Regular life did continue during August and September…even with Baby
Clementine making everything feel new and different. We had
another rainbow over the hill! And lots of other pretty skies. We
love the rain we've been getting!
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• I felt an urge to document some of the great meals Sam made me the week
after Clementine was born. He always takes such good care of me (and it
helped a lot that my mom took all the younger kids to stay with her for a
few days!). I love eating after a baby is born—I always feel like during
those last couple months of pregnancy, nothing really tastes as good and my
appetite is decreased (or maybe just my stomach space is too small)—but
whatever it is, I'm always ravenous once the baby comes!
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• This is a darling little card/box Daisy made for me when Clementine was
born. I don't know how she managed to make it! It starts out as a neat little
box, and when you take off the lid it unfolds like a flower, and the corners
are hearts. She had some cute little thing on every side—a bunny shape cut
from velvet, a little cut-out Clementine and Fern, a tiny file folder with
pictures in it, and a little book. Plus a baby Clementine made out of a
truffle tucked inside! It was the cutest!
• Speaking of Daisy, she gets to start wearing pointe shoes in ballet this
year, apparently! I was surprised about that because I thought you had to be
really good to dance en pointe (no offense to Daisy of course;
she IS good, but she is also still quite a beginner!), but it was fun to go
have the pointe shoe fitting with her and see all the pretty ballet shoes in
the shop. She hopes she will be as tall as Junie when she wears them :)
• Ziggy's penchant for hats continues. Here he is in a penguin suit, wearing
what looks to me like an Ancient Egyptian royal headdress. But which is
actually a hanging pocket organizer for file folders. I don't know how or why
he is wearing it, only that it has a very regal effect!
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And more Ziggy costumes. He is the right size to fit a whole bunch of the
cutest ones right now—the penguin, the bear and the monkey, the bunny (not
pictured…I guess? I'm sure it will show up in a picture one of these days),
and of course the UPS man, which is worn so often I don't even think of it
as a costume anymore.
• And Ziggy, as it happens, had a birthday in September and can you believe he
is FOUR?!! Just the best age. I love four-year-olds. His birthday dinner was
the first time we ALL, including Clementine, ate at the table together! I had
to use the wide-angle lens to fit everyone :)
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For his birthday we got him a hat stand for his bedroom, and five more hats
(hard hat, frog hat, owl hat, fox hat newsboy cap). AND just by total
chance, his Grandma Nielson gave him a cowboy hat for his birthday too! He
was very pleased with his windfall of hats, and continues to rotate through
them daily.
Foxy hat! And birthday pie.
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• Seb has been running hard as usual this season. He had a nasty bout of shin
splints over the summer (thus the pink tape in the middle picture, which I
think he actually quite liked) but still managed to hike Timp with his team
and recover enough to start racing in August. He's been running Varsity all
year and doing great. We love watching him run, his long flowing hair blowing
behind him in the wind… :)
• Maybe I already wrote about the new bike Seb saved up for for two years and
finally got? One of the things he did to earn money was a HUGE clean-up and
organization of our garage, including building and installing new cabinets. I
love having the tools organized, and the outside fridge and garbage cans
right by the door to inside! Saves me many steps a day, I'm sure! Here
is some of his handiwork. And the bike.
• Reading outside in the dimming twilight. (Gussie too; what a precocious
child, reading chapter books already!) I already miss these warm summery
evenings.
• Miss Marigold by some of our marigolds (she planted these herself)
• My brother Philip got season tickets to the BYU football games, so for
awhile there we were seeing him every weekend (he lives in California) and it
was so great! He brought a different one of his kids up each time. We loved
getting a little extra time with them and having Philip here for things like
Abe's ordination to the office of Elder. Abe has always reminded me a bit of
Philip, and more so as he gets older. With Philip here so often, I became
hopelessly confused, and I'm STILL saying "Philip" half the time when I mean
to say "Abe," and vice versa!
Me, Abe, my Mom, and Seb lounging on the piano bench in a debonair fashion
My mom, me, and my FOUR DAUGHTERS
Abe, Philip, and Adam before the game
Goldie and Adam playing a cutthroat game of foosball
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• Gussie continues to stuff himself into boxes whenever possible. The
picture on the left doesn't look like he's in a box, but he is inside the
small compartment of that bench, with a blanket stuffed in with him (in
case he wasn't squished enough).
He's such a pleasant little guy (except when he's yelling "noooo!" at his
brothers)
This is one day when he was sick. Look how pale he is! :(
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But not for long! What a happy little squish! I especially like him in
this bunny hat. He likes wearing it, too (Ziggy's influence, perhaps?)
• We have lived in this house for ONE YEAR! We have loved every season here.
We had a house anniversary party to celebrate. We ate Cafe Rio out on the
deck, and I made a game where I took pictures of random objects in the house
and people had to guess what and where the objects were. Actually, I had
Malachi take the pictures, which meant we had lots of things no one could
guess. Things like "the chain on the lamp in Sam's office" and "the
underside of the piano." Fun!
What's a party without some laundry hanging on the line?
Junie and Goldie provided the decorations. I hope you notice the marigolds
adorning Junie's sign, and the sunflowers tied around each porch post in the
top picture! It was very festive.
Marigold decorated Gussie too…as one does. (Happy Anivershy!)
• One night for family home evening we played badminton up on the hill. It
was such a beautiful evening! I think we managed to hit the birdie back and
forth across the net about 3 times in an hour, but that didn't bother us too
much. Ziggy ran around tripping over the ropes and singing the "Dark Vadar
song" (scary) and Gus ran around tripping over the ropes even more and
trying to imitate Ziggy, and I sat on a chair and nursed Clementine and felt
quite satisfied with the proceedings. (Where were all the big boys? I don't
remember. Somewhere, I'm sure.)
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In the two pictures on the right, Gus is saying "OooooOOOOoooo!" at the pretty
moon.
