Unexpected Awesomeness

This morning the kids asked if we could go on a picnic. My original impulse was to say no since it was raining outside. But then I thought about how we've done picnics in the past simply by putting the backseats down in the van and eating on a blanket. Our family is larger since he last time we did hat but I figured that it would be worth a shot. So after a great morning of service cleaning up the church we packed up a bunch of blankets and got some KFC and drove to one of my favorite places in front of Utah lake. I used to go there frequently when I was single. It's a great thinking spot.

And apparently, it's a great picnic spot too because we had a great time! Emily, Ethan, Jace, Claire and I fit in the back of the van while Alicia and Ben sat in the middle row. We talked together about what we'd want in a new house if we moved, and found out that most of the kids really like sharing rooms.

Then we got out of the car and explored the frozen lake front. We threw rocks to try to break the thin surface layer of ice (that didn't work) then we tried to sneak down the hill the waters edge (That didn't work either. Jace and I slipped in the mud.).

But despite he cramped space, the cold outside, and even a short stint of hail we had to run to escape. His was an awesome little memory with the kids.

Emily's Birthday and Christensen Christmas Party

Just like last year, we had our Christmas celebration with my extended family after Christmas. And, just like last year, we had it on the 26th. Much of what I said about last year, I still agree with and it shows all signs of becoming a tradition.

Our double-digit (10) birthday girl was playing with cousins most of the time we were there. In fact, most of the kids were like that. We didn't see Ethan and Jace much after we got there. Ben, however, we saw all the time. He hardly left his mother's side. And speaking of his mother, I think she has the flu. She laid on the couch feeling gross all morning and we were all but out the door when she stood up and with tears said that she wouldn't miss Emily's birthday party. So although, she wasn't feeling well and wasn't very lively, it was awesome that she was there.

We sang a few songs like we've done in the past but this
Ben played a few extra notes.

And speaking of the party, we had soups and breads and some birthday cake that was one third frosting and two thirds cake. We sang happy birthday and Emily got a gift card from her grandparents. Kind of textbook for kid birthdays. She loved it.

At the end of the party, we came home to a very, very messy house and crashed. As the night wore on, it was clear that Alicia was getting sicker and I began to feel something queasy as well. I was planning on going back to work tomorrow but now I'm starting to wonder.

Christmas Service

Kind of an odd Christmas in my perspective. Seems scandalous to say such a thing about Christmas day but that's my experience with it just the same.

The kids, however had a good day. They were thrilled with the gifts and were even flexible with adjusted Santa plans around our 9:00 Church schedule. We had stockings first thing in the morning, then went to Church and returned home to open the presents under the tree. Emily's highlight was the newest Zelda game. It was actually a family gift but she liked the story of the last one so much that she's drawn countless characters from it and copied stories, she's even midway through a project to create a book of Zelda. Ethan's highlight was a few lego sets that he got - an alien spaceship and a star wars ship. Jason was thrilled to recieve the Thomas ship play set he asked from Santa. Claire, being the consummate girly girl that she is loves her princess dress ups and her princess pajamas. And Ben has enjoyed this little ball machine thing that has holes for balls in the top, and a winding path down the height of the toy leading to where the ball comes out at the bottom, ready to be picked up and put in the top again.

Alicia and I had a bit of a limited Christmas this year. We thought that we would only have enough money for the kids but some extra cash showed up so we got a few things for each other too. The limited cash pushed us to be a little more creative with our gifts. Alicia got me an awesome comfy blanket and I got her a pregnancy survival kit of coupons she can use for a night off, a craving run (Alicia insists on calling them "wantings" and not cravings.), a day off from work, etc..

So that was all the great part of the day. The oddness came in when Alicia started to get sick this afternoon and I was responsible to take care of the house myself. So I had added responsibility and an attitude that Christmas should be a relaxing day. So I was pretty self-focused through the day and when kids needed things or the house was dirty, those needs were in direct competition with my desire to have a day off. As a result, I ended the day in bad temper with the kids and a VERY messy house. I felt kind of awful.

So I've learned that there are no days off. Even if I'm on vacation, I'm serving. And that's okay. It's as it should be. Every day that I'm granted life on this earth is a day I'm meant to bless other people's lives. I'm much happier when I'm serving anyway - especially on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve

We had big plans for Chistmas dinner tonight but because Alicia's energy was still gone, I took care of the kids and the house and ran out of time but a big turkey dinner with potatoes, stuffing, etc.. But we still roasted a turkey which turned out to be in the good spot between being rubbery and being dry. That said, I told Alicia that next year I want to go for a higher quality turkey - one that has one of those done timer rocket thingies in it.

They never play this well so we took
a picture of it.

Anyway, we had hot turkey sandwiches smothered in gravy. Alicia had enough energy for the dinner so she enjoyed the meal and so did I but our kids picked at the food on their plates with great suspicion and in the end, didn't eat much. But they did enjoy the egg nog though. I remember hating that when I was a kid (Even now it's a little too thick for my taste. I prefer to thin it out with a bit of ginger ale.) but all of them had at least one glass.

Everyone was in high spirits after the meal so the kids played together without the typical combatting between Jace and Claire (they even held hands at one point!) while Alicia and I cleaned up. Finally, we went downstairs and opened our Christmas Eve presents of pajamas and a family activity. The kids were oddly excited about getting pajamas this year. Maybe that's because they're sick of the ones they have or they are too small for their growing bodies. Ethan has a set of Spongebob pajamas that used to be pants and look more like shorts now. We'll be throwing those out since he got his flannel army ones tonight.

After our traditional pajamas on the couch picture, we watched a new Christmas special DVD together and then got the kids ready for their sleepover in our room next to our Christmas tree.

Everyone is really happy and excited right now. Even Alicia picked up a bit and her usual 3-4 hours of good energy per day was more like 6. I think we're all looking forward to tomorrow.

Festival of Crabbiness

Ethan in a full-body bubble thing at the
Festival of Trees

I think we've had our last family outing to the Festival of Trees ... ever. They rent out this huge convention hall and fill it with trees that have been donated by the community and then sell the trees to individuals and businesses. All proceeds go to benefit a local children's hospital so it's a nice thing for everyone. But all that warm nice stuff doesn't really keep my kids attention as we force our way through thick crowds of people through isle after isle of trees.

Attention has been waning for years but this year was particularly bad. We got through three isles before Alicia and the kids were done then we went to the kids corner to let the kids make some Christmas crafts and play. That lasted for about 30 minutes and the kids started to melt down. I tried to appease them with candy and treats but that didn't work either.

Finally we left the place with Ben screaming, Ethan crying, Emily complaining and my nerves shot. We got everyone in the car as quickly as possible and then drove away.

I have good memories of going to the Festival of Trees with my family. I've been trying to give my family similar memories but it appears that it just isn't the same for them. So, I'll let that one go.

Ben Walking

Ben has finally started walking. But he's doing it on his terms which means that if it doesn't involve either food or his mother there's less than a 15% change he'll do it. Still it's exciting to see him progressing.

Worth Every Penny

Alicia has a very strong kid magnet built inside of her.

I'm so glad that we were able to take this trip this year. Money has been a bit tight lately so there was some question as to whether we would be able to do it but we cashed in some credit card rewards and a bit of cash to supplement and were able to make it happen.

On our way to the bakery

Today's use of those funds included swimming at the hotel pool, a big breakfast provided by the hotel, spongebob marathons (It seems like every time we go to a hotel there's a spongebob marathon going on. Do they do that all the time?), treating the kids to oozy yumminess from a local bakery, a pay per view version of Cars 2 while the little kids had a nap, and an evening in downtown salt lake looking at lights, a new Christmas display machine thing at Deseret Book, a scating rink, and dinner at a mall food court.

We were joined for the last part of the evening by Tam, Mark and Whitley. The kids lit up when they came along. Before that, Emily was dragging her feet but the night brightened up as soon as they saw Markie. It's nice that our kids love those guys so much. It makes for good family time together.

Vacations can be expensive but every time we go (except that one Disneyland trip when Em was a baby) the expanded bank of happy memories of family togetherness has been worth the expense. That is certainly true of this little get-away too.

Thanksgiving

 Dad was able to transport from the assisted living place to Jen's house for Thanksgiving. We transported him from Susan's car, into his wheelchair and then down the grassy slope on the side of Jen's house and into the back entrance. He sat at a table in the family room and became the center of attention during the meal. That alone is worth some thanks.

We were also able to have everyone there. With the exception of Jennifer and Richie and their kids (they never come anymore) all family was there. All 17 grandkids and a few extras including Brianna and Brent. That's becoming more and more rare with all these kids growing up, having busy jobs and even getting married in some cases.

The food was yummy. Sometimes I think Thanksgiving is more about eating than thanking. Celebrating Christ's birth is too sacred in Christian hearts to get glossed over by its more secular veneer of gifts but it seems that the luminescence of thankfulness isn't bright enough to overcome it's more temporal outer layers. I wonder what Thanksgiving would be without food and family gatherings. Probably just a few words on a calendar space that people small talk about at work.

But the thankful highlights of the day were present. Dad gave the thanksgiving prayer and blessing on the food. It was great to hear him express gratitude with similar sentiment as he has in the past. His mind is still functioning at very near the capacity he had in the past. It was also notable how much of his prayer was focused on gratitude even though he's been through this stroke and difficult moments.

Keeping with tradition, we left directly from dinner and took the family to a hotel. Despite our learning that two bedroom hotel rooms are much better for our family, budget constraints wedged us into a smaller room. But at least tonight it wasn't so bad. The trick seems to be to spend as little time as possible in the hotel room. We did that tonight by going swimming within the hour of arrival and then settling down quickly for sleep.

Christmas Too Early?

It seems like more people are getting into Christmas up early. I spoke to someone at work who admitted openly that she and her husband put up Christmas decorations on Halloween night. "We're not the only ones!" I thought. My own father thinks it's a sin to put Christmas up before Thanksgiving. Funny thing is, I'll be at his house on Saturday putting up Christmas lights while he's out recovering from his stroke.

I don't get what the big deal is. Are people worried that we're not being grateful by not decorating for Thanksgiving? Are they sick of the same 40 Christmas songs being regurgitated by various artists on the radio? Are they just procrastinating the effort of decorating for Christmas? Do they not like the holiday?

Well whatever. Our house is decorated and I have a Christmas tree in my office.

Lamb Christmas Day

Christmas is such a fun time. We're lucky to have two this year. The kids slept in our room under our Christmas tree and although we didn't sleep very well at all (especially Alicia who had Jace hogging her side of the bed) I know the kids enjoyed it. They woke at 6 am like usual but were wired for being able to go downstairs and see what Nana and Papa had done for Christmas morning. After tiding them over with several Chipmunk cartoons, we finally went downstairs to discover our stockings filled and presents under our trees. We spend the next few hours together opening, assembling and playing with presents. Ben was thrilled to get a little talking bear, Claire got her own little bike (she's been "borrowing" bikes from Jace or other neighborhood kids), Ethan got this awesome remote control 4-wheeling guy, and Emily got a digital camera. Alicia and I also received a few gifts including clothes and we gave Nana and Papa a few gifts as well including a photo book and a DVD of movies made from pictures of the kids.

But the nicest part of the day was simply spending time together. The toys are sometimes just a convenient excuse for gathering everyone up and enjoying each other's personalities, interests, and happiness. It was a great morning that was followed by (surprise) food at breakfast and a fancy ham dinner.

What a great pretend holiday!

Faux Christmas Eve

Since Alicia's parents won't be around for Christmas and we haven't had a Christmas with them since Emily was a baby, we are celebrating two Christmases this year, one with them this week and the usual one with our family next week. As part of this celebration, Alicia's parents are trying to pack in as many Lamb Christmas traditions into this time as possible. I'm glad for this because Alicia has been longing for many of these traditions for years.

One of these is a traditions is loads of food. In these last few weeks Alicia and I have eaten more food than in the whole previous month combined. There have been dessert trays, cheese balls, canada dry, egg nog (we've gone through 8 or so cartons), turkey and ham dinners with all kinds of sides. So after a big dinner, we had a big desert of Black Forest Cake (and egg nog) and then watched a little cartoon with the kids and had a second desert of a christmas goodie tray (compare the picture this year to last year). Egg nog too. After we put the kids to bed we were all so groggy and full that we didn't want to think about food or even be in the same room with food.

One thing's for sure, with all this food we're eating we'll be well insulated for winter.

Candy, Kids and Sleepy Smiles

Somehow the danger of taking candy from a stranger melts away on Halloween evening. I for one couldn't be happier about that. I had the opportunity to see over a hundred children tonight who came to our door asking for candy. I saw all kinds of costumes and excitement in the faces of the children and all kinds of parents smiling with pride at the cuteness of their kids. Halloween around here doesn't seem to be about scares or the macabre - it's more of a parade of cuteness and candy. No wonder I love this holiday.

With Nana and Papa in tow, Alicia and the kids (all five) went on their own parade of cuteness this evening. Ben was a bumble bee, Claire was a clown, Jason was Thomas the tank engine (he had a last minute change of plans from being a caterpillar to Thomas), Ethan was a skeleton, and Emily was Princess Peach from the Mario Bros. game. 

The evening was unseasonably warm for this time of year - about 50 degrees after the sun dipped out of sight. So the cold didn't affect the kids' fun and they all stayed out for nearly an hour. Ben enjoyed the comfort of his stroller and a few bags of M&Ms and Claire filled her little plastic pumpkin halfway with candy and was the recipient of many cuteness compliments. Then the two of them came home with Nana and Papa and helped me pass out candy for the remainder of the evening.

Meanwhile Alicia had the older kids out for another hour. At almost every house, Jace would say "Trick or Treat" with the others and then excitedly dash back to the sidewalk exclaiming, "Mom, I said it!" When it was all done, Ethan and Jace had filled their plastic pumpkins to the top. They dumped their candy out on the living room floor and compared their loot with each other.

After having a sensible amount of candy, the kids were readied for bed and tucked in with smiles on their faces. It's likely that many other kids in the neighborhood had similar sleepy smiles tonight. So who cares about this holiday's shady past, it's presently a wonderful night.

Cornbelly's

The kids have been getting stickers on the fridge for doing nice things for each other and as a reward, we took them to a nearby fall amusement park called Cornbelly's. We got faces painted, played on wooden structures, saw pumpkin princesses, watched a pig race, rode on a cow train, and walked through a corn maze.

The sun set and the temperature dropped quickly so we had to leave but if that hadn't happened we might have stayed another few hours. The kids loved playing there. Ethan exclaimed as we left that it was the best day ever.

I love amusement parks. I want one. Maybe someday I'll get to make one.

Mountain Man

My view from the trunk

It's so nice to be close to the mountains. I'm not a rugged hiker or a manly hunter guy. I don't even consider myself to be a tree-hugging nature lover. But it's always refreshing to go on a drive to the mountains and step out of the car to breathe the crisp mountain air. This is especially true when you've travelled to the mountains in the trunk of a minivan as a result of constrained seating availability in the van. We drove up little cottonwood canyon this evening loaded with capri suns, sandwiches and chips then ate it amongst huge granite boulders and a setting sun at the mouth of canyon.

I remember missing the mountains when I went away to Texas for two years. I imagine that if we ever leave, I'll miss these beautiful piles or rocks that I visit every four months or so. Maybe someday we'll build a cabin in the mountains and then I can become one with nature.

Chaos at Dinner

Seems like dinner time is melt down time lately. The kids get louder at that hour. Ben cries cause he's hungry. Claire loses interest in eating and is usually the first to leave the table. The kids choose to not eat the food they are given. And we have ended up disciplining the kids during dinner through time out while we're eating.

Alicia and I don't know what's going on. But it's very frustrating. It could be that the kids need correction or it could be that our expectations of a Norman Rockwell dinner experience of smiles and civilized passing of food is unrealistic with 5 kids under the age of 10.

Something's gotta give though. We can't keep doing this.

Getting to Know Em

The thought occurred to me recently that my attention tends to focus more on my younger kids and not on Emily. A sad image of her wanting to feel accepted but not finding full acceptance in my relationship with her flashed through my brain. That may be jumping to conclusions but if there's any bit of truth to that then I'm not serving my daughter the way that I should.

So tonight I took her out on a date with that in mind and we had a wonderful time. We got some ice cream and then drove down to Orem to see Dad. We talked the whole way there and back and here's what I learned about Em:

• She felt a sense of accomplishment that the family enjoyed her work in the "Mall" yesterday.
• She likes to take care of the younger kids on Sunday.
• She likes to make her brothers laugh by being silly when playing legos.
• She knows that Claire loves it when she plays dress-up with her.
• When she draws a picture, the plans it out in her head first by picking the options of what to draw, then visualizing it and then just drawing what's in her head.
• She likes to plan things
• She did a good job in accomplishing her goal of reading all of Matthew in the Bible.
• She likes to see Ben laugh when Mom plays with him.
• She is very responsive to feedback (I challenged her at the beginning of the drive back to practice listening to people and asking questions and immediately she asked my question after question about my youth.)

I often say that Emily is a remarkable person but I think you can see some of the evidence of her character above. I love her and am so glad that she's in our family.

Simple Family Sundays

Sunday afternoons are a really interesting time in our house. Because we try to give time for rest and reflection on Sunday, it cuts out much of the usual busyness of our lives. After church, Alicia and I will often retire to the bedroom for reading, personal history work or napping (usually the latter). Ben and Claire go down for their afternoon nap, and the other kids will play together with legos, build forts, make up shows, or create pretend places. I'm amazed at the creativity and good will the blossoms in them when the TV gets turned off.

Today the whole family participated in what they built. Emily had made a mall in the family room. She was the information desk and Ethan built his own station for the restaurant. So I made some dinner upstairs packed up individual rubbermaid trays and drinks and sent them downstairs. Each family member went to Emily's information kiosk and then Ethan's restaurant to get their dinner. Then we all sat down to eat on a blanket in the family room while watching family movies from the summer.

Afterwards we made caramel popcorn balls upstairs and then piled all the kids on the couch to read a story before bed.

It was a wonderful evening with everyone. I hope that the kids will remember this night and maybe others like it and have fond memories of their growing-up years at home. I know that I'll remember these nights too.

Offroading in a Minivan

We got all ready for Church this morning with Sunday best and a diaper bag packed with all sorts of toys, books, coloring, and snacks and then got everyone packed in the van and realized that today's Church (a two hour general meeting held once a year) was not going to work for our kids who were showing extra signs of moodiness and irritability today. So instead, Alicia and I decided to listen to talks in the car and take the kids for a drive.

We began our journey thinking that we'd go to Grandma's gravesite and then visit Grandpa but plans changed as I we approached the mountains around Orem and I thought it might be nice to take the kids instead to a valley overlook on the east mountains.

The road to that point is all paved and I've been there several times so no one had any concerns. But as I approached that point, I thought about how there's a road that leads deeper into the woods that I have a faint recollection of traveling only once when I was a kid. Whenever I've attempted previously, it's always been closed off because of snow but now, it is the end of Summer. Surely it would be open now! So, I talked to Alicia about it and told her about a lookout point I remembered and that I'd like to take the kids there. She agreed and we went. The pavement road turned into a dirt one. But it was well kept and very traversable in our van.

We drove for about 30 minutes enjoying the wildflowers and trees and meadows. It was really quite beautiful. Then we reached the lookout point I remembered (the pictures of the family show that in background). We had enjoyed the trip so far so we thought we'd go on. A few minutes later, we reached a point where a sign instructed us that from this point on, passenger vehicle travel is not recommended. We had been on that road for over an hour and the thought of traversing the same path back was not appealing. Besides, I knew that this road eventually lead out another canyon on the south side of Utah Valley and I was curious to see it. So on the condition that if the road got too bad we'd turn around, we went forward.

At first it was very doable. We were deep in the forest and tall pine trees surrounded us. The kids seemed to be enjoying it at this point. We opened the windows at one point to let the mountain air in and I commented that it smelled good. Jason, from the back seat stated, "Yes. It smells like peanuts." We stopped a few times to stretch our legs and pick some wildflowers and then drove some more talking happily from the safety of our van about bears, poisonous flowers, rough roads and other hazards of the forest.

Then we excited a heavily wooded area and the road started to get rougher. We were another hour down the road by now so there was no cashing in on the offer to turn around if the road got rough so we just continued. The car jostled around and we hit a few rocks with the undercarriage of the car. Alicia and I were no longer relaxed into our seats, we were leaning forward straining to see details of the road before us. Alicia would speak out directions on which rocks to avoid as we crawled along the road at less than 5 mph trying simply to get through this ordeal. We continued this way for another hour.

We didn't see many people on that road but those we did see (all of them in trucks or ATVs) looked at us like we were crazy. Finally, the road dropped in elevation and the road conditions improved until we at last met back up with pavement. Alicia and I gave each other five for having survived it and Ethan spoke up from the mid-row that this was the "Worst Sunday Ever." But we're alive.

I don't think my kids will trust me anymore when I suggest that we go for a drive. They've had the "Getting Lost" experience and now this.

New Happy Memories

I was telling Alicia today that I think I get the same kind of happiness in sharing amusement parks with my kids as other men do sharing sports or other personal interests with their children. It is nothing but joyful for me to see them smile and laugh with excitement as we enjoy the experience together. That was the case today as we went to Lagoon.

For Ben, his enjoyment was having a greater portion of attention given to him since we weren't occupied in the usual home activities such as cleaning and running errands. Personally, I interacted with him much more than usual in holding him, tickling him and burying my face into his neck to get him to laugh. I appreciated the time and my love for him increased as I was able to be with him more.

For Claire, the highlight was swimming at Lagoon-A-Beach - a collection of pools and water slides in the center of the amusement park. She wandered in and around the kiddie pool for 10-15 minutes at a time - completely independent of course. It was cute to see her in her little blue Ariel swimsuit wandering through the foot deep water, climbing stairs and going down the slide. She also experienced some of the little kid rides at Lagoon. At first she was a bit apprehensive but she warmed up to them and began to have fun - or "pun" as she called it today.

Jace's favorite experience was very predictable and as endearing as ever. Lagoon has this train that loops a little lake. It's been there forever - I remember it when I was a kid. Jace was all smiles as he experienced it. He leaned on the railing and looked out to the lake as we passed in a smiling contented silence. Jace also got into some of the rides too. He is just tall enough to experience some of the more tame roller coasters and he loved it. At one point I was able to go with him in this little water luge ride and when we splashed down at the end he was jumping up and down with excitement wanting to do it again.

Ethan was quite a thrill-seeker. He went on his first big person water slide and loved it so much that he did it another three times. He also went on a total of five roller coaster rides. One of them was the Wild Mouse coaster which he and I rode together. This one scared him a bit. When he came off of that one, Alicia said he looked sad and he was clinging to my leg. Oh well, he enjoyed the rest. It was a lot of fun to enjoy some rides with him by my side.

Finally Emily's favorite was also swimming. Em's big enough that we were comfortable with her leaving our direct supervision to allow her to swim in the big person pools and the lazy river. She seemed to love the big person pool and she played in there for extended periods of time. Em wasn't too excited about the roller coasters and she opted out of many of them when it came time to choose who would ride but she loved the water.

We stayed until the park closed alternating turns picking attractions to experience and we ended with some bumper cars and then made our way for the gates as the excitement of the day began to wear off and our kids bodies started to limp. We weren't 5 miles down the freeway before all of them were sound asleep in the van. I remember doing the very same thing when I went to Lagoon as a kid. Finally we tucked them into bed and they were snoring before we left the room.

As Alicia and I lay in our bed, I thumbed through the pictures and videos of the day with my head full of new happy memories and my hopes high that the rest of my family had the same thing.

Vacationing Space

The size of our family is now to the point where a regular hotel room simply doesn't cut it. We actually knew this two years ago but today was the first time we actually got a two bedroom room. Alicia, Ben and I were in one room and Em, Ethan, Jace and Claire were in the other with a shared kitchen and family room between. It was worth the cost.

The occasion prompting this hotel stay is a little summertime trip. We're planning to go to Lagoon tomorrow and today we went swimming and to a movie as a family. I love these trips and I think the kids do too. And now we know that saving a few extra dollars for a bigger room is worth it, we're better prepared for the next one.