Hyrum is Pooped

Hyrum was being particularly naughty today. As soon as I could, I sent him to his room to play by himself (he'd long since lost his T.V. privileges). I threatened him with a spanking if he were to wake me up from my much-needed (and deserved) nap.

After I woke from my power-nap, a much happier Tiffany went to greet Hyrum with renewed strength and patience. I was prepared to tell him how proud I was of him for playing so quietly and would he like to read books together now.

I heard Hyrum's deep breathing as I made my way down the hall to his room. (I was secretly congratulating myself for boring the kid into a nap). I peeked in his room expecting to see him with his books, asleep on the bed. He was not there. I checked in his closet. No Hyrum. I stopped myself from yelling "Hyrum" (because who would want to wreck such a good thing as a sleeping angel?) I could still hear him breathing deeply from somewhere. I'd just have to keep looking.

Adding my keen sense of smell to my sensitive ears I finally found Hyrum...All Pooped Out!

I guess I had to wake him up now. Trying to wake Hyrum up is never a pleasant experience. Add this to cleaning him up...and "Waaaaaaaah! Mom, my feet hurt. Needles mom needles".

Here's a Smile to Brighten Your Day!

Mari sends her love to you today!

Best Years Yet

Here's a tribute to my best friend and lover, Ben. Ben and I have been married for 11 years. Time has gone so quickly. Life is more enjoyable than I ever could have imagined. Not only is Ben extremely good-looking, he has a fabulous personality. He always keeps me laughing. He treats me like a queen. He encourages me to develop my talents. He supports me in whatever I want to do. He has been supportive in my landscaping and other crazy pursuits. He is patient as I present him with new ideas we can do in the yard. He has become quite the sprinkler expert. He supports me in my canning fruits and helps me make jam. He eats whatever I fix and likes it (most of the time). I am a better person because of him. I am more calm when he is around. He teaches me how to relax.

Ben is great with people. He knows just what to say and do in any social situation. He loves his family. He is a great father. We have had so much fun together and with our 4 amazing children. We have created millions of fun memories together. We love to camp, relax in the garden swing or cabin hammock. We love to play outside in the back yard together. We love to have fires in the fire pit. We love to read together by the fire pit. We love to sing together as the ___Family Band. We are loving our role as parents. Our children teach us many things such as patience and unconditional love. Ben loves to play with the children, tease them and wrestle with them. (In fact, because of his dark knuckles someone asked if he laid carpet for a living.)

Ben is a wonderful man. Most importantly he has a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and he is a worthy Priesthood holder. I couldn't ask for anything more!

Friends Night Out

I've known these girls since Kindergarten. Tammy, we missed you! Emily was the first one I met, followed by Tammy, Dawn, then Chelsea. These girls were with me through Girl Scouts, the awkward "tween stage" with my crazy clothing styles (purple paisley pants with one leg short and one leg long, pink half-gloves lovingly hand-made for their Christmas gifts, jelly shoes, a million watches all worn at once, ESPRIT bags and Levi jackets, and don't forget, florescent ANYTHING!) We were "New Kids on the Block" super-fans, and Dollar-Movie-at-the-Mall junkies. We had fun parties (I'll never forget the giant food fight in my back yard with everyones least favorite food- Chelsea I'll never forget the stinky sourkraut you brought as your ammunition). We T.P.'d cute boy's houses and had "Teddy-Bear Club" in Emily's basement. We swam in Chelsea's pool, had a crush on Tammy's brother, Bob, and got all of our wild ideas from Dawn. Thanks for the memories girls. We are the "Valley Girls!"

Eyelash Accident

Eve, Eve, Eve. What will we do with you? Emma and Eve were getting ready to perform at the Art Festival with their dance groups. Their hair was done, costumes on and I was just starting to do their make-up. I was reaching to put masscarae on Eve when I noticed she didn't have any eyelashes. I nearly poked her in the eye trying to find them. I panicked. "EVE! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BEAUTIFUL LONG EYELASHES?????" Ben came into the bathroom and he just stared at her. Too shocked to respond. Eve got up her courage and said "I... accidentally cut them." "YOU ACCIDENTLY WHAT????" "It was an accident.," Eve said. "How do you accidently place a sharp object near your eye?" She just stared at us. "Why Eve?" Eve repsonded. "They were bugging me so I cut them...I'm so sorry!"

Ode to my Eyelashes
Eyelash, Eyelash day or night,
Keep me safe from dust and light,
When my eyes is full of grit,
You're the ones what brushes it.
Now you're gone, I miss you so
Come back soon and never go
Author Unknown

Really Great Cello Rock

Fantastic Fiddler

Props to Emma. Emma is a good musician! She practiced dilligently all year. Most of the time she remembered to practice without any reminders. She never complained about early morning rehearsals. I began to suspect that she actually enjoyed doing it! (I never wanted to push the kids to learn violin just because I play. I wanted them to play because they wanted to. I provide opportunities and see what they do).

This afternoon, Emma surprised me by pulling out her violin and figuring out "------ Family Band" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" fiddle style. Wowie! I'm so proud of her!

Stretch Marks

Here's one about Eve and her little friend, Casey. Casey and Eve (both 6 years old) were playing this afternoon. The subject of discussion was about how many kids they wanted when they grow up. Casey very quickly and firmly said, "only 2". (I was surprised to hear that he's thought about it before this little discussion). He then asked Eve how many she wanted. Eve, being Eve, (and being in love with her little sister, Mari, and all other babies) said, "Oh I want at least 100." Casey's eyes got really big and he said, "Wow! That's alot of stretch marks!"

Hyrum the Hammer

We love our Hyrum. We thought that this Spring would be a good time to get Hyrum into organized sports. I (Ben) often wrestle with Hyrum which has brought out an aggressive streak in him and we have been eager to get him an outlet of some kind. We thought that soccer would keep Hyrum’s attention long enough to learn the sport and get involved with the other boys.

He plays in the 3-5 yrs old grouping which puts him at a size disadvantage. We show up for the first game and Hyrum introduces himself to his coach as Hammer. Many of the neighborhood boys had struggled with Hyrum’s name and just started calling him Hammer. They have since grown out of this problem and can easily pronounce Hyrum but still call him Hammer and Hyrum now occasionally will introduce himself as such. When his new soccer coaches heard he introduced himself as Hammer and saw his enthusiasm for life they were really excited to have him on their team.

Hyrum soon discovered that many of the older kids are bigger and faster then he is and he struggled to keep up with the game. As soccer games are at this age group, a scrum of children follows the ball everywhere around the field. Hyrum is normally in the middle of these scrums, running with the crowd as I scream for him to find the ball.

Two weeks into the season Hyrum was bored with the game of soccer and instead of finding the ball in the scrums he looks around at the legs of the other kids. When he sees an opening he dives at the knees of one of the other soccer players (his team or the opposing team, he isn’t picky). He lies on top of this child and groans like someone pushed him down and he just happened to fall on top of someone. The child he tackled usually glares at Hyrum while Hyrum looks over his shoulder for the phantom pusher. The other kids usually gets up a runs after the ball while Hyrum stays on the ground, moaning, until someone comes and helps him up. Now, I didn’t teach him this. I’m not sure where he learned it. As far as I can determine he might have picked it up while we were watching a soccer game on the TV and the announcer said something about a tackle and Hyrum figured the rest out on his own. I’ve coached around not tackling during soccer and we have not had a problem for a few weeks.

This last Saturday, however, Hyrum found a different way to enjoy soccer. Before the game I reminded him that we don’t tackle and that he needs to watch were the ball goes. He told me he was ready to play and to do a good job.

In the second half of the game there was a typical scrum at midfield. Hyrum was on the fringes and I was yelling for him to get involved. A boy on the other team tripped and fell close to the ball. He was close enough to the ball that he was trying to cover his head while he laid on his stomach. The scrum passed and Hyrum ran toward this boy who still laid on the ground. Hyrum took this opportunity to jump up (he was going for air) and land on this boys back, grabbing the back of his shirt collar, and pretended the boy was a horse. The opposing team’s parents started laughing. I was yelling at Hyrum to get off of the kid. (I noticed that both coaches were doubled over laughing.) When Hyrum heard me he tried to call timeout (smart kid to try but timeouts are not allowed in soccer) and ran over to our side of the field. I got after him for tackling the boy.

In his own defense, Hyrum called out, "I didn't tackle him. I giddy-uped him”. (This boy looked like an 8 year old and could have easily done as Hyrum commanded but he didn’t move.) Hammer, as always, is showing more of his unintentional comic ability than his athletic dominance.