Family Holiday Pics

These family photos meant a bit more to me than usual - they were a goal and a reward to me this year for my efforts to lose weight.  It had been so long since I really even wanted to be in the photos. I love how these turned out! I'm always amazed that we get so many good shots when it feels like the kids are crazy and moody with occasional bouts of happiness (usually caused by me bribing them or doing something silly and embarrassing to get them to laugh). Life is good.

Kid Quotes

I asked Penelope how we should do her hair for family photos. She said curly-wavy with a bow down in the curls, not on top. I asked her how to do that. She said,  "Take a piece of hair, curl it, add the bow and BAM! Cute." 

Claire and Miles were singing in the back of the van and they weren't listening to Penelope's repeated questions. She said, "Mom I'm trying to get them to concentrate but they won't follow my lead!" 

We saw the new Disney movie, Moana, over Thanksgiving Break

Miles asked me how to spell 'Sahara Desert.' I told him how to spell it, and then he said, "When did you learn to spell Sahara?" My sarcastic answer was, "June 1, 1985." He said,  "Oh I thought it was in 1890." Humph! 

We were building a fort in the living room and Penelope says, "Mom, let's build it REALLY huge so you can fit in it too!" 

I asked, "Penelope did you bite Miles?!" She says, "No, I scratched him. With my tooth." 

Sometimes on Sundays, since we have late church, we do girly spa day things like paint our nails. I asked Penelope if she wanted me to paint her nails today and she said, "Just my top nails not my bottom nails." I said, "Do you mean your toenails?" and she said, "Nope, my bottom nails."

Thankful Thursdays - Happy Thanksgiving!

I liked having Thankful Thursdays - maybe it's time to bring back my gratitude journal?

This Thanksgiving we had breakfast at the Hillers, then went to see Trolls all together at the new reclining seats at the Santa Fe movie theater, and then to the buffet at the Aliante Casino. It was very nice to have just a little bit of everything that I wanted - which for me, meant no turkey, gravy or stuffing. The desserts weren't the best, though that's probably ok... since I still managed to eat too much. The benefit of no clean up was balanced out by no leftovers for tomorrow. Maybe that's a good thing too.

I am so grateful for this crew of mine - I'm especially thankful to be a mom. I appreciate so many qualities in my children and I'm always curious to see what they will become.

I am grateful Claire is driven by an inner desire to do the right thing - she has a strong moral compass and I rely on her so much to help me with her siblings. I am also so thankful for her testimony - I think she has gone up to bear her testimony more than I have.

I am grateful for Miles's generosity and unselfishness - he will share his last piece of candy or a toy without any prompting. He also helps me with Henry in the mornings - I know Miles doesn't always love sharing a room with his brother but he gets Henry up and plays with him while I either sleep a bit longer or get ready for work.

I am grateful for Penelope and how she loves her little brother - she takes care of him in her own way, holding this hand and watching out for him. She also makes me laugh all the time - I love her sass and her vocabulary and word choice just cracks me up!

I am grateful for Henry and his smile - it just lights up the room and melts my heart.  He is so smart and he learns super fast. Henry gives the best hugs (squeezes) and I honestly don't know what our family would be like without our Bubba.

BYU Basketball Game

Friends had free tickets to a small Thanksgiving week basketball tournament at the MGM - and bonus, BYU made it to the championship game!

Through a friend connection, Matt was selected to play musical chairs at halftime. He was so funny - doing windmill stretches and running a suicide before they started the game. He made it to third place - not too shabby!

Trip to Front Sight

I finally went with Matt to Front Sight, a gun training course out towards Pahrump in the middle of the desert. Matt and I took the two-day handgun course, along with his dad Phil.  I had thought about going before, but was always pregnant or nursing and two days is a big time commitment. Anyway, the stars aligned and Betty watched the kids for us for two long days, otherwise it would never have happened.  

I felt way outside my comfort zone at first - something totally new and something I'm not so good at. But I thought of it as just learning a new skill and tried to be patient with my slow progress.  It was our first cold weekend of the Fall - it got down into the upper 30s in the morning. I think this was one of the prettiest sunsets I'd ever seen - the clouds over the desert looked on fire. Not a bad day at the office! 

It was nice to get away and spend time together, plus I feel way more comfortable handling a gun now, though I am sure I could use a lot more training. Maybe we will go back in the Spring for another class.  Or maybe Matt can go with me to a class of my choosing - like tennis or card making. Ha! :)

Thankful Thursdays

I used to keep a gratitude journal - every day I would write at least 5 things that I was thankful for that day. It was during a time in my life that it was hard for me to think like that and some days I had a difficult time coming up with five things.  They were often very simple and basic things.

It is much easier for me to come up with five things to be grateful for now- and that is probably my number one item today. I am in a good place. I am healthy, happy, challenged, loved and needed. And I know it and recognize it and enjoy it. Because I know life throws us curve balls and things change and this might not always be the case.

I am grateful that Matt makes me laugh. I need to laugh even more - it feels good.

I am grateful for often needing to decide between two good choices - I should be so lucky to even have ONE good option, let alone two. It's still sometimes tough to decide though, right? 

I am grateful for my long-time friends who support me and love me from nearby and afar - I wish we all lived on the same street, but since that's not possible yet (maybe we can work that out in heaven, ok guys?), we keep in touch as best as we can. And pick up like we saw each other yesterday when we do get a chance to see each other in person. 

I am grateful for music and how it can change our moods and bring happiness. As I write this I hear Claire singing "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow" in her room, belting it out all alone.  Penelope is listening to a song from the Zootopia soundtrack "Try Everything!" and singing and dancing. I hope they don't get too cool for that... we need more dance parties and karaoke moments around here. Claire is taking piano lessons and I hope that I can learn to play sometime too - I always liked when my mom played piano at home though I am sure I appreciate it even more now. 

Life is good. 

Taking Family Photos

I love having our yearly family photos printed and up on the wall. I even love picking out the clothes and finding fun accessories to tie the look all together. I like picking locations and scouting out good spots for photos - maybe I should be a family photo consultant, or finally learn to use my nice camera. However, the actual process of having the photos taken makes me feel a little sweaty.

Get the kids ready too early, they destroy their outfits. This time, Henry found some Clorox bathroom cleaner while I was upstairs getting myself ready. He sprayed it all over his grey pants and who knows where else. The pants were turning into a nice yellowish acid wash look - had to throw them away and hope I didn't need to call poison control...  Luckily I had another pair of grey pants that were technically too big but worked in a pinch.

On the flip side, you wait too long to get ready and then you are rushing to get out the door so you don't miss the good light and the window of good behavior all kids have when forced to have their pictures taken. In the rush to leave, I told Miles he was in charge of his own hair... there could be worse things. I had taken him for a hair cut earlier that day and he had a major meltdown over going so I had to cancel the appointment and settle for shaggy hair. He's still cute. All the photographer had to do to get Miles to laugh was say "poop." She spoke his love language.

By the end, Henry was DONE. The kids are basically dragging him along here. I also love Penelope's walk in this shot.

Are we done yet? 

All that lovely dirt waiting to be kicked and stomped in - it was that really fine, soft dirt that I knew would coat every bit of their shoes and clothes if they walked over there. But they stayed out of it and we did manage to get several really cute photos - all you really need is one, right?

Henry - 19 Months

Time is speeding up - and I'm missing the milestones I like to record for each of our kiddos. Henry is now 19 months old so we have tried the nursery class at church (for kiddos 18 months -3 years) a few times and he is NOT a fan. He cried so hard and for so long that they brought him out to me after about 30 minutes the first time, one hour the next time, and then last week he made it through two hours! Three-hour church is brutal with a toddler. I just imagine we are the ward's entertainment and try to not lose sight of why we are at church in the first place.

Henry is finally saying a few words, though not consistently. He said Mom the other day after some coaching - he has been saying Dad for awhile now. I was repeating to him over and over "Mom, Mom, Mom." And then I thought, why am I trying to add one more kid to the cacophony of voices all shouting my name?!

He is very good at saying "No." He also has his B words down pretty good like bubbles and Bubba. He says P for Penelope, and recently added in "poop" - yay.  He says Cuh for Claire, just like the other kids did.  He also says tree, oh, woah, hot, and uh-oh. That's about it.

He also signs a bit too - milk, more, all done, drink, bird. You know, the basics. :) Mostly he points and grunts and we do get whatever it is he wants.

Henry makes the cutest surprised face - his mouth into a little "O" and he looks adorable. He makes this face when we show him something new, or he hears a bird or a dog (his favorite), or just points to the moon or an airplane in the sky. Living somewhat near an air force base means we hear loud planes and jets all the time.

He is very snuggly and is my only child to still sleep in my arms at this age. He also requires TWO blankets (night-nights) to go to sleep. I used to have one as the backup that I could use while the other one was getting washed. Then one day he saw both of them and cried until he had them. His bedtime routine is first a warm bottle (he is the only one to like cow's milk as a baby). Then we  take both blankets and go into his room to look at the glow in the dark stars up on his wall.  It is decorated with a Star Wars theme right now - can't do a baby nursery when you share with big brother. He has to touch a few of the stars and we talk about them for awhile. Then I sing him a song or two and he usually lays down in his crib quietly. Every now and then he wants to stay up. For the most part, Miles is helpful as a roommate. He does bring Henry to me quite often and I wonder if Henry would just fall back asleep if Miles wasn't there to scoop him up.

Henry is a happy, good-natured little guy. But to quote Miles, "Henry is the boss of us all." We are all his to command. Maybe that's why he doesn't talk very much yet - he doesn't have to.

Thankful Thursdays

I am thankful for a month-long focus on gratitude. We have an 8-foot tall gratitude tree up in the house this year and I love it! We are going to add more leaves every week, but we made a good start.

The kids had some interesting things to add to their leaves - Penelope was grateful for chickens because they give us eggs. And then she immediately asked if she could eat some chicken that I had in the fridge... she really likes chicken. Claire said she was grateful for education, and then asked how to spell "education" - which we had a good laugh over. She could appreciate the irony :)

I am grateful for these ladies and their support as we have babies within months off each other year after year, and try to raise our kids as best as we can.  Look how young we are! This was twelve years ago, I think. And Happy Birthday to Megan today! 

I am so thankful for a flexible schedule that allows for the chance to experience a lot of great moments as mom, even with a busy work week. We went to the park today and it was gorgeous - 72 degrees with a slight breeze. I should add in this is the time of year I am grateful to live in Las Vegas.

I am thankful that my kids are for the most part, kind to each other. They of course fight and argue like all kids do but when it comes down to it, they love each other. They take care of each other.

I was dropping Claire and Miles off at the school last week and Claire's 3rd grade teacher from last year was there at the gate. I was about to drive away and she flagged me down. I rolled down my passenger window and she said, "Your kids are very good to each other - they are always so cute." I of course said, oh maybe they are right now but you should see them at home, or some other deflecting comment.  She said, "No, they are always good together." I got a bit teary-eyed and said thank you, and drove away. She didn't have to do that - she could have let me drive away instead of chasing me down. I'm thankful for people who pass on kindness, compliments and positivity when they could easily just remain silent.

And today I am thankful for this little guy - his smile melts my heart and lights up the room. Henry was smiling like crazy at the cashier at Sams Club today - every time she looked at him he just grinned and grinned. He had her laughing the whole time and then I couldn't help but laugh too.  Adults need to laugh more. Life is good.

The Results are IN!

Claire won the election! We are now to address her as Madame Secretary :)

Congratulations Claire! She is so excited! Now to figure out the student council meeting schedules... She almost didn't run because she thought it would be difficult to get to the meetings that will be held before or after school... well, it might be, but we will make it work!

This is Claire with her teacher, Ms. Katz, who is also one of the student council advisors.

Field Trip to The Shark Reef (Mandalay Bay)

This was such a cool field trip! I went with Claire's class to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. We have been before as a family but this time, with a guided tour guide, we learned so much more about all of the reptiles, fish, sharks and more! And we were the ONLY class there. Like no other bus loads of kids got dropped off with us, which is usually the case with other field trips. So we had the place to ourselves and Claire and I had a great time. Her class and teacher were all very nice - even the bus ride was pleasant.  And she still wants to sit by me on the bus - phew!