Colorado Springs

Sorry for my lack of chronology here -- I'm planning to slurp my blog with blurb (okay, I just had to write that because I love the crazy lingo! A few friends have told me about turning your blog into a book with blurb.com, and since I'm blogging more than I'm scrapping these days, I think I'll just call it family history and print it! So I'm playing catch up for posterity's sake).

These pictures are from our little family reunion with Joseph's fam in Colorado over Memorial Day weekend. We were only missing one of his 6 siblings, so we had a good sized crowd (I think there were 29 of us?), and my kids LOVED playing with their cousins! We went to Colorado Springs (Colorado seems to be the best mid-point for our gatherings), and enjoyed gorgeous weather and great company and good food and good times.

Father's Day

K, J-boy and I made this book for Joseph for Father's Day (can you pick out which pages were colored by J-boy??). It was really fun to think about all the wonderful things he does as a dad -- he has a great example in his own dad, and it shows in the way he plays with and teaches our kids. I am so grateful for my fabulous husband!
We had a fun visit with some of my in-laws on Father's Day -- the weather was actually relatively cool, and we enjoyed a thunderstorm from the picnic shelter (in between rounds of badminton and lacrosse).
After the storm the kids enjoyed 'skating' at the skate park nearby. No, not on skate boards or roller blades - they used good old fashioned mud. :)


Our little nephew had a grand ol' time - I love his laugh in this clip.

The Summer 'Do'

 

 

J-boy was getting a little shaggy, so I got him to agree to a haircut by telling him we could spike it like his friend Jex's hair. He was pretty patient with my slow experimental hair cutting skills. He's in swim lessons right now, and one of the teachers has 'spikey' hair -- every time he gets out of the pool he runs over to the teacher, gingerly touches his own hair (all spikey and wet) and says, "You have spikey hair just like me!"

A Confession and a Question

So, naturally, the day after I posted my heartfelt and sincere Mothers' Day post, my own mettle as a mother was tested. I was enjoying a Sunday snooze (it's the only day I feel justified in napping, so I do it very purposefully. All children are resolutely ignored, whether I'm asleep or not...), Joseph was gone home teaching, and then my three year old struck. No, he didn't strike me (though that has woken me from a Sunday nap in the past, and not to anyones' benefit!). J-boy found the paint roller (full of white paint and carefully wrapped in a plastic bag because I'm too lazy to wash it out between coats) in the baby's room. This room has been off limits for over a week - I'm painting a bookshelf and changing table in there. So, of course, while my defenses were down, he painted the floor, the vacuum, the changing table (this might sound helpful, but it wasn't), his Sunday pants, and himself. I woke up (probably at the beginning of the fiasco), was suspicious of the silence, and sent K up to check on him. So she joined in the fun! Then she came downstairs, told me J-boy was taking a nap and I shouldn't go up there till he was awake. Oh, the treachery!

It's taken me nearly a whole week to look on the situation with any humor... I had an errant thought in the back of my mind (as I was dragging/flinging my son up the stairs by one arm) that my mother-in-law would take pictures to laugh about later. I guess the camera just wasn't handy enough for me. I don't know if I've ever been that furious! I was on the brink of self control. Joseph came home in the middle of the inevitable tirade (you know, the episode where I lecture/yell at the kids for 15 minutes -- they stand in stunned silence and I 'clean up' with such a vengeance it borders on violence). He was locked out, but upon hearing my voice was too afraid to call for help, so he picked the lock and rescued the children with a time out!

I considered myself a basically non-violent person. I laughingly tell friends that I hardly even had a temper before I got married. But I seem to be digressing instead of progressing in that aspect of my personality....

So I ask... can I blame this one on the pregnancy??

A trip to Utah

Joseph had a little bit of time off between semesters at school, so we took off to Utah for a fun visit with family the 2nd week of May. We also wanted to check out Cache Valley and the Ogden area -- possible locations for Joseph to buy a practice and set up his clinic next year (dah! all this time it's been in the far distant future, and now that it's almost in sight I'm kind of freaking out about it! At what point do you finally start to feel ready for grown up stuff like that? I've been putting it off for about 10 years now...)
Anyway, we spent a beautiful wonderful week with my fabulous parents - I so love being in their home! They help me feel so good about life in general - the atmosphere is just home. The downside of that comfortable atmosphere is that I didn't take ANY pictures while we were there. I just decompressed the entire time -- after all the work of moving and end-of-the-year stuff for preschool and music classes and piano lessons and music recitals and being pregnant for a 16-hour drive I suppose I just needed to breathe slowly and deeply for a little while. And I needed to play mom's 7 foot grand piano. Amazing how healing that is! :)
My kids had free reign of the house -- 3 floors, so much room (we're not used to that here at home!), 3 dogs, a cat, a fenced backyard, a few of my old toys and some new ones that a smart grandma keeps handy, 2 loving and patient grandmas, a grandpa with lots of fun tools, funny Uncle Scott, fabulous Aunty Kendra who patiently played with a worshipful neice & tag-along nephew, a trampoline, a quiet cul-de-sac.... sigh. Good times! :)
Joseph's brothers in Kaysville had a Father/Sons Campout over the weekend, so he & J-boy got to go play. They had a great time -- I know because they lingered for 7 hours longer than they thought they would, and J-boy was utterly EXHAUSTED when they finally made it back to my parents. :)

Mother's Day

(Picture taken by K)

Our Mother's Day was quite lovely - Joseph always makes it a good day for me. :) He and K made me breakfast, which I returned to bed to eat, and they gave me cut flowers. J-boy ate about half of my food, but I was feeling a little queasy, so it all worked out just fine. :) After a whirlwind at church (I taught Sharing Time, brought the mother's day craft for the Primary kids, and was conducting in Primary - I was so grateful that we had 9:00 church so it would be over by noon!), we lounged around the house for a few hours (blissful blissful Sunday afternoons....). Then we headed off to my sister-in-law's for dinner and our niece's' b-day celebration and a hoo-rah-for-mom's evening with our fabulous family in the area. :)

Although I know it's long past due, I wanted to stick in my little mother's day tribute. I am so grateful for the mothers in my life. My own mother is so wonderful - in this past trip to Utah I realized all over again how patient she is, how she's constantly serving, how she takes care of everyone and everything -- and makes it seem so effortless -- it's just what she does (will I ever have that kind of grace in facing the endless everyday minutia that fills my life?).

I attended the temple with my Grandma, and felt so privileged to be with her -- I had a small glimpse of the endless chain of good women in my family, sitting beside my grandmother, feeling the little life of our baby girl stir inside me as I learned again about my Father in Heaven's love for his children.

I watched my sister-in-law embrace the chaos of 10 children under the age of 10, filling her house with noise and dirt and mess, and she just took it all in stride. I was amazed to feel such loving peace in her home, particularly in the midst of so many busy little bodies. That peace was possible because of that mother -- calmly taking care of each task, without frustration, without anger.

I also watched another sister-in-law, an amazing woman who just adopted 4 busy little boys. I am completely inspired by her selflessness, by her love and her goodness - she's given her life completely to this new family, and she didn't get the luxury of learning to deal with one additional child at a time.

These women (along with countless others I'm blessed to know!) are so inspiring to me. They are heroes to me, because they are constantly saving the day! I'm filled with gratitude for such examples in my life - for their goodness and their love. I hope they rub off on me!! :)

It seems very trite, but thank you.

(thanks, Alayne, for sharing the great quote!)

K's Piano Prowess

K's been enjoying my Let's Play Music classes for the past two years. She's learned so much about music! It's been great fun to watch her learn and grow -- she has great rhythm, she sings on pitch, she accompanies her singing on the piano, and she's getting a fabulous theory foundation. I love sharing music with her -- teaching my kids about the things I love is one of the great perks of parenting. :) We practiced every day together for about 15 minutes, and it was so good for both of us - just that little bit of one-on-one time helped K feel so important.

This video is two little bits from our Spring Recital. I kind of unintentionally sabotaged my 'camera man' - my very supportive hsuband. :\ I forgot to charge the digital camera battery, so all we had was the video camera. He got that set up on the tripod, but every time I moved around during the presentation he'd try to adjust while chasing our very active and busy 3 year old. Anyway, it was a little difficult. I'm going to try to catch Katie playing here at home sometime soon so you can enjoy her mad skillz. :) In the meantime, here's a song about intervals - aka 'Turtle Shells' (you get to see her cute face, if not her fantastic fingers), and a little clip of our classical music puppet show - 'The Pirate Ship.'