New dress day

My mom made me a new dress this week and I am thrilled with it. I made sure everyone that commented on it knew that I did not buy it nor did I make it but it was my wonderful mom who did. All the girls except Mary were wearing one of her handmade dresses today. We all felt special and looked great.

The Saturday rundown

Mary Jane
Kelly


Megan

Mike and Dotes

Kenny

Beth- at the church for women's conference

Mike- played with kids, fixed lunch and went to work

Jonathan- Slept in 0 degree weather at the Klondike

Megan- ran her mile under 12 minutes

Patrick- only left computer to clean the kitchen and bathroom breaks

Kelly- Jumped on the beds, went to playdate

Adam- same as Patrick except had to clean living room/dining room

Mary- wore winter hat with ears squashed for most of the day

Kenny- decided to use measuring tape to pinch fingers and tongue

Nana and Papa- cleaned my chandeliers and ceiling fans for fun- Thank you!

Kenny's first sentence

"Mama said no!" I'm not sure to what. (Crayons, throwing the toys, climbing in general?) He doesn't have a nasally voice like Mary does when she says this same sentence.

Stand still

A few years ago Mike and I decided to get rid of cable- how much TV do we really watch? The consequences of this is the antenna. We were doing gymnastics with the stupid thing to get the Biggest Loser show at 7 pm to come in. Jon finally got it to stay in by throwing the antenna thing into the bookcase. Then he slowly walked away from the TV.

They look alike, they act alike

Kenny has 80's hair, a beautiful mullet of curls.

The same style always comes back every 20 to 150 years

Grandpa instructing the pests at his 80th birthday party.
Clothing that the youth will wear on the trek.

The youth 14 and older in our Stake are going on a "Trek". The group of 300 youth and support will take buses to Martin Cove, Wyoming and push and pull handcarts for three days. We went to the kickoff meeting with Jonathan. In the back of the cultural hall they had examples of the pioneer clothing the girls and boys will be expected to wear. Jon took one look at the clothing and said, "That is what Grandpa wears."

Dinner

IBC Root Beer and Pizza

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Newborn

9 months

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11 today

Saturday morning

The boys quickly do jobs so they can play computer. Adam cries he wants a job but doesn't want to do any job that anyone assigns him. He won't get to play until he does one.

Mom, there is no milk!

Kenny tries to watch TV while Megan tries to cuddle him. "Cuddle me if you must."

Kelly and Mary watch the movie, Freaky Friday.

Peaceful Saturday- have toast.

Pizza

This is better than a supreme pizza! It is couscous pizza. Left is supreme and right is ham and pineapple.

Ingredients
1/2 cup dry couscous plus 3/4 cups water to prepare it. Make 1 cup (1 1/2 cups water) to make two different pizzas.
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
1/2 jar of favorite marinara sauce (whole for 2 pans)
10 slices reduced fat pepperoni
5 slices of ham chopped
1 can of drained pineapple pieces (or other pizza toppings that you like)
salt and pepper taste
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese or cheddar cheese

Directions
Place the polenta (couscous), water and salt in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer on low for 5 minutes. Pour into a pie plate or shallow baking dish.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C). Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper, and cook, stirring until onion is soft. Set aside.
Spread the marinara sauce over polenta 'crust'. Top with the onion and pepper mixture, pepperoni, ham and pineapple. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle cheese over the top, bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

I can't win

Patrick, Kelly and Adam had dental cleaning appointments right after school this afternoon. When they all came in the door I told them to go brush their teeth. Adam started whining that he is afraid of the dentist. I told him to remember watching cartoons while they did his teeth- so he calmed down. Well, Mary heard all this talk told me she wasn't going. I insisted that she could not stay home alone that she and Kenny would wait with the TV and the toys. She stomped up to her room and slammed the door. I followed and could hardly open it because she was barricading me out. Once I reached her, I dragged her and Kenny to the van. She yelled all the way there and told me she would wait in the car. Again, no. I dragged her into the office and set her down with all the toys and she then became happy. The other three had their cleanings and she played and told some bigger boys they should not play with girl toys. When all was done, and the toys put away, she noticed the older kids had new toothbrushes and a toy from the treasure chest. She then began a fit that she wanted those items- I told her she played with toys so she did not get the loot. I ended up carrying her out of there.

The music boy

Kenny kept taking out all the music books out of the piano bench. I got tired of holding them (we apparently have over 50 books stuffed in that bench) so I put the bench on the dining table. He tried to show me how that wasn't going to stop him from getting the music.

Pickle Jar update

We opened it at the end of November. Here it is today. I should get another one at Costco soon.

Forever

This reminded me of this. I told the other kids if they needed some paper, feel free to grab a few squares.

Bedtime book

Kenny likes to read in bed. This is his yes/no book. The only pages he hasn't torn out are the pages that say don't hit your sister, don't pull the cat's tail and don't rip up books. Hmmm. He knows he needs more instruction in these areas?

Sing a song

Kenny's always singing little songs for us.

No Pink date

I took my laptop to Chick-Fil-A

(a hot chocolate date, we included Mike)

and some free wifi last night. Pink (my computer) wouldn't stop "thinking" this morning.

Mike had to reimage it, twice. I think Pink will not be having a date night out.

From now on, it'll have to be just Mike and I.

Baptism day anniversary

This is me and my brother Chris on our First Communion day.

I was always a good child. I was born of goodly parents. I was taught the scriptures and went to church. I saw first hand how God would always be there in the bleakest of moments. I feel that when I met the missionaries so long ago, I was ready to know more (like two more hours of church, a few more books of scriptures, callings, speaking in Stake Conference...) Today brings happy memories of the day I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was 20 years old.

First of many

Mary Jane (4) gave her first talk in junior Primary this morning. It was a one minute talk on the children's months theme. This kind of practice helps children to be comfortable to give speeches and talks to the congregation or elsewhere as they grow and become adults.

I wrote a talk for her and had her give it a run through- I whispering the words in her ear and she saying them into the coke "microphone". She could only say the last word of each sentence pretty much. So back to the drawing board. I wrote something more simple and she got every word. She got up to that real microphone and gave her talk. Hooray for Mary Jane.

Ring ring, it's the school nurse... to the theme of Jaws

I get leery when I answer the phone after Mike has left for work and it is the school nurse. Thoughts of how I'm going to drag Kenny and Mary to the school and into the nurses office in a timely manner go through my head. Is Mary dressed, is Kenny just in his pj's or worse in a saggy diaper?

Luckily? Adam slipped on the ice at recess and his head injury will be okay. The nurse asked me if I wanted to speak to Adam, so I asked him if he had a headache and he said he didn't know. The nurse told me he didn't want to put ice on his head because he wanted to go back outside, she didn't think he needed to come home. Phew. On all counts.

Twins

Mary got tired of being twins with Megan so she and her doll dress alike. If the doll starts acting like Mary, like slamming doors, yelling I hate you when she doesn't get what she wants, and accepting compliments with the phrase "I know," the doll is going back to Santa. One "Pretty Poison" is enough.

Music

Meg in the 2nd row, with her flute
Jon on his trumpet

Jon and Meg's band had a concert tonight at the high school. It included all three high school bands and two middle school bands. At the end of the concert all the students who were in the different bands played a piece together- all 170 of them. It sounded so cool.

Mary go round

Mary was pushing Kenny around the family room in the laundry basket while he played with the toys in the basket. He was more interested in the toys than the ride.

Crustless

Megan started making little Kenny a "school lunch" too, he just looked sad when everyone got their bag out of the fridge and he didn't get one. At least if he forgets his lunch, I don't have to drive it anywhere- maybe vacuum it up a little or mop it...

Hot air

If the fire alarm next to the kid's bathroom starts screaming (because of the hot air from the shower) the children all run to grab towels and start fanning the alarm. Sometimes it will be a towel fest with all the waving and flapping.

Elmo's Ducks

Kenny loves to watch Elmo's Ducks on youtube. He giggles and smiles at the funny quacks. His laughing attracted a crowd and then everyone was watching Elmo.