Happy 6th Birthday to Sabrina!

Ah, this girl!  She's a real kick in the pants.  Sometimes literally!  (If we're not "Friends" on Facebook you might have to ask me sometime about the WalMart goosing incident).  She comes up with the funniest, sweetest, most random things in the world.

6 years old.  Amazing.  Time flies!  It's felt like only about.... 6 years since she was born!

Sabrina's birthday was rather low-key.  I discovered the next day that I had strep, and I wasn't feeling well.  I tried to do right by my baby girl, though.  But mostly I just banked on two things: 1- she's still young enough that little things mean a lot.  2- Sabrina is a delightful gift-getter.  She can get SO excited about nothing at all!  (Naturally she can be a grump too... but we're going to focus on the positive.  She really is fabulous about rhapsodizing about any tiny thing.)

One of our birthday traditions is that the birthday girl (or boy if it's Daddy's birthday of course) gets to choose breakfast.  This normally includes some fancy sugar infused cereal.  Everybody gets one bowl, then the birthday celebrant gets to choose how to distribute the remainder.  I always expect them to gorge or hoard.  They usually just share it with their sisters though!

 Sabrina reading Foxtrot comics while eating her Cocoa Krispies

Since it was Friday (playgroup day!) we made some special cupcakes and went off to the park to share a morning sugar jolt with whichever friends made it to the park.

It was rather chilly.

Nobody else came.

 This was during Health and Safety week.  This day's theme was "I can keep my body healthy from the inside - out" and the kids all got to wear their clothes inside out.  See?  There WAS a purpose in her inside-out clothing.  This day.

So we went to plan B and dropped by unexpectedly at our old neighbors' house.  They even let us come share our cupcakes (see?  they're in cute itty bitty jars!) at 10:00 am :)

As an extra bonus they had the house all decorated to celebrate Sabrina's birthday!!!  Sabrina said "Oh thank you!!!  But I know it was really for Abish's birthday yesterday.  But it's still cute."  (Friend Abish there has a birthday the day before Sabrina's.  They've celebrated together before.)

After school Grandma came over and we had a mini-party on the front porch.  The sun had finally come out and it was beautiful out there.  Besides, local flora improved the look of my top-notch wrapping.

 Before you judge my wrapping let me remind you: I had strep!

Sabrina was delighted by her presents from her sisters.

And her beautiful hand painted rock-magnets in the personalized box from Grandma

And from Daddy and Mommy she got the present she's been asking for since... July I think?  Seriously.  She saw this thing at Babies-R-Us when I was there looking for something.  She reminded me of it and found it other places all the way up to her birthday!  She was SO happy we remembered.

My favorite part is when she finally tore the top notch outer wrapping and squealed with delight: "Paper towels!!!!!".  I guess the bar was set pretty low for this gift?

After the mini-party we went as a family to see The Smurfs.  That was a grand sacrifice on the parental front, but the movie was actually decent.  We went to the Spanish 8 theater (cheap tickets and cheap concessions!) and had a great time.

Then we went home and Kate read a book about cats out loud to her sisters while I made dinner.  Sabrina's special birthday dinner.  I let her choose ANYTHING at all!  She chose...

Boxed macaroni and cheese.  Be not afraid, though!  It's the Phineas and Ferb shaped variety.  Cause that's how we celebrate.

My Little Punkins

I don't think these need a lot of words here.  Just felt like taking festive pictures of my girls :)

I just need to sift through the hundred (or so) pictures I took a the pumpkin patch and I may get around to posting again!  I also need to share photos of our adorable kittties :)

August... still?

I've been putting off this post because I'm lazy.  And I wanted to get the pictures all edited and organized.  Finally I gotta get this all done so I can get up to date!

Thus: August.

We got to go on a company activity with all the families of employees of Q90 where Michael works.  We each got a full day activity wrist band and we all spent the day together up the canyon at Snowbird Ski Resort.  It was gorgeous!!!

None of the lines were too bad, which was good.  These girls didn't have THAT much patience ;)

All three girls loved the bungee trampoline.  It took a little bit, but they all figured out how to do flips.  I don't even know how many times they each did the tramp.  I was exhausted just watching them!

There was a friendly $20 to whomever from the group could stay on the mechanical bull the longest.  Most of the big boys could handle up to a minute.  Kate stayed glued to that thing for 5 minutes!  I even got it on video.  It took some real work for the bull driver to shake her.  Lizzie's last time she got almost as long as Kate had too.  Sabrina was really sad to be too young for this ride.

The ski lift was tons of fun.  We rode up it to get to the alpine slide (which we each rode several times) and to get to the zip line (which none of the girls were heavy enough for, but I rode twice -- once with Michael, once with my mom who came with us too).

Up close!  Proof we were all there :)

 Alpine Slide

Ropes Course.  All the girls did really well on this!  The walkways are probably 15 feet above the ground but it was fun!

 End of summer splendor.  It was breathtaking at Snowbird!

We took the Peruvian Chair Lift to the top of the mountain.  It's a long, slow (45 minutes roundtrip) trip.  It was nice and cool and a very relaxing break between sliding down mountains and jumping on trampolines.

There were still patches of snow at the top!

 Passing over Daddy and The Girls while my mom and I were riding the chair lift to take our turn on the zip line.  Up and over them!

 We did apply sunblock before our fun day, but apparently we weren't vigilant enough.  I love how Lizzie ended up with a hand print of non-burned skin on her cheeks.  We were all pretty thoroughly burned and very tired at the end of the day!

To round out the wonderful day we had a company dinner at Brick Oven.  The balloon guy there (he's so cool!) made these brilliant creations.  Sabrina got Cinderella (who she determined made a great hat), Lizzie got a giraffe she named Linda, and Kate got an alien ray-gun shoulder-sitting hat.

We love the company Michael works for, and this is one little reason why -- they really care about the families of the employees.  This was the biggest vacation we had all summer but it was absolutely wonderful.  I highly recommend Snowbird Resort in the summer months.  And if you choose to go up there -- go for the day pass.  We did so many fun things it would have cost us several times what was payed for the passes to do it all!  (There were also a bunch of smaller kid bounce toys / rock walls / etc. that just aren't pictured here).

As a sidenote: this seems a fitting farewell to summer post as we got enough snow today that the girls made a snowman!  I expect it will get warm again, but it sure is cold today!

Goals: Update 11

1- Sew at least one new item of clothing for me. -- a little detail work still needed.  Ugh.

2- Make great room (and/or family room) curtains.-- With the addition of our kitties I think the lace draperies in the living room will need to be changed first!

3- Go one mile (run/walk) in 12 minutes or less -- 

4- Clean out and sort jewelry boxes

5- Catch up one year of scrapbooks-- Oh my.

6- Read the entire Book of Mormon
 
7- Get a new family picture taken
 
8- Clean out my bedroom closet

9- Sort my craft type items (including sewing) -- This is making good progress!

10- Make a new temple dress (does not fulfill goal #1) -- 

11- Be involved in at least one PTA project at the elementary school 

12- Get last year's blog book printed and bound 
 
13- Make some nice hair pretties for MY daughters
 
14- Read some classic literature -- Finished Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jane Eyre,  Treasure Island, and let Michael chose my next book.  Up next: Les Miserables.
   
15- Plant something and keep it alive 
 
16- Improve dysphonia to be able to sing again with less pain -- I have worked on this.  It's not working very well, though.  Mostly I have to take a lot of breaks between singings.  

17- Learn two new hymns on the piano -- 
 
18- Plan and enjoy a family vacation (even if it has to be in Utah County) 
 
19- Back up all digital photos on new DVDs (or other storage device) and store safely  -- I found my external drive again!

20- Participate in fruit and vegetable co-op when possible and learn new ways to enjoy produce 
 
21- Create a 7 generation pedigree chart

22- Finish quilts for the girls' beds -- 

23- Take a class through the community programs -- Concert in a week and a half!
 
24- Follow FlyLady principles to get/keep the house in a happy state.  -- I am learning to also accept the baby steps I'm capable to completing.  

25- Read a book by a church leader 
 
26- Spend $1,000 to improve financial outlook (pay off debt faster, put in savings, etc.) 

27- Look at the stars more 
 
28- Clean the Sharpie "artwork" off the playroom walls 

29- Update our family's emergency preparedness --  Definitely time to get this one addressed!

30- Learn to use the lenses and settings on my camera 

31- Return and report progress on my goals -- Ready or not, my birthday is coming!

One Year

So much can change in a year!  This is what I was doing a year ago.  Nasty surgery.  Fourth surgery within 7 months.  Strangest combination of calmness and terror ever.  I decided in January that I would keep track of my healthy days to help me realize how much healthier and pain free my days are than I imagine them.  Alas, it was a good idea which backfired.  My body doesn't do pain-free.  Most days are mostly decent.  That's good enough I suppose.  I've had it bad enough long enough that I can be grateful for manageable pain levels and understandable medical issues.

In the last 12 months since the major surgery I've only had one anesthetized procedure (an upper digestive scope) and just a few visits to the ER (post-op issues, severe upper digestive pain still not diagnosed).  For me this is a good record!  I have had the physical strength and energy to do what I needed to be able to do this last year (what with the move and all that).  I'm finally starting to lose some of this stubborn weight.  If I could get some of my meds balanced out again I may even have the motivation to get other things (like dishes and laundry) accomplished!

One thing that made life easier through the medical issues is that my husband and daughters were quite healthy.  This year was less cool that way.  I would rather have had another hospital stay than have Lizzie in the hospital for a day with pneumonia.  I decided a few years ago that I'd be fine with continuing to take the brunt of the medical misfortune as long as it meant the others were healthy.  I wish that was something I could get an assurance on.  Unfortunately I've had to learn to be the one who wants to fix something but cannot.  I hate feeling helpless though.  Especially to my children.

One year without surgeries.  Let's see if we can make it two!

Goals: Update 10

1- Sew at least one new item of clothing for me. -- I've mostly finished one.  I'm not quite happy with it yet, though.  Needs some color.  I hope to figure it out this week so I can wear the dress next Sunday.

2- Make great room (and/or family room) curtains.-- Perhaps I'll just change the rest of the family room curtains into roman blinds?  

3- Go one mile (run/walk) in 12 minutes or less -- No.  But I've done some good work on a stationary bike and I've been brilliant and doing the lawn mowing.

4- Clean out and sort jewelry boxes

5- Catch up one year of scrapbooks-- Oh my.

6- Read the entire Book of Mormon
 
7- Get a new family picture taken
 
8- Clean out my bedroom closet

9- Sort my craft type items (including sewing) -- I'm making progress!  Getting things sorted slowly back into useable place.  Phew!

10- Make a new temple dress (does not fulfill goal #1) -- I'd better get to finishing the one I found in my sewing things!

11- Be involved in at least one PTA project at the elementary school --  PTA meeting this week.  If Sabrina is doing better I might even make it there!


12- Get last year's blog book printed and bound 
 
13- Make some nice hair pretties for MY daughters
 
14- Read some classic literature -- In the last several weeks I've been reading some great things through the Reveal Reader (free app on my droid phone).  I use the reader to do my scripture / Ensign / Conference Report reading.  Recently I've also used it to read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Scarlet Letter, and currently about 1/3 of the way through The Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Great stuff!
   
15- Plant something and keep it alive -- We've been enjoying the harvest of our tomato plants and the yard is still pretty green and nicely trimmed.  Yay!
 
16- Improve dysphonia to be able to sing again with less pain 

17- Learn two new hymns on the piano -- 
 
18- Plan and enjoy a family vacation (even if it has to be in Utah County) -- For this year, we'll have to count our day at Snowbird as our "vacation".  And along with that, all our evenings toasting marshmallows in the backyard.  We've had some wonderful family together, we just didn't get to do anything anyone else would probably call a "vacation".
 
19- Back up all digital photos on new DVDs (or other storage device) and store safely  -- I found my external drive... and now it's lost again.  *sigh*.  Hopefully it will show back up when I finish with the craft organization.

20- Participate in fruit and vegetable co-op when possible and learn new ways to enjoy produce -- We haven't done the co-op as often as I would have liked, but I think we're doing pretty well anyway.  We've enjoyed more fresh produce this year, even though it has been store-bought.  This last week, though, I did get to pick some pears from a friend's tree.  I've made some killer fruit leather!
 
21- Create a 7 generation pedigree chart

22- Finish quilts for the girls' beds -- 

23- Take a class through the community programs -- Slight variation on this one: I am playing with the American Fork City Symphony.  I was convinced to join them again after 10 years of not playing.  Yikes!  It has required a lot of practice, but I am enjoying it.  The biggest problem is that the overuse injuries from my high school years came back immediately.  If I don't use a neck strap (ridiculous with the oboe!) I have severe pain in my arm all the way from my shoulder to my fingers.  You can bet I'm being good about the neck strap!
 
24- Follow FlyLady principles to get/keep the house in a happy state.  -- Getting back into the swing of things now that we're into the more structured life of the school year.

25- Read a book by a church leader -- Read "The Coming of the Lord" by Gerald Lund.  Fabulous book about the last days and the Second Coming of the Lord.  I highly recommend it!
 
26- Spend $1,000 to improve financial outlook (pay off debt faster, put in savings, etc.) 

27- Look at the stars more -- I've really added the joy of taking an evening walk around out yard with Michael.  Just tonight we took a little wander around.  We checked which parts need more weeding, where there may be a blocked sprinkler, where there are a new batch of flowers popping up, and how many more cherry tomatoes will be ready to pick tomorrow.  Very restful.
 
28- Clean the Sharpie "artwork" off the playroom walls 

29- Update our family's emergency preparedness --  

30- Learn to use the lenses and settings on my camera -- Still been working on this.  I have loved everything I've been learning!  

31- Return and report progress on my goals -- Better late than never, right?  I only have 2 months to go until my birthday!!!!!  I've gotta get crackin' on the rest of these!

August in a Flash

August was Amazing.

Amazing movie night:
The Jarbh family got together for a special movie night.  The little girls worked as ticket takers and concessions workers.  Everybody got their own ticket and a voucher for popcorn and a soda (fancy ones in a bottle!)  We watched the movie "Despicable Me".  Best theater in Utah County!

School Registration.  Amazing!
How did I end up with a 4th grader, 2nd grader, and kindergartner all of a sudden?!  The girls were thrilled to go find out about their teachers and get back inside the school building.  I love that they all enjoy school!

An Amazing Game of Quidditch.
Oh yes, we did.  It was fabulous.  The teams were Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw.  Kids of all ages had fun, from the dads down to the young'uns.  A couple of games were for more limited age ranges and every single one was a blast to watch.

The Amazing Harry Potter Party.
One of my nephews turned 11 while on vacation here from Nebraska.  He woke up to a letter inviting him to Hogwarts.  The game of quidditch was a preamble to a celebratory party at Grandma's house.  Through "connections" they were able to borrow a set of very well done decorations.  We all enjoyed a grand feast indeed including Cornish Pasties.  Various goodies were arranged around the house.  Everything from cockroach clusters (Macadamia nut clusters) to licorice wands (red and black fines).  My sister in law even made chocolate frogs for each of the kids complete with chocolate frog cards (made from pictures of each of the cousins).  It was ended up with a birthday trifle.  Magical!

More of the amazing party.
Do you see the wand?  My brother made it.  Holly, 11", pheonix feather core.  Harry Potter's wand!  It's absolutely beautiful!  Everybody chose a character and wore a name tag at the party.  Celebrities from Rita Skeeter to Lee Jordan were there!  I wore a plaid shirt and my plaid sketchers and came as Minerva McGonagall in muggle disguise.

I admit, there is one more huzzah from August, but it is going to get its own post.  Yes, it is picture heavy.  That's just how it works here.

I hope you all had an Amazing August too!