Clean and Pure

She's 8 years old!  How crazy is that?  It's seems like both yesterday and a thousand years ago that I welcomed my first tiny miracle to this world, and she's gotten so big, now.

We took pictures to celebrate such an important birthday.

Today was her baptism.  She looked so beautiful, all dressed in white with her Daddy by her side.

When we got home she opened one more set of presents--brand new scriptures and a case to keep them in.

Girls...

It's odd how life works out, sometimes.  I caught this picture of Elena and Lucy at Elena's baptism, today...

...because of this one from my niece's baptism, 8 years ago.

It's the same dress, one of only 3 or 4 dresses to survive the fire because they'd never gotten put away properly.

For the sake of comparison, here are better close-ups.

Ladybugs!

Elena started planning this party as soon as we got done with Joseph's pirate party, two years ago.  I haven't been ready for it, though.  I was pregnant and nauseous for both those birthdays.  This year I got things together.  We made flower hair clips, though I didn't get pictures.  We played Pin The Ladybug on the Picnic.

We ate aphids on a log and flower sandwiches on a picnic blanket.

Daddy made another one of his famous piñatas.

We found an actual ladybug in the grass.

And we ate yummy cupcakes.  I'm really happy with how they came out.

Thank you to everyone who could make it out, we were so happy to have you here.

Beginnings of Birthday Fun

James turned 4!  After Joseph and Grant's birthdays he's got this down.  He knew all about what to do with presents and candles.  It's the first time I've seen him excited about something somewhat abstract.

Boys...

This from a visit to the New Braunfels children's museum.  I don't usually get pictures of the boys without them being blurry from too many wiggles or an akward zoom and crop from a self-portrait.

Lucita, Mi Gordita

I have a chubby monkey.  And I love it.

She got the nickname from the Riverside sisters who love to coo over her at every opportunity.  (The Spanish-speaking ward meets in our building.)  It's funny seeing them saying "Ai!  La Gorda!" to her.

That means she gets to hear three different languages on a regular basis, though.  (Jonathan's teaching himself French by reading Le Livre de Mormon.)   Hopefully this will make her well-rounded in more ways than the obvious one.

A Story of Perseverance

 As told through pictures...

(Disclaimer: These pictures are from mid-July, so, you know, they're like half a lifetime ago.)

Back on Schedule

It's school time! 

 The kids have been giddy with excitement and now it's finally here.

There were some bumpy parts, getting classes and teachers worked out.  Joseph was originally put in a Spanish class, but switched because he doesn't speak Spanish.  Then he got put back in the Spanish class and had to be switched again.  In the end, he's in a dual-language class, so he'll learn some Spanish after all.

Elena had a teacher, but got moved to make room for all the new kids, but that teacher wasn't G/T certified and Elena really needs a G/T teacher so she got switched back.  When we got to school, on Monday, we had to find out which of the three possible teachers she'd be with.  I'm glad we talked with all of them at Meet the Teacher, last week, so we already knew what to expect and she could walk right in and get settled.

 It's so nice to have my days on a schedule, again.  I know when I need to get up, when I can run errands, when to have dinner ready, and when we all need to be in bed.  Sometimes, things get hectic, but I know what's going on and I feel like I've got a handle on things.

And none of that would be possible without this:

 Right before school started (seriously--Saturday or Sunday night) Lucy decided that it would be OK if she settled down to sleep at 10 or 11pm, instead of the 1 or 2am that she'd been doing all summer.  With that, she also started sleeping through the night, most nights, then wakes up for a light breakfast and goes back to sleep.

 

 I have gotten mountains of laundry washed, folded and put away, the last two mornings.  I feel so productive for the first time in months.


Why laundry?  Well, 1: the kids were out of not-school clothes, and 2: since the house is relatively empty I decided to just stick James in underpants, apply lots of juice, hang out in the bathroom all day, and deal with whatever laundry results.  It's past time and it just needs to be done.  He kept asking for a diaper, the first day, but after his initial frustration of having Mom say No has resigned himself.  He does pretty well if he's naked, which is what did the trick for Joseph, so we'll see.

Mom Called it First

I think we have a lefty.

My mom called it three years ago, when she saw him holding his bottle.  Congratulations, Mom, you win a prize!

(I have no idea why Elena is so excited about this but she is.  Ridiculously, giddily excited.)

Bluebeard ...and Blackbeard

I'm not sure how we managed to avoid it for so long.  Sure Joseph had been there, but that's Joseph and it wasn't in the "right" place anyway.  I guess it was just time and we'd avoided it long enough.

Two split chins, on two children, with two sets of stitches, in one month.

James slipped while climbing the couch, at the end of July.

Elena bounced off a bigger kid and into a pole at the splashpad, last week.

First 4th

It's your birthday, America?  Mine too!  I'm one month old, today.

I Swear! Other Stuff Happened, Too!

I've been a bit absent, the last couple months.  The late stages of pregnancy will do that.  Things happened, though, I promise.

I planted bulbs, and though only the paperwhites came up they were my favorites anyway.   One of then even bloomed!

We had the usual Easter party at my Mom's.  I missed having Dad there, especially with it being a new house and all.  So much change, but having family together will always be the same.

We colored and hunted our own eggs, at home.

The kids decided to film their own movie, a thrilling adaptation of Little Miss Muffet.  This would be one of the stills from the set.

The Aztex are back!  And we got tickets!  We've been to a couple games and it's always a good time.

We got a car, too.  It is a Mazda5, but not the one from the other post.  For $5k less we got 2 years newer, 50k less miles, leather seats and tinted windows.  Yeah.

A sunflower sprouted up in our back yard, fell over, then produced blossoms all up the length of the stem.  There's probably 100 or more flowers on it.

Joseph turned 6!  He asked for a square cake that was chocolate with chocolate and M&Ms.  He wore his Super Cape to the soccer game, too.

Yes, Lucy came two days later.  Several people asked me when I was due, at church.  I told them "Technically, a week and a half.  In all practicality, any day, now."  I was at that very moment having contractions that never actually went away.  Here she is at home, getting all settled in.

She makes the big kids (all 3 of them!) look enormous.

And finally, today, at about noon, Joseph lost his first tooth.  He's so excited!