Author: lilydarais

Saturday was Clarissa’s birthday. Abe and Ammon were at the father and sons campout until around 3pm, but until then Mary and Lydia were over-the-top excited to celebrate Clarissa. Both Mary and Lydia woke up early and wanted to wake Clarissa up to tell her it was her birthday. Lydia went so far as to open the door…and then Clarissa woke up. The girls spent an hour playing in her room, singing to her, and telling her over and over again that it was her birthday.

After breakfast, I took Clarissa, Mary, and Lydia to go pick out balloons for Clarissa. Clarissa looooooved her balloons and the girls played with them when we came home.

Then it was time for her nap. During her nap I made pizzas and baked carrot cake. I made a little smash cake for Clarissa and cupcakes for everyone else.

Around 3pm Abe, Tom, and Ammon got back from the campout. They had gone on a hike in the morning and had had a wonderful time. Ammon was cranky again and Abe had to carry him the last mile. Ammon fell asleep in his arms. Good thing Abe has been working out a ton!

 

When everyone was back and Clarissa was awake again, we celebrated her birthday by letting her eat pizza, singing to her, and letting her smash her cake. She appeared to enjoy that last part. We didn’t get this on camera, but at one point she leaned forward and stuck her little tongue out as if she were going to lick or bury her face in the cake, but she pulled back at the last minute and decided to stay dainty. She loooooved having everyone sing to her and kept looking around at all of us to make sure all eyes were on her. She clapped a lot for herself. It was totally adorable. In these pictures you can see her scanning the room amazed that EVERYONE is looking at her. As the fourth child, she is just not used to this level of attention. It was so cute.

 

Then we took cupcakes outside to share with neighbors. We got to visit with our new neighbors and Meghan from across the street. Meghan was so nice and dead-headed our petunias while our new neighbors chatted with us. They are lovely.

Then we went back inside, opened presents, cleaned up the mess, and had a pretty low-key rest of the day.

We love Clarissa so much. She is so cute and lights up our lives. Her smile and nose crinkles send us over the moon. Every day her little personality emerges a bit more, and we are enchanted. She is so self-contained and content the majority of the time, and she only fusses when she is hungry, tired, or Ammon bugs her too much. She is very adventurous and is already trying to climb the outer edge of the stairs. Even Ammon did not attempt that trick until he was a lot older!

We love you, Clarissa! Happy first birthday, sweet baby girl!!

 

Today we went to Qualtrics in the morning. Abe actually had five minutes to chat and play with the kids. He pretended Clarissa and Ammon were basketballs.

After we came home and ate lunch, I chatted with Clark for a long time on the phone. It was so fun to catch up.

Then I went outside with Ammon and my mom to chat while the cleaners cleaned the house. We spent the next few hours mostly outside enjoying the nice weather. When Clarissa woke up she joined us. Ammon uses the word, “probly” (probably” a lot these days. One of his favorite phrases is to eye a food and say, hopefully, “It’s probly yummy?”

Then Abe came home, packed the car, and whisked Ammon off to the Fathers and sons campout in American Fork Canyon. Abe planned the event, so I am sure it will be amazing.

Meanwhile, the rest of us ate a very understated dinner of cottage cheese, grapes, and, in my case, anchovies. Then I took the girls to Barnes and Noble to pick out some birthday gifts for Clarissa. It’s her birthday tomorrow!

Also, it thunder showered during the night, but Abe, Tom and Ammon stayed dry in the tent. That cheap Walmart tent turned out to be better than my REI one which totally leaks.

The rest of the neighborhood is back in school, so I can finally spend some peaceful time outside with my kids and not be interrupted. I know it sounds selfish, but oh well. I guess it is. I love having the peace and quiet back.

On Thursday morning I spent the gorgeous morning outside with the kids bird watching. It was peaceful, beautiful and so enjoyable.

Then we met up with my friend, Carlee, and her kids at Westmore park. Our kids all played while Carlee and I chatted for an hour. It was lovely weather and so nice to connect.

Then I took the kids home, fed them, put everyone in front of TV or down for a nap, and took a nap myself.

After quite time we all went to Scera Pool together. Ammon found a way to almost kill himself on the kiddie slide by jumping down it in such a way that he almost cracked his head open. Also, Clarissa puked on me after drinking copious amounts of pool water. I didn’t feel like I could stop her from drinking the water, so I just let her drink. I probably should have tried harder to stop her, but I think I learned my lesson when she puked on me.

In the evening Abe had to go grocery shopping with Steve Young for the Fathers and Sons campout, so I spent the time binge watching The Good Wife on Amazon.

On Wednesday morning Abe and I got up early and had a great run around the local track.

In the evening, I spent hours outside with the kids bird watching. That was so fun. We saw lots of hummingbirds. Ammon used his toilet paper roll binoculars, Lydia used her dog binoculars, and I used my mom’s bird watching binoculars. Lydia loved those and was amazed that real binoculars actually do help you see better. Lydia was particularly interested in the bird watching, although all of the kids loved it. We learned what hummingbirds do when cats come around. It was so neat to see nature at play! I hope we can make this a habit and a hobby.

On Tuesday we had the Tahoes over for dinner. They are the family Abe and I minister to, and it was really fun to get together with them. It is really hard coordinating our families’ schedules, so it also felt like a win. We had sloppy joe’s, boiled corn, cold watermelon, a giant salad, and desserts from Smith’s that Mary picked out on an outing with my mom.

Before the Tahoes came, I completely cleaned the house–except for the basement. It was really convenient to have Clarissa in the shoe basket while I vacuumed. I think one of the girls, in a moment of inspiration, put her in it.

On Monday I rolled out of bed at 5:15 am and made it to bikram yoga on time. The fact that Abe and I went to bed so early on Sunday really helped.

I kind of overdid it in yoga, though. Some kind lady asked me if I needed help as I was leaving. After I came home, I asked the girls to watch Clarissa in her room while I lay down and recovered in bed.

When I was recovered, Mary and Lydia practiced a ton.

In the afternoon I took the kids to the Arches splash pad party at Palisades park. I didn’t get any pictures AND I lost Mary’s glasses there. That was a huge bummer. But since I was blissfully unaware that I was about to lose Mary’s glasses, we had a great time at the splash pad. I did wonder why I was the only mom who was soaked from head to toe. It seemed like all of the other moms pulled the party off without getting wet at all. But I was with Clarissa and Ammon the whole time, so I got drenched!

On Sunday my friend Betsy agreed to come help me with my Relief Society lesson. The lesson was on failure and forgiveness, and Betsy’s work as a potter has taught her to embrace failure. Every step of pottery is filled with opportunities for failure, and failure is an inevitable part of the process. Betsy is incredibly articulate and her work added a beautiful visual component to the lesson.

Then we had Betsy, Micah, and Pippa over for dinner. They brought mango sticky rice, which I didn’t realize was dessert and so I made Thai grilled chicken for dinner. We ended up eating the rice as a side and it actually tasted great with the chicken.

After dinner we chatted for a couple hours. We just love the Crofts, and the kids love Pippa.

Abe and I went to bed right after the kids. It felt great to get to bed early at the start of the week.

On Saturday morning we had brunch with the Vandagriffs. It was fun to get together with them. I think the last time we got together for a meal was Abe’s birthday (not counting the times Abe and Morgan do weekday lunches together, of course).

After they left, I napped and Abe changed the water in our water storage tanks. He also overhauled the garage, much to my mom’s delight. By the end, he was totally exhausted because he had also done Insanity in the morning while I was at bikram yoga.

Then we headed over to the Harmons’ club house for Steve’s surprise birthday-pool party. Suzanne dropped the girls off at the party, and afterward when we were headed to the car, Mary said, “We had a pool party, and before that we had our sleepover…it was a great day!!”

The girls had so much fun at their sleepover. They did a scavenger hunt, got a letter from Gwendolyn, the fairy who lives at Tom and Suzanne’s house, saw a baby deer in the backyard, got a lot of presents, and had an all-around wonderful time. Lydia asked us if she could just go back to Baps’ house until the bad air in the valley disappears. (Our air has been exceptionally bad because of all the mountain fires.)

On Friday the kids had their swimming graduations with Aubrey. They have been looking forward to this all week because it meant free time in the pool, and afterward Aubrey gave them popsicles.

This is Lydia’s card to Aubrey. It says, “Dear Abry, I will really miss you. thank you for teeching me to swim good. I feel like a star. without you I would never ever have the talint to swim grate. xoxo”

That part about Lydia feeling like a star just melted me.

Here was Mary’s card:

It says, “dear aubrey, I miss you if you weren’t there i would not be able to swim. Love aubrey.”

So cute.

Then we headed home to change, eat lunch, and practice harp and piano. I taught Mary the third phrase of “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” and it almost killed both of us. The third phrase is EXACTLY THE SAME as the second phrase (which Mary already knew) with the exception of ONE NOTE. For some reason, she could not figure out how to play it. It took an hour, but we finally did it and she got it. By that point every time Mary played it wrong Lydia screamed in frustration from the living room. Lydia knows the song and could not understand why Mary could not figure this out, and she was almost out of her mind because she was dying to go to This is the Place and meet up with Suzanne for the beginning of their sleepover.

Anyway, Mary finally got it, and we got in the car an hour late to meet up with Suzanne at This is the Place. When we got there, the kids panned for gold and mined for gems. Clarissa loved eating the woodchips in the gem box. She had a great time doing her little dinosaur crawl all over, and it was so much easier to control the kids with Suzanne there. Normally I am chasing Ammon everywhere, but this time he actually spent time “panning for gold” –with his own Ammon modifications to the activity, of course. Most of his panning involved scooping up sand and running it to a different part of the stream to dump it out. He’d then pick up giant rocks and say “I found a golden!” All of the gold was a “golden” to Ammon.

Then I took Ammon and Clarissa home to beat rush hour traffic while Suzanne took Lydia and Mary to the ponies and hospital. Then she kept them for their first grandparent sleepover. The girls had the greatest time!! There were notes and presents from Gwendolyn and Mrs. Twinkleton (the fairies), a scavenger hunt, conversations with Google, deer and fawn watching in Tom and Suzanne’s back yard, and paper fairy dolls. The girls were elated.

Last night the girls built a fairy house and fairy trap with the Anabelle and Liberty. They filled the house with pixie dust (glitter) and play doh furniture.

This morning when Lydia opened the front door to go ask Anabelle and Liberty to play, she found this note on the front step:

It says, ” Dear Lydia and Marie

Thank you for the wonderfull house to rest in sorry but the trap did not work on me. The folding couch was awesome and the pixie dust was perfect oh and i loved the flying packpack! Love, Mrs. Twinkle.”

You should have seen Lydia and Mary’s excitement. They literally jumped up and down. I am pretty sure Lydia might have run in circles giggling. Mrs. Twinkle also gave them candy which they promptly ate. Lydia exclaimed that she couldn’t wait to show Anabelle and Liberty the note and so she ran out of the door to tell them all about it. They were gone, but when they came back later I whispered a quick thank you to Liberty, who I guessed was the real “Mrs. Twinkle.” She was so darling and smiled happily when I told her how joyful the girls were to discover the note.

Lydia wrote Mrs. Twinkle back quite promptly, and then posted the sticky note on a chair in the back yard:

It says, “Dear Mrs. Twincky, were gowing (going) to our gradparis (grandparents’) house A fairy lives there to do y (you) want to come? Please write back”

Doesn’t that melt your heart? Mine is quite a puddle.

Also, while Abe and I napped (Abe was feeling sick and stayed home from work today), Lydia built this out of our garden tomatoes and toothpicks:

Finally, after all of the fun play and creativity, Lydia had a hard time transitioning to the harp and we had a pretty horrible practice. She cried in her room for a while until Abe, Clarissa and I came to cheer her up. Abe took this picture:

She was a perfect angel for the rest of the night. (Also, Clarissa puked that bottle up an hour later. I’m so glad she didn’t puke on Lydia. That might have damaged the relationship a little bit…)