w17: A colorful life

April 21-27, 2013

After an incident that happened this week I realized that I live a colorful life. Sometimes it can be easy to see things in black or grey as life gets busy, hard or mundane. If we LOOK for it we can always find the color. And it sure brightens the day.
               
I'm sharing with you the color of our week.

I was getting dinner ready when I realized Lucy was quiet and missing. Time to investigate. I found her  and the Ariel barbie like this:

She wasn't the least bit sorry and when asked why her response was, "Tryin' be Ariel."

How does she think up this stuff? I had to turn my head so she wouldn't see me laugh. After the ever important lesson that our body is a temple and we don't write on it she went straight into the bath. 


                                                     
On Thursday Ruth had her dance recital. This was a highly anticipated event. We packed her bag with all the supplies we would need {makeup, hair ties, gel and spray.} Bathed and sprayed perfume, lathered and lotioned. Its a lot of work to get these girls ready for the stage. We went to Rite Aid looking for glitter spray for her hair {a must} and couldn't find it. But...we did come across these super cute and fun stick on nails. There was enough for Emma to do it too.

 "I just love my nails so much! My hands are happy now."

The thing I love the most about this particular dance experience is that three cousins got to do it together. Seriously, how fun is that?!! And they are sooo cute together. 

While they were a little timid they did their dances perfectly. They danced to "Rockin Robin" and " " with a white umbrella prop. I love seeing Ruth's smiling face when she dances. They did two songs and then the teacher gave our awards for all the toddler age groups {I've never seen that before.} We all snuck out after that to celebrate Brooke's 5th Birthday with pizza and pop in the park. The weather was so gorgeous. You could not have asked for a more beautiful day. So proud of these dancin cousins. LOVES!

Ruth's recital present was a pink umbrella :) and a dress that has 3 ballerinas on it {it reminded me of the 3 dancing cousins.} She has tried to wear it every day since the recital and you know there is plenty of dancin under the umbrella going on around this house. 

               

We made 72 hour kits with the Cub Scouts on Tuesday. I decided this would be a GREAT time to cross this off my {life-long} to-do list while teaching the cubs about being prepared for an emergency. It was slightly crazy trying to put together my 8 kits while helping the cubs but I am blessed with a uBer patient co-leader {Sheryl Johnson.} My own kids were very excited about the kits. We still have a few items to put inside our buckets {clothing and I'd like to do some more food.} BUT it feels lovely to have put a good dent in something I've wanted to get done for a LONG time.

I have no words for Spencer's current smile. I can only hope its a very short phase.

                                           
Since spring is in full force my little hill has become one large weed mountain. I feel like we live on a dump. It has really overwhelmed me the past two weeks. While I have never sprayed weeds before I am confident that Austin and I could learn how. But it hasn't been calm enough {windy wise} to spray. So I decided that there was one little patch along side of the house that I could tackle and beautify. The kids and I set to work. We completely weeded and removed rocks one week. The following week we made a trip to Home Depot and purchased items to make our beautify vision come true. And we finished it up the end of this week. I'm so happy with how it looks!

This is the side walk leading to our front door. You can see the "before" amount of weeds by looking at the other side of the side walk. Naturally we picked the windiest day to work, it was very cold. 

And the finished. There is another pot on the other side of the beginning of the sidewalk. It feels great to have something pretty and hopefully low maintenance.  The girls have been super great about watering the flowers. Hopefully that will continue into July...This bit of color makes me smile every time I drive up to the house. Maybe I CAN tackle other outside projects ;)

                
Spencer was working on back flips at gymnastics this week and making pretty good progress. I asked him if he was still interested in doing team, "Ya. It's always been my dream." Maybe after soccer is over in 2 weeks we can start working on that dream. I was impressed with Austin's attempts also. We definitely need to get another trampoline. 

                         
Friday after school, dance and a birthday party we had a dessert social at the church. Again the weather was beautiful. The attendance was small but everyone there had a great time visiting. The sprinklers were on at the church and at the end our kids started running through them. I love the simple joys of childhood. And summer. In my mind they are intertwined. Emma chatting with a friend like they haven't seen each other in years. Lucy running around the outside circle of sitting adults so she can play "Ashes." Spencer losing yet another pair of shoes. Austin being leader of the pack. Ruth making a fort with two boys in the bushes.

Saturday, like every other day of the week, was busy with activity. Early morning soccer, singing at a funeral, temple and a stake dance for me {and endless work for Kurt} to finish it off. Some life lessons need to be relearned over and over. Communicate is Key. Going to the temple is never convenient but it is always worth it. We did a great sealing sessions. I know we are blessed for our temple service. Other noteworthy things, we finished up the last ward conference today. I do enjoy the opportunity to get to know so many inspiring leaders and valiant youth.

I am amazed at the beauty of the tulips at the temple. Each week I think they are the prettiest I've ever seen them. And the following week they manage to be even more gorgeous. I truly think the love of the temple and its sacred work brings a heavenly beauty that cannot be compared.

                                   

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Romans Reflections
- Ruth is still allergic to the sun. I was so grateful to find a "Sun Skin" at Costco. It is a light weight jacket made of the swim suit material. It is perfect because it zips up like a jacket, has a hood and is like weight so she doesn't have to sweat in long sleeves all summer long. So grateful to find things that make life easier. Meanwhile the tiny smattering of freckles found on her cheeks are precious.

- Spencer is such a cute missionary. For one of his homework assignments he had to write what his favorite song was and the words of it. Check out what he {and his teacher} wrote:

- Speaking of this song Lucy has just realized its existence. Before now it has been purely "Popcorn" or the song I sing at bedtime "We love Lucy...we are a happy family." She is now learning the words of "I am a child of God." Our favorite is that I am a child of God comes out as "I am a choco-late." Adorable.
- I think my nesting is rubbing off on Emma Lynn. I want to get the bedrooms decorated and she is thrilled with this idea. We went to Jo-Anns this week and she bought a large canvas. She is sketching a landscape to paint. She is overwhelmed with the possibilities, "There is just so much I could paint." Not to mention planning mommy dates completely around shopping for bedroom decor.
- Lucy wanted to see dad. So she went to the photo album and found a picture, "Hi dad."
- Austin had a field trip this week. They toured BSU campus. His first comment was, "there were a lot of people in really short shorts." I guess he is old enough to start noticing those things. Seems big to me. Like real issues to worry/teach. But after we got past that there was lots of positive, fact filled info in true Austin form.
- Lucy's hair was very static-y and it was really bugging her, "Ahhh my hair's TOO big."