Fisher's Baptism

Fisher was baptized by his big brother, Parker.  It was a very special day for our family.  When you have children that quarrel constantly like cats and dogs, you are always pleading for it to stop--even just for a moment.  Well, that is what happened yesterday.  Something special happened to both parties.  Parker was a wonderful example to his brother and I was so happy that he was able to use his Priesthood in such a special way.  He sat with Fisher during the meeting and they were so cute to watch.

Fisher was a little nervous the week before, and asked me if he could "practice" before the real thing. That was such a Fisher thing to do.  He always thinks things through.

The day was extra special when his cousins joined with our Kaylee, Colter, and Fisher in singing a special musical number during the meeting.  They sang, "I Want To Be Baptized" and Fisher courageously sang the first verse all by himself.  The rest of the cousins joined in and it was beautiful. Terry and Kristi and their kids were able to attend, and Fisher was so glad they were there.

We are so happy for Fisher and his choice to make this special covenant with his Father in Heaven.  What a great boy he is!

The Worst Cake Ever!!

Every Monday we try really hard to hold Family Home Evening.  Our church leaders have counseled us to hold it once a week, and we do our very best to teach the gospel in a family setting.  I love that time with my family.  Usually there is complaining, nagging, teasing, and it's not pretty sometimes, but for the most part our family is better because of the effort we put forth to to hold them on Monday nights.   Our kids are all different ages, and what used to work just doesn't cut it now.  Elder Bednar (one of our church leaders) spoke  about how we need to teach our children using the spirit and teach them what THEY need to know and not what the world wants us to know. Also, he warned us not to overuse lessons manuals and "cookie cutter" lessons.  Well, here is what Tom did on Monday:


He told everybody that he wanted to bake a cake with everyone's help. He had everyone's attention. He held up a cookbook and said, "This is pretty old-fashioned and nobody uses these recipes anymore, so we are going to make up our own recipe!"


With a bowl and wooden spoon in hand, we all added common ingredients you would find in a cake:  flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, milk, etc.  It looked like it might be edible.  Well, Tom exclaimed, "I heard that only the cool people are putting mustard in their cakes nowadays.  I think we need mustard in here".  Maggie heard this and started crying, which turned into wailing, which turned into screaming, "DON'T PUT MUSTARD IN THE CAKE!" Over and over until Tom caved.  He asked her if Ketchup would be OK and she wiped her tears and agreed with a smile.  So, Tom added a large amount of ketchup, mixed it all together, put it in a pan, and baked it for 20 or so minutes.  We were all grossed out.  Really grossed out.


As the cake was baking and adding strange smells to our kitchen, Tom gave a nice short lesson on the scriptures and how it is kind of a recipe book for us.  The end result is not a cake, but happiness.  The Lord wants us to be happy and return to him, and has given us a "map" so we can follow it on our own. The world seems to think that the scriptures are old-fashioned and unnecessary, and that we can add whatever "ingredients" we want to.  But, with some great input from the kids, we decided that sometimes it doesn't work out when we do things our own way.


We all tried the cake.  I don't think the ketchup was the worst part of it.  The 1/2 cup of baking soda that Parker insisted on adding was pretty yucky.  Luckily, I was in on the plan from the beginning, so I pulled out a banana cake I had baked earlier.  It was MUCH better.  I hope the kids remember this one.  By the way, we fed the cake to the chickens and they loved it!!

A Mother's Worst Fear

Today as we were fixing dinner and just chillin' after church, I asked if anyone knew where Maggie was.  Nobody had an answer.  One by one, we all started to look around the house.  No Maggie.  Even Colter and Fisher had panicked looks on their faces.  We extended our search outside.  It was cold today, and I didn't think she would go far, but she was nowhere in the yard.  Tom asked our neighbors if they had seen her.  Still no Maggie.  When I heard voices all over the neighborhood calling her name, I got that awful nauseous feeling in my gut.  I think every mother has had that feeling and it is just plain horrible.  What if someone took her? What if she fell into the river?  

I decided to come in and check the closets and little corners of the house.  Just then, I noticed Fisher coming upstairs with a big grin on his face (the one that brothers get when they use a whoopie cushion on someone).  I was confused.  Fisher blurted out, "Maggie fell asleep on the toilet!, she's okay now!"  We all rushed in to see her folded in half and fast asleep.  Boy, was I relieved!! Our little Maggie was safe and sound.  

Fire Drill FHE

A woman spoke in church this Sunday about self-reliance and gave an account of how she and her husband were separated during the Teton Dam Flood in 1976 and how she managed to get her and her 4 little boys, along with a few belongings, out of their home before it was completely destroyed.  She had one hour.  Our next-door neighbor shares a similar story also.  Next-door neighbor.  That hit a little too close to home. It got me thinking.  Family Night!  Perfect idea for a lesson.


Anyway, I decided to have a staged "fire" in our home tonight.  I asked Tom to set up the smoke detector to go off at a certain time, and then we would calmly exit the house.  Well, Tom's plan "A" didn't work.  The candle set up under the smoke alarm wasn't smokey enough.  Then he moved the toaster in the bathroom, burnt some toast, and there we had it--instant fire drill! We told them there was a fire, and we all needed to get out.  Most were convinced it was real, including Maggie who in her moment of terror whimpered, "I don't want to burn!" Poor Maggie.  She was so confused and very scared. I tried to console her, telling her we were pretending.  It didn't work.  Parker and Kaylee caught on, but the boys were confused. We all stood out in the cold, front yard and processed this for a few minutes.  We discussed where we would meet, what we would do if there was a fire and what our priorities were.  I am glad we did this, because they really had no idea what to do.  


We went inside and ate our 72-hour food kit I had made about 10 years ago.  Vienna sausages, granola bars, hot cocoa mix, beef jerky.  Stuff like that.  They were caught up in the novelty of the packets of food, but then we talked about how this food was what we may have to LIVE off of for a long time if something happened to our home.  I do not want to live on Vienna Sausages for a year.  It's like a soggy, salty hot dog--from a can.  Yuck.  Those things are awful.  We ended the night by playing a game.  Each person was blindfolded.  Tom spun them around, took them to a far-away location in the house, and told them to find their way (while crawling) to the front door.  After quite a few head bonks into walls and chairs, they each found their way out of the house, even when obnoxious siblings would put extra obstacles in their way.


This activity really taught me a lesson.  I am SO not prepared!! I have a lot of work to do getting our 72-hr. kits ready.  Grab and go stuff. We also need practical things like a can opener, extra gas for our grill, more water, etc. I've got a pretty good start to a year's supply of food in our basement. That is, if we can get to it down stairs, or it is not all floating away. 


Let's hope we don't all have nightmares tonight from our traumatic experience. 

R.I.P. Mr. Rooster

Today we had chicken tacos for dinner.  I opened the freezer, found a whole chicken. I thawed it out, plopped it into the crockpot with lots of yummy spices, and cooked it during church, eagerly anticipating coming home from church to have shredded mexican chicken for tacos, salad, or whatever we wanted.  I didn't think too much about the source of the chicken until we sat down to dinner and Tom announced that we were eating THE rooster from the summer.  Each of the kids continued to tell story after story of their good memories with the rooster.  He was overly chubby, loved to be chased around the yard, and had a favorite corner of the coop.  After each story, my dinner just got less and less desirable.  I was done about half-way through my chicken taco salad.  

A Reason For the Crazy

I am now an official blogger!  I wanted to pick a blog name that was fitting for our family.  All I could think was "crazy" and that one was taken. So, I added "mountain" and that was it! Come to think about it, we are a crazy mountain family.  Sometimes we are below the mountain looking up at a challenging time ahead.  Other times we are on top of a "mountain" looking back at our good times.  To me, that is a Sunday afternoon after a long week, or coming home to a crockpot of soup following a great powder day of skiing together as a family. We don't always look like an LL Bean catalog family, but we sure do have fun.  I am looking forward to journaling the here and now, and also to capturing the memories that we have made as our family lived in the mountains at Badger Creek.  What an amazing experience that I don't want to forget.              It's going to be a great view!!!