Kidisms

The reason I started my blog was to remember the cute things my children do and say yet I have not been doing that lately. Here goes my re-dedication to the funness that is mine through being a mommy.
Jared
This week was the much anticipated pine wood derby. I think Jared was convinced he was going to do well. I want that for him, to believe that he will do well in life. They did a round robin. What that means is every child races every child, best 2 out of 3. Whoever whens gets a point. Jared won his first race and so we were so excited for him. Little did we know that would be the only race he would win the whole night. He was such a trooper. You could tell he was bummed but he held his head up high. He did fire Ryan and said he wanted Grandpa to build his car for him next year. Even though he didn't win I was glad Ryan worked with him and taught him how to use the tools and let him be in on the process.
Sarah
Friday my 16 year old BIL babysat for us while we went to the temple. Sarah likes to try to stay up late when a babysitter is over. She wouldn't stay in bed and Todd told her if she didn't get back in bed he would spank her, (he was not serious) Sarah then matter of factly stated, "My dad said that if you do, your not going to be able to babysit for us ever again." Todd commented on how smart she was. Although we have never said this to her she was right. Is a babysitter spanked our kids they would be fired.
Big news, Sarah is getting baptized on April 12th. She is trying to finish the book of Mormon before then and she is actually not to far off. She is in 3rd Nephi. This is so impressive for me considering I didn't read the BoM all the way through until right before I was first married.
EmmaLee
Emma is getting very good at reading and is always the first one doen with her school work. At first it was a challenge to get her to sit still for very long but she does so well know. She is learning so fast. She can count by 2's, 5's, 10's, and sorta by 25's. She can count to 200. She can read along with us when we read scriptures. She still needs help but she is getting really good at sounding things out. She loves to look at books and loves when we read stories.
She loves to recount stories her primary teacher tells her. He is a funny guy and she really likes him. This is the story she told Ryan tonight when he asked her what she learned at church "I don't remember,(pause) oh wait." she then slid her finger down her nose. "Flick your nose" We are not sure how this ties into the story that follows. Emma, "When my teacher was on his mission he did some bad stuff. He and his companion would jump onto the ladders on the back of trains and one time the train kept going faster and faster. He didn't know what to do because if he let go he would die but if he held on it would keep going faster and faster and he would slip and die. Then he thought he heard his companion tell him to let go so he did. He landed on rocks but they were soft and when he told his companion thank you he said for what and he didn't even say anything. It was the Holy Ghost." She was really excited about this. I think she will be a great writer some day.
Joseph
This little boy cracks me up. He has become a pack rat and keeps his "stuff" in his "castle" The tent he got for his birthday. A couple days ago we got the zoonooz and a scouting magazine in the mail. He was so excited. He sat and looked at them for about 5 minutes and then with this thrilled sound in his voice proclaimed, "I got to go put this with my stuff" I have not seen the magazines since. Jared was bummed because he would have liked to look at them also.
Joseph loves his little brother. The are so fun together. Tonight he walked by Joshua and just said, "Hey little buddy." and kept right on walking. It was so tender. A good moment.
Joshua
He is talking so much. Today he tried to say awesome. Some of his favorite things to say are:
no ap- no nap
no daddy- really no anything
yes, he says it very clear
amol- animal
I U- I love you
I done
Hi
hello
Yellow-repeated over and over again
nose
eye
mow- mouth
er-ear
fun
ink-drink
jew-juice
on
dow- down
que-cute
He walked by Ryan today and said "Hi dad" It was so clear we thought it was one of the other kids.

I love when we ask him a question and he nods his head yes in a most loving way.

I will work on writing about these cute little people whom I love so very much more often.

In case anyone is wondering, we are still not in our house. It should be ready for us to move in this week but Ryan is going to be out of town until late Saturday so I guess we are looking at next Monday. If it is longer then that, this is no longer funny. We have been going to our new ward and we both have callings there. I am the 2nd counselor in the young womens and the girls really are amazing. I wish all girls could grow up with so much love.
The kids and I may camp out one day while Ryan is gone if I can get power and water, will see.

Blessings 13 & 14

I was thinking tonight what I would write as my blessing for the week. It has been a tough week, I take that back, It started out tough and got much better. I thought it would be hard to think of something but the more I thought about it a lot of little things came to mind. I had a good talk with my sister and then Ryan and I went to the temple. These two things are such a blessing in my life. I love my sister so much and I feel so blessed to have her in my life. We have grown so closer and I am sad for anyone who does not share in the blessing of sisterhood. (By the way I think amazing friends and SIL's count) To be able to complain, cry, and laugh together. To get mad at and then quickly forgive. Even when we don't always see eye to eye we still love and we almost love more because of our different views.

I also feel blessed with feelings of peace. Peace that is found in the temple, in a child's eyes, in close relationships, in the warmth of the sun. In the comfort of our Saviors love. When life can feel so hard that peace is never far away. Sometimes it never seems to last long enough. Sometimes I am slow to seek it. But when it comes and it is all enveloping, how sweet is that moment and how I long to hold onto it. This is why I seek to recognize my blessings more frequently.

Percentiles

Joshua has this weird rash on his body that he has had for over a month. We saw the dr a month ago she thought it was an allergic contact reaction. After it didn't clear up we then saw the chiro an he thought it was a heat rash caused from the fever he had. Now that it is still there we went back to the dr and she now believes it to be related to eczema. So we bought some serious lotion and by this morning I already see an improvement. I guess when you have eczema bathing every day makes it worse.

My point? Joshua was weighed in at 33.5 lbs and measured 37inches that means he is 97% in weight and off the charts in height. It was also validating for me when the Dr commented on how active he is. Like she was surprised.

So then I was curios and I measured all the kids
Jared 56 inch 85%
73 lbs 75%
Sarah 54 inch 95%
75 lbs 91%
Emma 49 inch 93%
47 lbs 55%
Joseph 42 inch 85%
39 lbs 75%

This was just interesting for me to note. They are all tall, we could have guessed that though right?

Sarah and Joshua have similar builds
Joseph and Jared have similar builds
And Emma is built like Emma

And what follows a grumpy day?

Something drastic.

Turn that frown upside down

I had a grumpy day today. So when Ryan got home from work I took Jared and Sarah we went for a photo shot. I love these kids. It was so fun to play with them.

A full heart.

With it being Easter my heart is drawn to the Savior, our Redeemer. The words that came into my mind today during church were, "Oh remember, remember and know that you know your redeemer lives." Such a burning came over me. What a blessing it is to me to have this knowledge.
Because of this knowledge I have experienced a huge miracle in my life this week. It may not be huge to some but for me it was a life altering. I have felt so deeply the true power of forgiveness and the peace it brings. It was as if I had finally been washed clean of my anger and my hatred. It was as pure a feeling as if the Savior were literally standing beside me taking away those harsh feelings I have held onto for many years. I felt like a child being held in her fathers arms being told it was all going to be ok but the difference this time was that I finally believed it. The peace that followed overcame me and I sobbed. I don't like to cry and this raw emotion was so deep for me.

The interesting thing for me to notice is that nothing externally in my life changed in regeards to this incident I held ill feelings about, nothing changed. But God gave me this special gift to be able to let go so that I could heal. Bad things happen in this world. Really horrible things. But if these things never occurred we could never taste of this pure, raw, wonderful emotion called peace. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27
I feel blessed to have experienced hard things that I may now truly say I have tasted of this peace referred to in this scripture. Because God loves us he allows us to experince the evil and its effects that we may more fully experince and then understand the joy and peace that we can feel if we allow ourselves to come unto Him who suffered all things for us.

So on this Easter Sunday I express my gratitude for the blessing the cames from a healed heart.

This picture symbolizes all that I have felt.

Peaceful beginnings

The 52 Blessings Project

Once a week I will post something or several things I am grateful for. This will give me an opportunity to reflect on the good things I have learned, the things I enjoy or what has made me better in my everyday life. I want to try to include a picture that captures the emotion behind my blessings
I got this idea from here
Who got it From here

Who got it from here

I have a gratitude for miracles. Some are so big and yet most are so small.

To big miracles
(Joshua has no known side affects from sticking a pencil in his skull) and to small ones
(The abundance of love I feel for and from my children)

As I looked through my pictures my heart swelled with gratitude for the many every day
Miracles in my life...
The 1st ten that came to me

1.getting several kids to look at me for a birthday picture for my nephew.
2.great family that sup
ports each other.
3. Kids love for life.
4.Watching the girls at there dance recital and realizing we live in such prosperous times. Even when things are "tight" we still have so much.
5. Great parents who love me.
6. That by some huge miracle Ryan and I found one another, married so soon, and could not be more perfect for each other.
7. a great calling at church with adorable girls who are so kind and gentle with each other. (I can tell they are going to teach me so much)
8. A body that allows me to keep up with my kids and to do most of what I desire.
9. Blogger-without this miracle I would have guilt over still not journaling.
10.Digital cameras that allow you to take 1000's of pictures in a relatively short time with instant viewing. This is a big one people!

I would love to see people feeling gratitude more often. Let me know if your in on project 52????

Feb 23rd

One of my Favorite pictures of the day. Taken from the top of the Castle Beynac.

I had the first night of good sleep since Sunday. Boy did that feel good. I am back to happy me again. We got up at 7 so that we could drive to a city called Sarlat. It is about 2 hours from Bordeaux.

On the way there we saw these amazing buildings built into the sides of the mountains. Some where built into the caves. We ran out of time and didn't get to visit the caves. Maybe next time. Oh..right, cause I am going to get back real soon???? Ok, maybe in the millennium.

Look close and you will see the houses at the base of the mountain.We got there around 10:30, just in time for the open market. One thing that is interesting here in France is that all the stores close down between noon and two for lunch and then they open back up for business. The restaurants are only open at that time. So everyone eats then. Even the schools break for two hours to let the children go home for lunch. The first thing we saw was a stand with what they call Paella. It is a mixture of mussels, shrimp (whole), sausage, huge pieces of chicken, rice, peas, onions, I think it also had bell peppers, and saffron.
I really don't think the picture does it justice. It was a sight to be seen and we had to get that for lunch since I knew I could pick through the meat and eat it. We got one big plate and shared it between the four of us. We didn’t even finish it. There was this big long skinny red thing I could see and wondered what it was until my dad picked up a shrimp and it was the antenna. SO weird. Oddly enough it tasted very good. It is nice that we are so close to the ocean and they eat a lot of sea food.

We then walked around the market. It was very fascinating. It was an old town full of shops. Then on Saturdays, in front of the shops, people come and set up little stands full of their goods to sell.

Even the spices are set up in such an artist way.

While there I bought things to bring back to family in the states. I bought something for my SIL Sarah for helping Emma with school while I was gone. And a beautiful scarf for my MIL for helping Jared and Sarah with school. I bought something for Ryan that I think he will be excited about. I did buy myself one little thing. I don’t need to buy myself much as my pictures are all I really want, but when I found these cute nesting dolls I had to get them. I got red ones so that I could put them out at Christmas. I enjoyed the slow pace of the day and just walking through this old village with modern shops.

This was a simple water system in the middle of the town and even this is cute.After this we went in search of a Chateau with gardens. This was harder then we originally thought because it is the tourist off season and nothing is open.

This was the first one we tried. We spotted it from across the lake. I loved this castle or Chateau.

Once we realized this we looked on the pamphlets to notice which ones were open. On of the glorious things I learned on my trip was how to enjoy the ride. In searching for the castles we came upon this village.I love this picture because the building looks like it has been there for hundreds of years and yet it has a tv antenna on top.

And then this village on the lake. It truly is breath taking. This is why I love taking pictures. To try to capture the beauty and emotions seen and felt in this world.

With all the driving around and lack of sleep this is what Laura and I did every day on the long drives. Truly we were like kids again.

We finally found "the" gardens called Marqueyssac. It had mazes made out of evergreen bushes and it had an amazing view from all sides.

We walked around the gardens and again enjoyed the slow pace that accompanies this beautiful land.

I think my parents are the cutest. Thanks again for everything Mom and Dad!The actual Chateau was closed and we could not get inside but they did have one window open so we could look inside. The Chateau, or castle, was on top of a huge hill and you could see two other castles from the gardens. One of the castles was so large with a huge walled city that we realized we just had to make our way over there. The Chateau was called Beynac. I think this was my favorite place we have visited so far. The inside of the castle was closed (we have yet to see inside a castle) but the city that surrounded it was so intriguing. As we walked down the narrow streets that were surrounding the castle it was silent and I could just imagine what it would have been like to live in the 12th century when this was built and have my horses go through these narrow streets. Up at the top you could see the river and overlook the vineyards. As we continued to walk down through the streets to the bottom I realized that people are still living in these houses. In one of the yards I saw a tricycle. The town below was so tiny with not much more then a small bakery, butcher, and grocery store the size of our quickie marts. There were a few restaurants that were for the tourists. I felt like I had traveled back in time and there was something so serene about the quiet stillness of it all. It made me want to take my family and move to some remote location so that we could experience this wonderful slowing down pace. We bought bread at the bakery as it was closing down and ate yummy sandwiches made of Mexican tuna salad from a can and avocados. If they had this stuff in the states I would buy stock in it. Again I will say yum! We headed for home around 8 and I think I feel asleep right away. When we got home I woke up just enough to walk inside, get undressed, and conk out. I had another goodnight sleep and when my mom woke us up for church I was so excited to realize I had slept so well.

Feb 25th

My favorite so far was these Roman ruins. They are hidden among many other buildings.

One of the largest Outside markets around.

I am going to try to get caught up from my trip. I only have a minute so here are some of my favorite pics from this day.

This is a lake in the middle of Bordeaux.
These were in the streets of Bourdeaux.
I became fasinated with the symetry in the buildings that have been around for hundreds of years.

There was a fair in the middle of the town.

In the parking lot I spoted these trees. I think everything here is Beautiful.