Week One - Summer Utah Trip

We've been busy!

Saturday - hiked to falls on big cottonwood canyon w nanna and poppi, Draper days with Todd and Nat, ran to the Rees' there

Sunday - church, quiet afternoon, Sunday dinner with all the family

Monday - thanksgiving point farm with nanna and Nat and the kids, played at Rees', went to dinner at The Mayan, kids went to 17 miracles with Nanna and Poppi and we visited with Todd and Nat.

Tuesday - Blake Finklea's birthday, children's museum, Heidi's house, temple square, dinner at the Lion House with Poppi, beautiful stormy sunset.

Wednesday - kids went to zookeeper with Nanna, lunch at Olive Garden, chuck E cheese w cousins, Wheeler Farm (kids milked the cows), sleepover at Nanna's w everybody!

Thursday - to Provo, ate at Brick Oven, walked all around BYU w the kids, slept at grandma Goesch's house. Visited dad's grave, went on a date w Ty to riverwoods mall.

Friday - hiked the Y with Luke ash and Jake!! Went to 7 peaks water park. Got a sitter and went to dinner and a movie with Steve and Shauna, Todd and Nat.

Saturday - school clothes shopping at park city outlets.






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Bad time to be late

We are in Salt Lake City this week. Staying busy and having fun with family. Today was little Blake's birthday and he wanted all of us to go to the children's museum to celebrate. We planned to meet there at 12:30.

I let Claire sleep a few extra minutes of her morning nap so we were running late. At 12:32 Heidi called me and in an urgent whisper says, "where are you!? I am standing right by Kate Gosselin and her eight kids! They are here at the museum!!"

Everyone in our family knows what a ginormous fan Ashley is of those kids! She can name them instantly on sight, list them in birth order, tell you who she'd like to play with most and what everyone's favorite things are. We own many seasons of the show and it's on at one point during most days at our house. So I was dying! How could I have been late?! I am never late! And if I'd been on time, we'd have been checking in right along side them (they ultimately decided not to go in).

So by the time we arrived they had gone. Nana scouted out the mall for us and found them before long, reporting that they were going into the movie theater. Ashley and I left the museum, bought tickets for the next kids show and went in, peeking into theaters we thought they might be in. And what do you know, but in Cars 2 we spotted a bleach blond lady, her security guard and eight little gosselins in a row. Jackpot.

Nothing too exciting came after that. We sat down in their row, with about ten empty seats between Ashley and them. Then we moved and sat right behind them. Ashley recognized the girls as they stood to get popcorn from their mom. But I was too chicken to say or do anything more. What do I do, invite them to dinner, to come play, or see if ash could sit by them? .... I couldn't muster the courage....and worried I would embarrassed myself and get thrown out of the place.

So we'll chalk it up as a fun thing, Ashley's first star sighting! So close, and yet so far away. And no pictures darn it!


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Mavala Stop

We've had some exciting developments happening with Ashley this summer. She stopped sucking her finger, and lost her top two teeth!!

At church a few weeks ago a friend was talking about this stuff she ordered online to help her children stop sucking their thumbs called Mavala Stop. She had four little ones who sucked their fingers and she told us they all stopped within a few days of trying this. You paint it on their nails and it tastes terrible, similar to the stuff sold in drug stores but more potent I guess.

She offered to share and several of us moms took her up on the offer. For the last month we have been calling around to see when it can be our turn to have it, and all of us have had success!

Now the habit is broken for Ash, but night-time is hard as she will do it without realizing in her sleep. So we tape a sock over her hand and it seems to be working great! She is ready for the change!

The timing worked out perfectly with losing her top two teeth so the new ones have a chance to come in as they should. It always makes me a little sad when this happens to kids because they never look the same. Especially when their BIG new teeth come in, they've grown up.

Ashley is a beautiful little girl whose turning into a lovely young lady before our eyes. We love her!


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Fishing on the 4th!

At the place we stayed on the 4th we could go fishing. The real men were separated from the boys when it came time to unhook the smelly creatures from the lines. Pretty funny stuff. Blake looks like he's wearing half Ali's wedding dress for the occasion, but really it's just a towel over his swimsuit. ;)





I love these cousin pictures, and I look forward to taking more in a few weeks when we visit our Utah cousins who we miss so much! We have't seen them since Christmas, which is way too long. Cousins are the bomb.com

8 months and becoming a little lady

The bear is 8 months old already. We love the stage she's in because she is a true baby! Not a newborn or an infant, nor a crawler or a toddler. She's a cute cuddly baby - a stage thats gone in a blink. When we pick her up she recognizes us and greets us with a smile and enthusiastic leg kicks. She sits contently on the floor and plays with toys, not yet interested in going anywhere. She squeals often and loves to hear herself sing, in fact, she's already mastered a lovely piece we call "The song of the dying bird" which she likes to perform over and over for us in quiet places like the car, a restaurant or at church. In it, she holds a throaty high pitched growl for what seems minutes at a time. Truly beautiful. I'll try to record it sometime.
She continues to function like clockwork on the schedule I outlined last month. She makes mothering easy. She's so quiet when she wakes up, sucking on her fingers, that I splurged on a video monitor so I could see when she's awake and go get her before she has to start crying from hunger or boredom. Its the least I could do I figured since she requires so little.
Her hair continues to come in and draws continual comments from family, friends and strangers. I tell people that she is the perfect mix of all her siblings: Ashley's hair, Jake's face and Luke's temperament. I love it.
We went to a resort in Scottsdale for the 4th of July. Tyler had to go into work the next morning so I was on my own to take the kids out swimming and to have some fun before we checked out. I of course attracted an audience of people who were sitting around the otherwise quiet pool, glancing up from their books often to observe the lady with four kids. I wondered what they were thinking as they watched all of us interact and hoped they could see how happy I am to be their mom. It made me think about how much I love them and how much joy each child brings us individually and collectively. This is the thing about having a big family, you can't imagine life any other way.
We certainly are grateful for our Claire. She is a cherry on top - in more ways than one! ;)

Jake the man

I want to put a word in about Jake as lately he has been making remarkable strides in life! In May Tyler and I decided that we will start him in Kindergarten this fall. We want him to be grouped in close to Ashley and Luke throughout school, as the three of them are awesome for each other. Since then we have been talking to Jake a lot about next year, going to Cortina with the big kids and about behavior that is expected when you're a kindergartner (like wiping your own bottom, not coloring on your body, those types of things.) He's soaking it all in like a sponge. And he is stepping up to the plate. The other day I complimented him on his obedience and said, "wow, Jake!" You're really listening to mommy well today and setting a good example for luke and ashley!" He looked at me with a new face of confidence and said, "yeah, cause remember, I'm getting ready for Cortina!?" I loved it. He is such a good boy. A curious, active, funny boy by nature. But so sweet and loving and good-hearted. Much like his name-sake, my dad, Mark.

Summer Creativity

Yesterday after leaving the kids with a sitter for a few hours it was clear they needed some mental and physical stimulation when I got home. I took them out to the pool where they continued pestering each other, so I got creative. I told Luke he could get out and collapse the plastic table we had on the patio to see if he could use it as a surf board. He loved the idea. The project kept him busy for a half hour pulling, pushing and climbing on top of the heavy awkward thing. He reminded me of a polar bear at the zoo, wrestling with a large plastic barrel or something that his keepers had given him for the same purpose: to stimulate his mind and tired his muscles!
Finally the idea came to all the kids to turn the table into a water slide. After many more minutes and failed attempts Luke was exhausted. But they had come up with a solution that thrilled them! I had watched the entire thing and was thoroughly amused. Not half bad I don't think, as long as the table legs don't give out. ;)




(of course Luke didn't want to slide, he chose to use it as a slippery launching pad...always taking it to the next level.)

A blast from the past

Ash 8 mths, 2004 - Claire, 8 mths, 2011