This was my solution for allowing the kids to have popcorn while watching a movie without making a huge mess. They are sitting on a towel and Nicole was asleep, so it actually worked out quite well.
The movie they have been choosing lately is “The Sword and the Stone” because they’ve been listening to the audio book while they fall asleep each night. I’ve put the movie on several times, but Isaac would rather be creating than watching, so he has yet to see the entire movie.
Posted on March 11th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I think my favorite treat as a child was homemade fruit leather. Both my mom and my Grandma O’Bryant made it. I remember them making it in strawberry and in raspberry. I loved the flavor and the texture of it and I never thought I got enough of it.
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Posted on March 10th, 2010 by Kathleen
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So I went out with the kids to play, even though I had cleaning to do inside.
Nicole enjoyed laying on her tummy in the dirt with her arms reached out as if to make upside-down dirt angels, she also tasted the dirt.
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Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Kathleen
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Since moving to Tennessee and adding one more child, I’ve noticed some changes in 
how the kids relate to each other.
Isaac and Charlotte still get along very well and play together all the time. It seems like they’ve been conspiring more and getting into more trouble since the move, but maybe I just think that because I am much busier and have less family support out here.
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Posted on March 7th, 2010 by Kathleen
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There were eight people (6 kids, 2 adults) in my family growing up, but most vans only 
had seat belts for 7 so space was always an issue. A car top carrier seemed like the perfect solution for baggage and it worked ok for us for a little while. The straps would make this buzzing noise as they vibrated in the wind when we drove fast.
I remember that we’d fill it as full as we could and then still have things packed in the back of the van. We went through a few car-top carriers, but I can’t remember why. The experience I’ll never forget is our last trip with a car-top carrier.
We were traveling home from Canada and were in Ontario with about 3 hours left till we got home. As were cruising along down the highway at a good speed, car-top carrier flew off of the car with a thud and landed in the middle of the highway. I can remember feeling panicked and wondering what we would do and how we could possibly fit all of our things in the van. I remember that by the time we had all of our things packed into the already full van, we could no longer see the floor of the van and we had to rest our legs on top of luggage.
Posted on March 6th, 2010 by Kathleen
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Charlotte has missed all the little girls her age back in Utah. 
In primary, there are no girls in Isaac’s class and she’s the only girl in her class. So the closest girl in age is in the class one year younger than her and ironically that girl’s name is also Charlotte. If that wasn’t enough of a coincidence, the other Charlotte’s birthday is the day before my Charlotte’s birthday (Charlotte C = 12/14 /05 Charlotte H = 12/13/06).
Anyone who knows my Charlotte knows that she loves her name. For a long time, the phrase you’d hear her say the most was “I’m Charlotte.” The day she
severed her thumb, we knew the pain was relieved when she looked at us and said “I’m Charlotte.” So you can only imagine her excitement to meet another Charlotte who happens to be close to her age.
She announced to me the other day that she wanted to write a book about Charlotte coming. She choose paper the color of the sun and came up with the text all on her own. For days she would make comments about the other Charlotte regularly. She’d say things like “the other Charlotte likes pink too.” Today, after Charlotte H left, she said “Jesus accidently made two Charlottes. One is four and the other is three.”
Posted on March 5th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I came into the living room to find this scene, luckily I always have a camera close by. Editor’s note: Nicole is trying to sit in a tiny doll-size high chair. 
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by Kathleen
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So my best friend David has been down at NAS Pensacola for some training, and I thought this was the best time to go see the National Museum of Naval Aviation with him. I’ve always wanted to visit; they have a great selection of aircraft. Naturally, a road trip these days means bringing Isaac with me; bringing Isaac usually means bringing Charlotte too. Hit the jump for a boatload of pictures and a quick summary.
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Posted on February 27th, 2010 by Zach
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I find myself with very little time during the day to spend one on one with my children, so I do my best to take advantage of any extra moments throughout the day. I do things like play games with them while we wait in the grocery store line or at the doctor’s office and singing songs or talking with them in the car.
Lately, Nicole has developed her own little way to have some time with her mom. 
It started off with Nicole trying to put my shoes on my feet once when I sat down to feed Ila. Soon she was trying to put my shoes on me each time I fed Ila. I recognized a new opportunity to play with her and I started trying to tickle her with my feet, or give her feet hugs. Sometimes my feet try to dance with her or startle her by jumping when she least expects it. I know this sounds strange, but we both started to really enjoy this time together. Now whenever Nicole sees me sit down to feed Ila she gets a big grin on her face and runs over to my feet and she gets very frustrated if they’re not on the ottoman where she likes to play with them.
What Creative ways have you found to spend quality time with your kids (or others) when you find you lack quantity of time?
Posted on February 27th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I have been wanting to see how Nicole would do in a regular bed for a little while now. Everyday she runs into Isaac and Charlotte’s room 
and climbs into their beds, pulls the covers over herself, and pretends to sleep. In addition to her enthusiasm for beds is that fact that Ila is sleeping in the living room in a Pack ‘N Play and I’d like to transition her into the crib in a few months.
The main thing that has been holding me back from letting Nicole try a bed is that I wanted to find a nice bedspread for her. I don’t like big cartoon characters or Disney princesses, but still wanted something feminine and girly without looking really cheap. Unfortunately, the only ones I could find that I liked were online and started at $80 (granted my local store search only included Wal-Mart and Target).
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Posted on February 26th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I started writing my personal history on this blog, I’m far from finished, but I can’t seem to find the time to sit and write for an hour so perhaps I’ll write a few memories here and there and later compose them into my history.
My family didn’t take a lot of family vacations that weren’t to visit extended family. 
Most of the time we traveled it was to see either my grandma in Pittsburg, PA or my grandparents in Knoxville, TN. Either trip meant many hours in the car.
We seldom stopped for food because I know my mom was always trying to conserve money. She’d pack a cooler full of sandwiches and a variety of snacks. One time she packed baby bottles filled with juice for all of the kids. I think the idea was to prevent spills ( this was my mom’s frugal alternative to juice boxes). My sibs and I loved the bottles, mostly for the strange looks we got from other cars passing by. We would wait until another car was about to pass and then lift the bottles in the air to take a long drink.. My mom became very embarrassed and made a sign for the window that said “these are not my children.” The time in the car passed more quickly on the long drive and so for several drives after that we all insisted that she pack us baby bottles of juice. I think she initially refused, not wanting to repeat the embarrassment, but eventually she caved and for awhile we had baby bottles for every extended trip. We were also required to make the “these are not my children” sign for the window. I think once we wrote “these ARE my children.”
Posted on February 24th, 2010 by Kathleen
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So I had this idea today that I ought to write down what a day in my life is like right now. I think I’ll look back one day and wonder how I did it, because there are days now when I wonder how I managed to make it through the day only to wake up and start all over. I have to warn you that this is very detailed and therefore long.
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Posted on February 22nd, 2010 by Kathleen
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My father’s favorite thing to do when his grandsons come to visit is to give them forklift rides:
So when he saw this picture of my grandfather he said “Mom, your family is a forklift family"
Posted on February 19th, 2010 by Kathleen
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you might see a scene like this if you checked on the children after bedtime:
Isaac will likely be found surrounded by non-fiction books. He often has one propped up or will fall asleep with his finger in one. The globe is not atypical. He loves to study maps and other such things as he lays in bed (or when he’s on a road trip). He’s also a little heater so he’s often sweaty.
Charlotte typically sleeps with a doll or water bottle and sometimes both. I have to admit that the light saber is not typical, but I took this picture on the same night as the other.
Nicole will likely be fully away sitting up in her bed singing or talking for hours after you put her to bed. She generally doesn’t cry much if at all when she is put to bed, but it’s not uncommon to still hear her awake as much as two hours after putting her to bed.
Ila is still establishing her sleeping pattern. At two months old, she doesn’t usually settle down until about 11:00 (which is much better than last week when she didn’t settle down till 1 or 2 each night). She can be a little fussy in the evening which is fairly typical for her age, but once she settles down she usually only wakes once to eat before my alarm goes off at 6:30AM.
Posted on February 18th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I’ve wanted to go see my grandmother’s house since moving to Knoxville a few months ago, but I didn’t want to go alone so I waited until my sister Krista could come with me.
This is what the house used to look like and except for the fact that there were a lot more trees and other plants and a birdbath in the front yard, this is pretty much how I remember it looking
Here’s the picture of what it looks like now
The lady who lives there now was very kind and talked to us at length about the changes they had made and apologized for the roses and other things that didn’t survive. It’s strange that she’s been there for ten years already because in my mind that house has always been my grandmother’s house and for some reason I had it in my head that she had just moved in.
Posted on January 29th, 2010 by Kathleen
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I don’t think anyone who has had a little boy could make the argument that masculinity 
is something that we train in our kids. When Isaac was 17 months old, someone handed me a book full of trucks to show him. I assumed the book would not hold his attention for long, after all it was a book with nothing but construction trucks in it—I thought it seemed rather dull. Imagine my surprise when his face lit up as he pointed to each vehicle. From there he became captivated with anything that had an engine. Since that experience, I’ve noticed that every little boy I’ve known has gone through a stage where he is obsessed with trucks, trains, and planes.
My girls on the other hand, like girly things. Sure they’ll play with a truck or drive a car around the room, but they show their gender identity in different ways.
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Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Kathleen
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This is old news now, but I thought I ought to update my blog and decided to scroll 
through recent pictures for inspiration and all of Charlotte’s recent pictures make me think of this event/story.
Charlotte gave herself a haircut. I was lucky—it wasn’t too bad and it was on the verge of being much worse when I interceded. She made her cuts right in the front forming a very choppy upside-down V and forcing me to cut some shorter-than-I-ever-would-have-chosen bangs. I was mostly sad because we’ve been trying to grow out her bangs since birth and now we have a new set of bangs to grow out.
This is a continuing tradition because many (all?) of my siblings and I cut our hair at some point during our childhood.
Posted on January 27th, 2010 by Kathleen
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6.20.07 Today Isaac brought his toy jeep over to me and said “mom, want some noise” then he turned it on.
6.21.07 Today I took Isaac to the post office with me to buy stamps. 
I let him put the money in, make the selection and then collect the change at the end. As we drove away he told me “mommy buy money at the Post Office.” I guess he thought that when the change came out it was what I had purchased.
I brought a chair into the bathroom for our nightly teeth brushing ritual. Isaac and Charlotte each climbed up and as Isaac looked in the mirror he excitedly proclaimed “big and little” in reference to the height difference between him and Charlotte.
Isaac got a birthday card from Great-Grandma Cochran a few days ago. After he opened it we read it and he looked at it. Then he opened some junk mail and said “yay, another birthday card from Isaac.” For the rest of the day any piece of mail or paper was another birthday card for Isaac!
Posted on January 22nd, 2010 by Kathleen
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I scrolled through my log and choose a date at random—here’s what I wrote on February 6th of last year:
2.6.09 Here are some recent things the kids said: "I would sleep so hard that I couldn’t wake up. I’d be stuck asleep and you’d have to kiss me to wake me up. Would you kiss me?"
"And after her birthday I would be stuck sleeping if you don’t kiss me." Isaac (possibly before Charlotte’s 3rd birthday)
After biting his finger accidentally, Isaac said "My mouth thought my finger was food. My mouth thought it was salad"
"Mom, what time will Tigers eat us?"
"Mom, don’t let tigers eat us until we’re ready to die." <<so, when we’re ready to die we should let Tigers eat us?>> "yeah" Isaac
“that’s the Tiger’s pretzels? Because of the white spots?" Isaac upon seeing footage of a Tiger eating a deer that had white spots on it’s back
In answer to the question "What are kids made of?" Isaac replied: "They’re made of everything that skin covers."
“What happens if a Lion goes into a machine that turns him into food for people, that would be chicken?” Isaac
After getting a light spank for getting out of bed at bedtime, Charlotte said "I need pajamas that doesn’t have a spank on them”
<<The picture was taken February 1, 2009>>
Posted on January 21st, 2010 by Kathleen
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Every so often I think I should write a blog post, but then I never do. I blame the fact that I have 4 children and whenever I sit down to do something not related to cleaning, the house seems to fall apart. The other night I updated my log of funny things my kids say and it occurred to me that I could just post a quote every so often—at least it would be something and I found myself smiling at the silly odd things they say and do so perhaps it would be interesting to other people as well.
Posted on January 21st, 2010 by Kathleen
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The movie they have been choosing lately is “The Sword and the Stone” because they’ve been listening to the audio book while they fall asleep each night. I’ve put the movie on several times, but Isaac would rather be creating than watching, so he has yet to see the entire movie.
