Aunties, Cousins, and the Zoo

After the big trip to Washington, Nels's sisters, Kendall and Melyni, came over to Idaho Falls for a weekend visit. (I guess they just couldn't get enough of us and traveling! LOL!) It was a lot of fun. I love his sisters so much.

We headed to the zoo that Saturday, with all seven kids in tow!

Lilie, Hazel, Tyra, Elsie, Shelby, Cade

Almost unbelievable that we got all of them smiling at the same time!

I'm so thankful that my kids have cousins to play with! Some of my very best memories from my childhood involve my cousins - and to this day they are some of my best friends. I hope that my children can always maintain those sweet relationships that they have now.

Melyni, Alma, and Cade will are here visiting for a few weeks before they head back to England. Alma is in the Air Force and they are going to be stationed in Lakenheath(?) for the next few years.

We miss them, but I'm truly envious of their many adventures! I wish that we could be there to explore with them! Unfortunately I don't see a trip to Europe in our near future. :)

Thanks so much, Kendall and Mely, for coming to visit for a couple of days! We always love to have you come!

Hazel was so sad when it came time for Tyra to leave. We got the girls in bed and after a while, I could hear Hazel in her room crying. I asked her what was wrong and she came out hup-hupping about how she just really missed Tyra! :) I gave her a big hug (which only made her cry more! :) and told her that I knew exactly how she felt! :)

Lashes

One of my favorite features on each of my children is (are?) their eyelashes. I love pretty eyelashes. I'm so lucky to have married a husband with lovely lashes to guarantee long-lash-ed-ladies. (It kind of makes up for the fact that none of my children have inherited my dimples. Kind of.) :)

Violet's eyelashes are growing longer and thicker everyday.

Love that little face.

Lilie -- Halloween 2007

Mascara is a wonderful thing for blonde-lashed girls. :)

Hazel -- Halloween 2007

Again, mascara. Halloween is fun.

The other day, I took the girls to the zoo for the first time this year. We had a wonderful time together. Elsie especially loved chasing the peacocks. (Which, by the way, are so incredible to me. It is amazing to me the many different designs and colors that the Lord has given to birds.)

Seriously, IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a picture with all of them looking at the camera! I swear, I tell them to smile and they start staring off all over the place -- except at me! :)

Elsie has recently decided that she needs to be a princess everyday. Which basically means she wants to wear either a dress or a skirt everyday. You would think that with four girls, this is something we'd be used to by now, but no. Elsie is my first girl to really love "girly" things -- you know, for more than 2 minutes at a time. She loves to carry around a purse (complete with keys and "lists" :) and wear spart-ly (sparkly) shoes. I love it. She was VERY put out yesterday that I wouldn't let her wear the same dress that she had worn the day before and to bed that night (because she refused to take it off --- she even wore she red glittery shoes to bed). She didn't think the food smears on it were as big a deal as I did, apparently. LOL.

This is the face that she now gives me every time I tell her to smile. :)

The funniest thing about this lovely smile is that it's the same one I used to make when I was her age. I love it. 

A Day with Five Little Monkeys

My sister, Melissa, had a new little baby this past week! We are SO excited to have little Alaina here! While she was in the hospital, her two older girls stayed with Grandma & Grandpa. The girls and I decided that Grandma's house wasn't busy enough and headed down to Utah to add to the craziness! :)

FIVE little girls at Grandma and Grandpa's house! The zoo was a natural choice of entertainment!

The MONKEY house.

The elephants were FANTASTIC! Did you know that
elephants can paint pictures and kick balls!?
They are SO fun to watch!
I think the elephants are my new
favorite animal at the zoo!

Maddie did NOT like these big,
stinky "ammals"! All big things she
didn't like were "Ammals". :)
(Rhinos, bears, monkeys . . . )

Hazel, Karlie, Lilie

Elsie, on the other hand, LOVED the elephants!

Mama and baby orangutan in the background.

BIG kitty!
Elsie loves our cat, Gertie, and thought
this BIG kitty was very entertaining!

Five sweet little girls!
(Lilie, Hazel & Elsie, Madilyn, and Karlie)

It was a rainy day to begin with, but before we came,
it cleared up! Throughout the day, it got progressively
stormier and started to rain quite hard
while we were in the big "Bird House",
on the FAR end of the zoo!
On the walk back the girls loved being duckies
in the puddles and catching the raindrops!

What a wonderful day! If any of you have never visited the Hogle Zoo, I HIGHLY recommend it!

I think I must be sick

I think it's called blogstipation! :) I know that all of you are just DYING to hear what has been rambling through my little brains, but you know . . . not much. I think I've been running on autopilot for the past few weeks. Weird.

Hmmm. What have I done? I've been trying to be a better mom - Probably the #1 reason I haven't been blogging as much. And overall, I've been doing pretty good. Not quite so much yelling - we're just going to exclude this morning from that betterness. :) This was not a good morning - well more like about one hour was not quite so pleasant. I have a hard time with question after question about "Why is it taking so long?" "Are you done yet?" "What are you doing?" "Why is it taking so long?" "Am I almost done?" Even with 8 inches less hair to do . . . *sigh*. I think it must be a stage for 4 year olds - or maybe just THIS 4 year old. EVERYTHING seems to "take so long." Ah well. She's a sweetie and she forgives me when I fly off the rocker. With Lilie, I just try to not talk at all. It doesn't help - neither does trying to be soft. As soon as I pick up the brush, she starts screaming, so I just yank through it as fast as I can. :) I don't feel too bad about the fact that Elsie doesn't have much hair yet. 

Speaking of Elsie, she cut her first tooth this past week, she loves to shake her head back and forth and thinks it is a grand game if she can get someone to do it with her, and she is just an all around pleasant baby! She truly brings so much joy to our home! Within the past few days, her pulling up to things has morphed. She still holds on to things to stand, but it's transforming. She is stabilizing herself and balancing much more on her own. She is beginning to cruise around things that are close to one another and along things like the couch and the bathtub. Just a little bit, but she's doing it. Crazy little mutant! She turned 7 months yesterday. 

Today Lilie and Hazel wanted to walk home from church --- truth to tell, I did too, but high heels are not the shoe for strolling. So, because I was wanting to walk as well, I nominated myself as their companion, while Nels drove home with Elsie. But it wouldn't have been half as much fun if we didn't decide to race Daddy home, SO I kicked off my heels and RAN home with the girls barefoot! :) It was so much fun and it's nice to know that even after 20 years, my feet have not lost that tough moccasin quality they gained as a child - running wild across the blistering asphalt in our subdivision! :) AND we DID beat Nels! :) We're so fast - me and my girls! :)

Nels and I got most of the piles of rocks and dirt out of our front yard Friday! My back muscles have been telling me how "happy" they are about it for the past couple of days! :) But you know, it made a nice little date night! :) ha ha! Me and my Sweetheart, out in our front yard, shoveling an entire pickup full of rocks! We talked about how although hard labor is not the most exciting thing to do, it's convenient that we're both built for it. And it's satisfying as well - to see the progress. I'll have to post some lovely pictures of our "lovely" yard tomorrow. It's slowly coming along! 

Last week we took the girls to the Zoo. That was fun! It's been a long time since we've been as a family! I love the zoo and the girls had a good time. Afterward we took them over to a little amusement park adjacent to the zoo. I took the girls on the little ferris wheel they have and I must say . . . I think I'm a little bit of a wusy. Every time we would come over the top and start down, I'd have to close my eyes because it gave me the squeenchies (LOL - Clancy! What a fabulous word!). I had to pretend so hard to be brave for my little ladies! (Now you have to understand that this ferris wheel has to be at least 50 years old and it's small enough that it goes kind of fast!) Anyway - we had lots of fun in the 45 degree weather. 

We're doing well! Looking forward to the Spring sunshine, a new little niece in 2 days, and the wonderful things planned for the next few months! I love Spring time! And Fall. What wonderful beauty there is in the changing of the seasons! I love it. 

(Well, I think I cured the blogstipation, what do you think?) LOL!