There is no place like home!

The week has arrived. We are moving back to Texas this next week. We have barely been able to keep Mark and Rebekah off the ceiling since we found out in December, they are so excited. Justin and Alex have had mixed emotions. They love their family and friends in Texas, but they have met some awesome people (girls) here in Arizona. Sometime in mid-February Justin said that he had crossed over to the dark side - meaning he was excited about moving back, but he felt a little guilty.

John is thrilled to be getting out of here - which I have mixed emotions about. Ft. Huachuca has afforded us a lot of time together as a family. Ft. Hood means we may get to see him on the weekends.

As for me, it is a lot of work to move, let alone move twice in less than a year. I am going to miss the double-wide we have been living in. We have tried to sell/give away a lot of stuff just so that we can fit back into our single-wide. BUT our single-wide is paid for so now we can save some money to finally build!!! And I have also met some awesome people here.

I just can't believe it is happening this week : )

Tombstone

My Mom came to see us week before last. Since we live about 20 minutes away from Tombstone it seemed the obvious place to go. We went last Saturday and had a lot of fun even if we didn't see the gunfights. Lots of people dressed in period costumes and plenty to look at, buy and eat. For more pictures, you know the drill : )

PIMA - Presidents Day

After Claim Jumper we went to Pima Air and Space Museum. The picture above was taken in JFK's Air Force One. Quite different I imagine than the AF1 they have now. Everyday the kids do some writing. This is what Rebekah had to say about it . . .

2/21/08 - We went on a trip to a museum on Monday. It was FILLED with airplanes and I mean FILLED!!!!!!!!!!! There were even airplanes outside. Can you believe it?

2/22/08 - We went to a museum on Tuesday. It had American history in it. It was much better than the airplane one. The statues talked. There were Indian stuff. I LOVED that place it was SOOO COOOL!!!!

The museum she is referring to was a museum on Ft. Huachuca. Alex had to visit a museum that had Indian artifacts for his Indian Lore merit badge.

I put more pictures in the more family pictures folder.

Claim Jumper - President's Day

Rednecks visiting the local Claim Jumper!!! We behaved so well inside (well except for all the picture taking). Outside - well how did we really feel . . .



We have more claim jumper pictures in our 'more family pictures' to the right. And yes, John was mortified. In fact when I took the last picture (above) he left for the car. I told him it was just for fun, you know, to brag to Katie : )

Mark's Rabbit

Mark caught his first rabbit today. Actually, he is the only one of the boys who has. Not that the other two have any interest or inclination to catch one. He asked for an air rifle for his birthday (last month) back in July. When John came home tonight, there was a rabbit under the tree in front of the house. I have no idea why it stayed there as long as it did because Mark couldn't find his pellets right away. Rabbits mistake!!! John just informed me it was eating an apple out there. I threw the apple out there this morning!

Meet Emelia

This is Emelia, AKA Pookey (poopy & pukey), Stinker and Squeeker (when she learned to scream). I have been babysitting her since she was 2 weeks old. Full-time since she was 6 weeks old. I actually picked this picture for Grandma Ferguson. Good thing about Grandma is that she knows now to ask the kids, "what did your mother say?"


Alex has deep meaningful conversations with Emelia, like how to program computers and how to do Algebra I. It took Alex a little while to warm up to a baby (he doesn't do babies much), but he really likes Emelia now. She likes to play with his face.


Rebekah likes to read and sing to Emelia. This is a common sight at our house, especially in the mornings when I am trying to take a shower. Rebekah takes care of her so Justin, Emelia and I can get out of the house for Seminary.


Justin teaches Emelia how to play the piano. I can't say he loves it because she likes to slump over and try to reach the keys and when he has to reach the outside keys she tries to do a face plant. If I am desperate though, he will help me.

Notice how Justin's fingers are peeking out from under his blankie? It was a cold morning and all the kids were complaining.


Mark makes Emelia smile. All he has to do is show up and she has a major grin for him. She smiles at EVERYBODY but sometimes we have to work at it. He doesn't ever seem to have to.

Emelia has been a huge part of our family for the past 4 months. We will miss her when we move. She and her Mom are moving to San Antonio around the same time we are heading for Ft. Hood, so I am sure we will see her some.

Self -control vs. Self-esteem

Primarily I started this blog to share pictures and the goings on of our family, but this caught my eye and I wanted to share. I'd love to hear what you have to say on the matter.

In the March 2007 Better Homes and Gardens I bought for .10 at the Library, there is a small article entitled, "Making Good Adults". Basically it talks about the self-esteem movement of raising children and how it doesn't work.

"So if self-esteem isn't the answer, what is? "My advice would be to forget about self-esteem and concentrate on self-control," Baumeister says. He defines self-control as "being able to resist temptation, control your impulses, focus your thoughts, and perform up to your capacity."

This caught my attention, I think, because I believe that this is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches us.

Resisting temptation: word of wisdom, chastity, morally clean
Controlling your impulses: same as above, fasting
Focusing your thoughts: keeping them clean, "I am a child of God"
Performing up to your capacity: service, magnifying your callings, better wives, mothers, husbands, fathers, children, etc.

I'm sure you could come up with more correlations.