Levi on Ellie's chair

Levi climbed up onto Elora's chair this morning and perched with his motorcycle in cute matchy happiness, so I scurried for the camera.

Every day Levi hands me a guy and a motorcycle and says "Wide a mo-mo pease." Then I perform the intricate task of placing the model's hands around the handle bars and bending its joints to sit down. Levi says thanks, but separates this tedious joining pretty quickly. Then we repeat the process. Sometimes Levi gets very upset if the guy comes off, so one day I rubber-banded the guy to his spot and handed it to Levi saying, "All fixed". He was incensed and kept saying "Boken" as he pulled on the rubber band. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Vivian's Bycicle Triumph

Vivian announced on a Sunday that she wanted to learn how to ride her bike without her training wheels. I told her we had to wait til the next day to work on it, but Daniel took the training wheels off that same day on a quick break home from the ER. By the time I heard anything about it on Monday, it was to come see Vivian ride her bike! She learned very quickly with very little help, and we rode, and rode, and rode around the neighborhood together to celebrate.





Our three-year-old neighbor, Brielle Jolly rounded up her dad when she saw all the excitement and they worked on her balance for a while as Vivian paraded around the street.

Happy Independence Day!

The Children's Bike Parade
First we rode our bikes from home to the tabernacle lawn. Then we enjoyed face painting and bike decorating. I got recruited to help paint faces and had a lot of fun, although I was bad at painting tiny flags on little cheeks. I thought the butterfly I put on Viv's face looked great, though. My friend accidentally painted "USU" on Elora's cheek, but she fixed it after we teased her about it.










It's always fun to see friends at the parade. Here's De Rietz, being a good sport at the USA's birthday celebration even though she's Canadian.




From the time Viv finished her face and bike to the time the parade started she was pacing around in a diva-rage about having to wait and kept demanding, "take me home!". This will seem funny later, right? I predicted that when we got started she'd get tired of riding her bike and have to be rescued by Grandma and Grandpa Ericksen's car, but I was so wrong. Once they opened the gate, she shot out and rode fast the whole way. Actually, I was the only rider to have trouble. I wiped out right at the end where the most people were gathered by getting my flip flop caught in the pedal-claw on Daniel's mountain bike that I rode because mine had a flat tire. It wasn't a little trip, either. It was all the way down with my whole body splayed flat and the bike still eating my foot. Now that was instantly funny.



American Beauties:
Elora and Passion Rietz

Grandma Ericksen, Naomi with a nice neat face flag
painted by some other mom, and the soon-to-be crash victim

Elora and her decorated bike


Naomi working hard on her spokes


Ellie and the neighbor friends, Daniel and Lia


Kate and Adri


Mad, mad Vivian and Sleepy Levi



Grandpa spent lots of time helping Naomi with her bike.





Here's Vivian later on when she was happy and posing with a 4th of July pie. I asked her to do it this way because a few years ago Naomi posed over another pie from another 4th of July and it's one of my favorite pictures ever.


Here's the shot with Naomi from 2007. It's her bright eyes that make it so beautiful.

Sledding With Cousins

We went sledding with the Ericksens over Christmas break. We got lots of exercise climbing up the big hill and lots of thrills sailing down. When the big blue and green tube was piled with a heavy grown-up and a few kids it went FAST and FAR!







Remember how Frosty the Snowman was a great "Belly-Whopper"? Naomi too.







What beautiful scenery! I love Utah!















Levi had his ups and downs. He was the most happy after I took his gloves off and he could finger around in the snow.

Levi in His Diaper, Viv's Boots, Viv's Coat

When you're this cute, all you have to do is hang out in your diaper and mom runs for the camera.



If you start trying on your sister's pink boots, mom will probably clear her schedule and make it a day-long photo shoot.


Levi's Triumph!






Later that day, Levi gets the urge to go outside. Too bad his mom hasn't put any clothes on him! She's too busy taking pictures, I guess.

"I've seen kids open this door--look! No problem!"





Now Levi weighs his options: continue with mission in extreme discomfort or abort and warm up.

Levi has spent his night working out the kinks in his plan--he'll recruit someone not holding a camera to assist him with essential gear.



Mission Accomplished!