Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?

My kids have always loved going to Nanny and Papa's house. One of the reasons they love it is because Nanny has a cow cookie jar filled with treats. One day I went to my mom's house with Caleb and Leah during the day. Caleb wanted a treat, but we told him there wasn't anything in the cow. He didn't believe us and when we weren't looking he climbed onto the counter top and tried to look inside the cow cookie jar. He accidentally dropped the cow's head and it broke. He felt so bad.

So, for the next month I had been looking for cow cookie jars every where I went. NO ONE has cookie jars anymore! I did find two cookie jars at Bed Bath and Beyond, but they were all pretty plain...of course NO cow. Caleb and I went shopping all day one Saturday looking for a cow cookie jar. We went to 10 different stores, but to no avail. So, I went home and bought one off of ebay.

The package came right in time. My mom was over at our house when it came. Caleb wrote my mom a nice note saying 'I'm sorry'. Then he gave her the package. My mom was so surprised!



One of the reasons Caleb picked this particular cow cookie jar was because the bum of the cow is where you get the candy.
We had even bought some frootie tootsie rolls to put inside of the new cow. Now there will be treats in the cow at Nanny and Papa's house again and Caleb will be sure to ASK for treats instead of trying to get them himself.

Ward Campout

So, my pictures aren't that great. It was starting to get too dark to take good pictures. We had a lot of fun at the ward campout. There was a TON of yummy food for the dinner Friday night. They had a dutch oven dessert cook-off after dinner. It was a close call between the peach cobbler and the smores brownies.

The Krueger's

The Lanier FamilyLots of food, lots of fun, lots of dirt, freezing cold night, rock-hard ground...and

We loved every minute of it!

Caleb's 6th Birthday

Caleb Friedrich Lanier was born at 7:01am on Sept 10th, 2001. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 19 1/2" long. I can't believe it's been 6 years since we brought home our little guy!

He started out his day with us singing "Happy Birthday" to him at exactly 7:01am. He then requested pancakes (in the shape of a "C" and a "6") for breakfast.

I took him to school this morning. Alex walked him into his class. I went back to his class later in the morning to bring cupcakes for the whole class. Caleb got a lot of special treatment from his teacher for his birthday. He got to be the "special helper" and he also got to be the first one use the hand sanitizer before we ate cupcakes. At the end of class he got to be the first one to get his backpack and line up at the door. He had a great day at school.
Caleb took this picture of his teacher, Mrs. Miller, eating a cupcake.After school Caleb and Leah went to computer class, then we went to Jon's shop to share the extra cupcakes.

Caleb wanted his most favorite food for dinner--PIZZA! So, we ate our pizza while we waited for Alex's soccer game to start. After the game we went home to open some presents. My mom and dad, grandparents, and the Kruegers all came over to share the cake with us. Here are some of his gifts he recieved.

2 small transformers from Alex and Leah
A checkers set from Alex and Leah (Caleb LOVES to play checkers)
2 small transformers, 1 bigger Bumblebee transformer,

and a transformer outfit from Nanny and Papa

An Elmo bath towel from Grandma and Grandpa Holt
A Spiderman Addition and Subtraction book

and bubble gum from the Kruegers

And his own air compressor set from Mom and Dad!

Caleb was so excited to eat his "Death Star" cake. When he decided that's the kind of cake he wanted he told me, "Mom, it HAS to have the green lasers that shoot out of the death star!" So, I found some skinny green candles that created the green lasers. He was really happy with it. In fact, when I told him to come look at his cake this morning he said to me, "I already saw it. I went and looked at it as soon as I woke up." Silly kid!
When we lit his candles that cake was on FIRE! He had a little trouble blowing out the massive flame protruding out of his cake. Dad had to step in and help him huff and puff and BLOW the fire out. Check out the video...


Overall Caleb had a great 6th birthday. I asked him if he felt 6 years old and he told me "no." I guess he's taller now that he's 6 though 'cause Alex was telling him that he grew and now he's almost as tall as Alex. So funny.

Also, as a side note, my friend Randa had her baby today! Caleb gets to share his birthday with this cute little guy. They had a baby boy this morning. His name is Carson. What a cute baby--look at all that hair!

Our Needs

I saw this on a friend's website and thought it was fun, so I tried it out. You google your name plus "needs" and pick out the top 10 things. Here it goes...

Angela needs...
1. to constantly "feel" the presence of God
2. her space
3. to get away from her kids
4. help
5. a time-out
6. to eat something
7. a new wardrobe
8. to stay focused
9. a place to live where she and those around her are safe
10. to complete a psychological evaluation

Jon needs...
1. to learn how to count
2. YOU!
3. prayers
4. a job
5. to touch his roots
6. a new shift key
7. the spirit
8. cupcakes
9. lots of support on the home front and elsewhere to help him
10. your votes

Pretty funny. I thought some of them were pretty accurate too! Although, I already feel like I have a place to live that's safe, and I'm sure Jon doesn't need any more cupcakes!!

Leah's First Day

Now it's Leah's turn! Today was her first day of computer class! She was excited to put on her new "school clothes" and "school shoes". We picked up Caleb from school and went straight to the computer class. Since Caleb is only in school half day he still gets to come too.

Livin' On The Edge

We had a fun-filled weekend at the cabin. Our friends, Larry and Trine, came with us. Larry was so happy to have the chance to ride his dirt bike. Trine and I took Alex and Caleb on a 3-wheeler ride together too. Leyna had fun following the big kids around. She's 2 years old and she keeps up with them pretty well and thinks she can do just about everything they can do.



My dad, Jon, and Larry helped build a wood shed/play house all day Saturday. It was a lot of work. It will be so fun for the kids to play in once it's done. They already think it's totally fun even without the walls! They were all right there ready and willing to help out when needed.



It was just about perfect weather until Saturday night. It rained all night and we woke up to lots of fog and 50 degree weather. Papa still wanted to do something fun with the kids and decided to let the kids rapel off the back deck of the cabin. Papa was the "cool" one for the day. What other adult would put 4, 5, and 7 year olds over the edge of a balcony??! They did a great job. Here is the play house as it stands right now. It still needs the roof and walls, but they got a lot done in the one day they were able to work on it.Sunday night we had more rain. It was so cold we had to start a fire to get the cabin warm. In the morning it was still raining and was very foggy again. We were thinking we might end up having to stay another night at the cabin if the storm didn't let up. There was finally a point when it stopped raining for an hour and a half. We got everything packed up and started to head out just as it started raining again. It was so SCARY to drive down the dirt roads that were wet and soupy. Our van and trailer were going down the mountain sideways a few times. Thankfully our prayers were answered and we were able to get home safely. I definately didn't like being on the edge of a mountain and feeling our van slide! The kids are also glad to be home today rather than tomorrow. Caleb was worried about missing a day of school.

Here is some video of the kids rapelling off the balcony.

Caleb's First Day

Finally, the day has come when Caleb gets to go to school! He has been waiting and waiting for this day to come! He was so excited last night to lay out his clothes for the next day. We also loaded his backpack with pencils and crayons before he went to bed. He came out of his room about an hour after I put him to bed and said, "Mommy, I feel pukey. I need a garbage can. I hope I don't feel like this tomorrow!" So, he took a garbage can into his room 'just in case', but I think the real reason for his stomach-ache was butterflies from being so nervous and excited.

While we were waiting for the bus to come I asked him if he was excited. He looked a bit more reserved and said, "kind of." The anxiety wore off soon and he had a great first day of school. He had a good time, but there was a little bit of drama for me that followed....

Let me explain....

Caleb is going to a totally different school than Alex. There isn't room in the temporary school for the kindergarten classes, so they go somewhere else. Because of that reason there are 2 different school schedules for me to remember. Alex has early-out on Monday, Caleb has early-out on Friday. Plus it was parent-teacher conferences this week, so Monday AND Tuesday were early out for Alex's school. No big deal, right?

I showed up at Caleb's bus stop at 11:20am (because his bus should be there by 11:28am.) After waiting a half hour I called the school to see what the hold up was. I was told the bus was running late and that some of the kids were forgetting to get off of their stops and the bus was having to go back. So, I wait for another 3o minutes!

I finally got a phone call from Caleb's school on my cell phone saying Caleb was back at the school because no one was there to pick him up at the bus stop! WHAT?? Then they told me it was early-out and I realized that I did indeed miss his bus. The funny thing about it was I SAW his bus drive by!! It stopped a block away and let off some kids, then it drove right past our bus stop and kept driving all the way back to the school! I guess they stop at our stop first, so when it was on the way back it didn't plan to stop again.

So, I loaded up Leah and off we went to pick up Caleb. When I got there I saw about 15-20 other kids who had been brought back to the school to wait too! They were all sitting in the office playing together. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who forgot! I guess it wasn't made very clear about the whole early-out thing on a TUESDAY!

When I was in the office I saw 3 other kids from our ward there that I recognized and offered to take them home too. They could not get ahold of anyone's parents (because they were all still waiting outside at the bus stops!!). There was also another little girl who's mom they did get a hold of, but she had no transportation. I became the neighborhood school bus today as I loaded up my van with Caleb, Leah, and 4 other kindergarteners to take them home. I called one of the mom's in my ward and let her know what happened and that I had these 3 neighborhood kids so she could let the other mom's know too.

What a day! I wish it would have ended there, but my day continuted to be busy. I had to pick up Alex from school (it was his early out day too, and by the time I got the kindergarteners home it was time to head to his school). We had parent/teacher conferences. I didn't know the time the had assigned me for. I only knew it would be Tuesday. So, I was there right at the end of school (1:30pm), and found out they assigned me for 3pm. I didn't want to go home (a 10 minute drive), just to turn around and drive back 45 minutes later, so we waited at the school. Alex got his homework done, they played the "dot game", and drew pictures while we waited. By this time I realized I hadn't fed Caleb or Leah lunch so they were hungry. OOPS! We finally got in to see Alex's teachers, then we FINALLY were on our way home.... or not!

While I was telling Jon about my day on the way home he asked me to come pick him up from work because he had a surprise for me. When we picked him up he said he wanted to take us all out to dinner. We went to Fazolli's to eat, then came home to get dressed to go to the temple. Jon had arranged a babysitter to watch our kids so we could go. It was such a nice end to such a stressful day.

Let's hope day 2 of Caleb's school goes a little smoother than today!

P.S. After Caleb got to experience Kindergarten today he decided that he likes it so much and he doesn't want to move on to 1st grade anymore. So, he's staying in Kindergarten! I think it'll be better for him in the long run and I'll just have to supplement his learning with things at home.