I Have a Testimony of Siblings

I remember when Fay was around Portia’s age, I was still in school and I had a huge research paper due. My awesome sister-in-law, Crystal, agreed to watch Fay while I worked on my paper in her basement. Somewhere in the midst of working on my paper, I came upstairs to find Fay surrounded by three adoring cousins who were each making silly noises and faces in an effort to get her to laugh. It was working really well! She was giggling up a storm! That was the first time I uttered the words “I have a testimony of siblings.”  And now that we actually have some of our sibling action going on around the house I feel it even more!

Cuties in the bath! Portia LOVES bathtime! There's water, toys, and best of all buddies!

Cuties in the bath! Portia LOVES bath-time! There’s water, toys, and best of all buddies! Also, Fay’s face is priceless!

The other day, the sweetest thing ever occurred. Carter wanted to feed Portia her baby food, and I let him. It’s so cute to hear his little baby voice, because he already has a baby voice all the time, but he accentuates it for Portia! Fay does the same thing, and it is also pretty cute!

Fay loves snuggling with Portia and loving on her! She talks to her so sweetly sometimes, and I’m just so happy that Portia gets love from so many sources at home! Fay also loves trying to carry Portia. The other day she declared that she had “big muscles” and could therefore carry Portia up the stairs unaided. Her muscles were apparently not quite as big as she had thought, and it was a very good thing that I was spotting the endeavor. But, even though I do intermittently fear for Portia’s life, it is fun to see the sisters love each other so much!

If you can't quite tell if Portia likes this moment...you're in good company.

If you can’t quite tell if Portia likes this moment…you’re in good company.

But Portia isn’t the only one who benefits from siblings. Fay and Carter have been buds forever, and they are each other’s very best friend. Sometimes they fight–we are trying really hard to encourage other methods of negotiation–but most of the time they just enjoy each other’s company and love trying the things that the other loves. Here’s a little taste of how they play together.

I just love them all so much!

I just love them so much!

On an adventure together!

Pontifications and Pictures

People often say they don’t have a favorite child. And I get that. I mean, how could you pick favorites among your own offspring? But let me tell you: my Fay is something super special. She is so funny, and bizarre, and then super sweet and Christ-like within seconds of each other. She gets pretty dramatic sometimes when things don’t go her way; but she is willing to completely forgive in a heartbeat! She loves anything princess, anything girly, and anything Carter is currently enjoying. She is all fun! Fay could definitely be my favorite child.

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Fay in her dance uniform. She has to wear that horribly ill-fitting leotard without sleeves, which is lame. But she only wears it during class, and any other ballerina time she may want to have is sleeved and more flattering.

Oh, but then there’s my boy. Carter is such a gem! He does what he wants and the way he wants it. If you get in his way you will incur his wrath and rage–mostly this is the case when he is tired or hangry. He gets VERY hangry.  But when he is well rested and well fed, he is a sweet little snuggle buddy! He loves getting his toes kissed or kissing Portia’s toes. He loves taking naps (but not going to bed), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, singing songs, and reading stories. And he gets so much joy out of simple little things like his Mater (from Cars) toy. Yeah. He might just be my favorite child.

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It doesn’t get cooler than this.

But if you have ever spent any time with Portia, you know that she is a shining star. She is just so enthusiastic about her little life! She relishes every ritz cracker that is placed before her, devouring it with more cuteness than one would ever think possible. She has a smile as wide as her whole self that she sports readily to anyone who pays her some much-craved attention. She is snuggly and loving, but also can be independent and takes to new skills quickly. If you ever need somebody to stuff something in their mouth and chomp on it for a while, you will never find a better volunteer than my Portia. Pretty sure she’s probably my favorite child.

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So happy to just be!

So, I really do understand those people who don’t have a favorite child. But I do. I have a favorite child. Three actually. They each have the personality and make-up to warrant being my favorite. And they really are each my very favorite child.

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Movie time!

And thinking about that makes me think that maybe Heavenly Father picks favorites too. Maybe He has an equal number of favorite children to the number of children He has. It is a pretty powerful thought to me to think of being Heavenly Father’s favorite child. And I think we really each are His very favorite child. 🙂

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We climb on this frog (or the yellow one) and take a picture every single time we go to this part of the aquarium. It was, until just now, and unwritten rule. Now it is written.

Anyway, pontifications aside; here’s a little bit of what we’ve been up to recently.

Not too much, actually; which is kind of nice. Me and the kids have spent a lot of days at home in the past little bit. Although, we did go visit cousins yesterday, and that was definitely the highlight of the kids’ week!

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The girls in the front yard. Fay loves seeing what she can get Portia to eat!

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This was Carter’s idea to begin with, but Fay had to take part in anything that was being photographed. I asked him what the little pipes were and he said “My shoes!”

On Sunday, we went to Sugar House park for a picnic dinner. The kids discovered a tree that they could easily walk under and declared it their cave. They spent over an hour playing in their cave together. It was so cute! It’s so special when they play together and just get along!

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The kids in the cave.

Today I got some rare time alone with Carter. Usually Carter and Portia’s naps overlap, so I can get some time alone with Fay. And when Portia goes down for her nap later than Carter, but Fay is doing preschool I can get some alone time with Portia. But by the time Carter wakes up from his nap, Fay is always done with preschool and we’re kind of back to the norm. But today, Fay randomly took a nap while Portia was down, so it was just me and Carter for a while! We checked for ripe tomatoes in the garden, then we sat on the deck eating apples (thanks Maren!) together and chatting about grasshoppers, Daniel Tiger and Mater. It was priceless!

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Stud.

I have been LOVING the past two days of cooler weather!!!! I am super excited for when it gets serious about being autumn! But we’ll try and enjoy a few more days of wearing shorts and sandals this coming week, too.

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Getting ready to be reverent during family scripture study. Sometimes tucking them in helps.

Spoils of the Summer

A few weeks ago we discovered that we had more than just Virginia Creeper vines on our back fence; we have grape vines too! And there were even grapes growing thereon! We harvested them last week and made about 3 liters of grape juice! About 60% of that juice was consumed by Carter.

Not bad for not doing anything to grow them!

Not bad for not doing anything to grow them!

We planted some carrots this spring. We planted two rows, but only one actually grew. We harvested them the same day as our grapes.

I think they taste about the same as store-bought carrots.

I think they taste about the same as store-bought carrots.

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Fay helped with the harvest by sampling it. She is just too cute!

We’ve also been enjoying lots of tomatoes! We planted other things; but we are still pretty new to gardening, and lots of things didn’t ever come to fruition.

We have family party (family home evening) each week; and we really try to make it exciting and enjoyable for the whole family. We have noticed that the things the kids love the most are usually the simplest: playing with toys as a family, making music on household objects, etc. So this past week Josh had the idea of just blowing up a bunch of balloons and letting the kids do whatever with them.

They loved it!

They loved it!

We have really had a fun summer! We’ve done lots of cool things together, and enjoyed never wearing jackets or socks! But, to be honest, this is the time when I always feel ready for summer to be over. We have nobody in out-of-the-house school (Fay does an online preschool), so we’re still just doing the same stuff as we have been, and I’m feeling the need for a change. I’m not seeing anything very obvious, so I might have to get creative…

Carter and Josh. So happy!

Carter and Josh. So happy!

Also, here’s Portia! She is wearing a super cute outfit! She is super cute in the outfit! She is also just plain super cute!

See! What'd I tell you?

See! What’d I tell you?