Visiting Party for the Gibbons

We were excited to find out that the Gibbons family would be in town to visit around the Pioneer Day holiday. The headed out to Virginia last year for Shae to attend law school. It was sad to see them go and so we were excited to visit with them as they passed through town. When we invited them over it seemed natural to invite our neighbors, the Simmons, and our good friends, the Johnsons, at the same time to visit with the Gibbons as well.

Michelle jumps on the phone to see what schedules are like and if they could make it down. The Gibbons said they could come over on Wednesday or Thursday but we were going to be out of town on Thursday so we just told everyone that Wednesday was the day. Everyone could make it at some point so we called the Gibbons back to find out what time they would be in town. One thing lead to another and our little dinner or dessert get-together turned into a pot-luck dinner party!


Michelle loves parties so she called up a list of friends who also knew the Gibbons. We knew we couldn't get everyone but whatever we didn't get on the first go-around the Gibbons could visit individually later. As it turned out, we had a lot of people show up and it was a blast. Everyone seemed to know everyone and the kids just ran around the yard at mach 2.


We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this party. We had gone hiking with some other family friends so we just cleaned up the yard (a little), made a salad and hamburger buns and patties and set up some chairs and tables. No one seemed to mind and everyone had seemed to have a good time. We are grateful that the Gibbons were back in town so we could have such a fun party. We want to wish the Gibbons the best of luck as they finish up their final year of law school.

Hot Dogs and Snickerdoodles

I received a phone call from Michelle while at work. "Do you have plans for tonight?" she innocently asks. Since my plans had been rescheduled I didn't have anything set, just some ideas in my head. "Well, I sort of made plans for us..." she continued. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I could reconstruct the events that lead to our evening with our friends but I'm certainly glad the forces of fate combined to create such serendipitous circumstances.

Unfortunately the plans were all to commence prior to my arrival at my own party! Michelle tried to assure me that it was okay. When I finally was able to make it home I found my boys trimming the hedges? You can see Donovan in action!

Michelle had started the fire all by herself and Kyle was splitting some wood to add to the fire. The Simmons came over as the fire was getting started. The Johnsons would show up shortly after that.

We didn't waste anytime getting the hot dogs roasted. Everyone was hungry and we couldn't come up with a good reason for waiting. I helped to roast the younger boys hot dogs but David and Donovan felt like they needed to roast their own hot dogs. They did just great, with a little coaching from the sidelines.

The irony of the eating situation was that the kids all needed to sit at the big (adult) table and the adults were forced to use the small (kids) table.


It was an enjoyable dinner with splendid company. But we couldn't wait until 8:00 pm to put the boys to bed. They still struggle with the concept of bed time before the sun goes down but we persist in trying to help them understand this concept. I'll be excited for daylight savings time when it will be dark at bedtime.

It took us nearly 45 minutes to get the boys in bed! Obviously they were having too much fun to stop for something as trivial as bedtime. But, in the end, they went to bed. The Johnsons put Zachary to bed in our room and we set up a monitor in the hallway to keep an ear on them while we went next door to the Simmons for some games.

The Simmons had a game called Imaginiff

That was quite an interesting game. You use all the players and random people (if you're playing with less than 8 players). Then each round you read a question about someone different and you get points based on the what the majority of the players feel is the best answer. It leads to some funny descriptions about the people playing because you are trying to guess what the other people are going to guess.

After that game we had to play a few rounds of "jungle" Uno. We had a little trouble trying to decide which "house rules" we were going to use. The biggest dispute was about the "match/play" rule. One version of "match" is that you simply get to play your card anytime you can exactly match the last played card and play picks up from you. The "match/play" rule says that you can go anytime you can play your card and exactly match the last card played and, if your quick enough, play any other playable card. Maybe we were just too tired to fully enjoy the "match/play" rule but we threw it out after one round.

Regardless of who could "match/play" or who drew the most cards we had fun time. Michelle had made some snickerdoodles for Elisa as a visiting teaching treat. I hope she actually got to eat one because the rest of us certainly did! Actually, Michelle felt bad that we had eaten all of Elisa's snickerdoodles and so she ran back to the house to grab some more to replace them. I have to say we are fortunate to have such wonderful friends. We went home around 11:00 pm and the kids were all sound asleep!

(When we woke up this morning the three oldest boys were being sooo quiet, playing the computer downstairs. So we didn't realize they were all awake and they let us sleep in!)

Dutch Oven Dinner

We had a fun little dinner last night. Richard Anderson has some culinary genius somewhere in his genes and he was willing to share that gift with us. So he came over and cooked us some dutch oven chili and cornbread. Michelle wanted to contribute to the taste bud bonanza and made a dutch oven peach cobbler. To make a complete meal we invited the Johnsons to bring a salad and drink. (Now we just need some good firewood that is more burn than smoke!)

The Andersons brought over some chips and salsa for an appetizer. My boys loved the chips but they just weren't into the salsa. However, little Eleanor loved the salsa but wasn't into the chips. These kids certainly complement each other.

It was a beautiful day, wonderful food, and great friends. What more could you ask for? The boys thought it was great to have a fire and to be able to play in the back yard while we were out there too. But when it comes to food, well they aren't the best eaters on the planet. None of the boys ate their dinner. So what do you do when it's time to serve dessert? We caved in to the peer pressure and let the boys have dessert too.

Michael's Birthday Party

This was Michael's 3 year old birthday party.  We had our good neighbors the Simmons and the Johnsons over to celebrate.  Also in attendance was Uncle Kyle, Grandma Jones, and Aunts Trista & Larisa.

Michael ask for a special birthday cake and wanted Lady Bugs!  So Michelle created the Lady Bug cake.  It turned out very well.

He was very pleased with his cake and was excited for all of the attention. (This is still one of Michelle's favorite birthday cake creations.)

Michael got some fun presents and little help from his brothers to open them.

(finally posted 8/3/14)

Spring Clean-Up Turns Into a Party

As Michelle walked out the door for Stake Women's Conference she blithely said, "Oh, and you could take care of the tree in the front yard. I wouldn't mind." I have learned that such suggestions and casual comments have much deeper significance than a simple off-the-wall comment. So I decided it would be a good idea to remove the splintered remains of our tree (that was run over this winter).


"Oh, and if you wanted to clean off the back patio that would be nice too," was another comment Michelle made as she finished her preparations to leave. What other reason could I have for cleaning the patio except to have a fire and invite some friends over? Besides, there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Of course the temperature wasn't exactly psaltery but why should that stop us? I couldn't think of a good reason. And so it began. What started out as a simple yard clean-up had sown the seeds of jubilation and rejoicing.

While the boys were distracted I slipped out the back door to begin extracting the sad remains of our once proud tree from the front yard. Once I had pulled the trunk free of the ground I dragged it to the backyard gate. But when I slipped into the house to get the key for the gate I couldn't get back outside unnoticed. Before I knew it all the boys were geared up for outside and wanted to help. And let me tell you, I have some big helpers.

The boys loved it. Chopping and sawing the wood kept them busy for hours! As they began to weary from the strain their interested changed to other fun outside activities. While I finished cleaning up the tree shrapnel and started sweeping off the patio the boys pulled out their toys that had been in storage for the winter.

Our patio was prepped for the fire and one thing lead to another. We ended up with 3 additional families joining us for dinner: the Johnsons, the Simmons, and the Andersons. We got the fire started and the grill hot but once the sun went down we definitely noticed that it was quite a bit cooler than we would have preferred.

In the end, the kids decided that inside the warm house was preferable to playing outside in the cold. It was so fun to see the little kids inside playing and having such a good time.

Eventually we would get all the kids to bed except for Eleanor who would stay up while the adults played games. We certainly had a great time. It wasn't until 11:00 pm that we finally had to call it a night. We are grateful to everyone who was able to participate with us in this family fun filled evening.

Game Night Leaves Me Exhausted

Saturday night we had an enjoyable evening playing games with a couple couples. Neil & Kelley Johnson and Elisa & Nathan Simmons joined us at our house to play a few games and share some wonderful treats. Once our guests had arrived we settled down at the kitchen table to begin the games.

Oh, the embarrassment when I discovered that the promised games were missing! I went to their usual storage spot and they simple were not there. It was then, to my horror and embarrassment, that I realized I had left them at my mother's house (we met my brother and his family at my mother's house to play games for FHE and forgot to bring the games home). Fortunately for us the Johnson's just happened to bring over a couple of back-up games. So after a quick explanation and a laugh we broke out the other games.

We ended up playing Jaimaica and Clue (board games). After a slow start and what appeared to be imminent defeat, a change in the tides allowed me to pull off a spectacular victory. However, the tide didn't flow in my favor for Clue. The Simmons had a much better strategy for uncovering the evil plot and had a most decisive victory; I wasn't anywhere near a point of even hazarding a guess that would have had a chance to be lucky enough to win.

The treats were great; Elisa made chocolate chip cookies and Michelle made an eclair cake. The company was fabulous and it was a most enjoyable time. The hour was late! Amazingly, the kids woke up at 7:00 am just like every other morning leaving me quite fatigued (there was a time in my life where I wouldn't even consider going to bed before midnight). I had a great time and I will probably do it again; I'll just need to plan on some recovery time the next day.

Bouncing Baby Boy!

There is a curious phenomenon that we have noticed over the past months. It seems that when you have had several children...everyone seems to just expect you to be getting ready to have another one! I'm not sure why this is the case. The average family in the US only has 1.9 kids (or something like that). So why would anyone just assume that if you've passed the average you're planning on blowing that number out of the water? It just doesn't make any sense to me; but then again I guess it doesn't have too.

Well, as many of you have asked the question, or at least you've thought it (and it's the thought that counts!) we must tell you that we are still holding steady at 4 exuberant young boys. And there is no reason to assume otherwise...but I guess that is at least one reason to keep checking in with our blog from time to time!!!

This particular blog is about our good friend Zachary. Next to my boys I think he is the next cutest boy ever! (And that will last as long as I'm his favorite non-parent figure.) Michelle managed to talk our dear friend Kelley into bringing Zach over to hang out with us for a little while. Okay, so it didn't happen quite like that...Kelley called to say that she would be in the neighborhood picking the last of her tomatoes from her garden and wondered if there was anything she could do to help Michelle. Well Michelle had just received an order of over 50 ballroom dance skirts that she has to have done in the next 3 weeks! Kelley volunteered to distract our boys long enough for Michelle to (at least) complete the pattern-work for these skirts.

While she was here playing legos with Donovan and Aleky, Michael was down for his nap, she let Zach hang out in the baby bouncer. As it turns out...Zach loves our baby bouncer! It certainly didn't take him long to master the art of bouncing. (This clip is dedicated to his dad!)

Pears...and the bottling continues

With the corn done we have begun to bottle pears. It's a big job getting all the fruit done for a growing family like ours. Today Michelle recruited help. Our 2 dear friends Kelley and Elisa came over and helped with the chore. The peeled and sliced for a couple of hours and finished 3 batches! And it was all done under the intense supervision of little Zach.

Our boys have been troopers...with Michelle preoccupied with getting ready for winter our boys have been left to themselves to enjoy the end of the summer. They have been sent into the backyard and left to themselves to discover all that our backyard has to discover. I think they've figure out most of it now. I think this partial exile from the house has forced the boys to begin using some of their imaginations to find ways to entertain themselves for these extended periods of time. A skill that I think is well worth developing.