Prankin...I mean, celebrating a birthday with the little ones!

Today was a day off for me and I really enjoyed it. I got a lot done but was still able to spend a lot of time with my family. Usually it is just one or the other, not both, so today really was a perfect day in my book. I got all my errands done before Spencer came over for us to watch him. It seriously was so hard for me to put him down to get dinner cooked. I seriously was really close to ordering in food just so I could stay snuggled up to him before I had to leave for a Head Start meeting.

Here is Hyrum loving on Spencer. Later, Brigham asked to hold him. It was so sweet to me because Levi just naturally is fascinated and loves babies. Brigham doesn't really care that much but eventually he was the one who actually asked to hold Spencer. It really surprised me and it was really sweet to be able to tell Brigham, while he was holding Spencer, that he would be a good Daddy someday. I told him about the blessing that Daddy gave to me while I was pregnant with him. It is how I found out I was having a boy (which I wanted it to be a surprise!). In the blessing he told me of this child I was caring and how he was going to be this great father. I wish I could have caught on camera the huge proud smile on Brigham's face after hearing that.

For Family Home Evening tonight we decorated our Branch President's car....yes, we did this with our boys. WHAT EXAMPLES WE ARE! Starting our kids off prankin' young!

We have an amazing Branch President. Our little family loves him very much so it was so fun to do this for him. I hope it made him feel loved and appreciated. Just an example of his kindness. He is a podiatrist and I have been having problems with one of my heels. Being the giving man that he is he has been treating me at a very reduced rate. This morning I went to him for one of my shots and as I was leaving, ran into Tricia, Sydney, and Sofie. He was seeing Sydney for her warts. I went in with them for their appointment so I could spend some time with Tricia and do you think President Roberts said anything about his birthday? Of course not. But we found out anyway!

"HAPPY B-DAY BRANCH DADDY!"

Ok, to expound on our bad parenting skills, as we were pulling up to this parking lot in Fairland, Levi starting telling us that he didn't want to get out. Knowing how cautious of a child that he is (and responsible!) I figured he was hesitant of getting caught. Sure enough he was. I tried to quickly explain to him that it would be ok if we got caught because we were not doing anything bad to Matt's car. He eventually got out and helped. But as we were leaving he asked me, "What if there were video cameras?" I love my innocent boy! I had to then explain to him the difference between vandalizing some one's property and what we had done (we had gotten permission from Renee, Matt's wife, before doing this). I think we finally got him to understand.

But before we left the parking lot, David found Tricia's van. How could we not?!!!!!

Too bad it ended up being Shannon, her husband, driving that night! Serves us right! And definitely makes it even more funny!

Thankful

I used to keep a journal that in each entry it started with, "I'm thankful for...." I was just thinking about that journal. Of course, that journal was kept in my Rexburg days and I had so much to be thankful for back then. But I also know that just because life isn't as easy as it was back then and the blessings in my life now are not as easily seen on the surface as it was back then; that I am blessed just the same now. It is time to start digging deeper and finding those blessings. So here is something that I am very thankful today.

I am thankful that I got sick....yes, sick! It started yesterday but I was was hoping I would sleep it off last night. I had plans for lunch with Valerie and Pounce in Fayetteville, Arkansas today and was really looking forward to the laughs. But this morning I woke up and it was much worse than last night. I wasn't running a fever or anything but my voice sounded horrible and I had a pounding headache. Laughing was certainly not going to help the matter at hand! So as I lay in bed thinking about my friends, the thought came to me that maybe Heavenly Father had it in His plans for me to be sick at that moment.

Because of Thanksgiving, I am in the middle of a 5 day off break from work. Instead of thinking of all the wonderful sleep that I will catch up on and playing with my kids and alone time spent with my husband, all I can think about is all that I can get done with and caught up on that I have been lacking lately. Starting from Wednesday night up until this morning, I have been doing just that. Yes, even on Thanksgiving day, I did not spend it being thankful as I should. I didn't even stay long at Grandma and Grandpa's house after dinner because of all that I wanted to get done, but of course blaming it on getting Hyrum home to get in his nap. It is funny the things that you will let yourself believe sometimes.

So here I am in bed this morning and realizing that just maybe it is in the Lord's hands that I be sick to calm myself down. I am really grateful for that because here I am at 1:00 in the afternoon and I can't tell you anything that I have gotten accomplished other than letting my body rest and spending time with my family.Here I am with Hyrum and David in Hyrum's new big boy twin bed. David was able to swap out work for this bed and as you can see everyone is enjoying it!

Bitty Boo Time

I was at work the other day when these first few pictures were taken. They were too cute not to share! The missionaries came over and were washing David's truck as well as their car. Bitty came out after his nap and started to help them....by washing the pressure washer!

But he moved on to the car, eventually. The missionaries are such good sports. At one point, I guess he was opening up the gas door and washing in there also. Of course they let him do it!

Here Elder Grigg and Hyrum are doing some team work!

Today was Hyrum's Thanksgiving feast at the Head Start. All the parents got to go. They fed us real well.....and did you know that the pilgrims had Coke at their meal?????? Seriously, the food was real yummy, though.
Just a funny story. We were sitting across from one of Hyrum's classmates, Javen, and her parents. They told us a story that I had to put on here. The teachers at Head Start were taking pictures of each of the kids individually and having them pose as pilgrims. Javen, who is American Indian, informs them, "I am not a Pilgrim. I'm an Indian!" It was cute to hear them tell the story and her being so proud of her heritage!

David's flight

David has been wanting to fly in Matt Robert's plane for a while now and so when he offered to fly him to Fayetteville, Arkansas and then take him out to dinner he jumped right on it! You know, surprisingly enough I didn't worry about them crashing or anything....nope, my worry was that he would be on this plane and then get this wild hair and want to become a pilot! He has always liked the idea of being a pilot but I am happy to report that after this flight that he said that he is pretty sure that his sinus' would not be able to take it!

So, here are some of the pictures he took on Thursday and his take on it.....take it away, baby!This is Matt and I just before we took off for Fayettville. The plane behind us is the one we took.
With this being the first time going up in a small plain I was woundering what the etiquite was for this kind of a situation. Matt is a Dr. and has a nice home and family. His friend Sean came with us as well. Sean seems to be well off as well so I was a littel uneasey at the beginning trying to get Sean figured out. It was the same kind of uneaseyness that I think comes with meeting someone for the first time. I don't think what I was wearing helped the situation any because I had just come from working on someones home, so I was not very clean.

This is a quick shot of the farmland around Grove

Matt is on the right and Sean is on the left. The little multi color screen in the middle is the thing that we used for navigating our way to Fayetville.

This is a shot of the cloud cover around Grove. Soon after getting airborn we assended up through the cloud cover and this is what we saw for most of the flight.

This is a shot of us decending in to fayetville through the cloud cover. To me this was the most exciting part of the trip. The reason I say that is because this was the first time I had seen the need and usefull ness of having so many instruments.

This was a loner car that the airport let us use. Ididnt see what kind of BMW it was but i did see that it had less then 5000 miles on it. I couldn't help but think of James Bond as we were getting into the car. The whole experience was fantastic. If I didn't have the sinus issues that I have, I really think Alisa would have a reason to be concerned about me wanting to be a pilot.

A Missionary Treat

Starting on Monday night, David and I were disappointed with some news that we were really hoping would change things for our family. As it seems it has been going for us since moving here, it has been one thing after another when it comes to disappointment. Until you are going through it, you really can't understand how very hard it can take hold on your marriage, patience with your children, relationships with your close friends, loss of focus in your jobs and responsibilities, and the list goes on. Disappointment can be so devastating in every aspect of your life. It is frustrating, hurtful, annoying, depressing, and at times amusing. Coming to terms with the fact that our little family is not "being picked on" has been a hard one for me. For so long I focused on what I did wrong and what I did to make Heavenly Father lose His trust in me. I have always relied on Heavenly Father's guidance. I relied on Him for everything. And it wasn't until last night, while speaking with my husband, that I realized that I have relied on Heavenly Father so much that I have stopped growing. I didn't think it was possible to rely on our Father in Heaven to much. Trust me, though. It is possible. No wonder I have lead a life of constant disappointments these last few years. Something I have come to realize is that when you rely to much on anyone or anything, you disable yourself. You lean so much on that other source that it becomes your crutch. Can you believe I am saying this....That my Father in Heaven has been my crutch?! Unbelievable, but He can be if you don't use one of His greatest gifts He ever gave us; our free agency to choose for ourselves. David said to me the other night, "All He cares about is us returning back to Him. All the rest is just fluff." He is so right! While I have been focusing on being exactly where the Lord wants me to be (physically and mentally) and thinking that He is ok with this or that, all He really ever wanted me to do was to make a decision! How simple! I have to start believing that if I make a decision that would hurt me or my family that He will find a way to get us out of it.

So the missionaries were here when we got our "bad news." I did not handle it well. I kept it as best together as I could while they were here but once they left, all hell broke lose in my soul of emotions. The following day David lost valuable tools that he uses when working on houses. During this time, David and I have been working on our new found wisdom and since the missionaries are often around, I'm sure they felt the odd spirit that has been about lately. Tonight these men brought David a "tool" gift and us treats. These men are on tight budgets and yet they did this for us. It really meant a lot to me tonight. This is how they acknowledged our pain. I hope their mommas read this and are so proud of them. It is times like this that I picture my boys on missions and hope they made the same decisions.

Grove's Christmas Open House

Today and tomorrow is the Christmas Open Houses for most of the small businesses in Grove. It is a big deal to these businesses, as it brings in a lot of traffic. Today was suppose to be my day off, but of course I was "on call" considering what day it was.

Tricia, Amanda, and I thought it would be fun to do this together. I have been in most of the shops around here but they hadn't; plus, all these shops do something different for the open houses. There were tons of free food, drinks, and even some merchandise if you bought stuff.
All of my kids were in school so I was able to get the girl's little ones distracted while they shopped. But sometimes I had to distract my adult friends as I got them to do immature things for the camera!

Here is our RELIEF SOCIETY president giving this tuxed out man a dollar as we were going into one of the many shops we visited today....but hey! At least she wasn't putting it in his pants or something..... ....hmmm.....our RELIEF SOCIETY PRESIDENT and a member of the PRIMARY PRESIDENCY wearing beer glasses. Nothing like seeing a couple of obvious non drinking Mormons sporting beer gear! Hey, at least little Reece was covered up in her carrier and wasn't able to witness Mommy and her habit....I mean......

It wasn't long before I was called into work because Annies was getting quite busy on their own but I had a wonderful time being with my friends just being silly. It really is so good to just get out and be with girls sometimes. It is funny to me that depending on which of my friends I am out with, has everything to do with the very different things we laugh at. In this case, being with my Mormon friends, we always get a kick of things that we don't do in the church....hence, the beer classes. We just laugh and have a great time with all the "worldly" things that we don't get involved with in our normal lives. I'm just glad we don't take things so seriously!

It's a gir.....BOY!

Very rarely do you hear of the stories of the ultrasounds being wrong anymore but they do happen. Amanda and little Spencer is proof of that. Today Amanda was scheduled for a C-section to bring into this world Analise. The doctor had been teasing Amanda while prepping for the C-section that she was really going to be having a boy so you can imagine just how much she believed Dr. Behchtol when he told her that indeed it really was a boy. She only believed him when she saw the shock on Stephen's face when he was able to see for himself just what made his girl actually a boy!. It is weird the things you remember. I have a terrible long term memory. But for once something stuck in my brain. This morning when I called Mom, I could hear Spencer in the background with his tiny cries. I was able to be with Amanda and Stephen when Logan was born in Rexburg, Idaho and I heard those poor little cries of that premature boy. Spencer sounded just like him!
Then I got there and he looked like a fat baby Logan! Spencer only weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces but that was so chubby compared to little Logan at only 4 pounds, 11 ounces.

Since Nanny was in town, I decided to invite her to have lunch with Hyrum and I at the Head Start. We got there early so we were able to join in on the songs. With the Day Care that her and Dad own she knew all the songs and movements!

As we were leaving Hyrum threw a fit. He doesn't cry anymore when David drops him off in the morning so the only reason I can think of why he did it this afternoon is maybe because last time I took him home after I visited. Mrs. Dayla told me afterward that he had TWO accidents after we left and he had a real hard time calming down. Even after his nap he was real crabby.

I had to get a picture of this. They always have cute things like this on their door. They take pictures of them all the time and put them into the theme of the month. Hyrum is the one at the very top looking out. Cute huh?!