Thankful for...

This girl and her sloth-loving heart. She literally said 2 minutes before that she didn't want anymore sloths then she saw this guy and begged for me to buy him.

That Scholastic republished "The Babysitters Club" books in their original glory.

These cards made by my cute kindergarteners for technician appreciation day. After they gave it to me they had to crowd around me and point to their drawing.

Modern orthodontia so my child's crossbite and underbite don't have to be a forever thing.

Sporting his new rapid pallet expander: his mouth buddy for the foreseeable future. Poor kid. It's been a big month for him.

They made this mold by waving a camera wand in his mouth.

My son's has a twisted sense of humor

 

"Pine Party Cereal. It's a pine tree in your mouth. It's teeth breaking. It's poison. It's not good. Do not eat."

Well-mannered teen boys that call me Mrs. Dye and permission to ask my daughter to the dance. (She said yes with a box of doughnuts-- "I 'donut' want to go with anyone but you")

 

That my house isn't this black box or the house built looking at it every day.

8-year-olds that now do their own laundry. He'll still need help but he's responsible to see it gets done.

My own not-so-little-anymore turkeys.

And that they mostly get along.

Cozy homes for thanksgiving feasts.

Good food and good family.

Pie walks. Exercise to make room for pie, of course.

Nature.

Living so close to all the family that I get to see (almost) everyone I love in one day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

James's baptism

James got baptized on Saturday! He has been so excited for months and could not wait for this day. He's been all smiles all week and he was extra all smiles all day.

 

He wore a shirt and tie for the first time. He didn't want to but I told him he had to.

There was another girl from our ward that was baptized too and even with taking turns in the relief society room, it went pretty quickly. My mom and Nadine did the music, Sarah gave the closing prayer, Henry and Erica were the witnesses and I just got to watch and soak it all in.

Of course his gang was there to support him.

Back at the house we served one of James's favorite meals, fettucine alfredo. We had about 30 friends and family there and it was so fun to get together and celebrate James.

 

I displayed some pictures of James from this last year and his baptism photos and his birthday interview.

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They are singing "hinges"

It was also George's birthday so we sang to him and James.

He opened a set of scriptures from us, birthday money from my parents and Harry Potter legos and the biggest box of goldfish crackers from Corey and Nadine.

I love this kid so much! He is so smart and clever and I'm so proud of him!

Later that night he and Calvin went to the BYU football game for George's birthday and didn't get home until 12:30! They weren't planning on staying for the whole game but the boys were into it and weren't too cold. He loved every minute!

James Turns 8

James is 8 and I'm okay with it. You'd think I'd be sad that my baby has hit such a major milestone but I haven't really been sad at all. James has been off and running, ready to go and grow up the moment he was born so I'm used to things coming fast and real with this kid.

We started his celebration off the night before his birthday at a local restaurant that serves Chinese and American food. Winners all around. James, Justin and I got Chinese, the other three kids all got burgers.

Complimentary cheese wontons for the birthday boy and his much loved orange chicken. They even sang to him in Chinese!

 

The next morning was Sunday so we had birthday breakfast without Justin. James requested that Henry make him pancakes. James style is no syrup, no nothing, not even a fork. Just pick it up and eat it. We also had chocolate milk and bacon.

At church he took Cosmic Brownies to share with his primary class. After church I began working on his cake while the kids played. Once it was all frosted I called him in to do the candles.

He requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in the shape of an 8. I made my grandma Syme's chocolate cake recipe and made a fudge frosting for the first time. It may be one of my favorite frostings ever.

Who does he look more like?

 

Once Justin got home it was time for presents!

I got all the snacks he asked for plus a few more. He got a watch, dominoes, a book, and a Life card game.

We had homemade macaroni and cheese, carrots, and peach fluffy salad. All things orange for my orange loving kid. Then we sang happy birthday and ate cake. Sarah wasn't feeling well so she missed out on this portion of the evening.

Since his baptism was the next week it was just us and he didn't seem to mind.

I love this kid.

A few things you may not know about James:

He loves school. He is always up and ready to go early.

He loves playing the piano. He never drags his feet about practicing and he will sit down and play just to play.

He was on this kick of creating his own cereals. They were gross and weird and totally funny. This is the back side of "Stinky Pete's Cereal" complete with word search, maze, and nutrition information.

He tells me he is so bored at school and doesn't learn anything. I believe it when it comes to math but I know he's learning stuff in science and social studies.

It is so hard to get him to try new foods or even just eat the regular things we have for dinner. He doesn't like eggs or cheese so I don't know what to do with him most of the time. Making his lunch is a struggle; I can see the stress and despair in his eyes as I suggest things to put in his lunch box. 

He will tackle Henry at any moment.

He loves Harry Potter, cribbage, Star Wars, chess, Legos. All the nerdy things. If he was old enough for Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragos he'd love that too.

He goes through spurts where all he wants to do is play with his friends for hours and hours and then he'll go days with no interest in playing whatsoever.

He does what's right. He's on time for stuff, he does his homework, knows all the answers in his primary class, he prepares his primary talks. He also fights me when it's time to take a bath and we have very different ideas of what a clean room looks like. And when he's wrestling with Henry he stops listening to me.

When I tucked him that night I told him being his mom was my favorite part of being alive and I hope we can keep this good thing going forever. He agreed. We love you James!

His birthday sheet:

Halloween 2024

After a lot of ideas and going back and forth, the littles finally settled on this year's costumes. James was a football player, but only for school, and Erica was Princess Buttercup again.

Cutest little littles that ever was.

I didn't go to the costume parade since I'd be to the school later for work. Erica's friend's mom sent me this photo. Erica looks cold and she confirmed that she was.

After school James changed into his second costume of the day and I got a picture of all of them. Sarah is the chipmunk Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks and Henry is a banana, obviously.

Henry loves his banana costume so much. Once they hit this age they get minimal help from me procuring a costume. I drove him to Walmart.

First stop was Nana and Papa's house. They always spoil them.

Then we went back home and the biggles left for friend's houses. It worked out so well that their friends lived across the street from each other and Sarah could drive. I took the littles around our block quickly while we waited for my sister and nephew came over as well as my mom so she could see their costumes. 

And then we were off! Justin stayed home to hand out candy. I'd been telling the primary kids for weeks that bishop was handing out full-size candy bars so I hoped we would get more than 4 trick or treaters like last year. There's a large newer subdivision south of us. A small part of it is in our ward so we hit up all those houses then we continued on. There are a lot of kids there so it's pretty hopping and I saw some kids from my class.

This house was decorated pretty spookily.

They hand out tubs of cotton candy.

This house had some great smoke going on. See, this is why I don't decorate for Halloween; I would feel the need to go all out.

We remembered last year a house that handed out fresh doughnuts out of their garage but we couldn't remember quite where the house was. Then we caught a whiff of doughnuts and we knew we were close. I managed to not eat any candy all day but of course had to have a doughnut.

 

With full buckets, tired feet, and itchy costumes we headed home. I was worried we would be cold but the kids layered underneath their costumes and did find. Once everyone was home we sent them all to bed. Henry made a huge haul with his friend while Sarah just hung out. I love trick-or-treating with my kids. Next year Erica will go with friends so I'll just have James.