Savannah, Fireworks, and Chloe

I am blogging again. I am going to think of the bright side and say that I have not blogged for three months because the summer has been so fabulous that I just haven't wanted to take the time... that's a good thing, right?

And also I am looking for brilliant suggestions on what is the best way to schedule in blogging - like is there a certain time you always blog, so it has just become habit? I am talking to you amazing bloggers who hardly miss a week - I really need some advice!

So.... To my Beautiful Daughter Savannah, on your 10th birthday... (which actually occured June 27th - details... details!)

What I love about you:

1. You are absolutely beautiful - inside and out.

2.You are kind - you are always aware of other people's feelings. Compassionate.

3. You are an amazing friend.

4. You are a free-spirit.

5.You are an "old soul" - you have wisdom beyond your age.

6. You pick up on things - you are well aware of what's going on all the time.

7. You know how to be yourself (which if I was one of Sleeping Beauty's fairies blessing you at your birth, is exactly the quality I would have given you.)

8. You are incredible with little children.

9. You are super-duper talented (singing, acting, cheerleading, cake decorating, sewing, dancing, music, taking care of children... seriously!)

10. You are thoughtful - the sweet things you do for all of us - the notes you leave on my bed...

Happy 10th Birthday, Savannah - I love you truly!

4th of July

Sitting on the front porch swing, right before fireworks and after floating down the Boise River on inner tubes. Nick informed us that he officialy was Mutt Jones (Indiana's son) after his tube flipped through some minor rapids and he handled it with true bravery. He also warned us of those approaching rapids by yelling "Bunnies! Watch out for the bunnies!" (it took Jake interpreting for him to figure out that he thought rapids were actually called rabbits)

This year we went downtown to Ann Morrison Park to watch Fireworks. It was AMAZING!

This is Clara as soon as the fireworks began. She went facedown inside the blanket until they were over. Did not move a muscle. Incredible - I have not seen her that still for that long - well, ever. Fireworks apparently is the key. Who knew?

The other kids mesmerized by the fireworks. Magic.

Just a random picture of Clara.

And...Introducing Chloe!

This is our new bunny, which Jake (with some help from Savannah) used all of his birthday money for.

You might be wondering why all of the pictures also feature Clara. That is because that is how Chloe lives her life. In Clara's arms. Clara has not really let her out of her sight or arms since we've had her.

Clara truly loves animals with all of her heart. She can't resist them - anywhere and any kind. Sometimes it's in a "Lenny-from-Of-Mice-and-Men" kind of way, but so far Chloe has survived, and actually seems attached to Clara. At least she doesn't run away from her. Hopefully it's not because she is frozen in fear.


And that's our Summer Part 1. Hopefully I'll get the rest of July posted soon. Thanks for reading!

Jake and a lot of mini bike.

Ten Reasons I love Jacob, on his Eighth birthday…

1. He is kind of a genius. I quote him from today, “Hey mom, come into the playroom so I can show you the motorized pulley I just invented.”

2.He asks me questions every day, okay several times a day, that I not only do not know the answer to, but have never really thought about. Emberassing? A little.



3. His uncontrollable laugh when he thinks something is really funny. He has been known to be rendered completely useless laughing on the ground. If anyone ever wanted to beat him up they should start out by telling him a joke.

4. His soft,soft heart.

5. How gentle and kind he is with Clara and Nick and other little children. Always thinking about them.






6. He is – I am not kidding, the leader of the neighborhood boy’s gang. The oldest boy in the gang? Twelve. But he listens to Jake. Is this normal?

7. How he takes his guitar playing and singing very seriously and sounds very similiar to Alfalfa on Little Rascals.


8. He likes to be handsome. He likes to do his own hair, wear his own picks of clothes. His favorite? T-shirts with funny sayings on them and tuxedos.


9. He is a healthy eater. No stress over this boys nutrition. He loves veggie sandwiches with extra sprouts and thinks cake is just okay. I know it seems like a strange reason to love your son, but when you have another child who has approximately three items in their food repertoire, it is pretty endearing.

10. His utter joy over finally becoming a Boy Scout and how he has nicknamed himself "Jake the Snake"

I love you, my sweet boy.

So the mini-bikes... Jake and Savannah got these for their birthdays (early gift for Savannah). This was somehow in spite of my upbringing in which I was taught that riding a motorcycle was equal to imminent death.

Riding in McCall. If you are wondering if these are the same bikes featured in Dumb & Dumber, the answer is Yes. Which is why I have omitted the picture of me riding one.

Nick and his two-wheeler.

Grandpa Dan pulling Clara and our neice, Jessie.

Saturday night in McCall we got a babysitter for the kids and went out to dinner and for a boat ride. This is Chad's parents, Dan and Joan, at dinner.

Chad and I

Todd and Lisa, who came with us to McCall on a farewell trip before moving far away to Arizona...


Joe and Amy - our friends in McCall, the coordinator of our babysitter, and owners of this fine boat. Amy and I met last year at an Arbinger conference, in which we paid a couple hundred dollars to learn how to be nice to people. That one still baffles Chad. We usually just don't talk about it. Especially because I'm so nice now, I really try to avoid conflict.

So this is us, in the middle of the Lake, far away from the boat dock, moments before a torrential rain and lightening storm took us a little off guard.

Chad during the storm

Joe, our fearless captain, being pelted with rain.

And where is Todd? Protecting us girls, of course. Naturally not taking up all of our space and blanket. He just wanted to make sure we were okay up there.

The next day... a campfire at Joe and Amy's

Jake performing Ode to Joy at the campfire.

Savannah and Jessie on the mini-bike. Jenny, if you are reading this, they are not really moving. Like I would do something as irresponsible as letting your three-year-old ride with Savannah with no helmet. If she tells you anything different don't believe her. It's my word against yours, Jessie. :)

The kids taking a bow after their performance of the generationally famous skit, I don't have the money for the payment of the rent.

And a picture of a girl's night Twilight party. At which time we played the Twilight board game which apparently was made for eleven-year-old sleepovers and included such questions as "everyone secretly write down who they think is the prettiest person in the room". Evil game-writer.

And of course they are also not moving, because what kind of mother would let her two-year-old jump on a mini-bike without a helmet, at night, no less?

And why I haven't been blogging... I have been organizing, okay?

Look at this mother of a pantry. And now I can blog in peace.

Random picture of Savannah riding her mini bike because I am still inept at placing pictures. I don't want to talk about it.

We love, love, love, LOVE, summer.

Please don't give up on me my blogging friends, in spite of a broken camera, still unorganized kid's closets, and a recommitment to read New Moon before the movie comes out in November - I will persist until I become a consistent blogger!

One Incredibly Long Post

So it's been a month since my last post - my computer broke down and I couldn't find my camera charger for about a week (unfortunately that week included Mothers Day).

But I am pleased to report that after being transferred to approximately 56 different customer service reps somewhere in the heart of India, I was given the good news that my warranty did in fact cover Nicholas sticking a pencil where the laptop charger gets plugged into, and I have my laptop once more.

Okay - one thing that I definitely discovered. I really, really, really love blogging. The separation from my laptop was exactly what I needed to finally understand that my blogging experiment has gone from, "I'll try it." to "I can't live without it." (am I still talking about blogging, because I think I had this same experience when I was dating Chad.)

And so I have moved blogging completely to the top of my priority list. Actually I have revamped my entire priority list. The Previous Number 1 Priority:"Stay so busy that you are running full speed ahead all day until you crash and don't get nearly enough sleep or have any fun but definitely get a million things accomplished." has now been replaced with things like: watch movies and listen to U2 and blog a lot. And also garage sale more often and go on walks (not runs) and hang out on the couch. Life is going rather well.

So if you can't tell from my title - having not blogged in a month, this is an incredibly long post. But I can't help it. Okay, I won't help it. So first an update on all the kids...

Clara

Is seriously cute.

I know there is a similar picture of Clara on every post I make - but if I didn't think of every time a situation like this comes up as a blogging moment, well, she might not still be with us.

This was me putting mascara on upstairs and her downstairs by herself for 5 minutes.

Close-up.


Nick

Riding his bicycle. All of the pictures are of Nick riding his bicycle, because that is pretty much what Nick does all day every day. I will post some more bike riding pictures next time, because on Saturday Nick....Learned to ride a bike without training wheels! I wish I could say that we taught him in a wonderful bonding moment, but really it was more like Chad unscrewed the training wheels, and he just sort of rode away.

Nick has also decided that he knows Spanish. He speaks Spanish to us all day, actually. Except his Spanish goes something like this, "Ooga boogala aci waci", and then we reply, "what does that mean?" and then he replies something like, "oh, it means I like you but maybe I love you and if I love you maybe I will kiss you or something."

We all find this very endearing and so, yes, we encourage him. It was not, however, so endearing to the waiter at the authentic Mexican restaurant we went to on Cinco de Mayo, who after greeting us with "Hola", Nicky very seriously and confidently replied, "Oogay moogay Wocka ocka noby goo choochi." Apparently the Spanish language is taken a little more seriously in his household.

And Jakey.

Jakey has lived and breathed baseball for the last 6 weeks.

His birthday is in one week, and oh my, he is going to be 8.

I will gush over him more in a separate birthday blog - but I am seriously, seriously crazy over this boy.

He is like the coolest kid ever - smarter than me.

The leader of the neighborhood boys gang (which actually includes 12-year-old boys).

Hilarious and, did I mention? Smart.

We have been spending time every afternoon together talking about questions he has about the church and his baptism.

I have never felt so proud of him.

And Savannah...

Still making cakes. She is hoping to start a business after she gets a few more cakes under her belt. This is Heather - a friend of ours and professional cake decorator who spent about 2 hours with Savannah teaching her to make...

This Mother's Day fondant cake. We were very grateful to have gotten this one lovely picture before Clara scooted her stool up to the counter while we were all upstairs, dug her hands in and devoured about 1/4th of the cake. Love you Clara!

And her tap recital...

Okay, so this was actually her dress rehearsal. Her dance studio sent out a recital schedule with a typo as to what time the recital started, and so we missed the actual performance. I can't really talk about it more, because I am trying to keep my blood pressure in check.

But fortunately I seemed to be more upset than Savannah, who handled the entire situation with absolute grace and maturity. Seriously. Where does she come from? She is absolutely incredible. I mean, I have heard of mother's looking up to their grown daughters, but Savannah is only 9, and I am giving myself lectures on being more like her.

I know I am her mother, but the girl has talent.

And as for me... well besides having the best Mother's Day ever, one event that I actually took pictures at, was an insanely crazy party hosted by - Jennie and Leah, who secretly came up with the idea of having a mock beauty pageant at what the rest of us thought was a simple going away party for our dear friend, Lynnelle. We were met at the door with horrendous shades of eyeshadow and lipstick, hair bows, and gaudy jewelry (why did they only ask to borrow mine?)Here Jennie and Leah are as the MC's of the evening.

Here I am doing my talent portion of the contest as a singer in the video game "Rock Band". I was originally on the drums but was kicked off because I had no rhythm. Seriously, like zilch. I even got a cramp. It was kind of embarrassing.

Here is Lynnelle receiving the prize as Mrs. Universe. And I um, don't want to brag, but I did, um, win

Mrs. Congeniality

but you know, it really wasn't any big deal. I am probably not like seriously actually considering running for Mrs. Eagle next year or anything.

Okay, so Lynnelle. I just want to say - I love this girl. No, really I do. She has been a mentor in my life in so many ways. Did I mention that she is moving because her sister-in-law died and she is taking her family to live with her brother-in-law to help raise his children, and oh yeah, did I mention that she has eight children of her own? Oh yeah, and she homeschools. Take a good look (but ignore the blue eyeshadow)- this woman is a saint.

So the Zoo!

We visited the Boise Zoo this week, which was special only because they just got giraffes and lions! Which was such perfect timing because we were just starting to become disenchanted with the squirrel and hamster exhibits.

This is the Jarvis Family with us - fellow homeschoolers...

We really couldn't tear ourselves away from these amazing creatures.

You see, Savannah - there is advantages of having been named for a flat, barren, grassland. Your name pops up on zoo signs!

And the lions. Savannah did Jake's hair that day.

I might have to splurge for an annual pass to the zoo, just for how much joy this place brought Clara. Finally, a place that captured her full attention. She loved every moment of it. Her favorite was the monkeys. She was so overwhelmed with emotion at seeing a real monkey, that she did not know what to do but to stand and sing with all of her might and devotion, "5 little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." It was a moment that only could only be rivaled by immigrants first setting their eyes on the Statue of Liberty.

If you have ever been to the Boise Zoo with a camera, chances are you have this same picture of your child in a photo album someplace.

The penguins were seriously confusing for Clara. She kept saying, "Birdy!" Then, "Fishy!" over and over again. I know Clara, it baffles the best of us. They're just, you know. Penguins.

I have decided to start having my children suck on outdoor handrails at public places to boost their immune systems. I'll let you know how it goes.

So that's our month - thanks for reading till the end - I will post again as soon as I get caught up on reading everyone else's blogs!