Here is a nice story about one family dedicating their home. Ours is not as formal, but the first Family Home Evening we have in each new home we’ve dedicated our home with a special family prayer that Kit gives. We thought we should get a picture as well, especially since this may be the last home we dedicate.

And here are the kids being cute on the hammock, they got up there on their own (with some Emy help from Christopher.) Note Bennett’s lovely dirt goatee, making him look even more like Daddy?

Bennett’s vision teacher came to the house today to see how he’s adapting to the new environment and give some suggestions. We wanted ideas for how to help him with the new lighting, sunroom, overhead lighting in his room (old house had just lamps) and so on… she helped out with all of that and some of the tips may be out of our budget (all new shades in sunroom to help dim instead of brighten it) there are things we can afford (new light covers in his bedroom to minimize direct light.) He’s squinting a lot under these wonderful energy efficient bulbs and in the sunroom but we pulled down the shades today (still left them open) but the 2″ blinds help diffuse the light a lot.

He had fun giving her a tour of his new space.

Then afterwards, I got Emy and Bennett down for naps BY MYSELF and they’re still asleep so I have to go wake them up now. There was at least one night this week in which Emy slept through the night but Ben’s still getting up to wander around the house looking for us. I have hope he’ll adapt to the new place and sleep better. I’m sure sleeping well! I love my bed and my bedroom and my quiet, quiet neighborhood.

On front porch with new table:

In sunroom coloring on Sunday afternoon:

And our very pretty vault with beam ceiling:

Yes, I realize I posted SEVEN TIMES today. I can’t unpack boxes on Sunday but I can sure blog!

So we drove to church today because after a test run last night of walking to the building we discovered (a) it will take us about half an hour to walk 1/4 block because the kids must stop to smell every single flower and our street has a lot, (b) there is a creek filled with water with a bridge we cross and a nice little ramp down TO the water and we’re just not even going to go there with Bennett, (c) there’s a road with people going 40 down it and Bennett has no concept of road vs. not road yet. We’ll be working on street safety.

SO, until the kids learn to cooperate more, we’ll be driving or strapping them into strollers for that walk. But we drove. Got there in 12 seconds or so, got into the chapel with only one break down from Bennett demanding we go to nursery RIGHT NOW OR HIS HEAD WILL EXPLODE (our church has everyone together for sacrament meeting then for the last two meetings the kids go to nursery (18 months to 3 years), primary or youth programs. We finally get to the bench, Kit goes to snag a ward roster (and we were already listed on the ward roster!) from the Bishop’s office and introduce himself and while he’s gone I have a couple people I already know come say hi! Christopher’s old nursery leader from 4 years back, which he thought was so cool (and helped ease the transition) and a friend of a friend - both had preemies, coincidently.

We don’t even make it through the passing of the sacrament before Kit’s in the hall with both toddlers but I get to sit with the older two for a peaceful minute. Then Mo must pee RIGHT NOW so we head out and Kit’s visiting with a friend he knew in junior high! He actually knew both husband and wife in junior high & high school. This continues throughout the meetings as he points out his former seminary teacher, youth leaders, scout leaders, etc. It was really, really funny.

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Christopher & I found a good compromise, we put our brand new wheat grinder to work (it’s WONDERFUL) and we made whole wheat cookies! That’s almost healthy. Once I stop eating the dough and bake them I’ll let you know how they turned out, but the kids are licking the beaters clean.

1 cup butter (may try 3/4 cup next batch)
1 c brown sugar (I’ll try a bit less next time)
3/4 c white sugar
2 eggs
1 T vanilla

Cream. In other bowl mix:

2 c whole wheat flour, super fine grind
1/4 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda

Combine wet and dry, then stir in 1 to 2 cups oats, 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I did 1/2 milk and 1 cup semi-sweet) and whatever sounds yummy - raisins, rice krispies, etc. I scooped out one batch for the kids then added 1/2 c coconut and 1/2 cup chopped pecans to my batch. This is a modification of Texas Cow Chip cookies.

Bake at 325 until golden brown.

Kit commented that the dough has this nut hint from the whole wheat, I think it goes well with the pecans & coconut. Gotta stop eating the dough…

Update: I will cut the butter next time to 3/4 cup and maybe more, these are a bit buttery (never thought I would say that) but EXCRUCIATINGLY good. Toffee heaven cookies with whole wheat!!

Before I forget, I need book suggestions for Mojo’s first birthday book (I’m shopping early) and any book suggestions for preparing siblings for a baby’s birth - movies, videos, illustrated or photo books, etc. Email me or comment, I’m hthaden at gmail dot com.

Christopher’s first birthday book was “The Snow Queen” illustrated by Mary Englebreit, Moira’s was “Moira’s Birthday” by Robert Munsch, Bennett’s was the Mother Goose collection illustrated by Englebreit and Emiline’s was “The Paperbag Princess” by Munsch. Yes, we could go with something by the same author/illustrator but that would give gender away and I’m not telling.

We want a fun book to read aloud, with beautiful illustrations. It can be modern, fairytale, poetry, story, anything at all. We just want to keep up the tradition that they each get a nice, hardcover book to begin their personal libraries.

Thanks!

We’ve just finished lunch (sausage-rice-scramble, a favorite around here) and I announce, “I’ve got a problem. I’m craving chocolate chip cookies and brownies.”

Christopher’s response? “Maybe we should make something healthy.”

Where did this child come from?? I guess our healthier living attempts are sinking in despite my sugar addiction and constant baking. That’s great, I’m thrilled - he knows fruits & veggies are an anytime snack (allowed between meals & non-stack times) so he’s stopped asking for other snacks and he’s so good about eating healthy and trying new things. We have a big bowl of fruit on the counter now for the kids to snack on and it’s been a visible reminder for all of us to eat more fresh fruits & veggies. But I still want my cookies! And brownies… We make them healthy-ish. Kinda…

More later on our first day at church.

You are going to be so mad I wrote this but it’s too funny to not record…

We’re getting the kids all showered/bathed this morning and Bennett was overly eager for his turn. While I was grabbing a washcloth for Christopher, Bennett walked up to me completely naked (except for glasses) and said with a look of great concern in such a little, pathetic voice, “Mommy, mommy, my pee-nih ih boke-en.”

Can you translate that? I had to double check, so I clarified with him. Yes, indeed, he feared his little boy part was broken. Not sure why, I was too busy laughing my head off and telling Kit to check, but I’ll go check on Bennett now.

And that is why I’m not worried about this child’s speech anymore. His clarity in speech will come but clearly his vocabulary is just fine. Not bad for a kid that’s not yet 3 years adjusted, considering our family’s history of speech challenges.

I started counting this morning when I didn’t want to wake up yet. Here are my moves (recorded for posterity and my future bad memory, you can skip ahead for the final count) -

born in Frankfurt, Germany
Fort Huachucha, AZ (I bet I spelled that wrong and I googled it but there’s 2 spellings.)
Fort Mead, MD
Leavenworth, KS
Killeen, TX (stationed Fort Hood)
Fort Leavenworth, KS
Ansbach, Germany
Katterbach, Germany
Fort Polk, LA
Killeen, TX
Fort Mead, MD

left for college - Provo, UT (moved 4 times here not counting summers home)
Claremont, CA
Orem, UT (moved once here)
(while I was in college my parents moved from Reiligen, Germany to Heidelberg and I lived at both places with them briefly - summers home.)
Fountain Green, UT

left for grad school - Denton, TX (lived with sister some in Flower Mound)

met Kit - Frisco, TX (9 months)
Agoura Hills, CA (9 months - had Christopher)
Lewisville, TX (house for 1 year)
Lewisville, TX (apartment 2.5 years - had Mo & Bennett)
Lake Dallas, TX (house 3 years - had Emiline)
Denton, TX (for who knows how long?? And have Mojo)

So if I don’t count moves of less than 2 months, like summers home or transitioning from one city to another then I moved about 24 times in my 31 years. Christopher has moved 4 times in 6 years, Mo & Bennett twice, Emy once… Kit has moved 34.7 billion times.

Which helps me better understand why Mo is having such a hard time with this - she has no recollection of moving last time and we’re messing with her world. Christopher still feels a connection to his friends & co-ops and the area so he’s doing okay.

They’re nervous about attending our new ward today - we’ve been asked about that a lot. Our church has congregations called wards, a few hundred people per ward and it’s divided by geographical boundaries. You live in this area, you attend this ward - you move, you attend a different ward and your membership records are transferred over. For programs like visit teaching and home teaching it’s nice to live close (monthly or so visits from pairs of members to come visit each woman individually and each family.) Then for scouts, Achievement days for girls, seminary, mutual (youth program) and so on, the close proximity means people aren’t driving an hour+ for church - unless you have a sparse membership in the area and they need that wide a space to have enough members for a ward. If there aren’t a lot of members they may create a branch - Denton has a student/young single adult branch where Kit and I met, they meet in a building just off one of the universities. There is that building and three other chapels in Denton stake with I believe 9 wards/branches meeting in them. Meetings are staggered, so in our last building a congregation met at 9am, 11am, and 1pm - all different wards with different boundaries. Then just south of us a couple miles is another stake, Lewisville, and they’re getting enormous. They keep creating new wards as members move into the area or join the church so when they’re too big they’ll split and form another stake.

In college (I attended BYU, an LDS college) it’s well over 90% LDS and in the dorms a ward is a couple floors from this building and a couple floors from another dorm and that’s an entire ward. My friends in the dorm behind me were a different stake than me, I was in the BYU 197th ward (and for comparison, I think Denton the entire city has 5 wards?) and I was in the BYU 20th stake. So boundaries are determined by density of membership.

In Lewisville we moved once within ward boundaries, and sometimes boundaries shift around you as the area grows and new members move in and new wards are created. When there are enough wards in an area they form a new stake, which covers I believe 10 wards? There is a bishop and counselors over each ward with a Relief Society presidency for the women’s organization (which I was the secretary for) and there’s a stake presidency (and stake RS presidency) as well. As people have commented to me recently, our church is very organized. When we told our last ward membership clerk we were leaving he jumped on-line and had our records transferred, so if we log into the church website it already pulls up our new congregation website with contact info, meeting times, calendar, etc.

So we’re being asked if that’s hard to move wards - yes and no. Probably harder on the kids at first, but I know growing up the church was a constant. No matter where we moved, we knew each Sunday we had the same programs, same manuals, same primary program for children. The curriculum is church wide so in any ward we attend in the world we use the same Sunday school lesson, have the same format for meetings, etc. We get assigned visiting & home teachers and have get to know people right away, along with visits from leadership. When we moved to our most recent ward in the first week we had at least three visits from the Relief Society, Elders’ Quorum (men’s group) and Bishopric. All of our wards have been so welcoming and friendly - in each ward we’ve made friends that are truly friends for life and when we leave, we stay in touch. So no, I’m not worried about a new ward - I know it just means we’re about to make more friends.

The ceramic tile everywhere - foyer, hallways, dining room, bathrooms, closet, kitchen. Especially in the HALLS!

The faucets. I know, odd, I love my faucets. They are beautiful. I did not know I have an opinion about faucets but apparently I do.

My shower. OH, MY SHOWER!!

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This sounds really fun - turn out your lights tomorrow night from 8 to 9pm. The kids enjoyed watching the video and this website has some fun ideas for how to enjoy the hour with your kids. But since our kids’ bedtime is 8pm, we’ll be utilizing that hour of lights out for a candle lit date (shhh, don’t tell Kit, I’m going to surprise him!) and try the hour of no lights earlier with the kids - they are very excited.

And I still want that shirt that says, “I make milk, what’s your superpower?” The crunchy momma website had it advertised, I’ve not explored that blog yet but it looks interesting…

Off to help Moira water her rosebush and our plant on the front deck…

Lots of new pictures of everyone in the gallery for your entertainment.

Plus Bennett amusement if you click the link below:
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