gush

Eliza celebrates her 8th birthday today with chocolate covered cake balls on a stick and with an exciting infraction of the sleepover rule (actually, Lughesworth cousins are exempt from the rule).




I am much better at deprecation than praise, both of myself and my children, but today is my little girl's 8th birthday and I give myself permission to gush. I love my boys, but I thank Heavenly Father every day for the pleasure of a little girl. And not just any little girl. A beautiful, happy, strong girl. Eliza, I love your smile. Not a day goes by that someone doesn't comment on your sunshine personality. You and I are just wired to be happy and we share the unique gift of simply loving life. I love that you are obsessed with reading. I delight in hearing you read books with adorable inflection and prosody. I love your nose, it was my favorite part of your face as a baby and it is darling now. You have a beautiful body, thin and strong, especially your strong arms and biceps to die for. I adore your new haircut and am so proud of you for initiating your own sense of style. I love to watch you out-eat your brothers. Let's never lose our pleasure in food. I have loved our conversations lately about what it will be like for you to grow a baby and be a Mom and I will be the Grandma. You asked me if I will love the baby that you grow. I will, I know I will, but at this instant it seems impossible that I could ever love any little girl as much as I love you. Happy Birthday my precious 8 year old. Thank you for interrupting my life of boys with pink and sparkles and hearts and diamonds.

Abuelita

Wednesday was Parent/Teacher conference day so no school. We took advantage of the freedom to go visit my sweet 96 year old Grandma in Cheney. For the most part, my Grandma is very peaceful. She is happy, doesn't complain and tolerates children amazingly. I love her soft skin and that she has always had beautiful nails. We always get a little treat when we visit her and I continue to be amazed at her piles of crocheting despite her poor eyesight. I'm pretty sure it is the crocheting that keeps her alive. Perhaps when she has filled her hot pad and washcloth quota, she can rest in peace.

After our visit the little kids and I went biking and roller blading at my favorite trail at Fish lake. Max announced all the wildlife (chipmunk, squirell, marmot) like he was from National Geographic and the kids loved going under the train trussels. Roller blading is my new favorite exercise, especially trying to keep up with the kids on bikes.

contests, competitions and recitals

Cooper, Eliza and Max participated in SJ's first science fair. Cooper presented on the physics of Billiards. Max mixed colors using jello. (we've all had more than our fair share of jello lately). Eliza experimented whether brown sugar, white sugar or honey helped yeast raise dough the best. It was fun enough to do again next year.


Cooper and Wilson competed in the Speech Spelling and Math contest held this week. Cooper has been preparing his speech for weeks, wore slacks and a tie and was honored to participate. Wilson attemepted every possible excuse to get out of it, wore t-shirt and jeans and did not study a second for his spelling competition. Hilarity in the polarity. I'm proud of them both.
The piano recital is Monday. Pictures soon to come of the most tortuous way to spend the first day of Spring Break.

labor

We mimicked a Utah family this week and saw a lot of our cousins and aunts and uncles. It was great. Thursday Eliza hosted a baby shower for Jill and Stacey. The best part was that she got to skip school for it. The girls in our family are so cute it hurts; I can't help saying it. We ate quiche and chocolate and made hair pretties. Total girls stuff.

On Saturday we all met at Doug and Julia's for some yard work. They are getting ready to put their house up on the market and this was a show of support and love. Plus we had a lot of fun and got to eat pizza together afterward. I'm always thankful for an opportunity for my kids to work. With all the "helpers" I hope it was worth it for Doug and Julia.

The subject on my mind this week has been the fine line between rules (such as we don't watch rated R movies) and teaching principles (we only watch appropriate movies). I think I rely too heavily on rules to keep my family safe. It's like putting up a barricade to keep out the enemy when I should instead be arming my children to fight battles on their own so they don't have to stay in the compound. At the pornography prevention class I attended last week I learned about white lists rather than black lists. The white list is made up of things we DO, instead of things we don't do. I think I need a greater focus on white lists in my life in general.

what's keeping us busy