The Christmas Letter--2012

The Eldest: Ok, ok, we have to do this for Mom. She keeps saying there's NO WAY she can do all the Christmas stuff.

Miss Bubbly: But can we write a letter? I don't even know how.

The Eldest: You'll learn how to write letters later in the school year. What should we start with?

Miss Bubbly: Me going to school!

The Eldest: That didn't happen in January! What happened in January?

Miss Bubbly: You got baptized?

The Eldest: Nope, that was in December. Let's look at Mom's Facebook. If Dad can get into it and post bogus statuses, we should be able to do it. Hmmm. The Baby was cutting teeth and rolling over and other boring stuff. Let's look at February.

Miss Bubbly: I like February! Valentine's Day! La la la la la!

The Eldest: Quit dancing! You almost knocked over my chair!

Miss Bubbly: Pictures of me and The Baby! Wow, she didn't have any hair. Mine is looooong.

The Eldest: Yep. February is boring.

Miss Bubbly: Hey!

The Eldest: What? What?? Mom says if you keep pouting, your face will freeze that way.

Miss Bubbly: *raspberry*

The Eldest: Anyway. Let's look at March. The Baby was really close to crawling. Oh, and yay! That's when we got the Roku!

Miss Bubbly: Let's watch Arthur!

The Eldest: Not yet. We have to finish this letter. Maybe April will be interesting.

Miss Bubbly: Isn't that when you started school?

The Eldest: I think so.... Yep! And she made yogurt. And baked a lot. And planted that garden.

Miss Bubbly: The one that we each got one strawberry out of? I liked that strawberry. Oooh! Piano Guys! Play that video!

The Eldest: Not yet! We have to finish the letter!

Miss Bubbly: I'm booooored.

The Eldest: Me too. But we're to May. That's almost halfway. HEY! We went to the Renaissance Faire in May! That was fun. The joust was my favorite.

Miss Bubbly: Me too! I liked riding the horse.

The Eldest: We didn't ride the horses! The knights did!

Miss Bubbly: Not that joust! The other one. Remember the one with the wooden horses and we went down on a rope and tried to get our sticks through the rings? That one.

The Eldest: Ooh yeah! I remember that. And didn't Mom and Dad get their new shower, too?

Miss Bubbly: I think so. And Omay came for a little visit. I love Omay.

The Eldest: Me too. Let's look at June.

Miss Bubbly: We went SWIMMING! I loved this summer.

The Eldest: You just loved the swimming. Remember the time I saved The Boy when he fell in the shallow end?

Miss Bubbly: Remember the time Momma's friend had to catch him in the deep end when he was pulling on Little Lady L's hair?

The Eldest: Remember the first time he fell in and Mom had to go get him and his eyes were HUGE?

Miss Bubbly: Mom says The Boy needs swimming lessons. I want more swimming lessons.

The Eldest: Me too. Oooh! A picture of our soda stand. That was fun.

Miss Bubbly: No it wasn't. We didn't make any money.

The Eldest: We should do it again.

Miss Bubbly: Maybe. Was that in June?

The Eldest: Nope. July. Let's look at August. You started school in August. Did you like it?

Miss Bubbly: Yep!

The Eldest: Do you still like it?

Miss Bubbly: Yep! Do you like your school on the computer?

The Eldest: Yeah. Ok. September. Mom baked a lot.

Miss Bubbly: Yummy!

The Eldest: We went to school. Was The Baby walking?

Miss Bubbly: Yeah, she was walking on my birthday. Didn't Mom talk about her walking back in July?

The Eldest: Nope. She really does need our help.

Miss Bubbly: Halloween! I was Toph and you were Katara and The Boy was Aang. Wasn't The Baby supposed to be Momo?

The Eldest: Yeah. Mom said she wouldn't keep the ears on.

Miss Bubbly: Silly baby. Wasn't Mom sick in October?

The Eldest: Yep. That's why we're writing this letter, remember? She has too much to do because she had newmoanya.

Miss Bubbly: Is that how you spell it?

The Eldest: No, but I don't know how, and if I ask Mom, she'll ask why, and then we won't be able to surprise her!

Miss Bubbly: Ok. Did Papa come see us in October?

The Eldest: Yeah. He helped while Mom was sick.

Miss Bubbly: I love Papa.

The Eldest: Me too. Let's look at November.

Miss Bubbly: Those are cute pictures of The Baby! What is she doing?

The Eldest: Poking the Wii Balance Board to make the blue light come on. That's funny.

Miss Bubbly: The Baby is such a cute little girl! Do we have any pictures of The Boy on his birthday?

The Eldest: Yep.

Miss Bubbly: Where's the picture with the dark spot on the back of his head?

The Eldest: That was in FEBRUARY.

Miss Bubbly: Go find it! It's cute.

The Eldest: *sigh*

Miss Bubbly: That's not it!

The Eldest: I know. I thought it was funny. Hang on.

Miss Bubbly: That's weird. What does Daddy call it?

The Eldest: The leopard spot. Momma calls it God's Thumbprint.

Miss Bubbly: Why?

The Eldest: I don't know. Let's keep going. We're almost done. Didn't Mom eat a whole bunch of lettuce from her garden in November?

Miss Bubbly: I don't know! I was at school!

The Eldest: I think she did. At least she didn't make us eat any.

Miss Bubbly: I want more strawberries.

The Eldest: December. I think we're done.

Miss Bubbly: I like our Advent calendar. Why didn't we do a calendar before?

The Eldest: Because Mom made it THIS YEAR. Duh. What's tonight's activity?

Miss Bubbly: Silly Santa hat pictures!

The Eldest: Should we put those in the letter?

Miss Bubbly: No. Put the family pictures in. I like those.

The Eldest: Ok.

The Eldest: What else should we say? Doesn't Mom always talk about how she's thankful for all her blessings? She's thankful for us, you know.

Miss Bubbly: I know. And Jesus. She talks about how Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas, even though it's not his birthday.

The Eldest: It's not?

Miss Bubbly: Nope. Mom said it's in the spring.

The Eldest: I knew that. Mom's grateful for Jesus and Heavenly Father, right?

Miss Bubbly: Right. And us. And Daddy too, I think.

The Eldest: Yeah, Daddy too. What else would she put in?

Miss Bubbly: Maybe some of the funny stuff we said this year? I think she was writing that before.

The Eldest: I found it! Ok, we'll put that in.
______________________________________________________________________
The Eldest

The Eldest had the following exchange with her father not too long ago:

Daddy: If you could ask Santa to get your sister anything, what would you ask for?
The Eldest: A mute button.

(Daddy says that to be fair, he had to convince her to share her answer. But it's too hilarious not to share!)


Miss Bubbly

Miss Bubbly, after losing both front teeth, while coming home from the local snoball outlet: "Give me your straw and I can put it here and put mine on this tooth...AFTON WALRUS!"

Miss Bubbly, while playing with *my* Lego Pirate Ship: "Fire the canyon!"

As she's watching Blue's Clues with The Littles, a cassette tape comes up as one of the clues. Miss Bubbly says, "What's that?"


The Boy

This morning, The Boy correctly identified "Hobbily Lobbily" as the store we were going to, and The Hub says that The Boy guesses any classical music is performed by The Piano Guys. Make of that what you will....

Cute pronunciation of "obstiple" (popcicle) may have gotten The Boy a treat for breakfast that one time, but insisting that he needs the "pomcuter" (computer) and that his online-school-attending sister get off--yeah, that doesn't work.

The two-and-a-half year old requested "Horton Cashes the Egg" for his bedtime story.

The Boy: Dad! You're squishing on me!  

The Boy: Momma, I'm drinky.
 
Talking to Daddy: Who are you? You're crazy!

The Boy Quote of the Day: "Look at me! I'm the cowboy from the crypt!"  

"Where are my girls?" (referring to his older sisters)

During Family Home Evening, as he's leading the music: "Choose the right...PEANUT BUTTER!"

The Boy says "I'm happy now, Momma!"--through his tears--in order to get a cookie after he threw a fit.

"Momma! I hear a bird calling. It's a TJ bird!"

"I ate it all gone!" he says as he points to his wide open, and very empty, mouth.

The Boy is coloring at the table when thunder rumbles. He starts crying, head back, tears streaming down his face, but continues to color.

As I was doing the jogging part of my Wii workout, my Mii went through a tunnel. The Boy shouted "Time tunnel!" Thank you, Dinosaur Train.

As told to me by the nursery leader: 
The Boy and the other kids were learning about God's love. Someone pulled out an apple and said "What's this?" The Boy responded, "An apple!" The leader asked, "Do you like apples?" and The Boy replied, "Sure!" 

The Baby

Being zubered repeatedly by The Baby, who is quite proud of her skill = Most Adorable Thing Ever

The Baby says "Ow ow ow OW OW!" whenever she isn't getting her way. She also tends to growl when concentrating. 
  __________________________________________________________________________________

Miss Bubbly: Hey! I don't need a mute button!

The Eldest: Yes you do! You keep talking after bedtime!

Miss Bubbly: Not fair. The Boy said the most funny stuff. Why did Mom use all those weird nicknames?

The Eldest: I don't know. I think she's trying to keep us safe online. I learned about that in my computer school.

Miss Bubbly: Whatever. Let's go watch Arthur. 

The Eldest: But we've got to say it first!

Miss Bubbly: Say what?

The Eldest: Merry Christmas.

Both: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
 

Baking Day

So I've gotten into a routine of sorts. I do at least a load of laundry a day and fold it all on Thursday. Sometimes. Mondays I clean the bathrooms, Tuesdays I work on the budgets, the bills, and tidy up my computer desk. Sometimes I blog! Wednesdays I dust and wash windows and vacuum (so if you want to see my house at its cleanest, come Wednesday afternoon before I pick Miss Bubbly up from school!), Thursdays I clean the kitchen and mop.

The children earn their television by doing "room rescues"--tidying up the main living areas of the house--and their usual kitchen chores. I usually work for about half an hour outside every day, weeding and mucking about in the vegetable garden or taming some small section of the long-neglected landscaping.

But Fridays are the best days. That's why I get all the regular chores done on the first four days, because Fridays are my days to bake.

I love baking.

I generally make bread, breakfast goods (muffins and pancakes and the like), granola for cereal, oatmeal cookies, and sometimes a special treat if something on Pinterest has caught my fancy. Baking day generally takes 3-4 hours, so I knock it out in the morning, when I have the most energy, and I love to take pictures and share the results on Facebook.

Granted, it helps to have an awesome bread recipe that only takes about an hour from start to finish. It's a modified version of the Pantry Secrets recipe, or so the blogger from whom I got it said before she had to take it down. I don't feel guilty about using it as I have for these past months, but I do respect the idea of intellectual property, so I don't share the recipe. But enough people have asked about my baking day and my recipes that I'm giving serious thought to becoming a Pantry Secrets instructor. Much like Pampered Chef or Scentsy, there's a starter kit to buy and then you're official! You can sell the products you love to the world!

But unlike Pampered Chef and Scentsy, there aren't new recipes to sell every season. There's just the one with its endless modifications. I've used it to make cinnamon rolls and pizza dough, much to my little family's delight. And I write sentences like that and say to myself, "If you love it so much you're promoting the idea of it to your family and friends, maybe you should find a legal way to share this magical recipe." See? I'm convincing myself all the time. But time is the problem--with four kids under 9 and a house to care for and school at home to conduct and visiting teaching to do and so on...well, I've said before when people have asked me to help with something I didn't have time for, and I'll say it here: My time is not my own. When in the world would I be able to run a class on making bread, even if it takes just over an hour and the starter kit comes with a cute little apron?

Though Monday is The Eldest's lightest lesson load and The Baby naps reliably between 12 and 2....

Doing the Same Stuff

I want to post something scintillating, I really do. But we're just living life! We did have our friends, the F---s, over last week to play games and eat dinner and in general support the idea of relaxation that comes with Labor Day. Their girls are 11 and 7, ours are 8 and 7, their boys are 16 and 14, our boy is...2. But we get along and that's what matters.

What seems silly is the fact that it's taken us THREE YEARS of living in the same ward, of N--- being my visiting teacher, for us all to realize how well we get along. I'll blame that on the fact that the other three are introverts, while I'm an ambivert. A very distracted by four children and a house to maintain ambivert who suddenly woke up and realized that she really, REALLY wanted to socialize WITH OTHER ADULTS more. But since the others are introverts, we can only get together about twice a month without feeling smothered. (It makes me laugh a little--who knew friendship could be *work*--for me?) But I'm glad we get to hang out and have fun. It makes me a little giddy, like finding my new best friend in elementary school. In fact, this about sums it up.

Changes!

First, a heads-up: I've noticed we have a new follower. Welcome, Follower! I don't know you, but I'm glad you stopped by.

In light of the not-knowing, however, I've been going back and changing how I use names in the blog. You know my kids or you've been reading the blog long enough, so you'll know to whom I'm referring. And there will be the occasional labeled picture. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, but I'm lazy and slow. What can I say? I'm not done yet (because I've been keeping this blog for about five years. FIVE YEARS. That's a long time), but I hope to be soon.

And now on to other things, such as school! THE GIRLS HAVE STARTED SCHOOL. It's been a week now and I still haven't wrapped my head around it. OH WAIT. I know why. It's because I'm not done homeschooling. I sure thought I was, but with The Eldest's online school, I'm still the teacher. I just don't have to do any grading and I don't pick the curriculum. And it takes HOURS upon HOURS, and in the little bits of time I have to myself, I'm changing diapers or doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen or making lunch or putting children down for their naps. (Nap. Singular. I only have one child who naps any more, so I really ought to quit writing so wishfully.) I have not been so exhausted in a long, long time. But we're getting the hang of things and hopefully as the weeks wear on, The Eldest will get a little quicker at filling out all her worksheets and doing all that writing and arithmetic. The first day only took four hours and I was worried about fulfilling the 25-hours per week of school time. I AM WORRIED NO LONGER.

Thankfully, Miss Bubbly is in a carpool, so I don't have to stress about getting ALL of us out the door in the morning. She adores school, has made friends with another Type 1 in her grade who picks her up so they can go test their blood before lunch, and has envied another classmate's egg roll/broccoli lunch, which led to playing together at recess. My sociable girl is in heaven!

I would have pictures, but honestly, that's the last thing on my mind first thing in the morning. If you're lucky, I'll take one this week. Good at this history-keeping, family record thing I am not. (I'm also starting to feel a little bit like Yoda.)

The Baby also decided that she was done nursing last Sunday. It was a rather abrupt decision on her part, especially since we'd been nursing 3-4 times a day/night. Oh yikes. But ibuprofen saved the day and my body has accepted the change. It's strange to think that this little creature, who can walk and point and sign "please" and "want" and burbles constantly in a language of her own making, was a tiny baby a year ago. And now she's no longer dependent on my body's ability to feed her, which is freeing and a little sad all at the same time.

In another sense, however, this entire family is dependent on my ability to feed them! To that end, I'm going to try for a fall garden. My spring garden was almost an utter failure. I got about 12 strawberries, 7 beans, and 1 squash for my efforts, and 0 tomatoes. My rosemary is still alive, however! It's my one success and now lives happily in a pot in the much sunnier front yard. The fall garden preparations have been underway for weeks now, as I took the advice of a professional gardener in our ward (LDS church congregation) and started burying my compostables in a small pit in my future garden area. The pit is the size of a #10 can or thereabouts and once it's filled, I shovel the dirt back in and dig a new pit. I've done that about 10 times this summer, so hopefully the soil in my garden area is much more nutrient-rich than it used to be. I've also laid out paving stones so that I don't have to get my shoes muddy when I weed, and I've used a few stakes to lay out my soaker hose in a more orderly fashion. Tomorrow the seeds go in, and the labels. I'm just going to try for a blend of lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas--a simple green salad. If that's successful, then maybe, just maybe, I'll try for a bigger spring garden. It might be just green beans, since we love them and they freeze easily! I don't necessarily love gardening--there are definitely NO flowers in my yard unless they spring up on their own--but I like the experiment of making the land work for me. What can I say? I'm a control freak.

The Most Exciting Thing

I've challenged myself lately to blog at least once a week. But lately it's been difficult because we just do the same things--eat, clean, laundry, grocery shopping, church. Really, that sums it up. Oh, well, with some TV/computer/Wii time thrown in for the kids, to keep their minds and bodies moving (trust me, screen time around here is *not* brain mush time).

So the most exciting thing we did last week was rearrange our furniture. Misleading post title, huh? :D Yeah, I had fun with that. Anyway, we swapped the living and family room arrangements, making the room closest to the front door the tv room and the room next to the dining room our office. The bookshelves got moved into the garage conversion/homeschooling room/playroom (aka The Room of Requirement--brownie points if you can name where that came from). The tv room is fanTAStic--the arrangement works very well. The office is still messy--there's got to be some organizing magic I'm missing somewhere to make it all work and I'd really appreciate it if someone would just show me what it was! But it's functional enough for The Eldest to begin her schooling, and that's all we need right now.

Whee. That was fun. Hopefully I'll do better next week, since school will have started and I'll have *something* to talk about. I might even take pictures!


To make up for the lack of content, here are some of my favorite music videos for your viewing/listening pleasure:

Chronicling, for lack of a better idea

I don't know what to write, but I hate being stymied by a blank post box, so I'm going to do 13 things.

1. The Boy insists on falling into the pool! On Monday, the girls were hanging out on the seat in the deep end and their friend was hanging on near the side. The Boy came over to play and somehow managed to slip in. My friend and mother of our pool pal was closer than I was, so I pointed and yelled "Get him!" The Boy was hanging onto Pool Pal's hair to get himself to the surface, which dragged her under the water a bit. Fortunately we were able to resolve the situation in seconds, though afterwards Pool Pal claimed she was drowned. My friend was doing her best not to laugh as she explained there was a huge difference between swallowing a lot of water and drowning.

This is the third time The Boy's fallen in. The first time he was just leaning over too far and went in head first. I happened to be on my way to that side of the pool anyway, so I was able to grab the back of his shirt and haul him out. My friend said his eyes were the size of dinner plates. (She said his eyes were the same size this last time too. We get far too much amusement out of these little incidents.)

The second time we were all hanging around in the shallow end. I guess The Boy was going after a toy and slipped in, but in his words "I kicked and kicked and The Eldest saved me!" I turned around to see The Eldest holding The Boy and it took a second for my brain to register that this was not how things were supposed to be.

The Hub and I have discussed it and we think that next summer we will invest in one of those life jacket shirts and some swimming lessons for The Boy. We like him, we like swimming regularly, and it would be best if we could keep us all alive whilst swimming.

2. We've been swimming this summer! When I took the girls to their first lesson this summer (I convinced one of the college-bound teenagers from the ward to teach them--personal attention and low prices!), the swimming teacher's mom said that her kids just learned to swim by being in the pool ALL the time. She has also extended an open invitation to us to swim in their pool whenever we want--she's been telling us that for two years now. So this year we took her up on it. I asked my friend to come too, since the children thoroughly outnumber me, and so we've been going to the pool every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning for an hour and a half to two hours. Between that and the lessons, the girls are so much more comfortable in the water--as am I. And it's been great exercise! I borrowed a "baby boat" from my mother-in-law for The Baby and we were good to go. The Baby loves it too, I think.

3. This is my favorite Facebook status from the past week: "Last night was a conspiracy between my children and the universe in maternal sleep prevention." I'm just proud of my turn of phrase. Most nights are a conspiracy in maternal sleep prevention. Sometimes the mother is in on it! See: "Ergh. Reading hangover. I should NOT have stayed up until midnight."

4. The Hub and I went on an actual date on Saturday! We went to see The Dark Knight Rises, which I found to be quite enjoyable and a well-told story, and then we ate at La Hacienda Ranch, which was yummy and pricey and yummy. It was nice to be kid-free for a few hours and to spend time hanging out with The Hub, which is one of my favorite things to do.

5. Miss Bubbly and The Baby had their annual check ups last week. They're healthy, growing girls, which was to be expected. We monitor Miss Bubbly's health a little more closely, though not purposefully--it's a natural by-product of seeing a pediatric endocrinologist four times a year. It seems that we're managing her diabetes well, and we're finally in a place where we can tighten up control and get her A1C into an even healthier place.

The Baby's a bit skinnier than I realized--she didn't quite top 20 pounds (19 lbs 14 oz--she was close!), but between learning to crawl and walk in the last six months, she's been building up the ol' muscles and losing some of her rolls. Which is sad, because those rolls were MOST adorable, but I have to admit that it's nicer to have her independently mobile and able to indulge her curiosity, instead of insisting that I entertain her. She's also been my longest nurser--we're at well over 12 months and she doesn't seem to want to give it up anytime soon. I don't know how I feel about it, but it seems like time to start weaning her. Slowly.

6. On Monday we had the Smiths over for family home evening. They're a part-member family who live just one street over from us and have kids going to the same school that Miss Bubbly will be attending. We've agreed to carpool, and the best part is that I only have to pick up in the afternoons! They'll take Miss Bubbly every morning, which is a HUGE relief, because getting The Eldest out the door in the morning was the hardest part of having her in school. But now we know what everyone looks like and how to play Zingo! and lose at Apples to Apples to a 10-year-old with grace.

7. I let go of homeschooling for the summer. With Miss Bubbly going to public school (and she should already be slightly ahead of the curve. I hope) and The Eldest starting her online public school, the motivation just wasn't there. So we traded it for the valuable swimming time. I think it was a good trade.

8. If I'd numbered every paragraph, I'd be to 12 now.

9. So I'm calling it good, 'cause I ain't got nothin' else.

Moving at a Comfortable Pace

I have this photo posted in a Facebook album entitled The Inherent Madness That Is My Life. Someone commented "Would you have it any other way?" Of course not! But that does not mean I won't call it what it is. That's what defines Motherhood, in some small part--madness wrapped up in laughter and hard work and flaws of all kinds.

I live for moments like this:

(The Baby during a record THREE HOUR nap) 

and this (The Boy mugging for the camera, guitar in hand, at a playdate).

Sometimes I play at being a domestic goddess, baking lovely wonderful things for the family to eat during the week.

But I feel the most guilt and frustration when I'm surrounded by crying children, a dirty house, and I just haven't got the energy to DEAL with it all. So I was quite happy to run across this quote a few weeks ago on Pinterest:

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."

That was said by the incomparable Marjorie Hinckley, whose biography I need to acquire (that may or may not be a Christmas gift hint...). I've printed it and posted it next to the recliner I sit in most, so that I can be reminded often that I'm allowed to move along at a pace that is comfortable for *me*. And that I should be gracious enough to allow others to move at their own pace. (Except for the children, of course. Them I get to chase around with a whip...).

With school starting up for Miss Bubbly and The Eldest, I'm anticipating a lot of changes and anxiety for a few weeks as we try to re-mold our lives around other people's schedules. And anxiety is energy-zapping for me, so I'm going to have to find ways to work around it while still keeping my home as a haven from our crazy, crazy world. But I'm more aware, now, of how that works, of the importance of my stewardship as a homemaker, and hopefully all the things I've been learning for the last 16 years, ever since I left my parents' home, will come together and I'll actually be able to pull it together.

(Us last year--November 2011. I'm looking forward to comparing with this year's photo.)

For all of us.

Miss Bubbly Had A Birthday Too!

So dear Miss Bubbly has a birthday just six days after The Baby. She's very good about sharing the attention and we're very good about keeping the cakes coming. It's a win-win for everyone but our waistlines!

Anyway, we threw a Mad Scientist party for Miss Bubbly, but of the four who RSVP'd, only one made it. Also, one child's family forgot, and another child's family is away for the ENTIRE summer. So we had fun anyway. When you have your sister and your two-year-old brother, it's already a party!

First was a game of "What am I--Animal, Person, Place, or Thing?" just in case people wanted to show up. That didn't work, so we grabbed our one party guest and ran around the house, pursuing birthday treasure hunt clues to fill the laboratory with equipment. THAT was mad fun, I tell you!

 Next we built marshmallow toothpick towers (pictured in front of each girl below) and awarded prizes. That took MUCH longer than I anticipated, so we had to skip right to the food and present opening to finish the party on time!

Can't you just hear the delicious mad scientist giggles? Anyway, our party guest's father and siblings came to pick her up and we fed them extra cupcakes and juice. In return, Miss Bubbly was serenaded with one line of "Happy Birthday" in Spanish, opera-style, which induced much giggling.

So Miss Bubbly was sad that she couldn't share her awesome party with everyone who was invited, but she tells me she still had a lot of fun. And that made all the work completely worth it.

The Baby's First Birthday and Other Fun

Remember how last year I gave birth to a little girl? 

Well, here she is, one year later, enjoying the traditional first birthday chocolate cake in true one-year-old fashion.

This is how you know she enjoyed herself--she got cake EVERYWHERE. Like The Boy, she was hesitant at first, but once I got a bit of frosting into her mouth, she was all over it.

A few weeks ago I gave into The Boy and The Eldest's pleadings and let them play with the camera. I'll let you, my two dear readers, come up with the captions. Just know that The Boy's favorite pictures are of the toys in portacrib.

I'm pretty sure I have a picture of The Eldest like this, reaching for the camera. Same camera, even.

The Boy Says The Darnedest Things

We read our scriptures around the table before breakfast. Sometimes The Boy lets me help him read, but more often he insists on reading himself, flipping pages all the while. His reading goes something like this:

"Amalikiah went to the river and he crossed the river and Amalikiah had the candy..."

You get the picture. Also, can you tell we were in Alma 49 for a while?

A New Era of Darnedest Things

First, the biggest news: The Baby took her first steps yesterday! As per normal with our girls, WE WERE NOT AT HOME. What is it with them? Anyway, she toddled quickly between her Nana and her Daddy and looked quite pleased when we all cheered for her. Quite the way to celebrate the Fourth, I suppose, by declaring mobile independence. Also, I foresee the end of any peace I thought I had.

And now, we come to one of my favorite installments: Isms. The Boy has developed an interesting little mind and makes us laugh with his two-and-a-half-year-old insights. To wit--

"Dad! You're squishing on me!"

"Momma, I'm drinky."

 Talking to The Hub: "Who are you? You're crazy!"

"Look at me! I'm the cowboy from the crypt!"

While we were on vacation, The Boy slept on a mattress in our room, next to The Hub's nightstand. One morning The Hub woke up and couldn't find his phone, which had been charging on the nightstand. He finally spotted the cord leading under The Boy's pillow. The Boy was still asleep. Who knew an iPhone could replace a teddy bear?

11 Years!

2001: I was 23, The Hub was 22 (we got married 11 days before his birthday). 9/11 hadn't happened yet. I was halfway through my master's program. The Hub was still deciding whether he wanted to major in Sociology or Psychology. George W. Bush was president. I was living in the little basement apartment that would become our first home. Church was kitty-corner to our apartment. We were in Provo.

2012: I am 34, The Hub is 33 for just a few more days. 9/11 is a distant memory (but a strong one). We have four children (count 'em--FOUR), a mortgage, two cars, and The Hub has a career. We both have master's degrees. Barack Obama is president. We live in Euless (apparently we enjoy living in cities with strange names) and church is a 20 minute drive away.

Our lives have changed radically, in big ways and small ways, but I am so glad to have The Hub as my partner in crime, as my co-captain, as the yin to my yang. We've fine-tuned our communication skills, learned patience for ourselves, each other, and the children, and we've stayed strong in our testimonies and in the Church. We know what is important to us and we know how to have fun. I love my life and I love my husband. Happy eleventh anniversary to us!

Dinner Party!

So The Hub and I went to this awesome dinner party in April, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. Kind of macabre, when you think about it, but we had fun. There were just four couples at our little table and dressing up was encouraged, but not required. The hostess had placecards, a replica of one of the meals served on the Titanic, some decorations, and some information on the Titanic itself. It was pretty darn fun.

In the meantime, I knew that a couple of my friends had not necessarily been invited. Since the Titanic party was a success and so simple, I figured I could pull off something like it, but on a much smaller scale. I scheduled with my friends, thought up a theme, and went to work.

The theme was Steampunk Light. (Wikipedia "steampunk" entry, for enlightenment.) For me, it was really, really light. It could have been Victoriana Light, honestly, aside from the metal fan I'd borrowed from my helpful mother-in-law, and some metal accessories that I put up. But there were no corsets involved (sigh of relief) and I made it very clear to all participants that costumes were optional and only needed to be as accurate as they wanted to be.

I called the event An Evening in the Den of the Lost Wanderer. Strangely enough, I had all kinds of fun "artefacts" that I could pull together--a handmade pirate hat, a real dagger, some leather pouches, lanterns, flowers in iron vases, leather bound books, paper fans and lanterns and parasols, a kimono-like robe, bamboo poles, maps, a LEGO pirate ship, crystal candlesticks, and scads of velvet and silk. I borrowed another globe from my mother-in-law and felt like I was set. In my mind, the room was part of a mansion abandoned by some Victorian-era explorer who was lost in some remote wilderness on the other side of the world.

(Side note: It sounds like I had this complete vision I was working from. Not really. It evolved as I continued to plan. Also, my mother made a trip out here just to babysit. Okay, maybe she wanted to spend some time with us, but she was a fantastic sport and took care of the kids so we could party uninterrupted.)

It was a success! The food was potluck, the conversation flowed continuously, and the games were fun. We played The Sentence Game and Other Foot, which is homemade Apples to Apples. My cheeks hurt because I was laughing so much. I kind of wish I'd taken more pictures--the ones I have are from the next day, before I took everything down--but I don't care. The important thing is that everyone had fun. And I am SO doing this again!

New Shower!

Our house is nearly 50 years old, and some parts of it weren't very well maintained. For instance, the grout in between the tiles of the master shower completely disappeared. I caulked some of the bigger gaps, but it wasn't enough to keep the drywall from deteriorating and the wall getting a hole knocked in it. So we talked to a few people who really, REALLY wanted to help us fix up our shower, figured out how to get a home improvement loan, and ended up with this:

Much nicer than a wall with a hole in it, let me assure you.

In which I bring us up to date

Now that I'm all caught up on last year, I should talk about this year before it's half over, right? 

As part of coping with having a newborn and three other children, The Baby and I did a lot of sleeping in the recliner. One morning I couldn't go back to sleep, so I played around with my phone's camera. The verdict? I really need to figure out how to work a camera. :D

I don't know why, but this picture of The Baby makes me giggle:

 The Baby has done a lot of developing in the last few months, getting more mobile and more into EVERYthing. So I had to come up with creative ways to distract her while doing necessary things like cleaning the bathroom (and occasionally using it). Here she's enjoying emptying her little toy bin for the umpteenth time:

 Baby love on my leg:

Lest we forget, there are other children who exist in this household:

I can't remember when I took this picture of The Boy (reason 348 why I need to blog more often) , but I love it:

He has since been de-binkied, under much protest.

Here are The Boy and The Fake Child, whom I watch once or twice a week. She's about a year older than he is, and they both have high-pitched voices and talk about random things, like the mean squirrels who aren't allowed on the porch.

After reading about Sumerian temples one day, The Eldest and Miss Bubbly decided to make their own:

I thought they were quite creative.

 The Boy loves taking pictures on my phone:

The Baby in the grass, previous to conquering crawling. If she could have, I think she would have crawled right off it--she was NOT a fan.

Oh look! Another picture of The Boy and me.

The Baby makes funny faces.

The Baby in her Easter dress, holding her very securely taped Easter Egg. She's holding it in the next picture, too, but you can't see it because she's shaking it intently.

I've been trying to get on top of this whole "homemaking" thing, in which I do weekly chores and have a routine and have a clean house--and a clean bathroom!--when my visiting teachers come over.  Part of homemaking, for me, now includes a baking day, which I love. The week of this picture, I produced four loaves of bread, several hamburger buns (some of them were HUGE), granola, and my first turkey. Not bad, huh?

The Baby has discovered that her mouth can be used as an extra hand.

Bad picture, but I was only able to capture it this once. This is what we call The Baby's "oooo" face.

Sibling bathtime!

The Baby is now a bonafide crawler and has two bottom teeth. She's working on more, but they haven't actually cut through yet. She loves her solid foods, and now eats finger foods quite adroitly. The Boy has been talking more and more--so much that I'm convinced he's quite articulate for a 2.5-year-old. Though he still tosses out phrases like "I don't love it" when he, well, doesn't love something (the current tv show, the vegetables on the plate, and so forth).

Miss Bubbly is doing well, having fun with homeschooling and helping The Boy learn how to use the computer. She misses The Eldest, though, and I can't blame her. And why does she miss The Eldest? Because we put her in public school for the last six week session. It's a requirement of the online school we're trying to get her into for next year, that she be enrolled in public school the previous year. I didn't find this out until APRIL, so we had to make some hasty decisions. But The Eldest is loving it and thriving, which is all I could ask for. 

A week before determining that The Eldest needed to attend public school, Miss Bubbly came to me and said that she wanted to go to school. She wants to make more friends and have recess, among other things. I've always said that I'd homeschool the kids for as long as they let me, and I guess this is it! Miss Bubbly is more of an extrovert, so I understand her need to be around more people. Also, I'm more comfortable with her starting school in second grade--I've had time to see how she operates and form reasonable expectations for her behavior. And I think she'll take to public school like a duck to water. 

 But just to show you how cool of a mom I am, I took The Eldest out of school for Student Day at the Renaissance Festival. Next year, we're totally dressing up.

 JOUSTING!!

And now I officially declare myself CAUGHT UP. Huzzah!