Little Graduate

After getting a little grumpy last week when they changed the rules of the theme late in the game, I almost didn't do an I Heart Faces this week either just in rebellion.  {I know how much you all missed me last week....ha!}  However  when I came across this cute picture of Adam in his preschool graduation cap I decided  it was just too adorable not to post.    

I think preschool graduations are just the cutest things ever.  I love how excited they are to wear that special cap and go on to new exciting adventures (like kindergarten).  

 Be sure to go check out lots of other cute faces and hats at I Heart Faces this week.  

Day 124--Mouse Traps and Temptation

Tonight after a FHE lesson about avoiding temptation we played the mouse trap game.  Everyone puts their mouse in the middle while one person is the trapper (with the pan lid).  The trapper picks a certain number and when that number is rolled on the die she clamps down the mouse trap and tries to capture the mice before everyone can pull theirs' to safety.  The kids were rolling on the floor in laughter and I loved how it illustrated the lesson so well about how you always have to be on your guard to avoid temptation.  

Helpful Advice

When I sit down, I fall asleep. It's just an inescapable part of who I am. I attribute it to my early morning seminary days when I had to catch a little snooze whenever the opportunity arose. French class was where I first discovered this, um, gift. It was right after lunch and it didn't matter what anti-napping method I used, every single day my cheek would end up in a pile of drool on the cold desktop.

I used to struggle staying awake during church too. In fact there was a day when you could glance at the Crain pew during sacrament meeting and see all eight of us kids sound asleep. Little ones strewn on the floor and across laps and older kids (like me) with heads bobbing and eyes rolling. My mom and dad didn't mind at all, or even notice for that matter, since they were also snoozing.

I'd like to think I inherited my extreme napping skills from my mother, who as you can see here can
fall sound asleep even in a metal folding chair.

As a parent I've done my best to avoid the sacrament meeting napping fest for my family and as a good citizen I try hard to make sure that no one around us could ever fall asleep either. It's just this civic duty I feel towards others.

Usually we just try to make sure that at least one of the kids has to take a potty break somewhere in the middle of sacrament meeting. Two consecutive trips is even better. It breaks up the routine and makes just enough noise to make sure none of the people in the 4 closest pews could possibly stay asleep.

Lately, though we noticed that some people several rows away were still snoozing through our antics so we decided we needed to take our public service to the next level.

Take last week for instance. While digging through the church bag for a crayon Ellie pulls out a tampon, unwraps it, and holds it high over her head and says a little too loudly, "What's this Mommy?" I was so proud of her. I couldn't have planned a better giggle inducer, sleep avoiding gesture myself.

Ever the competitor, Adam, could not be outdone by his younger sister. Today he decided a shriek, a gush of blood dripping on the floor, and a mad dash to the bathroom five minutes into sacrament meeting would do just the trick in making sure that even the Bishop wasn't sleeping today. After taking care of Adam's newly opened gap in his mouth and totally missing Spencer being sustained as a Teacher, an older guy came and slipped us some money (I'm not making this up). At first we thought he was trying to bribe us to change seats and couldn't believe he thought we could be bought for a mere dollar.
Then he informed us that kids who lose teeth during church get "special" money from the tooth fairy and presented us with a bow tie shaped dollar bill to slip under his pillow tonight.

Wow! What luck. Not only did we succeed in our mission to keep the ward awake, but we also made money on the deal. Sweet!

Now we need something really good for next week...any ideas?

Day 123--Fast Sunday Excitement

Every fast Sunday we get together with two of my brothers, my cousin and all their families to hang out and eat a yummy dinner. It's always a little chaotic with 13 kids running around, but it's a fun way to stay connected!

Day 122--Kids' Workshop

About a year ago we discovered a new fun activity that has since become a favorite family tradition. The first Saturday of each month all the Home Depots sponsor a kids' workshop where they have aprons and little kits for all the kids. The kits are simple little construction projects that take about 15-20 minutes that the kids can do them themselves. My kids LOVE that they each get their own hammer and nails and they come home with a completed project that they did all by themselves. Even Ellie makes her own (with a lot of help). Today it was cute little wooden wheelbarrows that they eagerly painted when they got home.

Day 121--Mud Puddles

What's better than a good old-fashioned mud puddle to splash in? The other moms we were with were a little irritated that Ellie and her friend Thomas had worn boots and were happily splashing around, while the other kids were wearing their normal shoes and trying to follow right behind them through the puddles. In any case, Ellie came back from Frying Pan Farm Park wet, muddy, happy, and exhausted!

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. ;)

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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.