Spiders, Bats, and Other Creepy Things

Tonight, Jonah was wearing his Batman costume, as usual, when he and Dane simultaneously got stuck in a gooey spider trap that Kev had set out. After I cleaned their sticky feet, Jonah quietly said, "Spider traps are for spiders. Not bats."

Routine?

According to so many friends whose children are now grown, what seems to be routine for so many years will actually someday fade into the distant past and become less memorable. Given that, and the fact that my brain is rapidly turning to mush anyway, I thought I would jot down one of our favorite "routine" pasttimes......

One of our favorite ways to spend an evening is to visit my parents, "Papa" and "Abba". We just came from there tonight, and although our visits vary each time, there are recurring themes to each visit. For instance, the drive-up/park/get-out-of-the-car-and-in-to-the-house portion of our visit is always brightened with mom, dad, or both coming out to the car smiling, waving, and helping unbuckle and unload the kiddos. The kids are always full of excitement and love to tell Abba and/or Papa their latest (random!) thoughts of the moment! Usually, our first stop out of the car is Papa's pirate ship where he is constantly working. Liza, Jonah and Dane love to climb up on the decks of the ship, help with minor building assignments Papa gives them, and steer the ships very-realistic wheel.  Then its off to fly the treehouse airplane, sit in the ship's suspended netting, climb on the monkey bars or play on the teeter totter and we are still only in the first 10 minutes of our visit! Somewhere within playtime, Abba always works in a snack, and someone always works in an injury (thankfully all minor so far). Once the kids are fed, inside we go where Papa puts on "Horsies Dancing" (Man of LaMancha) for them to watch while the adults snack on Abba's latest culinary greats. Tonight she had made tomato bread, chicken salad and banana bread! We are in spoiled city whenever we are in Abba's kitchen! Liza likes to go back to the American Girl room that she and Abba have created, where all of the American Girl doll treasures in Abba's house are kept! My favorite are the doll-size theatre chairs. Liza loves to look in all of the little boxes that house different doll paraphenalia and oooo and aaahhhh at each little piece. If we are lucky, it is usually around this portion of our visit that Kev makes his appearance and the kids all run to him and give him hugs!

Sometimes we swim together, sometimes we play with toys (Papa's robot is a hit), sometimes we color or do artwork, but always some sort of adventure emerges. Once, Papa climbed up on the pool roof to spray several bees nests while Abba held her breath and made a plan for his fall from the pool below! Tonight we found another bees nest in the tree house where the kids were snacking, so everyone gathered around to watch him spray that one too. 

The consistent theme, however, is abundant love where time stands still. It's not Abba's and Papa's house that engenders those qualities; it is their loving and generous hearts that are so willing to fully invest into our family. We always leave their home with far more than we came with, in every sense. 

No visit to Papas and Abbas would be complete without a dance session in the living room with Papa at the piano! The kids go wild while he plays, running, skipping, jumping, singing, twirling, and oh yes, crashing (Dane and Liza hit pretty hard tonight) until each song is over, when they immediately fall to the floor and lay on their backs until Papa starts the next song. The glee of Christmas morning is the only competition in our Top Few Precious Moments collection - the delight of the kids dancing and Papa playing is extremely sweet. Papa always has 1 or 2 kids on his lap "assisting" him with his dance numbers; maybe some future pianists will be born from this fun? After dancing, we either hit the road, or on a warm evening like tonight, go out on the front lawn for more running, playing and crashing (Dane and Liza again ran into each other on the grass tonight.....time for glasses for them?) Baseball was a popular game tonight, with the kids batting at the ball with pool floaties Abba has cut for them to swing. Papa helped Liza practice her pitching and batting, and Abba pitched a nerf football to the twins for them to hit. Will loved his "bat" and as usual, we stayed until about 2 minutes before his bedtime, milking every last second of our playtime with Papa and Abba! One of the most predictable parts of our routine is that Papa and Abba help us get the kids situated in the car, someone remembers that we have forgotten (again) to load Ruger, and then Abba goes back into the house to package up any extra food to send home with us! They always leave us with our hands and hearts full (and our kids tired!); we are so thankful that we have such devoted grandparents who so generously and willingly share their lives with us!

Liza's first day of second grade at Hannah Holbrook Elementary with Mrs. Kerr, a teacher that we loved all year long. 

All About Liza

From the time Liza was a teeny baby, we knew the heavens had sent us a rare and beautiful shining star.  Now that she is about to enter second grade (waaa), I am compelled to jot down a few notes about her blossoming personality, interests and skills.

Liza's contagious laugh has long been her happy trademark - everywhere we go, even strangers comment that her laugh lifts them! Things that make Liza laugh: funny stories, tickle wars and funny shows.  

Just within the past few months, she seems to be truly enjoying and appreciating her brothers. Dane and Jonah are big enough now to be actual playmates for her, and she delights in sharing her Littlest PetShop, Barbies, American Girls, or whatever the flavor of the day is with them. They hang on every word she says as she models how to play with the various toys. She is generally happy to share, as long as the "sharee" asks her permission first. 

This summer she has developed a new confidence....I think it may have stemmed from her Groove dance performances at Raging Waters and the Bountiful parade. She just unleashed and danced with such attitude - so great - perhaps we have uncovered one of her fortes. Along with her voice lessons, swimming lessons, art lessons and scrapbooking classes, this summer has been a full one for her. Liza is great at most everything she tries - her voice coach has already asked her to perform in church (Liza isn't sure about that one), her swimming teacher said she was a true natural, relaxed and athletic swimmer, and her scrapbooking teacher said that in her 3-day class, she completed more pages than any of the other girls there (all of whom were older than Liza)! She would just focus intensely for the entire class and burn through stacks of paper.....she created a darling Sizzlin Summer scrapbook that she is proud of.  She excels in so many areas.

This week, Kevin has been working with her on 2nd and 3rd grade math. She is whizzing through her multiplication tables and division is next. Go Liza! Of course, she is motivated by the money Kev pays her to get through her studies......she is saving up to by the American Girl Bitty Twins, but hey, whatever works, right?

American Girl could be its own topic....for now let's just say she is obsessed!

Liza has an amazing combination of strength in spirit, heart and mind. Her spirit is sensitive and sweet - she is acutely aware of every emotion in a room, just the same way she is aware of every piece of furniture in a room. (She is the first and sometimes only person in our family to notice when I move a chair from one corner of a room to another). She loves to hear stories about honesty, and has a firm grasp of right and wrong. She is getting ready to be baptized in a few months and is learning all about that decision.
Her heart is compassionate; she is free with hugs and kisses for those she loves that are hurting or in need. She looks out for kids who are playing alone at recess and is quick to include everyone around her.

Her mind astounds us daily - she already thinks and speaks with lawyer logic, using large vocabulary words and reading far beyond her grade level.

We love her through and through, inside and out!

It is so fun to have all of those internal charachteristics so solid in a little person, and to still have the girly girl on the outside who loves doing hair, makeup and nails, and shopping for cute clothes. We have so much fun together! Thank heavens for our one little girl!  

Life at Skyline Drive with four beautiful kids and a dog we all adore. Does it get any better than this?

Liza has loved Baby Will ever since her eyes first met his at the hospital when he was born almost a year ago, and he loves her too.

We had an amazing time on the boat and jet ski at Jordanelle today! Papa, Abba, and Grandpa Franklin were all there to cheer the kids on in one of, if not their first boating experience. Everyone loved the water. Liza especially loved tubing, and the twins' favorite was the zipping around the lake on the jet ski. Baby Will stayed home with a sitter since this isn't much of an activity for little tikes, so we missed him, but found the other three kids to be water bugs!