Saturday Morning at the Beach

We went to the beach yesterday. It is one thing that captures the interest of every member of our family, no matter what age. I wasn't sure we would be able to go back again before the end of the year or not, with the busyness of the holidays upon us, so we woke the kids up, jumped in the car and took off to get donuts on the way.

Stan caught a crab...

but I was satisfied with taking a picture of the one I found.

I took off by myself to climb on some rocks and look at the BIG starfish Stan told me he saw.

Summer and Gwen both enjoyed walking in the water.


Naomi spent a lot of the time following her dad around.

He kept her safe from the big bad surf...

...and gave her a lift back to the car.

I liked the colors in this picture, especially the way the red repeats. The problem with asking your kids to smile for a photo in the sun is that it is hard to get everyone with their eyes open at the same time.

There was a playground right before we got onto the beach that we had to stop at for a couple of minutes.

Here are Heather, Rachel and Mo, all defying gravity.

Awwwwwww!

Stan has been out of town, but he gets back today (yay!). I've missed him terribly, but I am not the only one. Naomi and I had this same exact, word for word conversation at least 15 times yesterday and once already this morning.

Naomi: Mommy?

Me: Yes, Naomi?

Naomi: Daddy?

Me: Daddy's at work.

Naomi, sounding disappointed: Awwwwwww!

I got...

...my hair cut yesterday.

I walked in the house and sat down to check my email. Michael came around the corner and looked at me, shocked.

"Did you cut your hair!?! Why did you cut so much off!?! Are you going to grow it out again!?!" he said in quick succession.

I asked him, "Why? Don't you like it like this?"

Matter of factly, he said, "No."

Update on the Kids

Here are current pictures of everyone and a little bit about what they are up to.

Summer got her hair cut (about 5 or 6 inches off) a week and a half ago, on Saturday. Isn't she cute?


She is also following Elvis' code of dress (they are suede).


Rachel saved some money and had me give her the new haircut she has been wanting. I think (not very modestly) that her stylist did a fabulous job. Isn't she is cute, too?


She has been sewing skirts and displayed them at a church function recently.



Heather switched from violin to viola this year in Strings Class.
Since this is her second year, she is in the intermediate class. Gwen is in the beginning class, playing the violin. They both like to practice in my bedroom for the peace and relative quiet during the crazy time after school and before bedtime.


Gwen is enjoying her first year of public school. She goes to Science Club every Monday after school and loves it. She is also our first daughter to truly love hot lunch and breakfast. You couldn't have paid Summer to eat it while she was in school, but Gwen does almost every day. Here she is checking out the menu for the day on her way out the door in the morning.


Kelly is busy with first grade work.
Her reading is really taking off and she has decided to teach Michael how to do her math.

Here she is with her cute (and messy, because it is the end of the day)
I-am-going-to-class-today hair.



Michael drew this picture, brought it to me and said in one breath, "Can we get a cat and can it be a fancy cat like this one and I will clean up all the poop?!"

That last part is him anticipating my argument against pets of all types.


Naomi is busy being the I-am-cute-and-I-know-it member of the family.


She has a new bed, but it is still in our bedroom. Baby steps...

Last week, the kids had a couple days off of school. The first one, I took the five youngest and met a group of families to walk around a local botanic garden. Michael didn't want to be in this picture.


We found a few different kinds of mushrooms.


Jordyn (a friend's daughter) found other exciting things.


The next day we had off was spent going to the kids semi-annual dentist appointment. We LOVE the kids' dentist. He is really nice.

Nice enough to take all seven kids in a row. (Our pediatrician only lets me take in three at a time - ugh!)

Nice enough to let me take his picture with all the kids.


After the dentist, we headed over to IKEA to eat lunch and watch guys work on the roof.


After we ate, some of the kids checked into the play area and the rest of us shopped for about an hour, which was long enough to put Mo to sleep in the store.

I don't know why...

...I find this interesting enough to blog about (and neither do my children), but somehow it fascinates me that when I tried to heat up in the microwave some cold fudge sauce into it's preferred state of hot fudge sauce, this glass cracked into two pieces so cleanly. There were no shards, just two pieces.

Maybe I am just a magpie and mesmerized by shiny things. Who knows?

See how well they fit together?

Tagged Twice!

I've been tagged twice in the last few weeks and since I am catching up tonight...

First, thanks to Cynthia, I get to list 6 random things about myself.

These are all things that put a huge, can't stop smiling, grin on my face.

1. When I was a junior in high school I took Calculus. Sometimes, I would get 100% on a test. It would make my whole week. I love math.

2. I jumped out of an airplane. I was in freefall, unattached to anyone and pulled my own ripcord. That smile probably lasted for at least a month.

3.A friend and I drove from NY to UT by ourselves, two girls, me without a license (so Karen had to do all the driving) to go to college when we were 19 and 20. What fun! I love road trips!

4. I took a horseback riding class for one of my PE credits in college. I had to get up before dawn, in the cold and go out and catch, brush, then saddle my own horse - heaven!

5. Seeing my kids happy. I love it when they laugh, tell me a joke or tell me the good parts of their day.

6. Last, but far from least - I love flirting with Stan. He is really fun and very funny. Maybe a side of him not everyone knows about :)

And then, thanks to Alyssa, here is another tag...

10 years ago...
1. I was living with my inlaws
2. I loved getting to know them better
3. I spent a little bit of almost every day looking online for a job for Stan
4. I didn't have a church calling
5. I was pregnant with Gwen

5 things on today's "to do" list
1. Turn in work samples for Rachel and Kelly
2. Orthodontist appts. for Summer and Heather
3. Wash the whites
4. FHE
5. Blog

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire...
1. Take the family to New York and Pennsylvania (road trip anyone?)
2. Take Stan to Hawaii and go on one of those helicopter volcano trips
3. Buy every Wodehouse book ever published and maybe even indulge in a couple first editions
4. Redo the kitchen
5. Buy some stocks

5 places I have lived...
1. Colorado
2. New York
3. New Hampshire
4. Utah
5. Virginia

5 jobs I have had...
1. waitress/cook/lunchtime manager in a pizzaria
2. photo retoucher
3. book repairer
4. substitute teacher's aide
5. spy, I mean mystery shopper

~

So, I am gong to tag no one in particular (so no pressure) and everyone who may read this. If it sounds fun, do it yourself and leave a comment here saying that you did :)

Election day is...

...tomorrow! Is that news to anyone? I am so excited to watch the results, especially for Prop 8.



Here are two friends, Kristin and Shelly, who were my compadres handing out literature outside our kids' school last Thursday. I felt so much more comfortable doing it with them than I would have alone, and who can blame me? With their sunglasses, they look like FBI agents...kind of...sort of. I was in good hands :)

Lunch

Yesterday, the at-home-during-the-day kids and I went out to lunch. We tried a Chinese place we hadn't been to before. Michael and Mo loved the fish tank. I loved the egg drop soup (it had tofu in it!). Kelly loved, loved, loved the sweet and sour pork.

I smiled at Naomi's fortune. We are all captivated by every little thing she does.

Yep, this would be Michael, at least until his younger sister starts crying or something is broken.

Here is Kelly's. Her fortune is a mystery, kind of like the microphone thing.

Rachel's in my favorite, a most fortuitous fortune, because it helped me convince her to pitch in the two more bucks I needed for the tip. Actually, she was already generous and willing, but it did put a smile on her face when I pointed it out :)


Truthfully, I put as much stock in fortune cookie promises as I do in campaign promises, but they are fun, aren't they?

Michael is four!

This past week our big boy turned four. He is so much fun!

Daddy's Girl

This is what Naomi says every time you ask her who her favorite person is,
and just for the record, she came up with it herself :)

Saturday...

...we had a ton of fun. I went to the temple and everyone met me there when the session was over with a picnic lunch. After lunch we headed up to Oak Glen to pick Stayman-Winesap apples (my favorite). The kids enjoyed the horse...

...and the pig.

When we got home from the mountains, it was time to make cornbread, get on the kids' costumes and break out the candy for our ward's Trunk or Treat.

Naomi as a pumpkin.

Michael as a bee. He left his shoes at home, so Stan went home and got him some, later.

Kelly as a princess.

Gwen as a tree.

Heather as a ghost.

Summer and Rachel didn't know what they wanted to "be", but they knew what they wanted to wear, so they just" dressed up", they didn't "dress up as..."

I took my "Blogs I Check Sometimes"...

...list off the sidebar because you can see them all when you look at my profile under "Blogs I Follow." It just seemed more streamlined, but what do you think? Is anyone sad that someone might be one click further from reading their blog?

Comments, questions, advice...?

Bubble Fight

Stan and I had a bubble fight this evening
while we were cleaning up after dinner.

I won...really...no, really!

Fall is the Time for Apples

I know most kids do this at one point or another (ok, kids whose mothers don't cut their apples up into neat little pieces, anyway), but I had to blog about Naomi doing it anyway.

Here's the story - I ate about half an apple and turned to see my cute bambina looking longingly at it, so I asked her if she wanted it. Of course she did. She loves apple. She calls anything that looks remotely like an apple, "APPLE, APPLE, APPLE!" If there was a Pear Council of America, she would probably upset them. So, I gave it to her and left her to eat away, which is just what she did - ate all of it - almost.

She came to me and carefully, deliberately handed me a stem and one seed.

Thanks, Mom!

Future Eternal Companion Qualifications

For FHE Sunday night, Summer gave a lesson on dating. She included an activity from one of the lessons she attended at church earlier in the day - make a list of the qualities you want in a future spouse. I would love to blog the girls' entire lists, but they would never agree and besides, Summer alone had over a hundred qualifications that some lucky guy will need to meet. Here is a sample -

Summer - Funny

Rachel - Optimistic

Heather - Interesting

Gwen - Big Ears

Kelly - Talks on Microphones

We are all still trying to figure that last one out :)

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