Nutcracker

Grandmummsie got tickets for the Nutcracker. Since Decca & Poppa Jeff bailed out, I got to go with them. I was surprised how cute it was and Riley was dazzled! She still has her program and calls it her "Nutcracker Book". I'm not sure if she is destined for ballet school but she loves to dance at home to the Nutcracker Suite.

Reasons to Skip School

A few days after his birthday, Hyrum had an appointment with our new dentist, Dr. Jared Johnson (a 2nd cousin to Poppa Jeff) to get his teeth pulled. I have a feeling it is the beginning of many years with orthodontists for our family....SIGH.

 

I don't know a lot about teeth, but apparently these are monster teeth. Hy did great. We went to McDonalds to get some ice cream for the boy, but he couldn't eat it because of the numbing stuff. Then the pain meds started to wear off and he was in PAIN. He screamed bloody murder almost the whole way home until we reached the turn off to Malta and suddenly he stopped. And although he hurt the rest of the day, it wasn't as bad. And he was pretty proud of his teeth.

 

They were sooo big, he got a $1.25 for each tooth from the tooth fairy.

 And then a little while after that, Hyrum got to leave school to watch the guys poor cement in front of the little white shed. He had been asking lots of questions about cement trucks since Karen Fowles got him a lego cement mixer for his "birthday" and so Ev thought "we can't let schooling get in the way of his education" and got him out of school. I don't think he was sad about leaving school for a little while.... ;)

Feeding the Moos

About a month ago, Ev load the family in the truck to get a "surprise." We went to our neighbors' dairy and got a little black bull calf. 2 or 3 days later, we did the same thing except it was brown. Why did we get the calves? According to Evan, it's for the kids. And for dog training. And maybe for eating. I told Ev, I couldn't eat a calf that was named.

 Introducing: Red Cowboy (Riley's brownish/reddish calf) & Rio (Hyrum's black calf).

 Ev & Hy used to have races to see who could get done first. That kind of ended with Hy freaking out. Especially when Riley beat Hy one day.

 It's fun to see the kids' personalities come out as they feed their calves. Hy: he knows it's cold, but he's got to do his work! He's gotta take care of his calf.

 Riley: HATES feeding calves. It's cold. It's so far to walk. The bottle is HEAVY. She wants to stay in the house in her nightgown. But once she's out there, it's all good. We occasionally threaten that we'll give "Red Cowboy" to Lins.

 Lins: as soon as someone even goes close to the door, she's putting on her boots. "Moo? Moo?" She follows the gang out there, taking her sweet time with her little legs. she gives the calves a handful of hay, pats them on the head, says "hi" to the dog and the kitty, and usually carries Riley's empty calf bottle back in the house.

I LOVE watching...sometimes I go out with everyone, sometimes I stay in and watch from the front window. But it always brings a smile to my face. Except for the one time Ev was gone for a week and I had to feed the calves (I definitely felt like Riley that week). I love these little things about my husband, my kids and my life! :)

Happy 7th B-day Si-rum!



Since Hyrum's birthday was on Sunday this year, we decided to give him his gift on Saturday. Riley got up with us to wake up Hyrum. She ran down the stairs and yelled, "Hyrum, there is a green bike for you!" Ev tried to shoosh her, but Hy had already heard.

 

 He was soooo excited anyway!

 We all went outside to try out the new bike. That evening we had Brooke & Zayne Bingham over to ride bikes with the kids. I think Hyrum's legs fell off that day from riding so much.

 On Hyrum's actual b-day, we had cake & icecream with cousins & grandparents.

 (Yes, I've made this cake before, but he requested it again!)

 I love Logan's arm around Hyrum as he blows out his candles.

 Birthday Spankin's!

 Riley is enjoying this WAYYYY too much

 

We love our Hyrum and the great big brother he is. He always wants to do what is right and has a desire to be like Jesus. He LOVES to be out working with the guys, especially his dad. Anytime we go do chores, he has a shovel, a rake or even a stick in his hands and he is "cleaning" something out. He isn't a huge fan of school, but he works hard at it. His current dream in life is to be a farmer and a firefighter (and occasionally other occupations jump in there as well). He likes girls, but he says that he doesn't like to talk about them because it makes him feel awkward. And he is so fun to watch movies or Duck Dynasty with because he starts to giggle and it makes everyone else giggle too! Love you, Hyrum :)



Enlightened Words



We had a little neighbor girl over to watch her and she told Hyrum that it is her aunt's last year for trick-or-treating.

Hy: Why?

Brooke:  Because she's going to be 12.

Me: A lot of kids stop going trick-or-treating when they are about 12.

Hy: Why? Is that what it says in the Book of Mormon?



Uncle "Si-rum", the little girl that didn't get dressed up, Riley the Witch Mermaid (who didn't have her witch's hat)

 

Riley was looking at the clock and said, "Look Mom, the big "finger" is pointing to the 4 and the little "finger" is pointing to the 8." She also calls the iPad game "Church Run" instead of "Temple Run" (temple as in "Temple of Doom" from Indiana Jones "temple")

 

 

Lindsay loves the song by Blake Shelton when it goes "red, red, red, red, redneck". I was trying to teach her more body parts and said, pointing to my neck, "Neck." She pointed to hers and said "red, red, red, red, redneck!"

 Sister Martinez, Hy, Lins, Ri, Sister Calero (our missionaries in Malta)

 

Hyrum and I were discussing if his teacher would be at school or if she was getting a substitute for the day.

Hy: "Yeah, she (the teacher) likes to hire moms who own a kid in her class."

 

Riley was outside feeding calves with Evan. "My heart is beeping so I can get warm!"

 

One especially hard and long day, I was loading the dishwasher and getting close to the end. One of the older kids needed me, so I went off to help them for a bit. When I got back, ALL of the dirty silverware was gone and Lindsay was wandering around. I looked in the sink, I looked on the floor and I COULD NOT find it!!! Finally I opened the silverware drawer. Lindsay had taken out all of the dirty silverware and put it away for me. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What a helper! :)

 

Lindsay had her little shopping cart and was pushing it around downstairs. I didn't really look at it until later, but she had 1 baby in the baby seat and two more dolls, headfirst in the basket--just like mom. There are so many kids now, that there is no room for food in the grocery cart. She really is the 3rd child.

 

And the most enlightening comment of all from Riley:

 

"Did you know dipping your pig in your egg hole is really good?"

 

Yeah, that one made Evan almost choke. Interpretation: she was eating her breakfast and "pig" means bacon. The "egg hole" is the yolk of the egg. So there you have it. :)

 





Harvesting Corn & Pumpkins

This year's corn crop looked so good and got so tall, we couldn't help but keep taking pics of it. It usually doesn't happen in Malta :)

 Morning of Harvest:

 Poor Hyrum was gone to school, so he missed out on the photo op. :(

 Dad, Evan & JC off to work for the day!

 About the only thing we grew this year were some pumpkins. It was fun watching Ev & the kids gather them.

Then, me, being the dutiful wife I am, forgot all about the pumpkins in the shed and we didn't even carve them for Halloween. Sigh. You win some, you lose some.

And just in case you didn't know that I was a nerd, I was all excited watching the choppers drive behind the house and had to get pictures so I could someday tell my grandkids about my glory days as a chopper operator...hehehe.



Irreverent fhe??



*The following are actual events, although they may or may not have happened at our last fhe:

 

We began by singing "HY on the mountain top".

 (Hyrum likes to wait for the school bus on this pile of dirt and then RUN down it to catch the bus)

 

Then Riley offered prayer and prayed that the big, bad wolf wouldn't blow down our house.

 

Evan gave the scripture about the beam in our own eye when we try to get out the mote of our neighbor's eye. Well, he had had a piece of metal that had rusted on his eye over the weekend and the optometrist had to scrape it out and then actually drilled to get the rust off of his eye...Ev is doing much better. But he also informed us that he can now look at everyone else's beams in their eyes because he got his mote out????

 

Then for the lesson, Ev got out our "Plan of Salvation" chart and Hyrum asked: "Are we learning about the 'Plan of Celebration'?" Yes, Hyrum. We are. :)

 

Finally, after all is done, we tuck the kids in and Hyrum tells us: "I'm not afraid of the dark; I'm just afraid of bad guys."

 

Our old fhe chart had seen better days.



 So when I asked Ev & the kids what our new theme should be, Ev suggested monkeys...and I thought it was perfect. Can you tell who is who?