No Louder Than Lovely

Summer is officially in full swing. And I have to be honest -- it's going a lot better than I thought it would be going! Here is what has been on the docket so far:

First up? A little object lesson. I did this last time around when I was pregnant with Jane, and I think the kids needed a little reminder. To illustrate the difficulties of a pregnant mom having to bend over and pick up after their messes all day long, I had the kids strap on a back pack backwards and filled it with 5-10 pounds worth of flour and sugar. Then I dumped out a ton of toys all over the floor and made them clean it up. It was hilarious. And hopefully insightful for them as well. Hahahaha.

Apparently this exercise really wore Grace out.

Next up? Some of our summer time activities thus far. As soon as school let out we had a little discussion about what the schedule would be for the next few months. After rebutting Ethan over and over and over again that I would NOT be making them clean "for like 5 hours every single day" and that I would NOT be "making" them have a "boring" summer "on purpose" -- we managed to hammer out a contract of sorts. In THEORY, the kids owe me their daily chores (a rotation between the Kitchen, Family Room, and Living Room), an hour at the gym in the morning, and quiet reading time for an hour in the afternoon while Jane is napping so I can have some peace and quiet. In exchange, they get to watch TV, play the Wii, swim at the pool, go on a weekly "field trip," play at the park, invite friends to play, and get the occasional treat during the remainder of the day -- although not all at the same time, of course. I happen to think they're getting a pretty sweet deal. Especially since they don't always do their chores, we don't get to the gym every day, and they (specifically GRACE) convince me more often than not to skip the quiet reading time and head straight down to the basement to watch a movie so that the baby will stay asleep. All in all, the summer is going MUCH better than I thought it would.

A couple of things I did at the beginning of the summer that helped was to take the kids to Target where I let them each pick out a bucket to fill with art supplies and a canvas bin to become their "book box" to keep all their library books and summer reading "passports" in. The art buckets have come in handy for the various "projects" they like to do -- and I love that they each have their own stash of stuff and they know that they have to take care of it because I will not be replacing ANYTHING in it until next summer. The book boxes have also come in handy, although the "passports" have now become obsolete due to the fact that my kids finished all three levels of the library's summer reading program in the first week and a half of summer vacation. Apparently the library has limited prizes this summer, so they can't just do the program over and over again. Hmmmm.

Ethan's Art Bucket

Ethan's Book Box

Without any kind of incentive to continue reading for the rest of the summer, I took matters into my own hand and created our OWN summer reading program based loosely on the library's. For every book OR 20 minute time slot that they read they can fill out a bubble. After all 12 bubbles are filled they finish that level and can get a "prize."

Prize list

At first Grace was really gung ho and finished like 3 levels in one day. Then I told her she couldn't re-read the same board books over and over again to let them count. And then I discovered she was just writing down books on her "passport" without actually reading them and I told her that wasn't going to work either. And ever since THEN, she hasn't really had much to do with our little Reading Club. Hahahaha. Ethan on the other hand -- being the check-list-oriented kid that he is -- has taken it upon himself to read every Geronimo Stilton book that is available while completing all 12 levels of our program. He's already on Level 6. I'm pretty sure he's going to be the only one to make it all the way.

"Reward Coupon"

Other than those festivities we've been filling our days with lots and lots of freezie pops, outings to the pool, and dodging all the cicadas that have been swarming our neck of the woods for the past month -- although thank goodness they are all finally GONE because Sophie is a freak out queen especially when it comes to any kind of bug.

Father's Day snuck up on us a bit this year. I kind of felt really terribly because I really had nothing planned and had kind of forgotten about it until the day before! Scott had been out of town for the past few days and we decided to head over to Indiana to visit Kristin and company while he was away. I'll just put the blame for my lack of planning anything special on the craziness of the week! Driving for almost 5 hours while 7 1/2 months pregnant with 4 children under the age of 8 is not for the faint of heart. Hahahaha. Nevertheless, the kids had a BLAST with their cousins and even I had fun despite my complete and total exhaustion from dealing with a melting down Grace at bedtime almost every night and multiple middle of the night awakenings from Jane who was sharing the room with me -- all without Scott there to help me.

We got back on Saturday afternoon, and after thinking of possible last minute ideas on the drive home, I decided that the best we could come up with for poor Scott was a breakfast of bacon and some handmade cards from the kids. Pitiful, right? Luckily for me, the kids did some planning on their own, and when I came downstairs on Sunday morning, THIS was the picture I saw:



They had dug out this kids cookbook that they got for Christmas and found a "recipe" for lemonade that they thought would be perfect for dad's special day. Hahahaha. I had to help a little with the tweaking because they decided it would be good to double the amount of lemon juice in the mixture without doubling anything else.

Apparently Sophie needs to learn proper behavior for her Food Handler's Permit. Hahahaha.

In the end, the lemonade was still a bit tart, but overall pretty good. Which was a good thing, because I managed to completely burn the whole pack of bacon that I was attempting to make while getting the kids to make Scott their cards. :( Multi-tasking is not always the best bet. Fortunately, there was a back up pack of bacon to cook up, but UNfortunately, Scott barely had time to eat before he had to leave for church meetings. He did have time to read the kids' cards, which I thought ended up being pretty funny. I googled "Father's Day questionnaire" and found a bunch of questions to have the kids fill out about Scott. Some of their answers were truly hilarious. Here they are:

Ethan's answers


Grace's answers


Sophie's answers


Before Scott had to dash off for his meetings.

The pathetic-ness continued with dinner that night -- chicken nuggets, carrots, and applesauce -- but fortunately Primary always comes through in the clutch and creates something cute for the kids to give to their dads. They each came home with a "bowtie" made out of a bag of M&Ms, with a little Get to Know You game to go along with the candy. It was actually a lot of fun to play as a family that evening as we asked questions and got to hear what everyone's answers were. In case you were wondering, Ethan's favorite color is orange, Grace is an "indoor" person, and Sophie's favorite food is chicken nuggets. The funniest question of all was the one we ended on which Scott picked and asked "what do you want to know about me?" Sophie's response? "Who is your favorite child?" Hahahahahaha. Fun times.

"Dinner"


Grace modeling the "bowtie"

The M&M Game

Following closely on the heels of the Father's Day debacle was preparation for Ethan's 8th Birthday and Baptism! I wanted to do something special for the big day, so a few months ago I decided to make him a quilt to commemorate the occasion. A couple of years ago, there was a talk given in the General Conference of our church that was called "Helping Others Recognize the Whisperings of the Spirit." In Sister Matsumori's address, she talked about a Primary teacher who had "wrapped each of her class members one by one in a blanket to teach them how the Spirit feels like the comfort and security of that covering." I loved the imagery of this, and decided that making him his own special quilt would be a perfect and tangible symbol for him of his baptismal covenant -- part of which is to comfort those that stand in need of comfort -- and of his receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, which can help him to feel peace and comfort as well.

I used my awesome Quilting Bee members to help out in making this "Flying Geese" quilt for Ethan and I LOVE the way it turned out. In a special Family Home Evening last week, Scott taught the lesson on the Holy Ghost and then used Sister Matsumori's example and took each kid and gave them a turn to be wrapped in a blanket and held close. I have to say that watching the sweet innocence and purity in their faces as they were hugged and looked so happy and loved brought tears to my eyes. Even though they all drive me nuts almost daily, I love them so much and I'm so glad they're MINE. What sweet little angels they really are.

I was SO glad that Ethan loved the quilt as much as I hoped he would. He's been sleeping with it every night and looked so happy when I gave it to him that it made it all worth it!

Rolled up and tied with a bow -- waiting to be given to Ethan.

I couldn't resist this ribbon -- I thought the subtle polka dot was just too cute and it was in Ethan's favorite color so I just had to buy a couple of yards!

His face says it all -- don't you think? :)

He was lucky enough to be baptized on his actual birthday and even more lucky to have family come in town for the big event! Scott's parents flew in the night before, and Kristin drove down with Ben, Hannah, Jonah. The one thing Ethan really wanted for the baptism was to have "CTR" sugar cookies like the ones at a Fireside we attended at the beginning of this year. After looking EVERYWHERE for a cookie cutter in this shape and having no luck at all, I was just about to give up when I found this link. And then I proceeded to make my OWN cookie cutter using a tin can and pliers. And yes, it is as difficult as it sounds. I almost gave up several times, but in the end where there's a will there's a way!




Hopefully, this will not be rust-laden by the time Grace's baptism rolls around next November, because I don't know if I have the patience to ever attempt this again! As it is, making sugar cookies alone is a labor of love. I used the recipe that was linked in the blog post above, and I've discovered that it is the same recipe from the website Our Best Bites. And for the record -- they were DELICIOUS. The absolute perfectly flavored and textured sugar cookie in my book. And even though I'm a buttercream frosting kind of gal myself, the glace icing still tasted pretty good, too, and I wasn't the only one who thought so. Grace ate 4 of them herself at the baptism. The only variation I made to the recipe was to use BOTH vanilla and almond extract rather than just one or the other.

The icing -- "leaf green" concentrated food color gel from Wilton(s?) (I got it at JoAnn's and they come in little jars.)



Waiting for letters.




"CTR" -- Choose the Right


I doubled the recipe in order to make this many -- a few are missing that I had to test out, of course...

They were kind of a pain to make, took a TON of time, and were a bit trickier to ice than I thought they would be, but in the end I'm glad I made them because they were such a hit.

The baptism itself was a lovely event, and I was so proud of how seriously Ethan took everything. We were so blessed to have friends and family there with us! One other special thing we did was to let Ethan pick out a tie and a matching one for Scott to wear on the big day. Surprise, surprise he picked an orange one and even though it's a bit loud for Scott's personal taste, I love the little bond it gave them.

The obligatory Family Photo op.

Enjoying some refreshments.


Singing "Christmas carols" in the gym after the service was over.


Picture Time!


Grandma, Grandpa, and Ethan.




Best Friends and Cousins.

And THAT was that! Luckily, Ethan has agreed to postpone a "real" birthday party until after the 4th of July, but we couldn't let his actual birthday go by without opening some presents. Of course, he had already been spoiled enough by FOUR packages from my dad (one of which contained a balloon-animal-making kit which has resulted in my becoming a semi-professional balloon artist in the kids' eyes), but we wanted to give him something as well. He REALLY wanted to get his own set of scriptures so that's what we got him. And believe it or not he was really excited to open them.

And a new shirt from Grandma and Grandpa in...ORANGE!

So, that brings us to the end of the month. Whew! I'm tired just from typing everything out. Summer is almost halfway over and Baby Alex will be here in 7 weeks (or less -- hopefully)! We'll be seeing Kristin's family again for the 4th of July and then after that we will have company for almost all of July! My sister Emily is coming to visit with little Pearce (yay!) and my mom is driving out to see us with Amy and Freddie, so we will be having another fun-filled month of summer ahead of us -- aren't you so jealous??? Hahahaha. If you have stayed with this post for this long you win an award. Seriously. Goodnight everyone and have a pleasant tomorrow!

May Day, May Day

Wow! This month has flown by. May was packed with all kinds of stuff. Most of it was rather routine and not all that interesting for a blog-reading public, but hey that's life! The main events of the month included Mother's Day, LOTS of yard work and weeding, Scott out of town on two separate occasions, more sick kids, quite a few visits to the dentist for Grace to get her teeth fixed, and plenty of festivities in between.

Let's kick it off with Mother's Day. My facebook status for the day read: "Jessica is having possibly the best mother's day ever." My younger sister questioned, "why?" and I'll fill you in on a little secret -- zero expectations. Hahahaha. No seriously. When you expect nothing you can only be pleasantly surprised when the following sweet and adorable little things happen:

Mother's Day Tea

Grace's class put on a "Mother's Day Tea" for all the moms in the class. Grace had been telling me about it for weeks to make sure that I could attend and also to make sure that I found a baby-sitter for Jane and Sophie since I couldn't have them with me for it. This happened to be during a week that Scott was out of town and even though I was totally overwhelmed and burned out from taking care of the kids by myself that week, I laughed my head off when I saw what Grace wore to bed the night before the big day:


Hahahahahahaha. The whole evening before she kept telling me that her outfit for the Tea was supposed to be a surprise and she didn't want me to see what she was wearing. Apparently she was so concerned the surprise would be ruined that she dressed in her party dress for bed and then covered it up with a (fleece-lined) raincoat on top and a blanket tied around the bottom so I wouldn't be able to see it at all. When I checked on her before going to bed myself that night I found her lying in a pool of sweat soundly asleep in the above get-up. After laughing and calling Scott to try and explain what the nutcase had done, I gingerly tried to peel off the raincoat so she wouldn't die from overheating during the night. She woke up in the process, wanted some water, and then laid back down before she realized that her coat was off and that I had seen her party dress. After a brief freak out (which I worried would last MUCH longer than it did) she fell back asleep and was perfectly fine in the morning. She almost forgot all about it but then remembered at the last minute and started freaking out again. Luckily she bought my story that I can't really see when I have my glasses on at night (which is partially true) and that I didn't get a good look at her outfit then.

Getting our pink lemonade in her Fancy clothes.

The Tea was adorable. Every single kid had dressed up in "fancy clothes" -- even the boys were wearing shirts and ties or polo shirts -- and there was pink lemonade and cookies to enjoy. The kids helped to make all these watercolor flowers for the centerpieces and wrote a story about their mom to present to us along with a poster with a poem and their handprints. All so cute!















Unfortunately, I have no idea what Grace has done with my story and I didn't get pictures of it before it was lost. I do remember thinking it was really funny when I read it to see the things that Grace thinks about her mom. Such as the fact that I'm sweet! (Who knew?) And that my favorite thing is: babies! Hahahaha. Hopefully I'll be able to find it so I can put it in her box of memorabilia.

Mother's Day

In another lovely Mother's Day surprise, the kids and Scott let me sleep in and Ethan and Sophie brought me breakfast in bed -- orange juice and oatmeal that Ethan had made (that was quite heavy on the cinnamon) -- and after a little hinting from me (or a lot as the case may be), Scott called his mom to get her recipe for blueberry muffins to make for me for Mother's Day. They are SO good, and Scott surprised himself I think with how adept he was at making them. If I had the recipe handy I'd post it, but I'm too lazy to go track it down right now. Sorry!

(the lighting in our house is terrible -- so excuse the poor quality of the picture)

Along with abnormally good behavior from the kids during church on that Sunday, my other Mother's Day present was a trip to the flower nursery the day before to pick out some plants for our yard. The previous week I had done my best to "make hay while the sun was shining" and weeded the majority of the yard. In between a few rain and thunderstorms I managed to get the job mostly done so that we could mulch and plant some flowers once Scott was back in town. The kids were excited to help pick out the flowers and I was happy to finally have a little color in our yard!









And that my friends is what contributed to the best Mother's Day ever!


A Quilting Bee (or two)

Another festivity occupying the month of May was the excitement of receiving a bunch of blocks in the mail from the new Quilting Bee I started a couple of months ago! I decided to make a quilt with variations of "flying geese" on it to make for Ethan's baptism next month. I am so excited with how it is turning out and now all I have left to do is quilt it before the end of next month. So, I guess I know how I'll be spending every spare moment of my life for the next little while...

Here are the blocks for the quilt top on my awesome new design wall that I made following this tutorial.

And all ready to quilt!

Also this past month I made a baby quilt for a friend who is having a little girl next month. I'm hosting her shower this week, and I managed to get the quilt finished just in time. I really love the way it turned out and it's going to be a little hard to part with it!











Field Day

The end of the school year rapidly approached us and during the last week of school the kids had their Field Day. Luckily the weather cooperated (just the day before were massive thunderstorms and the day after had several tornado warnings) and the kids had a BLAST -- even though I'm sure the teachers and parent volunteers were dying in the heat.

A little water relay going on...

And apparently we need to work with Grace on her catching skills before next year's balloon toss.

This was some type of relay to pick up circles on the ground that had money amounts on the back. Whichever team collected the most "money" at the end was the winner. I'm pretty sure Ethan was a huge fan of this kind of game. Hahahaha.

Last Day of School

I never know what to get teachers for an end of the year gift, but this year I found a fun idea online to have the kids paint a pot and put some flowers in it. Grace especially was super excited for this plan and Sophie wanted to get in on the fun. Ethan was not so happy and kept saying what a terrible artist he was, but in the end I think he was pleased with his final product. I also included a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory in their thank you card and hopefully that is enough to let them know how much we LOVED them this year. Ethan and Grace seriously had the best teachers I could have asked for. I was so worried about Grace starting school this year with the various behavior issues I know she is capable of. Thank goodness she ADORED her teacher and would have done just about anything for her. Ethan's teacher was also fantastic and really helped him to grow this year as well. All in all, I have been so pleased with the school the kids go to.

I love Grace's looks of utter concentration.

Sophie was super into it as well.

The finished products.

Excited for the last day of school.

Ethan and Miss Marshall

Grace and Mrs. Solovic

Fun with Family

Also making the last week of school memorable was the arrival of my sister Amy and my brother Freddie (who the kids call Uncle DoDo). Freddie just graduated from BYU and was driving back home to New Orleans and decided to make a little pit stop and visit us. My mom surprised Amy with a ticket out here so she could hang out, have fun with us, and help Freddie drive the last leg of the journey home. The kids were in heaven having them here to play with and I ALWAYS love company. Especially when it's my little brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, the week passed by WAY too quickly and before we knew it, it was time for them to leave on Saturday. :(

Superfluous shot of the Sugar Pop.

And that pretty much brings us to now. Today was Memorial Day and sadly I have no pictures to show for it. We had a jam-packed morning crashing another ward's Fun Run, (thanks Natalie for inviting us!) and then heading back home to clean up the basement (which was a disaster area) in order to be able to go to our friend's house for a barbecue this evening.

The Fun Run was fun, and even though there were a few tears -- Grace was upset she didn't win a ribbon like Ethan and Sophie (who both won 2nd place in their age groups for the 1 mile and 1/2 mile respectively) -- it was still an altogether enjoyable experience and we just might crash it next year as well!

For a general run-down on the family this month here is a brief recap:

Ethan
* Started piano lessons! (He's happy, and I'm happy because I found him a teacher who lives across the street and since she's only a teenager I'm getting the lessons for super cheap! Her mom used to teach piano so I'm assuming she's getting a little mentoring from her).

* Was invited to audition for a local Children's Chorale! Hahahaha. I guess all his singing at the top of his lungs at bedtime is paying off because he made it in and now we just need to decide if it is worth spending a whole bunch of money for him to have this "opportunity."

* Is experiencing quite a few growing pains. Mostly at my expense. Let's just say we're having problems once again due to his "spiritedness." I'm really hoping this is just a phase and soon enough he will snap out of this super argumentative, disrespectful, and frustrating stage of his life!

Grace
* Needed not 1, not 2, not even 3, but FOUR teeth crowned this past month! Apparently she has really weak teeth. Either that or she's not really brushing or flossing as well as she should. I've begun to threaten her that she'll have to pay for her own dental bills if she doesn't start doing a better job.

* Has lost yet another front tooth! Although not in the most ideal way. While "doing gymnastics" on the furniture in the living room -- which they're NOT supposed to be doing -- she fell FLAT on her face knocking out her tooth and giving herself a HUGE goose egg on her forehead just in time for the last days of school. The tooth fairy took pity on her sad situation and left her 2 whole dollars.

* Has learned a new vocabulary word as evidenced in the following conversation:
Grace: Mom! Sophie's gloating! She's going like this. [bobbing her head around with a smirky smile on her face]
Sophie [with tears in her voice]: I'm not gloating I'm just happy!

Sophie
* Has definitively qualified for speech therapy for next year through the school district. I can't say I'm surprised seeing as to how she has many a speech impediment.

* Is already worrying about starting Kindergarten because she's afraid she won't know how to read and write everything. I think I managed to assure her that it's not necessary to know how to do all those things yet, but we'll see. There's still plenty of time left before she starts school for her to worry about something else.

* Has become quite freaked out about death. On a regular basis she informs us with panic in her voice that she doesn't want to die. Hmmmm. I'm not quite sure why this is such a big worry for her, but it's kind of hilarious how often she brings it up in a completely non-sequitur kind of way. On a semi-related note Sophie and Grace have the most interesting conversations. Here is another one from a few months ago, when Sophie first started freaking out about dying.
Sophie [kind of out of nowhere]: I don't want to die!!!
Grace [trying to console her]: Well, after you die you get to be resurrected and then you'll never have to die again.
Sophie [in even more panic]: I don't want to die!!!
Grace: Don't worry. You'll get used to it when you're older.

Jane
* Has become a little runaway. Any opening she sees and she is GONE. This girl is crazy! And hilarious. And adorable. All wrapped into one. She is eerily following Grace's personality trajectory.

* Is still a Danger Girl. She is a little too fearless when it comes to things like slides and playground equipment in general. Luckily her favorite thing to do at the park is swing and swing and swing which rarely has the potential to get her hurt.

* Still does not talk very much at all. She HAS figured out the difference between nodding her head yes and shaking it no -- so that has helped tremendously in our communication efforts. But other than that, it's a lot of guess work to understand what she's trying to tell us. She's really good at "b" sounds and "s" sounds and she can even throw in a "d" or "g" sound but other than that she can't really say much. It's such a difference from the the chatterboxes that were Sophie and Grace, but I just keep telling myself that Ethan was the same way. I don't think he spoke in real sentences until he was almost 3.

Scott
* Just about killed himself running the 5K at the Fun Run this morning. Apparently running 3.1 miles when you haven't legitimately run in a couple of years in not a very good idea. Who knew that peer pressure from Ethan could have such an effect? Hahahahahaha.

And then there's ME
* I'm trying my hardest to survive the last 3 months of this pregnancy and even harder to have a positive attitude about the summer vacation that is now upon us. I'm mostly just hoping that I can handle having all four kids home all day long for the next 12 weeks. And yes, I just might have a countdown going until school starts again. Hahahaha.

And that's all folks. It is way too late, and tomorrow starts day 1 of my new reality -- Summer, summer, summer...