Sibling Love

Helping Clark apply to college and putting together his transcript was our project earlier this week.  The applying part was easy, the transcript was a little more time consuming.   Fortunately, I'd kept pretty good track of all his classes and activities, so it was just a matter of formatting the transcript.

Faith is my puzzling companion.  Other kids will help a bit here and there, but Faith is usually with me for the long haul.  It is such a decadent treat for me to take time to do a puzzle.

The "cats" in their "cat beds".  One of my absolute favorite things about parenting is watching the creative games the kids come up with, especially when they are denied access to electronics.

The other morning the little kids set up a Magformer/Goobie magnet battle.  Ideally, they would have started on their jobs and school work, but I'm a sucker for siblings making up games and playing together.  And it was a holiday week, so it was hard to find motivation anyway.

It started with the little kids, but it wasn't long before the bigger kids joined in.  Scenes like this make my mama heart happy.

The many uses of spray whipped cream.

There are no words.

When I teach piano in the afternoons, I wrap Greta up and bounce her in her bouncy chair and she almost immediately falls asleep.  It doesn't matter how loud the kids play, it soothes her right to sleep.

Faith had a goal this week to mark 1000 back handsprings to turn in at her class on Tuesday.  From last Wednesday to the following Tuesday she did 1,120!  If you look closely you can see lots of drops of sweat on her mats.

And she's got the guns to prove it!

Wow.

Just wow.

Elinor is not just slightly taller than me, she's passed me up by about 1 1/2 inches!  I honestly did not think any of my girls would get taller than me.  

I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I'm finding it quite shocking.

Elinor has been spending a lot of time working on programming the robot for FLL.   She's always had a knack for the techie stuff.

Bethany had a fun experience the last couple of weeks playing in the pit orchestra for the high school's production of "Music Man".

I gave all the boys haircuts this week.  I always give myself a little pat on the back when I consider that I saved about $60 by cutting their hair myself instead of taking them to a professional.  But there is a price to be paid and this time it came in the form of a really crummy haircut for Peter.  What was I doing? 

In my defense, he was screaming and wiggling and trying to escape during the haircut.

Umm... I don't really know what to say about this picture.

I will just say that he is a source of constant entertainment to me.

My children's favorite past time is quoting obscure comedy sketches from YouTube.  But perhaps their second favorite past time is teasing one another about whom they like.  This pencil topper is courtesy of Faith, given to Cannon.  This cutout came from an advertisement mailer for the dance studio where Cannon takes dance.  This little girl is the daughter of the owner and she happens to be a favorite of Cannon's.   Aren't siblings wonderful?

And speaking of siblings, these four are LOUD, LOUD, LOUD!  These days there is much of wrestling, screaming, growling, jumping, and all manner of disturbing noises.  I don't recall the older kids being so loud, but I attribute that to a higher female to male ratio back then. 

And Peter.  I attribute a lot of noise to Peter.

Frankly, I'm not sure how much I should just roll with it and how much I should attempt to curtail the mayhem.  Aren't little boys like little lion cubs that need to play-wrestle to learn how to be big lions someday?  This is healthy, right?

It does, at times, end in tears.  That is sad.  But know that within 1 minute he was right back in the fray.

Never a dull moment.  

But I think I might enjoy a dull moment.  Maybe that's why I do jigsaw puzzles with Faith.

THIS

THIS today.
Hmm.  It's been a long day.
SHE WILL NOT NAP!  That's not exactly true.  She takes about 6 ten minutes catnaps a day.  And on days when Peter refuses to nap at all, it can get ugly.
I can't think clearly after several days in a row of this.  That's why all of these sentences are so short. I can not think in complex sentences this evening.
Also, she drools like a faucet from morning till night.  Other than copious amounts of drool and terrible napping, she is just lovely.

Abe and I enjoyed going to observe a few minutes of Cannon's dance classes this week.  It is so, so wonderful to watch him doing something he so thoroughly enjoys and is good at.

He likes having another boy in the tap class with him.  He's also in a hip-hop class that is all boys.

They are doing an Arabian dance from the Nutcracker.

I look forward to seeing him in his recital.

Peter likes to play with the math blocks.
You know what else he likes?  Screaming.  Running away from me when it's time for diaper changes. Rejecting food he is served.  Demanding anything George is playing with.
Aren't I a bundle of positive energy this evening?

Abe like this picture of him holding a cute little pink tree frog.
In sad news, generally speaking, Greta does not really like her father.  It's most inconvenient for us all.

Look how wonderful!  A friend whose children I used to teach piano to gave me fox salt and pepper shakers.  It more than made my day!

The little ones were happy on two counts this morning-- 1) the first snow if the season and 2) I slept in long enough for them to find snow clothes and escape out of doors before I could get them going on the day's activities.

Three little cousins at cousin Andrew's mission farewell.  I like their pretty blue eyes.

Bethany's orchestra played a most beautiful Veteran's Day concert last weekend.  It was a Civil War musical tribute entitled "One Nation".  Perhaps it was election day aftermath, but I was quite honestly in tears for half of the concert.  It was so touching and so well done.  They had a professional DVD recording made and I am very much looking forward to watching/hearing it again and again.

Elinor is a good big sister for a tired little Georgie.

Book Club Fun

This weather!!  It's been so, so, nice!  I don't remember ever seeing weather like this in Utah in November. It always seems to turn really cold right before or immediately after Halloween.  But tomorrow is November 12th and we're still seeing temperatures in the high sixties.  This picture is from our book club this week, discussing From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  It's a very fun read and book club is always markedly easier when we can go do run-around games outside.

We played missionary tag, which I haven't played since I was a youth, but it's so much fun.

See... doesn't it look like these two sisters are having so much fun?

Then we made statues out of aluminum foil.  Some young people went for the the every popular, classic "rock" (just balling up a lot of tin foil).

Some had more sinister plans...

Some liked working on a smaller scale-- a little man riding a water buffalo.

That was Elinor taking her inspiration from a book she read last year.

 My favorite was this beautiful bouquet of flowers made by Abe's nephew, James.

Here are our energetic little cub scouts meeting at our house this week.

Do you see something different about me in this picture?  Yes, I did it again.  I got my hair cut short and I L-O-V-E it!  I was recommended a gal who is great with short hair and I was very happy with her.  I think long hair can be very beautiful, but for me it is so uncomfortable and I don't like it.  I feel much more myself with it cut short.  So I'm happy to be back to myself.

The day before the shearing, we enjoyed a Fox family home evening at Marjorie's house down in Orem.  It was short and sweet and we had Krispie Kreme doughnuts for a snack.  What else can you ask for?  Then this evening I enjoyed a girls' dinner with a couple of sister-in-laws.  I'm feeling rather spoiled.

This little George is a sweetheart!  He was so excited to go to his friend's (who is a girl) birthday party today.  It was a cooking party.  He insisted on wrapping the present himself, but not carrying the pink bag down the street.  He wanted me to help him get ready early this morning and asked me no less than 15 times what time it was today and how much longer until the party.  

Let me tell you about this picture.  First of all, this is our coat closet.  No, having clothes all over the floor isn't an unusual condition for my coat closet.  I thinking hanging coats up is overrated, especially in a family of a lot of young children.  I just want the coats to make it into the closet and not be left out on the couches.  If the kids can get them into the closet and be able to close the closet door, then let's just call it good.   I feel confident my standards will increase as my children get older, but this is how I manage nowadays.  

But the funny thing here is Peter hiding in said closet because he had a stinky diaper.  His little sense of humor is really coming out and he's taken to running away and laughing and hiding when he's stinky.

He did it yesterday too.   What a character we have on our hands!  The good news is we know he needs to be changed if he goes to the closet.

Peter calls her "Ga-Ga". 

So I suppose we have a "Baby Ga-Ga" rather than Lady Ga-Ga.  

She continues to delight, although I could do with a little more daytime napping from her.  She falls asleep very easily, but doesn't stay asleep for more than about 20 minutes.  Good thing she is so good-natured and stays pretty happy even when overtired.

Halloween Day

Clark didn't do school on Halloween because he got up early and went into work for an 11 hour pizza making day.
Have you ever picked up pizza to eat for dinner on Halloween?  We almost always have.  I never really considered just how much work goes into getting a pizza store ready for the insanity that is Halloween.  So much prep work.
Clark was "Clark Kent".  This made me happy because he was a baby Superman for his first Halloween.  It was fitting he would be Superman again for his last Halloween at home before the mission.

As per tradition, Abe did go in to pick up our pizza and snapped a picture of Clark while he was at it.

Our cutie little trick-or-treaters.
Abe said that in the excitement of the festivities, Peter had some language breakthroughs and even tried saying trick-or-treat and thank you.  Hooray!

Meeting up with friends in the neighborhood.

Bethany took Faith and a couple of friends around and then picked up Sam to go along with them.  Sam is autistic and Abe has worked with him at church since Sam was about 7 years old (he just turned 16).  We all LOVE Sam!

Such fun they are.
Recently the boys were jumping around and yelling and wrestling with their shirts off.  I mentioned to Abe that it had been one of those days and they'd been like this all day.
He suggested that I now had some idea of what most of his childhood was like.

The D&D guys moved upstairs from the basement for the occasion of Halloween.  Cannon so enjoys hanging with Clark and the guys that he cut his trick-or-treating short so he could join them.
Also, he's not a big candy eater, so no big loss for him.
Kind of a big loss for me though, since I can't charge candy taxes on candy that doesn't exist.

Poor Elinor hurt her ankle and couple nights previous and it was still quite swollen and discolored on Halloween.  So after most of the trick-or-treating was done, she and I took a little jaunt to the urgent care for an X-ray.  No broken bones, but she'll be in a boot for a week or so more.
In this picture she looks much taller than me... but this is not the case.  It is the angle!
She is my height, however, and it looks like she may pass me up at some point.  But not yet!

I just like this one.

 What a dream.
She is so much snuggly goodness.

Oh, the cheeks!  THE CHEEKS!  I just want to kiss them all day.

Babies are a lot of work.  It's hard to get things done the way you would like to, when you would like to.  You are always at their beck and call-- they decide when you can sleep, eat, shower, go to the store.  You adjust what you even hope or want to do.  Outings that used to be appealing just aren't anymore.  It's so much easier for everyone to just stay home.
And this isn't coming from a first time mom.  This is my experience after 8 babies.  That being said, the rewards well outweigh the costs.  And when you get a dream baby, like Greta... well, it is a little piece of heaven on earth.

And I'm not the only one who is smitten with her.  George can't stop kissing her, Bethany can't stop  squeezing her, and Clark regularly notices and comments on her her cuteness (which is something).

 I read this fascinating book, which I highly recommend, entitled, "Essentialism"  It was really, really good for me to read at this time in my life when I am feeling stretched thin and torn between so many responsibilities, but not feeling like I'm doing anything particularly well.

Hmm.. safety first.
Do you like the razor sitting right within arm's reach of the toddler?  Speaking of not doing things particularly well.

Here's to a good start to the week, with a whole lot less candy than last week.