September 2011

There was a lot of football going on in September.  The boys switched from the Hawks team to the Panthers this year.  Daniel coached Oliver’s team.  They had practice three times a week, then games every Saturday, usually in different locations from each other, so there was a lot of driving to and from and around and back and forth.

It took some serious planning to keep the younger four entertained while I tried to watch.  They were good sports during the long and hot games.  

Downtown Austin in the background:

I love watching my boys play.

The best days were when we also had a BYU game to finish up the day with.  Cynthia’s a big BYU fan:

Elizabeth told me once that she loved “football saturdays”, because we were gone so much there was never any time to make a mess to have to clean up. 

Both Oliver and Tristan’s regular season is over now, but Tristan has still had bowl games the last few weeks, and he’ll have his last one next Saturday, down in San Antonio. 

One exciting thing about BYU’s football schedule this year was that they played UT here in Austin.  Daniel’s brother-in-law and his little boy came to stay with us and go to the game with Daniel and Tristan.

Beck is just a few weeks older than Lizza.  They had a good time together.

He also got in some good lego time with the boys.

And we all spent some time at the pool together:

Daniel and Henry, about to get soaked:

Daniel flipping the kids into the pool.  After Henry did it the first time, he was super brave about it so we told him he was a studmuffin, just to be funny.  He was a little perplexed and confused about the term (understandably – who made up that word, anyway?), and now he thinks that studmuffin is the official name of that trick.  Every time we went to the pool after that, he would ask, “hey, is Dad going to do that one studmuffin flip to me again?” 

Lizza doing the studmuffin:

Rachel doing the studmuffin:

My three boys:

Here are Tristan, Oliver, and Beck with Jake Heaps at the fireside the night before the BYU/UT game:

At the UT stadium:

So sad that we didn’t win, but I think they all still had fun.

Also in September, Rachel came to the realization that if she wanted a puppy of her own any time soon, she would have to make it herself.  She crafted this one out of cardstock, then mounted it on a little stand and attached a string so she could take it on walks around the kitchen.

As puppies go, it was very well-behaved.

Lizza was inspired to make her own little puppy, too.  Please nobody tell them that some people have real dogs.

More crafting from Rachel included this lovely mermaid (she stapled two pieces of cardstock together to make it long enough):

And this new dress for Lizza (with pockets, even!):   

Cynthia, at 10 1/2 months, decided it was time to start standing up:

Cheese!  Her "smile for the camera” face cracks me up.

She quickly mastered the standing while talking on the cell-phone skill:

And then at 11 months, she started walking.  Tristan’s little R2-D2 robot was good motivation:

She also did other cute things like trying to eat muffins through the oven door:

Since September does not equal fall weather here in Texas, we continued going to the pool when the older kids were in school.  Their favorite way of getting there was by bike – Lizza on her strider and Henry and Cindy in the bike trailer.                                                                     

Cynthia is so lucky to have an older brother who never teases or bothers her.

Henry is not a fan of vegetables.  He is a huge fan of charts, numbers, and any sort of organizational system.  I combined the two, with magical results.  If I put 10 vegetables on his plate, I would give him a chart with the numbers 1-10.  Then after each bite he took, he would circle a number.  He loved it!  I loved it, too, because I didn’t have to be involved with his eating anymore.  The best is that after awhile of doing this he has gotten much better at eating vegetables even without the charts.  Once in a while if I hand him an extra questionable or tricky dinner, he will look at it and then say, “um, Mom, I think I might need a chart for this.”  Is this a crazy system?  Probably.                                                                       

He and Elizabeth learned how to be best buddies again after the older kids started school.  Here they are being animal rescuers with their brother and sister dolls and several hundred frogs and lizards and bugs.  And I think I spy four baby dinosaurs there on the end.  They spent a few hours putting all these creatures in perilous situations and then rescuing them bravely and then lining them up in safe little rows on the table. 

They also enjoy a few rounds of Pretty,Pretty Princess once in awhile, although Henry wants to make it very clear that even when he wins he is not a princess – he is King William. 

Another one of their favorite activities is dancing to fun tunes on the ipod.  Henry’s dancing skills are always entertaining.              

And lastly, here is a dramatic re-enactment of Luke Skywalker hanging upside down in the Wampa Cave, trying with all his might to use the force to get his lightsaber.  Not sure why Luke is dressed in only his skivvies and Cynthia’s Halloween bumblebee costume.                       

August 2011

When Daniel and I got back from our Washington, DC trip at the beginning of August, my parents were able to stay with us for a few more days before heading home. 

We spent lots of time at the pool so we could see all of the new swimming skills my mom had been teaching the kids while we were gone.  I need to go away more often – they learned so much!

Also while we were gone, they had discovered a tiny little splash park near our house (much closer than the pool).  I had been once, but forgotten all about it.  We went there a lot the rest of the summer.  It’s where the picture at the top of the blog was taken.  I was trying to get wonderful pictures of all the kids together, but of course they weren’t turning out how I was imagining them in my brain.

This is a crazy video of Oliver.  He really is a little Bear Grylls in the making.  I’m glad we live near a creek with wildlife so he can have these types of 9-year old boy experiences.  Except I think this really did hurt.

This is Henry being so sick that he fell asleep in the laundry I was folding.  He slept for a few days straight.

Rachel took over my camera to practice taking pictures.  Lizza was a very willing model.  I don’t know where she learned all these poses she does – it’s not from me, and I’m pretty sure it’s not from Daniel. 

Rachel also photographed the wedding of Lizza and Henry/Batman.

The happy couple dancing:

The runaway groom:

The wedding photographer:

The next day Lizza got married again, only this time she didn’t invite the groom for pictures. 

Also in August, I remembered how much I used to love making paper dolls when I was a kid, and I realized my girls would love them.  I found some really cute Victorian paper doll girls online and printed them out.  I was right – they loved them.  They couldn’t believe I had known about such a fabulous thing as paper dolls and never told them about it before.   Rachel said it was the best day of her life (she is both dramatic and easy to please).

Other crafts in August included these long and poky fake fingers made by Rachel out of paper.  All the better to scratch Tristan’s back with!

Henry spent most of August walking around in just his underwear, as we were working on toilet-training, and that seemed the easiest way.  He did great, and it is nice to only have one in diapers now.

His favorite thing about wearing underwear was how much better they are at storing weapons than diapers:

These beautiful princesses are Rachel and her best friend, Addie.  They are joined in one picture by King Henry, who is dressed in his favorite “cool-guy” outfit – underwear plus sandals.  Several times per day he would shout out, “wait, I have to go get my sandals so I can be cool.” 

Oliver turned 9 on August 17th.  He had chocolate pancakes for breakfast and a fun day at the pool.  I framed a picture of us up on stage with Eddie Vedder, along with his ticket and pick, since going to the concert was his birthday present.  I don’t think he regrets making that choice!

Before school started there was a fun party at our neighborhood pool.  They brought in this bouncy waterslide that the kids loved.

Then it was back to school for these three.  Rachel is in 1st grade, Oliver is in 3rd, and Tristan is in 5th. 

It’s nice to still have Lizza at home to help with Cynthia and push her around in toy buckets full of blankets.

She also rigged up this little train using nothing but duct tape.

Here she is explaining it (because nobody explains in a cuter voice than Lizza)

Cynthia tuned 10 months old in August, and started walking around while holding onto things.

She also discovered books.  She loves reading.  One of my favorite things she does is when she goes and grabs a book from the book basket and then tries to back up into my lap to get me to read to her.

Henry spent a whole day dressed in a black leotard pretending he was the Emperor.  He was walking around shooting “cool lightning” out of his hands at everyone, and talking in a really funny emperor voice.  It was mostly a growly voice, but every once in awhile he’d throw in some crazy accents, too. 

Here’s a little video clip of him in all his emperor glory.  I included subtitles on some sections where it seemed like his emperor accent was a little hard to understand. 

I love how he was such a generous emperor and gave grapes to all the people after he choked them with his lightning.  We really love him.

The end.