family ties

I look at this photo and see happiness, cooperation and playing together as siblings should. I want desperately for them to continue to play together, to be closer than friends, through their growing up years and into adulthood.

I know a lady who is dying, and her children are bickering [already] and fighting with each other, making these last few days of hers painful and chaotic. And it tears my heart, to witness the hate and cruelty they harbor, when they should be supporting and loving each other. I know that death brings out many emotions, but jealousy and greed are so ugly to see. *sigh*

Okay, so in the spirit of togetherness, we played a game together for family night last night. Over Christmas, we ended up playing a lot of games with family members, and I've realized how much fun I have doing this. So I've made a goal [may be silly, but if it works...] to play a game with my kids at least once a week. LOL, and we got a few family games as presents, so there we go!

Time to be together with Myles- he's demanding food again, LOL.

spiders and glee

Just found this- my sister gets the best wrapping paper! She worked at a college publication and graphics dept, which means she scored big with funky tags, paper, etc. Don't you love these reindeer?!?

Have to put in a plug for Charlotte's Web. Awesome movie, loved it. And all the kids loved it, too.

**went last night- poor planning on my part so we got home about 10:30pm, but even Myles stayed awake and watched it.

Haven't been all that interested in taking them to 'kid' movies lately, as so many of them have potty humor, or double entendres, trying to 'spice it up' for teen and adult audiences. But I totally loved this movie. LOVED the illustrated feel of the beginning and end of it. The cinematography was so clear and crisp; Dakota Fanning was a great Fern; and Charlotte [voiced by Julia Roberts] was funny and frank and dear. Definitely a movie I'll buy; may even go see it again in the theater, it was that good!

okay, must clean off the desk again. Order in my house is often achieved, and easily destroyed LOL.

late pics

Had a few issues with the google/blogger thing, and I really meant to fix it the day of, but... well, Jared's TDY 'till tonight, and the furnace was leaking gas, and I had kids to corrall, so it took me a bit over a week. But I have many pictures to atone for my recent absence! Here's a few recent ones since Christmas-

So do you see any resemblance between these two? Pretty sure they got it from Jared, but there are rumors that I had a pretty effective pout as a kid. And you can see that nobody loves them- instead of rushing in to comfort them, their mom is taking pictures. And mocking them in their pain LOL. Wish I could post a video, though, as the pout is much more heartwrenching when you can see the little quiver of the chin that goes with it!

I finally captured a giggle- had to change the settings on my camera so the flash would stay off. I took a bunch of startled photos, too- Myles blinking as the flash went off in his eyes. He's chattering a lot now, mostly when he's happy. When he's grumpy he whinges- not quite crying, but close. LOL, he'll start his fussing, usually with me sitting next to him, and H will announce that Myles is hungry, and am I going to feed him? Silly boy, of course not. We only feed the animals on Saturdays.

This is my leg with the spit-up on it. And this is the cute little culprit who decorated me. He's always so happy after he spits up, and I'm always so messy...

These big fluffy flakes of snow are my favorite. This was last Friday- it snowed like this all day, the flakes dropping slowly and steadily, until we had about 4 inches of snow. Horrible to drive in, but lovely and peaceful from inside a nice warm house! And this past week we have enjoyed the snow. Of course, I haven't been driving in it much- we had to rebuild the transmission on the dodge [that was the anniversary gift we gave each other LOL].

But we did go out for dinner- 11 years we've been married now! I cannot believe he's put up with me for that long. And I tease him that he joined the guard so he could get away, but he's always more tense about his TDYs than I am, I think. Probably because things happen when he leaves. Like we find a gas leak, and have to turn off the furnace until a pipe is replaced [which I took care of, thank you very much]! It's all good though. It took a prayer to loosen it, and another visit from the gas guy, but it's all fixed. Just in time for him to be home today LOL.

Favorite things

One of the bloggers I read often suggested taking a photo [or 10] of the things that make me happy today. Well, some of my kids are in school, so I'm posting a pic from a few weeks ago instead.

Maybe it's because I am consciously choosing to smile instead of snap when they're being hooligans. Maybe it's because I am focusing on their good behavior rather than their naughty tricks. But, lately, I have felt *joy* when I think of them. And I love my children dearly, but I'd be the first to acknowlege that they are less than perfect. They're full of energy, quite creative, loud, mischevious, and altogether annoying sometimes. LOL, but they're also helpful, motivated, charming, full of love, and each one of them holds a piece of my heart.

For so long, I've felt like a spring, coiled too tightly, about to snap from the pressure of parenthood. Lately that feeling has eased, the tense coil has loosened. I've found a peaceful place- a happy place- and I never want to lose this.

j

resoved

So many resolutions, so little willpower...
This year, I'm resolving on a few things:

1. to exercise [if I don't make it a resolution, I find excuses.] Because I like fitting into my jeans ;)
2. daily meditations- reading the scriptures. Somehow this brings peace into my chaotic life.
3. develop patience- has been a resolution ever since I discovered mine was missing... And Jared mentioned the other day he's noticed that I'm better at this. ;) he got major brownie points for saying something, too.
4. budget- we've had one for awhile, I just need to focus on sticking to it. Hard to do when there are things I *want* and the money's there. ...must save it, must save it...
5. scrapbook- well, mostly this is to keep me motivated and recording our family's history. I'm resolving to DO the project ideas I have saved in my idea folder. One a week, that's all I'm asking of myself.
6. DO- this is to remind me that along with making lists of things to do, I need to take action on them.

Saturday, we [meaning all the kids and myself- Jared had drill] drove down to St George to attend a christening. Our nice roomy SUV is currently getting its transmission rebuilt, so we took the teeny little Ford Focus. It fit everybody, but was a bit cramped. Anyway, M rode up front with me for a lot of the drive, and she loves to talk. She told me all sorts of things, but one was quite funny and solemn all at the same time. Apparently, her teacher was talking about New Year's Resolutions, and everyone in the class wrote down something they wanted to do differently this year, complete with a colored picture of said thing. M's resolutions: to listen to my teacher, to listen to my parents. [she brought home the paper with the picture on it yesterday, which showed her sitting and large people with balloon sayings standing next to her] And I almost laughed at her- she's six and already making resolutions? Then I thought for a moment, and was rather humbled. She's six, and already she wants to become more like Jesus. And I'm supposed to parent this child! wow.

**totally random thing I love today: portable paper towels. They're enclosed in a nickel-sized plastic pill that you pop open when you need something to wipe up a spill. Have NO idea how well they work, but I'm totally in love with the compactness of this idea.
[they're available at www.compactimpact.com]

no pics yet...

but I'm sure I'll inundate this site w/them once I have that little USB cable back...

Still at the in-laws. Have spent a bunch of time just hanging out and playing games with everybody. Melinda's boyfriend Jon is great w/my kids- he's always up for playing with them, and teasing them, and he has such patience with them. They watch for him every day. "Is Jon coming over with Melinda? When will he be done with work?" I think he's trying out for favorite uncle status, to go along with Melinda's title of favorite aunt ;).

Got word a few days ago that #5 boy is here- hooray for Sloan! Josh and Brooks' baby was the #5 grandson born *this year* to my in-laws. That brings their grandchildren up to 10, 8 of which are boys! LOL, we're going to have some wild family reunions in about 3 years.

And I have to write a 'hooray for M' at this point. She's a wonderful girl, so full of energy and creativity. She has to be tough, to get on with all her brothers, but she's still so sweet and kind to Myles. Every time she's near him, she's asking to hold him. And he'll look up at her and grin for a few minutes. She'd hold him forever, I think, but he fusses because he likes to be able to move and kick now. I'm so proud of her.

j

Christmas toys

Okay, so Christmas was laid back and fun this year. I love that part the best- the relaxing after it's over part LOL. Jared made pull-apart bread Christmas Eve, then got up Christmas morning and put it in to bake. We eat breakfast before we open presents [tradition we borrowed from Jared's family], so the kids are full of something healthy. They'll be snacking on candy, and fudge, and wassail, and cookies, -- all the lovely holiday treats that are mandatory for celebrating this season-- for the rest of the day. While it was baking, he took a nap under the tree, and that's where the kids found him when they snuck up the stairs. Thank goodness they slept in 'till 7:30am! That was my favorite present this year...

Opened presents- Frosty the Reindeer brought 7-up for the kids [tradition we borrowed from my family ;)]. Frosty is our 'white-elephant' gift giver. My grandpa always got presents from Cousin R, who supposedly lived out in the Uintah Mountains somewhere. One year Cousin R sent him a tiger suit; another year he got a box full of cans with the labels removed. And when we were little, Frosty the Reindeer came to our house with funny presents for us kids. Since we've grown up, there are a lot of funny present-givers: the tricky gnome came one year, Frosty the Reindeer shows up at my house every year, and some of the other reindeer got into the game this year [with some help from Alyson]: Comet, Dancer, Blitzen, and Dasher were all givers of fun presents. Dasher gave me some partially used sticker sheets. ;) This is another favorite tradition [although in my mind, only the favorite activities get repeated and become traditions, so technically *all* our traditions are my favorites LOL]. I love how creative people are, and how there isn't a rule about how many presents we can give/get this way, and also how much fun it is to open these and see what inexpensive little jokes we can come up with. Many times they're things already on hand, like those sticker sheets, or something that already belongs to that person that was 'borrowed' without asking LOL, or an item found at the Salvation Army. Never anything that costs a lot of money, and always funny in a nice way.

So after lunch, we headed over to my parents' house. Joy and my dad were sick, and stayed in their rooms the whole time we were there :(, but we got to visit with my mom, and Burke's family, Kyle, and Alyson. H and my nephew Tyler are the same age, and both are tough little boys. They wrestled and fought [mostly play-fighting], and behaved a lot like little puppies do. And W & M played with Alyson and Kyle, and for a little while, with the grown-ups. Burke has a game called "Settlers of Catan" which requires strategy- these kinds of games are always big in my family. And I fed Myles about 800 times yesterday. Didn't have a place I could lay him down, and the kids kept waking him up when he did fall asleep, so he ate and ate and ate... But he slept all night last night, and took a great nap this morning, too. It's all good!

M lost one of her Christmas presents this morning- she got nail polish from Santa, with my caveat: only use it in the bathroom. Yeah. Already on her walls, and so I confiscated it. And she was pouting and yelling how awful and not fair her life is [which is funny now, but wasn't then]. I finally sat down with her and asked her this: "If your friend came over and painted fingernail polish on the bedroom walls, would you EVER ask your friend to come over again?" she answered "NO." "So," says I, "when you do this to our house, you lose your nail polish. And you get to stay in your room. " arrrrgh. Definitely a blessing to find enough calm to discuss this without yelling or losing my temper.

Gametime- we scored a few games this year. Burke's family got ours to give presents to, and they gave us Clue jr and Scrabble jr. I think that the clue jr is more complicated than the regular Clue, but it's different, and kind of fun. Scrabble jr we're playing tonight [H has to take his nap, and wanted us to wait for him]. Oh, then W got Mousetrap from Santa. It's fun, but long, so we may end up tweaking the rules so it moves faster. ;)

and I'm hiding in the craft room with small and hungry baby for a bit of quiet time
j

one more happy event

He's never been all that impressed with binkies. He'd take the soothie [given at the hospital] if he was desperate for something to suck on, but spit out any other binkies we offered him. Now that he's found his thumb, however, he has completely lost interest in his binky. But he's pretty good, especially for an almost 3 month old, at finding that thumb. Reminds me of Shel Silverstein's poem, "Thumbs."
Oh the thumb-sucker's thumb
May look wrinkled and wet
And withered, and white as the snow,
But the taste of a thumb
Is the sweetest taste yet
[As only we thumb-suckers know].

j

I'm a caribbean!

Went to Temple Square in SLC on Thursday. Love the lights, and watching my kids run. They tried to get lost a few times, but we found them anyway...

Learned some new things about Santa this week: H told me he has a purple beard that shoots out cotton candy. While we were talking about the North Pole, W informed our family that Santa lives in a castle. Otherwise, he says, where would the elves stay?

And this is my 'Caribbean.' As in "Pirates of the..." H came in to see me, demanding that I take a picture of him dressed [in his words] as a caribbean. The eyepatch is a sticker, and the snotty nose is courtesy of this week's cold.

Last random bit of info today: Lunch. I had grilled cheese, an apple, and some hot cocoa. H had a toasted PB&J sandwich [apparently this melts the PB], pickles, some of my apple, and a taste of my hot cocoa. Luckily Jared was home, as getting pickles out of the jar is NOT my job! Hate the smell, hate the taste, only buy them because everybody else in this house thinks they *must* have them. blech!!!

Happy Christmakwanzaahanakkuh!

or for the less politically correct, Merry Christmas ;)

O Christmas tree

Monday we went and picked out a tree. W and M were running and slipping through the lot, crying "I found the PERFECT one!" But we settled on one, and got it into the car, and home in one piece.

Myles was less than thrilled with the whole car thing- he loves being outside, but detests his carseat. He screamed all the way to the tree lot, quietly looked around while we searched for that elusive 'perfect tree', then screamed the whole ride back. He wore himself out, and missed watching the kids decorate the tree.

It looks lovely, doesn't it? LOL, the kids put ornaments on the front, but the sides and back are quite bare! And that's okay. I'm learning to let go of perfection here ;). But I still have a small box of ornaments, and I think I'll fill in some of the blank spots while they're at school today.

Last, just a cute pic of the sleeping baby. He's quite happy to sit in the high chair now, which allows him to be with everybody. I'm always afraid if I set him down on the floor that somebody will step on him. He'd rather I hold him all the time, but he'll settle for the chair, which is next to the tree right now. The little twinkly lights fascinate him.

We're supposed to be visiting Temple Square up in SLC tonight. My brother and his family are in town for Christmas, and arranged for tickets to a movie up there, and we'll be taking in the lights beforehand.