Update--long

Hyrum spent most of last week as a fairy dancing princess, from the tip of his crown to the bottom of his slipper clad feet. We have listened to the Nutcracker suite numerous times, with many renditions of quasi-graceful ballet movements across our front room wooden floor. Lily and Piper were good company for our feminine little man, much to Quinn’s chagrin (. Fortunately, Hyrum had decided by the end of the week that a cowboy costume was more to his taste.
Piper is transitioning to potty-training, meaning, she takes off her diaper whenever it is full and wanders around. She has had a couple of times of success, was thrilled at the prospect of wearing princess panties, but I slapped a diaper back on her pretty quick after a mini-accident at church. Maybe she’ll do it on her own eventually (.
Lily, Tova, and I were able to attend a production of The Nutcracker up at the Browning Theater by Weber State University last weekend. After Lily got used to the idea that there was not talking (it took her awhile) they really enjoyed the dancing and the very familiar songs set to dance. I rushed back afterwards, for Tova and I hadn’t been to the temple yet that week. It was nice to go together. We then hurried back to pick up Quinn and Tova’s violin for a "group" lesson with Terry Durbin at Layton High School. Tova said she enjoyed it, but she wasn’t quite ready with the piece of music she needed to have memorized. Some of those little kids up there were amazing! Quinn and I enjoyed a nice "date" walking around a pond and talking while we waited for her. I was exhausted and fell asleep in the car while Quinn listened to the last of the BYU/Airforce football game in the car. We had a delicious cream puffs and pudding dinner that night, along with a couple rounds of Phase 10.
Havala has been sick off and on for quite some time now. I suspect it is the swine flu, that has so many people in a panic. Poor dear. She alternates between runny noses, throwing up, and diarrhea. She is still quite the snuggler and loves to snuggle to sleep. She is trying to use words and sounds to communicate, and is getting a sense of what she wants in her mouth and what she doesn’t. Ahhh. They get so picky so soon!
Drew loves to build Legos into Star Wars characters and has been talking to me for the past 10 minutes about Star Wars, Lego Star Wars, and all types of military weapons and characters. His faces is covered in face paint from our "Time Traveling" trip back in time to ancient Australia and New Zealand (the Maoris). I had Tova and Kel use my face paint to make them pretty awesome, just like Maori warriors. I got it on camera, since they washed it off pretty soon thereafter. Even Piper had her own ornate decoration. Drew has a heart on the top of his head (thank you, Tova) and "BYU rocks" on the back (thank you, Kel). He loved it. He is also obsessed with sucking helium out of balloons.
When I told Drew to tell Quinn why his face was so "grotesque" he carefully said, "We are Maui warriors from New Jersey". Oh well. :)
Last Wednesday, we celebrated Isaak’s birthday as a family, with a day full of each other! We started off playing basketball at our building after a delicious breakfast of waffles. It was fun to play together, as the older kids are actually getting more a hang of it. We had a great time! Then we enjoyed some lunch together (left over pizza, yum!), and then got the cards ready to send up with the balloons we got for his birthday. We went to a nice place up in the mountains and released them, "taking the cards up to Isaak". Our discussion led to where they balloons go, and Quinn looked it up, discovering it was not quite the "killing the turtles" scenario I had always been told. They apparently break into very small pieces, and actually are responsible for very few turtle deaths. Apparently, mass sending balloons are typically made of a biodegradable substance which negates the whole problem.
I started my "Joy Lunch Club" in our ward, a simple lunch experience once a month that women can bring their thoughts, stories, quotes, etc. to, to find "nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood". Sister Kim Bracken has a bunch of quotes and songs that she can share, so she agreed to get together with me on this. We had a cozy group of about 6 women, and I loved it. "Wherever two or three are gathered, there am I, in their midst"!
I have a new calling,...a Bear Den Leader....woohoo! It’s funny, though, how the bishopric member who called me said, "maybe now you can have a little break on Sundays and go to Sunday School with your husband." As if playing for the Primary wasn’t incredibly relaxing (. That’s alright. I am looking forward to interacting more with others in a calling capacity. I definitely know "boys"!
Tova just took the "Love Languages" test and determined that she appreciated "Quality Time" first-most with "Service" as a close second as her "love languages". She is looking forward to our more relaxed schedule this week. She played her book 3 Suzuki graduation piece in a recital a few weeks ago and did a marvelous job. She is going to play for both our homeschooling Choir performance at a rest home in a couple of weeks, as well as at the Kaysville Tabernacle on Saturday. It will be fun to see her!
I have been asked to speak at the upcoming Thomas Jefferson Education Forum coming up in March. I am excited! Finally, maybe I will be able to give back a little. I am speaking on "Core Phase" and TJEd in a large family. It will be a wonderful challenge to make "my debut", as it were.
Book of Mormon ah-hah! I realize the other day that out of the 1000 year span of the Book of Mormon, over 3/5ths of it is dedicated to the account of the people just 120 years before and including the coming of Christ. Can there be any doubt that it was written for our day, we who are alive before the coming of the Savior?
Tova came up to me the other day, looking for an interpretation of Robert Frost’s "The Road Not Taken". I told her that I thought that if I told her my interpretation, she would be influenced and I would miss out on her fresh interpretation. Other than asking about possible definitions for a few of the more ambiguous phrases, she sat and puzzled about it on her own. I can’t wait to hear what she comes up with.
Kel is on a Phase 10 kick...he can’t get enough of it! Fortunately for him, Tova loves it too, and they have been having fun doing it. Kel also came home from Zachary Moore’s house throwing around face cards with a central square cut out of it. He insists that they are a powerful thing, when thrown correctly, and proceeded to cut out the centers of several of our own cards. I told him he would have to pay for the deck, silly me (.
Kel and Drew had a great time working in the snow together yesterday. It was our first play-able snowfall, and thus the cause of much celebration. They came in exhilarated and friends. I loved it. Kel has also contracted with me to do all his own laundry. It makes it interesting on those Sunday mornings when he is literally scraping the bottom of the bucket for something to wear. However, he is thrilled that it gets him out of folding everyone else’s socks.
When we played Phase 10 last night with Tova and Kel, it was great to relax with them and have fun. They are great kids!
We are planning on staying the whole weekend at Buchanan’s...kind of a mini-vacation. Hopefully they will still love us by the end! ( Most of the kids are looking forward to football on Thursday morning, thanks to Quinn’s influence, and we will all enjoy watching the BYU/Utah game on Saturday.