Good thing my Blogger login password automatically saved because I can't remember it.  Good thing there's nothing too complicated about writing a post or I'm sure I would have forgotten how to muddle my way through an entire post start to finish.  This is what I think.  I think I hate what Facebook is doing to any blogging pizazz I may have had.  It's so much easier and faster to update my status, so I do that and somehow feel like that's good enough.  The meat of 2013 is being forgotten and unrecorded. So sad.  So sad for my kids who won't have anything to read because I'm pretty sure when I'm dead they won't have access to my Facebook account.  So let me do some recapping.

We made it through another birthday season.  Basically it went like this:

Ty turned 9.

 He's real man now, with a pocket knife and a watch, so watch out.  He still loves baseball stats and loves playing the sport even more.  Recently school sent home his test results for some state and national standardized tests.  He consistently scored in the 96-98th percentile across the board.  There's no question the kid's got brains.  Now we're just trying to keep his head down to size.  How do you teach confidence while avoiding cockiness, by the way?

Then Reas turned 34, my super hard-working busy man.  I'm happy to report that I think we see more of him now as bishop than we did when he was studying, with the exception of Sundays obviously. Yes, there are some late nights but at least meetings and interviews are scheduled where studying seemed like it was always lurking around needing attention.  Work will have him travelling all over the place this Summer though, including a week working in Costa Rica.  The poor, poor man.  What grief.





Then Lily turned 4.  What to say about Lily? Except you don't know what you'll get until you've got it with her.  One minute she's screaming "You're the meanest thing EVER!" a new favorite phrase, and the next minute she's saying "I love you so much."  Her newest thing - telling us how much she loves us, but not the way most people do it, like the whole "to the moon and back" thing. No. It's always something totally weird and unexpected like, "I love you really, really, really, all the way to Jack's cute little nostril." Yeah, I don't know. She's a funny one.  She loves playing house, ponies, and veterinarian. Recently she confided in me, "I think I want to kiss a boy, but not Daddy, Ty or Jack...a different boy."



Then Claire turned 7, who evidently was so excited about her amazing tower of polka dotted cupcakes that she had the most difficult time blowing out her candles because she couldn't stop smiling and laughing.  Recently Maggie asked Claire why she was so excited about school ending because she thought Claire loved school.  Claire's response, "When I'm at school, I love it!  When I'm at home, I love it!"  That's my girl.  She's always been one who just goes with the flow and is happy where she's at...a great quality I think.




...all in a matter of 7 weeks.  That's a lot of birthday cake to be had.



On another note, Maggie asked if she could spray paint a picture frame for her bedroom.  I was nearly crying proud tears of motherly joy.  Now THAT was a moment.  Look what a natural she is.


A super sweet lady at church has offered to give Maggie organ lessons, pedal and all.  It won't be too long before she'll be up there accompanying the congregation.  I love it!  She's already participated in quite a few musical numbers and has played along on the piano while I play the organ in Sacrament Meeting.  On Mother's Day, we played a piano duet together that we literally spent months preparing for. I love it that we have this talent to work on...it kind of gives us our own special thing, ya know.

And because this picture is too funny not to share, here's Jack, who despite what the picture shows, remains to be the friendliest little thing on the planet.  Recently I posted this status on Facebook -



Today I am home from church with not one, but FOUR feverish, achy children (1 1/2  of whom have got the throw-ups. I say 1/2 because Claire is sleeping with a bowl in hand waiting for the inevitable to happen).  They are all slumbering sickos at the moment.  There's a rare and peaceful quiet which was screaming for some blogging to happen, so here I am.

We have 3 days of school left and we are all SO ready for a break.  Reas will be home a total of one week in the entire month of June, so I'm trying to mentally prepare for the single life with a houseful of kids.  We plan on playing lots of board games, Just Dance marathons, and a whole lot of late night movie watching and smoothie making, after which we'll sleep until 10:00 AM (or at least that's what I'll wish for).  Hopefully along the way some pool owners will take pity on me, so we can keep from melting as well.