Happy 12th Birthday Abi

It is hard to believe that this little chubby cheeked cutie has grown up to be our lovely young lady.  Twelve years has flown by too quickly.  The chubby cheeks are gone but the sweetness remains.

It is hard to know what to buy for a young lady but you can't go wrong with clothes.  I had a fun time picking out a new outfit for Abi to wear to Young Women's for her first Sunday.  Her birthday was on a Saturday so she didn't have to wait too long.  For her birthday breakfast she chose Chunky Monkey pancakes, Yum!

She also was so excited to attend the temple and perform baptisms for the dead for the first time.  Luckily her dad is in the Bishopric and could interview her Saturday morning, right before we left.  What a great opportunity to go and watch her be baptized and confirmed by her father as a proxy for those that have gone before.

Abi's birthday was also her Spring Recital with her ballet school.  The theme was "The Secret Garden" and Abi danced gracefully as a lilac.  We love watching her dance, she is improving so much.  She graduates to pointe next week and it so excited to go buy her new shoes.

Abi wanted a banana cake for her birthday.  She gave me creative direction in decorating so I just continued on with the ballet theme.  We enjoyed a lovely party with our family on Sunday afternoon.

The chubby cheeks may be gone, but Abi will always be our sweet little Bunkins.

10 Things about Abi

1.  She has a sweet, kind, loving, empathetic personality.  (Well most of the time, she is approaching teenage years.)  She is usually quick to help me out with cooking or babysitting.   She is a good friend and always thinking of nice things to do for them.  

2.  She is such a graceful dancer.  I know I've said it before, but I just love to watch her dance.  She moves so lightly and with such poise and spirit.  Even when she stands normally it is with toes turned out.  Abi is super excited to get new pointe shoes and begin pointe training this month.

3. Abi continues to love reading and academics in general.  Currently she is a big fan on fantasy but also enjoys historical fiction.  Some of her recent favorites include: When you Reach Me, Fly Girl, Reckless and Ender's Game.
4.  Abi's piano playing is hitting a new level.  She swears that she hates it and that it is stupid, but when she calms down and puts her mind to it, she plays beautifully.  She has started to play the simplified Hymns and has played for us in FHE.   For festival this year she played ______ and scored a _____.
5.  She loves to play with her sisters and creates little games and projects for them. Eva begs Abi to "ride scooters" with her.  Leah loves playing games with Abi on her Kindle.  Abi amd Tal have a rougher relationship, but every once in a while she surprises us by doing nice things for him.
6.  She started playing cello this year in 6th grade orchestra, an after school program.  She advanced really quickly and is looking forward to 7th grade.
7.  Abi has discovered Pinterest.  She loves trying out new braids, twists, buns and other hairstyles that she finds.  She continues to enjoy crafts such as making soap, scrubs, paper bowls and other projects.
8.  Abi likes knitting baby hats while she watches TV shows.  She donates these to a Humanitarian Center run by our church to be distributed locally.  She just turned in 21 finished, adorable hats.  She wanted to try something new so she checked out some baby burp cloths to crochet around and I have been teaching her to crochet.
9.  Abi continues to enjoy shooting guns with her dad and is a great shot.  At girl's camp she outshot all of the other girls almost nailing the bulls-eye.  She also bought a bow and is trying out archery.
10.  Abi has a very strong testimony and a strong spirit.  I was a proud mama when she wanted to go to the temple on her birthday.  She has a very sensitive spirit and turns away from popular songs and books with questionable words of her own choice.She worked hard and earned her Faith in God award in Primary.  She is excited to start YW and go to Mutual.  We love our Abi and are excited to see what this next stage in her life brings.

Idaho Heroes Project

Talmage is in the fourth grade this year and that means Idaho History.  His teacher Mrs. Larson is fabulous and has been weaving Idaho History all through their curriculum in reading books, writing essays, memorizing poems, playing games and doing projects.  They even designed their Valentine boxes this year as covered wagons.  One of their projects was to self publish a book on an Idaho Hero.  The project culminated in a special evening where they dressed up as their hero, displayed a diorama depicting a scene from their hero's life, gave an oral presentation and answered questions on their hero, and gave a reading of their book.

Talmage chose Chief Tendoy as his hero.  Every year we go on a family camping trip up to Tendoy, Idaho.  One of our stops is always to visit Chief Tendoy's grave.  Talmage really enjoyed learning more about the man and the area that are special to us.  Mom volunteered in the class as the students worked on their books, researching their heroes and eventually writing a short book about them.

Tal enjoyed building a Lego diorama depicting a scene where Chief Tendoy rescued some white man from a rogue band of Indians.  He also helped mom design and fabricate his Indian headress.  He was very proud to wear his father Kris's Indian style choker and show people rocks from the Copper Queen mine area where Chief Tendoy died.  Tal did an excellent job with his book and project and we are so proud of him.

Pinewood Derby Victory

For Tal's final year in Cub Scouts, he and his dad pulled out all the stops in making their Scarodactyl Pinewood Derby Car.  This sleek design is sure to be fast.  

Tony Perez, in our ward, was gracious enough to help Tal airbrush paint on this sweet design.  

And for his final year, Tal represented with a 1st place finish over the whole pack. The electronic timer on the race track clocked his car at a top speed of 207 mph.  Wow!  Kris was also quite proud that they went out with a Bang!, another notch in his fatherhood belt.

April 24, 2013

Easter

For family home evening we colored our eggs for Easter.  The kids ( and parents) always have a great time mixing our colors and patterns.

The finished product

On Saturday we went out to Lewisville for their annual Easter Egg Hunt.  The kids especially love it because they get baskets full of candy and treats.  Leah was a friend to the Easter Bunny this year but Eva only wanted to see him from afar.  

On Easter morning the older kids bounded out of bed to hunt for their baskets.  Per prior instructions they could hunt for their baskets but were not to wake the little girls until 8:00 and after asking mom.  As soon as mom had the camera ready the kids raced around hunting for the eggs.  Eva and Leah would squeal with delight at finding them.  Abi and Tal who were challenged to leave the lower ones and find the harder ones got stumped on a few, but eventually all were found.  

Eva cajoled Dad into opening her "chickens" for her.  She loved them so much that she opened everyone else's too.  Mostly she just smashed and licked them.

All dressed up in our Easter Finery and ready for church.

I just love these cute little Munchkins.  

After church we went to Nana and Papa Fife's for their annual egg hunt.  Tal had a system of picking up only eggs that rattled when he shook them.  He was rewarded with lots of dime and quarters.  Leah who just loved running around and finding eggs collected several dollar bills in her non-rattling eggs.  

And little Eva was  thrilled to find juice boxes and packages of crackers and fruit snacks just lying out on the lawn for the taking.  Happy Easter.

March 31, 2013

Happy 10th Talmage

Happy Birthday to my handsome boy.  

For his birthday Tal chose to go to I-Jump with his friend Brad, and Abi and Leah.  They bounced, jumped into the foam pits, played dodgeball and had a great time.

His aunt Sarah made this awesome Candybar card.  How did she know?  Tal wanted money, to buy crown cards and video games, and candy for his birthday.  Mom and Dad bought him a new bike however.  Tal is anxious to get out and ride it as soon as the snow melts.  Aunt Kalene surprised Tal by spoiling him with Crown Cards and then Nana and Papa Fife took him out to lunch at Chuck a Rama and he got to spend his birthday money to buy a new video game.  Lucky, Lucky boy.

Tal's newest fixation is on playing this computer game called Wizard 101.  So per his request I made a Wizard 101 cake, this is supposed to be the Battle Area of the game with the different signs for the houses.

10 Great Things About Tal

1.  Tal is a video game nut.  His current faves are Wizard 101 and Minecraft but he also got Lego Lord of the Rings for his birthday so I am sure he will beat that soon.  90% of Tal's conversation revolves around his battles or creations, but we limit him to 2 hours of screen time a day.

2.  Tal loves Fantasy of every sort.  He has recently read  the Peter and the Starcatchers series, Candy Shop War, and Pseudonomous Bosch books.

3.  For his birthday dinner he picked breakfast crepes.  He still loves pizza, Mac and Cheese, and fondue also.  For lunch he hates meat and cheese sandwiches but will eat PB&J's every day of the week. His new favorite drink is Caffeine Free Pepsi which he gets on pizza night or at Nana Meek's. 

4.  His new best friend is Brad Johnson.  At school they have a "club" where they talk about weapons, Ninja training and the like.  Brad came with us to I-Jump and he and Tal seem like 2 peas in a pod.

5.  Tal loves to build forts in the basement.  He drapes every blanket in the house over large arrangements of chairs, furniture and toys to create rooms and castles.  He is great about letting his little sisters play in the forts as well.  A favorite thing to do is sleep in the fort over the weekend.  

6.  Tal's piano playing is taking on a whole new level of musicality.  His hands are nearly as large as mine and he stretches an octave easily.  He really likes fast and or loud songs but as his technique matures I am starting to hear softs and legatos as well.  For Festival this year he is playing El Conquistador and Trumpet Tune.  Tal also loves to put on his playlist of music during Dishes Dance Party - favorites include Apache, Cupid Shuffle, and Gangnam Style.

7.  Tal loves Cub Scouts.  He earned his Bear and we will soon sta rt working on his Webelo.  He enjoys camping, hiking and spending time outside, especially building fires and roasting marshmallows.  He loves carving sticks into wands, swords and knives with his own pocket knife.  

8.  Tal is the Go-to guy in Primary.  He always knows the songs and usually sings them loudly.  He seems to know all the answers and is rarely stumped.  He loves playing games and competition in Primary, especially when he wins.  When he gets answers correct he will place both hands behind his head and lean back into his chair, "Oh yeah."

9.  Tal is the number one proponent of Family Game Night.  He loves to play Word on the Street, Skip-Bo, Clue, Uno Attack, and Harry Potter.

10.  He is a great brother to his little sisters.  He gives Eva piggy back rides around the house and tickles her.  He lets Leah build with his Legos.  Recently he started "Talmage Arcade" where he plays different games with Leah and Eva on the trampoline.  He and Abi have a more difficult relationship recently but they do enjoy watching the same TV shows together, listening to music, and reading some of the same books.

February Fun

February was such a busy month for us.  After looking at all of our pictures, it is easy to see why I got so behind in my blogging.  

Abi received her first professional haircut from my hairdresser Annie.  She opted for a long, layered cut and Annie straightened it for her as well.  I put in three teal green feathers, the current trend, for her that she had received from Nana Meek for Christmas.  She is also growing up too fast.

Kris and I attened the YMCA Jump Jive and Wail Benefit again this year.  Thanks to Paul and Alexis Rippel for the tickets.  We love having a night to get dressed up and spend away together.  We won our silent auction bid on a museum membership and are looking forward to taking our family many times.

Our date was also on Groundhog's Day and I felt a little bad leaving out kids for the night.  I found these cute little Groundhog pudding cups in the Family Fun magazine and made them for the kids to enjoy that night.

We put our museum membership to good use by visiting the carousel exhibit.  We loved looking at all of the different and beautiful examples of carousel carving and art.  But the children's favorite part was riding this 100 year old carousel.  "Horsie, Horsie," said Eva.  Abi, Tal and Leah each named their horses and had a pretend race.  Mom sat in the bench with Eva and tried to stare down the tail of the horse in front of me to ward off the motion sickness.

Kris took this great picture of one of the displays.  These pieces are true works of art.

Valentine's day is a fun day at the Meek home where we celebrate our love of our whole family.  Leah and Eva cheese as they show off their Spong Bob valentines.  Mom made a yummy dinner which we eat on our china.  For dessert we enjoyed these sinfully delicious cake balls.  They were dangerously yummy, dangerous because I could not control myself from eating them all.

Tal is studying Idaho History in Mrs Larson's 4th grade class.  For Valentine's day, they each made a covered wagon to collect their Valentines.  Mom, Leah and Eva helped out with his class party games and had a blast.

Kris celebrated his 35th birthday with a family dinner of tamales and cherry cheesecake.  We were so glad to have the Meek clan come over to celebrate with us.  Tal's birthday is also in February but he will have a post all to himself.

 
Tal played city league basketball with several of his friends this winter.  They were coached by Derick Thompson and Eric Leister.  City League was a whole new level for these boys.  They learned good skills, tried, their best, and had fun.  Hooray!

Tal practices his foul shots.

One crazy day I  launched into making cookies with these little cuties.  We make my favorite chocolate crack cookies so the girls could roll the dough balls in powdered sugar.  By the end of it girls, cookies and kitchen were covered in powdered sugar.  Too sweet!

For Blue and Gold Banquet this year, Tal decided that he wanted to make a Creeper from the computer game Minecraft.  As I was not so familiar with Creepers we had to do a little research.  We even tried our hand at spray color.  Our creeper turned out great and Tal was pretty proud of his creation.

Eva at 20 months

This crazy little girl is so much fun.  For Christmas Tal gave her this monkey hat.  Sometimes she just spies it in the closet and begs "Hat, hat" or "Monkey" until she gets to wear it.  Of course she gives us the obligatory cheeser smile.  At 20 months she is making the fast transition from baby to little girl.  She now runs into Nursery at church where she loves "bubbles, pop, pop".  Mom weaned Eva from nursing at the beginning of January, a teary transition for Mommy but Eva did just fine.  After she was weaned we also worked more on sleeping through the night.  We again had a few rough nights, but Eva is a good sleeper now.  Though I miss my little snuggler and nursing times with Eva, I love sleeping through the night.  How did I do that for so long?

Eva loves wearing her little blue jackets.  I think maybe because mommy often wears a sweater during these cold winter months, that Eva is copying me.  She wears her jacket all day, through naps, and sometimes even over her PJ's at night.  Luckily she has 2 little blue jackets so I can switch and wash one every couple of days.  In this picture, Eva is also holding another favorite toy, Mommy's phone.  Eva loves phones, especially looking at the pictures and moving my apps all over on my screens.

Often the only way to get Eva to hold still for a diaper change is to let her hold a phone.  Kris was on diaper duty at church and Eva snapped this picture of him.  There were also several of the ceiling, wall and carpet but Kris said that we had to include this one.  Eva's vocabulary is exploding with new words every day.  She is putting together 2 and 3 word phrases.  She loves to read books, especially ones on Dad's iPad.  She also loves songs and games at family home evening like "Popcorn Popping", "Once there was a Snowman", and Ring Around the Rosies.

Eva is on the go whenever she is awake, but when she is asleep she is still our sweet little Bubby.  Sometimes she wakes up from naps after just a short time and needs to snuggle to finish our her nap.  Kris and I obviously had the same thoughts to record these sweet moments with our Bubby.