Even Us "Old" Parents Can Have Fun on April Fool's Day

For April Fool's Day, we short-sheeted Loch Monster's and Sweet Pea's beds. Jellybean doesn't sleep with her covers the right way nor is she long enough to have made this joke funny to her so sadly, she was left out of this April Fool's fun.

We sent Loch Monster to brush his teeth so that he wasn't around when we sent Sweet Pea to bed. She giggles as she gets into bed - not because she's already figured it out but because we're standing over her filming so something must be up. She ends this video in the most appropriate way because she gives the best answer to my question.

Loch Monster's video is a little boring up front because his room wasn't quite ready for bedtime yet. But we got 'em!! And Sweet Pea wanted in on the action as the prank was unveiled to Loch Monster. It's probably way more hilarious to us than to you but enjoy!!

My Scout Got Artsy Fartsy

As part of cub scout pack meeting last night, Loch Monster had to make and decorate a cake. He could have help making the cake but he had to do the decorating. He simply wanted to make a regular ole cake in a 9 x 13 pan, frost it and put sprinkles on it. That just wasn't going to cut it for me. "You don't want a rocket or a car or a football or whatever?" So we thought about it and we came up with a chess board. Loch Monster loves to play chess.

But now that we have this cool idea and the cake is baked and assembled, ready to frost when Loch Monster gets home from school, we have a problem. Loch Monster's chess pieces have felt on the bottom. My chess pieces have felt on the bottom. Felt bottoms and frosting don't mix. So Dad, the thinker, suggests to me that the pieces can be made out of Legos. BRILLIANT!!!

I picked up the kids from school and set Loch Monster to work at creating chess pieces. His imagination went wild. His first piece that he came to show me was about 4 bricks high and 4-2x3 bricks wide. Way, way too big for our chess board. I think he was kind of bugged that we didn't have a huge chess board that would allow him to be creative and large with his creations. "How creative can you be with restrictions of nothing bigger than a 2x2 brick? I mean, come on, mom!" (I know that is what he was thinking.) But he did it. I helped a teeny teeny bit to steer him in the right sized direction but he designed the pieces. Super easy to make the pawns be just the 2x2 bricks and we made the king and queen out of real Lego men but with chef's hats for the queens and construction hats for the kings. And then we just pilfered through his thousands of Legos to find interesting pieces to help him build rooks, bishops and knights.

I decorated one row across and one row down to start the checkerboard pattern and then Loch Monster filled in the rest. We were down to the wire and only had 15 minutes left before we needed to be at the church so he piped the white stars on the border and I piped the brown ones. Then we each assembled our own side of the chess board and off we went to pack meeting. He got the award for the Smartest Cake. And the reward of licking frosting out of his Legos. :-) (If you click on the picture of the cake, you can see a bigger image for a better view of his pieces.)

Auditions for Seussical the Musical

Loch Monster tried out for his very first play this past Tuesday, March 31st. He had to perform a song and then recite 30 seconds of text from a Dr. Seuss book.

We kept it easy and he sang a primary birthday song. He did really well considering the fact that he handed his music to their piano player, stepped up to center stage and sang all by himself. He didn't even seem concerned that he hadn't practiced his song with that pianist. I just prayed he came in on the music on time. Many kids didn't seem to know when to come in on their songs. He came in when he was suppose to and was on key. I was pleased.

Then he recited a few lines from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. He was one of a handful of kids who had actually memorized his part. He actually seemed a little more nervous to recite his memorization than to sing. He didn't quite present it the same way we had practiced at home and I felt they cut him off on it a little too early - before he really got into more of the meat of it and calmed down a little. (But I also learned we could have picked his 30-second segment a little better, too, so that it was a better representation of his abilities.) But no worries. It doesn't matter because I thought he did amazingly well!!!! I'm super proud of him.

On the way home, we talked about his experience and how he felt about it. We talked about what he learned from watching the other auditioners - things he liked, didn't like, things he could incorporate into his auditions in the future. It takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of people, strangers, and perform. I told him that no matter what, whether he gets the part he wants or some teeny tiny supporting role or no part at all, he had just survived and thrived at his first audition and I couldn't have been more pleased with how he carried himself and how confident he was. Still scary for him? Yes, but he did great!

Move Over, Bozo!

My kids have really bad chapped lips and Loch Monster's are the worst. We call them his "troll lips." We even have our own sign language for "Put lip stuff on." Sometimes the area around their lips gets chapped as well because they lick them so much. And worse yet, sometimes their cheeks get chapped in this cold winter weather. So as their mom, it's my job to take care of them and teach them how to take care of themselves. I often put their chapstick on for them, going a little bit "outside of the lines" to get the chapped area around the lips and also dabbing a little on their chapped cheeks. Well, I do that for the girls. Loch Monster is big enough to take care of himself. Or so I thought.

I did the universal Smith household sign for "Put lip stuff on" and Loch Monster did just as he was told. One problem: he couldn't find his regular clear/white chapstick so instead used his red chapstick. Hence the big red lips and smears on the cheeks. Send in the clowns!!!

Draper Temple Open House

On Civils Rights Day, Jan. 19th, we went to the Draper Temple Open House. Eric had a much needed job interview and was unable to join us so I asked my sis Lisa if she'd like to come and use Eric's ticket. We also went with my brother Chris' family.

It was so special to be in the temple with my children for the first time. I got to whisper to them about the special things that happen in the different rooms. As we walked through the bride's dressing room, I stopped Sweet Pea in front of the beautiful mirror and told her, "This is where a bride stands after she gets all dressed up in her wedding dress to make sure she is super pretty for her wedding." The glow that came across Sweet Pea's face and the sparkle in her eyes was so precious to see.

The tour concluded with a small gathering in one of the sealing rooms. We were told that we could sit anywhere we wanted. So the girls and I sat on the sofa that a bride and groom sit on. Loch Monster sat beside us in one of the mother's chairs. The girls thought it was so cool to sit where a bride and groom usually would sit. I explained to them what happens at the altar in that room - that a bride and groom gets married there, kneeling across from one another. I shared with Loch Monster and the girls who would actually sit in the seat he was sitting in and where Daddy will sit when they get married.

Because of where we sat, the kids didn't get to see the beauty of the mirrors. When everyone had left the sealing room, I took the kids to one side of the room so that they could see eternity. I asked them how many chandeliers were in the room. "Just one." But then we looked into the reflecting mirrors and saw how many there were. I told them that when they create their own family in a sealing room just like that one, they would be beginning their own eternal families that will last forever and ever and ever - just like the chandelier that goes on forever and ever in the mirrors.

It was a beautiful, clear, crisp winter day that was so special to have been spent with family - my own children and with my siblings and their families.

Christmas 2008

Let's just say Christmas this year was great! I took way too many pictures to even know where to start just pulling some of them. Even though funds were really tight this year, we still had an amazing Christmas. We focused more on the reason for the season instead of the gifts.

Santa does our stockings and the gifts under the tree come from me and Eric. Santa usually spends as much on stockings as he does on under-the-tree gifts but that couldn't happen this year. I probably did 1/3 of what we normally do for Christmas. I was really, really worried and I braced myself for the kids saying, "Really? That's it? That's all we get?" But they didn't. They adored everything they got. Well, except for Jellybean. She was quite irritated to have received socks as a gift. But that's just her.

Eric and I did nothing for each other but Santa got us each one gift in our stockings. And this year, Santa really did listen to me talk throughout the holidays. He got me Lego Batman for the Wii. He couldn't have picked a better inexpensive gift. More so than the gift itself, though, was that Santa had really listened to me and didn't just get me something he thought I'd like. That meant a lot. My brother did the same thing for me - listened to something I'd off-handedly said, read between the lines, and gave me a gift. It rocked!!

One of my favorite parts about Christmas this year we resurrecting an old tradition my aunt and uncle did in their family when my cousins were little. With funds being tight, I was trying to find large, inexpensive items for the kids' stockings. My cousins never got sugared cereal. That wasn't allowed in their home . . . except when Santa brought one special box to them at Christmas. So Santa swung by the grocery store this year and picked up sugared cereals that I never, ever would buy on a normal day for my kids and put them with their stockings this year. Santa did buy Loch Monster, though, a cereal that he knew I would eat, too, and I'm pretty sure he gave it to Loch Monster instead of the girls because he knew Loch Monster would share with me. :-) Loch Monster got Cookie Crisp, Sweet Pea got a Barbie cereal and Jellybean got Fruity Pebbles. They thought it was pretty cool.

We did have another scare, though, on Christmas day with Loch Monster's migraines and how they basically shut his brain down. We took video again of his incoherency and inability to talk. Once we got some meds and a scrambled egg in him, he started to do better. And our brilliant son was back and normal by that evening, alphabetizing and adding our newest movies into our DVD library. Weird!

Candid Shots - 12/21/08

Candid pictures taken at a Campbell family party. I won't bore you with all the pictures of presents or family or food - just the precious highlights.

Sweet Pea - I think she's going to grow up to be a model. She loves posing for the camera.

Loch Monster - Tender, quiet, brilliant and quick as a whip.

Jellybean - VERY independent and headstrong, hilarious!

Grandpa Campbell singing carols. He had encephalitis of the brain 11 years ago when I was pregnant with Loch Monster. I was terrified that my Grandpa would send me my firstborn child instead of meet him here in this life. He's since been around for many more great-grandchildren coming into the family despite not ever being the same man that he used to be before getting sick and we cherish every moment we get to still have him with us.

My Grandma plays this STUPID $5 gift exchange game every year. We hate it and the spirit of the holiday is completely lost but none of us dare tell that to Grandma. She'd have a fit. This year she finally did size-down the game to only include children under the age of 18 instead of every single person. I was trying to forget that I needed to take three $5 gifts for my kids to put into the pot but sadly remembered that day, a Sunday, that I was suppose to be a dutiful granddaughter and participate. So I scrambled through the house looking for new, child-appropriate white elephant gifts valued around $5. I found a Kid's Apron and Chef Hat set from Pampered Chef that I still had lying around, in the package, unopened. It costs more than $5 but it was one of the three gifts I needed. It would have to do. Of all the gifts on the floor to choose from, having no idea which gifts I prepared and brought, Jellybean picked the apron and hat. She's a wonder!! And she thinks she's the coolest kid ever and is always asking to help with dinner or treats so that she can wear her new duds.

Lights at Temple Square - 12/01

Jellybean, Sweet Pea and Loch Monster w/ Cousin BabyCakes

A gorgeous shot of the Salt Lake Temple

Surprise! Guess which child is unhappy about having yet another picture taken?

We tuckered BabyCakes out. Being nice and toasty warm, all bundled up in the stroller was the perfect setting for a little nap.

They even try to make the construction sites more festive. Not really working. I'm still walking on wood sidewalks and I can still see cranes, orange cones and blaring work spotlights.

Enjoying their ride home on Trax.

Trimming the Tree - 12/1

We're still teaching her that ornaments should be hung facing outwards so that people can see them. :-)

Trying to find that perfect spot!

Pretty soon, he'll be able to hang the star on the top for me.

We've Got a Thespian in the House!

Loch Monster takes acting lessons at Hale Centre Theatre. He just finished the fall semester and performed at the recital. He's taken 2 previous semesters and then we took a year long break because I wasn't happy with what was happening during the classes. I didn't feel like playground games taught anything about acting. I paid for one hour acting lessons not daycare. This is the first semester of classes I've finally felt like we were getting our money's worth. He memorized lines and performed in a small play. He did superb!! And he enjoys every minute of it - that's the best part.

5th Grade Homework is Rough!

Fifth grade homework is not a walk in the park. It involves a whole lot more than reading for 20 minutes a day. Loch Monster and I have spent the last month working on his USA Scrapbook. He had to create some kind of ABC book of the United States that included the following: 5 states, 5 famous Americans, 5 famous events, 5 important places, and 6 other topics relating to the United States - plus - a title page, table of contents, bibliography and cover page. Phew!! We finished it on Wednesday - a whole week ahead of the deadline. Eric and I helped him come up with his 26 topics and then I helped him research each letter (thank heavens for Wikipedia!!!) and assemble each scrapbook page. This was Loch's first research project so we had a little bit of a learning curve to work through. I helped him research A - U - describe it, find the interesting facts, write it in his own words, etc. Things were crazy this week and he was left to research V - Z on his own. He finally got around that learning curve, though, and did great on those last few letters all by himself. I'm so proud of him!!! He did 95% of the work on his project (I did the cover, title, table of contents and bibliography pages). He muddled through the learning curve, the frustrations of harder work and even a couple of migraines. And he's truly the sweetest boy ever - he was quite emotional as he hugged me and thanked me for all the help I gave him with this project. That's all the reward a mom really needs!!

Here's my 3 most favorite pages in the entire scrapbook. D was for the Declaration of Independance and E was for the Emancipation Proclamation. On each of their Wikipedia pages were pictures of the actual documents. I saved a copy of the picture and then blew it up to an 8 1/2 x 11 image and printed it on cream colored paper. Then the best part - I burned the edges using the stovetop element to create the antique look. So instead of a plain colored background for those two pages, the "actual" documents were the background. How cool is that?!?!?! (Thankfully, I did this when all the kids were at school. That's all I need - for the girls to learn the latest way to have fun! And for future reference - be sure to have doors and windows open before burning edges of paper.) There's nothing super special about the actual page of the Twin Towers but 9/11 is a sensitive topic for me. I went into labor with Sweet Pea while we watched the events of that day unfold. She was born the next morning but we'll always know how long it's been since the tragedy.

To save you some key strokes and curiosity fits, here's what he did for each letter: Arkansas, George W. Bush, California, Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, Benjamin Franklin, Grand Canyon, House of Representatives, Independence Day, JFK Assassination, Martin Luther King Jr., Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, New Jersey, Ohio, Michael Phelps, Queen Mary Ship, Theodore Roosevelt, Statue of Liberty, Twin Towers, Utah, Valley Forge, World War II, Richard M. Nixon, Yankee Stadium, and Zion National Park. (What would you have done for the letter X?)

We learned some really interesting things about our country and its people. My most favorite piece of unknown information is that Pres. Roosevelt didn't have a vice president for his first term in office. Honest! Click it out.

Loch Monster, I'm so proud of you! You did awesome!

"Scary" Halloween

Halloween really isn't my most favorite holiday. Having a birthday the day before meant that I got a lot of Halloween birthday parties. I hate, uh . . . greatly dislike, getting dressed up myself let alone finding costumes for my kids. Bless their hearts, though. This year they all wanted to be what they were last year except the scary (or scarier) versions of those so we added face and hair paint, brooms and some serious back-combing. I can handle $20 bucks for this year's Halloween costs.

Since they wanted to be the scary (or scarier) version of last year's costume, I felt they had to act mean, too. What kind of sick idea was that, Julie, to ask them to be nasty?!?!?! They just couldn't pull off the mean, scary face, though. Maybe it's because I was laughing too hard.

My latest crush, besides a-hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin'-love Barry, is my nephew, BabyCakes. At Family Home Evening on Monday night, we all came (sorry, they all came - remember, I don't do costumes) dressed up for the Halloween festivities planned by Grandma. Ever seen the Disney cartoon about Lambert, the Sheepish Lion? (I know the whole song, by the way. Ask me - I'll sing it for you.) Well, here's our version and BabyCakes' real name sounds almost like Lambert so I love singing the song to him.

And what kind of aunt would I be if I didn't give the other two youngest nephews some air time, too? :-)