Ballerinas and Watermelons

 Kyle just asked if I wanted to post about his bruise.  He even gave me a potential title: "My Husband's Super Tough." Then he showed his arm and his bruise. It was from a soccer game a couple of days ago. No pictures, sorry. Consider his bruise blogged about. :)

Now on to other things.

Ruby did turn one, the kids had their first days of school, Cade lost a tooth and there are plenty of other blogworthy things going on around here which will eventually make their way here, but for now, I just wanted to post these precious pictures of the girls that is a pretty good representation of a snipit of our daily life now that Cade is back in school. I'm not displaying any sick forms of favoritism, I swear. It's just my girls will actually look at the camera.

Here's our cute little crawling watermelon from behind. I'm so glad I finally got a picture of her in her swimming suit. I wish they made one for adults just like it. I'd like a hat, too, please.

Hi!

The dancing ballerina.

Savannah is always dancing. In fact, my neighbor across the street remarked to me the other day how much she enjoys looking out her window and watching her. "Savannah never walks! There's always a hop, skip, or twirl going on when she's getting from one place to the next." I love that she picked up on that. That is Savvy to a T. I'm looking forward to taking her to dance again, which starts next week. It'll be fun for her to learn some new moves that she can use around the house. She even creates her own music to dance to by howling out this opera-ish vibrato sound. It's hilarious.

I'm grateful I can share in these sweet, daily moments with my children. Staying home with them is the greatest blessing in the world. I often try to take mental pictures and just let the precious moments sink in. This time I was lucky enough to have a camera. Being a Mom is the best job in the universe.

The many faces of savvy

I saw these photos of Sav and couldn't pass up posting them. I don't think these have made their way on the blog yet. This was on St. Patrick's day... if you couldn't tell.

57 minutes

It's a bit strange to me that my children are going to school right now. It's August. August used to be a sacred summer month when I was growing up. We were protected by the "Kings Dominion" law we referred to it as. There was a theme park that heavily depended upon teen workers and so we couldn't go back to school until AFTER Labor Day, when the parks' hours went to just weekends.

So what is a Mom to do on a hot, sunny August day when her oldest is in school and the two younger ones are napping?

I 'll tell you all the things I could have done:

1. I could have hung up my clothes littering my closet floor.
2. I could have put away my laundry spilling all over my bedroom floor.
3. I could have dusted my dresser.
4. I could have scrubbed my toilet...or shoot, cleaned my entire bathroom for that matter.
5. I could have cleaned the smudgy windows on the front door.
6. I could have paid the bills.
7. I could have trimmed the bushes. 
8. I could have cleaned out the garage (again).
9. I could have filed away papers.
10. I could have put Ruby's too-small clothes in the right bin.

Instead....

I basked in the sun with a bowl of Oreos and a glass of milk and read for 57 glorious minutes.

And after the  57 minutes were up? Well, I managed to get 1 and 2 on the list done before the girls woke up. 8-10 will have to wait until tomorrow...and the next day.

{The book I was reading was eye-opening. I highly recommend it. It's called Stand for the Family.  If you want to protect the next generation, and every generation after, read it.}

The Moments

I'm a lovely combination of energized, exhausted, empowered, informed, enlightened strengthened and sleepy. After watching my nephews for a week and a half, I launched into the week that I look forward to the absolute very most each year when life allows: Education Week. At my former college campus I join thousands of others and attend for 5 glorious days morning, noon, and night classes that range all over the spectrum of topics. It has been fantastic. 


One of the millions of thoughts I've heard this week that has touched my heart was to enjoy the moments. I hope I can do better with this.


I was looking through my phone of pictures taken this past winter, and these are some moments I don't think ever made it to the blog.

When Cade fell in love with reading.

I couldn't wait for the day my child didn't want to do what I asked him because his nose was in a book. Cade had recently discovered The Magic Treehouse books and even though we were going to Pirate Island as a family to celebrate savannah's birthday, he walked through the parking lot with his nose in the book. I wanted Kyle to take a picture of this monumental event.  Cade looked up from his book for a quick second to smile. As a mother who loves books--- this was a moment I treasured deeply. 

When she had hair.

Savannah is full of expressions and emotions. I actually wasn't here for these pictures, but I feel like I was in this moment thanks to Kyle for taking these pictures.

On Savannah's 4th birthday, Kyle took her to one of his favorite places and I think it's a sweet little tradition. He took her to a beauty school to have her nails painted and hair styled. That is, back when Savannah had hair to do. I think I already told the story of how Savannah inadvertently thinned out half the hair on her head while "combing out the tangles" with her fingers one night.  I look back at this picture and am happy she at least hair then to be styled. In time, in time.   Her faces crack me up.  I love this girl!

The thing that happened AFTER the restuarant...

As a family we went to Kyle's favorite restaurant: Macaroni Grill. I usually poo-poo his idea to go here because I think it's too noisy, but I knew better than to shoot him down on his special day. We actually went in the early evening/late afternoon so it wasn't noisy at all.  The kids have always seemed to turn eating spaghetti into an "event." See for yourself:

Now what I actually remember about this is Savannah got the stomach flu this evening...I cleaned up a lot of spaghetti that night.


Kyle hates dessert. Especially chocolate cake. Yes, I still love him for that because, after all, that leaves more cake for me, doesn't it?  The one type of cake Kyle does like is the funfetti with sprinkles cake. Turns out two of his brothers like this kind of cake, too. Pretty funny. Savannah and I enjoyed baking these   funfetti cupcakes together. Can you guess which one she put sprinkles on?

Duct Tape, Staples, and Pogo Sticks

Hi. What of my feet you ask? Funny you should ask.

Well, this is what they looked like a little less than a year ago:

And this is what they look like now!

AMAZING!

Truly, the purpose of my having a double bunionectomy was to prevent suffering from arthritis in my feet at an obscenely young age. But now looking at my feet, they look so NORMAL. For vain reasons alone, I would have done it! Was it worth it? Yes. 

I prematurely stocked up on wedges and attempted wearing them about 6 weeks ago. The swelling in my feet had gone down tremendously and in summer...it's just so hard to pass up a cute pair of shoes.  My big toes went numb after wearing them to church, so I decided I should wait another few weeks. I wore them yesterday to church and they didn't go numb! I think we are almost healed! All that's left are some fading white scars. As you can see, my left foot still isn't perfect, but it's a great deal better off than it was before. 

Friends!

We got to spend some time with dear friends of ours who were visiting Utah. We met them while living in Chicago and love every chance we get to be with them, even though both of our families have moved from Chicago. The sad thing?  No pictures of us together. Bummer. They were so sweet to invite us to their daughter Delaney's 7th birthday party at Build-A-Bear. My kids have never been there, so this was definitely a baptism by fire experience for both myself and the little ones. Cade got bit by the "I want" bug and tearfully left the store with "only" a new bear in a Darth Vadar outfit. Not one of my proudest moments as a mother.  Savvy picked a white kitty and a white wedding dress...to offset Cade's bear's black on black I suppose?  In any case, both of my kids L-O-V-E their bears and it has been fun to see how they truly have become their little "buddies."  Savvy sleeps with Kelly every night and when she leaves the house she makes sure I know to feed her and to play with her while she's gone.

Staples.

Long story short, Savvy ran into a table (nothing new) but this time a trip to the Urgent Care resulted (new).  This is how the nurse applied local anesthetic to her head to prep it for a staple:  (notice Savvy clutching Kelly. I'm so glad we brought her!)  If you'd like to read the long version, you can check it out here on my other blog...

Sibling love.

Motherly love.

Ruby hanging out in the procedure room with us. She was pretty content at the moment. 

Speaking of Ruby....

She's walking along anything she can get her hands on. Lately she's been free standing for a few seconds.

I'm sure it won't be long before this little one is walking. 

I wouldn't mind if she took her time though hitting that milestone. The last 11.5 months have gone by way too fast...

We had a little pool party in celebration of my brother and his family's arrival to Utah before heading off to China....

Mom holding Ruby. For many it is a rare sight to see Ruby being held by someone else besides me and her not crying. It's a miracle. Especially the fact that I was in plain sight because was the one behind the camera!

This is my crazy running sister Melody. She ran 18 miles that morning...or was it the next morning?  Not sure. Yes, that is her baby and her tiny waist despite that being her baby. Don't hate her. :) She provided the meal for us that night. Hawaiian Haystacks. 

Dr. Jon on the phone during part of the party. I can appreciate this shot, because had my husband been present, he would have likely been doing the same thing. My guess is Jon was either on the phone with a patient, or discussing the Young Men's organization in his ward...

Austin was very sweet to entertain Savvy. She can be kind of bossy and sassy but he just plays right along with her. Isn't she cute in her swim cap? No, she's not on swim team. No, I'm not worried about the chemicals in the pool or hot tub ruining her hair. She had to protect her newly stapled together head. I just couldn't bear to tell my daughter she couldn't swim for a whole week so we solved the problem pretty effortlessly with this darling pink swim cap.

Little sis Rebecca bringing out the dessert she made. Jake did the toppings. It was yummy!

This was the highlight of our evening. I jokingly refer our back yard to the Woodbury Swim and Pogo Club. We grew up pogo-sticking and my Dad recently invested in a new one so we had to Christen it by my brother pogo-sticking into the pool.  Awesome.

Duct Tape.

So, what is one to do when company comes to town and you need to house more bodies and still keep your baby napping? You find a new room for the baby to sleep. Our closet seemed good enough. 

Except for the skylight. Remember, baby likes sleeping in a dark cave?

So, I did this:

About 45 minutes after putting Ruby down for her nap in the closet I came in to see her playing the drums on the cardboard that had fallen at just the perfect spot over the crib so she could stand and pound on it to her heart's content. Sigh... I did try. I need to get more duct tape I guess.

Two extra kids around...

Whew. My hat is off to moms with lots of little ones. Granted, my nephews are not babies, so they can mostly feed and dress themselves, but it still is a lot of work keeping 5 kids fed, bathed, and happy.  So far it has gone well. Finn is a little older than Savvy and they play great together. Eli is 7 months younger than Cade, and equally infatuated with all things Lego, so they get along well together, too. It's really a great combination and it has been so fun getting to know my nephews better.

Finn, reportedly dressed up as an alien after refueling the rocket ship's fuel tank. (Putting the recycling in the recycling bin)

Lego City was leveled soon after Eli's arrival and they are now in the early stages of redesigning it. Every day it gets a little bigger.  

Ruby, just being Ruby! We have to make sure there are gates EVERYWHERE. This girl recently has been caught attempting to climb up the stairs. 

Savvy, very clearly being Savvy.

After I snapped this photo Savannah asked me, "Didn't you like my cute smile for that picture, Mom."

Why yes. Yes I did. My favorite was her wearing my sandals though. A very common occurrence around here.

Finn, truly happy to just be alive!  This is the look on his face 98% of the time.

Finn is also often deep in thought. He spends a lot of time contemplating something or other while staring at the bottom of the hot tub. It's hilarious.

Todaywe were treated to a very special visit by Allie Schmutz and her cousin. Allie used to babysit my kids when we lived in Chicago and her mother is a very dear friend of mine.  They came over and joined us for a swim and then spend the next few hours reading to kids and keeping Ruby happy even though I wasn't holding her. What teenager comes over to a twenty-something's house to hang out and help out? Allie does. She's the best! Of course her arrival was celebrated with nothing less than chocolate cake. It was delicious, if I do say so myself.

Evolution of Ruby...

Contentedly reading a book...totally oblivious that Mom is not holding her.

Oh. Mom. You are behind the camera. Which means you aren't holding me.

Waaaaaaaaaaaah!

P.S. I love this picture because Allie is in it and right behind her is the cute little secretary's desk that her Mom gave me when we were in Chicago. I love it because of how functional it is, but also because of who it came from.