Peek-a-boo!

Trace has started to play Peek-a-boo!

Or, maybe he just likes to put things on his head.

P.S. Can you see Cole and Jack wrestling in the background? It doesn't phase Trace.

Snow Day in Memphis

Clint wanted to be sure all you Utahns saw how little snow it takes to close the schools around here :). What a fun day! Home from school and the most convienent sledding hill ever. This is at the boys bus stop which has cement steps going up to a very small (about 6 graves) pre-Civil War cemetary that the developers found when putting in this subdivision. It's one of our favorite things about the neighborhood. So, it was a slide down, walk up the steps kind of sledding hill. A bunch of the neighborhood boys joined us (in the neighborhood there is one young girl and about 15 boys--it was meant for our family). It was great fun, but fairly short lived as we San Diegans didn't have decent boots, gloves or pants. Aunt Katie and cousin Luke came to enjoy the event. We had to enjoy it while we could--it may be the only sledding day of the season!

Bribery and some Doctrine

Tal and Cole came in from the school bus this afternoon mid-fight. Their stomping and caterwauling filled the whole house with good cheer. When Cole was calm enough to tattle he complained, "Tal was teasing me on the bus and then he shut the door in my face." I asked Talmage if this was true. Talmage "Yeah I did. But I slammed the door because I was afraid he was going to hurt me." Then he asked Cole to forgive him. Cole: garump ....mmmmrrr! Talmage: "If you forgive me I'll give you these Oreos." Cole: more whining and unintelligible grumbling. Talmage: "Cole please tell me so that I can hear you. Will you please forgive me. Besides, if you don't, you have the worse sin." Cole: O.K. I forgive you. Talmage: Thanks, Cole. Here are your cookies."

Tile by Kate and Caleb

This is a long overdue post to highlight what great guests Kate and Caleb were over Christmas. How many of your guests make house improvements for you? They have much experience and talent in the tile department. The lady at Lowes saw Kate taking me through the aisles and said, "You realize that the professionals will charge you $80 a square foot?" After three days I began to see why. Thanks for all the education and hard work guys. We LOVE it!!!

For Lego Geeks Only

This is what happens when Dad stays home from church. This started life as Cole's Mars Mission Land Crawler. I'm told it bears only a superficial resemblance to the original now. Clint rebuilt the entire chassis in order to incorporate rack and pinion steering and the Lego Power Functions motors and remote control components "Talmage and Cole" got for Christmas. As you can see there are LED headlights, power to make the wheels go and remote control via an IR transmitter/receiver. This took about 5 hours of tinkering. Version 1.0 was good for about half an hour before the gears in the rear differential exploded. Back to the drawing board. We're hoping to find some larger/stronger gears to buy from Lego.

A Touchy Subject

The other night Clint was helping Tal brush his teeth. You know, that supervised cleaning you do every week or so, just to make sure there's nothing living or crawling around in there. Clint was being patient, but thorough. Tal got mad. He YELLED at Clint, "You're mean, Dad! And you know what? You ARE going to snuggle with me now. Yep, you're DEFINITELY going to snuggle with me." We stifled the laughter, but Tal got his snuggle. And in a surprise development, Cole hollered down from the top bunk, "Hey! How come Tal always gets snuggle with you and I never do?" So he got a snuggle too. You have to understand when Cole was 2 he announced that he hated kisses and hugs. He still got his bed time hugs and kisses but only with extreme resistance. So we're glad he's coming over to the light side.
Snuggles are the main carrot on the stick for Tal. This school year Clint has taken over providing executive function for Talmage to get ready for school in the morning. This used to be extremely painful. "Tal take off your P.J's. Ok, Tal lift up your PJ shirt, take one arm out, now the other...Tal get off the floor, stand up..." Some mornings when Mom was less patient things could get loud and unpleasant. So I was grateful when Clint took over the routine. He's figured out that if he he lies on Talmage's bed, that keeps him from going back to sleep, and if Tal is quick about getting ready then he gets some snuggle time with Dad in his bed before they make it. And now, Cole gets to snuggle with Dad first, while Tal gets ready, then Tal gets his snuggle while Cole gets ready.
My newest philosophy is that boys are so physical (e.g. wrestling and hitting every minute of the day) because they have a higher need for physical touch. I'm trying to remember to give out more snuggles and tickles every day and hopefully we'll all have fewer bruises.

Inauguration Day

What were you doing the day Barack Obama was Inaugurated? I think that may be one of the questions that will be asked in the future. Our kids and grandkids will wonder what it felt like that day. I love it that I was living here in Memphis on that day. Trace, Jack and I spent five hours of the day as the only non-African Americans in an hospital waiting room watching inauguration festivities on the TV. It was awesome. I loved it. The comment that stuck with me was from an African American man in the crowds on the Mall. He said, “Until today I never felt like this country was ours too. Now I do.” Wow. That kills me. A whole race of people whose ancestors were here pre 1776 to feel that way! We still have a ways to go. Living here in Memphis I've encountered prejudice which Westerners believe was gone decades ago. I’m hoping Obama’s mere presence in the white house will encourage people to pull down some of those not so invisible walls that still segregate us.

Listening in Church

So I did sacrament meeting solo today because Clint had a whopper of a cold. Having the same cold, I should have been home too, but I know my 10-year-old students would have read their assignments and I needed to be there to give them their treats. The thought of wrassling three boys on my own used to shake me in my boots when Clint had his boots in Iraq. But now that we have four boys I think--no sweat. It was a stellar sacrament meeting for our family. Oh there was that first minute when pre-medication-setting-in Tal was running up and down the pew giggling till he hit his head and lost a shoe. And there was Jack hitting me and having to go out for not using his whisper voice. But it all pales in this wonderful moment. The Bishop got up and said, "Hello, I'm Bishop Canfield and blah, blah, blah..." Jack turned to me and said, "Mom, that's Bishop Canfield." That would be the first time I've ever had any indication my offspring have actually heard anything said in sacrament meeting. And that it came from my fourth-born, newbie sunbeam was all the more impressive to me. I'll bask in this moment and hope for good things to come, from all my guys.

Surprise Visit/ P.S. My Sister's Pyschic

We got a call from Clint's parents last weekend telling us they'd just bought an RV on Ebay and were flying into Wisconsin to pick it up and they'd be stopping by our house on Tuesday! No old fogies there-always something interesting/amusing going on when Cap Cresap is involved! We were thrilled to see them and sad to see them go so soon. The boys loved exploring the new rig--Jack calls it a "house truck."
On another note, check out my sister Vicky's comment on my last post:
"On an unrelated note, last night I dreamed I read a blog post about you going out and buying a motor home - there was a picture of you looking so regretful - and you only drove it as far as another dealership to sell it. So - don't buy a motor home! We miss you guys."
She knew nothing about this, of course. I was just getting ready to post these pics when I read her comment. Twilight zone.

Beset with Doctoring.

This is what our counter looked like this morning. Three of our boys are on antibiotics!

Since November I have gone to the doctor at MINIMUM 4 times a week, usually about 6 visits a week. I'd already filled the minimum quota by Tuesday of this week. Physical Therapy for my knee on Monday, Tuesday I took Talmage and Trace to the Pediatrician for ear infections and Jack to the cardiologist for a heart check-up.

In November we all (but Clint) had the pink eye. I had it for 11 days!! I started calling my Dad in Mexico because I was worried I'd permanently damaged my cornea and we were totally quarantined because people are really squimish about vampire eyes. That was a good two weeks of isolation. Then we started in on the ear infections--all four boys got one, Talmage and Trace are starting on round two of those. Enter that lovely barfy flu that hit all six of us in turn. We managed to have a wonderful Christmas inspite of the fact that we were barfing between present openings. Cole even had Scarlet Fever (scary). He felt so awful he chose the huge penicilian shot in the behind over oral meds because they told him he'd be better in a couple of days instead of a week.

I told the pediatrician LAST week that I had goals of becoming a stranger to her. No such luck.

I remember noticing that our friends the Merrills, who have six kids, seemed to never make it to church as an entire family. I guess these are the joys of a family with many young children. It just goes around and around. I just tell myself to imagine how bad it would be if we were unhealthy people!

Tal's First Best Friend, Jonathon.

I recently set my screensaver to a slideshow of every photo on my computer. It's pretty mezmorizing as it flashes from two days ago to 10 years ago to 5 months ago in a few seconds. This picture keeps coming up and it is so sweet. I had to post it for my friend, Taryn, who was one of our most cherished friends from San Diego.
This is October 2002.

The Girlies

Malan
Jane

My sister Kate and her family came to Memphis to spend Christmas with us! They came a couple days before Christmas and stayed with my brother Joey, then stayed at our house Christmas night through the New Year--just long enough that we really missed them when they left! The girls fit right in the our boys. Malan is super imaginative, like my boys, and she played with Talmage, Cole and Jack in turn. She was very good at facilitating a merging of their imaginitive worlds. Thus, they would play a family on a hunt for monsters. Jack and Jane quickly fell into a sibling relationship and "entertained" us with their squabbles. "I'm big!" "No, I'm big!" "Big!" "BIG!!!" These interchanges would continue till Jane delivered the rewarding screetch. If she didn't Jack would hit her and then she screetched. We really miss those cute girls, it seems like they might be hiding around a corner somewhere, but no. Guess we'll have to wait till their next visit.

The Hazards of Having 3 Older Brothers (and no hair)