Happy Birthday Ben

I love you!

Lego skills

Seth's pretty much the coolest three-year-old around when it comes to lego air craft. He does these entirely on his own.


John says that boys come pre-programmed with one or two cool airplane designs that they can fall back on in a pinch.

Seth time

Seth and I had some fun learning time together while Jonathan was at school and Luke was sleeping. We had some "Opposites" picture cards with the words on the back. He was pairing the opposites, (which is quite a complex concept if you've never heard the word "opposite" before,) and then we'd turn the cards over and he would identify the words on the back. I'd say, "Which one says 'front?' "Which one says 'empty?'" He got it right every time. Smart kid.

After he found the opposites, he decided to put the matching cards back to back and lay them down with one side showing. I started realizing that he consistently chose to display the positive one of the pair; full not empty, front not back, above not below, go not stop, light not dark, in front not behind, top not bottom, whole not broken, day not night, clean not dirty, happy not sad, etc. I thought that was interesting. The only exceptions were when he preferred something else, like a short pencil rather than a long one, or a small ball rather than a big one. Who knows, maybe short and small are fundamentally more desirable, and prosperity has just taught me to think otherwise. Maybe three year olds know better. . . (He also chose the picture of the TV off rather than it being on.) :)

The cool thing to me was that he prefers the positive of the two opposites, and consistently chose that. Three year olds like things to be positive, and he innately knew which one that was. I'm amazed that he knew that. I'm amazed that any of us know that. What is it about top that makes it better than bottom? Or about in front that makes it better than behind? Or above than below? Maybe these values are different from culture to culture. But for Seth it was pretty clear, and it matched what I thought too. Pretty interesting.

4 boys and a girl. . .and 6 birds

Otherwise entitled, "Now What??"


We have some tenants in our dryer hose! We've heard them for a few weeks in and out, and I looked in today to see if I could clean out all the stuff they had brought in, and voila. . .


I haven't used my dryer for over a week because I was nervous to hurt someone, but now I really need to do laundry, and I'm too much of a softy to just evict them. . . Any suggestions???

Hygiene Kits

We wanted to do something to help the cyclone victims in Myanmar, so we decided to make these Hygiene Kits that the Church uses in disaster relief. They were really fun to put together.


A few tips in case anyone else wants to make some:

They were almost exactly $10 per kit. I bought everything at Wal-mart, and I think the prices there were better than at a dollar store, because all of the items were under a dollar. The only exceptions are the hand towels. They were $1.88 at Wal-mart, and a dollar store might have them for less - I didn't check. There are a lot of good deals for this stuff (soap, toothpaste etc) if you walk past the big brand names.

I'd recommend doing at least 5 or 10 because you get a much better price on soap and combs if you're buying bulk packs. You can get a 10 pack of soap (enough for 5 kits) for $3.88, and a 10 pack of combs (also enough for 5 kits) for $2.08. You would end up paying much more than $10 if you just bought enough for one kit. It's fun to do this with a few other people and split the price if you just have funds for a few kits yourself. You could have 5 couples get together and each chip in $10 bucks for a kit, so you can still get bulk prices. It's a great FHE activity.

After the kits are assembled, you can either ship them to Salt Lake City, or just bring them to your local Bishops' Storehouse or Humanitarian Work Room. The latter are normally part of a Deseret Industries building. You can call the Humanitarian Center in SLC at 801-240-5954 to find a place you can drop them off.


It's been awesome for us because we feel like we've been able to do something to help. It was so cool for the boys to help with the shopping and putting the kits together. It honestly just makes me so grateful for what I have.