The Dog House

When I was a 4 year old girl, we lived in Seattle, Washington.  I was playing hide-and-seek in the backyard with my big sister and my big brother.  It was my turn to hide and I found a really good hiding place- in Skipper's dog house.  I scooted all the way to the back and I was sure that no one would ever find me in there.  

After a few minutes I got so excited that I really, really needed to go to the bathroom.  Sometimes when you're really excited you feel like you have to go to the bathroom, right?  But I had such a good hiding place and I didn't want anyone to find me.  So I had a decision to make- I could get out of the dog house and go to the bathroom and lose the game or I could stay in my hiding spot and wet my pants.  What would you do?

Adam said he would give up his hiding spot and run to the potty.

This seems like such a no-brainer now.

Well, I really loved my hiding spot and I didn't want to give it up, so I sat in the dog house and I peed my pants.  And then the game was over anyway because I had wet pants and I had to go inside to change. 

The end.  

And I left Adam's room for the night with his eyes VERY WIDE with wonder that his mommy would ever willfully do something so bad.

Pictures that make me smile

One Sabbath day it was raining really hard.  When the rain let up and the sun came out Leah commented that it was too bad that there was no rainbow.  We quickly dropped everything and ran outside in search of the rainbow that should be there.  And we found it!

We made volcanoes in the backyard one day.  We killed the grass, but it was a lot of fun anyway.

Adam's need to take pictures of things he loves even extends to shoes that he doesn't really want.  I took half a dozen pictures of his foot ("Ok, shoe- smile!  Oh, he blinked.  One more!") before he would take the shoe off and leave it in the store.

 Date night with my boys!  We've got a great group of friends here that are occasionally up for a date night baby-sitting swap.  It's not quite as intense as what we did in Indiana- it's more flexible and we are all loving it!

 We went to the Des Moines International Food Festival- yum!

"Hello!  I'm Le-la." 

My attempt to create a fancy hairstyle for Leah.  She loved it, bless her sweet heart.  

Emma does not love having her hair done quite as much.

 Post-nap happy pants.

This looks like a sad picture, but I took it while I was sitting on the porch taking 5 minutes for myself during the 6:00 crazies.  It kept me from yelling, so I'm calling it a happy moment.

  We celebrated the first day of fall!  Purple mums on the porch and pumpkin cookies all around.

I'm sad that the seasons are changing, but summer can't last forever.  

We've never had trouble making any season fun and memorable, so bring on the fall fun!

Iowonderful!

I don't think you can live in Iowa and not have pictures like this-

We had heard great things about Center Grove Orchard and finally checked it out last weekend.  And it was SO much fun.  The corn pool, which is literally the size of a swimming pool, was the biggest hit, followed by the water pump, tube slides, jumping pillow, goats, bouncy horses, lasso bulls, and the storybook village.  We stayed past closing time and the kids have been talking about it daily since.  Adam wants some more of the delicious apple cider, Leah wants to check out the corn maze, and we need to pick pumpkins from the patch.

They offer season passes, but most of the activities were perfectly suited for kids that could do it all themselves.  Jason met us there and we were able to trade off with Emma and Noah, but I don't think we could have had as much fun without his help.  So we'll file a season pass away for "someday" but definitely look forward to going again as a family- soon!

Slippies

Because you don't want to catch a chill while waiting for the doctor to arrive. 

The Final Ascent

Has only just begun.  

Scripture Power

Adam gave his first talk in Primary last Sunday and he did great!  He read his talk clearly and loud enough that all of the cute little kids in his Sunday School class listened intently through the whole thing.  He talked about the hike our family took to Delicate Arch this summer, how hard it was, and how the gospel of Jesus Christ can always help us through hard things.

Tonight we read in The Book of Mormon tonight about Jesus Christ's visit to the American continent after his death and resurrection.  Adam was so interested in the story that he insisted upon reading an extra page (in our picture scripture reader) all by himself.   He did a great job figuring out what even the big words meant, his eyes sparkling the whole time.  

"All the people... poisoned... WAIT!  All the people praised Jesus and worshiped him."

"That's much better".

I sure do love watching his little testimony grow.

Noah's Idea Of A Good Time

 

My Idea Of A Good Time

Near the end of summer I started really looking forward to back-to-school for one main reason- a chance to take control of my house again!  Maybe I'm the only one with this problem, and I know have mentioned this before, but I am truly amazed at how much stuff we have lurking in corners and crevices throughout our house.  At a glance our house looks almost too sparsely filled, but it's the stuff that we do have sitting around that has been driving me crazy- the cross-shoulder diaper backpack that I always kept for Jason just in case he needed a more manly one than mine for the many outings that he takes with our newborn babies (not!), or last season's clothes that the kids have grown out of yet again that need to be sorted into save, donate, and trash piles.  It's the coloring book basket full of crumpled papers and completed coloring books or the overflowing toy boxes or the game cupboard that just needs some sorting and organizing.  It's the dusty cookbooks and the extra flower vases and the basement... oh how I love to hate the basement.  Fantastic for keeping things out of sight, out of mind, but terrible for giving those forgotten messes a breeding ground.

So I've been spending a good chunk of Mr. Noah's naps lately sorting, organizing, and altogether purging wherever I can.  And I've realized a few things.

Lesson Number One- being poor, starving graduate students teaches you to save everything you think you might need ever again.  Just in case.  Because chances are, the minute you get rid of it, you're going to need it and won't have the money in this month's stipend to replace it.  I'm slowly getting over that as I realize that I don't have to keep ugly stained shirts or dirty old shoes if they have lived a good life and are ready to meet their final resting place.  I can replace them.  The money is there to replace the things that need to be replaced.  That wasn't always the case in graduate school (remember how many months we lived with the check engine light on in the car?).  That lesson was a good one to learn, though, and I'm eternally grateful that we had so many years of learning it- it's stuck with us pretty good and even now we have to give ourselves permission and a serious pep talk to buy the things that we need.

Lesson Number Two- so much of the clutter that we keep in our home is baby clutter, and it's going to be rendered completely useless once we close the childbearing chapter of our lives.  The bassinet that is packed away again, the mobile, the bumbo, the swing, the tubs upon tubs upon tubs of baby clothes that I just can't get rid of in the event that IF we have another baby and IF it's a boy/girl and IF he/she is born in the same season as one of his/her older siblings- I'm hanging onto all of it just a bit longer.  And it amazes me to realize that in less time than I've owned any of it, I will no longer have any use for any of it.  Just like that I will have the freedom to get rid of it all.  And then I don't mind keeping that stuff around quite so much.

Lesson Number Three- Keeping stuff around that is broken/stained/too big/too small/useless/annoying to store/brings up a bad memory is just keeping me that much further from the peaceful, purposeful feeling that I want our home to have.  That stuff needs to go.

Lesson Number Four- One man's trash is another man's treasure.  I've had a delightful and interesting time watching people willingly pay for some of the "junk" that we've been keeping around.  And I've been able to teach my kids that their unloved stuff is worth money that can be used (or saved) for new interests.  The basement has been a hotter mess than it's been all summer.  The other day Emma looked around and said as much.  When I asked her why she said, "Dere's just been so many birthdays and Christmases."  And that's exactly right.  We've been blessed with so much over the years with more than we could ever really use and love, and I've truly enjoyed passing some of those blessings along to the women's shelter, the local clothing for the needy organization, the library, the Goodwill, and even other families.  The kids are starting to understand that they can bless other people's lives, too.

Lesson Number Five- Toys are part of the problem, but they aren't the whole problem.  I have realized that outgrown clothes for four small people make up a huge portion of the mess in our basement.  And that is my responsibility.  Same with crafting supplies, paperwork, and holiday decorations. All up to me.  So if it gets taken care of, great.  If not, I can feel good knowing that I was probably doing something more enriching or essential in the meantime.

Lesson Number Six- Saving toys to pass down to younger kids is great, but it doesn't really cut it come Christmas and birthdays.  They all have their own interests, and I don't think Emma would be thrilled to receive Leah's old nappy-haired Barbies, no matter how well accessorized they are.

Lesson Number Seven- Clearing out the old makes room for the new and it helps us recognize what is most important.  I've been exchanging a lot of my time lately for what I hope is a more peaceful and pleasant home, as well as more time to enjoy what we do have rather than just organize and sort what we no longer want or need.

Lesson Number Eight- My kids will always, always, always be more excited about the box than they are with the toy.

My method for cleaning out the basement has been to pull up one box of stuff at a time, set it out for the kids to sort through, take note of what they're thrilled with and what they could care less about and sort accordingly.  The other day I brought up a box that they quickly emptied and then had a ball playing pirates in search of buried treasure.

Lesson Number Nine- Kids just don't nearly as much stuff as I originally thought they did.  When Leah was little I thought she had to have every Fisher-Price toy in the baby aisle.  Watching Noah I can see that no toy can compare with the joy of unplugging nightlights, emptying drawers and opening cupboards.  Add in a tickle or a snuggle and a crawling chase and I've got the happiest baby on the block.  No toys required.

One day we bought a coconut and had a blast smashing it to pieces.  Again, no toys required.  

Lesson Number Ten- Money spent on experiences, books, crafts, and Legos are worth their weight in gold.  Adam told me that his three most special possessions are his books, his Legos, and Coconut, his beloved piggy bank that Grandma sent him from Hawaii.

There will always be room for books in our house!

As for experiences, of all the Christmases I was blessed with growing up, the one that stands out the most to me is the year my parents took us to Hawaii.  I was 13.  I remember the trip clearly, and I remember my presents- a bottle of Sunflowers perfume and a Celine Dion CD.  I think the lack of volume in the gifts made the ones I did receive all the more special.  Or maybe it was the fact that we were on our way to paradise!

Lesson Number Eleven- Having a baby to nurse and cuddle makes sorting and organizing and purging completely unimportant.  That explains why I have done such a great job of it over the last 11 months.  And that's okay.

And now that the house is a bit less stuffed, I'm starting to look forward to the upcoming holidays.  Not because I want to get more stuff, but because I can go into them with a sense of peace and gratitude about what we have, what we love, and what we know we can do without.

11 Year Fam-iversary

To thank him for fixing my car, I took Jason out for ice cream on September 8, 2003.  That was our first date.  We try to celebrate that anniversary in one way or another every year.  This year's celebration was a tasty one!

While we were cleaning up from dinner we played a few songs from our dating days, including "I've Got A Question" by Old 97, "Endless Love" by Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross, and "Fruta Fresca" by Carlos Vives.  Yes, that song is in Spanish.  Man alive we were dorks back then.  And as we danced around the kitchen and laughed at our old jokes and the kids stared at us like we were crazy, I realized that we still are kind of dorks.  But at least we have each other to feel validated in it now!

It was only a month or so after our first date that I was driving home from my parents house one evening, having spent the entire time talking about my amazing new boyfriend, that I realized that I wanted to marry Jason.  He was unlike any other guy I had ever known- he was so much more and so much better and really, so perfect to me.  And perfect for me.

We were sitting at the dinner table the other night (one of the most enjoyable and most stressful times of our day) and I realized that there is really no way that you can possibly know what exactly you're signing up for when you pledge your eternal love and commitment to a boyfriend or girlfriend that you've only seen in a handful of situations.  How could I have known that just because Jason jumped up to help me fix my car that first night that he would come home from work every day- no matter how good or bad his day was- and immediately say, "what can I do to help?"  How could he have known, based on my very limited cooking skills back then, that I would be able to feed six hungry mouths on any budget?  How could either of us have known our parenting and discipline styles or our reactions to the various crises we've had over the years ("You don't want to be a dentist?!" "You spilled hot water on the baby's face" "You're having a baby in the CAR?!").  We were just kids.  How could we really know?

And the answer is trusting in the Lord.

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, 
and lean not unto thine own understanding. 
In all thy ways acknowledge Him
and He shall direct thy paths 
-Proverbs 3:5-6

There is so much that we didn't know about each other back then, but today I am more thankful than ever that the Lord gave us each other.  No matter how imperfect we may be, He knows us and it is truly His plan that has guided our relationship every step of the way.

11 Months

It's never hard to tell where Noah has been.  

He leaves a trail of curiosity behind him wherever he goes- opened cupboards, spilled food, unplugged electrical cords, removed door stoppers, and knocked over trash cans. 

And he does it all with the sweetest sparkle in his eye.   

Freedom to explore!  This is what life is all about.   

He is absolutely loving crawling wherever he wants.

And though it makes my days a bit harder, 

I can't help but smile when I see him discover something new.

This is the look of a boy who just whapped his sleeping brother in the head.  

 And the look of a boy who just interrupted his brother's piano concerto.  

 A boy who just ate a darn good snack.  

And a boy who is really good at turning the pages.   

He calls that guy "Daaad".  And it kills me.   

And he calls me "Mmmmmm....mmm.....mamamamamama"  

 He still joins us on our dates, and he's gotten to be quite the involved third wheel.  

And when he's had enough, he snuggles up in my arms and nurses happily until he passes out.  

 

And then he wakes up and starts it all over again.  Eleven months old and just so much fun.