Abby’s Poetry Contest Entry

Abby, our aspiring poet, came home about a month and a half ago with a paper about a poetry contest.  She was beyond excited and determined to write a winning poem.   She tried and tried and worked and worked, but couldn’t come up with anything she was happy with.  Last week, after being sent to bed, she ran upstairs and told me the poem was finally coming to her and could she please get some paper and write it down?  I couldn’t deny her that when she had finally found her muse.  This is what she came up with:

What My Family Means To Me...

by Abigail J. Wright

What my family means to me is love.

I believe our families come from above.

As a family sometimes we disagree

but I just say to myself – I know they still love me.

When I start to feel despair,

I try to remember that they care.

My Dad's “the man”, he saws trees in the yard.

My Mom feeds me and works really hard.

When there's nothing to do on a rainy day,

my siblings are usually willing to play.

If I'm upset I can talk to my Dad or Mom,

and it helps me feel more calm.

I try to remember my family will always be there,

and that they really do care.

If I start to feel ignored or like I'm under a cover,

I can talk to my grandma or grandpa, my uncle or aunt, or sister or brother.

They're all part of my family tree,

and that's what my family means to me!

 

The contest will be judged on May 12th and she is anxiously awaiting the results.   She read her poem to her class.  They memorize poems each week and her sweet teacher is making Abby’s one of the poems they’ll all memorize. 

Down South

We tried to escape the cold, wet weather here by heading down South a few hours to Brennan’s parents’ home.  We had one pretty good day, but evidently the cold and wet followed us.  Bummer.  However, we still managed to pack a lot of fun into our little trip. 

We drove down on this little guy’s big 5 birthday, so when we got there, we celebrated all over again.  Grandpa and Grandma treated us and some cousins to a Pirate Cove pizza place.  What a fun birthday for Ben!   Made all the more special by running into our next door neighbors, Benny’s best friends – Ty, Diana, and Will Keller.  After the Pirate Cove, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa’s for a fabulous cake, made by his professional cake decorating aunt, Emily.

Just a tiny bit cooler than my sorry attempt at a baseball cap, but hey, it’s not a competition, right?  Both were made with love.  Seriously, though how cool is that cake?  He loved it!

He also got to open some presents from Grandpa and Grandma and was thrilled with what he got.

 

The next day while I stayed home with Joshy so he could nap, Brennan took the kids hiking.  They had a blast, and to cap it all off they happened onto one of their favorite tv shows (Goodluck Charlie)  filming a special movie.  One of the stars (Gabe) even said “hi” to them.   The girls have been in love with him ever since that fateful word.

After lunch, Grandma Jamie and I took the kids to the IFA Store to see the baby chicks and bunnies.  They were adorable.  Anna begged with all her might for a bunny, but I didn’t give in.  I’m getting good at that.

I’d like to tell you Nate’s hair is not combed just because we were on vacation.  Evidently, every day is a vacation around here

 

After IFA we went to Brigham Young’s home for a tour.  Some appreciated the tour more than others.  I’ll let you judge from the pics.

The next day Jamie took the girls to paint some ceramics which they LOVED.

Good times, thanks for spoiling us, Grandma!

The kids all did great in the car.  Even when we got 10 minutes from our house and due to an accident due to the BLIZZARD on April 9th, the freeway was shut down so after driving for 5 hours the last 10 minutes took about 45 minutes.  The kids did great, Brennan and I almost started crying  

Nate is OBSESSED with the song “Dynamite” and listened to while singing along roughly 374 times.  Strangely, we never get sick of it, it cracks us up how seriously he takes it.

Gotta love roadtrips!  Nothing beats coming home though, even in a blizzard. 

What if Pretty Was Just an Adjective?

Many years ago I happened to see an episode of Oprah that was about eating disorders in young teenage girls.   Oprah interviewed a beautiful young girl (probably around 15 years old) about her problem.   She just knew that she was ugly and was desperate to feel beautiful.  Oprah said, “But you are beautiful!”  She really was.  However, that exchange I watched all those years ago really bothered me and still does.  Everyone around this girl was trying to convince her that she already was beautiful and didn’t need to destroy her body with eating disorders.   I know that they weren’t trying to imply “if you weren’t so pretty you might be justified in being bulimic,” but they kind of did.  Even worse than that though, is that whenever we’re trying to reassure an insecure girl, or to fortify a little girl against ever being insecure the only weapon in our arsenal always seems to be to tell them how beautiful they are.   What if when that 15 year old girl looked in the mirror and said to her mother/sister/friend/counselor, “I’m not pretty” they said, “So.” ?

What if Mothers stopped saying things like “these pants make me look HUGE.” or “Please don’t take my picture, I hate pictures of myself when I’m this fat.”  or “enjoy being young and skinny while you can."?   It’d be great if we could stop saying those things all together, but what if we at least stopped saying them in front of our kids, especially daughters?

What if we didn’t tolerate anyone talking about how “hot” certain women/girls are and the specifics of what makes them that way and conversely how “ugly” others are and why?

What if we banned plastic surgery and natural enhancement ads and billboards?

 
What of instead of telling our kids, “What really matters is what’s on the inside” and then contradicting ourselves by putting unreasonable amounts of time and energy and money into what’s on the outside --  instead we insisted that we all dress appropriately, modestly, allowing for attractiveness and personal style but beyond that just really didn’t make a fuss about appearance?
What if, as members of the Church, we didn’t use our doctrines regarding being healthy and to “…be ye therefore perfect…” as justifications to be obsessed with looking perfect?

What if being pretty or skinny were just some of many adjectives not nearly as desirable as being called kind, gracious, intelligent, creative etc.?

What do you think?

Benjamin George Turns 5!

I’m trying to skip my usual rant about how time seems to be determined to cheat me out of my little ones, but sorry I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t do another birthday post about another one of my kids without commenting on the fact that it’s time to turn off warp speed! 

Tell me Ben wasn't this adorable bald, blue-eyed blob like 3 seconds ago?

7 months old

 

1 years old

 

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

and 5!

I can’t even begin to say how grateful we are Benny was born.  He’s such a sweet, independent, affectionate, headstrong, miniature grown-up, heart-meltingly adorable boy!  From the day he was born, he was in  hurry to catch up to his big siblings.  He and Abby have been my most mellow, contended children.  He’ll play by himself for hours on end, but is always thrilled when his brothers or sisters are ready to play.  He loves to be where the action is, but is often happy to just observe.  He likes things on his terms, but doesn’t ask for much.  When I asked him what he’d like for his birthday he requested his very own lamp.  When I pushed him for more than that, “What’s something really fun that you want?”  “Oh, yeah – my very own garbage can too.”   He’s such a sunshine boy and our lives are definitely brighter because of him.  Happy birthday, Benny boy!!!We love Benjamin!