Christmas 2009

Happy Holidays!

The years are going by faster and faster!

Amberly turned 1 year old in July. She is a very sweet and funny girl. She is very easy going and did not seem in a rush to walk. She started walking in October at 15 months and now she is into everything--her favorite is climbing on the kitchen table. She is a pretty quiet little thing too. She doesn't say a whole lot but that may have something to do with the lack of airtime available with four brothers.

Joshua turned 4 years old in July. He is in Pre-Kindergarten and loves it! He is a little cherub of sorts and likes to tell us how "cute" he is to get his way. He is pretty loving and also easy going. Joshua has no trouble keeping up with his big brothers and regulary beats them at Smash Brothers Melee and several other video games. He also can hold his own in the rough housing and messing around that is the norm at our house.

The boys changed schools this year and now attend Channing Hall Charter School in Draper. It has been a positive change for everyone.

Ethan turned 7 in September and started first grade. He is a very good student and always gets his work done quickly. He started piano lessons this year and has enjoyed them. He is very good at drawing superheroes and other characters. He may have a future career in comics.

Matthew turned 8 in April and was baptized by his Dad the week after his birthday and became a Wolf Scout. Matthew is in the 3rd grade. He is our avid reader and can always be found with a book in hand. Matthew is also a talented artist, his specialty is sculpting. He can recreate just about any Pokemon character in clay.

Christopher turned 10 in January. He is now in the 5th grade. He earned his Webelos Scout award in the early fall and is now working towards his Arrow of Light. Christopher is doing very well in piano. Christopher loves to tell jokes and calls himself the class clown.

Jenny has had a busy year. She wrapped up her second year as the Accelerated Reader Coordinator at Sprucewood Elementary in June. She has spent the last seven months planning an event for the opening weekend of Twilight Saga: New Moon that took place in November with TwilightMOMs.com and its event planning arm, Events By Alice. This project has been a life experience MBA of sorts for her as she has delved into many different aspects of business and event planning.

Robert continues to stay very busy with his job at L3 Communications. His knowledge of FPGA is very much in demand and he is continually advancing in his career in the Electrical Engineering field. We are very grateful for his full employment. He likes to get together with his friends to play board games on occasion. Mostly Robert likes to be at home with his family as much as possible. He enjoys spending time teaching his boys new games and helping them with their Cub Scout acheivements. He and Jenny enjoy watching Survivor and guessing what the players will do next.

We wish all our friends and family a wonderful holiday season. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

Our love to you all!

The Updikes

More Meaningful Sundays

So for the last three weeks, maybe four, I can't remember. I have been trying to make Sunday a little more like the Sabbath. Christopher had made a comment that Sundays were just boring and not much fun. My dad showed us all the neat Friend magazine stuff there is on the web now. Go to lds.org and click on Gospel Library, then Magazines, then Friend.

On the site there are lots of stories, songs, puzzles, etc. The Friend had an article a few months back about "Sunday Stations." Ethan really liked that idea, so we have incorporated the idea. The kids all take turns playing online at the Friend site, writing letters, learning the Articles of Faith, for the older boys working on their Faith in God booklets.

It has worked out pretty well, they of course aren't always 100% happy about doing these things, but it is becoming more of a habit, and no one is bored, that is for sure!

Christopher and Ethan made cookies about a month ago and took them to primary teachers and others in our ward that they thought would like them. Ethan picked a man in our ward who is alone and who we often see riding his bike because he can't afford a car. I thought that was neat that Ethan noticed him.

Today was Father's Day and Robert has been very sick for the past few days. We had a nice dinner and had my parents over. It has been a very busy day for me, not much rest for a Sunday. Actually since I started the Sunday Stations with the kids, I don't get much rest on Sunday anymore. It's a trade-off, but I think it is a good one.

Matthew's Mario Party

So with very little planning we pulled off a pretty great little party. I had really dragged my heals with this birthday party for many reasons. His birthday was April 24th and the baptism alone did me in.

One of the biggest reasons that I wasn't thrilled about doing a party is that Matthew has been a a real stinker lately and I didn't feel he deserved a party. I told him it really boiled down to how much time I have to do things. If he isn't willing to help by doing his homework, piano, and chores (without digging in his heals), I just literally don't have time to throw him a fantastic party.

I really wanted him to just take a couple of friends to Boondocks like Christopher did for his 8th birthday, but Matthew really wanted a party at home. He had the ideas all worked out (most of which were pretty complicated in the beginning). Probably the only reason I gave in is because he hasn't had a birthday party with friends in 3 years.

He wanted to have a Mario Party (like the video game) and play games in the backyard based on the mini-games on Mario Party 7. It was actually a very clever idea. So I forced myself a week ago to make him some cute Mario Invitations, that was the first step. Once those were out, I knew I was committed and we would make it work somehow.

Then on Thursday night (less than 24 hours before the party) we nailed down some game ideas. Friday, amist a million other things, I grabbed everything I thought might be useful at the dollar store and off we went.

Here is what we did:

I made lanyards for all the kids with a picture of a Mario character and it's name. This is just like Mario Party 7 because you have to choose a character at the beginning of the game. The great thing about Mario is that there some girl characters too.

Once everyone arrived, we started with a game called "Catchy Tune." In the video game, the characters run around grabbing musical notes that fall from the sky. The first person to catch one of each of the different musical notes wins.

So at the dollar store I found some foam stickers in the shape of musical notes and instruments. We had cards on the table showing the kids all the shapes they had to find. I gave each kid a piece of construction paper and told them they had to find each of the shapes and stick them to the paper. Robert and I dropped the shapes a few at a time from above and they all worked furiously to find the notes they needed. The winner for this game got a "note" book. It was a notebook that had musical notes on it (can I just say I love the dollar store!).

Next we went outside. We played a game called "Take Me Ohm." On Mario Party 7 the characters have to jump over electrical currents that come from different directions. (Note: the word "ohm"refers to electrical currents). So for our version, we had a square made out of pvc pipe in which two people stood. Then we had four people holding two jump ropes that went from side to side and the contestants had to jump over the moving jump ropes. Whoever touched the rope first was out.

Another game was "Spider Stomp." In Mario Party 7, the characters race through a course shooting spiders off their webs. We made webs using silly string and hung insects to the webs. The kids used squirt guns to spray the insects off the webs. We did it in teams and the first team to get all the insects off their web won.

"Donkey Kong Barrel Racing" was a take off on several DK games. I covered my 5 gallon storage buckets with brown packaging paper and the kids raced the course jumping over the barrels to see which team could do it the fastest.

For refreshments, we had cupcakes with red icing and marshmallows that were suppose to look like the Mario mushrooms. I used red Kool-Aid instead of food coloring in the white icing. What I didn't account for was that the punch mix would make the icing very sour, oh well. It was probably the first birthday party where the kids ate all of the cupcake and very little icing!

It turned out well and I was exhausted when it was over. Matthew was slightly helpful and did some homework and piano practice this week in anticipation, but of course on Saturday it was right back to pulling teeth to get him to do his work. Oh well, I am glad we did it. I love to be creative and it was good to have this project to bond with Matthew a little.

Back To School

Tuesday, the kids returned to school from the off-track time. They weren't even gone an hour and I got a call saying Ethan was having an allergy attack. So, I dropped everything and took him an allergy pill.

Joshua wandered around all morning bored stiff. He got pretty spoiled having his brothers to play with. I could barely get anything done and there was a ton of catch up work to do.

That afternoon, I had an doctor's appointment and the kids played at grandma's. Then, we got to do the old homework battle again. I hadn't missed it a bit!

Wednesday, Joshua went to preschool and I ran like a mad woman to get errands done for my last Pack Meeting that night. I even stopped by Tai Pan Trading and picked up a few items. I have a new plan--I am going to go and get one item each month and see how it fits into the scheme of things in my home. I also rushed by Van Heusen and picked up some summer clothing essentials for myself. Poor Amberly fell asleep halfway through our errands and got maybe 30 minutes sleep.

Then it was back home for a quick lunch and off to dental appointments for Joshua and Ethan. We went to the gym and I worked out for an hour. Back home, I prepped more for Pack Meeting and other chores and then rushed off to Pack Meeting. It was fun. We played trash ball (throwing newspaper balls back and forth over a volleyball net). It was a relief to know it was my last one.

That night I couldn't sleep and I watched "The Notebook" on T.V. I had seen it before, but this time it really hit me. It made me so appreciate the time I have with my sweetheart. So mushy.

Thursday was Joshua's last day of preschool. While he was there I went to the school and did a bunch of things for A.R. I brought Ethan home with me and we also brought home a little friend, Simon Larsen. We got Joshua and all of us went to Pizza Hut and Jamba Juice for lunch. At home, they played in the water in the back yard all afternoon. I spent most of the day managing play dates. Joshua had Tucker Gardner over. The older boys had piano lessons and homework to do. A very crazy day. Once they were all in bed, I still had to catch up on A.R. for awards the next morning and some TwilightMOMS event business. I was very tired.

Friday, I went to the school to do AR awards. I always manage to be there for every drill they have. This time it was an earthquake drill. Grr it cuts into the little bit of time I have to get things done! Then I rushed off to my dental appointment. Which was actually quite nice. I liked my hygenist this time-Kara and I really like the other dentist-Kirk Johnson, who is there on Fridays. Of course, he is leaving for an internship to New York and so it goes.

Then I scurried over to the Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart to get all the supplies for Matthew's party that started in 2 hours. Oh the craziness!

Fitness For Life

We now belong to a gym. So, I have been thinking about this for a while now and I finally did it. I have really debated because I am pretty much a "keep it simple" kind of person when it comes to exercise. Why pay for a gym membership when I can take a walk, or run on the treadmill at my parents and pay a lot less for the county pool down the street?

The initial answer was that it is really for Robert. He really likes to lift weights and hasn't been able to do so consistently since we left BYU ten years ago. He has access to a few machines at work, but it is a pretty shabby setup. I also admitted to myself that even though I could take a walk or go use the treadmill, I don't do it hardly at all. I need some motivation.

So, being that it was time to sign up for a membership at the South County Pool, I figured it would just be better to bite the bullet and get the gym membership. I went on Friday night with Christopher to just see what it would cost and check the place out.

I was very impressed, everything was top quality, very clean and organized. I loved it! So I signed up. I knew this was one of those "better to ask forgiveness later" kind of things and I was right. Robert had bulked at the idea when I initially brought it up, but once we were signed up and we went there on Saturday, he was sold.

We took the kids swimming on Saturday. Can I just tell you what a zoo it is trying to get five kids into swimsuits at a public place! They have a family locker room where you can stick all the kids in a bathroom and change, which is nice.

On Monday, Memorial Day, we got the full experience. We dropped off the herd in the children's center. None of them complained, there is so much for the kids to do--computer games, tv, jungle gym, basketball, outdoor play area, special area for the little ones.

Robert and I headed upstairs to check out the weight machines and exercise equipment. I did some weights to strengthen my back, shoulders, and upper arms (I have been feeling a loss of muscle mass and strength is these areas for the last few years). Then I walked/ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes. I tried to be a little bit easy on myself because, 1-I didn't want kill myself, 2-I didn't want to burn out on exercising before I had begun.

We worked out for about an hour (which Robert said was too short, I told him he was welcome to come back on his own anytime-they're open 24/7). Then, we took the kids swimming, again. It was a little cold but not too bad. Our kids are so out of practice with swimming and it drives me crazy because I feel like I pay out for lessons once a year and it doesn't do a whole lot of good. That is one nice thing about the gym, they can swim all year round now.

Needless to say, everyone was happy and the boys all kept saying Lifetime Fitness is so cool! I think it is pretty cool, too!

End of Cub Scouts for Me

Sunday, May 24 was our Ward Conference. Robert was again, not feeling well and so I left for church (slightly late) with all the kids by myself. He actually showed up in time for Sunday School since he is the president and all the stake leaders were there. I was pretty glad to see him because I didn't want to field all the questions about where he was and how he was doing.

After church, I had an interview with the bishopric counselors and was released from being the cub committee chair and asked to teach 14-15 year old Sunday School. It is a bitter sweet release. I love cub scouts and like to be involved and know that it is running well, but it was starting to be a source of frustration and a burden. I guess the Lord knows what he is doing.

I look forward to teaching the youth. It is something I have never done before. I hope they don't eat me alive! I do get to teach kids I already know fairly well (some of them were even my cub scouts when I first was the Wolf leader 8 years ago). Should be fun. Plus, I only have to teach every other week!

Keep Giving

On Saturday, May 23, Robert wasn't feeling 100%. He had been fight a cold for a week and was pretty worn out. I had wanted to go downtown to the Gateway and do some fun things, see a show, go shopping, etc. Instead, I went to the shoe store with the boys and got them all sandals and me several new pairs of shoes since I haven't bought any new dress shoes or nice sandals in several years.

As we were leaving, a homeless man came up and asked if I had any change. I had let the kids all get a candy at the store and also given a few dollars to a charity thing outside the store, so all the cash I had left was $2. At first, I felt really good about myself for freely handing him my last bit of money, but as I drove away, I realized I had just spent over $100 on shoes (multiple pairs for myself) and this man, who practically had nothing, walked away with a measley $2. I guess the only way to go forward is to just keep giving. I don't know that you can ever make things balance out for everyone.

Staycation

For the last month or longer, Robert and I have been bantering about going on vacation. I have just been desperate to get away. The kids have been off-track for three weeks and I had all the glorious plans to go to Disneyland the first week of May.

However, since Robert has been extremely busy at work, we decided that wouldn't be the best plan In a down economy, when he is being thrown projects, now isn't the best time to up and go away for a week on short notice. Plus the fact that Robert doesn't do well with spontaneity. When I really got to thinking about it, I figured that going to Disneyland in six months would be better because Amberly will be walking, done nursing, and probably down to one nap a day.

So for the past three weeks we have basically hung out at home, gone to the park a lot, and played with neighbor friends. My kids are pretty content to just be near home. I always feel this need to go on a field trip, to be moving and going. I am finding that nobody else feels that is a necessity and I certainly don't need the stress.

The second week off, Robert was out of town the entire week. That Tuesday, I completely abandoned everything and left the house in ruins. We head over to Grandma's for a while and ate popsicles and play in the yard. Then we went to the park for a while after which we headed to the new conservation garden in South Jordan. My kids thought it was so fun, as did I. I got a lot of great ideas about how to save water and cut down moving in our yard.

We then went to an early dinner at Golden Corral. You would have thought I had taken them to Disneyland. The fact that they could pick any food they wanted and eat as much as they liked was so wonderful to them. The great thing was that the kids were all so well behaved! I had an elderly lady approach me and tell me what great kids I have. That was one of those Ahh!! moments you don't often have as a mom of five kids.

After dinner, we rented "Bedtime Stories" and snuggled on the couch. It was a perfect day. I went to bed with my house still in shambles, but I knew I could face it the next day after a quality break!

Last Saturday, Robert and I went to the temple TOGETHER for the first time in probably six months. That afternoon, we flew kites with the kids at the park. Christopher and Matthew are quite the expert kite flyers. They even helped mom and dad get their little brothers' kites up in the air. The weather was perfect for kite flying.

We did have one scary moment where two kites flew over the river and Christopher and Ethan started running head long towards the river to save their kites. We safely retrieved the kites and no one ended up in the Jordan River (which is currently very gorged and running swiftly).

Today, we took the boys to see "Night at the Museum." It was a fun show and a nice quick break. Tomorrow, we will go swimming, maybe go downtown to the Gateway mall and see a show called "Sea Creatures 3D" at the Clarke Planetarium. Matthew also wants to go feed the fish at Cabela's. Simple fun.

On Monday, we intend to go see "Up!" Robert always is game for whatever new Pixar film is out. We will probably go swimming again and just chillax--the new catch phrase.

We talked about going to St. George this weekend, but once I thought through spending $180 per night on a hotel, not to mention a six hour drive, eating out, gas, etc. I decided we could do some fun and relaxing things here at home and get just as much benefit from it. Plus I might get some of the home improvements I am waiting for if we saved just a little bit of money.

Last Week Teaching Mom & Me Preschool

The week of May 11 was Joshua's and my last week to have Mom & Me school at our house. The theme was Teddy Bear Picnic. It was a little rough for many reasons such as Robert being out of town again, having three other children home off-track, tired and grouchy mother, and other reasons which will go unnamed.

But it went off fine. We read stories about teddy bears and watched some cute homemade videos on YouTube to the classic tune "Teddy Bear's Picnic." Then we went to the kitchen the prepared our picnic items and put them in a basket and headed outside with all our teddy bears. The kids feasted on Teddy Grahams, PB&J, chips, drinks, and fruit.

We made teddy bear ears out of construction paper so we would be in disguise at the teddy bear picnic. Even all my big boys wanted teddy bear ears which surprised me. The kids swang and slid and ran with their bears and had a wild time.

We also did a bear cave that week, which of course, was a hit. We sang "The Three Little Bears & Goldilocks" song that I grew up singing, another big favorite. We learned how to use basic shapes to draw a teddy bear. We sorted the teddy bears from largest to smallest. Another thing we did was use gummy bears to practice color sorting, counting, group to find the least and the most, and do patterning. So much fun!

It was another bitter sweet moment when we were done. It will be nice not to have to plan for preschool, but it was such a good thing for me to be forced to spend special quality time with Joshua and use my creative side in that way. I have really enjoyed the experience with Josh and this little group of kids. They are an amazingly pleasant little set of children. Good memories to cherish!

Mother's Day Weekend 2009

Robert got an A++ for Mother's Day this year. Friday morning, Christopher, Matthew and I attended Jenn Jewkes' funeral while Robert stayed home with the younger children. After the funeral, we both ran errands like crazy. He brought home chocolate covered strawberries and that in and of itself blew me away.

That evening, we had an awards dinner to attend hosted by Robert's employer, L3 Communications. I quickly grabbed a couple of outfits at TJ Max's for the occasion and he only grunted a little. We had a nice evening. The food was great-prime rib and salmon amongst other things.

Robert was even brave enough to shimmy on the dance floor with me for a few numbers. I finally figured out what it is with him and dancing. All these years I thought he didn't have any rhythm. I think the real problem is that he is so nervous that he becomes absolutely stiff out on the dance floor. We really ought to sign up for some dance classes and refine our skills. I really do love to dance and wish I could get Robert to enjoy it!

On Sunday morning, he made me French toast and also barbecued steaks that afternoon. He got me a wireless mouse for my laptop (can I just say- heaven sent! Ah!). He also was in charge of the Mother's Day gift for the entire ward (as the Sunday School president). He got 15 boxes of chocolates from See's Candies and carefully chose flavors he thought the women would most like. I think this little task really got him in the spirit of things.

There is only one problem now, I have to actually make some real effort for Father's Day!

The kids all made me sweet little homemade gifts from school, a sunflower from Joshua, a card from Ethan, a handprint craf from Matthew, and a piece of artwork--matted and laminated from Christopher. They all were so sweet and loving.

Ethan is especially my holiday kid. He woke up bright and early and ran in to hug me and wish me Happy Mother's Day and just giggled all through breakfast, wanting to do nice things for me.

I am a pretty lucky gal!

A Tribute to a Terrific Lady-Jenn Jewkes

On Monday, May 4, a friend of mine passed away after a long battle with cancer. I was lucky enough to know Jenn through our volunteer work at the elementary school. We served on the School Community Council together for two years and she also volunteered with the AR program which I coordinated. Both her sons, Joe and Sam, are friends and classmates with my oldest two boys, Christopher and Matthew.

Jenn was amazing! She was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago and went into remission within in a year of treatment. Then for the next four years she was very active. Many times, I would see her walking with her jogging stroller through our neighborhood.

She was always at the school helping out in her kid's classrooms and any other volunteer effort there. In October 2007, she found out that she had bone cancer. From there on out, she knew it was terminal, but you would never have guessed that she was even sick. She was always smiling and friendly. She took very good care of herself and was on a strict diet and exercise regiment to stretch out the time she had left.

She worked so hard to stay involved and active right up to the very end. About a month before her passing, she finally called me and told me she could no longer help with the AR program in her son's class. Come to find out she taught Primary until three weeks before she died.

She was so strong and so positive. I know she had a strong testimony and a lot of faith in the Savior. I visited briefly with her husband and parents two days ago. The peace was overwhelming.

My boys were very sympathetic and compassionate towards their friends. I was very pleased to see that they were capable of caring so much and were able to think about what might bring some comfort to Joe and Sam.

Knowing Jenn and watching her and her family so bravely face this challenge has helped me to see that I need to keep going, keep working, and never ever give up. Thank you Jenn, I hope I can learn the lesson you so flawlessly taught by your example.

Finally A Slow Week

So the last month of April was actually manageble. During the week, I caught up with an old friend, Sherron Taylor. She lived in our neigborhood and moved to Georgia about three years ago. They moved back to Utah about 2 years ago and now live in Riverton. It was so nice to visit with her. She came over on Wednesday and we went down to the park with our kids (my oldest two were still at school). The kids had a fabulous time together and we had a great visit. I get frustrated with allowing myself to get so busy that I don't have any time for friends like this, so this was an extra great day!

I also did some volunteering at the school. We had our last lunch reward that Friday for 75% AR. The idea of these lunch rewards was to keep everyone on track throughout the year so we didn't have everyone struggling to hurry and get to 100% at the very end. So any students who had achieved 75% AR by May 30, got an Otter Pop during lunch. So I spent the week getting all the lists together as to who should get the lunch reward. Then on Friday, I did the morning AR awards and also did the Otter Pop handouts at lunch.

Also on Friday, Robert went with his friend, Larry, to see "Wolverine." I was a little jealous that he went without me. But when he came home, I got to go to Provo and catch up with my TwilightMOMs friends who had all attended Women's Conference at BYU. It was extremely therupeutic.

Ethan's Career Day at Kindergarten

So on Matthew's birthday, Ethan had Career Day in Kindergarten. With all the craziness of that week, I had given very little thought to what we were going to do for it. We knew what he wanted to be--an Artist. I was thinking along the lines of having him go in his favorite Spiderman t-shirt and hold up one of his bazillion Marvel comic drawings that he has done (he is quite good I might add for a six year-old, I will try to track down a few and a picture or two).

He had a whole other image in his mind--the traditional artist look with the hat and the paint palete and the white coat. Of course, that meant me whipping up a quick costume at 9 p.m. Thursday night as I am trying to get out the door to pick up Robert at the airport.

But just like always, we threw it together and in Ethan's eyes it was perfect! I grabbed one of my maternity button up shirts, cut a black piece of felt for the hat and attached some black elastic, cut out a palete shape from a box lid and let him have at it with the paint colors. We grabbed some paint brushes out of the art drawer and voila! he was an Artist! Whew!

Matthew's Birthday & Baptism

Matthew turned eight years old on April 24, 2009. He was born a month early and never before in his life have I wished so badly that he had waited until his due date to be born because May would have been a much more sane to have 13 family members descend for the baptism celebrations. But it was all good. It turned out just fine. And I am not just saying that.

Friday, we had French toast for breakfast and sent the kids off to school. Then we hurried to make final preparations for the rest of the company coming that evening. I still had no clue what I was going to feed them for dinner. I quickly threw bbq pork ribs in the crockpot around 1 p.m., hoping they would cook quickly.

After school, we opened birthday gifts with Matthew. Papa and Grandma Thomas bought him his own set of scriptures, which he was very excited to receive. He also got a Pixos art set (Matthew loves anything he can use to create artistic pieces), a camera, and a set of darts for his Nerf guns.

The company arrived right about dinner time. We had Grandpa and Grandma Updike, Aunt Jennifer with her kids, Ryan, Reed, Robyn, and Riley, Aunt Rachel with her kids, Noah, Adam and Lily plus as mentioned previously, Aunt Caroline and baby Alex.

From the moment they arrived it was apparent that our house really isn't big enough for 18 people. The noise level alone from 13 grandchildren was enough to put anyone in the crazy house. Oh but the memories those cousins have to share. It is all good.

We had ice cream sundaes and root beer floats for dessert that night. Matthew got bombarded by fun gifts from his cousins and everyone played outside in the frigid night air. Our poor California cousins think Utah is just too cold.

Saturday, we had sourdough waffles. I made a sextuplet batch of waffles to feed the hoardes. We had a good bit leftover, but nothing that didn't get eaten within the next day! I spent most of the morning doing food prep and getting clothes ready for the baptism.

The baptism was at 2 p.m. on Saturday. It was a small gathering as Matthew was the only one being baptised. I neglected to invite all my cousins, aunts and uncles, with all the craziness that had gone on in the weeks leading up to the baptism. So in attendance were, our immediate families as mentioned above (my parents, of course, too), Uncle John Updike (brother to Robert's dad), Brother Chris Jones of our bishopric, Hilary Hanson, the primary president, Shaunda McKay, the boys' piano teacher, and Tom and Melina Anderson and their family and McKenzie and Ryan Davies.

My mom gave the talk on baptism and did a cute visual aid of how baptism in just the very first step in the process of returning to live with our Heavenly Father. Robert's mom gave a sweet talk on the Holy Ghost and how it can be a great help throughout our lives. Robert performed Matthew's baptism and confirmed him a member of the Church.

Christopher and Matthew also performed two piano numbers each since their teacher wanted to have a recital for them and I figured this was the biggest and best audience they would have.

The whole program only took about 45 minutes and then we were on our way, back home in the rain to have a barbecue at home with our guests. We had lots of good food and plenty of it, barbecued chicken, frog-eyed salad, potato salad (Matthew's personal requests), etc.

That night, Grandpa Updike told stories about his Grandparents to all the grandkids as they snuggled up in the beds (that were wall to wall in our basement playroom). It was a neat visit and we were very glad to have all the Updike cousins here for the special day.

The next day, all the family headed back to California. I had two very sick babies, but I went to the first part of Sacrament meeting with them in tow so we could hear Matthew being sustained a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Robert Gone On Business, End of AR, Alex Lund

As of April 1, 2009 I could count on one hand the times Robert has been away from home without me over the course of our thirteen years of marriage. So having him gone for a week in mid-April was a shock to my system. This was amplified by the fact that the day after he returned home, I was expecting 11 of his relatives coming to stay with us for Matthew's baptism, plus his parents who would be staying at my parent's home since there wasn't enough room for them here.

Robert left on Monday, April 20 to go to Cinncinatti, Ohio for work. That day I had a meeting with the principal, Garth Anderson. The point of the meeting was to give my final report on the Accelerated Reader program at Sprucewood which I have co-chaired for the past two years.

It is a bitter sweet thing to be at the end of running the program. I would so love to continue on with it, but I cannot justify the time it is taking away from my family and especially the time I could be spending volunteering in my children's individual classes.

In short, the program needs to be updated and run in a more efficient way. If I could implement the changes that need to be made, I could see putting more of my time into the project, but as things stand now, I have to move on. There are upgrades to the system that would allow it to run on the Internet and give great feedback to parents from their home computer plus allow students to take the tests from any computer in the school. However, these upgrades would require a lot more money and someone would have to chase after grant money to do it. Plus the fact that the school has to decide it really wants to invest the time, money, and energy to take advantage of the updated program. Enough of my soap box. Back to my new mantra: I can't own every problem there ever was, I have to let go, it's not my battle . . .

The next two days, I did my best to get the house in order for company. I did a lot of reorganizing--getting the guest bedroom in shape (I hadn't even changed the sheets since November when Shannon and Diego had come to stay). I reorganized my pantry and my storage room in the basement, too. I cleaned bathrooms, floors, and caught up on laundry. See all these things have gone severely neglected due to being at the school every waking moment as I try to be Super Volunteer Mom!

Robert's sister Caroline, came in to town Wednesday afternoon bringing her cutie pie, Alex (4 months old) with her. It was really nice to have her here before everyone else arrived so we could enjoy the two of them in relative peace and quiet.

I had a really hard time sleeping while Robert was gone. I have said for a while that I sleep on screensaver mode and it was really bad that week. Try as I may, even with Caroline here, I could not really rest. So, I was very glad when he came home. Of course, he happened to be wired the night he got home and decided to buy "Transformers" on DVD and watch it until 2:30 a.m. and silly me, I stayed up with him to watch. Crazy! But it was a darn good movie!

Preschool & Pinewood Derby

The week after Easter, I taught Mom & Me School with Joshua and his three little friends. Our theme for the week was Store/Money and the color was Green. We read books about shopping with Mom. One cute one was called "Llama, Llama Mad at Mama." It made me laugh because it was a good representation of how much kids hate shopping.

We learned what a penny, nickel, dime and quarter look like and sorted coins. We did penny rubbings. We figured out how many pennies it takes to make a nickel, dime, and quarter. We also made piggy banks using Ziplock containers and decorated them with foam stickers.

I set up a cute little grocery store for the kids with simple food items from our pantry. I went the dollar store and found pre-printed price labels that are for yard sale items and stuck them on the food containers and got fake money packets for $1 at Wal-mart. We borrowed a cash register from one of the preschool children's family and we were in business. They just loved being the cashier and counting out the money.

For the color green, we read "Green Eggs & Ham." For our snack I made green scrambled eggs, green ham, and green milk. The kids ate like pigs! They loved it! We also read "Five Little Speckled Frogs" and made green frog puppets out of white paper lunch sacks, googly eyes and construction paper.

That Friday, April 17, was the Pinewood Derby. I am the Cub Committee chair and we wanted to make every boy feel appreciated for their efforts this year. The Cub Master and I decided to do an individual award for each boy. We got items from the dollar store and did things such as, best paint job and they got a paint brush, most colorful got markers, bright idea got a book light and on and on. The Derby went pretty well. It was longer than we would have liked, but when you have 25 boys to race, it is kind of expected.

Robert had two cars to make this year since Matthew was now turning eight. Matthew wanted a specific design. He wanted his car to look like the handle of a sword. What Matthew didn't realize is that this would make his car slower and more bulky, so he was a little disappointed that his wasn't one of the fastest cars. He did however, make 4th place in his den and got an award for most colorful.

Christopher in his third year of the Pinewood Derby, was all about speed! His dad even convinced him to forgo any decorative painting beyond the once over spray paint job because they didn't want even the slightest weight added!

I guess it paid off because Christopher won first place in the Pack run-off. Oh the joys! He was so stoked! You can tell how each of them felt about the experience by the pictures. I have to remember to take the pictures before the races are run next time.

I really didn't even get to see the boys' races because I was so busy filling out awards and doing all the business of Cubs. Next year we will do things differently so I can actually enjoy my own kids more.

Easter

So as you can see Easter was a busy time for us. We did however, manage to squeeze in some Easter Egg dying at Grandma's on Friday afternoon. We dyed four dozens eggs, plus about a half dozen so Papa could have his own.

We didn't do much Easter on Saturday between painting the room and getting everything moved back in. Matthew and I did meet some friends at the Mayan that evening to celebrate our friend's, Jack Anderson, baptism. He and Matthew were born about a month apart when we lived in San Diego. His parents, Tom and Melina Anderson, are our good friends we made while living there. They moved to Bountiful the same time we moved to Draper. We hardly ever get to see them anymore with the way life goes.

For Easter Sunday, the Easter Bunny hid all of the kids baskets. Christopher found everyone's basket but his own, he finally found it after some hints from the Easter Bunny's spies. After church, Robert got some cute pictures of the kids for me since I finally gave up.

We had a very nice dinner the usual spiral ham, funeral potatoes, strawberry shortcake. After dinner was over, I was so tired I could hardly stand it. We had my parents and my cousin Angela over for dinner. They must have thought I was insane, the kids were all wild with sugar rushes and I was at my wits end at the finale of a week of the pounding of flooring going in, kids who couldn't stay away from all the cool tools, a whirlwind paint job, and Easter festivities.

As I write this, I now know why I have felt so insane, it wasn't me, it was a crazy time! I need to give myself a break!

New Family Room

The first week of April, we had wood floors installed in our family room. We searched most of March for the right wood flooring. We ended up doing exactly what one of our neighbors (Clarke and Elissa Etherington) did. We got a pretty solid wood called Autumn Maple from National Wood product. The store hooked us up with a great installer and within a week we had a whole new family room.

Back in March, we had picked out a couch sectional at Sofa Mart (which I have been waiting two years to come to Draper!!). The floor installer finished on Friday, April 10 and we painted that night and Saturday morning. I always love doing projects with Robert because we have such good conversations and it makes me feel so connected to him.

By Easter Sunday, I had a whole new family room. Of course, I was beyond exhausted, but I did have a fantastic new place to be sit and be wiped out!

Now, I need to find the time and creativity to add the finishing touches. We want to get a wood mantle installed over the fireplace and I need some cornice boxes or something over the windows. A trip to Tai Pan decorating store wouldn't hurt either, a rug for the floor, candles over the mantle, etc.

I must say, though, it gives a whole different feel to our home. So much fun! Note: the paint spots on the fireplace will be going away, hopefully soon, just a little miscommunication during painting.

Twilight DVD Release

So, after the Temple Dedication and dinner as a family. I had one more thing to do. I had to attend the DVD release of "Twilight" with all my TwilightMOMs peeps. So much fun! I just love those gals. I won't post the info here, but if you are interested in knowing about this and my other Twilight adventures, go to my other blog http://www.mytwilightfixation.blogspot.com/

In the Celestial Room for the Draper Utah Temple Dedication

Friday, March 20, Robert, Christopher, my mom and I got to attend the Draper Temple dedication. I hurried home after Matthew's walking report card, quickly got ready, took Amberly over to my parents home, fed her, and put her down for a nap. I crossed my fingers that she would last until we got back.

The temple dedication was not until 2 p.m., but we had to be at the chapel to catch the bus at 11:30 a.m. Can I just tell you how frustrating that is when you have a nursing baby.

My dad kept the other kids with him because he had no desire to sit and stand and wait for 3 hours. If you know my dad you are probably laughing right now because that is totally how he is. So he got babysitting duty.

We were the very last people on the bus up to the temple. I was glad too, because I would have been really upset if I had waited any longer. As it was, we waited in our designated chapel for about 15 minutes and then got on the bus. Then they took us up to the stake center next to the temple and we waited approxiamately 45-60 minutes there. Then they took us through the tunnels and we had to put on the shoe covers. We ended up waiting in the tunnel for another 45 minutes. Then we finally made it into the temple. I was a little anxious as to where we would be sitting. But once we got in to the temple there were plenty of places to sit and have a good view of a monitor.

We were ushered to seats just outside the celestial room. I was perfectly content. But after a few minutes sitting there we were invited to go sit in the celestial room. It was pretty neat. There were probably about 100 people in the room and we were on the second to last row. But there we were in the celestial room with the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson and President Uchtdorf, and Elder Perry.

It was a neat experience. Christopher enjoyed it up until about halfway through the actual dedication. It had a been a long day and it was crowded and warm in the room. He couldn't see a whole lot either. When we sang "The Spirit of God" he said he could really feel the Spirit. He was a real trooper. Even I was having a tough time hanging in there.

Afterward, we headed straight back home. Amberly did just fine and our timing was perfect. I think we got home about 4:30.

What a special experience to be there and to have the special priviledge of being in the celestial room with the prophet. I hope Christopher will always remember it.

Walking Report Cards

So our school does something kind of fun. In Kindergarten (with all my kids thus far), we have done a walking report card. It gives parents an opportunity to come in and take an oral quiz with their child so they know where the student is in their learning process.

This year I got to do one with Ethan in Kindergarten and Matthew in 2nd grade. Ethan is at the lovely stage where he is too big to be little and too little to be big, so most of the time he is a real handful. However, when it comes to learning, he is an absolute joy! He just craves knowledge.

Often I will print off 10-15 worksheets off the Internet and he will go to town and have them all done within 15 minutes--and they are all correct. Mind you these worksheets are typically 1st or 2nd grade level work.

So, doing the walking report card with Ethan was very entertaining. He zipped through everything and read most of it to me. The one thing he had trouble with was following oral instructions (i.e. get up get a drink of water, go get a pencil, and sit back down). Yeah, not so hip on the attentive listening.

It was interesting to me to see how I have changed as a parent over the past five years. When Christopher did his walking report card, I was so worried about everything and careful to do it all perfectly. I remember being concerned when we got to the part about whether they liked school or not and having Christopher write that he didn't like school. I was so concerned and didn't want him to choose that. I now know that little boys don't really like school, that is just they way it is. When Ethan chose that option, I just laughed and we moved on.

Matthew had his walking report card the next week. He to was quite speedy in his test. There was a whole section of Math that he needed more help on, and it turned out they hadn't gone over that section in class yet. But it frustrated me because he wouldn't double check his answers on anything. He just wanted to be done. I was in a wee bit of a hurry too, because I had to be back home to get to the temple dedication that afternoon.

I sometimes feel like our lives are just too rushed! I would've like to have had more time with Matthew that day. Everything always seems to fall on the same day.

But all in all, it was nice to spend that time with my boys and see their progress in school. We had Parent/Teacher Conferences at the end of March. All the boys are doing so well academically. I am really grateful for that. They are doing pretty well in all aspects really. They are quite well adjusted considering they live with me!

Christopher's 4th Grade Program

So, the day after Amberly's surgery (March 19th) was the 4th grade program for Christopher. There were three options to see it and due to all my focus on Amberly's ears, I didn't think things through very well. I skipped the morning show (which is the one I should have gone to) and went to the afternoon show. The evening show was another option, but I had two other conflicts (Enrichment and Cub Leader training).

I took Ethan, Joshua, and Amberly with me to the afternoon show. My parent's met me at the school. I brought all the necessary equipment- stroller, diaper bag, popcorn, the D.S. to entertain said Ethan.

Well it all blew up in my face. Ethan and Joshua fought over the D.S. at first, then Ethan decided the game he was playing was just too boring (he had already watched the 4th grade play that morning-so that was not an option). I wanted to string him up to the rafters!

He threw the BIGGEST fit in the history of fits. The whole school could hear him. I finally put in down at the end of the hall where no one was and just let him get it out. I was completely spent by the time we went home.

Joshua ended up sitting with Cari Gardner (heaven knows what I would have done the last eight years without her) and was perfectly good and content. Amberly was adored and doted on by Grandma and Papa (another very important I survive this all).

Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any video or pictures of Christopher's program because of this. This is the downside to several children, pretty soon somebody starts missing out somewhere.

Christopher did a great job on his part and enjoyed learning all his songs about Utah. It was a good program. He especially like dancing to "Boot Scootin' Boogie." He is such a cute kid!

Amberly's Ears-Finally A Solution-Good Ole Ear Tubes

In the second week of March, Amberly had yet again another nasty double ear infection. The doctor said it was time to look into tubes. She had to have a shot for antiobiotics since we had exhausted all the oral ones. It is a course of 3 shots for 3 days. On the 2nd day, she had a skin reaction to the antibiotics, so we had to stop those antibiotics and then we moved onto Zithromax-an evens stronger antiobiotic.

This was Friday, the following Tuesday, March 17, we had an appointment with the ENT to talk about tubes. We were able to schedule surgery for the following day. I was nervous about putting my baby under even if it is only for 15 minutes. But after talking to the doctors and several friends and family, I felt pretty confident that this would be fairly easy.

Amberly had her surgery on Wednesday, March 18 and it all went very smoothly. You could hardly tell she had holes drilled in her ear drums, she just bounced right back to my sweet easy girl.

We can tell that she can hear better, though, because she reacted to all the noise of our crazy house now.

The other thing that has happened is that she is now moving! Before her surgery, she would barely roll over and now she is scooching on the floor and into every thing. She doesn't really crawl, but she will scooch and roll and then sit up, scooch and roll and then sit up. It works for her. I don't know if she will crawl.

She is still a very sweet and happy little girl and fun. So easy and agreeable. Good thing with four big brothers who all maul her constantly!

BYU Exposure

After seeing the exhibit, I took the boys to the BYU Bookstore and bought them BYU hats (Matthew wanted a basketball) and I got hair bows for Amberly. It was a lot of fun.

I loved watching all the college students smile at my brood. BYU is probably the only universities where the students would smile at a herd of children tromping across campus.

One guy just stopped and stared at us. I asked him what he was thinking and he said it made him homesick to watch us because he has three little brothers the same ages at home in Virginia.

I do enjoy taking my kids for fun little field trips. Off-track time can either be absolutely mundane and boring or it can be a lot of fun. I better make it a lot of fun because this is probably our last year with the track system. We just got word today that our school is going traditional next year (that is a whole other story), plus the fact that we will most likely go to a new charter school.

"I Spy" Field Trip

After the temple adventure, Robert went back to work and I took the boys down to Provo. The author/photographer of the "I Spy" children's books, Walter Wick, was at the BYU Museum of Art. He gave a short lecture about how he put the scenes together and photographs them. Christopher, Matthew, and Ethan even got to help him explain how the contraption picture works. They were very enthusiastic.

It is very fascinating to see how he puts all the pieces together and all the time and detail that is put into it. It is incredible. Check out his web page: http://www.walterwick.com/index.htm

You can see on his web page how they build the sets and photograph them. The detail, color, and brilliance is breathtaking. Kenzie met up with us and was shocked to find out that what looks like a very vibrant drawing/painting is actually a photograph with a ton of artistic detail in the scene.

I bought each boy a new book and had them signed by Wick. My boys love those books. Christopher has even designed his own "I Spy" scene and had me photograph it. Of course it didn't photograph that well.

I asked Mr. Wick what his parents did to foster his imagination and creativity. He said they just let them go off and explore and make things. That is a hard thing to do in this day and age and I am a control freak and don't want extra messes so I guess I need to relax a little and let the boys have a little creative freedom! I can really see my boys using their creativity in similiar ways when they grow up.

Our New Temple in Draper!

So last Thursday we did some fun things. Robert came home during lunch time and we went to the Draper Temple Open House. We had plans to go back in February but due to Joshua's bout with pneumonia, only half of our family was able to go.

So I was so excited for us all to go this time. It was nice to go in the middle of the day because the lines were not long. I got a little teary eyed as all my children walked through the temple with us.

I made my boys all promise me they would find a nice young woman and get married in the temple. Joshua told me he was going to marry Kenzie in the temple. I told him Kenzie was already married and he said he would marry her again! Kenzie told us Josh can marry her daughter. My other boys said that she better hurry and have one because Josh is almost four!

The temple is very beautiful. I especially like the bride's room that is done in my favorite colors blue and green. Actually the whole temple is done in these two colors every where that there isn't white or gold. I love it! I am so excited for it to open. We have tickets to the dedication at the temple. We plan on taking Christopher to the dedication with us. We will see what we end up doing because of the time involved in getting over there and how long we would be gone from Amberly and the other boys.

Mom & Me School

I will try to add a photo tomorrow on this one. Josh & I are doing Mom & Me Preschool this year. I really love it. We rotate with 3 other moms (who all happen to be sisters). So every 4th week we have preschool at our house. We have a schedule and a theme for each week. This week we did Nursery Rhymes.

With all the illness we have had, I did not do a ton of prep for preschool this week. But that is what is so great about these little preschoolers, they are so easy going. Everything is fun and wonderful to them.

We read Nursery Rhymes and then roled played some of them. I tied a string to a fake spider and someone got to play the spider and another child was Little Miss Muffet, they sat on the back of the couch and got to fall down as Humpty Dumpty (what kid doesn't enjoy an invitation to climb on the furniture!), for Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, we covered a toy garden with a orange blanket and they took turns putting each other in the pumpkin shell.

A favorite was three blind mice, where three of the children were blind folded and had to crawl around on the floor to find the carver's wife. We also helped Little Bo Peep find her sheep and put the numbered sheep in order. We also did an egg rolling relay for Humpty Dumpty, too. One child nearly chucked the egg across the room with the spoon he was rolling it with. For a second there I thought I was going to have hard boiled egg all over my walls.

We did some cute crafts that the kids loved and I will have Joshua pose with those for a picture. So easy and fun and they just think it is all so wonderful!

I love the opportunity to have some special time with my little guy. We did this we Ethan and his friends and he still has such fond memories of it.

Flavor of the Week-Strep

So we have been doing strep for the past two weeks. Matthew came down with it last Monday, February 9. He is my raging fever child--spiking at 104.5 and really difficult to bring back down, switching back and forth between Tylenol and Motrin religiously. He was down in bed for 4 days straight (of course he was better in time for his Valentine's party at school).

Ethan turned up with a fever on Saturday night. I took him (and Amberly) to the doctor on Monday. They did a strep test and it came back negative on the rapid result. I sent him to school on Tuesday, but he looked a little purple to me that afternoon though he hadn't had a fever since Sunday. The doctor's office called at 5 p.m. with the test results of the 2 day test. He had strep. That night he spiked another fever (a spike for him is 100.5). I kept him home on Wednesday.

It is amazing how different each child is with the same illness. Ethan was still hanging from the rafters with strep!

Amberly, as I predicted in an earlier post, is back on antibiotics for double ear infections. The doctors said we are headed towards tubes. I am going to try a chiropractor first. We did that with Ethan after six ear infections in the space of three months and it worked for him.

Valentine's was kind of a rough one with all the illness going on. My hubby did his best to bring the "love" into the holiday. He made us all blueberry/strawberry pancakes. We were suppose to go do sealings at the temple, but Amberly vomitted right before we were to leave, so Robert went on his own (boo hoo). He made me a lovely lunch, entertained the kids most of the afternoon so I could have a nap, and even made dinner. I really do like him!

Ethan was cute that morning. He was so excited for Valentine's Day. He went out and shoveled the snow and made us all Valentine hearts. What a cutie!

Amberly is 7 months

Isn't she cute! She is just so dang good too!