Never Ceasing to Amaze Me

This is not a prideful comment, but I believe that Kian is a genius and totally in-tune with the Holy Ghost. Let me explain...

We have what is called a yard hydrant that provides us plenty of water for our garden. It has had a leak that has gradually worsened (to the tune of a $100+ water bill last month. YIKES!!!). We went to home depot and purchased a 3/4" garden spigot to replace the hydrant. As I took of the old hydrant, I quickly learned that the new spigot I got was too small. So I took the old hydrant to the hardware store. I purchased a new one and placed it where the old one was. After turning the water on, to my disbelief, the water was coming out of a closed hydrant more than it was leaking from the old one. As I came into the house retelling what the current situation was, Kian chimed in. I didn't want to listen to what he was saying at first, but decided to listen. He suggested putting the new spigot onto the hydrant where the hose would normally go. Man, why don't I think of great ideas like this??? Needless to say, it worked. No more leak (hopefully). Yes, the new hydrant still leaks, but with the two pieces working together there's no leak. I came into the house hailing Kian as a genius and that he is so in-tune with the Spirit.

It never ceases to amaze me of the validity of "out of the mouth of babes" do we learn great things.

What will I do with myself?

I’ve been without a certain major appliance in my home for over a year. With four children and a newborn baby, some might consider this appliance a necessity. But I think I’ve handled its non-presence pretty well. Can you guess what it is?

It’s a clothes dryer. A top-notch washing machine I’ve got. Thank goodness with all the cloth diapers that are washed around here. But it’s mate—a very nice dryer we purchased five years ago—had to be sold to someone else because it runs off gas power and our wonderful home in the woods here only has electric power.

Compared to the summer before last when I was washing and drying the clothes by hand because there were not enough quarters for the machines at the laundromat, just having a washing machine in my home again was heaven. I haven’t even missed having a dryer. Hanging up clothes is better for them anyway and the savings of electricity was a benefit by not running another energy-guzzling appliance.

I often have clothes hung up all over the house. With diapers to wash and towels and bedding and clothes for seven people, I run out of space in the laundry room frequently. The chairs around the dining room table get used as a hanging up place as well as the crib and the doors and the ironing board and wherever else I can think of!

But now…thanks to some generous friends of ours who moved away and had an extra, we are the owners of an electric dryer! I used it this morning for the first time on a load of cloth diapers. How exciting it was to turn the knob and select the appropriate setting again. Permanent press, no! Knit/delicates, no! I need high heat for these little rags. Timed heat, yes! 50 minutes later I heard the familiar BUZZZZZZZ of the dryer that I haven’t heard for so long.

As I pulled the warm, dry diapers from the machine I marveled at their softness. My diapers haven’t been this soft for a looong time. How exciting it will be to dry my towels! I’ve had stiff towels for just as long and feel embarrassed when I offer them to my guests.

It took me less than five minutes to pull them out of the dryer, fold them and put them away. What used to take 20 minutes will now only take 5. Multiply this times at least 10 loads/week and I’m going to be saving a lot of time! What will I do with myself?!

I might just sit and wait to hear that familiar BUZZZZZZZ that sounds so lovely in my ears!

And some pictures of Klaus

Here's our handsome baby!

























































Check out his diaper cover. Is that not the cutest diaper cover you've ever seen in your life? Grandma Randi made it for Klaus along with several diapers and another cover decorated with frogs. He's so cute!











Here's his reindeer outfit that keeps him warm when we have to go somewhere.

More pics

Here are the kids meeting Santa at the ward Christmas party. Felicity's not feeling too friendly as you can see!












































And then there's a picture of us eating breakfast in front of our wood stove with Grandma. The wood stove keeps us warm and the fire is so beautiful. We're always drawn to it on a cold morning. It makes our home in the woods feel even more like a cabin in the wilderness!

FINALLY...some pictures

This is Klaus undergoing his phototherapy at home. It looked like he was glowing all the time. Can you see the blue light around his middle? We had to keep him plugged in for a few days to get rid of his jaundice.








This isn't my favorite family picture but it's pretty, isn't it? We went to a pumpkin patch in October and admired all of the mums for sale.


This is the pumpkin that Kian carved for Halloween. Can you read it? He's a little carried away with computers, don't you think?









Here's Abba-Dabba at the pumpkin patch with a kitty. You can barely see the other kids behind her climbing the hay bales.














And here are the kids dressed up in their wonderful Halloween costumes. Grandma Randi made them. Aren't they great?

The Minority

There are many things that may seem unfair we encounter every day, but when we are in the minority some things just happen. Such is life and we deal with it and move on.

After Rhyetta gave birth to Nikolaus, I decided that it would be time to grow some facial hair. As the weeks passed, Rhyetta would ask, "When are you going to shave?" My response was, "When you ask me to." Last Friday (January, 14 2011) during dinner I asked the family if they think I should shave. Opinions were shared and it was taken to a vote. Rhyetta, of course, raised her hand for me to shave. What was a surprise was Abby, Ella, and Felicity followed suit. Kian and Nikolaus were the only ones that sided with me. The votes were cast: 4 to 3 for me to shave. Girls against the boys. We boys are in the minority in our family, so I better be careful on what we vote for around here. There are just so many things to get used to around here, and add this to the list, eh?

A reading milestone

We've reached a milestone! Kian has officially read his first novel. How can that be, you ask? He's 9 years old already and he reads all the time... Yet it is true; this is the first fiction book he has read from cover to cover. He spends a lot of time reading 1,000-page computer manuals (and understands them). He enjoys perusing Calvin and Hobbes books. And he has picked up stories before but I've only ever seen him read selections--the parts of the books that look interesting to him. So, that's why I can say we've reached a milestone! He read the whole book from first page to last page and he loved it! What was the book he thought was so "awesome" that kept his interest for 350 pages? Grandma Musser introduced our family to the Fablehaven series. Grandma read them while she was here. Then I read 'em and loved 'em. And now Kian (and Abby) love them too.

The strange thing is how fast he read the book. I've already noticed he has somewhat of a photographic memory. Remember how when he was 6 years old he had the whole book of Ether from the Book of Mormon memorized?! He read the entire Fablehaven book in 2-3 hours. I quizzed him yesterday to find out how much he comprehended, and he answered all of my questions correctly! He reads faster than I do. It's incredible. These kids are so smart!

Since we're on the topic of reading, I'll tell you of a new joy of reading I've discovered. If you've never sat next to Ella and listened to her read selections from Calvin and Hobbes, you're missing something. She pronounces all the sounds in the comic like "gurgle", "glug", "piff" etc. And those large vocabulary words that the illustrator includes are so funny coming from this 5-year-old girls mouth. She sat next to me yesterday to read to Nikolaus because she thought he'd like it. But don't worry, she didn't read any of the comics with monsters because that would've been too scary for him! These kids are so sweet!

Finally, I'd like to give a book recommendation and a movie recommendation. Are you excited? Even better than Fablehaven and almost as good as Harry Potter is another series I just started called "Percy Jackson and the Olympians." I'm on book 4 of the series. They are very fun and full of adventure. You might like them too! Also, on recommendation from Grandma Musser, we as a family watched the movie "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" with Nicolas Cage. It was just what a movie should be: fun and funny. I highly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone. It reminded me of "National Treasure" which is one of our favorites but more appropriate for younger kids.

I'm amazed I had 10 minutes to write this post. Ella and Felicity are currently entertaining the baby and getting a little wild so I will stop.