Rise & Shine

Good afternoon my little horrible napper.... I am a complete sucker for profile shots.  They light up my ever loving world.  And her head is so big it makes a completely fabulous subject on it's own.  :)

AYB?

"AYB"  This is what mission president and his wonderful wife (Sister Parkin) used to say to us.  It stood for Are You Building?  Meaning, when you speak are you building up a person, or are you in fact tearing them down.  That has really stuck with me, I need to implement it more into our family life.  

On this same note; my little cousin Crystal did one of the most fascinating science projects last year.  She took identical house plants- watered them exactly the same amount and kept them in the exact same sunny kitchen window.  But each day she would speak very kindly to one, the other plant she would take into the bathroom and say really mean things to(this was really hard for her to do, she's one of the sweetest girls you will EVER meet).  Over the course of 1 week the plant that she spoke kindly to thrived, and the other one slowly died.  Even after the first few days the plant started to droop.  Just writing that honestly makes me want to cry.  So having seen this experiment she did with a PLANT, just think how utterly powerful our words are to those around us. Especially our children who thrive on our every compliment, every mean word or look, and every ounce of praise or approval. As one man said on Oprah, "Do your eyes light up when your kids walk in the room?"  What a gift to give our kids, when they walk into a room, can they tell  how much we adore them even with all the $150 plumber bill you just paid?  Now beleive you me, I know this is easier said than done.  It's just something I think about- because I know I need to work on it.  

Just remember all those spirits around you, adult or child, are even more sensitive to your words than the house plant that slowly died in a weeks time because of cruel words.  

AYB?

(real photos of Crystals plant photos soon to come)

Spanish

My sister Kimberly speaks fluent spanish.  Jaren had been asking "how do you say.....in spanish?" and she would tell him.  So then he says:

"Kimi, how do you laugh in Spanish?"

How do you know?

How do you KNOW when you are done having kids? I've heard people say that they just know. I think I've had that feeling up until just a few months ago. If I'm to have more why would I have had that feeling for almost 2 years? I don't really want another child right now. I'm 100% not opposed to having more, I feel like I'm really open to whatever is in store for me.  But I honestly thought I was good to go, up until now.  So...I've heard some Mom's say they still don't feel done still - and these are older women whose children are grown, so they stopped because they knew they should. So in that case why do they still feel that uterus yearning for more? (ya, I know that was a weird why to describe such feelings) So how do you know?? What's this feeling- a feeling of absolute completion, or just at your witts end...tell me!! Besides why am I so worried about this? Am I just thinking about it because I've never gone so long without having a baby blossoming in my belly, or is a little soul knocking at my door even though right now I don't feel 100% ready?Maybe I need to pray a little more...
Come on...how can I not have another one of these;

The letter

This is one of the sweetest girls you will ever meet. She is kind to everyone, loves everyone, is genuinely concerned about people (no matter their age), she talks about a mile a minute, has to give about a hundred hugs before she goes anywhere, and wants to be the best girl she can. She is splendid in every way.

This was a letter she wrote to her friend Hannah after arguing over a smartie :). I went in her room and found her on her bed writing this note. I thought it was so cute, the rainbows, the wording and I love the spelling so much! It doesn't get better than this.

Oh my...

Yesterday Tan man wanted a certain red shirt.  Only...it was at the very top of his closet.  So he proceeded to climb all the way up the 3 shelves in the middle of the closet emptying out each one as he went, until he reached the top and finished the job, the entire closet- emptied, except for 2 shirts folded at the top, one of them being his coveted red shirt. 

Unfortunately this is not all of the damage, the rest of the clothes and blankets are in the closet on the floor. 

 

His favorite thing to do is climb to the top of my bed post and jump off.   Can I just tell you how much I am looking forward to SPRING so he can outside and get all of his energy out?! Notice his summer clothes?  Those are from the top of his closet...

A few days ago he dumped out yet another box of cereal, and then dumped an entire water bottle in the middle of my bed.  He can make a room look like a tornado came and went in a matter of seconds.  You must be thinking I don't ever watch my child.  But believe me...it is no easy task.  If you'd like to try just let me know and I'll send him your way.
This was yesterdays activities. Getting into the sink until they were completely drenched. I saw this, and thought, well there's not a ton on the floor...so go right ahead. It kept them busy for a good 30 minutes.
 

And yet through it all I love love love him to pieces.  All of these shananagans are actually quite hilarious even though many times I think I may lose my mind if I have to clean up any more of his gigantic messes.  The funniest part is when I walk into one of his messes and he says "me and Taelyn didn't do it."  Oh really....so now I know who his accomplice is.

Another favorite of his is this:

He moves the couch all the way to the middle of the front room. For no real reason, just to do it.
When my sister was baby-sitting one day he dumped out a box of cereal ( I know why don't I put the cereal up higher?  Because he would climb the shelves to the cereal like he already does now).  She started having him help to pick it up when he said "Aren't you going to take a picture?"  WHAT???!!  I guess that has backfired on me.  All this time....one day I will look back on this and really laugh.  

Kimberly

This beauty queen is my sister. My baby sister. I love her "fresh and fruity" as we say (we're weird). She is amazing. She is one of those people who's good at everything she ever tries. Art, music, dance, singing, school, and an amazing gift for different languages. You name it- she's fabulous at it. It's kind of lame, she got all the good genes that were supposed to be mine. And one of my favorite things about her is her sense of humor, the girl is a crack up. She was only 6 when I left home, so as she's gotten older I've been able to get to know her better, and I feel so blessed to be her sister. All of my sisters are just fabulous people and friends.  She's been to Japan, Europe and El Salvador where she volunteered in an orphanage. She love love love loves kids. And to top it all off, she's absolutely beautiful, inside and out.

A well spent $2

I had high hopes for this cape...I was going to make it all cute and nice.  Then I ran out of time when I started them.  So it ended up with only a tie around the neck and the $1 patch on the back.  But he LOVES it.  He could care less about me hemming it or making it more super.  But if you are interested in some fancy shmancy capes check this site out!

What would you throw off?

The leadership conference is now on lds.org if you're interested in reading it...
On a note about the post on Judging...all of you had such insightful, wonderful comments. I loved reading them so much. Thank you thank you for that. It helped me realize again how much we are all trying to do our best. If you haven't had a chance to read all of the comments, I highly suggest it, they are so good!  Along those lines, this was also from that same meeting, this quote is by Elder Oaks. Read it sloooowly.

"In all that we have discussed, I think it is fundamental for us to avoid taking the world’s models as our guides for parenting and marriage and all of those things that have eternal importance. I’m mindful of the counsel recorded in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6. Paul was speaking to those who had the gospel, and he said, “[Don’t be] unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). He’s telling us that we cannot afford to stand side by side, yoked with the world, when we are trying to make fundamental eternal decisions."

How true!  So many of you said this very thing.  We can not care what anyone thinks of us, sometimes this may even be our friends and hardest of all...family, we can only do what we know is right for our own family.  And then if we feel judged, chose not to be offended.

This was another part that I feel was meant for me to hear. This is Elder Holland near the very end of their discussion.  

"I’ve often thought, and I’ve said to my own children, that those parents who kept going past Chimney Rock and past Martin’s Cove (and sometimes didn’t get farther than that) and those little graves that are dotted all across the historic landscape of this Church—they didn’t do that for a program, they didn’t do it for a social, they did it because the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ was in their soul, it was in the marrow of their bones. That’s the only way those mothers could bury that baby in a breadbox and move on and say, “The promised land is out there somewhere. We’re going to make it to the valley.”

Well, that’s because of covenants and doctrine and faith and revelation and spirit. If we can keep that in our families and in the Church, maybe a lot of other things start to take care of themselves. Maybe a lot of other things sort of fall off the wagon. I’m told those handcarts could only take so much. They had to choose what they took. And maybe the 21st century will drive us to decide, “What can we put on this handcart?” It’s the substance of our soul; it’s the stuff right down in the marrow of our bones. We’ll have blessed family and Church if we can cling to the revelations."

And so I ask myself...what do I need to throw off my handcart?  What do I need to do to make it lighter so that my family isn't pushing so much crap over this giant mountain of life.  I can't help but wonder what I am putting first in my small handcart- and I don't think he's speaking of material things.  All in all it made me re-examine my life and think about what I am doing with my TIME to best help my beautiful family get through this life knowing that I did my very best. 

It would be just a few simple things....the trick is remembering.

What would you leave, (or at least leave most of) out of your handcart?

Add your email!

I'm debating putting my blog back to private again.  So if  you would like me to add you to my readers list please leave me your email address, or go to my profile and shoot me an email so I can make sure you're added.   I know I have some readers who are friends of friends, so I want to make sure you are also added just in case I follow through...

Bag Tag

I have been bag tagged by Mel- her bag was WAY too neat. The rules are...
1. take a picture of your bag
2. show a picture of ALL the contents in your bag
NO CLEANING OUT FIRST!!!!
3. "Bag Tag" five people


I must admit, I did not realize how much CRAP I had in there!   Like, what's with the airport baggie I never emptied, 2 sets of keys!  (I was looking for those), a AAA battery?  And a white button?  What the.... Mint or lipgloss anyone? Saddest part is I just shoved it all back in.

Now I tag everyone.  I want to see......

Thank You Tanner

Dear Tanner,

Thank you for so very kindly for putting your new toothbrush in the toilet and gently flushing it down. I really appreciate how clogged our toilet is now. We can not use it at all. Thank you. Now I must spend a good amount of money to fish that dear hot wheels car toothbrush out. You are merely three, so I will spare you your life. Thank you Tanner, it was a lovely day.

Love,

Mom

(this is Jaren's matching toothbrush...not Tanner's from the toilet :))

To judge or not to judge...

So we went to the church world wide training for adults on Sat. night.  I did not want to go.  At all.  But Jasper was going with or without me, so I went too.  I can't tell you how glad I am that I went, I didn't even need my journal that I brought for when I was bored.  Seriously.  

The entire meeting was really about families and parenting, even if you're not a parent or married, I think it was a fabulous meeting.  But one thing that stood out to me was (it was actually an open discussion between 3 women and 2 men) about not judging.  Specifically not judging parents for how many children they decide to have.  They talked about how there are many who judge those for having a lot of children ( I was surprised this was spoken about).  Now, I have to say, I have experienced this.  And I only have 4 children, and I live in Utah- hello!  Now I will not lie and say it hasn't bothered me.  I don't understand why people have to comment about how many children people want to have.  Why do they care?  Just because something works or doesn't work for my family, doesn't mean someone else won't do it wonderfully.  If people want to have a large family, let them.  It seems to me so often I say negative things about being a parent, because sometimes it's hard.  But all too often I think I forget to say how wonderful and rewarding it is as well.  Don't get me wrong, I will continue to post how naughty my kids are and my frustrations etc. because I feel that's healthy for me, but I do need to look and recognize all of the amazing moments motherhood brings me on a daily basis.  One of the women gave and instance where she sat down in church with her children - an entire row full- and the woman behind her said "I would have more children if it were as easy for me as it is for you."  She said she burst into tears and cried the entire meeting because- it was not easy for her at all.  I think it's hard for any mother, no matter how put together she seems.  We never know who struggles with what, or what is happening behind closed doors. Now, I am babbling I know, but the point of this is, if someone want to have 12 children, that is fabulous! Bro. Oaks said that when he and his wife had 5 small children a woman approached his wife and said "what are you trying to do...multiply and replenish the entire earth?" His wife must be very witty because she said "I couldn't think of anyone better to do it".  How great is that?  Why do we feel the need to intrude what works for us onto someone else?  I don't know.  When I got pregnant with Madeline only a month after we were married (on purpose) I got many a comment.  One from a former leader.  She said "Are you sure you want to do that so soon?"  Uh...hello.  I'm pregnant.  What was that all about?  I hurt me to the core.  But looking back I know why she said it, because of her own experiences in life.  I'm sure she thought nothing of it.  I have caught myself thinking if I have more kids I'll have so many...what will people think of me?  Why do I even care?  Likewise for those women who don't have children, or have very few- we must always be careful not to judge them.  We don't know what they are going through.  Perhaps they are unable to have children, or feel that they need to wait,  or desperately want to have them and are waiting to be blessed through adoption,  there are so many circumstances.  Gosh, I'm still typing about this.... there are so many other awesome things they talked about...but now I'm tired of typing.  What do YOU think? Even if you're a friend of a friend I really want to hear your thoughts!  Have you ever felt judged, do you find it hard not to?  What am I missing??  

This is from the first comment I received (about this post)from my lovely sister Jana...and I love what she said, because I am very guilty of being of not always including the Lord in my decision making:

"And I know that the thing that really matters is that it's a personal decision, between the couple and the Lord, and not anybody else. I guess I just wonder sometimes, do we really give the Lord a chance to take part in that decision?"

Make-up Tae

A fav for Taelyn is make-up.  It's so cute watching her try to immitate me.  Yesterday I thought, she is so cute, why haven't I taken photos of this before?  So I busted out the camera of love and got some of baby Tae acting like she's 16.

This one was from Sunday morning...she was outside with her p.j's, boots and coat.  I just love her eyes...

photo tip: hoods, hats or anything to frame the face is always aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  It will make the face pop.

Feel the love...

More Hawaii

Ok, so never mind this one day at a time crap, that's way too organized for me.  Here we go- there are a lot....

This was taken on the North Shore.  The mountains there are so brill!

A little yoga...Emily, can I put your star pose on here too???  We went to the beach to watch the sunrise.  

Emily getting all geared up to Scuba dive-
I was trying to be brave...I did get in the water and tried to scuba...but alas, I was to chicken.  I don't know what my prob was, I'm usually such a dare devil, but this was too claustrophobic for me.  I lasted about 10 minutes.  :)  But these guys did awesome and said it was like nothing else!

Okay, Monday we were just big dorks. We drove to the East Side of the island to find the "easiest waterfall to find in the island" (a quote from all the "books" on Kauai). Okay...we drove back and forth at least four times trying to find the turn. Finally, we stopped at Eggberts for lunch. I guess we were all starving because obviously our brains weren't working. We drove South and, lo and behold, there is a big, green sign with an arrow and the name of the falls. Later on that day, Greg and Jasper got out of the car to check out a possible snorkeling sight. For some reason, they locked the car doors as they walked away. Emily and I were locked inside! It got hot inside the car, so Em tried to unlock the door to get some air. It set off the alarm. And of course, Greg and Jasper didn't recognize the alarm of the rental car! I was snorting -I was laughing so hard (so was everyone around us). They finally rescued us!

  Emily and I falling off a giant cliff across from the Waterfall. 

We hiked the this awesome waterfall,  there was a giant rope swing at the fall....verrrry prrretty. That night we went to a really over priced Luau. :)

These are our "Nam" photos...Emily was smiling a little too much for Vietnam.

from the heli...  Thanks Lindsay for the recommendation, it WAS so worth the money (thanks Em).  It stopped in the middle of the nowhere at a waterfall for lunch.  Heaven.

The Zipline, also so fun.


Our wall climb.
Puff the Magic Dragons house.  Or something.
Our way too cool friends Greg and Emily...thanks you guys, we had so much fun!  Jimmy Loma!

This trip went way fast...and I didn't even miss my children like I thought I would.  We laughed so much, relaxed mucho, and ate a lot of chocolate covered macadamia nuts.  Perfect.

I'm tryyyyyying...

Saw this quote on my sisters blog.  Love it, don't live by it very well.  That's why I love it.  Why is it so hard for me to play with my kids?  I sit down to play a game (I am such a good mom)...then I look around, oooh, I need to sweep.  Oh, I can see under the piano, it looks like the dust colony has settled comfortably, oh, look at the paint in here, it's so ugly, what color should I repaint it?? How long has it been since I dusted in here?  Oh crap did I pay the mortgage yet for this month? Those couches...I need to run them through a car wash.  What? Oh yeah, it's my turn....

p.s. how amazing am I....I've been posting so religiously.  Amazing.

Sweetness

While we were gone....

Jaren and Madeline were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.  The winner was got to hand out the treat.  Madeline is a competitor, loves winning, so she of course really wanted to win this time.  Jaren cares about winning, but not as much as making her happy.  So sweet Jaren says "OK Maddie, no matter what, I'll be paper."  Giving her the key to winning without "letting her win". Isn't he so sweet???

Madeline went swimming with friend Malia, and her mom made sandwiches for them.  Madeline gets in the car and says to Allyson..."That was the best turkey sandwich, do you think I could get the recipe?"

Don't kids say the best things?  I keep - or should say kept- a journal out for exactly these things.  I was diligent off and on for about 3 years, and I love reading through it.  I completely forgot 90% of the adorable things they'd said or did.  I'm going to start leaving it out again...

Day One

Kauai: I have 300 photos that I have to chose from...so I thought this would eliminate my inability to think properly. So day one...Sunday. We try to find church. We don't know where we're going, but I have a "feeling" so after much prodding the husbands abide by my word (Greg admitted he's a little scared of me, so I had that in my favor) and low and behold we find it. Mind you I had NO idea where we were or were supposed to be going....

Jasper and Greg wear flip flops to church thinking it would be a "primitive church" (what the...??) You can imagine how stunned they were to see civilization and a nice church building. Apparently, Greg and Jasper pictured church on Kauai like in the movie, "The Other Side of Heaven." I think they expected to find a bunch of Polynesian men in white shirts, ties, Hawaiian skirts, and sandals. They were embarrassed, but nobody even noticed. And go figure the speaker there knew of my really close friends from college, they grew up together! It's such a small world!
The Marriott where we stayed was so beautiful, the beach is to the left. We walked down, snorkeled, walked back to the hot tub, swam in the pool, snorkeled some more, etc. It was actually really funny.
Then we head to Maimea Canyon- it's the largest canyon on the pacific coast. It was breathtaking. It was like the Grand Canyon on green drugs. Beeeautiful! 




 

Later we hiked to 2 waterfalls, it was here that I learned how dumb I was for not bringing my camera...all I had was our video camera, hence the horrid quality of the photo, it was amazing. I'm so sad I didn't bring my camera!  What was I thinking leaving her in the car all by herself? Here we're at the top of a HUGE waterfall...