Halloween 2013

Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were the inspiration for the Harper family costumes this year...

Galadriel, Arwen, Frodo, Smaug the Dragon, and Gandalf

Baby Smaug (not quite as ferocious as the dragon in the movie, but super cute, and warm as she consented to wear something WITH sleeves! Hip hooray!).

Frodo, the Hobbit. Complete with creepy hairy feet. His bag has the one ring to rule them all on it (which incidentally I neglected to print in mirror image so it would show correctly once ironed on... then I am pretty sure I ironed it on upside down, but who's keeping track anyway?).

Galadriel, the lovely elf... her elf ears made it a little hard for her to hear, but helped her look oh, so authentic.  Her bag says (in Elvish and English) "The world is changed. I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air." and has a drawing of Galadriel's flower symbol.

**What were you for Halloween this year?

A Happy Little (very very long) Update

I have been reminded lately at how much I miss journaling… and although I’ve been out of the blog loop for some time now (nearly three-quarters of a year)... and while it is overwhelming to think about trying to catch up, I feel I must get back to recording some thoughts and happenings or it will all slip away.

Olivia is only a few days away from starting junior high. When she turned 12 in June her strongest desire was to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. Ryan and I took her early in the morning and she loved it. She spoke of feeling the Spirit more strongly than ever.  Her testimony is deeply rooted and she shares it in Testimony Meeting almost every month. She is kind and loving and cares for every person around her. She is sensitive and aware of what is happening around her. She is a fabulous babysitter to Sophia and even some families in the neighborhood. Liv was told it would be a struggle to play the trumpet since she has braces; however, she is determined to follow in Ryan’s footsteps and she wants to be a part of the American Fork High Marching Band, so she works hard and is getting great sound out of that three-generation instrument. She attended YW camp for the first time this summer at Heber Valley Camp. She came home with a deeper appreciation for the gospel, her YW leaders, and her testimony. I missed her like crazy, but I am so glad she was able to go. Heber Valley Camp is indeed a holy place.

Coleman will turn 10 next month. He continues to love science, video games, Legos, Star Wars, and learning. He has a funny sense of humor and cracks clever jokes that cause me to think. He calls me on it when I give a laugh that isn’t quite what he was hoping for. He loves to sing and whistle… I often say that he is performing his own soundtrack to his life. Some days I don’t find it quite as charming as he does… but I was reminded in a conference talk that it is something joyous is to hear children sing. He has decided that he wants to attend MIT (which he thought stood for “Michigan Institution of Technology). He is fascinated with bugs and weather and how things work. He thinks deeply and theorizes about so many things. Love that boy.

Sophia cracks us up. She is determined and oh-so strong willed. She says and does the funniest things…

She LOVES to burp, and she’s a rock-star burper. Loud, long, and frequent they are. Cute for a three-year old… unless it’s while you are walking into church, in any public place, or in front of anyone outside the family. Too bad she has no qualms about letting them loose whenever and wherever. If we want that habit to stop we’ll probably have to stop busting a gut when she lets it rip.

She loves to pray. She does NOT love to vary the wording in her prayers. She loves to say, “Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for the day and the food. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” She DID go through a “bodies” phase where she asked Him to bless our bodies, but her prayer is pretty much standard. We are working on that one. For a short time she insisted on saying every prayer. Recently when she asks to pray and someone else gets asked to do it she rushes to that person and says, “Good job, Mom! I’m so proud of you!”

She decided several months ago that she didn’t like kisses anymore.  She wouldn’t give or receive kisses, unless it was a kiss on the top of the head in the pattern of Rapunzel from the Disney movie “Tangled” where she’d say, “I love you” and I’d say, “I love you more” and she’d say, “I love you MOST” and plant a kiss on the top of my head. She loved hugs and would remind us as we went to give hugs and kisses of her preferences, sometimes signaling with a hand to stop in our advances to kiss her. Last night she granted permission to give kisses again. Glory be.

She is very, very picky with the things she wears. She wore two pairs of boots until she could not get her feet in them anymore (never mind that it was 100 degrees outside). She does not love sandals. She does not love tennis shoes (save for the awesome light-up shoes from Grandma Terri that have velcro straps and allowed her to put them on herself... but she outgrew those months ago). She now has a ratty pair of slip on ballet flats with soles falling to pieces. Over the course of the last few months she has decided that she hates clothes with sleeves. Long sleeves, short sleeves, cap sleeves. She does NOT like sleeves. She doesn’t like things that “cover my shoulders or my armpits” and refuses to wear anything with sleeves. I know, I’m the parent, right? I shouldn’t let a three year old run the house and make the rules, but have you ever tried to put a shirt or dress with SLEEVES on a kid who does not want to wear it? It isn’t a pretty sight and has resulted in many tantrums. It’s been a hot summer, and she looks pretty cute in her tank tops and sundresses, so I’ve let it go for the most part… but last week it reached an all new level of ridiculousness when we were out of town (limited number of acceptable-to-her options, no possibility of washing dirty clothes to get said acceptable-to-her clothes back into the rotation) and I put on an almost sleeveless dress. She was busy having a fit, so in an attempt to preserve the peace I very stupidly suggested that we tuck in her sleeves so her shoulders weren’t covered. She LOVED that idea and it placated her, until it came untucked and she became unglued. We spent a good part of that day tucking. It was very humorous when she came up to me as I was getting ready for the day with a cami on over my underclothes… I was getting ready to put on another shirt or dress on top of it. She stroked my shoulders and said, “Oh, mommy, your shoulders aren’t covered, and it’s BEAUTIFUL!!!!” Pretty soon here we’ll have to start phasing out her sleeveless clothes so that she will allow her arms to be covered in the winter months. How do you think a puffy down coat will TUCK?

On August 14th we gathered with Tim and Laura and their family at Mikayla’s grave. It has been three years since she left us. Laura asked us all to share a memory or something we had learned from Mikkie. I was pretty teary-eyed as I said how I was trying to learn to be more prepared---always have bubble-gum and lipgloss in hand (Mikkie loved those!) but more importantly to always let the people that I love know how I feel about them. Mikkie left so quickly and I don’t ever want to regret not sharing my love. My tears were flowing freely, but sweet Sophia put her arms around my neck, squeezed tight, pulled my face to hers, and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll always be there for you.” I don’t know where she comes up with this stuff.

Sometimes, when she says or does something funny I ask her, “Where did you learn that?” For a long time her answer has been, “From Miss Piggy” and occasionally “and the frog.” She kills me.

My potty-training philosophy is to wait until my kids are so ready to do it that they take only a few days. I don’t have the patience to potty train for months on end.  The result is that they have all been well over three when we’ve attempted, but it hasn’t gone on forever and ever. Sophia was no different. While she was likely capable many months ago, I kept putting it off until I was sure she would be successful. With preschool just around the corner, we knew it had to happen this summer. Because of some long road trips, we had only one three week period that we would be home. She did really, really well for the most part. We chose “Hi-Chews” as our method of bribery… she’d get one each time she went. She got in the habit of going, wiping, washing hands, and saying, “I went to the bathroom and I had pee-pee and I want a grape!” She likes Hi-Chew flavors in this order: grape, strawberry, apple, mango. She picks grape until they are ALL gone. Then she eats all of the strawberry ones until they are ALL gone, then apple, and finally the ones left are mango. She only had a couple of accidents, but she was very clear in the fact that she did not want to poop on the potty. She in fact said to me on more than one occasion, “I will NEVER poop on the potty!” She would go into a corner (or under a table or behind the curtains or furniture) when it was time to do her business… she would tell us she needed her privacy… and she would quickly inform us that we needed to change her, but she was so resistant to even trying to go. After a couple of very unsuccessful attempts on my part (“We will buy you ANYTHING you want!” “We’ll have ice cream!” “I’ll buy you a PONY!”“Puh-lease!!!”) I finally decided to let it go, be happy with the fact that she was staying  dry during the day and would even wake up dry in the morning, and resign myself to the fact that she would be in pull-ups until college.  Tonight she decided all on her own that she wanted to poop on the potty. And she did. Like a boss. Without any forewarning. We are eating ice cream tonight! (So glad she opted for that reward instead of the pony ☺.)

We have decided that Sophia will go where she wants and how she wants in life. It is our job to make sure she is pointed in the right direction. And to help her think that that direction is HER idea. Oh, the challenge.

We are loving life and are busy, busy. While busyness is NOT a badge of honor, there are days that it feels like it should be. I feel tired, but oh, so happy. Most of the time.

As for catching up on the rest of 2013, we {mustache} you to be patient... it will come.

Reflections--Magic of a Moment

This year Olivia and Coleman entered the Reflections contest. The theme was "The Magic of  a Moment."

Olivia composed a song and won! She got a cool certificate and a trophy.

Coleman entered in the literature category. He also got a certificate.

Sophia didn't enter, but I am sure that at some point she will enter in one category (or more)...

We got notified a few weeks later that Olivia's entry went on to the next level and she will be compete at the district level... Way to go Liv!

This is the song that she composed:

Cookie Party 2012

One of my favorite holiday traditions is the cookie party that my friend Marilynn hosts. This year, I made some yummy Macaroon Kisses... they are delicious (and I usually don't like coconut!)

Macaroon Kisses


1/3 cup butter (softened)
3 oz. cream cheese (softened)
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
5 cups coconut (divided)
48 kisses (dark chocolate)

Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg yolk and extract.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add gradually to creamed mixture.  Stir in 3 cups of the coconut.

Refrigerate dough 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle (if desired, I didn't find this to be necessary).  Shape in 1” balls or use a small cookie scoop and then roll in coconut.  Place 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes (or until lightly browned.)

Remove from oven and push a kiss into each cookie.  Allow cookies to sit on cookie sheet 2-5 minutes until chocolate is soft.  Transfer cookies to cooling racks.

If you want to check out some other pictures and recipes for delicious cookies, check out the Christmas Cookie blog!

David Goes To School

One of our favorite authors is David Shannon. We especially love his cute character David. Sophia has loved the book David Goes To School so much that she has it memorized. For a time, she would "read" it to Ryan each night. We thought you might enjoy her reading and her other "activities" while she reads.  She keeps us laughing!

Extreme Makeover--Olivia Edition

This lovely girl got contacts and braces all within a couple of days.

She keeps looking in the mirror and says she doesn't recognize herself.

She looks beautiful, no?

Festival of Trees 2012

Megan pulled off another great tree this year in memory of her boy Chance... the theme was the great outdoors. All of her decorations were of moose, bears, squirrels, and owls. She did such a great job on it! I got to go and help put it together on decorating day.

My mom tied a quilt with Megan and her sisters and many other people contributed.

Me and Megan with my mom and some friends and our Aunt Becky on decorating day.

Sisters!

Meg and Mom

Our sister Lauren wrote a paragraph to help Festival visitors get to know Chance... it read:
Chance was an inquisitive boy. He loved exploring, getting into everything, and playing in the dirt. He would have been an outdoor enthusiast, for sure, if he hadn't gotten sick at the tender age of 2 years and 11 months. Just weeks before he died he was able to go on his first camping trip. What an adventure! We hoped there would be many more opportunities for him to sleep under the stars, be close to nature, and try to spot the wildlife. But God had a different plan and called Chance home. We still feel close to him when we are outside. He is in the wind, the sunshine, the raindrops, the hoot of an owl, and especially in the dirt.

Later in the week we went with my Grandma Cole to see the tree... The kids love being with her and I love it too. She is so good with them (and they love that she usually manages to bring them a little treat :)).

Sophia was in a bit of a funk that day, she finally pulled out of it when we saw the gingerbread houses and there was one from Tangled  (one of her favorite movies).

The Festival is such a great event, and I love that Megan has made it a priority in her life to give back to the Medical Center that tried so hard to save her boy. 

On decorating day I was (again) amazed as I looked around and thought about how much love goes into each tree... there is a story behind each tree and a person to go with the story. It breaks my heart that there are so many in the "club" of people who have lost a loved one (often a young child) but it is heartwarming that so many people work so hard to contribute to such a good cause and bring so much joy to others in the process.

Thankful Wall 2012

Every year we put up our Thankful Wall and get to write down all of the things we are thankful for... as our children grow older they are a bit more thoughtful about what they write, yet random things still seem to show up on the list (cups? dishes?).  I love that our kids choose to be grateful for the big and small things in their lives.

On Thanksgiving Day we asked each of the children to say what they were thankful for... Sophia's response: "Bats." Totally not sure where that came from, but it got a few laughs :).

Ryan doesn't believe in writing on the walls, but he kindly added these to our list:

My dear, sweet, loving, thoughtful wife that is always mindful of the details in each of our lives.
A happy, cheerful, always questioning Coleman.
Considerate, compassionate, cool Olivia
Bubbly, smiley, playful Sophia

Thanksgiving 2012

We were so excited that we were able to visit Ryan's brother Scott and his family for Thanksgiving this year. Terri and Bruce flew out from Connecticut as well which made our stay even better.

Our kids loved being together... they played games, played with Nerf guns, played Wii, wrestled, laughed, crafted, played at the park, and loved every minute they had together.

Kristen and I had a great time baking and cooking. We spent Wednesday night baking pies... and managed to catch the oven on fire! I made a pecan pie and Kristen did such a good job making a beautiful apple pie (from scratch!) and we also made a couple of pumpkin pies. While it was baking the top crust from the apple pie broke off and fell onto the element, then some of the ooey goodness dripped out onto it and that caused a whole lot of smoke, and eventually some flames. We laughed and laughed (and felt grateful that the smoke detectors didn't go off). Despite their time in the fire and smoke, they still looked beautiful, so we figured we'd try them out the next day.

On Thursday we had mini pudding pies for the kids and grandparents for breakfast (tradition!) and we spent the next several hours making a delicious dinner. It was so fun to be together and share the cooking and dish washing responsibilities... Kristen is a wonderful cook and had several fabulous recipes. The kids had their own table which they loved... Alyza and Olivia had gotten up early to make table decorations and bookmarks for each of us :).  We ate until we were full (and then we ate some more) and waited a brief time before we went for pie. The pudding pie and the pecan pie were hits... the others had an odd smokey flavor :). It was bad, really bad. They tasted a bit like what we imagine an ash tray might. We decided that we couldn't do it... as much as we wanted to, we just couldn't eat the apple and pumpkin pies, so when we went out later that night for a few of the sales we hit the deli (through the crazed DVD shoppers) and picked up a couple of pumpkin pies... and wouldn't you know it, I got sugar-free... not as bad as the smoked pies, but still not great... thank goodness for Costco apple and pumpkin pies... they were purchased and consumed the next day :).

On Friday we did a little shopping and I met up with my friend from high school for lunch who lives in the area. We went to the Denver temple grounds and spent some time there. Sophia wasn't too happy to be there (she needed a nap desperately) but she finally got her cheer back when we encouraged somersaults (and joined in).

We had great weather while we were there... We visited downtown Morrison which has cute shops and great ambiance. Scott and Kristen shared with us a fun place for dipped ice cream cones.

Before we went home (to eat more pie) we stopped at the Red Rock amphitheatre to see a beautiful sunset.

On Saturday we drove to Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the Gods... it was so beautiful! There were lovely clouds and the rock formations were breathtaking.

The kids enjoyed walking on the trails and climbing in and out of a very small opening in one of the rocks. Bruce and Ryan took some great photos (Ryan didn't even have his good camera, but was making the most of his iPhone :)).

Lovely, no?

We had such a great visit with Scott and Kristen and Sam and Lyz. We were so glad that Terri and Bruce were there also... it was so fun to spend time with everyone and celebrate the holiday.

The whole gang... minus Bruce who was taking the picture... Our cute girls Lyz and Soph were so sad to say goodbye, there were real tears shed over the thought of parting... we'd had such a good visit! We were so glad to see where Scott and Kristen live. It is obvious why they love it so much... they have a beautiful home and neighborhood and so many wonderful things to do nearby. We can't wait to go back and visit again!

What a sad, sad girl sitting in the middle there (the one by the window is hiding her face from the camera because she isn't too happy either.)

(We are happy too that we all fit in our little Prius which makes road trips super affordable.)

Kate's Blessing

In November Lindsey and her family came up to our town to bless their cute baby Kate... it was a good midway point so that both families could be there.

We love baby Kate!

Duet Festival Fall 2012

Olivia competed in a duet festival this year with her cute friend Julia...

They played really well together, despite the fact that Olivia had strep throat and hadn't been feeling well all week. We used a whole lot of hand sanitizer to make sure she didn't spread disease :).

Their first song was "Spanish Gypsies" by Martha Mier:

Their second song was "Broadway Lights" by Robert D. Vandall: It It is so fun to see them progress. She practices for 50 minutes a day (most days) and loves it!

Hey Ferb, I know what we're going to do today....

 Trick or Treat!!!

Happy Halloween to all.... This year we decided to continue on with our love of Phineas and Ferb...

The Flynn-Fletcher Family... Sadly, Lawrence didn't make an appearance... and Ferb had to be on Coleman's bag since we couldn't convince any of our neighbors or friends to join our family for the night...

Liv made an excellent Candace... she doesn't often try to "bust her brother" and isn't in love with someone named Jeremy (lovely bag, no?) but she still pulled it off. She had a parade at school that Sophia and I got to go to. She had to explain to people who she was... but if they were fans of the show, they totally got it as soon as she said it. Sophia loved being there because all of the kids would point to her and say, "Hey, look! It's Perry!" She felt just a bit famous :).

Coleman loves, loves, loves this show. I love that the the characters are mostly nice to each other, tell the truth, and are quite intelligent. The plots are simple enough that Sophia likes it but witty enough that Ryan and I even sneak in an episode or two after the kiddos go to bed. People who know the show loved the costumes and recognized us immediately... those who didn't... well, they didn't. Some thought Coleman was a rooster! Sophia and I went to Coleman's class for his party.

Ryan made a great Doofenschmirtz... all evil and ugliness aside, he at least had the clothes down :). Sophia's debut as Perry the Platypus was great. We've been planning this for weeks... and a couple of weeks ago Soph decided she wanted to be a cat instead. We finally convinced her to put on her Perry costume by telling her she would be a kitty cat that looked like Perry the Platypus :). In the days leading up to Halloween we kept asking Sophia what she was going to say at the door... her response: "Me want candy!" I think she caught on to the whole idea of trick-or-treating... when they got home I asked her if they had gone to a few houses... she answered with, "No... a lot!" and then I asked if she got a few pieces of candy she said, "No, a lot, a lot, a lot!" She's been chowing down ever since.... She loved her Major Monogram bag and kept calling it "my Major Monogram bag."

Ryan rigged up speakers and played the "Doofenschmirtz Evil, Incorporated" jingle from his lab-coat.  We brainstormed about what "inator" he could carry around but never built one.... we should have made the Trick-or-Treat-inator to suck all of the good candies out of trick-or-treaters bags...

We all know that Linda and Heinz didn't end up together... but they did go on that one date... :)

It definitely wasn't my best year for creativity in the culinary area, but we had a few yummy Halloween treats... My headstone cakebites didn't work as well as I hoped (the white chocolate seized up, likely from the food coloring I added?) so we turned some of them into ghosts... We made some mummy pigs-in-a-blanket, spiderweb salsa with chips, and had some jack-o-lantern slush. The cake in the top right corner was made by someone at Ryan's work and I loved it... they just used strawberry pieces to make a pumpkin. I loved the Frankenstein rice krispy treats that two of my friends made for our pack meeting this month. We didn't have very many trick-or-treaters this year, which was strange because we had beautiful weather... 71 degrees! The ones that did come to our door got to take some Perry fruit snacks, Smarties, Nerds, or Dum-Dums. I am quite sure the significance of the candies was lost on everyone but me and Coleman (and Liv after we explained it to her) but that is okay :).

They got home with so much candy and spent a bit of time trading and paying the 'mom and dad tax.'

They taught Sophia how to say "Happy Halloween!"

Hope your Halloween was great too!