one year

It's hard to believe that our baby is one today! Our kids have strep (it's been a long week) and so we are postponing Tosh's "party" until tomorrow... I thought I'd post just a few of my very favorite photos of Tosh (a little review of his very first year) and also mention how much I love this little guy. Happy First Birthday Tosh! We love and adore you.

Our big and busy one-year-old!

Picky Petes

Like most children, there are certain things that my kids are picky about. Burke has always been very picky about what he wears (Hewitt on the other hand will wear just about anything I set out for him) and about what he eats. Burke's not a big eater (not a shocker since he is 46 inches tall and just barely hit 40 pounds) and he actually likes most healthy foods in general including vegetables (tossed salad has been a forever favorite) and fruits, etc. The issue is more of him wanting to have control over choosing what he is eating and for some reason he does not like the word "lunch." I have learned that if I say, "Hey Burke, would you like a snack?" then he is much more open to the idea of eating (which is funny because I offer the exact same foods no matter what we call it). Lately I've grown tired of rattling off all of the lunch choices --and believe me, I've tried offering only two choices that I'm happy with (Love and Logic Parenting) but then Burke will ask, "Why can't I have tuna mom? Why didn't you list that as a choice?" but he will usually respond with "nothing." Hewitt (who chooses other issues to be stubborn about) would eat the same ol' turkey and cheese sandwich everyday if I gave it to him.

Well, I've recently discovered something so simple and easy that has been a sure-fire success! I have found that if I turn a meal/snack into a little "food face" then Burke is delighted with just about anything I serve him and eats the entire thing with a smile. This is great for a couple of reasons: no more lengthy discussions about what to have for lunch (do your kids ever change their minds about what they want for lunch after you have already made it? eliminated), I can use whatever is in my fridge or pantry, the kids stay entertained during lunch and get creative changing the face around and pretending that the face can no longer see, hear, etc. And finally, more often then not the entire face disappears and a little more time than usual goes by before they are telling me that they are hungry again. Now when I ask my kids what they want to eat, the reply is a simple, "face." Here are a few of our recent faces:

"Tuna Eyes"--I tell you Burke eats every bite

"Turkey Lips/Bagel Ears"

And my favorite, "Almond Mustache"

I've missed you, blog

Happy Memorial Day. Another crazy week has come and gone and we've spent just about every spare daylight minute out in the yard. We got the garden planted, planted more shrubs and trees, Rob finished another little retaining wall, etc. etc. Rob got quite the good laugh the other night when I was talking about the new trees in our yard and said, "It almost feels like being up in the mountains!" OK, obviously our pencil thin trees look nothing like the trees you would find up in the canyons, but what can I say, I'm excited! We would have been out there again all day today, but because of the rain we focused on indoor projects and things that we needed to catch up on.

The time that I would usually spend on the computer this week (and blogging in particular) was spent in preparation for my Relief Society lesson. It was on President Uchtdorf's talk "A Matter of a Few Degrees" from the April Priesthood Session. I introduced the lesson by telling one of my favorite mission stories (oh, stop your groaning). My companion and I were serving way up north in a remote area close to the arctic circle in Norway. The town we lived in (Mosjoen) had one member of the LDS church and so we would actually drive about 1 hour and 45 min. to get to the nearest branch each Sunday (this town is labeled on this map as "Mo").

We would also travel around to different towns from time to time to follow up on referrals and on one particular Sunday we were set to visit a family on a little island off the coast. After church had ended we got directions from some members and were told repeatedly that this was to be a beautiful drive. Well, we headed off on our little adventure with our sack lunches in tow and after a while it seemed that the view was getting, dare I say, LESS scenic. In fact, the trees began to look bare as if they had been burned our something. Before long we came upon the following sign, "Velkommen til Sverige." Translation: Welcome to Sweden! I don't know how familiar you may be with LDS mission rules, but "not leaving the country" is on the list. Our reaction may be similar to what you might expect when watching a comedy on TV or movie - two people yelling for several seconds in kind of a slow-motion fashion. We flipped the car around as soon as possible (bummer because now I wish I had a photo of the sign) and flew (well, being sure to follow all traffic laws, of course) to the other side of the country. We did make our ferry in time which was a miracle and my mission president got a good laugh at the story even though he is Swedish (the Norwegians loved to hear my description of the ugly Swedish landscape btw). The point of this story in relation to the lesson is that sometimes we can be way off-track (me driving in the complete opposite direction of where I wanted to end up), but even if we are off by only a "few degrees," the result can be the same.

Closet Purge

It was way overdue, but I finally did it. I actually "pretend" to clean out my closet every six months or so and usually get rid of a few things. Honestly I don't really follow the "if you haven't worn it in a year then get rid of it" rule because my body changes sizes a lot with the whole baby business and I just have a hard time getting rid of items that I might wear again (can anyone else relate to this?). Well here is the recent (and too familiar) discussion I had with Rob the other night:

Me: I have nothing to wear to church tomorrow

Rob: What about all of those clothes that you have hanging in your closet

Me: They are either too small, too big, or the wrong season...

Rob: Do you want some new clothes for your birthday?

Me: No. I don't want to buy new clothes until I lose some weight

Rob: You said that last year

This discussion prompted a major closet purge and I filled an entire garbage bag of clothing that will soon be on display at the local D.I... Now if I can only find the time, money, and the "joy" of shopping I think I had once upon a time. At least I won't have to search for a hanger or steal any from Rob's side of the closet for a long, long time.

This and That

It's been a busy week and I feel like we've accomplished a lot of work. We're making progress on our backyard (planted more trees/bushes, finished a retaining wall, and my Dad built us a garden box--thanks Dad!). I quit before I could be "fired" from lawn-mowing duty (I did volunteer for the job, but am changing my mind). I accidentally ran over a sprinkler head and was horrified at the sound I heard as the mower ate and spit out the head into several parts. I'm also not-so thrilled that the mower is not self-propelled...although it did sort of feel like a good work-out. I've actually been able to do quite a bit of "spring cleaning" on top of the usual chores and I finally got around to reading the book "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.

I don't read as much as I would like to or should. Reading is tricky because if I get reading a good book then it is hard for me to do anything else until I am finished. I thought I might mention one part of "The Kite Runner" that keeps coming to mind; it is at the end when the main character of the story makes a personal realization:

"...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."

I think that Hosseini's description of forgiveness is not only elegant but quite accurate in my experience. I've thought a lot about this line and about forgiveness in general. Am I able and do I truly forgive others...including myself?

In other news of the week, Tosh is walking more and Hewitt is suddenly talking more and more. I like to call this duo "Walkie-Talkie" (I recall going through this experience with Burke; we thought he would never start talking and then one day he did and has never stopped). After I served Hewitt his lunch on Friday afternoon he said, "I'm glad you're a girl, Mommy." I was able to grab my camera in time for this sweet moment that Tosh had with "Bear" the other day:


I put Tosh is real shoes for the first time today and it was strange to see him walking around in church and looking so grown up. A friend of mine announced in Relief Society today that she got tickets to the American Idol Finale this week (Battle of the Davids)--you should have heard how the room erupted. Pretty funny.

Burke is Six!

Happy Birthday Burke! We had a great time celebrating Burke's big day today and took some of his friends to a place called "Sky High Pizza" where they have inflatable things to bounce on and lots of slides. Burke is off-track right now (year-round school) and so the timing was perfect! We had the entire place to ourselves and the kids had a blast. Burke received two Star Wars Lego sets that were identical; later when I asked if he wanted to return one (I had purchased one of them) to get something else, his response was, "No. I want to keep it so that Hewitt can have one of them." Just one of the many evidences that my little boy is growing up. Tonight in Burke's personal prayer he said, "...I'm thankful that I will still be six tomorrow..." What a sweetheart. I love you Burke.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you women out there; especially to my own mother and mother-in-law. In preparation for Mother's Day this year, I couldn't help but recall my experience from just one year ago and take steps to avoid a repeat...

Allow me to paint the following picture: One year ago today I was about 38 1/2 weeks pregnant. I had gained about 50 pounds during Tosh's pregnancy and was very much at that 'always uncomfortable and not sleeping well' stage. Burke's (5th) birthday fell right on Mother's Day last year and so the night before I had stayed up past midnight decorating his birthday cake, wrapping presents, etc. I did some dishes, but didn't finish them and ended up going to bed with a fairly messy kitchen. Our church began at 1:00pm and although Rob was usually in meetings, he was actually home for most of the morning because of Mother's Day (he was just supposed to be at the church about an hour before it started). So Mother's Day morning came and we were up early (as always) and started off the morning with breakfast and then let Burke open his birthday presents. After the presents were opened I began to clean up the kitchen and was told by my husband, "Go back to bed...I'll take care of this." I happily went back to bed. I took a lovely nap and then took my time showering, doing my hair and getting ready for church thinking all the while, "this is turning out to be a nice Mother's Day." About 15 minutes before Rob was to head out the door, he ran upstairs to shower and then took off for his meetings. I came downstairs to find that absolutely nothing had changed downstairs--with the exception of additional dishes waiting to be done and wrapping paper and bows all over the floor. What I didn't realize was that when Rob said, "I'll take care of this," he must of meant that he would take care of helping Burke build the entire LEGO fire station that he had just received for his birthday. So, I now had about an hour before church was going to start to:
1. Feed the kids lunch
2. Find/prepare all the church clothes
3. Get the kids dressed for church (this is dreadful as my kids hate and fight this)
4. Get the church bag ready
5. Clean up the dishes
6. Make the salad that Rob was assigned to bring to his mother's house for a family dinner immediately following church
7. Get the kids hair combed, teeth brushed and loaded into the van

Now, on a good day, a very good day, I may have been able to do all of this in an hour. This was not that day. No one would eat their lunch, the boys were having fits over getting dressed, and I spent about 10 minutes alone looking for Burke's church shoes (I finally found them under some laundry that Rob had put on the floor). I started to grow more and more upset with my husband as if everything that was going wrong was his direct fault. When we were ready to head out the door it was about 12:55 and I knew that I was going to be late. Late for 1:00 church, just great. We headed out the door walking past the very full trash can (I had purposely set it there thinking that Rob would see and empty it on his way out) and discovered that the car seats were not in the van (they too were right in front of the door so that Rob would see to do it). So in my very pregnant body, I installed the car seats which involves literally sitting in the car seat to make it as tight/safe as possible. I finally was ready to load the boys (now 1:00pm) into the van and as soon I went to put Hewitt in his seat I realized that he needed his diaper changed. I took him back into the house, changed his diaper, and then loaded him into the van. I went back inside to put the diaper in the trash can and when I bent down to pull out the trash bag, the bag was so full that it spilled onto the floor--and it was one of those messy garbage spills. So there I was standing in my kitchen about 5 minutes past 1:00 with garbage all over the floor and now I was mad. I think I actually kicked the trash can and started yelling (my kids were already buckled in the van and couldn't see/hear me). I was tempted to just leave the mess, but of course couldn't, so I bent down to begin picking up all of the garbage (picking things off of the floor is the absolute worst when nine months pregnant) and then, RrrrrrrIP! My dress literally split right up the back (clear up to my bottom)! Now, I was officially at the point of having to wear "tent dresses" as my button-down maternity shirts would no longer fit over my big belly and I had no other easy clothes option (the only other tent dress would have to be ironed). So, I took the garbage out, washed my hands, grabbed my sewing machine, pulled off my dress and proceeded to sew up my dress while my children sat buckled in their car seats. I threw the dress back on and we drove to church. When we finally arrived (I can't even remember now if we missed the actual passing of the sacrament or not) Rob looked very confused as to why we were so late but seemed genuinely worried. I didn't dare say a word but just sat there. A friend sitting behind me leaned over the pew, put her arm around me and said, "How are you doing?" It was then that I burst into tears. I sat and had a good cry and then was able to laugh about it all shortly after...

Needless to say, I did a few things differently this year: On Saturday night I had every little sock and shoe in its place, the Sunday clothes were ironed, the church bag was packed and ready, I made sure the car seats were installed, and most importantly I clearly communicated with my husband, "Just so the expectations are clear, I don't want breakfast in bed (big breakfast = messy kitchen in my mind) but would really like you to feed the kids breakfast and get them in their church clothes before you leave for your meetings." This seemed to work well and the boys and I were actually sitting in our pew about 8 minutes before the church meetings started. More importantly though, I've had some time to reflect this weekend on how grateful I am for my mother and how grateful I am to be a mother! I wouldn't trade even my most crazy and challenging "mom" experiences for anything in the world. I love my boys so much and am humbled at the opportunity to be their mom.