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.

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.

New iPad

A picture taken with the new iPad

Yesterday I got a new iPad from work. I've been borrowing one for the last month to see if it was a justified tool for my work. I've started reading books from it, studying from it and using it as my primary mode of mobile computing on the bus and on trips to the other office building location. It's been great so I was really excited to have one permanently assigned to me.

I was looking at it the other day and noticing how thin it is. It seems odd that something so small can do so much. Make's me wonder what's next.

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.

Decorating With Love Part 2

Alicia finished decorating the girl's bedroom today to match the festivity of the boys bedroom decorations done a few weeks ago. The theme on this room was christmas trees. She made a tree shaped decoration out of curled pieces of green construction paper and the decorated the bed frame with lights and ornaments. The girls were, of course, thrilled with her work.

Now we'll have a contest in a few weeks for which bedrooms look the most festive. Either way, Alicia will get top prize. She did a great job with both of them.

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.

Kids or Cookies?

My job has a party coming up on Monday with a competition for costumes and treats so I wanted to make some sugar cookies for the food competition. I ended up taking most of the day today to do that with the kids.

But in taking most of my attention throughout the day, I was diverted from helping out more around the house and as the day drew to a close and I saw how many cookies were yet to be decorated and also saw how close it was to bedtime so I enlisted the kids to help (maybe forced is a better word) and then hurded them off to bed. The cookies were done and the kitchen was cleaned up but I was left with a disappointment because I was focused a bit too much on what I wanted to do and wasn't considering serving those around me. Luckily, I recognized my error in enough time to apologize to the kids before they fell asleep. I went into Em's room where Emily, Ethan and Jace were sleeping and brought them all the last-minute drink of water I denied them minutes earlier and then I went upstairs to Claire and gave her a hug.

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.

Simple Pleasures

It's so easy to lose sight of the value of spending simple time with the family. Tonight I wasn't in a particularly distracted or selfish mood, just conscious of time. I was quietly nudging the family along towards getting pumpkins and then preparing kids for bed and I almost missed the fact that we were spending time together at a pumpkin patch, the kids were exploring the corn stalks, we had a hay bail ride, the kids were discovering different kinds of plants, we were enjoying ice cream together and the kids were having a great time.

This didn't really occur to me until Ethan, who usually provides a luke-warm response when asked about his enjoyment level of family events, gushed excitedly about how awesome it was to go pick pumpkins together. What a great example of stopping to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

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.

Alicia's Birthday

So close!

I have never been able to surprise Alicia in our whole marriage. Birthdays, anniversaries, whatever, she always picks up on my plans. Today my surprise was staying home from work when Alicia thought I was gone. The plan was to get picked up for the bus just like usual then walk back home, sneak in the house and wait somewhere hidden until Alicia left to take Emily and Ethan to school. Then I would decorate the house and surprise Alicia with her present.

Everything went according to plan except for one thing: I sneezed. I was in the storage room downstairs sitting on a stool in the dark and a sneeze came on. I desperately tried to stop or at least muffle it but there was no stopping it. It wasn't a notably loud sneeze but Alicia happened to be down in the basement at the time and she told me later that she heard me and knew that something was going on.

Dang it!

But she played along anyway. When she arrived home from dropping the kids off I had party decorations up and a gift on the living room end table. When she stepped towards it to read the gift note, I slipped out of Claire's room with spray confetti in hand and surprised her (a little).

My gift to her was a day of shopping. She was given money to go get a new outfit (something she desperately wants). So we went out all together to shop for groceries, then we had a birthday lunch at Texas Roadhouse. And finally this afternoon, Alicia got herself a new outfit complete with accessories.

To wrap the day up we had a birthday angel food cake then a movie night with the kids and two of Alicia's favorite candies (Yorks, and Milk Duds). Alicia told me later that this was her best birthday so far.

If the surprise wouldn't have been thwarted, I bet you it would have been even better.

Brianna's Wedding

Brianna at a birthday celebration a few months ago.

The whole family attended a wedding reception tonight for Brianna Curry - our former niece (a daughter of my brother Dave's ex wife). Brianna has had a bit of a falling out with her immediate family so all of my siblings and families got together to show support for her.

We were certainly happy too. There was lots of fattening food there and some dancing which we all got into. Mark danced to Michael Jackson, I had a slow dance with Emily and Claire, and even Ethan got out on the floor and danced around a bit. We all had a good time.  I hope that Brianna felt our support and that she and her new husband are happy together.

It was a bit odd to not see my Dad there. He would be roaming around snapping pictures of Bri, her husband, and all the rest of the family. And he would have been paparazzi when we were dancing. 

Cow-date

I've never been much for the cowboy way of life. Growing up I found opportunity to make fun of it and as a direct result, God directed my path to a mission for the LDS Church in Texas. There I spent two years learning to appreciate the peacefulness and even charm of simple living. But after that, I came back home and picked right back up where I left off in looking at cow-anything (except hamburger) with a sideways glance.

So when Emily shared with me an invitation to a Daddy-daughter cowboy event at the Church, I was a little apprehensive. But this wasn't just a social engagement I could find some excuse to skip - this was a date with my daughter that she was really looking forward to. The risk of disappointing Em was even strong enough to motivate me to attend when I heard that there would be line dancing associated with this. And THEN Alicia bought both Em and I a costume cowboy hat too (I think she was just rubbing it in).

So we went. I tried as best I could to forget how uncomfortable I was and just try to enjoy it through Em. That wasn't hard to do. She and I got our picture taken on some hay bales outside the building and I saw how happy she was. Then in the talent museum, she proudly displayed one of her drawings to me. At dinner she giggled and laughed as she joked with her friends sitting nearby. And then finally, at the dancing part she happily participated in learning the steps until she was good enough to where I was watching her steps for guidance instead of the instructor.

Before we knew it, we were both having a great time. We came home and I think Alicia was a little shocked to hear that I enjoyed the evening - and that dancing with Emily was my favorite part. It was a great experience that I hope we both remember.

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.