Almost a Surprise

Yesterday was Jason's birthday. Last month when I found out the seventh Harry Potter movie was being released on his birthday I started making plans for a surprise birthday party to see the movie. I've never been able to pull off a surprise party for him. I invited all of his family and bought tickets. He knew I was planning something but I managed to keep the movie a secret. Jason's family came for dinner and we celebrated with presents and cheesecake with the kids. The plan after that was to pick up the babysitter, blindfold Jason and all the adults were going to take him to the movie. It would have been perfect if Jason's brother, who wasn't there, hadn't called him to wish him happy birthday during dinner. The first thing he asked him was "Have you gone to the Harry Potter movie yet?" So my surprise was spoiled. The movie was fantastic though and it was exciting to go on the first day it was released. It made for a great party. I thought the day was over but there was one more surprise waiting for Jason that I didn't know about. Jason's sister, Melanie, didn't go to the movie so she could stay with her little boy. While we were gone she ran to the dollar store to pick up supplies and came back to our house and she and the babysitter helped the kids decorate the house for Jason. I felt a little guilty leaving the kids with a babysitter because they love being right in the middle of birthdays. They had a great time though and it helped them still feel like they were part of the birthday party. They were asleep when we got home but all they could talk about when they got up this morning was decorating the house last night! Here's a picture Melanie took of them while they were decorating. Who knew balloons and crate paper could be so much fun?

I think this was the best surprise of all for Jason. It really made his day!

Fabulous Four

I don't know what I would do without Kaitlyn. She is always giving me reasons to laugh or smile. Last week when my dad was here I had to run to the store to pick up a few things. Kaitlyn stayed home to play with grandpa while I was gone. As I was leaving they were playing Candyland. Kaitlyn was trying to stack the deck so that her first card was the fairy. My dad dealt with that by stacking the candy cane card so that it was her second card and sent her back to the start. It seemed fair to Kaitlyn and everyone was happy when I left. I came home a few minutes later and when I walked in the door Kaitlyn burst into tears saying "Grandpa's not playing fair!" They had switched to playing Memory. The only problem was my dad decided there were too many cards after they had started the game so he turned over all the cards to pull some of the matches out to make the game shorter. In Kaitlyn's mind she was just sure he was cheating!

She's given me a few scares lately too. My dad and I were cleaning some furnace filters and we thought she ran outside with us. We looked all over for her inside and out and couldn't find her anywhere. I was really starting to panic until I noticed the pillows on my bed looked a little funny. She had decided to play a game of hide and seek and was hiding under the pillows. We now have a rule she can't play hide and seek unless she tells me she is going to hide.

Yesterday the activity day girls were at my house making thank you cards. She had a great time being right in the middle of the big girl activity. A lot of the girls were making cards for their moms. I asked Kaitlyn who hers was for and she said "Santa". I wonder where she got that idea from?

While having a 4 year old has its challenges it's also such a fun age. She like a sponge right now soaking up all the information around her. She is constantly giving me tidbits of information and then saying, "Am I right?" The other day she was doing an alphabet dot to dot. She had gotten to K and then asked me where the letter "elemen" was. She's so proud of being able to write her name now. It is fun to watch her so eager to learn!

Dad's Visit

Last week my dad came to visit for Jared's baptism. My mom wasn't able to come and it was different just having my dad here. My dad is great at jobs around the house and I felt kind of bad because I had a bunch of projects waiting for him when he got here. He really is happiest when he's working on the house though and I think he enjoyed it. He installed programmable thermostats, fixed holes in the walls, replaced electrical outlets, fixed some plumbing and hung towel racks. It was fun to have him here and I realized how grateful I am that he is still in good enough health he can travel.

A few weeks ago my friend Don ran a 50 mile race in Ogden Valley. He asked me to pace him for the last 15 miles and when I was getting ready to go I mentioned to my kids that Don is about the same age as my dad. Their response was "and he can still run?!!!" My kids don't really know the dad that I knew growing up. He took us camping, hiking and fishing. He used to love to ski and he's even the one that got me into running. I remember going to watch him run 10Ks and thinking it looked like so much fun! He was always a middle of the pack runner but he enjoyed it and I admired him for it. One of my first 5Ks was in Island Park on the 4th of July. That was also one of Dad's last races. He didn't mind at all that I beat him. It was a very small race and even though he came in last he won a blue ribbon for his age group! Dad got really busy with work after that and never really had time for running anymore. Here's a picture of my family in 1985 in Yellowstone. Too bad Dad has a hat on or you could see he really hasn't always had gray hair!

As the years went on my family saw my dad's health begin to decline but it was so slow it was hard to really notice what was happening. I can't even begin to explain the emotions I felt when I found out he had been diagnosed with M.S. My dad's sister had suffered from M.S. and we had seen the devastating effects it had on her family for years before she passed away. All I could think about was the same thing happening to my dad and I desperately wanted my children to know their grandpa. We soon found out that medications have improved a lot since my aunt suffered from M.S. but there is still no cure. I don't think a day goes by that my mom and dad aren't affected by his disease but he does have good and bad days. I know it is so hard for him not to be able to do so many things that he used to love to do but I'm so grateful for the things he still can do. We had a wonderful time touring Rome with my parents this spring. I think my dad had the trip of a lifetime. He even ran half a block trying to catch an over crowded bus! We had to do lots of walking and he did so much better than I thought. I'm grateful for the days he feels well enough to go to the beach, the zoo, or the park with us. I'm glad he can still travel to Utah and see my kids in their games and activities. Sure their are a lot of things he's had to miss when he's not feeling well but I will cherish every minute that he can spend with my family.

Jared's baptism

Jared was baptized on Saturday. It was a special day for Jared but it was also such a neat experience as a mom. There is nothing quite like seeing your child dressed in white and taking a such an important step in his life. I think days like this are the pay days for all the times when it is hard to be a mom. I was so proud of my sweet little boy. He has been so excited for his baptism and it has been hard to wait for a whole month after he turned eight. He was so proud of getting baptized that he has been telling everyone all week that he was getting baptized on Saturday even if he really didn't know them! My dad and Jason's sister, Melanie, gave some wonderful talks that I hope Jared will always remember. Melanie's husband Sam played "I am a Child of God" on the trombone. Before asking him to play we debated about whether a trombone would be appropriate but it really turned out wonderful and added so much to the meeting. Thanks to everyone who came to support Jared and all the wonderful teachers, friends and family members who have influenced his life!

Not My Thing

A couple weeks ago when my dad was here he pointed to a Halloween block I had bought at Tai Pan and said, "Did you make that?" I laughed and said, "Of course not! I don't make things like that; I buy things like that!" Last night was Fabulous Friday at our church (Super Saturday except on Friday night. For those of you not members of our church it's a craft night for women.) I looked at all the cute things they had at church and signed up for a couple projects without putting any thought into the fact that I had to somehow make mine look cute. I had a great time chatting with friends at dinner but then it was time to pick up our kits and I remembered why I don't do crafts. They were giving us directions and I really started to stress out when they were using words like "mod podge" and I had no idea what that even was! I started thinking about when the last time was I actually attempted a craft activity. It took me a while to figure it out and then I remembered it was Bob.

This is Bob. He visits our house at Christmas time and my kids named him. He's magic and flies back to Santa every night to report on the kids' behavior and then finds a new spot to watch them for the next day. He can't be touched or he loses his magic. He goes back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve and then we don't see him until the next year. My kids adore Bob and I have to admit that I've become pretty fond of him too. It wasn't always that way though. Bob wouldn't even exist if it weren't for my mother-in-law. She is extremely creative and talented. I think she can make anything with a sewing machine and I've never seen anything she made that didn't turn out perfect. She had four boys before her youngest was finally a girl. Now that her daughter is grown and she has several daughters-in-law she loves to find fun crafts to do for girls' day. The only problem is that the fun things she can whip up in a few hours take me days or weeks. Last year she found a pattern for these elves. It sounded cute enough until I started. I had no idea how to turn a bunch of fabric into a stuffed doll. It of course involved several hours of sewing (and unpicking because that's how sewing works for me.) Then we got to the point where we had to turn a ball of fabric and stuffing into an elf's head. For me this was like trying to turn straw into gold. Luckily, I had the help of my mother-in-law and I enjoyed spending the time with her and my sisters-in-law. Thanks to them I think Bob turned out adorable but don't look too close because he's certainly not perfect.

Last night actually turned out better than I thought-especially when I found out Mod Podge is a whole lot like Elmer's glue! Luckily it was all wood and paper so there were no sewing machines involved and I had a great time visiting with my friends while I worked. It took several hours and again, don't look too close, but here's what I came up with.

So for all my creative friends out there. If you want to share your crafty ideas, call it a girls night and let me know. I can always use a night out with my friends and in the end I always like the finished product. If it's left up to me, the next time I want something cute for my house I'll be heading to Tai Pan.

A Week of Halloween Fun

It's been a full week of Halloween activities and by last night we were all exhausted and ready to settle back into our normal routine. Last weekend my parents surprised us with a visit from California to watch the kids in their primary program at church. This year was Andrew's last program and Kaitlyn's first. I couldn't see Kaitlyn from where I was sitting with my class but everyone else told me she not only sang the songs but danced through them too. We enjoyed having my parents here for the weekend and decorated Halloween cookies with them.

Our neighbors, the Warners, always have a pumpkin carving party the week before Halloween with literally over 100 pumpkins. Here are a couple of the pumpkins the kids carved at their house this year.

Friday night was our annual doughnut party. I spent all day in the kitchen making over 50 doughnuts and probably twice that many doughnut holes. This was a tradition started by our friends the Little's when we were living on campus at the U when Jason was in medical school. We loved it so much we had to keep up the tradition when we moved on. We have shared doughnuts with so many wonderful friends over the years. Jason got out what our kids have named "the scary mask" and spent half the evening on the porch scaring people as they came to our house. He has a couple favorite people to scare although I won't mention any names! He made a couple small kids cry and I had to make up a new rule that he couldn't scare anyone under the age of 5. Hopefully their parents are still friends with us! Every year when my feet are aching so bad at the end of the day I wonder if it is worth it but it has been a lot of fun and I don't think my family or neighbors will let me quit at this point!

The kids had so many fun activities to wear their costumes to this week they were almost tired of them by Halloween (not to mention Kaitlyn lost some of hers and the dress was ready to fall apart by last night.) Here are some pictures of them dressed up to go trick-or-treating. Andrew was a ninja, Jared was Harry Potter, and Kaitlyn was Sleeping Beauty.

Just when it was time to go trick-or-treating it started pouring rain. We took our time getting ready to go hoping it would stop but it just kept coming. Jason finally headed out the door with some umbrellas and the kids didn't even complain about getting cold or wet. We also got a beautiful rainbow when the storm was finally about over. We finished the weekend with a family party on Sunday night. What a fun week but I think I can wait a year for more Halloween parties!