Teton Hike

This weekend we went to Driggs with my sister and her family and went for a hike in the Tetons. It was so beautiful, but native Idahoans will know what us Arizonans did not. Hiking in the Tetons is best done in July.

Our first clue should have been this:

The stream we were crossing was supposed to be a dry path. My brother-in-law, who hiked this last July, was surprised to find a flowing stream covering the path. Undaunted we crossed the trees and continued our hike, we should have paid attention in the beginning.

We crossed snow and a million downed trees that blocked the clearly marked path. It was hard but fun. Then we got 2/3 the way there and ate lunch.

If you will note on the picture where we were supposed to end. It was about another full mile around the rim of the canyon and covered in snow. So we ate lunch, enjoyed the view of the waterfall and cave we were supposed to be.

On the way down, Jack, who had been a trooper on the way up, gave out completely. Jason carried him the full two miles down the mountain, over the snow and slippery, muddy path. My hero, and certainly his son's hero.

First Blog of Summer!

Summer has finally TRULY come for Idaho, so we got out our water slide. The kids were sliding normally on it for about three seconds, and then they started this.

Easter 2009

It was a much happier easter for us in Idaho this year. There was no snow! But there was a fabulous double rainbow the night we dyed eggs. It was so cool and bright and it made a full arc in the sky, although we weren't able to get pics of the full arc. (Just too dang big.)The kids hunted eggs twice this year. Uncle Mike and Aunt Laura hosted one egg hunt and Aunt Holly and Grandma Norma hosted the other one. It was fun and the kids ended up with so much candy you'd have thought it was Halloween.

Being the dork that I am, I like the kids to match colors on the holidays (I've come a long way from when the three girls used to wear the same dress. I had to change, though, because Jack just didn't look as good in the dresses.) Anyway, I really love this pic of my kids.

Taryn Turns 6!!!!!

I lost my cord to my camera for a while, but I found it now, so let the blogging begin.

Taryn's 6th birthday was supposed to be Welcome Spring. I got the idea two weeks earlier when the temps were in the high 50's. Fast forward to her birthday, freezing cold and wet outside and we had the Welcome Spring birthday indoors.

Her cake was one giant cup cake, which I loved. It was easy to make and easy to decorate.

But I had left over batter so I made these:

I thought my family would enjoy the cupcakes, but I forgot how much kids love cupcakes. The end of the story is that my family enjoyed a giant cupcake for a week and the kids ate the little cupcakes.

Taryn had all her friends from kindergarten there. She had a great time and this is my favorite picture from the whole party.

My 15 Minutes of Fame

We had an awesome Super Bowl Party last night (even though the dang Cards lost) and as proof, here's Channel 6's story on it. There's a little of our party in the beginning, but most of it comes at the 2 minute mark. Watch for me, I have something witty and intelligent to say. (HA!)

Answers to Prayers

This is a hand of God entry, for which I am grateful. I had a prayer answered over a month ago, but I didn't realize it until yesterday, so much for being in tune.

I'd been having problems getting my kids to clean. Now, I'm no neat freak, far from it, but I just like the clutter and the toys picked up and, after nine years, I was getting tired of being the main picker-upper. However, none of my kids love to clean up their toys--shock--and two of them outright hate it. So it was always a struggle, usually leaving me seething and the kids angry or crying and the basement only half picked up.

I'd been praying for a while for some inspiration on what to do, and every time I thought I'd found a fix, it would work once or twice, and then we'd be back to normal. Well a month ago I had an inspiration while cleaning. I was holding a flashlight and it was darkish in the basement. As a joke, I said, "Let's play CSI cleanup," because, as anyone who has ever watched an episode of any of the three CSI's, it can be full sunlight, dark midnight or anywhere in between and they use their all powerful flashlights, forgoing turning on the lights, to find clues. I shined the light on toys I wanted them to pick up and told them these were clues to why the basement was such a mess. We had a good time, they fell over themselves picking up the "clues" and that was that, except the basement was 100% picked up and there were no tears.

Since then, I've used "CSI Cleanup" at least twice a week, including two times when they cleaned alone, and we never have tears, no fights and everything gets picked up. EVERYTHING, even when they do it. (I suspect it's the power of making their siblings pick up anything they shine the light on, it's a heady thing.) But yesterday I realized that this was my long awaited answer to fun cleaning with my kids. I'm grateful that our Father in Heaven answers all prayers, even the ones that in the grand scheme of things, aren't really that important.

TAVACI

My girls have been in Tavaci, a singing group for the entire time we've lived in Idaho. Terri, the director, is amazing, and the shows she puts on are great. They had their winter concert a couple of weeks ago, and I'm finally getting around to putting the video up.


The first video is "The Snowman Song." This is a great example of what Terri is able to do with over 100 kids, and definitely my favorite song from the concert. I'm not sure how the video will translate onto the internet, but in person it was so COOL!

This next video is Taryn's little part. She sang with only two other kids at the beginning of one of the songs. This is a mama-pride moment; I'm so proud of her getting up and singing in front of hundreds of people at five-years-old.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I've been getting some teasing for never updating my blog. I've been crazy busy and haven't actually logged on in a while, but while reading other blogs, I've realized I've been neglectful. The other day we were having Family Home Evening on Thanksgiving. My sister gave the lesson and was telling the story of the Pilgrims. She told about why they left England and how long their voyage was. Then she asked, "Does anyone know what time the Pilgrims landed?" She meant of year, of course, and was going to go on and tell about their hard first winter. Taryn raised her hand and said, "Three o'clock?"

Help

My camera malfunctioned Halloween night and I have few, if any, usable pictures. Anybody who was at the Bells that night and happens to have pics of my kids, at this point even if they're in the background, or me or Jason, PLEASE let me know. I saw people with cameras that night so I'm begging for help.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like your life was on one continuous loop, kind of a "Groundhog Day" but in hours instead of a whole day.

I'm sitting here, exhausted at 8 pm, and trying to think how I got here.

Done the Dishes. Yup at breakfast. Yup at lunch. Yup after school. Yup after dinner.

Laundry. Before Lunch. After Lunch. After school got out. Just finished folding and putting away the last load.

Clean the basement. Morning. Afternoon. Evening.

That's been my day. I've accomplished three things, mutiple times. Boy do I feel accomplished.

There's the South, and there's the South South

Below is a blog entry from my friend in Tennessee. I found it both horrifying and slightly amusing that the newspaper felt it necessary to put it it. Please understand that this is in no way embellished or made up. She got it out of her newspaper. REALLY!

Squirrel Pot Pie
I know we live in the South, but it isn't the South-South, like Mississippi or Louisiana or Georgia. In fact, I have heard that Nashville is referred to as the "new South", which I thought meant, "new and improved". But then our local paper arrived, and my eyes were opened. There was a half page feature titled Squirrel Pot Pie. It starts off like this: "Do you hunt squirrels? Here're some reasons to besides making a good meal." Then the evils of squirrels are detailed in the next several paragraphs, including, "One of the biggest complaints we humans have about squirrels is that they raid our bird feeders." (The nerve! I'm convinced--they should definitely be eaten!)The article concludes with this sentiment and recipe: "'Tis the season to bag some bushytails--and here's how to cook 'em.3 squirrels1/2 cup of all purpose flour2 tablespoons butter1 quart boiling water1 chopped onion1 teaspoon salt1/4 teaspoon pepperBiscuit crust from a 10-biscuit canLemon juice, sherry or Worcestershire sauce (optional)Cut squirrels to serving size and roll in flour. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in saucepan. Saute squirrel until brown. . ."There's more. But I need to go throw up now.

A Fish Story

This is a story of a man named Jason, who was not a very lucky fisherman. In fact, poor Jason never seemed to catch any fish, only fishlets. Then one October he went to a magical fishing haven called "Coeur d'Alene." For four days he and his brave fishing companions, Larkin, Mike and Al, toiled away the hours casting line after line and having very little luck, especially Jason.

The last day these intrepid men were in this magical land, they heard of a special lake called "Killarney." Our poor heroes were cold and tired, but they were willing to give it one more try. So they motored their boat out into the lake and Jason felt a tug and caught this fish.

He was happy, even though it was quite an ordinary fish. But then he felt another tug at his line. This time as he reeled, his companions watched in amazement. They gaped at the great beast giving a mighty fight, but our hero was stronger, and soon had the thing on board.

THIS WAS THE FISH!!!!!

And that is the story of how Jason caught his first, and possibly last, trophy fish. Now bow your head in respect for this mighty fisherman.

Calling the Tooth Fairy

Okay, so we're sitting at lunch today and Taryn just casually says to Jason and me, "I think if I take another bite of my sandwich my tooth is going to fall out." That came totally out of the blue. She hasn't been complaining of a sore tooth and she never even mentioned one was loose. So we take a look and realize she's right. Jason grabs hold and two wiggles later its out. That was the least dramatic first tooth lost we've ever been through, and this from our biggest drama queen.

Last One!!!!

Today was Jack's first day of preschool. It's not very long and only twice a week, but he's so excited to be going to school like his sisters. This means that twice a week I am down to no kids at home. Part of me is sad at the end of an era, but part of me is doing a happy dance.

He's also excited because his cousin Braden is going to the same school, but not the same class.

I thought I'd put this up because it cracked me up. We were talking to the girls today at dinner about school and when it was Taryn's turn she did her usual minute by minute detail of her day. One of the things they did was talk about their favorite story. Curiously I asked her what her favorite story was, expecting "Ella Enchanted" or something like that. She said "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." I thought that was odd, so I asked why, expecting to hear "I like bears" or "She has yellow hair like me." In keeping with her quirky personality, she said, "Because I like porridge." So there you have it. I guess we'll be making porridge this winter.

First Day of School

It's Brenna's first day of 4th Grade, but I can remember Brenna's first day of kindergarten perfectly, so I thought I'd indulge myself in a stroll down memory lane. It's amazing how fast time passes.

I can't get over how tiny she looks as a kindergartner, or how mature she looks now.

Kylee's look is more mature, but her size is nearly the same.

And my newest kindergartner. She looks grown up to me, but I think that comes with the perspective of how fast they grow up once they hit school.

Jack's Diego-Go-Go B'Day

Jack turned 3 today! (My "baby" is 3, that's hard to swallow.)

He had an all Diego Birthday.

His cake

was Diego. (and another attempt at fondant cakes. My mom and sister told me that on the Food Network they would have molded a 3-D Diego out of blown sugar, and I told them where they could put it. :))

Almost all of his presents

were Diego, almost like his friends knew.

And Jack was the center of attention and king of his world. So he was happy.

Happy Birthday Bug!

Brenna & Kylee's Birthday Cake

Birthday's this year got a little messed up, so I had a small cake and ice cream party for family for Brenna and Kylee. To make it more special, I attempted a rolled fondant cake like the ones on the Food Network Challenges, only not quite as good. It was a pain, but if you don't look too carefully, it looks pretty good.

MEMORY GAME

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see all the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume your playing the game and I will come to your blog and leave one about you.