Kensi's 4th Birthday!

She wanted a parfait like in the "Fancy Nancy" books. This is a BIG parfait! And she insisted that it have brownies in it and cherries on top.

She got some Strawberry Shortcake and Tinkerbell dolls. After perusing the little girl aisle at Wal-mart we are very glad that she is still into Strawberry Shortcake and Tinkerbell and NOT Barbie!

Posing!

Breakfast blueberry pancakes with a cherry on top!

"...everything!"

Kensi's birthday is next Wednesday and today I asked her what she wants for her birthday.  Her reply?  "...everything!"  

Well, there you have it.  That definitely narrowed things down! 

School: January 2010

Well, we all knew it was true, but I was just in denial for a while. It is now fact that I truly am too busy to blog our school by week. Weeks around here fly past so quickly that they are gone with the wind before I even know they have began! So we will try something new and perhaps easier to keep up with...blogging by the month!

The past couple of months have seen us growing and stretching and trying to find where our heart truly is with our homeschooling. We have taken a large leap of faith in following not only our hearts but also the Spirit towards Leadership Education through a Thomas Jefferson Education.  So, what is a Thomas Jefferson Education?

"A Thomas Jefferson Education is the title of the first of three books authored and co-authored by Dr. Oliver DeMille. In it, he describes the kind of education that created some of the greatest leaders in history—Thomas Jefferson being the quintessential example. The American founding fathers, as well as many other great men and women throughout history, were able to truly impact the world around them because they learned using this educational model. This philosophy of education, referred to as Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd) has a number of key principles and characteristics" such as the four phases of learning,  and the seven keys of great teaching.    You can read all about it at www.tjed.org.   

I first learned about TJed several years ago, and it really hit home with what I wanted for my kids.  But it was hard for me to let go of what I was used to thinking about education having grown up in the public school system.  TJed always lurked in the back of my mind as something that I would try "someday".  The Spirit finally told me that "someday" was now!   The more I learn about TJed, the more I realize that a lot of the things taught are things that we were already doing and have always done.   So here we are, our 9th year of homeschooling, trying a little bit of a different path.  We are also trying hard to incorporate more gospel teaching into our days.  We have always done a bit, but I never felt like it was enough.  Now we spend quite a bit of time on scriptures stories and understanding gospel principles.  We began our new school structure in January and this is how our month shaped up.

Devotionals -

•  "Choose you this day" Mormon Messages video
• Malachi 4:5-6 (the New Era has great scripture discussion pages called "Line upon Line.  This one was found in the May 2008 edition)
• "Pull together" Mormonad poster in the New Era July 2009
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 (Line upon Line, New Era Oct. 2008)

Math - Individual lessons in Saxon; Kaiden - Algebra 1, Nic - 6/5 , Luke - 3, Afton - 1

Mom school - (where I teach them things that I enjoy learning about)

•    We finished up our unit on "Around the World in 80 Days".  We loved reading the book and learning about the geography of the world based on Phileas Fogg's travels. 
•    Now we are learning about WWII so that we can move into a study of the kid's great-grandpa, Frederick Babbel, and his book "On Wings of Faith" which is about his time in Europe after WWII as Pres. Ezra Taft Benson's companion taking humanitarian aid to the members of the church there.

Words of the week: (We do this to build vocabulary skills for the ACT) indolent, deride, quandary, languish

Family Reading - Finished "Around the World in 80 Days" and began "The Mitchells: Five for Victory" by Hilda Van Stockum

Individual Reading -
Dad - "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini
Mom -

• "Little Britches" by Ralph Moody 
• "Percy Jackson and the Olympians - book 1" by Rick Riordan (horrible, I highly recommend NOT letting your kids read this book, mine for sure won't be)
• "A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion" by Oliver DeMille, Rachel DeMille, and Diann Jeppson
• "Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning" by Oliver and Rachel DeMille 
• "Following the Light of Christ into His Presence" by John M. Pontius
• "From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out" by Nancy Twigg

At the beginning of the year I sat down with each kid and asked them what their goals are for the year, what things they are interested in and what they would like to learn out in the next 6 months.  Then we chose a few topics and headed to the library. Here is what everyone is currently doing:

Kaiden (Love of Learning phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Seminary
•    Weekly trips to the Provo temple to do baptisms
•    Learning about engineering, work on the Boy Scouts Engineering merit badge
•    Duty to God
•    Piano lessons and daily practice
•    Origami
•    Reading: "Anne of Green Gables"

Nicolas (Love of Learning phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Faith in God
•    11 year old scouts, working on his First Class
•    Astronomy merit badge
•    Reading: The Ranger's Apprentice series...I'm not sure where he is exactly, he reads a lot and he reads fast!

Luke (Core phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Faith in God
•    Working on his Bear badge in Cub Scouts
•    Learning about inventing
•    Reading: a biography of Benjamin Franklin and "The Boxcar Children"

Afton (Core phase) -

•    Book of Mormon daily reading
•    Learning about being a veterinarian and a princess
•    Learning to write in cursive

Makensi (Core phase) - 

•    Learning about being a veterinarian and a princess

Temple in Payson!

Pres. Monson just announced today that a new temple will be built in Payson.  That is exactly (according to Mapquest) 1.79 miles from my house and a 6 minute drive!  We are so excited!

The rains came down...

Kensi was singing The Wise Man and the Foolish Man today and was singing...

"The rains came down and the flowers came up..."

It was very cute!

We did it!

After today, we have visited 11 of the 13 temples in Utah.  Our goal was to get to 10 by the end of the year.  The only 2 we lack are Monticello and St. George.  Both are about 4 hours from us, so they are a little too far to go to on a Sunday afternoon after church!  We will have to shoot for those next year.  Here are the pictures...

Jordan River Temple

Manti Temple

Logan Temple

Ogden Temple

Bountiful Temple

Mt. Timpanogos Temple

Provo Temple

Salt Lake Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Vernal Temple

Draper Temple

Kids fall pictures

 Kaiden

 

 Nicolas

 

 Luke

 

 Afton

 

 Makensi

 

Garrett

Red Knoll Hike

Today we decided to take advantage of the 70+ degree weather and go for a hike.  We went up to the Spanish Fork Reservoir and hiked to the Red Knoll.  It was a nice short hike and even Garrett was able to do it.  We  had an awesome view of the entire Utah Valley from the top. 

At the bottom getting ready to hike.

Going up.

We had to stop and play in the black rocks. 

The view from the top!

Someone who had been up there before left a pirate flag to mark the spot!

 Garrett & Kaiden had to stop on the way down to throw some rocks down the road.

 

Garrett had a blast and went up by himself just fine.  It was going down that was hard for him.  Kaiden helped him out!  What a good brother.

School: Sept. 21-25

School: Sept. 21-25

Math - Individual lessons in Saxon; Kaiden - Algebra 1, Nic - 6/5 , Luke - 3, Afton - 1

Geography - Politics, Religion, Resources

Science - Astronomy: Constellations

Word of the week: conscientious 

Family Reading - For school, we are reading "Daddy Long Legs"; for fun, dad is reading them "Fablehaven 4"

Individual Reading -
Dad - "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini
Mom - "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens & "No doubt about it" by Sheri Dew
Kaiden - "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens
Nic - Ranger's Apprentice 2 "The Burning Bridge"
Luke - Magic Tree House: "Midnight on the Moon"
Afton - Phonics practice readers

They also all do individual Book of Mormon reading and journal writing every day as well as passing off something in scouts or Duty to God/Faith in God for the boys.

Kaiden goes to the Provo Temple each week to do baptisms with a group of his homeschool friends and will also be starting piano lessons next week.

The kids Friday classes are:

Kaiden
P1 Art
P2 Home Economics
P3 Boys Dance
P4 Seven Habits for TEENS
P5 Choir
P6 Creative Writing


Nicolas
P1 Home Economics
P2 Shakespeare for Children
P3 Boys Dance
P4 Reader’s Theater
P5 Sports
P6 Science Lab


Luke
P1 I Love America
P2 Sports
P3 Fifty States
P4 Art
P5 Reader’s Theater
P6 Science Lab


Afton
P6 Choir

On Friday mornings after we drop the boys off at the Charter school, we have Kindergarten for Afton & Kensi with some of our friends. We take turns teaching. Today Jami & Pam taught about the letter A, apples, the book "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" and they made an apple pie from scratch. Kelley & I went to the temple. Next week Kelley & I will teach while Jami & Pam go to the temple. We LOVE this!

Fruit Flies?

We have been having a major problem around here with fruit flies. I saw the following post on a blog that I read and IT WORKS! Everyone should have one of these on their counters if they have fruit flies. I put mine out yesterday morning and have no more problem!

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2009/07/frugal-natural-pest-control-fruit-flies-ants-be-gone.html

School: Sept. 14-18

I'm sure that all of you out there wonder what we REALLY do all day every day. Sometimes I wonder myself! I thought I would start posting here so that I can see what we have accomplished. Of course now that school has started, I have little to no free time to blog, so we will see how trying to post weekly goes.

We love homeschooling and have such a wonderful time. This year we are in a great co-op with so many of our friends. We meet on Thursdays and do most of the English, Science & History projects together. This year for English we are studying Journalism; History - World Geography; and Science - Earth Science. On Fridays the older boys go to our local charter school for some elective classes and I have "kindergarten" with Afton, Kensi and 7 other cute little kids...and their moms. We are truly blessed and I am excited to share it all with you here!


Math - Individual lessons in Saxon; Kaiden - Algebra 1, Nic - 6/5 , Luke - 3, Afton - 1

Geography - Population, Climate Zones

Cooking - wheat bread, homemade mac-n-cheese, homemade ice cream & hot fudge sauce

Science - Astronomy: Stars

Family Reading - For school, we are reading "Dear Mr. Henshaw" & "Daddy Long Legs"; for fun, dad is reading them "Fablehaven 4"

Fieldtrip - On Sat. Sept. 12th we went up to the top of Woodland Hills with several other homeschooling families and had a star party. It was great fun running around on in the tops of the mountains in pitch black looking at stars through the telescopes. We saw Jupiter and 4 of it's moons, the binary star in the handle of the Big Dipper, Polaris, Cassiopeia, the Andromeda Galaxy, too many stars to count and of course the Milky Way. It was a perfect, warm night with no moon. It was great!

Individual Reading -
Dad - "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini
Mom - "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart, "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens & "No doubt about it" by Sheri Dew
Kaiden - "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens
Nic - Ranger's Apprentice 2 "The Burning Bridge"
Luke - Magic Tree House: "Midnight on the Moon"
Afton - Phonics practice readers

They also all do individual Book of Mormon reading and journal writing every day as well as passing off something in scouts or Duty to God/Faith in God for the boys.

Homemade ice cream, hot fudge sauce & mac-n-cheese!

These are so good! So I am posting the recipes here to share (and so I will always know where the recipe is if I loose the hard copy)! I have NEVER liked homemade mac-n-cheese...until now. This recipe actually has flavor! It is so good. Enjoy!

HOT FUDGE SAUCE

1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 stick butter
2 C. powdered sugar
12 oz. evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract


MIX chocolate chips, butter, powdered sugar and milk over medium-low heat. Bring to a slow boil, then simmer slowly for 8 minutes, stirring constantly, until thick. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.



VANILLA ICE CREAM (probably triple this for a normal ice cream freezer's worth)

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1 c. milk
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract (or according to taste)

First of all beat and mix together the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Separately, pour the milk into a saucepan and scald it (bring slowly up to boiling point). Pour the hot milk into the egg yolks and sugar mix whilst continuously stirring. Then pour the mixture back into the pan and heat gently, stirring until the custard thickens - DO NOT BRING TO THE BOIL OR IT WILL PROBABLY CURDLE. When you can see a film form over the back of your spoon it's time to remove the saucepan from the heat. Leave to cool.

(This is the custard base and one you can use in many other ice cream recipes where you want a rich, creamy ice cream.)

When the custard base is cold, stir in the cream and then the vanilla extract, then transfer the whole mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

BECKY'S MAC-N-CHEESE

2 c. chicken broth
1 c. + 2 TB. uncooked macaroni
3/4 c. evaporated milk
2 TB. butter
2 TB. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 c. shredded cheese

Mix everything but the cheese together and put in an 8x8 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Stir. Cook 30 more minutes. Take out of the oven and stir in the cheese. Serve immediately.

baby and dog

We love our dog, Cassadi. She is so good natured, especially with the kids. Garrett LOVES her. He follows her around, tries to ride her, pulls her tail and barks at her. And she lets him. These two are inseparable!

Morris family pictures

Everyone was in town for my cousin Jordan's wedding. Even Christy and Nick are in from out of state. So we decided to get family pictures. We had the best photographer around...my awesome friend, Becky! They turned out great.

Mom and dad

us

Sarah & Alex

Nick, Christy, & Raigan

Travis

Amy

Cloward Family in WY

We went to Green River, WY last weekend for the blessing of our cute little neice, Mia Bella. All of the family was there. We hate to miss a photo opp...especially when we are dressed up. Here are the pictures.

Our cute little family... lots of personality!

the whole Cloward Clan...all 21 of us in front of Nykki and Carson's new house!

Happy Birthday, Afton!

Cute, cute Afton. I can't believe you are 6 years old! Where has the time gone? You are such an independent little girl now who is trying to teach herself how to read. You love being a big sister and want to "mother" every baby you see, little or not. Your favorite colors are purple and pink and you love princesses. But your favorite Disney character is Goofy because he makes you laugh. You are an excellent artist and love to draw pictures and write notes to people. You love to give hugs and can almost always be found sitting on someone's lap. Your favorite foods right now are Mac-N-Cheese and hot dogs and pretty much anything sweet that you can get your hands on. You are so mischievous that you keep us constantly on our toes and guessing at what you will come up with next. We love you so much! Happy Birthday!

newborn

a couple of days old. You were our first girl, so we dressed you in pink constantly.

your big brothers were excited to have a baby sister even though we had them convinced that we were going to name you
Afton-boxdudderdox-berkhummer-snu.

cute, cute smile

1 year old

almost 2 years old

3 years old w/ your favorite kitty at Grandma's house


4 years old

5 years old

last month at the Mt. Timpanogos temple. You are such a big girl!