A Success!!!

They sold pumpkins, gourds (lowering the price to 25 cents after talking it over), chocolate chip cookies and homemade coloring books and made $12.00! They are so excited to have $6.00 each, and have counted their money several times. From a parents point of view, they probably could have earned more if they hadn't gone off to play in the backyard after earning $8.00. (They were very satisfied with $4.00 each, thinking that was a ton of money.) The last bit of money came from neighborhood parents buying the cookies.

A Sleepover With Hanna

Off-Track

Despite the cold weather they had a plan: to sell homemade coloring books to the public. Due to the fact that all the other kids on the street are still in school and we don't get much traffic on our street anyway, sales have been non-existent. Spirits are not dampened though; today we shall add some 25 cent gourds to try and spark interest.

Hours of Free Entertainment

I love you, Mom and Dad.
This weekend I reread my now coverless copy of Daddy-Long-Legs. I love that book! If you haven't read it, please do. It makes me happy, happy, happy.

A Little More About Dance...

I happily sat down to do a post and there, sitting next to my computer, was my beloved old copy of Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (written in 1912) with its cover ripped off! Who did such a thing and then put it where they knew I'd see it? If I didn't have a sneaking suspicion that it was Emily, who will never answer for it, I'd wait until dinner tonight and then whip out the book demanding to know who committed the crime. Oh, the lack of justice.
Oh well.

Every time we take Maddie to dance class, Emily has to look at these two statues. She's especially intrigued by the bronze book--she always looks to see if there's anything in it, and also tries to close it for the girl. I wonder how it looks through her eyes...

A bit of Maddie's dance. (Maddie is in blue, and if you watch carefully at the beginning you can see Maddie's teacher dance through. The teacher dances beautifully, and I'm sad she'll only be there until December when she will be getting married and moving.)

Artsy Maddie

Commentary

Maddie Lost a Tooth!

Maddie lost her second tooth last night (maybe not so much "lost" as Darren yanked it out) and she says it feels so strange having a hole where her front tooth used to be. She was excited this morning when she found that the Tooth Fairy had visited sometime during the night and left her two whole dollars! (The Tooth Fairy only left $1.50 for the first tooth--that unpredictable lady.)

Dear Jordan,

Holy cow, after checking my e-mail now I know I made a good decision to not allow comments on my blog. Let me clarify--it is very cute how excited you are about the upcoming baby and really, I thought is was downright sensitive of you to try on a pregnancy tummy. And it was funny, in a good, happy way. So let's keep in mind that I am mostly a nice person, trying always to be better, and this blog is a "family scrapbook" if you will--where all things noteworthy should be written--and no more of this talk about "heads will roll". (Maybe you ought to make your blog private again; people who threaten to retaliate could possibly attract the wrong sort, always good to be careful.)
Your loving sister,
Tiffany

SEP Conferences

We went to SEP conferences today and both Maddie and Nicholas had excellent, almost perfect report cards. Darren and I are very proud of them. It's always great to hear how wonderful your kids are (even though we know it already) and it was good to see how much their teachers like them. It's okay to brag a little, right?

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

Yesterday my family met at Cafe Rio to celebrate Jordan's birthday. Since I left my camera sitting next to the computer, I didn't get any pictures of it. This is disappointing because after dinner and birthday cake, we went to Gateway to do a little shopping, in which Jordan became a little celebratory and tried on the pregnancy pillow tummy in the women's dressing room at Mimi Maternity. On second thought, maybe it's good I forgot my camera. But the idea of it is now forever documented here.

"In Each Century

since the beginning of the world wonderful things have been discovered. In the last century more amazing things were found out than in any century before. In this new century hundreds of things still more astounding will be brought to light. At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can't be done, then they see it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago. One of the few things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts--just mere thoughts--are as powerful as electric batteries--as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live."
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Read, Read, Read.

We have been reading non-stop the past two days. Maddie, Nicholas and I have been reading one chapter of The Secret Garden together each night since August. Nicholas has to take AR tests at school on the books he reads and had a goal to get 10 points. We thought he had until he went off track next Friday to do this, but found out Tuesday that he had until today. So we had a read-a-thon for two nights and finished the last nine chapters. Nicholas exceeded his AR goal after taking the test today, and ended the reporting period with 15 points. Great job, Nicholas! Emily loves books too, and though she doesn't read chapter books with us, she loves to go to story time at Barnes and Noble and the library.

A Song for Cindy

Oh where, oh where has Cindy's blog gone?
Oh where, oh where can it be?
With her tales of blueberries, bear and fish,
Oh where, oh where can it be?

Cindy--you know there's lots more of that kind of stuff rolling around in my head; save us all the heartache and start blogging! (Please.) (You know yours would be amazing.) (I mean, you already have a great title, for goodness sake.)

Emily Hiding in a Suitcase

They Won!!!

Nicholas' team won the game 28-26! Yay! Nicholas was happy (he said a prayer the night before that they would win their game, which had me as his mother worried, but once again child-like faith prevails over worry-prone mother).

More Bouncing...

Friday night ended up okay; we went back to the church for an Elder's Quorum party, and there was another fun bounce house. The kids were in heaven, two nights of fun in a row. I gave Emily a lecture about the dangers and evils of parking lots, and she seemed sufficiently sorry. All is well.

A Bad Mother Moment

Today we had the primary program practice from 2:00-3:30. Decided to put Emily down for a nap after, instead of before. Wrong choice. Alternate screaming and crying the last half hour. Went outside to the grassy area for pizza at the end, then time to go. Emily right next to me, stopped to talk to a mother, where did Emily go? Maddie, Nick and I split up to look for her among the hundred or so kids. Can't see her. Is she in the parking lot? Walk out on the asphalt and look behind the cars parked closest, look down to my van parked far away at the west end. No Emily, and she never goes in the road. Look for her again, fast, I'm starting to snap at the kids now, mothers turning to look, I want to yell "I can't find Emily" but don't. Keep looking, she's not under the tables, she not there. I turn around in I swear slow motion and look at the van, there's little Emily next to it, about twenty cars in between me and her, and it's time to go and those cars have been leaving. I'm so, so, so thankful she's safe.

School Carnival

Last night was the much looked forward to annual school carnival. In Maddie's words, "I wish this night didn't ever have to end." It's that exciting. The kids played games and bounced on the big blow up bouncy things. They didn't even have a treat, opting instead to spend their tickets on more games (and win more prizes).

Lunch

Yesterday I went out to lunch with my roommates from college, Stacy and Julie. I haven't seen them for over two years--it was a lot of fun. I was going to take a picture of them and kept putting it off until they were done eating, (for some silly reason I am embarrassed to take photos in restaurants; Darren took me to lunch at Market Street last week and I wanted to take a picture then too, but didn't, anyway...) I waited so long that I then forgot, but I will get one at Stacy's upcoming baby shower! Julie--be sure to bring the caboodle, the man-catching Subway shirt, and the awesome sunglasses. It's going to be a good picture. Stacy--your nursery was so nice!

Emily Singing

Emily entertained us all at dinner Sunday night with an original funny song about a hat. The song went on and on and on--here are a few seconds of it.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's on Sunday and stayed overnight--it's always fun to have a sleep over. Sunday night we had dinner, went for a long walk, and Natasha entertained my kids by reading them lots of stories. Monday, Jordan and Natasha watched Nicholas, Madison and Emily while Darren and I went four-wheeling with Mom and Dad up to Daniel's Summit, where we had a great lunch at the lodge. Thank you Jordan and Natasha and thank you Mom and Dad! We had a great time, and the scenery was beautiful. Later that evening we stopped at Mike's to visit them and Darren's parents and eat hot dogs. Darren's mom and dad also came to our house to see the chickens, which hopefully are going to start laying eggs later this month. Hopefully--and we can't wait for those eggs.

Great-Grandma believes in the "Gospel of the Clean Plate". I loved growing up next door to her and her farm (which included chickens). She's still growing strong at 93--or is it 94? I'm going to have to check on that.

This doesn't need any explanation--and really shouldn't be spoken of in the future.

Football Followed by Dinner

Yesterday Grandma, Grandpa, Jordan and Natasha drove to West Point to watch Nicholas' football game. It was fun having them there, and of course, Nicholas did a great job, as always. After the game, Grandma and Grandpa took everyone to Maddox for dinner. We love eating there--the kids call it the Frisbee place, because their kid's meal is served on a Frisbee, or else sometimes they call it the buffalo place, because not only can you have a buffalo burger for dinner, you can see a live buffalo or two or three out back.

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