Serenity now!

I've found that my day is a million times better if I do four simple things every morning:

1) Make my bed as soon as I get up
2) Start a load of laundry as soon as I'm done making my bed
3) Read scriptures to our family while we're eating breakfast
4) Vacuum the entire house as soon as breakfast is over.

Such simple, quick things, and yet they change the tenor of my entire day if they're done or undone.

Anything similar for you?  What are your key kickstarts to having a good day?

adventures in camping

This weekend, we headed south to go camping with our friends Jason & Melanie and their children.  We planned this trip more than a month ago and the kids were SO excited it was finally happening!

Forgive me for posting so many Luke-in-crib pictures; I couldn't resist as he reminded me so much of the ones I took of Jules at the same age when we were camping in the Rockies.  (I probably have some of Isaac somewhere, but he and Luke aren't twinners the same way Luke and Jooj are).

After we set up camp, we started making dinner (we made dinner & they made breakfast; we both packed lunches for the next day.  It was really nice to just focus on one meal!).  Neil insisted that camping deserved some bratwurst, so he was super happy about tasty meat, and the kids (after they asked me half a dozen times if they were tofu dogs or turkey dogs or the kind of hot dogs that have smashed-up worms in them--um, yes, guilty of brainwashing my children) consented to roast hot dogs (and some of them even ate them--but mostly they lived on strawberries).

 After dinner we played at a fun little playground and then went back for the main event--s'mores!  I think the kids made Melanie half a dozen s'mores, which she accepted very graciously each time without any diminishing of enthusiasm.  (She is Abigail's new piano teacher, and Abigail just adores her.)

 I was really glad the kids had such a fun evening, because the next part of the night was a little hairy.  Jules wrapped her hand around a lantern and burned her palm very badly--big, oozing blister--Neil & Jason gave her a blessing and she was able to sleep.  She woke up the next day and her hand was completely fine.  It was interesting because I've been working on a lesson about women & the priesthood for my Laurel class; I started preparing this lesson five weeks ago (I taught it today) and it was almost done, but I felt like there was something missing.

I ended up using that experience with Juliet as my intro today and talked about how grateful I was that the men were able to administer to Juliet and that I never felt shortchanged that night by not being able to bless her myself; I was the one who was comforting her, spreading the burn gel on her palm, getting her ice packs, and I was the one who asked them to give her a blessing and held her while they blessed her.  I spoke with the YW in my class about how my husband and I worked together as partners to ensure our daughter's health and well-being, and how I felt like both of our contributions were equally valid (on that note, I learned SO MUCH in preparing that lesson, so please shoot me an email if that's something you have questions about and I'd be happy to share my notes!!).

Next on the not-so-fun list...Isaac had a crazy nightmare and woke up screaming several times.  Finally, around midnight, we gave up and brought him out and he sat with us while Jason & Neil did their best to scare off the crazy raccoons pacing around our campsite.  Best part:  watching the raccoon fall off the picnic table after a particularly well-placed rock (they were not AT ALL bashful and it was seriously kind of scary to turn around and bam, raccoon!).  Then we went to bed and realized our air mattresses had completely deflated and they were somehow punctured--plus Isaac kept begging us to take him home.  It was a long night and nobody got much sleep.

 I loved this shot--breakfast babies!

The next day we went hiking.  I didn't take many photos (which I really regret) because I was carrying Isaac almost the entire way (my arms ached when I first got up this morning!)  It was really hot (around 90) so I was glad we were mostly hiking down in the ravines, which were a good ten degrees cooler.  And, of course, the Juliet Hair Barometer shows the increasing humidity...

When we stopped for lunch, it was SO HOT!  Suffocatingly so.  Melanie and I started prepping the lunch and then I heard gleeful laughter and splashing and turned around to see this...

 We ended up just lying on the grass for a good hour while the kids played in the water (then we went on one final mini-hike but everyone's shoes were so wet that we couldn't do much more).  We definitely didn't do as much hiking as we wanted to do, but it was so fun to hang out with friends (the chitchat around the campfire when the kids are in bed is always the best part!) and I think the little folks had an absolute blast in their unplanned spigot adventure!

And, of course, we completely wore everyone out...the kids conked out 5 minutes after we got in the car and I slept for 12 hours last night.  Good times.

Home tour: Abigail & Luke's room

 I mentioned last week that Isaac's bedding is out of place in the lavender room; well, here's the room it's supposed to match.  Some day.

We've found that Abigail & Luke make good roommates because of their different schedules; Lukey is usually asleep when Abigail goes to bed, and Abigail will read happily by her window as the light fades into dusk.  The bookcase-as-headboard is perfect for my packrat child and her innumerable (oh, I do not use that word lightly!) treasures.


I was planning to take more (with better lighting) shots of this room, but I ended up with this and it's my favorite.  Et voila!

Luke's first birthday

 My goodness!  Can you believe it's already been a year since my darling Luke was born?  Time flies, my friends, time flies.

I made Luke a mini bundt cake and stuck the candle in the middle, hence the lake-of-fire effect.

We were lucky enough to have my dad here to celebrate Luke's birthday with us--my mom came last weekend and my dad was here this weekend (thanks to their disparate schedules, but we're excited to see them both at the same time later this month!).  I managed to take not a single picture of either of my parents visiting, although they both got some great shots on their iPhones (like Jooj with the bunnies).  And I started to come down with a little bug this weekend, so I was not great on capturing all the celebrations (fortunately it held off on the kids until today; Jooj was SO looking forward to her last day of preschool and all the parties thereunto, and instead she's asleep on the couch after throwing up all morning.  Poor baby).

But enough about that.  Lukey at one year is just a piece of delightfulness.  He has very strong, decided opinions, and will not eat foods or play with toys of which he does not approve (kind of funny because he will always try new foods, but is insanely deft at spitting out the ones he doesn't like, even if you mix it with something he does like--he will quickly sort through in his mouth and pop out the offenders with his tongue, without ever losing the favorites).

Luke has been standing independently for a couple of months, and he's just starting to take those first tiny little steps.  He has really awesome muscle control and I don't think I've ever seen him fall from a standing position--he very deliberately lowers himself up and down.  He still does his funny little crawl with one leg straight and one knee on the floor--it is the most darling thing.  He has a mouthful of crooked little teeth that he shows all the time when he throws back his head and laughs.  Isaac is getting super good at making Luke laugh--it's so fun to see the two of them starting to play together!

Luke has been the easiest thus far in terms of transitioning from nursing to taking a cup.  I started him with a sippy cup of water around 10 months or so and then started giving him milk in it just a couple of weeks ago, since I knew he would need to nurse while I was performing in the dinner theater.  He decided he LOVED sippy milk and so (somewhat to my dismay) sometimes when I nurse him he will push me away, shake his head no, and bounce impatiently on my lap until I give him a cup of milk.  He still nurses a couple of times a day, but he's mostly done (a far cry from the craziness of Juliet, for instance).

And last but not least, Luke is still truly madly deeply in love with his fringed blue spaceship blankie, he says, "Mama" and "Dada" discriminately, he stands at the window by the door every day waiting for Abigail to come home and bounces up and down happily when he sees her, he loves playing with the toy dishes while standing up at the toy kitchen, he likes his swing outside but not as much as he loves the sandbox, his favorite food is still cheese quesadillas, and he is a fat darling little plumperkin and I love him to bits.

cuteness overload

Home tour: Isaac & Juliet's room

If you've been reading for a few years, you may remember the post I did a few years ago when Juliet and Abigail shared this room.  Sadly, those two were not a good match, and I ended up selling that headboard & bed (sniff--I totally loved the way it looked!) and switching in bunkbeds instead.  And once Luke was born, we put the middle two together because it worked best with everyone's respective sleep schedule.      (So that's why Isaac's bold-patterned quilt is in a lavender room.)  I'm hoping that in another couple of years my ladies are sharing a dainty feminine room together complete with this chandelier.  But for now, Isaac and Jules are a great match.

 Also, Isaac insisted on staying in the pictures.  To be honest, he was kind of emphatic about it.



As always, this room is full of things that I have an emotional attachment to--the dollhouse Neil made the girls for Christmas several years ago (I sewed the couch covers, shower curtain, pillowslips, and bedspreads; he made the couches and I made the dining table--the rest of the dollhouse furniture we purchased at Target), the quilts and monogrammed pillows that I've made for each of the older three children, and a dresser that was the very first piece I ever refinished (currently living in the walk-in closet, which also holds outgrown clothes, labeled and sorted by size, in those super-attractive diaper boxes).

One of the things I always REALLY want to know is how other people handle toy storage.  So this is mine
--an IKEA Expedit unit. I love it!  The top is not perfectly styled, but I love the space and those cheery polka-dot bins (from the Target Itso line). (note:  someone was asking last week about the Bluebird of Happiness, which was given to me by my beloved Merrie Miss teacher Nan Stimpson, who also taught me to cross-stitch and helped me make that sampler on top of the shelving unit.)  I love how this holds EVERYTHING and I think it looks pretty attractive while doing it.  I should note that the games in the top row are the ones that were in the library photos a few weeks back; I switched all the games so that the "kid ones" are back in the library, since they were getting ignored in their bedroom (now Isaac is happily playing one million games of Marble Run/Let's Go Fishing/Hungry Hippos/etc. again).

We also have dress-ups in a large plastic bin on the other side of the bunkbed (which you can see in the photo second from the top).  I've toyed with more elaborate systems (I love the idea of hooks around a stand mirror or a mini coat stand or something, but ultimately the more simple, the more likely it will get put away!)

today we...

...played dress-ups ("Fair Lady" and her brave cowboy "Mr. Isaac," who was out to save his fox from the nefarious Mommy, who kept draping him over doors so that Brave Isaac could shake him back down and say "I wescued my fots!  Do it again!")

...lounged on Mommy's bed for a delicious post-nap cuddle in that blissful pool of sunshine that inhabits my bedroom every day around 3 pm...

 ...brought Daddy dinner so that we had an excuse to see him at some point that day (he happened to be out at the racetrack overseeing the final practice before they take the electric karts to race at the Indy Motor Speedway this weekend).  I packed up lots of apples and carrots and was just about to start making sandwiches when I thought that it would be fun to surprise Neil with a little something else...you should have seen his enormous grin when I pulled up and handed him an aromatic Papa John's box (love that 5.99 Tuesday special!).  The kids had a great time running around all over the bleachers with fistfuls of apples (although the mini first-aid kit that the girls made me for Christmas came in handy yet again!)

 I love, love, love, love this shot of Isaac.  He was sitting at the very tip-top of the bleachers and every time one of the karts zoomed past he would clap his little hands and say "Good dsob [job], guys!"  Every time.  I loved it.

...then we went to the library and stocked up again...

 ...and then home again, home again, jiggety-jig, with lots of sudsy baths and stories to finish off the night.  (And hopefully my poor hard-working husband will be home soon, since he's been at work today for...16 hours.  But I'm caught up on blogging!)

whiling away the golden evening

 Last week Neil and Abigail were out on a date, so the younger three and I went out to enjoy the balmy evening.  Jules was especially excited because Neil had just replaced the tubes in her bike's tires, so she could ride again!  Yay!

Luke was especially excited because there was chalk! Chalk!  And you can EAT chalk!!  (I love his funny way of crawling--he does this about 1/3 of the time...another 1/3 he crawls with one knee down and one leg straight, and the other 1/3 is the regular both knees deal.  that kid is darling.)

 Isaac, who is always our rule-follower where Luke is concerned (ironic because Isaac is also our most stubborn and will-not-negotiate-and-does-his-own-thing kid) totally panicked when he saw Luke heading for the chalk, and refused to let him get anywhere near.

Which, as you can see, did not sit so well with Luke.

 So he headed for greener pastures.

Speaking of Isaac's independent little personality, we have a fairly steep driveway--steep enough that neither of the girls will bike down it, and I walk my bike down when I'm pulling the bike trailer with the kids inside.

Isaac, however, thinks it is the COOLEST THING EVER to ride in his little car from the top of our driveway all the way down--he goes flying out, zooms across the road, and finally loses momentum partway up our neighbor's driveway across the street.  He did this over and over again, chortling with glee each time. Can't you tell from his little face how much he loves this?!  Honestly, the first time I saw him do it I didn't think he'd ever do it again (he was going crazy fast!), but no, he pushed his car back up over and over again as long as I let him stay outside!

Abigail's dance recital

 Abigail did a jazz/ballet class this year.  I'm not sure what to say about this, other than that we are ALL glad it's over!  But she stuck it out, she learned the routine, and she did a great job at her recital, despite the fact that she decided after the first class that she didn't like dance.  I'm proud of her for continuing even when she wasn't thrilled about it all.  (I'm hoping that this ends up being a good lesson in perseverance--I'm mentally framing it that way, at least.)  She starts piano on Thursday and she is SO excited for that.  Fingers crossed that her enthusiasm stays steady!

In any case, I think she enjoyed her recital.  (She certainly enjoyed her glitzy headband, which she wore to church the next day...).  And I don't think any of us are ever going to forget a single beat of her recital piece ("Let's Go to the Movies" from Annie until our dying day.  Ever.  Ever).

 Isn't she beautiful?  Like so so so beautiful?  She's going to be such a knockout when she hits high school.

This one is my favorite.  :-)  She was doing all kinds of funny faces at the very end of her dress rehearsal.

I didn't get a ton of action shots, since I was filming the whole routine, but I did get this one and I love it!  (She's the one standing on the right side with her back to the camera).  Doesn't her hair look totally awesome and like she's just finishing some killer move?

Juliet's preschool program(s)

 Juliet is just about done with preschool this year--only a few more days!  She's looking forward to the end-of-year picnic, but I think she's really going to miss seeing her little friends three times a week.

She's had three preschool programs this year where she sang a selection of songs with her class--so embarrassing that I haven't posted the Thanksgiving and Christmas ones yet, but hey, now they're all together, right?  (Thanks to my friend Melanie for the snapshots of the Thanksgiving program!)

I am so glad that Jules did preschool this year--I really went back and forth about it, but she has absolutely loved it.  She is WAY more into arts & crafts than she was at the beginning of the year (they do an art project every single day) and she spends 80% of her free time at home coloring, painting, drawing, cutting & pasting, etc.

walking up with her jingle bell during the Christmas program

All their little eyes are glowing--kind of freaky but strangely amusing at the same time.  Amusing enough that I didn't bother editing it out.

 Juliet's teachers have commented to me several times on how Jules is friends with everyone in her class--they said she drifts easily between groups at playtimes and is always kind to all of the other children. They've also commented on what a good little singer she is--one of her teachers told me that Juliet is often singing a solo when they do singing time!--and she came home one day happily wearing a "Awesome Singer" award.

singing with great gusto during last Friday's spring program

In the past year, Juliet has become much more responsible, independent, and careful about asking permission (when she's unsure whether something is okay).  I often find her doing something like picking up toys unasked, sweeping thekitchen floor, or playing with Luke when he is fussing, and she looks up at me with her big hazel eyes and says happily, "I'm just practicing for when I'm a mommy!"  Today at the grocery store she was kind of grumpy about getting in the car, so I asked her if she could buckle Isaac up and practice being a mommy, and she was instantly all smiles.  She is such a sweetheart and I love seeing her happy little sunshiny face looking for someone to help and something kind to do.

Jules with her teachers, Miss Dee and Miss Lori