Give Thanks

I am thankful for my glittery "Give Thanks" that I bought with Molly and Maddy at Hob Lob. And I am thankful to get to spend time crafting and creating and girl talking with them this week!

I am thankful for girls big enough and brave enough to ride their bikes to school. This has simplified our lives so much - they are ready to go earlier and Kate can nap in the afternoon! I know I really wanna move on up to a larger home, there is no secret about that, but being within walking and bike riding distance to our school when I know sooooo many who carpool and commute their kids makes staying put seem rather tempting. Notice the bright green grass? I am thankful Steve took time he doesn't have to scalp, de-thatch, fertilize, overseed, and use even more "fertilizer" (manure) so that we can have bright green grass for winter.

I am thankful for a fun Fall Festival at school and even more thankful I was not the committee chair like two years ago! I am thankful Steve was able to join us part way through the evening and we each got a chance to volunteer at a classroom booth. I am thankful for good friends like Ellie who spent that night with us - she is a great friend to both my girls and I adore her to pieces.

I am thankful for the privilege to serve in Young Women's organization with the Mia Maids. I am thankful for all these little friends in my life with quirky personalities and tender spirits I can call my friends. Last night we had our Young Women Evening of Excellence and we celebrated all the "small and simple things" that make them who they are and how it is the "small and simple things" that make up the big tasks and goals that seem overwhelming.

I am thankful we are done making customized clipboards for all the girls. It looked like a craft store had exploded in my house.

I am thankful for fun neighborhood friends for my girls to play with. Bike riding, little forts, playing games - typical stuff. I am thankful we are in play outside weather season!

For the 4th year in a row, I am thankful to get to volunteer teaching Art Masterpiece at school. This year I get to teach AM in both Lindsay and Caroline's class.

I am thankful for the big girls coming home after school and enjoying snack time together with me. Usually it is a smoothie or yogurt and crackers or fruit but we bought a "fancy old fashioned" (so the girls say) air popper and popcorn now is a great after school snack! I am also thankful for Caroline's teacher who had a "man to man" talk with Caroline about being more cooperative during after school homework time. :)

I am thankful that Steve was able to attend Donuts with Dad with Caroline last week. The dads were treated to some adorable songs (I know because Caroline practiced them for me!) and then enjoy donuts and juice together. I am thankful the girls had fun playing with the camera the night before (creative little geniuses) but kinda bugged that the convert color selection was accidentally left on turning tons of stuff to pink and purple. There is a little evidence left in this picture - I couldn't fix it all the way...

I am so thankful for another helper in the kitchen. Now that we have figured out that Kate can sit on a bar stool and (hopefully) not fall off I have brought her into the kitchen to watch and even help on occasion. One night we were making waffles for dinner when Daddy was working late and she really wanted to help - she had an absolute ball!

I am thankful and thrilled that some things Caroline is learning at school are starting to stick at home. One night She decided she needed to write to 100 on the white board. I know she struggles with handwriting being a lefty and all and she is learning very precise handwriting techniques and I need to work extra hard on it with her. I am thrilled she is understanding the concept of her spelling pickle now (in Kindergarten they call a test a pickle so it doesn't sound so scary) and last night she wanted to practice her spelling list over and over so she would do the very best she can today.

I am having lots of fun perfecting my recipe for Peanut Butter Mousse Pie and am thankfully getting closer to getting it right. The above? Crust was not my best, for sure, but I was working on the guts of the pie - getting the mousse peanut buttery enough and sweet enough and making the ganache layer not so bittersweet and making the right ratio of whipping cream topping. It is close to what Steve wants me to duplicate - the Peanut Butter Pie at TGI Friday's. It is close. We will be having it for Thanksgiving dinner. OK, not for dinner. After dinner. Along with probably 6 other kinds of pies.

I am thankful for this little crazy girl! She is at that silly fun age when they get attached to stuff around the house and think they are the Cat's Meow and the Bee's Knees! She is in love with her pink dragon fly shoes. She thinks a tooth brush is the coolest and even brought it to the soccer game last week and used it as a utensil to eat a blue snow cone. She absolutely adores Mommy's head lamp light. I have had it out lately to wear on 5:45am runs when it is still dark and Kate discovered the thing and for a few days wouldn't take it off or leave home without it.

October 2008 - prior to starting her splints

I am also grateful that months and months of perseverance have paid off and she no longer has to wear her braces on her legs. In June we went from full time to just nights. In mid-October we got the go ahead to try the next two months without. Her feet look fabulous! We have our next follow-up in January to see if she has regressed any or if any changes need to be made but so far so good. Hopeful this will all just be a blip and she will never remember having to wear the braces. I recently framed the above photo for her room. So sweet.

I have a lot to be thankful for and I am beyond grateful I get to be these girl's mom every single day. Some days are hard, some are harder, but I am trying to have it together to be a better mom and be more available to my girls and bet he mom they need me to be. I know I can do better and every day is a new day, I tell myself!

I am truly grateful for Steve's job and career. I know I have been grumbling and fretting a lot because of the horrid hours he has been working lately. I have been feeling like a single mom most days for several weeks. My girls have often seen an impatient Mommy. I know Steve is not happy with the long hours either; often he is not home until 10pm or as late as 1am. The first thing he does is go to the girls rooms and watches them sleep. He is even having to work a ton when he is home. But things are starting to look better (maybe? ) and we know we are blessed to have this job right now when so many are struggling with employment.

I am thankful for my new found habit of early morning runs. I am taking the advice of my dear friend (and sister in law's sister) Quincy who told me, when I asked what kind of motivating play list she uses for her runs, she told me she doesn't run with her iPod. Instead using this time to pray, ponder, meditate, and let the Spirit speak to her. I find if I miss the run, I not only "miss the run" but I also miss the quiet time to myself. I enjoy the quiet time to be inspired and hear what the Lord needs me to hear when the rest of the day is so loud. I have found this to be excellent advice and have encouraged my young women to be still more often so that they may hear the still small voice. Advice we all need to hear.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet!!

Nothing says spooky like a blurry poor photo of 3 cute jacks!

We had already been to Molly's ward trunk or treat on Thursday night and that was a total blast! We won the prize for the most popular trunk - it was frigid for a couple days with record lows. (OK, it was about 50 degrees....not exactly frigid but things start to happen when you live here for a few years - it is called being a cold weather wimp). Molly was in charge and called me a bit distressed that it was going to be so cold for their party and I said I would bring our fire pit as our trunk contribution. We didn't decorate it cool or dress up, we just had a place to roast marshmallows and warm up over the flames - and man, were we ever popular! I was handing out roasting sticks and marshmallows with one hand and candy with another. Several asked if I also had graham crackers and chocolate bars to make s'mores. Seriously, how many hands do you think I have? The kids had fun eating hot dogs, homemade root beer, riding a "train" (small farm tractor pulling several small farm trailers) playing carnival games and of course the trunk or treat. Thanks Molly for the invite - it was great fun! And the irony of winning pumpkin marshmallow peeps was not lost on me...since we were the marshmallow trunk.

Roasting marshmallows at the trunk or treat

Kate never removed the sucker from her mouth. Ever.

Friday night we carved jack o lanterns. Always a good time. The girls said we were on 2 teams but there was no competition. Just fun!

On to the main event! Who doesn't love a good night of candy gathering? Every year we have a great time hitting up the neighborhood for the goods. Some parts are slower than others - we always do our side first (a little slow, a few bah humbugs...) and end on the "other side" which is block party after block party and lots of neighborly fun.

It was a busy day. Caroline woke with the dreaded 102 fever. Not knowing if this was the "big one" (turned out to be something big - she missed 3 days of school) or one of her frequent 18 hour fevers that goes away, I played it down, gave her some Tylenol and when she felt up to playing, I let her...but we quickly figured out she was gonna be down. Caroline had a soccer game, Steve had his ASU game (season tickets) and I had a funeral to attend. All. At. The. Same. Time. We decided something had to give and the soccer game was it - who should play soccer with a fever? Steve called the friend who he has tickets with and he offered his daughter to come babysit while I went to the funeral. She made $15 bucks - hope it was worth it to sit here while Caroline lay on the couch being sick.

my three goons

Miss Congeniality, Rodeo Princess Lindsay
Lindsay wanted to be a cowgirl. We looked for pictures online to get inspiration. We found pictures of rodeo princesses. So we spray painted a free party favor hat hot pink and added a sparkly and feathery dress-up crown to the hot pink hat. A trip to goodwill yielded the boots and shirt (which was white but I dyed a pale pink - much more cowgirl-ish! She happened to have a belt with a fancy butterfly buckle. The jeans - from her own wardrobe.

Caroline the Magnificent
Caroline started months ago saying she wanted to be a magician. Random. Anyway, I was sorting some bins of costumes and realized I had a cape I made years ago for Steve when he was Zorro for Halloween. A little modification and it fit Caroline. I bought the black with silver pin-stripe trousers at Goodwill, she wore her own white shirt and boots. I borrowed a top hat and bow tie from a friend. You can't see it here but she also had a sparkly black and white magic wand.

Our Tiny Purple Fairy #3

This is the 3rd one year old in our family to wear the purple fairy costume. (But it has also been loaned out to a few other 1 year olds). It is starting to show some wear. I made this costume when Lindsay was one, buying the purple tights, onsie and wings at Gymbo. I made the dress, head wreath and fairy wand (MIA) also. It looks all saggy because she had already trashed it with rootbeer at the Trunk or Treat two nights earlier. She just looked like a little purple fluffy nymph out and about. She was really happy, I promise, but I think dazed about the whole deal.

I know throwing on a feather boa and a witch hat hardly counts as a costume but it had been a crazy day.

We didn't have any huge plans besides the neighborhood - especially since Caroline was sick. We doped her up with enough Tylenol to get her fever down so she could mostly manage to trick or treat. I mean, it only comes once a year, right? Hard to miss. She ended up spending a good portion of the time riding in the wagon with Kate though.

With our trick or treat friend and neighbor, Lan Faye.

Just about dusk - time to get going

It was no trick to find out what a treat Kate found this evening to be!! She was in 7th, 8th, 9th heaven with all the candy! She had her own pumpkin bag and often had Caroline's in front of her too. She realized that the bags were filling up with candy and would reach her right hand into the bag and grab something, anything, and start eating it, like a sucker or something. She would then use her left hand to fish around in the other bag and find another candy and hand it to us to open it for her. When she got this one ready to eat she would drop the candy in her right hand, fish around in the other bag and find another candy and hand it to us to open it for her. Rinse, lather, repeat. This was what she did all night long - about 2 hours worth of trick or treating. Soon Caroline called it a night and we headed home to check out the haul.

At the end of the night, Kate is looking a little sauced....

...I am guessing because of what we found when we took her out of the wagon!

The great dump out

Starting the sorting process

An expert candy accountant joined in

PS: My personal philosophy with Halloween candy - I let them have it and keep it around for a week or two. I have no problem with that - it is only once a year. As a kid I loved living off my Halloween candy for the next couple weeks after the big night. (And I have healthy teeth.) Then I go thru it and pull all the good stuff (Snicker's, M&M's, etc.) and save these for lunch box treats. The rest gets bagged up and donated to the Fall Festival at school where they collect it for prizes at the carnival booths. (I get way less back home than I sent in so don't worry - it isn't just getting it all back.)

U2 360 Tour

The drunk girl next to us took this picture. I hoped for the stage in the background. We got the open roof instead.

I am so glad we decided to go ahead and see U2! We had not been planning on it but Molly suggested we try to see if tickets were available. I ended up going to the Stadium ticket office the day of the show and I don't know if me carrying baby Kate in my sling made me look like I needed some killer last minute tickets for a screaming good deal or if they just had adjusted some pricing at the last minute on unsold tickets. Either way I ended up buying $35 tickets that Steve said when he looked online the day before were in the section that was $95 tickets. WOW! Whatever it was, we sat in first level about 2/3 back from the stage. Great seats.

But the real adventure was getting there. I had my babysitters worked out and met Steve at work. We grabbed a couple quick tacos across the street and jumped in the car, knowing we would probably miss part of the first act, The Black Eye Peas. 2 hours later, for a 24 mile drive that should take 25 minutes no traffic, we arrived. We crawled there. They say they even ran out of parking! An officer said they never run out for Cardinals games! (But mysteriously another lot opened up...) We finally were able to park AND they stopped taking parking $20 - so we waited forever but it was free. Ended up being easy to leave from as well because it was the closest lot to the doors and the freeway.

Completely missed the Black Eye Peas.. Kelly texted several times during the whole mess me and said they were super fun. Oh well. The radio in the car was fun too I guess. But we got there 5 minutes before U2 came on - good timing.

The whole stage was a pretty fantastic set up and it would have been extra cool if it was truly in the round like it is designed but it was about 270 degrees and looked pretty amazing; I read one review that called the set "part insect, part spacecraft, part cathedral".

The big screen above? It eventually opened up, stretching downward and apart. It was really cool.

My personal notes: Bono announced we had "greatness in the house" with Mohamed Ali in attendance and he used that as a chance to introduce the band like introducing a fight - "In the black corner weighing in at 116 pounds..." it was hilarious! Larry Mullen Jr. keeps his typical low profile on the drums...until "I'll go Crazy" and he walked the round platform with a bongo drum - pretty cool. Adam Clayton changed his shirt about as often as a roadie handed him a new guitar and he can really rock the gray hair look. The Edge - his falsetto in the acoustic "Stuck in a Moment" was beautiful and he too changed a few times, even his beanie. And Bono - I don't think there is a better Rock Star anywhere! He was of course all in black so it was hard to tell if he changed as often as the other guys except for when he wore the light up jacket. When he pulled 3 women on stage and danced with each of them, my goodness! He then invited them to stay for another song and while they sat on the drum platform he lay down across their laps. WOW. Ever the showman and activist, we was able to weave the themes of AIDS in Africa, The President of Burma Aung San Suu Kyi and her unfounded and inhumane detention over the past 20 years, and even remained politically neutral when mentioning the election and thanking Obama and the McCain's for not forgetting the world's poor - Cindy McCain also was in the audience.


Where the Streets Have No Name - point and shoot video

The play list, if anyone cares:
Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stuck In A Moment
No Line on the Horizon
Elevation
In A Little While
Unknown Caller
Until The End of the World
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy - Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Thanks Mr. U of P - all your millions of hours of work help pay for this stadium. Just let someone know to work on the parking situation, would ya?

And so break goes...part 1

My house is quiet for the first time in days...Hayden and Bryn are off to a play date and Lindsay and Caroline are quietly playing dollies. We have 3 extra kiddos this week while Molly and Andy are off to Houston to visit friends and see U2. We weren't planning on it but I think we may try to go ourselves next week when they are here in Phoenix. It has been 13 years since I saw U2 in concert. It may be time again! I haven't blogged in a while. I have jumped on Facebook a few times here and there but this week has not allowed for serious blog time so I am taking advantage of these 2 hours. Not like I can use this time to get a shower - Zac is napping in my room! (But he has been a great sleeper this week so I can't complain too much! He is just too cute!)

Oh well....on with it.

I always look forward to our awesome October break -2 weeks, 2 days, no school, just play, sometimes bonus vacations (not this year - too many already) and hanging out with friends and cousins. Nothing earth shattering has occurred, just a whole lotta nothin'! And it is fun! Shelly and Joe were here for a few days of our break time so that meant sleeping over with Aunt Shelly. watching Uncle Joe start his model train set up in the garage (pretty cool!) and lots of swimming - they got the pool heater cranking and we had a couple afternoons spent lazily in the pool.

I will consider ourselves to be very blessed to not be spending our Fall Break sick - luckily we got our Ellie fix early in the break last week because now she is the sole member of her family without Swine Flu. The girls made their own doll house with a piece of 20"x20" foam core cut in half, notches cut to slide together and doorways cut out too. They used scrapbook paper to wall-paper and magazines to decorate. This was a super fun project that kept them occupied for hours. The real instructions can be found HERE at Cookie Magazine.
They had so much fun tearing apart American Girl, Land of Nod, PB Kids, Ranger Rick, whatever, to decorate their rooms with mini posters, chandeliers, and even a refrigerator for the kitchen.

Caroline played some more soccer....
...and I think we have discovered her favorite position - bench! She did get up and hustle a bit more because Aunt Shelly was there to watch - it was good to see her move!

Before Molly left we took all the kids to Mother Nature's Farm "pumpkin patch". This is not your typical Oregon or Colorado or Utah pumpkin patch but they don't know that. It is just not the same as back home but still a lot of fun - hay ride, meeting the farm animals, picking a pumpkin (from a scattered pile, not a field) and decorating said pumpkin with foam craft stickers. My battery died while we were there so I don't have a lot of pictures.

We had an alien invasion on tuesday and sadly this is the only picture I got of it. 4 aliens landed on the swingset and came into the house with their best alien voices saying they required alien antenna so I obliged and busted out a craft supply tote. Pipe cleaners, feathers and sparkly fuzz balls made instant aliens and they ran outside to ride their "ships" up and down the street.

Remnants of an alien invasion

Loaded up the wagon with the babes and the big kids rode their bike to the park down the street. The babies are now big kids because they went down the big slide by themselves.
Caroline does not often let me do her hair but currently she is favoring a high side ponytail. What? She looks like Deb from Napoleon Dynomite!


It is going to be around 100 degrees today and tomorrow. I had wanted to go to one of the fun pools this week but not with all the kids. Maybe Monday or Tuesday. We did get our Halloween costumes all planned - the kids are so excited! Maybe Monday or Tues we can work on them some more. Stay tuned - the girls really picked things that are right up their alley personality wise.

A Birthday Poem

La Jolla August 2009

Closer to 50 than 30

Today Steve (and Andy) turns 36 years
Luckily this milestone didn't bring many tears!
A day like any other with LOTS of work and meetings
But, he got a visit at work from his 4 girlie sweeties!

Cupcakes and balloons, out to lunch too
One year we skipped this and he said boo hoo!
Luckily this year the big girls have early release
So they got to come, the didn't have to beg and plead!

So what does it mean to be getting so old?
Grey hair and and sleepiness, so I am told!
But I think he feels the years coming on
He's been at the gym nightly - Run, Sammy, Run!

Steve, we love you. We think you're pretty swell.
You grill better than I do, you do a perfect medium, or medium well.
Thanks for being a fun Daddy-O,
To the beach, to the pool, to the park, you like to go!

On this your birthday we hope your wishes come true
You just got the promotion at work - could a raise comes thru too? (If you wish really hard...)
What more could you want? A happy, healthy, gospel centered family!
Thank you for honoring your Priesthood and leading with Integrity.

Happy Birthday - we love you!!

Love,

Meredith, Lindsay, Caroline, and Kate