True Princesses

Last year Ashlyn really wanted a princess party, but she had too many "boy" friends so we opted for a Candyland party instead.  This year there was no getting out of it. 

A Princess Party she wanted. 

 A Princess Party it would be.

We sent out the invitation inviting all maidens in the kingdom to come to the party.  At the party they would undergo several tests to determine if they were indeed true princesses.  They were instructed to come dressed in their rags (normal clothes).  This was apparently uspetting to some. 
"But mom, I don't want to wear rags!" 

When the maidens arrived they were each given a bag of pink play dough.  They were then instructed to make it "royal"  They could choose between all colors of glitter that they sprinkled on their play dough and then kneaded it in to make it sparkle.  They also each choose a gem to mix in.  Their sparkly princess play dough was then placed in their goody bag.

The first game was Snow White's pass the poison apple.  They passed around an apple to music.  When the music stopped and they were left holding the apple....

...they had to take a bite. 
And if they were a true princess, well, then this would happen:

And wouldn't you know it, all of those maidens fell to the ground - very dramatically, actually - eyes closed, arms spread; they were very serious about this princess testing.

Test #1 was passed with flying colors.

The next test was Ariel's underwater gem hunt.  They all sat around this bowl filled with soapy water.  I told them that they each had to reach into the water and try to pull out a gem.  If they pulled out a gem they were a true princess.  If they pulled out a black rock, they were not.  To get them started I took a turn.  I reached in and pulled out a black rock.  They gasped and felt very sad for me that I wasn't a princess.  (I actually was holding the only black rock as I slipped my hand in) 

After my mishap they were all very nervous when their turn came

But against all odds, they all found gems.  It was a true princess miracle.

Next they had to pass the Rapunzel-frying-pan walk.  They put on the Rapunzel hair, grabbed the frying pan...

...and carefully carried the pink balloon across the room and back.

It was difficult, yes.  That hair is heavy and the balloon light; it could have very easily floated out of the pan, but they pulled through and another test was successfully completed.

After reading them the story of the Princess and the Pea they attempted this test.  Could they sit on each of these pillows and guess where the pea was?

Yes, yes they could.  An obvious sign of a true princess.

We then prepared for Cinderella's glass slipper test.

If the shoe fit, they must be princesses. 

And sure enough, every one of those dainty feet fit slid right into that glass slipper. 

Their final test was from Jasmine and it was my favorite.  They had to take a jewel...

...and without touching any other treasures, tiptoe through the course and...

...gently deposit their jewel in the magic lamp.  And after some close calls, they all completed this difficult test.

Having successfully passed each and every test to determine who was a true princess, their fairy godmother arrived, tapped them all on the head and transformed them all.

From plain maidens dressed in rags to the beautiful glorious princesses that they really are.

And then it was time to celebrate.

To celebrate this princess. 

This little princess and all of her royal friends. 

 It was a grand celebration indeed.

 

Some notes:

*I did provide a new apple for each round of the pass the apple game, so there were no germs being spread around.  That would have been very un-princess like.

*The Rapunzel hair was Sarah's masterpiece for a Halloween costume.  The girls were dying over it.

*When I did this party for Alyssa on the Cinderella game I had a pair of dress up shoes from the dollar store for each girl.  They got to take them home as part of the goody bag.  Wouldn't you know that this year the dollar store didn't have any dress up shoes.  So, I dug through the dress-up bin to find my glass slipper and just used that on each girl.

*All of the jewels and beads are things we have collected over the years.   They are stored in a treasure chest in the playroom and are played with almost daily by my kids.  And that Aladdin genie lamp? Well, that is probably the best fifty cents I ever spent at D.I.

the last dance

Kara had mixed emotions about her Senior Prom.  She was so so excited, but she was also sad, because this was her very last High School Dance.  As her friend Lindsey so eloquently put it, "Kara, do you realize this is the last time we will feel this pretty until our wedding day?"  Putting that nice thought aside, Kara pretty much had it all that night.

For example:

She had a stylist.

I kept calling Sarah Cinna.  She told me that she would kill me if I put this picture of her on the blog.  Well, Cinna, you know where to find me.

She had a prep team.

We were mostly there to adjust and to watch and to visit and to ooh and ahh.

Cinna and Kara really did most of the work.

She had admirers.

They thought they had died and gone to princess heaven (they kept calling her Belle).

I'm pretty sure they won't be quite so excited for the years of Tuxes that are in their futures with 3 brothers next in line.

She had to wait.

A certain someone left the corsage at home and had to turn around and go get it.

She had a doting date.

Silas, ever the gentleman.
 So respectful, so polite, so fun.

She had pictures. 

Tons of them. 

 (You might actually think this was her wedding)

She had the whole night ahead of her.

And she had the time of her life.

It was the perfect way to end, this, her last night of beauty.
Until her wedding day, which better be a couple of years away, at least!

i'm going there someday

On a gorgeous warm Utah Spring evening we gathered together on the grounds of the beautiful Mt. Timpanogas Temple for Family Home Evening.  We laid out our blankets on the grass, organized our supplies, and then began with the flag march, because you really can't have a Family Home Evening without a flag march now can you?

We began our lesson with all of the aunts and uncles and Grammy and Poppy showing a picture of their wedding day.  They each talked about the temples they were married in, how they felt that day, and then they bore their testimonies as to why it is important to get married in the temple.

We then headed to the steps of the temple where we discussed the steps that needed to be taken to get to the temple someday.  As we discussed each one, we went up one step closer to the temple.

We  enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the perimeter of the temple. 

 So fun to see all the beautiful spring flowers and the immaculate landscaping.

It was so wonderful to be there with our whole Fuehrer family.

Cousins today.  Cousins tomorrow.  Cousins forever!

We discussed our goal as a family to be gathered together inside someday, just as we had gathered together on the outside on this great night.

That is my dream. 

To be inside the temple someday with all of my children and all of their spouses and all of my sisters and their families, and my mom and dad who are true pioneers in our family.

And tonight we got one step closer to that goal.

We love to see the temple.

We'll go inside someday.

Together Forever!

the magic mug

It was time again for the annual 3rd grade Invention Convention.

Let's review:

We have produced some great inventions from within the walls of this home.  We have been the masterminds behind  the "Pea-liminator", the "Super Spider Remover" and the incredible "Everlasting Air Tank."

All very great and successful inventions.

But it was time this year for a little more feminine touch.

Something for the kitchen perhaps. 

Alyssa was up for the challenge.

Her creation:

Introducing The Magic Mug!

This mug is a must have.  It holds the hot chocolate or milk.  It warms the cookies underneath.  It has containers to hold the cookies for dipping, the marshmallows for melting and the spoons for stirring.  It even has a contraption to lower the cookies in and then retrieve them out all sopping and ready to eat without even getting your fingers wet.

Now that is one magnificent mug!

 

It was a hit and I'm sure it will make millions.

And it's a good thing, because we need it!

grass house

A neighbor dumped some left over sod into the back corner of the empty lot on our street one day.

My kids had it sniffed out in about 5 minutes.

They put their little heads together and made a plan.

They recruited some cheap labor.

And a new adventure began.

They were going to make a fort.

 (Does this sound familiar?)

 

They heaved and tugged.

They stacked and laid.

They were serious about this fort.

Serious enough that it took them a couple of hours to complete this masterpiece.

They had grand plans to water it each day. 

 To have picnics on it. 

To even mow it if necessary.

But none of that ever happened.

I think some big kids messed it up the next day and the fort was abandoned, forgotten, left to dry out in the sun.

But, it won't take long for them to find another treasure in that good ole empty lot to create with, I'm sure.

And they better get going because I  heard that the lot has finally sold.

I don't have the heart to tell them just yet.
Maybe tomorrow.

we needed a break

Spring Break 2012.

Our last one together as a family.

(Next year Kara will be at BYU where they don't have a Spring Break)

It was supposed to be big.

It was supposed to be exotic

It was supposed to be a cruise.

But you kind of need a job to do a big Spring Break trip.

You really kind of need a job to take 9 people on a cruise.

And, well, a job is something we don't have right now.

So instead of cruising through the Caribbean we created our own somewhat tropical adventure.

One day we swam with cousins in the far off exotic city of Saratoga Springs.

It is, after all, a natural hot springs pool.

 

My kids probably jumped off the diving board 200 times.

Plus I had to put this picture in.  Hello, can you say skinny?  I can count his ribs and then some.  The sad thing is, he is my stockiest kid.

One day we hiked the Y with other cousins.
 It was the first time for some of my little ones. 

Kara and I had to hang back to do some very important scrambling to get her into her future dorm room.  And we did it!  It was a miracle, a true answer to prayer.  And as soon as we stopped screaming and jumping around we hightailed it up the mountain to catch up with the crew.  And, duh, we didn't even bring water.  But we made it and we were very proud of ourselves on many levels that day.

We spent one day by ourselves at BYU.  Part of our day was spent in the Bean Museum.

As always, we cannot go to the museum without stopping by to say hi to the 2 headed snake. 

He has been there forever and is our favorite exhibit.

We walked around the Library and my kids were fascinated by the rotating and moving aisles.

Simple pleasures.

Our final stop of the day was to visit our Uncle/Brother/Brother-in-law, and celebrate his new position as the new Registrar at BYU.

One day at the beautiful gardens of Thanksgiving Point.

And we ended our glorious break with an old Fuehrer family tradition.

Ice cream for dinner.

And ice cream for dessert.

(This was perhaps the most exciting thing my kids could imagine!)

And that was it.

It wasn't a cruise.

It wasn't California.

Heck, it wasn't even St. George.

But it was home.

And it was busy.

And it was practically free.

And that is the kind of break we needed this year.

easter 2012

I'd like to paint the picture that all of our holidays are memorable and magical.  But the reality is they are often far from that. 
Take this Easter for instance.
 It was not one of our better mornings around here.  To start out, I wanted to make a memory and teach a lesson with the Resurrection Rolls.  Well, they flopped, literally.  I don't think any of them turned out.  Then, as I was helping Alyssa with her hair, she started to black out.  I laid her down, barely avoiding the full on faint, and went to help the other kids as she recovered.  This put us a little behind schedule and certain children were not cooperating and so we were going to be late.  I don't like being late, especially on Easter Sunday, so a little yelling may have taken place on my part.
 Okay, maybe a lot of yelling.

We walked into the back of the chapel and yes, we were late.  As we sat down I noticed some blood on Ashlyn's arm.  I looked her over and couldn't see where she was bleeding from.  I wiped it off, grateful it didn't get on her new dress and then tried to get in the right spirit.  I then noticed that Bryson wasn't there.  "Where is Bryson?!"  I tried to calmly whisper.  Alyssa informed me he got a bloody nose and was in the bathroom.  That was when I realized that the blood on Ash's arm was probably his.  Sick!  I told Trev to go and check on him.  He left and was gone for a very long time.  He informed me that when he got into the bathroom there was blood everywhere.  All over Bryson, his new white shirt, his new Easter tie and all over the bathroom floor.  After he finally managed to get the spurting nose under control, he began the process of cleaning up the blood splattered bathroom floor.  After multiple trips to the janitorial closet and lots of paper towels he got the job done.  They then went home to change Bryson's clothes and try to scrub off the new tie, because they claim they thought I would be kind of mad.  They were kind of right.  (I know it wasn't his fault, but it was just that kind of day!)  They slipped into the meeting with about 10 minutes left.
 And to top it off, church was just OK.  I know that's horrible to say and it was probably my attitude, but usually for me Easter Sunday is a spiritually uplifting day. 
This particular Sunday it was just OK.

And then on our way to Grandma's Alyssa got her foot caught in the seat as someone was trying to get out and she cried and cried.
 Honestly, I felt like crying too! 

 

And then we walked into Grandma's house and my spirits were lifted.
 It was Easter and despite my morning I realized I have much to be grateful for.

I have 4 handsome good boys.
 (Notice the freshly scrubbed green tie)

I have 3 beautiful happy girls.

We have our problems and our bad days, we have some yelling and fighting and yes, even some blood.

But we have each other, through the bad and the good.
And luckily, most days, there seems to be more good than bad.

And most importantly we have the gospel. 
We have an eternity together.
We have a Savior and a testimony that because of Him all can and will be good if we so choose.

And that makes for a happy Easter no matter the morning.

the healer's art

I was sitting on a pew in a dark chapel watching the General Relief Society Broadcast with my mom and sisters last fall.  After they announced the closing song and prayer I leaned over and whispered to Jana that the lady giving the closing prayer had been my very favorite nursing professor at BYU.  Her name was Sandra Rogers.  I looked forward to every one of her lectures.  She was amazing.

 Fast forward to December, I was sitting in my parents basement surrounded by my family and we were opening Christmas presents.  It was my turn to open my present from Jana.  Inside the envelope was the sweetest note and a ticket to the upcoming BYU College of Nursing Anniversary Extravaganza, where the featured guest speaker was none other than Sandra Rogers.   

 It was one of the nicest gifts I have ever received.

Fast forward to April, where Jana and I  and hopped in the car and headed to BYU, to our Alma Mater, to the great college of Nursing that we each called home for 2 years.

 We were excited.

 

Never mind that we think we were the only ones who didn't get the memo to dress up. 

Nope, it didn't bother us a bit as we whipped in and out of the classes and activities and a very fancy dinner in our jeans. 

 

 

One of our first stops was the good old Spencer W. Kimball tower, otherwise know as the SWKT, where we spent the majority of our time as students.  We wandered down to the basement and took this picture outside of the learning lab.  Behind those doors is where we got down to the nitty gritty of nursing (each in our own year).  We gave bed baths to our fellow classmates, practiced our intramuscular injections on each other, (after we had graduated from performing the injection on oranges) and it is where we endured having  nasogastric tubes inserted down our noses into our stomachs by other students. I can still feel it coiling down my throat.

  It was awful. 

 

We wandered around looking at the different offices, to see if any of our old teachers were still there.  There was a handful that were still teaching.  One of them was our ICU/Critical Care semester teacher.  Outside her door this worksheet was hanging.  We both looked at it, looked at each other and then looked at it again.  Did we really used to know how to do that kind of stuff?  I couldn't do any of that now.  But we obviously could back then.  I actually think I got my best grades that semester.  We then patted each other on the back.  We are two smart cookies.  OK, we WERE two smart cookies, back in the day.

After some great lectures, some BYU Bookstore fudge consumption, and lots of reminiscing we headed to the banquet.  We were impressed with the BYU china, the hologram glass gift and the fancy dessert with the BYU nursing logo printed right on the cheesecake.  And then I was transformed back in time as I listened to Sandra Rogers speak.   Her compassion and love of nursing touched me then and it still touches me now.  I could have listened to her all night.

 

I am so grateful for the education I received at BYU.  I truly did learn the healer's art.  In fact, I can't listen to or sing that song without a flood of memories from nursing school coming back.  I love how into every facet of my nursing education there was so much spirituality woven into all we did and everything we learned.  I felt close to the spirit as I listened and watched and learned how to care for all kinds of  people. I learned patience and compassion, I witnessed some things that few people are privileged to see.  As I watched patients give birth, undergo painful procedures, fight mental demons or take their last breath I was moved and felt a deeper appreciation for the plan of salvation, for God's hand in everything, and for the amazing opportunities that awaited me in this field that I had chosen.  I loved everything about my years on BYU campus, my years in the fabulous nursing program that helped me become what I am today.  Nursing is a part of me; the healer's art is a gift I am truly grateful for.  I love being a nurse.

 And I love my sister for letting me relive it all.

March Random

Ethan graduated from the R.A.D. Kids program at school.  I was priveleged to attend the graduation/demonstration.  And, oh, what a demonstration it was.  I have it all on video.  My cute boy hitting and kicking this police officer with all his might.  Raising his arms straight up in the air when the "kidnapper" tried to pick him up so he slipped right out of his arms.   Poking him in the eyes while yelling "YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!"   He must have really been paying attention in class and  he earned that diploma, I'm telling you.  Just ask officer Mike, bless his heart.

Hunger Games midnight premiere. 

 They think they live in the Capital. 

They didn't get home until 4:00 a.m. and it was a school night.

She got up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready for shcool. 

It didn't phase her at all.

Piano recital. 

 Our wonderful teacher is brilliant.  She set up this little recital at a beautiful new facility for Alzheimers patients.  It was perfect.  The kids played and played on a beautiful brand new grand piano.  There was room for all the parents and siblings.  And the patients were the perfect audience.  Their eyes lit up with each song.  Some of them sang along, especially if it was a hymn.  Some of them led the music with their bony little arms.  Everybody was happy. 

Miss Connie is truly an angel among us. 

We love her so much. 

 She told the kids to go home and count this recital as service in their Faith in God or Duty to God.

And we did just that.

 

Him.

I just love him. A lot. 

 I am so thankful for how hard he works.  It is a full time job looking for a job. 

 He is so positive. 

 He is so dedicated. 

 He is so faithful.

And we will be blessed soon.

I just know it.