Random Pictures...

Why Taylor should not climb trees...

Jessica and Lexi after their church "Virtue Pageant."  They tied for first place (along with all of the other girls who entered.)  It was very cute.

Jessica's "P" party.  Princesses, pajamas, pizza...

9 inches gone...

Before:

After:

Us

What I would give to live a day in Elli's body.  To experience the world as she does for just 24 hours.  It would be a growing opportunity in many ways.  I would be able to empathize with her on a completely different level.  I'm sure I would develop a greater appreciation of many of the normal day-to-day things in my life.  But the primary reason I would like the chance to be Elli for a day is so that I could know how much she understands.

Is she completely oblivious to almost everything around her?  Does she understand everything around her but just isn't able to respond to it appropriately?  Most likely it's somewhere in between.  How I wish I could find out.  Perhaps some future technology will allow her to break free of her bonds to a greater extent.

Last night I had one of those little glimpses.  A moment where she put together a concept I thought would be above her.  When Christi tucked her into bed, she asked for me.  I went down and cuddled with her for a few minutes.  I started to play a game.  I sang her name up and down a major chord: Elli, Elli, Elli, Elli, Elli.  I did it a couple of times and she just listened.  Then I sang Taylor's name: Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor.  Not surprisingly, she picked up on what I was doing and sang another sibling's name: Parker, Parker, Parker, Parker, Parker.  We went through several family members and she seemed to enjoy it.  One time she sang Me, Me, Me, Me, Me.  I responded with, "You, You, You, You, You."  She thought for a moment, then sang "Us, Us, Us, Us, Us."  Her ability to combine You and Me into Us was that glimpse.  Not a major accomplishment, and yet something I would not have anticipated she could do.  It is good to get these reminders that she is clearly understanding more than I realize.  Ah, Elli, someday I will get to truly know you and your special, special spirit.

On a completely unrelated note, Christi has put me on a strict diet.  Yesterday was day one, and boy did I feel the effects of caloric restrictions.  It was all I could do to ward off Grumpy Mr.  The first phase lasts three weeks.  Later we'll work into a plan that has a bit of leeway with some things, but for the next 20 days it is extremely regimented.  Ah, well.  It's been a long time coming.  Hopefully I'll have a little less middle and a little more energy when we're done!

-Jer

Metal Mouth

Parker got braces last month.  It's so crazy to see our kids go through phases that I vividly remember.  Parker's our third to get them on.  We got good news about Cali, though...she doesn't need braces!  That's a nice chunk of change we'll save:)

-Jeremy

Lone Peak 2013

My third Friday in September in a sleeping bag was on  Lone Peak.  Our sixth annual trip!  It's fun to compare pictures from other years and see how much the boys have grown.  I can't believe they were  just seven and nine the first time we went.  I also can't believe I carried the boys' packs half-way up on one of my arms because they got too tired.  Well, they carry their own weight now!  I am so proud of those two boys.  (I am so proud of ALL my kids, but this post is about a camping trip with the two of them;)  I am constantly grateful for the opportunity to associate with them.  They are great men.  They will do great things.  They will (and do) have a lasting and important impact on the world and the people around them.

This year Taylor, Parker and I were joined by my brother, Tyler.  He's been up before, but it's been years.  We had a great time with no major mishaps, which is the exception to the rule.:)  The waterfall was as beautiful as ever.  I got as little sleep as I always do up there.  (As we were getting into our sleeping bags I told Tyler: "Well, this will be the best worst-night's-sleep I have all year!")  But in spite of the lack of sleep and the achy muscles when I get back, I look forward to our trip every time.  There are so many facets to why I love it.  It's a spiritual experience up there.  Multiple prophets in the Bible experienced marvelous visions and revelations on mountain tops.   I haven't had any visions, but I have had some promptings up there over the years.  The views are as beautiful as any I've ever seen.  The hike itself, while exhausting, is very fulfilling.  Probably something like a runner feels when he crosses the finish line of a long race.

It's a great tradition.  The boys hope to go up there someday with their own kids.  Hopefully I'll be up to a trip or two even then.  My goal is to keep doing it until I'm 70.  Better lay off those doughnuts!

-Jeremy

Tyler got rid of a large tree branch that was hanging dangerously over our campfire area. 

View from the top

Oh, no! Taylor's barely hanging on!

This is me.  Still brave enough at 41 to jump in that cold mountain water!

Laws of Life

Murphy's Law:  Anything that can go wrong, will.

Hanlon's Razor:  Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Green's Theorem:  Random difficulties are infinitely more likely to occur when only one parent is present.

I was on the home stretch.  Get the kids off to school and all is well.  One little appointment for Lexi and then Christi will be home and the universe will once again be in alignment.  So simple.  But of course our life couldn't be quite that easy.  

Our morning scripture study starts at 6:25. I usually get up at 6:20.  At 5:59 I woke up to a shuffling noise in my room.  It's always just a bit eerie to sleep by myself, so knowing someone else was by my bed gave me a bit of an adrenaline rush.  I figured it was one of the kids, but I must say I was relieved when I turned on the light and saw Jesi's face and not some guy in a ski mask.  (Side note:  we LOVE having light switches right by our bed:)  Sophi and Lexi were whispering in their room.  Jesi had determined this fact was important enough to our family's wellbeing that she needed to wake me up and let me know.  Of course, the worst thing that would have happened if Lexi and Sophi continued to talk was they would have woken me up...

I told Jess that it was OK as long as they were being quiet, and that she should go back to sleep.  (Judging from the completely-ready-for-school state she was in upon arriving in my room for scriptures 20 minutes later, I'm guessing she never made it into bed.)  I had an excruciating headache, so I took some ibuprofen and laid back down for 20 minutes.  Just drifted back off when Jesi came in and turned on the lights.  "Time for scriptures."  Head throbs.  I look at the clock.  6:15.  "Um, Jess.  Scriptures start at 6:25."  "Oh.  OK."  Lights go off.  Head throbs.  I just drift off when my alarm rings.  

After scriptures the older kids are sensitive enough to my lack of skills to realize I need extra time to get everyone to school.  They all volunteer to have school lunch instead of home.  Grateful, I tell them my head is killing me and I'm going to sleep until about 7.  You guessed it.  I finally drift off and the alarm rings.  

The older kids are almost entirely self-sufficient in the morning, so we say family prayer and then I help Cali out to the carpool.  It's now 7:28.  By 7:40 I have to have Elli up, Lexi bathed and hair washed and leave for school with Elli, Lexi, Sophi, Jesi and Xander.  I have to be back by 8am because Lexi is having a 3-day EEG and the technician will be arriving between 8 and 10.  I'm hoping it's not right at 8, because Lexi is supposed to have her hair washed and dried before the tech arrives.  Also, Elli's bus arrives at 8:15.  The race is on.  

Ask Jesi to go get Elli from her room and bring her upstairs.  Throw Lexi in the tub.  Wash her hair.  (Because of the EEG she can't use conditioner.  How is that going to work?)  Get her out.  "Jess, can you get Lexi dressed?"  Cut up an apple and spread peanut butter on a plate for Elli.  "Thanks for getting Lexi dressed.  Can you get Sophi out to the van?"  Hand peanut butter and apples to Xander.  "Can you feed Elli while we drive to school?"  Hand Jess the van keys at her request.  Apparently say "yes" when she asks if she can start the van.  Lock up.  Head out to the van and realize Jesi is filling our garage with carbon monoxide.  Give a quick lesson on why not to start a car when the garage door is shut.  Last thing I hear as I shut the side door is Sophi's plaintive cry, "I don't want to die!"

Jess and Xander are at school.  We are headed back. We'll make it home by 8, but if the EEG tech is there before 8:15 I won't have time to dry Lexi's hair.  I drive up to the home and open the garage door.  I pull in.  My phone rings.  EEG tech has the wrong address but is close.  Give her the right address.  She will be here in 20 seconds.  Not good.  I get the girls and walk in the house.  It's very dark.  Several things are beeping.  I'm focused on Elli and Lexi and don't put things together very quickly.  I turn on the light.  Only the light doesn't turn on.  I try it again.  What is going on???  The electricity is out.  You've got to be kidding me.  Sometime between opening the garage door and flipping the light switch we lost power.  

I yell out the front door to EEG lady (Tena.)  Do you need electricity for what you're doing?  'Cuz ours seems to be out.  She does indeed.  She has us scheduled for a two-hour appointment, so she comes in to wait for awhile.  I usher her into the living room, apologize for the wet hair and my lack of ability to be in the room with her and I rush off to get Elli dressed.  There are still at least three loud beeps coming every 10 seconds.  New house-I have no idea where they're coming from.  One starts to be overpoweringly obnoxious.  I track it to our security system and turn that beeper off. I start taking the duct tape off of Elli's clothes.  (It worked last night.  YEAH!!!)  Elli fights me, making it even more challenging.  (Ever left duct tape on clothing overnight and then tried to remove it in the morning?  The warmth of the body stickifies it even more than already ridiculously adhesive duct tape normally is.  It can be a bit challenging.)  Clothes off.  BEEP. Help her use the bathroom.  BEEP.  Pull-up on.  BEEP.  Complete stranger in the living room talking to Lex and Soph.  BEEP.  Clothes on.  BEEP.  Looking for socks.  Can only find socks with the toes cut off (for Soph).  BEEP.  Suddenly realize that one of the beeps is the computer backup battery.  BEEP.  Turn off computer and backup.  BEEP.  (Man that thing's obnoxious!  What is it?  Don't have time to look since bus will be here momentarily.)  BEEP.  Find socks and shoes.  Put them on.  BEEP.  Put on harness.  BEEP.  "I'm taking Elli out to the bus.  Sorry to leave you alone in here.  Be back in a minute!"  BEEP.  Get Elli on the bus.

Take a deep breath.

Back inside.  Notice that Tena is now doing Lexi's hair.  Maybe it was a good thing I didn't get very far with that.  She'll do a much better job than I could have.  BEEP.  Start looking for the beep.  BEEP.  Track it down to the elevator.  BEEP.  Realize it's likely a backup battery like I have for the computer.  BEEP.  Flip a couple of big power switches in the control room.  Wait.  Wait.  SILENCE.  Glory be!

I finally have a minute to talk to Tena.  She explains that there is a fair amount of prep before she needs the electricity, so she'll get that done and see how things are.  By the time she's got Lexi's hair braided and marker all over her head for the spots where the EEG goes, the electricity still isn't on.  She can come back later, but perhaps we have a relative locally and could go there instead.  Hmmm.  Where could we possibly go that has electricity?  Hmmm.  How about our other house that hasn't sold yet?  So we pack a couple of camp chairs and head out.

Tena fixes Lexi up good.  I believe she has 23 wires attached to her!  Pretty cute.  Tena is enamored with Lex and Soph.  We finish up with not a second to spare.  Got to rush back home and get Sophi ready for her bus.  Pull up to the house and the granite repair guy is sitting and waiting in his car for us.  Electricity is back.  YEAH!  Show Raul the crack in the granite.  Tell him I can talk in several minutes once Sophi is on the bus.  Take her to the bathroom.  Change her clothes.  Feed her a frozen GuGurt.  Rush out to the bus.  Apologize for the hair and the lack of a coat.  Explain that mom isn't here and dad is an imbecile.  Driver agrees.

Take a deep breath.

-Jer

All Alone

Solitude.  Don't get too much of it around here.  Christi needed some this weekend so she headed down to Ferron to stay with her parents for the weekend.  This is her third night away.  That means I'll be getting the kids off to school in the morning.  We'll have to see how that goes:)  This was also a chance for Christi to see her Grandpa.  His health is deteriorating, and she wanted to spend some time with him.  So the title of this post could apply to her.

I was thinking more of me.  As in "All alone with nine kids for 66 straight hours and trying to maintain my sanity."  Or something like that.  First priority...everyone is alive.  Second...everyone has been fed.  In addition to that, we've actually kept the house fairly clean.  My hopes to finish building the shelves in our cold storage room took a hit when Christi decided to leave.  To overcome the lack of time I had during the day on Saturday, I made the rather stupid decision to stay up Saturday night until the shelves were done.  Let's just say it was deep into the am hours when I finally went to bed last night.  But the shelves are in!  We can move a ton of boxes out of the playroom and into the food storage area. Of course my lack of sleep made it rather challenging to make it through today.  We got to church (albeit 20 minutes late).  Parker did Sophi's hair (and it looked great).  Jesi did Lexi's hair.  'nuff said.  Thanks to both of them for their help!  

The kids were really wonderful all weekend.  They pitched in and helped.  Parker volunteered to make dinner Friday night.  The older kids all helped with the younger kids.  I took some time to play with kids and talk to kids one on one.  The most challenging part was Elli.  She definitely missed her mommy and wanted to let us all know it!  She also got past the duct tape last night and I was greeted with a nasty, diaper-eating mess when I got her up this morning.

We were able to survive this weekend, and even do some fun and productive things.  But we are clearly not complete without sweet Christianne.  We all miss her and look forward to seeing her tomorrow!

-Jer

More camping

The weekend after I went with the boys, Jesi, Graci, Cali, Lexi and I went on our annual daddy daughter campout.  This is the third year we've done this, and it seems like there another girl each time?!?  Go figure.

In the past we've gone to Clover Springs Campground.  To me, this is just about a perfect campground.  Beautifully nestled in a canyon, there are few campsites, few people and few intrusions on the serenity of the great outdoors.  Very little light pollution lends itself to fantastic night skies.  I love it!  Unfortunately, this year we were running a bit late, so instead of making the 70 minute drive to Clover Springs, we went to a campground that's about 15 minutes from our home.  Willow park was probably fairly remote at one time, but suburban sprawl has completely surrounded it at this point.  It has fairly busy roads all around it, a gazillion people camping in it and tons of light pollution obscuring all but the brightest of stars.  I was a bit disappointed, but kept my feelings to myself so the girls could form their own opinions.

At first, Jessici was a bit put off by the number of people we saw as we drove around to find an individual site.  Fortunately we were able to find one on the edge of the campground with few people right by us.  Once we got to setting up camp, Jesi seemed ok.  But once she took a trip to the restroom, she thought we'd stumbled upon the Garden of Eden.  She came rushing back from the loo and breathlessly exclaimed, "There are REAL toilets in there!  They flush and everything!!!  And sinks, too!!!  I love it here!!!!!"  I now know the first question we should ask when evaluating recreational venues for our girls:)  I wonder what Jess would say if she knew that Taylor, Parker and I will soon be embarking on a camping trip where we'll use these...;)

Willow Park was probably the better campground for Cali.  Flatter areas for her wheelchair and better bathroom facilities.  The picnic table was sitting on a raised concrete platform about three inches above ground level.  Cali repeatedly went up and down the ledge on her own.  Only once did she do a nose dive, but she got right up with a smile on her (slightly dirty) face.

Camping with the girls is a bit different than going with the boys.  Instead of talking about sports and hiking, we talk about make believe kingdoms and the royal inhabitants thereof.  Instead of, "we can set up the tent for you," it's "Daddy, how do you pound in one of these pointy things?"  But it's just as fun, and a wonderful, tender memory.  Thanks, my sweet dollies, for still wanting to spend the weekend with dad.  I better treasure it while it lasts!

Love,

Jer

The Great Outdoors

Three consecutive Fridays in September I slept in a sleeping bag!  (Two of those were in a tent, one was under the stars.)  The first weekend was the annual father and sons campout with other dads and sons from our congregation.  We went to a beautiful site up Provo canyon.  When we arrived we were disappointed to find out that this particular campground did not allow campfires.  Fortunately we were able to overcome this substantial obstacle and have fun anyway:)

We had heard in advance that there would be crafts for the kids.  Taylor, Parker and I were all a bit skeptical of "crafts" at a father and son camp.  I think we envisioned quilting frames and knitting needles.  But it turned out to be a lot of fun.  First of all we made those survival bracelets that are all the rage right now.  Kind of cool.  The best part of the night, though, was the clay.  Someone had a leftover block of really nice modeling clay.  We worked with the stuff for over an hour and got more and more creative as time went by.  Here are a few examples of our work:

Loaded pick-up truck (Parker):

Toilet (Xander):

Cool dude (Parker):

Y from BYU (guess who...Taylor!):

Foot (Jeremy):

Shoe (Taylor):

Foot in Shoe (Taylor and Jeremy):

Yoda (some random kid, but it was too cool not to post it):

Despite the lack of a campfire we were determined to cook our s'mores!  Fortunately someone had brought along a lighter...

I'm exhausted, I'll write more about the other trips tomorrow!

Jeremy