Hypocrisy

So as I have left comments on blogs that I love, it drives me crazy to have the "prove you are not a robot" pop up.  Sometimes I don't even leave a comment because it is such a pain.  I always mumble under my breath about what an idiot that person must be to think they must take such stupid safety precautions.  Today while talking to my sister Emily she mentioned that I have the stupid "prove that you are not a robot" on my blog.  I am so embarrassed!  I am such an idiot!  I thought I was so great and those other people are so dumb.  I am so dumb!  So, sorry to everyone that thought of leaving a comment and didn't because you are not a robot and felt insulted by my blog making you prove you are not.  If it ever comes back will you please let me know immediately?  Thanks.

DeBry Halloween party

 The girls went as china girls.

 Jacob as spiderman

 Isaac as Tin tin

 James was the chef from Ratatoule

 Matthew as a hill billy

Saturday we had the DeBry Halloween party.  My mom knows how to party.  She had had a nasty cold before so my sisters and I divided up responsibilities.  Tina made the sugar cookies and the main course for dinner, Athena made a salad, and I brought a salad that accidentally got left in the fridge, apples for carmel apples, candy to munch on, and Cheetos or mummie fingers.  We accidentally grew pumpkins this year so we also provided the pumpkins.  It was a great time.  We missed the rest of the grandkids.  We came home to a cake on the door step for James.  He was asked to Sadie Hawkins.

Bridies birthday

We are so relieved to have Bridies birthday come and gone.  She has been asking "How many more days to my birthday?" for a very long time.  We started out with a small party at our house in the morning.  There little neighborhood preschool we do was to be at our house on Bridie's birthday so we decided to throw a birthday party.  Then we headed to the McDonalds playland for lunch.  On our way home we stopped by Wal Mart and bought her a bike for her birthday.  It is so cute.  I could not believe how cheap some things are.  A bike for $50?  Wow.  So then we came home and got ready for birthday party number 2 at 4 o'clock.  We played games and had a piñata for each party.  After the kids were delivered home we got in the car and drove to "the restaurant with the grapes" (Olive Garden) as Bridie calls it.  Dinner was so much fun.  I don't remember the last time I would call taking the family of 9 to a restaurant and calling it fun, but it was last night.  Gordon's parents stopped by and visited with us for a while.  We partied in true Bridie style- from sun up to sun down.  She has stopped asking about her birthday and now is wondering how many more days until Christmas:).

Family pictures

So we had family pictures taken conference weekend.  The problem was the only time we could do it was at 2 in the afternoon.  That is the worst time to get pictures.  They didn't turn out well at all.   Sunday we were all ready a little early (we do have church at 1) so I grabbed the kids and got some pictures that turned out pretty well.  James was sick so he has black circles under his eyes, oh well.  It was cloudy, which is perfect for taking pictures.  We still do not have a good family picture though.  After pictures was the primary program that I was in charge of.  Writing it is such a pain for me.  I spend hours writing it, putting songs in the right places, and thinking about who should get what part.  And then I have to pass out the parts and schedule practices.  This year has been really hard because I wanted to do it in October instead of November when we have done it in the past.  I just want to get it over with.  I hate dragging it out.  This year we had stake conference one Sunday, Brigham City temple dedication the next week, one week meeting together, and then general conference.  For our fist practice it was as if the kids had forgotten the songs we had spent all year learning.  Luckily it came back to them quickly.  The day of the program I wasn't nervous at all, until sacrament meeting started.  But it all went great and the kids were amazing.  No one used notes and they all went up when they were supposed to.  The congregation loved it which almost makes all my efforts worth it.

Dinnertime

Christmas Eve dinner.

I love making dinner most nights.  I love working in the kitchen as the kids come and go.  Usually I have a kid or two up at the bar doing homework and a bother practicing the piano.  Most nights one of the kids will join me in the preparations.  It is so much fun cooking with my kids.  Tonight James and Adaline helped cook and Matthew set the table.  It is incredible to have my kids grow up into such compitent adults.  We talked and laughed as we all made a part of dinner.  The past couple of nights dining has also been quite enjoyable.  We start with the oldest and they tell a "rose, bud, and thorn" that happened in their day.  A rose is something good, a thorn is something bad that happened to them that day, and a bud is something they are looking forward to.  It is nice to have all the kids talk and interact.  My older kids are old enough to joke and laugh.  It is so much fun.  Dinnertime is one of my favorite times of the day. Disclaimer- Sometimes it is my least favorite time of the day when kids are tired and crying and won't eat their food.  Then I wonder why I didn't just go through the drive through and save myself all the work.

Fall break

For Gordon and I being such uptight people, we are terrible at planning vacations.  Gordon had taken the time off from work but the Sunday night before fall break we still had no clue where we were going.  I am the "cruise director" in our family.  Gordon hates planning stuff like that.  So I had come up with a few ideas- Las Vegas (which Gordon shot down immediately), Great Basin Park (but it's at such a high elevation we figured it wouldn't be very fun or warm), or Boise to go to the temple open house and visit Mark.  We decided to go to Lagoon on Thursday, stop by Julia's for dinner, and stay at Mark and Malinda's Friday and Saturday.  Wednesday night we looked on Lagoon's website and they were closed Thursday.  So we had to scramble.  We ended up going bowling at BYU, ate at the cougar eat, saw the movie Hotel Transylvania, had dinner at Julia's, and then drove to Boise.  The next day we got up and the kids played and Gordon and I just relaxed.  It was so nice!  That afternoon Mark took off work and we went to the Idaho Aquarium.  Malinda has been working on a recording of church music so she was gone most the day for that.  Her recording is going to be incredible!  I love listening to her play!  So Mark, his kids, and my family went to the aquarium and a Halloween store next door.  The Halloween store was a highlight.  We went back to Mark and Malinda's house and had dinner.  It was so delicious.  Then we went to the Boise temple for the open house.  It was VIP week but Malinda's dad was an escort and they were told to have their families come that week.  It wasn't busy and they had great food after, not just cookies.  The temple has such a great feeling and I love letting my little kids go into the temple.  We went back to Mark's and the kids played in the hot tub and then we went them to bed so the adults could relax in the hot tub.  I think that was my favorite thing.  Just relaxing, talking with Mark and Malinda.   The next day we drove around and saw the site of the Meridian Temple and then drove out to Malinda's Mom and Dad's place.  That was fun.  They have a beautiful place!  We were sad to leave, but so glad we finally made it up there.  It's been along time since we visited.  It was time for a visit.  I had to be home for Sunday because I'm in charge of the primary program and we had a practice.  That went well thank goodness!

General conference

So the big news at General conference this year was the change in age for missionaries.  Boys can now go at 18 and girls at 19.  The change was announced at the Saturday morning session as I sat on our brown couch in our study.  I was shocked!  In an instant I lost one year with my sweet James.  As they announced the change I ran into our bedroom where Gordon was getting out of the shower.  He told me that he had heard about the change "somewhere" (aka- one of his patients must have mentioned it to him).  So I was the only one freaking out at our house.  James was at his region cross country meet.  He said everyone's cell phones started getting texts right after the announcement.  My feelings about the change are complex.  I know that the church is lead by a prophet and so I will do what is asked of me.  But I am a planner.  I had planned out the next 3 summers we have left with James so to have one less was a shock.  James and I have talked about what vacations and other things we need to do in the next year and a half.  He has taken up piano so that he could play on his mission.  He will practice with more focus now.  I am  glad he will go right after high school because I know too many boys that really screwed up their GPA's in college before they serve missions.  So that is a relief that James will start college with the maturity and discipline of a returned missionary.  I feel confident that James will be ready to serve.  He has been studying Preach My Gospel the past year and reading his scriptures every night.  I know he will be a great missionary!  As far as the girls changes, I have always felt strongly that a women's most important converts are her children so I feel a missionary for girls is not necessary.  I have felt like if they are not married by 21, education is more important for them than serving a mission.  With the change I know that most, if not all, my girls will serve.  I think that this will be of real benefit to my grandchildren's generation to have had their mothers serve missions.  It will be interesting to see how many girls go.  I feel more pressure to teach my children the gospel as they will serve at a younger age.  I know if I try my hardest, the Lord will make up the rest.

Cute kids

This picture was taken a long time ago.  But the only things that are different are the piano and the length of Eleanor's hair.

I am loving certain aspects of this school year.  James, Matthew and Adaline are so responsible.  They just take care of themselves.  And when they need help with homework, they go to their father for help- hehe.  Isaac gets himself off to school.  Usually he rides his bike with the neighbor kids.  Jacob is a struggle every morning.  I cannot get that kid going.  He will sit/lay around for at least 45 minutes.  He is late for school almost every day.  I finally told him today if he got himself ready for school by 8:45 a.m. ten times we could go to the toy store and he could pick out something.  And he was still late today.  And it was the first day.  Oh well.  Bridie told me today the she doesn't want to be a kid anymore, she wants to be a mom.  She also told me that when she grows up she wants to be either a librarian or a shopper (someone that works at the store).  She is such an adult.  I have great kids.  I am so lucky to be able to stay home with them!

My budding scientist

I've noticed that most of my blogs are about the younger kids.  I think that must be that I spend all day with them so I follow exactly what they are doing.  My older kids are gone most of the day.  Yesterday Matthew was up to his usual tricks.  He created hydrogen from water, salt, and batteries.  If you aren't familiar with hydrogen than you wouldn't know that hydrogen is flammable.  He would create hydrogen and then ignite it.  They did it over and over until I stopped it because it ruins the batteries and batteries are expensive.  Matthew is constantly doing science experiments, building and launching rockets, and researching more science experiments on the internet.  I just hope he doesn't hurt himself or burn down the house.

The girls did my hair

So the little girls did my hair today. Eleanor has a fascination with hair even though she won't let me touch hers.  I put up the fight to comb her hair on Sundays, but other than that it's just not worth it.