Just Keep Swimming

No one really requested swim lessons this year, but I'm determined to get my kids better at it even if we don't have many opportunities to go.  What I really need to do is get a Provo Rec membership so we can go year round.  They really love this indoor facility.  One of these days.

This year I opted to get private lessons so that my kids could progress more than they would in a group class setting.  It was worth every penny.  I've spent too many summers watching my kids spend more time waiting for their turn for instruction rather than getting down to business.  Rowan is still not a natural swimmer, but it was nice to see someone push him to stretch himself.  Nadia, on the other hand, is a little fish!  Her instructor was really impressed with her skill level at her age and she jumped into every lesson with a lot of enthusiasm.

 My little fish.  She did such a good job!

 Poor Rowan.  He really struggles with his breathing.  But he's is awesome at swimming on his back now.

 I thought I would have to spend most of my time wrangling Elsa from jumping in the pool but she was mercifully restrained.  She loves the play part of the pool which is right next to this pool and she didn't try to escape over there once.  I give credit to the bottle.  I'm pretty sure she'll still be having her bottle when she's sixteen years old.  Nadia and Rowan were binky addicts and I made them give that up at 2 years old.  I must be getting to be a push over mom in my old age.

I really love it when I can hit two birds with one stone.  It was so nice to go and get both lessons done at the same time.

Home Sweet Home

I don't have a personal journal, though at times I wish I did so that I had that outlet.  I do want to remember this particular test of patience so I'm documenting it here.  House hunting is hard!  Further complicated by the fact that we want to buy a home in a very desirable area.  My friend who recently finally bought a home had made offers on at least three other places before they got the one she did.  The other offers failed because there were multiple bids and most went over the asking price.  It's funny because most of these homes are fixer uppers and aren't particularly desirable on face value.  The house they bought was only on the market for one day and she didn't even see it before for they bid on it.  She was out of town and her husband saw it, put in a bid over asking price and begged them to cancel the 6 other showings they had scheduled for that day.  To say that it's difficult to buy in the price range we are in would be an understatement.  It seems the housing market is back on the upswing.

My sister says I have champagne taste on a beer budget and that I should just look outside of the area we want.  It's not that this area is particularly affluent, but there certainly are pockets of McMansions around.  Our ward is full of modest homes, but the competition for the area and the schools here puts them on a higher pedestal.  I'm having a hard time differentiating between my own desires and what I feel like the Lord is directing us to.  My patriarchal blessing talks about our home we will raise our family in and says some specific things about it.  All my life I've felt that there was a specific plan and path in store for me.  I was supposed to marry Steven.  I was supposed to have certain experiences in my life.  Seeing life as fateful isn't really endorsed in my faith due to agency.  Spencer W. Kimball's quote about soul mates being an illusion  and a fiction comes to mind.   Yet, I know that that doesn't apply for Steven and I due to his and my patriarchal blessing.  Is it odd that I feel the same way about where we will actually live?

I doubt the Lord cares much about the material blessings that we receive in this life.  But I do feel we need to be here.  The way we got this rental was fortuitous and unconventional and it's difficult for me to think that the Lord didn't have a hand in it.  Living here has been a major blessing in my life.  I know that my son especially needed to be here, go to his school and get to know certain friends.  The same for me as well.  I hate the thought of making him change schools yet again.  I also feel like we need to be here and know the people we know in order to find the house we will eventually raise our family in.  The way that happens may be also fortuitous and unconventional.  We have two neighbors next to us who bought their homes by knocking on doors and asking people if they wanted to sell their homes.  We haven't reached that point yet, but I will admit to being tempted to. 

Anyways, I'm trying not to obsessively check the MLS and just let things happen as they should.  It's difficult to know how involved and aggressive I need to be to make this next step happen.  Steve has always been better at letting the Lord take care of things than I have been.  The money involved also scares me to death.  One thing we cannot afford to do is get into a bidding war.  But I don't know how that will be preventable considering the competition we seem to be up against.  Faith, right?  I just wish I could stop thinking about it and trust that everything will fall into place.  My sister told me to pretend I know that we will be in a home within the next year and to hunker down and prepare for that moment.  Probably good advice if my brain just had an off switch.  Anyways, I wanted to write this down so that when the day comes that things do fall into place, I can reflect on what it felt like to be in the dark, praying that all will work out eventually.

Elsa is Two!

We got through our summer siesta.  Elsa and Steve have birthdays in the same week, which isn't as bad as our Christmas craziness, but it still makes for a busy time.

 Two fingers!  I'm two now!

We had her favorite for dinner- "pony cheese". 

I'm still no cake decorator, but thankfully my kids could care less.  Elsa has developed a recent fascination with garbage trucks.  The happiest day of the week is when our garbage gets picked up.  Any time a large truck goes by our house and Elsa hears it, she hopefully asks "garbage truck?"

History does repeat itself.  Once again the candle won out as the most appealing part of the cake.  She did do better this time though and actually consumed some of the cake.  I tried to make the yummiest frosting I could find to help it go over a little better this time.

 

 The other kids weren't as picky.  I think Rowan had three slices.

As for presents, we stuck with a transportation theme.  I never thought my little girl would pick this, but she was clearly over the moon with the garbage truck toy.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!  We sure love you!

May Flowers

 While cleaning out the van, the girls came out and decided to do likewise to their own rides. 

 Later on, Nadia told me she was bringing me a surprise and not to go into my room until I was done.  This is what I later found.  Nadia is seriously the most loving and giving little girl.  She loves nothing more than giving gifts and expressing her affection.

We've been getting a lot of clothes from Isabelle and Krystal since she's had a baby boy.  Elsa was particularly interested in the bin that was her size.  This ensemble is the result of some of her favorite finds.  Got to love cousin hand-me-downs!

 This dress is one Elsa inherited from her other cousin, Viktoria.

 Pretty girls.

Elsa has gotten very good at giving kisses and hugs to everyone.  Some days she gets really upset if the big kids leave for school without getting their obligatory kiss and hug. 


With school almost out, we decided to hit the new Childrens' museum at Thanksgiving Point with some friends.  We had a blast!  There were lots of kids there since it had just opened a few days before.

 Look up.

 They had a wind tunnel right by the water section.  The kids love going in there and drying off. 

 They had a nice little splash area to cool off outside.

 Elsa's favorite part of the whole museum.  The green button turns on the dryer.  What could be better?  The other two were busy protecting a bank with a large safe from some other kids who were pretending to be robbers.

 After the museum, we came home and celebrated Steve's birthday.  We picked up a Dairy Queen concoction that was declared as the best cake ever from Steve.

This year we didn't spend a lot of money for gifts since we were saving for a house.  Steve's never been much for monetary displays of affection anyways.  At least until he saw Nadia's present.  She sure loves her daddy.

Leave it to Beaver/Elsa

Was there any doubt that this little girl would be the first to break a bone in our family?  Actually it's just a fracture, but still!  It was the case of Elsa versus a heavy lid on a chest in our front entry.  I love that she did this while her father was away at a conference in Florida.  I've also had the privilege of cleaning up remnants of Nadia's stomach bug, which unfortunately did not find their way to the bathroom.  Essentially, this week has been tough and I'm ready to go get some R&R when Steve gets home tomorrow.  I'm not cut out to be a single parent!

Summer Sun

It's been a rough week of playing musical chairs with being sick.  Mother's Day wasn't exactly a restful day, but the children did shower me with love notes and nice affirmations.  Poor Elsa only slept for 2 hours one night and poor Steve took the brunt of that when it was clear that there would be no sleep happening.  Thankfully, we are gradually getting better.

Rowan stayed home one day that week, but still was clearly not feeling up to par.  He was determined not to miss the final day of the chess club he has been attending this year.  They'd been having a tournament and awards were being handed out.  To our surprise, Rowan won third place for his age group.  It's a really large group, so it was quite the accomplishment.  He loves playing chess and will play with anyone willing to indulge him.

Rowan is wearing his baseball shirt and hat because he had practice later that day.  We just started it up and it has fast become another love of his.  The first game he came home and proudly told me "I made a home run!  Well, almost a home run."  He had hit a ball and eventually made it home, which I guess was "almost a home run" in his mind.  I'm grateful for the interests he is gaining and the sense of accomplishment he has shown from trying new things.

The weather has finally perked up here and we have been taking advantage of being outdoors.  I love our yard, both front and back.  I can see the mountains out of nearly every window in our home and the mature trees just make me happy.  I wish we could stay here, but it seems that is not what is in store for us, so the house hunt continues.

Isn't she beautiful?  Elsa would live outside if she could.  We're still going through tantrums about not needing to wear a coat anymore (she determinedly insists), but I think she's starting to understand.  All I have to do is let her out and she will happily entertain herself for hours.  A good backyard is an absolute necessity in our next home.

Nadia has been diligently practicing on her new two wheeled scooter that we got for her.  This scooter came about after a rather scary experience.  Nadia, ever the brave one when it comes to physical feats, was at the park with us on her old three wheeled scooter.  The park has a rather steep hill that we have loved sledding on, but has become a cause for concern in the summer.  We were going home, when to our surprise we saw Nadia gunning to go down the hill in her scooter which has no brakes.  The sidewalk down this path splits at the bottom with a lamppost smack in the middle.  My heart sank when I saw her go despite our yells to her to stop and to both Steve and my surprise, we watched her successfully navigate getting down until she hit the bottom.  There was a significant spill and Steve ended up picking out rocks in her knee that had embedded underneath her skin.  After that, we decided to invest in a scooter that had brakes, along with several talks about not going down hills anymore.

Yes, those are craft foam trophies she had taped onto her shirt.  Ever since Rowan came home with his trophy, she has been a little obsessed with awards.  Elsa's pink car is covered in similar adornment.  She's such a sweetie.

This is the state of Rowan anytime I make a library run.  The kid has already gone through almost all the Harry Potters (we cut him off after book 5), all of the Percy Jackson books, and now he just finished the Lost Hero series.  This only started a month or two ago!  I am scrambling to keep up with his demands.

As far as the pregnancy goes, things are going well.  I eat more than I should and sleep any chance I can get which isn't a lot now that Elsa has officially stopped napping, but otherwise there isn't much to report.  We're having difficulty coming up with another girl name, but hopefully inspiration will hit soon.  It's surreal to me that we will have another child in our home in just a matter of months.

Lego of my lego!

My sister-in-law Chandra brought a lego convention that was in town to our attention, so we went to go check it out with Vesta and Gayle, Austin's grandma.  They brought their boys too of course.  Rowan fought me about going, sometimes he is such a homebody, but once we got there there was plenty of eye candy to keep him and his buddies entertained.

 Jurassic Park

 Nadia's favorite- the Disney Princesses.

 For $25, you too could be the proud, if broke, owner of one of these specialized historic military minifigures.

 Tower of Isengard

 One of my favorite parts of the trip.  I was showing Nadia the mermaids, and she said "Look!  That one is holding one of those fancy toilets!"  Clamshell lids must be pretty impressive to her.

 Can you spot Ariel?

 Ironman is spinning around on the rotors.

 The Lego Pit.  All the kids had fun building creations in this free for all area.  When the employees would return a bin of legos to the mix, it looked like sharks sensing new blood.  They spent a lot of time here.

 Rowan and Austin leaving dejected because I wouldn't buy overpriced legos for them.  It's a hard life.

Just a fun activity for Saturday.  Later we had Isabelle over while her parents went to a movie and Aunt Chandra stopped in for a bit while she went to a friend's graduation.  I wish all Saturdays were this entertaining!