Band Party

This past Saturday, our neighbors hosted a band party. The Ken Foster Trio came and performed songs and the kids danced, it was a lovely summer evening. (Doing the chicken dance below)

After chit chatting with the band for a minute, Corey went home and got the tenor sax. (He's trying to inspire Hyrum to play I think.) Hyrum listened and was a great helper with Natalie, who just couldn't stop moving to the rhythm.

Everyone enjoyed hotdogs plus lots of yummy side dishes and desserts. Melodie and her friend did their teenager thing

Abi danced and danced. When the band took a break, she went and joined the other kids in the sprinklers. But she did seem very happy to dance to her hearts content in front of a willing audience (as opposed to her slightly reluctant audience in pictures 3 and 4 there... she loves to perform!)

Hyrum played a bit of soccer in the yard of one of the hosts - and it is just one of the most gorgeous yards around - tall pine trees give it a "hey were in the mountains" feel, but there's also a view over the valley from the grass and swing set. A little hazy with the smokey air. But Lily and Hyrum loved it over there.

And thus was a perfect summer evening, which I feel are going to soon be coming to a close. I can hear the school year knocking at the door. Nooo!

Knowledge through Experience

Now I know.

I'd heard some neighbors talk and complain and say why they didn't like them, and so I kind of knew, but I didn't know. I couldn't really sympathize cause I hadn't experiences it and felt it in my heart. But now I have, and now I know. 'Cause this morning I went outside to water the flowers and it was over. I had been trying to take pictures to see their growth day by day, but alas, they were gone.

The deer ate my roses.

Now I liked the deer, I really did. And I guess I still do... They made our home have a Snow White forest enchantment to it. But now I know again that there is opposition in all things. Deer have opposition. Roses have thorns, and deer eat roses.

I've been reading the book "Finding Peace, Happiness, and Joy" by Richard G. Scott, and on page 161, he says "When did you last observe a tiny rosebud form? Each day it develops new and impressive character, more promise of beauty, until it becomes a magnificent rose." So I'd already been loving flowers before I read that, and after I read that, I tried to take even more pause and pleasure in beholding the flowers. And each day they grew bigger and they seemed that they were about to burst. This morning I went out to see if any colored petals were peaking through, but alas, they'd all been snipped off. I felt a sense of loss. Sure, they are a little smaller on the scale of God's creations. I'd rather see a dead rose on the ground than a dead deer on the side of the road. And deer do need to eat (I don't envy them... probably such a hard life trying to feel satisfied by eating plants all day...) But still, poor little flowers! They didn't fulfil the measure of their creation! And I felt sad for them. And the deer ate part of the top of one of my tomato plants too. (sniff!)

(Kinda funny when I found out later via facebook that my neighbor had caught the culprits in action!!)

SO, now I know by experience why the deer can be a negative when it comes to the yard, and I can truly console and sympathize with my neighbors. We'll mourn our plants together. I will still like the deer, but I am going to shoo them away if I see them pausing in our lot for lunch. I'm also keeping the back gate closed. I went out and hunted for any other new rose life to ease my pain after the initial shock wore off, and there are like 7 very very small rose bud tips that were hidden and small enough that they went unnoticed. But I can't put a gate around them in front yard. So we'll just have to say a prayer for them and life will go on. Grow little flowers ~ become the magnificent roses you were destined to become! But you're gonna have to watch out for teeth.

Little Bookworm

I love it when I walk around a corner to find a little moment like this ~

Cute little feet fidgeting as my little princess reads Cinderella with a pink heart balloon watching from above. Priceless. Hey Sophi!

I love you!

Life Goes On

I absolutely love these pink and yellow roses in our front yard, aren't they amazing! Sigh, just heaven!

A flower a day keeps the blues away! (Or two flowers, or three...)

Things are going well here. It's been a bit quiet around the house this week, kinda... Melodie's been at Oakcrest Girl's camp, she left on Monday, and then this morning Joseph and Ethan left for a Jazz Band tour in San Diego. They'll be gone through next Tuesday. We hardly know what to do with ourselves with only 6 kids. I did mess up dinner - we set the table and dished up food for 6 kids, without remembering that one of them was Natalie who doesn't sit at the table yet. So there were lots of kids eager to eat up the extra orange chicken, which is always a kid favorite. We had extra large portions without the big boys around hogging the food, the little boys liked that. Mel doesn't make so much of a difference either way food wise cause she eats like a bird.

Speaking of birds, here's a funny story. Yesterday, about mid morning, I was in the bed nursing Natalie and half asleep when there was a big crash noise. I jumped up out of bed with a start and Natalie slept through it and I looked around to what had just caused my heart attack, since there were no children within sight. Hmm, other clues... I notice that the framed collage picture and a few other things I had displayed up high in a bedroom window had been knocked to the floor - and there were feathers on the outside of the window. (the frame is put back up in the window here below)

So feathers gave a clue that it was a bird, and that said bird probably hit the window pretty hard. So hard that it was able to cause the collage picture leaning next to it to tumble to the floor below. The picture brought with it a little jewelry box that I got from my Grandma when I was in elementary school (that I have small fragile keepsakes and mementos in) and it knocked the little music box part off of the top lid. I think I might be able to fix that with super glue... the small keepsakes were still intact.

And the fall of the frame also knocked a little glass unicorn to the floor. This is a little thing that Corey got me for Christmas to invoke admiration from his young princess daughters. They were in awe at what a special gift it was for me - it was glass, fragile, sparkly, glittery, pink, and pretty. Yes, this fragile unicorn and her winged fairy friend got pulverized by the robin hitting my window in a freak accident.

I showed the kids what happened to my very special gift. They were impressed that I wasn't weeping and wailing. We went out side to see if we could see a dead bird on the roof. It was there and it was upright, but it wasn't moving. We watched it stand still like a statue and then got a broom to kinda poke at it to see if it was alive and then it very very slightly turned it's head toward us. Ok, looks like it's not dead, I guess he was just trying to see straight again and recover from his very very bad headache. So that's the story of the young robin learning to fly that crashed into our master bedroom window and destroyed my very special glass unicorn. And I still haven't had a chance to look for the super glue, but I did clean up a can of comet cleaner that Natalie poured out on the kitchen floor. And cleaned off about half of the black permanent marker that Sophi drew in my window sills again (How is it that permanent markers always end up laying around the house within the reach of these toddlers!!?!? Discovered the culprit but she wasn't around to yell at ~ Mel was using that one on Monday morning to mark her luggage for camp.) And also Sophi poured herself an overflowing glass of milk on the stairs, got the carpet all wet. And life goes on. :) The end.

Do Good Anyway

Little story. So yesterday Ethan had band practice in American Fork. I took Natalie with me as usual. It was 105 degrees outside (aka hot). I didn't want to go in and out of the car running different errands, so we just chilled in Target the whole time.

She started loosing patience with me near the end, but on a scale of 1-10 for how good she was, it was an 8, which was an improvement. Usually she's a 4 (below average). She doesn't like to sit in the seat. So I have to keep her caged in the cart. So, yeah, hot day. Natalie was a good sport, and after killing an hour and a half we head back to get Ethan. He comes out and says it's hot. I agree. Natalie hadn't eaten anything during the whole 2 hours (drive down & time at Target) so I'm thinking let's go get a Frosty. As we turn right to go to Wendys, I see a young lady on the corner across the street with a cardboard sign. We'd have to come back this way to get on the freeway, and I thought it might be nice to give her something. I tend to try to avoid giving cash (didn't have any anyway), so I thought we could get a frosty for her. Afterall, it was 105 degrees outside. She had to be hot out there. So, we get small vanilla frosty's for Natalie and Ethan, and I have Ethan sit in the front with a large chocolate frosty to give to this lady as we pass her on our way home. But she had just switched corners and was across the street, so we turn right and pull a u turn to come back to deliver this frosty. She says thank you and God bless. Then we turn right again and pull a u turn again so we can come back to the same intersection again and turn left this time to go home. We are at the light to turn left, she is on the left corner from us still with her sign, and when the light turns red and no cars are passing her, she goes to her backpack and picks up the frosty and starts walking. She holds it up as if she's showing it to someone in the distance. Then, apparently receiving her non-verbal answer from this person, turns to go back to her corner, and tosses the frosty in the storm drain on the grass as she walks by. And then I kinda felt sad. Sad for several reasons. Sad that my offering wasn't appreciated. Sad that I'd given her a frosty when maybe what she really needed was money to pay rent? A little sad that I'd even bothered trying. But then thought of this quote that I had just read earlier that morning:

The things I do, the things others do, really aren't just between us mortals here on this planet, it's between us and God. So I guess I'll probably give out a frosty again someday anyway. I got out of my sad mood after we had a FHE lesson on that quote and this scripture from D&C 88:32-33:

"...They shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift."

And then we talked about how we need to see and recognize God's gifts to us ~ the beautiful trees outside every window of our house, the mountains, the sunshine, the amazing full moon that we saw rise on our drive home from Scofield Saturday night (amazing moon) ~ We need to see them, appreciate and receive them, and thank and rejoice in the Lord who gives them. They are all gifts from him. 

And then we had our usual Monday night FHE activity of watching American Ninja Warrior. Go Mighty Kacy Catanzaro - she did SOOOO GOOD! 

And do you know what I just love about Ninja Warrior - is that everyone is cheering each other on. It's not a competition against each other, it's a competition against the obstacle, and everyone cheers and supports and celebrates with each person with each obstacle they beat. That is how I want my life to be. Like Mother Teresa said~ be kind, be good, succeed, and be happy anyway!

Scofield Weekend

We had a fun weekend boating and water skiing with some neighborhood friends over the weekend. They have a trailer home in Scofield and we all go down there for a day of fun on the water.

We had a lovely drive down, the scenery in the canyon was gorgeous. After we arrived we all enjoyed some snacks and the kids played games.

We stayed up too late talking and then headed in around midnight for a mega sleepover. What is a mega sleepover? A mega sleepover is a sleepover where 5 families with their abundance of children all sleep in a 3 bedroom trailer home.

Seriously, the plethora of people included us (11) Felix's (8) Dahle's (4 - dad had work) Morgans (8) and Jensen's (6), which equals... 37 people! Yes, P-A-R-T-Y!! There was no vacancy in this Scofield hotel, which is why Melodie slept under the kitchen table.

There were just little bodies sleeping everywhere. We sounded out a warning for everyone to be sure to use the bathroom before bed, or someone might get their face walked on during the night.

Corey was lucky, we got a bedroom and a bed cause we had the youngest kid. (Thanks Natalie!!)

So after the mega sleepover, we all went out for fun in the sun. First round on the water was the little kids (cause we figured they'd most likely just want one turn anyway and then be done.) Older kids waited by the shore or in the paddle boat.

Younger kids had fun being pulled. Don't have to go too fast for them to feel a thrill.

Next up, it's time for the big boys to show their stuff ~

Highlight of that round for most all of us was watching from the boat was seeing these 4 take a spill.

It was the only wipe out of the day on the tube. 

However, after that, Hyrum wouldn't go cause he didn't want to fall in. Wes listened to Hyrum and didn't want to go either. I convinced Wesley to take a ride by being the adult that went along, and I said there were no plans to get wet since I was in my clothes.

We took a nice slow ride back to the dock ~ can you tell it was slow by the older girls showing how bored they are in the picture above? There were lots of wipeouts later when the tube crowd took a break and the skiers hit the lake... It was my first time waterskiing! I was one of the last to go, and after watching everyone else struggle to get up, I knew what to do and was able to get up on my first try! Go me! I went twice and got up both times, which impressed my hot shot boys, which was my main objective. They hate to be shown up by their mom, right? But also helps them respect me a little more cause I'm tough. :) Both Joseph and Ethan got up too, they did great, it was a lot of fun! After that I went back to the house for lunch and I made some strawberry watermelon lemonade, yummy! :) Then we mom's sat around and talked as the men, who had been great baby sitters for most of the morning, had their turn on the water with the kids. Corey got up skiing on the Felix's boat, Katie took 13 kids tubing on her boat, and it was just a perfect wonderful day.

We took a big group photo at the end of the day. Natalie was being super silly ~

Yelling and sticking out her tongue and making us all laugh.

We've got a great group of kids, so glad that they all have great friends and that we do too. :)

If anyone wants to come and join our little corner of heaven, there are quite a few houses for sale in our neighborhood! :) We feel so blessed to be able to rent this home and to have such great friends. Life is great.

To Do List

This morning Abi made a "to-do" list for herself. (I'm guessing she learned this by the quiet example of her older sister Melodie who always has a list of to-do's.) So, this is what Abi's list looks like: 

Starting from the top left corner: Get dressed. Eat cereal. Brush teeth. Play legos. Pack for Scofield. Draw. Make Bed. Fold Clothes. Clean up Legos. Jump on trampoline (I loved that picture). Read. Eat a burrito (loved that one too). Play with Duplos. Empty dishwasher, draw. Eat a cherry.

On my to-do list: Go shopping for watermelon lemonade supplies for Scofield. (that recipe is a summer keeper), water my pretty flowers, they make me sing:

...and, oh, 100 other things. There's always a lot to do. I'm doing pretty good at taking time to slow down and enjoy the little things, like our first two tomatoes! I love our little garden.

One month of summer vacation is already over, so go enjoy it, have a happy weekend!

One Year Old

Today is a big day! Natalie is one year old. We started off celebrating on her birthday eve with some cake and ice cream. Her big brothers held her hands so she wouldn't touch the flame as we sang happy birthday. Then we lighted it again and sang again.

And she got more freedom to move with each repeat. She would clap for an encore and we'd sing it again. Ethan kept her away from the flame and again and again we sang to our birthday baby.

Encore!!

Isn't she just THE CUTEST THING EVER?!?!?!? 

We'd all giggle as she clapped and would want to see her do it again so we'd sing again.

Natalie loved the singing. I think she could tell that we were all singing for her. She liked it.

This morning we let her open her presents outside on the trampoline. She thought they were just drums to hit and make music with, and was very content to use them forever that way. The kids were anxious to show her that there was more inside the presents to be enjoyed...

Abi helped her open her new cell phone! She was pretty excited about that.

She's such a happy baby. Love these kids. My hands and heart are full, thank you Lord!