Dare I admit it????

I started to read the book and was, well, bored to death!!! And I put it down and never picked it up again. And then the day, night really, before Thanksgiving Ryon's mom and dad came into town and his mom offered to take Savanah and me to the late movie. My knee jerk response was NO WAY, it's a PG-13 movie for my 12 year old, and then reality sunk in. She has read the whole series, who am I kidding? The books she is gobbling up 500 pages at a time have words like condom, and necking in them. She's probably not going to see anything worse on the big screen than she has imagined in her mind. So, we were off. And WOW! Let's just say that again, WOW! To all of you who had the whole consuming story in your mind while you were reading it, how fun...a true knight in shining armor, today... No wonder you were all calling your husbands Edward! Or hopelessly hoping he could be Edwardish! I'm tempted to pick up the book again, but it's Christmas time and I don't think I can really walk away from that kind of time, but that was about the best movie I have seen in years! And with no book to compare it to, it was perfect! Just like my Edward! (I didn't really write that, did I?) I mean my Ryon:)!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yummy! We got to host Thanksgiving this year, with Nana Jan & Papa Kirk coming to make lots of fun! Savanah set a beautiful table, complete with swan napkins for each person!

After lunch (dinner) the boys went outside to shoot off rockets (that flew out of control dropping in neighbors yards and in the street (500 ft away)!

While the girls cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for dessert time!That's supposed to be my "Hi Ryon" pose:) Ha Ha Ha Ha!Savanah played a beautiful concert on her violin followed by a piano concert, so lovely!

After we got home from visiting the temple lights (which weren't on, but I thought they would be)...then we played a wild competitive game of musical chairs! (See video below!)

And we finished off the night cuddled up outside watching the lightning and rain shower!

Thanksgiving Eve Rainbow!

We have a great place (home) to watch rainbows! The lighting tonight is surreal!

A different rainbow...

Our Sisters & Thanksgiving Preparations

Here are our real sisters (not just some photo I picked up off the internet--like before). These are the first and only sisters that have lived with us so far, we love them, they are the best! Here they are in our courtyard, coming in to get their laundry (we share our laundry room).

Ry isn't close to 6' at 3 years old, they are both standing on a stool!:)

Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday to get together with family and a great time to do some deep cleaning...or to have the kids do some deep cleaning:)

Ry?

"Now I look like Michael Phelps swimming under the water!"

The short hair was a follow-up to the self-trim yesterday.

Too Funny! I know! My Mom ALWAYS Said I Was Pretty...

Saturday

It's 8:48pm on Saturday night and Savanah is at a movie with a friend and Eli is at a friend's house watching a movie. The house is calm and quiet with just 4 little boys here to keep us company. Besides the occasional cup of ice water (it's the only way to drink it according to them), they are quite low maintenance and love to get a chance to watch tv with dad. We spent the afternoon at Nathaniel's tackle football team party. They handed out sweatshirts instead of trophies, one boy said, "I should move to Alaska now that I have a jacket!" (Arizona kids, don't even know what cold is!) The pool was heated at Coach Mike's house (thanks) so the kids swam like fish and ran until their legs hurt (does that ever happen when you're a little kid? I know it does when you're a mom!). Little Ry hung with his elbows on my thighs, just lifting his feet off the ground and hanging for minutes at a time it seemed. I couldn't possibly do that with 4 of my 6 kids any more. Ry's little hands still have some baby chubbiness to them, so cute! I want to spend more time at the kids practices next year, I only recognized like 5 parents even though it was the last party of the year. And I probably recognized even less of the players. So much to do, and trying to decide what is really THE most important is tricky! I may not juggle bowling pins, but I have a juggling act, none the less.

Mourning the Demise of an Old Friend!

I am no doctor of camera technology but I think he is dying. I will miss him, he has been there in my pocket, in my purse, hanging on my wrist, during most family vacations, holidays, and funny happenings. I probably haven't always been so gentle to him, and his dented exterior shows many signs of wear (and quite possibly abuse). But he was loved and I will miss him terribly, and so will my blog...Good bye old friend. If I'm super duper nice to Savanah maybe she'll let me borrow hers until I save up for a new one. Any advice you have for me on a new camera will be highly appreciated! Do you like your camera (the exact brand and #'s behind that), pros and cons. Thanks!

New Do...

It screams Faith Hill, and I'm guessing when it's straight it will scream Jeanette's old hair-do, but at least it's a bit shorter... Do I really care? It will probably be in a pony tail by afternoon regardless AND Hey my braces come off in 3 weeks!!! Yeah!!!

Facebook!

Moms are so great, for so many things. But I never thought MY mom would be the one to introduce me to facebook. She invited me to be her "friend", how fun "friends" with my mom! :) And then up popped all these people from my past, however sordid it has been, just kidding, really quite mundane and normal really, except for the 6 kids before 30 years old, and moving 18 times before I had been married 14 years + the 9 moves before age 5 that's like 27 different homes in my life time that's probably a little less "normal". And maybe why I don't know which way to the bathroom when I wake up in the middle of the night... But anyway, back to Facebook, there have been so many people I've thought about over the years, and wondered, who are they now, who do they love, what makes them laugh, what are they passionate about, do they ever think about me? So fun, especially since my graduating class didn't have a 15 year class reunion, or at least not one I was invited to attend. Here's a facebook Q: What do I do when I invite someone to be my friend, and they don't respond (Todd - my brother-in-law)? Does that mean they don't like me? How cyberly embarrassing... (just kidding!) So good to catch up!

The Football Season is Over!

Ahhhh! The season came to an end today as the Seminoles played their last playoff game. They lost, but Nathaniel said he had a fun time anyway. We'll take a break from sports for the winter, and get back to baseball in the spring.

We Have A Winner(s)!

Amid a sea of really original potatoes, Savanah's Pipi won 2nd place and Eli's Obi-Wan took 3rd place in the spuds in duds contest! I'm sure they will enjoy buying a book or something fun at the book fair with their prizes!

An Invitation From Princess Gerty!

Lucky Gerty! She knew she was going to win when she handed her slip of paper in at Chick-fil-a...and win she did. Two tickets from K-LOVE for the second row of a Matthew West concert, and well, me being such a fun girl (or the only person who could go with her on short notice) I got to go, too. I wouldn't have even recognized the name Matthew West if it had been any other Christian music singer (I ran across his music and have had it on my blog for a while)...oh, and that's all I recognized, the name, at the intermission we were looking at the cd's and went, oops...we thought we were watching the opening group, but it WAS Michael West (our mistake)! Gerty was so cute and fun at the concert, she's so little and just clapped and bopped around, I just wanted to squeeze her! (She said I could, but I didn't.) So cute! Anyway, she got to sing into the microphone as Matthew walked by (I am still counting my blessings that I wasn't on the isle!!) (I included a cd cover with Matthew on it, in case you go to a concert, too, at least you'll know who you are looking for!) I had such a fun night. Thanks Gerty!

Scholastic Book Fair & Ry's Boo Boos

Meet spud Pipi Long Stockings and Obi-Wan Kenobi . Savanah and Eli designed and created "their favorite" characters for the "Dress a Spud in Book Duds" Scholastic Book Fair Contest. They both hope to win for their age categories (who doesn't?), I thought they did a great job with their potatoes! We'll know on Thursday if they get $15 gift certificates to use towards book purchases.

Well, boo boos are bound to happen when you are 3 and experimenting with gravity and everything else. So, Saturday night Ry put a 10 pound river rock on the 18' trampoline and jumped it around a few times, then decided to do some push-ups and see what happened. And well, Murphy's law probably says if you jump around with a huge rock and it hits you, it will hit you in the face, probably, right? Well, his mouth was where the impact was and his little teeth came through his little lip, or at least that's what it looks like. The hole on the inside was huge and the one on the outside was little. I was NOT about to see if it really went all the way through with all the blood and crying, so we just guessed. After we washed ALL the blood off his little mouth we iced it and now it's healing beautifully. We decided against waiting in the emergency room to see if he should have stitches, and hopefully he doesn't get a raging infection. So, then Sunday morning the boys decided to play baseball and before the first pitch was thrown Andrew swung the bat and whack, right into the side of Ry's little head. A huge goose egg popped up, thankfully no dents! And back to the ice pack and reading books on the couch again. Oh to be the youngest of 5 boys, the injuries never cease! Actually, I think we are very safe here, no broken bones, only one set of stitches, for all of the fun the kids have, they are pretty careful!

What Does Freedom Mean to Me...

This essay was written by Zachary (7 years old)

We get to choose whatever we want. Freedom lets us choose to even dress. I am grateful for the army that is protecting our freedom. We can make our own choices. We don't have to go to school on Sundays. We are so lucky to have our freedom. I am so happy to see the flag each day. I am so glad to put my hand on my heart and sing for the flag. I am so grateful for those people that died for me.

Zach is honored to be the only second grader chosen to read his essay to the school at the Veterans' Day Assembly. You wrote a great essay, Zach! Keep up the great work!

Now that THAT'S Over!

Whew! Sigh of relief. Now that we have President Barack Hussein Obama as our first true prodigy of the civil rights movement we are all content and happy new world citizens:)! Even as the stock market makes it's daily dive by at least 100 points, the palpable strain in the air from yesterday is gone, as is my choice for the president elect. I explained to my children this morning as they squabbled over how they could undermine the new president, that in order for Democracy to work we need to truly support our new president, "even though he is a democrat". We get the right to vote, and then it is our civic duty to support. I will pray, and hope that the new president will affect a change for the better. But if he doesn't, it's not my fault, although, it is my future, and that of my hopeful children.

And a huge shout out to all you Proposition 102 and 8 supporters!!! THANK YOU!! One small victory for marriage between one man and one woman. Now we just need to work to keep our marriages together so marriage continues to mean something great.

Artist & Accomplished Craftsman!

A few years ago my dad made this bowl for me. He harvested the wood from a local locust tree. And then he turned and carved and sanded for many many hours until the bowl was as soft as silk. This special bowl reminds me of love. Every relationship has it's own unique love, created through many hours of creation and work. But in the end however uneven and marbled, love is beautiful! I love you dad!

If you'd like a one of a kind bowl he does sell them, they are beautiful, and in my opion, very affordable for original useable art!

It's Just Hair!...

The zig zag look is temporarily permanent!

Ry has (had) a double cowlick, that causes a Spanky like spike in the back of his head. And well, Andrew got tired of looking at it this morning, so he set out to fix it (with the office scissors-and then trimmed his own, too), and Ry agreed that'd be just fine. It's so funny, such a universal childhood memory...my sister/brother cutting my hair.

Here's the trim job! Listen closely, it's pretty funny!

Dejavou Two!

Halloween is a great holiday here! Ryon gets so involved, I just sit back and enjoy. He rummages through my closet, his closet, the hall closet, everything is fair game from the tools in the garage to the lingerie, apparently! So, this year he decided Eli should be Nacho Libre, and after being totally dressed, Eli refused, taking everything off. But Ryon got such a laugh out of seeing Eli dressed that way, he put all of the costume on himself! Including his work out "shorts". The kids had great costumes, Savanah was a great Pipi, Eli a classic "buff lumber jack", Nathaniel a squire, Zach "something a girl would wear", Andrew a Ninja, and Ryon a pirate, and me the white witch from Narnia, surprisingly recognizable! And our great pumpkin carving jobs! Even I was impressed! Check it out!

Nathaniel and everyone else sorted out their goodies at the end of the night, after the night Savanah looked like a dead Pipi (red hair color streaming down her face) after going through the neighbor's box maze, it took about an hour and because it's bloody hot her sweat took with it a lot of hair color! It was a great night!