Sweetness

I love Mary Engelbreit's artwork. Her fun colors, sweet pictures and poignant thoughts always touch me. In fact, one year for Christmas I asked Scott to get me a day-to-day Mary Engelbreit calendar--the kind that you can pull off each day and has a different picture. I never pulled the pictures off, but would frequently take a few minutes to look through the pages. Scott thought this was funny, but it always made me happy!

Last Wednesday was mine and Scott's 9th anniversary. I've always felt this picture depicts our life perfectly with kids running around screaming, playing and making messes. Gratefully mom and dad still love each other amidst it all.

Scott's birthday song to me was very sweet. He is amazing. I didn't ever write about my other birthday surprises. The Friday before my birthday a group of my friends showed up at my door to take me to PF Chang's for dinner. I was very surprised! Apparently, my good friend Amber had been scheming with Scott for several weeks to pull it off. I guess I had been making things hard for Scott. Since I make dinner early for the kids he didn't know how to get me to not eat before my friends came. He mentioned on Thursday we should order pizza but I replied, "We had pizza yesterday." Then Friday morning he called and asked me what I'd planned for dinner and I replied "There's chicken in the crock pot." He called me around 5:00pm and I said I was just getting dinner ready for the kids. He asked if I'd wait to have dinner with him. I thought it was a strange request only because he's never asked before. So I served the kids and waited for him. When he came home we sat down together and he said, "You might not want to eat too much because I have a surprise for you." I was wondering when he was going to break out the surprise when my friends all showed up at my door.
After dinner we went to my friend's house for my absolute favorite Costco All-American Chocolate Cake--7 pounds of the most moist, delicious chocolaty chocolate cake.

I came home late and found two bouquets of wild flowers with notes beside each one from Kaitlyn and Brynn. They both wished me a happy birthday. One had a flower bouquet drawn on it with the words, "Happy Birthday Mom. It's early. But it's pretty." Coming home to such sweetness reminded me how great life is and how lucky I am.

A Child's Prayer

Jared's obsession with "good guy vs. bad guy" became more apparent tonight. As part of our bedtime routine I read to Jared from his choice "A Light in the Attic" by Shel Silverstein. He loves to hear these poems and can remember from the pictures what each one is about. After our reading Jared said his prayers as I listened. He remained quiet for a few seconds after his prayer and then we had a precious conversation.

Jared: Mom, Heavenly Father answers our prayers.

Mom: You're right Jared, I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers. He will answer your prayers if you pray because you're sad or scared, and He will comfort you. He will answer you if you pray and ask Him if the Book of Mormon is true.

Jared: Yeah, and like if bad guys have you then you can pray to Heavenly Father and then He'll send good guys to come with a sword and push down the bad guys and then you can run away.

Mom: That's right Jared. If you have faith and ask Heavenly Father He will answer all sorts of prayers.

It's true, Heavenly Father can do all things--even rescue you from bad guys.

Family Pictures

Poor Ellie is 16 months and has never had a professional picture taken. Even sadder than that is the family picture of us that Scott's mom has sitting on a table in her basement. It was taken when Jared was just brand-new. I never liked the picture and every time I visit Cheryl I remember how badly we need new family pictures taken. We've intended to do it for some time now, but just the idea of getting family pictures taken with our four young kids made me start sweating with stress. We made the first appointment for the day which was helpful and actually came out with a few good pictures. Ellie was tired by the time we got to her individual pictures so we only got a few shots of her with her "serious" face.

Sarah's 30th Birthday

Sarah turns 30 today!

Being that I'm an exessive romantic I wrote some new lyrics to a song from back when we were first dating and strummed it out on my guitar. (I should mention that this is about the only song I can play on the guitar).

I'm thinking these efforts--which are extraordinary in relation to my innate levels of sensitivity--should help cover for 9 years of being a slacker and maybe give me enough points to safeguard me for 30 years going forward.

See below for text to the song and click on the video to hear it and see some pictures of Sarah and the family.

--Scott

It's been 9 years ago since I met the best
I've known ever since my life would be blessed

A delightful sweet girl oh so gorgeous and fun
I was swept off my feet by this Molly Mormon

With 4 terror kids that keep her up on her toes
Then primary, moms' preschool, shop for enrichment at Lowes

Sar's better than football, a sports car, cake and ice cream
To me and the family, she is our queen

The truth of her age is a mystery to some
I think it's because she looks so young

In our Chapel Hill Ward, I still remember the time
A Priest hit on her thinking she was his rhyme

I made it real clear about her spouse and offspring
Held her hand in the air showing her diamond ring

From the beginning I knew that I had struck gold
With this amazing, now 30 year old.

All-Star Wrestling!

One night before bed Jared started talking in his 'tough-boy' voice about how he was going to wrestle his dad as soon as he got home. He was upset to find out that Scott was at a youth activity (he just got called to be the YM Pres.) and wasn't going to be home until after Jared was in bed. The next morning Jared woke up--still with wrestling plans on his mind. Unfortunately, Scott was off again for early church meetings but promised Jared a match after church. We arrived home from church before Scott and started eating. The minute Scott walked in the door Jared started in with his 'tough-boy' voice--"I'm gonna take you down! You better watch out because I'm gonna beat you!" I laughed as Jared repeated the same things Scott always chides when he wrestles with the kids. Scott went upstairs to change his clothes and seemed to be taking much longer than he should. We were all getting impatient for the wrestling match to begin. When Scott came down the stairs he had a blanket covering him and unveiled to this:



Jared's eyes popped open so wide in shock and there was a moment of surprised silence before we all started laughing hysterically. In the next moment Jared was on the floor wrestling his huge daddy. The girls joined in too and by the end they had one tired poppa and sweet dreams of All-Star Wrestling.

Let's Get Down to Business to Defeat the Huns!

If you've ever seen the Disney movie "Mulan" you know what I'm talking about. Mulan pretends to be a boy so she can fight in the Imperial Army to save China from the Huns. Jared has encapsulated the entire movie in his new thrill...The Huns Game. The very minute Scott and the girls leave in the morning Jared rushes to me and asks if I want to play "The Huns" with him. And then he wants to play again and again and again. The basic premise is that we are the good guys and the invisible Huns are the bad guys. We use are homemade weapons--and they are not a few--to fight them. Our weapon supply is what I like the most. In this picture you see Jared with a belt (otherwise known as our "lucky, lucky lasso"), a potato masher, wire whisk, part of a rescue hero backpack used to shoot fire and a remote control in his pocket that can make us fly or cause an avalanche. Not pictured, but very much a part of our artillery is a wooden train track (known as our 'fire tropie"). Obviously this can shoot fire as well. Jared also constructed shooting guns from our Discovery Toys Marble Works game. We don't have any play guns or swords in our house, but that hasn't stopped Jared.
Ellie is in on the fun as well. This is Ellie pointing her potato masher at our enemy and making the "Pcheww" noise of her weapon as she uses it. She makes this same noise every time she holds one of the wooden train tracks. She will probably always be confused on the intended purpose of these objects. She loves the thrill of hiding at the top of the stairs or running into a closet to hide, and she is very cognizant of keeping our hideouts secret...she talks in whispers just like Jared and I do.

Plagued with Pink Eye and Washing Sheets

Every year my family seems to be plagued with pink eye. I'll take pink eye over the many other serious illnesses we could have, but it is a PAIN! First of all, it's annoying to take the kids to the doctor for them to tell me it's pink eye, when I already knew that but just need a prescription. Secondly, it is SO hard to contain to one set of eyes! I have antibacterial hand gel in several parts of the house and have the kids put it on every time they pass it, but it still jumps through the family. Scott thinks it's because my kids have

big "targets." Thirdly, I am sick of washing sheets and pillowcases!

Jared woke up with pink eye first. I started him on antibiotics and washed all the sheets on his bed and my bed since he ALWAYS ends up in my bed at some time in the night. The next day Ellie woke up with pink eye so I washed her sheets and blankets. After 24 hours of the antibiotic the redness and goop usually clears so I washed their sheets one more time to insure they don't re-infect themselves. I thought we were in the clear...Kaitlyn and Brynn have scathed by without contracting it. But then Scott woke up with it today! Here I am again...washing sheets and pillowcases. Hopefully the saga ends with this...but my eyes feel a little itchy!