Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to our little Claire Bear!! She turned three on Sunday and we just love her so much! Having five children means that every time we've had a birthday party for a 3 year old, there was another little baby in my arms or on the way. At those moments I have said, "See? This is why I keep having babies. So that I can always have a three year old in the house!" I just love three. It's such a fun age to experience with my children. But alas, there comes a time in life when a person, (translation: Matt) just has to say, "Enough is enough!" Which means we've just had our last 3rd birthday party. It isn't sad. It's just one more milestone. But it's true that you learn to appreciate the little moments more and more. So this birthday was especially fun for me. And I think that Claire enjoyed it too!

I asked her what kind of cake she wanted.... "Pink!"
Opening presents with plenty of encouragement from siblings.
A thank you hug to Corinne for the stickers.


Blowing out her candles!

Sporting her new pink sunglasses and piggy from Aunt Barbara.

And here she is the next day with her new sand table. I know. You're probably tempted to point out the fact that our whole backyard is a sandbox. But that dirt is off limits. Grass is on the way! (Maybe the power of positive thinking will make it come true.)

Wind Caves

Last Saturday Matt took the older kids and went for a hike to the Wind Caves in Logan Canyon. They had a great time and Matt said Spencer asked to go again before they had even made it back to the truck. Maybe next time Claire and I will get to go!

Nicole, Spencer and Paige on the trail:
Nicole and Corinne
Yay! They reached the caves in one piece!
Spencer has always really loved Spiderman. Now I know why! I never knew they were related.
Okay, just kidding. The picture above wasn't rotated correctly. But I had to put it in because Spence laughed so hard when he saw it like that. He kept saying, "It looks like I'm climbing on the ceiling!"
Paige finally found her niche in life. (Wow! Did I really just type that? Sorry!)
Pictures like this are the reason I don't go...
And this...


Not a bad view! (And the scenery is pretty great also.)

Summer Home

Well, it may not be a cabin on Lake Tahoe or waterfront property in the Hamptons, but my kids love it! Officially, our summer vacation started yesterday at 11:30am. But Nicole, Corinne, Paige and Spencer got a jump on things on Monday by literally moving into the playhouse. They've assigned themselves each a bunk, decorated, and stocked their "adult-free zone" with all sorts of necessities: books, crackers, FM radio, more blankets and pillows than I can count, and board games. If the playhouse had running water, it's possible that I wouldn't see them all summer. (Hmmm....that's something to think about.) Truthfully, I was skeptical. I remember plenty of summer nights sleeping outside in which I ended up trudging back inside to my own bed. These pictures aren't just from their first time sleeping outside this summer. This is their first time EVER! So, I left the outside lights on and the doors unlocked, sure that I would hear them soon enough. But no! The only thing that finally drove them from their haven was nature's call the next morning! And then they were gone again--but not before stealing more "supplies" from the kitchen. Fun stuff!!

P.S. In other news: Tonight is the second night in a row that Matt and I are awake much later than we'd like to be because our "nearly teenager" is at a party, so we have to wait up for HER!! I really feel remorseful right now for all the many nights I kept my mom up. It never even occurred to me that she was tired! I guess it's payback time...

One Year Older...and Wiser, Too!

Yesterday was Matt's birthday! It's always such a big day for him. He looks forward to it with much anticipation and excitement. Oh wait, my mistake. That would be ummm....anybody else. Matt has to be reminded.

"Yes, tomorrow is your birthday. "

"Good morning, Happy Birthday!...Yes, you!"

"Hi! Just calling to make sure you're coming home on time today...Why?? Because it's your birthday and your mom and grandparents are coming!"

Fortunately for him, he has plenty of reminders. Five of them to be exact and they were more than willing to help him open his presents and blow out his candles. We sufficiently celebrated him one year older. We love him and we're very glad we have him. We'll keep him around for many more birthdays!!

Now for the "wiser". You thought that title referred solely to Matt's birthday didn't you? Nope! That man is already far too wise for my own good. The "wiser" in this post is Spencer! He graduated from Preschool last week. It was a close one. We had some late nights making sure he had all his assignments in and a couple of projects to help bring up his grade in "Cutting With Safety Scissors". But fortunately for all of us, he has been deemed worthy to move on to kindergarten in the fall. Here are THREE (yikes!) video clips from the program. The first is of Spencer reciting his part. The next two are samples of songs they sang during the program. He's quite the silly yet handsome little man! (If I do say so myself.)

Miles of Fun!

Corinne has had a busy couple of weeks at school. I guess in order to get these 5th graders all ready for Middle School, they have to pack a lot of extra-curricular into their schedules. We've had fun cheering her on in her different events.

Here are some pictures of the Wellsville Mile. She ran her mile in 8:33 and took 20th in her heat. (Out of 105.) I am so proud of her! Here she is at the starting line, #1286.

Here she is crossing the finish line:

And here she is with her friend, all smiles, after the race.
I also got to go the her graduation from NOVA. A program done by the Sheriff's Dept. for all of the 5th graders in the valley. She enjoyed this a lot!
The school also held their annual dance festival. Each grade learns a dance and performs for the rest of the school. Here is Corinne's:
Here is Paige's:
And lastly, here are the kids right after they helped Grandpa blow out his birthday candles!

Mother's Day

I really do love Mother's Day. I tell Matt that I don't want anything, and I mean it. But he knows better. He knows that what I really want is chance after shameless chance to milk this day for all it's worth.

"A spinach omelet and orange rolls please. Oh, and make them into cute mini-rolls because it's Mother's Day."

"Don't look at me like that, it's Mother's Day!"

"Don't be silly. Of course I can help with the dishes...." (Never heard his response I was already two rooms away with my feet up.)

The best part of the day though, is the assortment of gifts presented by my loving children. All five of them home-made something this year and they were so excited to give them to me. It was a deep kind of joy that I felt in that moment.

However, my day went from this:

To this:
Those are staples you can see in Claire's scalp. The little munchkin fell off a stool and hit her head on the corner of the tile foot rest. It happened while we were at church and she and Nicole were home being sick. Poor Nicole had never experienced the blood loss of a head wound before. She did great though and after we got home I made a quick trip to Instacare, and then home again to find dinner waiting for us. Not a bad day, actually!

Neither the fall nor the staples have slowed Claire down AT ALL. Yesterday, just for fun, I tried to catch on film all the times that Claire changed clothes. I didn't even get half!!

Here she is ready to "kill the bad guys".
The shirt is on backwards, but at least it matches the pants.
One of the three dresses she wore yesterday, paired with her favorite slippers.
I have no idea what she is here. But wouldn't it be fun if as adults we could dress like this and get away with it? I really think it would make my grocery shopping much less of a chore!

Straight from the horse's mouth

Something happened the other day that brought to mind a funny (depending on who's telling it) story from my youth. I've been chuckling about it for a couple of days now so I thought I'd put it out there for all of you to judge as you see fit.

On Wednesday, my little man came into the kitchen and announced, "Mom! I just cleaned the whole bathroom floor and the toilet with this!" You know how sometimes your kids say things and that part of your brain that is able to give them a semi-sufficient response answers, while the rest of you stays focused on whatever task was interrupted? Well, not this time. With that statement he had my whole undivided attention. My head snapped up to see the item in question and I saw his big sister's pink and purple toothbrush as he wielded it proudly above his head. Two thoughts formed: "Thank goodness he TOLD me and didn't just put it back in the drawer." AND "Huh. The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree."

Rewind about thirty years. Little Nancy was enjoying a carefree summer afternoon when she became aware of an atrocity in her very own backyard. Nellie, our gentle, sorrel mare had YELLOW TEETH. Not on my watch! I marched into the house in search of dental care. As I looked at the assortment, only one rational thought surfaced, "Not mine." Otherwise, it didn't really matter to me. I picked a fine looking brush and marched right back to where I had left poor, neglected Nellie. I did my best and was very persistent despite Nellie's lack of enthusiasm with the chore. And when it was over, I did what I had been taught to do, and "put my things away where I had found them". That evening I entered the bathroom to brush my teeth, and already standing at the counter was my dad and, sure enough, thoroughly scrubbing her molars with THE toothbrush, my teenage sister. I swear on my life to you that the next words to come out of my mouth were said with ZERO malice and genuine excitement. "HEY! That's the toothbrush I used to brush Nellie's teeth!" The next few minutes were full of spitting and swishing and yelling and possibly a little cursing, as well as suppressed laughter. (How Dad held it in, I'll never know!)

I think I might be risking an estrangement with my sister by bringing this story up all these years later. Or maybe the statute of limitations has expired on "rotton little sister pranks". (Again, I swear my innocence regarding intent!) Either way I feel that given the events of this week I can now be granted a complete and absolute pardon for my actions because obviously it's hereditary. And you can't fight good genes!