My Tiny Star Stuff

My friend Star is a fabulous creator of all kinds of art. A while ago I splurged on an original Lucy painting from her etsy shop. Shown here is the painting and the matching Lucy doll that she designed, sewed, and painted. She really is amazing! I already covet several more of her prints and "softies" (original stuffed animals). Ooh, and also her beautiful vintage-style cone puppets. I want, I want!

Anika's Birthday

On August 23rd Anika turned eleven years old! Wow, that decade just blew by.
We decided to go to a book signing for her birthday since Rapunzel's Revenge, illustrated by our very own cousin Nate Hale (and written by Shannon and Dean Hale) was being featured at the Salt Lake Library. The authors did a little reader's theater scene from the book. Here is Shannon Hale sporting braids knitted by Nate Hale's talented wife Mindy.

And here is Anika getting our newly purchased copy of Rapunzel's Revenge signed by Nate.
If you have any boys in your family that you want to encourage to read, buy this book!

We also helped my sister Victoria clean house for my brother Jon's family to return to from Australia, went to a pastry shop, watched WALL-E, and had pizza for lunch and dinner. It was a very full day, so we saved the cake and ice cream for today.

When I downloaded these pictures I realized that some little fingers must have smeared the camera lens some time ago. Nice soft focus, eh?

Happy Birthday, Anika!

My Daughter is Not a Vampire

When I was little we had a series of dramatized fairy tales called "Let's Pretend" on vinyl records. We listened to them over and over again. One of the stories was "The Frog Prince" and his princess was named Rosalie. That was my first exposure to the name. Over the years I continued to run across the name, though rarely, and I always liked it. And when, finally, I was in labor with my last daughter (all of whom were born past their due dates,) my husband and I decided we really had to pick a name. And Rosalie was the one we most liked together. So.

Now, you'd probably have to have your head in a bucket (in which case you probably aren't reading blogs online) not to have heard of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, which is about vampires. One of the vampires, a golden haired beauty, is also named Rosalie. Rosalie Hale, no less, which makes it even closer to home, as Hale is my maiden name. The series is wildly popular and I am glad for the author--we Mormons like to see other Mormons excel. But it still bothers me that people will assume that I named her after the book, simply because they never heard the name anywhere else. (I'll probably have to privatize my blog after this; this entry has too many googleable references.) Ah, well.

So that's my disclaimer. But here is the funny part. All of my other babies have grown their teeth in upper-middle and lower-middle pairs--like a beaver. But not Rosalie. In fact, she's got me a little worried.

Kids in a Box

What could be more fun than playing in a big box? I don't know. Please tell me. Because it took about 45 seconds before three of my four kids in this box were crying. I had the baby in there as the others were climbing in and she started crying to get out. She must have known where this was headed.

Lissa is pretending that she wasn't crying. Did you ever see such a strained "cheese?" Hmm, strained cheese in a box--sounds like the kind of cottage industry we would produce.

Ketchup Part Two

Songer Family Reunion
Every year around the Fourth of July the Steve and Pat Songer Family gets together for two or three days of fun. Generally we are required to put on a talent show. Usually we do some fun craft for the kids. And always, the guys build a waterslide.
It has gotten taller every year. This year the platform was ten feet up in the trees on one side of the yard and the plastic reached all the way to the other side of the yard. It was about 150 feet long. (Only the very best bellywhoppers managed to get all the way to the end.) The kids slid down and then ran around and climbed up again non-stop for 3 or 4 hours the first day. And the second day. They took a break for Sunday, and then did it all over again on Monday. I believe Lissa was the most dedicated slider of all, even after she broke her arm and had to have a cast on.

The Platform

The Slide

Anderson slip slidin' away

Lissa coming down, Meredith headed up

Lissa getting too much air.

Bonked ma chin.

Did you say ketchup?

So it's time to play catch-up:

The French Connection: When I was fourteen or so my family hosted Ludovic D'Anchald, a foreign exchange student from France, for the summer. Later, my parents visited his parents' home in Lille, then my husband and I visited Ludo and his wife, Brigitte in Lyon (back when they had only one baby.) Still later, my parents visited Ludo and Brigitte who then had four children. And finally, Ludo's parents and cousin (with her husband) came to visit us in Utah. They were sorry to miss my parents who are on a mission in Mexico. And it's just a shame that my sister Kate and her husband Caleb (who speaks French from his mission to Montreal) were gone that week to look for a house in Pittsburgh.
So it was basically up to me to host them and I was nervous because I never was fluent in French and it had been years since I used it at all. So I invited over Casey's sister Jenny. She lived in the French house at BYU for a year and is much less self-conscious about speaking in a foreign language. They hit it off great and I basically turned them over to her as a tour guide for a day in Salt Lake City. She loved it--she got to show them all the Mormon history sites like Temple Square, the Beehive house, and the Great Salt Lake. And I stayed behind to take Lissa to the doctor with a broken arm. I was relieved that Jenny was willing to help me out this way. Not that I wouldn't have loved to go along, it's just tricky when you have a baby to drag along.
The only down side of their visit was that we promised to show them buffalo (technically bison) and then couldn't find the herd that is usually pastured half a mile from here. When next I see them, I'll have to get a picture and send it along.

Thems the breaks.

So I don't have a picture of her lovely red cast to show you but Lissa broke her arm last Sunday falling off her bike. It was one month to the day since she broke her finger and had to have seven stitches. This makes three broken bones in five months! We had been saying that it was Anderson's turn next. She totally took his turn. I hope he doesn't want it.
My parents called from Mexico today to get some financial stuff worked out. There were the usual questions: How is everyone? How did it go with our French guests? (Will post on that later.) Any more broken bones? (Yes.) Hit any deer lately? (Yes. One hit Casey on the side of his car two weeks ago.) They asked all the right questions. I mean, what do you say when someone asks "How are you?" You say "Fine." You don't really want to tell them how you are, they'd go into shock. I've tried being more honest. I sometimes answer "Okay" or "Tired." Whenever I do that, the person's eyes glaze over and their facial muscles twitch. They are already dealing with their own lives, they don't want to deal with mine, too.
That's what's nice about my parents; they'd willingly deal with my life if I'd let them. But I'm a big girl now, and we're coping, just like everybody else. And there have been times (like during my first few postpartum depressions) when they did deal with my life for a while. And they did a good job of it. But still, it is my life and I want to deal with it myself when I can.
How I do go on. You probably didn't want to know any of that, you've got your own life to deal with.