tim-ber!

after not decorating our pumpkins for, like, the third year in a row, the wheelers are at least on the ball with their christmas tree:

generally, christmas tree cutting is one of my favorite family outings to photograph; however, above is the only decent shot i got of this year's experience. we had about ten minutes of daylight remaining, and crazy cay decided to spend those ten minutes running out to the parking lot (which wasn't even that close) again and again.

anyway, if on future family adventures you either don't see caleb or you see him strapped to something sturdy, now you know why.

pictionary and pie returns

from a thanksgiving tradition to a day-after-thanksgiving tradition:

yum!

engaged

ten years ago today, bryan and i became engaged to be married. 

ten *years.* who else can totally not believe that i'm old enough to say that? mom??

where has the time run off to, you crazy kids?

twenty-three-year-old bryan: so smart and stoic, with his pants too short and his glasses too small. twenty-year-old emily: so naive and aggressive, with her dozens of bangles and her mismatched clothes.

you crazy, crazy kids.

who tried hard to make right choices. who, with faith and hope, stepped out together into the darkness, because really, they had no idea what they were doing. who, with fortitude and dedication, remained steadfast in the face of some difficult circumstances. who chose to choose love and marriage and family and happiness and each other.

shortcomings and personality quirks and fashion sense aside, bryan and i owe a lot to those two love birds. 

so while i'm glad we're not that twenty-year-old girl and that twenty-three-year-old boy anymore. while i'm glad we now have stretch marks and (faintly!) receding hairlines and sleep-deprived eyes. while i'm so, so glad bryan and emily of today have the deep and abiding love born from spending the past decade serving one another, that bryan and emily of today have the commitment and understanding born from raising our sweet, beautiful, and sometimes difficult children together.

yes, while i'm glad for the passage of time and all the wonderfulness it brings, i'll always hold a special place in my heart for the bryan and emily of yesteryear. who sat quietly on the couch that thanksgiving morning and without pomp or circumstance (besides the ring, of course), decided to link destinies and go for it.

you guys rock:

and, thankfully (what's up with that hair, bryan?), one day, if you're *really* lucky, you'll grow up to be these guys:

bryan and emily, august 2013, eden, utah

photo by heidi henderson

this one is dedicated to all the love birds out there (but especially, to my very own):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OblL026SvD4

t minus

chores

question: 

how many wheeler children does it take to put away the silverware?

answer: 

all of them.

coco nut

so one of the gifts summer really wanted for her birthday -- and specifically from her aunt anna (purveyor of all exotic foods) -- was a coconut.

behold:

using various tools (and eventually, the concrete floor in the garage) to open el coco.

later on, taking a tentative first bite of coconut meat.

but first, tasting the coconut water. c'mon afton: tell us how you really feel.

however, after opening the coconut and examining its contents, it turns out, what summer *really* wanted was that delicious, sugary shredded coconut anna had put in her trail mix for our camp out to alta lake back in july, which i guess is what she supposed came inside the coconut.

another one of life's important lessons learned.

caleb makes a friend

while we were out having lunch at the american girl doll store on wednesday, the waitress brought a doll for caleb to sit with.

caleb was thrilled.

he poked the doll's eyes, pulled the doll's hair, chatted happily in the doll's general direction, and eventually worked up the courage to put his arm around the doll in an awkward attempt at a side hug (see above).

by the time lunch was served, caleb and his new friend were old pals.

except, then lunch was served, and caleb forgot his "old pal" entirely, in favor of stuffing his face with fistfuls of macaroni and cheese.

epic doll sigh: one minute you're the sun and moon and stars in an awkward embrace, and the next, you're all but forgotten at the hands of delicious pasta smothered in cheese.

shorn no more

seven and a half months later.

summer is six

yesterday, baby girl turned six years old:

summer is as warm and sweet and easily distracted as her name suggests.

to her, the world is sunshine and rainbows and butterflies and unicorns with sprinkles on top. (except when it's not, and then she throws herself into her room and down into a pit of dramatic despair, flailing about and wondering aloud how she could ever go on).

she is a perfectionist (a characteristic that often leads to the aforementioned flailing about in the pit of despair). she is a lover, an inquisitor, a rememberer. she carefully watches out for her little siblings and (almost) always shares.

summer wants to do what's right. she accidentally cut in line the other day at school, and when the little boys behind her chided her for the injustice, she was just in tears about it because she a) hates to make mistakes and b) *really* hates to be chastised publicly. (i told her that, nonetheless, she did learn an important lesson about the sacredness of "the line.")

she dislikes bringing attention to herself and was anxious for weeks before the primary program where she would have to speak (for thirty seconds with a group) in public. 

she is not very picky about what she wears or how she does her hair except when she thinks she'll stand out too much. i bought her the cutest little button-down shirt a few days ago, and she refused to wear it because it was a "worker" shirt (like the ones her dad wears, i guess), and she insisted all the kids would make fun of her (are kids really that desperate for mockery material these days?) and when i wore a tie to church last week, as i'm apt to do occasionally, she nearly flipped out at the audacity.

summer is our straight arrow. our anchor. our optimist. our sugar in the sugar and spice. the kind of child who may confuse folks into thinking we know some secret about parenting that we don't.

happy birthday, sweet summer elyse. may this year bring you all the happiness, joy, and excitement your little six year old heart can handle. and ps, please do your parents a favor and stop growing out of all your clothes. xo

a womb with a view

fractured

it's been an exciting month of firsts for summer: a few weeks ago, she lost her first tooth, and on thursday, october 24th at 11:00am, she broke her first bone.

here she is standing below the culprit:

when i went with her to the school to have her show me what she fell off (expecting something at least as high as the monkey bars), i have to admit my first reaction was "really?" 

here she is receiving her first x-ray and the results: a salter ii fracture on her distal radius:

luckily, after a followup with seattle children's orthopedics, no cast was needed, just a brace for four weeks and then, wham-o! it's back to the monkey bars:

a haircut for aft

i have to admit to getting a little bit carried away with the scissors, but luckily, she handles her new cropped 'do like a champ:

saturday morning cartoons

starlite flies right before your eyes and rainbow colors will cheer you up.

it's love that makes her garden grow with lots of pretty berries in a row.

zoinks!

happy halloween from some of your favorite childhood memories!

the eleventh hour

well, i suppose it's not "technically" the eleventh hour (and fingers crossed it doesn't come to that).

but regardless, the effort involved in sewing summer's halloween costume this year has *really* had me questioning my sanity.

curse you 80s for being so awesome!!

caleb brushes his teeth

we've been brushing caleb's teeth for awhile now (bytheway, guess who already has his two year molars?), and one day, he started to "spit" all by himself:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIKwhu77QNU

eighteen months, one week, and two days

is how long it took for baby caleb to learn how
to climb to the top of summer's bunk bed.

oi.

more pictures from the pumpkin patch

so as you may have been able to deduce from, like, three of our earlier posts, we recently made our annual wheeler family pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch.

here are a few more pics from that favorite of fall adventures (look, ma! no rain!):

pink boots

not the first time caleb has been forced to own this look.

ps - we did buy him his own boots, but at the last minute, decided they might be too small and had to improvise. luckily, he's only eighteen months old and so thrilled to be outside in the dirt that he couldn't care less.

reasons why my daughter is crying

i'm sure you've all see the site, reasons why my son is crying.

well, here's sweet little summer girl having a fit of her own because she can't find a pumpkin.

in the pumpkin patch.

in the end, we were able to help her navigate the overwhelming world of pumpkin picking, but she still was not very happy about having had to endure such hardship.

fapqs

(frequently asked pregnancy questions)

so how long have you been pregnant? given that this is my second back-to-back nursing/pregnancy and my fourth baby in six years, it feels like i've been pregnant for a very, very long time. in fact, there is a gentleman in my ward who refers to me as "that lady who's always pregnant and who wears awesome shoes." guilty as charged.

did you get sick with this pregnancy? you know, i've heard it said that every pregnancy is different, but in my experience, they've all been pretty much the same (only i just keep getting older and slower and more dimply overall). so as we have come to expect, i spent about ten weeks out-of-commission this go round, and another several weeks fully regaining my strength. (for refresher courses on hyperemesis gravidarum, which i made famous *cough* before kate middleton did, see here, here, and here).

how did you manage being sick with three young kids? the blessed truth is that i don't have to manage. i have a faithful entourage of people who do most of the hard work for me, and i just have to survive.

i have a great team of doctors and nurses who have seen me through three previous pregnancies and who are there at the helm with all my drugs, iv care, and any other medical attention that i need.

then of course, i have such a supportive and stalwart family and community. each of my immediate family members spent some time out here this summer and all were kind and helpful and understanding.

my husband: man, oh, man is my husband a rock, allowing me to talk him in to this again and again. husbands, think of your dear wives. think of everything they do. now think for a minute that they weren't going to be able to do any of it. for months. stress you out much?

and my dearest littles are such troopers. they are loving, gentle, and resilient. they know what to expect and are dutiful in their roles to "leave mommy alone."

my mother, as you know, is a saint who even though she was recovering from cancer treatment herself, would not be stopped from helping out, and in fact, did a great deal, including managing most of my food intake.

but the great hero of this pregnancy is uncle schmatt. he had the summer off between undergraduate and graduate school and somehow got talked into coming here to spend it with our ragtag crew (the vacation of his dreams!) yes, he made breakfast. yes, he made lunch. yes, he made dinner every. single. night (and to bryan's utter delight, he had it ready at six o'clock, on the dot). yes, he changed diapers. yes, he vacuumed and cleaned. yes, he entertained children. yes, he went grocery shopping and did meal planning. and no, he never complained.

so when you're sick in bed, what do you do all day? i get asked this question a lot, and the very simple (but mind-blowing) answer is absolutely nothing. i don't read. i barely talk. i don't knit or write or craft or play games. heck, i don't even put on clothes. occasionally i'm able to watch some mindless movies, but i spend the vast majority of my days staring at the wall or listening to the boy across the street work (fruitlessly) on his basketball skillz: boing. boing. boing. rim. boing. boing. boing. rim. 

don't pity my boredom, though, because one has to been in his right mind to be "bored," and i am definitely not in my right mind. during the worst times, i'm losing up to one pound a day, and it's taking all my energy to a) fight the starvation, b) remain unplugged from some ghastly needle, and c) try to remain perfectly still. i have to think constantly about what i'm going to eat next. what i'm going to drink next. how i'm going to keep from throwing it up. and what my plan is if i do throw it up. there is no brain power left to be bored.

is the new baby a boy or a girl? once again, we have been assured that it is either the one or the other, but again, we don't know for sure which one. my motherly "intuition" is pretty terrible (my record being 0 for 3 at this point), but i was thinking for the first half of the pregnancy "definitely girl" and for the second half "definitely boy." really, your guess is as good as mine!

and finally, when is this little cherub due to arrive? this coming january.

as an added bonus, here is a recent pic of his or her newest little highness:

(profile view with the head at the right of the screen -- nose pointing up -- and the giant abdomen at the left).

caleb goes to nursery

this pretty much sums up how excited caleb was for his first official day in nursery:

ps - his parents were pretty excited, too.

little lost tooth

yesterday, summer finally lost her first tooth, which has been wiggly for weeks.

she lost it right in the middle of a friend's baptism, and she's thrilled because she'll forever remember where she was when she lost her first tooth.

to remember when summer's first tooth was born, five and a half years ago, see here.

another 525,600 minutes

remember last year at the pumpkin patch?

and the year before?

spider bows

so sometimes i still sit around and make stuff.

i'm not saying i sit around and make stuff AND get the house cleaned AND have dinner ready on time AND make sure the children stay out of trouble.

i'm just saying sometimes i sit around and make stuff.

way cool spider bow tutorial from ribbon retreat.

sail away

THERE is no frigate like a book

  To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

  Of prancing poetry.

 

This traverse may the poorest take

  Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot

  That bears a human soul!

--Emily Dickinson