Blogography

Eek! I won!!!!

2012-02-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last week, like I do almost every week, I entered the Friday giveaway on one of my favorite blogs: Forgotten Bookmarks.

This was my comment -

No way! Thanks for the best giveaway ever. I am going to short out my keyboard with drool :)

Congratulations on the 1000th post on your wonderful blog!

Here is the original contest with all the lovely, amazing, drool-worthy books and here is the announcement of the winner. Me!

p.s. Maybe you also remember my submission to Forgotten Bookmarks from last November.

Great little story...

2012-01-31T08:33:00.000-08:00

...except the part when he *gasp* uses the tape!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Happy 16th

2012-01-26T11:32:00.000-08:00

Today is Stan's birthday, but we aren't celebrating until the weekend, so I'll post more about him later, but in the meantime, Happy Birthday, Darling!

It has put me in a birthday mood, though, so I thought I'd finish this post that has been waiting as a draft for a couple of weeks.

Rachel is 16!

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!!

Rachel, Sara and Summer were getting home from San Francisco the night of Rachel's birthday, so we threw her a surprise party. It was a a little nerve wracking after I told a bunch of teenagers to come over at 7:30 to have my three travelers call and say they were running two hours late, but with some help from Rachel's darling friend Jillian (who helped a lot with the guest list) we got a hold of everyone and told them to come later.

For our Christmas letter Kelly asked everyone their favorite colors and, Rachel, being slightly pert, or maybe cheeky, answered gold and diamonds. So, I bought some stuff at the after Christmas clearances and we decorated for her party in bling!

Heather made her a sparkling banner.

Her chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

I was a bit nervous about throwing my first party for teenagers, but got some good advice from my sister-in-law, Gina and from Anthony and made sure we had a LOT of food.

Besides cake and ice cream, we had chips and dips...

...a chocolate fountain with candy, cookies, pretzels and fruit to dip in it...
(which was a gift from Matt and Steph - thanks again!)

...and s'mores...

...which were roasted over a bonfire in the backyard.

I gave the kids waiting in the garage my camera to videotape Rachel when they surprised her.

Hee hee :)

Weekend in PA

2012-01-21T19:02:00.000-08:00

Michael and I flew to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago to see my parents. I was talking to my mom about it and she said, "Why don't you come the weekend of the farm show"?

Wow, I'm glad we did!

First, I want to say, the whole weekend was wonderful. It is always great to spend time with my parents. I enjoy both of them so much. I wish I lived closer. It was also fun to see my sister, Sara, brothers Toby and Matt, sister-in-law Steph, Matt and Steph's three girls, Ruby, Coral and Opal, Sara's boyfriend Greg and my good friend Cathy, with her son Daniel. I was having so much fun eating good food (including Sara's chocolate birthday tower of delights that had a layer of brownie, layer of chocolate cheesecake, two layers of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, all made by my dad), playing board games, touring the Herr's Potato chip factory, shopping and chatting that I didn't take any pictures, except at the farm show, so if it seems that is all I have to tell you about the weekend is farm stuff, it is because that is all the visuals I have to offer.

So, on to the 96th annual Pennsylvania Farm Show! Here's the blurb from their website - Pennsylvania is proud to host the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the country, with nearly 6,000 animals, 10,000 competitive exhibits and 300 commercial exhibits.

I got ready before we left home by painting my toes in John Deere colors :)

Coincidentally, here is the first exhibit we stopped at. Michael and my dad were both excited for the day.

Next we, went to the cow barn. The noise was deafening! There were some moos, lots of talking, footsteps, public announcement system fuzziness, but that didn't explain it.

I couldn't figure it out for a minute. There was along line for the cow showers (cow wash?), but that wasn't all of it.

Oh, that was it! Hundreds of cows getting BLOWN DRY all at once! They had to look pretty for the judging in a couple of hours :)

Or maybe they were looking pretty to attract potential customers...

I am always impressed with the longhorns.

Then, it was on to the pigs, sheep and goats. If I told you it was much quieter in this barn, you can get an idea of how noisy cow beauty parlors can be.

This pig was really enjoying the scratching.

Here is the grand prize winner.

My dad wanted to get there early so that we could park close and not have to take the shuttle from the far parking lot. We were there by about 7:30 and, even though we were inside, it was chilly when we got there. The goats and sheared sheep were all wearing jackets. I thought this one had a sweet face. He (she?) was probably thinking my camera strap looked liked breakfast.

There were fun chickens and...

...fat rabbits.

We watched chicks hatching...

...and ducklings being oppressed.

There was a high school and middle school rodeo. I couldn't believe the twelve year old 7th graders riding full sized bulls! I was too tense wondering if they would die a gory death to take pictures. All I got were the rodeo princesses at the start. I miss riding a horse that I know well and can appreciate. If I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back as a rodeo princess.

It is a fuzzy picure, but look at all that glitter!

There were all kinds of competitions on display, including floral arrangements, mushroom dioramas...

...cookies, pies, cakes, honey...

...apples, vegetables, wine (we met the grape princess) maple syrup...

...and the famous butter sculpture!

Michael's favorite part of the whole shebang was the butterfly house. We each got a q tip dipped in gatorade to feed the butterflies.

There were lots of them, mostly monarchs, but also swallowtails, painted ladies and buckeyes.

Guess which chrysalis is about to hatch.

Sara, with some hitchhikers.

Michael went through the butterfly house with me, my dad and Sara and then again with his aunt, uncle and cousins. Matt and Steph and the girls came from the D.C. area and met us after we had been there a couple of hours. Michael was so happy to have cousins to hang out with. At one point, we were separated from them in the crowd and it was all I could do to keep him from running off helter skelter to find them. Maybe that is why I don't have any pictures of Michael with his cousins. I was too busy hanging on to his collar to hold my camera. So I stole some pictures from their blog...

Coral, Ruby and Michael

Opal

Coral

Michael and Ruby, who is being idolized.

Can you see how happy he was to be with his cousins?

December Catchup

2012-01-15T15:22:00.000-08:00

Here's a bunch of stuff that went on last month. Stan took most of the kids to a grand reopening of a park near his office. They had a free pancake breakfast, balloon animals, cookie decorating and standing in line waiting to ride the trains. This park has miniature (but still large enough to ride on) steam powered trains.

I didn't go because it was my first time teaching bookbinding at our local art museum. I stressed and worried and had so much fun when I finally got to teach :)

Heather and Gwen took part in their piano teacher's annual Christmas recital.

Here are snatches of each of the pieces they played.

I took Michael to the Kindergarten/First Grade Christmas Party at school. Each kid made about eight different projects. This is a wreath made out of smashed Shredded Wheat cereal, Elmer's glue, green food coloring and beads.

Later in the month, Michael, Naomi and I went on a field trip to the International Printing Museum. It was fascinating.

This is their replica of the press that printed the Gutenberg Bible.

The linotype was amazing. I loved the clacketty sound it made.

I got a kick out of the juxtaposition of technologies we saw in the break room on the way to the restroom.

One of the best parts of last month was getting to spend time with Summer (who, of course, I don't have pictures of). She caught a ride home from the Y with one of her roommates and her friends. They stayed a couple nights while they went to some tourist attractions. they were all so nice and a delight to have as guests. I thought this was a fun pictures of the three girls, Veronica, Christina and Maggie with their Macs.

Henry favors Apple products, too :) I probably got to spend the most time talking to Henry for two reasons. One, he slept in the living room on the couch and got woken up earlier than anyone else by kids running around and, two, he spent awhile each day waiting for three females to finish getting ready. He is a great guy.

I went to Stan's company Christmas party with him. His coworkers are all so nice. This picture was during the white elephant gift exchange which I counted as a rousing success because the gift we brought was taken from one person by someone else and because Stan got the books he wanted. Can you tell I am a dyed in the wool introvert? Even though I was having fun, enjoying conversations, relishing the food, my hands are still twisted in a knot trying to survive being around all those people :)

Last month, we made 50+ treat plates. It is a good thing I have so many capable people working in the kitchen. This is definitely a group effort each year.

Heather wrapped her Christmas gifts beautifully.

For New's Year Eve, we ate fun food and played board games. Here is Naomi poking some caviar to see what she thinks of it.

Happy 2012!

Merry Christmas 2011!!!

2011-12-25T14:44:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone :)

I am just about to ~~succumb to a sugar coma~~ take a nap, but I thought I'd put this picture of Santa up first. He stopped by last night around 6:20 to say , "Hi". He has upgraded from reindeer to a dark green Jeep. It goes well with his red suit, don''t you think?

On a less frivolous note, we have had a wonderful Christmas. We are loving having Summer home for the holidays and my sister Sara is here, which always makes everything more fun. It was really nice to go to church today, to sing and worship God.

We are so grateful for the gift He gave us of his perfect Son.

Manna from Heaven

2011-12-18T18:16:00.000-08:00

The other day, I was on the phone with my sister Abby and my two youngest were playing in the backyard. Breathlessly, they ran into the house and Michael hollered, "Mommy, come quick! There is food falling from the sky!!!"

This I had to see, so out I let myself be led to the middle of the lawn where Michael pointed to the ground. There was a blob. I poked it with a stick. It was a piece of pizza crust that even had some pepperoni still on it. I didn't know manna came with pepperoni!

I looked at the sky, thought about it a minute, looked at the pizza crust and on closer inspection noticed peck marks all over it. One poor bird lost it's lunch, but the stray chicken showed up just in time to get lucky and have pizza!

Logan's Candies

2011-12-11T16:49:00.000-08:00

Michael and I went on a field trip to Logan's Candies to see candy canes made by hand. It was fascinating. First, the candy maker poured boiling hot syrup on this big marble slab. It went right up to the edge of the metal bar he set there to contain it and there was a collective gasp while we all thought it was going to spill.

He talked about the candy shop and their history while the candy cooled. They have been there since 1933 and the same family still owns and runs it. He kept turning the edges into the warmer center to keep them from setting while he added color and flavor.

He added red food coloring to some of the candy and kneaded it in.

Then, he put peppermint flavoring in the part that was still white. The flavoring they use costs $750-$800 a gallon! He pulled the candy on this big hook on the wall.

The little red hood thingy on the counter is a warmer to keep the candy pliable while they pull the candy canes. Since they opened, they have made their candy canes with one big stripe and five little stripes. You can see how he put the big lumps of candy together to get the stripes and in the corner of the picture you can see the signature stripes.

They had four people at the counter making candy canes. There was a puller, a cutter, a roller and a bender.

A blob like this makes about two thousand candy canes. We each got to taste a bite of warm candy cane and it was so good :)

These giant candy canes were temptingly pretty, but does anyone really eat them? Maybe they buy them and keep them in their Christmas decorations forever...

Speaking of giant candy canes, that big one covered in lights over Michael's head is the largest handmade candy cane in the world. It is fourteen years old and I don't remember how long. Maybe they really do last forever.

See the ribbon candy underneath it? I was talking to one of the girls that worked there and she told me they used to have an old machine that made it, but it kept breaking. One of the owners thought she could do it, so she figured it out and now they make it all by hand. The girl telling me about it said they have to work really fast when they make ribbon candy, faster than when they make candy canes.

Each of the kids in the group got a stick of warm candy cane to shape however they liked. Here is Michael's creation :)

Thanksgiving Day Hike

2011-11-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

We went to St. George to have Thanksgiving with Stan's family.
It was so much fun :)

My contributions were the gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, six pies and eight dozen rolls. We ate on Friday, so Thursday our little family (little compared to the 45 people at dinner) went hiking.

Stan forgot his hat, so he put one of my canvas shopping bags (that I always forget and leave in the car when I shop) on his head. I told him I am so in love that he could look ridiculous and I still think he's charming :)

I love the colors of the desert, especially the pale greens contrasted with the black volcanic rock. Aren't the cottonwoods with the sun shining through their leaves pretty, too?

What is it about seeing a rock that inspires conquest?

Speaking of challenging rocks, Stan rappelled down this arch back in high school.

It was so nice to be out in the cool air and warm sun.

It was especially great to spend time with Summer...

...and have fun with her :)

Update

2011-11-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

Rachel and Heather turned two cake mixes into cupcakes for Mutual the other day. This is what Rachel did with the leftover batter.

Inexplicably, the "after "photo uploaded sideways.

One recent Sunday, Rachel and I were unintentionally color coordinated and decided it would be fun to have a picture. We had a hard time being serious.

For Veterans' Day, we went on an outing. Rachel let me do her hair a la Pinterest.

Everyone was happy to be out of school and together.

I pointed a squirrel out to the kids and Michael tried to keep Naomi from running up and scaring it away.

Heather took some lovely pictures.

We had a delicious lunch. I ordered two sandwiches and an order of onion rings for seven people and we still took extra food home!

Naomi showed me this picture that Rachel made her.

Lastly, we have some very sad news.

On our way to St. George for Thanksgiving, we planned on dropping Bertram Wooster at some friends' to be pet sat while we were out of town. Unfortunately, he flew away while we were all chatting in the front yard. The local shelters haven't seen him yet. We miss him and are sad and lonely.

Bye, bye Bertie :(

Forgotten Bookmark

2011-11-13T17:55:00.000-08:00

I am teaching a couple of bookbinding classes at our local museum and have been gathering materials. For one of the classes, we will remake a vintage book into a journal and I have been scouring thrift stores and library book sales for books to use. When I opened one of them and found a butterfly, I knew right away I wanted to submit it to Forgotten Bookmarks.

Last night...

2011-11-10T10:06:00.001-08:00

...there was a ring around the moon.

Naomi's Alien

2011-11-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

He's watching you!

Seven Billion and Counting and Counting and...

2011-11-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

Amid news reports this past week and a half that the world population has reached 7 billion, I had a couple of budding demographers in the back seat of the car while I went to the drive through atm at the bank this morning.

This is what I heard -

Michael - There are more than 9 people in the world you know.

Naomi - I kno-o-o-w! There is more like a hundred and one!

Michael - No, more like a hundred and fifty five!!!

Naomi - I'm going to count. I'm going to count ALL the people I see. One, two, three, four...

Michael - Some of those are just car seats. Don't count the empty car seats!

Naomi - ...five, six...

Michael - I am going to write it down and whoever gets the most wins.

Naomi - I got up to seven!

Michael ended up counting to 56 by the end of our trip, but he admits he still doesn't know how many people there are in the WHOLE world.

Field Trip

2011-11-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

Last month, Michael, Naomi and I went on a field trip with our homeschool group. We were happy that some of our friends were there, too. Sierra, Carmella and Catalina were much better at smiling at the camera than my two!

Each kid got a couple of turns tossing apples into the grinder to make apple cider.

There was a potbelly pig wandering around, looking at the ground for good things to eat. All of a sudden, it looked up and it was surrounded by elementary school kids. The pig started backing up SLOWLY, but finally resigned itself to being petted.

The program included being taught about what it was like to homestead in the West. Naomi sat in the front row and raised her hand to answer five or six questions. I was impressed with her bravery :)

Both of the kids favorite part of the trip was the "tin" (aluminum pie plate) smith craft.

I felt like a daredevil holding the nail for Naomi while she hammered away.

We ended the day with some cider and a caramel apple. Delicious!

Halloween...bleh

2011-10-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I don't like this "holiday" much. Just call me a Halloween Grinch (thanks to my cousin Lorna and Dr. Seuss for the name).

I don't like the blood, gore or general mayhem. There are a few things I love about the day, though.

I love the treats. I eat way too much candy. Maybe my stomachache is adding to my grumpiness. These are the Gingersnap Jack o' Lanterns I sent to Kelly's class party.

I love carving pumpkins. Thanks to the Elder's Quorum who threw a fun party Friday night that included a pumpkin carving contest. My owl won me a big chocolate bar :)

I also love seeing the kids dressed up and having fun. I usually (except late at night while I type, apparently) suppress my bad mood and try to have fun for their sakes. Aren't they adorable?

Naomi the Princess

Michael the Knight

Kelly the Cowgirl

Gwen the Moon

Heather the Greek Goddess

Rachel the Hippie

From the Last Few Weeks

2011-10-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

Bertie loves these little whiffle balls. He loves them to death. He has destroyed at least five and the time from destruction to destruction is getting shorter. Last time I went to the bird farm, I asked how much a case was. They gave me a 10% discount of the per ball price.

Stan's sister Marcia and her boys came for a visit. Heather took pictures one afternoon in the front yard.

Alex

Cameron

We had craft night for FHE and Rachel made this lovely charm bracelet out of my bead stash.

I like how it coordinates with her manicure!

While I'm on the subject...

2011-10-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

A couple of things I wish I'd known about Pinterest before I started:

You don't have to follow all the boards of the people you follow. If you are not interested in that particular board, go to their name and unfollow just that board.

It isn't rude to change the description of the pin if you repin it.

To "mention" someone, just type the @ sign into your description and them their name. They'll be notified, so if I want to show Summer something, that is what I do. It is also good to mention a pinner if you are pinning their work.

My favorite tip - when you pin something from a website, select the wording from the original site you want and it becomes your description text - easy peasy.

Finally, make sure if you pin something from a website that it's a permalink. It is frustrating to come across a fascinating project, follow the link and it goes to a blog post that has nothing to do with the pinned project. I also try to remember to be thorough and check the things I repin before I add them to my boards to make sure the link is good.

Happy Pinning :)

Our New Addiction

2011-10-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Rachel is probably the least into it. I'm not saying who is the most addicted, but we are all having fun! You can tell a little bit about each of us by looking at our boards. Leave a comment if you want an invitation :)

Amy

Summer

Rachel

Heather

Gwen

Kelly

Heather the Scholar

2011-10-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

Heather's principal sent her this note -

We are so proud of her :)

Michael is Seven

2011-10-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

Our big boy is getting bigger :) He asked for fish tacos and nopales tacos for his birthday dinner. Since I was not feeling very adventurous, we stuck with canned nopalitos. Unlike fresh nopales, they were, well, canned, so Stan fried them up with some chicken. You can see the chicken nopalito taco filling in the lower right hand corner above. It was delicious.

Rachel baked his cake, made the frosting, and then I took over and decorated it, if you can call it that! That is a sugar "M" in the middle. I think I could submit every one of the cakes I have ever "decorated" to Cake Wrecks and get some kind of lifetime achievement award :)

We added seven sparklers, lighted them as fast as we could and quickly realized that his nifty candles cheated him out of the "blow them all out and get a wish". They blew themselves out!
It was still fun :)

So, just a quick update on Michael. His favorite color is shiny red, he has lost two teeth, he bought himself a pocketknife with the birthday money his big sister and grandparents sent him, he is good at figuring out how things work and his favorite parts of school are the art classes and the field trips!

Friends

2011-10-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

Last week, Michael, Naomi and I met some friends for lunch and a trip to the museum. Here are all the kids on the marble stairs. It was so much fun to spend time with Victoria, Issac, Rebecca and Benjamin :)

Saturday, Kelly had some friends over to work on a school project. They have the assignment to write and perform a puppet show. They have two scenes, and they finished the backgrounds.

We are so grateful for friends. They make life sweeter :)

L.A.County Fair

2011-10-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Last month, Michael, Nomi and I went to the L.A. Country Fair. It was well into the hundreds and one of the hottest days of the year, so they are sweaty in every single picture. We stayed until the two big water bottles that I brought were empty and we then left :)

We saw some bees and bought some honey sticks.

The kids got up close to a baby alligator.

This display was my favorite exhibit at the fair :)

The fair had these picture boards ALL over. After my two compadres caught on, they had to stop at every single one they saw. here are my favorites (out of many). Enjoy!

Camping

2011-10-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here's my last August catch up post. Early in the month, we drove through hours of traffic to go camping at the beach. Someone in the back seat took this while I was driving on the PCH.

We set up camp Thursday night, ate Dutch oven enchiladas, and cheesecake I made at home. We sat by the fire a while, packed up all the food and went to bed. I was really glad we were careful about putting dinner away, because some raccoons and...

...either an army of rodents, or one very persistent muddy squirrel came looking for food in the night.

One of the days we were there, I took Rachel and Naomi shopping and Stan took the other kids hiking. I think Heather took these pictures -

Friday night, we had another, bigger fire and roasted things. Hotdogs, sausages...

...marshmallows...

...bananas stuffed and wrapped in foil...

(before)

(after)

...and pickles! (that was not my idea)

We spent as much time as we could on the beach.

We missed having Summer with us, but it was a fun trip.

Heather's Photography

2011-10-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

Barefoot Croquet for FHE

2011-10-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

Now that I am caught up for July, I am working on August. One evening during that hot month, we took advantage of the long daylight hours and played croquet on the front lawn. Rachel, Heather and I took these pictures...

Unrelated

2011-10-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

The kids have been watching me make books. They wanted to try it out. On Labor Day, when everyone was home from school, we sat down together and created. Some of the kids didn't finish all the way and I finally (you know how it is with projects) helped the last two with their stitching yesterday. Rachel also made a second one while she listened to General Conference.

I was so excited that everyone's book was finally done and wanted to take a picture of ALL of them together...but Naomi couldn't find her book. She looked everywhere. Then I offered anyone a dollar if they found it before 12:30 and a few of her siblings helped her look even more. No luck. I looked everywhere. Still no luck. I really wanted my picture, so I upped it to $2, then five! That's a lot for a cheapo like me.

Now, Gwen is $5 richer and here is my picture! I hope you enjoy it :)

For Naomi's and Michael's criss cross bound books, they chose the ribbon and papers and I got everything ready. I helped get their stitching started, but they did most of it on their own. Kelly and Gwen each made a do-si-do book after choosing their own piles of pretty papers. Heather picked some of my Italian butterfly paper to cover her stab bound book and Rachel made a couple pamphlet stitched books, one embellished with her name.

For lunch yesterday, I made some fruit dip and Kelly cut up pears and bananas. She got creative with her presentation :)

Last night, Stan went out to the backyard to run around the track a couple of times, but instead, came in and asked who wanted to see a raccoon. A bunch of us rushed out, but Heather followed it up a tree taking pictures all the way. This was the best one. The whole time I was looking at it, I kept wanting to ask if it liked chicken, "Huh, huh, do you? Like chicken, huh?!?"

Port of Long Beach Tour

2011-10-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

We all listened to Conference today and it was so nice. I love listening to all the talks and having a quiet day at home with the family.

This is my last July catch up post, and I considered skipping it, but it was so fun, I wanted to remember. We went on a boat tour of the Port of Long Beach! It was free, but you have to plan ahead a bit to get tickets.

I wanted to go on the tour with Stan and the kids for a few reasons -

1. I love going out on the ocean in a boat :)

2. I have always been fascinated by the huge cranes and mind bogglingly large stacks of train cars I see when we drive by the ports around here.

3. It is nice to do something together as a family.

4. It is always nice to feel the breeze in your hair. (Maybe that is the same as #1!)

It took a little maneuvering by our captain to get out on the tour because there was a water skiing race that day.

There were also LOTS of boats there watching the race...

...including the Coast Guard keeping an eye on everyone :)

Once we got around to the port, there was so much to see. like tugboats...

...enormous anchors...

...and lifeboats on all the big ships.

I wasn't sure what they were at first. Did they all have to have submarines for some reason(don't laugh at me Tim!)? So, I asked one of the crew members and he pointed out that the lifeboats had roofs to keep the sun off anyone stuck on one.

And my favorite thing to see, the big cranes! Number 1 is the box the operator sits in and number 2 is the crane that picks up the containers.

We saw a little wildlife.

There were lots of different flags and languages....

...and piles all over the place.

Salt -

Tires -

Metal sorted for recycling -

It was fascinating to learn some history and see it up close :)

FHE Activity AND Treat

2011-09-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, for family home evening, our activity was decorating sugar cookies and our treat was eating them. Well, some of them. Even our desert loving children had to save some for lunch on Tuesday. Here are pictures of everyone's most beautiful cookies.

Rachel

Naomi

Heather

Michael

Gwen

Kelly
(more candy corn than cookie)

Family Reunion

2011-09-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

This past July, we went to the annual family reunion on Stan's side. Here are his parents. I sure lucked out in the in-law department. They are as nice as you get :)

There were a lot of people there!

Jeff took twenty (?), thirty(?), a hundred (too many to count) nieces, nephews and grandkids fishing. He let every single kid have a turn, some even got second and third tries. Almost every kid caught a fish. Well, probably every kid caught one, but some kids, who will remain unnamed, lost one or two as well.

There was lots of teenager fun...

...and singing at the campfire.

There were marshmallows and some jaw dropping marshmallow feats performed.

We saw lovely blue dragonflies...

...humongous moths...

...and lots of deer.

It was a great trip :)

Funny Mo

2011-09-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

My friend Kristin and I trade off the school pick up responsibilities. It is fun to have her daughter, Sydney in the car. Apparently Naomi agrees.

Sydney emailed me this from her phone -

Gwen the Adventuress

2011-09-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

Gwen did the same math program this past July that Heather did two years ago. The kids spent the first four days of the week learning in the classroom. On Friday the parents were invited to come for an awards ceremony and the kids got to go on the ropes course. Gwen was amazing! She climbed a telephone pole and jumped off -

She pulled the release when she was suspended in the air and went into freefall -

Out of maybe 50 boys and girls, she was the first up to the top of the climbing wall...

...AND the very first one to make it ALL the way across this whatever it is (help here would be appreciated) -

She didn't want me to put up the video of her going all the way across, but she let me put up this little bit of her at the end. Listen to all that applause! That's my Gwen :)

Gwen's Birthday Party

2011-09-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

I am still playing catch up with the posts. I think I will have July done by the end of the week.Rachel looked over my shoulder at the pictures I was uploading and asked, "Why are you blogging about that? It happened forever ago!"

Anyway, just because, here is a post from August. Gwen turned twelve!

Happy (belated) Birthday Gwen!!!

Now we have three girls in Young Women, three kids in Primary and one big girl in Relief Society(!).

Gwen invited some friends from school and some from church and we all went to a lovely little botanic garden for games and hiking.

The turtle pond was a favorite with all.

After a while, it was back to the house for cupcakes and presents. It was fun to hang out with such great girls :)

Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, the Soccer (Football?) Loving Budgerigar

2011-09-23T04:13:00.000-07:00

Our Summer - Part 1

2011-09-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

I have piles of pictures to sort and blog about from the past summer. I'm trying to catch up!

Last June, we traded a couple of our kids for a couple of their cousins. Brecken took the same sailing class that Rachel, Heather and Gwen took last summer (and Heather and Gwen took again last month).

We went with Brecken and Natalie to Chinatown...

...and out for dim sum. Yum!

During the week they were here, our ward had a camp fundraiser auction. I made and donated some cakes. Rachel promised peanut butter cookies and Heather and Gwen auctioned off some babysitting. The auction made enough money to pay for camp - whew!

While we were having fun down here with Brecken and Natalie, Heather and Gwen were riding horses and...

...catching snakes :)

It was NOT my day.

2011-09-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was making myself a lovely hot fudge sundae, scooping the ice cream, heating the hot fudge in the microwave, and watching the hot fudge explode all over my kitchen. It splattered from the ceiling to the floor and everywhere in between.

I guess wiping up all that hot fudge up got me in a mood, because I decided to clean out my fridge, including taking the shelves out, washing them in warm soapy water and watching two of the four explode...self destruct...and fly all over the kitchen. Poor Michael even got hit and cut (just a tiny bit) by flying refrigerator shelf shrapnel.

Ugh.

Book for VT and Books for RS

2011-08-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

It took me a while after the class I went to in June, but I finally made some more covers for Coptic bound books. I gave the first one I completed to a sister I visit taught who moved away, as a goodbye gift. I tried inlaying an image from the endpapers, but I was I little off, hence the glitter.

My next adventure in bookmaking was figuring out Japanese stab binding (I don't know if I really got it right, but I approximated it enough to work) to make some small notebook sized books for sisters who attended my Relief Society class on scripture study to stitch and use with their scriptures.

These were the samples I came up with.

This is what the preparation looked like.

Here are the two books I stitched during class to show the sisters how to do it. It was fun to figure out and then to teach :)

I plan to make more books, lots more I hope, so I started another blog just for them so that this blog doesn't get cluttered up with my hobbies. I am a bit shy about it, so I don't want to put the url here, but if you are interested, leave a comment, email or call and I will send you on over :)

Weighty Thoughts

2011-08-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today, we went to our CHEP to pick up Michael's books. It was a big pile.

When we got home, I weighed Michael and he is around 38 1/2 pounds.

The books weighed about 65 pounds.

That includes 8 teacher's additions, 8 textbooks, and 14 workbooks.

Whew!

East Meets West

2011-08-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday for breakfast, I had a bagel that had been flown frozen from Queens to a local bakery and a glass of orange juice squeezed from oranges picked right off our So Cal tree that morning. Mmmmm :)

At the Park

2011-08-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

The three youngest kids had swimming lessons while their sisters were at Girl's Camp. I've tried a few different places for lessons, but went with the one that was a 2 minute drive this time. It was extra nice because a friend who moved a while ago was taking her kids at the same time, so we got to catch up.

Michael is excited (but nervous) for his turn on the diving board :)

Kelly swan in the deep water a lot. It was a workout for her!

Naomi spent the time at the park eying the ice cream cart, so when it was her turn far a date with me, that is what she wanted. The girl pushing the cart finally let me take a picture when I told her she didn't have to be in it. She seemed pretty shy, but Mo wasn't.

Someone wanted to share...

19 Years

2011-07-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

Stan and I went to the mountains overnight on Friday to celebrate our 19th anniversary. We stayed in a little cabin with a jacuzzi, ate a delicious dinner of steak and swordfish and went on a zipline tour. It was so nice to get away and just be alone together, but it was also nice to get back to the kids and find them happy and well :)

Here are a couple of pictures from the ziplines. There were nine total. We got up to about 46 miles per hour and the longest was 825 feet.
It was fun!

I kept adjusting my helmet mid-ride because it didn't fit very well, so it is a good thing I didn't land on my head.

Speaking of milestones - this is the 500th post on Blogography! I looked back, and we started it five years and three weeks ago from today.

Thanks for reading it :)

Pick an Author Photo Contest--$25 Amazon Gift Card

2011-07-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

Stan had me take a bunch of pictures of him to use for his upcoming book. We chose the ten best photos...and then we ran out of decision making brain cells, so can we use yours?

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

There are two ways to enter -

1. Leave a comment on this blog post telling us which one you think would be the best author photo and include a way for us to contact you (e.g., email address) to deliver your prize. Please only one vote per person age 18 and older.

2.Like the book's facebook page or follow the author on twitter and leave a separate comment here on this blog saying that you did.

The winning entry will be chosen from the comments on this blog, so if you do both 1 and 2, it will double your chances.

On August 15th we will randomly pick one comment to win...

...a $25 Amazon.com gift card!

Good luck and thanks for your help :)

***UPDATE***

Thanks to RANDOM.org, we have a winner...

...and the winner is Shell Holland!

Thank you ALL for entering and for your feedback on the photos :)

Provo

2011-07-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

Last month sometime, I don't even remember which week without looking at the calendar, the five youngest kids, Summer, and I (Stan was in California and Rachel was in Indiana) stayed with my brother and sister-in-law in Genola while we worked on getting Summer settled at BYU. There may also have been some (a lot of) fun going on that week, too.

I remembered that there were fish tanks in the basement of one of the buildings on campus, but I didn't remember which one, so I asked at the information desk, "Where are the fish in the basement?" She had no idea what I was talking about, but after we looked around the wrong science building for a few minutes, a more informed person sent us to the Widstoe building. Besides seeing the fish and crustaceans, we saw a student working in the growth chamber and I was able to tell the kids that that is what their dad did when he was at BYU.

We also went to the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. More than one kid was confused when I excitedly told them that we were going to the Bean Museum. They caught some of my enthusiasm when they realized we were looking at animals instead of legumes.

I really like this picture of Summer, but I couldn't tell you why. Maybe I am just sentimental about anything Summer since we all miss her a lot.

There were walls of child eye level heads that lent themselves to the following silliness -

I also got to see some college roommates and had so much fun! Michelle fed us lunch and my kids played and visited with her kids. It felt so nice to be in her home and it was wonderful to see her and her family :)

Summer, Naomi and I also went out to a long, delightful lunch with Karla, Kathleen, April and Kelly. Summer understood that much better why I had so much fun in college after she hung out with these wonderful women for a couple of hours. My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing when we were done!

Some of the other, non-photographed things we did were to help Summer get a state ID, a bank account, books and food. We ate at the Creamery on 9th and at the Wilkinson Center. We went to the Museum of Art (no pictures allowed) and helped the girls who were moving out of Summer's new apartment clean the bathrooms (strangely enough, that was part of getting Summer her state ID!).

I started following a blog a couple weeks before our trip and the blog author was teaching a class the week we were there. I was SO excited to be able to take a class from Karleigh Jae! Here is the book I made.

It was sewn using a double needle Coptic binding. I hope I said that right!

I love the endpapers :)

The day Summer was in Freshman Orientation, I took the younger kids to Cascade Springs. The road was closed, so we went around the back way. It was kind of nice because I got to stop on the side of the road and show the kids some lilacs, one of my all time favorite flowers, which don't grow where we live.

The most exciting part of the day was seeing a baby moose, just a few feet away. We kept hoping we wouldn't run into its mother, and we didn't - whew!

We also saw a snake :)

It was a lovely day and a lovely trip, but it turned bittersweet as we said goodbye to Summer.

We can't wait to see her again!

Cute

2011-07-17T19:46:00.001-07:00

This weekend I have added two more long posts in my to-post-pile, Gwen's day on the rope course and our tour of the port of Long Beach, but I am procrastinating them along with the three other posts still waiting to be done and just putting some pictures up. These are all things I thought were cute enough to photograph during the week.

Naomi caught a baby lizard.

I don't know what I think is cuter, the tiny reptile, or those chubby, grimy hands - okay, I do know, it is the hands :)

Each of the kids has some summer vacation meal assignments and the other day Heather set out sandwich fixings for cheese and mayonnaise OR peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Naomi didn't hear the "OR" part.

Michael was having fun in the bath with bubbles. The blur over his neck is Mo's hand helping him add MORE bubbles.

Kelly has such a cute smile and...

...I think Stan is really cute!

My kid is turning into a shark.

2011-07-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

See, he has two rows of teeth!

4th of July for Pyromaniacs

2011-07-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

It is either feast or famine as far as posts go around here, isn't it? Someday, in the near or not so near future, I'll post about the week we spent in Provo dropping Summer off at BYU, the week and a half we had cousins staying with us, and the long weekend we spent at Stan's family reunion, but first, I wanted to show what we did when most of us (we miss you, Summer!) finally got home. It was the 4th of July. Stan took the kids up on the roof to watch the municipal fireworks from a distance and then we had our own little show at the dining room table.

Pyromania, anyone?

We started off with orange peel fireworks...

...which progressed to seeing what lighting a whole orange on fire would look like...

...and ended up being really crazy when we lit ourselves on fire.

Speaking of Summer, I talked to her on the phone on her 18th birthday and she told me that she and her roommate just had fun lighting their hands on fire and then she added, "and you can't do anything about it!"

She's right, she is an adult now and so we figured, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Hee hee

2011-07-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Someone was searching on Google for "Missouri-isms" and was directed to our blog and a post called "Mo-isms".

I don't think that is what they were looking for...

Plop!

2011-06-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

Naomi likes to somersault from an upright position...

Yellow Belts

2011-06-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Heather, Gwen, Kelly, Michael, and Naomi took a karate class this spring.

By the end of class, they were all yellow belts.

Woohoo!

After the ceremony, their teacher had them do some drills...

Hiya!

Beach Camera Lost and Found

2011-06-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

When we went to the beach a few weekends ago, I found some long lost pictures on the beach camera from a time when Will, Cynthia and their kids came to visit. Using my powers of deduction and observation (since my memory stinks) I conclude that we went to the park, Chinatown and the beach :)

Tristan

Nikki

Andrea

Niquelle

Oops, now what do I do?

The rest of these are tide pools. I love tide pools :)

Baby Bird

2011-06-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

Heather, using a lot of patience and my camera, took a picture of a baby sparrow whose parents built a nest in our pecan tree...

Car Show with Grandpa

2011-06-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

My dad was working in Phoenix for a couple of months and took a weekend to come see us. It was great o have him there. It was also the weekend of our local chili cook off and car show, so we headed on over.

My dad mentioned that this was the same model car he drove when he was Summer's age, so I got a picture of him in front of it.

It was so much fun that I told the kids that were with us (the 5 youngest) that they could each pick their favorite car and I'd take a picture of them in front of the car of their choice. Somehow I missed Heather. She probably would have picked the police horses that were there instead of a car, anyway.

Graduations Galore

2011-06-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

Seminary graduation was the last Sunday in May. Summer finished all four years. Rachel finished her first two. We are proud of them both. It takes dedication to get up and go in the early morning and I am so glad our girls have made it a priority.

The week that followed held - count them - three more graduations, starting with Michael's -

He was Master of Ceremonies, which meant he welcomed everyone and handed the mike over to the people who were really in charge. Coming from a sometimes shy family, I thought he did really well!

Here are all the graduates, dressed up as what they want to become (well, except Michael didn't have his whole getup on yet).

But you can see him dressed up as a zookeeper here -

Gwen also graduated, or promoted, from Elementary school.

Here she is shaking the principal's hand.

Each sixth grade teacher gave six awards, one of each of the following to a boy and a girl - Good Citizen, Most Improved and 110% Effort. I was touched by what Gwen's teacher had to say about the winners of her final award -

And then, the biggest of all, Summer's High School Graduation!

For all those grandparents and other interested parties who would like to see her receive her diploma, here it is -

We all love her and will miss her so very, very much!

Fish Tacos and Goodbyes

2011-06-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

The last bit before Summer left, we squashed in some of our favorite family activities one last time. On a Saturday, we went to the beach and the Friday night before Stan took the three oldest to UT, we all went out for fish tacos and yogurt.

Heather took the black and white photos at the taco place. I took 2/3 of the photos at the yogurt place, and I don't remember who took the other one...

The day we went to the beach, we walked past this house and admired all their birdhouses.

Naomi and Michael in the sand.

Michael facing down those big waves.

Kelly happy to be there.

Gwen with the seaweed belt she makes for herself every time we go.

Michael found a small shelled creature on seaweed he picked up.

Heather being contemplative.

Rachel relaxing.

The only pictures of Summer I had in my camera when we got home were ones where she was walking away, which I guess is what all the fun things were preparing us for, weren't they?

Kelly's Birthday Party

2011-06-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

Kelly had a birthday party with friends old (from church) and new (from school). This past year was her first year in a classroom, not homeschooled, and she had so much fun making new friends. It was hard for her to adjust to the new setting and their kindness helped a lot.

As I was planning it, I let slip to Rachel that I was going to make a piñata with paper grocery bags decorated with streamers. That was not acceptable to her. In fact, she told me it was "ghetto." So, she enlisted Heather and they spent three hours the night before the party making a paper mâché strawberry piñata. It was so cute, it was a shame to break it.

Here are all the girls, Katelynn, Olivia, Victoria, Nyah and Kelly decorating their treat bags.

The first activity was bobbing for donuts.

Then, they tossed water balloons back and forth to see which team's balloons would last the longest.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey

We had a treasure hunt. The girls followed long, tangled, twisted all over pieces of yarn around the backyard to find their treasures.

Finally, the piñata!

After cupcakes and presents, everyone painted a bird house. Kelly has fun friends :)

Trip East

2011-06-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, Kelly and I flew to PA to visit my parents and sister, Sara. Each kid gets a turn to fly east with me when they are 7 or 8ish and this time it was Kelly's turn to go. Here she is waiting to take off!

We got to my parents late Thursday night and it took us a while to get going Friday morning (afternoon?). We went to the Central Market in Lancaster and bought some whole cumin and fresh apple cider, which I miss from my childhood in New Hampshire.

We also went to Lititz and bought a hot pretzel at the pretzel factory (we were going to take a tour, but the man at the front register warned us that the place was crawling with middle-schoolers {scary!} and suggested we just stay away).

We HAD to stop by Wilber Chocolate.

We also went to the Lititz Museum. The two parquet clocks were my favorite exhibits.

Friday night, Sara and I went for a sisters' dinner out and my parents took Kelly to a huge buffet place. She ate a lot of meat and dessert.

We all met back at the house for more dessert and board/card games with Sara's boyfriend Greg. It was great to meet someone I've heard so much about and I really liked him. We ended the evening watching Dr. Who. I have loved that show since I was a young teenager staying up too late to watch it on PBS and it is one of my guilty pleasures.

Saturday, my dad, Sara, Kelly and I headed to Philadelphia.

There was a man playing a dulcimer in the Independence Visitor Center. We stopped to listen for a bit.

Then we headed over to see the Liberty Bell where I made Kelly stand in front of it for about five too many pictures. Poor girl!

There was scaffolding on Independence Hall, but they tried to make up for it with a giant picture.

Here is the Assembly Room where both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed...

...and the chair George Washington sat in.

We also stopped by the American Philosophical Society and made some pressed flower art. Here is Sara's -

Sunday we went to church and then drove to Maryland to visit with Mark, Cathy, their six red headed kids, Dot and Karen. We have known Cathy and her family since we lived on Staten Island. Cathy mentioned that their ward only met for an hour because the water main broke in the building. They went ahead with Sacrament Meeting because it was a missionary farewell. I really enjoyed visiting with the whole family.

After Cathy's house, we took my dad to the airport and checked into a hotel in Alexandria, Va, near where Stan and I lived for a couple of years around when Heather was born. Kelly and I went to visit another family I knew then. They have five girls and Kelly enjoyed Grace the most because they are the same age. Here is a picture Jen painted of Grace. Isn't it beautiful? Jen takes portrait commissions, if you are interested...

While I was visiting with Jen, she told me about the missionary farewell in another state that she went to earlier, where everyone had to go home after an hour because a pipe broke and there was a family with six adorable redheaded children. What Jen couldn't understand was how a brunette mother (who was actually Karen, their aunt) could have all redheads. I was able to clear up that mystery, but we were still left in awe of what a small world it is.

Monday, my mom, Sara, Kelly and I went on a tour of the Library of Congress. It was lovely and inspiring.

There were quotes, mosaics, painting and sculptures everywhere. This one made me think of my two oldest daughters :)

Monday was also Kelly's birthday. I told the flight attendant and she and her coworkers made this "cake" for Kelly with whatever they had available. I guess there were clean out of cake mixes up there :)

Her t.p. cake was kind of fun, but later they did something REALLY fun. About five minutes before we landed, they asked everyone to close their window shades. I thought that was a little strange, but then it got weirder when they asked everyone to turn off their reading lights and the plane was plunged into darkness. Then, they asked everyone to turn on their flight attendant call lights, which were about the size of twinkle lights and looked like rows of BIRTHDAY CANDLES all down the plane. They told Kelly that this was her very own giant cake and then everyone sang her "Happy Birthday". It was VERY COOL!

I am not dead...

2011-06-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

...although I felt like it was imminent earlier this week. Just kidding! I have a bad cold and am being an over-dramatic wimp. I have been trying to be lazy, but Stan says I am the busiest lazy person he knows, what with three graduations (K, 6th and 12th grades) to prepare for and go to this week. I will post pictures and videos and all that fun stuff someday, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share the painting Summer created yesterday. It is titled, "Procrastinating Packing to Leave for College," which she is doing TOMORROW (packing AND leaving) and which makes me so very happy for her and and also makes want to hide under my pillow and have a good long cry, simultaneously.

Hey, Mommy...

2011-05-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

I hear that a lot and it is frequently followed by, "...look at this."

Here are a few fun pictures of some of the things Michael has been sharing with me.

He showed me how he can color with his mouth...

...made a nifty thing-a-ma-bob with Magnetix...

...and wore some 3D glasses around for a while.

In that last picture especially, he reminds me of my dad.

What do you think?

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

Our Primary Presidency always does something fun for the kids to give their mothers. This year, I got 4 noodle necklaces with my kids' pictures on them and cards with their thoughts on my intelligence (see below).

Stan took me to backyard for pictures and my two youngest got in on the act. They are standing by the flowering pear tree Stan and I planted
last night.

While we were out there, I noticed that it needed more dirt. Stan thought I was pretty funny with the shovel in my heels...

I also got a bunch of lovely cards and some pretty artwork by Heather.

Summer and Rachel gave me some beads and a yummy smelling candle. Stan brought me breakfast in bed and made an amazing dinner of fish, orange basmati rice, asparagus and mango lassi. It has been a great day :)

A Blob of Jammas

2011-05-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

This morning, I was reading my scriptures on one couch and Naomi was hanging out on the other, waiting for breakfast. Heather was making French toast and Michael was asleep.

She said, Hey Mommy! Look at me. I am just a blob of jammas!"

Last week...

2011-05-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

...for FHE we colored eggs. We finally got to it the day after Easter, but it was still fun. Summer invited Anthony over. Rachel is hiding behind him :)

Here are everyone's "favorites", chosen by some with much deliberation, by others with insouciance.

After we colored them, we had an Easter egg hunt in the front yard. This is the least blurry of a dozen or more photos...

Happy Belated Easter!

Senior Prom

2011-04-30T15:57:00.001-07:00

The big day is finally here! I think Summer and I spent at least five hours at the fabric store figuring her dress out. She chose the purple fabric for the sash to match a pair of my shoes that she wanted to wear. I finished sewing yesterday. Isn't she lovely?

She made the flowers at her waist. She got the idea for the poofs by her hips from a dress she saw a Macy's.

Anthony came to pick her up with more flowers for both of them.

Summer's corsage was easy to put on. It had an elastic wristband.

Anthony's boutonniere, on the other hand, came with two BIG pins. Don't worry, no blood was drawn.

Don't they look schnazzy?

A Man with An Opinion

2011-04-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

On our road trip, we passed a couple of Adopt-a-Highway signs that read -

A fool and his trash are soon parted - M. Bibb

Like nose hair, litter is ugly - Mike Bibb

I like this guy :)

Happy Earth Day!

Spring Break! Road Trip! Woohoo!

2011-04-13T07:18:00.000-07:00

The kids and I (Stan had to work and we missed him) hit the road last week. We headed east and stayed with my darling friend Mandy in AZ. These signs on her fence made me smile. I'm guessing the first one is spot on, but the second one is a little bit of an exaggeration.

Here is her dog Ginger...see what I mean?

The kids LOVED Ginger and they also loved swimming.

Mandy made a chocolate cake for Heather, whose birthday was on Thursday. Heather really scored. She had three different birthday cakes this year. Amanda and I took care of the beaters!

Here is a video of the amazing birthday candle Mandy put on Heather's cake.

We had fun listening to Amanda and David play the piano and drums together. When they were done, David let the kids mess around and play his drums. They had a blast.

We spent an day (during which we went shopping at some really fun stores) and two nights in AZ. It was wonderful spending time with Amanda and her family.

The next day, we headed east again. The desert we drove through, especially for the first hour or two, was beautiful. The picture doesn't come close to doing it justice. There were flowers of almost every color of the rainbow in bloom. My favorite was the ocotillo - so lovely!

I am glad my sister-in-law Steph gave me the heads up, because when I saw the Gila Valley Temple on the side of the road, I stopped and we had lunch, instead of driving by with my mouth hanging open in confusion :)

We went to see Matt, Steph and their darling girls in NM next. They had pu pu platters for dinner when we got there. They were amazingly delicious and I ate way more than fit in my stomach...oooo full!

Matt and Steph also had a cake for Heather (cake #2 - lucky girl).
Aren't the cherry blossoms pretty?

Here is birthday song video #2. Can you guess what my favorite part of the video is?

After dinner, Summer and Rachel both got on Facebook and chatted with each other. I kid you not.

We piled most of the kids in the living room which is just how they wanted it, at least until the middle of the night, when some of them wandered in to the room I was in to snuggle.

Here are all the cousins together.

We spent two nights and a day with Matt and Steph. The day we spent with them, they took us to the coolest place, Hueco Tanks State Park. The pictures pale in comparison to reality. It is a honeycomb of boulders, caves and crevasses to climb and crawl through - kid (and parent) heaven.

Opal, Matt and Steph's youngest.

One of the many crawl spaces.

You never knew where someone would appear. I looked up and there was Matt.

Steph and their oldest, Ruby.

Coral, their middle girl.

Gwen was really in her element.

Here is my beautiful Heather on her 13th birthday.

After we hiked around for a while, we ran all the kids through the restroom and started on our tour. I thought the old archeologist who was our guide looked like the Pied Piper most of the time.

Here is Newspaper Rock, with paintings and graffiti layered on top of each other from the 1800's to thousands of years ago.

The cactuses were blooming.

The kids were excited when the guide showed them a rock smoothed by woolly mammoths wanting a scratching spot.

These masks were some of the older paintings on the rock walls.

These are more recent and were painted by Apaches.

He took us to one spot near water that had a slide smoothed by generations of Native American children playing. Our kids did their part to erode.

Naomi was a trooper on our hikes. She kept going and going until she tripped and fell near the end and then she wanted carried for a bit. One of the men on our tour said she did better than some of the adults on a hike he took a month before. It was a wonderful day and especially fun to spend it with Steph and Matt :)

Somehow, I ended up with three kids in bed with me that night, on a full sized fold out couch. When I woke up in the morning, Michael had a leg over me on one side and Naomi had a leg over me on the other. It was tricky getting up...

Friday we headed back to AZ to stay one more night. David planned Mandy's birthday party for that night, a bit early, so that I could come. It was so nice of him and so fun. Somehow, Amanda got me on the dance floor which brought back memories of stake dances when we were teenagers. How did the time go by so fast?

Here she is with David and her son Nathan.

We made it home safe and had one more birthday party, this time with brownies and ice cream :)

Happy Birthday Heather!

More of Heather's Photography

2011-04-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some more...

On the way home...

2011-04-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

...from St. George, we stopped in the mountains in California. I made sure to take a picture of Michael in front of a Joshua tree because he is fascinated with them. On the way there, he kept asking WHEN we would see the Joshua trees.

I agree, they are pretty neat looking...

...but not too good for climbing or tree houses.

The girls found a horned lizard, held it and chased it around for a bit. It tried to hide under the arch of my boot. I promise I didn't step on it!

I like this picture of Gwen :)

Trip to Saint George

2011-04-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Saint George to attend Aunt Zella's funeral. It was a lovely, bittersweet day. Summer and Rachel were able to help by playing the piano and all the children sang "I Love to See the Temple". Aunt Zella had worked for years in the St. George Temple, so it was appropriate. We were also able to go to Uncle Grant's viewing, but had to leave town before his funeral.

Aunt Zella was buried in the Cane Beds, AZ cemetery, not far from her (and Stan's mother's) childhood home.

I smooshed under an umbrella, but Stan was brave and got all wet.

After the burial, we drove to see some of Cane Beds. Here is the house Mother grew up in...

...and the one room schoolhouse where she went.

This is the house Stan's parents built (but never got to live in).

It was a beautiful place!

Camping with the Family

2011-04-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

We spent the week after last Christmas at a family reunion with my parents and siblings (all except Tim, whom we missed) camping at Leo Carrillo State Beach. Parrish (who is practically a siblings) and Mindy camped with us and Richard, Lorna, Jodi and Ray spent time at the beach and museum catching up with us. My mom reserved the group camp, but it washed away in a flood (or something like that), so they relocated us to four or so regular sites and we took them over.

Mmm...we ate s'mores.

We took kids to the beach...

...and walked under the PCH to get there.

We took pictures of pelicans...

...and the adults tried (can you hear us all? Move over, hold still, stop picking your nose, etc., etc.) to line up the kids to take a group shot...

..which was sort of successful. I think we are still missing a couple.

Some of us also went to the The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. They had an insect zoo, where Rachel tried to eat lunch...

...and a children's area where the kids got to touch....

...and (getting silly now) to wear.

We kept busy with all the regular camping stuff, plus trying to stay dry in torrential rains...

...but still had time for puzzles...

...bubbles...

...and tattoos!

Matt and I picked some out for each other.

I loved spending time with my family and seeing Stan and the kids hang out with them. It is a treat we don't get to enjoy very often. Thanks everyone for coming!

For the Curious

2011-04-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the two originals.

Can you find the other change I made besides the face?

p.s. My family was rather horrified by the altered photo. Gwen, for example, told me yesterday that she hoped that she didn't have nightmares...

Last night...

2011-04-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

...I gave Stan a haircut. As I was shaving his head, I started thinking about how easy he has it when he gets ready. He just uses shampoo - no conditioner, no hairdryers, no round brushing, no hairspray, no flat ironing, no combs!!

I got a little jealous. Life is so busy and I feel like I have better things to spend time on. I lose my patience with all the grooming there is to do!

So, I took the plunge and shaved my own head. What do you think?

Have you seen the...

2011-03-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

...blogger dynamic views?

Here are links to blogography for each one -

Flipcard
Mosaic
Sidebar
Snapshot
Timeslide

All five links are a bit redundant because, once you get to one, there is a drop down menu in the upper right to go to the others.

I think I like Mosaic best, so I put a link to it to the right ---->

You can view any public blogger blog with these by adding a bit to the url, like this -

[blogURL]/view

- and then using the drop down menu to choose which one you like best.

Here is a link to the Blogger Buzz post about it.

What do you think?

This evening...

2011-03-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

...Summer and I went out for dessert together. When we got home, she followed a path of rose petals and Hershey's kisses through the house...

...until she found a poster that read, "Summer, Now that I have kissed the ground you walk on, will you go to prom with me? Anthony."

Can you guess what she said?

Have I mentioned lately...

2011-03-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

...that I am really crazy about Stan?

I am!

FHE Activity

2011-03-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Marshmallow Toothpick Sculptures

Summer's Bridge

Rachel's Sheep

Heather's Collapsed Thing

Gwen's Molecule

Kelly's Three Caterpillars

Michael's Kite with a Boy and a Dog at the End

Naomi's Box and Broken Red Ant Leg

Aunt Zella

2011-03-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

Aunt Zella passed away last night. We will all miss her and were so very sad to hear of her death.

She was kind, generous and loving :)

Can't you just tell from her smile what a sweetheart she was?

One Fun Day

2011-03-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I was privileged to attend the temple marriage of Tim and Fatema. Isn't she a beautiful bride? She attends the Deaf Branch in our ward building and is my friend from seeing her smiling face in the halls at church on Sundays :)

Here are the bride and groom with their mothers outside the temple.

I picked up Summer and she went with me to Fatema and Tim's reception. Isn't is a lovely cake? They had it at an Indian restaurant's banquet hall and lunch was delicious. Even though I didn't know I didn't know Fatema's family, they were so kind to me. Her mother was especially gracious.

After the reception, Summer and I went to my friend Tammy's 80th birthday party. She was my first friend as a newly married and relocated to California girl. She lived across the street from us and we had such fun being neighbors. We have a special kinship because we both have birthdays in Feb. (her party was a month after the fact). She is well loved and it was one big shindig! She had guests from as far away as Finland :)

When we got home, Rachel had saved some of the snail cookies for us that she made. They were too delicious!

Last, but not least, Summer, Rachel and I went to Anthony's Eagle Court of Honor. Long time readers may remember meeting Anthony (he's a friend from our ward) here. His Court of Honor was a very nice occasion, as fitting a very nice young man.

It'll be even better tomorrow...

2011-03-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

...but Stan set up the telescope tonight to give the kids a chance to look
at the almost super moon.

Stan...

2011-03-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

...gave me roses :)

Nineteen years ago today...

2011-03-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

...Stan proposed :)

I had known for a while that I wanted to marry him, so when he asked me, I didn't hesitate and said, "Yes!" (obviously). Here is our engagement picture.

He was a darling from the get go. He had a couple of thousand dollars in savings when we got engaged. He used almost half of it to pay off the credit agencies that were after me (!) and the rest he spent on my rings. My mother had an engagement ring with an emerald and I really liked the idea of a colored gemstone, so that is what we looked for when we went shopping. I picked my favorite setting and we decided on an emerald, too. I wore it for a day or two and Stan kind of sheepishly admitted that he didn't like it. The stone was too dark, so back we went to the jeweler's. I chose a tourmaline that was flawless and we left the ring there to have the stone changed. After I picked it up and wore it for a few hours, I noticed that the guy who changed the stones had cracked it! How annoying!

We had to go back and choose another tourmaline, which wasn't quite as perfect, but I still think it is lovely. The saleslady was glad to see us go get married, already! So was I :)

TGAAD

2011-03-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

So, I have decided to go on TGAAD from my birthday this past month
until my birthday 2012.

You can see my profile near the bottom of this page.

Wish me luck!

Happy Pi Day!!!

2011-03-14T19:26:00.001-07:00

THE Princess

2011-03-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Last night, Naomi was in bed, hugging her stuffed princess doll. She told me that she loved her princess. I asked her who my princess was and she said, "Me!" I went on to tell her that all her sisters were my princesses. She is my littlest princess and I love her very much, but she is not the only princess in the house. This is how the conversation went -

Mo - Then what is Michael? Is he the king?

Me - Michael is Prince Charming.

Mo - Is Daddy the king?

Me - Yep, Daddy is the king.

Mo - Are you the maid?

This morning, to reiterate the "all your sisters are princesses" idea, I asked her who my princess was. This is what ensued -

Mo - Me!

Me - How about my other princesses?

Mo - Me!

Me - What about Kelly and Gwen?

Mo - Me!!!

I apparently have more explaining to do...

Birthdays, Birthdays, Everywhere

2011-03-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

During my most recent unintended blog hiatus, we had three birthdays. Stan starts each year off on a happy note with his January natal celebration.

Happy Birthday Stan!

Instead of a cake, he wanted some exotic fruits. I had fun shopping for them. All cut up and arranged, they were as pretty as, if not prettier than a cake ( at least the ones I decorate!).

We had pineapple, horned melon, blueberries, mangoes, kiwi and bananas.
It was really yummy :)

My birthday came next. My family made me some of my favorite foods for dinner - roast chicken, asparagus and scalloped potatoes.

Amanda bought me a Dairy Queen birthday cake. It was mint Oreo - mmm.

Michael gave me this card with my gift. I thanked him and asked, "What is it - a ladybug or a strawberry?" He replied, "Neither one. It is an apple with bruises!"

My sister Claire gave me a too good to be true gift...Happy Birthday to me!

Last, but not least ( in more ways than one) Naomi turned four! It made me realized that we really don't have any babies anymore, even though I tell all the kids that they will always be my babies, not matter how big they get...

Heather, Gwen, Kelly and Michael went together and bought her these hat and gloves from the dollar aisle at Target. I made her a cake with lots of her favorite color on it - PINK!

Happy Birthday Naomi!!!

Girls in Ocean Science

2011-03-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

Heather and her friend Hannah went to the Ocean Institute at Dana Point for a conference a few weeks ago.

This is the boat they went on. The saw dolphins (including babies)
and sea lions.

I had to torture them before I left and make them get behind the picture board thingy. They were troopers!

I don't know...

2011-03-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

...which smile is bigger - Kelly's or her pancake's.

She did it!

2011-03-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

Heather took part in the Nixon Library Geography Program for seventh graders. She had to memorize the location of everything on the lists below.

For the test, the docent showed her an unlabeled map of the world and gave her names of 35 different places. Heather had to point each one out. She got a perfect score :)