Day 120--Last Day of the Month

Our faithful home teacher, Brother Stone usually comes much earlier in the month, but this month circumstances brought him to our home on the proverbial "normal home teaching date". Ellie climbed right up next to him and snuggled there while he shared a lesson with us.

What? Something much bigger than the home teacher coming happened today? Better check the other blog.

Life Story

Fourteen years ago today Glen and I joyfully welcomed our first born child into our arms. Spencer David was born after a good day and a half of regular contractions, nine hours of which I spent in the hospital. He was born at 8:53 pm and after a fitful night of the excitement and pain of adjusting to nursing/motherhood I was discharged at 9:00 the NEXT MORNING!
Sometime that first day I was home from the hospital, Glen's grandmother came to visit us all the way from Virginia. She had come to town for other reasons, but was more than thrilled to meet her new hours old great-grandson.

When Spencer was 10 days old we packed up our old Dodge Shadow and drove to Baltimore for Glen's first internship with E&Y. Everyone (family and strangers alike) thought we were a little insane for taking a 10-day-old baby on a cross country trip, but what can I say? We were young and totally excited for the career opportunity for Glen.

We spent the summer in Baltimore making new friends, exploring the area, and getting to know Glen's grandparents, George and Frances. George took us on driving tours of DC and told us many exciting stories about his days in the FBI. Sadly Glen's grandfather died just a few months later and Spencer was the only great-grandchild that he was ever able to meet. How grateful we were for those few months we had.

At the end of the summer we drove back to Utah via Oklahoma so that we could visit with my grandparents there. This picture is a five-generation shot. Spencer, Me, Bobby (for my Dad), Nana & Granddad, and Granny Becky (Spencer's great-great grandmother) +Glen and a cousin.
Spencer was one of only a couple great-great grandchildren that Granny Becky got to meet before she passed away 2 years later.
After our return to BYU, I took the last couple of classes that I needed to graduate and ended up graduating on my birthday when Spencer was almost a year old.
We packed up and left for Baltimore for another internship just a couple days after this picture was taken. Due to those early frequent cross-county road trips and several more since then, Spencer is a very well traveled young man. He's been to over 40 states + Canada.

Spencer has always been a sweet, gentle big brother to his many younger siblings and we are grateful for his wonderful example.


Today he is a fourteen-year-old with a fun sense of humor, a quickly deepening voice, a gentle heart, a striving to improve, a love for sports, a quick mind, and a penchant for being a bit of a tease. He doesn't like me taking pictures of him, but in a moment of silliness he allowed us to dress him in this birthday hat...as long as he could write his own label on it.

So here is the gluttonous "Supreme Dictator of All That Matters And All That Doesn't Too" being fed cupcakes by his humble servant, Miss Camille.
Lest any of you remember Spencer's revenge from all those months ago and fear that he will be seeking retribution for these incriminating photos, I can lay your fears to rest. In a sugar induced/birthday hysteria I not only got him (and Cami) to pose, but he also agreed on which photo I could use.

Happy Birthday Spencer!!!!

(Forgot to send Spence a card?

That's okay. Just leave him lots of comments and he'll call it good! )

Day 119--At Long Last!

Our fridge is properly working again! Hip hip hooray!

Scientific Thoughts

It's that time of year again!

The time to buy tri-fold boards and start feeding your plants chocolate milk. The time to clear the library shelves of anything that remotely relates to your topic. A time to renew your friendship with that lady down the street who majored in bio-chemical engineering.

It's the science fair. The time to crawl under a table and hide out until its all over.

I usually try to steer Cami towards picking a child of a scientist as her partner, minimizing my involvement to an occasional pizza splurge, but this year Cami insisted on having her best friend be her partner instead. Imagine the nerve!

Since sitting in the back seat wasn't going to be an option this year, I tried to steer them toward some kind of useful project, like "Which mopping method is most effective?" or "Which steel wool cleans ovens the best?".

When those ideas didn't fly I offered the idea, "What reaction will I get if I say 'Yes, M'am' after everything my mom says?" . I thought I had a winner there, but she merely rolled her eyes and said something about me being weird.

After ruling out compost heaps, time machines, and anything to do with mice a decision was finally made:

Purpose: What will happen to your teeth if you soak them in various liquids for unnaturally long periods of time?

Results:
Water: go ahead
Milk: slight discoloration, but otherwise okay
Lemonade: your teeth will shrink and discolor slightly
Diet Coke: is the devil's drink


Sorry to gross you out, but I am compelled by my sense of duty to inform you that if you were to take a swig of Diet Coke and swish it around in your mouth for the next 48 hours your teeth will look just like this:

By the way, the judge's loved it.




Stay tuned tomorrow for more on science fair projects...

Day 118--The Great Wall of Cups

Adam has an affinity for building things. Legos, blocks, Lincoln Logs...whatever he can get his hands on. Tonight he built the Great Wall of Cups across our living room, which included 25 cups along the bottom row!

Day 117--Grumpy Bear

Finally the science fair is over and Cami can start going to bed before midnight again.

Genetic Traits

Family genetics have been pretty kind to our kids. They all have beautiful brown eyes, are good spellars, have healthy (large) appetites, can curl their tongues, have thick hair that never falls out, have long skinny toes, cute dimples, and are sure to be killer Scrabble players someday .

However I have to admit that there may be a few traits that they're probably not quite as happy about inheriting. For instance -- Glen + me = 100% probability of gazillions of freckles and no waistline. There's no way to escape it. Even when I was skinny (yes, there was a day) I still had no waist to speak of. Now I'm the poster child for the new Apple Shaped Middle Aged Women of America, but I digress here...

I had high hopes when I married Glen that perhaps my terrible teeth that had to have braces TWICE, would be balanced out by his perfectly straight teeth that have NEVER needed braces. All I wished was that a couple of the kids to inherit his pearly whites, instead of mine. But alas, it appears that my dental DNA is a little domineering, because my crowded, misaligned teeth seem to have won out on every single one of the kids! Dang it!
It's a good thing Cami is so charming, beautiful, intelligent, and loving, because she got the worst of the teeth genetics and inherited anomalies we didn't even know were possible...a peg tooth (kind of like a peg leg in her mouth) and a missing permanent tooth. All right up in plain sight next to her two front teeth.

We've spent the last couple of years in denial while we finished paying for our firstborn's newly straightened teeth. Finally after taking her to a few orthodontists to get second opinions, we've come squarely to the fact that her teeth are going to cost us approximately the tuition for a bachelor's degree to get them fixed up right. *YIKES*

After delaying the inevitable as long as possible and planning for a future of rice and beans for the next twenty years we finally unwrapped our fists from our life savings and took the plunge.

Today, in a mess of bright lights and cotton filled cheeks Cami singlehandedly ensured that the orthodontist can retire next year.
Thankfully she's got so much other good genetics going on (thanks Glen!) that she still looks gorgeous in her newfound sparkly metallic smile....certainly much cuter than I looked in my braces all those years ago.

Now if only I could talk Spencer into skipping high school to get his orthodontics degree....

Birthday Celebration Kid Style

Glen was seriously under the weather and confined to bed for most of my birthday, which meant that some of our plans had to be altered.

Rather than letting me feel discouraged that my birthday wasn't turning out the way I expected my kids stepped right up to the plate and made sure I got a top notch birthday celebration...kid style!!!!

Door decorations by Cami and Emma.


A fancy present from Adam.


A homemade card from all of them.



A beautiful red velvet cake made by Spencer.


Lots of help blowing out the candles.


And a whole carton of Girl Scout cookie ice cream to myself! (of course I shared a little of it with the rest of them) ;)

They turned out to be awesome birthday party planners who made me feel so loved...now if they could just figure out how to keep me 29 for a few more years. ;)

_______________________________________________

Disclaimer: Just in case you're counting, I may have been 29 for several years already. But I will neither confirm nor deny that fact.

PS Glen is still weak, but doing much better now.

Day 116--Me and My Hunny

We enjoyed a beautiful, albeit hot, afternoon at Pierce Mill in Washington DC. It's not often that Glen and I get to be in pictures together. :)

Day 115--Why Not?

Heck, it's my birthday. Why not?

Another Perfect Day

Remember this video from exactly a year ago?



Well, it's that time of year again and it's looking to be another perfect day.

Actually, weather-wise it might be slightly hot to be considered perfect, but since when do you let a little sunshine get in the way of celebrating your birthday????
After soccer practices, scrubbing bathrooms, cleaning the basement, mowing the lawn, forcing helping the kids to clean their rooms, and finishing shopping for our family picture outfits, it's going to be a super fun/relaxing day.

I can just feel it.

Day 114--Glen's Misery=Ellie's Delight

Glen was seriously under the weather today and hardly left the bed and Ellie loved every second of hanging out all day with Daddy. She rarely left his side and even took her nap there next to him. As miserable as Glen was, he wasn't minding all the extra attention one bit! :)

Day 113--Take Your Child to Work

I thought it sounded like so much fun to take my kids to work with me that I kept all but one home from school to hang out with me, yet somehow I was still unchallenged. I needed something a little more.

Five extra kids and a big messy project. Sounds perfect.

World's Greatest Poems

My mom is kind of tired tonight since she had to teach preschool today, so I'm doing my mom's blog post for the night. Here's a couple of poems I had to write for school for my poetry book. We had to pick 2 celebrities to make fun of (ya, my teacher's kind of weird like that).

Everybody loves Simon Cowell
With his honest and truthful critiques
But have you ever seen his mean old scowl?
That only adds to his mystique.

*****************************************************************

A real life diva you will find
In this girl with the dumbest mind.
Paris Hilton is her name
and she really thinks she belongs in the hall of fame.

******************************************************************

Here's an acrostic poem I made about myself.

Caring and loving towards everyone
Always happy and laughing
Making treats too much for her mom's liking
Intelligent

Run! Run! Run
Optimistic in everything she does
Sandy blond hair
Elected SCA President

If you want a copy of the worlds greatest poetry written by yours truly that will be $25 a copy, checks payable to me.

Happy Earth Day!

I hope you got to hug a friendly tree today. ;)

Day 112--Preschool Reunion

My friend, Kristi hosted a preschool reunion for Emma's and Adam's groups. It was fun for me hanging out with my Mom friends I don't see as much anymore and it was great fun for the kids who picked up right where they left off running, biking, and playing in the dirt together!

Just wondering...

why it is that this is what my shoes look like this after running, walking, hiking, and occasionally wading in them almost every day for six whole years?

(a little gray and worn, but otherwise perfectly intact)

And my kids' shoes look like this in less than six months?

Seriously, I'd like an excuse to buy new shoes every six months. What's the deal?

Day 111--Mr. Tree

Preschool was at our house today. While learning about leaves and trees we took a walk around the neighborhood to "meet" some trees up close and personal. They were seriously waving and talking to our neighbor's friendly maple tree they dubbed, "Mr. Tree".

Self Portraits

My kids are always complaining that I'm never in any pictures since I'm always the one holding the camera. Unfortunately they're right. The only time I'm in a picture is if I ask someone to take one of me (usually one of the kids). This week's theme at I ♥ Faces gave me the opportunity to change that for once.

Here is my adult entry...just me and my neighbor's car (with gray roots and giant zit conveniently cropped out).




And here is my kids' entry with me and four of my five kids. I call this my serendipity shot. I was taking self portraits on my deck when one of the kids walked out the patio door and ended up in the background. I loved the way it turned out, so I got the rest of them (who would cooperate) and had them pose for a minute. They thought I was hilarious.

Be sure to go check out I ♥ Faces for lots of other fun self portraits this week.

Day 110--Little Architect

This kid is always building something...usually with Legos, but today with Lincoln Logs.

Day 109--We ♥ the Missionaries!

We always enjoy the missionaries coming to our home and sharing their happiness and zeal for the gospel with us.
Today Ellie fell instantly in love with the new missionary--Elder Lebbie from Sierra Leone who kept her entertained with paper flowers and magic tricks.

Of course, after six months in our ward Ellie also adores Elder Packer and kept running over to give him quick hugs.

Tall, Smart, and Handsome

In honor of my brother Tim's 21st birthday this past week (on tax day), I've put together this list of 21 random facts about the youngest of my siblings.

1--Tim is the youngest child in our family
2--Tim was born 10 days before my fifteenth birthday
3--He had red hair and the cutest expressions when he was little
4--He could identify most major rocks by name and category by the time he was 4-years-old
5--When he was preschool aged he would carry around a blue duffel bag, which he referred to as his "Duck Tales woo woo bag"
6--I moved away from home when he was only three years old
7--He was scared to death of me when I came back home for Christmas after my first semester at BYU
8--Spencer's birth made him an uncle when he was barely 7 years old9--He is the only boy in our family who never had a mullet
10--Need a job done? You won't find anyone more focused or loyal than Tim.
11--He loves to read even more than I do.
12--He wears a size 15 shoe.
13--Although the youngest, he is the tallest of the Crain kids by a few good inches (a fact that makes my other three brothers green with envy)
14--He is 11 inches taller than me
15--He has a keen sense of humor
16--He has traveled the world17--Tim is a gifted writer and will probably write a book someday.
18--He loves old movies and owns hundreds of them19--He is the smartest of the Crain kids (I've been informed that I'm only 3rd smartest, just in case you're wondering)
20--As of this week, he will be the last of the eight Crain kids to still be a BYU student (at one point there were five of us there at once)

21--My kids adore him and use him as a human jungle gym whenever he's around

Hope you had a happy birthday Tim! We love you!