In the mood...

WARNING: This post if for my children to read when they get older, so you may find this boring.

I woke up this morning, feeling in the mood to write down a little something about each of my kids so they will know what they were like at this stage of their childhood. My soggy memory cannot be relied upon. I used to ask my mother what I was like when I was young, and she would say "I don't really remember. You were a good kid. Happy." Nothing else. But she had 11 childen and therefore, I forgive her. My childhood memories are very few and far between of what I was like. I remember being happy though and playing hard with my siblings and working hard.  So I wanted to write down a few things about each of my children so I will have a better answer for them when they ask me what they were like...

Carson (10) - your are our best behaved child. When I am lecturing all of you  kids in the car on the way to church about not messing around and getting ready ontime, I really don't mean you. When I am lecturing all the kids about being nice to eachother and not bickering, I really don't mean you. You only drive your mother crazy when you stand quietly near her, wanting something, but not wanting to ask. You just hover around until I notice and ask what you want. You are super easy to please and my only child who says 'thank you' without being reminded. You love to read, read, read. You are currently reading the Eddie Bone series and the Tennis Shoes and Nephites series you got for Christmas. You have been taking piano for over a year now and played a couple Christmas songs at our family program. Your teacher says you are a good site reader. Besides reading, you enjoy hiking, camping, rock climbing, golfing, and playing Harry Potter Lego wii game. You are very quiet, except when you are talking about favorite topics. You are a straight A student and a perfectionist. You do not have any close friends, pretty much a loner, but everyone at school is nice to you and respects you. You will still come and snuggle up to me sometimes and I love it.You are the sweetest sick kid, which is too bad since you and Lauren are my healthiest.  I am so proud of you and wonder what I did to deserve such a great kid.

Jackson (10) - Your personality has really started to develp over the past year.You and your twin brother are becoming more and more different. Last year you seemed grumpy and tired alot and now you are happier and have more energy. You are quiet, a loner, but you are becoming more social. You didn't get straight A's last semester and so you have been determined to improve this semester. You have to work harder and spend more time on your homework, but you are determined. You love camping, hiking, and playing the wii. You are especially good at wii sword fighting and kicking your mother's butt.  You go to bed before everyone and get up earlier than the rest of us. You are a homebody and  love to play with your cars and outdoor adveture toys and get annoyed when Lauren plays with them when you're gone. You don't play any sports and take music lessons but you are searching for something that interests you enough. You don't have many interests, but when you like something, you REALLY like it. You are obsessed with the tv show 'I shouldn't be Alive' and have all the episode recorded. I tried to get you to find other shows you like and you have added 'wipeout' and 'Destroyed in Seconds'. Figures. You love to watch disasters, but you are scared of riding grandpa's 4-wheeler and when dad drives the car with one hand near the canal you scream. Oh yeah, you scream like a little girl. :)

Ressa (7) - You have always been such a sweetheart, but your 2nd grade friends have taught you a couple new tricks, like acting like you don't hear me when I tell you to brush your teeth, or hiding something I have asked you to put away. You obey every rule at school or church and love to participate in every activity you can think of.  You are very social and have lots of friends. Friends are always calling to have you come and play and you love to be active, always doing something. You are kind and forgiving of people. You have been taking karate for a year now and have advanced to an orange belt. You are a natural but hate to practice. You just finished soccer and have been taking horse riding/barrell racing lessons from my friend. You were one of the dancers in the school Christmas program and now you want to take dance again, so we will have to evaluate what you are going to drop instead.  I am glad you are so busy because if you are home you are in front of the tv. These last couple years have been interesting as far as your health goes. First a bladder disorder causing frequent UTI's, a seizure back in Sept that has put you on meds, and somewhere around 10 bouts of strep throat in the last year. You have an appt to see the ENT about getting your tonsils out. I have been accused of being hardest on you, because everything comes so easy to you and so I expect more. That is probably true.

Lauren (4) - I thought about writing about each of my kids this morning while doing laundry and thinking how funny it is that you hate jeans. You only like stretchy pants or skirts. I have succeeded in getting a pair of jeans on you on a couple occasions, but you always change out of them later in the morning. You say they are too cold. Whatever. I tell people you are my highest and lowest maintenance child. Lowest, because you  fall asleep in the car and I can take you out and lay you down again and you stay asleep. You eat the foods I eat. You love Subway and we go there often while the kids are at school. None of my other kids would eat anything from there (well, Ressa has recently discovered a love for tuna so there is hope).You are independent, getting yourself dressed, getting your own snacks, entertaining yourself, riding your bike down to grandmas without saying a word. Highest maintenance because you demand attention and expect anything and everything at that precise moment. I told you yesterday that I was the boss and you said Jesus was really the boss. So I told you Jesus IS the boss and he says to honour your father and mother, making me the boss. You are too sassy and smart for your own non-denim britches. I wonder where you get all that sass? Like Ressa, you are very social and have lots of friends, as long as they are your age or older. You have no time for younger children and ignore them or treat them with disdane. You love me to draw on your back and give lots of kisses and hugs.

There. I think that is enough for now. I will try and do this again in a year or two to keep things fresh. TTFN!

Grandpa Pruitt

My maternal Grandpa Pruitt died on November 19th at the age of 90 years old. This picture was taken last year, the last time we were to see him alive. What a funny and loving man he was to me and my children! Jackson was especially taken with him and his great grandma. We will miss them both so much, since in a way we have lost our grandma, too. She is my step-grandma, married to my grandpa for 30 years, and now that her husband has past, her crazy neices have come and taken her away to live with them, shunning contact from the Pruitt side of the family. It's a long story, but I hope that she will be taken care of in her remaining time here. She is also 90 and very frail.

Chad and I flew up to Seattle for the funeral over the weekend. 9 of my 10 siblings were able to make it, so we had a nice weekend together and packed in alot in a short time.

Here is my mother (left) and her two sisters, Penny and Pam. They all three spoke at the funeral and did a wonderful job! Of course, my mom spoke the longest. Like mother, like daughter. My mom is a convert to the church and the only member in her family. My aunts had their pastor officiate the service and he gave a rather interesting sermon on the cross and asked why we have a symbol of torture and death as a reminder of our Savior. Good question. Why would anyone? I think he thought he gave a great answer, but our family was not so sure. Speaking of torture, mom asked us kids to sing "I wonder when he comes again" and let's just say it needed some work. My grandpa served in the Army in WWII and so there was a nice salute at the end of the service.

My three sisters and I try to get a picture when we are together.Lanith is the oldest (right) and Samantha is the youngest (left) with a 17 year difference between them.  LeaAnn and I somewhere smack in the middle.  LeaAnn went and colored her hair dark so she could stand out from the rest of us. Nathan was taking our picture so we had a hard time keeping it together. Ok. So maybe just Lanith and I did, but we are getting goofy in our old age.

I love my Pruitt cousins. They are few, but we always have fun when we get together.

My baby brother and sister.

 Lanith's oldest daughter Casssidi (on my immediate right) just had her third baby girl, named Meadow. Of course I gave her a hard time about the name, but she was sure a sweety and so beautiful. BTW, it only recently occured to me that I am a great aunt. Not only that, I have been a great aunt for 6 years now! What an airhead I can be! Here I have been giving my sis a hard time for being a grandma, not even considering my role in all this. I have just been referring to my grand nieces as "my niece's kids". Brindy, botttom left, is another niece.

My nephew Tyler happend to have his football team's state championship game the night before the funeral in Tacoma, so we all met up at the game to watch them get creamed! Here are my parents, Chad, and 5 of my brothers watching the slaughter. We had fun though!

We really like to multi-task when we all get together, so we celebrated my dad's 69th birthday at Red Robin after the game! I love my dad!

My creative side

 Now I have never made a cake for any of my kids birthdays. I don't bake cookies. I use flour on the rarest of occasions. But I do love making gingerbread houses. Strange, I know. But several years ago our family started a tradition of decorating gingerbread houses at Thanksgiving and I thought it was so fun. It has been a few years now that I have made one, so when Bret and Hollie invited us to their annual party, I was excited and started planning in my head what we could do. I immediately thought of the new movie, 'Tangled', thinking that the tower would be fun to do. Of course, I still haven't had the chance to see the movie yet! So I looked at pictures online and made out a design. Chad was along for the ride, but he was a great help and we finished just barely on time! We had alot of fun and I am happy to announce that we were awarded 1st place! Woo Hoo! Thanks, Bret and Hollie, for inviting us (even if you decide not to have us back again next year).

I know the pictures are hard to see very well, but those are marshmallow 'cliffs' in the background. The rule is that everything has to be edible, so Chad said we really should be disqualified because broccoli really isn't edible.

The 3rd place winner was the 'crapper can'. So funny!

 

2nd Place was also based on Rapunzel, entitled "Let your hair down". They used alot of gingerbread and made an incredible castle!

My Jackson

Jackson and Carson were out playing in the leaves all afternoon. They would rake them all up, roll in them, then start all over again. When cousin Kelsie told me that Jackson wanted me to come and see him, I figured what he was up to and grabbed my camera.  This is what I found...

And this is what happened when I pushed the can over. He said not to, but I thought he secretly wanted me to. Hee hee!



Swan Song

We had an Elders Quorum BBQ at our house a few weeks ago. Ham and pumpkin pies. Volleyball and roasting marshmallows. Good time. Then the next day Chad and I are called in to meet with Stake Presidency Counselor to call Chad to the High Council. No more Elders Quorum for Chad. It's all suits and briefcases and sacrament talks. Our boy is all growed up. I guess with my baby turning 40 in a month, it's time to face facts.

Thanksgiving!

It is long past Thanksgiving, and we are fast approaching Christmas! So here are a few pics of our Thanksgiving with LeaAnn, Samantha, Adam and their families. We had such a great time!

Fall Festival

 Finally, the Festival is over and I can relax and let my hair down! I have a great PTO board this year and we had so many volunteers to help us out with this big event! Having said that, I still had to do ALOT and I think it will take me a couple days to recover. I'm not as young as I used to be, I guess.

This time around was alot bigger and more involved than last year, but everything seemed to run smoothly enough. There were a few mishaps: half of the inflatable obstacle course got a big whole in the seam, so it turned into just a large slide. No big deal. We bought way too much food, or rather, it was way too hot and people didn't eat enough. They drank enough, sure! But we have tons of food left over.

 People lined up for food

Pie throwing booth victims (all teachers)



I kind of worked every station throughout the 5 hours. Here we are selling wristbands and tickets.

I went to take some water to the couple who brought their horse for horse rides. They looked tired and hungry, so I volunteered Chad and I to take over a while. It was fun!

The Griffins brought a few chickens that they just let run around and the kids tried to catch them. So fun!

Darrin Anderson (principal) having his turn on the dunk tank. It was so hot that day, I almost wish I could have had a turn! Almost.



For my kids, the rock wall was what it was all about. Every time I looked over to the wall, I saw one of the kids up there!

Chili Cook off entries. I didn't get the chance to try any, but I heard they were good.

Cook off judges. Also made up of some teachers.

There are a few things I would like to have differently, but overall, it turned out great! Besides, I told Chad I wouldn't be the PTO president again after this year. But I can still offer suggestions, I suppose. :) It was really just too stinkin' hot for a November day! Ugh! The event finished at 4pm and that is about when the cloud cover appeared and things felt nice. Oh well.