New mattress

Because Seth's back had been hurting and we received our tax return early, we decided to buy a new mattress (like, a month ago ... but I'm slow in reporting it on the blog). The sales guy told us we'd have to walk around on it to help break it in. This is how Ana helped:


And then Miri woke up from her nap feeling forlorn, so she needed some quality snuggle time on the new mattress.

Miri-ism #3

While reading this book:

When we get to this page:

Miri: Ana!

When we get to this page:

Miri: Ana!

When we get to this page:

Miri: Daddy!

Ana-ism #18

Today while reading Curious George Goes to the Hospital, talking about George's doctor ...

Ana: Is the doctor a doctor and also a chef?
Andrea: I don't think so. Why?
Ana: Because his name is Dr. Baker.

The Cone Comb

Written by Rebekah:

"I invented: The Cone Comb. It picks up pine cones. I push The Cone Comb on the ground and the bristles pick up the pine cones and put them in the box. I got first place! I get to enter it into a museum for the regional contest."

Rebekah with her invention prototype, poster board, inventor's log and ribbon at the school.

Wardrobe malfunction

I'm told all the time that before I know it, my kids will be all grown up. I don't think anyone had this in mind, though:

What's that new addition to your outfit, Miri?

Not one, but two bras! Back in my day, we didn't start wearing those until we were at least two years old ...

Project: Mack's birthday

The girls have been invited to Cousin Mack's Harry Potter birthday. I tried in vain to find some Harry Potter Lego sets; apparently the stores decided to get rid of all of them after Christmas. (Since when did Harry Potter go out of style?) So along with the toy purchase we settled on, we made him a custom Harry Potter T-shirt using the same bleaching method as before. The best part: we bought the shirt for $1 on clearance at a secondhand store.

This project involved a bunch of detailed Exacto-knifing, but it actually turned out better than I expected. Now I'm wondering if a 29-year-old mother of three can get away wearing a bigger version.

Behold! Perfect for a 7-year-old HP fan, right?

FHE treats

How do the members of the Grover family eat their Family Home Evening treats?

Miri likes to eat from the bottom of the cone up.

Ana likes hers au natural.

Bekah likes to eat them quickly so that she's finished by the time the camera comes out.

Seth likes to supervise while looking dashing.

Bekah's testimony

Yesterday at fast and testimony meeting (Why are we having fast Sunday in the middle of the month? Because the first Sunday was New Year's, and the second Sunday was our stake conference. Anyway ...) Bekah asked if she could bear her testimony.

Seth and I want our children to wait and bear their testimonies during sacrament meeting when they're old enough to do it completely by themselves. At Family Home Evening every week, we allow time for testimonies so that the girls can hear ours and practice articulating theirs.

So when Bekah expressed interest in going to the pulpit, Seth and I quickly conferred and decided that yes, if she wanted to, she could.

Here is what she said:

"I'd like to bear my testimony. I know the church is true. I know that God has a plan for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

She later said that it was a short testimony, but I reassured her that the length doesn't matter; it's the sincerity. And what a sweet, sincere testimony it was.

Bekahism #45

This year in Primary, the theme is "Choose the Right." The Primary presidency has told the children that each week, a few will get the chance to share with everyone something they've done to choose the right. Yesterday, Rebekah was called on to share.

Bekah: Yesterday I chose the right by helping my mom make broccoli cheese soup.
Sis. Young: Yum! I love broccoli cheese soup! I think I'll come to your house to eat today. And helping your mom is definitely choosing the right.
Bekah: Yeah, I had to take over for my sister who cut her hand with a knife.

Not funny in and of itself, I know. But you can imagine my embarrassment as Bekah broadcast this information to the entire senior Primary. Who allows their four-year-old to handle knives in the kitchen? Yeah, that would be me. But it was a dull steak knife, and Ana has helped me chop vegetables in the past without sustaining any injuries, and the cut wasn't very deep. No, I didn't make Bekah help me or take over for her sister; she volunteered. And instead of using sharp instruments, Bekah helped by stirring the soup in the pot.

Project: Book of Mormon Quiet Book

Remember this post? I meant to have the Book of Mormon quiet book finished in time for Christmas. Despite my best efforts, I still had one page to do on Dec. 25, so we didn't get to take the completed book for a test drive until stake conference this past Sunday.

Oh, well. That being said, check out the awesomeness below!

The front cover. You saw that before.

Page 1.

Who's in the ship? Nephi, his wife, Lehi, Sariah, Laman and Lemuel. Yes I realize that wasn't everyone on the ship.


They're finger puppets!

Page 2: Alma the Younger.

When you pull the cord, the page shakes. We sacrificed one of those buzzy baby toys to get the shaker out of it.

Page 3: Ammon. (Get it?! "DisARM"! Bwahaha! Sorry ... we couldn't help ourselves.)

The Lamanites' arms snap off!

And go in the little pouch.

Page 4: Alma and Amulek.

You get to help the prison walls come down.

And untie them.

Page 5: Captain Moroni.

The Title of Liberty goes up.

Page 6: Christ.

The clouds unzip so you can see the heavenly visitor.

I made sure to include marks on his hands and feet.

Page 7: The Jaredites.

The barges twist around. (The extra-observant ones will notice I had a change of hand models. Ana went up to take her bath, so the fresh and clean Rebekah replaced her.)

And they open up to show the glowing stones. This was my last page and took me so long because I couldn't decide if I should try putting battery-operated lights in the barges. I figured it would be too hard to design a way to change the batteries without little fingers being able to tamper with things.

Page 8: Moroni.

You get to bury the sword of Laban, the gold plates and the Liahona (with a working compass).

There they go! Until Joseph is ready to be led to them!

Despite the stray threads and uneven stitching, I must admit that I'm quite proud of the final product. Maybe if I'm feeling extra ambitious someday, I'll make an Old Testament quiet book. Who wouldn't love playing with felt plagues in sacrament meeting?

Project: Scott Christmas presents

I've been meaning to blog about my recent projects, but I couldn't do some of them until after Christmas ... 'cause that would spoil the surprise. So since it's WAY post-Christmas, I figure I'm safe.

Rather than drawing names for Christmas presents in my family, we rotate. This year, we had the privilege of giving to my eldest brother Ethan, his wife Teressa and their three boys. Feeling inspired by Pinterest, I decided to make their presents this year.

First I asked my mom what the boys have been interested in lately. Then I looked for all sorts of boy crafts associated with that current interest. I didn't find anything that grabbed me, so I used a few shirt-bleaching tutorials and Star Wars-ized them. Here are the results:

A black Darth Vadar T-shirt for Sam, a blue TIE fighter T-shirt for Spencer, a red Boba Fett T-shirt for Mason.

Then I turned to the parents. What could I make for Ethan and Teressa? I considered their upcoming plans. After 14 years of marriage (hope I did that math right), five college degrees, one internship and three years of Army service, Ethan and Teressa are getting ready to finally settle down in one place for the foreseeable future. I thought it would be cool to document all the places they've lived in a cute way. Hence this:

Seven places of residence in five different states.

Where it all started: Rexburg, Idaho.

I found a chintzy gold frame at D.I., painted it cream, whitewashed it and then glazed it. I turned the art that came in the frame (cherubs or something) around and painted the back black, whitewashed that and then went over it with the same cream I used on the frame. We found the map at Barnes and Noble and the scrapbook paper and heart brads at Joanns. We traced a few bowls and plates to get perfect circles, cut them out and marked Ethan's previous, current and future homes with the brads. Voilà! A personalized present! The only trick was packaging the thing so it wouldn't break in transit.

So there you have it: Project 1. Stay tuned for more!

Lodgin'

THE SITUATION: A year ago, Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks asked if everyone would be able to come to a post-Christmas family reunion at Bear Lake. We eagerly awaited the five-day, four-night adventure in St. Charles that almost everyone (44 out of the possible 51 family members) would be able to attend. Then, the day after Christmas (which I promise I WILL blog about), we packed the van 'til it was busting at the seams with sleeping bags, books, games, pillows, toiletries, food and children and made the drive to southern Idaho.

THE RECAP:

Playing in the snow. We had a day of sledding on the front lawn (and a little frozen swing set playing and tetherball) followed by a day of snowmobiling. The girls got to play with cousins and first cousins once removed in the white stuff to their hearts' delights. However, the snowmobile trip turned out to be perilous, if you asked our girls. "I almost fell down the mountain, I had to run away from a badger cave, and I didn't like the speed!" Bekah lamented. (The mountain part was thanks to Seth, who wasn't actually in danger of falling. The badger cave was completely Seth's fault, as he was the one who jokingly told Bekah that a pile of sticks belonged to a mean badger that she should punch if it chose to attack her. The speed thing was my fault.)

Playing in the lodge. Between the games brought by the lodge's temporary occupants and the games already present at the lodge, we had plenty to keep us busy. We played cards. We played MarioKart. (I'd like to point out that I won every tournament I played against Seth's cousins, by the way. Yes, I only played two tournaments and graciously ducked out once they got more competitive, but hey ... I still beat y'all. BOO YAH!) We played a seriously grisly yet intriguing and hilarious game similar to "Murder in the Dark" after the kids went to bed.

Ana and I broke out a game of Uno Moo one afternoon.

Secrets. The girls played a lot of "spy lab," which, I believe, consisted mostly of playing in a closet, carrying a few glow sticks and tiptoeing around the lodge. On the day when the wind threatened to blow away anyone who dared to venture outside, the girls and their cousins discovered a closet under the stairs full of sleeping pads. They were in secret fort heaven.

Bekah and Ana in their spy lab one last time before driving home on Friday.

Tournaments. The lodge came equipped with a ping pong table, a pool table and a foosball table. Grandma Hendricks and Aunt Anne arranged to have tournaments of all three. Names were drawn and written on a giant bracket that was taped to the wall. And the playing commenced. I lost on my first rounds of pool and ping pong. Seth fared no better. But Bekah represented our family well by winning the emotion-filled foosball championship. (The foosball, by the way, was meant for the youngest kids.)

Andrea playing (and losing) her ping pong match against Uncle Greg. Did I mention that Greg has his own ping pong table and has played more games more recently than I? Oh, and the fact that I'm just a horrible ping pong player.

Cameron and Jon hug after the ping pong championship. Jon bested Cam, but it was a very close match.

Uncle Jim plays Aaron for the pool championship. They played the best out of three; Jim won 2-0.

Bekah and Mack face off for the foosball tournament. Wesley, Ana, Aunt Anne (not pictured) and I refereed the championship game.

Festivities. Aunt Carol brought a pinata, and Grandma and Grandpa made sure it was full of enough sugar to send the kids to the moon. All the wee ones enjoyed beating it soundly. And every night after we tucked our kids in, we got to watch an installment of a family history video made by Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks and Aunt Cathy. We learned so much as we saw pictures of the young Hendricks family and heard Grandma's journal entries. On the final night, Grandma handed out prizes for the tournaments. All the participants received Cracker Jacks. The finalists got candy bars. The champions got a surprise gift.

Parker emptying the pinata's contents while the kids go crazy.

Bekah with her grand prize for the foosball tournament. I mentioned that the doll looks like a fisherman. Ana's sure he's a farmer.

Mishaps. Apparently Cooper has a vendetta against his younger cousin. Unfortunately, it's a physical vendetta, and unfortunately, his younger cousin is Miriam. We all tried to keep an eye on the two of them (who get along swimmingly when Cooper isn't laying the beat-down on Miri), but Miri still came away with a shiner.

Please ignore the lack of hygiene (snotty nose and Cracker Jack mouth, in case you were curious) and focus on the eye. That's right ... we appreciate your sympathy.

To see more pictures of the trip, click here.

Ana-ism #17

After more than 25 minutes, Ana still hadn't eaten the allotted amount of food from dinner to be finished. Seth was starting to lose his patience.

Seth: Okay, Ana. I'm going to set the timer for five minutes. If you haven't finished eating your food by the time the bell rings, I'm going to pick you up. I'm going to put you in the bath. I'm going to put you straight in bed ...
Ana: (After furiously spooning in her mouth) Done!

FAME makes me famous

I should be blogging about Thanksgiving. Or heck, even Christmas or New Year's. Instead, I'm blogging about FAME.

What is FAME, you ask? I'm officially certified to tell you (and when I say "officially certified," I mean, I signed up to teach it at Back to School Night) that it stands for Fine Arts Mini Experiences.

Someday I hope to be a super PTO mom. Or do like Seth's aunt and be the ever-present sub at Fairview where our kids attend elementary school. But for now with two young kids still at home, I will be involved with class parties and a few events without taking me away from home all the time. So when I saw FAME sign-up sheet at the PTO's table with one other name on it, I decided to take the plunge and added my name to it.

I didn't know much about FAME then. I understood that it had something to do with arts and music, which have both taken hits with recent school district funding cuts. And the only other name on the sheet inspired me. It happened to be the name of a lady in our ward who is smart and talented and whom I admire very much. I figured if Sheila had signed up for FAME, it would be golden.

After I had committed to it, I found out that Sheila would only be able to organize FAME and get it underway. From December on, I'd be flying solo. Although the thought terrified me, I decided I could watch how Sheila managed it, take careful notes, and be ready when my time came.

This is what I learned from watching Sheila teach: FAME is a parent volunteer-run program that exposes students to classical music and paintings and teaches them some of the elements of art and music. Every month, the docent (as the volunteer is called) uses lesson plans created by a company in California to introduce students to one painting by one artist and one piece of music by one composer. The program is designed to be taught once a month for six months (or seven, if you include the introductory lesson on the elements of music and art).

Each FAME lesson is designed to last 40 minutes (20 for kindergarten). That means the classes cycle through the music classroom and the docent presents the same material nine different times to the various grade levels.

I mentioned that the thought of being in charge of FAME terrified me. It's not the teaching ... my degree is in teaching. I LOVE teaching. No, it's the thought of teaching ART and MUSIC that scared me out of my wits. See, Sheila is brilliant. She knows a lot about art and music. Oh, yeah ... and she's an extremely talented violinist who often plays in church and is part of a band.

I, on the other hand, have little to no experience in these categories. My formal music education includes a few years of piano taught by my mom while I was really young. Otherwise, I've held a few musical callings in church (which also terrified me) and occasionally sung with the choir. (Does watching Little Einsteins give me an edge? If so, I'm a musical genius.) My formal art education is nonexistent. I took Humanities 101 in college as a freshman, so I've at least heard of some of these artists and composers, but I can't even say their names right since they're mostly a bunch of French dudes.

So I was feeling some trepidation as I prepared my first Éponine lesson. (Get it? Éponine? She sings "On My Own" in Les Misérables. Yeah, I can do literature and theater, but music and art are completely foreign.) I read through the lesson plan, changed things, rearranged them, made them my own. I learned what a leitmotif is, downloaded "Imperial Death March," printed off pictures of a sultan and the ocean, learned how to use a die-cut machine, and generally steeled myself.

Here's the result of the first lesson I taught all by my lonesome. It. Was. AWESOME. I taught them about melody and color. They taught me what a ziphius is. We listened to music. We looked at art. We made art.

Perhaps the highlight of my first FAME adventure was a former teacher of mine expressing surprise that I had done so well. That's right, Mr. Bird. Be amazed.

All ego inflation aside, I'm extremely grateful to Sheila for getting all the materials together and showing me how it's done. If I hadn't had her to model my teaching after, my experience may have been very different. And the teachers at Fairview are incredible. They're nice, supportive and helpful.

I can't believe what I high I had after coming home from teaching FAME. And even though my next lesson isn't for a couple of weeks, I'm already preparing. If only I could figure out how to pronounce this crazy guy's name. "Camille," I get. But "Saint-Saëns"? Come on!

Bekahism #44

Seth and Andrea had instructed the big girls to clean up their room.

Bekah: But I didn't make this mess! It was Miri!
Seth: You need to help clean it up.
Bekah: But Da-a-aad! Don't we believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for others' transgressions?