Santa and Smooching

I haven't written much in here about Macy Face. She is getting into the hilarious part of learning to talk, full sentences where she says a lot of funny things.
*The Bishopric came to visit us in our new home, and one of the counselors was entertaining Macy with her magna-doodle. He drew a self-portrait with glasses, etc., and said, "Who's this?" Macy declared, "MONKEY!"
*All of my kids have loved Mother Goose, and the book is pretty tattered. Macy requested it the other night, and although I have only read it to her a thousand times, when we got to Old King Cole she got this shocked, excited look on her face and pointed at him. "Santa Claus!" It's actually been kind of hard to read it to her lately because instead of listening she just points at everything and says, "Look, Mom." Look, Mom." at every single object on the page. It's not really a problem in other stories, but it kind of messes with my rhythm a bit on "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "Simple Simon met a Pieman". (And it makes it harder. Usually I "read" it while gazing out the window.)
*There are a lot of horses in our neighborhood. Macy likes horses. She calls them "Worsies".
*She likes to wear the Dora the Explorer backpack, except she calls it her "Pack-a-pack"
*She is not the soundest sleeper in the world, usually crying out in the night a few times in her sleep, but I rarely have to get out of bed. I've always suspected that she is just a vivid dreamer, and she finally proved it. The other morning she woke up howling. I went in to get her and found her coverless and kind of cold. She angrily insisted, "Cooper tookt my jammies!"
*Although she is definitely a mama's girl, she likes it when Mark makes her laugh. He was holding her tight and bending upside down with her, and she shrieks, "Help! I stuck in Daddy!" (I snickered a little bit at this and asked Mark if his name was Mud.)

Cooper has also amused us lately by being quite the ladies' man. We went out for 2 shakes and 4 courtesy cones, (can I get a "CHEAP CHEAP"?) at Arctic Circle and let the kids play in the playground there. Cooper kept wandering to a window that divided the play area from the restaurant. On the other side of the window were six teenage girls crammed into a booth. He was waving shyly, and smiling, and playing peekaboo. We were busting up laughing and finally got him to give them a wink goodbye. He's a good winker.
Then this morning, he didn't want to get dressed. Mark remembered the trick that works on teenagers. In a singsong voice, "Better get dressed for church because you might SEE someone there..." Cooper ducks his head, flashes his dimple and asks, "Rowan?"
(Rowan is the cute blond neighbor girl he played dress-up with. She was a princess and she asked him if he would be her prince. It has been reported that she also gave him a little kiss on the cheek.)
Mark nods his head and pulls Cooper's shirt on him. Boston decides to chime in. "Maybe you could give her a kiss. On the lips!"
Mark gives him the buzzer, (wrong answer) sound, and says, "No00. No kissing. We don't do that."
Boston decides to retract his statement. "Right. No kissing until you are older. Pause. Pause. Like me."
Luckily (for her) the girl Boston says he likes lives far away and we haven't seen her since last spring.

Unpacked: One camera cord...

First we have a slew of pictures from Christmas in Montana. The weather was great and the kids managed to get in lots of playing in the snow and with the 4 wheelers. (Mark and I were a little on the lazy side and took in lots of lounging around time while Mom and Dad were playing with our children.) I did go sledding with the kids one day inside this deep canal that goes past the house. The snow was so solid that we didn't even use sleds--just slid. Another highlight was Christmas Eve playing games with Grandpa and Grandma Heagy. My kids love this game called Pig where you sit in a circle, blindfold whoever is It and they have to try to reach out with a long handled spoon until they touch someone. When someone accepts the spoon, the It person tells them to make some sort of barnyard animal sound. Then the It person has to guess who it is. My kids think it is so hilarious when anyone guesses wrong. It's also funny to see the adults try to make a straight enough face to manage an anonymous moo or oink. Cooper was still telling me the next morning, "Do you remember when Grandpa Heagy said, "Jackie" and it was really Dad?"
Christmas morning was very nice and the kids had oodles of presents, in part thanks to Aunt DeAnn who dejunked and de-toyed her entire house, got married and moved to Idaho over Christmas break. My favorite were the kids' clearance Halloween costumes. Cooper looked so sophisticated and tough in his Captain America suit with the floppy feathers on top. He was thrilled and we couldn't stop laughing. Macy wore her little princess costume over her jammies most of the day.
Then it was back home to the huge project--The Move. Ugh. I hate moving and I don't envy those people who move every year or so to fix up houses and sell them, etc. We've been in the new place since the 1st and just over the last few days are feeling like we can relax a bit and feel normal again. SO MUCH WORK! It's even good, nesting kind of work, but it still takes it out of me. Yesterday I finally scrubbed the walls in the Master Bedroom with the magic eraser, wiped the cobwebs from the ceiling and baseboards, and soaked the blinds in the tub . Then I deep cleaned and organized the master bathroom while Mark finished painting the hall. And every day has been like that! Luckily the kids have been playing together really well and seem really happy here. Boston has mentioned proudly to use a few times, "Me and Cooper live in the basement" like it's their bachelor pad or something. But wouldn't you know it? They have not come up to our bedroom in the night the entire time we've lived here, even though we leave the stair light on. I told them their first night that if they have a bad dream that they just need to crawl in bed with their brother. It used to be every other night or so.
So, here are some pictures of the new house, before and after unpacking. (I also enjoyed getting to buy some new shower curtains. The red dotted one is in the girls' bathroom. They are upstairs with us.)
Our other news from the last week or so is that we already have callings in our new ward. Mark teaches the 10 year olds and I teach the 7 year olds every other week (sweet!) I was really glad to be able to stay in Primary and that I get the 7 year olds, who are preparing for baptism. Mark's folks came to visit us and told us that they also had big news--Mark's Dad just got called to be the bishop of a singles ward in SL. He's been the Stake Executive Secretary for about 10 years, so this was a big change for them. I told Mark, "Huh. All that dating you did before you met me seems to have had a purpose after all. Your Dad had to deal with it, and now he gets to deal with all these other "sons and daughters"." Mark and Boston went to the ordination today. Boston said on the way home. "Dad, you know what's funny? One Grandpa is a Bishop and the other Grandpa is a farmer." It's okay Dad. I guess he thinks farming is your calling. It is a pretty noble occupation!

Five Magic Drawers and the Miracle in the Garage

Greetings to all from our new home in the Big Valley. I guess This is the Right Place after all. I was telling Mark that I don't think I've ever lived where I could see the city lights before (other than my brief stay with my cousins in East Wenatchee who had an amazing view over the river). From the windows of my house I can see three shining temples at night and from my dining room chair (if all the curtains are open) I can view two amazing mountain views, one east and one west. The west view actually looks out onto a newly landscaped gated community that will have waterfalls, etc., and it has some of those metal silhouette statues of elk, etc. right by the entrance across from our house. I am completely loving the rural feel of this neighborhood that I loved so much in my last neighborhood, only this one (as Boston pointed out yesterday) doesn't have the horrible stinky mink. I also realized that our new place has a big weeping birch tree right in front--my favorite kind of tree. Mark and I almost planted one at our old place for our 10th anniversary but didn't ever get around to it.
So, today I am allowing myself a few minutes to record some of the things I've learned about moving into a smaller, older house.
1. I am a drawer girl. My old house, (I was astonished to actually realize this) had TWENTY-THREE drawers in the kitchen alone. One drawer I never really even used except for a couple of Mark's creppes pans from France. It was fabulous but pretty inefficient (plus my poor junk drawers never got cleaned out because there was enough room for anything and everything.) Over the last couple of days I have been magically fitting 23 drawers into 5 drawers. Amazingly, almost everything fits that I need for actually cooking stuff, my kitchen is almost all unpacked, and I'm still saving one cupboard to expand into when I feel too cramped. The smaller kitchen is better in some ways--one way I was excited about was that I no longer have to wipe down a table AND an island after every meal. Also, my number of footsteps is cut down by at least 2/3s. Luckily, it feels very open because it doesn't have any kind of bar or anything that people have to walk around. Anyone want to buy three nice bar stools? I'm still without any kind of junk drawer (maybe that's not such a bad thing...) or a spot to put the kids' coloring books and crayons and stuff. Any suggestions? Time to buy a hutch, I guess! My DI pile is taller than I am. Luckily I have plenty of pantry storage, bathroom storage, closet and a huge storage floor over the second garage, with lots and lots of shelves.
Just no drawers.
2. You need to use primer after you spackle.
3. Can openers need to be packed in the same place that you put your toothbrush and underwear so you can find them right away. But if you don't, they are great excuses to meet your neighbors.
4. Buses are severely taken for granted.
5. Nice people live everywhere. I already knew this one.
6. Gas stoves are not for "geniuses" like me who have trouble with simple things. I've already had three minor explosions and made the baby cry. Probably from my screaming. When the boys came upstairs to find out what all the ruckus was about, Macy told them "Mommy make big fire." I finally got it to light without much fanfare last night for dinner. At least this year I won't worry about cracking my ceramic top when I can two cases of peaches.
6. The Lord only gives you what you can handle. Last night, after feeling like I finally had the kitchen under control, we decided tackle the washer and dryer. Mark got it all hooked up in my new "open mud room" in the 2nd level garage and I put on some shoes and a coat to start my essential load of whites. It was about 10:30. The hot water steamed happily into the garage when I lifted the lid to add some extra bleach. I went inside for my bowl of ice cream, and when I came back to check on things, nothing was happening but a pathetic little click sound. This click sound made me kind of sick to my stomach because I have heard that sound before, last year when we had to replace our old washer. Mark came and checked it out and we looked up some troubleshooting online, guessing that the jostling with the move had cracked something or unbalanced something too bad. Sure enough, the exact problem was described and recommended that a certain internal part (very hard to do yourself) be replaced. I sighed, rubbed my aching back, and emptied out a newly packed big plastic tote that I could chuck bleachy wet laundry into while Mark agitated it with a big long stick. I fished out all of the clothes, wrung them out the best I could (the bleach and steam and cold reminded me of hot tubbing in the snow) and Mark carried the tote inside where we dumped it into the tub to rinse. This part I remembered from watching on Law & Order last year (something about leaving zero carbon footprint). I peeled off my jeans, ran the tub, and tread the grapes. It was actually pretty fun. Then I wrung them out (again) and Mark put them in the dryer while I finished up with a shower. We were up until midnight making plans of what to do about it today.
So, Mark left for work, I went to get the clothes out of the dryer, and had to peer one more time into the murky depths of my rogue washer. I turned the knob one more time and pulled.
Prayers work wonders.

Pedro & Napoleon, Farewell!

How's this for spoiled rotten? I have two dishwashers. Really. Just like some people have double ovens. They weren't much different in cost than cabinets, and we had lots of space, so Mark convinced me to do it when our house was being built. I thought it was a dumb idea at the time, but he insisted. When we first moved in Leslie wasn't sure which one was dirty and which one clean, and didn't understand North and East, so we named one Pedro and one Napoleon.
What will I do without you, my swishy-washy friends?? Live like the rest of the world in their one-dishwasher ignorance?? That's what happens when you move out of a house that you designed exactly to your liking. Tis better to have loved and lost. Four and a half years of soft living is pretty good.
Our house is finally almost sold.
The buyers are nice, with a big family to fill up our big house (that makes me feel good.)
Mark is taking a new job at Wells Fargo after Christmas and will be working a ways north from here.
We think we have a dandy new place lined up.
Get this--my other major spoilage from my home is that I have a room-sized pantry with a dedicated space for our Deep Freeze (with an original painting of some cows, also some brand burns from Mark's Great Grandpas' hanging over it, in homage to beef. PS. Dad, where the heck is my heart-S-quartercircle to hang on the other side? The city boy son-in-law is showing you up! If you don't find your branding iron I'm going to have to hang up a Schwann's ice cream lid instead, ha ha.) Anyway, I was really, really sad that I would no longer have easy access to the deep freeze. Then when we were looking for houses this week, I walked into the mudroom off of this kitchen and saw another door. I opened it up, and gasped audibly. This little house had a HUGE pantry, shelves floor to ceiling on two walls, and a blank, shining wall at the back that was just singing to me for a deep freeze to keep it company. I think it was a little private Christmas gift to me.
I hope we get it. I'll keep you posted.

the Menace Gene

We had a Dennis the Menace moment today. Not so unusual, except that I'm remembering to write it down since Dad was just teasing me that Boston must have gotten the Dennis the Menace gene from him and from his Dad, who he claims was worse. True, Grandpa Happy Jack was pretty bad--gotta love the story about locking his big sister up and telling her future husband when he drove up that she had gone to the State Fair Rodeo with another guy. I couldn't even think of a single naughty story about my Dad. I might have to call Aunt "Cow" Patti. Oh wait, I guess he did come up with that name for her...
So, our visit from Dennis today happened while I was baking some Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. MMM. I was anticipating the warm, wafting, cinnamon/vanilla/pumpkin scent, but I kept getting a whiff of something else. Familiar and flowery and pretty strong, and I couldn't quite place it. I've found that the surest, quickest way to solve a mystery at my house is to hunt down the boys. The smell got stronger as I approached the master bathroom. Lo and behold, all three littl'uns were in there. In Boston's hand was a spray bottle filled to the brim with water. This was actually a pleasant surprise because I had asked Mark to have the boys get me a spray bottle for Christmas to water down their alfalfa hair on Sunday mornings. The unpleasant part of the surprise was the bottle he had so cleverly filled up with water used to be filled up with Victoria's Secret Body Spray, "Pretty in Pink". Apparently he emptied it out on himself and the other two kids, and all over the bathroom. They REEK. Luckily(?), I didn't really like that kind very much, preferring "Enchanted Apple". (Of course, if he had gone for the "Enchanted Apple" instead, the smell wouldn't have clashed so bad with the pumpkin bread. Oh well.)

Say Uncle

We had a fun, relaxed Thanksgiving. I didn't realize how relaxed it was until I went to visit one of my friends the day before. She had found out last minute that she was going to be hosting, and her kids were bustling around, doing jobs to get the house ready. She is one of the sweetest, most soft-spoken mamas I know, and it's a good thing because she has lots of kids. That's why I had to bust out laughing when I received a little glimpsed into her holiday frazzlement. One of her sons, about Boston's age, was buzzing around us for attention as we chatted. She finally put her hand on her shoulder, to still him and to get his attention. "What did I ask you to do?" she said. He thought for a split second....."Ta shut up?"
We escaped the hustle bustle by eating at Mark's folks, where my only offerings were the green beans, the marshmallowed yams, and a pecan pie that one of Mark's business contacts gave us. I think we started cooking 20 minutes before we left the house. It was great!!! Then, when it was approaching nap-time we drove over to Park City where several of my aunts and uncles had rented a big condo for the weekend. It was fun to see so many of my cousins that I haven't seen for years because they always visit Montana at a different time than we do. They are almost all teenagers now! So weird because I was the little kid when their parents were teenagers, and now my kids are the little ones. It makes me dizzy. The youngest one I haven't seen since she was a toddler. She's almost six now, and I had a little talk with her, trying to explain that we both had the same grandparents. I told her I was the oldest grandkid, and she was the youngest, so that makes us the best! She seemed to like that idea. We have a 26 year gap.
I didn't realize how much influence some of the older cousins, or maybe my bachelor brother, or maybe one of my uncles having a little fun, had on Boston until today, though. Mark was in his office working and Boston wandered in, asking if he could play with him. Mark's answer was no, and Boston tried to come up with an appropriate response of disappointment. "Awww. I never get any hot chicks!"

some little turkeys

Happy November already?!
First take a look at my Turkey quilt top I just finished, and then let's reminisce about October.
Brooke and Jared got to come and stay the night on their way home to Montana. I kidnapped Brooke after our double date to Cafe Rio and took her to play volleyball with some other gals from my stake. I have been going for a couple of months and it was fun to waltz in with my nearly 6 foot sister. I had never seen her play in high school and it was fun to get to scrimmage. She's much better than I am, thank goodness. The best part of the night, however, was when one of the ladies (a good actress or genuinely curious) asked us if we were sisters and wondered who was older. I am by nine years.
Here is a shot of how I found Brooke and Macy the next morning--sitting in a pile of doll clothes where Brooke was happily changing all the clothes.
Halloween was fun. We carved pumpkins and trick-or-treated. It rained a little but the kids didn't care, and Macy loved wearing her princess dress and getting the candy. Duke came down to go to a Halloween party or something and we threw together this great Beach Boys costume for him. Bet the ladies loved it!


I love the shot of the kids playing Ring Around the Rosy-- all of them are singing.

Special

Mark informed me that last night Boston's bedtime prayer was worth sharing. "Thankful for Dad, Mom, Leslie, Me, Cooper, Macy. 'Specially me 'cause I'm the special one." He is our extra sparkle. And I'm guessing ALL of us are going to need some special blessings to survive him!

In the Tops of the Mountains

We couldn't resist a little Moses shot here. This is a crazy place for a big beautiful field, near where we got engaged. It really is way, way at the top of the mountains, near the summit. It would be a fabulous place for a pageant or something. It's popular for snowmobiling in the winter.This was the back of the Fishlake Natl. forest, heading toward Junction. The leaves here look like the yellow brick road or something, because they follow the road the whole way down. (Because of the stream the road is built next to...)

Me trying to be fearless at Bryce Canyon.










For UEA break Mark surprised me and got permission for our family to go stay at his Uncle's cabin in the Fishlake Natl. Forest outside of Beaver. We haven't been there for nearly 12 years--it was where we were staying with Mark's cousins on New Year's Eve '98 when he popped the question under a pine tree, after snowmobiling to Big Flat. (Ah, now I'm getting excited for Christmas music season--strictly after Thanksgiving in this house--just so I can listen to Harry Connick, Jr. sing about "What are you doin' New Year's Eve?"...THE most romantic song I can even think of; I'm so biased! I get a lump in my throat every time I hear it.) We tried to track down the exact tree, but were a little unsure because of the years and the lack of snow not covering up the shrubbery, etc. Here is a picture with me in front of the best candidate. We are pretty sure we at least got within 100 feet of the magic spot, so that was cool to show the kids.
The weather was beautiful and so were the leaves, and we all had fun except for Macy at about midnight each night, when she woke up and screamed for an hour because, I don't know, that seems to be a habit with her whenever we go somewhere. At least we weren't in a hotel. Scream baby scream.
We weren't all that far from Bryce canyon, so we also spent some time there. I was a little nervous at the lack of guardrails at some of the sites, but it was pretty. The kids enjoyed pretending to be mountain lions on the rocks. I know, weird, but it's a family tradition. My brothers are still the most convincing.
We went to the first Halloween party of the season last night. I'll wait until after the big day and then post some fun costume pictures.

squashers

Yesterday we went grocery shopping at WalMart because we needed to finish up buying our "winter" clothes. (New socks for just about everyone. Including Boston, who already had new socks but thinks they are too small because they are low cut.) While winterizing, I bought Cooper a second pair of shoes because his hand-me-down Crocs from Boston are always lost. Coop was pretty excited to get new shoes. When Mark got home from work, Cooper told him that his new shoes were really cool. "They can squash ANY kind of bug!"

A lot of Booze

As I was hanging up the Halloween decor last week, Boston got all excited. "Mom! Porter and Logan have a lot of booze at their house." I had to think about that one for a second. He's starting to read pretty well... B O O ' S.
I've had a wonderful fall thus far. A couple of weeks ago some of my best friends (we missed you, Erica! We ate extra cheesecake for you.) got together for our annual birthday lunch out since three of us have fall birthdays. It was an extra nice birthday treat for me since the Cheesecake Factory left wax paper all over my last Louisiana Chicken (I was already mostly full anyway...) and I got my meal AND my cheesecake for free. Sa-Weet. Too bad I left the leftover cheesecake in Michelle's car. Dangit. I pretty much just had the day off from being a Mom because I had song practice with the Primary Children's chorus that morning, then lunch, then we went to a ritzy quilt show in some gated community in Murray, then to LDS Women's Conference. My favorite part is when I am seated in that enormous, enormous beautiful conference center (like a half-moon stadium), people watching and chatting with my neighbors, and in walks the prophet, Pres. Monson, to his seat. The ENTIRE place stands up in a whoosh and becomes instantly pin-dropping quiet. Enormity of moment in an enormous place. I feel revitalized in my important roles of wife and mother.
Throughout that next week I happily pounced on the mailbox everyday, because my insightful in-laws gave me an amazon.com gift card for my birthday, and if you buy more than 25$, you get free shipping. So I sort of went to town. Here is what I now have my own copy of:
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
All God's Critters got a Place in the Choir, also Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, both by Pulitzer Prize Winning LDS professor, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. She writes essays about womanhood and history. Two things I like reading about!
The Ghost of Hannah Mendes by Naomi Ragen. I've only wanted that one for about 5 years.
Marie-Louise's HeyDay--a much loved, out of print book from my childhood. It's even more hilarious to read as a mom. It's about a mongoose who has to babysit five naughty possums. I think I always liked it growing up because the naughtiest one is named Jake. (We had five kids including the naughtiest one named Jake.)
Olive Oil Desserts by Micki Sannar. I went to one of her presentations and was very impressed. Here's to healthier cooking (doubly healthy because you ADD olive oil benefits and take away the bad stuff from the other butters and oils.) I've already had some fun trying out some of her stuff, including pie crust for my favorite spinach pie, my homemade granola using her substitutions, and banana bread as we speak. It smells great. Of course, it's probably not that healthy anymore because I had to jazz it up a little with coconut and Macadamian nuts. Oh well. Coconut has lots of fiber:)
Speaking of cooking, Mom wants me to post a couple of recipes on here. She and Dad came down this weekend to play with us and for Dad to attend his 35 year mission reunion. He's a Montana boy who served right here in Utah. I think he thinks it was worth braving the traffic. I don't think he came home from the party until nearly midnight. The two of them are so good to play with and spoil my kids (and me). They spent a lot of time on the bikes. They even babysat so Mark and I could attend the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. As usual, I am pretty lax about taking any pictures, so, sorry. Maybe Mom took some.

Beef Barley Soup
Put in the crockpot:
1-2 lbs browned stew meat
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp of pepper, oregano, and basil
1 bay leaf
1 pkg Onion Soup mix (sometimes I subst. 2-3 TBS of au jus mix.)
6 cups hot water
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 T soy sauce
1 cup celery chopped
1 cup carrots chopped
1 chopped onion
1 can stewed tomatoes or diced tomatoes
Let this stew for an afternoon and then add 1 cup of pearled barley about an hour before serving.
If you are really ambitious you can also add 1/2 cup of rinsed lentils at the same time--very tasty.

Islands' Pineapple Soft Tacos
1 pkg tortillas
2-3 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces and browned on a griddle
Add to a saucepan and simmer:
approx. 1 cup crushed pineapple or pineapple tidbits with juice
1/2 to 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
enough Mr. Yoshida's Original Sauce (kind of a teriyaki sauce) to cover it all

Spoon chicken and sauce onto a tortilla.
Serve with snipped cilantro, chopped green onions, and maybe lettuce if you like that kind of fluff.

Skinny jeans mutiny and the Big 32

So, before I tell you about my birthday, I wanted to share my fashion ineptitude with the world. First of all, I like the basic idea of the skinny jean, but I have a problem with accessorizing. I love socks! Big, fat cushy ones to wear around the house (since that's where I am 85% of the time, anyway) and EXTREMELY dislike the current fashion of wearing flip flops or ballet shoes with everything, because the socks become ridiculous. I find myself peeling off my socks every time I'm out the door to go to the store or something. What am I supposed to do once it gets colder? I thought about getting a pair of boots for my birthday, but the riding type boots are all so high and expensive, and I can't just step into them while holding a squirming toddler, and the dumb looking moon boots are just, well, dumb looking moon boots. Any tips?
Back to the skinny jean. When I finished nursing Macy I was down to my wedding weight and decided to celebrate by buying two pairs of skinny jeans. They were even comfy and I was feeling pretty good about life. A few months went by. I had a birthday. I did laundry. Pair number one of the skinny jeans popped the button and now I can't get it to stay on. It's likely to fly across the room while I'm picking up legos. I tried wearing them with just the zipper and that lasted until I tried going out in public and the zipper tried to run away, and hide somewhere down in my blasted sockless shoes. Good thing I had a long shirt!
This morning I attempted to put on pair number two, fresh out of the dryer. (What was I thinking?). Some teeth popped off the zipper and now it's completely inoperable.
It's a sign.
Mark got a birthday card when he turned 30 that had a Far Side type cartoon on it with a man shopping in the jeans department, surrounded by policemen. "Step away from the trendy jeans and back into the relaxed fit!" I should have copied it and sent it to myself.
I did have a really good birthday, though. Mark asked me if I felt old and I told him no because I feel like I'm at the point in life where I always pictured myself at this age, anyway. We had a fun family adventure driving and hiking on the Mt. Nebo Loop, and the maple trees were turning red, so everything was gorgeous. Here are some cute pictures of my little hikers and the Grotto Waterfall where we went. The other landscape shot is an overlook that looks clear down onto Utah lake and across. We're way up high. Then Mark watched the football game, I watched a movie while Macy slept, and then he took me out to dinner and the play, The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie, that I've always wanted to see.
Some other happy announcements.
Boston had a birthday, got a bigger bike, and announced to me the next day that he could ride it without training wheels....and he could! I was shocked. It took Leslie YEARS to learn to ride a bike.
He was super excited about my birthday and had all kinds of homemade gifts and pictures for me. My favorite is pictured here- a Rock Museum.
My best gift to myself was finally getting Cooper potty trained. I'm still ecstatic about that one.
I also just finished canning 27 quarts of Lemon Elberta Peaches. Yummy.

Muddy Buddies

Today was Bostons' first day of preschool. Then, after celebrating with French Fries from Arctic Circle (they make the best...), I put Macy down for a nap while the boys went out to play in the backyard. After she was asleep, I checked on them. They were getting into minor trouble by taking the lids off the flooded sprinkler control boxes at the bottom of the deck stairs and "fishing" in them with some weed stems. Both had their socks and shoes off and their shorts a little bit wet. No biggie--they were having a blast with each other--every Mom's dream. I thought I would have a nice little surprise for them when they came in and changed their clothes, so I made them some Muddy Buddy chex mix. When it was done, I went outside to check on them.
They had a little surprise for me.
Both of them were buck naked.
If they had been muddy, maybe that would have been less shocking to all the people driving past and all the neighbors who can see into our backyard.
Those muddy buddies were yummy. I had some while the boys got dressed.
They are still downstairs, fully clothed, cleaning up all the toys in the basement before they can have any.