June's 13 Year Gallery

So, about the teenager. She is great. As teenagers go, she hasn't given me any trouble yet. She is less emotional than some of her younger sisters. (I won't name names.) I understand that there are many years to go in this teenager business, but I will enjoy my funny, responsible girl in this moment.

June is wonderful. She is very helpful and wants to be found doing the right thing. She works hard and dedicates herself to getting things done well. Like her mother, she almost rushes into projects too quickly because she gets excited to start something.

She is really funny. And she laughs at all my good jokes. (That is important. It means she has good taste.) She is super creative and I love to see her ideas in action. She has good friends and is confident in herself.

If I had to say something bad about June, it would be that she teases her sisters a little too much. I think sometimes she forgets that she isn't a second mom. And whereas, I can get away with tormenting the children, they don't always accept it from their older sister. But it is always done in love, even if it ends in tears. Her sisters still adore her most of the time.

It is hard not to love June and forgive her quickly since she is sincere in her remorse and kindness. I think she is a pretty fabulous person. I love to see the lovely young woman she is growing into. Enjoy some pictures of June.

We took our pictures on BYU campus, since I was remembering how lovely it was when I dropped off June and Hannah for Octubafest. So when we finished pictures, we treated ourselves to some candy from the BYU bookstore. Yum. June couldn't decide so she got fruity and chocolate.

Reflections on October

Is it strange or telling that last night I dreamed Martha Stewart told me I was carrying too much? Granted, I was holding laundry in my dream, although I was at the gym. (Yes...my dreams are weird.) But maybe she was trying to tell me something more. Do I put too much on my plate at one time?

It is probably the wrong time of year to ask that. The days preceding Halloween are always a blur of costume finishing, pumpkin carving, school party attending, parade watching madness. I actually didn't sign up to help in anyone's Halloween party this year. (I'm sure I'll hear about it later. But trust me...they have fun whether or not I am there.)

Also, I can feel NaBloPoMo breathing down on me. I often use November to catch up on all my blogging, but somehow I didn't realize it is three days away. I have plenty of posts, so I should have content for three weeks at least. (If I can keep up.)

Oh, and they asked me to be in charge of the Ward Christmas Party again. I have no comment at the moment. (Read: I can't say anything positive so I won't say anything at all.)

But I don't feel I am carrying too much necessarily. (Although I will try to heed your words of wisdom, Martha.)

In the meantime, let's catch a few fun pictures from the month.

June had her first orchestra concert. She has been doing really well on her violin. She started Jr. High in intermediate orchestra and I think she will be ready for advanced next year.

It was a good concert, and I have to admit that even beginning orchestra sounded fantastic, but I think it was due to the sheer mass of children playing. Sometimes more is more.

For her orchestra class, June had to attend and report on a second concert that she wasn't performing in, so she opted for the band concert because we missed choir. Of course, band was the only group that started at 6 instead of 7, so we only arrived in time to hear two songs. So June and Hannah found a free concert on BYU campus to go to. They attended OcTUBAfest. Wow. I dropped them off and they went by themselves. It was fine and fun for them, but it feels like they are growing up too fast. It isn't time for me to be dropping my kids off on campus yet.

Ivory and Robyn go to activity days since they fall between the ages of 8-11. Sometimes they go together, and more often they are in separate groups. For this activity they combined because who doesn't want as many kids as possible involved when you are baking cupcakes and cookies. They came back with some really fun looking treats.

But I admit that the popcorn hands were my favorite. I believe they are a four armed monster in this picture. Well, not so many arms actually. A four-handed monster then.

October is also the month that Reflections is due. I didn't push the kids at all this year. Only two got around to entering something. Ivory made this ladybug using Tyler's Photoshop program.

June drew her project much earlier. She did a zentangle in the shape of a bird. I loved how it turned out.

Oh, the theme this year is 'Let Your Imagination Fly.' I liked the detail on June's piece. I love the hearts spreading out here and especially the changing thickness of the lines down below.

That is all for today, but expect more in the upcoming month.

I Might Actually Miss 9 O'Clock Church

There are some good things about having church first thing in the morning. The first of course is DNT (Designated Nap Time). We have DNT around 1 or 2 around here. It is a glorious thing. Everyone is quiet. I often do a project or I just sleep. You heard me...sleep!

Early church means early dinners and we have plenty of time for family activities. One Sunday, Tyler wanted to take the kids out to the Alpine Loop. I declined because I was catching up on some blogging. (Go figure.) Ivory wanted to stay home for some reason, but the rest of them went out for a fun afternoon.

I wasn't there so I can't tell you exactly how fun it was, but I can tell from the pictures that they had a good time. I chose my favorites for you to peruse. Tyler took some lovely shots. The kids and nature are looking pretty good.

Meanwhile, I finished blogging and Ivory and I played games. She beat me at everything. Maybe I should opt for the Alpine Loop next time.

Beautification

Everyone likes to look nice, right? Or at least not hideous. I have a house full of girls and most of them have a healthy self-esteem. My girls can go out wearing pretty crazy outfits that they deem fashionable. And who am I to say otherwise? After all, trends have to be started by someone.

But we all like a change now and then. I dyed the ends of my hair...so I get it. Pearl may have been looking for a change of pace. Or maybe she was just doing a kindergarten ritual. Either way, I got a frantic call from her teacher one afternoon, just as I was picking Pearl up from the bus stop.

Pearl had cut her hair and then, because she figured she was in trouble (which she probably was) she wouldn't talk about it. The teacher wanted me to know about the situation and was curious why Pearl had cut her hair. Luckily, this isn't my first child who has cut her hair, and I wasn't mad in the least. I sat and giggled with Pearl and we talked about this and that and I asked her about her new haircut that she gave herself. (A really MINOR haircut if you ask me.)

She said that she and a friend both decided to cut their hair. (Makes sense.) I emailed her teacher so she could check out the other girls' hair the following day. Then I took a good look at Pearl. She had only cut a few strands on the side. Can you see those couple strands that are half the length of the others?

I asked her if she was interested in shorter hair and she thought that would be great. So I called up Kellie and she got us in that afternoon. (Yes, I know that I often cut the girls hair. I just wasn't in the mood this time.) I got a before picture of my blondilocks.

And she is just as cute as can be with the shorter do.

* There was no noticeable difference on the other girl, so Mia probably only cut a few strands if any.
**Pearl's teacher was very worried that I would be furious about the whole thing. Weird. Do I come across as a crazy mom that expects a kindergarten teacher to watch my child every minute she is there? Hopefully she will figure out that, Pearl being my fifth child, you are going to have to try harder than that to get me worked up about something.

In other beauty news, I put a face mask in our home 'store.' Ivory purchased it and was very excited to try it out. She wouldn't use it until we had cucumbers on hand so we could make it seem more spa authentic.

Ivory relaxed on the couch while her face dried, and Robyn took the kids through some simple yoga movements and told them stories. She has a gift for keeping people's attention.

Finally after a riveting story of destruction in a forest (in which the main characters were birds, but somehow I didn't know that until the end) Ivory's face was dry and hard. When she crinkled her forehead you could see all the individual lines.

It was time to peel. I just watched and took pictures as her face came off. I wonder if a face mask would work well for Zombie makeup?

Eventually she was back to her normal Ivory self, with a cleaner healthier face. I might have to buy more than the one application next time.

It's the Most Inspiring Time of the Year

I LOVE General Conference weekend. And I believe that we are passing on that love to our children. I am impressed with how well the older kids listen. Tyler does a quiz after each session to see if we can remember who spoke about what. Most of the time, the kids can remember something about each talk. I admit that I listen a little harder because Tyler will be expecting some answers after, but I would listen anyway because the talks are full of truth and inspiration for me.

The Conference Wall is doing well. It is a part of the process now. The reward was the same this time around; a book for finishing all the apostles talks, and dinner if you reread all the talks. Ivory was way ahead in the game. She finished the top 15 months early, but didn't get the rest read until the last month before.

I believe that I actually finished first this time around. (I wanted to make sure that I deserved going out to dinner with the girls.) The last week or so before conference, I was waking kids up at 6 in the morning (by request) so they could read a conference talk before school. I was so impressed with their determination and dedication. June, Robyn, and Ivory all reached their goal in time. Here is the wall.

We voted where to go for dinner and we decided on Sweet and Savory, a crepe place in town. There were a lot of laughs that night.

We had to play with the postage stamp picture again.

Robyn took a picture of me and I told her that I wasn't even smiling. She said, "It doesn't matter mom." She was right. I think Ivory looks good on me.

Ivory got a kids meal. It came in a car. A little strange.

June and I had some yummy looking crepes.

They weren't too bad, but this was the reason we went. DESSERT crepes. That banana one was so delicious!!

After dinner, we went looking for books and everyone found something they liked. Ivory got some intricate coloring books, Robyn got the School for Good and Evil and is already on the third book in the series. June couldn't decide so Tyler and I got her some of our favorite books from the past -- Eddie Fantastic and Interstellar Pig.

Conference was amazing as usual. It was great to hear from the three new apostles, Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, and Dale G. Renlund. There were so many good talks that I can't wait to reread them. Tyler has never really gotten on board the Conference Wall train. He reads the talks, but never bothers to sign his name. But I think he is ready to join us for dinner. At the moment, he has already read ten of the talks. At this rate, he will be done by December. I hope we can all catch up.

I still stitch, along with many of the kids. Ivory finished a project this time around. I think her little horse turned out very well. I need to frame it for her.

One of the coolest ideas that stemmed from conference was Ivory's FHE idea the next day. She decided we should have our own Cazier conference. She put topics in a cup and we drew them out and had a chance to write five facts or sentences about our topic. Then we each spoke. Ivory was conducting and she introduced each person in turn. It was fun because she mixed up names so they sounded more official, like Brother T. Brigham Cazier.

We had our own podium and everyone had a chance to speak. I was so proud of each girl. Even though Daisy is little, she gave a phenomenal talk on baptism.

The funniest one was Pearl. She can't read enough yet, so Tyler came up as a translator. Pearl just said things like, "Mah mah mah," and Tyler would translate her words. It was so funny. I didn't quite grasp the topic because I laughed the whole way through. (Yes, not very reverent...I know.)

Tyler said he wouldn't mind having another Cazier conference in six months time. I know I am already looking forward to April.