Hans: Abe, how many ages until you're a dad?Abe: Well, until I find a mom.
Hans: Ugh! You'll be a grandpa by then!
I'm not sure the logic there shakes out right. But it is true that Abe hasn't made much progress in the "finding a mom" for his children business. He very well might have to just ... be a grandpa.
Speaking of Abe, he has gotten his siblings in the habit of, any time anyone says, "the county", turning their heads to the side and making a spitting sound. Also today he said, "How about we have a new family rule that even though we don't normally swear, we can swear if the following word is, 'the county'". Hahah. They have been the bane of our existence of late.
But, county or no, summer has continued on, smoothly enough mostly, with this house full of people.Abe has let Jesse use his old mission camera, and Jesse has taken to making stop motion videos--which, I believe, are quite tedious to make, but quite entertaining to watch!
Everyone excited about some spray painting going on.
Graham-cracker house making for Summer's birthday. I don't know how this has become a tradition, but the kids request it often on their birthdays.
Penny nobly took the house that was made from the last remaining graham crackers--most of which were broken. We had been referring to it as "the sad house", but she had a grander vision: "the happy house".
Summer's favorite animal is a tiger. Daisy let her help decorate a tiger on her cake.
And she's EIGHT! So she'll be baptized before too long!
I'm always happy when I see all ten of these people in the same frame. The opportunities for that happening will be much slimmer come September.
Summer's face when she realized Daisy had put trick candles on the cake. She persisted though and, through a lot of smoke, got all the candles out.
Nearly every sibling gave Summer a gift! It almost made the few I'd gotten her seem unnecessary! (Though I will say she has been loving and using the gifts I got her more than perhaps any birthday gifts before! Sloth jammies--which she begs to wear all day, a higher quality tea set than the one we gave her a few years ago that broke almost immediately, and a little camera that prints out tiny black and white pictures just on paper.)
After months of trouble-shooting and frustration, Jesse's 3D printer appears to be up and running again! And his birthday gifts all come from it! Summer got some little bugs as well as a cannon with even the spring printed perfectly by the printer.
This baby girl likes to be held and snuggled so much. Often for great lengths of time. And mostly by me (though she'll occasionally be content with a sister). I often wonder how on earth she'd be surviving if she'd been booted into non-baby status like every other child in our family has long since been by her age!
This was Penny within about two seconds of arriving home from Girls' Camp.
Ah. And another birthday! This one actually before Summer's, but I just tossed every picture I've taken in the last weeks--willy-nilly--onto this post.
Goldie turned 18!
And got mostly cool shoes for her birthday. :)
But also a popcorn popper from Daisy. These girls love popcorn and Daisy didn't think Goldie ought to go off to college without a popper of her own.
Strawberry shortcake as usual for this one.
This note from Mette to the tooth fairy. There was a great deal of drama before this note came into being. She was not about to move forward without that tooth being found. And it was not going to be found. So this took some convincing. Turns out the tooth fairy was so pleased with the clever replacement that she paid extra! Who could have guessed?
This birthday sign for Goldie (made by Penny) was the best. If you haven't been watching All Creatures Great and Small, you really ought to. It's just the most pleasant show imaginable.
Not sure if he's reading his scriptures or sleeping. I think probably a bit of both.
Bundled up Hansie boy.
We have gone through REAMS of paper this summer! REAMS! (I don't actually know how much paper a ream is, nevertheless, I am quite sure these kids have gone through many. Incidentally, somehow we never have any black markers in the marker container, but today Daisy counted 16 gray ones. SIXTEEN. It's just like the mystery of there always being loads of 1/3rd cups in the drawer and nary a 1/4th cup to be seen.)
Cute Penny during part of a little singing camp she participated in with Goldie this summer. I like that my girls sing. In fact all three of my older girls are singing an arrangement of "Be Thou My Vision" and "I Stand all Amazed" this coming Sunday in sacrament meeting together!
Poor, tired me. I can't even imagine what was happening to the rest of the house during this small moment of indulging in exhaustion. (Actually, I can imagine. Likely the exact same chaos that is happening at this very moment as I pause to write this blog post!)
Other tired people. Everyone gets to bed so late all summer. It's getting ridiculous.
Abe has been doing more archery and bow stuff of late. He took Jesse to an outdoor archery place a few weeks ago.
Mette is quite proud here because she's generally terrified of our cats.
Some kids playing Legos (without fighting!).
More stuffed animal church.
Another bundled up Hans.
The sky outside a few days ago.
Summer had been begging for a birthday balloon. So I took her to choose one out at the grocery store on her birthday morning. Meet hammerhead shark.
One of the many tea parties I've seen happening since Summer's birthday.
More of my snuggly Starling.
My mom turned 86! We had a get together with her kids and their spouses at my brother Tony's house where we presented her with a book that Shannon spent hours upon hours working on. It had tons of Book of Mormon art work along with testimonies of the Book of Mormon, experiences with the Book of Mormon, favorite verses, etc. from her children, their spouses, grand-children, their spouses, great-grandchildren, etc. Of course, in a family this large, not everyone managed to submit an entry (and not everyone wanted to!), but it's still a really neat book. I bought a copy as well so my kids could read testimonies of their aunt and uncles and cousins concerning this powerful book.
And, to end, this dramatic hoppity horse image that one of my kids took and left on my phone. Very moving. Ha.
