Bike Riding!

Today was pretty big. I decided that it was time for Nate to lose his training wheels and really start riding his bike. Brennan taught both girls so this was a first for both of us. We went down to a nearby trail this morning and I helped him get going. Once he totally had his balance I let go and ran alongside which made him REALLY angry. After promising to not let go again I finally talked him into trying it a few more times. Once I pointed out that by holding his t-shirt loosely I wasn't helping and that it was all him he started to get a little excited. He did really well, but when he decides he's done, he's done. We came back home to put Ben down for a nap and get some other things done.

An hour or so after we got back he started asking me to go out with him and practice. One minute he's mad at me for holding on wrong and then he's mad at me for not holding and then for the fact that he steered himself into a bush. He just doesn't love being out of his comfort zone and when he is he gets a tinsy bit irrational (hmmm, wonder where he got that from?) but I've learned that if I gently push him he's always glad in the long run. So, after a lot great effort and determination by Nate and a lot of pushing and holding onto his t-shirt by me, HE DID IT!!!!



Nate Riding His Bike! from Andrea W. on Vimeo.

The proud bike-riding Nate

An adoring fan.
And another.

Wisdom

The other day the girls were talking about several people we know who are having babies. I was in the kitchen listening to their discussion which went something like this:

Abby: I hope I will be able to have kids and won't have problems having them.

Anna: Me too. I'm scared about having a handicapped baby. Mom, is that bad not to want a handicapped child?

Me: I don't think anyone wants to have their baby have disabilities, but I think most people who do feel very blessed to have that child.

Anna: What will I do if I have one?

Abby: You'll just deal with it, Anna.

First Day of School!

So here we are, ready or not back to school. It was actually really nice to be up and at 'em fairly early. I was totally done getting the girls off and grocery shopping with the boys by 10:30 am. I'm not sure we were ever ready and out of the house before then all summer long. Nate didn't officially start today, but got to go to an open-house at his classroom and meet his teacher. So far so good.

The girls had a great day, they both really like their teachers and have some really good friends in their classes and best of all NO HOMEWORK yet.

Not going to school, but not going to be left out of a photo shoot!

Nate the Great

I've talked before about the stubborn streak in Nate. I'm still kind of chuckling and stunned by a little incident today that illustrates what I'm talking about. Last night Nate found one of those mini clippers that I use to shave his neck when I give him a haircut and decided he needed a haircut that second. Fortunately he only attacked his hair in two little spots. Unfortunately, one spot was front and center and he really got it good. As I drove him down to get professional help (the haircutting kind) I lectured him saying, "Nate, you promise me you will never, EVER, cut yours or anybody else's hair again." He very calmly said, "Mom, I'm not going to promise, but I won't do it anymore."

I thought to myself: "Uh, what the? I'm pretty sure my 5 year old son just told me he wasn't going to promise me but did reassure me that he won't cut his hair anymore. What in the world do I do with that?"

"Nate, why won't you just promise me?" "Cause." "Why?" "Cause." "Nate! Will you just please promise me that you won't do this again?" "No, but don't worry, I won't do it anymore."

He's got some nerve, but we love him!

Back to School

Wow, so much to do and so little time so I think I'll do what I always do when there's a lot to be done, ignore it and write a post. The kids start school on Monday, even Nate. It's all hitting me right this second. We got letters from Nate's and Abby's teachers about open-houses and Back to School Night, etc. and all of a sudden the summer has completely slipped away. This morning we went through all the girls' clothes, organized their closets and figured out their first week's outfits (it's a girl thing), and had a fashion show so they are totally ready now.

Nate is just a huge wild card. I have no idea what to expect from him. I can feel myself starting to worry whether or not he's ready and wondering if he'll go without some serious trauma and drama, but I'm trying to keep those worries at bay and be mellow and faithful. We'll get through whatever adventures come our way. He got the wonderful teacher who taught both girls and my sister. She's amazing and will be so good for him. I just can't believe I'll have 3 kids in school, I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I'm not sure what Benny and I will do without the 3 big kids. Fortunately Nate will only be gone in the afternoons and a big chunk of that will be Ben's nap.

The other thing that is kind of consuming me right now is the fact that I just got called as Choir Director for our ward and I'm kind of dying. I sort of sing and have sung in several choirs, but am feeling really unqualified to organize, direct, find music etc. for a choir. So, if any of you out there have had this job before or know of some great music resources etc., PLEASE help me!

Oh and in other news Brennan called this morning because he split the crotch seam of his pants and had an important demo to do for work. He called me to see if I could sew them back up if he hurried home. I got my sewing machine out and waited but he never came. When I called him to see where he was he told me not to worry about it, he just duct taped his pants back together. I made sure he at least taped them from the inside which he said he did and wished him luck. We love Brennan.

Day Trip

Yesterday was the kind of day that just needs to be photographed, documented and most of all remembered.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when Abby came home from primary so excited because she had heard there was a new temple that "everyone can go inside!" After a temple is dedicated only those with a temple recommend can go in (all adult members who live worthy of our Church standards can have a recommend). When a new temple is built there is always an open-house before it's dedicated which provides a unique opportunity for anyone who wants to to go through it and learn about the temple.

The new temple Abby had heard about is about 3 hours North of here in Twin Falls. Brennan decided we should go for it. Rather than spend money on not sleeping in a cheap motel, we decided to just make a day trip out of it. A few days before we left I mentioned it to my parents and they jumped on board.

Yesterday we left about 8:00 am (I'm kind of impressed with myself for that) and met up with my parents who had to drive separately because we don't have room for them in our minivan. Each of our kids got to take a turn in their car which was pretty exciting for them. We drove straight through with a quick stop in Rupert, ID for snacks and directions. Around 11:30 we pulled up to a stunningly beautiful Twin Falls Temple. We got everyone changed into our church clothes and walked into a church right next to the temple. We waited for a few minutes in the chapel and then were ushered into a room for a short film about temples. Ben was noisy and disruptive and Nate a little, but the girls paid close attention to the film.

After the film we were able to go with a small group on our tour of the Temple. Both the exterior and interior are very simple and quite a bit smaller than the Bountiful Temple, but I thought it was so beautiful. One room had an amazing mural on the walls. My kids loved the Celestial room with the amazing chandelier and the sealing room and could feel how special it was.

When we finished our tour we went back to the church next door for cookies and water which is always a hit.




When we took pictures in front of the temple there were several men holding big signs about anti-mormon things. This is always such a disturbing thing. One man was literally yelling horrible things about Joseph Smith and telling us we're not Christians and "If you love you're children, you'll quit telling them lies!" My poor kids were kind of traumatized, especially Anna. She was furious. Brennan tried to ask them to please stop yelling in front of our kids which only made him get more aggressive. I get that we have some different beliefs and that some people think we're crazy and deluded, but even if that were true how can one possibly justify going to someone's most sacred place of worship and yelling mean, offensive things to them? It's just so disrespectful and mean-spirited.

Anyway, that was really the only negative of the day. It made me appreciate how little persecution and opposition we have to day compared to what our pioneer ancestors went through. The open-house reminded me how blessed we are to have Temples and Temple ordinances.

After all of that we had a quick lunch and then headed to Shoshone Falls which was really amazing! I know our pictures can't do it justice and neither can I, so you're just going to have to go there for yourself someday. The real highlight though was a little lake within the Shoshone Falls park area. When we walked up to this amazing little swimming hole it was like walking into several generations ago. It's fairly small with a beautiful grassy park above it and then surrounding docks with rocks to jump from off to one side and a little fenced off kiddie area to the other side. An old diving board that I'm pretty sure isn't up to code and life guards. It was the perfect little find (thanks to my Dad's savvy internet exploring). It was pure heaven and we played the rest of the day away there.


















Around 5:00 we pulled ourselves away to go find some dinner. A wise waitress seated us in the most remote empty corner of the restaurant where we had a lively meal with some very happy and hyper children. We managed to get through all that fun and then got settled back in our cars for the drive home. Everyone was pretty wound up and for the first half of the drive there was a lot of wild laughter and singing and then finally one by one they fell asleep and we drove home in happy silence. It was just a perfect day. All the kids were on their best behavior and having Grandma and Grandpa along made it so special and fun for all of us. Ben was a trooper on the drive and 3 hours in the car actually flew by both times. Just a great adventure that I'll always be grateful we did it. Thanks to Abby for inspiring it and Brennan for making it happen!

Tag

ABC TAG:
A- Attached or single: Attached

B- Best Friend: I guess outside of Brennan, and my family I really don't have a "best" friend. I do have several friends that I rarely see, but keep in touch and still consider them close friends: Paige, Janet, Lisa, (from high school), and Cheryl, Bobbi, Kelly (from AZ). My UT friends are all related to me which is kind of lame, I know, but I can't help that I have kind of awesome relatives.

C- Cake or pie: Neither, I'm more of a cookie girl.

D- Day: I really enjoy Thursdays, a lot of my fun things like book club, playgroup, etc. are on Thursdays, and I start anticipating the weekend.

E- Essential item: lotion and chapstick.

F- Favorite color: I love red, and light blue and every time I think about painting something in my house it's usually a shade of green so I guess I really like green.

G- Gummi bears or worms: Not a fan of either one of them.

H- Home town: Farmington, UT.

I- Indulgences: blogging, reading all day and night and Pace popsicles.

J- January or July: For sure, July. There are lots of fun get-togethers and picnics, parades, holidays and just good old summer fun.

K- Kids: Am I supposed to say how many I have? 4

L- Life is incomplete without: family and a 1 to 2 year old around.

M- Marriage date: June 7, 1997

N- Number of siblings: 4 brothers, 1 sister

O- Oranges or apples: both, but I eat apples more often.

P- Phobias or fears: Ruining my children, and missing out on fun things.

Q- Quote: "Mom, Brennan's dressed like a 15 century pirate!" Christian Stanley Bell, June 2008.

R- Reason to smile: my crazy, cute, affectionate children.

S- Season: I LOVE Fall. I love that we have 4 seasons and the change, but Fall is my favorite. It's just so exciting with school and cooler weather and fun clothes and holidays.

T- Tag four: Hmmm, I tag Catherine, Nicole, Kelly (if you're going to move, I expect better blogging from you!), and Sarah.

U- Unknown fact about me: I think most people who know me know that I'm an extrovert, but I also really have a strong home-body side to me. I love to go and do, but then I want a couple of low-key mellow days at home after that. A perfect weekend for me is to stay home Friday night with a good movie and then go out with Brennan and maybe another couple on Saturday night.

V- Very favorite store: For food and basics I love my Wal-mart. Can't beat those prices, and I love that. For everything else, Target. I have recently discovered and fallen in love with the Anne Taylor outlet.

W- Worst habit: There are so many it's hard to chose the worst. Probably lack of discipline.

X- X-rays or Ultrasounds: Wow, I refuse to answer this one based on how desperate whoever made this tag up was for X. They could have asked "Xylophone, got one?"

Y- Your favorite food: Comfort food and fresh corn on the cob.

Z- Zodiac sign: Virgo.

This and That

Here are just some random things I've been wanting to get on the record:


During Anna's birthday party Anna presented me with a paper that she wrote and signed and had each of her friends sign thanking me for all my hard work for her party. I thought that was so sweet and so very tuned in of her to even notice I put in a little effort.


Last Friday night we got to up to our friends' beautiful cabin with them overnight. They have 4 kids who my kids love and we all had so much fun. The highlight for the girls though was their karaoke machine. They sang "Leader of the Pack" and "One Fine Day" about 79 times in one morning.

Anna, Lexi and Abby singing their hearts out

Lately my kids and I have been playing the game "Clue" and LOVING it. I remember one summer my brothers and I and whatever friend was over getting way into "Clue". That's one thing I am enjoying about my kids getting older, interacting in such a fun way. Anna and Abby can play by themselves and then Nate is on my team. It's really fun and my favorite thing in the world is to hear Abby say in a really serious, formal, dramatic tone, "I suj-jest (suggest) that Miss Charlotte (I've told her 497 times that it's Miss Scarlett,)..." Nate thinks the lead pipe is called "blood pipe."


Today we were driving home from an activity where we were able to meet up with Rex and Lucy (my nephew and niece) and bring them home with us for a play day. We had some music playing, of course, and my kids were singing along to one of their favorite songs when Anna noticed Rex singing along too. "Do you know this song, Rex?" "No, I'm just really good at singing songs I don't know." So cute and funny.


Benny has been sick and really out of whack and I'm really missing my sunshine boy. He started out the summer pretty nervous about getting in the water whenever we went swimming. He would cling to me or Brennan if we forced him past the step, but in the last few months he's completely shed his fears and turned into a fish. He jumps off the side of the pool to mine or Brennan's arms, then graduated to doing the same thing from the diving board and then last week all on his own he started diving in head first from the wall to Brennan. We're kind of amazed how far he's come in just a few short months. I've gotten really good at treading water in the deep end to catch him over and over off the diving board, we almost drowned the first few times.

Benny jumping of diving board at my niece Molly's birthday luau

birthday girl enjoying her cake

Anyway, these are good days.

Olympic Dreams

We had a really fun weekend that maybe sometime I'll get around to blogging about. For now all our thoughts and focus and energy is on the OLYMPICS! Could there be anything better than the Olympics? First of all, how great that there's actually something worth watching and my kids can watch right along with us. Secondly, it's just so thrilling to watch these young super-human people go beyond what should be possible. One of most exciting events to watch is swimming. I love it because it's not subjective, no ornery anti-American judges ruining things, just good old fashioned races. How about that men's relay the other night? There's just no way our last swimmer, Jason Lesack?, should have been able to catch that French swimmer, but he did in the most amazing finish. I LOVE it.

A few nights ago we were watching Michael Phelps obliterate competition and world records and Brennan said, "Christian should have been a swimmer, he's got the perfect build for it." For those who don't know, Christian is my brother who in a swimming race with Brennan managed to scrape his nose on the bottom of the pool. Clearly that was just a little hiccup in what could have been an illustrious swimming career. Now every time we watch Phelps, Brennan says in an irritated tone, "That should have been Christian!". We love Brennan and Christian even if he never wins a gold medal in swimming.

Partay!

We've had a busy fun week. It started off with Brennan's mom, Grandma Jamie, coming up on Tuesday to help out and join in on the birthday festivities and left this morning. She's so easy to have and so helpful, it was wonderful to have her. She watched the kids for me on Wednesday so I could go to a luncheon hosted by my friend and neighbor, Amy, who is the hostess with the mostess! She made each of her guests a fabulous glitter cup. She is so fun and does everything all the way. The food was delicious, the table and her whole house was beautiful, and the guests were great. Thanks, Amy!

As you can see Grandma stays busy around here and we all love having her.

Anna opening some presents on her birthday morning

Cupcakes that night

Now for the big Nancy Drew birthday party. There's a recent movie of Nancy Drew out that Anna LOVES. When we were shopping for clothes she kept saying, "I want something Nancy Drewish". Thanks to a birthday party idea book, the Internet and the dollar store we pulled off a fun party yesterday. She wanted a late night so we invited her friends over at 5 for some games and activities, dinner and then the movie, of course. We got a fun idea for the invitations from our idea book (thank you, Allyson!). Anna wanted to make herself one for her scrapbook so here it is, the inside anyway:

We printed the info on velum and then glued it on backwards so they had to read it in the mirror for a little mystery

The birthday girl in her Nancy Drewish outfit

I sewed 8 little bags and filled them with notepad, pen, little flashlight, ink pad, magnifying glasses and a headband (Nancy always wears a headband). The first thing they did was choose a paper clip for their pencil with string around it and then tied it to the end of the string like Nancy uses in the movie to pick up the Will by the clip. We made our own Will and the girls stood on a chair and we timed them while they took turns rolling their string down to catch the papers with their paper clip. They got really into it.

Next we worked on our keen observation skills. I put 15 random things on a tray and let them look for a minute then took the tray away and they had to write down as many as they could. I was impressed with how many they got, one girl guessed 11 correctly. Not surprisingly, Abby who was watching from a distance also managed to rattle off 11 of the 15 to Grandma Jamie.

After that I had each girl make a thumbprint (with their handy dandy ink pad) on two separate cards. We put their names on the front of one card and on the other I put a number on the front and their name on the back. Then we laid them all out on the floor and with the help of their magnifying glasses had them match up the card with a name to the one with a number they they thought belonged to the same girl. I was kind of just doing this as an excuse to use the ink pad and magnifying glass never thinking they'd really be able to match them correctly but they totally studied and concentrated and shocked me. Anna guessed all 8 correctly!

We then let each girl pick out her favorite ribbon and glued it to their headbands. She opened presents, they ate pizza and pasta since Anna doesn't like pizza, had a decorated yogurt pie since Anna doesn't love cake and watched the movie. I was so grateful to have Jamie's extra hands, she and Abby totally decorated for me and saved the day. The girls were so cute and totally game. I was worried they might be old enough to be too cool to participate, but everyone of them got really into it and made it so much fun. Also, there was a little bit of a contrast between a party of 8 5 year old boys and 8 10 year old girls. Good times.

Anna and her guests with their sleuth kits and headbands

Happy 10th, Anna!

In honor of Anna's 10th birthday I'm posting 10 of my favorite photos of her.






I know it's so cliche to say, but seriously, where has the time gone? How is my first little baby 10 years old today? It's kind of a little bit painful to browse old pictures and realize just how much she's grown and how quickly it's all happened. A rush of memories came back to me as I looked through our albums. There's so much I'd forgotten like the way she used to scrunch her tiny little face up to be silly, or the fact that she was once chubby, or that she spoke perfectly and it was so funny coming out of such a tiny little girl with a nasally munchkin voice. For 2 1/2 years she was my constant companion, and was and still is such good company.





Many little girls are described as sweet so I'm afraid it doesn't always mean a whole lot, but that is one of the first words that pops into my head to describe Anna. She really is sweet, she is considerate, kind and caring. She is very empathetic and notices when people feel badly and does everything in her power to help. She is extremely affectionate, all her teachers from church and school tell me how they love running into Anna in the halls because she runs and hugs them every time.





She is creative, imaginative and confident. She has some struggles that she's really come a long way in improving. At first glance Anna is a prim and proper little girl, but there's kind of a wild and mischievous side to her as well. So much so that my brothers nicknamed her "black-heart" when she was a toddler. She did things like intentionally locking me and her newborn sister out of the house when she was 2 1/2. When I went around to a door with a window I watched her pretend not to hear or see me while she casually perused a book. She also locked a friend of ours in the bathroom (the lock was reversed for time-out purposes) who was in there getting ready for the day.





Fortunately for me her sweetness usually overrides the mischief, but it's definitely still there. Now her wild side can be glimpsed when you see her on the soccer field or sort of gliding past you faster than should be humanly possible.



As sad as it is for me to lose that little girl I had, it's so exciting and rewarding to watch this beautiful girl grow up. Happy birthday, Anna! We love you!!!!!

Family Fun!

We just got back from a weekend of family fun with my Mom's side of the family. These people are good times. I'm particularly proud of myself because I packed and loaded up my four kids and spent the first night there without Brennan. I realize that's small potatoes for a lot of you readers, but it was kind of a big deal for me. Anyway, it all started with a delicious dinner at the park followed by some intense volleyball til dark.

Molly June

Abby and Lucy
Nate and Rex
Ben
Kids lined up for some fun kids' games

Molly, Anna and Lucy

Then it was off to the hotel where the real fun started -- getting tired-out-of-their-heads-but-super-hyper-kids to go to sleep while trying to keep them from totally melting down and disturbing other hotel guests. Fortunately, I had pretty good odds as Anna and Abby slept in my parents' room (thank you, Mom and Dad!!), but the boys proved themselves formidable foes. Around 11:00, victory, and a really cute scene. Both my boys have had a thing with hair. When they're tired or sad, they play with their own hair or even better, somebody elses.

Day 2 park

The next morning I took the kids for a morning swim in the hotel pool and then headed for another park for the days' activities. We played some serious kickball, softball, and water games. The highlight of our day was the return of our long lost Brennan who had spent an exciting few days with some young men from our ward. After wearing ourselves out at the park we had a fabulous dinner and then reconvened at the hotel for a lip sync. We crammed roughly 60 bodies in the conference room and rocked the house. Unbelievably fun. We had assigned each family to come up with one song. Every number was so cute and/of funny, but there were a couple of highlights. First off, my own dear sister, Eliza and her husband, Josh, were hilarious with my parents as air-guitarist and drummer. They performed the song, "Pop, Goes My Heart" from Music and Lyrics. Hilarious. Josh was less than enthusiastic about the whole thing, but once he got on our make-shift stage he let all his inhibitions go and let his 80's popstar totally out.

You've got to see that outfit in person to fully appreciate it.


My family doing "Please, Mr. Postman"
My Mom, her sister Sharon, and her sister Janis
My aunt Sharon and her 5 girls, my cousins

One of my cousin's daughters (Haley) stole the show with her song "Popular" from Wicked. Honestly, this girl was born to perform and nailed that performance. We were dying that an 8 year old could have that much charisma and showmanship. Amazing.

The other favorite was my cousin and her very large, studly, baseball player husband (Sara and Zach) singing "Breakin' Free" from High School Musical. I could not stop laughing, they totally mimicked the choreography and facial expressions and everything from the movie, but to see this big manly guy channeling Zac Efron was too much. So funny.

The best part was that 60 people, a large percentage of that young young kids, were totally enthralled for the entire duration of our show. Good times.

We finished off the night with another swim and then more bedtime battles. We checked out this morning and Brennan took the kids home except for Anna who got to go shopping with me with some of her birthday money. We're tired, but it was such a great time. Big shout out to Mom and Dad for planning and working so hard to make it such a success.