Squishy cheeks, Dates, and Bugs...

Marianne and I have the wonderful honor of watching Miss Lydia Bug on a regular basis. We love her squishy cheeks and how she loves to squish other people's squishy cheeks. Marianne adores her.

Jacob received his Wolf! He's such a big kid. Have I mentioned how I don't really love cub scouts? Probably not because that might be offensive...But I don't.

Rus took the girls to a ward Daddy Daughter party. He requested that they be dressed up with their hair done special, and in return promised to wear a button up shirt. They had a great time! They danced, played games, and ate lots of snacks. Marianne threw up later that night and Rus the next night and the rest of us had the same affliction for several more nights.Too bad those two memories are intertwined...

Chip and Emilee visited that same weekend. We took care of them, fed them, Marianne did Chip's hair, and when they went home they took a bit of our stomach bug with them. I still feel bad...

Any tips for keeping a stomach bug from turning into an epidemic? Yuck.

Seeing Old Friends and Why I Stress Out at Fieldtrips

Can you believe that I lucked upon a brief visit with my college friend Tami as her family traveled from Phoenix to Kansas? I was so happy to see her, and her family who had swollen in numbers from two kids to five with one more on the way. Tami and I would be the very best of friends if we lived in the same town as each other!

Here is an awesome diorama that Jacob made for his "Spirit Animals" book report. I helped with the making the clay animals, but he put the whole thing together. He was so, so proud of it!

We went on a walk a few days ago and I couldn't resist this incredibly cute picture of Rus and his baby girl. He was helping her up quite a hill in this picture. Marianne is a surprisingly talented scooter operator!

Last Wednesday was "Mustache Day" at school. Bekah wanted hers to be curly, classic and sparkly, while Beau didn't want to wear a mustache. But he did want the pet snake on his arm to wear one.

I was able to chaperone Beau's field trip last week. We went to the aquarium and botanical gardens. I find chaperoning field trips to be terrifying and exhausting, especially when I have my extra little hoodlum to keep an eye on. (Never judge a mother who has leashed her child. She, unlike the rest of us, has simply come to terms with the fact that she is powerless to keep her child from leaving her arm's-length invisible-perimeter.)
Anyway, here's my well-behaved little group. I love that Beau's friend, the one with the black glasses, does not actually need glasses. He just loves wearing them, and adopted these empty frames from a 3D movie. I wonder if he wants to be like Beau?

The last time we hung out with my parents, Bekah asked my dad to help her build a jewelry box. And he did! He built a beautiful box with her out of poplar, complete with a handy little tray inside. She was ecstatic. He's such a wonderful grandpa!

Crafting, for the Record

Here are a few fun things I've been up to...alone and with friends!

My friend and neighbor Jen have been planning to make this three paneled screen for months. We are such good planners, but the follow through is questionable. Here are the screens sans-frames:

I must confessed we still haven't assembled them in their frames - the painting part has been a substantial time-sink...

And here is a fun nail-art project I did for Valentine's day. I needed to experiment with it to find a very simple version to do with Jacob's class for their Valentine's party. I found out that hammering so many nails into a board is actually pretty challenging for a child, even a very competent 9-year-old. Also the idea of procuring 22 hammers and then listening to 22 kids use them was enough to drive me under the covers with a full dosage of ibuprofen.

So I came up with this variation, after a brief perusal of pinterest: It utilizes foam instead of wood, and as such the nails can just be pushed in. I used my silhouette to quickly cut out 24 4x4" squares of paper with the holes for the heart in their proper places. The kids just had to glue the paper to the foam, push in the nails, string the yearn, and then wrap the outsides with fabric. Jacob's class loved the project although they were easily frustrated by wrapping the yard...and wrapping the yarn again when it unwound itself. Oh and knot tying does not come naturally to third graders, at least not this kind...

My mom convinced me to make this giant "LOVE" sign for my house when I was down visiting her with the kids. The "L" is from an old window, the "O" is a picture frame, and the other letters are from various reclaimed wood pieces. We are all showing off wood projects that my dad helped us do while we were at their house. I tried my hand (somewhat unsuccessfully) at the lathe, Bekah and Beau made a car and a motorcycle, and Jacob worked on his pinewood derby car

And last but not least I had fun making this little poppy print. It could be a whole lot better, but the fact that I took the time to make it equals success in my mind...

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was good this year. I think it is the most bi-polar of all holidays, or perhaps I'm the bi-polar one about it. But this year it was good. I was able to make valentines for my friends, a small elephant print that I neglected to photograph that said "a trunk full of love," and some of my favorite baked goods - chocolate dipped macaroons, YUM!

That night we did our family celebration - a fancy dinner complete with table settings and candle light and good food that everyone loves.

Marianne helped me bread all of the chicken. Actually, I think she single-handedly breaded all of the chicken! She is a great momma's helper!

I had visited a local toy store and couldn't resist purchasing six of their "cannot-be-over-wound-wind-up-toys." I put one on each plate and they were a huge hit! I think wind up toys will be the new theme of our V-day dinners! Rus had the monkey with a leopard print tutu, I had a spaceship that ingeniously cannot fall off of a ledge, Marianne had a frog that could flip, Jacob had a chameleon who could move its eyes, legs and tail, Bekah had an inch worm, and Beau had a cricket that jumped really fast. In full disclosure I will say that there was some slight whining about the toys - Marianne initially wanted Rus's gorilla, and then my spaceship, and then she happily settled on the frog. Jacob was grumpy about his being boring and not flipping like Marianne's. He eventually resigned himself to his chameleon when he realized the eyes moved.

After dinner we did our traditional fondue dessert. Angel food cake, strawberry sauce, and chocolate sauce. The angel food cake was a surprising flop this year, but it still tasted good dipped in chocolate. Because what doesn't taste good dipped in chocolate?

Oh, and I got my poem from my dad. It read:
Roses are red,
And brilliant and bright,
But you are the rare one,
Who turns mundane to light.

I replied,
Violets are pretty,
No hats for a rose.
But you are a man who wears plenty of those.
Woodworker, high council,
Retiree and temple student.
It's not a 'stache but hats
That for you would be prudent.

Ha! We're both such aspiring wordsmiths!

Which Cookie Looks the Best?

All of the kids did science experiments this year, although only two out of the three kids were required to do so. We're overachievers. I used to make Rus do the experiments because my own memories of the science fair were riddled with dark images of myself panicking the night before the due date, painting a shoe box with a hole cut out of it, stringing rubber bands across the hole, and then ashamedly passing it off as a "musical experiment." Dark days those were. Everything changed when I helped Bekah come up with her project last year - the light clicked on in my head and I realized we could do something I was actually interested in! (We dyed fabric using different types of fruits and veggies.)

This year Bekah tested different types of leavening in baked goods, Jacob found the perfect temperatures for making and cooling crystals, and Beau asked the question, "Do cookies look more appealing if they're under different colored lights?"

His project was really fun. And it was understandably easy to find willing participants. Beau made the cookies himself (with my help), and then we called all willing neighbors to come test out his theory. He turned two shoe boxes into four little sections that each had a light in it. They were all white push lights, but three of the lights had colored filters. So one section displayed a cookie in a white light, and then the others were blue, yellow, and red. His hypothesis was that the cookies in the white light would be the most appealing.

To up his numbers, we made cookies for his entire class and had them come up one by one to get a cookie. Here he is with his good buddy Cameron.

And here's a better view of the cookie set up.

I'm sure you're dying to know, so I'll tell you that the cookies under the yellow light were found to be the most favorable! Out of a sample group of 38 participants, 14 chose the cookie under the yellow light, 10 chose blue, 8 chose white, and 6 chose red.

Beau concluded, "I think people chose that light because it looked buttery and warm. I think sometimes the people picked a cookie because it just looked good."

Amen to that. 

White Sands

Our family (minus Rus) decided to celebrate President's day last Monday by going to White Sands National Park near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Coincidentally, the Park was celebrating President's day by giving free admission, a win-win for us! The kids also had Tuesday off of school for teacher in-service, so we decided to go down Monday, stay the night, and drive home Tuesday. I made our plans Sunday evening, but despite the short notice my parents took little convincing to accept my invitation to come along. (YAY! I love that they live close by and that my dad is retired and that they have adventurous spirits!)
We packed up and headed out Monday morning. It's about four hours from my house to White Sands, but the drive was pleasant. We stopped at every historical marker (at my dad's request) and enjoyed being on new roads through new towns that we'd never seen before. They were small specks of towns, but quaint nonetheless.
We drove straight to White Sands, spent a few painful minutes at the gift shop (please, please can I buy that stuffed animal/pin/puzzle!!), and then drove out to the surreal landscape of the dunes. After a few hundred yards the paved road gave way to packed white sand. It looked just like packed snow, complete with plow driven berms of sand lining the sides of the road. White was the main color, accented by dots of color from visitor's clothing and vehicles and interspersed with the occasional desert plant. We drove to the end of the loop because that's where they said the biggest dunes were. Bekah was the first to grab a sled from the trunk and try to sled down the gentle slope in front of our van. It didn't work. My grand plans of sledding froze and I worried that the trip was in vain. We tried another dune with a different disk-sled and it was equally painful. Finally watched a little family send their mother down a steep looking dune and heard her happy squeals as a signal of success. We encroached on their spot and soon the kids were happily sledding full speed down the dune. My mom and dad even took their turns.

Marianne went once with me, and though she didn't hate it, she was unyielding in any attempts to get her to go again. She did enjoy making sand-angels though.

Bekah was the first to be buried in the sand. My dad made her into a mermaid, and much to my embarrassment she couldn't get over the fact that she had boobs made of sand.

Beau got buried next; he was a spider/octopus.

Then Grandpa gave Marianne big feet. Jacob and Beau enjoyed making small tunnels of sand and big dug-outs that could hold their whole bodies.
I remembered that a friend had suggested we try jumping off of the dunes and soon had Beau and Bekah leaping while I took pictures. Then I gave Bekah the camera so she could try to get me. I admit, I found it exhilarating and terrifying to leap off the edge, even though I knew the sand would catch me. It still felt like I was falling. It was my favorite part of the dunes.

After a while, my mom, Marianne and Bekah had retreated to the car and Beau, Jacob, my dad and I explored a few more dunes and took advantage of the blank canvas they provided. We wrote our names and drew pictures; I held the boy's feet so they could walk and leave handprints in the sand.
Eventually we returned to the van, but reluctant to leave yet we found pieces of trash that could serve as molds for building sand castles. We had quite a village by the time we were done. That was my dad's favorite part.

When we were all satisfied, we left and allowed another visit to the gift shop so the kids could spend their money on pins and stuffed animals and two small carved rock animals, and on my part, a small white sand castle.
We decided to see the lay of the land in Alamogordo before settling in our hotel. It is a small town, I think kept mainly alive by its proximity to Holloman Air Force base and the White Sands Missile range. Thus there is a long main strip with a lot of fast food restaurants and not a lot else. (I'll admit our drive wasn't really thorough because we were all tired of being in the car.)
We checked in to the hotel and immediately changed so we could swim in the pool, as much a destination in our trip as White Sands. My dad is really fun in the pool and gave any willing child a chance to ride on his back while he swam underwater. Most of us were quickly drawn to the hot tub, though.
Later we ate some BBQ ("best ribs ever," -Mom and Dad and Bekah), and then went to bed.
The next morning, Marianne made herself pancakes. She had slept in my parent's room, laying with my mom in one bed and telling my dad, while pointing to the other bed, that he had to sleep in the "boy bed." My dad took her to get breakfast and there was the most wonderful machine there. It had a button that said, "press here for pancakes" and when you pressed it, a conveyor belt started inside and within a minute two pancakes rolled off the end of the belt and onto your plate. Marianne was incredibly proud of herself and her cooking ability.
We checked out by 8:30 and decided to visit Cloudcroft before returning home. It was a blip of a mountain town, and unfortunately we arrived too early to enjoy any of the touristy shops it offered. We did get to see a large tourist trap called the Apple Barn that had one invaluable offering: it sold grapefruit spoons. As a grapefruit lover, I'd been wanting one! We also had to stop and sample the locally grown pistachios. We wound up with large bags of our own that we snacked on most of the way home.
And that was it. A wonderful whirlwind trip. I'd go again in a heartbeat!

Marianne the Great

Marianne is my constant companion. That is why she is critical of my driving abilities, likes to pick out what kinds of cereal or mac and cheese we eat, and why she can proficiently bread chicken for frying. She can also crack eggs and whisk ingredients, but as a rule I plan for a 10% loss of ingredients whenever she helps me bake - either because she is messy or because she is a devoted taste tester. 

On a weekly basis we go shopping, and she likes to tell me which stores to go to based on the benefits they provide to her - Smiths has car carts, Sprouts has stickers, and Albertsons has cookies. 

Twice a week we try to go to a yoga class that a ward member teaches at the church. Moms take turn doing the babysitting. This pic is from when it was my turn to play in the nursery with Marianne and she was baking me lots of goodies and serving me tea. She is fine with me "going to yoga" when I'm actually "going to watch kids at yoga." Otherwise, she offers enough resistance that if my own resolve is weak, I am easily swayed into not going.

There are three little girls in Marianne's life to whom she is truly devoted. One is her cousin Rachel. The other is her frenemy Noelle. And the third is her dear friend Sidney. When Marianne and Sidney play together, they are little angels, so happy, and so distracted by their games. This pic is of Marianne and Sidney as Rainbow Kitties.

Marianne is so endearing with her blue eyes and happy smile and her immense conversational abilities that you might never guess that she has a messy streak as wide as the Mississippi. She changes clothes five times a day, and usually empties her drawers onto the floor looking for "the cupcake shirt" or her "kitty pants". Her clothing routine goes like this:

Wake up in jammies.

Change to different jammies after breakfast.

When we have to go somewhere, she changes into her "morning clothes," which are actual clothes.

When we get home she either:

A. Changes into her queen Elsa dress accessorized by her queen Elsa necklace and princess shoes, or

B. Changes into "something soft" so we can SNUGGLE.

At bedtime she always changes into something soft so we can snuggle, if she isn't there already. 

This picture is of the mess she makes emptying our costume bucket in the hall to find the perfect princess dress.

I should have mentioned a fourth favorite girl in her life - her Grandma Cutesy. Marianne and Cutesy have a special bond. Marianne will call her and invite her over and tell her she wants to snuggle and relate to her in detail all of her owies in their expansive stages of healing. And when they are together, they will talk and snuggle, and Marianne will ask for lotion on her back and front and bum and they will talk about her upcoming birthday (in September).

Marianne is at that awful stage where she doesn't nap but isn't the happiest person in the afternoon. (Like Rus. Rus never left that stage.) In January our time slot at church changed to one and Marianne graduated to Sunbeams. She was not in favor of this advancement, however, and spent many long tearful minutes in Sunbeams until I took her out and told her she could enjoy Sunbeams or nap with me. She chose a nap. In the most awkward of positions. She slept like this for at least 30 minutes.

And that concludes my photo dump of the exploits of Marianne. Oh how I love that little tornado.