Veteran's Day at the Children's Museum

On Wednesday this week was Veteran's Day.  I am so grateful for all those who have fought to protect the freedoms I hold dear and I am so thankful that in having a day to honor them, I also get to have a day to spend with my family, enjoying the freedom that many paid for with their lives.

This year I knew Jeremy was going to be out of town for work so I had been trying to think of something to do with the kids since I would be off work and there would be no school.  I thought it would be fun to go to the children's museum and when I presented the idea to the kids, Carrigan picked up a toy phone and proceeded to call and invite her friend Anna.  Anna and Carrigan have become close since attending preschool together and her older brother, Porter, and Merrick are good friends too.  I decided that CC's idea was a good one and invited their family to come along with us.

We ended up spending most of the day at the museum together and having a truly wonderful time.  The museum was a little crowded since it was a rainy day with no school, but the kids were enjoying being together so much that they didn't seem to mind.  The hit of the day was definitely the face painting.  No one was shy about getting into it and Anna even helped to make sure CC got full coverage.

So I guess today I am grateful for the three F's: freedom, friends, and face paint

Soccer and Lost Teeth

When Merrick was little there were often times when things would come up and I would sit down and blog about them right away and so it was not uncommon for me to write more then one blog post each week.  Unfortunately, now with two kids, a job, and three callings, I am lucky to get one blog squeezed in on Sunday.  The consequence of this is that sometimes really important events get buried under even more important events and get lost in the shuffle.  Merrick has had a couple of such events over the last few weeks.

Last weekend (Halloween) was Merrick's last soccer game.  He and his whole team worked really hard this season and the improvement was evident.  Most games he scored at least one goal and learned to play both offense and defense.  We had an experience the last game that really impressed me.  The weather was terrible.  I am talking bitter, gale-force winds and we were about half way through the game when Merrick came over to us saying that his shoe had broken.  It turns out that the sole of his cleat had separated from his shoe on about half the shoe.  In a truly Macgyver like move, Jeremy took off his own shoe lace and used it to tie the sole of Merrick's cleat back on.  What really impressed me is that Merrick got right back into the game, despite the weather and his broken shoe.  I was surprised by his ability to overcome adversity and still have a good time.  At the awards ceremony after the game Merrick's coach talked about him having a big future with soccer and I am sure that will be the case.

The other big thing that has happened for Merrick is that he has lost not one, but two teeth over the last month.  I know I already blogged about our discovery of his permanent tooth growing in behind his baby tooth, but eventually it did push out both of his two front teeth.  The story of the first one coming out was a bit traumatic.  It had been loose for several days and we had tried to pull it with no success.  One night, after talking to his dad, Jeremy decided to tie thread (he had tried floss, but had not gotten it low enough).  This time he got the thread nice and low and tried to pull, but it still was not coming out (the problem was that the tooth behind had pushed the tooth forward and separated the roots in the back, but not in the front).  Jeremy ultimately decided to leave it once again only to discover that the thread was stuck.  The tooth did not want to come out, but neither did the thread.  At this point Merrick flipped out and Jeremy really had no choice but to yank both the tooth and thread out.

Once the trauma was done, Merrick was really proud of his new smile.  I think he particularly liked that later that night the tooth fairly came and brought him a certificate for his tooth and some origami money.  It was only a day or two later that he discovered his other front tooth was loose and Merrick got to work on wiggling it right away.

And now that I have finally gotten these memories in writing I can ramp my mommy guilt down a couple of notches.

Halloween 2015

Yesterday was Halloween and for the first time since my parents moved here (13 years ago), it rained on Halloween during trick or treating hours.  No only did it rain yesterday, but it poured.  Despite the weather, our kids were undaunted and decided it was worth braving the rain to gain the spoils of trick or treating.  As tradition, all the Oregon cousins who are of trick or treating age headed out together.  We met at Brendon and Rachel's and took off from there.  Ben and Becca's family were all characters from Peter Pan, Lauren was some combo football player/ballerina, and Maude was a creepy doll.  As for our family, Merrick was Iron Man, Carrigan was Minnie Mouse, Jeremy was Spiderman, and I was supposed to be Mary Jane.

We lasted about an hour before everyone decided to call it quits and head to Ben and Becca's for hot chocolate.  It was not our best Halloween, but hopefully it will get to be remember as the only Halloween it rained.

P.S. Jeremy came home Wednesday night saying he needed a pumpkin carved by Friday morning for a work contest.  This is what I whipped up (I am pretty proud of it and he tied for first place in the contest)

Pumpkin Patch 2015 (and Sarah has a birthday)

This week was my birthday...this is not really the highlight of the blog, but I thought I should at least mention it.  I ended up watching my friend's daughter during the day, but my mom still took me out to lunch to celebrate.  Later that afternoon I picked my mom up downtown (she had been at a meeting down there) and she took my kids home while I stayed downtown to have a little alone time shopping and then met Jeremy for dinner.  It was a great day with lots of gifts and well-wishes from family and friends.  As I mentioned though, my birthday it not really what I wanted to talk about today and you will be relieved to know I don't have any pictures to go with this section of the blog.

Yesterday was the last Saturday before Halloween and our last weekend to squeak in a pumpkin patch trip this year.  Thankfully the weather was cooperative and we has such a good time.  We had purchased unlimited ride bracelets and the kids did slides, cow train, hay rides, bounce pillow, and "go-carts" (they were more like recumbent bikes) to their hearts' content.  Merrick was particularly loving the bounce pillow and he and I spent about an hour and a half in there together (about an hour longer than C.C. lasted).  I really need to figure out how to get one of those in our backyard. And, since no trip to the pumpkin patch would be complete without apple cider doughnuts, we made sure to gorge on those.  The real interesting part about that is that we let C.C. eat them, despite the fact that they contain egg.  Thankfully she didn't have a reaction and we are really thinking/hoping/praying she has outgrown her egg allergy.

Also, as a side note, we also finally got around to decorating our pumpkins today.  Those pumpkin push-ins are the best invention ever.

Change is in the Air

Changes are taking place all around us, both inside our house and out.  Out, fall is finally in full swing and despite fairly warm and dry weather, the leaves are changing and fall activities have begun.  At Merrick's school, large trees are dumping their leaves and while someone is blowing them into a pile, no one is collecting them, leading to every child's dream situation.  At pickup time each day I have to budget in time for frolicking in the leaf pile.

It is also the time for pumpkin patches.  Merrick took a school field trip to one pumpkin patch and we had our ward primary pumpkin patch activity, complete with face painting.  We are still hoping to make it to another pumpkin patch as a family, maybe next weekend.

Inside our house changes abound as well.  This week C.C. decided she would no longer sleep in her bed.  She would sleep on the floor, in Merrick's bed, or on her mattress on the floor, anywhere but in her crib.  One night I asked her why she would not sleep in her bed and she said "it's disgusting".  So, this weekend we took down her "disgusting" crib and she now she is on the bottom bed of Merrick's day bed.  So far this seems to be making her happy.  We just need to figure out how to get her to actually stay in bed and go to sleep at bed time.

Growing, growing

This week I have been struck by the rapid acceleration of time as my little boy is becoming more and more anything but little.  Since starting kindergarten a few weeks back, it seems like everyday there is a new milestone, a new accomplishment, a morphing from the little boy I once new.  How does this happen?

On Tuesday this week I went to his first parent/teacher conference.  I just have to brag here a little bit.  It was so nice to sit across from the teacher and have her rave about your child.  She said he was so kind, so respectful, so smart, she wished she could have a classroom full of Merricks.  I was so proud to hear about him already having accomplished all his math standards for the year and that he is reading at a mid to end of first grade level.  Most of all I was proud to hear her talk about how all the kids are drawn to him and that he is a natural leader without even trying to be.  These are all things I already knew, but it was so nice to hear them from another source.

It is silly, but the other thing that really impacted me this week is that Merrick's first permanent tooth broke through.  He has been complaining for a few days that one of his bottom, front teeth was hurting him.  I had asked him if it was loose and he said no, but when he was still complaining on Saturday I decided to investigate a bit more.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered his permanent tooth already having broken the skin and growing in behind the baby tooth.  Why has this impacted me so much?  It is just a tooth and the baby tooth has not even fallen out yet.  I think it is just the straw that broke the camel's back.  I now have have an almost 4 1/2 ft tall giant of a kid who is no longer a baby and he has the teeth to prove it.

I know I am being overly sentimental I need to embrace change, but I am having a really hard time reconciling the strange mix of pride and heartbreak that I am feeling.

P.S.  See for yourself just how big he has gotten in his school kindergarten picture.

Conference Weekend

This has been a very low key week with not much to report and a weekend taken up almost entirely by conference so I really don't have much to say tonight other than a few random tidbits from conference...

First off, watching conference with kids is always a balance.  How much do you encourage them to watch and how much do you just let them go do their own thing so that you can actually watch?  Every time I try some new system to keep the kids quiet and attentive.  This time we had bowls of candy with words on them.  When they heard the words they got a piece of candy from the bowl.  This was a good idea, but I learned a few tips for next time; pick harder words, make sure the candies are small, and make prayers a "no candy" time.

As I am sure you can surmise from my tips, my kids ate LOTS of candy and Merrick circled and collected candy even during prayers.

My favorite part about this system though came later this evening after dinner.  Merrick wanted dessert and decided that he would "just have a little Jesus" (a mini Starburst from the "Jesus" bowl).

Bottom line is that conference was wonderful and uplifting.  I am so grateful to be lead by a prophet of God who literally uses every fiber of strength in his being in serving the Lord.