it was a green day

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Isn’t it amazing what a mom can do … as in my mom. She came down to play with the kids and help out yesterday morning. She sure brightened our life. The kids had so much fun with her. Her support and love helped raise my ability and attitude about doing good things with my tots.

We headed to Thanksgiving Point Gardens after school. We walked for hours enjoying the green grass and tulips. Tru enjoyed finding rocks to throw in the water. He was either holding a handful of rocks or a stick. He doddled so, but quite enjoyed himself.

One of my favorite parts was at the very end. We were so very weary. We saw the shortcut to walk up the huge hill. Max was beat. I held his hand and said in between huffing and puffing. “You…can…do…it!” Then Max said with deep breathing with every step uphill, “We…can…do…hard…things.” Once he saw the kids rolling down the hill, he found some energy and ran up to join them. It was cute.

They have a new section of the garden with large statues of Jesus. Right now most are miniatures until they get the large ones. I loved these, especially Christ Gathering chicks & “The better Part”.

A bit of our weekend

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On Friday I decided to be really brave & take the 3 littles to Thanksgiving Point to cash in on our free membership we won. We quickly zipped through the Dinosaur Museum. Max and Tru were scared of the dinosaurs. But they did great & obeyed quite well. Eliza fell asleep in the Ergo Carrier (love it, by the way!).

Then after the school tots got home I decided to be really brave & try to walk/ride bikes to the Pettit’s across the neighborhood. It took us 20 minutes with Max and Tru doddling when it was their turn to walk. Zuzu loved the stroller and quietly drank her bottle. We ended up having Jimmy come pick us up. Wimps. I could tell I was already getting sunburned though. Abe & Hannah rode their bikes home and loved the freedom of being on their own.

Saturday – fence day. Aeration day. Sunburn day. Windy day. Conference day!

WE CAN BE a Read-a-loud Family

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My friend Julie recently shared about their experience reading a book out loud as a family. I’ve been thinking about this.

I always thought I’d read and read and read to my kids. But I have not been the best at this… at all, especially in the past few years. Oh – we have oodles of books. I love books. The kids read through them… or Hannah reads to Max… but oops… I need to improve.

Here are a few awful excuses that have prevailed:

1. I have the hardest time staying awake. I have this awful yawning thing that happens and I feel like I can’t get through a sentence without yawwwwwwwning. Is my brain sucking all the oxygen out of my body to be able to function … and there is none left for breathing? ha-ha.

2. Have you ever tried to read to more than 1 child at a time. Usually they kick each other. Or they all want to sit on Mom’s lap. Or the baby eats the book. Or the 2-year-old insists on turning pages and skips a few or 10.

No longer should I let these excuses keep me from doing something that is important to me.

I decided that we can be a read-out-loud family.
We can do hard things. ha-ha.

We read scriptures, don’t we. Yes, usually someone is doing a head stand or punching someone, but we make it work and we occasionally hear a word or two… and have a great conversation about what’s going on.

This is getting long… oops. Anyhoo… so my brain has been spinning with fun summer plans for the tots. Reading out loud is one of those fantastic ideas (that I hope turns out to really be a fantastic idea… as most of mine don’t). I want my kids to enjoy the adventures and imagination that comes with reading.

So – what should we read? I want to read some entertaining classics. I’m thinkin’ the kids will read the new modern books on their own? Or not? But why not try and sneak some interesting older stories in there. These are a few I’m interested in either reading together or checking out for the older tots. I haven’t read them all so perhaps some would be too boring… eh?

A few I totally loved when I was little… Summer of the Monkeys, The Egypt Game, The Great Brain Series, Little House Series.  There are oodles of other old-fashioned girlie books I loved, but I didn’t think Abe would go for any of those.  I slipped Sarah, Plain and Tall in there because Hannah recently read that series and enjoyed it.

If anyone happens to read this and has any ideas for great read-a-loud books for kids under 10, I’d love to hear your ideas. I get so nervous about modern adventure tween books because I haven’t read many… Fablehaven and the like? Please share. Gracias.

Proclamation – Family – Temple

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You know when you have a glorious idea for family home evening and you plan it for weeks… and then when you actually have it, it’s not quite like you envisioned. Yes. This happens. It happened on Monday. But – ya know – despite its imperfections, it’s still a fun memory for me. I hope my kids will remember it too. There was craziness and hitting (from the littles) and arguing (who got more turns putting on stickers … and who got to hold pictures) … but the Spirit was there as much as possible and so hopefully the kids learned something.

The Message: Temples & Families can be Together Forever

The Activity: Pin a few more stickers on temples in the United States… we’re about half-way done.

The Goal for 2012: Earn as many pennies as we can for the ‘Temple Building Fund’. The kids loved running all over the house trying to find all the lost stashes of coins. They’ve even contributed a few of their own $$ which is a huge sacrifice because they hardly ever have $$. (I loved Jimmy’s idea to add these coins to our Counting Money Jar and each year we’ll contribute to a different church fund).

And then… today I finally got some new pictures on the wall. I think the last time I changed the pictures in the frames in the stairway was in Arizona… like 6 years ago. Nice! And in our bedroom we had those 2 frames with all the models staring at us for like 2 years (sideways no-less). Now we have our children smiling back at us. It’s nice. My favorite wall is the play room with the proclamation and family pictures. I so don’t know how to arrange a cool collage like that but since it is lined up on the top and some of the sides, I guess we’ll keep it.

Nothing in our home is fancy. I’ve come to grips that I have no style or trendiness in me. The breakables can’t even be out right now in this stage. But I hope my kids will have good memories of this home and that what is on the walls will remind them that our goal is ETERNAL LIFE … to be together as a family in the Celestial Kingdom.

Our weekend.

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This is not nearly as exciting to others, but little Eliza finally showed her tooth… and it happened to be right when I was taking a picture. See that wee little tooth on the bottom right. Are you dying about the bow? Ok – sorry ’bout that ‘Liza. I gave it a try, but it’s a bit thick. We’ll try again some other day.

Our weekend.

Hannah almost made a basket in her game on Saturday. Jimmy did laundry on Saturday… while I was at the funeral.

Our R.S. was in charge of the funeral luncheon. It gets tricky when you think 30 people will be there… 60 show up to eat… and some of the food never showed. What I loved was that the sisters who came to help just worked and worked and washed those dishes. We tidied much faster than we anticipated. Sunday morning my feet were swollen from standing so much. We learned a lot and will do things differently next time (I hope there isn’t a next time… as in – a funeral in our ward).

Sunday. Early Morn Meetings. Missed my ‘Liza. So glad to see the barnlings arrive with Jimmy. Hannah knelt down on the floor and cried into my lap. She didn’t have the best morn. Abe hurt her feelings… Well, it seems everyone hurt her feelings. She is a girlie. Tru yelled, “Mommy! Hi Mom…” right in the middle of the opening prayer. Awe-some.

Had a nice R.S. Lesson on Prayer. I loved this quote shared by our teacher, our 1st Counselor. (made by Ryan)

This week I have been thinking about the Spirit of Revelation… Inspiration from the Holy Ghost. I realized that the Holy Ghost speaks way more often than I’m listening. I’ve been trying to “listen to the still small voice… listen… listen.” It’s really interesting how things turn out when you follow-through on a thought. I need to do that more often.

Visited Wendi & Zachariah up at Primary Children’s. He’s a cute little fellow. I can’t believe Eliza was once that small… 7 lbs. She’s such a chub now. We sure hope the best for Zach & that he’ll be able to come home soon – all healthy and well.

Had a nice visit with mom and dad. I feel like I haven’t seen them in forever. And when I do see them, we are wrangling tots. It was nice and quiet and calm at their house. I decided I needed to stay there for 24 hours to rest up for my life. But alas… I came home to my love Jimmy who had been parenting the tots all day while I was out and about. He is very supportive of me when I have to be gone to so many meetings for my calling. I hope I can be that supportive of him someday when he is gone for many moons to many meetings.

Onto Monday… and the rest of the week.

2011 Year in Review – Photo Style

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Lots of little pictures… but it was so fun to look through the pictures on the computer and see how the kids have grown since January. And I realized there are oodles of things I missed blogging – oh, like birthdays. We’ll get to them – hopefully. 2011 – a hard year with my pregnancy… but a learning year for the fam… plus, we still did so many fun little things.

I really like that Jimmy typed up our goals for 2011… and then wrote some of our accomplishments. We have lots of improvements to make this next year… mostly in attitude about FHE and scripture study (Thank you Miss Hannah for your spiritual thought in FHE on how to have a good attitude.)

And you should hear some of the kid’s 2012 desires… we’ve got California, Maryland, Zions, Bryce Canyon, Idaho, Mt. Rushmore, Salt Flats. Ummm… we’ll see kids.

Christmas Eve

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Our Christmas Eve program was a little mellow. Today 3 of us came down with the stomach flu – blek! I spent the day laying in my bed with Max by my side. He said awesome things like, “I weally wike you mom. I do.” “But I don’t wike gatora. Will it be good for me?” “oh, it’s dewicious.” Then he thought he needed to throw up so he hovered over the red bowl. I came back from showering and he had fallen asleep over his bowl. Upon waking, in a groggy voice, he said, “I need my alligator.” We realized he meant his “GATORade.” Then he would smile a really big cheesy grin for me. Oh – and he put a gynormous bandaid on his head because he had a scab that he said hurt…. only I can still see his scab. But that bandaid is sure covering his eyebrows well. Ouch!

Back to our Christmas Eve Program. Each of the kids had a small part (pretty much made up on the spot). Mom helped Tru talk about how Jesus loves everyone. His voice is so cute when he repeats. Max was too sick to participate. We sang Silent Night for Abe’s part. Hannah told about how she loves the story in the Book of Mormon when Christ came to America. Mom and Dad shared something short, we sang a few more songs, opened up pj presents, had hot chocolate, read Egor Sprite Story, and put those munchkins in bed early. Definitely not our traditional Christmas Eve… but with 5 littles and sickness in the house, we’ll have to go with it. p.s and thank you Tru for taking that not-so-gorgeous photo of your sick mother. Awesome.

I sure hope it’s a silent night in our home this Christmas Eve. May the sickies (well – and Truman!!!) sleep all through the night. p.s. Silent Night is Abe’s favorite Christmas Hymn. Hannah likes Joy to the World.

Always our prayer – to watch over our little ones.

Presents are finally wrapped. I’m whipped and we’re heading to bed. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

We’re all Winners

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Well how fun is this. It’s not every day you win something. And what did our family win? … no, not a trip to Orlando… but … it’s more realistic seeing as it’s a tad bit closer… in fact we’re 5 minutes from it.

We won a Family Membership for a year to Thanksgiving Point! Wahoo!

Thank You Today’s Mama for the fabulous prize. We will thoroughly enjoy it!

Now… I just need a nanny to help with Tru on our adventures.

what’s up lately.

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Abe had 2 loose front teeth… that is until Max kicked him in the mouth. The looser of the 2 came out with lots of blood & gore. Now the other one is half out & looking funky in the middle. Every day we try to pull it or at least loosen it a bit.

Tis the season for jell-o juice. Hannah was exclaiming her delight about something to do with it.

Nothing to do with the picture of max but this is funny. I was upstairs resting and the doorbell rang. I heard Max open the door so I came down… only to find him standing there in front of a ward member without pants or underwear. Really child? He had been going potty and was so speedy, he beat me to the door. It happened to be my 1st Counselor, Connie, and we had a nice laugh about it. I began to wonder if having the entire ward bringing the Giving Tree presents to my house was a good idea.

Raspberries. Yum. Our friends let us buy one of their boxes of flash-frozen raspberries from the cannery. $30 for 20 lbs… and they are tasty. We had to repackage them in our own ziplocks. Photo courtesy: Tru.

Speaking of Tru – I like the picture of his feet.

We’ve got specially shaped pancakes. Abe’s favorite – the mad scientist with crazy hair.

Fresh potpourri assembly line with Tru and Max “helping.”

1st Presidency Christmas Devotional

Max’s thumbs up. I like this kid.

Mostly this week I’ve been creating. It’s a nice outlet when we’re cooped up all day in the house (bleh cold!). I’ve done lots of orders from my etsy shop. I made a new quiet book – Old Testament style. Put together 2012 Primary theme posters… mostly because I wanted to have them on our 2012 calendar.

Thanks to my friend Heather H., I got a free code for a Shutterfly Calendar. Love that! I went through photos throughout the years for each month and came up with a few pictures for each one. I’m excited about the cheerful brightness of it all.

Creating is good for my soul. Yes – good.

That’s what’s going on in a nutshell.

That was aMAZing!

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Seriously – a really tasty treat. I’m so grateful for all that delightful vitamin c I receive from these clementines.

The day:

Truman wouldn’t take a nap before church = trouble for all. A huge tantrum that seemed to disrupt everyone for several rows around us (or maybe the entire chapel) during announcements was no bueno. Jimmy gave me Eliza and he exited with the 2-year-old. Sigh… At one point Abe, Eliza, and I were sitting alone on our bench. Sigh… This is life with 5 young children during church. Hopefully someday we’ll master being a bit more reverent. Always trying… that’s for sure.

Interesting to note for the record: I decided to bear my testimony. I haven’t for a long time… mostly because I don’t like bawling my eyes out in front of everyone. I had decided I didn’t feel like crying today. I knew it was good for my children to see my example of bearing testimony in church. Up, I went with a sleeping Eliza in my arms. I cried. Hannah glowed. Truman had to be taken out. Abe wiped his tears. Max gave me thumbs up. Once I sat down Max gave me more thumbs up, a “Good job mom,” and a “That was aMAZing!!!” Then Jimmy and I switched kids because I guess Tru needed his mother. Then Jimmy felt inspired to go and bear his testimony with an awake Eliza in his arms. I guess Eliza inspires us!

Oh – wait… I forgot to note the craziest part of church.  Eliza had a blast-o-poop.  Major mess!  It was on my sleeve & on my lovely light blue flower dress. I had to go home & change and get a new outfit for Lizzy. Ugg… what a mess.

The unfortunate part of the day was that the kids were a bit quarrelsome. Very unfortunate.

6 p.m. Christmas Devotional. I was hopeful the children would sit quietly on the couch with sparkling eyes and folded arms and listen to every word. Not so… but it was fine. The music is always nice. The Spirit was special. The Candle story by President Uchtdorf was funny. The message to focus on Christ was perfect! We’ll keep going.

Yes… go onward we will.