Down by the bay

We made it to Kemah for the first time post-Ike. The 70 degree weather lured us out of our air-conditioned cocoon. Ahhh, sea breezes!

Don't worry, they're not firing, just telescoping.



In other weather-related news, it POURED all night, which floods our backyard and Nimbus' chamber/bathroom. She's been definitely earning her keep today; she's currently back there hunting waterlogged cockroaches who think they can escape the weather by coming into her room. She's just hovering and purring with delight as she lurks waiting for the next victim.

Friday Night faves.

It's always nice to arrive at the end of the week. We took the kids to a park during dinner time, then came home and made them eat oatmeal and pesto noodles (as per their different requests) sitting around the couch. It's fun to try new things--like being a 50s family huddled around the TV, eating dinner at 8pm. Then it was time to swiftly toss them into bed and dart out of their room with an enormous "AAAAAAAHhHHHHh."

We were excited to find out that one of our good good old friends Ryan Weed was involved in some athletic competition tonight, and that we'd get to see him compete. We knew that this was a big season for him, the culmination of these years of training--we just thought all along he was training to be a chiropractor.

But, you want to fly on over to Paris and give it all you've got on the ice?
Ryan, we're behind you 110%!

Here's a wee bit of video:




I'm only regretting that we didn't get a photo of tonight's costume--what with its low cut purple shirt and red neck scarf. Wow!






Guess we should have known he had it in him back when we saw this:

Getting out of the city

We're Oil Ranching today!

Vote: what do you think about the ethics of leaving Simon in school today versus taking him with us?

Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize!

What a wonderful thing!

Read more here.

Mark tells me that Morgan Tsvangarai of Zimbabwe was thought to be a front-runner. He also is very deserving. Next year, perhaps.

An unrelated thing

*** First off, props to the one who can name the group I got my title from.

A few weeks ago, in a burst of supreme motherhood, I took Allianna to Hobby Lobby and bought yards of shimmery fabric to make her a Modest Ariel costume. I haven't sewn for ten years, and even then, it wasn't very successful (mostly quickly jamming up the machine with a skirt that I wanted to wear in half an hour.) Anyway, I had really got down to business and had cut out the pattern and 1/8 of the fabric. This was to be the start of a whole new seamstress me. Tonight, our neighbors brought over a bag of hand-me-downs. At the bottom of the bag was an Ariel costume. Seriously??? (The pattern has lots of tinkerbell and princess options, if anyone local wants to use it)

Luckily, Simon has finally handed down the decision that he wants to be a bat. And in a radical break from tradition, I will be crafting his out of cloth instead of cardboard.

Another of Simon's great ideas was to have "coral polyp" cupcakes. I grinned for days.

Part of the birthday gang "beachcombing" for shells in our backyard.
We also made sand art in little bottles.

Completely unrelated, but still exciting, was the announcement during General Conference that a temple will be built in Fortaleza, Brasil where Mark served his mission 10 (!) years ago.
We loved Conference--it's such a homey weekend. For me, some highlights were:
President Eyring's talk on joy in families and other talks from Sunday morning about teaching children truth so they can clearly choose and seeking personal revelation (many times over!). When I was telling Simon and Allianna that Sister Ann Dibb is the Prophet's daughter, Alli said "Well, then, she's not nervous, because her dad's right there!"
The pumpkin coffee cake was a smash hit as well.
Who wants to join me in the challenge of reading a Conference talk a day?

Wasn't the choir's singing of "O Divine Redeemer" terrific?!!

Um. -- Revised once again

We're all doing just fine around here. Promise.







In other news, I was racking my brain for a post as I watched the days rack up since my last one. To quote an old roommate: "What HAVE happened?!"
OOOOOOoooooh, yeah, a boy turned six, a boy lost his front tooth after two months of dangling, and I started working out for the first time in motherhood (I decided walking and occasional biking are sooo last season). I'm having fun!

Aimee and Lindsay--I was just dabbling in some world news this morning and heard about the latest hijinks of Libya's famed leader. And I'm smiling game-ly about the way his name is spelled.
As I was rushing to add this this morning I forgot to say that his name is Arabic and has to be transliterated, so I've seen it spelled with a G, a Q, and a Kh--gotta love those gutterals! We all win!

The Development

Ten years ago, when Mark and I were dating, we talked about what we dreamed of for our future. One topic kept coming back up. It was really important to both of us.






About 2 years ago, we talked about the time being right to add to our little group.

So we asked the landlord if it would be okay.

And here she is!

Meet Nimbus!!!!!

Mark and I are thrilled to own a cat together--we are a pair of cat lovers! Simon is thrilled also and so ready; the week before we got her Simon was spending 2+ hours a day monitoring his snails' activities, habits, and needs. Now he delights to have her wake him up for school--what a smile every morning when she rubs her cheek on his head. Allianna wins the prize for most attempts to carry and snuggle the cat. Mary Tessa is happy to finally have some seniority around here; she relishes telling Nimbus "No no no!" when she's breaking some family rule (or even when she's not). Nimbus got quite a lecture when she climbed onto the dishwasher door--even though her hypocritical accuser had been doing the same thing the week before. :)

And, in answer to your questions:

Nimbus--the name. Mark thought she had markings like a clouded leopard. But she's not a white cloud, she's dark, so that leads us to Nimbus. For nicknames she's already acquired Nims and Nimbecile (when she repeatedly moved to follow the chicken into the oven).

She's about 7 months old, litter-box trained, all vaccinated and spayed and all that good stuff. So we just get to enjoy her playfulness and avoid all that grief.

Grandma's Birthday for All

The kids were entertaining themselves well at Grandpa and Grandma's last month:

making fairy wings,

and making sushi (according to Zazel).

But when Allianna found out that Zazel had a birthday in Brooklyn and she couldn't go, we found a way to solve the dilemma. Hold a birthday party for Zazel once she got to Grandma's! And make it Allianna's birthday too! (Bet you can't guess who's idea that was?!) Make it a birthday party for all of the grandkids, since they never get to have their birthday at Grandpa and Grandma's (and they were all going to be there together for the first time)!

So we baked a cake:

pinned some tails:

got fancy with hula hoops:

while Amy and Abigaelle cheered us on.

All in all, it was a splendid celebration of Abigaelle, Mary Tessa, Zazel, Allianna, and Simon. We celebrated Jack too--we just didn't know what color candle to put for him or when his big debut would soon be!

I'd rather be in Idaho than any other place I know

. . . I'm tired of eating grits and I'm sick of stewed tomatoes,
I'd rather be in Idaho eatin baked potatoes!!!
Soooooooooooo
if I had my fare today I'd pack my bags, be on my way, to
Ida-ida-HO! IDA-IDA-HO!

***taught that little ditty to my kids as we landed in Boise. After 7 hours of flying (~4 sacrament meetings), it was so good to be there!

And I'd rather make folk music with my dad and hike Castle Rock than do almost anything else.

I've hiked to Castle Rock dozens of times, but it was Simon who found crystals there on his first visit. Hey Houstonians, how ideal is it to be able to go hiking within 4 blocks of your house? That's what we had in Boise. Fresh air, land that goes UP, and space without buildings everywhere (for now . . . ).

One more Idaho installment to come, and then it's on to the the present.

Oh, boy, do we have an exciting development!

Learnin to fly!

The gang checking out my dad's Aeronca before Simon went on his FIRST FLIGHT.

If I were to set this to music, I'd probably go for:
"It's always fun for everyone when Grandpa comes. "

or the crowd favorite:

"I'd rather be in Idaho than any other place I know."

And speaking of grandpas and their skills, how cool is it to have a great-grandpa who builds wooden boats and takes you down the river while you focus solely on trailing a duck decoy?!

Ask Simon.

Middle

It's hard to get noticed when you're the child in the middle. You'd like people to listen to you, play with you, admire your beauty, but there's contantly the blur of siblings on every side. This day it was Mary Tessa blurring the perfect portrait.

You might wanna be family.

If you're not going to be overwhelmed by all these pictures. And off we go . . .

But, then again, don't take my word for it. Lindsay says:

"Oh, these pictures are all FABULOUS!"


Come along for a Nolte ride then!

Just not in this one--you might end up thumbing a ride home.

How Owen didn't go loony on this breakdown with us, and our kids' bathroom sagas, and his migraine, I don't know.


So, here we are together with our family. [cue Primary song]

There's Nolen,

and Aimee, and some gu-uuy, and Bryan,

There's Alli and Ella, and Simon and Charlie,
and pet stingrays/leaves


and microscopes!


And music

and sychronized swimming (wow, we're glad to have Sarah and Owen's skills in the family!)

and ALL FIFTEEN GRANDKIDS!

The menfolk engineered some volleyball poles so we could play (not nearly enough!)

lawnchair volleyball

If someday Mark becomes like his grandpa and wears a lilac shirt, I will be so pleased. So classy, so wonderful, that Grandpa Nothum!

This is also a pretty good shot of the backyard fantasyland Mark's parents created.

Everything good happened on the tramp.

or at the Bean museum

or in a minivan

or on the tramp.

Join us again for next summer's installment!

Now, mind you, this was just our Utah week. Next I'll devote my efforts to our Boise time--but I've had a few technical difficulties with getting pictures from there. It seems that my one and only sister delivered an 11 pound boy this week--named Jackson!!!! Quite an accomplishment and quite a diversion! Just so the Tayes don't think I love them less--they're coming soon!

Thanks all you Noltes, Sneads and Nothums for being fabulous, admirable, so enjoyable, fascinating, and kind. I would gladly spend so many more weeks with you!

If you still can handle a wee bit more, here is Late Night Fights: William Nolte vs. Nolen Snead.