my cell phone went missing

My cell phone went missing in December along with all my pictures, and intentions to upload them and catch up with my blog before the new year. It being just barely the afternoon of the thirty-first, I'm still hoping to be current by 2014.

  I feel grateful for each day with my children, in all honesty, notwithstanding the fact that I just excused myself to pound the mop on the dining room floor in futility, my effort to quiet an argument in the girls' basement bedroom. So I will gather up what pictures I prudently posted to Facebook, and call it my archives for the past few months, although I know that there are many that I've neglected, and are now lost somewhere in the memory of my very cracked iphone, in a random drawer, under the bathroom sink, tucked into Sophie's glittery dress-up purse. The possibilities are endless with a three-year old in the house. Much better to post pictures quickly, I've learned.

Lovely Olivia turned ten in August.

 The present opening.

 Grant started Kindergarten.
 Sophie's third birthday in September, and the first day that Grant got to ride the school bus.
 Our front yard,
the day of the great flood of September 2013.
 Our favorite event of the year, The Riverwoods ward September Salmon fry.
 Another favorite Fall memory, picnics with Grandma Martha at Paul Ream nature park.  Hunting for leaches.
And feeding the ducks.
 The kids performed on the hay wagon ride at the Spanish Fork Harvest Moon celebration.
 Grant turned six in October.
 We celebrated with a picnic lunch in the canyon, and dinner at Nickle City.
 And just before Halloween, beautiful, spirited Mary turned nine. She hosted a small party with friends, and dangled doughnuts from the ceiling fan--one set of pictures I really hope to find again.

nickle city

Saturday, August 27,  Olivia took a few friends and the siblings to Nickle City for her birthday party.

One if the first pictures I've taken of Sophie walking.

candles

Olivia's birthday in the morning.

I came home from school and it was time for Back to School night.  Caitlin's kindergarten class.

Then we went to Pizza Pie Cafe.

All the kids.

Sophie's stealing.

Presents.

Candles.

I love you Olivia.

overheard and overseen

Tuesday afternoon, driving to pick up Ben from after school musical practice I overheard Olivia having a little devotional with Sophie.  First they sang our family's default reverent song The Sacred Grove.  For years that's been our go-to when we need to get things quieted down at scripture time.  But in Olivia's version Joseph was kneeling not "upon that Holy ground..."  but rather "upon the Holy grail..." 

Next was the prayer.  Olivia helped Sophie say it..that's when I heard "Bless that the Holy Grail will be safe..."  Obviously there's been too much Monty Python in the home.

Tuesday evening another delicious meal appeared at our doorstep, this time from the Young Women's presidency.  Two big pans of chocolate brownies, hot fudge, and vanilla ice cream included.  So Wednesday morning I happened on William in the kitchen, helping himself to the leftovers.

And since I know how delicious gooey, chocolaty, brownies taste first thing in the morning, I didn't have the heart to take them away.

I asked, "How about a bowl William?"

And he said, "Bowl. Yummy."

Then when he was full he showed me his hands and said "All done. Wipe."

So William's learning how to navigate meaningful conversation.

I thought Sophie looked sophisticated in brown and floral so I wanted to take some pictures. Sophie hasn't really learned about posing.

It's all been a blur to me too. Sophie.

That's how I ended up with this enormous pile of laundry in the living room.

Thursday was a big day for Grant.  He had out-patient surgery, a giant Spitz nevus, or in other words, a mole removed from his leg.  He came home with his leg bandaged and was quite proud of it.  I was grateful that he didn't seem to be in pain at all, was quite cheerful and playful the rest of the afternoon, and didn't need any of the prescribed pain medicine. 

Friday we passed by the hospital and he told Caitlin,

"Dat's where I gotta broken leg."

I had been too involved with bed making Friday morning and made the big girls late for the bus.  Olivia said

"I hate my life."  She was worried that she had missed recess.

Mary looked at me with mischievous eyes and said excitedly,

"The later you are the less you have to learn."

I was grateful for those supportive words.

Friday Sam and I watched The Conversation in the afternoon and I finally got the laundry cleared out.  In the evening Sam and Ben went to the International Cinema with Jackie and Isako.  We are blessed with good friends here.

seven with chuck e.

Already starting in to our third week in our new home.  Monday I went to the schools to get everyone registered, came home with schedules and teachers' names, supply lists, could smell the crayon wax.
In the afternoon I went to see the midwives. 

Tuesday afternoon I had to drive up to Primary Children's Hospital, passed the meeting house where Kyle was blessed, our old married student housing complex, not really for old students. Those were more humble days and wouldn't I go back there in a heart beat.  And speaking of heart beats, took baby sister for her first visit to a cardiologist, such a young age.  They confirmed what the first doctor told me, she has a little bright spot on her heart, that looks like a benign tumor.  The good news is her heart is beating regularly and strong, so I don't need to deliver at the University of Utah.  They will know more after she is born.  Drove home in five o'clock traffic. Crept home.

Wednesday was the big day.  Olivia's big seven.  And just to prove that nothing is too commercial, sugar-coated, deep fried,  or overstimulating for the ten of us, we went to our favorite birthday spot, Chuck E. Cheese's. We have been going there for years now for birthdays.

 In fact, when Bethany was about two, she gave me a little scare when she told me she was going to "go see Jesus."

 "What do you mean your going to go see Jesus?" I asked, slightly alarmed.

 She gave me her still Bethany-typical impatient glare and said "not Jesus! Chuck E. Cheese's."  To which I was quite relieved.

So here are the pictures of our first birthday cereal buffet in our new home. (We call it home, even though we're renting.)

Caitlin looks less like a refugee in this one.  It's still fun to play Where's William, even though he sits at the table now.

Olivia is my most active child, so I got her a new bike to keep her busy.

That was the first of her presents, necessarily so, since it was hiding in the van.

I have a picture that I love of Olivia in this car when she was about four. Wish I could put it here. It's in storage land.

William's first trip to Chuck E. Cheese.  He's family now.

Don't ask about the outfit change, wasn't pretty.

Look at how Sam is still a kid at heart. We took him to Chuck E.'s in Portland, Maine when he turned seven. That was where and when Rob first told me he had passed the foreign service exam. Maybe that was a bad omen...

Such an important place to our family... when I pointed out the stage to Grant he said, "There's my brother, Chuck E. Cheese." What is it about Chuck E.?

It's a little disconcerting when his eyes follow you.

It's vehicle lovers' paradise.

Granddad made an appearance.

Kyle told me thank you about a hundred times.  He's always been that way.

That's Ben.

I like this place even more since Sam started to manage negotiations at the prize counter.

Grant got this little bug that he called "his cavity."

I heard a Dad at a Virginia Chuck E.'s say he'd rather be back in Iraq than at Chuck E.'s on a Saturday, but Wednesday wasn't bad at all. As stressful goes it doesn't have anything on sacrament meeting. Now that the kids are bigger, and help with the little ones, all I have to do is sit and guard the token cups and prize coupons, while I drink too much soda and eat croutons soaked in ranch dressing. Not a bad way to spend two hours.

And since the kids hadn't eaten two hours worth of salad bar, they were actually hungry for dinner when we left. Olivia said she wanted "Polar express" for dinner...orange chicken and the broccoli stuff.

There were beautiful clouds when we got home.

Opened presents from me while the rice cooker cooked.

A big bag of school clothing...multi tasking...

Later on she opened her package from Grandma Martha.  Not sure what Ben was thinking about.

Olivia chose an Ariel candle.

Happy Birthday Olivia.