It's been a long time

So, this blog has always had a lot to do with the adventure of raising Ellie, and as she outgrew her toddler antics the purpose of the blog slowly faded into oblivion. However, a year ago, Ellie decided to give us a run for our money once again. She started having seizures last January, and we have been on a bit of a roller coaster ever since. In December we finally made some progress with her meds, and she has been much more stable emotionally and physically. However, some of her meds make her extremely loopy at night when she takes them. It is like she is coming out of anesthesia every day. SO FUNNY! So I decided it might be fun to record a few of the highlights of the last few months here.

One night I walked into Ellie's room to find her stuffing her face with Snickers candy bars. She probably had about four of the bite-sized candy bars in her mouth when I found her. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me with tears streaming down her face and her her mouth stuffed with chocolate, "I HATE THESE. But they are mine, so I have to eat them!" When I told her that she didn't have to eat them she insisted that she did, so I told her that she had actually given the candy to me, so she really didn't have to eat it.
When I told her the candy was mine, she looked at me with a panic-stricken face and began spitting all of the chocolate out into her hand to offer it to me. I gave her the garbage can, wiped her hands and took away the rest of the chocolate. Fortunately, when she is in her loopy state, Ellie is VERY easily distracted, so to distract her I asked her if she liked gummy bears.
She responded, "Gummy Bears?! I love Gummy Bears!" And she began to sing the "Gummy Bears" theme song while bouncing on her bed.

Another night, after visiting the planetarium, Ellie got a little bit confused. Greg used to work for Northrop Grumman, and when Ellie was little she enjoyed watching Cyberchase, a children's show that aired on PBS. Cyberchase was sponsored by Northrop Grumman, and the movie we watched at the planetarium also happened to be sponsored by Northrop Grumman. When we got home, she asked me, "Did you know that the movie we watched was by Cyberchase? And Dad used to work for Cyberchase?"
"He did?" I asked.
"Yes! He helped to defeat the Hacker!" (a cartoon villain on the show).

If Ellie happens to cough while she is loopy she always asks, "Am I dying?" and when I assure her she isn't she is always visibly relieved.

In the years since I have written on the blog, we acquired a dog named Izzy. Ellie loves the dog, and when she is on her meds she sometimes thinks that she is a dog. She will sometimes bark, but rather than 'barking' she will say the word "bark" two or three times before deciding that it takes too much energy. Then she will sniff like a dog and burrow in her blankets.

Ellie is also extremely loving while she is on her meds. She will regularly tell all of us (in a whiny, almost crying voice) "Did you know that I love you so much? You are the best (mom/dad/sister) I have ever had!"

We have a few audio and video recordings of Ellie as well, and I'll try to remember to post them here as well. They are very entertaining.

Harry Potter Cake

Here are a couple pictures of the birthday cake I made for Brynn's birthday. This was before I was quite finished, but I forgot to take pictures when it was done. I had jelly beans falling out of the bag of "Bertie Botts" and put an "18" below the diadem.

For anyone not overly familiar with Harry Potter, here is a little description. 

Each layer of cake represents one of the Hogwarts "houses" and has a scarf representing the house colors. On the very top is the sorting hat, next down is the diadem of Ravenclaw, Then we have the bag of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, and on the very bottom is the cake that Hagrid made for Harry when he first learned that he was a wizard. On the right side you can see a Slytherin snake, and in the bottom picture you can see Harry's glasses. I also made a golden snitch, and a wand, but they aren't in the pictures. 

S'MORE Party!

I don't think I have mentioned my calling, but I am the Activity Days Leader for the 10-11 year old girls in my ward. It is so much fun! At our last planning meeting we decided to have a Mother-Daughter Activity, and when I asked the girls what they wanted to do, they thought that something "camping" themed--specifically with S'mores sounded fun.
Since the activity was taking place in October, I was a little worried about having it in the canyon (or anywhere outside) because we have been having a ton of rain lately, and I didn't want to risk it. So, I decided to just focus on the S'more theme, and hosted a mother/daughter minute-to-win-it activity.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures, but the invitations and decorations were all pink, brown & white.
We divided the girls into groups (we have 16 girls right now, whew!) and played a game for each part of a s'more.

For the Graham Cracker game, I bought Teddy-Grahams, and Graham Cracker Stick Cookies that the girls and then moms had to put on their foreheads and get into their mouths without using their hands.
 (Inspired by the Minute-To-Win-It "Cookie Face").
We let the girls try for 90 seconds while the moms put cookies on their foreheads, then switched and let the girls put the cookies on their moms' foreheads.

This sign was at the graham cracker station.

The second station was the marshmallow station. Here we did the same 90 second relay, but the moms & daughters had to stick their noses into Crisco, then try to get as many cotton ball "marshmallows" as possible across the gym floor to their partner who was holding a cardboard "graham cracker" waiting for the marshmallows. This one was inspired by the Minute-To-Win-It "Nose Dive."

The Third game involved chocolate! I picked up some mini Hershey bars and had the moms & daughters work as a team to unwrap them. I just used two knives, a pair of dice, and the chocolate. When someone rolled doubles, they got to pick up the knives and try to unwrap the chocolate. Once unwrapped they had to pick up the chocolate with the knives and put it in their partner's hands. As soon as someone else rolled doubles the person unwrapping the chocolate had to drop the knives and pass it all over.

Once everyone had played all three games, I had three long tables set up, and had all the girls sit on one side of the table and the moms sit on the other side. I gave each person a paper that looked like this:

and then asked the moms & daughters questions about each other.

Moms had to answer: 

What is your daughter's favorite color

What is your daughter's favorite subject in school?

How much did your daughter weigh?

Daughters had to answer:

What did your mom do on her first date?

What is your mom's favorite restaurant?

What is your mom's favorite hobby?

(we actually ran out of time for that one)

Once the questions were all answered, we had a buffet (or Smorgasbord) and let everyone visit and eat.

On the way out, I had clear bags with graham crackers, chocolate & a giant marshmallow tied up with this sign:

I do need to give a shout out to "The Dating Divas" whose cute s'more printable inspired the pink & brown handouts. You can check it out HERE.

Abbey's Wedding

Yesterday my cute cousin, Abbey got married. It is hard to believe since when I got married she was only 5 years old...I'm not that old yet am I?!
Everything was beautiful-my aunt did such a fantastic job! I had one small part in the festivities--I made the cake. It was pretty simple-she just wanted a rustic two-tiered cake with a textured frosting, burlap and lace ribbon and sunflowers. It was a coconut cake & it tasted pretty good for a wedding cake. :)

Fishing in Paradise

The family was able to enjoy a beautiful spring day in Paradise this last weekend. The name certainly did it justice this weekend. We all had a great time fishing and playing around in the beautiful wilderness.

Greg was particularly pleased to have caught a Tiger Trout:

Ellie was particularly pleased to catch a snake:

And everyone was particularly pleased to catch a dinosaur:

12 Days of Christmas

Today I took lunch to my Grandpa as part of his Christmas present, and thought it would be fun to include elements of the 12 days of Christmas in the meal. So I sent him....

Drumsticks for the drummers

Pipes for the Pipers

Gummy Frogs-a-Leaping

Lunch for the Dancers

Milk from the Milk Maids

Sculpted Ice Swans Swimming (oops, they broke)

I gave a picture of an ice sculpture & a bag of crushed ice

Eggs from Geese-a-Laying

FRIED ONION RIIIIINGS!

Gummy Calling Birds

Sandwich from French Hens

Chocolate Turtles, YUM!

And a Pear from the Partridge's Tree!

Jelly Fish Costumes

Happy Halloween!

This was Becca's last year trick-or-treating, so I decided to let her choose the costumes for the year. Her choice: JELLY FISH! Well, that one took a little creativity, but I think they turned out pretty well (especially at night!). Here are the night & day pictures of the costumes. Enjoy!

Becca's Movie Night Birthday

So, it has been a while since I have posted for several reasons, but thanks to Haylee taking pictures of Becca's birthday, and only giving me the pictures if I promised to blog about it, here is a quick recap of Becca's 12th b-day.

We started the evening by having the girls walk down the "red carpet" (red tablecloths from the Dollar Store).

Then, we played "Guesstures" (the charades game played with a movie clapboard) while everyone arrived. Once all the girls were there we had a dinner for the "stars" and then went downstairs (I had glow sticks lining stairs like theater lights) to the newly completed theater where the girls watched "The Princess Bride" and ate popcorn, warm pretzels, candy and soda to their hearts' content. 

When the first movie was over the girls called their parents to see if they could stay to watch "Wreck It Ralph" and just hang out for a couple more hours. 

So, all in all, I think the party was a success for the not-so-little-anymore girls.

Otter starts with C

Yesterday Greg showed the girls a picture of a baby otter. He asked Rachel, "Do you know what this is?"
She said, "Yes. It starts with the letter C."
 Greg said, "No. It starts with O."
To which Rachel responded, "No it doesn't. It starts with C. It's a C-Otter."

A Star is Born...Or Homemade Dino-Oatmeal

Any time my girls come shopping with me I have to avoid the cereal aisle because they will inevitably see the Dinosaur Egg Oatmeal and want it. However, the price tag always dissuades me from purchasing it. So, today I decided there must be a way to create my own "dinosaur eggs" to put into oatmeal. Here are the results (which I think my girls will go for). If you want the full instructions, read to the bottom.

I had recently purchased a bottle of star sprinkles, and thought my girls would like those just as much if not more than dinosaurs. So, I started piping dots of icing along a sheet of waxed paper, but quickly decided it was NOT worth the effort, so after some brainstorming, I thought about Chex Muddy-Buddies, and decided to try a similar tactic. I warmed some icing in the microwave until it was runny, then poured a little bit (about 1/3 as much icing as sprinkles) into a zip-lock bag. When all the sprinkles were coated I scooped a bunch of powdered sugar (again, I am not a measurer, but it was about as much powdered sugar as sprinkles). Then I sealed the bag and shook it like crazy. Soon, the sprinkles were covered with powdered sugar and started separating from each other. I separated larger lumps with my fingers and continued to shake until I was happy with the size of each "egg." Then I poured the contents of the bag into a colander and gently shook off any extra powdered sugar. At this point I had a bowl full of star eggs. So I took a small scoop, put it in my oatmeal and poured the hot water on top to test it & sure enough! the stars were hatched from their eggs.

*EDIT
I have had several comments asking me what type of icing I used. I had half a can of random vanilla icing in my fridge. Any brand should work, just melt it until it is soft.

Doing Great!

Thursday was quite the day around here. We woke up just after midnight to the wind. We knew it had the potential to be quite the storm, but had no idea what was in store. Sarah and Rachel both woke up around 2 a.m. and came to snuggle us in our bed due to the noise of the storm, so needless to say we didn't get too much sleep.

When morning arrived we were debating whether we should send the girls to school, but when the power went out & the cell networks were too busy to get calls through I decided I didn't want to risk sending the girls without a way to get in touch with the school should something happen. It turned out to be a good decision since their school was closed shortly after the school day started. Our house didn't suffer too greatly. Our vinyl fence on the North side of the house blew apart, but we scavenged around the yard and found all the pieces. Only a couple were cracked and we were able to rebuild it yesterday (we might need to replace a few parts eventually, but for now it should be just fine).

We also had some wandering playground equipment. I should have taken a picture, but our play land that is normally on the East side of the yard tried to escape, but couldn't fit through the gate on the West side. We also have several large piles of leaves that decided to nestle in for the storm by our front door, but that is an easy clean up.

Greg was amazing and stayed home from work on Thursday. He drove the truck around to check on all the family and clean up as necessary. I had called my grandpa in the morning and he said that he had at least 5 big trees that had fallen and were blocking his driveway (which happens to be a fairly long private drive). We went there first to see if we could at least get the trees out of the way, but his neighbors had already come and moved the trees from the driveway. It was very sad to see so many beautiful trees come down, but I was touched by the quick response his neighbors showed. He also lost almost all of the fence around his pool, but he has some insurance people coming to look at things before we start cleaning up.

After checking on my grandpa, we went to my mom's house. She had one tree that snapped in the back of her house, and had a 2-3 inch carpet of pine boughs, needles, pine cones and trash covering her entire yard. I think that emotionally that was probably worse than fallen trees for my mom because she always does such a great job keeping her yard clean & has spent countless hours doing fall cleaning making sure things were ready for spring.

Our family spent the rest of the day at her house raking and bagging the piles and piles of debris.

Following a run to the dump we stopped to check on Greg's parents' house (everything looked great) and drove past the cemetery. They had huge pines lining the entire East side and most of them were uprooted in the storm. It was quite the sight. It was really touching to see people joining together to move trees and work on cleanup immediately following the storm.

We worked through the afternoon, but stopped in time for the girls to have a shared piano lesson (it was too cold and dark to have them do more), then we went back down to my mom's house for dinner since her power was back on. We stopped by our house to see if we had power, but instead discovered that the door to the attic had blown off and cold air had been pouring through the house all day.

When our power was still out at 9:00 we decided to have a sleepover at Grandma's (which didn't disappoint my girls at all). We probably could have stayed at home because apparently the power came back on sometime between 10 & 11 that night, but the girls loved sleeping at Grandma's.

Friday we spent most of the day cleaning our yard and fixing the fence, and today we are glad that it is mostly done because it snowed last night & cleanup doesn't sound quite so fun today. It is much nicer to snuggle up by a fire and blog about the events of the week :)

Utah Museum of Natural History

Friday we decided to take our girls on a mini-stay-cation. We got tickets for the opening day at the Museum of Natural History & took the girls out of school an hour early to make our ticket-time. The museum was very impressive. They have five levels and recommend that you take the elevator to the top and work your way down through time (the top floor has the most recent events & the lower you go the older the displays).
However, Sarah has been dying to see some REAL dinosaur bones and so we indulged her and started at the bottom and worked our way up. The girls had a great time digging for dinosaur bones (Sarah unearthed some bones from the bottom of the pile that quite likely had never been found before since we were there on the first day). The museum has an indoor and outdoor digging area and we were happy that it was pleasant enough outside to let them dig in the larger pit.
The museum also had some fun magnetic puzzle pottery that you try to stick back to a metal vase. Because it was opening day we were also able to go into some of the archive rooms where we saw row after row of dead snakes, lizards and toads in jars. The girls were a little put off when they found out they were real animals, and wondered if the people who work there killed all those snakes or if they found them dead. Sadly they asked the question after we left.
The museum had hours worth of entertainment. I was very impressed with the interactive displays and the amount of child-friendly hands on content provided.
So other than being grateful for dinosaurs I am also grateful to live in a community that values the arts & museums and that we have such neat places that we can visit in our own backyard.

Piano Recitals

This week we went to a piano recital for Becca and Ellie. The girls did such a great job; it is also nice as Primary President to go because more than half of our senior primary takes from our girls' teacher & were all there. So, without further ado...here are the videos of the girls at the recital.

Becca Piano Recital:



Ellie Piano Recital:

Rachel's Christmas List

I was asking Rachel the other day what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas. She stopped playing for a minute, and told me she didn't know. I said, "What about underpants?" to which she responded enthusiastically that underwear would be GREAT! I then asked if she would like Santa to bring her bedsheets. Again, her answer was a resounding YES! I continued to think of the most boring gifts I could come up with and each one received a positive response. I thought it was so cute that she would be glad with anything Santa might bring. Sadly I forgot to ask her about coal, but since she loves it when Greg builds a fire I'm pretty sure even that would have been just fine.

Exercise

So while I am grateful that I can exercise, today's post is just a funny story. Today as I was exercising I felt like I was getting tired much more quickly than usual (I try to go running on the treadmill for 30 minutes a day). I kept having to adjust my speed and wondered why I was so sluggish this morning. As I was getting ready to cool down I bumped the incline button and saw that I had been running with the treadmill inclined the entire time. I suddenly felt much better about how hard my run was, and felt like I had accomplished more than I set out to do!

Laughter

I think I have laughed about fifty times today. Nothing consequential. I read "Blue Hat, Green Hat" to the girls and we laughed ourselves silly. Greg came into our room offering a glass of water; I was looking at something on the computer & he LOUDLY downed the entire glass in moments. When I looked up he showed me the empty glass then switched hands and held out a full cup to me. We watched a funny show, Rachel got yogurt on her nose, and the girls looked at kangaroo pictures sent straight from Australia (which they thought were fantastic).
I love to laugh, and I love to hear the sound of my girls' laughter.
What a blessing to be able to laugh.

Family Time!

In Sacrament meeting today we heard a talk about the importance of doing the simple, every day things with our families. They talked about reading scriptures, praying, and spending time together with our children. Yesterday we had a great family day. The girls were great helpers getting the house cleaned (Sarah was especially helpful)so we decided to do something fun and took the girls to the planetarium. The weather wasn't especially cooperative (it was a regular blizzard), but the girls enjoyed driving in the snow. When we got to the planetarium we gave the girls a few pennies and let them race the money around the cyclone coin shoot. We let them play around the exhibits, look around the gift shop and then we watched a movie on the IMAX. Because of our membership each of the girls gets a free popcorn when we go to a show, and they think it is the greatest thing EVER.
I love the fact that our girls are still excited to spend time together as a family. I realize that we are fast approaching the teenage years when family time won't have the same appeal it does right now, but I treasure the time we get to spend together as a family.

Happy Veterans Day

Greg and the girls never knew my grandpa Hodgkinson (first and third pictures), but he was quite an amazing man. In addition to serving faithfully in the church through his entire life (he never really had the chance to summer in Utah and winter in Arizona because he and my grandma served three missions and he served in the Stake Presidency in Arizona & so they didn't get much of a chance to spend time in Utah after they moved) he was also very patriotic and served our country during WWII.
Growing up I knew that he had been shot in the hip (because my dad told me), but Grandpa never talked about the war...ever. It was not until after he passed away that I heard the story of his Silver Star.
Grandpa's platoon was in the streets of an Italian town. The Nazis had taken over two houses on either side of the street, and were shooting out at the troops on the road. Grandpa was able to somehow sneak to one of the houses where the Nazis were shooting and throw a grenade in a window. Then, he went over to the other side of the street and threw a grenade in that house.
He received the purple heart when he was shot in the hip. The Germans came along with bayonets stabbing kicking the bodies on the ground. Grandpa was kicked and rolled over, but was able to play dead until the soldiers moved on.
I feel so grateful that both of my grandfathers served in the military. I know that countless people have made it possible for us to have the freedoms that we do today, and I just want to say Thank You to those who are fighting or have fought for my freedom.
Happy Veterans Day!

Homework

Thursday nights are typically the heaviest nights of homework around our house. Spelling tests and homework packets are usually due on Friday and so Thursdays are often the catch-all for homework that hasn't been taken care of. Some nights I feel rushed trying to get it all done, but tonight as Sarah and I sat at the kitchen table working on her homework packet it was quite delightful.
Watching her get excited about handwriting, addition, and creative writing (claiming to be the smartest person in her WHOLE class) was so much fun as a parent. I love seeing the girls' confidence grow as they learn new concepts, do well on tests, and feel the excitement of getting a good report card.
So, knowing that there will be times that I get bogged down in the monotony of helping the girls with the same lessons night after night, I just need to remember how great it is to look back on their accomplishments.

Skype

Last night we were able to visit with Greg's parents for the first time using Skype. It was SO great to see them and talk with them...It was hard to believe that they are actually half way around the world. What a blessing it is to live in a time when technology is "Jettson-esque" and we can see and talk to each other whenever we want.

On the missionary front, Steve and Lorna are doing great. They are jumping in with both feet and it was fun to hear how things are going. Already they have purchased a new bed and bedding, they plan to visit all the elderly ladies in their branch, they have yard projects in the works (time set aside each day for weeding and planting flowers), pruning bushes and trees, and just getting things up to par. They are getting the house sprayed for spiders (they had spiderwebs ALL over their house apparently), visiting new members and planning a service project to unite the members of the branch.

The girls thought it was absolutely wonderful to see and talk to their grandparents. It really makes them seem close when you can just call and visit whenever the time difference allows (I don't think they would appreciate a call right now since it is the middle of the night there).