Murder Most Fowl

Last night as Ryan and I were headed to bed, I was already tucked in warmly and Ryan was on his way down the hallway when I heard him exclaim, "Oh no, Cuddles!" And I could tell from the tone of his voice that she had done something terrible. I said, "Did she poop on the floor?". Because that is the worst thing I can think of doing and I was not at all excited about getting out of my warm bed to scrub poo. But to my surprise Ryan said, "No, she has something in her mouth." That was not what I was expecting, Cuddles isn't really a chewy dog, she chews on the kids toys or a carelessly laid toothbrush but nothing worth the bad vibe Ryan was throwing off. So I said, "What is it?" And he said, "Not what, who."

Then it slowly became clear. "How did she get him?" I said. Because I knew, she had somehow managed to get Dr Coconut. Dr Coconut, the pleasant little bird we have enjoyed these several months who flies freely around the living room. We knew Cuddles was interested in him as a plaything, but we figured he was safe because he always flew so high and he only alighted on the top of the blinds or his cage, neither of which Cuddles could reach. I searched my mind for the last time I had seen him alive, it was right as I came home from a meeting that night at nine. He was flying around and Ryan warned me to close the front door quickly in case he managed to fly out. I knew he never would, he likes us.

But that was a little over an hour ago and sure enough. Here came Cuddles into our room and quickly hid under the chair. We called her out and told her to drop her victim. She relented and poor Dr Coconut dropped to the floor looking a bit rumpled but intact. I knew there was no chance he was just faking but I still hoped he would pop up and fly away chittering angrily.

"What are we going to tell the kids?" I said. I was worried about the kids. I knew they would notice as soon as they were up that he wasn't in his customary spot singing, but I still hoped I could put off telling them the bad news until they came home from school. I didn't want that weighing them down.

I didn't sleep well that night. At some point Peter ended up with us in bed. I hate sleeping with children, they kick and I end up either squished between them and Ryan or teetering off the edge of the bed. But morning eventually came and Ryan went off to work before the kids were up and I tentatively went out to the living room to help them get ready for school and do our regular morning routine.

Sure enough, Tessa was the first to notice. She looked at his cage and said, "Where's Dr Coconut?" I didn't reply, hoping she would get distracted by something else, I watched her closely and she did seem to have a thought or two flit across her face that were not Dr Coconut related but a second later, she looked up on top of the blinds and didn't see him there and she locked in. I knew the ruse was up then. Pretty soon, Jeff was in on it, "Yeah, where is Dr Coconut?" I said, "I will tell you about Dr Coconut when you are all in here, go get Leah out of bed. You might as well get dressed for school while we wait."

Of course they didn't they just sat there and shouted for Leah to get out here. It took her a long time to come out and as soon as she did she said, "I know what happened to Dr Coconut. Cuddles got him, I already heard." I wondered if maybe Ryan had told her before he left for work, it seemed a stretch but I wasn't too surprised, Leah has a tendency to know exactly what is going on always. She was the first to crack our secret talking codes, we quickly learned that spelling words didn't work around her when she was very young and she became fluent in pig latin really quickly. We had to revert to simple spanish for a while but that didn't work either, we just didn't have a sufficient vocabulary.

But that is beside the point. I told the kids what happened, just like I told you, and they were devastated. Tears welled up. They couldn't decide if they were mad at Cuddles or not. Leah scolded Cuddles. I told them Cuddles probably just wanted to play with Dr Coconut and that she was probably surprised that he was so fragile. I think that made them feel better. They were relieved it was simply birdslaughter and not pre-meditated. We talked about getting new parakeets and about what color they might be and if they would let us hold them and so on. They were still pretty sad but we still had to get ready for school and get out the door so we moved it along and I distracted them a little more by us opening the scroll for today (we do an advent calendar in December and every day it has something different). They were pleased that we will be going to the temple to see the lights tonight.

I talked to Leah separately and asked her how she knew, she said she heard us talking last night and from her bed she watched Daddy carry Dr Coconut outside to the garbage. I asked her if she cried last night, she said she did. I said I had a tough night too. I guess the whole thing went pretty well, considering. Peter asked for a while where Dr Coconut was, we explained over and over that he was dead, no he is not in Cuddles mouth now, yes he was in there but we took him out. It is a sad day at our house. I miss that bird, he was a good bird.

Oh Christmas Tree

We decorated the tree last night. All year I've been excited to put the tree up because it was going to go up on the loft thingy that the kids are unable to climb up to and touch! Ha ha! So last night they climbed the ladder one at a time and Ryan helped them put their ornaments on the tree. They loved it and it turned out great. Now I don't have to worry about broken or missing ornaments and three year old tree friskers. I did take pictures of the project but of course I can't find the camera cord or the card reader thing and besides the pictures didn't turn out super wonderful. I think I might be being reluctantly photographically educated by my sister and Arnon. Argh. That is annoying, I was blissfully and inexpensively unaware. . .

Thanksgiving Festivities

We got together at Whitny's house on Wednesday night for the traditional mexican food feast. We figured out that we've been getting together the night before Thanksgiving for chimichangas and enchiladas for about 30 years. We used to go to GG's house, I remember all my boy cousins and uncles and Lindsey used to wrestle in the garage. It wasn't good times until they had all injured something and been crying. I never understood why they needed to beat on each other every year. But this year all 13 boy cousins were out on the trampoline bashing each other up and some of the 6 girl cousins ended up in the action too, they have yet to learn about boys and their feats of strength. I guess it is a boy thing.

The food was yummy.
Leah found an ROUS.

This is my kind of cousin play.

We were looking at a midget throwing stuffed animals over the balcony. He was a cute midget.

That's my new baby. I will steal her.

That's my new brother and nephew. Aren't they so cute? The wedding is in two weeks!!

I am thankful for my big crazy wonderful family. We spent Thanksgiving with Terry and Arnon in their home and it was lovely. The food was delicious, and the company was fun to visit with. Thank you to our Mothers, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers both far and near. We love you.

P.S. not only did Whit throw the party, she also took all these great pictures and I promptly stole them. Thanks Sis!

Funnies

So two of my nephews turned 8 in the past few weeks so I sat each one down (well, as best as an 8 year old sits down) and I gave them a bunch of info about being a Wolf Cub Scout and how much fun it would be and the patches, arrow points and belt loops they would earn. It was exciting for all of us.

Phil got his Cub Scout lecture today in anticipation of his first den meeting this afternoon. A lot of funny things were said during our interview, that's just how talking with Phil goes, but this one stuck out for me. I was showing him the first achievement in the book, "Feats of Skill" and he was showing me that he totally knew how to do most of them already and he was trying to do the "frog stand". A picture is worth a thousand words.

What Phil said was, "Why do they call it feats of skill? That doesn't use your feet at all." I tried to explain but I was laughing too hard. He is adorable.

Halloween

Peter's costume got finished yesterday. I made him Lightning McQueen, it's just cardboard, paint and tape. He likes it a lot. Oddly enough, I am not fussed at all about the bigger kids costumes this year. They can do what they want! I remember being that way as a kid too, my mom would make us elaborate costumes and we didn't appreciate them either. So the darlings have access to all kinds of dress up stuff and they can just go to town on it and do whatever they want.

But, since Peter has yet to not appreciate a costume I worked hard on, he gets one.

The hood lifts up to reveal a candy holding compartment of my own design. Too cool. It will likely be destroyed by the end of Halloween but that is fine with me.

Also, I don't know why the pictures are so yellow, I think there is something on the lens. . .

Sisters

Last night my sisters, Whitny, Amanda and Lindsey took me to dinner at Siam (yummy, spicy, mmm). And we had a great time. Then Linz ran away because next we went here;

And Linz said she would rather be shot. I absolutely loved it loved it! There was a full orchestra with all kinds of interesting instruments and a fabulous chorus and a boys choir too! There was a soloist, and it was lovely. Whit doctored the picture I took at intermission. Can you see who joined the audience?

Hiking

The kids have Fall Break so we went hiking this morning at Shaw Butte. Alana was mad in this picture, there always has to be one. The glasses are the girls' newest fashion accessory, they have no glass in them, they are just for the look. Weirdos.

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the lovely cool weather. We found this little rattler slithering near the trail. We watched him slither for a while then we hiked on. The kids took it as their duty after that to tell every hiker they met that 'there is a rattlesnake just ahead!'. It was pretty exciting.