Abundant Recompense Copy

Yesterday was Bryn's fifth birthday. She was so excited about it for weeks beforehand, and I don't think she was disappointed. I was up early getting ready for church and got to hear her gasp when she came down the stairs from her room and saw a bunch of balloons. She got sung to at church, got a couple cards in the mail, got sung to over the phone, had a fabulous unicorn cake, and got way too many presents. And for her birthday supper, she chose pesto, tater tots, and corn, the dinner of champions. I am extremely proud of this unicorn cake. And also flabbergasted that it turned out okay. We took a minute to look in her "Brynny book" and tell her about what it was like the day she was born. That's one of my favorite birthday things to do. The favorite present was two creature power suits from her favorite show, Wild Kratts - one for her and one for whoever she decides to play with. She and Addison (and occasionaly Leah) have been wearing them nonstop. They were ou...

Today is the last day we have a six-year-old, four-year-old, two-year-old, and no-year-old living in our house. It doesn't get any better, right? . . . Right? (If you're looking at this in email, click to the website to see the GIF in all its glory)

This month's adventure was pretty much un-planned, it just sort of happened. Nate had the fourth of July off of work, which was a Friday, conveniently, so we decided to have a weenie roast and camp in the back yard on Thursday night. The weather almost did our plans in, but it turned around at the last minute and we had a great time. Jenna even came up from BYU and graced us with her presence! To say the kids were excited would be a terrible understatement. They were bouncing off the walls, as evidenced in the video. Luckily the walls outdoors are much further apart than the ones in our house, so it was fun to watch. They had some fun with the screen in the tent: And later when it started to get dark, Addison, Bryn and Leah took turns shouting, "This is the best day EVER!" as they jumped on the trampoline in their jammies with Nate and watched all the fireworks from the neighbors. We sat around the fire and took turns telling stories and then headed into the tent. Everyon...

It is really easy for me to get so caught up in the hum-drum daily-ness of life that I completely miss what is going on. I've been trying really hard to just chill about a lot of things, lately. It should say something that I have to try really hard to chill. But I must say, occasionally I have some success, and there have been a couple moments where I've been present enough to actually realize, "Wow. This is awesome/hilarious/progress!" I like it and wanted to share a few of them. 1. Yesterday there were 11ish kids in nursery, including four visitors, so it had been a very busy two hours by the time we got to the bubble-blowing portion of the routine. I was blowing ferociously and trying to make sure that no one was stomping on anyone else and everybody got a turn to pop some/blow some, when all of a sudden one of the leaders said, "[child who shall remain nameless]! Quit that!" I looked down, and the child was standing next to me with my skirt wadded up i...

Here's a little of what we've been up to during these lazy crazy days of summer. Successful homemade ice cream The hair had to go. It's too hot for long hair this summer. The kids did lots of jobs one Saturday and earned enough money for shaved ice. Tons of trampoline time. Blasting off to the moon. Running around like hooligans when Mom's busy. Addison and Bryn have a favorite climbing tree. They are little monkies. All sorts of popsicle creations. Pudding, fruit and yogurt, etc. These are "octopus pops" that Addison found the recipe for in a Nate the Great book. Swingin' Ice cream cones While Jenna was here, she and I pulled off the greatest, coolest, most awesome summer kid activity in the history of civilization. All told, the cost was about thirteen dollars. Worth every penny and then some, I'd say. And we got the "coolest mom and aunt ever" award for the day. Watch the videos to get the idea. And the promised bonus footage: I forgot to ...