Update (Warning: It's a long one)

Our pre-teen daughter was on a role yesterday. She came home fired-up at a friend of hers because she had confided in this friend that she thought a certain boy was cute and this friend told another girl and Anna fears she told the boy. She was really upset and embarrassed. A little while later she asked if she could bring a friend with us to Nate's soccer practice. I told her she could. After a few attempts she came to me and said, "Mom, I really want to bring a friend, but Chloe and Sadie can't play and I'm NOT calling the "Betrayer!" Later that evening I was coaxing Abby and Nate into the bath. Abby was really protesting when I said, "Abby, why is it that you're fighting getting in the bath, but when I tell you it's time to get out you're not going to want to get out?" Anna was right there doing her homework and without looking up said, "That's just life, Mom. When they have to get in they don't want to but when they get in they have fun and when they have to get out they don't want to. It's the cycle of life." Cracked me up. We love Anna.

Abby has a permanent top front tooth that goes behind her permanent bottom tooth. This could cause the bottom tooth serious problems so Abby gets to wear this at night for a couple of months:

Crazy that I have a 7 year old receiving orthodontic treatment! She also had to go to the doctor because each night for a few weeks she's been feeling like she couldn't breath very well. It seems she's got asthma. We're hoping this is the mild kind that she'll outgrow, but for now she has an inhaler we're supposed to use each night and then before she'll be running around at all. She's been a good sport about all this and was actually really excited about her retainer. I think the appearance of her cross-bite had been bugging her (I've noticed that she's sort of discovered the mirror and taken a liking) so she's excited to get that fixed. I know I always say this but Abby loves her family. Lately when Ben's being extra funny or cute she'll look at me and say, "Mom I don't think I could live without Benny." We love Abby.

I have really been enjoying little Nate. Today I came home from helping at the school and he ran up to me enthusiastically saying, "Mom, I know what I'm going to do for the talent show!" Traditionally we have a talent show around Christmas time with my family. "Really, what are you going to do?" I asked. "Sing We Will, We Will Rock You!" He was totally sincere and then performed it for me with great gusto and stomping of feet. It was so cute. He also loves to help me put Ben to bed and sing songs to him. When he walks out he says, "Ben, I will always love you no matter what" which is what I always say to them. I love how he just picked that up and sweetly says it to his little brother. We love Nate.

Ben goes from being the most adorable delightfully happy and brilliant child to a screaming, flopping maniac several hundred times a day. He'll be two next week. I can't even type that without tearing up a little. Wow. I love this age so much and so I'm not sad about that, I'm just sad that it happened so fast! Since his great escape from his pack-n-play I got a call from my aunt, Jan, (thank you so much!) who had a neighbor giving away a toddler bed. He's officially sleeping in it and while he does still protest and come out occasionally I usually only have to put him back a couple of times before he decides to go to sleep. It's very cute when he suddenly appears a few hours later with a "Hi, Mamma!" Although we are certain he will only be turning 2 in a week he still thinks he'll be turning 9. He insists on administering his own medicine (he was recently on an anti-biotic) somehow he knows to put the syringe thing in his mouth and then squeeze it until it's all gone, if I'm not on it when the phone rings he will push the right button and say "Hi!", he's also taught himself how to ride Abby's scooter. Lately when he's in the car seat he says, "Mom, I duck! (stuck)" "Yes, I know Ben, you're supposed to be." "No!" We have lots of conversations like that every day. We love Ben.

San Diego, Part II

Here we go with the exciting conlcluding vacation post. Okay, so we left off with Sea World which was Saturday. Sunday we got up and ate and then headed for Church. This was not a great experience. The meeting we attended had a lovely Easter program with lovely music but our children were not being lovely. Evidently kids on vacation living on grease and sugar and in a "foreign" ward do not reverent kids make. This was the one regret I have about our trip, that is was over Easter Sunday. I love Easter and I think it is one of the most sacred and special days and ours just wasn't. Anyway, after Church we went to the hotel to let Benjamin have a nap he had been denied for the three previous days. After naptime we hit the beach again.

The fact that my albino child finally kept his hat on is one of my greatest triumphs.

This is Nate "surfing" aka standing there and holding out his arms.

Abby

Anna

As usual, Benny left his mark.

For any of you who were at Newport Beach with us a few years ago, my kids were WAY braver than they were then. Abby was even downright gutsy and Nate ... got in. It was actually very gratifying to see how much more relaxed they were about the ocean. Except for Ben who fell once in .23 inches of water and wanted no part of it from then on unless Brennan was holding him, but the others made serious progress. Yay!

So honestly, Legoland, Sea World, Beach, airplane were all really nice, but HANDS DOWN the highlight for my kids was the dinky hotel pool. They would have been in it all day every day if we hadn't insisted we actually go do some things they can't do any other warm day.

Here's a shot of the "Field of Flowers" which was right by our hotel.

Sunday night we went to dinner and settled back in at our hotel. Monday morning we got up, got packed and drove down to San Diego. We stopped briefly at Old Town San Diego where we went to the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center. The missionaries there were so kind and showed us around before we headed to the airport and flew home. Poor little Ben totally melted down on the plane and screamed his guts out for what felt like 73 minutes, but I think was probably about 5 until he finally let Brennan pick him up. Brennan got up and walked the aisle with him for about 3 seconds before Ben fell fast asleep for the rest of the flight.

All in all, great trip! We were blessed with gorgeous weather and got to do so many fun things, but mostly it was just great to spend so much time as a family.

That said, here are a few reasons I'm glad to be back:

1. Believe me I don't go looking for mirrors, but every once in a while they are a neccesity and foreign mirrors are just plain cruel. I was so happy to come home and catch a glimpse of myself in a friendly mirror at home.

2. To have non-humid-climate-hair.

3. To be able to make some healthy meals!

4. To have a computer!!!

5. To be able to drink water all day long again.

6. To have more than a trickle for my shower water-pressure.

San Diego, Part I

We're back! We had a fabulous time in sunny San Diego for Spring Break. Brennan actually won a free trip from a contest at work and our kids have been dying to ride on an airplane and we're all obsessed with Sea World, so we thought we'd take a nice short flight to San Diego. We actually stayed in Carlsbad in TWO rooms. It was so nice to have both rooms and the kids were so tired each night they basically just crashed every night so we all slept very well.

Anyway, we left Thursday morning for our big adventure. We managed to herd everyone through the airport, contain them on the plane, ride the shuttle to our rental car and drive to the hotel. After all that, the first order of business was:

the BEACH!

We all had so much fun in the sand and the waves, but then spent quite a bit of time chasing big huge squirrels in these big rocks. Good times.

The next day we got up and enjoyed our lovely hotel breakfast then headed to Legoland. It was fun, but lines were really long and waiting in lines with Ben wasn't awesome. The older kids didn't actually love the long lines either and are kind of ride wimps. There were some really cute wimpy rides that they enjoyed, but they tired out really fast so I'm not sure we got our money's worth there, but we still had a good time.

As I said we're all obsessed with Sea World. We LOVED it. A few years ago we went shortly after there had been a trainer seriously injured or maybe even killed (I can't remember) with Shamu so the Shamu show didn't have any of the trainers in the water with the whales and it was kind of underwhelming. This time, however, was thrilling. I'm fully aware that the music and the guy with the deep voice talking is designed to evoke our emotions and even though I knew they were manipulating me I didn't care it, I got choked up and teared up and I know it's embarrassing, but there's just something that I love about it all. It's beautiful, these gigantic killer whales incredibly trained swimming these people around like they were little birds on their noses. I just love it, we all do. I didn't dare pull out my camera though because we were in the soak zone. The girls had disposable cameras and took a few so if they turned out I'll post them later.

We got to feed these cute little dolphins

A very well received souvenir.

The other great part about Sea World was that we had to wait in line for probably 45 minutes to buy admission tickets so they gave us 50% off which saved us $140!!! Woo hoo. I'm telling you that place is the best.

Brennan told the kids they could each have a night that they got to choose where we ate dinner. For Nate's night we ate at a cute little diner and they had pancakes and cheese fries, nice huh? For Abby's night we of course found a pizza place. Anna chose In 'n Out Burger the last night was Brennan and my pick. It was really fun to have the kids get so into it and best of all it completely eliminated arguing over where to eat. For lunch it was mostly hamburgers and fries on the go and I won't be sad if I don't see either of those things for a very long time.

Some great lines from the trip:

Brennan: Abby, that's the 2nd time you've made me go into high voice, stop it!

We drove through a part where Brennan used to work for a summer. He was waxing nostalgic and was really impressed with this hill that he used to ride his bike up every morning. After about the 4th time he said, "You guys, I used to ride my bike up this steep hill every day!"

Abby said: Dad, you keep saying that.

Brennan: Well, you need to appreciate that.

Nate tried some of Brennan's ribs and couldn't get enough. When I asked him if he liked them he said, "I want tons of these for Christmas!"

I bet you can't wait for part II!!!!

Is it Just Me?

I think Ryan and Macy and I have talked about this before, but I've noticed that when it's serious crunch time to get my house whipped into shape I am most effective when I go into "angry cleaning mode". By this I mean I'm mad at the whole world first that my house is a wreck AGAIN, and secondly that if I want it done right it is up to me and me alone. We had someone call yesterday to schedule an appraisal for this morning at 10:00 am. I tried to start last night after my meeting, but just didn't have it in me. This morning I woke up and the magnitude of the job set in and so did the panic. Fortunately instead of dissolving into tears I morphed into "angry cleaning mode" and got it all done with the help of Brennan. (He and the kids cleaned the basement last night while I was gone and when I got home I asked if he had gotten the playroom down there clean. His reply, "Yeah, well I cleaned it the way I do it." "You mean you shoved everything to one side or on a couch?" "Yep.")

It might not sound like "angry cleaning mode" is a good thing, but actually it is. I can do work 4 times as fast when in this mode. Am I alone?

American Girls, Etc.

Today at school is "Dress up like your favorite book character day". My girls' favorite books are the "American Girl" books. Poor little Abby had big plans to dress up as "Nellie" but because they have a field trip today they were told not to wear costumes. It was a sad, sad, sad day yesterday for Abigail. I suggested that she find a character that wears regular clothes so she could still "dress-up" and go on her field trip. She and Anna pulled together an outfit for "Julie" an American Girl Doll character from the 70's. Here are some photos.

Not quite what she had planned, but at least she's smiling.

Anna dressed up like "Elizabeth" from the colonial period. She is LOVING every minute of this.

When I loaded the above pictures I discovered a little photo shoot the kids had done. I love how they positioned them. I wouldn't make you look at any except the last one really cracked me up so keep going.

Here is Abby's Elizabeth doll

Anna's Felicity doll

"Peanut Butter", Nate's dog.

Woe is Me

Many months ago Ben successfully launched himself out of his crib and onto his floor. He was only about 16 or 17 months old and I didn't like picturing what he could have done to himself upon landing so from that moment on I he has been sleeping in his pack-n-play which has slightly higher walls. It worked and for these many months he's been a dream to put to bed. Just recently, however, he's started to resist bedtime and nap time every so slightly, but if I'd promise a song (his favorite, "piduh" aka Eensy Weensey Spider) he'd eagerly let me rock him and sing a song or two before willingly going to sleep in his bed.

He's been sick these past few days so I'm hoping he's just off and that this is not our new daily ritual, but after our songs he was anything but willing to go to sleep. I went in several times to try to calm him and let him cry for quite a while. After one more attempt to calm him I left his room, closed his door and hoped he would give up soon. I went into the kitchen for some dinner prep. Brennan and the other kids were at church and the house was quiet but for Benny's sad protests. Finally even he quieted and I relaxed and dreamed of what I would do to celebrate the rare silence of this house. My dreams were short-lived as I began to discern a little pitter-patter down the hall. Woe, is me, my baby just escaped his bed, opened his door and tearfully requested permission to sleep on the couch. Poor stinker-pot boy. Fortunately for today anyway, a few times carrying him back to his bed worked and he's sleeping peacefully; however, I'm afraid this is the beginning of the end! It was nice to have at least one child that was easy to put to bed while it lasted.

Abby's Lunch with the Mayor (Sort of)

Update: Thanks alert reader, Davis, for the heads up on the photo. Here's the official photo:

Last Wednesday Abigail had the honor of attending "Lunch with the Mayor." "Every month our Mayor hosts some ... youth in the area at his Lunch with the Mayor event. Four local schools give one teacher from each grade the opportunity to select one of their best and most outstanding students to spend the afternoon eating pizza and enjoying stories with the Mayor, Fire Chief , and Police Chief." (From the City website). As it turned out the Mayor was sick, but his wife was there in his stead to host them. This video is Abby's experience in her own words.

Update

The other day Anna brought me one of her Polly Pockets and said, "Mom, I REALLY need new Polly Pockets, this is the the ONLY one I haven't been completely drained of interest in!" Drained of interest? Cracked me up! She's also been spreading the news that she's a "pre-teen" when I raised my eyebrows she clarified "Well, I will be in a few months when I turn 10." Evidently she was perusing a book I have for birthday party ideas and noticed her age group was classified as "pre-teen" Oh dear. We love Anna.

For Abby's update I will be posting a video of her telling about a neat experience she had recently if I can ever get the video to upload. We love Abby!

As we were driving to my brother's house last night we had the radio on. Nate started yelling, "Mom and Dad, turn it off, this is way too much of an in-love song, ew!" His new favorite thing to say about anything cool is, "Sweet!" Both he and Ben are incapable of functioning in the morning until they've had their orange juice. Each night I fill their sippies with juice and put them in the fridge and each morning Nate wakes up and gets both sippies and crawls into our bed to cuddle with me or Brennan. The minute he hears Ben, he runs in and give Benny his sippy and gets him out of his bed. Such a cute little ritual, it makes me happy. He is full of questions and observations and is such a lovable little boy. We love Nate!

Ben is truly our little sunshine boy. You can't see his smile and not be happy. He's at such a fun stage right now and we're all just eating it up. He's entered the total mimic stage and whenever someone clears their throat, coughs, laughs, talks, he's right there imitating. He even insists on me putting him on the toilet and going through the motions of toilet paper, flushing and washing hands. He has yet to do anything on the toilet, but whatever he sees someone else do he must try for himself. All day long I hear "MOM, Yayoo? (where are you?) or "Now, Deet!" (imitating me telling Nate to come now). He loves his siblings and the feeling is most definitely mutual. We love Benny!

Random Photos

Here are some random photos I took yesterday with our new camera! Since this is our third camera in two years I thought I'd go ahead and spend the extra $30 for the service/replacement plan.

Yesterday the kids, including Chloe, decided to put the new fence to good use. They assigned each other a section to decorate. Here are the results:

This is Anna's with a Halloween photo from 6 years ago.

Her nice use of organic materials.

If you look closely this is obviously Chloe's.

Abby's.

And Natey's.

When Ben and I got back from the store yesterday we found Brennan asleep on the couch. A few minutes later when I walked through I saw Benny had made himself quite cozy with Daddy.

(Yes, Brennan has to have a blankie over the couch to sleep on.)

My Mom

This is my Mom. Today is her birthday, so in honor of her birthday I'm giving her the last thing she wants -- the spotlight. What a great daughter, huh? Well, if there's anyone worth honoring it's her so like it or not, here it goes. I very frequently lament the fact that while I am fortunate to be her daughter I am so different from her. She is truly my hero and represents everything I am striving to be. There are so many reasons my Mom is unique and amazing, but I'll only attempt to acquaint you with a few that most frequently inspire me.

Probably the first and and biggest reason I admire her is her dedication to and capacity for service. I'm sure I am only aware of the very tip of the service she has and continues to render every day. I watched her care for her parents for the last 15 plus years until my Grandpa died last Winter. I have watched her serve and love my Dad's parents with absolute loyalty and devotion. I remember being very ill when I was single and lived in an apartment about 30 minutes away. I called her in the middle of the night distraught and on the verge of insanity because I hadn't been able to sleep for several days. At 2:00 in the morning she drove to get me and tucked me into my old bed in my old room and massaged my feet until I finally fell asleep. I know that each of my 5 siblings have several similar stories. Not to downplay or discount in any way what I've listed above, I do recognize that many Mother's have a unique capacity to serve and sacrifice for their children and families, but hers goes way beyond her family. Since I live in their former house I have many opportunities to have countless neighbors and virtual strangers tell me of quiet acts my Mom performed to lighten their load. One lady told me that right after her Dad died, my Mom, not aware of his death, followed a prompting and showed up on her doorstep at the moment this woman needed a friend. My introverted Mother quietly, constantly and sincerely reached out to neighbors especially those who were not members of our Church and were therefore a definite minority. At church she waited to sit down until most people were seated and then would discreetly slip into a chair next to someone sitting alone. I could literally go on and on.

Another thing I love and admire about my Mom is the fact that she is so teachable and unafraid to try and learn new things. She has taken piano lessons as an adult for many years, she is taking tennis lessons and a painting class. She is very well read and current on politics etc. and is also always seeking out and enjoying great music and theatre.

I wish I could sum her up better, but there's too much to put into one post so I'll just say that I feel so blessed to have this great woman as my Mom and my kids' grandma. Not only is she such a wonderful example of righteous womanhood, a remarkable mother and grandma she is also one of my favorite people to laugh with. She has a great sense of humor and can laugh at herself like no one else I know. She's just fun to be with and so many other things. Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you!

Girls!

I have been helping Abby choose her outfit for school each morning and the other night before sending the girls to bed I announced that I thought she was ready to do that by herself. She was a little unsure but Anna quickly volunteered to help her. "Okay, Anna, but you can't pick anything too fancy." When I laughed Abby defended herself with, "Mom, she always picks out like a blue shirt and a pink skirt, things like that." With that we sent them to bed.

About 45 minutes later Abby came upstairs saying, "MOM, Anna keeps picking things out that I don't want to wear and then she told me that I was a Tattle-tale Tilly (we have a book by that name) and that I have NO instincts with fashion!" What do you do with that? Girls. We love Anna and Abby.

My Weekend

Friday morning I got up early, packed my bags and left for our First Annual Family Women's Conference. It was wonderful! This was with my Dad's side of the family. He is one of eight kids and all of my aunts except one was able to be there as well as several cousins, my Mom, my sister, and my Grandma.

We started downtown at the Temple. It was so neat to be there with these women I love and admire so much. After that we met at at the Lion House for lunch, a piano solo by Grandma and a guest speaker about understanding the book of Isaiah. Truly so helpful and interesting, I can't wait to tackle Isaiah scriptures!

After lunch I got to ride back to my aunt Kristen's house with another aunt, Melanie, who is the only out-of-stater. Melanie is so intelligent, fun and interesting -- I thoroughly enjoyed my chance to catch-up with her.

When we got back to Kristen's she and her daughters taught us how to crochet around the edge of fleece blankets to donate to a women's shelter. Lots of crocheting, laughing, and fun.

After we ate a great dinner we attended a local production of "Big River". This is one of my favorite musicals, I have always loved the story of "Huckleberry Finn". Anyway, this wasn't the best performance I've seen of that show, but there were some good characters and it was still great to see it and get all those songs stuck in my head again.

After the play we all went back to Kristen's for more crocheting, talking, laughing etc. Most of us slept over sprawled out all over the floor on air matresses and foam pads. A hardy group of us stayed up until 4:30 am. I can't explain how much fun we had and how hard we laughed. These women are some of my favorite people in the whole world, they are truly amazing quality women (yes, you Allyson) and exceptional mothers, but they are also so hilarious and fun.

This morning we awoke to a wonderful breakfast with homemade granola, yogurt, fruit parfaits and bagels. Kristen is such a great cook and a fabulous hostess.

After breakfast we had some classes by each other.
--First Allyson and Jan (aunts) gave us the cookbook they've been compiling for the last few weeks.
--My Mom taught a basic gardening class
--My cousin's wife, Kristin, who is a nurse taught us CPR for children and infants.
--My aunt, Liane gave a class on "Creating Spiritual Experiences for our Children."
--My aunt, Tammy, did a class about "Growing Through Trials and Tribulations."
--Macy, Eliza and I taught did ours on "Happy Children, Happy Mom."

All of the classes were so different and so well-done. Very uplifting and inspiring.

After a yummy lunch we wrapped up with a book discussion of "What's So Great About America" which was headed by Melanie. I didn't finish the book but what I did read was fascinating and Melanie gave a great summary and led an interesting discussion.

What a great weekend, huh? So much learned, so much shared, so much fun. I'm so grateful Brennan so willingly took yesterday off work and held down the fort so I could enjoy myself so completely. I'm also so grateful to Kristen, Kirstin and Tiff who got this all going and planned and hosted it all. I only wish that my SIL's Meredith and Rebecca could have been there and that Macy could have joined us the whole time. Can't wait til next year!