Fashionable Ella

I posted this video because I realized I posted a million videos of Lily and Skyler as babies and I haven't done Ella and Thad justice.  Ella is one of the cutest runners I've ever seen (this movie doesn't do her justice).  She also has one of the cutest laughs ever (this movie doesn't do that justice either).

Also I wanted to post this one because I have always loved how Ella sings, "Okay Mom," instead of "Okay bye," at the end of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

Ella has exactly 0% tomboy in her body.  She's all about shoes, nail polish, jewelry, bows, and walking on her tiptoes.  She loves wearing mine and Lily's shoes.  But mostly, she just wants to be in heels.  Once she's in my heels she looks around like she just realized she stepped in quicksand and thinks, "Well what the heck am I supposed to do now?"  It's bad for her, but every now and then it's nice to have her immobilized.  Maybe one day she'll remember this:

Ella's accessories are various.  Today Ella is styling two Hello Kitty shower puffs as bracelets.  I predict her creations will be shown during some city's fashion week in about 30 years.

Summer Beginnings

Summer is definitely in effect here.  Skyler and Lily were signed up for swim lessons from a Mia Maid in our ward.  Skyler took his while Lily was still in school and now it's Lily's turn.  They both have loved Jane!

On Skyler's last day it poured BUCKETS.  I mean, Ella and I were huddled under their big pool umbrella and we left completely soaked.  Skyler's towel was just as wet as him even though I was sitting on top of it trying to keep it dry.  And of course as we drive the 1/4 mile home the sun comes out and the clouds part.  It was probably my favorite day of lessons.  Got to love an adventure!  Ella and I were laughing our heads off with how wet we were getting.

After lessons, if Lily/Skyler tried their hardest and did what Jane asked, they get a treat at home.  

The first day of break was Lily's birthday party.  But the next day (Saturday) Ben had to go on a 10 mile hike with his scouts in preparation for their 50-miler next month.  So I had the kids to myself the whole day.  I have to admit, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  I had to call poison control for the first time ever (whaaaat?!?!) when Ella decided to eat paint when we were making pictures for Father's Day.  Ella then proceeded to poop in the tub for the first time ever (whaaaat?!?!  How lucky am I that this was the first for both things?) when I was trying to wash it off -- while Lily was in the tub with her. I had to bathe them because they looked like this when we were done painting for Father's Day:

 Let's just say we had two naked girls running down the hall to my shower while I had to keep checking on Skyler who was in his tub at the time and Thad was crying in his crib.  Man.  

In my head went something like this:  "OH MY GOSH, THE WHOLE SUMMER IS GOING TO BE LIKE THIS!  WHEN DOES SCHOOL START AGAIN?!?!"

But then an important reminder came to my mind.  In a year, it's going to be like this -- PERMANENTLY.  My kids will be home schooled and I am going to have all four at home at the same time every single day.  I'm excited, but I'm scared.  Oh so scared.

(They say you're a true beginner homeschooler when you cry as you watch the bus drive by each morning)

So Monday morning I sat down with the kids and we made a summer bucket list.  It has saved me so far.  We have done something special every day and the kids have been happy and great for me.  No calls to poison control and no pooping in the tub has occurred either -- a great recipe for a happy mom.

It looks like it's going to be an awesome summer!

So Far, So Great!

It has been 7 years since I followed through with the best decision of my life.  Marrying Heather really has been the best thing that I have done.  Last night we were talking about how grateful we are for each other and how we are thankful for all the Lord has given us.

Our marriage has been far from perfect and we still need to grow and better ourselves in so many ways, but it feels great to know that we are working towards the same goals.  It also helps to know that Heather and I are both trying to be the very best we can be for each other.  I couldn't imagine being in a marriage where we hadn't given ourselves completely to each other.  That knowledge has help us get through the hard times and our challenges have helped us grow closer together and have given us the opportunity to really appreciate all that God has given us

So here are some of the special things that Heather and I have experienced. 

   - The love shack!  Our first home was awesome.  Yes, it was a hole in the wall and at the time it was all we could afford and had many problems, but we made great memories there. 

   - Our decision to start our family. 

   - Our Temple Marriage.

   - Being blessed with 4 amazing children who are a challenge at times, but sure are a lot of fun.

   - Being poor!  Having to use our faith and know that God would help us get through.

   - Road trips.  Whether it was to the mountains, beach, to see family, or even to Ikea we have always had fun.

   - Sitting in bed talking about absolutely nothing which makes us stay up way later than we should.

   - Being able to help friends and family who are in need.

   - Cutting our couch in half to get it in the shack...

   - Both of our home buying experiences.

   - Baby love.  Toddler love.  Kiddo love.  And everything that goes with it.

   - The Castle!

   - Being best friends.

   - My career path and watching the Lord bless us.

Thank you Heather for giving me the best 7 years of my life.  Thank you for being the wife and mother that you are.  Thank you for seeing past the everyday life and looking at the eternities with me.  God has blessed me in so many ways through you.  I couldn't imagine life without you now.  Thanks for taking an average man and with the help of the Lord making me into the person I am today.

Lily's Party

Lily doesn't actually turn 6 until the 24th, but we had to have her party on Friday the 13th to make sure that many of her friends could be there.  The 12th was the last day of school and so I figured people wouldn't be out of town yet on the 13th.  And we had 15 kids (I think) come, so Lily definitely had a successful day.

We agreed on a carnival theme since we already had a lot of stuff.  We made cotton candy and a few other carnival treats.  We made a few games for the kids like a bean bag toss and ring toss.  And we basically just let the kids go at it once they arrived.  It was fun and we didn't spend a lot of money so normally that means it's a success.  But when you don't spend a lot of money, it usually means that you spend a lot of time.  So it's a give and take situation.

I knew that the one thing I definitely wanted to do was to hire a face painter.  A couple of women in our ward do it professionally and so Yan came over to paint.  She did a great job!  And the kids loved it.  I secretly wanted to get my face painted... 

 Great job, Yan!

(Sorry about the blur)

A couple of Christmases ago my parents gave me an air brush set for cake decorating.  I took a cake decorating class a few years ago and I did so badly in it that I was determined to steer away from it.  But when Lily asked for cupcakes, I thought it was time to try out the air brush for the first time because how hard could it possibly be to air brush cupcakes?

After the party was over and I was completely pooped, Lily told me that this was the best day of her whole life.  That made the exhausting day totally worth it.  

A Look Back at Kindergarten

Today is Lily's last day of Kindergarten.  But before we go into that, let's check out a before and after photo comparison, shall we?

 Before:

After:

Seriously, how much has she grown up?!

Lily has had the best teacher we could have ever asked for.  She's made lots of friends.  She's made great grades.  She's developed a huge love for books.  She's learned how to use computers, iPads, and smartboards.  But perhaps best of all, Lily has learned to love learning.

Highlights of Kindergarten

• Being able to volunteer each Friday while Ben stayed home with the others.  (Lily told me this was her favorite part of Kindergarten).
• Going to specials and trying new things.
• Cooking almost weekly with Mrs. Lockhart in the classroom.
• Getting surprise lunches every day lovingly made by Ben.  Almost every day he'd carve a special shape or letter for her out of her sandwich.
• Playing at the bus stop with friends.
• Celebrating the different holidays with her class.
• Getting extra play time in speech therapy (I'll talk more on this in a minute)
• Getting a few Chick-fil-a/Sonic surprise lunches from Mom and Dad.
• Having Ella walk her to the door before she leaves and saying, "Have a.... day!" or "Buh-bye!  Gway day!"

You may or may not remember that Lily had a rough start to Kindergarten.  She's always been the happiest kid but it turned out that she was crying every day and she was hesitant to try new things.  We worked with her teacher, speech therapist, school counselor, and principals to figure out what was going on.  After a few months of testing (which covered everything from emotional issues to learning disabilities to physical disabilities -- it covered everything), we discovered a complicated result.  Lily is on target or ahead in everything but was in the 13th percentile for speech.  A lot of people around me tell me they don't notice it, but it's definitely there.  I could write a book about how much I hate that the government is in charge of schools, but I won't go there.  I'll just say this: there was a law written that said that Lily had to be behind in so many areas of her schoolwork if she wanted help with her speech.  But since she's doing so well in all of her work, they weren't able to offer her full-blown speech therapy.  Instead they were only legally allowed to offer an "intervention" which is a once a week (for 6 weeks) lesson out in a busy hallway.  She wasn't legally allowed to go back to the speech room.  Anyhoo, we met with Lily's school several times and about a month ago I got an excited letter from the speech therapist.  She had found a loophole in the system where she could offer Lily full therapy for the next year.  So Lily has been working on her speech the for the past month and will continue throughout first grade.  We are so thankful.  This isn't the same kind of speech she had when she was 2.  This time we're working on forming full sentences and thinking before speaking to form a clear and focused thought.

What a year it has been!  But it has been a great year.  But I'd be lying if I said that I'm not thrilled for the summer!

500

I've been waiting for this moment for the last few months.  And then in the past few weeks I totally forgot about it until it popped up on my list of blog posts.

500.

I started this blog 6 years ago and I made it to 500 posts.  

The timing was perfect because just yesterday I was thinking to myself that -- besides anything spiritual -- the blog is by far the best gift I've ever given myself.

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to blog about.  And sometimes I feel like I have a hundred million things I need to blog about.  And sometimes I have just a few random non-cohesive things to blog about.

But whatever I blogged about, I'm so grateful I did.  It's so nice to be able to go back in time and relieve Lily's first laugh on video and remember the time when she was 13 months old and tried to eat Skyler's umbilical cord that had just fallen off.  It's fun to go back and look at when 5 month old Skyler couldn't find a toy to suck on so he sucked on his arm and gave himself a hickey.  I love going back and reading about how Ella was born with a record-breaking amount of hair and how the nurses were obsessed with her in the hospital.  And I love reading about how we found out we were supposed to name Thad.  

The blog reminds me that I didn't remember things wrong and that we have experienced some true miracles.  I managed to have four kids when in my second pregnancy my OB told me that might not be a possibility.  I have seen miracle after miracle as Ben has gone from going to school full time while also working full time to being laid off 3 times to climbing up a business ladder very quickly.  I have seen the miracles that happened to get us to each of our homes because each involved a miracle -- big or small -- of some kind.

We went from ghetto shack to cute apartment to living with my parents to our first home to our forever home.  And each one has felt just as much like home as the other.  There are some days when I would love to go back to our apartment in Rexburg and spend the day there.

We've seen a million tender mercies.  We've been introduced to hundreds of great people.  We've had innumerable ups and downs.  And I can say with all honesty that Ben and I have traveled a bumpy yet wonderful road together and are much closer than 500 posts ago.  

But the blog has served an even better purpose for me.  So so so many nights when the kids are finally in bed and I finally get a chance to catch my breath and think to myself, "I survived," I can look at these pictures posted and think to myself, "How did I get so lucky to have them?"

I mean, have you ever noticed how cute they are?

Proof:

Note: Skyler begged to have this picture taken as soon as I had come downstairs from waking up.  I am fully aware that I don't fit under the "cute" category in this picture. 

I am so thankful that I have blogged even though I was actually very anti-blogs when I started mine.

Who knew I was so wrong?

5k

This weekend was an off one.  My piano teacher growing up (who is in my current ward) has survived cancer twice and our ward threw together a 5k to donate as much money as possible to cancer research.  My parents sponsored me and I signed up.  For days before the race I debated whether or not I actually wanted to participate.  My cardiologist has given me strict instructions to live a pretty lazy lifestyle.  I go walking in the morning with a friend each day, but it's never strenuous.  I finally decided to go through with the 5k so long as I walked the whole thing.  But Ben had to catch a flight to Texas that morning so I knew I couldn't go super slow.  So when my running/walking buddy started speeding up, so did I.  I pushed myself WAY harder than I should have and ended up completing the race in 44 minutes.  That's definitely not a time that hardcore racers would want to have, but for me, it surpassed my original goal of simply finishing the race.  After I dropped Ben off at the airport, the kiddos and I headed to my parents' house for the weekend.  I'll be honest, I went there because the kids haven't had a lot of time with them lately and I knew they'd love it.  But the real reason we went was because I was too chicken to go to church on my own with all four kids.  The babies alone would have made Sacrament Meeting close to impossible.  As I stayed at my parents' and went to church, I noticed that my heart was having serious issues.  I felt the spirit tell me for the hundredth time that my body has limits and that it's not wise to push them.  But the kids had a great time at my parents' and Ben was able to help Joe move into his new house, so I'd say the weekend was a success.

Quotes of the Week

Lily: "What is that orange fruit called again?"

My Dad:  "Um, an orange?"

Lily: "Oh yeah!  An orange."

*While we were checking out at Target.  We had just bought a pinata.*

Skyler: "What do you put inside pinatas again?"

Me:  "You'll just have to wait and see."

Skyler:  "Oh I remember!  You put money in there!"

Lady behind us in line: "Can I come to your party?"