THE BELKNAPS

Halloween!

2011-11-08T13:01:00.001-08:00

A post! A post! We finally got a post! Woo hah!

2011-10-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

Now that we are over a month into the school year and I still haven’t given a good recap of our summer, I figured it was time for a Belknap update. We are well into the swing of school schedules and activities, busy and enjoying the structure of a schedule. We are enjoying the changing of the seasons, the coloring of the fall and the cooler weather that seemed to coincide directly to the start of the new school year. Things are busy but that seems to keep some of us happier and more productive too.

Brett is now in his 5^th month of serving his mission. He was just transferred from El Centro, where he has been serving since he left the MTC, to San Diego. El Centro is a city in the middle of the desert, 76 percent Hispanic, reaching temperatures over 120. He was very sad to leave the people there that he had grown to love. He had many people lined up for baptism and one that begged him to stay. But he is happy to be in San Diego with its more moderate temperatures. Apparently, they are staying in a member’s mansion and have dinners provided each evening by the members there. It has been such a gratifying experience for me to see him grow and develop and mature in his spirituality and outlook on life. He is definitely still Brett and that is easily manifest in each line of his letters, but a more insightful, more mature Brett. We are so proud of his decision to take 2 years to serve the Lord.

Tyler began his senior year of high school only days after his 17^th birthday. He got his driver’s license and has been driving to seminary and then on to school every day. He kept quite busy this summer with a babysitting job, friends, various church camps, and soccer. He has really gotten into his photography and used much of the money he saved this summer to purchase a very nice Canon camera and accessories (thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet!!) He keeps to himself more than I’d like him to, not divulging any more information that is absolutely necessary. Case in point: I went up into his room to check his closet for a missing shoe when I notice several boxes with equipment for a hamster. I scanned his room and found that he had purchased a hamster and had kept it as a pet for a month before I knew about it! But then, on the opposite side of the spectrum, last week was homecoming week for the high school. Each day, a different theme was given to get the students into the spirit of things: Monday was Alien day, Tuesday was class colors, Wednesday was mismatched day, etc. Tyler really got into it and dressed up to the hilt (along with his friend, Mikail), even wearing a full football uniform with pads on Friday. Guess who was named the student with the most spirit? Mikail. I felt bad because Tyler was the one who orchestrated the outfits. And at one of the football games, Tyler dressed up in Brett’s old uniform and went out on the tarmac and stood with the cheerleaders. Then he went out on the field and stood with the team. Apparently the coach didn’t even notice that he wasn’t on the team.

Savannah had an extremely busy summer this year, going straight from one activity to another for a good part of the summer. She also babysat, earning enough to pay for much of her summer activities. She took driver’s ed and is now driving with a permit. It’s hard to believe that she is old enough to drive! The 5:00 mornings are hard for her but she doesn’t complain. In fact, Zachary was complaining about the fact that he will have to get up at 5 next year and she told him, “It’s not bad. Seminary is actually pretty cool.” She does take naps after school a good percentage of the time to make up for her lack of nighttime sleep. She is playing on an outdoor soccer team and seems to enjoy it. Her coach has nicknamed her “Rudy” after the movie. She attended the homecoming dance this past weekend, hosting a party of 10 beforehand and will attend Milford’s homecoming next weekend. She surprised me the other day when Brooke was being anti-Mom and telling me how weird I was. She turned to Brooke and said, “She may be weird, but she’s actually one of the cool moms.”

Zachary is keeping busy with his school/football schedule, fitting friends into all the unfilled gaps. Even with football practices 3 times a week, he manages to stay after school a couple times a week for Ultimate Frisbee or to watch a volleyball game. He has been playing safety on defense and Quarterback on offense. He has grown a significant amount over the summer and is no longer one of the shortest on the team. I’m not saying he’s big, but for a Belknap, not being the shortest on the team is a big deal. He currently has all A’s in school and is diligent about getting his homework in.

Shane really seems to be enjoying middle school. He loves the freedom. For example, he has walked home from school every day, even when it has been cold and raining just because he can (he got into trouble the last day of elementary school for walking home). He has found himself a new crush and often talks about her. I was surprised to get a note from the school informing me that he needed a few more inoculations. I decided to take not only Shane, but Tyler, Savannah and Zach as they needed the same shots. You would have thought I told them that they needed an arm amputated by their reactions, all of them pledging not to come home after school when I forewarned them of the impending event. I did successfully get them in the car finally and we drove the 25 minutes to the health department. The whole way they talked about how painful it would be and the possible side effects the shots might have, convincing themselves that nothing worse had ever happened to them. We got to the health department to find that it was closed. You’ve never seen such whooping, hollering and celebrating. They were literally jumping in the air and clicking their heels. Shane and I went over to another health department the next day to find that he needed 6 inoculations instead of the 3 we thought he needed. He was sitting in the waiting room in nervous anticipation when all of the sudden, the room lightened and birds started singing sweet melodies, at least in his head. “Hi, Shane!” said a cute little blonde girl who walked in. “Who’s that?” I asked. “A friend,” he answered simply. Upon further investigation I found out that this was his crush. It was funny to watch his behavior and see him stealing sideways glances. He is the only child I have that sets an alarm and wakes up each morning on his own.

Brooke has adapted pretty well to the school schedule. She and Ethan now start school after 9 and don’t get home until about 4:45. It doesn’t leave much time for after-school activities or friends, especially when our Saturdays are also loaded with soccer, football and other various activities. Brooke seems to be enjoying her teacher, one of the few in the school we haven’t had any experience with. She has gotten a perfect mark in her behavior every single day since the start of school. She seems to be making new friends and loves taking responsibility for younger kids. She often tells me about her “adorable” Kindergarten buddies and bus buddies. She decided that she wanted feather earrings and so she took apart a dream catcher that she had and got into my earring findings downstairs and successfully put together earrings that she wears with pride. She often tries new crafts without my permission and has permanently marred the concrete floor in the maintenance room with her painting endeavors. She seems to have broken her “Bieber Fever”, still exhibiting subtle signs of the disease but out of danger of actually dying from it. She remains quite melodramatic. A couple of weeks ago, I woke up in the morning to find a note from her, telling me to wake her up early for a breathing treatment (we don’t even own a breathing machine and she had no signs of sickness or congestion). I still have a hard time making her go to bed. We always pay for it the next day.

Ethan is also adapting to his new schedule and teacher. His teacher is more challenging than his previous teachers but he seems to be rising to the challenge. He is reading very well and is quite diligent about telling me about and completing his homework. He has a hard time waking up most days and we are often rushing to get to the bus. He likes to play the piano but only for show. He doesn’t want to sit down and practice simple songs. He’d rather learn a more complicated song so that he can perform. He does seem to catch on quite easily. Tyler often uses him as the subject of his photography shoots and now Ethan has started to show an interest in taking pictures also. I’ve seen him take the camera outside, shooting random things. The other day I asked him if he had gotten any good shots. He shuffled through the images on the camera and showed me one. “This one is beautiful,” he said. I have to admit, it’s pretty good!

Yellowstone Adventures

2011-08-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

Things are getting back to a Belknap level of normal after our 11-day, 4000 mile family reunion in Yellowstone and visit to Utah.

We left on Wednesday the 6^th and drove 15 hours to North Platte, Nebraska, resting for the night at a hole-in-the-wall hotel with 7 of us in 2 double beds. Not the best night of sleep I’ve ever had. We then met up with Jess, Erik and Steven and drove 9 hours to Rock Springs and stayed in connecting plush Hilton rooms with two living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms, 4 flat screen televisions, a pool and hot tub, and a continental dinner and breakfast. I could get used to that! We then embarked on the last 7 hours of the drive to arrive at Sawtelle Resort, about 20 miles out of the Western gate of Yellowstone National Park. So, it took us 3 days to travel what we normally do in one, kind of like pulling off a band aid slowly instead of ripping it off all at once. Upon our arrival in Yellowstone, the temperature dropped 30 degrees in 10 minutes and we were greeted by hail.

We stayed in the bunkhouse, a huge open space accommodating 30 beds. It was nice to have a gathering space that we could all mingle in. On the down side, the pool wasn’t functional while we were there, after promising the kids that they could swim to their hearts delight the whole way there. But we did get to visit with about 70 family members, including my aunt Jan and Uncle Rick who were great additions and added some of the sugar and spice we have been missing in other reunions.

Since the announcement of the reunion being held in Yellowstone in January, my kids have had nightmares and day imaginings of bear attacks (probably from watching “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” too many times). I laughed at them saying the chances of them even seeing a bear were slim to none, let alone being attacked. Two days before our arrival in the park, Chris pulled me aside and showed me an article about a fatal bear attack in Yellowstone, the first in 25 years, making it national news. I still laughed at the kids, telling them that I doubted that we’d see any bears but with a little less confidence this time. Well, on our first venture into the park, we hadn’t driven more than 10 minutes when all traffic was stopped. We peered out our side window to see 3 grizzly bears sauntering on the side of a mountain, only 100 yards away. We didn’t get out of the car.

We did stop and see a several mud pots and a couple of geysers including Old Faithful. The kids were not impressed and asked when we could go back to the bunkhouse. There was construction and it took us almost 2 hours to get back. We did have some fun activities there including family clues, a talent show and a slideshow with photos and stories from my parents 18 month mission to India. It was, as always, great to see the family and nice to see that although we don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like to that we still consider our family our best friends, even amongst the cousins.

On Monday the 13^th we drove to Utah where Tyler and Savannah along with several cousins and Savannah’s friend from Germany. We got to visit some more and enjoy some of the features unique to Utah including a trip to Temple Square, seeing the movie “17 Miracles” (about the Willy Handcart Company), a trek up Apple Mountain, and a tour of the Kennecott Copper Mines.

On Saturday morning, we departed for home. The 1650 mile drive took us about 26 hours and although it was a fun vacation, it was also good to get home. Since that time, we have gotten into an awful routine of kids going to sleep anywhere from 12-4 and waking up way later than should be allowed. We purchased a pool pass from the high school and have been utilizing that 2-3 times a week. It serves as a good incentive to get the kids to do their chores and motivated in whatever way they need to be directed.

Brett seems to be doing well on his mission, despite the extreme temperatures. He actually said that they had a cool wave for a little while with temperatures only reaching 90-100, comparable to our own Michigan heat. He was supposed to have had a baptism last week and I am awaiting word to hear if that happened. He has sent some pictures and we usually get a couple of letters from him each week. We are so happy that he is serving the Lord and anxiously await hearing more of his experiences.

Tyler is a person who sets a target and achieves it. He decided that my 11 year old camera was holding him back from achieving the masterpiece photographs that he was capable of and so he has spent the last several months earning money my doing jobs, babysitting for the neighbors, and selling all possessions to those willing to buy them, some being ebay users but mostly his younger siblings. The week before our big vacation, he purchased a Canon Rebel T3i and he has been experimenting with it since. It is quite the camera and I am fighting feelings of jealousy, especially because he wouldn’t let me put a finger on it. But we have work out a deal so that I can use it once a month and he switched phones with me as mine was newer and better. He has been offered money to take pictures for a couple of people so maybe he will eventually recoup his money. Either way, I am happy that he is refining his talent. He and Savannah attended a 3 day pioneer trek in which they had to dress like pioneers, pulling 700 pound handcarts through the wild terrain including a stream and ravine. They came back tired, hungry, mosquito-bitten and not especially grateful for the experience.

Savannah has had quite a busy summer. She and Tyler share a babysitting job, watching two girls, 7 and 9 for 7 hours 4 days every other week. Her first day out of school was also her first day on the job. She worked the following week and then left for the Trek arriving home on Wednesday evening. We had to be up at 3:30 in the morning so that she could board a plane to San Diego with a layover in Phoenix. I was a little nervous as she has only flown once with me and that was a nonstop flight. But she did well, never seeming too flustered by the experience. She met my sister-in-law, niece and nephews in San Diego and they did a lot of lying out at the beach and shopping at the mall. She also had the opportunity to go to Disneyland, something that I have never done. She bought souvenirs for the kids and boarded a plane to Salt Lake where my dad picked her up and drove her to meet us in Yellowstone. After the reunion she attended EFY (a church camp) for five days before we drove back to Michigan. She will babysit again this week, girls’ camp next week, and will start driver’s education in a couple of weeks, as well as soccer.

Zachary has had a more relaxed summer vacation, getting together often with his friends and hanging out. He is looking forward (an understatement) to football which starts the first week in August. He couldn’t play football last year due to a broken radius and ulna and you know what they say about absence and the heart. This can also be said for the girls at school. He has grown in the past few weeks and has now surpassed Savannah in height.

After hearing rumors that the student that could recite the most digits of pi would be able to “pie” a teacher (not sure about the sources of those rumors), Shane took it as a personal challenge. At the moment, he has memorized the first 104 digits. Grandpa also got him interested in abacuses and he saved up money upon our return from Utah to buy an abacus. Since it was shipping from China, he lost patience and decided to make his own abacus from barbeque skewers, beads and Popsicle sticks. It’s actually quite impressive. He is very excited to start middle school.

Brooke hasn’t had much going on this summer. She gets extremely bored and has a hard time finding good occupations for her free time. The television and computer are her two best friends. She currently has fifth’s disease which has been making its way around the primary kids in the ward. She is the one I find roaming the house in the wee hours of the morning most often, claiming that she cannot sleep. She really enjoyed hanging with her cousin Alyssa during the reunion and our stay in Utah.

Ethus has had quite a few play dates lately. He has really been trying to use his manners and remember how to ask for things. Last night, I was putting together some medals for camp and asked for volunteers to help. He was the only brave soul. He helped me for over an hour, reluctant to go to bed until the job was done. He lost one of his top front teeth and now is looking quite hillbilly-ish as he was already missing two teeth on that top left side already. He broke out with Fifth’s Disease during our stay in Utah and had to be quarantined for a couple of days, although he didn’t feel too bad.

As for me, things have been quite busy. I am preparing for girls’ camp next week. I will be on the 4^th year canoe high adventure. Grandma has graciously agreed to come and watch the younger kids as Tyler will be at Scout camp, Savannah will be with me, and Zachary will be starting football. I don’t know what I would do without the support of my friends and family!

Chris has been keeping busy at work and with his calling at church. We feel blessed to have such a good family and a good life. We hope you are all feeling God’s grace in your lives and hope to hear from you soon!

May Flies and June Bugs!

2011-06-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

Brett seemed to have a good experience in the MTC but was eager to get into the mission field. He wrote us the day that he arrived in San Diego, raving and completely euphoric. He went on and on about the weather, the landscape, the money. He said that he was completely in love. And then, on the next page, it said, “The next day: Scratch everything I said. I’m suicidal. I want to die. I just got transferred to El Centro. LOL!” El Centro is a city of about 40,000 people, basically in the middle of a desert. It’s on the Mexican border with a population 76 percent Hispanic and has the highest unemployment rate of all cities in America. I have since received an email from him and he says that the people are nice, but he hopes that he doesn’t have to stay there long. He is already counting down the days until he comes home, which isn’t a good sign!

We were able to go Washington DC for the Memorial Day weekend. Even though we had a long weekend, we decided to let the kids skip school on Thursday and Friday so that we would be able to spend several days visiting with Chris’s brother, Steve, and his family. Before our departure, we discovered that my Ipod had been stolen from Chris’s car which was parked in our driveway. This is about the fifth time we have had things taken in our own driveway! That fact alone made the 8 ½ hour drive seem even longer!

On Friday morning, the four boys (Zach, Shane, Ethan and Matthew) walked over to the park across the street while I was in the shower with Julie’s permission. When I finished my shower, I joined Brooke and Chris on the 4^th story balcony of their apartment. “Look, Mom! The boys are at the park!” Brooke exclaimed. “Can I go over there too?” As I looked over, I saw two cops approaching the kids, talking to them for a couple of minutes. I urged Chris to go over and check out what was going on. Apparently, Matthew had an airsoft gun and the boys decided to go over to the park and shoot at an empty water bottle as there wasn’t much room in the closet where they had been having target practice. Somebody saw them and thought they had a real gun and called the police who called for backup. The cops asked where the boys lived and Matthew pointed across the street to the apartments. Zach said, “Well, we actually live in Michigan. We’re just visiting.” “Well people in Michigan have to carry these all the time!” responded the policeman. I guess they got quite a laugh out of that!

What I did not get a laugh out of was the fact that when Julie and I went out to run some errands with the girls, my minivan was nowhere to be found. At first I thought it might be stolen. But I remembered that some of the parking spaces had reserved markers on them for people who lived there and paid rent on the spaces. I had been very careful not to park in such a space. We went to the rental office and discovered that guests had to get a visitor’s pass to park and that our car had been towed to the tune of $140. I guess it was better that than stolen, but Geesh!

The kids were all excited about the pool opening on Saturday and we were the first ones on the deck when it opened that morning only to be met by “the pool Nazi”, a foreign kid about 20 who had started life-guarding that day. He was nice but very, very nervous, pulling the kids over to the list of rules and carefully reviewing each rule before he let them in the pool, but only walking down the stairs, no jumping.

We went to the zoo, the Washington temple and the mall (about 3 times). Several in the group went to Annapolis. Tyler, Savannah and Sabrina took the subway downtown but got bored quite quickly. We celebrated both Shane’s and Ethan’s birthday with many skateboard presents. But mostly, we just enjoyed visiting together.

The school year is wrapping up quickly with less than two weeks of school remaining. My goal has been to get my book done before then, but with all the activities and my attention needing to be elsewhere, I’m not sure it will happen. I was just called to serve as 1^st counselor in the Young Women presidency, which means that I oversee the Mia Maid class. That is Savannah’s age group and I couldn’t be more excited. I know and love several of the girls and am excited to get to know the others better. It is a busier calling than serving in the nursery which is what I have been doing for the last 9 months. But I really am excited.

At the zoo...
The family can hardly contain their excitement!
Happy birthday, Shane and Efit!
Vans has apparently made some money off of the Belknaps!
Boys and their toys!
There were six in the bed and the little one said "Roll over, roll over!"
Relaxing by the pool!

Tyler is winding up his junior year of high school. It’s hard for me to believe that he will be a senior next year! He received high honors for his grades but insists that he is not going to college. He is quite gifted artistically and enjoys photography, videography, and drawing. He has an incredible eye and sees things from an interesting perspective. He has hung hundreds of his photos on the wall in his bedroom, prompting several of the other kids to do the same. He has decided that he needs to save up for a “good” camera, since mine is over 10 years old and a piece of “crap”, as he puts it, and he has set his sights on an $800 SLR camera/video camera. He has saved up over half the money by doing odd jobs and selling things on Ebay. He tells me daily that I should just throw in the rest, as if I have $400 that I could just give him. We have new neighbors, two girls 7 and 9, and Savannah and Tyler were asked about babysitting them every other week during the summer. They are both very enthusiastic about it right now. Hopefully that enthusiasm will last throughout the summer. For some unknown reason, he hasn’t gotten his license yet. It would be nice not to have to be the only chauffeur for the summer. Be sure to check out the following post to see some samples of his work!!

Savannah enjoyed her visit with her cousin, Sabrina. They always get along well and giggle and whisper to each other, making us wonder exactly what it is that they find so funny. She has a very busy summer planned especially in light of her new job babysitting. She has many friends and likes to get together with them often. They are all very good kids and it’s nice to see the choices she is making and the young woman she is becoming. I wish that she would take a little more pride in her school work as she is content to get A’s and B’s when she could be getting all A’s. She is a fun person to be around. She and I have started a work-out program which consists of dancing to about 6-7 songs from the “Just Dance” game on the Wii. Lame, I know, but it’s a start for me. She, Tyler and Zach enjoyed playing on the church volleyball team and, incredibly, I don’t think she sustained one injury playing. She hosted a party, inviting 12 friends, 8 boys and 4 girls. I told her that there is nothing like stacking the odds in her favor! The kids were all well behaved and I was quite impressed with their willingness to include and even solicit the younger kids in their activities.

Zach just finished his track season this week. He received high honors for his grades this year and has really been conscientious in getting his homework done, although I can see that he is slacking a little as summer vacation approaches. He continues to be a sweet and helpful boy, although he definitely likes to poke and prod the other kids. When we were in DC, an elderly black lady came up to him and started warning him about the evils of girls. She told him that with his looks, he would certainly have some temptation from girls. She then said a prayer over him, admonishing him to have the strength to keep away from them and do what the Lord wants him to do. It was really sweet of her. Zach is well aware that he gets attention from girls and quite thrives on it, so I hope her prayer does not go unheeded. Zach got the chance to go up north with the neighbor to their cabin on Houghton Lake. I’m always so grateful for people who are willing to give our kids opportunities that they would otherwise not get. He just informed me that he won the mock election in his class of 260 for “Happenin’ Hair.”

Shane turned 11 last week. He talks a lot about Riley, a girl in his class. He recently acquired a Facebook page (with my permission) and it’s cute to see what he posts sometimes. Like when he learned the first 25 digits of pi, he posted it. Or like when he posted “peanut butter is good”. He recently went to 5^th grade camp at a YMCA camp and really enjoyed it. He liked the zip line, the rock-climbing wall (he climbed it faster than anyone else in his group of 30 kids), the canoes, the food, etc., but what I heard most about was the songs that they sang. He taught several of them to the younger kids upon his return. He recently attended a middle-school orientation during the school day and Zach told me that he peaked inside the room as the choir was performing. To Zach’s dismay, Shane was watching intently, dancing right along with them. He is participating in a 3-5^th grade soccer team and he is really good. He usually plays defense, blocking goals like a pro. He and Ethan have also become Tyler’s photography experiment models.

Brooke is now insisting on being addressed as Brooke Bieber. She signs all her papers at school that way. The teachers have stopped fighting her on it and have complied. For a while, she was getting things on a daily basis from classmates who had been cured of the “Bieber fever”. I can find no such antidote for Brooke. It seems her sickness has infected her whole being. You’d never know that we recently painted her bedroom pink because you can’t see the walls through all the Justin Bieber paraphernalia. We had a near disaster with her recently. A friend of mine called on a Saturday, asking if she could borrow my three youngest kids to play with her grandkids. I was, of course, happy to oblige. I told the kids to go brush their teeth and hair and they did. When Brooke came out of the bathroom, her hair was wet and she was brushing it. I didn’t think much of it until she got close enough that I could smell her. There was a chemical smell which I recognized as Nare, a hair removal product. I shoved her quickly into the shower, praying that it wasn’t too late. Luckily, we seem to have noticed her blunder in time before the cream could do its work. She is a funny girl. I cut Tyler’s hair the other day and was sweeping it up when she came in the room. “Oh, Mom! Can I keep his hair?” she asked as she started to gather up the pile that I had made on the floor. “Why in the world would you want to keep his hair?” I asked her. “There are a lot of girls who would pay good money for this!” she informed me.

Ethus (Ethan) is a funny, angry little guy. He will be turning 7 next week although he acts much older in some ways and much younger in others. He still adores Shane and it’s wearing a bit on Shane, especially now that Ethan is trying to steal his girl. Ethan came home recently and told me, “Mom, you know who I like? Riley!” (Shane’s crush) “Did you know that I am famous? It’s because of my eyes.” This was all said with the inflection of a young and confident Brett. When Brett had a couple of girls come to visit before he was leaving for his mission, Ethan greeted them with, “Hey, ladies!” and a wink of his eye. He was recently invited to a birthday party for his classmate, Angelina, the only person in his school whom she invited. My neighbor subs in his classroom often and says that they are best friends. Until recently, he was wearing his hair so long it looked like a mop head. But Tyler got him to agree to a haircut with the enticement of pictures for his wall. He was compliant until the next morning when he vowed that he would skip the rest of the school year. I made him get on the bus but his teacher said that he spent most of the day covering his head with his hands. He also had to make a timeline for school chronicling his life with pictures. He was mortified and didn’t want anyone to see pictures of him when he was younger. I had to take it in to school as he refused to bring it with him.

Otherwise, things are going pretty well despite the fact that 3 of our 4 cars are having severe problems, one needing to be towed and another refusing to start. We are excited about seeing the Dosdall clan out in Yellowstone in a month and are eager to end this year of school. God bless you all!!

The Artist Known as Twibzz

2011-06-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to brag a little about Tyler. He is an incredible artist, from my totally unbiased opinion. I was looking through his pictures from Washington DC and was amazed at his perspective. I wanted you all to have the opportunity to see Washington through Tyler's eyes.

A Break in Texas!

2011-05-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a 5-day stay with my sister, Jessica as her husband was away for a golfing trip. It was great to visit with Jessica and her 3 boys. She is not just my sister but my best friend and confidante. She is a great mom and her boys are an assortment of fun from their different colors of hair to their different temperaments.

We went to the Waco Zoo…

Watched the boys play soccer…

Saw Uncle Steven (who is a super-hero in the Enderle household!!)

It was so much fun to see all of them! I love you guys and miss you!!

Farewell, Brettchums!

2011-05-04T09:07:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was a day of such mixed emotions for me. As most of you know, Brett left yesterday to serve a two-year mission for our church in San Diego, California. I am so happy with the decision that he has made to serve, although I know that it will be hard for all of us, especially Brett. But I know that it is where he needs to be.

We were able to have a good farewell party for Brett on Sunday with our extended family that live in the area as well as several of Brett’s friends. Brett dubbed it “The Last Supper.” It is always good to get together, but this week was especially poignant as we all are sad to see Brett go but excited about the new chapter he is starting in his life.

I had to take the opportunity to get a family picture since it will be the last time we will be together for a couple of years. So get used to this one! You may see it a lot!

Brett, Chris and Savannah
Brett and Bryan
Jimmy, Jana and Brett (I think Jana is trying to eat him!)

Cyndie, Terry and Brett
Nick and Brett
Grandma and Al
"The Crew"

Yesterday morning we kept the older kids home from seminary so that they could visit with Brett and have breakfast. Unfortunately, Brett suddenly came down with a case of food poisoning or stomach flu and spent all morning throwing up. On the ride to the airport, he had chills and a couple of ziplocks bags to catch the remains of his breakfast. That made it even harder to say goodbye. But he called us last evening after safely making it to Grandma and Grandpa’s and seems to be feeling better today. He will be entering the Mission Training Center in just a couple of hours. Our hearts and minds are certainly with him.

Time Marches On...

2011-03-31T02:46:00.000-07:00

Okay. I’ve let things go. But I’m going to do better. I haven’t updated my blog in a while. It seems that I only have so much room in my brain for creative writing and I’ve been spending all of that on working on my book lately. So I’m going to try to conserve a little of that brain space in the coming months so that I can continue recording the events and happenings in the Belknap household “for generations to come” (it sounds like a job, doesn’t it?).

Well our most exciting news is that Brett has been called to serve a two-year proselyting mission for the church in San Diego, California. We will sure miss him but know that he will be doing a great work. He has already been given assignments that he must complete before he enters the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah on May 4^th. Chris has used him several times as a speaking companion when he has his monthly talk assignments at other churches. Brett has the ability to “wing it”, which I’m sure will serve him well on his mission. He is Justin Bieber’s second biggest fan (after Brooke).

Tyler has been taking a digital photography class at school and seems to really enjoy it. He has an artistic eye and now there are two of us who want to upgrade my 10-year old camera. We ordered 100 of his favorite prints and he painstakingly hung them on his wall in his bedroom next to some of his drawings. He wants to fill the whole wall with pictures and now actively looks for things to take pictures of. He is going to Florida over spring break with a friend, the first in our family to visit the state. He usually has a couple of friends over on the weekends. Their activities include basketball (several of his friends have played on the church basketball team), filming and editing videos and photos, and lots and lots of pizza. Here is one of their latest video projects:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmPuV98HbT4

Savannah finished up her indoor soccer session with a decent rolled ankle injury. (Surprise!!) Still, she seemed to enjoy the season but decided not to try out for the high school team, although now she is having second thought on that decision. She is very helpful whenever there is a monetary reward. She often approaches me, asking what she can do to earn extra money. She is quite a tired girl though, napping after school several times a week. When she is awake, she is often on Facebook or texting her friends, which she has many of. She has been faithfully practicing the piano 5 times a week. She loves to attend both church and school dances with her core group of friends and they seem to have a good time even if the dances are not well attended.

Zachary is a sweet boy but he is 12, which means that his favorite thing to do is to get under people’s skin. His other hobbies include hanging out with friends, playing basketball, chatting (too much) in class, and girls. He really is diligent in his homework and has all A’s. I had conferences with his teachers a couple of weeks ago and they all talked about his popularity amongst his classmates, especially those who are female. He came to me the other day and said, “Mom, do you know how hard it is to tell these girls that I can’t go out with them? It’s about impossible! I’m trying, but I don’t know how much longer I can do it!” (He’s not supposed to date until he’s 16). He has been learning to do back flips and hasn’t killed himself. Yet. Since his school basketball schedule has ended, he has been playing on the church basketball team which consists of players from 12-18. He doesn’t get intimidated by his lack of size or age. He doesn’t get discouraged when only 3 of his 30 shots make it. He has also begun to run track this week.

Shane has decided that he wants to earn money in order to buy one of his brothers’ IPods. He has been diligently reading and doing extra jobs in order to do so. He loves to skateboard, although he has only been able to start again recently due to a long and prosperous (as far as snow goes) winter. He often comes home from school with permanent marker-ed, curly mustaches, beards, and eyebrows. He tells me that he doesn’t do it himself, but I’m not sure. He is quite artistic and he had several pictures featured in a district-wide art show. He unabashedly claims his crush on a girl in his class, which I never thought was something I’d see with him. He has a couple of girls who email him daily at his new school email address. It has opened his eyes to a whole new social world and now he often requests to have a Facebook page. He stays up way too late, sneaking down after I’ve gone to bed. I only know this because Brett is up and has proved to be a good spy. Every Sunday at church he requests an extra piece of candy from the bishop and faithfully gives it to his dad with excitement.

Brooke, or as she now refers to herself, Mrs. Bieber, has obviously become obsessed. She cannot get through two sentences without at least one reference to her beloved, who she calls JB as I have told her I don’t want to hear his name again. She often comes home from school with Justin Bieber gifts bestowed on her by fellow classmates who have conceded that she indeed loves him more than even they do. Her teacher says that she is “a friend to all.” Except for when she lets her dramatic side take hold. The other day she came stomping in from the bus and went right upstairs. She yelled, “I’ll be in my room if you need me!” I asked Shane what had happened. Apparently, she and a friend got in a fight on the bus. She came out of her bedroom 20 minutes later happy as a lark. Evidently, her 43 Justin Bieber posters do have some advantages! She recently learned how to make eggs, both scrambled and over easy, and does so for herself or others on request. She is Shane’s ready partner on his late-night escapades. Shane is tired the next day and she is just plain grumpy. She gets easily bored and often asks me what she can do. She is never happy with my suggestions of cleaning her room or doing homework. I told her to find a good hobby. So she has taken to dressing up the cats in Christmas outfits and photographing them. She is a gifted writer. Here is a sample of her description of lasagna:

“I love lasagna! I love how the yummy, drippy sauce drips off the lasagna and the mouth-watering, sweet cheese, the essence of the lasagna. That bubbly lasagna is goodness. It tastes like you’re in heaven. It smells like you’re surrounded by angels.”

Ethan has had a mouthful of problems lately, literally. Last month we took him in for an emergency appointment after a baby molar abscessed to the point that his whole cheek was swollen. He was put on an antibiotic and we returned to the dentist this week to have it pulled. I dreaded the appointment as we have tried unsuccessfully to get some dental work done on him since he had a traumatic scooter accident involving stitches and a pulled tooth. I sat on my hands in the waiting room as I heard him yell twice and I couldn’t help but look over at the receptionist nervously. She looked at me and said, “He’s fine,” although she didn’t look all that relaxed herself. But he came out ten minutes later with one less tooth and no tears. A couple of days later, his face had swollen up a bit and I was worried that he had gotten another infection. On further inspection, I found the he had a couple of canker sores. Pheww! He has gotten a little better on throwing tantrums but often needs reminders. He has watched “The Karate Kid” 47 times in the last month. I found written on his creative writing paper yesterday, “Hey, hey, you, you I don’t like your boyfriend. No way, no way, I think you need a new one.” He often likes to draw creatures that are half man, half fish (or other animals) and labels them “The Bad Boy.”

As far as me, I don’t know what I do, but it takes all my time. There are many things that I like to do: read, write, compose music, and spend time with my family. There are many things that just have to be done: laundry (which I don’t like at all!), chauffeuring kids (but I do enjoy listening to books on CD while I wait for them), cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. Doesn’t sound all that exciting, but I keep busy.

Chris keeps busy with his job and church calling. The basketball programs for the men and boys have finished for the year and volleyball will be starting soon, which ties up his Saturdays. But he seems to enjoy that, although for the first time since we’ve been married he is not participating in playing basketball himself due to what we think is a bad case of gout.

We hope that April brings with it some warmth. It seems like this winter has really gone on too long. We hope that you all find yourselves healthy, happy, and hopeful.

2011-02-05T06:52:00.001-08:00

Although it seems like a lifetime ago, I haven’t reported on the holiday events at the Belknaps this year. We were fortunate enough to have many friends and family around from both far and near for the holidays this year. We held our traditional Christmas Eve reenactment of the nativity with dinner before and games after. Christmas morning was filled with excitement, our family room overcrowded with people, presents and anticipation. After the last present was opened, we brought down the big surprise: 2 little kittens. They were greeted into the family with tears, hugs, and sometimes unwanted attention. They seem to be adjusting well in our chaotic household and are good additions to the family.

Brett is easily adjusting to his new at-home schedule. He usually wakes up about 9:30, works out, goes tanning, plays football, basketball, golf or racquetball, and hangs with his friends. What a life! He is way too comfortable, that’s for sure. He has just finished getting his papers together to turn in for his mission and we are all excited about that. It is nice to have another driver around to help with some of the daily errands or when I get in a jam. Brett has done much to improve the relations with his siblings from taking Ethan to McDonald’s to working out with Zach and his friends to working out in front of Savannah soccer team to show off his muscles. Except Brooke. He and Brooke are way too similar and butt heads more often than not. And although Brett is bigger, I can’t say that he always wins. Brooke has some pretty good comebacks! Brett is also helping me with my book which I’m grateful for because I feel I’ve been at a standstill for a while.
Tyler is now engaged, according to Facebook, to Savannah’s best friend, Elizabeth. Obviously, it is a joke, but it’s quite funny to me that Tyler can talk to Elizabeth on the phone for hours when he cannot sustain a 5 minute conversation with most people. In his history class, the students were required to make a poster detailing each one’s merits as to why they should be chosen king. Tyler’s included pictures with his face dubbed in as one of the Beatles with the caption “Me and the band”, a picture dubbed in on Michael Jordan’s face as he is dunking the ball, and lines such as “I can gargle peanut butter.” It was really quite clever. Anyway, the teacher named him King of the class and as a reward, he was able to rule for the day. He brought in snacks and sold them to the lowly peasants. Sounds like a Kingly thing to do!He also performed a rap in front of 100 people with his friend, which I would have liked to have seen. He is participating in the boys’ basketball program at church and has brought a couple of his friends also.
Savannah has started an indoor soccer session and seems to enjoy it despite the hour of her games (anywhere from 5 in the morning to 11 at night). She is cat-sitting the next door neighbor’s cat while they are in Florida for a month and swears that it hates her, showing me bite marks and scratches after most of her visits. She received a new camera for Christmas and has been taken a lot of blackmail pictures, posting the ugliest pictures she can find of me on Facebook. The lovely child. She has taken the $5 a week incentive and has faithfully practiced the piano the last several weeks. She has also helped to baby-sit the grandkids of my friend who fell down the stairs and shattered her wrist, requiring surgery. She gets irritated with Tyler’s blatant flirting, but looks forward to having Elizabeth as her sister in law. I told her not to get ahead of herself!
Zach has finished his school basketball season. It wasn’t the most winning season, but he seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. He is now also eligible to play for the church basketball team, which means he plays other boys up to 18 years old. He isn’t the biggest kid and playing with these older kids doesn’t help. But he holds his own. He’s a bit of a scrapper. Last game, he stole the ball several times from the other, older team and force a couple of jump balls. Zach has a party every weekend and sometimes more than one. He has worked very hard this year to make sure that his grades are good and hasn’t had any missing assignments the whole semester. He has many friends and continues to be a tremendous help to me.
Shane has been really excited about his newly acquired electric guitar, a joint Christmas present from Chris and I and Tyler. He has been diligently looking in books and on the internet, learning chords and practicing. He loved having his cousin here for Christmas. He says that it was his favorite gift. Recently, the kids had an assembly at school given by a guy named “Jim Basketball Jones”. He showed them all different kinds of basketball tricks such as spinning the ball on a marker as he signed another ball with that same marker. The kids were thoroughly impressed. There was some point to the whole assembly, some character-building point, although none of the three elementary kids could remember what it was. Anyway, teacher chose a boy and girl representative from their class according to how well the students were paying attention. Shane was chosen from his class, which is newsworthy in and of itself. Jim Basketball Jones led these students in a game of “Simon Says”, trying to eliminate all the students. It came down to Shane and one other third grade boy, so they each had to choose a number and whoever got closest to Jim’s number won. Shane chose the number closest. Jim gave him a choice. “Shane, you are the champion of Simon Says and you have won this signed basketball. Do you want to keep it or give it to Michael?” (the other boy left standing). Shane chose to give it to Michael, but Jim gave him another ball that wasn’t signed. Shane was so excited and so was I, for different reasons. As he was telling the story, I was confident that I knew what his choice would be.
Brooke has been gleaning much of the attention in the family lately. A couple of weeks ago, she started to run a fever. It was up to 104.7 over Motrin. After a couple of days, she developed a bit of a cough. We thought she had the flu. She continued to run a fever for 5 days and then it broke. During these fevers, she told me that she heard voices and had a dream that her evil twin caught the house on fire. On day 8, it returned, accompanied by hives and labored breathing. A quick trip to the clinic revealed that her right lung was filled with fluid and her left lung partially collapsed, moving her heart over. She was quickly admitted to the hospital where she spent that day and the next on oxygen and on a couple of antibiotics. When we were being released from the hospital, I asked her if she was happy to be going home. “Well, I don’t get room service at home. And I don’t have a television or a bed that moves up and down at home either.” Happily, she is doing much better now and was able to attend a half day of school today without incident. She is taking a 3 week afterschool enrichment class entitled “Justin Bieber Décor”. You can imagine her excitement. We went to the library the other day and I saw a Justin Bieber book on display. When I pointed it out to her, I seriously thought that she might pass out. I know that her lung capacity is still impaired, but really!
Ethan is proving to be quite difficult lately. I feel like I have regressed in my parenting skills. I have experienced 100 times more fits between Ethan and Brooke than I have with all the other kids combined. That may be an underexaggeration. He has fallen back to his daily morning fits, usually making it the most stressful time of day for me. I don’t like to put him on the bus angry, but it is usually how he starts his day. He seems to do pretty well at school, however. I guess that is fortunate for his teacher. Brett’s influence is definitely rubbing off on him. He often comes up and randomly asks people, “You feeling a little froggie?” (which means, “Do you want to fight?”) Brett took him to McDonalds and made him order his own meal. Afterward, he turned to the cashier and said, “Thanks, Hon.”
Chris has been having several health issues in the last six months that have prevented him from participating in his favorite athletic activities. He does still play football Saturday mornings when his schedule allows it. But he is in charge of the Stake basketball program for the men as well as the young men and women which means that he is gone 5:30-11 on Thursday evenings and 6-3 on Saturdays that the program is running. He is also visiting other churches 3 weeks out of the month, speaking one Sunday and sometimes teaching others. Nothing makes him happier than coming home to a clean house.

As far as what I do all day, I’m not really sure. It seems like there is always something that needs my attention, whether it be one (or several) of the kids, an assignment for church, my book, writing music, helping at school, etc. We hope that you are all prospering in blessings and health and can feel our love for you!!

Christmas Greetings 2010!!

2011-01-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

The Belknap Tribune

Volume 13 December 2010

Everything Changes, Love Remains the Same

Well, it’s been another eventful and busy year here in the Belknap household. So busy, in fact, it seems as though Christmas has come too early and I am not ready.

This year has been one of both routine and change. Daily activities such as seminary, school, homework, soccer, basketball, football, friends, parties, and church activities keep us busy. One of the biggest changes this year was the absence of one of our own. Brett graduated from high school June 6th and left June 9th to attend BYU in Provo, Utah. My parents and 4 siblings plus their families live there, so it was a little easier to let him go, but things were definitely different without him. He has now returned home and is preparing to serve a 2 year mission for our church.

In April of this year, Chris and I decided to split forces for Spring Break. Chris took Savannah, Zach, Shane and Ethan to Washington DC to visit his brother’s family. I took Bret, Tyler and Brooke to Utah to welcome my parents home after serving an 18 month humanitarian mission in India.

We were fortunate to have family come from far and wide to visit us this year. We had several of my siblings and my parents join us in July for a memorial service for my brother, David, who passed away last year.

We also continued our tradition of camping on Lake Michigan, this time joined by family. It was a lot of fun , despite nearly losing Brett and two friends to the riptide.

Chris and I experience a paradigm shift in our callings at church as I was released after serving 4 1/2 years in the Stake Young Women Presidency and am currently serving as nursery leader. Chris was released as the secretary for the Elder’s Quorum (men’s association) and is now serving on the high council.

Good friends, good health, and blessings in abundance have graced us in 2010. We hope you all find yourselves in similar circumstances and relish the joy and miracle of this Christmas season.

The Mystery Man

Hey everyone, its Bryan. I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Not too much new with me. Working at a Mexican restaurant as a cook. Living downtown royal oak with my girlfriend Sarah.

9 am Dropping Soon

Dooooooood. Its Brettchums. You already know what it is and if you don’t, you should by now. Just got back from college. That BYU boy. It was nice. Had a lot of fun, got to work out, got on the freak mode real quick. So now I’m back in Michigan for a quick minute. I plan on having some fun and playing some games, not too much, not too little. I returned home to the gridiron Saturday football style. Killed it with my dad and some of my boys. Right now my mom keeps trying to get me to get a job but I’m really not feeling that idea. I’d rather just focus on the finer things in life: GTL. Gotta know that’s all I do. Hit the gym, get jacked, go tan, look pretty for the ladies, then freshen up with the laundry. Cash that in cause that’s money in the bank. So other than that I got some plans that may or may not be profitable. Basically, 9 am is gonna sweep you off your feet. Our music is like air, you can never get enough. Our flow is like 3rd world tap, dirty and substantial. Our lyrics like the romantic era itself, famous for our words of love and similitude. Hope you can get your hands on a copy. Dropping soon. – Brettchums

Twibzz.

Herro. My name is Micha Xu. But you can call me Tyler. Sometimes, for fun, I karate chop watermelons and eat grapefruits by the whole. I enjoy playing games in which two teams of 11 players try to kick or head a ball into the opponents' goal. I can speak in several different languages including English. I can power solar panels at night, gargle peanut butter and sneeze with my eyes open. I taught Chuck Norris everything he knows. I am currently serving my 11th year at an educational institution. I turned 1.52 dog years in September. Eating is a hobby. I can make many different sophisticated kinds of food like cereal and peanut butter sandwiches. I enjoy using a thin, cylindrical writing implement to make organized markings on paper. I think its funny when people flinch while they’re sleeping. My name is Twibzz. I make duct tape wallets for a living. I wanna be a billionaire so frickin bad. We got two cats for Christmas this year; Spartacus and Taz. Speaking of cats, we went on a road trip to Utah and I documented the whole trip on my camera. We made an unexpected stop in Laramie, Wyoming from a disastrous snow storm that almost killed us. Not really. During our trip, we went hung out with our family and went mini golfing a couple times. It was fun. Okay, bye.

Mom’s Motorcycle Ride Scars Savannah

Hey, its savannah. I’m 14 years old and in 9th grade. This year I started high school. I got to go to homecoming this October and it was pretty fun. Then a week later on my birthday I went to a barn dance for church and me and my church buddies (Elizabeth and Braedyn) partied it up!

This summer I was just standing on a skateboard and my mom gets off Zach's pocket bike thing and the handlebar hits square on my foot. I hobble inside crying and go on the couch. I didn't look at my foot but my mom and everybody else says it was swollen as big as a golf ball. It hurt so bad! So after I was calmed down my mom went and got me a movie, a slushy, and a candy bar. Now there is a scar where the handle bar hit.

This year was the first time I did outdoor soccer since we have moved here. It was so much fun, I had a blast! Now I am doing indoor soccer again and hopefully I do better than what I did last year.

In June, my cousin , Samantha, came over for a week and I was so excited because I haven't seen her in over 5 years. When she came we would stay up till 2:30 on a school night and prank call people. I might have been super tired at school that day but it was so much fun just hanging out with my cousin.

Also over the summer my cousin, Sabrina, came and spent a month at my house. We went bowling many times and had the best summer together. I cant wait for her to come again fro Christmas!

Well I’m running out of room so I better go. See ya next year. Bye!

Zach Snaps Arm for Seventh Time

Hey its Zach. This year I turned 12 and I’m in 7th grade. I playing basketball on the middle school team right now and it is really fun. I am the point guard on my team and I am number two. We went camping at Pentwater this year and it was very fun, some of the thing we did when we were there was were walk around the town we also swam in lake Michigan. We were right by lake Michigan! Which was awesome and what even made it better was that our cousins aunts and uncles and two of Brett’s friends were there.

Over the past summer I broke my right arm. The way it happened was I was at my friends house and I was going on his rope swing and when I went the rope had slack in it and when the rope straightened out I fell off and landed on my wrist. Later my friend told me that he heard it snap from all the way up the hill!!! I can’t wait until Christmas its only in a few days and I cant wait to open and see people open all of the presents that people bought for each other. Well that’s all.

Shane Cracked in the Head

Hi my name is Shane. This year I turned 10 and I’m in 5th grade. I like peanut butter and I like to skate board. I like to eat Ramón. I like Chinese stuff and I like my family. I like to play outside. I like Christmas. And I also I like candy. Candy is bad for you but I still like it anyway. I don’t like most books so you shouldn't either. I like to go to Washington DC to see my cousins. My cousin is a professional skate boarder. He is cool, and so am I. My other cousin is turning 16. She is shy and I am hyper. I like to make origami stuff, it looks cool. I want to go to China. China looks awesome (KARATE CHOP! OH YEAHH!) I like big butts in a can not lie. Ha just kidding that’s just weird. Flabbergasted is a funny word. I am flabbergasted about Christmas! I have a you tube channel. I like Koolaid is awesome. I like chocolate milk it is good . I like soccer and kickball. I played with my cousin, Chris and Megan and my aunt Leslie. My mom says that I have long hair, but I don’t. I like to take stuff apart like batteries, toys, stuffed animals cause I can have parts that are different. I like dogs and snakes and sharks. I went to Mackinac in 4th grade. I like to eat doughnuts. I don’t like Barbies. They are creepy. It’s like imagining a creeper right on your shelf. My brother Zach gave me skate shoes. I found out the bottom was plastic so it slips easily. I went on a teeter totter, standing on it, wiggling it. My feet slipped and I cracked my head open on a bar. When I got to my cousin’s house, I almost passed out. My uncle had a staple gun and he put 3 staples in my head. After a couple of weeks, I could get them out. My dad had to use special scissors to get it out. He put the tip into the staple and opened it and they fell out. It was scary.

Merry Christmas!!

Justin Bieber’s Number 1 Fan

Hey girlfriend! It’s me, Brooke! This year I turned 8 and I’m in 3rd grade. This year has been fabulous!

Over thanksgiving break my cousins, Megan and Chris, and my aunt Leslie came to visit from Arizona. Me and Megan would write notes on napkins to each other. We had a great time together and I can’t wait for them to come next year! On Thanksgiving, my dad had us make a list of everything we were thankful for.

I love Justin Bieber and Tanner (from my school). For my birthday, I got 2 Justin Bieber shirts, a “peace” bag, and lots more. I'm really, really looking forward to Christmas because I want to see all the presents under the tree, and the ones that are for me!

For Christmas I want Justin Bieber, a pillow-pet, a little kitten, and a computer/TV for my room. And a lot more! :) I love make up and jewelry and nail polish, And a lot more! :) I like smiley-faces! I hate peanut butter. I love baby's. They are so cute! I have a YouTube channel. Yeah. Justin Bieber is hot! So is Tanner! I really like my church and school teacher! The are the nicest teacher in the world but my church teachers are even nicer. I love the wii but my favorite game is just dance 2 and my top 4 favorite songs are toxic, Tic tock, Its raining men, and firework! My favorite song is firework by Katy Perry! Bye!

Ethan The Megamind

Hi my name is Ethan. In June I’m turning 7. I’m a good reader, but I hate reading. I like my teacher. I like to skateboard. I have a Youtube account. I like watching funny videos. I like my family. On Christmas, my cousins are coming over. We had a lot of cousins come and visit this summer. It was fun. It was fun when I went to Chase’s party. It was fun when Colton and Trey and Jackson were here. I have a mustache. My brother is good at drawing. He said that I have a Megamind head. I like to play the guitar. I am amazing on the piano. I like to play “Just Dance” on the Wii. I like to play with my brothers and sisters. It’s really fun. My brother, Shane, taught me how to play “Smoke on the Water” on the guitar. When I grow up, I want to be a professional skateboarder. But I’m going to live next to my mom. Right next door. So she can watch my kids when I go to work.

I like when it’s Christmas. Cause we get presents and we don’t have to go to school. I like money. Because we can buy stuff that we like like skateboards, a Nintendo DS, peanut butter. I like peanut butter. My brother Brett, he came home from college and I was happy. Happy new year it’s 2011!!!!!!!!!!!(^_^)

Holy Halloween!

2010-11-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween. Because Halloween was on Sunday this year, I was in a quandary. Trick or treating seems a less than holy Sunday activity, so after talking to several of my friends who are in the same situation, we decided to have a Halloween party at our house. So Halloween day we had 3 families from church and ourselves with Jana, Jimmy and Jana’s friend Jen over for dinner and games. It was a lot of fun and hopefully satisfied the kids.

I am leaving Saturday to spend a week in Utah. My sister, Jeannie, has been hospitalized for several weeks in the past month and a half and I really want to see her. Jana will be traveling with me and Cynthia and Jessica will be there part of the time as well. I am really bummed, however, that I will be missing Teresa and her husband, Grant, who will be in Italy the duration of our visit.

I am really excited to see Brett in just a couple of days. Brett is not enjoying BYU as we hoped he would. In fact, he will be coming home at Christmas and not attending the winter semester as planned. He is, however, getting papers together in preparation for a 2-year mission for the church which he will be able to serve once he turns 19 in February. His number one priority at school seems to be working out and building up his body mass. He has put on 15 pounds since school started but lost some of that recently when he was quite sick for a few days. He has been playing football on an intramural team and seems to enjoy that.

Tyler is astoundingly talented. The kid amazes me. He continues to make his videos. I’m excited for him to go to college because there have been several contests offered at BYU for either art or videography that I’m sure he could have done well. He actually has two different art projects currently being displayed by two different teachers at the high school. He was recently inducted into the National Honor Society. He loves to find projects on the internet and then try them. Last week he asked me if I would buy him duct tape in a variety of colors so that he could make wallets. You should see the things! They are amazing with all kinds of pockets and even one that is see-though for a driver’s license. His grandma brought over some balloons last week and the next thing I knew, he was putting together animals and hats like a seasoned carnival worker. His soccer team just recently finished the season, losing in district finals in triple overtime. He, of all the kids, was the most disappointed about not being able to go trick or treating this year. Let me remind you that he is a junior in high school!

Savannah has incurred a couple of notable injuries in the last month (surprise, surprise!). One morning between classes, she was at her locker when a friend came over and slammed it shut, not realizing that her hand was in it. Her two fingers swelled up pretty good and turned shades of purple and brown. But she was concerned about how the boy that was responsible felt. I guess a lot of people gave him a hard time about it and Savannah felt bad for him. And then, just a couple of days later, she was walking from the living room to the office. All the lights were off and she was texting on Chris’s phone. Somehow, instead of walking down the hallway to the office, she ended up walking off the landing of the steps leading to the basement. Chris said that he heard nothing but thumping all the way down the stairs and ran to see her sprawled on the tile floor, not moving. Luckily, she only bruised her shoulder and hurt her toe. I have heard the dangers of texting and driving, but it never occurred to me that it is dangerous to text and walk! Savannah turned 14 last month and attended the homecoming dance with a group of friends. She also was able to attend a church stake barn dance which was held on her birthday and she really enjoyed that. Her seminary teacher says that she is rockin’ in Seminary, answering questions and volunteering to do things. I’d like to think that it has nothing to do with earning “Monson Mullah” to buy treats, but I know better!

Zachary has worked very hard to improve his grades and is taking pride in his work. I am very proud of him. But what makes me more proud is what a good and sensitive kid he is. Recently, conferences were held at the middle school. Zachary informed me that the school counselor wanted to talk to me when I got to the school. “What did you do?” I asked him. “I don’t think it was anything bad,” he assured me. When we got to the school, I went straight to the counselor’s office. “Hi, Mrs. Belknap,” the counselor said, leading Zach and I into the office and closing the door, which made me nervous and left me thinking the worst. “Mrs. Belknap, I just want to commend you for the job you are doing as a parent and let you know what a great kid Zachary is. He and another student were in the lunch room last week when they saw a boy who is socially awkward being picked on by some other students. The other students were trying to draw this boy into a confrontation. Zach recognized this and went over and tried to diffuse the situation and draw the boy out of it. He had to do this several times, but he finally was able to get him out. He then came and told me about it. You have raised him well.” I had tears in my eyes. So many times as a parent, you are only told what your child is doing wrong. I was very grateful that she took the time to tell me what Zach had done and commended him for it. The next day, Zach asked if he could buy a pack of gum off of me so that he could try to distract this same boy from falling for the ploys of other students who want to get this boy upset. Zachary asks to have friends come over almost every day after school. Many times, they get a bunch of boys here and play football or sting pong. Zachary was excited to go to the largest, and scariest (by his account, at least) haunted house in the country, Erebus. He has learned to do back flips on the ground but it scares me as I don’t want him to break his neck.

Shane has spent much of his free time skateboarding. He loves to show me new tricks and he is getting very good. His teacher stopped me in the hallway to tell me what a talented artist he is. His school recently held a book fair and he begged for me to get him a book. I had him do a couple extra jobs and then bought it for him. Shane brought it home and read for two days straight and finished the book. It was great! He told me that several girls in his class like to play with his hair. One of them asked him, “Why doesn’t your hair flip? I’ve never seen you with your hair flipped and you come from a hair-flipping family!” I depend on Shane in the morning to help me with the younger two kids and they have reverted somewhat to last year’s before school antics, though not quite as bad as last year.

Brooke is enjoying school. I recently had a conference with her teacher. Her teacher couldn’t say enough about Brooke. She said that she was a sweetie and a gifted writer. I’m glad the good Brooke goes to school. In fact, she said that she will be giving her supplementary materials so that she will be challenged academically. She wrote a poem that the teacher asked her to read in class because she was so impressed. Her class has been banned from talking about Justin Bieber because of all the emotions it has evoked from members of the class (girls seem to love him, boys—not so much). She came down the other morning after sleeping and was smiling (this doesn’t usually happen). I asked her what was up. “I had the best dream,” she told me. “Justin Bieber came to our school and we were in an assembly and he sat on the floor next to me. I had my hands on either side of me leaning on them and Justin was doing the same thing and then…HIS FINGERS TOUCHED MINE! And then he held my hand!” She’s 8. I don’t know what I will do with this girl!! The other day she showed me a PowerPoint presentation that she threw together on the computer of all her favorite songs, complete with clipart and animated drawings. She is continuously getting into my makeup and loves anything that sparkles. She also “borrows” my Ipod often, meaning she takes it out of the car and uses it without my permission.

Ethan also sustained quite an injury this past month. I was called by the school just as it was time to let out one day. Apparently, Ethan had been playing on the monkey bars and he fell and rolled his foot. He had gone through the day okay but there was a fire alarm pulled and the kids were shuttled outside and Ethan was crying. So I went to the school to pick him up. Zach came along and threw Ethan on his shoulder and carried him to the car. When we arrived home, I went inside and was giving people snacks when I realized that Ethan wasn’t inside. I went back out to the car and said to Ethan, “Why aren’t you coming inside?” “Mom, I can’t walk,” he explained. So I carted him inside and put him on the couch. He fell asleep and when I finally took off his shoe after his nap, I was appalled to see that his whole foot was quite swollen and the entire top of his foot and part of the bottom was bruised. Poor kid! I kept him home for a couple of days and then sent him back to school after the weekend with a pair of Shane’s shoes as his foot wouldn’t fit into his own shoes. He is back to normal now, after 4 weeks, except that he still wants to wear Shane’s shoes, which make him look like a clown as they are about 5 sizes too big. I found out later that the week before this injury, he had gotten his arm caught in the monkey bars and had to be rescued by a teacher. I said to Ethan, “Why do you keep getting hurt on the monkey bars?” “I was trying to break my arm,” he informed me. “Why would you try to break your arm?” I asked. “My friend got a cast and I want one too. I tried to break my arm, but I broke my foot instead.” Crazy kid! Guess what he was for Halloween? An injured person with a leg brace, arm brace, and bandage on his head. It runs in the family because I remember Brett trying repeatedly to break his collar bone after Zachary had many years ago! Ethan came to me the other day telling me that he had a sore behind his bottom front tooth. Upon inspection, I told him, “Ethan! Your big tooth is coming in! You’re going to lose your baby tooth soon!” This put him into hysterics for about 20 minutes at the thought of losing another tooth (he has had 2 pulled).

Well, ‘tis the season for holiday busyness. We are looking forward to a visit from Leslie and her two kids in a couple of weeks. Hope your season is filled with health and joy!

The Sounds of September Silence

2010-09-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

So school has started again and life is good. In fact, I’d even say that things are going smoothly. Savannah and Tyler start the day off at 5:00 and Savannah is even waking herself up to her own alarm clock which is in her room! (Yes, she is actually sleeping in her room!)

Brett came home for a couple of weeks between summer and fall terms at BYU. He seems to have adjusted pretty well to college life, although I don’t think he understands that part of that life includes a job. He is enjoying school and his social life. I think he was a little disappointed when he came home because most of his friends were leaving for school also. He doesn’t seem to like the atmosphere quite as much during the fall semester as opposed to the summer. I think the professors are much more laid back during the summer and there are only a fraction of the 33000 students who usually attend.

Tyler is now a junior in high school. He recently turned 16 and will be getting his driver’s license shortly. He has a couple of AP classes, including an AP chemistry class which he had a 30 page homework packet that had to be completed over the summer. He knew nothing about the summer homework when he signed up for the class and wasn’t his usual diligent self and so he and I (mostly I) worked on that homework packet for the last several days before school started. Thank goodness for Grandpa and the telephone. I swear that man is a genius. Literally! Tyler has done a couple of drawings for youtube that are really good. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ClintandTybalt?feature=mhum
There is nothing that kid can’t do! Except maybe talk. I ask him every day about school and soccer and the most I can get out of him is one sentence, and that’s on a good day. Sometimes it’s just a nod. He is playing soccer on the high school team, alternating between the JV and Varsity teams and seems to enjoy that. He became a priest at church and is now blessing the sacrament. Tyler, for being the germaphobe that he is shocked me the other day. Our neighbors were moving out and left a bunch of stuff at the curb for the garbage, much of which was good stuff. Tyler came inside and announced, “Who wants to go garbage picking with me?” You should have seen the excitement! It was like Christmas! I was proud! Of course, Tyler only picked things up with a stick, but it made me proud anyway.

Savannah is now a freshman in high school, which seems impossible to me. She has really surprised me this year as she has wakened herself for Seminary before 5:00 each morning. Even more surprisingly, she has been sleeping in her new room downstairs, the game room formerly known as Brett’s bedroom. She is an Ipod junkie and is slow to do her daily jobs. She does keep up with her homework without any prodding from me, which I do appreciate.

Zach is our only middle-schooler this year. He doesn’t seem to mind. He recently turned 12 and had a birthday party including 5 friends and went swimming at the high school pool. He seems to be acclimating well to going back to school and often has friends come over after school to play football or basketball. He told me that several of the girls on the bus get very excited when Tyler gets on the bus. He has been much better this year about trying to complete homework on time and doing quality work. He just spent a good part of his money on a new pair of shoes that he wore for the first time today. He assures me that the comments were abundant and the shoes were well worth the money. He just became a deacon at church, which means he passes the sacrament on Sunday. He is always the first one ready for church, urging everyone else to hurry so that he can pick the best section to pass the sacrament. His arm seems to have healed well, although too late for football season. He has had girls call daily since school started back up. He, as always, is very helpful and sensitive to my moods, offering to wake kids up, help with homework, etc.

Shane is now in 5th school and seems to be doing well as far as I can tell. He is always doing things to make me laugh. The other day, Chris was doing some weird dance and Shane got up excitedly, lined up next to Chris and replicated his exact moves. He loves to pretend to be Michael Jackson, going up on the tips of his toes. He is always trying to make me feel good. He has told me repeatedly for months that I don’t look a day older than 27. Now that I have celebrated my 40th birthday, he has raised it to 28. When I laugh, he just says, “I’m serious!” He has been practicing card tricks and slight of hand magic tricks. His teacher at school was also a magician, so he is excited about that. He is really into skateboarding right now and is learning to do tricks on his skateboard and informs me that “Tony Hawk is a poser”. He has done some extra jobs in an attempt to earn money for a skateboard but has a ways to go. I went to wake him the other day and before he even opened his eyes he said, “The happy survive!” It kind of epitomizes his attitude!

Brooke really seems to enjoy her teacher. Her teacher is really good and I am glad that she has her. She has a new boy in her class named Al and she was very distraught the first few days of school because nobody was playing with him so she went to him on recess and asked if she could play basketball with him, even though she hates basketball. She is now in activity days at church and sometimes gets very crazy in her church classes, although she behaves well in school. When I asked her about it, she said, “Well, I want to get a good grade in school!” Since Savannah has moved downstairs, Brooke has a room to herself. I went upstairs recently to find that she had redecorated with Justin Bieber paraphernalia. She even put on red lipstick and adorned several of the posters in her kisses. I guess I wasn’t really surprised, seeing as how she is going to marry him and all. She learned how to make friendship bands and has made many for friends and family.

Ethan is amazing me with his musical talent. Tyler has taught him to play many things on the piano and I sat down with him the other day and gave him a lesson on reading music. He picked it up very quickly and practices every day. He can play both parts to “Heart and Soul” and picked up the bottom part in about 5 minutes. Yesterday, he walked in the door from school and went right to the piano and asked me to teach him a new song. He has a funny sense of humor. He was trying to tell me how much he liked the Oreo pie that Tyler had made. “I love it so much, I wish it was a girl so I could marry it!” he told me. He kept asking to play with one of Shane’s friends from church. When I asked him why he wanted to play with Jonah so badly, he replied, “Because he is so handsome!” Apparently in school they have been talking about nutrition because the first thing he asks me before he eats anything is, “Does it have sugar? If it has a little sugar, it’s a slow food. If it has a lot, it’s a whoa food.” The kid doesn’t even want to drink milk anymore! While Brett was here, he convinced Ethan that he should get a 6-pack (I’m talking about abs) so he put him on an exercise regimen including sit-ups, leg-lifts, jumping jacks and push-ups. Ethan often comes to me, flexing his biceps and stomach muscles. I went to his open house at school and I’m pretty sure Ethan was the only 1st grader to draw a goatee on his self-portrait. Ethan was the hero yesterday when several of the kids encountered a spider in the kitchen. Savannah tried to windex it to death. After that was unsuccessful and the spider was trying to make his escape, Ethan came to the rescue and stomped it to death with his bare foot. Ethan, the Spider Slayer!

As for Chris and I, we have also gone through a couple of changes. For me, the biggest change of course is waking up at 5 again and sending the kids off to school again. But I was also released from my church calling as 1st counselor in the stake Young Women’s Presidency. It is bittersweet for me because I miss working with all the young women in the stake. But it was a lot of work and now I have my dream calling, working in the nursery with 18month-3 years olds on Sundays.

Chris has gotten a new calling also. He has been asked to serve on the high council, which entails traveling to different wards 2-3 Sundays a month (speaking once a month in their Sacrament meeting) as well as other meetings. He is in charge of the sports programs for the 11 church in our stake and oversees one ward in particular. He is trying to learn all of his responsibilities, but I am sure he will do well. He is really enjoying this Michigan college season so far, which seems to be an all day Saturday affair!

Well, that’s all for the Belknaps! Hope all is well with each of you!

Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho! It's off to school they go!

2010-09-16T07:57:00.001-07:00

I'm a little late, but I thought I'd post a few pictures of the first day of school. As you can see, there was a lot of enthusiam and the kids anticipated going back to school. They could hardly contain their excitement! Actually, most of the even admitted to wanting to go back to school, if only to see their friends and not be bored!

Savannah and Tyler start each morning at 5 to go to Seminary before school. They just love it!

Zach is our only middle schooler this year.

The three elementary kids were probably the least excited. But they all seem to like their teachers, each claiming that they have the "best teacher ever"!

And it's off to school!

I do love the hugs I get after a long hard day at school!

The crazy days of summer!

2010-08-19T13:11:00.001-07:00

This is a picture Tyler drew.

It has been a busy and fun summer with many visitors. I was grateful to have my parents here holding down the fort while I was at Girls Camp last week. I didn’t get to see them for very long, but it was great not to have to worry about what physical injury my children were inflicting upon each other. Actually, my dad spent the week fixing Brett’s old car as we were down to one functional car for most of the past 2 months. Thank goodness for good friends! My friend Ellen graciously let us borrow a minivan for about 6 weeks so that we wouldn’t be totally stranded. Thanks, Ellen and the whole Zimmerman family. You guys are great!!

I was at Girls’ camp for church all of last week as I celebrated my 40th birthday and 20-year anniversary. Several of the other leader there made my birthday special by surprising me with chocolates, a birthday crown that I wore all day, 2 Costco cakes, presents, and many birthday wishes. They also decided that I should go tubing, as I never have done that before. It was a lot of fun, but I was quite sore and bruised for several days. I guess my tubing technique is about as good as my dancing!!

Brett graduated on June 6th and left for college on June 9th. He had a graduation party that was well attended and well catered, thanks to our family here. Brett seems to be acclimating to the world of BYU. He seems to really enjoy his roommates and family home evening group. He has a calling in church. In fact, several times I have tried to call him he has been busy home teaching. He seems to really enjoy his political science class, which is good as at this point that is what he is thinking his major will be. He seems to be busy all the time between 3 classes and his social life and I’m not sure how he will like working also. He is coming home tonight for a 2-week break before the fall semester begins. Ethan has been saving up all his PT cruiser and Slugbug punches for him, so he might come home to a brutal welcome.

Tyler is in the mist of soccer practice this week. He will be completing segment 2 drivers ed. next week. He still has to complete 50 hours of driving before he can get his license. Hopefully that will happen in the middle of September, so that he can drive to and from seminary and school. Grandpa came while I was at girls camp and worked on Tyler’s car, getting it functional. Thanks grandpa! Tyler enjoyed visiting with his cousin Austin. They made a video together and it is pretty good. He got his braces off and his teeth look really good. I was completing shocked when Savannah and her friends told me that he was flirting with several girls at youth conference. I was also shocked when he came up to me and asked for a hair cut and didn’t complain or anything!

Savannah enjoyed her cousin Samantha who we haven’t seen in 5 years to visit for a. Her and Sam would go to the clubhouse by our house almost every day and get French fries. She enjoyed staying up and hanging out with Sam. She also enjoyed having her cousin Sabrina stay with us for a month. We hope that some of Sabrina’s kindness and manners would rub off on Savannah. They spent a lot of time playing Yahtzee, going to movies, getting fries at the club house, and going to youth conference. I was so proud that they were the biggest spenders during the game of life at the fun and games room instead of going to church, going to the temple, and getting married. I inflicted quite an injury on Savannah accidentally, when I got off a mini motorcycle and dropped the handle bar right on her foot. I felt horrible because it swelled up to the size of a golf ball. She couldn’t even get her whole foot in her flip flop because it was so swollen. Last week she went to girl’s camp with me. It was her 3rd year there. She enjoyed tubing a lot. It was my first time tubing and I took her with me which was a mistake because she is crazy on the tubes. She and I both had sore necks, arms and legs.

Zachary spent his summer in a cast as he broke his arm the last week of school. He has actually had it back in a splint for the past several weeks as it is not completely healed. It has infringed on many of his summer activities but hasn’t slowed him down at all. In fact, when he had his full-arm cast on, I had to keep him from using it as a weapon. He won’t be playing football this year, due to the break and his broken arm history, which he is really bummed about. He has been fixated on getting a pocketbike but we are kind of at a standstill on that also as that’s probably the last thing he need with a healing broken bone. He continues to be my most helpful child without solicitation but also takes pleasure in teasing and wrestling with Ethan and Shane. I was at Salvation Army with him the morning when he pulled me over and whispered that an old lady kept looking at him. Then I did notice that an older lady, probably 65-70 seemed to be everywhere. It seemed like whenever I went, she was close behind. When I got in line, she promptly stepped right behind me. “He’s just going to get better and better looking, that boy,” she said, nodding her head at Zach. “I can picture him as a 19 year old boy and he’s gonna be so good looking. He’s got that Justin Bieber haircut…I wouldn’t know who Justin Bieber is except I watch Ellen.” I had to laugh as Zachary just looked down and smiled like he was shy. Actually, most of his facebook friends think that he is shy. HAHA!

Shane is handsome, helpful, funny, awesome, enjoyable, loving, good at drawing and bowling and has a lot of friends (he helped me write that sentence). He is counting down the days to when his cousin, Matthew is coming for a visit. He spends most of his time on the computer and watching TV and is dismayed that I have started to make him read again. He bought Tyler’s flip videocamera with some of his birthday money and has dabbled in making his own videos. He got a Nintendo DS from a friend and was totally distraught when he couldn’t find it for a month and a half. I finally find it in his drawer where it was supposed to be! He is proud of his nickname, “Sockmouth”, and the fact that he loves peanut butter. He really is good at bowling, especially when the bumpers are up. He doesn’t usually need the bumpers, but it seems to help him mentally.

Brooke celebrated her 8th birthday a couple of times last month. First, when we had many members of my family in for a memorial service for my brother, David, we were able to also have her birthday celbration and baptism. I allow the kids a party on every 4th birthday and that means she got a party this year. But we waited until our company left to have a friends party for her. She had a Justin Bieber party, involving 5 little girls and a lot of screaming. She is quite obsessed with him and makes references several times a day about getting married to him or having him as her boyfriend. She loves to watch my friend’s grandkids, Damien and Alana. In fact, it is a great incentive for her to behaving. She recently had a sleepover at a friend’s house, which she has only done once before about 4 years ago. She was watching a Disney show the other day and she wiped her eyes and said, “This makes me so sentimental.” (No, she wasn’t really crying!)

Ethus recently turned 6 and is becoming his own person. Much of who he has been has been greatly influenced by having older brothers. But there are some parts of his personality that are coming out that I see as being inherent qualities. He is very musically inclined and it’s fun to see him taking pride in playing songs that he has learned and especially performing his duets with Tyler. They often will spend over and hour on the piano experimenting and learning new things. I’m not saying they are Wilkins kids, but pretty impressive for a Belknap. He really likes to entertain and dance and seems to have the coordination that I didn’t get. He still gets very angry and has a short fuse, but is more reasonable than he has been in the past. He likes to have something fun to do every day and feels cheated if he doesn’t. I asked him if he were excited to go back to school. “No. I don’t want to go to school,” was his reply. “Don’t you want to see all of your friends?” I asked. “It’s not like they’ve changed the way they look!” he said. He’s doing well on reading and usually is compliant when I ask him to read with me, unlike most of the other kids.

A brief June update!!

2010-07-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

What an incredibly busy and eventful month June was for the Belknap clan, so busy that I haven’t had a chance to update my blog in a while. I will try to get this done in a couple of different posts so as to not make it too long.

June was a month of great change for us. Brett graduated from Lakeland high school the 6^th of June. We marked his graduation with a party on the 5^th just before I drove him out to BYU in Provo, Utah, basically kicking and screaming as he wasn’t ready to leave nest and be out on his own. It was a tearful goodbye but I feel better knowing that we have many family members out there willing to check up on him. Despite his apprehension in going out to Utah, he seems to have acclimated to life there. In fact, every time I call him, he seems distracted and I hear girls giggling in the background.

I returned from Utah on the 13^th just in time for the last week end-of-school activities (parties, finals, etc). I also returned to an array of broken items including the microwave, 3 cars, the dryer, the 4 cordless phones, a refrigerator, 2 virus-infected computers, and Zach’s arm. I felt like an Egyptian in the times of Moses with all these plagues!

Chris’s brother, Steve, and his family came to visit and to drop off Sabrina, their 15-year-old daughter who has been staying with us for a month. Steve made Commander in the Navy which will postpone the possibility of their family moving to Michigan this year. We are still crossing our fingers that it will happen eventually! Sabrina is a lovely addition to the family and has such a sweet spirit. We have loved having her around.

I had Youth Conference the weekend after the kids finished school. We had 170 youth attending this 2-day conference and it is quite a production to feed, entertain, transport, and spiritual uplift a group that size. I felt like it was quite successful and we had some good feedback from it. Now it’s time to plan for Girls Camp!!

Before Youth Conference, family members started trickling in for a memorial service for my brother, David, who passed away last year after his 4^th heart attack. The stone was placed at the burial site and it is perfect. I think that we had 18 extra people at our house for the week. We enjoyed many activities including volleyball, bowling, a visit to the lake, playing games, and eating, of course!! It is always great to have people come to visit! My dad tried to resurrect several of our cars but 2 of them, the van and Chris’s escort, were pronounced officially dead. I will be sad to see the van go. We have had her for 10 years and she has taken us across the country countless times. In fact, that van has 250,000 miles on it! So now we are on the search for a minivan. We have been looking for an 8 passenger but are now to the point that we are ready to settle on a 7 passenger and double belt. That or tie whoever is misbehaving to the roof!

Other than that, we have gone to the lake a couple of time and thanks to a free bowling program, we have been bowling a lot! If anyone with kids is interested, it’s a nationwide program called “Kids Bowl Free” (kidsbowlfree.com) and kids can bowl 2 games free all summer long. All you pay for is the shoe rental. It’s been great for us!

Brett with his Prom date, Audrey!
Ahhh, graduation!
We enjoyed a visit from Lisa, Sarah, Samantha and Neveah!
The clan at Kensington park
Loving the lake!

My brother, Steven.

Grandma and Grandpa. We sure did miss them!
The kids loved the lake!

Fun at the zoo...

Jackson's 3rd birthday at Chuck E Cheese.
The gravestone.
Volleyball!
You gotta love Jessica's expression here!

A Wild Memorial Day!

2010-06-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

It’s less than 2 weeks before I will be taking my baby Brett out to Utah to begin the college chapter of his life. In preparation, Savannah and I have been scanning the photos of his 3 childhood albums in order to make a photo story for his graduation party next week. It has caused me to look back and contemplate all the memories of Brett’s childhood. It has been a wild ride. I can’t believe that time has passed so quickly and that he will not be living in our home. I can’t even think about it much without tearing up. But I am very excited for him and the opportunity he has to go to BYU. I really feel like it is where he should be and am thankful that I have so much family out there to help him feel at home. We had originally planned on having Brett stay with my parents for the 2 months of summer term, but I decided just last week to have him stay in the dorm. He will have 5 roommates and hopefully will click with at least one of them. His last day of high school is tomorrow, although he really checked out of all things school-related about a month ago. In fact, he called me while I was in a meeting at church the other night at 9 asking me to call one of my friends who is a teacher to fill out a take home math test for him that was due the next day. Really?? In his class of over 400 students, he was named the biggest flirt in mock elections. A mom has to be proud.

Tyler is finishing his sophomore year of high school with excellent marks. In fact, his science teacher asked him if he wanted to skip chemistry and go right to AP Chemistry. I think he was enticed when he found out that the AP Chem class has a field trip to Hawaii for only $2000. Like Hawaii has anything to do with chemistry, unless you’re talking honeymoon chemistry! Tyler is trying to convince us that he should get to go since he got into the class. He is a good student, but he’ll have to work on his persuasion skills for that to happen! He refuses to drive for some odd reason and I am getting frustrated as he needs to have his license for Seminary next year. He has had several people ask him about making videos for him, including a friend of Brett’s who Tyler has never spoken to who asked him via Facebook if he could “collaborate with him on a dance video”.

I received a call from Savannah’s Gym teacher a few weeks ago informing me that she had fallen and hit her head pretty hard on the floor. Since then, she has complained of headaches most days. But she insists on continuing to play on her soccer team. She was recently in a play for her drama class in the role of Cinderella and did a good job. She and I have lost our 2 favorite shows, LOST and Fast Forward. She is looking forward to her cousin, Sabrina, coming to stay with us for an indeterminate period of time starting the 19^th of June. They get along great and we love having her around. She is trying to earn money and has been helping me to scan pictures into the computer, which takes a lot of time. She even helped me out by staying home from school one day to prepare for Brett’s graduation party. What a selfless girl! (She actually did work for 8 hours straight scanning photos for me!)

Zachary has been working hard on his grades to earn back friend privileges. He had saved up enough money to purchase a pocketbike (mini motorcycle) but had to get his grades up in order to buy one. His GPA was only .03 points away from our goal when I happened to be at a garage sale that had a pocketbike for sale. I called him and asked him if he would commit to achieving his goal and agreed to buy the bike. Well, I didn’t realize that it was a racing bike that goes up to 80 mph. We all decided that 80 mph was too fast for Zach. So if anyone is interested in a pocketbike, we have one for sale!!

Shane is currently on a 3-day fieldtrip with his class on Mackinac Island, a 4 square mile island in Lake Huron between the upper and lower peninsulas. He has anticipated this trip the entire school year and was very excited about going. Everyone in the 3 classes got to submit something they thought should go on the back of the shirts that everyone was to wear on the fieldtrip. Shane’s quote was picked. It said this: “If you don’t eat all of your fudge, I’ll take it!” (Mackinac is famous for its fudge). I received an email from his teacher last week asking about Shane’s sleepwalking and if we needed to take any precautions on the trip (he doesn’t really sleepwalk). He was given a Nintendo DS by a friend and has been earning money to buy games for it. Unfortunately, a couple days ago he misplaced it and, despite a search involving many of us, we haven’t been able to find it. He is such a happy and pleasant child most of the time it really hurts me to see him sad. As pleasant as he is, he is not the most responsible child. He has a really hard time getting his homework home, finished, put in his backpack, and returned to his teacher. He was bringing home a planner for a while, but he lost that before Christmas and even when he did bring it home, it was usually not legible or not even filled out. He did write a book for school and it is really cute. It’s all about the adventures of Shane and Matthew (his cousin). Shane, being the kid that he is, bought a keychain that had five different buttons which, when pressed, simulated various tones of flatulence. Unbeknownst to me, Shane had this in his pocket one Sunday at church. During Sacrament meeting, Shane inadvertently pressed one of the buttons on his keychain. My first reaction was to grab him and take him out of the chapel, but all that people sitting beside us probably noticed was the noise and then me leaving as I blushed. Gotta love it!

Brooke tends to gets obsessed with certain things. Some of her past obsessions have included the Phantom of the Opera, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and boys. Her current obsession is Justin Beiber, a teenie bopper pop star. A couple of weeks ago she said to me, “You know how dad is 8 years older than you?” “He’s 9 years older than me,” I quickly pointed out. “Yes!!” she said, excitedly. “That means that I can marry Justin Beiber! He’s 9 years older than me!!” She insists that the only things she wants for her birthday is to meet Justin Beiber. She and about 10 million other young girls. Oh yeah, and Brett also. He thinks Justin is the bomb. Brooke often writes letters to Justin’s fan club. She has posed the question to both Chris and I, “Do you think that Justin even knows that I exist?” Brooke went out with Chris and I a few weekends ago to look at model homes. Chris, of course, made himself comfortable and was browsing through the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. Brooke came running over to me and said in an urgent whisper, “Dad just stole a water bottle!” Chris heard her and came over, denying that he stole it. “Well, you certainly didn’t ask!” she exclaimed.

Ethan is eagerly anticipating the end of the school year as well as his sixth birthday, which falls on June 11^th. He asks me daily for both counts. When I was helping in his class this morning, a little girl came up and told me, “I always tell Ethan that I want to marry him. He is a funny. He always sings ‘Jingle Bells, Batman smells’.” She even listed him as her best friend. Ethan was recently at a friend’s birthday party. He spied a picture of Noah and the arc and ran up to his mom excitedly and asked her, “Do you know Jesus?” “Yes, I do,” she replied. “I do to. And I know that guy,” he said, pointing to the picture of Noah. She said it was very tender. Ethan is definitely not a morning person. I want to pull my hair out between him and Brooke many mornings. He’s not really a night person either. Or afternoon. He seems to do okay at school. Either that or his teacher thinks I have enough to deal with. Chris has given our family a new mantra to toughen people up a bit. Whenever someone is hurt or isn’t happy about a situation, he tells them to “Belknap up”. The other day, Ethan was mad about something and locked himself in the bathroom. He opened the door just a crack and yelled out through his tears, “I’m going to Belknap down!”

Chris has been quite busy between work, doing projects around here, and helping friends out with various projects. His car bit the dust this week and we are now trying to find an 8-passenger minivan to replace his car and the van. Where are you, Grandpa?!

Well, there is much to get done and not much time to do it. Hope you all have a great June!

2010-05-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

Check out Tyler's latest video: http://www.youtube.com/user/ClintandTybalt

On Motherhood...

2010-05-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to give a talk in church yesterday about being a mother. I thought that I would post part of my comments in honor of Mother's Day.

Being a mother is fun. I don’t want to downplay that. I laugh daily at the things that my kids say and do. My family and the gospel are the two greatest blessings in my life. But there is a tremendous amount of responsibility that goes along with being a mother, especially raising children in the gospel.

Sometimes, it is hard to see your accomplishments. There are moments of great joy and incredible fulfillment, but there are also moments of a sense of inadequacy, monotony, and frustration. Mothers may feel they receive little or no appreciation for the choice they have made.

There are days, not many, but they do occur, when tears of frustration roll down my cheeks. But there are more days when I am overwhelmed by tears of joy, pride and the admiration that I feel for these precious spirits which God has entrusted to my care.

There were days after changing the 15^th dirty newborn diaper that I thought I couldn’t change another. And though I don’t miss changing those diapers, I do miss holding a newborn in my arms and staring into his eyes, knowing that he might have been staring into Heavenly eyes just days before.

There are days when I have felt like I couldn’t take another insult. But there have been more days when I feel the arms of my children around me, telling me how much I am loved.

There have been days when I have been so tired to the bone that I feel I can’t take another step. But with the help of the Lord, you find the strength.

Being a mother has brought me joy and sorrow, laughter and pain. It has intensified my human experience.

I have compiled a list of things that I have learned after 20 years of mothering. Here goes:

1. Write down your experiences. While preparing for this talk, I reflected on the lessons I have learned as a mother. Following my own mother’s example, I started writing monthly letters when Brett was young to document the adventures and misadventures of being a mother. I cannot tell you how precious these letters are to me. I love to go back and read about the cute and not-so-cute things the kids have said and done. Whenever I read them, I am brought back to those times in my life. I will be using some of these entries to illustrate some of the lessons that I have learned.

2. Take lots of pictures, especially when there’s trouble (messes, injuries, sad faces). These pictures also document history that might have disappeared. The human memory is selective; we tend to remember the extremely good or bad times in our lives. But what is also important to document are the every day occurrences.

3. Magic Erasers are awesome.

4. Magnets and televisions should never come in close proximity to each other.

5. It’s important to teach your kids about nutrition. I’ll read an entry from a letter when Savannah was in Kindergarten to demonstrate this point:

“Last week, Savannah’s class talked about nutrition and brought home a picture of the food pyramid. Savannah asked me if I liked fish to which I replied, “No, I don’t really like fish. But a lot of people do and it’s very good for you.” Savannah said to my surprise, “I LOVE fish!” (She has never had fish in her life!) “You do?” I asked, a little shocked. “Yes. Swedish fish are SO GOOD!”

6. When a two year old threatens that he will jump out of a car moving 50 miles an hour, take him seriously, even if he is strapped in a car seat.

7. A child’s stomach doesn’t need to be pumped if he has eaten 30 vitamins, unless they contain iron.

8. It’s important to teach your kids to be patriotic. When Tyler was in 1^st grade, we attended a cake auction for scouts. Everyone was given a ballot to vote for the best cake. Tyler, after receiving his ballot, exclaimed, “I know who I’m voting for! George W Bush!” I asked him if he knew you the current President was and he answered confidently, “Duh! That’s easy! President Hinckley!”

9. Offering a child even $100 won’t help them to potty-train.

10. Even though you vow that you never will, you will at some time resort to the expressions your parents used with you. I swore that I would never say, “Wait until your dad gets home!”, “Is your homework done?” or “Because I said so!”, all of which I have used on more many occasions. I have even adopted one of my dad’s expressions, “For crying out sideways!”

11. Bare feet should never encounter bike chains, needles, or tree house trap doors.

12. If you play football in Arizona, the cactus you don’t see behind you will always win. Brett learned this one the hard way.

13. Be specific when you give instructions. When Tyler was in 1^st grade, he, Savannah and Zachary were all outside with me planting flowers. Zachary, who was almost 2, kept going into the house and coming out with candy that I had stashed in my purse. I asked Tyler to hide it somewhere that Zachary wouldn’t find it. We continued to work outside for a while. The kids were working well and I decided to make some cookies to reward them. I got the cookies on the cookie sheet and went into the living room to feed Shane while the oven was warming up. Tyler came in and told me that the cookies were done. I ran to the kitchen to see smoke coming out of the oven. I opened the door to find…what else! My purse! I grabbed my purse with an oven mitt and ran outside, followed by Zach who had taken off his diaper and defecated all over the sidewalk. So I cleaned that up and went back inside to smell smoke, realizing that I had indeed burned the cookies this time.

In another instance, when Brooke was about 20 months old, she had a bagel in her hand the other day and I asked her, “Can I have a bite?” She obediently leaned over and bit my nose!

14. It is a landmark day when your child discovers that he can run faster than you can.

15. No 3 year old should eat 3 Frosties. Even though they taste good going down, they don’t taste nearly so good when coming back up.

16. Encourage your children to say what they mean. When Brett was 4, I wouldn’t let him watch a video because I thought it was too violent. “You’re the meanest mom I have!” he blurted out. “And the ugliest!”. Then he thought about it for a moment and amended, “Actually, the meanest. You’re not really ugly.”

In another instance, I was making brownies and I forgot to add the chocolate syrup pouch. “I’m so stupid sometimes!” I told said to Shane, who was helping me. He thought for a second and said, “You’re a little bit stupid, but you’re really nice!” he said sincerely as he gave me a hug.

17. Some things aren’t worth fighting about.

18. Even if your 7 year old forgot to add the eggs when she made cookies, you eat them and they taste great!

19. When it comes to motherhood, patience is not just a virtue, it’s a necessity. When Shane was a toddler, he didn’t just toddle around. He was a tornado of destruction. Here is one example from when he was 2: Shane is a terrorist. He instills terror in us all and makes no apologies for it. I recently put him back in diapers after thinking he was potty-trained because he would tell me that he had to pee and pull his pants down, look at me and smile, and pee on the floor. After the twelfth time one day, I finally grabbed a diaper and told him that he wasn’t allowed to go potty on the toilet anymore (reverse psychology). Of course, he started cheering! He is a master at mind games and so I won’t try that again. In one day last week, he pulled a curtain rod out of the wall as he was swinging from it, pulled a coat rod out of the wall, put a brush in the toilet, rubbed his hands all over the inside of the toilet, and came to me with a hand full of poop. I later found him under the computer table, totally naked with a sucker in his mouth, sleeping. He’s lucky he’s so cute.

20. Sometimes, although it defies physics, a two year old can be stronger than you are. Many of you mothers can attest to this fact.

21. Expect the unexpected. Brooke and I were at Wal-Mart when she was about 20 months old. We were using this fancy cart shaped like a car on the front. Brooke kept getting out while I was pushing it, so I decided to put the seatbelt on. It took me 10 minutes to get that little screaming, scratching girl into her seatbelt, and everyone in the store knew that she was not happy about it. After a minute, her shoes came flying out of the cart (I was expecting that). After another minute, her pants came flying out (I wasn’t expecting that)! That little girl had somehow taken them off even with her seatbelt as tight as I could get it.

22. It’s not a good idea to kiss a light bulb when it’s on.

23. It’s a lot easier to stand at the trunk of a 30 foot pine tree and look up than to stand in the top of it and look down.

24. There is no such thing as “family secrets”. Once, when Zachary was in 2^nd grade, he was asked to write a paper on honesty. Well, it became like a Hollywood tell-all, where Zachary went through each person in the family and told about an instance of when they weren’t honest.

25. If you do something wrong once, your kids will never forget it.

26. Chaos shouldn’t make you nervous. Silence should.

27. Always close the bathroom door if you have an 18 month old in the house.

28. Superglue is worth its weight in gold. It has saved many broken vases, toys, and trips to the emergency room. Chris and I decided leave Brett and Tyler in charge and go out to dinner with Zachary. We had never left the kids to watch each other unattended before. We had just barely sat down when Brett called Chris on the phone and exclaimed, “Shane split his head open! There's blood everywhere! I’m calling 911!” After calming Brett down a bit, we jumped into the car. I could hear poor Shane in the background asking if he was going to die! We got home to find that he had indeed split the back of his head open, which I’m sure should have required several stitches, but superglue did the job.

29. Microfiber is an incredible material. You can write on it with pen, marker, pencil, crayon, and gluesticks, and it will all come out. Ethan tested all these things within the first month we had a new microfiber sectional.

30. Every girl will cut their hair at least once, or 6 times in the case of Brooke.

31. Baindaids are sometimes needed, even if there is no blood.

32. It’s important to re and re-read the scriptures to your children. When Brett was 3, he loved me to read him Bible stories. One day we were reading the story about the boy king, Joash, and we talked about the wicked queen and how she was taken away to jail. Brett asked me, “Why did they take her to jail? Why didn’t they just throw water on her so she would say ‘I’m melting! I’m melting!”

33. Don’t limit yourself.

34. Teach your kids to work. One Sunday afternoon, we had gone to my sister’s house for dinner. Zach was four years old. When we got into the car, he said to me, “Mom, Jana’s bedroom was a mess! It that because she doesn’t have kids?” Apparently, he was feeling a little overworked!

35. Seven people can sleep on a twin-sized bed.

36. A pet fish can explode if you over-feed it.

37. Just when you think you can’t be any more embarrassed, your children will prove you wrong. On one particular visit to the doctor, Bryan, who was 10, Brett, who was 3, and Tyler, who had just turned 1, were all being particularly bad. They were running around like banshees. Mind you, this wasn’t a pediatrician’s office. I had earned the stares of several older people who were looking at me disapprovingly. I finally caught Brett, who was under a chair, and grabbed him by the wrists. “Brett, you are going so sit down and be good!” I threatened. Brett looked at me square in the eyes and said, “Mom, you drink too much!” There was no recovery.

Another incident to show this point occurred recently, and Bishop Laker can attest to this fact. Shane, being the kid that he is, bought a keychain that had five different buttons which, when pressed, simulated various tones of flatulence. Unbeknownst to me, Shane had this in his pocket one Sunday at church. During Sacrament meeting, Shane inadvertently pressed one of the buttons on his keychain. My first reaction was to grab him and take him out of the chapel, but all that people sitting beside us probably noticed was the noise and then me leaving as I blushed. So if for no other reason, I appreciate the opportunity to speak here and clear the record.

38. Peanut butter is amazing. It gets gum out of hair and stickers off plastic. It can even remove the residue of a bumper sticker from your car.

39. It’s important to say “I love you” in both words and actions. Zachary taught me this. Almost the first thing he learned to say was, “I ludge you”. He would often just come up to me and hug my legs as I was walking around and tell me this many times a day. He is always the first to come to my aid when I am getting overwhelmed. Always show your children love, even when you must discipline. Because after all is said and done, the greatest lesson you can teach a child is that they are loved and how to love others.

40. Children are closer to the veil than adults are. When Savannah was just a month old, Brett was 4 and not the gentlest child. I had put Savannah on my bed and ran to change the laundry when I saw Brett slip into the bedroom. I crept back, spying to make sure that he would be gentle with her. He climbed onto the bed and got up right next to Savannah so that he was looking at her in the eyes. “Savannah, what does God look like?” he whispered.

41. I thought that I knew fear. I loved to go to Cedar Point and ride the newest and scariest of the roller coaster, although admittedly, they have gotten much scarier in the last decade. Now, I realize that riding those roller coasters took no courage. They were thrilling and safe. There is no fear like looking turning around to see your child toppling out of a shopping cart onto a tile floor, noticing that you are missing a child at Walmart, or realizing that a new teenaged driver is half an hour late in getting home.

42. Before I was a mother, I thought I knew about God’s love for me. I knew, in theory, of His love for me. I knew what it felt like to be a recipient of His love. I had felt His arms around me at critical times in my life. But until I was a mother, I had no idea what it felt like to be on the other end, to be the one giving those hugs and the deep feelings that came with them, the longing to instill in a child all of my knowledge and understanding and adoration and knowing that some of that would be lost in translation.

I had a great example in my own mother. She and my father raised 13 children, but more that that, she has helped countless others. She is one of the most selfless and humble people I know. And she is one of my closest friends. Like Abraham Lincoln, much of who I am today I owe to my angel mother.

Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Pictures!!

2010-04-28T14:08:00.001-07:00

March/April update

2010-04-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been a little while since I updated my blog. I had intended to update before spring break, but time got the better of me so I will try to record the last two months.

During the first week of April, school was let out for a week for the Easter break. I was insistent upon going to Utah for several reasons, the first being that we will be arriving the same day that my parents return from their 18 month mission in India for the church. Second of all, since Brett will be going out to school there in June, we wanted to visit the BYU campus. And third, I love my family and take any opportunity to spend time with them possible. But Chris was unable to take the week off and refused to spend the gas money the van would have required. He also wanted to go visit his brother in Washington DC for the Easter weekend. So after careful negotiations, it was decided that I would take Brett, Tyler and Brooke to Utah with me and Chris would take the other 4 kids with him to Washington with him.

Brett and I drove the 1700 mile stretch straight through in what was to be record time until we got to Laramie, Wyoming where there had been a snowstorm the previous day and the blowing wind made blizzard-like conditions. The highway was closed down and we were diverted off, where we were delayed for 7 hours, putting us in Utah Friday evening just as my parents arrived at the airport. It was so good to see them and hear about their life-altering experiences. They are awesome people and great examples to me and my family. It was also great to visit with Teresa, Kristen and Ann and their families. They all serve as examples to me and are good friends.

Brett is suffering from “Peter Pan” syndrome, not wanting to grow up and leave the nest. He is not excited about going away to BYU and leaving his friends and family, especially since he will be starting in June and missing out on graduation parties and summer. He will be staying with my parents in “the dome home” for summer term and then will be in the dorms for fall and winter terms. He spends most of his time working out, tanning, hanging out with friends and playing sports. School is an afterthought at this point. I realized a little too late that I brought the worst combination of siblings on the trip with me; Brett and Brooke fight more than any of the other kids do. The car ride there and home was a bit stressful at times. I still have to breathe deeply before I get into the car. Post traumatic stress!

Tyler is very diligent about doing his school work and earns excellent grades. The other morning it was about time for Brett and him to leave for seminary. I noticed that he was up at the counter, working on homework. “You didn’t finish your homework?” I asked surprised as he never needs reminders. “I finished it. I’m just working on things we’ll learn later,” he replied. He finished driver’s education but refuses to drive as the 2 cars I have at my disposal are the big extended van and a stick shift. Tyler is very creative. He really has an eye for all things artistic and is a dedicated student. In fact, Savannah was sitting be me when I was checking grades on line and she saw me pull up Tyler’s grades. She said very casually, “Don’t even compare me to Tyler. I’m not that perfect.”

Savannah had an eventful spring break. She was able to go to Washington DC and visit with her cousin Sabrina. She was also invited to go to a water park in Ohio for 3 days with a friend. She has been playing soccer on a team and enjoys that, despite the fact that she incurs a new injury about as often as she plays. She decided to play a practical joke on her coach at practice last night, mocking pain and saying that she broke her pinkie finger. Anyone that knows Savannah knows that she has the crooked Belknap pinkie. Except her coach, that is. After revealing that it was not an injury, she and her coach decided that it could prove to be a good diversion during a game! She often finds it hard to get her jobs done and has consequently spent most of her time at home. She loves her electronics (Ipod, computer, TV). She recently visited another church with me as part of my job at church. We walked into the building and were introduced to a girl her age. They hit it off like peanut butter and jelly, chatting and laughing the whole class period. It was rather cute!

After complaints from Zachary and relentless squinting, I recently took Zach to have his vision tested. I was shocked to find out that his vision is 20/400. We picked out glasses for him, although he doesn’t wear them much and insists that he needs contact lenses. When discovering how profound his lack of visual acuity was, I told him, “Zach, this will be a whole new world when you get glasses. You might go to school and look at a girl that you thought was really cute and think ‘Not so much’!” Shane piped in and said, “Yeah, and you might look at mom and see all of her wrinkles!” Leave it to your children to see the best in you! Zach has struggled in remembering to do all of his homework and has been limited to getting together with friends only on the weekends. His teachers say that he is very smart but needs to work on being more diligent.

Shane had the biggest misadventure during spring break. Chris called me the day I arrived in Utah to tell me that he had let Zach, Shane, Ethan and Matthew (a cousin) walk to a park about 20 minutes away. While at the park, Shane had fallen on the equipment and cracked his head, leaving a cut about 2 inches long. Zach herded up the kids and they started walking toward home, Shane bleeding profusely and asking if his brain was exposed. A Good Samaritan stopped and gave them an ice pack and let them call home, but there was some miscommunication and the kids ended up walking the whole way. By the time they arrived, Shane had almost passed out and required 3 staples in his head. I almost got into my car and drove the 34 hours to DC, I felt so sick about it. Shane seems to be doing well and will certainly have a story to tell to his kids. He is such a funny kid. His teacher told me a story about his humor that I’ll share. Shane can be quite active and talkative. Toward the end of one particularly chatty school day, his teacher’d had enough of him. “Shane, put a sock in it!” she told him finally. She was up at her desk working when she got a whiff of something. She looked up to see Shane, who had taken off his sock and had it stuffed in his mouth, tears streaming down his face because the odor of his stinky socks was so severe. He is now known as “Sock Mouth” at school. He has been doing extra work because he wants to get a Guitar Hero game for a Nintendo DS that was given to him by a friend and fixed by our technical guru, David Walker.

Brooke recently participated in a talent show at school. She and 3 of her friends did a dance routine to “Party in the USA” that they choreographed themselves. Talk about drama. Brooke and one friend are both strong willed bordering on bossy. Trying to get them to agree on dance moves was like a filibuster in Congress, except it involved tears. The end result was good though, and I think she really enjoyed it. She has been some better about fits, throwing them less frequently but with the same intensity. She has taken to calling Savannah “Shishy” for some reason and has Ethan doing likewise.

Ethan seems to be finally acclimating to daily school life. He has not complained nearly as much about school and usually his first comments as he steps off the bus are how well he did. He gets a little too social at times but seems to have friends and to keep up academically. He developed a completely fake and insincere laugh for a while, but that seems to have abated, thankfully. Savannah gets fixated on a cereal and will only eat that cereal for months. She recently switched from Lucky Charms to Captain Crunch with no berries. Ethan walked into the kitchen and gasped. “You broke up with Lucky Charms?” he asked her incredulously. The day before we left on vacation, he woke up with an abscessed tooth. I had a surplus of tasks to do but decided that he needed to get to the dentist before our separate trips, so I took him in. It was determined that he needed the tooth pulled. After a traumatic scooter accident last summer entailing stitches and a pulled tooth, he is extremely afraid of the dentist. The dentist and I spent over an hour trying to get this rotten tooth out to no avail. He was given an antibiotic and is no longer in pain, but I’m sure that won’t last.

As for Chris and I, things are pretty much maintenance. Chris works hard and plays basketball and feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day. I have been quite sick for the past couple of weeks, which really irritates me. I am doing better today than yesterday, so at least I’m moving in the right direction. Hope you all are healthy and happy!

2010-04-19T18:04:00.001-07:00

The Dawning of a New Era

2010-03-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well, we are quickly approaching an event that I have both looked forward to and dreaded, a new era in our lives: College. Brett has been accepted to BYU Provo and will be attending the Summer/Fall terms. This means he will have to be out in Utah before the other kids even finish school. It’s exciting and scary, but I’m sure it will be a good experience for him. Hopefully he will learn to be a bit more responsible about pacing himself with his homework, as he currently likes to procrastinate until the last minute. At least he impresses himself. He told me after throwing together a project last minute, “Mom, I can work magic with words.” He has been working out daily. As much as I like his commitment, it is embarrassing to me when he shows up to work out after school when he has missed the rest of the school day. He was named “biggest flirt” by his classmates for mock elections. He celebrated his 18^th birthday a couple of weeks ago without much celebration. I think he is in denial that he is now an adult. His young men leader at church raves about him and says that he would be proud to have a kid like him as his son. He is a good kid but can get under your skin sometimes. He decided to get him a cell phone several months ago and I have been frustrated with his show of physical violence when he doesn’t get reception (he tends to throw it to the ground). I was due to pay his bill one day and after he had one of these aggressive displays, I decided to forego paying it until I was assured the abuse would cease. After several days without phone service, he came to me and asked quite humbly if he could get the phone turned on again, promising that he would treat it appropriately. I decided to pay it while he was in the shower and then grabbed his phone to make sure that it was working. On the screen in capital letters was the word “ABSTINENCE”. Even though he can bug me, I’m glad he is making good decisions in so many facets of his life.
Tyler is now enrolled in driver’s education. In a couple short weeks, he will have a permit which will be helpful as I am planning on driving out to Utah in April with 3 of the kids. He is very conscientious about doing homework and maintains a 3.9 GPA. He is into “American Idol” this season, mostly because he has picked a favorite candidate that he predicts will either win or come in second. Of course, his candidate is a Korean guy because Tyler thinks that he is Korean. He has a understated sense of humor that you have to pay attention to or you’ll miss his jokes. He enjoys making his videos and often captures Ethan or Shane for hours to fill the acting roles in them. He loves “Owl City” (a music group) and I have banned it from the car as every time we would drive anywhere, Owl City was with us. There are only so many times I can sing about fireflies! He and his friend have taken advantage of the snow that still lingers in abundance and have set up several jumps in his friend’s yard for snowboarding. He has been invited to go to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a week in June and he already has a countdown calendar posted for that.

Savannah has either been bitten by a sleepy bug or pricked her finger on a spindle or something. She comes home from school every day and sleeps for several hours. Then she gets on Facebook for a while, eats dinner, does homework, and then sleeps again. She has grown some, so hopefully it’s just a phase. She is taking a drama course in school which she seems to be enjoying and doing well at. She enjoys watching “American Idol” and “Lost”. She is trying to earn money for several things and has a 5-day dog-sitting job coming up. She is also trying to recruit some babysitting work. She really enjoys little kids and is quite responsible and has often babysat for free. Actually, she begs me to babysit other kids and has even talked me into letting her miss a little school to do so. I had a job taking pictures for a preschool and had her come along to help with the kids. They loved her and she had 3 personal invitations to go to students’ houses afterward. She, as well as most of my other older kids, refuses to wear a coat to school and I’m afraid of Protective Services showing up at my door as she has gone to school with capri’s and flip flops in 6 inches of snow.

Zachary has been really enjoying his social life and often walks home, bringing several friends with him. He recently sold his Haro bike that I had bought at Salvation Army and had Chris fix up. He has the idea that he is going to buy a pocket bike (mini motorcycle) and I often find web pages open to his prospective purchases. He needs glasses and I have had a teacher email me with her concerns about his vision, so we will probably try to do that this week, although I can’t imagine Zach with them. He is a cooperative and helpful kid and gets stuck doing the majority of the jobs that he and Savannah share custody of because he doesn’t like to get in trouble. Zach found himself in quite a quandary last month when a bully from school started calling his best friend racial slurs. Zach was about half the size of the bully but got in the middle of the fight that ensued, trying to break it up. In the process, he got hit several times but was able to stop the scuffle. He told me that he wasn’t to punch the kid in the face, but knew that he shouldn’t.

Shane is a generally pleasant, easy-going boy and a joy to have around. That is until it comes to reading. Then he is as slithery as a snake. Suddenly, he disappears and can’t be found unless I do a room to room search of all the electrical devices in the house. Sometimes, playing with his friend, Mitchell, is enough of an incentive to get him to at least pretend to read. On a snow day this week, the incentive wasn’t enough to entice him. “Either I have to read for one hour to play with Mitchell, or I have to stay here?” he asked me. I confirmed that this was indeed the case. “Mitchell, I can’t play today,” he said over the phone and then hung up. Mitchell is autistic and does take no for an answer very well. The phone rang again 30 seconds later. Shane came over to me after answering the phone and said, “That wasn’t fair. He tempted me with fresh baked cookies!” As hard as it is to get him to read, he is the child that most readily does his jobs.

Brooke has been enjoying school, friends. She has been invited to parties galore, which can serve as good incentives for improved behavior, which usually lasts until right after the party. She is my one child that asks incessantly, “What can I do? I’m so bored!” She never likes the answers that I give her which usually include reading, homework, jobs, or cleaning. Last week we had a snow day and she was on the verge of a fit due to her boredom so I got out some scrapbook paper scraps and showed her how to make cards with them. She and Ethan spent a couple of hours doing that and really enjoyed it. She is serving on the student council and I asked her how she was enjoying it. I asked her if she wanted to run again next year and she told me, “Well, yeah. But I can only be on student council for 2 years. I’d rather wait until I’m in 4^th or 5^th grade, because then I can be president!” Such high ambitions! But I’m sure she could do it. She likes to sit at the piano and pick out songs, such as “Star Wars” or the theme from “Rocky”. She often takes on the role of the martyr telling me, “Nobody cares about me!” when she doesn’t get her way.
Ethan is taking the news of Brett’s departure worse than anyone. He apparently had the idea that the day Brett turned 18, he had to move out and get married. When I told Ethan the night before Brett’s birthday that he would be turning 18 the next day, he got really sad and said, “Wake me up in the morning before he leaves. I want to say goodbye!” Ethan has been invited to a couple of birthday parties lately which has been a big deal to him. He keeps asking to have a playdate with a friend and I have told him that he can as soon as he goes five days in a row without a fit. He has been trying for the last 3 weeks and has gotten to a day and a half. He likes to fiddle around on the piano and has learned to play a couple of simple duets with me, which he insists on playing every time I go to the piano. We recently had a fire drill in our home and poor Ethan was so freaked out he was shivering. He is still my cuddle bug and often climbs into bed with me on Saturday mornings. He did so last Saturday until I finally told him that I needed to get up. “Just one more big hug, please?” was his request. And then he added, “I love my mama!”

Goodbye, January!

2010-01-29T09:48:00.000-08:00

January has been a more laid back month, as the sports activities are in a short hibernation of sorts. It’s nice not to have some place to have to be to every night of the week. I could get used to that!

This week is midterms for the older kids and I’m crossing my fingers that they will do alright. The two weeks before midterms, I was always studying like my life depended on it, and worrying so much that I’d break out. Well, I’m still breaking out, but they don’t seem to lose any sleep over these tests. They wake up looking all rested like it was just another day. Then again, I also had to walk to school in the snow barefoot 8 miles uphill each way.

Brett is claiming all the benefits of being an almost 18 year old without taking much of the responsibility. He is a good kid with good friends, but he has all but given up on school, doing what he has to to get by. Not that his grades have dropped that much, but he doesn’t put much effort into school. We’re still debating what he will do for college next year. He is playing on the basketball team for church and slaughtered the opposing team in game one. Brett’s friends accuse him of having narcolepsy as he is prone to falling asleep in class, at friends’ houses, wherever. I am feeling good about getting him a laptop as when he is home, much of the negative attention he doles out to his siblings is diverted to his new electronic device.

After several technical glitches, Tyler has been enjoying his new HD video camera and has put together several more videos, including a promo for the stake youth conference in June that I can show to the different youth groups as we travel amongst the wards during ward conferences. It’s fun to see him express himself on camera, as he is quite uncommunicative otherwise. He has gotten so tall I almost don’t recognize him some days. He is very diligent about homework and grades and his report cards reflect that. He will be starting driver’s ed in a week and it will be helpful to have another driver around.

We recently repainted and redecorated Savannah's bedroom in an effort to make it more appealing for her to sleep in. She has slept in it a total of about 5 times since the remodel before Christmas. She and her best friends spend much time together, those “friends” being her Ipod and Facebook. Oh yeah, and Elizabeth too. She has also taken more interest in me finishing my book than anyone else in the family and has been helping me brainstorm on ideas and songs. It might have to do with the fact that I told her that if I made some money from the book, I’d think about getting her a phone, but I’d like to her motives are more altruistic.

One thing I have learned about Zachary is that money burns a hole in his pocket. He had some cash that he had been saving since his birthday in August, but much of his time was spent debating what he should buy with it. For a while he was fixated on getting a pocketbike. Then it was an Ipod, which he decided to purchase from Tyler. Then a button on the Ipod wasn’t working, which was the cause of many tears and anxious moments for Zach. Then, he got a little money for Christmas. So he has been obsessed with finding the perfect skateboard. He recently deemed one “The One” and so he purchased that, checking the tracking number every hour until its arrival this week. It didn’t come with grip tape or wheels, so Zach is now tracking that obsessively and has the board in the living room, trying tricks on the carpet without the wheels.

Shane is such a funny kid. I know I start his paragraph every month the same way, but he is definitely the comedic relief in the family. Watch the following video and maybe you will see what I’m talking about. In case you can't tell, he is the one in the front row with the black jacket on. Be patient. It takes a few minutes to buffer.

Shane was doing so well with his daily reading for a while, really engrossed in the Harry Potter series. That has ended. Now, he usually avoids reading at all costs, resulting in him having things like the TV, computer, Wii, and playdates taken away. When he really gets motivated to get his reading done, he sits with a book in front of his face, glancing up at the clock every 30 seconds and asking if his time is done. But he looks so cute doing it. Every morning, he is forced to deal with Ethan and Brooke’s fits. Normally, they take turns throwing these fits, but sometimes they both decide it is their day. I’m not sure if they stay up late calendaring these, but they are definitely like clockwork. Anyway, on those shared days, Shane really tries to step up and help. One day after trying to wake up Ethan several times, I found Shane dragging him by his feet on his back down the hallway and then down the stairs.

Brooke. She can be such a joy. She can also be not so joyful. She is very bright and quite conscientious with getting her schoolwork done. She is very sweet and gives me more unsolicited kisses a day than all other kids combined. And for Christmas, she gave me a keychain which awarded me the “World’s Greatest Mom” title. She has been invited to 3 birthday parties in the last week, so she has plenty of friends. But the level of acetaminophen in my blood has probably doubled as her sometimes daily fits just knock me out. They are physically draining. It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have Valium in the house. She is currently trying to work off yesterday’s fit with extra jobs to be able to attend her parties. She reminded me this morning as she was negotiating how much extra work she had to do that she gave me the “World Greatest Mom” keychain, not that she was being manipulative or anything.

Ethan, Ethus, or his most commonly used nickname, Efit. He is adored by his siblings, despite his grumpy nature. He is making more friends at school, which is good and bad. It’s good because he doesn’t complain as much about school and has even said that he kind of likes school and kind of doesn’t like it. But he has also gotten in trouble in his classroom for being loud and chatty. Brett was trying to convince him to play football and told him that he would give him $10 if he plays. Well, Ethan came home from school the next day and told me, “Mom, Brett has to give me $10. I played football at school today.” I told him that I thought that Brett meant he had to play on a team. “Mom, I played really hard. I tackled this big kid, a six year old,” he explained. “Ethan, I hope you didn’t get in trouble. I don’t think you’re supposed to tackle in school,” I said. “Naw, I didn’t get in trouble. She didn’t cry,” he assured me. That gave me a good chuckle!

The Belknap Tribune

2009-12-17T05:32:00.001-08:00

Editorial Disclaimer:

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and forum participants in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the parents or official policies of the Belknap Tribune. Any exaggerations, inaccuracies, sassiness or plain cockiness are the sole responsibility of each individual contributor.

(Yes, I did put this in last year, but after reading my kid’s articles, I decided I needed it again!)
Hello dear friends and family! One of my favorite things about the holiday season is getting cards and letters from all of you and getting caught up in what is going on in each of your lives and sharing with you where life’s road has taken us. Its like a yearly reunion of sorts and we look forward to hearing from all of you.

This has been a landmark year in several ways. My oldest “baby” is graduating from high school this year as my youngest started Kindergarten. I have started to tackle some of the items on my 18-year “to-do” list, but I don’t seem to get as much accomplished as I or my family feels I should. I often hear, “What do you do all day?” But between running errands, babysitting, taking pictures, reading, writing a book, writing music, volunteering at school, crafts, home improvement projects, and my church calling organizing monthly events for 12-18 year old in 11 churches, I seem to keep pretty busy. I’m not sure where all the time goes! I do enjoy my life and feel blessed each and every day.

Chris continues to work hard (thankfully!). He continues to serve as the Secretary of the Men’s Organization at church. His favorite activities include playing basketball and football. Unfortunately, watching Michigan football has moved down the list in the last several years!

This was a year of visitors in the Belknap household. We were happy to host many family events, including a sisters’ reunion which all 8 girls in my family were able to attend, thanks to the support of their families. We also had visits from The Belknaps and McKees, which mandated a trip to Cedar Point. We also hosted the Enderles (was it really 3 times, Jess??). We are also blessed to have The Browns and the Petersons around for dinners, parties, games, and fun in general. We don’t know what we would do without you guys!

We also experienced a great loss this year when my brother David passed away after his 4th heart attack at the young age of 40. He is truly missed and there is a hole in our family. But it was a heart-warming to see the 12 surviving siblings gather to support each other and to honor his life.

My parents continue to serve a humanitarian mission in an orphanage in India but will be returning in April after hitting their 18-month mark. We anxious to have them home but are also grateful for the example that they provide to us and our children of service for others.

We are awed by the kindness and example of all of you and are grateful that you are a part of our lives. We hope that this Christmas season will be one of happiness and joy and that you may all feel the love of our Savior, no matter what trials you face.

Merry Christmas and may God bless you!

So Good Lookin!

Hi. Brett on the microphone. 17. Senior. Schools going good. I just got done with my last season of high school football. It was a rather bitter end to hailed career of one such as my own. We lost our last game against Milford so, unfortunately, we didn’t make the playoffs. Luckily, this is only the beginning of the next chapter in my book of life. Next is college…

I been applying to several schools around Michigan and also to a few out of state, including BYU. Just this Saturday I had to take the ACT which in no way is indicative or your knowledge or is an accurate portrayal of your achievability in school but nevertheless, is necessary to apply to these facilities.

Everyday after school, I devote an hour and a half to further shape my sculpted body. I’ve actually been quite impressed with myself because I’m used to excelling purely based on natural talent, but I have been enjoying myself in the weight room as of late. I guess you could say that this is a significant step because I was so opposed to working out in previous months. Now I look forward for the bell to ring so that I can step in and get me some weights to do my thang.

A few months ago we had Homecoming, which is one of my favorite weeks of the year because we spend so much time during “spirit week” that we have little time for actual school. To make it even better, I was elected to Homecoming Court, which meant that I frequently was able to get excused from class to take pictures, work on our skit, or practice walking onto the field. The benefits of being a G.

*New Release of the single by Brett Belknap and Jake Brown coming soon... In stores and in your hearts.

Overall, its been a good year and I hope that everyone feels the same way about their own. My best wishes to all, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.

Brett Belknap 22
MINNESOTA IS WHERE I LIVE! EASTVIEW IS WHERE I GO!

Hi. My name is Tyler. I turned 15 years old on September 2nd. Just about a week before I started my sophomore year of High School. The best thing I did this summer was when I went to Minnesota to chill with my cousin Austin. We’re tight. You see, me and Austin goes together like peas and carrots. Now, we did a lot when I was in Minnesota. The first day I went, we just chilled, rode our bikes to target 7 times and ate rice. We got a scary movie everyday from Blockbuster and watched one each night. The next day, we went to the Mall of America and bought a couple of things. Later, we got a bunch of people together to play a little game of soccer. We were playing with a kid named Michael Xu. You see, Michael’s a nice kid and all but he’ll get a little annoying at times. We were playing and me and Austin were kickin’ butt. We probably beat them 10-0. Michael disagreed and screamed, “no! no! You play to 11 now! Fair enough?” That happened pretty much every game we played. Oh yea, and then after that, we ate rice. We also went to the Water park of America and brought along Austin’s friend Blake. He looked exactly like Justin Beiber so I called him J.B. While we were there, we bought a pizza. We found a table to eat but there were only 2 chairs and 3 of us. So, J.B. takes this towel off a chair right next to our table and places it on a bench right next to were the chair was. Later on , J.B. found out that was a no no. We were just about finished with our pizza when this hairy-chested, tattooed-infested, 40 year old, bald guy walks up to us and yells, “did you take that chair that was sitting right here!” Before getting the chance to answer him he grabs it from J.B. and starts yelling some words I don’t think I could write on here. He then says, “If I were you, I wouldn't touch that,” and walks away. I don’t know about you, but that sounded like a threat to me. What is he going to do? Beat up three 15 year olds right in the middle of a water park? We went there all day, went back home, watched a movie, and ate some rice. The day after, we went to Valley Fair. It’s pretty much a mini Cedar Point. It was me, Austin, J.B. and Austin’s little brother Josh. The only difference between me and Austin have is that he has height issues. I wanted to go on the Power Tower with Austin really bad but he just smiled and looked up at it and said, “No way!” After showing off that Josh wasn't even scared to go on it, he finally went on it. It was a long, fun, but tiring day. To finish the day off, we went home and ate some rice. On Sunday, we got to go to his church. I felt kind of weird because I was the only white kid. And to make it even better, this kid yells when he walked past me, “Hey look, a white kid!” Austin says he was about to mess that kid up. I know that I am a true Asian on the inside. There was also an annual neighborhood cooking thingy. They had pretty good food there. But we needed some pop for our movie that night, so we snuck out about 15 pops here and there and was stocked up for the night. Then a terrible thing happened! It was time for me to go! It was horrible! But before I left, we ate some rice. Then I got home just in time for soccer tryouts. Good season. 10-4-2, I think. OK. Bye!
While Visions of Cell Phones Danced In Her Head

Hey, what’s up? Its Savannah! I’m in 8th grade. I can’t wait till Christmas! Do ya want to know why? Well, I’ll tell you why. Because we get presents and I get to see my cousins Sabrina and Matt. Also I get to see some of my aunts and uncles! There is only 4 more school days until Christmas break starts.

For Christmas I would like a pet and a cell phone, but my mom is all like “no, that is not going to happen.” And so now I am mad! I really, really want a hamster!!!

This year I went to Washington DC 3 times. I went 2 times this summer because well the first time was that Sabrina and her family came here and I went back with them and stayed there like a week. It was so fun. I had a great time there.

This year we have had a lot of visitors come. First because of the girls weekend, and second because of my uncle, David's, death which was very, very sad. He was the greatest uncle anyone could ask for. He was sooo awesome!

Also I went to Cedar Point this year with my cousins, aunts and uncles. It was very fun. But we all went on the Max Air and all got dizzy and had to chill out and sit down for 30 minutes. But my most favorite ride there would probably be the Wicked Twister.

As you guys probably already know I am playing indoor soccer. We are actually not doing so bad after all. I am on a different team though. So last Saturday when we were going to my soccer game it was me, my dad, Tyler, Ethan, and Elizabeth and all of a sudden we heard a big noise. So we pulled over and my dad looked at it and we got a flat tire.

Also this year I went to girls camp. It was my second year and at least it was better than last year. Well, on the second day I went tubing and flew off. That night my shoulder and arm started to hurt a lot. And the next day it was turning purple and swollen. When I got back home it was a strained nerve in the back shoulder.

Well that’s all for this year. Bye!

Zach Makes It to the Top

Hey, this is Zach. I’m in 6th grade. I started middle school this year. Last year at the end of 5th grade, I went to 5th grade camp. It was really fun. We were there for three days. We got to go on the zip line and climb the rock climbing wall. I was the only one that made it up to the top. And we did archery, we canoed, we learned about compasses and we had a dance.

This year in middle school I’ve made a lot of more friends. This year in football we had a 0-9 season, but I made a 78 yard TOUCHDOWN!

On Thanksgiving, Jana, Jimmy, Justin, Jan, and Grandma came over, it was really fun. This year for Christmas, Matthew, Sabrina, Aunt Julie, and uncle Steve are coming here, Maybe even Jeff and Kelly.

I have also decided to buy Tyler's ipod from him because when Savannah and I were sharing it, she always had it so I decided to buy Tyler's ipod. We have been playing the Wii a lot lately. My best friend, Justin, is moving in two weeks I’m really sad about that. I have gone to Cedar Point 3 times this summer. It has been a blast. One time I was on the Mine Ride and mine and Eric’s seatbelt came off in the middle of the ride so we only had a bar holding us in we had to hold on very tightly on to the bar.

I enjoy to skateboard with Shane and Ethan and the last time Matthew came over we were skateboarding a lot and he gave me a skateboard. I went to Washington DC 1 time this year, we did a lot of different stuff. This year instead of baseball I’m going to try indoor soccer. It will be fun! I cant wait for Christmas this year so many people are going to be coming to are house this year, and to open all of our presents. Well I gotta go! Bye.

Random Thoughts of a Nine Year Old

Hi. This is Shane. I have a YouTube account named “The Amazing Shane”. My favorite song is “New Divide” by Linkin Park. I am going to Mackinaw in April with my class for a fieldtrip. I was born on June 2nd. I like Cartoon Network. I like to skateboard.

We were watching E.T. in school and we were seeing who would cry. If you cry, you’re not a rat, you’re a baby. So I gave tissues to the girls. My friend, Jenny, told me to give one to the teacher. So I did. She really needed it!

For Christmas, I really want a DS but my mom won’t get me one. I like to play with Lego's. I like pizza. Pickles are bad and cucumbers are good. Wii is fun to play. I want a dog when I get older. I want an I-pod touch. Matthew and Sabrina are coming for Christmas. I like to read “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Harry Potter”. I like to skateboard and play boombot2. I like to have a snowball war!!!! And to sled. I like to play soccer. I like to draw things like creatures, dragons, and combining animals to make new species. I love Zap Zone. I went with my friend Devin for his birthday party. I like playing videogames. I don’t like girls stuff. It’s girlie. I like to play ping-pong and Wii baseball. I like junk food. Fruit roll ups are good. And Crush cups. I like A&W Root beer. I like going to Washington D.C and hanging out with my cousins. I went to the Smithsonian but none of the creatures came alive. I like Christmas a lot. I can’t wait for it. “Jingle Bells, Homework smells, the teacher laid an egg. The Homework mobile lost a wheel, and the kids got away, YAY!” Merry Christmas . Bye!!

Cheerleader Almost Cries

Hi. This is Brooke. I am 7 years old. I am in 2nd grade. I like to play with my friends so, so much. I went to Cedar Point this year. It was the best! I think the Millennium is the biggest ride there.

I love camping. I love going to the beach and getting tan. We went camping to Pentwater on the 4th of July, which happens to be my birthday. We saw fireworks on July 3rd. We were going to see fireworks on July 4th, but instead we had a lot of smores!

I was in cheerleading this year. I learned a lot of cheers. Savannah was in cheerleading before but she hated it. My team is called the “Broncos” you can see in the picture!

My uncle died this summer. His name was David. I had a dream he came to life :) But, he didn’t :( His favorite color was yellow and he had a dog named Kona. Dogs were his favorite animal. I was really sad that he died and I truly miss him and love him.

I LOVE FACEBOOK! I love talking to my cousins and playing a game called “Farkle”. I like another game called “Bejeweled” and “Happy Aquarium” and “Happy Pets”.

I love Damian and Alaina so much! They are the best kids I know. Alaina’s cute and Damian is funny. Well, Damian’s cute too and Aliana’s funny too.

10 more days until Christmas!! My cousins are coming over and on Christmas Eve, there will be 27 people in my house for the Christmas pageant! We practiced last night and I almost cried. I am Mary. On Christmas there’s going to be 19 people there! I’m going to go to the dollar store to get a lot of presents!!!

Movies are AWESOME!!! I want the movie “A Christmas carol.” My favorite movie is “The Village.” It’s a scary movie!!!!!!!

TTYL. Gotta go! Bye!!

Ethan Scarred For Life

Hi. This is Ethan. And I am 5 years old. I am in kindergarten. No! I do not like school. I have a lot of friends in my class. My best friend is all of my friends!!! I go to Lakewood with Shane and Brooke. I can’t wait till Christmas. I want Bakugans, LEGOS, a skate board and a tech deck and other stuff.

I went to Cedar Point with my cousins, aunts and uncles. It was soooo fun. My favorite ride was the Frog Hopper. I like to go on the Moonwalk. And the Junior Gemini. It goes up and down very fast. It was fun! I liked the Skyride too. I went to Washington DC this summer to visit my cousins. I like to go to my cousins’ house. I got to play with Matthew.

I love my Uncle David. I love my brother Christopher. I don’t want to be 18 because I don’t want to get married and I don’t want mom to move out.

I like to go to Alaina and Damien’s house. They are my friends. I like Tanner and Seth and Jessie. I like my momma.

I was on a scooter this summer at Seth’s house and I fell off. My tooth went through my lip and it was wiggly. I had to have 7 stitches. It hurt really bad. Now I have a scar and my tooth is gone.

I like to play outside at school. I like to go on the slide. I like to have fun at home. I play with my brothers and sisters. I like to go on the computer. I play boombot 2. I like to watch videos on YouTube, mostly Tyler’s because they are funny. Why did the chicken cross the road? Wait a minute, I have to ask Shane something. Oh yeah, to get eaten!

I am learning things at school like books and like when it’s time to draw something, we can’t draw stick people and about the calendar.

I want a red scream skateboard for Christmas. I got a cut on my eye because I got hit on the eye with a helmet. I gotta go!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

2009-12-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving! I wanted to post a few pictures and let you know about some of the November happenings in the Belknap household.

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration here. We enjoyed hosting dinner with contributions made by Chris’s mom, Myrna, and her boyfriend, Dick (or Al, or Parker, as there is great debate on what we are all calling him!), Chris’s aunt and cousin, Jan and Justin, and my sister and her husband, Jana and Jimmy, who were originally planning on going to Minneapolis for the holiday but had to cancel for several reasons, including BK’s unfortunate bout with the swine flu. We were glad that they could celebrate with us, because wherever Jana is, the party follows!

Unfortunately, I kept up my Thanksgiving tradition and got some kind of stomach bug on Thanksgiving. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), I didn’t get sick until after dinner, so I could enjoy most of the day. Of course, the next day being Black Friday, I had to buck up and take it like a man, getting up at 4 a.m. with Savannah and Tyler to fight the angry mobs, all in the name of a good deal. We did get much of what we aimed for, much to Chris’s chagrin. I try to convince him that getting everything at over half off is worth it, but he hates to see so much of his hard-earned cash leave all at once.

We were excited to get new carpet earlier this month. It is a darker color, which I am excited about. Maybe we won’t have to vacuum as much??

Chris had a cold and apparently popped a blood vessel one night in his sleep. Pretty, eh?!

Brett is frantically trying to get all of his college applications in before today’s deadline. He’s made it quite a habit of waiting until the last minute to get things done. Hopefully, they will be done! He has had some idle time as football is over and we are encouraging him to get a job, as looking at college applications has given us reason to look at college costs. He is torn about what to do for college as he is not convinced that he wants to leave all of his friends. He had his patriarchical blessing and it was really cool. He enjoys his Saturday football games and Wednesday night church basketball events as well.

Tyler is growing like a weed. I swear, some days I think that he has grown at least an inch in his sleep. He is a conscientious student, a soccer freak, and a Christmas junkie. In fact, the second week of November, Chris, Brett and I were gone for a couple of hours. He called a family huddle the second we walked out the door and psyched all the kids up about getting out 3 Christmas trees, ornaments, decorations, garland and lights, and had the house adorned in Christmas paraphernalia by the time we arrived home. He accompanied me to a wedding that I was hired to take pictures at and took some video with ambitions to put together a wedding video that the newlyweds may want to purchase.

Savannah is playing indoor soccer once a week on a house team (she doesn’t know any other girls on the team) and seems to be enjoying it, although their team often has to forfeit due to a lack of players. Other than that, she enjoys Facebook, friends, babysitting and her Ipod. She loves to babysit a couple of my friend’s grandkids and begs to do so. She is really good with them and they love her. She insists that she wants a pet for Christmas. I have told her repeatedly to be prepared to be disappointed.

Zachary has been fixated on pocket bikes (mini motorcycles) and Ipods. After looking for a pocket bike for months with a limited budget and the requirement that it not go fast enough that I felt he would be killed, I think he has finally given up the dream to own a pocket bike. But then his attention was drawn to buying his own Ipod, as the one that he and Savannah share custody of seems to have only every-other-weekend status with Zach.

Shane is such a funny kid. He told me the other day that he could make a paper airplane with his feet. I kind of blew him off until he actually showed me. It is amazing! Judge for yourself!

He has been reading the Harry Potter books, which is a huge accomplishment. He often reads for a couple hours each day. I was a little perturbed the other day after seeing his room and said to him when I picked him up from school, “Your room is a mess!” He looked at me exasperatedly and said, “Mom, that’s a boy’s life!” His teachers at school rave about his improved behavior. He does continue to love to watch TV and we have to monitor that.

Brooke seems to be enjoying school. She was in the bathroom when I was blow drying my hair the other day and grabbed the hair dryer, blowing it gently on her face and said, “When I walk into the room at school, this is what the boys see.” She doesn’t lack confidence! She also loves to babysit my friend’s grandkids and we use that as an incentive for good behavior often.

Ethan is getting a little better about school. He had an after school activity on Fridays for 3 week involving Legos and asks me every day when he gets to go again, although it has been over for a couple of weeks. He has quite the temper and I am working to get that under control. He told us that he would eat the turkey on Thanksgiving if it was fake, but wanted nothing to do with a real bird.

Well, I hope that you are all healthy and happy and enjoying the holiday season. Look for our Christmas newsletter soon! Love to all!

Happy (almost) Halloween!

2009-10-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

FOOTBALL IS DONE!! Not that I’m excited or anything, but football season is over. Brett was playing high school varsity football, Tyler JV soccer, Zachary JV football, and Brooke was on the Instructional cheerleading team. That meant at least 4 games a week, all in different places (most of Zach’s were about an hour away). So our schedules should be a little freer now, although Savannah starts indoor soccer this week (1/2 hour away) and Brett will be trying out for the basketball team shortly.

Brett is not so happy to be done with football. And, I must say, having him be done is a mixed bag. I like it because it frees up some of his time to get homework done and not to feel so pressured. I don’t like it because it frees up some of his time and instead of getting homework done, he usually likes to hang out with friends or, when he is home, he likes to show all of us who is the king and who are mere peasants. He recently asked Chris late one night about getting a cell phone. This was his approach: “Dad, man, I have all these girls who want to spit at me and I need a phone. I need one by Friday.” Well, he is going to seminary, an honor roll student and on the National Honor Society. And besides, what parents don’t want girls “spitting” at their sons? So we did get him a cell phone.

Tyler is a good kid. His soccer season ended a couple of weeks ago and he is asking to play indoor soccer, although I think we will wait until after Christmas. I recently had teacher conferences at the high school and had several people comment on the differences between Tyler and Brett. One teacher said that it is like “night and day”. I think I might have said the same thing once or twice! His teachers say that he is very quiet but an excellent student. I don’t ever remember any teacher calling Brett quiet. Tyler keeps us all amused with his videos, art projects, and holiday countdowns. I gave him a haircut last night but haven’t seen the results as he walked out before I felt like I was done and he has been wearing a hooded sweatshirt since then.

Savannah, as I mentioned, is starting indoor soccer. I’m not sure how this will go since she is currently limping and has been for the past 3 weeks (she’s not a fan of discomfort or pain). Hopefully, her foot won’t fall off. Her new cereal addiction is Lucky Charms and she asks me to pour her a bowl of it several times a day. I have agreed to pour her cereal in the mornings only, but it doesn’t mean she won’t try! She is having a harder time lately completing her jobs and often I have to take away privileges. She decided to teach Brooke the piano one day about a month and taught her a piano lesson. Brooke did very well and Savannah couldn’t believe how well she caught on. She asked me if I would pay her to teach Brooke weekly and I told her that I would. I am still waiting for the second lesson. She is generally a pleasant person to be around.

Zachary completed a hard season of football, his team finishing 0-9. But he got some good experience and a couple of good injuries, the biggest being a bruised tailbone which is now doing much better. He seems to be doing well socially in middle school. He told me that he has 80 new friends, compared to the 15 he had last year. He has had several girls ask him out, one of whom asks multiple times daily, although he has already told her no several times. He was initially having a hard time in math, a fact that I attributed to the fact that he had 2 male teachers that were very fun, but I’m not sure how much he learned last year. Anyway, I worked with him for weeks, Savannah helped him several times, and Jimmy helped him one evening. Later that week, Zach came to me and said, “I think I understand math now. I’m actually pretty good at it!” “Good,” I said. “Did all my hard work pay off?” and then Savannah retorted, “No, I taught him!” “Actually,” Zach said, “I think it was Jimmy!” So Jimmy, we might have to import you when the kids need homework help!

Shane has been such a pleasant and obedient child. He has been my easiest child lately. We had a talk about how his attitude about school influenced Ethan’s attitude and he has been so much better. He seems to almost enjoy school. He really likes his teacher, which really helps. And there is a money system within his classroom and so he gets paid for completing assignments and good behavior. But he also has to pay for things such as rent on the desk that he sits at (or rather stands, most of the time). He comes home every day with new jokes to share with us. He loves his Legos and comic books and has gotten into throwing darts lately. He is the best massager in the house. Chris will happily pay him money to massage his back, neck and legs and Shane will stick with the task for 30 minutes, if called for.

Brooke has done some better on her fits in the last couple of weeks. In fact, she earned the right to go to my friend’s house and play with her grandkids last Saturday. Unfortunately, my friend called mid-afternoon and said that she was running a fever. She apparently caught the flu that has been running rampant and kindly shared it with Ethan. Her football cheerleading season is over (can anyone give me an alleluia??) but now she is forever bored. She often bundles up, puts on her Michael Jackson CD in a walkman and rides up and down the street for a while. She gets very dramatic or anxious about certain things (I haven’t quite figured out which one it is). For example, Chris is in San Francisco for 6 days on business and she told him that she was worried about him going on the plane and apparently cried in school one day about the situation. She loves school and does very well. Her favorite subject is writing and I love to read her papers. They all have such personality in them. She seems to be doing better with David’s death, although she did leave him a message on his facebook the other day. It read, “hi david it's brooke, i love you. i truely miss you. you are always in my heart, well, everybodys heart.i cant wait until i go to heaven to see you. tyler is always wearing your sweatshirt that you are wearing in that picture. god be with you. im always thinking about you. well that's all the time i have, good-bye i love you”

Ethan is still having a hard time adjusting to school, although he is getting better about it. His teacher says that he lays down on the floor a lot instead of sitting on the carpet like the other kids. Every morning, he has a sore throat or a sick tummy or both. When I drop him off at the bus, he blows me kisses about 8 times. And when he walks off the bus after school, he usually walks down the stairs very slowly, gets to the grass and slumps on the grass like he’s had the worst day ever. He turns to me several times a day and says, “Mom, I love you,” and then adds, “and Daddy!” He asked me how many kids we have in our family and who they all were and I started with Bryan. He exclaimed, “But Bryan doesn’t live here anymore! Is he still our kid?” I explained that even though he has moved out, he is still part of our family and always will be and explained that Brett will be 18 next year and will be moving out also. The next day, he told me somberly, “I will be so sad when Shane turns 18 and moves out. I don’t want him to leave. And I’ll be sad when you move out too.” I explained that he would be moving out before I do and now he tells me daily, “I don’t want to turn 18 cause then I will move out.”

Well, we wish you all a safe and happy Halloween. Will post some pictures after the big day!!

2009-09-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, school has begun and we are trying to get into a regular schedule. It’s always hard to adjust to going to bed earlier and getting up much earlier, as the first lights flicker in the 5:00 pre-dawn hour. I am experiencing a new era in my life as this is the first and only year that all of my kids are in school together, Brett being a Senior in high school and Ethan being a full-day Kindergarten student. I keep thinking that I should be able to accomplish more of my 20-year accumulated to-do list at a better pace, but I am slowly crossing a few things off and chipping away others.

We had a crazy-busy summer, the busiest that I can remember. It was fun for the most part. Sadly, my brother, David, passed away a week before school began and we are all still feeling the effects of that. It was good to get to see my other 11 siblings, who all gathered to celebrate David’s life in an impromptu family reunion. We missed having my parents here as they are in India on their mission, but it was a good experience to see what support we have as a family and through other friends as well. Brett, as I said, has started his senior year in high school. It’s hard to believe that in one short year, he will be out of the house. It was announced in school yesterday that he is one of the five senior boys representing his class on the Homecoming Court. He is attending Seminary, which means a 5:00 wakeup time, after which he goes straight to school and then to football. He usually arrives home about 7 in the evening, which leaves him little time for completing his homework and no time for socializing during the week. He is serving on the National Honor Society and is taking 2 Advanced Placement classes. He is starting on defense on the Varsity football team and has done well, having his picture in the paper one week and his name the next. He incurred an injury to his leg last game and has been limping somewhat this week, but he assures me he will be able to play on Friday. He has colored (foiled) my hair a couple times in the last couple of months and is getting quite good at it. I told him that he will be popular with the girls out at BYU when they find out he knows how to color hair! He has also been asked to serve on the Stake Youth Committee again this year. Tyler is in his sophomore year of high school. He is playing mid-field on the Junior Varsity soccer team, which isn’t as much a glory position as he has played in the past. But he is enjoying it and he team has an 8/1/1 record. He is also attending Seminary, which puts him on much the same schedule as Brett, although soccer practices aren’t as long as football. Tyler was intent on getting a new high-definition camcorder for his birthday, but as they are $400, he hasn’t obtained that goal yet and seems to be waiting to do so to really delve into making more videos. He has made a couple, but he was on a roll for a while. I always love to see the creative things he comes up with! Savannah is now in 8th grade. She is gradually adjusting to the rigors of school, having to get up earlier, limiting her time on Facebook, and she is diligent about completing her homework. She can’t quite find the time to do her jobs, though. She loves little kids and zealously babysat Jessica’s 3 little guys while they were here for David’s funeral, earning her some money for the trip to Germany she and I would like to take next year. She often baby-sits a 1 ½ year old girl and 2 year old boy from our church with no incentive other than that she loves to. She has a couple of very good friends from church that she likes to hang out with whenever she gets the chance. She also has many friends from school. She can be very helpful with the younger kids when she decides to.
Zachary has been keeping a rigorous schedule of his own. He is now a 6th grader which puts him in middle school, which he seems to be enjoying. Well, not the homework part of it. He is playing JV football on the little league team, which requires practice 3 times a week, down from the 4 times during the summer. But he is enjoying playing, and playing a lot. He plays in most every play of every game, playing safety on defense and wing back and half back on offense. He is such a sweet, helpful boy. If I need anything, he is the one I go to. He loves to skateboard and ride his bike and play with friends, although he has had to drop a couple of his core friends due to mean behavior that they have displayed. Shane has taken on the role of the oldest elementary child, being in 4th grade this year. He tries to help with Ethan and Brooke’s morning fits and on one particular morning was dragging Ethan by the feet across the floor, trying to get his shoes on and get him to the bus stop. He seems to be doing okay at school, although his best friend is not in his class this year. He loves his legos and television. Cleaning his room is not his favorite thing to do. He is usually very patient with Ethan who follows him everywhere, including his friends’ houses. He is really into skateboarding and shows me new tricks all the time. He is a very funny and sweet kid.

Brooke seems to be enjoying school this year. She has a teacher who is new to the school, a young male teacher who played college hockey. She isn’t in class with her best friend either but doesn’t seem to be having problems making friends. She is enjoying cheerleading and performs for anyone who will watch. She was quite upset and obsessed with the death of my brother, but seems to be getting a little better. For a while, all her school papers talked about David and she would talk about him at least 10 times a day, sometimes asking very probing questions. Her fits have gotten worse since school started again. I am trying to get her to bed earlier, but as she has cheerleading practice until 8 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, it is quite hard to do so.
To say that Ethan is not thrilled about going to school is an understatement. I’m not sure what to do with the boy. Most mornings start with tears and go downhill from there. The first couple of weeks of school was awful. I literally had to drag him to school, kicking and screaming. I couldn’t get him on the bus for several days. One day, he continuously tried to open the car door as I was driving him down to the bus stop. When we finally got there, he jumped out of the car and started to run home. When I finally got him calmed down enough to get him in the car, he told me, “Go ahead! Take me to school. When we go outside to play, I’m just going to run home!” So I had to call the school and put them on flight alert. He is doing a little better because I am volunteering in his classroom about once a week. He was laying next to me the other night and he said, “Mom, I wish you were a teachuh. My teachuh. And a mom. Then you could be a mom teachuh.”

We appreciate again all the love and support that we have received in the past month. Everyone has been great. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

A Tribute to my brother, David

2009-09-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

For those of you who never got the chance to meet my brother, David, I'd like to introduce him to you. David and his 3 biological siblings were adopted by our family in October of 1983 when I was 13 years old. David was 14 and was placed in the same grade as me, so through our school years, I felt a special bond with him. We had some great times, including the time we decided to take out the styrofoam sailboat on the Detroit River in the middle of March and capsized. He was a funny and simple person. He kept many of his friends from high school after 20 years, which I think says something about what kind of a person he was.

David died last week at the age of 40 of a heart attack. He had suffered 3 previously, the first on his 37th birthday. Although it seems that he left us too soon, we are grateful for being given the opportunity to know him, to love him, and to learn from him.

David, you will be greatly missed.

Please scroll to the bottom of the page and pause the music while watching the videos.

Brett's Scrimmage

2009-08-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

Football season is here! We are psyched! A couple of pics here of Brett's first scrimmage.

The Best Dinner Ever!!

2009-08-17T13:39:00.001-07:00

As part of our annual Sisters' weekend, Chris and I decided it would be cool to have a fancy dinner for my sisters, some of whom never get a chance to go out for a nice dinner. We wanted to make it a surprise and make it something memorable and relaxing. This was a picture trying to capture the reaction of the girls when escorted to the dining room. Several of the sisters had tears in their eyes. To pull off our fabulous night, we enlisted the expertise of Cyndie and Terry (Chris's sister and her husband). They took our idea and ran with it, preparing the menu, food, decorations and arrangements. Our vision and more became a reality due to their efforts. Our sincere thanks to you, Cyndie and Terry! Meet our kitchen staff. Chris and Erik (dressed in Chris's clothes) were our very attentive waiters and Terry was our incredible gourmet chef. Here is a picture of the menu...Cyndie made these beautiful name tags and arrangements for each of us. Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the Southwestern Corn Cakes, but they are amazing. They are heaven on earth!!! I loved the dressing and hint of mint in the salad.The filets were cooked to perfection. The carrots were sweetened in maple syrup and just the right texture. The mushrooms were stuffed with dill scented cheese and were amazing. We were served 2 delicious desserts.The flourless chocolate cake was my favorite.

The guys had soft music playing in the background, creating the perfect ambience for a five star evening.

Su-Su-SUMMERTIME!!

2009-07-29T14:40:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

Wow!! It has been an incredibly busy summer, starting with the few weeks before school ended and continuing until close to when the kids begin school again. The end of school brought with it the usual end of the year activities, including field days, parties, honor’s ceremonies, and exams. Shortly after school ended, Youth Conference came which entailed much preparation and sweat equity. The week after that, we went on a camping trip to Pentwater on Lake Michigan. We then welcomed a visit from some of Chris’s family which included a trip to Cedar point, an afternoon at Kensington Metropark, a visit to the Tippin farm, and a lot of eating. I felt like I was on vacation as Julie did most of the cooking and cleaning. In fact, Chris marveled that after everyone left, our house was messier than when they were here. I leave in the morning to pick up Savannah in Washington DC and come back home Sunday evening and then leave again for Girls Camp on Monday, dropping Tyler off at the airport for a 10-day stay in Minnesota. I return from camp on Wednesday night and then pick up Jeannie and Kaitlyn on Thursday. Jess and her family arrive on Sunday, followed by Teresa, Kristen, Ann, Cynthia and Garrett on Wednesday, the 12th. Most of our guests will be leaving on the 16th. BUSY BUT FUN!

Brett finished his recreational league baseball season last week. He has been conditioning for football and started football camp this week. He was chosen as the male youth leader for Youth Conference, a 2-day church meeting including boys and girls 14-18. This meant that he was involved in the planning, execution, and he also lead the conference. I think it was a good experience for him. His car has not been functional for several months, which means we have to do some car juggling to get people where they need to be. He took 3 AP exams and got the highest score possible on his Psychology exam, giving him college credit in any university in the country. He highlighted my hair recently and did a great job. I told him that he will be very popular with the girls at college once they find out that he can foil hair!

Tyler is anxiously awaiting a Cedar Point trip tomorrow with a friend and then a 10-day trip to Minneapolis to stay with my sister, Cynthia, and her family, but he’s primarily excited about seeing Austin. We enjoyed having Austin and Joshua come here for a 5-day stay in the beginning of July. They accompanied us and Jana and Jimmy on our trip to Pentwater and we all had a lot of fun. Tyler enjoyed our recent family trip to Cedar Point despite the fact that 4 of us got wiped out on a spinning ride midday, which wiped us out for most of the rest of the day. Tyler has enjoyed tubing on the lake and bowling several times this summer. When I arrived home from a meeting last night, he demonstrated parts of several songs that he had figured out how to play by listening to them. He gave Ethan a haircut under my direction and did a nice job.

I am leaving in the morning to pick up Savannah from a 10-day stay with her cousin, Sabrina, and her family. She tells me daily about all the outings they are having. She is supposed to visit Air Force One today. She probably won’t want to come home after all the excitement there! She will come home Sunday and then have a day to rest before she has to report to Girls Camp on Tuesday morning. She is addicted to Facebook and never seems to have a shortage of friends, although a couple of her closest friends have been gone on extended vacations throughout the summer.

Zachary has been the most helpful of all my children this summer. I came home from Youth Conference feeling like a great burden had been lifted. Little did I know how much work I had left to do. As part of a service project, I had each youth make a necklace and 2 bookmarks for 125 kids at the orphanage in India where my parents are serving their 18-month mission. About 60 of the necklaces had to be totally redone or modified and only 20 of the 125 bookmarks were finished. Zachary spent at least 12 hours helping me get things ready to send. At the beginning of the summer, we had a family meeting to explain to the kids that they had to earn their Cedar Point trip this year. Zach was the only one who legitimately earned his. He got to go on a 2-day Cedar Point trip with his friend and also up north to another friend’s cabin. He will start football next week.

Shane immensely enjoyed his visit with his cousin, Matthew. He and Ethan will be traveling with me to DC tomorrow to pick up Savannah and to enjoy a couple more days with him. He has had a pink eye (but not pink-eye) for the past couple of months that finally seems to be getting better. He has been obsessed with Legos and plays with them nonstop, which I like. But he leaves a mess wherever he goes, which I don’t like so much. He was able to attend a 3-day camp for scouts, which was fun for him, despite 90+ degree days. He enjoys playing with Ben from down the street and they take turns traveling back and forth between the 2 houses throughout the day.

Brooke is very excited about starting cheerleading next week. I am sad that I won’t be there for her first 3 practices as I will be at Girls Camp. Although she still has fits, the intensity and frequency has improve dramatically since the end of school which leads me to believe that maybe she just needs more sleep than she is getting. She has greatly enjoyed our stream of visitors but likes to put on a very sassy front when they are around. She craves attention and complains to me often that she is bored and asks what she can do. She is my one child who enjoys reading and often gets out the paints and markers to draw and paint. She has also been obsessed with Michael Jackson since his death and watches his videos relentlessly on YouTube. She also cut her bangs again, but this time didn’t do such a hack job. I did have to trim them and even them out and they kept getting in her eyes.

Ethan is Shane’s little clone, following him and his friends around 24/7. Shane is really quite patient with him. Ethan is a cute little boy but he definitely has a temper that needs to be curbed. His older brothers do like to antagonize him though. He learned how to ride his bike at the beginning of the summer and is riding around the cul-de-sac like a pro. He has been practicing his alphabets in preparation for Kindergarten. He had an odd allergic reaction when we went to a farm for a barn party and looked alien for several days. Nobody calls him by his name, rather he is called “Ethus”, “Efus”, or Chris’s latest nickname, “Efit”.

A visit with family!

2009-07-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

We had such a great time with family the last couple of weeks. Chris's brother, Steve, and his wife and 2 kids spent about 10 days here, visiting from Washington D.C. Midway through their visit, Chris's sister, Leslie, and her daughter and son came in from AZ. It was great! We love our family!

On the old dock on Scotch Lake Drive!
The whole group at Chris Tippin's farm. It was amazing!

Partying at Cyndie's house...

Our trip to Cedar Point.

Goofing off...

Hanging out at Kensington Metropark...

Some of the crew at a Tiger's game.

Pentwater Camping trip!

2009-07-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

I have not been good about updating my blog. June was a crazy month with planning for Youth Conference. I will update you on all the kids within the next few days, but here are some pictures of our Fourth of July camping trip at Pentwater on Lake Michigan.

May Moments!

2009-05-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

As the school years ends, things become busier and I find it hard to get to doing some of the normal things, such as updating my blog. But I know that once summer arrives, I must bid adieu to my computer as my children will monopolize its use and I may have a much harder time getting these kinds of things done with them around. So I will attempt to get out a post before the summer begins.

We had the unexpected and welcome opportunity of hosting my youngest sister, Jessica, and her family for a week. Unfortunately, her father-in-law had unanticipated health complications, leading to a quadruple bypass surgery. Jess and Erik and their 3 little boys flew in the night before surgery to help aid and support him. I got the opportunity to spend some quality time with my nephews, age 4 months, almost 2 and 4. Its always fun to have friends and family to come and spend time with us!
Jess and her 3 cute boys!

Food is an essential part of any Belknap get-together!

Jana and Jimmy enjoying the feast!

Erik and Jessica

David, who seems to be doing well after his 3rd heart attack.

Brett is rapidly wrapping up his junior year of high school. He already took 3 AP exams a couple of weeks ago and so he only has work in his 3 remaining classes and often tries to convince me that there is no need for him to be in school. I can’t wait to see his attitude next year! We are also finished with seminary, which gives us an extra hour + of sleep each night, which is very welcome. He hasn’t had a car for the past couple of months, which is something he has taken more in stride than I would have anticipated. He is on a community baseball team and will start his games soon.

Tyler is enjoying the warmer weather we have been having and has organized a couple of football games with friends in our back yard. He has been doing some video taping, but I haven’t seen finished products yet. He has been trying out new video editing programs and has learned a few new tricks and is convinced that he should buy his own laptop computer. He did set up a lemonade stand in the back yard and made $60 (which he split with a friend) during a recent golf outing. He is very diligent about schoolwork and has excellent grades.

Savannah is always looking for a party and usually is invited to a couple each month. She gets it in her head that she needs name brand clothing and often asks for extra jobs to earn money to do so, although she has a hard time getting her own jobs done. I took her to a garage sale with a bunch of name brand clothes with a friend of hers who stayed the weekend with us. After we got 16 items of clothes for $8, they commented on how they wouldn’t have been able to buy 1 item at the store for the same price. I will convert them eventually! She is addicted to Bejeweled (Thanks, Jana!) and she and Tyler race from the bus stop to try to get dibs on the newer computer.

Savannah with her band in a Memorial Day parade.

(Look very closely in the middle for the short one!)

Zach recently went to fifth grade camp and had a great time. I got to chaperone for a day, but I again missed the day that he got to do all the fun stuff such as the 55 foot climbing wall and zip line. He is usually the first to run in the door and ask what jobs he needs to get done before he can play with his friends. He was home sick with me a few weeks ago and I worked on making earrings with a kit I had picked up at a garage sale. He came over and asked me what I was doing and helped me. Since that time, he has put together a bouquet of earring for Savannah and I.

Some of Zach's creations

Shane is definitely feeling spring fever and is having a hard time concentrating in school. His class has set up a market place and each student is responsible for coming up with and producing a product for sale on certain days. Shane is selling his origami. I asked him how things went the first day of sales and he answered, “Well, I didn’t have too much business,” but he doesn’t get discouraged. He tends to be an optimist. On Sunday, he taught the whole Primary how to make origami airplanes and his teacher called me to tell me how confidently and competently he led the class. He is really into Legos and loves to make vehicles of his own design, most of which sport some sort of weapon.

One of Shane's creations

The evil Brooke has made many appearances this month. I really hope that we can figure out how to contain her, because I certainly don’t want to spend all summer with the evil one. She is so darn sweet much of the time, but her fits are now a daily occurrence, despite the fact that I have had to take away many privileges and have at least a dozen prizes I will give her for good behavior. They have been sitting in my closet since Christmas and she has earned one since then. She experienced the rage of Savannah when she was caught holding and petting Savannah’s pet beta fish the other day and has been banned from feeding it anymore.

Brooke at her Daisy graduation.

Ethan wasn’t as thrilled as I was about his cousins’ visit. He and Trey fought like and old married couple about the most inane things. It was quite ridiculous. Hopefully, he will grow out of that! I just heard today that there is not enough interest in our school to have a half-day Kindergarten program, so he will indeed be enrolled in a full, 5 day program next year. I hope that he does okay with that, as he dropped out of preschool after Christmas this year. He has even started to become anxious about going to his class at church, which he has always been quite comfortable to do up to this point. In fact, many times he comes rushing out of his room in the morning and asking if it is Sunday with a panicked look on his face. The other day, it was quite warm in the kitchen and I said something about it. He had the solution. “I’ll turn on the wind,” he replied as he opened a window. On another occasion, he was lying in the bed and I pulled the covers off him. “Hey, you hurt me!” he exclaimed. “How did I hurt you?” I asked him, confused. “You hurt my feelings!” he said with a sly smile. I have many people comment on how much he looks like Chris. I was pondering this the other day as I looked at him, and I asked him, “Do you look like Daddy?” “No!” he said indignantly. “Dad has gray hair. My hair is brown!”

A New Book!

2009-05-06T14:21:00.001-07:00

I was reading a friend's blog and she recommended this book. So I decided to look it up. I found out that it has just been released, and if I post something about it and the picture, I can receive a copy of it. So that is what I am doing! I will let you know what I think of the book once I have read it. It is called Alvor and it is written by an LDS author, Laura Bingham. Her website is http://alvor-daretodream.blogspot.com/ Happy reading!

D. C.!!!!

2009-05-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

Our family had the opportunity last weekend to go visit Chris's brother, Steve, and his family in Washington D C. Actually, Chris and Brett left on Tuesday morning and helped them move into a house there that has a yard for their dog. I left on Thursday afterschool with the 6 youngest kids. Despite a few bumps earlier in the day, the trip was uneventful and we we happy to arrive at about 1:30 a.m. I don't know that I would want to have company as I was moving, but we appreciate Steve and Julie accommodating us. They are always very gracious and generous!

Many of us got to ride the subway for the first time!

We saw the White House....

the Washington Monument...

the Smithsonian...

and enjoyed some refreshment...

but the highlight for me was the Imax 3D movie about dinosaurs!

Back to School Again!

2009-04-14T10:48:00.001-07:00

Well, it’s back to school today after a week off for spring break, a much needed break to the rigorous schedule that is required during the school year.

Last Monday, April 6th, we awoke to about 6 inches of snow, much to our dismay. It has been a long cold winter and the novelty of going outside to sled and make snowmen wore off by Christmas. So we spent the first day of our vacation indoors and “chillin’ out” with friends.

On Wednesday, we invited some friends to the go roller skating and that was a lot of fun. Wednesday evening, however, I got a phone call from Jana who was on her way to the hospital as David was having a heart attack (his 3rd in 3 years). He is only 40 years old! He had his 3rd stent put into his heart and his heart actually stopped on the table and he was shocked back. He also had a balloon pump hooked up to his heart through a catheter through his leg. Although he did sustain permanent damage to his heart and will be off work for a couple of months, he was released after 4 days and seems to be in pretty good spirits. We are glad that you are okay, David!

March was a busy month for me and I was glad to see it go. I have kept busy working again on a book and making some crafts. I love to read and probably have been doing that too much, but I feel like I am making up for the rest of my family’s lack of reading!

I think Brett really enjoyed a break from his usual day beginning at 5 a.m. He was able to relax for most of the vacation as he was home more than normal. Remember that snowy day I told you about? Well, after a whole winter of driving in the snow, I guess this last snowfall was the clincher. He was slowing down while approaching a turn-about and his back tires fishtailed and he hit a curb, which bent his back tire about 30 degrees and $800. Since we only paid $600 for the car to begin with, I doubt we will be fixing it and as our van is down at the moment, he is car less. He had one baseball practice 10 days ago, but his last practice couldn’t be held due to the snow!

Tyler is our latest YouTube sensation. He recently posted 4 videos on YouTube and now has 178 subscribers, but that number keeps climbing. His friend was out of town during Spring Break, so he only added one new video during that week. He has even designed and made a shirt with a logo for his production company. He works hard and is diligent in his schoolwork and has a 3.9. He is playing in an indoor soccer league which runs for 8 games with a new team. The team looked very rough the first game but have now won several games in a row with Tyler scoring 3-4 each game. He, as well as several others in the family, were thrilled to get the Wii back on a temporary basis over the holiday. It has already been confiscated by Chris again. He spent several hours during his break working on a “tree house” out back that doesn’t scream safety to me, but the kids have enjoyed nonetheless.

Savannah has really been into clothes lately. I was ready to sign her up for soccer, which she really enjoys, when she made a deal with Chris. She took about half of what we would have paid for soccer and decided to buy new clothes from the mall (a place that I do not like to go to!). I went to the Salvation Army the new day, as my own wardrobe needing some updating and bought 25 articles of clothing for what she bought 2 shirts and a dress for. She was not impressed. I asked her if she wanted to go to the Salvation Army as all kids clothes were half off in front of a friend. “You know I don’t buy things from that place!” she said, haughtily. But then she called me later and asked me to look for tank tops for her. She is a Facebook freak, plopping herself at the computer the moment she arrives home from school to catch up on all the socializing she has missed that day. She also loves to play “Bejeweled” and I often have to kick her off and try to get her geared toward something more productive. She has been pretty good about both keeping in touch with her own pen pal and helping the younger kids write to theirs. She bought a Betta fish this past week, the only pet that Chris and I were open to having.

Zachary enjoyed getting together with friends over the break. He and Savannah have the new chore of doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, which inevitably means that he ends up with more of the load as Savannah has a way of pleading helpless. Zachary and his friend have a bet going that the first one who doesn’t wear shorts to school owes the other $50. There have been many occasions when temperatures have been near or below freezing when I have forced him to wear pants over his shorts. He arrives home from school with shorts on every day and I think he must have at least 10 pairs of jeans in his locker, but I haven’t received a call from the school yet! His knees and legs are always marred with bruises and scrapes as whatever he plays on recess, be it football or Frisbee, he plays it hard.

Shane is now a paper airplane and origami fiend. I have to follow him around the house, cleaning his scraps as he walks as he is always constructing a new contraption. These are not the simple 6 fold airplanes that I learned to make in grade school. These airplanes have double wings and fly like arrows through the air. I love him having the hobby, its just the mess that I’m not crazy about (he is not very good about cleaning up after himself or his little cohort, Ethan). He has also been introduced to Lego's and comes home from his friend Mitchell’s house with new pieces every few days. I realized that we haven’t had Lego's in our house for years, due to our inability to keep them high enough for kids not to get to and the fact that they are choking hazards to small ones. Shane has the job of unloading the dishes and is the most responsive when asked to do his work. Savannah convinced him to also wash the dishes in exchange for a 15 cent juice box for her the other day and he did that job quite competently. He is working on his multiplication tables and has them mostly memorized.

Brooke finally earned one of several presents that we had withheld from her Christmas loot last week by having a mostly fit-free week. She was thrilled to get a Hannah Montana Barbie, but it has since been seized. She claims to be the biggest “Twilight” fan and came home crying the other day, exclaiming, “I’m the biggest Twilight fan in the house, and I don’t even have a Twilight shirt!” She even went on EBay to look for a shirt for herself. Seeing as she only has $4 and all the shirts were quite large, we have decided to attempt to make our own. I’ll let you know how that goes! She was so excited because she and a couple of friends got together an act for the elementary school talent show. Unfortunately, it will be the weekend we are in Washington DC so she will not be able to participate. She has been playing with a neighbor a couple of doors down who is a year younger than her. They seem to have fun most of the time, but they both get quite dramatic at times.

Ethan is Shane’s little shadow, although Shane’s patience has been wearing thin with him lately. Shane loves to make planes and so Ethan loves to make planes. Shane loves Lego's and so Ethan loves Lego's. Shane loves Tom and Jerry and so Ethan does also. Get the picture! Ethan loves to play with the Wii, but is a good part of the reason that it has been taken away as he doesn’t turn it off or take care of the accessories. He loves to play Mario Kart, which is great but he can’t be anywhere alone and often whines that nobody will play with him. He loves to listen to music and is asking for an Ipod for his birthday. Not an MP3 player, mind you, but a real live Ipod touch. I am trying to soften the blow now but am certain that he will be disappointed for his birthday, which he talks about every day. He went roller skating for the first time with us and looked so cute, clipping his legs back and forth like scissors and moving nowhere!

Well, we hope that all is going well with you and love to here from you all!