little things

Boy howdy I’m behind on documenting all that’s going on around here. It was 80s day at school.  I was mad we didn’t have any Forenza sweaters or big belts… Claire went to a cheerleading camp with her cousin and a friend.She thought she died and went to Heaven with those HUNDREDS  of other girls doing cheers for a real football game. Here she is waving her goodbyes when when she was done. Cousins: When she was done we went to our own football game.  We spotted Max: …and Elle:Brought back so many high school memories. Man have I mentioned how much I love having these teenagers? Soccer season started. Volleyball season started too… Max’s hair grew and gave him volleyball superpowers. Then we chopped it off. But he still had power. His scrappy cheering squad. We live in a beautiful place. I was running at the gym one day and had to stop and take a pic. of this cool sky. We celebrated one of my best friends birthdays in the big city. Grace tried out a lyrical dance class.  I went to watch the end and as I watched her dance with all that emotion I got a little teary.  It was so beautiful.  So now she’s enrolled in the class and LOVES dance. Night-time reading: Lucy made a very realistic rendition of her body in Kindergarten: We escaped for a couple days up to the mountains. We went to visit the national monument… …a blow-up one at the Constitution Fair 🙂 It was a cool night complete with a show of airplanes… …and Elle’s friend performing. Jr. Primary chorister stuff is going well.  I’m in love with those kids and I’m trying my darnedest to learn all their names.  The Primary Program went great.  I brought my helium balloon “friend” for someone to hold in the back of the chapel (there’s a face you can’t see very well).  When the kids were singing really well, he was happy and went way up high.  When they were too soft to hear he shrunk down.  It worked wonders in the practice, not so hot in the real deal, but I still loved that guy as much as Lucy did… We celebrated birthdays with the cousins. Grace had to give up part of her hard-earned cash to go to science camp: But in the end I think she felt every penny was well worth it. Claire is doing tennis. Love these girls. Love these boys…off to priesthood. Loved conference. Traditional conference cinnamon rolls were delish. Lucy came up with her own special activity as she listened: The weather is finally cooling off enough we can go to the park when we have time on Sunday evenings.  Claire offered to walk Lucy to school with her one day instead of her usual bus-riding routine.  Man oh man was that girl strutting with pride walking along clutching her sister’s hand.  Heart melter. Elle had a choir performance. Our high school music program is pretty outstanding. Claire had a music performance too. Sometimes the girls like to have matching hair-dos. Love these cute friends. En route to Lake Powell for Fall Break. Dave and I went to Walmart like this to finish off the food prep for the trip. Lucy no longer qualifies for speech therapy.  It was a bitter/sweet last day with her speech therapist who has been coming to our house every week for three years. We will miss her but so glad Lu is doing so well. Uncle Tal came to town from NYC for a wedding.  We sure adore that boy.  He makes things fun around here.  He “kidnapped” the kids in the morning and took them to breakfast and took Max and Elle on a little driving lesson in the church parking lot (wish I had a pic. of their ear-to-ear grins about that one). Then he jumped in the freezing cold pool with the girls fully clothed.They got their breath knocked out with the chill but how cool is that? It’s all about making memories I tell you. Love these brothers of mine. And with that, I’m off to chaperone the third-grade field trip to the farm.