Our ridiculously interesting lives...no, seriously

Moore Family 2020 Update

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 04:54:00 +0000

Well, it's high time we dusted off the old blog and posted an update! To save a little (read: a lot of) space on our Christmas card, I thought I would post a little update here to direct people to.

2020 has been quite a year for the entire globe, and it's true for us, as well! Although we have avoided COVID thus far (We think? Either that or we've had it ten times. We aren't sure.), we have still faced the craziness of two people working full-time from home and kids doing school from home for the first part of the year, and all of the other challenges that came along with the COVID upheaval.

In July, we sold our home in Orem and made our big cross-country move to the St. Louis area and have been settling into our new neighborhood and home. It has been quite an adventure! Here is an update on each of us.

Ryan is 14 and a freshman in high school. He has far surpassed Caroline in height and is coming up on Michael. Ryan plays the saxophone in band, always has a money-making idea up his sleeve, and is still 100% obsessed with all things cars and racing. He is settling in making new friends and is a helpful, dependable young man.

Calvin is 12 and is a 7th grader this year. He plays the xylophone in band, and can usually be found splitting his time between reading a favorite book and enjoying the great outdoors (lucky for us, we live on the edge of a small woods, so he gets ample opportunities). He is our observant kid, always ready to help you feel better if he notices you are down.

Sophie is 10 and is a 5th grader this year. She loves art, trying her hand at baking, and hanging out with friends, but her very favorite thing to do is curl up with a good book. She is usually the first to come and find us in the mornings to give us a good hug and cuddle. She is smart and funny, and sings like an angel.

Hannah is 7, and is growing like a weed! She loves to draw, write stories, play board games, help us with anything and everything we are doing, and loves to play with friends most of all. She is always ready with a hug and her happy, smiling face.

I (Caroline) finished working for BYU in June and have been busy with getting our ducks in a row in our new life. I love walking our new neighborhood and am grateful that the kids have been going to school in-person, since it has given me the space I have needed to grieve after my dad's passing in August and to get everything set up in our new home.

Michael graduated with his MBA in April. He worked so hard and made so many incredible friends, and we are so grateful for the amazing two years he had in the program. He even snuck in a trip to Costa Rica and Panama for a supply chain consulting class before COVID put us all on time out. He started his new position with Bayer as an International Procurement Management Trainee in May, which he has really been enjoying. He is working on teams all over the world (virtually, for the time being) and learning a ton.

We are excited for what 2021 will bring, and we really hope it sucks less than 2020! Merry Christmas!

Life lately!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 03:38:00 +0000

Well, life is marching right on, wouldn't you know! And at this season in my life, I just really haven't been able to make time to post on here, and I've come to terms with that :) But I was clearing pictures off of my phone tonight at I just felt the urge to post some pictures of our crew and give a little update!

Since I last posted, Ryan turned 11, Hannah turned 4, Sophie turned 7 and Calvin turned 9, we got a puppy, we've almost completed the school year, Michael has done some cool woodworking projects, we bought a second car and we've sat through a lot of baseball games! It's been a busy, good, hard, regular old few months around here.

Here is a little update on the kids!

Ryan just had his "crossing over" ceremony today, celebrating his elementary school experience and wishing him and his classmates well as they head off to middle school. Yes, you read that right, MIDDLE SCHOOL! I am freaking out just a little bit. Ryan is a good boy, but he is a boy who is growing up. He's a pro at eye rolling and never taking our word for anything :) I am not ready for these years!!!

But he has had a great year at school this year, has good friends, is a good kid, and has worked hard at some new skills, like learning how to play the saxophone, being in choir and playing on a baseball team. He has started a good little business mowing lawns in our neighborhood, and I am glad that he is learning about hard work and responsibility.

Ryan still likes cars and planes, but I think he is figuring out that there is more to life! He is more interested in sports these days, and instead of always saying he wants to be a Nascar driver or a pilot when he grows up, these days he sometimes also says that he wants to be a lawyer so he can make a lot of money. So who knows! His favorite things these days are eating (anything but squash and tomatoes or tomato sauce), spending time with friends, playing ipad at Grandma's house, and pretty much any activity where people pay attention to him. Some things never change! That's comforting.

Calvin is growing up, too, but not quite as fast as Ryan :) Calvin still loves rocks, reading Calvin and Hobbs, and talking about Pokemon (will not be sad to see this interest go out the window someday!). He is signed up for a track club for the summer, which he is very excited about!

Calvin is still out tender little guy. He is brought to tears on a daily basis, it seems, but I wouldn't change his tender heart, even if I could. It gives him a softness and a sweetness serves him well, and will serve him even better as he continues to learn to get a handle on those emotional overload moments.

I had a cute moment with Calvin the other day. Sophie and Hannah were talking about doing a talent show and they invited Calvin to join them. Calvin didn't really answer, and a few minutes later he wandered into the kitchen and nestled his head into me and said, "Mom, do I have any talents?" I answered him saying, "Oh Calvin, you have so many talents that this could take all day! You are a great artist, you are a great singer, you are really good at piano and you've been learning it really fast, you are strong and very talented at physical things, I mean, how much time do you have right now, because I could go on and on!" Then he smiled a little at one corner of his mouth and said, "No, that's ok, Mom." Then he scampered off hollering to Sophie, "Hey, Sophie, I know what my talent is going to be!"

That little guy melts my heart. He is learning and growing at getting better at so many things. He loves playing with friends, playing with Banjo, running around outside, climbing trees, reading, and doing screen of any kind. He is also super excited about his trip to the Grand Canyon with Grandma and Grandpa Walton at the end of this month.

Sophie is becoming a lovely young lady. She still has a vivid bossy streak, but it's pretty adorable when I catch her really trying hard to reign it in. She is a rule follower, much like Ryan, and loves to be in charge of things. This has served her well at school, where the urge to boss people around has somehow translated into leadership skills, and we get raving reviews from all of her teachers.

Today she had a presentation at school and she was one of the narrators and did the whole thing in Spanish, all the while shooting commanding looks at her misbehaving classmates. Oh, Sophie! She is doing so great in Spanish, though, and at reading, too. She loves to learn, especially about animals, and wants to be a veterinarian someday. She and Hannah are hot and cold, but I have seen more good interactions between the two of them lately, so I am hoping that they are on a relationship upswing!

We recently went to a wedding reception where they were going to have dancing. Sophie spent a good deal of time before the reception worrying about the dancing, saying, "I wonder who I am going to dance with??" Ryan finally stepped in and said, "Well, you could dance with one of the Holt boys (Some friends of ours with 5 boys in their family)!" Sophie quickly made plans to dance with Joey, and asked him to dance with her at the reception, which was the farthest thing from poor Joey's mind, who had absolutely no interest in or intention of dancing with a girl. Sophie asked every boy within a few years of her age, but no one would take her up on it. Finally, she danced with Michael, which made her feel a little better, but I think she is still grumpy about it to this day. At least she's confident!

Sophie loves bacon, berries, mangoes, playing with friends, singing (and has a lovely voice!), Banjo, animals of all kinds, and wearing her Moana costume as she sings the songs from the movie.

Hannah is a force to be reckoned with, usually in a good way! She is generally sunny and energetic and creative. She loves to help us with anything we are doing, and she is over the moon when we take time to play with her. When she gets in a stormy mood, watch out! She can still throw a temper tantrum with the best of them!

Hannah wants so badly to grow up. I got her a cute shirt last fall that is pink and says in sparkly gold letters, "Never grow up!" Well, I shouldn't have told her what it says, because she absolutely refuses to wear it, because she does, in fact, want to grow up. In the car driving around the other day she asked me to give her driving lessons. I replied that when she was 14 or 15, I would be happy to give her driving lessons. She got the biggest smile of all time on her face and shouted for joy, "AND THEN I CAN SIT UP THERE BY YOU???????"

Hannah had an at home preschool this year, where I switched off teaching with some friends. We learned about the alphabet, but Hannah still can only name maybe half or a third of them, unless they're all there next to each other on an alphabet poster. Then she's really good at that :) But she loved preschool, and is super excited for her "real" preschool that starts this fall.

Hannah loves nature, bugs, Banjo, pickles, strawberries, Cocoa Pebbles, stickers, and coloring awesome pictures. She drew an amazing dragon for me tonight, and then promptly crumpled it up and put it in a plastic baggy for safe keeping. She is extremely sweet and loving, and absolutely exploding with personality, and we are lucky to have her!

So that's the kids these days! Then there's the dog, I guess. Banjo is a labradoodle, and he is about 4 months old. He loves being with us, loves to play tug of war, and is okay at fetching. He can be a sweet puppy, but he is totally a puppy, meaning he chews and bites and whines and destroys and mostly refuses to listen. I am really hoping that most of those things are a phase that he will eventually grow out of! We are still not sure that it was a good idea to get a dog, but here we are! The kids love him, Michael and I like him some of the time, and I am hopeful that someday in the future all of the benefits will outweigh all of the work! I am sure he will make a good family dog for us, but there is a whole lot of puppy between us and that dog! But someday!

And then there's Michael and me! We are mostly boring :) Michael has been doing a lot of woodworking, and he is pretty amazing! I have been working part time and I am finally starting to actually do some bona fide marketing work, which is exciting. We've been trying to find time for home improvement projects somewhere in there, but we are mostly just racing to keep up with the kids and our busy lives! But we are doing just fine. Tired, but fine!

So there you have it, a Moore family update! Now, for some pictures!

Sophie with her birthday cake!

And with her friends at her Moana birthday party:

Me and Banjo:

Sophie and Calvin and Banjo:

Coloring Easter eggs:

Easter breakfast:

Doing some egg hunts:

Hanging out with Kelly and my parents:

Kelly meeting Banjo:

Banjo back when he was tiny:

My Calvin boy and me:

Calvin with his birthday cake:

And with his friends at his party:

Hannah loves swings!

Calvin loves the laser tag guns he got for his birthday:

Sophie being silly:

Hannah squishing Michael's cheeks and getting squirted:

Banjo refusing to go for a walk:

Out for a family stroll:

Hannah and Banjo at a baseball game:

Michael and Melanie and Marshmellows!

Hannah sure loves Melanie:

Calvin's first black eye! Thanks, gym class!

Sophie's new hair cut:

A very nice picture of Ryan and me:

Hannah before her hair cut!

Hannah and Banjo:

Ryan and Banjo:

Hannah and me:

Ryan's choir group:

Ryan and his good buddy, Luka:

Hannah and Sophie waiting in line with me on a cold day. Can you spot Sophie??

Hannah's preschool group (plus one little sister who really wanted to be in the picture!):

A fairly accurate representation of how this year of preschool went:

Going to the movies with Grandma and Grandpa:

Kelly and a slice of flag cake that I made:

Hannah in Indecision City--er--I mean the Dollar Store. She spent a full 45 minutes trying to decide what to buy with her $1. It ended up being watermelon flavored gummy bears.

With cousins on Easter:

I totally never post on here!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 03:48:00 +0000

Hannah did something funny, and I went to write about it, and then I realized that I haven't posted since July. Whoops! So here's a funny Hannah story, for those of you optimists that still occasionally check in here :)

Michael and I have been talking for a long time about installing ceiling fans in our living room, so we finally went to go pick some out. We took Hannah to Home Depot with us, and she was excited to help pick them out. However to get to the ceiling fans, you have to go past the chandeliers, and once Hannah saw those sparkly chandeliers, no ceiling fan was going to cut it. She kept saying that she wanted the beautiful ones, and when we would tell her how great the ceiling fans were, she would simply tell us that they were not beautiful.

In desperation she tried to persuade us to choose a fan with blades that looked like banana leaves. When we said no, she pretty much lost it. It was getting late, so we came home and tucked her into bed, and then we measured out where the fans would eventually go, and stacked the fans in the corner to be installed in the near future. This morning Hannah woke up and came out of her room, glanced in the living room, was shocked and appalled at the utter lack of new things on the ceiling, and then climbed in our bed and said, "There were supposed to be two beautiful ones in there and there AREN'T ANY!!!!!!!"

Little goof.

Hannah

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 02:21:00 +0000

Our busy, busy lives just don't slow down! I thought I would blog more this summer, but surprise! I haven't! But I have been thinking about cutting Hannah's hair (due to the excessive whining that happens when we brush it...) and I've been wanting to take some pictures of her with her beautiful long hair before that happens. So tonight I went out and snapped some and I just love how they turned out. I sure love my Hannah girl.

Nauvoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 04:11:00 +0000

On Thursday morning bright and early (6:00 am!) we headed out for our trip to Nauvoo, IL! We had been talking for a long time about meeting up there with our good friends, and we finally made it happen! Hooray!

Michael took the reigns on planning for this one, and I was not particularly thrilled that we would be tent camping for three nights in 95 degree weather, but wouldn't you know, much like most of Michael's seemingly off the wall plans, it turned out so great! It was pretty much perfect!

The drive is about 6 and a half hours without stops, so we thought it would be a slightly more difficult ride for the kids, since that's longer than our usual 4 and a half hour trips to visit family nearby, but they did so great! It was seriously delightful!

We fed them cereal before hopping int he car, and then once we were an hour or so into the trip, we passed out breakfast cookies and drinks. They read books, drew in notebooks, sang along to the ipod, and we all had a really nice time!

Around Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we pulled off of the freeway to find a restroom. But then we saw a sign that said "Outdoor Learning Center -- 5 miles". We thought we'd roll the dice and follow the signs, and boy are we glad we did! It was a super awesome nature center out in the middle of nowhere! The kids had the greatest time running around, learning about Native Americans, pretending to be farmers, playing at the water table--it was the best! And it was a great spot for our picnic lunch!

We rolled in to Nauvoo at about 2:30 and headed to the visitor's center. Nauvoo is an important city in our church's history, and the historical buildings there have been restored. It is such a fun place to explore--it has an old fashioned blacksmith shop, post office, bakery, brick yard, gunsmith shop, tinsmith shop, family life building (where they teach you about rope making, spinning, candle making, bread baking, looming, etc), and tons of other old fashioned activities, and it's all free! So we stopped off at the visitor's center and looked around. They have a statue of Jesus there and Hannah went right up and plunked down on a bench nearby, looked up at the statue and said, "Huh. I didn't know Jesus would be here!" It was too funny.

So we got our bearings there and then headed to the state park to get our camp site all set up. But on the way we saw the pioneer games going on outside, so we stopped for a minute. The had stilts for the kids to try, stick pulling, pioneer costumes to dress up in, wooden animals to play with, you name it! The kids had a blast.

Once we got to the campground, we realized were the only campers there, in the tent camping part, anyways, so we had our pick of camp sites! We grabbed the one close to the showers and the water pump, and with lots of shade and soft pine needles--it was awesome! So we set up camp and got the fire going for dinner. It was so hot and sweaty that afternoon, so we went to the market in town and bought a bag of ice just to suck on and put in the water bottles. After that we felt so much better!

For dinner we had this with some grilled veggies, and it was pretty much the best decision of our lives! So good. Then Michael took the kids fishing and Hannah and I showered off and I tried to tuck her in to bed. She was totally wired, though, so it really didn't work. By dusk she was still awake and I saw fireflies outside, so we went to go see the fireflies. It was pretty magical, and Hannah says that the fireflies were her very favorite part of the trip. Finally we got everyone to bed and crashed for the night. We were so tired!

On Friday we woke up bright and early and had a yummy breakfast and headed into town to get a wagon tour of Nauvoo. It was so fun! It was like we were the only people there--everyone would come out of the buildings and wave at us as we rode by. And the kids had so much fun petting and talking with the horses. We visited the family life center where we learned all kinds of pioneer skills from bread making to candle making to spinning, and then we toured the bakery, a couple of homes, and the browning gunsmith shop! It was very cool.

Hannah had a rough time sitting through the presentations, so by lunch time we were ready to head back to camp, enjoy a lunch and tuck the kids in for a nap. Hannah, Calvin and Sophie ended up napping, and so did I! And it felt great! They all ended up waking up just as our friends Dave and April Whiting pulled into town! It was so fun to see them and their darling kids! Really, our kids all became fast friends and played so well together the whole time! It was awesome.

Well almost right off the bat, Michael and Dave took the older 4 kids geode hunting at a place about 30 minutes away, and April and I stayed with the younger ones while we chatted and they colored and ran around. Eventually we ventured out to walk around the temple, get a refreshing ice cream, and drive around Nauvoo while the girls cooled down with a movie in the car. It was just what we needed! Then we headed back to camp to get the fire ready for dinner. We had hot dogs and veggies, and it was great.

Michael, Dave and the kids had so much fun geode hunting! It was hot, hard work, but they came back with two whole buckets full and proceeded to smash them open--they were on cloud nine, especially Calvin!

After dinner the kids played around and the adults sat around the fire and chatted. It was so nice! Finally it was time for showers and tucking the kids into bed and more chatting around the fire for us! It was a great day.

On Saturday we were woken up by a ridiculously loud bunch of crows somewhere close by! But that's ok. Michael took some of the kids fishing and I started on breakfast, which was fruit and monkey bread (we never ended up eating the monkey bread for dessert, so we had to fit it in somewhere!) and fresh fish, courtesy of Calvin. It was a nice relaxed camping morning! We headed into town and headed to the tin smith shop, which was very cool, and then Erik and Elliot Anderson pulled in from Missouri! The whole family had planned to come but the girls got sick, so Liz stayed behind with them. We missed you, Liz! But it was so awesome to have Erik and Elliot there! Calvin and Elliot immediately bonded over Pokemon :)

Then we all toured the blacksmith shop and a few other places that I can't quite remember at the moment! But the blacksmith shop was the favorite, because everyone got a "prairie diamond" ring, which is a horseshoe nail bent into the shape of a ring. Sophie was so happy! Then we headed to Grandpa John's for ice cream and sodas and then played around at Pioneer Pass-times with the kids while we ate our lunch.

After that we headed over to the oxen rides where you got to take a ride in a covered wagon replica pulled by a team of oxen. Just as we were about to hop on, Michael realized that Hannah had had a full-blown diaper disaster. I mean seriously. So I changed her in the grass (pioneer style!) while everyone else rode the wagon. I cobbled together a new outfit for her and then Hannah and I took a quick ride after everyone else was done. Those wagon boxes were 3 feet by 11 feet! I imagined them being a lot bigger! I can't imagine have to carry all of my food and my belongings across America in one of those!

After the oxen ride, we headed to the brick yard and then toured the Joseph Smith homestead and red brick store, which was very cool. Michael manfully volunteered to play around outside with Hannah instead of taking that tour, since Hannah had just about had it with sitting and listening to anyone at that point. The tour was like an hour and a half long, so they had to bum around for quite a while! After that we all headed back to camp for some down time and some dinner. We made tin foil dinners and played around, and it was so great. It is so good to get together with old friends. It was such a treat!

Erik and Elliot had to head back home after dinner, so we said goodbye to them, and then we got the kids all showered off and then headed out to see the BYU International Folk Dancers perform. It was so cool! Each of my kids seriously loved it! I wish it hadn't been so dark because when they did the flamenco dance, Hannah was really doing her best to copy them, and it was adorable! My favorites were the tap and clogging numbers. So cool. So we all watched and the kids flitted off to catch fireflies occasionally, and we had a delightful evening!

Ryan was so impressed by the male folk dancers that he went up to talk to one of them afterwards. The dancer, Sammy, asked Ryan if he was going to be a folk dancer. Ryan said, "I dunno, maybe!" Then Sammy put his arm around Ryan's shoulder and said, "Listen, you might not care about this now, but you could play some other sport and hang out in a locker room full of smelly guys all day, or you could do dance and hang out with beautiful women all day. I'm just saying." That caught Ryan's attention! It was pretty funny.

So by then it was really late and we headed back to camp to tuck the kids in and chat around the fire again until Michael actually fell asleep in his chair and it was time for bed!

On Sunday morning we got up early and said "Happy Fathers Day" to Michael while he made us a delicious fathers day breakfast of pancakes and eggs (how's that for a great Father's Day! Make your own breakfast!) and rushed off to church which started at 7:50 (!!!). Then we headed back to camp and took down or tents and said goodbye to Dave and April and their family. It was so fun to see them!

Calvin especially was sad to say goodbye to Suzy, Dave and April's 9 year old. He was holding her had and scratching her back all weekend, the little scoundrel! She said she didn't mind, but she only liked him as a friend, but April did tell me that Suzy told her that Calvin told Suzy that he was in love with her :) I finally weaseled it out of Calvin days later, the poor guy was so embarrassed! But he was sad to see Suzy go, and has already emailed her.

So after Dave and April left, we headed to the temple to walk around and then headed to Carthage, Illinois to see the Carthage Jail where Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred. We had heard that it opened at 11, but it turns out that it didn't open until 12:30, so we picnicked on the grass and Michael napped in the car while the kids chased around a friendly bunny, and then we toured the jail. There is a very special spirit there, and I think Ryan especially was impressed by it. I'm really glad that we went (to learn more about who Joseph Smith was or what we believe about modern day prophets, go here and here).

So then we began the trek home! It actually was so much better than I thought it was going to be! The kids were great, and we made great time! We were even able to stop off at Grandma's house in Rochester for a little break and rice krispy treats, of course! It was great to visit for a little bit with my mom (my dad was out of town on business, sadly), and then we finished the drive home!

It was a great trip and I am so glad that we were able to go and share that fun time with old and dear friends.

At the cool nature center we found in Iowa:

Girls snoozing in the car:

Hannah's "I didn't know Jesus would be here!" moment:

Ryan setting up his tent:

Playing in pine needles:

Being silly little campers:

Sophie trying her hand at orienteering:

Building the fire:

Hannah occupied herself with trying to throw sticks. She was very proud:

Tyring to get Hannah to bed:

Hannah telling me bedtime stories:

Kids chasing fireflies:

Hanging out by the fire:

Waking up on Friday!

Happy happy happy!

Oatmeal and muffins for breakfast:

Checking out the horses:

Learning about baking bread:

Making rope:

Learning about barrel making:

Gunsmith shop:

Nauvoo temple:

Michael made this handy peanut butter spreader for us!

Hannah the pioneer:

Sophie the cowgirl:

Hannah the sheep whisperer:

Calvin the miner:

The whole mining group:

Sophie found this frog and was very VERY excited:

We tried cooking bacon this way! Worked like a charm:

Ryan practicing carrying water:

Calvin and Elliot being awesome:

Sophie just loved getting to know Suzy and Aubrey:

Casanova Calvin:

Hanging out by a well:

Michael and Hannah entertaining themselves while we toured the Joseph Smith homestead:

Almost as strong as an ox:

Changing Hannah pioneer style:

In the wagon ride with the oxen:

Hanging out with Erik and Elliot:

We sure loved seeing Erik and Elliot:

Ryan with his perfectly golden marshmallow:

Me and my buddy:

The girls playing nicely:

Oh, you know, just HOLDING A GIRL'S HAND!!!

Me and my Hannah:

Snoozy kids:

Michael made this spoon out of some of our walnut firewood and gave it to Dave and April as a housewarming gift for their new place in Kentucky! He's amazing.

Michael and Dave:

The Moores and the Whitings!

Our family at the Nauvoo temple:

At Carthage:

Loading up in the car!

Heading home!

Nauvoo Fishing!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 02:25:00 +0000

We recently took a trip to Nauvoo, and the kids did such a great job fishing that they deserve a whole post about it!

We got to Nauvoo on a Thursday night, and after a bit I took the three big kids down to the dock.

Sophie was the fishing champ that night. She landed 7 fish, and had at least 2 others hooked that flopped off before we could get a picture. Sophie just wanted to catch a bunch of fish, so she was using a tiny little hook and catching the baby crappies off the end of the dock.

Ryan took second place with 3 fish. He started out with some bigger hooks and lures, then eventually decided that he really wanted to just catch something, so he switched to what Sophie was using and was very pleased with his success.

That night Calvin stuck to his guns, and waited for a big fish. At the end of the night he was sad that he hadn't caught any, but I told him how proud I was of him for trying to catch a big fish and he perked up considerably.

The next day was busy and I only ended up taking Hannah down to fish. She caught three fish. She's a good little fishing buddy. She mostly listens when I tell her to reel in fast, slow or stop, and she's not afraid to throw the fish back in. She can't cast yet, but she can press the button and drop the line off the end of the dock.

When we got to the dock there was a mom and two girls playing on the dock, and something black with a tail that ran behind the mom as we approached. Hannah said "Dad. Dad. Dad, can we pet the....the...the animal?". It turned out to be a baby pig, and it was very happy to sniff and nuzzle Hannah with it's little piggy nose, and Hannah was happy to be nuzzled.

The next morning was Calvin's turn to shine. He's our early riser, so we went down to the dock as soon as he woke up. A nice old guy was pulling good sized crappies out one after another and gave them to us. More importantly, he showed us what bait and hook size was working for him, so we switched to that (weighted head jig hooks with clear-green twister tails!) and Calvin quickly pulled in two nice crappies and a sunfish.

At one point Calvin had a big one on the line. It bent his little pole in half and swam all around the dock and finally broke the line. Another guy we talked to said that there were some big 4 pound bass in the lake, so that's what we're saying it was.

We kept the best 4 crappies and let the rest go, then headed up to camp just as Caroline was starting to cook breakfast. We cut some fillets and wrapped them in tin foil with butter, and the kids had fish with breakfast.

Fishing wasn't why we went to Nauvoo, but the kids sure had fun with it! I'm proud of my little fishing buddies!

Caroline's Talk on Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 30 May 2016 02:11:00 +0000

I remember being a child and saying my bedtime prayers. I'm sure there was some variation, but I remember asking for 3 specific things every night. One was “please don't let there be a tornado.” One was “please don't let our house burn down.” and the third was “please forgive me for everything I did wrong today.”

Now, there was certainly an element of faith shown in my prayers as a child. I knew Heavenly Father was there. I knew He was all powerful and could help in any situation. I knew I could ask for His help, and I didn't doubt that He could give it to me. I knew the atonement was real and that I could be forgiven of my sins, and I sincerely desired to be forgiven. These were all great building blocks, but I have learned that prayer is much more than a wish list and a catch-all. I have come to learn that there is so much more to prayer than I realized as a child.

To understand the great power that prayer can provide in our lives, we must understand our relationship with Heavenly Father. We know that God is the father of our spirits. He loves us more than we can understand, and He has the strength, direction, knowledge, peace, and power that we need to successfully navigate this life. What's more, it is His deepest desire to share those with us, so that we may one day return to HIm, clean and worthy.

Revelation 3:20 reads:

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Our Heavenly Father loves us and values us so greatly, that He will not force anything upon us. He will knock. He will invite us to open up to Him, and He will stand, ready and waiting for us. When we pray to our Father, we are opening the door that will allow Him into our lives.

Now there is an entire spectrum of prayer, as I'm sure we all have experienced. Sometimes our prayers are those of immediate needs that we desire help meeting. Sometimes they are prayers of repentance and sorrow for mistakes. Sometimes they are prayers of gratitude. Sometimes they are sincere, and other times they are hurried and said out of duty. I have learned that the quality and sincerity of our prayers determines how much we are opening the door to our Father. If we can understand how to fully open that door, He will, like the scripture in Revelation said, “come in unto [us], and will sup with [us], and [we] with [him]. “

I have been a member of the church all my life, and was taught to love Heavenly Father and to pray to Him. As an adolescent and as an adult, I rarely, if ever, missed a morning or evening prayer to my Heavenly Father. So when I was asked to speak on prayer a couple of weeks ago, I thought that I had it down pat. After all, I was consistent and dedicated in saying prayers, a real prayer veteran, if you will. But that evening after life calmed down at our house and my children were all tucked into bed, I finally had a few moments of quiet to myself, and a thought came to me, “Okay. Now you need to figure out what sincere prayer really is so you can actually know what you're talking about.” The thought surprised me, because I was pretty confident that I knew what prayer was all about. But I then felt impressed to spend 20 minutes sharing my thoughts and feelings with my Heavenly Father, and then to spend 10 minutes listening for what He might have to say to me, and to write it down. So I did. And I have done it every day since, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

If I were to sum up what I have learned through this experience, it would be that prayer is really about connecting with our Father in Heaven. I feel like I knew that before, but I didn't truly understand it.

Our lives are busy. They are wonderful and difficult and full of both little tasks that must be accomplished and large eternal goals that we must strive towards. We love others, and carry their worries and burdens on our shoulders along with our own. We learn and succeed and fail miserably and get up the next day to do it all again. Our Heavenly Father knows this. He knows each of us by name, and knows perfectly the struggles we face and the burdens we carry. He stands at the door, ready to help. And oh, what help He can give, if we will take some time to connect with Him!

I have come to imagine that I have a pitcher inside of me, and I feel that it is always full. Sometimes it is full of gratitude. Other times it is full of worry. Sometimes it is full of confusion. Sometimes it is full of faith. Most of the time, it is a great big mix of all of these things and more.

In the Book of Mormon, in Mosiah chapter 24 verse 12, the people of Alma “did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.”

We approach our Father in prayer not to inform Him about our lives—He already knows us perfectly—but to pour out our full pitchers to Him. As we pour out our joys, our concerns, our confusions, our pain, our gratitude to Him, we forge a connection with Him, and He, in turn, can fill us with something infinitely better.

Doctrine and Covenants section 19 verses 38 and 39 reads

“ Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth...Behold, canst thou read this without rejoicing and lifting up thy heart for gladness?”

I have experienced this great blessing in my life. As I have connected with my Heavenly Father and poured out my heart to Him, He has poured out His spirit upon me in countless ways, that there has not been room enough to receive” the blessings. I can testify that it is indeed greater than if I had obtained treasures of earth, and I have felt so much joy because of it.

Here are a few of the specific ways over the past 2 weeks that I have felt the Father's inspiration as I have listened for His direction:

Sometimes I have felt sweet assurances that I am His daughter, that I am just right for the challenges before me, that I am capable and that He loves me and will help me.

Sometimes I have felt specific answers come to questions I have asked, that come in the form of an idea, like a little flash of inspiration, and then I know what to do or say or change.

Sometimes I have felt him teach me as a feeling, without words, who I really am, how He feels about me, and how I should feel about myself.

Sometimes I have felt the need to repent, and have had specific moments brought to my mind that help me realize my error and how I must change.

Sometimes He has helped me realize where I can go to find answers or help or strength and helped urge me to go and find it.

Sometimes He has taught me about the Savior and His role in my life.

Sometimes he has brought words of scripture or words of a hymn to my mind to answer or comfort me.

The way, however, that He has most often spoken to me is through a feeling of love and peace and warmth.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson likened it to sitting by a fire and feeling its warmth. He said,

“I think that is a lovely metaphor—just sit with the Lord and let Him warm you like a fire in winter. You don’t have to be perfect or the greatest person who ever graced the earth or the best of anything to be with Him.

I hope you will take time...to sit for a few quiet moments and let the Savior's Spirit warm you and reassure you of the worthiness of your service, of your offering, of your life. Sit quietly with [Him] and come away spiritually strengthened and better prepared for all that is going to come later. Let that moment be one of rest and refreshing and reassurance and renewal.”

I love that metaphor, and it rings true for me. As I have sat with my Father, just feeling and listening and enjoying His presence, I have come away feeling warmed, prepared, refreshed. I have come away with a far greater gift than I could have thought to ask for.

In each of these cases where I felt the Father's presence during my prayers, if I had not taken the time to open that door, and to open it wide enough to let my Father in, and if I had not made room in my heart for Him, I would not have received that precious direction and knowledge. Our Father will give us as much as we will allow Him to give us. The amount is up to us to decide, and we make that known to Him through our actions.

So now that we have talked a little about what it means to connect with our Father and what blessings can come from it, I wanted to talk about what I feel are the three important steps associated with it. First, establish that connection with our Heavenly Father. Second, keep the connection. And third, Let it change you.

First, what does connecting with Heavenly Father look like in practice? For me, it didn't necessarily take the place of the regular morning or evening prayer, but it was me setting aside some time in my day when I could spend time with my Heavenly Father without distraction. Sometimes I spent that 20 minutes on my knees in my bedroom. Sometimes I sat quietly by myself somewhere. Sometimes I was doing chores alone and talked with Him then. Sometimes I did it while I was mowing the lawn. Think about how we would build a relationship with our earthly father—spending time talking together! They wouldn't care where or when, and neither does He. We can connect with Heavenly Father in our lives by opening up our hearts to Him anywhere and at any time. However it requires that we give Him the attention and focus of our minds and hearts. After I poured out my heart to Him, I would find a quiet place to sit for a while and listen for His answers and inspiration.

Find a time where you can spend an extended period of time connecting with your Heavenly Father, even if it's not a time where you are necessarily kneeling in prayer. It can be out loud or whispered or thought. It can be anywhere. When you run out of things to say, start thanking Him for things, and I guarantee more things will come to your mind to talk about. When I pray to Him, I imagine Him sitting next to me, with His arm around me, as a loving father would. Picture Him. Try to imagine what He looks like. Imagine Him there with you. When you listen for His answers, remember that they might come as feelings. Think about those feelings and try to examine them. Enjoy that feeling of warming yourself in your Heavenly Father's presence. Then take time to write down your thoughts and impressions.

Second, Keep the connection. As I have felt that closeness to my Heavenly Father, I have noticed something—it feels so familiar to my soul to draw near to Him. I feel a comfort and peace that simply feels like home. This makes sense to me, as we all lived in our Father's presence before coming to earth. We knew Him there, we felt of His love and we learned of His plan. I am convinced that we knew Him well. If our earth life is just a small moment in eternity, then it makes sense that, eternally, feeling our Father's presence is the rule, not the exception. The natural state of our soul is to be connected to Him. We must learn to seek after Him, to take the necessary steps in our lives to connect with our Father and then to cleave unto that connection.

Jeremiah 29:13 says

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

As we develop a love for our Father and a deep desire to find Him, and to be with Him, we will find Him. We will enjoy that feeling of coming home, spiritually, and feel His comfort and peace in our lives. Feeling that connection should not be a rare occurrence, but a regular feeling in our lives. As we come to realize this, we deepen our understanding of who we are as children of God, that we have a right to be connected with Him, and we will do all that we can to keep that connection vibrant in our lives.

As we make this connection a habit in our lives, something wonderful begins to happen. We begin to recognize when we are missing those feelings of peace and love and comfort, and we are ready to do something about it so that we can restore those feelings.

In Alma 32:14 it reads:

“And now, as I said unto you, that because ye were compelled to be humble ye were blessed, do ye not suppose that they are more blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word?”

We will be more blessed as we develop this habit in our lives—as we humble ourselves and compel ourselves to repent and align ourselves with our Father, so that we can fully enjoy his presence in our lives. This cycle will repeat itself again and again, and we will find that we are able to keep ourselves connected to our Heavenly Father.

Third, let it change you. When I was a junior in high school, I moved from my hometown in Michigan to Eagle, Idaho. It was a big change for me, and I felt unsure of myself as I struggled to build a new life with new friends. I met a few girls who became my friends, but it was an emotionally and spiritually exhausting time. I felt that I was always refereeing arguments, helping them fix problems, trying to help them stay on the right path and trying to be a good friend to them, and I felt glad to help, but at the same time I knew it was not sustainable, because I felt constantly upset and depleted. My mother noticed my exhaustion and I explained the situation to her. As she talked with me, she used an analogy likening friends to pitchers or sponges. We are a bowl, and our friends are either sucking up our water, like a sponge, or pouring more in, like a pitcher. She encouraged me to look for friends who were pour water into my bowl, not deplete it. She was right, but I still didn't know where to find such friends.

After this had gone on for a few months and a new semester in school rolled around, I found myself sitting in a new class next to a girl named Kristen. She was friendly and kind, and before long she and her friends were inviting me to spend time with them. That wonderful group of friends changed my life. They worked hard to do what was right. They were smart and funny and kind. They were uplifting. Suddenly I was being filled! I could pour water into others' bowls without a care—I could even handle some sponge friends, too—because I, in turn was having others fill my bowl. I felt whole and happy and capable, ready for whatever life had to throw at me, because I was constantly renewed emotionally, and if I ever had a day where I was feeling depleted., I had wonderful friends to help fill me up again. These wonderful girls became my roommates when I went to college at BYU, my bridesmaids, my friends as a young mom, and are still my friends today.

I tell you this story to illustrate a point. Being renewed in spirit will change us from night to day! Our Heavenly Father is the perfect example of a faithful friend who will always be ready to fill us again. If we will draw near unto Him through sincere prayer, we can be whole and happy and capable, armed with a knowledge that we can serve and fill others, always returning to our Father to be filled again. If we will adhere to this process, it will change us! We will progress towards our potential to become like our Father in Heaven.

Yesterday as I sat and watched my children's' swimming lessons, I noticed a mother and a little girl. The mother had brought the girl to her swimming lessons and the girl was ready to go in her swim suit and goggles. Her mother asked her to get in the pool. She refused. Her mother urged her again, even walking to the side of the pool with her. Still she would not get in. She dipped her toes in the water but continued to refuse to get in the pool. The mother calmly argued her point. “But we paid for these swimming lessons so you could learn to swim, and if you won't get in the pool, how will you ever learn to swim?” “You can do it, I know you can! You teacher is right there to help you!” This went on and on. Finally, the little girl entered the pool, but would only go on the stairs, and she stayed seated on the top stair until it was time to go home.

It occurred to me that we are often like this little girl. Our loving Heavenly Father wants us to learn to swim. He cannot force us to learn, and he cannot practice the skills for us, but he has prepared the pool, the teachers, the life guards, the floaties, the goggles. He gently asks us to get in the pool and learn how to swim. He does not require that we figure it out on our own, he has provided every means for us to learn what we need to learn, if we will just jump in and get to work learning. Jump in the pool! Leave the comfort of the stairs, even if it feels scary. As we turn to our Father in sincere prayer and maintain that connection with him, through our daily efforts, He will guide us! Our leaders will teach us the techniques and the strokes, if we will listen to them. They will teach us the dangers that we may face and what to do in those situations. As we practice those skills, we will, over time, learn to swim so well that it becomes second nature to us. All the while, our Father is there ready with a watchful eye, anxious to help, to advise, to comfort, to encourage, to celebrate with us. He is never far away, if we will but open the door to Him, and keep it open.

In conclusion, I want to leave you with a passage from my journal, speaking of my experiment with sincere prayer:

“I have felt such an incredible connection with my Father in Heaven. As I have poured out my feelings to Him, He has laid my burdens upon His own shoulders. I feel light and happy and determined. He has filled me with peace and with understanding, and I am so very grateful. When I have struggled, He has lead me to comfort and to help. I have seen His had in my life and I have felt His love in abundance.”

I testify that as we make the effort to connect with our Father through sincere prayer, keep that connection vibrant in our lives, and allow it to change us, we will be blessed above measure. We will have all that we need. As we pour out our hearts to Him, they will be filled again, “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over”. We will feel his love permeating our lives, and we will have the capacity and desire to go out and share it.

Calvin turns 8!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 30 May 2016 02:07:00 +0000

Well, our little Calvin bear is 8 years old! I cannot believe how old he is! Calvin had a great birthday this year. As per our tradition, he woke up to streamers around his bed and was happy, happy, happy! After a hand selected breakfast of donuts and fruit, Calvin was ready to open presents! He got a rock hammer, protective eye wear, his own scriptures and journal, and swim lessons! He was very excited. Then it was off to school with the kids and birthday party prep time for myself and Hannah.

Calvin had told me that his one birthday wish was to go to the soda shop and get a soda and play pinball for his birthday, but our day was so packed, that the only solution I could think of was to pick up from school to play hooky for a while! So I picked him up and we met Grandpa Ernie, Christy, AnnaMarie, Tyler, Jack and Aiden at the soda shop where we all played pinball, picked out sodas together, got Calvin some fun candies, and then headed to Wendy's for lunch! Calvin was so very happy, and it was such a nice time to spend with him!

It was so funny when we walked into the soda shop. We had a sample near the front, and then Calvin spotted a worker we have seen here before stocking bottles in one of the aisles. He ran up to him and in an excited but hushed voice he asked, "Do you remember Michael Richard Moore?" The worker, who was kind and had a great sense of humor, said, "Oh, yeah, I think I do!" Then Calvin said, "Well, I used to be his son!" Then the worker chuckled and said "Oh, you USED to be? How does that work?" And then Calvin said conspiratorially, "Well, I still am, AND it's my BIRTHDAY!" The man then informed him that on your birthday you get to pick out one free birthday soda of your choosing. That plus free pinball? Calvin's birthday heaven!

After Wendy's we dropped him back off at school and AnnaMarie and Christy were lifesavers and came over to help me prep for Calvin's party! Seriously, I would never have gotten it all done without them! We got the cake finished, the house cleaned and decorated, and all of the games ready to play! Whew!

Then it was off to get the kids from school! We had the party right after school, so by the time we got home, we already had friends here! Calvin had requested a dragon party, and it turned out really fun! We made How to Train Your Dragon-style helmets to pass out to everyone and had them get started on their dragon hunt in the back yard. Next we played a few more games like "cross the moat" and "dragon races" in the back yard, which were super fun. By then everyone was hungry, so we took a break for hotdogs, fruit and chips, and everyone was happy to sit in our (empty) kid pool together and eat :)

After that we did cake and ice cream, and the dragon cake was a big hit! I was pretty proud of the way it turned out. After we had served everyone and weren't paying very close attention, Lucy figured out a way to knock the rest of the cake off of the table and gobble the rest up! Oh, Lucy!

After cake and ice cream we opened presents, which was a lot of fun for Calvin. Next we played a game where there was a poster of a dragon covered in balloons and inside each balloon was a piece to a puzzle. The kids had to pop the balloons, find the puzzle piece, and put the puzzle together. It ended up being a photoshopped picture of Calvin as a knight in shining armor.

It was a great little Calvin party, and he had a great time having his friends over! We spent the rest of the night relaxing and playing with new toys. It was a great birthday!

Calvin asleep after we put up his streamers:

Big happy 8 year old!

Opening his presents:

Checking out his rock hammer:

Happy guy!

Playing pinball at the soda shop:

Lunch at Wendy's!

Me and my great big boy:

Enjoying their sodas:

Party time! A bunch of dragon trainers in a boat :)

Dragon cake:

Singing to the birthday boy!

Cutting the cake:

Opening presents:

Playing games:

Playing with Lucy:

Here are some things I want to remember about Calvin at 8 years old:

-Calvin LOVES rocks. He loves to collect them, read about them, fantasize about owning a mine and having tons of gemstones someday, you name it!

-He is becoming a pretty good shot at basketball, as long as the rim is lowered :)

-Calvin still has his emotional highs and lows, but he has evened out a lot lately, and isn't quite the hot and cold kid he used to be. He is growing up!

-Calvin is really smart. He reads a lot and remembers what he reads, and is always ready to add a fact or two to the conversation.

-He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and really tries to do what is right.

-He is 100% easily distracted by a Calvin and Hobbes book.

-He is an animal lover--a friend to creatures large and small! But most especially Lucy.

-He looks up to Ryan, and especially excited to be in scouts with him now!

-Calvin cares about peoples' feelings. He is observant of them, and will sacrifice to help others feel better. He is a really good little friend.

-Calvin detests hot sauce or spicy things, with the exception of Bufalo Hot Sauce. He will put that on just about anything!

-Calvin's favorite foods and pancakes, waffles, fruits (especially pineapple!) and edamame. He really hates beans and bananas.

We love our Calvin. Happy birthday, buddy! We are proud of the young man you are becoming!

Sophie's Golden Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Wed, 11 May 2016 13:47:00 +0000

Well, it was Sophie's much anticipated golden birthday this year--she turned 6 on April 6th! When I say "much anticipated", I mean mostly by Calvin, who makes a big deal about golden birthdays, mostly, I think, because he is grumpy that he has to wait until he is 22 for his :)

We ended up having Sophie's party on the day before her birthday after school at our house, and it worked out really well! She decided that she would like to have a puppy dog party, and so that's what we did!

Sophie has delightful little friends, and I can honestly say that it was a pleasure having them all over! She has a little friend from school named Harper who has the same birthday, so I made them each a shirt with a golden "6" on it so they could be matchy-matchy on their golden birthday. Sophie was over the moon!

Her party was just right! It was an hour and a half long, and we started out with "Doggy, doggy, where's your bone?", "Mama dog" and "Pin the bone on the dog", and then we moved right along to pizza, cake, ice cream and presents, and then played for a little while longer until it was time to go! Sophie loved it, and had so much fun celebrating with her friends. It was a great 6 year old party!

The next day was Sophie's actual birthday, and her breakfast request was "balloon sprinkle pancakes", so that is what we had! Sophie opened presents in the morning, and was SUPER excited about her swim lessons, and liked her game and brand new pillow with pillowcase that I made for her. So she skipped off to school in her golden birthday shirt and had a great day. Hannah and I visited her at school for lunch, and it was fun to do that with her. I brought some little golden baggies and fake jewels and gold coins, etc., and made little treasure bags for her to bring to school to give as a birthday thing for her class, since they no longer allow you to bring treats (insert parental grumble). But she loved them and was so happy about them!

After school we headed to AnnaMarie's house where we met up with Grandpa and celebrated again with dinner Sophie's pony cake that she picked out for me to decorate and some ice cream. It was a great day to be a 6 year old Sophie!

Sophie's dirt and bone cupcakes:

Playing with some friends at her party:

Sophie and Jane, two peas in a pod.

Pin the bone on the dog!

Doggy, doggy where's your bone?

Sophie and her sweet friend, Eleanor:

Cake time! We sang and did candles for both Sophie and Harper, and they were so happy!

Opening presents at her party:

I left to get kids from school and asked Michael to put up a few streamers. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I came back to a crepe paper engineering masterpiece!

After Sophie opened this card, she looked at the envelope and then turned to Michael and me and said with a genuine, excited smile, "Here, this is for you guys! For when you need to send a card to someone else you know...named Sophie!" For some reason, Michael and I thought it was so hilarious.

Sophie on her birthday eve, after we put up her streamers:

Birthday sprinkle balloon pancakes!

So excited to be 6!

Opening her presents:

She was really excited about this shirt:

Sophie and Harper in their golden birthday shirts:

The treasure bags for school:

Sophie and her pony cake:

This birthday song is so Sophie! She has a plan for how things are supposed to go, and if they don't go that way, watch out! The birthday song "extras" were making her mad as a little birthday hornet. Oh, Sophie! We love you!

Here are some things that I want to remember about Sophie at 6:

-Sophie is really growing up into a young lady. She is more patient, more understanding, and more mature than she has ever been, and I constantly look at her in amazement.

-That being said, she is still 6! And still fairly dramatic! Especially when things don't go the way that she was planning, like the birthday song! It takes quite a bit of effort to redirect her at that point. Usually talking gets us 80% of the way and tickling takes us the last 20%. I don't know what I am going to do when tickling stops working!

-Sophie loves school. She is doing great with Spanish and really loves being there. She adores her teachers, and I am constantly getting good reports about her. One teacher stopped me in the hall one day and said "I am just amazed by Sophie! She is just so thoughtful and mature for her age!" We are proud of her!

-Sophie loves to eat yogurt, fruit, fish, meat of essentially any kind, and likes mustard on just about everything, and still does not care for mayonnaise, ketchup, creamy dinner foods, or sometimes chocolate.

-Sophie is a natural at making friends. Everywhere we go and every situation we are in, Sophie just magically makes friends. She doesn't care if they are older, younger, or different in any way, she just is a great friend maker.

-Sophie is a tenderhearted girl. She cries when people she loves leave, even for just a little while. She even sometimes cries if I visit her at school lunch and then have to leave after lunch is over. She is a sweetheart.

-Sophie is a great singer. I like hearing her sing.

We love our Sophie girl!

Hannah Turns 3!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 09 May 2016 21:22:00 +0000

Goodness gracious, time goes by so fast. I can't believe this little lady is 3 years old already! It seems like only yesterday she was my squishy-cheeked little baby.

Hannah's birthday was great, though, and we had a lot of fun celebrating with her. We had her party during the day on Friday while the big kids were at school, and it was nice just having Hannah's little play group friends along for the party! She was so excited to have them over! We played some games like "Mama Cat" and duck duck goose, and then we really just let everyone run around and play until it was time for cake!

Hannah loves Batman, and so we made her a Batman cake this year and gave her a Batman shirt to wear! It was especially fun because her good buddy Colton wore his coordinating Batman shirt :) Hannah sure does have some sweet little friends, and it was fun to watch her get so excited for her celebration! After cake we opened presents, which is always fun, too.

On Hannah's actual birthday she woke up bright and early to streamers on her bed and we had toast and eggs and frozen blueberries for breakfast, which she was super excited about. We also let her open presents right away, and she was very excited to get a Batmobile toy with Batman and Robin, a new book, and probably something else, but I can't remember what it was right now :)

After that she played around for the morning while the big kids and I got things going for their Jump Rope for Heart cocoa and muffin stand! Then we drew with chalk on the driveway while the big kids advertised for and ran the bake sale. Hannah was happy to tag along for the ride, and the kids had fun. Our neighbors came out to support, which was so nice.

Hannah's birthday was also general conference, so we came back inside for that and ran the bake sale some more in-between sessions. It was a nice, sweet at-home kind of a birthday, but we had a lot of fun together. It was a great day.

Hannah's Batman Cake:

And her matching shirt!

Hannah and Jack and Aiden waiting for friends to arrive:

Hannah and her buddy Colton in matching shirts:

Playing in the basement with friends:

Hannah with her friends Keaton and Jillian:

She was very solemn during the birthday song. No messing around.

Here's a video of her birthday song:

Opening presents:

Party favors:

Playing around:

Playing with her birthday pandas from Grandpa Ernie:

Good morning, Hannah!

With Sophie and the Batmobile:

Excited about her streamers:

I thought this was cute:

Watching the bake sale from the window:

Drawing with sidewalk chalk:

Bake sale!

The boys watching conference:

Hannah and Daddy snuggling:

Here are some things I want to remember about Hannah at 3:

-Hannah has decided how her day is going to go from the second she wakes up, and it is night impossible to change her mind once she has decided. If she woke up happy, then the bounds in and snuggles us and giggles and scampers off to play and has a great day. If she wakes up grumping from her bed, well, she's going to have a rough go. She is definitely a threenager.

-Hannah has a knack for music. She remembers lyrics really well and even gets the tunes right a lot of the time when I find her singing to herself. The other day at my parents' house she was playing with a toy guitar that had a pre-programmed beat going and she was dancing to the beat like there was no tomorrow.

-Hannah's favorite foods are yogurt, milk, cheese (sensing a theme?), bananas, pickles, turkey, grapes, spaghetti and pepperoni. She does NOT like whipped cream, sandwiches, or when I tell her she needs to drink water :)

-She loves Lucy to pieces. Lucy is my parents' dog that we are dog sitting for a month. It is Hannah's dream come true, and she is so happy every morning when she wakes up and finds Lucy here, and especially when we come back in the door and Lucy greets her with a wag.

-Hannah loves to collect leaves when we are outside. I think it stems from me telling her that she could pretend to feed some leaves to her stuffed animals. Now it's kind of an obsession.

-Hannah loves to pack a bag full of whatever tickles her fancy and cart it around with her wherever we go.

-At bedtime instead of a song, Hannah loves to have a story. But what she really loves is to help tell the story. Michael or I will start "Once upon a time there were 3 _______" and leave a blank. Then she fills it in. Last time I told the story it was "3 little pickles!" It's always something new, but, at least when I'm doing the story, there is usually a mommy and a baby of some kind having an adventure together.

-Hannah loves to run and loves to be outside.

-Lately she wears her light up cinderella slippers as often as occasion permits.

We love our Hannah girl!

Birthdays for everyone! We'll start with Ryan :)

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Sat, 07 May 2016 00:43:00 +0000

Well, it's official, I am a terrible blogger. Guess what? All of our kids had birthdays! In February Ryan turned 10. Then, in April, Hannah turned 3, Sophie turned 6 and Calvin turned 8. And now I sure hope everyone feels good and celebrated, because I am ready to not celebrate anything else for a good long while!

Ryan's birthday was on a Friday this year, so we were able to have his party right on his birthday! He even had the day off of school, which was pretty exciting. We always let the kids open presents first thing, so Ryan opened his while he was still in his pjs! Right away afterwards I took the boys to get haircuts, since it was long overdue. Calvin was not very excited about the whole thing. Ryan, on the other hand, was ecstatic. He told the hair stylist that he wanted "a Justin Bieber haircut". Uhoh. She was quick on her feet, though, and showed him some pictures of Justin Bieber with normal looking hair. Thank you, Fantastic Sam's Lady!

After the haircut, we played around and got ready for the party! We made a cake shaped like the number 10 (not my best artistic work, but it was gluten, egg and dairy free for our party guests with allergies! Woo!).

For Ryan's party we played some fun party games. The first was "junk in the trunk" where you put a bunch of ping pong balls in an empty kleenex box and tie is to the kid and then they race with another kid to shake all of the balls out first. So funny! Then we played a speed cup stacking game, and then we had pizza, cake and opened presents. Then the crowning jewel of the party-- Ryan REALLY wanted to watch "Newsies", and so we did! Most of the kids thought it was pretty great, and the others went and played in the basement :) It was a fun party, and Ryan had a lot of fun with his friends.

Opening presents in the morning:

Junk in the trunk:

Cup stacking:

Cake time:

New haircut:

Me and my handsome buddy:

He made this Lego creation. If you look closely you can see that it says "It's my B-day"

Ryan helped me recreate some of his baby pics for some then and now comparison pictures. Spoiler: he is huge.

Here are a few things I want to remember about Ryan at 10:

-He is still smart as a whip and continues to do well in school, except for penmanship and his habit of speeding through his work. At least he's been consistent over the years!

-Ryan loves all things fast. His interests have recently been shifting from cars to planes, a natural progression for a boy who loves speed! Now he is pretty into WWII aircraft. It is the subject of 99.9% of his artwork!

-Ryan is very much caught in that in-between stage of growing up. He is stuck firmly in-between kid and adult. I don't blame him, we probably make it pretty confusing for him, constantly asking him to be in charge of things and then concurrently telling him that he is not the boss :) He is frequently spouting things like "Why don't kids get any respect??? Aren't we all humans??? Why can't I make the rules??? Why can't I go to work and make money and you stay home???" He keeps us laughing, or at the very least quietly chuckling! These comments always seem to arise when he is asked to do his chores, but he doesn't seem to complain when he is off doing the fun kid stuff. Go figure!

-Ryan is having a great year in school. He has great friends and always comes home happy.

-Ryan has perfected the art of bothering his younger brother and sisters. It is like he literally cannot help himself. He reminds me so much of his Uncle James at about this age!!!

-Regardless of how much bugging he does, Ryan is still a wonderful big brother. Calvin has a hard time at lunchtime at school this year. I came to visit them at school for lunch one day and noticed Calvin sitting all by himself. I asked the lunch aide if he usually sat by himself, and the aide responded "Yes, he usually does. Until Ryan comes in for lunch about halfway through Calvin's lunch, and then Ryan welcomes him to his lunch table to eat with his friends." I was so proud to hear that. Ryan really does look out for his little siblings.

-Ryan still hates tomatoes and squash and loves meat of any kind, fish of any kind, cereal of most kinds, and slices of bread spread with sugar and butter microwaved for a few seconds. Weird.

-Ryan is a treat vulture. If I am ever making a treat, he materializes from nowhere to lick the beaters.

We sure love our great big ten year old!

Fireplace pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 03:55:00 +0000

Tonight we tried to make fireplace pizza. I (Michael) like wood-fired pizza and it seemed like a good idea to to try making it in our fireplace.

I started by getting the fire going. I put a 12x12 floor tile in the fire place so there'd be a clean non-ashy surface for the pizzas to go on. The first tile shattered soon after the fire was started. I figured it was because the hearth was so cold and the fire was hot enough that the temperature difference made it shatter.

So, once things were going, I moved all the logs to one side and put another tile in.

The first pizza (pepperoni, onion and cheese) flopped in half, like a calzone. One end was close to the flames and started burning. Then the cheese leaked out and the tile shattered.

This pizza ended up edible but slightly doughy in the middle and burnt on the edge.

Here's the burnt tiles.

For pizza #2 (margarita pizza) I removed the broken tile, and moved all the embers to the side. The bottom of this pizza had a good layer of flour on it, so it slid off the pan more easily, but I didn't do it fast enough, so the back 1/3 ended up folded upsidedown under the pizza. This one was sort of edible. We ate it, but it tasted like disapointment.

Pizza #3 (hawaiian) mostly worked. I put down a layer of flour before putting the pizza down. I slid the pizza off the pan with a sharp sliding motion and it didn't curl over. I was even able to rotate it partway through cooking.

By this time the fire had burned down enough that it took the middle of the pizza a long time to cook. The edges all ended up burned (since I rotated it), but we were able to eat the slices and just not eat the crusts.

Then as I was throwing the crusts into the fire, the fireplace door shattered. I'm not sure why.

So, for tonight's effort we got some mediocre to crummy pizzas, and a broken glass door on our fileplace. We probably won't try this again.

Happy 2016!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 05:00:00 +0000

Well, I have officially fallen off of the blogging bandwagon. Sad but true, seeing as I haven't really posted about anything current since September. Rest assured, we had a fall. And it was lovely. Also, we had birthdays, an anniversary, a wedding, a trip to Las Vegas, Christmas, New Years and two root canals! All were fantastic (well, except the root canals). Hopefully I will get around to posting about all of those things sometime soon!

Today the kids headed back to school. It was lovely to have some time with just Hannah. We walked in the door from dropping people off and giggled together on the couch saying "IT'S JUST YOU AND ME!" It was delightful. Then we stayed in our pj's (yes, I dropped my kids off to school in my pj's. It's fine if I don't leave the car, right??) until noon eating muffins and watching concurrent shows (Hannah: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Me: Downton Abby). Because we could! It was a nice decompression time from this last crazy busy month. It was busy with good things, but busy nonetheless. We had so much fun visiting with family, but it is nice to be home, too.

When I read back over my old blogs, my favorite entries are the ones where I give a kid update, so here's a new one!

Ryan will be 10 next month and he talks about that every day. He has a countdown going. Ryan is still by far my best helper and most obedient child, however I am noticing more and more how he has a keen ability to bother his younger siblings, and does it ALL. THE. TIME. I need to find him some hobbies. Especially since his deep love of cars is waning. A while ago he said to me, "Mom. I'm concerned. I feel like I'm losing interest in cars, but I don't know what I'm gaining interest in!" Poor guy. He loves cereal and would never stop eating cereal if we didn't make him. He also loves anything minty (always has), lives for having a play date with his friends, and has made a New Years Resolution to stop biting his nails, which he is trying to reach by slathering his hands in sanitizer all the time so they taste bad. He sure is a good helper, though. I am constantly thinking about how grateful I am that I can rely on him, and that if I ask him to do something, it almost always gets done. He is a good boy.

Calvin is super excited to be getting baptized this year. He talks about that a lot, and feels very grown up because of it. He still plays so well with Sophie. They love to play together after school and always make up funny games with the horses or legos or whatever. Calvin has a tough time listening, but I think it's more because he is easily distracted, not that he is trying to be naughty. If I ask him to put on his pajamas it takes 10 minutes because he will find a Calvin and Hobbes book to read, or a rock to look at, or he will find his reflection in the mirror and need to check out his own muscles for a while. But he sure does have a tender heart. He thinks about others and is sad when they are sad. He is good at finding things that he can do to help others feel better. And he still comes in for snuggles pretty much every morning when he rolls out of bed. However he has sworn off kisses, and gets very angry any time I smooch his grumpy little cheeks, especially at school drop off. He is very good at math and reading, and is doing great with Spanish!

Sophie is growing up a lot this year. She loves everything--the other day she even declared her love for mint AND chocolate after Michael gave her a minty oreo! I never thought I'd see the day! If you ask her what her favorite food is, she'll name a million things. If you ask her what her favorite color is, she'll name them all. She is making good little friends at school, and she is really doing well in Spanish. Sophie and Hannah are starting to play really well together lately, and that has been fun to watch! She has a tough job, sharing a room with Hannah (nothing is safe! Hannah scales dressers and gets into everything!), but she handles it well, for the most part. Sophie is a sweetheart at her core, layered on the outside with equal parts drama, silliness and smarts. She loves to show her love for her family, always writing us sweet notes and drawing us pictures. She wants to do what is right, and tries her best. She has silly ideas that she thinks are hilarious. And she is REALLY good at math, and getting better every day at reading.

Hannah is definitely two! Oh how I love Hannah, my little sidekick. She is fun to be around, until she's not, but then she will usually nap! Although I sense that is changing, which is scary, because it's like 3 years earlier than any of my other kids quit napping! Hannah loves horses and we love hearing her say "horses", which sounds more like "hisses". Hannah is silly and goofy and awesome. She is usually a ray of sunshine, but when her two year old shines through there are some definite storms, so watch out! She loves Jack and Aiden. Michael told her the other day that they were coming over and he asked her what she was going to do with them. Her reply was, "Play hisses (horses) with them. That's easy!" Hannah loves any dairy product (except whipped cream, oddly enough), can't say her c's, and HATES to fall asleep without snuggling someone, although we typically don't give in. But I did the other night, when her cries of "I'M LONELY! I DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS!" turned into more of a full-body shaking/sobbing/crying experience. But once I snuggled her, she calmed right down and we both drifted off to sleep snuggling. Another funny Hannah-ism was the other day when Michael asked her to do something and then she got a sad face and looked down at her hands and said, "I can't do nuffin! I got wittle hands!" She's a sweetie pie underneath that crazy toddler. We'll keep her.

Great everyday photos have not been my strong suit lately, but here are a couple, just to tide you over!

Me and my Hannah girl:

Me and my big sis, Kelly:

Me, Kelly and Dad:

Sophie warming up with some hot cocoa:

Getting together with friends:

Making cotton candy with cousins!

Katie eating a thing of cotton candy that was bigger than her head!

And if you read all the way to the end, you get this bonus video of Hannah pronouncing "horses". You're welcome!

Calvin's first carving

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 14:34:00 +0000

The other day I (Michael) sat down with Calvin, Ryan and Sophie all we made some soap carving. The kids always seem to want to use the caving knives, and I remember carving soap in school once or twice as a kid, so I thought they'd have fun trying it.

They all did a nice job, but Calvin's was the most imaginative, so I wanted to show it off. This is his turtle.

The kids all did a nice job cutting safely and following directions and they all went into it knowing that we were not going to be saving their creations but would use them to wash hands and stuff.

Guess whose pumpkin was the tastiest???

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 20:10:00 +0000

We carved pumpkins last week. Here is our pumpkin line up last Wednesday and then again today.

All of the pumpkins survived except Hannah's. I guess hers was extra tasty!

When she walks by it she says, "My pumpkin 'sploded. We need to fix it."

Moore Family Vacation LAST DAY!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 20:20:00 +0000

Well, our final day of family vacation finally came! We were sad to see it come to an end, but at least we went out with a bang! We had a great day! Most of the grown ups went golfing while AnnaMarie and Abbey and I stayed behind to entertain the children, because we're nice like that! AnnaMarie had some super cute art projects up her sleeve, and the kids had so much fun doing them!

Golfing was a big hit with everyone who went, even though it was a little chilly and rainy. They had a great time! After golfing there was some archery going on with the kids in the yard, some games, and of course, a lot of tubing! Michael and I were in charge of food that day, and we made tin foil dinners in the indoor fireplace, which worked out great! It was a nice day to have to be camped out around the fire :)

The pictures of us tubing in the evening of that last day are some of my very favorites from the entire week. We just had so much fun! What a bunch of nuts we all are, and it's so much fun to be nuts all together. Here's to one excellent Moore Family Vacation! So glad everyone could make it. I love our family!

Art time!

Painting rocks!

Assembling fairy gardens:

Goofing off with this telescope:

Playing outside:

Making binoculars:

Golfing!

Archery:

Snoozy little Aiden:

Melanie was very interested in this deer:

Awww, BJ and Christy!

Babies in a tub!

Sisters and babies!

Grandpa and Melanie:

Abbey playing with Hannah:

Hannah being a goofball:

William getting in on the action:

Grandpa taking a turn as captain:

Hannah helping out:

Melanie being cute:

Michael and Hannah, waiving form the dock:

Benjamin and Christy taking a turn:

Benjamin was trying so hard to flip them:

But Christy won out in the end:

Me and Christy taking a turn!

Carolin

Benjamin!

Hannah!

Michal and Hannah:

Hannah and her buddy Carolin:

Chilly brothers:

Tyler and BJ and Christy take a turn!

Marianne and Hannah watching from the boat:

Michael and Hannah

Me and Christy take a turn!

Haha! These make me laugh so hard!

Cute Jane:

Me and Ryan, taking a turn:

Katie:

Hannah taking another boat nap!

AnnaMarie and Aiden:

No hands!

Giving the "go faster" sign:

Me and Michael:

Aww, the love boat!

Attempting to stand up:

Didn't go so well:

Tyler and Michael:

Me and my Hannah girl:

Benjamin joins the party:

Riding the tube like a boss.

Four!

Love this one:

Carolin and Benjamin

Carolin and Benjamin and Dad:

Michael cooking the tin foil dinners:

Our very last rootbeer tasting! Sure was fun, guys!

Moore Family Vacation Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:01:00 +0000

Wednesday was another fun vacation day! We got up and got breakfast going, and then Christy's friend, Bryce, came for a visit. It was fun to see Bryce again! Some of us headed off to check out downtown Hayward, which was a super cute little place to shop! We walked down Main Street and got fudge, popcorn, and some little trinkets. It was fun to go and explore!

It was a rainy day, so once we got back to the house, we had a mostly indoor day. We made a fire inside and roasted marshmallows, played games, Abbey led the kids in a dance party, made some good food, read books and once the rain cleared, we headed out and set up the camera for some family pictures! They turned out great, and it was a fun time trying to get everyone to smile!

And now for some pictures!

Hannah and Aiden eating breakfast together!

Aw, sisters!

Carolin and Benjamin!

Checking out Hayward:

Abbey and a moose and some popcorn:

That Uncle James sure is fun!

Happy girl!

Jack was a happy helper:

Abbey's dance party:

Christy reading boooks:

Jack sitting in Ellowyn's chair:

Carolin making some amazing enchiladas!

S'more time!

Oh, Jane.

AnnaMarie and those babies! She's a pro at the double arm hold.

Our great big family!

All the Moore grandkids!

Bunch of goofs...

The originals!

And I snuck in a few of the Ferells, too!

Kids are in bed! Grown up game time!

Every night AnnaMarie read a chapter from Harry Potter to all of the kids who were big enough to listen. They loved it!

Moore Family Vacation Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:21:00 +0000

Well Tuesday was Benjamin's 21st birthday! We celebrated by sending all of the kids in to bring him breakfast in bed and give him a good old-fashioned birthday pounce :) It was a really fun day. Katie Piispanen came down for the day and it was fun to see her! It may sound repetitive, but we played games, swam, went boating, and hung out! Again! And it was GREAT! Michael and the boys also tried their hands at fishing, but no one was very successful. But they sure had fun trying!

After dinner we had a delicious and lovely birthday cake that AnnaMarie made for Benjamin and then he opened presents and we broke out those party blower things. That was a mistake! Those kids LOVED them, and there was no peace in that house for days until we found and destroyed them all!

We ended the evening with more games and hanging out and, of course, ROOTBEER! Another great day on family vacation!

Waking up the birthday boy!

See how happy he is about it??

Calvin and the other kids found some frogs!

Michael out on a canoe ride with Ryan and Hannah:

Calvin and Ryan all excited about whittling:

Daddy getting in on the action!

Playing the Game of Life!

Michael and Jane out in the canoe:

Then they picked up Sophie and took her along:

AnnaMarie snuck in a well-deserved nap:

Ryan winning in pool against Katie Piispanen:

Michael and Benjamin and Carolin racking up a new game:

Seth and William napping on the couch:

Happy little Sophie:

Sophie LOVED having a cooler full of juice out on the table like, every day!

Ryan had a lot of fun playing pool with everyone:

And so did Melanie!

We put on a show when it started raining:

Ellowyn and Seth!

Katie and Christy:

Plus Jane and Sophie!

Benjamin and his birthday cake:

Those darn party blowers:

Melanie just had to keep trying to get them. Complete with grumpy face.

More pool!

Sad birthday boy.

Archery:

Carolin playing with Chippy (we brought her along for the vacation, too!):

Katie and Melanie and a LOT of pool balls.

Christy and Katie tubing!

It was fun driving the boat!

Hannah came along for a boat nap.

Snuggling Uncle James:

And snuggling mom!

Ellowyn and Marianne:

Pretty much sums up Carolin's feelings about rootbeer:

Moore Family Vacation Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 02:54:00 +0000

Well by Monday we were definitely ready to get back in our swim suits for the day and do some more boating and beaching! We had a great time letting the kids dig around in the sand, play with the squirt guns, take out the paddle boats, and of course, go tubing! We played around and the kids raided the snack bin and we all had a great time together!

In the evening we had a really great family home evening. Dad and Christy made up a fun game for us all to play where we each were assigned to ask another person how they met their spouse/ significant other and how they knew they were "the one". Then we had one person from each couple tell their story and see how it matched up with the answer the spouse/significant other gave. Did you catch all that?? But it was really really fun to hear everyone's story and have a whole bunch of good laughs. Then Dad told us all the story of how he and Mom mom met, and then he gave us a great family home evening lesson. I don't think I'll ever forget it. It was a really special time together, and I felt such a deep love for and connection to our family. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip. Then it was outside to roast marshmallows over the fire! It was a really great day!

And now for a bajillion pictures! Again! Do you see now why I needed to post each day separately??

William and Melanie, playing at the beach:

Ryan is one cool dude.

Benjamin also is one cool dude.

Katie burying herself:

Having some help:

Jane out for a swim:

The ladies out for a boat ride:

Christy tried to make a crab!

I think she mostly ended up getting squirted.

Those squirt guns were well used.

Katie and Melanie:

Ryan and Melanie:

Christy and Melanie:

Sweet little Ellowyn!

Ellowyn and Aunt Christy:

More Melanie!

Melanie and Jane:

Aunt Janny, Aunt Reeny, and ALL of the grandkids!

Boy she sure is happy!!

Boy he sure is grumpy!

Aiden and Melanie were good little buddies:

And so were Jack and Melanie!

And of course AnnaMarie and Melanie:

And who can forget Reeny and Melanie?? That Melanie sure hogs a lot of the pictures...

Out for a walk:

On the boat!

Katie and Ryan tubing:

Ryan and Michael and Grandpa out for a canoe ride:

Christy and Katie and Jane out for a paddle boat ride:

Carolin playing some songs for Benjamin, Melanie and Jack:

Raiding the snacks!

Playing games:

Haha, I love this one. William squirting Seth in the face. Classic!

Aiden and Hannah eating blueberries:

Benjamin reading a story to Hannah:

Abbey and Spencer:

Miranda playing tag with Sophie. What a great Auntie!

Another great auntie taking Jane and Hannah on a boat ride:

Something was funny.

James and Michael building the fire:

Gathering around!

Happy little Sophie on her own personalized camp chair:

Tyler, Keeper of the marshmallows:

Brothers!

Lovely Miranda:

Lovely Jane:

Christy and Michael chillaxing by the fire:

Grandpa was an expert marshmallow roaster:

And Ryan takes after him!

Carolin played us some songs. Such a beautiful voice!

Poking the fire:

Wrastling Hannah.

Katie and Ryan and marshmallows:

Oh, Jane and Sophie.

Grandpa giving Jack a hand:

Jack waiting patiently for his perfectly roasted marshmallow:

Abbey and Melanie:

Marianne roasting marshmallows:

Carolin's marshmallow was on fire.

Grandpa snuggling Melanie:

Me and Michael!

Ryan and Melanie:

Michael putting more logs on the fire:

AnnaMarie snuggling Katie girl:

Carolin and Christy:

Marianne:

A thoughtful Michael:

James and Miranda:

Abbey and Melanie:

Moore Family Vacation Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 04:35:00 +0000

On Sunday we all got up and ready and headed to church in Hayward! Dad had to be gone for a stake meeting in Duluth, but the rest of the gang went, and we made up half of the church attendance! Dad let them know in advance that we were coming, so they even asked us to play the music and give the talks! Thankfully, Dad asked Miranda and Spencer and Benjamin to cover it, and they did great! It was fun to be there together.

After church we had a picnic lunch at a park, which was fun! We let the kids play for a little while and then headed back to the house. After church I took some pictures of Ellowyn, of Abbey and Spencer and Melanie, and took some of my kids. They were all good sports!

After that we played games, did crafts, played with play dough, played outside, and had a lot of fun together, as usual! After dinner we played a fun game Christy had prepared for us, and it was a lot of fun! Then we had a great time tasting rootbeer again, playing pool and lounging! It was a good day.

Pictures with Benjamin after church!

Oh, these guys!

Benjamin and his friend who came up for a visit:

Thornock family portraits!

Haha, Spencer was mad at the gnats...

Ellowyn!

AnnaMarie snuggling Ellowyn:

Hannah having fun playing play dough!

Sophie got in on the action:

Having fun!

Ryan loved playing with Janny and Reeny:

AnnaMarie and I helped the kids make light up bugs:

Tyler had fun doing some bubbles!

And Benjamin had fun sitting there like this:

Melanie giving her mama some smooches:

The kids were super happy about the lightning bugs:

Marianne, Seth and Ellowyn!

More games!

Carolin making some yummy cookies!

Jane having a turn fishing:

Tyler's turn to snuggle Ellowyn:

Two high five masters:

Playing outside:

Pictures of my cute little kiddos:

The boys weren't quite as thrilled about pictures as the girls were, so I only got a couple of them...

Sweet little goofballs:

William and Melanie having fun with Spencer:

Look at that sneaky little look on her face!

Getting a wagon ride from aunt AnnaMarie:

More rootbeer! It never gets old!

Playing pool:

Christy's fun game!

Even Ellowyn got to try some.

Brothers lounging in a floatie.

Moore Family Vacation Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 03:20:00 +0000

On Saturday we had the one nice hot day of the vacation, and it was fantastic! Janny and Reeny came brought these adorable little camp chairs that Reeny made and had each grandchild's initial on their very own chair. So cute! And Janny and Reeny brought a giant bin of treats for the kids to snack on all week long. It was so thoughtful of them, and so fun to have them with us for a little while!

We blew up the water slide and it was a big hit! I am pretty sure between that and the boat that the kids spent all day in their swim suits! The water blob turned out pretty well, too, and Melanie especially thought it was fun. Christy and I laid down on it for a while, too! It was perfect for cooling off on a hot sweaty day!

At lunch time Benjamin got out all of his gifts from Russia and gave them to everyone. It was so sweet of him! Everyone loved their matryoshka dolls, cool hats and scarves! Benjamin is a big sweetie pie. And Carolin gave all the kids some little gifts and candy, too. What a thoughtful gal!

AnnaMarie and Tyler made Cafe Rio salads for dinner and they were amazing! I love how we divide up the meals so that everyone has a day to cook. It was awesome to have such great food every day! Anyways, we had a great time out on the boat, playing games, and just hanging out. And after the kids went to bed, we had our rootbeer tasting, played some games, and had some nice grown up time. It was a lot of fun!

The kids trying out the water slide:

Christy and me trying out the water blob!

Out on the paddle boats:

Benjamin giving everyone his gifts:

Lookin' good, Michael!

Love this one of James:

Benjamin and all of his babushkas.

Such a happy bunch:

Look at those handsome guys!

Melanie blobbing along:

William!

Hey there, Spencer!

Ryan insisted on wearing his flippers all the way across the very large lawn.

Cafe Rio time makes everybody happy:

AnnaMarie and Abbey!

AnnaMarie said she was having trouble with the tortillas and asked if I would help. I came in and this if what I found. I thought it was funny.

Eating dinner!

Like moths to a flame:

Reeny snuggling snoozy little Ellowyn:

Attempting to move the blob:

Hannah helping Grandpa open his fathers day gift from AnnaMarie--a book all about the last family vacation!

Reeny and Benjamin out on the boat:

Benjamin is one cool guy.

Christy and Carolin out on the tube!

Katie and Ryan out on the paddle boat:

Jane doing some fishing:

Tyler trying his luck:

He caught a clam!

Pensive Ryan:

Hanging out with Janny!

Benjamin is a very special boy.

Hannah was SO HAPPY to have that Baby Melanie around:

Soooo yummy!

Rootbeer time!

Grownup time = games and dessert.

And sewing!

Moore Family Vacation Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 04:03:00 +0000

Well, it's been two months since our awesome Moore Family Vacation in Hayward, Wisconsin, and I thought I would finally get around to posting about it! The whole Moore gang was able to make it to the awesome lakehouse that AnnaMarie found for us to rent. The only person missing was everyone's favorite soon-to-be Moore, Carli, who happened to be in Bulgaria at the time. We missed you, Carli!

It was so great to be all together! The house worked really well and fit everybody just right. We had Carolin fly in from Germany for the occasion and had other visitors throughout the week,a nd there was enough room for everybody!

AnnaMarie did by far the most prep work for the vacation, and she is just incredible. Things ran smoothly in large part because of her hard work, so thanks, AnnaMarie! Leading up to the vacation, Michael and I did some prep work, too. I spent hours patching the waterslide bounce house so we could bring it for the kids to use, worked on making a blob for the babies to play on, and Michael and James and Benjamin did some prep work on some cool knives that they decided to make all together. So we did some things, too!

The day before we left for the vacation we picked up Christy, James and Miranda from the airport and went out to lunch all together with AnnaMarie and the gang. We went swimming and packed up and on Friday morning we headed out! Christy was good enough to drive with me, Calvin, Sophie and Hannah (Michael came up later with Ryan after he finished with a scout day camp), and boy was she a trooper! We got a little lost, but made it in the end!

Abbey, Spencer, Tyler, AnnaMarie and the kids were all there already when we arrived. Someone (Abbey maybe?) bought gigantic boxes of candy for each of the kids, so right off the bat, it was a success :) We looked around the house and before I could blink the kids were in their swimsuits and out at the little beach! Tyler swam out to the raft with them, and later I joined them. They had such a great time and called the raft "Paradise Falls" and would do this thing where they would walk up to the edge while saying "Welcome to paradise..." and then step off the raft and yell "FALLS!" as they fell into the water. They thought it was so hilarious!

Tyler rented an awesome pontoon boat for the week and it was so much fun to take it out and go tubing! The gentleman who rented the boat to Tyler came to drop it off and Tyler agreed to give him a ride back (since he drove the boat over on the water) and mentioned to Tyler that he had to head to urgent care for some stitches since he cut his finger loading the boat into the water. Well it was his lucky day, since Tyler is an ER doc. So Tyler stitched him up (he was a brave guy--Tyler realized he didn't have a needle to administer the anesthetic so he just did it without--OW!) but he got him all cleaned up and on his way! Once Tyler came back we all took the boat out. So fun!

Other family members started arriving, and by the end of the evening we had everyone there! It was so great to be all together. More on our awesome vacation adventures soon!

Here are some pictures from day one, plus some leading up to the vacation!

At Culver's with James, Miranda and Christy!

Michael and Benjamin working on their knives:

Super cool guys.

Hannah insisted that Benjamin have Fruit Loops just like her so they could match.

James and Hannah helped me make the water blob!

Great way to start the vacation when you're a 2 year old--put on your mom's makeup!

Finally here at the cabin! With giant boxes of candy!

Hitting the beach right away!

Calvin found some clams. He was very excited about the clams.

Hannah was excited about the sand.

Sophie was excited about just about everything!

Marching off to the raft with Uncle Tyler:

Jumping off of Paradise Falls:

Doctor Tyler at work:

Sweet little baby Melanie! And a wooden duck!

Those wooden ducks were in demand, let me tell you. The little ones played with them all week!

And sweet baby Ellowyn, being awesome.

James and Miranda being awesome and playing with the kids:

Benjamin!

Miranda!

James and Miranda heading out on the row boat:

Benjamin and James being brothers:

Discovering the pool table! So much fun!

Calvin looking for clams. This is right before he found the leeches!

Heading out on the pontoon boat to do some tubing:

Haha, love that Katie girl:

Me and my Hannah Banana:

Cute little Christy:

Love this one of Sophie:

AnnaMarie and the boys:

Happy old Katie:

Carolin and Benjamin:

Deciding who gets to go first:

Cute Carolin and Christy!

Benjamin, Katie and Jane taking the tube out on its maiden voyage:

They had so much fun!

And we all had fun watching.

Tyler was a good captain!

Seth and William enjoying the boat:

Benjamin taking Calvin and Sophie out for a ride:

Trying out the canoe:

Ryan getting some helpful pool pointers:

Benjamin being a boss at pool:

Christy being cute at pool:

Dear old Dad:

Christy and her cheese balls:

Michael hatched a grand plan to buy a bajillion kinds of rootbeer. AnnaMarie and Tyler made it happen when they went to the big candy store in Jordan, MN. There were over 100 kinds (if you include the sasparillas)! And we taste tested about 15 each night. So fun, even for people like me (and Carolin!) who don't actually like rootbeer!

Christy and Dad and Carolin helping me make cinnamon rolls for the morning:

Paavo Half Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 02:48:00 +0000

Years ago while he was still on his mission, Benjamin asked for volunteers to run the Paavo Half Marathon with him when he got back. I said I was totally game! Well, fast forward to this summer to when I actually had to start training, and it was a little tougher than I thought. But I worked hard and on the Weekend of August 8th we headed up to Ironwood, with our best and favorite Carolin in tow, who was visiting from Germany (yay!!!!), and Benjamin and I ran the Paavo Half! We started out together, but it didn't take Benjamin long to lose me! My goal was to run the whole thing, even the hills, and I did it! And man, were there a lot of hills! But it was a beautiful run, and I felt great finishing! The first half marathon I did was the Monster Dash in St. Paul, and it had thousands of runners. This one was much smaller, and they had full on banquet tables set up in stations along the race route, with every kind of food imaginable. It was crazy! I don't know who wants to stop at mile 8 for some sausage and some banana bread, but it's not me! Maybe the full marathon runners did, who knows! But it was a fun race, and it was great to do it with Benjamin!

After the race we showered and napped and later that evening we all hit the beach to cook out and let the kids climb around and find rocks and dig clay out of the side of the cliffs. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I'm so glad we got to go. Ironwood is such a great place to visit. It's so fun to visit Grandpa and we always have a great, relaxing time. It was a nice visit, and especially fun to have Carolin there!

Here Benjamin and I are before the race:

See? We were running next to each other at one point...

Not for long though!

I had some great cheerleaders along the way!

Waiting for me at the finish line:

So happy to be done!

Carolin photo bomb!

Me and Benjamin:

The fam!

Hanging out at the beach:

Michael is such a good daddy. He loves playing with these guys:

Sophie had a great time!

Michael and Hannah wading:

She was so happy to sit and look for rocks!

Benjamin and Carolin:

Rock skipping contest:

Our family:

She had a muddy little backside!

Digging clay out of the cliffs:

They had a great time getting good and dirty!

Look at all that mud washing off of her!

On the way home, Carolin got to drive in America for the first time!

And she had a rootbeer to celebrate when we got back!

August and Early September Photo Dump!

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 01:54:00 +0000

I ran across a bunch of pictures from my phone from August. I love pictures. My life is full of such good moments. Even when it seems so crazy and busy and stressful at the time, I love looking back and remembering those oh so good moments.

Trying out the water blob concept before the family vacation:

Wearing a sweet necklace Michael carved for me:

Kids getting hauled off to the slammer! Just kidding, it was our neighborhood Night to Unite:

Back together with Carolin!!!

Me and my Hannah buddy:

I just think she is the cutest ever.

The kids got coupons for a free Dairy Queen cone at the Night to Unite. Woohoo! They look so happy:

Calvin saved up his chore money to order 10 geodes online. He waited for James to come so they could open them together. Yay, rock nerds!

I told the kids they could work on a painting project outside. They were a little too quiet, so I eventually went to check on them and found Ryan like this:

We went to our friend's house to celebrate their daughter's first birthday! The kids had a great time!

Cookies!

Hannah and her buddy, Jillian. Even though Jillian is just a couple of months younger than Sophie, she has really taken a liking to Hannah, and Hannah adores her for it!

Happy birthday baby Lacey!

On the last weekend of August we went backyard camping with our good friends, the Walz's. The kids had so much fun fishing form their beach!

It was successful fishing!

Andy and Michael took Ryan out to do some wake boarding, so there were no menfolk around to remove the hook when Calvin caught yet another fish. So Heidi bravely took over!

Celebrating!

They named this one Finster and kept him in a bucket for a while!

Hannah and Clara are good little buddies!

Calvin and Hannah and Clara on the teeter totter:

The next day the kids and I headed up to my parents' house for a little visit. Here are Calvin and Evie sorting their fall leaves they collected on our walk:

Lily and Sophie were proud of their haul, too!

Sweet snoozy little Hannah, asleep on the couch after church:

Dinner on the patio! With Lucy!

Hannah loved riding this little trike around their garage and driveway:

Sophie got a surprise purple stripe in her hair when she went in for a haircut! She adores it.

Giving the cars a wash:

Working on a sawing project with Grandpa!

Grandma snuggles with an awesome Kelly photobomb!

Then Grandma and Grandpa came down to the cities with us and the next day we all went to the Minnesota State Fair! Here's the kids with a kangaroo!

Sophie and Lily had so much fun just walking and talking:

Hannah the pony:

The girls were so proud of their swords that they won at a game booth:

Grandpa and Grandma with Cora and Hannah:

The girls trying on their beautiful new princess dresses from Grandma:

Eclipse

noreply@blogger.com (Caroline) — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 01:20:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we let the kids stay up late to watch the lunar eclipse! It began around 8:45 pm and we let them watch until it was completely eclipsed, which is pretty late for our kids! We went across the street and asked our neighbors if we could sit out on their lawn, since that was a better view. We brought binoculars and took turns looking at the moon, and the kids really thought it was awesome! We eventually moved the party to our back yard when Hannah was ready for bed, so we could keep an ear out for her. It was pretty cool! It was a "blood moon" so it turned a reddish color and was neat to see! The kids were extremely pleased to tell their classes all about it at school the next day! Although Chippy passed away later that night, after Calvin was asleep, and so when we told him the next morning, the first thing he said was, "I knew that blood moon was a bad sign!" I assured him that it had nothing to do with Chippy's passing...

And now for some pictures!

Ryan taking a turn with the binoculars:

Sophie keeping an eye out for the eclipse to start:

Calvin and Sophie sharing binoculars in the dark:

Happy Calvin:

Sophie checking me out with the binoculars:

The moon partially eclipsed:

This one shows a little bit of the color:

The kids in the back yard:

Just a little bit left:

This is how red it looked when it was all the way eclipsed. Cool, huh?