April 2013

April feels like a long time ago.   Here are Henry and Cindy at the table, getting some drawing time in. 

I’m happy that Henry is willing to give drawing lessons to Cynthia, but wondering if it might be better if she learned from her sisters (or not).  These are all quotes I heard as I listened to them drawing:

Both Henry and Cindy, talking at the same time, being equally violent:  “Oh, that’s a really good arrow.  Is that the eyeball?  This is a knight getting lots of blood. . .this is a fire shoot, it’s like a light saber. . . it has blood on it.  they are trying to hide, but the bad guy is trying to kill them, and here’s all the blood from the guy and all those bow and arrows.  and here’s a bone sticking out.”

Me:  Don’t you think it might be time to draw something that’s not violent?

Henry:  Yeah.  Now I’m drawing a Christmas Eve thing. 


Not only does Henry pass down his awesome violent drawing skills, but also his Spiderman jammies.  She saw that jammie shirt in the hand-me-down pile (usually once Henry is done with his clothes I pass them on to my sisters’ kids), and she was not about to let that slip by her. 


Luckily she has Rachel to dress her up like a princess and read to her, too.  We started going to the library a lot, and having new books in the house is almost more than Cindy can stand.  Her favorite thing to do is get what she calls a “whole big stack” of books and get all set up on the couch.  She’ll then read the books carefully one at a time, and make a neat pile on the other side of her.


Here she got herself all set with her Avengers shirt and her quilt, and her whole big stack, and then she asked if I would turn on the song “Radioactive”, by Imagine Dragons.  I guess she felt that was good background music for the super hero book she had checked out at the library. 

She does listen to little kid music once in awhile.  Here she is dressed up like Fancy Nancy (but with her Avengers shirt on underneath), dancing to one of her favorite Raffi songs.  And by dancing, I mean walking around and around in a circle with Iron Man and Captain America.

She is truly a mixture of both her older sisters and her older brothers:

But she knows how to be glamorous when she needs to:

And speaking of being fancy, Elizabeth won our family’s NCAA Basketball Tournament challenge again this year. .


And she chose to spend her $20 prize on a new swimsuit, a fancy shirt, and a pack of gum:

Puzzle boy:                                                     
                                                            
Oliver with a cute little snake he found on the way home from school and thoughtfully brought home to show me:



One of my favorite things in April was my Sister Trip!  Every other year, all of my sisters and I get together with my mom for a weekend (no husbands, no kids – except nursing babies).  This was actually my first time going without having a baby along – Daniel stayed at home with all six. 

Here we are in my mom’s backyard in Utah – our sister-in-law is on the far left, and then the six of us from oldest to youngest:


Usually when we have our Sister Trip, we kick my dad and little brothers out and they go camping or something, but this time we all agreed we wanted them to hang out with us as much as possible.  It was so much fun being all together.  The oldest of the boys is on the left (he’s married to the sister-in-law on the left), the brother in the middle just got back from his mission last year, and the youngest on the right will be a Senior in high school this year.  Also, the dog, Yankee.                 


The nine kids:

My mom with her girls:

My mom with all the kids (my dad was at Sunday meetings when we were taking these – we got one with him later):

Laughing about something:

The whole family:

Funny brothers:

One of the highlights of Sister Trip was the whole family getting to go to a Bikram Yoga class together.  My mom’s been doing it for years, and most of us either do it at home or go to classes.  For her sister gift to us, she arranged for us to have a private session, and it was so much fun.  And hot.  They heat the rooms to 105 degrees.  That’s me in the back, fourth from the left. 


And while doing yoga together was definitely one of the highlights, you can’t have a sister trip without lots of shopping.  And then going back again to return the things that you don’t really need (like those boots).  Marian is the sister just younger than I am, but we like to imagine we’re twins sometimes.


Sister gifts!  My dad snapped these pictures of us while we did our gift exchange.  He loves seeing all his girls together.  We let the brothers sit in to watch.  It was fun seeing what they thought of all the great things we got each other. 


Someday I want to live close to all these people. 


Back in Texas.  Another fun thing in April – the Lumineers concert.  Oliver got to come with us for part of his birthday present this year (we gave all the older kids the option – he was the only one who thought it was worth it.  He loves the Lumineers.  And concerts in general).  


This was our first time at the pool this year.  The older boys were at a baseball game, so I just had these 4 with me.  The water was too cold for me to feel like going in, but they were brave. 


Henry and Cynthia were clearly excited about the splash pad:


Playing at the park next to the pool.  Not sure how Cindy climbed up there.  I’m in denial that she’s starting to be a big kid, although she’s been ready to be a big kid since she was born.  She’s in that funny in-between stage where she wants to be whatever is the most convenient.  She wants to do everything herself, but if she can’t do it, she’ll pull out the baby card, as if it’s not her fault, and say, “Mom, can you help me with this?  It’s too tricky for babies to do.”                                                       


Rachel attempting to give an underdog:

Spiders!  Henry might be losing his swimsuit here (and do other people call swinging this way a spider, too?  or was that just my family?)


Good friends (most of the time):

We taught the kids a new game (Star Wars Monopoly), and Tristan was hooked.  Now he’s just sad that he can’t get everyone to play with him every single day.  He is such a game boy. 


Also in April – more soccer. 

Lizza’s team (back row, third from left):

Rachel’s team (front row, left):

And lots and lots of baseball.  Oliver’s team won the mid-season tournament.  Tristan didn’t get to play quite as many games as Oliver;  I just realized that in March I forgot to write about how he fell at a scout camp and landed on his shoulder and re-broke his collarbone, just 3 months after breaking it the first time.  It was a little bit frustrating to both him and his coach (Daniel), but he healed quickly and was able to get back to playing before the season ended.                                           



That’s it for April.