A Lesson for Boys

Sydney can be quite the popular young lady around our neighborhood. She is beautiful and witty and a lot of fun to be around.

And Parker has a lot of friends.

Often, when she condescends to play with these friends of Parker, she is chased and spied upon and basically worshipped in a 6-8 year-old-boy fashion. Today, we had a few boys over who have no sisters in their home. I think they learned a valuable lesson. This is what I overheard.

[boys standing outside Sydney's door. Sydney and her sisters are inside her room.]
[boys knock on door, Sydney opens.]

Boy: "Can I come in?"
Sydney: "No." [closes door]

[knock knock knock, door opens]
Boy: "I'll go wash my hands. Then can I come in?"
Sydney: "No." [closes door]

[knock knock knock, Sydney opens]
Boy: "I love you."
Sydney: "No." [closes door]

[knock knock knock, Sydney opens]
Boy: "You can be my master."
Sydney: "I'll think about it." [closes door]

Christmas

Last year, I posted pretty extensively about Christmas. Christmas traditions, success and failures, complete with video footage of Christmas morning. Last Christmas I was focused, I had plans, I knew exactly how everything was going to play out. I made homemade gifts, homemade dinners, homemade goodie plates and friend gifts. Pictures and video galore.

This year, Christmas just kind of came. And it was just as wonderful. I don't know if one way is better than another. I enjoyed being more active and more of an active participant in all the extras last year. Its really fun. But this year, I also enjoyed just being here and just letting Christmas come.

I did make a few gifts and a few treats. But Christmas Eve was definitely scaled down from last year. Sterling still took the kids shopping and sledding on the 24th, but I didn't stay home and furiously wrap. I finished that the day before. (Actually I stayed home and cleaned the bathrooms and mopped. Call me crazy, but I enjoy doing that, especially when the house is empty. I finished just in time for a snowy mess to tromp all through the house again. Oh well.)

Dinner was definitely simplified. Costco pizza and salad. And this was probably my most favorite part. We were planning on having a spiritual focus a little later in the evening. But this year, as things just came when they came, our most spiritual moments came when our mouths were full of pizza.

Someone, probably Sterling, starting talking about how this was the night before Jesus was born, many years ago. I asked, "I wonder what other people were doing then? Do you think they were eating pizza?" And that started an awesome conversation about what people were doing and how people were feeling on that special night. Most comments started with, "I like to think about how..." Mary or Joseph felt, how the Nephites felt when they finally saw the signs that would save their lives, how the shepherds felt to see an angel, what the wisemen talked about on their travels. And on and on the conversation went. It was awesome!!!!

So Christmas just simply came this year. After dinner, we opened a few sibling gifts, played a new game, (Hyper Dash, its super fun), ate birthday cake (for Jesus' birthday), talked about Jesus some more. And then we laid out our Christmas stockings. I love to see the kids run to their rooms and rummage for their biggest sock. They stretch it as big as it can get. We laid the socks next to a "re-gifted" cookie plate for Santa, along with a detailed letter, asking several random questions.

Christmas Morning

This was the look on most of the kids faces as they opened their gifts. Priceless enthusiasm.

It wasn't long before a massive dart gun war ensued in our house. Talk about Rapid Fire!

One thing has struck me during the last few days. My kids can actually get along. Sometimes it seems like that will never happen. But lately, they've not only been getting along. They are playing together and enjoying it. They just find a way to make it work. For example, this morning there has been a lot of polly pockets, army guys, dog figurines, gun wars and castles, all in the same mix. It doesn't last all day. It doesn't even last much of the morning. But it IS happening. And for that I am grateful. It gives me hope. Especially for Parker. Its nice to see him included.

It seems wierd to end on that note, but I don't really have anything else to say. It was a great Christmas. We have one more week to play. And there you have it.

from our Gingerbread House to yours...

MERRY
CHRISTMAS!!!

Enjoy this story, if you like.

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, his home teacher decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The home teacher found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his home teacher's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.

The home teacher made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the teacher took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead.

Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The home teacher glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

As the home teacher reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday."

We live in a world today, which tries to say too much with too little. Consequently, few listen. Sometimes the best sermons are the ones left unspoken.

** My husband emailed this story to me. I have no idea where it came from. I wish I did so I could give the author credit. I think it is beautiful.

first position

Sydney is in her first year of ballet. I love it. I mean, she loves it. I mean, I hope she loves it as much as I love it. I remember loving ballet as a young girl. It brings back so many fond memories to see my daughter now dancing. We have good days and bad days (wanting/not wanting to go). But by the end of class, she is always smiling and happy she went. The following pictures are from her Christmas presentation. The parents were invited to the studio to observe a class and then a dance they had prepared.

So let's begin at the beginning - with stretching and a nice warm-up.

Then its on to bar exercises and center floor combinations.

Ahh, the good old days. And look at those legs. Long, beautiful, ballerina legs. I'm trying not to be pushy, I really am. But I hope she enjoys dancing as much as I do, I mean did, I mean, do.

old broken crayons

What are we doing with all these old crayons, you ask? We are peeling them in preparation for a fun Christmas gift to give our friends and teachers. If you are interested, follow along.

Supplies:

lots and lots of crayons, the more broken, the better

mini-muffin pan, non-stick
fingernails are helpful

Step one:
peel the paper off each and every crayon and make sure they are broken small enough to fit inside the muffin cups.

Step two:

Separate the crayons into basic color groups.

Step three:

Preheat oven to about 300 degrees. Place broken crayon pieces into muffin cups. We didn't spray the cups at all, just plop the crayons in there. Our first batch we tried to limit ourselves to only 2 or 3 color groups. The second batch we just mix and matched them however we wanted. We like it better that way. Or you can put even more thought into it and make a black and yellow one, like a bumble bee. Or you could try blacks, browns and greens and make a camouflage one.

Step four:

Place muffin pan in the preheated oven for about 7-8 minutes. Crayons should look runny and a little soupy when they're done. Then we put the whole pan immediately outside into the snow and let them cool. It took about 5 minutes. When the new crayons start to pull away from the edges of the pan and they are hard to the touch, bring it inside and gently dump the crayons out. We dumped them on a towel to make sure they didn't break.

Aren't they cool looking? So then we stacked them, wrapped them up and attached a little card. Of course we had to keep several for ourselves.

Merry Christmas!

The beach that happens to be near a temple

So we were in California last weekend. We crossed through the San Bernadino mountain area Saturday noonish and the weather was HORRIBLE! Rain and fog and I was driving and I was scared. The weather got a little better once we made it into Anaheim, the magical host city for the most magical of all places, D-land.

Well, you can't be this close to the ocean and not go see it. Especially when you live in the Salt Lake Valley and believe me, the Great Salt Lake is great, but its SALTY! As in fun to float in but NOT fun to splash in. So, we went to the beach, even though it was rainy and windy and cold. (something Del Mar beach in Newport). The kids LOVED it.

Here, the girls are thinking, "The ocean is so beautiful. Its siren voice is calling to me." They answered the call and got close enough to get their shoes and socks really wet.

Here, Ster and Rachel are thinking, "Yeah, its pretty much just really cold out here."

And so everyone opted to go back to the hotel and hang out in the HOT TUB. Parker said, "I've been waiting all my life to be in this hot tub!"

Needless to say, the next day, we went back to the beach, had a picnic, screamed at the seagulls and pigeons, because they scared us, and splashed in the beach. Especially Sydney and Parker. And ME!!! It was cold. Really cold. But oooohhhh so fun. Parker really got into it and splashed and fell and splashed around some more. I didn't get very many pictures because I was too busy playing, and that's the way it should be.

It must have been sometime before we went to the beach, we found the Newport Temple. It is beautiful.

Here are the children, all lined up like little ducklings. They are practicing walking the straight and narrow path. Its not straight, I know. But it IS narrow. And we like to start small and simple, line upon line, you know?

D Land

And that is why these girls are so tired. We went to Disneyland!!! It was so much fun! On this particular day, which happened to be the first of two days we were at the park, I took the two little girls back to the hotel for a nap. (I will never consider hoteling anywhere other than directly across the street from Disneyland, ever. Being able to go back to the hotel for naptime saved us.) As it would happen, the girls were asleep before we even made it to the room. Tired chickees, I tell ya. (This tidbit is just for our family to remember, with fondness. We were the furthest room away from everything. Ground level but in the very back, next to the housekeeping room and some kind of utility/compression unit room. It was very loud and noisy and the compressor went off about every hour or so, even throughout the night. Remember that? Aren't you fond of that memory? Ahhh, good times.)

This is the obligatory picture in the teacups. The kids enjoyed it but Sterling doesn't like to get dizzy so not his favorite. Some of our favorite rides:

Sydney: Matterhorn, Splash Mountain, Peter Pan

Parker: all the mountain rides, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

Camille: The star one. (space mountain?), Splash Mountain, Peter Pan

Rachel: Anything she could go on with everyone else.

California Adventure was also a lot of fun. Some standouts were Soarin' over California, Raging Rapids, and Bugs Life Land place. Fun fun fun. But I'll tell ya, you don't dry off as fast in December as you might in August. Just FYI.

We totally missed the Fantasy Parade the first night. So the second night, we found a place along Main Street and staked it out one hour early. It actually turned out to be a great idea. I took the kids shopping in the souvineer shops and Ster made nice friends with a man staking out his spot next to us. It was perfect timing. The only hiccup was when I lost Camille in the shop. Talk about crowds and it was getting dark and I HAD to hold Rachel because she was grabbing everything in sight. Parker kept running off. So did Sydney, which is where the problem originated. She roamed off with Camille and came back without her. It was extremely stressful for a while. And the kids kept running off while I was trying to look for her. Finally Sydney came back with her and in the meantime, they had both picked their souvineer. Nice. I paid and got out of there as fast as possible. I needed Sterling's reinforcement as quickly as possible. See how stalwart and brave he is as he watches over our children along the parade route? He's a good soul, I tell ya, a good soul.

YAY FOR DISNEYLAND!

Note to self...

Remember to blog about the following things:

Why these children are running for their lives.

Why these girls are so tuckered out.

First position

But no more about Ster's birthday, per his request. The video was more than enough. He's a private man.

And what in the world are we doing with all these crayons?

Happy Birthday Sterling

Ster's birthday was this week. I am more and more amazed by this man as time passes. He is a wonderful father, husband and friend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

The Truth

This is how I babysit the neighbor kids at my house.

Everyone's safe, cared for and loved. And their bellies are full of pretzels, I think, or something else that crunches into powdery dust on the kitchen floor when you step on it.

I just wanted you to know. I believe in full disclosure. And this is how we roll at my house.

You want a piece of this...?

You want a piece of this? Oh yeah? You want this snow to be a permanent part of your face? Oh really? You sure?

OK buddy. You asked for it. Ask and ye shall receive.

Hey, don't dish it back. No way, Man. You're not supposed to throw it back!

(pay no attention to the friend, lying prostrate in the background)

I'll get you back. I swear it. Just you wait. When you least expect it . . . I'll be there . . . waiting.