December

I love this month of cheer.

It's the best time of the year.

On Christmas Day we laugh and play.

Hooray! Hooray! It's Christmas Day.

-a poem by Rebecca da Silva

I never do these things, but...

1. What is your occupation right now?
Computer programmer for Choicepoint, a LexisNexis Company, yadda yadda yadda

2. What color are your socks right now?
Socks? I don't need no stinking socks!

3. What are you listening to right now?
Scooby Doo that Anna and Giulia are watching

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
Oatmeal (Cinammon Roll flavor), orange juice and hot chocolate

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
Yes, my Dad made me learn before I got my driver's license

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Robson, about what he needed to buy for dinner on his way home last night

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Of course!

8. How old are you today?
29, for the 11th time :)

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
Tennis, basketball or BYU football

10. What is your favorite drink?
Hmmm, probably orange juice or Dr. Pepper

11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Yes, and I need to have it done again

12. Favorite food?
Anything I don't have to cook

13. What is the last movie you watched?
The Lazarus Project, it was so-so

14. Favorite day of the year?
Probably Thanksgiving

15. How do you vent anger?
Well, I would never admit to yelling and slamming doors, so probably cleaning something

16. What was your favorite toy as a child?
A good book

17. What is your favorite season?
Spring, when the flowers start to bloom and it gets warm

18. Cherries or Blueberries?
Both!

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
Of course

20. Who is the most likely to respond?
Karla S.

21. Who is least likely to respond?
Kristina, I haven't heard from you in a while, my fault

22. Living arrangements?
Messy house in Provo with my DH and 5 kids

23. When was the last time you cried?
The day before Thanksgiving

24. What is on the floor of your closet?
shoes, a bag full of library books, and my sewing machine covered in dust

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to?
Robert

26. What did you do last night
Made dinner, watched a movie with DH and got kids into bed

27. What are you most afraid of?
Not being good enough

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?
Cheese, defnitely

29. Favorite dog breed?
Anything big

30. Favorite day of the week?
Thursday, my big night out

31. How many states have you lived in?
Texas, Virginia 2x, California 2x, Utah 2x, Guam (not a state, do territories count), Florida 2x, Idaho and Wyoming (the last 2 on my mission)

32. Diamonds or pearls?
diamonds

33. What is your favorite flower?
Anything my husband buys me

Ahh, the Terrible Fours

Anna is going through a terrble fours stage. She is actually usually pretty good, but sometimes... For example, whenever she is told to pick something up, she starts crawling (very slowly) along the floor and whining that she is too tired. Saturday night, Robson took the girls to the store and when they got home, Anna threw her sweater on the floor. We told her to pick it up and put it away. Of course she started whining and crawling. We were trying to get dinner served to all the kids and so we ignored her. She ended up laying on the floor next to her room (she had crawled there from the kitchen) but she wouldn't just stand up and hang up her sweater on the little rack right above her head. I eventually walked over to see what was going on and she was asleep on the floor. Maybe she was too tired! I would think it would take more energy to crawl than to stand up and walk. I do remember Camilla doing the same thing for a while so hopefully Anna will grow out of it soon.

Speaking of sleeping, when we got home from church yesterday (at 4pm or so) we started to feed the kids some pasta that Robson had made. I put Giulia in the high chair and gave her a bowl. She is pretty good at feeding herself so I wasn't paying that much attention to her. I heard Robson say "Oh-oh" and I looked over at her. Poor thing, her head was nodding and her eyes were closing. So we gave up on feeding her and put her in bed. She usually has a nap at 1 or 2pm but since we go to church at 1pm she missed it yesterday. Sometimes she will fall asleep in church but she didn't that day. Gratefully, we will start going at 9am in January so she should be ready for that nap right after we come home and eat lunch.

The kids thought it was pretty funny that she was falling asleep in her highchair. I informed them that all of them had done the same at one time or another. I remember several times answering the phone or helping another child and turning around to find a sleeping child in the high chair. I even found Keiffer asleep on a wood floor that we had in our condo. It was just a little 3x3 square of wood by the door, the rest was carpeted. I don't know why he chose the hardest part of the floor, but he was only 1 at the time.

Happy Halloween

We had a fun day on Halloween. The kids get out of school early on Fridays so we didn't have to rush around retouching makeup and fixing costumes before it was time to go Trick-or-treating. We went over to Robson's office first and went trick-or-treating there. It is really fun and all the offices are decorated. Then we went over to Grandma's house to show off the kids costumes.

Grandma and Suzy wanted to go get some dinner. I also thought it would be a good idea to get some real food before letting the kids gorge on candy. So we went out and it took forever to get our dinner. The kids were really getting antsy and we still wanted to drive the 20 minutes home and go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. So we finally got home and I took the kids out. Anna got tired but the older kids wanted to keep going so I let them go out on their own for 20 minutes.

A Brief History of Time - part 2

Well, I am obviously not very good at blogging. Some more events that have happened in the last 2 months are:

Rebecca turned 8 years old. That is a big deal in our religion since 8 is the age of accountability. Meaning that she is now old enough to know right and wrong fully and make choices that will affect her standing with God. Children are also baptized when 8 years old and covenant to follow God and keep the Commandments. And Becca was baptized at the end of September. It was a beautiful service and she is a beautiful girl and we are very proud of her.
We haven't had much else going on lately. Just life as usual. The kids are growing. Keiffer, Becca and Camilla are all doing very well in school. We even got a note from Camilla's teacher about what a great reader she is. They have lists of sight words that they need to learn to read in less than a minute. Camilla passed off the first grade sight words in September. Miss P said that was the quickest she has ever had anyone pass them off. And she even passed them off with the new Principal! Becca and Keiffer are also both doing very well in school.

Anna, Giulia and I just hang out around the house. I wanted to work more with Anna to get her ready for kindergarten next fall, but I always seem to run out of hours in the day. We do try to got to story time at the library once a week. I guess I just need to have more structure so I don't waste my time with computer/TV/books.

Edited to add pics.

A Brief History of Time - part 1

Dad got on my case about not posting to my blog since August. I didn't even know he read it ;)
So here are some of the things we did in the last 2 months.

We went to Lagoon for a company party. We had yummy watermelon and rode the rides. We decided not to stay all day but we got to ride most of the major rides, or at least Keif, Becca, Camilla and I did. Robson stayed with the 2 little girls on the kiddy rides.

Suzy and Dad came to visit and had lots of fun playing Uno with the kids.

We celebrated Suzy's 22nd birthday with a cake that I made from scratch!The kids started school. Yeah! Now I only have Anna and Giulia home most of the day. And they are all doing great in school. We went to visit some friends up in Logan. This was a lady that was always feeding Robson while he was on his mission. The kids played with her granddaughters and watched a movie while Robson and I visited and played house rules Uno.

We celebrated Robson's birthday (I won't mention which one). He got a brand new laptop to use for school. Thanks, Mom, Dad, Katia, Claudia and Vivian! He is pursuing a Master's degree in Healthcare Administration with an emphasis in gerontology through the University of Phoenix. All the classes are online which is why he needed the laptop. Robson is enjoying school so far and doing very well in his classes.

We also went to Salt Lake and the Brazilian Festival with Suzy and some friends of ours. It was lots of fun with great food and music. The girls even got their faces painted!

=




What a fun summer!

Girls Camp

I got to go to camp Mia Shalom! It was a lot of fun. I haven't been to girl's camp for about 20+ years since I was twelve. Don't do the math, please. I am in the Relief Society presidency of our ward and we were asked to come up to do a service project with the girls. We ended up making some thank you cards. They are given to parents of babies in the NICU of the local hospital so they can thank the people helping their babies. We also had lunch with the girls. Jamaican Jerk Chicken salad, yummy! After lunch we gave the girls some hats and mitten that were knitted by some of the sisters in our ward. They had the Young Women value colors on them to remind the girls of the values they uphold. Then we came home. It is about a 3 hour round trip so we had a pretty full day.

What a Summer! - part 2

I forgot to mention the 4th of July! Well, we didn't have any big plans. Robson, Becca and Camilla went to see the hot air balloons launch as part of
America's Freedom Festival.

The rest of us stayed home and slept in.

Then Grandma Kathy came over and we barbecued. Robson had to work in the evening with one of his elderly clients. So Grandma and the kids and I walked over to the elementary school when it started getting dark. The school is over a hill and a little bit further north. We can see the fireworks at Stadium of Fire from there. They are still pretty far away but at least we don't have to deal with the traffic, the noise and the smoke. Robson came by after getting off work and took Giulia and Anna home with him. That was good because the stroller broke on the walk over. After the fireworks we went home and lit some sparklers. We finally got to bed around midnight.

Well, in Utah we also celebrate Pioneer Day on July 24th. Robson and I both had to work because our parent companies are out of state. Pioneer Day is the day that Brigham Young and the first LDS pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake valley. Some cities do fireworks and have special events but Provo doesn't. I guess because they do the Freedom Festival just a few weeks before. We did barbecue again and then did some fireworks with some friends in the neighborhood. Then the next day we went down to Nephi and the Handcart Pioneer Pageant. It was really fun even though we sat on the bleachers for about 3 hours so we could get good seats. We weren't planning on taking Anna because we didn't think that she would behave for that long but she really wanted to come. She actually did really well, better than Camilla anyways. We left Giulia at home with Grandma Kathy. We probably could have just gone about an hour early and got the same seats but we didn't know how crowded it would be. It was a great experience and had a great message for the kids and adults as well. We need to be grateful for our trials because they make us stronger and build our faith in God.

What a Summer! - part 1

It has been a long hot summer. I haven't been as good at blogging as I would like. Hopefully, I can make up for it when the kids go back to school in 2 weeks. Here are some highlights.

We had a fun Devitt family reunion in June. Got to see lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. Aunt Carol asked the kids to sing a song in Portuguese for a talent show. Camilla didn't want to but we got her up there anyways. Robson and I even got in the act. A bunch of the uncles and older cousins also gave us a great rendition of a hula.
We had a nice visit from Grandpa John and Grandma Dottie. They just stayed overnight but we hadn't seen them for a long time. We hope to see Grandpa John again before he leaves for the winter. Unfortunately, they weren't able to build their cabin this year. Next year we will definitely be down in Eastland enjoying the beauties of nature that God has given us. Grandma Dottie gave all the kids really creative presents as usual. Where does she come up with these things?

Keiffer turned 10 years old on July 9th. I can't believe he is in the double digits already! Grandma Kathy and I took the kids to Seven Peaks water park on the 10th to celebrate.

I am a bad, bad blogger

I thought I would be able to keep up with it but since the kids are home for the summer I have no or very little free time. I just wanted to let you know that I will try to do better. We have had some fun, helping Grandma, going to a family reunion, etc. And Grandma has been great, helping out with the kids and letting me work a few more hours.

Have a great day!

Girls, girls, girls!

I love my 4 little girls. I really do. They are loving and sweet and sometimes even helpful. They can play nicely with each other and the other children in the neighborhood. They occasionally let me do their hair and they love to dress in cute clothes. Keiffer could care less what he wears.

The other day the girls found a pair of Robson's shoes and tried them on. Pretty soon they were wearing not just my shoes and Robson's shoes, but our clothes as well. I was treated to a little impromptu fashion show. It didn't matter that the fashions were all strait out of my closet. They were having fun. Even Giulia wanted to join in. At least I think that is why she was trying to get into my closet.

I love it when they are creative and having fun. They all love to read and regularly give me kisses and hugs. I must say that Keiffer does that as well.

Sometimes, however, they drive me nuts and I wish I had all boys like Robson wanted. They are picky about clothes and food and I am dreading them being old enough to date. Oh, the drama that goes on at our house on a regular basis. Camilla was getting ready for school this morning. She was dressed but we still needed to find some shoes and eat lunch and fix her hair. She has a particular pair of shoes that she likes to wear alot. The velcro was worn out and the straps kept coming undone. Grandma had put some new velcro on them a few weeks ago (Thanks Grandma!) but the glue was not holding. I suggested several alternate pairs but nothing else would do. Other shoes didn't match or were uncomfortable to walk home in or just weren't up to snuff for some reason. I decided to take a shower at this point and let her figure out what to wear. By the time I got out of the shower, Camilla was in tears sitting on the floor next to her closet. I finally offered to sew the velcro on the shoes while she ate her lunch.

This is the kind of drama that you get with girls and it is only going to get worse.

Happy 6th Birthday, Camilla!

Another birthday has come and gone. Camilla just turned 6. Because her birthday is on a holiday weekend, we usually don't get a huge attendance at her parties. A lot of people going out of town or at family picnics, that sort of thing. So this year I let Camilla invite whoever she wanted, no limit on the number of friends. She invited 6 little girls from her kindergarten class, 2 friends from church and 2 friends of the family. Of course, almost all of them showed up. So we had eight 5 and 6 year olds running around the basement and making tons of noise. But it was lots of fun and turned out just fine. I even made her a cake. A double layer chocolate cake with teal cream cheese frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Everyone thought it turned out great. The decorating needed some work but I did the best I could without any decorating tips. Where is Suzy when I need her?! Oh yeah, she is in Czech with that tall guy who stole her from us.

Camilla looking like a mini-Suzy.

Am I having a senior moment?

For the last month or so I have been having acne break outs around my chin and nose. It usually doesn't get too bad and only lasts a few days. But the pimples just kept coming. I finally had to get some new face wash. It finally seems to be clearing up. I thought that maybe I was regressing to my teen years. Then this last week some other things happened and I know I am not a teenager anymore.

We decided to movc the computer downstairs so the kids wouldn't always be in our bedroom. Robson has a friend from work that does some computer stuff on the side and he came over Saturday morning to help us do the rewiring. He parked his truck in the driveway behind Robson's car. I had to leave and get my hair done. I didn't want to take the gas guzzling van for just myself. Robson's friend was parked kinda far back in the driveway. I thought I could crank the steering wheel and get around his truck with Robson's smaller car. I found out that I couldn't. I ended up running over the sensor for the garage door.

So now we are opening and closing the garage door by hand until we can scrape together the money to get it fixed. I was leaving the other day and had opened the door. Then I got the girls in the car and started to back out. Camilla shouted and said the garage door was too low. I tried to stop but my reflexes aren't what they used to be. I ran into the garage door. I wasn't very low but just enough to hit with the top of the car. The door survived but one of the rollers came out of the track.

I am glad to know that I am not the only one breaking things around here. We have a little carousel that we keep the numerous remote controls in. One of the kids (no one confessed) broke it into a million pieces. Well, maybe ten. I still haven't gotten around to gluing it back together.

But on the bright side, my hair looks great! Thanks, MarJean!