Art Work Lately

Here is a sampling of art work and accomplishments from the first quarter of 2012

Jens:

Perfect score on a spelling test. Woohoo!

Sylvie:

(she is just now starting to draw. My saddest moment: she drew a picture of me on her whiteboard--first "person" drawing ever, but she got frustrated and erased it before I could take a picture. It was very cute--face, hair, eyes, mouth, etc. but she thought it looked mean.)

This is a picture of Ariel and her dog. She likes to be mono-chromatic, so once she starts coloring in her people, it just looks like a big red blob, but if you really try you might see the dog on the left, with long ears and a little pointy tail and Ariel on the right with long hair and a lot of eyes.

March 26

This week we've been up to our regular hi-jinks. You know, school, work, cleaning, stuff like that. We've been filling in the cracks with March Madness (so far my bracket is yet again triumphant, and, not to brag, I am ranked 768,514th in the espn bracket tourney. And yes, that is something to celebrate.)

Jens came home from church last Sunday very determined that he should read the Book of Mormon on his own. We tried to steer him toward the picture version, but he would not be swayed. He sat on the couch for about 3 hours Sunday, reading and shouting out updates. "Mom, now I'm on verse 5! Now I'm on verse 6! Now I am on chapter 3!" Mike printed him a bookmark to mark each chapter as he finishes it. He has now "read" his way into Alma. I will say, however, that he read Alma chapters 3-17 in approximately 3 minutes, so this isn't super high-calibre reading all of the time. But we are happy that he is excited about it and that he is sticking to it.

His good example has helped us to improve on our poor family scripture study track record, something that he feels really good about.

In further Jens news, he has been loving the piano lately. We have been doing little lessons during the week, and he will sit down and make things up pretty regularly. Lately he has been trying to figure out how to play Ode to Joy, which one of his little friends knows how to play. So Saturday he and I figured it out and I wrote down the notes for him. He has been playing it incessantly ever since. Both hands play at the same time, which he finds very exciting. It is fun to see his joy in accomplishment, although I sometimes wish he could play with headphones. He also ran the Fox Trot on Friday and ran 7 laps, which he was very proud of.

In Sylvie news, she is very excited about being in "bal-uh-nay" when she turns 4. I am not sure why she thinks that will happen at 4, but she is pretty sure she will be a ballerina then. She and Minnie got dressed up as bal-uh-nay dancers by putting stickers on their faces.

She is also practicing for her dancing days by insisting on wearing only "twirly" clothes and creating interesting head-dresses for herself. (They are clean, I promise.)

This weekend we were supposed to work on replacing a stretch of fence with the neighbors, but threats of rain (which never materialized, by the way) prevented that from happening. Instead, I went to the farmer's market and spin class (which I love in a slightly obsessive way), then scraped down the rest of our popcorn ceiling. I don't think we have any left in the house now, so that is exciting. We also moved the treadmill into the garage, which is nice because it needs to be repaired (and has for over a year) therefore is not being used.

Also on Saturday Jens played excessive amounts of Super Mario Bros. and Mike rode his bike on the trainer for 3, yes THREE hours. He says it was very boring and he doesn't want to do that again, but he is trying to get ready for a 100k ride in a couple of weeks, then his big mountain biking ride in May. We went to Big Spoon to celebrate things going well for Mike at work. The kids were cute and it was fun. We finished the weekend with church and having Laura over for dinner, which is always highly anticipated. Sylvie insisted on Laura doing the bedtime routine, which Laura was a very good sport about (thank you, Laura).

That is all, except that I really would like to see The Hunger Games movie, but Mike has not read the book, and I have heard that is important to do before going.

Chandelier: A journey

When we bought this house, all those 4 years ago, the eating area chandelier was certainly a notable feature. Brass sponge painted with turquoise, huge glass on the lights.

It was quickly transformed by mom while she was visiting that hot, steamy July when forest fires raged and the temperatures hit 110. Remember how awful that was?

Anyway, new glass and a new color made things much more bearable. Until recently. The glass would never sit straight, and the textured black paint was impossible to dust. Plus,the light just seemed to big and fancy for our breakfast nook. All those large, decorative details. Anyway, I deconstructed it, removing as many excess pieces as possible, got glass that wouldn't tip, and repainted it.

I guess it will stay this way for a while, until I get tired of it and want it to be a different color or something.

The Past Few Weeks All At Once

Well, I hope I've learned my lesson about procrastinating. It is better to keep up with pictures! We got home to one day of beautiful weather, in which I spent the whole morning gardening, after the Farmer's Market and Spin class, of course. Sylvie and I also ran to Jens's basketball game, where he did not play, but preferred to stroll up and down the court playing with his wristband. He started out strong with basketball, but the love is waning. Mike won a photo clinic at the King's game, which he enjoyed. This makes the third game he's been to this season!

I did FAME at Jens's school and had Sylvie's playgroup. They had a dance party with Flat Stanley. Sylvie is wearing what she calls her "Young Womans" shirt. Whenever she wears it she tells me that she will be in YW when she is big.

She let me do her hair a few times, too. Usually she wants to wear it "long."

Sylvie loves dressing up as much as ever. She is getting more and more creative with her looks. She especially likes having long hair, like Rapunzel.

This week she has been preferring pink hair, which she wears as much as possible. She took this ensemble to Lowe's and to playgroup. I think she is trying to start a trend. Notice she is wearing her "nightengown" in almost every picture--she still really loves it. A lot.

Jens had his last basketball game. He picked up the pace a little and actually took the last shot of the game. He and Mike went to a little party, then to watch Star Wars at the theater. Sylvie and I had a girl party and watched our own movie at home.

The next night, Dad and Jens were so jealous of our girl party movie that they watched it again. Sylvie is wrapped up so she won't be worried. Dad might be checking his tweets on the sly.

This week it has been raining and raining. Jens is in swim clinic T/Th at the gym and has been going in spite of the wet weather. I don't know that his skills are going to improve much, but it is good exercise for him, especially when we are having bad weather. Sylvie keeps wanting to swim at the same time, but so far that has not worked out. I am grateful for a place to exercise myself in the wet weather!

I have been scraping down the ceiling in the front room and trying to repurpose some of our lights so they don't hurt my sensibilities when I look at them. Maybe I will put up a picture of the end results some time.

Now we are in to our regular March Madness. Our brackets are suffering terribly from all the crazy upsets, but it is still fun. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Jens made Leprechaun traps. They worked! Amazing!

Okay. I will try not to fall so far behind again. But I am not going to guarantee anything.

One day, Sylvie was looking exceptionally cheery and we had the cutest little vintage outfit to wear, so we did a photo shoot. She is bubbling with personality, this one. And the outfit shows off some of her best points. She even got to wear lip gloss, which made things very exciting.

Presidents Week II

The rest of our week passed in a blur of activities--family dinner, (not sure how this game worked, except the it revolved around Sylvie throwing the duck to her kindly older cousins who were so sweet to her. Keaton was especially tolerant of Sylvie, who insisted on practically laying on him during FHE.)

swimming with the cousins at Provo Rec, dinner with friends, play dates with Mati and Emi, lots of story reading with Grandma and Grandpa,

(Sylvie practically memorized "Little Black Sambo")

general cousin fun (including homemade donuts!! They were SO good),

Lots of fun at the Dinosaur Museum with Matisyn and Emilyn,

and on our last night, while I packed, Dad and Grandma took the kids to the UVU game with some of the cousins. Somehow, they ended up with 10 seats right on the floor.

No basketball was watched by our kids, however, as they were completely distracted by the cheerleaders and dance team. Sylvie danced at every time out and even joined the "princesses" for a number. She just loves to dance.

We had a very smooth trip home--no one got sick, our stops were quick, and we didn't even watch a movie because the kids were more interested in listening to books on cd. We enjoyed our trip--it was just what we needed to end our February.

President's Week

In a strange school tradition, Jens gets President's Week (also called ski break) off. We decided to celebrate with an impromptu trip to Utah, since the roads and weather were unseasonably dry. We left Friday, and in spite of 3 stops in the first 30 minutes of driving, we made excellent time. The kids were really good and both fell asleep in the car. We always love visiting our family in Utah. This time, as a bonus, we got 5 inches of fresh snow on Saturday night. It was practically torture, making Jens go to church, but he was a good sport, although when we asked him if he wanted to stay for primary he said "NO!!" (Sylvie said yes, and seemed to think her teacher would be there).

So we headed home and geared Jens up. We found his winter coat, which had been left behind the previous April and with the help of Jake, got some boots to wear. Sylvie, on the other hand, has minimal gear and also says things like "I won't be worried!" when you try to convince her to wear a coat and she says no (which is the way she rolls--girl won't wear a coat for anything.) She and Dad played Princess and Prince for a while.

Here she is on her throne.

This is what happened when she went out to "play" in the snow. Yeah, she's not worried. She is actually furious because snow got on her gloves.

Jens, on the other hand, was in heaven. He loves shoveling and making snowballs. At one point, Mike looked out the window in time to see Jens dive head first into the snow.

This was our Sylvie compromise--all the snow play, none of the cold. She decided it was mostly good for eating.

Jens was outside for at least 2 hours, with a few little warm-up breaks. The most heart stopping was when he came in to show off "thin ice" that he'd found on the roof. Yes, he had climbed onto the garage roof, trekked to the apex, and put his hands up onto the second story. When I freaked out, he cooly responded "It was easy!"