Daily Life

We have been very busy. Carol gets up every school day at 5:30am and cleans her room, reads (listens to) her scriptures, practices the piano and cello and feeds the animals. I never have to remind her. She also is busy with school orchestra, school choir, cello and piano lessons, activity days, and East Valley Youth Symphony.

Major also gets up at 6:00am with no reminders and cleans his room, reads his scriptures and a book, practices the piano and has added the violin to his many talents. His teacher is amazed at his speed of progress, of course! He is also doing flag football, cub scouts, school orchestra, piano and violin lessons.

Lucy and Juliette need lots of reminders. We are starting a new "Miracle Music" point system that Alice loaned me to try to get them trained. I guess Carol and Major's example just isn't enough. They are sweet little girls and are involved in dance and tumbling.
Lucy also started the piano this year.
Juliette wants to do the violin and gets it out and "practices" everyday.

We have added a gray rabbit to our animal collection. Some people in our neighborhood were selling them at their garage sale. (They have lots more if anyone wants one.) It is really cute and I like it better than the cats. It's name is Lulu. We are calling it a girl. It seems to be fine around the cats. The cats are scared of it.

Teenager Shoes

I'm not much into fashion. I pretty much do my own thing. Clint, Carol and Major do their own thing too. But Lucy and now Juliette seem to know what is going on. The first day of preschool Lucy noticed all "the cute shoes" of the other people. (She has the most shoes in our family.) She also notices purses and hairstyles. She is always trying to put her hair up, twisted, in a clip. I suppose that style could have a name, but I don't know what it is, and that was last year's style anyway, I think. She is particular about what she wears and likes to mix and match, sometimes not very successfully.

Now Juliette seems to be picking up on things, although she still loves her overalls. This morning she told me that there is a boy in her kindergarten class that wears "teenager shoes". She said they were black. I was helping in her class today so she showed me that boy. He was wearing "Vans". So I guess I now have two girls to keep me up to date. But I'm still going to do my own thing. Sorry, but I like black! I probably would have been "gothic" as a teenager! ha ha!

Nancy D.

On Wednesday Nancy D. came to visit. We had such a great time with her. Wednesday night my parents came to dinner and Thursday Liz and Dave came. Every morning she would inspire the kids with their practicing and encourage them with their homework. It was great! Thursday night we got the kids to bed and went to see “Hairspray”. It was great! Friday night we visited Diane, Alice, Stephanie and Christian. Then Nancy D. treated the kids to toys from the dollar store. They loved that! Then we went out to eat at the Golden Corral. The kids had been wanting to go there for a long time. Saturday morning she had to leave. Juliette was especially sad. She told me she wished Nancy D. could stay for 25 days. We hope she comes again soon.

First Day of School!

First day of school! Everyone had a great day! We switched schools so the kids were really nervous about making friends. They all seemed to find someone to play with and liked their teachers too. I was worried about leaving Juliette, but she did great! This is the only year they will all be at the same school.

Bluewater 2007

We spent a wonderful week at the family ranch in Bluewater! It was so relaxing! I got into crocheting and made four dishcloths. It was very relaxing to me. I didn’t even crack my book! I took a nap everyday and had a great time! Clint came the whole week too, which was a blessing! I was glad to let him give the kids quad rides!
Major, Penn and Cole made up a funny skit called "The Three Blind Mice". The boys spent most of their days in the fort up on the hill. I hardly ever saw him. Clint killed a rattlesnake and Major got the rattle. We were all very proud of Clint!
Clint and David doing karaoke.
Clint at the morning yoga class.
Carol with her ant farm. Carol loved making things and playing with her cousins.
Swimming in the water tank.
Lucy always had hay in her hair from playing in the barn.
Juliette eating watermelon in the competition for the treasure hunt.
Lucy and Juliette performing "Mr. Sun" at the evening show.

Juliette and Mary with their cactus creations.
Celebrating Andrew's birthday.
My brother Stephen surprised us all by announcing his engagement to Leone. We are all very happy for them!

July 22, 2007

Well the excitement two weeks ago is: Juliette lost her first tooth and Carol got a black eye. I was surprised when Juliette's tooth fell out. She hasn't even started Kindergarten! She is already growing up too fast! Carol got a black eye from swim lessons. I was able to get us all in the pool at the same time this year. I'm doing water exercise, Lucy and Juliette are doing regular swim lessons, Major is doing water polo and Carol was doing synchronized swimming. Today her teacher accidentally kicked her in the face. She had her goggles on. It was a big scene as everyone had to exit the pool while they took care of the emergency. She was bleeding a lot from her nose and it looked really bad! She was very brave and didn't cry too much.

This week Carol had two sewing classes from the sweet little ladies at the Bernina store. They were private lessons since no one else showed up. She made a cute game bag and a tiered skirt. The other day she made a bag for her MP3 player all by herself (almost). Friday night we had a big ward water party in our front yard. It was fun! Saturday I took the girls to see “The Little Mermaid” at the Hale Theatre. It was really cute. That night the kids sang at the stake pioneer celebration. They sang “In Our Lovely Deseret”. Each child sang a verse. Juliette went last and was so cute! She sang really loud. This was her first time to perform, so we weren’t sure what to expect. She also had a small acting part. She had to run out on stage and pretend like she was receiving a piece of bread. She did great on that too.

Aspen Grove

Last week we went to Aspen Grove, near Sundance, in Utah. It was fun, but we didn’t get much sleep so we are all exhausted. The Brown family and a few friends took up two family lodges for a total of 63 people. All of Clint’s brothers and sisters came and all but four grandchildren. We were the biggest family reunion there. They keep you really busy at Aspen Grove. I didn’t have much time to read. My favorite part was learning the pottery wheel. Clint enjoyed the lectures. We knew both the guest speakers. Robert Freeman spoke on his book “Saints in War”. It was really interesting and spiritual. I especially enjoyed him. The other speaker was Chad Kerby. He is a seminary teacher and very entertaining. We had fun visiting with both of them. Carol’s favorite part was making a movie with her group. They showed it on the last day. It was a werewolf movie – lots of running around and screaming. She also enjoyed the miniature golf, soda pop at meals, her friends from her group, and arts and crafts. Major loved his group and made lots of friends also. He loved playing the games at the family activities, board games with his sisters and friends, and racket ball with dad. Carol and Major both saw kids from school. Lucy loved the store. She was constantly buying candy. All the kids brought their own money and bought lots of junk. She also loved sleeping on the top of the bunk bed in our room. Juliette loved the ice cream that dad treated us to several times. They gave huge scoops! She also loved swimming. The other kids thought the pool was too cold, but Juliette loved the baby pool and it was nice and warm. After check out we flew to Seattle to meet my brother's girlfriend. We ate Indian food and visited a park and the troll under the bridge. We flew home the next day. We had a great time!