Big Helper?

Jr. Jr.:  He only had a few rice crispies left on his tray, so I poured him some more.

Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day 2014

November 24 is Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day.
To celebrate, we went to see Derek Banks perform at the Orem Library.  I've mentioned Derek before on this blog.  He's the kid who wrote and memorized his own arrangement of "Starry Starry Night" in about 4 hours.  That's a unique talent. 
This was the first time I've been able to go to one of Derek's performances like this.  I've heard him play at church and at baptisms and I listened to him play "Starry Starry Night" several times the day we were filming (and I've seen some videos of him playing), but not like this.

Usually I'm taking care of kids at home during Derek's performances, so Jeremy's gone to a few, but this was my first chance.  We took the kids down early to the library.  They were lighting the Christmas trees outside the City Center area and were having a program and such.  It was cold so we only stayed out there for a little while, and drove by the lit trees on the way home.  The kids did enjoy standing by the fire, though.

In the library, the kids ran around and looked at books for a little while.  During Derek's performance, Jeremy stood and held Lucky and each of the remaining kids eventually migrated to the section of the library where Jeremy was.  No offense to Derek and the classical music he was playing but our kids could only sit still for so long. 
But I got to sit and listen to the whole performance.  Thanks, Jeremy, for watching the kids (he was still able to listen) so I could watch.  It was great.
Way to go, Derek.  You are very talented.

A Fez-tive Evening

Oh, we had fun this evening.  November 23 is Doctor Who Day.  We had some friends over and had some Doctor Who themed food and fun.
In no particular order:

 "Are you my mummy?" pizza braid

 jelly babies

 bananas (pronounced ba-nah-nas)

 Our friend had a TARDIS and dalek mold so she made some out of chocolate

 peanut butter chocolate fezes (don't they look like little fezes?)

 chocolate daleks (we didn't have time to add more features)

jammy dodgers

fish fingers and custard

We also had french fries in case anyone wanted fish 'n chips with TARDIS sauce (tarter sauce)

"bow ties are cool" pasta

Nichole came up with the idea of making cyberman masks out of paper bags and going around upgrading everyone by giving them cyberman masks to wear.

Jr. made a bow tie out of paper at church (I think it was originally wings?) and wore Jeremy's fez and used his "sonic screwdriver" flashlight.

Our friend has a dalek bathrobe she wore over her clothes and her little girl had an outfit on that made her look like a weeping angel.

It was great celebrating Doctor Who Day, especially with friends.

Just a Reminder

Doctor Who Day is coming up this Sunday, November 23.
How will you celebrate?

Points for you if you know what the Doctor Who reference is in this picture.

How Did You Manage That?

The kids and I had a good laugh at this one.

 How did you get that piece of bread stuck on your face like that?

William Tell Day 2014

For William Tell Day this year, November 18, the kids and I had apple juice (and some apple slices) with dinner.  I told them that there is a legend of William Tell shooting an apple off his son's head.  I don't know if it's true or not but that's the story. 
Nichole kept asking me questions about William Tell.  Did he have any daughters?  Did he have more sons?  There were more questions, but I can't remember what they were.  I had to keep telling her I didn't know the answers to her questions.

Man, I need to do some research so I can look like I actually know things.  My kids expect me to know things.  I'll have to do that with one of our upcoming celebrations.  Brush up on my facts about what we're celebrating.  I have done that in the past with some, but I wasn't prepared with this.  Except to tell the kids that he didn't shoot the apple with a gun, but with a crossbow.  That's what started the questions.

We also listened to the William Tell Overture while Lucky conducted the music. 

He's recently gotten into leading music while he sees people doing it at church.  It's so cute.  I took him to choir with me one day and he was walking around watching our choir director and waving his arms about.  So so cute.


After listening to the overture, the kids had me put on the Animaniacs song about the Presidents of the U.S. since it is sung to the tune of the William Tell Overture.
It was fun celebrating this one.

Daddy, I Missed You

Daddy's home!  After 5 days in Montana at a convention (and traveling), Jeremy got home Sunday night.  Lucky heard him open the door and went to see what was going on.  As soon as he saw Jeremy, he burst into tears in a "Daddy, I missed you," kind of cry.  He was quite clingy after that and started fussing any time Jeremy left his sight.
All the kids were happy to see Jeremy, as was I, and the boys were thrilled to have him read them a story before bed.

It's so good to have him home.  We all missed him.

Substitute

We didn't go to church today because Lucky's still dealing with some stuff and now I'm not feeling well.  Blech.
So instead of going to church (which is preferable), the kids picked up the living room and got out the reverence tent while we watched a few talks from this latest General Conference. 

Well, we don't go to the church building when we have General Conference, so I figured if we couldn't go to the church building today, we could still be spiritually uplifted with Conference talks.

Now sitting at the computer to write this short blog post is too much for me so I need to go lie down again.  Bye.

Dear Diary...

Saturday, November 15, 2014- National Bundt (Pan) Day
Today was not the best day.

Planning Ahead

Sometimes it is very helpful to plan ahead for those celebrations that you might not make a big deal of.  When Jr. heard that National American Teddy Bear Day was coming up on November 14, he suggested that for dinner we have pasta and gummi bears (they're like teddy bears, right?).  So guess what.  We got some gummi bears earlier this week for tonight's dinner.  Simple celebrating we were prepared for.  It's a good thing we were prepared otherwise we might not have celebrated at all. 
Lucky came down with something and was throwing up in the middle of the night and this morning.  Poor baby.  Thankfully, the throwing up and loss of appetite only lasted so long.  By the afternoon, he was somewhat more chipper and wanted to eat more and could actually keep it down.  He got some well needed sleep and was happy to snack on crackers while the rest of us ate dinner, including gummi bears for the three oldest kids.  I was even able to get some pictures for this blog.

I'm so grateful that it looks like whatever Lucky is going through is not long lasting.  I'm also grateful that Jr. looked ahead and figured out a way we could celebrate National American Teddy Bear Day.

It Has Come

It is now here.
This morning when we took the kids to school, there were a couple of small flakes that came down.
The same was true when we went back to the school to take Nichole her glasses that she'd left at home.
A little while later I went out to get the mail and this is what I saw.

First snow of the season.  Now we've had it.  I'll be honest.  I'm very glad it did not stay on the roads.  It's welcome to be on the grass (or lack of grass) all it wants.

On a different note, we had our "rest of the toppings" pizza this evening.  I love pizza.

PIZZA!!

November 12 is National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day.  We like this one.  We've had fun with it in the past.  Last year, we completely missed it, though.  I looked at the calendar later and realized we hadn't celebrated it that day.  How could we miss that?  Oh, yeah.  I had pregnancy brain at the time.
This year, however, I was expecting it.  And we celebrated.
I made four pizza crusts and told the kids we could have four pizzas.  We started with the kids listing toppings they'd be interested in.  I told them "no" to some, such as candy.  "No, we are not putting nerds on a pizza."
After listing toppings, the kids made suggestions as to how to use those toppings on pizza.

BBQ chicken pizza

chicken alfredo pizza (with peppers on one half)

salsa and chicken pizza

and a pizza with all toppings we had listed but didn't have on the three chicken pizzas.

It got too late to make all four pizzas, so we just did the three.  We'll have to make pizza again later with the rest of the toppings since there's a baked pizza crust just waiting in the fridge right now.

The kids helped make the pizzas, too, which added to the fun.

It's fun that the three oldest kids are old enough to suggest what kinds of pizzas they want now instead of it being the adults who decide and then check with the kids.  Except for candy pizza.  I'm  not making that.  At least not today.  Tee Hee.

Catch of the Day

Lucky has now been introduced to the wonders of the light in the tumbling dryer.

It's the Little Things

One of the great things about marriage is those little things you do for each other.
Jeremy bought a big tomato at the store.  He cut it into slices and reminded me that we had bacon in the freezer and that he'd also bought lettuce.  "You could have a BLT," he said.  I hadn't even thought of that.  I hadn't had a BLT in quite a while as we don't often have all the ingredients at the same time (even though there are only three besides bread).  Of course I could have a BLT.  I'm so glad he mentioned it.
A couple days later I made a couple of BLTs for myself at lunch and very much enjoyed them.

It was such a simple and small thing he did, mentioning something I liked that I could make with the ingredients we had, but it was thoughtful.  I am grateful to him for that.

Mommy, Look

I can touch the ceiling.

I can, too.

Hug a Bear Day 2014

November 7 is Hug a Bear Day.  We did.

Well, Jr. Jr. hugged a bear, a reindeer, and a tree frog.  But that's alright.

I Love You More

Mommy:  I love you more than dirt.
Daddy:  I love you more than dirt, too.
Mommy:  I love you more than hammocks
Daddy:  I love you more than spatulas.


Jr. Jr. (not wanting to be left out):  I love you more than the computer would love you.

Sandwich Day

I'm too busy and tired to blog about some of the things that have been happening with us lately like Halloween and Dia de los Muertos.  But November 3 is Sandwich Day.  So we had salmon patty sandwiches for dinner.  Mmmm.  Thanks, Mom, for the simple recipe so many years ago.  My kids eat them and like them.

Dinosaur Joke

Jr. Jr.:  What did the blue pachycephalosaurus do when he saw the green pachycephalosaurus pack his backpack with his lunch box?
Mommy:  I don't know.  What did the blue pachycephalosaurus do when he saw the green pachycephalosaurus pack his backpack with his lunch box?
Jr. Jr.:  He runned away and told his mom pachycephalosaurus that he saw the green pachycephalosaurus.

Catch of the Day

 Feliz Dia de los Muertos