WHAT HAPPENS AT SCOUT CAMP

stays at scout camp.

Daniel said, "It was great! We saw a half eaten deer leg! It was AWESOME!"

Larry said that he woke up at midnight for no reason. He lay there for awhile and realized he was cold. He woke up Daniel and asked if he was cold, Daniel said no. A little while later he woke him up again and asked if he was warm, Daniel said yes.

Larry listened to Brayden and Patrick (pictured above with Daniel) unzip their tent and go to the heated bathrooms. Larry met them on the way back and they said they were shivering, freezing cold. So was Larry, at this point, even inside his sleeping bag. Larry put the boys in the heated front seats of his car and he sat in the back and waited for the heater to get him. Soon Shawn Parrish and his son Tyler joined them. A little while later, Daniel came and got in the car, too and Shawn went out to restart up the fire.

After the fire was blazing everyone took turns sitting by the fire to make their socks hot and then stick them in their boots to warm their shoes and sitting inside the car. After three hours of this - and the car running the whole time (we used a tank of gas) Shawn and Tyler tried to go back to their tent to sleep. They made it about 30 minutes before they climbed in their truck, turned it on, and went to sleep.

Larry had slept from 10 to midnight. The rest of the night he was up, rotating boys in the car. Eventually they fell asleep.

At 5:30 Shawn got up and started breakfast. They ate, cleaned up and came home by 9 a.m. Larry doesn't know why this time was so bad. He has camped Klondike several times and was much, much more cold this time around.

He finished telling me this story and ended with, "that is the last winter camp I am doing for a long, long time."

At this point, Joseph fell on the floor with an exasperted sigh and said, "WHY WHY do I have to wait four more years to go scout camping?!" (He had cried for 2 1/2 hours the night before when he realized he didn't get to go.)

Also, at church, Larry mentioned something to Patrick's dad about the boys sleeping in the car and the dad had no idea. Patrick had told him it was so much fun, great!, slept well, ate well, etc.

I think I may be the only mom who knows the actual truth ...

IT'S MIDNIGHT-DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR HOMETEACHER IS?

Ours (Paul Alder - black short sleeve shirt) was in our basement, with Larry and Steve Long (our mechanic - and Noelle Jamieson's husband) fixing one of three leaks plaguing our house this winter. They worked on it from 9:30 until 1 a.m.. That's dedication.

Snaps to their wives, too.

URGENT HELP NEEDED!! - THANK YOU, I'VE TURNED IN MY STUFF

I have to write a bio about myself for our Stake's Family History Conference pamphlet. This is THE biggest missionary activity our stake does and hundreds of people will be there. I am teaching on "Creative Family History Journaling". I will be teaching with Doctors, lawyers, family history specialists, and others far more experienced than I. (And Larry had nothing to do with my getting asked to do this - lucky him!)

In the comments PLEASE write what you think I should say about myself.

In the last week, after a lot of thought, I have come up with:

"Likes to sleep, likes to eat."

OR

"Can't say no." (That's why I'm presenting and that's why I have six kids.)"

HAHA!! Really, I do crack myself up sometimes! I don't think my PhD and post doctorate activities in lactation will impress anyone, and honestly, it doesn't apply.

This is not a gratuitous plea for compliments. This is a serious deadline and really, all I have is written up there. This is the quote of what I was sent:

"We ask each presenter to provide a biographical sketch for inclusion in the syllabus. Here are some guidelines as to what we'd like to see in your bio.

- Full name (obviously)
- E-mail address if they would be willing to address further questions from attendees.
- Technical/Professional background
- Genealogy/Family History background (what qualifies you to discuss the assigned topic.)"

ELEVEN KIDS

So, Jenn is in Mexico and GusGus had a business trip. So we took their three kids for a night or two. As many of you know, I babysat Griffin for a few years. He and Joseph are the same age but different grades because I held Joseph back a year.

Griff, Matthew, and Joseph playing. Nonstop. These boys are NONSTOP. They are so cute. I can't believe that I ever preferred girls over boys. Boys are so much fun!

Here are two of their kids because lets be honest, having a dog is like having a child who doesn't qualify for health insurance.

Look at that face! Is Audrey the cutest puppy EVER or what?

Actually, I am partial to this kind of puppy, a Rhodesian Ridgeback.

The kids REALLY want another dog. They are hitting up Larry for another one. We will see if he caves...

Anyway, Princess Chancy was unavailable for a front shot. She would allow this one, however.

Matthew is having the time of his life.

Smart puppies know to hang out by the fridge because something is sure to fall out.

Here is Audrey saying, "Come on and play with me, Chancy!" To which Chancy growled something like, "Back off toots!"

And Chancy promptly lay down for some love from Matthew. She's a smart old girl.

Audrey getting a calming massage from Ben. A puppy and five kids under seven is a recipe for hyperactivity. Ben taught Audrey to shake while she was here and I told him about Jess' trick for Chancy of putting food on her nose and she tosses it in the air and catches it with her mouth. After a few chicken nuggets Chancy was grinning from ear to ear. Don't tell anyone, but Ben was too.

The next two kiddos in our house are Parlie and Grant (their mom, Mary is being induced today!). Doing the math?

Parlie is always ready to pose for a picture!

I had to bribe Grant with a fruit snack to get him to hold still long enough for a picture.

Today the Sant house will have ELEVEN kids in it! I get faint just thinking about it. At least they are all (mostly) potty-trained. Griff (and pups) go home tomorrow and we will have Parlie and Grant as long as they need us.

SANT SWEATSHOP UP AND RUNNING

It's starting to be crunch time for hula sewing. No matter what I do or say, every year it is March before I have fabric and costume/pattern ideas cemented and I can get started. (The luau is the last Saturday in June.)

This year I have a lot of sewing to do. I have to make 9 (or 10 if "Uncle Gene" persuades Kuulei to count Molokini as an island) holokus to make. (Formal fitted mu'umu'us.) These are going into Kuulei's collection and are partial "payment" for my daughters taking hula. Kuueli is making her Luau this year a Lei Day celebration and so she will have a queen and princess representing each island (different colors) and one for the Queen in white. The king will need a large cape and the standard bearers will need smaller capes.

For the ladies who hire me to sew for them, I am making new awana (modern hula dances) dresses for them. We are roughly using this pattern:

If you look closely at the back you can see that it will be a bit tricky to add the sleeves that the ladies so desperately want. I think that I will be making 10 to 15 of these.

The ones who still need their ancient costumes will get peasant tops, pau skirts, pantaloons, and large sashes that drape across the body. I just will have 3 to 5 of those to do.

The keikis will wear kekepas that are painted like the tapa cloth that the ladies wear. I am NOT painting anyone else's tapa cloth. It takes ALL day to paint one. In any case, I think I will be making about 12 of those.

I may also sew for her Couer d'Alene students. Kuulei has about 40 or 45 dancers this year.

I will also be gone for more than two weeks in April and I was recently suckered into teaching a class at the Stake Family History Seminar in April.

In the meantime:

I sewed Sari a new pau practice skirt. She outgrew hers from 4 years ago. Go figure.

Poor Matthew is left to his own devices while I sew.

The gray fabric is for one of the islands. Matthew drowned his friends in water cups. It was hilarious to listen to the conversations.

Then they scaled the fridge and into the water and icemaker.

TAPA CLOTH

Kuulei asked me to teach her hula women how to make faux tapa cloth the way I did hers and Rachel (for their ancient dances pau skirts). Tuesday night we had a bunch of ladies over to learn from the biggest faker of "I know what I am doing". Kuulei brought her daughter, Tearzah and all my boys were in bed and three oldest were at mutual so I turned Tearzah loose with my camera. Here are just a few of her shots:

The women drew some really amazing designs. This leaf is perfect, in my opinion, as it will be simple to outline the negative space.

These geometric shapes are super cool, but I have to say I would tear off my own arm and beat myself with it before I would attempt to paint that.

Even this is a little complex for me, but it sure will be beautiful.

Just a few center details and this one is perfect, too.

A few of the women in my home.

And a few more. This mom and daughter team had me in stitches all night. They are perfectionists too. I will need divine intervention when I sew their dresses. Or my mom. I'll for sure have to get my machine tuned up so all my stitches are exactly the same size EVERY time.

A couple more ladies. And we aren't done yet!

Rachel's friend Erica wanted to add some pizzaz to her skirt from last year.

I had a great time! There was a lot of loud, fun, positive energy flowing.

DANIEL'S NEW SMILE

This was Daniel last night:

This is Daniel today.

Lookin' good, baby!

It's been about 15 months. We've come a LONG way. You can read about it here.

HAHA!!

RACHEL'S CHOIR CONCERT (and a PS to "I picked her husband")

Thursday night Rachel had a last minute choir concert. We took the whole family. Ugh. But the concert was great.

Here's the whole Girls' Choir:

They sang "Cedar Swamp" and "Inscription of Hope" (again). But I didn't mind because how I LOVE that song!

Mead High School Concert Choir also sang.

They sang "Danny Boy" and "Praise His Holy Name". The Rexburg kids (to be introduced soon) really got into the Praise song and they stood up and clapped along. Such a fun time.

The Mead Jazz Choir sang "More I Cannot Wish You" and "Please Don't Do It In Here". Rachel's friend Megan OWNED the solo in the last song.

Megan is in the middle (not singing the solo in the picture). The other girl with red hair on the bottom is Rachel' s friend, Jordan. Then we have last year's Sweetheart's Dance date - Josh behind Megan looking down. Unfortunate picture and not to worry. Rachel reports that he has a girlfriend this year.

Here is Mr. Saccomanno tearing up the piano during the Jazz choir.

We interrupt this choir concert for some 80's flashblacks:

Yes, that is a middle part and feathered hair. You can why I need a big dog camera with an excellent lens.

Here's another old time favorite that you would be able to appreciate better, if only I had the camera and lens of my dreams. She had cut the bottom of her jeans at the seam so the hung over the front and back of her shoes. We did this with our levis 501's. And our polo shirts. We were WEST Jordan so we didn't flip our collars and very few of us had an actual alligator on our polo, still, those were some great clothes days!

Back to the previously scheduled Choir Concert report:

We didn't know this, but Mr. Saccomanno invited the choirs from Havre, Montana and REXBURG, Idaho to perform, too. There is a choir workshop in town this weekend. If you've never heard of Havre, Montana, you are not alone. It is in North Central Montana on the Canadian border and sports a population of about 9,000.

They sang six songs. One was modern and I disliked it immensely. It is called "Statements" by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. I could appreciate the technical difficulty of it, but oh, I just hated listening to it. That is when I took these pictures:

I call this Montana-hair. It is the same style I went for in high school. I bet she has had it all along. So did her seat neighbor. I know a version of this is coming back in style, but I spent a lot of time looking at it and I have to say, this was definitely hot-roller set.

I am also loving the zebra with the ... what green is this? Not really lime or celery. Anyway, love it!

Bad song over. Moving on.

After Montana we heard from Rexburg. I wonder if I know the parents of any of these kids?

I am probably older than the teacher, butwe will save that for another post. Rexburg sang some wonderful songs, but my favorite was "Past Life Melodies" by Sara Hopkins. WOW! I mean WOW! They did something called "overtone" singing and holy cow. Daniel and I were out of our seats. It was amazing! Ben said it was the most amazing thing ever. I am downloading these guys singing it onto my ipod as we speak. In any case, it is 10 minutes or so of constant singing and I know that they stagger their breathing, but I was waiting for the choir members to drop from lack of air. It was THAT full of sound.

Aside from great music, I haven't seen this many clean-cut boys since we dropped the kids off for EFY last summer:

And here are a few more.

Rachel was feeling sick and left early with Larry and the little boys so she missed seeing the future man I picked for her to marry:

That's him playing the violin. All I know about him is I think his name is Jake. He sings, he plays the violin, he walks like an athlete so I think he is coordinated. He only looks cross-eyed in the picture, he isn't in real life. Yep, I think that in 10 years they would make beautiful music together.

Just a PS here. Larry thinks "Jake" looks like Elder Bednar. I think the resemblance is uncanny.

BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO DO

Every year I try to make Valentine's Day t-shirts for my kids to wear. Here's what I just made tonight, at 11 p.m. . I had to miss E.R. to do them and so I am a little growly. And tired. Enough whine, on with the show:

Matthew's is the same as last year, but I made a new one. Really, do you think a WHITE shirt would last a year in this house? I should take a picture of last year's. It's bad. This is him with his preschool loot and Valentine's bag that he made.

(Disclaimer - the rest of the pictures are pretty bad because it is night and it is bad lighting and the flash makes everything just look white. The shirts are all bright white.)

I adore Rachel's. I've had the song "Hopelessly Devoted To You" by Olivia Newton John (Grease) in my head all day because of it. Maybe you will now, too. You are welcome.

And Miss Sari's. It has the double meaning because we sometimes call her "B" for Rebekah, her middle name, which she told me the other day that she hates. Try not having a middle name, then we can talk hating it. Plus Rebekah is a GREAT middle name. It goes PERFECTLY with the name Sari. She was 11 days late being born, believe me, Larry and I discussed IN GREAT DETAIL what her name should be. It's perfect. The end.

Daniel's. Because this is what 5th grade boys SHOULD think about love.

For the first time in 5 years, Ben participated! He selected this burning heart and it runs across the back of a vintage fit T-shirt shoulders, so it is nice and tight.

And now the piece de resistance! Folks, seriously, this picture does not do it justice. How cute is this white tiger cub growling with it's little toofers just growing in? Too cute. It is perfect for Joseph, the 1st grader, who also has his big teeth just growing in. Ben was instrumental in the design of Joseph's shirt and I think he did a really good job. Daniel just sat on the floor and laughed at Ben saying, "hugs and kisses" over and over again in his funny voice. I wish that I could upload a sound clip of that here. You would laugh too.

I made another shirt for Matthew, in a fit of insanity, because I felt bad that his shirt said the same thing as last year. Unfortunately, we were running low on ink in the printer at this point (and no new cartridges in sight) so the colors look pink instead of orange and red. Looks like he gets last year's model after all.

Why are the pictures just the shirts and not the kids? They are in bed. Where I should be. Where Larry is, after I told him to quit picking at me like a crow picks at roadkill with hot topics like, what are we doing with the tax return and when are we getting tickets and what if we have to change our Spring Break plans.

Sorry, Sweetie.

But really, I was at my limit. Still. He is a good man and I feel bad.

Anyway, I wanted to post this tonight because tomorrow I have a choir concert to post about AND Montana hair to write about too. Oh, and some stuff from the 80's and you know, my brain just gets too full and it has to go somewhere.

BEN IS FREAKISHLY STRONG

This is some kind of lever thing. Totally hard. His feet are not touching the laundry basket at all, it's just in the photo. Amazing!

Ben puts his arms on the floor above his head, with his arms straight. Matthew stands on Ben's hands and then Ben lifts up Matthew. He can also do this with Daniel.

Strong, strong kid.

MATTHEW IS A VIP

This week is Matthew's turn to be a VIP in Preschool. You can click on the picture to make it big and read all about Matthew.

I LOVE JESUS BUT I DRINK A LITTLE

I choked on my toast and hot chocolate when I watched this:

WE HAD A SLEEPOVER

As most of you know, we really don't do sleepovers - we have "late-overs" instead. Everyone is home in their own beds at the end of the night. We love them.

This past weekend we made an exception to the rule and let Cam spend the weekend:

Meet Cam, Sari's science teacher's chameleon. Cam loved to cuddle. When Rachel and Ben held him, he would just roll up and go to sleep. It was totally cute. Even for a reptile.

Matthew was unsure at first.

He warmed up a little, but never would actually hold it. We thought it was super cool that Cam's eyes could look in two different directions at once. As a mom, this would be useful.

Cam was pretty much held the entire weekend. I bet he was really glad to get back to the science classroom!

Ironically, Sari brought it home but we have no pictures of her holding Cam. But she did.

Ben and Cam quickly became BFFs.

On Saturday Cam looked a little skinny so I went to the pet store and bought 14 crickets. (Flash back to frog days - I HATE the way Petsmart smells. Yuck!)

Once the crickets were in the cage we saw a different Cam. It was game day. He ate all the crickets in about 10 minutes flat. It was awesome but impossible to photograph.

Cam went back to school today. We will miss him.

THIS IS THE LAST ONE, I PROMISE and some Sari fun

I finally found a bag that I can live with, love even, that doesn't match my shirt (yellow and gray bag) so I don't have to change my bag if I am wearing the shirt.

I adore the colors:

I made up my own pattern, more or less, and I think it turned out okay. I should start writing notes to myself so I can do it again and not make the same mistakes, twice.

I love seeing polkadots when I open my bag and I love my pen slots.

Now that I know how to make a zippered pocket, I am completely addicted.

IN OTHER NEWS -

Sari had friends over to make cupcakes for some cupcake choir contest. The girls did EVERYTHING themselves. I didn't help with even one thing. They did a good job. The cupcakes are decorated like mice. Alyssa, Sari, and Iris.

Here's the presentation cupcake - the rest are to share with the class.

GALLETS - waffle cookie recipe

I got this recipe from a nice couple in our ward, the DuPapes. She said that it came from Belgium with her husband's family in the late 1890's. I didn't think they had waffle irons back then, but maybe they had panini makers or plain old grills. I don't know. In any case, here's the recipe:

12 eggs
3 cups of sugar
1 POUND of butter, softened
2 oz. vanilla
1/3 tsp. cream of tartar
7 - 9 cups of flour

Cream everything except the flour, then add the flour one cup at a time until you get a sticky, thick dough.

Drop by spoonfuls (I use my small Pampered Chef icecream scooper-thingy) on the hot waffle iron, in the middle of the squares. Set the done to medium but check to see how your waffle iron does.

Eat 'em warm, eat 'em cold, but eat 'em you will! Also, be sure to store them air-tight, they dry out really fast.

I asked Rachel and Ben to please take a picture of the gallets in the waffle iron and when I went to download the picture this was the only one on the camera:

Sorry you missed it folks! Ben asked me to remove the picture. Suffice it to say, it was NOT a picture of waffles.

And people wonder why I have a tic in my left eye.