Last week . . .

. . . was really busy.

But it was mostly a good busy.

We had the normal stuff - dance, piano,

basketball, homework, scouts, and work.

Then we added parent teacher conferences

(both the meeting with the teachers and my PTA

responsibility of making dinner for the teachers),

and a talk that I had to prepare (super stressful for me).

I don't want the week to get lost entirely,

so here are a couple quick collages with the rundown.

The Week

top row, left to right

- Milo sleeping with two guns, a ball, and Ruby's pillow pet

- We got snow!!! The kids built a fort/sledding hill

in the front yard (and it took them 45 minutes to walk

the normally 8 - 10 minute distance from school).

- Jonah chose to make a snowman instead of a fort

(actually he made 3 or 4 snowmen)

- Milo had fun while all the older kids were gone

bottom row, left to right

- Milo working on the snow fort/sledding hill

- Milo discovers Mom is taking pictures

- Jonah as a Japanese warrior

- bedtime story with Ruby and her Dad

The Weekend

top row, left to right

- Jonah insists on only non-fiction books for his

1st grade reading homework, and his teacher is

running out. She sent home a book of experiments

this week, and Jonah and I got to watch water

change color. He was thrilled.

- Saturday brought another basketball game and Ruby

decked out with her purse and her cell phone.

- Saturday also brought my talk, and the end of two

weeks of stress and worry about it. Greg and his friend,

Kristina, babysat, and Kristina was kind enough to play

a lengthy game of dolls with Ruby while the boys and Greg

engaged in different pillow/sword fights.

bottom row, left to right

- Ruby, Milo, and Jonah read for church

(Ruby is wearing her new "wedding dress,"

inspired by Stephanie's dress for Mabel.)
More about Ruby's dress here.

- Bentley and Maxwell post church.

They sang in the Stake Primary Choir today, and both

seem to have been very reverent. It might have helped that

Bentley was sitting right behind the Stake Presidency.

- The five silly kids after church today.

I'm so glad to be their mother.

Kids Day!

On Saturday, we went to the BYU Women's basketball

game with Mikey, Greg, and some friends.

It was Kids Day, so they had some neat activities,

as well as free admission for kids 12 and under.

Our four older kids got their faces painted

(something they are always excited about).

Milo was afraid of the face painter, but Ruby had

colored a blue circle on each of his cheeks

with a marker before we left home, so he was covered.

Other activities - balloon animals and a free photo booth.

During a time out in the first half, the kids got to

be interviewed and on camera! They asked Bentley's

name, and then asked what he was most excited 

about, or why he came to the game.

He eloquently said, "I don't know," so they moved

on to Ruby, who said "Yes!" when asked if she

was having fun at Kids Day. Then, she got to say "Go!"

to start the band and the school fight song.

The other kids were disappointed that they didn't 

get to be interviewed, but seemed happy with a little

camera time. They also got to talk to Cosmo.

Jonah arm wrestled him, and Ruby and Diana got hugs.
The half time show was a cool slam dunk team.
I think we were all pretty impressed by their stunts.

After half time, Mikey and Greg took Bentley, Maxwell, Jonah

Ruby, and Diana over to the student section.

They boys loved that because they got to participate

in annoying chants with the students. Ruby loved it because

she was closer to the cheerleaders. During a time out

around the 12 minute mark, all the kids (except Elise)

helped the cheerleaders with the Funky Chicken dance.

Milo spent most of the time trying to find his siblings, but

the others had a lot of fun dancing - even Bentley!

BYU won the game, and they are currently

ranked 23rd in the country - Go Cougars!

Mike is in the Men's Band this year, but we got to

see and listen to his friend, Jenny, in the Women's Band.

The sounded great, but didn't get to play a lot.

This time it was really easy to take the kids.

A big change from a couple of years ago,

when Milo was a baby, and the the kids weren't 

interested in anything except Cosmo.

Previous BYU Games

2006

2007, part 2

2010, part 2, part 3

2011, part 2

Mikey and the big 24

We celebrated Mikey's 24th birthday today.

He requested a cookie cake like last year, and The Dip.

Because he is a carnivore, I also made him beef tacos.

Greg was here, but managed to dodge all the photos (stinker).

After we put most of the kids to bed, Mikey, Jenny, John, and I

played Mikey's new Wii game - Rampage!
- a flashback to our childhood

(although Mikey will tell you that he and I didn't share a childhood 
because I am so much older than him).

Happy Birthday Mikey!

past birthday posts:

2007

2008

2009 (by Mikey)

2010

2011,  part 2

January.

January?

Monkey See, Monkey Do

The other night, Bentley and Milo built a huge tower

and then Bentley destroyed it. Bentley asked me to take

pictures of the "before" and the "during destruction."

Milo spent the next little while building towers by himself

and asking me to take pictures of the "before" and the

"during destruction." He loves to mimic his brothers.

Sometimes that is cute. Other times, not so much.

Today, I asked Milo not to wear his slippers outside

because I didn't want him to get our new rug dirty.

(slippers are allowed on the rug, but no outside shoes)

He told me, "That's not my problem."

Something I know he has heard his two oldest

brothers say more than once.

Friday the 13th, Part 3

Last fall Ruby participated in my friend Debi's cheer clinic.

Ruby loved it and has been excitedly waiting for the next  one.

Two weeks ago we were watching a video about our

school's basketball team, and when she saw the cheerleaders

she gasped, "Did they have the cheer clinic without me?!?"

The cheerleaders held practices on Wednesday and Thursday,

and on Friday the mini-cheer girls performed at half time.

Ruby was a little nervous for the camp, despite eagerly

waiting over 3 months to be able to go to it,

and a couple of the older girls were so kind to her.

On the first day, our friend, Abby, gathered Ruby into

the warm up with her. During class that day, another girl,

Erin was really kind to Ruby and promised her a rice krispie treat

the next day. When we got there on Thursday, Ruby was pretty

shy once again, but Erin ran right over and helped Ruby feel safe.

She also gave Ruby the promised treat at the end of the clinic.

On Friday, Ruby wanted to do something for Erin. 

I had suggested a thank you note or picture, Ruby's thoughts

were a little bigger - she wanted to buy her something to wear,

like a new dress. We compromised when Ruby suggested making

Erin a necklace with the bottle cap jewelry kit.

Here's a picture of the collage, Ruby's nails,

and her many poses before the game (some with her sidekick).

Last time Ruby performed, John and I left the kids with

a babysitter. This time, we tried taking the entire family.

It wasn't too bad. Bentley found some of his friends

and spent part of the time hanging out with them

(they seemed to be attempting to blend in with the high school kids).

Jonah actually watched most of the game, while Maxwell

protested by asking every few minutes if it was time to leave.

Milo was busy climbing on the bleachers around us,

but was much better than I expected him to be. 

It was still difficult to follow the game, but it was okay.

Here are a few shots from the game, including Ruby with

the other mini-cheer girls and some of our family.

Despite an incredibly slow start our team won.

Maybe they were inspired by the awesome 1/2 time show?

Here's a LINK to the video, or at least to Ruby's 

portion of it. I zoomed in on her and couldn't zoom out again. :)

Ruby had so much fun, and hopes to get to do it again!

ps - last time her favorite part was the face painting,

and I warned her that they might not have that again this time.

She thought for just a second, and then assured me that

she would like the clinic even if she didn't get face paint.

She DID get some face glitter at the game, so that probably helped.

12 years ago today . . .

. . . John and I went on our first date together!

We celebrated by eating flat apple pie with our kids,

Greg, Mikey, and Jenny.

Other "apple pie anniversary" posts -

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Relationship Tag Post - a little bit about Us.

Friday the 13th, Part 2

SCERA Arts Program

After lunch, I went back to the school. 

I usually teach 3rd Grade PE on Friday afternoons,

but this time I walked over to the SCERA with Maxwell.

There, the two 3rd grade classes learned about artists,

forms of art, art movements, and got some hands on

experience with one type of art - sculptures.

First, the children were asked to make a human figure

with some oil based clay. Maxwell's turned out pretty cool.

It's the picture on the top row, second from the left.

Then, they were given some regular water based clay,

and told to create a bear, a snail, or a bird.

Maxwell chose to make a bird.

He didn't like his first attempt, so he smashed it and started over.

His final bird reminds me of a totem pole (top row in his hands).

After the sculptures are fired in the kiln, an artist at the SCERA

will use all of the student's animal sculptures to create one

large tree sculpture. The kids were pretty disappointed to hear

that they wouldn't be getting their projects back to take home.

Hopefully that tree sculpture will be pretty cool and the kids

will be able to pick out their own contributions.

It's always amazing to me how much creativity these kids have.

Bentley's class made some amazing dinosaurs,

and Maxwell and his friends all found different ways to 

create the bears and the birds (the snails all kind of looked the same, though).

Jonah's class also went to the SCERA, 

but they sang songs and listened to stories 

and did other "boring" stuff. (- says Jonah.)

Friday the 13th, Part 1

This day was so full of activities, that it's going to take

three posts to record it. Here's Part 1.

THE DINOSAUR MUSEUM

I spent Tuesday and Thursday of this week with Bentley's

class, helping them make paper mache dinosaurs.

It was a really ambitious project, but one that his teacher

has been doing with her classes for 18 years, so she

was well prepared and very organized. The kids started

with a cardboard salt container, toilet paper tubes,

paper towel tubes, paper towels, a light bulb, and a few

other odds and ends (metal hangers, egg cartons, etc.).

The created their dinosaurs using those parts, and then

covered every little piece of the dinosaur with masking tape.

On Thursday, they used colored paper to paper mache

their dinosaurs. It was funny to watch the kids' reaction to the

slimy goop. Some thought it was great fun, and others were

totally disgusted and tried to wash their hands every

couple of minutes or tried their hardest not to touch it at all.

Bentley made a raptor - pink with black and red stripes.

The kids were so creative. It was a lot of fun to go in

today and to see the finished products.

I think it was during my fall, 1998 semester at BYU when

my Great-Grandma gave me her piano.

She had said that she would leave it to me when she

died, or she would give it to me when I got married.

Apparently she gave up on either event, because

I got the piano early. My roommates and I loved

having the piano, and it was moved with me to several single

student apartments before moving with John and me

from the condo to our current home.

My Great-Grandma passed away just before Bentley

was born. Sometimes I wonder what she would think

about my wild kids. Here are a few pictures of

my Grandma, Nellie Jeanette.

top - with John and me at our wedding reception,

in the Teton Valley with my Great-Grandpa and our family

bottom - with several of her sisters (I think she had 12),

at my parents wedding, with my Grandpa

One thing I am pretty sure of -  she would be happy
to see her piano being used. The three older boys all take
piano lessons, so they (are supposed to) use it every day.
John and I also play and sometimes get to sit down at the piano.
Unfortunately, in the 14 or so years that I have had the piano
I have never had it tuned - even with all of it's moves.
Today we changed that!
Over Christmas break I read an article in the paper about
Brigham's Piano Service. He sounded like a nice guy, and it
looked like he had quite a bit of experience, so John
gave him a call for me. Early this morning he arrived
and proceeded to turn our piano into a new instrument.
It sounds so good! I wish we had had it tuned sooner.
He is also repairing the bench and the pedals.
The kids were probably even more excited than I was to
have the the piano tuner come. They anxiously awaited
his arrival this morning, and quickly got ready for school
so that they could watch him work. They were (somehow)
quickly on a first name basis and he was barraged by
questions and comments about what he was doing, and
what they could do. He sang along with Milo's Elmo
guitar when Jonah brought it in to show him. He admired
Maxwell's guitar and said he'd like to hear all of the kids
play the piano when he finished. Unfortunately, the three
older boys were at school when their new friend, Brigham,
left. He is a good sport and a great piano tuner.

(Maxwell, Bentley, Jonah, Milo, and Ruby watching the tuning)

Basketball!

Bentley and Maxwell had their first basketball game today!

Bentley and I went to the game, while John and the rest

of the kids went to our good friend's baptism.

Max chose to attend the baptism instead of his game,

but ended up getting to attend both!

The baptism was over and John and the kids arrived

at the gym just before the end of the 1st quarter.

Bentley had a couple of great shots and Maxwell played

defense like a man with a mission. The little kids

enjoyed watching the game and cheering "defense!"

And after a while, they played catch with some friends.

Hopefully all the games will be this fun,

because we have six weeks left.

January Five

It's January and we took this photo outside after school.

Most of the kids weren't even wearing sweaters!

This has been an awesome winter so far!

Updates:

Bentley - Still likes Beyblade, but is also enjoying
new wii games, including Bakugan and NBA Jam.
He wasn't as excited to go back to school as I thought
he would be, because the first week of the break he
really missed his friends. Just started to read Fablehaven 2
for school, but I think he likes it just because.

Maxwell - Loves his new stuffedTiger and likes to have a "house"
in the basement. He uses our little table in the family room
and creates his own "fort" kind of place. He gets upset
when the little kids mess it up while he's at school.
Is trying to decide whether to go to his first basketball
game or to attend his good friend's baptism on Saturday.
He really wants to do both, but they are at the same time.

Jonah - No longer a vegetarian or a supertarian. He still
loves animals, though. The first day back at school, he gave
Ruby strict instructions for taking care of his stuffed animals.
She was to feed them at certain times and to make sure
they were warm, etc. He must not have been happy with her
pet tending skills, because on Day 2 of school he was
too sick to attend. I tried taking him over with me when I
worked with Bentley's class, but his head hurt too much for him
to stay longer than the 30 minutes I was at the school.
I think he really felt poorly, but it's difficult to say whether he
was really sick enough to stay home, or if he just wanted to take
care of his "pets." Today I let him take one in his back pack,
and by some lucky stroke, his class earned a "toy party"
for tomorrow afternoon, and he gets to take a bunch of
stuffed animals to play with after lunch. We should have no
problem getting him to school in the morning.

Ruby - For the past two years, she has been in Jonah's
primary class at church because there has been only one
other child her age. This year, they moved Ruby and the other
five year old to the class just younger than them. She was really
upset when she found out. She came home from their "meet
your teacher" activity on Saturday, donned her sack cloth and
ashes (her robe), and said she was too sick to go to church
the next day. By Sunday morning, she was willing to go to class,
but the thought of having to help all the "little kids" was exhausting
to her. She persevered, however, and I think that in the long run
she will really like her class. The younger class is full of her
Joy School friends, so she will be with all her buddies.
For her Joy School goal, she is memorizing her phone number,
and John is teaching her to read words that end in "-at."

Milo - Is probably the best sport in the world.
He is so good to play just about any part Ruby asks him to
in any of her games. The poor kid marries Ruby almost
every day. Yesterday he was Flynn/Eugene and she was
Rapunzel/Tangled and they got married and then went for a run
(wearing church shoes and running shoes
belonging to John and me). Ruby suggests something and
Milo plays along. He likes to play Bentley's game of marbles,
to play letters, and to call people on my cell phone
(he actually answers the phone when it rings, but thinks
he is the one who called whoever is
on the other end of the line).

Rapunzel Welcomes Her Guests

The boys are back at school today,

Ruby went to Joy School, 

and we're all getting used to a routine again.

It was wonderful to have a couple of weeks

without school, piano, dance, Joy School, or Scouts.

But, I think some of the best parts of our vacation were

getting to see family. We enjoyed a couple of days

with my parents and Mindy, and near the end of last

week, we got to spend an afternoon with Ginger

and her family. Ruby was especially excited to

see Sophie and Emma (two weeks with just boys

to play with got sort of old for our Rapunzel).

Ruby donned her Rapunzel wig and crown, and was

happy to share it with her cousin (and Aunt).

Milo showed Henry some of his favorite toys.

Maxwell introduced Emma and Sophie to toilet slime.

Andrew, Bentley, and Jonah played Bakugan,

and Ethan found a book to read near the boys.

Thanks for coming to see us! One of these days 

we will try to make it to Arizona to visit you! :)

last year's visit HERE

If Wishes Were Fishes

(photo by the talented Raquel)

Maxwell - Guess what I would do if I could
do anything in the world.
Mom - Hug your mom?
Maxwell - Mom, you always guess things like that.
Mom - Okay, what would you do if you could do anything?
Maxwell - I would ask for a wish.
Mom - What would you wish for?
Maxwell - 1 million wishes, and I would keep track
of how many I've used on a calendar.
Mom- What would you use your first wish for?
Maxwell - A calendar to keep track of how many wishes I've used.

Happy New Year!

The kids weren't big fans of the fondue I made for dinner

(an attempt to create a  "New Year's Eve Party mood"),

but they really liked dipping fruit in fudge sauce for dessert.

Next year I will make them Ramen and they will love it.
(they really will - they love Ramen)

Happy New Year Everyone!