The Disguise

Noah has been reading some spy books lately and has come up with what he thinks is a clever disguise:



He actually goes around the neighborhood this way. He doesn't think anyone can recognize him. I hope I haven't blown his cover.

Thanksgiving Weekend

For the first time in 6 years we were able to go to Idaho for Thanksgiving. It was sort of a busy weekend but we had so much fun.


We missed Lacey and Kelli (& their families) for the meal, but we added Aunt Gail's family & Ron and Launna. This is 1/2 of our table.

Notice my boys plates. Noah is eating turkey & Ben opted for rolls. Zack was brave enough to try one bite of the spinach salad then chose to play it safe for the rest of the meal and only ate rolls too.

If you ever find yourself at a McGarry family meal, try to sit by Ashlee. She is very entertaining because she is food challenged. First she couldn't quite handle the cheesy celery:

Then, she destroyed a fancy fork by breaking it in half trying to cut the turkey. The turkey wasn't tough, but apparently Ashlee is. This little tragedy resulted in her cranberry sauce flying
up and hitting her on the neck. She ended up in tears because she was laughing so hard. Fortunately Aunt Gail wasn't in tears over the destruction of her fork.

This is paybacks for Logan. He & Brandon used to attack Matt all the time.

See what a sports family we are. Logan and Wacy are the most inclined to actually want to watch a football game, but even they fell asleep.

Lacey has never gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving. We looked at all the ads and didn't really need anything, but wanted the experience. Since we didn't have anything better to do at 6:00 am we decided to go check things out. (Sleep was a better thing to do at 5:00 when most of the sales started). We ended up at Target at 7:00 and ran right into Angie so she joined our little party. It was actually really fun because we weren't stressed out about finding certain things. The store was totally crazy and there was a shopping cart shortage. Angie tried to grab one but wasn't fast enough to beat the kid who ran off with it. Eventually we found a worker who emptied his cart full of games for us. Lacey unloaded some other possibly deserted cart (you walk away, tough luck) and between the four of us we filled them up. Even though it was crowded it was still better than trying to shop with all the kids.

This fall I have been feeling the urge to unleash my inner cowgirl. Dad was bringing the cows off the mountain in October, but we couldn't quite get the scheduling right for us to go. As luck would have it, Uncle Theron had plans to bring his cows down over Thanksgiving weekend. It was a great day in that it wasn't really windy or snowy but it was still only 21 degrees. It is just way too cold for me! Instead we drove up to bring the real cowboys & girls lunch and follow them the rest of the way.

Can you see the joy on Zack's face? He loves to ride horses. He was having the time of his life riding with Brandon.

Brandon had a hot date that afternoon so he couldn't finish the ride. I actually considered riding his horse, except Brandon was the second rider to take on Tinker because he was being such a naughty horse. Knowing this, I kept quiet and let Lacey have the fun. She is brave because from the moment she got on him, he was being crazy. I would have been freaking out. Eventually even Lacey had to trade Dad horses, so I made a good choice. My skills are very limited and even Dad admits I have bad luck with horses. Maybe next year, I can kick one of the kids off Dixie and ride.
Zack got to ride on Duke with Grandpa for awhile too. I asked him how he liked riding with Grandpa and he said it was fun but the cows kept getting in their way.

There are two options to getting the cows home from the mountain. One is to gather them and load them in the semi and haul them home. This is the other way:



All these poor people had to wait:

The final event of our stay was the blessing of little Shaylee. Isn't she so sweet?

Thanksgiving

We have a little Thanksgiving tradition of tracing the kids hands and feet to make turkeys. We normally do this on Thanksgiving day, but since we actually get to leave the state this year (thank you new job!) we did it last night for family home evening. The kids love seeing how much bigger they have grown. We also have them list a few things on the back that they are thankful for. Here's what they are thankful for this year:

Noah- scouts and candy
Ben- bed, DS, family & school
Zack- flowers, pumpkins, school & mom and dad

"Today is the day I win the pinewood derby!"

Noah has been waiting for this day since he was a spectator at last year's derby. He woke up with the bold prediction that had me worried, especially when I learned that the competition would be stiff. Max read an entire book on how to build the fastest car. Seth had been soaking his axels in a graphite bath for weeks. Thomas' engineer grandpa designed his car's shape for maximum aerodynamics. At least Noah's car looked cool. Thanks to Matt's dremel skills, he had the only one with tail lights and a rear spoiler.

Noah ended up taking 3rd in his heat. He was thrilled. In the finals he never got better than 4th. But, unlike many of the other kids, he never cried. He had a great time and won the "coolest hotrod" award. Let's hope Matt can be as good a sport when the Elder's Quorum holds their pinewood derby in January.

One Man Band

I am not supposed to see this. Zack told me not to look. He hasn't figured out yet that when he gives that warning, I look immediately since that means he has committed some sort of crime. His little plan to avoid getting into trouble backfires every time. On this rare occasion he wasn't worried about going to time out, he just didn't want an audience. I had to be sneaky to get this picture.



This is Zack's band. He plays every instrument (including the volcano/drum with the sword drum stick). He also plays some pretty rockin' guitar solos with his guitar that is made entirely out of air. That's my favorite part, except when he plays a loud one during church or in the store. He did that the other night at a restaurant. He told Matt & I that we couldn't look or listen to the performance. This is the one video I have managed to get. The lighting is horrible. But putting sub-par video on my blog hasn't stopped me before and it won't stop me now. I hope you think it's worth it.

The Evil Egypitan Song

Noah asked me to come listen to him play a new song Matt taught him. He calls it "The Evil Egyptian."



The song is familiar to me, although I might instead refer to it as the "Dancing French Women" song. ("There's a place in France where the naked women dance. There's a hole in the wall where the men can see it all.") Which made me think about how nice it is that Noah is still young and innocent. I wondered how long it would be before some neighbor kid would introduce him to the not so innocent lyrics.

Later that day I was asking Matt if he knew about the origin of that song. He thought it was just some riff. I mentioned something about Noah not knowing the words and, come to find out, Matt had never heard them either. How can that be? I have known that song for as long as I can remember; at least as long as I've known the alternate words for Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls. I thought this was another one of those songs that every kid learns. Did Matt somehow miss that lesson? Am I the only one who knows those words?? There are a lot of words that describe me, but pervert is not generally one of them. And I am pretty sure I didn't make it up.

The next day, my previously innocent Ben came in my room singing the "Dancing French Women" song. And so, in a round about way, I am now responsible for corrupting my kids (and possibly all the neighborhood kids). Thank you Matt.

Zack discovers the Symphony

I really should have been more careful. I thought he was downstairs when I opened the fridge to indulge in my guilty little pleasure. Instead, he was right behind me and immediately wanted to know what was in the shiny gold foil. Smith's kills me every year with their $1 sale on the really big candy bars. I just can't seem to resist. I rarely go seeking them out. But when they are on display: stacked, three feet high, all that delicious milk chocolate and toffee calling to me; I give in. At least now I can say that I didn't eat the whole thing myself. I guess it's time to find a better hiding place.

Befores and Afters

When we bought our house I thought the unfinished basement was a big plus. I had NO IDEA what a pain it would be to actually finish it. There are lots and lots of befores: before we can do this, we have to do that. But before we can do that we have to do something else. It is very frustrating. Especially when you are an impatient person and just want the blasted walls up so you can paint them. Once you finally do get to the good stuff (the stuff that actually shows some progress) it's a pain too. Sheetrock is awful. It's heavy as all get out and takes forever with all the measuring, and cutting and holding in awkward positions. And after there is the mud and texture, which is time consuming and messy and Matt's job.

I was going to write Matt and I, but really it was I who set a goal to get two rooms finished by Noah's baptism last March. We didn't quite make it. (The guest room is mostly finished) But I am happy to report that FINALLY we have completed Matt's office/guitar/guest room. It was not without a fair share of setbacks and annoying delays (& maybe even a few cuss words) but it's finally, officially, a room. My apologies to all those who had to stay there in its previous state. Come back and we'll make it up to you.





Well, as I look at the pictures I realize that I am a little premature in calling the room finished. There is the little issue of hanging the closet doors and finishing the trim in the closet. I also need to Dap around the quarter round. So it never really ends. There are almost as many annoying afters: after we do that we'll need to do this....blah blah blah. And after this project there is another project. I have enough after-this-project projects to keep us busy until at least Zack's baptism. I'll keep you updated.

Finally it's over, I mean Happy Halloween!

Ok, so Halloween drags on and on. The kids have had their costumes on at least 3 times for various occasions over the last week. We did the trunk or treat on Saturday and then the official trick or treat last night. I am spent. We have plenty of candy. NO MORE!!

I was a little bitter about taking the kids out last night. Maybe that bitterness hasn't quite worn off. It was cold (Emily, I did notice Ethan's shorts on your blog. I'm jealous). And I had allowed myself to hope that maybe Matt would be able to go this year. No luck. I guess you could accurately call me a Halloween Grinch--or whatever the equivalent is. It's just not my holiday.

Here's our gang, ready to get candy.


Shouldn't these two look more excited?This is just to prove that I am not a total slacker mom. This the first ever elementary school Halloween parade I've attended. I wasn't supposed to watch it from the hall, but I had to do something in Noah's class and happened to be where they were. That's Ben in the really cool (and dirty) white Power Ranger suit.