Quotable Quotes by the King Kids in 2009

Travis: Eliza is so cute!
Jenna: Do you even know what cute means?
Travis: Uh-huh.
Jenna: What?
Travis: Eliza!


(after Caleb walked all the way to the car from the store backwards)
Caleb: I did it!
Jenna: You're so awesome!
Caleb: No, you're so awesome!
Jenna: No, you're so awesome!
Caleb: I am awesome!


Westley: I want to sit by Felicity and Nana.
Caleb: You'll be girl-trapped!
Westley: That's true! But I'll be girl-trapped by girls that I love to be next to.


Caleb: These are my grandpa shoes (about his sandals that are falling apart).
Jenna: Why are they your grandpa shoes?
Caleb: Because they are so OLD!


Westley: My low for the day was when Big Caleb beat me in basketball. I got like 10 points and he got, like, 30,000 or maybe 11.

King Family 2009

The King family started the year by moving back to our home in Queen Creek. During the spring, we learned that In-N-Out would be opening stores in Salt Lake and Utah Counties, and Corey decided to take that opportunity to help them expand. We put our home on the market in June and sold it within 3 weeks. The new buyers were willing to let us stay in the home until we needed to move and rent it back from them for 6 weeks after closing. We moved to Riverton, Utah in October, where we are currently renting.

In June, Jenna took the kids and went to Southern California for a family visit. While there, news came that her grandfather had passed away with a funeral to be held in Salt Lake City, so she caravanned with her brother to Utah, meeting Corey up there. While in Utah, Corey's grandmother passed away, so Corey took Westley and Travis back to California just after the Utah trip for that funeral. Despite these sad occasions, we took the opportunity to visit the Wild Animal Park and the beach and enjoy the 4th of July festivities in Utah. Hopefully 2010's family trips won't involve funerals.

Corey: Corey started the year in his last semester at ASU and graduated in May with his bachelor's degree. Shortly before graduation, he was promoted to a 2nd manager with In-N-Out. He is currently the 2nd manager for the American Fork store, which opened mid-December.

Jenna: Jenna keeps busy just doing the mom thing. In the fall, she started teaching preschool at home to Caleb three days a week. Managing the household is a full-time job and that's all she has time to do right now. In the spare time she has, she manages several blogs and reads any books that she can.

Westley (6): Westley started first grade in July after finishing kindergarten in June with flying colors. He continues to excel in academics and is currently undergoing evaluation for the district's gifted program. He has lost 3 teeth in only a few weeks and will be asking for his two front teeth for Christmas this year. He still loves drawing and creating projects.

Caleb (5): Caleb does preschool 3 times a week with Mom. He is learning his letter sounds and excels in math. Caleb loves tools and building. He could spend every waking hour playing computer games or watching TV, but he is also good at creative play.

Travis (3): Travis successfully potty trained in only a few weeks just after moving to Utah. He loves to play in the snow in the winter and swim in the summer, play with cars, and play with his siblings. He is excited about everything that comes his way.

Eliza (2): Eliza is our little handful. If there is a mess anywhere in the house, it is usually because of her. She keeps up with her brothers in play, but also loves to play with her babies, wear her tutu, play with her tea set and loves everything pink.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and hope you find joy in this holiday season.

Christmas and End of the Year

Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas. It was just us here in Utah. On Christmas Eve, Corey came home from work, we had a light dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes. We baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa. We did a little Christmas Eve program where the kids acted out the nativity and we sang some Christmas carols--Away in a Manger, Silent Night, and Oh Come All Ye Faithful. We opened presents--ornaments--our traditional Christmas Eve gift. Then we had hot chocolate/egg nog. Then the kids went off to bed and Corey and I finished all the wrapping and setting out of presents.

On Christmas morning, the kids got up and we all got ready for the day. Then we did stockings and the kids found little boxes of cereal in them which they had for breakfast. Then we unwrapped presents. Corey fixed a big breakfast of French toast later in the morning, which was really close enough to lunch time for the kids that it acted as lunch. The younger ones took naps while the older ones watched new movies. Aunt Jamie came over and in the late afternoon, we had a bigger meal of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and rolls.

A few pictures:

Eliza as Mary, Caleb was Joseph, West and Trav were shepherds. Jenna was the angel and we skipped the wise men part because it wasn't in that part of Luke and the kids were getting antsy. In fact, we had to get them dressed back up in order to take the picture.

Snoopy enjoying his Christmas present--a rawhide chew.

Opening the stockings

The American Fork Store Opens

Corey's store, the American Fork In-N-Out where he works as a second manager, opened on December 17th. We went to the pre-opening party, which is a private party for associates and their families, and enjoyed some free burgers, fries, and shakes for dinner. His store is quite busy, as are all the Utah stores, and we are happy about that.

Being Crafty

I am not the craftiest person. Well, I do like to do crafts, and when I do them, I'm usually pretty good at it, but I just don't thrive on being crafty. I also don't usually come up with my own ideas, I just copy other people's. I was pretty proud of myself when I bought this plain wreath, some bows and other trinkets to put on it and put it together myself.

Travis' Injury

On December 22nd, just as we were about to walk out of the house to drop Westley off at his bus stop and then drive around some goodies to a few people, Travis fell down and hit his head, which warranted a trip to the ER for stitches. The cut was clear to the bone, and I freaked out a little and called 911. Partly because it was so scary-looking but also because if it was more serious, I had all the other kids with me and I needed time to get Corey home or Jamie here to help out. The call and the paramedics coming bought enough time that Corey was able to take Travis and then I met him there after dropping Westley off at school (late) and Jamie stayed with the other two. He got six stitches.


Westley's Teeth

Westley lost both his two front teeth about a week before Christmas, so he really could ask for them for Christmas. Pretty cool.

Bowling

On December 8th, Corey's sister Jamie took us bowling as a family, and it was a blast. We only played one game and we didn't even have Travis or Eliza get shoes and get a game, we just let them take some of our turns in their socks. The kids loved it, Travis was especially excited about it. Caleb won the game out of the kids, getting over 90! It was a lot of fun.

December Birthdays

December 6--Eliza turns TWO!!

Can't believe that my baby girl is a two-year-old! Do you see me weeping that she's no longer a baby? I can't believe that she is already starting to talk and how much she does.

Eliza on her birthday with her cake and ice cream. We didn't know then that on my brother's camera that we're using, we had to use the flash every time, so all the pictures came out blurry.

Eliza at In-N-Out a couple weeks later.

The butterfly cake I made for her birthday--this is how you decorate a cake that is chocolate with chocolate frosting--you use sprinkles! I just don't like chocolate cake with white frosting, so I had to work around that a little bit. Can't do lots of colors with chocolate frosting, just doesn't turn out quite right.

For her birthday, she got a ride-on horse that would work better if we had hardwood floors, a pretty dress, a tea set, a cowgirl outfit, and Grandpa and Grandma got her a tutu with a matching headband that she LOVES! There was a picture from that day but it came out all blurry, so we will have to try again when she is wearing it.

Two great things about Eliza:
1. She absolutely loves to dance and does so anytime she hears music (whether it is her brothers singing silly songs in the background or a song on the radio).
2. She gives the best kisses and hugs and lots of them too.

December 9th--Corey's birthday

Corey just doing what he loves, chilling with the kids!

Corey's graduation in May

For Corey's birthday, he worked all day. We had a lasagna with homemade French bread for dinner. For dessert, I made him a banana cream pie from scratch, my first time. In past years, we've either gotten one from Marie Callendar's or Village Inn or somewhere. Or I've made one using the Jell-O banana pudding mix and a store bought graham cracker crust. But this one I made entirely from scratch. It was really good. That was about all we did for his birthday. He got a personalized travel mug to drink hot chocolate in on his way to work in these cold Utah mornings and a subscription to a magazine for a year.

December 21--Jenna's Birthday

On my birthday, we went to Village Baker for lunch for sandwiches and got a couple take-n-bake pizzas while we were there for dinner. I love Village Baker pizza and sandwiches. As many of you know, that is where I worked in high school. So that was a special treat. I was also able to say hello to my old boss who still owns and runs the place. I love how the pizza topping charts that my brother made on our computer are still hanging there and I also loved that when I ordered a Baker's Choice, I remembered the number for that was 15 but the lady taking my order had to check the chart. Corey baked me a cake. We had a pretty typical day, didn't do anything special. I got an In-N-Out travel cup that can be used for hot or cold beverages and an In-N-Out blue tooth, which I'm sure I'll never figure out how to use.


Since I'm the only one who takes the pictures, when there are pictures of me, they're usually strangely posed or very horrible. I apologize.

Feeling "Pooped" Out

I am feeling completely pooped, and I mean literally. We came home from my cousin's house today to find that our lovely dog had a very runny bowel movement all over the kitchen while we were gone. Corey quickly cleaned it up (thanks, Corey, you're awesome!) while I kept the kids away and acted as his assistant, handing him paper towels, moving chairs, and whatever else he needed. It was great of him to help with since he had to get ready for work. He gave up a shower in order to do it, but I'm grateful he did because he has a stronger stomach. I had to fight the urge to puke several times and I wasn't even the one cleaning it up!

Well, that was fun and dandy, but after he finished that and was upstairs getting ready, our little Eliza started to scream because she was constipated, so I had to hurry her out of her diaper and sit her on the toilet. After that, things were calm for a bit. Corey left for work and we all went on our merry little way.

When I was on the computer checking Facebook, I saw Caleb dancing and acting weird at the top of the stairs. I asked him what was wrong, and he said nothing, but with a tone of voice that suggested something was wrong. He was standing with his hand behind him, so I asked if he'd pooped in his underwear again (he did last Monday because he didn't want to stop playing computer and was thus grounded from the computer for a week). He wouldn't answer me. I knew he had--he didn't want to tell me and invoke my wrath nor did he want to lie, so he remained silent.

So, I had him get undressed, threw the offending underwear away in the outside trash (a consequence of pooping in the underwear after full potty training is to lose that pair of underwear), and he went on the toilet to finish the job. He must have sat there for 45 minutes while I picked up his Legos, which he is now grounded from until Monday. When he was done, he left a clogged toilet, a new roll of toilet paper that was sopping wet having been dropped into the toilet, and a very dirty toilet seat. When I shooed him out of the way to clean up that mess, he accidentally sat on the floor in the hall, still not clean, and smeared the carpet. So then I clean up that mess, and tell him to get in the tub to wash off his mess. He did, but left a huge mess of it in the tub. He had let the water run and stopped the drain, though, so it was just all floating around in the tub with him. I had to empty and clean the tub, then make him clean himself with the water running and NOT filling up. When I finally had him situated in the tub and the floor and bathroom cleaned, I went to get his towel and clothes and found that Eliza and Travis had gotten into his Legos and thrown them all over the toy room. About 1,000 Lego pieces all over the whole room.

Now he is out of the bath, the kitchen floor is all clean (after the THIRD mopping for the smell), Eliza is happy and the Legos are finally picked up.

I am all. pooped. out...

Travis and the Birthday Suit

Travis came downstairs naked yesterday when the kids were getting dressed for the day. I said to him, "Travis, why are you wearing your birthday suit?" and then sent him back upstairs to get dressed. About five minutes later, he came down to me, still naked, and crying.

"Travis, what's wrong?"

"I can't find my birthday suit!"

Apparently, he thought I'd told him to go put his birthday suit on. I had to try to explain to a 3-year-old the meaning behind the phrase "wearing your birthday suit". He still doesn't get it.

In Your Face, Santa!

We were telling the kids that they had to be good or Santa wouldn't bring them anything but coal for Christmas. Westley's response?

"If Santa brings me coal, I'll just play with it!"

So there you go, Santa, that's making lemonade out of lemons for you!

Keeping Up

Okay, I just posted about an hour ago how I had to clean up after Travis' mishap in the bathroom. It seems that while I was doing that, Eliza was making a little mischief of her own. I discovered later that while I was busy scrubbing the upstairs carpet and cleaning Travis, she was making a beautiful picture on the downstairs carpet with markers. And the drawing table. And the wood blinds.

Fortunately, most of the markers she used were washable. It came out, but not without a LOT of scrubbing and a little rubbing alcohol for some of it. BUT the dry erase marker she used did NOT come out of the blinds or the carpet, just got bigger and worse. And regular marker and crayon do NOT come off a wood surface either. At least, I don't know how to get it out. At least MOST of the carpet came clean except for a few tiny spots of dry erase marker (one that got a little bigger that I tried to get out). The wood blinds have a LOT of dry erase marker. Not sure if that will come off, but maybe I can try something else besides water. Any ideas? The wood blinds are painted white. Actually, on second look, I think they may be vinyl blinds, not wood.

Have you ever had a day where your kids are one step ahead of you all day? I feel like I'm running to catch up!

Bathroom Blunders

So I go upstairs this morning to find my 3-year-old standing by the toilet, naked from the waist-down, crying. I peek in to see what's going on and he's stuffed the ENTIRE ROLL of toilet paper in the toilet and is trying to get it to flush, which it won't. Thankfully, it wasn't clogged yet because it wouldn't flush BECAUSE the float in the tank was in the way of the little flap closing and it hadn't filled back up from the previous flush.

So, I grab a couple plastic bags and use one to lift the huge sopping mess of TP out of the toilet into the other plastic bag. Then I fix the problem in the tank and have the plunger on hand just in case. It flushes fine, so then I instruct him to sit in the hall and put on his clothes, ASS-U-Ming that he had wiped thoroughly based on the amount of TP in the toilet.

Not so. He starts to wail that he hasn't wiped and when he stands up, lo and behold, there is a HUGE mess of #2 ALL OVER THE CARPET! So I pull him back into the bathroom and grab a new roll of TP and proceed to help him in his endeavor, but apparently he'd been up there a while because it was dried on. I hastily pull his shirt off and start filling the tub, he starts to scream and sits down on the bathroom rug, which then got the same spot as the hall carpet. I stand him up and instruct him to stand there until the tub is ready.

Then I go to work, pouring water on the spot in the hallway and scrubbing with a cloth until the stain is gone, then spraying on pet stain remover for such pet accidents (very useful stuff if you have potty training kids!) and covering it with a towel to dry. Then he gets in the tub and I whisk the bathroom rug to the washing machine.

Last week my 6-year-old flooded the downstairs bathroom due to too much TP! I swear, I might start rationing--making them come to me for a small-ish amount before they use the toilet...

December, December

There is lots to blog about and lately I'm just not in the mood for blogging. But, I will share what we've been up to recently.

Eliza turned 2 on December 6th, which I will devote a post to later, but right now let's just say that she had a nice birthday. Best part? That Grandpa and Grandma just happened to be up from Arizona for it. That wasn't the plan and the real reason they were up isn't happy (a death in the family), but it was sure nice to see them.

Today is Corey's birthday, and I will also devote a post to that later as well. Corey has been off the past four days and that has been nice. On Saturday, I took Westley to some gifted program testing with the school district. He had one test from 9 to 11:30 am and then another test from 1 to 3 pm. Parents were required to stay and wait, so I waited all day while I read a book. On Sunday, my parents came over and went to church with us and then we celebrated Eliza's birthday.

On Monday, I went to my uncle's funeral with my parents. It was my dad's older brother who passed away. The funeral was in Mt. Pleasant, Utah, where my dad grew up, and the drive from Riverton is about 1-1/2 - 2 hours in good weather. But the weather was horrible--it snowed ALL day, and the roads were practically impassible. Not sure how we made it there and back, but we did (thank goodness my dad was driving, I wouldn't have made it if I'd had to drive!). The funeral was nice and it was good to see family on my dad's side that I never see (and some of whom I haven't really ever known).

Yesterday we spent the day getting a few things done and later in the day, Corey's sister Jamie came for dinner and then took us bowling. Caleb did really well, scoring a 90! Westley had been bowling once before, and he enjoyed it, but we need to teach that kid some technique! He would run down to the lane and then just kind of chuck the ball with all his might, which would cause him to fall over. We tried showing him how to hold it and roll it down, but he just wouldn't do it. Caleb, on the other hand, tried really hard to do it right. Travis and Eliza took turns with each of the grown-ups. Everybody had fun and the kids were really excited about it the whole time we were there.

It has been snowing like crazy here since Saturday. We have about 5-6 inches on the ground and the temperatures are only in the teens. I have no desire, nor intention, to leave the house unless absolutely necessary!

I Must Be Cold-Blooded

I must be cold-blooded because I am always cold. Okay, I know that cold-blooded animals aren't always cold, it just means their body temperature changes with the outside temperature, which is why they mostly live in temperate zones...BUT now that winter has really hit (and for me it has, despite all the native Utahns who say, "This isn't even COLD yet!!!"), I am beginning to realize that I will not thaw until June probably, maybe even July or August.

I may have complained once or twice about the heat in Phoenix, mostly mentioning that it was hot and more comfortable, therefore, to stay inside or in the pool, but I am NOT a person who enjoys cold. I once heard someone say that being cold was easier than being hot because you can always throw on another layer, but with hot, you can only strip down so far...

I prefer to not have to "throw on layers" for warmth. What is the point of having a great long-sleeve turtleneck if you have to wear your old college sweatshirt over it all day long because you're still so very freezing? Socks do not keep my feet warm enough, not even when I have slippers over them. And my hands are ALWAYS cold, no matter if I have gloves on or not. I often have to wear a hat in the house (not a baseball cap, a winter hat) to keep warm IN THE HOUSE. Even if I have the heat on higher than 70. Since it is never warm enough, I don't usually have it up that high to save money on the bill, but sometimes I wish I could crank it to 84 and leave it there.

Did I mention I don't like cold?

What I wouldn't give to be sitting outside in the warm sunny Arizona sun right now, what is it, in the 60s (which is still a bit cold for me)? It was 18 degrees here this morning. 18 DEGREES!!! I had on my layers shirt, my long-sleeve shirt, my ASU sweatshirt, my heavy coat (which is actually made up of two coats that come apart), my gloves, my hat with my hood over my hat, and I was still so very cold! It was cold enough to cancel recess today. I'm very glad for that.

I would trade the 115 degree heat for 3 months in the summer ANY DAY to be out of this freezing cold.

I'd better go buy myself a Snuggie now...and a whole lot of hot chocolate!

A BYU Fan

Today we were having lunch at the new West Jordan In-N-Out. The people sitting at the table next to us were sporting University of Utah attire, namely, a baseball hat. As many of you know, last weekend was the BYU vs Utah football game, which we watched on TV. It was a close game and I got really into it at the end, cheering and yelling. The boys have been saying that they don't like Utah, meaning the team (not the state), all week long.

So anyway, Caleb saw the man with the Utah hat and pointed him out quite loudly, "Mom, that guy is wearing a Utah hat!" The man heard and he and his wife chimed in, "Go Utes!" to which Westley promptly responded, "We like BYU." At this exact moment, Caleb turned back around in his seat, so he was facing away from the people, and started to chant in a low voice, "BYU, Cougars on you" (a chant that the boys made up).

I guess we've indoctrinated our kids already on the BYU-Utah rivalry.

A Homemade Meal: Priceless

I was thinking about how easy it is to just jump in the car and hit the drive-thru on these nights when I just don't feel like cooking (which is really every night). If we go to a drive-thru, most often McDonald's, we (me and the kids--with Corey it adds about $6-$9 to the bill) order from the value menu if possible. Usually I get the 10 piece chicken mcnugget ($3.89) for the kids to share and 4 cheeseburgers ($0.99 each) for me and Westley and Caleb. Sometimes, if I'm in the mood, I get 2 small fries, which are also $1 each. That adds up to about $11 with tax. Then I come home and make the chocolate milk ($1.75/gal plus a couple bucks for the chocolate syrup) and cut up apples, pears and bananas (about $0.20 per fruit, so less than a dollar) in a salad. So the whole meal would total to be about $15.

While I was cooking dinner tonight, even though I didn't feel like it, I thought in my head how much the meal was costing me. I made spaghetti with canned green beans and my usual fruit salad and chocolate milk and garlic bread on the side. For my spaghetti, I use 2 cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of paste and one seasoning packet in the 1 pound of ground beef. 2 cans of tomato sauce are about $0.64, one can of paste is about $0.58, the seasoning is about $0.78 and the ground beef I bought at 1.67/lb a few weeks ago. So the sauce was $3.67. The spaghetti was about $2 for the package and the package lasts our family for about 4-5 meals. Let's say 4 to make it easy--so $0.50 for the noodles. The canned green beans were about $0.67. And the fruit salad is the same as I listed above, about $.65-$.70. The milk and chocolate, considering the amount used would put that at about $1.25 for the family. I made the bread by using some Texas Toast, which was $4 for the loaf, but we only used 4 slices, so about $1 worth, and I buttered it and put garlic salt and then lightly toasted it in the oven. If you figure in about $.30 for the garlic salt and butter, the whole meal together was about $7-$8. We have enough leftover for another meal later this week too.

So $15 for a meal from McDonald's versus $7-$8 for a nutritious homemade meal. I guess I'll take the extra 30 minutes and make the food. Figure, if someone ate out every night and substituted a meal like the one described, they would save 50% on food every single time!

I guess a homemade meal sitting around the table as a family, talking about our "highs" and "lows", beats the faster drive-thru any day!

Halloween 2009

Halloween this year was good. We aren't huge Halloween people, mostly because Corey isn't really into it, but I do like letting the kids get dressed up. Westley was very excited because he had started planning his costume in the summer, even drawing up plans. He wanted to be Wall-E, from the Disney/Pixar movie of the same name, and he had it all figured out. We helped him create his Wall-E costume out of a moving box during the week that Corey had off between his training in CA and the interviews for the new stores.

Caleb had wanted to be a ghost, but changed his mind on his birthday when he picked out the construction tool set from Grandpa and Grandma. Since the set came with a hard hat and orange vest and tool belt, he decided to be a construction worker.

Travis chose an easy costume--Spider-man. All he had to do was sort through the costume box and find the Spider-man costume closest to his size (we have three of them!).

Eliza was supposed to be an angel. I bought her costume several weeks in advance, but on the day of the ward Halloween party, which was Wednesday the 28th, I put it on her, or tried to, and it wouldn't go on--way too tight (even though it claimed to be a 2T, which is a size she doesn't even fit into yet!). Fortunately, I had a princess costume that I bought for her in the after-Halloween costume sales last year with the intention of giving it to her for Christmas. It was still so huge that I decided to save it for her birthday this year. Well, she needed something right away, so I pulled it out and she went as that. I was able to return the angel costume, but they didn't have any other ones. Now I just have to figure out a different birthday present for her...

The Santa pumpkin was for a pumpkin-decorating contest for Westley's class. It fell on a week when we had absolutely no money and he was lucky to just get a pumpkin. The night before I happened to have just used a cotton ball for something, so when we were brainstorming ideas, Santa Claus just came to me. I'm so glad we thought of something fun that only required cotton balls, red construction paper and markers, all supplies that we already had. It was so easy and he got an honorable mention.

Westley also got to be in his school's Halloween costume parade. That was really fun to watch, as some of the kids really had great costumes. And Westley was the only Wall-E!

First Snow

On Monday, October 26th, we had the first snow here in Utah since we moved. The three kids at home loved it. I put them in all their snow gear to try it out and see how they would do. Eliza wasn't sure about it all, but the boys loved throwing snowballs at me.

Westley was greatly disappointed because there was no snow when he left for school, it snowed during the day, and then it was mostly melted by the time he got home. It snowed again yesterday all day, but because I was gone at Relief Society Super Saturday all day and Corey was home with three other sick kids and the backyard had mounds of dog poop under the snow because we hadn't made it out to pick it up before the snow started, Westley couldn't go outside (out front) unsupervised to play in it yesterday either. Today it melted down quite a bit, so I'm sure it will be gone by Tuesday and the kids won't be well enough tomorrow to play in it either. I keep telling him there will be more snow, I just hope we get a little more while he's off track and after the kids are better.

Little In-N-Out Girl

Eliza is so cute in her In-N-Out shirt and matching bows in her pigtails. We were going to have her wear this ensemble to the opening party this week, but she lost one of her bows in Walmart last week and I have yet to find another set of red-and-white bows. That first set was hard enough to stumble across!

Moving Box Fort

After having moved in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and now 2009, we have quite a collection of moving boxes. Most of those boxes are only good for about 4-5 moves and because Corey likes to load them up super full and heavy, they really are quite fortunate to have survived this long. We had quite a few big boxes that were just not sturdy enough to keep so we decided to build a big fort out of the moving boxes for the kids to play in.

Corey and I worked together on putting the whole thing together. We used about 7 large boxes plus pieces from about 2-3 other boxes. Caleb designated the spots for the windows. Then I went to Walmart and bought a roll of butcher paper and we
covered up most of it and then the kids drew on the paper to decorate it.

As with anything like this, it was more fun to create the fort than to actually play in it. But it was fun while it lasted.





The fort lasted about 3 weeks before they took great joy in destroying it.

Messmaker

Eliza is my little messmaker. She is always pulling the DVDs off the shelves or the CD's or dumping out all the puzzle pieces. I found her sitting in the middle of all the books from the kids' bookshelf a few times too. While it's not all that destructive, and actually there are worse things she could be doing, (and when I caught her with the books, she was actually looking at them carefully), it sure is not fun for me to clean up!

Playing Cars

When we got our film developed recently, there were pictures from last year that I found. These were from a car mat that I made out of paper for the boys to play with. I was especially proud because they asked me to add a food place, so we decided to make it an In-N-Out, and that was their favorite part of the mat.

Caleb's Birthday Pictures

I promised I would post pictures as soon as I got them. After using all the film in the camera, then having to get through a whole week where we were waiting for a reimbursement check from In-N-Out for the move, then I finally dropped off the film, only to discover that they no longer had one hour processing, but that it would take a whole week to get the pictures back. Fortunately, I was on the ball enough to have them put the pics on a photo CD, so I didn't have to spend hours scanning them all in (I'm so glad I remembered to do that!).

Without further ado--Caleb's birthday pictures:

Caleb used the birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma to buy a new construction tool set, and he loved the paper airplane that came in the card.

We went to the Hogle Zoo for Caleb's birthday.

Caleb's turtles

Blowing out the candles

Movie Days

We have all been sick here this week, all but Corey that is. Westley is on school break, so it's been a bummer that we've all been sick and homebound. I had big plans to go to the zoo, go to Thanksgiving Point, go to the Bean Museum at BYU, etc. But we have been unable to leave the house. I decided to try and make things fun despite that, so on Monday, we came up with the idea to have "movie days".

Westley and Caleb picked out 6 movies they wanted to watch. Then Westley and I sat down and drew and colored the "movie posters". Basically, I just drew the main picture from the DVD cover and the title and then Westley colored them. The DVDs we picked were: Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Cars, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, 101 Dalmatians, Snow White, and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.

After that was done, we made a concessions poster offering bottled water, candy and popcorn. I used images I found online for that. We also made a schedule of the movies to span Tuesday and Wednesday--with showings at 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Then we made movie tickets using my Print Shop program. I made a wallet for each child out of construction paper and then Westley and I gather up all the 5's and 1's from the Monopoly money and passed out 5 1's and 2 5's to each person. I popped the popcorn and set up the concessions stand and we had our "movie days".

I know, I know, letting the kids eat all that candy and popcorn all day, shame on me. But we enjoyed our "movie days" and had some fun even though we were all sick!

The Battle of the Black Widow

This morning Westley opened the sliding door to let Snoopy out. Then he said, "oh look, a spider!" For the next 5-10 minutes, I was helping other kids get ready, and kept hearing him stomping by the door. I looked over from the other room and saw the door still open.

"What are you doing? Close the door!"

"But Mom, the spider won't die!"

So I went over to the door and saw, of all things, a huge black widow spider in the runner of the sliding glass door. It was struggling, but mostly seemed like it was trying to climb out of the door runner.

"That's a black widow spider, Westley!"

Westley instantly jumps about a mile from the door, and I start shaking. I'm terrified of spiders, more specifically, poisonous ones. Having experienced trying to crush a black widow with my shoe before and having no luck--those things just don't die!--I grabbed the hammer from the tool kit in the kitchen and started pounding away. The head of the hammer was just big enough to not fit into the narrow door runner, and therefore did little but scare the spider further into the door runner. So I went back to the tool kit and grabbed a Philip's head screwdriver and proceeded to jab the spider until it curled up and the guts started coming out.

"Was the spider outside when you first opened the door?"

Westley points to the door runner and shows me that she was already in the door runner, only a few centimeters from inside our house!

Time to get some pest control going on!!!

I now have a dead black widow spider in the corner of the door runner. And now I will be paranoid and unable to sleep at night with nightmares of black widow spiders coming in all the doors and windows.

God Is Real

This morning the younger kids and I were walking back from Westley's bus stop. The way back faces the mountains on the east, Mount Timpanogos, to be precise, and it was the first time I noticed we had such a clear view of Mount Timp. I pointed the mountain out to the kids and told them that it was Mount Timpanogos. I hadn't noticed the way the sunlight was streaming through the clouds above the mountain, but Caleb saw it and pointed to it.

"Look! It's God's light coming out of the clouds!" he says.

"You're right. It sure is," I reply.

"That makes me know that God is really real!" Caleb then says.

Yes, even in the nature around us, we find a witness that God is real, even my 5-year-old child's testimony was strengthened by the beauty of nature.

Five-Year-Old

My sweet Caleb turned 5 on Friday. I don't have any pictures until I get the film (gasp!) developed. Yes, film. I found and dusted off my old regular camera since the digital camera doesn't work. There happened to be a roll of film in the camera, we'll see if it even turns out, don't know how long it's been there. I finished off that roll and sent Corey to the store to buy another roll. He had trouble finding the film and had to ask where it was. There was only one rack of film and the film he bought came in a pack of 3, so we have 3 rolls to use. Hopefully we'll have a replacement digital camera soon...

Anyway, it was a great day. We had pancakes for breakfast and I made one in the shape of a turtle for Caleb. Would have gone all out and made them all into shapes, but I forgot to do shapes until I was in the very last round of pancakes, so his was the only one. Caleb got a card from Grandpa and Grandma Fowles in Arizona, in it was money to spend on a birthday gift. He and Corey went to Walmart and Caleb picked out another construction tool set--he already has two sets from birthday and Christmas last year. He now has a construction vest (orange), hat, and tool belt, complete with a new set of tools. Corey went back later and bought him a rolling tool chest, that also had more tools, to put his old tools in.

Lunch was hot dogs, a fave of Caleb's. I spent a lot of the day frosting/decorating his cake. I made him two little turtle cakes. I used the ball cake pan and made one turtle shell out of each half of the ball. I used mini cupcakes for legs and regular cupcakes for the heads. I fashioned the tails out of the scraps from the tops of the ball cake sides that I had cut off to make the bottom of the turtle shells flat. I made chocolate frosting for the base and then green frosting for the shells, accented with an even darker chocolate frosting, which came from the store. That's because the homemade frosting was so light and I knew the store chocolate was really dark. I will post pictures when I get the film developed.

We went to the zoo in the afternoon. We went ahead and purchased a zoo pass, feeling that our money for that afternoon would be better spent towards that purchase. It was $80 for the zoo pass and would have been $48 for the trip, so I figured $32 more for a whole year worth of the zoo would be good. Corey's mom was in town helping his sister move in (who is also here in UT for In-N-Out), so she was able to join us for the zoo.

Caleb, of course, picked his dinner--spaghetti, broccoli, fruit salad (with blueberries, strawberries, bananas and green grapes), garlic bread, and chocolate milk.

It was a great day!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

5 Great Things About Caleb:

1. He is very particular--he likes things to be a certain way and if they're not, he gets upset.

2. He absolutely loves animals.

3. Caleb is fascinated with tools and how things work.

4. Caleb is very sweet and loving.

5. Caleb is the family clown. He loves to make us laugh.

School

I am not happy with Westley's school here. Although they seem to try hard, and I admit that most public school systems are set up to fail, it just seems lacking. I realize that Arizona was ranked really low nationally, but comparing the individual schools, I would have to say that Copper Basin was a whole lot better than Silver Crest.

Silver Crest does not have a curriculum for science, social studies, art, or music. There is P.E. but only 30 minutes a WEEK! I am unimpressed with the program they use for spelling, as it does not teach spelling but word families. That's okay in a sense, but he has words like "cherries" and "chimney" and "shave" and "hat" on his list. They make no sense to group together and the homework that the program outlines does not teach him to spell the words, only to sort them. How on earth will he learn to spell the words if he never sees them written or practices writing them?

A lot of people in my ward in Arizona were somewhat antagonistic toward the local public school there, Copper Basin School, because they felt it wasn't a very good school. I agree that any school that is in session for more than 6 hours seems unreasonably long, but aside from that, they were following the Arizona State Standards for education quite well. They had implemented programs for science, social studies, art and music. They had P.E. twice a week, for 45 minute block, and they were really worked hard in P.E. Music taught them more than just singing, they were learning notes and rhythms and even history. In art they were learning color schemes and techniques and focusing on certain famous artists. The teachers that Westley had were both very well-qualified and well-prepared teachers, though I admit that his first grade teacher was a better fit for him than who he was assigned in kindergarten.

When I moved to Utah in 10th grade from Texas, I was disappointed at how the schools seemed so far behind the Texas schools academically. I would have hoped that in the 13 years since I've been in public school as a student, that the schools in Utah would have gotten better, yet I'm disappointed to see that they've gone the way of the schools in California by removing science, social studies, art and music and even PE (to a degree) from the curriculum. After speaking with Westley's teacher, I feel that she seems to try to implement everything. But the schools are pathetic in claiming to be good schools if they don't even have curriculum that covers the basics in every part of the state standards. Yikes! No wonder the schools in America are so bad. They devote 6 hours a day to reading and sometimes math and leave out everything else that makes school interesting!

Anyway, I wish there was a way to make public education better. It's gotten so bad because of lack of support from parents and the fact that nationally, the statistics of non-English speaking students are so high that it detracts from the curriculum and has brought the focus back to only reading and math. I've always felt that I should be able to supplement at home, but since school doesn't even get out until almost 4 pm and Westley gets home from the bus at about 4:20, that leaves very little time for anything after school. Maybe the short breaks and summers I will have to do something.

Life in Utah

My digital camera is pretty much toast, although I still am going to take it in to a photo shop and have it looked at. But I'm guessing that there's nothing I can do for it, it has bit the dust. So there will be no pictures until I can get another one.

We arrived here just before General Conference weekend. For those of you who read the King Letters I send weekly, you already know that Corey was able to attend priesthood session in the Conference Center with my brother Jordan and my dad, who helped us drive up. Jordan happened to be in Utah for a law society conference, so it was good to see him.

The first week we were here, Corey was in California all week. Yes, we arrived on Friday morning, unloaded the truck, unpacked as much as we could, spent Saturday and Sunday unpacking and grocery shopping, etc., and then Corey left on Sunday afternoon for California for 2nd man's class all week. He got home around 11:30 pm on Friday night, and my cousin Andy was so kind to pick him up from the airport and bring him home.

I spent the week unpacking and trying to get settled in. I visited a few people and ran lots of errands. I registered Westley for school and he started on Tuesday. School here is from 9:00 a.m. to 3:50 in the afternoon!

Corey got home and we spent Saturday unpacking more and running errands. On Sunday we went to our ward for the first time. The meeting block is 1-4 pm. It seemed okay, people said hello, and everything. I even knew two people from before. One was a girl I cheered with in high school. She was on the varsity squad my senior year, but she was a junior. We had 6 cheerleaders and 6 songleaders. She and I were cheerleaders, that meant that we went up in the stunts. The other girl was in a BYU ward of mine when I lived in Regency. So it was kind of cool to see some people I knew. Next week is stake conference, and it happens to be at the Conference Center because President Monson is presiding.

That's about all. We are trying to get more settled. The weather has been cold for me. We had to buy new wardrobes for all the kids. I could probably use some new winter clothes and shoes myself, but we spent all the money on the kids. Oh well. Guess it will be sweatshirts and jeans and really old tennis shoes for me this winter. The kids are all set, so they are really looking forward to the snow.

So weird that we're in Utah now. I really do miss Arizona!

We Are Here

I just wanted everyone to know that we are now in Utah. We left Arizona on Thursday morning around 10 am and drove to Beaver, Utah, where we stayed the night. We left Beaver around 7:30 am and arrived at our house in Riverton at about 11:00 a.m. It took us the next 4 hours to unload the truck, since it was just me, Corey and Dad. We managed to even unload the piano though! We returned the truck and Dad went up to Aunt Amy's for the night and we unpacked what we could. Corey and Jamie's family friend Gail came and brought us lunch as well as dinner. She helped me unpack the whole kitchen too. Madison and Addison from Corey's In-N-Out store in Tempe are up here this weekend for conference, so they came over and ate dinner with us. We've spent the day unpacking and getting more settled.

So we are here finally!

Last Swim Day at Grandma and Grandpa's

On Friday, after the zoo, we went swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's house as Arizona residents for the last time. :-(

I am going to miss being able to pop over for a swim whenever we wanted and my children are sure going to miss all the swimming in Arizona. Sure, it will get hot in Utah in the summer and we can swim probably (don't know if there is a facility near where we'll be living), but it won't be the same as going across the street to the YMCA here or over to Grandma and Grandpa's or over to the Mesquite Groves Water Park. The water will always be too cold, unless the pool in Utah is heated, and it won't be a daily thing, like we've done with the YMCA this summer. It's been so nice to go swimming all summer long to beat the heat, and we are sure going to miss it. I guess we'll get snowy winters in exchange for hot summers filled with swimming.