Cats and Kittens

Happy 2nd Birthday to Ginger and Sierra!

We got them a new couple of toys.  Unfortunately we discovered, at home, that the mouse toy was possessed.  When it was moved it would make terrible noises and its eyes would flash demonically.  The cats loved it, except when it made noise.  We finally gutted the mouse and all was well.

After a failed attempt at fostering an adult cat around the end of last year, we decided to try again, but with kittens this time.  This litter of four was dumped at a shelter at about 5 weeks old.  They didn't even know how to eat on their own yet.  We got them within 24 hours of the time they were dumped.  Since they were new we got to name them.  We chose their names from the secret identities of cat-themed superheroes.

The all-black kitty was named Shuri (aka Black Panther.  Tabby with white was named Priscilla Rich (aka Cheetah.  Cream with chocolate points was the only male, named Thomas Rich (aka Catman), and cream with dilute tabby points Felicia Hardy (aka Black Cat).

This is trying to teach the kittens how to eat warm, slightly liquid canned food.  It resulted in a number of nips on my fingers, but all but Felicia caught on to it pretty quickly.  We had to get some baby food (smoother texture) to finally get Felicia to catch on.

 Aunt Janice and Aunt Jenny came to visit and cuddle kittens.  

2012: In closing

 A few pictures I missed from Christmas:   Ginger was thrilled by all the empty boxes left around.  We did stop by to visit the grands (Grandpa and Grandma Southern and Grandma Abuela, aka Grandma Jensen).

In the week between Christmas and New Years all the available Jarbh ladies of all ages got together for A Doll's Christmas.  We had a beautiful mini dinner complete with Cornish game hens and miniature cutlery.  We did manage to include the Arkansas branch of the family via Skype.  Everyone brought a doll and introduced their dolls around before dinner.

With the teenage nieces and nephews getting around to doing fun things with friends on New Year's Eve we decided it was time for a change of plans.  Instead of a late night gathering we had a morning activity.  The teens planned it and were helpers through the activities.  Breakfast (prepared via short order cooks), puzzles, unique DIY party hats, games, and more!  Each person had a ticket to have "stamped" at each activity.  Then at the end everyone who did enough activities (well, actually we just did everyone :) ) got to pick a wrapped white elephant gift.

There were some fun music activities in the music room with all sorts of instruments.  See?  I was there too!  Little J was taking some experimental steps towards being a grown up walker (which he has been for some time now).  Sabrina got the chocolate bar as part of her white elephant gift.

When it came to the actual changing of the year, this is what it looked like.  We sat at home watching something together, probably on Netflix.  The girls gathered more and more blankets and cuddled up until they were barely awake.  Happy Drowsy New Year!

Sabrina's 7th Birthday

Sabrina drew a picture of what she wanted her cake to look like.  Right down to the pennant saying "Sabrina" on one side and "Wizard!" on the other.  I'm still not entirely sure why, but she was happy.  Kate made the banner for her.

Sabrina wanted loaded baked potatoes for dinner.  Unfortunately it was a rough day and I didnt' get it started on time, so we went for Irish Nachos instead.  Kate made "window stickers" out of contact paper.  Lizzie gathered up some pens and bubbles.  I love how excited she gets about every little thing.  It makes it so fun to give her things.

Sabrina's big present from Mom and Dad was this doll car.  She was SO excited!  She even got to decorate it with stickers.
And yes, we were apparently out of tissue paper, so her car was "wrapped" in a handy gift bag with a length of fabric covering the top.  Super classy. ;)

Sabrina also celebrated her birthday with Grandma Jensen who made her a scripture bag, and with the Southern family.

Then some cousins were in town from a few hours away so we had a cake decorating "tea party" to play with them.

(You can see J decorating cakes like a MAN)

Then we played a game where each player took turns rolling a pair of dice.  Each number meant one thing added to their paper so in the end every person had drawn a jack-o-lantern, complete with name.

 Finally, Sabrina got to invite two friends to come with us to the Nickelcade, followed by Krispy Kreme for donuts.  Doing the two friend outings is SO much simpler than parties at home!  Love it.

 Happy 7th Birthday to my dear, sweet Sabrina.  I love you!

More Summer

Go Fly a Kite.

We discovered that most evenings we get a pretty good breeze blowing down the canyon, which makes our side yard ideal for flying kites!  It was amazing.  The kites went right up and stayed up.

One day we came home and discovered we'd missed our friends!  They had taken a bike ride all the way past our house.  Fortunately we'd left out some sidewalk chalk, and we had a delightful note left for us on the driveway :)

Hang Loose

Skateboarding lessons with Uncle Dan are always popular.  Lizzie admitted to me, though, that when he was saying "Hang Loose" when they were sitting up high for the picture to be taken, she was confused and wondered why they'd want to do that.

Daddy's Birthday

Who could turn down a stick with a string and a plastic spoon stuck on them (I think it was supposed to be some sort of catapult?).  At least, who could turn them down when given with such great anticipation and a huge girlish grin?!  Kate used some of her own birthday money to buy a little chalk board and paint to decorate it.  It is in Michael's office so they can leave notes on it and it won't have to be erased every time, like on the work white board.  I made an iPad case using a text book (bought from the library sale), felt, and a zipper.  It's handy when you don't mind if your iPad looks like it isn't an iPad ;)

Kate's Birthday Activity

Last year we started a tradition in which the birthday girl gets to choose two friends and an activity.  Then the family takes the two friends along and we go do something fun together.  Much easier, less stress, and more fun than worrying about a big party.  Kate wanted to go to the Nickelcade.  

 The kids all had a great time!  Michael finally won the  "Monster Jackpot" on his favorite ball-drop game (637 tickets!).  Lizzie won the "huge prize" of 2,000 tickets on a game (bottom right, below).  We used some of the tickets to get fun prizes and saved the rest for another visit, saving up for something larger.

Then we went to Krispy Kreme and ate donuts and juice or milk and opened presents.  It was absolutely delightful!  And I didn't have to vacuum specially afterward ;)

This is what we look like in the car.  Yes, it's kinda crazy.

We had a Jarbh family gathering to say farewell to my brother, sister-in-law, and their son.  They've moved off to a good job in another state and we sure do miss them!  We took cake and cupcakes to the party, and learned that if you buy eggs in bulk, the paper holders are great to transport cupcakes in!

Sabrina "accidentally"(?) got some frosting on her arm on the drive there.  Poor girl "had to" lick it off.
Each of the kids got a special fancy chocolate box from friends in China.  These kids love all things Chinese!

A couple of weeks ago we had some cousins (and Aunt J) stop by to hang out for a while.  Their mama was having a baby!  Our house is closest to the hospital she was at and the kids were hoping they'd be handy to see their brand new baby sister.  After a few hours, though, they decided to go home to bed.

M got a bow and arrow set and Uncle Michael taught him how to shoot it.  It ended up being a fun night of archery.  Kate pulled out the bow and arrow she made out of sticks and they all had fun.

They were well chaperoned by a very curious Ginger.

Michael pulled out one of the kitty toys and easily tempted Ginger down.

 After some fun with the kitty wand she discovered a lonesome ant.  The ant provided quite a period of amusement for Ginger, and subsequently the rest of us.  (Yes, Sabrina knows how to make an entrance!)

Lizzie was ready to go home with her cousins!  Or actually I think she just had to say good bye about 20 times ;)  Yay for a healthy new niece, born later that night!

Snowbird

Here comes the photo overload from our trip to Snowbird again this year.  It happened to be a couple of days before Michael's birthday so I arranged a little surprise for him.

Aunt Jenny and Aunt Janice came with us this year.

When we first arrived it was raining and some of the attractions were closed.  Fortunately the rain let up pretty quickly, and everything was open by the time we were done with lunch.

The weather was very pleasant (once the rain stopped) and we got away with very little sunburn.

Sabrina mostly liked to climb up high enough to let go and repel back down.  She wasn't overly concerned about the climbing, she just liked coming back down.

The wildflowers at the top of the mountain were beautiful!

We ended the day with dinner with the company (This was a work party) at Brick Oven.  An impressive amount of pizza was ordered.

This picture seemed to end the day pretty perfectly.  All the youngests with their parents various smartphones keeping busy while the grown ups finished their meal.