More Messes!

I often feel frustrated that by the end of the day my all-day-long efforts to keep an orderly house seem non-existent. By the looks of things some nights you might expect I was sitting around eating bon-bons like stay-at-home mom's get to do. Ha! I can assure you that is not the case.

Sweeping! Why is it that I can sweep my floors three times a day and fill my dust pan every time? It might have somthing to do with this:

Flour anyone? This girl is as crazy as her hair! Notice the snow boots too. She put those on herself and pranced around like she was pretty hot stuff.

Happy Birthday Brynn!

Sweet Brynn turned six yesterday. She requested scones for her birthday dinner and had a chocolate cake.

Look at this sweet baby! She had the most hair of any of our babies when she was born.

Funny little girl. We couldn't tell if this was Ellie or Brynn when we first saw it! The cute dimple gave it away.

Such a good big sister. She always loved Jared to wear that bright, striped outfit.

Brynn is so good with little kids. The little cousins always love her (here she is with Sam) and she is always a big help by keeping an eye on the little ones.

Brynn had a "family" birthday party this year and chose to go ice skating. They used these little rails at first to figure out what they were doing and after ten minutes everyone ditched them. We all had a great time!

We are so grateful to have Brynn in our family. She is the one to always remind us to say family prayers and read our scriptures too. Yesterday I came down with the stomach flu and later in the day I told the kids I was starting to feel better. "Of course you are mom. I said like three prayers for you" Brynn told me. If we all had her faith!

Stages

Ellie is in that stage of DUMPING out everything! Today it was these incredibly small beads. Yesterday while I took a shower it was the entire box of Cheerios--right in the living room! Then last night it was a jar of peanuts all over the kitchen floor. She also delights in dumping her cup full of water all over the floor. Cleaning up after this girl is a full time job!

I am the Greatest

Scott and I love the song by Kenny Rogers, “I am the Greatest.” It’s about a little boy who is throwing a baseball up to himself and trying to hit it with the bat—but he keeps missing the ball.

“Now the little boy doesn't say a word
Picks up his ball he is undeterred
Says I am the greatest there has ever been
and he grits his teeth and he tries it again.”

Once again he swings and misses the ball.

“He makes no excuses
He shows no fear
He just closes his eyes and listens to the cheers

Says I am the greatest the game is on the line
and he gives his all one last time"

Again, he misses the ball and strikes out. But this little boy isn’t upset, instead as he runs home he says

“I am the greatest that is a fact
but even I didn't know
I could pitch like that

Says I am the greatest that is understood
but even I didn't know
I could pitch that good”

Despite the three strikes, this little boy focused on the positive—what a great pitcher he was.

The other day I took Jared up the cul-de-sac to shoot the basketball on our neighbor’s hoop. I was reminded of this song when Jared shot the ball over and over again. He was probably making 1 out of 30 shots, but every shot was very close. He was undeterred. “Wow, Mom! That was a close one!” he exclaimed over and over. And then, “Mom, I’m better than Elliot, huh?” I smiled. Elliot is our 10 year old neighbor who is often out shooting the ball.

Isn’t it great—the confidence of a child. Jared wasn’t focusing on the times he was missing the basket, but instead glorified in his “near baskets” and the “every-once-in a-while basket.” Somewhere along the road to adulthood this simple confidence is often squashed by self-doubt and discouragement. Before I started my ninth grade year I thought it would be fun to play field hockey. But I was worried…what if I wasn’t good enough? What if I didn’t make the team? I didn’t try out for the team until tenth grade, and then discovered a love and talent I didn’t know I had. I often regret that I didn’t have the confidence to try out for the team a year earlier.

I try to remember this even now…there are many new things to try and do and sometimes I still find myself pulling back because “what if I can’t do it, or it doesn’t work right.” I pray at night that my children will have the confidence they need in life to conquer all that they desire.

And then we’d all do good to focus on the positive even when we feel like we “struck-out.”

Family Traditions

I don’t decorate for every holiday. There! I have a few friends who are so cute and have decorations for every holiday on the calendar. As soon as one season or holiday ends, another begins with its very own decorations! It's fun. I know my kids would like it. I have been feeling really guilty lately…like I should be decorating to help create more traditions in my family (but I really despise buying/getting out/taking down/storing). It’s really peer pressure, I know. I wouldn't think twice if everyone wasn't doing it.

After attending a workshop last Saturday on family traditions I started to get worried again: Am I creating sufficient traditions for my kids? When they’re older will they be warped because I didn’t decorate for St. Patrick’s Day? I did make an all green dinner one year...mostly Scott was just grossed out by the green noodles!

I decided I needed to evaluate what I am doing to help create family unity and fun through traditions. Here’s a few I came up with that we’re doing now:

Wheat Bread Shapes. Whenever I make wheat bread (a couple times a month in the winter) I make four loaves and two “shaped” bread loaves with my Pampered Chef Valtrompia tubes. We have a flower, star and heart and I let the kids decide which two shapes they want. This is the first bread we eat hot right out of the oven. We usually eat it all right away, and sometimes it doesn’t even last for Scott to see our shapes when he gets home.

Bedtime Reading. I love to read to the kids at night. Last summer I read almost every American Girl book to the girls. Jared likes Magic Tree House books right now. We just finished the first Harry Potter book too. I know the kids love it too. They are always begging me for another chapter, and when they see I am wavering on whether or not to read more they quickly chime in “I’ll brush your hair.” They’ve got me pegged—I almost always fall prey to this.

Sunday Walks. Last year our church started at 1:00 which made it hard to go on our Sunday walk. We are so happy to have 9:00am church to continue one of our favorite traditions with the kids.

Sunday Treats. Always, always make a treat for Sunday!

Family Movie Night. Every once in awhile, whether as a reward or because there’s no school the next day, we have Family Movie Night. We rent a movie and get treats…licorice (of course!) and gummy bears or worms are staples. Last time I forgot Whoppers not realizing this was also an important part of the night—I won’t forget next time. We watch the movie together with the kids all wrapped up in their sleeping bags. The girls always make tickets for the show, a movie play list and a concession price list and money for us to use. I think they have more fun creating a “movie theater” appearance than the actual movie. Really though, I think it’s the free reign on the treats that the kids like the best. Occasionally I have to remind them to listen to their bodies and stop before they get sick.

I love the excitement my kids have whenever it’s Family Movie Night. It shows you that kids don’t need elaborate and expensive activities to have a good time.

Decorating Sugar Cookies. We usually do this around a holiday. Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween. It’s a HUGE mess, but the kids always love it. And I do love my mom’s recipe for the softest sugar cookies ever.

Hiking. When the weather is nice Scott is always so good to suggest a family hike in the mountains. Everyone always loves this, and the kids have been asking lately to do it again soon.

Tumbling/Wrestling and now Football. Scott is the most fun dad ever. The kids could all be good gymnasts with the practice they get tumbling through the air with Scott. They also love to wrestle him and he’s recently taught them living room football. I love watching!

Planting/Working in the garden.

Shepherd’s Dinner & Bells. I love our Christmas Eve tradition of dressing as shepherds, sitting on a blanket and eating foods that the shepherds may have eaten (we stretch this a little). We always have pomegranates, hummus and pita, stew, cheese and crackers and this year we made flat bread (smashed Rhodes rolls that we cooked on a griddle.) The kids always add a little more each year and this year we found ourselves following the star that appeared at the top of our staircase to find Mary and the baby Jesus. And a new tradition…the Bells!! I love the Bells.

Whew! I’m relieved I could come up with a few off the top of my head! I have a few new ideas too. This year I want to focus more on the meaningful things I can do within my family to help create some fun memories.

Oh Deer!

Scott got his first deer in Idaho a few days after Christmas . . . with our CAR!

About ten minutes after we left the cabin we hit Bambi's sister. We were on a narrow mountain road when our headlights illuminated two deer. I saw them first (Scott was looking ahead several feet, concerned about some red lights he saw (we still don't know what they were)) and screamed, "DEER!" Scott slammed on the breaks, but of course at 60 mph, it was too late.

The kids were upset. At first for the deer's sake, and then for the damaged car.

Everyone asked if we killed the deer. We weren't sure. We didn't stop immediately because there were cars coming behind us and there wasn't anywhere to pull over. I like to think that our deer was killed quickly, but what could we have done otherwise? We finally pulled over in some ranchers driveway to look at our car and almost got stuck in the icy snow.

Gratefully, we were able to drive to Provo that night and then a couple of days later to Albuquerque. We were blessed that the roads weren't icy where we were and that other cars were not near us at the time. From what I hear, deer hittings can cause much more damage than we had.

Our car is in the shop. Our insurance adjuster initially estimated a little over $2000 in damage. Scott and his dad wired the hood shut before we drove to Albuquerque to prevent furthur accidents, and the insurance adjuster didn't want to undo it since we had to drive the car for another week before the shop could take it in. He's sure there is additional damage inside.

We are very grateful for our safety on this trip. If only we could say the same for the deer.

Cascade

We left Albuquerque with just enough snow to come up with this little guy... don't you love the lettuce hair?

About 19 hours of driving later we had this:

We spent a few days in Cascade, ID with all of my brothers and sisters and their kids. I hadn't been to the cabin for over 15 years! It was fun to revive some old memories and share them with Scott and my children.

Snowmobiling, sledding, building ice forts. Snow past my knees!

17 kids 9 years old and younger + 13 adults + 3 room cabin = Fun or Chaos? You decide.

I can't find my gloves!

Favorite memory: Long after the kids were all asleep the adults were still up talking when the power suddenly went off. Almost instantaneously those with cell phones grabbed them out and flipped them open. We walked around the cabin and got ready for bed by the green light of about six cell phones!

It was a lot of driving, but we are very glad we made this trip . . . just don't ask me to do it again any time soon.