A quick trip

Four days after Christmas, we braved the nasty roads to go to Salt Lake. My brother's wife and kids were there visiting her family, and since Salt Lake is SO much closer than San Antonio, this was a great chance to horn in on a Genetti family get-together to see our Texas family. (Ethan was in Iraq at the time, but he's home now! Huzzah!)

It was a quick there-and-back trip with just one night in the hotel. But we managed to pack in a lot of fun things along the way.

Before the Texas cousins showed up, we took the time to view the Christus at the North Visitors' Center at Temple Square. Here Analee and Seth view the statue.

Grandpa Scott tells the grandkids about their ancestor, Henry Grow, who helped to design and build the domed roof of the Tabernacle.

The grandkids on the temple steps. Mason, Samuel, Spencer, Rebekah and Analee. (Miriam was asleep in the stroller.)

After dinner that evening, Teressa, her boys and Grandma and Grandpa Scott stuck around Temple Square to see the lights. Since it was blizzarding and we have a wee one, we opted out and went swimming at the hotel pool instead. Miriam LOVED the water! She kept splashing and splashing and didn't even mind when it got on her face.

Analee in the pool. Last year, she was fearless in the pool. Now she's older and wiser. She wouldn't go in the pool without two forms of flotation.

The next day, we visited the planetarium at the Gateway. Bekah was an insatiable appetite for learning about all things science-related, so she really enjoyed all the displays. Here she is bouncing on the moon-like landscape.

Miriam getting a shoulder ride from Andrea. This baby is obsessed with hair. She loves pulling it and laughs merrily as she does.

After the planetarium, we grabbed some lunch before heading home on dry roads. Analee enjoyed her Dairy Queen ice cream cone at the Gateway food court.

To see more pictures from our trip and Christmas, click here.

Christmas festivities

I know, I know. It's mid-January and I'm JUST blogging about Christmas?! But here's the deal. I was waiting on pictures. And I'm lazy. And you know how the holidays get crazy-busy. And I'm lazy. And I'm lazy. Did I say that one already?

So, without further ado, here's how we spent our Christmas!

Christmas Eve was 100 percent perfect. We started out the day by visiting the Museum of Idaho's free Christmas exhibit. We let Bekah loose with the camera, and here's what she documented:

Various nativity displays, gingerbread houses, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah decor, Idaho history displays and a few self-portraits.

Next we drove to a neighbor's house for a sleigh ride.

Seth, Bekah (behind him in the silver coat) and Miriam riding on a two-horse open sleigh driven by our neighbor, Blake Ford.

Ana and Andrea on the sleigh. Bekah and Miri liked the ride, Ana ... not so much.

Then I had the pleasure of taking a 2-hour nap while Seth entertained the girls. (Like I said, a PERFECT Christmas Eve.)

Afterward, we loaded up the girls to go to Grandpa Wirkus' house for an evening of German fare and pajama presents from Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

Miriam getting a bite of red cabbage. She loved it.

Bekah and Ana modeling their new pajamas.

After dinner, we went to Seth's parents' house for more present opening and a Skype call with Seth's brother in Boston. (Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera with us.)

Christmas Day, I woke up too early (good thing I had that nap) and had to sneak downstairs to "read the Internet" (as Seth and I put it) before everyone else got up. I must have been too noisy, because shortly thereafter, the girls woke up. We had told them they weren't allowed out of bed before 7 a.m., but with everyone awake, we decided to go down 30 minutes early.

After the general unwrapping and gift enjoyment, Seth's parents came over and brought even more presents. Then we packed it up again and went to my parents' house for yet more presents.

Bekah looking at the fairy mermaid she received from Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

Analee inspecting her fairy mermaid.

Miriam the man-eater. She got a hold of the Ken doll Ana received from Santa.

Seth, Andrea and Ana reading on Grandma and Grandpa Scott's couch. Did I mention that Seth gave me a Kindle for Christmas? I'm not nearly cool enough to own such a device, but I must say that I love it.

9-month checkup

Two days after Christmas, I dragged all three girls in to the doctor's office to get flu shots (actually, mist for the big girls) and to have Miri's well-baby checkup. The doctor said she's on target developmentally, but she's a little underweight. He suggested that I increase the number of times I nurse her a day. I nodded my head, yet disagreed internally. I know the way ours girls are: skinny and big-headed. Case in point:

Miriam at 9 months
Weight: 17 pounds, 10 ounces (29th percentile)
Height: 28.5 inches (82nd percentile)
Head: 18.25 inches (97th percentile)

Bekah exhibited our family's growth tendencies to the extreme:

Rebekah at 9 months
Weight: 15 pounds, 9 ounces (5th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (5th percentile)
Head: don't have the exact measurement or percentile, but it was off the charts

As long as my girls are happy and healthy, I'm happy too. And Miriam is obviously both--she eats well, sleeps well and fills her diapers. Who could ask for anything more?

What's that? You could ask for something more? All right, name it. I see. ... You want to see an extremely cute picture of all three of our girls getting cleaned up in our hotel room's bathtub following a splashy dip in the hotel pool on our recent excursion to Salt Lake City? Happy to oblige:

And while I'm at it ...

Here are a few outtakes from our Christmas card shoot:

Seth and I have super powers. I can make my eyelashes disappear by blinking hard.

Seth can touch his chin with his tongue.

Christmas project #2

So while I was busy with the Barbie house (see previous post), I was surprised when this showed up near my work space:


Back story: A while ago, Seth's mom gave us the pieces of a cradle that her father had made for her as a little girl. She thought maybe my dad could fix it up for our girls. I had nearly forgotten about it until it showed up unexpectedly. Apparently my dad had found the time (or made the time) to finish it.

Since it was so close to Christmas, I thought it would be perfect to finish it up for the girls as a present from Great-Grandpa Hendricks, Grandma Susan, Grandpa Scott, Seth and me.

You can distinguish the original pieces from the new ones in this shot.

Close-up of the headboard.

Lately I've become a craft-blog junkie. I've read all about refinishing furniture on this blog, and I really wanted to try her glazing technique on something. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity. I'm rather pleased with the results.

The family heirloom doll cradle, all fixed up and purdified. I made the quilt out of scraps of fabric given to me by Grandma Hendricks.

I stole another idea (scroll down to see the addition of the decorative wooden scroll) from the aforementioned blog and bought an extra piece to add to the headboard to give it more detail.


Now that I know how to glaze and have a nearly full quart of the stuff, I think other pieces of our furniture might be undergoing some changes ...

Christmas project #1

Months ago (like, pre-Halloween) when Bekah was writing her first of many letters to Santa, she put "Barbie house" at the very top of her list. I knew that a store-bought house would cost anywhere from $50-$250, and I figured I could do better than that. So I Googled "Barbie house tutorial" and found this little beauty. I think I searched for a month before I found a five-drawer chest of drawers at a garage sale and snatched it up for $15.

After hours of hammering, priming, painting, wallpapering, upholstering, caulking and carpeting, it finally came together. (Good thing Bekah's kindergarten and Ana's preschool times overlapped so I could work without the prying eyes of little ones.) I wish I had "before" pictures, but alas ... I don't. So imagine a brown, stinky chest of drawers and then feast your eyes on this:

I can't claim all the glory; my dad helped, too. He built the peaked roof for the top.

Yeah, it doesn't have all the little extras that come with a licensed Barbie house (elevator, jacuzzi, flat-screen TV), but it will hold up a lot longer than a glorified hunk of plastic.

What's that you say? You want to see some close-ups? Happy to oblige.

The bedroom. Notice the jellyfish chandelier. I don't care how aquatic it looks; there was no way I would redo it. You don't realize how many hours it takes to thread beads onto floral wire and cut and shape them until you try it. The bed is made out a shoebox lid, four empty ribbon spools, part of a Kleenx box, scrapbook paper, an old sheet and some luxurious costume satin. I found the little dresser at a craft store and painted/Mod Podged it. The mirror came out of an old compact of mine.

The living/dining room. The table is a pre-cut wooden rectangle with an empty curling ribbon spool glued to the bottom of it. The couch and chairs are foam I already had with more luxurious costume satin. The tea set I found for $2 at Fred Meyer.

Pretty sweet, if you ask me. Especially since I found the wallpaper at D.I. ($2) and the carpet samples on clearance ($1/each).

Seth kept saying that one of Santa's elves must have worked really hard to make such a neat Barbie house. I'll tell you this: one of Santa's elves smiled extra-big as our girls saw the house Christmas morning and squealed with glee.

Christmas spirit

The other day, I let the girls watch some TV while I got ready in the morning. They were spellbound, as always.

Just ignore Ana's finger placement. We're going to assume that her finger is NEXT to her nose.

Some of the shows they like to watch are annoying at best, insanity-inducing at worst. But I wholeheartedly approved of their choice that morning.

It just isn't Christmas without watching the Grinch.

From the other member of the Grover family

This one has visions of sugarplums stuffed in his head.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Elf Yourself 2010

(apologies for the low-quality rip/encoding...)

The Book of Grover

The hard copies are in the mail (minus just a couple, but I'm getting more stamps today!) so here's the grand virtual unveiling of our annual Christmas card and newsletter. Enjoy!

Little elf

It would be cool if her ear did that naturally. Alas, it was just her hat pushing it out.

Miriam the elf hopes you're being good this Christmas season, because she's watching!

Bekahism #37

After I helped the girls trace and cut out hand turkeys, I left them to their own devices. Upon completing her turkey, Bekah asked me to come up and take a look at it. This is what I saw:


Bekah: It just didn't seem right without a hunter next to the turkey. (Check the blue illustration to the right of the turkey.)

I bet Seth's buttons pop right off his shirt when he reads this one.

#2 is growing up

Bekah LOVED the preschool put on by the high school students last year. So when I found out that 3-year-olds are allowed to attend, I made sure that Analee would have a spot in this year's class.

Although Ana had informed me that she might be a little bit nervous on the first day, she didn't cling to my leg or even seem the least bit concerned when I dropped her off.

Ana's outfit she picked for the first day. I can't remember what the kid was eating at the time, but she obviously has her cheeks stuffed full.

I had asked Ana if she wanted me to take her picture on the front porch like I had done for Bekah on the first day of kindergarten, but she wanted her first-day photo shoot on the mound in the front yard. And she had to show the camera her beautiful new jeans with the fairy on the leg.

Ana again showing off the jeans while the high school students and Mrs. Child come to pick up the preschoolers.

Instead of dropping her off with the kids, I took Ana in on the first day so I could fill out the paperwork and write the check. Miriam was very well-behaved in her car seat.

I'll admit ... it's pretty awesome having just the wee-est one at home for a few hours every other day. And it makes the ... ahem ... Christmas project I'm working on easier to work on without little prying eyes. I'll just have to make sure that Miri doesn't give the secret away.

Bekahisms #35 and 36

Yesterday at church, the girls sang a special musical number in Relief Society. After they sang, I returned the Rebekah to Primary and Analee to nursery. Unbeknownst to me, Bekah shut her finger in the door of the Primary room as she returned to sharing time. After her bloodied finger got all patched up, a little Sunbeam got a bloody nose for no reason.

Bekah: If Primary lasts much longer, everybody in here is going to be DEAD!

Then after church, many of the women who had been in Relief Society and heard them sing complimented the girls on their number.

Bekah: Why are all the Relief Society women going, "Blah, blah, blah," about our stuff?

All Hallow's Eve

Happy (late) Halloween from the Grovers!

I swear, Halloween just gets more and more fun as we have more kids and they get bigger. This year's festivities included the annual pumpkin carving:

As far as carving skills go, this is a level one. But the underlying awesomeness makes up for it. Seth did the traditional jack-o-lantern; I did the skull.

Halloween costume back story: For months, the girls had said they would dress up as Gandolf and Bilbo for Halloween. My nerd heart soared as I heard this, but my practical mind sunk as I tried to figure out how to transform my pretty little three-year-old into a 100+-year-old hobbit and my five-year-old into a wizened sorcerer.

Eventually, however, the girls decided to be fairy princesses. And Bekah even said, "We can just wear the same dresses we wore last year to be princesses." Hallelujah. I can manage flower wreaths for their hair and wings. Just don't ask me to how to make hairy prosthetic feet and a three-foot beard.

To include Miriam in our pretty, pretty theme, we dressed her up as a flower.

Analee, the pretty golden fairy princess.

Rebekah, the pretty pink fairy princess.

Analee and Rebekah giving Sophie some love. Sophie is Aunt Jessica's dog that we are dog-sitting for a few days. The dog is dressed up as a human, I guess.

So on Saturday, we got all dressed up to visit the grandparents, have a barbecue at Old Grandma Grover's house, participate in the local trunk-or-treat and ring a few doorbells in the neighborhood.

The day was definitely a success, as evidenced by a quote from a weary Analee trudging down the street: "Mom, my bag is too heavy."

(To be said in a Montgomery Burns voice:) Excellent. All the more candy for me.