestling Alison decided to launch an online business to sell homeschooling stuff this week. Her top three things are: She is still in the planning phase S

Triple goal-days and a dead fish.

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I don't remember if I ever mentioned it, but Gideon is now crawling! Three weeks ago, on our vacation, he started scooting around on his stomach. By the time we got back, he could push himself up to all fours and then to sitting. Over the last two weeks, he progressed from scooting to crawling, and now he mostly crawls. He does the one-knee-and-one-foot crawl that most of our kids have done at this stage. It's very cute. Gideon has also started signing more, usually by clasping his hands together and bouncing them up and down, but sometimes by patting his tummy. He also occasionally sticks his finger in his mouth to sign water. Both of those were goals for Gideon, so we had a goal day party. Timmy decided to pass off on his color goal, so he identified something of the correct color each time we said it, for a dozen basic colors. So it was a triple goal day party on Saturday. Timmy picked the menu: shells with sausages and mushrooms, in a homemade white sauce with Havarti c

More vacation and dancing.

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On the way to our vacation last week we listened to some books on tape. The highlight of the books we listened to was "Diary of a Mad Brownie." It was a fun book about a faerie that was supposed to clean up a bedroom of a slob. It was highly funny. We arrived in southern Utah and eventually found the cabin that Mike's parents rented for the Yoder reunion. It was a bit of a difficult job finding it. The cabin was beautiful, and we had a great time there. The cabin had a lot of mosquitoes (the kids think that this is the most pertinent bit of information about the cabin.) We spent an awesome day at the mouth of the Narrows in Zion's. The kids slept on bunk beds with Max, and the trip was very fun. Apparently Mike and Alison are bad at taking pictures, because we have no pictures of the entire trip. Next, we went to California to visit the Poulsons. The trip was long, but the kids were pretty good. The thing that the kids think is the most important to tell about t

Vacation Week

Alison and the kids were happy to get back to the pool to resume their swimming lessons during the first half of the week. Sara and Timmy are making good progress, and Gideon likes the water as long as he has a full body bathing suit. Rea is still swimming like a fish. For Rea's date on Wednesday we had cake and watched an episode of My Little Ponies. Becky's family was in in springville for the second half of the week, so Alison and the Kids drive down there daily to visit them. Grandma Julie and Grandpa Craig drove up to visit, and so they got to see them too. Rea particularly liked a magic show that they saw at the library. They also went to the Bean Museum in Provo and went to the splash pad every day. Gideon started crawling for real this week. He can only army crawl, but that is way more locomotion than he has done before. He also has gotten up on all fours, and flopped forward - which is fairly effective when he wants to move forward a little bit. We are expectin

A Celebratory Weekend.

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During the first half of this week, Alison was sick for most of the time, which prevented them from doing as many things as they normally do. The kids missed the pool the most. Mike went to his design guild on Tuesday and played Grab the Loot. It went well, and he got a lot of good ideas. On Friday Mike was told that his game was chosen as the winner of the Button Shy Wallet Game Design contest. His game ( The Perfect Moment ) is now being considered for publication by Button Shy Games. Winning a contest with one of his games has been a long term goal for Mike, so he is really excited about this. After learning this, Mike decided to bring home sushi for dinner. The mood felt very celebratory. On Saturday we celebrated Timmy's third birthday. He loved all of his presents, and spent much of the day playing with them. When we got bored of watching this, we told him to bring his toys to go strawberry picking. The three oldest family members picked pretty much the whole time and

Strawberry Planet

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On Tuesday Mike had a work team building where he painted a picture. It was pretty fun. He probably wouldn't buy paints to paint on his own, but he found painting to be enjoyable. Tuesday we had Mike's friend Lauren and his family come over for dinner. It was a fun challenge to cook for someone on a low FODMAPs diet, which their oldest son is on. Lauren is working with a startup on the side, programming an app for physical therapists, and invited Mike to join him. Mike is not quite ready to give his hobby time over to programming for free, but he did get an email this week from BYU-I asking if he would be interested in part-time work as a online adjunct professor, and he filled out the application. He and Alison both love teaching, and this would be an ideal retirement job for him if it works out, he likes it, and he could teach a couple of classes every semester. Mike also joined another game design contest this week- this time he is making a game for kids out of parts th

Land Before Times Tables

Monday was a holiday! Mike had Memorial Day off work, and we had our first barbecue of the season, and the barbecue didn't even blow up or light on fire or anything! Mike made hamburger patties with blue cheese in them, which were great; we also had vegetable skewers with bell pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms in a soy sauce and pineapple juice marinade, which Alison (and everyone) loved, and watermelon, and hot dogs for the kids. Then we went to the play "Pirates of the Caribeener" at the Off Broadway Theater. The kids were ecstatic; they love the OBT plays. They enjoyed this one; Rea might have understood some of the jokes, but probably not because she's never seen Pirates of the Caribbean or Sponge Bob, which was the other reference they pulled in. But they all enjoyed the story and the singing and dancing anyway. Gideon didn't even scream, even though he was obviously very tired but unable to sleep in the noise. Best baby ever! On Tuesday, we went to Forest

Birthday Week!

This week in Family Meeting we decided that Alison would speak French with the kids when Mike was home. We have been trying it. The kids complain sometimes, but they're getting better at figuring out what Alison means. Mike had to translate a lot at first, but less as the week went by. Sara also really enjoys getting a French lesson every day. Rea and Alison saw an ad for a collection of books called the Herb Fairies. They are very excited about the idea of learning about medicinal plants in fun stories, but the company only opens enrollment for one week a year, and Alison bought an expensive music program this month, so we'll have to wait. Rea read the free sample and now is eager to collect and use medicinal herbs. She regularly gets a collecting bag and gathers supplies for her herbal shop. Tuesday we got lots of exercise. We walked about half a mile to playgroup, then Mommy and Gideon walked home and rode the bucket bike a mile to the grocery store and a mile home. Then

Late and Short - the Worst of Both Worlds.

This week Mike mostly spent working on the rulebook for Terran League of Defense Robots. It is getting much better. The entire internet decided to help him out, so he  had lots of good ideas to incorporate. Wednesday it snowed. That was crazy. On Saturday (among other things) Mike created an extractor for the laser cutter (to blow the cardboard fumes outside instead of leaving them in our house) It worked really well until he forgot to turn on the fan one time. Next time he vows to not forget. It was also announced this weekend that Mike's "The Perfect Moment" card game is a finalist in the Button Shy Games 18 card game contest. If he keeps getting finalists at this rate, he is eventually bound to win a contest some time... Right? This week Sara has been really helpful. It is nice to have such a helpful girl around. This week Timmy has loved robots a lot. 1) He named his toy robot "Anemia". 2) He has been wearing a t-shirt that he got from his grandma.

A Two-fer

Mike left for a work convention last Sunday after church, so we didn't do our blog post. So this post will cover two weeks. Last week, Alison and the kids started doing Forest Kindergarten again. After mushroom hunting, the kids really wanted to go to Dimple Dell, so we went there all week. The kids loved it. Alison was not huge fan of the switchbacks, but the creek and trees at the bottom are nice. The kids had a fabulous time, and Alison and Gideon sat and read and cuddled. Friday we had Brown Family Dinner, because Daniel had graduated and his parents were in town. We met at Amy's house and had pizza. It was fun. Mike showed off the Brave Lala illustrations Sheila made; they are awesome! The kids loved playing in the playhouse and on the trampoline. The adults talked about investments. Saturday morning Alison had to attend a Stake Baptism for a girl in our ward. Rea was invited along to sing, and all the kids ended up coming. They were decently well-behaved, and Rea sa