Happy Birthday Jumble

Yesterday Jumble turned 15. Amazing. She couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. It was practically the first glorious spring day so far this year. It was the type of day that we have been dreaming of all winter. She wanted breakfast for her special dinner--we had potatoes/sausage/eggs, waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, bacon, and (because she requested it) KFC biscuits. Minnie helped me make dinner which I greatly appreciated. We had a no-bake cheesecake for dessert and rootbeer floats (also because she requested it.) She had to be patient because pack meeting went late so we didn't have dinner, dessert, and presents until after 7:30.

One of these days, I will get organized and share baby photos like others have done for their children, but that will have to wait for another year. For now, here are some current photos:


Opening presents

Blowing out candles (doesn't she look excited!)

We love you, Jumble, and we're glad you had a good day!

Yesterday was also Renaissance Day for the 6th grade so here is Minnie in her costume:

Recognize the hair wreath, Shellie? It's mine from your wedding--we had to buy some flowers to replace some that had fallen off and disappeared.

Minnie said they had knights come and demonstrate sword fighting and it was really cool. They even brought horses with them! They also had a dance, which all of the 6th graders found mortifiying!

Things We Were Doing While I Wasn't Blogging

1. Jumble and I got to attend the annual YW broadcast in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. It was a great meeting--we loved the talks and the spirit there. It was great to be in the same room as the prophet! We went with a group of YW in our ward and enjoyed frozen yogurt afterwards.

2. The next Saturday Niles, Minnie, and I were able to attend the afternoon session of General Conference in the Conference Center. All of conference was wonderful!

3. Jumble had a state band festival at the U of U in Salt Lake City. I went as a chaperon and also to help as a guide. I helped two other bands--Lakeridge Jr. High and Pleasant Grove Jr. High. It was fun and Jumble's band (AF Jr. High Wind Ensemble) sounded great!

4. I took the Mia Maid class to do a kid's activity at the Road Home in Salt Lake City. It is a homeless shelter. I spent the two days before planning and tracking down supplies for the craft activity we did with the kids. It was a great experience for the girls. I think it was an eye-opener for them of how lucky they are. When we pulled up, there was a long line of men standing outside across the street, waiting for dinner at a soup kitchen. One of the girls in my car said, "I'm afraid to get out." It was a dismal street with a lot of unique people wandering around, smoking, etc. It is such a vast contrast from the environment that we are used to. It was a good reminder for me, too, how different it feels in those kinds of places. It reminded me of the inner city areas I served in on my mission. The girls all ended up being brave enough to exit the car and enjoyed helping the little children in the shelter with a craft project.

5. Everyone had their semi-annual dentist trip. Only one small cavity for Jet--but Minnie had 3 baby teeth pulled--so we can forge ahead with the orthodontics. Jet had two teeth that were very loose and he lost both of them a few days later--just hours apart. The tooth fairy took a hit to her budget.

I guess I've been driving to SLC a lot lately! Niles does that practically every day but that is not normal for me. I'm sure we've been doing other things, but this is all that comes to mind for now.

Easter

Here are some photos from our Easter. We colored eggs on Saturday and the boys went to a ward Easter egg hunt that had to be moved inside because it was raining. We also gave our kids their baskets and did our eggs with the scriptures and symbols of the Easter story. After church on Sunday, we went to Tim and Rachelle's house. All the men met at the church to help ordain Taran as a priest first. We had dinner, an egg hunt, and celebrated the March and April birthdays.

Atom hunts for eggs at the ward hunt (It's just not the same indoors, but the candy still tastes good!)

Atom colors eggs with Mom's help

Jumble had just said "Don't take my picture."

Minnie displays her eggs

Jet is wearing sweats under his soccer uniform. The weather hasn't been too cooperative for soccer yet. (Why do they start soccer the end of March in Utah? They really should wait until May.)

Atom found his basket

So did Jumble

Minnie with one of our "symbols and scriptures of Easter" eggs

Jet finally found his basket

Minnie models her Easter dress (Jumble declined to model hers.)

Atom finds an egg at the Sunday afternoon hunt. (You can tell how windy it is--his bag is flying!)

Minnie gathers eggs

So does Jet

Grandma, Grandpa, and Minnie

Taran, the newly-ordained priest holds Gwen

Jumble opening gifts. See the clenched fist? She was exclaiming "Yes!" as she discovered that her aunts, uncles, and cousins had pre-ordered a book for her that is coming out on May 5th. She has been counting down the days! The yellow blouse and white sweater that you can barely see under her blue BOA sweatshirt was part of her new Easter outfit. She wore it with a new white skirt.

More books that she was dying for (These ones are from Grandma and Grandpa)

Spring (?) Break

This week is spring break for my kids. We checked the weather forecast and it sounded like Monday might be our only day for decent zoo weather. It turns out that it was PERFECT weather for the zoo. We met my brother Tim and his family there and we took one of Minnie's friends, Kari with us as well. We had a great time:

Note to self: take Atom to the train FIRST in future. He spent the first half of the time we were there with his nose in the map saying, "I want to go on the train. It's right here!" (pointing to the spot on the map) I had to take the map out of his little hands several times to get him to notice the animals he was missing!
Zane, Rachelle (taking a photo), Emily, Minnie, Kari

Micah, Jet, Izak, friend of Tim's family (don't know his name), Zane

Jet compares his size to the gorilla

Atom does the same.

Kari, Jet, Minnie (that's a big model of an elephant)

Atom rides in the wagon.

It was even warm enough for ice cream and Icee's! (Minnie and Kari)

Emily and Jet

Micah, Gwen, and Atom

Tuesday it was raining and we went to the dollar movie--again with the cousins. We saw Bedtime Stories. It was cute--the kids thought it was funny.

Wednesday it was still raining, then started to be rain mixed with snow, then just straight snow. We had a few slushy inches on the ground by the end of the day. I had to quit playing with my kids and go shopping for food. I tried a new soup for dinner and made a loaf of bread in the breadmaker. It was definitely a soup and bread day.

This morning I opened the shades and was shocked to be greeted with this scene:

It's a winter wonderland out there. Everything was buried in at least 6 inches of snow! That is just plain not right! I'm just grateful we had Monday...

Retro Wednesday: Could That Be Our Child?

Niles and I are not known for our height. We are both short--always have been. Everyone in my family is short. Niles is the short one in his family (much to his dismay.) So it has been a surprise for both of us to have tall children. The girls, anyway. We fear that Jet is going to hate it, but he is going to be short. It's too early to tell with Atom. Jumble, at almost 15 years, has long-since passed my humble 5'4" height (which is actually a lot taller than I thought I'd ever be.) A recent tallest to shortest line-up of all the YW in our ward found Jumble in about the #5 spot (taller than most of the Laurels, even.) Then there is Minnie. She is about to turn 12 years old and a recent check showed that she is maybe a millimeter shorter than me now. Her short parents find this incredible. Niles and I both were always the shortest kid in our school classes--every year. When the time came for class photos, we always knew our place--front row on the end. I don't have copies of any of Nile's class photos but here are a few of mine:

Kindergarten:

That's me in the blue dress--front row, right end.

1st grade:

That's me in the light blue dress with the flower on the pocket--front row on the left end

2nd Grade:

That's me in the green dress--front row on the left end

See what I mean?

I got really tired of other girls in my class exclaiming, "You are so tiny!" "You are sooo cute!" as they patted me on the head. I found it quite demeaning--like they forgot that my brain and age were not 2-3 years younger as well as my body size. Don't even get me started about when the song "Short People" came out when I was in 4th grade. Niles endured similar insulting situations related to his lack of height.

So imagine our surprise and pleasure when we attended Minnie's kindergarten Christmas program:

That's Minnie--that TALL girl sticking out on the BACK ROW (close to center of the photo)!!

Here's a close-up photo of her after the program so you can see how cute she was!

I don't think Niles and I even noticed what the program was about. We were so amazed and astounded that our child was on the BACK ROW--the elusive BACK ROW that we had always dreamed about being on but knew we would never make it to. We would have thought it was an absolute miracle to even make it onto the 2nd row. It never happened--for either of us. Could that be our child on the BACK ROW?! We were both practically in tears--our child was on the BACK ROW! So it has been a strange and wonderful thing to have tall girls.

When I was turning twelve, I felt intimidated by the beehives that were just a year older. There was a strange phenomenon in that ward--even my mom commented on it. All of the girls a year older than me hit their growth spurt early--and looked like they were 14 or 15 by the time they turned twelve. Then there was me--who was mistaken for a 12-year-old at the age of twenty (I'm not exaggerating!) I used to look up (literally) at those girls in awe--wondering how they managed to get so tall and look so old so soon. I felt like a 6-year-old next to them. It was hard not to feel inferior. So it is somewhat satisfying to look at my 11-year-old daughter and see how she towers over most of the girls her age and looks at least 2 years older, too. I'm glad she doesn't have to enter YW in a few weeks with everyone exclaiming that they can't believe she's twelve (the polite way of saying that they thought you were only 6 because your body is roughly the size and shape of the girls in the CTR 6 class.) That was my experience. It's strange to think that if I were 12 now, my daughter would be one of those that I would be looking "up" at with envy. And the best thing is that she is happy with where she is at.

The Little Mermaid

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately. Maybe I will post again soon about everything that we have been doing. But for now, I just wanted to post some photos of Minnie in her class play. Each 6th grade class wrote and produced a 30 minute play, and the performances were last night. Her class wrote a "fractured fairy tale." It combined parts of twelve different fairy tales and I thought it was very cute and clever. Her part was the Little Mermaid and she did a great job. My mom helped me make her mermaid costume. Actually, it would be much more accurate to say that I helped my mom make the costume--she did almost all of it. Thanks, Mom! I think it turned out fabulous, just like everything else my mom has ever sewed.


Here she is searching in her trunk of treasures (which includes a dinglehopper and a snarfblatt, of course!) to find some magic beans that Goldilocks and Jack need to help save Blunderella who is locked in a tall tower waiting for her hair to grow long enough for her to escape.

Guess what Minnie is going to be for Halloween this year? That is, if she doesn't grow out of it by then. That girl is shooting up like a weed these days. But I'll save that story for another post.