Just There

We gave the kids each a disposable camera for Christmas so that they could take pictures of Disneyland.

Yep.

I am just getting around to developing them now. A lot of the pictures are pre-disneyland because (of course) the kids were so excited to use their cameras.

There are several pictures of Joy just in the background. Just hanging out, doing her thing. The adults are all playing settlers. She is wandering around keeping herself entertained.


Just there.

These pictures are from photo booth. (If you don't have an imac, it's a program that you can take pictures of yourself on the computer. It has a bunch of funny ways to twist the picture so it provides many hours of entertainment for children.)

The kids are dancing and singing to some music. She joins in. She just fit right in with all the craziness.






























Eli does a booty shot. Joy shakes her booty.
She copies them as they shake and shimmy.

This is a typical event in the life of Joy.

Hope is playing around on the computer.
Joy notices that Hope's face is filling the computer screen.
Joy wants to join in on the action.
Joy's sweet siblings always allowed her to play around too.



Love that smile.











The craziness is still here. The kids still sing and dance to the music blasting from the computer. She's just not there.

Grace's night in the E.R.

Things Mom learned at 3 a.m.:
God is in charge of my life. I will be calm and trusting. But...
When you bury one child, you don't want to do it again.
So:
Before, you may have said, "It's okay. We'll deal with it in the morning."
Now it's, "Well, the severe pain has lasted more than 4 hours."

(Why do these things always happen so late at night?)

So:
When the IV fluid bag got half empty and Grace went from moaning to incessant chatter, we realized that she was going to be fine despite an elevated white blood cell count and being "full of poop." (Sorry Julianne. It always comes back to poo.)

Did you know that dehydration causes symptoms similar to appendicitis?
Also:
Did you know that the iPhone is a great source of entertainment for 5 hours?


Grace learned that, "The hospital is more scary than the high dive, but the best part is after all this, you're fine."

singen im chor

I am a fan of the insta-choir for church during the summer. (In case you aren't familiar with insta-choir, you basically announce a hymn and ask anyone who wants to sing to come up and sing it.) I love having no rehearsals and it's great when people who you didn't even know sing, join you from the audience. Today we did insta-choir and even though I'm a bit rebellious lately, I went up. Before we started, the director passed out a sheet and whispered, "We're singing the second verse in German." What??? Insta-choir in German? My freund (best alto ever, besides me of course) and I looked at each other and tried to hide our astonishment and laughter.

If you want to know what Eli has been up to you can click here.

And for those that called me a slave driver, this is yesterday A.M. not P.M.


Maybe they're too tired from all the work...

(Kristy, do you like my title? I had my mac translate it into German just for you and Dirk:)

Army Skit

Warning: If you get nauseous when I brag about my good looks and talents then just skip this one. :)

When we moved into our house two years ago, my neighbor across the street who is in the bishopric, commented that he loved it when families like mine moved into the ward. He called us, "High output, low maintenance."

He asked me to be the skit specialist for youth conference. They were doing "a skit in a day." So you get your topic and you have all day to prepare and then perform that night. I said no. Then he asked me again and again. I kept thinking of all the reasons I couldn't do it. My last resort was saying that all the kids were home and I couldn't leave them home for the whole day. He offered that he and his wife would be in charge of the kids and take them to the zoo for the day. What could I say? Then he sweetened the deal by giving me an awesome compadre, Tam. (By the way, she was amazing. As a former seminary teacher, she gave them the scriptural background and was really positive and fun.)

So all the skit specialists had a meeting two weeks before and we learned two things: our order (we were first) and our topic (what happened to skit in a day?) The consensus was that since they were mixing up all the kids and we didn't know who would be in our group (so we couldn't practice), giving us the topics could ease the scramble for props, costumes and sets by gathering a few things in advance.

We got Alma 17 where Ammon defends the flocks and cuts off the arms. Tam and I decided that this skit was going to be all theirs. We didn't pre-write anything. I could have easily written something early. I have written skits, programs, and song lyrics before and I actually love to be creative in that way but we knew the kids could do it and should do it. Besides we knew we had to entertain them ALL day and it doesn't take that long to practice a pre-written script.

So our kids totally stepped up to the plate and came up with a very creative and funny skit including a prosthetic arm commercial. They did a news broadcast about the events that had transpired and interviewed the sheep (which was hilarious), the servants, the baaaaad guys, the dissed daughter of the king and King Lamoni who did a rap about Ammon. Of course we included "viewer" cell phone footage of the battle. The final interview was with Ammon who while carrying a big pile of severed arms (pool noodles and medical gloves) declared, "Well, I do have the right to bear arms."

We got to the performance and I was very surprised that so many of the groups were holding scripts and had these really long skits filled with music. Only our group and one other didn't pre-write. Now in my never-to-be humble opinion, our two skits were the best ones because the kids were totally having fun and didn't look tortured singing lyrics to the little mermaid songs.

We won "The Funniest" and got a big bag of snickers bars. It really was fun. I came home after spending 10 hours with 30 14-18 year olds and I literally dropped into my bed. I have not expended so much mental and physical energy in several months. I was so tired. But it's over and it was really fun. Next year I'm out of town that week. :)

Summer Goals

We had quite a hectic and busy school year so I am really looking forward to a fun "no obligations" kind of summer. I decided to set some goals:

1. Teach kids how to do their own laundry.
2. Teach each kid how to make a meal that can feed the family.
3. Only eat fast food lunch once a week.
4. Happy Hour at Sonic only once a week. (Drinks are half price from 2-4 p.m.)
5. Kids read 1 hour a day.

Besides cleaning their rooms, practicing the piano, and taking care of their assigned areas and bathrooms.
Does it sound like I'm running a boot camp or what?

We met some fun friends at the swimming pool on Monday and when one asked Grace what she'd been doing this summer, she replied, "Jobs."

Yep. That's right sister. Welcome to summer.

The Little Gym

When Eli started pre-school last fall, I found myself home alone with just one child. This hasn't happened since before Grace was born. I've always had two home. So Joy and I did a mommy and me gymnastics class at the little gym. She loved it. She was always such a monkey.
I have no pictures of her actually doing the class because I was lazy and I didn't even take my camera to her final class. I even had my phone and didn't take pictures.

When she died, the Little Gym staff sent the other kids a free session. (20 lessons worth 250$ EACH) I thought that was so neat. They really wanted the kids to get out and have some fun. They just had their final class and you know I took tons of pictures.

Here's Eli:


The gifted kids don't need the cheese mat to do a backwards roll.
We love Miss Kim!


The girls' turn:





















THANKS LITTLE GYM!!!

A Comb Through Memory Lane

So I'm feeling a little nostalgic lately if you can't tell...


Julianne found these pictures in the depths of Melanie's computer. These are from when Ryan and Julianne were babysitting back in October.
We love aunt Melanie!
Julianne's favorite way to do Joy's hair.

When Julianne was around, Joy's hair was neatly done usually with ribbons.



I was into the side pony because it was quick and easy.



Then one day her hair was long enough for these braids.



























and we'll never forget her ponies.




But who are we kidding, most of the time she looked like this!


You gotta love that she is clutching that chapstick especially considering that this is only breakfast.

We would play hide and seek and when I opened the cupboard she would say, "Found you!"