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.

I'm having a moment

I feel old tonight. Like all of a sudden time is moving faster and I'm a bit nervous. So here's the deal. My friend called this evening to ask if I would show her son my flute and maybe let him play around on it to see if it's something he'd like to pursue.

I start thinking about how I felt when I first started playing the flute and was trying to figure out what kind of songs we started with. When I realized I was foggy on this and was wondering why, I started to calculate how many years it's been since I learned.

It's been 20 YEARS!!! Okay, so that explains the fogginess. Yikes!


And to stay on that "My kids will seriously never relate to me or believe that I know what it's like to be them" train......this morning I was fondly remembering when my family had a boat and we would take off on Saturday morning and tube the day away. The special treat when we headed home, exhausted from the sunshine, was to stop at Taco Bell and - get this - all of us got to choose THREE (oo-la-la) items from the

THIRTY-NINE CENT menu.

My sister, Lindsay, always instead finagled her way into getting 1 super expensive item instead. Maybe a seven layer burrito for (gasp) $1.07.

So there it is kids. Proof that I grew up in the olden days. Nothing will ever be the same. Sigh.

Snow Day

A cold spell came through Texas, and with it an actual snowstorm. The next morning we had almost an inch of accumulation, so schools closed, work was canceled, and we played. First order of business was a proper snow fort with some neighbors.

Next up was sledding. Sleds aren't sold here, so we got cookie sheets, trays, and cardboard boxes to slide down a hill. At least we had donuts and hot chocolate when we went, so we didn't miss actual sleds too much.


Finally, we had a snowball fight. Fantastic fun.

Martin Luther King Jr.

I am inspired by Dr. King. What a noble thing to stand up for what you feel so strongly. We had a great discussion as a family on what this day is all about. We watched his speech during the march on Washington. We then watched the speech he gave at a small gathering in Mississippi right before he was assassinated. You could feel the tension. We watched Walter Cronkite break the news of Martin Luther King's death on his nightly broadcast. We then watched Robert Kennedy break the news to the people he was with and give a great message about the choice we have to choose our reaction and decide what direction we want to head. We then listened to a recording of Robert Kennedy being assassinated.

Lots to talk about. Lots to be grateful for. The boys really got a feel for the upheaval in the country. For the fear and tension that comes with change. And for the importance of standing up in a quiet (or sometimes not so quiet) firm way for what we believe.

I hope to be as strong in those things I value. Our country's educational system comes to mind. What can I do to support good legislation or bring about desperately needed changes? Mike also pointed out the necessity of patience. The changes "officially" started with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and then the Civil Rights movement started to really push in the early nineteen-fifties and still lasted for about another fifteen years. Important cases and decisions are still being made in order to eliminate discrimination. Am I willing to remain steady and be consistent in the direction I choose, and hang in for the long term? I hope so, for as Martin Luther King so eloquently stated in a letter from a jail in Birmingham, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

I am so grateful for a country where freedom is talked about, fought about, written about, cherished, and made possible. I am also grateful for time spent with my husband helping my children gain an understanding of their past and an appreciation of the present.

Well, well, well

I put rollers in Amelia's hair for the first time last night. She was thrilled and held very still. When I was finished I took her into the bathroom to see and she told Mike,

"I am a different kind of woman with these in my hair."

And the finished product.

A little weird....

There are three kids in my backyard right now. Two boys and a girl. Nope. Not my kids. My kids aren't even home.

My kids are all gone at a friend's house having a playdate. These kids came over at different times all looking to play with Jake and Andrew.

When I told the first one to come over that the kids weren't home, he said "That doesn't matter. Can I play Legos?"

Uh, sure. Why not?

I did the dishes.

Then another one came over. Emerson ran to answer the door with me and invited the next kid to come in and play Memory with him.

I scrubbed out my shower.

The third one stopped by, joined the party, and now they are out playing Calvin-ball in the backyard.

They have asked nothing of me and have cleaned up after themselves.

I decided to post.

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.)

Millie Girl is 3!

I can't believe it. The girl is potty trained, riding a "big girl bike" with training wheels, and wearing size 4T. Where does the time go?

She loves butterflies and requested a butterfly cake.

Opening presents.

Wearing as many presents to bed as she can manage. (About ten minutes later she realized hard wire fairy wings and a tulle princess dress are not the best bed companions.)

Goodness gracious, we love her!

Hermine Excitement

So it rained a little last night. Can you see the ruler? That reads 11 1/2 inches. The bucket went out in the backyard last night at 7:00. Yes, I might be a little of a weather fanatic. I wanted to KNOW how much rain was falling at my house, not at the airport, or weather station....

Anyway - checked the water in the bucket first thing in the morning. I can't get over it. Almost a FOOT of rain last night. That's not counting the day and a half of non-stop rain before my curiousity got the best of me and I put the bucket out.

When I went to switch over the laundry last night I looked out the front window and noticed that the flooding was out of control. I called Mike and we ran outside in our pajamas, in the pouring rain, and waded through the street in water that was almost up to our knees. Our mailbox looked like it was floating, you couldn't see where our sidewalk was....I got some awesome videos of earlier in the day when the water in the ravine was just near the top of it's banks, but I SOOOOO wish I could have gotten videos or pictures of what it looked like at that point. Craziness. But it was too dark. Our whole backyard looked like a river and water about 6 inches deep was rushing through our fence boards and gushing into the street/river.

Lots of fun. We were soaking and running the streets in the dark while our children slept peacefully, blissfully unaware they were home alone.

So I know I'm a little weird and get worked up about weather. And you can rest assured I am passing it on to my children. My kids and I were actually thoroughly disappointed that it stopped raining this afternoon. Humbug. Back to schoolwork.

Happy Homeschool Day!

That's what Jacob was singing over the balcony upstairs this morning.

Our first day - had to still get pictures

Jacob took a picture of his workstation.
He was SO excited.
Check out those freshly sharpened pencils.

We had a lovely time and were finished by 10 a.m. (A short morning to start off with.)
The boys were amazing workers. So cheerful and cooperative. Amelia was great as well! She painted while the boys worked, and then was "eraser girl" while I worked with Andrew on the white board.
I even found time to fold and put away a load of laundry while the boys did some writing.

So even though there will be days I will wonder why we made this decision, I am incredibly happy that it wasn't the first day!!!!

Wonderful children. I hope I can do great things for them.

Hot Stuff

This little chica has been wandering around my house in this get-up for the past hour. (Yes, those are the "roll up" plastic glasses you get from your eye doctor after having your eyes dilated.) Her quiet mutterings have continued to rotate between softly singing "I'm a Princess...." and in a matter-of-fact voice, "Star Wars the Clone Wars!" and a stern "Where's Master Yoda?"

Over and over. Actually none of those things come to mind when I look at her. Gangster Dopey was kind of what I was leaning towards.

But I'll tell you what REALLY makes her hot stuff.

She's potty trained.

Go Millie, go Millie, go Millie, go Millie. It's (almost) your birthday.

Sweetness

Let me give you some background. I've decided to homeschool my kids. I'll have to do a different post on that, but here's what happened tonight.

Our elementary school's Welcome Walk was set for tonight. It's when you find out who your teacher is. You wait, excitedly and impatiently, between 5 and 7 for your teacher to show up at your door. She brings you a little bag with papers for mom and dad, a write up about her, and some fun stuff like pencils...maybe a zebra ruler, and then visits with you for a few minutes and is off again. Then your kids are calling all their friends to find out who's in who's class. Lots of fun.

About 6:30 Jacob started his phone calls. First on the list, Simon.

Here's what I could hear from the other room:

"Simon! Hey! Who'd you get?!

Awesome! Are you excited?

Were you hoping for her?

Do you know who else is in your class?"

....a little chatter. And then apparently Simon decided to start asking Jake the same questions, even though he knew Jake would be at home this year.....

And Jake answered, "I got Ms. Anderson! Oh yeah, I like her a lot. She's the one I wanted the most."

Then he looks over at me and smiles a heart melting smile.

LOVE.