Ringing in Fall

I wanted Fall to feel very welcome to begin so I decided to have a yummy fall breakfast/get together Saturday. So, we invited over cousins and had some yummy food. I also surprised the kids by having a few autumn decorations up when they woke and the table set for our breakfast. I love that my kids still get so excited by little things.

Mmmmmm...highly recommended by all.

Still reigning pancake eating champion.

Sorry I can't get enough of Sadie's cheeeeeese face. It makes me laugh.

Unfortunetly, Fall is a little shy in coming and the day ended up being the dreaded 1-0-5. Just a few more days til we're in the 90's hopefully!

Cantamos Americanos

Thursday was the 4th grade musical. Every year before the musical we all become very familiar with the selected songs. They had a Latin theme this year, as you may have guessed, and I completely surprised Emma when I started singing "Guantanamera" with her.
"How...do you know that song???" It's nice to amaze them once in awhile:)

Ready for the show to begin.
Emma and Jane love being in class together this year!

OLE!

The Case For My Superhero

Awhile ago my little sister Sally wrote an awesome blog post comparing her boyfriend to a superhero. Now before you go comparing her writing skills to mine, just know, in fairness to myself, that she has an unfair advantage.
#1- She was born with smarter genes than I was. Completely out of my control.
#2- She is in the process of getting her PhD, during which time I've been dumbed down by 4 pregnancies and conversing with those 4 little kids all day long.
Right? I just wanted point out that even though sisters are marred by comparisons from birth, they maybe unjustified in this case.

Anyhow, ever since I read that little gem, it's got me thinking about my own beloveds super-hero"isms". And since he's not at all lacking in that department (although is without any birthmarks of note), I thought I might point a few of my favorites out.

For starters, lets just throw out the fact that he's about to run his 4TH marathon next weekend. His time last year was 3 hrs 48 mins. This just astounds me. And on the same note he can bust out a 10 mile "practice run" like it's a jaunt around the block. I've never seen anyone so dedicated. I'm so glad because eventually when we have no little ones to care for, I know I can count on him dragging me to the gym with him.

He is great at entertaining everyone around him with little tricky moves he's got down. Spinning books on one finger, magic tricks, hackey sack, you name it, he's probably good at it. I will eternally feel uncoordinated around him. He won a 70's dance contest when we were dating as I looked on in awe. He danced on American Bandstand at 14. He has dreams sometimes that he's in a boy-band (no lie) and I die laughing when he tells me about them. He used to walk on his hands when we were dating too- to impress me I think. And it kinda worked.

This may be diverting a little from the theme of the post but I can't leave it out. He's got serious dad skillz. He really plays with them (something that I'm not always awesome at) and is always trying his best. They are all over-the-moon for their daddy.

I tell him frequently that he was born under a lucky star. He always wins drawings. I've been waiting for his lucky streak to run out but it never seems to. On the other hand I do sometimes win if they draw until everybody wins something and then I'm the last name or second til. It's nuts. But I'm not complaining. Oftentimes I'm the beneficiary of his winnings.

Actually...I know I am a very lucky girl. I get to be married to him in all his awe-inspiring glory and truly love him more and more with each passing year.
Good luck on your race honey! You'll knock my socks off. You always do...

We've All Said Goodbye...So....

Dear Summer,

We had one last little hoorah outside with swimsuits and the hose just for you the other day. Did you know today is the first official day of Fall? Time to pass the baton on your annual relay over. Have you seen the cute autumny clothes in the kids closets? They are screaming to be worn. I know you're very intense so don't take this the wrong way K? But we're all done with the one-oh-five's down here in the Valley of the Sun. As Holly says "pretty pink and purple please?"

Love,
your friend who tries not to complain too much about you but at the end of Sept starts to become a little impatient :)

Sisters

With our 2 big kids spending much of their day at school again, I get lots of time with these little girls. The photo above is Sadie's "cheese" face. I love it!

The older Sadie gets, the more she watches what her big sisters and brother do. She models her behavior after them. Dana and I teach her a ton, but they show her the ways kids act. Because she spends so much time with Holly, I've really noticed her take in everything Holly does and I know there is much more to come.

It pretty much BUGS that this picture is blurry but it shows just what I'm talking about. I asked them to do something for the photo and right away Sadie looked at Holly for guidance. There's something very sweet about this whole process to me. I very much felt like this about my big sister when I was little. I still feel much the same today. I cherish her opinion. I also look up to and admire my younger siblings, who have all turned out be wonderfully outstanding.
I can only hope the same future for these little girls....for all 4. I hope that, along with some things I wish she wouldn't learn from them (i.e. telling me "ooo mean mama"), will be feelings of helping and caring and belonging and happiness and acceptance. That when they're grown and their childhood squabbles are behind them, they will see their best friends around them. That they'll be blessed the same way I have been. :)

I love...

...that love abides in our home.

"Fool Me Twice...." or 4 times....

Situation:
You are making dinner. You're up to your elbows in it and trying to multi-task with the best of them. You hear your 2 year old yelling "MAMA! MAMA!" At the back door. She wants to come in and can't yet reach the handle. You see your 7 year old and ask him to open the door for her. He readily complies. Problem should be solved. But don't forget...your child is 2. She does not want HIM to open the door. She wants YOU to open it. She stands there wailing and yelling "No You! Mama! Mama! MAMA!" She won't come in. She won't allow the door to be re-shut. You continue as long as you can but realizing there's no end in sight to the yelling and crying, you stop everything and go over there. You tell her to come on in. She continues to cry. Finally you shut the door and re-open it with a fake smile "Come on in Sadie!" She immediatly stops crying and says "Oh, dank goo." She's happy for about 5 mins until something else rubs her wrong.
Then it hits you that it's happened again. You're sweet little one that you never thought you could put on time out or be upset with is testing those boundries.
She made it all the way to 2 and a half but we are definetly here in the stubborn "terrible twos": where limited understanding meets verbalability. We'll be trying to keep it in perpective for the next while :)

A Campin' We Will Go!

We finally went camping for the first time since Emma was about 6 months old. Here she is on that trip: Here she is 9 years later:

We went to Payson (or somewhere right past there) over Labor Day weekend. It felt sooooo good to breathe in that fresh, cool air. I kept telling the kids to fill up their lungs with it. My sweet sister Amy let us tag along with her and some friends from her ward.

When we got there Eli ran straight for this little teepee. This was a fun thing all my kids played with at different times over the weekend. They would rebuild it when it fell apart and sweep the floors with pine needle "brooms".

Eli also wanted to carry this hatchet around everywhere he went and LOVED chopping tree stumps and sticks with it. Luckily he came home with all his fingers in tact.

He and cousin Dallin chopping:
It's always fun watching Sadie and Campbell together. They have hilarious little conversations that always include which things are theirs. Especially whose mom is whose.
I really lucked out on this trip because there were two girls there that knew much more about my camara than I did and they took time to show me a few things things. One was Amy Fraughton who's a professional photographer (see her link to the right) and the other girl had the same camara as me but was a few steps ahead of me on it.
I took my camara over to manuel for the first time and experimented. I got some blurriness because of it but it was so fun!
And I feel like I can take a little bit more credit for the shots I like.
This picture I took on a bright setting and than darkened it at home.
Camping feet.
Amy showing me how to do backlit pictures in the morning.
Letting as much light in as I could, without a blurry picture while we were having s'mores. Definetly need more work on that.
So fun to camp in all these big trees!
Too bright but a fun one.
These of Holly are my favorites. After I showed her this picture (because of course she always has to "see") she tried to wipe her very dirty face....
...with her very dirty hand. Then she said "did I get it?" So funny :)
Blurry, but I loved the tongue too much to leave it out.
We went on a super fun hike and found this little guy. Any guesses on what it is?
Sadie and daddy on the hike.
Taking a break.
On Sunday we drove over to "the Rim" and had lunch. That was so amazing and beautiful. And a little stressful to have our kids this close to a deadly cliff.

One of my favorites from the trip. I feel so blessed to live by my sister! Thanks again Ame!

It was a great trip! I brought "The Wednesday Letters" and even got to read it for about 10 mins :) Overall a super fun and relaxing time.

I changed my blog URL. So it's very probable that you're not reading this right now. Emma's blog, which is now private, had a 23 yr old Indian man "follower". He really liked her "Crazy Holly, sweet holly" post. Ahhh, isn't that sweet? Actually, I looked at his blog of course and it looked very harmless. But still- thought I may want to take the hint and take a few safety precautions like taking my last name out of my URL. I was super scared that my blog might get erased but the "help" button said it was okay. It did erase my "blog list" but I was VERY relieved to see my blog was still here. Yea!