The kids woke up and I think were a little surprised that I even remembered. The little 3 kids got bears and chocolate and the older boys got nerf darts. I will never understand where those things go - they always come up missing - maybe they are with a big pile of socks somewhere?
Avery got sick - with hand foot and mouth diseases - for the second time! I thought once you had it you couldn't have it again - but I was wrong. I am normally not so good at remembering when my kids have been sick with what - but she had it when she was 17 months old, the week before I had Eli. And the fever that she had from it caused her to have a seizure. It was a horrible week. I can't forget.
Anyway - we got some good cuddle and girl time in. I had to teach Primary and Wade had to be in Elder's Quorum (we got new callings recently) so we had to swap during church, but it all worked out.
I took the down time with Avery and read through both Me Before You and You After Me this weekend too. They were hard books to put down - maybe not my hands down favorite books, but something fun to read over the holiday.
I overheard Gage asking Wade this morning "Dad, what did you get Mom for valentine's day?"
and Wade replied,
"They key to her heart - diet coke and chocolate."
16 years ago - Wade asked me to marry him on Super Bowl Sunday. I really didn't believe him, he is always joking with me. But I said yes and we've been together ever since.
Since we didn't really care what team won this year - we decided to wear our other favorite team shirts to the party.
Wade is smiling pretty big because for his birthday this year I finally broke down and bough him a BYU hoodie - to replace the U of U one that I bought him (that he wears all the time).
(ted and chandra hosted the party this year)
We took nachos to the party - and I made sure I had a bag full of magazines/books and diet coke for me too.
I don't think the commercials were even that great this year...the only one that made me laugh out loud was the Dorito baby/ultrasound one.
The party was fun - the kids had a blast. I had a head ache that night and ended up going home a little early.
Despite leaving early, it was a fun night and we are glad we live by family and can enjoy fun parties together.
Last night we had a surprise 40th birthday party for Wade. We didn't jump out and surprise him...I'm pretty sure he would never talk to me again if I ever planned a party like that, but he didn't know about the party until Saturday morning. And by then he couldn't get out of it.
I threw him a big party when he turned 30. Wade really doesn't want any attention. But I figure every decade a little attention can't hurt.
We had a nacho bar and cakes from Costco. Wade had such a good time visiting with family and friends, some of which he hadn't seen in years. It was so fun to catch up with everyone.
We had some of his childhood and friends some high school. Friends from single adults. Friends from when we lived at the University of Utah. Friends from Iowa. Notes from friends in Washington who couldn't make it. And of course friends from both Bountiful and here. For a guy that prefers small town life it's amazing how much he's got around!
We had over 100 people show up! He couldn't believe it. But I know they all just love the guy, like me.
I spent most of the night visiting and chatting and kept my phone and camera in the other room. I hardly took any pictures. I have such a hard time finding the balance between being in the moment and documenting the moment. I do wish I would have got some more photos. But I also loved talking and chatting.
I couldn't have done it at all without my sister. Every time I looked at the food and went to refill, she was already on top of it. She kept everything running with the food and the kitchen. And so many people helped us clean up. I love when people all come together.
It was such a fun night. Wade said he even had a little bit of fun...so my mission was accomplished.
Thursday is his real birthday. But he will be gone for a state conference. I told him we will be nonchalant and not even draw attention to him on his birthday. Just the way he likes it.
It snowed this morning before church. So I thought it would make a great Sunday picture before church. I don't think everyone agreed.
I have tried and tried over the last couple months to get these boys to sit and sing the hymns in sacrament meeting at church.
Gage will be passing the sacrament in just a few weeks and they really are old enough to open a hymn book and sing along. Really. But they would rather sit there, draw in a notebook, act goofy and poke each other or make faces.
They are good kids. But sometimes I do have to wonder if I'm going to have to haul my 9 & 11 year old out of the chapel because they act so silly.
Till today.
This morning I made a deal with them that if they would sing all three songs without me reminding them that I would make them homemade brownies.
You should have seen their faces when the first hymn started and the first verse had gone by before they realized they needed to pay attention and open their books! I almost laughed out loud looking over at them flip through that hymn book as fast as they could.
So tonight I wouldn't let them have seconds because they missed one verse, but they sang all the rest of the songs...so brownies and ice cream for the win!
Wade and the kids finished reading the first Beyonder's book today. We spent the afternoon reading and playing some card games. It was a perfect relaxing day, and just what we needed as a family. Life is busy. Days spent together without many distractions are few and far between. But we'll take what we can get.
Need some inspiration? Wade and I watched this tonight.
Instead of a group picture (which inevitably leads to chaos) I chose a simpler method this morning before church.
I love these cute kids.
They are good kids.
Lucy
Eli
Avery
Noah
Gage
~~~
And I love these ladies:
These ladies have been such a big part of my life the last couple years. I love them like my own sisters. But today was a sad day. We were all released from our church job (or calling).
For the past 6 years (in the 3 places we have lived) I have been given the opportunity to serve with amazing woman in my church as the 1st counselor in Relief Society. (same calling, 3 different wards, 6 years...not sure how often that happens, but for me it was just what I needed). And while I am sure whatever calling lies ahead will be something I can find joy in, this was just a hard day. I became the biggest cry baby all through church today.
Wade came home from church and was joking that he was happy because he no longer has to listen to our group texts dinging on my phone all night long. (We might not have official business to discuss, but I'm not sure that group text will go away anytime soon...and just because he said that the ladies might start to plot another "add Wade to the group text" plan like we did on April Fools one year)
I have loved growing and learning from each of these presidencies and from this calling. While I have always been the 1st counselor - each presidency, and each ward has been different. I have learned so much from so many amazing women!
With each presidency the call has made no sense at all when it was made. I could go into a lot of details, but it just hasn't. Each time I've always heard that little voice in the back of my head say
"you could say no and it would totally make sense...."
But each time I've said yes.
And I've been so grateful.
Each time I have been strengthened and amazed at what I have learned after the calling was over.
The Lord is aware of what we need.
Sometimes that comes in a calling that we might not want - or one that we might not think makes sense, but there's the beauty in it - it doesn't have to make sense to us!
He is aware of us.
He loves us.
He really does.
Relief Society, and these past 6 years, will always hold a special place in my heart.
Today Lucy graduated from nursery class at church and moved up to Sunbeams. We have spent the last 10 1/2 years with a baby in nursery, sometimes two at a time! It was a little bitter sweet. Gage is now the oldest kid in primary and counting down the days until he turns 12. It will be here before we know it. Only 8 more weeks!
Because of her November Lucy just might be the youngest kid in primary. Or at least really close to it. She really loved nursery class. When I walked her into primary today she stomped her foot, put her hands on her hips (which, by the way, really means she puts them under her arms and looks like she is dancing the funky chicken) and then she yelled "This is NOT my class! I want my nursery class!"
She then noticed a bunch of other girls that were in her nursery class. Elle and Lindsay. And looked at me and looked at them. Then she decided to go for it and sat with them. She has the same sunbeam teachers that Avery and Eli had, and they are The.Best.Ever! They are grandparents and always know just what to say and how to handle these spunky 3-4 year olds. They are like toddler whisperers or something! After church Lucy said she was "happy in class" and she showed everyone her crown!
I am so thankful for those who help and teach my children in church.
It's been a rough one, this Christmas break, especially this last week. A stomach bug has worked its way through four of the five kids. Avery was SO sad when she got sick. She just cried and cried that this meant she would miss primary today! I have spent so much time doing laundry and spraying Lysol.
Santa got a really good deal on Black Friday this year, so Avery and Eli got their own kindle fires too. So now everyone who can read, can read on their kindle. It makes my heart pretty happy to see everyone sitting quietly reading together!
2015 was a pretty good year for us. Our little practice has grown. We still have a long way to go, but every month has been better and better. We are so thankful for everyone has supported us and sent people our way. We have had some trials and been stretched. 2015 was the year were going to be finally keppra and seizure free! We never thought we would see Eli on keppra, but he takes it like a champ and doesn't complain. We are so thankful for that. Avery and Eli have taken off reading. We're really loving the fact that we can leave Gage and Noah in charge for a few hours! 2015 has brought on some new phases of life!
We are excited to see where 2016 takes us. I hope to be better with my Sunday Photo's in 2016 :)
This week I have read, watched and listened to this talk quite a few times. It is one of my personal favorites and it just seems to fit life right now.
I really love SO much of this talk. I could highlight the entire thing. But as I have been reflecting on 2015 and thinking about 2016, this quote really sticks out in my mind.
Happy Sunday.
"A good woman knows that she does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do. Life is not calm for most women, and each day seems to require the accomplishment of a million things, most of which are important. A good woman must constantly resist alluring and deceptive messages from many sources telling her that she is entitled to more time away from her responsibilities and that she deserves a life of greater ease and independence. But with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently."
We've had quite the ride, the last couple weeks. I feel like just when we get back on feet from one thing we get hit with another. I might catch up. Someday. I might blog about thanksgiving, and November. I just might get to the Christmas cards sitting at the table. Or I might not.
This week I was reminded of the importance of putting down my phone, putting away my computer, putting away distractions and being there.
This weekend I picked up the book, The Best Yes, by Lysa Terkeurst. I am loving this book so far. This sections really spoke to me:
"Just that morning I'd been praying and asking God to show Himself to me. I asked God of the Universe to interect my life with His revelation, then I got up from my prayers and forgot to look. Forgot to seek Him. Forgot to keep my heart in tune with His voice. His invitation.
All because of the chaotic rush of my day.
When all of life feels like an urgent rush from one demand to another, we become forgetful. We forget simple things like where we put our car keys or that one crucial ingredient for dinner when we run into the grocery store. But even more distrurbing, we forget God. We say with our mouths that we are trusting and relying on God but are we really?"
Life has been so rushed lately. We have been knocked down with so many blows. I feel like we can't catch up. But I decided it's ok. I am a huge believer that there is good in every day. We have had some days lately when I have to look pretty hard to find the good. But there is good.
This week I'm reminded that the good can just be simple things. And letting some not-so-important things go. I'm sorry, but the Christmas cards really might not get done. Tonight after dinner instead of bundling everyone up and rushing to a church activity we wrestled with Dad under the tree. I'm positive the Christmas activity tonight was fantastic. But we needed some together-not-rushed time. And it wasn't anything fancy, but it was just what we needed.
I'm looking forward to spending the rest of our busy holiday season in a similar fashion. Simple and just what we need.
I haven't been very diligent with the Sunday Photo posts the last couple weeks.
Life is just busy.
But I needed to post something at the top of the blog besides poor sick Eli.
We saw Santa at the church Christmas party on Friday night. Avery then woke up Saturday morning sick and has been sick with a super high fever every since. She's just so sad.
Hopefully this week I can post about November, Thanksgiving and catch up!
I decided to hurry and snap a picture of the kids as they ran out the door for church this morning.
As you can tell the girls thought this was a great idea.
The boys, not so much.
This past week I took Noah and Lucy for their well child visits at the pediatrician. Noah has randomly been having a hard time breathing at night - we figured it was a touch of asthma, nothing to worry too much about. But then this week it go so much worse! The day of his appointment he got a breathing treatment there, he then had to go get a chest x ray. (OH...and the chest x-ray cleared him of pneumonia, but it showed a flag for scoliosis so we get to go back for another test! Seriously??!!)
We picked up an inhaler for him, but he still has such a hard time breathing. It helps occasionally. Friday he came home from school because he just couldn't catch his breath...he decided to come home and miss a class party and a house meeting - his two favorite parts of the week! :(
It's not always when he is running around, it's not always at night when he is resting, we haven't changed laundry soaps, we dusted and cleaned his room. It's such random times and we can't really figure it out. But it stresses me out! He was doing so good off his seizure medicine. It will be one year next month. And now we have to go back on some sort of medication. BOO!
Really??!
Just one more thing.
And Wade is always wondering why I drink so much Diet Coke.
Yesterday we made him sit around the house and do nothing all morning because we (me the older boys and their cousin Charlotte) had been selected to be extras for a Studio C skit and he was SO super excited to do it. We can't post anything about the skit yet - but I can tell you it's going to be a good one! Plus we had so much fun. And we found out just how much work really goes into those tiny little comedy sketches. So much time! We were there 6 hours and then got released to go home. But they still weren't done! Noah did okay and we sat around a lot, so that was helpful.
Today we relaxed and rested a lot more after church. I made pumpkin and apple pies for a treat - Noah's favorite is pumpkin and maybe deep down I just felt a little bit like spoiling him since he is being such a trooper.
I think that is totally acceptable to do as a mom, right?
Probably one of my finest mom moments this week came tonight when I let Lucy eat straight chocolate syrup in a bowl with a spoon. She didn't want pie and she couldn't figure out why her ice cream was white and not brown.
I'm with you Lucy - vanilla ice cream is kinda a disappointment.
I have a timehop app on my phone that reminds me what I posted or pictures I took on this day a year ago, two years ago, three years ago - you get the picture. It's always a little bit fun to look at. Today I opened it up to find this post (click for link) about Avery and answers to prayers. I needed this quote this morning and I am glad I found it. What a great reminder.
Sometimes I try and get a nice picture before church.
It obviously always goes well. This was the only one I got where Gage was not fake punching Noah and Noah was not acting dead.
Today in church the kids did their annual program. It is always a favorite of mine. I love hearing their sweet little testimonies. Today each child said their name and then their little (but powerful) testimony. for example - Eli said "My name is Eli Christiansen and I can be like Jesus by being kind" It was pretty sweet. I really loved the sweet little 3 year old girl who said "My name is ____. Jesus loves me so he gave me horses." Some of the kids said 'He gave me toys, He gave me my family, He gave me my sisters and brothers." But that horse one just got me. It was seriously the best part of the whole program. I love little kids and their sweet messages.
I just want to point out - my poor boys can't stand to wear their church clothes.
Wade's nephew got married Friday so they had to dress up, and then Saturday the kids were asked to wear their church clothes to the program practice, so they had to dress up.
So today they were pretty excited after church to finally be done wearing their church clothes after 3 days in a row. (I might have found Eli waiting in the car in just his undies after church...silly kid) Then on the way home Wade told them that they would need to wear them to school tomorrow too as part of red ribbon spirit week. Silence filled the van. They were horrified!
I attempted a quick Sunday photo of all 5 kids before putting the littles down to bed. Obviously Noah and Lucy were down with this plan.
Quiet day around here. Which is nice sometimes. I feel I am the only mom in Utah who has not done anything fun or creative or taken my kids on a trip this fall break. But they will survive.
It's been a rainy afternoon, which called for snuggles and quiet time reading, Legos, or Pokemon (which has recently taken over our house). I can't tell you how much it makes my heart happy that Avery will bring a blanket and one of her chapter book to me and we can sit and silent read together. She is a great reader. It's becoming our thing.
Wade smoked some yummy salmon and chicken for dinner. Then he made us homemade mash potatoes and stuffing too. The kids love salmon. Is that strange?
I ran my 4th half marathon of the year yesterday. Subsequently I have spent today not being able to walk like a normal person.
We enjoyed a family movie after dinner followed by apple nachos for a treat. But we'll call it a fruit serving and it had dark chocolate so it was healthy, right?
I've been working on ponderizing a scripture each week. My scripture for this upcoming week will be :
I add my scripture each week to my phone lock screen and read it several times daily.
It's a great reminder.
The leaves are piling up in the backyard. The Halloween costumes are almost complete. We had hot chocolate with breakfast this morning.
We've had a good conference weekend around here. We've heard some really great talks and been inspired. Eli said he was excited for General Conference so he could stay in his pajamas all day. He then would randomly change to different pajamas throughout the day. He had such a great time, and we all got a good laugh.
We traditionally put together a puzzle while listening to conference. We started Saturday morning and had some good progress yesterday. We don't try to finish in one day, but we do try to finish within the two. Then Lucy decided to "help" us. I was canning salsa (18 pints) and the big kids came running upstairs crying that she had ruined the puzzle. I guess there is a first time for everything because I've always managed to keep the puzzle away from busy toddles/babies. Up until now. Note to self: canning salsa can distract you from watching over conference puzzles. Ha!
We got to start over from scratch this morning, but still finished it in time.
I'm not sure why I take a picture of only the kids with the puzzle, I should include a picture of Wade and his Dad. They really get into working on them. The big kids really did a good job too, and now they want us to get one for Thanksgiving.
Some of my favorites from this weekend:
And last but not least, another favorite from this weekend.
Maybe this is what my boys are trying to accomplish in their room with their Legos.
I haven't posted a Sunday photo in a few weeks. It is so easy to fall out of those good habits. I wish it were that easy to make them. It's also September 20 and I haven't even posted anything about what we did in August. I don't know where my head has been. Maybe just trying to keep up with life and these five little people.
We took a little drive around the Alpine Loop tonight and I captured these awesome photos on a little hike.
A little bit from the last couple weeks:
Gage: Trying to adjusting to the new homework of 6th grade is just tough. It takes Gage so much longer to get back in the grove of things than the other kids. But man, if I could duplicate his hard work. This kid tries SO hard. He loves tutoring the younger kids at the literacy center and recently finished the Janitors book series's and started reading through all the Spirit Animal book series.
Noah: The way to Noah's heart is through his stomach. Noah brought me a recipe book today that he found and said "Hey mom, the title is 'Chocolate lovers'...so I thought you could make me everything in here." Last week he requested we eat chili and pie with Kathy's family. He was very specific about the FIVE pies he wanted made! One day this week I had fried cheese sticks for the kids after school. The next day I didn't have any (but I did have a different snack) and he yelled that I ruined his life. Poor kid.
Avery: If I could duplicate Gage's hard work, I would want to duplicate Avery's enthusiasm. This girl LOVES activities and school. She finished cheer camp at the high school last week. She loves going to reading at the literacy center and cries when it isn't a reading day. Part of her homework is to write two sentences in a writing journal every night. Avery writes at least 5. She fills the page. She sits and ponders what she should say and what she would write.
Eli: Eli is in love with his kindergarten teacher. He says he loves her. But then he says "I still love you too mom" so I guess I'm okay with it. We had him tested for speech this week. He said he liked it because he got a jelly bean when he was done. Ha! He isn't going to love us when I have Wade cast his fingers in the next couple days. Bad habits are SO HARD to break. And we are awful, mean parents. Today Eli read two books to me all on his own. He is growing up too fast.
Lucy: This girl is my little shadow. She's got 3 years of just two of us until she can start kindergarten. It is so strange only having one kid at home after 10 years of a houseful. I asked my friend what she did with her daughter when it was just one at home and she said that J was really good at self-play. Well, Lucy is really good at self-watching TV. I guess we've got some skills to learn. She loves shopping with me, going to the library, (I mean running around the library) and playing with play dough. She's a fun little shadow to have around.
Life is busy.
A hiker passed us on the trail tonight and after seeing all of us asked "wow...having a family party?"
To which Wade replied "nope just a big family"
I'll admit....it's crazy and busy, and loud (really loud) and sometimes chaotic, but we love it.
Somehow church with just 3 kids should have been easier, but I felt like I had played a tackle football game by the end of sacrament meeting. Silly kids. Good thing they are cute.
I was reading through old blog posts this week and came across one from the beginning of the year. My word for the year.
Strive.
{make great efforts to achieve or obtain something}
Heading into the school year I think it is good to remember this. I will strive to be a better wife, mom, friend, daughter, sister, reader, runner, Christian, missionary, visiting teacher, employee, listener, writer, blogger.
I feel like I kinda lost it there for a while this year - my goal, what I wanted to focus on, but I still have a couple months left of the year. I can still work on this.
I am going to strive to be better at being here in the moment.
It's garden time! I love having a garden and all the fresh food we get from it.
Tonight our dinner came almost entirely from the garden.
It doesn't get much fresher than garden-to-the-dinner-table in a matter of minutes!
Our corn didn't do as well as we had hoped this year, but we did have some really great corn on the cob tonight. Avery and Eli ate so much! Then we had assorted colored peppers chopped up, mixed with BBQ sauce and grilled like a tin foil dinner (SO yummy!). Another side of these addictive Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Slices, and then some hot fresh Cabbage Farm Buns. After a walk around the neighborhood to burn off some energy we finished the meal off with some Lime Zucchini Cake (Wade made this one with lime instead of lemon and we are hooked!)
Wade put together this jar of picked vegetables yesterday too. I can't wait to try it, it's all from our garden and so pretty!
Today I got to share a message with the Relief Society (women) at church. I talked about goals...I think August/July is such a great time to re-evaluate how your goals are going and think about if you need to make any changes or make new ones.
I set a goal this year to read 52 books. One book a week. I little bit of a step down from last years 100 books. But as of today I've read 64 books! I think I'll change my goal and shoot for 100 again. I need to find one more half marathon to run this year too.
I think goals are important. I think they drive us. I think when you have goals for the right reasons, for the right purpose you can really achieve true happiness.
I really love this quote about goals and motivation...
“True motivation to achieve comes from a desire to serve the Lord. If you can see in each
of the goals you select an opportunity to improve your ability to serve the Lord—which
includes, of course, serving his children, and the first ones of his children that you must
serve are your family members—then you’ll receive a desire to achieve that cannot be
obtained in any other way. That motivation will be lasting because it will bring a continuing
feeling of satisfaction. When I say “service,” I don’t mean just “service at convenience”
because that’s not service at all. That’s only a self-serving activity.”
At the beginning of the year another member of our Relief Society presidency introduced our theme for the year and challenged the sisters to set goals that are focused on sisterhood and building up and bringing our little group of women together. So today I passed out the same hand out and asked the sisters to re-evaluate the goals they might have made at the beginning of the year.
At the end of the lesson I shared this video. It is a little bit longer, but it's amazing. Worth the time to watch. I know that when we set goals that have the right purpose and we use our gifts and talents with those goals that we can lift one another.
Happy National Ice Cream Day! We celebrated by eating pie and ice cream for dinner...not dessert, but dinner. We threw in some zucchini cake so we could call something healthy.
Actually, we planned this dinner before we knew it would be an ice cream holiday. When we wrote our summer bucket list Noah really wanted to have an ice cream party. And he also really wanted to have a pie party with my sister and her family too. He was pretty specific with some of his wishes as well...he wanted me to make a blackberry pie with the berries from our garden, and Kathy to make a peanut butter pie. And he wanted lots of ice cream.
Apple pie, blackberry pie, key lime pie, peanut butter pie, lime zucchini cake and three types of ice cream with toppings.
Not too bad....
Everything tasted yummy!
Tonight was fun.
Why not have pie and ice cream for dinner every once in a while?
Plus we crossed off two more items on our summer bucket list.
Happy Sunday
I "might" need to go running tomorrow.
:)
This last week I went to Washington for a few days and Wade took care of all the kids for me so I could go by myself. It was a nice quick trip. My sister was sealed to their cute baby, Lydia, who they adopted earlier this year. I hope to post more about this when I catch up the blog this week. I flew home on Saturday and came straight from the airport to the 4th of July family party.
Wade made an amazing shrimp boil for the family party, and we had a great time and ate way too much food. Then we had to try out my sister in laws selfie-stick. It was just too funny. We could have way too much fun with one. Don't judge the girls hair. Like I said, Wade took care of the kids for 3 days on his own. Hair was not his priority. His specialty is a pony tail.
Our garden is going crazy! We picked a bunch of peppers and black berries tonight.
Thanks to our garden, we had a zucchini cook off tonight too....lemon cake versus chocolate cake. There were 5 votes for chocolate, 2 votes for lemon and 1 vote for both.
It's been a great weekend and we are looking forward to another busy week.
