Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We had a lovely Christmas. I didn't get many pictures but I took a lot of video. Ryan and I finally gave in and got the kids a PS3, up until now we haven't had a "gaming system" which I was pretty happy about but we played Rock Band at Ryan's cousin's house over the summer at a family reunion and since then we've warmed up to the idea. It's been really fun but yesterday Jefferson said, "my thumbs hurt". They've pretty much been playing for like 6 hours a day the past few days but that will all come to a swift end when school starts again next week, so I don't feel too bad about their rotting brains and muscles.
I got the American Idol game and we have two microphones to sing with so we can do duets and I was really excited about it but on Christmas Day I lost my voice (which is probably what Ryan asked Santa for) so I haven't been able to really play it yet. Kent and Katie (Ryan's sister and her hubby) came over last night and we played Band Hero and American Idol for like two hours, I played the guitar badly and sang like two songs which hurt my throat a lot, and everyone else's ears too, but it was still lots of fun. Ryan is amazing at the singing and a handy guitarist, Kate rocked the microphone and Kent is a masterful guitarist, I can't even believe some of the things he managed to do with that thing.

And today is Jeffey's birthday so I've been making his cake, he asked for yet another dragon cake. I think we've had a string of 7 dragon/dinosaur cakes in a row for that dude. So he got a lego dragon cake. The dragon is attacking the castle because the lego people stole two of it's babies (they are in that cage thingy inside the castle), poor dragon.
Oh, and while I was getting the frosting tip out of the piping bag and my hand was covered in frosting Peter barfed on the couch which is why Leah is not sitting on the cushion in that picture, I got the frosting off my hand, washed the cushion and now it is drying and Peter's been bathed and tossed into bed. Good times. Ryan meanwhile took the day off today so he can go play in a big sandbox (the Dunes) with his brothers and ride quads. I hope he comes back un-broken.

So that is what is going on around here. We are excited for the New Year and are looking forward to 2010!!

Christmas Performances

Above is Tessa and her classmate Allison singing the 2nd Graders in for the big show. Tessa is quite the performer and loves nothing more than being up in front of people belting a song. More about that later.


Alana is in that herd of kindergartners. Oliver was in the performance too but not in this picture. I got video that I can't get to upload because it is too big. Sad. It sounds like a lot of kindergartners singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

And today at church our family (Ryan, Jeff, Leah, Tessa, Alana, and I - Arnon played for us) sang "Oh Hush Thee, My Baby" from the Children's Songbook in Sacrament Meeting. We had Tess sing the first verse as a solo and Ryan and Jeff sang alto for all the rest of the song and I sang the descant on the third verse. Well, I tried to sing the descant, I was all choked up because I was singing with my family, and Peter was waving to us from the front row. And Whitny came all the way from Chandler with her family to see us, and Samantha, Phil, Val and Zeke came, and Tessa did such a good job on the solo, I just couldn't make the right sounds with my voice so I mostly just stood there. But the kids and Ryan did great. It was a lovely program and I think everyone liked it. I'm sure blessed to have such a wonderful family. It was just what I needed to get really excited about Christmas, I'm ready now - Bring it on!

Decade

All weekend I was thinking about what I was doing ten years ago. I know exactly where I was within about a 20' by 20' area and I can probably guess what I was doing. I was either cross stitching, reading, playing cards with Ryan or watching the A-Team on TV. I was probably hooked up to the monitors to keep track of my babies' heart rate and my contractions, although as time went on I stopped wearing them because I knew I wasn't contracting and if I was worried about the baby I just took a drink of cold water and he immediately kicked me always in the same spot, plus he had the hiccups a lot. I was probably talking on the phone to one of my sisters or parents or friends reassuring them that everything was fine and totally believing that since the calm feeling I'd had ever since I received a blessing from my wonderful husband in late November. I had recently been on a wheelchair tour of the hospital's newly built NICU, the best NICU this side of the Mississippi, where I saw two pound babies in incubators and where I should have been terrified but I wasn't. Jeffey's due date was February 19, 2000 and I had been told that he would be in the NICU until at least then, if not longer. I had been briefed about how big he would be if he was born now, about lung immaturity, about disabilities and long term health issues that come with a very premature baby. But still that peaceful feeling stayed. My amniotic fluid kept dribbling out at random times and would surprise me and make me laugh. But I figured that if I kept drinking lots of water maybe I could make up the difference.

So now, ten years later I marvel at the calm sureness I had. Was it because I was young and didn't know better? He was my first baby so I couldn't have known how much I would love him. All I know is that I have had that calm feeling before and I know it didn't come from me. I am grateful to have our Jeffey safe with us where I can be frustrated with him and wish he could spell words correctly and not shout at his sisters, and I can blow him a kiss every morning when he goes to school (he keeps turning back and blowing them to me until I return the gesture, he never forgets), and I can have long quiet talks with him about making good choices and being kind.



I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

Fun

Yesterday Peter was having fun with the chickens so I got a little video. He really likes chasing them and I think they are equally fond of the game.

Mooning

So a few months ago my Whitny sister asked if I wanted to go see "New Moon" at a special sneak peek the day before it opened (aka last night). I'll admit that I was not super hot on the idea, spending twelve bucks for a movie makes me cringe, but I said I was in since she seemed so very excited and I thought it would be fun to hang out with my sister. Then I started seeing previews and I thought, 'huh, I'm going to go see that in the theater before it opens instead of waiting to see it on Red Box like I normally do. That could be interesting.' And last week I started to get excited about going out in the evening time to see a movie with Amanda and Whitny, and Ryan would stay home with the kids and I would be fancy free. . . I was warming to the idea. Amanda and I discussed the book on the way out to the Chandler Fashion Mall last night and she is on Team Jacob and I am on Team Edward and we had a mild debate (I totally won). We got to the theater and there were girls in their black Twilight t-shirts and pajamas on chairs and blankets lined up all the way around the theater waiting for the midnight show. Our show started at seven. We felt a bit sad for them that they were HUGE crazy fans who would wait in the chilly evening air for hours and hours while we who were mild fans with a comparatively low level of excitement about the whole thing walked blithely into the theater and waited in line for about ten minutes, our seats were assigned. The theater was abuzz with excitement, and the ten men that were there were excited too. When the movie finally started there were excited shrieks and cheering. Amanda and I decided that Bella definately wouldn't be shreiking and cheering about a movie, even her own movie. But the energy was palpable, she might have been hard pressed to remain stoic. I gotta say, I LOVED that movie. Seriously. I laughed, I cried drippy tears (pick your jaws up off the floors). It was like reading the book only faster and that made me really happy. Now I have to go back and read all four of them again.

even though, "you can't really run with vampires."

-Bella, "New Moon"
(she said that in the movie and I know that because I totally saw it,
last night, not at midnight, so I got to sleep.)

Hiking and Leah's Lament

The kids didn't have school today, we love Veteran's Day! Thank you Grandpa Johnson, Uncle Chris, Uncle Jake and all the other Veterans. You rock. So we went to North Mountain and hiked. It was a lovely cloudy day, perfect weather for an outing.

Tess and Pete at the top. Maybe someday her front teeth will grow in and she will begin to look normal again. . .
A well deserved rest after we reached the top. I made them sit there and Alana was very frightened that she would tumble off into the chasm.

The crew.

I found this the other day and took a picture of it for posting. Leah wrote it. Pretty funny.

Public Service Announcement

Roo

Dracula

Mermaids

It's the Monday after Halloween, the children are at school. . .
Did you hide all the Halloween candy yet?

Photos by the Whitny sister (thanks Whit)

My Collection

Okay, so the planets are aligned or something today because today I have cared for, fed and nurtured to some extent a total of nine children (true, five of them are mine). Not that interesting you say? Well, here's the cool part: They range in age from 1-9 and there is one of each for each age!! Yes, I am crazy for noticing that in the first place and blogging about it in the second place, but I think it is cool. So the 9,8,7,5, and 1 year old kids are mine and I had to get outside help for the rest. The 6 year old is on loan from my dear sister, he was dropped off at like 5:30am, yikes, but he's been at school all day so he barely counts. The 3 and 4 year old were here from like 8:30 'till 1 and they were very nice. And the 2 year old I had imported from Utah, her parents are on a cruise in the Bahamas (cry me a river) and I snatched her from Grandma for a couple of hours. Now if there was only a 10 year old out there for me to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for. . .

Also, I had a funny conversation with the 4 year old. I was making cupcakes for the 8 year old's party later this afternoon for Activity Day Girls and the 4 year old wanted in on that sweet action but I nipped it in the bud and she was all miffed and I told her that only 8 year olds can go so sorry kid. And she said, "But I invited her to my birthday party. Why can't I go to hers?" I had to explain a lot of times that not all cupcakes are for birthday parties. It took a lot of explaining.

You know, now that I think about it and read it here in black and white. It's not actually that funny or cool but you've got to account for the fact that I am very easily amused. . .

Christmas in October

For Christmas this year my wonderful parents hooked us up with a hotel room at the Arizona Grand, a hotel here in town that has a waterpark! My three sisters and their families came too, plus Ryan's dad, Terry and Ryan's sister, Jessica and her hubby Mitch came too. It was really fun. There were 16 kids there under the age of 12 and nobody got lost for too long. . .

My sister Whitny took most of these pictures with her fancy new camera. She had lots of fun with it and took some nice snaps.

Of the 16 grandkids there are 5 girls and 11 boys so it got a bit wild at times. Ryan was tossing boys on the two beds that were in our room for a while and I ran to get the camera to catch some video of the craziness but right as I was searching my bag for it Tyler got tossed a bit too enthusiastically and bashed his head on the wall a little. He was fine but it effectively ended the boy toss and I missed out on getting some fun video. Shucks.

Zeke's birthday was Saturday and he was cute running around in his little banana hammock speedo all day.
He hardly ever lets me kiss him because he is a tough guy.

Relaxing in the lazy river. There are three water slides there and I went down one of the steep ones twice and I screamed a lot and got wedgies. The kids were in heaven and had a fantastic time. We all did. Thank you Mom and Daddy! We love you lots!

The Fall

We slept with the windows open last night and it was a wee bit chilly! Yeah! I sure love this little blue planet we live on. It is pretty amazing how life is supported here on such a delicate balance, as if some genius architect or Intelligent Designer planned it all out for us. Nifty.

I'm going to bake pumpkin squares today.

Sooo Funny

My little sister Amanda just bought her first house and she spent today tearing all the lovely wood paneling and faux bricks off one of the walls. So she filled the back of the truck with all the junk and went to the dump. Meanwhile, at our house, Jeff has been begging all day to go to Oliver's new house and help but he had to do his chores first so by the time he finished Amanda had left for the dump already and he was mad that he couldn't go over but I explained that he can't go over because Amanda and Oliver went to the dump. Anyways, (Ryan is totally going to say this is way too long) Amanda and Oliver just came back and Jeff immediately asked. "Did you guys get some furniture for your new house?" To which Amanda said, "No." And then Jeffey said, "You mean you didn't find ANYTHING at the dump?"

He is for sure our child, we don't ever pay retail.

Rant

Ryan and I had a discussion on the phone earlier today and it kind of irked me. He, with the best of intentions and with love behind it, sort of implied that I'm a lazy bum because my exercise regime has taken a serious nose dive in the past couple of weeks. While I did "exercise" today it was short and, I'll admit, I wasn't completely "into" it, but, hey, I did it.

Well, I thought a lot about it since then while I've been cleaning and I ranted a lot to myself and here is one of the reasons I've fallen behind:

That's right folks, it is a shoebox full of junk. Why did I so carefully put all this junk in this shoebox? Because I am going to teach my kids a lesson today (not like the lessons in Arrested Development though, although if anyone knows a one armed man let me know, I may have a job for him.) I am going to show them this shoebox full of junk and tell them that this is why their mother is easily winded and can't do pushups and if they want me to live a long and healthy life they will quit shoving candy wrappers and trash into the couch because it makes me have to spend a half hour mucking all the garbage out from under and around the couch and it makes me bitter. My children (actually, just Leah) think they are sneaky thieves when actually they are just plain old thieves. I know what they are up to! Argh.

Back to the point, if I have one. I truly love having the opportunity to stay at home and be a homemaker for our family. I enjoy making sure everyone has clean clothes to wear and good food to eat and a tidy home to live in. But a line is going to be drawn. I'm going to explain about what is reasonable and what is currently going on around here and how those two things need to become friends with each other.

Wish me luck.

Mermaid

I've got one mermaid costume mostly done, the other two need more work. But here is Alana the mermaid, there will be more stuff added but this is the basic dealy. Whew.

Progress Report

I'm sure you all were dying to know how my projects are going but whether you were or not I'm going to tell you. Here's a picture of the tails! Aren't they pretty? I had to take them all apart and put them back together since the last time you saw them but in everything I do I like to take 6 or 7 steps back and one tiny step forward. But today I got to take a bigger step forward by quilting them. I quilted. I'm a quilter. With much help, hand holding and needle breaking my dear mother-in-law, Arnon, helped me to quilt these bad boys. They turned out really pretty and now I'm going to take a closer look at the quilts she made for each of our children and appreciate them even more because I'm here to say, that stuff is tricky! Thank you so much Arnon, you are a lifesaver!

Where would we be without our dear mothers? Nowhere! These darling tops were sewn by my mom, Valerie, and I am ever so grateful that I didn't have to get involved because she pretty much made up the pattern and they turned out so cute. The girls love them and I think they are adorable too. You rock Mom!

So now I just have to do the tail skirt things and maybe someday we'll see a finished product. Whew!

Here's my beautiful washcloth that I finished at knitting class last night. It is a stunningly ugly bit of knitting, but I will treasure it. Next week I'm attempting yet another wash cloth. Wish me luck! Knitting class is fun.

And, here are our chickens. The brown ones are the ones that we hatched from eggs, there are five of them and they are pretty cute and nice. They should start laying in a couple of months, we can't tell yet if any of them are roosters, none of them seem particularly noisy so maybe we lucked out and only have hens. . . But then, do I really need NINE chickens?

Torturing Myself

So I decided to make Halloween costumes for a select number of my children (I'll let the boys wear sheets and be ghosts or something). Amanda, my loving sister who sews fantastical costumes every year for her darling Oliver, convinced me I could handle it. Then she trots merrily off to work every day and leaves me holding the needle. Nice. So I'm making mermaid costumes for my daughters. Leah is green, Tessa is pink, Alana is purple. Here's a picture of their fins. There will be more stuff added to them in the near future.

Those loopy things with the colors on them are handles for them to hold their little fins which will be attached to their skirts that will look like mermaid tails (fingers crossed). My Mom who loves me is making the girls tops since the pattern had them wearing halter-tops. Mom is adding sleeves. She's a genius. So it's not like I have that hard a job, just make the tails but I've already messed up and had to go back and fix it. The thing is, apparently you're supposed to read the directions and follow them step by step. Who knew?

If they turn out cute I'll take pictures and you all can see them. The girls are excited about them, hopefully that will last until at least after the Halloween parties and trick-or-treating.

And then, I took up knitting this week. I'm a first timer. Our Relief Society had a knitting class on Tuesday and I'm making a wash cloth. It is very ugly. Who knows why I chose green multi colored yarn to make a wash cloth. Everyone knows that moldy looking wash cloths are just the thing! So if you get a mossy looking bit of knitting from me for Christmas, it was knitted with love, and frustration.

Ctrl

I found this show called Ctrl on the Hulu and Ryan and I really liked it. You should watch it too. It's 10, 5 minute episodes so it won't take long to watch but it is dang funny. Hulu only has the most recent 3 episodes but NBC has all of them on it's website.

(Yes, it's Buster from Arrested Development, he has both his hands now)

Crazy Hair Day

If you look closely you can see Jeffy's ponytails. He has four down the middle like a mowhawk. As I was putting them in he was reminiscing about the last time he wore a ponytail when it was for medicinal purposes. He is funny.

Jeff called Leah "Little Orphan Annie" but Leah said her hair should be red. We'll work on that for next year. My dear Mother helped me tie all the girls hair up in rags last night before bed. Thank you Mom! It would have taken me ages!

Tessa was much more pleased than she seems in this picture with the effect. Oliver didn't want to let me do anything to his hair, but he let Jeffey do some stuff to him. It's down on half and up on the other half. Pretty wacky, eh?

Alana was happy with her do until I started to pull the curls apart for a fluffier look, but you'll see what happened after that in a second. . .

Here's the back of their little melons.

Alana was a bit distressed about her hairstyle until I put a headband on her head and reminded her that it was Crazy Hair Day after all!

Good times.

A Quick Funny

We've been enjoying the new school year so far and have been adjusting to the new schedule and demands very well. Here's a funny conversation I had with Jeffey shortly after school started:

(setting: the kitchen, eating popsicle's after school)

Jeff: Mom, will you go to the drug store and buy me some deodorant?
Mom: Why do you think you need deodorant?
Jeff: My teacher said that usually in fourth or fifth grade kids start to get stinky and need to ask their moms to go to the drug store and get them deodorant.
Mom: (internally laughing) Well, my darling, how about we just keep a close eye and nose on you and if you start to stink we'll make sure you get as much deodorant as you need. I'm sure your sisters will let you know in their own gentle way also.
Jeff: Okay.
Mom: But do keep an eye on your armpits, when they start to grow hair that is a sure sign that you need deodorant.
Jeff: Yeah, because sweat on hair is really stinky.
Mom: Yup.

Poor kid, little does he know that it will be more like junior high or later for our little beasties considering what late bloomers their parents were!

Buckle Up - It's a long one

It has been a busy week. Last Tuesday Arnon, Terry, the kids and I left for Utah for the Livingstone Family Reunion (taa-daa). We liked it. So here's how the trip went:

We got to stop and have a lengthy visit in Flagstaff with my dear friend Gaby. We loved the cool pines and we went on a lovely walk in her neighborhood to the park. There is a long involved story about why Lindsey's kids are there but I'll just leave those of you who don't already know the story in the dark about it - trust me, it isn't that exciting and I'm being succinct (right Ryan?). But we had so much fun with Gaby and we are already planning our next trip up to see them later this month. We love those guys!

We got up to Utah eventually and found our long lost Tessa! Who would have thought to look for her there? She had a wonderful time with Aunt Katie (she called me Aunt Katie for the first couple of days) and Uncle Kent and Sweet Afton. It is nice to have all my children back again.

The Livingstone Family Reunion began on Friday. Here are the three Livingstone brothers John, Terry and Mike with Aunt Linda (Uncle John's wife). These men had an amazing mother who passed away three years ago, her children and 20 grandchildren and 54 and counting great grandchildren rise up and call her blessed. It was wonderful to hear them talk about Nanny and the influence she has had on the lives of so many people. It isn't just ourselves that we effect with our decisions. . .

We played at a park in Orem that is next to Ryan's cousin Patti and Ben's house. It was a great park with an excellent hill for slip-n-sliding.
Make sure you see Alana in the picture above, she's between Jeffey and Tess, she is itty bitty.

Alana sliding.

Tessa sliding.

Leah sliding.
Jeffey slid a lot but I somehow didn't get a picture.
Sorry dude.

Kate and Afton on a grassy knoll.
Thanks Kate and Kent for letting us stay with you, you are brave.

Afton and Peter giving kisses.

Tessa's tooth finally came out, she's only been working on it all summer.

Rock Band at Patti and Ben's house. We adults played too and we rocked it, I got to sing because I'm not organized enough to play drums, guitar or bass :)

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house on Saturday. I was so excited to be able to take our children inside the temple and show them around and tell them a little bit about what happens in temples and try to explain how much I love temples. They are always fascinated with me when I get a bit teary eyed but I think they got a little of the point. It was lovely to be there with all of them and all of the other thousands of people who were making their way thru the tour, it was the last day of the open house and it was busy! And we temporarily lost Oliver. . . but on the whole it was lovely.

Then we came home Sunday night and Monday morning bright and early it was time to head back to school! Woo-hoo! So off we trudged in the 100 degree heat. This year we have Jeffey in 4th, Leah in 3rd, Tess in 2nd, Alana Kay in Kinder and Oliver in Kinder. It was fun to see our little group with their new backpacks on and their hair combed. I love school. Amanda was so cute dropping off Ollie, her baby is all grown up!

They are cool - but not too cool for school.

Alana Kay at her desk. She is cute.

Tessa Lou at her desk. Her teacher had Leah last year so she knows Tessa's
nickname is Pickles and she already calls her that. Fun times :)

Well, I'll keep it short even though I'm sure you know I could go on and on. . .