Little Bug

Anna's hair is finally long enough to put into TWO pigtails.  It's exciting, and especially cute.  They remind me of little antennas.  How can anyone resist this little munchkin!

Tacos

No, this is not the kind that you eat, but the kind Elsie is doing in her ballet class.  Sometimes Elsie and I will practice her ballet together (with the curtains drawn, because I am so graceful I wouldn't want to make anyone jealous).  We both tried to do tacos, which is where you get your feet to touch your head.  I'll admit, Elsie is much closer than I am.  Kimball and Peter even joined in the fun!

Update on Anna

I thought I would just post a couple pictures of Anna for Grandma and Grandpa, since it's been a while since they've seen her.  Just yesterday she got her first tooth!  Today the second bottom tooth poked through as well.  She is getting big.  She crawls and rolls around everywhere.  She love to crinkle and eat paper and to get into the dirt Peter's plants are growing in.  Anna is so easy going and full of smiles.  I just love to hold her on my lap and see her smile!
In the first picture she is really happy because we shared some chocolate muffins Elsie and Peter made for breakfast.  Just the past couple weeks she has become aware of the cat's presence.  She loves to play with Little Grey (who isn't so little any more), and Little Grey is patient to play back.

Elsie

5 years and 12 days ago I woke up in the early morning, ready to have my first baby girl.  We rushed to the hospital in the middle of a snowstorm, and sweet Elsie was born 20 minutes later, delivered by half a dozen nurses.  It has been a whirlwind ever since.  My mom asked how Elsie was the other day and I said, "Elsie is great."  She is happy all the time because of her love of life.  She loves her siblings, she loves her friends, she loves to play and pretend, she loves to read, write and make up stories, color, and dance.  Currently, she is really enjoying Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and if that is playing, she even loves to clean (and dance at the same time). 

Elsie also loves small, cute things.  Which is why she decided to have a mouse birthday party.  Huh?  you may be wondering, but truly, you did not misread - a mouse party.  I had a blast taking her to the store to get party favors.  She was so excited, and spent a lot of time deciding what she wanted.  We made mouse pinatas and made mouse cupcakes.  We had a fun time preparing for her birthday, and she had a great special day.
Unfortunately, we've lost our camera, so I have no pictures as of now to show.  However, I have one of Elsie's stories that she started writing and then she had me finish.  I can't read her writing, so I'll have to start where I picked up:
The unicorn dance around and then the unicorn looked at Meluh, and Meluh was lost in the forest.  She couldn't find her mother, and her mother couldn't find her.  Then the monsters came and ate all of the food.  Then it ran away with her lunch box.  Then the monsters came back and picked all the pretty flowers and left with them.  Then the monsters snuck around and ate their food and smelled their flowers.  Meluh and her mom were lost.  They could never find each other.  Then they found each other and they were so happy!  They ran home as fast as a lark (I thought that was cute) and hugged and kissed each other.  They said, "We have a newborn baby!"
  They were so happy.  They went to see all their animals.  Their baby dog hatched!  All the baby animals hatched.  All the mothers and fathers came and said, "Ahhh, Ahhh, Ahhh."  Then a light came.  What was it?  It was so light, it was pitch light!  It was Jesus and Heavenly Father!  Meluh and the mom went to all the peoples houses and all their animals were hatching.  They were sooo cute!  Meluh said, "Should we let them go" Then the unicorn came (she didn't forget the unicorn).  It was a rainbow now.  It was beautiful!  Then the beautifullest baby unicorn hatched in the universe! 
At this point I ran out of paper, and my hand was cramping, so I told her that was the end of her story.  I know it's a bit verbose, but I wanted you to see into Elsie's mind.  It's always going.  I get a bang out of her, and am so glad she's apart of our family.

Aha!  I found our camera!  It was hiding in Kimball's special cubby.  He's a little stinker.  Good thing he's innocent and cute.   

dessert

Elsie taking a swing at the pinata!

I thought the mouse ears were great!

Mom and Dad gave her a pink scooter. 

That evening we invited another family over.  They are good friends of ours, and Elsie has a special affinity for their oldest daughter, Hannah, who is nine.  We did another pinata and opened family presents.  This other family was so thoughtful.  Knowing Elsie's favorite color was gold, and that she had asked for a small diamond for Christmas, they got her this gold flower hair clip with some bling in the middle.  It was perfect.  It was fun to celebrate Elsie and think about the spirit and spunk she adds into our home.

Our Family

 Now that it is fall, our "family" is shrinking.  It has been a fun summer as the kids have found lots of "pets" to adopt for a time.  Here is Elsie's chalk drawing of our family:
 

From left to right:  Dad, Mom, Peter, Elsie, Kimball, baby Anna, and then I think it's our caterpillar, a racoon (I think she meant cacoon), and our frog.  Unfortunately Little Grey didn't make it into the family this time.  The caterpillars we caught this year were bitter sweet.  At one point we had 5, but due to unknown natural circumstances, only 2 made it to the chrysalis stage.  Of those 2, 1 survived and flew away.  The other monarch butterfly emerged from it's chrysalis while Mike was gone and I'm afraid Mike is more of an expert on monarch care than I am, and the butterfly died within an hour or so.  The kids were devastated.  Peter kept crying on our deck, and wouldn't eat lunch.  I had to distract everyone with a trip to the park.  However, here are some pics of the 1 survivor. 
  
Isn't it beautiful?  It is so fascinating and amazing as they transform into these amazing creatures!  To think this tiny, delicate butterfly will begin it's amazing 3,000 mile journey to Mexico is mind boggeling.  Someday will have to follow their migration path and experience the journey with them.  Elsie had a "Fancy Nancy" moment in the picture below.  It was great!
 
As for the frog... Mike found a huge frog mowing the lawn one morning.  The kids were sooo excited.  The afternoon was spent building a cage for it and finding food to feed it.  From that day on, all the kids foraged grasshoppers for that frog.  Kimball would find one after dinner, pull the back legs off (yuck!), and hold it in his hand all evening until it was time to come in and feed the frog.    One morning Peter came up to me very excited and showed me his fist.  All I saw were bits of grasshopper legs and heads poking out of the cracks of his fingers.  I think he had 10 or so in his one little hand. Even Elsie helped catch them and contributed in the leg pulling.  Those poor grasshoppers, enduring such mutilation and suffering, but frogs must eat.  Here are the kids holding that lucky frog:


As the evenings got colder, and fall approached, Mike and I told the kids that in order to survive, we needed to let the frog go to hibernate.  They were very sad, especially Peter.  After a few tears, we let them go (yes, we eventually accumulated another).  It was a good experience, and I'm sure there will be future frog pets in the spring.  But for now, we will just enjoy our family of 6 and Little Grey!

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day a couple weeks ago.  Each of the kids worked really hard on making their dad a card, and couldn't wait to give it to him.  Well, all but Kimball.  He took his card back from Mike - it was too precious.  

 

We had a great weekend.  Mike and I went to the movies and saw The Avengers on Friday. On Saturday he and Peter ran in a 1-mile race together.  Mike helped pace Peter, and he ended up getting 2nd place out of the kids.  He finished in 9:33.  Peter was so proud.

 That Sunday afternoon Elsie brought a bunch of her animals upstairs and declared, "Since it's Father's Day, Dad, you get to play with me!!!"  Mike was a good sport.  He acted privileged, and knelt down and played with her for a short while.  We appreciate his constant service as he stays busy doing home projects, spending time with the kids, and trying to meet everyone's needs.  He is a good dad, and our family is so blessed to have him as head of our home!

Baby Girl!

 It happened! On June 20th, at 5:26, Anna Sovina was born into our family!  She was 6 lbs. 10 oz. and 19.5 inches tall.  I was so grateful to be at the hospital with the doctor there and have everything go smoothly.  She is beautiful and such a sweet baby.  Here are some pictures

  

Mike washed Anna's hair and got all the gunk off of it.  She loved the feel of the water. 

 Grandma and Grandpa came with the kids for a visit.  They took the hospital by storm - our room was rockin' for a little bit, and we kept the nurses busy as they kept our the kiddos supplied with crackers and dum-dums.  They were all excited to meet their little sister, and had a hard time waiting their turns.

She has been a joy to have in our family these past several days.  All her older siblings adore her and want to hold her all the time.  We are all enjoying her sweet, peaceful spirit.