Fashion Forward

Clara's been learning to dress herself. These pictures, taken in June (yeah, I'm only a month behind), show only a part of the wardrobe transformations she effected in one short afternoon. Above, she's shed her shorts (probably at least the second normal outfit of the day) for some Halloween pants (size 12 months, found in her sister's room).

And now she's completed the look by putting on a shirtdress, backwards.

She's getting pretty good at dressing herself, thankfully. Because she usually won't accept help. Any offer of assistance is met with screams. Ditto to any suggestions that her clothes might not match, are backwards and/or inside out.

She's also really into shoes. She loves her own, of course, but also the bin of baby shoes in Alice's closet. She'll ask Nathan to get it down, and then happily try on pair after pair, not at all discouraged that they don't fit. "These are too big," she'll say, then agree when I suggest maybe they're too small. Small and big, so hard to keep them straight.

Yesterday, after watching my cousin's little girl do the same, she put on a small pair of wooden clogs sitting on my grandma's lamp table. Luckily my grandma didn't care, because I think this may become a tradition for all girls of a certain size.

Tonight, asked to get some pajamas on, she came out of her room so proud of her "crazy jammies": shorts and a shirt dress, again inside out. As long as she thinks it's comfortable, I'm not saying anything. I don't fancy a fight tonight.

Craft Tuesdays

 Nathan, missing preschool, has spurred me to action. So one day I herded up the children, went to the dollar store, and stocked up on art supplies.

 Hence, Craft Tuesdays is something I try to honor every week. And the kids have been loving it. Clara will ask, "Mom, I want to do art supplies."

 These pictures show painting with finger paints in shaving cream. It was a big hit, and they stayed surprisingly clean. And when they dried they looked pretty cool, so I didn't throw them right away. When Levi walked in from work, hours later, he knew right away we'd been into his shaving cream. That nice menthol smell still lingered.

Fingerpaints and watercolors are both a big hit. And one day, using markers and stickers, we made city maps. Nathan named his several different names and he used it later in the day for a game, something to do with chasing bad guys and arresting him, I think. One of his city names was Police. Another was Roy. I don't remember the third, it was something he made up.

We didn't make it to craft Tuesday yesterday, but sometime we'll get around to the project I had, making binoculars from toilet paper rolls. It's going to be great.

We're coming to America

We're coming to America ...today! (Think Neil Diamond, it will make more sense.) And here I am chipping away at yet more of the blogging back log I've built up over the last month. So I don't really remember when these pictures were taken.

 

 But one day, playing outside (yeah, I don't think Clara is wearing any pants), I put Alice in the umbrella stroller so she could see what's going on. Summer is too hot to hold a baby all the time.

 She loved the stroller. And so did Clara. She started pushing it around. I managed to keep her in the driveway at first, but soon she wanted to follow Nathan as he rode his bike up the sidewalk.

 I went along. Clara let me come as long as I didn't push. I was only allowed to help if she pushed it crooked and got stuck on the grass. This happened a lot. So Clara pushed forward and I managed to get her to let me steer. Once we got this system down, she decided we were on a trek: "Let's go to America!" So we headed down the street to find America. When it was time to turn around and come back, she decided she wanted to go to Utah. I had a hard time convincing her that our house was really Utah. She was pretty sure it was farther up closer to the corner.

Maybe I need to teach my kids more about geography? With all this talk of Canada, America, Mexico, and Australia, not to mention Roy, Utah, and Idaho, things have gone a little skewampus in her mind.

Glow Golf

 The day after returning from our epic Bullfrog trip, we wanted to spend some time with our visiting cousin. We'd decided we wanted to go miniature golfing, and were lucky enough to find a groupon for Glow Golf at the mall. And so Erin and I ended up taking seven children miniature golfing.

 Luckily the place was deserted, because soon there were cousins in every direction. Some cousins are a little more proficient than others. But the younger cousins still had a wonderful time.

 And they even had cool animals on which to climb. What could be better?

 Many thanks to Erin for emailing me her pictures, since I forgot my camera.

And we're glad we got to spend at least a little time with you on your visit. Let's do it again sometime.

Choose the Right

Levi did a great job at family home evening tonight. He taught the kids about Moses and the ten commandments. Then he made them each their own set of stone tablets out of construction paper. We talked about how the commandments help us to choose the right.

Nathan then went on to talk about how the commandments will help you if you're lost to find another direction, to find your mom and dad and sister.

All true, but in a slightly different sense.

Clara's also been saying some great things lately. A few weeks ago she referred to a knee as a "leg elbow." And today she said, "Does grandpa have feet?... yes. Where are his feet? At the store? No... his feet are on his toes."

Again, all true.

Moving Days

 In June, we headed down to Bullfrog. We discovered a lot of treasures at grandma's and grandpa's that we'd never seen before.

 This is Clara just after we'd discovered a lizard.

 The kids were introduced to the wonder of Charlie Brown cartoons. They behaved quite well, and I managed to be occasionally helpful in between feedings, diaper changes, getting snacks, etc.

 We even managed to get some swimming in.

 After the first dip, Alice didn't mind her toes being in the water.

 After packing and loading for two days, we filled that truck right up.

And after 39 years (minus 11 days or so, according to my father-in-law) we said our final goodbyes to the Bullfrog house. And we headed in a caravan across the state. I was feeling unhappy about driving alone with three kids (Levi was in the truck) but the kids were remarkably good. Actually, Nathan and Alice were remarkably good. Clara was sort of awful, but with two six-hour drives in three days, you can hardly blame her. As she was crying to get out of her car seat, Alice began to cry. And Clara wailed, "Don't cry, Alice. It's okay. Don't cry." Which I, of course, found very ironic. It was a good laugh for the day.

 Then when we got to Roy, aided with the rest of us, we unloaded in a few hours what had taken us the better part of two days to fill.

 My kids even helped. They wanted to be just like their big cousins who could lift heavy things.

We were even able to find a couple boxes for Clara. Alice didn't help, though. Lazy baby.

So, welcome to Roy, grandma and grandpa. We're excited.

Alice's blessing day

 We blessed Alice June 10. It was a great day; we even had guests all the way from Edmonton. The blessing was beautiful. The party afterwards was great--lots of cousins to play with.

 And remember this dress? You can read all about it here. Because I mean all of it, again, but I'm too lazy and inarticulate to say it again.

 To say it shortly, this girl got to wear one special dress, made by one special lady. And now I'll shut up and let you look at some pictures.