Crayon + Dryer = 2 hours of clean up!

We came home from my mom's tonight around 8 p.m. We were busy putting kids to bed, brushing teeth. . you know, all the before bed stuff. I remembered there was a load of clothes in the dryer that had been sitting since yesterday. I ran out and turned on the dryer to fluff the wrinkles back out of the clothes so I could fold them. If I had opened the dryer, I would have realized that the last thing the clothes needed was more heat. Jace had left a blue, sparkle crayon in his pocket. The dryer was coated in melted crayon and every piece of clothing had melted chunks of crayon everywhere. . . nice.

Since this wasn't my first crayon melting incident, I knew that Goof Off would take care of the dryer. The clothes however, were a different matter. Thankfully, most of the clothes were play clothes, so I didn't feel too bad about throwing out about half of them. On the rest, I scraped off as much crayon as I could. Then I soaked them with water and sprayed on Simple Green (no idea if that will do anything). Currently, the clothes are in the washer and I'm biding time, waiting to see if any of it comes out. I have damp towels inside the dryer on high heat. I'm hoping they come out white, not blue. Apparently, I need to be more diligent about checking pockets from now on. . . .although, that's exactly what I said after the red crayon incident, and now I also have a blue crayon incident. Lucky me!

Let's Go to the Movies

Friday night was our last outdoor movie night of the year. The kid's were all excited to do this one last time (as you can tell from their faces!) We invited some friends, made some snacks, and snuggled up in our blankets.

The preview show was listening to Brian Regan clips until it was dark enough to see the screen. If you don't know who Brian Regan is. . .scroll down to the bottom of the blog and watch the you tube clip----you will love that man!
This is the "concession stand"---which ran out of food within the first 30 minutes of the show.
Kenzie and her BFF, Ellie, were pretty excited about having a late night (no sleepovers, much to the dismay of my children) for the first time since school started. It was a fun way to officially start the fall season and it made me wish for a few more summer days.

Hundreds of Ways to Decorate a Pumpkin

Today was Legacy Elementary's Annual Pumpkin Walk. Each class/grade picks a theme. Sometimes the pumpkins are sent home to be decorated and some teachers make them in class. It's unbelievable how much work goes into this little school tradition, but the kids love it!
Kenzie's theme was "The Value of Knowledge". They each made a pumpkin of something they could learn to be---she was a chef.

Maddy's theme was "Fish are Friends, Not Food". They each made fish pumpkins with a card saying what they could do to be a good friend.

Carter's theme was "May the Force Be With You". They had to make Star Wars characters--but only the good guys. His is the little ewok---pretty impressive huh?

Lady's theme was "I Like Being Me". They each painted their own face on the pumpkin---I'm thinking the Kindergarten teacher had some pretty high expectations. I went to help them paint the pumpkins. Even though Mrs. Parke reminded the kids about the real colors of eyes, hair, etc. They were lots of faces with blue hair, green lips, pink eyes---the regular colors were just too boring.

The pumpkin walk is the signal for me that fall is officially here--I still feel like winter just ended, so I'm really not thrilled about the cooler weather---too bad I don't have a say in that!

Program Perfection?!

Today was our Primary Program. As a presidency, this was our 3rd program. The kids did an awesome job, and considering the time length, even the 30 Sunbeams did pretty well. We got a laugh watching Carter pop his head up from behind the piano every few minutes and Laityn--well, she was Laityn. Tim spent most of the time trying to catch her eye and keep her from wrestling with her little friend Samuel (yep, the same Samuel she thought didn't love her anymore). I don't think we even came close to mastering the "stand up together" thing, we sang the third verse of a song halfway through the second verse, the 5 year olds inevitably bounced on the big squishy choir seats, and by the time they all sang the closing song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", I was all teared up. For all the grief we get with a Primary of nearly 200, they sure can bring in the spirit. It was a good day.

Discovery!

While digging through the closet yesterday, Jace came across Carter's old cowboy boots. He was thrilled! Jace outgrew his own boots earlier this year. After a boot phase that had lasted nearly a year, I was not terribly disappointed to see those boots go. Jace sported them with all his attire- - - shorts, pants, church clothes, pj's- - - everything. It would now seem that the boot phase has been rediscovered in a new form. . .Apparently boots also go with underwear!

One of These Things is not like the Others. . . .

I took the kids for their annual school pictures today. I have given up on trying to a get a cute picture taken by the actual school photo person. I picked the kids up from school thinking we would run home, change, fix hair, and take pictures. By the time I had everyone ready, it had been over an hour. Carter, Lady, and Jace had their hair done twice, because they started some kind of wrestling-under-a-blanket game while I was finishing Kenzie's hair. After telling everyone to go potty, we jumped in the car. About 2 minutes from the house, Laityn's bladder decided it was too full to continue. We stopped at Grandma's for a potty break (it was closer to the picture destination). After many promises of a big piece of cake for those who cooperated, we started the clicking. The individual pictures went great--I posted them in the side bar. The group shot didn't go so well (BIG surprise there!) Jace was too short to see over the rail of the bridge, so I had Kenzie hold him up. That is the above picture. The below picture is when I teased Jace in hopes of making him laugh--that backfired and then some. I must admit, I think his pout is almost as cute as his smile.

Paying my Tithing

I was picking up Carter's room this morning, and I came across this copy of his tithing slip. Yesterday he told me he was going to "pay some tithing". I figured if he needed help, he'd let me know. He filled this out and made a 10 cent donation to every fund available. He even post dated the slip for next Sunday when he will turn it in. I'm pretty sure his little donation just meant more than everything we've given over the past year. What a cute kid! I'm sure the ward clerk will have a chuckle when he opens this envelope!

New Spaces

So this is going to be a lengthy post. I have been promising people for weeks that I would post pictures of the basement once it was done. Well--it's as done as it's going to get for now, so I took way too many pictures and posted them all. We've been working on this project for a full year now, and it feels great not having a major project to work on every night. Tim is probably going through withdrawl--I'm sure he is really missing the never ending question "So, are you gonna work on the basement tonight?" Ha! Ha!

We could not resist making an office themed with BYU stuff. I'm pretty sure Tim spends most of his spare time (all 10 minutes he gets a day) in his new room.

the "Tween" room

Kenzie is constantly reminding me that she is a "tween"--Who came up with that word anyway? We tried to make her room reflect her and it came out just right. She couldn't be more thrilled to have her own space.

Little Lady

Lady was watching me take pictures of all the rooms, and she insisted I take some of her room too. So, even though it's not new, it's still my most favorite bedroom of all!

Girlie-girl

Maddy's room screams "girl" and that is exactly what she wanted it to say. She loves almost everything about the new place, but she would still prefer sharing a room when it comes to sleeping. She gets a little lonely for Kenzie at bedtime.

Playroom

Kenzie and Maddy's old room has now officially become the playroom. It was like bringing back some long, lost friends when we pulled the computer, toys, games, and books out of storage. This room was the final project, and now the basement is really finished (again, I am not counting the bathroom--it still needs a vanity and sink) but, HOORAY anyway!!

Remembering

I'm sure all of you remember exactly where you were and exactly what you were doing the moment you found out about 9/11. I was sitting in my family room, watching PBS with the kids, and sharing a bowl of Cheerios. My mom called and asked if I had been watching the news--needless to say, within minutes, I was on the phone calling Tim at work and calling my neighbors. It was a long few days of constantly watching the news reports and feeling so blessed that my family was safe. Lindsey sent me these pictures last year and I thought they were worth passing on. I think it's important to remember.

Hi-YA!

Laityn came home from school last week and was so pleased to tell me that at recess she was chasing boys (of course she was.). She continued her story, informing me that one of the boys had told her "he knowed karate". She demonstrated how he held his hands up in the "karate formation".

"So", Lady continued, "I showed him my karate moves!" I wasn't aware she had karate moves. . . not quite sure when that happened.

Anyway, my comment was "Really? You know karate?"

"Yep! And I did my moves on that boy!" At this point I'm wondering if she actually made contact while doing her moves.

"Did you hit him?"

"No, I just showed him my moves!"

"Will you show me your moves?"

"I can't, we isn't fighting mom!"

Later that evening, Lady was more than happy to fight with Dad and demonstrate her karate moves. She took it so seriously, we had to work to hold in the laughter! Needless to say, I am now waiting for the phone call from the school informing me that my daughter has karate chopped some poor boy--the drama of Kindergarten continues.

Dangerous Jobs

In the middle of their neighborhood BBQ, Tim's pager went off yet again. Tim (yes--Lindsey married a Tim too--pretty sure she idolizes me!) rushed out to save more lives while Lindsey finished up the night. At about 10:00 Lindsey called me to chat. She was slightly concerned that she hadn't hear from Tim yet and he was not answering his phone. I had muted the t.v. when she called, but I had seen some sort of big accident on the news. After we were done talking, Lindsey got on ksl.com and looked for the story. Sure enough, the accident was in American Fork. A tanker had hit into an overpass, and one of the tanks it was carrying was knocked off and landed on another car. Lindsey looked through the comments and found a link to a photographer's website who had just happened to take some pictures of the action. The man holding the firehose is Tim! He was the first man on scene--how's that for impressive?

I'm Ready to do some Cookin'!

Jace and I had some much needed one-on-one time yesterday morning. I decided we should make cookies for the Young Men that would be coming over to learn car stuff with Tim. When I told Jace we were going to make cookies, he jumped up and ran to Lady's room yelling "'Kay Mom! I get my cookin' stuff!" He came out toting an apron, hat, wooden spoon and oven mitts. "Help me get on my stuff so I can cook too!" I guess the gender neutral blue/red kitchen was a good plan--at least he's not in a pink apron. We made gingersnaps, and as you can see, he really worked hard stirring that dough. This is definetely one of the benefits of only one left at home in the morning.