Handsome Big Son

For Kabe's baptism I made him this tie/suspenders set.  He is such a handsome fella!

I am amazed at what a smart boy he is.  He is the best reader I've ever seen and is constantly flying through adult-sized books with fantastic comprehension.  He has a great vocabulary and it's wonderful fun to talk to him.

He is also a silly guy.  He has perfected the armpit fart and other charming behaviors and still laughs every time I make reference to body fluids.  He is fun fun fun and is constantly  making us laugh and sometimes just doesn't know when to quit.  

Kabe loves being outside and a friend to everyone.  He's a hard worker and has saved a lot of money delivering eggs.  He can be my best helper when I have jobs to do and doesn't mind pitching in as long as he feels like he's being treated fairly.

Kabe really loves doing his own thing.  Piano is a struggle unless he picks his own music and then I can't get him to stop playing.  He loves building things outside and experimenting.  He also loves reading books with scientific/historic questions and answers.  He likes to know how things work and loves learning about nature.

I don't know what our family would do without this wonderful boy and I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father sent him to our family.  He is good in every way!!!

We love you Big Kabe.

Kabe's Baptism Day

Kabe has worked so hard to prepare for his baptism day!  He has memorized and discussed all of the articles of faith, studied his scriptures and set a goal to be a good listener at church.  He also met with Bishop Albrecht and had several PPI's with Dad and Mom.  He was very very excited for this day!

Here are the handsome men getting ready for the ordinance.  There's nothing as handsome as the Daddy in white!  Kabe was a perfect dunk, straight in - hold for a few seconds and straight out.  He was all smiles and I wish I had a picture of his little brother and sisters pressing their face up against the glass to watch his great example.  

 

I told Daddy the most important picture would be the one right after he came out of the font.  I must have drilled him three or four times to NOT forget to take a close-up of my baby boy's face the minute he hit the waiting room, before he even got a towel.  And here he is.  I just love the look on their faces - pure joy!

Our family in true form.  After I corral them for a picture there's no way that all 8 of us will have a smile on.  I loved Leisl's face here though, she already knows what Mommy wants when I stick that black thing in her face.

This one is better.  Amazing actually, that all our eyes are on the camera and no one is screaming.  I'll take it, along with another shameless declaration that I married the handsomest man on earth.  Mn, mn, good!

Another really neat thing about Kabe's baptism was that it was the Stake baptism.  There were at least 4 other kids baptized that day.  When the Primary boss called to make sure she had his name right she asked if we'd like to participate in the program.  I told her we would do whatever she needed from music to prayers to talks to nothing and she called later to ask if we'd provide a talk on the Holy Ghost. I said of course we would.  I asked Kabe who he would like to speak and he didn't hesitate a minute before he said, "Ksenya!'.  I was half sure that she would say no.  After all, this was a Stake baptism - lots of people she wouldn't know.  But she said yes.

I think these two would do just about anything for each other.  Ksenya was nervous but she did a fantastic job!  I was so proud of BOTH of my brown babies for making such good choices and for loving each other so much!  I am thankful that they have a knowledge of their Heavenly Father and that even though I'm not always a great Mama, I know that they have had the opportunity to feel the Spirit in our home.

Conference Time

Here we are at conference time again!  I read an article by Elder Russel M. Nelson about how his family set a goal not to schedule anything for the week of conference.  That is my deepest wish for next conference.  Sadly, this conference hit in the middle of remodeling the kitchen so we had not one, but dozens of projects scheduled.  Still, the words that were spoken gave me a lot to work on, think about, and be grateful for.  My favorite?  Pres. Uchtdorf telling us that our busyiness is not a badge of honor.  The kids were really good through conference and loved the packets the primary presidency gave them.

Here comes Caboose

I know we ate our words when we called Darla "Caboose" but here we are again, pretty sure that this baby girl is the gate shutter.  She has decided she likes to move and is getting to be a very good crawler (though she still doesn't sit up on her own).

She has the most beautiful bright blue eyes ever and I still thinks she looks a whole lot like Brigham.  She is long long long and lean.  She doesn't really weigh anything, but her feet hang out of her carseat several inches already.

Here is a picture at the early stages of hands and knees.  Since this (only about a week ago) she has mastered picking them up and putting them down and follows us all over the house.  She will pull herself up on the bottom stair and on the girls' bed.

She is such a happy little camper most of the time and is the cutest stink-bug ever.  She gets up on her hands and feet like a baby elephant and makes the cutest sounds.  The other night we were playing hide and seek and she was hiding with me.  She kept making noises that would give away our position and then she was so excited when the other kids found us.  She is a sweet baby and very patient with all the love and attention she gets, as well as the occasional neglect she must endure.

We love you sweet baby!

Little Talk-a-lot

 I am such a big girl and can say everything under the sun.  In just the last few months I have been drinking a lot of raw milk and gaining a lot of weight.  I'm what Daddy calls a CHUNK!  I'm also quite silly and love love love to climb up on anything I can.

Here's a few of the things I say really cute:
When asked, "do you love Mommy?"  the answer is definitely "NO!"
When asked, "who do you love?"  the answer is almost always, "Daddy!" and sometimes, "YOU!"

My best buddy is "higum" (Brigham) but I also love "Senya" (Ksenya), "Keeb" (Kabe), "Away" (Ayvri), and "Eeesow" (Leisl).

Mommy thinks it's funny when I say, "Deeno Wedy" (Dinners ready) and "Shit down" (sit down).

If you do anything I don't like (or Daddy teases a little too much), I like to say, "Top!" (stop).
I give the best kissy faces on the planet with my lips way way way out in front.  I also really like it when Mommy turns on the radio in the car and I dance and boogie until she watches ("TOP!").  My favorite thing to eat is "nana's" (bananas) and "Mowk" (milk).  I am always singing the cutest nonsense songs to myself in the cutest sweetest little voice and I love to drag Leisl along with me by her feet (Mommy doesn't love this so much).  I still take a nap every day and really enjoy nursery at church.  I'm doing much better on the potty training and much prefer being naked to being dressed (and am very quick at getting all my clothes off when Mommy's not looking).

Spoiled as ever, I am the boss of our family!

Birthday Boys

Happy birthday to boys.

Happy birthday to boys.

Happy birthday to bo-oys.

Haaaaappy birthday to boys.

Every birthday is the same debate - which cake do we want?  I guess I've made it such a big deal that Brigham was sure that the cake WAS the birthday this year.  The day after he asked if he could have some more birthday.  Kabe had been asking for a Harry Potter cake for a while and I had seen dozens of beautiful and elaborate cakes online that I ached to make.  BUT we were in the middle of remodel.  No countertops, no sink and the stove was on one end of the house and the fridge was plugged in on the other end.  

Needless to say I was in no shape to frost carefully so when I found a picture of the original Harry Potter Birthday cake I knew it was the perfect solution.  When he got home from school I told him that there had been a huge man with a big black beard pull up on a really loud motorcycle who gave me this package.  "He said he might have sat on it, but that it should still be good and that he baked it himself, words and all."  I didn't anticipate it being as funny as it was but Kabe laughed and laughed about that.

Brigham wanted a Mater cake.  Thank heavens mater is a rusty old truck because up close this cake was pretty sad looking, but from a distance it looks just like mater and Brig was pleased as punch about his marshmallow parts (the boy has a thing for marshmallows, they are his absolute love).

Can't believe my boys are 8 and 4.  What happened to those chubby little faces?  They are growing up and ironically enough, still sharing a lot of their clothes :)  They both love all things boy and are too too too into movies.

Friend or Foe?

Since school started Brigham and Darla are really developing their relationship in a whole new way.  They spend the mornings together and are quite evenly matched when it comes to making noise and getting their own way.

We do occasionally fight, but only over important things like hangers.  I love the expressions here.  Darlin' is obviously using all her faculties to get her way and Brigham is just worried that he's going to get in trouble for making her scream.  Sadly, this happens a lot with the baby girl but we're all trying to treat her like a bigger girl.

Then there are moments like this one where we are the best of friends.  Truly this happens a lot more often than the fighting.  I catch them together, cuddled up on the couch or in a bed or under a blanket fort and they are playing happily together.

And the love abounds (although it's time we had another talk about lip-kissing).  What sweet little monsters.  We sure are glad that there will always be a buddy around - no loneliness in this family!

Hairless Wonder

It happens to all of them and I'm surprised it took this long.  Brigham has always had a healthy affection for scissors.  On this particular day I found him surrounded by tufts of hair in the bathroom. 

It is my rule that when the kids take scissors to their own hair they need a real haircut to fix it (as short as necessary).  In this case I told him he would need to be shaved bald like Grandpa.

At first he was very distraught.  He cried and cried as I shaved his blond fuzz right off and he watched it fall into the sink.  After it was over I instinctively reached up to rub his head.  The second I did that he burst into laughter and since has thought it was the greatest thing ever.

What a handsome bald boy.  Sure do love him and all his mischief.  

Necessary Pensieve

When things get crazy in my life I like to make a list of the things that are important and eliminate what's not.  Problem is, most of the time there's nothing unimportant on the list.  I've decided Blogging is one of those important things.  Not because you desperately need to hear what I have to say, or that I think my ranting in any way makes a different in the great wide world, but that it does ME good.  I find myself blogging in my head, but until it's actually recorded it's still in there, rolling around driving me nuts.  Like the great Dumbledore (yes, fictional characters can be great), the blog is my Pensieve and I find myself going back to re-read and see what has been.  It's cathartic.

So, expect to hear more from me in the near future, I have 2 months of pictures piled up and a lot of great adventures to chronicle and, well, it has to be done :)  Oh, and I tried to find a picture of me to put on this post, but sadly - there are none.  Must remember to photograph myself for posterity sake, after all, they're gonna want pictures for my funeral slide show someday!

Get Real

One word: Remodel!

This project has been way more work and taken way longer than I anticipated.  

Like Way.

Next time I say, "it's just a couple of walls" slap me.  Still, it's coming.  Since I haven't been good about chronicling our adventures let me recap - we tore out several walls, tore out all the flooring, cabinets, fixtures, sink, etc. We replaced all the windows, we re-wired all the lighting, we refinished the cabinets, we fixed about a hundred squeaks in the floors, we replaced all the doors, we re-textured the entire space, we build new closets, we removed a window and framed it in (which required removing some of the exterior brick), we removed the bannister and half built a new one, we painted and installed new light fixtures . . . and today we're starting the tile!!! 

Here is Daddy on one of our favorite days - the drywall sanding!  Talk about your mess.  Kabe keeps asking why we 'broke' the house and what was wrong with it before?  They do think it's funny to have the fridge in the living room though. 

And when I say "WE" did all of this, really I mean these two.  Here's to washing your dishes in the bathroom sink and preparing and eating your food on card tables.  Someday it will be over and we'll say how wonderfully 'worth it' this project was.  

Someday :)

Political Plea

Saw this pictures and loved it - these are people and don't they look happy?

I try to avoid political rants.

Recently I realized that I was avoiding politics a little too much - particularly where my children are concerned.  We sat down and talked about the upcoming election.  The older two only vaguely remember the last Presidential.  I think they've seen a picture of the sign we had in our front yard (in Texas).  I tried to lay out a few of the platforms as objectively as possible and diligently tried to explain it in an unbiased way.  We discussed the issues, and I told them how I felt about the fork-in-the-road we're approaching.

Honestly, I'm hopeful, but Daddy, who's done a lot more research, is feeling a little less than optimistic.  I'll just come out and say it, there are a lot of stupid people in our country.  Now before anyone gets their panties in a knot I'm NOT saying that everyone is that way, or even the majority (I hope).  But, it doesn't take a long walk down the you-tube path to see a fresh sampling of the 4th generation food stamper who thinks Obama is going to pay their mortgage, buy them a phone and fill their car with gas (songified, no less).

I digress.  The point of this post is something that my kids taught me.  We talked about the examples from the Book of Mormon when political problems eventually turned into Civil War and ended in obliteration of entire nations.  And then I asked them, "what can YOU do?"  They had a simple, poignant answer.

"Mommy, we should pray!"  and I realized . . . I haven't.

So this is simply a plea from my children and I - Please pray for our country, pray about your choice in the upcoming election, and then pray for the candidate you feel is best.  I don't have a right to tell you who to vote for, but our Heavenly Father can work miracles in our behalf if we ask.

A Laundry Sonnet

Our recent adventure to Les Miserables (which was the most incredible show I've seen!) and my never-ending battle with laundry-for-8 combined in my head this morning.  The following should be sung in your head, or in the shower, to the tune of "Castle on a Cloud".  Please pardon if this is slightly sacrilege to anyone.

There is a laundromat on a cloud.

I like to go there in my dreams.

Washers there don't shake, rock, aren't loud.

Not in my laundromat on a cloud.

There is a place socks don't get lost.

There is a place where nothing fades.

Shrinking and staining aren't allowed.

Not in my Laundromat on a cloud.

There is no static, lint or dust,

You can get out blood, grease and rust

The rags don't sour and the towels smell clean,

and there's, never, a need for ironing!

I dream of whites that are bright white.

I dream of bath towels that smell fresh.

I dream the clothes all fold themselves,

Up in my laundromat on a cloud.

Sleeping Angel

Doesn't she look perfectly innocent when she's asleep?  

Ride'm Cowboys (and girls)

Having a little rodeo in the family room. 

Aaah!!!

In the dictionary, next to the word frustrated.

Two much Fun!

Look who turned 2!!!  Our sweet little La-Dee-Dah had a happy happy birthday.

She is sweet in every way and I couldn't believe when I saw these pictures how much she reminds me of the Oveson side of the family!

If you can't tell just by looking at her picture that she rules the roost then you're not looking at her eyes. This little one is IN CHARGE!!!

Silly girl enjoyed her photoshoot a lot and gave me so many good smiles, it was hard to pick my favorite.

She liked climbing on the ladder. 

I love her big cheese and she loved playing on the grass with just Mommy, a rare privilege. 

She is a sweet, happy, spoiled, wonderful, cuddly, adorable girl and we're so glad she's here to give us all love and kisses and cuddles and make us feel like all is right with the world.  For her birthday adventure she got dinner at Grandma Horse's house with everything she can eat, including chocolate cake (made from black beans) and ice cream (made from strawberries and daisy milk).  It was a rare and wonderful experience to not have to tell her "no" to anything!

Flowers for Tink

Ayvri really loves being a girly girly girl and the other day wanted especially fancy hair for school.  I saw a cool tutorial online for hair flowers and decided to try it out.  It worked perfectly and looked so very very cool!  She insisted that it was blog-worthy and indulged a little photography.

She is getting so big with her Kindergarten and her piano lessons and reading.  She is always asking me to read with her and constantly reading and writing all over the house (and sometimes in places she shouldn't like on the bookshelf and the seat of the car).

Our little Tinkerbell is quite a pixie and so very petite in every way.  She doesn't seem particularly small, just scrawny and very long legged.  The other day Daddy was playing out on the back lawn and asking them to perform all manner of tricks and run fun races.  Ayvri proved herself the most coordinated and athletic of the bunch and can wheelbarrow walk across the lawn and back twice (which is an amazing feat to me).  We were reading a book and one of the pages said, "What is the wiggliest thing in the world?" Immediately and simultaneously Daddy and I both answered without question, "Ayvri!"

Best little Helper

This remodeling project has taken a huge team effort.  One day while Papa was trying to eliminate the squeaks from the floor, using hundreds of screws (that we would eventually take back out in order to rip out the floorboards), Darla decided to be the best helper ever and followed him around providing him with screws.  It was so funny to watch her "help" and Papa was very patient with the little Darlin'.  We we all be glad when this project is over.  Kabe keeps asking why we had to do this to the house and I don't think any of them really understands the point, but it is going to be lovely.

Baby Baby

(Sing this to the tune of that really irritating Amy Grant song)

Leisl, Leisl,

Your smile is so lovely,

And everything about you is just happy

Leisl, Leisl

I'm so glad I'm your Mommy,

And when you smile you look so much like Daddy.

Stop! for a minute, Leisl why can't you stay small?

Oh yea!

Cuz everytime you wake, your just a little taller

Baby give me time, I want to keep you smaller!!!

Ok - so that was pretty cheesy, but hey, those are the thoughts that go through my head every morning when I get her up and every night when I put her in bed.  This baby is growing too too too fast.  Six months old already, all her top teeth are moving down at once (none have come through yet) and she's already making those crawling gestures and trying to eat the food off my plate.  She is such a sweet fun baby and so ready to interact and smile right back at me!  Our baby "hi" is a joy and a blessing and another reminder that Heavenly Father knows better than us!

Back to School

This was us on the first day of school.  Ayvri was so excited to start Kindergarten and the other two were just bursting with anticipation (see Kabe?  That expression is all anticipation).

Our house is a disaster area with the remodel so their lives are sort of turned upside down, but heading off to school happened again without a hitch.  We are now Kindergarten, second and fourth grades.  Crazy!

Happy Ayvri wanted princess bums for school.  I was so happy to ablige.

Ksenya was excited to start level two (albeit a little nervous) and show everyone her braces.

Kabe has a new teacher this year - Ms. Waldman, and is in seventh heaven, learning all kinds of cool things like phylums and friction and grammar.  What a smart kid.

And here we are catching the bus that first day.  I feel so much better putting Ayvri on the bus when she can climb aboard with her big brother and sister.  Siblings are sanity for the nervous Mommy.

Big Little Sister

I remember when this picture was Ksenya and Ayvri. 

Now my Ayvri is the big sister and always helping me with the babies and it's bittersweet.  We still call Darla "Ayvri" sometimes and it's hard to wrap my brain around this big little sister.

Ayvri is extremely nurturing and likes to hold Leisl but she's still able to show her little girl colors at bedtime when she and Darla stay up giggling and playing.  I'm so glad that she can enjoy being little and is such a smiley, wiggly, giggly little girl.  Her teacher says she is doing great in Kindergarten, just likes to chatter with her friends a little.

What a good sweet girly.  And my but my baby girls are all growing!