Bunny hill, Our sisters, Prom

You know it is getting along toward Spring when you see bunnies out hopping on the hill! Or at least one bunny. Accompanied by a passel of barefoot children. Look at that lovely rainbow-shaped hop! Nutmeg may be ten years old, but he still has a bounce in his step when the occasion calls for it!

Seb took these cute pictures of them all.

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Here is Clementine dressed up to match a bunny…

…and, terrifyingly, to match a shark. Her expression mirrors Shorky's perfectly!

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Malachi and Daisy got invited to some sort of leadership conference/dance with a friend of theirs. I told them to send me a picture and they didn't remember until they were making a stop at In-n-out afterwards.

And here they are being taught to tango by another friend after their Youth Activity one night

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Clementine likes to ride this horse with "the baby" on it. I think it's a little unnerving, myself, but I suppose it's supposed to be some sort of cherub or victory angel?

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Gus (and therefore also Clementine) has been obsessed with electrical outlets for a long time now. It's that combination of fear/intense interest so many of my kids have had for things (roller coasters, volcanoes, tornadoes). There's an outlet without a cover plate in one of our cupboards, and Gus and Clementine will sit by it for long periods of time talking about how you should not touch it and if you do you will get a bad shock! Gus also tells Clementine, wisely, that there's something called "black air" inside outlets and that's what does the actual shocking. It sounds frankly terrifying.

I got out a book on Electricity to show them and it only added fuel to the fire. It gave Gus the idea to build his own outlet out of magnatiles, specifically so he could stick a pen into it and show Clementine exactly how terrible the electric shock would be.

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These two girls' hair is looking SO long lately! (How would one say that more elegantly? The hair of these two girls? These girls' two heads of hair?) Clementine likes to classify everyone with whether they have "a hair," "a head," or "a haircut." Daisy has "a haircut" (even though she hasn't actually had a haircut for almost a year now). Goldie and Junie have "a hair." And Sam has only "a head," haha, poor Sam.

Junie's long curly hair after having it in a bun

Clementine's hair after having it in a bun

The girls dressed Clementine up one day and took her to ballet with them. She loved it SO much!

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Teddy has been teaching Gus how to ride a bike. I haven't taught any of the kids since maybe Seb?— though Sam probably taught him. But ever since then, they have taught each other (mostly Seb teaching the younger ones; he has a knack for it) and it's so cute. Teddy took up the baton this time and he's got Gus riding around like a pro!

I like the satisfied smile he has on his face.

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Two of our Quebec sister missionaries, Sister Ferry and Sister Veenker (only now we have to remember to call them Emma and Afton!), are going to USU and they drove down to have dinner with us one Sunday. It was SO wonderful! We love them so much! We spent the evening looking at pictures and reminiscing, and all the kids wanted to show them absolutely every single thing we own, and we cried when it was time to say goodbye. We hope they will come visit again soon!

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Daisy started working at Nielsens' Frozen Custard (the family business, apparently, since 4 of 4 work-aged kids have worked there now!) and she likes it. We went to visit her one day. 

Clementine was thrilled by the whole experience!

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The littlest three and I have continued our weekly field trips while the others are at Choir. One day we went to IKEA, where Ziggy greeted with enthusiasm all the dogs that match his own stuffed animal (who happens to be named Ikea).

We got a husky dog to be Ikea's friend! ("Huskea.")

At the Curiosity Museum, there's a little "dance studio" where you can watch a video that teaches you several little dances. I was astonished to see Clementine actually listening and copying the teacher in the video! She loved it!

Sweet little hand-holders on the carousel

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Malachi asked a cute girl in our ward to prom (he and she have been friends for a long time so it was fun to see them get to go to a dance together) and then, since this is probably his last high school dance, he lobbied Sam and me to let Daisy go to the dance in his group too, even though she's not quite 16. His eloquence convinced us, so one of Ky's friends, Clayton, asked Daisy and she was VERY excited! 

She and I went to D.I. where she was totally convinced she would find a dress (I was skeptical), and then she DID find a dress—the perfect peachy-pink one she was imagining, no less. That shows the power of her prayers! It was $8 and all it needed was a little hemming and a petticoat. Amazing.

Malachi (and the other boys, I suppose, but it seemed like mostly Malachi) planned the date and it was a fun (and inexpensive) one. I approve! A scavenger hunt and ride on the ferris wheel at Scheel's for the day date, homemade pizza at our house before the dance, and make-your-own milkshake bar at our house after the dance. Oh, and Ky enlisted me to take the pictures. Well…I was inexpensive. But I was VERY NERVOUS about that, not having done such a thing before. My friend talked me through it ("Act confident," she said, so I tried) and it was actually fine. I know all these particular boy friends of Malachi's pretty well and they are fun, plus I know Daisy and Rebekah (Malachi's date) so it really just was a matter of moving them around and saying "That's it, you're darling, yes, you look great, perfect, wonderful!" Lots of the pictures turned out cute, and luckily I am also proficient at getting mediocre pictures to look better in Photoshop👍🏻 so we were fine.

I did Daisy's hair and it turned out absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself. That's a miracle too because we had my nephew's wedding that day, so we were back and forth between his sealing at the Layton Temple, the wedding lunch, and his reception that evening, and I was trying to help get the pizza and dinner stuff ready for Ky and make sure the house was clean and get ready for the photos, and I only had a short window in which to do Daisy's hair, and if it hadn't worked out…there would have been no second chances.😄

Malachi and Rebekah look like models, with her hair blowing in the wind like that

The boys had to climb walls, naturally; they don't seem to be able to help themselves

I like Malachi's face here

The girls looked like lovely pastel flowers :)

Daisy and Rebekah's dresses were very similar! Both beautiful.

Boutonniere-sniffing shot (Malachi's idea, obviously) 

And there you have it! Malachi's last high school dance (or is it…?) and Daisy's first! I'm so glad they got to experience it together!