Disconcerting...

Driving home from Christian's pack meeting last night, the kids were playing "Scooby Doo." (We rented a DVD with a few of the old classic Scooby Doo shows over the weekend). Claire was assigning out the roles and I said "who am I going to be?" Claire said, "Mom you can be Velma because you look like her." I had to laugh because she's right--but I think on the inside I was really crying.

A momentous occasion in our lives...

The past few months

We're alive and well in New Jersey. I always feel like I should say that because its so long in between my posts! The following pictures are taken from the past few months...

Claire on her seventh birthday. She is such a sweet, loving little girl.

Me after the Morristown St. Patrick's Day 5K that I ran in. It was not a pretty race, but I finished! The kids said I looked pretty bad when I came in at the finish. My time will remain undisclosed...

Joseph "fighting" his punching bag.

In spite of the spaghetti faces, I love this picture of Gracie and Claire because they have their "real" smiles.

We took the kids to the circus in April. They loved it!

Ron and Joseph at the circus.

Christian and Joseph trying on the circus clothes before the show.

And finally, this weekend we took the kids to the "Great Wolf Lodge." Its a super fun family resort in the Poconos, just about 45 minutes away from our house. We've wanted to go for a couple years, but have never been able to. Friday we picked Christian and Claire up and told them we had a surprise. We gave them clues on the drive about where we were going. Joseph figured it out when he saw the map I had printed out had a wolf on it. The kids were so excited when we drove up! It has an indoor waterpark and all the rooms are themed around wolves and camping and stuff. Our room was the "Magiquest" room. The kids each got a magic wand and their wands turned on the lights, made pictures talk, and opened a treasure chest inside our room. Then they used the wands to play this scavenger hunt game all over the hotel. They loved it. The water park was awesome.

We had a really great weekend. It just felt good to get away from the stress and cares of the world for a little bit and enjoy some time with our family. Check back in a few months for my next post!

Sweet little people

I just wanted to post on my blog how happy and proud I am of my children. They try really hard to do nice things for me and for others. My birthday was this month and it fell on a Thursday. I didn't know this at the time, but they woke up early for 5-6 days before my birthday to work together and make me this present:


Its a picture frame that they made out of cardboard, complete with a cardboard leg in the back so it can stand up. They each drew a picture of themself on it and they had Ron take a digital picture and glued it in the middle. They worked so hard on it and were so excited to give it to me, I am sure it will always be one of my most prized possessions.

We had a snowstorm on Friday. Christian, Claire and Joseph went out first into the snow but Gracie was stuck inside with me. After they'd been out there a while, I finally was able to get her all bundled up to go out. I asked if they'd help her and they helped her walk all around outside in the 12 inches of snow and took her with them wherever they went. I was so happy with their willingness to be kind to Gracie and help her have a fun time! Here's a couple pictures of it:

Here's another example. Christian letting Joseph play lightsaber with him when he had a friend over to play:

And finally, Claire and Joseph making my bed together. They left a note on my pillow that said, "To Mom, From your Secret Admirer. When I found out "someone" had made my bed, I coerced them into telling me so I could take their picture:

I am so grateful to have such sweet little people to take care of. Our house is bedlam most of the time, but I am so proud of my kids when they do kind things for others!

our little trip

Hi everyone! In order to beat the winter blues, we took a quick little trip this weekend. We drove to Philadelphia to visit the Franklin Institute (our favorite science museum) which is having a STAR WARS exhibit. Lots of the costumes, ship models, puppets and robots used in the making of the Star Wars movies. And we got to take a ride in a Millenium Falcon cockpit. The kids loved it!

Claire's favorite was the Hoth abominable snowman (complete with bloody meat refuse on the ground next to him). Should I be concerned?

Joseph loved this jawa.

We stayed that night with Bryan and Emilee Tikalsky--they live in Leesburg, VA. It was so fun to see them and their cute daughter Natalie! The next morning we got up and went to George's house. Mount Vernon has recently been redone and its the BEST president's house I've been to. Lots of interactive exhibits, a movie theater that really snows on you during the winter of Valley Forge and blows smoke at you during the battle, and of course George Washington himself was walking around.

I put together a few clips from the video we took this weekend. Our friends that used to be in our ward in New Jersey and now live in Virginia came to see us for part of the time we were at Mount Vernon. We loved seeing them! Our kids are great friends and you'll see them playing together in some of this:

After we spent most of the day at Mount Vernon, we stopped and visited the President monuments really quickly on our way out.

Ron took this of course.

Thats it!

Well we're alive in New Jersey in spite of our outrage over John McCain's trickery in Florida. I thought I'd post a few pictures of the past couple months:


Christmas family picture

Christian as wise man, Claire as angel and Joseph as sheep in the ward nativity play.


In December, I got to go on a field trip with Christian's class to the Museum of Natural History. Here's Christian in front of Dum Dum. If you don't know who Dum Dum is, watch Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum.
Here's the kids playing Harry Potter the week they all had strep throat and were home from school for 4 days.


In these pictures, the kids are wearing their pajamas inside out because their Primary teachers told them they would have a snow day if they wore their PJs inside out. However, their efforts and belief in the Primary teachers were crushed the following morning when we got hardly any snow and they went to school without so much as a delayed opening. Gracie was walking around in my shoes that night.

Thats pretty much it. Ron is a high councilor now. He'll do a great job. I still have no calling in our new ward besides that of church widow.

Halloween and the Sunday before...

A little surprise...

Our new school is .7 miles away but we are still "walkers" not "busers." Even though its a little far, I like to walk to pick them up rather than drive. The weather's been beautiful here too! Anyways today, shortly after we left school, it started to literally pour down rain. Usually you can feel if its going to rain--the air gets really heavy. But today I just didn't think it was going to rain. We walked the whole way home in a torrential downpour! We laughed and had fun but I'll definitely be taking my umbrella with me the next time it looks like rain.

An update

FYI school is going better for Christian and Claire. The second day of school, Christian had talked to some girls he sits with and he felt much better about the day. The third day of school, he played soccer at recess with some boys. I think he'll be fine. Claire is doing OK still as well. They had school off for Rosh Hashanah Thursday and Friday.

Joseph gave his first talk in Primary today. He told the story of Ammon. I purposely picked that story because I knew that as long as he could say the phrase "chopped off their arms" in his talk, he would be OK with it. He did a really great job.

Gracie made it out of our bench and almost started climbing the steps to the stand in Sacrament Meeting. She is very busy and loves being able to walk.

We spent all day yesterday trying to organize our garage. And its still not done. But we are slowly getting the house put together.

First day of school

Well, yesterday was the first day of a new school for the kids. Claire seemed to do OK but Christian had a rough day (While Christian was telling me about his awful day, Claire kept saying things like "I have 5 new friends" or "my new best friend is Erica." So she feels fine about it.) Christian wants to make friends but feels shy and scared to talk to the other kids. So we had some major pep talks last night and I'm praying he does OK today. His teacher is supposedly excellent--she's young and energetic. Claire's teacher is supposed to be good as well.

Joseph of course insisted that I pack him a lunch and a backpack just like the other kids. We had "school" for him while Gracie took her nap. He learned to write the letter A and we played football at his "recess."

We wait to pick the kids up outside the door next to the kindergarten playground.

Catch up post

This is my "catch-up post." These pictures are not in order--I'm just putting them up as fast as I can before I go to bed. Basically, you'll see pictures of the following events: A trip to Pennsylvania for Boyer family history, the last day of school, a camping trip to Gettysburg, a day trip the kids and I took to a sprayground in New Jersey, Ron's family reunion in Wisconsin that we drove to last week, Joseph's fourth birthday, and a trip to Kentucky (where Ron's parents live) on our way home from the family reunion.

We visited a pottery shop and watched them making pottery in Kentucky.

In Kentucky, we visited Fort Boonesboro. This is the kids with Daniel Boone.

These are Joseph's hands after we washed them after he ate his birthday cupcake.

Joseph hugging his new pirate ship.

Joseph's birthday cake.

The kids on a tour of Manitowoc, WI. This is Ron's great-great grandmother's house. Ron thinks this looks like a depression era picture.

Gracie at the family reunion.

This is a four-generation picture that I really like.

At the family reunion, we went on a sailboat on Lake Michigan.

Joseph on the sailboat.

Gracie and I on the sailboat.

This is our Gettysburg campout. Ryan and Melanie came with us! We loved having them with us.

This is Joseph in a Confederate Civil War uniform.

This is our Memorial Day trip to the Old Goshenhoppen Church where some of our Boyer ancestors are buried.

This is Claire steering the sailboat. It was a 3-masted schooner. We got to help sail it and hoist the sails.

This is Christian on the schooner.

I love this picture!

We drove for an hour to get to this sprayground.

Gracie at the sprayground.

Christian and his buddy at sprayground.

Claire at sprayground.

This is a picture of the family traversing the field at Gettysburg National Park over which Pickett led his famous charge. This was the climax of the battle, and is known as the high-water mark of the Confederacy because the Southern army almost overcame the union lines on the other side of the field in violent hand-to-hand combat. Ron's great-great grandfather fought for the Confederacy and was captured while trying to overcome the Union lines after surviving the march across the field. This was a very emotional and solemn occasion, given the fact that our own flesh and blood had been shot at by callous, cold-blooded Yankee dogs at this very spot. [Can you guess who typed this for me?]

Gracie at Gettysburg.

We went to Gettysburg with our friends, the Croshaws and the McMullins. These are Claire's friends.

Claire's last day of school. Her teacher was Mrs. Washington.