a Throwback Thursday collage

I have been doing some pondering today, and I have felt joy. I have been thinking about new friendships, friendship in general, and ways to serve. Those thoughts and those things make me happy. I overheard two smiling mothers as they passed each other outside of First Girl's school: "How are you?" "I don't even know." "Yeah, seriously." For some reason hearing that made me happy, too. I ate garlicky brussels sprouts before eating the rest of my breakfast. I did some laundry (the kitchen still needs some work). I ran two miles in twenty one minutes while our younger daughters played near me in the fitness center. I've been praying more lately and feeling more hope. And the book I'm reading, The Gift of Giving Life, has given me a better "big picture" perspective about life. When I was looking at twitter, where I don't have a photo across the top (I dislike their new look), I thought maybe I would make a collage for that. I love how it turned out but actually decided on something simpler for my twitter page. It was really fun to look at some of our older photos and to be grateful for those memories. So this is a #tbt -- Throwback Thursday. The sheet music in the background is for the song we danced to at our wedding reception in 2004, but I started to learn how to play the piano when I was seven. (I love Jerome Kern and the sweet lyrics, and loved having Roger play the piano!) I still treasure the feeling of being in the Los Angeles temple with my husband in 2006 when I was pregnant; that was a wonderful night. The top middle photo of the collage is from 2008 when I ran a 10k. The bottom left was taken in 2011, and the others are a little more recent. C is here twice simply because the newborn picture reminds me of when each of our children were newborns, and the beauty of each new life. I always wanted to be a mom. The collage represents some of me, my life, and what is special to me.

March 2013 (besides Easter)

I love this. He does, too.

We had our Relief Society birthday dinner on March 5th. I really felt the Spirit when some ladies read true stories of trials women have endured. A member of our ward's new R.S. presidency taught us how to make these Easter decorations. She's been making them for years and when her kids were young she sold enough of them to buy her kids bunk beds! Before the dinner, she had made the eggs out of sugar. Then she had us put the frosting on, and use frosting to glue the parts inside the egg and the flower on top. When I got my kids from the nursery to go home, they wanted to make their own eggs, too, and they were happy that we got to take extra stuff home so they could. Shboogoo said we had to add our initials so we would know whose was whose.

  

On Saturday March 9th the girls and I went shopping at Whole Foods, and I just thought they were adorable. The little one was clapping, and then she enjoyed holding my wallet. We had not known that we would be able to see a huge wheel of cheese. My favorite part was that because of the kids' club they each got a free piece of fruit, so I got to eat some delicious organic red pear.

 

The next day, we went to my brother-in-law Aaron's new apartment. He had invited everyone over to see it, have dinner, and also celebrate my sister-in-law's tenth birthday. Aaron's girlfriend did a wonderful job decorating. Unfortunately my husband couldn't come because of drill. However, after that he was able to sit with me and hold my hand during a fireside while my mom watched the kids. The speaker, author Chris Williams, talked about his experiences and encouraged us to forgive and to "get busy serving others." He said so many inspiring things.

L with Papa. And you can see some of Aaron's 500+ DVD collection.

On St. Patrick's Day (Sunday this year) I made sure we all had some green on and we put a cheap green tablecloth on our dining room table. I had created a little sign for the holiday. It says "Not lucky -- BLESSED!" and our kids love it. Dinner that night was some steamed cabbage, fresh tomato, corned beef and potatoes, and a fried egg. That's what my husband and older kids ate, but not me, because I was doing a strict two-week anti-headache diet that Dr. Fuhrman wrote about in Eat to Live. By the way, my headache didn't completely go away, but I didn't have a more severe one during that time, either. I do think that certain foods can be problematic, and I might do the diet again. It's great that at least 90% of his patients who ate this way were headache-free after the first three months. I know headaches are complicated, though, and that I don't want to take drugs very often. I definitely felt better overall, and more energy, the day in the middle of March when I had my first chiropractic adjustment since I was pregnant in 2011, and an acupuncture treatment right after. It was my first experience with acupuncture. Anyway . . . St. Patrick's Day (and Easter window clings):

In March we started to buy some of the things on our "things to buy with our tax return" list, including good shoes and work pants for Dad. For me the most exciting thing (at least until we get a new mattress and a high-speed blender) was our new camera! It's a Canon Powershot SX150. My husband and I looked online and Target was selling this point-and-shoot camera for more than half off! So the next morning, Saturday, he and L went and purchased the very last one at that store. It has a better zoom and everything than our nice camera that broke, but I haven't taken the time to learn about everything it can do.

I wasn't excited about the reason for the first photo I took with the new camera: our oldest got pink eye (conjunctivitis). None of our kids had ever had it, until C did a few months ago. Shboogoo's teacher noticed she was itching her eye a lot. We took her to the doctor the next morning, and started putting in prescription drops and Genteal preservative-free drops. She stayed home from school on that Friday, Monday and Tuesday (soon before spring break, but this stuff is really contagious).

Of course the middle child got pink eye a few days later, and after a while the youngest got it too (second time for her). The eye goop wasn't too bad; First Girl and Third Girl each had just one morning when they couldn't open their eyes. But then there was coughing, too. My husband's all better, but when I started the draft for this post I wrote "D sometimes coughs pretty bad after laughing." He only went to one church meeting on Easter. I'm grateful that I didn't get sick, besides having to blow my nose for two or three days. . . .

Another new thing we bought was a phone, because I needed a new one. This is the one I chose. The price was $0.99 plus a fee.

Near the end of March we celebrated my niece's first birthday and had a great time with my extended family and my sister's husband's. I liked their Strawberry Shortcake theme. It was sweet how the birthday girl started to hand little pieces of her cupcake to her brother, and he was cute pushing the clubhouse mop and bucket around.

 

birthday girl with Uncle Nick

  

 

October and November {2012}

:: General Conference ::

Often my husband has not been able to watch it with me because drill weekend often happens the same weekend. It was wonderful that this October's LDS general conference he didn't have drill. During at least one session the girls quietly colored. These and other photos we took this fall are {HERE}.


:: Halloween activities ::

On September 27 my friend Laura L. and I had fun taking our kids to see the witches. I put my baby in a pumpkin and took pictures.


A couple of weeks later I helped the PTA do vision screening, which overlapped with the parent craft activity, but I was able to do both. I painted two little wooden pumpkins, cut and glued on the scrapbook paper, then finished assembling the parts at home.

I also made a wreath for Halloween. I like that it's unique. It's not any of the styles I saw on Pinterest. I tied orange, black, green, and purple fabric scraps around a $1 D.I. wreath and hung it on our front door with clear jewelry elastic (and a piece of packaging tape on the inside of the door). After I had taken it down I accidentally came across the other part I had wanted, so I and added it: silver chipboard letters to spell "BOO." I hot glued these on and decorated the borders of each letter with a black permanent marker.

The most important part of Halloween is the costumes! Like my friend Anne, this year I didn't get the natural light photo I wanted of all of us in our Halloween costumes. I don't know if I ever have; maybe next year. It was just the kids who dressed up this year. They were the three little kittens who lost their mittens. The tails were the challenging part to make; I only made one. I thought that soon after Halloween I'd make two more tails, get the better white clothes (which my husband had moved and I couldn't find them) on the kids, and take a picture outside. Now that it's been so long and there's snow on the ground and I keep forgetting-slash-having-other-things-I-need-to-do, I probably won't.

I thought of the three little kittens idea maybe a couple of months earlier and procrastinated getting the kids' costumes started. I ran out of time to make a costume for me. I was going to be a mama cat, with the mates to their mittens on a string around my neck or something

L is adorable. She always sings the song wrong: "Three little kittens, they lost their mittens and began to cwy and couldn't able to find them."

The kids and I went to our ward party the Friday before Halloween, and it included a trunk-or-treat. On Halloween day Shbogoo gave her class fruit leathers (instead of candy). We watched her school parade at the end of the school day. I let my girls play on the playground before we walked home, and then we headed over to the little party at our leasing office. All five of us spent some time at my mom's; my younger sister and her family came, too. The baby girls are always cute together. I really liked my niece and nephew's costumes. We didn't have our kids go trick-or-treating at all because we had accidentally left the kitten ears at home. For some reason it took us a while to realize this. My mom asked, "So what are their costumes?" It was fine that they didn't trick-or-treat. They had had plenty of candy and even cupcakes at the church, school, and leasing office.


:: Thanksgiving ::

We attended Thanksgiving meals with all of our parents this year. Actually, my husband was going to be able to come to half of them, but since he got sick he missed them all! Both he and the baby were sick Thanksgiving day, so I nursed her before going to Thanksgiving #2 (are you confused yet?), left her home with him, and nursed her right before and right after Thanksgiving #3. The first one (Wednesday night) and the fourth one (Friday at 4:00) he had to work and I of course took all three girls with me. Right now I only have photos of my mom's house and my dad and stepmom's house. The dinner on Wednesday night was the huge one, at my mother-in-law's roommate's parents' house. This was about 60 people, since they've been married a long time and have a lot of posterity. They're so nice to invite us. All four get-togethers were fantastic.


:: Other :: 

Shboogoo turned six and had a nature birthday party. She loves dinosaurs so I made sure to have a drawing of a brachiosaurus be part of the decorations. Probably our favorite part was the "cake": banana bread with a rainbow of top make of pieces of fruit, served with a little vanilla ice cream. Not a lot of friends came, and it was simple, but she kept hugging me and thanking me for making it such a fun party. I took a lot of pictures.

Among other things I don't have pictures of but that happened this October-November: two people I knew on my dad's side of the family (and one person whom I hadn't met) died of sad causes. I didn't know them real well, but I had known my cousin's husband Pete my whole life and I first met the other person -- their grandchildren's mom -- ten years ago. It was good to be able to see relatives at Pete's funeral, and to hear that he, a quiet man, had been living the gospel. That day I felt more grateful for my knowledge of Heavenly Father's plan of happiness for all of his children.

baby blessings

I have not blogged about any of our children's blessing days. I think they deserve a post. I love how everyone honors the innocent child on this day (I'm saying "her" because we only have girls). She gets extra attention because this priesthood blessing is for her; the men form a circle around her. The baby herself is a precious blessing from heaven. A joy. A gift. Many blessings can come from having a child and being a parent. I believe that the experience of raising a child can help us to change and grow. I don't know what lies ahead as our children become adults, but I know that we are grateful for what we have experienced so far.

My husband gave First Girl her name and blessing when she was about two and a half months old. It was cold and snowing that day. After sacrament meeting we and a lot of our family members and friends hurried into our condo clubhouse to eat. (I wish we had better photos, but I'm glad we do have some.)

 

 

 

Second Girl received her baby blessing at an older age -- seven months (because she was only a few days old when my husband deployed to Afghanistan, so we waited for his leave). It was another winter blessing day, even though she had been born in the summer. We had the blessing and the gathering in our home, which was both wonderful and a little stressful for us.

My husband blessed Third Girl in April, when she was almost four months old. We had her wear the same dress that First Girl had worn, with a new white fabric flower and headband that my friend and I finished making literally at the last minute. (I actually had made Second Girl's hair clip at the last minute, too; I'm such a procrastinator!) This time I made a video of the blessing so I can transcribe the words. We invited just a couple of friends in addition to our immediate families and grandparents, because we had the meal at my mother-in-law's place and we didn't want a ton of people there. It was a beautiful day! We are so blessed.

 

My dad holding my younger sister's baby, not mine.