This or That?

One of our favorite car games/topics of conversation is This or That? It usually follows a general theme, like restaurants.

McDonald's or In-N-Out? In-N-Out!
In-N-Out or Chick-Fila? Chick-Fila!
Chick-Fila or Torchy's Tacos? Torchy's!
Torchy's Tacos or Chuy's? Chuy's!
Chuy's or Diamondback's? Diamondbacks!

Everyone usually chimes in with their own answers. The kids love it when they stump me, coming up with such a difficult choice that I hesitate or have to really think about my answer. Today's edition was places to live...

Texas or Oklahoma? Texas!
Texas or Utah? Utah!
Utah or Hawaii? Hawaii!
Hawaii or Washington? Washington! (That's right, Jenny, you won out over Hawaii.)

It's always fun to hear their answers; I'm actually surprised by how much it tells me about their likes, dislikes and priorities--on food, on books, on movies, on things to do, and on the places we go. It's maybe the one car game I really don't mind participating in. (The one that can drive me batty? Calling "dibs" on fancy sports cars they see on the road. I've listened to too many ridiculous disputes over non-existent rights to a car they saw for two seconds!)

I'll leave you with a Friday photo:

The girls are winding down the year at dance. Pictures today, and only two more weeks until their recital. (Saving the picture of their cutest costumes until then--love them!)

Weekend Update No. 3

Last Friday was the final day of co-op for the school year. This is the first year we have participated in this, or any, homeschool co-op, and we have been so pleased with how it worked out. The kids loved the experience of packing and taking their lunch to eat in the "cafeteria" (the gym of the church where co-op is held), the opportunity to make some new friends, and their classes. They went every Friday for two classes and lunch. It is a big enough program that, while I had to fill a few volunteer lunch duty hours here and there throughout the year, for the most part I just dropped them off and picked them up every Friday. As an extra bonus, it sometimes worked out that Brendon and I could have a lunch date on co-op days--something pretty unheard of for us! Shayne took "Brain Games" (learning more about chess and other games of strategy) and choir; Gracie took a cooking class and choir; and Aubs and Alex took music and P.E. together.

Since it was the final day of the year, the music and choir classes combined for a spring concert. I don't anticipate that anyone but immediate family would want to watch these videos of their performances, but I'm still putting them here for us to come back to.

(If you want to watch just a snippet, I would suggest skipping to 6:22 in the first video for just the last song by Shayne and Gracie's choir. Impressive! And in the second video, with Aex and Aubrey's class, I recommend skipping to the songs either at 1:00 or at 4:15. Heart-melters!)

On Saturday we went to Corsicana to celebrate a birthday in our friends' family, the Dixons. It was also Derrick Days in their town, and one of the sponsored events was a giant slip and slide down a hill, which our kids took full advantage of for a solid two hours. Up and down, up and down. It was "epic," according to Alex.

Sunday went at a much slower pace, a caterpillar's pace you might say. Late in the afternoon, Gracie and the littles put on a dramatic presentation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

That's Gracie in the green sleeping bag, playing the part of the hungry caterpillar about to eat the smorgasbord of food in front of her. Ignore the tent in the background...What? That's not a totally normal thing to have a tent set up in your living room?

We finished off the day with Family Home Evening, and the activity was a family game of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit (which Gracie and I won, naturally), followed by a viewing of the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars crossover episode. We are officially a family of geeks--in case there was any doubt.

From my Camera Roll

Alex came out from his room one morning saying, "I made my bed in a most stylish way. Come see!"

Back in March, Gracie participated in her first big dance competition with her jazz team. It was pretty...intense. There were definitely moments where I felt like I was on the set of Dance Moms--like while watching the above five-year old take the place by storm with her Star Wars solo. I had taken my laptop with me, thinking I'd have plenty of time to work since Gracie was only dancing for three minutes out of the twelve-hour day. Wrong! I was too distracted by the dances--Kristie and I had our favorites we were watching and rooting for by the end of the day, for sure.

I made up these tags for the socks Gracie and her friend gave their "big sisters" on the day of the competition.

Cute Cousins!

Playing the "Bean Boozled" game--again. It seriously amazes me that no matter how many times they get a skunk, or vomit, or moldy cheese bean, they still. keep. playing. Their breath...ugh!

This is what I woke up to the morning of St. Patrick's day--a leprechaun had paid a visit!

 

I've gotten in the habit of snapping pictures of books that look interesting. My visual to-read list.

Also in the habit of doing a screen capture of good thoughts and messages I see and want to remember from Instagram.

We took Shayne to the temple for the first time last Saturday--great experience with a great group of kids.

Have I mentioned that Brendo is the bomb? He made all my laundry dreams come true with this "Laundry Basket Dresser" I found on Pinterest. It has made my laundry room so happy and free of overflowing baskets!

 My favorite picture from Diadeloso last week. Love it! And I didn't realize until uploading it here that my building, where I have taught for the past ten years, just happens to be back there behind my favorite four people. Double great.

This, That, & The Other

• THIS: 

We saw the Olate Dogs at Diadeloso this week. I wish I had captured more pictures of 

the enormous grins on my kids faces throughout the show instead of the dogs themselves.

They were looooving it. In these clips you can hear Alex laughing, and I caught a little 

bit of his reaction at the end. 

They thought it was the best thing they'd ever seen in their lives.

• THAT: I am totally grossed out by Pace Picante sauce these days. We have always been faithful purchasers of the giant container from Sam's, but at some point earlier this year, I started eating it with some chips, stopped, and was just like, "This is NOT GOOD." I haven't been able to stomach it since. I crave a smoother salsa, even better if it's warm and homemade. The On the Border brand is working for me right now as a store-bought version--bonus, they even sell a large bottle at Sam's! Do you have a favorite brand?

• THE OTHER: I am kind of obsessed with StoryCorps. I love the whole idea of it, and now they have a really great app to help you record your own stories and interviews. Every Friday morning I sit in my car for a few minutes longer before heading in to work, just to listen to the StoryCorps clips they play on NPR's Morning Edition. Then, when I finally do head inside, it's usually with red, puffy eyes after weeping over some heartwarming tale. Since this weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings, today they played a couple of survivor stories of children from the daycare in the Murrah building. Grab a tissue and listen!

Weekend Update No. 2

It was a very full weekend. Brendon spent Friday night completing two final exams to put another semester of school behind him. Only six more to go....!! The rest of us went over to hang with Bryant and Oliver for a few hours while Marchelle served up dinner to a missionary zone conference.

Gracie is definitely the favorite with Oliver! 

On Saturday, there was no downtime for Brendon as he headed off early for appointments at work and then meetings at church most of the day. I took Shayne to a five-mile hike for Scouts that morning and ended up walking three of it with them. At the end, Shayne convinced me to climb Jacob's Ladder, and let me tell you, three days later, I am still paying for that. So. out. of. shape. (In my defense though, they are also referred to as The Stairs of Death.)

I spent the afternoon making some beans and guacamole to contribute to a dinner for the visiting church leaders at Stake Conference that night. Then, when Brendon had a break in his meetings, we took the kids to 7-11 for the Bring Your Own Cup Day promotion. (Thanks for the heads up on that one, Shelly!)

As long as your container could stand upright in a ten-inch diameter test space they had set up, you could fill it and only pay the price of a medium Slurpee. So the kids selected a large mixing bowl, a Tupperware pitcher, a nacho helmet, and an empty milk jug. It was so, so funny. We saw college kids filling up enormous water bottles and one woman getting chewed out because her extra large animal cracker container didn't fit within their ten-inch guidelines. Brendon was a bit leery of the whole thing ("Are we really going to let them fill up their whole containers?") but I assured him it was all about the experience and fun, so we just let them have it--mixing flavors and filling them to the top. The great thing about Slurpees, in this case anyway, is that they don't keep. If you put them in the freezer, they get too hard and icy to eat, and if you put them in the fridge or leave them out, they melt into sugar water and just aren't that fun anymore. So within an hour or so, all the Slurpee fun had melted away and gone down the drain. Wasteful, yes, but the kids had a ball with it.

Saturday evening and Sunday were our Stake Conference meetings. We had two visiting Seventy--Elder Nash and Elder Palmer--here to change our Stake Presidency. I felt convicted, challenged and inspired at every meeting. It was wonderful--a game changer in some ways, I think. More on that another time, perhaps.

And so here we are in a new week, the week I usually dread each spring, the week before my students' research papers are due. It is full of reading and re-reading rough (rough!) drafts and meeting with panicked students to either calm or affirm their fears. Wish me luck!

April Happenings

Can I get a hallelujah and yee-haw for today being the last day of class?! Summer is here!

Here are some things that happened at Chez Moore this month...

(P.S. I scored my first ever triple-digit word in Words with Friends this week, with the word "chez". Woot!)

Our garden started to grow.

We welcomed a new cousin, baby Oliver, into the family. He is totally awesome. Congratulations to Clark and Marchelle and big brother Bry.



Alex fell in love with the stuffed triceratops the Easter Bunny left him. He is named...Triceratops. Duh.

We celebrated "Dia" with the BU community and got our first, and hopefully only, sunburns of the year. Pretty mild, but still <Mommy guilt>.



Shayne and Gracie had their spring piano recital. Super proud of them and how hard they worked.(Video coming when I get it from Brendon's phone.)

And Brendon and I mostly just survived this month. But hallelujah and yee-haw, we've made it! Bring on May!

These are a few of our Favorite Things

Alex

• Dinosaurs (and the DinoMixer app)
• Vacuuming
• Blue's Clues
• Eating bwef-fast (The first thing he says in the morning is, "Let's go eat bwef-fast!")
• Stuffed baseball bat souvenier from Chicago

Aubrey

• Pink and Orange
• Cupcakes
• Going to work with Daddy
• Spelling her name and singing the alphabet
• Strawberry Shortcake (the character/toy)

Gracie

• Spanakopita
• Playing baby or school with Aubrey and Alex
• Sudoku
• Teal and turquiose
• Practicing piano (over and over and over, and over again)

Shayne

• Biscuits (made by Daddy)
• Garfield
• Learning Spanish
• Hanging out with friends
• The LEGO Club magazine

Leigh

• Glazewear lipgloss
• Netflix (currently working my way through Cheers)
• Gary Schmidt books (The Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now)
• Shawni Pothier's blog, 71 Toes
• Words with Friends (Let's play! My user name is Leighness)

Brendon

• Cinnamon chip scones
• Mythbusters
• "Dunking at 11:00" (Late-night basketball at the church)
• A clean garage (Garage sale this Saturday should help with this one.)
• Enchilada casserole (That one is for all of the Moores...he's been converted!)

I also updated our favorite links in the sidebar, so check them out!

Sunday Journal

Yesterday we visited a few nursing homes to sing with our ward. One of my favorite moments, aside from hearing all the children sing "All Things Bright and Beautiful" (Why don't we sing that very much anymore?), was seeing this awesome outfit being sported by a resident's pet dog.

Seriously, what's funnier than a tiny dog wearing shades? The kids flocked to the well-dressed pup and her owner, and she loved it.

This week we were learning about the different parts of our brain, and on Friday when Gracie got the vacuum out after I asked her for the broom, she said, "Sorry! My temporal lobe just isn't working!"

Alex told me this week that he wanted a Bowser (from SuperMario) birthday when he turns three. Yes, future birthday party themes are still a regular topic of conversation around here. When I asked him "What about Elmo?" (from the last time he "decided"), he thought for a minute and said, "No, Bowser. With Elmo on the side." What?

 
Alex discovering the magic of dry ice while making rootbeer last week.

We went to the library book sale this week and scored big. Shayne far, far prefers to read non-fiction, science related books. Which is fine. But I also think it's important for him to read fiction at this point, but had yet to strike the iron with a book or series that really worked for him. Enter Diary of a Wimpy Kid for $.50. I don't know why we hadn't tried it earlier. Yesterday he couldn't be kept from it and asked for book light for the first time. Hooray! Up next, Harry Potter. A couple of his friends have been reading and talking about it, and he's ready to dive in so he can be a part of the conversation (and watch the movies with Mom).

So, I'm loving the Sunday blogging. I've now posted twice as much in the last two weeks as I did in all of September. Hallelujah, people!

Sic 'em!

Cutest family of Bears you ever saw, right?

I know...some of my Aggie friends and family are just about to burst a maroon blood vessel over that picture and statement, I'm sure.

I am an Aggie. And a Bear. Time, tears, and work invested in my education at both. And both schools gave me much in return. The only loyalty I have to any rivalry is to both of these schools...against t.u. :)

And if you ask me about the scuffle over the conference re-alignment, I'll just say that I think both schools were completely within their rights to take the actions they did. And that I find college football to be ruled, by all parties, by so much greed these days that the whole business can get pretty disgusting.

Anyway, we went to a game earlier this month and watched BU play Iowa State. The kids had a blast. Cheering, popcorn, cotton candy, woohoo!

 

Me? Not having been to a live college game in quite awhile, I was pretty disappointed at how much more commercialized the whole thing has become. (See note about greed above.) It was crazy! I think the jumbotron has officially killed college football as I once knew it. And this is where I start sounding like an old fuddy duddy... "Back in my day, we didn't have any of these fancy, new-fangled bleachers. We had to stand the whole time--and we liked it!" 

Still, we didn't let it stop us from having a really fun night.

  

Sunday Journal

For the past, I don't know, year or two, we've tried to have mostly "screenless" Sundays around here. It's our day to disconnect from the world a little bit. Yesterday, though, as I was lamenting the seeming demise of our blog, I realized that Sunday might be the only time I have to reconnect with it, and with some of you. So, the Sunday Journal is back.

Alex

The other day he finished breakfast and found himself the only one still at the table, but unable to get down from his chair, an armchair that had been pushed in pretty far. He started calling out for Brendon, "Daddy! Daddy, I'm stuck!" "You're stuck, huh?" "Yeah! Stuck like it was me jail!" It made this English teacher mommy's heart proud to hear my two-year-old creating and using a simile correctly. And weirded me out at the same time. Some of the things he says...we wonder where in the world he came from.

Handsome boy sacked out after church with his Ruff.

Aubrey

Aubs is in the throes of her preschool year, learning her letters, counting, singing, cutting, gluing, coloring, and crafting up a storm of cute little four-year-old work. For family anyway. For most everyone else, tough luck getting her to even crack a smile. Stubborn, stubborn girl.

Still the master of self-portraits.

Gracie

Creating little games, parties, and contests for us all the time. She is a party planner after her mother's heart. We weren't sure who was more excited for Shayne's birthday this year--Shayne, or Gracie, who was excited about all the little details we planned. On the occasion of the pictures below, she created a stuffed animal dress-up contest and required invited familial participation:

 
The judge announces the winner: Shayne's "rocker dog" takes the star prize.

Shayne

Went to a drag racing event yesterday with Brendon and some friends. I know. Apparently the daytime scene is pretty "family friendly," though, and they had a good boys' day out. I halfway expected them both to come home either grunting like Tim Taylor (Oh, how I despised that character and show!) or plotting the acquisition of a monster truck.

Shayne and Bigfoot. (Don't bother trying to enlarge; this is as good as it gets.)

Leigh

I worked really hard to create a fun General Conference experience for us at the first of the month. I pieced together a few ideas from around the intrawebs: quiet zone sign, ctr dollars to be earned for good behavior, and individual conference buckets with coloring pages, new crayons and pencils, and special snacks and crafts. Even after all that work, I still tried to keep my expectations low, but it was seriously the best conference we've had with the kids. Alex even cried when we closed off the "Quiet Zone" (our bedroom) between sessions. The advance prep totally paid off, and I will absolutely be doing it again.

Brendon

He says he doesn't have an update, unless I wanted to say he's a middle-aged, balding father of four. I ask, however, does this look like your average "middle-aged" dad?

I submit that it does not.