Disappointment

 Piper: Tonight, while I was listening to Dad, Eli came over to me and said "Could you help me please?"  And commenced to pull me to the couch. Immediately, Eli dubbed himself "master." 

"Draw a tent. Not there, there. Write fire." 

He then asked me for ideas for his "camp list." After the following suggestions, swimming, roasting marshmallows, and eating, he insisted, 

"Tell me stuff to do, not stuff to eat."  

"Okay, swimming, tackling, and roasting marshmallows."

"Piper, I am disappointment at you. I am not mad. I am disappointment."

Spelling Confusion

 Maia remembered that she needed to get another bra when we were in town.  So, in the car, she called out, "So, Mom!  When am I going to get a B-R-A?"

Eli jumped in. "And that spells chocolate."

Xai quickly corrected him, saying, "No it doesn't!  Mom, what does B-R-A spell?"

Mommy said, "Bra."

Xai replied, "You're going to eat a bra?"

Ummmm...nope!

Animals, Babies, Selling Houses and Miracles

 At the risk of being perhaps a little too personal, I am going to cut and paste my most recent journaling, which includes much about pets, children, houses and miracles.  Enjoy and please read without judgment ;D.

May 31, 2021

Yesterday we went to an open house for a young man in our ward who is heading out to a mission and then BYU afterward. The family is really nice. No one was wearing masks, which was so refreshing to see everyone's faces. At church we still are wearing masks, which I respect the need for. Next Sunday we will have our first second hour meetings together since before COVID. I am excited.

As a family, we are shutting off our wifi except for intentional use. We are trying to create an environment for healthy defaults for the kids. Last Saturday, after the Georgia family left, we spent the day playing games and relaxing and enjoying each other. It felt really good. The oldest kids only watched one episode at the end of the day. We laughed and played together. So bueno!

The Georgia family came to stop over for a visit on their way home from visiting other places. It was great! We got the house super clean and organized and that also meant finishing up my book case for scrapbooks in my room (made out of only five purchased boards and the rest scraps!). I filled them with scrapbooks and journals and it looks so amazing!!! I love coming into my room and seeing kids sitting in our padded rocking chair and looking through the scrapbooks with whimsical smiles on their faces. Family history in every aspect is so rewarding! Next step, hang up all the pictures I have in the house somewhere :D.

I am working on finding joy in the moment and not feeling driven by lists.

I have realized that it is still okay to have lists and projects and dreams, though.

I am also working on having “charity” be my default...the directive of everything I do. It is powerful! Today I am working on “thinking no evil.”

I am also excited to plan my trip for having ALL MY CHILDREN ON EARTH together :D!!! Less than a month!!

June 7, 2021

Wow! What a busy week. Today I am just going to capture a little bit.

This week we got guinea fowl keets. Because my phone and I are frequent strangers, I have not pictures but you can Google them: big, ugly and loud.

And they eat ticks by the pound.

So I ordered guinea fowl.

Apparently, they are flock creatures so you can't order them in quantities less than 15. Most places required 25 but yikes! We'll start with 15. Like I said, they are noisy.

And right now? They are absolutely adorable.

Just imagine picking up tiny beaks and legs combined with soft fluffy air with less mass than a cotton ball.

I reached in to the box they came in last Friday morning to get them out and put them in the lovely new home we had just completed for them moments before (no time like the present, eh?). I could feel tiny faint scratching limbs and then soft fluffy weightlessness. I gently closed my grasp to a ball and lifted. In it was a tiny baby. Crazy! And super cute.

Later that day, Maia and Piper chanced upon the coop when all the little fluff mites had made it out of their enclosure---apparently they are tiny enough to squeeze through the holes of chicken wire with not much fuss. The keets were all over the inside of the coop so they corralled them back inside. However, one was missing as evident by the next incident: two chickens were desperately trying to escape the chicken yard through an opening and upon investigations, Piper and Maia discovered a small pullet behind them, honking loudly and terrifying the much larger hens. Hilarious!

I have to share a miracle about this experience: I felt compelled to start the day early, at 6:30 am.  While not being early for me personally, I don't like to force the kids to get up to work with me then.  However, I kept feeling driven to insist upon it, so I told them I would get up at 6:30 but needed them all up by 7--Lily and Hava to help with breakfast and birthday set-up and Drew, Hyrum and Piper out helping me get the guinea fowl area ready.  I anticipated getting the guineas in the afternoon like I had the chicks so felt there was plenty of time later...but kept feeling like I needed to insist on early prep.

Well, the morning rolled around and I forced myself out of bed around 6:20 am, remembering I had told everyone else they had to be up soon.  I had experienced a rough night with Penelope but...here we go!  I grabbed my cell phone (with whom I am frequently a stranger) per inspiration insistence (recognized in hindsight) and after prepping the breakfast with waffle batter, headed out. I had felt driven to prep the tools and supplies we would need for the pullet enclosure the night before so most of it was ready to be taken out to the coop where we were building it. 

The phone rang a little after 7 am. "Ma'am, your keets are in."  Miracle number one--I actually had my phone with me and working when they called. Miracle number two--because we were up and everything was in place, we had just enough time to build the keet enclosure before they got there.  They require a 95 degree temp to keep them alive at first, which requires heating lamps and somewhere to experience those heating lamps.  

It was truly miraculous.

June 12, 2021

Another busy week has flown by.

Apparently, both of our dogs have Lyme's disease so they are going to start antibiotics after I capture a urine sample from my dog Kujo (??right??).

Penelope is pulling herself up on furniture right now, progressively figuratively following in the footsteps of her nephew, Akos. (Soon to be literally! They are visiting in two weeks!!) Unfortunately, her mobility led her to bruise her cheek on an end table by our bed and it is super sad to see the cut and bruise on her sweet pudgy cheeks. She is still as adorably sweet as ever, smiling and enjoying her life so much—interspersed with occasional frustration at not being changed, fed and adored as much as she may feel necessary, little darling. The last few days, she has been particularly insistent on being near me, content to play near me or in my lap while I work on something else or help another child.

I feel myself waxing eloquent after reading excerpts from a collection of Jane Austen biographies. Sigh. Perhaps I should scale it back a wee bit ;P.

Xai is excited to go to a Primary young boys activity. I am excited to use that as an opporunity to fulfill the last steps of a miracle...

I have felt for some time to make Drew's room a real room. It is one of those “pushings” from heaven that I have learned to recognize. I also recently reviewed President Nelson's talk about believing in and seeking for miracles. It all came together yesterday.

The next step in his room is to secure two more mattresses to make the room's bedding complete. We used to have viable bunk beds in there, but as Drew sleeps on the floor as his preferred space, I had him move the bunk beds to the other room for a visiting family to use. His room has become more and more an extension of the storage room, with box springs and bedding frames stacked about. Buying mattresses right now seems like an extra expense, not desirable on top of Quinn switching jobs from NY to Ohio and all the expenses we have had for upcoming vacations, building our chicken “palace”/coop at the height of lumber prices and finishing up our Medina home to get it on the market.

Feeling prompted to buy more mattresses I looked online and found nice mattresses on sale at a location over an hour away. However, I would be passing that way en route to taking Xai to his activity.

Now, for the money.

I didn't feel right asking Quinn. So I asked God. “Please let me know about or find any stash of money that may be about so that I can purchase the mattresses not using funds that we are currently delegating every other direction. I really don't want to stress Quinn out. Please help me if possible, but if not, no worries. I trust You.”

Enter miracle number one.

Hyrum came up to me after using our old laptop for some “random” reason and held out a roll of bills. “Here, Mom. I found this in the laptop and it is probably yours.” (No one else in our house loses $100 without noticing...the kids are always paying me back for random expenses on Amazon and I frequently stash the bills somewhere that I am “sure” to remember later!)

I felt driven a day later to organize my bookshelves downstairs. We had recently purchased two more on sale (only $35 each, yay!) and had emptied the storeroom of the extra book boxes...so it all matched up to happen soon. I started yesterday and upon clearing off a top shelf, I found the money from our plays that people had paid me that I thought I had already deposited. And—witness the miracle—it was just over the amount I needed for the two mattresses. Amazing.

As we say in our house, “God is good...” “...all the time...” “...and all the time...” “....God is good.” (From “God's Not Dead” the movie.) Truer words were never spoken.

Another miracle: this week I went to Medina with Lily, Hyrum, Xai, Eli, Liesl and Penelope.  We were there for less than two days and were able to get our house there pretty much ready for market--adding flowers and mulch to the flower beds, painting trim, mowing and trimming the lawn (thanks to superhero Hyrum) and still have the little ones be mostly happy (thanks to superhero Lily).  Quinn added the final shutters and grow boxes and I had fun filling them with fake flowers.  I felt guided and not frantic, with a prayer in my heart.  The only disappointment was that I wasn't able to get my kids back for their church youth activity this week--I hate making decisions that make them sad or suffer at all.  I need to learn how to better deal with that but until then, I will get a little grumpy and my heart will hurt a little whenever I need to make those decisions.

Maia hurt her foot this week...bruising it pretty severely.  She has been rocking it on crutches, though making her keep the foot elevated and iced has been a challenge.  We have "Family Camp" next week so hopefully she can keep it happy until then!

Eli has drifted from "sweet momma's boy" to "belligerent feisty man" in his transition from five to six years old. I am always amazed at how much Skousen's "So You Want To Raise A Boy" nails the stages of boys on the head!  He just needs a good wrestle, tickle-session, or battle of some sort every day.  Several times.  Enter Hyrum, Drew and Daddy....invaluable.

Liesl calls me and everyone else "stupid" at least a hundred times per day.  Quinn tried to help her transition to "stupendous" but she didn't buy that.

Speaking of Quinn, he is currently still in Medina longer than his usual three days a week. Even though I saw glimpses of him earlier this week, I miss him excruciatingly.  The house, however, is now officially on the market so he is trying to get it under contract asap with the hot and hopping market in Medina right now. My prayers and heart are with him...I miss that man.

Xai is still doing so well at trying to do what is right. I love conversations with him about making good choices. He really thinks clearly about things. Unforunately, that means when others don't think clearly or want to make negative decisions he is not very sympathetic. He, Drew and Piper are so much alike in this regard! And maybe a little me.

I think the dogs may turn out to not me chicken killers after all. We haven't lost one yet, miraculously, but will still keep them in our prayers and keep actively training and observing them. While I got “extra” chickens for the express purpose of “just in case,” I still don't want to lose any of my silly feathered darlings.

Havala and Piper had a great time staying home this week taking care of animals while we were in Medina. It is fun to see their friendship grow! Last night I was touched to listen to Havala play the accompaniment to a song called “Footsteps” while her sisters sang along. I am so grateful that I still have children in the home that I get to watch grow and unfold in their talents. Being a mom is so rewarding.

I am still amazed on occasion walking through our woods at the beauty we have here.  While there is thick humidity at times and more bugs than I am used to, I guess that is to be expected to have such green and to be in such  "camping" type place.  I love watching Penelope outside.  She is almost always looking up at the sky, watching the light filter through the branches in wonder.  So sweet. I love having little ones around me to help me remember to find wonder in the world around me.

Here's an excerpt from a Messenger conversation with Tova, after she shared some Jane Austen biographies and other documents:

I loved this one so much! What depth and perspective it gave into her writings and life. and from so many people's view. Loved it! Right now I am going downstairs to organize my bookshelves. I need a little time to myself...I think this is the only time I am going to get it, as I love my darlings during the day and want to spend it enjoying them . Love you! Thanks for the delicious opportunity to hear from you yesterday! My phone is struggling to recover from its encounter with baby slobber so I may not be able to communicate much in the near future, save for this medium, but I must confess that reading those biographies have inspired me to wax eloquent in my written communication with you, most darling Tova . LOVE YOU!!!

I felt a little overwhelmed with the projects I feel I need to do and still spending time enjoying my darlings. I prayed for help. Maybe getting up at 4:15 am after a moderately interrupted night's sleep with Penelope is the answer? I just needed some alone time.

I think I will go and organize my bookshelves some more and get Drew's room ready.

Life is truly about doing a great work. And that requires...work, ironically enough :D.

Maia's injury

Front yard in Medina

Penelope loves eating solids!

Eli turned 6 this month! What a great kid!  As part of last week's busy-ness, we had a fun birthday celebration for him, complete with a "treasure hunt" of Dollar Tree items along a curling ribbon path set up by Havala. I love that the kids pitch in their efforts to wrap and hide presents and decorate for birthdays!

We also watched "Raya and the Last Dragon" (enjoyed it), had a delicious waffle, sausage and Orange Julius breakfast by Lily, ate "chicken with a bone" and went swimming at a local pool after buying a summer pass, which we intend to use weekly! Super fun!  The kids love the water and little Penelope is like a tadpole.  I can't wait to see how my grandson does in it in a couple of weeks <3.

Best news ever!!! My parents are closing on a house and are moving next door this summer! I am super excited for the kids to have grandparents living near them after so many years of being at only extended traveling distance.  There has been a lot of ups and downs for them, but having them near will be the fulfillment of a dream I have had for years.  Super excited!

We also will be able to spend time with Quinn's parents this summer, between a reunion and hopefully a visit later.  Coolio!! My kids are super blessed with loving grandparents on both sides and this summer seems like it will be a great time for the kids to bond with them again <3!

Funnies, Play "Louis Pasteur" and Work

 Xai came up to Piper this morning and said, out of the blue, "Did you know that you can't grow apri-cados over here?? You have to grow them where there's always sunshine."

Later..."I wish we lived in Florida."

*****

Yesterday Liesl told me, “I missed my dream so I had to go to sleep again.” I love the little phrases and words she uses! I may have already recorded how she uses the word, “Beezer” for “zipper.” She also refers to plays as “the Act”: “are we going to the Act today, mommy?” or “I need to get my special dress on for the Act!” It was adorable to see how much she and Eli picked up on the choir and acting. After the cut-off of one of our songs, we heard someone still singing in the audience, perfectly on pitch and with all their might...it was Liesl. So cute!! She and Eli know the words to many lines and most of the songs for both groups and loved being a part of it. I think it might be also in part because they get to watch movies almost all the time when I am doing my groups, but it is apparent that they also like feeling a part of it.

By the way, the play “Louis Pasteur” was last week...a musical comedy/encyclopedic wealth of information, but also very fun! I put in a lot of staging, nuances, and changed a few words to make it more humorous and enjoyable. They did amazing! I have never had such a perfect performance and all I did backstage was open and close the curtains and turn lights on and off! The kids came on and off themselves, remembered lines and got into character really well! They slowed down, enunciated. The audience was vocal and outgoing in their feedback, which fed the actors and made them have so much fun! We did visualization exercises beforehand to help them calm down. Overall, just awesome!  Hyrum was Louis Pasteur and had a ton of lines.  Piper played many minor roles: young Louis Pasteur, Greta the bread girl, the two sheep that died.  Hava was the reverend.  Maia was Pasteur's daughter.  Xai was the sheep that lived. Right as we were finishing and getting off of the stage, Xai called out loudly from within his sheep costume, “And just so you know, I'm really a person!”  What a ham. 

That Saturday, we had a stake training planned and I just didn't see how I could get to it with having the play that night. True, all the scenery etc was on the stage already but still...wasn't it just too much. Besides, I had so many home projects that felt pressing. Well, I was super glad I went. I shared some deeply felt testimony and experiences. I was uplifted so much by the sharing by others. Lily came with me and I loved having a day with her! Piper watched Penelope (I paid her) and so it was just Lily and I. She also really enjoyed it and had a little break when I went to my leadership meeting, which was also fantastic. The visiting authority was so incredible...I could have listened to his words of spirituality and counsel all day. He was bold and sensitive at the same time, definitely following the Spirit and definitely heartfelt. I was blessed.

Lily, Hyrum and Maia went with Quinn to Medina this week so we are down a few people. It is amazing how few people eight people feels like when you are used to more! I told Piper and Hava to do their own thing and I would take care of the littles. We have also super cleaned the upstairs, main level and will be working on the downstairs today. Poor Hava. Piper and I love to clean!

I finished my book case for my bedroom!  I am super dooper excited.  Wood is crazy expensive so I used scraps from our other projects and five purchased pieces of shelving to make my 8 foot by 6 foot creation.  It will be for scrapbooks and family history stuff which I haven't had out for about 5 years now.  Soooooo excited!

Yesterday Piper and Havala took Xai, Eli and Liesl on an adventure...that apparently involved a lot of spiders. They also found a toad/frog that Eli loved and loved...until it died. And then he mourned. Poor dear.

Xai finally lost two of his four loose teeth that he has right now. Now the first one loose is still to go, but it is close too. He has that adorable “two missing front teeth” scenario, which I love so much! Last night, he prayed that he would be able to improve in how he spoke since he is having a hard time speaking with his front teeth out. I assured him that his speaking was just temporary and that I was completely enjoying it :D.

Piper came up to me yesterday, excitedly talking about how she was studying the scriptures. She is writing down all the various names of Christ. “Isn't it cool how each name refers so specifically to a role that He has in our lives? Ways that He is able to bless us?” Super cool! She is enjoying her new baby goat, Austin. Right now she is also caring for Gus, Maia's goat that she got to be a companion to Austin. We are still deciding if they are going to be meat goats come next spring. We think it might be fun to get new baby goats every spirng (they are super cute), use them to eat down the forage (we have an invasive wild rose that is taking over and goats love roses!) and then eat them the next year. We'll see. The girls are adjusting to that idea—Piper more readily than Maia, no surprise.

Drew has quit Wendy's for this month before he plans on going on his mission and is now full time working our property. He has enjoyed the first two days but it was pretty hard work. We'll see if the arrangement works for all of us :D. I have raised some pretty strong, independent children and so sometimes sharing the same roof as adults can get a little...tricky. It is nice to have someone work on things that I am not choosing to get to out of different time choices, so at least I am liking it for now :D.

COOP!

 It is so hard to believe that it is May already.

The kids are watching The Chosen, a TV series of Christ and his life. One phrase from last week keeps sticking out to me, “Christ chose you as you are right now. What more do you need to know?” I tell myself this phrase when I feel overwhelmed or inadequate.

Hava, Maia, Piper and Lily did an amazing job super cleaning the house yesterday. Lily and Quinn leveled the base for our chicken coop (quite a project!); Xai and I went grocery shopping and picked up cement; the entire gang helped lift the base of the coop from the barn (where we constructed it on a level surface the day before), loaded it up onto our trailer, lifted it off, attached a base strip and then carried it over to our site. What a day! 

 The girls went in to help make tacos for dinner, while Quinn, Hyrum and Eli helped attached the final two posts beneath it while I caged in an area for the quickly growing chickens to be happy in while they wait for their indestructible palace to be completed :D.

Rain and Holidays

 It rained yesterday. Beautiful, down-pouring awesomeness like I used to crave in Utah.  Growing up in a desert has made the sound of the storm magical.

Apparently I am not the only one in my family who finds it so.  We had just finished up a grueling five and a half hours of choir and acting rehearsal and I had called it good for the evening.  We did a quick straighten up while I put the finishing touches on dinner, we ate and then I declared the evening free.  

"Maybe we could watch a movie or something," I mentioned casually, to the delight of the kids.  

During dinner, the rain started coming down even harder, beckoning.  The older kids asked if the little ones needed a bath tonight.

"If so, can we do it outside in the rain? You know, just leave their clothes on but let the rain clean them off?" they queried.

Brilliant.

So that is what we did on our evening off...let the rain pour down.

Piper and Lily both commented yesterday about how it is like everything all of a sudden turned green.  The birds are out in choruses and everything feels alive. The sound of the distant freeway have receded even further, masked by the unfurling of all the leaves in our little woods.

I love to listen to the birds outside my window, particularly this morning when I lay there snuggling with my baby, trying to get her back to sleep in my favorite way possible...nestled up against my body. There is something equally magical about snuggling a sleeping baby so the combination of bird song, rain and sleeping baby has really set a wonderful tone for my day :D.

**********

Lily has started a new tradition of reading off all the holidays for the day.  This week we have celebrated:

-"Minimize Food Waste Day"--leftovers for dinner!

-"Blueberry Pie Day"--particularly delicious.

-"National Kids and Pets Day"--every day, right??

-"National Pretzel Day"--another yummy one with homemade pretzels

-"National Tell a Story Day"

-"National Prime Rib Day"--sadly, missed celebrating this one

-"National Devil Dog Day"--won't mention how applicable this one was

-"National Great Poetry Reading Day"--every day!

-"National Zipper Day"--or as Liesl puts it, "beezer" ("Mommy, will you do my beezer?"

It's been a riot!  Maia was sad that we didn't celebrate "National Hug a Plumber Day" last Sunday until she realized that Quinn had done a lot of plumbing work, so we felt that qualified him.  Oh, and we forgot to get out the shrimp last night for "National Shrimp Scampi" day because we got so caught up in the rain and beauty of the evening.  I am great celebrating that one a day late ;).

Testimony's and God's Hammer from on High

I love it when my family members remember things from those around us and share it.  Here are a few gems-- 

From Piper:

Every so often, one of the little kids come upstairs to join me for online seminary (it starts at 6:30 am). Well, this morning it was Xai. He snuggled up by me and made a lot of suggestions like: "You should turn off your camera," or "You should rename yourself 'I am your best friend!'" Then I had to ask him to be a little quieter because I was turning on my mic and he conceded and scooted closer to me. After I finished and turned off my mic, he bellowed out "I WOULD LIKE TO BEAR MY TESTIMONY..." Such a cute guy:D

From Quinn: On Saturday I was working outside and Liesl came up to me to tell me she found a dead spider. She wanted me to go look at it and I told her in a fearful voice that the wind would blow the spider on me. To which she said without hesitation in her little Liesl voice, "The wind will blow it up and up and God will SMASH it with a hammer."

x

Snuggles

 

I love the way my husband interacts with my darlings...

Maia and I captured a fun moment together....

Liesl insists on snuggling or "touching" Penelope as much as she can.  This night was particularly sweet because not only did they match, but Liesl fell asleep snuggling with her baby sister.

Photo Shoot for Family Reunion

 I couldn't pass up the chance to capture all these darlings in this post:

Adventures, Little Girls and Little Boys

BABY GIRLS

Liesl was helping me shovel manure in the barn the other day. She was super excited to tell me the different kind of animals that had pooped there: mommy horses, baby horses, etc. At one point, she held her mini-shovel over her head and declared, “I have strong armpits!” Yep.

Penelope has loves her bouncer. The other day, I was working in the kitchen later at night and she must have bounced next to me for over an hour, keeping me company and smiling up at me periodically. Her sweet and sunny disposition truly helps to compensate for the fact that she regularly wakes up almost hourly at night. (She is really great at sleeping between 4:30 am and 9:30 am.) She also has vamped up her rolling capacity to take in the entire floor. She will scoot and turn and roll to get almost anywhere in the room. She loves it!

We recently started her on solids.  I made the mistake of mixing some applesauce with yogurt and she was instantly hooked to the creamy sweetness.  Now she will tightly press her lips together and refuse most anything unless there is a little yogurt included.  Oops. I should know better after all my years of researching the best way to introduce foods...no sweet stuff at first!  Of course, this is one of the less sweet yogurts, but apparently, the combination of that with fruit got my little sweetie hooked onto sweets already.  She does like guacamole (a very tame variety from the store we always get) as well as the mashed up liquified potatoes from a soup I prepared last week, so her diet isn't exclusively high in sugars.  Cute girl.  Still not sleeping very well--I guess that just having 13 children in a family doesn't make you a sleep expert.  I've tried everything I've heard of or experimented with myself and the more I try, the more often she wakes up.  I think I am just resigned to it now.

OUTDOOR WORK

We planted the last of our eight ordered fruit trees yesterday in the middle of a rainstorm:  cherry, pear, two kinds of apple, apricot and three peach trees.  Can't have too many peaches...ever.  We also picked up a whole bunch of inexpensive bushes along with 5 rose bushes for a border along the front of our driveway...I love Aldi!  (They have the most amazing random deals.)  Anyway, it was a busy day for planting.  

Here's a look at my delightfully silly posers after our muddy planting session.  The ground has a lot of clay so we had to dig out a bit and fill in the ground with some good soil to offset the clay and give our plants a good head start. Needless to say, it took a lot of digging :D.  And a lot of mud.

We also picked up all the supplies we need for the bottom of our chicken coop that will probably outlast any major catastrophe, lol.  It will be tough.  And large. I have 39 happy chicks in my basement right now in their expanded area that will be excited to get outside and start making a difference on our tic population.  

For lunch we enjoyed some Hungarian sandwiches.  They were so big, Quinn called his a "Texas Hungarian sandwich":

We love these!  This was the first meal Quinn had prepared for us when the entire family joined him almost nine years ago that late dark night in Hungary in our small one bedroom apartment.  Ahhh...memories.

ELI

Yesterday morning I was singing "Saturday is a special day" to help remind one of my kids why we work on Saturday. I also started singing other religious songs (it helps keep my spirit right).  As I prepared breakfast, Eli came over and stood next to me, fully dressed in his Sunday clothes.  I smiled and praised him for getting dressed up so well (he doesn't usually) and then gently said, "That's so awesome buddy, but you don't have to get dressed up today...it's Saturday, buddy."  He protested, "But you were singing music about God!"

I assured him it was in fact Saturday and he left with surprisingly little distress.

Later I found out there was another conversation that happened in the other room:

Eli: "It's Sunday, Lily!

Lily: "Uh, I'm pretty sure it's Saturday."

Eli: "No.  Mom was singing Sunday music."  He started to get dressed into his Sunday clothes.

Lily: "Okay, buddy." (I love that about her!  She doesn't push it.)

Fast forward to after he came out and talked to me...

Eli: "Guess what, Lily!  It's Saturday." Smiles slyly and chuckles. "I tricked you!"

ADVENTURES

We discovered that our library checks out bikes.  And not just any bike...a whole assortment of bikes!  You just show up, give them your card and the bike is yours for three hours. 

The library is located just off of a relatively flat bike path that we enjoyed for quite a stretch.  We stopped off at a place that ended up being right where a helicopter landed at a hospital...the kids thought it was pretty cool.  Well, most of them.  Eli yelled, "Ha, ha!  The police got you and now you're going to jail!"  Fortunately, there were no patients getting on or off the helicopter but wow!  Eli even waited until the crazy whirring and noise of the helicopter stopped before he shouted.  Just today in church, Quinn told Eli, "Shhhh, we're praying" to which Eli replied, "Shhh!! We're praying, Dad!"

Crazy kid. :D

He also had his hair buzzed to almost bald (as close as I would go) when I gave haircuts this week.

Six is sure a feisty age!

Back to the adventures, the kids also went to a skate park while I went grocery shopping and Maia discovered some new heights:

Quinn wouldn't let her climb higher. :P

I love seeing this girl do her thing!

XAI

I love to snuggle with this kid.  He's super fun. He really enjoyed our "Princess Bride" night last night, when we all dressed up as different characters from the movie, ate a feast that could be something they ate, acted out a few things (sword fight, feats of strength, genius contest) and watched the movie using a projector that the amazingly technologically talented Hyrum set up.  Xai was Wesley.  Eli was Vinzini (he had to get used to the idea that his character died).  It was a lot of fun.

Xai enjoyed our bike ride along the Ohio river and sometimes got tired.  (We hadn't been biking like that for a while.)  He is also enjoying our two dogs and two cats. Technically we feed three cats, but one hasn't appeared for a while since our dogs started chasing them.  We just purchased some shock collars to help teach the dogs not to chase down the cats.

And then there's Drew...a picture is worth a thousand words.

Brothers

My Piper shared this email with me that she had written to herself.  I thought it was precious.

Your brother is a great guy. As a girl, I hear a lot of mean talk

about boys, mainly, brothers. I used to agree, or at least pretend to,
but my brother has shown otherwise. Among many things, brothers can
help with self-confidence, having fun, and learning how to disagree
respectively. Brothers, blood or otherwise, are essential.

One, self-confidence. My family likes to invite missionaries to
dinner, and I have noticed that the boys are much more fun than the
girls. Why? Because the girls were almost always acting
self-conscience.  I have noticed that it tends to be the same with
other girls and boys. My brother has helped me deal with this by
talking to me about why he doesn't care and showing me confidence.
That way I can have more fun.

Two, having fun. Our house is really noisy because everyone is always
laughing and yelling, because of my brother. He chases us around and
eases tension with jokes. Boys can be kind of rowdy sometimes, and
that is good. He shows me when it is appropriate to be calm and when
it is time to be crazy. Though sometimes I disagree.

Three, disagreeing respectfully. My brother often tells me when I am
doing something wrong in his opinion, but he leaves it at that.
Brothers almost always have different opinions, but, maybe because
they know they can tackle you, they can be very respectful about it.
And respect is one of the essential things in life.

Boys, brothers in particular, are important when it comes to living
life; they can teach you how to be confident, have fun, and be
respectful. Unfortunately, many girls don't have brothers or treat
their brothers like trash. You need to love and show your love to your
brother if you want all this from him. He can't talk through a shield.
Treat your brother like the man he is.