Plant Hunting with Stan

Stan took me on an outing with a bunch of botanists on Saturday. They were looking for rare plants. I enjoyed hiking, taking pictures and being with Stan. Some of my favorite times in our early married years were looking for plants with him on road trips, so yesterday's outing brought back some sweet memories.

From the road, things looked dead and brown, but walking out in the field, I was amazed at how much life there was. Tons of insects and flowers everywhere. These are just weeds, but I like the way the pictures turned out :)


I had fun taking pictures of the seed heads and messing around with the manual focus.


And, happy day, this is the threatened lily everyone was hoping to see, Brodiaea filifolia. Pretty, huh?

Rumba!!!

Last year, Heather competed in a social dance event and this year, Gwen took a turn. They even wore the same dress (it looked so cute on them both). Here she is with her partner...

...and here is the whole group. There were about three times as many kids this year as last.

The other thing that was different from last year was that they had a youth division and so the kids were competing against each other instead of against college students and older dancers. Because of that, and because of their hard work and classy dancing, Gwen and her partner won 5 ribbons :)

And now, the dancing!

Waltz

Tango



Swing



Rumba



Foxtrot



Cha Cha

Easter Fun

Gwen and I will be gone all day next Saturday, so we had our Easter fun yesterday. The Easter bunny brought everyone lots of candy and we used all the resulting energy to dye eggs. A couple of the kids blew raw eggs out of their shells so that they could keep their creations, but mostly we colored hard boiled eggs.

Naomi could hardly contain her enthusiasm and ended up on the table (not for long!).

Michael watched while Gwen decorated.

Here are all of them when we were done...

...and here are everyone's favorites.

We also sat and listened to General Conference.

Today, we had lots and lots of deviled eggs for lunch!

Ha Ha

Yesterday, Summer masterminded an April Fool's Day Joke on us. I guess the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree (see the post just below) and she's always had a sense of humor, that girl. Here she is sitting on Uncle Matt's lap 15 years ago.


Last night was a busy evening, as Wednesdays usually are. The older girl's have piano lessons ending at 5. We ran some errands after their lessons...

Wait, let me interrupt myself. I was telling the younger kids where we were going to shop in the car on the way to pick the piano students up. I mentioned Michael's (craft store) and Naomi got jealous. She started whining, "Momo's store? Momo's store?" so I had to rename the school supply place "Momo's Store" for the afternoon to keep the peace.

Anyway, after lessons and errands, we didn't get home until six. I had dinner ready by 6:30, which is on the late side for us. After dinner, there was cleaning up, getting kids ready for bed, talking to Grandma, playing catch, two dirty diapers - the night just flew by!

Stan and I couldn't believe it when it was already nine when we all sat down for scripture reading, but we had dinner late and hadn't been watching the clock (or the teenagers). After scriptures, a lull settled over the room. Rachel asked what time we usually read scriptures, which I thought was insensitive on a night we were having it so late (we shoot for 7:15 ish), so I grumbled, "I don't know." Summer couldn't hold it in any longer, "Rachel and I played an April Fool's Day trick on you! Haven't you noticed?!?"

Stan and I had no idea. Rachel wanted to spill the beans, but Summer wouldn't let her. I asked for a clue - what room was it in? I was informed it was everywhere! Every room in the house! I hazarded an impossible guess, "You dusted?"

Finally, it dawned on me. They put all the clocks ahead an hour. I was both impressed (it was a great joke - we really were fooled) and grateful (we had an entire extra hour more than we thought!).

Big News Times Two, April Fool

Well, we haven't told anyone about this because we didn't know how it would all turn out, but I have been interviewing for jobs lately. We've decided that we could really use another paycheck to help with all those shoes and all that oatmeal we go through. I was just hired as a jewelry designer at a small but growing company in Key West.

I've pulled all the kids out of school to help with the packing because we will be moving this weekend. We'll be having a goodbye party at midnight on Friday and are hoping that after the pizza and cake, everyone who comes will stay to load the truck through the night so that we can be ready to hit the road at 4 am!

Also, while I am spilling my guts of surprises, we have decided to send Rachel to Australia in the fall for high school.


We will miss her terribly, but a great opportunity to be a long term exchange student came up and we wouldn't want our selfish desires to have her around to stand in the way of her chance to experience living in another country. We love you, Rachel!

Wishful Thinking

Today, Naomi watched while Rachel paid for some mascara at Target and got change. Then, she saw me buy some odds and ends and get change. The wheels in her mind started turning, she looked at the cashier and said,

"Guy! Money me?"

As Opposed to a Fast Sunday

When we sat down in church this morning, Michael turned to Rachel and asked if it was a "Slow Sunday" today.

Pictures From Today

Summer's favorite place to read lately is the swing in the backyard, and she has been spending lots of time reading. Her literature group chose to read and do their group project on "Vanity Fair" because one of the girls in the group "liked the movie." I don't think any of them thought to check and see how long it was. My copy has 680 pages of small print, so she has her work cut out for her.

This is a typical Gwen look.

Rachel braided a scarf into Kelly's hair and Kelly wanted to record the event for history. When I look at this picture, the first thing I think is, "What a cute smile," and the second thing I think is, "I need to trim her bangs!"

Blondes have more...good looks?

Yesterday, I was in the bathroom fixing my hair. Naomi came in, took out a comb and started working on her hair. After a minute, she asked me, "Plettly?" I replied, "Yes, your hair is pretty," and then, getting into the spirit of this mother/daughter bonding moment, I asked, "Is my hair pretty?"

She said, "No."

So, my curiosity piqued, I asked, "If my hair isn't pretty, what is it?"

Naomi said, "Blown(brown)."

Moocher's Paradise

Saturday, we went to the OC Great Park. The main draw was the free ice skating (a rarity in our neck of the woods), but we were also looking forward to the sledding and ice carving demonstrations, as well as intrigued by the mention of free snacks!

They decorated the balloon for the event with snowflakes. There are lots of flakes around here, but not many made of snow.

Stan took the younger kids to the sledding and snow play while the older girls and I took turns keeping our place in line for an hour and a half to skate. Here they are as we are coming to the end of the line - almost there.

Summer decided the bast place for her sticker was her sleeve.

We all had a lot of fun! I haven't been ice skating for a while and I loved it. The kids had a blast in the snow. The free "snacks" ended up being enough for a meal, albeit a not very healthy one. We all had hot chocolate, cookies, Jamba Juice, Einstein Bros. bagels and chocolate coins to our hearts content. It really was a moocher's paradise. They even had a guy wandering around handing out free gloves to everyone. Heather and Gwen really liked the baseball caps they got while we were there. Last night, I came home from Mutual and went into their room to say goodnight and this is what I saw...

No More Pacifiers

Naomi has been asking to go to the "cake store" about 15 times a day for the last week and a half, so I made her a deal. I'd bake her a cake and she would throw out ALL her pacifiers. She took me up on it. She put her pacifiers in the trash and we took it out to the curb. Then we had a three layer triple chocolate fudge cake with chocolate whipped cream filling and chocolate glaze icing to celebrate.

While she was eating, she kept saying, "Own cake." We were lucky she shared with us.

The next morning, we were up early watching the garbage truck take the trash away and waving at the driver. She's asked for them a couple of times and has needed extra hand holding at bedtime, but overall has handled the change pretty well.

Totally Unrelated Things

Rachel learned a lesson yesterday about setting things on the burners of the stove.

We don't usually have Fruit Loops in the house, but they were on sale and they are one of Stan's favorites, so I indulged. For the last three mornings, Michael has been asking for "hula hoops" for breakfast.

By the way, did you know Fruit Loops have trans fat in them? Eek! It is a good thing I make the kids mix them half and half with Cherrios. I am hoping all the cholesterol absorbing oat bran zaps the trans fat.
I think I spend too much time reading cereal boxes.

The other day, Michael asked what the little balls on the orange tree were. There are a lot of buds, a few opened flowers and a smattering of teeny tiny oranges. I showed the "baby oranges" to Michael and Naomi. Mo said, "Awww...to-o-oot (cute)."

Later that same day, she was looking through an old photo album and found a picture of Stan at his brothers wedding 17 years ago. He was wearing a tux with a pink cummerbund and Naomi hollered,

"Daddy! To-o-o-ooot!!!"

Hiking for FHE

The kids take turns choosing our FHE activities. It was Gwen's turn and she wanted to go for a walk. I suggested a hill not far from the house. We got there just as the sun was setting.


Naomi picked me some flowers. Rachel tried to get her to curl her fingers around the bouquet, but she said it was too "pokey".




The big girls were there, but camera shy.

Michael was happy to have his dad there to get the grass seeds out of his socks.

The Joy of Siblings

Naomi's life is full. She has eight people at her beck and call and enjoys every one of us. She is also learning some of the advantages of having six siblings. She tattles on a regular basis. She started tattling before she could even talk with grunts and hand signals and I guess I gave Her Royal Cuteness too much sympathy because now she tattles when she wants attention, first thing in the morning, when she's bored and last thing before bed.

This morning, during the early breakfast Rachel got for her, she put on her sad face, used her pitiful voice, and said, "My-my" (short for Michael). I pointed out to her that there was no point in tattling on Michael because he hadn't done anything to her - he was still in bed. Stan said, "Yeah, Michael has an alibi."

She has discovered another perk (at least a perceived one, because it has yet to work) in having lots of kids around. She has gotten old enough that I have been trying to get her to finish her food at mealtimes. We will have a conversation sort of like this -

Naomi - cookie?

Me - After you finish your (fill in the blank).

Last night at dinner, I told her she needed to eat the rest of her noodles before she got any more fruit salad. She replied authoritatively, "My-my eat it." The other morning, I was trying this tactic with toast and after a minute, I heard her from the other room, saying in her most persuasive voice, "Le-e-elly, to-o-o-oast. Toast, Lelly?

Lately...

...Rachel has been playing basketball with the young women at church.

Here is Kelly making a mustache for her self in the bath.

...and a random picture of Naomi sleeping under blacklight.

Too Many Blogs

I felt like simplifying my life in a minuscule way today, so I merged my Phraseology blog for Tuesday Musings into this one.

I haven"t deleted Phraseology yet - maybe someday I'll use it for something else.

Two Yummies

Rachel made yummy homemade doughnuts...



...and doesn't Naomi look yummy in her new hairstyle? I told her she was getting two ponytails today because she is two!

The Backyard

Saturday, the kids finished the tunnel they were digging between two holes - their big one, and a smaller one. Somewhere in between the two, they ran into a tunnel the rabbit dug out of the chicken coop.

Sunday afternoon, Stan noticed a Cooper's Hawk (also called a chicken hawk) in the back yard, looking appraisingly at...THE CHICKENS...who were all huddled in the coop, until I stepped out to take a picture.

I don't know WHY (Did they think I would protect them? Was it just a coincidence? Did they feel the strength of their numbers?)...

...but then they all came out in a clump and stared back at the hawk.

I guess they must be scary chickens, because at that point, the hawk turned all it's attention to the family of lizards that have been reproducing in the woodpile.