Sinatra, eat your heart out.

These are some ol' blue eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*more shots to come from my little photo shoot with Mr. Gavin.

growing pains

Paige playing a piece at our Family Reunion variety show.

She's 8.

And good at it.

Clenches her fist in determination to wear gym shorts to school.

And to do her own hair.

Could be worse, I keep thinking.

Keeps her scatter-brained mother organized.

Just yesterday, replied to something or other with a thoughtful, "Touche." and it was an appropriate response at the time.

Yes, comedic timing.

Loves her brothers.

Hides from her brothers.

Singing and singing and singing....

and singing.

"Please, honey. Let's not sing at the dinner table."

1.7 minutes later

she reminds me the same thing.

{I think I'll change that rule.}

Wears scarves and bandanas and hats...

has her own sense of style.

Growing up too fast--

it's hard on me, hard on her.

Still wants to be tucked in

forever, I hope.

view from here

Later, after the balloon gave way to physics....

Wishing...

...that I was taking a stroll along this little path here.

...that milk still showed up at the door every morning in a lovely glass jar.

...that this room existed in my home.

...that helium never ran out.

...that I could listen to my parents speak this Sunday.

Oh, did I mention? They were called to the Canada Halifax Mission and report on Sep. 7th. And, yes, Prince Edward Island of Anne of Green Gables' fame is in their mission!

weirdlove

I dunno. Kinda poignant...

in a weird way...

Happy Haiku to you.

I have a crush on last year's anniversary post, but I wanted to convey some true romance this year for #10. And I think I heard somewhere that nothing says romance like a haiku*...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

steve (my husband's name

short for biblical Stephen)

endears me to him

when we made a vow

he promised to make me laugh

each day while we're alive

reminded to speak

with soft words in our fam'ly

by a man of God

del mar room service

danish with donny and m'rie

beach walks lots and lots of love

BYU marrieds

studio with green carpet

and a big hole in the door

fun driving the champ

sitting on the floor all year

livin on love sweet

he taught MTC

teaching in our blood

i taught second grade

villa maria

stolen bike teaching english

laundry up 2 flights

baby paige graced us

with pink and curls and joy

new parenting scares

time at grandma o's

valley of sun here we come

hot hot hot hot hot

a first house we built

preemie trevor boy
bedrest baby preston t

m & d o serve

islands a far they did go

we stayed in a vintage house

'nother boy ahead

lots of shots and TLC

here he comes but wait

must find a new home

gavin joins this family

six people live here

keeping out the world

loving teaching laugh and sing

letting in the light

we stand here now us

ten years of eternity

holding hands tightly

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* an non-rhyming poem using a syllabic pattern of 5-7-5.

We're going green.

I just bought a hybrid...

...fruit, that is.

I discovered this cross between a plum and an apricot.

A pluot.

And it's delicious and nutritious.

And our offspring can't get enough.

And they're currently on sale at our local market.

On my list:

• a full bag of pluots
• 3 gallons of skim milk
• 1 gallon of Vitamin D milk
• 1 gallon of 1% milk
  

{Not that milk and pluots accompany each other well, but I cringe to have a shortage of milk in our fridge--and our 2nd fridge--but that is another story.}

I even have a marketing slogan for the hybrid:

You-ot to try a pluot.

Post-edit: I've just learned that this delicious, mixed-up fruit goes by many names--Pluots, Plucots and Apriums. So, I guess Shakespeare still knows his metaphors, and "A {fruit} by any other name would {taste} as sweet." It's good, whatever you call it.

A dinner conversation.

Trevor: Mom, what is this?
Me: It's broccoli slaw.
Trevor: Oh...it tastes like wood.
Steve: Have you ever tasted wood before?
Trevor: (pause) I have now.

Just because...

...sometimes goggle-faced-sprinkler-water-drinking can be fun.

...sometimes it's about the journey. {Notice: Preston had black connect 4 long ago, but what's the fun in winning right away?}

...sometimes life at sea requires a lot of nautical decor.

...sometimes it's comical when corn starts randomly sprouting up in your front yard, thanks to a nearby obliging cornfield.

...sometimes when you have 4 kids, everyone has to pull their weight around the house.

celebrating the day that I made my debut upon this planet

Here we are, celebrating my debut at our favorite local restaurant, BJ's and enjoying their famed "Pizookie"

This is Gavin saying "cheese"

and this is Gavin who can't be bothered for he sees a ball on the TV screen above.

School Daze

Stats:

Paige

3rd grade

Mrs. S

Loves math, reading and horses

Trevor

Kindergarten

Mrs. G

Loves buddies, inventing, and green

Preston

Preschool

Mrs. C

Loves knights, pirates and the letter P

The first week back was a success with just a few mishaps:

* Paige's shoe broke on the first day

* Mommy went to the school to have lunch with 2 big kids and missed Paige's lunch altogether

* Mommy had anxiety about her kiddos making friends and being happy

* Trevor adores school, but collapsed physically (and emotionally) at the end of very-long-for-a-kindergartener-days

* Preston's cheeks exploded from smiling too much

* and Gavin felt quite beside himself with his older sibs gone.....

other than that, we are off to a strong start on week two!

Only 4 days left...

...for me to spend time with my kids before school starts.

This is why I am not a super-blogger lately.

I do want to post photos from our recent Utah family reunion...maybe tonight while they're snoozing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For fun, here is some reading that I've amused myself with this summer: