Family Photo Shoot

Thank you to our good friend, Karly, for taking our family pictures. It sure is nice having talented friends.

To See What They Could See

 Clint took the 11-year-old Scouts to Antelope Island for a chilly and challenging hike. There was some doubts among the parents that the boys could make it to the top. And there was some whining from the boys, but when Clint asked them at the half-way point whether they wanted to continue or go down, they said, "Let's go to the top!" And they made it just fine. And they had no problem mowing through the 30 pounds of food they packed up. It was kind of pretty from the top,  in a desolate, salty kind of way.

Happy #14, Haley!

Thanksgiving at the McKays

The Tan Man

The Teens (and Hannah!)

The Samster

Jack and Ellie

The Gracious and ever generous hostess. The tables were lovely, with carefully thought out name tags. We adults sat in the perfectly quiet kitchen and enjoyed our meal. And would you believe that not one of us overindulged? Hardly any seconds were taken. I kid you not. I was so impressed. We all started our diets before the holidays.

Casey and Clint (a couple of the non-Mike/C-name brother-in-laws)

The young adults.

Look at Vicky's belly! There is someone in there!

The gent in the middle, Colton's friend, introduced himself as "Cowboy" and that is what we called him the whole time.

What we love about the McKay's house is that the kids can have their fun and the adults can have theirs. It's a busy house, but very easy on the ears.

Tracer up to no good.

As You Like It!

     I am thankful for talented people who make our kids education so rich. What a wonderful opportunity Talmage had to play an Officer in William Shakespeare's As You Like It. The woman who did it has been doing it for 15 years or so. She had it down to a science. All but the dress rehearsals were done before school, and only select kids were invited to each practice. I went one morning and there were kids in four different rooms being coached by parents on their scenes. The costumes were gorgeous, as you can see. The school has a room full of just Shakespeare costumes, The kids helped create the scenery and most impressive, they ran the light and sound for the shows.

     Talmage did not have a speaking part, but he had important things to do every time he was on stage. He helped haul off the wrestler who'd been knocked unconscious in a fight. He carried in the errant brothers cape and threw it on the ground and he brought in the lead character holding a knife to his throat--right down Tal's alley. He absolutely loved it and could not have been happier if he'd had the lead role. Several teachers and parents came to tell me how tickled they were to see how much Talmage was enjoying himself. One parent was sitting next to my friend and pointed to Talmage and said, "That is the cutest boy I have ever seen!" His Social Studies teacher, a friend of mine, said to him, "Talmage, do you look at yourself in the mirror and say, "Man, I'm good looking!" Talmage said, "Yeah." Tal has so many challenges, I think it's only fair that he's so handsome.

I loved how Talmage was always doing character business the whole time he was on stage.

He's been practicing this move for years.

The dancer in the foreground is Ballet West's Clara this year. Talent runs thick in the sugarhood.

Curtain call. I loved that he took off his hat with his bow. Such commitment. Such flair.

Tal loved his mustache so much he did not want to wash it off that night, or ever.

Peanut Gallery: Jenny, Mike, Sam, Cara, Jake, Ally, Tyson and the Cresaps.

Preschool Pow Wow

You know your preschool teacher is committed when she wears a dead animal skin on her head.

Trace and Jack played with his rain stick and drum all weekend. And Jack made himself a paper sack Indian vest to match Trace's.

Sam in the Wedding Singer

This is a bad picture, but the only one we have to prove that Sam's drama teacher really did give him a mullet for the part of the Wedding Singer's best friend. He was the best actor in the play. Not biased, he really was the funnest thing on stage. Awesome job,Samorino.

How I Got Through Election Night

     If you are on Facebook, or if you've talked to me anytime in the last 15 months, you already know I was obsessed with the election. It really ruled my life. I hoped Mitt through the primary and was somewhat amazed that he made it through that food fight. Then I hoped beyond hope that he'd win the general election. I had a hard time focusing on my tasks because I was so worried about the outcome. I had to search pretty hard on the internet to find a voice who believed he'd actually win, because it was always a long shot, I now realize. In the end, the popular vote was certainly not a slaughter, but he still lost. 

     So election night was not one of my favorite nights. Clint was in San Diego and I was home alone with the boys and the TV that gave the bad news pretty quickly. And that is why I was happy for the distraction,when Talmage came home celebrating that the 6th grade was now studying ancient Greece and he was on team Sparta, and I HAD  to make a flag for Sparta--NOW! We consulted our friend Google and found out the the Greek letter Lamda is thought to have been on Spartan flags, because the other name for Sparta is Lakedaimonian. I found in my felt supplies Tal's favorite color: green. He supplied the design and I dutifully sewed it up. Nothing like a little sewing to chase the political blues away. The teacher absolutely loved it.

     As for the election: I am sooooooooooo very grateful it is over. I have my life back and now I can occasionally read actual news, not just possibilities.

Don't Eat the Daffodils!

Late November I finally got around to cleaning out my flower beds. I spent half the day digging out some grass that had jumped the borders and ferreting out leaves from LAST year! We were spoiled for two years by a gardner paid for by our landlord. But for whatever reason that deal evaporated and so it was time for me to get the job done. As I dug I came across a lot of little wild green onions and in some places there were a lot of big ones. I started throwing them in a pile and thought I'd google it to see if they were safe to eat. I found out that if they smelled like onions, they were safe to eat. I found a great recipe for wild onion soup--ala French onion soup that had croutons and melted cheese on top. It looked and tasted DEEElish with just a little crunch! I even called Clint mid meal to tell him how scruptous my free gourmet meal was. Tal and Jack each tried a spoonful and got weirded out and left the rest of their bowls. Good thing because about 15 minutes later I felt horrible! My stomach hurt like crazy and I was nauseous and dizzy. That lasted for about 4 hours--plenty enough time for me to realize that I'd food poisoned myself. Then my sister Edith informed me that Tulips and daffodils are in the onion family and look very similiar to onions. I went back to Google images and found that what I'd been eating were daffodils! Apparently they've been mistaken for onions for centuries, I was just the latest victim. That was not a cheap meal! That was a $50 bowl of poison I concocted for myself. Sheesh! Don't eat the daffodils!

Halloween 2012

Cole was Steve from Minecraft. These heads were $50 each on Amazon. I made this myself with a  PDF I found on the internet. Cost: $2.50 each, plus many hours of work! Good thing for all the work, the boys wore their costumes three or four times. Here is Cole at the school Parade.

Tal was a minecraft creeper. Tal's bestest cousin Sam made the Creeper PDF for this one. It took him a couple of hours. Thank you, Sam! Here is Tal at our neighborhood party.

Jack going to a costume party of one of his class mates.

Tal with his minecraft diamond sword.

Jack is a Soccer Vampire. He said, "Mom, I'm the only Vampire Soccer player in my class!" I'm thinking the only one in the world. Remember his Irish Warrior costume? He has a gift for being ultra specific.

Trace, our little Frankenstein, had a Preschool costume parade and here he is at the Laird Park Halloween Party. I had so much fun making his costume. Felt, an old sweatshirt, old PJ bottoms and the zigzag stitch can take you far.

He only tolerated face paint for trick-or-treating.

Getting ready to Trick or Treat. We went on the Pulsiphers' street and the boys pulled in quite a haul!

Clint stayed home and frightened teenagers. We had fun carving pumpkins. Can you spot the Romney pumpkin?