Sigh of Relief

Did you hear it? If you heard a large breath of wind this morning at approximately 10:15, that would be me breathing a huge sigh of relief for the comlpetion of our primary program. The primary children were beautiful, special, lovely, true sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father...and much, much more. I was filled to overflowing. And believe me, overflow I did.

I am full of gratitude.

On another note, I just read this in a book of poems by Carol Lynn Pearson and I have to share.

LAMENT OF A GROUCH
I knew
That in heaven
All are happy.
But I wish
I'd known
The reason
Before:

Only
To the happy
Do they
Open the door.

My wish for today...that we could all be happy.

Just because...

...I love them so.

The List

After picking up a witches costume for Ella at the store, she was beyond excited and was trying to figure out all of the things she needed to complete the outfit.

Ella: "Mom, what other things do we need to get."

Me: "Well, we probably need some black shoes and black tights to go with your dress and hat."

Ella: "Oh, yeah...but mom, how will we remember all of those things."

Good point, there are 4 of them.

Me: "I don't know. What do you think?"

Ella: "I know!!!! Let's make a list!!!!"

Yes. Definitely. A girl after my own heart.

She spent the next 10 minutes or so drawing a picture of each item for her list on sticky notes and sticking them to the front window.

Preschool

I'm doing a preschool with two other moms where we each take a month and hold preschool at our house. Lincoln was very excited to wear his new school clothes, don his backpack, and enter the world of learning. This is his "give me your best smile" photo. What a stud.

Ella started her second year at Grandma Rose Mary's preschool. She also was thrilled to start and comes home excited every day to tell me about her friends and what they learned that day. She's a sweetie and thinks it is so funny that the boys in her class think the dolls she brings for show-and-tell are "disgusting". She wants to bring a girly thing every week because of it.

The Half

I ran my first half marathon a couple of weeks ago. I'm not a serious, love-the-run kind of runner, but I actually didn't hate it. The 13.1 miles went by pretty quickly, probably because I was excited to see my kids cheering for me at then end, which unfortunately didn't happen, but all the same it wasn't too bad and I might just have to do it again.

Thanks, Michelle, for the picture.

Three years ago

Lincoln as a baby...beautiful, sweet, calm, mild.

He grew and grew. Here he is at his 1st and 2nd birthdays. Still so sweet and mild.

And then he turned 3... It should follow that he began terrorizing us at age 3, but really it hasn't happened yet. He's had a few rough days where he is working out asserting his independence yet still behaving, but I think we are getting a handle on that. He's still my sweet boy and I love him so much. He picked a race car cake for his birthday and we celebrated with family where he received awesome presents and a new spiderman bike which he is already riding like a pro.

Sad

How could you help but love this little guy?

Logan is very good at being sad. Its an art form, seriously.

FHE

A favorite family night of ours...riding our bikes

to get the most delicious ice cream in the world.

Our preferred flavors:

Jeremy - chocolate

Me - lemon custard

Ella -bubblegum or blue mint (its a toss-up)

Lincoln - bubblegum or blue mint (loves his sister)

Logan - vanilla (my choice for him)

30-something

Jeremy had another birthday in the last month. Sad that as you get older and have kids, birthdays sometimes aren't as exciting as they once were. We tried to make it exciting for him as evidenced below. Parrrrtttyyy!!!

These Kids

I love these kids.

Logan - grump, smoocher, cuddler, tag-a-long

Ella - singer, beautiful, fiesty, friendly

Lincoln - helper, handsome, conversationalist, learner

Two Things

Two funny things involving my kids this week.

Lincoln had his birthday on Sunday (more on that later) and all day we kept saying, "Yeah! Lincoln, you're three, such a big boy" (or something along those lines). He would get upset and say he wasn't three yet. He didn't believe he actually turned three until he had blown out his candles and opened his presents. So after opening his presents he turned to me and said, "See mom, now I'm three."

Ella has been learning to count to higher numbers lately and this morning asked,

"So mom what's the biggest number you can count to."

My reply, "They never stop. You can keep counting and counting

and always get a bigger number."

Ella, after contemplating for a moment: "So, like 30."

You betcha.

What have we been doing?

Here's a quick run down of what we have been doing this summer.

Jones Family Vacation.
We had a fun vacation to Midway with the extended Jones family. The kids had a great time riding on the Heber Creeper and swimming in the pool at the condo.



Hogle Zoo
Always a good time found at the zoo. We were with the Jones family but minus Jeremy who had to work, of course. We got caught in a downpour about halfway through the day, but it made the day even better because after waiting it out in the gift shop, it had cooled down a lot and most of the people had gone home.




Boating
The kids have been loving boating. They can't get enough of getting pulled on the tube.




Primary Pioneer Parade
I jumped right into primary responsibilities with the ward primary pioneer parade occuring just a week and a half after being made president. It was so cute. I wish I had a picture of Jeremy with Lincoln and Logan. Jer was so good to play along and dressed up as a pioneer man and pulled Logan in our homemade covered wagon. He hadn't shaved the beard yet (it's gone now, however...hooray!) and really looked the part.




Bear Lake
We spent one weekend in Bear Lake when it was cold (47 degrees one morning) and the kids weren't able to really enjoy the beach like we were hoping, so I took a day trip back the next week with some fiends and it was perfect. Ella spends most of her time at the beach building sand castles. Lincoln spends his time throwing balls/sticks/rocks into the water and then retrieving them. He could play fetch with himself for hours. Logan spent most of his time wandering all over the beach, splashing in the water, and eating whatever food he could find, covered in sand or not...most of the time it was.

Eating

This is an embarrassing picture, but I thought it was funny. Lincoln likes to take pictures with my camera and a lot of them I don't even know about until I'm looking through the pictures later. It's sad to say that the majority of them are pictures like this...me eating. Oh boy.

Toothpaste and Baking Soda

Thank goodness for toothpaste and baking soda.

I was working on a project today with the kids with permanent markers (I know, not my smartest moment). We were coloring along just fine and all was well until I lifted their papers and found that every mark they had drawn had seeped through onto our dining room table. We are talking about a serious amount of permanent marker on our only a year old table. My heart stopped.

I ran to the internet to see what could possibly work to take it out and found a suggestion for toothpaste and baking soda. Four applications and scrubbings later, my dining table is as good as new.

REMINDER (to myself)

+

= DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN

Today

Which one am I at the moment?

Let's just say, not the one I wish I was.

Kauai, Hawaii

Here is post #3 of my loooonnnnggg update. Sorry for the million pictures, they are for my benefit.

Ahh, the first day. Imagine a long walk on the beach followed by hours spent floating in the ocean. Unfortunately, one must suffer the consequences of such a glorious day...

...that is, if one forgets to put on sunscreen. No, those are not my legs, they are Jeremy's and believe me it got a lot worse than this.

Clockwise: Na Pali coast hike, last day at the Marriott resort, day at the beach, the Na Pali coast.

Please don't laugh at my hat, it is a tradition for me to buy a new funny hat when I go on a vacation.

Boogie boarding was so fun. Jer and I felt like (I mean looked like) pros with our matching rash guards. Let's just say I'm a quick learner on how a beautiful sandy beach acts like sandpaper on bare skin.

Photo documentation of helicopter ride. Clockwise: In the van on the way to the helipad, beautiful view of the Na Pali coast, me and Mike chillin', our helicopter.

Way fun! Our pilot, Mike, was smokin'. Let's just say he taught me how to hang loose. My dad could use some lessons, as you will see in next photo collage.

Clockwise: Dad trying to hang loose (there is no better person to vacation with than my dad), sunset at Queen's Bath, ahhh how romantic, Jer snorkeling.

Sunset sail along the Na Pali coast with Captain Andy's.

We even got free T-shirts (way to go, dad!)

Rope swinging/cliff jumping at Kipu Falls. Clockwise: Jer and I on the short walk to the falls, Brittney going off the rope swing, a picture of the falls (Jer, Paul, and Brittney are somewhere in this picture, I am not), me on the rope swing. I was a study of grace, managing to land sideways both times and pull a calf muscle the second time.

Wedding Day Bliss

June 19 - Wedding Day. Beautiful day. Michelle really lucked out as every other day that week it rained...hard. My kids have the best grandparents.

Pictures of Ella. She loved getting dressed up for Michelle's big day.
Unfortunately, only had one picture of Lincoln by himself at the temple, but he was kind enough to provide some self portraits at the luncheon. Handsome devil, wouldn't you say?

Lincoln also very excited about wedding day. When we picked the kids up from a friend's house to take them to the temple for pictures and to see Michelle and Shay come out, he was extremely disappointed that the wedding had already happened because he had been planning on marrying his friend Polly at the same time. (Did I ever tell you that, Amanda?)

Here is typical Logan. He will not look at a camera.

He purposely looks down or away whenever he sees one in his vicinity.

Belated congrats, Michelle and Shay.

Wedding/Bridal Shower

I hosted a wedding/bridal shower for Michelle and Katrina back in early June. Jer and I were up every night until the wee hours the week before trying to finish the tile in our kitchen in time for the shower. Let's just say the lack of sleep combined with Diet Coke and adrenalin rush to get things done, I was a deliriously goofy hostess...fun for everyone.

Below are some pictures of the event. Me, the beautiful bride-to-be (Michelle), and the lovely mommy-to-be (Katrina). Aren't they cute? The bottom left is a picture of us with my mom and two of her sisters. We had a good laugh while taking this one.

The Main Events

Michelle's Wedding:

I've been trying to be helpful and support Michelle as much as I can. The date is June 19, coming right up. I feel like I should be doing more for her than I am (sorry Michelle), but sometimes I don't really know what to do since the decisions aren't really mine to make. Most of the stuff will happen the week before anyway - decorating, food prep, etc.

Bridal/Baby Shower:

I'm hosting a bridal/baby shower for Michelle and Katrina on June 4 for our family. Hope to see you all there! You should have received an invite by now, so if you haven't it probably got lost in the mail, so come anyway.

Yard Sale:

I was crazy busy holding a yard sale a couple Saturdays ago. There's a lot to be said about "awesome" advertising (huge sign on my yard the entire day before and ad in the paper), great location, and great weather. It was a major success.

Hawaii:

Coming soon...3 weeks from Sunday. Can't wait.

My Babies:

Logan is hilarious. He walks around jabbering his nonsense language, loves to dance, loves being outside, and still really doesn't enjoy eating (don't know how that is possible or where he gets it from). He makes us laugh every day.

Ella just finished her last day of preschool. I'm sure she will miss it even though when I asked her she said she wouldn't. That's just her big girl attitude coming through. She is a sweet, sweet sister with her brothers and loves taking care of them. She has some "big girl" friends (ages 6 and 8) that she loves to ride bikes with and wants to do all the things they do. I'm not quite ready for her to be so independent...she's only 4 for crying out loud.

Lincoln is my little man. So sweet and so funny. He loves zooming around on his trike, cuddling, asking for snacks, and helping me cook. He's a great helper and is always willing to help me clean up. I'm loving age 2 with Lincoln...who'd have thought.

Date Night

Nothing better than a swap with other young couples with kids to free up Saturdays. We have a houseful once every five Saturdays. It's awesome. The kids play together (wonderfully most of the time) for the first two hours and then we stick a movie in for the last hour. I would recommend this to anyone with kids who can find a compatible group. We love it.

Are we noticing bad habits from my children in this picture?

Can you say hands in mouths constantly?

Easter

Here are some favorite Easter pictures taken in our backyard.

LOGAN

LINCOLN

ELLA

Crazy, cute kids. We had a fun Easter. We spent time at both grandparents and the kids were definitely sugar overloaded by the end of the day, but they enjoyed every minute of it.

This is how daddy...

...catches a snake.

...helps Ella ride a pony.

...helps Lincoln hold a chick.

...feeds Logan pudding.

...puts the kids to bed.

...spends his Easter Sunday.

Adorable

Ella's favorite word lately...adorable.

Everything is adorable.

"Mom, that shirt is adorable."

"Mom, Logan is adorable."

"That lady in the store was adorable."

"That strawberry is adorable."

Get the picture. She's ADORABLE.

Picture

This one's for you, mom!