The Week in Pictures

On Monday after school Tessa said, "Mom, be sure to look at your mirror tonight because I'm going to leave something there for you. Don't forget!"

I guess she told Eric to make sure I saw it too. Later on that evening, I looked at my mirror and this is what I found:

I cracked up when I saw it. She is so funny. I guess the short walk from the bus to our house after-school is just too much for her, even though most of the way they get to walk with their friends. :) Honestly though, I think it's the heat that bothers her. Not that I blame her though because I've never been a person that handles heat well either. I just loved the way she told me.
Then, Monday evening we were talking about the handwriting in our family. Alex has very poor handwriting even he'll admit it. Most of the time, his writing it nearly illegible. I was saying that I wasn't sure Alex was capable of writing neatly anymore. Well, on the other side of the room, Alex proved me wrong. This was written by Alex. I saw it with my own two eyes or I may not believe it.

He CAN do it. This made my night!


This is a sample of his typical writing.

A Jaremism:
(Sometime this week) Jarem is sitting at the table coloring.
Jarem: "Mom, I don't want to get big?"
Mom: "Why not, it's fun to grow up and do big kid things."
Jarem: "Because if I get big like daddy then I'll have to shave and I don't want to shave."

I thought that was so cute. Usually when he says he doesn't want to grow big and I ask him why he says, "because then I can't be your snugglebug". I talked to Eric about the shaving thing later and he said Jarem had been watching him shave and Eric said it hurt.

Friday night, Alex had two of his best friends over for a sleepover, Nick and Junior. They are both very musical and can sing, so they all played Rockband together and had a great time. It sounded really good too. I love Nick's tongue out in concentration...

Alex likes the drums and guitar best, but he will sing too. Nick tried them all.


Jeremy preferred singing, and played on "expert" level the whole time. He is a great singer.
They had a good time together. They are such great boys and a great influence for Alex. The only downfall was that they all had to get up very early so that we could go to the temple with their parents early Saturday morning. They didn't seem to mind though.

We had a wonderful time at the temple in Nashville Saturday morning. It's been awhile since we've been, and it was great to go again. We also had great company with the Howe's and the Martinez's. We went out to lunch at Famous Dave's (of which I'd never been before). It was good. I especially liked the cornbread muffins and the bread pudding.

Saturday evening, Eric was watching a Dallas Cowboys preseason game on his laptop and Jarem cuddled up next to him and fell asleep.

Eric's Birthday

August is a busy month for us with both Jesikah and Eric's birthday and our anniversary too. We celebrated Eric's birthday on the day before his birthday, Saturday, August 22nd. The kids and I spent most of the day cleaning inside while Eric thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed both cars. Then, in the late afternoon we had Eric open his presents before he and I went out to dinner at Longhorn and went to the movie "G.I. Joe" for his birthday.

Opening his present from Jesikah

Opening his homemade card from Jesikah

It's a tie! Jesikah loves giving gifts and she wants to buy things with her own money now even though she doesn't have much. She found this tie at Goodwill for around $1 or $2 and was so pleased to find something with orange since Eric loves orange. I love Jesikah's expression in these pictures...she is so anxious for him to open the present and proud that he likes it.

Eric trying on his new tie with Jesikah observing

Alex has to have a turn too.

This was Eric's big gift. Since we didn't have enough wrapping paper to wrap it, I used brown paper bags and then the kids and I wrote notes all over it to Eric.

This was Jesikah and my side

This green writing is Alex's section. He wrote a very nice heartfelt note to Eric. It's fun to see Alex's sensitive side sometimes.

The top section above the label was Jarem and Tessa's part. Jarem drew lots of pictures. He wanted to write letters so bad, but he didn't know how. I hope to spend lots of time working with him on writing in the next few months.

Eric is excited to have another opportunity to use his new pocket knife that he bought before going to scout camp.

It's ROCKBAND 2 for Wii...just what he wanted!! He's been wanting it ever since we spent several days with the Fourtners' in Washington and we all had such a good time playing it together.

Jarem and Alex goofing off while Eric was opening the box of Rockband.

More playing around...

I had to give him this Shrek gift bag because I thought it was funny. The shield is "removable" and on the back it said "To Our Knight in Shining Armor". Alex is getting a good look also.

Jarem and Alex are jealous because they want to the knights in shining armour too. Here they are fighting over the shining silver shield. :) Alex is trying to take advantage of his moment to get the shield as Jarem is distracted by the camera.

He got a couple of pairs of shorts

And a new golf shirt...after spending $60 on a golf shirt at the golf course a few months ago (because he wasn't wearing a collared shirt), I thought I better make sure he had at least a couple to choose from to save that mishap from happening again. :)

Cute picture of Jarem and Eric...they are good buddies.

Checking out the guitar

Jesikah trying out the guitar with the new tie too.

Alex trying to rock out, but he looks a little constipated to me. :)

"I just want to touch the drums"

Tessa wanted to get her hands on the guitar too.

The next day on his real birthday, we had a nice dinner and I made him his favorite lemon meringue pie. I had a few mishaps while making the pie, however.

I first tried to bake the crust in the bottom oven and something had been spilled on the bottom of the oven and was making things smoky. Then, I then transferred the crust to the upper oven to clean the bottom oven. That's when I learned that I had formed the crust a little too far out to the edge of the pan and the crust didn't shrink like the recipe I am used to. A couple of pieces of dough from the crust fell onto the bottom of the oven and then that oven started smoking like crazy. I opened the oven to remove the pieces and the smoke alarms all started going off. I opened all the windows, turned them off, and then they'd start going off again. The whole house was all smoky. I was very frustrated. So after the smoke and fire alarm catastrophe, Eric and I went for a little walk to get some fresh air while the pie cooled. It was such a nice, cool day that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyway the filling and meringue both turned out good even though I was short an egg, but the crust tasted a bit "smoked". :) Oh well...he was just happy to have his pie!

Eric's lemon meringue pie...Jesikah had to add at least one candle for him to blow out so it could be considered a real party.

The pie actually turned out more set than usual because of the missing egg, but the meringue was not as high because of the missing egg white.

Sunday Afternoon

Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week. It is our family day. In the morning, we go to church, then we come home and have lunch and relax, nap, and spend time together. Last Sunday, the girls were doing some crafts and playing with their baby ponies together. They were having a great time.

When I went to check on the boys, Eric and Jarem were asleep on our bed. It was so cute that I had to get a picture. Alex was in his room working on his "Duty to God" book (I think he had been banished to his room earlier for bothering his siblings). I was glad to see he was doing something good, but of course, he hid when I tried to get a picture.

Jesikah's Birthday Party

The day after Jesikah's birthday, we had her friend party. In our family, usually we let the kids do friend birthday parties on years they turn an even number and family parties on the odd years. Unfortunately, Jesikah has had several years when we have moved right before her birthday and one of those years was last year when she turned 10. We moved the week before her birthday, so she didn't have any friends to invite and we lived in a tiny apartment that couldn't even fit US. So, given the circumstances, we allowed her to postpone her friend party until this year...so she'll get a back-to-back. :)

Jesikah found a recipe for a beehive cake in the Family Fun magazine recently and decided on that one for her birthday. Here, I am finishing the frosting on the cake and cookies...

Jesikah and I working together to get the right color of yellow frosting to drizzle over the bees.

As we were beginning to plan her party, I happened to be looking on Americangirl.com and found this party game on clearance for $4 plus shipping!!! Jesikah did one of the American Girl games at another friend's party a few years ago and had a lot of fun, so we decided to go for it. This was a different American girl than her previous party. Molly lived in the 1940's during World War II. Each guest is assigned a different character from the books to dress-up as for the party. It was a lot of fun. The girls really got into their characters, even Tessa who played a boy.

The game had scripts (almost like a play) where each character read their parts and they act out the story. During certain parts of the game they had to go to different parts of the house or find clues which kept it interesting. The girls did a good job with their expressions making the game seem real! It was very fun! I was amazed how they just did it nearly all on their own and I was mostly a spectator. Now, to introduce the characters:

Jesikah as Molly

Tessa as Ricky (she got to be Molly's brother since we didn't want to give anyone else a boy part...she had fun with it though)

Raegan as Linda

Pramika as Alison

Liza as Susan

Isley as Emily

Divya as Mrs. Gilford

Brittany as Jill

They are figuring out Clue #3 in the game.

A picture of the whole group during the game

The finished beehive cake with bee cookies. The cake had ice cream in it. I must have let the cake sit out too long to thaw a bit, because the ice cream had partly soaked into the cake and it was a bit soggy, but still good.

Jesikah with her cake

Opening presents:

Her friend's must really know her...Lindor truffles and a gift certificate to Wendy's from Isley.

Strawberry body splash and yummy lip glosses from Raegan...again, her favorites. She has used it nearly every day and shared it with me as well.

Two books and a little porcelain tea set (one she had admired at their house) from Divya and Pramika...again, she loves to read and the tea set was something she had talked about a lot, but a total surprise.

From Liza, she got some cute pajamas and pens. She's been wanting more summer pajamas, and she loved the colored pens. Also in the picture, the cute little kitten with pet carrier from Brittany.

After the game, pizza, cake, and presents, we all watched the Molly: An American Girl movie. The movie tied it all together because it took stories from all the Molly books and put them into a movie which included all the characters the girls were in the play, so they got to see their characters in the movie.


Their comments about their characters were funny... they said things like, "Oooh, I'm a know-it-all" or "I think I'm perfect" of their characters. It was pretty cute. It was the perfect ending to a fun party. Jesikah even managed to arrange for a few of the girls to spend the night which turned out even more perfect for her. :)