Miss L and Her Progress

We have a rather small primary. Because of this, our kids have plenty of opportunities to give talks.  It's been an adventure considering how shy my children are.  Mr. M has made a ton of progress too, but I'll save the details for a later post.

 

The first talk Miss L gave I tried to pry her out of her seat and drag her up.  I ended up carrying her and giving her talk for her while she buried her head in my shoulder and shook.

 

The second time I had to carry her up but she stood there with me.

 

The third time, she walked up and stood by me while I gave it but refused to participate.

 

This last time we spend more time on the preparation.  I tried to do things I knew would excite her. We found a lesson on baptism that talks about the gifts God gives us when we are baptized.  We made five origami gift boxes and put papers with the gifts inside.

 

She still wouldn't talk, but she did open the boxes and hold up the papers.  She wasn't frozen!  Such progress.  Yay!

 

She was very proud of her talk and wanted me to post pics.

I'm so happy she was proud of herself.  She has also started participating in sharing time.  She doesn't talk, but she nods and she goes up to the front to do things they ask of her.  We are so thankful for their patience and for her steady progress! 

Geocaching Event in Williamsport

Twice we've attended events with this family.  They are so sweet and we enjoy their company.  Luckily, both times we have seen them, our kids have been so good.  It's bound to end at some point, but we are enjoying the fact they think are kids are pretty well-behaved. :) 

There were a ton of prizes at the event and fantastic food.  We loved the jambalaya.  Nummy!

The event was held on the property of this beautiful church.  It was built in the 1700s and is so gorgeous.  I had some other pics that showed it up close but they just didn't turn out the way I wanted.  I guess you get the general idea.

We took some pics of the Mississippi while were geocaching.  So pretty.

The must-have geocaching photo. 

Dinner with Friends

My friend, W, has a new baby.  And yet she has made us dinner several times.  She's awesome. 

We love to have dinner with friends.  Especially now that Lil' D is over his water dumping stage, and Miss L has relaxed slightly, and Mr. M is also slightly less hyper at others' houses.  And the list goes on.

One night we ate with two families.  Here's some of the teens having a blast on electronics.

There's cute W making dinner.  When I moved here, we discovered we are cousins, and we love to talk about that.  Gotta love my cousin! 

Sister S.  Another good, kind friend.  Both of these ladies teach me a lot and I admire them both. 

There's T, the cousin-in-law, with the new baby.  Lil' T is only 8 weeks and is already 15 lbs.  He's a big baby.  He loves to smile, he hardly cries at all, and he stops crying when his mom tells him she's coming or his bottle will be ready soon.  It's uncanny.  My babies are nothing like that (other then Miss L was 13.8 lbs. at 8 weeks so she wasn't too far behind).  I'm happy to have a baby to snuggle while I wait for mine to get here! 

We are so thankful for good friends and family!

Coloring

This is a huge part of our lives.  Our kids love to draw and color. They spend HOURS! Miss wanted a picture and I deemed it appropriate.

Summer of Science: Project One: Egg Experiment

Unfortunately we haven't done much with Summer of Science this year.  We've been too busy.  We've done a few things here and there, like playing with soda and vinegar.  We did try this egg experiment.

 

You put a fresh egg in one bottle of vinegar and a boiled one in the other.  The project said it needed 48 hours, but I would do 72, because ours did not work.

Both shells dissolve.  The raw egg is supposed to bounce like a bouncy ball afterwards if not dropped from too high.  Our splatted.  It was lovely.  The kids thought it was fantastic.

 

The boiled egg is supposed to bounce less.  We had nothing to compare it too but it did bounce a bit. 

We have been doing some origami and other things in addition to the Summer of Science.  We've also done school work most days.  They actually love it.  I'll be taking advantage of their joy in it!

Sibling Love

There is a lot of fighting going on this summer. 

A lot.

It's the only part about having all three of them home that I don't love.

I still don't want them back in school though.  I love summer.

 

Anyway, I live for moments like this:

I remember listening to her recall the story and thinking it was so cute the way she told it.  Can't remember what she said now though.  But the moment was precious. 

 

When I put Mr. D down for his nap he put his hands on my face like that.  I never used to lay down with him, but lately I've been wanting to and enjoying it.  He wraps his sweet little arms around my neck and cuddles up and there is nothing better in the world. 

 

I love their dimples in this one:

Swimming!

We have these wonderful friends who have a pool.  They invite us over to swim twice a week.  My favorite thing about these people, and this is saying a lot because I really love them, is that they are so good to my children.  They think they are something special and I really appreciate that.

 

(I know the pics are bright.  I used the lomo-ish setting and although bright, I really like it for these.)

Sister T is fantastic.  She's been helping Mr. M to swim.  He's had several years of swimming but it just doesn't come naturally to him.  She plays with him, helps him, and encourages him.  He gets better and better all the time.  He's so proud of himself too. 

Lil' D is my first kid that swims with little inhibition.  It's so refreshing.  I'd rather keep and eye on him then have him clinging to me incessantly.  It's much for fun to swim with him.  He sticks his arms in the tube and off he goes.  

I started Miss L in swimming lessons as a baby.  It didn't help.  She is still terrified of the water.  She does like to hang onto the side and move her way around the pool.  If I go anywhere near her, she clings to me, but for the most part she is content to be alone. 

Lil' Guy hops up on the latter and jumps off.  He even likes me to throw him, for small amounts of time.  It's so fun! 

This is M's buddy L.  Not the best pic of them.  I need to take more.  They get along so well.  They can play side by side without talking or even playing the same thing and they are so happy to do it.  We enjoy watching their friendship. 

I tried to get pics of everyone but it was so bright, only the close-ups seemed to work and even then they weren't great. 

 Thanks T and M family for having us over!  We love you!

Camera Phone Pics - Part 4

When Mr. M was a baby, I lost my beautiful wedding ring.  It was an heirloom that my dad had handmade for my mom.  It was horrible and still hurts my heart to think about it.  I've searched for seven years for a ring that even compares.  My other ring was extremely unique. I guess that is what appealed to me about this ring with the blue diamonds.  Although nothing will ever compare to my first ring, this one comes close. 

We Are Not in Utah Anymore...Camera Phone Part 3

This was on the wall in Mr. M's school.  Basically it means, "Yes, we're smart, honey."  I've mentioned this before, but "Cher" is pronounced "Sha" and is used very commonly to coo at a cute baby.

My kids go crazy for arts and crafts.  They take their time too.  This was at Festival International.  A HUGE festival that occurs here. 

For some reason these did not transfer from my phone well, which is sad because the costumes were awesome.  It's hard to tell but these are people on stilts at a parade at Festival.

 

Ugg... such a bummer the quality is so low.

This is just a street in New Orleans.  Parking is nuts.  And the people do not move for cars.  It's a place to park and walk for sure.

 

Our Life in Phone Pics Part 2

St. Patrick's Day.  They were all dressed in green, but clothes just don't last long around here.

 

In Utah, it is so rare to park on the grass.  Here in La, the grass is considered open parking.  In fact, at M's school they don't even have a parking lot for parents, just a small plot of grass.   

 Another pic of Miss L and her bee catching.  I believe these are black something or others that don't sting.  They look just like bees.  She can catch them extremely quickly.  

 

A couple of months ago we went with a couple our missionaries to a crawfish boil.  Of course on the way there, we had to geocache.

My Lil' Guy loves the missionaries.   They are such good examples.  We love having them around.

I was in very early stages of pregnancy, and although I liked the crawfish, I can no longer eat them now.  Maybe next year... 

Miss L and Mr. D don't really like them all that much.  Mr. M is allergic, which is sad because I KNOW he'd like them.  He loves spicy food.  He eats the corn and goes crazy for it.  In fact, one day when we were eating as a crawfish house, he was chowing down so much on a corn on the cob, that a guy we barely knew ordered him so more. 

 

Our Life in Phone Pictures - Part One

Miss Lib's buddie Miss K had a dance recital.  I really would like Miss L to either do gymnastics or dance.  Right now she's not having it.  I am, however, using all my tricks to get her to want to do it. :)

 

Miss K was so darn cute.  I was proud of her and she's not even my kid.  The dances were pretty impressive.  And I love her poses.  Miss L was so excited to be there and talked about it constantly after we left, but there was no way she was posing for pics with all those people around (you can't see em' but they are there).

I found this sign humorous because it looked like it was bleeding.  It made me think of a scene from Fried Green Tomatoes. Gross, but it is what I thought of.

This is Mr. Devin at The Little Gym.  We love all our instructors.  I swear my kids love this guy and one day they will break out and show it.  He's fantastic with them.  I was watching today as he helped Mr. M and the other kids in the class do their cartwheels and round offs, he is all business and has high expectations but is so kind and encouraging.  Perfect combination.