Our Tumblers

Meet Katia - she's six and is one of the best cartwheelers around!!!

When we were getting the family room cleaned up, and before the furniture was moved in, this big empty area rug provided Katia with the perfect cartwheeling place.

If you scroll down fast enough, you might even be able to see her moving!

Fabulous, simply fabulous!!!

Now,

meet Mackenzie - she's two and is one of the best summer-saulters around!!!

In other words, if she see's her sisters doing something, she has to try it too!

Superb, simply superb!!!

And my favourite shot . . .

. . . here we go!!!

It's so delightful to watch little people develop their talents and learn what their bodies are capable of.  Especially when we remember that two years ago Mackenzie was just a baby with absolutely no self-mastery of her body at all.  Amazing all that she's learned in two years. 

Our bodies are delightful things!!!

Hannah's Wedding

Our niece Hannah married Devin in November!!!

Aren't they adorable?

Hannah really did look like a princess, who'd just married her handsome prince!

The Bride's family.

And the sisters!!!

Our beautiful nieces!!!

I delight in weddings - I really do!!!  And not just family weddings!  I enjoy looking at weddings of people I don't even know!  Sure I like to check out the clothes and flowers and colours and decorations, but I think it's because they are such happy events (unless it's an arranged marriage like in the movie Ever After!).  

Don't we all find delight in happy events?

Volleyball

We had three girls playing volleyball this season - Jas on the Varsity team, Jordyn on the Grade 9 team, and Carlee on the Grade 8 team.

Look at those fabulous moves!!!

Let's check out Jas . . .

She is so ready to get that ball!  Here she is playing libero (see how her shirt is the reversed colours of the other players on the team).  She also played Right Side for half the season.  They didn't have an amazing year as far as winning, but they had fun.

Jas with her end of season loot - they give this to all the seniors on the last home game.

And now for Jordyn . . .

. . . she played libero too.  That's why she's sitting off - libero gets subbed in to the back row to do all the digging.  We were proud of Jordyn for making the team this year.  She didn't play in grade 7 or 8, but worked hard through the year to improve her skills, and made the team!!!

Their team was very successful - hardly lost any games all season, won divisionals and all sorts of tournaments, even while dealing with the tragic death of their setter.

She got lots of  medals and t-shirts.

Carlee played setter - 1 of 3 as they are all learning skills at this level.

She's so cute there under the net in the red gym.

Their season started off slow and they weren't doing too well, but near the end of the season - wow!  Suddenly they started figuring things out!  Next year will be great!!!

Ended the season winning a tournament and earning silver at Divisionals.

 

We love our Volleyball players!!!

I delight in watching my children develop their talents and have great, and not-so-great experiences.  Being part of a team has it's ups and down, challenges and frustrations, and joys.

I delight in the coaches who give of their time to help my children, and teach them things that I can't, both on and off the floor.

Another Birthday

We had another birthday in October.  But we didn't take any pictures, and therefore I can't remember much that we did to celebrate Jasmine turning 17.  Though I seem to recall the game Statego being involved.

Without birthday pictures, I just searched for random pictures of Jas so we can analyze her.

She's a very smart gal as you can tell from the studious glasses (although usually she wears contacts).  And she's a very hard worker as you can tell from the work hoodie she's wearing.

She's always the first to reach out and lend a helping hand when needed. 

You can always depend on Jas!!!

She cleans up nicely too . . .

 . . . trying on a grad dress. 

 (It's okay, I can post these pictures because it's not her actual grad dress!)

Every girl needs to put on a beautiful dress once in a while!!!

Our Princess Jasmine!!!

Jas was actually named after Disney Princesses - Jasmine and Belle.  Belle is also her Great Grandma's name and means 'beauty'.  She truly is a beautiful child of royal birth!

I just looked at my calendar and now I remember why we didn't take any pictures on Jasmine's birthday.  Her birthday was on a Sunday.  On the Friday and Saturday she had been away at an overnight volleyball tournament.  Sunday morning we woke up to the news that four teens in our town had been killed overnight in a car accident.  None were in Jas's grade, but one was in her Young Women's group.  And of course she knew all of them.  So it was a very sad day, all of us walking around in shock and sorrow.  Didn't feel much like celebrating.

But, I delight in my Jassy Waz.  I keep trying to  make her promise to never leave home, but so far she hasn't.  She is a great leader and peacemaker and all around considerate person.  Every family needs a Jasmine!!!

Love ya Jas!  You're delightful!

Welcome Teenager No. 4

Carlee turned 13 - so that gave us a 19, 16, 14 and 13 year old!!!  Count em - four teenagers!!!  But that's not a problem because our girls improve with age!!!

Carlee has the distinction of being the first person in the family to celebrate a birthday in the new house.  And we got really fancy with the cake!!!

But truthfully, this is the remnant of a cake that Gramma and Grampa had to celebrate their grandson's sealing.  But hey, it tasted exactly the same as it would have if it would have had all the rest of it there too!  Cake is cake!

Not only did she have cake - she had presents to open too!  Lucky kid!!! 

What's that you're holding Carlee?

Why it's . . .  

. . . a fishbowl - with a fish!!!  We welcomed Kennee to the family, until his passing about 9 days later.  Now she wants a refill!

You can tell they're growing up when they start wanting things for their birthdays like hair styling instruments, sports bags, fishy crackers . . . !

It's a delight to have a daughter like Carlee.  She's a beautiful, smart and talented girl with the craziest laugh ever.  She's fun-loving and full of life and makes our home happy!

Love ya Barlee Bone!!!

Moving - Phase III

A terrible thing happened!!! 

The end of August arrived and suddenly our magnificent crew of workers had to go back to school!  And even more than that, three of them had to be on their volleyball teams too.  So not only were they gone during school time, but after school and before school too.  And then they started saying things like, "I can't help, I have to do my homework!"  

But we couldn't complain - they were so awesome and worked so hard all summer!!!

But then they started to complain about their living conditions.  For example, "It's hard to get ready for school when I'm sleeping in the camper, my closet box is in the house, my dresser is in the workshop, and my grooming stuff is in the bathroom!"

My complaint was, "It's getting cold out!" 

So this is how the house was looking while Rich was doing baseboards - fine little dust particles of MDF everywhere!

I was actually cleaning a lot to help keep the dust down while he was doing it.

Rich wants you to notice his knobby knees as he's there doing baseboards!

I think they're cute!

Anyway, once he got the baseboards and casings on, he went back to work (the type of work where you make money, not working on the house, because he certainly wasn't 'not' working all that time!)

Then my job was to get the house cleaned up so we could move in.  First I moved all the tools out of the way, and then the cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.  From washing windows to vaccuuming out cupboards, it all had to be done before moving in.

Once the great room was reasonably clean, I made a TV corner for my two little ones to help keep them entertained.

One countertop still loaded with tools, but the rest is looking good!

And the view from the dining room window - that's either Omar or Sahara!

And the swallows on our dirt pile looked so cute I decided to play with my camera - turned out pretty good!!!

Oh yes, back to Moving - Phase III

Richie's all excited about moving!  The challenge in this move is the fact that the only doorway that has stairs leading to it is through the garage that is filled with tools and house stuff.  So he built this little ramp up to the front door.  The move began at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, Sept 17.

We finally had to call for help and had Kevin and about five wonderful guys from our ward come and help us with all the heavy stuff for just over an hour.  John and Randy are passing the mattress up to Rich and Jas.  Also helping was Craig, Colton and Rob, but they weren't lucky enough to be captured on film!

And through the door it goes!

The view looking out the front door.  We'd fill the cargo trailer over at the workshop (where we were living) and back it up to the front door.  The new fridge wouldn't fit through the door and they had to dismantle it.  I was wondering what was taking that load so long - I was afraid the fridge wasn't fitting in it's new location, but it did!

Marty came over a little later and helped Rich move furniture to the actual spots where they were going to be.  We sure were grateful for all the help.

By the end of the day we were so tired.

So we ordered SASH pizza for dinner and sat around in our new living room, resting our weary bones and enjoying the comfort of our new home.

That's Jordyn there in the black Champions t-shirt.  She missed the whole move as she was away at a volleyball tournament.  Obviously they won as they came home with the winning shirts!

A few weeks later, here is a view of the kitchen, living room and dining area.

Oh it's so clean!!!

Lovely paint job on the kitchen walls eh?  It's actually all going to be beadboard someday - it'll look sweet!!!

Still tons to do but we're in and very comfortable!!!  It fits our family perfectly!!!

Those splashes of orange are autumn decorations!!!  Gotta decorate for the seasons ya know!

A few weeks before our move, Chelle moved into the bonus room, so there was another move and clean-up happening through all this (we'll call that Phase II.V).  Yeah - Chelle moved back home to save rent money as she started her second year of college.

I'm SO DELIGHTED that we are FINALLY LIVING IN OUR NEW HOME!!!

The Baby turns 2

Seriously?  Two already???

Little Miss turned 2 on a Friday in September.  And from looking at the background of the pictures, we were still living in the workshop.  So it was that crazy time of our life - which is probably why we didn't celebrate her birthday til Sunday, and never did make her a cake!!!

This card was the first thing she opened, and she loved the kitties so much that she didn't feel a need to open anything else!

But we were able to get her interested in other stuff.  When she opened her new Sunday shoes, she wasn't letting go of that card, and used her feet to try to get the shoes out of the bag! 

Or maybe she was just trying them on with them still in the bag!

Looking good Kenz!!!

Katia passed on one of her old dolls - can't you just feel the love?

And a book that makes sounds - definitely won't be going in the church bag!!!

This is a stuffed emu - which I believe Grandma and Grandpa got on their trip to NZ/Oz.  Kenzie loves a Wiggles DVD about Australian animals so here she's giving herself a beak to do the "Good Friend Emu" song . . . I don't know, but I'm telling you he can run the pants off a kangaroo . . . 

Actually, I really like the emu!

And then there is a Curious George book.  She loves this book!!!  Whenever daddy would tell her to get and book for him to read to her, she'd bring this one.  I mean, it's a fun book with George going to a costume party - but eventually daddy asked me to hide it so she would start bringing something else for him to read.

I find great delight in Mackenzie - we all do!!!  She's adorable and fun and sweet and kind and snuggable and agreeable and smart.  She is such a delightful blessing to our family!!!