Sweet, sweet boy.

 I mean, honestly, look at those little hands. Those cheeks! Too tired to write much tonight, but couldn't help posting this picture. Now, to join this little (big) guy in getting some rest!:) Jen

"At home days"

That's what the kids call days like today, blank slates with nowhere to go and nothing (other than a short "lesson time") on the agenda. The days are usually full of play, baking, catching up on cleaning, walks around the neighborhood. I treasure these days and try to make sure we have them frequently. But Wednesdays are absolutely and for sure "at home days" right now, and as I switch the laundry over, change diapers, play " monster mama" (unlike yesterday where I was a bit of a real monster mama,at least in my heart, when Jubilee wouldn't nap again), smell the pumpkin chocolate chip bread baking, go out to pick some tomatoes off of a very neglected plant,do some training and heart to hearts,it just feels right. This is breathing in for me, and absolutely necessary for us all. Jen

P.S.does Ollie's mouth look blue? If so, it's because he was sucking on a blue play silk dyed with kool-aid. Oops, does that mean his first food is technically kool-aid?  Poor fourth child;) 

Two.

Dear Jubilee Rose,

You turn two tomorrow! What a wild and wonderful age two is, and you are already very much both of those things. 

A few things I want to remember about you at this stage: 

You love baby dolls. I mean love. You are the cutest little mama I have ever seen. You bounce your babies, pat their little backs, nurse them, make sure they can see during stories, push them in a little stroller, wear them in slings. Oh man. It's awesome. You copy everything I do with Ollie, which has shown me just how observant you are!

Speaking of Ollie, you love him too! So much! I'm so glad:) Hearing you say his name is one of my favorite things. Need to upload a video of it soon. 

You can do incredible things! Ride a plasma car like nobody's business, climb up those horrible arched, metal structures at playgrounds, turn around and climb down backwards, climb up tall, tall slides and slide back down, walk and walk on hikes...things that you seem entirely too little to do, but you watch brother and sister and just go for it! AHHH! 

You still aren't talking much at all, and boy, we are ready! I'll just leave it at that, this is your birthday letter after all. Hehe

You prefer not to stay with anyone for very long that isn't in your family. No childcare situations like the nursery at church at.all. You will stay with Emily and Stephanie (my two closest friends here) and they have children that love on you and will include you in play, so that helps:) 

You are not big on sharing with friends your age, or with your siblings,  but you are learning and the great thing about being child #3 is that mama and daddy know that with lots of patience and guidance, this too shall pass. :)

You love to play in the sink while I work in the kitchen, enjoy play doh and stickers and blocks and, of course, babies. You love to GO,GO,GO and are always up for an adventure like grocery shopping with daddy. Oh, and speaking of your daddy, you adore him. 

Oh Jubilee, our little firecracker, you bring so much joy into our lives. I can't tell you how many times a day your adorableness just overwhelms me:) What a privilege it is to spend my days with you and watch as you learn about this world, about love and family and friendships. How I hope you feel our love, baby girl, as we navigate this next year of your life together. I am thankful for each and every day we have with you, tired as we may be at the end of them. :) With all the love in my heart, Mama

P.S. On a superficial note, your hair grew so much this year!! Actually, just since Ollie was born 4 months ago it has gotten SO much longer:) You usually insist on it being up when you see me doing Amelia's, which is great! You also love pulling on your own pants, putting on socks, etc. You are very much Miss independent in many ways. So different from the twins. But then, you are very much your own little person, that's for sure! Ok, really, that's all. 

Her happy art.

Amelia just churns these out all day long. They are so reflective of her cheery disposition- I just love it:)

All for now, Jen

Bittersweet milestone...

Moments after her daddy pulled that tooth right out:) 

Enjoying a celebratory cupcake. 

Seems like just yesterday that Amelia was wearing this dress! 

Amelia lost her first tooth on Friday evening! It had been wiggly for a few weeks and was just hanging on by a thread, so she let Joel use a pair of pliers and pull it, brave girl. She was SO excited. Joel and Sam played tooth fairy (I fell asleep before she did) and put one dollar and a ticket Sam made for her to visit the Sweet Tooth Fairy Bake shop the next day. Oh goodness, these little ones are just getting big so quickly. A first tooth lost...it is a big deal for her and a big deal for her mama and daddy too. We celebrate it and we mourn it a bit as well, seeing a piece of childhood seem to slip away with that tooth, sniff, sniff. Cherish the moments. 

All for now, friends! Jen

What mama learned at forest school...

So, every two weeks we are joining with some other outdoor loving homeschool families in the forest of Big Cottonwood Canyon to have forest school ! What is "forest school", you ask? Well, in this case it is a group of families coming together to provide outdoor education, and primarily, to let our children explore the outdoors. The organizer of our group lives in the canyon and chose a wonderful, open meadow type area with a creak nearby and surrounded by forest. Beautiful. 

Today was the second meeting, and our first experience. 

*It was raining and chilly. I couldn't get the Chariot stroller with a rain cover to collapse to fit in the back of the van. 

*Jubilee doesn't have rain clothes, but thankfully some hand me downs from friends to Ollie contained some Patagonia wear that fit her (crazy Patagonia, size 3-6 months!). 

*Ollie. What to do with Ollie? I grabbed an outdoor blanket that I bought off Babysteals a long time ago that was supposed to be water proof and tie over your baby carrier. "We'll find out!" I thought. 

We drove up the canyon and the rain really started in. We parked and geared up. I nursed Ollie, my friend Steph helped me get him in the carrier (Beco) with the blanket tied on and finally we were set to walk down. Steph carried Jubilee as it is a pretty long walk and the big kids were ready to get there to the covering of the trees. Travis, the organizer, had found a great, dry spot under trees for us to gather. Unfortunately, it was as we reached this spot that I realized I had forgotten Ollie's binkie in the car. Oh man. He was ready to sleep and needed his binkie! I tried letting him suck on my finger, etc. but he was not a happy camper. Meanwhile, Jubilee decided she no longer wanted to have on her too big rain boots and was  fussing and taking them off. Thankfully, I had her Keens in a bag and put them on her as everyone tried to have introductions and a discussion about weather, respecting wilderness, etc. above our fussy crew's noise. Sorry guys! Oh, Sam also had a shoe meltdown in there as well. Eventually, all settled down and we went to explore the creek area, which was so very beautiful. The kids explored and I walked with the littles (Ollie was asleep by this point) and tried to keep a very sleepy Jubilee from melting down. We sat down and had a snack a bit later, the kids explored some more and then we started back up to the van. All in all I think we were there about 2 hours. On the way back up Jubilee had reached her breaking point. She was crying, "Niggggh, nigggght". 

I must interject here that I guard nap times pretty fiercely, but as this is our only commitment during nap time and it's only once every two weeks, I deemed it ok. Wowsers, it was tough. 

We got to the car with my arms literally shaking from trying to carry both babes, got everyone in their seats, and Sam sighed and said, " I really love forest school!" I inwardly smiled/grimaced at how clueless kids are at how much it takes a lot of times to provide these opportunities for them. And yet, how wonderful that he loved it. That they love to be in nature!! 

I have dreamed of doing some sort of outdoor school with the kids since they were babes. Dreamed of it! And here we are! Today was a reminder that good things, things we dream of, are still grounded in reality and reality is often tricky. Full of logistics. Hard work to get to the magical. Still, it is something so important to me, so central to what we want for our children, for them to explore and learn in the wild, beautiful outdoors, that I will figure out how to do it better. I will learn from our experiences, laugh at our misadventures, and try again the next time. Tonight I will go to bed with weary arms and a happy heart. We did it, kids. And we'll do it again. 

What I learned:

1. The ROSK blanket over my Beco carrier works GREAT! Oliver stayed dry and warm, thank goodness! Also, the Tuffo picnic blanket with waterproof bottom worked great on the wet ground. Both blankets purchased off of Babysteals.com (just FYI:). 

2. Patagonia gear, though ridiculously expensive, also worked GREAT on Jubilee. She was toasty warm and dry when we got back to the car. Thanks Amanda for the great hand me downs! 

3. Don't forget the binkie in the car!

4. Figure out how to more easily get Chariot loaded in car and bring it. Period. This will help with walk to and from the meadow and also may provide a place for Jubilee to nap. 

5. Bring even more food. 

6. Get Sam a bigger size in Bogs. Bogs boots work great for rain and snow. We love them. Jubilee has a pair on the way!

7. It is worth it for us. All the crazy misadventures (yesterday I *sort of* accidently pushed Sam off a log while trying to reach a bottle of sunscreen Amelia had dropped out of her back pack into a pond. Sadly, I did not reach the bottle and Sam was very muddy and sad. We got through it.). We learn from them. They are just part of having adventures, right? 

8. Being outdoors with children energizes me. It really, really does. LIke, from the inside out, you know? Thankful for that. 

Here are some pictures from the forest and from the Ogden Nature Center the day before (such a fabulous place! We will definitely visit again soon, and not push Sam into the mud:). 

Ogden Nature Center...

 Postscript: Turns out Jubilee had a tummy bug and didn't feel good at all on Saturday. This makes Friday make a lot more sense re: how fussy she was! Poor babe. 

"The fairytales from Amelia Hunt"

*Told in rapid succession with barely a pause in between, other than to say, "next story!" :) 

"There once lived a happy fairy and she knew a little girl and the girl was not happy because she did NOT get teached how to be nice and the fairy helped her how to learn to be nice. The little girl loved how she helped her and then she helped the fairy when she was in needs. Now she just helped everybody in needs. Other fairies and little boys and girls who needed help. 

Next story. 

There was a little boy. He was really kind and there once lived an old witch. Now this witch did not like the little boy but the little boy even helped ones who didn't like him. There was one thing about this witch. She is trying to cast a spell on him but the little boy already knows that. 

Next story.

There once lived an old little bird and there was a fairy on her back! The fairy loved watching little boys and girls. One little girl knew that the fairy was watching her and she really liked it because she believed in fairies. She loved that she had a little friend fairy who talked to her every night and every morning. The fairy had golden clothes that shimmered in the morning light. The little girl was wearing a pink dress with flower designs on it and a straw hat. She was a really generous one and gave away all of her toys and the fairy knew she was the right one to make a friend with and they lived happily ever after! 

Next story.

There once lived a little teeny weeny bug. He loved fairies and he likes to talk to them and give them rides. Now, he said to one of his fairy friends, " Don't you want to fly and feel the wind and see how many birds are in the air?" So the fairy flew and he loved it and then he became a bird fairy because he loved the blue jays and all of the birds!

Now for a song...."

"Believe me, you will find more lessons in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from the masters."        – St. Bernard St. Clairvaux

Joel took the kids camping last night...beautiful mountains! Ollie and I had a lovely time enjoying the peace and quiet of a home all to ourselves, but I can't wait to hear of their adventures and kiss their dirty faces. What a treasure to have a daddy that loves to take them to the outdoor goodness, where they indeed learn things that textbooks never could teach. Hope you enjoyed your weekend! 

Jen

Wheeler Farm Camp. (Narrated) By: Sam Hunt

Here are some things we did today at Wheeler Farm. I had fun. We got to make butter and play soccer and got to let one of the goats out of its cage. We stuck our shoes in the pig pen and the pig shoved it with his snout!

We had a tour of an old farm house. The people who lived there was called the Wheelers, and they wanted the farm to keep going well, and it did! That's why it's called the name Wheeler Farm. 

We played a game with jacks and a bouncy ball. The game goed like this. So, we have to bounce the ball, pick up jacks and catch the ball before it landed. Sadly, I didn't get any jacks. 

After that game I told you about we started to leave Wheeler Farm. I had a great time there! 

The End

P.S. He wants you to know he got the idea of how to draw a barn from seeing a picture of one his friend Aviana drew. :)

Wild.

I just finished reading, " Wild: From lost to found on the Pacific Crest trail", a book about a young woman dealing with the grief of losing her mom and her months hiking the PCT. It was horribly sad. I cried my eyes out several times over the course of the three or so days it took me to read it. The loss of a mom is just tragic, and her mom had loved the author and her siblings with all that was in her, which reminded me of my mom, and thus the crying continued. Anyway, besides causing me to cry uncontrollably, the book also made me want to get back out on a trail. Especially living here, where trails and natural goodness abounds! So, yesterday evening we went for a short hike close to the house. A few things I loved:

* Seeing Jubilee hike. Um, she's amazing! I would look at her as we were going uphill and say to myself, " Now Jenny, if your 22 month old can do this, you can too!" 

* Coming upon a large flock of magpies and hearing Amelia gasp at the sight. She loves birds because, well, she wants to be one! " I just wish I was a Magpie so I could have wings and fly like that. So I could lay eggs and build a nest. Mom, I really do wish I were a bird. I want to live in trees. But mostly I want wings. I really hope in heaven that I have wings. I'd either like to be a unicorn or a bird." 

* To see Sam in his element. He is a child connected to the earth and its creatures and always has been.

* To see Joel in his element. Sometimes I forget what an outdoorsman he is, but boy is he. 

* To remember the freedom of being out on a trail in the fresh air. Love it. 

All for now, 

Jen