Grandma and Grandpa with Jenna

Grandparents

We all said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa as they headed back home.  When I brought Jaiden to school she said, "You know what I like about Grandma's and Grandpa's?  They are nice...and funny...and they bring you presents...and play with you... and they're old!"  (Don't worry Mom and Dad, we don't think you are old!)

Grandma and Grandpa Westra spoke in our sacrament meeting yesterday about family history and they both did a terrific job.  They have been serving a family history mission for the past six years and are family history advisors over 128 stakes!  So they keep very busy!

I enjoyed relaxing and visiting with my folks.  They brought us out to lunch on Saturday which was fun!  We also did some shopping, participated in the Nativity, and watched a couple of movies.   They baby-sat for us a couple of times so that Rick and I could get out.  The kids loved going to the park, playing "tennis" with Grandpa out in the empty lot near our house, playing board games and Wii games with Grandma and being read to and pampered! 

We always love when Grandma and Grandpa come and hate to see them leave.  Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad! 

Nativity

Our family had the opportunity to be in the Live Nativity with some friends at Tuacahn tonight. Rick was a wise man, Janika was an angel, Grandpa and the boys were shepherds, and Janelle, Jaiden, Josh and I were townspeople.  It was a fun experience and the kids want to do it again.  Tuachan provides the costumes and everything else.  Different groups can sign up to participate in it on different nights.

I left the baby home with Grandma because she had a cold and I didn't know how she would be out in the cold for that long.  But all of the other kids, along with Grandpa, participated.  Josh had a bit of a melt-down in the green room when his hat fell off but luckily he was fine during the actual performance.  We arrived at 5:15 to get our costumes, did a run-through at 6:00 and then did a twenty minute performance at 7:00 and again at 8:00.  In between the two performances everyone met in the green room to play cards and other games.  (That was my boys favorite part!)

I wish we had had a family member out in the audience to take some shots of us on the stage.  I want to bring the kids back on another night to view the nativity because it is quite effective with the big stage, real animals (including a camel), lights, and beautiful music.  If you live in this area then I recommend being in it or at least going to watch it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving Day!!  My mom and dad arrived last night, bringing presents for our birthday kids (from last month and next month).  The kids were thrilled about those and enjoyed reading stories and playing games with them.

After the youngest four were in bed, the adults went down to our "theater room" in the basement and watched the new Star Trek movie on DVD.  The older kids stayed up playing the Wii games that Grandma and Grandpa had brought.  Grandma and Grandpa have more Wii games than we do!

Thanksgiving morning we slept in and then my mom and I started cooking.  Janika had already made two of the salads yesterday.  My mom decided to try my cardio workout with me and suddenly half my kids wanted to do it too.

We had our Thanksgiving feast for lunch.  We enjoyed Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, peas, carrots, stuffing, our yummy yams with the brown sugar walnut topping, pretzel jello, and four-step pudding.  Yum yum!!  After clean up, naps, and games, my dad and I went for a walk with the kids to the park. Our afternoons have been simply delightful here.  (Notice Jase in shorts and bare feet!)

Poor Jenna!  This is grandpa's doing of course.  My camera was on the wrong setting so I didn't get a clear picture but I had to post it anyway...  The first time she didn't seem to mind -- she was just hanging there (with Grandpa holding her underneath) with that "bored look" on her face like she always does. The second time she wasn't quite so happy! 

We came back home and ate leftovers and the kids played more Wii.  Then Rick took Jase, Janika, and her friend, out shopping at some of those stores opened at 11:00 tonight.  They were back home at 11:35 p.m. though since the lines were so long just to get in.  They are setting their alarms to be back out shopping by 5:00 a.m.  I am glad that Janika and Jase want to be Rick's shopping partner because I would much rather be sleeping in my nice big king-sized bed with the warmed up electric mattress dreaming about turkey and candied yams....  

Jaiden's Thanksgiving Feast

I made it back from Jase's Triathlon in time to go to Jaiden's Kindergarten Thanksgiving feast...  She has the same big cheesy grin in every picture!

Here is Jaiden with her friend, Hunter.  This will be their last time together because their family is moving to Arizona.  We will miss them!!

Geckathon

Jase's school puts on an annual Geckathon (mini thriathlon) each year and Jase was excited about participating.  The kids swam 300 meters, biked three miles, and then ran two miles.  I didn't get any swimming pictures because I was at home getting the younger kids off to school.  By the time I pulled into the pool parking, Jase was already in the dressing room changing into his shorts and T-shirt.  I hurried and called Rick at work to say that Jase would be coming by the Seminary building in about one minute.  Rick brought his entire Seminary class outside to cheer him on and they all chanted "Jase, Jase, Jase, Jase!"   I am sure Jase loved it.   Since the biking route was near the road, I was able to follow him much of the way and take some pictures.  I even stopped and gave him a water bottle along the route.  We are proud of him for participating. He did great!!  

Drippy Doors and Birthday Wishes

A few months ago Rick took the closet doors off the kids' room upstairs saying he was going to paint them.  He had painted the baseboards when we got new carpet (and it looks very nice by the way) and now wanted to paint the doors to match the baseboards.  I thought the doors looked perfectly fine and never wanted them re-painted in the first place, but that is beside the point.  Well, the doors sat around in our shed for weeks because he never got around to renting a paint spray gun to paint them.  He had plans to do it a couple different weekends but things came up and it didn't happen.

Well, my parents are coming for Thanksgiving and they typically stay up in my daughter's room.  She has a big closet with clothes falling out everywhere and it looks really messy and so I asked my hubby if he could please have her closet door back on before Thanksgiving so that it would like nice.  Notice I didn't say anything about painting.  So that is what leads me to my story...


Have you ever heard the story "If you give a mouse a cookie?"  Well, here is our TRUE story of "If you give your husband a request..."

If you tell your husband to put the closet doors back on your daughter's room (that he took off and put in the shed two months ago to paint and never did), then he will go and rent a paint sprayer so that he can spray the door before putting it back on...

And if he rents a spray gun to spray the door, he will decide to spray all of the closet doors that are sitting in the shed before putting them back on...

And if he decides to spray all of the closet doors before putting them back on, he will also take off all of the other doors in the house in order to paint them too (even if his wife tells him over and over not to)...

And if he takes all of the other doors off their hinges, then he will carry them all into the garage and stand them up while he attempts to paints them (even if his wife tells him that it looks very precarious and perhaps he should lean them against the garage wall instead)...

And if he balances the closet doors capriciously, and begins to paint them with the paint sprayer, then right before he is almost finished painting all of them, one will fall over and knock another, which will knock another, which will knock another, until just like dominoes, all of the freshly painted doors are now all over the garage floor with paint everywhere and a husband who is covered from head to toe in splattered white paint...

And if there is a husband covered with splattered white paint and doors all over the ground, then the paint splattered husband will enlist the help of his tired wife who was almost ready to crawl into bed, while he tries to brush the drippy paint (and dirt) off the doors.  

And while brushing debris and splattered paint off the doors, then husband will ask his wife if she will hold the doors while he sprays them.  The wife, not wanting to be sprayed in the face with a paint sprayer, politely declines but attempts to help brush the drippy paint.  But since the wife's painting skills are no better than her husbands, she is not much help.

And after two frustrated tired people try to salvage messy doors, the husband will try again, re-spraying all of the doors making more drippy paint.

And after leaving the doors dripping with paint and the time almost midnight, the husband will ask the wife if he should go paint the outside doors now.

And if the wife exasperatedly vetoes that idea, the next morning, the husband will go check on the doors and inform his wife that all of the doors look like someone just threw a bucket of paint on them and they are now completely ruined.  

And if the doors are ruined, the determined husband will still go ahead and begin to paint the outside doors of the house.

And if the husband begins to paint the outside doors of the house, the paint sprayer will start to spray paint in every direction.

And after the paint sprayer starts to spray paint in every direction, the husband will bag the paint sprayer and start to paint with a brush.

And after the husband starts to paint with a brush, he will run out of paint and go to Home Depot to get some more.

And if the husband goes to Home Depot in order to get more paint, they will say that they don't have any more paint in that color.

And after going to Home Depot and being told they don't have any more of that kind of paint, the husband will get very indignant, and blame the sprayer and Home Depot and the doors and say, "I never should have started this project..."

And after the husband frets and complains and blames Home Depot, the sprayer, and the doors; the wife will murmur under her breath...but will refrain from thinking, "This is what I get for marrying a musician/teacher instead of a handyman.."

And after the fretting and murmuring, the husband will tell the sons to go ahead put the dried drippy doors back on their hinges so that he and his wife can fulfill their obligation at the temple that evening...

And after the boys put the dried drippy doors back on their hinges, the husband hurries and puts the still slightly wet outside doors back on so that the baby will not escape and the kids won't freeze with the approaching evening.

And with the doors back on the hinges, the husband and wife leave the 11 year old son in charge of baby-sitting all of the kids, fixing dinner, and putting on the rest of the doorknobs, since the 13 year old daughter got a last minute invitation to see the movie, "New Moon."

And if the husband and wife get home from the temple and find that all is well (except for having to live with dried drippy doors)...

And if all of this happens on the husband's birthday...then the wife has no choice but to close her eyes so that she doesn't see dried drippy doors and ask her husband to sing her a nice soothing love song...and tell him that someday they will laugh over this day, and they will celebrate his birthday tomorrow...

And please oh please, if you happen to come visit this particular house, just don't ask who painted the doors!

Difficult mornings...

Ya know, I've heard people say, "once you've had about four children, any more is a piece of cake -- just  another plate on the table."  Well, that is the biggest load of bunk I have ever heard!!!  Maybe it was said by a man who trotted off to work each day and had no idea what was going on at home. I don't know -- but I do know that the person who said that obviously does not have a baby in the house. Especially one who wakes up in the night or one where meal-time is spent throwing food on the ground and dumping sippy cups of milk upside down, or where each minute is spent climbing on to high chairs and tables. 

That person must not have a pre-schooler who throws temper tantrums and refuses to use the potty.   Or a kindergartener who is reverting to using baby talk and screams bloody murder when I try and brush her hair, or a first grader who mopes forlornly around the house taking a half hour just to put her shoes on in the morning, or a fourth grader who is constantly teasing his little and sisters (and then doing an evil laugh) and making them scream....  (I won't include the sixth and eighth grader because they were already off to school by the time all of this occurred this morning.)  I am sure I will have plenty of nice things to write about my children tomorrow but today was one of those morning and I am feeling just a bit sorry for myself...

But now all of the cryers, mopers, screamers are all off to school (except the baby) -- leaving a trail behind of dirty dishes, un-made beds, filthy laundry, and strewn toys.  Sometimes I just want to cry, throw a temper tantrum, mope forlornly around the house, or tease someone -- just like my kids.  But I will try to hold it all together -- at least for today.

Awards Assembly and Court of Honor

Last night Jared was awarded an Academic Achievement Award at his school and tonight Jase received his "First Class," "Second Class," and "Tenderfoot."  Way to go boys!! 

The Climber

Jenna loves to climb.  This was her most recent accomplishment -- she climbed all the way up Josh's high chair just like a ladder and plopped herself right in.  Then she stood up in it and clapped.  She was pretty proud of herself!  She has also climbed up on to the fireplace, the couch (and then flips the lights switches on and off), the toilet seat (I found her stuck there not able to get back down), and even the kitchen table.  She climbed up on a little kid chair on to a regular chair on to the table.  She hates in whenever I pull her down in the midst of her adventures.  She goes right back and starts all over again.  What a busy body!  

Stake Conference

My husband and I have always been a little conflicted about the Saturday night session of Stake Conference. Apparently many members feel the same way since the Saturday session is always only half as full as the Sunday session, which is truly unfortunate.

My husband has a tendency to grumble under his breath about going to yet another church meeting when he has just been to two hours of Priesthood Leadership meeting, teaches religion every day of the week, has meetings throughout the week, and is gone the entire day on Sundays with church responsibilities.  So whenever the Saturday night Stake Conference meeting comes around with no responsibilities on his part, he always half jokingly asks, "So are we going tonight?"  "Of course we are going," I always answer back and he sighs and puts his suit back on.

I always explain that I particularly LOVE the Saturday night session of Stake Conference.  It is pretty much the ONLY time I can enjoy a church meeting without any distractions from the kids.  On Sundays my husband sits on the stand while I am wrestling kids who are fighting to sit on my lap while trying to keep my baby from crawling away, my three year old from dumping the cereal all over the floor and the older kids from laying down on the bench.  At the Saturday Stake Conference session I can pay attention and actually get something out of the meeting other than cheerios squished on my dress and scribbled, crinkly drawings from my kids.   As an added bonus -- I can sit next to my husband instead of just looking at him on the stand.  We can tickle each others backs and hold hands.  Yes, I love Stake Conference.  

Tonight's meeting was especially good.  I wished I had brought along a notebook so that I could have jotted down a few notes.  I particularly enjoyed Brother Homer and Sister Riding's remarks.  Brother Homer, a young father, shared an experience from his mission where he and his companion received inspiration about how to teach the plan of salvation in their area.  They bought a bucket of sidewalk chalk and went to a local park where there was a huge area devoted to sidewalk drawings.  They proceeded to draw the plan of salvation complete with circles representing the pre-earth, earth, spirit world, and three kingdoms.  They had about a dozen children join them and ask if they could help.  The children became busy coloring away.  Then they asked what the pictures meant and the missionaries were of course happy to explain.  Then the kids brought their parents over and the missionaries explained the plan of salvation to all of the parents.   They had some incredible spiritual experiences that happened as a result of this activity.

Another experience he shared was about his seven year old daughter who has Down Syndrome.  We know her because she attended The Learning Center with Janelle when they were both two years old.   He was married shortly after his mission and this was their first child and so he and his wife were very young.  He said that he lovingly held his baby in his arms the night before she was be blessed and wondered, "How do you bless a perfect spirit?"  He said that the thought came into his mind, "She is here for all of you -- not for herself."  He realized what a precious gift she was for his family.  He said that she is a "spiritual thermometer" for their home.  If there is any contention in the home she will sit behind the couch and fold her arms until the conflict is resolved.  When she was very young, they went to a temple wedding at the Salt Lake temple.  Later on this sweet pure little girl told her parents, "I can't wait until Jesus comes again so that I can be married in the temple and have a baby."  He was amazed since she clearly understood certain doctrines that she had not yet been taught in the home or in primary. Of course I was wiping my eyes throughout the entire talk. 

Several things impressed me from Sister Riding's (a young mother) talk, but I will just share one.  She recently learned of a sad experience and asked if she could share it with us.  A certain mother had worked diligently with her children through the years to teach them the gospel and the importance of marrying in the temple.  As time went on, however, the mother ended up straying from the church.  Her daughter did get married in the temple, but the mother was not worthy to attend.  The mother tearfully expressed her sorrow to her daughter with these words, "I always wanted you to marry in the temple, but I never dreamed that I would let my own guard down and not be able to go..."   What a tragedy!  That story really stuck with me.  We are never immune to the temptations of the world and we can never "let our own guard down."  We need to teach our children but we also need to be diligent in our own lives.  I had many things come to my mind during this conference -- ways in which I can improve both as a mother, and in my own path of progression.   

There were other excellent talks as well, and I thoroughly enjoyed having my spiritual bucket filled.  I also enjoyed being able to cuddle with my sweetie.  Tomorrow I get him for most of the day, and that makes me happy.  I have to admit that Sundays are difficult in this stage of life.  But every once in a while amidst all of the chaos of husband gone and kids running around -- teasing and picking on each other, I can still pluck out a piece of revelation that our family needs here and there.  Now if we can just follow through with it, then we will be doing okay.

Highlights...again