seven!

My oldest girl is seven - unbelievable! Diana has been with us through thick and thin, Chandler, Cambridge, Austin, Mesa. She is smart, funny, spiritual, and really wants to do the right thing. She is also very patient with her Mom - nice! Here she is in all her GLORY!

ward camp out

We had a great ward camp-out this year. The weather was beautiful, there was water in the creek so rock throwing was the #1 activity and the kids had a great time.

Sarah was a backpack trooper (she better get used to it - we are doing a lot of national parks this Summer).


Most of the pictures are of Isaac. He was hanging with me most of the time while Ryan took care of Sarah and the big girls ran around like happy, crazy, wilderness kids.


Throwing rocks!

more

Today is a big day hereabouts. Cousins Ernie should receive his mission call; Uncle Michael got home from Jerusalem late last night (we are glad the ash cloud cooperated); and we are going on a ward camp out. To celebrate, here are some pictures. I move a mirror downstairs for Isaac's speech and we were having fun with it yesterday.

humiliation

Isaac, Sarah and I hit Wal-mart this morning for a few essentials for the ward camp-out. In the cereal ilse we ran into some sister missionaries. I said
"Hi!" as I always do and then added, "you sure are lucky to have a Wal-Mart, we would have killed for one on my mission." One of the Hermanas asked where I had served. I answered, "Honduras".

"OH!", she replied, "My companion is from Honduras!"

Turns out she was not only from Honduras but from a city I served in, La Ceiba. She, of course wanted to know what area I served in and - here comes the humiliating part - I could not remember!!! I couldn't remember the name of the area, the bishop's name, the stake president's name, the people we lived with, the lady who fed us - NOTHING! O.K. I remember there was a hill and the lady who fed us had an air conditioner that she would CRANK for us at lunch time as long as we swore not to tell her husband (we never did). That's it. I was humiliated. Not only had I dissed her country for not having Wal-Mart, at least in my day, but I could not even remember where I served in her city!!!! ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG and curse my wretched brain!

In my defense, I was in la Ceiba for 2 weeks at the beginning of my mission and 6 weeks at the end, no baptisms and both very stressful full of tiredness times.

You can bet I came right home and looked in my scriptures for the names of my areas - Indepenencia and Las Colinas. I have a very strong urge to call our elders and have them relay the message to the Honduran Hermana. Oh the SHAME!!!

romance

So, there were actually 3 romances brewing in different wings of the family, all in very different stages (from: she's cute you chould date her, to: he looks nice and you've had 4 dates - hmmmm, to: when the heck is Uncle Ben going to get married already, we have vacation time to allocate) - only Uncle Ben's continues, all others were false alarms, so we will all have to find something else to talk about - whine whine.

after naps yesterday

Isaac upon finishing his nap - yuck. The dry heat here really gets to us. Isaac and Nora have had some bad bloody noses and Sarah's eczema is a sight to behold.

for grandpa

Romance is brewing in the family, so we call each other several times a day for all the updates, opinions, and commentaries. During one of the calls, Grandpa complained about this blog's lack of photos of his grandchildren. Here you go Grandpa!


Sarah is fully weaned and started on solids - tasty sweet potatoes.


These are the toes I like to eat.


Dad the human jungle gym.


She is stunning, and beautiful, and precious, and she is getting her first tooth!


Dad, the human jungle gym part two.


We have started potty training - I have not changed a poopy diaper in days, but he wets his pants at least once an hour. This last hour he did it two times, oh well at lest he is handsome in his super cape early in the morning.



For her birthday, Nora received a custom package of seeds labeled Nora's Nasturtiums. They are growing. I hope we get some plowers before it gets flaming hot.

me and frodo a tale of abandonment

For Ryan's b-day I bought The Lord of the Rings trilogy DVDs and we have been working our way through them late into the night. Last night Ryan had mutual so I started the Return of the King without him as I fed Sarah (skipping all yucky orcs and any Gollm/Smegol bi-polar stuff, so I got pretty far). When Ryan got home he started it over (and watched all the stuff I skip - ikk orcs)! Anyhow, just as life was getting really perilous: Faramir just rode off to certain death, Frodo sent Sam back down the winding stair and was headed for Shelob, etc, we had to turn it of and go to bed! It was 11 pm after all and life starts early here. I have felt all day that I have abandoned Frodo.

I remember feeling the same way when I read the books a few years (and fewer children) back. I had plowed through the books in about a week and late one night I HAD to go to bed leaving Frodo and Sam in the most awful state on Mount Doom. I still feel guilty for abandoning them and now look, I've done it again!

I love it when an author creates characters so real I really do feel like a slacker for leaving them hanging while I sleep.

oh my potatoes!

NO! I did not make the girl's dresses; they were a gift from Grammy and a testimony that Heavenly Father loves me (and that is a serious and totally reverent statement). When I was a little girl man did I covet the dresses Elizabeth Rick's grandma sent her - fluffy, beautiful, twirly - wow! Well, now my girls have a Grammy that does just that and I am grateful they get to feel so beautiful.

easter finery

Our primary had an activity yesterday at the Temple Visitor's Center, so we took the chance to get some pictures in Easter finery. We were lucky to hit the flowers just right. The crews were out pulling all the annuals up and prepping the beds for new plantings. We found a bed they hadn't reached yet.

a walk in the park gone wrong

The girls have FINALLY figured out that doing homework and piano in the morning frees up the afternoon, so we headed to the park for a bit after school today.

About 15 minutes into our outing a truck with 2 guys and a girl drive up, unload and proceed to have a sonic picnic at a picnic table - fine by me. About 15 minutes later, another (nicer, bigger) truck shows up blaring obscene music and 2 more guys a another girl saunter off to another picnic table under the pavilion. A few minutes after that cigarette smoke starts a'wafting our way - ewwww. I tell the kids we are leaving because some kids are smoking and we start loading up our sand toys. As we head to the car, the first group of kids gets up to leave too. Emily comments, rather loudly (because Emily only has one volume - LOUD) that they have left their trash and indeed they have, not just in a pile in the table, but strewn all over the ground.

By this time I am fed up with the high school generation as a whole and I get my grumpy, bossy, I used to be a school teacher person on and ask them to pick up their trash and be good examples! Two kids ignore me and one gives me a rather sheepish look and cleans up.

Argggg, grrrrrr, growl, and humph! Remind me to never let my kids grow up.

cape, dress, housework and such

Housework is happier with a handsome helper.


This Spring, the "Mexico dress" was passed down to Nora and Emily was missing it, so I took a tunic that never fit right and turned it into dress for her. I've never "re-fashioned" anything before and it was a lot of fun. Cutting out has always been a part of sewing I did not like and the cutting out is mostly done with a re-fashion. YIPEE!

Ryan declared, after witnessing a dress-up session first hand, that Isaac needed some MAN DRESS UPS! So, we went to wal-mart, Isaac chose 1/2 a yard of Cars fabric and voila! a cape! Very manly. He is upstairs right now taking a nap with it.



In other Chase news, Ryan turns 36 tomorrow. Nora started pre-school at Mt. View High on Monday and is really enjoying it. Sarah ate bananas today - yum! Our rice cereal attempts were tragic, but bananas pass muster. Isaac is making more effort to talk - hooray! He gets evaluated by the state tomorrow to see if they will provide "at home speech therapy" to supplement the pay through the nose stuff we already do. We shall see. They have pretty strict guidelines (as they should), so I don't know if he will qualify.

brilliant and creative

Many years ago, my brother Stephen went to the emergency room a lot. There was the time he was climbing up the camping storage shelves in Dad's studio and fell many feet and hit his head on some stacked 2X4's - 44 stitches. There was the HUGE cut between his toes from climbing a hay elevator thingy at Dorthy's house, more stitches. There was the almost died from slitting his wrist with a whittling tool while carving a Santa Claus figure for my Mom's b-day incident. You get the idea. The E.R. nurse after 2 or 3 not too spread out visits informed my mom that only "brilliant and creative children" get hurt this often.

I present Emmy as the next brilliant and creative child in the family. Last week was the whole bashing her mouth in running to the playground(healing nicely thank you). Today she was doing brilliant and creative flips off the swings here at home and fell flat on her face. She now has a lovely scraped up face. I'm grateful her K-teacher has a sense of humor and knows kids or CPS would be calling.

In case you are wondering, Stephen is indeed brilliant and creative and he ABSOLUTELY wears a helmet when snowboarding.

It has occurred to me that Emily may just be clumsy, but I prefer brilliant and creative. Wouldn't you?

super mom debunked and hello dollys

This is to say in all seriousness, I am NOT super mom and I am glad days like yesterday don't happen too often. I think the strain of yesterday came to a head today and I had a nice little breakdown at lunch. Nothing serious, just enough tears to re-set my system and clear the air.

For Holly - the wickedly fabulous bars - we call them Hello Dollys

Layer in an 8X8 in this order

1 stick butter, melted
6 graham crackers, crushed
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup coconut
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. There are a million variations of this, but this is my favorite.