A Grateful Reunion

This past weekend was a rather long, and exhausting one. I wasn't sure if it would ever end. Let me explain:
Eric's parents asked if he, along with his brother Matt, would go up to Utah with them to help clean up the old house in Huntsville. This involved cleaning out, and tearing down the old grainery, remove some old diseased trees, and other hard, physical labor. Essentially it's our payment for being able to spend a week there each summer. They flew up Thursday evening, Eric left straight from work. We had to say our goodbyes in the morning as he went off to work.

I don't think a worse weekend could have been chosen. Firstly, Thursday and Friday were both half days at school for parent-teacher conferences. Which meant an additional 6 hours that the kids could, and did, fight all together. And secondly, I had to teach the Relief Society lesson yesterday. Which meant that there was no one to help tame the children while I worked on my lesson, nor was there a daddy to take and deal with the baby while I gave my lesson (thank goodness for RS sisters!)

I had a feeling that this would be a long weekend. I had been saving a trip to the mall to spend my birthday money just for this weekend, when I knew I would need the escape (my kids behave better in public than they do for me at home). I went on Thursday, and I picked up some See's chocolate to get me through the weekend. It only lasted until Friday afternoon. I had to go back on Saturday to get some more (a BIG thank you to Ashlee for giving me an hour break, I needed it) just to make it through to Sunday evening.

I won't bore you with all of the gory details, just one of the funny ones. We went to the park on Friday, hoping that getting out of the house would help. We had to leave early (think Davin throwing sand), and on the way home Davin "spanked" me because he was mad. I simply grabbed the full water bottle and flicked him with it (hey, if it works with cats and dogs when they misbehave, then maybe...) His reaction was the funniest thing. He had a major melt down, he told me that his shirt was ruined because I got it wet (umm, it gets wet every time I wash it). And then, on Saturday, we went to Target. We were going to make pizza for dinner, but I was bushed, so we opted for mac 'n cheese (the orange kind) instead. Davin, who picked out the dinosaur kind, threw a fit when we got home because he wanted pizza again. The kids went to bed early every night: Eme at 7, Davin at 7:30, Aidan at his usual 8:30.

Sufficed to say, we were all very glad to see Daddy when church ended. Eric is allowed to go on trips again, he just has to take either Davin or Eme with him, or bring either Mom or Julie down here.

My Birthday Celebration

I know that this is a week late, but I had a cold, and didn't feel like taking pictures yet. I actually got my birthday presents from Eric's parents last month (this is what happens when your gift is on clearance and there's no place to store them except your bedroom), a beautiful iron scroll bench and two nightstands! Woo Hoo, I have a fully matching bedroom set now! And because you asked, mom, here it all is. (The pieces weren't from the same series, or stores, we've been collecting them for a few years now. But they all go together quite nicely)

Last Monday, Columbus Day, Eric had the day off and the temple was open. Since Maddie has started eating solid food, I got to go do a session at the temple. It was the first time I'd been since January (I can't handle sitting for that long at the end of my pregnancies, and then who wants to watch a nursing baby plus 3 other kids?) It was so nice, I love to go to the temple. Not only did I get to go to the temple on Monday, but Eric and his dad finally got our chandelier up!! I say finally because we bought the thing 6 months ago, it has been sitting in our office this whole time. We had to wait until someone (Eric's dad) got a ladder tall enough for us to hang it (it's a 20+ foot ceiling). And as a bonus, they fixed the clock! Eric and I hung the clock up 2 months ago, and (not joking) 10 minutes after we got it up, the hands got caught and the clock stopped. We didn't even realize it until the next afternoon, how sad. So here is a picture of their handi work (plus my picture wall).

Then on my birthday, Eric and I had a date to the temple, together. We then had dinner with his family (bbq ribs and then ice cream brownie sundaes w/homemade fudge sauce for dessert!) I got gift cards: Barnes and Noble, Dillard's, the scrapbook store, and JoAnn's-to make a cushion for my bench (and maybe some curtains to match).

Thank you everyone for a wonderful celebration!

Saucy Creations' Big Giveaway

My sister-in-law's sister has this great web-site that they are officially launching, Saucy Creations, specializing in baby and children's accessories. In honor of their launch, they are having a big givaway. Entering is easy, and the prizes are great! We have had the privialge of getting a few of these treasures via Rachel (thanks again), and the products are great. Anyway, check out their site, they have everything from diaper bags to binkie clips to baby bedding; all of it super cute, and reasonable priced. You can check out Maddie wearing the Pediped shoes and Pink and Brown Hairbow here.

Big Read

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and to encourage their top 100 books. They estimate that the average adult has only read six. Here is what you are supposed to do:
Bold the books you've read,
underline the books you loved (I couldn't figure out how to do this, so I have colored mine in red)
italicize the books you plan to read.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (okay, I haven't read all of them, but I've read more than 10)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (almost, I didn't finish the last chapter, but you did Emily!)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


I don't like to "plan" out too many books at a time, I often have to be in the right mood for a particular book.
This particular list was put out by the BBC's equivalent to the NEA, they have other books on their Big Read site.
If any of you want to do this, I'd be happy to email you the list.

How Does Our Garden Grow?

Eric has always wanted a garden. Everywhere we've lived, we've had things in pots. Even in NY, we grew paperwhites in the bathroom! And Eric has always said that when we have our own house, we'll plant one. So here we are, our first attempt at a garden.

We began planting the second week of Sept, and have added to the garden as the weather has cooled off. We did heirloom tomatoes from starters, as it was too late in our season for seeds. And they've done very well. We've already had two blooms on one of them. We've got wax bean in, I love wax beans. Only about half came up, maybe better luck next year on those. Because Eric likes them, we planted radishes. We've got radishes coming out our EARS! As Grandpa J said: "The seed packet costs $0.99, but you only use $0.20 worth of seeds" Very true, and now our family and friends will be enjoying the 20+ radishes we've got. We've also got carrots, peas, lettuce, and broccoli. We know that our garden is a bit small, but it's a good begining. Next year we will expand it to just over double in size, and include sugar pumpkins!

Me, and My Shadow...

With the weather coolong off, we have had the opportunity to have the blinds open, in addition to the windows. Because of this, Maddie discovered her shadow. She spent a good 15 minutes watching, and playing with her shadow. It was like Peter Pan in our family room.

To My Mother, on Her 61st Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom. I just felt the need to write about you, to you, today. I came into your life almost 32 years ago. I can't imagine what your birthday was like that year, waiting and wondering who I was, and when I'd come. But I came, as your late birthday gift that year. A girl, after three rather trying boys. Pinks and lace after corduroy and blue. I am grateful that I have had you as my mom.

I have so many memories, and so many feelings about you. So much of my life has been colored by you; you've been there in the background, in the foreground, everywhere, every part of my life has a trace of you in it. I am grateful for the fact that you were my mom first, not my friend, but that you are both to me now. I know that I can call you about anything (and I have), and that you are there. You'll offer thoughts and advice when I need it, when I ask for it. And you've been there to cry with me, to laugh with me, and to help me to laugh at myself. You've helped me through those really bad times, as well as enjoyed the good with me.

I remember early morning rides to Charlotte Wood in the old station wagon, KCBS droning in the background. Eating lunch in your room with you on some of my tough jr. high-type days. I remember bed-time stories read to us as a special treat. And bears that would talk and wave at us. I remember dreading going to the fabric store with you, but enjoy doing that so much now. I remember liking an outfit of yours so much, that you went and got one for me (it was a black and white graphic printed top and skirt, do you remember?). I also remember struggling with math in high school, that it came, seemingly, so easy to Julie, and worrying that I would disappoint you if I didn't do well. I can see you dancing in the kitchen, trying to show Julie and I the twist, the mashed-potato, and others; and let's not forget the happy-dance. Puzzles on the dining room table, grading on the dining room table, your life was always on that table. I remember spending the day with you in the SF garment district, of Britax, and of more fabric in one place than I ever thought possible.

You were there for my miscarriage, as well as my four babies. You were there after my surgery, to help my soul to heal. You were there for my graduations; and cheered when I called to tell you I wanted to teach physics (you laughed too, and reminded me that I had once sworn that I would never be a teacher). You've been there to encourage me in all my endevours. And I am so grateful for all of it, for all you've done, for all that you are. I love you mom.

Davin's First Field Trip

Friday, Davin's preschool class had a field trip to a really neat place, Schnepf Farms. Parents and siblings could go along, for a discounted rate that also included a pumpkin and a train ride. So, being the really fantastic mom that I am, I told Aidan that he was coming with us. Hey, he only had a half day of school, and since we wouldn't have been back by the time he got home, it was the responsible thing to do.

We had a great time. Since we were a school group, we were allowed in a half an hour before opening to the public. And, as it was a Friday, the place was pretty empty the first hour after that. It was great, no waiting in lines for the rides, no worrying about kids getting lost in the crowds, lots of room at the pig races. Yes, I did say pig races, so funny. And we got to brown bag it for lunch, usually you have to buy their food, which is fantastic, but pricey. The kids loved it. Maddie was quite content to ride in the stroller for the 3 1/2 hours we were there, and even fell asleep.

Now, about the rides. The kids were so funny about them. First we all went on the carousel ride. This wasn't one of the nice, new, shiny, and sturdy ones. No, this carousel is over 100 year old, made of wood, and you felt the ride tilt when an adult got on or off; but, it did have its own historical marker, neat. Now, the kids have been on carousel rides before, at the zoo, at the mall, even here last year. But, for some reason, Davin felt the need to hold on for dear life. Seriously, he looked terrified as we went round and round, and up and down. Eme and Aidan both loved it. They all loved the flying bee ride, I made sure that the boys knew how to operate the bar to raise or lower their bee, and the flying airplane ride. The boys went on the little roller coaster together, while I finished feeding Maddie. I then took Eme on it, and Aidan wanted to go again, "this time," he told me, "I'm going to try not to scream." It wasn't very big, but it did go fast and have lots of drops. I laughed the whole time. Aidan and Eme were scared silent, until a drop made them scream. I asked Eme, when it was over, if she liked it: "yes," "do you want to go again?" "NO!" I asked Aidan if he enjoyed it: "No" "Then why did you go a second time?" "I wanted to face down my fears."

Confession

I have a confession. Well, it's not so much mine, as much as it is totally and completely my husband's confession. We all received this picture from Dad, remember? Well, I saw it and thought "who could have done that?" and "why didn't we notice it before we left?" And, I'm sorry to admit, but I thought of Dallin or Austin, I hope that you both can forgive me.


My husband didn't notice this email right away. It wasn't until a day or two later, I heard hysterical laughing coming from the office. Along with "I forgot all about that!" It would be wrong of me to say that I was shocked, because this was so typical Eric. What I was surprised at was the fact that he did it on that Monday afternoon after everyone left, and that it went unnoticed for so long, by so many people.

I did call and 'fess up to dad, who thought the whole thing was even funnier (we now owe them dinner at Wendy's). But, really, what else can I expect from the man who made Bill a noose, no questions asked?

It's time for FALL...finally

Whoo Hoo. Those were my exact words while watching the weather report for this weekend. Well, that and: it's about stinkin' time! It appears that our summer is finally over (knock on wood); that after 105+ days of 100 degrees, or hotter, we've dropped down into what can only be described as more reasonable weather. A rather deep cold front that brought snow to Utah (and here, so long as it was over 9000 ft), brought us a very decent cool down. I say cool down not cool temps, because those of you back east, or up north, might mock my completely messed up temp gauge. For us here in the inferno that is an Arizona summer (hey, it was over 100 degrees on Wednesday, ugh), mid-80 degree weather is a joyous call for pants, and I am happy to say that I obeyed. The kids were outside between sessions yesterday (willingly, I should clarify), and were begging us to let them outside to play today, sorry not on Sunday. We also slept with our windows open last night. And although we needed to turn the a/c on for about 3 hours yesterday afternoon, we did not have it on at all today! Whoo Hoo, indeed (This is the first time since May that the a/c has been off). We now hold to the hope of winter, after a long and hard summer.

Okay, so we twisted Pres Uchtdorf's words there, but only slightly. I've some thoughts and musings about conference that I'd like to share in a few days, I'd like your thoughts too.

P.S. Do you like the new fall colors? I'm quite smitten with them.

Beware the Rabid baby!

Maddie is now 6 months old (rather, she will be on Saturday, but I have the time now), and my how time has flown.

She has quickly mastered scooting and the infantry crawl, and it won't be long before she is crawling for real, how will we keep up with her then?. She likes to get up on all fours and either rock, or crawl using her head as a stabilizer.

She is very talented, she can suck her binkie and stick her tongue out at the same time, she can likewise blow raspberries with said binkie (she loves to blow rapberries, hence the photo-note the spit bubbles dripping from her chin).

She can now sit unassisted ( I do still leave a pillow behind her when I set her down, just in case she tips backwards) for several minutes, unless her siblings "help" her, then it last only seconds.

Maddie wasn't so sure how she felt about squash, she actually made a gaging sound, but she does love sweet potatoes. I don't know, I think they're both kind of gross. But that's okay, because I'm an adult now, so I don't have to eat them if I don't cook them.

Emelia Turns 3!

Yes, this is a few days late, but it's been a crazy week, and the pics were on Eric's camera (my batteries got knocked behind my dresser by the birthday girl). Eme had a wonderful birthday. It began with breakfast (I cheated a little with this one-Eme's favorite breakfast food is toast), I made us all french toast (because as Fancy Nancy says, everything sounds fancier in french) a gift at breakfast-a new snap 'n style doll, a princess. Eme was really funny about the new doll; she already has one, a blue-eyed blonde, at first she wouldn't let the old doll wear the new doll's clothes (and vice versa). I had to explain that they were sisters and that sisters always share their clothes (hey, I might as well get her used to the idea while she's young). After that, the two dolls were both dressed for a lovely ball. And any time that Eme set them down, they were facing each other to talk.

Aidan helped me to make the pizza for dinner (it was an easy way to sign off one of his wolf req's), and Davin threw a fit that he didn't get to help make pizza. Eme asked for a pink castle cake (this is the cake pan's third birthday, and fourth use, thank you William Sonoma!), which I easily agreed to. After cake and ice cream, we gave out the rest of the presents: the boys gave her a "cell phone" w/case, princess of course; and we gave her a little dog in a carrying case-she LOVED it! After the gift opening, the kids all went upstairs to dig out all of the rest of our stuffed animal dogs, so they could all play together.

Saturday we went over to Nana and Papa's house for more gifts, and BBQ. Eme got a Fancy Nancy doll (that is being kept on a shelf when not in use, she's too nice to be destroyed); a FN dress up skirt, purse, ballet slippers, leg warmers (that Davin wears on his wrists as armor), sunglasses, and a feather boa (that sheds worse than any animal could); clothes; and two books.
Happy Birthay sweet girl!