Happy Birthday to Lissy from Fisher Price

Yeah, I know, Lissy just turned 11 months. But, Fisher Price was awesome enough to throw her a party anyway. I applied to throw a Fisher Price playdate through House Party, but since I've never done anything like that before, I had no idea what to expect. Well, one day the UPS man came and brought us a huge box (the one I showed the boys popping out of a couple of weeks ago). We opened it up, and hello . . .

We couldn't believe the fantastic things in the box! The kids liked playing with the stuff while still in the boxes for a couple of weeks, so that's a pretty great sign that the toys are fun.

I was told to invite kids "close to my child's age," which I thought was Lissy. Here's a tip to you if you ever have a House Party - just invite a ton of people and give out the gifts to the first people to RSVP. I was really worried about keeping the ages right around Lissy's and making sure to not have too many people there for the amount of Fisher Price guest packs, but in the future I'd just go with "the more the merrier."
Anyway, so yeah, people invited, carpets cleaned . . . time to put together the toys. Once Andrew saw us getting stuff out, there was no way he was going to bed. He ran around excitedly "helping," and actually provided us with some major entertainment. Gary says that the Cruise and Groove Ballapallooza doubles as a ninja training center, check Andrew out: (Yeah, I'm posting a video. Long story, but my flip camcorder is back in business.)

Fun goodies from Fisher Price for the guests - a coloring book, a CD, some coupons, and a few other things. People couldn't believe that I wasn't selling anything. Me neither, but I wasn't, it was just awesome.

The babies started to arrive to play with, and Lissy was totally in her element. She really does love being around other babies, and since they had great new toys to play with, they were all very entertained. My boys were at soccer practice with Gary, so at first it was pretty calm. Later on more babies and toddlers came with their older siblings, and my boys came home . . . kids everywhere! This was not a bad thing, though. They were having fun, the moms were loving the chance to sit and chat, and plus, we had an excuse to eat treats. Win, win, win. (And another win if you give the chocolate chips their own.)

A little ballcano action. She may be 11 months, but it seems like Lissy likes to party, right?

This toy was the definite favorite. I heard Josh saying to a neighbor earlier in the day, "It seems like a baby toy, but it's not just for babies. Watch this."

First boy to get a special bag.

I put 3 out of the 4 toys together the night before. The Stride to Ride puppy looked like he was already put together, though. I mean, my kids had been playing with him for a few weeks while still in his box. Andrew had his songs memorized. So, imagine my surprise when shortly before the party I went to free him from his box, and his head was detached from his body. Oops! Oh, well, turns out this kid is super good at screwing in actual screws. Unplanned entertainment!

This little girl loved the Apptivity Monkey. Andrew couldn't get enough of it later on, either. 

Finally, my excuse to make lemon cake! I broke the don't make something for a party you've never made before rule, but everyone loved it. My baby loves berries and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so that's what all the babies got. Sidenote: Gary loved the cake, but said later that before he tried it he was afraid it was one of those things girls think is good, but really isn't. Um, no such thing as that category, Gare.

These babies are so close in age, and got their first chance to play. So cute that they actually liked being around each other.

This baby was cooing and laughing at the puppy . . .until I took a picture.

Yeah, she thinks she is pretty awesome when she is riding on the puppy and when she is pushing it.

I had a great time seeing some people at the party I don't get to talk to a lot, and also people I do. People told me they liked it . . . thanks Fisher Price! So, Lissy's birthday is a couple of weeks away . . . can anyone guess what she's getting?

Date Knight and Baby Bracelet

A date with my 4 year old knight? Of course. Thanks for the heads-up, Cindy. Chick-Fil-A had a special mother-son date night last Tuesday, and it was Noah's turn to go on a date. Saying he was excited would be a massive understatement. I found a coupon for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, so I thought that since we'd be at City Creek, we'd eat dinner then go get caramel apples for dessert. Oh, and sidenote - Noah started saying his L's this week. An era is passing by. Sad, but adorable, because now he puts extra emphasis on L's. Hearing him say Chick Fil A is very cute. Anyway, Noah knew we'd be leaving when Gary came home from work, and the second he saw the car pull up he started doing Olympic-height jumps and saying, "Oh, yeah, I'm going on a date with mom and I get to eat at Chick Fil A and have one of those apples you hold on a stick!"

After a battle with finding the parking garage (sometimes I hate cities), I arrived with a very happy little boy at Chick-Fil-A. There was a special area set aside with table cloths and balloons, and the manager was our waitress. There was a little paper with conversation starters, which didn't think I'd do at first, but turned out to be really fun. We talked about how he was so brave when he got a shot, and how he'd rather live under the ocean than on the moon. Noah is a great little conversationalist, especially once you get him going. We thoroughly enjoyed our food, and then the waitress said she was giving us free milkshakes. Pretty awesome . . . At one point Noah said there was a pinkerhole in the bottom of his cup, and started laughing about it until his body shook. I asked him what that meant, and he said, "I don't know," and laughed harder. The whole experience was just so great, he was giddy.

Noah got a crest to decorate. He called it a shield. Can you tell he was excited?

I tried taking a picture of us . . .

. . . but then the manager/waitress did a better job.

He got to take a balloon! This night kept getting better.

See the charming waterfall behind us? Yeah, missed it.

After we had milkshakes, I was very FULL. I was thinking we could skip the caramel apples since we got shakes, but Noah said, "Yeah, we'd better leave here so we can get to the chocolate factory." I asked him if he thought we still needed them, and he said we did. It was his date, so yeah, we went. On the way I gave him a piggyback ride - he's the easiest of my kids to do that with right now. He had me cross each bridge on the way there. It's so fun that simple things can be so magical for kids. When we got near Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory we stopped to watch the most amazing thing - a "a fireworks show with water." Watching that cute little boy watching that fountain on a beautiful night . . . perfect. We went upstairs to the restroom and Noah noticed he could see everything from up there. As we sat and watched, I noticed the shops around me - Tiffany's, Porsche, some stuff too fancy for me to even know about . . . Stuff I wouldn't have enough dough to even look at. But, at that moment, I had absolutely no desire to ever get fancy stuff. My little boy and a fountain show is all I need to be content, so why worry about other things? After picking out our apples (which we wrapped up to take home since we were full), we went back and watched the fountain for a while more. We put our hands in the water spilling off the edge, and the way the light reflected made it look like we could write in water. We wrote our names, then we experimented with stopping parts of the water then letting it fall again. My cutie pie was so happy.

This is the apple Noah picked out. I had my doubts about it, but it was very delicious! 

Noah must have taken this picture without me knowing . . . Josh has been really into playing basketball lately with the neighborhood kids. We have a hoop and so does our neighbor, and they dribble the ball down the sidewalk between driveways.

Another way Noah is getting big - he BEGGED Gary to take off his training wheels the other night.

He can't quite ride yet, but he'll get it.

Josh's new soccer rules (having positions, a big field, and a goalie), is a WHOLE LOT different than before. Josh isn't able to be with the ball as much, but he still loves it. Here he is playing defender with his friend Ben.

Lissy played for at least 10 minutes with this bracelet on Sunday. She was trying to get it on her leg, and when she did, she got excited, took it off, then tried again. She got pretty good. :)

Yeah, she got it!

We stayed up too late a lot of nights last week, so besides soccer, we didn't accomplish much on Saturday besides going to Home Depot. But now we have an edging for the garden area in front of our house, so how's that for an accomplishment? Sunday was the dedication of the Brigham City temple, and it was very powerful. I was struck so many times by the power there is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel so grateful to be a part of His church on the earth. Then also on Sunday, Lissy took her first steps. Teeny little tentative girly ones, and we are so proud.

BYU Perdio y Tambien El Diente de Josue

(This is from a week ago - the title all comes together in the end :) )

So, embassies were stormed and the world was burning down, but as for our little bit of the world, we got a special newspaper on 9/11 and it caused an amusing event. Lissy rolled away from her diaper change and sat her damp self on a newspaper. After I pulled it off of her body and put her back down to put the new diaper on, I saw that she had a newspaper article all over her rear. Perfectly transferred and readable. I don't often see Noah giggle that hard. That's the funny part. Not funny part is that Lissy was sick all day and didn't want to do anything but cry and be held. (Don't think the commemoration and world events isn't a big deal to me. It sure is. But that's really deep, and at the moment it seems best not to expose raw emotion and concern. So just think about baby bum tattoos.)

Lissy also thinks she is the STUFF on her bike. I took the kids to the park a couple of times this week. (I gave up on naps for a while, as it does nothing but cause me anger and nary a nap occurs  - the park is better.) I brought a little Flinstone-style baby bike and Lissy loves her life every second she's on it. We've gone on some walks lately, too. Those little boys can really zip around on scooters, so it's actually fun. I mean, we actually walk several blocks away from home and back and have a good time, as compared to the past when someone was always on a little plastic bike they got sick of riding after a block and I had to carry home. So, yeah, hooray for September and the perfect conditions for the great outdoors.

Cell-phone captures a moment on the bike . . .

 . . . and a moment at the park.

Just Lissy chewing on some drawings I made with Noah and Andrew.

Big news of the week the lost tooth teeth! Josh, being a proper 6 year old, has been eagerly awaiting the falling-out of his teeth for some time. He took great pride in getting his 6 year-old molars (when he got them, he had to demonstrate how they work by eating pizza on the side of his mouth), and just knew that meant some teeth would fall out soon. Well, waddya know, the two front teeth on the bottom got wiggly. (Sentimental to me - the first two he ever got, grew in within a day of each other.) Then one lovely day, Josh came running to the door after school to show me the tooth necklace around his neck, which contained his newly-missing tooth. It apparently fell out during music class, but when I asked him to tell me the story he said, "We were singing a song about frogs." Details never came forth. Sadness did occur when he lost  the tooth somewhere in the kitchen, but he wrote the tooth fairy a note and left his tooth necklace for proof, and he received a dollar anyway. The next day Gary found the tooth, and Josh considered working the tooth fairy for another dollar. I told him the tooth fairy would never trust him again.

First lost tooth and a necklace to put it in . . . life is good.

Then on Saturday we were doing all SORTS of stuff. I did some projects and taught a class at Super Saturday. My friend asked me what I was going to teach on, and I had to admit it didn't have a name, but it had morphed into, "Emily's early childhood crap throws up all over the gym." I was hoping to share simple and easy things, but I got excited to show something from many categories . . . click here if you are wanting an e-version of the presentation. Gary was also doing all sorts of stuff - coaching soccer, taking care of kids, cleaning everything . . . and somewhere in the midst, Josh came downstairs with a second tooth missing. He looks like a first-grader now! He didn't put the tooth under his pillow on Saturday as we got home late, but made a huge process of having the whole family watch him do it on Sunday night . . . and when I woke up the next morning he said, "I guess the tooth fairy doesn't work on Sundays." OOPS! She does work on Mondays, though, so he got his dollar. He is saving up for an 80 dollar item, but the ice cream truck makes him grab his wallet every time, so we shall see.

How is his smile SO adorable still? It sure is, though.

And hey . . . proof she stands and she's proud of it!

That eventful Saturday also featured Josh's first soccer game of the year, Andrew's first goal, some more goals for Noah, and a trip to Lehi to watch the BYU game with some friends. It was fantastic to see the friends; Andrew was so excited he jabbered all the way there, and when he got in the house announced, "Your house is really far away." He had a blast, all the kids did. I had big plans to actually watch the game, but things were not going well, so I kept watching it out of the corner of my eye. I thought I'd sit down and get into it when it got good. Playing Utah makes me really skittish. If you saw the game, you'll know I didn't take a seat until the fourth quarter . . . and then it was interesting, but crushed my dreams in the end. Ah, well, good thing is, it was really fun to see the friends . . . Also we watched the game en Espanol, which made it more exciting, so there's that.

Giraffe Noses and Other Problems

Noah: I think it would be really hard for a giraffe to pick their nose. It's really high up there.

Josh: (Said very seriously over dinner) You know people in shows that aren't real, like the guys on Wild Kratts? I think they know they're not real. I don't know, sometimes I just get that feeling.

Noah: There was one Lamanite who was nice, and that was Samuel the Lamanite. He was the only nice one.
Me: There were actually lots of nice Lamanites.
Noah: Not in our scriptures.

One day Noah was sitting on the stairs with his fingers spread out like horns around his head. Josh was tossing rings at Noah's fingers. I asked them what they were doing, and they said, " Playing Ring the Gak." Of course.

When my brother-in-law got his master's degree, the kids and I spent some time at Gary's parents house alone while everyone was at the graduation. Josh and Noah were playing badminton in the back yard while I helped Lissy with her baby life. When I went outside to check on them, the grate was off the window well, Noah was dangling the hose down into the well, and Josh was preparing to grab onto the end of the hose and repel down. Turns out they dropped the birdie down the window well, and this was their solution to retrieve it. Josh said they first tried putting the grate down in the well to use as a ladder, but it was too heavy (these are some massive window grates). I am a softie and I helped Josh repel.

I dropped by Albertson's to buy some chicken, but after the kids were already out of their seats I realized my wallet was not in the diaper bag. I told the kids we probably wouldn't be able to buy anything. I looked at Josh a few moments later, and he was busily searching through our coupon book. "What's this place called again?" he asked. "I'm just trying to see if we have a coupon for free chicken here."

Noah (at dinner): There is a boy in this world that doesn't have any food, so he won't be able to eat for a long time. I don't remember the phone number to help him, but I saw it on Tate's TV.
Josh: It was like 889 89thousand or something.
Noah was so earnest in his concern for the boy in the world. I really need to harness that and teach him how to serve . . .

(These are some snippets I collected a long time ago, and decided it's high time to publish.)

Is it the Vacations that Transform a Family?

Right after I finished my summer traveling-everywhere-time, I found an article in the Church News about a research study on the effects of family vacations. Interestingly, the study found the following:

 "A family that has bonding experiences at home first will have them away from home. It appears that it doesn't happen the other way around."

Hmm. This remark from one of the researchers also struck me:

 "We spend so much effort on the big-tickets items thinking that it's the most important thing for our families, when really, more time with our kids on day-to-day activities will suffice."

Hmm again. Something to think about when planning the rest of my life. We have gotten so much out of our simple vacations, and maybe that's enough . . .

Are You Ready for Some (College) Football?

BYU vs. Weber State, oops, sorry, Josh says it's, "Wildcats. BYU vs. Wildcats, that is." Little family throws off their soccer gear, grabs a few apple-pears and heads down south for the game.

They're ready.

She's ready.

He's ready (even if I take surprise photos).

We made it.

A beautiful sun-shiny day.

Working on a loose tooth while enjoying the game.

Josh REALLY wanted me to make a video of the game. We settled for a picture.

After our half-time break in the Cougar Club room, Lissy and I  stayed  for a little  bit  so she could get some food and some rest from the sun.

Self-photos with the baby in the Cougar Club room is becoming tradition.

All the kids had a great time every time we rose and shouted,  including a  baby girl who clapped along every time. Photos by the person holding the baby are hard to get, but you may see her in the side of the photo.

Lots of chances to rise and shout!

Look at my little cougar. He was so fun to be with.

Even though there weren't any moments of suspense in the 45-13 blowout, it was great fun to see it. It was actually nice, because so many people left early, we didn't have a hard time leaving. We started walking out with a few seconds left, and the Afro-Circus song from Madagascar 3 came on. Just the thing the boys needed to go rushing back to dance. We promised the kids ice cream, and wow did we ever follow through at Sam's Club. A tummy full to the brim with ice cream was enough for Andrew and Noah to get through the night, as the day's excitement had them out til the next morning once we started driving. Go cougars!

A few observations. When we first arrived in Provo, I was struck by how much I was not struck. Even though it's been 5 years since we lived there, it always just seems like, well, Provo, the place where we went to school and taught and had Josh. There we were, at the game, just like always. Fun.

Also, I realized at half-time during our obligatory Cougar Club room break, that I don't remember being there without my dad. No obligatory half-time family photo. Not fun.