Best Seat in the House

This morning I came out of my room for family scriptures and Colby was curled up under a puffy down blanket over the heating vent.  The blanket was placed perfectly so it filled up with hot air from the vent.  He resembled a picture of a queen termite I remember seeing in a book as a kid-  Little head with a big bloated body.  (Nice visual I know)  He was comfy and warm.  Two minutes later Carter yelled switch and they traded places.  Glad to know they were getting along and not fighting for the best seat in the house on a cold morning.

The best seat on Sunday was not in our house, but was in the primary room during Saylor's first talk.  Sunbeam talks are the BEST!   Sadly, due to her numerical order in our family, her talk was written and practiced no less than 15 minutes before we left for church.  This is a far cry from what our oldest kids experienced.  Steve is quick on his feet so the talk was great.  

Saylor got up to speak like a pro and gave a fantastic talk about Heavenly Father expecting His children to be grateful.  (but I think expecting was pronounced 'speckting)   As part of her talk she retold the story of the 10 Lepers.  (Which not surprisingly was pronounced Leopards.  I had no idea Jesus healed leopards!!!  I wonder what was wrong with them…maybe their spots were missing??   ok ok…I'll quit with the sacrilege.)

The best part of the talk, beside the leopards, was when she couldn't understand what Steve was prompting behind her…so she threw her hands in the air and yelled very dramatically, "What did you say Dad???"  Steve got a massive case of the giggles along with every other adult in the room, and these giggles included tears.   Saylor then turned around to Steve with exasperated arms and shouted, "COME ON DAD!"  More tears.  More giggles.  Steve finally pulled himself together and Saylor finished her talk with a style only to be described as Stoic Saylor.  Oh man, I love love love this little girl.  I love her bravery.  I love her confidence.  I love her serious "lets get this done" attitude when the time is appropriate!  

Other True Saylor moments today?  (And it's only noon.  This girl is on one today!)

1.  "Mom, I know what I want for my birthday.  I want a fast Jeep like Preslee's."

"Saylor, you're not getting that, Sorry."

"But Mom!!!  I only have a slow bumpy truck!  I don't have a fast car!"

I turned to Steve with a look and said, "That sounds familiar…wonder where she gets that from?"

2.  While batting her eyelashes furiously, "Mom, will you please please please bring up my princess castle?  Please Please Please?"    I believe my telling her how to ask her dad for things is starting to pay off.  She is now using the tactics on me.  

We should live in a small town near Hershey PA.

In March 2005 our little family (only Carter and Andrew were around) drove with some friends (Bryce and Traci Cushing)  to PA to visit Hershey.  Super close to the amazing chocolate heaven is the town of Intercourse, (yes…this is the real name- hence the picture of us under the sign) home of a few Amish communities.

Because I was trying to not be rude, this is the only picture I have of anything authentically Amish.

(the horses and plow…not little Carter)

Who knew eight years later I would lose my mind and order Amish clothes off the Internet for Halloween.

Even more mind boggling is the fact that I paid to have our pictures taken in the clothes!

Some days I worry about my sanity.

But seriously, the pictures are pretty hilarious.

Here are a few of my favorites...

Kudos to Steve for growing this beard for two months just for me…and for going along with the these pictures.

 Can't you feel the disdain he has for his mother who made him dress up????

Beautiful little girl.

(She was a stinker and wouldn't wear this to trick or treat.)

Next member of the Amish mafia?

They all have this serious face down.  I wish I could say they were faking annoyed.

Wait a darn minute!  Amish don't have I-pods!

I'm telling Mom!

Amish lecture.

Lecture worked.

No belts or zippers here.

That hat is really big and that beard is really fuzzy.

I think we would be shunned for this.

Nice you guys.

 The crew.

checked off

List of things checked off from this week…

-Costco shopping trip for food storage items.  Because its getting colder and cold weather brings out my inner chipmunk.  I almost have enough chocolate chips and toilet paper to last through the winter.  (I only bought the essentials.)
-Successful parent teacher conferences on Monday.  Two teachers expressed their love for my elementary boys.  Warm fuzzies all around.
-All three boys made it to music lessons this week.   Whew.  Feat in itself.
-Getting accustomed to swim team schedule.  It might be the death of me.
-Wrote and gave talk for 6th ward YW in Excellence.  Super happy it wasn't on modesty.
-Christmas shopping is "this" close to being done.  Double Whew.
-Cleaned out two closets and kitchen pantry.  Triple Whew.
-Nobody starved.
-Nobody wore dirty clothes.


I'm considering the last four days successful.

For the rest of the week…

-Colby is home with a fever.  I'm giving him free reign of the downstairs tv and letting myself be guilt free about it.
-Andrew's parent teacher conference is tonight.  Seeing him in his element is always an adventure.
-Kids dont' have school tomorrow or Monday so I'm gearing up for the insanity that always ensues when the kids are home on a long day weekend.
-Trying very very hard not to make yet another batch of cookies just to eat the dough.
-Will probably go back to Costco.  M&M are on sale.

Weekend Review

Friday evening Andrew had his first piano recital with his new teacher Barbara Mix.

It had a Halloween theme and the performers were supposed to dress up.

Andrew went as himself.  

I thought that was very imaginative of him.

(He's his own man let me tell you.)

He did a wonderful job and I was proud of his hard work on his recital piece.

Steve, Colby and Saylor skipped the recital and went to Burley to try and win a Camero through a promotion from a local gas station.  Sadly, I drank soda after soda after soda to try and win that car all to no avail.   Steve will now have to come up with another plan to finance his next land cruiser. 

 He was really banking on winning.  (wink wink)

Carter spent the evening with the Young family as they took him to see his friend Tanner as the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz.  He loved it!

Because it was just Andrew, Grady and I, after the recital Andrew and I went to Dairy Queen.

Saturday morning Steve and I did a little shopping with Grady.  I love getting out with Steve.  I feel like lately time spent with only him is rare beyond rare.  We are both so busy just running our family that dates are few and far between.

We made the most of our time and got a few essential things accomplished…like purchasing a new vacuum.  Our last one had bit the dust.  We also got a few non-essential things accomplished such as Target clearance shopping.  Any day I can buy peanut butter cups on sale is a good day.

Saylor scored the most in our clearance adventures with this beautiful Cinderella dress.

She was all smiles until...

she realized it didn't come with a crown, or glass slippers, and was itchy.

Poor poor Saylor.

For $7 I couldn't resist the little red riding hood outfit...

or the angel.

But with that face maybe she's really an angel of darkness.

(just kidding….Saylor I love and adore you, but your attitude lately is EPIC to say the least.

The weather was beautiful Saturday afternoon so Steve took full advantage and put up our Christmas lights.  

I was flabbergasted with delight with that AND the fact that Andrew cleaned and swept out the garage by himself.  (With those lights making an appearance, somebody is hoping Santa's elves are watching!)

At 4pm Colby had a master violin class where he performed in front of other students and then listened to very positive critiques.  It was fun to watch him play.  That kid has nerves of steel and nothing seems to phase him.  Because I picked up ice cream for Andrew after his performance, I told Colby I would do the same.  He requested two plain hamburgers instead.  I was happy to deliver.

After dinner at home for the rest of the kids, Andrew and I ventured back to Target to hit the clearance once again.  It was too good to pass up!

This hat needed to belong to me.  It matches my witch cape perfectly.

The boys also wanted more angel costumes.

Come on…who wouldn't want to be a shoulder angel at 50% off?

We are now the proud owners of five sets of silvery wings and halos.

But we only have ONE set of these.

I call dibs.

Sunday it snowed.

Enough said.

Halloween Part 2

Nothing to do with Halloween…he's just a really cute baby.

In order to keep our teenager entertained and out of trouble Halloween night, be decided to let Andrew have a "smallish" party.   Costumes were optional.

Around 8 pm most of the boys had arrived and I heated up the oil for scones.  I figure if I fed them, they would come.  They came and they ate…and ate…and ate.  

Grandma Dixon's maple scones will always be a hit.

We then sent them downstairs with more food and let them watch World War Z.  

Yuck.  Why boys like zombies are beyond me.

In the meantime, Saylor and Colby came back early with Steve from the Bulkley family trick-or-treat on a flat bed trailer extravaganza.  They went clear out to Meander Point and worked their socks off for candy.  You can see that the exercise worked.  I had two very tired children on my hands.

Carter hung on till the bitter end and was greatly rewarded for his work.

 The spoils.

 Decisions decisions.

(Isn't sorting your candy the best part of Halloween???)

Andrew with Barrett and Michael.

I think the lion costume took the cake!

They spent a good 15 minutes jumping off the porch and asking me to take pictures.

I'm not sure I'll ever understand boys.

Part of Andrew's party was trying to prank our neighbors with popcorn.

The boys' attempt failed, but the neighbor girls took our supplies and properly executed the prank back on us.

(There is still popcorn in my flowerbeds.)

My sister even pranked me clear from Kansas City…with a little help from my mom.

I found this in Grady's crib when I went to check on him.  Thank you Jolyn!

Halloween 2013 Part One

The festivities started last Saturday when the weather was still beautiful and Steve still had a full bushy beard.

Steve was grand-master at carving our home grown pumpkins and by the fourth had perfected carving with an electric drill.

It was such a beautiful day that Grady basked in the weather sans socks and jacket.

One of the finished products.

I believe it was Saylors.

By Halloween day the weather turned cold and the kids turned weird.

 For example,

Carter came upstairs with this beauty as his official trick-or-treating attire.

I was slightly creeped out. Maybe it was the pj top, maybe it was the gold stretchy pants, or maybe it was...

this oh so nasty mustache protruding out of his mask.  To be honest, I think it looks more like the result of a productive sneeze than a upper lip masterpiece.

EEEWWW.

Mostly I think I was put out because I had earlier in the year planned out our family's perfect matching costume theme.  We were going to be amish…all of us.  I even had pictures taken in the costumes last Friday!

However, my kids refused to wear my beloved Amish costumes, decided to have a mind of their own, and even overcame the bribery of $$$ that I put on the table.  (They really hated the Amish thing.)

All four of them dug around in our costume bins and found what they wanted to wear on their own.

(I pouted quietly upstairs)

Saylor returned to her favorite viking outfit.

Yes…this is indeed still her pretty face.

Colby also went viking,

(he would make a dashing red head!)

as did Andrew.

Andrew's costume was half taken from Steve's past viking costume and half taken from mine.

I told Andrew this was the only time he could wear one of my skirts.  EVER.

The crew.

I talked Carter into not wearing the mask.  I convinced him he would get more candy if people could see his beautiful face and eyes.  He fell for it…thank goodness.

The promise of more candy is a powerful thing.

Getting a little better on the pretty faces.  We're working on it.

I love this girl and am trying to embrace her spunk and craziness with all my might. All the while, trying not burst out laughing while trying to discipline her is getting harder and harder.  She is a wild woman.

 A little porch craziness while waiting for the treat-or-treat truck to be ready.

(more about that on part two)

 Eagle Powers Come To Me!

 Halloween with gold stretchy pants might e the best thing ever.

Look close…you can see a shirtless viking posing in the window.

This boy melts my heart on a daily basis.

(Wonder if he would let me dye his hair!  wink wink)

Favorite Halloween picture yet.

Andrew "helping" with Grady while waiting for his friends to arrive.

(also to be expounded on in part two)