Catch Up--with pics

It feels like I haven't posted in forever so I'm pretty sure I'll ramble on for quite some time. First, Emeline is adorable--even when she refuses to smile for the camera.

Her hair keeps getting curlier and curlier. All the curls in the pictures are natural. Does this mean her hair will continue to curl or eventually straighten back out in the random way it began to curl? Hmm. I guess we'll find out.




I was doing so good at getting up at 6:00 am, reading my scriptures and exercising. Then, on Wed., allergies hit again. Grr. So . . . I haven't been as good since. However, Monday is a new day--with no mistakes in it yet. Or something like that.








I bought a high chair that hooks onto a chair and fits under the table. It's amazing and wonderful how much room that makes in our dining room for things like squishing past the table. Our dining room is teeny tiny--which is great when you're mopping but not so great when a high chair is taking up half the floor space. I'm LOVING this little chair.

And although he's drooling and looks a little worried---Eli is still darling.





Other things that have been going on include: 1) I made four batches of strawberry jam on one of the days. I think Monday. I used sure-jell instead of MCP and it was AWESOME. Usually with strawberry jam you have to mix for about 24 hours before the sugar dissolves. With sure-jell you boil the pectin in water and the boiling water/pectin mix dissolves the sugar in approximately three minutes. Genius!! Why didn't I know about this before??!!

On Tuesday I went to Mom's and she helped me plan out my garden and took me to Anderson's to buy seeds for my garden. She also fed me this ridiculously yummy stir fry and a Haagen-daz vanilla ice cream with a chocolate almond coating. Heavenly. On Wednesday she's coming to plant my garden. I mean help me plant my garden. I promised I'd pay attention this time and really learn how to do it. When she was harassing me about needing help again because I failed to pay adequate attention the first time--I was reminded of when she kicked me and Kayli out of the kitchen when she was supposedly teaching us how to bottle peaches. She said we were laughing and talking too much to get the job done. Oops. It wasn't my fault. Kayli's funny and lazy--what's a sister to do??

Do you all remember the tragic day when Cowen's beloved horse Blueberry lost his head and we had to toss him in the garbage? I do. I've been reminded of it every blasted day that my kids fought over the two remaining stick horses.

We got a stick horse for Emeline for her birthday (Peach Light) because of the "fight over the stick horse" problem. For a brief time everyone was happy. Emeline had Peach Light, Miriam had Strawberry-Raspberry, and Cowen had Blueberry. (I'm not sure why all the horses are named after fruit. Maybe because my kids are fruitcakes?)

After Blueberry's head fell off, things turned ugly. Miriam and Cowen both wanted Peach Light because it was the newest horse and Emeline was too small to defend herself. I once overheard her talking to herself about the situation. She was getting on Peach Light to ride around and she said, "This is my horse. Cowen's horse? No, my horse. Cowen's horse." Poor girl.

Did you know that stick horses are considered a seasonal item at Toys-R-Us. WHAT???? Apparently they are only necessary for Halloween costumes and not for the basic functioning of your family, according to the people who haven't lived at my house. My mom, however, called numerous stores in her area (thanks Mom!) and found a store that carries stick horses all year round. YEEHAW!! I picked up Cowen's new best friend on Tuesday when I was out visiting Mom on Tuesday.

Welcome to the family, Stallion Blackberry.


Guess what Miriam asked for for her birthday?? A stick unicorn.








We've entered an entirely new phase of our family life: the team sport. Miriam started t-ball the first of this month.

I'm having such a great time. On Monday morning I took the kids to the park and we practiced t-ball. I even bought a pink tee and a new bat so we could practice. I had her throwing and running bases and swinging the bat. It is so much FUN to teach your kids how to do something you love. Except cooking. Never cooking.


Her coach is great. Very nice. I want Miriam to marry his older son who acts as the assistant coach. He's probably eleven or so and he is so KIND and PATIENT with all these crazy little kids who don't remember to run or where to run and jump on the ball like it's going to hop away if not bodily stopped.

T-ball is pretty much hilarious.

GO NUMBER ELEVEN!!!!!!












I was impressed she turned her head to watch some of the action. She's not really as entertained by the game as I am.












There she is standing in the field (look for the pink glove), picking her lip (blood on everything again--grr), and folding her other arm. Not your most involved stance.

She was VERY shy the first night and wasn't much better the second. There are four little boys on the team who race to get every ball and they intimidate Miriam. The ball came to her once and she looked around with a scared look on her face then started to inch toward it but before she picked it up the four boys had swooped in and Miriam jumped back to give them room.

The next game, Coach let Miriam play catcher one inning and I was glad. The first time Miriam had to pick up the ball and put it on the tee she looked totally embarrassed and slunk toward the ball in her best "get-out-of-trouble-by-slinking-away" slink and it was only due to Coach's son (Jarett) encouraging her that she made herself put the ball on the tee at all. After the first time though, she relaxed a lot and by the end of the inning she was getting the ball and putting it on the tee without prompting. YEAH!! I'm also glad that so far she's paid enough attention to the game while she's on a base to remember to run when a batter hits. For dreamy child--that's pretty good.

Catching a ball during the warm-up. Or not quite catching it, as the case may be.











I went downstairs one day last week and discovered this. Miriam decided she and Cowen and Emeline were going camping. Notice that on top of each bed is a doll, a sweater, and a book. Awesome.









How you know your daughter grew.

I realized the pj's were starting to look a little too stretced, but had no idea it was quite so desperate.














Today we drove to Provo to get our pictures taken. I'll let you know how they turned out when I find out. After pictures we drove past the MTC to talk about where missionaries to learn how to be good missionaries. Then we walked around the temple. Then we ate hamburgers. Yummy.

Then we went to the BYU art museum. They have two exhibits there right now that are AWESOME. My favorite was an artist named Dan Steinhilber. He takes normal things and turns them into art--so when you first walk into the museum you see this cool art thing hanging from the ceiling and you don't even notice its all coat hangers until you look really close. Loved it.

In the area of his big display my kids were totally freaked out and Miriam refused to return through that area so we had to leave using different stairs. The rooms are all black with very little lighting and the "art" is weird. There was a giant wall-sized art thing made out of balloons; a garbage can hanging from the ceiling with exploded garbage bags hanging out of it (one of my favs); packing thingies blowing around in a room with a bunch of carpet blowers; a sink with water running; and my very favorite--a huge area covered with little packets orange Chinese sauce hung together. When you looked at it from far away it looked like thick shiny paint and I wanted it for my house. So awesome. It wasn't until you walked right up to it that you realized it was sauce packets. Crazy. Awesome.

The other really amazing painter was Walter Wick. I'd never heard of him but he makes all these fantastic scenes in miniature and then takes pictures of them. Lots of them are search and find pictures and others, like the Treasure Hunt series of 12 pictures, contain clues to help you solve puzzles. My favorite was the robot building. You think it's just a robot until your four-year old flattens himself on the ground and points out the people in the robot's legs. Thanks, Cowen!

My favorite, though, was his "Scary, Scary" series. Miriam pointed out to me that in one scary house there was a dungeon with the bars broken. Something scary escaped!!! Crazy cool details like that all over the place. I can't really explain how amazing it was--but really, if you live in Utah, go check it out. Your kids will LOVE it. Unless they're scared . . . like mine were.

I also got to see two Andy Warhol's in real life. Sweet.

Good times. And tomorrow--Mom's feeding me. Yeehaw!!!!! (Dear Mom: have any more of those Haagen-daz ice cream things???)