Swimming Videos

For some reason the one of Oliver won't work!  I'll try again in another post.  This wasn't Leah's best twist, but it was the only one I got recorded.

Family Reunion and Vacation

In July we went home.  We didn't get to see my family (little groan) but we also got to land in New York after a 10 hour flight and not try to make a connection for another flight and then a drive.  So . . . oh well.

In New York we had a Flake Family reunion hosted by Levin's brother Taylor and his wife Shelley.  They did a great job and we had a lot of fun!

Here is the whole lot of us.  Not everyone was present and it still looks a lot of people.  Levin's sister and her 8 (yes I didn't make a type-o, it's 8) and his brother and his 3 (now 4) children, plus Uncle Moema was missing.

 We are super duper lame at taking pictures at reunions for some reason.  So I will hopefully some day get pictures from all the other people who were not so lame.  But here are some that I did get - all at the pool.  We did spend a lot of time in Taylor's pool.  It was so fun and they just got a salt water filter and it is the ONLY way to go.  For anyone who may or may not want to get a pool ever, keep that in mind.

 Oliver an Daddy

 Leah being thrown by her cousin Hyrum.  She was so brave.  I ordered those floaties just for the reunion and I loved them . . . and we lost them.  I'm still mourning them.  I felt like they had a teeny bit more buoyancy than others.  Oh well.

 I could not believe how brave she was.

 Teaching babies to go under water.  We did it with Autumn too because I've heard if they don't learn the reflex by a certain age then they can never learn to go under water without plugging their nose - or it is much harder.  And I have to plug my nose and I don't like it.  But Leah doesn't and I think its awesome.  No picture of drowning Autumn though.  She didn't seem to mind too much.

 Grandma and her granddaughters

 This is one of my favorites.  So cute!  Leah is on top of her cousin Joel.  He's . . . 10 I think.

Autumn with Grandma.  It's a miracle I even got to take this picture.  She was sooo clingy with me.  But apparently once I was gone for 2 minutes she was happy, but as soon as I was around she cried non stop to be in my arms and still was only slightly happier once she was.  It was a little tiring.

After the reunion we went to Aunt Lucinda's house and then to Uncle Oliver's where we got to also see our house which was great.  We have such awesome renters.  We feel soooo blessed.  I have to admit I have felt a little homesick since then.  I am looking forward to moving back to our house, but feel quite sad to kick out our renters.  For their sake, because they love it there and it works out great for their personal business, and for our sake because they are taking such great care of it and pay the rent on time.  It's not bad having someone else pay your mortgage!  I am mostly looking forward to having my own yard to send the kids to.  But I will miss that the gardeners here take care of everything.  Ten more months until we move!

Garden Lottery

The Embassy has a set of garden plots.  They conduct a lottery to see who gets one of the 8 or so plots. Last year Levin told his co-worker Karen to sign up too and if one of us won we'd share.  We both won!  A construction project was supposed to take out the gardens, but luckily for us, it was delayed and the garden plots were open again.  Unfortunately this year, we didn't win one, but Karen did so we shared it with her.  Levin does most of the work, but we share the proceeds and Karen comes outside sometimes.

 One day in early July this was our collection.  Not too shabby!  The green peppers are a type I've only seen here where they aren't as green as regular green peppers and not as tasty.  In the picture you can't tell that so much, but it's true.

 Here it is - a little over planted and full of weeds.  If you think this is bad you should have seen it after we came back from vacation!

 This is the thing I cared about the most - the peas!  I confess, we didn't share those equally.  I hoarded them a little.  I wish we'd planted 3 times as many.  They are the thing I miss most from my mom's garden.  You can buy corn on the cob in a store or other places, strawberries although not as good, can still be bought.  But you cannot buy garden peas in the pod and raw.  Oh . . soo good.  Everyone was asking if they were the kind you ate in the pod.  No, they're not.  Why would I want to eat a pod when these are just so dang delicious!  We thought they were all finished when we left on vacation, but we came home to a few underdone and a few very overdone - fat and gross.

 The pepper plant.

 Zucchini.

 These pictures are from another day earlier on.  I think this was our first harvest day.  If you're wondering why Oliver was always wet in the pictures it is because he like to play with the hose.  And if you're wondering where Leah is . . good question.  She was there with us most of the time. But if she sees other kids outside she's off running to socialize.  I kind of drives me crazy because that is not my personality, but okay.

 Here is Karen.

 Father and son bonding.

Preschool Camp

The preschool here at the Embassy is more money than we want to pay.  But in the summer they have a "camp" and you can pay by the week.  It is still expensive, but since only 2 or the 6 weeks would work out for us anyway, I went ahead and did it for Leah.  I was hoping that Oliver would take the bait and want to be potty trained so he could go.  He did want to go, but not enough to go potty I guess.

So Leah got to go.  One main reason I signed her up is because they get to go swimming 4 days a week.  Well because of her sore and ridiculous people she didn't get to go every day.  I'll spare the details, but she probably went 5 times total.  Oh well.  

Leah LOVED IT!  I realized how little time you get to spend with your kids once they start school.  The camp was 9-4 and it felt pretty long.  I also realized that Oliver can only last a day playing alone and then needed me to fill Leah's shoes as entertainer.  I'm not quite as fun as she is I don't think.  So we missed our Leah.  

Leah only seemed to have one tough day.  She was grouchy and cried about everything - I mean everything - after we came home.  I told her to sit down on the couch and was about to lecture her and tell her to pull it together or go to her room until dinner.  I started to say it, but caught myself and I said, "do you just need a hug?"  She started crying and said yes, and we hugged it out.  Apparently some other kids had gotten in trouble and that stressed her out and she accidentally got kicked in the head.  After the hug she was much better.  I wish I could remember to take that approach more often instead of yelling.

Here she is getting ready to go one morning.  I told her to hold up her lunch box and water bottle and this is what we got.

 This is like take 4 where you can actually see her face.

Cute Kids

Just a few cute things happening around here that I want a record of.

#1
Leah:  Did you get a shot when you had babies?
Me:  I did with you and Oliver, but not Autumn.  The shot makes it not hurt so much.
Leah:  Can you be a mommy and not have babies?
Me:  yeah  . .
Leah:  I don't want to have babies because I don't want to get a shot!
Me:  So don't get one!
Leah:  But then it will hurt!  How do I not have babies?
Me:  Well, it is a choice so you can decide not to have them.
Leah:  Okay, I don't want to have babies.  Now what do I do?
Me:  Let me think about that . . 

#2
When we left for vacation I asked Leah if she had a small stuffed animal that she wouldn't mind losing that she wanted to take with us since she likes to sleep with something, but I knew there was a chance we'd lose it.  We picked a little Dora doll we got at a yard sale years ago when she was obsessed with Dora.  For the record, we did indeed not make it home with Dora.  No big loss, but glad I thought to pick one we wouldn't really miss.
One night Leah asked me why I didn't sleep with a stuffed animal and I told her because I was a grown up so we didn't need stuffed animals anymore.
One night when Dora was left at Uncle Taylor's house and we were at Aunt Lucinda's house, Leah needed something and I didn't have anything so I gave her one of Autumn's baby blankets folded up and told her to hug it like a stuffed animal.  She did.
Due to jet lag I have given the kids melatonin a couple of times since we've been home.  One night as Leah was super sleepy under the influence of melatonin I asked if she wanted her Pinky bear because I didn't want to be summoned later when she realized she needed something.  She was insistent that no, she didn't need Pinky.
The next morning she woke up in my bed (she gets there sometimes) and the first thing she said was, "Mom, guess what!  I'm ready to be a grown up now because I can sleep without a stuffed animal!  Yep, I tried it last night and I did it."
Also for the record - the next night she asked for a stuffed animal.  Maybe she's not quite ready to be a grown up afterall.  Good.  I need her to stay my little girl for a little longer.

#3
I will post pictures of our vacation at some point, but I want to describe one thing I didn't get a picture of because I was afraid to wake the kids due to the little sleep they were getting.  At the reunion we had one bedroom at Uncle Taylor's house and our kids slept on the floor, but somehow we lost Leah's pillow when she spent the first night sleeping with her cousins.  SO the kids shared a pillow.  They were so cute!  Other times they purposely chose to share a pillow even when there were plenty and they were in a big bed together.  They'd be asleep with their heads touching right next to each other.  I just love when these kids love each other!  This morning they were kind of wrestling and Autumn was in on the action too and kisses and hugs were shared and I had a big smile on my heart.

#4  
I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but last night Leah always wants to sleep with me so last night I let her sleep with Oliver.  They shared his twin bed.  Good thing they're still little.  Almost every single night Leah comes into our room.  If I'm up with the baby or Levin is in the bathroom she steals our spot in the bed, but usually we keep a pillow and a blanket there and she just sleeps on the floor.  This morning at 5 am here she comes trotting down the hall with Oliver in tow.  I thought oh no, if she has him awake and he won't go back to sleep I am going to be so sad!  But no, they got their pillows and luckily I already had an extra baby blanket in there so I quickly got them both settled and they both went back to sleep.  Phew!  That was a close one.  I do not want this to be a tradition.  Oliver is the best kid EVER at staying in his own bed so we do not want to mess that up!