I've Got a Little Mountain Fever

Bridal Veil Falls (a waterfall just minutes from my parents' home)

Mount Timpanogos

Sometimes I get homesick. I especially miss the mountains. Out my parents' living room window is a stunning view of Timp. I saw this photo today of Mount Timpanogos and it made me wish I was sitting in the living room laughing and joking with my family. I never realized how great it was having mountains in my backyard until I moved 2000 miles away from home. Growing up, I didn't think it was unique having a huge waterfall seven minutes away or hiking trails within minutes of my house or unbelievable views of canyons, valleys and craggy cliffs so close to home. I didn't appreciate being able to get to Sundance in fifteen minutes. I do now. Yes, I do now.

Don't get me wrong. . .we have many beauties here that rival Utah. We have forests, gorgeous wildflowers, great trails and even mountains (although they're like foothills to me.) But as far as I'm concerned, there's no match for the mountains of home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Three pretty princesses--I especially love Caitlin's lei, Rachel's shirt made out of a bandana, her irish step dancing-like hairpiece and Courtney's "puhple puhse" filled with her "stuff" That white puff next to Rachel is Sugar. She wanted to be in on the picture. Oh, now I see. . she actually wanted to eat whatever Caitlin had in her hand.
The table before the food and the kids entered the picture. I picked the greens, berries and old hydrangeas from the yard. I thought it looked Thanksgivingy but Rachel thought it looked Christmasy. Whatever--we had a centerpiece. The kids all blew out the candle together at the end of the meal. Better than fighting or having each kid blow it out (relighting it between blows). Yes, we've tried each technique. We really just need to have four candles!

See the broken crust and the hole on top!


Apparently it's finger-lickin' good!

I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving. Despite the fact that everyone in our entire house is sick, we still had a great day! Spencer has an ear infection and strep and everyone else has the never ending flu/cough thing. I've had it for three weeks and counting!

Yesterday, the girls got up at their usual ridiculously early hour: 5:30 a.m. Paul and I stayed in bed and listened to them run and around and giggle for a while. Keep in mind, it's still pitch dark. I'm not quite sure why they're waking up so early! I finally dragged myself out of bed to discover they'd had a little snack. A few tastes of pumpkin pie and a bit of crust from the apple pie. I didn't mind. After all, we only had our own little family to feed today so no big deal. But I thought it made a great picture!

Our dinner was divine. I made all the traditional food. The kids especially loved the homemade rolls and the green bean casserole (which has a bunch of mozzarella cheese and those fried onion thingees in it, need I say more?) Everything turned out great. The only casualty was the camera which fell off the counter and broke. Thus, no after pictures. Bummer! As usual, we shared what we were grateful for around the table. Spencer's one thing: the food. His favorite food is stuffing so Thanksgiving is definitely a great holiday for him. Yep, a way to my boy's heart is through his stomach, that's for sure.

Isn't there a band-aid for this kind of bleeding?

Yesterday as I was taking the clothes out of the dryer I realized the clothes had a pinkish hue to them including the formerly white collar of one of my newest shirts. Argh!

This is what I get for my "out of sight out of mind" wicked ways. On Saturday night, a guy from our ward called during the BYU game and asked if he could come over and watch the rest of the game with us. Well, of course, there was a quick pick-up in the family room. I noticed that one of the throws we have was full of leaves the kids had collected. So I gathered up the throw and stuck it in the laundry room, thinking I'd shake it out later. Oops! I remember wondering why the throw had to be washed when I put it in the washer as the reason it was in the laundry room was forgotten. I washed the load in cold water but it didn't matter--it bled and I didn't notice until I was folding the clothes! I also have a bunch of leaves mixed in with my dirty laundry now. Sometimes I only have myself to blame for a mess.

This and that. . .

Look at today's beautiful sunrise. The twins are waking up about 5:30 every morning so I get to see the sunrise everyday.

This is a picture I took this morning before the kids had their hair done (actually they still don't have their hair done)


Here's the little celebrities taking their bows at center stage!

Rachel and Lauren at the talent show. As you can tell, we were sitting in the back so we didn't disturb the other parents who were watching.




Don't you love those 80s styles? I feel like I'm going back to my junior high years when I see the dance outfits they picked out.

More back row pictures! Oh well. . . at least I attempted to take pictures!

Thursday was Rachel's big day--she and her friend Lauren danced in the school talent show. About 100 acts auditioned for the show and they selected around 20 to perform so it was an honor just to be in the show. They performed for the school during the day. When Rachel arrived home and I asked her how it went, she said, "It was like we were celebrities" because everyone congratulated them for a job well done and total strangers were complimenting them. She loved it! Ah, the joys of performing. . . ! That evening we took the entire family to watch the show. Aside from many fruitless attempts to keep Caitlin from dancing and singing along, we really enjoyed it. I was amazed at the talent exhibited.

After taking Rachel to basketball practice and to a friend's house for movie night, I settled in for what I thought would be another boring Friday night. But Paul came home with "Get Smart" from Blockbuster. We forgot how funny that movie is. We enjoyed having an "at home date" after the kids went to bed.

By Saturday, Paul was really getting sick again. He just can't shake the flu. . . probably because he has to keep working instead of resting. I am starting to get better but I'm still not completely over it. So we stayed home, cleaned the basement (it took four hours of non-stop cleaning) and watched the BYU-Utah game. Poor Max Hall, I feel bad for him--he really blew it. Thankfully, I missed five of the interceptions while I was putting the kids to bed so I didn't waste my energy getting upset. I really can't stand watching BYU play poorly. It truly messes with my emotions so when they start shooting themselves in the foot, I have to leave the room. Personal foul penalties particularly make me gasp in dismay. Anyway, after the game, I headed to the grocery store. By the time I got all the groceries stowed in their proper places, it was very late so I collapsed into bed.

Yesterday, Spencer told me he was not feeling well. I thought he was faking so he wouldn't have to go to church but suddenly his face turned a little green and he said "I have to throw up." I picked him up (ugh, he's heavy!) and ran him to the bathroom and let's just say his prediction was accurate. So Paul stayed home with him and they spent the day being sick together. I took the girls early in order to run through our choir number before our Sacrament Meeting performance. They did a nice job. Whew! Now we just have to get our Christmas stuff perfected. After the choir sang, one of my friends told me she loves to watch me conduct because it looks like a dance. Funny, I don't feel very graceful--my heart races and I am trying to remember each cut-off, to bring people in at the right time, to conduct the dynamics and not be so expansive that I hit the organ music stand. I once did that during a song and the big hymn book crashed onto the floor right during a quiet part of the performance.

I also taught the lesson in Relief Society. I love being a substitute teacher for any class. The Bishop won't call me to the be the 4th Sunday teacher because I have too many other callings but the Relief Society keeps asking me to teach that week. I've taught three out of the last four months. The lesson was on a perfect talk for our day, "We Will Not Yield, We Cannot Yield" by Elder Craig Zwick. Take a minute to read it if you haven't read it recently. It is so timely considering the attacks our church is experiencing at the moment so I was happy to be teaching it.

Choir practice went well yesterday. We are progressing well in our quest to learn our Christmas program music. We have nearly five of our songs learned. I was particularly pleased with the good turn-out. Let's hope it continues as we get closer to Christmas.

I am the luckiest!

Yesterday as we were driving Rachel to basketball practice, Spencer and I had the following conversation:

Spencer: "Mommy, why are you older than all your brothers?"

Me: "Because I'm the oldest kid in my family. Just like Rachel's the oldest child in our family. I'm the firstborn."

Spencer: "Ah, you're the firstborn. You are the luckiest one in your family! You have had the most birthdays!"

I guess I am the luckiest kid in my family! To Spencer, birthdays=presents. I never looked at being the oldest (aging) kid in my family as the luckiest. Kids remind us our lives are pretty awesome.

Vacuuming and painting the carpet.

Yesterday or two days ago, (I don't remember which. . . the days all run together) the twins were playing in the basement and I was vacuuming the stairs to the second floor. I thought to myself, "Wow, if the kids stay in the basement playing with toys all morning, I can really get a lot of housework done!" Suddenly, Caitlin ran up the stairs with brown paint all over her foot, leaving footprints all the way up the basement stairs. She said, "I have to wash my foot. I got paint on it." I, of course, panicked and ran down to the basement to find acrylic craft paint squeezed out in puddles in several places on the basement carpet. Well, Caitlin, Courtney and I scrubbed and cleaned and scrubbed and cleaned some more and we thought it looked a lot better. I then left it, feeling like I had gotten most of it off the floor. I guess it looked better compared with how it started out but when I went back to the basement later that evening, I realized it still looked absolutely horrible! It will not come out! I haven't used that craft paint for about 6 years. Why, oh why did I keep it in the top cupboard of the basement kitchenette? I had forgotten all about it. On the bright side, my stairs to the second floor got vacuumed while my kids were playing so happily and quietly albeit destructively.

I was recently tagged by Anissa to post my fourth picture in my fourth picture folder. Here it is! This is Spencer when he was about 2 months old. He was laying on a pillow in the Marriott Hotel where we were staying during a trip to Washington D.C. to attend the temple. He was such a cute baby! Most of my friends have done this already so if you haven't, consider yourself tagged.

Sunday is over again? Awwww :-( The weekend goes by way too fast! It was a good one. Poor Paul's been sick with the same thing I've had for more than a week and he's pretty miserable. Despite that, he rented a trailer on Saturday, hired a kid from my ward and collected all the dead stuff from the garden, tree limbs, etc. and took it to the township yard waste place and dumped it. . . all in the pouring rain. My guy is such a hard worker! He then went to the doctor.

I went to a wedding shower on Saturday, watched the awesome BYU game and went grocery shopping very late Saturday night. It was a good day.

It was the primary program today, always a highlight of the year. Spencer and Rachel did a great job saying their parts. Rachel also played her violin and she did a terrific job. It was fun to watch Spencer on the stand. He made it known to me and everyone else by his facial expressions that he was bored. But he hung in there and made it through sacrament meeting without causing any disruptions. He even sang most of the songs or at least pretended to. He's not a fan of singing even though he has a nice voice. He was pretty disappointed that he still had to go to primary when it was over. He thought church was over for the day and was ready to head for home after sacrament meeting.

Today I had the fun opportunity of teaching the 16-18 year olds in Sunday School with no notice. It actually turned out to be a pretty good lesson despite having no preparation time. We talked about the pride cycle and some chapters in Helaman. Once again, I was reminded how much the book of Helaman is like our time. The wicked judges, the secret combinations, etc. I emphasized being steadfast and immovable and lifting each other up so we can face today's world. The kids were all participating and commenting so it made things a lot easier.

Relief Society was about the second coming. I have been thinking about the second coming a lot lately. I often wonder if people are recognizing the signs of the times. It made me more determined to be ready to see the Savior and to help fortify my family to keep them strong despite the wickedness all around us. There are so many things I can do better as a mom and personally so I just need to start each day fresh and not waste the time I have.

Choir practice went very well today even though we didn't have that many people there. We just keep going, going, going and pretty soon, we have music learned. Today was one of those great days when a couple of our Christmas songs began sounding really good. It made me feel more confident that we will get everything learned in time for Christmas.

And now I must head to bed. Hopefully, we will all wake up tomorrow with no more coughing!

A new definition for Kerri

Today Courtney and Caitlin were pretending that Caitlin was the Mommy and Courtney was the baby. Courtney came up to me and said, "You're Kerri, okay? That means Mommy in Spanish." I thought it was pretty funny!

Yes, I'm still here!

Okay--so I haven't written in a week. I've been sick for 8 days if that's any excuse but I've still been doing all the required mommy jobs during this time so I guess it was the blog that had to go. There's been some great things that happened this week. Here are some highlights:

1. Rachel and I went to see High School Musical 3 with my friend and her two daughters. It was a fun Saturday evening activity even though I missed an important part of it when I stepped out during a coughing attack.
2. I went to Spencer's parent-teacher conference on Monday. . .and hooray, he's doing great! Miss Smith had nothing but good things to say about him. Yes, Yes, Yes! My favorite quote of the conference was, "He's so mellow." If you would have told me this would be my first kindergarten conference two years ago, I would have never believed it! He has gotten more mellow with age.
3. Way to go Rachel! Her report card arrived yesterday--all wonderful grades as usual. I guess she's getting the hang of middle school.
4. All four of my bathrooms are clean today! That's a big deal, at least to me. We'll see how long it lasts.
5. I had some friends over yesterday to hang out, scrapbook, knit, crochet or whatever (mostly to chat and eat lunch together.) It was so much fun!
6. I just finished cleaning up the eight tortillas the twins just ripped up and tossed around the main floor for fun while I was typing numbers 1-5. They were "feeding them to Sugar" (who obviously couldn't eat them all!) And, as an added benefit, my floor is now swept!

Now, on to the laundry mountain. It took me four trips to get it all downstairs so you can imagine how long it's going to take to get it all clean! Wish me luck.

For a good laugh, click here!

This is absolutely hilarious. If you want to spend a couple of minutes laughing like crazy, watch this ward talent show spoof on synchronized swimming http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f86qKQJg3Z8

Pictures from last week

Spencer wouldn't pose for a Halloween picture so here's a ship he made today out of Legos.

He's really an outstanding lego builder.

My Halloween Beauties



Rachel's entire costume

Isn't that tree a perfect background?

The kids had a preschool parade with goblin costumes they painted and made themselves. This is Courtney.

Here's Caitlin (center)

Candy, Candy Everywhere, Busy Days, and an Answered Prayer

These are a couple of pictures of the quiet book I worked on the ENTIRE Super Saturday at church.

We had a great weekend. Friday, of course, was Halloween with all its busyness and fun. Then Caitlin was up practically all night with a cough so by Saturday morning, we were a little exhausted. Alas, there is no rest for the weary. . .Rachel had two soccer games beginning at 8 a.m. After the second game, I started looking for my cell phone. Rachel had borrowed my jacket because she was cold and it fell out of the pocket. By this time, we had been to two soccer locations (including one where about 10 games were going on) and the grocery store to buy apples for the food tent. I backtracked everywhere except the grocery store in an attempt to find the phone to no avail. I was really concerned because it would be the second phone that I lost. We just barely found the one that went missing at the beginning of the summer in the backyard in the bottom of a doll stroller (thanks Caitlin!) So I prayed that it would be found and someone would call us.

Feeling quite dejected after fruitless frantic searching, I headed for the Relief Society Super Saturday. When I got there, I called Paul who told me that someone at the grocery store heard the phone ringing in the parking lot and turned it in to customer service. What a relief! I'm so glad the person took the time to call and let us know they had found it. The Lord does answer prayers.

At the Super Saturday, I spent the entire time assembling a busy book. Unfortunately, I didn't complete it and neither did anyone else. Even though I was warned that it would take longer than the Super Saturday, I felt confident that I could finish it and even do another project. Wrong! I do not like having unfinished projects sitting around so I'm going to have to put it where I can't see it or I'll go insane. We aren't getting together to work on them again until December. I worked furiously but I'm still one page short and need to sew it all together. On the bright side, it is cute. My friends, Tammy and Grace, felt sorry for me because I didn't get to do my other project so they made my Christmas centerpiece for me. I'm sure it turned out better than it would have had I made it. Aren't they the best ever? I do have such sweet friends.

After I left the church, I took Rachel to her last game of the day which ended in a tie--the second one of the day--at least they didn't lose. We came home, she changed and I took her to watch her friends Lauren and Gina perform in a play at their church (St. John's Lutheran.) They did such a great job! The musical was called "Malice in the Palace" and it was the story of Esther. It was performed by kids from about age 5 to probably 16. The girl who played Esther is 11 years old and her voice was absolutely stunning. I have never heard such a gorgeous voice on a girl so young. I was impressed with the performance of all the children. The message of courageously standing for the right even when facing opposition (and even death) is an excellent one for all of us, but especially for kids today.

I stopped at Walmart on the way home from the play to buy groceries. Of course, I walked out of there with a lot more what I planned to buy. I can't get out of Walmart without spending a ton of money. I always find things that I never knew that I absolutely need! I can't believe how many people shop at Walmart at 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night. The lines were ridiculous. When I got home, Paul relayed a message reminding me I was supposed to go into YW and help them learn a song I arranged for YW in Excellence. They asked me to arrange a medley of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "I am Like a Star." I did my best. I haven't really done much arranging but I came up with a very simple arrangement and added some different lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." However, I never actually wrote the music down so I had to get it notated before church. I was too tired that night so I set the alarm for 4 a.m. When I peeled my eyes open in pitch dark morning, I found a notation program on the internet and got it printed in time for church. It's not perfect and I don't know how to fix it but the gist of it was there for the girls to practice. After a great day at church, I was wiped out.

Wouldn't you know that Rachel would miss the bus today? It's good she did or we wouldn't have heard this cute oxymoron from Spencer as we were all shivering in the cold car on the way to Rachel's school. "Hurry Mom, turn on the hot air conditioning!" Rachel and I kept giggling about it the whole way to school.