Spring catch-up...birthdays, sports, and school!

 Oh gosh, so much has been happening!!!

Abigail turned 12 in April and my parents met us at the temple. We had a really wonderful morning--my dad & Neil baptized Abigail for the family names that my mom & Neil's mom had collected for Abigail (while my mom hung out with Nathan and Matthew outside the temple), and then my dad, Neil, and Abigail chilled with the little boys while Mom & I did the iniatory ordinances for those names. It was so so so so so wonderful.

Then my parents took us out for Indian food, which was also wonderful. :-)



That night Juliet & I ran her Girls on the Run 5k--she did the whole thing without walking, even though she wasn't feeling fantastic and it was SUPER SUPER hot (easily the hottest day by a good 20 degrees we'd had yet that spring). She wanted to hold my hand every step of the way and I was so proud of her! My mom snapped this picture of us at the finish line (she was there cheering us on with Matthew).



Meanwhile Abigail was at softball practice and my dad & Neil were at Isaac's game with the younger boys. Pretty much our life is spring ball right now.

The next day was the birthday of Luke the Magnificent, Magician Extraordinaire!!

He was very specific about wanting a "sneaky cake--white on the outside with my name in blue, and then CRAZY inside!"


The kids all had a piano recital after baseball/softball practice this morning, which my parents were able to attend. It was so neat to have them there! I don't think I took any pictures--oops.

And then it was off to Luke's first softball game!


We celebrated Nathan's birthday a few weeks before; he had some of his little friends over for a lunch party and some playtime. I didn't take a single picture, but Nate LOVED it so much--we ate "dirt cups" and had construction hats and served a construction themed- lunch (I can't remember everything now but I know we had clementines for wrecking balls, chicken nuggets for boulders, carrots for logs, etc. And we had baguettes and roasted tomato bisque to appeal to adult palates as well).

 We got some new chicks and our old chickens went to a new farm, where presumably they are happily laying away. I was SO sad to see our older hens go--they are nearing the end of their laying career, so we let each kid pick out 2 chicks this year with the understanding that we would have to rehome the older hens once the chicks got big enough. But four of our chicks died (and it was absolutely awful--totally devastating to everyone, especially since 3 of the chicks were killed by a predator when they were pullets and had really developed some personality and had been around long enough for the kids to really love them).

Here is Nate with one of the six remaining new chickens--Excavator. The ones left are Darth Vader, Excavator, Goldie, Raccoon, Spot, and Parsley (who survived being pecked by the older hens whereas sweet tiny Nutmeg managed did not--she wriggled through a gap in the chicken wire and it was very very sad and awful; Parsley's pecking happened after the young pullets were 8 weeks old and we'd very carefully integrated them in with the older hens, and after 12 hours when Parsley had been attacked we decided we really had to move the older hens on...argh).

I know this photo wasn't from Mother's Day--maybe the week after? My six cuties! (We matched because we were singing in church that day and I wanted us to look a little more visually coordinated!)

We finished up another year of school and we are 4/4 for kindergarteners starting to read the Harry Potter books at the end of kindergarten! I was really not thrilled with Luke's teacher this year, so I was happy that his school day ended up being only 2 hours every day. I actually didn't have him go the last 4 days after his teacher went on maternity leave and the substitute lost Luke on her first day. Yep, we're done. 

Isaac finished up his first year of high ability with his fabulous teacher who I love so so much! He was invited to skip 3rd-grade math and do 4th-grade math next year, so he's super excited about that!! I didn't get a picture of Jules with her teacher, but she has her same teacher next year for 4/5 and I am so grateful--I just love her teacher to pieces. So different from Isaac's amazing teacher and so wonderful in her way. Those two have really lucked out on teachers this year; Jules was also on the 4/5 highest honor roll for the year (they don't do one for 2nd grade, but Isaac had straight A's all year) and Abigail was on the highest honor roll and got a bunch of awards--one for English, another for band. She had a great year but I wasn't really blown away by her teachers.



And boy were we excited to be done with school this year--not least because we were headed down to Tennessee the next day for a week of camping, hiking, and Dollywood-attending!

But before I blog about vacation, a few more baseball pics...nice and blurry for most of these, but with a few great sharp ones taken by my friend with her nice camera when her son's team was playing Isaac's (thanks again, Melissa!!)

Neil is Luke's head coach this year for t-ball; it's been really fun for them both!

Abigail has had a fabulous time with her softball team--her coaches are awesome and the girls on her team are so sweet!

When we started the season, all of our kids were total novice players. It's been awesome to watch their improvement in both skill and confidence!

I confess that I'm not the biggest fan of frantically rushing everyone through dinner/packing up dinner to eat at the fields/figuring out how to get 3 kids to games & practices all over town, but the kids have LOVED LOVED LOVED the spring ball season so much that it looks like it's in our future for the next 18 years!

January bits + home projects

We're halfway through January!! Halfway! How did that happen?!

I've been doing the Apartment Therapy January Cure again, which I love so much. I haven't been able to do it as in-depth this year as I'd like *cough* Matthew *cough* but it's still pretty great. My pantry is loving the organized bins, I finally ordered a new duvet cover for my bed, 8 years is a long time for white bedding (and ordered white again, because I love white so much), and we've been plugging away at house projects. Last weekend we painted Juliet & Luke's walls & woodwork, plus all the woodwork in the pantry and linen closets. It's very sad that it's been 3 years since I started that project and I just totally stopped once I got all the visible stuff done--but now I just have to do the baseboards behind my bed, Abigail's closet, and Juliet & Luke's closet doors, and we will be done! With the baseboards, at least. (Still have to repaint my room and probably the striped wall in the boys' room.)

In other getting-the-house-ready-to-sell news, we bought a new stove yesterday (and new faucets for the bathroom. And spent forever looking at lights but didn't find any we liked). We've had one of those ugly coil-top stoves in every place we've ever lived since we were married, and I didn't even think about replacing it with something more current until my mom gently suggested it. Obvious much?! (But this didn't prevent me from being INSANELY grumpy and snappy all day the day we bought it, because I seriously hate putting money into a house that we're selling.)

But I love my new stove, and I'll enjoy it for the time being (along with my new floors).

This dude is reading so well! And he's getting more cooperative about reading, which is always the tricky part at this stage...yeesh. 

And Mattycakes is growing growing growing--with cheeks of chubbly deliciousness, and hair that has me wondering if we'll have another blond? He looks SO much like Abigail as a baby that it totally throws me all the time. ;-)

family circa 2010

 We had our family photos taken last weekend--these are three of my favorites.  More to come.

 





























 
photos courtesy of kim davis photography

nearly wordless wednesday

We made ice cream.  It was soooo good. 

progression: a post about Isaac

this boy amazes us with his food skills every.single.night (ps--for the tofu lasagna recipe, four servings of which were consumed/used as hair goo by Isaac, go here.  this is a big hit with our family--I leave out the soy parmesan, the olives, and ramp up the vegetables--layering in roasted vegetables is a great use of leftovers!  and as you can see, we're also big fans of guacamole, or "rock-a-molly," as Abigail calls it.  ps--she thinks her dog with the printed collar that says "Coco" is really named "Couscous."  preschool reading skills meet global cuisine, apparently.)

nearly wordless wednesday: twins

presenting the lunchtime twins, Isaac and Isa-bella (name courtesy of Abigail)

some thoughts

with one smack from the bathtub, Juliet draws nearer to her dream of becoming a unicorn

Monday nights are sometimes hard for me. Our church has asked that Monday evenings be reserved for Family Home Evening; every semester Neil has had mandatory-you-cannot-miss-and-still-have-a-job meetings that fall right smack between dinnertime and bedtime. Every single Monday. Result: Daddy gets home when everyone is in bed. Sometimes before midnight.

Some nights I am totally worn out and we have pancakes for dinner and everyone goes to bed early.

Some nights (like tonight) we have rosemary rolls, split-pea soup (which the kids love), and we go to the library. Or do something fun all together.

I try for the second option. It doesn't always happen, but I try. It makes me feel a little less guilty about postponing family home evening to another night.

Tonight was interesting. Maybe in an effort to make up for the spiritual lesson that all her little friends all over the world were getting, Abigail kept bringing up new topics of conversation and we ended up talking all the way to the library about the following:

• how everyone is a child of God
• how Heavenly Father is the father of our spirit
• the war in heaven
• the plan of salvation
• the Creation
• promptings of the Holy Ghost
  

I was thinking during this conversation about a lesson we'd had in Relief Society a few weeks back about taking the opportunity to bear our testimonies to our children. And thinking about Ann Crittenden's The Price of Motherhood, which I was reading this afternoon, and how grateful I am that--even though motherhood is praised with the lips but not with economic rewards--I can have the time with my children to have conversations like this that just happen casually without any effort on my part (btw, you really should read that book).

So while I was thinking about these things, we were in the library, and while I was catching up with the children's librarian, who we hadn't chatted with in awhile, she asked me if we had our new library card yet. I said no, and she said that all I needed was my old library card and my driver's license.

Confession: I leave my driver's license at home all the time (Mom, don't yell at me!)

I take it when I'm planning to spend money, but I often leave my wallet at home when, for instance, I'm going to the library and I don't want to have to keep track of my wallet AND the kids AND the books. Just one less thing to worry about.

But this evening as I was loading the kids into the car, I thought Get your wallet.

And I thought back, No way. I'll lose it.

And again that little voice said, Go get your wallet.

And I thought, Why? Am I going to get pulled over? I will drive very slowly.

And again, Rachael, go get your wallet.

So I went back into the house and I got my wallet. And I had it with me so that I could get my new library card, and so that we could check out the enormous stack of books the kids picked out, instead of having to go home bookless.

I told the kids about this on the way home. We talked about recognizing promptings and listening to your thoughts and how the Holy Ghost can help us to make good choices even in small things.

It turned out to be a pretty good family home evening after all. And I'm just really thankful for things like this.

That's all.

Juliet, Jordan, and the Great Wall of Chocolate Cake

One of the things my brother-in-law Jordan wanted for Christmas was his own piece of chocolate cake from the Asian bistro Chinn-Chinn's. It's called "The Great Wall of Chocolate," and it is really quite heavenly. But so huge and rich that we inevitably end up splitting a piece between two or three people.



When the cake slices arrived, Juliet climbed right up in Jordan's lap. He ate half the cake.



Then she ate the other.



No wonder the kids are crazy about "Unker Dor-din."