Time for a new header?

Every time I go to change it, I can't bring myself to do it. Partly (let's be honest), because I'm lazy; partly (let's be even more brutally honest) because I looked a whole lot better then than I do now; and partly (here's the kicker) because all our gazes are pinned on Ellie who is SUCH a ray of sunshine in my life right now and without whom our home would be a whole lot more contentious. But, poor Hazel's going to wonder about her significance in the family! So, maybe by Christmas? Not making any promises.

Really I just wanted to add my thank yous to all y'all's blogs out there. I left my family for a ten day hiatus half way around the world and am humbled, knowing that an amazing husband and true friends made that possible. It meant so much for me to get to see my sister and her family (including their new addition to the family, baby Jackson) in their element and spend that time with them. So, Josh in case I haven't said this enough, thank you for holding down the fort, pulling through for Jonah's surprise star student of the week, getting the kids bathed here and there, speaking in church, getting in those last billable hours...all of that AND getting the morning dishes done. It's more than I manage. I love you 2 lbs. cot. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pictures of China to come (I really hope)!

Giveaway for Tonight!

I have 2 free tickets to tonight's Symphony of the Southwest concert (see previous post) for anyone interested and in the area. Let me know! Also, there's a promo price of $8 for students and their families. Just use the code YOUTH when purchasing tickets.

Let's Play Music!

Big Giveaway...Free Tuition!!

http://makingmusicians.typepad.com/making_musicians/2010/10/big-giveawayfree-tuition.html

Who wouldn't try for a chance at free tuition? Plus it's an opportunity to get the word out there about this amazing program.

Here was my response for why I love 'Let's Play Music.'

The answer is a no-brainer. Something very miraculous happens when practice time comes around at our house. The kids enter the music room with SMILES on their faces. Yes you heard that right, smiles. And not even the sarcastic ones they often flash me. 100% genuine. Any organization that can make music such an enjoyable part of our lives will forever have my support! And of course our blessed teachers have everything to do with that success. A humongous thank you to our LPM teachers, Ms. Rosanne Tidwell and Ms. Melanie Wallace in Gilbert, Arizona! We love you!

It isn't real.

There's no such thing as Autumn come September 23rd in Arizona no matter how many pumpkins we pick, how many pictures we take in the corn patch and how many wreathes adorned with red, gold, and orange we hang from our doors. You fellow Arizonans know what I'm talking about. Can feel my pain even. We've all tried desperately to bring on Fall. I hate to contradict the kids' teachers when Ellie comes home saying, "Mom, it's Fall now and the leaves are going to change colors and start falling from the trees!" But still, some effort has to be made. I want so desperately for it to at least feel like Fall. And so I take the pictures and hang the wreaths.

These pictures were taken near Young at Mom's house where it's about 10 degrees closer to being Fall. Thanks Mom for the pumpkins!

Pumpkins with cousins.

I'm loving Char's faces lately. This one here matches the way she feels about Halloween. A little apprehensive. She has informed me that she's not going to Halloween because there will be scary witches.

Mom, baby Noelle, Char, Ellie, and Grandpa Dale

Ellie's PInkalicious 5th Birthday!

Princess Ariel's Debut

(Please excuse Ariel's immodesty. Her top is in the shop.)

A Hunting We Will Go: Part II

I know in the past I've perhaps hinted that I'm not crazy about Josh's latest obsession with hunting. And maybe it's not fair to call it an obsession. Not the point. The point is, I may have to eat my words a little. Saturday night Josh decided it was time to get the kids out of the house and took all three (Hazel can't hold a gun yet) out to the desert to shoot some dove. Time to myself with just the babe...how can I complain? The kids had a fabulous time. Jonah and Ellie shot their first dove with a little help from their Pa. And Jonah learned the art of wringing a dove's neck. Oh yes, I'm about to throw up just thinking about it. I'm praying very hard that these "life skills" Josh thinks is appropriate to teach Jonah are going to save us in times of famine because I can barely stand to think of how else they might be useful. However, the situation is hopeful. Dove was on the menu for Sunday night dinner. I was skeptical to say the least. Amazingly, all three kids ate it...ate it all gone in fact! Granted, Josh had done his darndest, calling in all his culinary skills to ensure the kids' satisfaction. Turns out dove's not bad when you marinade it in milk, lime and about 50 various spices for three days and then smother it in BBQ sauce before grilling it. Of course once you get past the BBQ sauce, you're still eating dove which is the part I have trouble with. It's not entirely unlikely the kids just didn't chew. Still, I'm impressed.

A Hunting We Will Go

I'm amused by how the dynamics in our family are constantly changing. There was a time, if I think really hard, I can remember it was all about Jonah and Ellie. I can recall video clip after video clip of them playing around, being goofy together. Then Charlotte "came of age" and suddenly it was all about Ellie and Char. Best of friends, joined at the hip, staying up 'till 9 pm every night playing hard. Charlotte wouldn't even let Jonah wake her up from her nap today. She wanted Ellie. And Jonah accepted this like it was the most natural thing in the world. So, now that Ellie has gone off to school with Jonah this year, it's been fun to see the shift back towards Jonah and Ellie a little bit. Every day I pick the two of them up from school, they come walking toward me, hand in hand; the way they've been walking from the moment Jonah picks Ellie up from her classroom. Oh my precious...is all I have to say about that.

Then there was this morning. Perhaps you weren't aware, but September 1st is a holiday here in the Valley of the Sun. And in our family it's second only to, say Christmas. I know you're racking your brain trying to come up with something. Give up? Okay. Dove Hunting Season (yes...it's deserving of all those capitals). Don't feel too bad. I wasn't aware myself until a certain abandoned talent resurfaced in my husband, many years after we married (I'm quite certain I would have at least hesitated when Popped the Question had I known about this hidden talent). Needless to say, Jonah is ecstatic about getting to take a school morning off to hunt with Dad. And this year's special because Ellie's four now and can go with the boys. Early this morning as I lay in bed with a few tiny extras, I hear Jonah whispering to Ellie the delights tomorrow's hunt holds for them both. Jonah was giddy with excitement perhaps more for Ellie than himself. "Ellie, I just know you're going to love it!" He told her all about his hunting vest that holds bullets in the front, dead animals in the back. He told her about waking up early, about the different kinds of birds they'll encounter.

It has been fun to see Jonah and Ellie get a little of their alone time back. Meanwhile, Charlotte has gotten to bestow all the hugs and kisses she wants on her baby sister with minimal competition (there's still me!). And I'm so grateful for this time my babies get to be young, carefree and so excited about life. Suddenly I understand the wisdom in "becoming like a child." I could for sure use a little more of that in my life!

I've been neglectful of Hazel. But of course she's just perfect. She could be more perfect if she'd take a nap longer than 30 minutes, but I'm fine settling for perfect. She's so tiny, but so wiry. She does this funny thing when I put her on her knees where she hops up onto her feet. I see yoga in her future. How else do you explain her downward-facing dog at 5 months??

(I'm bummed the pictures are blurry. I'll have to try again soon. )

And finally, here's Charlotte's first day of preschool. She cried the first day, but then came home and threw up that night so I'm thinking it was more being sick than being sad. She now regularly gives me reports on how she's held up in preschool. Today's report: "Today I was happy, Mom! When my tummy hurts, I not going be happy, but when my tummy doesn't hurt, I going be happy!"


P.S. Grandma, the kids thank you for the fun postcards you sent them! Hazel thought the most of them.

Random

Part of what has taken me so long to blog is trying to organize it all. So I decided not to try and instead just get it done.

School and the craziness has begun. Trying to have a good attitude about that. Our California trip was amazing and I'll soon have to post, but meanwhile Jill wrote a sweet post about it here.

Lately I've been chuckling at the funny things the kids come up with.

Char: "Mom, can I please change my name to Ellie?"

Me: (heartstruck) "Why? Charlotte is a beautiful name."

Char: "No it's not. Charlotte is a silly name." (Keep in mind, everything is silly to Char. The girl at the mall who's hair was blue and who's ear had a thorn through it was silly. Sadly, the only comment Charlotte made to her was, "Why isn't your hair purple? I'd like mine purple.")

On to first day of school pictures...

First day in the first grade.

First day of Kindergarten!

Charlotte was not happy to see Ellie go.

Reconciliation.

Child #2 handed over to the public school system.

I think over all Ellie's first day of Kindergarten was a huge success. Well...there was the "Meet the Creature" night where in Ellie's words the teacher was "...kind of freaking me out." Oh yes, and the fact that she was accidentally sent home on the bus the first day of school in place of an Eliza. So maybe it was just a memorable first day of school!

Moving on with the randomness...

Last night the girls' dinner conversation turned to 'What I want to be when I grow up.' Ellie wants to be a "Put cute princess paint on your cheeks and make your hair and put on a dress and put on shoes--I mean slippers, maker." All this in addition to her previous desires to be "...a mom, a hair maker and a ballet teacher." Char's ambitions are no less impressive. She wants to be a "...mommy baby diaper changer." Oh, and a ballet teacher just like Ellie. No surprise there.

Also last night Jonah and I had a "discussion"on why he hasn't gotten the Wii back yet. When I tried to provide him with an explanation he slapped his hands over his ears and exclaimed, "Why don't you just stop this nonsense and give me the Wii back instead!"

Today Jonah redefined The Golden Rule: "I'll be mean to you if you are mean to me."
It's not exactly the way we've taught it at home. And for sure not the way it goes in The Bernstein's Bears: The Golden Rule (courtesy of Chik-fil-A).

Charlotte: Upon waking up from her nap, still laying in bed. "Mommy! Wake. Me. Up!"

I really do love my kids. I can't help it if most of what makes me laugh, makes them cry. That's just the way it is. It could be worse. We could both be crying.

Allred Hotel

I went back to the house this morning and took some pictures--for the last time! I still can hardly believe it. I actually ran into the new owners who were doing their walk through and it was just so crazy to try and picture any family other than ours living there. The wife was super cute and had the thought that she might pour cement near where our hand prints are on the sidewalk and add their own. I almost started bawling right there.

Anyway, here are the pictures. I became a little obsessed with the apple.

Jonah, practicing his hand at photography.

Here I was worried the scorpions were going to come out and get me when really I should have been worrying about the ants that were crawling into Hazel's car seat, biting her chubby little legs!

Blog Fog

Somehow I'm just not feelin' the whole blog thing. It seems everything I really want to say is either too personal or too lame to put out there. And yet, I've loved having the blog to keep track of our lives, however lame. So I'm torn. And undecided--which means you get to put up with me for a while longer...if you're still there that is :)

Tonight Josh and I went to the temple. I didn't want to go. We had a million errands to run before our California trip this weekend and I'm stressing out (which Josh has informed me I am not allowed to do). But because I try to be obedient every now and then we went and I'm so glad we did. I just kept having the overwhelming feeling that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I got to leave a little more grateful for my religion and a little less worried about whether or not we'll have toilet paper at the beach house. Granted, the gratitude only lasted me about 6 seconds before I started worrying again. Hey, that just means I need the temple even more and that's not a bad thing.

For the Greer archives:

Char is officially potty-trained! I'm going to ignore that she peed on the floor yesterday and today. Those isolated incidences were strictly random and are in no way indicators that I have failed in my third attempt to successfully potty train our children. Seriously, would that be depressing or what?! Right. Moving on.

My childhood home is sold. It was sold once before...and then purchased again. But I'm afraid the permanence is real this time. I didn't expect to be very emotional about it. It's hit or miss with me. I cry without fail when the plane's going down in 'The Incredibles' yet I didn't see the sale of the home I lived 18 years in as much of a tear jerker. Then I took a couple friends to the house for some end of the season apple picking before closing date. I gave them the grand tour, showed them the "secret" room and the memories came flooding back. I'll admit, good and bad. That house holds them all. Moving the infernal, scorpion-infested wood pile along just about the entire perimeter of the yard. The gardens, corn patches and bountiful fruit tress. Best friends' homes on either side of mine. Playing 'scarder than heck' with the lights off, pitch-blackness, going around the house trying to scare the heck out of each other. Our hand prints in the sidewalk that curves around the house. Skating parties out on the driveway where you could hear us making up dances to 'Bar, bar, bara anne.' The music. Always the music with my mom and her fifty violin students, my sister's twenty, my ten. And my Dad. I'll miss my Dad in that house. He's everywhere in it. It was his dream. How grateful I am that he took a chance in building that home. I have all my childhood memories to thank him for. While we were picking apples, one of my friends asked, "Did you know you had a cool house?" I'm not sure I thought about it when I was a kid. Lots of my friends had cool houses. Looking back I realize just how "cool" it was. And again, I'm nothing but grateful. Farewell, old 158th street home. Serve your new family well.

Hazel/Charlotte

These are some of my favorites from when Hazel was about 2 weeks--taken by Jill, my super awesome photographer friend. If you haven't checked her out yet, you're totally missing out.

Have you seen this yet??

I'm ready to trade in my Odyssey.

Oh yeah...

it was Char's third birthday almost a month ago! Story of my life. I feel like everything's slipping through the cracks. I could not wait for summer to hit just so things could slow down. Wishful thinking.

My attempt at a recap (in reverse order since I'm too lazy to fix it!)...


Sadly, I only managed one lousy picture of Char's birthday. We had family over for dinner, presents and cake. Charlotte, in all her three year old glory, rules the roost around here. All it takes is one look from those huge, puppy dog eyes of hers and you're in trouble.


Right after school let out we headed up to Haigler where Mom just finished her new home! It was gorgeous and of course very nice to get out of the heat.






The kids did great on their recitals. Char was hilarious trying to play her fingers (which she doesn't know how to do yet). Everyone kept laughing which just fueled the fire.






Ellie had several little friends in dance class with her. The girls were darling and Ellie loved her "hound-dog" skirt (danced to 'You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog').



So that's it for now. I'm hoping the rest of this summer can just chill a bit!