Grandparents

This last weekend my parents were in town. Actually, they were here for about a week. It is cozy when they come because we don't have a guest bedroom, so Grandpa takes the girls room and we have the four oldest sleep in the loft. But I don't really begrudge them the room. Plus, I want my girls to realize that it is good to sacrifice things for family, even if it is just a bedroom for a week.

It was a really relaxed week with them. Well, it was still crazy busy for me, as per usual, but my folks entertained themselves and we got to spend some evenings together.

It is always fun to see how the girls react when family is here. (Since we don't live nearby any.) The girls bombarded my parents with everything from their latest school assignment to what they ate for lunch yesterday. Pearl (who is not sure of everybody) felt at ease almost at once and spent their entire trip bringing them anything she could lay her hands on. I would often come into the room to find Grandma holding five books, two blankets, a bear, and other odds and ends. Here they are making friends in the beginning.

Another fun thing my mom does, is write stories. There is no end to her creativity, and a few years back, she decided to write a story based on the girls. She writes one chapter at a time and the girls love to hear them. They are always looking forward to another installment. Grandma was tentatively planning on writing another one while she was here, but when she realized she had left June's birthday present at home, she was more dedicated to getting it finished. I make it sound like it took a long time, but she went upstairs one morning to use my computer and a short time later, she was finished. Super impressive.

When the girls were all home from school, they sat down to listen to the next chapter. (It did have to be about spiders, didn't it mom?)

The red-head is not mine, but Hannah might as well be, since she and June are as thick as thieves. She comes over every other Friday and she seemed to enjoy the story as much as the rest of them.

I didn't take pictures like I should have. (Typical.) Tyler snapped this one that I thought was great.

June was decorating G'ma's shirt. The blue jewels are part of the shirt, but the leaves are all strategically placed. It looks like they should be there, huh? But they just came off our bush out front.

Over Conference weekend, Tyler took the kids up to see his parents, and I stayed and watched with my folks. I don't know who had more fun, but I KNOW I had the quieter house.

It is always fun when you come to visit, Mom and Dad. (Please imagine a picture here. I meant to get one with you all weekend and somehow forgot. You may flog me later.)

Nine Lives

Yep, I have been missing, but when you combine having family in town with a giggly-girl spectacular (a.k.a. birthday party) then you come up with one tired momma who is amazed she is still functioning.

I will highlight family soon, but because I have already missed her birthday by a few days, let's talk about my oldest (now 9) June.

June had an excellent birthday, if I do say so myself. Which I guess I will have to until she gets a blog of her own. Trust me...I am not encouraging that yet. This year was her scheduled friend party. I was skeptical, but I want to create memories for her and then remind myself why I only do this every OTHER year. June is attending her new school with new friends that she will probably have in her class for a few years, so this seems a good time to get to know all these young ladies.

The morning started as usual. I sent June off to school, but then I brought balloons when I picked her up.

I got her the traditional nine, but one popped in her classroom. Two things stuck out to me when I visited her school. 1) It is only an elementary school, but over half of the kids who passed me were taller than I am. Sad. 2) June requested Rolos as a treat for her class and although they were a bit pricey, I got them because she has never asked for a specific treat before. They were a bit hit. I don't really think of myself as that mom that gets her kids whatever they want, but birthdays are special.

When all the family was assembled we opened her family gifts before the party started. I was surprised at how alike June and Robyn look here.

Pearl was digging the balloons. Please ignore my stone face.

We bought June a bike earlier this week. I don't even think she likes to ride all that much, but her legs are out-growing her last set of wheels, so it seemed time. Pearl though the helmet was cool. (Pearl likes to be doing everything we do these days.)

And then the party guests descended like so many birds on a live wire. Actually they weren't too bad and we had plenty of activities to keep them busy. Our craft was trickier than I imagined, but the end result was so darling.

Winkum turned out to be the big favorite. Whoever got the winkum card was in charge of winking at people to get them out. But people could raise their hand if they saw someone winking and get winkum out instead. Simple game, but perfect for this age group. And that is why it looks like we are all sitting around staring at each other...because we are.

Gift opening was a treat. Some parent got gold tinsel that the kids promptly spread all over the entire floor.

It is a good thing I wasn't paying attention to who gave that gift because I might have sent home a nasty note. Well, not really, but I am still finding that stuff all over the house.

The cake was not homemade. (I can't do it all.) But it was cute.

June blew out the candles as usual.

I can't believe she is nine. She is growing up fast. She is such a fun child. I love to watch her sense of humor take shape and her independence develop. And I take heart that even though she is the child we experiment on, she seems to be turning out okay.

Autumn and Tools

Photos of the week:

Welcome Autumn.

Okay, so it still feels pretty nice outside, but it has just an edge of coolness. The leaves are slowly jumping off the branches with the promise of Fall right behind them. This is perhaps my most favorite time of year. (One of these years I will really make a decision between Spring and Fall, but it hasn't happened yet. I am totally that lame person all scared of commitment. That isn't like me because I tend to be very opinionated. Okay, I am making my choice. Fall, I pick you. Not because you are happening right now, but because you are so cozy and friendly. You bring Halloween and apple cider. You make the air smell different and I love the crunch of leaves under my feet. You don't have everything because truthfully you eventually make my flip-flops obsolete, but I will embrace you as my favorite season because really...you are.)

I grabbed some decorative pumpkins at the store and was delighted to find they were only 48 cents each. (They were supposed to be 48 cents a pound, but I didn't argue.) Pearl is fascinated by the new additions. Just wait until we carve pumpkins later.

And to keep up on the photography challenge (sorry I keep slipping behind) I'll add in this week as well. The theme was tools, and although I love me a hammer, because I tend to hang things all over my house, my favorite tool would be this:

Don't try to tell me it is not a tool. It is. And I would be lost without it. Take away my TV, and my books, I would rather keep my computer. (But only because I could read the books online. I am so sneaky that way.) Do you have a favorite tool? Eye-Lash Curler, Blender, Pencil Sharpener? What?

Good News

I won't complain about my lack of blogging, because that is probably going to be the norm for a while (read: 3-5 years), but I will keep up as best I can. And most likely I will fall into a pattern and get my groove back. Goll, you threw off my groove.

But I didn't come here to complain tonight. I wanted to tell you all the great things that are happening. First and foremost...I can BREATHE!! I never did go to an allergist, but I remembered the name of a nasal spray I used back when I only had June. Turns out that they still have the stuff, and my pediatrician felt okay prescribing it to me. (Over the phone even. I LOVE my pediatrician.) It takes a few days for full effect, but those days were swift compared to my misery and now I feel great. This is stellar, because right about now, I usually have a raging sinus infection brought on by my stinkin' allergies, but instead, I am free and clear. It's the bomb-diggity. (I don't know if I am allowed to say that being as white as I am.)

Ivory is thinking about being dry during the night.

It turns out that bed-wetting is a common side effect of having large tonsils. Ivory's body was so busy keeping her alive and breathing that it wasn't too concerned about waking her up to go to the bathroom. The doctor mentioned that she might do better after the surgery. It has been almost two months and I didn't see an ounce of difference. Then one night she woke up to go potty, and then another. After three nights waking up dry, we decided to risk going to bed in just underwear. She promptly peed through that evening. Naturally. BUT, the fact that we are having dry nights at all is good news.

We made it through another school carnival. Granted, we lost a child at this one, which makes it less fun and more embarrassing since everyone knows us. I mean, if we are going to lose a kid, we might as well do it at June's school where none of our neighbors look over and think, Oh, that's not surprising. The good news is that they used real FACE paints this time around. Sure Robyn and Ivory chose a spider because they think it is fun to tease mom, but they washed off easily. :)

Funny spider story if you have a minute. Dad caught a spider in a jar the other Saturday and Robyn thought it would be great fun to shove it in my face. She tried luring me out by saying, 'Mom, I have the cutest thing to show you...come here.' Well, oddly enough, a spider in a jar is just not as terrifying to me, but I still don't want to cuddle with it. I told them to let it go outside somewhere, but instead they left the jar in the garage.

Fast forward two days. I am helping June with her homework and I hear a loud crash in the garage. I ran out to see a broken jar and pieces all over the garage. (It shattered pretty well.) You would think that a little voice would go off in my head warning me why the jar was out there. (After all, we had put all the jars away just so little hands wouldn't drop them.) But luckily, my memory is so bad, I had already forgotten about Maleficent (as Dad so lovingly named the spider.) right up to the point where I was picking up Polly Pocket pieces and found a large spider underneath. Then it all came flooding back, painfully clear. Fortunately, the neighbor boy heard the scream and came and squished the spider for me. Now, I can do my own spider killing when necessary, but I am happy to pass the chore to someone else. But the good news is that had I remembered what the jar was holding, I wouldn't have cleaned up anything at all. I would have left the mess for Tyler to deal with when he got home.

In other good news, the kids are cute and they seem to get along fairly well. June seems to be honing her mothering skills. She is often found helping the littlest minis. I took these pictures because I was impressed with how patient she was being. Daisy's hands often smooshed into her eyes.

But Daisy sure was enjoying herself.

I also tend to be gone a lot of evenings, but I am comforted when Tyler takes a picture like this.

First, at least someone is taking pictures, but mostly it cracks me up because this is a typical moment. Robyn, in the tub. Ivory, reading a book on the potty. And Daisy listening and supplying books when needed. Ivory is getting to be quite a good reader. She won't let me read to her very often anymore.

Lastly, this last picture is just funny. I was making cookies and Dad offered Daisy a bite of the dough. She looked at it for a minute and said, "Whoa...big one." But then she opened wide anyway.

Who can resist cookie dough? Don't worry, we didn't actually feed her that bite, or any dough for that matter. Tyler frowns on it because of the raw egg. I try to honor his wishes and not feed the kids, but that doesn't stop me from sampling the batter.

Oh, one last good news. The General Relief Society Broadcast was fabulous this evening. President Uchtdorf has definitely been blessed with the ability to speak. His talk tonight, centered around the Forget-Me-Not, was amazing.

I don't think the entire thing is uploaded yet, but here are some snippets.

And now I get to go to bed. That is good news too. Sweet dreams everyone.

Amazing and Stupid...Amazingly Stupid

Amazing: I actually find myself with time to blog.
Stupid: I have nothing to blog about.



I have been taking pictures for other people and haven't snapped any around here for days. Thusly, not much to blog about. I could get on my soap box and blather on about how men never wear shirts while running these days. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean that you SHOULD. That is probably enough on that subject.

Instead, I decided that I would look back in time and see what was going on a year ago today. (Or at least in the same week.) Now would be a good time to queue the music, that is if you like a little background music while you read this post: Try to Remember the kind of September... We took the girls to Temple Square and even now it is interesting to see how they have changed in a year...especially Pearl. (She was chubba.) 2010.

Then I want back and found this picture of dinner. It was edited so I must have wanted to include it on the blog, but it never made it on here. Look how little Ivory is. 2009.

A year before we put the girls together in a room. Funny that they still sleep together now...just a little closer. 2008.

And then it starts to get weird. Here we are visiting WA for my ten-year school reunion. No Daisy, no Pearl. 2007. I just got rid of those jeans - oh how I loved them.

Even further back in time we go. I didn't even know what blogging was. I had a house full of littles. 2006.

Another year back. We had only been in our house for two years. I was pregnant again. I was probably hoping for a boy. :) 2005.

Keep going. Robyn was a baby. Apparently we took all our pictures in the bedroom. We still have that quilt (from our wedding) but it has some holes now. 2004.

Goodbye Robyn. Goodbye house. Time takes us back to our old apartment and our first baby. Back before she had four sisters. 2003.

And then...we didn't have a camera. At least not a digital one. All June's baby pictures were printed out. I would have to scan one in and I don't have THAT much time today. Well, and actually, she wouldn't be born for another week.

But it was fun to go down memory lane today. Septembers come and go. Kids grow, we move on. Time doesn't seem to notice one little family. But they mean everything to me. So goodbye Summer, hello Fall. Seasons...keep going. I will keep taking pictures and watching my children grow.

Ivory-ism

The kids are learning Praise to the Man in primary to sing for the Primary Program. Ivory was singing it one morning at the dining room table. Her lyrics are original and I wish I had gotten them all down, but my favorite part by far was the line—Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven—changed to:

"Hail to the Prophet, I sent him to heaven."

Kitchen

Photos of the week: (Interspersed throughout the post)

My kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in the house. It is a good thing too since I spend a LOT of time there. This led me to pondering on how we are made and why things are the way they are. It seems like eating three meals a day, or continual snacking (whatever works for you) is not very efficient. I feel that sometimes I finish cleaning up after one meal just in time to start another. Why is so much of life dedicated to food? Wouldn't it serve us better to be sustained on one meal and be able to spend extra time in more productive matters? Then again, perhaps that would leave us more time to spend in UNproductive matters.

I've been contemplating balance. With my new calling, I keep thinking that it should come with a pause button so I have time to get everything done. And then I could visit all the sisters in the ward. But then no one would grow and serve, because they would know that the Relief Society President probably was taking care of everything with her pause button. And I would not know when to stop because I would feel like I could do it all. Nope, I am pretty sure that one of the key things we have to learn while we are here in this mortal sojourn is balance. We need to prioritize and  make mistakes and reprioritize and find out what really matters to us. Heavenly Father wants to see if we will chose the right things. I know that I don't always put the right thing first. (This is blatantly obvious because I stayed up past midnight two nights in a row to read The Goose Girl—perhaps not the best prioritizing.)

This all returned to my mind this morning, because I was looking at my kitchen.

Yep, that is my kitchen and that is how it looks often. Entropy is probably strongest in the kitchen. I was sitting there thinking about how hard it is to keep the kitchen clean and that led to that pondering about too many meals a day. (Pearl only seems content these days with something in her hand. She thinks that we are eating. All. The. Time. Arg. I need to have scheduled snack times and not bend to the incessant whining and reaching in the pantry.) So, since I still lack the pause button, I just got to work and found my kitchen again.

(contented sigh) I sure love it when it is clean. And I love it most in the morning when the sun comes in and lights everything.

It feels cozy and fresh. It starts a new day. A day of choosing how I will balance. And I won't lie. It always feels easier to balance a day if you start it in a clean kitchen.