quick takes *that ended up making a long post* kid style

ABRAM:
          
Finding me in the house one day to exclaim, "mom, I like me because I am happy!"

 Enjoying how he calls our Suburban the "mis-un-burpin"

Shirtless today just as Isabelle arrived home from school with a friend, he hustled me to find him a shirt saying, "Hurry!!  I don't want them to see my MANLY chest!!!"

NOLAN:

Crying inconsolably and incessantly today because it was the girls turn to have friends over and he "didn't have anyone to play with!!!! WHAAAAA!!!"  (That whaaaa was him, not me:)  Finally he sniffled, "I just really need a hug!"  After a long hug he was miraculously all better:) Hugs heal a lot with this kid.

For the last three months or so, Nolan has taken his Book of Mormon with him all over the place.  He tries to read what he calls "one square" a day. Which is one column on a page.

Background on this next one:  Shawn keeps a mattress under our bed, all handy to pull out quickly, because almost every night his back starts hurting and he ends up sleeping there instead of in our bed. In the mornings if we are slow to scoot it back, the little boys love to play on it.  Well, the other night Shawn went to check on the little boys and there was Nolan curled up on the floor on a tiny little blanket beside his bed... being just like his dad:)

BELLE:

This one is amazing... Yesterday morning Isabelle became the first member of our family to finish reading the Book of Mormon ALL BY HERSELF at the age of seven!!!  She has been persistently reading one chapter a day for well over a year now (I don't think she was as consistent during the summer.)  We also finished again as a family a week or so before that, so she has some readings under her belt before she gets baptized!!

Isabelle has once again been organizing her life with self improvement charts.  She designs charts with six or seven columns and corresponding days of the week.  The charts that I know of that she currently has going are: teeth brushing - because she wasn't remembering in the morning, clearing her plate from the dinner table, and practicing the piano. She is ecstatic every time she gets to mark off another day.

She is currently reading her first mystery, a Nancy Drew, and was so scared at bed time that she is going to be sleeping with me tonight:)

MADELINE:

Mads was in desperate need for a hair cut, so the other night after putting the little kids to bed we straightened her hair, so that I could see what  I was doing, and cut off about three inches.  It was about to her waist, when it was straight, and that length had been her goal so she was not happy to cut it off. She has refrained from washing her hair for three days, and we do straightening touch-ups every morning, and she can't keep her hands out of it.  It feels so good to her to be able to run her fingers through her hair and brush it without it turning to frizz.  She also looks so pretty with her long, healthy, shiny hair...but ...I  always miss her curly hair when we straighten it... it just seems to be a part of her personality!

She sprained her wrist pretty bad just in time for a gymnastics recital...luckily I watched my volleyball coach tape my own wrists every single day before practices, because I was prone to wrist sprains, so I know how -and have been- taping Maddie up as well.

I love that she likes talking to me.

CADEN:

Caden has a summer job that he is SO excited about!  He will be working for Shawn's Uncle Kerry as a farm hand up in Driggs, Idaho, changing pipe and fixing fence.  Kerry has been hiring his grandkids, but needed an extra boy and I think since Caden is friends with his grandson, he got the offer!  He will be gone all week, living up there, and come home on the weekends. We are excited for him and it is such a blessing that he has a job, but it will be strange not to have him here as much - he is a fun and handy kid to have around!

I need to blog about the great job he did on our greenhouse...

Cade went on a camp-out tonight that he was NOT excited about. He is now the oldest deacon in his quorum with a group of extra rambunctious, extra young-acting boys.  To make it more exciting for himself, he marinated some steak for his dinner, got some potatoes all ready to cook a certain way, and mixed up some dough for some skillet bread.  He took care of all the planning and doing himself and anticipating his dinner he seemed a lot more happy about going:)

KAMILLE:

Getting closer to her license - She could have gotten it in March if she'd had all her hours. I think she said that she has about 14 hours more to drive. Shawn has been really good about taking her out for drives on Saturdays to get even more experience in for her.  We have a hard time with her getting to drive during the week because our Suburban's light doesn't show up that shows what gear it's in, so she usually waits for Shawn to get home with his car and practices more in that.

She rescues me almost every day from a demanding little boy or two.  When I am trying to work on something (like dinner) and have an upset boy clinging to me, she usually says, "Do you want to play with me?"  And they always do because she always does something fun with them.  I appreciate the help SO much!! And I appreciate that I don't have to ask her, because then I don't feel guilty about it:) And some evenings, when I am particularly tired after going all day and taking care of dinner, she says, "go sit down, mom.  We will take care of cleaning up dinner."  She is very insistent about it and organizes the other kids and has it done and sparkling clean in no time. No one should have any children until they have a Kami in the house!!!

Right now she is my reason for blogging at 11:30 at night.  She and her friends are watching a movie that I think still has a ways to go - they hung out for a long time before starting it.  Shawn isn't here and I am on full-time duty - no nodding on the job;)