Church Clothes

The kids all looked so cute and nice in their new Christmas clothes and I wanted to take pictures of them.

I was hoping to get something good.  

This is what I got.  Mostly just messing around.



Dear Kent,

Bubble Beard

The Coveted Blanket

Yep. That's it.  I was at Jo-Ann the other day and came across this ultra-soft fleecy fabric.  As soon as I felt it I knew it must be mine. So I bought some and made myself a blanket out of it.   As soon as my kids felt how soft and luxurious it was I couldn't keep them off me.

Here we have Emilia kissing the blanket.

Yesterday I found my kids fighting over the edges of the blanket that were cut off when I stitched up the blanket.  Ian was hoarding it and my girls thought it wasn't fair because THEY wanted a piece too. It was less than an inch thick.  That is how amazing this fabric is.  So, being the wonderful, amazing, nice mom I am, I cut about 18 inches off the bottom of my blanket, split it into 4 pieces (because it was a 72 inch wide fabric) and gave them each a mini blanket, or "softie" as they call it.

Jedis for Christmas

There has been a lot of Star Wars talk around here lately.  We have been talking about "Anakin" and "Luke" and "Jedis". 

Adele came up to me the other day and said:

"Mom, I want to be a Jedi for Christmas.   And Ian does too."

Six

 My boy is 6!

 He had an excellent birthday complete with his first friend party (and we made it count!)

The invitation. (Made by yours truly.)

Our lightsabers

The guests (this was the first time I have ever had this many little kids at a birthday party. I think it's the last time too. It was fun but just a BIT crazy.) 

We decorated made lightsabers, played Jedi, Jedi, Darth Vader (duck, duck, goose), hot potato, decorated and ate cupcakes, and of course opened presents.  One of the favorite presents: 

Yep, a jar of pickles.  I told one of the moms of his friends that he loved pickles more than just about anything and that he'd love a jar for his birthday.  It was a very coveted item at our house since everyone here could eat pickles all day.  Look at that smile. That's happiness.

After the friend party was over we made Ian's requested birthday dinner:  Little pizzas. He wanted everyone to be able to make their own pizza.

Then more presents and more cupcakes!  What an awesome birthday!

Saturday Night Luau

We decided to protest welcome the upcoming winter by having a little luau last weekend.  We had a lot of fun with these friends from our ward.  (Some of them have moved so it was fun to see them again.)   It is amazing what a good time you can have when you can relax and drink fancy tropical drinks and eat real Kahlua pig made by a true Polynesian.  It was so nice to chill with the adults and remember the days of yesteryear when we could do fun things like this with our friends whenever we felt like it.

When we were taking these pictures we had a few camera shy people who were afraid these might end up on my blog.  They know me too well.  Too bad these people don't frequently read my blog...they may never even know.  I told them I'd make their faces fuzzy if they wanted me to.  

The whole time we were getting ready for the party the kiddos were complaining that we never do anything fun with THEM and we never have fancy drinks or fun luaus with decorations (thanks C for the decor).  To appease the posterity we made them "fancy drinks" (with WHIP CREAM and UMBRELLAS!!!) on Sunday after church.

Aloha!

Halloween Fun

Carving Pumpkins

Our cool pumpkins  

The kids in their costumes.  Emilia-Mummy, Elise-Cereal Killer, Ian-M&M, Adele-Fairy

The Haul

Kent's  cool Napolean Dynamite Jack-o-Lantern

23 Hour Vacation

The kids had a few days off a couple of weeks ago for their "fall break".  (It is actually for the deer hunt but they can't officially cancel school for the deer hunt.  They have to call it fall break.)  We (I) really wanted to go somewhere for the break.  We were debating whether we should go to Salt Lake and go to the zoo or go to Moab and hike around Arches.  The weather was looking bad in both places so at the last minute we decided to go to the only place that wasn't going to be wet: Las Vegas.

Here are some pictures Elise took of the trip to Las Vegas.  It was cloudy here when we left and quite a bit sunnier in Vegas.

We thought it would be fun to celebrate Adele's birthday by going to the Adventuredome in the Circus Circus Hotel. Lucky for us Elise has her own camera and she remembered to bring it with her. Kent and I left ours in the car and didn't feel like going to get it. We had a really fun time there and didn't have to wait in any lines, so that was a bonus. Elise and Emilia were even brave enough to go on the big roller coaster.  Elise was the bravest kid of the day because she went on the "sling shot" too. (That's the one that is pictured in the upper right corner. It goes straight up and straight down really fast.)

After we were done playing at the Adventuredome we decided to go get some dinner and go back to the hotel. We drove down the strip (at 5 pm on a Friday night--bad idea--it was SO crowded, it took forever). Then we got lost several times trying to find our way through the construction and getting on and off and back on several freeways all in the wrong places. Then we called directory assistance, got driving directions to the wrong hotel (thanks guys) and had to drive some more. After that we were starving and instead of stopping at a buffet like we had planned we stopped at IHOP and ate overpriced disgusting food. Every time I eat at any of their restaurants I always vow I will never go back there because I hate paying 10 bucks for an egg and a pancake. And it wasn't even that good. My kids said my pancakes are better. Of course they are...they are not from a mix... but I digress. So, FINALLY we got to the RIGHT hotel and checked in.

We were tired.

We had all the kids lined up on the bed watching a movie.  How is it possible to have 100 cable channels and nothing suitable for children to watch?  Good thing we have Netflix.

We had planned to spend the night and get up in the morning and see some stuff:  The Hoover Dam, Boulder City and possibly the chocolate factory which I saw advertised in a hotel pamphlet.  We were going to go home Saturday night.  Unfortunately we ended up cutting our trip short. Ian had been coughing a lot during the day and by the time the evening came he started coughing a croupy barking cough and had really loud and difficult breathing.  We slept for about 2 hours when Elise woke us up. She woke us up to tell us that Ian's breathing was keeping her awake.  Then Ian woke up.  Kent took him outside for some cool air.  We gave him a bath in the middle of the night. They went for more walks, visited the pool, walked around some more. 

By about 3:00 I knew this trip was over. 

We had been up all night. Ian was having trouble breating and I said to Kent, "Let's just go home".  He was worried about driving through the middle of nowhere to get home so we hesitated to leave at that point.  Finally after the 10th walk outside we decided to pack it up and leave.  We left about 4:00 am.  Kent was nice enough to do the driving.  I don't know how he managed to stay awake. I stayed awake for the first 2/3 of the trip but by the end I could not keep my eyes open.  The kids were bummed that we didn't get to go to the Hoover Dam. We had to promise that we'd come back another time.  I think our kids have only had croup twice. Once was when Emilia was a baby, and the second time was 10 years later on our Vegas trip. What luck.

When we finally got home we realized that our trip lasted for almost exactly 23 hours.  

Three!

My baby is 3!

 Putting sprinkles on the cake

 Let the PARTY begin!

Happy Birthday Adele!

Crazy Hair Day 2010

Every year during "Red Ribbon Week" (say "no" to drugs and violence week) the kids get to dress up.  Crazy hair day is always a favorite.

Second Annual Fall Family Donut Festival

YUM

Tights

Adele started this and the rest of the kids joined in.

Clam Babies

When my IBV started talking to me about baby clams this is the image that immediately came to my mind.  I guess technically they are oysters, but whatever.

So, at my house when the temperature cools down I make soup.  I had a hankering for some clam chowder the other day so I made it a point to buy some clams.  Not that I love clams or anything--they are a little scary and chewy, but I really like clam chowder.  At the store I am faced with an important choice:  "chopped clams" or "baby clams".  So I am thinking to myself: "Well, baby clams are probably more tender than chopped (adult) clams so I'll go with the clam babies".   I bought 2 cans. One for now, one for later, you know how it goes.

When I was making my soup I opened that can of clam babies.    Instead of getting this:

chopped clams, picture from the www

I got this:

my own clam babies

Isn't that just the grossest thing you ever saw? I don't know why people are killing these tiny clam babies to sell because they are NASTY.  I couldn't use them. I couldn't, with the knowledge I had of clam babies, use them in a dish with good conscience.  They had veins and tubes and wrinkly parts. They had some green stuff inside a pouchy part and I could only imagine what that green stuff could be. It looked more plantish than poopish but really who knows. They call the poop tube in a shrimp the "vein" so I just wasn't willing to take that risk.   So here's my initial gut-mapping photo.

Then I found a real picture clam anatomy on the www (of wonders). Clam anatomy is very important as you can see.

  Who knew that clams had pericardial cavities and a stomach?  I am preeeety sure that "pouchy thing" was a stomach.  I will never look at a clam the same way again.  This is a TMI of the mollusca phylum and the bivalvia class.

Sooo, after looking at all those clam guts would YOU want clam baby ganglions floating in your chowder? I didn't think so.  From here on out it is chopped clams all the way.  And even then I just can't look too closely.

Family Fun a la Kent

If you think I am creative (and I KNOW you do, har har) you should see the things that Kent comes up with. This was kind of like a role playing game, only it wasn't just something that you sit at a board and just PRETEND.  No, you put on the gear and accoutrements (there's your word Megan) and actually act it out.  He wrote a whole storyline and made up different characters. I guess all that experience with computer games has paid off.  Unfortunately nobody got a picture of me dressed up as the "Grumpy Old Troll" (anybody watch Dora???  The G.O.T. is one of our current favorite characters.)

We had mighty warriors, elf princesses, gypsy assassins and a sorceress (don't ask me which is which, I think they kind of meld together.)  Adele just wanted the pink hair.  They used magical bows, swords, invisibility rings, bunny bracelets and fire amulets.  They had to do spells and answer riddles and make decisions.  Needless to say, they loved it and begged to do it again sometime.  (Thanks Kent for being an awesome Dad-O)  I guess it is good that they can get their cultural sci-fi and fantasy (read: NERD) needs met through their dad because they can't get it from me.  Ok, that came out wrong.  They can get their nerd sci-fi stuff from Kent (Star wars, elf princesses and on and on) and their other weird NERD stuff from me.  Which I can't think of right now, but I know I am nerdy in my own special way.  I guess labeling body parts with their correct anatomical names could be seen as nerdy.  Or playing scrabble.  Or hating tv violence and gore but loving to watch people get cut up in surgery and have body parts cut off, re-arranged or manipulated.  (Wow, this self-exploration and admission of nerdiness can be very intimidating and humbling.)

And for all you real nerds:
0118 999 88199 9119 725 3  (Google it if you don't know what it means.  Then you can be a nerd too.)

Aw heck, I'll make it easy for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ
 (This is what happens when you blog when you are tired.)

AND one more thing.
ALL my kids have that number memorized.  In fact, that number was the answer to one of the riddles in Kent's game.

Oh and 1 more thing. This is really the last thing.  Here's a picture of the t-shirt I made and ordered for Kent for his birthday:

awesome.

September Babies

Or should I say August babies in September?

Here we have Mr. Bennett and Ms. Courtney.  Bennett is waving to you. 

My friend Chelsea had 2 babies in August.   (I am SOOOOO glad mine were all singletons just for the record.)  I have been havin' some fun playing with them because having 2 babies requires extra helpers sometimes.  I have had fun being one of those helpers, and of course giving the babies back after I am done playing with them.  They are sweet little things but I have to admit that I am not baby hungry. I have noticed that my baby hunger has waned over the years.  I had a LOT of it when I had no kids and none of it now that I have a lot of kids. Hmmm. Go figure.  The more kids I had, the less baby hunger. I guess that is nature's way of telling us to stop before we have so many kids that we go crazy.  Wait....          

Elise is getting some practice at multi-tasking.

Poor little girl has a "head squeezer" mark on her head. I think the headband was a LITTLE too tight.

(Yep Chelsea, I'll email you the pics.)

What we have been singing

I stumbled upon this the other day on the amazing www (or the wwwofw which stands for the world wide web of wonders).



I keep hearing thing like, "...with my fiancee.... (*insert screechy voice*) with my by myself...." and "tank you, tank you." and "uh do, DO do DO do DO do..."

Here's another one we like:
http://www.watchmojo.com/tv/Hulu/NBC/17223890/

31 Mile Relay

I took part in a relay with some people from my dental office.  They split the race into 10 legs and each person ran a couple of legs.  Here we are. 

We took 10th place out of 28.  Pretty good for amateurs.  We wanted so badly to beat the team we just called "Black" because they wore black but we just couldn't catch them by the 8th leg.  They ended up winning 1st place so I guess our goal was unattainable.

That's Elise cheering for me.

I beat that guy. I felt bad though, I led him astray because I went the wrong way.  Sorry guy.  The volunteers said, "go to the church".  Well, there's a church on every corner so that can get a bit confusing...  We ended up taking a 2 block detour.

SO glad I finally  made it.  I was so tired after running UPHILL on both of my legs.  (ha ha, both of my legs)

Here we are with our great plastic medals. It was a lot of fun and I think we are planning on doing it again next year.