Life

This is the powdered sugar mess Cubby made.

I wrote a song for Michelle the other day. Jacob Crossly arranged the piano music. He did such a great job. The song came to me in the first hours of morning and just kind of flowed. It was a good experience for me, and for him also. I made a video for Michelle and sang the song at the end of it.

After our walk in the rain, Mercedes hair was so curly. We fawned over it and Hannah got jealous. She cried and cried because she didn't have curly hair. Both of my daughters are so beautiful.

The other morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to find Hannah had woken up at some point in the night and fell back asleep on the stairs.

Mercedes got baptized! I wrote more about it at the bottom of this post.

I was watching home videos the other day and saw Joshua's birth. Holy cow! I had forgotten how much he had looked like an alien. :) He stuck in the birth canal for so long, his poor head.

I found this book with these gold fishes on top of it. I know it was done innocently, but I'm just gonna leave that right there...

Cub is always into trouble. He makes so many messes for me to clean up like the powdered sugar mess pictured above. He loves to explore the world around him. He jumps in every puddle, he touches every pile of mud, he takes off his diaper constantly and leaves little turds around the house for me to find. I found one closed inside of a book, I found some in the tub, the other day I found one on top of the counter. The day before that I was cleaning out the car and thought I was picking up a tootsie roll.... it wasn't a tootsie roll. It's a good thing that I am super motivated to keep a clean house, otherwise we'd be living in a pig sty.

This is a beautiful sunset that Mercedes took a picture of. We have enjoyed the evening rain storms and last night the kids and I went walking in the rain. I couldn't help but rejoice in the continuation of a tradition from my childhood and I enjoyed that time so much.

Hannah falls down a lot, but she always gets back up again. She still has a positive attitude and big eyes. She has often told me that when she grows up she wants to be a butterfly. Last week, she told me that she knew she couldn't actually turn into a butterfly anymore, so when she grows up she will just wear a butterfly costume. She's growing up too fast. It nearly breaks my heart. 

We took our kids to Utah this summer and stayed with Kevin and Courtny. We had a great time even though we were only there a few days. We toured BYU and let the kids (and Kevin and Jon Mark) roll down a grassy hill over and over again. Sadly, the bookstore was closed, but it saved us the money we would have definitely spent there. We hiked the Y and all of my kids (with the exception of Caleb) hiked it super well. Including little 4 year old Hannah. Luke was super motivated to be first to the top and he was upset when I went and got him from the top of the Y and made him come back down two switch backs to the base of the Y. He said that he had worked so hard to make it to the Y first and now everyone else beat him. I reassured him that he made it further than anyone else, although Mercedes was close behind. We also went to the Alpine Slides. It was so busy and hot at first, but eventually it cooled off and the lines got short.

We also had a fun campout with my side of the family. We hiked into a canyon that had indian ruins in it. I really enjoyed the hike. :)

The kids have all been working towards filling up sticker charts. When the chart is full they get $10. But, we challenged them to earn a whole sticker chart in a week and they would get a portable video game system for the drive to Utah. They all had to earn it. Mercedes took her time and was really kind of dragging her feet. She wasn't doing extra chores and she had a bad attitude. I talked with her on a Sunday and told her quite frankly that I was done trying to encourage and beg her to fill it up. Her brothers and sister were working hard and they would be able to earn it without her, but she wouldn't be allowed to touch it until Christmas. She changed her attitude and got to work. But, on the eve before we were to leave, she looked at the sticker chart and saw that she would not be able to catch up. There was no way she was going to earn it. She sat down on the stairs and began to cry. Luke came to Jon Mark and asked him if he could earn stickers for Mercedes. He would do extra chores and put all of the stickers he earned onto her sticker chart. Joshua joined in on the cause and together the three of them were able to fill it up. There are many parallels there. Luke is a thoughtful boy. The other day, Kevin caught a big spider in a jar. He told Luke that he was either going to put the spider on him or on me but that it was going on someone, Luke would get to pick. Luke thought he was serious and without hesitating he stepped in front of me, and said, "well, you better put it on me then." He's a brave boy. 

Joshua has been working hard at speed camp and takes pride in the muscles he is getting. He really is growing up and changing. The other day he opened a jar for me because my wrists were hurting from trying. He's such a good boy. He randomly hugged me the other day and told me that he loved me. I love him so much too!

Our tv was broken again. This time by Cubby and this time it wasn't even 6 months old. The last one was 9 months old. One of these days our tv will last at least a year. We haven't replaced it. It has been kind of nice just staying up with Jon Mark talking together. I'm not sure when we will replace it.

This girl was baptized last month. What a special day it was. She was so looking forward to it. She told everyone that it was going to be the best day of her life and she wasn't disappointed. She got baptized with Sawyer and we had a little luncheon at our house following the ordinance. She received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the confirmation was such a beautiful blessing. She was told she has a tender heart and that all of her energies, emotions, and passions that she's been blessed with in this life might be tuned to righteous causes. She was blessed that the Holy Ghost might guide her along her paths in life. Sawyer was blessed to know that there were others on the other side of the veil who were concerned with him. We felt like Gavin was making his presence known. What a great day it was.