Jeff, Tiffany, and Their 3 Little Baers: January 2017

Last night for family home evening Jeff put together a sticker chart for the kids to earn stickers towards something. I was using papers before, but Jeff thought it would be more exciting if they could see it posted up and we had little pictures for each thing they were earning. He was absolutely right! Ryan loves starting at his Target magazine with his Justice League lego set, but he was willing to cut it out and paste it to the poster. Now he stares at the poster and talks about how he can't wait to get enough stickers. They are earning for legos, a camera (for Lily), a lightsaber from Cracker Barrel for Max (his broke), McDonald's, Chick Fil A, and Jumpin.' I have asked Ryan several times if he has wanted to try reading lessons. He never wants to do it, or says he'll do it when he's five. I told him he could have a sticker if he does reading lessons, and he very happily did it today. Also, this morning he and Lily came to my room while I was reading scriptures. I told them to play for a bit while I finished reading. Lily got her Old Testament reader and sat next to me in bed reading. Ryan said he wished he could read so he could read the scriptures. So he had a little extra desire today. Lily was asking what else she could do to earn more stickers. She happily practiced, helped with dinner, set the table, she and Ryan emptied the dishwasher, all the kids helped pick up the upstairs and downstairs, and they were generally pretty happy and helpful today. It has been pretty amazing. And at night when Ryan prayed, he prayed he could get more stickers.

Marking the poster and getting stickers organized.

Lily's camera she's trying to earn.

Ryan's Mr. Freeze lego

Being good helpers! Ryan is great at using the big knife and chopping carrots.

A group effort to empty the dishwasher.

Max didn't sleep yesterday and was tired today, so I thought for sure he'd go down without a problem. After he had been in his room for a bit, I could still hear him up. I peeked in and he was on his changing table, pooping (I could smell it), and taking money out and putting it in of his piggy bank, wearing his Santa pj's. He's such a funny little boy. I put him down again and he did finally go to sleep, thankfully.

It is so nice having Jeff home this week. I was able to go grocery shopping while Max was napping and Ryan was at school, so I just had Lily. It was nice and easy. And then I was able to make dinner because just having Jeff around to clean up, or play with kids while I clean, or to help with bedtime, it's amazing! Nighttime is so much easier.

One of my new favorite things to do is be in the room when Max and Jeff feed the fish. Max gets SO excited when one of the fish eats. He yells it out, turns to whoever is in the room to tell them, or anxiously waits with anticipation for the next exciting moment in the fish tank. It is really sweet.

Max loves to play with light sabers and is always wanting to fight someone, anyone. But today he hit both Lily and Ryan in the head or face with it, so we had to put them up. And yet he is earning stickers for a new light saber so I'm not sure what we are thinking.

Ryan found his book of dragon paper airplanes and was so happy when I made him four different kinds. He just thought that was the best thing ever to fly them around and was so happy when I was working on them and then when I finished each one. It was a fun little project and I was pretty proud of myself since I don't know if I have ever made a paper airplane before.

Tuesday was a bit cold outside and we just had a nice quiet day at home. I really love having these days inside, getting things done, letting the kids play, reading, or just hanging around. I love not having scheduled things and enjoying being together. The kids did a great job folding all their laundry and Max put his away (and there was a lot of laundry), having dance parties while they cleaned, and being kind, thoughtful and full of service to each other. I love each of their sweet little spirits and what they bring to our family. Lily is always so helpful to me and the others and I'm so grateful for it. I told Jeff it's going to be hard when she goes to school full time next year because she is so good to play with her brothers and help out in a lot of ways. And Ryan is just sweet and funny and loves being helpful too. Today he got on a kick of doing his music homework and wanted to just keep doing it, so he's finished the next three lessons. These little overachievers.

They worked so hard on this 200 piece puzzle. And now they can do it so fast and love doing it over and over.

Ryan was the shredder master. He shredded a ton of papers for Jeff and was happy to help.

Lily is so good to read to her brothers.

Being Captain America is hard work.

Max loves using tools and was thrilled to hope Jeff fix the towel rack.

Max spent about 30 minutes using tools to fix this remote control car. His tool of choice was the antenna for the remote.

Reminiscing of the old days when he used to ride in this car seat.

Jeff typically plays basketball at the church three days a week, but on Tuesday he played with a group at the charter high school. It was at 6 and involved a lot more running since it was man on man, but he had a good time and is loving getting all this basketball in. I'm very happy there are groups around that do this since he loves exercising in this way, as opposed to just going and hitting a gym.

One of the sweetest moments of the day was when Jeff came up for lunch and we were blowing bubbles. Jeff took over and showed how he can blow a bubble in a bubble (which was so cool to me) and then the kids begged for him to blow a lot of bubbles, then big bubbles. I feel like I am often discovering little hidden talents Jeff has. For 20 minutes the kids were all entertained by this and I felt so much love for my little family. For a husband and father who loves us all so much, and loves spending time with his kids, and for kids who love life and are excited about the small things. I feel very grateful for how we have grown together as a family and how we work and serve and play and grow in the gospel together.

Every time Ryan practices his bells for music Max wants to practice too. He always wants to play so loud so we ask him to go play in a bedroom with the door closed if someone else is trying to practice. The other day Ryan went in with him and was coaching him on his major scale. Max hits all the bells and sings do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do going up and then back down. It's pretty impressive and so sweet that Ryan, and then Lily, were teaching him. We are also practicing the alphabet and numbers as a way for him to earn stickers. He wanted to practice for his mind, body, soul time and then Lily and Ryan want to help him with that too. They want to hold the flashcards, or give him help when he needs it. These kids are so good to each other, they are blessed to be siblings.

Ryan and Lily both love quizzing Max on his letters and numbers. Lily typically does the first half, then Ryan the second half so they can each do the first letter of their name.

At dinner when I asked Ryan what his sweet was, he said it was doing a reading lesson and then getting a sticker. And that competed with going to Cafe Rio to meet friends, so that was pretty nice.

Saying goodby to Tami Thurgood at Cafe Rio.

Lily, Kalissa, Paige, Blake, Ryan, Kaitlynn, and Truett

Lily found her dream toys.

Today there were a few times when things didn't go as planned or I had to figure something out, and Heavenly Father just helped it to work out and He helped me advocate for my cause at a couple stores and Jeff was proud of me for asserting my will. Before meeting friends at Cafe Rio to say goodbye to Tami, we went to the makeup store, then after we went to Once Upon a Child and Goodwill. And before Cafe Rio I went to the grocery store to pick up donuts for Beth who I visit teach since it's her birthday. So it felt like a very busy day and my varicose veins in my legs, even with my compression stockings, have hurt so much. But I made it through. And later that day my mom mentioned she wanted to get the kids a gift when she came out for the baby. I knew Lily would love the pony and doll and they were much cheaper at the consignment store than online, but I didn't want to drive all the way to Fort Collins. But, it turned out Jeff was getting a recall done on his car that was right next to the consignment store! So he got it the very next day so I didn't have to make a trip with all the kids. I felt like that was another huge blessing.

Lily wanted to sleep in the boys room since Ryan has been sleeping in there the last few nights. She made her bed on the floor, I left the room and turned off the lights and heard her say, "so, what should we talk about?" They then went around and shared their favorites songs from Moana, favorite characters from "The Force Awakens," their favorite Star Wars ships and even Max was pretty engaged in sharing what he liked. I thought it was great.

They played at Jake's house while I went to Ryan's parent teacher conference. His teacher said he is an excellent student, knows a lot, and does a great job listening and being engaged in class. He has made a lot of progress and when I told him he's a good student he said, "I know." Lily then piped in that she knows she's a really good student too.

At Jakes Max was in heaven because they had a lot of light sabers. Ryan dressed up as Obi Wan Kenobi and they just fought and fought. Jake came to our house and brought the light sabers and outfit and some guns, and they all just fought some more. Max loves a good sword fight. Lily had Kalissa over and dressed up as Princess Leia. They had a picnic on the floor and when they were all seated Lily said, "okay, so just to make sure we know everyone, let's go around and say our names, favorite color, and favorite food." So they did, and when they finished that they kept thinking up new things to ask each other about.

Max heard them sword fighting so he had to run and join the action.

Going around and sharing their names and favorite things.

Max is hiding under the blanket.

For dinner we had pizza and then root beer floats. I'm not sure if the kids have ever had them, but Lily said "this is the best day ever!" I then showed them "two little blackbirds sitting on a hill" where I had tissue stuck to my fingers and then made the tissue disappear. They were so amazed and even stood behind me to see how I did it and couldn't figure it out. They thought I was pretty magic.

Lily felt like a queen with this set up

Amy Brown knows our family so well. The perfect gifts!

Playing their new star wars game

Max loves hiding and playing in the bed.

Ryan was happy to make us a picture to hang above our bed.

Sorting through mementos and we came across this 2nd place for the spelling bee I got when I was in 6th grade. I procrastinated studying and went to school to find out the bee was that day. So I called my mom, she took me out of school and we studied words in the school parking lot until it was time.