Ben's Birthday

On Friday Ben turned the big 7.

He was so excited!

We took the day off of school in honor of his birthday. Actually we finished our schoolwork early so we could take a day off. The kids just spent the day playing together and hanging out.

We held a low-key family party after Greg got home from work. Ben got to choose his favorite food for dinner. He chose pizza. We also made homemade breadsticks which were totally and completely scrumptious.

He wanted a Spongebob Squarepants birthday cake, so this is what I came up with. The image is just a piece of paper I printed off the computer and cut out.

He had a great time opening his presents, but he especially liked the Speed Racer track his Grandma and Grandpa sent. Just look at that face!

The kids spent the rest of the evening devouring the cake and playing with Ben's gifts. I don't think we went to bed until 11pm!

It was a good day.

"Oh, I Love Trash!"

Ben's primary teacher brought cupcakes over in honor of his birthday today. One of the kids didn't finish his/hers and the remains were thrown into the garbage.

Think low trash can. Crawling baby. Chocolate cupcake.

Yes, I can see you know where this story is going.

I found our darling little Grace digging in, with a smile on her face and chocolate all over. I bet Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch would be so proud if he saw Grace going at that trashy food! She not only got it into her mouth, but on her hands and arms, shirt and pants, and all over the floor.

But--oh!--it tasted good! We could tell by the "mmmmmmm" sound coming from her little lips.

I guess it is time to invest in a larger (ie taller, enclosed) garbage bin or move the one we have under the sink.

And as a side note, I'm pretty sure that we won't have any trouble with Grace getting her hands dirty when her first birthday cake is placed before her. She's already had practice.

Greg's All in Stitches Over This

I bet you were expecting something funny, right?

Actually, this is all about the stitches.

Greg went in this morning and had his sebaceous cyst removed from the top of his head. That sucker was getting big so it needed to come off.

For those who don't know what this is, you can read all about it here. Apparently its genetic since his mom and brother have also had to have cysts removed.

And though I think this is quite disgusting (and I would like to apologize profusely to those who don't appreciate the gross-out factor), here's a photo of the stitches, taken by Greg or someone at work. He emailed it to me. Yuck.

Sunday Seven

1. We watched General Conference today from the internet. Maybe it's my Utah roots showing, but General Conference just isn't the same when you aren't parked in front of the television. Our entire family crammed into the computer room (which is only about a 10' X 12' room) and tried to focus our attention on the computer screen for four hours today and four hours yesterday. Instead I kept hearing:
"Can I play this computer game now?"
"Well, can I play X-Box instead?"
"I have a headache from looking at the computer screen for so long. Can I go now?"

Geesh.

2. One of the talks today by one of the Twelve (I can't remember which one right now) talked about how short time with young children is. He mentioned the handprints on every surface and the piles of laundry. Boy, can I relate. But he was right about quickly they grow and you find them gone, and you miss it. I looked at little Grace (who isn't so little anymore, she's standing and trying to take her first tentative cruising steps) and realized how true that statement is. I already miss her newborn baby smell and tiny fingers and toes.

3. I've really been trying hard to do better as a mother (who doesn't). So recently I spent time rereading Sister Beck's conference talk awhile back titled "Mothers Who Know." Y'all know the one I'm talking about, but if you don't, hopefully the link works and you can read it here. I took some time, also, to ponder the scripture she mentions (D&C 109:7-9). And in the end I made up my own list of things a mother should know (and do) to become a Mother Who Knows. It's a long list, but there is one point for every letter in the "Mothers Who Know" phrase. I'm currently working on the first one. Maybe sometime soon I'll post my list, though I would recommend doing one on your own. It is definitely worth the time.

4. I decided this week that I really needed a new skirt for church. I've lost weight (shocking, I know) from breastfeeding and all of my clothes are looking very baggy and some are not even staying up. About two months ago I my favorite skirt started to ride down as I was taking the baby out of Sacrament Meeting to nurse. I was so embarrassed as I caught it around my thighs and had to pull it back up where it should be! Definitely time for a replacement.

But I don't have any money for new clothes, so I wasn't sure what to do. Friday I needed some time out by myself so I left the kids at home with Greg and went on a mission to find that ever elusive skirt for cheap, cheap, cheap (I was actually out to find Ben some birthday gifts, but I figured it was a good time to shop around for a skirt for me, too). I found a dress I adored at Target but, alas, it was nearly $50 and way out of my price range (besides, it is hard to breastfeed in a dress). But then I headed to Kohl's because they often have killer deals on their clearance racks. And there I found the perfect skirt in my size. The cost? $3.60! It was 90% off! WHOO-HOO!!!

5. Those of you who know me well know I hate cooking. Just wanted y'all to know I baked my first pot roast in the oven today. I normally use the crockpot. It's ridiculous that I've been married so long and have never done this before.

6. Ammon was asked to write his own part for the primary program. He was asked to tell about his experience at the primary quarterly activity. For the activity they searched for one family member on Family Search and then went to a cemetery and cleaned headstones. This is what Ammon wrote (all by himself--no coaching from me or anyone else):

"I liked learning about the lives of others by looking at their birth and death dates. And while I was cleaning the headstones, I felt the Spirit and knew I was doing a good deed."

Awww. It brings a tear to my eye. What a good kid he is turning out to be.

7. You may not believe me, but I'm looking forward to heading back to church next week. We missed last week due to kids and Greg being sick, and now I feel out of touch with everyone. It will be nice to be back among friends and have real, adult conversations with others.

The Spies Have Invaded!

Today the house looked unusually messy after a long day of school. (Okay, it looked as messy as it always does, but let's pretend it was unusually messy.) I've tried a million different things to get my kids motivated, but they don't seem to last very long. I thought today would be another great day to find a new motivation.

So, we started by whispering to each other. I had each child pick up one thing in the room but they had to do it while no one was watching and sneak it out of the room. This was pretty fun for awhile, but soon they were watching each other closely.

That's when I switched gears. Suddenly I would shout out things like, "Oh, look at that bird outside!" and motion to one of the kids to sneak something out of the room while the rest looked for the imaginary item outside. The rest of the kids, who knew someone was playing the "spy," played along and hammed it up. "What is it? Oh, I can't see it!" they would squeal as they watched the "spy" out of the corner of their eyes. Hysterical.

Then I got into the fun. It became a game of "The Spies Have Been Here." Every time I would turn my back or close my eyes or get a drink of water, the "spies" would remove a few other items from the room. Then I would mention something that needed to be put away and then look up at the ceiling or search for the imaginary spider in the corner or take a quick nap as one of the kids (or all) would sneak the item out of the room and put it away. Soon I had the kids moving furniture so I could vacuum, doing dishes and cleaning up garbage that normally they wouldn't touch.

My "spies" cleaned the room in record time, and with smiles on their faces. I threatened to put out "spycatchers" and told them to make sure the spies didn't take anything else and put it away, but that only fueled them to do more.

And now the room is spotless, the dishes are washing in the dishwasher, and the kids are happy and proud of their accomplishment....uh...I mean, proud of the spies' accomplishment.

The one drawback of this game? Once the spies stole the baby (Ammon removed her from her playpen and hid with her in the corner). At that point I had to be more specific about what the spies could and couldn't take and where the stolen items belonged. But in general, it was good that the spies invaded our house today.