Henry

Every Mama thinks her children are the most spectacular, the most wonderful and beautiful creatures ever.

That's because it's true, for each of us.

Children are a gift.

7 Years ago, we were in the middle of the MBA program at BYU. We were just given our fifth gift..

We named him Henry.

He was round and chubby. But not scratched. That's just the photo.



But that little boy grew. He stayed as cute and sweet, not quite as chubby:)

But now instead of sandy shells, he loves Spiderman



And opening presents, apparently.







Henry is a squishy. Do you have a squishy at your house?

He's the child that just sort of melts into you when you hug him. He's snuggly and soft, and well, just squishy.

He is also kind and loving. He really is. We have this little friend who loves Henry. She calls him Haundry.

She bosses him slightly, convincing him to be her puppy. But it's ok because she's two. And he loves it. He never gets annoyed.

The other night she picked up a purse and said, "Come on Haundry. Lets go to Fred Meyers."

She seemed pretty confident he would listen. He's nice like that.

He will be a husband like his daddy someday. I just know it.

Thoughts on Henry.

Henry is a sensitive little man. Mainly because he does not understand when others are unkind. Simply because he would never purposefully hurt anyone's feelings. Ever. It's just not in his makeup.

He has this giggle. I don't know how to explain it. But when you hear it, if it doesn't touch your soul and make you happy just hearing it, then, well, you must be a grouch. Or an ogre. Or a grinch. Something grumpy.

He loves all of his siblings. But Anne Marie and Nora are his best friends. They are together constantly.
He plays dolls with them. They play Legos with him.
They perform plays, pretend they are different animals, play school even.

It's awesome and I hope they all stay the best of friends forever.

He is loyal. If you are good to him, he will be good to you. Always.

He loves his daddy. A lot. Which is nice. His dad is such a good example. I'm glad that Henry adores him so much.

Someday Henry will be grown up. But he will still be my squishy. He will still let me hug him and kiss his head. I hope.

Happy Birthday Mr. Henry. We love you.

Julia the brilliant

Something special happened in August.

As you know Anne Marie turned 10.

But Julia also had a birthday and turned 14.

It's a fun, crazy age.

She went to her first Youth Dance for our church(you have to be 14).

She started high school.

Milestones that add some spice to life.

We wanted to make her birthday special. Kate especially was teeming with an idea so grand and wonderful that it had to be done.

You see, there is this global phenomenon that has taken over the spare time of many teenage girls, and their parents ;)

It is a little television show called Doctor Who. And Julia is one of the biggest fans.

So Kate thought we should have a Doctor Who themed party. Not a small task

There had to be actual planning on this one. No last minute stuff.

The first thing that had to be done was to build a T.A.R.D.I.S.

That stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.

It's a time machine. And the pilot is a time lord who travels the universe with different companions(friends), usually humans, saving civilizations and planets and having adventures. Oh, and he is over 900 years old.

The Tardis is bigger on the inside and the outside looks like a 1940's British police box.

So of course we, I mean Jeff, had to build a Tardis, and Kate and I had to figure out how to make it bigger on the inside.

Because the Tardis can takes it's occupants back in time, we thought what would be more fun than having the Tardis take Julia back in time to eat dinner with other time travellers in a Titanic inspired way?

Wee hoo this was so fun. You ready for the pictures?

We landed the Tardis in front of our garage. Seemed like a perfect spot.





Then I drove Julia around while everyone arrived and finished things up.

I made her close her eyes when we got back so that all she could hear was the whooshing noise that the Tardis makes.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the 10th Doctor waiting for her.



He took her hand and told her to run. The Doctor says that a lot. She seems a bit stunned.




She walked into the Tardis to discover that it is in fact bigger on the inside.


And it's ready for it's next flight.




Grandparents, parents and siblings all joined in the adventure.








It was really, really, fun.

She turned 14, she really did.



She is an amazing girl. We call her our Renaissance child because she does a little bit of everything.

And she does it well.

She is writing a book.( And it's really good.)

She writes beautiful poetry.

She is a budding artist. She draws all the time.

She sings and acts and writes songs.

She is a 4.0 student and most importantly to this mother and her dad, she is a good, righteous daughter of God.

She loves her Savior and desires to do good.

She is amazing.

Her and Kate are inseparable. Best friends. And Kate's love of Julia not only made this wonderful party a reality, but I know it is part of why Julia succeeds at so much.

Her sister/best friend is her biggest fan.



Happy Birthday Jules. We love you!

Someone turned 10 and other subjects

Um, hi.

I woke up today and knew that today was the day I could blog again. I have no explanation other than the thought of blogging has been making me feel very anxious for the past 3 months.

Weird right?

I haven't even read blogs, I got off Facebook even. There must be some sort of technological phobia that I temporarily became afflicted with.

I'm still off Facebook for other reasons, but blogging has worked its way back.

So, because this blog is technically for my children I am going to go back a few months and start catching up if you will.

I love my children, and I know that they have missed seeing their own faces and hearing my words on this blog.

This is for you my lovelies.

Anne Marie turned 10.

First of all, I had this idea. It involved an American Girl doll.

See, when we moved here, we tragically misplaced a box that held treasures for many of us. It was the last box we packed up from staying at my brother's house for the in between time of moving from one house to another.

It contained Anne Marie's Kit and Ruthie American girl dolls that she played with every day.

We think it may have ended up at Goodwill.

So, in my attempt to soften that blow some, my mother in law graciously gave us an American girl doll with cut bangs. And I attempted to make it awesome for her.

This was the end result:



She was a slightly punk doll whose hair I colored using a blue sharpie. Cuz sharpie never comes out of anything right?

Wrong.

The blue of the hair started to come off on Anne Marie's hands, which then transferred to the dolls face, neck, and everywhere.  It was very sad.

We ended up buying her another doll because we had to end the streak of bad luck for Anne Marie and her AG dolls.

But before we knew all this, she was really happy about it.



One of the things we love about Anne Marie is that she is very generous. She doesn't like ANYONE to be sad. She can't stand it. So she willingly does things that might make other people fuss.

Because we had such a large gluten free population at her party, and she herself is not gluten free, she happily agreed to having her own individual little store bought birthday cake so that the rest of the cake could be gluten free.

She is awesome that way.



Probably the sweetest gift of the day came from Julia. She painted a picture for Anne Marie, knowing how much her little sis wanted one.



What makes Anne Marie special:

She strives to help others feel good and be happy.

She is amazingly creative and artistic. We are stunned by the fantastic plans and ideas that come out of her 10 year old brain.

She is mother hen to Henry and Nora and to any other child younger than her who happens to be around.
It's seriously amazing, little children love her so much. They follow her around because she plays with them. And she enjoys it. She doesn't get annoyed and she never runs out of energy to play fun things with them.

Anne Marie is very self reflective for one so young. She is always trying to do and be better. Our job is to help her see that she is already amazing:)

Her generosity is inspiring. She will give you the last bite, her last dollar, her favorite toy, if she feels it will benefit you more than her.

She is a wonderful daughter. I love how she will just come and rest her head on me or half lay on me to get a really good hug in.

She is developing her own testimony of Jesus Christ. And her personal desire to do what is right is inspiring.

Anne Marie is a gift to our family. She has many precious talents and gifts that bless all of us.

We love her and are so grateful to have her in our eternal family.

Happy Birthday boo boo.

If you're still out there, I am still going to blog at some point.

My last post talked of my new life as a mom with all my kids at school.

Well....I am homeschooling one of them. It is exciting and awesome and good on so many levels, but right now I am trying to figure out how to:

1. Homeschool (because I've never done this before)
2. Still keep my house kind of clean
3. Still focus on and take care of my other 5 children.
4. Not go crazy.

It's the not going crazy part that's blocking my chi, or whatever.

It's learning how to know that I HAVE to take time everyday to homeschool even when I know there is a pile of laundry, shopping to be done, and appointments to keep. Whaa for me, I know.

I am fortunate that I even can have this as an option. But it is still an adjustment.

So I am aiming to start blogging again for real next week. We've had 4 birthdays and those need celebrating.

Til next week. Thanks for sticking with me:)

First day of the rest of my life

It's the first day of the rest of my life.

All of my kids started school today.

Yes, ALL of them. Including Nora.

Henry started 1st grade and will be gone all day every day.

There might have been tears shed this morning.

There might have been a huge sigh as I walked into an empty house for the first time in almost 16 years.

6 hours I have to be alone. To clean the house and have it stay clean if I want. To nap or shop completely by myself.

Sounds awful. I know it will be good. I know that this is the progression of life and all that nonsense. But it SOUNDS awful.

And I miss my children. Already.

But boy were they beautiful this morning. (and you notice, NO RAIN!!!! YEEHAW!)














My little darlings. All of them.

There were quite a few butterflies floating around their stomachs today. First day of high school for 2 of them, first day of middle school for another.

I think my younger 3 were not quite as nervous. After all, they get to go to this school:



It's called the Damman School. Its a little 2 room school house right in the heart of the country where we live. K-2 are in one room, 3-5 are in another. They eat lunch outside every nice day there is. They have an hour for lunch and mid-day recess. Their teachers are out of a story book. Seriously.

There are 47 kids at their school. And I am so excited for them. The school has been around since 1890 and it is a blessing for this mama who is struggling with her kids being gone.

I can eat lunch with them, I can drop in and say high. I can volunteer as much as I want. And they don't have to ride a bus.





We also had our back to school feast and theme last night.

We ate hamburgers and french fries followed by pumpkin cake. It was well received.

I couldn't put vinyl on the walls this year because we are renting. But for our theme this year, we chose a passage from The Family: A proclamation to the world.

"Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. "

Back to school feasts and family themes were inspired by Stephanie Nielson of the NieNiedialogues.

I didn't realize until today that I chose almost the exact same passage as she did. But that's ok. It felt inspired for our family.

We have spent the whole summer just us. Barely any friends. Just my six babies enjoying each other's company. 

It's been wonderful. And with a start of a new school year, where everyone will be slowly making friends, those relationships with siblings and parents will be extra important. 

So focusing on strengthening our family this year seemed appropriate. 

We will take the principles in the passage and have lessons on them for Family Home Evening as the year goes on. Sprinkled with fun, wholesome, family activities.

This summer has flown by. And I'm guessing the next 6 hours will too. 

I'm envisioning a sparkling house and yummy after school snack for when they get home today.

And a nap. Yes. Definitely a nap:)

Ode to Summer

Summer has marched on.

Seemingly oblivious to the fact that I don't want it too.

Summer days of sunshine and heat, the lake, bike rides, hay fields and no worries.

School starts in 2 weeks and 1 day. It's never enough time with my children.

So I didn't blog almost at all this summer.

Seemed dumb to waste any time when there was sleeping in to do.

Sporadic visits to the skate park.

Swimming in clear waters.

Saying hello to new friends.

Sunning ourselves on the front porch.

Seeking out new places.

Surprised at how wonderful life can be.

Something for my parents, whom I miss terribly-pictures.

Skittish deer, we have them too. They come, they eat they leave. But with horns.



Skate park shenanigans. No one was injured. Hurray!






Spectacular wind mills up- close and personal.





Simple joys.
Summer almost gone.
Seems like yesterday they got out of school.
Sappy mom.

*sigh*

Time marches on. And now she's 5. *sigh*

I have been avoiding this post.

Why?

Because my sixth child, my sweet little bookend, my blond haired beauty with a sweet temperment and a little lisp is 5 years old.

Oh the humanity!!! (People still say that, right?)




How will I face what this brings? How will I face kindergarten, being alone during the day. Ok, not all days since Jeff works from home 3 days a week. But it's my dramatic moment, so I'm going to forget about that for a second and just say, "Waaaaaa. I'm alone!!!"

Ahem.

Nora turned 5 last week. Surrounded by friends and family. It was really sweet to see her so happy.



She gets genuinely overjoyed at gifts. She's just a tiny bit enthusiastic.



She wanted a Hello Kitty party. I did a kind of tye dyed cake. Not totally on purpose. But she liked it, so that means success!



She blew out all of her candles. She didn't need Julia's help and Julia in fact was not trying to help. She just has a mimicking tick it seems.




What we love about Nora as a 5 year old:

~She will still hug and kiss us almost every time we ask. I say almost cuz she will for me, but not always siblings.
~She adores her brothers and sisters. And they adore her. She is spoiled in a good way, meaning she has so much love and kindness poured on her on a regular basis.
~She skips everywhere she goes. To the bathroom, up to her room, across the lawn. That or running. I love that she hasn't slowed down yet, that there is an adventure around every turn for her still.
~She has a blankie and sucks her fingers still. Yes, I know she is five. But it's still adorable.
~She is gluten intolerant. Something about my pregnancy with her brought this about for both of us. It's a bond we share.
~She has a lisp. It's barely perceptible. But it's so adorable and I really think always will be. Even as an adult if it's still there. It just gives a little lilt to what she says and makes me want to kiss her even more.
~She still loves to help me. She will weed, clean, sweep, whatever I ask. I know I only have another year before that ends, but a mother can hope can't she?
~She was the missing piece to our family. Every person plays a vital, irreplaceable role. Our family would not function right without every one here. And so having her join us completed the whole picture for us.
~She is excited for school and loves her friends. This is good for her so I'm glad. But it is melancholy for this mom who sees that her baby is branching out and doesn't need me exclusively anymore.

All in all, Nora is a gift. As are all my children. Something about my oldest almost 16 and my youngest starting kindergarten has made me really see how little time we have with our kids. 18 years seems like a lot, until you turn around and it's all behind you.

And then it's not enough time.

Nora was just a tiny, pink baby yesterday.



Ahhh, how I miss those days. Even the sleepness night. I'd relive it over in a heartbeat.

But I love the days I have now too. The ones where I hear her thoughts and listen to her singing silly songs and playing with her siblings.

Yes life is good. Even if it has moved way to fast.

But she will always be my baby. They all will be. Forever.

It sounds so good to me.......

Since moving to Ellensburg I have taken to going on long walks in the country. Hee hee! That makes me so happy just saying that!

The wind can blow here quite a bit, but I don't mind it. I like the feel of it on my face, and my hair is not too fussy for windy weather. It's not as pleasant in the winter, the wind I mean. But I tend to avoid the outdoors in the winter as much as possible anyway:)

There are a few houses I pass on my route. This one is one of my very favorites.




Even their sign makes me swoon.

It says the Gerrils Haus, if you can't read it. I'm guessing they have German heritage?


I was listening to Pandora as I walked. Tim McGraw channel specifically. And country music puts me in a good mood in general. But I love when the songs I'm listening to match what I'm seeing.

Last week when all the farmers were bringing in their hay, a Jason Aldean song was playing. Part of the lyrics say something about go round and round all day, baling some hay,and stacking it all up.

And yes, there were really guys out in the fields doing that exact thing. Made me really happy.

As I was moseying along, I saw cattails. Yay! It's been forever. I don't know why I like them so much. If their had been pussy willows nearby too, I would have probably brought some home. But no such luck.



And then a Dixie Chicks song came on as I was walking by this.





And I was so caught up in my happy little reverie of "I live in the country!" that it took me a second to hear the lyrics.

"I wanna walk and not run, I wanna skip and not fall.
I wanna look at the horizon and not see a building standing tall
I wanna be the only one, for miles and miles
Except for maybe you and your simple smile

Oh it sound good to me
Yes it sounds so good to me"

She goes on to sing Cowboy take me away.

Jeff is not a cowboy.So I thought of it as "Email Marketer take me away" ;) But he loves me. And he gave me my dreams. I know my dreams were simple: live in the country, have him work from home. But do you know how hard that actually is to achieve? I know that Heavenly Father had a lot to do with everything working out.

But it took a husband willing to go along with it. So as Jeff and I drove up  and came upon our house,

(I should really eat breakfast before a 4 mile walk and bring water when it's already 80 degress outside. Which is why it's good Jeff works from home 3 days a week. I called him and he came and got me when I thought I was going to throw up),

I was just filled with love and gratitude.

And to the man who took the chance and loves me more today than he did 17 years ago (today is our anniversary!!!)

I say thank you. Thank you for taking me away, and giving me the world.

(Aren't we babies in this picture?)

Finally

This little man has been waiting and waiting for his first tooth to come out.

In fact, his two front permanent teeth are already in. Ewww.

And his little sister lost two teeth before him. Sad clown.

Dude's almost 7.

So it was with much joy and excitement yesterday when he announced, "Mom! Mom! My tooth came out!"

It's wonderful how happy children can be over simple joys in life.

I want to be like that.

I want to forget about bills and a messy house and yelling children and instead be grateful for all the little things.

Congratulations Henry. What a big boy you are.