READING AWARD

It may look as if Alex reads while fishing but that is not the case. Alex would not allow our camera man take his photograph and is therefore shown here in a family picture.

Alex, genius son of Jamie and Carl Cleaver, was awarded one week ago for finishing his 100 lessons from the Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons book. He celebrated his achievement with his mother and father by eating a 1 foot hot dog at a local restaurant. The 100 lessons started nearly 2 years ago and because of his fabulous mother's diligence and premeditated patience he was able to go through the lessons at his own speed. Jamie, who is known to complicate lessons among younger children said, "I love the book because it tells me exactly what I, as the teacher, am suppose to say. Besides reading the introduction of the book, which was very helpful, there was really no preparation involved with teaching reading, just open the book. I also liked that it teaches letter sounds before letter names--it makes reading much easier." The acclaimed book includes in each lesson: sounding out letters, words, reading stories, answering questions about the stories, and practicing writing letters. Alex is the third Cleaver to use this reading method but the first to finish the book--just in time for kindergarten. The other Cleavers, Jordan and Katie, started kindergarten and continued their reading progression through school.

What's next on Alex's list of goals?--tying his shoes.

Getting the Brain Back

I noticed a couple of days ago that after a short 2 1/2 years since Grant was born I have actually acquired more brain. You know how a portion of your brain goes under construction after having a child and you do silly things like forget about doctor's appointments, place the cheese in the cupboard instead of the fridge and go downstairs to retrieve something forgetting what it was you were looking for by the time you get there? Well I was thinking that was going to last for the rest of my life but hooray I can actually remember some things without even writing them down. Just yesterday I remembered to write a check to someone well before the deadline--amazing. I have also remembered as I've been going out the door about odds and ends to deliver on my way to running errands--miraculous. My memory still isn't at its peak but I'm glad that its improving and one day might be totally back to normal. I'm afraid the history of normal in my family is still slightly absent minded but better than being doomed to having lost many a brain cell never to be retrieved again.

WOOHOO!

YAY for SCHOOL! I was so excited for school to start today. Yippee! The house was quiet and the little boys were nice to each other all day. Everything was nice and smooth until the kids came home at around 1pm. So why start school if you're going to have half days for the whole first week? Oh well! The peace will come again tomorrow. Its not that I don't like any one of my kids, its that they're pretty wild all together. I'm sure its about 95% due to my lack of mothering creativity--I'm going to work on that in my spare quiet hours. 10 more days until Alex starts kindergarten. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO! Nap time during kindergarten will be absolute bliss.

Cool Shirts

This year my Brother Andy designed some pretty cool reunion shirts. They have everyone's name listed on the back. Every single member of the family got one. They were a little hot to wear in August but this is one reunion shirt that will not be worn for pajamas.




and speaking of Andy . . . he's engaged to beautiful Ashley. She was at the family reunion and after being around all of us for a week still wants to marry Andy--YAY! The date is set for the end of December.

SPEEDING

A week ago today I got pulled over--the first time ever. The officer (on a motorcycle) showed me the radar. It read 44 mph. He informed me that I was traveling in a 30 zone. I was shocked. I had just weeks before counted my lucky stars that I had never gotten a ticket and hoped my luck would last until I was 90 or whatever age I was unable to continue driving. So I was a little shocked that my luck ended at the young age of 30. The officer was pretty nice and told me I sure could leave the air conditioner on while he wrote up my ticket--how thoughtful. Now I'm wondering if it would have helped if I had tried to explain that my two-year-old seated directly behind me was on a screaming rage--it turns my right foot to lead every time, and that my whining children were very hungry. No, it didn't help that we were traveling down hill at a steep grade.

The officer spoke so fast I had him explain a few times my options for paying the ticket. Its so convenient that you can pay them online. He also informed me that he only wrote the ticket for doing 5 over the speed limit which I am assuming will be less expensive than doing 14 over--again how thoughtful.


Just about everyday I look and try to pay the ticket online (he said I only have 14 days) and a week later there is no sign of a ticket. Should I assume that he threw it away after I said, "Could you explain that to me again I've never gotten a ticket before" or maybe he's a BYU fan and caught sight of my BYU insignia as I drove away in front of him.

I wasn't really nervous when he pulled me over because I knew I was going too fast but as I sat there I got a little anxious and felt some tears coming on. Good thing Jordan broke the tension asking, "Mom, how many tickets do you have to get before you go to jail?" The question was sincere but it made me laugh and has been funnier since the incident. Incidentally we've seen that motorcycle officer twice more in the last week and I have been diligently following the speeding laws. 1 ticket by the age of 90 isn't bad is it?

"My Durn"

One of the benefits of having older siblings is that you learn some great things just by living, like how to hit your sister and run, how to properly hold a baby doll (tightly around the neck) and how to operate the DVD player (always carry the DVD around the house for a while before loading it into the machine). Grant has been saying, "my durn" (my turn) lately. He wants to do what Alex is doing. Almost every time I'm doing a reading lesson with Alex Grant runs in and says, "my durn." Because of it he has learned the letter sounds for m, s and a. He can almost get them right every time he sees those letters. Most of my kids have had no interest in reading until at least the age of 4 but Grant seems to have a little more desire to be like the other kids. So when I was flossing Alex's teeth last night with his head in my lap (can you believe he had 8 cavities filled in the last few months just after the hygienist was telling us his teeth looked perfect--all cavities were hidden in between his very young teeth) Grant said, "my durn" and just like Alex--said, "ow, ow" every tooth I flossed. So great to have to put forth less effort with each child (except for the early learned pestering).

Grant always squints when told to smile.

TALENT SHOW-REUNION 2008

Every time my family gets together we have a talent show. At first (a few years ago) everyone performed pretty much against their will but now just about everyone looks forward to it (mostly for the candy bar award for participating). We hear things throughout the year like, "I know what I'm going to do for the next talent show. " Here's a list of a few of the talents:

hoola hooping-pictured above

cutting paper-yes it is quite a talent for a two year old

poetry recitation

putting makeup on (Julia's head with Steff's hands)--pictured left

blowing bubble gum bubbles

dancing

whistle duet

singing---pictured right

Its a tradition that I think will stick. Hopefully the talents will just keep getting better and better.

TURKEY HAIR

Alex was born with a great head of hair. It moves in all sorts of directions unlike his older brother's hair. Jordan cries out in pain any time his hair is brushed in any direction other than the direction it grows--straight forward. When Alex woke up this morning looking like a turkey I couldn't stop laughing. After looking in the mirror he decided of his own volition to brush it and ... nothing happened. Katie, who was looking on at the picture taking commented, "maybe you should LOG that" so here I am LOGGING away. Above is Alex's typical "I hate this" look.

BAPTISM

We've spent the last week with a whole slew of family. The point of everyone visiting was the baptisms of Katie and her cousins Jack and Julia (traveling from Azerbaijan). By getting baptized they promised to follow Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. I'll never forget the good feeling I had as I looked around the room full of family and good friends. Hopefully Katie, Jack and Julia will remember that day for the rest of their lives.

pictured here are Jack, Katie and Julia with their dad's right before their baptisms

THE NEXT GENERATION OF LIST MAKERS

When I was little I used to make lists all the time so it was fun to find one of Katie's lists recently.

Here's what the list above says:

Wake up

Get dressed Put my glasses on make my bed (I'm all for quick check offs like put your glasses on)

eat breakfast and brush teeth

make lunch and go to school

get chores done and ask Grant if he wants to take a bath with me

Play with Grant

Sing a song

Color a pictuer

look at the piktuer Grant made you

right on the thankful chart

tell someone you love them

give Jordan the hug of the day

eat lunch give Alex the hug of the day

have a brake (I'm definitely going to add this to my list)

right a letter to mom and dad

eat dinner

say to mom I love your shirt today (Hmmm--so that's why she always says that)

Play with Jordan or Alex

get your Pejes on (pj's)

Brush teeth

Go bed

GARDEN JOB CHART

Sometimes I find it beneficial to clean as a family for 15 minutes in the morning and night instead of giving the kids individual jobs. They seem to work much better if they know they will be an end to their cleaning. Since its hard for the kids to think of jobs that need to be done so I made this chart. Every morning and evening I can quickly empty the slots (just slits in the paper with an exacto knife) of the jobs that need to be done then the kids can put the flowers back in the slots when the job is done. I'm hoping the bite size jobs will be less overwhelming than our current cleaning situation and that putting the flowers in the slots will make cleaning more fun for kids like Alex (who hates cleaning). I'm also expecting that this chart will help me to remember all the things I want to get done. (Its probably a little hard for some of you more organized people to believe but I forget about making dinner at least 3 days a week.) I'm such a nicer mom and much more productive when the house is clean so hopefully this chart works out.

Easy Party

We had a very relaxing time at Katie's birthday party last Saturday.

Here's why:

we played games that took no time to put together

here the kids are having a crabwalk race

there was no theme--I usually stress myself out with a theme

the party cost a total of around $30

we spent some of the time eating hotdogs (such a great time filler)

the house was clean before and after the party

the presents were simple and useful and gratefully there weren't very many

the person who won each game picked a present (from the $1 section at Target) for someone else to unwrap. everyone got a present.

the birthday treat was so fast and easy to make ahead of time

party guests were very polite and calm. not pictured here are cousin Jack and my boys

party favors were simple and took very little time to put together--I also picked these up at the $1 section of target

The girls all left happy!

It was our first but hopefully not last stress-free party.

...AND THE CIRCUS CONTINUES

After a peaceful 3 weeks with only 2 children home, Jordan and Alex arrived to further the pursuits of the Cleaver Circus. After three weeks of showing his calm side, Grant suddenly began renewing his screaming and hitting skills in defending himself against his pestering brothers. Jordan and Alex seem to have stored up energy during their trip and are squirting it out everywhere and on everyone like circus clowns.

Seeing that much of her time and emotional bank will be spent again on breaking up fights and dealing out punishments June is happy to have spent her hours yesterday completing several projects and errands hard to do with 4 children.

Just as June realized how easy having two kids at home really is, she is remembering the difficulty in raising 4 kids and is on the hunt for some new ways to teach unity, kindness and calmness around siblings.