Happy Day

Yesterday was Leah's 9th birthday and it was such a busy and good day. And today is David's birthday so we celebrated him as well since he has to work all day today. We like Uncle D. So Leah asked for a turtle cake, partly I think because her cake last year that was a "watermelon with ladybugs" looked kind of like a turtle cake and it got her thinking. . .

So I made fondant which was a lot easier and funner than I thought it would be, all it took was marshmallows and powdered sugar and crisco. Super healthy for you. . . Leah helped decorate it, she liked playing with the fondant which is kind of like play-doh and "accidentally" popping it in her mouth which you shouldn't do with real play-doh, but we all did anyway.

We had a turkey dinner with all the family we could muster on kind of short notice. There were nineteen of us, Leah made place cards for everyone and we all managed to fit around two tables. It reminded me of when we were kids and had people over for dinner, we always made place cards and we'd set the table all "fancy". It makes me smile.

The food was yummy.

Thankfully we've got Aunt Jessi to take care of the kids and make sure they are fed.

And that they get birthday presents, Aunt Jessi and Uncle Mitch gave Leah this new fancy bike which she took for a spin in the darkness and came back in one piece. Bonus.

We also got her presents, she got the guitar Jeff is playing in the picture so now we've got a full band - woo hoo. They've had fun playing and, yes, the drumstick Leah is holding has been taped together because Ringo Starr aka Ryan got a little too enthusiastic during one of our jam sessions.

And now to make this post extra long I will share some thoughts. Yesterday was a big growing day for not just our Leah Bug, I had an assignment to speak in Sacrament Meeting about "Being Temperate in All Things". Speaking in church terrifies me, seriously. But I knew it would be "good for me" so I wrote my little talk and I practiced and I prayed and my stomach turned over and over just thinking about it. Sunday morning I practiced and prayed more and my stomach turned, it even did it just now thinking about it and it is all over - yikes. But I stood up there shaking knees and all and I made it thru and only got a little bit choked up once or twice. I did it. And doggone it, I did kind of a good job. President Miller spoke after me and he was fantastic as always but when he sat back down his hands were shaking too which made me feel better but also a little trepidatious because he's been doing it for like thirty years and if he still gets nervous. . .

But anyways, I did it. And then I went home and fixed a turkey dinner and homemade rolls for many people and everything turned out nicely. Even though I'm 32 and should be a grown-up and be used to days like this and take it all in stride, it still kind of surprises me that I can do this stuff, I feel like I'm still 15 and awkward. But I've watched my Mom do that kind of stuff my whole life and her example gives me confidence to try things that I'm not completely comfy with. And that makes it a Happy frightening Day.

Sight Words

Every week Alana comes home from school with sight words on little flash cards to practice at home and this week one of her words is "what". You can see where I'm going with this already, can't you?

A- What does this say?
M- What
A- This
M- What
A- *slightly exasperated* What does this say?
M- What
A- This
M- What

It went on for probably three or four minutes and I was laughing most of the time and she got to giggling too. I love kindergarten. I invited Leah over to help us after a while and she very helpfully said, "That is the word WHAT."

Killjoy.

Goodbye Dad and Mom

My parents are on their way to their third mission for the Church. This time they get to go to Montreal, Canada. They will be gone for one year and they get to learn a little bit of French which they are excited and a little bit nervous about.

Of course they wouldn't be my parents unless they traveled about and visited all their loved ones on the way there so even though they don't report to the MTC for a week and won't be to Montreal until February 15, they are already on their way. They will see some friends in Utah, my Aunt and Uncle in Idaho, my sister and her family in Washington state, and my brother and his family in Michigan. They are looking forward to about 4,000 miles of driving, but that's all in a day's work for them - they could do it in their sleep - but we hope they won't.

Ryan and I went up to see them at their first stop along the way in Sedona on Monday. I brought four kids up and Ryan came up a little while later with the other kid. We all stayed over night with Mom and Dad and played and had fun, then Ryan and the four school age kids left super early in the morning to get the kids to school and Ryan to work, and Peter and I stayed and played with Mom and Dad then we leisurely drove home in time to meet the kids when they came home from school. We all enjoyed spending special time with Grandma and Grandpa before they were really gone.

I am really proud of my dear parents for all the wonderful service they give and for all the love they share with everyone they meet. I hope I am like them when I grow up.

Peter and Flagstaff

Peter and I went to the park last week and here is his latest trick captured on video. He is dang cute.



This weekend we took the kids to Flagstaff to play with the Emmons' and their snow. Here's Gaby and Tierney's wild ride. I think she was aiming for me actually.



We had way too much fun and got not enough sleep but honestly, the best time to play Twister, Super Mario Brothers and watch movies is AFTER the kids go to bed. Ooh, I just realized something cool, we watched the movie Twister on Friday night and on Saturday night we played Twister, spooky. P.S. I am horrible at playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii, it took me a long time to figure out which one I was, then I just kept walking off cliffs for no good reason. It was sad. But Ryan, Carson, and Gaby were good at it and we laughed a lot so that is good.



We had lots of yummy food thanks to Gaby and her mad cooking skills. The kids had a blast in the snow, Jefferson spent hours on the back porch chipping away at snow and ice because he is a ten year old boy. Peter is in love with baby Coco, I think it's partly because he can say her name but he asks for her even when we are at home and he hasn't seen her in a while. The girls love playing with Tierney and Avery and shaking up their peaceful existence :) It was a great success and we are so blessed to have such wonderful friends that make us laugh and help us to be happy.

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.