Time to Reflect

I am a little superstitious. I rarely express gratitude for my blessings openly, because I feel like that will jinx it or something ridiculous like that. But, I have been thinking about my life lately and how amazing it really is. I really, truly have a blessed life and I am grateful for it.

I have five beautiful children and a wonderful husband. That's amazing! I always wanted children, and I wanted to be married to a wonderful person. I have those blessings. I realize that they weren't inevitable.

I have an enormous house when compared with people all over the world. Really enormous. With running water and electricity. I have a piano that I can play to make music for my children and myself. And we have enough food to eat. We have always had enough food to eat. Even during that fateful month forever known as the "beans and ketchup" month (thank you food storage) we didn't eat well, but we ate.

I live in a free land where I can act according to the dictates of my own conscience with relatively few serious consequences for doing so.

And, I have the gospel in my life. I know who I am and where I come from. I know why I am here and where I am going after this life. I have had the opportunity to make covenants that make it possible for me to be with my family forever. That is amazing!

I don't know why I have been so blessed, but I am so grateful for it.

Cue Alanis Morrisette

A few months ago, Matt and I were on a date and grabbed a bite to eat at a little burger joint. Fantastic burgers, by the way. There was only one other customer in there, so the cashier and the grill guy (it was set up like an old style diner so we could watch him making the burgers) started chatting. The cashier asked if there were any Vegan establishments nearby that were good. She hadn't been able to find any. Huh? A vegan cashier working at a burger joint. I thought that was fairly amusing.

Boys

My boys are so fun! For some reason, Will at this age reminds me more of Joe than any age so far. Maybe because he is such a boy and that was an age where Joe and I really had fun. It was just the two of us during the day and for his entire two year old year, I wasn't pregnant.

Will has started to show a lot of interest in Ben lately. I have a video of Ben sitting on the floor, and Will crawling around and around and around him and giggling hysterically everytime Ben reaches out and grabs him. It's fun to watch them growing into buddies and playmates.

Will is hilarious. A typical response for him is a one-shoulder shrug with the expression that says, "It was no big thing." He calls his best friend "Fruzzie." It's so funny. Randomly throughout the day he'll say, "Fruzzie? Childwatch?" Child watch at the Y is forever connected to "Fruzzie." Speaking of "Fruzzie," she is a good six inches shorter than Will, but a complete fireball. She holds her own even though Will is such a boy. At the Christmas party last year, she came running into the gym yelling, "Will! Will! See, I'm cute!" She doesn't turn three until July so it was so funny to hear this little two year old saying that.

Will is such a daddy's boy! But, when he gets in trouble, he cries very pathetically, "Joey! Joey!" He idolizes Joe. He also calls all dragons or dinosaurs "dragonsaurs". I kept correcting him with dragons vs dinosaurs, so I guess he lost patience with it and compromised.

Ben has one and a half teeth, and is healthy at the moment. There is a strong possibility that he will develop asthma based on all of the problems he's had this winter.

He has very little interest in crawling, and just sits there most of the time that he's on the floor. He's fine sitting there as long as he doesn't see me. As soon as he sees me he starts crying and won't stop until I pick him up.

He loves his siblings. And he has the cutest head lean. When he's trying to be cute, he leans his head to the side so far his ear rests on his shoulder. He also loves to lean in and rest his forehead on yours. Heartmelting!

Last night Joe said that he pictures rooms in his brain, and whenever he doesn't want to think about something anymore and he wants to move on to something else, he puts it in a room and closes the door. He said this works with everything except things like astronomy and Fish Island (the story he is writing). He said it's like he's always looking through the peep hole with those things and never really gets them out off his mind. Love it!

I love my boys!

Yay...

What's the one thing that could make a non ending stream of sickness better? Anyone? Anyone?

Being audited by the state of North Carolina, you say? Why yes. Yes it would.

They want to make sure we really are married with five children. My dad said I should take the paperwork personally to their office with all five kids with me. I agree! And maybe I should let them loose in the office for a while, just for good measure!

Pictures From the Plague

And then healthy again!

Fun with Mom's Camera

I downloaded the pictures from my camera today, and found some surprises. The kids had been playing with my camera. Here are some of the pictures I found. I love some of the catches because of the way the kids look, and others because it shows me what they find important enough to take pictures of. It's always nice to get a hint of how my kids see the world. This picture was from when Ben was sick. He sure looks miserable, poor baby.

Family History Friday: Brothers

I'm going to start sharing stories from my family as a way of recording them. I share a lot of the things that are happening to my little family, but I thought it would be fun to share extended family stories as a way of staying connected to them and preserving those memories. These very well may not be interesting to anyone but me, but I still think it is important to not let our family members fade to just a name.

On this first Family History Friday, I am going to stay in the recent past and relate two stories: one from my childhood, and one from Matt's.

When I was about seven and my brother John was about ten, we lived in a little house apartment across the street from Cougar stadium. With a creek to one side, a gigantic parking lot on another, an apartment complex behind us and the stadium (with its concrete hills and ways to sneak in on the weekends - not that we EVER did that!) across the street, adventures were never in short supply. This experience, however, was a little less exciting, but important to me. My brother John was my hero growing up and this story is an illustration of one of the reasons why.

As we were wandering around one Saturday - probably looking for trouble - we found a little white kitten. We couldn't find a tag, or a mother. It seemed to have been abandoned. (Whether it was or not, I have no idea - I was seven years old after all). John has SEVERE allergies to pets. Eyes, nose, throat, everything rebels when he's anywhere a dog or cat has been. But, he took pity on this sweet little kitten. We wanted to find where it belonged or if we couldn't do that, find a home for it. John carried that cat until his eyes were nearly swollen shut. I don't even remember what happened to the cat, but I do remember the compassion that John showed to a little abandoned kitten.

The second story is one from Matt's childhood. Matt shared this story at family home evening to illustrate obedience and listening (not that my children ever need lessons like that - they're naturally perfect, wink, wink).

One summer when Matt was around the age of a deacon, he was visiting his Grandpa Joe in St. George with his family. He, with his older brothers Josh and Zach, went into the desert to hunt lizards...Boys... The older boys had caught several, but Matt was as of yet empty handed. He was getting a little desparate to not be completely out done by his older brothers when he saw it. A giant lizard not five yards from him, sun bathing on a rock, and he wanted it. He was about to pounce when suddenly Josh said, "Matt, stop!"
Without even questioning, Matt froze. Josh pointed to a snake hiding in some brush, stalking the same lizard. Had Matt continued, he may have been bitten.

I love that story, and its applications.