November Randon

Enjoyed some snuggles and reading time with our "Nonnie."

What is that Christmas book doing out in November?!

Went to an end of the season banquet for Brandon's football team. He was chosen as the MVP for the defensive backs, hence the trophy with his name on it which he is very proud of. I am too.

Loved watching him play football.

Love that it's over.

Endured getting family pictures taken for the Christmas card. Always something I dread so much. But my kids were good, the weather cooperated, and out of the 100's we took, I think we will be able to find one that works. Yea!

And that's all for November. It was a relatively quiet month around here. No games or practices, no major commitments or projects, just more time to be together, more time to unwind, just more....time.

And for that I am thankful, because it doesn't happen often.

Now, bring on December!

Lego party

Ethan is all of a sudden into Legos.

So he really wanted a Lego birthday party this year. Not a problem, I have done Lego parties before, I can easily do one again.

Plus...

... I have bins and bins of Legos all over this house, which makes planning and carrying out this party pretty darn easy and pretty darn cheap. So we went ahead with it and here are the results.


The table.
Classic Lego colors of red, blue, green and yellow. The one detail you can't see in this picture, which I'm guessing non of the boys noticed either, was the six circles drawn on the napkins to make them look like giant Legos. I scattered Lego pieces all over the table and propped up some Lego books. In the goody bags I put a can of soda, several small candy bars, airheads, a sucker and a bag of those small candy Lego bricks. I also put some of the candy Legos on top of the cupcakes.

Each game and activity had a colored Lego attached to it. The boys would pick a Lego out of a bowl and whatever color they picked, that is the game/activity we would do.

The first Lego chosen was gray which meant we started off with the Lego shuffle. We cranked some birthday music and the boys walked around the circle. When the music stopped they jumped on a certain color and if I picked that color Lego out of the bowl they got a piece of candy. If I chose the color white, everyone got a candy. We did this over and over again until they had all gotten their fill of candy.

Brown was chosen next so we played the Lego Toss. They all picked out 10 Legos and then had to try to toss them into the different size bowls. Very basic game, but they enjoyed it, especially when they got a sweet point when a Lego would hit the carpet first and then bounce into the bowl. Now that is exciting.

Yellow meant the Lego spoon relay. They divided into 2 teams and each had to take a spoon and scoop as many Legos as they could and then carry them across the room to dump in a small bowl. After each boy had a turn we added up all of the Legos to see who had the most.

My favorite game at this party was the "guess my Mini-figure" game. I came up with this idea literally minutes before the party. I taped different mini- figures to an index card and then put them in some headbands from another game we had. They couldn't see their own mini-figure and each had to ask different questions to guess who they were.

They loved this game as much as I did.

(Their mini-figures were Yoda, a pirate, Harry Potter, Doby, a clown, Darth Vader and Indiana Jones)

The green brick sent them on a hunt for mini-figures. I had hidden about 40 (yes we have over 40 mini-figures) around the living room. They came back and counted them out. I also gave a special prize to the person who had found the mer-man mini-figure. Really? A mer-man? You have got to give a special prize for that one.

I strategically made sure they picked the red brick last. Red was the Lego sort. All of the Legos had gotten mixed up after all the games. I dumped them all out in front of them, set the timer and told them to sort the colors, which they happily and frantically did to beat the time. And then my party was all cleaned up.

Brilliant, if I do say so myself.

We also enjoyed opening presents (mostly Legos, of coarse ) eating cake and ice cream, watching parts of a free Lego DVD that came with the Lego magazine my boys get (which the boys were glued to and could have probably watched the whole time) and just some plain old creative Lego building. It was a success. An easy, cheap (I think the whole party cost me under $15) success.

And my boy was happy.

And that's really what makes it all worth it.

Happy Building!

Eto

Seven years ago, while most of the world was out frantically shopping on Black Friday, I was sitting in a quiet hospital room holding the greatest gift. A gift that couldn't be bought in any of those overcrowded stores.

I was holding my perfect little boy.

I was holding my Ethan.

How do you celebrate seven years? How do you let your child know how much you love him and how grateful you are that he is yours?

Well, actually, for our seven year old it was pretty easy this year. We slipped away from the after Thanksgiving bustle at our house for a quiet lunch buffet at Pizza Pie Cafe. It was just the 3 of us, Mom, Dad and the man of honor, Ethan. He loved the attention and chattered the whole time. And he almost broke his record of eating 8 pieces of pizza.

Almost.

He could not wait to open his presents. He just couldn't. So, he ripped into them in the early afternoon. And then we quickly headed off to Walmart because that birthday money was already burning a hole in his pocket. We returned with a big Lego set, a ninjago, mini figures and 2 bionicles. These kept him and his siblings busy for the rest of the day.

I am so thankful for this one.
He is such a good boy. He is happy and friendly and easy going. He is so smart and does so well in school. He loves to play board games and read big huge chapter books. He loves to play baseball, soccer and football with anyone who is willing to play with him. He is a good friend and is well liked.
He is my son, my thanksgiving treat, my little turkey.




He is a sweet one, that's for sure.
Sweeter than any pie Thanksgiving could ever offer.

Happy Birthday Eto!
I love the stuffing out of you!

thanks and giving always

I absolutely love Thanksgiving.

And I love all of the traditions that accompany this glorious holiday.

I love the tradition of family getting together.

The more the merrier over here. I grew up having Thanksgiving every year with only my immediate family. That was cozy and quaint and all I knew, but for me now, extended family, cousins, grandparents and friends- that's what makes it special.

I love the tradition of good food.

Trevor and I wrestled with this bird for 2 days getting it ready for its big debut. I'm telling you brining a turkey is the way to go. Delicious. It deserved a picture. We also had a stuffing showdown as well as a sweet potato contest. The outcome was divided. All recipes will be back next year. You can never have too much food on Thanksgiving.

I love the tradition of the kitchen bustle.

Everyone working together to present the perfect meal. The smells from my house that day were to die for.

I love the tradition of gathering around the table.

Of eating and visiting and sharing what we are most thankful for. I love being together.

I love the relaxed and lazy state after the big meal.

I love that they ate so much turkey they had to sleep it off.

I love the tradition of football on Thanksgiving.

I really do. I love that my family played in 2 turkey bowls in the morning (one with the ward and one with family). I love that the boys played football outside both before and after the meal. I also love that the weather was perfect for it this year.

I love football on Thanksgiving so much that I don't even mind that it is on all day inside, while they are playing it outside. Football is a part of Thanksgiving around here.

I love the ads from the 10 pound newspaper that comes on Thanksgiving morning.

I love looking through them, circling our intended targets and plotting our shopping strategy.
(Although I did not enjoy the sales starting on what my sisters and I have now named "Brown Thursday" Where did my Black Friday go?)

I love playing games that all ages can participate in and enjoy, like an exciting round of turkey races or...

...a rousing game of reverse charades.

I love the competition, the noise and the laughter that fills my home when we all play games together. I wish we did it more often.

I love Thanksgiving.

But mostly I love the people and feelings that go along with this day.

We have much to be thankful for this year.

And this particular Thanksgiving day, filled with family and traditions and food and love did not disappoint.

sunday afternoon

Only 4 more Sundays left.

4 more Sundays of 9:00 church.

Now, I know most people like 9:00 church, Trevor being one of them, but I do not like it. And I will tell you why.

First of all, I kind of like to sleep in. But more importantly, my teenagers like to sleep in. And they need to. They work hard all week, burn the candle on both ends, stay up late far too often and they need some time to catch up on that missed sleep. More often than not, we have something going on early Saturday morning and then with early church there goes their sleep in days. They desperately need some sleeping in time, and most weekends they just don't get it.

Another reason is that getting home at noon makes for kind of a long day. A long day for 9 of us to be all together without TV or friends or outside play. We seem to get on each others nerves a lot on Sunday. I wish it were different, but it's not. By about 4:00 every Sunday Trevor and I leave for a walk, rain or shine. We just need a little break. We need to escape.

Occasionally, we have a decent Sunday afternoon. These pictures are from one of those rare days.

The mess from lunch. We get home, loosen some ties and dive in. It is kind of a free for all. There are usually corn dogs and quesadillas flying around the kitchen. The Sunday paper is strewn everywhere and it is crazy, but we can usually get it cleaned up by 1:00. And then the games begin. Sunday games, that is.

This is Alyssa's game. She plays church. Almost every Sunday. I love watching her. She gets her microphone, her props and then she gives talks. Talk after talk after talk. It is darling. And on rare but precious occasions she will throw in a prayer and song too. If only they all would join in this game with her.


The whole gang will usually break out the Legos on Sunday. This particular Sunday they made a whole town. It took them all afternoon. It was perfect. They were all together in their rooms playing quietly. It was heaven.

On Sundays, rarely played board games are pulled out of the closet and dusted off for a few good rounds of play. Just like the olden days, the days before video games and all that crazy stuff. I love watching them play together like this.

Yes, this particular Sunday was a good one and so I wanted to document it. It was relatively quiet, we had only a few squabbles, the kids got along, and Trevor and I didn't even need to go on a walk.

That is one for the books.

1:00 church here we come.

A little more time to sleep in and a 3 hour block of church to break up the day.

Most of us can't wait.

and one more makes 8

We were getting a little bored with just 7 kids so we decided to host a Japanese student for a week to liven things up a little bit around here.

Meet Yuya, our newest son.
He is from Hyogo, Japan and is 15 years old. He doesn't speak much English, but he sure got good at saying "nice to meet you," as he had to say it 9 times as he met and shook hands with each member of his new family. I think he was a little overwhelmed at the sheer number of us.

Apparently, most of these kids really want to eat an American hamburger. We were happy to oblige. We headed to Smashburger and treated him to a generous portion of greasy goodness. He gave us the thumbs up. We then took him to Krispy Kremes for some donut factory action. It was at this point that Ethan started to feel sick, not from the food, but burning up with a fever. Sick, how nice.

One of Yuya's favorite things to do was be outside jumping on the tramp with the boys. He told us that he goes to school for 8 hours a day with a 2 hour train ride, six days a week. My kids were floored. So I really think he liked just playing and being a boy.

And we know how to do that well around these parts.


The kids spent hours playing baseball, football, and basketball. There did not seem to be much of a communication barrier when they were playing. He was just one of the boys.
And I think he was in heaven.

This cute boy had been waiting and saving for quite some time for his first trip to America. One week was all we had to help him experience it. I took this very seriously. We had brainstormed and tried to think of what we should do, what the best American foods were and how to possibly fit it all in. We wanted to give him the best overall experience. We did fit in so many things, but one thing he enjoyed and wanted to do was watch and be a part of typical family life in America, so we had to plan some down time so he could just watch us "be." One night he sat at the table and wrote everyone's name in Japanese.

Almost every night he would come downstairs with something from his suitcase to do or show to the kids. They could hardly talk to each other, but they definitely bonded.

One night it was these string hand games. One night oragami (he actually brought us all a pack of origami paper and then taught the kids how to fold them). One night it was Japanese chess. He gave the kids Japanese money and candy and cookies and pens and books (Meanwhile, Ethan was sequestered in our bedroom behind closed doors, still totally sick. So Yuya met him that first night and then really didn't see him again until 4 days later. He was probably like, "Where in the heck did this one come from?").

At the end of the week, we asked a Japanese translator to ask Yuya what his favorite thing had been out of the whole week.
His answer: Laser tag.

We took him to Cornbelly's to experience the whole Halloween/fall stuff. We had a blast. We did a corn maze, played pumpkin tetherball, played in a giant corn kernel pit, and jumped on a huge trampoline. Oh, and we took him through some spook alleys like that giant monster in the picture. I don't think they have anything like giant scary monster guts in Japan. Aren't we wonderful hosts?

He was flying out really early on Halloween morning and we wanted to show him how the costume trick or treat thing worked, so we took him to the Riverwoods where they were celebrating a little early. He quickly learned how to say trick or treat.

Like I said, we tried to come up with classic American foods to feed him during the week. We ate hot dogs, corn on the cob, apple pie, tacos, soup in a bread bowl, spaghetti, hot chocolate, pancakes, sugary cold cereal, and anything else we could think of. The only 2 things he gagged on were black olives and oatmeal. He really didn't like those, but was still very polite about it. On Saturday night he asked me if he could make lunch for us the next day (hmmm was that a hint?). And so, on Sunday afternoon he made us some traditional Japanese soup he had brought from home (think top ramen). My kids loved watching him and gobbled it right up.

On Sunday night, his last night with us, we introduced him to the fine art of pumpkin carving. He loved it. We roasted him up some pumpkin seeds, lit up all the jack-o-lanterns and then showered him with gifts to take home to his family.

We didn't want him to go.

There is a law that you can't proselyte to these kids. But, they knew before they came that they were coming to religious families. We were told we could do everything we normally did and they could join in. And that's just what we did. Yuya knelt with us every morning and night for family prayer. He prayed with us before each meal. He read the Book of Mormon with us each night (he can read the English language very well), he went to mutual with the teens, and he spent 3 hours with us at church. We didn't proselyte, but we hope he felt the Spirit, we hope he liked what he saw, and we hope he takes a little of that home with him to Japan.

I think he had a good time. I think he liked Utah. I think he liked being 1 of 8 kids. There was never really a dull moment. We were all exhausted. But he left with a smile on his face and a tear in his eye and a whole week's worth of American memories.

We won't ever forget him.

We miss you Yuya!

preference

She did not get any pictures of the horseback riding day date. Nor did she get any pictures of the dinner out at La Jolla Groves, or the trip to the old fashioned toy store where they played with toys in their formal wear.

But she has a great mother who did manage to get pictures of:

the girl

the dress


the shoes

(red sparkle vintage 90's ones, courtesy of Aunt Sarah)

the boy, Silas

the couple

the group.

There is really no denying it,

he is the one she prefers.

(and that's ok with us, because he is a roofer and is going to put up our Christmas lights.

Oh, and he's also a really great kid)