Christmas Card

Timer's set....Go!

Not the gumdrop buttons!

A sweet neighbor and fellow carpooler brought our family a gingerbreadman kit. After dinner the kids made theirs. Most of us ate ours too fast but I did get a picture of Tanner's and Maddie's.

We had potatoes for dinner so Tanner used bacon bits for the hair...gross.

Temple Square

A couple of weeks ago we drove to Salt Lake to Temple Square to see the beautiful lights. The whole way up the kids were fighting. Grandma Marilyn tried to distract them by playing a "name that tune" game with Christmas songs. It helped a bit. We walked around and it was beautiful and super freezing. I could feel the chill through my jeans. The next Sunday Tanner bore his testimony in church and in it he mentioned what a great experience that was and how beautiful the temple looked. A woman told me afterwards what a great boy Tanner is. For some reason I felt I had to tell her that I was quite surprised by his comments of the temple because of the rocky beginning we had in the car on the way up. She said, maybe it was because of all the fighting that he could appreciate the beauty and peace of the temple lights. I thought that was a nice thought and probably true.

Brrrrr. It was 19 degrees!

This tree was so huge!!

Ahhhh. Hot chocolate in the Joseph Smith building. Hits the spot!

Cookie Exchange

I got an e-mail from a neighbor that they were going to meet at her house on Saturday for a "Cookie exchange." I'm there! I brought 3 dozen cookies and took home 3 dozen cookies. Then you're suppose have a variety of cookies to give to neighbors as gifts but I brought mine home and we all ate them during the weekend. I made "Peanut Sitting Pretties" from Jon's Mom's recipe. They're just so festive looking. They kind of take a long time but they taste SO good.

Peanut Sitting Pretties

1 ½ C. butter

¾ C. brown sugar

3 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 C. flour

¾ t. salt

Finely chopped walnuts

Vanilla frosting

Peanut M&M’s

Blend butter and sugar in bowl. Divide eggs from the yolks. Set the whites aside. Stir in egg yolks and vanilla. Add flour and salt. Mix well and chill for 1 hour. Roll into 1” balls. Dip into slightly beaten egg whites. Roll in nuts. Place 1” apart and bake at 350 for 5 minutes. Press thumb in center of each cookie. Bake 5 more minutes. Cool. Fill center with frosting, top with M & M. Makes 4 dozen.

Daddy Daughter Date Night

In church for the last four and a half years I have been in the Primary which I have loved. A couple of months ago I got a new calling to be the Activity Day leader for the 10 and 11-year old girls. Maddie will be 12 in March but at least I get to be with her for a little while. This is such a great calling. The girls actually listen to me and are excited to do the activities. I taught cub scouts for a while and that was very different. 11-yr-old girls are different from 8-yr-old boys. Anyway, last night we had a fancy Daddy Daughter Date night with dinner and dancing afterwards. Maddie and Jon had a great time together.

Maddie is getting Jon ready for the big date by "shaving" for him with a tongue depressor. Jon also had to paint Maddie's nails.

Dancing

Tanner and some of his friends were the waiters, they really got into it. Tanner told me last night that he would like to be a waiter someday.

Max gets his braces off

Before

After.

Lookin' good! (I had my camera on "Night" mode so the quality isn't good.)

Two great thoughts

I love uplifting messages, and let's face it, who doesn't' need to be uplifted? So, I got the first one from my friend Stef and the second one from my friend Sandra. Hope they can uplift you also.

• "Both abundance and lack of abundance exist simultaneously in our lives as parallel realities. It is always our choice which secret garden we will tend.
  When we choose not to focus on what is missing in our lives but focus on the abundance that is present, the wasteland of the illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth." Thomas S. Monson

"A Christmas to Remember"

November 29, 2009, Broadcast #4185

As we look forward to Christmas this year, let's look back to Christmases past and appreciate what makes a holiday memorable. Some memories may involve less-than-perfect circumstances--and that's all right. Few real-life celebrations resemble the slick ads and scenes in holiday movies. In fact, sometimes the most cherished Christmases take place in conditions that are not quite ideal.

Of course, it's easy to feel discouraged when things don't go according to our plans. But in time, families often look back and laugh about the mishaps: the year the tree fell over, the time they forgot to turn on the oven, the school program when everyone forgot their lines.

Other times, families weep when they remember more serious hardships: the year when someone was in the hospital, the year there were no presents because times were tight, the first Christmas after a loved one passed away.

As such memories fill our hearts, we would do well to recall that original Christmas night. It was not without difficulty. Mary and Joseph were far from home. No room could be found in the inn. Few comforts were available. And yet, love was born. Heavenly choirs sang. A new star lit the sky, and shepherds came to worship.

Unrealistic expectations for a picture-perfect Christmas may be misleading and actually keep us from appreciating the holiday's more subtle yet more satisfying blessings. Everything does not have to be just right for wonderful things to happen.

No matter the circumstances for Christmas this year, cherished moments are within reach. Hold a child in your arms. Pause to look at the night sky. Welcome friends and family into your home, and listen to heavenly choirs. Give the love that only you can give, and you will have a memorable Christmas: a Christmas that recalls that first holy night when, in the lowliest of circumstances, a King was born.

Festival of Trees

Last year I went to The Festival of Trees with Maddie's Activity Day church group so this year I made our whole family go. This really gets me into the Christmas spirit. It's a fund raiser for the Primary Children's Hospital. What's amazing about it is everything is donated. Even the employees are all volunteers so 100% of the money earned goes to the hospital. People decorate amazing trees and gingerbread houses then others can bid on them as a donation. Last year they made 1.5 million dollars. People are so generous! They had 800 trees donated this year. The other thing about it that pulls on my heart is little signs by some of the trees about children that spent lots of time in the hospital and some died and some lived but the families donate trees as a thank you. Last year our neighbor's mom died so all the sisters got together and made a tree to donate then my neighbors husband went and bought it as a surprise to his wife. Just so many sweet stories.

The "UP" house

A gingerbread bird house

I told Max to stand by his favorite tree and I'd take his picture so he chose this one.

Maddie

Tanner by the "Guitar Hero" tree

I thought this paintbrush tree was creative.

Choo Choo

My grandma bought this at the grocery store the other day and it was so much fun. It comes with everything, even the icing and candy. The kids had a lot of fun putting it together with Grandma Marylyn. It didn't make the whole house smell like gingerbread, but that's the only bad thing about it. I highly recommend it!!


Even Tanner couldn't resist getting in on the decorating.

Decorating for Christmas or Spring cleaning?

In order to get to my Christmas decorations I decided to clean out the whole storage area, which is Jon's office closet, he says it's actually my closet because I have more junk in there than he does, that's debatable. (That was quite the sentence.) Then, the whole house needs to be relatively clean in order to get out all the bulky Christmas stuff. It is quite the process but I love the end result!!

Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme doughnuts have a deal where you can bring in your report card and get a free doughnut for each A (up to 6 per person). We decided today was the day to get some doughnuts!! It's a fun place because you can watch the process of making the doughnuts.

Here the doughnuts are about to go under the "waterfall of glaze."

Enjoying the doughnuts with some hot chocolate. Perfect breakfast, and pretty balanced diet too I'm sure.

On the way home our odometer flipped to 100,000 miles, pretty exciting. (Our gas is not out, the needle is just freaking out a bit, guess that's a sign of a car with 100,000 miles on it.)

Hey Yah!

Seth got his blue belt in Little Dragons last month. The two boys on either side of him are in our carpool too. Yay, for carpools!!
Maddie got her blue belt which means she's in Max's class now, that's easier on the driving too.

Max got his red belt which means he gets a blue gi for an added cost. He's really working his way up the belt ladder. I think he only needs three more for his black belt. Amazing he's staying with it this long!!

Microwave caramel recipe

My sister, Lyssa, and I always make this caramel recipe whenever she comes to visit. We also make it on our own when we're apart because we just love it so much. It's great for caramel apples, turtles, or just by itself. Here's the recipe, it's pretty much every form of sugar you can think of. Don't make caramels for your health, just if you need something that tastes super good.

1/2 C. melted butter

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. corn syrup

1/2 C. condensed milk ( I just do 1/2 the can)

1/2 T. vanilla

One assistant (Maddie in this case)

I always use this glass bowl but it probably doesn't have to be glass, just something that does well in the microwave for a while. Start with the butter since it has to be melted. The rest of the ingredients can be added in any order. Don't put the vanilla in yet. Stir it all up and place in microwave.
Here's Maddie stirring it all up. Microwaves vary greatly I have learned. You may have to try a few times to get it perfect but once you do, write that time down and never forget it. Put it in the microwave between 5-8 minutes. Mine takes 5:30.
Take it out of the microwave and stir in the vanilla. Grease an 8X8 (or so) pan and pour it in. After they cool you can cut and wrap in cellophane, this part takes a while but after you taste it you'll see they're worth it!! Yum!!

Crazy Hair Day

For Red Ribbon week the kids do something different every day. Today, Friday, was "Crazy Hair Day." I got to ask the kids questions about drugs, "Why don't you want to take drugs?" etc. and after they gave a very informative answer, "Cause I'll die!" I handed them a Red Vine. This was during lunch recess. I also brought my camera along to take pictures of the crazy hair.

Seth got to put red dye in his hair and spike it, he was in heaven.
Maddie, that's as crazy as she can get.:)
A neighbor, her mom said she used a coat hanger.
This is done using a cup, it's not very comfortable.
Nicole used floral wire, it started straight up at the beginning of the day. Pretty crazy day.

child's personality + situation = changing strategies

Saturday is our day to clean and find our house again. It actually stays clean until about Sunday night. Last Saturday Jon wasn't home and I was in charge of getting the kids pepped up to clean. For some reason there's a lot more fighting when I'm in charge. I decided I would stay calm and every time a fight broke out I would calmly just add another chore to their list. Genius! It worked for a little while but then I heard a huge yell from downstairs. I went into the boys room and one brother (no names) decided the other brother wasn't helping enough so he opened the bin of summer clothes I had just switched out of their drawers and dumped it all over the room. I lost it. After yelling for a good five minutes, I stayed down in the room with them telling them exactly what to do and helping them until it was done. Complaining to my husband about it later he said, "You should have tried the strategy where they have a certain amount of time to finish then you check their work, that almost always works for me." It's hard because each child has a very different personality and what may work for him may not work for his sister or brother. One of my children will cry if I look at him/her funny where another one has to have a big blow out to get him/her motivated. I just wish there was a formula that said, "In this situation and with this child do this and you will get the result you want and the child wants and everyone will be happy." I guess that's part of parenting, I'll just keep trying the best I can and hope it all turns out for the best!

More Halloween Stuff

On Friday I helped with Max's Halloween party at the school. We had 3 groups of 10 for about 10 minutes which is pretty manageable. I played a game that our family would always play at our cabin when I was growing up. You tie a string of yarn to a marshmallow (ghost) and put it in the middle of the circle. Someone has a pan lid and if they roll a 7 or 11 they crash down the pan lid to try and catch as many ghosts as possible while the kids try and yank out their ghosts before the lid comes down. I'm not very good at explaining it but it's a lot of fun!

This is Max's teacher, Mr. Wise who is really nice, not devil-like at all.

After Max's party was over I went into the other kids classrooms to get a picture of them.

Seth with Miss Jones

So, in the past I made soup in pumpkin bread bowls for Halloween dinner then Jon would take the kids trick or treating while I stayed in the warm house passing out candy. Last year and this year it started changing. This year we had Wendy's drive thru because we went to a BYU soccer game all day and each of the kids had a group of friends they wanted to go with. Even though those were simpler times, I'm okay with this change, everyone is still happy.

So here is Max and Seth's group...scary?

Tanner's group, which hid behind the bushes scaring "older" kids. Michael is wearing a book cover. Then they went to the neighbor's house to watch a movie.
And Maddie's group. One of her friends is from Alpine so I had to drop them off there and then her mom brought them back to our neighborhood to finish, a little complicated. It was a fun and safe night.

Halloween stuff

We had a Fall-oween carnival at the elementary school. It was packed and they ran out of pizza before we ate, but according to the kids it was a lot of fun.

Maddie and her friend were suppose to be in charge of a booth but "some mean girls took it over." Maddie is going to be a gypsy for Halloween but she didn't feel like getting it all together yet.

When they ran out of pizza Tanner was still able to find some food, shew!

Two of my kids hate the goop in the pumpkins and two of them like it, guess which ones...

Tanner had a lofty carving idea that worked half way, it got too thin and we did not have the right tools.

Tanner and Max hate the goop, Maddie and Seth like it!!

Ear Tubes and Adenoids

Seth has fought ear infections all of his short life. He had tubes for a few years which is good for one set of tubes. We were trying really hard to not have to get tubes again, by trying I mean crossing my fingers. Every time we went to the ENT she would say, "They look good but not great, let's see him in 3 months." The copay starts to add up after doing that for a couple of years. Then in September he had an ear infection the WHOLE month. He was on three antibiotics that didn't seem to touch it. So today he got his second set of tubes and his adenoids out. His Dr. said his adenoids were infected which made her think they might have been the source of his many ear infections. Also, he had a sinus infection and his ear drum was about to burst it was so infected. For some reason my first reaction was, "Good." I feel like the surgery was definitely necessary and now he should have all that yucky stuff out and be able to hear and be pain free. He's recovered really fast, right now he's playing away with Max and his friend. I told him he could take the day off school today and tomorrow which thrilled him.

Seth watching a new Wallace and Gromit movie in my bed. The hospital gave him a "free" t-shirt.

Flag Football

Tanner and Max wanted to play flag football this year. It's only four weeks long with two games a week, so it's short and intense. This is Max's first year and he really loved it. His coach says things like, "God gave you two hands to pull flags!" And he thinks that's great. He learned a lot this season and can't wait until next year.Tanner's team never had practice because his coach was pretty busy and two games a week plus practice is hard. His team did pretty well but other teams he played you could tell had practice. It is a sport that's pretty laid back but not as fun when you're losing. For some reason Tanner always wore this shirt under his t-shirt so the other team would call him "red sleeves." So as a family we would cheer for him, "Go, Red sleeves!" He made a couple of touch downs and interceptions, it helps to be tall.

Yellowstone

For Fall Break, Jon's mom rented a cabin right outside of West Yellowstone. It was a lot of fun and relaxing, I think our family slept in until 8:00 every morning. The first day we went to Old Faithful which was amazing. Then the second day we went to the Paint Pots which had so many different colors, it was beautiful.
All of us, Wow, that's a lot of people!
Max and Seth bought little pocket knives which they are showing, they did a lot of "whittling."

We went on a short, beautiful hike above Old Faithful and almost ran into this Bison. It was pretty scary but it didn't charge and we were all safe, shew!
Family picture in front of Old Faithful
Tanner in front of Firehose Falls

Farewell to soccer

So, Maddie's team this year is called the Treehuggers. They are a great group of girls that are really fun to watch. Go girls!!

Tanner had one soccer injury but recovered pretty well. He had a lot of strong kicks and headers this last game. I don't think their team had a name. Go yellow!! If you look closely you can see the ball on Tanner's head as he's heading it.

Seth's team is the Blue Dragons. He played teams that were the green dragons and the red dragons, I think this age of boys like dragons! This is the pizza party after the last game, sorry no action shots but at this age there's not a lot of action shots!

Girls night out/Boys night out

Maddie asked if she could go with her friend Clara to Garder's Village in Salt Lake. It's such a cute place that's built like a village and each house is a store. When I dropped Maddie off, Clara's mom asked if I'd like to go with them. So, I did. There are tons of big witches everywhere doing funny stuff that the girls had to pose by. We ate dinner and bought a few trinkets and ate treats. It was a fun night.

In the meantime...Jon decided to do something fun with the boys. He took them to Teppanyaki. The boys ate and ate and loved watching them cook the food on the table right in front of them. Jon said they all came home with leftovers except Tanner, he ate everything.

Ahh, the cabin

Most of my family was heading up to the cabin to watch conference. Maddie had her last soccer game at 5:00pm on Saturday (she hasn't had an evening game the whole year!) and she really didn't want to miss it. We decided to go up to the cabin after her game even though it would be for less than 24 hours. I'm so glad we did. It's so beautiful in the mountains and nice to be with the family!

Donovan's trying to put on Seth's coat and got a little stuck.

Grandma Dewey

Last weekend we all went to St. George for my Grandma Dewey's funeral. It was sad because we will miss her, but happy because she was 93 and wondering why she was still around. She was ready to be with her husband again. I'm glad she came up for Christmas to be with all of us this year. My kids are very fortunate to have had 5 grandmas still alive and to be close enough to see most of them often. We love you, Grandma Dewey!

Dream vs. Reality

Dream: Seth (the youngest in the family) goes off to first grade leaving me with ample time on my hands that I won't know what to do with. I'll probably clean out a closet and then scrapbook (something productive and then something fun.)

Reality: Seth was home one day with a fever, Max was home one day with pink eye, Seth was home another day with an ear infection, Maddie is home one day with a stomach ache, Seth calls to come get him after lunch from school because he is "sick" which he is not I realize after watching him, Seth is home another day with another ear infection/fever, Tanner goes to school in crutches because of a soccer injury which means I take and pick him up and haul his drum kit for him. As I was bringing in groceries in a rush today so I could put them away before going to get Tanner I thought, "Hey, what happened to my dream?!"

I'm not giving up, I still have hope that I'm going to have time to scrapbook and de-clutter...sometime very soon.

Labor Day in Idaho Falls

We decided to take a trip to ID since we got Monday off. We got up Saturday and all put on our BYU shirts. Jon brought up his school's projector and Marilyn made lots of "game food." We watched the game that evening which happened to be a great one!On Sunday we went and visited Grandpa's grave. It was very peaceful and beautiful at the cemetary. The kids found a praying mantis praying over grandpa's grave and played with it for a long time.
On Monday the kids were begging to go back to the sand dunes. It was actually kind of cold and windy but they were determined. We adults stayed in the car and talked while all the kids played away. It was fun to all be together.

Storytelling Festival

Every year there's a big storytelling festival in Orem. Jon had taken the older two kids a couple of years ago to "Bedtime Stories" and some of our kids have gone for school, but we've never gone as a family. I'm so glad we did, it made us laugh so hard. There were 5 talented storytellers and it lasted until about 10:30 pm. Here's a picture of the stage and audience. It's just nice to be outside in the evening air, especially since the weather was nice. You can just bring blankets or camping chairs.

We got there an hour early, which was fine because they had entertainment while we waited. They had a juggler that went around the crowd that Tanner really liked watching and they had a band on stage performing. We also brought our books to read, since storytelling was the theme of the night.

A Bee's Death

Our stingerless little bee lived a whole week. I felt kind of sad when I dumped him in the trash this morning. I thought, "I shouldn't have an emotional attachment to an insect!" But I did.

A Bee's Life

We went to pack meeting tonight for cub scouts. It was at our neighbors the Westwoods who have bees. I learned so much about bees and honey tonight, it was quite interesting. For instance, honey has its own natural antibiotic properties so it will never mold. And male bees which are the drones have no stingers. They get kicked out of the hive when it starts getting cold because they are no longer needed. Seth actually found one and brought it home. They only live 30-40 days total and I'm not sure how old he is but it's fun to hold a bee. I actually couldn't do it, it just doesn't seem natural. The female bees (workers) only live 21 days. Pretty amazing.

School is back on!

Seth was always disappointed last year because he had 1/2 day kindergarten and couldn't ride the bus to school with the kids. This year he has 6 long hours of school which he was happy about for the first day. Yesterday he came home and said school was so long he almost started crying. It'll be an adjustment.
Max is in 4th grade and this is his first year to have a male teacher. He is very excited about it and really likes him.
Maddie is the Queen of the school this year being in 6th grade. She had no anxieties. She said her teacher has a lot of enthusiasm, maybe even too much enthusiasm.
I couldn't get Tanner to go to back to school night because he "pretty much knows everything." I asked if he just wanted to go see where his locker was and he said the #'s on the paper he knows right where it is. He's in 8th grade this year and says it's going pretty well.

15th anniversary

Jon and I planned a trip to San Francisco for our 15th wedding anniversary. We went through San Francisco on our way to Hawaii for our Honeymoon so we got to relive half of our honeymoon. We got there about 2:00 so we decided to ride a cable car first thing and have lunch/dinner down at the wharf. It took about a half an hour of standing in line to get on, then it went up the block and picked up a lot more people. It kept stopping and cramming, I was pretty amazed at how many people can fit in a cable car.We thought we should take advantage of the great seafood so we ate here and it was great! After that we went to Ghirardelli to have hot fudge sundaes. I had the "gold rush" which was peanut butter and hot fudge. It was so good, I knew we had to go back another day to have another one...and we did.
Jon's making fun of me taking a picture of our sundaes. I have to e-mail a pic. to Linc, I thought of him the whole time I was eating it. I forgot my camera so I bought a disposable one. The pictures turned out okay, Jon's i-phone did better.

There was a huge barking seal sound so we followed it and found lots of seals sunning themselves. They were a lot of fun to watch battling and swimming after each other.

The next day we went to "Aquarium of the Bay" It was great. There were two glass tunnels to walk through surrounded be sharks, fish, and rays.

Here's a picture of Jon meeting President Obama. We took this in the wax museum mainly for my mom's sake. The wax museum was not that great, but we had lots of time on our hands. We also toured a Liberty ship and a submarine. I had to get out of the sub after about 5 minutes because it was tight quarters and I felt so claustrophobic.

The last full day we were there we went to Alcatraz. It was very interesting. The ferry ride out was a lot of fun too. We also went to Wicked on our actual anniversary (12th) and loved it. It was a really fun trip with a lot of walking. I'm happy I had my friend Kara and my parents watch the kids. They were quite happy too. It's always hard to leave them that first day then I start to relax. Getting away is hard but so important and fun. I'm thankful for what a great husband Jon is and that we can enjoy each others company one on one for four days.

Purple belt and Parade

Last night Maddie advanced to Purple Belt. I love purple, yay! She did a great job.Maddie, Max, and Seth were in the Alpine parade this morning. The weather was actually a little on the cold side which is nice for those in the parade. They were first so they could sit with us and watch when they were done. Good thing, they wouldn't want to miss out on all of that candy!

Family fun

Last week my sister Lyssa and her family came to Utah for a visit, YAY! We have so much fun when she comes and the kids are in heaven playing with their cousins.

We spent LOTS of time swimming. It was fun because the kids would even swim at 9 at night with the pool light changing colors from green to red to blue. Lincoln probably loves swimming more than anyone I know.

Ryan and Melanie had their fourth baby while we were all together which was great timing! We went to visit him in the hospital the next day...so tiny!!
We also got to got to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house which was beautiful! The kids are so lucky to say they got to go inside a temple.

Max's birthday

Max was born on Pioneer Day. That means as long as he lives in Utah, he gets fireworks for his birthday. We do a friend party every other year so this year it was a family party year. The kids really like that too because they get to pick anywhere they want to eat. Max picked Boondocks which means he also got to play Laser tag and video games, he worked the system. His one and only present from us was a motor scooter. Maddie bought one with her own money a few months ago and he LOVES it. Since it is Maddie's scooter he would have to ask her before riding it and she doesn't always say yes. It goes 15 mph and is nice to go back and forth to Grandma's house a block away. We told him he could open his present at 8 am (because we knew it would be charged by then.) He woke up 3 times before 8, it felt like Christmas. He was very happy to have his own scooter.
He picked out an oreo cake at the store, that made my job easy.
That night we got together with lots of neighbors for the "cul-de-sac of FIRE."
Max waited until Monday to go to Boondocks so the Krumholz cousins could go with us. Jon's mom was also in town so she got to go. We called Jon's brother's family and Ryan's family and my parents and Gram all came. It was a fun, big group. Yay, Max. Happy 9th birthday!!!

Cabin Fever

My Grandma has a cabin in Kamas that we don't go to enough. We scramble through the calendar trying to figure out 2 to 4 days when we can get away. We always have to miss some event but don't regret it once we get to the cabin. Something about being in the mountains and away from day to day life that makes us relax, ahhhhhh. We let Tanner bring up a couple of the neighbor boys which was really fun.
Max got a little marshmallow on his chin eating a smore. Must've enjoyed it!Jon's brother Joseph and his wife Bethany came up for one night with their 3 kids. Seth and Elisabeth are the same age and get along great!

A few years ago we bought a canoe because there's so many lakes around us. The kids think it is so fun to put their hands in and look for fish. Ah, the great outdoors.

Elisabeth and Seth in a field of wild flowers, so cute.

The boys' room, ARRRGH!

I decided to do Max and Seth's room in a pirate theme. It's taken me pretty much a year to finish because I keep getting distracted, but today I think I'm done. Hopefully they haven't outgrown the theme yet. So first I painted it a very bright blue, which is almost too bright but I like it. Then I got them a pirate chest toy box and glued gold coins to a cork board.
Jon's mom made really cute quilts and matching pillowcases for their bunk beds. Then last week Jon's sister gave me all these cute (or I should say scary) pirate sayings to put around their room. I just finished with the vinyl letters and am officially done with their room! Now, if they'd just keep it clean.

4th of July

I asked Jon when he was going to take the kids to go buy fireworks. He didn't seem that enthused about it. I wasn't that enthused either. I joked with Jon saying we should just put a $20 bill

on the ground and burn that, but it doesn't emit sparks or blow up so I relented and took the kids.

Last year we went to an Orem Owls baseball game on July 3rd because

after the game they had some

great fire works and we didn't have to fight traffic. We decided to do it again this year. The kids were a little baffled that we were going to ANOTHER baseball game. They're fun but a little long for their attention spans. Here's Donovan and Paige entertaining Seth, yay. The fireworks were great.

On the 4th of July we pretty much swam at my parent's house the whole day. Poor Lincoln got burned the most, he should probably wear sunscreen or something.

Then that night we did our few fireworks and Devin went and bought a little box. It was just right. Yawn, time for bed. What a great weekend. I'm so grateful for this country and all the wonderful freedoms that come with it.

Max's shiny smile

Max got braces yesterday and boy is he feeling it. He's had soup for three meals, poor guy. He was the one kid that I thought would not have to get braces because he had gaps between his baby teeth and the dentist mentioned to me that that was good he'd have lots of room for his permanent teeth. But apparently he has a cross bite so my hopes were dashed. He only needs them for a short time. Now Seth is super sad because he wants braces and he hasn't lost any of his baby teeth. Maddie lost 3 teeth last week and he just hangs his head in depression. It's hard being the youngest. It's got its perks too, but he seems to forget those.

Tanner got braces on again last week because the orthodontist didn't anchor his retainer to a tooth that turned. It is free and only for 3 months so Tanner was okay with that.

Beach vacation 2009

Every summer we go to California with ALL of the Dewey family (unless they're on missions or in school). This year we had 22 of us. It is a lot of fun and a lot of chaos. The cousins have a great time being together and being on the beach they never run out of things to do.

Max was a little too tall for these monkey bars
Jon bracing himself for this huge wave...and it was cold!
Tanner loves the water, he gets way in lots of times a day.
Seth got pretty cold pretty fast. He would try to get warm or just go inside to take a hot shower.
Katie and Maddie spent a couple of hours making menus for "My Sister's BBQ" then pretended to be our waitresses for dinner. They did say tips were welcome.

Grandpa Bill

We've been going up to Idaho a lot lately. Jon's dad had been fighting cancer for 6 years and was not doing very well. It was nice to cherish those moments with him knowing we didn't have very much longer. At the end he couldn't get out of bed so we and the grandkids could just lay beside him and hold his hand. It was very tender and

very sad. Two weeks ago, Jon's mom called and we knew it was the dreaded call. We drove up that night so we could all be together. The kids took it very hard even though they were expecting it. It was comforting to be together as a great big family and talk and laugh and cry. I'm so thankful for my knowledge that we will all be together again someday and that I can comfort my children with that knowledge. We will miss Grandpa Bill so much. He was a great Dad and a great Grandpa.

Watching a slideshow of Grandpa with his grandchildren

Maddie, Olivia, and Sam thrilled to sleep on an air mattress

Lots of grandchildren watching cartoons in the kitchen

Maddie and Calli bought the same shirt without planning it

Dad standing with his boys a couple of months ago

Bees baseball game

For Mother's Day, mom wanted tickets for all of us to go to a baseball game together. It's not that she loves baseball, it's just fun to go to a game as a huge family and it was.

Max really likes events for the first hour then he gets bored fast. Jon and Max
Here mom is talking to Lyssa in Denver. Her family couldn't come because of the distant thing so a phone call is second best. Lyssa e-mailed everyone and got the baseball info. for Mother's day, so she did all the "leg" work. This is Max, Seth and Joshua.

Maren is just too cute eating her hot dog. I think between all of us sharing food, we ate everything they had. The kids love that part. We had peanuts, churros, nachos, popcorn cotton candy etc. UGH.This is Tanner closing his eyes on purpose because he knows I'm taking a picture of him.
Here's Donovan and Gram (kinda), Dad, James, Joshua, and Maddie. Fun times!

Maddie gets her braces OFF

Maddie only had braces for 8 months. She may have to do phase 2 after all her permanent teeth come in. They're looking good. You can't even tell when she has her retainer in and she only has to wear it at night and 4 hrs in the day. Her orthodontist doesn't want her taking it to school when school starts again because it's too hard to keep track of. I wish they did that when I had a retainer. I remember searching through the McDonald's trash when I accidentally threw it away!

Seth plays t-ball

Seth started t-ball last month. It's either really boring to watch or really funny..depending on the moment. The kids are 5 and 6 years old so this is their first year playing baseball. They sometimes run around the bases the wrong way or skip bases. One boy was charging to first and then he stopped to tell his team mates how he swung twice and missed the ball then he finally got it. In the meantime, the first baseman got the ball and was waiting at first which didn't concern him at all, he had a great tale to tell. If you're any position besides 1st, pitcher, or catcher, you basically just stand around, that's the boring part. Seth has enjoyed it for the most part and has learned a lot about the great American sport of baseball.
Maddie and Max were very "supportive" of Seth playing his game. The park had some great trees so they played in those most of the time. Tanner was actually sitting beside me really supporting him but I didn't get a picture of that. Poor Tanner.

In this video, Seth is the "pitcher" behind the coach who is pitching the ball. All he needs to do is throw it home since it's the last batter. Good try.

Early Father's Day

We called a tree man to haul away our big tree that blew over. It was so nice to talk to someone that had a vast knowledge about trees because I know nothing. Apparently our tree blew over because it had a disease which means probably the other 3 trees that are the same kind out there also have that disease. Sad news. We've had a dead tree in our front yard for a couple of years now so I started asking him what kind of tree would look good there and how much would it cost? Jon thought about it and said, "I think I would like to get a tree for Father's day." That made me quite happy because it's a practical gift and I'm a practical girl. There's something exciting about planting a tree. Maybe because you know it's going to grow up with you in the house (Hopefully). The kids were very excited too. Happy Father's Day Jon!

The beach without the water

Last weekend we went to Idaho to be with lots of family. While there, Calli, my 10-year-old niece convinced us we needed to go to the sand dunes. I didn't even know they existed. The kids had so much fun. They had sand all over (their pockets, ears, car) to prove what a great time they had.

Thanks, Aunt Bethany for burying Max.

Tanner and Uncle Joe had a contest to see who could get to the bottom of the dunes in the fewest leaps. Blogger isn't letting me load a video again.

Mayed out!

The month of May is crazy at school. Everything has to be put off until the end of May which means life gets very busy. Yesterday I helped with Max's "times table ice cream party" which was really cute. For passing off 2's you get a bowl, passing off 5's you get a scoop of ice cream and so on. As I was elbow deep in ice cream the room mom asked if I could help with field day all day on Friday. I said I had something that day which I thought I did, but when I got home and looked at my calendar, I didn't. But I still don't think I'll get back with her because other moms need the great opportunity to help in the school. Maddie has a major State project and test on all the states and capitols in the U.S. Luckily she is very self-motivated so that's not too bad. She needed a snack for her "poetry cafe" today which meant I needed to go to the grocery store because the cupboards were quite bare. Max is walking to a park and needs to take a lunch tomorrow and Seth goes to kindergarten from 9-12 on Friday instead of 11-2. There's a lot to keep track of. Tanner has a big band concert tomorrow night and needs to stay after school to practice for it so I need to go get him when he's ready. Max is also getting an award at an assembly on Thursday that parents are invited to and he told me this morning, "btw, mom I need to bring a birthday treat for the class on Tuesday since I have a July birthday." IS MAY ALMOST OVER???

Tanner's soccer game

I've been trying to take a picture of Tanner playing soccer this season but it seems to always be snowing or raining for his games...or I forget my camera. Tanner likes the cold weather because they're working up a sweat, but us on the sidelines like the spring-like weather. Today it was finally a beautiful day. Both teams actually had to forfeit because they didn't have enough players. Usually his team has tons of players but maybe because it was a make-up game, or because it's May and there's a million things to go to, or because it was too spring-like for the players. Tanner is a great soccer player and likes getting in shape. He did mention at the beginning of the season this might be his last season of soccer but now that he's almost done he's rethinking that. He really enjoys his team.

kindergarten graduation

So, Seth is now a kindergarten graduate. He had a great year. It started off teary and is ending a little teary because he has "Kindergartenitis." He may have a hard time next year going to school ALL day. Something about that first year of school with their sweet little baby faces. This is Seth's friend Sabrina "Beanie". So cute! Their hats are made out of paper bowls and paper, pretty creative.

Book signing

Last Saturday, Maddie and I stood in line for an hour to meet Brandon Mull. He was signing books at Costco and I needed to buy his fourth book of Fablehaven and The Candy Shop War. I just finished the Fablehaven book and really enjoyed it. I think I like that series more than the kids even though it's a "Children's" book. What can I say? It was neat for Maddie and me to meet an author. The other family members ate lots of samples, shopped then had a greasy pizza, fun times at Costco. The picture's pretty blurry because I used the phone and felt a little pressure to hurry.

Max gets his blue belt

Max is doing an amazing job in karate. He's actually more than half way to getting his black belt.