Make like a tree ... (Ha ha!)

We have over 200 trees in our yard. And I am in no way exaggerating or joking. If you doubt, come on over, but make sure to bring a rake and some gloves.

So every fall is a huge rakefest at our house. And this year, we've been slacking. The weather has been so crazy-cold that we have avoided being outside unless absolutely necessary.

Today, however, the temperature climbed above freezing, so Seth and the girls ventured out in the yard. And although I had stayed inside to get some cleaning done, I had to come out long enough to take some cute pictures.

Ana was a big helper to Seth. She would take a double-fistful of leaves from one of Seth's carefully raked piles and throw is elsewhere on the ground "to make a little pile." And while putting leaves in the garbage can, she managed to also strew them all over the driveway.

Ana being a helper.

Bekah on the big pile of leaves Seth raked.

Our beautiful girls ... with only minimal Photoshopping to get rid of their snotty noses.

Prepare yourself for utter awesomeness

Every year since we were married, Seth and I have carved pumpkins the week of Halloween. And every year, we've gotten better and cooler. (For last year's post with links to other past years' pics, click here.)

Tonight when we decided it was time to pull out all the sharp knives and blunt pumpkins, Seth scoured the Internet for awesome ideas. And awesome ideas are what he found.

Check out this year's pumpkin-carving results:

My worried-looking Darth Vader is (obviously) on the left. Seth's stony-silenced stormtrooper is on the right. Don't you dare tell me I spelled "stormtrooper" wrong, squiggly red line. I know what I'm talking about.

Boo-yah! I guess our family has been on quite the Star Wars kick as of late. The girls have implored me to tell every Star Wars story I know, they play with my old figurines and coloring books, and Seth entertained them while I finished those crazy-tiny details on ol' Darth by playing Force Unleashed on the Wii. That's right ... we're raising our girls to be the nerdiest of nerds.

And here's the happy carving/coloring bunch:

Bekah, her sucker, Andrea, Ana, her sucker and Seth next to our creations.

As usual, we didn't let our girls play with knives; they markered up their mini pumpkins. Bekah told us she colored hers to be Yoda. *Sniff!* I'm so proud. And the girls are shirtless because we didn't want them getting marker on their clothes.

One thing I learned tonight: Apparently my face does that (refer to picture above) when I instruct my girls to say, "Cheese!" That is the one not-so-awesome aspect of the entire evening.

Ana-ism #3

While playing in the weird hail/snow mentioned earlier.

Andrea: What's your favorite part about playing in the snow?
Analee: Eating the snow.
Andrea: What does it taste like?
Analee: White.

What month is it again?

So you'd never guess by looking out the window that Halloween is coming up. I'm tempted to pull out the garlands, lights and yes, even the horrible Bob Dylan Christmas album Seth recently obtained. Aaah ... winter wonderland.

Ana the pink nightmare. Those purple mittens surely stand out.

Bekah immediately grabbed the saucer and headed for the mound.

And then ate the snow/hail.

A nice wide-angle shot to let you see the extent of the whiteness. It's everywhere. How will two little princesses go trick-or-treating in a mere four day's time?

Practice your curtsies

King Seth, Queen Andrea, Princess Analee and Princess Rebekah (who is too interested in her prizes to look at the camera).

It took a bit of coaxing, but I managed to get all four of us dressed up for the ward's Halloween party on Friday night. I tried reassuring Seth by telling him that if no other adults were dressed up, he could simply remove his crown and cape. I, on the other hand, had no change of clothes and would be forced to stay in my old high school formal throughout the duration.

But our worries turned out to be nothing but that. Almost all the kids and lots of other adults dressed up to enjoy an evening of soup, cake, games and face painting. And through just a little bit of totally legal tweaking (Yeah, yeah. We voted for ourselves. And Seth persuaded the sister missionaries to vote for us, too.), Seth and I won the adult costume contest and were awarded with movie tickets. Woohoo!

We received lots of compliments on our costumes, and I even received a few "Wow, Sister Grover. You look so pretty!" comments from some of my cute Primary kids.

I also inadvertently announced my pregnancy to a few more people in the ward. Being almost four months along and no longer able to fit into any non-maternity pants, I assumed that my baby bump was obvious. So when people said, "It's amazing you can still fit into a high school dress" and I replied, "Well, I had to pick the one with the empire seam so I'd have plenty of room for my round belly," they HAD to ask, "Are you expecting?!" Ummm ... yeah. Pretty much.

Anyhow, we're glad the girls got the opportunity to wear their cute princess dresses as dresses last week, because this Saturday when we're trick-or-treating in the brisk Idaho autumn air, they'll be wearing them over long johns, pants, shirts, socks and sneakers.

Bison and elk and bears ... oh, my!

Seth's stalwartness (taking the liberty of making up a word here) in listening to AM radio actually paid off. By listening to the day's passwords on a certain station and entering them into their Web site, Seth earned enough points to "buy" a carload pass to Yellowstone Bear World. Since we have an extra three seats in our van, we invited Seth's brother, Jason, and his kids to come with us on October 17.

Ana, Bekah and I had been to Bear World before, but Jason, Calvin, Lily and Seth hadn't. Regardless, we all enjoyed seeing the mountain goats, deer, bison, turkeys, elk, grizzly bears, black bears and wolves (which chased our van and nibbled on our bumper).

But the kids' favorite attractions included the petting zoo:

Bekah, Analee and Seth petting mule deer.

Seth trying to get food from the dispenser. This nosy goat actually butted Seth's leg and then chewed on his pants.

Jason holding Lily and giving Calvin food to feed the goat.

A fatty-fat pig that the kids petted. Every time we'd touch it, it would snort. We're still not sure whether it snorted because it enjoyed the extra attention or hated it.

Lily, Jason, Calvin, Bekah and Seth looking at the moose that came to the fence to visit us.

... and the rides:

Bekah and Calvin inside the spinning bear.

Andrea, Analee, Calvin and Bekah getting ready to ride the log roller coaster.

Bekah, Calvin and Ana on their favorite ride of the day.

To see more pictures, click here.

I will stew no more forever ...

Excuse me. Wait just a minute while I pull this out. (Climbs on top.) That's it. Much better.

Now that I'm up on my soapbox, I've got a little something to get off my chest.

What is UP with this?

People want to risk the lives of their children because, despite all the reassurances from the CDC, they don't "feel" like the H1N1 vaccine is safe? In the words of my two-year-old, "Yat da yat?!?"

And it's not just some unknown people who happened to be interviewed for the story. I've heard buzz on Facebook, and it's ... well, frankly, it's scary.

Somebody's sitting on the fence. "Should I have my kids get the vaccine?" And then the comments come rolling in.

"There's no way I'll take my kids. It's not safe."

"I'm going to wait a few more years until they've had the chance to test it some more."

"Normally I'm all about vaccinations, but not this one."

My little "I've got mine, and my kids will get theirs as soon as they can" comment is DEFINITELY in the minority.

So here's my two cents: More children have died from swine flu this year (starting in April through mid-October) than died from seasonal flu in ALL of 2008. And we're just barely gearing up for flu season. Don't you think that's worth a shot?

And I know H1N1 isn't always deadly. We've had three family members who have all contracted and survived it so far (before the vaccine was available). But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? Especially when it's the life of your child.

Just because you asked so nicely, here are excerpts from a Fox News article with any personal commentary I feel like adding.

Tom Skinner, spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the vaccine was made in exactly the same manner as the seasonal flu vaccine, which has a “very, very good track record as far as safety is concerned.”

We've been getting seasonal flu shots since 2002, and I've never had any adverse reactions to them.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the rounds Tuesday and Wednesday morning, appealing to all Americans to get the vaccine and trust that it is safe.

Sebelius unconditionally vouched for the safety of the vaccine, saying it “has been made exactly the same way the seasonal vaccine has been made, year in and year out.”

...

Health experts say most fears about the flu vaccine, especially the seasonal vaccine, are unfounded.

The flu shot does not give people the flu. Side effects are generally mild — soreness and swelling at the injection site (my seasonal flu shot this year made my arm much more sore than my H1N1 shot), headache (which I DID get after the H1N1 shot, but it was short-lived and nothing a little acetominophen couldn't handle), occasional fever and body aches (the mark of a healthy immune system responding to something foreign entering the body). Less common side effects include coughing, runny nose and nausea, especially in young children.

...

Dr. Peter Welch, an infectious disease specialist at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y., said it is imperative that people trust the H1N1 shot, as it is the best protection against a virus that has already killed hundreds in the U.S.

“People need to get these vaccines because these illnesses are so much more severe than any side effects they will experience,” he said.

...

"We really implore any parent to seek out information that’s reliable and can help them make a decision that’s best for their child,” Skinner said.

And that's what people SHOULD do. Don't ask for everyone's opinion on Facebook. Don't leave the deciding to someone else. Do the research. Find reliable sources. Your FB buddy's sister-in-law doesn't count as an expert. And make the best choice for you and your children.


Ahem. Thank you for your time.

Princess Rebekah

The other day, I pulled out one of my old formals that I wore in high school. As mentioned in the previous post, we have a ward Halloween party coming up, and the dress will be the main part of my costume; I had to try it on to make sure the empire seam was high enough to go over my ever-expanding belly.

After Bekah admired the dress on me ("Mom! You look so pretty!" "Awww, shucks, Bekah."), she had to have a go.

I think she has a few more years (and inches) to go before she'll be dancing in this at the prom.

Nevertheless, she does make an awfully sweet princess.

Bekah in the classic princess pose.

Sew crafty (ha!)

So, a long time ago on a blog not so far away, I promised to post a picture of the little "Grover" quilt I was making. Well, that was in August. I finished the quilt months ago, but I've been slacking in the reporting department.

To make up for it, here is the finished product:

Our outdated family pictures sit atop the shelf of glory.

And ... BONUS! The results of two other sewing projects. The first is the quilt top for Ana's bed when she moves in with Rebekah. The walls of their room are bright green, and Bekah's quilt top is purple and green. I asked Ana if she wanted turquoise and green, pink and green, or orange and green. She picked this:

I must say, the green and turquoise paisley fabric is my favorite!

The lady who quilted Bekah's quilt in inundated with work right now, so I'm going to wait until the beginning of the year and then see if she can do Ana's quilt. Then I'll be in a bind ... binding the quilt, that is. (The puns never stop today.)

And the same night that turned into the ill-fated night of stitches, Seth aunt Cathy asked if anyone wanted some leftover fabric. I chose some, bought some red flannel to go with it, and made this ragged-edge baby blanket:

It sure clogs up the lint trap of the dryer, but isn't it cute?

I started/finished another quick project today, but as it's a part of a costume, I'll have to wait and show it off in a future post (hopefully sooner than ... say, April) after we have our ward Halloween party.

Bekahism #20

After going on a windy, autumn walk and returning home for some warm drinks and cookies.

Ana: "Why is it called 'cider'?"
Bekah: "Because in 'I Know an Old Lady,' 'it wriggled and jiggled and tickled in cider.'"
Ana: "Oh." Pauses to consider and accept. "Why is it called 'apple'?"
Bekah: "Because it has apples in it."

"I deal in lead."

I drew a tag for a pronghorn hunt near Birch Creek, so this morning my Dad, my uncles Jim and Doug, and I headed off before dark in Jim's new used long bed extended cab pickup to go into the mountains and slay beasts (three of us also had tags for the regular deer season).

Despite some vehicular problems we discovered early in the morning (who needs to go in reverse, anyway?) we drove around until we had decided we had had our fill of not seeing deer, then headed down out of the mountains to flatter ground.

As we drove along the highway looking for a good place to turn off into the foothills, Doug spotted some antelope about 40 yards off the road. We bailed out and gave chase, and I shot, and shot, and SHOT, but those things run so fast (Wikipedia informs me it's the second-fasted land animal, second only to the cheetah). I guess I just wasn't leading them by enough. We chased them, a herd which included a nice buck, back and forth across the desert for a while, with probably three or four repetitions of what I just described. After enough of that humiliation (by the way, it's probably a good thing for his sake that my Grandpa Grover passed away some time ago and wasn't there to see all of the aforementioned missing, because I probably wouldn't have helped his blood pressure much) we decided to drive up the mountain a bit and then stopped to eat lunch and pop of a few rounds with the pistols at some pop cans on fence posts.

I must admit that during lunch I was feeling pretty down on myself. I'd already gone through more shells than I care to admit without hitting anything. Luckily Dad tried to boost my self esteem and Doug reassured me that antelope hunting often involves a lot of missing, so I decided all was not yet lost.

As we came back down, we saw a herd of antelope way off across the desert. Jim directed the truck in the general direction of the herd, through the sage brush down over a bumpy, barely-defined dirt road. As fate would have it, this took us fairly close to the herd, but they were just starting to go up over a ridge where they would be out of our sight. As we pulled up, we realized this was the herd we'd been chasing earlier, the one with the nice buck.

We piled out and started towards them. "Are they even close enough to shoot?" I asked my father. "That gun will shoot a lot farther than you think," he replied. I raised the 7mm to my shoulder for the umpteenth shot of the day, sighted in the big buck, and pulled the trigger. "You shot behind him again," I was told. I jacked another shell in placed the crosshairs a full body length in front of the buck, and squeezed as I continued to swing in the direction he was running.

The bullet hit him in the neck, just in front of the shoulder, and flipped him clear around in the air. We all whooped for joy, and Doug and I walked out across the sagebrush to find him. Jim and Dad stayed behind to direct us to where he went down and to range the distance of the shot with Doug's range finder.

Doug and I finished walking the 405 yards to where I hit him. He hadn't moved from the spot; he was dead before he hit the ground.

I wasn't disappointed when I saw him up close. He was a big buck: 14 inch horns, 6.5 inches around at the base.


Anyway, after some more high-fiving and admiring we field dressed him and loaded him into the back of the pickup. When Dad and I got him home we caped him so I can take it in to the taxidermist to have it mounted. Andrea has graciously agreed, and even suggested the currently-empty wall above the entertainment center in our family room its final resting place.

Anyway, it was a terrific day. I might have missed a few shots, but it only takes one. I deal in lead.

To view the gallery, click here.

Day two shiner

Looking like she raided her mommy's eyeshadow.

Ana's boo-boo

Bee stings, scraped knees, slivers and goose eggs. Been there, done that.

We can now add stitches to the list.

Last night, we were enjoying a family dinner at Seth's grandparents' house in Rexburg. The food was good, the company was good, the atmosphere was good.

After most of the festivities were over, I was sitting in the living room visiting with others when I heard Ana start to cry. I went to the top of the stairs of the split entry to see Ana crying on the stone landing by the front door. Seth's cousin's wife picked up our little girl, and I figured I could take over the duties of comforter once Jessica had made it to the top of the stairs. But when she cried out, "She's bleeding!" I ran down the stairs to grab Ana and assess the situation.

She was, of course, bleeding; and it was no small amount. Through the accounts of others, we learned that Ana had been headed up from the basement when she tripped on a stair and hit her head on the edge of the stone landing.

Of course, any head injury bleeds a lot. An experience with an errant baseball bat to my head taught me that when I was 10. But once we got enough napkins to stop most of the bleeding, we could see that Ana had a small gash above her left eye immediately below her eyebrow.

With the help of others, we got the blood off her hands and ear and got the cut stopped well enough to get in the car. Not having dealt with this as parents before, we weren't sure if the cut warranted stitches. Initially we didn't think so. So we stopped at Wal-mart to buy some surgical tape to patch her up.

But by the time we got home and her cut was still oozing blood, we decided to play it safe.

Ana's ouchie, our patch-up job, and the blood still oozing.

We changed her to her pajamas, packed up her beloved teddy bear, baba (pacifier) and monkey blankie, and I took Ana to the ER while Seth put Bekah to bed.

I had hoped to avoid the ER, but at 8:30 on a Sunday night, it's the only place that's open. So Ana and I became very well acquainted with the waiting room while we ... well, waited for our turn.

Eventually, we saw the triage nurse. Ana didn't want the nurse to look at her eye. And she most certainly didn't want to have some weird clip thing put on her thumb so the nurse could check her vitals. But with the help of a few fruit snacks, we survived.

When we got back into the ER itself, Ana suffered more trauma when the physician's assistant removed her bandage and applied an anesthetic. When I had my head stitches, my anesthetic was in shot form; it was the worst part of the whole stitches experience. So I was grateful that Ana could have some goop on a cotton swab and become just as numb.

But, of course, we had more waiting to do. Ana wouldn't be completely numb for 20-30 minutes. So we bade our time by cuddling up with her lovies and telling stories. Finally, what we came for came to pass.

The nurse wrapped Ana up tightly in her blanket so her arms were pinned at her sides. Although the physician's assistant had suggested earlier that I leave for the stitches, the look on my face must have communicated that I would NOT be leaving my baby's side, so I got to hold her arms and legs and tell her what a big, brave girl she was.

The nurse held her head and tried to balance the cloth that covered Ana's face so that the physician's assistant could see what he was doing but also so Ana could look at me with her good eye. Any time the cloth shifted and she couldn't see, she would cry out, "I want to see Mama!"

All in all, it was very traumatic for Analee. She screamed and cried throughout the operation. The nurse reassured me that it wasn't because of the pain; she couldn't feel the needle that was piercing her skin. I told him that I was well aware of that. She was just a scared little 2-year-old.

Gratefully, we all survived. And Ana was rewarded with a sucker and a teddy bear (which she HAD to sleep with last night).

She didn't get to bed until 11:30 (her usual bedtime is 8 p.m.), she's now sporting a lovely shiner and three blue stitches, and she flips out any time Bekah or I try to look at her eye, but this too shall pass. At least, until we suffer more trauma on Friday when we have to go back to the hospital to get her stitches removed.

Ana checking out her stitches after we got home from the hospital. She refused to see her eye when she had the tape on; she didn't get a good look at it until we were in the waiting room and she checked herself out in the wavy mirror in the kids' area. So when I asked her if she wanted to see her stitches and she readily said yes, I was surprised. And, of course, she's keeping her new teddy bear close by.

The stitches and her swollen eye. Poor Quasimodo girl.

Mini Primary program

As always, we loved watching General Conference. But Seth and I also enjoyed watching Bekah while watching Conference.

During the Sunday afternoon session, Bekah was keeping herself busy by keeping track of the Quorum of the Twelves Apostles' ties, coloring with crayons and playing with her plastic bowling pins. The bowling pins were her children, and she had seven altogether.

At one point, our attention was drawn from the TV to our four-year-old. She had built a podium out of blocks and covered it with a washcloth. Then she had lined up her bowling pin children, and they would take turns standing on the podium and saying things like "I will follow the prophet" and "The Holy Ghost helps me feel happy." Every once in a while, one of the children would forget his line, and Bekah would have to whisper it into his little bowling pin head.

Needless to say, I think last week's Primary program really had an impact on her.

Monkey say ...

It's amazing how your kids pick up on EVERYTHING you do. If I'm grumpy with Ana because I'm frazzled with her potty-training and tired of cleaning up a mess every couple of hours, Bekah starts being grumpy with Ana for scattering her blocks and generally acting like a little sister. If I go out in the garden to pull a few weeds, both girls have to follow me out to the dirt patch and start pulling ... everything. Weeds, tree suckers, pea plants, carrots, you name it.

So I should have seen this coming. But I didn't. And it's hilarious.

Three times today (THREE TIMES!) Ana has uttered a specific exclamation. I don't even know if has happened at particularly exclamation-appropriate times, but she has uttered it nonetheless.

"What the what?!"

For those of you not savvy, this is a famous Liz Lemon expression. Still not catching on?


I'm talking about Tina Fey on 30 Rock.

A few months ago, Seth and I decided to start watching the show from the beginning. And we love it. And so we have unwittingly adopted one of Liz's trademark phrases.

We're not the only ones. Check this out:


I would SO wear that, by the way. And check this (my personal favorite .... I'm still laughing):

Lesson learned. Don't say it unless you want your child, at the top of his/her voice, to proclaim it from the shopping cart in a very busy produce section.