The Foxiest Halloween Ever

HA-HA!  It worked!  This was my vision for our Halloween costumes this year and it worked!

Now, I'll give you one guess to figure out which of my little foxlings was not thrilled with my costume idea.  Look closely at the faces. 
Yes, it was "Angry Fox", the eldest of the Fox offspring.  Maybe he just looks like "Too Cool Fox".
There was no coercion involved... just a friendly reminder of who financially backed a really fun party with friends three days previous.
I pleaded that he could wear his Clark Kent costume that he'd put together to every single Halloween event, but please, just put on the "stupid orange sweatshirt" for the one family picture. 
What???  Did I overstep my boundaries?  Did I just blow all my emotional capital for one ridiculous family picture?

I DON'T CARE!!! I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!
It makes my heart so happy.  THIS!  This is my family as it looked when everyone was at home (except Tessa, but I like to think she is always with us).  Before anyone grew up and moved away.  For many years to come I will look at this picture and have such happy memories of family life in the thick of it.  THIS is what it was like. 
And maybe.. just maybe... someday this picture will bring a smile to "Too Cool Fox's" face as well.

It is pretty over-the-top, huh? 
Just the way we Foxes like it.

Just the kiddos.

At first Peter rejected his fox costume.  Not that surprising, seeing as how he and "Cool Fox" are cut from the same bolt.   But once he got used to it he loved it and got mad when he had to take it off.  Cool Fox hasn't quite gotten to that point yet.

I wonder if the kids will have trouble trick-or-treating?  If they aren't together, people may think it's the same kid just coming back for more. 

Not quite sure what look we were going for, but we obviously don't pull off "Sexy Fox" very well.

Now I shall share how these fantastic fox costumes came to be. 
First off, I spent way too much time finding cheap orange sweatshirts online.  I got nine for roughly $100.  Now, I'm just "frugal" enough to think that is a lot of money to spend on Halloween.  Except, when I consider that that is costumes for nine people, I think I'm pretty awesome.  Costumes in bulk... brilliant!
Next, I bought white faux fur for the tummies and orange, black and white felt for ears.

So far so good.
Oh, wait!  I have zippo, nada, zilch talent for piecing things together and sewing.  Not to mention my cheap-o sewing machine.
I call Andrea and beg her talents and expertise. 

And she is magnificent!  She puts together the most gorgeous quilts.  About four hours later we drove home with nine finished fox costumes.  As I've said before, I have very few actual skills or talents myself, except for finding and making friends with amazing people who do.
I hope that doesn't make me a user and abuser?  I really, really like them.  Does that make it okay? 
Anyway, I was so grateful and my girls and I had a wonderful girls night hanging out with Andrea and Raven.

For the record, I have intentions of becoming a much more skilled seamstress someday. 
... and you know what they say about good intentions.
You know... paving the way to... you know where.
Oh, well.

Ouch!

That is one FOXY family!

Pumpkin Carving 2016

Impressive, no?
Since I had nothing to do with the pumpkins' procurement or carving, it's not bragging of me to say so.  This is Abe's domain. 
Well done, Abe!

From the top left:  Greta's butterfly, Elinor's pineapple, Faith's monster, Peter's Fox, Bethany's Captain America.
From middle left:  Cannon's fangs, Clark's artistic masterpiece, George's classic jack-o-lantern
From bottom left:  Elinor's spooky clyclops, Tessa's heart, Betsy's ghost.

Peter has taken to this stuffed fox as of late.  The kids named it "Billy" for him and he sleeps with it and travels around town with it and generally derives a lot of pleasure from Billy's company.  So Abe made his pumpkin into Billy the Fox.

The carving is all done by Abe, Clark, and Elinor.  They are so diligent to carve jack-o-lanterns for the rest of us sorry souls.  We put on a great Pandora Halloween party station and keep the carvers company.  That's about all the rest of us can say for ourselves.

George posing with the inspiration for his pumpkin.

Cannon toyed around with the idea of carving, but mostly just wanted to wield a knife.

This picture was taken just over a week ago at the the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point.  The boys and Great and I took a quick jaunt around before we needed to go pick up Bethany from her Orchestra retreat over UEA weekend.  It was October perfection weather and I thoroughly enjoyed a date with four such handsome gentlemen.

And even a few days earlier Faith and friends kept busy making adorable Halloween costumes for her precious Beanie Boos.  Pretty cute, if I do say so.

 Yummy!

Snuggly.

Sweet.

Deliciously chubby!

Is It Too Early for a Halloween Hangover?

Can you have a Halloween hangover before it's even Halloween?
I'm just about partied and costumed out!

These were by far the scariest Halloween costumes I've seen this year--- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton came to the teens Halloween party on Thursday night. 
Shout out to Hillary's hair stylist!  I give no such compliments to Trump's hair person.

This was a fabulous moment when Clark's "Clark Kent" twin showed up at his own party.  It was totally unplanned.  Girls might have been horrified, but these guys were eating it up!

 One of my favorite costumes of the night.  Honestly, it took me a few seconds to figure out who this was.

Elinor with a favorite cousin, Gentri, the newsie.

A little Extreme Rock, Paper, Scissors.  This was pretty fun to watch.  They all simultaneously play with a partner and the loser has to follow the winner around to their next match chanting their name.  Then they both chant the name of the winner of that match, until eventually, there are two left and everyone else is chanting one of the two names.  Really loud, really fun.

Really fun and really loud is a very good description of the whole evening.  In this picture we see the actual moment that a kitchen chair got broken in a raucous game of musical chairs.

 "Hu-Wah" is one of our favorite party games.  With a big group it is best out of doors.  Fortunately, the weather was so mild that we could do some activities outside.

What nice, nice kids these were.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching them interact and have fun.  Many of them didn't know each other, but they were willing to jump right in and have a great time. 

Ben showed up with his creepy clown marionette again and Clark nearly threw him out!  "You're creepy clown isn't welcome here!"
I like how the little kids are hanging around in all the pictures.  The big kids are pretty good sports with their many little sidekicks. 

They played a great game in which they divided into several groups and worked out one minute skits of well-known movie stories.  Then they had to perform it in shorter and shorter time amounts, until eventually they had to do it in 5 seconds.  Very clever they were. 

Faith got to invite one friend over for the party. 

 We had two Halloween parties on Friday night-- the first was a party at Cannon's dance studio for families.  Peter really got a kick out of the cakewalk game.  At first there were several kids playing and and Faith walked around with him.  Afterwards, he just really liked walking around the circle to the music.  I should remember this idea at home to burn off extra energy in the winter. 

Poor Bethany must have partied too hard the night before because she woke up sick, sick, throw up sick on Friday morning.
No, actually, Faith had been sick a couple days earlier and it spread. 
Bethany was very sad to miss our Friday night parties.

The second party was at my cousin Toni's beautiful new home in Draper.  She is a party thrower!   Holy smokes!  The house was so decorated and she had so many fun games and prizes and treats for the kids, plus tons of delicious food and desserts.  Oh, my!  It was Halloween Heaven!  And for George, the great collector of all things valuable and not so valuable... well, you can imagine. 
Come to think of it, trick-or-treating is as good as it gets for him.  He doesn't usually treasure things long-term, rather, it is the act of collecting that he loves. 
Psychology people, help me out--- there has to be a diagnosis for that?

What a cute little mummy George made!

 I liked this picture of the little foxes playing an old fashioned arcade.

Halloween is kind of like summer, in that we are expected to have fun.  Fortunately, it's only a few days of unrestrained fun.  Summer is too long-- it's stressful to have that much fun.  Halloween is great because you throw caution to the wind for just a bit and then... BAM!  Back to your school work.  Just one more day of fun (actual Halloween tomorrow) and then I can crack the whip again.

A Grand Adventure

I read this article this week.

It's about a family that I think I'd really like.  Go ahead, check out the link.  

That lady looks just like somebody I'd love to be friends with.

It's a homeschooling family with 9 children (several adopted from China).  They are traveling the country in an RV for a year with the goal of having a grand adventure and squeezing the most out of every drop of time they have together before their oldest leaves home.  They have some sort of mult-million dollar business and work from home, so money isn't really an object.  She said lots of people said this was their dream, so they said, "Why not?  Let's do it!"  Good for them.  

My first thought was YES!  I'd love to do that!  I'd love to escape the ho-hum life of commitments and obligations and places to be.  I love my big family and my oldest will be leaving soon.  We love to spend time together and I love the idea of hardly any material possessions to worry about and care for.  There are so many parts of the country-- the world-- I wish we could go explore with our kids.  I want them to know what's out there-- that the world is bigger and different than our cozy corner of Utah.  Sign me up for that kind of family road trip!

But then I thought some more.  

I don't disapprove of this family's choice to pick up and leave it all behind for a year, but I thought about why it's not really what I want to do.  

I'd like to make the case for staying put and sticking it out.  Make a case for the "ho-hum" life of consistently showing up and following through with our goals and commitments in our realm.

1.  The Miracle of Showing Up

I am a fervent believer that opportunities and accomplishments come by regular, consistent hard work.  Scratch that.  They come by regular, consistent work.  It isn't usually that hard of work.  As my sister-in-law described it-- "The Miracle of Showing Up".  You just keep at it.  Day in, day out.  Go to the class, do the practicing.  You are shaped and you become what you want to be.  This is true for sports, music, academics, cooking, blogging, the gospel.  You name it.  Just consistently keep at it and miraculously you can become things and do things you once could not do.

If you take off big chunks of time to adventure, it's harder to consistently work at the goals you have.  For our family, (and I understand other families have different goals), but for our family, our kids are expected to regularly practice at their chosen activities.  The deal is, if we pay for you, you practice it.  Bethany with her violin, Elinor with piano, Faith with gymnastics, Cannon with dance.  For our family, a year's interruption to lessons and classes would be problematic in their progression and development.

2.  We Have an Obligation to Those Around Us

When we were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we covenanted with our Heavenly Father to keep his commandments and serve him.  We believe that means, in part, serving our fellow men.  For Abe and I, that means accepting callings in our local congregation and actively looking for ways to help those around us.  Take a meal in, help move furniture, visit the sick and afflicted, mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort.  Our girls help tend neighborhood children.  I run a book club for neighborhood kids.  Clark helps out with youth service projects to do yard work for those in need.  I have the Cub scouts meet in my home each week.  Clark coaches a youth robotics team.  Abe drives a van load of kids to a choir rehearsal each Monday afternoon.  I lead the children singing at church.  Abe mentors young men at church.  Clark, Bethany, and Elinor lead their youth group classes.

All this service is a blessing to our family because we love those we serve.  We have deep, meaningful relationships with our neighbors and ward members.  We are a part of a village that is invested in us and our children.  Hopefully we bless them as they bless us.  If we take off in an RV for a year, we miss opportunities to deepen the ties through service that bind us to those around us.

Family relationships are TOPS.  They are eternal and everlasting, but the friendships forged through service are beautiful and fulfilling as well.  I love my family very much, but I believe that good, strong, sacrificing friendships serve to strengthen rather that detract from family bonds.

3.  Traditions and Roots

Game nights, carving pumpkins, piano recitals, putting up Christmas lights, Gardner Village, Bacon Wednesday, Temple Square, leprechaun hunts, pizza before trick or treats, town parade, visiting graves on Memorial Day,  New Years Eve party, raking leaf houses in the front yard, teen Halloween parties.  Just a few of the family traditions we look forward to each year.  We have roots here.  There is comfort in knowing what to expect as the year moves along.  Fun activities that can be counted on to be bright spots in the daily grind of life.

4.  Sometimes Life is a Grind.  Endure It

Yep, sometimes life is B-O-R-I-N-G.  Even in the most exciting and fun families, life is a grind sometimes.  A lot of times.  

You go to work, or you work from home.  You study, you do chores, you change diapers, you sweep the floor, you drive the carpool, you wait up for teenagers, you scrub the toilet, you make dinner, you get after kids to do the dishes.  

Remember this great quote?

 Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. Most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey–delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride. 

I want my children to have memories of beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed-- happy wonderful times that they can look back on and cherish for the rest of their lives.  And I also want them to be ready for the mundane parts.  I want them to have experienced family commitments and be prepared to stick it out when the going gets tough.  When they feel stretched thin as adults and the weight of family responsibilities press upon them, I want them to have a memory of parents who stuck it out day in and day out and tried unfailingly to provide a safe, stable environment.  I want them to feel comforted by memories and examples of service and friendships, of hard work and showing up everyday.  We won't be escaping in an RV for a year and for good or bad, we'll have to see the world through books.  Our grand adventure will, for the most part, be taking place in our own backyard and our own neighborhood.  

And while I'm sure we will miss opportunities that this good family in the article will have, (I'd still like to be her friend), I don't think it's the way for our family to get the most out of our time together.   Rather than fantasizing about dropping it all and taking off across the country, I think our family will be most benefited by hunkering down and showing up.

Thank you (I sound like one of my teenagers giving a speech)

A Walk in October

Last night our youth did a talent show for for their weeknight activity.  Families were invited to watch and all the talents were delightful.  I got quite a kick out of this moment when the Bishop and his wife started the cell phone flash lights while Clark and Bethany played "Bohemian Rhapsody". 
Shout out to my helpful Elinor standing up in the back with baby Greta.
Elinor and her duet partner Corrine played a lovely duet together that they'll be judged on at an upcoming Concerto and Duet Festival.

Our three youth also decided to perform the Cannon Family favorite car ride song-- "The Rice Krispie" song.

Allow me to share a struggle I've been having lately.  For several years I've walked several mornings a week with my good friend, Michelle.  She had a recent health scare-- and although it looks like she'll be fine, she's been out of walking commission for the last few weeks.  I am missing her terribly-- for lots of reasons.  One of which being, without a firm commitment to meet at a certain time in the morning, I cannot drag my lazy self out of bed before about 8:30.
Yes, yes, I know I am a nursing mom of a young baby, but seriously, I need exercise.  
My reasons for needing to exercise are not just to try to shrink this voluptuous figure, although that clearly should be a motivating factor. 
They are not even mostly for physical health, although that's an added benefit. 
DUDE!  It is for mental health reasons that I must move this body.  It's for clarity of mind.  It's for calm and patience.  It's so that I like my life.  When I walk alone I "pray walk".  That is just what it sounds like-- I pray while I walk.  It's an extremely effective way for me to communicate with my Heavenly Father.  I even close my eyes-- not for extended amounts of time, but you get the idea.  When I am in my house, there is no closet door thick enough to give me the same solitude and ability to focus as pray walking.  Pray driving can be good too, but you must not close your eyes while pray driving.  And it's not as effective as pray walking, as it lacks the deep breathing and fresh air.

I don't even have to do very much exercise.  Just a good brisk morning walk for 30 minutes will do the trick.  After a couple of weeks of meaning to get out in the morning, yesterday I had a plan.  I would put on my exercise clothes after my shower (it was just going to be a walk in cool weather, so sweat wouldn't be an issue).  I vowed I would not allow myself to put on my regular clothes until I had taken my neighborhood walkabout. 
FAIL.  I'm not one to wear my workout clothes to church functions, so I broke down and got dressed for the talent show.  No walk.

This morning, I finally did it.  I packed up the who kit and kaboodle-- Greta, Peter, coats, hats, gloves, blankets, double stroller.  The preparation alone was exhausting, but I DID IT!  And it was marvelous.  And I breathed deeply.  And I prayed blessings for the ones I love.  And I asked for guidance to be a better wife and mother.  And I expressed gratitude for a beautiful October world.  And I'm a whole lot happier with life today. 

The Piano

Sunday evening Abe, Bethany, Elinor, Greta, and I attended a piano concert in the beautiful penthouse apartment of our dear friend Andrea.  It overlooks Temple Square and is exquisite.   Occasionally she hosts a concert in her home-- last month it was a harpist graduating from BYU in harp performance that just took your breath away it was so good. 

 

 This past Sunday evening was Josh Wright.  What kind of piano teacher am I that I'd never heard of him?

You must simply go check him out at http://www.joshwrightpiano.com/

Andrea owns a very fine instrument.  It's a baby grand-- the kind I can only dream about owning someday.  But seriously, where would I even put it? 

 I digress.

She owns a beautiful instrument that is well-crafted, well-tuned and deserving to be well-played. 

I, too, own a piano.  It's nothing too fancy, but it's a good brand, holds it's tune and is played A LOT!  Between my own children practicing and daily piano lessons I teach, it does not want for attention.

There are thousands and thousands, probably many millions of pianos in the world.  Some are impressively shiny and sparkling new.   Others are many, many decades, if not centuries old, possessing the charm of generations of love and attention. 

Josh Wright began lessons when he was five years old.  Can you even imagine the hours he has put in?  Did he ever argue with his mom about practicing?  Maybe.  Probably.  He has dedicated his whole life to mastering this art.  I can only imagine what other activities he sacrificed to attain such a level of seeming perfection.  He was unbelievable!

Frankly, I did not even know a piano could do what he did to it!  I was practically in a trance listening to him perform.

I suppose I haven't been to many piano concerts beyond my own children's and student's piano recitals, where there are moments of relative accomplishment and brilliance, but nothing even near to what Josh Wright did.

This got me thinking.  All modern day acoustic pianos are constructed basically the same way.  They have the same number of keys, strings, little hammers, usually three foot pedals.  Josh Wright could sit down to just about any functional piano and make it do what he made Andrea's piano do.  

Assume for a moment that Andrea's piano had a mind and could think.  Sunday night it had to be thinking, "HOLY SMOKES!  I had no idea I had that in me.  I didn't know I could be so spectacular!  Is that what I'm meant to be doing?  Here I've been content with a few scales and Christmas carols now and then!  I am a concert piano!  I am invaluable!  Did you just hear that?"

If Josh played my piano at my house, my piano might think, "I thought I had it good with all those kids playing me for hours and hours every day.  THIS!  This is what I'm actually designed to do?  I am meant for greatness!  That felt great!  I did not know that was possible."

Each of us is like a piano.  Some are new, some are old.  Some are more in tune than others.  But we're all constructed pretty much the same way.  Some of us look so beautiful and are accustomed to regular praise for our appearance.  Some constantly work hard to try to sound really good. We think our hard work will be enough to reach our full potential.   Others are content to coast along without too much effort.  We all get used to what we can do and think that that must be what we were designed to do.   

The great piano maker knows each of our worth.  He knows what he designed us to be able to do.  What we think is our very best is nowhere near what he knows it can be.  In our current earthly surroundings, we might occasionally catch glimpses of who and what we really are.  But I suggest that at this time, my piano is content with novice piano students banging away for hours a day, and Andrea's gorgeous baby grand is content to stunningly overlook the Downtown area.   Both pianos are almost clueless about what they are actually designed to be and do.  Our great "Piano Maker" can and will show us what we actually are.  Beautiful instruments, capable of sounds almost unimaginable to our current, simple minds.   Left to our own devices, we can sound pretty good.  We can draw a bit of applause from the world now and then.  But that is nothing compared to the brilliance that we are actually meant for.

October and Gardner Village

Kid's Book Club this month discussed The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  It is seriously one of my absolute favorite read-alouds with my kiddos.  Sometimes in our homeschool we get so busy making sure everyone is getting their school work done, that our family read aloud time gets short changed.  One great thing about doing the book club is we always make sure to read at least one good book together each month.  The kids are reading stuff on their own, but read aloud together is my top favorite thing about homeschooling.  Next month is The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  The kids are already begging for more (which is my goal!)

We do have a little discussion each time.  It's nothing too deep, but I like to hear what they thought about the book and why they did or didn't like the story and characters.

I know I shouldn't take pictures during church, but I wanted to document this tradition of Abe drawing pictures with whichever squirrely two year-old we have at the time.  For now, it's Peter.

Faith had her final cross country meet this past Saturday.  She loved the whole season-- she just loves to move her body in general.  I hope she'll do cross country again next fall, but for now, I am beyond thrilled that cross country and soccer (for George) are done.  During the whole summer and the first half of fall, Abe has been working farmer's markets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings-- in addition to Friday nights and most Saturday evenings.  They are also done now, so I'm feeling a great relief to have him around a little more often.
Abe is good for me.

A little sneak preview of what's coming for the Fox family for Halloween.  Bethany is our make-up artist, but we've promised not to tell anyone yet.

Okay, you've dragged it out of me... we're going to be foxes!
It seemed the natural choice.
And we could buy costumes in bulk!

My sweet Faith with her most wonderful best friend Emma.  This was Emma's last week in Primary as she is moving on to Young Womens.   I know Faith will miss her terribly, but at least they'll still be together a lot with book club and the robotics team.

Peter enjoying his favorite meal as of late-- grapes and peanut butter.  Frankly, that's as well-balanced a meal as anyone in this house is enjoying these days.

Yesterday was a bad, bad, bad homeschool day.
There was anger.
There were tears.
There were threats.
There was despair.
Thanks to Abe, The Tradition Czar, we packed up the traumatized family and headed to Gardner Village for our annual witch hunt.  After my earlier outbursts, I felt remarkably calm and I quite enjoyed myself.  I especially enjoyed getting this little sweetie bundled up in her sweater ensemble.

My spider phobia seems to be increasing, so I'm proud of myself for sitting this close to an obviously fake, oversized spider.  Yet it was disturbing, nonetheless.

If you've followed my blog over the years, you may recognize Clark's girlfriend.  We try to find her and give them a moment each year.

I'm thinking Cannon may try to make a move on her while Clark is gone on his mission.

We met up with Barbara, Allison, and Caroline there to get a flash drive with our latest family pictures on it.  New pictures coming soon!

We stopped for ice cream on the way home and Clark and I shared our traditional pumpkin pie shake from Arctic Circle.  I think we've done this every year since he was about 12.
.....thing I will miss when he's gone.