Christmas 2007 pictures

One of my favorite Nativity scenes:

The present stash. Yes, that is a sword- the 3 oldest each got a sword and a wooden dagger, gifts from their dad :). He did blunt them, but still... My initial reaction was "Which one are you trying to kill off?!?"

Didn't get too many pics of this guy- he's gotten camera shy in the last year :)

Morgen's friend down the street gave all the kids a little present. Jared was teasing Morgen about her boyfriend, and this face was her response:

Myles loved the paper. The boxes attached to the paper were less popular :) This is his present from Rudolf [one of our family traditions: Rudolf leaves a present for the kids each year.] This year, the older ones got partially eaten chocolate oranges, and Myles got my broken cellphone.

My personal favorite [shirt from Norbys] as it completely captures this boy's personality:

The best of our family pics- trying to get 6 ppl to smile at the same time and all look at the same camera is tricky :)

Merry Christmas!

Some favorite Christmas pictures:

I did it again!

Okay, so I've had some terrible luck w/cellphones this year. LOL, a little over a year ago I lost my cellphone somewhere between my mom's house and ours. Mom looked all over her house and didn't find it; I searched our car and the ground around our house with no luck. We never found any parts in the road, and no charges showed up on our bill. Apparently, it got eaten :). So I had to replace it. But, it was almost 2 years from our initial contract signing, so it didn't cost me any money. However, I lost my phone again in June. And, again, could find no sign of it anywhere- not even calls made by the person who found it... But, thankfully, Jared had just replaced his phone [although he kept the old one], and hated his new phone. I had the Sprint store reprogram the phones, and spent no money ;).
Yesterday, while I was out running an errand, I called my mom. Phone worked fine, I put it in my pocket when I was done, and drove home. Pulled my phone out to make a call, and it was dead. Not turned off, but completely dead. Unresponsive. Jared got it to turn back on, but then the only keys that worked were 3, 6, 9, and "end". Not so good. LOL, of course, it went dead again, and I couldn't revive it. I thought I'd see if it could be fixed, but the repair place said the circuitboard was fried. ??Not really sure *how* that happened [maybe from small child putting phone in his mouth and drooling into it?]. Anyway, I now have my 4th phone in 13 months.
The non-working phone is the silver one. I'm thinking I'll keep it as a Myles toy. Or Jared could use it in one of his evil scientist set-ups.

And, just to make things more interesting, it started to snow about the same time I had to go pick up my un-fixable phone from the repair shop. Big, fluffy, wet flakes of snow. It was absolutely beautiful, and slightly terrifying to drive in. Jared encouraged me to take the Durango [4wd], and I was still slipping.
Of course, since I was already out in the snow, I decided to tempt fate and drive around more- to Barnes and Noble, and the grocery store. :)it made sense at the time...

Oh, the kids are out of school. They're pretty thrilled about it! I'm thinking they can spend tomorrow outside playing in the snow, and I'll try to clean up the house. :) Jared was working on a project, and the kids dragged all kinds of random things upstairs.

One last thing. Since my old phone is no longer speaking to anybody, I have no phone numbers. Please, please, call me [same phone #] and leave me a message so I know who called, and I can re-save your phone #. :)thank you :)

Gingerbread...

sidewalks?!?! :) so we're not quite traditional this year- didn't buy a kit, but did buy a whole lot of candy. Forgot to make gingerbread panels for houses, forgot to make "right" kind of frosting to stick graham crackers together with, ended up with flat panels of decorated graham crackers, and decided they looked like sidewalks. We won't win any awards for them, but they were fun and tasty to build!

grinning

I love this huge cheesy smile! I've been trying to capture it for a while- it's perfect w/those 4 teeth peeking out- but when he sees the camera he wants to touch it. I tricked him though ;)
I substituted another expensive electronic toy:
Yes, that is my cellphone. No, he hasn't broken it yet, but give him time :) And, since I let him play w/it once, he now believes it belongs to him, and wants to use it whenever he sees it. *sigh* Morgen was like that with our cordless phone. She wouldn't accept a toy one, she needed the real one.
Counting down to Christmas, our next outing is up to SLC to see the lights at Temple Square. :)

Brrr!

Well, I got my wish :)- it snowed all night last night, and most of today. And, due to the excessive amounts of wet, heavy snow, we were without power for about 8 hours! Seems like most of the Salt Lake Valley was w/out power for part of the day; at one point, the recorded message to update us on the status of restoring power said there were 19,000 people w/out power! That totally makes me grateful for all the power company employees, who had to work in that awful cold so I could have a nice, warm house tonight ;).
It was kind of an adventure- our house stayed pretty warm [we have a gas stove, and I made hot cocoa and grilled tuna sandwiches, and boiled water just to keep the unit on LOL]- the kids built a fort in the basement, and played "fox and geese" outside w/the neighbors. Jared surprised me and got home earlier than expected [Hooray!!!], and spent most of the day shoveling out other people's driveways and sidewalks. I wasn't worried- I knew we'd be fine :).
And tonight I am grateful that I don't have to burn wood to heat my house.

Snowing again

Last Saturday we got a lot of snow, and I was hoping it would stay around :). Yesterday and today, we were supposed to get more snow, but it was too warm for that, so we got rain instead :(. But it's snowing right now, again, and it's sticking!
I admit I'm easily amused LOL.

When we were driving down to get our tree, Morgen was singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." She sang "1... 2... 3... strikes you're out at the old ballgame..." then stopped and asked "so how many strikes is it in the *new* ballgame?"
That is such a Jared thing to say :)

The Golden Compass movie

If you've heard anything about the movie "The Golden Compass", and you have worries about it being anti-God, I'd suggest you check out this link. I don't actually know Albert Mohler, but was impressed with his thoughts and calm reaction.

:)I know, kind of random. I was up late because I couldn't sleep...

Oh Christmas tree...

that we chopped down ourselves! Yes we did.
Jared got home earlier on Friday than he expected. We'd been talking about getting our own tree for about a year- last December we thought about it, but the forest service had already sold all their permits by the time we got organized. This year, I got the info around Thanksgiving- where to go, which forests were off limits, how much the tag cost, etc. So we loaded the kids into our big blue Durango and set off for Fillmore, Utah. No, I didn't know where it was either. :) But if you drive south about 2 1/2 hours on the freeway, you'll see it. It took us about 3 hours to drive there, as it was raining [in the valley] or snowing [over the mountain pass] the entire way. But we made it, and paid our $10 for the tree permit, and got the list of rules. We stopped to get gas, and bought everybody a snack, then headed off into the forest. It was still snowing, of course, and we had to go further than 100 feet from the road to chop anything down. So we cruised the dirt roads, looking for promising clumps of trees. After about 30 minutes of driving, and hearing "Let's keep looking, but remember that spot in case we don't find anything further up", I mentioned that it was getting dark. Which it really was :). So we turned around and drove back to the [you guessed it!] first spot, then unloaded all 4 kids and trudged into the wet, snowy, dark, cold forest. Since I had Myles, I was a bit slow, but Walker and Morgen had the spotlight, and waited to show me one of their finds:


I saw a lot of beautiful evergreen trees. I found several that I liked, a lot, but I also discovered something: Jared is a tree snob! When he was a boy scout, one of their fundraisers was selling Christmas trees. And he'd go out w/his dad and the other scouts and pick the trees that they would cut down and transport back to town. He has a great eye, and I do like the tree he finally settled on :) I just found our conversation a bit silly:
me: "Oh, that's a pretty one!"
jared: "It's two trees- see how the trunk split?"
me: "That one's nice!"
jared: "Well, the trunk has a crook. Let's keep looking"
[are you seeing a pattern?]
me: "Hey, what about that one?"
jared: "Hmmm. The one side of the tree looks kind of sparse to me."
And on, and on.
It was really dark by now, and Myles was screaming because he wanted to get down and I wouldn't let him. Dark forest, slushy trail, steep drop-off next to the trail; I'm a horribly mean mother, don't you think? So Myles, Hyrum [who was shivering], and I all headed back to the car.
About 15 minutes later, Walker and Morgen returned. Walker was sulking [he had a conversation remarkably similar to mine with Jared] because "Dad didn't like my tree." We sat in the car with the heater turned on, warming up. Jared brought down his 'perfect tree,' which was pretty darn good-looking, and got it all wrapped and tied down to the top of the Durango. Then it was another 3-hour drive home, again in the still-falling snow/rain.

And now it's almost 9pm, and the kids are starving, so we ate and got them to bed, then Jared set up the tree for me. He left Saturday morning about 5:30am, for another trip, and will probably be home between 10 or 11pm next Saturday. But hey, he got the Christmas tree LOL!

Kim-chi chigye

Mmmmm! I made Kimchi soup [kimchi is a korean food, basically fermented pickled spicy cabbage- or sometimes they use other veggies] a few nights ago, and it is delicious!! It's hot and spicy, and perfect for those cold days when you need to be warmed from the inside out :). My kids weren't big fans, and since Jared's gone, I basically got the whole pot to myself. *sigh* perfect!

Born to Play

I took Thorunn's sketch and turned it sideways, so I could fit my wider photos.
Supply list:
EK Success Nostalgiques Burgundy paper, My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie "Adorable" polka dots and paisley papers, 7Gypsies circle journal stamp, Danelle Johnson Shotz Thoughtz Baby stickers, Magik Glitter silver glitter glue, American Crafts black pen, old tag, and Fiskers corner rounder.

Journaling:
9 Sept 2007
A week or so ago, I put Myles with the other boys to sleep at night. When I moved him into his new bed, I also moved all the toys from his old bed into the new one. His siblings had donated some things to keep him busy; it was pretty simple to see who gave what toy.
Walker gave this [fuzzy red dice]
& Morgen lent this [stuffed tiger]
this is Hyrum's idea of a good toy for Myles [nail]
NOW... which "toy" do you think Myles was playing with?
THE NAIL, of course!

Goodbye again

Today Jared left for another trip- he'll be home for about 16 hours Friday night to Saturday morning, then he's gone again. And, while I was feeling a bit sorry for myself [migraine headache + 3 noisy kids = terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day], I ran across a blog link on a site I surf for design ideas. Last week, this woman and her husband were in Italy celebrating their 10th anniversary. They have 3 kids, who stayed w/grandparents for the trip. Yesterday, she died. I guess there were complications with her cancer treatment. And I felt rather small for resenting, even a little bit, that my husband was sitting peacefully [my own interpretation, I know] in an airplane while I was wishing for a bit of truly quiet time. I know he'd rather be here. It's easy to believe that the grass is greener on his side of the fence, sometimes.
But we did have some good things happen today. While we were sitting in church, Hyrum pressed 2 of his fingers lightly against his ear, then turned to me and said, "Mom, I have to go save the day. But not till after church." I did manage not to giggle, but I'm afraid I had a totally inappropriate smile on my face :)

And I got pictures of Myles on the couch. See, he's too short to crawl onto couches or chairs. But he's come up with a way around that:
Of course he's terribly proud of himself, and he should be! At 14 months, he's figured out how to change his world. Hard to believe that one short year ago, he couldn't even roll over.

Thanks for

I am so thankful for my family! This year, at my parents', we had my family [with Jared- hooray!], Burke's family, Kyle & Emmeline, Joy, Alyson, my Grandpa, and my Uncle Scott. Also, Emmeline's sister Joni and her dog [which was a huge hit with the kids- Brooklyn is absolutely obsessed with animals]. Plenty of food, and plenty of time to relax and catch up on all the latest news.
Mmmmm. Lots of desserts, and a few fun games to play with family. We brought Ticket to Ride, and Kyle brought one by the same company called Shadows Over Camelot. They take at least an hour to play, but they're so worth it.

Burke and Amber, and some of my other siblings, hit all the Black Friday sales in search of the best bargains. Me? I'd rather be boiled in oil. Or have a root canal without anesthesia. We [minus Jared] played with cousins for a little bit longer, and snacked on the leftover pies, and wished we had enough room for all the great food my mom cooked. :)

There's a CD player in the living room, and the kids usually put on their CDs and dance and sing to it. Today, Hyrum decided it was time for Christmas music [NO! It's too early!] and we got serenaded about white Christmases, and Joy to the World. :) It is beautiful music, but I don't think I'm ready yet...

And I'm researching where and when we can go cut down our Christmas tree. :) But we're not decorating it until AFTER December 1st.

Tagging

*sigh* I was going to post a long rant about tagging, which seems to have started out like that cute little plant you got at the nursery last fall. You put it into your garden, hoping it would survive, and it turned into the ground cover from *#() and strangled all the other plants. Because so many of my friends have tagged me, I am now posting, once, 6 things about myself you may not know. Once. Never again :)

1. I have struggled with depression since elementary school.

2. I cry when I see cheesy movies, or cheesy commercials, or hear a cheesy song. Yet my favorite line from a movie right now is, "For so many reasons, ... No." * [anybody recognize this? I'll put the answer at the bottom of this post.]

3. I am the oldest child in my family. I am also the shortest. Well, Alyson is still shorter than I am, but she's only 9. And considering her head is already at my shoulders, I feel safe in saying that she, too, will become taller than me in just a few short years.

4. I hate being bad at anything; even things I think are stupid.

5. I love my children all the time. I like being around them a lot more as they grow out of the milk bottles and poopy diaper stage.

6. I married my husband for his sense of humor. And his cute butt ;)

Now, just to be different, I am not tagging anybody. So there.



* Templeton, the rat, in the movie "Charlotte's Web."

The other day...

on the way home from the gym, I was [as usual] only sort of listening to Hyrum. He likes to talk, and he talks a *lot*- just like Morgen ;P- Anyway, he was telling me all about his imaginary friends. [see? I was listening!] And he commented, very seriously,


"Yeah, it's a pretty good thing I have so many superhero friends. It's hard to save the day all by myself."







[I totally spit on my windshield when he said that ;) thank goodness water wipes off LOL]





Tonight at dinner, he announced, "I'm sure glad I didn't have to save the day today."

**just in case you were wondering, wearing a cape is not necessary on 'save the day' missions. Optional, and nice, but not necessary. Especially if you're in disguise.**


Now a random observation: a few years ago, Jared and I were in the car, waiting at an intersection, and we witnessed a circus trick: a woman who could drive an SUV, smoke, and talk on a cell phone ALL AT THE SAME TIME! For some reason, we both thought it was crazy funny and busted up laughing. But I figured it was a girl thing, to be talking, smoking and driving all at once.
Nope- yesterday, I was sitting at an intersection by myself, and watched a man make a left-hand turn into the lane next to my car. He was driving an SUV, pulling a trailer [with a mattress, box springs, washer, and dryer on it], talking on his cellphone, AND he was smoking. I'm calling Barnum and Bailey.

And they're off

Or, at least, gone. We sold the last puppy on Saturday. I'm relieved that he's going to a home where they'll take good care of him and make sure he hunts a lot. It was a lot of hard work to have 7 puppies, but they played together, and slept together, and it seems a bit lonely now without them.
And, in other news, Jared and I [on his 'day off'] got to attend the Veteran's Day Concert, held in the Jon M Huntsman Center on the University of Utah Campus. Jared was required to attend, part of his military job. But, it was a pretty good concert, and certainly an enjoyable one! And, in a weird sort of coincidence, the local high school's choir [there were some other schools there as well] participated, along with the military band. I have no idea what the band is called, but the participants come from most of the branches of the military. And apparently they travel around and perform all over. Anyway, they rocked ;)

I can't wait

For some reason, I love snow. Well, I love it as long as I don't *have* to be in it. I don't want to be in the snow when I have a time limit, because I love to relax and take my time and enjoy the slushy soft sounds of shoveling the driveway. And when that's finished, I get to come inside and make myself a nice cup of hot cocoa. Mmmm!


Today's list of favorites:
**hot cocoa
**fast, working internet
**the Container Store
**Ibuprofin [as a painkiller, it rocks!]
**telephones [since my husband is gone so much, it comes in handy]
**music
**cookies
**eating Halloween candy

and a good evening to you all ;)

Ack!!!

So, I submitted a LO to an online challenge, and *I won something*!!!!! I am still in shock- I went back and looked at all the other LOs, and I really cannot believe that I won!!! [and there are way too many exclamation points in this blog now]
*big grin and sore feet from jumping up and down*
:)

Belated Halloween photos

Well, I finished sewing costumes about 5 minutes before trick-or-treat time in our neighborhood. Then I sent them out w/Jared [Myles and I stayed home to pass out candy], and completely forgot to take pictures LOL. So today I sat them down, made them get their costumes back on, and snapped a few photos. Morgen is the red dragon, Hyrum is Peter Pan, Myles was a Lost Boy, and Walker was the crocodile from Peter Pan. He tried to talk Morgen into being Wendy, or Tiger Lily, or something else from that movie, but she wouldn't budge.
And, as you can see, the whole 'stay in one place for pictures' thing did not appeal to Myles. Being a Lost Boy, he felt, meant he needed to leave the other children and strike out on his own :) They made it home with full pumpkins, and collapsed into bed in sugar comas about an hour later. *sigh* It's good to be a kid!

In other news, Jared left today for Las Vegas. He gets to play 'evil genius scientist' down there again. And, we sold another puppy- only one left now :(

Jack'o'lanterns

Walker's into creepy things this year, hence the spider pumpkin. He chose the pattern, poked holes to trace it onto the pumpkin, and cut out the body and the spinnerets, and the front legs. He wanted help with the back 6 legs- they're pretty close together- so I cut those for him. Then Jared got his super spotlight so I could get some pics with the lights out.
Morgen wanted something scary, and this was the best pattern I could find that was also something she could cut out herself. Jared helped with the face, but the rest was all Morgen.
And this one is Hyrum's. He wanted a vampire, and I found a vampire bat [there are fangs, you just can't see them through the glare of Jared's super spotlight]. He poked holes to set the pattern in the pumpkin all by himself, then Jared helped him carve it out.
This is Myles' pumpkin, well, really it's mine, since I carved it and chose the pattern for the face LOL. But each of the kids has a pumpkin, so this is Myles'.
And he was obviously a huge help :)
The older 3 kids all helped to scoop the guts out of their pumpkins, and they saved most of the seeds. We cleaned them off and they're soaking in saltwater right now. Tonight or tomorrow, we'll roast them in the oven, and they'll be ready to eat. Mmmm!

And just a fun website for those of you who like power tools and fire. :)Yep, I'll bet you money that at least one of my kids will be making pumpkins like that next year. My favorite is the puking pumpkin.

LO challenge

for 'Gettin Sketchy'

list of supplies:
paper: Basic Grey, CI
paint: Delta
rub-ons: DCWV
chipboard: Maya Road
pen: American Crafts black marker
font: Air Conditioner
stamps: Hero Arts Vintage Alphabet
ribbon, brads, adhesive

knees, please

We have entered the final stage of babyhood: toddling. Myles is officially walking around now. Okay, it's a bit more of a drunken stagger at this point. Still, he is moving his body from point A to point B mostly on his feet. *sigh* And every time he makes it to his goal [usually a place he can hold onto and regain his balance] he breaks out in a gigantic grin.

Hooray!!!

Today, Jared got up much too early for normal people and met Wayne, Mike, and Mack over by Kamas, to hunt deer. The other 3 spent the night in a tent out there, and there were 3 inches of snow on top of it this morning. But, much to our mutual surprise and excitement, Jared shot a deer! On his first day out [WTG, honey], and it was a nice fat one. So, he got home this afternoon, and hung it up in the tree in our front yard. Then he skinned it [great anatomy lesson for the neighborhood kids, as well as our own] and started carving it up. The bulk of the carcass is now hanging in our tool shed, aging. Apparently that improves the flavor of the meat. I'm thinking if he just leaves the deer hanging in the tree till Halloween, we'll have an awesomely creepy decoration *and* the meat will have a chance to really age. :)

Jared's dad was here for a few days so he could go to a funeral. He left today, but he took the three oldest out for about 2 hours to play and eat lunch. :)

While I was driving to Walmart today, a big black dog crossed the street in front of my car *in the crosswalk.* And he stayed in the crosswalk across the entire 4-lane road LOL.

I heard somebody banging on the keyboard today, and went in to see who it was.

We got hit with a snowstorm this afternoon- put down about an inch in an hour. Then it cleared up for a bit, and now it's hailing. I think we're going to have nice cold weather for trick-or-treating again this year :)

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Jared- he's 34!!

free-falling

Myles is pretty fond of the outdoors; especially the dirt and rocks. He crawls around looking for disgusting things to put into his mouth :). Yesterday, I was outside with him, and Jared called. I turned my back on Myles while I was talking [first mistake], and he climbed our chain link fence. When I turned around, his feet were about 12 inches off the ground, and he was hanging by one hand. I got to him right as he fell. Luckily, he landed on his hands and knees, but his feelings were hurt.
He also had two teeth cut through his gums yesterday. I can still see one more tooth that is almost through, and I'm hoping once it emerges, my son's normally cheerful personality will emerge along with it.
Today's been not so good- Morgen's having difficulties with a piano piece [read: playing the same wrong note over and over, and crying when I stop her and correct her], and Walker stole some fruit snacks and lied to me when I caught him. *sigh* And it's raining, so I can't send them outside. When Cali's pups disobey her, she grabs them with her mouth and growls at them. Sometimes I feel like growling at my kids...

A beatiful place

to visit: Daybreak. They have about 45 model homes- basically a neighborhood of them- built by 10 different builders. And they're all decorated, and I *love* walking through them all. I went yesterday, and I think the people who work there are beginning to recognize me LOL. But I enjoy seeing the homes, and the decor, and imagining what it would be like to have a house with no scribbles on the walls :)
In other news, Jared took the puppies out to a gun/hunting range [has acreage you can run dogs around in to train them to hunt] and ran the 4 of them around. He took Hyrum with him, and they had a grand old time romping around :). The longer we have these pups, the harder it is to let them go to another family. Even if we trust that family to love and care for them like we would. *sniff*

Herding puppies

So, we've parted with three of our pups now- 3 still left, if you're interested in a fantastic bird dog to take with you on your search for pheasant/chukar/grouse. Anyway, Sunday morning Jared let Cali and the 4 remaining pups out in the backyard together [they've been separated from her so they'll be weaned]. Next thing I know, he's calling me over to the window, to watch Cali herd the puppies into their kennel. Then she jumped on top of the kennel to guard them. They would try to escape, and she'd herd them back inside. I think she's going to fire us as babysitters :), she noticed there were some missing...

Birthday Boy

We had an impromptu birthday party for Myles; my in-laws were up for a last-minute visit, to see us and to pick up their puppy, and Ryan and Julieanne came over for dinner to see them. Jared made cupcakes, and I picked up some ice cream on my way home from the Women's Conference I attended. Myles was a bit unsure about the cupcake at first, he poked it, and tasted it cautiously. Then Jared squirted some chocolate syrup on the cupcake, and Myles dug right in:
Since it was pretty late, and I took a lot of pictures, Myles got tired of the flash and staged a protest.
I had to share this picture- cleaning him up is always seen as a personal attack, although bathing is one of his favorite activities.
He did get some presents, but was completely uninterested in opening them that night. Sunday he played with the paper, and the toy that Gaileys gave him, and I got him a pair of pajamas with some of his birthday money. Not a terribly exciting birthday, but still fun :).

one down...

Jared's parents came up for a visit this weekend, and celebrated Myles' birthday with us. [I'll post pics of Myles' birthday later] This weekend we parted with one of our puppies. *sniff, sniff* Jared's dad took Blaze ?name subject to change? home on Sunday. While I'm happy to give him to a good home, and I know we'll see him a lot, it's still a bit sad to let him go.

Grandparenthood

I've decided that having puppies is a lot like being a grandparent. I'm not responsible for teaching them how to eat or use the bathroom, and I can give them back when I'm finished playing with them. Of course, I still need to feed them and supervise them when they're outside. And once we decide which puppy we're keeping, Jared will spend a few months training him/her to hunt birds. Actually, that looked fun- when he worked Cali he used a bird wing tied to a fishing pole. :)It's a lot of time and work, though.

The puppies' other "grandparents" came by tonight to choose out which of the pups they would be taking. That's their payment for letting us use Gage to get Cali pregnant. Hmmmm, maybe I should try that with my in-laws: ship off a child [the problem-making one, whichever that one is at the moment] as their "fee" for Jared getting me pregnant LOLOL! Okay, so they probably wouldn't go for it. Still...

Tall, taller, tallest

We went to the Utah State Fair recently, with a friend of ours. Checked out the children's farm thing, drove the "tractor" [really a tricycle], milked a pretend cow, and traded the 'produce' we collected for a treat. Here's Ben and Walker:
Morgen and Hyrum, who was too busy opening his treat to look up at the camera.
In other news, while Myles was screaming at me today, he let go of my pants and stood on his own. Oh, the screaming was because I torture him for fun. :)His two top teeth are coming in, poor thing!

random names

mostly because I was avoiding housework, and stumbled across this "naming game"

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car),
Cali Durango
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie),
Chocolate Pumpkin
3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name),
J-Gai
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),
Green Tiger
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born),
Lee Pasadena
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first),
Gai-Ja
7. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The" + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink),
The Blue Wassail
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers),
Sherm' Ellis
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy),
Sunflower Tootsie Roll
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ),
Ellis Giles
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter),
Ashton Anaheim
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).
September Calla Lily
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you're wearing right now + "ie" or "y")
Apple Sockie
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree),
Orange Juice Willow
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: ("The" + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + "Tour"),
The Scrapping Rain Tour

Boo!

Okay, actually this face was because I put him down to take a photo of his decorations.

According to Hyrum, Myles got the markers out of the desk drawer, took them all [6 colors, I think] downstairs, and colored his face, neck, arms, and hands. Oh, and there was one red dot where his cowlick is at the back of his head. What? You don't believe Myles did that? Well, then, buster, explain who *you* think would have done it. [now might be a good time to mention the similar marker-colored patterns on Hyrum's face and hands...] Anyway, this whole experience did not meet with Myles' approval, and he crawled up the stairs to me, screaming the whole way, to register his complaints. Whereupon his picture was taken, adding to his unhappiness, before he finally got the comfort he was seeking.

Baby toys

A week or so ago, we put Myles with the other boys to sleep at night. When I moved him into his new bed, I also moved all the toys from his old bed into the new one. His siblings had donated some items to keep him busy, and I managed to identify who went with which gift.

Walker gave this to Myles:

And this is what Morgen let Myles play with:

This is Hyrum's idea of a good toy for Myles:

Now, which toy do *you* think Myles was playing with? As a hint, it wasn't soft or furry. My darling child suffers from an iron deficit- thank goodness Hyrum was on-the-spot with a quick and effective treatment :).