June-Week 3-2017: Cupcakes & Baby Showers

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well, I'm back at the family journal.  One of my biggest motivations for this is to keep in better touch with you and let you in on our daily lives.  We love you.

A month ago Freeman and I took my ring in to be cleaned.  The manager surprised us when he emerged from the lab and announced that my ring was falling apart and that since we had a warranty, we could pick a new ring!  So Monday we headed to Jared’s and tried on rings.  Kind of a fun prospect to pick a new ring as my tastes have changed.  

Tuesday was a treat.  Grandma Linton invited all the girl cousins to her house for a tutorial in cupcake decorating.  Giselle Meiling, Freeman’s cousin who lives in Fort Worth with her husband while he attends medical school, has taught herself the art of cupcake decorating.  She is a natural teacher and was so well prepared to show us how to make buttercream and how to use each of the decorating tips.  Grandma bought a small set of tips for each person and Giselle brought laminated practice sheets for us to try them on before decorating the cupcakes.  The kids loved learning, Brynn softly squealed with delight as the frosting poured out in fun designs on her cupcake.  Anslie really took to it, and the next day she taught her friend Allie how to do it and tried making the rose decoration on her cupcake.  Such a fun skill to learn!

                                               Anslie and Ava, Tyler and Emma decorating 

                                                   cupcakes.  The boys enjoyed it too!

Anslie teacher her friend Allie how to decorate.

Tyler and buddies more interested in eating that decorating!

                                                   Anslie's beautiful purple rose cupcake.

I have slacked in my spiritual/emotional health keeping in the last few weeks.  With traveling, cub scout camp, and grandma here I haven’t done my usual routines well.  And I was starting to feel it.  But I got back on the horse and it was incredible boost and opened my eyes to some self criticism that was really holding me back.  It sounds funny, but trying to redecorate the house has really made me feel some inadequacy.  Blech.  Its been weighing on me.  Feels good to get out from under it.

I got some great news this week.  Freeman and I have been wanting to move, just to get a cleaner place and more space.  But we looked and looked, and for $600-$800/mo more we will get close to what we have.  Our place is a serious deal!  We decided instead to approach our landlord and ask if she would do some updates and increase our rent by a little.  She said yes.  We’ve had contractors in and out taking measurements on the house.  We are getting granite countertops!  And new tile in the kitchen.  The white tile in the kitchen has truly been the bane of my existence for the last several years.  Looks so gross just a couple days after mopping.  And it is going away!!!! Better than Christmas!!!!!

It was fun taking Tyler with me to buy a gift for the shower.  He was so patient and had great taste in baby clothes.  Fun to be with just him!  And we found a killer deal! Friday the kids each invited a friend to go to the community center with us to swim.  Man, Texas is so hot.  It was a fun afternoon.

Saturday morning I threw a baby shower for my friend, Lauren.   She is having her sixth baby, and the first BOY of the family.  So exciting.  I cleaned like a madwoman and made orange rolls, my favorite berry fruit salad with mint, and little smokies.  Mary Johnson and Melanie Larkin contributed food too, and Teresa let me borrow dishes and flowers.  It was a mad rush on Friday evening, but once kids were in bed I enjoyed making the table and family room look pretty.  We had about 16 people and it was warm and lovely.  She got lots of cute boy clothes.  I really enjoyed providing the party for her.  She is someone that reaches out to so many and loves and celebrates so many in her life, it was nice to do so for her.

Poor Tucker had a fever all day Saturday and slept for more than 6 hours!  But he looks much better today.  Freeman, Anslie and Tyler headed down to Austin to attend Preston’s farwell today (our nephew).  I’m glad the kids could enjoy that experience.

A few other fun/sweet moments to remember:

·       * Tucker and I were home alone while everyone was gone.  He was watercoloring happily and I was writing this.  Soft Sunday music was playing and I took a picture of him working, he was so excited about his art.  This made him happy and he came and sat on my lap.  He rested his little head on my shoulder and we just sat still together, listening to the music.  He said, “Mom, I really feel the spirit right now.”  I did too.  

      

     * Freeman helped me for hours with cooking and cleaning to get ready for the baby shower.
     
      Lots of love to you!  Michelle

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June - Week 2 - 2017: Grandma & Cub Scout Camp

Dear Mom and Dad

We’re back in Texas!  It was so fun to be with you!  See my last post to hear about the whole trip. Now its time to settle into routine at home.  And we brought Grandma with us!  Flying was an ordeal for her, but we are grateful she made the sacrifice to be with us.   She is going to be teaching Tucker to read while she’s here, and we will enjoy having her around and getting lots of quality time!

The big new thing for the kids this summer is swim team!  We’ve bucked the Texas trend until now and never committed to swim team, but this year, feeling more relaxed after homeschooling, we werem ore ready for a daily swim session.  Tyler and Anslie have LOVED doing it, especially because there are 5 families from the ward also doing it.  Social time and exercise all packed into an hour!  Tucker struggled at first, he really couldn’t swim more than 10 feet.  But the expectation at practice is that you swim, and he has really stepped up to the plate and is swimming laps and laps, even after just a week of practice.  More accomplished in a week than in 3 years of summer swim lessons! He even went to the meet on Saturday and competed!  This shocked me, but he took it all in stride.  He got 2^nd place in backstroke.  The races for his age group are so cute, they are so small they look like little turtles moving through the water.  They really can’t make it all the way across doing freestyle, so they flip on their backs when they are tired and then keep going.  Tyler also competed and did well, he was in the top 8 swimmers out of about 40 for his age group.  Anslie was at a birthday campout with cousins Ava, Carly, and Audrey, all close to the same age.

Tucker racing in freestyle

Sunday was Father’s Day.  We made a special breakfast and the kids presented to Freeman the gifts they’d purchased.  I made him a whole tub of homemade chocolate chip cookie dough.  I got to talk to you on the phone, Dad!  Sure glad you're my Dad, wish I could've been with you. After church we went to Mom and Dad Linton's and enjoyed fajitas and a little program.  A nice day.

Grandpa Linton and grandkids on Father's Day

Love, Shell

Today was a summer day to remember. I am not especially good at letting my to do list go, but this morning at 8 am it was only 82 degrees. I knew that if we worked first and played later, we would not be playing outside because it would be 104. So we headed out for a20 minute bike ride. The kids wanted to go to a park further than our usual favorite. We rode 20 min away to park with slides, swings, and a grove of trees to adventure in. We made friends with a Mom and her little girl, even Tyler seemed to enjoy playing with her. I had planned to take the kids to see a movie at the Theater, but to my surprise when it was time to go in order to make the movie the kids wanted to stay. It felt soooooo good to ignore the clock and stay as long as they wanted. We meandered to another park that had a fun obstacle course. The kids went over and over it, and kept returning to the swings for more pushes. When th snacks were gone and it started to et hot, we headed home. Our bikes were muddy, and cleaning them turned into a hose water fight. We were hot, sweaty messes....so we all showered, had lunch, then worked on "fun list" (chores). The kids helped each other do their work, which made my mama heart happy. What a happy day.

1. Playing at the park for 3 hours.
2. Water fights with the hose.
3. Time to chat with Mom while I made stuff for Activity Days.
4. Tyler asking for my affection.
5. Finishing organizing the closet.
6. Breathing.
7. Tucker holding on to me when it thundered.