I haven't posted in a very long time, but I had some strong feelings this morning and I needed to share.
Our Boy Scouts put flags out on all the Patriotic holidays for a fundraiser.  It is wonderful to see them waving in the breeze and feel the patriotism it brings out in each person that sees them.

     As a general rule, we don't work for gain on Sunday, the Sabbath day.  This year our Bishop asked the boys to put the flags out today, 9/11.  At first I was a little shocked by this request, but the more I thought about it the more I felt honored to be able to help.  My son's scout master said he considered it more of a service than a fundraiser and I agreed.

     As we went out on this beautiful morning my mind was full of images from 9/11 and all the horror, and bravery that encompassed that day.  With tears in my eyes "God Bless America" came on the radio as I helped my son post each flag.  I was overwhelmed with love for my country, those that lost loved ones that day, and all those who valiantly serve our country each and every day.   I am so grateful for their sacrifice on my behalf.

   
    At almost the last house at which we posted a flag, a gentleman stuck his head out the window and thanked us for coming.  He said he wasn't sure we were going to do them today, and was glad we did.  He paused for a moment and then said, "I knew one of the firemen killed that day.  I went to high school with him."  At that moment I knew we were exactly where we should have been doing exactly what we should have been doing.  All though this service was infinitely smaller than many perform daily, for one person at least, it meant a whole lot. 

   

An Incredible Day

This past Sunday was one of the best nights of my life. I had almost my entire family and many close friends at the church to witness two special events.

Mr. T was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. And Jman was ordained to the office of a Deacon. I don't talk about my religion much on this blog, but it is a very important part of my life. I am very grateful for the gospel and that I have a worthy husband who can perform these important ordinances for my children. Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and I try to live my life worthy to return to live with him. My heart is full of love and gratitude for everyone who had a part in making this a night I will remember for the rest of my life.

The Big Day

My Boys

Pictures I love

My kids

After much stress I'm really happy about how the pictures turned out. Here are some of them.

Getting ready for pictures

My kids got their pictures taken yesterday and today. It took me all week! Literally all week! Trying to decide what to have them wear was a joke! I looked and looked and finally decided that navy blue and white would be the best option. So I bought clothes for everyone, only to get them home and found that half of them didn't fit and that now that we have new carpet and some redecorating, blue and white no longer work in my living room.

So on Tuesday I started over. Taking clothes back and finding a whole new color scheme. This time I picked tan/brown and white. Thought I had everyone's outfits done, and again, one didn't fit and Boo just flat refused to wear hers. Back again to the stores...

Anyway, you get the idea. It has been a long week. Thursday finally came and we headed to Target. I'm happy with yesterday's pictures and when I'm not so tired I'll post some, but I'm too exhausted to figure out how to do it today.

Then back to Target today for the second photo shoot. Jman desperately wanted his hair long in his pictures, but I wanted it short for his "Ordination" pictures. The compromise, was long hair the first day, short hair the next. Today was Mr. T and Jman in their suits and ties. Very cute, again I'll post pictures soon.

Am I the only one that has this many problems? It shouldn't take an entire week to get your kids pictures taken should it?

Feeling Grateful

I ran (well slowly jogged) outside yesterday. It was the first time this year and if felt SOOOOOO good. There is just something about jogging in the open air that just makes me happy.

As I was jogging along I just couldn't help but think about how truly blessed I am. I have a wonderful husband that I love dearly. I used to just grimace when I'd hear people talk about how they love their husbands more now than they did when they got married, but I'm starting to understand, because I really do. He is such a good man and tries so hard to make me happy and our lives better.

Jman is so full of life! He has the lead in the school play. He is Tom in "School House Rock Jr." He has been playing basketball and had a lot of fun, his team won almost all their games this year. Soccer started again last weekend which means more hours than I care to count spent at practice, training and games. He brings me a lot of stress, but he also brings so much laughter and fun into all of our lives.

Mr. T is such a smart and sensitive soul. He gets everything you teach him the first time and when I was in his class the other day he was telling his teacher an easier way to do the math problem she was doing and he was right. (I'm not sure how much the teacher liked it.) He is also in the school play and loving it. He just played his last basketball game and scored 4 times! He touches my heart by the kind things he says and does all the time.

Boo is still so full of life I can't believe it. I've already told of her antics, but she is such a great big sister. She plays with Roo all the time and always wants to sit by her. She is in preschool and loves every minute of it. I asked her yesterday if she just wanted to stay home with me for a day and she just smiled and said she wanted to go to school.

Roo just turned two and has all the tantrums that come with the age. She was almost completely potty trained before she turned 2, but for some reason she has had a set back the last few days. She is such a sweet little thing and wants to snuggle with me every night until she falls asleep. Having her run to the stairs and yell "Mommy" when I've been gone is a truly wonderful feeling.

Everyone is healthy, and doing well. Who knows what the future will bring but, for today, life is good.

Boo and gymnastics

Okay, after reading that last post, I thought I'd better tell some fun things that Boo has done. Note to reader, there will be much bragging in this post so feel free to stop reading at any time.

Boo is really talented when it comes to tumbling. (Mom talking of course.) She took tumbling classes through our city rec. department for a couple of months. She started in the 3 and 4 year old class. I realized this might be a problem when several kids in the class couldn't do a forward role, and one was crying because she had to take her socks off. Boo had just about mastered her cartwheels.

I wanted to move her up to the 5-7 year class and the teacher said okay, but thought she'd still be the best in her class. I think it really frustrated the other kids in the class when Boo would win every contest the teacher had.

In January I decided maybe it was time to try gymnastics. I dreaded moving from paying $30.00 a month to the $45.00 they charged, but decided it was worth it.

After the first week Boo was right on track with what all the other kids were doing, even though they'd been going since September. After the second week of classes her coach pulled me aside and said she wanted to put Boo on her pre-competition team. This would involve practices two nights a week from 4:00 until 6:00p.m and would cost $85.00 per month. Wow!

I was floored! I'd always thought she was good, but I'd also thought I was just a proud mother. Having the head of a big gymnastics club tell you that was very flattering. In the back of my head I'm thinking $85.00 a month for my FOUR year old!?! I really want to encourage her and I'd love to see how far she can go, but I was really stressing over it.

Finally I went to Boo and said, "Boo, which do you like better preschool or gymnastics?"
"Preschool!"
"Which do you like better, gymnastics or swimming lessons?"
"Swimming lessons!"
"Which do you like better, dance class or gymnastics?"
"Dance class!"

Well we decided that she can stay in the class she's in for now, and we will see how it goes. It's still fun to know that she really is as good as I thought she was.

Boo...need I say more?

When I first started this blog one of the reasons I did was to share all of the crazy antics of my Darling Boo. Well, just a week or so ago I thought to myself, "Boo has finally started out growing all of her...what shall I call it creativity?" Wrong thing to think, SERIOUSLY, wrong thing to think.

Let me see if I can describe just a few of the wonders of the last few days. First I walked into the bathroom to find both girls on the floor having a wonderful time. Surrounding them on the floor were all of their bows, headbands clips, brushes, combs etc., and all of MY picks, clips, rubber bands, combs, etc. Now this might not be too crazy but add to that two brand new boxes of tampons and a full bag of pads. All mixed together covering the entire bathroom floor. (She had to clean it up, and when I came to check on her she was going through each tampon and carefully pushing them out of their holders.)

The next day I realized she had been quiet much too long and went to see what she was up to. Let's just say green magic marker. EVERYWHERE!!! On her new kitchen, her drawers, her books, her brand new book, Roo, herself, and as I walked in she slammed shut her library book that she had colored the first half of with that marker. I about died!!! She is four and a half!!!

So she got to get her allowance and we headed to the library so she could pay for her destroyed book. I thought this would really teach her a lesson, she couldn't buy the new barbie she wanted because she had to pay for a ruined book. Well, that was my thought. The cute lady at the counter saw how old the book was, noted that it had been checked over 150 times and charged her a dollar. ONE LOUSY DOLLAR! Not only that but Boo paid her with a five dollar bill so she got four ones back. She thought she came out ahead!

We are getting new carpet this week so I've spent obviously too much time cleaning and packing things and Boo has found this a fabulous time to just make one mess after another. Her room hasn't stayed clean for more than 2 minutes at a time. Her most recent project involved a whole lot of water and a flooded bathroom. While I was packing boxes she was in the bathroom doing who knows what. I just know there was water everywhere. It leaked into the drawers, the cupboard under the counter all over the floor and even into the hall. I was so angry I finally just lost it. Everything from the last few days came screaming back and I totally lost it.

When I was putting the girls to bed last night I was talking to Boo about trying not to make any more messes. Poor little Roo was sitting there by us and said, "No more water!" while shaking her head back and forth very adamantly . I guess I might have over reacted just a little bit.

Anyway, if any friends or relatives would like to take her for the next few days, weeks, years... she's up for grabs.

What do you do in your sleep?

For years I was plagued with nightmares. I'd dream that there was something in my bed (snakes, spiders, you name it.) My poor husband would get so frustrated because I'd be so upset and promise him that THIS time there really was something in our bed. So he'd throw down the covers show me that there was nothing there and then try to go back to sleep. This was usually with me standing at the door ready to make a break for it.

Luckily they've pretty much stopped. So imagine my surprise when I was reading really late a night or two ago and out of the blue Nate sat up and started pounding the middle of the bed as hard as he could. I asked him what was wrong, but he just looked at me and said "Hello," and laid back down and went to sleep.

I asked him the next day if he remembered his dream and I just had to laugh when he told me there were spiders in our bed.

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick post to wish everyone the very merriest of Christmases. One of the girls in my Young Women's class told us the best idea. Her home teacher had told her and she told us that every time we heard someone saying "Merry Christmas" this year, we are to try and think about Jesus Christ. I thought it was a wonderful idea. So to all of you I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Surprise!

Have you ever had a week where you literally just run from one place to another all day long? That would have been my week. I think on Friday and Saturday I was home for probably a total of 2/3 hours both days combined except for when I was asleep.

While I was gone, my children were home alone for a good chunk of this time so imagine the state of my house. Oh, and add into that the fact that I have Christmas decorations boxes out (I decorated my tree at 6:30 Sunday morning,) the kids slept in the living room the night before, and we had orange rolls (Rhodes dough) for breakfast. We had stake conference at 10:00 a.m. and my wonderful husband was at the church for meetings most of the morning so absolutely none of this was cleaned up before we left for church.

My sister and family were coming for dinner that night so I new I had a big job ahead of me. After conference I started pulling out leftovers for lunch and gearing up for the cleaning.

Why, you might ask am I sharing all this terribly exciting information with you? Imagine my surprise when as I'm pulling out the leftovers my lovely, always with a perfectly clean house, mother-in-law shows up for Sunday dinner. I about died right there on the spot!

I guess Nate invited her on Monday and then promptly forgot all about it and never mentioned a word of it to me. If the earth could have opened up and swallowed me right then and there I would have been a happy camper.

I spent the next half hour desperately trying to pick things up while I'm scanning my brain for anything I can fix instantly for lunch that will not look like leftovers and trying to entertain Marilyn at the same time. She was very gracious and just laughed and said not to worry as I begged her to understand why I was in such a state of chaos.

We ended up having grilled chicken salad with a yummy loaf of whole grain rye bread that I had bought on a whim. My sister said she'd bring a salad for dinner, so luckily I had all the things I needed for a salad on hand. We had fresh baked cookies for dessert. THANK YOU Krissi for the idea to share cookie dough at our last book club. Over all, the meal turned out okay, not what you'd expect for a Sunday dinner, but I did the best I could.

Nate always tells me that we should always have the house cleaned in case someone stops by. I guess he was right.

Good news and Bad news...

The good news is that my 21 month baby is ALMOST potty trained!!! I'm pretty excited about it. Never have any of my other kids been remotely interested at this age, and she is doing amazingly well.

The bad news is that my 21 month old baby is ALMOST potty trained!!! Which means that she thinks she can do it all by herself. Went to get in the shower the other day and picked up a cute little snowman off the floor and found it covered in poo. Some how she managed to go to the bathroom, wipe herself and leave a little treat on the floor. I never even knew she had gone. As one adventure ends another one is always around the corner.

Pie thief

Today I had to make a pie for our Mutual activity. We made Thanksgiving dinner for the singles in our ward. I debated about making one or two pies. I decided my family would appreciate a pie so I made two. One looked beautiful, the other had some funny bubbles on it, so you know which one was for my family. Anyway, as I was talking on the phone as it was time to walk out of the house imagine my surprise to find my beautiful pie full of lovely little finger swirls through the entire thing! The lady on the phone heard my gasp and wondered what could possibly be wrong. I told her and she really felt sorry for me.

I guess it was a blessing for my children that I was on the phone when I saw it because I couldn't completely lose it, but I was so mad! Oh well, what are a few bubbles among friends right?

I wanted to take a picture, but I was all ready running late because of the phone call and I didn't have time. Just imagine beautiful spirals from the crust to the very center.

Thanksgiving

I know it has been months since I last posted. Not sure why, just found other silly things to fill my time like facebook. I've decided to try and break that addiction and move back to blogging a little more.

So today I'm sharing my stress about Thanksgiving. As you all know, I lost my mom many years ago and with that loss brought a million other losses. Having Thanksgiving dinner at her house is one of them.

So now Thanksgiving dinner is at my house. While I'm excited for the challenge and excitement of having family at my house, it stresses me right out! Two years ago we had it here, but my chef of a brother was there to help me prepare the whole event. This year he will be here, but only in time for dinner. (He has to work a graveyard shift the day before and the day after.) So the main event falls mostly on my shoulders.

I have so many things to be grateful for; my family, home, the gospel, good friends, plenty to eat, chocolate, etc..., I really don't have anything to complain about. I just miss those awesome trips of my youth to Idaho for an incredible Thanksgiving weekend. The fact that I wasn't responsible for anything and just got to enjoy it all I'm just starting to fully appreciate. It makes me incredibly grateful to everything so many people did to make it wonderful for the rest of us.

So, just wanted to start my Thanksgiving preparations by saying thank you to everyone who has helped make my life wonderful, either in the past, the present, or the future.

What do YOU do with the toothpaste you get from the dentist?

Boo has been looking forward to going to the dentist since we left the last time. I get asked several times a month when we are going to the dentist next. She loves it! She asks so often that I've often threatened that she won't be able to go next time if she doesn't quit asking. I've decided they just do their jobs too well. They have to start being mean or something.

Anyway, when we got home from the dentist with their fun little bag of goodies I was changing laundry and picking up when Boo came to me with bright blue hands. I just rolled my eyes and asked what it was this time. Imagine my joy when I found toothpaste all over her...
all over the counter and sink, (you can't see all of it from this picture)


all over the floor,all over Roo,
(side bar, nice scar to the fore head huh? She fell down a stair at the church and landed on her head.)on the wall, and later I found it all over my sheets as well. I love my daughter, I love my daughter.

Another fun day in July!

If you are ever looking for a great way to spend a couple of hours, and you can go for free or have discounted tickets (love my Tracy Aviary pass!) I strongly recommend the Natural History Museum. There are lots of fun things to do. Like seeing the affects of flood water,
digging for dinosaur bones,
more bone digging,
checking out the great frog exhibit,
posing for fun photos, checking out the live bugs, doing puzzles, looking at dinosaurs, or a variety of other fun things. We go every summer and everyone from youngest to oldest have fun.
When we came out of the museum imagine our surprise when we found it pouring rain! It was blue skies and sunshine when we went in. Our plans to go to the zoo were quickly changed and we went to the Cole's house to watch a movie instead. We couldn't go home because we had plans to go to my brother's house in Salt Lake for the evening.
Jman's soccer coach has encouraged the boys to watch professional soccer games. Since we don't have cable Uncle Cliff recorded the championship game between U.S.A. and Brazil. We had peanuts, pizza, and soda and watched it at their house. Thanks guys! We had a great time!

Cliff and Ray decided they needed something for the girls to do when they came to their house. I think they hit the jackpot! Boo had a blast!

Willard Bay

Our cousins invited us to come and play with them at Willard Bay. They just got wave runners and they are a ton of fun. The day started out with a few rough patches, but thanks to the kindness of an old friend we still had two wave runners and lots of fun. My kids can't wait to go again.

l