A family of Jumpers/flippers...

When I was 4 years old, my parents got a trampoline, and ever since then, it has been one of my most favorite things to do. So, as I got older, I promised myself that I would have one for my kids to grow up with. This is one tradition that I am beyond happy that I was able to pass on.

To hear the audio on the videos, you will have to pause the playlist...

This first one is a little silly....

Well, I'm going to start off by wishing Aussie a happy third birthday! He is such a good little guy, and we are so blessed too have him in our family :).


It is a tradition in our family, that when they turn 3, they get their own bike. It is also a tradition (not my favorite, mind you), that they practice learning how to petal, in the kitchen....It's not so bad, i guess...I can keep better track of them this way :)


This week, being Spring break and all, I have had the urge to not only spring clean, but to get some projects done around the house. And, if you know me, I love, love, LOVE to paint! Our house is an eclectic array of colors, and I just love it! Having 5 young kids, it is almost impossible to not only find the time to paint, but to do it without kids all over me. It doesn't help matters, when, as soon as I get the paint stuff out, all of them ask if they can help. So...I have found a fun solution to this problem, and here it is...

I give them each their own sponge paintbrush (30 cents at Wal-Mart), and their own bowl of paint (empty cottage cheese containers work well). I, then give them something large, that they can paint. Make sure that it's something you don't care about. I have given them old wood scraps, boxes...today, I found some large bulletin boards that I wasn't using anymore. I let them paint those, while I did my projects.
Even though they were done before I was, it satisfied their need to paint, and then they were perfectly content to play outside, while I finished up...and yes, it was messy...but that's all part of the fun...and it is exactly what bathtubs were invented for :). Fun, fun day :)



Here is the wall I painted in the preschool/ play room. I found an old picture frame, down in the basement, and I painted it a cream color, then sprayed it with some high gloss, clear finish. I, then taped off a square, and used some of my left-over chalk paint, and painted it on the wall. While that was drying, I painted the outside of the green, a red color (as you can see :) ). I found this metal star, that I inherited from my mother-in-law. I spray-painted it gold.
I will use this wall as my "Star of the Week" wall in preschool, where we will write things about the Star of the Week...A little Christmas-y, I know...but who doesn't love Christmas?!
I can't wait to use it!...

Finally, I found another empty frame, and did the same thing as I did in the preschool, but just on a smaller scale, and put it in the kitchen. The chair, below, I also painted. I like how it turned out :)

I am looking forward to the summer to do more fun projects around the house...

Note from my brother, Joel

Here's a note from my brother, Joel, who is serving in Mito, Japan...



I am right now in a church in Abiko (closer to Tokyo). We were evacuated out of Mito yesterday by the Mission Office because of the continual tremors (I always think of Kevin Bacon whenever I say `tremors`) and because of the exploded Nuclear Power Plant 11 miles to the north. Mito was also hit by a tsunami and this was a problem, too. We were told to pack for a week. But, the problem was that there was no way out of Mito. The express way was closed, the train line was broken, the local roads were bumper to bumper, and no one could give us a ride out of Mito. However, our Super Hero senior couple, Elder and Sister Hobbs, took the 5 hour drive and picked us up and got us out of Mito last night. Thank you all for all of your prayers. I am so grateful for every single prayer that was said. So, the big 9.0 earthquake happened last Friday at 3-ish o`clock. From Thursday afternoon, I was in a town called Tsukuba on splits with an Elder named Elder Cooper. Friday afternoon, we took the train back to Mito to meet the other Elders to switch back. We said goodbye, then started to walk out of the station and to our bikes. Tiny earthquakes here and there are pretty natural here in Japan. When we got to our bikes, we started to feel an earthquake. It started off really small, and we shrugged it off. We were under a bridge, and then the shaking got worse and we started to see dust and rubble falling down from above us. We ran away from the bridge, and then the ground started to crack and sink and slant and the glass in all of the buildings began to crack. All we could do was just crouch down, cover our heads and watch the buildings sway back and forth and side to side. It went on for what seemed about 3-5 minutes. Once it ended, the first thing we wondered about was `Where are the Tsukuba Elders?` So we ran back into the station to find them, but we couldn`t find them anywhere. As the streets flooded with people evacuating the buildings and searching for shelter, there was no hope to find the Tsukuba Elders. Another quake came right then that wasn’t as strong, but shook us up none the less. Our cell phones wouldn’t work and we couldn’t make any calls. We tried to call them several times, but no luck. We went all around looking for the Tsukuba Elders (we thought they were trapped inside the Station). The phones everywhere were down. We were having more tremors and we were getting pretty worried for ourselves and for them. We were ready to go and look somewhere else. However, we received a miraculous phone call, out of nowhere. It was from the Tsukuba Elders. How we received that call at that time, and weren’t able to make or receive any other calls, I don’t know, but we received that call and were able to meet up with them. To make a long story short, we decided to walk back to the apartment and as we were on our way, we found a lot of people that needed our help. As we went, there were houses that crumbled, and shops that were crumbled and glass everywhere. We helped an old man and his wife clean up there shop (which was also their house). They didn’t want to bother us with helping them, but we took the brooms and pans and helped them clean the glass and broken stuff as quickly as we could. The man thanked us, but really, it was such a wonderful thing to be able to help them. They were so frightened by everything and didn’t know what to do. As we walked away, the man walked out onto the sidewalk and thanked us in a loud voice. It was a pretty humbling experience. I don’t want to take all this time by just telling about the effects of the earthquake and what not, but that is just a little bit of what happened. I would just like to show my gratitude and testify of a God of Mercy and Miracles. I am so grateful to be here and have the opportunity to serve among these people and see the Light of Christ evident in every single good deed anyone does. So many people were helping others as much as they could. Seeing acts of kindness which receive no recognition and seeing people serve their fellow men during this time was so amazing. This time is definitely a time to count the blessings, focus on the things that matter most, and strive to lose yourself in the service of others. I love the work and I love being a missionary!

Love, Elder Einfeldt

Christmas!

Was it just me, or did Christmas come waaayyy too fast, this year? Before I knew it, Christmas was here, and gone just as quickly. Thankfully, we were able to get everything done without a hitch, and it was a wonderful time for all of us.

First, we HAD to make cookies for Santa (oatmeal chocolate chip--his favorite!)


The finished product, with carrots for the reindeer.

Waking up early in the morning.


Aussie is not yet to the excitement of Christmas stage. He wanted to sleep in.

At the bottom of the stairs, before the big reveal. Anderson's face is priceless!

Presents!

More Snow

Yesterday, we woke up to a ton of wonderful white snow! When I say, "wonderful," I mean it! I went for a run in it, which was soooo much fun, but while I was out there, all I could think about was getting home to the kiddos, so I could build a snowman with them! So, we did!





It started to rain...yes, rain right in the middle of our snowman building, so he was getting pretty slushy :(






Then, we had a snowball throwing contest that turned into, yes, you guessed it...a snowball fight!


If you're wondering why Aussie wasn't an active participant, it was because he had a headache :(...And, of course, band aids make everything better!

Child Abuse Awareness

A friend of mine posted these facts about child abuse in an effort to raise more attention to child abuse, when so many "friends" on facebook are doing so by changing their profile pictures with the same idea/purpose in mind.

I wanted to post what he wrote, but I didn't want to clog up your news feed :). Here's what he said...please read carefully.

Changing pictures to cartoons to raise awareness of child abuse is fun and supportive, but it doesn't actually give people anything they can use to actually raise awareness or deal with the problem. I propose that if we are going to raise awareness, let's actually raise awareness.

I am proposing, and starting, something more. Let's raise awareness by posting facts. What is child abuse? What are its risk factors? How can we help? That is just as easily done and, in my opinion, much more useful. The fact is, most people do what is convenient. So, in campaigns like this, we must make gaining knowledge and learning about options as convenient as possible. I am going to put my money where my mouth is and practice what I am preaching here, and I encourage other people to do likewise.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #1: most children (about 80%) are abused by someone in their family. The risk of child abuse is 33 times higher (that's 330%) when the child's mother is cohabiting with a boyfriend than if the parents are a traditional married couple. The risk of abuse from a remarriage is also elevated above the risks in a situation where the child's biological parents are married.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #2: restraining orders are pretty much useless against people abusing children, because there are no consequences for breaking them. Protective orders are another story, because if the abuser violates them (even by attempting contact with the person he/she abused through a third party), he/she will be arrested.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #3- more on protective orders: Police often do not tell people that protective orders are a possiblity
(and they are actually not that hard to get), so just because they tell
you there is nothing they can do when you try to report abuse, that does
not mean there is nothing that can... be done. Talk to a shelter, victim's advocate, or child protective services.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #4: a large portion of the people who abuse children are the type you would never think would do it: smart, charming, and well-loved by those around them. So very often, people seeking help for abuse are shot down and lost without help because of the skill these people who abuse have in managing image.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #5: according to some of the most empirically sound data we have now (as opposed to a lot of junk data out there), only between 2%-10% of allegations of abuse turn out to be verifiably false. If someone comes to you to dislose abuse, take them seriously! The last thing they need to... run into is a wall of doubt. That tends to push people back into escalating cycles of abuse.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #6: one of the most dangerous times for abused spouses and children is the time period right after they have attempted to leave a person who is abusing. This is especially true if they get cold feet and return. There is a high incidence of injuries and deaths at this time without sufficient support.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #7: because of developmental issues, many children who are abused will have a hard time expressing it verbally, and when they do they will often have a difficult time expressing a chronology or details. In many ways, they will often say it with their actions long before they find a way to say it with words.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #8: Nonverbal signs of child abuse may include sudden changes in affect or school performance, displaying a sense of intense watchfulness/wariness of danger, being overly compliant or passive, regression (acting younger than their age), anger, depression, and acting out, among others.

Raising awareness of child abuse fact #9: Abuse is often about power and control. People who abuse children are often very good at making the child and/or the non-abusing parent feel like they are responsible for the abuse. This psychological conditioning is part of what makes it hard for both children and adults to report and escape abuse.

First snow of the season

The other day it finally snowed. Now, I will have you all know that this was not a joyous happening for me (I can't stand the snow), but as we all know, it is magical for children. Needless to say, I needed to but my feelings aside, and let the kids play. It was a lot of fun for them! Too bad Anderson was at school, and missed all the fun :(....there will be more snow...