What have we been doing this summer?

Swimming A LOT!
Enough to have two little green-haired girls, for Millie to learn how to swim the length of the pool, for Grace to feel completely comfortable in a floaty at the deep end, and for Claire to do decide she really does like swimming. 

 

A Visit to the ER
Gracie's 5-day long fever started to worry us, especially when she complained of a headache and neck pain. Of course, it occurred over the weekend when the Dr. office was closed, so we ended up in the ER in the middle of the night. Luckily, it ended up being a UTI. Grace and mommy were both so brave at the hospital!   :)

Matt Returned From Honduras
We had such a fun late-night at the airport! Our girls were home in bed, but much of the Thatcher family came to welcome Matt home. He looks even taller and thinner, and had a permanent smile. We're grateful for his wonderful mission and glad to have him back home with us again.

Murphy & Andrea Were Married
July 2nd was another happy wedding day in Cache Valley! Murph and Andrea were sealed in the Logan Temple by Uncle Paul. It was beautiful! A week or so before their wedding, Gracie said, "Uncle Murph and Aunt Andrea have been not married for a LONG time!"

During the reception, there were fun activities for the kids to do, like filling up a bag with candy from a candy buffet, searching for toys in buckets of rice, & making cards for the newlyweds. They played with cousins, swung, and ate way too much candy!

 

When it got dark, the kids waved good-bye to the newlyweds with glow sticks. So fun!

Yorgason Family Reunion
We had our first annual Yorgason family reunion headed up by Ang and Joseph! It was so fun to have most of our family here from out of town! We played games at the park, went swimming at the clubhouse, had a BBQ, a family slide show, and more. It was fun to get closer to family. We especially loved seeing Millie and Addie become such close friends (see the last picture). We've never lived near each other, but those two would be inseparable if we did!

Dance, Dance, Dance!
Millie and Gracie have performed with their dance group at Lagoon and Raging Waters, and then were in the Farmington Parade. They are so cute when they perform! They both have big smiles and seem so natural up on the stage. I love how Grace gets so into it with her hips--she doesn't hold back a bit! And Millie tries hard to do it perfectly, even the toe touches!

Park Playdates
We've spent a lot of time at the local parks this summer. Claire has little inhibition! She thinks she can do everything her big sisters are doing, and it's a bit dangerous!

Claire's Keeps Getting Cuter and Cuter
This little one just keeps us laughing. It's fun when there is so much personality bottled up in such a little body. She has a good sense of humor, and she has a lot of determination.

She knew that this corn eating game was funny

She loves being like the big girls

And she gets a lot of satisfaction doing other big kid things, like cleaning. But she doesn't understand when we try to tell her that she doesn't need water all over the rag. Let's just say we have to re-clean the whole area that she cleans and change her clothes afterward!

Daddy's Girls

For Father's Day, we surprised Paul with some pictures of all his girls together. I was proud of Millie and Grace for keeping our secret for over 2 weeks. We sure love our Daddy!

18-Month-Old Claire

Claire is at such a fun stage! She is growing so quickly! It's no wonder we view 18-months as an important milestone--there's just so much that happens between age 1 and 2. Her vocabulary is multiplying daily. She is a little person with a mind and will of her own. She adds so much love and laughter to our home each day. Here are a few fun facts about her at 18-months old:

• She is as sweet as they come!
• So good at obeying, even when it's not what she really wants to do
• Is very social
• Loves to copy what her sisters are saying and doing
• Cares for her dollies each day
• Sings "Twinkle, twinkle" many times throughout the day (with the right tune but wrong words)
• Loves singing "Five Little Monkeys" and other fun songs
• Runs away from us EVERY time we try to get her dressed--she loves this game of chase!
• Always takes her dish to the sink when she is done eating
• Says words like: No, uh-huh, ice, mama, dada, dink, pease
• walks around imitating our words and sentences all day long
• Talks to Dadda on the phone every day at lunch, starting out with "hi, dadda!"
• Loves to be held

Millie at age 5

Words that describe Millie the best: determined, thinker, fun, social, smart, curious, tricky, creative, daring, excited, energetic, busy, feminine, friendly, negotiator


Favorite activities:

• practicing cartwheels and handstands and the splits in the living room
  
• drawing, coloring, & painting
• printing and making copies to color (sometimes 20 at a time)
  
• writing notes to friends and teachers by sounding out the words on her own
• riding her 2-wheeler bike as fast as she can down the sidewalk and back
  
• dressing up as Snow White
• listening to fun music and dancing around the living room
  
• playing make believe the she is someone else
  

Favorite foods: mac'n cheese, potatoes, lasagna, chinese
Favorite treats: brownies, cookies, 'smarshmellows', smoothies, and of course, bubblegum!
Favorite color: black, white, and all of the colors
Favorite Disney character: Tarzan (she has informed us that she LOVES him and she even wrote a letter to him this week!)

If she talked to you today, she would tell you...that she is 5, and she learned how to ride a bike in 2 days, and she knows how to skip "for reals" (followed by some skipping).

What we love and appreciate about Millie:

• She is always willing to help out with younger sisters
• Even at a young age, she loves to teach
• She responds well to responsibility and respect. lately, she has taken on the responsibility of feeding the rabbits and she has done very well with this.
  
• She loves Heavenly Father and Jesus. She wants to bear her testimony each month, and today she did it all by herself. Also, today, we found her crying in our closet because she had found a picture of Jesus that we had replaced. She was so sad that we had taken it down, and wanted all of the pictures in our house taken down until we had put Jesus back up again.

Irresistable...

The pie? Well, yes, that was too! But when Claire starts making a good eating mess, how can we not pull out the camera to capture her cuteness?

A Very Big Birthday

Millie has been counting down the days until her 5th birthday and whenever she talks to anyone, she is sure to say, "guess how many days until my birthday!" The day before Millie's birthday, Grace told me that she was going to be so sad on Millie's birthday. She was worried that Millie would change or not be her friend when she was 5.

We planned a last-minute party for her friends and Millie insisted on having a jungle theme. This was kind of random (we would expect princess, ballerina, or something girly--not jungle). But Millie has informed me that she loves Tarzan because of his muscles (boy, we are in for it!), so I'm guessing this had something to do with it.


When Millie woke up, Gracie graciously began giving her all of Gracie's favorite things. She offered her butterfly blanket that she sleeps with every night, her favorite stuffed animal "kitty", her two favorite stones, and more. Then we got to work doing party preparations. Millie spent the entire day practicing and conquering the skill of blowing up a balloon. What a determined girl!



Our living room was turned into a jungle. We played many fun jungle games and did all the usual birthday stuff. Millie got some great gifts from her friends. She was so surprised at how many gifts she received and how many surprise visits she got at the door. She started to think it was just going to keep coming and coming. At one point, she said something like, "I'm going to go look out the window to see who is coming next to bring me a present!"

Match #3--Eric & Rachel

We set up Eric Willison {from our ward} with Rachel Barlow {family friend} last Spring. He had a battle with cancer while they were first dating, and miraculously overcame it. That was a huge miracle! And the fact that Rachel stuck around, even when things were scary, was another miracle. They were sealed in the temple April 30th. It was a very joyous occasion! They are so perfect for each other and will be such an amazing couple. We are so glad to be numbered among their friends.

They gave us a huge trophy for setting them up, completely unaware that we have received a matchmaking trophy from Kent & Sara. A little ironic!

"The Sun'll Come Out..."

We've been on a big "Annie" kick lately. We took the girls to see a high school play and then we had to watch parts of both movies.


I love that they know the music now and we can belt the songs together in the car. As we drove to the library yesterday during the non-stop downpour, Millie decided that we needed to change the words to "The Rain 'ill come out...tomorrow!" It was fun to pretend that we love the rain and clouds and gloominess. Singing about it almost convinced me.

Whenever I feel like complaining about the rain, I think of Sister Wilkerson, my mission companion from Elko, Nevada, who LOVED the rain. She often thanked the Lord for the rain, and I was always surprised because I wasn't so grateful. I guess when you live in a dessert, you are always grateful for the rain. And I guess since we live in what is also considered a dessert, we should be grateful for the rain. But it's hard when there is flooding and day after day of grey weather in May.

On a brighter side, I am SO glad we got our gardens and pots planted over Mother's Day weekend before all this rain.




And here's what we have been doing inside lately...


Millie got a hold of more dress up make-up. She put sparkly lip gloss all over her eyes, and eyeshadow on her lips



which gave us good reason to play dress-ups and play all over the pillows


{Claire felt extra special with two tutus on--the fluffier, the better!}
Gracie prefers no tutu at all



And we discovered a new way to build. We used skewers to make 2-dimensional houses for the petshops.
Gracie did a fun hair-do with 6 ponytails

And Millie came up with some good art projects

Childlike Honesty

The other day, Grace touched my arm lovingly, and then said, “Mom, your arm feels squishy like Claire’s.”

“Oh,” I thought, “I’m pretty sure I know what she is saying.”

But then to reinforce the idea, she asked, “Mommy, are you going to be a Grandma soon?” I quickly answered, “No...”

So she added one more comment. “Mommy, you have arms like a giant!”

If she wasn't so naive and perfectly innocent, maybe I could have been a little offended about that. But I just had to laugh.

We are really working on communication right now, and boy, she got the point across clearly!

I know Summer is just around the corner. I know I'll be wearing short-sleeved shirts. So, thanks, Gracie! Now I have more motivation this week to wake up early and exercise! I'll try to think about that when I lay in bed at 6:45, trying to decide if it's an exercise morning or not.



And just now as I was talking with Millie, she randomly asked me to open my mouth wide (I thought for sure she would mention my fillings).

Then she said, "Mommy, I know some of your teeth are going to fall out!"

"Yeah? Why is that?" I asked.

"Because some of them are moving and going to pop out."

I had to wonder, should I get braces again? Then I quickly decided, na! That was not fun!

Again, no harm intended by little ones. Just the truth. And somehow, I don't mind, because they love me despite my imperfections and flaws.