funtertainment

While looking for a movie to rent the other day, Grace said "No...that one is not full of funtertainment."
What!?
She makes me laugh every day.

Last Day of School!!! Yippee!

Having a pizza party...a Dominoes dude came and demonstrated how to make dough and pizza...
She got the "always ready in less than a minute" award...it was funny because when the teacher read out each award the kids yelled out who they thought was getting it...Grace's name was yelled out for almost every category...friendly, best librarian, best line leader etc :) She is such a sweet girl!
Fabulous Mrs Bills...she and Grace both cried a little when they said goodbye...
THEN we saw "UP" at Jordan Commons and even got to play video games after! Another fantastic last day of school with the family!

flying

While driving home today, Grace suddenly piped up with this little gem:
"If you close your eyes in the car it feels like you're flying!"

I glanced in the rear-view mirror and sure enough, there her little face was framed perfectly, eyes squinched shut, lips forming a happy little grin.
Thanks again baby for reminding me of the simple joys.

Tooth Fairy

Grace has a number of loose teeth. The bottom one has been SUPER loose for days now. Seriously, I could see UNDER it when she wiggled it. It wanted to come out. I've always thought it sad when kids lose teeth at school...do their parents not pay attention to what is going on dentally with their children? How can that happen? Not one of my kids has ever lost a tooth at school. We always handle it at home.
It was time tonight. She clearly is very unhappy about it, and was hysterical about pulling it out. She pretended to try to get it out herself...but obviously wasn't actually pulling.
1/2 a second on my lap in the bathroom did the job. But it hurts my heart a little to see the disillusionment in her eyes. A small piece of her innocence came out with that tooth.
She's happy as can be now though.
It took almost an entire box of Kleenex to mop up the tears and other discharge from her face throughout the entire episode.
It doesn't help that she has a serious phobia about blood. The sight of any red liquid sends her into fits of hysteria. And usually requires an entire box of band-aids. She's so funny.
I am proud to note however, that this time I didn't collapse into fits of giggles at her out-of-control frenzy. Remember the Montauk Monster episode? Scroll back a few months if you don't. It's a classic.
Ryan and Jill weren't so collected. But at least they left the room to laugh so she didn't witness their uncontrollable mirth. She won't be scarred by THAT part of the evening at least. Just by her mother's plucking of the tooth.
The craziest part happened afterward. I found myself in a puddle of tears holding her little tooth in my hand. My LAST FIRST baby tooth gone. My baby is growing up.

A River Runs Through It

We went to my family's annual "clean, fix and open the cabin" day last Saturday. Dan picked up Dad so he could be with us for the day.
It drizzled most of the day. The men went to work repairing the barbed-wire fence. Andrew got to impress his fellow workers by felling a tree with his brute strength alone....we later found a pretty sizeable bruise on his bicep as a result.
Uncle Dave entertained the small ones...something he is gifted at thank goodness. Did I mention the rain? We were kind of stuck inside.
I'm convinced that I contracted the Hantavirus whilst cleaning. Yuck. Use your imagination.
Zzzzzz. It's exhausting to play all day, apparently. Notice that the baby chose to sleep on Ryan, and not the other direction... on Tyler. His arm was probably asleep and he would let it fall off rather than disturb her.
It was a great day, great family, and a beautiful place. Can't wait to spend some time there this summer!

Gettin' their dance on

Ryan's last choir concert of the year. I do have video of him "getting his dance on" but I'm withholding it for a later date. (read blackmail.)
He, surprisingly, really can dance. Who knew?
The baby's dance festival at school. Good times. I am SO ready for this school year to be over.

9th Grade Honors Night

Last night we were invited to Lehi Jr. High's 9th Grade Honors Night. Ryan was honored as one of the HIGH HONOR ROLL recipients. He actually will finish his 9th grade year with a perfect 4.0 for every quarter of the year. (He's taken 2 honors classes as well as a language too!) He'll be immortalized with a bronze plaque with his name and the year in a display at the front of the school.
(Jillian has a plaque for her perfect 8th grade year....I'm feeling kind of sad for my poor Gracie right now. The bar is set pretty high. No pressure.)

Way to go Ry! We're so proud of you.

L. Mermaid

Grace's 1st Grade class put on a play yesterday. It was a news station that interviewed different characters from fairy tales.
Grace was L. Mermaid. She had 2 sentences to say. She usually does not like to be in a spotlight...so I was thrilled that her teacher gave the class this opportunity to be on stage! We were pretty surprised that she actually loved it! BTW: this is the mermaid costume Jillian wore for Halloween in 2nd Grade. SO glad I kept it!

Silent House

It's true I'm missing you

And I will try to connect
All the pieces you left
I will carry it on
And let you forget
And I'll remember the years
When your mind was clear
How the laughter and life
Filled up this silent house

(Dixie Chicks)

Another Ode to My Amazing Brother

Yesterday, my laptop freaked out.
I think it is alive and has a personality. It's the only explanation.
It worked great all morning, and then around 1:00 decided to start flashing a blue screen with strange symbols all over it. It refused all my attempts to commune with it: re-booting, caressing, chanting, swinging chickens over my head, crying.
Was is trying to discuss the recent rash of overuse with me? Perhaps. Like Joshua in the movie War Games..."Shall we play a game?"
I ask "Is this a game or is it real?" and he replies "What is the difference?" Maybe he was going for a game of Global Thermonuclear War....

All I know is that I grabbed Jillian's purple friend, placed a frantic email to The Guy Who Fixes All Things In The Family and within hours he magically breathed new life into my electronic life-line to the world. He even offers free door to door service. I'm positive that he and my beloved box of microchips had this discussion:
"What is the primary goal?"
"You should know Professor. You programmed me."

I'm a lucky girl. And here is another timely reminder to all of you: BACK UP YOUR FILES. DAILY. YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU.
Now I'm imagining my laptop asking me "How about a nice game of chess?" Hee.

Monsters and Piggy-tails

Tonight is Tyler's "Monster Concert" at the High School. It is called such because the entire music department is involved...it's held outside on the football field.
I was fixing Grace's hair this morning. We're still in that beautiful phase where she lets me do ponytails and piggytails and other wonderful things to her hair each morning. I know from experience that this will end in the next 12-18 months and she'll be in the world of "doing it myself!" But I digress. Here is our conversation:
me: "Remember what we're doing for family night tonight?"
her: "oh yeah...Ty's monster concert."
(at this point, she flashes those chocolate brown's at me quickly, a little furrow between them)
her: "I wonder what monster he will dress up as..."
me: "ummmm.....(how did I let this misunderstanding happen!?? Don't laugh...don't show emotion and make her feel silly!!!!????) umm...what do you think?"
her: " I think a black one with red horns."
me: "oh."
At this point she's busy brushing her teeth, so I let it drop. While we were in the car on our way to school I mentioned nonchalantly that the concert was called "Monster" because it's big. There won't be any real monsters there. I'll never know if she was relieved or disappointed.
Add this to the "You'd think we'd have figured it out by now" file. It isn't her fault that we blithely toss around phrases and situations that she has no way of deciphering!?

In Which Childhood Traumas Rear Their Ugly Heads

We had a Family Night about Prayer on Monday. As usual, I spend the time trying desperately to make sure Grace is learning the basics on her level while trying to engage the older kids who have "already- learned- this- a- thousand- times- I'm- so- bored."
So we're talking about prayer, and I suddenly remember being about 8 and a neighbor telling me the following: "You know you should NEVER kneel down to pray. Satan will know what you're doing and grab you from under the bed."
This was around the same time that my lovely siblings took it upon themselves to take me in a room, sit me down, and tell me that Santa Claus WAS NOT REAL. I remember acting all nonchalant with them and saying, "oh I know that!" When really a few minutes later I went into my own room reeling with my new-found knowledge and very upset that the world had conspired to lie to me repeatedly.
So when faced with yet another nugget of wisdom from an older person, I said "oh I know that" and went home HORRIFIED and UTTERLY TERRIFIED that Satan was going to grab me if I dared to pray. I would lay in bed, my arms clenched at my sides under the covers, eyes shut so tight tears would leak out, and pray silently in my head. All the while worrying that Satan would somehow hear me and get me.
Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Dinosaur Dreams

This is my conversation with Grace this morning:
Grace: "I dreamed that I lived in the land of Dinosaurs!"
"Really?"
Grace: "Yep. Only they were really little and I picked them up with a fork."

Prom 2009

I was not home when Ty left for Prom...I was busy defying gravity. He told me that it didn't matter because he is a B.O.Y. and all of the pictures and hoopla happen at the G.I.R.L.S. house anyway. I quite enjoyed how easy it is to send a boy to Prom... pick up your tux. Take a shower. It's beautiful.
But they indulged me when they got home and I was able to snap 2 quick pictures before they'd had enough. They were sweaty and tired, but had a ball!

We Defied Gravity

Picture Jillian and I in 2004 listening to Show Tune Saturday Night one, well, Saturday Night. ( I know this sounds geeky. We're unabashed show-tune nerds.)
A song from this "new" show called Wicked came on...we loved it! I went out and bought the CD...we listened to it everywhere we went. Three year old Grace learned the words to almost every song...she literally could sing along to every word of "Popular" at the age of 3.
I spent time on the computer searching for cities where it was playing...dreaming of the day when we could somehow get tickets to see it. Denver maybe??? But no, it was always out of our reach.
In 2007 Jillian got to see it in California while on a Choir Trip. She called me and talked me through it frame by frame...sweet girl. She had a ball, but we wished we were together!
Finally, May 2, 2009! Three girls living their dream! Wicked was everything we wished it would be..."happy is what happens when your dream comes true!"