Twilight

My sisters and I went to see Twilight this morning. I’m a fan of the Twilight series. Not the kind of fan that wears a prom dress and vampire teeth to the midnight showing of the movie, but the kind that still wants to see it on opening weekend. I didn’t get around to ordering tickets until Thursday, but we lucked out and got the last three tickets available (not counting the front row) to the 9:25 a.m. show today.

I loved the movie. It helped that I had low expectations and I’m not a purist about book-to-film movies. There were small things that bugged me . . . some of the special effects/make-up and Jasper’s striking resemblance to Edward Scissorhands for the first half of the movie. Overall, I was just plain entertained. I had fun hanging out with my sisters. We made a day of it and went to breakfast first and then did a little shopping afterwards. It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

We took a couple of pictures with Jody’s cell phone. They are not so quality, but it’s all about the memory.

All About Emily

I did this with Ben a few months ago, and thought I would try it with Emily today. It was fun to see her little mind working.

I am: cute
I think: about my family
I know: how to swing upside-down on the monkey bars
I want: to color
I have: a family
I wish: to be happy all the time
I hate: ravioli
I miss: Will and Mara
I fear: black widows
I feel: air
I hear: people talking
I smell: flowers
I crave: chicken rollups
I search: for my Polly Pockets
I wonder: about Heavenly Father and Jesus
I regret: having fits
I love: my family
I care: about my house
I always: color
I am not: sad
I believe: in Jesus Christ
I dance: like a ballerina
I sing: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
I don't always: go to school
I argue: with my friends . . . sometimes
I write: I love you
I win: Go Fish
I lose: a couple of my Polly Pockets
I never: ride bikes . . . not anymore
I listen: to my teacher
I can usually be found: outside
I am scared: of nothing
I need: a house to live in
I am happy about: going to school

We sure love Emily. She has her moments of grumpiness, but she is a sweet girl. Last week in Primary, they had a lesson on service, so she has been doing little acts of service around the house this week. Yesterday morning I went into my room to find that she made our bed and left this cute little “note” for us.

Ben's Latest Passion

Ben has a tendency to pick one area of interest and obsess over it. He has gone through lots of phases, some lasting longer than others . . . diggers, dinosaurs, Thomas, Star Wars, etc. His latest love is the scriptures (score!). A few weeks ago we decided that we needed to start having a regular scripture study with our kids, so we broke out the Book of Mormon Readers and the accompanying DVD. This isn’t the first time we have read/watched them with the kids, but something just clicked with Ben this time. He took his Book of Mormon Reader to bed with him that night and stayed up to read the whole thing. The next day he started with the Old Testament Reader. They have become his books of choice for bedtime reading. Last night, Nate went down to check on him and he had both his Book of Mormon Reader and his real Book of Mormon open on his bed. He was looking up each of the scripture references from the reader and reading it directly from the scriptures. I don’t know how long this will last, but I love that he is so interested in learning all of the scripture stories. With his little sponge brain and amazing memory, it should give him a good knowledge base for the rest of his life.

Yesterday in Primary he leaned over and whispered to me “When I grow up, I’m going to be weird and name my kids after prophets from the Book of Mormon.” Glad to see he has a plan.

Again with the rattiest of all ratty t-shirts. He really does have a whole drawer full of pajamas. I can’t explain him.

Temple Square

We took advantage of the nice weather and took the kids to Temple Square yesterday after church. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We took a tour of the conference center, spent some time on the temple grounds, did a mini-tour of the tabernacle, and spent the rest of our time in the visitor center. The kids loved pushing the buttons for all of the audio visual presentations. The only thing cooler than that, was riding the “exclavator” (as Elise pronounces it). We heard “What a beautiful family!” from 17 different missionaries. I think it must be part of their training.

BTW, there is free parking at the conference center on Sundays. Maybe everyone else in Utah already knows that, but it took us a while to figure it out. We just aren’t cut out for city life.

Giving Thanks

Last night for Family Home Evening we made our annual “I’m thankful for” turkey. It was more fun this year since Ben and Emily could write on their own feathers. After we finished the turkey, the kids started naming off lots of other blessings . . . science books, games, Book of Mormon stories, a trampoline, water, electricity, maps, cars, etc. It is always good to get the kids (and us) thinking about how blessed we are.

For the treat, we made (or at least attempted to make) rice crispy turkeys. While the other kids were decorating their turkeys, Abby managed to spread hers from her wrist to her belly button. How does that even happen? It took Nate a good ten minutes just to pick it all off of her clothes.

School Projects

So far, second grade has been a year of projects. Ben has done a rock collection, a seed collection, and today he gets to do his show and teach. He gets pretty excited about these little projects. I think he collected eight times the number of rocks he needed for his collection and still brings home the occasional “cool rock” that he finds on his way home. After learning about seeds, he’s decided that we should plant all of the seeds from the apples we eat and have an “apple forest” in the back lot.

He insists on doing all of the typing for these projects. His keyboarding skills have certainly improved in the last couple of months. It took him a full hour to type the 12 labels for his rock collection. He would put his fingers on home row. Look for the letter. Hit it with his right index finger and then put his fingers back on home row. It was a little painful for me to watch. Compared to that, he whipped through the text for his show and teach poster.

We love Ben's teacher this year. She really motivates him and he is doing well in her class. We are very grateful for her.

The New Abby

Abby underwent a major personality transformation during October. We’ve been seeing the signs of her independent streak for a while, but this last month was a real turning point. She changed from a pretty easy going, happy kid to a strong willed, strong minded little girl who is getting ready for the terrible twos. She is still cute and sweet (some of the time), and of course we still love her loads, but she has definite opinions about how things should be done and isn’t afraid to let us know when we aren’t going along with her plan. “NO!” has become her favorite word.

She thinks she should be able to do everything that her brother and sisters can do. The other day I asked the kids to carry some two liter bottles of water down to the food room. She dragged a stool over to the counter to get one. It was almost as big as her, but she managed to carry it over to the stairs and drag it down one stair at a time until she was in the basement. She yelled when Emily tried to take it from her to put with the other ones. She had to waddle over there herself and squeeze it in right next to the other bottles. Then she just grinned. She was so proud of herself.

She has a whole new list of rules. She is too old to be strapped into her highchair. Cutting her food into pieces is no longer allowed. She has to have a real cup at dinnertime . . . no sippy cups! We can open a piece of candy for her, but she has to be the one to throw the wrapper away. There’s no more going down the stairs on her tummy or holding our hands when she walks. She has to pick out her own pants (it is the only drawer she can reach . . . I’m sure she’ll be picking her own shirts too when she grows a few inches). She is the only one who can throw her diapers in the garbage. She still needs us to open doors for her (when she commands “DOOR!”), but she is the only one who is allowed to close a door. Her latest thing is that she insists on sitting on the toilet after we change her diaper. (If we could just teach her to do it before her diaper needed changing.)

It is fun to see her growing up, but we kind of miss the happy, smiling, easy to please baby that was the old Abby.

I can do it myself.

This was on Sunday when Nate was trying to close the refrigerator door before Abby was done looking inside.

Abby thinks she is the queen of the world sitting on the potty.

It is a good thing she is so darn cute!

Happy Halloween!

After all of the hype, the actual holiday finally arrived. The kids didn’t have to go to school because it was a teacher work day. Once we got past a bit of grumpiness and a few sibling squabbles in the morning, we had a great day. The kids passed the time by playing with their friends, watching movies, and playing GameCube. When Nate got home we got in our costumes and had a little photo shoot. I don’t know if we’ll ever do a family theme again for Halloween, so we had to make the most of it. Considering how reluctant Elise and Abby were to participate, the pictures turned out pretty cute.

Nate took the kids trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and I stayed home to pass out candy. When they got home, Ben and Emily wanted to go out for a while longer, so I went up the street with them. I was glad I got some one on one time with them. They were pretty funny. They just kept saying "This is the best Halloween ever" and "We've never gotten to go trick-or-treating this far before." Emily was the thank you police. Several times after people would close the door, I could hear her saying, “Ben, you forgot to say thank you again!” She was a trooper and kept reassuring me that she wasn’t tired at all. Our neighbors up the street invited us in for homemade donuts and apple juice. Ben thought that was the “awesomest” thing ever. The kids took in a haul of candy. They are planning on making it last until July. We’ll see how that goes.

The funniest part of the night for me was when I heard Ben having a little conversation with a neighbor that we have never met before. When he got to the sidewalk, I asked him what he was saying to her. He was telling her that her doorbell sounded a little like Sister Shelton’s (his piano teacher). I don’t think that boy ever has a thought that he doesn’t verbalize.

More Halloween Fun

This week has been full of more Halloween fun. Emily had her class party on Tuesday. I had signed up to help, but they changed the day at the last minute and it was my turn to teach preschool at the same time as the party. She seemed okay with it. I sent all of the stuff for the treat and she assured me “If there isn’t another mom there to help, I can just teach the kids because I already know how to do it.” She is a confident and mature little kindergartener. She had a fabulous time at her party and came home very excited to tell us all about it.

Wednesday, the Primary had a Fall Scripture Carnival. The young men and young women had set up fun, scripture themed carnival games (i.e. Armor of God-Fiery Darts Target Practice). The kids had fun playing the games and getting prizes. The most memorable part of the night was when one of the young women leaders was defrosting some donuts in the microwave and somehow filled the whole church with smoke. The carnival just kept going with the additional fun of smoke and the sound of the fire alarm.

Thursday was an ultra busy day. We started the morning with the parade at the kids’ school. I was a little confused on the time, so we were there way too early. Better early than late, right? It gave me a chance to catch up on all the latest news with my neighbors and Nate and the girls made friends with the nice elderly couple sitting next to us. Nate stayed at the school after the parade to do a game for Ben’s class party. (Ben was pretty pleased with the fact that Nate was the only dad that helped and that his game was the most fun). I came home to get everything ready for our preschool costume party. It turned out pretty fun. The events included a story and song, pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin, a spider toss, pumpkin bowling, a candy walk, Don’t Eat Pete, popcorn witch hands, and Halloween Bingo. With the exception of Elise’s extreme whininess and Emily crying because I didn’t let her play all of the games, it was a successful party.

After Ben got home and Abby woke up from her nap, we carved pumpkins. Pumpkin carving at this age is an interesting activity. Ben and Emily were eager to dig right in and they did 80% of the work and 100% of the design on their pumpkins. Elise, in her typical approach to work, said it was too hard and “let” me pretty much clean and carve hers. Abby woke up super grumpy and cried most of the time, but she did really well with helping me hold the knife to carve her pumpkin.

Halloween Party

We had my family over Saturday night for our annual Halloween party. It was loud and crazy and lots of fun. We ate yummy pizza with flat homemade root beer (we need to work on our root beer making skills). Then we played some fun games with the kids. The piñata was the hit of the party for the eighth year running. Ben decapitated the witch with his first swing, so we just tied her body onto the rope and the rest of the kids got to swing at a headless witch. Abby, who had been excited about the witch piñata when Nate brought it home from the store, just kept staring up at it like “What in the heck is going on?!?” After the party games, the bigger kids took the party outside for a little cousin basketball game. That was Ben’s favorite part of the night. Emily and Elise LOVED the caramel apples that Holly brought. Emily probably stood there for half an hour just dipping and eating.