Let the school year begin...

And the fun. Tomorrow night is our opening night of the school year. We will be starting the year be attending Lord Grenville's masquerade ball, where the children will rendezvous with the Scarlet Pimpernel to receive their quest for the year. We have been busy all week decorating masks, altering dresses, sewing bow ties, and somewhere in there I have been trying to prepare for the academic side of the year as well.

I think the masks turned out great and if you know my children really well you will be able to tell which one belongs to each kid.

8th time

8 years ago Anna and Alahna brought a plant to the hospital to celebrate the birth of their baby brother. Davie did not come home with us, but his plant did. It was a red gerber daisy and we planted it in our backyard hoping it would last through the summer. It survived the desert heat and died as the colder weather approached. The following spring, we were thrilled to see it grow back and bloom again. We have planted many gerber daisies since then, they have become our favorite flower. Some have come back the next year, some have even come back two years. Miraculously, the little plant that Anna and Alahna brought to the hospital 8 years ago has bloomed every summer since.

We spent Davie's birthday in St. George this year with my sister and her family. As his birthday approached I kept thinking, "Do we ever stop celebrating his birthday?".  As we released his balloons and ate our cupcakes I thought more on the question and came to the conclusion that, yes, we will always celebrate Davie's birthday. Because the truth is, we are not just celebrating a birthday, we are celebrating family, and more importantly, our knowledge of eternal families.  We celebrate because Davie's short little life reminds us of why we are here and where we are going. And I hope that by honoring his birthday, we show our living children that we will always love them, no matter what. My sister told me that she could see our children releasing balloons on Davie's birthday with their children. I hope she is right and I hope that red gerber daisy never stops blooming.

Habby 4th of July!

This is part of a speech given by John Adams to the Continental Congress prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence . It stirs my soul every time I read it and makes me want to be a better American. I will be reading it with my family later today, along with my favorite parts of the Declaration. If you want to read the whole speech you can find it here.  

Happy Birthday, America! I love you!

"SINK or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there is a Divinity which shapes our ends... Why put off longer the Declaration of Independence?... You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold."

"Be it so ; be it so."

 If it be the pleasure of heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, while I do live, let me have a country, or at least, the hope of a country, and that a free country.

But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood, but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. 

Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude and of joy. 

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence now, and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER!"-John Adams

ice blocking

A couple of weeks ago the youth went ice blocking for mutual. If you are not familiar with this it is when you take a block of ice and slide down a hill on it. Look at the pictures and judge for yourself if Anna had fun or not.

Not Again.

Not again. This can't be happening again. Is this normal? Those were my thoughts when William tripped last Sunday and broke his arm.

And there were no doubts it was broken.  It was just over a year ago that he broke the other arm. He remembered the drill and by the time we got to the hospital was very calm about the while thing. He talked to the nurses and told them they would need to give him medicine and fix his arm.  The only times he got agitated was positioning his arm for the x-rays and getting the IV put in.

Chillin' with Daddy waiting for the doctor to come.

Putting on his brave face. Almost time to be sedated to have that arm fixed.

When he came out of sedation he wasn't happy about the oxygen mask... until he realized he was just like Darth Vader!

Painted Lady Butterflies

Our butterflies emerged a few weeks ago. We started with 5 caterpillars and had 3 butterflies make it to adulthood. Butterflies are way more fun than tadpoles. We are down to one tadpole and still no frogs.....

forming their Chrysalides

the first one emerges!!!

This one escaped it's habitat and we had to chase it down to put it back in!

On release day one landed on Robert's finger.

Eggs and Quilts

Robert learned how to make scrambled eggs a few weeks ago. He makes some for breakfast several times a week. He even made some for the whole family one morning, and he is super proud of his new abilities!

As soon as school ended I started working on summer project numero uno, new quilts for the boys' beds. With the girls help, they are now done. I learned a lot in the process and the second one went much better than the first. Next project... paint their room!

And yes, William is in a cast. More on that later...