Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Welling are kind enough to humor our request for tickets instead of stuff for Christmas. So Yesterday we went with them to see a performance of the Music Man. It was really fun. Nate enjoyed it with the eyes of a true thespian. He watched the kids in the performance and commented on how they were just kids and that they are really about his size. After it was over he needed to meet the kid who played Winthrop and went up to him in pure admiration and said "Dude you were so cool!" The kid seemed flattered. Saturday morning most everybody played tennis. It was a fun visit.

Tonight they showed us slides from their trip to Israel for Family Home Evening. It was very interesting to see photo's of the places from Jesus' life.

Hazely Dazely

Hazel's Bumble Bee Birthday Bake. Hazel has been telling everyone that her birthday was coming but I don't think she really understood what that meant. At our house you get to pick your dinner on your birthday. We asked her what she wanted she said "ummmmm doughnuts, and ummmmm pudding, and ummmmm ummmmm ummmmm and a PICKLE!"

Three candles and Three wishes

The present opening...
Abby made a nightgown for the doll she got from Grandma Cornwall

Truman made her a Super Hazel Reversible cape.

She really enjoyed undoing the multilayer wrapping paper.

Sydney also made her a cute outfit for the doll, Christian bought her a stroller. Rebekah gave her some dress-up shoes, legos from Nate and Grandma and Grandpa Welling came and brought a little desk.

It's my Birthday!

Thursday was my birthday. We had cake and present opening on Wednesday night because Thursdays are our busiest days this fall. I was impressed with the kids creativity this year. I got: a new watch, a dinner bell (or rather dinner triangle), a fruit picker, a pitcher with some cool glasses, a book, rubber scrapers, doughnut cookie cutters.

Thursday we had enrichment meeting that I was in charge of and I was trying to get ready for house guests so I woke up thinking that it was not a great day. But Mom called me first thing and the day just got better from there. My good friend took me out to lunch and surprised me with some great new lamps for my bedroom. I got a birthday phone call from the high school choir singing Happy Birthday. Then I got a "spiffy" CD from another friend. Then at Enrichment someone brought me a cake! Then that night we had a great electrical storm. I tried to take pictures. The storm was just like this for hours and hours. It felt very surreal. It dumped almost another inch of rain on us.

Jazz Pianist

Christian had an audition today for Jazz band. He often slides by on his good looks, inherent talents and general smartness. He really worked on this audition music and was quite proud of himself. Hopefully the trend continues, because it is fun to see what he can do when he puts his heart in it.

A Major Award

Kenneth joined Toastmasters 2 years ago at the request of his manager. He has learned a lot and his speeches have really improved. The first part of this year he complained that so many new people had joined that he wasn't getting many opportunities to speak. Then he decided to work on having speeches prepared in case someone forgot. Boy, has he done a lot of speaking the second half of this year! So many in fact that in effect he "stuffed the ballot box" and wone 2 awards!

A little Brag

Truman auditioned last week for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony and today he got his congratulation letter. He worked on a solo all summer and then everyday for 2 weeks he worked with the band teacher. He didn't feel like his audition went very well, but when I asked him about the solo that he worked so hard on he said with a smile "I played it good!". I am really proud of how hard he practiced. He must have played good because he is in!

Almost There

More doors are in. Kenneth and I stayed up till midnight installing doors. This morning I was talking to Abby and mid-sentence she said "oh WOW! Those look great!" I wholeheartedly agree.

Animal Lovers

Well... yesterday Hazel and I took the cat to the Animal Shelter. So today to fill our need for animals we went to the Zoo. Last night it rained and it was nicely overcast this morning so I thought it would be fun to go to the zoo. It was fun but the animals were especially lethargic. Hazel had a great time doing whatever she wanted as opposed to our usual group trips. I let her take pictures and she really enjoyed that. The pictures aren't half bad!

Dr. Doolittle

Speaking of animals. This morning Sydney and Abby got to go horseback riding as part of a birthday party. It was really fun. I can say that because they needed a driver so I got to ride too! Sydney got to ride a Mule named Julie, Abby rode an Appaloosa named Sedona and I rode Medicine Man. We were on the trail for about an hour with our guides Nate and Ian.

Deja Vu

So the end of the week finds us once again accessing our animal population.

The Tadpoles.
They are growing fast and it is fun to watch them develop and change. This week they started to grow back legs. (They are the little blur at the back of the tail.)

The Feral Cat Colony.
This is the last kitten in the litter that was born in our sandbox. It has been very quiet today, but I am still going to put it on the porch for the night. I don't like night-time meowers.

Youngest Children

Youngest children are an interesting experience. I know many youngest children that I do not wish to be around. I am making a great effort not to spoil this girl. It is a difficult task. We let her do so many more things because the bigger kids to them and we don't make her do things that we made the bigger kids do. I think I would have accused Kenneth of child endangerment if he had let Christian use the sander.


Maybe my judgment is compromised by my desire to see more doors in my kitchen!



This pile is nearly ready to install. Hooray!! (and the rest of the wood was delivered today, so there are no more excuses.)

Sleepy Dancer

Today was busy. I sprayed lacquer on the cabinet doors Kenneth built. Then Hazel and I went to the library. When we got home we were sweaty so we went to the pool. After lunch we ran errands and the school kids beat us home. Notice no nap! We took Syd and Abby to dance class and Hazel was clingy and whiny. I left her home when I went back to pick the girls up. This is the condition I found her in when I got home. Poor Tired Little Ballerina!

Inheritance

We all inherit things. Hazel has a great hairitage! She inherited my grandpa Cornwall's hair. One of my friends refers to it as "mad scientist hair". It is very fine and breaks easily so it is always different lengths, these two qualities translate into the mad scientist look. I was thinking that with everyone in school I would have more time to spend trying to make it look nice, but I didn't realize that Hazel likes it that way. Today it was especially lovely, so I asked her to go get a brush and some clips. "I do it myself!" She smoothed it back with her hands and took a clip out of the Lego bucket and TADA! Mad Scientist Hair with a clip in it.

One Tired Boy

The poor man is still sleeping. The kids tried to wake him up for Family Scripture reading, but we had to read without him, and have prayer and brush teeth and sing songs and get tucked into bed. He stirred about 5 minutes go, looked disoriented and climbed on the couch and is out again. I suppose I better go put him to bed.


I just remembered... The main reason he is so exhausted is that he finished building and sanding all the doors for my upper cabinets. They are so incredibly beautiful. So I think he has earned his nap!

Beautiful Day of Peace and Rest

This week was really tiring. The kids were worn out from the back to school pace, and we weren't very good at getting them into bed on time. Last night was the worst yet the kids weren't in bed until 10:30PM. Today in church 5 of the 7 were asleep. Kenneth was really harassing Christian and Truman about staying awake (hence only 5 sleeping). Kenneth finally fell asleep and the boys were more than happy to push his elbow off his lap, interrupting his bliss. We had dinner right after church, then Kenneth and I read the Sunday Funnies and fell asleep on the couch. The kids were being so nice playing with each other and Truman was preparing his FHE lesson. So it was a beautiful day of peace and rest.

A Spare Minute continuing on...

Friday morning Hazel and I took the meowing kittens to the animal shelter. The Meowing was too much for me and the kitty smell was very smelly. I was trying to clean my house for the Saturday at 7PM Elder's Quorum Party at my house. The Kitties had to go. I did feel much relieved when they said that the cats were adoptable, so I wasn't responsible for their deaths. So anyway I have this fear when I host parties that no one will come. This is a totally unfounded fear, all my experience screams out that I am loved and that our parties aren't half bad. People will come. The first half of this random thought was at 7:15PM when NO ONE was here attending the party and I was trying to distract myself. Now the party is over and it was fun and people came. We played games and had good food, and because there were no children (or Kittens) at the party my house is still clean for Sunday!

A Spare Minute

Thursday found us with 2 stray kittens that we were working on rehabilitating. The kittens were born in our sandbox and as much as we don't want kittens, I couldn't just kill them. So the plan was to socialize them so that the Animal Shelter could adopt them out instead of euthanize them. After about 5 weeks of that the mother moved them. Arrgh, thwarted in my humanitarian plan. Then last week they showed up in my next door neighbors yard. He was kind enough to trap them and bring them to me. So we were working on our socializing them but I spent half the night on Thursday taking care of the Meowing. Friday morning... Better go

Here's Hoping

I will die happy if I can see this happy boy running home to me like this everyday for the next 13 years!

Addition

Here's the Math Facts of the Day

7 Kids
+ 6 Tadpoles
--------------
Applied Science


















1 Nate
+ 1 semi-feral cat
------------------
1 Crazy Momma

Looking Good in Our New School Clothes

Everyone reports that they had a great first day at school.

Nap Time

So here I am at home. Hazel is asleep and I have so many things I can do that I can't decide where to start. It is a very quiet house.

And They're Off.

The kids are all off at school today. I have never had a more excited Kindergartner than Nate.

Well, everyone but Hazel. She's off but she's not too sure where she's off to.

Walnut Canyon in the Rain

Saturday morning Kenneth and I and 5 of our kids went to Walnut Canyon National Monument. It was poring rain when we got there so we sat in the van and ate Oreos until the rain slowed a bit. Then we made a run for the visitor center. They had a display of animal pelts. We learned: Javelinas are not soft their hair is more like quills, rabbits are the softest and squirrel pelt is creepy when the face is still on.


Here's Hazel demonstrating the sand box where you can make animal tracks in the sand.

Nate shivering in the 75 degree weather. (Just looking at the rain from inside the visitor center)


Here we are outside at the overlook, after the rain had stopped. We couldn't go on the hike that goes to the ruins because they were still repairing the trail after a landslide.



These are the ruins as viewed from the top of the trail.

Trumanhood and Little Syd Running through the Forest

Friday afternoon we drove to Flagstaff for a wedding reception for Tana, one of my old Laurels. It was fun to leave the valley for one last fling before having to go back to school. The reception was nice, the food was good, Tana was happy to see us, and the children were well behaved. Afterwords, we went to my Aunt Linda and Uncle Mark's house and stayed the night. In the morning we had breakfast with them and visited. The kids entertained themselves by running free through the woods and making bows and arrows. (Christian and Abby entertained themselves by napping as they weren't felling well.)