Jedi Choices and the Sleeve-Whacking Factory

Noah: Why did Anakin train to be a Jedi and then just get with a girl?

Me: For your talk tomorrow, you're supposed to talk about when you chose the right. When did you choose the right?
Noah: When the choice was placed before me.

Josh lost the Utah charm from his charm necklace of states he got at school. He dropped it down the cold air return vent, and went and got a screw driver so he could remove it from the wall and save his charm. Good idea, and I was willing to help him, but it turns out the thing is very securely painted on the wall. When I told him we weren't going to be able to do it, our conversation went like this.
Josh: I know who can help. (Holds up the fingers for 9, then two 1's)
Me: They wouldn't be able to help with this. You only call them when people are in really bad trouble.
Josh: But I thought it was for emergencies!
Me: It is, but it's for when people are hurt really bad or something.
Noah: Yeah, Josh, it's like if this was a real light saber (holds up his toy light saber), and I put my finger on it like this, then we would need to call 911.

Josh and Noah decided they'd like to watch the BYU fight song on youtube today. This might be easy for kids with lots of computer time, but my kids don't get any these days. I let them for a while, but now two keys are missing and my Google Chrome icon is a white paper named koko. Today, though, the computer was open, and I was busy, so I thought there would be no harm in watching them try to get their goal. Somehow they got on youtube, but then the trouble was knowing how to search what they wanted. So, Josh went upstairs and got his BYU hat, and used it to type in "BYU Cougars," and he already knew how to write "song." Voila, they were watching what they wanted. Maybe they could have gotten it anyway without the cougars part, but it was so cute watching them negotiate the hat idea together.

Andrew: (Speaking of his eczema) Don't put a lotion on it, put a scratch on it.

Noah found a Toy Story muscle tee in the pajamas box he thought was awesome, so he put it on. Then he said, "I'm trying to figure out why they cut off the sleeves at the factory. I think they designed it for summer." Then later he started chuckling and said, "I'm just laughing about my arm pits showing."

This is What Recovery Looks Like

Gary broke his overtime record this winter . . . we are so glad he has the job, but he sure was gone a whole lot. I heard one of my boys say, "Well, my dad works until my mom is sleeping." In the midst of Gary's super-busy season, we all got sick. Lissy and I got really sick. Lissy ended up in the hospital for two weeks, including 5 days of intensive care. Also in the midst of the busy season and around the hospitalization, we have been involved an effort to prevent the marching band from drumming our babies and ill neighbors out of bed at 6 a.m. Also in the midst of it all my parents moved really far away. To east Texas. We have been really blessed through it all; I feel lucky in so many ways. But we needed a break.

So . . . last weekend we visited Gary's parents in St. George. It was sunny, we were together as a family, and we could not see any of the problems in our house that need fixing. Aaaaaah . . . As a huge bonus, we got to see my mom and sister as they passed through town on their way down south. My mom saved me in a moment of idiocy, hooking Lissy up with more than a vacation's worth of stuff when I left her carefully-packed bag at home. I'll make sure and tell her where those things come from so she can remember you, mom. We also got to see Gary's sister for a moment, and spend lots of time with Gary's mom. The kids LOVED their grandma time, and begged to stay longer. We couldn't stay the 7 days they were asking for, but we did relent when Noah asked to stay at grandma's house "just an hour 67." And another bonus, Kristen and Shane, the kid mega-favorites, live in St. George and came to play with us. Yep, the company and the sunshine (and probably the antibiotics) did their job, erasing away the stress little by little . . .

Kristen discovered that Lissy really likes to lick the juice from the inside of a grape. As long as that grape was around, Lissy's stranger issues were just fine. (Yeah, she has had stranger issues since the hospital.)

All 3 of the boys rode their scooters for hours. And hours more. There were plenty of sidewalks in a cul-de-sac, a long driveway, sunshine all over . . . perfect. On Sunday Andrew just couldn't quit, and did extra scooting. I asked him if he wanted something inside, and he said, "Not yet, I gotta finish my scooter."

Josh could have spun on this all day. He almost did. Giant sucker courtesy Uncle Shane and Aunt Kristen. Those lasted the boys a while.

Gary and his mom were the swing-pushing champions. I don't know how long they pushed Noah and Andrew, but it was a significant portion of the more than 3 hours we spent at the park. At one point Josh took a a turn pushing Andrew. At another point Andrew was pushing a random girl. There was a lot of cute teamwork going on.

Lissy LOVED the suckers. (Don't talk to me about germs and sugar, please. She was adorable.)

Josh was literally all over this rock climbing wall. I was really impressed with his ability to find holds and not be afraid of  climbing in a new way. 

Josh did this pose every time he got to the top of the wall. Gary said it was inspiring.

Noah had been playing like he was Diego saving sloths, but I didn't get my camera out until this.  Still cute.

This kid is really adventurous. There is a toddler area that he did not frequent. This is the most tame thing he went for the whole time.

Little Miss Lissy - Blessing and 2 Months Old

Little Miss Lissy is still little! Why an exclamation point for such standard baby-news? Because she is the smallest 2 month old we've had by several pounds. It was fun to have our chubby boys to snuggle, I'd totally take another one, but it's new and precious to have this little girl. She was 10 lbs. 8 oz. at her 2 month appointment (actually a couple of weeks after she turned 2 months), which is somewhere between the 30th-40th percentile. She was also 90th percentile in height, so she's tall and thin so far. (I didn't get a printout from this doctor, so for my recording-forever's sake, my memory is as good as it gets.)

Elisabeth still has tummy troubles, which is sad, but when they're not bothering her she loves to interact with us. Her smile is adorable, and she just loves to chat and chat. Here are some pictures I've gotten of her in the last month and a half or so. I was just thinking today that while pictures can be cute, and awesome pictures are awesome, no matter what you pay for those pictures it can't compare to a tiny little girl cooing and smiling at you, with her tiny little toes kicking around. So, that's my blessing for the moment, I get to have her for real. Not screaming can be a blessing for another moment. :)

Lissy was blessed on New Year's day while we were in St. George celebrating the holidays with Gary's family. My parents and sister came down, and I also have a sister who already lives there, so little Elisabeth had a lot of family to love. I cried during the entire blessing. It's hard bringing a baby into the world, then taking care of her along with her 3 energetic brothers, but a moment like that puts the reasons for doing it all into focus. I felt a real sense of what a precious daughter of God she is, and how much He loves her. She was blessed to be able to know that, and to do all of the things she will need to do to follow the Spirit. I just loved the sweet sense of peace I felt, and love for my daughter. And although it wasn't about me, encouragement for me. Gary said the people around him gasped when he held her up afterward. He is a proud daddy. And a good one, too. And I should have touched up my make-up before the following photo shoot . . .

Gary's dad, Gary's mom, Gary, Me and Lissy, my mom, my dad

My dad apparently did this to seek shade in St. George. Unrelated, but amusing.

Kristen, me, Hannah. Aren't they gorgeous?

Andrew, Jill, Bethany and Lissy, Sydney, Christian, Leah. All of these cousins LOVED helping with Lissy in St. George. The girls were constantly asking if they could hold her, and were so cute with her.

Lissy isn't good at letting small-fry hold her. But Andrew is nice . . .

Hannah and Lissy

Kristen, Lissy, Shane

Noah and Lissy

Uncle Eric and Lissy

Uncle Taylor and Lissy

Uncle Christian and Lissy. Because she is covering the print on his T-Shirt, it looks to me like he is going to baptize her.

It was a lovely day. Really. And her lack of head-adornment is related to how I rang in the New Year. It's not too spiritual, so later.

Need Some Guidance? We've Got Some Insights . . .

Josh got to asking about false prophets tonight during FHE, and I was attempting to teach the boys how the Holy Ghost will tell us what is right, and who is good. I started in on my explanation, and before I could elaborate Noah said, "I know another way you can tell the good guys and the bad guys. If it's a bad guy he'll say 'hee, hee, hee,' but if it's a good guy he won't say 'hee, hee, hee.' " (You should have heard him and his villainous hee hee hee.)

Today while I was feeding Lissy, Josh came up to me with a smoldering rag. Yes, embers and everything.
After the exciting moments of  them to running it into the back yard and dumping it on the snow (as per my instructions, right after, "Aaaah! Get that out of the living room!"), I was told the fire had started when Noah put the rag on top of the light fixture. I hadn't even had a chance to give any correction when Noah started saying, "That was a bad, bad decision. I've learned my lesson!"

I've wanted to buy a carpet cleaner for a while, but it never quite surfaced to the "must buy" list. Then the other day Andrew took off his diaper, pooped on the carpet, and dragged it into the kitchen. (To be fair, he wasn't happy about it.) As was hauling him up to the bathtub to wash him off, I was thinking about the carpet, and wondering if I should just buy the carpet cleaner. Should I spend savings for such a thing? To buy or not to buy . . . I had to scoop all of the bathtub letters out of the tub in order to prepare for the nastiness I was going to put into the tub, and after I put Andrew in I looked down at the letters. The ones on the top were B-U-Y. Coincidence? I think not. I'm buying it. Can't wait to share that in Sunday School.

Andrew said his first prayer without our help tonight. It wasn't funny, it was sweet and adorable. I loved how excited Josh and Noah were for him. Aaah . . . it's all worth it and then some.

Rise and Shout, The Cougars Were Out

Fresh off the bowl game victory, it's not too late to talk about BYU football, it's the perfect time. (Let's face it, this one has been sitting around forever, time to publish.)


First, the tale of the Utah game. (From an email I wrote at the time.)
 . . . Gary was SO determined to watch the BYU game on Saturday night, but we have no friends with cable in the neighborhood. Well, any that are of a mind to watch the game. Gary was determined we would watch it, though, and bought meat for a game-watching barbeque, even though we had no way to watch the game. It ended up that Gary and 2 of his friends in the ward cooked up a scheme that took FOREVER to implement and involved going to one family's home and streaming the game through their internet (had to be comcast, which they were the only ones to own), re-setting their wireless router (which took a very long time because they lost the password), taking another family's big screen tv off the wall and bringing it to the house with the right internet (cuz the tv had to have an hdmi input), and finally getting it hooked up to see the opening fumble. And that's the short version. Yes, it was a horrific massacre, but there was some fun had. We had yummy food, great people to chat with, and very entertained kids. The men were a little depressed when they were trudging through the dark at midnight to re-hang the tv, though . . .

Then there was the game we took the entire family to, courtesy of MOTU. (My dad said he'd like to be referred to as master of the universe once. My sisters have since complied with this abbreviation. Seemed to fit for this gifting of tickets situation.) Anyway, one extremely lovely fall day we witnessed BYU beat Central Florida, with Kayla and my Dad to cheer (and be climbed on) along us.

Kayla and Josh

Gary and Andrew - we kept Andrew busy for a while with Tootsie Rolls.

Noah was good as gold for the 20 minutes before kickoff, but the good capital was mostly used up when the game started. This monkey routine was all he wanted to do after that. Seems no more dangerous than the playground . . . I know it's not proper, though. Sigh.

They really wanted me to take this picture of them with this Star Wars flyer. I have no idea.

Andrew and I ended up spending a full quarter in the Cougar Club room, snuggling and playing with balloons.

Another attempt to capture a self-portrait of Andrew and his pregnant mommy.

All joy shown here is real. Josh really loves these games!

The best game of all was vs. Utah State. Gary and I got an impossible to refuse offer for babysitting, so after a series of ticket dramas (free from a friend, nevermind that, cheap off of KSL, nevermind that, free off of KSL after the game already started), we made our way to LaVell Edwards Stadium, just the two of us! The game was exciting, complete with an amazing drive for the win at the end. It was great to go on a big huge date before the baby came - hours of talking and munching on Twizzlers, no other worries. Gooooo, Cougars!

(And lest anyone point it out, I realize it wasn't THE most stellar of seasons, but that's not the point. It was fun!)

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

My favorite part of Christmas is not really Christmas day, although I like that. It's Christmas month - all of the decorations, fun preparations, Christmas music, and good cheer all around. This year we had a brand new screamy-baby, so doing the usual holiday stuff was a challenge, but we still got everyone what they needed, got the Christmas cards out, got the family calendar done, and really enjoyed ourselves. Actually I changed my mind. My favorite part of Christmas is seeing the kids enjoy Christmas month. Josh and Noah both had countdown chains, and were constantly begging me to let them rip off a link, as if Christmas would somehow come faster if their chains dwindled quickly. Love it. Here are a few of our doings leading up to the big day.

Josh takes a lot of pictures when he gets a hold of the camera. Sometimes I like them, like this one of Andrew that I think shows a little of his silly side.

My kids got to tell Santa their Christmas wish at our ward Christmas party. I told them they could each ask for one thing, and they were pumped for the occasion. (They know which things are not okay to ask for. We'll see how many years this works.) Afterwards Josh was a little deflated, though, because apparently Santa said, "I'll see what I can do." :)

Noah gets his turn to talk to Santa.

Andrew didn't quite know what to do. But at least he was interested.

The boys LOVE giving Lissy a bottle. After this time Gary said, "Well, that was fun for them." (As in, not so much for him.) What a patient dad..

Lissy liked this arrangement for longer than most any other that didn't include being held.

Noah's little neighborhood preschool had a little show and it was hugely adorable. Here they are getting ready to shine . Noah is the one in the bulldog shirt. He said he chose that one because it is the same color as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer's nose.

Noah's friend Cooper was trying to get him to take center stage.

Before the show the kids all made their parents a cookie to enjoy while watching . This was mine.

I had an extreme disadvantage when trying to photograph the event because I was in the back of the room nursing  and trying to zoom with the camera between people. Here, the kids jingled the bells on the back of their hats while singing "Jingle Bells." Too cute.

After the show the kids and spectators got to make a cookie for themselves to enjoy. Here is Andrew and his friend Cannon enjoying that portion of the day.

Noah with his cookie. This one was for him.

A couple of days before Christmas we met Gary's brother Taylor, wife Sara, and their 5 boys to eat at Crown Burger then see the lights at Temple Square. It was gorgeous, as always, and the 8 boys + one baby girl were fun. The kids enjoyed each other, and we didn't start losing them until the end. Seeing the temple at Christmas is such a wonderful thing to feel the Spirit confirm what is really important.

Andrew and Noah

Andrew did not want Noah pushing the stroller.

Andrew in blue, then Christian and Michael

My little Christmas picture with Josh and Noah, Michael got in there, too.

Ethan, Josh, and Michael. I think this reflecting pool with the nativity in the middle is breathtakingly beautiful.