Firsts

I thought I would do this firsts list that my sisters did. I have other things I want to catch up and blog about like Christmas, but I don't have time and this seemed like it would be a quick little post. Here we go:
Firsts
First date? Well, it was with a guy named Greg, and anyone who knew my in middle school or high school knew him, too. We dated on and off (mostly on) for all but my Senior Year. I am not sure what you count as the first date though. Because between age 14 and 16 we tried to see each other every way possible without it technically being a date since I wasn't allowed to date until I was 16. I think he counted the time we went to see Toy Story with a group of friends and family, and some how ended up in a theatre row without the friends. But technically it would have been prom the week I turned 16. First date with my true love- Jeff and I went to the Spaghetti Factory on March 1, 1999.

First dance?I was in the 4th grade. I went to a Valentine's dance. Gerry and I were voted King and Queen. If that is too young to count than it would have been at a church dance at age 14. Nancy and Jessica were there. I had been watching from the sidelines when they ran over and told me to grab a shoe from the center of the dance floor. Each guy had thrown one of their shoes in the middle. I quickly did what my sisters told me to do, unaware that I was committing to dance with the owner of the shoe. When I realized what I had done, I was so nervous. I just kept telling myself as long as it is not Ben Slocombe I will be fine. Well, of course I beat the odds, and my first dance was with Ben Slocombe, the best 14 year old dancer I had ever seen. But the first dance with a guy I actually knew was at a dance in Chicago. It was with a guy named Troy, and it was to the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". First dance with Jeff. The New Year's Eve Dance , Dec 31 1998, Jeff asked me to dance for the first time.

First hand holding?Recess - 4th grade with Gerry, we promised to get married. He wanted 26 children, one for each letter of the alphabet. I told him I wasn't sure I could take care of more than 12, we settled on 18. If elementary school doesn't count, than it would be Greg when I was 15 at the movie theatre. First life-changing hand holding- With Jeff at the institute building in the library.

First kiss? On the cheek at the Valentine's Dance in 4th grade when Gerry and I were crowned king and queen. Otherwise, I was 16 and it was Greg. (see mom and dad I really tried to keep the 16 age rule) First Kiss with Jeff- I think it was in the entry way at his mom's house.

First time cutting someone else's hair?Nathan, I was so scared to mess up. I still prefer to bring the kids to the hairdresser.

First night at college?I lived at home for the first year of college, and I think I spent the first night after classes watching Star Trek. By the time I went away to college I was married, and when we arrived to BYU, the first night we went to my grandparents house for a game of scrabble and rootbeer floats.

First drinking party?I left every drinking party the second the alcohol came out until I was married. I have always avoided being around it. I missed a lot of cast parties that way. But now I have married someone who's family drinks. And the first time I met them we were at Jeff's Uncle Tom's house. Everyone but Jeff and I were drinking. It was a very strange experience for me. I don't know if family gatherings are technically drinking parties, but there is usually alcohol involved.

First experience with stuffed crust pizza?When working at Holiday Hot stuff Pizza, I made it many times before I actually ate it. Honestly, I don't care for it.

First time driving after getting your license?I actually don't remember. My brother made me get my driver's license when he came home from his mission and found out I had been avoiding taking the test. I tried to fail the test, but somehow passed it. And I avoided driving as much as I could. The only driving I did was to the gas station where I worked, and to Greg's house in Canada.First email address amosandgerg@hotmail.com (or something similar to that) I know it was a hotmail account andJessica set it up for me in the highschool computer lab.

First barbie? She was given to me in a doll cake. She had brown hair and a teal taffeta prom dress.

First name you picked out for your baby? Mark, unfortunately this name was quickly eliminated when I fell in love with Jeff. For a girl, Heather but that name was also elimainated when I fell in love with Jeff.

First pick in gym class? Actually once. I was shocked. It was for the game q-tips. I was really quite good at being aggressive and beating the popular mean girls with the giant gladiator sticks. I creamed a few mean boys that way too. Very Therapeutic. The new kid had noticed me over the first few days doing quite well and when he was team captain he picked me first. The entire 8th grade class was stunned. They all told him what a big mistake he made. But we won the entire tournament. I was usually the first pick in gym class in a different sense. I was the first pick in dodge ball, as in lets all cream Amy with the balls first. Sixpin was the same problem.

First in your class academically?Not over an entire school year, but in many classes I was usually top, until we moved. Then I discovered I wasn't as smart as I thought I was. It was just that I had gone to school with a lot of stupid people.

First on the scene of a crime?Only crimes of Timmy's making, not actual crimes

First on the scene of an accident? Only when I was in the car accident.

First day this week?Carbon Monoxide poisoning, see other post.

First thing this morning?I brought a bottle to Andrew

First thing this year?Fruit Smoothies and Cinnamon rolls with friends. Lots of fun.

First thing after graduating from high school- I went to hold my brand new nephew, Brandon born on my graduation day.

College?have not graduated

Who is the first person you will tag for this blog?Whomever wants to play.

Who is the first person who will actually do this?No pressure.

What is the first thing you will do when you are finished with this post? get my children dressed, try to get ready for a trip to the cities

My Jedi Warriors, and a Sith

One of the favorite Christmas presents of the boys were their new lightsabers. (They call them light-savers). All the siblings drew names so they could get one present for/from one other kid. Somehow in this gift exchange Timmy, Sam, and Nathan each ended up getting a new lightsaber. But than at Toys R Us, Nathan spent Papa and Grandma's gift money on yet another light saber, this time Count Dooku's. When they found out I was starting to blog again, they requested a picture with a few of their new weapons.

Stinkin' Fireplace!!!!!!!

Our furnace quit working Sat. Night. They came to fix it Sunday evening but did not have the part they needed so, they suggested we just run our gas fireplaces all night to stay warm. We let them run until about 2 in the morning. Then we went to bed. Jeff felt like he should close the doors to both the kids rooms, but we left our door open. That morning I woke up with a terrible headache, blurry vision and feeling slightly sick to my stomach. Just then Jeff, described how he was feeling and I realized we had a problem. I plugged in our carbon monoxide detector, and the alarm went off. After checking with my dad and confirming my fear, I called the gas company and we got everyone out of the house. I am so grateful Jeff had the prompting to close the kids doors, I fear we would have lost Andrew otherwise. Jeff took kids to school. I went to Leann's house with the younger kids until we got an all clear to go back home. It took many hours to feel better.

Star of the Week

Cori was star of the week last week. That means she got to be the special kindergarten helper. She brought Oreo cookies, pictures all about her, and made a robot poster. She was supposed to color it, but Cori the ever overachiever also insisted on writing the info herself instead of having me do it. (Of course I helped spell things)

Here is the information found on her special robot poster:

• I am special because I help with my little brothers.
• 
  
• I help others by being nice to everyone.
• My teacher is Mrs. Skog
• My birthday is (I am not sure I want to post this y'all should know that one anyway)


• Members of my family are Jeff, Amy, Nathan, Sam, Timmy, and Andrew


• When I grow up I want to be a dance teacher


• My favorite animal is a flamingo


• My favorite book is Fancy Nancy


• My favorite food is Chinese Food


• My favorite color is Pink


• Something I like to do at home is play with my family


• Something I like to do at school is choice time

New Church Calling

I was released from my calling at church. I was so sad. My calling had been teaching the primary children music. I love love loved it! It is the best calling in our whole entire church (in my not so humble opinion). You don't actually need to be able to conduct music (which I am horrible at), you get to do actions and visual aids. So you get to teach children while singing, and making cute fun things to do. My grandpa had a great love of music as well and I think that added to my sadness of being released. I am still sad that I am not in there with the primary kids. I love the songs that have been chosen for this years program, and had tons of ideas on how to teach them.

Luckily, the week after being released from my favorite calling, I did get another one. I am still the librarian, but now that everything is organized there is not as much to do there. And I do keep the main bulletin board updated. I have fun doing that, but it is only once a month. So my new calling is . . . .drum roll please . . . Nursery Leader. That means I still get to sing songs, now I do it with the toddlers. I am starting from scratch on a lot of things with it. The last lady was as sweet as can be with the kids. They definitely felt loved by her. However, for most of her time in there she did not have all the kids that will be there now. The church just came out with a new manual that is wonderful and will be so helpful. I have been busy creating a structured schedule with lessons, songs, games, crafts, visual aids for cute songs and my favorite - I found a parachute. Right now there are 6 kids in there (7 if you count Andrew and I do) plus another one that should be ready to go in by the end of summer. So 8 nursery kids. Timmy is the oldest, and the last one to join us in the summer is slightly younger than Andrew. This is a new thing for our little congregation, the most children there has ever been at one time was 4 and two were 4 year olds that shouldn't have been in there, but there was not a teacher for their age group. Our congregation is full of young families and we all have little ones so it is one of the larger groups. They are working on getting me an assistant, and a room big enough to contain them all. I am looking forward to making it a very structured, fun, safe place for the kids to be. I have now been in there for 2 weeks. The first week was nuts!! But they are already responding to having structure and the second week went much better. I am really excited to make this work. Timmy is a little hesitant at sharing me, but he is proud to have mom as his special teacher.

In the picture Timmy and Andrew are playing with a file folder game. I made a whole bunch of them. The games are slightly frustrating to me, as I cannot get the Velcro to stick to the back of the laminated pieces but I discovered if I sand paper the backs it helps. So now I need to find time to sandpaper the backs to a million little pieces. I already have plans to make more of these, because the kids love them. But before I make more of those I want to make flags for the primary colors song. I really think once an assistant is in place and we have a more permanent place to meet, things are going to go well. I love this kind of thing, and the kids are adorable, so it will be fun!

Timmy is 2!

Timmy turned 2. As my blog entries have shown Timmy loves to eat things when they are fresh baked and still found on the cooling rack. I decided that for his birthday I would give him what he wanted. So his cake finished baking minutes before the party and was placed in the center of the table still on a cooling rack. We served it that way, just cut into chunks, warm and unfrosted. But I couldn't bare to not have anything decorated, so he also enjoyed an Elmo ice cream cake. He blew the candles out all by himself. We had the Morgan's and Phelp's over (Bates couldn't make it). He loved it. We all had fun. When I was decorating he was upset that he could not get a good look at the banners. So I hung them at his eye level, so although the house to not look festive from my height, it was perfect for him. He loves every present he got and is now obsessed with Elmo. I hope to eventually get pictures onto the computer from the party.
Now that Timmy is two his daily mischief seems to be lessening. He still can find sweets wherever I hide them but other than kitchen mischief, he is staying out of trouble. (In the middle of typing this very entry Jeff called me upstairs to help clean up a mess. Timmy had tried to help himself to a tupperware of peaches. He spilled it and slurped all the peaches up off the floor, leaving a very sticky mess.
He loves his friend Hayden (Ava's little brother) and gets so excited when he can play with Raegan(a little girl that is 1). His best buddy is still Andrew. Timmy's number one goal in life seems to be teaching Andrew everything he knows. So he insists on feeding him, bringing him toys, and even helping bathe him. Timmy is talking now, but it is still difficult for people outside of our family to understand him. He weighs the same as when he was 1, at 33 lbs, he is only 1/2 a pound less than Sam. But he has grown taller, and although he is still big for his age, his height and weight match well.
He is still so funny and sweet. He is my very own gentle giant.

Grandma and Grandpa

My grandpa passed away. This was really sad. I think it was mostly hard since my grandma passed away less than a year earlier. We all knew when Grandma died, that Grandpa would not be far behind, they loved each other so much and it was hard for everyone to see them apart. And yet having both gone, closes a huge door from my childhood, and we will all miss them. I struggle to write my thoughts and memories of them down. My sisters have done a beautiful job on their blogs, and tears fell as I read my Aunt Laura's blog while blog hopping one day. It seems strange to write about it on a blog and yet I cannot bear to not include it. This blog is going to be our family journal and I think I should say something.

It was a strange feeling to be in Utah and not play scrabble, I was only in their house for a moment but it was already not the same. I am not sure I will ever be able to play scrabble with out feeling a little teary. I am sad my children will grow up not knowing them. I will always be grateful for the time I spent at BYU, because it gave me a chance to know them not only when I was a child but to spend grown up time with them when I could more thoroughly appreciate their stories, their example, my grandfather's wit, the scrabble games, and whole wheat buttermilk hotcakes. I have great childhood memories from long walks and music, to walnut trees and fishing, but knowing them as an adult added so much more depth to the previous memories. I think the time spent with them also helped Jeff understand me and some of the more quirky sides to me. Because every once in a while I will eat something or say something and Jeff will make a reference to them.
I loved the way my grandma would say "HOO -ray" when she was really happy. I loved my grandpa's smile when he did something Grandma thought was clever. I was amazed at the way my grandma would save everything and yet give anything to help someone else.
But overall I am glad that I know my grandparents are together in heaven. They loved each other so much and the hardest part of my grandma's funeral was seeing the pain and loneliness in my grandpa's eyes. I look forward to spending eternity with my husband at my side, and hope that when the time comes for one of us to leave this life that the other will not be far behind.

Andrew, Teeth and Trouble

Andrew had his nine month appointment this week. He is just over 20 lbs and is doing everything he should developmentally. He does have a problem with one eye (well the tear duct actually) so next week I will be taking him to Sioux Falls to see a specialist. This appointment will most likely result in a simple procedure that he will have to be put under for, that will happen in the near future.

Andrew has two teeth. One broke through just the day before the other. This happened last week. And Sunday he started regular crawling instead of army crawling. He now loves to stand holding onto the couch. And he thinks just because he has two teeth that has given him permission to get into as much mischief as big brother Timmy.

Jeff snapped this picture of some of his mischief. Jeff and I were in the kitchen when Cori yelled that there was a hole in the wall and Andrew was trying to crawl down it. I must admit I wasn't concerned because I was sure she was misreading the situation. I mean really how could there possibly be a whole suddenly appearing in the wall big enough for Andrew to crawl through? But Jeff went to check and sure enough there was a hole and Cori had just saved Andrew from what could have been a terrifying experience for us all. Andrew had somehow pulled the vent cover off and was attempting to explore the furnace vents in the house. Jeff had Cori pull Andrew back to a safe distance while he snapped the picture.

That little adventure was only a glimpse of what was to come because yesterday, he really had me worried. He locked himself in the bathroom and I could not get him out. He crawled into the bathroom, pushed the door closed and opened the bathroom drawer, which blocked the door from opening. I tried everything I could think of to get him out. He was crying on one end of the door and I was panicking on the other. I tried a hanger, but it broke. I called my mom, she suggested a knife, but althought it scratched up the drawer, it did not close it. She suggested that I stick a feather under the door and slide it under the drawer so Andrew would close the drawer to get at the feather. Well, Andrew got the feather from under the drawer without closing the drawer. Now Andrew was eating a feather. I called Jeff. We discussed options, the hinges were on the other side, and he asked if I thought he would have to break the door down, but I pointed out Andrew was on the other side. Just then I got a call from Lisa. Lisa moved here this summer but I already consider her a close friend. The second I answered she recognized the panic in my voice she asked what was wrong and what she could do to help. I asked her to send her husband over. Richard is not only very level headed but he is a carpenter and is very good with figuring these kind of things out. So about 45 seconds later there was a knock on the door. (Seriously he got there fast) and he came to see what the trouble was. He asked me to get a hammer and a putty knife so he could get the floor board off. But while I was down stairs frantically looking, he got the drawer closed and door open. He had used the broken hanger. I had tried using it for like 20 minutes and couldn't get it to work but he just slid it under and voila, I had my baby and a half eaten feather back. Yay for Richard, what a smart guy! I guess all's well that ends well, but still, for 45 minutes I felt completely helpless while my baby was trapped and scared.

It's been too long.

I know I have not blogged in a very long time. Between the computer being very unstable, lots of sickness, a funeral, and the holidays; time has gotten away from me. I still hope to post pictures but I thought I would do at least get post some of the blogs now. Hopefully I will go back and edit them, add pictures and expound on at least some of the events. I also finally posted two blog posts I started in December.

Awkward

So Sam and Ava's friendship is still going strong. I am not sure what is going to happen next year. Sam is just older than Ava, so it is a guarantee that whether or not we move they will no longer go to school together. Sam will continue on to kindergarten, while Ava gets another year of preschool. But for right now they want to spend every second together, and they continue to make wedding plans. As I type this they are upstairs having a snack while they chat and sing.
There is a song in our church called "Called to Serve" anyone who is LDS knows it. Every missionary sings it in the MTC, it is a standard song. Last year, I taught it to the primary children. They loved it. We marched to it. I made sure that even the littlest knew the chorus. The chorus goes like this,

"Onward, ever onward as we glory in His name, Onward ever onward as we glory in
His name, forward pressing forward as a triumph song we sing, God our strength
will be; press forward ever called to serve our King."

Since Sam and Ava are the littlest they know it. Or at least I thought they did. But as I was sitting here typing up countless of backed up blogs (maybe I should call them "backblogs", I heard them sing.

"Awkward ever awkward as we color and we sing, awkward ever awkward as we color and we sing, Awkward yeeeessss Awkward", and then they start over again.

Ah well- at least they know the melody.