Every Fiber of My Being...

Cadence said the breakfast prayer this morning, as she often does.  This is how the last half went:
"..and thank you for making this beautiful world for us, we were sooo excited when you made this world for us.  And I know that Jesus is a God of Miracles.  In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Why yes, He is, Cadence.

Does that not look just like Cadence?  This is a painting by an LDS artist, Jay Bryant Ward.  I hope I'm not breaking any rules by putting it on my blog.  I thought it was appropriate for this particular post. 

Seriously, just like her.

I've got a thing for my hair stylist...

Isn't he a hunk?

I was thrilled when, not knowing I was taking the picture, Spencer provided me with this caption for the pic:

"So Mard, if the Jonas Brothers walked past you, like in a mall or something, would you recognize them?"

OMJ!! (Oh My Jonas--look it up on urban dictionary.  It's there.)

A few things you may or may not know about me:  I've got a hair thing.  I really really need my hair to be a fun color, a cute style, and I can't stand to get the same hair cut twice in a row. Or the thought of that, anyway, since I don't know that I've ever actually done it.  Ironically, i also wear a ponytail approx. 90% of the time.

I used to change my hair color about every two to three months, although I pretty much always had some red in it.

Spencer has been my colorist for 5 years.  He has supported me in my hair-scapades (except that one time it was like PUUUURPLE),  and he is even the one that picked the color that I loved so much that I actually stuck with it (Intense Red Copper).

But letting him cut my hair was a first. 

Here's the finished product:

Not bad, right?  He did my bangs, too.  If you are thinking he messed up because they are uneven and jaggedy, that is exactly how I wanted them (seriously).

The Birthday Blogs: The First Installment--Cadence

Birthday season is almost over around here, and my traditional (2nd annual) birthday blogs haven't written themselves, so a month later, here I go:

Dear Cadence,

Pier 39 in San Francisco a few days before your birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  A month ago today you turned 4--an age you looked forward to for months!  We celebrated your birthday in California, in the very same area of the country where you were born.  We were lucky enough to be at Merica and Damian's house.  You had birthday pancakes, which you hardly ate, and then you got to pick out your own party dress--a task you took very seriously! 

We had a lunch party with Merica and girls at Sweet Tomatoes, one of our favorite places to meet up with them back when we lived in Walnut Creek.  You were excited but didn't eat much, and felt feverish and achey.  You poor thing, you tried so hard to be excited and grateful, but you just didn't feel like yourself!

That night we had a party with many of our friends from our ward in Walnut Creek, at the very same park where we celebrated your second birthday: Walden park.  There were so many wonderful friends that came to wish you happy birthday, such as Ambyr and McKenna and Brady (Hawks), Rebecca Joy (Palmer), Alana (Mediana), Malachi and baby sister (Price), SaraJane and Brady (Houghton), Emma, JR, Abby and another sister of theirs (Carlson), Wes and Linda Carlson (whom we lived with for a few months when you were little), Johnny and Morgan Holbrook, and a few others that I probably would remember if my brain were supplied with a little more sleep and a little less sugar.  We were so happy to see all those friends, although you were a little overwhelmed with all the adults who seemed to know who you were.

Let me tell you a little about 4-year-old you:

You are the mother hen.  You absolutely must be involved in caring for your younger sisters.  You shower (smother?) little Layla with kisses and you keep a close eye on Campbell, making sure she doesn't get into any trouble.  You have so much love, and so much energy, that sometimes (most of the time) that turns into squeezing and kissing a little too hard. 

Like you've always been, you are incredibly socially aware.  You hear every conversation.  You tell me everything.  You talk your way through life, literally!  As your naps are becoming a part of your past, and quiet times replace them, we've had some very frustrating times, because you just want to talk to me the whole time, and I just want you to try to spend some time quietly working and not talking...which hasn't happened yet...

You consider yourself one of the adults.  I'm a little nervous about sending you to preschool for the first time, since you like to be the one giving instructions, and not following them!  But you can't wait for school and I know that you love learning, so you will really enjoy it.

Your heart is huge.  In spite of your stubbornness and need to argue with most everythign you are told, you still like to take a quiet moment a few times a day to tell me, "I love you mommy," or "Mom, you melt my heart", or (my personal favorite) "Mom, I love you so much, I'm never gonna not obey you!" The best part about these sweet nothings is the way your little hand wraps around mine, your little face touching my cheek, your eyes get almost glazed over as you try to be dramatic in your expressions of love.  You do this to Daddy, too, and you can be sure that is the highlight of his days.

You are still a party girl!  You love to party.  You cannot be stopped.  If there is a party somewhere, you will not rest until we get there.  In fact, at this very moment you are snapping a party hat on my head while I tell you to do your coloring and leave me alone! 

You want to know everything.  Where is that neighbor going?  Why are the tomatoes green?  Where do the birds go?  Questions questions all day long!  And you remember the answers.  The world is slowly beginning to make sense and you are actively putting all the little pieces of the puzzle together each day.

You are an artist!  Your pictures have a great deal of detail and thought.  You use your colors brilliantly.  I never want to get rid of your artwork, it's always so beautiful to me!  You especially love to color rainbows, and always in the correct order of colors.

You love to dance.  Still.  You still got the moves.  You are especially interested in ballet right now and love to get up on your toes and twirl.

You play dress ups almost every day, and dancing comes along with it!

Since you are sitting right next to me, why don't I ask you a few questions about yourself:

Cadence, if you could tell yourself something when you get to be a big girl, like Aunt Mikee, what would you say?

"I actually dreamed about getting swallowed by a whale.  I made the whale throw up and it threw up me.  That was like a scary cloud storm."

What's your favorite color?   I don't know!  I like all the colors that are on the party hat, mom."

Favorite animal? All of them in the zoo, every one; every one in the zoo, like all of them.

Movie?  Um, pinoch...um, every movie that we have that we didn't have before, like Princess and the Frog.  And Rapunzel.  Both those movies are so good that I want them forever!  But I don't have princess and the frog.

Treat?  Candy Bar.  Peppermint, the kind that Santa Clause brings, the one that's a candy cane.

Thing to do?  Swing!

Best friend?  uh... Laira  (Claire, new neighbor who is 11), maybe when I'm Laira's age, I'll be able to play with her.  Then she'll be able to be my friend!  When am I gonna be her age?

What do you miss about Chicago?  My friends, Autumn (actually one of her new friends here in AR), Jacob, and everyone who came to my school: Simon, James, Sarah, Maxwell.

Did we have a fun summer?  Yes!

What did we do? Swaim! giggles.  Oooh, snainners!  

Okay, interview is over--I can tell you are done!

You are an incredibly capable, loving, and energetic girl, and as your parents, we are having so much fun participating with you as you grow up.  We have no greater joy than to teach you and take you places to have new experiences.  We love to see your face light up and that smile spread across it.  You bring a special zest for life into our family. 

We love you we love you we love you.  I love you.

Love,

Mom.

It's Kinda Nice...

..here in our new neck of the woods.  In fact, so far, we've found very little to complain about.  Our neighbors have been very neighborly.  Our home is perfect for our needs--we love it! And they don't call this the Natural State for nothin'.  You know, I love NYC.  I love love love Chicago.  I've sort of figured myself for a big-city kinda girl lately.  But I gotta say, things are a little slower paced here, and I like it.  That's not to say that the people aren't sharp.  And interesting.  There's still plenty of that.

We have a backyard!!!  There's no swingset or anything back there yet, and it's intensely hot all the time just now, but we are still happy about the backyard!  Here are Layla and Campbell enjoying the morning shade on the patio.

For Campbell's birthday (a post in it's own right), we took a break from unpacking and went to Beaver Lake, about 20 min. away, for a little swim (such perfectly room-temperature water!) and cookout.

We spent another morning visiting this beautiful chapel in the woods and then hiking a little nature trail along Tanyard Creek, both about 15 minutes from our house.  We had a great time!

Spencer and I used to sort of joke that the only kind of armadillo is a dead one, since we had seen a million of them on the road in TX, but never a live one.  Now that has all changed!  Behold, the elusive armadillo!

Lessons for the first-time home owners:  if you are going to install your washer/dryer by yourself, just remember that where there is a hose going out of the wall, there is usually a hose that should be plugged back into the wall.  If that one gets ignored, all that water that your washer is done with pours out onto the floor.  And then seeps through to the closet.  And the bedroom. 

But I have to admit that even though our brand new shop vac is like pocket-size, that, of all the things, is what really makes me feel like a homeowner. 

And the end of the story is that I think we saved the carpet.  And possibly the padding.  But that is all still tbd.

Oh, and to answer some questions:

-Here's the basic itinerary for our summer vacation: 

Chicago-Vegas (Just the airport)-St. George-Sundance-Salem-La Canada, California (Near L.A.)-San Diego-La Canada-Orinda (SF Bay Area)-Yosemite-La Canada-Arkansas

-Campbell had to wear her cast for one month, it got removed on Monday.

-Spencer started work on Monday, it's going pretty well, although he's mostly just been going through orientation, signing up for insurance policies and all that stuff, but it seems that he is quite excited about it all.  And that is probably the last time I can say much about his employment on this blog, you know how that goes.

We miss all our wonderful Chicago friends a lot, and think about you all often.  We were really happy to see some of them in Utah.  We were also happy to see some of our CA friends while there.  We also miss all our family but were so glad to see so many of them this summer!

I have a hundred thousand words to say...

And a picture is worth a thousand a piece, right?  Cause I've just downloaded over 600 pictures from our summer vacation-cation-cation-cation.... We had a wonderful time and are sooo greatful to all who gave us beds to sleep on and love and food, etc.  It was exhausting but how grateful we are that our kids were able to build their relationships with so many of our family members!  Each part of our trip was so wonderful in it's own right and I could write a blog entry on each segment, alas, I'm SOOOOOOOOOO TIRED!!!  And for some reason no matter what my kids MUST wake me when I'm sleeping...  Anyway, I've got little brainpower and or time, so I've got to just lay it all out there.

After we moved out of our Chicago apartment, we flew straight to Las Vegas for Grandpa Clark's funeral in St. George. 

We got to spend the weekend at the Cabin near Sundance with Clives and some Clarks, too.  Cadence loves it there.

It's the only real way to enjoy nature--nude:

Cadence with Ruby at the burial in SLC

Cadence and Tyler got to work at the cabin staining the new table.

Since we were in Utah and had time to spare, we got to stay for a week with my family, where a happenstance pre-reunion was happening!  (all but Damian)  This is G and G Orton with all their grandchildren (to date).

There was perfect swimming weather, but every one of us got sick with some symptom or another, so we opted for the backyard pool.

As per (a very loved) tradition, Mignon and Mel took us to the Little Gym!

We had a lot of fun in Utah, and then we hopped in the car, watched Barbie/Nutcracker and Barbie/Swan Lake 14 kajillion times each, and drove to La Canada, to be with Gramps and Mamaw Clive. 

Mamaw had a list of fun things to do, so one day we went to a real farm!

Oh, by the way, Campbell broke her leg.

It happened a couple of days after arriving in So Cal, trampoline.  More details in another post.

John and I went and ate these burritos that were the size of newborns.  I thought I could finish.....

Mamaw and Gramps took us on a trip to San Diego (where it was COLD).

San Diego Zoo

Lego Land

After a week with the Clives, we jumped back into the car for more Barbie movies and made our way up to the Bay Area for the official Orton Family Reunion at Merica and Damian's new resort...uh, home.

Merica and Damian were kind enough to let us stay an extra 5 days while we awaited the Clive/Clark family reunion in Yosemite.   We loved getting to spend a little extra time with them.  Spencer took me to see Wicked in SF.  I loved it.  loved it.

Yosemite was so beautiful!  I can't believe that we'd never been there before.  I was really worn out and the kids were too, so I wasn't really looking forward to it at that point, but man, I am soo glad that we went!  It was great.

After Yosemite, we got to spend one more special day with Mamaw and Gramps, which they spent making our kids feel special.  They took the kids to see Toy Story 3 in the theater, then we all went to Chuck E Cheeses, where some pretty exciting presents were opened:

Oh, what fun!!!  And now we are here in Arkansas, we love our house, our neighbors are sooo great (uh, neighbor Valerie planted a garden for us--amazing, no?), and we are healthy and well.  More to come on the girls'birthdays, the new house, etc!