another opening of another show

We had a vacation with my family over MLK weekend. It's the way we always celebrate MLK. We rent a cabin in Porterville and spend the weekend saying and thinking rude things when the extended proximity causes us and our children to get on each other's nerves. Kidding! But not really.

We eat good food and play games and have fun together. This year we had an Iron Chef-style cookoff which was humiliating for me, because my lava cake ended up being more like a pudding sauce. Plus it was so rich and sweet that I hated it a little bit. The secret ingredients were cocoa powder, pretzels, and cream cheese. We had to use at least two of them. Justine and Cannon won, because they made doughnuts. The rest of us were hopelessly outclassed.

Normally we try to get a family photo while we're there, so I was glad that we already had our family photos done during the Christmas break, because it meant I didn't have to cut my kids' hair and pack a bunch of possible picture outfits.

It's very generous of my parents to do this, and they seem to have a good time, even though they're forced to interact with us lazy buggers and not do any work--I think the weekend just about kills my dad. He does not care for downtime.

Here are some pictures.

I wanna rock right now

Willa and Hadley, the neighbor girl: "We got chased by a dog on our way home!"
Me: "What color was it?"
Hadley: "Rainbow-colored."
Me: "That sounds like an interesting dog."
Willa: "Yeah. He just wanted some ham and water."

fourth quarter earnings

Probably the biggest news from Christmas is that we got some fairly decent family pictures taken (for free) by my brother-in-law Nate, who has a nice camera, a good eye, and enough patience to not murder our family with a heat ray when they keep acting like dummies and complaining about having family pictures taken (for free). I think the pictures are as good as we could possibly expect, and the only way to improve them would be for us to be more attractive and less rubber-faced.

Christmas was perfect. Everybody got a present they felt very pleased about. John's favorite present was a new phone and the Faygo vanilla cream soda I bought that didn't get here until the 30th. My favorite present was a new phone and a cookbook of my grandma's recipes (I cried). Grant's favorite present was a Hagrid's Hut Lego set. Emmett's favorite present was a snap circuit board. Ike's favorite present was a stuffed tiger. Willa's favorite present was a dollhouse that looks like this:It is fearsomely cute, and she has played with it constantly. I also made her a Paducah doll that looks like this:
My granny learned to make Paducah dolls when she and my great-grandpa were on a mission in Paducah, Kentucky. Where is Paducah, Kentucky, you might ask? Halfway between Possum Trot and Monkey's Eyebrow, that's where. We have four generations of Paducah dolls now. They are adorable, with movable arms and legs and cute little baby-shaped bodies, but somewhat challenging to make for someone with my sewing and embroidering abilities. I am extremely proud of my Paducah doll.

We had a party on New Year's Eve, like always. Here are the people who came:
We ate food and played Jackstraws and Dominion. Dominion is hard and I lost.

I am excited about the new year. My goal is to be a better steward of my time.

gathering chips for wood

You know how in that song "Whenever I Think About Pioneers" it says "I would like to have been a child then?" What a bunch of baloney. I'm so glad I wasn't a child then, or a youth or an adult, for that matter. Do you know anyone who would have liked to have been a child then? I bet not. I'm going to trick Chrome by announcing new paragraphs in the text, rather than returning. NEW PARAGRAPH: Grant has continuous evil-smelling drainage from his ears. I blame the Huff genes. Emmett is healthy. Ike is healthy. Willa has an ear infection and strep throat. I blame the Huff genes. Thankfully the Huff genes also make them artistic and super loud.

it looks . . . not good

I had to give a talk in church today. I hate speaking in church, because most of the time my mind goes blank and I just spout off a bunch of nonsensical gibberish. But I was sweating about this all week, and I prepared the crap out of it. So it went much better than usual.

Tonight we had a priesthood preview meeting for Grant, since he'll be turning twelve next year. He is an incredible kid, and I wish I could freeze him right now. Smart, hard-working, largely obedient, eager to please . . . what an absolute joy to be around. I want to distil this time into a little vial, and then when he's sixteen and being all glum and sullen, lurking in the basement and refusing to talk to any of us I can uncap the vial and smell what life used to be like. He practices basketball every second he gets, he's reading The Book of Three, and my mom loves having him in her class.

Emmett is excelling in school. He enjoys the days he gets to go out to Garland for his gifted and talented program, and he likes to come home and give a full report. This month they had a mock legislature, and he was amazed by how few bills got passed during the session, "But the ones that passed were good bills." Ah, youth. He plays the piano obsessively. I know he should have a real teacher, because my total lack of theory instruction is holding him back. I hope that he can get a spot with my former piano teacher when school starts next year, because she's terrific and can do more to further his talent than I can. He's reading The Moral Compass, which is weird and gratifying.

I volunteer in Ike's class, which gives him an opportunity to hug me five or six times during the time I'm there. He really craves affection--it's a good thing that John's family taught me how to hug, because Ike is basically a puppy. Also I think he has pica, because he ate his reminder card that said he needs to say the scripture in Primary next week. But he's bright and happy and sweet and I guess a little wood pulp won't kill him. He must be deficient in some mineral. We're reading The Dragons of Blueland to him, and he just finished reading Frog and Toad are Friends.

Willa is such a dear little friend to me. We like going to the pet store together to watch the dogs get their haircuts. I will miss her when she goes to school every day. She loves school, loves playing outside, loves helping me, and loves playing with dolls. I brought her with me while I was up at the unpark helping assemble the new playground equipment, and she was so well-behaved and delightful she charmed all of the guys who were there working. She's reading the American Girl doll catalog.

John was elected to be on the city council next year. He is sort of ambivalent about it. He's glad he didn't lose, because that would be embarrassing, but he doesn't want another iron in the fire very much. He just finished reading Drive and has recommended it to me.

If anybody could tell me why Chrome and IE always make the first paragraph double spaced and the following paragraphs single spaced, or better yet, if they could stop Chrome and IE from doing that, it would be just peachy. Because I super duper hate how they format the text of my blog posts and I am ready to crack some heads.

you just said happy birthday in duck

For some reason whenever Ike prays lately he always says, "and please bless the sick and afflicted ones."

We have a lot of sick and afflicted ones in our family, but he blesses them all separately, so I'm not sure who he's talking about. Maybe he's trying to do a catch-all for everyone he doesn't know.

Willa had to go to bed at seven tonight because she is a hateful monster. There was a lot of screaming, but there was going to be even more, by more people, if she stayed up any longer. When confronted with bratty behavior I first assume sleep deprivation, and if that isn't it I assume they need to have a bowel movement. Gross, but surprisingly accurate.

you're already the voice inside my head

John and I went to San Francisco for a few days last week. We asked Emily and Matthew to help watch Willa and Ike, but unbeknownst to us Matthew had to be in China last week. So Emily got two extra kids and no help! We are awesome family. We bought her some nice chocolates, but I don't think it worked. Willa and Ava are sometimes not really great at being friends, and I think Emily was a tad overwhelmed. Hopefully we can repay her soon.

Willa says that Emily taught her to say please and to not suck her fingers.

We bought Willa a Chinese dress, Ike a panda hat, and Grant and Emmett t-shirts. Emmett's has a cool scary tiger, and Grant's has a cool scary dragon. Emmett likes his shirt and Grant hates his. What can you do? I told them on the phone that their presents weren't cool, but evidently Grant thought I was sandbagging. I wasn't.

Next week is fall break, and we're trying to think of somewhere fun and cheap to take the kids. They want to camp out in John's parents' back yard. I think that's a bad idea.