Poster Child for Joy

Nick wrote to Kristin and after viewing some of Delayna's photos said she could be the poster child for joy. Here she is again, along with her trusty side kick, Cailah.

Monday Fun

We are always glad to have Kristin home, but it can be exhaustingly fun. Yesterday I went to work for the morning and when I got home the kids were sitting quietly with the neighbor kids having their reading time. They had already done their morning chores, weeded the garden, rode their bikes to the tennis courts, played tennis and had lunch. While we waited for Delayna to get up from her nap Kris and I packed a picnic dinner, hitched up the trailer and loaded the bikes. Mike got them all secure and we were off to Boise for a bike ride to explore the greenbelt, dinner, some time at the playground and a visit to the Zoo. We topped it off with icecream cones from Sonic. Kris, Alyssa and I ran to the fabric stores in Boise while Mike brought the kids home to get ready for bed and when we arrived he already had the big tent set up on the deck and the kids were settling in for good night of not sleeping. We did have to include a warning that today was great and not all summer days will be that full of fun. But a great start to our first full week of no school.

Overheard

Kristin: "Hey, Al, while I've got the shortening out would you like a bit?"

Alyson: "No thanks!" (LOL)

Alyson: "Kris, I've got to apologize for not thinking to offer you some dirt while I was gardening the other day."

more LOL


P.S. If you don't find this funny you don't have the appropriate schema. Not to worry. Just move on. :0)

The Retiring of 2008's Favorite Phrase

I've decided that it is time to retire my favorite phrase from 2008. When we are Aspen and commenting on Keegen's brillance Ashlee responded "He's a freakin genius." It was quickly the fav new phrase around the Tolman/Fitzgerald house and adapted to various situations, usually after the kids were asleep or out playing. But after Cailah yelled out "its was just raining, but now its FREAKIN RAINING" in the parking lot outside the dollar store, I've decided it's time to retire the jersey and let it go. But it still totally makes me laugh and I don't want to forget it, so now it is recorded for time and posterity, when they are old enough to read it. :0)

Character Day

Today was dress up as your favorite book characher day at school. Braydon was Nate the Great. Isn't he GREAT! Abby was a fabulous Pippy Longstocking , alas, she ran of and caught the bus before I snapped a picture of her. We'll have to recreate it for Halloween, until then. . .

Go forth in faith, nothing wavering!

We had too much fun at Family Home Evening last night. (If you can have too much fun at family home evening) We began with a song, "Give Said the Little Stream", accompanied by Abby. The highlight was our lesson on faith. We placed a paper column on their hand and the lit it. We asked them to have faith in us that we wouldn't allow them to be hurt, but that they needed to hold very still and trust us. You can see the results in the video below. It was a great visual lesson in faith. At first they were excited and stood there smiling. Didn't even bother them when we lit the paper on fire. They were kind of excited watching it burn down, and then as it got warmer and closer to their hand you could see their faces get nervous. Their natural reaction to flee fire kicked in. But we reminded them to have faith and they did. Just before the fire burned down to their hand the column lifted up out of their hand and finished burning as it floated in the air. (BTW do not try this with any paper column. It needs to be a Bigelow Tea Bag. No, you don't have to drink the tea, just empty the bag.) When we are presented with challenges we often get the "OK here we go" feeling and head out with faith, but as the challenging times drag on and it gets closer and closer to really hurting do we keep our faith and stand strong, or do we follow the desire to run away? If the kids would have swiped at the fire or tried to dump it off their hand, they might have gotten burned. But as they held strong the fire was miraculously swept away. Notice Cailah's reaction when her "burden" floated away. We should all be so joyous. One more note. I thought after they saw Alyssa do it first the surprise factor would be lost and the demonstration less effective. But if you look at the video below, they reacted pretty much the same way, confident at first, slightly concerned, really nervous toward the end. Alyssa even did it a second time with the same reaction. Again analagous to life. We can watch other people struggle and see them come out ok, but when it is our turn it's still hard. And when it is our turn for the next challenge we go through the same process. Delayna wanted her turn too, but knowing her abilities we had to keep her from the challenge. I think Heavenly Father protects us too when he knows it is beyond our capabilities. Thanks to the sister missionaries for a great lesson idea!

We also had a talent presention last night with the Abby and Cailah each doing a dance and a group dance at the end. Highlights in the second video Kristin so kindly put together. The dance finished with some contortionism.


We ended with Alyssa accompanying us playing "Love One Another." I love having piano playing kids!

Yeah Braydon!

I have no idea how she does this, but she can stay like that forever.
The three amigos.
The definition of joy.
Finally, here we go! It took lots of tries because her small had couldn't hold the column well and her mom was match illiterate.
My turn "pea." Sorry D we draw the line at fire ;0)
See it FLY!
Cool as a cucumber Bray, well, for another few seconds anyway.

Fun Scenes

We woke up to a freezer sounding as if it were on the verge of an explosion, so we had to empty it out for diagnosis. We decided it was possible that the fan had frozen and wanted to defrost the fridge. Which meant there was ice cream for breakfast! Whoo Hoo. Does it get better than this? I submit that it does not.

Kristin and Alyssa brought home a treat from Target saturday evening. Sipping Slu-ee-u-ee-ushy through a straw, twiddle-dee-ha-ha.