Makin' and Doin'

So...after being married for 13 years I think Darin and I need to renew our vows.  For a couple of reasons, first after hours and hours of watching TLC wedding shows I want to re-do our reception, and secondly I need another bridal shower.  Our dryer went out and our vacuum died last month. I have this fear that all our 13 year old appliances are going to die one by one....the tupperware didn't even last this long!  But...not all of our month was spent replacing things, we also went to Smithfield for a crafty/crafter/science/birthday weekend.

Grandma got an oyster with a real pearl in it, she patiently saved opening it until Bub could be there.  He has been waiting for months to go open it with her.

Miriam and her friend Mary made hats for Primary Children's Hospital.  She spend the weekend loom and finger crocheting.

Darin worked on a very cool toy idea he had been mulling around for awhile.  It turned out great, but he won't let me blog about it until it's completely done.

Regan and Vanessa were there to celebrate Regan's birthday with some Aggie basketball.

We invited ourselves to the party.

Why I haven't written...

My Mom called me the other day to see if there was any particular reason why I hadn't updated my blog lately.  She had good reason to check in with me. When I am physically ill or just really sad I tend to stop communicating, in any form. Sometimes the effort it takes to talk or smile is more than I have to give.  It doesn't happen often but when it does you know I am sad (or pregnant).

Well rest assured because I am not sick, pregnant, or sad.  I am just being lazy, and our old computer is complicating the picture uploading. Seriously though L to the A-Z-Y, I have started just watching movies in the evening...without ironing or folding or anything....just sitting by Darin and watching.  AND if I am too tired to wake up at 5:45 am to work out I am allowing myself to sleep in until 6:45 ish (whenever Miriam wakes me up).  After M has left for school and Darin is gone to work I put a movie on for the boys and THEN work out. Scandalous right?!?  AND I have been taking a sleeping pill (OTC) on Saturday nights so I purposely sleep in until 8:00 on Sundays.  WHAT?!?  AND I started doing yoga even though there is a part of my mind worried that I am not burning enough calories to spend time doing it, not to mention the meditation time where you just lay on your back thinking about nothing BUT I LIKE IT!

I am not sure I want to go back to the way I use to do things....and yet I feel massive guilt too.  Some women have super efficient organized homes. Some women get college degrees, or work in their free time.  Some women put on school musicals or fight poverty.

If it weren't for the guilt of what I "should be" doing this lazy lifestyle would feel perfect.  I am so much more calm with the kids, so much more flirty with Darin, not depending on chocolate chips so much for happiness. Do we really always need to be "anxiously engaged" to be living well?  I would rather just be cheerfully present.

Hi yo ip si ni yah

Hi yo hi yo ip si ni yah!

What? You don't speak Navajo?

It's the Navajo Happy Song, which we have heard a lot of the last month!

Miriam has sung it incessantly and now the boys sing it as well. At first Darin and I thought we would go nuts, but when you can't beat em' join em'. So we all sing the Navajo happy song daily.

Ahhh 3rd grade in Utah, the Native American program, such a right of passage....I LOVE IT!

Of course I cried, I'm not made of stone!

Miriam was in the recorder ensemble and also helped to create fabric waves for one of the dances.

Story Time - Penguins

Books:
Penguins Strange and Wonderful by Lawrence Pringle
 (just discussed the pictures with this one....it's too long)
Penguins by Liz Pichon
Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lister


Activity:
Tacky the Penguin has a song in it that we sang.
Walked around like penguins, tried to carry an egg between our legs

Craft:
Folded paper art.  Darin found this one for me, it's one of my favorites so far.
 He is a good man to have around.
 These are the trial ones we did as a family.

The alien penguins Bub and Soren did at story time.  They don't seem too interested in visual art at this point.  One of Byron's winter goals is to participate in all the crafts at story time (and all the activities at ninja preschool...including freeze dance). I let him do whatever he wants as long as he participates.  He would so much rather play around in the store.

Winter Hike - Antelope Island

We had beautiful weather over President's Day weekend.  

Had to take advantage of the warmer temps and sunshine!

We hiked Buffalo Point Overlook which is very short, but fairly steep.

We made it and the views were amazing.

Here is an ISpy picture.  

Fun animal find, two actually.

We cranked up "Great Salt Lake" by Band of Horses and cruised home, barely making it in time for Miriam's piano recital.  She did great.

Story time- National Teeth Month

I have been doing this little "Mom Job" for almost a year now but haven't documented anything about it thus far.  Which is a shame, because although it isn't huge, I do spend about 3-4 hours a week on it and if I get to keep doing the job it will be easier if I have a record of what I have done for the next year.

I do story time at a local toy store.  The store gives me a list of the topics, I come up with the books, games, songs, and craft to go along with it.  Then I do my "story time lady" thing.  For some reason all the women in my family have ended up working with children in some fashion or another.  This is surprising to me because none of us are the sweet, lovey-dovey types.  None of us enjoyed babysitting, or were baby obsessed as young women.  What we are is loud, enthusiastic, and fairly uninhibited. We also tend to smile a lot and laugh quite a bit.  It seems most kids respond well to that sort of thing. 

(call me Barney)

I do enjoy it.  As small and insignificant as it may be, it feels good to engage the kids, and I would want to be doing this type of thing with the boys anyway.  The one hard thing about it is that sometimes, when the moms there aren't the "sing along" types, I end up singing a solo...as people come in and out of the store....as parents and toddlers just stare at me.  Pretty much a nightmare right? Well, luckily that doesn't happen to often, most moms are the "sing along" type. 

The memorizing game...you know, remove one item at a time and the kids try to remember what is missing.  Classic.

Marshmallow mouths that we practice our flossing on.

I should point out here that they ask that I spend little to no money on the crafts, you need to know that to appreciate my brillance.

The books:

Story time is in the morning so during the winter the kids are all 5 or younger mostly consisting of  toddlers so the books need to be short with engaging pictures.  Doctor DeSoto was a stretch but I love it so much I had to read it.
During the summer the kids can be older but usually by 7 they won't come sit and sing.

The songs:
Brush Brush Brush Your Teeth
Sung to: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
Brush, Brush, Brush Your Teeth
'til they're shiny bright
They'll be healthy, they'll be strong,
if you treat them right.

Brushing my Teeth
Sung to: London Bridges"
Here's my toothpaste
Here's my brush
I won't hurry, I won't rush.
Working hard to keep teeth clean,
Front and back and in between.
When I brush for quire a while
I will have a happy smile.

Luvie Day 2013

The day of Love is here!

If all goes well there will be a candlelight dinner of spicy shrimp, rice and asparagus.  We will do some Valentine mad-libs (wish you were here Mark!), and then make heart shaped rice krispy valentines to "kick" to a few neighbors.

Until then I still have a 3rd grade valentine party to get through, and some babysitting swaps need to happen, cookie decorating supplies need to be arranged, it's my carpool day for school and dance, so I am not making any promises.

Our family secret valentine project has been going well.  Everyone has received sweet gifts and little notes.  I was even surprised this year, which is rare indeed because I know who I have, who Soren has and who Byron has....I can usually figure out the rest.  Miriam had left me chocolate so I thought she had me, but there were flowers in the fridge this morning from Darin.  I am always amazed when someone pulls a fast one over on me! Miriam had a plan, she gave a treat to everyone to throw her valentine off-track.  Byron had his Ninja Valentine party earlier this week, after going through the candy bag he set aside the candy he knew Soren and Miriam would like and gave it to them.  

They really are sweet kids.

They really do love each other.

Bub gave out mini-chalk boards, a piece of chalk, and a sucker to his valentines.

I couldn't think of a cute saying having to do with chalk or chalk boards, we just drew a chalk heart on the lids.

Miriam did the mini-fish bowl thing with candy rocks and gummie-fish.

"I'm hooked on you valentine"

We made our sugar cookies on Sunday

(also pictured is Miriam's Valentine box)

None of us are big on frosting so I love this alphabet cookie set Cristin gave to Miriam last year.

Wish me luck on the rest of the day!

Miriam's Birthday Part 2

Before I get into the actual birthday day I had to show the treat Miriam and her friend Mary made for her "star student" day. Idea was from family fun, although because of allergies we couldn't do the almond ears.  

We had to have Anna back to her house by 9:00 on Saturday so I knew I wouldn't be able to make an elaborate birthday breakfast.  I left bagels and nutella on the table with a note that said "berries in the fridge" for the early risers.  By the time Darin and I were dressed and ready the kids had eaten, gotten dressed and were playing.

Miraculously, we did make it to Provo by 9. 

Then we kept going south (and east) to Price for the weekend.
Mom and Dad took us out for lunch at the Greek Streak (my local fav), and then took Miriam out on her very own birthday shopping trip.  This is a special event because we rarely get to have Grandma and Grandpa all to ourselves!

Aunt Gwen brought down her chocolate dipping supplies for a candy making party but, they were running a bit late so my mom got things going by making suckers.

Then we dipped!

Pretzels, rice krispy treats, and then used chocolate molds to make valentine chocolates.

The kids were in sugar heaven.  We set some aside for Grandpa Y, and Uncle Mark and then sent each kid with a bag full.  There was so much tasting going on we decided to save Miriam's cinnamon roll cake for Sunday and just open gifts.

Sunday my dad spoke in Stake Conference, and I have to say he did a great job.  I suggest all speakers bring a Tickle-Me-Elmo along as a prop....the toddlers in the crowd were mesmerized!  Seriously though, he did a wonderful job, I am glad we made it down to hear him. We got one last lunch with the family (delicious soup dinner made by my mom) and then came home!

And that's it...she is officially 9 and will have to wait almost an entire year for another big gift holiday to roll around.  Queue holiday let down....at least Valentines is just around the corner!

Miriam's 9th Birthday Part 1

Tatum gave Miriam a spa party kit for Christmas.  This was a perfect gift for Miriam and made an easy peasy birthday party for me to plan.  The kit included invitations, little containers and recipes to make lip balm, sugar scrubs, glitter gel, and bath bombs.  

I just bought cute soda, chopped up some veggies, popped some popcorn and put on Mindy Gledhill.

Oh, and we picked up Anna for a cousin sleep-over to make the party extra special.

Miriam asked for a Filipino Bibingka cake for her birthday.  After doing her Christmas report on the Philippines the girl loves all things Filipino.  I tried to make a coconut whipped cream, which was more like a coconut sauce and didn't really tempt anyone.  Luckily, I had individual cups of Haagen-Dazs mango sorbet so no one felt the lack.

It was a spa, Filipino, Hugo Cabret (movie), giggle fest kind of birthday party.

January

So I got Lasik, but I had to have the PRK kind which means 4 days of painful eyes and bad eyesight. 

While we were driving home from the procedure it started snowing and kept on snowing on and off for the next 4 days.  School was canceled for Miriam so we all hunkered down for the weekend.  Darin took the kids on a snowshoeing and then sledding adventure.

Knowing they were having fun and making great memories made it a wonderful weekend, even though I was terribly uncomfortable for most of it.

These are typical weekday morning scenes....

breakfast-faced boys making up some game or another while I get Miriam and Darin off for the day.

I shouldn't post this picture because she isn't always this mopey about piano, but enough that it got caught on film.

In her defense, she happily gets the boys breakfast and unloads the dishwasher most mornings.

Ice skating with Bub and Mir-cat.

The three of us love to ice skate.  I told the kids if they don't fall they aren't trying hard enough so they both took a couple of tumbles.  In December I took the kids to a trampoline park.  On a whim, I paid to jump myself (the only adult jumping, the only woman without skinny jeans and high heeled boots on as well).  It was soooo fun!  Doing activities like that are the rare moments when I feel actual joy and gratitude for my body.  You will never catch me wearing skinny jeans, but I am a FAST ice skater, and can still do a flip into the foam pit.

New Years Eve

It's 2013!

We have lots of long-lived New Years traditions, some of which go back to before I was born.  They include sledding, watching Better Off Dead, playing UNO, frying won tons, and dippin' some fondue.

Each year there is some sort of firework display whether it's just sparklers

or a good illegal aerial display.  This year was pretty good.

We added playing Werewolf because the older kids couldn't get enough of it last year (and they can't wait to play again next year)...and then  we broke open a card game called Makin' Groceries, a game given to us on our trip (16 years ago!) to see Kristi in New Orleans.  I am sure this game will be added to the New Years celebration.  The kids couldn't get enough of the Cajun accent.

"Ya gots dem beignets?" 

"Naw...go make groceries"

New Years - Sledding