OurLittleMcFamily.com

kid #1–Daddy, I like two things: naps and hiking.

 kid #2–Mom, we need to sell the Wii so we can buy a baby.

Felt. Felt. Felt. That is what I am up to these days. I don’t have a cool picture of felt like Jaime, but I did buy 28 yards of it. At half off, I walked out of the store only spending $60. Why felt you ask? We are making felt playhouses for Christmas. See Here

I don’t sew, but my girlfriends do. They are determined to teach me. So far, I have kept myself busy with cutting, stuffing, and pinning the pieces. Jaime and Jena have helped me with the sewing. Adam also sews so we borrowed a machine from a wonderfully generous someone. We are excited to finish the project together for the kids.

My kids are a little too big, and our space is a little too small, to make use of our kitchen table. So I came up with the idea of making panels that will hook onto the kids’ bunkbeds. Two for the girls and two for the boys. My panel themes are: Cupcakery, Grocery Store, Stargate, and Buried Treasure. The ninos are great at imaginative play, and playing together in general. So this is the perfect gift. They can pretend to walk through the stargate–ready to conquer another world one day, and then go shopping pastries and tea at the cupcakery the next. So Cool. I am planning a beauty parlor for Nikki’s birthday in February. So many ideas. So little time. I will definitely post pictures of the finished project.

The best part about this project is that I have been super productive while spending wonderfully abnormal amounts of time with my girlfriends the past few weeks. We could quite possibly never stop crafting for that reason alone.

The three oldest are really getting the “hang” of it. Danny and Ezzy can go over the edge and down the wall on their own now. Nikki is just two steps behind. Juan has yet to step over the edge. He pumps himself up, and then chickens out. We are going to a find a place where the edge isn’t so high for him.

Thanks, Unlce Dave, for always being willing to go out and help.

This Halloween was soooooooooo much better than our first. What a difference a year makes! No meltdowns over the food. No confusion over people dressing in strange costumes. The kids knew what I meant when I asked what they would like to be for Halloween. They knew how to say trick-or-treat. They didn’t freak when I took their candy at bedtime. It was AWESOME!!!!

Just for the record, I made both tutus. Ezzy wanted to be a bee and Nikki wanted to be a fairy princess (go figure). I even broke out my scrapbooking glue dots to adhere the antennas to the head band–genius! Thanks, Jena and Jaime, for helping with the tutus and the “bee wing” crisis.

The boys were good sports to go as superheros. Danny wanted to be Harry Potter, but I refused to pay $40 when all said and done to get everything I would need. Wompy wanted to be a chocolate chip cookie–so that people could eat him. But that didn’t work out so well. He became Superman at the last minute. Actually, the costume fit him much better than it did Danny last year. Oh yeah, I also made Danny’s shirt. Well, I bought a plain red t-shirt and sharpied the design.

We trick-or-treated at grandma’s. Took pictures with the Demarco’s. Won first place in our church’s chili cook-off!!! And brought home more great candy than any one family needs for the year. Seriously! It was a great Halloween.

If you live in Vegas, or anywhere similar temperature wise, then you know not to carve your pumpkins until the week of Halloween. We broke the cardinal rule this year since Grandma and Grandpa Penning were here for the baptism. It was worth having to “deep-freeze” the pumpkins so that grandpa could help carve. We also dipped carameled apples and made Squished Witches with Grandma McCracken.

The next Saturday, we had the McCracken clan over to paint pumpkins and decorate Halloween cookies. Yeah, the kids have been celebrating for two weeks now. :) The ninos had a blast with their cousins.

Check out more pictures here and here. The amount of candy that was piled on top of the sugar cookies is totally kid ridiculous. Don’t you think? And yet, they ate the whole cookie. :)

Ezzy–we participated in your baptism this month. We are so proud of you for making the decision to follow Jesus. Lately, you are consistently the first one to remind the other kids when they have forgotten a prayer at the table. You are maturing before our eyes, physically and mentally, and we are so pleased with what we see. Your face glows with happiness and love. You take your responsibility as the oldest girl very seriously. You are almost always the first to offer assistance and to help me and the other children. We are privileged to have you in our home.

Ezzy wore my baptism dress. A splish of Oxyclean and a splash of vinegar later….a perfectly white dress that fit her perfectly. It brought me great joy to pull the dress out of my hope chest–like a dream that I never thought would be realized.

I remember standing in my grandmother’s bedroom as she and my mom dressed me for my own baptism some 25 years ago. It was my eighth birthday, and I had just gotten a perm and pierced ears as presents from grandma. Mom worked so hard to sew my dress and to have it ready for me. She also crafted a small box for my new earings. It had a rainbow design across with a blue piece of yarn that secured the box in place. I remember it as though it were yesterday–wishing desperately that Ezzy’s great-grandma was still here. The picture of Grandma Penning doing Ezzy’s hair is that much sweeter to me because of my memories.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend and support this special event in our daughter’s life. It is a day that will stay with her for the rest of her life, as mine has with me. These are the things that matter most to us, and we are so grateful to have such a broad circle of influence around our family.

Thanks for flying, Grandma and Grandpa Penning!

Ezzy’s eighth year is going so fast. She started attending Activity Days. One of her first activities was a Daddy Daughter Dinner. How cool is it that she has a daddy to take her?

October always bring Fall Conference to our home. It is one of only two times a year that we intentionally stay home for church–glorious internet. The kids did awesome. They sat through all four sessions of conference while coloring ties and pictures of the speakers, and writing down the main themes of each talk. What a difference a year makes when it comes to communication, right?

I started exercising again today. Yeah, it was only a mile walk. But I also went out and walked with the kids later in the day too. Maybe my motivation is slowly returning. It would be really good for it to hit around the holidays. Perhaps it will stave off extreme amounts of weight gain due to even more extreme amounts of consumed peanut brittle and sugar cookies. :)

Danny’s First Real Rappel

Calico Basin, Red Rock…with Daddy and Uncle Dave.

September 26, 2009

Whew! That’s a mouthful! The subject of my inaugural product review are the Super Makalu CORE-TEC Antishock Trekking Poles by Leki. These Leki poles were a gift from my wife 5 years ago. Their first service was on a hike of the Upper Skyline Trail at Mt. Rainier National Park in July 2004. They proved invaluable in varied terrain.

Prior to getting these poles I was one of those, “You guys with poles all look like dorks” kind of hikers. Now, I sing a different tune. These poles have traveled with us on all sorts of hikes, all around the country. I find that they keep me more upright, improving my breathing. They also help me balance when carrying a heavy backpack. I usually rest standing up and these poles help make that more enjoyable. Now that I usually hike with trekking poles, I tell those without them that they are missing out.

They can be a hindrance when your hiking involves a lot of scrambling or downclimbing. I have taken them in some slot canyons when the approach hike was long enough to justify the hassle once in the canyon, but it’s usually easier to leave them at home on these trips. I bring them on all other hikes. They were such a ubiquitous feature of our hikes that our kids all wanted poles. Now everyone has a chuckle when they see us on a hike, 6 pairs of poles walking down the trail.

From the beginning though, they had one annoying feature. The antishock feature in one of the poles never worked as it should. One of the poles was always stiffer than the other. The spring just never quite worked, but I never bothered with it. Fast forward 5 years. My poles are still going strong, but on an overnight to Mt. Charleston. Coming down, the difference finally bugged me enough to do something.

I came home and looked up the Leki website. Encouraged by the information that they sold individual leg sections, I investigated further. Turns out they have updated the poles in the intervening 5 years. The antishock design in my poles has been upgraded. I wrote a message to their customer support address, explaining the situation. I asked if the old ones were still available for sale. The reply I got back was a shocker.

Adam,
Send me your shipping address and I will send out new middle sections to you under warranty.

Seriously!? Even though they are 5 years old and not “broken,” Leki came through with great customer service. It took a little while for the new sections to come, but come they did. With about 5 minutes of time, I had replaced the middle sections of both my poles.

As you can see, the design was changed slightly. To me it is an improvement, as it is now less likely to accidentally engage the antishock. The version that is current is different from this. I haven’t been on any long hikes yet with the new poles, but look forward to it. Leki is a winner in my book and will continue to get my business and my recommendation!

Daniel raced in his first “space derby” and received his first Cub Scout award all in one night this past September. Danny received his rocket on Sunday, and had to race it on Thursday…September 24th, 2009. Needless to say, Adam and Daniel spent the three evenings in-between frantically sanding, shaping, glossing, and tweaking the shiny red and black vehicle. After the race, Daniel received his Bobcat and his Wolf allowing him to advance into Bears. He also earned two arrows.

Our nine year old son could not be any more excited than he already is about scouting. He dances around the house chanting, “I’m going to Scouts!” every single Thursday. He is an oldest child in every sense of the word. It drives me insane sometimes because I see my own oldest child tendencies manifesting themselves in him. So when he is too nervous about unimportant things, or when he gets frustrated because he didn’t do something exactly right the first time, it is like looking into a very sharply focused mirror. I suppose you do not have to be related by blood or race, or even speak the same language to be so much alike after all! :)

The super-supportive siblings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!