Change

We have loved living in student housing, but there is one major drawback - neighbors are temporary and people move on (I will not get into management issues here). Graduation is such an accomplishment and really a thing to be celebrated, but it means packing up and leaving for a new home, often in a new state. We recently had a family of good friends leave for Utah, and today another family left for Tennessee. It is so sad to see these people leave and wonder when we will ever see them again. I do love how the community pulls together to help out with moves though. This morning I found myself alone in a two bedroom apartment (under 700 square feet) with TWELVE kids five and under. There was a good team of moms over in the empty apartment getting the cleaning done though!

Here are all twelve in a crummy picture taken by my phone. Yes, Mum, I'll take that iPhone 3 now.

Here is a higher quality picture of the nine older kids, pilfered from my friend's blog.

And here are the three sweet babies, all about a month apart in age. All also teething.
(Sorry to those who also read Reianna's blog - I might just be copying everything she says.)

 And the potluck celebrating Editt and her family was wonderful too. I do love to see all the little kids together.

This is a picture of me taking a picture of the kid table + Christine. I was not aware at the time that Joseph had the camera with him.

And here's the group, all together.

 We love student housing and the friends we've made here. It's going to be a tough summer with all the move-outs though.

Monkey See, Monkey B flat

The ward choir recently sang another piece we had been preparing: "Joy in the Morning" by Natalie Sleeth. It's one of our favorite pieces and the choir sang wonderfully (although the end of the piece leaves you wondering if you should applaud which is not quite what we're going for in sacrament meeting music). Since Emily and Caleb have to hang around with us during rehearsals, we'll often hear them singing snatches of choir songs. Sunday evening, Emily implored to use my tripod (which doesn't work very well as a tripod ever since they damaged several parts while using it in their games). Here's what she produced:

And, of course, when Emily leads, Caleb follows.

The dynamic between those two is funny. Lately, if Emily goes down for a nap and Caleb stays up, Caleb has a great time and plays inventively whereas if Emily is awake, he watches her and tries to keep up. This is not really a problem. Thankfully, Emily is almost always a good example and even goes out of her way to coach Caleb. Although Caleb's not in primary yet, he followed Emily up to the podium to sing for the congregation on Father's day. He kept his eyes on her and sang along the whole time with all of the appropriate cute actions, "Pat his cheek and give him what? A great big kiss." Sometimes though, Emily uses Caleb as a pawn to test the waters or avoid getting into trouble herself (brings back memories of my brother pushing me down the stairs in a box to see if it makes a good musical magic roller-coaster ride--cartoons do influence children).  Other times, Caleb may not be amenable to her instructions and then we get a bossy Emily vs. recalcitrant Caleb showdown. That's not pretty. Also, unfortunately, when Caleb goes down for a nap and Emily stays up, she has no idea what to do with herself.

Caleb's Escapades

Caleb is a boy. He's a boy through and through. The other day I left him with a friend for an hour and a half and when I got back to pick him up his shorts were torn. And not just torn - shredded to ribbons. I'm talking Michael Jackson's Thriller zombie type clothing.

The boy did his work thoroughly. But, you know, it's all in a day's work for a two-year-old.
I plugged my phone in to retrieve the picture I had snapped of him in the shredded shorts* and I noticed that destruction and mayhem was sort of the theme in pictures of Caleb.

I was sitting in the park behind our apartment one day when Caleb came running outside to me crying, "Oops! Uh oh! Oops!" So I hurried inside, unsure of whether or not I really wanted to investigate.

That's a laundry detergent cup he was attempting to drink out of. And no, we don't usually let him pour his own milk.

I thought this picture was also a gem. It pretty well sums up Caleb's character:

Just a typical day playing at the park.

Here he is in the hospital visiting me and Elinor after a day of being passed around the neighborhood.

The giant bump on his forehead and scrape on his lip were not there when we left him at 5 am that morning (I am not trying to imply that my wonderful neighbors were neglectful in any way - I am really so grateful to them for their service - stuff like this is just unavoidable with Caleb sometimes).

And I have posted this before, but I have to include the major injury in his life in a post spotlighting Caleb's inclination to live life on the edge.

We do love our tough little Caleb. It's a good thing if he takes it upon himself to teach the resident nursery bully a lesson, right? ... right?

Seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do with this kid. He is everything I imagined a little boy would be and I have no idea how to handle that. I am mostly planning on him growing out of this.

*Technical difficulties here. Picture coming soon.

Not Just an Athlete

Ellie doesn't really go out for competitive team sports, but that doesn't mean she's not athletic.  She hasn't been very interested in getting up and going places because there's always so much to see and do where she is, but that doesn't mean she's not talented.  The girl has some special abilities to show off when it suits her.

She also knows a little kung-fu.

 

And she shoots out a heat ray that seems to melt hearts.

She has three bottom teeth, but no top teeth.  She fits in perfect with our nutty family.

Come Along to the Land of Obey

I just stumbled across this:

from Brite Music.  It's the Standin' Tall collection!  At $140 for the downloadable set, I won't be getting it any time soon, but, ah the memories.  I still regularly break into song with,
"Mister Robinson, Mister Robinson! What a horrible mess.
I broke your window with my ball, and I've come to confess.
You knew I'd be angry?  Yes.  Aren't you afraid?  Yes!
You'll have to pay for the mess you've made.
But I'm proud of you child for you have displayed,  
Honor, the stuff from which heroes are made.
I told the truuuuuuuuth!"

I think I could probably quote the entire "Honor" album from memory and make my own .mp3 track.  I do the voices and everything, but it wouldn't be the same.  I think I could do the "Dependability", "Obedience", and "Happiness" too: "How many steps to the top of the tower, huff and puff, huff and puff...  No one can give me anything for my birthday, I have EVERYTHING [sob]."  I remember "Self-esteem" and "Work" alright.  "Cleanliness" kind of creeped me out.

It's funny how well I remember them.  I don't know if they influenced my behavior at all (maybe it's because of the creepy "Cleanliness" cassette that I didn't start showering daily until 9th grade), but I sure enjoyed them and thoroughly absorbed them.  Although, back then, I absorbed almost everything.  I also find myself singing the songs from the "Bounce Back" cassette as well as obscure and bizarre music on Dr. Demento's radio show that Jared and I listened to at midnight on the weekends when we could get away with it.  Perhaps we'll find way to get them for the kids one of these days.

Laundry Time

About ten years ago, I was helping some friends move some things.  They had been married for a few months now and had recently bought a washer and dryer together.  They mentioned that someone had suggested that they were taking a big risk making such a big purchase together.  The shared ownership meant that they would really need to be committed to each other or else things could get ugly.

Well, after nearly seven years of marriage and three children, we finally decided that now we're really going to commit to making this work.  So we bought a washer and dryer.  They were used.  They were off Craigslist.  We pulled the seats out of our van and drove up to Round Rock to get them.

I'm not going to post a picture of them.  They look like a used washer and dryer.  We're hoping the convenience and savings over the laundromat will make up the cost of the machines.  We drove both cars to pick them up so that we could stop by that big store up there. 

We wandered for a while, but it was getting close to nap time.

 Fortunately, that wasn't a problem.  It was also close to lunch time.  The only trouble there was that they only had caffeinated soda.  So we  drank Lingonberry juice.  It tasted kind of like diluted cranberries.

We all had a good time.

Now we need to rethink our laundry strategy.  Instead of letting dirty clothes pile up until they threaten to swallow us whole, we can wash clothes one load at a time.

This is a pair of cute babies.

Woman to Woman

I was sitting down to lunch with the kids when Emily suddenly got a very contemplative look on her face.
"Mama," she said musingly, "I want to marry Eric but he doesn't really want to marry me. How can I make him want to marry me?"
I told her she had to be really nice to him so he would like her again.
"And if he likes me again he will want to marry me?"
I told her maybe, when she and Eric are grown up. I might have also told her to play a little hard-to-get. You know, to give her a head start in the game. :) Okay, so not really for that reason. Mostly because she ends up chasing Eric around the playground or primary room, wanting to sit right next to him and then he gets frustrated with her.
I never thought this sort of conversation would come so early.

Also, on a totally unrelated note, we went to Hamilton Pool today with some friends. I actually stole this picture off one of their blogs (thanks Jen!). I was nervous to go with three kids and no Joseph, but it ended up being fun and Caleb only almost drowned twice (thanks again Jen!).

Domestic Diva

Since she was just a wee thing, barely able to walk, Emily has loved to prepare imaginary meals for us. She often coerces us into playing along with her tea parties and it gives her great satisfaction to see a pretend meal consumed with gusto.
Yesterday I decided to put this little domestic diva to work. Under my supervision, she managed to put together a pan of cheese stuffed shells and red sauce with minimal damage to the kitchen. It actually turned out really well and she was telling the truth when she announced to Joseph that she had made dinner for the family. And then we didn't have to pretend to enjoy her pretend food - we could actually really eat it!
Today Emily made some rolls for dinner while I made the soup. Since there was no kneading involved (we used the KitchenAid), she was able to do most of it on her own. She loved it.

Here she is rolling out the dough.

  Then she donned an apron to brush butter onto it.

 And finally, after all that work, the Little Red Hen had the privilege of sampling the first roll hot out of the oven.

Afterward, when we retired to the living room to relax, she dictated a few recipes for me to write into her recipe book. Here is the new addition for today:

All the things that bread needs:
Put yeast and flour and water in the bowl. Turn on the mixer. Put in more flour. Add oil and salt and sugar. Roll the dough into a circle. Brush on melted butter. Roll the dough up and let it rest for a little while. Put it in the oven.
Make some orange juice too [we did this while the bread was rising]. Put the stuck-together orange juice in. We still need some water to make it bigger. Mix it up.

And, voila! There's your delicious bread and juice afternoon snack!