helpers

Diana has discovered vacuuming and likes it:). So, every morning after b-fast she goes at it. She may not do the most meticulous job, but a daily job beats my once or twice a week .

Isaac has discovered the teeter totter - such fun.

update

Jess, had her surgery today and she and baby did great. Jess has all kinds of new hardware in her leg/ankle some permamnent, some not, all very cool to David and Josh (gross to me - eeeeewwww). She'll hang out at the hospital until they get "pain management" all worked out and then off to home to be taken care of by Mumsy. We are all very glad the stressful surgery is done and she can officially begin "recovering".

and you thought your life was tough

My sister Jessica had a freak accident yesterday involving a 2nd grader, a skatboard, a pregnant Jessica holding a 2 year old and now she's a mess, a broken ankle and fibula (calf), sprained wrist and a 7.5 month pregnancy. She will have surgery on Tuesday and then it's wheelchair for quite a while. Luckily Uncle Stephen and Aunt Rosie can build anything and she now has ramps connecting the levels of her house (Josh is having a great time rolling his cars down them!). Anyhow, if you are having a bad day, you can be grateful you aren't pregnant, injured, and immobile.

kitchen

Has anyone out there ever painted their kitchen cabinets and had them turn out well? According to my This Old House magazine it "only takes a weekend". Cue laugh track. I'd love a real life perspective. Our poor cabinents are looking very, very shabby. Any thoughts?

the Belle dress

Disclaimer: I think about Halloween all year long and LOVE to make costumes. I do not make costumes to make my friends or family feel guilty etc. Some moms buy their kids chickens (Jessica), I make costumes:). We all have our gifts.

That said, the Belle dress is pretty much done and we had lots of fun making it and figuring out how to make it fluffy (and modest). Poor Belle doesn't know about being modest you know. An extra big thanks to Grandma for the fantastic tutu that makes a perfect petticoat.

The dress was actually really easy to make. I have a pattern book called Party Costumes for Kids by Jean Greenhowe that has some great techniques. This dress was made completely with straight strips of fabric! I was amazed.

The dress before we made the skirt fluffy.




Post fluffing


The ultimate test: how does it twirl?

Isaac

Isaac is nine months old today and I think he deserves a post of his own. Here are 9 fun facts and things I love about Isaac.
#1 Isaac has a GREAT SMILE and knows how to use it to his advantage.

#2 Isaac is a good self soother - ahh.
#3 Isaac gives very nice hugs.
#4 Isaac loves bread (he doesn't just look like Ryan).

#5 Isaac despises vegetables.
#6 Isaac is my first mom crazy kid and it melts my heart when I know it's ME he wants.
#7 Isaac does great waving.
#8 Isaac is generally pretty quiet.
#9 Isaac looks fantastic in his Sunday best.

So yes, I love my Isaac.

school etc

School is going OK, except the darn bus! I think Darla at the front desk of the school is even more frustrated than I am. The first 2 days - no bus and a mad dash in the car to school with Nora and Isaac at home sleeping (bad mom, I know). Anyhow, yesterday I took the car the block to the bus stop so #1 I would have a clock (my watch died) and so we could get to school a little faster when the bus inevitability didn't come. The bus is supposed to come at noon, so we waited until 7 after and drove off. As I was turning onto the school street I saw a bus and made a mad U-turn, but it had gone down the wrong street, so back to school, when the bus emerged from the wrong street and headed into our little community, another mad U-turn and high speed chase, wildly honking, and lo and behold, it was the right bus! The poor man was as relived as we were. So, hopefully today we will have a bus at noon at the pool ready to take Diana to school.

Thankfully the bus home is fine. One of my former cub scouts who is a 6th grader this year, has decided it's his job to make sure Diana gets on the bus, he sits with her in the front seat and makes sure all is well. I'm grateful and he gets a super cute seatmate out of the deal.

Diana likes Kindergarten, but doesn't elaborate much. I think sometimes I'm just asking the wrong questions. . . .hmmmmm.

Having a kid in school is good, different, and makes the days a little long. Emily however is really enjoying the mommy time. We get an hour or so all to ourselves and she keeps saying, "it's just you and me, huh Mom?" with a big grin on her face. So we color, play memory, and stuff. Yesterday I gave her her first piano lesson. I think the time will be good for our Emmy lou-who.

Isaac is doing better with the more structured day but he still won't eat veggies. Cute though, very cute.

first day

Diana started school today and despite a bump getting there, it was a great day and she came home excited about tomorrow. She's in 1/2 day K (a rarity here in AZ), and the bus did not pick her up (hopefully tomorrow), so I rushed her to school and she was late - oh well. Nothing like the first day for making mistakes.

here she is in her beloved butterfly clothes


with her backpack at the non functional bus stop




heading off to A7


Emily, Nora, Isaac and I had a nice afternoon, but I'm afraid Emily was a little bored since the other 2 were napping. We'll figure it out.

Nora NEEDED two ribbons today in her one bun and she was right, it's charming




Emmy making faces at the bus stop


sorry about the weird pic placement. . . ..hmmmm

OLYMPICS

Every two years Ryan and I REALLY turn on the TV, and it's that time again. I love the Olympics. I love cheering for the USA, I love hoping that everyone does their 100% best so the best athlete really wins, I love getting teary at the profiles they produce just to make you cry, I love the athletes that SING their national anthem, not just mumble, and I love learning about the new and crazy host country.

Now, watching the Olympics is fun, but being there is even better. Ryan's family went to the SLC 2002 Olympics the winter we were dating and he had been planning to invite me to come up for e few days and go to some events with him. I did not know w=this plan and broke up with him in January (IDIOT!). Luckily, we repaired our relationship and my trip to the Olympics was saved. It's probably a good thing I didn't know about the trip before hand, it would have motivated me to get back with him for the wrong reason.

Anyhow, we had a fantastic time and are already scheming how to get our family to the Olympics someday. I can't wait!

ode to Corey

Today is Corey Johnson's b-day and for those of you who don't know her, you are REALLY missing out. I met Corey at BYU, then ran into her husband our first week in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the elevator (I thought he was his twin brother who sat next to me in Concert Choir at the Y). Over the next two years Corey became a true and lovely friend, something I really valued at grad school where there was so much come and go. We were there only 2 years (with 7 months of that off on an internship) and some of the longer timers would dismiss those of us on shorter stays as not worth befriending because it was either not worth the effort or as one girl put it as she was basically telling me why we weren't going to be friends; it was too hard to see so many friends leave. But did Corey act like that??? NO! She was a friend and took you for as long as MIT or Harvard or whatever else was getting you to Massachusetts let you be there.

Corey is talented, smart, and funny, funny, funny. She has a great outlook on life, spiritually and otherwise. She takes hard knocks with grace and humor (a replaced hip, pregnancy, living in 800 sq feet for 7 years, etc, etc,). Corey loves to read, eat, laugh, walk, watch baseball (SOX), and is a fantastic mom to her 3 hilarious kids. On a side note, I must share my favorite Ethan line. Ethan was I think 3 when he said this one. He was watching Barney a show he did not enjoy, and when Corey asked him why he was watching it, he just looked at her and said, "Mom, Barney is a dinosaur, one day he's going to eat those kids!". So you see, anyone who had a kid that smart, funny, and great has to be so herself.

So, I raise my glass to Corey and thank my lucky stars she is my friend. Love you girl.

birthday bag

Tomorrow is a birthday party for a little girl in our ward - no presents necessary, but Ryan is on the phone with Japan upstairs and so I'm out of the way down here and decided a little bag is so fun, and little girls love bags to carry around their "stuff", so this is what resulted - a totally useless, but pretty cute little reversible bag for a three year old.

In other news - Emily had her four year old check-up today and four shots - poor kid. She was a trooper and I'm glad this is her last set until she's 12 (except for that flu shot I make them get every year).

jeans and play dough

We are winding up the last week of summer before the public school system takes over our lives. One very needful project was jeans attention. Daily life and a heavy dose of Idaho did a number on the girls' jeans, so I patched some and then tried to make a skit out of one pair, it turned out OK and now that I know what I'm doing there is potential. Diana, of course, is pretty darn cute in whatever.




The other project today was a new play dough batch (the last batch having been thrown out before vacation). Here is the recipe for the super easy, lots cheaper stuff.

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 TBS vegetable oil
4 tsp cream of tarter
2 cups of water

mix in a saucepan over medium high heat until it's thick and pulls away from the side. Note: it will go through a very lumpy stage and you will think it's all gone wrong, but press on and you will get play dough. I divide it into 3 or 4 balls and let the kids carefully add the food coloring and mix it in. Be careful, it's pretty hot for the first few minutes, but it's really fin to knead the colors into it.

sewing

I really like to sew but it's hard not having a place to spread out and stay messy for a while. In our house, I've always had to sew at the kitchen table and so every time anyone needs to eat (about 6 times a day) I have to clean up. My mom came up with a good solution at her house in Idaho and set up her machine and essentials on a little table in the kitchen and it worked great for the sewing we did this summer so I thought I would try it here. I have an old secretary that belonged to Grandma Clara Boren and I've just been keeping stuff in there, frames, candles, figurines I don't know what to do with, old choir tapes I need to digitize etc. Well, I cleaned it all out and voila! a sewing area I can keep set up for a while! Watch out world we are ready to do projects for all the new babies coming and tackle Halloween. I did start out with something selfish though. I made a dress and although the picture does not make it look great, I think it looks really nice on and I was really pleased with how it turned out, especially considering it cost $8 in materials - whooohooo. Next is a new apron inspired by one we saw at the farmers market and then unselfish sewing. Oh yes, and I'm standing on our new tile - so much nicer than the glue leaking through linoleum squares we had. Ryan is the nicest guy EVER.

pictures

Dear World,

Here is what we did on our summer vacation.

Playing what time is it Mr. Fox


Riding the chair lift at Schweitzer


An amazing view.


Sliding down the snow with Grandpa and Uncle Michael.


Grandma has lots of puppets and it's really fun to watch the kids interact with them. This is Oliver Crumbwell, a wonderful chef.


First (and maybe last) horse ride.


Katie and Nora are GREAT friends.


Off on adventures after dinner


This picture sums up the whole summer for me - fire hats, pirate swords, cousins, and FREEDOM!


Diana and her one true love - chocolate.


All the girl cousins


All the cousins


Nora and Katie sharing - I love those two.


More Katie and Nora


Katie, Nora, and Clara in the bath. The kids got so, so, so dirty! Now I put them in the bath here at home and wonder why I'm even bothering since there isn't any real dirt on them.



Capmfire. We started out promising the kids a real hike and campout and that dissolved into promises of a dayhike, and a sleepout in the backyard, which dissolved into a fire in the firepit and playing in sleeping bags on the lawn. It's a good thing the kids are young and don't mind when plans change and change and change.


Emily's birthday present, an umbrella.


Mayham and fun at the Milletts


Great Grandma and Grandpa Nelson at the Jones reunion in Virden


Old Virden Church



It's been a great summer full of wonderful memories. A big thanks to Dad for letting us go adventuring and for coming along when he could,