Beach Vacation

Well, going to the beach was on our list of things we wanted to do this summer and I was beginning to wonder if we could pull it off but thanks to our great friends, the DeMille's (actually their aunt), we are here! They invited us to join them in Oceanside for a few days at a condo their aunt has some timeshare in. We were able to each get our own condo at a great price right on the beach, really right on the beach! Here's some pics of our first day here.....








On our way back from the beach we found out that all the power in southern CA is out so we would be without any power for the night and possibly the next day and night as well. Are You Kidding Me? Is every vacation we take going to turn into an episode of Survivor? We hadn't gone to the grocery store yet, of course :), so we are living off of what we brought. Thank goodness we have some things to get us by. You'd think from our last disaster vacation (the infamous cruise) we would have brought a flashlight and batteries with us, but NO, we did not. The staff here were wonderful and brought every room a flashlight.

UPDATE: we were told there was no way the power was coming on again until the next day, probably the next night. While Scott was sitting in the dark with the kids, he just felt an impression that he should say a little prayer. He listened and did, asking for the power to be turned on sooner, that our vacation would be enjoyable and we would be taken care of. Knowing that the odds of this actually happening was slim, he asked for his faith to be strengthend and that he would not doubt Heavenly Father's power. Within 5 minutes of ending his prayer the lights came on! It was only a little after 9pm! Some may say this was coincidence but we have learned to just say thank you! I have to just say how blessed I am to have him as a husband. Isn't he amazing? I never thought about praying for the power to be turned back on, I knew that was impossible so I just asked that we would be safe and cared for. I need to have a little more faith it seems....

MANTI

I've wanted to go to the Manti Pageant for a long time and we finally made it! We went with the wonderful Losee family and had a great time. Our campground was within walking distnace to the temple and had a pool (that was freezing), play area, bathroom/showers and millions of mosquitoes! I'm really not exagerating, MILLIONS! We had quite the experience just getting out of the car. The bug spray was of course on the bottom of all our baggage and poor Scott had to be eaten alive while he tried to find it. Then we jumped out as fast we could sprayed ourselves and put up our tent as fast as we could in the dark :). I didn't think at all while we were packing the bug spray that it had deet in it and so we could not put it on Jane. What was I thinking!? ( thats why we had to put the tent up so fast so that we could get Jane out of the car).Star stayed in the car with her and tried to keep the ones that had gotten in the car away from her. When we got home I looked in the back and saw all these black smudges on the ceiling and I asked the kids what they had done (ya know, in that tone that they love :]). They were like, "Mom, those are the mosquitoes Star killed when she was protecting Jane!" Star, the hero! Anyway, the next day Scott found the last bottle of bug spray without deet in the whole town :). Jane was so good and we all had so much fun. The pageant was really cool and the temple was absolutely gorgeous. We defintely want to go back and go inside.


Losee Children + Alexander Children= 12

One of the towns on the way had MATER out front of an old movie theater so we just had to stop and get a pic on the way home

Dylan begged to have his picture taken with George Washington

Ean and Tanner: Double Trouble but Super Cute!

Waiting for the pageant to start........




The kids were playing here most of the time

Ean refused to swim

The Freezing Pool

Liberty Youth Academy

Several years ago some fellow homeschoolers decided to open a private school. I was new to homeschooling then and while I was tempted to give it a try I knew it wasn't right, we needed to be homeschooling. The school went through several changes over the years and is now Liberty Youth Academy. Every year we wonder, pray, think and try to figure out what each of the kids need that year. Dylan has always asked to go to "real" school but every year I am determined to find a way for him to love learning at home. Every year I have looked into this school, speaking with the director and looking over their blog, wondering if we should have Dylan attend but then go back to that determined thing. I received an email from LYA in March announcing their summer program and again considered having Dylan attend. I spoke it over with Scott (told him how I had been looking into this school for a couple of years and just felt like maybe Dylan should go there) and we both felt like this was something we needed to consider and probably do for him. I went in and talked to Stephanie, the director, and after our meeting I just knew that this was the right place for Dylan. The environment was exactly what I was hoping it would be and Stephanie would be a wonderful mentor for him. I have to admit that I was very ashamed of myself for talking myself out of it for so long. I feel horrible that I let my pride get in the way of admitting that he needed something/someone other than myself. Anyway, I'm trying to get over it :). We had initially planned to just enroll him for the summer session to test it out but decided why wait. When you know something is right why do we insist upon waiting sometimes? Stephanie agreed to let him start right then with only 2 months left of their regular school year. So he has been attending LYA for 2 months and loving it. He only goes for half a day so he can still be with us at home and not miss too much of our family time but he loves it. He Loves It! And he is thriving in just a short time. He wrote a whole page essay with several drafts, something that would have been torture for both of us had I suggested it. (he really wasn't too excited about it but hey, he did it with only a small complaint which is HUGE) I am loving it too, I know it is right for him and I have enjoyed watching him grow and be excited to learn. I have enjoyed getting to know the staff (former homeschoolers with lots of experience) and being part of their school. Anyway, they had their end of the year program and if I had any doubt about the school it went right out when I saw their program, it was fantastic! The theme was Be The Hero Of Your Own Story. All year they have been learning about heroes and what it means to be a true hero. Each of the children chose a hero to study and they gave a little blip about them in between singing beautiful uplifting songs (I was having a really hard time keeping it to a few tears and not completely bawling).

Dylan and two of the other boys were Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. One of the teachers took pictures of all the kids dressed up as their hero and had put them in a slide show. They were gorgeous pictures, I think I need to have her take some of all the children.

Dylan's part was "Beacause of their courage and strength the Lord was able to protect them. Their example and miraculous protection taught a nation that their God was the ALL POWERFUL GOD! Like so many of our heroes they were firm in the faith that the Lord would help them if they did what He asked. We are inspired by them and we too are FIRM IN THE FAITH!

I'm so excited that he has the opportunity to learn in such a great environment. I hope that I have learned my lesson and will not allow the children to sacrifice for my stubborn pride. I'm so sorry Dylan!

Happy Easter!

Seems like we just celebrated Easter and here is another one already! We have had a busy week but have been able to fit in our traditional Easter week celebration, well some of it anyway. We were able to read from the scriptures the account of Christ's life leading up to the atonement, crucifixtion, and resurrection. Every year the children are able to discuss more and more and most of them can tell what Christ did each day of the week. We still need to keep Ean occupied while we read but he is actually able to answer most of the questions I ask him as well. We learned the song "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and I was so excited that all of them were able to memorize it (except Ean), and then this morning we all totally forgot the words at the end :). We will have to keep working on it I guess. We had a lovely sacrament meeting and have spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening at home being together. Is there anything better than that?

Well...seeing my girls looking so beautiful in their Easter dresses rates right up there :)

and my love was looking pretty darn cute too :)!

(My boys were very handsome as well but didn't want any more pictures taken and Dylan and Ean were quite upset that they didn't get new ties for Easter. I looked everywhere for ties that would match the girl's dresses but didn't have any luck, sorry boys!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Since I find myself sitting a lot these days I thought I would check out what's new on sugardoodle.net. We don't usually do much for St. Patrick's Day but they had so many cute ideas that I thought I would try some. We are, or we were :), learning about light in science so I thought we would do the section on rainbows as part of the festivities. As always is the case, my good intentions to make a fun day for the kids didn't turn out quite as planned but we did get to some of them done although we had to do our rainbow lesson the following day since we ran out of time (and mom was exhausted).
We started the day off with "leprecahn mush" for breakfast(green cream of wheat). A sneaky leprecahn had left each of us 5 "leprecahn coins" with a note that said we needed to try and be sneaky throughout the day and do get rid of all our coins by doing secret acts of service for others. For each service we did we put a coin in a cup-the goal was to get rid of all our coins by dinner time. The kids and I had fun being sneaky and I think we all got rid of our coins. Dylan had his done very quickly, he gave Jane her pacifier 4 times within a matter of a few minutes :). We may just have to make this a tradition.

We have been so blessed to have many people bring us meals since Jane was born. It may not seem like much but not having to worry about dinner has been sooo nice for me and for Scott who has been working a lot this week. I thought it would be fun to make some treats for those who have helped us and let them know how "Lucky" we feel to have them in our lives. We made green popcorn balls (with lime jello) and threw in some green m&ms too. The popcorn balls is what threw us for a loop. I've never made them before so didn't realize how important it is to cook the mixture just right. Needless to say we overcooked the first batch and the mixture turned as hard as a rock. Thank goodness we had an extra box of jello :).

We ended the night with "leprecahn dessert"(pistachio pudding) and telling eachother what we did for our acts of service.

The kids were quite bummed that we didn't get to our rainbow lesson and activities so I made sure we did it first thing the next day. We learned about the first rainbow and the what/why/how of rainbows. Then they each painted rainbows....

I made a fruit rainbow for lunch....

Star did a rainbow experiment. She painted all the colors of the rainbow on a round disc then spun it around to see if when spun the colors would all turn back to white.

"Baby Janes"

Ean had a hard time remembering her name for a couple days and then started calling her "baby Janes". Not sure why he added the s but it is so cute when he talks to her. The day after she was born he woke up and came in our room holding this dress and said, "I picked out her clothes"! I was a little worried that he would have a hard time but so far he is smitten with her and keeps telling me how cute her cheeks are :).

So far, she is sooo good. We are just loving her to pieces! Here are some pictures of her first week....

Who knew changing a diaper was such a show :)


Braeden has been taking care of the kids for me and so doesn't get a turn with Jane until they are in bed. Then he comes up and holds her for an hour or so. He is so good with her and has been a huge help to me.

I didn't leave my room until Sunday, I just stayed in there to rest and hold her so the kids would come hang out with me in there. Star took care of me and Jane when Scott had to go back to work and that was so nice to have her right there. She is going to be a great mom someday! This picture is Sunday afternoon. The kids went to church by themselves and then we all just hung out in my room talking, watching movies, painting nails and just being together. I walked out of the bathroom and saw this scene and tried to hold back tears. This is what family is all about, just being together.

Sweet little girl, we love you!

Jane Abigail Alexander

She's finally here! It seems like I have been pregnant forever and I have to say that there is no better feeling than to have her out of my body and into our home. I had an appointment with my midwife on Tuesday and she gave me the very discouraging, "well I think you have another week". I started having contractions however right after my appointment and throughout the day but nothing real consistent until early Wednesday morning. After about 5 hours of pretty hard labor Jane was born at 10:37am, Wednesday, March 9th, weighing 9 lbs. 8oz. and is 21 in. long. Right as she was born and was placed on my stomach we could tell she was a big girl but I would never have guessed I could have a baby that big :). It did explain why labor was a little harder than any of us had anticipated. She had a hard time coming down under my pubic bone which delayed her birth by a couple of hours. Scott was able to "catch" her and the whole birth at home thing was such a special experience. My midwife, Liz, and her assistant, Janae, were excellent and made me feel at ease even when things got a little hard. They knew just what to do and how to make my contractions more comfortable for me, well, as comfortable as a contraction can be :). I loved being able to do my own thing without the chaos of the hospital. I'm not sure if I will put it in this blog or not but I will definetly be writing down my experience as soon as I can find the words to describe it. Having a piece of heaven enter not just your family but enter your home is amazing.

Jane is gorgeous though, beautiful dark skin, long black eyelashes and a perfect round face. Pictures never do newborns justice, I don't think, so its hard to see just how cute she really is.





The kids are loving her and fighting over her already, ("it's my turn to hold her"), Scott can't keep his eyes off of her and I am filled with love for this sweet girl I waited so long for so I'm thinking there will not be a shortage of love and attention for her at our house.

Scott and I had talked about the name Jane when I was pregnant with Ean. For the last few years I just knew that we had a Jane waiting to come. Knowing what a blessing from our Heavenly Father she is, Jane, meaning "God is gracious" just felt like the perfect name for her. Abigail is a name chosen by Scott. We have been discussing middle names for a long time and about a month ago Scott came home with the name Abigail having been on his mind all day. I wasn't sold on it so we have kept looking but the other night we had narrowed it down to 3 names we liked, looked up their meanings and decided to wait and see what came to us when she was born. When she was born I told Scott to pick and he didn't hesitate a second. So, Abigail, meaning "joy of a father", is just too perfect isn't it?

Meet Rebecca

It was Cate's turn to do the presentation this month. She gathered up some of her favorite things to do and told the girls about them. She even played them a song she was learning on the piano. She was really nervous but did great!

We learned about Rebecca this month, a Jewish girl who's family immigrated to America from Russia. Adrienne taught the girls how to finger crochet which is a great to learn the art of crocheting for little hands. I think I will teach all the kids how to do it, that may keep their hands busy during quiet reading time.

Hannah's mom, Nancy, taught them how to make hallah bread, a traditional Jewish braided bread used for Sabbath dinners and holidays. It was delicious and the girls had fun braiding their dough. She also taught them a little about Jewish traditions and how important the Sabbath is to them. It was very interesting and the girls were fascinated by the difference between their beliefs and the Jewish beliefs.



Rebecca wanted to be an actress and would act out Russian folk stories that her parents and grandparents would tell her. Adrienne brought a big box of dress up stuff and let the girls put on mini plays using some of the stories they knew like "The Three Little Pigs" and "Little Red Riding Hood". This was a big hit with the girls who were all anxious to put on a show for us.