Mini Reunion

Today April, Heidi, Jen, and children met at Jen's house for a reunion/playdate. We have been wanting to get together for about 2 months now, and we finally did it. We all served together in the 18th Ward Primary during 2007-08 and were pregnant together, having babies within 6 months of each other. And, as the usual sad saga of our neighborhood goes, Jen and Heidi moved away, but at least they remained within Cache Valley. (The only ones missing from our happy Primary group were Megan D. and Dominoe. SLC & St. Louis are a tad too far to travel for just a playdate!)

Here are the cute babies--Abbie, Dallin, and Connor--all with big blue eyes. Connor ruled because he is the only one who can crawl all over, but Abbie isn't too far behind. Dallin demonstrated his ability to roll from his tummy to his back

Abbie and Dallin enjoyed tummy time together, while Connor was busy playing
with toys on the other side of the floor.

The older sisters had a great time playing together as well.
Unfortunately Julie ran and hid everytime she saw the camera,
but we were able to catch Kennady (a sweet little girl who Jen tends),
Afton, and Erin in this photo.

It was great to catch up with everyone! Thanks, Jen, for hosting it!

Poets in the Family

A local homeschooling mother who is a talented writer offered to teach poetry classes. Ian and Megan have been composing poems for several weeks and, much to their dismay, we are sharing some with our readers. We have been amused by the "subtle" differences between the boy and girl minds. Please feel free to leave them feedback on your favorites.

Acrostic Poems

I drive my sister crazy.
Annoying I am.
Naughty or nice, it does not matter.


My name
Enjoys reading
Good at art
Animals among my favorite things
Never eats bananas



Couplets


Ninja Madness

I saw a ninja in black,
His name tag said he was Jack.

He threw a ninja star.
It smacked into a car.

The car driver stopped.
She got out and hopped.

She felt very sad
That the ninja was bad.

~by Ian


Silver Cat

Silver cat with eyes of gold
Walking through the night so cold.

Bathed in moonlight, soft she goes
As the wind around her blows.

Suddenly she hears a howl
An evil Beast is on the prowl.

Then the cat begins to race
Soon the Beast is giving chase.

The Beast comes closer, drawing near
The poor cat hisses, showing fear.

Then the cat sees her hope
Gaining courage she starts to lope.

Into her master's arms she leaps
And her feline life she keeps.

~by Megan


Tercets

Happy Mouse
(note: Ian wrote this in response to Mom's request that at least one poem not involve weapons, ninjas, or death)

A very happy mouse
Had a nice, cozy house
In the fields of Farmer Ben.

He hid from the snakes
And ate yummy cakes
And talked to an old, gray hen.

~by Ian


Three Foxes

A little fox colored red
Pads across the forest bed.
His bright fur flashes in the sunlight.

Another fox colored black
Poises ready for attack.
This fox hunts in the dark of the night.

Now the last fox colored cream
Prances through a child's dream,
She makes her home in the stars so bright.

~ by Megan


Cinquains

Bazookas
Loud fun
Shooting destructive bullets
Are a little dangerous
Weaponry

~by Ian


River
Cold, clean
Crashes past rocks
Fun to swim there
Water

~by Megan


Nonet

In fantasy, there are many things
Faeries and elves and unicorns
Dragons and heroes and knights
I read about this world
And sigh with delight
At unicorns
And elves and
Ancient
Kings

~by Megan


Haiku

Sled dogs running fast
Pulling mushers through the snow
Iditarod race

~by Ian


White wolf leaps through snow
Frost is sparkling in his pelt
Cold is in the air

~by Megan


Limerick

A Pony Named Bud

There once was a pony named Bud
Who stumbled and fell in the mud.
He shouted and yelped
He called to be helped
And was rescued by Farmer Jud.

~by Megan


Color Poems

Green is the Incredible Hulk.
Red is the Flash.
Black is Batman.
Yellow is Reverse Flash.
And Purple is Barney the annoying dinosaur.

~by Ian


Orange is our tabby cat
Calico's our cat that's fat.

Brown and white's our hyper dog
Green was the color of Ian's frog.

Black is Shadow, our pet mouse
Who lives in a cage in our old green house.

~by Megan


Free Verse

Swainson's Hawk

It flies
It soars
It glides
With long powerful wings.

It alerts
Possible intruders
With a high-pitched whistle.

It scans the fields
For voles or mice
With a golden evil eye stare.

It dives
With deadly accuracy
With sharp, strong talons open.

The rodent dies
Suffocating
In the pinch of death.

~by Ian


Ballad

Star Wars Sickness

Luke and Leia,
There's Solo too,
Forget Chewie,
He's got the flu.

They try to practice
Fighting with might,
But they have no hope
And fail with fright.

Their courage is lost
Since Chewie is sick.
They must find a doctor
By the name of St. Nick.

They search Tatooine
And find one, they do.
With a simple shot
They cure Chewie's flu.

Now he's all better
Their courage is back.
But then it goes again
When Luke starts to hack.

~by Ian

2009 Pinewood Derby

Ian was soooo excited for his first Pinewood Derby. He and Dad made "The Tadpole," a fast green spotted machine! The night before the race, the boys weighed in their cars and "parked" them on the table. On the race night, they picked them up and raced them down the track. Ian was lucky #20.

Here is the video of Ian's first run. His car was the fastest out of this group! The judges took the average time of 4 runs for each car.

The Tadpole didn't place in the overall top 3 fastest times, but it did win first place out of Ian's wolf den. Ian's average time was 2.62 seconds. The winning time was 2.45 seconds.

Sadly, Dad was unable to attend due to work commitments, but Grandpa drove all the way up from SLC to spend the evening with us. Thanks, Grandpa!

January Events

Primary New Year Activity

Early on a Saturday morning, we met together for a delicious waffle breakfast, a lesson introducing the Primary theme and song for the year (My Eternal Family), and an activity making family home evening assignment charts.

Dallin Update

This baby just keeps getting cuter by the day! He is still a very happy boy, and lately he likes to squeal. He's working on growing more teeth and hair. He loves to do tummy time with a captive audience.

Creative Erin

Erin has spent hours playing with her Tupperware alphabet blocks. All on her own, she created the robot WALL-E. We all agree it is a great rendition of the character.

Erin is also currently obsessed with Disney's Lion King movie. She loves watching Simba, drawing Simba, and playing Simba (although the rest of us quickly tire of her incessant roars).

New Cousin!!!

Scott is proud to announce the long-awaited arrival of his baby brother, Dean Allen Sutherland! He was born 28 January, 9 days past due date. Congratulations! We want to see more photos!

Lights and Lasers Class

Megan and Ian have participated in a co-op science class this month learning about lights and lasers. For one assignment, they needed to do a project and give a 2-minute presentation to the class.

Megan's Project: Water Prisms

Megan created a rainbow using water and a mirror. She filled a clear pyrex with water, positioned a mirror in the water, and caught the sunlight in the mirror. The water covering the mirror worked like a prism and separated the sunlight into all the different colors, casting a rainbow on a white posterboard.

Ian's Project: Build a Periscope

They concluded the class with a fun field trip to Dupont Holographics where they learned about the processes involved with making holograms.

A Time for Change

We welcome and give our support to President Obama. It was pretty exciting for all of us this morning as we convened our school in front of the computer watching the live feed on CNN of the inauguration ceremony. Megan and Ian listened to Obama's speech and found it inspiring. What a historic moment in our nation's history!

1,000 Item Decluttering Goal

Since many friends have been posting resolutions, we would also like to share one of ours for the upcoming year. As a family, we made a goal to declutter 1,000 items from our household. After 16 years of blissful marriage and 4 adorable children, we've managed to accumulate a lot of STUFF!




Our decluttering items include recyclables (8-10 pieces of paper count as 1 item) and garbage (not the daily diapers and kitchen waste, but rather broken items or just plain junky things) in addition to clothing, toys, games, books (gasp! I know...this one is rather difficult), etc. Thank goodness for friends, Freecycle, and thrift stores so we can pass along usable items. Besides the reward of having a clutter-free house (ultimately), we are enjoying rewards along the way.

Here is our chart for the first 100 items which we completed today! The reward is ice cream!!! (Too bad Kevin misses out since he's visiting San Jose for the next 4 days for "business.")




Our next reward comes after decluttering 250 items--taking the children out to a movie at a real theater (if there are any worthwhile movies at the time, otherwise we will rent one that they really want to see).

Wish us luck! And if any of you want to take some of our stuff, please let us know. (We're already starting to save Erin's outgrown clothing for Emmy's baby. Will Clytee store it for you?)