Lydia

I've forgotten to post about something important- my newest niece! And the girls' 3rd cousin! We were excited to go to her blessing a few weeks ago, because we haven't been able to attend the other cousins' blessings in California. She was beautiful and so was her mama (way to go Katrina!)and it was so sweet to hear her blessing by her awesome dad. I'm kind of attached to my siblings, and I am SO grateful that Katrina is nearby for the time being. While she was on her mission I had no siblings in Utah and it was sad. But since she's been back we've also had Donny for a semester, and in January Derek will be up here to spend the next 4 years or so! Wonderful. And now we have a cousin close by. Thanks Katrina- I know this isn't your first choice of a place to live, but I'm sure thrilled about it. :)

our favorite hike again

We have done this hike in Santaquin canyon several times, but we hadn't done it yet this year because a landslide was blocking the road for part of the summer. So we finally went last Saturday and it was beautiful.

We've discovered with Whitney that she can only walk about 100 meters before she gets bored and claims she's too tired to go any farther. BUT, if we find things to catch her interest or challenge her- " look a butterfly! Let's see if there's any more up ahead by those flowers!" "Ooh, a rocky part of the trail. How many rocks can you step on?"etc.-she can go for miles. It's a bit exhausting, but can be a fun way to hike. She just does not care at all about getting to a destination (besides the car) whereas Katelyn is all about destinations, goals, plans, that kind of thing.

So anyway, we went quite a bit farther this time than we had gone before, because we finally got to the part that we'd been told about, where you have to walk in the river for a while. It was SO cool!! The water was FREEZING and several times Eric and I carried the girls through deeper parts- okay not even up to my knees- and I almost felt like a pioneer! I couldn't feel my feet they were so cold, and it was 70* outside! So I could imagine why, if it was actually cold outside, they would come to a river and just cry because they knew what it was going to cost to get across.

Here are the girls venturing in for the first time

walking on a trail of rocks in the stream

Eric carrying Whitney through this really cool part with rock walls on both sides

katelyn bravely making her way

and later with dad's help

It was fun to discover something new on a trail we already liked.

And Eric only carried Whitney for the last half-mile or so. :)

First day of school! First day of school!- name that movie...

We have entered a new phase in our lives. I knew it would never be the same, but still. You can't really know until you're there. It's a good thing Katelyn was completely ready for it in every way. She's smart, she's friendly, she's confident. She's obedient. Excited to go off and do something on her own every day. It's also a good thing I feel good about her school. She'll be safe and taken care of there. There's only 12 kids in her class, so she won't be overlooked. I'm glad I didn't have to worry about any of these factors. But I didn't think Whitney would miss her as much as she does. I knew I wouldn't really miss her for only 3 hours a day, but the impact of what we're getting into has definitely hit me. This is the beginning of her life outside of her home becoming more and more important as it takes up more and more of her time each day as she grows older. When I was in High school I felt like I was never home. And I know you get to that point gradually, but still. The time of me having control over everything she sees and hears is over! We had a good talk about how I want her to talk to me about anything that goes on away from home that doesn't make her feel good inside. Anything that scares or upsets or bothers her, I want to know about. I've realized more than ever how much I want my home to be a sancuary, a safe and peaceful, happy and loving place. Because I'm not worried about her surroundings yet, at school and music class and soccer. But I have a better sense now of how little time I actually have with my children before they're out in the world. Of how few years and how few hours in the day I will be with them to influence and teach them. So I've got to step it up a notch. Just be aware and more deliberate about the things I do and say with my kids. Because our lives got a whole lot busier a couple of weeks ago, and I can only imagine the years ahead. So I have to make sure the most important things and feelings find a place in our lives.

Whew.

Okay now on to the cute pictures.

Here she is on her first day. She asked me every 2 minutes all morning- " is it time to go yet??"

first day again- different pose

of course Whitney wanted a picture taken too

Second day- I made this skirt but she didn't love it because it was "too hard to climb on the playground" in it :)

Another day. I made this jumper out of an old dress of mine that I hadn't worn in years. It has ruffles all down the front, so cute. And she says it's comfortable too.

And here she is before her first soccer game that same week. She looks so cute in those shin guards! I'll save all the soccer commentary for a later soccer post, but let's just say 5-year-old soccer has been entertaining. As expected.

Hooray for the first day of school! And the movie is Finding Nemo by the way.

freckles

This is the top of my arm.

I am so behind on blogging, and this is the post I choose to do first??

Well, yes. Because I have to announce that this summer I got the best tan I've had in years.

Thank you swimming lessons and the resulting desire to swim a couple of times a week for the rest of the summer!

Thank you Mexico trip that gave me a head start!

And thank you weather for actually giving us a hot enough August.

The top of my legs are actually a shade darker than my stomach. Shocking! and so vain of me to care!

Anyway, I've been enjoying my freckles. And I remembered that last summer at the Hansen Family Reunion Donny had been surprised at how many freckles I had on my shoulders. I love my freckles. And then a couple of weeks ago in church, Katelyn leaned over to me and said " mom I have 7 freckles on my arm!" and I said, "cool! do you want to count the freckles on my arm now?" I held it out and she put her finger up to count but then stopped and said "whoa, that's way too many!" and it made me laugh, and smile.

I love summer and freckles. I'm going to miss them both.

some dance moves

Here's my attempt to re-create Whitney's dance performance since our video didn't turn out. At the end when she smiles it's like the smile from the real performance, except she did that the whole time!

a good 3 weeks

The last couple of weeks seemed busy, but they were really good. Yes I felt sick most of the time. But I have had very few exhausting conflicts with the girls. They have been very good lately! Maybe we're just in between crazy phases, but I'm so grateful for the pause in constant parenting crises. I'm grateful that I have spent less time each day thinking "what can I do to prevent this from happening?" and more time listening to happy voices playing.

Two things we have done deliberately have contributed to this I believe. First, I have been praying for patience and help to pause before responding to my girls. Those 2 seconds of peace that I have been blessed with before I say something have helped me so much to be calm. As I have stayed calm, ideas and solutions have presented themselves. Also Katelyn and Whitney, especially Whitney, have stayed calmer and -surprise!- more rational. And we have had less conflicts- which proves my unfortunate theory that I was the one causing problems with my attitude. Yes, they would start it, but I needed to chill. And it has helped.

Next, Katelyn and Whitney have been physically challenged the last couple of weeks with swim lessons, and they both responded favorably. I think that success and confidence has affected their overall behavior. Oh, and also they both earned enough stickers from doing chores to go on dates with Dad.

So here's the pictures. This one's randomly unrelated to the rest, but it was so cool! We went to the parade of homes in Salt Lake, and this was the UP house, just like in the movie of the same name. SO COOL! The girls loved all the details of the movie in it. Then at a later house, a guy was handing out "Ellie Club" badges, you know, the grape soda cap on a pin, and the girls were amazed to get one! So cute.

Here's Whitney with her swim class. In the 3-year-old class she learned how to blow bubbles, dunk her head under, jump to her teacher, and worked on floating and stroking and kicking. They played a lot too, and she had lots of fun.

Katelyn's on the right, about to push off the wall and swim. I am SO impressed with her progress! She went from maybe being able to dunk her head under and refusing to even try to float or do anything remotely like swimming, to almost real swimming! She tried everything her teachers asked her to do, and was never afraid but talked about how much fun she was having. If only she had an ounce of body fat, she might be able to float better! As it is, she can front float okay, but back float she sinks like a rock. She can swim probably one body length though, and then she comes up for air. She loves jumping into the shallow end, doing cannon balls or belly flops. And she went down the big water slide all by herself and loved it! I'm just so excited for her to be able to enjoy the water!

Of course we had to go with Eric a couple of times so they could show him what they learned. Whitney's favorite thing to do is put on these floaties and "swim" in the lazy river.

The girls have gotten SO TAN from all this swimming! And Kate's hair is a little lighter too. Not so much Whitney's.

This drinking fountain is at the pool, and on the first day Whitney discovered this way to reach it, so funny.

The other thing that's helped Whitney I think is we put her in a little dance class with the City and she loved it! They had their end-of-the-summer performance on Saturday and she was SO cute! Sadly it was outside in a pavilion and the lighting was terrible, so our video turned out too dark. And the camera decided to run out of battery so I only got one lame picture. Here's the before picture:

And here she is during the performance. The BEST part was that the whole time she had this SUPER cute, somewhat forced "performance smile" on her face. You can kind of see it in this picture. It was SO adorable. She just lit up and did all the little moves, and seemed pretty proud of herself when they were done.

And now we'll finish up our summer with a little more boating, swimming, the fair, snowcones, and occasionally doing 5 chores to earn a movie. :)

girl play

Have I mentioned that I am so grateful every day that Whitney and Katelyn have each other? Two years apart is so perfect. The last year has been full of constant imaginative play for them. All day. Every day. Yes they do fight, a lot. But sometimes they play so nicely for so long that I just have to stop and watch (or secretly listen) for a while.

They spend more time with each other then anyone else, so they are the biggest influence on each other too. It's interesting to think how they are shaping each other's personalities and views of the world. For the most part they are good for each other- they know how to annoy each other the best, so if they can work it out and get along with each other, I guess it will teach them how to get along with other people!

It makes me think of how much my siblings, especially Allison, must have shaped me. She's the one I played with the most, and I can see how, even though we are very different, I just understand her and the way she thinks. I didn't play with Katrina as much, or she says we would make her be the dog or something, (sorry!) but still I think you gain this basic commonality or understanding with someone by spending SO much time with them in your formative years. I'm so happy my girls will have that with each other.

ANYWAY, Katelyn and Whitney's pretend play usually falls into one of the following categories:

Brothers: In this game they assume the roles of their alter-egos, named John (Whitney) and Sam (Katelyn). They have all kinds of adventures and occasionally do more boyish things than they would in real life, like hunt.

Family: Katelyn's usually the mom, and Whitney's the son, named John (surprise, surprise) ( I sometimes wonder if it's healthy for Whitney to pretend to be a boy for a few hours a day??) and they have a baby sister too, which is usually played by Whitney's pig. The dad is normally at work, and sometimes I volunteer to be the dad and then I go to work (aka do whatever I was doing before). This game is usually true to real life, with eating and sleeping and the occasional tragedy or excitement.

John and Maddie: This game is about a boy and girl and usually spans a large portion of their life- they play John and Maddie as little kids meeting and being friends, being teenagers and "dating" ( this part is usually short because they don't know much about this phase obviously) and then getting married (they hold hands and turn around in circles singing "marry, marry" and then hug and they're "married") and having kids. I'm sure you can guess who plays John and who plays Maddie. Oh and their last name is Benson for some reason. Sometimes in this game they also play church or school.

Friends: occasionally they play friends and they are both girls, named Mitten and Maddie for some reason. Obviously they never play sisters! Because that wouldn't be playing!

Sometimes they play versions of these games with dolls, barbies, cars, trains, or stuffed animals. I have also seen variations that involve pirates or other bad guys, princes and princesses, forts, boats, or playing in water(or snow).

They love any kind of art, and puzzles and games, but those usually involve me and they are them selves, not any of their alter-egos.

I love my funny, sweet little girls. I can't wait to see how our new baby will fit into the mix. I guess I still have a couple of years until the child will be able to participate in any of their games! And it will be fun to see Whitney get to be the big sister when Katelyn's at school, because right now Katelyn's definitely in charge!

And those are my thoughts today on playtime, as I sit here feeling sick and so glad they are playing happily with out any help from me. Probably I just jinxed it by writing that and I'll be breaking up a fight in 30 seconds. :)