My complete ragamuffin Mary 
Emily wanted her pumpkin to have "pretty girl eyes" a "cute" nose a "pretty mouth" and "goofy"ears. She also wanted it to have a cup by the mouth, too (?). 
So, I went to get an oil change for our van today and we actually had a really nice experience. We went to Autotrends downtown. I had the girls - who were looking like orphans in their pajamas and who weren't exactly in great moods - and the workers at Autotrends were GREAT! I didn't get one nasty look even though they were running around a little and they were making a big mess. In fact, they were all smiles and offered us food and drinks and said the girls were so cute (right there is the perfect way to get my good opinion!). They were probably cursing after we left, but they were nothing but kindness and accomodation while we were there. And, I really appreciate that. As a mom I'm self-conscious enough about having my kids in a confined place for an extended period of time without people (through looks or comments) reminding me that I'm "In way over my head". Speaking of which. I really don't like the comment "You sure have your hands full!" I know that most people making that comment are just trying to make conversation, but sometimes I feel like it's code for "Man, you have too many kids!" or "You are in way over your head!" (as referenced earlier). Anyway. I'm sure that says more about my own insecurities than about other people's intentions. Oh well.
Let's have a party!
My freshman roommate had these ridiculously stretchy pajama pants, and every night she would dance around saying in a sing-song voice "I'm not tired. Let's have a party!" Well, we all adopted it, and it became a bit of a mantra. My family thought it was fitting, because I never wanted to go to bed or do anything serious if I could help it. It was party, party, party, all the time. (Wow. I've sure gotten boring!) Well, tonight, a shadow of that returned in the next generation. I haven't said "I'm not tired, let's have a party!" in years. I don't think I've said it within earshot of my daughter (not purposefully, I just haven't been in the habit of saying it since having kids. I think if I did say it, it would be modified to "I'm exhausted, let's have a nap!") But, tonight, I was putting the girls to bed, and Emily, as usually was all wound up and rolling around her bed. I told her it was bed time, and she said "It's not bedtime. It's time for a party!" I just thought it was funny. It set me reminiscining about a time when I could stay up past midnight without dreading the consequences.
I found an awesome recipe for pie crust. It's especially good for fruit pies. It's method is way different than I've ever heard of and it's much less finicky than normal pie crust. So in honor of the fast approaching wonderful holiday season, here it is.
3 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp ice water
1 tbsp white sugar
1 cup shortening (I use butter flavored because I like the flavor better)
Combine flour, salt, b. powder, and sugar. Put 1/2 cup of the flour mixture in a small bowl and add the ice water to the small bowl. Stir until smooth. Cut shortening into the remaining flour mixture. Stir the flour/water mixture into the shortening mixture. Form into a ball, wrap and chill. Roll out as normal. This is a double crust recipe. - I found this recipe on allrecipes.com (which I LOVE) and it was submitted by "rocky".
I'm going to go make a blueberry pie now.
I love Mr. Magorium's Wonder Imporium! It is most definitely one of my favority movies. We watched again tonight. I just love it! I love the message of living life to the fullest and realizing your full potential and recognizing the childlike wonder of every day. It just lifts my soul! It is definitely a must see!
I'm also very grateful for chocolate pudding on bathroom walls - because that means it's not what I originally thought it was!
Last night we had a family home evening on Gratitude. I decided to add my own list to the things we talked about last night.
Emily slept all night! Yesterday we went and bought a "special" nightlight shaped like a star. We put it in the outlet by her door and Matt told her that she could just look at it whenever she's afraid. He also said that the light wouldn't let anyone pass except Mom, Dad, Mary, Emily and Joe. Are white lies like that bad? But, hopefully we've turned a corner!
Joe's best friend is coming to visit. She moved to Virginia earlier this year, and he misses her a lot! Every morning he wakes up and tells me how many days until she will be here. Well, it is tomorrow and he just can't even contain himself! We're excited for "D", "N", "A", and "G" to come!!
She found a page of alphabet stickers and thought they made good make up I guess. She was so proud of herself.
In case you can't tell, she's wearing a grass skirt, a flower hat and fairy wings.
Emily is in that wonderful stage of starting to be afraid of the dark. She refuses to go to sleep after we turn out the light (sometimes she falls asleep while we're still reading bedtime stories). She just sits there and cries. I gave her a teddy bear, and that worked for a couple of nights, but now she's too smart for that - she wants mom or dad! If she wakes up in the middle of the night she screams bloody murder until one of us comes. She usually wakes up at 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
So, last night I talked to her again about saying a prayer when she's afraid and also about how our house is safe and there aren't any ghosts/monsters/bad guys in our house. Matt tells her they're all afraid of her dad and won't come in.
So, after all of those conversations she said she was still afraid, so I told her to think about something she likes. She's obsessed with Dora right now so I told her to think about Dora. Then I asked "Do you think Dora would be afraid of the dark?" She said "No." I said, "Why do you think Dora wouldn't be afraid?" And without skipping a beat she said,"Because her mom doesn't turn off the light!"
Isn’t it amazing the amount of power we have given to our federal government? If I remember right, back when our Nation was just getting started the biggest concern everyone had was that a centralized government would get too much power. Most argued that the individual States should be given most of the power. It was agreed that the federal government would have just enough power to coordinate between the states to ensure the protection and freedom of the member States.
Why have we drifted so far from that?
I blame two main things, though I am interested in hearing what others think (Do you think it is a good thing we have given the federal government so much power? Why?)
First, I blame our society’s ever increasing avoidance of responsibility. It is never anyone’s fault and to help blame someone we have given all the power (so that the “buck” supposedly stops somewhere) to a centralized government. This way we have someone to blame if things are bad (if they are good of course we all think we can take sole credit). Unfortunately this causes two things to occur in our centralized government. We get a bunch of folks running for office who want that power. They crave it. In reading stories of our founding fathers it seems that few of them sought for power and prestige. They simply sought for the good of their people. If you have never read it, I recommend you read George Washington’s Farewell Address (you should be able to run a search on the web and get it fairly easily). This desire for power by our current representatives does not always come with a desire for our welfare and the knowledge necessary to protect and serve (i.e. Barack Obama and John McCain, though to a lesser extent McCain, being great examples). We also get to see the blame game. When something goes wrong it is the “other” parties fault in government. If we can’t blame the other party then we blame one of the other branches of our government. If things go well then of course it is one party’s, or branches, success. This bickering and posturing by our government officials is one of the greatest causes for our nation’s problems. We have become so concerned with who is right we have lost sight of what is right (I am not sure who first said that, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind).
Second, I blame our ignorance and laziness in general. This laziness and ignorance makes it so that whoever yells the loudest gets heard. Instead of listening to a news report and then going and doing our own research, we take the story at its face value. Of course the loudest tends to be not what the majority need or want, and tends to be the most emotional position (therefore lacking some logic). We have focused so much on the few who are in the federal government we have lost track of those who are running our state. I personally believe our state government political races should get more coverage than the national political races. As a great example, if you are interested in economics, take a look at the recent testimony from New York’s insurance superintendent Eric Dinallo regarding the recent AIG congressional hearings. I bet you didn’t know that at least one state has found a way to mostly regulate the current unregulated CDS market (which is yet another problem we are currently facing due to our economic problem, see my other post), which should limit the need for our federal government to step in but they will and are anyway. They are going to do that, not because they need to, but because they want to have the power and they want us to know they have the power. Of course if it backfires then it was George Bush’s fault (by the way, does anyone else find it funny that Barack Obama keeps “blaming” George Bush for this free market system our country is running on? Nevermind that this system was established at our nation’s founding, or that it is what made our nation as strong and proud as it is today, yes I believe it is still strong and proud. Nevermind that some of the top economists over the centuries have pushed for a freer market system).
I know that there are several good arguments as to why we have centralized our government, but I don’t believe they are as strong as the arguments for stronger local government. Let me know what you think though.
Triumph today! Joe has been slowly making steps toward learning to read. He learned his letters and sounds and writes (copies) short sentences. Tonight, we were reading, and I had him read some of the smaller words that I knew that he knew. Then we picked up The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. I helped him sound out about 1/3 of the words, and he did the rest himself. He was SOOOO excited when he was done. He just kept saying "I read the whole thing! I did it!" I am almost as excited as he is. As referenced in my last post, I love reading. There's not too much better than snuggling up for a quiet afternoon with a fabulous book. And now that whole world is starting to open up to Joe. I have been really excited to share that with him for a long time, but I kept having to rein myself in. Joe gets discouraged very easily, so I need to make sure I let him take things at his own pace. But, now, I think he's ready and I am so excited for him!! I'm proud of you, Joe!!
We went to the library yesterday for the first time in almost two months! I know, shocking, right? So, I've been reading books that we own (books that I have read at least twice). An old familiar title that you love dipping into is fine once in awhile, but I have been craving something new - and good. I've gotten quite a few stinkers lately and that's just not cool! Well, I am also reading a book with Matt, but it's just not the same when you read a book out loud. So, we went to the library. I got five books to read over the next few weeks, and it has already been wonderful! When I started reading the first book yesterday, I felt like I had been eating only stale bread for months and suddenly someone gave me a warm gooey brownie with a cold glass of milk. So, if I don't answer my phone for a while, you'll know why. See you later! I'm going to go read now!
One night, for the kids bedtime story, I made up a silly story about a girl who turned into a blueberry because that's all she would ever eat. They LOVED it and begged me to tell it again and again. Fast forward to last Friday. I was fixing my hair in my bathroom when Emily came screaming into the bathroom. She showed me her finger which she had gotten messy in some kind of blue ink (probably a marker). I said, "It's okay, we'll wash it off." That set her off again and she screamed, pulling her finger into her chest. "No! Owy, Mom! Blueberry! Blueberry!" I was eventually able to convince her that she really wasn't turning into a blueberry. The power of fiction in the hands of a child.
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During Conference, Joe made a comment, and I said, "I agree, Joe. I agree."
Emily responded, "You're not a gree! You're a mom!"
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This afternoon, Joe said "Mom, I want to be a heart attack when I grow up."
"A heart attack?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said.
"What's a heartattack?" I asked.
"That's someone who builds things."
"An architect?" I clarified.
"Yeah, yeah. An architect," Joe said.
Today we participated in the first annual Family Olympics. It was a day of triumphs, disappointments and overcoming the odds. Hearts were broken as dreams were decimated into so many specks of dust, and heroes were made.
The history of these games started on a quiet morning in the Hicken household. Their's was a simple dream of enjoying conference with their children playing sweetly by their side. This dream soon turned into sugar injected chaos as the children rebelled against too many hours of waiting in anticipation of General Conference and far too much unstructured time - a problem they hadn't encountered in Utah where conference starts at 10:00 (shortly after breakfast). Out of adversity sprung the triumph. With a family tradition that not only envigorated the mind and strengthened the body but deepened the bond that they shared, these Olympics have succeeded in creating the peaceful family environment that for so long seemed a distant dream, but could now be a supreme reality.
"Third's not so bad!"
20 Yard Dash Medal ceremony
The triatholon. A test of will. A test of broad ability. A test of patience!
Including Balloon Kick, Diving, and Shotput
Joe made the winning kick in the balloon kick, narrowly edging out Dad.
Diving.
This stunning 1 1/2 twist with a backwards landing won Joe the top marks of the day.
Holding nothing back! Emily gets top score for guts!
The triatholon Medal Ceremony
Joe won two golds (and he made all of the medals)
So, I just downloaded the latest batch of pictures from my camera and there were pictures from Emily's birthday - three weeks ago!! So, my sweet middle child -
Mary is part of the fun as usually
Cute JoeTrue love is letting your child watch Dora the Explorer within earshot
True love is letting your child feel the consequences of their actions when what you really want to do is scoop them up and hug them and tell them that saying "sorry" is enough.
True love is getting up with a crying one year old in the middle of the night because you know your wife is tired.
True love is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with raisins, no crusts.
True love is buckets of dirty diapers changed and potty accidents cleaned.
True love isn't pretty, but true love is beautiful!
The other night at dinner, Joe said "Nathan always follows me around at recess. He just follows me and follows me and I don't know why." He has said this before, so I didn't make much of a reply. Then he was quiet for a little while, and added, "Maybe he follows me because he's my best friend."
I said "He's your best friend?"
Joe said, "Yeah. Nathan's my best friend and we play super heroes at recess. Maybe that's why he follows me."
Yeah. That might have something to do with it!
