my firstborn . . .may she rest in peace

Today someone very important passed away.

This is Tibbs. More commonly known as Tibbers. . . my first daughter.

We think I got her for my 10th birthday. . .making her seventeen years old. My parents surprised me with her after begging for weeks for one of the neighbor's newborn kittens. I had a black one all picked out and I named him Skittles. My friends Sarah and Amanda each had one picked out too. We would go over to the wood pile behind the house where the kittens lived everyday and play with them. We were desperate for these little kitties. We even made up a list (and possibly a song) and tried to convince Amanda's dad to let her have one. Sadly, none of us got any of the Jorgensen's kittens, but a few weeks/months(?) later my dad came home from work with that little number riding on his shoulder.

No one ever expected her to live as long as she did. I don't know, it seems like seventeen years is an awfully long time for a cat. As soon as I moved out of the house my dad has been giving me grief for not taking my daughter with me. Brian is allergic to cats, and I use the term "allergic" very loosely there. But he wasn't a fan, so Tibbs naturally stayed with her grandparents, who secretly loved her as much as I did.

Tibbs used to be obese. For a long time she was massive. She had a gut that would swing around underneath her every time she moved. Last year she started losing weight, really fast. And she became this tiny little thing. It was like she was a kitten all over again. But in August she went blind. The last few months have not been the easiest for her. She bumps into things as she walks and was getting skinnier by the day.

But Tibbs was taken great care of by Nonnie while she's been here the last couple months. They were old ladies bonded over the woes of, well. . .getting older. They took care of each other. They needed each other. But Nonnie left for Canada yesterday, and Tibbs left today.

This girl also was very attached. She LOVED going to Grammy's and seeing the kitty. Poor Tibbs was blind and defenseless against her. She would poke, pull, pat, hit and grab her repeatedly and Tibbs politely, though completly terrified, took it.


I'm sad for Nonnie. And I'm sad for Ellery. But more than that I'm happy that she's done suffering. She's been such an entertaining cat to have around through the years. My arms used to be covered with scratches as a little girl from this kitten. She went through six dogs during her life and she dominated each of them. They were actually afraid of her, she was that tough. But she was also a little sweetie, especially near the end of her life. I don't know if I'll miss her day to day. . .you know, because she has been in foster care for the last ten years, but I'm definitely glad my dad brought her home to me seventeen years ago, and with that I'll close, because this is long, and it's about a cat.

Goodbye little Tibbies.

time to play

This afternoon Ellery and I found ourselves alone in the house while Brian and McKay were on a "man date" with their friends to the Auto show. This hardly ever happens. In fact, my house seems really strange when McKay isn't in it.






















After coming home from Ellery's 15 month checkup I had big plans. I had laundry to do, the sink was full of dishes, and I wanted to clean the house while the boys were gone. I thought it would be easy to get all that done with just Elle tagging along beside me. I was forming a plan in my mind of what to do first, and how to "entertain" Elle while I did it, when Ellery proudly presented me with the stacking blocks she had found all by herself.


























I realized that I'm hardly ever alone with this girl. I decided that my list of things to do could wait. . .and that alone time with my little Elle was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. We stacked these blocks over and over and she laughed every time she knocked them down





















It's so fun to actually see how her little mind works. When we're with McKay he often overshadows her creativity, just by being older, so I was happy to get the chance to observe her idea of playing for a little while. I liked seeing what she came up with.

I'm sure glad I took the time to just play with my girl. It was worth much more than a clean house and an empty sink.

Happy Valentine's Day!

No. Not really.

I'm really annoyed right now. It's been mounting over the last week or so, and I can't keep quiet about it anymore! Lets just talk about Valentine's day for a minute. First, have you noticed that the stores put out their Valentine's day stuff before December is even over? I mean, Christmas stuff, I can understand- it's the biggest holiday of the year, so starting it in October, I can kind of tolerate it. Christmas celebrating lasts a good month and a lot of people shop early for that. But Valentine's Day? No. We do not need a month and a half to prepare for that. Second, obviously the stores wouldn't start selling V-day stuff if people weren't buying it. So. Who is buying that stuff? Who comes home and says, "Oh good. I got all my Valentine's Day shopping done- a month early- what a relief!"?

On a related note, Target has swimsuits. Target has had swimsuits for awhile now. I could have bought a swimsuit on Christmas Eve if I'd wanted to. Why is it that I cannot find a pair of snow pants, or boots for toddlers anywhere in January, but I can find a swimsuit? I think it will probably snow again. . . and again. . .and again. Why are the retailers trying to get me to think about spring when I just opened my warm Christmas presents? Why?!

I'm really quite upset about this. For some reason this year it's really bugging me. I don't want to wear a swimsuit. I want to drink hot chocolate while trudging around in my furry boots.

The end.

Simon . . .

He's been hanging around our house a lot lately. Cute, isn't he?

Nonnie's Here

Whenever we drive by Chuck E. Cheese McKay asks, "Is Nonnie here?" About 90% of the time I say, "No. She's in Canada." McKay will probably always associate the beloved Chuck E. with Non. He's only ever been there with her. Nonnie lives in Canada, but comes for extended visits twice a year. During these visits, this one of a kind great grandmother takes all of her greats to visit the mouse. And they LOVE it.

She treats us all to pizza and drinks, and even dessert. She buys cups full of tokens and the kids come and refill their little hands whenever they want. She always ends up buying more and more tokens when the cup empties because those kids can spend those tokens in record time. Our kids are all pretty lucky to have her as a great-grandma- going to Chuck E. Cheese is probably her number one priority while she's here.

Except I noticed something this time. Do you remember going to Chuck E. Cheese when you were little? What was the most exciting thing there? The pizza? No. The games? Almost, but no. The prizes? Not quite. It was the show! Am I right? It was for me anyway. You know, the singing animal band, with Chuck E. on lead guitar and vocals? That was the magic. I have memories of going to Chuck E. Cheese in California when I was little and that is ALL the memories consist of. That crew singing those songs. It was wonderful. Well, guess what?




Kids don't even care about that anymore. Absolutely no audience. The whole time we were there NO CHILDREN watched the show. Granted, the show that I saw had louder music, and they would dim the lights during it, but really what has happened to children? Why is that not enough anymore? I felt bad for the band. The only people in the whole place that even noticed them was Ellery, for a second, and Ashlyn, who was deathly afraid of the group. Sad.



It was the games, the spending of tokens that the kids were into. I assigned Alyssa to be McKay's buddy, and they went around and around riding little things and acting like they were playing the games. One of the biggest thrills for the older kids is the little booth that sketches your picture. They probably did about fifty of them. And yes, that's fifty tokens.

The kids had a lot of fun, of course, but so did the adults. We went on New Year's day and so husbands (minus Brian- missed him) were able to join us. There were some intense free throw shooting competitions and skee ball, always a favorite. I won't even start to brag about the Fuehrer girls free throw skills. I'll just say we're more athletic than we look.




Elle just hung out most of the time and consumed pizza and soda. That kept her busy for a good hour.



After that she went on one ride and hated it at first, but then came around by the end.

When it's time to go the kids pool all their tickets together and then go prize shopping.

This takes a good chunk of time. Trying to decide which piece of cheap plastic to take home. It's the highlight of the day.



Mack chose three pieces of plastic- two dinosaurs and a blue lizard and to change it up a bit, some bath fizzies . He was pretty much ecstatic. And he also kept his hood on the whole time. He does that with hoodies. It drives Brian crazy.

We always love when Nonnie's in town. She's pretty amazing. And we always have tons of fun at Chuck E. Cheese.

got me a sunbeam

Alright, lets just talk about some church related business here. First, my boy is a sunbeam. This morning he was running around in circles, he was so excited. And then the nerves set in- right about lunch time. He had a melt down when Brian made a Mickey Mouse sandwich with ears that were too small. We quickly realized that he was feeling anxious and it was coming out on Mickey, or Brian I guess. He got excited again once we got to church and we spied on him a few times and although he was sitting as still as a statue, he looked like he was surviving. When he came waltzing out of his class with a crown on I could tell he felt pretty good about himself being a sunbeam. In fact, he's been telling everyone he sees that he's a sunbeam.

I'm feeling like I can't believe that my child is in "big primary," as McKay would say. Time sure does fly.

In other news, our stake boundaries were realigned tonight. Our ward was completely obliterated and a small section of our old ward is now in a different ward. Major changes in the whole stake. I've already cried about it, which I kind of am shocked by, but then I'm just feeling really sad, so I guess not all that shocked. Changes like this are just difficult for me. And then I just keep thinking about my sunbeam. How will he understand going to a different building, with different kids in his class and only a handful of people he recognizes? Everyone keeps saying that kids adapt easily and I know he'll be okay, but I guess I just feel bad for him. He had his own little world in our ward. And now that world doesn't exist anymore. So I know he'll adjust fast, surely faster than Brian and I will, but I still feel sad that we have to make this adjustment. We've been in this ward for five years and it's just hard knowing that we probably won't see most of our old ward again. And also, Brian and I are shy. And sometimes when we're shy we seem mean- especially Brian, bless him. So that's a concern of mine too. Is this getting boring? How about a story to cheer things up a bit?

Last week we were sitting in sacrament meeting in front of a young dad and two of his boys. One of the boys looked up and said, "You're a great dad." The dad then looked down at his boy and said, "You're a great son." Tender. McKay witnessed this interaction between father and son. He looked over at Brian and said, "Dad. I want to do what they did." Brian was trying to figure out what McKay was referring to when he said, "Dad, you're a great dad." Brian, not having heard the original conversation, said, "You're a great boy." McKay immediately and seriously corrected him and said, "No! Say 'You're a great son." Brian obliged and McKay was happy with the staged tender moment they shared.

new year

I know a lot of people steer clear of New Year's resolutions, Brian included. Waste of time. They hardly ever get kept. There's an influx of resolutioning through January, and by March you've forgotten what they even were. That's how Brian thinks of it. My sweet, optimistic Brian. Love him. But. I disagree- although I think he's right about the March thing. I remember during the time in my life that I attended a "gym", which happens to have been last year. No, I guess not last year. The year before that. Anyway, it was so annoying because we had been going to a class regularly for months and in January all the sudden the gym exploded! There were people on every machine. Classes were packed- you had to go early if you wanted to use weights. I was shocked. And then, after a few months, it was normal again. Funny people. Why do we do this? But now I'm way off track. My point is that I'm not calling them New Year's resolutions, but I don't see the harm in trying to improve you. . .your life. . .your home. . .your relationships. How can that be a bad thing? I figure that if you set several goals or improvements to make and even if just one sticks all year through- isn't that worth it? If you can make one positive change in your life then why not start out with a list and see what happens. That's what I'm doing. Here's a few of mine:

• Read to my kids everyday- even if it's just for ten minutes
• Organize/go through every drawer, cupboard, corner and shelf in my house
• Learn how to use photoshop
• Go to bed earlier - this is my most important one- the one I really need to stick!
• Get all our pictures on cds
• Catch up on all the photobooks I've been meaning to make
• Get ready in the morning before McKay wakes up- so hard!
• Stop complaining about my stomach and maybe do something about it. or maybe just stop complaining.
• Read Jesus the Christ - Whoa! I know.
• Eat more vegetables
• Have "school" with McKay at least a few times a week
• Be more productive with my time
• Serve without complaining

And about a dozen more!

Happy New Year everyone! I'm excited for 2009- could be our most adventurous year yet. . . then again, could not. Who knows? I'm dying to!

December 26th . . .

. . .is the one day of the year that I am okay with my house looking like this:

STUFF everywhere. Brian and I are pretty tidy people, but we let it go on December 26th. Presents, paper, boxes, candy, and clothes litter our family room floor and I kind of like it. I guess I should note that Brian was impatient this year and we had it cleaned up by four o'clock. But still that's almost a whole day of a crazy, Christmas explosion in our house. He even wanted to take down the tree today, but I convinced him that we had plenty of other days to do that. Let Christmas linger a little bit.



On that note here's how our holiday went down:



Sledding at Thanksgiving Point


We were among a select few who got to go sledding in the amphitheatre at Thanksgiving Point on Christmas Eve. While most kids were flying down the hill over and over again, McKay was of course being an animal in between the few runs he took.

I'm thinking he's a snow cow here. After his second time down the hill with Jana, he wandered off in the powder at the bottom on all fours, eating snow. This was when the snow cow was born. And he ate snow for the rest of the afternoon. He still loved the sledding part, but he just found a way to entertain himself while waiting for his next turn. I don't know know what else to say about this, except that this boy is pretending ALL the time. I don't really know what to make of it. We have rules that at dinner time and bedtime we have to be ourselves. I just love him.

After sledding we headed over to Brian's parent's house to spend the evening. The highlight for McKay was riding on Grandad's snow plow four wheeler. I don't know who was happier about this, McKay or Grandad.

After a yummy dinner all the kids acted out the nativity. Acted? I guess not acted since the oldest one was only three. They dressed up and were cute though.

Grandma made all the kids the most adorable matching jammies. Brian's sisters even got matching pajama pants. It was very cute seeing them all run around dressed the same, but it made it seem like there were a lot more of them! They all loved it.

Christmas Morning

McKay got a space train set and I'm wondering why Santa settled on this as his present since it is pretty huge and our house is not. But McKay loves it. And I think Brian loves it too. Ellery loved the puppy that was left for her, but as soon as she saw the m&m filled candy cane in her stocking that's all she cared about. She was ready to eat those m&m's and didn't care about anything else. And we let her.


Christmas Day
Later that day McKay and some of the aunts made a snowman in the backyard at Grandma's. He kind of looks like a snow-mosquito here, but he looked much better once his face was adorned with a nice carrot smile.

We spent the evening at my parent's house and had a fun time with the whole family. We played games, opened presents, and my mom made several soups served in yummy bread bowls. Ellery spent most of the night climbing on boxes and thinking she was amazing for doing so. She also got quite excited when she and Brian tried out the new baby carrier hiker thing my parent's got us. She's very interested in having people acknowledge her and clap when she thinks she's doing something important. McKay had fun playing with his cousins and snitching his fair share of treats all night.

We had a great couple days and I was so glad we didn't have to travel anywhere far to be with the ones we love. Hope everyone else had a merry Christmas as well.

I'm not good at making gingerbread. . .

. . .but I did it anyway for our annual gingerbread house decorating party.

On the 21st we celebrated Brian's sister Lindy's birthday. She just got home from being in Israel for the last three months and we are all so glad to have her home. We waited this year to do gingerbread houses until she could do them with us. This is one of our favorite traditions with Brian's family and we all look forward to it every year.

Party for the Parents

I decided a long time ago that I'd never have a baby in the month of December. Why? My parents both have birthdays in mid December, as well as their anniversary. It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't want to add anymore to the already busy month.

Five years ago, in an effort to simplify while properly celebrating, my sisters and I decided to just throw our parents a big combined party with a different theme each year. The themes are picked from different times in their lives.

The first year was a 50's theme- their teenage years.

After that we did a Florida beach theme- where they met.

The next year we did a hospital theme- mom's a nurse.

And last year we did a Game Show theme- how great it is that my parents were on three different game shows in the eighties? Those are fun tapes to watch.

So what was the big theme this year? FBI versus Criminals- dad's profession (FBI Agent, not criminal).

Here's the group shot. Bad guys on the left, agents on the right. During the party we always have my parents walk in without knowing what the theme is. They come in and we blast a theme song, this year Mission Impossible. Then we all run and dance around to the music, in costume of course, while they think we are hilarious. You can imagine how much McKay loves this.

Please take a closer look at him "acting" like a bad guy for the photo. He's a natural. I want to frame it.

Here's the birthday pair with the FBI's most wanted poster. Click to enlarge the picture to see these rough criminals- that Elle Capone's pretty cute. If it doesn't enlarge I don't know what to tell you. Why do some enlarge and others don't? Anybody?

Agent Mark detaining the Uni Bomber, Ted Kaczynski.

Lisa and Trevor always kindly host this party, and somehow Trevor became the official refreshment shop owner. He's had a crab shack, a hospital snack bar, an ice cream parlor and this year a coffee shop, complete with donuts and something hot to drink.

The kids always act out stories from mom and dad's life, the more funny and embarrassing the better. This year's plays were particularly funny. Favorite play this year would have to be when an unidentified package was sent to dad at work and the bomb squad was called because they thought it was from a disgruntled informant. The bomb squad called my dad in as they opened it, as well as everyone else in the office to see, and they revealed a cake of a bikini sent from mom (pre Mormon days) to celebrate their anniversary. Poor dad. He said they didn't let him live that one down for years.

I kind of have a thing for that Uni Bomber. He's one handsome guy. . . and I had two of his babies, so what can I say?

Our cute FBI man with some pretty adorable girls. It's so fun to celebrate and honor our parents in this fun way and we all look forward to it every year. Happy Birthdays Mom and Dad!

. . .what we've been up to. . .

It's December alright, and we've been busy! I feel like I have so many things to blog about, and every night I say, "I'll do it tomorrow." If I didn't have so many pictures to deal with I would have done it by now. We have had lots of things going on and I've decided to just do them in one major post. Prepare yourself. Get a drink. Use the bathroom. Whatever you need to do. Okay, here we go!

Festival of Trees Substitute

Every year we go to the Festival of Trees. We usually try to go during the afternoon when it's not so busy. This year, we couldn't go until Friday evening and as we were driving up we decided to stop for dinner. It was on the drive that we noticed Ellery coughing/breathing kind of weird. My kids both have asthma so we're kind of paranoid when it comes to their breathing. Going to the crowded expo center, parking far away and fighting our way down each isle didn't sound like the environment for a quick escape if Elle got really bad, so we decided to forgo our plans. We stopped at the South Towne mall to ride the carousel instead. McKay kept asking if that was where all the Christmas trees were and we told him it was. He wasn't very impressed, but he did love riding the carousel.

Elf on the Shelf Party

A newer tradition that my mom started was her Elf on the Shelf party for all the grandkids.

She read the book and then talked about the elfs. Is it elfs or elves? Elfs looks better so I'll go with that.

McKay, of course, was completely enthralled. My mom gave each family the job of naming the elfs she had given them. Later, McKay chose "Grover" and "Olive" for our elfs.

Ellery was also very curious.




Afterwards Grammy handed out treats to all the kids. I don't know if you all know, but Brian is a pretty strict parent. While all these kids were eating all the candy they wanted, Brian allowed McKay only three pieces. My poor child.


Thanks Grammy, for such a fun party.

Baking Day

We did it again! We had our second annual Christmas Baking Day! It was so fun and I've eaten about six cookies today. And four yesterday. And tomorrow I'm sure I'll eat at least three. Shoot. I love Baking Day, but it's not easy on the waistline.

This year we did sugar cookies, oreos, cornflake wreaths, date balls, mint cookies, candied pecans, and toffee. We are still learning the ins and outs of our baking day and maybe we'll have to practice making toffee because while one batch turned out great, two did not. (Becky- we used your recipe!)

Christmas Light Drive

Another tradition we have is driving around looking at Christmas lights. Before we had kids Brian and I would rate houses based on their outside holiday lights decor. Now, we just look for the most brightly lit homes and are intensely looking for blow-up Santas and snowmen. I would never put a blow up item in my yard, but I sure do appreciate those who do, on account of my children thoroughly enjoying them. Thank you blow up decorators.

When we saw anything neat Ellery would say, "Woa" over and over and point. It was pretty much precious.

We had the kids already in their jammies for the drive since it would be past bedtime when we were done. Here's Brian wrestling them to bed.

It Snowed!

It was ten-thirty yesterday morning before I even looked outside. We had no idea it had snowed overnight. As soon as I showed McKay he was pulling on his snow pants and heading for the door.

McKay was the first one to walk through the snow on the grass and he had so much fun making tracks and going down the snowy slide.

Ellery doesn't really have proper snow attire. We did the best we could with what she has, but it didn't really matter too much since all she wanted to do was eat the snow off her mittens.

Brian and McKay stayed outside for over an hour playing in the snow and even making snowmen- one for Elle and one for McKay. I didn't get a picture because by then Ellery and I had gone inside.

But not before she ate some more snow. She even picked it off the ground once the boys came in.

So there it is! Those are some of the things we've been up to, along with the busy hustle bustle that is December. But I'm happy to report that all my shopping is done. Okay. . .not all. . .but almost all. Any ideas for my parents? Those parents are always the hardest to shop for. But after that I'll be done!

*update- spellcheck tells me it's elves, but I'm not buying it.