Nathan is a smart, creative boy, who is always kind to everyone he meets. He admires his dad and wants to be like him in every way. He enjoys building with Legos, doing "boy crafts," and playing with his "boy cousins." He is getting to be a great reader and loves to check out "boy books" from the library. (You can tell he is taking issue to being the only boy around.) Nathan is a wonderful big brother. He is very sweet with Audrey and does his best to alert me when she is getting into trouble. He is very worried about making sure our baby is safe.
Nathan finished up gymnastics for the season and got a medal. He has perfected his forward and backward rolls, and is starting to get better at the pommel horse as well.
Last month I forgot to post a picture of Nathan with his Trolley car that Jared brought back for him from San Francisco. It was a real winner.
Finally after a year and a half, Jared got Nathan's toy box done. We ended up paying a shop to finish it for us. Jared decided that he likes building things with wood, but he get's frustrated with the finishing process since he doesn't have the right space and materials to do a good job of it.
Maddy is beautiful and full of enthusiasm and drive. She works hard every morning to get her homeschool tasks done so that she can play the rest of the day. Maddy enjoys her new piano teacher (Linda Houlding) who lets her do lots of "princess songs" (Disney themes). She loves doing art and has done some beautiful pictures in art class. Maddy loves to read American girl books. She is great about playing with Audrey and is always the first to get Audrey to smile or laugh.
Maddy at the Mayborn Museum under an arch she built.
Maddy finished up another season of gymnastics and she is doing a great job. She can now do an awesome cartwheel, and is starting to do work on the high beam.
Abby is making excellent progress on the piano (now that we finally found her a good teacher). Abby reads almost constantly. I have to go to the library almost every week to give her enough reading material to keep her busy. She loves doing is art and is excited to learn how to sew from mom this summer. She is very helpful with Audrey and is even able to get her down for a nap when I'm out running errands and Jared is watching the other kids. She is growing up quickly. Last week she was asked to give a talk in Primary but she didn't want my help writing it. She wrote it herself, and even though she forgot her paper she remembered it perfectly and did a great job.
Abby on her last day of gymnastics. She is improving a lot as well. She has a lot of arm strength for such a skinny girl, and can do a back hip circle on the bars.
Audrey is a very curious, busy little girl. She no longer snuggles (unless she is extremely exhausted) because she is too interested in exploring the world around her. She has a knack for finding the most dirty or dangerous object in whatever room she is in. Audrey definitely keeps us on our toes.
Audrey surprised us all at the beginning of this month by learning to crawl. At 7 months, she is by far our youngest crawler. I think it's because she is so anxious to keep up with all the big kids in the house.
She has also learned how to stand herself up to get into the laundry basket.
JARED
Jared works hard at his job and in his calling as Executive Secretary. He is a great dad and the kids love it when he reads to them each night before bed. He just finished reading them the Fablehaven series, which they all loved. He has been working a lot of hours lately so he hasn't had time for many hobbies, but he has enjoyed reading his Brandon Sanderson books that he got for his birthday.
Now that Audrey is crawling, my life has gotten much busier. Luckily the other kids are old enough to help me keep her out of trouble while I try to get things done. I am enjoying the lighter summer schedule after finishing up this year's curriculum for homeschool. I am really enjoying teaching art to the kids, and it's making me want to get back into doing more art again. I have been busy trying to start a homeschool co-op with some other LDS ladies in our Stake (We've been excluded from the other groups in the area that require signing a statement of faith that we don't agree with doctrinally). We hope to have our group up and running by the fall. I was just released as Primary Secretary and called as the second counselor in Relief Society. My first assignment was to redo the bulletin board in the Relief Society room.
Here are some stick people the kids made out of pipe cleaners, straws, foil, and clay. Nathan's is a Jedi holding a lightsaber.
Here are some collages the kids did after learning about Matisse. Jared helped Maddy with hers. It is of Cinderella's shoe on the steps outside a castle.
