Gluttons for. . . .

A couple of months ago my husband practically begged a member of ther bishopric to ask us to sing in sacrament meeting.  He won't verify my take on things, but I'm pretty sure that is how it happened. I was okay with it. We like to sing together. We both have tolerable voices and his tenor melody abilities go nicely with my alto harmony. Then he told me the date was April 24th, as in EASTER Sunday. "Yea!" I thought. Okay, not really.  My thoughts were more along the lines of, "Double dog dang! Do we really have to sing on Easter?" Some of those thoughts might have been voiced to my husband.  He didn't agree with my idea of asking to sing a different day, so we set about picking a suitable song.  It needed to come from the hymn book or the Primary Children's Songbook and it needed to somewhat address the topic of Easter.  And it needed to be an arrangement or I was going to be bored out of my brain.  Luckily, some of my favorite composers, the Beebe's, have written an arrangement of "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" that fit the bill. But I couldn't be satisfied with just me and Judd singing.  Oh no! I wanted the whole family. My thinking was that even if we sounded bad, people would think the kids were cute no matter what.  The only problem was that the song was pretty challenging and fairly long. So, we got busy.  I spent time with each child seperately learning the song, either as an alto or a soprano.  Clara (5) and Audrey (3) had to memorize it because they cannot read.  We broke out into little solos and duets throughout the song and everyone had to remember when to sing and when not to sing. Reuben and I had to learn an incredibly difficult 8 measures.  We are both really good at reading music but this was just impressively difficult and we had to bribe ourselves with a prize and play it over and over and over and over and over until we got it right.  When everyone had learned their parts, we came together, over and over and over again, to practice it all together.  And again and again and again.  Every time we practiced it took 10 minutes to get everyone to stand still and stop talking, hitting, insulting, crying, moping. . .  whatevering, long enough so that we could practice.  The children also thought it important to critique each other during the song practice.  We NEVER actually went through the entire song at home without someone talking and stomping away mad or refusing to sing.  It was super fun!  We never practiced at the church with the microphone.  We ran through it one time with our talented accompanist at our house last night. Walking away, moping, and refusing to sing may or may not have occured during that practice.  So, I was a little nervous about how things were going to go today.  But, I hoped the kids would put out their best efforts for "THE REAL DEAL"  And they did, and then some.  They all sang their little hearts out and sounded really sweet, at least to me, and I think to some other people as well.  I did see a few people wiping away tears.  I think they felt the spirit, unless those were tears of actual pain :).  At the very end of the song is a really beautiful part where we break off into two parts and repeat the words "I know that my Redeemer lives." It's slow and soft and just really pretty and the kids did great at following me.  I've waited 12 years to have a big enough family with enough ability to be able to pull something like that off, and it was a sweet moment.  Maybe in a couple of years we can do it again and include Emmeline. But, until then, I'll borrow the words of Clara, who grabbed the mike away from Judd at the end of the song and proclaimed," Goodbye, everyone!" Happy Easter!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZP5qUX8zCg this was our last practice. It was better at church because we used two microphones and nobody insulted anyone or pouted or thought about beating anyone.

Cheap Skates

Pre-teenagers are hard to understand.  For evidence, I offer the child who wore shorts and a puffy vest at the same time.

Clara is pretty fast with this little walker. She often convinces complete strangers to push her around. 

Timothy really loves ice skating.  He's my buddy on the rink and cheers me on because I can skate "so fast"!

Amy doesn't like wearing the helmet, but after somebody got life flighted after being hit in the head with an ice skate this winter, the helmet stays. I should really make the boys wear them too.  I should probably wear one too.

Strolling on ice is so much fun.  The other stroller contains Audrey. She is terrified of skating still.

I offer this photo of my foot as unclear evidence that I also skated.

I have a confession to make. Okay, not really.  I usually keep my dirty laundry within the walls of my own house.  But, I have a mini confession to make, not one of the sinful nature, but one of the nature of my nature.  And if you know me very well, you already know this about me- I am a cheapskate.  I love to get a good deal.  I loathe paying full price for anything.  I have limits that I will not cross no matter what.  I will not buy a prepared fruit or vegetable platter or a cake from the bakery.  I know, some of you are thinking that the cakes at Costco are a pretty good price, but I can make a FANTASTIC cake for $5 or less, one that includes real butter in the frosting and melt in your mouth chocolate chip goodness, mmm, yummy.  I will not pay any price for lard frosting, hydrogenated this that or the other, freaky textured, unusally long shelf life, what the heck is in that? store bought cake. I won't even eat it if you paid for it. And don't say, "It's buttercream frosting" No it isn't, not really.
  My cheapness extends beyond $1.99 or less per pound of boneless skinless chicken breast,no, it is not just skin deep.  My cheapness hits where it really hurts- entertainment.  I can count on one hand the number of times we have paid to go to the first run theatre since we got married.  My idea of good fun is free fun. But, this isn't always possible, so I'm always on the hunt for cheap fun, for the deal that is too good to be true but actually is true.  And we have just such a deal right here in our very own Salt Lake County. It's called the Utah Olympic Oval.  Yes, I said Olympic, as in THE OLYMPICS.  The 2002 Olympics that happened right here in Utah.  This facility is awesome!
Here's a link:http://www.olyparks.com/uoo/index.asp
I only got to go ice skating a few times in my first 15 years of life.  The price where I grew up in Dallas, Tx, was about $7. That was a lot of money in the 80's and 90's and more money than my parents spent on activities most of the time. With 6 kids, that would have been a pretty pricey two hours and I think my mom made the better choice buying season passes to Six Flags Over Texas.  Back then they were around $50 a person and she took us at least once a week all summer. That was also back when summer lasted a full three months.  I can't get going on that topic, or I might lose my focus. Anyway, I only went a few times.  That is, until we moved to one of the coldest places in the world- Moscow, Russia. All of a sudden we could do almost anything we wanted. With the value of the dollar we could go to the Bolshoi Theatre for a dollar or two.  Ice skating was so cheap it was insignificant.  And if we didn't want to pay anything at all, we had a pond within walking distance that was free.  So, my parents bought me some Russian ice skates for under $20 and I had my chance over the next 3 winters to skate to my hearts' content. There wasn't much else for me to do, with no t.v., no internet, no cell phones, no ipads, no blackberries, no high school, no mall. .  .We made our own fun. And we had fun!
Okay, now fast forward to adulthood and the Olympic Oval.  It is one of the few truly fabulous deals out there right now.  If you pay to skate one time it will cost you $6.  This is a pretty good deal considering what I paid 20 years ago to skate.  But, if you buy a family pass, you pay $99 for one year.  $99.  As in ninety nine dollars!!!!!!!  Not even one hundred.  So, that's a marketing ploy, but who cares. It includes skate rental. This is seriously cheap skating!  And I haven't even told you the coolest part yet.  You didn't see that one coming did you? The ice skating rink is a 400 m oval.  Inside of the oval are two smaller rinks.  One of them is for hockey games and for public skating during the summer months. The other one is for figure skating.  Surrounding the oval is a running track, which is included in our membership.  And the biggest and bestest part is that strollers are allowed on the ice, so I can go ice skating without my husband but with my little ones who cannot ice skate and I get to skate too!  You can even bring a double stroller on if you want to.  They have little walkers for beginning skaters and helmets for anyone who wants one, all included as part of the membership or admission.  For $99 a year, for up to 6 people, but kids under 4 are free, so my family of 8 was still $99.  And if you have a bigger family, it is only $10 more per person.  We had a pass a couple of  years ago and loved it and we bought another one at the beginning of the Christmas break.  I've taken the kids about 10 times in 3 1/2 months. Following this trend and taking breaks into account, we will probably go 25-30 times during our year of membership.  If we all go 25 times, it would be about $4 each time, or fifty cents per person.  That is good exercise, good fun, and Cheap Skates. You would think with this great deal that it would be so crowded as to be miserable, but it isn't.  Sometimes the lines can be a little bit long to get your skates if a youth group comes, but there's always plenty of room on the ice and the track. If you haven't checked it out yet you should.  We'd be happy to meet you there!

Emmeline is 11 months old!

I found my card reader. Here is a current photo. Emmeline LOVES playing the piano!

The last month has gone by in a complete blur at our house and Emmeline went along for the ride like a 6th child champ.  I've lost track of the number of times we visited the doctor or dentist in this time, but it was a lot.  So, in looking back, I'm going to have to stop and reflect for a moment to try and remember what this little kiddo has done these past few weeks because almost all I can remember is endless laundry, vacuuming, medical visits, medications, and cleaning.  Emmeline has really just taken her family life in stride and become an involved member.  I can see babyhood starting to slip away like the fat shedding from her thighs and belly.  She is such a cute little thing! Emmeline is holding firm at 17 pounds.  She doesn't stop moving long enough to gain any weight.  It's just go go go! She can stand on her own, but she doesn't believe it yet. But, I have seen and I believe. She loves to walk holding on to our hands but falls to her knees if we let go.  So, crawling is still her preferred mode of non-parental transport.
The biggest development this last month has been Emmeline's vocabulary.  She loves to talk and mimic what we say. She has said up, happy, Mama, Dada, baba, brother, Clara, Audrey, bye bye, and hi. She claps and waves constantly and blows kisses and gives kisses.  But her kisses are only for me and they are nice and juicy. Mmm, yummy- baby slobber! She has also discovered the wonder of her own hair, which is 5-6 inches long now, and really fun for her to twirl while nursing. 
Emmeline is the mini ruler of our house.  When the big kids come home, she is the first one they want to see.  I might as well be a mushy dog gift in the grass for all the attention I get. But, that's okay. I don't blame them, and I probably do the same thing.  I can't help it! She 's so cute! It's impossible not to love this baby.
She is working on using utensils.  Right now they are really fun to hold and wiggle and throw overboard.  She is also hoping that I will give up my quest to keep her out of the toilet.  I've never had a kid play in the toilet before, so I needed one to help me learn patience in that area.

Emmeline is a couple of weeks old in this photo.

This is mere hours before Emmeline was born.  I was in labor and standing in front of the awesome tub where she was born.  It's a big jacuzzi tub with sand underneath that makes the tub floor soft and squishy. It's so deep I was able to deliver on my hands and knees like I prefer.

Every kid needs a funny bath picture posted on the internet. 

I wish I could post some photos, but my house ( with the help of an un-named 10 year old) ate my card reader and my camera won't transfer pictures, so I'll have to use  old photos this month.