Spring Break

Merry Christmas, everyone! So far Spring Break has been exactly what you would expect...hot chocolate, playing in the snow, watching Frosty the Snowman, etc. I'm really trying to think on the bright side. It's just that 100% of our Spring Break plans included the outdoors, and not so much the outdoors that requires snow boots, hats, and gloves. We had visions of hikes, bike rides, trips to the park, soccer, flying kites, going to the zoo, etc. and have had to switch our brains to indoor mode. A lot of our indoor plans have had kinks in them as well. Darin wanted to take our family to Vernal to the dinosaur museum. He wanted to make it a true vacation complete with a hotel stay. When we looked online, we found that the main attraction at the museum was closed. Anyway, as we continue to think of the perfect way to spend the rest of our Spring Break I thought I would document what we've done so far.

Day one: PERFECT weather! The kids played outside all day with friends. I was happy to let them. That evening we had a couple of families over for a barbecue and Family Home Evening. We enjoyed the great spring weather while we ate a yummy dinner. (Darin even grilled some zucchini. It was delicious!) After dinner we gathered around the fire pit for a lesson, s'mores, and campfire songs. I really wish I would have thought to have my camera handy. The kids looked so cute around the campfire with their roasting sticks. I'm really glad we took advantage of the outdoor weather. We will definitely be doing more fire pit evenings this spring and summer.

Day two: Lazy, but productive all at the same time. The weather was very rainy. We woke up, the kids did their chores, then friends came knocking. They all spent a big chunk of the day playing--both indoors and outdoors. I stayed in my pajamas ALL DAY. I updated my blog and cleaned. I got a ton done, but was starting to feel like we needed to do something that felt vacation-like. That night we stayed up late playing the Wii and I started formulating a plan for the next day.

Day three: BYU Museum of Art, Creamery, Hannah Montana movie. Oh, and snow.

The BYU Museum of Art has an exhibit with the works of Walter Wick, the author of the I Spy books. Jodi and her kids came with us. It was so fun to play I Spy with the kids. There were also works of art made with garbage, which was really cool as well. There were lots of other displays that looked interesting, but the kids were done at this point so we headed to the Creamery for lunch. (I will have to go back to the museum with Darin on a date sometime!) I did remember my camera this time.

Are you loving the gansta poses? And the sunglasses?

After lunch we came back to my house and let the kids play for a while. They had a great time using their imaginations! Their play included dress-ups, stuffed animals, fake food, weapons, and themselves. They even did a great job cleaning it all up! We left the boys and Lexi home (Lexi chose to stay) and Jodi and I took Rylee, Kamryn and Olivia to the Hannah Montana movie. We had lots of good laughs...at the movie, at Rylee (who is smitten by the love interest in the movie), and at the absolutely tragic point in the movie where Hannah Montana's secret identity is revealed. The sweet mom in the family in front of us let out an audible "Oh no". When we got home, Rylee had to know the name of the heart throb from the movie so she would know who she was crushing on (His name is Lucas Till). We then had to know how to do the Hoedown Throwdown (which will for sure be the new Electric Slide--haven't you been feeling like we need a new one?), so we looked it up on YouTube. Good Times. Sometimes I wonder if I should really be the mom of almost 5 kids. I have a really easy time unleashing my inner 14 year old. (and a little sidenote: I am not so much a Hannah Montana fan--not even a little bit, but I do enjoy a good beat and a catchy tune, and the chance to be a spaz)
Update: As I was typing this, the rest of our Spring Break fell into place! I have a really good feeling about the rest of our week. Stay tuned...

Happy Easter/ Happy Anniversary

We share our anniversary with my parents. This year we also shared our anniversary with Easter! Here is a rundown of the weekend's festivities:

Friday night Darin returned home from being out of town all week. He was a welcome sight. I really miss him when he's gone! He brought with him a dozen of these, which was the perfect way to celebrate a dozen years of marriage:

Darin gave the kids all the treasures he brought home with him from the convention he had been attending all week. We spent a couple of hours as a family, then my sister Renae and niece Michelle came over to watch the kids so we could go on an anniversary date. We really tried to be creative and think outside the box, but nothing sounded appealing. It seems like I have lost a little bit of my ambition to make the extra effort to make special days special. The same thing happened with Darin's birthday in October. I normally try to think ahead and plan something meaningful. I'm hoping my ambition returns before many more special occasions pass! The nice thing was that since he had been gone all week it was nice just to spend time together. We ate at Carraba's then walked around Costco and Target (while we held hands--it was VERY romantic!).

Saturday morning brought an Easter Egg hunt. I had a hard time convincing my family that we HAD to be on time in order for it to be worth it. They almost listened. We arrived at 9:03 (it started at 9:00) and obtained exactly three pieces of candy--total. It wasn't a complete loss as the kids were able to play at a playground (in the rain) and we got to eat donuts and juice. There were also a couple of very kind children that donated giant pixie sticks to my kids.

That afternoon I went to pick up Darin's anniversary present. His mom had given him a numbered and signed print of Joseph Smith several years ago (before we were married), and he recently expressed a desire to get it framed. I was grateful not to have to think too hard about something to get him (see paragraph above relating to lack of ambition). He loved it!

That evening we colored eggs,

had an indoor Easter egg hunt,

then Darin and I headed over to the Caziers for the crack-off. Darin won last year and had to defend his title. He will have to be satisfied as a one year champion. We were both out pretty early in the competition, but the company was great and more than made up for our disappointment of losing! After the crack-off we played Mafia. I am not so great at that game. I am easily swayed, and make wrong accusations often. It was still a lot of fun! Here is a glance at some of the eggs we competed against:

Maybe Maleen and company have some extra ambition they could share! There were some pretty amazing eggs; especially compared to ours. Darin brought a plain egg and named it "white".

Sunday morning we woke up and had a devotional with the Gospel Art pictures. We went through the events from the Last Supper through the Resurrection. It was a very emotional and gratitude filled morning as we bore testimony of the real meaning of Easter and talked about our loved ones who have passed away. There was a sweet spirit of peace.

We headed to the kitchen and made these rolls:

RESURRECTION ROLLS

Crescent rolls
melted butter
large marshmallows
cinnamon
sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Give each child a triangle of crescent rolls. The crescent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.
Give each child a marshmallow, this represents Jesus.Have them dip the marshmallow in melted butter, which represents the oils of embalming. Then dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar which represent the spices used to anoint the body.
Then wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll (not like a typical crescent roll up, but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside.) This represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.Place in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. The oven represents the tomb.When the rolls have cooled slightly, the children can open their rolls (cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, He is risen. (The marshmallow and the crescent roll is puffed up, but empty.)

**It is important to seal the edges tightly. The rolls that weren't sealed all the way had marshmallow goo oozing out. The inside was still hollow, but the ones that were sealed were really cool.

As I was getting ready for church David came up looking like this:

Apparently he found the paints from the previous night's egg coloring adventures and since there were no eggs to color he colored the next best thing.

Fortunately most of it washed off before church. We had a great day at church and as we came home the kids noticed a Frisbee on the roof. Before I knew what was happening, Darin had lifted Sean up to get it. Warren and Olivia were not about to let him be the only one so up they went, too. By this time we were collecting a crowd of neighborhood children. I could see wheels turning. One little boy had a paper airplane in his hands, aiming at the roof. I quickly explained that no matter how careful they were, and no matter what was stuck on the roof we were NOT under ANY circumstances going to be lifting anyone else up on our roof. (I'm such a party pooper). I did take pictures. Check out that glorious blue sky!

Coming off the roof wasn't quite as exciting as going up. Darin put a ladder up and they were all hesitant to come down. We decided to call it a fire drill so the neighbors wouldn't judge us too harshly. (You could be on the roof in a fire, right? Plus, it's about the same height as a window so I'm calling it good.)
It was a great weekend. We had so much quality time together, which is my most favorite thing in the world.
I will leave you with some pictures of Darin and I in honor of our anniversary. Most of these were taken on our trip to Hawaii last summer. I am a bit camera shy at the moment, so these will have to do. The longer we're married, the more sure I am that he's the best match for me.

A Random Memory

Here is the story I mentioned in the previous post about the joys of boys (and girls). When I was in elementary school my across the street neighbor and good friend was a boy. We spent almost every afternoon together playing kick ball, jumping on the trampoline, etc. and many evenings playing night games. One afternoon I had a friend over and he had a friend over (we were all friends from school). There was a tiff of some sort, and we went to our separate houses. After a few minutes there was a knock at my door. It was the boys with a peace offering in the form of popsicles. They said, "We're sorry, do you want a popsicle?" (and just a side note about my weird memory--there were two popsicles; one yellow and one red. I have a hard time remembering important stuff, but there's plenty of room to remember what color popsicles were twenty years ago!) Anyway, we said, "Sure" and reached out to accept the peace offering. The boys then said, "TOO BAD!" and ran away. We were not about to let them get away with that so we began plotting our revenge. We started scouring my house for the best it had to offer and eventually came up with...white bread. We promptly took our two slices of white bread across the street to put our plan in place. We knocked, they answered. We said, "We're sorry, do you guys want some bread?" (really original of us, I know) to which the boys replied, "No." and shut the door.

The reason I thought the timing of this random memory was so funny is that it popped into my head just a few days before Sean denied his friend-girl at the skating rink, and it gave me hope for Sean's future with girls. I am friends with both of these popsicle/bread boys on facebook, and they have both turned out great (for the record, they were pretty great back then, too). They are responsible citizens and they are wonderful to the women in their lives. I guess I can relax a little bit and realize that at this age part of playing IS fighting. I'm sure life would have been boring without these little tiffs, and it sure makes for some fun memories!

The joys of boys (and girls)

Last weekend the kids' school had a family skate night. I wasn't around, but Darin took the oldest two kids (and dropped them off--which I realize takes away the "family" part, but I guess you do what you can, right? He knew several parents that were going to be there. Judge us if you must). Anyway, when we were together later that evening I heard all about their adventures. At the skating rink they do what is called "snowball skate" where the everyone on the floor is to be holding hands with a member of the opposite gender. They have boys' choice snowball skates and girls' choice snowball skates. When a girls' choice was announced, a cute girl named Addie (who chases Sean every recess) approached Sean with a smile on her face. Before she could utter any words Sean said, "Nuh-uh. Don't even ask." and promptly skated away.

Yikes.

We have had several talks with him about the value of being kind to everyone, and discussed in detail that just because you're nice to a girl it doesn't mean you're in love with her. This latest episode brought on a whole new set of talks, including the fact that believe it or not, there WILL come a day when he'll be interested in girls and if he's mean to them now the ones he's interested in will have moved on to greener pastures. Don't get me wrong. I'm not in any hurry to have him holding hands and having girlfriends, but I do want my children to be kind. The funny thing is that I know he loves it when she chases him. He's just in the age where it's (supposed to be) icky to like girls (his teacher said that all the boys treat any word associated with love as a swear word. They'll even skip it if it's in a book). I think Addie knows where his heart really lies, and I don't think he was trying to be malicious (at least I really hope he wasn't). He was just trying to be cool in front of his friends. I can only imagine the teasing he would encounter if he was seen hand in hand with the "enemy". Anyway, I had a chat with Addie's parents at the soccer field (just so they would know I have tried to teach him to know better than that), and they got a good laugh out of it. We'll see what the future holds. To all you parents of girls, we are trying to train our boys to be good future husbands. I have a hunch they'll turn out o.k., (I have a story to tell in a future post) but I can't promise anything in the meantime.

Fashion 101/Safety First

Before I was a mom I was going to be "that mom". You know, the one whose children were always well dressed, hair combed, no snot running down their noses. Then I had kids and had days like the one I am about to document. Last summer I promised we would go to the safety fair one Saturday morning. I didn't want to get out of bed and I knew I didn't have it in me to be the mom I always vowed I would be. So we went to the safety fair looking like this (at least I made good on my promise to go): (Please forgive the hazy images. My camera kept taking photos like these and I kept wondering what was wrong. My lens was dirty.)

First-Olivia sporting her soccer shorts, school t-shirt, and gold slips

Warren in an outfit he picked out all by himself, including tall socks and the camera case:


And the winner: Sean. See for yourself. I laugh out loud whenever I see this photo (I think it's the facial expression that makes it even more fabulous):

Check him out! At least he tucked his shirt in to "fancy it up". This photo will be on his wedding video someday!


We got free helmets


...learned about dog-biting safety, then got a bone to practice (?)
...listened carefully about fire safety...got out safely...learned the importance of staying smoke free
...and the importance of brushing
...and got some prizes
I still see the value in hygiene, cute clothes, and done hair. I now also see the value in being flexible and letting go of some battles on some days. We got out the door in record time with absolutely no complaints (which was totally worth the pride I had to swallow). I have had lots of days like this in my career as a mom, and I will have many more, I'm sure. And to those who still say that their kids will NEVER (insert any horrific offense here)...I say, Maybe, maybe not. The beauty of it is that we get to choose the kind of parent we are to our kids, but we don't get to choose their personalities, likes, dislikes, fears, dreams, etc. and part of discovering who they are helps us discover who we are, too.

All In The Family

For those who don't know the people in the following story, I will give a brief description of each:

Darin: My husband
MaryEllen: His mom (my mother-in-law)
Robyn:
a) Darin's childhood next door neighbor (Darin's mom always had "high hopes" for Darin and Robyn, but Brian beat him to it, so I guess I have to do (sigh). We have all joked about it, and for the record, MaryEllen loves me to pieces)
b) Owns the salon where MaryEllen gets her hair done
Camille:
a) Married to my brother
b) Robyn's current neighbor
c) Works at Robyn's salon

Are you with me?

Last week I drove MaryEllen to get her hair done. Darin had left some papers at home that he needed to sign so we made arrangements for me to bring the papers and meet at the salon since it's closer to his place of work than home. After the papers were signed I had to leave to get Warren to school and Darin stayed and chatted with his mom and Robyn for a little while. When Robyn took MaryEllen back to get her hair done Darin lingered and chatted with Camille (his sister-in-law) for a little while at the front desk. MaryEllen looked at Robyn with raised eyebrows and asked who that "chick" was that Darin was talking to. Apparently she was unaware of the family relationship. (Camille started working at the salon after her MaryEllen's last appointment so she had never seen her there before.) I guess what goes around comes around (see previous post).

Still Got It? Not so much.

I'm not sure why I remembered this experience today. It may be because I'm struggling to feel attractive, and as a result wanting to get back to a regular workout routine (and as a result thinking a lot about the Rec Center), but whatever the reason, this experience makes me laugh, so I'll share.

Several months ago my friend Julie and I took our kids to the Rec center to go swimming. At one point Julie offered to watch all the kids so I could sit in the hot tub. I hadn't been in very long when a young single guy starts a conversation with me. Here's how it went:

The guy: So, did you just finish your hundred or are you getting ready for your swim? (It took me a minute to realize that he said this in a "So...you come here often?" kind of way. It's been a LONG time since I've been hit on)

Me (pretty sure I'm wearing my wedding ring, and not wanting to give any wrong ideas): Nope, just here with my kids.

Lily (Julie's daughter who had taken Warren to the bathroom): Deanne, Warren needs you to wipe his bum.

(End pick up scene--Happily back to reality)

I'm not sure what the guy did, but I had a good hearty chuckle. I thought about winking and saying, "I'll be right back" but I refrained.