Bye bye POD

I must admit I am quite proud of myself. I just remodeled our garage!!! Well, okay, I didn't actually do any of the construction work myself. I only functioned as the general contractor/job superintendent/laborer/clean-up crew, but I did arrange it all and get it done! When Jeff bought the property in Fairview and began going up there every spare minute and then when he bought new dirt bikes and played on them when he WASN'T in Fairview, I realized that I truly NEVER WAS going to get my list of "Honey-Do's" done. It's been a long process and it's not done yet, but I and my new best friend, Tim, the Handyman, are making progress. As a result, I have had a large PODS storage container, with most of the contents of our big garage inside of it, in the middle of my driveway for the past two months! As of this morning, it is emptied back into my sheet-rocked, textured, painted, and "cabinet-ed" beautiful "new" garage and the POD will be picked up Friday morning! Yay! I still have lots to put away and organize, but it is going to be beautiful and NEAT! I have more things to accomplish on my list (fix closet doors, put up stair handrail, replace some fans, fix some electrical problems) but they are happening and I am doing it (well, making it happen!) This is such a departure from my normal comfort zone, that I really feel a sense of accomplishment. If we just keep plodding along, I'll eventually get to the end of that list...

Aubrey Jane Sargeant

Aubrey is eleven days old and she has a complete name! "Aubrey" was suggested by Susan's mom and both parents liked it, but they couldn't decide on a middle name. Susan wanted "Jane"
from the beginning, but Brian was lobbying for "Ann or Anne." He thought it was cute that Au[brey Anne] was a play on the "Brianne" or "Brianna" that Great-Aunt Betty Jenkins suggested as a way of passing on his name to the baby. Susan said there were too many "Ann"s in the family already (Grandma Mary Anne Sargeant, Madison Anne, Julie Ann...) It's only fair that Susan got to name Aubrey since she had no input whatsoever on "Tyler James..." (We're all hoping that Amy will get over the fact that she now feels she can't use her long-favored boy's name "Jack Aubrey" because he'd have a GIRL cousin named the same name - feminine version! Maybe she'll find a new hero before then...) (At lease she still has "Martin Hinckley!" See "Amy Leaves the Nest" posted previously.)


Allyson, my blog technical adviser, is in New York, so I can't rotate these pictures, but they are better than nothing. Susan took these today and I think they do a fair job of showing Aubrey's eleven-day-old cuteness!


She's already a pro at our family favorite - the "O" mouth. This little girl can make some REALLY interesting faces already! She also growls and grunts for a while before she wakes up!

Could this be Sydney Nadramia's cousin?? Sydney is only seven months old and already poses and claps excitedly whenever she sees a camera. Baby Aubrey - posing at 11 days...


She even strikes a cute pose when she is sleeping. Is it any wonder we love this little doll? And get a load of all that dark hair. We're hoping it might be curly-cue like Susan's...

Susan is doing well and Brian is anxious to get life back to "normal." He tried very hard to convince Susan that they should all drive up to Fairview today so he and Tyler could help Papa work on "the land." Susan is feeling pretty well today and yesterday, and even took Tyler and Aubrey out by herself today, but she's not ready for a six hour drive to Utah yet! Luckily her midwife concurred and everyone is safe at home...

Welcome, Babies 'R' Us!

Congratulations are in order! Brian and Susan have a new baby girl and I am a grandma again! Susan came here after Tyler's parent-tot swim lesson at 1:00pm yesterday to finish her work in the office. She said she had started having labor pains in the pool and they were about 2-3 minutes apart. Since she had had an exam in the morning and then bounced around in the pool, I figured it was false labor and would stop soon. I made her keep working and get all the bills paid! By 4:30pm she decided she couldn't wait any longer for Tyler to wake up from his nap. From her position crawling around on the floor (trying to encourage the baby to turn over) she instructed Amy to wake Tyler up and they went home. I had a few things left to do here, then went to the store to get some groceries Susan wanted to have at home. By the time I picked up some dinner for them and got to the house it was 6:10pm. The midwife had arrived five minutes before, and as I was putting groceries on the counter and listening to the sounds upstairs I asked Amy, "Is she pushing!!??" I ran up the stairs, grabbed the video camera from Brian so he could assist in the birth and looked down to see the baby's hair! Babies 'R' Us was born at 6:25pm on Monday, June 18, 2007. She was 7lbs. 9oz. and 19 1/2" long. She has lots of black hair that looks very much like it is going to be curly. She is a beautiful baby girl who looks like her brother and her Grandma Provenza. She loves to suck her thumb and fingers - in fact she was born with a little worn blister on her left index finger from sucking on it in the womb! (Susan doesn't like this much, but gets a demonstration of the baby's strong personality when she or Brian remove the thumb from her mouth. Babies 'R' Us has a set of lungs and she's not afraid to use it!) Brian is still trying to decide on a name for her (Ashley? Michelle? Megan? Anna? Caily? Mikayla?) but Tyler is still insistent that she is "Babies 'R' Us" and nothing else!!! When I left there this morning he was giving her lots of kisses and telling her, "It's me. It's your big brudder" over and over. It was very, very sweet. I'm so grateful that everything went so well, that Susan is such a trooper, and that the baby is healthy and beautiful Once again I feel incredibly blessed to have another spirit entrusted to our family. Picture and name to follow...

Pirate Mania

There was a lot of excitement at our house on opening weekend for "Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End." Amy led the charge to dress up, and little Ally, cousins Manda and Sarah, and Maddie followed. Don't you love those pirate grimaces??

My friend Lori made a special request for this photo. If you look closely you can see that Sarah painted eyes on the girls' eyelids - just like Jack Sparrow's in the second movie. (That would be CAPTAIN Jack to all you landlubbers!)

When we went to Disneyland the following week we spent a lot of time in the Pirates ride and gift shop! I think Jimmy, Ally, Susan, and I are the only ones in the family that haven't seen the movie yet. (Shhh...don't tell the fam...I personally am not a BIG fan...I haven't made it through the second movie yet. I love it, though, that everyone else is so excited about it and that they share their excitement together!)

Dancers

I love to see how the girls have progressed in their dancing from Baby Ballet class when they were three years old. Here are some pictures from their latest show, "Sleeping Beauty," in May.

Maddie in the lobby of the theatre...

Maddie and Julie were in the Russian Trepak dance at the very end of the show.

Maddie and Julie with their ballet mistress, Miss Vickie, who played the Queen.

...with Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty, aka Marissa Walker.

...with the Lilac Fairy, Evelyn Narey.

... on the princess' throne.

Aren't they beautiful and graceful ballerinas??

I

Amy Leaves the Nest

We just got back from Amy's last cello performance in the Boulder City High School orchestra. It was so amazing to hear this eight-year-old group play so beautifully. As parents, we reminisced about hearing them play their first year at the BC Credit Union, when we all wished we had ear plugs! (Few things sound worse than a squeaky violin...unless it's a room full of them!) A select few of the Varsity Orchestra played a very difficult piece from "Pirates of the Caribbean" at the end of the concert and Amy had a wonderful cello solo in it. It was so exciting to listen to - one dad said afterward he wanted it to go on forever! It was lots of fun too, as Amy dressed as a pirate for that song, complete with a great borrowed tri-cornered hat. These past few months have been full of "lasts" for us with Amy, and I've been swallowing a lot of lumps in my throat as we approach her high school graduation. I have been thinking so much about what a joy she has been in our lives.
Eighteen-and-a-half years ago a beautiful baby girl joined our family (in response to the prophet Ezra Taft Benson's Conference talk on mothers in Zion!) She was our second daughter, our fourth child and she made two boys and two girls for us - a perfect family. Brian was almost five years old so Amy was truly the baby and we were so thrilled to have her. Everything she owned was pink and pretty and delicate and I can remember thinking and saying, "I'm going to spoil this one."
Through the years Amy has truly been a joy. She constantly surprises me with her goodness and her many talents. After all the years of music lessons for the other kids, we finally got one who could play - and enjoyed it! We love to hear her on the piano as well as the cello. She had opened up the world of classical music to us. She sings too, and loves to do that also. She is smart, and loves to read, study, and learn. She reads her scriptures daily and many times I have accidently walked in on her when she was kneeling to pray. She brought tears to my eyes one day when she was talking about names she loves for her future children. She wants a "Jack Aubrey" after the captain in the Master and Commander books, and she wants a "Martin" after Marty McFly in the Back to the Future Movies. Those were good, but it Martin's middle name I loved. Martin "Hinckley" - after the prophet, of course.
Amy babysits for people who truly need her and their kids love her and always ask for her first. The funny part of it is - Amy HATES to babysit. When someone calls and needs a sitter though, she never says no if she is available. Amy has never once been late home from a night- time activity. She is ALWAYS back before midnight. The funny part of that is - we never gave Amy a curfew! She set it herself, although I'm sure she thinks we did it! Amy has been Seminary President, president of the Creative Writer's Club, on the Science Bowl team, Laurels class president, National Honor Society secretary, on the bowling team, and has won many awards and distinctions. I could go on and on about her, but I don't want to brag (any more.)
Mostly I just want to say I'm going to miss her so much when she is gone. It just won't be the same around here without her. Maddie says we're going to have to go on a lot of vacations next year. I said, "Why? To go see Amy at BYU?" "No," answered Maddie, "Just to forget that she's not here with us..." Amy will leave a huge hole in our lives when she is gone. We will all miss her incredibly. We know she will go on to do wonderful things. I'm just grateful I DIDN"T spoil this one...I love you, Amy.

I was just catching up on my friend LaRae's blog and I noticed her "books I'm reading this year" list. I spent some time on Amazon looking them each up and reading excerpts. It made me realize once again how many good books there are in the world and how I'm never going to have time to read them all.
It's always a frustrating realization for me...I LOVE to read. Always have...since the summer after third grade when we moved to New Mexico and books were the only friends I had in that new place. I can remember sitting on the bed in the room I shared with my brothers and reading all summer long. I have never quit...I always have at least one fiction book I'm reading upstairs and one downstairs. I have a "church book," a "serious book," and a classic most times too. I read my scriptures and my church lessons and magazines. I read three scrapbook magazines, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Family Fun, Desert Saints, LDS Living, Boulder City Magazine, and Woman's Day.
When I find a new author I enjoy I have to read every book in the series, most preferably in order. I read while I curl my hair; I read while I put on my shoes in the morning; I read while I wait at the doctor and dentist; I read while I wait in the car to pick up the kids after school; I read at least a little in bed every night no matter how tired I am. I listen to books on CD when I drive the car alone. I sometimes even sit down in a chair in the middle of the day and read for ten minutes.
I love the feel of books. I love to hold them in my hands. I love to see them on my shelves. I love the feel of the paper and the smell of the ink in new books. I love to bend the spine and flip the pages of a new paperback. (Sorry, Amy.) I just LOVE books. One of my favorite children's books is "Inkheart" and if you've read it, you'll immediately understand why.
There are four things I LOVE to do when I ever have any spare time. I love to scrapbook. I love to sew, especially quilts, dolls, and kids' costumes. I love to write. And I LOVE to read. But if I had to give up everything else and only do one thing I love, I would have to choose reading. If I couldn't read, my life just wouldn't be the same.
I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to indulge my "passion."