Enrichment Night

Ben said I'm not allowed to selectively blog, that I have to blog about myself too. So he took some pictures of my preparation for enrichment yesterday. I'm the enrichment leader in our ward, which is very small. But it seems like no matter how many people you have, you still have to get SO MUCH stuff ready!

Yesterday we made fruit bouquets, and I underestimated the amount of time it would take to prepare. I worked all day long, and thankfully Ben was able to come home and help. The worst part was making all the homemade play dough. I had to make dozens of play dough balls, because that's what you put in the bottom of your vase to stick the spears into. So each person needed one, and they're cheaper than floral foam, so there I stood, kneading the dough all day. My hand is still killing me. I had to multiply the recipe by 16, and something went horribly wrong. It was way too mushy, so I just kept adding flour and salt and oil until it worked. Frustrating.

But we got it all prepared and over to the church. We set up and got everything ready (that took 2 1/2 hours), had taco bell for dinner, and waited for people to show up.

Here are some pictures of the ladies having fun. First we did a veggie-dish cook off, and awarded three prizes to the top finishers. Then we made our fruit bouquets, which was a lot of fun. We called it a "Fruits and Veggies Night". We had a lot of fruit left, because some people who signed up didn't make it. But for those who did, we had a fabulous time!

Even the kids had fun!

I'm glad it's over.

Hair Cut

I can't believe she actually did it. Haley wanted a hair cut, just a trim. Her hair was to the bottom of her back, long and curly. I think it was just getting too hot for the summer. And of course, the stylist took off way more than she had asked. But she likes it anyway. I think it looks great - although she looks older. That I'm not liking so much.

Recycling

I am not a hippie, as my daughter likes to tease. I may dress similar to one every once in awhile, and I may harp on my kids about not drinking out of plastic bottles and remind them to reuse things, and I may even like to reclaim furniture out of the garbage (actually, that was Ben's idea). Still, I am not a hippie. But I cannot see why, in a town of over 100,000 people, we have no municipal recycling service. So we decided to hire a private service. There are bins around town that take newspaper and aluminum cans, but we don't get the paper and we don't buy soda. But we do throw away plenty of plastics, paper, and other metal that could be recycled. I LOVE to save things from being thrown away. Not that I don't like to throw things away - I probably get rid of too much stuff. But I'm so glad it's not going to the landfill now. The company we hired brought our bins over yesterday, and we had a quick lesson in the garage. (Please excuse the messiness of the garage - we have a lot of stuff, but that's okay because it's all used toward fun fun fun).

Joey's favorite thing was the cardboard. He now can tell which cardboard can be recycled and which can't. His favorite part, of course, was the destruction of said cardboard.

But even he lost interest after awhile.

Grace also liked the destruction of the cardboard, but she is barely heavy enough to make a dent.

That bike just looked too inviting to pass up.

If any of you would like the company info of the people we hired, let me know. And happy recycling!

The Garbage Can

The smell in the garage was growing. I knew what had to be done, I just didn't want to do it. I did it anyway, after the garbage truck came to rid our habitation of the dead rat and the dead fish. I took the garbage bin to the back yard, pushed it over, and grabbed the hose. Oh, the horror.....
I will spare you the details, but the things - the horrible things - that came out of that big black monster! Among them was a green hairy diaper. I'll let you know when I stop having nightmares.

Bridal Shower and Cousins

This week seems to have slipped away from me. But I'll catch up now. It's better than vacuuming, right? On Tuesday night I went to Julia's wedding shower. She is the little sister of one of my good friends growing up. I was also one of the counselors in YW when she was growing up. I can remember when she was born - and it's making me feel a little old. The shower was a lot of fun, especially when they showed the tape of him answering questions. She had to guess what his answer would be before they showed it, and if she got it wrong she had to chew another piece of gum. It's a bridal shower game that makes me laugh every time. Here are some pictures.

The Bride

Part of the party. I couldn't get the whole room at once. We were doing a wedding word scramble, at which I failed horribly.



The toilet paper bridal gown dress-up game. My team's dress was in the middle. We didn't win.

On Thursday we were able to enjoy some time with Emily (Ben's sister) and her son, Kanalu. He is the same age as Joey, just 4 weeks apart. They have so much fun together, and again we wish they lived closer. But they're actually moving quite a bit farther away. But we'll visit, we promise!

Here is Grandma Nan swinging Matthew. He just laughed and laughed. You can tell he was enjoying grandma's attention.

Kanalu saw I was going to take a picture and he posed for me.

Later that night Kanalu came over for some play time. We had taco soup, which is one of Grace's favorites.

The boys had a few bites, but they were too busy playing to eat much food.

They all played "hey batta batta" at the park. They just rolled the ball to each other because none of them can catch yet.

Another fun week is done. I wonder what next week will bring...

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an awesome weekend. I love extra days off. It's like time for free. We had a work day on Saturday, and then Matt's b-day party (last post). Then on Sunday we decided to take a little family trip to the park. We had beautiful weather, but about 15 minutes after we got to the park it got really cold and windy. So we just played a little bit, then headed for home - where we found that our backyard umbrella had flown over the neighbor's house and into their front yard. We had a couple messages with them laughing and telling us about it. But no harm, no foul. Here are some park pics.

Little Matthew loved crawling around on all fours. He didn't like the feeling of the sand on his knees, so he used his feet instead. I think he ate a little sand, too, but that's okay.

He really loves the swing.

Andrew took him for his first ride down the big slide.

All Joey wanted to do was play ball. We brought the baseball stuff, and after Andrew took a few swings, it was Joey's turn. He didn't want to stop. We had to practically drag him home. He will swing at anything, and do anything to hit it. He's a regular Dustin Pedroia. You Red Sox fans will know what that means! He calls batting practice "Hey batta batta". He says, "I want to play 'hey batta batta' some more!"

Then on Monday we took a trip up to Wild Bill Lake with some friends. It was pretty busy, but we got a nice little spot to fish.

Here is part of the lake. It is really small, but perfect for the kids. It was a nice day, but when the sun went behind the clouds it got pretty cold. A nice fisherman tipped us off to this spot when we first got there. It wasn't crowded over there (at least until we got there with our combined 13 kids and 7 adults).

We had to cross a little stream with a make-shift bridge made out of poles. It was an adventure crossing it, especially when I had a kid in one hand, two blankets over my shoulder, a cooler in one hand, and holding another kid's hand. That was pretty hairy, but we made it.

Daddy got all the fishing poles ready as Joey and Grace impatiently waited.

On Andrew's second or third cast, he caught this little guy. I begged Ben to keep it, but he threw it back since catching was that easy. Of course, we didn't catch another one for about two hours.


Grace had a great time just milling around. She liked to hold the fishing pole and reel it in.


She also really liked the water cooler.

Haley fished and helped out with the little ones. Here she is putting some cheese on the hook.

Joey fished for a little bit, but really liked just milling around. Here he is having a sandwich. He was happy until he fell in the lake. Then he was soaked up to his waist, and that is when we called it quits for the day.

Matthew loved just being outside. I wasn't sure if he'd be throwing a fit the whole time or not, but he just laughed, smiled, and played in the dirt.

This was not my finest moment. I was casting for Grace, and she grabbed my arm. That's when I threw the pole right into the lake. I watched it sink a little, then went after it, because I couldn't see anything around me to use to get it out. Ben was standing right there saying, "You better not get your feet wet, or you'll be freezing the whole time." I did get my feet wet, but it wasn't too bad. At least I saved the spider man fishing pole. And thanks, Haley, for thinking to grab the camera and snap a picture. I'll get you back later.

We had a great weekend, and plan to do a lot more hiking, fishing, and camping with the kids this year. It's so fun that they're older and able (and willing) to humor us. We love living near the mountains and taking advantage of such great wilderness!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Our baby turned one today! I'm so sad, but happy too. I can't believe all my children have numbers now, not just months for their ages. That makes me a little sad. I'll probably use months for his age anyway for as long as I can. I'll be saying, "oh, he's 84 months old....".

The party was so fun! We had both sets of grandparents, plus Grandma Bertha, Matthew's great-grandma! Aunt Jill and Uncle Anthony were there with Lita, Hiram, and Micah. The kids always have so much fun playing with their cousins. And there were new toys this time, too!

Here is the gathering. We pushed all the furniture around to fit everyone.

We sang "Happy Birthday", and poor little Matthew couldn't figure out why everybody was gathering around staring at him and singing. He was a little concerned, but he was really mesmerized by the candle.

He wasn't too sure about the cake either (obviously I don't bake much).

But he decided he liked it.

After pizza and cake, it was present time! This ball fountain was from Grandma Nan and Grandpa Fred. It was a big hit!

Here's Joey just being silly.

We got Matt a rocking horse that sings and makes horsey noises. It's little enough for him to climb up on. The mouth moves, and he kept trying to kiss it.

He likes riding too! What a true cowboy...

Happy birthday, Matt! We love you!

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

I knew this day would come. I have three boys, and I've been dreading it ever since Ben told me about the time he and his brother filled the bathtub with snakes when they were kids. Today it was my turn. The tragedy struck in the backyard. I was inside changing the baby's poop, and I went outside to check on the kids. I rounded the corner, and there was Joey, carrying a dead rat by the tail. A long, black, slimy one. Our conversation went something like this:

Joey: "Look at this dead rat!"
Me: "That's not a dead rat."
Joey: "Yes it is."
(I got closer) Me: "Joey that's a rat! It's a rat! A rat! Drop it! Drop it! Drop it!"
(Joey dropped it): "It's dead."
Me: "I know it's dead! It's a rat! Where did you get a rat?!" (I grabbed his arms so he couldn't touch anything, you know, just in case of the plague or some other terrible rat disease and I marched him inside to scrub him.)
Joey: "It's Shoji's rat. It's just dead."

So we made it up to the bathroom, me crying "It's a rat, oh, you had a rat!" all the way. I scrubbed him, Grace, and me for about five minutes. I called Ben at work and stumbled on and on about the dead rat, and I asked him to come home (well, I think I said something like "I need you to come home now!"). I scrubbed the doors and doorknobs with Lysol while we were waiting for dad. I don't know why - I was about to throw up and it just made me feel better. Ben took care of the thing when he got home, and then told me that he thought his assistants could hear me screaming from the phone. He was certain I was going to tell him one of the kids was covered in blood or something. Well, it was almost that bad. Not quite, but almost.

I spent the rest of the morning explaining to Joey that he was still a good boy, and I love him always, and please do not ever pick up anything dead. I told him that boys like yucky things, but mommies do not. And it's not a good idea to pick up anything dead because it could have diseases, etc....... I think he got the picture.

I can't imagine where a rat came from, and I don't know if Shoji killed it or just found it dead somewhere. Ben said it wasn't stiff, so it hadn't been dead long. He thought it looked like it drowned. He thought maybe it got caught in a puddle or in a bucket or something when the sprinklers were on. I am just gagging every time I think of a rat in my yard! We're civilized people, for crying out loud! We do not live in London in the dark ages! There should not be rats anywhere near here! Gross!

Planting the Garden

I love blogging. Mandy, you've created a monster.

So this is how we started the day:

I know. Every time I turn around, this kid does something crazy. He really did have "owies" under there, too. The one on his chin has been bugging him for a week now (because he keeps picking the scab). The one under his nose is new. We were both reaching for the same thing and I accidentally tripped him. Boy, was he mad at me! He has not let me forget how it was my fault. He tells everybody and reminds me every day. We might have to work on a forgiveness lesson. I almost wish I hadn't taught him how to do bandaids by himself. It does save me a lot of time now, though. But as long as I keep a steady supply, he's happy.

Later in the day it was planting the garden time. We've been waiting for this forever! I'm the worst gardener in the world. I have a whole pack of dead flowers on my front porch. I'll be removing those today. Jerry came to get the kids this morning for Grandpa Day, and he said, "You should throw some water on those and see what happens." I think they're a lost cause, but I'll try. At least I can keep people alive, right? So we try a garden every year and this year I'm determined to reap some benefits. I'll work really hard to figure out what I'm doing.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah. So after Andrew got back from his golf lesson, we started working. Shoji, our horse-dog, decided since no one was watching Matt, she had better. So she sat herself right next to him and stayed with him until Haley came over to get him. She was there for a long time. I love that dog, even though I almost beat her this morning for getting into my freshly-planted garden! Every night she lays down with us in the family room while we watch tv. Then, as soon as Ben and I get up to go to bed, she goes into Grace's room and sleeps on the floor by Gracie's bed. It's so cute! She really loves these kids.

Andrew and I worked hard to do the planting. Didn't Ben do a great job of making this garden? It's about 3 times as big as our old one. We decided to move it because it wasn't getting enough sun, so he dug out and moved all this sod and put the border up, and filled and tilled it. What a hard worker. His muscles are letting him know all about it, though.

Here's Andrew planting pumpkins. I hope we actually get some this time!

Shoji let Matthew eat some dirt. I'll have to talk to her about that. He'll be fine. A little dirt never hurt anybody. Good fiber.

Well, it's planted, and we'll let you know how it's going. Wish us luck!

Sunny Days

We had some great weather this weekend, which was good because we had a mountain of yard work to do! We let the kids cool off in the pool for a little bit. It was getting to be the end of the day, so after they were done "swimming", I bathed Matt, Grace, and Joey in the pool. They were not too happy about that, but why fill up a bath tub when you have a perfectly good filled pool? Right?

Of course, Matthew did most of the splashing. Here is his silent open mouth face again. You'll see a lot of that.

On Monday, Ben had to mow the lawn and the kids wanted to run through the sprinklers. It was about 85 degrees, so they had a lot of fun.

I don't know if she was screaming or singing here. They both sort of look the same.

The boys decided to dry off in the driveway. They're so funny.

Here they are discussing something in the sky.
Ahh, lazy days are just about here!