25 October 2009

Three cheers for Sophie who celebrated birthday #12 on Monday. We love our Sophie-- sensible and whimsical, playful and mature, smart, kind, generous. Sophie has a joyful heart and is delightful to spend time with.

Grandma Linda crocheted Sophie 2 afghans with the Young Women's colors for her birthday. Sophie likes them both. Twelve years old is such a milestone birthday. Sophie falls into a gap between ages of the girls in our ward, but the older girls have made her feel very welcome and she's enjoying the activities already.

Sophie got a new haircut with bangs this week. She took along a picture she drew so the stylist would know how long she wanted the bangs to be. The stylist did a good job of copying the drawing, even slipping clips into her hair to match.

This week marked the end of cross-country with the district championships. We left our small town and drove out to an absolutely tiny town in the middle of nowhere. We did enjoy the beautiful fall color as we drove through the countryside to the meet. Sophie had a great race. Her school won 2nd place for the girls and 3rd place for the boys. Sophie will miss the 8th graders, running with her friends and making treats now that cross-country is over, but she's looking forward to having more free time after school.

Here are two of Sophie's faithful fans. Abe mostly liked playing with his friend, Tate, at the meets. Helen liked watching the runners and cheering them on. Gibson was just along for the ride.

This may be the most beautiful fall we've had. We may say that every year. Earlier this week we noticed one bright red leaf on our vine maple tree.

Becky has been reading Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm to the kids at bedtime. It's a pioneer story, a genre we like, but a little more intense than the Little House books. We love the Finnish connection, too. May Amelia is enormously likeable, but better suited for kids 8 and up. Becky hadn't read it before and sometimes she has to edit on the fly while reading.

One final photo of Sophie. Brandan and Sophie went on a date to drive go-carts on Saturday. Looking at this photo reminds us that in 4 short years, Sophie will pass another milestone and be behind the wheel of a real car.

18 October 2009

We had our first Monday School field trip this week. We went to our local gourmet chocolatier. The big kids are studying cooking and we thought we'd start by sampling the best. This week the chocolate shop in town was named one of the top 10 chocolatiers in North America. The storefront has windows into the kitchen so you can watch chocolates being made. A clerk answered our questions and explained the equipment. Their basic chocolate is 70% Venezuelan cacao to which they add a wide variety of flavors and fillings. The photo shows the kids back at home with their chocolates. Each person picked out a truffle to try-- Abe had raspberry ganache, Zach-espresso, Sophie- Jamaican spice caramel (hints of orange and nutmeg), Rylee- blueberry and Italian balsamic cherry, Helen- blood orange ganache and Gibson had a Madagascar chocolate truffle. Everyone shared nibbles and slivers of their choice, except for Zach who had no takers and Gibson who ate his truffle in one quick swallow.

Helen likes reading to Gibson and he loves hearing his favorite ABC book being read. It's hard to tell what Helen reads and what she has memorized. She watches and learns so much from Sophie and Abe.

Becky started working on Halloween costumes this week. She looks forward to making costumes every year-- talking to the kids about what they want to be, looking at fabric, problem solving, searching Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul's for props-- all leading up to the biggest kid holiday of the year. We'll reveal the kids' costumes after the big day. Hopefully Helen, who is famously fickle, will choose just ONE thing to dress up as soon.

Brandan finally checkmated Abe in this game of chess, but Abe led him on a merry chase. Abe chortled with glee whenever he captured one of Brandan's pieces.

It was pretty hot in our house Saturday evening after the sun had shone through the windows all day with the air-conditioner turned off. Abe took a bath to cool off, but put his swimsuit on so it would seem more like swimming and less like an ice cold bath. He was having so much fun that Helen and Gibson wanted to join him.

11 October 2009

We've had perfect fall weather this week-- cool mornings and warm afternoons. It feels wonderful to be outside. Earlier this week we took our lunch to the park for an impromptu picnic. Gibson wanted to carry the lunchbox with all our lunches inside.

On Thursday mornings, Becky, Helen and Gibson head over to the church for Friendship Circle. Our ward hosts an impressive group of women who are quilting phenomena. The women come from all over our valley and meet every week to work on quilts for humanitarian needs. All of the materials are donated and the women pride themselves on piecing stunning quilts from the most unlikely donations. The pieced quilts are machine quilted and then given to a variety of shelters and missions. Any surplus is sent to Salt Lake City to the church's Humanitarian Aid projects. Becky only helps with pinning and ironing for a couple of hours while Helen and Gibson play in the gym and put on "shows" for the ladies.

Every week the women bring back any quilts they have finished. They hang the finished quilts up on the wall for everyone to admire, then the quilts are sorted according to size and purpose and packed away until there are enough for a delivery. This year the group has already made over 300 quilts. It's an inspiring work to witness.

On Saturday our family went to Helen's school to help move some planters and plant pansies for fall. Since it's a preschool, it has kid sized tools. Abe enjoyed wheeling this wheelbarrow of dirt and took the long way around to his destination.

We also did some work in our own yard. The west side of our house is a bit of a dead zone. It's very hot and has poor drainage so we've had a hard time keeping plants alive over there. We brought in 5 yards of compost (half a dump truck full) to spread around and hopefully improve the drainage. We also bought some heat loving plants, including a fig tree. We can't wait to pick our own figs next summer. Here's a gardening lesson we've learned the hard way-- buy the 4-inch plants instead of the 1 or 5 gallon plants. They catch up with their spendier counterparts in a year or two and it's much easier to watch a $2.50 plant die than a $30 plant. (But these new plants won't die, right, because they love their new compost-y home?)

4 October 2009

It really doesn't matter which day we took the photo below. We've had the flu this week and every day has been pretty much the same. Helen calls it the swan flu-- a simply charming name. While boys may get the swine flu, girls get the swan flu. They droop artistically on down-filled pillows and sip juice from crystal goblets while they recover.

The kids have had a rough week with high fevers and harsh coughs-- typical novel H1/N1 influenza type A symptoms. Despite handwashing, covering coughs and disinfecting surfaces, we've all succumbed. Two small pleasures of the week-- enjoying the 4th Fablehaven book together and drinking Drue and Maggie's sick juice.

A secret spook left us a plate of surprises Thursday night. What a welcome treat! The toys and trinkets were a perfect antidote after so many days that seemed exactly the same-- very much appreciated.

In anticipation of his upcoming surgery, Brandan finished the shelves in our mudroom. Click here for the "before" photo. Instead of a cramped, crowded, messy space, our mudroom is now nicely organized with room to spare. Brandan added in features that make the space very practical like a fold-away rack for air-drying clothes. We joked early in the week that Brandan should check into a hotel while the kids were all sick. Unfortunately, he got sick on Thursday and had to postpone his surgery. We remind him that as awful as the flu is, he narrowly missed a much worse recovery.

We have enjoyed welcoming the voices of the prophets into our home with General Conference. The inability to do other things because of illness has focused our attention. We kept track of the speakers by putting stickers on their pictures, ate jelly bellies (the ice cream mix is a new favorite) and played with Legos in front of a cozy fire.