Good Golly, Is It Only Mid-August?

Four babies later, I still find their sleeping poses just as cute and peaceful.

A week and a half ago, we went to a demolition derby in Oberlin. We brought ear protection for the kids.

Dancy helped herself because we only have two pairs.

First time for everyone but Shad! Shad's friend Tim came with us. He's the one who took the picture.

Right after that picture, a severe thunderstorm started blowing in. We were only at the derby for one hour before deciding to leave. The wind really started picking up as we crossed the dirt lot to get to our van. We only made it halfway before the wind grew so strong that the dirt was stinging and visibility was almost zero. I was carrying Thora and holding Katie's hand, while Shad and Tim were ahead of us with Tom and Dancy. I told Katie to close her eyes, and pressed Thora's face into my shirt until we got back to the van. It took us an hour to get home, including getting out of the parking lot. Oberlin is only half an hour away. Such heavy rain, and almost constant lightning!

One morning, this was their activity. Trying to pull Tom's pants off. Though she's pouting into the carpet for this picture, Dancy was participating too.

Ruthie came on Thursday!! She's on her way to Nebraska to go home before leaving on her mission. We had lots of fun hanging out at home, playing at the park, 

on the swing set, eating at Las Canteras (and getting her face creamed for her birthday), playing games, and star gazing out at the lake. We saw more satellites than usual, and far more satellites than meteors. Weird satellites, too! They made bright flashes in the sky. Someone call Area 51! 

Getting Ruth creamed at Las Canteras didn't even cross my mind. We were took her there for her birthday and I told her so when we were ordering, and our waiter heard me. He came back later and asked to verify, then showed up with a cheese cake, sang Feliz Cumpleanos, and smashed a paper towel of whipped cream into her face. This guy is one of my favorites!

"Building" a puzzle with Ruthie.

Tada!

Ruth stayed with us until Saturday afternoon, at which time we realized it would've been great to send Tom and Katie to Nana's house with her, given that we'll be up there on Friday. If we'd have thought about it sooner than the moment she was saying goodbye, we probably would have made such arrangements.

Fixed it!

Hey Lisa, look!

Lisa blinked.

My kids look goofy.

But Paul Jones fixed it!

Thanks, Squirrel.

Baby Loves, My Baby Loves

Of course, I forgot to write about things the past few times. When we went to Colorado in June, our primary purpose was to see WICKED! Shad and I had been wanting to see it since we got married. The show was on tour in Colorado that fall, and we hoped that someone would give us tickets for it. However, we're not people to ask for something expensive, and you can't register for that, so BIG SURPRISE--we didn't get those tickets. Last fall I caught wind that Wicked would be in Colorado again this June, so we decided to count that as our Mother's and Father's Day gifts to each other. Yay! One more thing off the marriage bucket list. No picture, because we're not selfie people...and we didn't ask someone else to take it for us.

Forgotten from the Utah trip: We went on a "hike" (really just a walk in the mountains) at the Temple Quarry Trail. The kids liked it enough and it was a short enough loop that we walked it twice. Tom kept talking about how he knows how to walk in the mountains and do hikes because he's a mountain man. This kid is definitely living in the wrong state. And our fireworks experience was so awesome! We went with my uncle Tyler and most of his kids to the lower portion of a mountainside on the east side of the valley. We had a complete view of the valley, which privileged us with about 15 shows simultaneously in addition to the personal ones everyone was setting off at their homes. Miles upon miles of exploding copper, sodium nitrate, and magnesium! (The right scene starts around 3:00)

This scene makes me think of my high school chemistry teachers every time--Mrs. Kemp and Ms. Molitoris.

Somebody finally learned to clap!

Thora is now 10 months old. And though she’s 10 months old, she doesn’t do any of the baby milestones that you’d think she would—sit herself up, crawl, pull herself up to stand on furniture, walk along furniture, make “word” sounds. She is starting to push herself forward scooting with her legs, but after extensive coaching from me, Shad and Dancy. She occasionally gets on her hands and knees and "revs" a little. I don’t think she’s slow or lazy, I think she’s just content. She’s happy to be where she is, doing what she’s doing. I’ve tried to encourage her to say “mamamama,” and she just smiles and laughs at me. She knows; she just doesn’t feel like doing it. Least of all to be a performing monkey. She vocalizes, and her sounds are generally described as goat or baby dinosaur. I don't mind that I've gotten to enjoy more baby out of her, and she's on the threshold of achieving those milestones.

Dancy loves her "ladybug" outfit, and wanted me to take a picture of it. Now she asks almost daily to see the picture on the computer. Her other daily request is to text her best friend, Levi.

Dancy is 2, and speaks in full sentences, and she says the funniest things. "Mom! Better. save. me!" Sometimes when she's trying to do something and gets frustrated, she'll say, "Ugh! Can't. do it. every day!" I've called her a Cutie Pie and Sweetie Pie, so when I called her silly once, she corrected me, "Silly Pie." But now she just wants to be called "Ladybug." Oh, it’s so fun having a two-year-old who is so articulate and with near perfect enunciation (I NEVER have to translate for her). I mean, not many people get such insight into a two-year-old brain and logic. Oh, she’s so talkative that when we were at my aunt’s house in Utah in July, she successfully talked herself out of a nap! My little cousins were going to watch a movie with Tom and Katie, and Dancy was not about to be left behind. She told me, “No, Mom. No nap. Just minute. Watch movie real quick. Love you. Bye.” And she blew me a kiss as she slid down the stairs. Yep, I let her get away with that one because it was just so amazing. She is a great coach for Thora with crawling. She knows the exact distance to place a toy so that it’s desirable, but just out of reach. Then she says, “Crawl, baby, crawl! Try crawl!” And she gets snappy at Katie when she gives the toy to Thora. “No, Katie! Thora crawl!” Dancy then takes the toy away from Thora and puts it back on the floor to try again. And she gives encouraging pushes with Thora’s legs the way she’s seen me and Shad do it. Love this girl! Her favorite characters to be when playing pretend are Elsa (Weh go! Weh go!), Tinkerbell, Cinderella, and Hulk. “Hulk SMASH!”

My three girls! (Katie has a feather)

Katie is almost 4, and seems to be stuck in the unfortunate middle child position, even though she’s not the middle child. She’s kinda past the developmental milestones, but not really in the academic learning stage, mostly because she won’t let me teach her! Oh, how she fights against learning! She’s proud to be done with diapers (night-time trained!), and enjoyed getting to pick out ice cream to eat while watching her newly earned movie, Tangled. She picked bubblegum ice cream cups, despite my advisement against it. But she wanted pink.

My three mobile ones. They all flipped upside down (Dancy had to ask for help) and told me to take a picture. But I had to find the camera first, and that took too long. "Hurry, Mom!" They all resumed the position once I found it. (Dancy, again, with help)

Tommy is 5 now, and enjoys all forms of combat, pirates, Harry Potter, super heroes, Legos, and Lego video games. He loves taking care of his sisters, and making Thora laugh. They sit together in the back of the van and it’s so fun to hear them “talking” to each other and laughing. Delightful sounds! He’s also learning to read. We have a habit of reading books together, then playing a Lego video game while the girls all nap.

Utah Trip

We drove to Colorado Wednesday night after Shad got off work, and spent the night at Dan's house. In the morning (July 2), we set out for Utah. Tommy was so excited to drive through the mountains and see the snowcaps. He asked if we could please go on a hike in the mountains in Utah. Lucky him, we already had that planned.

We got to western Colorado and Shad and I both had the same thought: "Dang! I'm glad we live in Kansas because that's way prettier than this!" Sorry, Grand Junction, you may have mountains, but I'd rather have prairie grasses and cornfields over sagebrush.

Nothing!

We visited Shad's grandma a couple days, which was the main purpose of our visit. She wasn't feeling well the first day we visited, but she was peppy, energetic and spunky the second day. Just the way we remember her.

We stayed at Suzanne and Tyler's house (my aunt and uncle), and the kids all enjoyed lots of cousin time. Dancy, Katie, Emmie, Drew and Tommy watching Big Hero 6.

Ruth's last day of work was the day before we arrived, so she spent pretty much every day with us while we were there. It was so great to have so much Ruth time! Because she's the best. We went up to visit Shad's cousin Stacey one day. We had a fun time with Stacey, Cole, Oliver and Greyson at their apartment swimming pool, which is right outside their door because they're the managers. Ruth and Shad took our kids to a park to use up 6 cans of silly string Ruth had left over.

She took us to the airport she used to work at. It's a flight school, and shares runway with a military airport. We had a picnic lunch out on the tarmac, and saw several planes come and go, as well as an Apache helicopter.

Thai food is delightful! Why don't we have it in Norton?

Love my Kates!

I have no recollection of this.

Tom and Katie in the pilot's seat!

Uh, watch out, y'all! Looks like the copilot is on something. Incidentally, I wouldn't trust the pilot, either. He's known for running forwards while looking backwards.

Airplanes!

Shad took Tommy for a quick temple visit while the rest of us slept in the van.

Lego Store!

We spent a day on Temple Square, followed by dinner with Shad's uncle Brad and aunt Teresa.

Top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

This nice older guy asked if I'd like him to take a picture of all of us. He was surprised when I said yes. His wife never lets him take the pictures. He took several, because he knows what pictures are like with all those little kids.

Day at the zoo! We went with Shad's cousin Aimee and her daughters, Arielle and Alyson; cousin's wife Michelle with her kids, Kai and Keira; cousin Stacey with her sons, Oliver and Greyson; and Ruth and Will. We had just about the best group zoo trip we've ever had. No one complained about the weather, or how long we were there, or what animals to see or not see; we were all just happy to be there and spend time together! For 5 hours!

Owl display

Animatronics (I think that's the term) dinosaurs throughout the zoo.

Ruth and Dancy

Oh good! Someone took a picture of me imitating the lion. Okay, so he was doing this weird soundless roar, and some kids told me that it was a mating ritual or something. It was interesting, and I've never seen it before.

Took 5 tries for him to take this picture.

Dancy has this newfound love for monkeys. It seems to be replacing her zebra obsession.

The children of the cousins...with most of the parents.

So many things to climb on!

So there was this peacock feather behind a fence, just out of reach, and the fence had a sign on it saying to stay out. I lamented this to Shad and he said, "Haven't you watched enough White Collar?" So I went back and got my peacock feather anyway.

Did you know that lion head drinking fountains are the coolest thing ever? Well they are.

Carousel

Throwing pennies into the fountain.

Hey guess what! My boy turned 10! He asked for grilled cheese and sausages for dinner because he thought everyone would like that. He's such a people pleaser. It was a delicious dinner. He got a Lego pirate set from Ruth and Will, and a new tie from his sisters. He loves ties. He got the rest of his goods at home: Green Lantern vs. Sinestro Lego set (which was missing pieces and we're waiting for those to arrive in the mail), Lego Harry Potter years 1-4 for PS3, and a Pirates of the Caribbean Look and Find book. I'm planning to have a birthday party for him at the end of August when we won't have to worry about his friends being out of town.

Look at that girl's nasty spit up!

Tom climbed a tree.

Our last 2 days in Utah were spent at Suzanne's house, babysitting her kids while she and Tyler got a vacation to California for a week. Other people took over after we left. 

Driving back to Colorado, the kids enjoyed seeing all the red dirt and rocks. I told them the story of how Colorado got its name: When the Spanish Conquistadors came up from the south, they were amazed by all the red dirt, so they called the land "Colorado," meaning "color red." Shad hadn't ever heard the story before, so he thought I made it up. It's truth!