Busy Mom’s Fruit Salad

Note: Plan ahead...this salad takes a while to make.

Step 1: Sunday: Notice the sign up sheet for the Relief Society dinner. Remember your mom’s wonderful seven layer salad. Feel ambitious. Sign up to bring it to the dinner.

Step 2: Pick up the ingredients at the grocery store on Monday. Plan on making it after family home evening. Wrestle the kids to bed. Do a batch of dishes, make a few phone calls, and run an errand. Fall in to bed around midnight, promising to make the salad in the morning.

Step 3: Tuesday morning: Dress kids; go to band concert. Come home and redress little ones. Make lunch. Get ready for activity days. Take the second graders on a field trip to PetSmart. Drop pictures off at one hour photo. Pick up supplies for activity days. Pick up kids at school. Go back to pick up photos; find out they won’t be done until tomorrow. Frantically go home. Go to activity days. Send husband to walmart for one hour photos.
Come home at 5:30. Finally take a shower and brush your teeth. Suddenly it dawns on you you never made the salad. Go to the cupboard. Pull out the tropical fruit salad. Open can. Drain. Pour into fancy bowl. Hope nobody notices it came from a can. Thank heavens for food storage.

NOT the Way to Wash

Deborah was running in to pick up the kids from school and noticed that Seth had a stinky diaper that leaked. To make matters Worse Seth had gotten yuck all over his hands. She knew she would have a terrible mess to clean up, but was waiting until she got the kids home before unbuckling him and cleaning him. "Mommy," Seth said, "my hands aren't dirty any more." Deborah looked back, sure enough Seth's hands were visibly cleaner. He had them in his mouth.

Derbies and Decision making

Hello all! It has been a fun, yet crazy couple of weeks around here! Brian has been substituting in a couple of ITT classes, so he is feeling a little sleep deprived. Melissa and Jessica participated in a consumer decision making contest sponsored by 4-H on Thursday night. The goal was to review a case scenario, and then examine four products that could be purchased and decide which one would be the best buy according to the needs of the purchaser. They then had to defend their choices by explaining their decision to a judge. Jessica took first place in the county, and Melissa took third!

On Friday night, we had our Powder Puff Pinewood Derby for Activity Days. (It was originally the Daddy Daughter Pinewood Derby, but we had so many girls without dads to come that we renamed it so that they wouldn't feel bad. The leaders were dismayed on Tuesday to find that half of our girls didn't have cars made (also due to lack of dads in the home). So, on Thursday night Sister Nudd and I packed the seven girls up and took them over to the ward woodworking expert's house to cut out their cars. The girls designed them, and then we cut seven cars out. We then went back to Shelley Nudd's garage and painted them, and added stickers for a finishing touch. I am grateful to Shelley for her willingness to help me on this project. Her husband was called as stake president about a month ago, so she doesn't have a lot of extra time on her hands. Then right before the race, one of the dads drilled holes to use with quarters as weights for the cars. It was fun to have each girl with a nice car. We also had a few old cub scout cars as back ups.

We had a great turnout! We had fifteen girls there, although we only have seven that attend church on Sundays. I wanted the race to be fun for everyone, so I gave each girl a "prize purse", and they got a different prize depending on what place they took in the race. We kept it moving, so each girl raced their car 10 times! We had chili and hot dogs for dinner (leftover chili, anyone?) We had a really fun time.

Jessica and Melissa made really sleek little racers. Melissa's car ended up taking first place overall, and Jessica's car took third. When they held this activity two years ago, Melissa's car was dead last, so this was a nice improvement for her. We also came up with some clever awards for each car. We will have an awards ceremony at our next activity.

On Saturday night Brian and I sanded and varnished a new dresser for the boys' room. They have a very girly one that we willpost on craigslist on Monday. The new one has 12 drawers! We bought it for $50 on craigslist. Hooray for storage space!

Jessica drew this picture on my PDA.  Since she likes purple I'm guessing the girl on the left is her.

Cute Prayer

Seth: "Hebenly Fadder Sank dee for da day. Sank dee for da dinner. Amen."

What Grampa Likes

Conversation between Deborah and Seth:

Debs: Does Seymour like pizza?
Seth: Yes
Debs: Do you like pizza?
Seth: Yes

Debs continued to ask several others, then...

Debs: Does Grampa like pizza?
Seth: NO!
Debs: He doesn't? What does Grandpa like?
Seth: Salad!

Ward Campout

This is Jessica and Seth hiking at our ward campout.  Notice Seth's rope on his belt loop: he likes to pretend he is a doggie, and insists on a leash.  We much prefer the rope on his belt loop to his original plan, which was a rope wrapped around  his neck!

Stopping to see the Flags

 

On the way to meet cousins at Thanksgiving Point, we passed a soccer field full of hundreds of flags.  We stopped for a fun photo shoot with the kids.

Hiking to Cecret Lake

Brian ended up carrying both Seth and Noah most of the way. This became a familiar sight, as we went on several hikes over the summer.

The Kids at Snowbird

At Snowbird

Waiting for the elevator.

Ivie Clan at the Point

This is ALL of the Ivie grandkids except little Adam. From the left, we have Hyrum Ivie, Melissa Ivie, Hannah Dixon, Arianna Harper, Jessica Ivie, Noah Ivie, Seth Ivie (front), Matthew Shaw, Kevin Dixon, Ryan Dixon, Ashley Shaw, Cassandra Ivie, Leslie Larson, Ethan Shaw, Katie Shaw (front), Sabrina Larson, Isaac Dixon, and Nathaniel Dixon.

Noah and Katie

Noah and Katie tried out the swing after the birthday party. We were amazed at how tolerant Katie was with Noah. He would take a toy away, and she would just go and find another one. She would coax him to follow her around and play with her.

Cassandra's Birthday Party

Before we arrived on the plane, Colleen and John had taken all of the kids to the dollar store to buy birthday presents for Cassey. She loved the things that her siblings and cousins picked out for her. John bought her a cake. She is still talking about the amazing birthday in Idaho.

At the Water Park

Hyrum, Ashley and Melissa playing at the waterpark. Because it was Cassandra's 7th birthday, Colleen told Cassandra that we needed to do seven fun things. These included a trip to the water park, birthday cake, bowling, presents, dinner at Golden Corral, playing with cousins, and one more I can't remember.

Visiting the Shaws

In July we had a chance to visit the ulitmate vacation spot: the Shaw home in Boise, Idaho. Our four oldest went back with Colleen and John after Snowbird, and we flew up to get them a week later. This is Brian and Noah on the flight to Boise.

The giant was no match for two Irish dancers! They are too quick on their feet!

Slaying a Giant

After dancing at the Scottish Festival in June, our kids had a chance to "fight a giant". He took them on two at a time. As you can see, the giant was no match for the kids!

Children's 26.2 Challenge

This spring our kids participated in the Children's 26.2 Challenge, where they ran a marathon, a quarter mile at a time. They had about two months to complete 26.2 miles. This picture is from the celebration at the zoo for those who completed the challenge. Melissa is with Big Buddah from Fox 13 News (you may also recognize him from the movie "The RM")

Cassey at the Cafeteria Campout

Cassandra's class had a cafeteria campout in May. They set up tents in the cafeteria, and kids are parents slept over. They watched a movie and did crafts. Have we mentioned what a great school our kids attend?

A visit to Temple Square

This spring we met Brian after work for a picture taking session at Temple Square. As we were finishing the kids walked around the edge of the reflection pond.

Jessica as a Pirate

One evening activity was done by a Salt Lake City actor. He dressed as a pirate, and talked to the kids about how to play a part. He chose Jessica to dress up also, and this is Jessica in her pirate disguise.

4-H Family Camp

One of the highlights of our summer was 4-H Family Camp. We spent three days up Provo canyon camping with a group of 4-H families. The theme was "A Pirate's Life for Me" . The kids were divided by age, and had camp counselors who did planned activities with them all day long. It was a delightful experience! The above picture is of telescopes being set up for skywatching. The Utah Astronomical Society came up with their huge telescopes one eveing. We saw star clusters, planets, and even red and blue stars. It was amazing.

Brotherly Love

The Picture Tree

We have a picture of our kids in this tree from every summer for the past several summers. IT is located in the picnic park at Capitol Reef. We couldn't resist the yearly photo shoot.

Our GPS Treasure Hunt

Armed with GPS units borrowed from Brian's dad, we went on a treasure hunt in Wayne County, Utah. We spent time searching for the graves of our ancestors. We marked their locations, and recorded them so that others could find the graves more easily. We are now putting together the information along with the ancestors' biographies for our family website. This has been a really neat project for us, and has really helped to "turn the hearts of the children" in our own family.

Noah crawling on the sandstone

The Boys on the Other Side of Hickman Bridge

Kids with Hickman Bridge in the Background

Brian and Debs on the way to Hickman Bridge

In July we went down to the farm for a week long visit. While we were there we hiked to Hickman Bridge in Capitol Reef. This is a picture of our family just before arriving at the bridge. Hickman Bridge is a nice hike for families, especially on an overcast day where it isn't too hot outside. There are crevices in the sandstone that make fun little "clubhouses" for the kids to play in.

Giving Up at an Early Age

Seth was carrying several of his toys up the stairs in our home. He had placed them in a box in order to carry more at the same time. "Mommy!" he exclaimed, "I wanna go home. It's too hard!"

Do You Want Tickles?

Deborah was playing with Seth and teasingly asked him, "Seth, do you want tickles?"
"Yesh" was his reply.
"Where do you want them?" she asked. "On your feet?"
"No." he responded.
"On your tummy?" Deborah continued
"No." he again responded
"Then where do you want them?" she asked.
"On Hyrum" was Seth's reply.

Daddy's Girl

 

- by Jessica

The Candy Bars and I

In the garage
is a cache
a non-nutritonal stash
of candy, handy
from last summer's
scouting outing.

There's quite a lot
in a pot.

Snickers and Milky Ways
enough to last me many days.

I often eat
a sticky treat
of non-nutrional
chocolate sweet.

Today, I threw the stash
into the trash
and covered it with a bag of wet garbage.

I'm free!

- Maribeth Ivie

Not Bad for Age Two

Seth had some cereal in his hand, along with the bag out of the box. He thought it would be funny if he started throwing the cereal, which he proceeded to do, causing his mother to quickly take the bag of cereal away from him. He cried "Gib it back," but his mom told him "You can't have cereal if you are going to throw it." Seth continued to cry for a few more minutes, then without prompting, he went carefully around the room picking up the cereal that was on the floor. Finishing he then went his mom and said "more pease." Charmed, his mother gave him the bag back. We sometimes underestimate his level of understanding.

Conversation between Seth and Noah

Our two youngest sons were sitting on the bed. Seth carefully brought Noah a stack of toy animals. Then he presented them to him and said:
"Hey, baby! Here go! He like it! Here go, Noah! Here's a robot!"
Pretty good for age 2, both in the speaking and sharing departments.

Frustrated Hair

Debs was in a hurry to take our kids to school, and so she left without doing her hair or anything. Upon her return Hyrum looked at her unkempt appearance and remarked, "Mom, your hair looks like you woke up, and were just all frustrated."

Grandmothers, The Best Help

Hyrum wanted to go to his Grandmother's house and was trying to pester his mom into taking him. "Mom, please can I go to Grandmother's house? Please, will you take me? Please, please... PLEASE!!!!" Deborah, who was struggling to get the house clean, without a lot of help from her children, patiently explained to him, "Sorry Hyrum, but I need to clean our house today. Can you help me clean the house, and then I'll have time to take you to Grandmother's?" Hyrum considered her request and then replied, "But if you will take me to Grandmother's house right now, I won't mess up or get into trouble here, and you'll be able to clean faster."

Swiming with the Fishes

Having heard the term, "Swimming with the Fishes" many times, Hyrum decided that it was time that he actually experience it. He filled the bathtub with water, and then getting a fish net he managed to scoop up a guppy which he then plunked into the tub to swim with him. Though a fun sounding idea, the guppy didn't survive.

Juicy Coincidence

Deborah was picking me up so we could run an errand with our three young boys in tow. Seth was seated near the passenger door, and then Noah, and Hyrum was behind Deborah. I climbed in our van and as she pulled away from the curb we heard an "Erphhhhh!" from Seth. Turning around we found Seth drenched in orange juice holding a huge half-empty pitcher of it. Apparently he had been attempting to get a drink from it when my wife accelerated. "Hyrum, did you open that and give it to Seth?" Deborah asked. "No" was his reply. Taking the pitcher from Seth and trying to mop him dry with a towell, I looked around his car seat, but couldn't find the cap. "I wonder where the cap is," I exclaimed as I search around Seth to find it. "Oh, hey, here it is," said Hyrum holding up his hand. "I found it right here by me. That's lucky I found it" I took the cap from him and screwed it back on the picture, and Deborah and I had a good chuckle.