When Skills Come in Handy

I was looking back through old home videos last night and was feeling very reminiscent seeing my children so young and little. 
I giggled and smiled seeing this one of Aubrey and Connor sparring each other when Jed ran his martial arts school several years ago.

When I think back to the present, I am grateful that those years of martial arts have come in handy for Aubrey especially.   She is a strong individual who will stick up for herself. She knows she can put up a good fight if she had to.   I'll give you two examples.

Example One: Last year while Jed was away in Iraq, Aubrey had to play in the pep band for the basketball games. During this time, there were several boys that really liked her. There was a particular boy who suddenly tried to kiss her during one of these games. Before the boy had a second to act, Aubrey gave him a powerful blow to the stomach. (This girl knows how to generate power in a punch.) That poor boy couldn't say a word as he was hunched over, holding his stomach and groaning in pain. Aubrey was so mad at that boy, lol, and told him to never try that again. She was still genuinely upset and near tears when I picked her up after the game that day. She told me she wanted to move away. I asked her what the boy said after she punched him, she said he couldn't say anything at the moment. :) That boy didn't talk to her for a long while after that. Later he told Aubrey he learned his lesson and would never try to kiss her again. This year they are talking again and on good terms, but he definitely hasn't tried to kiss her since.

Example Two: Last week Aubrey told us about another boy who kept touching her bottom at school. The first two times she asked him to stop.   He didn't.   (Wow, the audacity of this boy.)   I was immediately angry at this disrespectful, adolescent male; how dare he touch our daughter like that!   Jed and I were oblivious that anything was going on until she came home and announced to us that she punched a boy that day. She punched him real good and hard. Afterwards the boy said, "Man, I didn't know girls could hit!"   Well, surprise, this particular girl does.   You can thank her daddy for that, young man.  :)   Dad was very proud of her.  I was still upset at this boy and was ready to go give him a few words of my own.   Since Aubrey had taken care of the situation herself, I told Aubrey the next time to not be so nice, she has permission to give any boy a lesson the first or second time around. (I say second time because Aubrey prefers to give an advanced warning first of what's coming if the behavior doesn't stop - obviously the boys don't take her seriously until it's too late.)

Yesiree, skills are an important thing to have in life, especially when it keeps the boys at bay.  But I'm not so naive to think that in the coming years, Aubrey might have a different outlook on getting kisses from boys.  But I think by then, they'll all be too scared to try.  And we're ok with that.  :)

Blue & Gold Banquet

The scout activity for this week was the annual Blue & Gold Banquet.  This was Ronin's first time getting to go.  Woo hoo!  Which meant he had a cake to decorate (it's a scouting tradition.) 

This year's cake theme was "Survivor." 

So we thought about what we could do.  Hmmm, "survivor" huh?  Of course the reality show came to mind first, but after much thought, Ronin and I decided to center our cake design after a basic aspect of wilderness survival.  What are one of those items you just wouldn't want to go without if stranded out in the middle of nowhere?  (Aside from food and water, of course.) 

So we decided on a campfire cake.

A simple but needed neccessity for warmth, light, and the ability to cook food.  A campfire cake was perfect.  

So that meant a little bit of surfing the internet for some ideas.  I found a few good ones but decided to embellish our cake up a little bit.

Putting this cake together with Ronin was a fun bonding experience. 

Here's the end result:  


How cool . . . .er, I mean, "hot" is this?!

 Me and Ronin's favorite part of the cake was the fire for sure.  We used candy rocks, rod pretzel sticks for the wood, and easy homemade hard candy that was cooked, colored with yellow and red food coloring, and then quickly drizzled by spoonfuls onto a tinfoiled cookie sheet.  I ended up having to make a few batches.  I put in too much red food coloring and undercooked the first one, then again undercooked the second batch which meant the flames wouldn't harden enough to stay standing up straight.  My flames kept "simmering" out!  By the third batch I got it down to where I wanted it.  Then we just pulled the hard candy off the tin foil and layered and alternated the fire with tall, short, wide, and thin pieces to give it a more realistic dimension.

Now that we're ready, it's off to the banquet!

I was asked to take pictures of the event and I was happy to do so.  :)  Which is why this post is going to be extremely chuck full of photos.

The first thing everyone does upon arrival is put their cake on the display table...

...and then check out everyone else's cake.

There were some great cakes this year!

My favorite Cub Scout!

The flag ceremony to get the evening started. 

This was Ronin's first time calling the color guard in to post the flags and lead the audience in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  He was nervous but had a great helper telling him what to say. :)

One of the many reasons why I am grateful for the scouting program is because it's an opportunity for us to teach our kids through example how to appreciate our flag and our nation

 Ronin was a gentlemen and waited at his table until most everyone had gotten their food first.  I must say he learned this one from his dad; Jed will wait and let everyone go first before himself.  It's nice to see that kids pick up on the good things too from their parents.

After dinner, earned badges were handed out.

 

Ronin's cake earned the "Smokey Bear" Award for properly making a safe campfire.  :)

After the awards, the cakes get eaten by all!!!!  Hmmmm....so many to choose from!

 

 

Next month?

Pine Wood Derby Racing!!!!!!

A Birthday for Connor

Connor had his 12th birthday this last week.

He used to look like this many years ago. . . . such a little cutie!


Aubrey and Connor the day we brought him home from the hospital.  Aubrey didn't like Connor at all for those first few weeks. . . .she was jealous of all the attention he was getting.


Connor began accumlating scars at an early age.  :)


One of Connor's first fishing trips:


Anyhoo, back to present day.

So of course, a birthday means a party , so here we go!

Others who celebrated with us: Grandma Kriss, Great-Grandparents, Don and Joan. . . .

Speeking of Don and Joan, this day was also their wedding anniversary. . . . 65 years of wedded bliss, people!!!!  Connor's birthday was also shared with my dad's birthday too.  Happy Birthday, Dad!


. . . . Grandparents, Carl and Judy, and Great-grandparents, Glenn and Marilyn.

Since Connor is now old enough to move from the Cub Scouts & 11-year-old group into the main Boy Scouting program, one of our gifts to him was a nice outdoor backpack with some flint & steel, a Swiss Army knife, 550 cord, and water-proof tablet.  Now he is sufficiently prepared for those overnight campouts and long hikes.  (Jed is his scout leader. . . .go figure.)    :)

 A few days later, Connor had a party with his friends too.

They were a fun bunch of boys, I didn't have to do any entertaining . . . they easily did that all by themselves.  It's great to see the kind of good boys that Connor calls his friends.

The biggest change that comes with the age of twelve for a boy in our religion is the opportunity to be ordained with the Aaronic Priesthood and to move from the Children's Primary into the Young Men's Program. 

Connor was interviewed by the bishop last Sunday and declared to be worthy.  Today after church , Connor met with the bishopric, Young Men's president, and our family in the bishop's office where he was then ordained with the Aaronic Priesthood by Jed, who holds the Melchizedek Priesthood.  It was a special moment. 

Afterwards , there were lots of handshakes and some hearty hugs. . . .

From Left: Brother Christensen, Jed, Connor, Bishop Anderson, and Brother Matheson.

Jed and I are so proud of Connor!!!!!

Grandma Kriss was there too.

We love our tender, sweet-hearted, affectionate boy!  



Happy 12th Birthday, Buddy!

Moving Up

The month of January signifies a new beginning.  A fresh start.

And also advancements.

Especially for Rigdon:

He is now old enough to advance from the toddler nursery to the real Children's Primary at church with all the older kids.


Ooooh, my little guy is GROWING UP!  As much as I love seeing him gain confidence in doing new things, he is also our child of "lasts."  I'm realizing more and more how he'll be the last one to hit all of those sweet, little milestones we love to cherish in our family.  And then?  It's all over with.  Makes me a little sad really.  :(


But for now, I'm just gonna love every minute of it and try not to think about that.


AND. . . .

. . . Heaven help the Primary teacher who was lucky enough to get him!

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