The Adventures of Cat & Jack

Ringing in the New Year

2012-02-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

Wow... I don't know what happened in January, but the month completely flew by. So I am forcing myself to sit down and publish this post. Hopefully the rest of the posts for January will be coming shortly.

We had a fun little New Year's Party with some friends from the MBA program. We enjoyed some chocolate fondue...

And the kids made noisemakers (like these) and party hats (instructional video here). To make assembly easier, Cat and I had prepared all of the supplies in advance - painting the ribbon spools for the noisemakers and cutting out the circles & dangles for the hats.

Ben and our friend Matt had made a great balloon drop by taping the corners of a white sheet up to the ceiling, but somehow one of the kids pulled the sheet down before "midnight" and the sheet didn't want to stay up after that... so here is everyone trying to re-fill the balloon drop and hold it up at the same time.

Ben and Matt held the sheet until "midnight" at 8pm. (We watched Australia's New Year's countdown on the laptop.... gotta love the internet!)

Happy New Year!

Of course, the kids LOVED the balloons. Lots of fun ensued...

And what New Year's celebration would be complete without a sparkling apple juice toast?

All the kids + party hats and balloons.

On New Year's Day I tried something I've never done before. I made pancakes to spell out 2012 by thinning my pancake batter a bit, then putting it in a zip-top bag and piping the batter out of a snipped corner. Turned out pretty well, and a simple and fun way to celebrate the beginning of a new year!

And so far, it's been a good one.

PS> Most of the ideas for our party came from my awesome friend Kathryn, so Kathryn, if you're reading this, thanks for being so awesome, for being my friend, and for sharing your ideas!

2011 - And that's a wrap!

2012-01-22T15:40:00.001-05:00

Just like last year, I decided to make a highlights video for us. We watched it for FHE on January 2nd since it wasn't ready until then. :-)

We also tried a new idea I got from my friend. Every year, each memmber of her family comes up with a "Top 10" list. You could do this however you want to, but we decided to just leave it open. So we included personal accomplishments, favorite activities/hobbies/other interests, and specific memories or experiences. I love this because it lets each person share the things that have been the most significant to him or her personally, and I'm sure that Ben and the kids will surprise me with the things they come up with for their lists. I hope we continue this!

We actually came up with our lists during our drive home from Moab a few days before New Year's, but I think it would be a great FHE activity or New Year's Eve tradition. Here goes--

Eliza (based on our conversation on her behalf)
- talking
-singing
-running
-dressing herself (beginning to, anyway)
-playing at the playground
-baby dolls
-eating
-yelling
-playing
-being with her family

Jack
-"tonadoes" (tomatoes)
-trains
-monster trucks
-the beach
-camping
-books
-preschool
-dinosaurs & dinosaur bones
-bananas
-riding his bike (tricycle)

Cat
-camping on Mt. Timpanogos
-Universal Studios
-being with our family in Moab
-graduating from Kindergarten
-new school
-new ward
-new friends
-flying to SC to see Grammy and other Fields
-learning to sew
-learning to do hair

Brett
-going to the beach all summer
-camping on Mt. Timpanogos
-St. George Island with the Millers
-Universal Studios with the Fields
-Arches National Park
-getting to spend time with friends and family in and around Utah (such a treat!!)
-hanging out in Salt Lake City
-making new friends in Utah
-running races
-rock climbing in St. George

Ben
-cross-country trip
-starting the MBA program and finishing the 1st semester
-Zion National Park
-coming to Utah
-seeing Liberty Jail
-St. George Island
-Universal Studios
-Tuacahn
-trip to Moab
-camping on Mt. Timpanogos

It was an exciting year, to say the least. We had our stresses and difficulties, but in the end, I would say that 2011 was a great year, complete with lots of adventures and many opportunities to grow individually and as a family. January of 2011 seems like such a long time ago after everything that has happened. I don't think that 2012 will be the same kind of year, marked by change and adjustment, but even if it isn't, I'm sure we will grow and learn in many other ways. Time has a way of making that happen.

And with that, my friends, our blogging for the year 2011 is officially COMPLETE!

Everyday Stuff - 2011 wrap-up

2012-01-19T15:35:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to stress myself out by trying to put these in any kind of order, so.... they're not. These are just the last of the EDS pictures I rounded up from the end of the year. Enjoy!

Jack's race cars enjoy driving on Cat's My Little Pony "Butterfly Island."

Yes, they were fighting over who got to use the Swiffer during a cleaning blitz.

Ready to take a bite out of our giant Christmas tree-shaped rice krispy treat Ben and the kids made for FHE treat one night before Christmas.

There's no stopping this girl when she decides she will have raisins for a snack.

Random, even for an EDS post, but I just like this picture.

I guess Jack didn't get the memo that boys are not supposed to choose Care Bear stickers at the doctor's office...

Hanging out in Jack's room at bedtime. Cat has been bunking with Jack for the last few months, but E still sleeps in a crib in the (large) master closet.

Cat received this paddle ball (is that what it's called?) from a friend for Christmas and Jack was able to play with it pretty well.

She sees me stick pens in my hair once in a while, so naturally, she had to do it too.

This says "Dear Pops & Kelly, Thank you for the Hello Kitty things. I love them. I am working on the puzzle. It has 100 pieces. My sister stole 1. Love, Cat" (We later found the "stolen" piece in the bathroom.)

This says "Dear Colin, Thank you for the sidewalk chalk. I tried it. I couldn't get it right. But my Mom could. I hope that you had a Merry Christmas. Love, Cat" (She was referring to sidewalk chalk tattoos that worked for me, but not for her.)

Bedtime story with Dad.

Jack & Eliza had a blast pushing as many of the buttons as they could on these little toys. We were at Target early in the morning, so there weren't too many people around for us to annoy. The toys played different songs. My favorites were "The Only Girl (In the World)" and "DJ Got Us Falling in Love" - not exactly kid songs, huh? :-)

Double trouble, these two.

Again. Double trouble.

This paper toque we got for free from our all-time favorite grocery store, Publix, in Georgia, has seen a lot of wear in our kitchen. And I hope it sees a lot more!

I'm so lucky to have my pick of sous chefs.

Don't do it, Jack!

Cat has been somewhat obsessed with jump roping lately. Here she is trying to get Jack and Eliza to join in the fun, using a belt I bought in Guatemala 11 years ago as the rope.

LOVE this Little People Nativity Set!

You know you have a toddler in the house when you find (broken) kitchen items on the floor, and random other things in the drawer where the kitchen items should be.

Our trip to the grocery store turned into an exercise in bumper-car-prevention for Mommy. But they had fun!

Do these things work? I can't hear anything.

We saw this picture at the doctor's office and Jack immediately pointed to the boy and said, "That's me!"

Jack tried to use this basket, turned upside down, as a stool so that he could play the piano more easily, which he's not supposed to play at all. I didn't contrive the basket breaking, but maybe it was a good tactic to try to teach him to leave the piano alone?

Jack happily entertained himself with clearance stamps at Michaels while I shopped. He said it's a temple.

Construction crew & pilot.

Jack chose this gigantic carrot in the grocery store because he thought it would make a good snowman nose. Too bad we still haven't had enough snow to make a snowman. (I'm kidding. I DON'T MIND the lack of snow one little bit.)

Baskethead.

This isn't very representative, but I wanted to include this picture because I took it on the day I took several packages to the post office to mail shortly before Christmas and they had ONE person working. Jack, Eliza, and I waited in line for 40 minutes. But the time went pretty quickly because Jack entertained me, and everyone else in line, by singing Rudolph the Nose-Red Reindeer. Over and over again. The first time he sang it, many of the people in line clapped for him, and he bowed. The second time, I think one person clapped. After that, nobody clapped. I tried to encourage him to sing another song, but he only wanted to sing Rudolph. I didn't stop him because... at least he was happy! A miserable, crying, destructive child is much worse than a happy singing child. Even if he sings the same song (with the same wrong words) for 40 minutes straight.

What you see on the floor is the contents of a brand-new container of nutmeg I bought in December. She emptied it before I even had everything put away from our trip to the store. I think I was being incredibly negligent when it happened; I was either using the bathroom or putting a load of laundry in the washing machine. I wonder if anything will be "child-proof" around Eliza by the time she's Jack's age.

Jack still loves him some trains. I'm curious as to how much longer this phase will last?

Yes, he is using her bum as a pillow.

A friend gave Cat this enormous flower clip recently and, of course, she loves it.

Ben bought this pineapple and Jack kept asking me when we could eat it, and I told him we needed to wait for Daddy before we cut it. So he took matters into his own hands by finding a dinner knife and stabbing the pineapple.

Who says real men don't wear pink cowboy hats? While doing trunk twisters.

The kids found some of my old HS stuff and got dressed in the cheerleading uniforms. Jack said he was a robot.

Because Cat also donned the mortar board, she said that she just graduated from cheerleading school.

Working on the wooden nativity puzzle when we pulled out the Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend.

The Triplets

2012-01-18T08:50:00.000-05:00

I recently received these pictures from my sister from my trip to SC at the beginning of December. I didn't bring my good camera with me - I only had my phone, so I didn't even try to take these kinds of pictures.

Each of Megan's kids "has" a baby -
Drew & Dylan (sisters), Colin & Courteney, Will & Weston

The babies weren't really in a picture-taking mood this afternoon, unfortunately.

My Dad and sister Riley came to town for the baby blessings. It was such a fun surprise to see them for a few hours!

It doesn't get much cuter than little baby feet...

Sisters

Riley, Megan (mom of triplets), Dad, Suz, Me, Andy, Mom

Sisters + Eliza

Thanks for sharing your pictures, Suz!

Moab Day 3 - Western Mining & Railroad Museum

2012-01-16T01:20:00.001-05:00

From the museum's website: The Western Mining and Railroad Museum is located in the small town of Helper, Utah, named so because of the engines required to help the trains climb the steep grades to Soldier Summit.

We noticed a billboard for this museum on our way down to Moab and thought it would be a great way to spend an hour or two when we made our return trip. We even checked it out online and saw all the model trains and decided that since it was right on our way, there's no way we shouldn't go. So when we finished hiking the dinosaur trail, we began our trip home, stopped at a park for our picnic lunch and a little play time, then went to Helper, UT, eager to see some model trains.

But there were no model trains to be seen. Apparently the museum was recently expanded and during the move, the model trains got all jumbled, and weren't even on display. At least we saw the tracks.

And we saw some other railroad paraphernalia.

Engine lanterns.

Most of what was on display were items of local significance. There were old photos, trophies from the high school marching band or baseball championships, old doors, etc. One item that caught Ben's and my attention was a project an elementary school project a boy completed that mapped out the locations of the deaths during a big accident in a nearby coal mine.

According to one exhibit we saw, Helper had quite a reputation...

Jack looks like he got a little tipsy just by touching the moonshine jugs!

The basement was being supported by these beams in one room. We didn't stay down there for very long...

I just liked these signs.

Most of the coal mining stuff was in the basement.

Too bad we didn't have time to stay and watch the VHS tour of the museum.

We had promised each child that they could choose one souvenir to take home from our trip. Since we cut the trip a little short, though, we'd left Moab without buying any souvenirs. This tiny municipal museum actually had a little gift shop, and Jack picked out this toy train, which made him very happy. Then I asked him to pose for a couple of pictures with this train car before we left, and he kindly obliged.

Part of me didn't want to write about our trip to this museum in the itty bitty town of Helper, UT. When I told Ben, his reply was, "be nice." I think we are both tempted to make fun of the place, but I can't really do it. I have such a soft spot in my heart for rural America after living in the Village of Clayton, IL (population 860) for a few months when Cat was a baby. It's sad to me that these little towns, which were once important in some way or another, are just disappearing. The museum volunteer in Helper who showed us around the main floor of the museum was so proud of his town. He told us that he's the oldest living resident who was born there. I can only imagine how many of the people he knew growing up, or his children knew growing up, have left town to go to a bigger city.

And even though I consider myself more of a city girl than not, I have to admit that there is a part of me that longs for that small town life that existed until the mid-twentieth century. Clayton was definitely part ghost town by the time we lived there, but I enjoyed walking to the library, which was in half of an old house across the street from where we lived (the other half of the old house was a dentist office) and saying hello to Esther, the 80-year-old librarian, every week or so. I liked that I didn't have to worry about traffic noise or traffic jams or dangerous busy roads. I liked that I could walk to the post office (well, I kind of had to because there were no individual mail boxes in the town) or the hair salon (which I avoided for most of our stay in the town, until I absolutely had to have a haircut and I went there out of convenience... and I happened to get one of the best hair cuts I've ever had. Go figure.) or the town square. I liked driving by farms and seeing people who work hard for a living every day. And I really liked meeting people who loved living there.

We were zoned for the Quincy Ward, but we were about 30 minutes from the "big city" of Quincy. Two of the families we lived closest to were actually retired couples, who each invited us over for dinner, and we loved it. They were kind and generous and eager to meet new people and share their stories. We still send a Christmas card to one of those couples who particularly touched our hearts.

So thanks for indulging my reflections and my little trip down memory lane. But perhaps that helps you understand why I didn't want to write this post in a spirit of sarcasm. I think it's wonderful that the good people in Helper have worked so hard to preserve their history. And we really enjoyed getting to learn a little bit about it.

Moab Day 3 - Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail

2012-01-13T14:10:00.002-05:00

On the third day of our trip we debated going to Canyonlands National Park with the kids. But when we were doing some research the night before we saw that it was over an hour to get to the nearest entrance of the park, and at that section of the park the hikes were comparable to the ones we did at Arches. So we decided to do a couple of smaller things and head home instead of staying an extra day. The kids did great at Arches, but we thought we would be pushing our luck to make them sit in the car for a while, then do the exact same things we'd done the day before. So we decided to drive about 5 miles on an off-road trail to find Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail. It's an awesome site owned and maintained by the US Bureau of Land Management where you walk along a trail and see exposed fossils. Very cool!

It's hard to see in the picture, but you park near these signs, then cross over a "wash" and climb up the other side, and follow the trail along the edge of a small mountain.

It was so cool to walk along and spot a dinosaur bone. The placards helped - those fossils can be hard to find!

My sign.
No, my sign!

Cutest paleontologist ever.

I was a little disappointed that Jack wasn't as excited about the dinosaur bones as we thought he'd be. Of course, he still had a great time. We were outside, after all, and there was lots of exploring and climbing to be done.

How would you like to rock climb on those towers?? The elevation is almost 5000 feet above sea level. I'm curious what the vertical ascent is though?

Walking on the frozen "wash" when we finished the trail and started to head back to the car. Still quite a novelty.

He's never in too much of a hurry to play in the sand...

and I guess she isn't either.

This was a great little excursion for us as we headed out of town on the last day of our trip.

For (my) future reference, this site has a lot of information regarding the fossils to be found on the trail:

http://www.discovermoab.com/pdf/Mill%20Canyon%20Dinosaur%20Trail.pdf

Moab Day 2 - Arches National Park - More Arches & Some Other Stuff

2012-01-11T20:25:00.001-05:00

Omigoodness. We took so many pictures while we were at Arches. It took a while to condense them into a small enough group to fit in a post. But there are still a LOT. So. You've been warned.

After Landscape Arch we pulled our lunch out of the car and ate at a picnic area within Arches. THEN the kids finally had a chance to ride their scooters (yes, we brought them) for a few minutes while we cleaned up lunch. They'd been begging all morning!

After lunch the kids were pretty tired and Ben was itching to do a little off-road driving. (After all, what's the point of driving an SUV if you always stay on pavement?) So we decided to drive on an ATV trail and let the kids nap for a little while. It actually worked out great, and we had fun driving on the trail until we saw a sign that the next part of the trail required 14" of clearance. Time to turn around - the Honda Pilot isn't that kind of SUV! The kids got a little nap and we got a great view of Skyline Arch (above).

Unique terrain in the park.

Another view from our off-road drive - I love the contrast of the fins and other sandstone rock formations of Arches in contrast with the La Sal Mountains in the background.

Once we finished our little drive and the kids had gotten a bit of a nap, we did a hike to Sand Dune Arch.

This was kind of a cool hike because you literally hike through sand and between these fins to be able to see the arch.

We found it!

The kids were more excited about climbing around than admiring the arch. No problem - lots of rocks to climb on!

Jack thought Thomas would enjoy the sand. In the top right picture he's pouring the sand out of Thomas.

When we hiked back to the car, Cat found another big rock to climb. Queen of the World!

Next hike of the afternoon was to the upper viewpoint of Delicate Arch. We debated hiking to the arch itself, but it would have been a long hike, it was late in the afternoon, and we didn't want to put the kids (or us) through that. Next time we'll definitely do it though. The upper viewpoint was a good hike - a bit of a workout - but it was neat to still see this iconic bit of landscape. (For those of you who don't know, Delicate Arch is featured on one of the two varieties of Utah State license plates... as well as most tour guides, brochures, billboards, etc. Very popular.)

Hangin' Out with good ol' DA.

Thomas stayed in the car while we hiked to DA. Jack opted for his new Army trucks instead.

Our last hike of the day was actually our very favorite: Double Arch. Can you see the two arches stemming from one rock on the left side of the picture? Yep, you guessed it. That's Double Arch. We thought about doing a longer hike instead of this one, but I was intrigued by the promise of a "spectacular arch" when I was reading the park newsletter. The first reason we liked this hike was that you could see the Arch the entire hike - there was no guessing of how much further it would be until you got there. That was so nice!

Ben was holding the camera as we hiked to Double Arch. He started practicing self-portraits as Jack hung out in the back pack.

I think it's cool that Eliza and I ended up in this self-portrait.

Just to give you some perspective of how huge this formation is... do you see the person standing right in the middle of the fore-arch? Yep. I know. Huge.

Who says hiking isn't fun?!?

The second reason we loved this hike was that it was a great place to climb rocks. The kids had a blast! In this collage I put a star in the exact same spot of the formation in each picture. It is a cavity in the rock that Cat climbed up to and laid down in. It was so high! And she might have gone higher if it hadn't been the end of the day, it was getting dark, and we were ready to get dinner.

Jack did a little rock climbing too.

E just hung out.

Leaving Double Arch

The sunset was beautiful as we were leaving the park.

Just a few more interesting bits of scenery from the day.

We had a wonderful day at Arches. It was fun and interesting and active and even though the kids had to be prodded now and then, they were excellent. I highly recommend that anyone who hasn't been to Arches National Park GO next time you're anywhere near Moab, UT. (Of course, if you're anywhere near Moab, UT it's probably because you intend to go to Arches National Park, because there's pretty much nothing else around...)

Moab Day 2 - Arches National Park - Landscape Arch

2012-01-09T22:56:00.000-05:00

We spent our second day in Moab at Arches National Park. We absolutely loved it! It was kind of a lot of work for the kids to do so much hiking in one day, but we tried to keep it fun for them and not push them too hard. They were really good sports and seemed to enjoy getting to hang out outside literally all day long, and they were somewhat interested in the terrain as well.

Our first hike was to Landscape Arch. At 306 feet long - longer than a football field - it is (possibly) the longest arch in the world. But a large slab of it fell off in the 90's, and it is only 6 feet thick at its thinnest point, so we wanted to be sure we saw it during this trip, since it might not last much longer. Also, it was the longest hike of the day, so we thought it best to get it finished first.

All ready for the first hike of the day! But where's Jack?

Oh, now I see him.

This was only a one-mile hike (each way) but it felt like it took forever because the kids were more interested in playing in the snow than they were hiking. We knew we would be moving slowly and letting the kids play along the way so that they would enjoy themselves, but we really preferred to move and not hang around and dig in the snow. We could do that at home!

We took a detour and explored this little hill.

Then we took turns running down it.

E and me running down the hill. This picture is out of focus, but I still like it!

Well, I guess I should have said that some of us ran down the hill and some of us, umm, fell down.

Ben was such a trooper. We planned on bringing a hiking backpack (courtesy of our landlords, who said we could use it whenever we wanted) but ended up forgetting it when we packed up the car. Oops! So Ben spent quite a bit of time with one toddler on his back and one in his arms. Of course, I carried kids too... but Ben did more.

One cool thing about going to the park in winter is seeing evidence of all of the wildlife that lives there. Check out these tracks! Apparently the park is home to a bunch of big horn sheep, as well as rabbits and other animals. Looks like there were a few things walking around here this morning before we arrived.

So Utah's supposed to have the best snow on earth, right? Well, I don't know if it's the best, but I have to admit, it is pretty. Can you see how sparkly it is? Is that because of the dry climate?

At last, we found Landscape Arch! Eliza was excited on the inside.

After our hike up Bridal Veil Falls over the summer, it seemed that the enticement of a treat for all hikers who reach their destination with a good attitude was a tradition I needed to continue. Cat had been asking for a caramel apple in the days before our trip, so I made a batch of caramel apples and brought them to Moab with us. I know, it was kind of a strange choice for a treat, but we enjoyed them nonetheless. (Well, Cat had a loose tooth - her first! - by the time we started the trip so Ben had to cut hers into pieces, then she enjoyed it.)

After reaching the arch, it seemed that Eliza felt like quite the hiker. She was ready to tackle a primitive trail!

Everywhere we looked, the rock formations were just cool!

Here are E and me finishing the hike back to the parking lot. I'm carrying E like this because she was adamant about not being carried. But she didn't want to walk, either. She wanted to loiter. But it was lunch time and some members of the party needed to use the restroom and little miss E needed a fresh diaper, therefore loitering was not an option. So I carried her, literally kicking and screaming, for a while until I got us out of there.

Cat's last hoorah before we left to eat lunch was climbing on this fin (tall flat rock formation). You go girl!

Stay tuned for more adventures in Arches National Park...

Moab Day 1 - Petroglyphs

2012-01-09T00:26:00.001-05:00

Christmas Break was our first time having OVER TWO WEEKS with nowhere we had to be. And yet we had no immediate family to go hang out with. Interesting the way that happens, huh? We enjoyed time together to playing, relaxing, and doing a few fun things near here, but we were determined to go somewhere, even if we were on a super-tight budget. Moab was a logical choice since it's close (about a 3-hour drive) and cheap and the weather is (supposed to be) slightly warmer than it is here. There are 2 awesome National Parks near Moab and we still had our National Park pass from our trips to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks over the summer. So we did it!

When I was asking around, trying to find out about options for cheap places to stay, a friend told me about a hostel in Moab where she'd stayed and that it was really great and they had cabins you could rent. Awesome! And to make it even better, their winter rates were dirt cheap. We could rent an entire cabin, with electricity (no water, we'd have to walk to the nearby bathhouse) for $25/night. Sold! I reserved 3 nights and we were psyched to have our first stay in a hostel, and our first vacation with just the 5 of us, for that matter!

We arrived and went straight to the hostel to check in. But the office didn't open until 5pm. So we went right back out to the Visitors Center and got some good suggestions about things to do during our stay. Then we followed one of the brochures the nice guide gave us and took a drive looking for petroglyphs and pictographs. We found some! We were so excited! (Pictures are below, but I need to finish my story before I show them to you.) Then we went straight to the hostel again and this time we got checked in. At this point in my story, I should tell you that it was cold in Moab. We were bundled up. There was snow on the ground. It might have been warmer than the Provo area, but it wasn't by much, I can tell you that!

So Ben gets us checked in and comes back to the car to inform me that since we requested 3 beds, there was an extra charge so we would have to pay $40/night. Well, they didn't tell me that over the phone when I made the reservation, but I guess I can handle $40/night. That's still super cheap. We started driving around the campus (if that's what it's called?) of the hostel and he stopped at this little shack. I was totally confused. "Where's our cabin?" "This is it." "Huh? No. I saw the pictures online and this little, what did you call it, cabin?, is way too small." "Nope this is it." "Oh. Okay. Well, let's check it out."

So, when you think of a cabin, what do you think of? A simple building made of logs with a few rooms and beds? Well, this shack was simple. And it had a few beds. But it was only one room. And it was FREEZING. Ben turned on a sad excuse for a space heater as we looked around at our home away from home. One small room. (The cabins at my Young Women's girls camp were huge compared to this thing.) A bunk bed. A twin bed. A chair. A small table with some towels and soap. (Awww, thanks!) No room for our huge suitcase. No room for Eliza's portacrib. The bathhouse is too far away to have to walk in freezing cold. The space heater is pathetic, there's a significant crack under the door to let lots of cold air in, the walls aren't insulated, and the window is single-pane. We deliberated. Can we sleep here? Just for one night? We remembered our camping trip over the summer. The temperature was in the 30s that night and we didn't sleep very well. The temperature would be much lower than that in Moab, though, and we like to sleep. We also like to wake up without frostbite. But Ben had already paid for the "cabin" and we wondered if we would get our money back? Of course, during this deliberation, our kids were doing their best to dirty the room by putting any part of their petroglyph-hunting bodies on the beds and other furniture that they could. Finally we knew we had to make a decision and make it quickly. We were all cold, the "cabin" was not getting any cleaner, we were hungry, and it was getting late; if we were going to stay at the hostel we needed to try to settle down for the night before it was too dark, and if were were going to stay somewhere else, well, we needed to figure out where that was going to be.

We dusted off the furniture and decided to stay somewhere else. Best decision ever. The people at the hostel were very understanding. "Yes, those heaters aren't the best." Ya think?? So we agreed to come back in the morning for our full refund (apparently the night guy didn't know how to do that...) and set out to find somewhere else relatively affordable. Ben and I both got online looking at prices and made some calls and finally found a good hotel in the middle of town (well, I'll admit, the town's not that big) for $55/night. What??? Just $15 more than we were going to (errr, already did) pay to sleep in a shack with no bathroom? And this hotel has a refrigerator, too? In the end we actually saved even more because we only stayed 2 nights. And since the room had a refrigerator, we were able to keep our breakfast and lunch food in there and only eat out for dinners. Score!

So, with that (somewhat lengthy?) introduction, I give you:

PETROGLYPHS!

Everything I would tell you about these petroglyphs is written on this sign, so if you're interested, just click on the picture to see it bigger so that you can read what the US Department of the Interior has to say about it.

Prehistoric method of rock climbing. (See above description.)

While Ben and I admired the petroglyphs, the kids explored the little park. This is Cat's first time walking on water! Err, ice.

Jack wanted nothing more than to let Thomas get out of the car and stretch his weary wheels.

Ben thought this tree was cool.

While we were outside, Eliza hung out in the car. She didn't seem to mind.

Our brochure showed that there were more petroglyphs and pictographs on our route, but after driving for a while we didn't find any. Oh well. Seeing just one random wall with carved drawings in the rock dating back thousands of years was still pretty cool in my book.

Christmas

2012-01-08T01:12:00.001-05:00

We had a great Christmas!

The kids made sure to get up nice and early so that we would have plenty of time to open Christmas presents before I had to be at Church at 8:30. Thanks, kids! The big theme this year was wheels. Cat and Jack each received a scooter (and helmet) and Eliza received a baby doll stroller. And, of course, Jack received a variety trains, trucks, and cars. Lots of wheels to play with!

Since there was absolutely no snow on the ground and the weather was actually not that cold, we decided to walk around outside with the kids' new toys on Christmas afternoon. Who says you always have a White Christmas in Utah?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

PS> Jack has already resumed talking about what he wants for Christmas. I keep telling him that it won't be Christmas for an entire year, but that doesn't stop him. Santa, if you're not on vacation, please note that Jack is already hoping for a police car. Apparently, he didn't get enough wheels in 2011.

The rest of the pre-Christmas festivities

2012-01-03T23:55:00.002-05:00

A few days before Christmas we headed out to deliver goodies to a few friends.

Cat was more excited about this than Jack.

I made a batch of salt dough ornaments to paint with Jack's preschool group at the beginning of the month. The batch happened to be so big, though, that I had enough ornaments to host TWO MORE salt dough ornament painting playdates, one with younger friends and one with older friends. Gotta love it!

Two days before Christmas we decided to take the kids to the dollar store so that they could choose presents for family members. Cat was the most excited about this (and was eager to wrap any of the presents we would let her wrap), and it took some convincing for me to jump on board, but in the end it was a fun thing to do. We might have to re-think our method next year, though, because 90% of what the children chose was a complete waste of money. (See below.)

On Christmas Eve some friends invited us over for dinner, so we had fun hanging out there and all of the kids acted out Christmas story as Ben read Luke 2. When we got home the kids put on pajamas and gave out their dollar store gifts. Note: In the pictures below, the kids are wearing their coats because we were about to go outside to spread the reindeer food. Don't worry, the heat works just fine in the house!

Cat was SO excited about her present to Daddy.

Just what he always wanted - a criminal profiling kit! Cat just thought it was a drawing kit, and had lots of fun practicing faces.

Jack has been pretty obsessed with monster trucks lately, so he loved this little truck Cat gave him. It was broken before he went to bed that night.

Cat LOVED the cheerleading stuff Jack gave her. The megaphone lasted for about 2 days before it busted, and the pompoms were shedding everywhere for about 3 days before we finally threw them away.

Spreading out the reindeer food Jack made with his preschool group.

Then they went to bed, and waited for Santa...

and Mom and Dad got to work!

December Fun

2012-01-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some miscellaneous activities that helped us stay happy and warm during the month of December...

The Jumping Place

Our ward playgroup met at a big gymnastics gym one morning and Jack and Eliza had a great time! Hopefully we can go back with the whole family one day.

Don't ask me why Jack is spotted in these pictures. I had these stickers out in the morning, and next thing I know they're in his hair. They even stayed on through the jumping and stuff. Now that's a sticky sticker!

Indoor Playground
One day during Christmas break we took the kids to a big indoor playground near our house. We stayed for a few hours and we all had a great time.

My favorite part of the 4-level play place was this "room" with giant bouncy balls in it. So fun!

Swimming Bath
I was home with Jack and Eliza while Ben was getting some work done and Cat was playing with a friend. I was feeling kind of blah and knew that I needed to do something fun with the kids, but didn't want to go anywhere. So I dug around and found their swimsuits and let them take a nice long warm bubble bath. Perfect!

Lights at Temple Square

2012-01-02T00:39:00.000-05:00

The week before Christmas we finally made it up to Salt Lake to check out the lights at Temple Square. It was a cold night, but we got there as early as we could and bundled the kids up, so we didn't suffer too much. Also, it wasn't very crowded, so that was nice!

Right at the beginning of our walk we spotted the Tabernacle. Cat was curious, so we went in and checked it out.

Man, that organ is impressive!

Eliza hung out in the stroller and tried on Daddy's gloves.

I think that the Salt Lake Temple all lit up at night is a wonderful sight in and of itself. I'm so glad we went to see the Christmas lights so that we were able to see the beautiful temple at night!

And aren't the floating lights in the reflecting pond pretty?

We didn't spend very long walking around Temple Square, but it was enough time to feel the Spirit and enjoy the festivity of the season. When we finished we loaded back up in the car and went to my cousin's house for dinner. He and his family live very close to Temple Square downtown and we had a wonderful time with them. A great evening out!

Gingerbread Houses

2012-01-01T02:38:00.001-05:00

Even though I make gingerbread every year, and we decorate gingerbread men every year, I've never actually done gingerbread houses just for my family, in any form. We've been lucky that most years we get to do them at school, the library, or, as was the case this year, thanks to a friend. One of the moms in our ward playgroup offered to construct gingerbread houses made of graham crackers for any kid in the playgroup who wanted to make one. Yes, please! Each family was asked to contribute a bag of candy to the decoration buffet.

I was impressed and a little surprised that Jack was as into the decorating as he was. And thank goodness nobody minded that he felt the need to decorate his house with 4 large candy canes.

He didn't do nearly as much of this as I thought he would.

Finished product.

Eliza, on the other hand, did a lot more of this than actual decorating.

But there was a little bit of decorating going on too.

A very little bit. This was what her house looked like when she finished, even after I helped her out a bit.

At least we know she still had a good time. No hiding that chocolate grin! BTW, if you ever wonder what Eliza looks like on the days when I don't do her hair, now you know...

Cat worked on her house diligently.

All done!

What a fun activity for all of the kids during Christmas break. I wonder where we'll do houses next year? :-)

Preschool Christmas Party

2012-01-01T02:10:00.001-05:00

For the last meeting of Jack's Preschool co-op, we decided to have a little Christmas party for the boys. Each of the Moms brought an activity/craft for the boys to do. It was nice to just get together and do some fun things for the end of the year.

Jackson, showing off the snowman card he made, courtesy of Jeanne.

Danika entertained younger siblings for a little while.

Jack putting together his reindeer food, courtesy of Megan.

Jared, whispering his wish into his bag of reindeer food.

My activity was making these reindeer antlers using their handprints. They all wanted red-marker Rudolph noses as well, except for Jack. I tried to get a regular "cheese" picture, but the best group shots were the ones where they were all being goofy. I guess that's what you get with 3 and 4 year old boys! From left to right is Jared, Jack, Jackson, and Henry.

Gingerbread Cookie Decorating

2011-12-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

This has become a tradition for our family - we spend one FHE in December decorating gingerbread men. It's an easy project, and not too messy, but with a decent selection of decorative items, it's also fun and keeps our attention for a little while.

I was too stubborn/cheap to buy actual cookie decorating supplies, so we used what we had on hand. White chocolate chips, mini dark chocolate chips, peppermint baking chips, and Pez, Smarties, fruit roll-ups, and Tootsie Rolls leftover from Halloween. I made up a small batch of confectioners frosting and divided it among a few baggies to be piped onto cookies as needed.

Jack took the work of piping frosting onto his cookie very seriously.

Eliza got a little help from Daddy.

Still working.

Need more!

E tried her hand at piping the frosting herself.

More! More! More!

Taking a little break.

Mom's cookie.

Jack's finished cookie. The toppings (almost entirely frosting, with a few Pez floating in the sea of white) are about 3 times as high as the cookie itself.

So proud!

And he even took a few bites!

Cat enjoyed her topping-laden cookie as well.

Run, run, as fast as you can.
You can't catch us.
We make Gingerbread Men!

The Singing Cat

2011-12-30T20:28:00.000-05:00

The last week of school before Christmas break, Cat had several singing performances, but would you expect anything else from the girl who "love love love(s) to SING" ?? Most of them were with the school choir, which she has been the best extracurricular activity ever. For one of their performances they walked to an assisted living facility a block away from the school and sang a few of their songs to the residents there. When she heard about the upcoming field trip, she was a little too excited. "Mom! Tomorrow we're going to the BEEHIVE HOUSE!" "Cat, you know there aren't any bees there, right?" Seriously disappointed: "Then why do they call it the Beehive House?!?"

I also feel the need to take a moment and thank the good people at Cat's former elementary school who insisted on showing up to every student event six hours early and saving 26 rows of seats. I don't think we ever got a decent seat at one of Cat's concerts or commencement ceremonies, and I know that I cried about it at least once, because try as we might to be early (and we were early on more than one occasion), we could never be early enough. Fast forward to this year, when my kids are a little older and a little easier to handle when we arrive somewhere early, Ben is a little more available, and we live a block away from the school, and I'm used to having to be mega early to everything. Works out great for me, because this is a small school where people are NOT used to having to be early. When I showed up an hour early to Cat's choir concert, I was literally the first person there. By the time the concert started, people were crowding along the walls trying to see their child, because the school has gained many more students this year since launching a Chinese immersion program and there are suddenly many more families than the auditorium/gym can accommodate. So, I'm thankful for the classical conditioning of the last 2 years that allowed me and my family to sit in comfort and take pictures as we pleased. For every 1st Grade event thus far. Moving on...

Below are a few pictures from the actual choir concert. She, and of course the rest of the group, did a wonderful job. Their songs included One Little Candle (very pretty song by Audrey Snyder, which they sung with all of the house lights down and each child holding a battery-operated votive candle); You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (which their principal, Mr. Finch, good-sportedly participated in); Down, Down the Chimney; Choc'late in My Stocking; Peace, Peace; Stille Nacht; and Do You Hear What I Hear?

This isn't a great picture of Cat or Grace (our neighbor and Cat's good friend, who is also in the choir), but Eliza looks pretty cute. :-)

Again, not a great picture of everyone, and I almost didn't include it. But then I thought about it and realized how perfectly representative this photo is: not everyone in our family is included, half of the people in the picture aren't even looking at the camera, and Ben is holding one of Jack's shoes. It's surprising that more of our family pictures don't look like this, really.

Below are a few pictures from Cat's 1st Grade Christmas presentation. I found it very smart that the school has each grade level sing 2 songs for the parents during one concert. They do this at 2 different times during one school day to accommodate schedules and to allow people more room in the auditorium/gym. However, the principal mentioned that they might add a 3rd time slot next year because the room was so crowded this year!

Cat and her fellow 1st Graders sang "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and "Once There Was a Snowman," the latter in English, then in Chinese. Therefore, as Cat as informed me, she knows Chinese.

Meeting the Big Guy

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of miles from our house is a nice big outdoor mall where they put up lots of lights at Christmas time. We headed over one Saturday night with a bunch of other MBA families so that the kids could say hello to Santa. I don't remember what the temperature was, but it was cold. So cold, in fact, that Ben suggested we put the kids in their snowsuits. I thought that was overkill, but I went along with it. Boy am I glad we did! We ended up being there for about 2 hours and were grateful for any warmth we could find! So of course we all enjoyed the little fire pits scattered around the mall.

After waiting in line for a little while, the kids got to meet Santa. The big ones asked for their particular Christmas wishes. (Cat - a scooter, Jack - The Polar Express. Hmm.... I don't know if a full-size steam engine will fit under our little ugly tree.) Eliza just, um, cried.

Pretty lights!

Jack hanging out in the stroller under a space heater while we waited in line for...

our turn on the free carriage ride!

Looking back at the lights at the mall during our little 8-minute carriage ride.

We looked at the pretty lights and sang Christmas songs with our friends during the carriage ride, then RAN to the car and CRANKED UP the heat. What a fun (COLD) night!

All About the Tree

2011-12-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago Ben was in the midst of end-of-the-semester crunch, so on Saturday morning I let him sleep in while I (with a little help from the kids) made garland for our Christmas tree. I wanted it to be nice and long, so it ended up being a more involved project than the kids were interested in, but they did help some. Here's proof:

Jack's favorite part was cutting up the colored straws.

Eliza's favorite part was eating the Cheerios off of the garland.

The string ended up being 20 feet long, so I thought it would be cool to take a picture of the kids in the background to get some perspective of the length. They were less than cooperative. I particularly like this one with Jack blocking Cat's kick using a wiffle ball.

That afternoon we ventured to the far-off land of Provo to buy a tree from Wyoming from a guy who set up a tree lot in his front yard. This is our first year buying a real tree (our previous not-so-real tree was about 10 years old and we decided it wasn't worth moving across the country) and we envisioned ourselves going to a tree farm or buying a $10 permit to go cut one down in a natural forest, but alas, the end-of-the-semester crunch meant that we needed to find something in less than 2+ hours.

This man had half of his yard sectioned off for these faux-snow-covered trees. They looked really pretty, but I can only imagine what my kids would do with that white stuff all over the house.

Eliza and the Grinch were twins.

She loved watching the mostly-frozen waterfall in the corner of the yard.

Behold, our tree!

Jack tried to drag the tree to the car. He didn't get very far.

Not much to look at, sadly. But the small selection just 2 weeks before Christmas, and the prices prohibited us from getting a really nice one. If you think it looks rough in this picture, though, you should see it after Jack pulled it over. Yep. Even worse. (He got a toy tangled up in the garland and instead of asking for help to get the toy loose, he thought that if he pulled hard enough the toy would release itself. He got a mouthful of pine needles, so perhaps he learned his lesson.)

Jack, getting a little help with a glass ornament.

Cat designated this part of the tree her section, and filled it with miscellaneous ornaments she's made at home or in school or preschool over the last few years.

She loves this sea horse ornament.

Eliza loved this big silver bell.

She also stuck a spool of ribbon on the end of a branch. Way to be creative, E!

Our sad little tree covered with icicle lights, since we haven't been able to find our regular lights.

From Us to You

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ballet Culmination

2011-12-22T17:25:00.003-05:00

By the time we got back from SC the recital/concert/party season, otherwise known as December, was in full swing. Cat's ballet dress rehearsal and concert were that week, and it was so exciting!

Dress Rehearsal:

Watching the "Dance I" class rehearse. This is the class we wanted to get Cat into, but it was full by the time we registered. Cat was very envious that they got to dance to "This Christmas" and do fun, upbeat choreography.

Jack enjoyed watching the rehearsal.

Eliza tried to sneak onto the stage with Cat's class.

Pre-Concert Shots:

No, I didn't tell Jack to get in the picture, or to pose. Monkey see, monkey do.

Same goes for Eliza.

I love Jack in this one.

Finally, a picture of the ballerina all by herself! :-)

Performance:

Cat with her fellow ballerinas in their holding area.

1st Piece - "Gum Drops and Sugar Plums"
(Waltz)

2nd Piece - "Dance of the Reed Flutes"
(from The Nutcracker)

Watching the other classes perform.

With her teacher, Kathryn, whom we loved!

We sat on the aisle, and Jack decided to use that open space to bring the dancing into the audience. He actually did a lot of dancing throughout the concert, mostly mimicking the performers, but I didn't get much of it on video.

Sometimes he just can't help himself.

I tried to upload the videos of Cat's dances onto YouTube but it was taking FOREVER, so I stopped.
If you would really like to see the videos, though, I'll try again.
Leave me a comment and let me know.

If your name is Joyce, Cleo, or Susannah, the videos are coming your way. ;-)

Back East

2011-12-17T16:10:00.006-05:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving I got to go South Carolina to see my family! Disclaimer: I didn't bring my good camera with me, so the following pictures were all taken with my phone. I'm grateful for it, but the quality definitely isn't close to what it would have been with my real camera. So, just bear with me.

The official reason for the trip was that my sister Megan blessed her triplets. And I was happy to have an excuse to make the trip! At first I thought I would just go alone, but after some thought I realized it would be too cruel to make a trip back to SC without Cat. She's old enough to know exactly what she would be missing, and she loves seeing our extended family there. So I decided to take her with me. And to make the burden on Ben (and those who were helping with babysitting in UT) a little lighter, I brought Eliza too. Plus, she flew for free. :-) Ben was nearing the end of the semester so he stayed home so that he wouldn't have to miss classes, and Jack hung out with him as much as possible, and spent some time with friends when Ben was in class.

We were nice and early for our flight out of SLC so we had time to stop and play in the little kid area they have set up at the end of the terminal. After a few minutes of playing, Cat told me that she was bored. Translation: I'm dying to see an airplane!

She got a kick out of being in an airplane.

And she thought the moving walkways in the Chicago Midway airport were really fun too.

Love that airport. They had these Kids Korners set up at many of the gates. Each one had a kid-sized set of table and chairs and the Cartoon Network playing.

Eliza was so funny on this trip. She hasn't spent a ton of time around babies, and I didn't realize how much she enjoyed all-things-baby... including the babies themselves. She was really upset whenever we found her trying to pick a baby up by its head. I think she wanted to yell at us, "why in the world won't you let me play with this living breathing baby doll? They are the funnest toys EVER!"

Big kids + babies at Krispy Kreme. You're never too young to appreciate a good doughnut!

Cat hanging out with my Opa at Krispy Kreme.

Opa's wearing costume glasses my nephews brought to KK with them, but I'm pretty sure he had some a lot like that about 50 or so years ago...

We took the big kids and Eliza to EdVenture and had a great time as always. This is the farm area.

The grocery store.

The human body / medical area. Eliza played dentist for a long time. Is dental school in her future?

All of the big kids liked the veterinarian clinic the best.

I know my Mom and Megan appreciated having so many adults around to feed all of the babies. And rock them. And change their diapers. And dress them. And calm them. Oh my goodness.

The big kids spent as much time outside as we would allow.

Here are Cat and Colin running down the road.

Cat loves it when she gets to have a "Cousin Sleepover." This weekend was no exception! Play time, snacks, movies, and sleeping on a pallet on the floor. Good times!

We missed our early morning flight on Monday morning. (It's a long, sad story.) I was devastated, but Mom saved the day by hanging out with us and taking us out to breakfast and to do a little shopping before she headed back to Oma and Opa and the other family who were still visiting. The girls did great, though. One thing that helped is that the Greenville/Spartanburg airport had this great courtyard area (perhaps just a glorified smoking area, but still). The girls had fun running around and playing outside for a little while before we parked ourselves on the terminal for Eliza's nap.

Eliza's nap.

Cat was so great. She worked in a workbook, read, and did other things during E's nap.

When E woke up, it was snack time. Do you see the remnants of a white powdered doughnut on her hoodie?

We flew Southwest, so every time Cat saw a Southwest plane, she was sure it was ours.

"Mom! That's our plane! Can we go now?"

We finally got on the next available flight and made our way back to Midway, where we saw this familiar face on the wall. I don't know him, but my sister Suz traveled around the world doing a Semester at Sea when she was in college. Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was on the ship with them and Suz met him several times. Very cool!

We were originally supposed to land in SLC around 2pm, but after missing our flight, we didn't land until 9:30. It was a long day, but the girls were wonderful. I was surprised and impressed at how well it all went. We were so grateful to have been able to travel to SC to spend time with family and meet those sweet little babies! It was such a blessing for us. Ben and Jack did just fine without us, but we were all happy to be reunited and to try to get back into a normal routine after a big cross-country trip.

PS> Since I didn't have my good camera, I didn't try to take a lot of just family pictures. But Suz did. So when I get those from her, I'll share more pics of the babies and me with my family. :-)

A Special Day

2011-12-04T16:00:00.001-05:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove up to Salt Lake City to see my cousin's oldest son's baptism. It was held in an old Church building across the street from the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake and several people at the baptism told us that we needed to check out the stained glass, organ, and vaulted ceilings in the chapel. The baptism was sweet and lovely and we were so happy to be there to support Xavier and his family. Afterward, Cat asked me to take her to the chapel. Ben already had Jack and Eliza in the car, all ready to go, so Cat and I just walked in and had the chapel to ourselves. She immediately started telling me how beautiful it was and how much she loved it. We talked about the stained glass for a minute and I explained a little bit about how it was made, then we walked up to the front so that she could get a closer look.

I found this image online. I don't know if this is from the actual chapel we were in, but as far as I remember, this is what it looked like:

The First Vision was depicted in the stained glass, and when we were close to it, I asked Cat what it was of. She answered that it was Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith - and his clothes - were much darker than the other two personages, so I had to point him out. Cat recognized him by name, then told me that this was a picture of the time when "they were telling Joseph Smith which churches to join and which not to join." We talked about that, and how Joseph Smith was told that he wasn't to join any of the churches on the earth at that time. Then Cat said, "Mom, I feel the Spirit." I asked her how she felt and she said, "just really happy." I explained to her that we feel the Spirit when we make good choices, or when something is true or important. I asked her if she thought the story of Joseph Smith's First Vision was true, and she said yes. What a special experience!

Soon after that, Cat and I joined Ben, Jack, and Eliza in the car and we drove up to the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

This is the cemetery where President Gordon B. Hinckley's body is buried. I've been really eager to visit this sacred place. President Hinckley will always have a special place in my heart. I still clearly remember sitting in the Columbia SC Stake Center during the Youth Fireside when he first shared the 6 Be's. And I remember seeing him and his adorable wife at a huge area conference in Atlanta when I was in High School. My family always quotes something Sis. Hinckley said during that conference. "Every day I get up. I look in the mirror. And I say to myself, 'How did a nice girl like me get into a mess like this?'" Sometimes I still get emotional when I hear recordings of Pres. Hinckley's voice. What an extraordinary man. And he had an amazing wife.

The office was closed, so we just wandered around for a few minutes before we found Pres. Hinckley's gravesite. Other prominent Church members are buried at this cemetery, so it was neat as we were driving to spot many names we recognized, particularly a large grave marker for Hyrum Smith. We finally saw Pres. Hinckley's grave up on a hill and pulled over on the side of the road so that we could get out and pay our respects. Eliza was asleep at this point, so we let her sleep in the car while the 4 of us walked around. It was a special experience for me to stand at the grave of Pres. Hinckley and his sweetheart, Marjorie.

We noticed that there was a large pile of pennies on the big marker, but didn't know the significance of the pennies. Cat counted about 50.

I guessed that Pres. Hinckley had told a story about a penny at some point, and I didn't want to miss out on the chance to join in a traditional way of honoring someone who has been such a significant influence in my life. So Cat looked in the car and found a few pennies we could leave.

It turns out, there doesn't seem to be anything specific to Pres. Hinckley about pennies, but it is simply a tradition that people leave pennies on graves. There are a few different reasons, ranging from ancient mythology to Benjamin Franklin's "a penny saved is a penny earned," to the Jewish tradition of leaving stones at graves.

But I'm going to tell myself that it is a way for us to show Pres. Hinckley how much we support the work of the temple. When I Googled "Gordon Hinckley pennies," I found a story in The Church News and one from The Friend about Primary children saving pennies for the Nauvoo Temple. That's something that resonates with me, considering I have ancestors who lived in Nauvoo at the time of Joseph Smith and received their endowments there. I was also in Nauvoo listening to General Conference when Pres. Hinckley announced that the temple there would be rebuilt in 1999. And I sat with my family in the Celestial Room of the Nauvoo temple during one of the dedicatory sessions in 2002.

Just down the hill from Pres. Hinckley's grave was another LDS Prophet's grave. Jack seemed to grasp the sacredness of the place, and walked with his arms folded.

David O. McKay died long before I was born, but he is special to my Mom and many other Church members who were alive during his tenure as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

It was neat to see the way the children reacted to all of the grave stones. I was surprised at how respectful they were. I made sure to tell Cat that I felt the spirit while I was there.

And to top off an already spiritual day, Ben and I got to go on a date and attend the temple that night. Yep, living in Utah definitely has its perks. What a lovely day.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T19:30:00.000-05:00

One cool thing about living here is that we are close to some extended family members we've never lived close to before. Thanksgiving was a great big fun family gathering!

My cousin, Preston, and his girlfriend, Mandy. Aren't they cute?

Jack hung out by the Muddy Buddies until meal time.

Eliza had fun sliding down the stairs to get to the toys in the basement.

Let the feast begin!
Do you like Cat's Native American headdress?

My cousin's son Wes. He was hilarious digging into his turkey leg!

My cousin Steph (hostess extraordinaire) and her younger son John.

Fun with Daddy until Pie Time.

Eliza and Zoe (another cousin's daughter; here she's standing by her Mommy) ate a lot more Muddy Buddies than they did actual Thanksgiving food.

Play time in the basement.

Whip it, Steph!

I didn't do a very good job of documenting Thanksgiving, but this gives you a little idea of how it went. We had a great time talking and laughing with family and friends, and of course enjoyed lots of yummy food. We are so thankful for the many blessings we have, especially the wonderful people in our lives!

A little more snow

2011-11-28T01:38:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we had our first "real" snow. We woke up to about 2 inches of snow. The perfect amount, in my book. Enough that everything is white and pretty and the kids can play for a while, but not so much that the driveway or sidewalk required shoveling or anything.

The back yard.

It actually wasn't that cold on Saturday, so it took some convincing for Cat to put her snowsuit on. (Also, this was the first time she'd seen the snow pants and she was pretty unhappy that they were black. But the alternative was pink, and she already had a purple coat, so I was a bad mom and insisted that the snow pants be black. Plus, Jack will be able to wear them one day.) I knew that I needed to set a precedent of always wearing a snow suit when the kids go out in the snow, so we spent 30 minutes or more getting everyone geared up for some play time.

Cat and Ben were the first to play outside, then Ben had to go to school to get some work done. I'm glad they had time to for a quick snowball fight!

It's easier from point blank range!

Jack looked on enviously until he was suited up and ready to go outside.

Then he tried his hand at making his own snowball.

Cutest snow bunny EVER.

We couldn't find both of Jack's good mittens, and he didn't want to keep the not-so-good ones on...

It didn't bother Eliza one bit that this toy was covered with snow when she sat on it.

Jack had fun "making a road" for the truck in the back yard.

And of course, when I brought the little ones inside, we all had to have some hot chocolate.

It's a must with snow, I think.

So we have a lot of hot chocolate mix on hand. I feel that I should be prepared in this way.

Cat kept playing outside with the neighbors for a while.

This is their snowman.

And she couldn't get enough of eating the snow.

I know, I know, that's gross. But she just doesn't seem to think so.

I guess winter's on its way....

and we're trying to be excited about it!

Try again!

2011-11-25T13:20:00.000-05:00

I fixed the video of Cat's dramatic reading of a writing assignment she completed recently. Please take 30 seconds and check it out.... I think you won't regret it.

Scroll down 2 posts or click here to view the post.

Ballet Picture Day

2011-11-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

Since Cat's ballet class is held at the local rec center, everything is done on the cheap. That means that instead of hiring a photographer to take individual and group shots before the December concert, the ballet teacher invited parents to come on a designated class day to take candid and group pictures. (Fine with me, by the way!) Here's what I got...

Nutcracker:

Waltz:

Freeze Dance: (probably Cat's favorite part of ballet class)

Group Shots:

What can I say? The girl loves to sing.

2011-11-22T23:01:00.002-05:00

When Dad's away, the rest of us will...

2011-11-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

(go to Idaho to) PLAY!

Ben was out of town last weekend, so instead of staying at home and hanging out with the kids by myself I decided to go to my good friend Kathryn's house and hang out with the kids there. I picked Cat up early from school on Thursday and we drove the 5 1/2 hours to Boise. (It went surprisingly fast, thanks to the 75 mph speed limit. Sweet!) The kids did really well on the drive up there and we arrived in time to eat dinner at Kathryn's house. Then we had 2 full days to play!

On Friday morning Kathryn took us on a driving tour to get a feel for Boise. The highlights were the temple, Boise State University, and the fun downtown area.

Cat with K's daughters, who are a year older and a year younger than Cat. Perfect! They were making those melty-bead shape things. A great way to keep them happy until dinner is ready.

That night K painted the girls' nails while I was putting Jack and Eliza to bed.

The next day we took the kids to the local children's museum, where there were lots of fun things to do. This is a chair that uses a pulley system so that the rider can pull him/herself up, then air-resistance brakes to slow you down when you are ready for descent.

Cat loved it.

And Jack even pulled himself up.

As always, the kid-sized grocery store was a big hit.

If Cat looks like a professional here, it's because she's had lots of practice. We have not one, but TWO toy cash registers at home. Don't you just love receiving hand-me-down toys??

Make way for the little shopper.

This was a flat surface that you lay down on, then when you push a button, nails (not sharp) come up and lift your body up. It doesn't hurt because your weight is distributed evenly among the nails. Jack did it several times.

Having fun with the delay & reverb mics.

This girl is sure that she will be a rock star one day. Isn't she adorable? She had lots of fun with the mic. Watch out - she just may be the next big thing!

Air from the cone is suspending the ball in mid-air. Jack was into it.

Giant bubble maker. A cool idea, but it was being finicky when we were there.

Fun with a green screen!

Jack's turn to see the upper portion of his body floating on TV.

The older girls just wanted to play meteorologist.

Kathryn helped them build a perfect arch.

Outside play time back at the house. Sidewalk chalk,

Jumping rope (Cat's new FAVORITE thing),

and Bubbles.

As you can imagine, they were all pretty worn out by bedtime.
What better way to wind down than with some good books?

We had such a fun time with these guys! Thank you for hosting us, sharing your toys, and showing us around your town. What a treat!

The Fort

2011-11-15T18:00:00.000-05:00

Everyday Stuff, Fall Edition

2011-11-09T01:13:00.000-05:00

You're never too young to start reading the Wall Street Journal... upside down.

We went to this playground on a whim one morning when I realized we had a little time before we needed to eat lunch. Eliza climbed all the way up to the top of the slide, but wouldn't go down. I sent Jack up there to go down with her and he did it - it was so sweet!

Aren't they cute together?

Eliza has become particularly uncooperative when I take pictures of her at home or out on an adventure.
But when I decided to pull out my phone and take a quick picture of all of the kids sitting on the steps in the Church gym during playgroup, she gave me a million dollar smile.

Our neighborhood grocery store has mini carts. This was Jack's first time being allowed to use one, and he absolutely loved it. He even helped me choose produce and bag it, and he wanted everything to go in his cart. Pretty cute.

Jack isn't formally "potty training," but he does use the potty occasionally. One morning a few weeks ago he informed me that he wanted to wear big boy underwear. Great! The only problem was that he had an upset stomach, and though I was willing to risk some bodily fluids making messes, I was not willing to risk having to clean up diarrhea. That's where I draw the line. So I pulled out these great plastic-covered potty training underpants that my friend gave me, and had him wear those. He didn't like them, so the pottying didn't last very long that day. But Eliza really wanted to wear some. She kept hers on for quite a while... and I liked that it gave me something to laugh about on Jack's sick day. :-)

Look! It's me! Thanks for documenting my existence, Jack!

One Saturday morning the kids wanted to color something big, so I taped together 2 poster -sized pieces of paper and made outlines of the images the kids wanted. Cat wanted a castle, and Jack wanted a dragon and a train. My drawing is horrible, but I loved that Cat was still super impressed! They had fun coloring for a little while, until certain people kept coloring on other people's coloring spaces. Oh well. They're siblings. That's what they do, right?

I took my kids and one of Cat's friends to the library for story time one day when Cat was out of school. At first, Cat and her friend weren't interested in checking out any books to bring home, but within just a few minutes we ended up with a huge haul of books. I had them each choose a few to leave at the library, then we checked out the rest. 18 in all. And guess who got to carry them up the stairs and to the car, while holding a toddler? :-) But I didn't complain, because, hello, it's books. I love that Cat likes reading enough now that she reads new books on her own, brings them in the car, and even reads to her brother and sister. I think the day she discovers the joys of a good chapter book will be the true turning point, though.

Apparently, Eliza was looking to repeat this incident from a year ago. She didn't need any help coloring on her head this time, though. She did it all on her own.

Oh, and she got both legs, too. Eliza and a marker is a dangerous combination...

Love my Jack-Jack!

You might want to back up, there, Eliza. This could get dangerous...

One night when Ben was out of town, the kids and I invited another family (who's Dad is also in the MBA program and was on the same trip as Ben) to join us for FHE. Right when we finished our lesson, we started seeing lightning out of the living room window. Or, we thought it was lightning. It was actually our 7-year-old neighbor taking pictures of us from the front yard. So funny! So we all went outside and the kids posed on the front step for a couple of pictures. The outside boy on the left and the outside girl on the right are brother and sister and they live next-door to us. The other two children you don't know belong to the other MBA family in the ward. They live across the street from us, and we've spent a lot of time with them. It's so nice to have them so nearby! We have a great neighborhood and a great ward. (Really, that's pretty redundant, since our ward is literally comprised of 2 blocks, but still...)

Everyone but Cat was sick at some point last week, which was a shame, since we had pretty good weather. I knew it wouldn't last, so by Friday when we'd had enough of being cooped up in the house and I knew we needed some outside play time. We were all feeling better so we decided to hang out at the park after school. Cat's two friends joined us and we loved running around and playing in the leaves. I kept trying to get a good picture of them throwing the leaves in the air, but couldn't time it right using my phone. Oh well!

Superman Swinging

Murphy's Law and a Big Big Girl

2011-11-07T00:13:00.000-05:00

Don't you just love it when Murphy gets a good laugh at your expense? That happened in our family several weeks ago. You see, I get the kids ready every morning. I usually get to choose Cat's clothes for the day, but she doesn't let me do her hair except for Sunday now (alas, 6 year olds have wills of their own). But she does a pretty good job on her hair, so she's mostly presentable when she leaves the house. Of course, she's come up with a few interesting styles...

Don't get me wrong. I love that Cat likes to do her hair, and I love that she experiments with different styles. What I'm trying to show here is that when Cat occasionally breaks out of her low-ponytail habit, it's because she decides to do something pretty dramatic. She likes to make a statement. I don't even have pictures of the more dramatic styles she's come up with - you'll just have to trust me.

Now, back to Murphy and his ever-present Law. As I said, I get the kids ready in the morning. That is, almost every morning. There was a morning a while back when I couldn't be here to help Cat get ready for school. Why not, you may ask? Well, because I had to have Jack at the surgery center for his hernia surgery at 6am. Usually that wouldn't be a big deal, because I could lay Cat's clothes out and she could do her hair and Ben could get her to school. But, thanks to Murphy, it ended up being Cat's school picture day. Yep.

So I gave Cat and Ben very specific directions the night before. Cat is to wear the shirt I laid out for her. No other shirt. Cat is not allowed to do her hair. Ben must spray her hair with water, part it on the side, and brush it straight. Nothing else. Of course, since we're sharing a car these days and I had to take Jack way down to the surgery center early in the morning, Ben and Cat were going to have to ride bikes to school, so Cat would have helmet-head by the time she arrived. All the better.

The school pictures came home a few weeks later and I was actually quite pleased with the hair, I have to say. Pretty good, huh? Not that I would have done anything fancy.... maybe just straightened it, done a little braid, and given it some hairspray. Oh, and driven her to school. But still. Considering the circumstances, they did well.

But somehow I forgot to ask Cat not to wear the neon multi-colored plastic beaded necklace she'd been wearing for the last several days.

Oh well. It only clashes a little. And, hey, it shows off a little bit of Cat's personality and interests this year. (She's been wearing similar necklaces since the beginning of the school year this year.) And she still looks totally cute, if you ask me.

As if doing her own hair doesn't make her way too big, she said something the other day that showed me all over again how much she's grown up. She'd spent a few hours at a friend's house playing, and when she got back home our neighbor asked if she could go to her house to play. I said she could, but that we would be eating dinner soon, at 6:00, and that she needed to be home for dinner. As she excitedly ran off to her friend's house, she yelled at me over her shoulder, "I know what time that is! That's when the big hand is on the twelve and the little hand is on the six!" She's been working on telling time for a while now, so I'm not sure why that struck me the way it did, but it was kind of a sign for me. Maybe the combination of being old and responsible enough to be at various friend's houses after completing her homework for the day, and also telling time well enough to come home when she's supposed to just made a strong statement: she's way too big.

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-02T00:29:00.000-04:00

We had a very busy week leading up to Halloween with many opportunities for the kids to get dressed up (and subsequently make messes on their costumes, but let's not talk about that now). The first event was a party for the Primary (age 18 months - 12 years) children at Church.

Jack was pretty psyched before we got in the car.

But he'd lost some of his steam by the time we arrived at the party.

The key to success with a beanbag toss: stand 18 inches from your target.

And I'll take my prize, thankyouverymuch.

I think it's funny to compare Cat's and Jack's differing approaches to the doughnut-on-a-string competition.
Cat was able to fully obey the rules and NOT touch the doughnut, easily fitting the entire thing in her mouth.
Jack broke all the rules, held the doughnut, and still took several minutes to eat his doughnut, even after I helped him out a little.

Jack was first to win a cookie during the Pumpkin Walk, so of course Cat is pushing him along here, thinking that might help her chances of winning her cookie next.

Cat's Halloween Costume Parade:

I took Jack and Eliza to Cat's school to watch the costume parade. I was sure I would get some cute pictures, but Cat was much more interested in dancing with her friend Lily than in posing for pictures. Ahh, princesses and gypsies... will opposites ever cease to attract?

After the costume parade, Jack the Dragon did some hanging around on the playground.

Trick-Or-Treating:

All ready to go! Yes, Eliza started on the candy early. She saw Ben pull out lollipops to hand to some early trick-or-treaters and would NOT be pacified until she had one of her own.

First stop: the sweet couple next door. We really lucked out in the neighbor department!

Jack and Eliza checking out their stash when we got back home. (Cat ended up doing most of her trick-or-treating with our neighbors, Grace and George, so she got home a little later than we did.)

So, Jack, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

Other festivities from the last week not pictured above: MBA Spouse Association Halloween Party and a couple of wear-your-costume-to-______ activities. It was a hectic but fun week and now I can't believe it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yikes! Where has the year gone??

The Hogle Zoo

2011-10-29T21:59:00.000-04:00

Ben and Cat both had a break from school last week, so we headed up to SLC to go to the zoo with my cousins and their children. The weather was awesome and we all had a great time checking out the animals. Definitely a day well spent!

Impersonating the monkeys in the monkey house.

More monkeys!

Two adult females and two toddlers.
(Eliza and the elephant.)

Seeing the "elfewents" was Jack's favorite part of the day.

Gorillas.

Apparently we have a few female gorillas and some juveniles in the family.

Cat said that the peacock was her favorite.

Camels!

This giraffe got up close and personal with Ben.

And what trip to the zoo would be complete without some time on the playground?

Thanks for meeting us, Steph and Alicia! We are missing our families back east even more than we thought we would, but having cousins and other family members out here definitely eases the pain. We love getting to hang out with you guys!

Halloween Preparations

2011-10-26T00:38:00.000-04:00

Decorating! I love Cat's contributions - pumpkins, bats, and ghouls on the banister, and a bunch of bats trying to escape out of the front door. The top left picture is of a pair of pumpkins Jack painted using the cups from a cardboard egg carton. He did such a good job, even though they were small and I'd planned for Cat to do the painting.

Hoot Owl Cookies. These ones turned out much better than the ones we made a couple of years ago. (This is the recipe we used this year - supposedly it's the original.) And I love looking at the finished cookies and reflecting on the number of eyes each owl has, and finding which ones look like they are recovering from a bad fall out of a tree.

I really tried to do costumes on the cheap this year, but didn't want to make anything. So that meant looking at the thrift store, online, etc. I found the too small dragon costume for Jack from someone selling it online for a good price. Then the next week I found the too big one at a thrift store. Hmm.... which is better, too small, or too big? (In the end, Jack said he liked the smaller one better, so that's the one we went with. Thankfully we were able to return the bigger one to the thrift store. Yeah!)

I suddenly wanted to make sugar cookies one Sunday afternoon, and the kids were my busy little helpers. After assigning herself the job of using the spatula to place the cut cookies onto the pan, Cat referred to herself as "the spatulist." I like that.

Because I hadn't planned on making sugar cookies, I wasn't really prepared with anything to decorate them with. After a quick search online, though, I found out how to make your own colored sugar. Here, Cat is demonstrating. (If you are curious about the process, check out my other post here.)

Frosting the cookies, or, in some cases, eating the cookies.

The FHE Jack-O-Lantern:

1. Scoop out the guts. This requires teamwork.

2. Place the pumpkin on your head to determine whether all of the guts are out.

3. Draw the face. It might take you a few tries.

4. Cut out the face. Best left to Daddy.

5. Admire the face, then scoop out remaining guts that are showing through the face holes.

6. Place Jack-O-Lantern on your front porch, alongside one that simply has stickers on it and only took seconds to create.

This week is pretty full with various Halloween events, which is so fun! Thank goodness all of this prep work is out of the way, so we can just enjoy the festivities.

Buffalo Peak

2011-10-24T23:00:00.045-04:00

Last Saturday afternoon we took the kids up to Buffalo Peak. It's a high peak that our landlords advised us to hike when we first moved into the house, but we hadn't made it happen yet. After that whole snowing episode a couple of weeks ago, we decided we should make it happen asap, or we could miss our chance for the year.

It was a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours. We first had to drive up the mountain a few miles on a paved road, then a few miles on a dirt road. The kids loved the second half, and especially enjoyed making their "ahhhhhhhh" sounds as our Honda Pilot bumped over the rocks and dips in the road. The views of the mountains with the incredible colors of fall were just beautiful. It was only a 1/2 mile hike up to the top of the peak, but there was a 287 foot gain in elevation. I had Eliza in the Ergo carrier and Ben carried Jack in our landlord's hiking backpack (which they gave us permission to use). The end of the hike was a bit sketchy, with slippery rocks on the trail and a steep incline to the top of the peak, but it was well worth it. The view was awesome, the weather was beautiful, and we all had a wonderful time.

Here is Cat approaching Buffalo Peak. You can see that we had quite a climb getting up there!

Eliza and me at the top. We did it!

View of the BYU campus from the top of the peak.

Another family picture, minus 1. Just imagine me with the rest of the crew.

Eliza had fun exploring at the top of the peak.

C & J enjoying the view.

When Eliza got a turn in the hiking backpack as we prepared for our descent, she gave us our first smile of the hike.

On the hike back to the car, we let Jack do a lot of walking by himself. This was scary for us, since he didn't like to walk on the steep slippery trail, but preferred running. Thankfully, we all made it out alive without any major falls or accidents.

Cat started throwing the fallen leaves in the air and pretty soon Ben joined in. The picture didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but it was pretty fun!

Cat was a great hiker for about 70% of the hike. Then she decided it was time for Daddy to carry her.

Just a few shots of the gorgeous views, complete with awesome fall colors, during our drive and our hike.
Love it!!

Pumpkin Patch (x's 2)

2011-10-23T00:43:00.001-04:00

About a week and a half ago, the Spouse Association for the MBA program put together a little trip to Jaker's Jack-o-Lanterns, a local pumpkin patch. This was a great place to take the kids to because they had tons of pumpkins at reasonable prices - which you could literally pick yourself out of the field, a hayride, a corn pit, a small petting zoo area, and fun stuff made out of bales of hay. It was small, fun, and FREE. I took Jack and Eliza there with the MBASA on Tuesday morning and we liked it so much that on Friday afternoon, our whole family went back.

Jack wanted so badly to get to the top of the mountain-o-hay. He couldn't quite climb the bales himself.

Then Makayla's Mom took mercy on him and helped the two of them up to the top. Thanks!

He loved the corn pit, but apparently it was not to be enjoyed while shod. But I don't blame him. It's nice to feel those dried kernels of corn between your toes.

Walking on top of the small hay-maze. Still barefoot.

At first, Eliza tried to navigate the small hay-maze by herself.

Then she resorted to climbing.

Llama llama having fun.
Sitting with goat in the sun.
Llama lama stays away.
With the kids he will not play.

Donkey's not as smart as Llama.
Now he deals with Jack-Jack drama.

Getting ready for our hayride. Notice I'm at least holding Jack's shoes at this point. I'm not completely negligent.

Some of the views during the hayride.

After the hayride, Jack decided that it was just too hard to keep those darn overalls on, plus it was getting warm outside. So I'd like to title this picture, "Hay - who needs pants?"
I guess that's our cue to leave...

We came back on Friday, though, and Jack remained fully clothed the whole time, although he did not keep his shoes on. But I'm willing to compromise on that.

Nice goat.

"Hay! We climbed to the top of the mountain!"

Eliza wanted to see what it was like to be part of a petting zoo.

Leaping into the corn pit.

Wandering into the pumpkin field. Barefoot.

Ben helped Eliza navigate the little hay-maze.

Very nice goat.

"Hay! We climbed to the top of the big maze!"

Cat chose, cut, and carried her own pumpkin.

Family picture, minus 1, as usual.
Good job not looking at the camera, Eliza.

Thanks for the fun times, Jaker!

First Snow

2011-10-17T23:22:00.002-04:00

About a week and a half ago we had snow at our house for the first time. The weather had suddenly become colder and rainy, but I was still surprised when I looked out the window and saw white stuff coming down when all I thought I would see was rain. I started whoopin' and hollerin' and trying to get Jack excited about the snow, but he didn't really catch my enthusiasm. We went out on the back deck to get a closer look and try to touch some snowflakes, but it wasn't cold enough outside for the snow to stick or anything, and all of my attempts at gathering photographic evidence just resulted in pictures of "invisible snow."

By mid-afternoon, the weather had cleared up quite a bit and the clouds were gone. We could see all of the snow on the tops of the mountains around us, so I decided to pack our coats in the car and leave straight from picking Cat up at school to head up to the mountains to actually see the real snow. Cat told me all about how "it snowed TWICE" while she was at school that day and that she got to see it outside. We went up to the Alpine Loop (where the Sundance Ski Resort is), just about 10 or 15 minutes from our house, and drove until we saw a place where there was a bit of snow accumulated on the ground and somewhere to park. We found a small park, piled on our coats, and went outside.

Cat was definitely the most excited of all of us. She jumped right out, grabbed some snow, made a snowball, and threw it at Jack.

I'm not sure how this Southern Girl knows so much about snowballs, but she got it right the first time. Maybe it's instinct. Check out that look in her eyes as she gets ready to let it fly - I know who to stay away from when it really starts snowing!

Jack wasn't as anxious to play in the snow as Cat was. He barely wanted to touch it.

But then Cat gave him a snowball and he thought that was pretty cool.

First snowball fight...

Cat was very curious about what snow would taste like.

"It tastes like nothing!"

Cat tried to get Eliza excited about the snow but E, who had a stomach bug that day, just wasn't interested.

All together now...

The beautiful Alpine Loop with one of the early snows of the season dusting the treetops. (It snowed in the mountains just a few weeks earlier, but not as much as this time.) So pretty!

Of course we went home and drank hot chocolate. I really tried hard to enjoy the first snow of the year, make it an exciting event, even celebrate it. I think it was as much for me to try to psych myself up as it was to make it fun for the kids. (I'm trying hard not to dread the winter here.) Hopefully we'll all have a good time with the snow and find lots of great indoor things to do when we need to stay out of the cold!

Sick Day

2011-10-16T23:45:00.000-04:00

In the middle of September, Jack had hernia surgery. He did a wonderful job, and everything went very smoothly. He recovered quickly and his follow-up appointment with the surgeon was great. Yeah!

Here he is playing in the little toy room at the surgery center before they took him back for the surgery. He wasn't scared about the surgery or upset about being separated from me, but he was sad about having to leave the toys! Even now when we talk about his surgery, he brings up the toy room. Thank goodness he has a positive memory associated with the experience!

The surgery lasted about an hour and a half. They called me to come see him in the recovery room right away, and this is what I walked into. Isn't he sweet??

You can tell in this picture that he started to feel uncomfortable as the anesthesia wore off. He cried and flailed a bit, then the nurse gave him a little painkiller in his IV, which helped him fall back asleep briefly and then wake up much more calmly. We stayed in the recovery room until he ate a little something and showed that he wasn't going to throw it up. Good job, Jack! :-)

The surgeon and other medical staff told us that Jack needed to take it easy for a week or two after the surgery. Ummm.... right. Obviously, they don't know Jack very well. He did great after his surgery and we really only knew that he was uncomfortable when we were changing his diaper and he didn't want to be wiped. We got a prescription painkiller for him, which he only ever got two doses of: one at bedtime the night of the surgery, as a precaution, and the second we gave him right before a babysitter came to take care of him while we went on a date, again, as a precaution soon after the surgery. That being said, we did try to follow doctor's orders and take it easy for a few days.

As it so happened, Cat had to stay home from school the next day with a stomach bug, so we all just took a sick day and tried to do some good quiet things that would help Jack stay calm. First was craft time. We just took out a bunch of random stuff from our craft stash and went to town. Cat helped Jack a lot, which was cute to see.

Cat ended up with a bunch of pipe cleaner and pom-pom curly things and feathers glued onto popsicle sticks. We thought they looked cool in a vase on her desk.

And Jack came up with a couple of 3-D pieces that really brighten up the kitchen. Thanks, big guy!

The next big activity was play dough outside on the deck. The weather was perfect - and keeping the mess outside was perfect too.

Be careful about leaning back in your chair, Cat. I'd hate for you to...

Oops!

I'd have to say that all in all, it was a pretty good sick day.

Luvin my J & E

2011-10-14T08:00:00.001-04:00

(photo from June 2011... on St. Simons Island)

Sometimes I feel like Jack and Eliza get overshadowed by Cat and all of the many exciting things she gets to do simply because she's reached that grand old age of maturity: 6. So I have a few things I want to share about Jack and Eliza, just because.

First of all, it didn't occur to me until a few weeks ago just how close these two are. Sure, Jack has seen Eliza as his personal punching bag since she was born, but they also have lots of fun together and love to make each other laugh. For some reason, they also each prefer the other person's sippy cup... I haven't quite figured that one out yet. Anyway, I started thinking about this a couple of weeks ago when I dropped Jack off for his first morning of preschool. When I got back in the car, I was bombarded with cries of "Jack-Jack! Jack-Jack!" from the backseat. And real tears. Whoa! Seriously? This from the girl who has been kicked, punched, stepped on, stolen from, and generally bullied by this boy every day of her life? Well, yes, apparently she really loves him and, unbeknownst to me, doesn't like being away from him. And with the exception of nursery time during Church, she really hasn't been away from him. Gosh. What a wake-up call for me.

Around the same time, we had a family home evening lesson where I was holding up a picture of Jesus. I asked Eliza, who was on the other side of the room, who this was a picture of and she instantly lit up. She smiled, her eyes got really big, and an undeniable look of recognition came over her face. I started to feel that warm fuzzy feeling parents get when their children make them really proud, when Eliza quickly walked across the room pointing to the picture. Then she loudly exclaimed, "Jack-Jack!"

We received this cute hat (and the dress E is wearing) in a package of hand-me-downs from an awesome friend. J & E fought over who would get to wear this hat for at least 20 minutes. Now it's hiding in the winter bin, but I'm pretty sure the battle will continue once the weather cools off and E actually needs to wear it!

Jack and Eliza have both been talking a lot more lately too. Eliza has added fun phrases to her vocabulary such as "ope-ih" (open it), "ee-go" (here you go) and "ahn-some" (want some). And just a few weeks ago she said her first sentence. It was unmistakable. "Jack push-uh me." We've heard it many times since then.

Jack has been cracking us up with the things he's said lately. Here is a conversation we had Monday morning after General Conference, when we always make homemade donuts. I was talking to Jack and Eliza as they were eating leftover donuts for breakfast.

Me: Alright, guys, what should we have for dinners this week?

Jack: These.

Me: Donuts? Good idea. But they're not very nutritious.

Jack: But they ARE yummy.

Then the next day we were out running an errand after we'd gotten Halloween decorations up around the house. I was trying to convince Jack that we needed to go back home instead of staying and hanging around FedEx-Kinko's.

Me: Let's go home and get out some more Halloween things.

Jack: And we'll sing Happy Halloween songs!

Me: What should we sing?

Jack: A ghost song.

Me: How does it go?

Jack, singing: "We wish you a Merry Christmas...."

Preschool Co-op

2011-10-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

One of the cool things about Ben doing his MBA at BYU is that there is a very active Spouse Association affiliated with the program that has been helpful in many ways. One example: geographically organizing interested moms into preschool co-ops. I was reluctant at first, since I just didn't feel like I could commit to another "thing," but I decided it was better for me to have something else to do and for Jack to get a bit of a school experience than nothing at all. So I met with the group - just 4 3-year-old BOYS - and talked to the moms about how we were going to go about doing the co-op. We agreed to just start out meeting once a week, which was perfect for me; I only need to prepare to teach once a month. We also planned on having a few field trips sprinkled here and there.

We divided up the necessary daily materials and each made one item. I contributed the schedule chart (below) which has Velcro on each picture, so that a child may move the picture to the other side as we begin each activity.

When I taught the group a few weeks ago, we talked about dinosaurs, the color orange, the letter A, and circle shapes. We ate apple slices, stamped painted apples onto construction paper, and read and sang about dinosaurs. As one of our activities, I had the kids glue orange spots onto large posterboard dinosaurs.

We also had some dinosaur play time, which made for a few cute pictures.

The following week, a friend taught the group and they talked about rocks and dirt, among other things. Here the boys are digging for rocks in the sand box.

Then apparently Jack saw a truck. And took his shoes off.

Eating "dirt" (crushed cookies in chocolate pudding).

Yes, I think this will be fun. And hopefully, Jack will learn a thing or two.

Apple Pickin'

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

About a month ago, we thought it was time to pick apples from the 2 trees in our backyard.
They tasted fine, but it turns out, we were picking them too early. (They are even better now.) Of course, we still had fun picking apples for the first time!

For some reason, whenever I pick a few apples for us from the tree, the kids are dying to eat them right there in the backyard. If I bring them in, wash them off, and cut them up, they are completely uninterested. What is that about? So our kids have eaten lots of apples straight from the tree, with just a quick wipe-off on Mom's shirt. Works for me.

Everyday Stuff, Part 3

2011-10-11T08:00:00.065-04:00

I've really enjoyed putting together these Everyday Stuff posts! This is the last one I have planned, but I'm sure I'll be doing more of them in the future. I love having a place to share pictures that really provide glimpses into the wonderful random moments that make up our life. So, enjoy!

Jack recently started going down the fireman's pole at the playground all by himself.
Scared some of the other Moms, but I knew he could handle it.

Eliza loves to "wear" her big brother's or sister's footie pajamas.
This made us think of an as-of-yet unknown species of dinosaur, the Elizasaurus.

Cat and Jack both like to help on pizza night.
Cat helps by putting on cheese and toppings and Jack helps with the clean-up.

While looking up a recipe online one Sunday afternoon, I stumbled upon a video tutorial about how to make a cucumber spiral . I showed Cat the video, so of course she found a cucumber in the fridge that we could try it out on, and promptly garnished her water with it. While wearing fairy wings.

Jack preferred to enjoy his cucumber the old-fashioned way.

Kix: Kid-Tested, Mother-Approved.

I really think one of the lesser-known joys of parenting is getting to see outfits like this on a regular basis.
It just makes my day!

Eliza has been Ben's football buddy this season. Go Noles!

A pirate says ARRRRRRRR.

Cat, turned Monkey.

Eliza doesn't like to go to Nursery during Church, and she makes Sunday School and Relief Society miserable for me. So we spent quite a bit of time outside one Sunday, enjoying the warm weather. Eliza decided to try my shoes out for a while, then abandoned them in the parking lot in favor of emptying my purse.

Sometimes when you read Book of Mormon Stories to your child, she listens attentively.

Then with no warning at all, she turns into a zombie.

One of the highlights of Jack's week: seeing the garbage man picking up the trash. Thank goodness for a great view from a big window! This was a particularly welcome bit of excitement on a sick day last week.

Came home the other night to this sweet scene in my bed.
What is it about sleeping children that just melts my heart??