Picture This....

Picture us enjoying having three of our nieces and one nephew over to play.

Picture Kayli and Tia hogging baby Tessa so I had a hard time getting a turn.  But, I did get a turn.

Picture Connor at the car show with this huge grin the whole time.  Derek kept telling him to stop petting the cars.
His favorite is still the Corvette ZR1

Picture a ridiculously expensive party truck with a way to watch television and cook.

Derek admiring his favorite Audi -- the R8

I took this picture in honor of Tia who loves Jeeps.  This was the coolest looking one.

This is me by a Ferrari, but I liked the black Ferrari Spider the best -- it was just in a worse picture taking location.

This is a Mini Coupe which was my favorite car that didn't cost as much as a house.

 Connor on our way out.

Picture me in boots!  It only took about three years to finally pick some.  I took my friend Shellie to help.  They are comfortable!  I'm going to have Kayli teach me the boot scootin boogie.  (Picture by Dan)

In your mind you can also picture Kayli dancing on Parent Night at the high school for the dance classes.  This is where she performed the boot scootin boogie, among other things.

You can also picture how grumpy we were when Derek had to work half a day on Saturday and one night until 8:30. 

And, for date night, we went to Kayli's school's basketball game and you can picture cousin Jimmy (the coach) being grumpy when we lost by a lot.  We enjoyed visiting with people we know, but Heidi (Jimmy's wife) said we didn't work as good luck charms so we aren't required to come to every game.

Generally, you can picture us being quite busy, but it's obviously we aren't always busy with work and we still have good friends and family who help us through the rough spots.

Frog Powers?

Here's the note that Derek left the family this morning.

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

May the sun be bright, your breakfast delicious, and your friends nice.

May you all be bitten on the hand by a radioactive frog, so you can have awesome frog powers!

Love, Dad

Plans for a Radioactive Christmas

Dan informed me last night at bed time that Santa is going to bring him a radioactive spider for Christmas next year.  He said he will have the spider bite his hand and then he will go to sleep.  He can't wait to wake up and find out what powers he has.  He spends quite a bit of time imagining how shocked people will be at the webs he manages to make out of nothing.  They will think "No Fair!" because his powers will be so awesome.

I can't help but wonder if at the end of the year he will ask every "Santa" he sees to bring him a radioactive spider, and what their reaction will be.  For now I just smile and tell him, "That would be awesome!"

2012, Beginning With a BANG!

Okay, so there was no literal BANG -- except the fireworks at 10:30ish on New Years Eve that we could hear outside.  New Years Day began fairly early since church now starts at 9:00 a.m.  I was up at 7 to get ready.

This is what I was wearing when I got up.  Can anyone name that book / movie?

I went to church early with Connor.  He needed to set up chairs and I needed to decide how to make a puppet theater out of music stands.  I made it to the chapel just in time to take my seat on the stand with the rest of the family.  Within a few minutes Dan was speaking, and then Jake was thinking about how much he didn't want to speak, and so we skipped to Connor, and then Kayli (who both did fabulous) and then to me.  Then we all sang a hymn, thankfully the rest of the congregation was singing too.  Then Derek spoke.

After people kindly came and told us how great we did, we headed to the primary room where Derek and Connor helped me do a puppet show.  The Princess was practicing choosing the right.  She did great except when Oscar the Grouch was making fun of Burt.  Oscar said that Burt had a pointy head, and a unibrow, and I can't remember what else.  Princess may have pointed out that Oscar had a unibrow too.

After the puppet shows I was fairly exhausted and, after lunch I fell asleep.  I probably would have slept until dinner had Dan not come to tell me he thought it was almost time for dinner.  I believed him until I looked at the clock.  Then we had snack.  Still, I had a pretty good nap.  The rest of our new years BANG! was provided by a good family dinner at the Homestead (which is Derek's parent's house) in honor of Auntie Megan's birthday.  Good food, and good company.

I followed up that day with a whole day wearing pajamas.  I was an "Obstinate, headstrong girl!" all day and only worked in the morning taking down decorations and trying out my new mop.  Thankfully Tia didn't follow through with her threat to burn the Christmas tree so we can use it again right before the next new year which will be here BANG! before you know it.

Summing up 2011

I really have been so busy during the last couple of months of 2011 that I have not felt like writing, so you have missed out on some of the activities of the month.  Here are some pictures to finish off this year before I begin with the fun of writing about a new year.

The big blue feather was made by Dan.  He was really proud.  There were many things we were thankful for.  Derek does unique ones like "Gravity", mine usually include the phone and friends but also included counselors who help me with Primary (the children's organization in our congregation).  This has accounted for some of the busyness of the past couple of months.  Family members take up lots of feathers and so do our favorite things -- like books.

Pick up stix cake?  This is what happens when I need one toothpick to undo a goof.

The cake survived its rough start.

This is the first of three Santas that Dan visited with.  He asked for a remote control truck every time -- only I think the size he asked for kept increasing.  He kept skipping the line and so he was always first or second to see Santa.  He said the Santa at school was not real.  He was wearing a costume which was obvious because his shoes were not real boots.  He saw one here at a family party, and another at the ward party.

This is what happens when you are almost 16 but the only way to get a puncha puncha is to sit on Santas lap.  Tia sat there too but I wasn't there with the camera.



Here's the annual pajama picture.  I have a Pride and Prejudice quote shirt.  There are a lot of Psych shirts, Dan has Batman pajama pants, and Jake has Sonic pajama pants.

Just in case this picture is better.  I think Tia's eyes are open in this one.

Ahhhh!  We were all glad Trisa could be here for Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Uncle Russell and Aunt Erin came and admired everyone's goods on Christmas morning.  It is tradition and we would have missed them if they hadn't come!

Sam loved Big Bird until he noticed the camera.

Connor wins the annual race up the stairs!

Anika and Isabelle with Uncle Derek.

This is Dan -- exhausted after singing "Never Say Never" with Tia and Justin Bieber.

We had a happy Thanksgiving -- two really since we had Thanksgiving early with my family.  We have all been remarkably healthy considering all of the illness we know of around us.  We got great Christmas gifts that are continually being enjoyed.  We have wonderful friends who are supportive of us and we have family around who are fun to be with and who are always very good to us.  All in all, it has been a very good year with much to be thankful for.

Christmas Kayli's Sweet Sixteen

It may be a bit odd to be writing this on Christmas Eve, but this way I won't be so far behind on Christmas, and besides it is an appropriate thing to do on a day that Kayli thoroughly enjoys.  Kayli was born six days before Christmas on, not so coincidentally, the only year that I was completely prepared for Christmas by the end of October.  That was sixteen short years ago and now she is grown into a beautiful young woman.


Kayli's birthday brownies.

Kayli hoping to get her wish.

Kayli is a very thoughtful person and I am a little worried about what our house will look like when she stops acting like Cinderella.  She does such a good job of helping out.

Kayli is very musical and has been taking guitar lessons the last three months at the same time as me.  She already plays the piano beautifully.  She has decided to go back to piano lessons rather than continuing with guitar.  We'll see if she really learns guitar on her own like she thinks she will.  I didn't have much success with that!  Thanks to her father's urging she has also joined me in singing in the choir on Sundays.

For her birthday Kayli had a friend get together because her Dad kind of made her.  She requested that nobody bring gifts and so she got presents from everyone.  Tia was in charge of being hostess and they played games, watched a movie, and barely made a dent in all of the treats that Derek bought.  Kayli's actual birthday was on a Monday and a school day.  She didn't get to open her presents until dinner time but she got brownies, ice cream, and hot fudge at snack time.  We had the food that she requested for dinner (sweet and sour chicken with chicken nuggets on the side for those who don't like sweet and sour chicken).  Then we watched a movie because that is what she wanted to do.



Kayli opens presents with Jake as a sidekick.

She must have liked whatever present she was opening here!

Kayli is a good, helpful girl.  She has good friends and is a good friend to others.  She likes high school a lot better than junior high and she loves Christmas.  She is writing a letter to Santa as I type and looks forward to racing Trisa up the stairs in the morning.  I don't know that she has ever won that race yet!  Happy late birthday to my close to Christmas Kayli!  I hope 16 is sweet!

Energetic Erin

Erin with her family

Erin is strong, imaginative, and fun.  She finds energy when I'm sure I couldn't, and she uses that energy to take care of those that she loves.  I remember once that I was talking to somebody who I thought might know Erin.  I knew she was describing Erin when she said, "Is she the one that's always carrying two children?"  Erin says it keeps her balanced to have one child in each arm.  It would have kept my children at the emergency room being treated for head wounds.  It probably would have sent me off for early shoulder surgeries too, but Erin is strong and she seems to manage just fine.  Somehow she never gripes about her arms or her aching back or anything, at least not to me, and her two youngest children know they can count on her to hold them when they need snuggles.

Okay, so this isn't Erin.  But this is exactly how she would carry these boys.
It must be a family talent.

Erin has five children and a husband (Russell).  The husband came first.  She also has a nice house.  She uses her imagination in playing with and teaching her children, and in coming up with more ways to decorate, and redecorate her house.  It is always fun to go and try to figure out what is different.  She only lives about 15 minutes away, but something is different every time I go.  I haven't kept track of how many times the front room has been repainted, or any room.  The floors have changed, the furniture gets added to, the rugs come and go, the cabinets are a different color, new pictures or plaques take the place of old ones.  The constant is that it always looks nice, and there are always happy children around.

Happy Erin with a happy Dylan

Erin has a couple of different blogs, including a cooking blog.  She cooks up yummy things and then posts the recipes and pictures.  I admit to not visiting that blog often, but it is not the blogs fault, it is Dan's allergies.  We all know that yummy stuff has milk, or cheese, or eggs thrown in there somewhere!  Yummy desserts seem to be her specialty and for a while she seemed to get the dessert assignment for every single family dinner that we had.

I call Erin every now and then when I want someone to talk to and I always enjoy the chance to chat.  Quite frankly, it makes my day that she always seems so happy that I called.  She's on the computer quite a bit too and so I like to write her e-mail because she's usually very good about writing right back.

Erin likes to shop and I hear (from my girls, and Russell, and Tanya) that she is fun to shop with.  I think I'd like to peak and see how many shoes she owns.  She shops both in stores and online and has been known to sell a thing or two on ebay, which I think is brave because, well, because it would make me nervous to do that.

When our kids are opening presents slowly we tell them to "open it like Aunt Erin!"  Because of her childhood habit of sneaking a peak at her wrapped gifts, I still wonder if Russell dares put any of her presents anywhere in the house before Christmas -- or maybe she just buys her own now, but I think Russell has managed to surprise her a few times. 

Erin makes me smile.  She's just so creative and quick witted.  She reminds me of her Mom in the way she can take a rather daunting task and tackle it with a positive attitude and the thought that if we just get to work, we'll get done soon.  She also seems to have inherited, or developed, the gift of keeping a positive attitude even when sleep isn't very abundant.  All the same, I hope that she got a good nights sleep before her birthday and that today is a totally awesome day for her.  She won't want me to be too mushy, but I love her, and hope she has a happy birthday!

This is to let Erin see the lone picture she would have had on here if I hadn't gotten some off of her Picasa web album.

Handy Mandy

Mandy

Mandy is married to my brother-in-law Devin.  They have four children, 2 girls, one boy, and a very new baby girl.  They live about 15 minutes away from me in a beautiful two story brick house where Dan and I, and occasionally my whole family, have enjoyed some happy times.

When Mandy was dating Devin we were all looking forward to meeting her.  We got the chance to meet her for the first time at the annual Halloween party, where we were all dressed up in costumes.  There were about ten adults and a LOT of children all dressed up in unique ways to greet her.  I figured she must like Devin a lot when she was actually willing to come and meet us all again!

Mandy is smart.  She has her bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County where she played basketball.  She is six feet tall and has basketball skills (obviously).  She loves to play sports and played flag football quite a bit too.  She has an M.A. and a PhD from BYU in exercise science and so she can be called Dr. Mandy.  She also served in the Geneva, Switzerland mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She speaks French.  If she weren't so nice, I'd find her accomplishments a bit intimidating.

One of the most fun things about knowing Mandy is getting to see which creative project she will do next.  Here are pictures of some of the things she has made.

This is an outdoor pizza oven that Mandy made.  They have made pizza for the neighbors and themselves in this oven.

Mandy designed this play set for her kids and her Dad helped build it.

These are some of the canned goods that Mandy put up this summer during a year when she was pregnant and not feeling her best.

Devin and Mandy worked together to make an apple cider press.

This is another part of the press and they got several gallons of apple cider this fall.

The girls wanted a doll house for Christmas.
 I called during nap time once to find Mandy working downstairs on this project.

Some of us would just go buy an easel at the store.  Mandy decided to just make one herself.

Besides all of these things she also decided to try her hand at sewing a year or so ago and made her girls some beautiful princess dresses for Halloween.  I expect Mandy can do whatever she puts her mind to.

If you were to visit Mandy's house you would know immediately that she is patriotic.  If you went at night you would be greeted with electric candles in the windows.  This is a tradition that she brought from the east where she is from (the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area).  It is a very welcoming look, and I think it fits a house that Mandy lives in because she always makes me feel welcome when I come to visit.  I love Mandy.  She is good to me and I always enjoy the time I get to spend with her.  Happy Birthday Mandy!

I'm Thankful for Tina

(left to right) Brian, Tina, Ray, Mom, Dad, Jenny, Sherie

Today is not Tina's birthday, but tomorrow is.  Her birthday is sometimes on Thanksgiving and I am always thankful for her.  She is a good person who loves the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She is a good example for me.   Besides that, here are some of the things that I am thankful for:

Tina has been my friend since I was very small.  There were times when I'm sure Tina thought I was a bit pesky, but for the most part she was patient, and kind, and fun.  When she was a teenager I used to tease her for doing her hair at night.  I asked her if she was hoping to look nice in her dreams.  She didn't clobber me, so you can see that she was patient.  When she came home from youth activities that I was too young to attend she would take the time to tell her curious little sister (me) all about it.  She and my other siblings were my main playmates during the growing up years and we had a lot of fun.  Tina taught us in "school", did gymnastics, played dolls and barbies, baked, and did many, many other fun and imaginative activities with us.

Tina is compassionate.  On those sad days as a teenager when all of the emotion I had been holding in bubbled out in tears, it was Tina or Jenny, my two good sisters, who would let me lay on their lap and cry until I was able to pull myself together and become my "naturally cheerful self" (I'm quoting my brother Brian there).  It is Tina who, as a rather poor newlywed, would call to check on me, a rather poor college student.  Somehow she and Chris always found enough food to share with me, and it was much better food than the noodles and salt that I got down to once.  I never felt she was judging me, just kindly taking care of me.  When I was grown up a bit and had children of my own, I can remember Tina (and Jenny) coming to the hospital to see my little Tia who had to have surgery when she was two weeks old.  They both cried to see my little girl hooked up to monitors and tubes and I remember how glad I was that they had come.  Tina has been there to be understanding and loving during the challenges of my life, and this is very helpful to me.

Tina is very talented.  She is a good musician.  She plays the piano, and sings alto like me.  At one time she knew how to play the guitar.  Tina sews.  She used to sew clothes for her barbies and dolls, and could sew things without patterns.  Now she does the most wonderful quilts.  She made a gorgeous quilt for my parents 50th anniversary that took her hours and hours.  She is also the one who made the fun hamburger puppet for my birthday.  She likes tools and fixing things and is very handy.  She also is a gardner and has gardens that my Dad (the chief gardner) can be proud of.  She does a lot of canning and is good at feeding guests, even at the last minute (at least she used to be, we can't really just pop over anymore).  She is a good teacher too and has taught her children well.

Finally, because I can't bring myself to leave it out, Tina was always super fun to have around at Christmas time.  All of my siblings (except Ray who preferred sleep) spent a lot of time on Christmas Eve sneaking around the house, and even playing with our toys from Santa.  We had so much fun every year.  It was always our goal to not get caught by my Dad.  My parents were very patient and Mom would come out first to warn us to get quiet.  When Dad came out we knew we'd have to go back to bed, at least for a few minutes.  Tina loves Christmas still and I think she probably still gets very little sleep on Christmas -- but more because her own children are up wandering about!

There are so many good things I could say about Tina!  Tina is a great sister.  I love her and am very thankful for her.

Kindergarten Drama

I didn't know that having Dan in Kindergarten would bring more drama into our lives.  We have a cute neighbor girl who is not in Dan's kindergarten class, but who rides the bus with him.  He loves her, or at least he has for the past two weeks.  He kept praying "I'm thankful that I love my Mom and I love Tiffany".  "Her is my best friend", he would say. 

He played at her house after school once and had a great time.  And then there came a time when we invited her to come over here and play while her Mom worked.  She didn't want to because "Dan scratches my head and I don't like it", reported her Mom.  After some discussion we discovered that Dan was "tickling" Tiffany.  He told me that "her likes to be tickled".  I informed him that "her must not because her doesn't want to come over" (I can use my pronouns incorrectly if I try).  He played with somebody else and I tried to convince him to stop tickling her, and anyone else.

He went back to loving her until yesterday when he came howling down the street from the bus.  I thought he must have fallen.  No.  "Tiffany called me a bad word", he said.  After hugs, and telling me again, and telling Tia, he clarified that she had called him "stupid".  This can be a bad word for sure.  It didn't make him feel good anyway.  Today he came home happier and matter of factly informed me that Tiffany had told him that she didn't want to play with him ever again.  I asked, "Why not?".  Dan reported, "She said my singing is annoying.  I told her I'd stop!"

Dan still loves lots of people in his prayers.  He's taken to ranking us all.  "Thankful that I love Jake, he is my favorite.  Thanks that I love Jesus more than anybody else in the whole world because I have to".  Okay so he only said he had to once, since then he just adds it in as if it makes him super righteous just to say it.  Religion is always interesting when heard from Dan!  I think he might be hoping that we will all spoil him extra so that we'll move up in the prayer rankings.  Poor Tiffany might have dropped out of the rankings all together after today.  But, it is likely she'll be back next week!  Things change fast in the life of a Kindergartener.

Trisa Kay's Big Day

Trisa is officially an adult.  21.  She has been 21 for two weeks and 3 days.  She is a junior in college majoring in Elementary Education.  She is beautiful, and kind, and smart.  Thankfully, she's coming home today so we can see her.

Trisa is our oldest child which means that one day she will be telling Dan tales of how hard her life was compared to his.  But, lest you feel too sorry for her, she also has lots of aunts and uncles and many of them were unmarried when Trisa was born.  They were her fan club and they loved to play with her, teach her things, and spoil her in any way they could.  I still remember Trisa at about two carrying a basketball that was about as big as her out into the middle of a basketball game because she wanted to play basketball with her Dad and Uncles.  They usually let her play games with them!  She was a little angry when I chased her down and carried her off the court.  On Derek's side of the family she is the first grandchild and the first great grandchild and she was treated like a royal princess.

Thankfully, even with all of that spoiling, and our unskilled attempts at parenting, Trisa is a good daughter and a good big sister.  She dragged Tia around by the feet before Tia could walk (Tia was sitting up) so she could play with her and they are good friends still.  Tia can hardly wait to join Trisa in grown up land (away from home).  Kayli misses having Trisa around and especially looks forward to racing her up the stairs on Christmas mornings.  Connor and Trisa love to talk about, and share books.  Trisa talks to Jake and makes him smile, and Dan loves her and wishes that college weren't so far away and didn't take so long. 



Look at the candle glow on that chocolate cookie.

Trisa looks like she was needing to blow really hard to get this candle out.
And I look like I might need to help her.

This makes us wonder who really blew out the candle.

Trisa got a package from us before her birthday.  She opened it on her birthday and called me and let me listen when she opened her presents.  Her friends made her a cake and lit all of the candles I sent. That probably took a LOT more air to blow out than the one candle we lit. 

Derek and I love Trisa.  We miss her as only parents can.  We miss her baby self, her one year old self, and all on up to the wonderful person she has grown to be.  Three more hours and we won't have to miss her 21 year old self any more.  Until Sunday. Happy Belated Birthday to Trisa.

The Random Update

I have a half hour before I need to drive Kayli and I to guitar lessons.  I hope I'm more skilled for my teacher today than I was at home yesterday -- but that doesn't seem likely!  Still, I have improved from when I started a couple of months ago.

Trisa the beautiful, whose birthday blog I have not done yet because I seem to have turned flakey at the end of the year, came the Sunday after her birthday.  I'll save her lovely pictures for when I do her birthday blog.  She had spent the weekend with a former roommate and her family.  They attended a concert and an SUU away game and seemed to have a fabulous time.  They came here for Sunday dinner and we enjoyed visiting with them and the former roommate's friend.

One of the October Mondays we had some people over and carved, or painted pumpkins.  Some people did both.  We had some fabulous pumpkins.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them before I threw their shriveled pumpkin faces in the garbage today.  Oops.

Then, there was the annual C. family Halloween Party.  Derek had a work party before the Halloween party and a lot got done.  Here are the pictures from those events.

This is only impressive if you know what it looked like before.

Professionally stacked wood.

This pile is much bigger than it looks.
It would be a fabulous, but dangerous, bon fire.

Devin did this before the work party day.  He also picked the apples.
This looks a lot better too.

Ninja Jake has been doing quite well at the piano.  He was probably playing his Halloween song.

This is the only picture I have of the group.  It does not adequately capture the crowd.

Finally, after the Halloween Party we got to have Quinn, Porter, and Haven come for the night and then to church to hear me speak, and before we knew it Halloween had arrived.  Dan was Ironman.  Jake was a ninja and went trick or treating with Brennan.  Brennan's mom drove them somewhere and so they had piles of candy.  Connor went to a party with friends.  Kayli opened the door and handed out a lot of candy.  Tia handed out candy and then went out with friends.  I took Dan trick or treating with his friend Tifanny and my friend Diane, and Derek helped with the door occasionally and watched television (I think, but I was off trick or treating so I can't be certain).  I have one picture of Dan before Halloween.  He wore his costume so much I had to sew it back together Sunday night.

IronDan with his ghost hat and necklace from Kindergarten and his camo-jacket.
"Aren't I cool Mom!"