My Baby Girl is 20!

Bret's brother Aaron was getting home from his mission on November 15th so Bret and Erika decided to cash in their coin jars and surprise the family by showing up in Colorado to be part of his home coming.

The trip also became a birthday vacation for Erika which was just what she needed mid semester.  The Hellbusch family gave her a relaxing, laughter filled break from the stress of college and work.  They did a mini family trip while everyone was together.

I adore these two people!  They take life with a healthy dose of humor and are not afraid to be and show exactly who they are.

We could look back through Erika's baby album and a familiar theme would be her tongue hanging out.  Silly girl!

When they got back from Colorado I planned to do a simple birthday dinner for Erika.  When I asked her what she wanted for her special dinner she gave me a hug and said "but momma, I want a Krim-a-lee Jo party".  Done!  November needs a good party.

I can't figure out, and neither can Erika, why she is in love with llamas but they are her absolute favorite.  She claims that she is a llama; she wants a pet llama; she squeals and makes Bret pull over if she sees a llama; her favorite zoo animal is the llama (which she wants to steal from the zoo to give it a bath and the love it deserves).   The llama birthday was a must!

We started with coloring.  I found enough llama color pages online to provide everyone with a booklet of llamas.  Erika's only question, "you do have extras for me to take to church, right?".
Llamas are great but combined with coloring it's the perfect activity.

Dinner was everything she requested.  Sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, lemon salad, sever layer salad.
She is so easy to please.

Once our tummies were full we were ready for some llama games.

She and Bret were ready to adopt the Bingo Llamas!  Erika especially loved the signs "Warning!  I'm a llama trapped in a human body", "Spit Happens", and "F.M.L.  Fluff My Llama" but she was also giddy for each fluffy llama on her Bingo board.  Bret was especially fond Bat Llama and the Obama Llama.  It's a Bret thing.

Each time someone got a Bingo they would tell something they liked about Erika.
I wrote it all down and later printed out a copy for her to keep.

After Bingo we made balloon slingshots.

We used our slingshots to shoot dried marshmallows into the hungry llama's mouth.

Erika informed me that this llama was going to live with her.
Perfect!  I wasn't sure what I would do with it after the party.

The prizes that went along with the games were llama leftovers (unwrapped Tootsie Rolls that resembled llama droppings, hehehe) and llama chow (muddy buddy Chex mix).  After all, in Erika's world llamas eat and poop chocolate.

Gifts were next.

Fuzzy gloves, a singing book from Hyrum (that she immediately danced too but caused Bret to hide under the gift bag because he doesn't like singing Elmo), a Llama Llama book set from Nathan ("so she can read them to her kids"), a gift certificate to her favorite clothing store (Down East) and Bret gave her a shirt with her all-time favorite book as the logo (The Little Prince).

The cake was triple chocolate goodness with chunks of chocolate and a fluffy layer of white and milk chocolate frosting all over it.  Did I mention that she loves chocolate almost as much as llamas?

The only problem was convincing her that we could eat the llama cake.  She just wanted a photo shoot.

But the ears started to tempt her and soon she was blowing out the candles

and she and Bret ate llama ears together.  They ate chicken nuggets rather than wedding cake at the back yard wedding party, why not llama ears for a birthday party?  Again, I LOVE these two!

Oh, my sweet Erika Jo.  I have adored you from the day you were born!  My hopes and dreams were that we would grow to be best friends.  There were early days that those hopes were coming true

but many hard years came between us.  Now we both know that the those very difficult struggles only pushed those hopes and dreams to come to a full reality.

I am not only been blessed to have you as a daughter but my life is wonderfully blessed to have you as a very best friend.
I love you, my Eeka Jo!!

It's My Birthday!

I don't think I have ever written about my birthday.  I have had a hard time in the past even liking my birthday.  It's all just a psychological thing but my birthday is the beginning of a gray winter.  November and February are by far the hardest months of the year for me.

BUT, I liked my birthday this year!  I was calm.  I enjoyed the day.  I was surrounded by people I love.  It was a great day.

How could I not enjoy the day with all this pretty, fragrant, yummy stuff?!

Erika Jo decided that at age 40 that birthdays start going back down so on her card she wrote Happy 38th Birthday.  It completely confused all the boys since they thought I was turning 42.

Google even celebrated my birthday!  When I got on the computer that day this is what I saw:

At first I thought it was cool that Google was celebrating with me but as I researched it and found that Google gleans personal information from my computer in order to do it I was a little concerned.  Whatever, it doesn't matter.  I'm just going to enjoy November.

Brotherly Love

I love watching my boys hang out together.  I love seeing the older boys sharing in the silliness with their younger brothers.  I love their laughter (and even the squealing) that echoes throughout the house.  I love watching them cuddle together for stories or electronics time.  I love seeing them wrestle and karate chop and ninja turtle each other.  I love being the one they run to as their safe "base" and the one they cry for when the injuries interrupt the fun.  I love the heading-out-the-door-for-church prayer circle as I stand surrounded by these strong, brave, charitable Sons of God.  Being their mother is a joy and privilege!


Huddles around a 4x2 inch iPod screen

Learning, laughing, loving.


After Derek read Hugless Douglas for their bedtime story

they chose the upside-down hug for their goodnight hug.

Royal Birth, Royal Promises

Derek has a goal to go on a mission.  Sierra has a goal to get married in the temple.   They are wonderful friends; focused on school, mission, college but they are also human and very attracted to each other.  They support each other in their goals but together they could also be the one thing stopping each other from meeting some of those goals.  They have set and re-set their own boundaries and stuck to them, for the most part.  They asked for help from friends, they spend less time together and then they asked for parent help.

We wanted to remind them of their Royal lineage so from Prince Derek, the Hinckley's requested a sword of chivalry in order to be able to see Princess Sierra.  It took him a week (a very long week) to come up with an idea that he thought would be sufficient.  Princess Sierra's father didn't give any hints to what he expected for the sword of chivalry so the standard was set high
by Prince Derek himself.

He spent nearly six hours forming, cutting, sanding and painting an actual sword while, at his request, his mother made a
frosted brownie sword and heart.

While working, he thought over his feelings, goals, and the Princess he so loved and wrote his thoughts which became the
Sword of Chivalry.

“Sword” of Chivalry

I, Derek Andrew Edwards, do hereby swear on this day to always

hold true to the the values that I know to be true and to always, to the

very  best  of  my  ability,  hold  to  the  honor  code  associated

with  the  great  chivalrous  code  of  the  Armor  of  God and

to, with all of my heart, love the beautiful Daughter of God that you

have raised and brought into this world and to protect her in all

things that I can, to respect her honor and her virtue forever and

always no matter the circumstances, feelings, and desires of the world

that I have. I will always treat her with the respect that I know she

deserves and to help keep her on the track back to our Father who

dwells in heaven above so that we may both return to god with our

heads held high at the great and last day knowing that we are clean

and that we made it when so many others failed and when the world

we lived in tried its best to tear us down. I take into my protection

a true and worthy Daughter of God and I will never do anything to

change or alter that in any way lest it be in righteousness. I say these

things in promise to hold to them to the very best of my abilities.

X ___________________________________________

For the Edwards castle we requested from Princess Sierra a banner of virtue.  Again, no specifics were given.  We wanted this to be thought out by Princess Sierra and to be personal for her, not for us.  After nine days she came up with a plan and the courage to do her first sewing project with silky fabrics.

She took time shopping for the perfect trim, found gold to highlight it and after spending much time with her own thoughts, she wrote her feelings for what became the Banner of Virtue.

Banner of Virtue 

I, Sierra Jade Hinckley, do promise to always maintain a high moral standard.  

To be the best person that I can be, To help Derek to remain worthy to do his duty to both himself and his Heavenly Father by serving a mission.  To help maintain an environment where we can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and live my life in accordance with the teaching of our Lord and to help Derek to do the same.  To do nothing that would deter either of us from our path to 

Eternal Life.

The Sword of Chivalry remains at the Hinckley castle as a visual reminder and the Banner of Virtue hangs
at the Edwards castle doing the same.

Trick or Treat

Daymia spent most of October trying to convince Levi to be a police officer and she would be the prisoner.  He agreed, right up to about 4 days before Halloween.  He didn't want to ruin his rap sheet by switching teams.  So, once again I got to see him in a prison jumper (minus the stripes).  

The bruises they walked in with scared me a little. Just another of Daymia's many skills.  I don't mean punching Levi in the
face, I mean makeup!

The Jamba banana costumes came in very handy, especially when Justin had no intention of going trick-or-treating but Levi, Daymia and the little boys convinced him to go around the block with them.  He still wasn't sure he wanted to go so last minute (to hide his face a bit) he added the creepy face mask to go with his banana.

They also went over to Daymia's house to show her mom their costumes. . . . where Hyrum was traumatized by seeing
Levi and Daymia kiss "on the lips!!!!"

Nathan and Hyrum spent the afternoon dressing up as Batman, Spiderman, karate guy, Hiccup, Tigger, Wyatt from Super Why, and bananas before they finally settled on Indiana Jones and Red Ninja for their costumes.

.
When the kids walked in from school they were surprised to find that their mommy had turned into a witch.

October

I got a call from Derek's friends one afternoon.  Allyn was in such a panic that she couldn't explain the situation to me but I did get enough information to know there was a lot of blood and they wanted to know whether to take Derek to Community Care or the hospital.  I was relieved when Sierra's mom got on the phone but I soon remembered that she is high drama when it comes to anything medical (and she herself admits this).  The basic story was that he smacked his head on an open cupboard door.  First, I could not imagine how my 6'4" son could hit the corner of a cabinet door that I'm positive he is taller than.  Second, I now understood why there was so much blood and panic.  I know from motherly experience that head wounds bleed A LOT.   I also know from experience that Derek easily gets light headed just from standing up so I was not at all surprised that he seemed dizzy and couldn't talk to them after hitting his head.  I've done that and it hurts like a ..... well, it hurts.  My instincts told me he was okay but because I wasn't there and couldn't talk to or see Derek myself and I didn't want to seem like a bad mother I told them to take him to community care and I would meet them there.  Allyn, Sierra and Sierra's mom were convinced he was on his deathbed and I had no intentions of scarring them further.

I got to Community Care first because we live closer so rather than wait I signed him in. When we met up he still looked dizzy but he tried to tell me that he was okay.  Sierra and her mom were talking so fast and dramatically that Derek's version was left in the dust though I did understand enough to know that he had saved his favorite white shirt.  "Not a drop of blood on it."  

At this point I still had not seen the wound, only the bloody rag that he was holding to his head.  The nurse quickly called us back and we left the others in the waiting room.  They took us to the procedure room assuming from the dramatic telling of events that he was going to need stitches. As the doctor pulled out the stitching supplies and snapped on his blue gloves Derek calmly told his version of the accident. I also informed him that I had not even seen the cut and that his dizziness and lack of communication was very typical of Derek right after an injury so immediately claiming a concussion was a little extreme.  Doc removed the bloody cloth and....merely a flesh wound....a very long flesh wound but no depth to it at all.  There was nothing to stitch.  He was left with a "scratch", a very tender bump on the head and just enough reason for the girls to pamper him.

  

We all had a good laugh at this point.  Not because it was necessarily funny but because of the dramatic vs. practical perceptions of the whole thing.  If LeRoy is in charge?  Drama.  If Kimber's in charge? Practical. Derek? Practical, though probably light headed and doing deep breathing.  Not that I don't get concerned, there's just a certain calm in me that takes over when a medical situation comes up. After laughing about it with us the doctor whispered, "don't worry, I won't charge you for it." 

I'm not sure Sierra and her mom were convinced it was all okay. They took the "Concussion" what-to-watch-for paper very seriously and promised to watch over him for the next few hours.  I drove home alone knowing my boy would be in good hands as they provided a soft couch, pillow, movie and ice cream for him.  

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Hyrum really wants to be as tall as Derek, "without someone holding {him} or standing on something".  

So, for at least a minute or two, Derek made it possible.  

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The BYUI portable rock wall was the main attraction at our ward party.  While I was mingling with friends I had no idea that my baby was braving the wall.  LeRoy captured it (or at least the shadows of it) on his phone.  He has no fear!

Hyrum was the Star Student in his kindergarten class.  The teacher requested that we send in a few pictures so I printed this collage in an 8x10.

Man, that kid is adorable!

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While Bret's family was in Rexburg they went to the Teton Flood Museum.  Erika sent me a very excited text while she was there.  From the time she was little she has heard about our family connections to Rexburg and how her Great Great Great Grandfather opened the very first ice cream shop in Rexburg.  Unfortunately, I have never had pictures to show her because, according to our knowledge and connections, all pictures were lost in the flood.

Her text included this picture:

"Mom!!  We found Evans Ice Cream Canisters!!"

We were thrilled! Erika even sent the picture via email to my dad.

Recently, I was looking for something else related to old Rexburg and came across a website that anyone 

could post pictures on.  There, I found pictures of the ice cream shop.

I wish I could share these with Grandma Fullmer. 

FHE: Jack-o'-lanterns

We began with a light dinner of mummies, monsters and pumpkins to give us the strength we would need for
our creative carving of the pumpkins.

There was some serious focus taking place as everyone drew, gutted and carved.

Super results they were!

A week later I asked the boys to take care of our rotting, wilting creations.  They had a blast doing that chore!

 They began with dry ice bombs and quickly progressed to dynamite.

FHE: Booing

When Derek invited Sierra's family over for dinner and family home evening he had no idea that I was taking the opportunity to make all my saved pinterest pictures of gross Halloween foods into a dinner reality.

Dinner was a morbid success!

Our coffins (hoagie buns) were overflowing with disgustingly delicious fillers and our lips were stained red after
slurping down our vampire juice.

We all broke out laughing when Sierra's mom stated, "that pumpkin vomit is delicious, I think I'll have more!"

When I set out the dessert of kitty litter and droppings I had to practically bribe everyone to try it.

I admit it did look extremely real and even though I knew it was a moist Better-Than-Anything Cake drowning in caramely goodness it still took great mental effort to get myself to try it.  All it took was one bite of cake and a nibble of Tootsie Roll poop and even the thought of kitty litter couldn't stop us from finishing the whole thing.

After eating there was so much goofing off that we had a difficult time getting the kids to focus on making the treats. We finally decided to let those play who wanted to play and those who wanted to make treats could.

Finally, after we ate our share, we had enough treat plates full of donut monsters and toothy mouths to take Booing to neighbors.
 

Our family chose two families to Boo and the Hinckley family chose two families from their ward to Boo.  We loaded up in the vans and headed off to the first family.  It was difficult to hide two vehicles and get twelve people hidden before we left our goody treat on the doorstep, knocked and ran.  At the first two houses we had to bribe dogs to not give us away.  Among the loading and unloading of the vans we had smothered laughs, a couple scraped knees, frozen noses, constant shushing and yet we still managed to gift all four families.

Fall Conference

Nathan was so excited for general conference that he couldn't fall asleep Friday night.  I thought I would tire him out by having him help me clean up the basement and pack all of our conference party stuff downstairs.

However, his excitement escalated to hyper and it was nearly 11pm before he fell asleep.

At the beginning of each session we had a buffet of food favorites to keep our mouths quietly occupied so that our ears and minds could focus on the spiritual buffet offered to us.

The food even lured Levi into the family room with us on Sunday morning and with the help of the food, Daymia's presence and some really good talks, Levi stayed with us for the rest of the day.

He even surprised us in the days ahead with comments like, "I thought it was funny to hear about President Eyring's parents" or "what Elder Oaks said was pretty profound".  I thought he was just with us for the food and Daymia but evidently a few more important things caught his attention.


This time we did the apostle treats as mystery bags.

Last April we had interruptions with those who didn't like the labeled apostle treat bugging those who were trying to listen.  This way, they didn't know what the treat was so they took notes or at least sat quietly just in case it was one of their favorites.  Derek even suggested that for the April sessions we have unlabeled bags for the members of the Seventy who speak.
Conference just gets sweeter and sweeter!

By the time our conference weekend was over we had wrappers, abandoned blankets, juice boxes, bingo cards, crayons, color pages, and dirty dishes cluttering the room but more importantly, we had our minds and note pages full of stories, challenges and counsel to base our family home evening lessons on for the next six months.