Not Precious

As you may know, Brooke's middle name is Talei, which is Fijian for 'precious'. We often times call her precious because a) it's her name and b) that's just what she is. Today she had gotten dressed and looked just as precious as could be. While she and Ram were in the middle of an intense Harry Potter playtime I said to her, "Come here, let me take your picture precious." She ignored me just a bit so then I said, "Hermione, let me take your picture you precious." (You know, as in "you silly" or "you cutie"..."you precious"). This time she looked at me and said, "I am not a precious, I am a Granger." It was so funny...and well, so precious!!Ram can throw a pretty mean spell!!

And of course, anxious on-looker. :)

A note to the world

Dear World,
Eric had a seminary fireside for parents tonight and each seminary council member was responsible for bringing one dessert for afterwards. Eric also wanted to bring dessert to make sure there was enough. I whipped up 3 different kind of cookies and arranged them delightfully on two platters. I was feeling so domestic. Before he left I said, "Let me take your picture," thinking I could preserve the evidence of my secret Betty Crocker. But when I held up the camera and (when at first it took a video...and then I switched the mode) took this picture, I no longer cared about the cookies or the arrangement or anything but the central focal point of this picture. Look at my handsome husband world. May it be known that I love this man. I consider myself the luckiest woman alive. My husband is everything I could have ever expected...and more. He is patient (like how he was a few minutes late but he calmly posed for this picture and didn't even roll his eyes). He is supportive (like how he comes to my Sunday School class every week even though he's heard (and taught!) these lessons before). He is consistent (like how when we tend the Metcalfe girls he applies the parenting techniques that are important to Dave and Kiersten in a way that shows steadiness to Avery and Emma). He works hard (like the way he was up at 6:30 this morning so he could speak at a baptism, then go to a farewell, then go to ward correlation, the have a presidency meeting, then do church with 6 kids and a wife teaching 2 lessons, then do a seminary fireside). He listens to the spirit (like the time I was feeling blue and he knew just what to say, how to say it and when to say it--when I asked him how, he said he was full of the Spirit). He is playful (like how we golfed in our backyard yesterday with 4 little girls and an onlooking Char!). He loves me (like how tonight when I made his preferred version of Hawaiian Haystacks he recognized it and sincerely thanked me).
And so world, though this is just the tiniest list of some great traits, I just wanted to throw it out there for you to see what a great man I have. Consider yourself proclaimed to :)
Love, Halcyon

She's skinny, but she's strong!

CharlyAnn Jill is so cute. But at church on Sunday when people were sharing their legitimate concern about her tiny-ness it made me feel sad and worried...but since this week she's started doing this I've decided she must be healthy if she's got all this muscle!!

Homecoming

The best part of homecoming this year was that instead of being in the parade, Eric got to watch the parade with us! The girls wanted to watch the parade by the pioneer house on Main Street...so, that is what we did!And of course it has been picture perfect weather this year up until the day of Homecoming. But really, rain makes everything more fun doesn't it?Too bad our camera has weird black splotches on it, cuz this is a cute picture!Unfortunately this is the happiest our team would look all day (Ok, actually when we went into half time up 12-7 we were happy...but when the game ended 18-37, not so happy)Eric has been doing sideline filming for the team this year, so here's his view of us in our little "tower". It's the perfect spot for me to have 4 kids at a football game by myself! Last night we got to have Merilee sit by us 2nd half though which was great.And here's Eric on the sidelines :)And while I was uploading these pictures I looked down and saw that CharlyAnn was sucking on both of her thumbs at the same time. Cute!

First Day of School: part 3

Brooke got to go back to Ms. Carma's today!! She was so excited and had a great day. And so telling of her personality, before we left she said, "Mom, do I get to meet new friends this year?" She sure got to! Look at those happy pre-schoolers :)

And in my opinion this was the very cutest one!!

Ram is 2!

It's been TWO years since our Ram pride first began...and it's only become more intense! We always like to put up some sort of birthday greeting for the kids the night before their birthdays so they can wake-up to a great day. I think we nailed Ram's dream bday greeting. When he woke up he was mostly in awe. He just stood in front of this for many minutes as we tried to convince him of his birthday situation. He caught on, and once he did--no sisters were gettin' near that thing!!

Lucky for Ram his birthday fell on a Sunday, so he got to look this dashing for his debut as a 2 year old.

You can't totally see, but Ram is flossing in this picture. He loves to floss.

We made Ram a basketball bday cake. Eric was trying to get him to look at the camera in this picture, but he was WAY too focused on that "bu-ball"!!

What a polite little cake tester.

Next came presents! A total of $8 was spent on his presents...but he got an awesome loot! May I highly recommend the dollar store, DI, and stashing away toys in your toy room that you can re-gift in a couple years time. :) It was pretty cute how he would open a present, then slide it off the edge of his tray (where he normally slides his dinner plate to when he is finished) and then reach right for the next one...pic below, set aside balls, eye on the next prize...

Viana and Brooke eagerly looked on. They had split up the pile of presents between themselves to bequeath to Ram, while deciding they would both hand him the big one.Here he is opening the big one. I mostly wanted to point out the smudge of orange frosting on his right forearm that he picked up during taste-testing.

And boy was he happy with the big one. It's a double racer car track--Toy Story style. I would just like to thank the donater of this toy to DI. We happened to be dropping off some stuff when I saw this in the just-donated pile. I had been wanting to get Ram this same toy (but Cars2 version) but it was stinkin' $25 bucks! So forget it! (Love you Ram!) So when this was just perched on the pile at DI I was awe-struck. (Heavenly Father loves you Ram!) We asked the manager if we could just buy it then, but he said it had to go through the process--which should be completed Saturday afternoon. 3 trips to DI later and with much persistence we got it! And well worth it!! Ram spent 20 straight minutes on this thing.This is what a basketball looks like post-taste-testing :)

And apparently Ram wasn't the only taster :)

Ram is such a great little guy. We love him so much. He brings so much to our family. He is all boy and we love that. He is so sweet and such a good little helper. Most of all he love love loves his sisters and especially dotes on CharlyAnn. Happy birthday little man, we sure love you!

The First Day of School: Part 2

Today is Eric's first day of school for his fall semester at USU. He is one-third of the way through his master's program and so far he has a 4.0! I am so proud of him. The great thing is, his classes are really interesting and we're both learning and applying what he's learned to work and life! Who knew education was so interesting?!
In other news, were you wondering how Viana liked Kindergarten?

I wondered to as she walked toward me at our designated meeting spot (I like all the anxious and waiting mothers in this picture).

But then when I saw this smile, I knew it was a great day to be Viana!! She absolutely loved it!! And she loves her teacher ("Mom, I love Mrs. Bastian." "Good Viana" "No, I mean I really, really love her!")
Ram was over playing at the playground when he saw that Viana has found us, he ran over shouting, "Nana! Nana!" and gave her a hug. I tried to catch the cute moment while Viana happily detailed her first day for me.It is very fun, and believe you me, Brooke can not wait until "The First Day of School: Part 3" to come!! Only about 10 times today I had to remind her when Tuesday came ("First comes tomorrow, then Saturday, then Ram's birthday, then Monday when Daddy doesn't have to work and THEN you get to go to preschool.") It's very interesting to see the dynamic changes in our family with the new school year. Brooke misses Viana while she is away. And on Tues and Thur when Brooke has preschool they won't see each other from 9:30-3 since their classes overlap time! Crazy to see my babies grow up!!!