Nana's Family Reunion Photos

Check out Nana's great family reunion pictures here. Such great memories, and I'm so glad she's got the photos and the web savvy to upload them all by herself. (She called to ask me how, but I only told her the first thing to do, and she said, "Oh, I just follow the directions. I get it. Bye." Such a cool mom even in her old age.

Kids, Guard, and Driver vs. Mouse

Men versus Mice. Three little kids, a driver, and a guard try and catch a mouse that has been living in our front yard. Who will win?

Victory on the Food Homefront

Attention!

We interrupt these travelogues to announce an important breakthrough in our long battle to get our kids to eat foods outside of the 5-10 items they have decided they like, few of which include fruits, vegetable, protein, or FLAVOR!

Like lots of things in life and parenting, the key was in going back to what my parents did and just copying it. I've told my kids several times that my parents used to make me sit at the table until I finished my dinner. I hated it, and by the time I ate it, it was cold and yucky, but I ate it.

When we had a new family in our branch over for dinner Sunday and I watched the mom Bobette do the same thing with her kids and it worked, it occurred to me that maybe this isn't an outdated cruel and unusual approach to the problem after all. As Margaret said a few months ago, "You know what the problem is, madam? You need to force them."

So on Monday night with Rich there to back me up I declared a new Cutler Family Rule. You eat what's on your plate or you stay at the table all night. It was ugly. Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. But after about 30 minutes, Isaac ate the dill vegetable salad, white beans with garlic, fennel & rosemary, and garlic bread. I think he secretly even liked it. I must have said fifty times, "I'm not asking you to like it. I'm just asking you to eat it." After about an hour and even more crying and pleading (from parents and child) and even a little mercy ("I'll take a big bite if you will"), Russell finally ate his too. Miraculous!

The bad news is that later that night when we went upstairs to bed where the kids were already asleep, I smelled the all-too-familiar-these-days smell of vomit. I went in the boys' room and searched everyone's bed and found Isaac lying in a huge puddle of vomit. Yuck! Was it eating all that food he hadn't eaten in years? Luckily in the morning he concluded that it was the cookie dough he ate yesterday when I warned him if he ate it it might make him sick. Phew! Turned out to be passing, which was a relief since he just got over a nasty stomach bug.

Tonight the kids were surprised that I hadn't forgot about the new family rule and the menu was even less kid-tempting. Lots of yummy Indian food, all of which I don't even know the names for, but spicy pinto beans, fried okra (the Texas part!), an Indian fritter of sorts and white rice ended up on their plates. Again, weeping and wailing, but not quite so much! I didn't have Rich to back me up this time, but I did my best to be cheerful and kind about the whole thing, and sure enough, they both cleaned their plates in the end (after 1.5 hours for Russell!). This time, Isaac even admitted that he actually liked everything he ate "but not too much." And Russell said, "I'm starting to like spicy food."

Victory! Those of you who were lucky enough to spend large parts of your summer with us know that this issue of horribly picky eaters in our family has been a great source of stress for us. This is probably what everyone thought of as the solution as they saw us struggle but were afraid to be too bossy or nosy. You should have said something! Anyway, I've been praying for help with this issue, and my prayers have definitely been answered.


In a week or so I'm going to serve Isaac some fruit at dinner and see if we can have another miraculous breakthrough for our fruit-phobic cherub. Once I tried bribing him to eat a strawberry and he tried as best he could but he gagged every time he tried to chew and swallow it!

Utah for America's Birthday

After Merinda and the three "little dears" had their fun in Texas, I got to meet up with them for the trip to Utah.

We stayed up in a great place in Heber where we were treated to some variation on this every night:



There we set up shop with our dear expatriate parents from New Zealand and various relatives came to call, including Uncle K and Aunt J:



...and we went hiking to Bridal Veil Falls with all the brothers and sisters and cousins.

India might be one of the most interesting places on earth but to us America is still the best. Here's the moment that sealed the deal:

...on the 4th of July, getting ready for the fireworks, drinking root beer, and doing contra dancing. We all agreed it was the best 4th of July ever and that's not even a Funk superlative. It really was. Really.

And speaking of that, Grandma had a really amazing birthday party. She invited lots and lots of people and set up a "dress garden" with all the important dresses from milestones in her life set up around the backyard.


We also took the time to hang out with Uncle Lynn on his farm. Fighting hard against his better judgment, he let me take the tractor for a spin. Unlike many times back 20 years when I worked for him, this experience using his heavy machinery went off without incident.



One memorable feature of the trip was Uncle Ryan's sunburn. In order to look good for his wife on their upcoming cruise, he laid out in the sun for a while while the rest of us were swimming indoors. The plan backfired and instead he ended up waddling around the cabin without his shirt on waiting for the sunburn to heal. Here's nanna trying her best to help...


And finally, just an aesthetic view of me and Graham...

Hanging Out in Texas in June

Grandma and Grandpa were so sweet to get bikes and trailer for everyone from a garage sale so we could act like Americans and ride our bikes around the neighborhood (okay, I didn't see any other Americans around doing the same thing . . . I guess we're aiming for another generation or another state or something!)

Here's Graham as happy as can be at Chuck-E-Cheese's. Grandma, Grandpa & Amy took all the boys there one day while I was on my way home from my Musikgarten training.

Here's the posse of Cutler boy cousins amazingly all sitting together at once for a photo! We loved getting to know Max and Spencer. Watch out, boys . . . I think Ellie might give ya'll a run for your money when she's old enough to take her place in the cousin play.

Grandma was so sweet to the boys and me--reading to them when they were happy or sad, finding just the right toy for the moment, letting them cook with her, watching them while I went shopping for American goodies and did my Musikgarten training and taking us to fun places like the place they print money in Fort Worth and the Dallas Aquarium.

The family pile! What a great sport Grandpa was to let us all invade his house for three weeks straight!

We all had a great time doing another great American Saturday activity: yardwork! Only with Grandpa Cutler you get the added bonus of great power tools for the job.

Graham, Max & Isaac tired, but ready for more at Chuck-E-Cheese's! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Amy, but our stay in Dallas was all the better because Amy came all the way from Michigan with her cool little guys to play with us and help watch the boys while I did Musikgarten training. Thanks, Amy! We also had so much fun with Mark & Cherie and are so excited for their new GIRL on the way. Mark and I carpooled into Dallas a few days while I was doing my Musikgarten training and one day we got stuck on the freeway for several hours because of flooding. We sang songs, told jokes, it felt just like the good old days when we were little tikes telling dorky jokes only Gurneys got. I wish all of us could live next door to each other somehow . . .