Felix is Six!

This year, my little Felix is six! His birthday fell on a Saturday, and he was born on a Saturday too. In fact, he was born on a General Conference Saturday (during the Saturday afternoon session, in fact), and I look back at the session of that day with particular fondness. I remember some of the specific talks so clearly (like the one by President Uchtdorf in the morning session, when we were driving to the hospital, and he quoted his wife on their bike rides saying, "Dieter, it's not a race," and I was thinking, "Eric these words do not apply to you. Please drive faster!")

I don't think Felix is a huge fan of having his birthday fall on General Conference, but hopefully one day he'll love it. This year we watched the Saturday afternoon session with Eric's grandma and celebrated Felix's birthday there.

When he went to the store to get his free birthday cake, he hoped for a strawberry one, and there was a strawberry one in stock, so he lucked out. Felix loved looking surprised when we sang, "my goodness it's you!" and he had fun blowing out his candles. He wasn't sitting close enough, so it took several tries.

Lately Felix loves painting. He and Ike were given a lot of tiny toy soldiers last year for Christmas. Eric has spent hours painting those soldiers in the last few months, and Felix loves to help. These little clothespin airplanes were another project that Felix really enjoyed. Felix also likes to color and will sometimes spend a good chunk of time working on a picture.

A few more pictures of Felix:

At his preschool Easter egg hunt in the spring:

Last day of preschool:

First day of kindergarten:

Felix really enjoys kindergarten. He is incredibly well-behaved at school (and at church too), and he always comes home with reports of how many kids had to move their clips down each day. (I'm trying to help him understand that he needs to worry about himself and not the other kids, but I'm also so amused at his shock at their bad behavior.)

I taught Ike to read before he started kindergarten, but I knew that I would lose that battle of wills with Felix. Nevertheless, he is learning to read now, and with it coming more from his teacher than from me, he seems a lot more responsive. I am working to help him understand that it's okay to mess up, and sometimes you have to try really hard and practice a lot to learn something.

I just really like this picture that Ike snapped of him while I was doing a swim class with Trixie:

This face is the epitome of what this kid does when he is fed up with pictures, which happened a lot on our road trip this year. (I don't blame him; sometime his dad's wielding of the camera is just overkill.)

I am pretty sure I mentioned this in another post, but Felix got stung eleven-ish times by hornets on our road trip. We got him some painkiller and antihistamine, and he was ready for canoeing. He really is a tough kid. He hasn't broken any bones or needed any stitches (knock on wood) in his life, but he has had some other painful experiences that I will not enumerate here. He always bears them with such bravery! When it comes to getting shots, I never worry about how he will do. He still usually cries when he gets them, but he is so brave in the moments before, which makes things so much easier on everyone.

He was pretty excited to have me put this butterfly on him at the aquarium. 

Felix is such a good boy. He can get really impatient, especially when he feels that he's not being listened to. I feel like kindergarten has mellowed him remarkably. He comes home from school ready to do his chores, usually without complaint, so he can get on his way to play with friends. He loves reading together, he loves dancing, and he is still a terrific sharer. He is so sweet with Felicia and is surprisingly tolerant when Trixie is being terrible to him (pulling his hair, tackling him, licking him, etc.). (Trixie's favorite sibling is probably Felix right now, but sometimes she's not fun to play with.) He loves trying to help her learn her letters, and he frequently corrects her when she mispronounces words. (Speaking of which, he couldn't say is R's or L's a a year ago, but he has no problem with them now. He doesn't understand why other kids might still struggle with those sounds, because once he figured out how to say them, things clicked really quickly for him. When he first started to realize that he could say R's at the start of words, I'd hear him practicing to himself, which was so amusing.)

I love my Felix!

Trixie is Three!

Trixie turned three about a month ago. She is the sweetest little girl, but she's also three, so sometimes she's a bit of a tyrant.

We call her our little German girl because she is so blonde and has beautiful blue eyes. She loves the dirndl that her grandma sent her from Germany.

Here sister has a matching one, and Trixie loves to match her sister.

This summer she got to do swim lessons in a class with me, and she loved them. She was so excited to go each day, and she had no fear.

All the kids in her class had to jump off the diving board (and if they wouldn't jump, they were dropped), and it was her favorite part. She loved it so much. She still asks me almost daily if we can go swimming at Grandma Great's pool. When I tell her that we can't because it's closed (we went on Labor Day, which was the last day it was open for the season), she tells me that Grandma Great has a key and we can open it (which is true).

I have to be better about putting my glasses away.

None of my children love animals as much as this one. She is just obsessed with all animals. She loves to pet dogs she sees out on walks. Last week at the Ashton Gardens, they allowed patrons to bring dogs, and Trixie was in absolute heaven the night we went. She is getting pretty diligent about asking the owners if she can pet their dog before approaching the dog.

We used pony rides as bribery/encouragement to get Trixie potty trained. Luna is one of my favorite horses where we go riding. A few weeks after this shot, Trixie rode a pony named Trigger. He got out of his harness while Trixie was on him, and then he started running around the corral, and Trixie fell off. It was very traumatizing for me, but apparently not that traumatizing for her because after crying for a few minutes she asked to ride a different pony. She asks me most days if she can go ride a pony.

Trixie was actually pretty nervous when I put this butterfly on her at the butterfly exhibit at the aquarium. It was rather funny.

It was so fun to celebrate Trixie's actual birthday. I rented a bounce house, and we let neighborhood kids come play on it all afternoon and into the evening. Trixie picked a cake from the grocery store. (Our local grocery store does free small cakes for kids under 12 if you are a loyal customer, and it really makes my life easier.) We had cake as a family, and she loved having everyone sing to her.

A few other things I want to remember about this three-year-old:

• She asks "why" after about everything I say.
• She loves cuddles.
• She loves to be included and plays the part of a middle child rather well.
• She loves nursery and cries when she can't go. (She's missed the last two Sundays due to a cough.)
• Her talking as skyrocketed since we ditched the pacifiers in April. It was like a magic bullet. She went from almost never saying two-word sentences to speaking pretty much like a normal child her age. She's comprehensible to people outside of the family, and she has so much to say!
• She lets me do her hair. I never thought I'd enjoy it as much as I do.
• She is extremely social and is always looking for a chance to play with other kids.
• She loves baking with me and asks almost daily if we can make cookies.

2018 Summer Road Trip: Days 13-14

There are actually no pictures for Day 13. We drove all day. We camped in Colorado, and it was actually a perfect camping spot. It was:

• free
• secluded, but easily accessible from a main road
• equipped with a portapotty that was not terrifying
• high enough elevation that it was chilly at night

Eric slept in one tent with Felicia. I shared another tent with the three other kids. They fell asleep very quickly.

The next day (Day 14) we went to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

I actually have zero recollection of catching this butterfly, but there is this photo, and that is my body and my shirt, so I guess I caught a butterfly.

These two are so much alike in so many ways. When Ike isn't teasing his siblings, he really is a good big brother.

Eric is usually the one behind the camera, but I got a few of him on this last day. There is a little evidence that he held the baby sometimes.

But mostly it was me. (Because, as mentioned in an earlier post, I'd rather carry Felicia than Trixie.)

I would love to go back to Black Canyon of the Gunnison one day and do more hiking. We were just spent and ready to get to our next destination (and finally home!) that we didn't spend a great deal of time there.

Then we went to Colorado National Monument. It was pretty cool.

The kids all saw a few lizards.

We learned that Felix does not know how to flex his muscles.

There was an insane amount of bribery to get this picture, and even then I don't think our kids deserved whatever treat Eric gave them.

Trixie loves her daddy so much. It was way too hot for piggy back rides or shoulder rides, but it was also too hot to deal with tantruming kids, so there we were.

Then we drove home. We got home early enough that I had time to go buy groceries and take my van through a car wash and vacuum it out. I think it speaks to how boring my life is when I say that one of my life's greatest joys right now is taking my van through a car wash and then using the fancy vacuums in every nook and cranny of the interior of my van. I love those fancy vacuums. And I love the compressed air too.

All in all, it was a great trip. And of course, my husband is already thinking about where we should go next year.

2018 Summer Road Trip: Days 11-12

We left St. Louis and headed down to Dallas. We figured if we were driving all the way to Indianapolis and then stopping in St. Louis on the way home, Dallas was only a 10-hour detour, so why not? (And I know a few of you are thinking, "Because 10 hours is a long drive, you crazy lady," but when you road trip like we do, what's 10 more hours?) My family lives in Dallas, and we hadn't been there since October 2016.

We played at my brother's house all day on Day 11. Felicia's real-life middle-name is my mom's first name, so it was great for them to finally meet. My baby wasn't shy at all, which was nice for my parents to see what she's really like.

My brother's kids and my kids played and played and played and played together. Trixie and my brother's daughter are just a couple of months apart, so it was fun for them to play together.

Trixie also loved my brother's cat, Samuel L. Catson.

My brother's son was also there, but he hates pictures of himself, so I don't have any.

The next day we went to the Dallas Arboretum, another venue that has free admission with our Thanksgiving Point memberships. (We even got my parents in for free!) Despite my mom having lived in Dallas since like, 1975, she had never been to the Arboretum until this trip! She really liked it.

It was good for my kids (especially my older kids) to have more time with my parents. They don't get much time together, so this was special.

That evening we met up with my sister and her girlfriend at their apartment, but I have no pictures (fail!). It was great for me to meet my sister's girlfriend. I can tell my sister is really happy in her life right now, happier than I've seen her in a long time, and that made me really happy. (Also, because Trixie is obsessed with animals, she was obsessed with my sister's dog, and my sister's dog was not having it.)

While we were in Dallas we stayed with another of Eric's cousins who moved to Dallas in the spring. Our kids love playing together (and their dog likes kids, so Trixie got to chase "Moffy" around endlessly.) (His real name is Murphy and he's an incredibly patient dog.) Felicia got to eat lots of dog food so she also is a big fan of the dog.

Their oldest kid is Luke, and he loves babies. Last summer when we got together with this family, Luke wanted to hold Felicia endlessly. Then when their family was visiting Utah this summer, we saw them twice, and again, Luke wanted to hold Felicia. He was glad to get a few more snuggles in while we visited them, and I was glad to finally get a picture of this sweet baby-loving boy. (Although, for the record, I don't think he's always loved babies. I heard a story that when twin siblings were born he asked his mom if maybe next time they could just have one baby at a time instead of two.)

2018 Summer Road Trip: Day 10

We left Indianapolis and headed for St. Louis, Missouri. Although we had been to Kansas City, Missouri, a couple of times (to visit Eric's brother when he lived there), neither of us had been to St. Louis. I wanted to go visit the arch, but Eric was not even remotely on board. We did drive by it, though. We actually got a much better look at it than my picture can show. When we were close to it, I was too busy looking at it to bother taking pictures.

We met up with Eric's cousin, Megan (who also graciously hosted us!). She took us to a local children's museum, and we had so much fun playing together. Even though our kids and Megan's kids are second cousins, they know each other pretty well because Megan usually makes it a point to get together with us when she comes out to Utah. (Megan also lived on the same floor as me our freshman year at BYU, a connection that Eric and I discovered on our first date when I learned his last name.)

At the museum, Trixie and I got to be in a giant bubble together.

The kids all climbed a giant beanstalk instead of taking the stairs.

They all donned constructions hats (with one bizarre child insisting that backwards was frontwards).

And Felix was a way better behaved president than the one we're actually stuck with right now. (Wow, Sherry, how much are you going to criticize the president in these road trip posts? Um, I think I'm done, but if you know me in real life, I'm not even close to done.)

Back at Megan's house the kids played together and caught a frog.

At bedtime Megan and her daughter played a violin duet together, and our kids loved listening to it. Trixie loved getting to pluck the strings on the violin, but what she really wanted was a chance to actually play the violin. Too bad, sister.

It was such a fun visit to these cousins! Megan took such great care of us in the very short time we were there.

2018 Summer Road Trip: Days 8-9

Eric grew up near Muncie, Indiana, from about age 4 to age 13, and he was really looking forward to going back to Indiana so that we could see his old house and elementary school, and to canoe the White River.

Eric frequently talks about his idyllic childhood. He and his two older brothers spent a lot of free time playing in a corn field and in some nearby woods. He has a great appreciation of the outdoors and the changing of the seasons and attributes that to the freedom he had to roam as a child. One of his greatest regrets for our own children is that we don't live near any wild spaces. (Or rather, we have to drive to the nearest wild spaces.) Our kids spend a lot of time outdoors, but that time is primarily in the yards and an empty lot on our street.

We caravanned (literally since both families drive minivans) to Eric's old neighborhood, and most everyone got out to explore Eric and Bryan's old stomping grounds. I didn't feel like getting the baby out and lugging her around, so I stayed in the van with her. Pretty soon I saw Ike and a nephew racing up the hill back to the vans. I thought, "Well that was short excursion," but then I saw all the other kids racing back and rolled down my window to ask my niece what the hullabaloo was about. She told me two kids had been stung by something, but she didn't seem to know which kids. Turns out, Felix had been stung about 10-12 times by some angry hornets. We think he must have stepped on a nest. Our youngest niece was also stung once or twice.

We made our way to Walgreens and bought various medicines for the poor kid. By the time we were ready to get on the White River, Felix was doing great. He is such a trooper. (And I swear, he has some of the most painful things happen to him! It's really not fair!)

The actual canoeing was beautiful but quite hot. Felicia was happy for about the first half hour, and then she was over it.

We passed a lot of people floating down the river, and a few canoeing down it, and nearly all commented on our large crew. And we didn't even have everyone with us! (Our oldest nephew stayed home because he's too cool for family time.)

When we were all done the kids played in the river and got very gross. I was shuttling with my sister-in-law back to the starting point to get our van so we could go home.

I don't have pictures, but we stopped at a pizza place before heading home, and the old people in the restaurant gave us a lot of dirty looks because there were nine children aged 1-11 in our crew.

On Sunday we did the usual Sunday things. I made sure to get a picture of the nearly-twin cousins together (one day apart). They had so much fun together and got along much better than they did when they were together earlier in the summer (or the summer before that).

2018 Summer Road Trip: Day 7

One of the most anticipated stops on our trip was Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. (We got in for free because of our Thanksgiving Point memberships.) Our boys were especially excited to see a real German U-boat captured during World War II. The story of how the U-boat was caught was really cool, and the exhibit was cool too.

There were so many awesome exhibits at MSI. We could have easily spent several days there. One of the things I liked about the museum was that many exhibits required free tickets for certain times. This meant that the exhibits were not overly crowded because they managed the flow of patrons coming in. Genius.

We had a good time with the fun mirrors.

There was a little section about circuses, and there was a sign for the hagenbeck and Wallace Circus. My great-grandfather worked for that circus, and so did another more distant relative. I had spent so much time talking to my kids about our early Chicago ancestry during our trip, and it was fun to see a relic of my more recent immigrant ancestor's story mixed in there as well.

MSI is housed in a hall that was built for the 1893 World's Fair. One exhibit featured the engine for the world's fastest train that was featured at the fair. Also, I am a huge sucker for the cutouts where you put your heads in.

We loved the mirror maze, even though we went in just a few minutes after a field trip of kids. It was loud and chaotic and surprisingly challenging!

There were probably some tears from a toddler who was confused about where her dad went in this maze.

When our time at MSI was done, we loaded up into the van and headed out to the Indianapolis area, where Eric's brother and his family lives.