Counting My Blessings

Today was a solemn day for me. A young man that I grew up with committed suicide yesterday. This is the third young adult that my home stake has lost to suicide in 18 months.

In the meantime, the world is remembering the 10 year anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

I realized, more than I ever have, how much the small moments mean to me and prayed that in the years to come they would mean something to my children, too.

I wanted to bottle up the routine of the day, serving the kids breakfast, good morning greetings, time at the park, a kiss goodbye to William on his way to kindergarten, afternoon story time with Marie, Anne's excited jabbering as I walked in her room after a nap, feeling some of baby #4's first little kicks and jabs ... and save it for times when they are grown and lost and confused; times when they need to know more than anything that they are loved by their parents and their Heavenly Father.

I looked into my children's eyes and desperately wanted to know what was in store for them in their lives. I wanted to know what I could do now to prepare them for whatever they would have to face.

The answer that kept echoing in my mind as I questioned their future was to love them. Just love them.

Love them not as the world says to love them, but as our Savior loves them. Build my love around Him. Make Him our foundation. With that love and that foundation comes an incredible promise.

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

My prayer today and always is that I may keep this verse ever present in my daily life and embed it into my children. I can't stop the winds or the storms or the hail. I don't even know when or how they will come, but I can help my children be prepared for them. For that, I have hope and strength.

It was a long and tiring day both physically and emotionally, but somehow I end it feeling buoyed up. The precious spirits that are in my home, the very ones that made the day long and tiring, are more importantly my greatest joys and my most tremendous blessings. I grow closer to my Savior as I teach them about Him.  I grow closer to Him as I love them.

Oh how I love these sweet, precious children.

Kindergarten Orientation

A week before William's first official day of school he had an orientation of sorts that the parents were asked to attend. 

I proudly played the role of first time school mommy and took lots of pictures. Some moms joined me, some commented that they wished they had remember their camera, and my favorite were the ones that stood around non-nonchalantly like they didn't care at all, after all this was their 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. child to go through this. Whatever. I solemnly swear that I will be camera happy with each and everyone of my children on their first day of kindergarten. So there. Haha.

We started out with a pile of paperwork for me to take home and sort through.

Then Mrs. E brought them over to the rug to tell them a few rules and read them a story. The lady has a mouse-like voice and talks with incredible animation. She is perfect for kindergarteners. I, on the other hand, could only handle of few minutes of it.

Next was the task to draw a picture of his favorite activity from the summer. He drew a picture of Wicked at Lagoon,

then he decorated a folder for the school year, 

 made a name necklace,

and shared lots of big smiles with everyone.

After that it was back home to start our last week until the big first day of kindergarten. 

Gooooaaaaallllll! Or not.

William's first soccer game of the season happened to fall on the same weekend that Brandon had to be gone camping with the Young Men in our ward. Between chasing Anne and trying to convince Marie that she didn't need to be snacking constantly (A family from William's team last year always had an arsenal of snacks that they happily shared with her. She now associates soccer games with snacks. I'm a mean mommy, apparently, because I refuse to continue that tradition.) I only managed to take one picture of William and beyond that I was barely even able to see him play. I even missed him getting a ball to the head until he came back to his chair sobbing.

That being said, William is thrilled to start another year of soccer. It might be crazy for me, but his smiles make it all worth it right?

Saying Goodbye

About three years ago my life became even more wonderful than it already was. My sister and her husband moved to Orem. Yay! Shortly after that my brother returned from his mission and, therefore, returned to BYU. AND my sister started school up at BYU-Idaho. Four of seven siblings within long weekend traveling distance. Brilliant!

October 2008

The past 3 years have been filled with gatherings at The Farm (grandma's house in Malad, ID and yes, it must be capitalized), gatherings at my house, gatherings at parks, gatherings in Provo. We like to gather. We are family, after all, and we kind of like each other.

April 2009 

 October 2009

 April 2010

Our group of 8 grew by three people over the years with the addition of Stephen's wife, Alisha (such a lovely addition!); Rachel and Cory's sweet love bug, Jocelyn; and, of course, our busy bee, Anne. 

General Conferences became a highlight of my year because we all watched it together and stuffed ourselves silly in between sessions .... and napped. General Conference weekend isn't complete without a good nap.

April 2010

October 2009

Random, hey-let's-get-together-because-we-like-each-other Sunday dinners always fed the soul and made the transition into the school/work week easier.

We bonded through laughing and food and even through some tears, as we saw each other through some desperately hard times.

Then this year rolled around and Sara had to go and decide to serve a mission; and Stephen chose University of Texas over BYU for law school. Wonderful, fabulous, incredible decisions on their part. Decisions that are going to leave their older sister in the dust wiping her tears.

December 2010

Stephen and Alisha made the big move to Texas in the middle of August. We had one final get together the Sunday before they left. I don't know if it is really going to hit me until General Conference when we have a very quiet house, as opposed to the times when we had as many as 16 people camped out in our living room.

April 2011

Change is good. I know it is. But change like this just makes me wish everything could stay the same.

We love you, Stephen and Alisha. We really do wish you the best, even if the best isn't close enough for anymore Sunday dinners together.

And Sara, keep on keepin' on. Haha. I am counting down the days until you return to finish what you started at BYU-I, if only to make my conference weekends more exciting.

Oh, and Rachel ... you. me. conference weekend?

Creating

 Sewing and crafting of any sort has taken a serious back seat to the rest of the craziness that is my life. These are the two things that I have made since Easter, but I like the result so I thought I would document them for posterity.

 Apron using fabric from Hobby Lobby and an Amy Butler pattern out of her book In Stitches. 

The apron was a gift for my cousin-in-law's family bridal shower. I was also in charge of an activity so I put together these little note cards for each guest to write her advice on a happy marriage. The idea came from a similar activity that Shelley Smith did at her sister's baby shower.

So, there you have it. The extent of my craftiness in the last 6 months. Be proud, be very proud.

Girl's Night Out

When Brandon and William took off on a Father/Son campout in July I knew exactly how Marie, Anne, and I were going to fill the evening. First we took care of some business by getting Anne's 1 year pictures taken at JCPenney (Yes, I'm old school like that. What can I say, it's easy, cheap, and convenient.) Then we went over to the girl's department to let Marie model some "princess dresses". It's something that I've been anxious to have an excuse to do ever since our good friend and neighbor posted about doing it with her daughter. I knew Marie would love doing it and I right. 

We could have stayed there all night and tried on dress after dress, if Anne had been more cooperative. I even found some cute matching dresses that I wanted the girls to model, but that just wasn't going to happen. Unfortunately, there was an opening underneath the door tall enough for Anne to crawl through and then try out her new found skill of walking .... all over the store, if I had let her. Time between each of these pictures was spent going out of the dressing room, rounding up Anne and getting her back in the dressing room where she could start her escapade all over again. 

The lighting was bad in the dressing room (of course) and the colors were horrid. Orange, mustard yellow, and eggplant purple? Really? Who did they pay to design that? But we still managed to get some decent pictures. Marie. was. in. heaven.

She loved looking at herself in this fun house mirror as much as she loved looking in the regular mirror. Again, a strange piece of decor for a dressing room, but it gave some added entertainment to the night.

And after all the beautiful princess dresses that she tried on can you believe that this silly t-shirt dress was her favorite? She liked the jeweled hearts on the front.

We finished off the night with dinner at "Texas Rollhouse", as Marie called it. Can you guess what her favorite part of the dinner was? It was interesting going to such a popular date restaurant on a Friday night with just my two little girls. I think they should have taken 5% off my bill every time they said, "Are you waiting for someone to arrive?" What can I say, we wanted to make it special and it was! 

It was the first of many girl's nights out with my two princesses. I can't wait for all of them!

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Marie still loves to dress up in her pink princess dress from her second Halloween (when she was 12 1/2 months old). It dawned on me one day when Marie was wearing it that Anne was the age Marie was when she first wore it; and yet, Anne seems so much smaller and younger than that to Brandon and me. Trying on the dress, however, is proof that she really is the same size Marie was, basically. She's slightly taller than Marie was and just a little less chubby, if you can believe it. Oh, and she's a lot more bald. 

 Anne -- end of July 2011 -- 12 1/2 months old

Marie -- end of October 2008 -- 12 1/2 months old