10/12

our glamour shot :) photo by Bentley

and Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Photo Overdose

Christmas Eve: Elizabeth and Mikey;

Nativity (Bentley - Joseph, Maxwell - shepherd,

Jonah - wise man, Ruby - Mary,

Milo - innkeeper who says, "no");

hanging the stockings with care.

Christmas Morning - opening presents,

and playing in boxes (thanks Grandpa and Grandma R)

Christmas Day - phone call with Greg,

Pa, Grandma, and Mindy come to visit

Merry Christmas!

They smiled for the above picture

in exchange for the photo below.

Milo doesn't get it . . . this year.

Tip Test and Belt Promotion

Bentley recently had a tip test,

and his second belt promotion.

Maxwell and I got to attend both events,

and John came with us to the belt promotion.

His teacher showed off with a sword -

most of the kids seemed to think that was awesome.

Here's Bentley with his orange belt.

When they get a tip or a new belt, they get to

perform "show kicks" for the audience.

Here's a video of Bentley's kicks:

Belt Promotion - Orange from jenny on Vimeo.

And It Is Still Snowing . . .

Christmas List Highlights

2010 Santa photo

A couple of the kids made Christmas lists this year,

and it was "interesting" to see what they want.

Maxwell's list:

1. regular wallet with a chain

2. book of how to write guitar music

3. A MOM WHO WILL TEACH ME HOW TO SEW

Bentley's list:

1. Yu-gi-oh cards

2. Yu-gi-oh game cube game

3. $

4. drums

5. football costume (crossed out)

6. skull shirt

7. skull pjs

8. SPIKED GAUNTLET

9. WHIP

10. fake gun

11. ipod

The Princess and the . . .

This is how Ruby went to sleep tonight

The first time anyway.

A little while later she fell out of bed and had

to start all over. She had trouble falling

back asleep, and said it was because the

bed was bumpy. Poor princess.

She eventually went back to sleep,

and now, with any luck,

John and I are going to try to get some sleep, too.

Ruby the Funky Chicken

Last Saturday we went to the BYU Women's Basketball

game . . . to watch Mikey play in the pep band.

We were able to go last year, but this year was better,

because we sat over by BYU's opponents and

the kid were actually able to SEE Mike in the band.

(Plus he slipped over to see us for a minute at 1/2 time.)

Anyway, this is a Ruby post because sometime during

the second half, the cheerleaders came through the

stands looking for little people who were willing to

do the Chicken Dance with them at a time out.

Bentley, Maxwell, and Jonah said, "no thanks,"

but Ruby literally jumped at the chance.

So down she went with the cheerleaders, to wait

(not so patiently because she was afraid her brothers

were going to eat all the popcorn before she got back)

for the special media time out and the chicken music.

In addition to the couple of kids the cheerleaders

managed to round up from the sparsely filled stands,

there were some other kids in cheerleader uniforms

who volunteered to come down and dance.

Ruby watched them, and was able to pick up some

of the routine, but her dancing was reserved (for her).

I asked her what she talked to the cheerleaders about,

and she said that they asked her name and she told them.

Then they asked what she liked, and she said,

ELEPHANTS.

Huh?

Jonah must have thought that Ruby would be thrown

around or picked up like the cheerleaders,

because he was pretty worried about her, and kept

asking if he could go down there in case she fell.

She didn't fall, but she did have a great time.

Dancing was her favorite part of the game.

Ruby's Birthday Recap

Highlight from Ruby's day:

- Play date while Mom is at the school

- Opened a new princess dress and purse

from her Aunt Mindy

- Lunch date with Dad at Pizza Factory

- Went to Scouts with Mom, Milo, and Bentley

- Waited till after Maxwell's Christmas Program

at school to have soup for dinner

- Finally opened birthday presents!!!

- Ice Cream Cones for dessert instead of cake

- Got ready for bed, but got to get up again because

Grandma and Grandpa R and Cleo arrived

- Opened one more present

- Ran wild around the house for a while

- Went to sleep with her new toys and blanket

3 No More - She's 4!

Ruby's birthday was super busy at our house.

If she had been born a week earlier

(when we expected her),

things wouldn't be quite so hectic on her special day.

I don't really think we can blame her for being

"late," though, so we try make her day fun

despite the craziness of this time of year.

(And as far as a friend party - who knows when that

will happen. I have had ZERO motivation for

friend birthday parties this year for any of the kids.

Not normal for me, but there you go.

I keep hoping she'll opt for a girls' night with Mom.

I'm not going to hold my breath, though.)

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of our Ruby girl,

and a few links as well.

A 6 day old Ruby

4 year old Ruby

The First Hint of Ruby

Ruby's Blog Debut

Ruby's Birth Story

1 Year Old

2 Years Old

3 Years Old

Skip to My Rue

At first I wondered if I should do two Ruby posts in a row,

and then I decided that because her birthday is this week,

it is only fitting to devote all of my posts to our girl.

One thing that I don't really like about Ruby's new

dance class, is that parents only get to observe three

times a year. I understand why they do it, Ruby is

really distracted when I'm there (at least I hope it is

only when I'm there), but I miss seeing what she

is learning and doing each week in her class.

Anyway, last week was parent observation day #3.

I left Milo with John, took the camera, and watched Ruby.

It was really fun to watch, except she kept coming

over to hug her toy cat, Seraphina. One of the big things

that the class has learned is how to skip. I didn't

think that Ruby had it down, but if she concentrates

really hard, she can do it! In most of the pictures where

she is skipping or galloping, she has her tongue out.

Her teacher is wonderful, and I think Ruby is

learning a lot and having a great time.

If you want to see her in action, I put some videos

from observation day on vimeo.

You can see them here, here, here, or here.

Ruby Goes to Jr. High

A couple of years ago, Jonah got to go

to Jr. High with a neighbor of ours.

(One of the classes over their has little kids

come in one day a semester for a mini-preschool.)

This year, it was Ruby's turn for Jr. High!

Unfortunately, I forgot.

And that happened to be a morning where

the entire family slept late.

Five minutes after Jonah came in to tell

John and I that he and his brothers were

going to be late for school, someone knocked

on our front door. Whoops.

It took five minutes to get Ruby out of bed,

dressed, out the door, and into our neighbor's car.

I was worried that she would be worried

once she was fully awake and aware of

her surroundings, but it sounds like

she was fine and had a great time.

Here she is with all of her projects and treats.

Hopefully I will remember the next time

I agree to send a child off to school.

Day 7 - Home Again, Home Again

We left California early Saturday morning, but

before we loaded everyone into the minivan,

the boys collected their pepper money from Grandpa.

(They each ate a pepper and earned a dollar.)

After showing me their cash, the boys ran off to find

Lyle, because he had offered to play a fun game with them.

It's called, "Give Lyle All Your Money."

Maxwell and Jonah were super excited to play,

but Uncle Lyle is too nice to take advantage of

his nephews, and they went home with their loot.

The ride home was pretty uneventful

(just the way we like it),

except for the part where we heard

BYU lose to Utah in the final minutes of the game.

We made it home before the storm hit

(so grateful for that), and woke up the next morning

to lots and lots of snow.

While shoveling all this snow, John might have

wondered why we hadn't stayed in California.

The good news is that the boys are getting big enough

to help, and in a few years John should never

have to shovel snow again.

Homely's Story - Part 2

Mindy has posted Part 2 of my Dad's mission call

experience. You can read it HERE.

I'm pretty sure his experience was one of a kind.

At least I hope it was. :)

Day 6 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

We were able to spend part of our last day in California

at the Huntington Botanical Gardens.

Once, many, many years ago, (back when Bentley was small)

John and I went to the Huntington with Brent, and walked

through the library, the art galleries, and the gardens.

One of these days (years) I'd like to do that again,

but for now, our trips to the Huntington focus

on the kids and what they like.

This year they are all about oriental things,

so we walked through the Japanese Garden,

the Chinese Garden (which inspired take-out for dinner),

the Rain Forest in the Conservatory,

and the Children's Garden.

Ruby thought that every large building was her castle,

and all the kids liked the fog grotto and the

water features in the children's garden.

Back in the days before I knew about blogs,

I recorded Bentley's first trip to the

Huntington Children's Garden HERE.

His second visit, and Maxwell's first

is recapped HERE.

Day 5 - Thankful for Family

There are a ton of pictures in this collage,

and we fit a ton of stuff into our Thanksgiving Day.

Computer games, board games, Hero Clix,

feeding the chickens, watching the cat eat,

watching TV, playing with Tinker Toys,

talking with family, skyping family,

playing football at the park, playing house

(or Ruby trying to make others play house) at the park,

and last but not least,

eating a lot of yummy food.

I think our family's first Thanksgiving in California

was a big hit with all of us.

Homely's Story - Part 1

Today Mindy posted my Dad's account

of his whirlwind mission call experience.

It's a pretty amazing, crazy, awesome story.

Read the first part HERE.

Day 4 - A Friendly Family Football Game

Wednesday morning we drove to Judy's house so that

we could spend some time with her and her cute kids.

Jonah fell in love with her dog, Maggie.

Milo and Ruby also had a lot of fun playing with the dog.

Maxwell and Bentley, however, kept their distance.

After lunch, Judy and I took the girls to the mall.

(note to self: wait a few years before attempting another mall trip with Ruby)

While we were gone, John kept an eye on all the boys,

and organized a touch football game.

There may or may not have been some tears shed over that one.

When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house,

the boys challenged Uncle Roger on a video game,

played with the Legos and Tinker Toys,

and then crashed for the night.

Ruby was happy to claim Elizabeth's bed for the week,

and to be Cleo's roommate.

Day 3 - Our Animals at the Zoo

We spent part of our first full day in California

visiting the Los Angeles Zoo with Brent.

We started things off with a wipe out by Ruby.

She recovered and did not learn her lesson,

but managed to survive the zoo without further accidents.

The boys each had an animal that they hoped to see,

(we saw some and missed others) but the highlight

of the zoo turned out to be the prairie dog exhibit

(although the gorilla was a close 2nd - we watched it eat

lunch and the boys were grossed out which of course equals awesome).

All 5 kids liked running in and out of the prairie dog

caves, climbing on the rocks above them,

and sticking their heads in the "bubbles."

(Milo and I tried it out, too - picture bottom right.)

We had a great time at the zoo.

Thanks Brent!

Day 2 - Holy Place to Holy Terrors

We woke up Monday morning, and took our time.

We loaded everything back into the minivan,

then drove over to the St. George Temple

and walked around the grounds with the kids.

After a quick breakfast, we were back on the road.

Day 2 of driving was much better than Day 1.

The roads were clear! No snow or rain. Awesome.

We got to the R house at about 5pm, and after the

kids ran out some of their pent up energy,

we went to dinner at Ernie's Jr. with Brent, Carla,

Joseph, and Cleo. The food was really good,

and it was a great birthday dinner.

Jonah devoured a Mexican pizza,

Bentley and Maxwell filled up on chips and salsa,

Milo threw silverware, and Ruby threw a few tantrums.

After dinner, we went back to the house

and celebrated my birthday!

Cleo made delicious cupcakes,

and I opened generous gifts from our family.

I was truly spoiled rotten this year

(despite my numerous complaints about spending my birthday in the car).

btw - the "holy terrors" in the title are my children,

most especially Ruby and Milo at Ernie's.

Day 1 - California or Bust

Day 1 of our trip to California was sort of a bust.

We had planned to leave very early Monday morning,

but the forecast was for snow on Sunday,

and then freezing temperatures. We didn't want to

battle icy roads early Monday, or have to wait for

the roads to melt off, so we made a last minute

decision and left Sunday after church. Our goal

was to drive straight through to California,

but 1 1/2 hours out, we came to a stop.

After two hours we moved a little.

Over the 3rd hour, we moved three miles.

Finally, we made it up to 15 mph, and eventually

arrived in Beaver, along with hundreds of other travelers.

The northbound freeway had been closed, so cars

lined the roads as people waited to get moving.

Many people who were going south, like us,

stopped for bathroom breaks, food, or rest.

We eventually found a gas station that wasn't

overrun and let everybody out for a few minutes.

After a quick dinner, we were on the road again.

However, it was still slow going, and by the time we made

it to St. George we decided to stop for the night.

Once we got inside the hotel room, our drowsy children

were pumped full of excitement. I really hope that the

walls in that place protected our neighbors from

the squeals of excitement coming from the kids.

At some point everyone fell asleep, (although some of us

kept getting woken up by little feet in our backs),

grateful to be safe and warm in the hotel.

(Today I am really feeling for the poor people on I-90

in New York. Yikes. 3 hours was awful. I can't imagine 12+.)