Tradition

As my little family so quickly grows up I find myself experiencing milestones through my children that I still remember as if they happened two blinks ago. Tonight was such a night. Along with the anticipation and excitement that came along with summer evenings turning shorter and cooler, and school right around the corner, came a sweet time when we gathered round for a father's blessing. I loved this tradition as a girl when I got to hear insights and tender parental affection, both earthly and heavenly, for each of my siblings and me.

Tonight we carried on this tradition as we have since Anna began school. Anna, Abby and Nate (who will be starting pre-school) each took their turn feeling proud to perch on the stool and be the recipient of such a special connection to heaven through their dad. I loved watching each of them as they sat with rare reverence nobly resisting their own brand of self-conscious smile, their eyes determinedly shut. Benny made a show of folding his arms and then loudly demanding praise for his good behavior. These are the days that will be gone all too soon. Thank goodness they're mine forever.

Family Reunion!

We just spent a fun-filled weekend with my Dad's family. He's the oldest of eight kids and there are 45 grandkids and 22 great grandkids so far. We were missing a few of the grandkids and great grandkids, but still had quite a crew and tons of fun. Thursday night my cousins 18 and older and their spouses went out to eat and then back to my house. We had so much fun laughing hard at each other and our stories. Brennan was in good form and entertained us all with things like his confession of crying in "High School Musical". Eliza came up with some really fun questions to get some great stories out of everyone. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. Good times.

Friday morning we got up bright and early and drove up to the mountains where we got kicked out of several bowerys (it's a long story) and so finally ended up at a nearby park. The kids and a few of the adults played capture the flag and then most of us played softball. After all that fun in the park we drove to our hotel and then went to a really nice water park where the kids had a blast swimming and Brennan and I chased Benny all over. We had a nice dinner and visiting and then headed back to the hotel. I put Brennan and the kids to bed and went down to the hotel conference room where my Uncles and Aunt (yep 7 boys and 1 girl) each gave a presentation on our great great grandparents. They did a great job of highlighting the interesting information and keeping it fairly brief. After that Eliza, me a couple of uncles and a couple of aunts hung out in the lobby and chatted into the morning. That is what I live for! I love those late night laughs and bonding. I feel so blessed to enjoy the people I am bound to forever so much!

I got back to the room around 2:15 and had one of the worst nights of my life. Benny was up every 45 minutes so poor Brennan had been dealing with him the whole time I was downstairs and then both of us the rest of the night. We couldn't let him cry for fear of disturbing all the hotel guests and since he knew we were in there he wasn't about to be left in his port-a-crib. Not my favorite part of the trip.

After a morning swim for the kids we packed up and headed to Grandma's house where they had a big bounce thing for the kids and lunch. At the nearby park the kids played soccer with Uncle Ry and then we played a few volleyball games.

We got home last night and I went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at 8:30 this morning. Wonderful.

I only took two pictures the whole time!!! I'm really annoyed about it, but I was too busy having fun to remember to be a responsible adult and capture any of it. Here are the two I did get:

my Dad holding Benny on a little nature walk.

My cutest cousin Rachel in her darling swimsuit.

Cozy Morning

We've been waking up to beautiful crisp mornings. The three that were awake all bundled up in their robes and posed for a photo on the porch, some more happily than others.

Benny, Abigail, Natey

Swimming Pool

So despite our protests our neighbors are going forward with their swimming pool. I will admit that already it has provided us with hours of entertainment, from watching the hole being dug, to sand being dumped, to today's delivery and installation of the actual pool. I snapped a few photos of today's adventure.

Summer Days

Yesterday it was Nate's turn for the fever that Anna and Ben had last week, so we had another mellow home bound day around here. Anna, Abby and Nate were all in their pajamas all day long. They watched a lot more tv than they're usually allowed and played princess, dog and maid. Anna was the maid with a British accent wearing the pioneer dress and apron I made for her last year and Abby was the princess who kept spilling things on her gown. Little miss maid asked Nate the dog if he would like something to eat. He barked in response and then said, "Anna, bretend I said I wanted dog food."

They also played a game Anna made up called, "What's your favorite color?" This games consists of the three of them holding hands and running around in a circle chanting, "what's your favorite color?" two times and then each one answering the question in turn. We love Anna, Abby and Nate.

I was cleaning out my laundry/mud room which is the dumping ground for all. It was quite a project especially with Benny awake. As long as I opened the back door he was happy to wander back and forth from me to the back patio and find all the mud available in his journeys. He was even kind enough to bring me a lovely flower, roots and all that he picked for me from my flower bed. We love Benjamin.

Brennan came home and mowed the lawn while the kids all played outside on the freshly mowed grass. They explored the newly finished swimming pool hole and mounds of dirt.

It all took me back to those lazy summer days I loved so much when I was a kid. I hope my kids will have a lot of these days before they have to face adulthood and the responsibilities and stress that follow. And then I hope they will be able to enjoy them all over again with their own kids.

Thou Shalt Not Judge

Last week was our Stake Conference and while we were at the Saturday night session there was a woman near us whose cell phone started ringing. I'm ashamed to admit that I was kind of thinking how horrible that is and that there's just no excuse for it.

So today Benny still felt warm to me which meant Brennan and I would need to do church in shifts. I took the three older kids to Sacrament meeting. We actually got there a few minutes before church started, but still didn't get a seat in the chapel so we sat towards the front of the cultural hall. Things were going along nicely and other than Nate being a little squirmy it was a nice meeting. Just as the deacons were finishing passing the water, the reverent silence was shattered by the tune of "OH WHEN THE SAINTS, GO MARCHING IN...." no words, but the music just blaring, yep you guessed it ...my cell phone. Oh the horror. It was in my bag and I knew it would take me forever to find it in there so I threw Nate off my lap, grabbed the bag and rushed out the doors into the hall. Once out in the hall I frantically felt around for my phone in the bag, but couldn't find it. The girls burst through the doors and yelled, "Mom, you grabbed the wrong bag!" "Go get the other bag!" I said. A few seconds later we were all out in the hall with our two bags and the phone had finally stopped ringing. Honestly, I have never considered inactivity so seriously. We stood out there for 15 minutes while I mustered up every ounce of courage I could find. I finally opened the doors and slinked back in mouthing, "I'm so sorry!" to whoever was looking. Truly horrifying.

Fortunately, everyone around us was more charitable than I and found the whole scene quite hilarious. I consoled myself thinking that probably only the people in the few surrounding rows heard and saw the commotion. Then I was talking to the two bishopric councilors and told them how awful I felt for disrupting the Sacrament and they said, "That was you?" They totally heard it. I will never judge again.

County Fair

After three long days of staying home due to two of the kids having fevers I was extremely stir crazy. Brennan kindly took all of the kids to the County Fair and I went shopping all by myself. It was so nice and the kids had fun too. Here are two pictures of their adventures.

Never just content to look :)

Where is Ben?

I was cleaning the kitchen when I realized Ben had been alarmingly quiet for several minutes. I quickly scanned the family room which is where I'd last heard him. Nowhere to be seen. The girls were playing in there and when I asked them if they knew where Benny was Anna pointed in this direction:

Hmm, is there something behind the curtain?

There he is! Love the pink cap. What's he looking at so intently?

Oh. Sigh.

Natey

This morning I asked Nate to go and make his bed. "Mom, I need you to come and watch me." "Why bud, you've been doing it all by yourself the last few days, you can do it." "That's why I'm nervous because you haven't been watching me the last few days."

Nathan is by far my most unpredicatable child. He is full of contradiction. He can be surprsingly bold and then for no apparent reason shy or anxious. He often takes himself very seriously and then catches me off gaurd with teasing and jokes. He's learning how to make the girls laugh and I can tell he feels their giggles a happy reward. My feelings for him are extremely tender as I see or anticipate his fears and yearn to protect him from them. He can be at times so vulnerable and then at others so protective and strong. There is something inexpressibly loveable about him which is such a blessing because he also happens to be unbelievably stubborn and single minded sometimes.

My favorite thing is when I lay down next to him at night to put him to bed he always reaches for my hand and holds it as he drifts to sleep. I also love each morning between 6 and 7 in the morning when he climbs into our bed and snuggles up to either Brennan or me and falls back to sleep for a little while. I love when he is sincere about something and talks to me so earnestly about his thoughts. Yesterday I heard him ask, "Abby, are you glad Jesus is alive?" "Yes," she said. "Me too. Are you, Anna?" We love Nate.

A Little More Abby

Tonight as we drove to a minor league baseball game we were discussing the upcoming school year. Abby was supposed to have a neighbor of ours for her 1st grade teacher, but she had an opportunity to go to 2nd grade and did. We heard that the principal was thinking of hiring the dance teacher to fill the 1st grade slot and when I asked Abby how she felt about that she was less than enthusiastic. I asked her why she didn't want her school dance teacher for her 1st grade teacher and she replied, "I don't know, she's just so...peaceful and yogaish."

Then during the game we saw a guy dressed up as Spongebob Squarepants. When Abby saw him she asked, "Is the other team sponges?"

This Explains a Lot!

Today as we drove to the park Abby asked me, "Mom, do you like to talk?" I was a little surprised by the question, but had to admit that I did indeed like to talk. Abby then said, "Me too! I love to talk, it's so fun."

Playgroup

For the last couple of years we've been doing a playgroup with a couple of my aunts and cousins, sister and sister-in-law. Today was my turn to be in charge and since Anna's birthday was on Monday we did a low-key birthday party. I tell my kids they can have a friend party every other year, and this was the off year. Anna made invitations for our playgroup and invited them to a birthday party. When I reminded her that this was the family party year she reminded me that all these people are family. Anyway, it was fun we just did a couple of games and then cupcakes. All the photos except the last one were taken by Anna.

Nate and Rex, post cupcake

Lucy

Abby

Halen (my cousin's daughter)

Anna and Rex

Just Your Everyday Summer Protest

As most of you know we live in the house I grew up in. When my parents owned it they bought the lot behind our house and landscaped it so that it we had a beautiful big backyard. When we bought the house from my parents 5 years ago my Dad sold that back lot to some friends who were building a home on the lot next to our back lot. The way they built their home left little to no yard on their lot, so they bought our back lot as a nice side yard. They also agreed to give us access and kindly honored their word. A few years ago they sold their home to a really nice young family who we really enjoy and has continued the kindness by allowing us access to their yard and often even mows our little backyard. They have decided to put a pool in their yard and therefore need to fence in their yard. I can't tell you how sad this makes me. Because the lot is sort of terraced and we're at the bottom, we'll still have a lovely view of our mountains, but we will now have an ordinary little yard. My kids have loved running up and down the little hills and we all the love the big tree. Very sad.

We broke the news to our kids the other night when they saw someone out there measuring for the fence and pool. They were devastated. They've always felt a sense of ownership and been a little bugged with our neighbors' presuming to use their yard. After all, "It's ours too, Grandma planted all those plants and flowers!" You can imagine their feelings regarding this latest affront. There were a lot of tears and angry resentful words, but the drama has died down in the last few days and I haven't heard them talk about it.

Today Anna's friend was over and they were discussing ideas of what they should do. Next thing I knew they announced they were going out back. I was sitting at the computer when I heard them chanting loudly. I went out to see what all the commotion was about and this is what I saw:

You can't tell from the picture, but the signs say, "No more fence!" I felt a little conflicted about what to do because on the one hand it was dang cute and I was kind of proud of their civil little protest (and frankly, I share their dislike of the impending fence), but I didn't want to create any bad blood with our neighbors. It didn't look like they were home, so I just told the kids to please not be quite as loud and decided to let them have this harmless little protest. Then they came in asking for sidewalk chalk. I assumed they were going to write more protests on our patio which would never be seen by our neighbors. When I checked on them a few minutes later I realized they had written their anti-fence messages on the neighbors' driveway. At that point, I told them they had gone too far and needed to quickly wash off their message and bring their signs in. Anna said, "Mom, we're just trying to express our offence of them doing this!" I explained that even though we are all upset, they have every right to do this and that we needed to be good neighbors. They grudgingly washed off the driveway off, gathered their signs and came in for a Popsicle.

Anna June

Today this beautiful little girl turns 9 years old. I can't believe she's so old. When I was pregnant with her we didn't find out her gender so I always said that the only thing we knew for sure is that our baby would be fat and bald as Brennan and I both were. Wrong! She was on the small side with tiny distinct little facial features and crazy blond hair that stood straight up. She looked like a little old man with a really bad toupee in the cutest possible way. I can say that because as you can see she's turned out to be a beautiful girl.

From day one she knew how she liked things and unfortunately for her it took me awhile to get her preferences down. She was also extremely confident, independent and bright and still is. She was and is still often a little too bright for my own good. She's been outsmarting me since she was two, like the time she locked me out of the house. She's also sweet, conscientious and tender-hearted. I have come to rely on her for a lot of help with her younger siblings and she always rises to what is asked of her.

I love, admire, and enjoy my Anna June. Happy Birthday! We love Anna.

Words of Wisdom from Abigail

So Abby continues to surprise me with her interesting observations. Today on our way to the Dollar Store she was quiet for awhile and then said, "Mom, I know how people can make more money, like people who own a store." I asked her how and she continued with, "I think if they have things that don't cost a lot of money than more people will buy them and they will make more money than they would if they had things that cost a lot of money because not that many people would buy them." Wow. Not much gets past this kid. We love Abby.

Play Dough

Today has been a rainy day so we pulled out the play dough. I know a lot of Mom's who don't want anything to do with play dough, and I will say that having it smooshed into carpet or thrown all over isn't awesome, but I still LOVE it. My three older kids have been playing with the girls' polly pockets and play dough for several hours now. (Ben even participated for a few minutes, until he found it to be not as yummy as it looked.)