Harry Potter Party

There will be details coming (I think the party could stand to have several blog entries!), but the short-and-skinny details are we decided to throw a party to coincide with two important events on Friday, July 20th 2007: The release of the new and final Harry Potter book and Bountiful City Fireworks for the 24th of July celebration. We invited Greg's family over for dinner and a magical night at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am pleased to report that the kids almost had as much fun as the adults. Everything from potions class to the treat trolley on the Hogwart's Express.

Loads of pictures (and a slide show) are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/goyuix/HarryPotterParty
(tip: you can press F11 on your keyboard to toggle the slide show "full screen" once it has begun, F11 again to toggle back to normal)

My true identity revealed!

In one week, I made my first wedding cake and changed my first flat tire. Accordingly, I must say that in addition to taking care of my four little girls, I think I can now reveal that I am in fact super-girl! Last night Greg needed to change the tire on the car, and although I have watched people change a tire I have never actually done the whole thing myself. So, from beginning to end (with the exception of loosening the first lug nut) I changed the tire by myself! Greg stood close by trying to comfort a fussy Rachel making funny comments about the role reversal in the family. After the fact, Greg remembered that he had given blood earlier in the day, so it was a good thing he didn't over exert himself.Here is a picture of the cake I modeled Haylee's wedding cake after, but instead of the flowers in the middle, she wanted a 4 tier cake. Sadly, in my nervousness to get the cake and my girls all ready for the reception, I forgot my camera, so I will have to wait for the wedding pictures to post a picture of the actual cake, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Here's Rachel

I couldn't let Greg post a family picture without Rachel, so I had to get our picture "retaken" with her included! So here it is!

Happy Fourth!

Well, as I don't really have anything interesting to post, I thought I would include a family photo taken not too long before Rachel was born....
As you can probably tell - we all look a bit different. The Simpsons Movie website now has a section on it where you can go and create your own character so I whipped up a few family members and churned out a family photo. No baby option so poor Rachel got neglected. It amazing to see what husbands end up doing with a day off!

Sunday afternoons

What speaks of a better Sunday afternoon than a nice relaxing nap, and now I know what it means to "sleep like a baby." Sarah decided to try to join Rachel in her crib, got stuck, and started to cry for help. When I went in Rachel's room, I discovered Sarah perched on the top of the crib with one leg in and one leg out, and Rachel sleeping with both arms resting behind her head. Who but a baby could stay zonked out under such circumstances?

And for anyone who didn't hear about Ellie's adventures in church a week ago, here is a quick recap. During Sacrament Meeting, Ellie was being more restless than usual, and Greg had to take her out after the Sacrament. He took her home (one of the advantages to living next door) and sat her on the fireplace to practice being reverent. Ellie was a little distraught at not being able to stay at church, so Greg asked if Ellie would like to say a prayer to help her be more reverent. As she said her prayer, she stated, "I'm sorry for all those bad things at church. Please help me to do better because this is a serious problem."
I am happy to report that this week she was much better behaved!

Two weddings and a Birthday

Wow! I can't believe it is already July! We ended June with a bang--the 29th being Becca's birthday, Ben's half-birthday and Grandpa Welling's wedding day! On the 30th we had a shower for Haylee & now as we enter July we will get ready for Greg's birthday and Haylee's wedding. For Becca's birthday, she requested a "Strawberry Shortcake" party, so we invited her friends over and played pin the crown on Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Shortcake Bingo, went "berry" picking, made strawberry scented play dough, ate peanut butter and "strawberry" sandwiches, and ate strawberry cake and ice cream.
I admit that I love decorating my kids' birthday cakes, but I don't usually do anything as formal as I did for Becca's party. Since Haylee has requested that I make her wedding cake --yikes!-- I decided that I had better get some practice in making a tiered cake. So here is Becca's multi-tiered birthday cake, complete with a few finger jabs from her siblings. I am thinking it would be smart to work on the wedding cake after all my kids have gone to bed to prevent the same thing from happening there! :)

Allergy Season

When summer vacation started, I determined that we would not waste away the summer in front of the TV, so in order to earn 30 minutes of TV time, my kids had to do about 20 minutes of work to earn a "TV BUCK." Well, the first couple of days, everything went smoothly, but the other day, Ellie asked if she could watch a show, and I told her she needed to get her work done first. She picked up a Q-Tip, and started to slowly "dust" her bed. When she saw me turn to look at her, she said "Atchoo! Mom, I simply can't clean my room because I'm allergic to dust, I think."

Who other than Ellie would claim to be allergic to work, I would like to know!

Frere Jaques

This morning, Sarah was serenading Rachel with her glow worm that plays songs. She sang "Twinkle Twinkle," and "Hush Little Baby" to her little sister when "Frere Jaques" came on and she started singing the Spanish version. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, here are her lyrics:
"Where is Paco? Where is Paco? He is missing! He is missing! Ring Ring Ring Ring--Ring, Ring Ring Ring--It's a bell! It's a bell!"

I think it is destined to become a classic!

Pop-Pop Fizz-Fizz

As I was driving home yesterday (Greg, not Heather fortunately) I heard the car start making a clicking noise and then suddenly a loud pop and nice cloud of burning oil smoke. Luckily I was in the right hand lane and just coasted off the side of the freeway. When I opened the hood to see if I could possibly put my technological prowess to mechanical uses it became clear that this way beyond the help of mere mortals. You could quite easily fit a golf ball through the hole in the top of the engine.

As horrible as I feel about losing the engine, I do very very blessed that everything happened the way it did. I heard the clicking noise and had time to slow down and get ready to get off the freeway as well as my brother (who conveniently moved to Bountiful over the weekend) hadn't left work yet so I just called his desk and he picked me up on his way home. The cell phone was blessing as I was able to arrange for a mechanic to look at it and have a tow truck come pick it up before arriving at home. All things considered it couldn't have been better.

Note: I uploaded the full size photo so if click it you can really get a clear picture of the damage.

Serenity Now

On Saturday, we took all the kids, including Rachel, up past Strawberry Reservoir to go fishing with Greg's family. When we got to the lake, there was an inlet that had to be crossed to get to the good fishing ground, and the "bridge" consisted of two fallen logs. Greg helped Becca, Ellie and Sarah across the bridge, but I didn't feel comfortable taking little Rachel across the water, so I set up a camp chair and opened a book while Greg and the family went on without me.
I had a marvelous time reading on the banks of the stream. I don't remember the last time I felt so relaxed.
Apparently Ellie felt the same way in her neck of the woods, too. She sat quietly on a rock next to Greg's dad and after a few seconds said, "Grandpa, isn't it nice to finally have some peace and quiet?"
When I heard the story I couldn't help but laugh, seeing how she is single-handedly responsible for more chaos than the rest of the family combined. But who knows, maybe now that she has realized the joys of quiet time she will be willing to try it out more often (yeah, right).

Rachel's First Smile

Rachel has been a very mellow, sweet girl, and has started smiling! It is a little difficult to get the camera there in time, but I managed to capture a half smile from our little sweet heart. We went to the doctor for her 2 week appointment, and she has put on almost a pound already. She was up to 7 lbs. 9 oz. when we went in. She is also doing fairly well sleeping (although the last two nights wouldn't agree with that statement) :)

Yummy.....PICKLES!

Ellie answered a series of questions for preschool about me and some of the answers were too good to pass up posting, so Happy Mother's Day to me!

My mom is as pretty as... A GIRL

My mom is good at...CLEANING AND DRIVING (WHEN DADDY ISN'T HOME)

My mom smells like...PICKLES! (Apparently she answered that one quite matter-of-factly)

I like it when my mom...CARRIES ME A LOT OF PLACES

My mom is happy ... WHEN SHE GETS TO TALK TO DADDY. ACTUALLY SHE'S JUST HAPPY WITH ANYTHING.

My mom likes it when ...I DON'T SUCK MY THUMB. I THINK NOW I WILL NEVER STOP SUCKING MY THUMB.

My mom is always...DOING ALL HER WORK. CLEANING THE KITCHEN AND CLEANING THE UPSTAIRS ARE HER WORK.

My mom is...THE BEST MOM FOR ME. I LOVE HER.

Bob the Builder

The other night Greg was reading a "Bob the Builder" book with Sarah, and asked her the names of all of the characters, only to discover that we are related to one of the machines. According to Sarah, the full name of the machine pictured above, is not just Muck, it is actually "Muck-Murray."
Everything else is going well. Rachel is growing fast, and filling out in the cheeks, and the girls are loving her to pieces. And so far I am surviving life with four little girls. (Whew!)

For Your Comparison

And a fun trip down memory lane! Greg and I pulled up the now ancient web site he did for Becca when she was born and looked at a few pictures to compare how Rachel looks.
Just to clarify, that is Becca sleeping on Grandpa when she was about 1 week old. Rachel certainly has a lot of growing to do.

In more recent news, everyone is doing great. Greg was able to take the whole week off work and has been a great help getting the kids where they needed to be and performing basic bouncer duties in breaking up fights and redistributing toys. Rachel has been very mellow so far and a reasonably good sleeper / eater (what else do babies do)? When she was first born her cries all came along with a curled pouty lip that I am sad to say has not been seen since the hospital.

Rachel Charlotte McMurray

Everyone came home today and life keeps marching on. As you can see she has quite a bit of blond hair like two of her sisters.

More Bubbles

Three more photos for your enjoyment.

Bubbles!

Well, someone decided to arrive last night - shortly after eating some chocolate cake. Mother and child are doing wonderfully - this kid came out hungry and has also quickly found her thumb to suck on. She still has no name, but the vital stats are 6 pounds 12 ounces, 19.5 inches long/tall and lots of blond hair. Heather's water broke at just after 7PM Sunday night, and she was delivered at 9:48 PM. Oh, and she was gurgling a bit after birth so the nurses started calling her bubbles - and well, it has kind of stuck for the time being.

Happy Easter

We just finished Spring Break and had a wonderful time. Rather than traveling anywhere, we spent our days close to home, but tried to do something fun. We have been to the zoo, the aviary, parks, and just spent time in the sun drawing with sidewalk chalk and riding bikes. We decorated Easter Eggs, went to a family Easter party, and found more Easter Eggs than we know what to do with--and the Easter Bunny left more than enough candy for the next few months. Over all, we had a great time, the girls were very well behaved, and I have nothing naughty to report.
However, over the last few days, the weather has cooled off a little more than I would like. We have had rain, hail, and cold blustery wind keeping us inside and causing more than a little mischief. Sarah has ventured into the world of cosmetology getting into my makeup every chance she gets, and Ellie is experimenting with fine art-- specifically soap sculptures and toilet paper treasures.

Spring has Sprung

Or at least that is what the weeds that are already poking their little green heads out would have you believe. On Saturday we took the kids to the local dollar shop in hopes of finding a cheap kite. Boy did they luck out - a two pack for $1.00!!! Off to the park where there was just enough wind to get them up in the air and then the kids ran all around to keep them flying high. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera with us, so I dug up a rather old picture of Becca in Central Park - it somehow feels just like Saturday did.

Happy Birthday Ellie

Well, it is only a month late - but I finally wrestled the three girls into the car and met Greg for lunch in Layton and took the kids in for their free birthday photos. Ellie has certainly started to grow out of her daily destruction phase in time for Sarah to grab the reins firmly, so with a sigh of relief and reservation I look forward to what the next year holds. Happy Birthday girls!