Happy Mothers' Day!

The only good quality photos I have of my two Moms were portraits taken with their spouses, so not only do you get these two beautiful ladies, but as a bonus you get my Dads too.

I love my Mom. She constantly amazes me with her insight and ability to serve everyone around her in the most sincerely selfless way. She takes her role as mother and grandma so seriously and from an early age I was aware of what a privilege she felt it was to have and raise her children. I always looked forward to being a Mom because of how much she enjoyed it. I honestly could not ask for a better example of a person, wife and Mother.

I love Jamie. She raised Brennan and his brother, Brett, as a single-parent. I can't imagine how difficult that would be, but she did it wonderfully. She worked so hard, but still managed to put her boys first. Brennan is extremely loyal and grateful to his Mom for all she sacrificed for him. So am I. She's such a warm, bubbly fun and good person. She's a fabulous grandma and has been nothing but kind and supportive of me. I couldn't have a better Mother-in-law and friend.

Joyful Moments

A book I read once talked about letting the small joyful moments of motherhood carry us through the many less-than-joyful times. I loved that piece of wisdom and find it to be so true. The reality of being a stay-at-home Mom is a lot of laundry, picking-up, carpooling, refereeing fights, etc. Even though the majority of my time is probably actually spent on the things I find un-enjoyable and hard I am amazed how far one little moment of pure joy and love can carry me through many hours and even days of the challenging stuff.

One such moment happened just a few minutes ago. As I was chasing Ben down to put him down for his nap I got a bad case of the hiccups. While I carried him into his room hiccups were sort of exploding from me which was the funniest thing on earth to him. He started laughing so hard which of course made me laugh hard. I hiccuped and giggled all through the songs we always sing at nap time and he snuggled into me laughing the whole time. Pure joy. That should last me for a while.

Reality Check

Tonight as I made dinner I kept having that feeling that I was missing something. I paused and then laughed at my needless worry. I was totally on top of things today. I smiled as I thought of all that I had accomplished today. I went grocery shopping (with a 2 year and 4 year old in tow), cleaned my house (you know the dreaded Monday morning clean), worked on my church calling, prepared for Family Home Evening, did my little transcribing job, kept to my healthy eating plan, etc. Here I was even getting dinner underway early so we could go work in the yard tonight. We had our lesson, played our game and then I served a lovely tuna casserole (food snobs, don't judge me it's economical, nutritous and my kids love it). As I dished up the first plate that missing something feeling came into focus and I was quickly humbled. I can't even remember to put tuna in tuna casserole. Bon-bons and soaps tomorrow.

Weekend Update

Yay for a fun weekend. Boo for a stupid camera that I can't get to upload to my computer. As I fiddled with it I "formatted" my memory card. Evidently "format" means "completely and irrevocably erase every single photo". Fortunately there were only a few that I didn't have on my computer, but there were some really cute ones of Abby's soccer team on their final day and the kids up at a resort where we were visiting Brennan's parents. Grrr. I finally managed to upload a few photos from a little walk to our river in our mountains yesterday.

It was so beautiful yesterday so we took the opportunity to wander up through our mountains. It was so much fun and so good to be together in such amazing surroundings.

Anna always totally gets the beauty. She loves to find a little scenic spot and just sit and soak it in. She also gets a huge kick out of the littler kids and was giggling at their antics. Brennan, Anna and I were all throwing rocks trying to hit a specific rock across the river. She is really coordinated and loves to compete and do well. She's so growing up. We love Anna.

Abby was cracking us up. She is such a funny unpredictable whirl-wind of contradictions. Of all the kids she gets the most worked up and anxious about things we would never anticipate being scary, but then sometimes she just gets in these reckless wild moods and will do anything without a hesitation. She was the first to attempt to cross the freezing cold river. The current was pretty strong in one spot and really slippery so she didn't make it all the way. She was by far the wettest of us all. She was throwing rocks and it was giving me a heart attack because when she threw you never knew if it was going to go behind her, to either side or actually go some distance in front of her. She needs to work on her aim! We love Abby.

Nate has shed some of his cautiousness, but I would never call him reckless. He did agree to our traditional head-in-the-river. The last photo shows that ritual being carried out on Abby. For some reason that's what we do each time we go up there. Nate mostly loves throwing rocks into the water. On the way back home he literally could not take more than 2 steps without stopping to pick up a rock or twig to throw. He's such a boy. We love Nate.

Ben would not talk to, look at or just generally be bothered by anyone. He was so totally focused on throwing rocks into the river. Unlike Abby, he always managed to get his into the water. He was so incredibly zoned in to his occupation we had to keep a large radius around him clear because he wasn't about to let a sibling standing in his way stop him from throwing. We love Ben.

On our way home we saw a little dead bird. We, of course, had to mourn the loss of this bird that we never knew. After a proper amount of remorse we were finally able to journey on back home. Such a great day with all my favorite people. We are so lucky to be able to walk to that kind of setting.

An Original, Inside and Out

Anna has always had an opinion all her own (and usually very different from mine) on everything under the sun, especially regarding what she wears. Each night the girls ask me what the temperature will be the next day (could be snow could be sunny) so they can pick an outfit for the following day. Two nights ago I told them it would be nice and warm the next day so if they wanted to wear shorts that would be fine. A while later Anna practically flew up the stairs. She was beaming and bursting to show and tell us what she had come up with. Evidently the only suitable outfit she could find was a pair of white shorts and a white shirt. She knew that that combo would be too plain so she scavenged the basement for some fabric and tape and whipped up this little number:

I was kind of stunned and unsure of how to react. I have never read a single parenting book that mentioned what to do when your child tapes fabric to his/her clothes. She kept saying how excited she was to show her friends. On the one hand I felt like she did a pretty great job considering the resources available to her and I felt very proud of her creativity. On the other hand I was a little worried about the very reactions she was anticipating and the possibility she could be totally crushed. Oh and to be totally honest, the thought of what people were going to think of this child's mother did cross my mind. Brennan and I praised her creation and sent her floating down to bed. We then sort of wondered together what in the world we were supposed to do. After consulting each other, checking our own pride and calling my wise Mom and sister we decided to support her but gently prepare her for the possibility of mixed reviews. She was totally undeterred by the fact that it may not be a hit with everyone and proudly went to school in her original design the next morning.

She came home completely satisfied and said most people liked at least some of it and then asked where the rest of my fabric is. I congratulated her on her triumph and said that perhaps someday we could get some fabric and ribbon and other things and pretty up some shirts but once was enough for this week.

Whew, another parenting pop quiz over with, I just hope we passed. We love Anna!

Food, Family & Fun

Tonight we took advantage of the beautiful weather and a beautiful little forrest park. We roasted hotdogs and s'mores, had a little lesson, and just enjoyed each other and our surroundings. Here are a few photos:

My dear Dad tending the fire, he's the the best fire guy around.

Ben and Brennan sitting by the fire

Some cute kids

My nephew, Abe, loving every minute of the FREEZING cold stream!

Jane Doe

Brennan is rotten with names. He actually totally remembers people and their faces but don't be shocked if at any given moment he can't tell you the names of our children. Just kidding, sort of. Well, today he came home from church and told me that a lady had pulled him aside to tell him she enjoyed the lesson I taught. With little hope I asked him who the lady was and not surprisingly he had no idea what her name was. Right about then Abby piped up, "You mean the lady with white hair, Daddy?" "Yeah." "Oh it was Sister Kirkham, Mom." I found it all so funny and started laughing hard but Brennan was really kind of shaken and humbled that his 7 year old is a little more dialed in than he is.