Turkey Trot

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Salt Lake Arts Academy (the school the girls go to) always has a "Turkey Trot" race. Everyone participates by either walking or running 1.5 or 3 miles. As usual, Emmaline didn't take any of the practices with the running club very seriously. On Monday, she started to get worried realizing that, after last year, she had a reputation to maintain (she won first place last year). She asked if she could start running with me. After I told her that it was too late to train and she would only make herself more tired for the race, she decided to start lifting weights. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but she was a little self conscious after Savannah told her that lifting 3 lb. hand weights while tracing the alphabet in the air was the stupidest thing she had ever seen. Savannah, on the other hand, decided she wouldn't run the race, only walk it. She didn't want to "risk an injury so close to the soccer tournament". So with one speed demon, totally unprepared, and one lazy teenager- my expectations weren't high.
I began my usual slow pace, pushing 70 lbs. of boys and dragging one overweight dog with me. Imagine my surprise at the end.

They both won! Emmaline came in first for all girls and Savannah came in about 30 seconds after her. As far as prizes go, that meant Emmaline got first place for 6th grade girls and Savannah got 1st place for 8th grade girls.
Emmaline also won the contest for designing the shirt.


One girl commented that she guessed winning just "ran" in the family. Cute, and it made Oliver happy. He literally cried in the beginning because he couldn't believe that I was letting everyone pass us up!

The Thanksgiving Dilema

For Thanksgiving, we are going to St. George for Savannah's soccer tournament. Georgia offered to let Oliver or Emmaline stay with her to help lighten my load. Emmaline is having a difficult time deciding whether to come with us or stay with Georgia. To help her with this, she sent this email out to her friends. (I thought it was so funny, I had to post it.)

PLEASE READ AND SEND IN THOUGHTS
Dear great friends. I need help, because that's was friends are for. I need help deciding where I should go for Thanksgiving Break. St. George or my aunts house? You send in what you think .
St. George Pro's:
watch movies while driving
fun sleep-overs with good friend
lots of restaurants
family time
hot weather
gift shops
Aunt's House Pro's:
be spoiled
watch cable
fun back yard
snow time
shopping
sleep in a comfortable bed

SEND IN VOTES NOW
Thanks- Emmaline

Be spoiled? Georgia, she's got you all figured out.

If you ever wondered why I never got to choose anything in our house...

While Tyler is gone, I decided to get a little work done around the house. Seemed an easy enough task, until I have to do things like choose doorknobs. I finally decided to just bring home all the options and decide later. When he gets home he'll just appreciate having it done, right?

Say "Cheese"

Over the summer, I saw various blogs with adorable pictures posted of their children. I thought it wouldn't be overly ambitious to attempt the same- and use it as a Christmas card. Mexico seemed to provide the best setting. If only my kids would understand my wish of JUST ONCE having the perfect Christmas card. Tucker immediately went into the ocean at the beginning of the shoot and things just went from bad to worse.

If I was a little more secure, I think I would just send this one out.

It shows all of their personalities so well. Savannah, the teenager, couldn't be less interested. Emmaline, the model, with her picture perfect smile. Oliver, the mischeif maker, this is the funniest idea Mama has ever had. And Tucker. What to say about Tucker? I think his face says it all.

"Strong Guy" Meeting

When I went to pick Oliver up from kindergarten today, this boy runs up to the car, starts opening the door saying, "My Dad says I can come to the meeting," I hear Oliver on the playground yell to another boy, "Hey, lets go. It's time for the meeting." When they get to the car I ask what meeting they are talking about. Oliver explains that they are having a meeting at the studio. When I asked why we couldn't just have it at home he said the studio has places that look like where you meet and this was a meeting for "strong guys." So we headed to the studio.
They had fun running around, playing with tools and getting dirty. I could hardly snap a picture, they were in motion so much of the time.

Later, at our house I noticed that one of the boys was a little skiddish around Megan. Finally he asked me, "That's so weird that you have a coyote for a pet. Where do you even get one of those." I guess Oliver told him Megan was a coyote. What a rascal!

The Angel

Tucker loves all gadgets. You have to watch where you put anything down because he has figured out how to work lots of things. His favorite things are the girls' ipods. This morning, while I was cleaning the kitchen, he disassembled my computer. At first I thought it must have been Oliver since some screws were even undone, but no- it was Tucker. Luckily it still works!

His curly hair is very deceiving as well. It causes people to believe he is angelic. On Sunday, he spent the hour before church screaming at the top of his lungs. FOR AN HOUR!! After we got there, at least 3 people commented on what an angel he was. That of course didn't include the nursery leaders. They are very aware of his antics. He spent the first couple of Sundays laying face first on the ground, kicking his legs, flailing his arms and crying the entire time. The last 2 Sundays have gone much more smoothly but I don't think he's achieved angel status in their book, yet. We'll give them a few more weeks.

Just when you think you've got them all figured out...

Sorry to go on and on about the stomach flu- but that appears to be our life for now. Last night both Savannah and I were struck. I was changing a diaper, thinking about how awful it was that the two most competent individuals in the household were sick at the same time- when I called to Emmaline because I needed to take a quick trip to the toilet. I was so weak, it took me a while to make it back to the nursery and by the time I did, I found Tucker in his pajamas and in bed with Emmaline sitting beside him, reading to him. After I got Oliver to bed, I went to bed myself. Later, when I went to the bathroom, I could hear some animated discussion going on downstairs. I hurried down, expecting another argument since Savannah started one earlier by saying, "Thanks a lot Emmaline, for making us all throw up." Yes, she's a teenager and she's sweet like that.

What I found couldn't have been more opposite. Emmaline and Savannah were both in the bathroom. Savannah was spread out on the bath rug moaning, Sprite in hand. Emmaline was propped against the wall reading to her. She explained that Savannah didn't want to be in the bathroom being sick alone, so she came in to keep her company. Now that's love! Someday hopefully Savannah will remember it.

And that reminds me of another post that I wanted to write long ago about Emmaline. There is a little girl in our ward, about a year younger than Emmaline. She has some kind of degenerative disease that causes her to have mini-strokes all the time. She needs assistance to walk and cannot talk other than making one syllable noises and pointing. Emmaline always makes a point of trying to include her and talk to her and she in turn ADORES Emmaline. A while back, her teacher wrote a note to Emmaline to thank her. It read:

Emmaline,
I wanted to write and tell you how impressed I have been with you in Primary. I have watched you interact with Eliza Jane and have noticed how kind and loving you are towards her. She loves that you like to sit by her, help her out when needed and work together. I believe this is probably a highlight for her during Sharing Time. I just wanted you to know that your kindness does not go unnoticed; you will be blessed for having such a loving heart!

Emmaline has so many struggles, but things like this help me remember what's really important and give me faith that we are actually going to make it!

The head flu, the led flu

The kids waited a whole 3 days after Tyler left to get sick. Emmaline threw up last night and when I got Tucker up this morning he had thrown up at some point during the night. I got an email from the school secretary requesting that parents email teachers directly for missing assignments since 33 kids were home sick today. Since there are only a little over 200 kids at the school, that seems pretty huge. As we got ready for bed tonight, Oliver told me, "I think I'm getting sick. My head hurts so I'm pretty sure it's the head flu and the led flu." I guess he figures if we are going to make up crazy names like "Swine Flu," he might as well make some up that make sense to him. So it looks like I've got another night of laundry and Odo Ban.

I received several emails from people asking why and where Tyler is gone for three months. I thought I wrote that on my blog before... but I guess that was just the imaginary blog in my mind that I wrote it in. Come on, I know the rest of you slacker bloggers do that as well. You think up a whole really great post, then never get around to actually putting finger to keyboard.

Anyway, Tyler was asked to create designs for the decorative finishes in the LDS temple in Cebu, Philippines. I don't really know how to describe what he is doing other than to say it is a lot of gold leaf designs on the ceiling. All the fancy stuff up there. So now he and 3 of his guys are there to do the installation. They expect it to take about three months and won't be coming back until it is completed. That means they will miss Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. It will be hard for us, but it is a great opportunity for him and one I am sure he will thoroughly enjoy- especially since he gets to skip all the throwing up and freezing winter here!

Fortune Tellers

The kids got these out of there fortune cookies the other day. Crazy when they really apply, huh?!

He made it!

I've talked to Tyler twice tonight... on video chat. That's really the coolest thing ever. Makes him seem much less far away. Which can be bad. Tucker was so angry when we hung up! Anyway, they made it there without incident. He says the jet lag is not so bad, but the food is! Everything looks, smells and tastes a bit like canned dog food. Just what I was afraid of since he definitely does not have weight to lose. Oh well, hopefully he'll figure that out with time and the Marriott they are staying at is very clean. What an adventure! =)

Could I Have Some More, Please?!

The boys LOVE to wrestle. This morning was a wrestling marathon so they could save up for the months when Dad will be gone.

Don't you love Tucker's "more" sign? We think it's the cutest thing he knows how to do!!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween. The kids decided (on their own!) that they wanted to go "themed." Tucker was an octopus, Savannah was a mermaid, and Oliver was a dolphin. All easy costumes, so I was happy. We couldn't get a good picture because we had to have them sitting, but they were adorable.

One from the Ward Party.

Gavin came to trick-or-treat with us again. I think the pumpkin lanterns were his favorite! He didn't want to wear his mustache to go along with his costume. No problem, Tim and Tyler wore them instead.

VERY SCARY!!

There are a couple more cute pictures on Georgia's blog with Johhny. (All of mine were blurry!) One more thing I thought was funny, but forgot to add it to the last post. While we were carving, Oliver said, "Next time, I need you to get some of those tweeze things so we can tweeze my nose because this thing is stinky!"