Our Little Ballerina

Katie has been taking ballet at the YMCA on Wednesday morning while mom exercises. It is so cute!!! They boogy woogy and gallop and fly like butterflies. Katie loves it!!! She also does Joy School on Tues and Thurs...she is such a sweet little lady!!!

WORK WORK WORK

Back when I was at BYU, I took a class about family work (only in the family science department!) for my minor. We spent the whole semester talking about how important work is within a family but not in the way that we see it so often in our society. We talked about work as a means to an end...namely that when we work with our children, relationships are built. We learned that It is the doing of the work that is important, because it breeds close bonds...the getting done of the work is incidental and sometimes wont happen was the jist of the class. In the class we discussed how we had lost something when we quit shelling our own peas because we had lost the time spent sitting with our families doing that work. We talked about how pioneer families worked together all day and had strong families to show for it. We planned for our futures of washing dishes by hand and scrubbing our floors on our hand and knees all the while building strong and perfect relationships with our children. I imagined in my head a perfect home with no mother/expert as we had called her in class (with some derision) who did most of the work instead, mine would be a home where father and mother and children all worked together in perfect cohesion and with perfect results...not a perfectly clean house but a place of order and a place with wonderful, relationships and never a cross word.

Then reality struck. I had kids. My kids hate to clean their room. I know, I know, I tried. I sang songs and worked with them and tried to have those wonderful and fulfilling conversations but...Hannah is so easily distracted that if she starts talking, she forgets what she is doing and just moves stuff around. Carolyn is sometimes a bit on the bossy side and spends all her time telling everyone what to do and informing me of exactly what others arent doing. Katie just puts all the clean clothes in the hamper and the dirty clothes in the drawers and quite honestly, no one in that stupid housework class said that I would have to wash, 12 to 15 loads of wash a week and that washing CLEAN FOLDED CLOTHES was part of the bargain...and Sam...well he pulls books off shelves and clothes out of drawers and toys out of boxes, faster than the speed of light. Every day it is a hassle, every day it is hard and I think, am I doing this right? Im certainly not doing it the way the class said...

But then there is dinner. I love dinner. I love cooking it with tons of little helper hands and I love eating and hearing the kids talk about school. I love seeing Sam cover his face with food and I ESPECIALLY love what happens after...After dinner every night one big girl washes the dishes with dad and one sweeps and cleans the table with mom. Katie helps with misc assignments and Sam bangs pots but a beautiful thing happens...the dishes get put in the dishwasher and the floor gets mostly swept and we all talk and have fun. It is one of my favorite times of the day.

So I look with some fondness at my family work class. It certainly made me think a little differently about what a home is and what work is about. I realize now that ideas are great and good but sometimes they are most successful when applied on a limited scale. I think I will always have frozen peas in my freezer and certainly a dishwasher in my house. Shoot, there may even come a day when I have a cleaning lady (I can only hope)! But I also hope I will always be found sitting on the floor chatting with kids while I sort laundry (clean clothes and all), discussing memories or blessing while I help a child load a dish washer, and laughing as I once again almost lose an eye to a broom navigated by one of my greatest blessings!!!

Blogging

I love blogs. I was just reading all of my friends blogs and laughing and getting great ideas and getting excited about everything from activities with my kids to watching my kids play and pretend. Blogs are the BEST!!!!

A day in our life...

So my friend wrote a blog about what she did all day one day so I decided to give it a try. Ill add the pictures tomorrow.

5:00 am...Sam wakes up to nurse and snuggle Mom and Dad
6:00 am...Alarm rings, Mom kicks Dad and tells him to get up before the alarm wakes Sam
6:05 am...Dad gets things rolling while Mom catches another few winks
6:25 am...Mom gets up and starts breakfast, packing lunches and snacks
6:40 am...Everyone gathers for prayers and Daddys out the door. Kids eat, brush teeth, comb hair.
7:00 am...Mom tries to convince Katie not to dress like a clown. She fails.
7:10 am...Girls finished getting ready. Mom and Carolyn and Hannah go through homework papers from yesterday (Friday really) and talk about anything they didnt understand or missed.
7:30 am...The girls with Moms help, pack up backpacks, find shoes, coats, homework, lunches, snacks, library books, jump ropes and any other gear necessary for an effective elementary school day.
7:35 am...Sam wakes up, pees on Mom. Mom changes herself and Sam, gives him a fruit leather to keep him busy.
7:45 am...All five of us are out the door to the bus stop
7:50 am...Carolyn and Hannah on the bus, headed for school
8:00 am...Mom gives Sam some breakfast, sorts and starts a load of laundry, makes her bed
8:25 am...Mom and kids leave for the gym
8:35 am...Everyones back from gym, forgot stuff
8:40 am...Now everyone leaves for gym again9:10 am...Mom Exercises, yacks with Lainie, takes a shower. Sam and Katie play with other kids and have fun.
10:45 am..Mom and kids run errands (Target, Costco, Bank), eat snacks at Target.
12:45 pm..Finally home. Mom gives the kids some lunch
1:00 pm...Sam down for a nap. Mom and Katie put the dinner in the crock pot (Katie enlightens Mom on how the crock pot is an oval and oval are like eggs). Katie is sad that dinner is easy today. She loves to cook!!
1:30 pm...Katie and I set up the train tracks and she plays trains for a long time. Mom checks email and sweeps the floor. Forgets to switch the laundry.
2:00 pm...Mom packs up swim suits, piano books and snacks for the girls but realizes she had forgotten to switch the laundry so there are no dry beach towels for swim team. The girls have to use too small bath towels.
2:30 pm...Mom and Kate wake up Sam run to get the girls at school.
2:45 pm...Carolyn and Hannah have piano lessons with the best piano teacher in the land (Candace Drew)
4:30 pm...Swim team (today is the first day, normally we wont go on Mondays, two activities is too much in one day for this mom). The girls have fun. Hannah is soooooooooooooo nervous. She cries when it is her turn to swim because she jumped in (tentatively because of the nerves) and some boys laughed at her. It was all this mom could do not to go over and spank their bottoms. Their parents certainly werent doing anything about it. Carolyn jumps in like an old pro. Hannahs second turn is much better. The coach is great and kind and gentle with sweet Hannah. Sam spends all of swim team trying to jump in the pool and Katie spends the entire time taking off shoes and tights and her jacket and leaving them in various places around the pool.
5:15 pm...We all head home, baths for the girls. Grandma Berger calls and tells me that this is the time of years the Jewish people celebrate Queen Esther saving their ancestors!!! Quite fitting that Hannah was loving Esther at this time!!!
5:35 pm...Put dinner on the table. Daddy finally shows up(hes actually early...we usually see him no earlier than 6:15). Quick family scripture study then dinner. We had Thai Thighs and rice...yum yum. Even Sammy, the spaghetti only man ate it.
6:15 pm...Dinner clean up. Today was Carolyns turn to wash the dishes and Hannahs turn to clean the table. Tomorrow they switch. Katie just kind of floats and Sam walks around pulling stuff out of cupboards.
6:30 pm...Family Home Evening. Tonight the girls are exhausted with a new activity and daddy has a test tomorrow so we shorten the night and postpone moms lesson til next week. Daddy does a Friend story and we talk for a bit about how to recognize the Holy Ghost.
7:00 pm...Personal Scripture time.
7:20 pm...Daddy reads James and the Giant Peach to the girls and sends them off to bed.
8:25 pm...Mommy finishes typing the blog and heads off to Safeway to get the milk she forgot earlier, then she needs to fold the laundry and mop the kitchen and clean the bathroom and...but I think instead she ll just go to bed.

30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this is the rest of the cake and of course our birthday dinner of champions, spaghetti. I tell you after today, it is a miracle there isnt a picture of me holding that big old bowl, shoving the rest of that cake in my face.

Happy birthday daddy

So today was Cyrus birthday. And what a day...Katie woke up with a horrendous cough so Cyrus stayed home with her and Sam since I had Relief Society meetings (a presidency meeting and stake training). My meetings were long and tiring and by the time I got home Cyrus looked like he had been rung out. He had dinner made but Sam was feeling yucky and had cried most of the time refusing to nap at all, Katie was coughing and coughing, and Sam had banged my BRAND NEW YESTERDAY coffee table with a something hard he had found and made little dents. Poor daddy. So I took Sam, hugged Katie and decided that the coffee table actually looked cooler with the dents and hoped he would make a few for the other side too. We had lunch and Cyrus sat down to have minute to regain sanity while I tried to make his cake. I mixed it up and set it to bake then put Sam down to rest. That little goober laid in his bed for an half an hour and talked to himself and cried and laid there and cried then he stood up and screamed for ten minutes till I got him out. Then he set to crying and complaining and grouching and not sleeping for the whole afternoon. He threw fits and whined and cried...add that to all the girls coming in and out with some matter to discuss or problem to solve. Then there are snacks and neighbor kids and neighbor dogs and then Patience from church showed up to record the kids for a thing she was doing (I had of course forgotten she was coming so there were toys and coats and Hannahs one million papers all over the house). Now it is nearly six oclock and I still havent finished Cyrus cake or paid any attention to the poor man and Sam hasnt had a nap ALL DAY. So I feed everyone spaghetti, hurry up and finish the cake and finally sing happy birthday to daddy, brush teeth, clean up rooms and kitchen, read the scriptures and stories and send the kids to bed. So on daddys special day, he got about five minutes of attention and the rest of the time he was hard at work...at what age did birthdays become so lame? Cyrus just told me he had a great weekend that felt like one big birthday. Boy are his expectations low.

Queen Easter

The other week we had Stake conference and one of the talks was about setting specific spiritual goals for our family. Now, our family has a mission statement that we have had for a long time and each week at family council we would set goals in one of four areas. The four areas are, 1) Love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ 2) Love the scriptures 3) Love our family and 4) Develop our talents. So, each month we would set goals for area one the first week area two the second week, etc. etc. So this all sounds really good in principal but alas, we stunk at it. We discovered that a week isnt enough time to really put anything of value into place, so we decided, after stake conference, and much discussion, that we were going to pick one thing and work to implement it for longer and then add another thing and another. So, we have some things that we are good at...Family Home Evening, family scripture study, family prayer, family council...are you seeing a trend here?. We thought that we needed to improve on morning personal prayers and personal scripture study for all of us. So we reminded everyone to pray in the morning and we set aside 15 minutes after dinner when the whole family pulls out the scriptures and studies (Hannah and Carolyn read the real Book of Mormon but they read a Bible story book). It has been really fun for our family and a great addition to our routine. We are hoping it establishes a good habit that the kids will continue into their teenage years and beyond.

That brings me to my very funny story...we were all sitting down for scriptures and Katie was kind of bored with looking at the friend or some little Bible stories that we had so she was whining and Hannah says to her, *Katie, come here. I will read you the story of Queen Easter. I like Queen Easter.* Of course she was talking about Esther. After my little giggle about the Easter thing, I was just thrilled and thankful that we had started this in our family. What better woman is there to show my children our to be courageous than Queen Easter? What better example of faith than Ruth? Who better than Enos to talk about prayer? I love the sciptures and am so excited for my children to discover them FOR THEMSELVES. They have grown up hearing stories and being taught about the things in the scriptures and reading daily with their mom and dad but to have them discover for themselves the richness that our Heavenly Father has given us is beyond compare. I am so thankful for stake conference.

Sam Bam the WALKING man

Like Sams sideways picture I posted below...I couldnt figure out how to fix it so I just left it alone. That is kind of how I work with computers, if I cant fix something within one minute, I just leave. I dont have time to mess around. Maybe if Cyrus ever gets a spare minute, I will have him fix it.

Exciting news about Sam. On his ten month birthday (Feb 20th) Sam started toddling around in earnest. He was walking a few steps here and there but now he is starding up and navigating himself ten or twelve steps before going to his old standby, speed crawling. He is having so much fun and is so cute toddling around like a goof. We sure do love him!!!

On a little more nerve wracking subject, Sam has also become our resident escape artist. He has been diving into the bathtub (literally head first into the water) whenever he wants a bath with someone, now he has learned how to get out of the buckle on his high chair. Today I turned my back for a minute while he was eating his lunch pushed up close to the table (ok I left the room to switch the laundry) and when I looked again he was in the middle of the table, standing up dumping out his sisters cups of juice. AAAAK. I was horrified. He tries to climb book cases and into the dryer and up and down stairs (he finally learned to do them right last week). I dont know if my heart is going to make it through my little son. I think he has already shaved years of my life...

All else is well in the Javadi house. We might have a bit of pink eye....yuck yuck yuck. The girls break has been fun but boy does their room get messy when they play in it all day. I got a new calling at church so I am no longer in the nursery which was probably the best calling I have ever had in my entire life............................Ill keep you posted on the new job. Cyrus is thrilled about it because he is getting released from his calling. His dream calling is greeter or even better, supporter of his wife. He is hoping that is what he gets to be for a good long time.

Break

The girls are out of school for the week. I keep forgetting and planning to do stuff during the day without them. Silly mommy.

We started something new in our family. We have always read the scriptures as a family before we ate dinner but yesterday we decided that after dinner clean up and dessert (our usual routine) we would all read for twenty minutes together. Not aloud but all of us sitting quietly reading in the living room. It was great yesterday and we will see how it goes as the weeks wear on.

Today Cyrus didn't have school so we went to a park and fed the ducks together. We had a picnic and played frisbee and Cyrus and Carolyn threw around a ball for a little bit. Hannah roller skated and we played at the park. The park had one of those really great old metal slides so mom and the girls made a train and zipped down the slide. Kids these days with all their safe, slow plastic slides and no swings, don't know how much fun playgrounds can really be.

We made a list of jobs that the kids can do to make money--things that they usually don't do like washing out the garbage cans and weeding the garden and washing the walls, etc, etc. It is so funny to see the difference in my girls--Carolyn is so goal oriented--she decided that she wanted a new jump rope. I told her she had to earn the money, so she set to work to do all the jobs she needed to in order to get her rope. Hannah on the other hand had no desire to do any of the jobs. She didn't care until Carolyn had earned enough to buy her rope then Hannah was so upset that she didn't get one...but that didn't change the fact that she didn't want to work. I guess maybe it will take Hannah really wanting something to get her up and moving. Katie just makes a mess when she decides to do one of the extra jobs. I have contemplated paying her to stop helping around the house. Unfortunately, I believe to heartily in kids knowing how to work.

Ladies and gentleman

Cutie Katie

Hi Im Rachel Ray

Katie loves Rachel Ray. I sometimes walk down the hall to see her with little bowls of cut up paper and glitter and beads and sweet little Kate tossing various items into a bowl. She has clogged up the bathroom sink playing Rachel Ray in there. She and Mom love to cook. Often we ladies put Sam down for his nap and Kate hops up on the counter and we start cooking. Sometimes she asks me at nine in the morning: Is it time to make the dinner yet? She just loves to cook!!! It is like playing for both Katie and her mama.

**Sorry aobut the lack of proper punctuation. Something is wrong with my apostophe and quotation mark key on the computer...probably from my little son BANGING on the key board whenever he gets the chance.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

So I was just looking at the calendar for the month of February and there is something on EVERY SINGAL day. I never thought I would be a running around like a chicken with my head cut off kind of person but this week, I started feeling like a bit of a chicken...

We had such a fun valentines day. Cyrus decorated the table all up with tulips and chocolates and balloons for the girls and I to wake up to. Then we made a great dinner and just enjoyed each others company. It was such a great night. A lot of the dental wives went down to the city to see their husbands at school but since the girls get off the bus at 1:25 and Cyrus has lunch at 1:00 it was not possible for us. I always wonder if Cyurs feels goofy that we never come but he seems ok with it.

Carolyn and Hannah are starting swim team next month. Hannah has come from being afraid of the water last summer to really swimming this year. She just got it one day. Carolyn has been begging me to do swim team since we moved out here so I finally decided to let them for this summer. The main factor in my decision was how well all the kids on the swim team swim. It is the all the time daily repitiion of it. They swim for five months straight, at least three days a week. It will be fun to see them in the meets and everthing. I am exicited.

Katie is having so much fun with joy school. She loves her two little buddies Madison and Alyse. She tells me every day that she is going to eat lots of food so she can grow big like Madison (Madison is TALL). She and Alyse to Joy School and ballet together. Ballet is so stinking cute I cant even believe it (my apostophe key isnt working so sorry about the poor spelling). They have a great teacher and it is so cute watching eight little tutu ladies flying like butterflies, boogy woogying, and pretending to ride horses. I love it.

Sam is crazy. He is all over the place and into everything. He stands by the front door and bangs trying to get outside. He doesnt do steps right...I keep trying to teach him to turn around and go down the stair but he just falls...that is his game plan. I guess eventually he will learn!

Merry Christmas!!!!

I was just sitting here enjoying a quiet Christmas afternoon when Katie started singing..."Away in a manger no crib for his light the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hair." She has her father's gift for lyrics.

We have had a wonderful couple of days...Friday we had our big Christmas dinner since we were going out of town tomorrow and didn't want to leave a pile of leftovers to rot. We had Scott and his girlfriend Janet over for dinner and spent the weekend having re-runs of a yummy turkey dinner. Last night we acted out the nativity three times so each of the girls could be Mary, they also took turns being the angel. Dad was the donkey and Joseph and Sam was a sheep (he just wouldn't stop crawling around so he was a bad baby Jesus--we had to use a doll instead). Mom played the various other parts. It was fun and sweet, as always. The girls really look forward to it each year.

The girls hit the sack early--right after some elves left us some PJ's--but heard mysterious Jingle Bells outside their window and saw a red nose in the sky so it was nearly impossible for them to go to sleep. When they finally did sleep, it wasn't for long!!!

We have had a wonderful and happy and EARLY Christmas...it started at 4:00 this morning when I heard little Hannah-feet storming down the hall and her wisper-shouting to her sisters..."HE CAME!!!!" which was, of course followed by a series of shrieks that woke up Sam...so the girls went in to get him and by the time the resident old folks made it down the hall, they were ready to dive in...

By five we had opened all the gifts and the girls spent the rest of the morning playing with their loot. Mom took a nap and dad made breakfast. The girls rode their skates and we went on a bike ride through the neighborhood. It has been a great Christmas day.

p.s. The girls just told me their friends next door woke up at 2:00. Their parents sent them back to bed.

It's Fall In San Francisco

Fall is here! Fall in San Francisco is characterized by the changing colors of the leaves, shorter days, and slightly cooler temperatures. Most days are still warm enough for shorts and t-shirts, but we have to wear our sweaters and pants now and then.

The girls have been busy playing in the yard with the mountain of leaves that have fallen. The three of them teamed up with their friends Bella and Sophie to rake up our leaves and the neighbor's leaves. When they were done, you couldn't find a leaf on Don's lawn (our neighbor to the West), but our yard now had twice as many leaves. They raked them into a huge pile and spent the rest of the afternoon jumping into the pile. Night finally came and the kids came inside to warm their bones (it got to be a chilly 45 degrees).

But, it warmed back up, and this last weekend Daddy took the girls down to Rodeo beach (about 1/2 mile north of Point Bonita lighthouse by the Golden Gate bridge) to play in the sand and the sun. The girls spent time digging a giant hole to fill with water (they told me it was suppose to be a lake), climbing on the sand dunes, and wading in the cool water. Daddy took the two oldest out 10 yards into the water to a sand bar where the water was only a couple of inches deep. Katie is still afraid of the "big water," and she stayed on the shore holding dad's shirt.


Here are some photos of our day at the beach and of playing in the leaves:

Chugga, Chugga, Choo, Choo

Here is our little Sam playing with his toy train that he recieved from Grandma and Grandpa Berger. He must be taking after his Great Grandpa Berger (a huge train fan). Believe it or not, this little guy can crawl and sit up all by himself. And, just within the last few days, he's taken to standing. He's keeping us on our toes!

Happy Birthday Katie!!!

She is 3 years old, and we can hardly believe it. When she was born, we had just decided to return to school to pursue dentistry. And, now here she is as big as life. We had many of her friends from church and the neighborhood over for a big party in the backyard. The theme of the party was "Belly Button Beach," based on a book by one of Annie's favorite children's book authors Sandra Boynton. All had a great time. She really enjoyed everyone's gifts and has a hard time deciding which of her new things she will use and which she will let her sisters use. And, whoever sent her the CD of music about a moose....thannks. The girls love it...too much! You made her daddy so very pleased to listen to that music non-stop all weekend long. Just remember payback can be nasty!

Happy Birthday Carolyn

Lucky number 7! Can you believe it? She is growing almost as fast as the mountain of debt I'm establishing with Uncle Sam by attending dental school. This birthday has been a little bit of transition for mom and dad. Instead of wanting toys for her birthday, she wanted to have her ears pierced, some lip gloss, and new clothes. She says she feels very beautiful now.

Grandma Fitzgerald has been in town, and was here to celebrate Carolyn's birthday. We had some great cake that mom made, and then opened up some presents afterwards. This coming Friday, we'll be having Carolyn's friends over for a movie party to watch "Cheaper By the Dozen."

Lastly, I've put some pictures up at http://www.cyrusandannie.com of Katie playing in the backyard with a flower. Love ya all!

Little Princess?? Now I Need to Rename the Site!

Well, here he is....Samuel Joseph Javadi! We are very proud parents. He weighs 7lbs 8ozs, measures 19 inches in length, and, well, you can see the rest in this picture. This was taken a little bit after his first bath. He'd only been out of the womb for 30 minutes, and he was pretty active--probably looking for some food. He spent another 30 minutes in the nursery under the heat lamp so we could get him one of those nice Javadi tans, and then he was off to see mom in post-op. He's been eating really well, and sleeping a lot (so mom is getting plenty of rest). I brought Janice and the girls to visit, and everyone had an opportunity to hold the baby. I'll post more pictures tomorrow. I'm just not sure if I'll use this site (which is a little awkward to use when I want to post a lot of pictures) or another site. In either event, I'll make sure to let you all know. And, if I choose another site to host the pictures, I'll leave a clickable link for you to follow to get to the pictures easily.