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

caleb on how to climb a slide

step one:

step two:

step three:

step four:

runner runner

summer participated in her school's cheetah walk fundraiser last week.

basically, the kids raise money for the school by seeing how many laps they can run/walk around the track in thirty minutes and then collecting pledges from sponsors per lap.

summer (a born athlete like her mom) took the experience in stride: walking/skipping/sort-of-running around the track, holding hands with her friend the entire time (i noted no other children were quite as committed to the buddy system).

she managed to churn out a whopping mile and a half in those thirty minutes, and i have to shamefully admit to underestimating her abilities and only pledging her to walk a mile.

above, she declares her victory.

chocolat

so bryan returned home from london last week (which is almost starting to sound cliche).

as penance for his departures, he always returns bearing gifts of european chocolate for momma: milka whole hazelnut chocolates, specifically.

and then i eat one giant three hundred gram bar every day until i have recovered from being left alone for nearly two hundred hours with the little martians munchkins.

(he's adorbs because he only brings home eight).

general conference

happy conference weekend, everybody!

the children very much enjoyed eating yummy gummy worms this morning every time they heard the words "prayer," "scriptures," "family," or "missionary" in a conference talk.

we heard the word "family" a lot.

of course, not too long after the morning session was over, caleb pushed the glass bowl holding the treats off the banister (where a super smart mommy had left them) and onto the ground below.

'cause he's boss like that.

baby cay

so it's actually not lost on me how there are far few pictures of my third child than there are of my first two.

and a couple of reasons come to mind for why that is:

1) our year this year has been a bit "unusual," as far as most years go, and we simply haven't gotten out the camera as often as we'd like (70 blog posts so far in 2013? come on, wheelers).

2) caleb is SO, SO hard to photograph.

it's not like i haven't tried. the child just absolutely will not sit still. and if i ever do decide to get out the camera, he comes running at me in full force, arms waving, ready to tackle me and take the strange contraption for himself.

he also suffers from a little condition we like to call "angry resting face." meaning that his face in a neutral position is quite grumpy looking, so if i happen to snap a shot of him that isn't blurry from movement, he usually looks peeved with the world. which i don't think he is, really, it's just how he looks (how he's always looked).

anyhoo, i've decided to stop my whining and try harder.

above i've captured him eating, which generally slows him down a bit and brings a smile to his face.

a kinder in my garden

here she is:

and there she goes:

summer was so excited and so ready and had a really fantastic first day experience (bytheby, for our faraway friends, summer is in morning half-day kindergarten, so she's really only gone two more mornings a week than she was last year).

she has already made a new best friend in her class (lilly, she tells me), and she sat with all sorts of great kids on the bus who helped her know the rules and find her way around the school. the only snag of the day was that she forgot her jacket on the bus ride home, but good news! the bus driver has it, and she'll get it back tomorrow. disaster averted.

unexpectedly, i didn't even shed a tear today. i guess i was just all cried out from playing and replaying that doggone perfectly pointed music by mr. folds.

back to school nite

last night we had a small back to school devotional for summer and afton.

first, we talked about our theme for the new school year. in coming up with the theme/goal for the girls, bryan and i took into account specific challenges they might face this year, as well as their personalities and temperaments, and came up with the very original and poignant "try your best."

we had the girls talk a little bit about what they were most excited about and most nervous about as they entered new schools this year, and afterwards, bryan gave each of them a father's blessing. 

then it was on to the celebratory pizookie! (a warm chocolate chip cookie dough baked almost through and topped with vanilla ice cream). bryan and i both had a bit of trouble downing all the delicious richness in one sitting, but our little ladies had their ramekins licked clean in no time flat. sugar monsters.

can you tell how excited they are for school to begin?

self-timer fail

"exhibit A" as to why we don't attempt pics like this more often:

at temple square, august 29th

first day of pre-k

afton has grown up quite a bit this summer: shedding the rest of her toddlerness and becoming so much the little lady.

we have also been able to learn a lot in the past few months about what makes her tick. afton, as it turns out, is a true introvert. meaning, not necessarily that she's shy, but that she draws her strength from being alone (summer, on the other hand, thinks it's absolute DEATH to ever, EVER be alone). 

we have therefore been more diligent about making sure that afton gets enough time by herself to jive her own jive so that she's all powered up and less likely to melt down during the times when she has to engage with the rest of humanity.

back in june, i was uncertain as to whether or not she would be ready for preschool in the fall (playing well with others, following directions, remaining calm, and overall compliance were not on her list of accomplishments at that time), but september 4th came and afton was not only ready, she was eager! 

she had a great first day.

at the amazon family picnic

a couple weekends ago we spent the day at centurylink field with face painting and glitter stamps and balloon animals and free gifts and free food and live music and 30,000 of our closest friends.

thanks, amazon team! you may be monopolizing all of my husband's time (like, *all* of it) with your relentless hard work, but twice a year, you throw a good party.

(psst - remember how much fun we had at the post-holiday party?)

school supplies

this. is. happening.

september 9th, people. 

on september 9th, i'll put that little girl on a bus and wave goodbye. i'll go inside, close the door, slowly sink down onto the floor, and then i'll cry like a baby because i'm just not old enough for this. because i remember being that little girl and now i'm that little girl's mama and where did all the time go and where will all the time go, and are the pencils sharpened and are her shoes tied and who will sit with her at lunch and who will play with her at recess and will she listen to her teacher, and golly, i could really use a ben folds song right about now.

ps - who else is totally bummed that we don't get to label school supplies anymore? what gives?

all-alaskan pig race

at the evergreen state fair, waiting with baited breath for the race to begin:

laziest summer ever

i totally give myself two thumbs down for the blog-umentation of this summer.

so here's a quick peek into our lives:

summer and afton occupy most of their time by good old fashioned playing all day (a philosophy brought to you by the letter "L" for lazy mom and the letter "S" for simplicity parenting). i see them at meal times and before bed, but otherwise, they are busy delving deeper and deeper into their fantastic and creative imaginary worlds or setting up all the little tiny toys they can get their little tiny hands on in some elaborate and delicate scheme. they have also been muy entertained by the many extended family folks who have been coming and going throughout the past several months.

caleb spends the majority of his days keeping the rest of us on our toes. i'm pretty sure a week doesn't go by that i don't amazon prime some new kind of baby-proofing device or door lock (keep in mind, we have had children before...). always in search of a good time and a big mess, caleb's little legs have spent almost every second of this summer in motion. he's also been showing very little interest in using words and instead, finds his current modes of communication -- yelling, yelling louder, and various demanding gestures -- effective enough.

there have, of course, been zoos and play dates and trips and lakes and kids camps and outings and adventures and what nots, but mostly, if you ever find yourself thinking, "huh, i wonder what the wheelers are up to right now?" you can probably just stop on by 'cause there's a pretty good chance we'll simply be hanging out at home.

(only, don't "just stop on by," 'cause there's *also* a pretty good chance i'll simply be still in my pajamas...)

rattlelake snake

our family has grown up quite a bit since our last trip to rattlesnake lake.

here are the cherubs at this past weekend's outdoor excursion with grandma and grandpa wheeler:

broom broom pow

that's right, caleb: it's about time you earned your keep.

return to alta lake

last weekend we returned to alta lake for our family's second overnight camping excursion (that would mean camping twice in three years! i think we're on a roll!) this time, we were also joined by uncle schmatto, anna, and danton.

summer's first kite fly. don't let her apparent calm demeanor fool you: she spent the entire time crying and screaming, "make it STOP! make it STOP!" in her defense, it was quite windy.

meet caleb.  he thinks camping is the best. thing. ever. he spent the entire campout (including those hours he should have been sleeping), grinning from ear to ear and basking in pure wild and free outdoorsy-ness. in fact, when we arrived back home and caleb learned that we had not *permanently*  relocated to a tent in the wilderness near a lake, well, let's just say he handled the news quite poorly.

on the boat. afton even tried her daredevil hand at tubing.

come to think of it, caleb didn't spend the entire campout grinning. he was not a big fan of the boat.

goodbye, alta lake! and thanks to mike et al. for organizing another great BCT (big camping trip)!

thirty

"today you are you! that is truer than true! there is no one alive who is you-er than you!"

dr. seuss

grace shall be as your day

at anna's baptism, july 27, 2013.

left to right: clarissa, matto, auggie, afton, emily, summer, bryan, caleb, danton, owen, anna, mere, grandma jacquie, elder le, elder boyle.

a return to raspberries

we put the kids to work in the fields yesterday harvesting delicious, fresh, and local northwest raspberries.

eighteen pounds later, and with many thanks to bryan and uncle schmatt, we have yet another year's worth of homemade raspberry jam.

ps - that was probably the only raspberry that afton picked, being not such a big fan of "dirt" and "work" and such. caleb, for his part, contributed only by eating another eighteen pounds of raspberries (in addition to a few yummy leaves he managed to get his hands on). whilst summer, ever the eldest, busily and excitedly went about plucking as many plump berries as she could, pausing her efforts occasionally to share her bounty with the littles.

aloha oe

we celebrated afton's big four with a backyard pool party and luau.

the girls went out and got island-worthy pedicures (a perfect compliment to their new flip flops), matto made his famous coco lopez virgin pina coladas (puerto rican, i know), everyone was decked out in leis and grass skirts and floral accessories, and mere prepared a delicious dinner of afton's favorites with yummy beachy cupcakes for dessert.

aloooooooha!

afton turns four

dearest afton,

you are the pizzazz, you are the POW!, you are the "je ne sais quois" in this little family of ours.

you are brilliant, imaginative, eloquent, impassioned. and very, very afraid of bugs.

you make up songs and dances and words and rhymes. you have the best names for your stuffed animals (like sbeetle and owl-tyne), and you come up with the most creative ways of expressing your emotions (like when your foot falls asleep and you say it's "buzzling" or when you're tired and you say your eyes are telling you to close them, or when you get pushed at the park and scream at the perpetrator that she is NOT the most beautiful girl in the world).

you feel everything (ev-er-y-thing) so deeply, so fully, so much.

you are the little girl with her hands over her ears in sharing time because those songs are just too darn loud, the one refusing to participate in gymnastics class because you hate being told what to do (or maybe because someone accidentally bumped in to you), you are the preschooler throwing a dangerous tantrum (again) in the middle of the parking lot because who-the-heck-knows-why?!!

we love you. you are unyielding, inimitable, and unapologetically yourself.

you have strong feelings about justice. about equality. about right and wrong. and you are just beginning to discover how best to handle yourself when life does not go exactly as planned (it's been a rocky road, but we are getting there!)

and all of you power and oomph and might comes wrapped in such sweetness and is tied together with this broad, beautiful smile. you are our sunshine. bright, and fierce, and warm.

happy birthday, afton!

shine on.

love,

mom

boom boom pow

how cool is it to live in our town?

a first rate fireworks display right in our own backyard.

let freedom ring.