Picture a Christmas

Brave , darling , Z. volunteered to sing one of the childrens Christmas songs Solo for the Church/neighborhood Christmas party.
(That ability must have come from daddy, mommy would never ever do such a thing, the mic would slip right out of her sweaty hand and onto the floor.)
She practiced(mostly with her own rock n roll flair) in her room on her microphone several times a day.
When the time came for the real thing she forgot a line, although what a releif to mom when she didn't sound anything like Hanna- whoever, that she thinks sings so appropriately for a 7 year old.
Crushing for her though.
She knew she could do it perfect, so thanks to the very patient loving music leader and pianist she tried it again.
In front of everyone.
This is take 2.

Picture a Christmas

Children’s Songbook 50–51

1. Picture a stable in Judea.
Picture a sacred, silent night.
And can you hear
The angels near
And see the star so bright?

Picture the little baby Jesus.
Think of his life and words so dear.
Sing praise to him;
Remember him,
As you picture Christmas this year.

2. Picture the kind and gentle Joseph.
Picture the mother, Mary, fair.
And can you see
So rev’rently
The shepherds kneeling there?

Words and music: Patricia Kelsey Graham, b. 1940. © 1983 IRI

Luke 2:4–16

Matthew 2:1–2

Bienvenida Hermana Rooey!!

A year and a half sounded like forever 2 Junes ago.
I can't believe just how quickly time can fly though, I guess we must have been having fun.

Before Rooey left T. followed her around a little bit, mostly because she had a phone or laptop to play with, but still got nervous that she would steal him away forever if mom wasnt in immediate sight.

Upon her return he was the most excited one to give her hugs and ask her to play and watch his amazing body do amazing things.

Maybe he wasn't the most excited one, I think it may have been a 7 way tie between him, an aunt, his mom, a brother and a sister and 2 grandparents.

Z. watched her every move when her black tagged Aunt was back in the house. They are a lot alike and we jokingly have called her Roo several times.

She is a great example to us of Sacrifice(A year and a half where?) and of Faith in following Gods plan for each of us.

Because of her choice to listen to the Spirit in her life we were blessed to have many extra opportunities to talk to the kids about the Savior and the Gospel.

It's true. He lives and we can live with him again, as families. Nothing is better than that!

I'm 5 now, What day do I start school?

For some reason T. thinks that when you wake up on your birthday you should be greeted by your birthday cake.
Mom is slow and never is quite prepared.
Also, day old cake just isn't as good a fresh. You know?.
I like that he has great ideas, when I don't, on how a delicious cupcake should look.
Sprinkles, any color, seem to be his favorite.


He had such a great day opening cards filled with wishes, stickers and sometimes even money!

He decided to pitch in his own new cash pile with parents birthday budget and bought a magnificent Bat Cave and some heroes and villains to go with it.
He loves that there is room enough and "guys" enough, for everyone who wants to, to play.


Mom threw together a puppy party for his bestfriends and sisters.
They played puppy games and ate their cupcakes like doggies.
T. couldn't have been happier.
Friends and food, on the floor!

Thank you snow for waiting 'till November

When we moved "up North" for school I heard a lot of folks ask if I knew about the winter here.
Who could be afraid of winter?
After a handful of frozen, seriously, like negative degrees frozen, days I started to understand.
The good part:
Snow is absolutely beautiful.
White is probably my favorite.
Probably because I love the new spring grass color and I love the fall leaf color also, so much, its hard to decide on a favorite.
I love the variety of seasons and colors we are given up here.
The bad part:
The other seasons, the ones you don't have to plan extra bundling time for, last for such a short time.
Frozen. Cold. That starts in October and doesn't end until April normally.
Here is our first snow this season.
November.
Late November.
Hooray!!
As I write this the snow is taking its revenge.
We are having a blizzard that brought the kiddies home early from school, closed the University campus(it's on a hill, great for sledding, not for driving ) and in a short time has completely covered the piles of leaves that were scheduled to be sucked up and taken away today.
Oh well, out of sight, out of mind.
That is until spring rolls around and the leaves have turned into a black slimy grass killing mess.
I know that one from experience.

Favorite time of day 3:00

I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of my sarcasm, I have tried.
It's just a part of me.
Favorite time of day would really be 9:30 pm, when the house is quiet and I'm not too tired yet.
3:00, no matter how hard I try for the opposite, always ends up in headache and chaos.

Homework time anywhere there is room to spread out.
The weird part I am trying to figure out is why they stay in the area where the most noise is going on.
Wouldn't a quiet bedroom or dining table work even better?
I guess having mom there to whine to is helpful in some way.

Don't believe the smile, even for a second.
First picture I took she was grimacing and had her eyes half closed.
That's actually how they do their homework, grimace faced, eyes half open, yet somehow they are big smartypants and do awesome in school.
T. and I get to do preschool together.
He thinks its cool most the time to have mom as teacher.
I think he likes that mom, sometimes, lets him have normally forbidden objects (gluestick, stapler, scissors )on the couch and in the livingroom in general.
Just for "homework".

S.
Lets see, where do I start?!
She knows mom is preoccupied.
She is 2.
Enough said.
If mom leaves the room she is compelled to write on or otherwise destroy a precious paper of someone elses.
"MAAUUM!!" Yelled at top of lungs by victim.
Meaning she has done it again.
Somedays though she is relatively quiet and finds sneaky things to do to poor Harley.
I'm a little bit glad her "homework" is to get the puppy used to harassment.
The puppy will be bigger than her soon and she needs to know who is boss.
This was one of the days that I was feeling especially calm and in control, that is why the puppy is anywhere near the carpet.
How did it go?
About 2 minutes later she ate someones homework and peed on the carpet.
Back to downstairs banishment.
Not for good, just till another calm day comes along and needs some ruining.

puke-o-lanterns

I was hoping to get some good pictures of the kids all grossed out by the pumpkin carving.
For some reason growing their own pumpkins and not having dad in the room(homework calls at the most convenient times) to start the faces made a difference this year.
Not a single comment about grossness or sliminess.
Pretending its yucky, and pretending to throw it at mom!
S. scraped out her own this year with a spoon.
Talented kid.
"Vampire teeth like this!"
T. carved his own this year and even added ears!

N. really was getting into the carving.
He made 2 faces and then cut it in half to make masks.
Neighbor girl loved the idea, mom was irritated and had to apologize later, but how are you supposed to put a candle inside a mask?
Tradition broken.
Mom learns once again to be flexible, its just a tradition.

I'm not a big Halloween fan

...but I am a big candy fan.
And also I like to see the kids happy.
Those are my reasons for letting them dress up, freeze, and trick or treat on Halloween (even if it seems like a wrong and evil holiday).
This year it was raining (better than the slush and snow in past years) but just long enough to soak through the top layer.
We had a Ninja, a Skeleton, a Witch and a Princess who changed her dress at the last minute into a ballet skirt (which was a better length by far than the princess dress that tripped her all day long).

Where N. could be found.
In his bag.
Devouring.
T. didn't even make it past the front entry before dumping his "hundred"candies to drool over.
I have to admit it's fun for me to watch them separate and categorize the different treats.
And then hand over all the Snickers to mom.
With all the other bright wrappers a little brown one doesn't even look appealing.
Woo Hoo.


She is even cute green faced and black wigged (but not at home, too ichy!).
A week or so later she is also the one with the most candy left, probably because of the slight sore throat lingering that slowed her down compared to the other candy stuffers.

S. 's favorite line was "one mooey owse"(one more house).
No post T-or-T'ing picts of her though, she peeled off her outfit and sat in her undies in a circle of candy.
Cute but inappropriate.
Fun family memories!

The pied piper

In the fairy tale the piper plays his flute to lead away the children and the rats to their destruction.
In our tale the piper is 4 and he charms the puppy with his harmonica.
Her mezmorized state is broken only by a hint of tail wagging, typically though it is making loud, fast whapping sounds hitting the walls, chairs, kids, whatever.
Then magically (and worth every cent) the older 2 siblings get their own rooms, finally!
Now if only that charmed harmonica could play a tune that could make rooms clean themselves.

Maybe you have seen messier rooms.
From my kids I never have.
I took pictures for my own sake, for when they are teens and the carpet is completely unrecognizable.
I know I will want to remember the "good old days" and be grateful I had them.
Surprisingly just a little time spent organizing and dejunking creates its own magic and the mess is again just a memory.

We wondered if the kids would be lonley but, as you can see N. (and Z.too, just not in the picture) on his bed, they spend way more time on their own now.
Loving it.
The rough part for N. was when he found the stash mom had put away quietly for the D.I.
In my defense, imagine if every toy and paper 4 kids brought home or received were allowed to stay in the house.
Hoarders ring a bell?
The rule is when something comes in something else has to go out.
Here's the part that brought tears to his eyes.
I told him he had to trade his Wii controller(the last working one that happened to be in his hand when he came across the box) for anything he took out of the box.
Trade.
Sounds fair to me.
Could a plastic (duplicate, mind you) spider really be worth all the inner turmoil?
Apparently.
Long story short.
Mom looses on this one because little spiders, although creepy, really are little and I am working really hard on Mercy.

May contain graphic tonsil images

Actually, all you can see are Z's pretty white teeth, mostly.
If you had a flashlight you would be able to easily see the humongous tonsils that had taken over her whole throat (and this is when she is well).
Dr.'s recommendation: Remove at once.
Z.'s reaction: Burst into tears and crying "I don't want to get my tonsils out!"

Mom took pity and offered a sympathy gift, with terms.
Z. won't whine, complain or otherwise bother others about the surgery in an annoying way.
Mom will buy whatever is necessary.
It worked!
She chose a 20 piece gift set of lipgloss and nail pretties(she never gets tired of lipgloss).
She cried every night for a week about her fears and insecurities, which was just fine, but we never had to hear any whining.
She was beyond stoked, the night before, to open her beautiful shiny girly stuffs.
Nervous, early morning face.
I bet she can't even remember this moment now.
She was curious about the "gown" she would be wearing in surgery(no, not princess style unfortunately) so I asked the nurse on the phone what she should expect.
Tiger PJs.

Super fast, super easy surgery.
Recovery was quick too.
She wanted to get out of there and home asap, for ice cream (she is a Merrill you know)!

Unfortunately the first few hours home were sleepy, nauseous, achy, not the best for ice cream.
Miraculously she never felt enough pain to cry.
She lifted up fingers to show her pain scale.
Usually 2 , once in a while 4.
Tough kid!

Day 2 she wanted a beauty shop morning.
Put that lip gloss and polish right to use.

Lots of drinks, movies,video games and a little forced nap time(mom says!) were all done on the couch.

No one wants to be left out of the tonsil party so the brothers joined in on the couch with games and movies too.
Days 3 and on were mostly spent following mom around the house and playing with T. and C.C.
Lucky kids to have big sister around.
No more of that couch nonsense.
Day 7 "I don't feel like I even had my tonsils out!"
Hope that means healed, not swollen till she cant swallow.
I wouldn't let her carve the pumpkins yet(we need to have all of the kids and dad there making grossed out faces for mom to tease) so she found one of the gourds, in her boredom.
Yes, the gourd got his tonsils out too and he is smiling also!

The very best part of it all was the Popsicles and the fun new sympathy gifts from the grandmas.
Thanks Grandmas!

Mom is so very ready to reclaim the living room and reinstate the food ban.
No more stickies on the floor and tables, Please!

Fall break

Our visit to the American West Heritage Center. Coolest farmstuffs around.

One of the more exciting tractors. Big sharp parts. Cool.
The boys in the barn. What is it about barn wood that is sooo cool?
Pirate ships made out of haybales.
Ship under attack.
Hay Jump. Blast but ichy!

The kids love the little goats and loved petting and chasing them.
OK, most of the kids, some didn't like what they had to scrape off of their shoes after being in the pen.


Daddy and N. sawing wood, not even knowing there was a cornbread reward after the work.
The whole fam. in line for the little train ride(no that bearded guy with the afro isn't someone we picked up on the road, its daddy, promise). N. was cooerced into riding along but found out a minute later that it had a jail caboose.
Z. looks like the corn is growing out of her hair.

Now you're talking!!



Pony Rides, sweet, unless you are a tween, and then the only thing half way cool is running to find the gourd launcher.



Whoever came up with this idea is a genious. Gourds aren't good for much else but launching anyways.