Fun with Grandma

Near the end of January, my mom flew down here to visit us. It was actually right after I flew up there to go to Jolene's funeral. So grateful for those convenient, cheap Allegiant flights! We always do things that are outside the usual while Grandma is visiting.

At dinner tonight Miriam asked me when Grandma is visiting us again. I told the kids that she is coming in a few weeks. They proceeded to tell each other something like this: Grandma always brings us so much food. Her tomatoes are the best. Yeah, she always gives us so much food. We should share our food with her, since she always gives us food. Yeah, we should.  

My mom is a particularly generous person especially with her hard work in her garden. My kids have learned that from an early age.

It was particularly chilly while my mom was visiting us in January. The highs were not really out of the 60s except that Saturday, which we took advantage of by hiking up the little foothill behind our house. It was so pretty to see the sunset up there, and the girls were good little hikers. When I look at the photo I am still surprised to see a family of FIVE! In the words of Eliza, "What the...?" (She says that all the time! Thanks public school!)

Our family of five!

That week was particularly fun for Eliza because she was star of the week at school. She certainly is our little star! She made a poster about herself and was able to bring something in as show-and-tell every day. What a fun thing for an almost-7 year old!

The poor man who Miriam almost took out!

Fun kid airplane!

One afternoon we drove over to Mesa and saw an Air Force Museum. It was surprisingly interesting and well-attended. There were a lot of senior citizens there on a random Wednesday. 

The kids loved it mainly because of the kid airplanes that they could drive around. Unfortunately that meant that they didn't really stay close to me. As a result I had to put an end to the fun when I saw Miriam 'flying' her airplane towards this old man with a walker. She yelled out to him, "Watch out, I'm coming!" Of course, I am across the hanger, and can only yell, "Miriam, STOP!!" Whew, she barely stopped in time! Thank goodness we didn't send that poor old man to the hospital with a broken hip.

We saw some interesting things though. Historical planes and helicopters. Bombers, luxury aircraft, and rescue planes. It is really amazing to think how much technology has changed in the last 100 years. One of the bombers (B-36?) had little guns all over for people to man. Top, bottom, front, back, nose, sides, etc.

She loves those toes!

Baby with army plane. :)

I made the mistake of trying to keep Holly asleep in her car seat while we walked around. All this resulted in was a very tired arm/back and a baby that was cranky to be left in her car seat for so long. Regardless, it was a fun outing.  

I thought the info about this plane was particularly interesting.

One other fun activity we did was have a tea party with the girls! Oh I love having little girls. We made shortbread cookies, cucumber sandwiches, and veggies and fruit. And lots and lots of tea (cider). It was so fun! I love my girls! I am so excited I had another one! They are so fun!

Sometimes I think it is so cool that my husband is so smart. He designs parts of airplane engines! At work one of the helicopters that has their engines was flown so the employees could see it. Wow, it is sure interesting to see this next to the historical planes and helicopters I saw at the museum. Each of the blades on the rotor is 30 feet long! Wowsers!

My Little Buddy

Miriam is my cute little buddy!

Jolene's Funeral

At the end of January, we received the really shocking news of Jolene dying. Jolene is my mom's cousin. Growing up it went my parents' house, my grandparents' house, and Jolene's house all in a row. She was always invited to holidays and big family dinners. Just a few weeks before her death, she walked over to my parents house and was so winded after climbing the stairs up to the kitchen, she had to catch her breath for a few minutes. Little did I know there was probably something really wrong.

I felt really sad at the news of her death. She had never married or had children, so we were kind of all of the family she had. I regret not taking more time to talk and visit with her because she didn't have very much family. At her funeral there were a couple of her friends that that shared stories of their friendship. It was really touching.

When we visited Grandpa, they had him spotlighted in his wing of the VA home. It was fun to read his little autobiography and see the pictures. 

Jolene wasn't a close enough relation that John got time off work to go to the funeral, so I just flew up with Holland to attend. It was a blessing to see my family again. Especially because I was able to visit Grandpa while he was alert. He really enjoyed playing with Holland, and it was a real tender mercy to me to hear him play with her and sing to her. Especially because when we visited over Christmas he was really too tired to wake up and chat with us.

Grandma enjoyed playing the baby too! Grandpa's bed had a sensor on it that kept setting off an alarm because he rested his arm on the bed in the wrong spot.

It was nice to see my mom too. I flew up with my dad, and we chatted on the plane. We also went to a nice dinner at Kayla's house.

I missed my little family though and was glad to get back to the warm weather!

I got sent this picture. Apparently, Miriam had fun building a fort while I was gone.

New Year's Interviews 2016

Here are our annual New Year's Interviews!

Holland's little giggles!

We love her cute giggles! Blowing bubbles and sniffing have been fun tricks too.

Little Girls

Oh I love my little girls! After I was done taking Holland's 8 month pictures, my bigger girls came in all dressed up and wanted their pictures taken too!

I hope these girls always stay friends! There are certainly little fights and shouting at each other occasionally, but it never lasts too long. I am so grateful for their sweet natures and kind tendencies.

Miriam always says the funniest things!

Miriam: How long is one million minutes?

Me: like how many hours?

Miriam: yeah

Me: well since there are 60 minutes in one hour, we would have to see how many times 60 goes into one million.

Miriam: do you know that?

Me: not off the top of my head.

Miriam: what about inside your head?

One day for preschool we were talking about the equator and I explained it was an imaginary line the goes around the world. I asked her if she knew what imaginary meant. She said, "It means it has powers!"

Miriam's age is really important to her right now. She brings up her birthday regularly and talks about whose birthday is next, and how old so and so will be when Holland is so old. Age is really important. If I ever say she is four, she ALWAYS corrects me to say that she is four and a half! "Four and a half you mean?"

One Sunday she was explaining to us that she got a treat in primary (they receive SO many treats in this ward!). She couldn't remember the name for the candy so she described it as small and colorful. She said, "You know, the opposite of skittles!" Haha! M&Ms!

Miriam also prayed recently, thanking God for our delicious food. It makes me smile!

Little Eliza is so sweet! She is so smart and confident. She loves reading and creating things. She loves her friend Ava probably more than just about anything.

Eliza had this picture in her head about how she wanted her photo taken for these pictures. "Mom, I want my hands like this." "And I want to be looking out in the distance not at the camera with not a very big smile on my face."

Of course, Miriam wanted to get into the dramatic pose action! But we got a few normal ones too!

I have a feeling that the drama is only just beginning for my little girls! Oh I just love them! I know I say it all the time, but I can't believe how quickly they are growing up! Slow down! 

Holland 8 Months!

On Holland's 8 month birthday we had a little photo shoot on her changing mat. She almost died only a couple times.

We just can't get enough of this sweet baby! She is just starting to squeal a little bit and play with her voice more. It is adorable!

She loves to be played with. Times 10. She loves music and being in her swing. We often turn on the prerecorded piano music for her to listen to while she swings, and it is a pretty happy place for her.

This is where she almost died. It is because she doesn't really sit independently yet. It is a work in progress, but setting her on a high surface is foolhardy to say the least.

The name of the game at this point is drool and spit. In abundance. No teeth yet.

Toes are still particularly fun to play with and suck on, but as she gets more mobile she squirms her way to other things which are fun/dangerous to play with so the toes get less attention than they used to.

Her hair almost looks red in these pictures, but it isn't. Just a light brown/blond.

The expression in this picture is very typical of her trying to grab something just out of reach. She'll often push herself on her hands and toes in frustration almost in plank position and it moves her just enough that sometimes she can then reach it. Holland is starting to push herself up to her knees as well. I think we'll have a crawler soon!

This photo shoot was also dangerous because she wanted to roll off the card table with all her might.

Holland loves toys! Probably more than just about anything. Especially the tag portion of the toy. She gets a tag in her mouth, which facilitates lots of drooling. Pretty soon everything is a big drooly puddle. Our new white carpet is getting a lot of wear and tear by this baby's drool.

Holland also went through a spitting phase. Particularly she likes to spit at church or at least we notice it more there (where things are supposed to be proper and reverent). One Sunday we received a few comments about it.

She would not leave the 8 month sticker alone for this shoot. As you see.

Holland is in a lot better place now with her naps than she has been recently. Whew, what a difference that makes! She sleeps through the night sometimes and sometimes not. That is a lot less stressful to me than not napping though. Oh we just love our girl!