Success!

After a decent night of sleep and eating three consecutive meals for the first time in a week, I am happy to announce that the Buckaroo Banquet (Blue and Gold) and Cowboy Chili Cookoff last night was a huge success all around! Like I said in my last post, I have been in charge of this 3 times and the third time truly is the charm.  I got some great advice from my friend Karen Tibbitts while in the pre-planning stages( which means I was thinking about it but nobody else was).  She told me to involve the entire ward in ways that would make them feel needed and want to come.  She suggested a chili cookoff.  It was such a great idea that the cub scout committee, aka the leaders, all agreed right away when I made the suggestion to them.  We had 16 pots of chili and 17 people brought rolls or cornbread. I'm pretty sure the bishopric enjoyed their task of judging.  The kitchen, where the judging took place, was swirling with a spicy chili aroma. 
After the judging was complete, everybody got busy chowing down.  I made a white chicken chili, which I named Cowboy Chicken Chili, and it was really popular.  To be honest, I was secretly, and now publicly, very pleased that people liked my chili since I made something so unusual.  I thought maybe purists would turn up their noses, but my 7 quart crockpot was full when I brought it and empty when I brought it home.  And my mother picked my chili to eat, not knowing it was mine. 

I called my cake Princess Mania

I found these cute princess dolls at the Dollar Store

My girls really wanted me to buy this cake, and Grandpa
almost bought it for them, but once it got up to $45 I
told him to stop bidding . I can make another one,
when the fatigue from this one wears off.

Timothy wanted to make a train for his cake

He had a lot of fun making windows and putting on all
the candy for decorations.

"My daddy bought me a nerds cake because they are small and can't choke me.
I love my daddy!"

Tiburon selling Cooper's cake

Bonita's cake

my mom's cake

Jackson's cake

Caleb's cake

Emily's cake

Tiburon's cupcakes

He took judging very seriously :)

Before dinner the kids all enjoyed making cowboy beaded pin crafts and creating wanted posters, and especially viewing all of the amazing cakes that cubscouts and leaders brought to auction off.  We had 22 cakes.  I didn't get a chance to snap photos of all of them ,but I'm going to post the ones that I did manage to capture.  They were all wonderful!  And we raised about $675 selling them.  That was probably the best part of the night because it was when I got to see everyone's hard work pay off.  We made a huge publicity effort for this event with announcements, invitations, and flyers.  We asked Brother Riggs, who has professional auctioneer skills, to run the cake auction.  We had made our best effort to get people there with the different assignments and the allure of three amazing aprons made by Bonita Buckingham for the chili prizes.  AND IT ACTUALLY WORKED.  I'm really still in shock.  I'm so used to things not working out that I couldn't believe it when the cultural hall just filled up with people, and filled with people who have no current affiliation with Cub Scouts.  We had young, we had old, we had grandmas and grandpas, we had friends and neighbors who are not LDS.  It was awesome!  And it made it all worth it.  And that is what brings me to explain my earlier comment about the cake auction.  A lot of us worked really hard making more than one cake to sell.  In past years, every single family ended up buying one or more cakes because other people didn't come to the Blue and Gold Banquet.  So, we would all make one or two cakes and then spend $40-$60 or more buying two cakes.  It seemed a little bit ridiculous to me.  I didn't like the idea of people feeling obligated to purchase a cake.  Last night, I really felt like nobody felt pressured to buy one.  We had so many people there.  There were people who chose to buy more than one cake, but there were also people who bid on cakes and didn't end up buying one in the end.  And the bidding for the last cake was intense.  It ended up being sold to a group of four families for $68! I was so touched by all of the ward members who came and the several families who bought two cakes and supported our cub scouts.  I know it's kind of sappy of me, but it made me cry.  The whole thing made me cry.  All of my leaders showed up to set up Thursday night and they all showed up Friday and worked really hard to pull off a super event.  I even got to sit down for a little while and eat dinner without anyone needing me.  And the only thing I forgot was the salt and pepper :) Here are some photos.  Unfortunately, many of them turned out somewhat blurry.

Buckaroo Banquet

Four years ago we moved into our house.  This is the longest we've ever lived in one place and the longest I've ever held a calling.  Well, technically I was a Bear leader first and then later I became the Cubmaster, but I've been in Cubscouts for almost 4 years now. Tomorrow night we will be having the annual birthday party for scouting, otherwise known as the Blue and Gold Banquet.  This is the biggest pack meeting of the year.  We have a dinner.  We have a cake auction.  We have activities.  We invite the entire ward.  We have panic attacks.  So, I thought that while I have a few minutes, thanks to my sweet visiting teacher who is bringing my family dinner tonight, I will engage in the therapy of writing.   Maybe she knew it was going to be "fend for yourself night" again for the 4th night in a row.  Anyway, this is the 3rd Blue and Gold Banquet that I have had the "pleasure" of being in charge of.  May it be the last.  There's nothing like a little power to help you realize that being a peon can be a lot more fun. 

This is what I have done to get ready for this night:
-scheduled the church
-held a planning meeting with the other 6 amazing leaders who are putting this on.
-Delegated, delegated, delegated. Other people got the announcement in the bulletin, sewed aprons as prizes for the chili cookoff, made sign up sheets, made invitations, made flyers, got judges, got an auctioneer, bought tablecloths, put together centerpieces, called people, went shopping for food, arranged for paper products, designed wanted posters,etc. .  .
-created two adorable posters, using only the things I had in my house.  This involved employing my husband's artistic abilities and one long Sunday when we were all home sick with pink eye.  I think it took about 6 hours, or roughly the length of Pride and Prejudice, which we watched while crafting. 
-printed up certificates for the chili winners and the wanted poster winners
-bought a new calligraphy marker and filled out those certificates
-spent way too much time and money and brain power preparing to make and decorate two cakes for the auction
-bought stuff for chili.  Pre prepared as much as possible.
-bought some tablecloths
-had fun shopping at Oriental Trading company for crafts
-did not have fun putting together 7 dozen of the crafts. I never want to see another foam cowboy again.
-got the awards list, convinced my husband to go buy them since I got a ticket the last time I drove down that road.
-found someone to add some western flair decorations to the room
-filled out the award cards and prepared the treat box
-made sure the church has enough ladles, tables, and a working microphone
-prepared an envelope to receive the cake auction money
-prepared judging sheets and clipboards
-prepared cards for chili entries
-prepared cards for cakes
-rounded up crayons, markers, scissors, thumb tacks, a stapler, pens and pencils
-made a schedule for the night
-scrounged the scout closet for extra decorations
-delivered the flyers with another leader and our awesome kids!
-made several heartfelt and cheesy announcements at church
-thought a lot
-had some mini panic attacks

Here's one of the poster. Be kind.  I am not crafty by nature, do not have a color printer, and remember I made this all from whatever I could find in my house.

And during all this fun, in the week leading up the the big night my glasses were broken and I had to have an emergency eye visit and contacts.  I hate contacts.  They bother my eyes.  I feel like someone is touching them! And I took all the kids to the dentist, and took myslef to the dentist for three fillings ( one tooth still hurts. why?), and two separate well child exams (including one where the 12 year old drooled on the MA while getting his shots), and didn't make dinner, not once.  But I did get up at night with the croupy child and also with the baby who has a cold and "needs" to nurse three times at night instead of not at all because of it. I couldn't have been more grateful for my visiting teacher bringing dinner to my kids tonight, cause, they totally weren't getting anything better than cold cereal from me.  Yes, this is what the Blue and Gold Banquet does to me.  And got up at 5:45 to walk three miles with my friend Jenni, in the dark, wearing my sunglasses with the lenses of my old glasses hot glued into them.  Yes, I can actually see that way, but it is not desirable.  I know this post is a major vent, but it makes me feel better and if it doesn't make you feel better, that's okay too, but I bet it will make you feel better because I bet you are glad right now that you are not me.  I know I would be.  But, despite all of my complaining, I am really excited for tomorrow night and I hope that a lot of people come and they have a great time and that we earn a ton of money selling our stellar cakes. I'll be posting pictures of those and how the event went later-after I recoup. 

Baking With Becky and Heather- Orange Rolls

Prepare to salivate.  This week Heather and I made some out of this world orange rolls.

This is an example of too dry dough. 

Orangeliscious!

a quick knead to get the dough ready to form

cutting the dough into 12 pieces

1 pieced rolled out and ready to be a rope

a roll getting dipped in the orange rind + sugar

a roll ready to be dipped



Heather's rolls are ready to rise




So are mine.




The finished masterpiece!


 We started with the super easy one hour bread dough recipe. We used a half recipe because we only wanted one pan each.  Here is the basics of this recipe, given in the full amounts. 

Add the following to a large mixer and blend for 30 seconds.
10 1/2 cups flour
3 Tbs. Instant yeast
1 Tbsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar

Next add:
4 1/2 cups warm water
3 quarter sized squirts of liquid soy lecithin

Mix for one minute and check the consistency.  Your dough should be really wet.  So wet that you think it is too wet, but not soup. 




After you have enough water, mix for about 7 minutes.  Then the dough is ready to form.

Because we used half a recipe, we divided the dough in half and then cut each of our sections into 12 pieces. We rolled them out, tied them in knots, dipped them in  melted butter and the orange rind/sugar mix and put them out to rise.  In my oven, they bake in about 14 minutes at 350.  My oven cooks fast.  Then we glazed them while warm.

For each dozen rolls add the zest of one orange to 1/2 cup of sugar.  Melt 1/2 cup of butter.  Dip each roll in the butter and then in the orange sugar and place it on a greased cookie sheet. 

For the glaze, combine 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp. butter, 3 Tbsp. orange juice, and 1 tsp. of vanilla. 

Enjoy!

Baking With Becky and Heather- Cream Cheese Ring



Heather putting on the glaze



fresh out of the oven, before the glaze is added



This was mine.  Ignore the well used, much loved pan and focus on the deliciousness oozing out of the cream cheese ring.

 About once a week I get together with my friend Heather and we bake something delicious! Here's what we made this week:

Almond Cream Cheese Ring or Braid

*Enough dough for 12 rolls, or one loaf of bread.  You can use Rhodes dough or you can use homemade dough.  We use an awesome 1 hour bread recipe.

                                                Filling

8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp. pure almond extract

1 Tbsp. melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/4-1/2 cup slivered almonds

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp. melted butter

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 tsp. milk

Prepare dough.  Roll the dough out on a greased counter top into a rectangle about 12 X 15 inches.  Blend the filling ingredients, except for the almonds.  Spread the filling on the dough. Sprinkle most of the almonds on, reserving some for the top after baking.  Starting with the shorter side, roll the dough up tightly.  Pinch the edges to seal them. Join the edges together and pinch to form a ring.  Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. 

Use scissors to make cuts almost to the center of the ring about 1 1/2 inches apart, or closer if you would like more slices.  Turn each piece on its side, resting on the adjoining slice. 

Let rise until almost double.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, less if your oven cooks fast like mine does. 

Combine the icing ingredient and ice while still warm.  Sprinkle with slivered almonds if desired.

Enjoy this delicious treat! This recipe was inspired by the Cream Cheese Ring in the Rhodes "Fresh Ideas with Frozen Dough" cookbook. We changed a few ingredients. 

When we made this, Heather put almonds inside, but none on top and she made a braided bread.  This is made by forming the rectangle of dough, but only spreading the filling down the center.  You then make cuts on either side, about one inch apart up to the point where the filling starts.  Then you braid the dough over the top.  You'll get the idea if you look at her picture. 



Emmeline is 9 months old today!

Emmeline trying to escape baby prison, a.k.a. her crib



"Why are you torturing me?"




These cheeks are empty, believe it or not

 I remember thinking as I wrote a post on facebook one month ago that there probably wouldn't be much to tell about Emmeline's life during her 8th month. I mean, how do you top an E.R. visit?  Well, little did we know about the present she brought home from the E.R.- a supersonic strain of pink eye.  72 hours after visiting the E.R. Emmeline's left eye was puffy.  The next day, of course a Saturday, we were at the doctor's office with a full blown case of pink eye and a fever.  The fever lasted for 3 days and the eyes didn't get any better so we were back at the doctor on Tuesday for an antibiotic.  And of course, antibiotics bring the gift of diarrhea, but at least we didn't have to keep putting drops in eyes that we so swollen we couldn't get them open to put the drops into them.  Emmeline did get better, eventually.  It took three weeks for the swelling to go down.  After two weeks, we visited an opthomologist, who said the swelling would go down soon.  In between all of this glee, and because of Emmeline's irresistible infection laced cheeks, I got pink eye, Judd got pink eye, Reuben got pink eye, Clara got pink eye, and Timothy got pink eye.  We went through about 400 tissues, 2 bottles of hand soap, and 32 ounces of hand sanitizer in 10 days.  We spent over $100 on eye drops.  We all learned how dangerous it can be to touch your eyes.  Thank you Emmeline! Even very little people can teach big people important lessons. 

Despite illness, Emmeline took time over the last month to perfect her speed crawling and continued to work on her goal of introducing non-digestible objects to her stomach.  We have taken away game pieces, wood chips, a sewing needle, a gobstopper( she actually had gotten down to the soft insides before that one was found), a dime, a nickel, and lots and lots of plastic in many forms.  Last night Grandma Dellory ordered a Super Play Yard with the two piece expansion set so Emmeline can have her very own 24.5 sq. ft. "cage".  I never felt a need for one of these before, but I am counting down the hours until it comes. 
Emmeline has also learned how to pull herself to stand at the furniture and to exist with irrationally small amounts of sleep.  She abhors being put in  her crib and only likes to go to bed being held by Daddy while watching T.V.  She thinks nap time is for babies without hair and does not appreciate our feelings on the subject. 

Somehow we have taken to calling her either Lemon or Roomba.  Roomba for the vacuum, Lemon for Lemon Lime because it rhymes with Emmeline, sort of.  I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about calling my child Lemon.  I still mostly call her Emmeline.  And we all still adore her.  Audrey has learned to hunt for choking hazards, but she doesn't quite understand what that means.  She was sure baby spit up was a choking hazard.  Clara continues to pick her up, without permission, and carry her around, without permission, and she even dropped her, definitely without permission.  Amy, Timothy, and Reuben are truly helpful and are on constant alert to keep the baby safe and happy. She knows their names and looks at them when I ask her to find them.  We love you Emmeline!

Mix and Match Banana Zuchinni Bread

I posted on facebook today about mixing two recipes together and altering them some, so I thought it would make a pefect blog post.  This all started with two mushy bananas that someone threw away.  I rescued them from the trash can, washed them carefully before peeling them and threw them in the Bosch ( best mixer EVER!).  This made me remember the shredded zuchinni in the freezer that I had taken so much care to grow and preserve, so I thought to myself, "Why not add that too?  And maybe I should consult a recipe to get the other ingredients right."  So, I looked at the two different recipes, cut out the lemon peel, cinammon, oil, and nuts, and added plain yogurt, butter, chocolate chips, and white chocolate chunks.  It was what I had on hand.  I put most of the batter in 6 mini loaf pans and the rest in a regular loaf pan and popped them into my nifty gas oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  Yumalisciousness! The kids snarfed it down.  Nobody even noticed the zuchinni, which hadn't even been peeled.  So, here is the specifics on what I did:

Add to mixer and mix until it looks all nice and smooth:
3 mushy bananas ( I defrosted one from my freezer to add to the fresh ones I had)
1 cup of grated zuchinni
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of sugar. I used half brown sugar and half unrefined cane sugar because I wanted to.  I'm sure regular would work fine, or all brown.
2 tsp. of vanilla.  Real vanilla or Mexican vanilla is the best.  That nasty imitation stuff should be banned. You can buy Mexican vanilla at Walmart for about $2.00 for 8 ounces in the Latino foods section.  Or you can get it at a Mexican food store.
1/2 cup of melted butter.  You could use oil as well, but I was out.
1/2 cup of plain yugurt. Vanilla would be fine too.

After you mix up all that wet stuff add:
3 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Mix it up, but not too much and then add 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of white chocolate chunks. 

Bake in whatever pans make you happy at 350 degrees until it's done, you know the whole knife coming out clean business, right? Enjoy! Emmeline certainly did.

The Betrothed

On Friday night we had some of our good friends over for dinner.  It was a special dinner because we were celebrating Groundhog Day, yes two days late, but it was when we had time to do it justice.  We had our tradtional Groundhog pancakes.


Reuben really was happy, he just forgot to show it.

They aren't fancy, but they are homemade.  I mean really and truly homemade, not some nasty mix with quick in the name.  Ew! Gross.  And I know that ew isn't really a word, but I always want it to be a word in Scrabble, so it's a word to me.  I made 8 recipes, 8 cups of flour, 8 eggs, 8 cups of milk, for 14 people, many of them very small, and they were all gone. I felt bad that I hadn't made more, but we also had fruit salad and orange juice, not to mention whipped cream and chocolate chips and syrup.  Judd made up for my error in food judgement later by stuffing them all with twinkies, ding dongs, zingers, and ho hos from the Outlet store. 
Anyway, we've been friends with Matt and Brooke for a long time.  Judd and Matt go back to high school at least and our families have been friends since they were formed.  We had a child first, a boy, followed a year later by a girl for them. Then we had another boy and a year later they had another girl.  We had a girl and they had a boy. We had another girl and they had another boy.  It was too good to be true and so we joke with these kids that they are betrothed to each other. After all, it would make holidays much easier.  It's only a joke, mostly.  But, Clara and Audrey didn't quite understand, especially Audrey since both families had girls for babies #5 and #6.  While waiting for our friends to arrive they went around the house yelling, "When are the betrothed coming? Are the betrothed here yet?"  And when they finally came, "The betrothed are here!" with squeals of utter delight! We tried pretty hard not to laugh, but it was just too funny.  Our kids are so weird.  We all had a good laugh and a great time together, especially when the dads played Battle Beasts Zip Line.  Yes, there is a reason why we like each other so much.  It's hard to find two 35 year old men who 1. Want to play Battle Beasts and 2. Still have their Battle Beasts. 

Here's a little video of them having fun.  Sorry, it's probably pretty dark.  I don't have a real video camera and just took this with my regular camera.
It was a great night.  We love being friends with people like us.  We are still a little jealous of the slide they have into their basement.  Perhaps we need to bring Judd's Battle Beasts to visit.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is big around here.  Yep, we actually celebrate it, even when that stinking hog sees his shadow most of the time.  We watched Punxatawney Phil yesterday from the comfort of our home and now I know for sure that it isn't worth going to Punxatawney.  Those men in tuxedos tried to be funny and dramatic, but they were just silly.  Sorry guys in the tuxedos, but it's true.  Anyway, because of our schedules we will be having our traditional Groundhog Day meal tomorrow.  Picture round face pancakes with little ears, covered in whipped cream and chocolate chips.  We'll throw in some raw veggies for groundhog feed and call it healthy. We used to do a Groundhog Day letter instead of a Christmas letter, and we didn't do one, so I'm going to do a quick update here of each person. 

Judd- He is still a self-employed attorney, but enjoys sharing an office suite with his cousin Bion. Judd spends a lot of his time in warmer months coaching the boys' soccer team and serving on the AYSO soccer league board.  He also coached coached a summer select competition team, which was a a lot of work but really fun for them all.  Right now at church he is the assistant financial clerk and a counselor in the stake Sunday School presidency. 

Becky-I've spent most of this last year trying to keep Emmeline safe.  But, I've also spent way too much time on facebook and way too much time cleaning.  I just read that if you spend 8 minutes a day cleaning something you will spend 2 entire days of the year doing that task. I am thinking of ways to reduce my cleaning time, mostly they involve increasing the cleaning time of others.  I'm still the cubmaster at church, and one of the crazy ladies who walks at 5:55 in the morning- in all weather.  We did come home early the day we had a thunderstorm and painful hail.  The biggest joy of this last year has been spending time with my kids and relishing having an adorable baby. The biggest trial has been my mouth/jaw going haywire and being in chronic pain for the last 7+ months. 

Reuben (12)- Reuben plays soccer, but swears he is secretly a baseball pro, even though he's never played.  We're considering letting him try out to shatter his dreams so he will stop nagging us.  His current career aspiration is to be a demolitions expert, but he says he has a strange feeling he is going to be a music composer, even though he doesn't want to be one.  He takes voice lessons and recently joined the Janeen Brady Children's Choir, by gentle force.  He loves being in scouts and young men's at church.  He is the best big brother and a fabulous babysitter. 

Timothy(10)- Timothy also plays soccer and loves having his Dad for a coach.  He is active in scouts and has been begging us to buy him a violin and get him lessons.  Timothy still plans to be a builder when he grows up.  His favorite activities, besides computer games and Wii, are playing board games with the family and teasing his sisters. He claims to be the second most popular kid in his class, "Because all of the girls with blond hair, except one, have a crush on me."  He also claims to be the best four square player in his grade, the fastest runner, and the second best at math in his class.  We might have a pride problem going on here. 

Amy(7)- Amy loves school and loves being a little grown up.  The things that come out of her mouth never cease to amaze us.  The other day she told us that she though moving to Texas was a good idea because it would increase her chances of getting into BYU if she applies from out of state.  Amy loves reading, dance class, and helping me. She is really excited to get baptized in June.

Clara(5)- Clara has surprised us all by being a model student in Kindergarten.  She saves her true energy for me.  She adores her dance class and is showing some amazing propensity at both dance and cheerleading.  She is still a little confused about how cheers work. The last one went like this" M-O-M-M-Y! Gooooo Ice Wizards!!"  Clara loves playing with her sisters and her friends and saying hilarious things for me to post on facebook.

Audrey (3)- Audrey is our little split personality child.  When Clara is at school Audrey is calm and easy to handle.  When Clara comes home, they become the dynamic duo of destruction.  Audrey loves her dance class, especially sashaying.  She is our most obedient child and always brushes her teeth and puts on her p.j.'s as soon as I ask.  When she grows up she is going to be a fairy or a pony or a baby.

Emmeline(8 months)- Emmeline is perfect, chubby, and adorable!  We have loves having her in our home.  She is learning everything the way a baby should and is bound to walk before she turns one. She loves to play, eat big people food, cuddle with mommy and daddy, and eat foreign objects.  Her new nickname is Roomba.  She also gets called Lemon Lime and Liner Liner 49er.  I don't know why.  Her luscious locks of hair never fell out and she is ready for her second haircut!

Well, that's all.  Here are a few photos from yesterday. Enjoy!

FHE

At some point in my life, I heard a quote from a General Authority that stated that if a family holds Family Home Evening regularly that the children would be protected from the evils of the world and have eternal blessings. Here is a link http://lds.org/study/topics/family-home-evening?lang=eng   This is a pretty powerful promise.  I want my children to stay active in our church for so many reasons.  In the most simple way I can explain it, I will say that following the teachings of the LDS church brings me immense happiness and peace in my own life, so of course I want that for my children.  And this promise is that they will have that in their lives if we hold family home evening. That sounds so simple, so deceptively simple.  Kind of like those infomercials that my children get sucked into on lazy Saturday mornings when our antenna chooses to work and someone flips on the T.V.  “Buy these knives and you will NEVER buy another knife again!” or “Get this shimmy shammy whim wham cleaning cloth and you will be able to scrub every street in New York City using only water.  Then just wring out the cloth and move on to Baltimore. It will never wear out!”  Or, “Have you always wanted to roast an entire pig, but never knew how?  With our super duper industrial pig roasting apparatus, you can be in porky heaven for the rest of your life. Once you try whole pig, you will never go back to plain old store bought bacon again.  Comes with a free 30 day money back guarantee, minus gargantuan shipping and handling charges! Order now and we’ll send you the mini pigeon roaster free for your Manhattan friends!”  Seriously, it just sounds too good to be true, and sometimes too ridiculous to work.  But, having faith, and believing in things that that seem too good to be true, but get proven to be good and true time and again as we test our faith, my husband and I truly do believe that holding family home evening is one of the vital keys to helping our children develop testimonies and a desire to live the lifestyle that we are trying to model.  So we never miss a week if we can avoid it.  We did miss a few weeks ago when Emmeline had her wire swallowing E.R./O.R./Big bills adventure on a Monday night.  Hopefully we will get a bye for that one.  We really do try though.  We don’t schedule other events on Monday nights.  We don’t participate in sports on Monday nights.  If our whole family can’t go to something, we won’t be there on a Monday night. 

I just thought I’d start by explaining why, like Sacrament meeting attendance, we feel FHE is so important.  And now I want to describe a typical Family Home Evening in the Pitts house.  Sometimes the kids are outrageously naughty, but this is just an average night.  This was our home on Monday night. 

Dinner was late because I was tired.  I think that’s why. It’s kind of all a blur now. Maybe it was because I was reading a novel instead of making dinner on time.  But, I know dinner was late and I remember making my usual comment on such a night, “You guys have no idea how lucky you are to have dinner tonight.  Just 40 minutes ago I was really tempted to feed you cold cereal but I made you homemade pizza instead. You are so lucky.  SAY THANK YOU FOR DINNER!”  So, we got a late start on our normal start time of 7.  It must have been around 7:15 when we congregated in the living room and started singing some songs from the Primary Children’s Songbook.  And when we sing, the kids want to dance. And when they dance, they want to run.  And when they run, sometimes they get tired and are more sedate, so Daddy encouraged them and even charted the course for them to run circles throughout the lower level of the house.  They were off!  Actually, we were off-all of us. Emmeline flew through the air in Daddy’s stable arms and giggled along with the crowd.  I don’t know what is so funny about running in circles, but it made Clara and Audrey squeal with delight.  We ran and we ran and we ran.  We reversed direction and ran some more.  After about 15 minutes, the bigger kids started to lag, so we called the meeting to order.  Judd decided we would sing a song about family night.  Nobody knew the words, so he tried to teach them to us and we all made a passable attempt to learn them. Then, somebody said a prayer, at least I think somebody did.  Usually we share our schedules for the week, but instead Daddy asked the kids to all go find a Book of Mormon.  We have quite a few throughout the house.  They hunted high and low until they tracked down 7 copies that weren’t the more expensive leather bound ones and presented them to Daddy.  Then everyone found a bookmark and he said we’d be using them for scripture study from now on, so each person could have a copy.  By this point, everything had been going pretty well, probably because nobody had to sit still.  Then it was time for the lesson.  I think that is Secret Short Person Code for NAUGHTY TIME.  Clara and Audrey immediately started standing on their heads and singing.  I decided it was time for THE HUMAN SEATBELT for Audrey.  I held her gently but firmly on my lap.  She hates the human seat belt.  She screamed and wiggled and screamed and yelled, “I I can’t breathe!” while turning blue and gasping.  I really wasn’t even touching her middle, but she has this psychological block against being restrained so she was holding her breath.  After a few minutes, Judd had enough of this and ordered all the kids to go put on their p.js.  This sent Amy into a sobbing fit and she proclaimed, “Daddy! We have to have a lesson! I’ve had this lesson ready for weeks and the whole point of family night is TO LEARN THE GOSPEL!”  After we reassured her that we were just taking a break, she calmed down and complied.  The kids all eventually obeyed and we tried again for a lesson.  Audrey used a blanket and made a kitty cave under the piano bench, curling up quietly underneath.  Clara got rowdy and was put in Daddy’s version of a human seatbelt.  Timothy got moved away from Reuben and had a little stint as a “tooting cow” – don’t ask. Then we finally got down to business.  Amy told us the story of Laman and Lemuel and Nephi getting the brass plates from Laban. 

(Amy read for a while)

Amy: Clara, what happened? Who went to get the brass plates?

Clara: I forget stuff super duper fast.  I forgot!

Daddy: Come on Clara. Don’t let stuff go in one ear and out the other. Pay attention!

Clara, crying: I can’t make it go in this ear and not come out the other.  It keeps coming out!

Daddy: Amy, read it again. Clara, listen.

(Amy read again. Emmeline took this golden opportunity to hunt for foreign objects on the floor with appealing textures.)

Daddy: Clara, what did Laban do?

Clara:  It goes through my right ear and then out! It goes through inside my body and then out!

So, that was successful.  At least, nobody was bleeding.  We asked Amy, after 14 pages, to save the rest for next time and decided it was time to move on to the game. The kids love having an activity every family night.  Timothy wanted to play the winking murder game.  He wanted to play it last week too but I vetoed it because so many eyes were hurting with pink eye.  Reuben and Amy wanted to play Nice Kitty.  For what seemed to be a very long time, many children chanted “Nice Kitty! Nice Kitty! Nice Kitty!” until Daddy hushed them up with a large growl and said we would play Timothy’s game. Reuben acquiesced as only he can do, “The majority is omnipotent in this family, unless Mommy and Daddy say otherwise.  They are the dictators.”  Timothy grabbed some paper and ripped off pieces to mark with O’s and one X.  Well, he did that after he counted the people. I guess there are so many of us even we can’t remember how many.  We spent several delightful minutes “killing” each other with our winks.  The best rounds were when Audrey had the X and she didn’t do anything and when I had the X and I killed everyone before I could be accused.  And then, it had been long enough. We did our duty and we were done.  We sang something.   I’m sure it was wonderful, whatever it was.  And Audrey volunteered for the closing prayer.  I attempted to help her and suggested, “We’re thankful we could have family night.” But she had other plans.”No! Please bless the food. . .  .“So, we’re still working on prayers.  “What’s for dessert?  I want ice cream! I want frozen lemonade! I want cake! I want I want I want.” It rang in my ears and I tried to divvy up the goods so everyone would be happy.  Amy came up to us and sighed and stated,” All I want for dessert is ice water. . . and an otter pop.” Whew! We were done. We made it.  We survived!  We even had fun, really we did.  I guess you would have to be there to understand.  And please, feel free to visit.  We’d be happy to have visitors any Monday from 7-8.  You can play the pig game, nickel game, polar bears and penguins, charades or some other fabulous game with us, learn about Jesus, help us restrain the little ones, and enjoy a delicious dessert.