The kids are getting OLD.

Noah at his first Court of Honor, giving a presentation

Noah is a SCOUT. He looks so sharp in his Class-A uniform. He had his first Court of Honor last Saturday, where he gave an excellent presentation on his trip to Colorado with Aaron & Tom. He had a slideshow with several pictures from the trip, he had rehearsed his narration all morning, he used a laser pointer, he was funny, he spoke loud & clear, and he ended by saying, "Thank you for listening attentively."

Molly is in the school CHORUS. They're learning several Christmas songs, including harmony, and they'll be performing at the State Capitol! Molly also plays piano and violin. Lately, all she talks about is singing... although she did practice the piano for a solid HOUR today when she was determined to perfect a particular song.

Zoe knows how to KNIT. At 7! She's working on something with black yarn; maybe it will be a scarf. She also is good at fixing a ponytail in her own hair and getting all the bumps out. If she had her way, she'd wear pink, and a skirt, every day.

Lucy can BLOW DRY and ROUND BRUSH her own hair. I still help her with the back, but she can get the front/sides of her blonde bob looking very lovely all on her own. She absolutely loves horses and loves playing with our dog. If she had her way, she'd wear jeans every day... regardless of the weather. Zoe and Lucy will be EIGHT in only 3 1/2 months! And they are both learning muliplication and division in their advanced math class at school. In 2nd grade!


A little story of the kids' growing up and being responsible:

Our church services start at 10:30am. Last Sunday I was gone all morning, leaving at 7am, for a Youth service activity (holding a small church service at a care center for severely disabled adults). Aaron had morning meetings during the hours the kids would be getting ready for church... so the kids had to be responsible to get themselves completely ready. I left them some instructions on the white board easel the night before, about what time they needed to shower, dress, don't forget to brush teeth, etc. Aaron's morning responsibilities lasted longer than he intended so he called the kids right before church started to say, "Are you guys ready? Meet me in the driveway so I can swing by and pick you up for church." All four of them were ready: appropriately dressed, hair decently fixed, shoes on, scriptures in hand. I was so proud of them when I heard and saw how well they'd done!

It does make me realize, though, how OLD they are getting. Noah will be 12 next year. Next year is Junior High for him. Molly will be in double-digits, and my baby twins will be getting baptized. Within just 10 short years, they'll start moving out and moving on... graduating from high school, going on missions, going to college, maybe even starting to think about marriage... gulp. Sometimes I get worried thinking about their teen years; hoping they will have good friends, hoping they won't go through too many hard times, hoping they will all turn out great and be happy. Sometimes it seems that it would be nice to fast forward through those years and jump to the time they're all happily married, responsible adults, giving me adorable grandkids. But, I'm sure we'll have some really fun times during their teen years that I really wouldn't want to miss.

College Memories

In the fall of '96 I lived in a small condo in Provo with my sister Kate and two other girls. The two of us shared a bedroom and a bathroom. The bathroom, we decided, did not have enough storage space and for some reason we thought it would be a good idea to install a medicine cabinet. Now, neither of us was particularly handy and I have no idea why we thought this would be something we could/should do; I also don't know why the owner of the condo agreed to it.

We set out to buy our supplies at our local hardware store. We got our medicine cabinet kit and discovered that we would need a drill to install it. Being the money-smart, savvy college girls that we were, we decided to rent a drill rather than buy one. I don't know what description I gave the rental place about the drill we needed, I only know that when I went to pick it up, it was GIGANTIC. It reminded me of a jackhammer... of course it wasn't quite that big, but whatever the thing was, it took up the entire passenger side floor of my car. The guy at the rental place looked at me funny, as I calmly signed the paperwork and acted as if this really was the drill I'd had in mind. He may have even asked me what I was going to use the ginormous tool for, and I probably told him that I had some bathroom remodeling to be done, as if this were something I did every day. So I lugged that drill out to my car and then stared at it for a little while.

Kate & I wised up as to the size of drill we actually needed, and we went back to the hardware store and bought ourselves a little battery-operated one, which was just perfect for the job. Using our new drill and some drywall anchors we were able to install our medicine cabinet.

When the afternoon was over, I took that big drill (which had never left my car) back to the rental place and returned it, smiling confidently as if I'd actually used it and had great success with it. I'm sure the guys at the rental company were none the wiser.

The end.

Funny comments

In January 2009, we brought home an adorable 5-week-old puppy. After a week, I started working with her on some tricks. Two weeks after that, I decided she was good enough for prime time so I posted this video of her on YouTube. (It's still there; click over a watch it if you'd like.) Since then this video has been viewed over 25,000 times (!!!) and several people have left comments. I wanted to show you this funny little exchange by a couple of commenters, months back:

why would you want to teach a puppy to play dead
mattmax11 1 year ago

@mattmax11 Is there something wrong with playing dead?
WikkiWooYeah 10 months ago

@WikkiWooYeah when theres this young YES
mattmax11 10 months ago

@mattmax11 Help me understand the reasoning behind this. Why is it wrong when they are his young?
WikkiWooYeah 10 months ago

@WikkiWooYeah because they should be having fun and not learning things
mattmax11 10 months ago

@mattmax11 Well, firstly, let's establish that the dog isn't aware of the "dead" part of the trick. Just laying still. For a working dog, having a sense of purpose is a requirement - training them like this gives them a "job." Retrievers are hunting dogs and as such, they love having jobs. The owner is establishing a dominant role as well.
That said, the puppy is definitely having fun here! She looks thrilled to be doing all those tricks.
(Sing it WikkiWooYeah!)

Don't you love all the "experts" out there on the internet? I have other commenters saying that that puppies shouldn't be taught to "jump" because it causes hip dysplasia (maybe so but excuse me, puppies are going to jump whether you teach them to or not), and one said that I shouldn't be training her with cheese because it will give her diarrhea and/or too much sodium. (But that low-fat cheese is fine.) Most of the comments are quite nice and friendly. This one made me laugh:

I have a 9 week old black lab and he can do soooooo much more than the one in this video. He can sit, shake hands, speak, pull up plants in the garden, eat stones and snails and get me up 3 times a night so that he can go out for a wee and a pooh. Today he helped me do some plumbing work by biting me on the back of the head whilst I was laying under the sink. He can also totally ignore me apart from when I have a puppy chew in my hand. Beat that for a well trained Labrador puppy!


In other news, seeing these old pics & video of Juno makes me want to get another puppy! She sure was a cute one, and so much fun. (Although I must admit that the current phase we're in, where she lays around all day and I don't have to worry about her destroying everything in sight, is a pretty nice phase too.)

14!

Fourteen years ago today, Aaron & I were married! How happy I am that we made that decision together.

This morning when I was driving Zoe & Lucy to school (Noah & Molly were already gone, at orchestra) I was telling them that Aaron & I are going out tonight to celebrate our anniversary. Lucy said, "You should go to some kind of LOVE restaurant, you know, so you can fall in LOVE." I told her that even though I was madly in love with their dad before we got married, the cool thing is that I love him so much more now. More and more every year!

I've had a lot of fun going through old photos this morning to find some to post on facebook. There are woefully few from our courtship; I guess that's what happens when it's the old days and you're using film. Here were are after our wedding reception, getting ready to drive off in my mom's lovely decorated car, surrounded by family and friends.

Happy Anniversary Aaron!

I love you.

Moi

I'm in the process of getting a new passport, so yesterday I gave myself the job of taking my own passport photo. What an ordeal! I felt pretty silly, sitting here in my house taking literally 30 pictures of myself before I had one that looked good enough and also followed legal guidelines for passport photos. After taking 20 or so pictures with my old trusty Canon PowerShot, and having lots of problems with lighting, focus, graininess, shadows, etc., I finally switched to Aaron's much nicer SLR and after a brief tutorial phonecall from him I was finally able to get a decent shot. After only a couple of minor adjustments in Photoshop (brightness, contrast, sizing) I had it ready for my passport application.

My left eye always squints when I smile, my bangs look crooked here, and I'm not crazy about the double chin but THIS WILL HAVE TO DO, no way am I going to start over with this project!

"2-hand touch"

After a brutally hot August & first part of September, we are finally starting to see some relief around here. Yes, the high's are still near 100, but that's a lot better than 110-115, AND the lows are now in the low 70's! Delightful! As a result, the past three days the kids have spent every spare moment playing outside; before school and in the evenings once it cools off. The activity of choice has been football, except that nobody calls it football, they all say, "Let's play 2-hand touch!"

This morning they opted for a quick game of catch while they waited for carpool to pick them up.

Hooray for fall!

Staycation

This Labor Day weekend we wanted to do something fun without taking the time and expense of a "real trip," so we decided to surprise the kids with a little overnighter at a local hotel. As I was searching online for options, my only requirements were that it be in town, and that it have a decent pool complex (including lazy river & waterslide). Thanks to the heat around here, less-expensive summer hotel rates often continue into October, so it was easy to find a good deal on a room. The six of us fit perfectly into one small suite that had 2 queens in the bedroom, plus a sofabed in the living room. There was even a mini fridge so I brought milk & cereal & yogurt for our breakfast the next morning.

The hotel was far from being booked so we no trouble getting an early check-in time. We pulled the kids out of school an hour early on Friday, and once we got to the hotel we were able to spend about 2 1/2 hours at the pool before dinner. We went out to eat, and by the time we got back to the hotel it was time for bed (for the kids). Aaron & I opted to sleep on the sofa bed, which wasn't very comfortable but it was worth having our "own room" when the kids were all awake the next morning at 6:30am! I had them stay in their room until 8:00, and they were actually pretty quiet and self-entertained until then, and I fell back asleep! Promptly at 8 they came in wanting breakfast, and after breakfast we enjoyed a couple hours of lazy time (with the kids watching cartoons, and Aaron & I reading our books) until we finally made our way back down to the pool for a few more hours of fun. We finally left around 1:00pm, and made our way home with a few errands & lunch on the way. We had a really good time; we'll definitely do this again!

We told the kids to "stick together" at the pool and they did a great job of it!

I love Molly's face here, "Ahhh, hot tub!"

The line for the slide was pretty long on Saturday, but the kids still got a few turns each.