Ogden Film Stars!!

Photoguy took some pictures for a Union Station commercial airing on Channel 11. He is sorry if your kid(s) didn't make it in. He submitted about 100 photos. They used two. Here's to Soph's and E-Man's ten-seconds of fame -- Wahoo! On KBYU at the following times:

11/25 at 6:29 am, 2:59 pm and 4:59 pm
11/26 at 6:29 and 7:59 am
11/28 at 8:29 am
12/01 at 8:29 am
12/02 at 6:29 am, 2:59 pm and 5:28 pm
12/03 at 12:29 pm and 3:59 pm
12/04 at 12:29 pm and 3:59 pm
12/05 at 8:29 am, 12:59 pm and 3:29 pm

That's it for now, but I think I was told the spot would run for a full year.

November: A Month of Gratitude

I feel overwhelmed at the prospect of listing my blessings here. But, since it is Thanksgiving, and I want to be a trendy blogger, I thought I would jot a few down that are running through my mind.

• I'm strangely grateful for my calling as a Gospel Doctrine teacher (never thought I would say that). Even though it stresses me out and takes a lot of time, I feel I've learned so much, strengthened my testimony, and grown closer to the Savior.
  
• Even though I now look at my 20s as a time when I was not so mature and genius as I may have thought I was, I'm very grateful that I was somehow smart enough to marry Photoguy and stay with him for 10-years (in January) now!
• My three amazing children, the joy they bring me, the degree to which I am able to enjoy them, the tremendous blessing of being at home with them, and the excitement of another on the way.
• That Izzy and AiAi are such adorable great friends (makes my life much easier than if they were enemies).
• Photoguy's many talents, his hard work ethic, and the fact that he's been around more than usual as of late.
• My two workout buddies (you know who you are) who have inspired me in so many ways over the years by their examples. And, I'm not just talking about the way they've inspired me to pull my lazy self out of bed in the morning to burn some calories.
• Our amazing friends in this neighborhood (and out) who have enriched our lives (and our children's lives) in so many ways.
• Extended family. I feel so blessed to be free of the drama and contention that plagues so many families and to have sweet loving parents and in-laws.
• America.
• Opportunities I've had to travel and the people all over the world who have touched my life.
• Our home. Especially for the way that Photoguy has been able to transform it from an aged mess (see previous item about his many talents).
• Good food, and the lessons I've been learning about how to choose and prepare it over the past year.
• The fact that last week, when Photoguy's IPOD was stolen from his Jeep, the thousands of dollars of camera equipment in the back went untouched.
  
• My job writing for the newspaper because it adds a little something interesting, allows me to work from home, and provides a nice little paycheck at the end of the month.
• My job babysitting because it adds a little something interesting, allows me to work from home, and provides a nice little paycheck at the end of each week (plus, I really love these kids).

What are you grateful for right now?

A Late "Happy Halloween" Pic

Can you find Princess Leah, Spider Man and the blue-eyed Buzz Lightyear?

From the bottom left corner: Up 4, over 5; up 5, over 7; up 2, over 10

Photoguy got these pictures at the neighborhood trunk or treat before taking the kiddies on an endless door-to-door trick-or-treating extravaganza. Meanwhile, I was at home laying on the couch trying not to throw up because evenings are a bad time for me right now cheerfully greeting trick-or-treaters and passing out Hostess products.

Halloween is a lot of fun. Hyperactive/constipated kids for weeks on end is not. This year, the kids agreed to sell their candy to a dentist in Layton who buys it by the pound and ships it off to soldiers in Iraq. Then, I realized I was going to need a lot of candy for the pinata and gingerbread houses at E-Man's party in a few weeks, so, I let them pick a few pieces (what would fit in a sandwich bag) and bought the rest from them myself. It worked out nicely. We'll see how many years they will willingly turn over their candy for cash.

E-Man Turns Six

When E-Man turned one, we had a small party, and I remember that his favorite gifts were all kinds of toy balls. "Ball," incidentally, was one of his first words.

At two, it was trains. We had a great big party with tons of friends, a musical instrument parade and the hokey pokey. A friend of mine made an amazing train cake, that took her two-full-days or so to decorate. My parents gave him a GeoTrax set that has seen tons of use over the years.

At three, he was obsessed with his favorite color -- green. So, I decided to do a "green" party. We had a giant sugar-cookie fish covered in kiwi scales, flower cookies on popsicle sticks, green gak, and party bags full of green favors. I use to take Soph and E-Man to story time at the library all the time when they were younger. When I asked him what he wanted to do for his "green" party, he said, "Go to the library!" I called the library, and they were so kind as to host a special story time for him and his party guests.

E-Man turned four in China. We did things to make it special, like making him a giant homemade "Happy Birthday" banner, buying him cupcakes that looked like little animal creatures, and taking him to McDonald's (which, incidentally, is more special when you live overseas for some reason). We had two friends over for cake that night and he got a really, really cool remote controlled Jeep. It was fun, but, small.

When he turned five last year, we had two more kids living with us and his birthday was sandwiched between M's birthday (one of the girls), Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas while I was just trying to keep up with the laundry generated by five kids. He wanted to have a costume party, and, we put together one of those gingerbread house kits from Costco. It was fine, but I just didn't feel that I gave it my all (since, I was seriously spread so thin).

I was feeling guilty because E-Man's parties have been a little sub-par the last two years. I decided this would be his year for the Big One.

I told him he could choose to have his party at Chuck E. Cheese -- the new one in Layton -- (I'm not a big fan of the pizza, but my kids LOVE this place so much). Or, we could rent the gymnastics building for the day (a few of our friends have done these parties and it's so much fun for the kids to run wild on the trampolines, climb ropes to the ceiling, dance with the giant parachute and get buried in the foam pit -- serious non-stop kid fun). I didn't know how he would even be able to choose between two things he loves so much.

But, E-Man had his own thing in mind. Way to be original and not sell-out to the commercialized industry E-Man. For his party, he simply wanted a pinata and to make gingerbread houses. I explained that neither location would be amenable to the pinata, and he didn't care. So, we planned a party at home.

I don't know when I've seen anyone so excited for a birthday before. He talked about it every day for three weeks. Every night, we had to write in his journal how many days were left until his birthday. On the big day, he woke up with STREP THROAT!!!

I felt so bad for the little guy. Fortunately, we got right in to the Dr., got the antibiotics going, and were able to postpone his party by only one day.

Aside from waking up with strep, it was a fun morning because we let him open his Iron Man mask and disc shooter first thing (trying to cheer him up), and my cute friend showed up in the morning with a whole bunch of cooked bacon (so cute, my kids love bacon). The rest of the day was uneventful, until that night when we bought Kung Fu Panda and watched it to try to at least do one thing special before the day ended.

The party day, I'm happy to say, could not have been better. The weather (amazingly, for mid-November) was spectacular. I had pre-assembled 16 little graham cracker houses. The kids showed up and had a great time covering them in frosting and candy. Then, we headed out back for the eyeball pinata. Photoguy raked up 6 bags of leaves to clear a spot for the candy to land. It was so fun to see how e-x-c-i-t-e-d five and six-year-olds are about a pinata. My sister-in-law made an amazing 3-D race car cake and E-Man got tons of cool presents. It feels like we've already had Christmas around here.

After the two-hour party, two of my best friends and their kids came over to make more houses, and we ended up having people and fun at our house for 3 1/2 more hours. You could tell it was a successful and super fun party by the condition of our house at the end of the day.

The Sunday before his birthday, E-Man also had a fun party at Photoguy's parents' house. And the Sunday after, we had cake and ice-cream and more great gifts at my parents' house. Wow! What an awesome way to turn six! No more guilt for this momma. E-Man had a fabulous birthday.

Dear E-Man,

The first time I saw you, I noticed your dimples and I've been madly in love with dimples ever since. On that first day of your life, we all noticed your long fingers too. "Piano hands," grandma N. said. "Basketball hands," dad said. Perhaps they were both right. But, this year, you've showed us that you do have a love for the piano. In six short lessons, you've almost finished the first two books! At your last lesson, you passed off 20-pages. We are so proud of your dedication to this talent. The first time your piano teacher looked at your hands she said, "You have beautiful piano hands."

You are the master of numbers. Just after you turned five, you counted all the way to 750, and you would have kept going if we hadn't stopped you (You'd been counting for about an hour by then). You are always amazing me with your math mind.

When you were one-and-a-half you amazed me by talking in complete sentences, and you've been impressing me with your thoughtful questions and insights ever since. It is such a joy to be your mom. You've always been a great peacemaker, never raising a hand to hit another child even when you were little, and even when littler kids hit you first. I'm so proud of the way you run to hold the doors open for everyone as they exit the church building on Sundays. You are a fine gentleman and everything I'd hoped for in a son. Happy sixth birthday E-Man!

Love,

Mom

What Sort of Mammal?

When we broke the news to our kids last week about the upcoming arrival, E-Man looked at me and exclaimed, "What!? There is a baby in your tummy right now!? But, you don't even look fat at all." Wow. Thanks E-Man.

A few minutes later, he became concerned. "Mom, how is that baby going to get out of your tummy?" I told him that there is a special opening where the baby will come out when it's time. He thought about that for a minute and said seriously, "I want to see that, when the baby comes out."

I assured him that he could see the baby and hold him/her soon after. But, he insisted, "No mom, I want to see it when it comes out. I want to be there to see it come out." It was cute, because he obviously had no idea what he was saying. Rest assured, he will not see the baby when it comes out.

The next day at breakfast, E-Man sat thinking, then asked, "Mom, if you only have one heart, how does the baby get a heart?" What followed was a thoughtful discussion about cell division and DNA, but deep down inside I was thinking that all of my babies have definitely taken a piece of my heart outside of me when they came into the world.

We've always found out if we are having a boy or a girl as soon as we could and I never thought I would be one of those people who wants to be surprised. But, since we already have a girl and boys and we're pretty much prepared either way, and, maybe because this might be our last baby, I felt like it would be kind of fun to be surprised. I told this to Photoguy back when we decided to have a baby, and he was fine with that. Now, he is adamant that he is finding out what we are having whether I do or not. My Doctor does an ultrasound at every visit, so it would be pretty tough to keep it a secret the whole time. I guess we'll be finding out after all.

AiAi keeps telling me it's a "girl baby," his "sister" in there. I'm not sure if he has some kind of insider info on this or not.

He's also pretty sure it is a baby giraffe.

Obama v. McCain

I've been very reflective about the recent election. Leading up to the actual night, I began thinking that I must really be getting old because of my thoughts about how "This country is going all to heck if my candidate doesn't win." How many old, crusty bags have shared that sentiment over the years? Yet, somehow, we've persevered.

Somewhere, over the years, I've become thoroughly Republican. So, it was hard in the first few hours to come to grips with the fact that the Democrats took over the House, the Senate and the Presidential office all in one night. Though, truthfully, it wasn't hard to see it coming.

By the next day, I was working hard on getting into a positive mind-set about the final outcome. Because, Republican or not, I think the President should be respected and supported. It didn't take me long to feel okay about things. I can't say the Republicans have done a stellar job on several things in the past eight years. So, bring it on Democrats. Show me what you've got!

I really appreciated Layne's post where (among other things) she declared:

"I'm excited, because it's times like this that remind me that we do live in the greatest nation on earth. Our ability to vote, to have confidence in the legitimacy of the outcome, to know that no matter what party takes what office, we can rest assured that we're on the whole in competent hands . . . well done, us."

It got me really thinking. Indeed it is an amazing gift to go to the polls without fear of violence and to have confidence in the legitimacy of the outcome. It never even occurred to me to question to results, and, when I read this, I was reminded that such is not the case in many so called "Democracies" around the globe. So, thank-you Layne for reminding me of that.

Soph and E-Man were a wee bit young to be greatly involved in this election, but, on election night Soph declared her support for McCain while E-Man said he was an Obama man.

Soph: "I want McCain to win because I heard that Obama will take away video games if he wins. I heard he wants to do away with 'mature and violent' computer games and that means I won't be able to play PBSKids anymore."

Me: "PBSKids is neither mature or violent. I think you'll be okay."

Soph: "Yeah, well, I heard there is this game called Zelda that a lot of people like and if Obama wins he will take it away."

Me: "Ummm . . . Not only is that impossible because the president isn't going to go into everyone's house and seize copies of Zelda, but the man is going to have a lot bigger things to worry about than that."

Still, she was pretty upset when Obama won the election.

Me to E-Man: "So, why do you want Obama to win?"

E-Man: "I don't know."

Me: "Is it because you like his name?" I've noticed lots of kids like to go around chanting o-bama-o-bama-o-bama.

E-Man: "Yeah."

Then, later . . .

E-Man: "In class we voted for McCain or Obama today and most of the kids voted for Obama, so I voted for him too, because if you don't vote for the guy who is winning, then your vote won't count."

Very interesting insight. This led us to a lengthy conversation about the criteria we use to pick a candidate and acceptable reasons for voting for one candidate over another, i.e. choosing the one who best represents your views. So, hopefully a thing or two was learned during this exciting election.

Now, the kids are arguing over whether we should name our new baby McCain or Obama (we're adding a new munchkin in May). My answer: No and no.

See? We do Take Pictures . . .

I'm not very good at getting photos up on my blog (read: technologically impaired). But, here are a few that I lifted from Photoguy's blog today:

Remember that crazy snowstorm on October 12? It dumped about 12-inches in a short amount of time here, and promptly started melting away. But, not before we built this snowman and Photoguy took this fabulous shot.
I love fall. So many fun traditions at this time of year. I love taking the kids to pumpkin patches and corn mazes. This photo was taken at Lyle Dabb's (he is one of the nicest, cookiest guys around and he wears a hollowed out jack-o-lantern on his head to delight the kiddies). We ended up with a few extra kiddlets in tow -- seven in all. Too bad we forgot that they only take cash and checks and didn't stop at the bank before we went. We had to round up some small-ish pumpkins. The next morning, Soph woke up all upset because she had a nightmare that we carved her pumpkin. So, we ended up not doing jack-o-lanterns this year.
And, here we are in early October at the happiest place on earth. The boys had just blown all of their souvenir money on Buzz Lightyear toys. Don't they look happy?
And, here are my lovely hippie children right after we played all day in the surf at Laguna Beach. This was taken on our way down the street to Ruby's Diner. Don't we look fresh as daisies for eating out?

A Halloween Trick That was not a Treat

I awoke Friday morning, dressed the older two in their costumes (Princess Leah and Spiderman), gathered their things and sent them off to school. No babysitting that day, it was just AiAi and me.

Right after breakfast, AiAi polished off a Hostess cupcake (we had a stash of Hostess products for the trick-or-treaters). I started my daily routine of cleaning. We were having the missionaries over for dinner, and, since I would be spending the afternoon helping out with E-Man's class party, I decided to start early with chopping up veggies and browning the roast for the slow-cooker. AiAi was in and out of the kitchen, helping me with this and that. Then, he appeared brandishing a Twinkie. "Don't even think you're going to eat that mister," I said. A few minutes later, I was still involved in cooking and noticed it was unusually quiet. "That turkey is off eating a Twinkie," I said to myself, and turned my attention to investigate. I happened to notice the time on the clock just then (I was keeping an eye on the time to make sure I got everything done and made it to the party on time).

I did a quick sweep of the house calling his name. No answer. Nowhere to be found. I figured he must be hiding out with his loot, just like the other day when I found him and Izzy curled up in the dirty laundry baskets in my closet eating contraband chocolate bars they had stolen from Soph's fundraiser. I turned off the stove and began a more thorough search of the house. I was met only with silence.

Hmmm . . . I felt no need to panic just yet, though, in truth, it only takes me about 60-seconds of not knowing where my kids are before I have to beat back ugly thoughts of the worst. All of the lights downstairs were off, yet, I began at the furthest corner of the laundry room and did a thorough search of the entire basement before moving upstairs and doing the same. No closet or space under a bed was left un-turned. I looked. I called his name. I entered each room and listened quietly for his giggling. I found nothing. I had already made a quick sweep of the backyard. Now, I carefully searched every tunnel of the playland, I looked back by the garden, I walked all the way around the house, and checked inside the van four different times (once my kids freaked me out a little when they got in there and couldn't hear me calling to them and I couldn't see them). The garage door was closed. Nevertheless, I opened it and started searching in there. I was running out of places to look. I ran up and down the street in front of our house. I was starting to get frantic.

All the while, I kept thinking that he had to be inside the house. I hadn't heard a door open for him to go outside (though sometimes he does slip out without me hearing the door). And, the doors weren't ajar when I took my search outside (usually a tell-tale sign of his escape). I kept alternately re-entering the house and calling his name. Each time with a little more desperation until I was really panicking and starting to have a hard time breathing and crying a little.

I noticed the clock. I'd been searching for over 20-minutes. This couldn't be good. I ran outside again and enlisted a random jogger in the search. I ran to my friend's house a few doors down (I could fathom him wandering all the way to her house where my kids frequently play) and kept ringing her doorbell. I even searched her backyard. Then, I called her cellphone. She was on her way to the store (to buy treats for her daughter's Halloween party), but she said she'd be right there.

Then, I started knocking on neighbors' doors. Yes, that was the point I was at -- door knocking and enlisting perfect strangers in the hunt. I've lost my kids before, but never for this long and I've never gone to such extremes. My next door neighbors ran to my house. The husband grabbed a phone to call 9-1-1. My friend and another neighbor entered at the same time. I was completely losing it by this point, when, AiAi just appeared out of nowhere like nothing at all had happened.

My neighbors must have thought I was a complete freak for being such a basket case when my son was apparently just standing right in front of my eyes the whole time (ummm, he wasn't). Later in the day, he finally told me that he had hid behind the open door of my closet. You know, the tiny space between the door and the wall when the door is open. I had searched my closet several times, but, hadn't actually looked behind any open doors. How could he have stood there the whole time without making a peep? This, my son, who giggles constantly, didn't let out one sound all those times I searched my bedroom? I am completely at a loss for an explanation. FYI, he didn't even eat the Twinkie.

When it was finally over, I went into the bathroom and found that I had grown 7 new gray hairs, developed 3 more worry lines, and my mascara was smeared down to my chin. How will I ever raise this child to adulthood?