Melissa & Justin's Wedding

Grant's sister Melissa married her sweetheart, Justin, on October 14th in the Draper, Utah, temple. It was a beautiful day for a wedding!

Eliot and cousin Cole with the happy couple. Eliot's weird facial expression? Working on a fruit snack stuck in his teeth, of course.

My handsome boys at the reception. The reception center, the clubhouse at the Sleepy Ridge golf course in Orem, was so pretty!

Me with my handsome little devil before the reception.

My favorite memories of the day:

• The sealing was simple and beautiful and reminded me of my own. In lieu of marriage advice, the sealer walked the couple through the covenants they were about to make. I know I appreciated the repetition on my wedding day, since I may or may not have been in La la land!
• Seeing my sister-in-law so perfectly happy. She just glowed and grinned the whole day.
• Eliot as a dance machine out on the dance floor. He could not help himself when a song with a heavy beat came on! Great fun.
• Hearing both Eliot and his cousin Mikey bust out with "All the single ladies ..." over and over again for days after the wedding after hearing it for maybe 30 seconds before the bouquet toss. Awesome. Grant hates it.
• Getting my hair done (the cute girl who cut my hair that week offered to style it for me the morning of). It was fun to get fancied up -- I haven't felt that pretty for a long time (day-to-day mommy wear isn't that glamorous, I guess!).
• The chocolate bread pudding with caramel sauce. Normally not a bread pudding fan. But how can you go wrong with anything ooey gooey chocolate and caramel?! Amazing!

Mr. Official

Grant's officially an attorney now! He was sworn in Wednesday, October 13th. It was kind of a whirlwind day that got tainted by a stressful little moment when Grant thought he had lost his debit card. He didn't even get to enjoy the reception after the swearing in ceremony because he was frantically searching for his card ... bummer. But, stressful or not, Grant took his oath with a couple hundred other new attorneys and is now official! We're so excited for him now that he has officially jumped through his final law school "hoop," and he can just go do his job that he loves!

Grant's Swearing In Ceremony for the Utah State Bar

Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 13, 2010

Left: My best attempt at a zoomed in, low-flash picture of Grant taking his oath. If you look closely enough, you can see his arm raised and you can even admire his spiffy cuff links. Lookin' sharp, Babe! Right: Nice of Grant's Aunt Debbie and I to wear matching attire for the ceremony (and nice of us to both close our eyes for the picture!). It was really fun that Grant's swearing in was the day before his sister's wedding because so many family members were able to attend.

The Saturday before he was sworn in, I threw Grant a "Bar Party" as a surprise. I linked it with a McEuen family book club to help cover my secret plans. And it worked! He was totally surprised when his family, not just mine, started showing up. Our "Bar party" was complete with a potato and salad "bar," cookie "bars" for dessert, an open "bar" of Italian soda fixings, for which Grant got to play "bar" tender, which he loves (he makes a mean pomegranate colada!), mini candy "bars" donning special wrappers with Grant's picture on them, and a very funny "mock trial" that my dad, who is also an attorney, helped me put together for our after-dinner entertainment. It was very creative and very funny. We even had an old-school English Barrister-style robe and wig for my dad, the honorable "Judge McEuen," and a prisoner costume for Eliot. Grant took the roasting in stride (the gist of the skit was that Grant was on trial for impersonating a lawyer). It was fun to actually surprise him for once. I must not be very good at surprises, or Grant might be a really good snoop, because I can never pull off a surprise with him. Happy to say I got him this time!

My dad with "little prisoner" Eliot.

Good thing he had his daddy to rise to his defense!

Judge McEuen reading his sentence while our convict tries to make an escape!

Left: Eliot, "Peppy" (what Eliot calls my dad) and Grant after the roast.

Right: one of the candy bar wrappers honoring Grant.

We are now looking forward to sliding into the background and becoming boring -- seriously! I can't wait for the day (sooner than later, I hope), when people ask me what's new and to have absolutely nothing to tell them. As exciting as this past year has been -- all good things that we're certainly not complaining about -- we are ready for life to slow down and settle into a normal little routine. Hopefully Grant's swearing in was our last big "hoorah" for our family for a while! Here's to being boring.

My Friend Laura ...

... was in town from Oregon last weekend to see her sister off to Europe, and she and Steph took time out of their busy travel schedule to have lunch with me and Eliot! It was wonderful to see her and hear her cute voice and contagious laugh in person. Laura is one of the most dynamic, energetic, and creative people I know, and one of many great women I miss so much from Oregon.

Laura has an amazing knack for drawing out Eliot's best smiles, as you might have noticed in our family pictures she took ... she's a gifted photographer (p.s. these are her photos), no doubt about it! Love you Laura!

On the Docket this Month ...

Autumn is finally in the air. A few days into October, temperatures started to drop beneath summertime temperatures here in Utah, and it finally started to feel like Fall. We drove the Alpine Loop between sessions of General Conference to see the fall leaves (they were pretty faded by then ... bummer), there's a pumpkin spice candle warming in my kitchen, potato-cheese soup is on the menu this week, and I may have to even break out a jacket for the first time in months. I love autumn. I love decorating my house in warm colors, making pots of soup to enjoy at night, turning my wheat bread into the yummy pumpkin-pecan version (which makes the best French toast, if I do say so myself). It's such a cozy time of year, and I loved the dramatic rain storm we had this morning that cooled off our house and made for a quiet morning inside of folding laundry and letting Eliot play with toys we haven't gotten out for a while because we've been too busy outside.

This month I look forward to:

• Going on our family fall picnic (this time up the canyon instead of at the Riverfont Park in Salem). The one time of year we indulge in KFC. :)

• Making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to serve at the very first McEuen family book club, for which I get to play hostess.

• Cheering on Grant as he gets sworn in as an attorney on October 13th! Yahoo!

• Attending Grant's sister Melissa's wedding to her sweetheart, Justin, in the stunningly beautiful Draper temple. The only thing I'm nervous about ... playing the piano at the reception! Better get practicing ... eek!

• Seeing Eliot in his complete Buzz Lightyear costume -- jet pack, space wings and all. He is THRILLED to dress up. Wait 'til I tell him he gets to go collect candy in it!

• Carving pumpkins, which Grant enjoys "just a little bit" (his family is obsessed with Halloween). Can't wait to see what his masterpiece will be this year!

• Watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," "Monsters Inc.," and "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix" (We're almost done listening to all of the audio books in preparation for the newest movie coming out in November, and we've been watching each movie as we finish the book -- great timing to be wrapping up right before Halloween!)

• Wearing sweaters and jackets. The summer wardrobe's getting kind of old ... and I'm getting a little flabby since putting running on the back burner. Time to hide in baggy sweatshirts and forgiving sweaters!

• Trying out the fireplaces in our new place ... what could be cozier?

• Having my first slice of pumpkin pie of the season ... I'll take the cheap grocery-store version, please (I really do like it better than homemade ... I know, I'm weird). Oo, and pumpkin cheesecake too (thank heavens for the sweaters and sweatshirts!).

• Making a trip to a local pumpkin patch for a hayride and other fall festivities ... can anyone recommend a good one? We're thinking we'll try the Thanksgiving Point "Barnyard Boo," but I'm worried it will be super crowded. Please let me know if there's something a little more low key ...

• Serving my mom's deliciously simple potato-cheese-soup for Halloween in the darling pumpkin bread bowls they sell at Macey's.

• Surviving our first Primary Program practice ... also on Halloween. Not sure how that's going to go down with the kids all jacked up on sugar from the night before ... help! Again, please send suggestions my way!

• Potty training Eliot. It's just time. The weather's keeping us in anyway, I'm tired of dealing with really stinky diapers, Eliot has shown some definite signs of readiness -- now we just have to buckle down and tackle the dirty deed once and for all. A very scary month indeed! :) Tips or tricks also welcome on this one ...

Happy Fall, everyone!

Perfectly Ordinary

My sister sent this video to me with perfect timing. I had just had one of "those weeks." You know the kind. The constant power struggles with your toddler when you feel completely powerless, even though you're the adult. The kind of week when even though I knew Eliot didn't understand what he was doing when he balled up a fist and hit me or told me, "I'm tired of you, Mom," it drove me to tears nonetheless. A week of Eliot not sleeping at night, each time he awoke causing me to struggle for an hour or so to fall back asleep because of the whirlwind of worries about him and our power struggles, along with my Primary to-do list, etc., doing mental gymnastics in my head. And then came the little doubts creeping in to my mind, the ones that always seem to catch me off guard. The thoughts of wondering what I'm doing, what kind of mom am I anyway, feelings of guilt at the time I have had to spend away in meetings and obligations for my calling. The wishing for "the good old days" of working, which always seems to come around General Conference, when I reflect on the exciting flurry of activity happening at Church Magazines. At the end of the week, I felt a twinge of embarrassment when a friend asked me about our summer and what we did, and I didn't have much to tell her. For as intense and crazy as it felt getting Grant through the Bar, I sure didn't accomplish much. We went to the park and the pool, and that's how we survived. I had to give myself credit for training for my fist 1/2 marathon, but that's about all I could claim. No projects accomplished, no fun trips or new hobbies or skills learned. I just hid out and survived. Our week ended with a tearful meltdown on my part, the declaration that I'd "had it," all of which got solved, momentarily at least, by Grant taking Eliot with him to run an errand. Not our best week.

I know I'm not alone in those weeks. Every mom has them. Raising children is difficult. And though in our hearts we know as mothers that our work is a fulfilling, joyous one, there are a lot of days and monotonous activities about our work that don't feel so fulfilling or joyous. It is in those moments that it's so important to focus in on the small and simple things that make it worth it. The things that we won't have forever. I was grateful for the reminder in this video that childhood is fleeting, and that as much as I wish the temper tantrums, sleepless nights, and power struggles will come to an end, I dread the fact that my little boy will grow up, that one day he will stop being willing to give me kisses or hold my hand, that one day he'll be a teenager and the voluntary and spontaneous declarations of "I love you, Mommy" will probably get replaced with the hurtful and inconsiderate things that adolescents sometimes say. So this week I'm trying to take the struggles and the mundane daily tasks in stride, and focus less on them, and more on the things that are "perfectly ordinary" about my life.

Here are some of "perfectly ordinary" things I currently enjoy in my life:
1. Eliot's joy in discovering Diego at the bottom of his cereal bowl as he finishes breakfast. Diego's always there, but it's a blissful new discovery every time.
2. Splitting a banana, apple, or granola bar with my little buddy. Sometimes I wonder if I'll always break things in two ...
3. Answering the question, "what's/who's that?" a zillion times a day.
4. Hearing Eliot identify letters on any and everything as we grocery shop, drive in the car, etc.
5. The way a three-sentence prayer can melt my heart.
6. Making Eliot's day by allowing him to get a new video at the library or letting him watch his favorite "Superwhy" episode for the umpteenth time.
7. Snuggling in the rocking chair and reading (usually the same story over and over) before nap and bedtime.
8. The adorable "hello?" response when I knock on Eliot's door to get him after nap/bedtime.
9. The questions, "Are you going to stay with me?" "Would you like to play with me?" "Will you read it to me?"
10. Declarations like, "I love you, Mommy," or my recent favorite, "I'm going to take care of you, Mom."
11. Washing and ironing small little clothes.
12. The smell of Johnson's baby wash after a fresh bath.
13. Walks to the park and the joy of seeing pumpkins in a field, a helicopter or plane in the sky, or a doggy behind a fence.
14. Hi fives and fist bumps for completed puzzles, toys cleaned up, a caught ball, or successful big wheel ride.
15. Running errands and getting a special treat with my best little friend, and the surprisingly lonely and empty feeling when I enjoy the novelty of going alone. Who am I supposed to talk to?
16. Knowing that I know just how Eliot likes his sandwich, how to get him to eat his veggies, how to read his stories to him with all the right voices, the correct order of his bedtime routine ...
17. The pure delight a Halloween costume arriving in the mail, a new pair of shoes, a bowl of ice cream, or a smiley face drawn on a receipt at Costco can bring.
18. Seeing my son's face a little bit of his daddy, his Grandpa, his Nanny, and even myself.
19. Hearing Eliot repeat phrases of a verse of scripture.
20. Being absolutely thrilled the first time your child goes pee or poop in the potty. :) Sorry, that had to be thrown in!
21. Grant patiently showing Eliot how to dry dishes after dinner, and how much Eliot looks forward to helping his daddy.
22. The "pure boy" elements of Eliot that come out, especially when he's around other boys or men -- his natural instincts to wrestle, want to fix things with tools, or throw ... anything.
23. That infectious giggle. If there's a more heavenly sound, I don't know what it is.
24. Cooking together, playing cars together, making play dough creations, sticker pictures, trying to figure out how to teach things "left handed" so Eliot can do them ...
25. Eliot's pure faith that a kiss on an owie or just having Mommy hold or hug him will make it all better. If only it always could ...

What is "perfectly ordinary" about your life right now?

In the midst of my yucky week, I found a short, one-page journal entry that I had written last month, titled "My feelings about Eliot and motherhood." The final paragraph said this: "I love being a mother. It is hard, repetitive, often thankless work, but it is very rewarding. I enjoy the simple things -- going for walks and to the park, quiet time at home, reading together. This summer I enjoyed time at the pool with Eliot and hosting play school classes for him and Mikey (his cousin). I am doing what I've always wanted to do, and what I most want to do now. I am happy and so grateful for the blessing of being a mom."

Have a "perfectly ordinary" week.

I "HEART" Primary!

I really think I may end up creating a regular feature on my blog called "Primary Moment of the Week." Oh, but that would require me to blog regularly ... hmm. (I know, I know, I need to get pictures up of our new place ... it's in the works -- promise!). But back to my point. In my first few weeks in Primary, I have decided it's the funnest place to be at church. I've been in some pretty fun Relief Societies before (remember my presidency that wore rock-star costumes and wigs? ... no, not at Church), but you cannot beat the spontaneity and unpredictable nature of Primary. Here are a few gems we've experienced over the past few weeks.

1. Our first week observing as the old presidency was still in charge, my new presidency and I giggled as an 8 or 9-year-old boy found his way into Primary with his eyes completely closed. We think he was inspired by a testimony in Sacrament Meeting by a sister in our ward who is blind. He wasn't being rude or mocking, just curious in such an innocent way. Made it all the way to his seat without any bumps or bruises. Impressive.

2. In response to a question in a Sharing Time about keeping the commandments, one earnest little girl shoots her hands in the air, dying to answer the question, and proclaims, "My cat had kittens!" We get stuff like this all the time. I think by the time I'm done with this calling, I'm going to be the master of conversation segways.

3. Our chorister has the funniest commentary of what's going on. Even if the kids don't think she's funny, the adults can't help but giggle. For instance, in trying to get the Sunbeams' attention during singing time, I had to refrain from laughing out loud when she muttered, "Oh, apparently George just told Maddy something shocking!" And it worked like a charm -- wide-eyed Maddy and adorable little George looked front and center upon hearing their names, and we were good to go. I'm eager to gather my own repertoire of getting children's attention, since most days I can't even get Eliot's.

I think I'm really going to like this calling. It is positively hilarious. Chaotic at times, yes, but for the most part, just sweet, innocent humor all around. I am, however, beginning to understand the promise of a Primary President to a parent I once overheard in a hallway: "Don't worry, what happens in Primary, stays in Primary."

Well, some random moments may also appear on this blog, but I promise to keep all identities protected. All of the sudden I feel like I have 50 more kids to tell funny stories about. Any Primary moments of the week you'd like to share?