Birthday Girl

"I'm going to be 4...and then I'll be 5"

Why do they have to be so eager to grow up?

My best buddy turns 4 today!

She's my lunch date ("Where are we eating lunch today?"),
my personal shopper ("Is this on sale?  Can we get it?"--repeat 100x),
my cleaning helper ("Why don't the boys ever put this stuff away right?")
my officer worker ("I want a purple stapler and pink tape dispenser for my birthday!"),
my little fashionista ("I can't decide if I want short hair like Betty or Rapunzel hair like Amy's mom..."),
my own Pandora station ("When do you think All the Single Ladies will play again?")...

I don't know what I'm going to do when she does turn 5.  That's only months away from going to kindergarten.  Gulp.

Happy Birthday, baby girl.

Super Man

Are you ready for some cheese?
It's Rob's 35th birthday today.

And I couldn't go today without letting him and the whole world know that he is my Super Hero!

 (Because how many husbands would dress up like this and walk around Disney all day with red hair dye dripping down his face because of the sweltering heat.  All just to make his family happy.  He hated every moment of it.  Yet he played along.  I love him.)

BEHOLD your little ones

I've been in bed sick and resting for the past two days. Which means no church for me today :( but time to catch up on General Conference that I missed while in Michigan.

I've had many reasons to be thinking about the family over the past few weeks.  More so on the impact that we as parents have on our children and the blessings that children provide in our life. Some of my favorite quotes and thoughts from the conference...

Richard J. Maynes shared my favorite poem, The Echo by C.C. Miller, during his conference address along with this thought...

"Parents are responsible to teach their children in love and righteousness. Parents will be held accountable before the Lord in how they perform their sacred responsibilities. Parents teach their children with words and through example."

’Twas a sheep not a lamb

That strayed away in the parable Jesus told,

A grown-up sheep that strayed away

From the ninety and nine in the fold.

And why for the sheep should we seek

And earnestly hope and pray?

Because there is danger when sheep go wrong:

They lead the lambs astray.

Lambs will follow the sheep, you know,

Wherever the sheep may stray.

When sheep go wrong,

It won’t take long till the lambs are as wrong as they.

And so with the sheep we earnestly plead

For the sake of the lambs today,

For when the sheep are lost

What a terrible cost

The lambs will have to pay.

Our role as parents is SO important.   We need to be mindful of the choices that we make.  Our little ones are watching and following.

And then Sister Jean A. Stevens shared some words to a song that the children in our ward learned a few years ago and has become a favorite bedtime song of Anna's...

God gave us families

To help us become what He wants us to be—

This is how He shares His love,

For the fam’ly is of God.

(You can listen to the song here.) 

"Have some of life’s experiences taken from you the believing heart and childlike faith you once had? If so, look around at the children in your life. And then look again. They may be children in your family, across the street, or in the Primary in your ward. If we have a heart to learn and a willingness to follow the example of children, their divine attributes can hold a key to unlocking our own spiritual growth."

"It was Jesus Christ Himself who taught us to look to children as an example. The New Testament records His answer when His Apostles disputed who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus answered their question with a small yet powerful object lesson. He called a little child to Him and set him in the midst of them and said:

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4)."

We have SO much that we can learn from the young ones in our life. To quote from Elder Ballard's thoughts on Christ's love for the children...

“And he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.

“And when he had done this he wept. …

“And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones” (3 Nephi 17:21–23).

“Notice that He didn’t say ‘glance at them’ or ‘casually observe them’ or ‘occasionally take a look in their general direction.’ He said to behold them. To me that means that we should embrace them with our eyes and with our hearts; we should see and appreciate them for who they really are: spirit children of our Heavenly Father, with divine attributes” (“Behold Your Little Ones,” Tambuli, Oct. 1994, 40; emphasis added; “Great Shall Be the Peace of Thy Children,” Ensign, Apr. 1994, 59).

I love General Conference and the gentle reminder that I've been given to love, cherish and learn from the children that I have been entrusted with. 

Birthday Boy

I just returned from my whirlwind trip across Michigan.
And just in time!
It was no accident that we made it back by today...
I hate missing birthdays!

And today is Evan's 6th!
I can't get enough of this kid.
He never fails to put a smile on my face (even when he shouldn't be).

Happy Birthday, Evan.

Some of my favorite photos of Evan from the past year...

Anna, Anna silly banana,

how does your garden grow?

We've got lots of work to go, but I have the best helper one could ask for!



Seedlings are growing (not as well as I'd like however).  Tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, oregano, jalepenos and sweet peppers.  I can't wait!
Raspberries are planted (thanks Delilas).
Soil will be prepped this weekend.
Green onions, carrots, watermelon, peas, cilantro!!
Looking forward to the harvest!!

Hello Cello

Learning the cello has been so much fun for Tyler.  He's signed up to continue with it next year which means forking out the big bucks for a rental (rather then the beat up elementary school cello which has a one time small fee).   He hates that he has the ugly cello, but we wanted to make sure that he was really invested.  And he is.  His few years of piano lessons have helped him pick up the beginning cello lessons quite easily.

A few weeks ago they had a mini concert tagged on to a PTO meeting (in hopes that we would all stay...we didn't.)  Because they really have not learned that much, the concert lasted all of 5 minutes.  A few children were chosen to play a song with their bows and Tyler was one of them.  We're so glad he's had this experience.

Are you getting sick of all these catch up posts yet?  

I am.

But I'm happy to have them documented.

Why I Love Spring

(Minus the whole lack of grass thing.)

The Great Ice Race

Water, lemonade, soda or juice?  Which freezes the fastest?

Evan can not just sit back and watch everyone participate in science fair projects.  He's been dying to do his own for years.  Now that he is in kindergarten, he could officially participate in the school science fair!  Once Evan realized that making his science fair board was more then just completing an experiment, he wasn't as excited about it but he finished it none the less.  He made a graph, wrote out his hypothesis (I think water will frez first becuz thur is no junk in it.) and results (I was rit!).

And now he is so proud.

(And you can call us crazy for adding unnecessary stress to our already busy schedules, but we like science experiments over here and if the kids want to participate they have to initiate everything and earn the privilege to participate--except for Tyler this year, it is required in 5th grade.)

FYI...plain water freezes the fastest.

Mr. America

I love the music programs that our elementary school puts on.  Each grade has it's own program that they really try and make special for the children.  This year, Jared's theme was America.  The 3rd graders sang several songs, wore their patriotic gear and waved their flags proudly.  It's fun to look across all of the 3rd graders and recognize so many of them from over the past 4 years.  We really do have a great school!

 Jared isn't a fan of singing, but I did see him open his mouth (but just barely)!

I survived a 5th grade field trip

I guess once kids hit 5th grade, parents don't care so much about going on field trips with their kids because there was no lottery necessary and I was able to go on Tyler's trip to DC.  We spent the entire day in DC and were able to go to the top of the Washington Monument, walk across the mall and see the WWII and Vietnam Memorials and visit the Lincoln Memorial.  After a quick lunch break, we spent a few hours at the American History and Natural History Museums.  The trip was maybe an hour or two too long for the kids to handle and by the end of the day we were all dragging. 

Hanging out with 5th graders all day was eye opening.  They are enthusiastic.  Their minds are constantly running (along with their mouths--talk, talk, talk all day!). They are good, good kids.  And they are still young. Unfortunately, maybe some of them don't have the best influences in their life.  Or I am just getting old and old-fashioned.  Am I wrong to think that 10 years old (and 8 year olds according to one mother) is too young to be watching Grey's Anatomy and Glee or having Facebook accounts?   Blah...I don't think I'm ready for middle school!
Can't Tyler stay in 5th grade forever?

Not sure the point of this post...

I love this picture.  I hate this picture.  We both have sad, crying, puffy eyes.  This wasn't the way I would have preferred to see my long lost forever friend, but it was...

 Care (Catalina) and Dre (Andreas)

Care and her family lost their dear sister to breast cancer in March.  I wish I had known Liz better.  She was older then us, so she was always the older, wiser, off to college, on a mission sister that Care looked up to and talked about often. Liz was much too young to go.  She left here a husband, three children (2 with autism--don't forget to light it up blue), 3 sisters, parents and many, many friends.  I've never seen a  funeral so well attended.  It was evident...Liz loved many and was loved by many.

I haven't seen Care in YEARS--maybe since Tyler was a baby??  But some things just never change and it was like we were in high school again.  I wish we could have had more time to visit, but obviously she was needed elsewhere and we were heading off to a wedding in WV.  I left knowing that I missed her and looking forward to seeing her again this summer--hopefully under much happier circumstances.

"Life does not begin with birth, nor does it end with death...We were born to die, and we die to live. (See 2 Cor. 6:9.) As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven." Elder Russell M. Nelson