Jolly Jenny Jump Up

This post is in honor of my little sister Jenny. Her birthday is on Friday and we used to celebrate together quite often -- usually on the day between our birthdays (I know -- it's a not so subtle hint that my birthday is coming too--so start writing your good wishes to me and get them in the mail!). It's harder to get together for birthdays now and sometimes that makes me sad. Jenny is always fun to celebrate with! Jenny is the spunky one in the family. She has pizazz (except how do you spell that?). She is very talented and is a good person to ask questions of if you are planning a big event and need some help. She's patient too. I used to read out loud to her for hours, insist that we should memorize hymns and no doubt was bossy in other ways too. Here we are looking all beautiful for my older sister's wedding reception. Jenny is a good friend and I miss all of the chatting we used to do. Sometimes life gets busy! She kept me entertained during the months I had to stay in bed before Trisa was born. I loved hearing Jenny and Jeff stories -- especially because it had a happy ending.
This is Jenny in the hospital. It's not fair that she looks so beautiful is it? We were pregnant at the same time four times and somehow I never got a picture of us together with round bellies. This picture is of her fourth child-- Seth, and my fifth -- Jake. I decided while trying to get pictures together for this post that I have never taken enough pictures of Jenny. I'm going to start haunting her at family reunions. Here she is with her husband and her five beautiful children. I really can't say enough good things about a little sister who has been protective of me, kind to me, helpful to me, and a good example to me. I hope that this year's birthday will be a happy one -- even if I'm not there to help her eat her cake!

Nice clothes, Mud, and the Haircut from Hades

Tia went to watch Mud volleyball with a friend of hers the other day. They were easily the nicest dressed people there because everyone else planned to play. What do you do when someone asks you to join in the fun -- but you aren't dressed in the right kind of clothes? Jump right in!
After a seconds thought, I approved their decision -- even if I had wished they'd thought of wearing grubbies in the first place. Tia took a shower in her clothes afterwards and then another shower -- umm -- in the more usual way. I think her clothes are going to make it and she had a good time.

Here's Dan. Isn't he cute? His hair was long in the bangs and over the ears and I was just going to trim him up a little. Unfortunately, he's terrified of scissors and clippers. He tries to put his hand up to stop the scissors -- thus making them dangerous. He just throws his head around a bit with the clippers -- thus causing an "oops" to occur that meant he is now a buzzed boy instead of the longer haired boy you might expect. It's still too long in spots and needs to be fixed. He did survive the trauma (and I did too -- barely) but .... He would like YOU to come and fix it up. With his hair buzzed you can now see the gash in his head from landing against the fireplace. This is added to the bruise on his cheek, the scar on his other cheek, and bruises up and down his legs just to prove he's manly and adventuresome. He can obviously still smile so I think he'll make it.

Cleaning out Critter Haven (Previously known as our Garden)

Monday was our family night. You can imagine the children's delight when they were told that we were cleaning out the garden for our activity. "Hooray" they said -- or maybe "Oh Groan". Fortunately, besides the rather rebellious 6 year old, and the little adventurer, everyone was quite helpful. Now, when I say we cleaned the garden, I mean the space previously used as a garden, or the weed garden, or the weed / stick pile where critters like to congregate. I really tried to find you a before picture -- but I forgot to take one on Monday and I purposely avoided aiming the camera that direction on other occasions. The above trailer is full of the things from the garden and I had gotten rid of quite a pile of things a couple of weeks previously. This is our trash can Tuesday when I finally took the picture. I was a bit distressed that our garbage can, which was emptied on Monday, was three fourths full by the end of Monday because of old hoses that have been moldering in the garden. Where is all of our garbage going now? I'm practicing "creative cramming" but the lid won't shut already.
Here is the "garden" looking more like its old self. In fact, I really don't think it's looked this good since we moved in.
This section next to the house hasn't been weed free for years and years. I've tried but those weeds have really tough roots, even when soaked with water, and weed killer. There were lots of spiders that liked to hide in them waiting to get me. Don't tell Tia or she won't ever go in the garden again. Here's another trailer / tarp picture. Silly me took out the camera and forgot to take the picture until after the tarp was on. I was focused on covering up the pile so it wouldn't blow away in the storm, ruining the perfect lawns of our neighbors.

We didn't actually see any furry critters, but I've heard suspicious noises in the piles in the past and I keep expecting those traps Derek set to catch something. Perhaps they ran away and aren't coming back because Critter Haven no longer exists and they must find a new place to lay down their little furry heads.

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Boy!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Dan who came yelling into the world two years ago today -- much to his parents delight since yelling equals healthy lungs. We were glad when he chose not to yell too much at night. Actually he might have yelled a lot. For some reason I just don't remember.
Here he is as he continued to grow and be our happy little boy who learned early (very early) that you smile at cameras. He is, of course, the most photographed child we have since his sisters and brothers all help take pictures of him.
This is one year ago when he was having his happy birthday number one. He didn't eat any of that cake but it sure looked festive! Today he is having pumkin cookies which is the only dessert that he seems to like besides popsicles.
Moving right along, he has continued to grow and learn, and now he loves televisions like his siblings before him. We are, of course, trying to make sure he doesn't watch too much of that (though it's fun when he sings along to Leap Frog's letter factory). In order to give him more things to do, and because he asks to go and ride this every time we go to Walmart, we gave him a bike for his birthday today (yes I let my little boys ride bikes and play toys at the store -- my girls were required to look only -- I've gotten nicer).
As you can see, this is a happy day for him. It is a happy day for us too since we really love our sweet boy. We worry over him, we get frustrated when he doesn't sleep through the night, but he makes us smile more often than not with his enthusiasm, and it's hard to beat a smile and a hug from Dan.

The verdict is ...

Well, maybe you need to have a trial to have a verdict. Let's just say that I owe thanks to all of you -- especially "T" who went out of your way to comment on my "Comment" blog. It hit an all time record of comments for me. Of course, I realize that I can comment myself, thus bumping the number up.

Next topic. How did my day with just Dan go? It's still waiting to happen. I've had days with Dan and Kayli but not just Dan yet. I've had plenty of nights with Dan though since he insists on waking up and having me sit by him while he goes back to sleep. His bad boy record was 6 in one night this week. His good boy record was two last night. Hooray! I felt like I'd actually slept some. He did have a night where he only woke up three times but then Jake made up the difference by getting up twice. Can anyone say Zombie?

School. Jake got up for it every day without complaining and went without a fuss. I was very thankful that he did so well. He did ask once when he was going to get to play (that was Friday morning). I told him he could play after school but his friend wasn't available then so he played with Dan. I liked that. The other children have done well too and they all ate their home lunches -- except Jake. He's already tried to convince me that his teacher doesn't want them to bring home lunches. He's eaten two unpaid for school lunches while his nice home lunch got limp in his backpack. I'll have to try sending a note to his teacher.

Did I read, or clean the bathroom during naps? Hmm. I can't remember. It wasn't the bathroom though because I finally did that today. Speaking of which, how do you get tubs clean? I have applied several cleaning solutions (AJAX -- Mr. Clean) and it still looks a bit dirty. I've scrubbed with scrub brushes too. I suppose the trick is to clean it a bit more often than I do. I won't tell you how often that is so you'll still come visit. Maybe the real trick is to have muscles like "Mr. Clean". I'll start weight lifting soon -- right?

I just realized that my music in the other room was playing Silent Night. I honestly thought that I took all but two Christmas songs off -- but I guess I have three on there. They don't come up often but it's a nice surprise when they do! Merry Christmas to all -- and to all a good night (with no surprise visits from your little ones).

Comments

Did you know that sometimes I check my own blog hoping for more comments even though I didn't write anything new? It's that desire to get something for nothing -- clever conversation right here on my blog without me having to come up with something to start it all out. I'm not sure what I'm hoping you will say because I'm pretty sure I'm not wanting you all to tell me I should get with it and write something! Who knows though -- maybe I write better under pressure?

Maybe I cook better under pressure too and that's why it's almost 4:30 and I still haven't started dinner or figured out for 100 percent certain what we are having. I'm only feeding the boys tonight (no I'm not starving the girls they are just away hiking) so it should be easy. I think I'll try out an easy recipe from my new "allergy friendly" cookbook. A whole pile of recipes that Dan can eat and we can too and they are supposed to taste good! Thanks to Di for the heads up on that one -- and to Mom C. who told me about it too.

Finally, in a stroke of oddness -- Jake sounds excited about school and he says he likes his teacher (who he met today) -- though him liking his teacher isn't the odd part. He was really curious about what color her hair would be. It's brown. I hope he's excited for school in the morning when he will want to be sleeping.

Kayli had her first school day today and I felt bad to discover that she didn't know she needed to take pencils and pens and paper and therefore some teachers were grumpy with her. I forget that what I thought should be obvious isn't to someone who has had those things provided for them at school their whole school career. I felt like a bad mom and still found it secretly amusing (just a little Kayli!) that she hadn't taken any.

Tomorrow Kayli gets to stay home and so my first real official day with just Dan and me at home will be Thursday. I'm planning on being really fun that day and I'm also really hoping that Dan takes a good nap at which point I will try to determine whether I can read a book guilt free or whether I need to spend the time frantically cleaning my bathroom or something. Ugg. Any guesses which will win?

Ah, well, I wrote something so now you can make many witty and clever comments and I'll be so happy to see them when I visit my blog.

Attacked by a snake, hugged by an owl, and treated well by the store we all love to hate!

Dan has found a plastic snake -- I'm not sure which of my children it belongs too -- and he gets a kick out of chasing me with it making scary hissing noises. At least it would be scary if he wasn't so cute the whole time but his persistence is a bit scary.
If I'm sitting still he holds the snake like he is above and "bites" me with it over and over. I'd be in bad shape if the snake were real.
Last night we went to the Orem Owlz game. This is their mascot and this picture came from the official Orem Owlz site. I forgot my camera or I could have illustrated the owl (Hootz) hugging the children. Jake and Dan loved him and went to visit him several times. I think the owl probably thought Dan was stalking him. Jake and Dan liked giving him 5 and "the rock", but when the owl wanted to hold Dan, Dan ran and hid behind me. The owl hugged Kayli and hug/tackled Connor and offered to hug Derek (when Derek said that owlz have (arm)pits too). Derek declined. Kayli quietly informed me that "the owl stinks" -- which didn't surprise me since I'm so smart -- and it was hot -- until later in the evening when I got cold. Two broken bats and a homerun later the Owlz won!

Finally we went school shopping and decided to start in town at Walmart before heading to farther away locations. Today, Walmart did well. We were looking for a lot of things (we ended with 18 total items) and we got out under nine dollars a thing -- lots of jeans, a couple of shirts, and some belts and we now have some well dressed younger kids. We took one short trip to payless where Jake picked the first pair of shoes he tried on and we were home in just over two hours total. Hooray! I wasn't looking forward to that trip and am glad it ended so quickly and so well. The changing room lady was nice, the line wasn't long, and we saw some people we know to say hi too. All in all, a rather charmed trip.

The Mud Mountain Fire Revisited

The picture above is our recreational property (The Mud Mountains) in July 2007 right after the forest fire burned it. There used to be sage brush taller than Derek where Connor is standing. We revisited this year at the end of July and the following pictures show what a year can do.
This was taken looking in the same direction that the picture of Connor was taken the year before -- I think. No signs of sage brush but there is growth!
Underneath these scrub oak new scrub oak are appearing but there are some spots that got so hot that the roots didn't make it either.
Being directionally challenged, I can't exactly tell you where on the property this is but it's intersting anyhow -- right?
Finally, even burnt the property has great views and it's own wild beauty -- just no shade -- great for tanning. My Dad was there and enjoyed finding, and identifying, animal tracks and plants. The deer tracks even I could find. The bear tracks took a more experienced tracker. The funny thing was that the road was more overgrown than the rest of the property since it didn't really burn the first time. We rode on it anyhow. Let us know if you ever want to see the affects of the fire first hand -- just try to pick a cool / shady day.

Bully Baby

Which of these two cute boys is the bully? Any guesses? Okay, I won't really call either of them real bullies but the one on the left reported to his Mom a few times that "baby Dan hit you". I suspect C. (we'll just call him that in case my sister is appalled that I put him in my blog) was just trying to reclaim some of his own toys. Dan is rather possessive of things even if they aren't technically his. He really liked that little tractor. Of course it is possible that Dan decided to take it from C. without asking too.

In the bath they were happy though -- except Dan was jealous the day that C. got possession of the one cup. At least he didn't hit his cousin to get it -- he just kept pointing at it and looking pleadingly at me. The floor stayed more dry when C. had the cup than when Dan had it. I hear that was just luck though as C. also enjoys watching water fall onto the floor. Dan was distracted from his desire to possess the cup when the paparazzi showed up with their cameras. Both boys were happy to smile for the cameras and said "Cheese" whenever they were asked to.

Generally speaking they were good little boys and Dan only bullied C. sometimes. They were cute the whole time even if having them around didn't help us get lots of sleep or get lots done.

Tripping Around

This is a random picture of me from the family reunion. I haven't written in so long that we enjoyed a reunion one weekend, a trip to a friend's house the very next Monday, a trip to the cabin with Q and T and family on the next weekend (complete with a trip to the drive in theatre), and another outing to a friend's house today for family home evening. We are looking forward to another trip this weekend to Idaho. Der will be enjoying not sleeping on a camping trip. He has acquired "Bear Spray" which is supposed to help us all feel safe about him running into bears. I will be hanging out at my sister's house with the kids and we are planning to relax. I'll let you know how it goes.

At the reunion, I enjoyed the people. I like seeing married couples who work well together and who like to be together. I like to see brothers and sisters who help each other and get along well. I like to see all of the cousins playing and having a wonderful time. I like to see patient grandparents who are patiently dealing with their house being over-run by flys and people. Everywhere I looked (and really, people were everywhere), every day, there were people that I liked to be with.

We had fun at both family home evenings with friends. I'm thankful for the impressive people I get to "hang out" with!

The cabin was free of mice, there were fun things to drive around and beautiful scenery to see. I even slept well after arriving back there late from the drive in. Sleeping well with that many people in the cabin is a miracle really. I enjoyed the nastalgia of a drive in theatre and the kids now know what we're talking about when we talk about having gone to them in the past. I enjoyed having people there for me to visit with and my kids to play with. I enjoyed the game I played too even though Q won and I lost miserably.

All in all, life is still hectic and busy but at least we are spending our hectic and busy times "tripping around" with some of the best people ever.

Necks

This pancake dinner started cheerfully ("Yeah! Yeah! MMMM!" -- Dan loves pancakes and cheers for them). That's really not what this particular blog is about though -- it's about last week's adventure to the Dinosaur Museum. I thought the kids would be excited but Tia had a cold and her neck was stiff so she couldn't go and the other kids seemed lukewarm at best -- not a good beginning.
I didn't take the stroller because Dan likes to walk. Silly me. This was Dan's main attitude at the museum. He wanted a "huggy" almost the whole time and if he wasn't holding his drink he was panicking every time he saw another child with one because he thought they were taking his. You must protect your prescious possessions I guess. So, I spent most of the time in the museum with Dan's arms around my neck -- which would be very pleasant if he didn't weigh a lot.
My oldest son started out by grumbling about everything. "This is stupid -- there aren't even any big dinosaurs" and then when we got to the big dinosaurs I said "See there are some big dinosaurs" and he just said "It's about time". He was not pleased at the lighting in the museum (too dark) and really seemed to be the most excited when he discovered from looking at the map that we had almost made it through the whole thing so that we could go home. This from someone who loves dinosaurs. As you can see in the picture above, he did occasionally smile and he did try to obey my instruction to make the next 5 comments positive ones. Sorry, no tie in with the title other than I think Connor was feeling a bit stiffnecked (or at least determined to be ornery). This is the long necked dinosaur's neck bones. I thought it was amazing -- the tail was even longer I think and I was impressed.
Jake was interested in having his picture taken several times and that was his favorite activity besides asking if it was time to go home. Thankfully Kayli was interested and, if I ever go back, it will likely be with her so she can have a more enjoyable experience. Of course, we would have all enjoyed it more if there weren't wall to wall people so that we had no desire to do the fun things. I think it would have been great if they would have sent half of the people home but, since they weren't going to do that, we went -- after one hour. We probably set a record for the fastest trip to the museum.

So we had a sore neck, a hugged neck, a long neck, and some stiffneckedness. Not the description I had hoped for for our adventure -- but at least we didn't have any wrung necks.

Something pretty and TAG you're it!

1. What is your favorite day of the week? I don't currently have a set favorite -- though I still try for it to be Sunday. If I can not be too tired or feel too sorry for myself because Der's gone all day, then it usually works out.
2. What is your favorite candybar? Umm. Maybe Butterfingers still but I don't eat candybars enough to know.
3. What is your favorite restaurant? I'd have to say the Cracker Barrel
4. Favorite fast food? The Big Mac -- but in general I like Wendy's better.
5. What city in UT would you most like to live? Where I am is great -- where we plan on going should be too.
6. Would you rather get flowers or a pint of ice cream from your hubby? Flowers -- the cut variety. I accidentally kill the real ones.
.7. Would you rather be an anchorwoman or an owner of a small shop? A small shop -- probably a book shop or a music shop -- or both.
8. Magazine editor or prosecution lawyer in the big city? Magazine Editor -- not in the big city.
9. Favorite household chore? Vacuuming
10. Least favorite? Perhaps it would be cleaning the bathroom floor after the boys have been there -- or cleaning the tub which I find discouraging.
11. Favorite cereal? Walmart brand Bran Flakes -- no kidding.
12. Favorite season? Fall
13. What is your favorite active activity? Riding my bike or playing indoor soccer or maybe even basketball if it's a good day and I'm not playing against anyone who's really, really good -- I like to have a chance of winning.
14. Favorite leisure activity? Reading
15. Do you take vitamins? Sporadically
16. How many traffic tickets? None
17. What does your retirement bring? I don't think Mom's retire but we're planning a mission.
18. What talent do you want to have? Singing. I work hard at not coveting voices -- I just appreciate them.
19. Favorite dessert? Ginger cookies (today)
20. Favorite food? Butter rolls or hot homemade bread, butter and honey.
Now, the idea is that you cut and paste this into your blog and answer it so that your readers can do the same. I was tagged and now you have been. Feel free to add your own questions!
PS. If you don't have your own blog please just answer a couple of your favorite q's for me. Thanks!

Adventures

"Into the woods, into the woods, and home before dark" (from "Into the Woods" -- that play we have on video) We went hiking again -- through the water again -- and we thought it was beautiful and fun again. The company was great. This time instead of hearing "I'll NEVER go on that hike again" we heard "I Love this hike! I want to go on it every day!" Different hikers, different perspectives.

Today we revived a tradition from many years past with my sister's family and got ourselves out of bed extremely early to view the balloons.
They are big, and fun, and amazing.
And getting up early is exhausting.
We're semi awake now and heading off again to a family event. This summer I have NOT been bored.