land of the sun

We headed down to Arizona for a long weekend to keep my parents company. They were there on babysitting duty while Dana and Rob were in China. We came on Friday and left early Tuesday morning. Not a lot of time to do anything too exciting. Just lots of cousin time which is exactly why we came.We spent our time...

--feeding children then cleaning up after children
--giving Lauren lots of baths since she only knows how to have blow-out diapers apparently

--playing the Wii or watching shows on Netflix. Dave started watching Stargate Universe at night after the kids were in bed. I watched movies on Dana's computer. Good chick flicks like Morning Glory and Persuasion.

--having a proper afternoon tea

--getting pampered at the Linder spa

--going to church
--eating as many popsicles as you can get your hands on

--playing at the park, eating pizza, holding puppies

 --playing in the backyard

--playing in the pool. For Dave, this meant sitting in the backyard and playing Angry Birds on his phone.

Our drive home was not nearly as uneventful as our drive there. The way home included a missed turn and consequent detour plus lots and lots of throw up all over the backseat. We were glad we came and got to see Mom and Dad and our AZ cousins. We will be back but definitely not in the summer!

12 on 12 | march | arizona edition

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1. The kids spent a lot of time out in the backyard. Slade was thrilled to be in short sleeves and shorts again.
2. Grandma and Sawyer played a little baseball.
3. We went to Anthem's city park to enjoy the beautiful weather and a picnic lunch.
4. Pizza for lunch!
5. Anne was tired, grumpy and prone to wander. Emma to the rescue!
6. Sawyer took this very close picture of me.
7. So fun to see Emma laughing with her cousins.
8. A lady had four puppies at the park which she graciously let the kids play with. Nathan was in puppy heaven.
9. It was a lovely 80+ degrees outside. Perfect for picnics in the park but swimming? Our children could not resist the pool. Brrrr.
10. Emma and Avery had a British afternoon tea, complete with proper attire and accents.
11. You can't really tell from this picture but all the kids were sitting out in the hot tub in total darkness. Dave was reading with a flashlight. Water is so irresistible.
12. Sawyer and Jane played Guess Who before bed. Over the course of our visit, that game got good use. Who knew it was so entertaining?

green

Green pancakes and smoothies for breakfast.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

two cute

Our sweet and sassy Annie turned 2 last Sunday. She went to bed the night before with a fever. It was clear she wasn't feeling great that morning. She had the traditional number pancake with sprinkles for breakfast and only ate a few sprinkles.

 

 

Once Dave returned home from meetings, we had her open presents.With a pout on her cute face, she began. Fortunately she decided presents were fun after all.

Because she had a fever, cough and runny nose, we kept her home from church. After watching an episode of Dora, she fell asleep and took a long nap. After church, both sides of our families came over to celebrate with us. To prevent too much spread of germs, Anne mostly stayed in our bedroom watching Dora. She came out to blow out the candles on her cake. Once again, she had the most adorable sad face through this birthday activity.

Annie's history with birthdays has not been good so far. Last year, she spent her birthday stuck in a car on the way home from California. This year she spent it feeling sick and sad. Hopefully next year she will truly have a happy one.

Now for the party details! I wanted to do a "cute as can bee" party. As always, my plans were much greater than my execution. I spent most of the week before her birthday feeling awful due to a pregnancy-related ailment. This left me with just Saturday to get everything ready. I made a garland and bee decorations, made Jello and chicken salad, baked and frosted two kinds of cupcakes, baked a four-layer cake, tried to cover the cake with fondant and failed and then figured out how to salvage it with a too small amount of buttercream. It was a long day. I was completely aware of the fact that I am the one who cares the most about such party details. After finally going to bed when a feverish Anne needed me to lie down with her, I wondered if the time spent was really worth it.

Judging by the satisfaction I felt and the way the treats all got devoured, I guess I will conclude it was indeed worth it. What can I say? Parties make me happy!

sick and tired

This is what the end of February looked like around here:

After about a week of everyone (except me, thankfully) getting sick with fevers, coughs, runny noses, headaches, and upset stomachs, I am glad that February is over!

snips and snails and puppy dog tails

Baby #6 showed us at the ultrasound that he is definitely of the male variety. We brought home blue treats to share the news with the rest of the kids. Emma, while she had been saying she didn't really care, looked a little disappointed. The boys looked completely uninterested. As soon as you say the word baby, Anne just runs off in search of a doll. Dave is thrilled. And I am well on my way to fulfilling my dad's prophecy of me being the mother to five boys. Don't ask me how I feel about that!

curly

 

This is what Anne looks like if you don't comb her hair after a bath.

will you be my valentine?

We began our Valentine's Day celebrations last Friday with our homeschool group party. I really love this support group. The other moms are all fantastic. The kids are all nice to each other. I am so glad we've been able to make such friends. For this party, several moms pitched in with games and crafts. I led the kids in playing Who Do You Love? to get us started. Then they got to eat food, decorate cookies and cupcakes, make an iLove (iTouch knock-off), listen to stories, and make cards. Plus they exchanged Valentines. We had to make and bring 170 Valentines. All around it was a great time. Since I forgot to bring my camera to the party, I can only share our pile of Valentines and the post-party candy exchange.

On Valentine's Day, the weather was so gorgeous that we took the day off of school and went to the park instead.

Dave brought home donuts and chocolate covered strawberries for lunch.

I took the kids out to JCW's for dinner. Mmmm, milkshakes. Then the other kids went to Aunt Katie's house while Emma, Dave and I went to her violin recital. She performed Minuet in G by Beethoven and played really well. Since I am trying though always failing to be as awesome as my mom, I accompanied both Emma and another student. Eventually the accompaniments may get too hard for me to play but for now I am glad I get to do it.

12 on 12 | february

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1. I spent the morning at our stake Women's Conference. I am never excited about going to these things but I am so glad I went. First, we listened to a women's quartet called One Clear Voice. Their songs were beautiful and their messages quite touching. You can hear some samples of their songs 

here and here

Everyone, including me, was wiping away tears. Then we listened to Janice Kapp Perry who had us busting up with laughter and being inspired to take risks. I had no idea that she didn't start writing music until she was 40. A few things she said:

--have a goal and write it down

--even the smallest distance towards your goal is a victory

--don't let fear rob you of opportunity

--"Watch for the right time and season and then show gratitude for your gifts by magnifying them."

2. When I came home, I put the kids to work in their zones for a quick clean up.

3. Anne found someone's stash of candy from the previous day's party.

4. Emma and I went up to Salt Lake to go to a baby shower for my sister-in-law. I hate playing the games but I always enjoy the food and conversation.

5. Emma left to go tubing with her cousin, Melissa, so I headed down to Orem to go to the library.

6. Dave attended the worldwide leadership training this afternoon, hence the tie. He decided to try making mash potato pancakes for dinner. That didn't appeal to me, but Nathan sure enjoyed them.

7. When I asked where the pop came from, Dave replied, "I was filling my bucket" in reference to an earlier conversation we'd had. He rarely does anything for himself.

8. Slade has been spending lots of time laying on his bed listening to the Harry Potter books.

9. My baby belly has began to show. I am finally resigning myself to maternity clothes.

10. We spent a relaxing evening at home. Dave napped on the couch.

11. I read on the couch. This evening, I read How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. We are definitely not becoming vegetarians but I am on a quest to increase our fruits and vegetables and reduce our meat consumption.

12. Anne ran in circles in the living room while we sat on the couches. Easy entertainment.

snapshots of everyday life

We all love playing Just Dance 2. I especially enjoy watching the boys play. They've got some moves!

I managed to get Annie's hair into pigtails. She looked so adorable. Sadly and not surprisingly, the hairdo did not last long. She ended the day looking like this:

 I've been trying to reduce the amount of screen time at our house. Winter might not be the best time to try this since they can't always go outside. Instead, they do fun but messy stuff like making blanket pits at the bottom of the stairs.

Emma finally got to take out her studs on the 7th. She has had a wonderful time trying out all her cute earrings ever since. Sometimes she looks entirely too grown up!

We've been doing our schoolwork upstairs in the kitchen more often this month. It is just too cold downstairs. I can hardly believe we are in the middle of our 7th year of homeschooling. There are always things I need to do better (writing, reading, music, art) but I think we have a really good system going on.

The younger kids always enjoy getting a little Starfall time on the computer after their Math is done. I couldn't help but take a picture of this set-up.

let them eat cake

Emma has a definite interest in cake decorating. She recently decided she should try out her skills instead of just watching shows like Cake Boss. I showed her a picture of a chocolate cake and she made her version completely on her own.

Then, today we decided to try out royal icing on sugar cookies. She invited a friend over to join in the decorating too. While nowhere near the quality of the cookie blogs I often visit, they turned out pretty cute. These are the ones I did. I really need to work on my outlining skills.

Wouldn't it be a fun way to earn money as a teenager if she got good enough to make cakes for people? We could go into business together--Danny Cakes, LLC. Maybe? Perhaps we're not quite ready for that yet but this is the kind of practicing that is fun!