It's Great to be 8!

Jeron is turning 8 this August and will be baptized on September 5th. Tonight we attended "It's Great to be 8!" Celebration put on by the Primary (oh, yeah, that's me ;)) He has been so excited to go. I send out personal invitations to each of the kids...so they get a little mail! I think that adds to the attendance...personal mail, you know. On our way there I asked if he was excited. "YES!"

Me: What are you most excited about?

J: Getting baptized.

Me: Did you know that Grandpa will be there tonight?

J: No. SA-WEET!

Pause

J: I wish Grandma could come, too.

Me: Me, too. But she'll be thinking about you.

It was a great program. Grandpa shared his helicopter story to illustrate the comforting power of the Holy Ghost. If you've never heard it, you might want to ask him to tell it to you sometime. He told the same story at my baptism almost 28 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday...leastwise the story and the feelings. Thanks, Grandpa! You did a great job!

Grandma has sewn comforter blankets for the kids for me since I was called as Primary President. Even though she's so, so sick, she still pulled through this year. The kids all loved them and many even remembered to say thank you! I know this will be Jeron's most special blanket. Thank you, Grandma! The blankets are beautiful!

Jeron is so excited to turn 8 and be baptized and be a Cub Scout! He is such a good boy, very tender and thoughtful. We are so blessed to have him in our family. We love you, Jeron!

Noodles & Mommy Sainthood

Not only have I departed the road to hell, I believe I may have just embarked on the path to Mommy Sainthood. Anyone out there ever made homemade turkey noodle soup with the help of three children, ages 1 to 7, without strangling or maiming even one of them? Okay, "help" may be an overstatement. Tonight, I did. It was truly a miracle...one of the qualifications of Mommy Sainthood, I'm sure. There were a few tense moments...but we all came away from the experience unscathed. If any of you would like to verify this miracle, please feel free to come on over, try some soup, and examine the children.
P.S. Don't let the nice photos fool you...between the seven-year-old cutting the turkey with a butcher knife, the three-year-old stirring the boiling pot while perched on a high chair and the one-year-old hanging on my legs screaming for some attention whilst I cracked eggs and added flour...I know there is a miracle in there somewhere!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lovely Table Setting: $25

Fabulous Kitchen Help: $6.75/hourSucculent Turkey: $20

One Happy, Thankful Family: Priceless

Thank you, Aunt Arva, for a scrum-diddly-umptious Thanksgiving meal! We are thankful for YOU!

Miss Fancy Bag

Mrs. Fowler, Jeron and Jadee's preschool teacher, gives the kids a plain bag with white handles at the beginning of each year, along with the charge to decorate it any way they'd like. Jeron was easy...he drew trains in permanent marker. After checking out the other kids' bags, we were proud that he'd done all of his decorating all by himself. There were many cute bags...done mostly by parents. Jadee started out pretty easy, too. We had foam princess stickers left over from her half-birthday and she decided that they would make wonderful decorations for her bag. And they did...until they all fell off, or were taken off and chewed up by her little brother. So, she has been the plain purple bag girl for over two months now.

I am a mother of many good intentions (you know what they say about the road to hell...I could well be on my way, but for spectacular efforts like those I am about to chronicle...). Jeremiah provided me the great opportunity last Saturday of going to Wal-Mart all by MYSELF! Anyone who regularly has to take more than one child anywhere really understands what a gift this is. Of course, "stuff for Jadee's bag" has been on the list for quite some time. Actually, not only is it on MY list...it's also been on hers. "Mom, when are we going to decorate my bag?" has been an all-too-common question over the last two months. So, with list in hand and plenty of time to peruse, the time was perfect for bag decoration shopping.

Jadee LOVES pink, a perfect compliment to her purple bag. So, I bought pink ribbon for handles, pink paint to stamp, rainbow rick-rack for embellishment and beautiful flower buttons to finish it off. Now, it may look like I did all the work...NOT SO! Jadee cut the ribbon, stamped her name and polka-dots, carefully pressed the rick-rack into place (I had to run the hot glue gun), and chose and placed the buttons. It was a true team effort, a fun project to do with Mom, and to top it all off, "Mrs. Fowler LOVED it!"
Jadee is no longer the plain purple bag girl...we'll just call her Miss Fancy Bag! And, what's more, Mom has successfully taken a detour from the road to hell.

Who says you can't have COOKIES for BREAKFAST?!

I received some cookies in a jar from a leadership meeting (that I didn't even attend...thank you, kind counselors!). I have been promising Jadee all week that we would make them...we finally got around to it this morning. It's amazing what fun one can have when the big brother is at school and the little brother is napping! These were the coolest cookies for a three-year-old...all the mixing was by hand! Jadee is a very good and careful mixer (Mom likes to keep all of the dough in the bowl, please).

All of the shaping was by hand!She did a wonderful job of shaping beautiful, uniform balls to bake.

Waiting patiently for the cookies to be done.

All of the eating was...by mouth! Snitching dough...Mom's favorite part...Dad's sure we'll get salmonella one day. A risk I'm willing to take!

Miss Sassy Baker. Jadee's preschool teacher got each of the kids an apron and a baker's hat when they were talking about community helpers. Cute, huh?

MMMMMM...tasty!

btw...Jadee had cereal for breakfast...Mom had cookies. Of course, she did eat her cupcake before lunch yesterday. I guess I'm just a "Life is uncertain, eat dessert first" kind of gal!

Halloween 2008...post script

Halloween 2008

On Halloween...
Davis: "uh, uh..." He DID wave "bye, bye" with a sweet smile to all who gave him candy!
Jadee: "I want to do more trick-or-treating, Mom! Are we going to another house? Trick-or-treating is the best day ever!"
Jeron: "Here, Davis, this has peanut butter. You can have it."
A few other cute things...Jadee and Jeron started at the beginning of the month asking when trick-or-treat day would be. When Jadee woke up from her nap on Halloween day, she started in..."Is it time yet?" I finally had to set the timer and tell her not to ask again until it went off. They wore their costumes all day long...even Davis. By the end of the night they were already asking when it would be Halloween again! We had a fun night!