Happy Halloween!

I really like Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays. This is probably due to the fact that there's no religious significance behind it, so there's no underlying guilt about just having fun. It's just a great excuse to party!



I got off easy in the costume department this year. Mariasha's was the only costume I had to make. She was a pirate, and I made her jacket. I made a skirt to go with it, but it turned out hideous, so I wouldn't let her wear it. I think she made a beautiful pirate. Jordan decided to be a leper. He made his own peeling skin. It looked pretty gross. Kallai was the grim reaper, with glowing red eyes, but he couldn't wear that to school, (no masks or scythes) so he went as a crazed football player. Taliah was a she-devil, and don't the red eyes in the picture fit her costume perfectly? David went as Mr. Clean, but somehow (like always) escaped getting his picture taken. I went as a football player, mainly because the night before, I decided I better dress up for school, and that's all I could come up with.
As it turned out, it was the perfect costume. Sue Ford, the teacher I work with, dressed as a school girl in her husband's old football letterman's jacket. During the costume parade, we walked together and she told everyone that I was her boyfriend and we were going steady!



Working at a school means one of the biggest parts of Halloween is the class party! We had races to see who could eat a donut off a string the fastest. Sue and I competed against each other. Sue kept shoving me to keep me from my donut, so I shoved her back, and knocked her completely over. I felt bad about knocking a grandma down, but she was ok. I would have won, but Sue cheated by eating the last of MY donut, and saying it was hers! The students loved it!



I visited Kallai's class party, and for refreshments they had insects. Real ones!
They had Bbq and cheddar flavored meal worms, salt and vinegar, and sour cream and onion flavored crickets, and chocolate covered grasshoppers.



Kallai ate a bunch. I ate two. One to be able to say that I had, the second to pose for a picture so I could prove it! Yes, that is a cheddar flavored MEAL WORM between my teeth, and yes, I actually ate it. It was crunchy, kind of hollow, and there wasn't much taste, not even cheddar. The worst part was holding it in my hand and feeling the segments and little legs. After I got over that, it wasn't that bad.




After school, I took the kids to trick or treat at David's office. Then later we went around the neighborhood. Everyone loved Kallai's glowing eyes! The kids got TONS of candy, probably 10 pounds each. I think we might put some away and bring it out in a few months when we are having a dearth of candy-filled holidays. All in all, it was a perfect Halloween.

Happy Birthday Keith!

My baby brother arrived on Halloween, so we knew he might be a little strange...

but nothing could have prepared us for Keith! (LOL)

Keith, you may be getting older, but I hope you NEVER grow up!

Love You!

The jack-o-lantern that almost wasn't

The past couple of years, David and I have felt a little bah humbug-ish about carving pumpkins. (It makes a mess, it takes lots of time, we end up carving 3 pumpkins each because the kids can't do it on their own, etc.) But this year we decided to jump back into the carving tradition. We figured the kids were old enough to do most of the work on their own, and would have fun. It ended up being just a tad more difficult than we expected.



First, we waited a little too long to pick up pumpkins. I went to Walmart on Monday, and they had 6, count them, 6 pumpkins. 5 of them were bashed in. I bought the whole one. By the time I left, the other 5 had been purchased. Not to worry, our stake has a Pumpkin Patch to raise money for the Perpetual Education Fund. I drove by on my way home from Walmart and there were lots of pumpkins left. I wanted to let my kids pick theirs out, so I took them over on Tuesday. There were lots of pumpkins, but they were all mushy and rotten. I was starting to get worried. I had seen pumpkins earlier in the week at Smith's, so we went there in hopes that there would be a few left. It was a relief to see they still had piles and piles of pumpkins. When I got to the register, I realized the reason they had so many left was because they were EXPENSIVE!!!! Oh, well. As Dave Ramsey would say, I paid my tuition to Idiot School, and learned my lesson to buy pumpkins early next year.

Smith's didn't have any carving kits, so I had David pick up one on his way home. Only one, because I was sure we had several pumpkin knives at home. I was wrong. So we started our pumpkin carving adventure with 1 carving knife, 1 scooper, 3 little pokers, and 4 solid gold pumpkins. I promptly mangled the knife trying to cut the top off of the first pumpkin. That was when we decided to carve pumpkins the old fashioned way, the way we did it as kids, with spoons and steak knives. I did manage to unbend the pumpkin knife, which we used very gently for the intricate details.



The kids did have a lot of fun, and they were able to do most of the work themselves. I had to help Taliah scoop out the guts, because she refused to touch the "slimy stuff". I also helped Kallai cut out his nose, because he was worried he would amputate it. But, all in all, it turned out to be a fun family experience, and the kids were proud of their finished works of art. I decided to look at the problems optimistically. It sure makes a funny blog, and the kids will never forget carving pumpkins this year. Next year it will be even better!

A Tribute to Mariasha

Mariasha has grown up so fast! It seems like just yesterday she was a baby in my arms. In celebration of Mariasha, here are a few of our memories of her childhood.



1. When Mariasha was born, we lived in a basement apartment. My cousin Susan lived upstairs. Her baby Josh was just a few weeks older than Mariasha. During the summer we would leave the doors open for a breeze (there was no a.c.) and block the doors with baby gates. Mariasha would stand at our door downstairs, and Josh would stand at his door upstairs and they would yell to each other for hours. They were both about 9 months old. It was so cute.

2. Mariasha has always been a passionate person. Whatever emotion she is feeling, she feels it deeply. When she is happy, she energizes the whole room, when she is unhappy, watch out! Starting about age 6 months and continuing until she was 3, she would throw terrible tantrums. She would get upset and start to scream. What made it terrible, though, is that she would not stop screaming, not even to breathe! Her face and hands would turned blue, her eyes would roll back in her head, she would arch her back and start to convulse. Finally, she would pass out, start breathing again, and wake up within a few seconds. The doctor said "Ignore it or it will get worse." That is not an easy thing to do in the middle of Walmart!

3. Mariasha has always been independent. When she was a toddler her favorite phrase was "Leave me alone!" She said it so often that we got her a t-shirt with that on it.

4. When Mariasha was four, we lived in a houlse that had a huge crabapple tree in the back yard, and we hung an airplane swing on it. Mariasha loved to swing in it while holding her baby brother Jordan. She enjoyed having a sibling, but was personally insulted that Jordan was a boy. She had wanted a sister. She talked about her sister in the present tense, and waited very impatiently for her to arrive for 10 years.


5. Mariasha has said some really cute things over the years. When she was little we would call her "silly goose". One day she said, "I not a goose, I a duckie!"
One day we were driving by the Temple and I told here she would be married there someday. She replied, "I not a mermaid!"
We went to the airport to say goodbye to David's brother Jeremy when he left on his mission. For the next 2 years when we asked Mariasha where he was, she said he was on an airplane.
When Mariasha was about 9, she asked why missionaries went to the MTC. I told her that was where missionaries were trained, and that MTC was an abbreviation for Missionary Training Center. Her eyes got big, and she said "Oh, I get it!" All her life she had thought we sent missionaries to the "Empty Sea", and she never understood why.




6. Mariasha is very creative. When she went to the doctor's office for her pre-kindergarten check up, the nurse asked her to draw a picture of herself. She drew a picture with her with head cocked to the side and her hand on her hip, which the doctor raved over. He said it was very advanced for her age due to the detail, specifically because she had drawn her body in a specific pose.

7. When she was 6, Mariasha decided to redecorate her room. She took her Lion King coloring book, colored all of the pictures, cut them out of the book and hung them from the ceiling with long pieces of scotch tape. She did it very sneakily, and was so proud to show off her decorations to us when she was done.

8. When Mariasha was about 8 she took a cheerleading class over the summer. She had a lot of fun, and was very good at it. She marched in an Independence Day Parade with her class, and performed at a Fireman's Breakfast. There was a competition at the end of the summer that all of the kids in the program competed in. There were about 50 girls that competed, and Mariasha tied for first place! She won a big trophy, but was upset that the HUGE trophy had gone to the other first place winner. She was so funny when she competed or performed because she always stuck her tongue out a la Michael Jordan. The next summer we tried to put her in the class again, but she refused. She had already done that.

9. Jordan's memory of her was when she dressed him up in her Disney's Esmerelda costume, (because until her sister arrived, she just had to make do.)

10. Mariasha had a Halloween party almost every year until she was 10. All the guests showed up in their costumes, and played Halloween themed games. I made a cake that was a Barbie cake decorated to look like Mariasha in her Halloween costume. One year when she was about 5, she decided she wanted to be a tiger. She had seen a picture of very elaborate tiger face makeup, and wanted her face done just like the picture. This was back when I only had 2 children, and I wasn't quite so tired, so I said "Why not?" I spent over an hour painting her face, and it looked really good! When I was done, she looked in the mirror and loved it! Then she said, "I'm done. I want it off now." No amount of pleading would get her to change her mind. The makeup stayed on long enough to snap 1 picture. No one else even saw it in person.



11. Mariasha has always been very ambitious. Whe she was 13 she decided to earn a little money. She recruited her friend Jackie, and they put together a week long Summer Arts Camp for young children. They delivered flyers and got quite a few kids signed up. They kept the kids for 3 hours a day, made crafts, put on a puppet show, went on nature walks, and served snacks. At the end of the week I was surprised how much money they had made. They did the Arts Camp for 2 years, and then Mariasha did a Cheerleading Camp the following year.

12. Taliah's memory of Mariasha is when she painted her fingernails, and when she put on sparkle toes! Taliah also wants to remind Mariasha that she promised to take Taliah to the movies, and is wondering when that is going to happen.

13. Mariasha has the loudest consience that I have ever seen. She never got away with anything for long, because she always tattled on herself! Not to say that she didn't do anything bad. She made her fair share of poor choices. She just had a really hard time living with herself afterwards. She would come to me in tears of self loathing, sure she was the worst person ever. Often I had to comfort her to calm her down enough so she could tell me what she had done . Some things that she thought were huge transgressions were so funny! For instance, when she was 11, a boy in her primary class hugged her, and she didn't tell him not to. She came to me in tears and wanted to know if she needed to talk to the bishop.

14. Some of David's favorite memories are the many times that he made her laugh at just the right moment, and milk shot out of her nose.

15. David taught Mariasha to drive a golf cart when she was about 13. She didn't have any interest in golfing, but liked to spend time with her dad. He reasoned that she could get the hang of driving in someone elses vehicle, and get her crashes out of the way before she graduated to one of our cars. Good choice! Her most memorable crash was when she hit the gas instead of the break and put a dent into the door of the bathroom that was beside the cart path.

16. When Mariasha was 15, she would beg David to teach her how to drive the car, so he took her to a church parking lot and had her make u-turns, 3 point turns and park in stalls over and over and over. This wasn't very satisfying to her. She came home and told me she didn't want to learn to park, she wanted to learn to drive! After that we would let her back the car out of the garage and pull it back in when we needed something out of the freezer. That was really handy!


17. Mariasha is very talented. She is a good dancer, and has a beautiful voice. Some of my favorite memories are of singing duets with Mariasha in church.

18. Mariasha is a great friend. She reaches out to people and invites them into her circle. When she was in Junior high, whenever someone new moved into the neighborhood, she would drag them home from the bus stop to meet me. She would bring them in and say "Mom, this is my new best friend!" She has more "best friends" than I have friends. She had more "Best Friend Ever"s than I think a person is allowed to have.



Mariasha, we love you! When you are around life is NEVER dull!

Those Crazy Kids!

What is it about a camera that brings out the clown in my kids? As soon as I pull it out, they are crowded around me, competing with each other to make the silliest face.


No candid shots for this family. They seem to know instinctively when a camera is in the room. I can't even sneak up on them.





Sometimes they do something so hilarious that I just have to go get the camera.






Wait a minute... maybe that's exactly what they had in mind!

Often, when I go to get the camera, I find a dead battery and hundreds of crazy pictures. All of the kids try to plead innocence, but I know who the culprit is... I have evidence!

I don't know where all of this silliness came from. Where did they learn to be such hams for the camera? It certainly didn't come from David and I. We have always taken very serious pictures. (Mom, you can stop laughing now.) Ok, I'll admit that my children's parents have both spiced up the occasional picture with a little silliness, but that kind of thing can't be hereditary... can it? CAN IT?!?

Lost...and loving it!

We had a fun family activity on Tuesday. We went to Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point. We went for Mariasha's work party. Her boyfriend, Austin (who works there too) came with us, and brought his siblings. It was a lot of fun. First we had a great dinner in The Barn...

then we became dinner for an enormous beast! It was pretty cool working our way through it's digestive system. It was dark and a little creepy. Kallai got spooked and made a speedy exit out one of the Beast's gills. The rest of us wound our way through the beast's insides trying to find a way out. It was a tight squeeze through the small intestines, but we made it out in the end, (accompanied by some very interesting body noises).


The kids raced down the slide of a play structure made out of haybales, jumped on a giant balloon trampoline, and raced pedal cars.Then we went and watched some pig races! The piglets were tiny and so cute! "Hammy" Sosa was the winner.

Everyone sharpened up their maze navigating skills in this mini maze. It may look easy, but when you're not allowed to make any left turns, it takes a lot of time to find your way out!

After our mini-maze warm up, we were ready to enter the big maze. It was in the shape of David Archuleta, "Utah's Idol". There were 2 options, a short maze, and a longer one. We went for the long one. We wandered around for quite a while. David and Kallai kept sneaking away to hide so they could jump out and scare everyone. At one point we got stuck and every path we went on dead ended. David got impatient and took us cross country! After that we were cruising! We found the exit in record time. Later we studied a map of the maze and realized we had gone completely the wrong way! David's cross country trek took us from the long maze to the shorter maze, so that was why it ended being so easy. Oh well.

While we were waiting for everyone to finish, the kids played in a corn box (a sand box, but with corn). I never knew corn was so dusty! And just like with a sandbox, I found an amazing amount of corn in the laundry the next day!

It was a lot of fun, but in the end we were tired. It felt good to just curl up in a rocking chair and relax!

A Strange Man in my House!

I had an interesting experience recently. I turned around and saw that there was a strange man in my house. At first glance he didn't look dangerous, so I held back my instinctive scream. After a second look, I realized he seemed vaguely familiar. Did I know him? His voice wasn't familiar, but there was something about the mischievous look in his eyes that made me think I should recognize him. As I studied him, it dawned on me who he must be. He was, (could it really be?), my little boy, just not so little anymore. How could this have happened? I turned my back for just a moment, and my little boy, Jordan, had turned into a man.



It's an amazing thing how children seem to grow at a steady pace, and then magically they grow up overnight. I experienced this once before with Mariasha, but it's still just as shocking the second time around. It's a time of such mixed feelings. I want the world for my children. I have tried to teach them to be independent, to be able to take care of themselves, but it's hard not to feel obsolete when they start to do just that. I feel like a bird, who's babies are edging toward that first, and hopefully not final, steep drop. I want them to fly, but at the same time I want to wrap them in my arms and protect them from the world.





Even Kallai and Taliah are growing up. They don't need me to hold their hand to cross the street, or even walk them to their friends house anymore. They don't need me to help them get dressed or make their breakfast. For the first time I can look ahead and really see the end of this time in my life, really comprehend the possibility of having all of my children grown. And for the first time I understand those parents who don't want their children to grow up. I have always been excited for each new adventure in my children's lives, the first day of school, the first scout camp, the first date. I didn't understand the parents who clung to their children and didn't want to let them get on the bus.






But now I can see it will end all too soon. A mother is the center of her child's universe. There is a unique mix of joy and sadness to realize I am not the most important person in some of my children's lives anymore, and to know that my days as MIP (most important person) are numbered for the rest. I know this is right and good, but I still might shed a tear over it.




My advice, hold your children close. Before you know it, they won't be children anymore.