Heavenly Father Loves Tyler

Here's the proof:

Turkey Hill ice cream is now sold in a local store.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup can now be stocked regularly in our freezer.  Other brands may attempt to get it right, but no one else does so many ribbons of peanut butter to get the perfect combination.  Perfect timing, too, since it could be years before we head back east again.  Ever since we were married 18 years ago and he tasted the stuff he has to buy a couple cartons every time we visit.  Before 9/11 he even checked a cooler with ice cream and dry ice on the airplane.  As recently as a few days ago some family members drove him some cartons out here, even though they had to make three stops to find dry ice and buy rubber gloves to handle it in order to bring it out in perfect condition.  So there you go - tender mercy of the year for this man.  He must be living right.

Yellow Vibes

There must have been some yellow vibes flowing at our house last Sunday.  Tyler, Callie, Hannah and I all got dressed at different hours and did not consult one another but we ended up pretty

match-y.  Of course that called for pictures.  Jacob is becoming quite the competent photographer, thanks to his photography belt loop in scouts.  It takes some skill to snap some decent pictures with such ridiculous subjects.  

I love them all, anyway.  Or maybe because of it all?

J also captured these cuties:

I love having help behind the camera so that we can get a better picture of what really goes on around here.  Good work, Jacob!

Sequence

I taught Jacob how to play Sequence today.  He rocked it and beat me on our first game - but only by one move.  Sounds like we'll have to play again soon.

Thanks, Camden, for being our photographer.

Lego Lessons

My boys are pretty in to building their own Lego creations at our house.  The other day, Camden spied some coveted pieces on his brother's ship and did the unthinkable:  he took them off to build his own spacecraft.  I took some pictures of his cool plane before having him take the pieces off and return them to his brother.  Sharing is sooo hard sometimes.

Snuggling

I am a snuggler - always have been.  One of the many bubbles that have been burst in my idea of motherhood was that I would get to cuddle with my kiddos.  While there have been a few of those moments, most of my children came too busy discovering the world to stop and snuggle with their mama.  Even when it comes to bedtime, most of my children prefer to be put in their beds and left alone.  Even with three hours of church on Sundays, I can probably count on my fingers - cumulatively - how many times my last five babies fell asleep in my arms.  Tyler was the one to discover that when the crib was not accessible, they would fall asleep in the stroller.

But the other day, Emmie never fell asleep for her nap, and by five o'clock in the afternoon she was a little grumpy.  I sat down with Emmie and Camden and we read some books together, and as soon as Camden climbed off my lap Emmie swung her legs over and staked her claim.  A few rocks and she was asleep and I was in heaven.  I had forty-five minutes of bliss before she woke up.  It was wonderful!

Partway through Camden wanted to read again so we moved to the couch, but the snuggling continued.

 If you look closely you can see Emmie's tongue is poking out - that is always how she sleeps.

Thanks for the snuggling, Little Mie.

I heart Fresh Basil

I've been working on my bucket list a little this summer.  I don't have things written down officially, but now checked off are going to Mt. Rushmore, and growing my own basil.  

It's on a planter on my front porch, and when it is watered it gives off its wonderful basil-y aroma and I think I have been transported to Italy.  It's like a mini vacation whenever I go out there and smell it.  

It made perfect Margherita Pizza.  And as of last night I finally purchased fresh mozzarella cheese and could make my own Caprese Salad.  I think I am the only one who cared, but I loved it.

Up next is fresh, homemade pesto sauce.  Can't wait.

On the First Day of School

This is the girl that planned to walk to school with a big group of friends, that set out in the rain, that was saved by another mom, on the first day of school. (I did offer to drive).

 These are the German Pancakes, baked by Mom, to please her Drew, to feed the youngest four, on the first day of school.

 These are the boys up and dressed before seven, who were excited to bike to school, who had to get a ride because of the rain, on the first day of school. (If you look very closely in the top right, you can see a certain little girl jumping in a puddle in the middle of the street.)

These are the bikers who rode all around, who begged their mom to still ride, even though it was raining, on the first day of school.

 These are the two who stayed behind and played in the rain, on the first day of school.

These are the boots, that stomped in the rain, that made such great puddles, on the first day of school.

This is the snail that took refuge on our porch, that had us enthralled, as we played out in the rain, on the first day of school.

This is the girl who wore a cute dress, who left when it was still dark, who pushed through an awful headache to stay at school, on the first day of school.

Other Notables:  My girls both wore new "back-to-school" clothes.  Drew had a nice, new shirt that was covered up all day by his sweatshirt.  I noticed as he was leaving that he was wearing his old hole-y sneakers that were replaced 6 months ago.  He came home with his socks and shoes so wet that his feet were wrinkled.  Jacob just wore a favorite outfit.  Because Callie left so early and was rushing out to her ride I didn't get a picture that morning - although the camera was in my hand.  But I thought it was just as authentic to picture her doing her homework because that is exactly what she did for the rest of the afternoon and a lot of the evening.  All told, everyone is happy with great teachers and friends in their classes to boot.  School is back in session!

Last Day of Summer

The Last Day of Summer called for some fun times.  We had been so busy having fun times on vacation that there were still at home things to check off our to-do list.

We loaded up bikes/strollers for the 9 and under crowd into the van and headed to a favorite local park.  Grandpa met us there and he, Drew and Jacob rode the bike trail.  Camden was my buddy and he rode around until his training wheel came loose.  No matter how many times we tightened the bolt, it kept coming undone.  He didn't want to give up so he did some riding around like this, trying to keep the metal bar from scraping the ground:

We discovered a new trail and the steps/waterfall that we've heard about.  It was a wonderful morning.  I let Jacob and Drew be buddies and bike all the way home.  They did a great job!

Same park, different day.  We like to spend time here when Hannah is at soccer practice in the summertime.

After playing with friends and going to the elementary school for Back to School Night, we headed to a park that the girls have been to with friends and the Young Women.  We packed lemonade and salad and Tyler met us after work and brought pizza to round out our picnic.  We pretty much had the park to ourselves.  The view was spectacular:

The playground was three stories high and full of slides and ladders.  The kids had a great time playing tag together.

 

 

I decided that I didn't care about bugs and I laid down on the grass and stared up at the sky.  It was such a beautiful way to end the summer!

Drew's Night

On Sunday nights we try to set aside an hour to spend with just one of our children, to do whatever they want.  This time it was Drew's night, and after playing the longest round of Uno I think I have ever played, Drew wanted to get out Tyler's airplanes.  It was a treat for me to sit and watch this father and son sit and talk airplanes.

Sometimes I tease Tyler about keeping boxes of his childhood treasures.  What are you going to do with them in 40 years?  This is fast becoming a favorite thing to do on an evening with Dad, though, and holding on to a couple of boxes to get to have some of those special times is more than worth it.

More proof?  The next week Camden also chose to play with Daddy's airplanes.  Below are some of the favorite quotes I scribbled out as we were together.

"Clear the runway - clear the runway"

"Are these old?"  Yes.

"Like 21 years old?"  Older.

"Like 8100 years old?"

"Didn't you know, 100 years ago, there was a blimp aircraft, and an airplane shot it down, and a lot of people DIED.  It was so sad."  (He also reads through Tyler's TimeLife airplane/war books).  "Which of these airplanes shot it down?  This plane?"  An F117 Nighthawk.  "Oh, a F71 HighHawk?"

"Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesome!"

"Is this a drop-bomber?"

Two cobras in different colors..."Hey!  Are these brothers?  Awesome!"  Now back in playing gear, "C'mon with me, brother!"

Sweet, sweet times.

Sixteen and WICKED

Sometimes this beautiful girl might have a hard time believing that we think she's pretty great.  It's a tough place to be the oldest of six, and since she was tiny, Callie has been such a special girl that we expect a lot of her.  And since we are new at this parenting-teenagers thing we make mistakes.  However, I know Heavenly Father sent her to our home first because He knew that she was just the strong spirit needed for this important place in our family.

I think we might have convinced her this birthday.  I told her last winter that I just wasn't up to throwing a sweet sixteen party for her.  That was a blow.  What she didn't know what that I had a great consolation prize lined up for her.  On her birthday she found out that she had tickets to go see WICKED the following week!  Yahoo!

The show was great.  We loved it.  What was even better was just having a fun time away, just my oldest girlie and me.  Loved it.  Thanks for being my beautiful, caring, talented lady and for spending time with me Miss Callie!

No pictures in the theater, but you can kinda tell from this selfie that we were pretty stoked after the show was over! 

And as if that wasn't enough...Callie got to fly an airplane.  Talk about a birthday to remember!  Talk about an awesome, well-rounded girl that loves everything from the theater and beautiful music to airplanes!  She is super smart and does well in school, too!  Her 30 minute session stretched to 55 minutes.  They flew through a canyon, she got to circle our neighborhood a few times (she even saw me waving at her!), and she loved the zero-gravity stunts the instructor pulled.  Love my plucky girl!

plane pictures forthcoming when I get them from the b-day girl...

A Perfect Evening

It was a day.  In the morning my big girls joined our church youth to do service projects in the neighborhood and at the high school.  I took my four youngers to cub scouts with me and we did a really great walking historic tour of our downtown, wrapping things up with fun at the park.  Then it was rush home and change outfits to take Callie to Wicked.  We had an amazing time, after which I was going to drop her off to rejoin the youth group for the next 2 1/2 days of youth conference, only the 20 minute trip took an hour and I didn't have a map or clear instructions and it was quite the exercise in frustration at rush hour.  We finally arrived and were invited to help consume the plentiful dinner.  I had left instructions for homemade pizza with Hannah, and Tyler was supposed to be home by 6 and as it was 6:30 and I had an hour long drive ahead of me I welcomed the idea of real food.  At 6:40 I got a phone call from Hannah.  "What cheese did you want me to make that pizza with?"  Drat!  That's the second day in a row that I forgot that we were out of cheese when it was time to make dinner (the other was for Camden's birthday dinner of homemade macaroni and cheese).  And Tyler wasn't home from work yet.  Hannah gets an A+ for being a good sport - babysitting for 7 hours while her mom and sister went to Wicked without her and then making dinner without proper ingredients.  Oh, I felt badly!

But when I finally got home I found a fed, happy family all playing together in the backyard.  It was one of those rare beautiful evenings where the temperature is perfect and the air is fresh and clear.  It was such a treat to join them for a little while, to chat and play and just BE.  After awhile, it began to rain.  Not just rain, but POUR.  It was such a fun end to the day; the kids couldn't get enough of watching the storm from inside the house and seeing little lakes forming in the field behind us.

I loved seeing this sweet girl watching the rain from her window.  I am so, so grateful for beautiful, restful evenings such as this.

Camden's 5th Birthday

Whatever my children say about this summer, they can't say that they did not get to live it up.  We partied hard, folks.  Two big trips, 8 days apart.  In between trips we were thrilled to welcome grandparents to stay with us for a few days.  After trip number two we had one day to unpack from camping and get ready for Callie's sweet 16.  Oh, and did I mention that Grandpa M moved into the area while we were gone?  Days later we participated in a block yard sale.  Cram in a few back-to-school shopping trips with my girls, grocery shopping, a fun lunch with friends for me (only the second all summer long!), cub scouts, soccer camp, park time, an 18th anniversary for Tyler and I, 3 colds and one upset stomach in four days and then it was Camden's birthday.  By then I was in LIMPING MODE.  I still think my wonderful boy had a GREAT day.  I think his dad got some videos of how excited he was about his new airplanes and not one but TWO new stuffed puppies!  Big thanks to Sister McDaniel.

If a singing child is a happy child, then Camden is ecstatic.  All the time.  Today I was biking up a hill towing he and Emmie in the trailer and struggling a bit.  He offered to sing for me and belted out "The Muffin Man" on repeat until we made it home.  Camden also has the most expressive face and adorable and expansive vocabulary.  He is showing tendencies of following in his big brother Jacob's footsteps by figuring out how things work and trying to repair things.  At this house, people who are willing to fix things will always be in need!  It took me months to find peace about waiting a year to send him to kindergarten, but I am there.  So glad I get to enjoy having my Cam-Man around for another year and I just know that he will thrive.

 I was not up for frosting any fancy cakes and although Callie - our cake specialist - offered to make Camden the cake of his dreams I knew that she did not have time between her English packet, piano lesson, weekly jobs, and getting ready for Youth Conference the next day.  So, when Camden said he wanted an Oreo cake we did a quick google search and found an easy and tasty cake.  He was thrilled with it.  

Camden wanted to pick out his candles and instead of going matchy and new he picked from all of the leftovers and was as thrilled as can be.  Don't ya just love easy-to-please kids?  Jacob is the resident candle-lighter.

These next two pictures capture some Classic Camden expressions.  Oh, I love this boy!

Sure love you, Camden-Manden!

Note to self:  a birthday is a bad day to fix the clogged drain pipe in the refrigerator's freezer.  It is a big job that makes a mess of the kitchen and takes at least 3 hours.  Also, laundry day is a bad mix as well.  Unless you don't care if you are still in your pajamas with the cake baked but unfrosted at 3:30pm, with company coming in two hours and all of dinner to make.  I did get most of the kitchen/freezer mess cleaned up - thanks Hannah for all your help - by the time Aunt Mandi came to help finish making dinner and setting the table.  Hooray for lots of hands that help!!