Webelos Hike

The Webelos hiked Waterfall Canyon on Wednesday afternoon. Nate tagged along with Ben and they both had fun. Ben and his friends talked about Homeward Bound the whole way up (they had just watched it at school). Nate was pretty impressed with what good time they made. It only took them 45 minutes to get up to the waterfall and 25 to get back down the trail. Not too shabby. Ben thought it was so cool to feel the mist coming off the falls when they got to the top. That was his favorite part.

True Confessions

The kids have been clearing out their desks at school and bringing home all kinds of stuff this week. I have the fun job of looking through a huge stack of papers to see if there is anything worth keeping. Emily brought home a book labeled “journal”. I thought it might be fun to keep a book with some of her writing. I started flipping through it and it was blank except for the first few pages. It was quite eye-opening to see what she had written.





What a stinker! She has totally been working the system in this house. It was awesome to see her deer-in-the-headlights look when I read it out loud to her. She tried to tell me that “we were just supposed to make things up to write in there.” Yeah right. Guess who’s not buying that.

Recitals

Saturday was a busy day with a piano recital for Ben and Emily and a dance recital for the three girls. I spent the morning with the girls at their rehearsal. I volunteered to help backstage during the performance, so it was nice to be able to watch them do their dances in the morning. It kind of surprises me that they are so coordinated. They certainly don’t get that from me.

We came home and got ready for the piano recital. Emily played Spanish Caballero and The Dragon Hunt. She was a bit nervous this time around, but still did a good job. Ben played Auld Lang Syne and In My Red Convertible. He played both of them better than he had ever done while he was practicing. When he was done, he said to Nate, “Mom said that she gets nervous when she has to play the piano in front of people, or do things like that, but I don’t.” I’m glad that he has more confidence than his mom. We were sad to hear that Sister Shelton is retiring (or at least taking a sabbatical) from teaching piano. She has been a wonderful teacher for both Ben and Emily. We’re going to miss her.


After a short break, we headed back to the school for the girls’ dance recital. They all did a fabulous job. They each got a trophy at the end of the show. Abby was so excited about that. She was kissing it on the way to the car. “THIS IS MY FIRST TROPHY EVER!” She has been carrying it around the house for the last three days. The girls have all really loved taking dance, but we have decided to take a year off from lessons. I was afraid they would protest when I suggested taking a break, but they were surprisingly fine with that plan. I think we’ve all been feeling the strain of being too busy. We need a bit more unscheduled time to just be a family.



It is fun to see the kids developing their talents. I'm glad that they always want to do their best. I am so proud of each of them!

Fathers and Sons Campout/Girls' Night

Last weekend was our ward’s annual Fathers and Sons campout and corresponding girls’ night. I asked Ben and Emily yesterday if they wanted to write a guest post for the blog. Emily typed up her own post. Ben dictated to me while I typed. That probably accounts for the difference in the amount of detail they included.

Fathers and Sons

When we got to North Fork Park, we set up the trailer and waited for everybody to come. We saw a moose west of our campsite. Then the Wheelers came. After that the Crowells (Kaitlin’s Family . . . you better put that because there are so many Crowells) and so on. I was playing a game with Gideon and Enoch that was kind of like mythology. Then I looked for wood and started cutting it and putting it in the fire to make log cabins. As soon as the log cabins became coals, we placed our scout dinners on top of it. We waited for about 40 minutes and then took it off and ate dinner. Then we heard the talk from President Ferguson. When it got dark enough we started making a big bonfire. We ate marshmallows, raspberry crisp, cherry chocolate, pineapple pudding, and many other treats. I stayed and cut logs and helped put logs in the fire. When it got to about 10:00, we all went to bed. I was not good at sleeping in the trailer at all. When morning came, I helped start a fire so that we would all get warmed up. We ate breakfast a few hours after and I played with Brother Stoddart and other boys. We played this football catch game where there was one person on one side of the pavement and the rest of us on the other side. When the person on the other side of the pavement threw the ball we tried to catch it so we could be the one on the other side. Our fire was going out so we made a log cabin. After everybody else left to go home, the only people left were the Wheelers, the Stoddarts, and us. I played with Gideon and Enoch plus Berrett. Berrett thought it was really fun. He decided that next time we went on Fathers and Sons we could play that game again. We left and marked off the campsites. While we were marking off the campsites, we saw a mother moose and its baby. We came back after we were done marking off the campsites. We saw the Fergusons with a BB gun and a pistol that held BBs as well. We played with the Fergusons for about 30 minutes. The pop cans were full and it was cool when they exploded. Then when it was time to leave I told Dad that we should probably buy a BB gun. Dad thought about it for a while. He said that the one the Fergusons had was about $60. I said that I would try to earn $2 every day. (I already had a $20 gift card.) When we came home, we took a shower and then went to Emily’s soccer game.




Girls’ Night

We had a girls’ night when Ben and Dad went to the fathers and sons campout. We played in the backyard while my mom took a nap on the lawn. When my mom woke up we had chicken pot pie while we watched The Brady Bunch and Little House on the Prairie in the family room. Then we went downstairs and watched Enchanted. My mom slept in the guest room and me and my sisters slept in her bed. In the morning we went to the Safe Kids Fair to get free bike helmets. It was really fun so we went again after my soccer game. Dad and Ben were home when we got home from Elise’s soccer game.

Who Knew?

Who knew that those big springs above the garage door actually did something? I honestly never even noticed them. Until yesterday. When they broke. And trapped the van inside. Ironically, it was the first time I’ve parked inside the garage in two weeks. Nate has been working on a project in the garage, so I’ve been parking in the driveway. It was raining when I took the kids to school yesterday, so when I got home I decided to pull the van into Nate’s spot. When I went to take Elise to school, the garage door would only open about four inches. I even tried to pull the red handle to open it manually, but it wouldn’t budge. Luckily I have good neighbors. Callie took Elise to school for me and Claudy brought the kids home after school. The nice garage door repairman came and a measly $245 later, everything is working great.

I’m not a big fan of bumps in the road. I get kind of grumpy when things don’t go exactly the way I have planned. So, I’m giving myself kudos for not getting too upset about a little garage door issue. After my initial growl, I got over it and didn’t let it bother me for the rest of the day. That is big for me. I’m going to try to make it a habit.

Rollie Pollie Heebie Jeebies

Abby and her friend Lexie have been collecting rollie pollies this week. I like rollie pollies one at a time. I think it is cool how they curl up in a ball and how their little legs tickle when they crawl on your hand. However, watching 30-40 potato bugs crawl all over each other in a Dixie cup makes me a bit queasy. I don’t want to raise wimpy girls, so I try to pretend it doesn’t bother me.

Family News

We’ve had some exciting things happen in our family during the last couple of months. In a perfect world, I would have blogged about them each in turn, but in the real world I’ll just lump them all together right here.

Sarah was sealed to Kevin and Jody in the Ogden Temple on March 26th, and her baby blessing was on April 17th. We’re glad that we were able to go to both of those events. I thought it might be tricky to get an active ten-month-old to sit still, but she sat perfectly still and quiet for both the sealing and the blessing. She is a sweet baby and we are happy that she is part of our family.



Bryson left on his mission on April 6th. He is serving in the California, Santa Rosa Mission. We went to his farewell (or whatever it is they call that meeting these days) the last week of March and then went again for a little open house/birthday celebration on the 3rd. He seemed really well prepared and I think he will be a great missionary.



Matt and Jenny welcomed a new baby boy to their family on April 21st. After much debate about a name, they decided on David Rex. I like to pretend that I influenced their decision by saying that they could call him D-Rex as a cool nickname. He sure is a cutie.

Mother's Day Weekend

I had a great Mother’s Day this year. My mom came and stayed Friday night and Saturday. We didn’t do anything really special, but the kids had lots of fun just hanging out with Grandma. They watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (in shifts since we were on a tight schedule with birthday parties and soccer games to go to) and other amazing shows that we never would have watched if Grandma wasn’t here (i.e., an infomercial for a cat scratching post and the “pre-game show” for the Kentucky Derby). We went out to Chuck-A-Rama with Grandma on Saturday night. Ben amazes me with his ability to put it away at all-you-can-eat buffets. After his third plate, he leaned back in his seat and said, “I hope this is what Heaven is like.” He’s a crack up. We got to see Holly and Shane’s chickens when we took my mom home. The kids thought they were so cool and were especially impressed with the little combs that are starting to form on the tops of their heads.

Elise made this card for me while I was gone to pick up my mom. Only three of those flowers came from our yard. I hope my neighbors are okay with her “borrowing” flowers from them.
Nate had the trailer set up to get some things ready for a campout, so we ate dinner outside on Friday night. (Chef Boyardee ravioli, saltine crackers, and Kool-Aid . . . we really need to start eating like grown-ups!)

Sunday was just about perfect. Here were the highlights of the day:

~ Good food all day – strawberries and cream crepes, turkey sandwiches, chicken enchiladas, and strawberry shakes

Nate set up a makeshift kitchen in the laundry room so the noise from the blender wouldn’t wake me up. He’s a funny boy.
This picture was taken at 7:48 a.m. Guess who wasn’t on time for 9:00 church. :)
~ The quality bouquet of wildflowers (aka weeds) that my kids gave me

~ Listening to the kids sing in sacrament meeting

~ Fun gifts – a new dress, a doormat for the back porch, dessert spoons, a self-locking tape measure (I was just as excited as Abby was about hers), a bracelet from Emily, a butterfly frame from Elise, a scrapbook page from Ben, lots of drawings from Abby , and cards from all of the kids


~ A pseudo-nap

~ The cool Happy Mother’s Day banner that Elise and Emily made for me


~ Driving up to North Fork in the rain and listening to the kids sing Veggie Tales songs in the van

~ Watching The Amazing Race finale with Nate and the kids (even though our favorites didn’t win)

It was a really good day. I am lucky to have an awesome husband who let me be lazy all day and great kids who tried really hard to be good. It took a few years, but we’ve just about got this whole Mother’s Day thing nailed. I made it through the whole day with absolutely no guilt, no yelling, and no tears.


The kids got these cute Mother’s Day games from Primary. We didn’t get around to doing them until yesterday. It was fun to have some one on one time with each of them while we played. I love that they are old enough now that we can have meaningful conversations. I told them a few stories that they’ve never heard before and they were completely spellbound/mesmerized/attentive. I know that won’t last forever, but I’m going to enjoy it as long as it does.

Cub Scout Candygrams

We made these fun little candygrams last week in cub scouts. I love how they turned out. I wanted a project that the boys could do themselves and that their moms might actually like. Nothing against tin can pencil holders and "nature crafts", but I’m a big fan of edible gifts. Most of the boys had never seen a candygram before and they thought they were so cool. Hopefully their moms did too. I was glad there were leftovers so my kids could make one for me. :)

Mixed Feelings

Last November, Nate and I were sporting six callings between the two of us (and had been for quite a while). I was a Primary teacher and the Bear Den Leader. Nate was the Cub Committee Chairman, the Building Maintenance Coordinator, a Primary teacher, and my Assistant Den Leader. We could add Visiting Teacher and Home Teacher to the list, but since I hardly ever go visiting teaching it doesn’t seem fair to count it. In November, Nate was called to be the Elders Quorum President. Since that time I’ve been waiting for the day when we would each have just one calling. It’s been a long time. It took a few months for them to release Nate from his other callings and find replacements (he’s still my Assistant Den Leader, but I’m okay with that). They told me that I was going to be released from Primary at the end of the year. Then they needed me for just a couple of weeks at the first of the new year. I wasn’t really released until the middle of April. Last week was the first week in a long time (almost eight years - minus a few months when Abby was a baby) that I have not gone to Primary, and I really missed it! For some reason it didn’t occur to me that being released from Primary meant that I had to go to Relief Society. It felt really weird. I even swung by the Primary room just to check to see if they needed a substitute. We’ve lived here for a long time and I know and love the ladies in Relief Society. They were all very nice to me, but it just didn’t feel like home. So, after months of listening for ward business to see if I was being released, it’s not all I thought it would be. Hopefully it will seem more normal in time. I am still listening for the Cub Scout release. I’ve heard rumors that it will be soon, so I’m guessing sometime in October. :)

Home Improvements

I’ve been itching to change things up at our house for a while. For the past year or so, we’ve had the girls all sleeping in one of the bedrooms upstairs. It was big enough for their beds, but not their stuff. Their dressers and bookcase were in the other upstairs bedroom. The spare bedroom downstairs (aka, “the yellow room”) was a multi-purpose guest room/craft room/storage room. It bugged me that it was always a mess and that it wasn’t very well-utilized space. I decided to move the girls into the bigger bedroom downstairs, and convert the upstairs bedrooms into a guest room and a craft room. We weren’t really planning on doing it right away, but once I got the idea in my head it was all I could think about until we got it done. We picked out the carpet on Friday, bought a new bed on Saturday, had the carpet installed on Wednesday, and got new dressers the next Sunday.

The girls love having a new room. Mostly. They really hate having to go downstairs to change their clothes. Hopefully they will get over that soon. I love that now all of the messy bedrooms can be downstairs (once I get the craft room fully organized). Out of sight, out of mind.

Here are few photos of their new room:




We knew that space would be an issue, so we wanted a captain’s bed. I started looking on KSL and found one just like Ben’s. Nate thought I was a little crazy when I told him it was in Hoytsville, but he loves me and drove all the way there to pick it up. It ended up being a super deal. It was listed for $180. We thought that was just for the frame, but it came with a mattress too. Plus, it had one little damaged spot so the lady knocked off another $20. Sweet!

We got both (not each, BOTH) of the dressers for a whopping $75. I had been checking KSL religiously for a few days when these beauties popped up. I was so stoked. Great furniture; great price; right in the next town . . . Perfect! Nate called and left a message about 20 minutes after they were listed. I figured when he only got voicemail that they were already sold. Luckily the guy called back a few minutes later and said they were still available. Nate drove right over to check them out. He couldn’t believe how nice they were and thought it was hilarious because the guy kept apologizing about every nick and ding. I felt a little guilty about breaking the Sabbath to buy furniture, but it was kind of an ox in the mire thing (or something like that). I did tell Nate that I would take full responsibility for the sin. He already has that Billy Joel concert and waterskiing on the Amazon in his column of Sabbath day offenses. I need to catch up. :) The girls still need a little guidance about what items are “shelf-worthy”. We’re working on it.

The headboard wouldn’t fit after we moved the dressers in, so right now we are improvising and using a 1x2 to hold Emily’s lamp. I think I might convince Nate to make her a headboard the matches the bunk beds. Someday. I’m also working on a plan for the big blank wall over Emily’s bed . . . and some curtains . . . and some cute, matching bedspreads. All in good time.


Here's their closet. Abby’s shirts (>100) are on the bottom rod. That is what happens when you are the third girl in a family. We need to make a big box of hand-me-downs for Sarah and an even bigger box for the DI. Elise and Emily’s shirts are on the middle rod and their skirts are up top. All of their dresses are in the closet of the spare bedroom upstairs. One closet just isn’t enough for three girls.

The shoe rack is quite possibly my favorite part of their new room. The girls have always just thrown their shoes into a pile at the bottom of their closet, and finding matching pairs was a big headache. I counted up their shoes when we were moving and they have 80+ pairs among the three of them. I drew out a plan for some shoe shelves and Nate and I built them. They aren’t fancy, but they are certainly functional. I love that the whole floor isn’t covered with shoes.

Moving day: (Emily, Elise, and Natalie worked hard to move all of the books downstairs, but the bookcase ended up back upstairs after we got the dressers.)




Elise, bless her tender little heart, had a hard time adjusting to the change. She was just as excited about it as anyone else until about an hour before bedtime on that first night. Then she wasn’t so sure. She tearfully said, “Maybe we should just keep our old bedroom.” She wasn’t just being a stinker; she was truly heartbroken over the thought of changing rooms. So, while Emily and Abby were super excited to spend their first night in a new room, Elise slept upstairs all by herself in her old room. She didn’t want to get rid of their old dresser or Abby’s toddler bed or any of the pictures they had on their walls. It took about a week before she was ready to fully embrace the idea of the move. Even then she wasn’t willing to change beds, so she still sleeps on the bottom bunk and Abby has adopted the top bunk.

First night:




As the only boy, Ben will most likely be in the same room for the next eight years. We gave his room a little facelift in the last couple of months. His Lego collection had passed the carrying capacity of his bookcase, so Nate put in some new shelves. They turned out really well. With an eighty square foot room, we are all about maximizing vertical space. He also got the headboard from the Hoytsville bed. It was a perfect fit, literally. If it would have been 1/16 of an inch deeper, it wouldn’t have worked. We lucked out.