Sunday, March 29, 2015
Blue Bonnets
We took our annual blue bonnet pictures. This year all of the pictures had a decent sized flaw in them. Mostly it was due to the positioning of our family. I guess a camera on a timer can't tell you to reposition Emma so that she is part of the family.... At least they are looking at the camera.
Emma remembered that we took pictures every year in the spring. She was excited. Not for the pictures, but because she would jump off the rock to Aaron every year. She loves this. You can see the sheer joy in her face. John's expression is a mixture of joy and "I-hope-I-don't-die."
Pre-Easter Pictures
I somewhat got my act together and took pictures of the kids this morning for an "Easter" photo. It isn't Easter but General Conference will be that weekend so no church clothes that day. And I went slightly above and beyond my typical Sunday effort to do their hair, tuck in John's shirt etc., but let's be honest, I am not a mom with every detail in place. I am just proud to have taken a picture!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Weathering Storms
I have recently had a couple of experiences where I have received promptings to help someone else. These were fairly clear so I have confidence in them. The strange part is, after the act of service was completed, I am not convinced the prompting was to help them! In fact I think the service was inconsequential for them. However, in both cases it turned out to be a rough day for me and the service helped to mitigate the effects of the day for me. I wasn't rescuing anyone but Heavenly Father helped me to weather a couple of storms by performing the service. It has provided me a new perspective on service, how to weather storms of life, and promptings from the Holy Ghost.
St. Patrick's Day
I love St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't ever into it before last year. But now that we have small children, it is a ton of fun to view the day through their eyes. It turns out that leprechauns come and play tricks on you. That is the magical part.
Last year the leprechaun peed in our toilet and didn't flush. How would I know that it wasn't a member of the family? Because the pee was green. Duh! Emma was really excited about the leprechaun coming this year. She even wrote the leprechaun a note. She wanted to stay down stairs to catch the leprechaun but we wouldn't let her.
This year the leprechaun turned their hair green. He also turned the water in Aaron's sink in our bathroom green. When you turned on the water, it came out green. Cool huh? I am pretty sure the leprechaun was super proud of himself on that one. He also turned their milk green. He didn't pee in our toilet but he did pee in Aunt Mary's toilet this year. I guess he doesn't pee at every house he goes to. It is understandable because that would be a lot of peeing.
I was surprised to find that Emma and John were hoping he would have peed at our house. They went around to all of the toilets to see if they were green. They also turned on all of the sinks to see if they were green. Only Aaron's was green though.
He did leave a note and a picture for Emma and John.
Last year the leprechaun peed in our toilet and didn't flush. How would I know that it wasn't a member of the family? Because the pee was green. Duh! Emma was really excited about the leprechaun coming this year. She even wrote the leprechaun a note. She wanted to stay down stairs to catch the leprechaun but we wouldn't let her.
This year the leprechaun turned their hair green. He also turned the water in Aaron's sink in our bathroom green. When you turned on the water, it came out green. Cool huh? I am pretty sure the leprechaun was super proud of himself on that one. He also turned their milk green. He didn't pee in our toilet but he did pee in Aunt Mary's toilet this year. I guess he doesn't pee at every house he goes to. It is understandable because that would be a lot of peeing.
I was surprised to find that Emma and John were hoping he would have peed at our house. They went around to all of the toilets to see if they were green. They also turned on all of the sinks to see if they were green. Only Aaron's was green though.
He did leave a note and a picture for Emma and John.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Dates and Church
Yesterday we did a Emma-daughter date and a John-son date as Emma calls it. The original plan was to have it be in the afternoon until dinner but due to the nature of our activities yesterday, it really was an all day thing.
Aaron took John to Lowes to buy mulch two times in the morning. That alone would constitute a wonderful day for John. When we go grocery shopping he tells me he doesn't like HEB but he likes Home Depot. There are lawn mowers, rangers, tools, and fork lifts at Lowes... really it is a dream come true. But the day didn't end there. John got to wear work gloves and help spread the mulch with a rake. Again, that alone would be enough happiness in one day. Then working in the yard, Aaron took John to watch planes take off from the airport. John asked where one was going and it was a Singapore Air jet so Aaron told him Singapore. John giggled all night over the word "Singapore." When I asked him about his experience he said, "Singapore is funny! There is a China in it!" Then he just laughed and laughed. John loved to see the big loud jets. He played with an airplane all morning, making loud sounds. I knew immediately airplanes would not make a great Sacrament meeting toy today.
Emma helped me make bread. She got to use the rubber scraper to clean off the oil and honey out of the measuring cup. I also taught her how to crack eggs. She loved it! She told me she wouldn't tell John because he would want to crack an egg. She was so proud of herself! Then the day got better when I let her do dishes. Happy as a clam! And she got to vacuum! All by herself! I do feel a tinge of guilt that this was part of our mother daughter time, but the fact that she was truly excited and happy helps to mitigate the guilt. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the forest to the swinging bridge. It has been rainy here so we wore our rain boots. There were a ton of muddle to walk through and that definitely added to the joy of walking through the forest. Emma turned to me at one point and said, "Mom, I want to talk about something." I replied, "OK, what do you want to talk about?" To which she said, "I don't know." I suggested preschool. She didn't want to talk about preschool but said she wanted to talk about kindergarten. I was able to find out that she isn't excited to go everyday to kindergarten but really what she is excited for is the bus ride. Go figure. Then we came home, had dinner and painted toe nails. Emma tried to paint her big toe. All in all she did pretty good and she let me put a second coat on it. She was very excited to try painting her own toes. It is funny because I would prefer that someone else paint my toes.
As for church today, John needed a diaper change just after they finished with the sacrament. So I go to take his hand to take him out and he tells me in full volume, "Don't change my bum! I am not done pooping!" He keeps repeating this. So I have a dilemna: 1. Do I sit back down and everyone now knows I have a kid with a poopy bum and am letting him sit in it and letting them smell it?? or 2. Do I continue to take him out and not let the kid finish pooping?? I figured I couldn't win either way but that I should get him out because he keeps saying, "Don't change my bum! I'm still pooping!" over and over in full volume. In fact he says this quiet loudly as I am walking down the aisle. I should note here, that most of the time, he is done, but knows that phrase can work as a delay tactic to getting his bum changed.
After church his nursery leader told me that during their singing time the were going to sing "I Am A Child of God" and John just started singing without everyone else. So they let him sing the first verse by himself. John's first solo in church! Apparently everyone joined in on verse two...
Aaron took John to Lowes to buy mulch two times in the morning. That alone would constitute a wonderful day for John. When we go grocery shopping he tells me he doesn't like HEB but he likes Home Depot. There are lawn mowers, rangers, tools, and fork lifts at Lowes... really it is a dream come true. But the day didn't end there. John got to wear work gloves and help spread the mulch with a rake. Again, that alone would be enough happiness in one day. Then working in the yard, Aaron took John to watch planes take off from the airport. John asked where one was going and it was a Singapore Air jet so Aaron told him Singapore. John giggled all night over the word "Singapore." When I asked him about his experience he said, "Singapore is funny! There is a China in it!" Then he just laughed and laughed. John loved to see the big loud jets. He played with an airplane all morning, making loud sounds. I knew immediately airplanes would not make a great Sacrament meeting toy today.
Emma helped me make bread. She got to use the rubber scraper to clean off the oil and honey out of the measuring cup. I also taught her how to crack eggs. She loved it! She told me she wouldn't tell John because he would want to crack an egg. She was so proud of herself! Then the day got better when I let her do dishes. Happy as a clam! And she got to vacuum! All by herself! I do feel a tinge of guilt that this was part of our mother daughter time, but the fact that she was truly excited and happy helps to mitigate the guilt. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the forest to the swinging bridge. It has been rainy here so we wore our rain boots. There were a ton of muddle to walk through and that definitely added to the joy of walking through the forest. Emma turned to me at one point and said, "Mom, I want to talk about something." I replied, "OK, what do you want to talk about?" To which she said, "I don't know." I suggested preschool. She didn't want to talk about preschool but said she wanted to talk about kindergarten. I was able to find out that she isn't excited to go everyday to kindergarten but really what she is excited for is the bus ride. Go figure. Then we came home, had dinner and painted toe nails. Emma tried to paint her big toe. All in all she did pretty good and she let me put a second coat on it. She was very excited to try painting her own toes. It is funny because I would prefer that someone else paint my toes.
As for church today, John needed a diaper change just after they finished with the sacrament. So I go to take his hand to take him out and he tells me in full volume, "Don't change my bum! I am not done pooping!" He keeps repeating this. So I have a dilemna: 1. Do I sit back down and everyone now knows I have a kid with a poopy bum and am letting him sit in it and letting them smell it?? or 2. Do I continue to take him out and not let the kid finish pooping?? I figured I couldn't win either way but that I should get him out because he keeps saying, "Don't change my bum! I'm still pooping!" over and over in full volume. In fact he says this quiet loudly as I am walking down the aisle. I should note here, that most of the time, he is done, but knows that phrase can work as a delay tactic to getting his bum changed.
After church his nursery leader told me that during their singing time the were going to sing "I Am A Child of God" and John just started singing without everyone else. So they let him sing the first verse by himself. John's first solo in church! Apparently everyone joined in on verse two...
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