Waterfalls

I have always loved waterfalls. There is something magical about seeing water cascade down a mountain side and then land in a bubbling pool down below. For most of my teenager years, I enjoyed a waterfall picture that hung above my bed. In the transition to married life this picture has long been lost. I now once again enjoy a picture of a waterfall in our home, thanks to my husband. Here is the original picture ordered.

This is Multnomah Falls in Oregon. We visited this falls while on a trip to see the area my husband spent his teenager years. For fun, here's some photos of our visit. We truly  enjoyed reliving some memories this past week.

Christmas Eve

We have a tradition of getting together for Christmas Eve with my husband's family. Like most people, the kids act out the story of Christ's birth while someone reads from the bible. We also have a musical program and Santa comes to deliver new Christmas pajamas. While each year is unique it is the unexpected that truly makes each year memorable. This year we enjoyed....

A Sumo shepherd

A visit from the Grinch

 His pants say smokin hot!

Family fear factor. A sister-in-law brought some dried mini fish from Korea. She said they eat these like potato chips. Jolly J was the only one brave enough in our family to try.

do you think she liked it?

And our own little elf

Life's Blessings

My heart is very full this day. A week ago Monday, some dear friends of ours welcomed into this world a little daughter. She was born with underdeveloped lungs and only lived for a few hours. Today was her funeral and what a wonderful experience this was. I am so grateful to be a member of the  LDS church. One of our key beliefs is that we lived before this Earth in heaven and that after we die we will live again. We will be able to live eternally with our families. As I saw this precious little ones body, I truly could feel that her spirit was not there but with our father in heaven and with her family members there.

As I have done a lot of thinking and crying this past week for our dear friends, I have come to realize that like all things in life there are blessings. Yes, even blessings in death.

I don't even want to try to state that I understand what our friends are going through  How can someone? I do know, however, what it feels like to have someone close to you die. My grandfather died my senior year in high school. I remember as we where driving home after the funeral having a very intense desire to see and hug my grandfather again. Right then, I determined to do all I can so that when I die I will have lived a righteous life and be able to see and live with my Grandfather again. This is a blessing of death-A very real reminder and motivator to live a righteous life.

Another blessing from death is a grateful heart. When I first heard the news of this little ones passing I was reminded of the birth of our youngest, my son. When he was born he came out not breathing. I had a lot of fluid and he aspirated (breathed fluid into his lungs) when he took his first breath. It was a heart stopping, what seemed like five minutes, before we heard him utter his first cry. He then continued for the next few hours struggling with his ability to keep his oxygen saturation up and ended up in the NBICU. It was a good twelve hours before we were blessed with the knowledge that all would be well. How grateful we were to be blessed with the privilege of raising our son.

As I reflected on this, at a time when our dear friends were not blessed with that same privilege, I couldn't imagine how it would have been if things had been differently for us. I truly couldn't understand how they must be feeling. Some part of me felt guilty that at this time I was grateful my son had lived. I have come to realize though that this is the blessing of death to those who are comforting they that mourn. We are blessed with a greater appreciation for the loved ones we have and thus in turn a chance to give them our love more abundantly.

As I was preparing for the funeral this morning my son woke up and wanted to be rocked. A waking up routine I cherish. I put on a Jon Schmidt CD my parents had just given me for my birthday and we rocked and I cried. So grateful to be able to hold my precious baby. As I rocked I was grateful. Grateful for a knowledge that families are eternal. This knowledge is what would have sustained me if we had lost our son and I know is what sustains our dear friends as they go through this trial.

An Influential Life

As I was driving my kids to school this past week I heard on the radio how some magazine had come out with this years top 25 most influential people. Most of the people on this list where pretty predictable as they are fairly public figures and have influenced the lives of many, whether for good or bad. This reminded me of an experience I had a few weeks ago.. .

I had the rare chance to be driving in the car by myself. As I was driving, I found my thoughts centering around how I feel like my life is fairly average. I have always felt like I can do many things but not really good or extremely proficient at any of them. My thoughts turned to people I know who are amazing singers and the influence they have had. I then thought of people I know who play the piano really well. Then on to people who write well and the influence they are having on others. I reflected on how neat their lives must be and of course how mine didn't seem that fantastic and how what I do was pretty mediocre and ordinary.

As I continued driving and thinking, I had the thoughts come into my mind "yes, but you are living the life I intended for you and influencing the people you should be." Along with those thoughts came an overpowering feeling of assurance that they were true for not only me but every person. Each one of us came to the Earth for a specific purpose and each one of us were given talents to fulfill that purpose. Some are blessed with amazing abilities and will bless the lives of many. For most of us though we go about quietly, living a fairly average life. If we do the best we can then we are living the life God intended for us.

The Tree

We have a family tradition of getting a real tree. This year was an enjoyable shopping experience. Something like you see in the movies. I couldn't help but snap a few pictures as we tried to find the tree we deemed as this years "perfect tree."

The best part about a real tree is the smell. If only I could send a smell link so you could also enjoy it.

Our other tradition is that my husband hangs the lights and they have to be colored.  When Karebear was little and we were setting up our Christmas decorations she asked us if we were going to make the room pink again. We discovered she was referring to the glow of the colored Christmas lights. So here's this years "perfect tree" complete with a pink glow...

Two for One

I love good customer service!

I had mentioned to my husband that I would like a picture to go on a very blank wall in our family room. He took the hint (what a good man!) and ordered a print. When it arrived he secretly opened it up and found, much to his dismay, that they had sent the wrong print. The invoice and all packaging was done correctly-to be sent to another person.  Somehow on the outside though, the mailing label that had been put on was to our home. Yes, that means probably the same was done to our picture and it was sent to someone else as well.

Needless to say, when he called them about it they were wonderful. After getting the needed information they reprocessed the order and expedited the shipping to overnight. They then asked if we needed anything else. My husband asked, "What do you want me to do with this print?" They simply said, "Whatever you would like. Merry Christmas!"

I also wanted something to hang in our bedroom but had no idea what. The colors happened to match so that is where we temporarily hung this print. 

And yes, you'll have to wait, like me, to see what my husband originally ordered. He insists on no peeking. I have to wait until my birthday or Christmas; it doesn't really matter for they're only four days apart.

Christmas Is For Sharing

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is to have my kids snuggle up in bed and I read them a Christmas story. Here's one we enjoyed reading last night. . .

I knew that Homer had wanted canyon boots for as long as I could remember. He was eleven and I ten, and we had spent many nights under the blue quilts at the cabin talking about how great it would be to have some real boots. . . boots that would climb through thorny bushes, that would ward off rattlesnakes, that would nudge the ribs of the pony; we had planned the kind of leather they should be and what kind of decoration they should have. But we both knew it was just talk. The depression had been hard on father's business, and even shoes for school were usually half-soled hand-me-downs.

Christmas that year had promised as always to be exciting, though mainly because of the handmade things we'd worked on in school for our parents. We never had money to spend on each other, but we had caught early in our lives a sort of contagion from our mother. She loved to give, and her anticipation of the joy that a just right gift would being to someone, infected our whole household. We were swept up in breathless waiting to see how others would like what we had to give. Secrecy ruled. . . open exaggerated secrecy, as we made and hid our gifts. The only one whose hiding place we never discovered was my Grandmother's. Her gifts seemed to materialize by magic on Christmas morning and were always more expensive than they should have been.

That Christmas I was glowing because Mother had been so happy with the parchment lamp shade I'd made in the fourth grade, and Father had raved over the clay jewelry case I had molded and baked for him, Gill and EmmaLou had been pleased with the figures I'd whittled out of clothespins, and Homer had like the Scout pin I'd bargained for with my Flint. Then Grandma started to pass out her presents.

Mine was heavy and square. I'd been in the hospital that year and then on crutches, and I'd wondered how it would be to have an erector set to build with. Grandma had a knack of reading boys' minds, and I was sure that's what it was. But it wasn't. It was a pair of boots, brown tangy smelling leather boots.

I looked quickly to Homer's package. His was a sweater. He'd needed one that fall. I wanted to cover my box before he saw what it was. I didn't want the boots; they should have been his. He came toward me asking to see, and I started to say, "I'm sorry, bruv." But he was grinning and he shouted, "Hey everybody. . . look what Richard's got" He swooped the boots out of the box, fondled them like treasure, and then sat on the floor at my feet to take off my half-soled shoes and put on the brand new boots.

I don't remember how the boots felt, nor even how they looked. But Christmas ran in my soul because my brother was glad for me.

It's finally my birthday!

Our youngest daughter has been looking forward to her birthday for a long time. She had everything  planned out.

She wanted decorations and a surprise.

 This is what she woke up to.
Her face was pure enjoyment as she walked through her balloon cascade.

One of the advantages of the Holidays is having lots of activities to do. We started they day out by attending our city's Christmas Parade. We usually then go and see the candy windows. To our disappointment there was only one this year.

We then followed up with Tator's next request

Lunch at "Dongalls"

That afternoon we had the requested princess cake

And then a trip to Build-a-Bear

where Ashley joined our family.

We couldn't have ended the day more perfectly. We went and saw The Living Nativity. A presentation about the birth of Christ that is put on each year by one of the stakes in our area. In this particular portrayal there were many shepherds of differing ages. The shepherds came to the manger and then Mary walked among the shepherds so that they all might see this newborn babe. As I watched this, my heart stirred.  I couldn't help think of how not so many years ago (on this very day) we were introducing our new little one to friends and family. I could feel what Mary must have felt.

As the words from Luke were read, "But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." I truly understood what that meant and I too pondered the miracle. The miracle that our family was blessed with this sweet girl in the month of December. The month we remember God's greatest gift, Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Peace

It is no surprise to anyone that the Holidays can be hectic and busy. Especially for a mom, as we try to coordinate, plan and orchestra everything. At this time of year, here are a few things that bring  peace to my heart:

Listening to Christmas music.

Knowing my Christmas shopping is all done.

Watching my children play underneath our Christmas tree branches.

The smell of ever green.

The taste of peppermint- candy canes, taffy, ice cream you name it.

The glow of Christmas lights.

Reading Christmas Stories.

What brings peace to you at this time of year?

Happy Thanksgiving

What are you Thankful for? 

Here's (from a child's point of view) what we are grateful for on this day. . .

Karabear: To be healthy. She just recently spent 10 days down with what we think is the Swine Flu (our area doesn't test anymore for it's to prevalent and expensive).

We didn't have to look very long to find pictures of what Tater is grateful for:

(She is thankful to have a dress or skirt to wear everyday.)

We have a blessing can. During the month of November we put in what we are thankful for and then read these sometime on Thanksgiving.

Here's an entry from Minnie: "I am thankful for colors cause if we didn't have colors everthing would be black, white and gray."

I couldn't pick so here's another:

Minnie: " I'm thankful for food and are house and because if we didn't have food or houses we would be cold and would starve."

These are Bud Boy's favorite two items.

They are a must before naps, bedtime, or whenever

he needs comfort and mom's not available.

We will leave you with this poem Jolly J wrote:

 

THANKSGIVING

Hot crispy rolls

With turkey on the side

Laughing, loving families

Visiting everywhere

Children running rapidly

And Decoration hanging

Quiet down

And sit down

To have the big...

THANKSGIVING FEAST!!!

Love, Laughter & Life

In November, our family gets to celebrate two very special birthdays that just happen to be a week apart.

 

I asked my kids something they loved about their dad and this is what they said:

Karebear: a hard worker
Jolly J: nice, awesome
Minnie: a good bishop, cooks good food
Tater: I like him because he likes to play with me

There are many things I could say but let's just sum it up with: My best friend.

We all love him because he makes us laugh. This is a picture taken the day before our wedding. We were scheduled to have family pictures taken with his family. He came to pick me up. After knocking on the door, my grandmother (who had yet to meet my future husband) answered the door. From the other room, I heard Roman's voice ask for me and my grandmother  respond with, "oh my". I walked in to see him dressed like this.

As it turns out Roman had asked his sister, who had arranged the picture, what they should wear. She had flippantly responded with " I don't know about you but, I am going to wear a dress."  After hanging up the phone Roman then turned to his brothers and said something to the effect of then I'm going to wear a dress as well.All five of the men then proceeded to show up in drag to the family pictures. It was a family picture none of us will soon forget.

My children have affectionately called my mom over the years as the brown grandma.

Here's what we love about her:

Karebear: caring

Jolly J: nice, plays the organ well

Minnie: loves her homemade root beer and grape juice

Tater: plays hide-n-seek with me and gives us snacks.

Once again I could say many things but my thoughts are summed up with the common heard response:

Gave me Life.

Like most things in life, this phrase took on meaning for me when I become a mom. I truly gained an depth of understanding of just what my mom went through to give birth to me and why she did so.


With my first child I gained a level of understanding of the morning sickness and discomforts of pregnancy.

With my second I understood what it meant to go through the difficulties of pregnancy but also do it while caring for someone else.

It wasn't until my third that I gained an a sense of awe. The birth of my second child happened in an unexpected, very rushed way (a story to be shared another time). So of course I did this delivery natural. You know, they way they always did it. The way my mother had all six of us. Needless to say when it came time for the delivery of my third child I was very confident. I had done a natural delivery I could do it again.  I was, however, very unprepared. To this day I remember being very scared and oh how it hurt. The immensity of the pain was one of my central thoughts for the first few days. I remember my mother walking into my hospital room the next day and I just looked at her with new eyes. A sense of awe and respect. She too had gone through that kind of pain. Not once for me but six times.  I also knew exactly why she had too...

Love.

Even though the pain was very real and central in my thoughts I also felt an immense love. Love for this new little one and love for our Heavenly Father. There is a special spirit around a newborn and as I held my little one I could feel a little taste of what it must have felt like in Heaven. I was immensely grateful to have been a participant in our families' miracle, that of birth. I knew that because I had been willing to sacrifice our family was blessed and somehow everything we had gone through was necessary and worth it.

So on my mother's upcoming birthday I thank her for giving not only me, but my five other siblings, the Gift of Life

The Long Awaited Trip

Each year my husband's brother comes down from Washington for Christmas. He brings will him his two golden retrievers and they all spend a week at Grandma's house. All of my girls have been afraid of his dogs  (unfortunately they get that from me). Last Christmas when Bud Boy first saw these dogs there was no fear. He loved them! He immediately wanted down to pet them. At one point during our visits we even found him resting his head on the dogs. This started his love for animals. Since that time I have looked forward to when we could take him to the Zoo. We recently took advantage of a final warm fall day(our favorite time of year to go). It was all we hoped for and more. We loved seeing so many baby animals and I think we were able to see every animal active and playful.

You Say Tomato, I Say. . .

Each one of my kids has their own unique personalities but I have definitely seen a trend. My first and third have a lot in common. As do the second and fourth. I guess that is why we had a boy (blond hair and blue eyed) for the fifth. He had to break the mold in every way.

One common thing between my second and fourth is their ability to label things to how they heard them. Jolly J (the number 2 child) has long outgrown this stage but I will never forget her calling cauliflower; caulifornia.

Can't you hear it now,
"Please pass the caulifornia."







I can't either. It was more like,

"EWW! what is that?" (as I bought some in the grocery store) and my educated daughter telling her younger sister "It is caulifornia"

Tater (number 4 daughter) is currently in this love-able stage. No matter how much her sisters or cousins try to correct her she reverts back to her old ways and I can't help but smile each time I hear her say:

People as Poople

or

Elevator as Alligator.

So the next time you take your little poople on an alligator you can smile right along with me.

Accomplishments

Karebear entered this into the reflections program. On Friday she was excited to find out she was selected to move on to the District Level.


Jolly J has struggled with her writing. This year on encouragement from her teacher she entered a literature entry for the reflections. She received an award of merit along with five other friends. It was neat to see her work over the years finally click and be rewarded for her efforts to improve on a weakness.



In my children s' elementary school they are focusing on what they call learning priorities (LP's). Basically this is reading, writing & math and trying to encourage the children to meet the grade level standards in that area. To help encourage this each term they hold a drawing from kids who have passed off their LP's. There was quite the excitement in the air as various prizes where randomly awarded. Minnie went home that day with two prizes-a barbie and a set of writing supplies. We all now are finding thank you notes under our pillows. A pretty great use of her writing supplies.

Two Cents Worth

It has been an interesting weekend. In our neighborhood we have had a convert baptism, the funeral for a lady, who died after battling breast cancer. I have also dealt with the news of a dear friend possibly moving and last night I attended my oldest first young women's fireside. I can't believe I have a daughter that old. I originally sat down to edit an entry I started about some accomplishments of my girls but my thoughts keep wandering.

Awhile back I ran across some suggestions to put in a blog. One was to write why you started a blog and this is what my thoughts keep going to. So in a round about way I will answer that.

I have been reading blogs of family and friends for about two years now and love it. Beside the obvious, that it helps me keep in touch, I love it because I am constantly getting ideas. Ideas of things to do with my family, recipes to try, etc. I have also found that often the words of others addresses feeling/concerns I'm currently dealing with. Their word's inspire me and I want to try to be a better person.

I had such an experience this weekend. My husband currently serves as bishop of our ward. This calling comes with it's own unique challenges and adjustments. I was surprised though to find how it has effected me in one particular area. I have had a hard time with the recognition(or more accurately the thanks) my husband receives for the work he does. Don't get me wrong I feel that he deserves and needs to be told how much the work he is doing is appreciated. Being a bishop can be trying physically, emotionally and spiritually and he needs all the support he can get.

My thoughts lately though have been on the lines of what about what we go through as a family to support him. Often what I do is what is expected in the role of mother but that doesn't mean it isn't easy. This weekend I was feeling especially guilty that I even felt this way at times. I came across this blog entry. Knowing that someone else felt like they would like to have the everyday work they do recognized was just what I needed to hear. Surprising this alone was all I needed. I don't really need the recognition but more the validation that this is normal and okay to feel that way. Yes, being in a supportive role of any kind. Whether it is of a spouses calling, work or school is difficult and it's okay to feel that way at times.

I feel like I am fairly new to the world of blogging but learning fast the ins and outs. The very reasons I love reading blogs are the same reasons I have waited so long to start a blog. I have felt very inadequate. Inadequate in my ability to know how to do it and inadequate that I wouldn't have anything worth writing about. So why then did I choose to start a blog? It certainly wasn't because I love to write. I prefer to communicate in writing for I can proof read but I definitely don't feel like I'm the greatest writer. Each week I help out in my daughter's school classroom. One of the main things I help with is editing and I am truly learning right along with the kids.

Anyway, one day I was on facebook and my oldest asked to see my page, which is fairly sparse. She commented, "it seems like you spend most of your time reading about others and not doing anything on yours" She was right.

I have been blessed with a wonderful mom who is an avid journal writer. I was good at this until I became a mother but now my current journal is sparse. In fact anyone reading it wouldn't even know that I have had my last two kids. I have often sat down to write in my journal but feel as if I need to catch it up and that task is too overwhelming. I have kept baby books for all my kids and each month put highlights into a monthly family letter my grandfather compiles. But my daughter's comment got to me. Are there things in my life I will wish I had recorded? More importantly are there things my kids will someday want to read about our life's and maybe be a help to them?

The answer was a resounding, Yes!

I decided that since I love reading blogs I would ignore my feelings of inadequacy and give it a try. I have found I love it and enjoy tapping into my creative side. Thanks to those who have shared their two cents worth on their blogs and blessed my life. And thanks to a daughter who helped me delve into something I truly enjoy!

Double Space

Often as adults we forget that kids don't always understand what we are saying the same way we do.

I am reminded of a teacher training video I saw once. The mother is talking about how they live at the intersection of a busy street. She has repeatedly told her son to not go to the corner. One day she is upstairs cleaning, while keeping on eye on her son who is outside playing. When she looks out the window, she sees him once again skipping towards to the corner. She immediately chases him down.

Upon catching him she scolds "How many times have I told you to stay away from the corner?"

Her son responds with, "Mommy, what's a corner?"

My oldest loves to write so she chose to take a creative writing course. One day we found her very frustratedly typing her assignment. "This is so stupid. My teacher wants us to double space it".

Upon further investigation we found the source of her frustration.
She was typing a word , doing two spaces and then typing her next word.

Yes, a pain! (I typed the previous sentence that way but it auto corrected itself when I published and I can't find a way to turn it off)

She was very relieved when we explained what double spaced meant.

Halloween 2009

(You can click on the pictures to see them larger)

Family Traditions

It seems like every year one of my kids has to write about a family tradition. This got me thinking about what makes up a family tradition. I've decided it usually starts with something that is a pretty common such as carving pumpkins.

(Yes we grew those big pumpkins)

Then you add in something you or your husband remembers doing growing up.

(We call it Jack-0-pizza)

Finally, something you tried once and the kids have requested every year since.

(Frankstein Jell-O)

And there you have a family tradition!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Field Trip

Fall wouldn't be complete without a trip to pumpkin patch where we enjoyed:

a hay ride

stinky animals

jumping in the hay

seeing a prize winning pumpkin

getting lost in the corn maze

and picking the perfect pumpkin.

Does life ever pile up on you?

(now to go fold all that laundry)

A Mother's Influence

Karabear wore an orange shirt and blue jeans to school the other day. When she came home she informed us that "apparently it was wear your high school colors day and she had forgotten." Orange and blue are the colors of the rival high school which happens to be the high school mom graduated from.

Fall Break

I have also wanted to record more than just photos from our vacations. I figured highlights from our recent trip to Arches with my parents would be a good place to start.


Karebear was our photographer. We spent the first night on some family land. She captured this shot of the fog covering the valley down below.

We stayed in Devil's Garden Campground and spent most of time hiking in Devil's Garden.

We saw many Arches, such as the Landscape Arch

and breathtaking views on the Double O Arch trail.

Jolly J was often the leader and loved to climb any where she could.

Bud Boy wanted to walk more than ride in his pack. He loved crawling into small places and collecting rocks.

Rocky trails don't always agree with an independent toddler as evidence by this road rash he is currently sporting.

Tater's one desire was to play in the sand.



She was pretty excited when we went and saw the Sand Dune Arch

and loved running down the sand hill just inside Devil's Garden.

We hiked up to Delicate Arch.



The day we came home we hiked down past the Delicate Arch Viewpoint to some"secret stairs" made of rock that Grandpa knew about.

We came home tired and sore but glad to have spent time together and can't wait to go back and see the things we missed.