Even Michael Has Homework Already!

Lauren and Michael

He's already doing fifth grade math!  Seriously, though, isn't Lauren just so cute doing her homework while holding Michael?  

We really like the new table, but the floor is not holding up at all to more regular use, just look at that!  Someday...

Two Boys

James and Michael

When I hold Michael (which makes it sound like I sometimes don't hold Michael--hah!), James likes to climb on my lap and say, "Two boys," in a very satisfied way.  (Someone help me, I still don't know how to punctuate properly; and I think I gave all my style guides away long ago.)   I think he's glad there are two boys.  I'm glad, too.

12 Years Ago

I love this picture.  After three years of waiting, we were finally married!  When the children see this picture they say two words:  temple and happy.  I think that just about sums it all up.  

12 years and five children and a whole lot of water under the bridge have given us more perspective and understanding.  We love the family we have created and look forward to seeing where it all leads.

A Small and Simple Thing

 

James Built a Temple

James tells me that this is a temple.  We've taken the children to visit the Los Angeles Temple twice since Michael was born. In August, just before Liffy was baptized, Lauren gave a us special tour of the temple grounds based on the tour she led for the primary back in June.  What a great experience that was for her.  I'm so grateful for inspired Primary leaders who had the older Primary children lead the younger children on the tours.  She learned so much about the temple from it, but the most important lesson she learned is that testimonies are strengthened when they are borne.  We enjoyed spending that afternoon at the temple with our family.  

Our Family (I promise we're all there)

On Steve's birthday we took a special trip to the newly re-opened Visitor's Center at the Los Angeles temple.  What a lovely place to spend an afternoon.  The Church has created a marvelous center for learning more about the Gospel and its purpose.  There were so many things to see and do, we're going to need to take a second trip!  

These early experiences with the temple clearly have an effect, since James now builds temples out of blocks.  I hope the time spent learning about the temple will carry my children through more treacherous stages of their life.

Look Out, Here He Comes!

Michael rolled from back to tummy today.  Mama's so proud!

Playing with Baby

Funny Michael

Tummy Time

A Girl Is Baptized, and A Boy Is Blessed

What a beautiful eight-year-old girl...

And a perfectly wonderful 17-day-old baby boy.

I wish we had gotten a picture of the two of them together!  We had all the family in town, so we added a baby blessing on to the baptismal program.  Liffy was pleased to share her special day with her new baby brother.  She loves him so very much.  We all do!

We were grateful that most of our siblings and spouses were in attendance.  We missed Christian and Emily, though!  We were also very happy to have Grandpa Russ and Grandma Loraine there.  The weekend was beautiful, cool for August, and we were able to enjoy the company out in the beautiful backyard.

Our Sweet Arrival

Michael Andrew

10 lb 5 oz

An absolute joy.

We already love him so very much.  Watching the older children care for him only adds to our love for them all.   It's a tub of love around here!

The Clean-Up Crew

I have two children who are terrified of lizards.  One of them tends to walk around on furniture instead of the floor, for fear of stepping on a lizard.  I'll bet you can guess who uses that excuse for jumping from table to sofa to chair!

Yesterday when we came home from Grandma Pickle's house all the kids ran out to the cement to ride their scooters.  Seconds later they came running back into the house screaming like a bunch o' crazies. "A LIZARD ON THE CEMENT!  IS IT DEAD OR ALIVE?!!! IT HAS NO TAIL!  AAAAGGHHHH! WHAT WILL WE DO?"

Fortunately, we have some heroes in the house whose initials are neither M nor D.  Because, of course, M & D are both too busy rolling their eyes at the wimps who are screaming about a lizard.  Puppy (NOT James, ask him) ran to the kitchen where he found not one, but TWO dustpans, marched into the family room, said "I CLEAD UP ISSSS" (translation: I'll clean up the lizard) whereupon Caroline, remembering that she is NOT one of the aforementioned wimps, seized one of the dustpans and they both tromped off to the cement slab with heroic zeal.  Within moments they returned triumphant, Caroline announcing "We threw the lizard into the bush!"  with Puppy echoing "Eesh!" behind her.  "Ip, Ip, Hooway!"  Scooter-riding has been saved!

Denouement:
Drama never quite being over, a few minutes later Liffy was on the couch weeping because she had lost a VERY important heart button  (intended to be a gift for Lauren, so it really was important).  Puppy, assuming she was still upset over the lizard, took her face in his hands, leaned in close and said, "I clead up, kay?  Isss don.  I clead up.  Eesh."  (translation: I cleaned up, okay?  The lizard's gone. I cleaned it up.  It's in the bush.)

It' good to have some heroes in the house. 

I Finished Something!

I made this onesie and receiving blanket set for one of Steve's former co-workers.  He'll probably wear it to a court appearance.  Just kidding -- it's for his baby.  It was fun to make (can you find the matching cars?), but I really wish I could figure out how to do things before the night before.  Also, my zig-zagging could use a little work.  Some people just straight-stitch around the appliques, but I worry about fraying, since I'm not overly fond of the ragged look.  I think I get a little better at this every time.  Maybe someday I'll be impressed by the handiwork, and not just amazed that I actually completed a project.

If You Can't Live at Camp Bullfrog...

This is the girls'  re-creation of a picnic down at the pond.  The white pole standing up at the right has about fifty branches of leaves taped to it-- I think to represent a pine tree.  I'm wondering if the real Camp Bullfrog needs a picnic table down by the pond.  One with benches, so pregnant mommies have somewhere to sit.

Let's do it again for real!

We Had a Great Saturday (Finally!)

Saturdays have been a little rough lately--I've been tired after a long week, Steve just wants to relax, the kids are tired of school and want to PLAY, which means a whirlwind hits our house and destroys it every weekend.  So a couple of weeks ago, even though there was a doozy of a rainstorm, we parents decided to manage our day a little better.  Saturday morning I took the kids to a couple of thrift shops, which they love, and found some great books-including a fairy tale book that I have been looking for since Lauren was 3.  The girls love to go to thrift shops and each found something cheap, but lovely to bring home.  Lunch was Souplantation.  Up, down, up, down, up, down.  Cheap way to feed kids pizza bread, though!

Afternoon took us to the library for a wild animal show.  Among the animals were an alligator, tarantula, parrot and porcupine.  They even had a wallaby!   That was pretty fun.  The star of the show was a screaming hairy armadillo.  So funny!!!  I have never heard of such a thing, but I'm telling you, we were all in stitches.

We then came home and made bread dough sculptures.  I have no idea where the energy for that came from, but there it was, and we made some very fun sculptures.  Here is a sampling:

Lauren hard at work.

The result: a diorama showing a comparison between a wallaby and a kangaroo

Liffy made a pair of ice skates.  The detail was fantastic, too bad it doesn't show very well.

Our exotic animals:  the screaming hairy armadillos, wallaby and kangaroo.

Caroline made a bunny's backside.  Love the fluffy tail.

James made faces and ate bread dough.

Then we ate up all our creations with homemade chicken noodle soup.  The kangaroo and wallaby belong to  Lauren, so they have taken up permanent residence on the library table.  She's giving Mort and his grape bread sculpture a run for their money. 

As I said, it was a great day. 

On Flexibility

 

It's rather hard to see what's going on here, this baby is camera-shy.  Let me see if I can explain:  the middle is the face, on the right is the baby's trunk (did you know I was has having an elephant?)  and then right above the face is - a foot!  Just looking at it makes me uncomfortable.  We've already signed him/her up for the circus! 

Fun with Picnik

I enjoy playing around with easy photo editing tools (uh, NOT photoshop) and find Picnik.com to be the simplest, even if somewhat incomplete.  Look how cute that picture turned out to be with all kinds of fun things done to it!  The funky shadows look intentional, when really mommy was too tired to get up and pull down the blind for the sake of the picture.  That's why I'll never be a photographer instead of just designated picture taker of much admired subjects.  Just. too. tired.  (I also like that it sort of hides the peeling paint on the kitchen wall.  Unacceptable really, since I don't live in a centuries-old Italian villa.)

I Wasn't Eating, So I Took Pictures

 

 Lunch!

 Enchiladas, Rice and Beans

Get it in there!

Make sure you get that bit on your arm!  Nothing wasted!

Glare at your mother!

 I can use utensils, too!

Get a drink.

Lunch is over!