Daddy-Daughter Date

Is there anything funner for a six-year-old girl than a date with her Daddy? From Elinor's face in all these pictures, I would say NO!

Elinor and Abe went to a Salt Lake Real soccer game together. Elinor got a pair of complimentary tickets from the league she played soccer with.

It's hard not to smile when looking at this picture.





They even got to go out to eat together! I stayed home with the other kiddos. Both Clark and Bethany tried this technique: "Mom, since Elinor is getting to go out to eat and go to the soccer game, can we ______(fill in the blank)?"

Sorry, gang. I'm not really into the whole equality thing. Eventually it all evens out and nobody in this house is lacking for any fun or attention.






It's good that at the time they didn't know Elinor was also getting hot chocolate, popcorn and a churro. That would have been truly unjust.

Like I said, there is nothing better than a daddy daughter day when you're six!

Witches Night Out!

Clark's got a girlfriend! Clark's got a girlfriend! Clark's got a girlfriend!

This from the woman who twenty times a day tells my man-child to "STOP TEASING YOUR SISTERS!!!!".

Hmmm. . . Is it possible I am actually encouraging the teasing in our house? I'll have to think about that.






It was our 2nd annual outing to see the witches at Gardner Village. You can do a scavenger hunt in which you write down the location of lots of the witches and the prize for completion is a cookie from the bakery for $.25 instead of $.90. We did complete it and we did get cookies.

But they weren't very good. Clark said, "Man, I'd be embarrassed to sell these cookies for$.25. It would be a crime to sell them for $.90!





My favorite witch and me. Sadly my witch was missing one hand and her other hand was severely mangled. I guess there wasn't money in the budget for repairs this year.












Hooray! Cannon is a walker! But he follows the philosophy of all Fox babies at our house-- "SAFETY FIRST!" He is not one to get injured in the walking process. It is all very slow and methodical. There is an occasional bump down onto the diaper-padded bum, but no head crashing. I appreciate that.
















We met up with Brig and Dev's family and they joined us back at our house for games and hot chocolate. Takara snuggled with Faith and Bethany on the couch.

The Ultimate in "White and Nerdy"

Listen to this song. This is the Lego version because I couldn't put the real one up. Search YouTube for "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al.

This song hits a little too close to home. My home that is. We may be the whitest, nerdiest family in America. Exhibit A:
We are all Star Trek for Halloween this year. Check out the cutie little Vulcan down in front. I could just bite her ears!

Exibit B:
We LOVE watching videos of the "Donny and Marie Show" from the late 70's.

Exhibit C: We (as in Abe and the kids) regularly play role playing games just for fun. Known in some circles as D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) although we play a watered down "Adventures" version.

Other evidence from the song: We do enjoyTrivial Pursuit. Clark does have a chess mentor. We do attend a 2-day renaissance event.

Yes, I'm afraid there is no denying the truth. We are WHITE AND NERDY!
How did this happen?

October Happenings

Clark's annual Halloween vampire.






















The decorations are outdoors as well. Be afraid. Be very afraid. We take Halloween seriously around these parts.













Our October Kids' Book Club. We read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
We ran races and played a game of hide-and-seek.












The annual corn-maze outing with the Johansens.
















Followed by donuts and hot chocolate. The other tradition is the spilled hot chocolate. It happens every year. Every single year.

I Ran Away From Home

And guess who was really mad at me when I got home?

When he saw me he burst out crying and would NOT let me hold him. He buried his head on Abe's shoulder and wouldn't even look at me.

This is the look he gave me (from a distance) for several hours. Sadness.








Eventually, we did make up.

And yes, I got bangs.














Of course the kiddos were delighted with their little gifts I brought home.

I had a really enjoyable time cramming in as much Shakespeare as we possibly could. I went with my good friend Andrea. We saw the funniest play I've ever seen: The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Macbeth, and Tuesdays With Morrie. In addition, the high school Shakespeare competition was happening so we watched lots of other scenes and got to listen to all the judges critiques. It was a crash course in Shakespeare acting.

A Lone Man

Abe here. This is for all intents and purposes Betsy's blog, and I get to read it, enjoy it and make lame comments in the comments section........but I just had to put something up tonight.

You see, for the next THREE nights (and basically four days, counting today) I will be "A Lone Man". This is the longest separation from one another we have experienced in over 6 years, and I do not like it!!! I know, Bets, I know, you will have a splendid time, and the kids and I will be just fine, but......as Henry Higgins put it:

[Dang]! [Dang]! [Dang]! [Dang]!
I've grown accustomed to [your] face.
[You make] the day begin.
I've grown accustomed to the tune that
[You] whistle night and noon.
[Your] smiles, [your] frowns,
[Your] ups, [your] downs
Are second nature to me now;
Like breathing out and breathing in.......
I've grown accustomed to [your] look;
Accustomed to [your] voice;
Accustomed to [your] face.

Betsy, I am missing you Oh-So-Terribly already, and it is just the first night.

I love you.

Abe

P.S. And I do not care how mushy this is and how many people may view this blog-post........in fact, I want this to go internet-viral!!!!!!!

Hair and Space Camp

We were up north today taking Bethany and Elinor to a day at Space Camp. In the meantime we headed over to visit Grandma and Grandpa and begged for free haircuts.

Grandpa has many years experience under his belt of cutting hair. He said he practiced a lot on my brothers before they were old enough to care. Smart.







Clark wanted a buzz/Army cut and we think Grandpa did a mighty fine job. I told Clark he should have cut it short during the summer and grown it long during the winter. I think he's so handsome!











But this was the REAL accomplishment of the day. Grandpa's next task was Cannon's head of hair.














Cannon did pretty good. He had a hairy lolly pop by the end, but he thought the "tickly" clippers were funny.













By the end he had had enough!

He might not look too happy here, but compared to the pictures of Clark's first haircut, Cannon is downright giddy. I'm still traumatized by Clark's first haircut (which Grandpa did as well). I think there was a baby headlock involved. We've both learned a few tricks since then.







All was forgiven and they were friends at the end. He looks so grown up! (Cannon, that is. Grandpa looks very grown up too!)














And the girls loved Space Camp. On a scale of 1 to 10 the girls started out ranking it a 12, but made it all the way up to 1,000! That's good.
Clark went to a Space Camp yesterday and was thrilled to get to be the Captain of his mission.

It Left as Quickly as it Came

Sunday morning Cannon woke up throwing up and continued for most of the day. No problem. I can handle one sick baby. He was better by bedtime.

Monday morning I woke up sick and then about every hour another of us succumbed to the vicious stomach bug. By six o'clock pm every family member (minus Cannon) was laid out on our bed and floor, completely incapacitated.

Once I watched a Little House of the Prairie mini-series by Disney. In one episode the whole family gets sick with scarlet fever (?) or some other life threatening illness. They are all laying around looking out of dizzy, unfocused eyes. No one is able to get up and help anybody else.

That was us! I was so grateful Cannon napped well because I could not take care of him. Fortunately Clark was one of the last to succumb so he helped a lot earlier in the day. Abe had to miss his class because he caught it.

Now here is the miracle. Today we are all perfectly well. No upset tummies. No throw up. Normal activities. And A LOT of laundry! Every single bit of linen that has seen the light of day during the illness is getting washed.

As quickly as it came, it left. That is my kind of sickness for a family of seven. Imagine if that nasty bug had lingered! I'll take one horrific day and get it over with.