Winnie's messy 'do

This is what happens when your 18-month-old smears dinner all through her hair and her daddy uses the dish cloth to clean her up.

Good golly, she's a beautiful mess.

Eastering

Our Easter festivities included a great (if I may say so myself) FHE lesson where we made Resurrection Rolls and did this lesson while we waited for them to bake. (Scroll down to "Easter program.")

The day before Easter, we went to the Ucon Easter egg hunt, which everybody gets there 15 minutes early for, and it's over in 15 seconds. Except this year, they told us we couldn't line all sides of the field at Simmons Park, so the kids were stacked about 10 deep. The smaller ones really had no chance of getting close to the same number of eggs as the older ones. (I've messaged the Ucon Facebook page and asked why they chose to do it that way this year; I've yet to receive a response.)

Winnie stayed at home with Grandma Susan; Analee and Miriam went with me to Simmons Park where we searched for eggs with Cooper and Aunt Rachel; Seth took Bekah to the Ucon field where the oldest kids searched.

Rebekah ready to grab the candy-, coupon- and prize-filled eggs.

Analee found a fellow 1st grade friend (Brinna) to search with.

The overcrowded west side of the Simmons field.

Miriam with the eggs she managed to grab.

Rebekah with her haul.

We dyed eggs that night (even the ones I cracked while being careless) ...

Miriam with her egg, whisk and orange dye.

... and had a lovely Easter dinner with the Hendricks side of the family the next day.

To see more Easter photos, start here.

Trailer sleepover

Since we happen to have a big, lovely shop all built, we figured we ought to have something big and lovely to store in it. So Seth and I found a travel trailer on Craigslist that we liked and purchased it.

Words cannot express how excited I am for hunting season this year.

Beds. Our own room. A sink with running water. A stove. All of it packed up into a wonderfully portable mini-home.

We still have a little bit of work to do on it before it's ready for its maiden voyage with the Grovers, but in the meantime, the girls were dying to try it out. Seth, being the sweet father he is, suggested they all have a sleepover in the trailer. Winnie and I stayed in the warm house with the three older girls and Seth bundled up out in the shop.

Analee in one of the bottom bunks. Although she had claimed a top bunk as her own, she decided to try her first sleepover in the trailer on a bottom bunk. She was glad she did. Around 11 p.m., she fell on the floor, which was a lot closer to her starting position than it would have been on the top bunk.

Rebekah and Miriam in their bunks. They love that they each have their own reading lights.

Seth checking on the girls in their beds. He didn't want to run the furnace in the trailer (he would have had to keep the shop's garage door open all night), so we piled blankets on top of sleeping bags so the girls would stay toasty.

The girls tucked away in their bunk room.

Seth and the trailer in the shop.

Miri-ism #27

Miri: Even when I'm a grownup, I am going to hate naps. Naps are so not fun. Naps are underfun. Underfun means naps are not good, and playing is the best.

Gwendolen's 18-month stats and Miriam's 4-year stats

Nothing lets you compare your children to each other like a joint doctor's appointment, and that's just what Winnie and Miri had yesterday.

Both are on target developmentally. They're as happy and healthy as two little girls can be, even on opposite sides of the spectrum.

Winnie's stats

Height: 31 1/4 inches (27th percentile)
Weight: 20 pounds, 5 ounces (17th percentile)
Head: 19 inches (92nd percentile)

Miri's stats

Height: 43 1/2 inches (98th percentile)
Weight: 44 pounds (97th percentile)

 Our big and tall Miriam received two legfuls of shots (I didn't mention the word "shot" until we were in the exam room and it was too late to run away), and our scrawny little Gwen received just one. Both of them settled down when the nurse brought them suckers.

I thought it was interesting when the med student accompanying our pediatrician asked some questions about Gwendolen:

"Does she talk?"
"How many words?"
"Does she string words together?"

Then the pediatrician announced that Winnie is advanced in her speech. They expect 18-month-olds to have a 5-15-word vocabulary; they expect 2-year-olds to have a 50-100-word vocabulary. And they don't expect kids to start stringing words together until they're 2.

I came home and told Seth that Winnie easily has at least 100 words that she says (without parroting). He was a little disbelieving, so we spent the evening remembering words we've heard her say, and we wrote a list. The list dominated our dinner table discussion.

The final count (and I don't think the list is yet complete): 112. I think that's why her head is so big in comparison to the rest of her body. Where else would she keep all the brains that store her words?

Rebekah meets Brandon Mull

Our kids love books. Winnie brings me board books and sits down in my lap so I'll read them to her. Miriam looks forward to our weekly trip to the public library and story time. Analee can often be found in her top bunk with her nose buried in a book. Rebekah complains that we only let her read for half an hour before lights out at night.

So when I found out that Brandon Mull would be signing book at Barnes and Noble during spring break, I asked Rebekah if she'd like to go. Rebekah has read the entire Fablehaven series, has listened to/read the Candy Shop Wars about 20 times, and started the Beyonders series. (She is about halfway through the last book now.) So she thought that sounded like fun.

When Grandma Scott heard we'd be meeting Brandon Mull, she told us that he was presenting an assembly at the school where she teaches third grade earlier that day and asked if we'd like to come. Rebekah was gung-ho, so I took four little girls ages 18 months through 8 years to another elementary school during our spring break.

That evening, we all drove to the mall and Seth carted the younger girls around while Rebekah and I stood in line to meet the author face-to-face.

 Holding a couple of her Fablehaven books and her Kindle.

After we reached the front of the line, Brandon asked her which of his books she's read. Then he asked her how old she is. Then he asked me if she had read them by herself. (They're all pretty long books--like 400+ pages long--but I assured him that she has, in fact, read them by herself.)

Rebekah showed him her Brandon Mull library on her Kindle. I asked if he wouldn't mind signing the inside of her Kindle cover. He happily obliged.

Rebekah with Brandon Mull.

Rebekah came home from the experience super-excited to finish the Beyonders series and with a couple new signatures in her books.

Miri-ism #26

While watching the Saturday morning session General Conference:

Miri: He looks like a real nutcracker.

Apparently the effects of age on Elder Holland make his face look like a wooden doll that smashes walnuts in its jaw. He's still an incredible speaker.

Charlotte

Since we have a house full of girls, we love babies. And girl cousins. So when the newest girl baby cousin was born in Rexburg, we drove up to give her a visit at the hospital. She did not disappoint.

First Uncle Kent showed Charlotte off to our family.

Then we passed her around and took turns holding her.

 While Aunt Melissa entertained Winnie.

You done good, Melissa and Kent. She's gorgeous.

To see more, start here.

Spring breaking

The girls' spring break started last Friday and Seth had to take a day off in the first quarter, so we made a day out of it and started by going to the Civil Defense Cave north of St. Anthony.

The girls had been to the cave once before--at least, the older ones had been there before. I wore Ana on my hip the last time we went. This time, I carried Winnie in the sling and Seth carried Miriam/held her hand as we explored the cave with our flashlights and glow bracelets.

Seth and the bigger girls going down into the mouth of the cave. Once we got back far enough, it was warmer in the cave than it had been outside.

Winnie managed to hold on to her baba throughout the entire cave.

Ana in the cave. She wanted a picture of her standing on top of a bunch of rocks, but of course you can't see the rocks because it's so dark.

Our adorable girls in a little room off the main chute of the cave.

Water has dripped through the cave and created some incredible ice formations on the floor. The girls enjoyed shining their flashlights through them so I could take pictures.

Some ice stalagmites.

Rebekah sitting on a rock at the mouth of the cave on our way out.

Seth carrying Miri back toward the light.

Seth had to take a picture of my white hair at the mouth of the cave.

The only downside of the whole caving experience was seeing the litter and graffiti scattered throughout.

Our next stop was for lunch at Pizza Pie Cafe, then we took the girls to the Teton Flood Museum.

Miri and Ana looking at how a log cabin may have been set up and furnished in days gone by.

 Winnie feeling Seth's stubble.

Miri sitting on an old school desk seat.

After looking through the exhibits and watching a movie about the flood, we discovered the children's room and spent some time there.

Rebekah found some skeins of yarn in the children's room and found a spot to finger-crochet her a scarf.

Winnie wearing a fancy hat and playing with toys.

Then we drove to BYU-Idaho to walk around the Thomas E. Ricks Gardens.

 By this point in the day, the girls were begging me to take a picture of them every 30 seconds. I promised them each five poses in the gardens.

Rebekah sporting her newly made scarf.

Seth had to get in on the action.

Miriam telling me she wanted 11 more pictures.

Winnie even smiled for the camera.

Then we stopped by the Benson building to show the girls the dead animals (every time we called them "stuffed animals," the girls thought we were taking them to a store to play with teddy bears).

Picking their favorite animals.

We all came home tired, so the day was a success. To see more, click here.

Miriam is 4

Miriam has the benefit of having her birthday before everybody else's in the calendar year, so as soon as Christmas was over, she started counting down the days until she would turn 4. That day finally came last week.

 Miriam showing how old she now is.

Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis were out of town on her special day, so they weren't able to come to the party. Instead, they had Miri over for a sleepover the week before.

The evening of her birthday, we had Grandma and Grandpa Scott, Uncle T, Aunt McKall and Bennet over for dinner and festivities. Miriam chose ham and potato soup and rainbow Jell-O for her birthday dinner. Then we took turns whacking the piñata she helped make and decorate. The weather outside wasn't really conducive to partying, so we took the piñata in the shop.

Miriam with the piñata she helped make. She painted the outside (with a little help to get it all covered), picked the picture to put on it (Prince Eric and Ariel with Melody) and colored it.

Sometimes the piñata whacks back.

The kids played with their prizes and ate some of their candy, then we went back inside for presents.

 Seth getting Miri's light-up aquarium working.

Opening her present from Aunt McKall. Uncle T is thrilled to be a part of the fun.

She received a princess dress, Ariel Play-doh set and mermaid stickers from Mom and Dad; a light-up aquarium and the requisite batteries from Grandma and Grandpa Scott; Polly Pockets from Analee (these are hand-me-downs from her sister--Ana knew how much Miri loves to play with them "and I don't play with them very much," so she gave them to her); a magic show from Rebekah; chocolate bunnies to share with her sisters and cousin from Grandpa Wirkus; and Minnie puzzles and Minnie and Sofia the First coloring packs from Aunt McKall, Uncle T and Bennet. (Aunt Jessica, who had to work that night, dropped by a  few days later with a coloring book, crayons, Disney princess jewelry and Ponies coloring for Miriam.)

Then came the ice cream and cake.

 The cake Miriam chose for her birthday. Look familiar? She put the fish and star fish on all by herself. Rebekah posed her arms to make her "look excited."

Licking frosting off the hindquarters of the mermaid who sat atop the cake.

Everyone sang to Miriam, she blew out the four candles on the mermaid cake she requested, and we all partook of said cake and ice cream.

It's safe to say she had a fun and memorable birthday, because that night as we tucked her in, she asked me, "Mom, when is my next birthday?"

To see more pictures, click here.