General Conference! Oct 6-7, 2012

I am so excited to watch General Conference today and tomorrow.




Looking forward to the guidance and direction from modern day prophets.

Bring It On!

I would do well to look at today
through the eyes
of a 5 year old.


"Bring it on world...I am rockin' in these socks!"

Resolutions

We decided to ring in the New Year a little different this time around.


We went to bed early...ish.

We woke up early...ish.

We wrote down our resolutions.


And then we tied our resolutions to balloons
and
sent them off ahead of us into the New Year.


We are going to do our best to "keep up" with them...



Happy New Year!

We've Updated!

The Roeth Family

Fall 2010

Our last attempt at a family picture was when Sam was only 12 months.
He is now five years old.
It was time...

I am so grateful to be the mother of this crazy bunch.
They are my life's work~
there is
nothing
else I would rather be doing.


Ben & Eliza

Eliza

Ben

Sam

Natalie

Ben~Eliza~Sam

I'm Sorry

Sam accidentally broke Ben's new space shuttle model.
Ben was obviously upset when I came on the scene.
Sam was apologizing over and over...
I gently reminded Ben that he needed to
forgive
his brother.

Sam again said that he was so so sorry.
Ben gave a muffled, "it's okay..."

Sam thought for a second and said,

"your welcome!"

Ya, we still need to work on that...

Ben's Baptism Day

This is one of my favorite "traditional" pictures.


Ben's baptism day was such a great day!
He was baptized after church on Fast Sunday.

When we sat down for Sacrament Meeting,
he handed me
a little piece of paper that he had
written
his testimony
down on.
He told me that he wanted to bare his testimony.
He was one of the first to go up and did such a great job.
Watching my children's
testimonies grow
is one of the
sweetest rewards
of parenthood.

Saturday night he asked us to wake him up early.
It was already so late that we told him,
"no, because he needed his sleep".
Sunday morning,
early,
he came bounding into my room...
dressed and ready for church.
He said that he had gotten up,
found his clothes
and got dressed in the bathroom
so he wouldn't wake up his brother.
He came out to the kitchen to get breakfast
and saw the clock...

1 a.m.

I asked him what he did when he noticed the time.

"I just went back to bed with my church clothes on!"


He was so so excited!
I can tell that he is really making an effort
to be helpful and make good choices.
Such a great guy!

I can't believe that my
SECOND CHILD
is this old!

For some reason the drain wouldn't stay plugged in the font.
When they went into the water...
it did not even come up to
Ben's waist!

Ben was quickly baptized!

Nate said that in the
short time
they were in the bathroom
changing into dry clothes
they heard the
font
drain-
COMPLETELY!

Quarantine

Strange thing visited our house this week.

Chicken Pox.

Although all of the kids have been vaccinated-
apparently they can still get chicken pox.

No Fever
+
No Itching
+
Just CONTAGIOUS red bumps
----------------------------------------------------
NO SCHOOL



So what do you when you find little red chicken pox all over your chest?

Spend 3 days making DIORAMAS!

Pioneer Trek

Great Wall of China

Battlefield

Totally love this kid!

Squares

We are trying something new this year.



It took a bit of work to get started...
but we hear that it will be

"relatively painless"

from now on.

The kids helped measure and cut the wood.



Hammer everything together.



Paint the boxes.



And finally plant everything.

We just sit back and watch it now... right?

Picking Up My Slack

Here are some pictures of St. Patrick's Day...

LAST YEAR!

For some reason I completely dropped the ball on St. Patrick's Day this year.
We all wore green but that was the extent of it.
No tinsel shamrocks 'round the house.
No Corned Beef simmering in the crock-pot.
No once annual cabbage preparation.
And worst of all, no green tinted milk.
I think I have dyed every dinner ingredient green - every year since I've been married...
So lame of me...

-BUT-

We had a surprise St. Patrick's Day treat delivered from our friends.
And although it was simple-
it sure made the day here for the kids!



If inhaling cookies becomes an Olympic sport,
I have a few kids that would like to try and qualify.

Thanks for picking up my slack!

Passing The Time

The kids weren't feeling well this week...
...Spring Break week.
For a couple of days they
sulked around, slept, watched movies, and played the computer.

Although it was a bummer for them,
I took advantage of the "I don't need to run here and there" time.
I decided to break out my Pressure Canner and give it a try.

With lots of panicked/paranoid phone calls to my
mom,
sister,
and friend,
I have a pantry full of preserved goodness.
Black Beans
Pinto Beans
Chicken
Soup
& Hamburger.

No Flake Left Unturned

We had a rare but fun snow day here in Texas.
The kids came home from school early. After heading to the attic to rummage up some of our "olden-days" snow gear...
...I sent them straight out to play.

The thing I love about this picture is that you can see that
EVERY square inch
of the yard was played on.

No flake left unturned.

She Did It!

After 4 long hard days of intense potty training effort on both our parts, Natalie is finally a Potty Trained Champ! I could not be more proud of her. Now I am in for lots of quick trips to public toilets in the middle of every shopping trip. Yipee!

Gratitude

Popcorn popping!

I decided to invest in a popcorn popper. Now, just so that you know... these are vintage. I had to hunt high and low to find this one. Anyway. Since we were going to be using this for a long time, I wanted to know if the more expensive Orville Redenbacher's brand really was better than the Walmart brand. So, I bought one of each brand and we did a maiden voyage on the ol popper and tested each type. Well... I had no idea that it would be so novel for my kids. As soon as I realized that this would be a "moment" I grabbed the camera. Here is their reaction when they saw the kernels exploding! So funny! Ben and Sam went crazy!

So, which one was better? In a blind test we all like the fancy better... except Ben. There has to be one in every crowd. That's okay though. Someone has to finish off that walmart brand I bought...

So Manly!

I let Ben get a sample deodorant from the store the other day.

Real manly smell- Old Spice.

The first time he used it (immediately after his shower that night) he paraded his armpits thru the house insisting we all smell them. He could NOT have been more pleased with himself.

Oh what to do when the first chest hair emerges...

What do you do in the summer time?

Ben with his new snorkel gear.

It is all foggy because he just walked around the house with it on. He would take a normal breath or de-fog the goggles every once in a while.

Almost just as much fun as using it at the pool!

Nate, Eliza and Natalie at the water park. Natalie is still a little cautious...

Eliza and Natalie bonding

Eliza in the lazy river

Natalie, Ben and Eliza

Our summer has thus far revolved around swimming. We started the summer off with a month of swim lessons. Every morning for an entire month we ate, changed into swim suits and lined up for the dreaded sunblock application. I don't know why this bothered me so much. Maybe it was because, without fail, each person would wiggle and whine about having to wear it and beg me not to apply to the face. After swim lessons we would come home, change again, and eat. Once Natalie was up from her nap... it was off to the pool or water park again. So, repeat morning routine. Change back into swim suits, and hollar for everyone to line back up for sunblock application. Wiggle, wiggle, whine, beg, whine. Phew. And-- sunblock doesn't last forever. So after a couple of hours at the pool, it was time to gather everyone back to the pool side and, you guessed it, sunblock application.

Eliza

Ben

Sam

eat- sunblock-swim-eat-sunblock-swim-sunblock

SLEEP

REPEAT!

Ben was so excited to get these new shorts. He has been begging me for weeks to get him a pair of plaid shorts. I finally did and they were on him the moment we stepped in the door. What is this look here you ask? Pure joy.