Underwear

The last few months Grant has been doing a great job of getting himself dressed. The only problem? Everything is on backwards--jeans, shirts, shoes (on the wrong feet). I don't usually say anything but, "Way to go big boy!" Sure, we get a few funny looks when we go out in public, but if they have kids I know they understand.

Yesterday when Grant got dressed he came out laughing hysterically and talking about his underwear. I looked briefly and saw they were inside out and backwards and kind of bunched up, and then giggled with him for a minute and then told him to finish getting dressed. We went to see his speech teacher and then went to the lake for a picnic and impromptu swimming with some friends. I hadn't brought his swimming suit, but we had the lake all to ourselves, so I decided to strip him down to his undies and let him play in the water like that. That was when I noticed that he had actually put on TWO pairs of underwear (which must have been what he thought was so funny earlier in the morning). Well, it worked out perfectly--he had dry underwear to change into when we went home. Two of the other kids just decided to play in the lake naked, leaving only one child with real swimming attire. I wish I had brought the camera because it was cute to watch all these naked kiddos running around and playing at the lake (from a distance, obviously, I'm really not a pervert).  It all seemed very old-fashioned and natural. Good thing we are the only people in the area who think it is acceptable to swim in 80 degree weather!

Grant remembered the hilarity of it all today when he got dressed and put on FIVE pairs of underwear. The first time he went to the bathroom he decided that was not such a good plan and left the extra FOUR pairs on the floor. The pair he left on? Well, as soon as Logan came home he announced to everyone, "Guess what? I wore Logan's underwear today." Good thing Logan is a good sport. 

FHE

hopefully this picture adds some variety to my long post. :)

Family Home Evening is a suggestion my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has given that is "a special time set aside each week that brings family members together and strengthens their love for each other, helps them draw closer to Heavenly Father, and encourages them to live righteously." (click here to learn more about it)

Monday is the day we traditionally set aside for our Family Home Evening (FHE from here on out). We try to include an opening song, opening prayer, lesson, game, closing song, closing prayer, and a treat (because food is very, very important).

Sometimes we do something different like write letters, go bowling, etc (last week we went on a hike and played CLUE). The kids LOVE family home evening and would do it every night. They love to give the lessons (which we've decided need to be approved and practiced with mom). The lessons. . . well, they are hit and miss success-wise. Short and simple is usually most effective. We try to base these on holidays, life-events (we've been doing a lot on the importance of baptism, as Logan is getting baptized next month), and principles that need some work. Logan and Madison will often give lessons based on things they learned in primary. One of my favorites is the time we invited the missionaries and had a talent show. Favorite songs: "I am a child of God," "Do as I'm Doing," and "As I Have Loved You." Favorite games: "Hide and Seek," "Simon Says," "UNO," "Old Maid," and many more. This is the easiest part of FHE. :)

Sometimes I feel frustrated when no one is listening. Like. . . two weeks ago Madi gave the lesson and walked around and around the room. I ended up basically doing her lesson for her (on the brother of Jared) and she got upset about it. Grant just wanted to play with toys. And Logan just kept jumping up and down trying to take over Madison's lesson.

I loved Elder Bednar's description of FHE in his talk "More Diligent and Concerned at Home." He says:

Sometimes Sister Bednar and I wondered if our efforts to do these spiritually essential things were worthwhile. Now and then verses of scripture were read amid outbursts such as “He’s touching me!” “Make him stop looking at me!” “Mom, he’s breathing my air!” Sincere prayers occasionally were interrupted with giggling and poking. And with active, rambunctious boys, family home evening lessons did not always produce high levels of edification. At times Sister Bednar and I were exasperated because the righteous habits we worked so hard to foster did not seem to yield immediately the spiritual results we wanted and expected.

Today if you could ask our adult sons what they remember about family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening, I believe I know how they would answer. . . . What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent.

Sister Bednar and I thought helping our sons understand the content of a particular lesson or a specific scripture was the ultimate outcome. But. . . the consistency of our intent and work was perhaps the greatest lesson.

I think my growing-up family was pretty consistent at FHE, but two FHE's in particular stand out. Don't judge.

The Family Shower

I don't really know WHY we had this FHE, but there must have been a reason. I don't know how old I was, but old enough to know that this was a little strange (12?). My parents told us to get on our swimming suits, and then all SEVEN of us squished into the bathtub and took a shower (we had swimming suits on). They told us how important it was to use soap and shampoo and why it was important to have clean bodies. Kind of weird. . . someone must have not been smelling too good or something. :)

Kicking Satan out the Door

I must have been a little older for this one, too. . .like 18? Close to that anyway. And sometimes I didn't think that sitting down and having FHE was really that cool. Anywho. . . we kids were all being bratty and arguing and finally my dad got up really mad and fast. I think we all kind of held our breath and watched to see what he would do. Well he got up and opened the front door and started kicking his leg out the door and yelling, "Satan--you get out of my house. You are not allowed here and I will not put up with you in this house." He went on saying that for a few minutes and then quietly closed the door and sat down. Needless to say, we were all very quiet and attentive for the rest of the evening. We still like to laugh about that day. But it worked.

What are your favorite family home evenings?

Youth Dances

Going to them as an adult is not the same as going to them as a teenager.

I'm wiped out.

Wicked Mom

I'm starting to feel a lot like this lady.

I keep coming up with more and more things* for Logan to do just so that he won't have time to get on the computer to play games on starwars.com and transformers.com.

I don't know how I feel about that.

*On the other hand, he has gotten a lot done. . . including piano lessons every day this week.

Fashionista

I feel an urgency to write down as many little memories as I can before I forget them. Sorry to you. (And you only get to look at one awesome leg because I don't know how to make it smaller. Double sorry.)In the seventh and eighth grade I went through some amazing growth spurts. I seriously grew like 4 inches in a month. OK, I don't really know the exact number, but I do know I had some embarrassing growing pains. Think awkwardly tall and skinny.

I had these pink sweatpants that had elastic at the feet. I didn't really care for them, so I decided they would be the perfect thing to wear on a Saturday when no one would see me. I took them to a sleepover, and boy was I surprised (embarrassed) when I put them on the next morning. They were hideously tight and short, but I wore them because it was that or wear the pants I had worn the day before, which was even more disgusting and embarrassing. I still wonder what her family thought of me that day. . . hopefully they've forgotten this incident. I, obviously, have not.

I think it was about that time I told my parents I needed some new pants. I can remember trying on purple jeans, jeans with puzzle pieces on the legs, jeans with Mickey Mouse plastered on the sides. Yikes.

I went to school rockin' those new pants and this boy on the bus said, "You got some pants that fit." Thanks, dude.

I ran cross country for six years. I can remember girls laying on the locker room benches with their tapered-leg jeans while other girls tried to pull those tight ankle-suckers off.

In eighth grade the movie Sister Act 2 came out, and those girls had some straight-leg, maybe even bell-bottomish pants on. I thought they looked pretty good, so I bought me some and wore them to school. A different really awesome guy said, "Hey Jenn, are you missing the 60's?" I explained to him that tapered-legs were out and bell-bottoms in. And what do you know? The next year everyone was wearing flare-leg jeans. The bigger the cooler.

My mom used to always tell me these stories about her elephant pants that she tripped on, and about her mom wearing peg-leg pants and being embarrassed about it, and how then the tapered pants came back in. One big circle because apparently we can't come up with new ideas and the fashion industry needs to keep taking our money.

Probably about 5 years ago I grabbed a bunch of on-sale pants to try on at Old Navy. Skinny jeans. I thought they were supposed to make me look skinny, so you can imagine my surprise when I tried them on and they were tapered-leg pants! NO WAY! I couldn't believe that someone was going to try and pull those back into fashion--they are so not complimentary to a girl's figure (not mine, anyway).

Boy was I wrong. I went to a youth dance not too long ago and guys and girls were wearing skinny jeans (or peg-leg, or tapered-leg, you choose your name).

Anyway. That's my story.

Mama Mia

It has come to my attention that I recently wrote a post that was primarily about my father and not my mother. So this one is for the lady I call when I am happy, sad, excited, bored, in need of advice or recipes, or just any old reason at all.

My favorite story about my mom is also the story she wishes I would forget. It involves her getting mad at me and a recipe box. But I guess since this is her post I won't go there.

Some of the most meaningful memories with my mom are moments that she might not even remember:

A late-night dance party in the kitchen to oldies music on the day I returned from a NYC trip.

Helping me learn how to make bread. Over and over and over. (We finally realized that I was adding too much flour.)

Making jam and canning tomatoes, corn, meat, and applesauce. (They make it look WAY easier than it really is.)

Watching her help and love her mother, who has Alzheimer's and other health issues.

Some events were kind of huge. Like when Ammon was born and I called her in the middle of the night crying, and she flew out the next day to take care of me and my family (I'm pretty sure she won't forget that one).

Some advice she has given has guided me and lifted me up through the years. Like:

• The time after Logan was born and I was adjusting to being a mother and (please tell me I'm not the only one) no longer having the freedom I/we had previously enjoyed. I don't know what I said to her on the phone (surely I was more subtle?), but she said something like, "Sometimes you wonder why you were in such a huge rush have a baby, and you miss the time you had before you were a mom." I felt such a HUGE relief to know I wasn't alone, and I said something like, "Oh! So you feel that way, too?" She laughed and said, "Oh no honey, I've gotten over that. I've been a mom for a long time." Now I know exactly what she was talking about! Somewhere you just start becoming less selfish and more selfless without even realizing that you are changing in such a wonderful way.
• The time I was pregnant with Grant and had two toddlers ages 3 and 2. I couldn't figure out how in the world I was going to take care of another child when I felt like I was struggling to "control" the other two. I don't know if I ever said anything, but her motherly instincts must have kicked in. She sent me a card with a handwritten message. I don't know everything it said, but I remember this part: "I'd like to tell you it gets easier, but really it doesn't. They will get older and less needy, but their independence will be both a blessing and a curse." Not exactly uplifting advice, but exactly what I needed to hear.
• The time that Joe was in TX for the summer and I was playing single mom. There was A LOT of stress--trying to show/sell a house, trying to find work, trying to finish my online classes, and trying to do it all by myself. My parents stopped by to visit for some reason, and asked exactly the wrong (or right) question. I lost it and bawled my head off to them about how overwhelmed I was. They listened and hugged me and told me to drive to their house the next day so that they could help. On their way out the door my dad told my mom to give me gas money so that I wouldn't have any excuse not to go. My mom gave me a $100 bill and told me to "keep the change." I still have that $100 bill and every once in a while I pull it out. . . I don't know if it is to remind me, or for the next time I feel like I just can't do it, or maybe even for some opportunity to help someone else in need. But it has become a symbol of hope and love that helped me to overcome a challenge that felt quite overwhelming.

Mostly my mom was/is really patient with me. She is always calm and never loses her temper, and sometimes I just wanted to make her mad (which is partly why I love my favorite story that I'm not telling). For example, when I turned 18 I told her I was going to buy something just so I could show my i.d. I was really trying to rile her up. She just looked at me and said, "Well, I guess you can spend your money however you'd like." Not what I wanted to hear, and I didn't carry through with that plan. (I did go and get my ears pierced a second time on my 18th birthday, which I knew she was not a fan of but didn't stop me because I was an "adult." And then I took them out the next year when President Hinckley said we didn't need more than one piercing, but that's another story for another day.)

So basically, I'm doomed. When my kids are obnoxious and crazy and in 10 (5? 2?) years trying to make me mad. . . well, we already know that the calm gene didn't get passed down to me. But I had a really good example, and even if I'm not always as patient and nice--hopefully we are making enough good memories that someday my own children will be calling me to laugh and cry, or maybe just to talk.

Disclaimer

My mom just called and asked me if I was making an announcement. My heart stopped beating and I had to hold on to something while I asked, "What?" Many of you have noticed that Joe wrote "Baby Girl McGregor" on the blog header. I don't know why he decided to do that (have you read the stuff on the side bar? That's all him. And I'll remind him to add Ammon), but I didn't take it off because having another girl McGregor would be kind of fun. As in, maybe someday I might dream about it or even think about it, but Ammon is only 6 months old and I'm enjoying the fact that I usually get to sleep through the night (he has been going to bed at about 7:30 and getting up at 5:00 a.m.). But just so y'all know:

I'm NOT pregnant. :)

I went through the last few posts I wrote and noticed that I have things on there about being tired, that I enjoy being pregnant, etc. I'm just tired. I have low iron levels and four kids and I stay up too late at night and get up early to make breakfast for everyone before they leave me for the day. I do enjoy being pregnant, but I also enjoy being skinny and not having to pee every 5 minutes.

On a side note: Ammon can now pull himself to a stand-up position. I guess we'll be moving the crib mattress down tomorrow.

Post 300

You know you are going crazy when you are loading child #4 into the car seat and child #3 says, "Hey! I have a shirt just like that!" Then you look and notice that the 6 month old is wearing a size 3T shirt that you put on 5 minutes earlier.

These pictures are out of order, time-wise, but that's ok. :)

Joe worked late last night. I have been SOOO tired lately, I think because I am border-line anemic, and I was just laying on the floor sleeping while the kids played. Anyway, the door-bell rang and I had one of those panic moments like, "who is it! where's my glasses? my hair looks crazy!" I tried to hurry and put myself together and get to the door, and I was greeted by this beautiful fruit from a lady in YW with me! The kids and I oooo'd and aww'd over it and then dug in. It was delicious! I need to learn how to do this! And I need to pass on the good deed, because you never know whose day you will brighten by doing something nice.

Grant and I attend a little play group/ preschool with some other 3 year olds. It was our turn to bring a snack today. . . for the letter "U!" I could NOT think of anything, so I finally just made some dough and shaped the rolls into the letter "u." We also brought fruit roll-Ups. The kids ate them, but I think the moms may have appreciated them more. They were prettier out of the oven, but I failed to document in the rush to get to the play group.

Yesterday we went to the Dallas Arboretum with a friend in the ward. It was beautiful! There were pumpkins galore and princess houses made out of pumpkins and a Texas history area. We were able to attend story time and kindermusic there, too. Oh, and Grant got his face painted as. . . Spider Man! He was excited and proud to show his face to Logan and Madison when they got off of the bus yesterday.

I really enjoy these outings. Sometimes I feel bad that the other kids don't get to go. And sometimes it feels like I only have 2 kids, which makes me feel younger. I would love to go back with the whole family, except that I am sure that everyone has the same ideas on Saturdays, which is the only time the whole family could go. Darn that public education.

This is what Ammon did at the Dallas Arboretum. . . in his 3T shirt.

The weather is cooling down here in Texas. . . to about 85 degrees. In the mornings it feels quite chilly. . . at about 65 degrees. A few years ago, Joe and I decided that our family hobby would be hiking. We've been slowly collecting hiking gear (like the baby backpack), but then we moved to TX and finding a good place to hike has been a little harder to do. We decided to check out the trails around the lake by our house before the Saturday morning session of General Conference. In truth, we could have pushed the stroller on it, but it was fun to pretend. We also surprised Logan and Madison and picked up their friend Alison and took her hiking with us. We only went about 2 miles, but fun was had by all.

And now it's time to clean the kitchen. I'd rather take a nap.

Conference Weekend

I don't know if you remember our last conference weekend, but this one went much, much better. I've been thinking about how I needed some spiritual lift, so I was prepared and ready to listen to our prophet's counsel. While all of the talks were great, the three I really loved and needed were:

Elder Neil L. Anderson's talk about families. ("Motherhood is not a hobby. We do not collect children because they are cuter than stamps," and so many other good, good quotes.)

Elder Ian S. Arden's talk about wise use of time. (Boy do I need to internalize this.)

Elder Robert D. Hales talk about inspiration, patience, and overcoming trials. (Especially when he talked about Job. . . I know our trials might seem small to some, but the last few years have been tough on our family, and this was a great reminder to me that everything we go through will strengthen us, bless us, and make us better).

And I LOVED Elder Uchtdorf's talk last week about the forget-me-nots.

And I also loved the one that Sister Dalton's talk for fathers of daughters.

Like I said, they were all so good and uplifting.

The kids were so good during all EIGHT hours! That is a long time to listen to church talks, but they did! Of course, they colored and cut lots of papers, and even after cleaning up the mess there are still hundreds of tiny paper shavings all over the room, but I'll just vacuum those up tomorrow. And of course we had some occasional loud voices and fighting (like when I asked Logan to start cleaning up the paper and Grant started screaming bloody murder that Logan threw away the paper that was for his speech teacher). We usually have a "party" during the lunch hour of the Sunday session (except for the last General Conference, which is one of my worst memories). Logan has been talking about how he wished we still did that. . . so Joe and I surprised them and had a party consisting of nachos, meatballs (with grape jelly and chili sauce), finger sandwiches, pineapple, chocolate peanut butter cookies, lemonade and apple cider. It truly was a feast! After conference ended we took a walk and enjoyed the wonderful cooler weather (who knew that 88 degree weather could feel like fall?). Then we played a game of LIFE, which I actually hate. I remember loving it as a child and I bought it on a Black Friday several years ago and now that is the kid's favorite game and I'm wishing I never got that good deal. Maybe it will be more fun when the kids are a little older and understand how to play it a little better. Now the kids are in bed, and even Joe walked through the house and commented on the mess (he usually doesn't notice or care), but I didn't say one thing about it, and I am telling myself that someday I will miss the noise and mess that occur over Conference. weekend. Plus, I have the whole week to clean it up. :)

Also, this is just for my memory and documenting (as is the entire post, sorry), but on Friday I made several little posters and taped them up all over the house to remind me to smile more and to be more fun. My "natural man" is naturally pessimistic and serious and not so fun. . . so I started a little experiment to see if I could change my natural disposition--because I want to be a fun and easy-going person! There is an inspiring story in the YW manual about a girl who made made a similar goal. I didn't say anything to Joe about it until today (I thought for sure he would see those green posters and ask me about it, but I guess they were self-explanatory?). Finally I asked him about why he hadn't said anything and he said he was just waiting to see how it played out, which was actually the perfect thing to say. Anyway, it's only been 3 days, but I feel like it is helping. When I want to exhale loudly or complain about something I think of those little signs and just smile and try to think about it more positively. Joe, that sweet guy, is reading a book about random information and statistics, and he informed me that one of those random tidbits explains how you can tell if a smile is fake. . . and then he proceeded to tell me that he knew the secret face muscle that gave the fake smile away, so I wasn't fooling him. :) Oh well, maybe someday I won't need smile cards and it will be a real smile. :)

6 Month-a-roos

Now I normally wait until 6 months to even think about giving the baby solids. . . but this boy is growing up faster than the others did. He's got 2 teeth (and another one can't decide), he's crawling and pulling himself up (although he hasn't mastered a stand yet). And the boy gets mad if we don't share food with him! So at about 5 1/2 months we started introducing a little bit of food. We've let him taste too many things to make an exclusive list, but these are main foods he has tried so far:

• rice cereal
• oatmeal cereal
• peas
• bananas
• apple sauce
• pumpkin

Ammon also likes to chew on our pizza crusts, brownie crumbs, and other miscellaneous taste-tests of whatever we are willing to give him.

We started feeding him solids at dinner-time every other day, but the last few days he has been eating a small bowl of solids at pretty much every meal. The kids think it is fun to feed him--even if it does mean a little extra mess to clean up.

He's also been getting extra giggly and smiley. Maybe because he is getting into everything. He especially likes Grant's flip flops (don't worry, I take them away) and paper (mainly in the form of books). He likes to play peek-a-boo, and our newest tradition is a round or two of peek-a-book with the blanket when he gets put in his bed. This also seems to help to keep him from crying when he realizes that he is getting put into bed. :)

On another note, the Fall and Halloween decorations are up, hooray! Logan informed me that he was worried I wouldn't keep my promise (I've been telling him for the past few days that we would put them up), so whew! I am a lady of my word. Grant stuffed a huge brownie in his mouth when I wasn't looking, and before he had eaten his food, so I actually stuck my hand in his mouth full of teeth and pulled it out and threw it away. It isn't my most pleasant memory. Grant's finger also warrants a picture because it looks pretty spooky. You can see under half his fingernail, which is all black and gruesome, and it will surely fall of in the next little while. Joe went out to dinner with a guy from UT, so I made a teriyaki-chicken stir-fry with ramen noodles. It wasn't that bad, but the thought of it makes me shudder. Also, I was really faithful in doing couch to 5k for 2 weeks, but then I missed 2 weeks. Oops.

Chapter 30: Making It

(Ammon's first big-boy bath with Grantee)

(What I found when I downloaded pictures. . . + several shots of door frames, drawer knobs, and carpet.)

How do you define chapters in your life? By years? Moves? Births? Deaths? First days of school? Do you ever take a minute (or hours) to remember memories that happened over the course of your memories? Does it feel like those events happened to another person, or like your life is a movie you watched? I don't quite know how to describe the feeling, I guess I am assuming you know what I mean.

There is a song in the musical Wicked called "Thank Goodness." It shares some pretty insightful lines about happiness, but one of my favorite parts of the song says,

There are bridges you cross
You didn't know you crossed
Until you've crossed

Anyway, I was just thinking about that. There are definitely some chapters that are more clearly defined than others: graduating from school, the birth of a first child, moving from one state to another, starting a new job, being released from a calling. Then there are those chapters that you look back and realize they have closed without you even knowing it: becoming an adult, watching your kids grow up, letting go of a tragedy or sadness, overcoming a challenge or trial (probably the biggest "bridge" we don't know we've crossed until we can look back and see the bridge behind us).

So today I am defining chapters by years. I can remember hanging on the monkey bars when I was 7, wearing a purple dress and parading around outside with a purple umbrella, going to the store and blowing all of my money on 2 Barbie dolls and then having buyer's remorse for the rest of my life. Ten years ago I was 20. I was newly married and living in China with my sweetheart. Boy was that fun! In less than a month we will celebrate Logan's birthday and he will get baptized! I turned 30! I think we opened and closed a lot of chapters this year. . . baby, moving, birthdays, callings, work, new school, friends, furniture (yay! got it yesterday!), accomplishments. I think we're doing ok--even great! We're making it.*

*This is how I get through life. . . I tell myself: in 10 years this (broken dish, speeding ticket, bombed test, etc) won't mean a thing. We will make it because there is no other choice. And there isn't! Come What May and Love it! (<---click on it)

Fire Mantel Again

I got brave and asked a lady in our ward who has some serious decorating style if she would help me with the mantel. She came over and gave me some ideas that never crossed my mind--like a big flower arrangement in the middle (she let me try one of hers out to see how it looked), a clock in the middle, and an easel to help with height. I like the bold lines better than the flowers, but I think the clock might be too small for the space. Also the "stuff" on the sides are things I already had and used just to see how it looked. The teapot is down too low and the flowers are fallish, which might work for now but not long term. I like more bold and simple designs without a lot of clutter. I also believe decor should have form and function, so I don't want to buy a lot of "things" just for show. I like the China things because they remind me of the people I knew and time I spent in China. Hmmm. . . I just emailed her these pictures to get an updated opinion. She's probably cringing. :) Which one do you like, and do you have any suggestions for "stuff" on the sides?

p.s. click here to see a site that has some good fire mantel ideas.