A Valentine's Date

My sweet schnoogie doons (Andrew) has been really needing some extra love lately, so Jacob and Amelia were picked up by Poppy in his super cool Jeep and taken away for a sleepover.

We had such a fun night!

*Made a ding and dash delivery to our Secret Valentine family

*Went to his favorite restaurant, Kerbey Lane, where he can get a big ole pancake any time of day
    (he excitedly announced to the waitress that he could down 10 pancakes at home, no problem).  We discussed all that he is learning at school, he taught me how to do fractions, he explained his version of the perfect dog and he told me a lot of jokes and riddles in his one volume voice

*Stopped by the library to check out books on bald eagles, but they were closed! Never fear, Red Box  to the rescue

*Watched Dolphin Tale.  I enjoyed the movie, but I spent a good portion of it watching my sons eyes shine as he watched this sweet animal rehabilitate.  What an animal lover he is.  And such a tender heart.

*I told him  he could sleep in my room tonight and I asked him to read the scriptures. He, of course, turned to Luke because that is the only place he ever seems to read.  We discussed parables.  He kept reading.  In the middle of his last verse he started giggling.  I was kind of falling asleep (shhh...)and didn't know what he was laughing at.  Finally he said, "Mommy?  We learned the weirdest song in music class and I can't get it out of my head!"  He started singing Puff The Magic Dragon, so of course I joined in.  He COULD NOT BELIEVE I knew the song too!  His eyes were huge!  "How do you know that song?!"

*I am totally crazy about him

*Again, such a fun night

Somebody Turned 8 Around Here!

Enough of my last pity party post. Nothing is fixed but my attitude, and that HELPS! The rest will be taken care of this weekend. Oh and I must add, a number of friends have done kind and very helpful things for us so that helps a lot!

Now on to something marvelous!

Andrew got baptized! December 27.
It was lovely and he was so very excited.

Nani and Poppy

This is a classic picture of me procrastinating. This is about ten minutes before we get started. I am the one speaking on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I am just now beginning to pull thoughts together. My mom on the other hand is the Queen of Preparation. She is sitting on the other side of my dad. She gave a talk on baptism that was stellar. Really brought the Spirit. Full of easily digestable teachings. There were a number of people there who were not familiar with all our church's teachings so I know it was helpful for them as well, to understand why Andrew is making the choice he is.

Lenore, Cara and Josh, the Bonners, the Porters. Lenore is known for her cooking skills. Andy requested that she make doggy cookies for the refreshments and so she did. A great friend.

Poppy and his little admirer. Well - I am going to call them co-admirers. If they were not related Amelia might find a way to marry him.  Oh, and beyond Millie is Uncle Kris talking with Jacob.  Jacob thinks the world of him and I am so grateful that Jake can have Kris in his life.

Goofing around.

The wonderful Martinez family

I'm so pleased to see Andrew choose to be baptized and to be so faithful in reading the new scriptures Grandma and Grandpa got him. He LOVES to read them. (Stays up late at night knowing full well that if he is reading those it will be harder for me to get upset and insist on lights out.) Anyway - he has a testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. He shared it with us all as we did a lesson on testimonies the other night. He is a good boy. Persistent in all he deems important. I love him to pieces!

So what's been going on around here?

Here's a bit of December catch up.

Kids making "funny videos" with their friends. And for some reason they are loading as still shots. I'll work on that. Millie was a happy spectator.

Many boxes of chocolate were sold for a school fundraiser in hopes that they would win an ipad.

Amelia decides to water the flowers and insists that even though it is 50 degrees outside, a swimsuit must be worn in the off chance that some water gets on her.

Many many hours are spent playing with the little darling that I watch everyday. She is seven months old and she and Amelia cannot get enough of each other!

SO MUCH DRESSING UP! Amelia makes sure that even little E gets in on all the action.

More dressing up.

And more pics to come!

Lights, Camera, Action!

We've been meaning to get the outside lights up for some time now, and today ended up dry and with a little morsel of time to do it!  Hooray!

The ladder we have is only three steps high.  Still - I needed to get ON that roof.  Just Amelia, Andrew, and I were at home, so I looked at Andrew and said, "Throw all your body weight on this ladder and DON'T. LET. IT. MOVE."  I climbed up and then tippy toed quick on the top you-should-never-use-this-as-a-step rung and shot myself up on the roof.  The exhilaration I felt when I realized I was not dead or broken was fantastic.

I got all the clips on and then needed to help the kids unravel all the lights.  Umm...this meant I needed to get down.  Andrew said jump.
Me: "Uh, that's a lot of weight flying at the ground, buddy."
  Andy: "Oh yeah, and you have bad knees."
Me: "And a bad ankle."
I sat.  For awhile.
I  pictured stunt men and thought about tucking and rolling.
Seriously.
Then I laughed at myself.
If you know me well - you know I am uncoordinated.  In high school I accidentally gave a guy a bloody nose as he attempted to flip me over his shoulder.

I eyed the unstable 1 inch wide top of that ladder about 5 feet below the rim of the roof.  Again I said, "Throw all your body weight on that ladder Andrew.....you too, Millie!"
It was crazy.  It was stupid.
I made it down.

Andrew became the roof man.  After I made it down he told me that he gets up on the roof by climbing the tree on the side of our house.  He was up in like 15 seconds waving to me from the crest of the roof.  He did a great job and it was a lot of fun to work together.

Millie spent her time dutifully tangling all the lights as fast as I could untangle them, and once we finished it Andrew ran to plug them in.  He did so ceremoniously and.......one whole strand didn't work.  Instead of crying, we laughed.  It really seemed ridiculously funny.

So maybe we'll redo it on Monday, or maybe not.  Maybe this year I will just look at half my house lit up and smile and remember how much silly fun we had doing it.

You didn't!

Oh Yes, YOU DID.
(her hair is so light you can't really tell how much there is.)

Luckily it just kind of gave her a layered look.

And the boys are home early from school today. It's Christmas Break! They enjoyed their Christmas parties and at Jake's they had a "Deck the halls" card exchange and he got POKEMON!!! All the rage at the school right now. (Isn't this a few years behind the fad?)
Anyway, Millie is so happy to have her big brothers home for the afternoon, happy to play the game with them (Jake keeps coming up to me and whispering that he is going easy on her), and even Emma - the little girl I watch now is enthralled with the action.

They both got straight A's. Jake studied for hours for all his final exams. It was tough. I am so proud of him for doing hard things. He says he plans on getting a $30,000 scholarship for college, so here we go! Off to a good start, buddy!

Chocolate For Sale!

Andrew woke me up this morning (Saturday) at 6:50 am.  He just wanted to

"let [me] know that he was going to be outside selling chocolate bars."

Here he is.

The sun is not fully up yet.

These boxes of chocolate were handed out Friday afternoon for a school fundraiser.  I had to work until 5:30 and we had plans for the rest of the evening and he was going crazy.  He needed to be selling those bars right now!  I thought it was going to kill him to have to wait till the next day.

I seized the early wake up time and ran to the grocery store for some milk for breakfast and by the time I got back he had already sold 5.  Before 7:30 in the morning!  He sold all 50 by ten in the morning.  From our driveway!  I guess I should have let him get more boxes yesterday.

Just as I was about to hit "post" he told me I had to come in the front room right now!
This is what he made for me.

  I love you too, Andrew!

Ka-Ching!

Andrew's been working hard at dog-sitting and controlling his urge to spend, spend, spend all that lovely cash, and now has a BRAND NEW BIKE!!

Oh, yeah, check me out.

Off to show his friend, Emerson.

He woke up early this morning and was pacing non-stop until Millie woke up and we could get to the store to GET THAT BIKE!

My dear sweet darling children. I am amazed at your abilities. Amazed that God has entrusted me with your care. You are so good. So creative. So intelligent and inquisitive. So forgiving, quick to have fun and look at the brighter side of things.

Andrew - you cleaned out the van as a surprise for me because you knew I would be driving kids from youth group around for a scavenger hunt tonight. You even pulled out all the rugs and beat them and used a wet rag to clean out anything left in the cupholders. You were sweating like crazy! It is an April evening and was 94 degrees out. You were thrilled to be doing it and I overheard you letting Amelia join in as well, using a gentle teaching voice to direct her as to where things went. Here you are enjoying some cold watermelon after finishing your surprise.


Amelia - every time you pull a candy out of the Easter stash Grandma and Grandpa just sent you, you run to me with an identical candy and say, "One for me, and one for YOU!" and then give me an adorable smile with light spilling out of your huge beautiful eyes.


Jacob - I had so much fun running with you a few weeks ago. What a great conversationalist you are! The time flew by and it was so great to be passing it with you on a cool Saturday morning when the world was still quiet. The next day at church one of the men in our ward came up to me and commented that he had seen us and said it looked like I was having a lot of fun with you. I WAS! Here's a funny picture of you from our road trip last summer.


I love you all! I love that you are all willing to work on things with me. I love the flowers Andrew always picks for me, the way Amelia does something (like leak a little bit before running to the bathroom or open her eyes during prayer), tells us about it, and then states, "But dat's okay." With her eyes kind of squinted, her head kind of nodding at a tilt, and always followed by a knowing little laugh of hers. I love that Jacob ALWAYS checks in when at his friends house within the MINUTE of when I've asked him to. ALWAYS. And even if it's just a check in he's already spilling out what a"marvelous" time he's having and what he and his friends are up to, and what they've eaten, and why they're laughing in the background, and "wait Mom, one more thing, David just told me this joke. You HAVE to hear it........" and I end up having to kind of cut him off while laughing and let him get back to what he's doing.

How grateful I am to be your mama.

TOGETHER!

My boys have been marching around, giggling uncontrollably, with their arms draped around each others' shoulders and chanting...

"We're just two belly buttons out to face the world's problems together,
TOGETHER!"

Now they are laying on the couch pulling each others' ears and shouting/guffawing/drooling
"TOGETHER, TOGETHER!"

Jeepers. I love them.

Okay - funny side note. They were also talking about being Siamese twins. Mike just read this and told me that the night before he had taken the boys to the bookstore and they had been captivated by a book on Siamese twins. Ahh..there is an explanation behind the madness.

Baseball Season

Andy got his uniform at last night's practice and can hardly wait for his first game this Saturday! Right after breakfast he got all dressed up and wanted to start practicing again.

But just in case you're worried.... "Mom, I LOVE baseball, but don't worry - I'm still going to be a professional soccer player." His enthusiasm is so darling.

Swinging

The other afternoon we were out swinging in the back yard. Amelia was in a little car swing flying high in the sky...

Me: Millie, where are you driving to in your car?

Amelia: Salt Lake City.

Me: Oh! What are you going to do there?

A: Get married in the temple.

Me: Really? Who will you be marrying?

A: My mother-in-law

And because I ran and got the camera, the boys had to do something super cool.

32.....again?

I think I've been telling people all year that I was 32, so when I realized a couple months ago that I would actually be
turning 32 at this birthday I was a bit surprised. I guess no fear of aging here!

The kids surprised me with a breakfast they made themselves. Wish we had a picture of it. My favorite part of the day was listening to the boys organize, decorate, and cook with their hushed voices, commands, and (sometimes loudly spoken) brilliant ideas! I kept pretending to sleep and smiled to myself when I heard Mike go out and ask them if they needed help and they responded that they would do all of it by themselves. They made us all plates of wonderfully arranged scrambled eggs, toast, strawberries, and carrots. Cuties!

Oh - and they woke me up by stuffing Amelia's leftover cake from the night before with 32 candles and singing to me in bed. Hahaha!

My birthday is the day after Amelia's. Can you see that she has already donned all her princess gear before coming down for breakfast? And all week she kept saying to me in an all-knowing voice, "We are da grils. So we have our birthday togezer. We don't want to have it by ourselves!" (Ourselves being said incredulously.)

Little Fred

A little poem the kids memorized yesterday. The content of the poem being my attempt at brainwashing....

But either way, they are pretty sweet.

(Each video is about 30 seconds long.)







Little Fred
When little Fred was called to bed
He always acted right.
He kissed Mama, and then Papa,
And wished them all goodnight.

He made no noise like naughty boys,
But gently up the stairs
Directly went when he was sent
And always said his prayers.

Second Verse Same as the First!

Andrew wakes me up pulling on my feet and calling out

"Mom! You slept in! We have to go!"

I open my eyes and see Andrew, fully dressed including shoes, and wearing his backpack.

"What???"

"Mom! Get up! I'm all ready! I just need you to help me get my breakfast."

Thinking there is NO WAY I've had a full night's sleep - I glance over at my clock....

2:48 a.m.

Somebody shoot me.

After some convincing that the large moon was what was making it so bright, he reluctantly agreed to take off his backpack and shoes and fall asleep on my floor.


And I'd like to make a note that neither last night nor the night of Amelia's screaming did Mike even flinch in his sleep. What is up with that?!?

Saturday - Sickies & Sliders

Yesterday we started off the day way too early at a soccer game and then as Mike and the boys tried to hit a bday party in between soccer games, Amelia and I headed to the E.R. Joys. We've got the flu and had to sit there for Millie to get breathing treatments and a lot of medicine. She was a model patient!

Came home. Slept FOREVER. She and I woke up in time for dinner and then she sat out in the beautiful weather while Jacob read to her. So sweet.


As they kept busy in the front doing this, Andrew had a major league baseball game in the back, in which he played all the characters complete with conversations. Here he demonstrates Babe Ruth.

And after looking at the above pics, I realized how necessary a haircut was and this morning gave Andrew his first haircut by ME! (and then Amelia and I crashed again.)
I wish I could save some of this weather in a bottle and occasionally pull it out in July and August. It truly feels life giving. A cool gentle breeze with the smell of barbeques and blossoms. Mmm.

So I have been extremely busy at the school, more on that later, but good things are happening. As a result of me being so busy though, dinner time often was moved back to 7:30ish, okay - maybe 8 sometimes, and everything was rush rush. Even though a lot of what was causing crowded days was for a good cause, it made for stress in the home and bad habits started forming. We got in a bad cycle of behavior and how I would respond to that behavior. Repeat.

Some of my good girlfriends from law school came out and stayed for a weekend.

(Hi Ronna & Emily!)

We had such fun!!!! But an important side benefit for my family was that the four days that my kids and I were apart provided a natural break in our cycle. I was able to step away and evaluate and things have gone SO MUCH BETTER around here!

I am being a better girl, and the boys (obviously) are responding to a nicer mom, dinner at a normal time, earlier bed times, and not so much of the "alright, everyone has 20 minutes to finish all their homework and then we're gone!" stuff.

They also found the energy to set some of their own goals and I am SO PROUD of them! I decided to throw an impromptu party for them one night to recognize them. Just threw up some streamers and made some quick blue ribbons while Mike made dinner. They were both surprised!

Jake's says, "Faith in God & Hard Work: Positive Life Change Award." He has been working really hard on being nicer to Andrew. He decided that he needed to say a prayer every time he thought about hurting Andrew and has remembered to do this. His behavior has changed drastically and has had a noticeable effect on the household. Hooray Jacob!!

Andy's says "Determination & Honesty: No thumb sucking award." He eliminated his "slippy dippy" from his sleepytime diet and is now thumb free! Woohoo! If he found his slip lying near his bed at night he would grab it and throw it onto the highest shelf in his closet and say "Not tonight!" He decided on a two week chart and excitedly put his big X in the box each morning.

Both boys came up with these goals on their own, and monitored themselves. I can't say it enough.....I am so proud of them!

Scrumps to all of us for getting our act back together again! I love you family!

Middle School Journal Flashbacks

You know - where you start every entry with "I can't believe how long it's been since I've written. So much has happened!" And then follow that statement with something like...."so we moved last year and I have a new little sister who is now two and I've gotten braces on and am now done with them"....

Anyway, had to document one of my cuties.

Andrew has such a sweet heart. So loving and thoughtful. Below is a picture of something he rigged up right outside my kitchen window so "[I] can look at something beautiful while [I] wash the dishes!"


Here's a closer look. He took a branch that had been recently trimmed off a bush, stuck it in the ground, picked a rose, and affixed it to the center. Voila!


A couple weekends ago we went to a park and had a picnic after the boys' soccer games. While Mike and I laid on our backs, eyes closed, enjoying the sunshine (and discussing how awesome it is that our kids are old enough to watch each other and allow us to relax like this at the park), Andrew was on a mission. He tapped me and told me to open my eyes. The first thing I saw was a huge grin on his face and his shining eyes. Next I beheld his creation. He had scavenged an old water bottle, filled it with water from the ravine, and picked some little crocus-like flowers to put in it. Oh my goodness I love him!

And this is another example of things he just does on a regular basis. It was Saturday. Dad had run to Home Depot. Andrew made him this sign and taped it on the garage door before Dad got back home.


He's here to melt my heart, and he's doing a pretty good job.