February 1

Dear Family, Here we are, trying to figure out this blogging world--sorry the pics are all jumbled together, but we'll eventually get the hang of it!...so pics first, and then the letter:

This is Anne in her favorite place: the dishwasher! We keep telling her to stay excited and she can

spend many hours there, but for now we keep peeling her off of the door, which she sees as her personal step (and singing stage?)

This is Anne on her first birthday--she got this outfit from G&G, and thought she could dress herself, so all night, she would walk, crawl, or play around, with this fleecy headwear, and replace it quickly and seriously every time it fell off.

Spencer's selfmade astronaut (w/ a little help from Maddie).He'd go outside, then come back and say he'd been to all the planets and did I miss him?

These are the girls

dressed up for

Spirit Day at school:

Hawaii Day (In snowy January). They assured me they were promised indoor recess, so flipflops were okay

Anne loves to be up to the table with everyone, esp. if we let her eat AT the table, instead of from her tray. She had an especially happy night feeding herself w/ refried beans in this shot

Here is everyone, smiling with Anne and her presents--they all had fun watching Annie then next day, though Emily is still scared of that "crazy red poofy hair!"

Here's the birthday girl, eating her birthday pie!

Feb 1, 2009

Our baby is one!-hard to believe, esp. when she is STILL not sleeping through the night, walking, or weaned! These have been one year (or earlier) landmarks with the other children, but it just goes to show you that even after 4 children, you surely don't know it all! After a few meltdowns this last week, losing it over Anne bonking her head more times than I can keep the ice pack frozen for, feeling like no one will ever learn to pick up after themselves, that the laundry and dishes will never be done, and that I may never actually obtain patience, I realized I was a bit sleep deprived, and that just because Anne was one did not mean life instantly sprang back to normal. I'm trying to relax and enjoy the fleeting babyness, and give all of us a break with the milestone deadlines :). Still, she is making strides (haha!) in her walking, her black eyes are healing, and she's had no concussions. She claps in response to every "Yeah!!", and it's hard not to think she's a genius when she puts the brush to her hair, or necklaces over her head.

For her birthday, we all went bowling for FHE--the children had a few school coupons, but it was still spendy enough to remind us of why we don't go more often! I was just glad the children didn't beat me this time, but we all had fun, and I think Anne enjoyed watching us celebrate her big day :). The kids had the great idea of making apple pie for her birthday, since she LOVES the cooked apples I give her to snack on. She did love it, and didn't seem to mind either her lack of "real presents" like her siblings did for her. She did have things to open: socks, shoes, toddler snacks, the movie Annie, clothes, and cards, but I couldn't bring myself to buy anymore toys--not only after Christmas, but after 4 older siblings--how many 1-yr-old toys can you get?? Besides, all she really wants is a dishwasher she can climb in and stand on all day. She was a hit though, we all had fun watching her eat, try to touch her candle flame, and clap over every gift.


Spencer hit a good milestone too, with giving his first talk last Sunday. He was excited, but it was impossible to practice with him! Every time I would try to talk about ideas, he would tell me, "I already know the Gospel, Mom!" and then when I asked what he'd say for his talk, he'd respond, "I already know what to say Mom, I just going to make it up myself!" He would babble on for a minute with Gospel "vocab" sprinkled in, but making no sense, so I was wondering what he'd actually do in Primary. I finally just typed a few sentences out, and read them to him a couple of times, and waited to see what would happen. In front of that podium though, his humility returned, and he let me just whisper in his ear what to say. He wasn't too flustered to flash his cheezy dimpled smile between every line though, and he did (thankfully) fine.


Brent and Maddie are enjoying piano lessons, and Emily's cruising through Junie B. Jones now--so it is becoming more frequent to happen upon an unusually quiet afternoon where Anne is alseep, and see 4 of the 5 of us awake, buried in a book. Those Junie books are funny too, b/c Brent and Maddie still pick them up, now that they're lying around again, between their reading, and devour a few more (laughing aloud as they go). I guess those are the moments, Spencer decides to make an astronaut costume out of paper bags. He's still trying not to be bitter over our new limits on computer games (what w/ our new "dotcom" access, as they all call it :).

Brian had a pretty big case handed to him at the last minute last week, which left him at work most of a Saturday, but he was happy to work on it, once he fit it all together into a good solution. That same Saturday he was gone, I watched some neighbor kids for the day, in a last minute pinch, and I think the 9 children (though it delighted Anne at least!) may have been a factor in that meltdown! We worked hard on clearing out the basement when Brian did get home, so we felt ready for things to start moving. Of course, it didn't, but we just heard from our guy last night, and hopefully things will get going here this week.


Besides reading, I made it to DI this week, after aerobics, and was so happy to find snowboots galore! (I've been looking for a while, but in the shoe dept. not outdoor equip.). We loaded up the cart, along w/ a cute mirror for the girls room, and went to drive home for Anne's well-needed nap, when I realized I didn't have my keys! I figured Anne was holding them, and dropped them somewhere in the store, and tried to convince poor Spencer to hurry back in w/ me for just a minute. About 40 minutes later, after going through my purse, the line I was in, the bags, and re-crossing every aisle of the store, I finally found them!! They were in one of the boots!!! This, after fretting that morning that we'd lost Spencer's coat too. I was talking with the kids in the van on the way to school about who'd seen it last, if he had it at church, at the library, etc., and they were all giving their 2 cents about where they thought it was. After they all got out for school, and I took the 2 youngest to aerobics, THERE the coat was, right in the back seat (it's bright yellow!) where all of those children had been sitting!! Funny detectives!


To wrap up the month, we got the van repaired painted wooden toys for a Humanitarian activity, enjoyed ward temple night, helped in Emily's class (I read them the fairy tale, Goose Girl, and we made geese out of paper plates--my own design!), Brian volunteered at DI , home and visiting teaching, and more of the usual.


OH! and we are excited for upcoming plans!!: Mom and Dad visiting over Spring Break, reservations for the Draper Temple Open House in March (the kids were esp. excited to find out they could go inside!), and a 2 night stay in Yellowstone's "Rough Rider" cabins for July! We're so excited to have a family vacation!! So the year is off to a swinging start! Hope all is well with you too! Love, The Duncan's