Flashback Friday: I was the cutest baby

 My birthday is in a couple of weeks so I thought it would be a good time to reminisce my first year. Unfortunately, I don't remember my first year so I had to ask my mom.

"What was I like when I was a baby?" I asked her over the phone this morning. (My other random question of the day was if I could have a wooden chair from their house in Hurricane.)

"You were my most beautiful and sweet baby. By far my favorite out of all my 8 kids."

Just kidding. She didn't say that. She did say that I was easy, good natured, pretty happy, not cross, and funny. I smiled and laughed early.

Kind of reminded me of Erica.

There's a picture of me in the hospital but I don't think I have it. It must be among my mom's photos still. I am teeny tiny and my hair looks green. I hated the picture when I was little.

This is among my most treasured photos. This is my Grandpa Syme who died when I was 1. This is the only picture of the two of us.

I don't know which is more awesome: my yellow pajamas or my aunt's hair. (I'm sad my Grandpa Baadsgaard's head is cut off in the doorway.)

Now a few photos of me looking so sweet and happy in this bouncer seat. 

I love pancakes, syrup, and oatmeal. It started early.

That's all. I think my babies look like me.

First Day of School 2020

 The moment we've all been waiting for! I have been counting down to this day like my kids countdown to their birthdays. I stopped short of making a paper chain. Even Henry had no complaints about returning to school. I think we were just all ready for a change in schedule and for life to go back to normal.

Because of the number of kids opting for virtual learning and the boundary change for our school, their classes are so small! I guess it's one nice thing about this.

Erica is in first grade this year. Her teacher is Mrs. Searle (who Henry also had). She is most excited about having her own desk, eating lunch at school, riding her bike and seeing her friends again. There are 16 kids in her class.

Henry is in fourth grade. He has Mrs. Luke which I know nothing about but she seemed nice and capable. He is most excited about recess and the one lunch a month I let him buy school lunch. There are 18 kids in his class.

He wore this shirt on his first day last year. It is his favorite.

Sarah is in sixth grade. She has Mr. Wright which is who she was hoping to get. She is most excited about everything there is about as school. She is on student council this year which means to gets to monitor the halls before school, do announcements over the PA system, get a t-shirt, go to meetings, and if assemblies ever reconvene, she gets to help at those. There are 24 kids in her class (typical is 34).

James gets to stay home with me! He is most excited about going with me everywhere I go, getting doughnuts, watching whatever he wants on the tv and rummaging through his siblings' stuff.

And then they were off! The girls wanted to ride their bikes but Henry wanted me to drive him. It was a good thing because Erica forgot her masks and I was able to catch her at the bike rack.

I about teared up when I saw the crossing guard at her post. And I'm not gonna lie, my voice had a tone of unbridled giddiness as I said goodbye.

While we are very blessed to be able to return to classrooms this fall (the only major changes are masks and a slightly shortened day) I feel the precariousness of the situation. Too many cases in our school and we go online. For the past week I have avoided all forms of news like the anxiety inducing plague that it is.  I am going to enjoy each day and help my kids be grateful for each day-we know too well that school isn't to be taken for granted. 

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And a shout-out to my brother Matt--it's his 50th birthday today. This is the only picture I have of just the two of us. It's at the airport before he departed on his mission to the West Indies in 1990. I was in kindergarten--more than 30 years ago. Now he has kids his age and I have kids mine. 

The photos that got left behind

Sometimes there are photos that get passed over in my blogging. Ones that don't fit in the theme or event that I'm posting about. But they really shouldn't be forgotten. So lest I forget, here they are.

March 31. There were a few days there during quarantine that we survived on Cadbury Mini Eggs, coronavirus memes and pipe cleaner creations.

April 15 this lightbulb burned out. But this isn't any lightbulb. This is the last of the lightbulbs that was installed when we bought the house. It is original to the house--2006. This is a 14 year old bulb that got used every day for  those14 years. It is not LED but incandescent. Slow clap for the bulb that defied science.

Sad part is that it is lableless so I have no idea what brand it is.

April 17. Wait---add BB gun to the list of things that helped us survived being home all day, everyday.

 We don't drink much soda so we had to make a special run to the store for a case of Sprite and for more bbs.

We lost our dear sweet Grandma Henny in April. She is Justin's step-grandma and I kind of adopted her as my own since all mine have been gone for 18 years. She's from Denmark like most of my ancestors so it just seemed natural. She married Justin's grandpa the same summer Justin and I got married so we were "new" to the family together. She always patiently answered all my questions about Denmark culture.  I'll miss her accent and her love of frosting.

I dropped my most favorite thing in my kitchen, my beautiful Dutch oven. On our anniversary no less. I was crying and sweeping up the enamel when Justin came home from work. He hugged me and told me it was okay and bought me a new one when we went to Park City later that week.

The style of this house speaks to my heart. I sure hope this catches on.

We bought this bed for Henry but won't be setting it up any time soon. I took a screenshot of the listing to maybe help us set it up when the time comes.

I once made bread wrong. I don't know how as I have made this recipe on multiple occasions.

June 14. I didn't plant flowers in my window box this year. I thought I could dress it up with some flags on flag day but by the end of the day I got tired of them blowing out so I took them back in. It looked pretty for a minute.

I think I posted this before but I just like it so much. Not because I think I'm cute but it just captures my early childhood just like I remember it. Messy hair, outside, tricycle, hand-me-down clothes.

Winding Down

You wouldn't know it by the 100+ forecast, but our summer break is coming to a close. Or "double summer" as Sarah likes to call it. My kids seem to be on autopilot, just waiting out the last few weeks of summer. New parks don't entice them, they are getting bored with their friends, our routine, our food. And I'm right there with them. Bored with life. I wouldn't say they are excited for school to start--they don't see it as the cure for what ails them--but I am.

Speaking of bored, I went looking for James to make sure he was dressed before lunchtime and I found him in Erica's room, in her sleeping bag. I quietly shut the door and he slept for a few hours.

This was a few days later. He hasn't had a regular naptime for months but most days I can't hack it. There have been a few occasions where he's climbed into his bed in the late afternoon and gone to sleep. This day he was watching shows at the table while I was making dinner. It took me awhile to realize the was asleep. I moved him to his bed and he got mad so he came back down and slept on the couch. 

James will fall asleep to the TV 9 times out of 10 if it's after lunch. But then he is a spaz at bedtime and won't settle down. Without at nap, he falls asleep so quickly so most days we put a kid on keep James awake duty.

Henry is playing flag football this fall so I'm sure I'll be posting more about that. He is so excited. He had a 2 hour camp and hopped right out the car and headed out to the field. That is very much against type for him. I'm hoping the enthusiasm continues and I don't have to cajole threaten him to get in the car after the first couple of games.

For National Ice Cream Day, we made homemade waffle cones and bought BYU ice cream. It's pretty much the best way to eat ice cream.

It's the one time a year I pull out my waffle cone iron and I don't know why. Finding different containers and ways to mold the cones is pretty fun and they taste so good.

Ice cream tacos fall apart but who cares? Not Sarah.

James learned how to draw people! This is a story about good guys and bad guys and swords and they are all looking for the golden sword and fighting to the death.

I didn't care about all that. I just liked this guy.

 

We also celebrated National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. Did you know the chocolate chip cookie is America's favorite cookie? And it's American. The phrase should be "American as chocolate chip cookies." 

We celebrated by baking 2 batches. One we handed out to neighbors and friends and anyone near our house. The second we baked after dinner and ate and ate and ate.

And drank with a gallon of milk.

Sarah has my recipe memorized. 

They are definietly my favorite cookie. When James excitedly grabbed one the next day I asked him wistfully, "Is there anything better than a chocolate chip cookie?"

"Doughnuts," he replied matter-of-factly.

Yes, doughnuts are up there for our family as well. Our favorite Henry quote is "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Henry asked 6 years ago.

"What are you thinking?"

"Doughnuts."

If there was a National Corn on the Cob day... (Hold on while I google......There is! It's June 11 which makes no sense since it's a late summer crop.)

Corn on the Cob day was actually a couple of weeks ago for our family. This was the day my kids and I shucked, cooked, cut, bagged and froze a bazillion ears of corn from my dad's garden.

Poor Erica got yucky wormy ears 5 times in a row. She didn't give up. She kept on shucking. 

It took us more than three hours to do a large wheelbarrow full and I did another 30 ears a few days later. I love corn and it's the closest thing my kids will get to fulfilling their dreams of being farmers so we were happy to help.

I was telling Justin the other day how I used to wear vests and then I saw this photo at my mom's house so I took a picture of it to show Justin. I wonder if vests will make a comeback.

This vest was part of my back to school shopping for 5th grade. Happy back to school season!