Thank you, I appreciate you

In lieu of my last post, I think this is appropriate.  I have had a few thoughtful moments in the last hours, and I think I want to share.  We had the adult session of Stake Conference tonight, and it was very good.  There were a few things directed right towards me.  The Stake President, as well as another, talked about the importance of the relationship with your spouse.  And how it is so important to be kind to each other.   If we would consider our spouse first, in every decision we make, would that change the way that we do things?  I know for me, there are times it would.  And that is something I need to work on.  Eternity is a long time, and I intend to be happy throughout it!  : )

This month celebrates the 15 year commemoration of the The Family: A Proclamation to the World, given by the First Presidency.  I was sitting in a meetinghouse, in the middle of Wyoming, on my mission, when this incredible Proclamation was first introduced.   There are a couple blogs that I stalk that are focusing their posts all month long on the Family, and the Proclamation.  I was really touched by THIS post.  It really made me think.  About my own father, and my husband, the father of my littles.

My father was ill my entire life.  He got sick on his mission, and continued to suffer throughout his life.  His illness was debilitating enough that he was never able to hold a job outside our home.  He often spent entire days in bed, and was consistently in pain.  But I never heard him complain about  it.  And only now am I beginning to realize the things he was able to do that mean so much.

My mom was always the one who brought in and put up the Christmas tree.  My dad was usually too sick to do it.  But my dad was the tooth fairy, and always left a note with whatever the tooth fairy brought.  My dad could never afford much, but he'd send a note or a card, or often be the one to write on the package.  How I treasure cards and letters I find that my dad wrote--I miss his handwriting.

Both of my parents sacrificed, as most good parents do.  But as the blog post says, often times we don't recognize or realize the depth of some of our father's sacrifices.  I don't know if I will ever fully know the depth of my own dad's sacrifices, but how grateful I am that he was willing to make them.

And my dear sweet husband is the same way.  I do not acknowledge enough the depth of his sacrifices for our family.  He shoulders a heavy burden, and I am so grateful for what he does.  I need to TELL him more often of my appreciation for that, and show him my support.  Sometimes I think we get too caught up in the "competition" of 'everything I do around here', and forget to be as kind as we should.  I know I do sometimes.  This sentence from the post really hit  me:

The contributions of father and mother compliment and cooperate, they don’t compete.

When I read that, I felt like I had been stuck with a fork!  How true that should be, and how much I have forgotten that!

My goal is to work on being better at cooperating and complimenting, not competing.  I am going to try harder to do that.  I do have you know, the greatest reasons in the world for it, and I am so glad they are mine!   I am so blessed and my actions are going to better reflect that from now on.

My Knight in Shining Armor

It has come to my attention, that in all my blog updating,  I neglectfully forgot to update on one person. 

That being my knight in shining armor, my one and only, my king, my protector, my love, my laugh, my hope and dream, my beau, my beloved, my adoration, my sweetheart, my devoted, the one that I live, laugh, love and cry with, the patriarch of our home and family, the bread winner, the steady hand, the strong arm, the football fanatic, the fast car craver, the Dr. Pepper King.

How could I have forgotten the one who brings so much laughter and joy, and mirth, and sometimes trouble to our lives?

The one who plays hard, and works hard, and is always willing to help out.  The one who brings light and sunshine to our lives?

The funny one, the playful one, the adventurer and instigator?

The one I won?

The husband, the father, the apple of our eye.  The priesthood holder, the presider, the papa?

The one who loves us most, and does all that he can for us?  How could we forget him?

Christopher, Chris, my love, yes dear, Dad, Daddy, Papa, by whatever name, we love you, and could never forget you!  

Thanks for all you do for our family!

You are the best!

Aynsli

This is what Aynsli looked like when we brought her home from the hospital, at 25 days old.

This is Aynsli on her first day of Kindergarten.  How did she grow up so fast?  My little girl is now a "school girl".  And somewhere in between, I have become a "seasoned" mother of three.

Aynsli was so excited to get on the bus.  She has vacillated back and forth between being excited for school, and not wanting to go, but in the end she couldn't wait.  She was up early, and even let me put curlers in her hair the night before.  Her teacher, Mrs. Christensen, is brand new, so it should be an exciting adventure for both of them!

For months Aynsli bugged me to get curlers.  We finally got some, courtesy of Grandma, and tried them out.  The first time we did them, they turned out great, and she looked so cute.  Just don't tell her that.  She thought it was awful and so embarrassing.  I had to really convince her to let me do them again.  And then they didn't turn out so hot--not sure why--but we pulled it up, and she looked so cute, and so grown  up.  Which she is, all to quickly.  Aynsli speaks her mind, and isn't afraid to do so, whether she knows you or not.  We are working on it!

She is so fun loving and creative, and a good big sister.  I don't know what I would do without her, and even though it has only been 2 days, I have missed having her around a little bit.

Aynsli LOVES horses, and is in heaven whenever she gets to ride them.  There is a pony ride not far from here, and she would go every day if she could.

My Aynsli is growing up.  She is so helpful and loving to her sisters.  I love her so much, and am so glad to have her in our family!

Lily

My baby is growing up!

Can you believe she is already one?  When did that happen?  It was just the other day we brought her home, and now she is walking!

We celebrated in Park City --she had a wonderful chocolate and pink cupcake, thanks to aunt Kelly.  She thoroughly enjoyed it, as you can tell, and pooped pink for 2 days.

Lily is definitely developing her own little personality.  She loves to eat, and she loves to explore. I can't tell you how many times I have cleaned up play doh messes because she has emptied the cupboard and climbed into it!

She loves to go outside, and detests when she is caught trying to escape.  She has actually escaped undetected a couple of times.  But it is just in the last day or two that she has ventured beyond the cement patio, because she hates the grass on her arms and legs.  Just last night though, she discovered walking in it wasn't so bad, and opened a whole new world up to her.  And a whole new worry for mama!

This was the first time she ever wore any kind of shoe.  She has been our barefoot baby, and putting shoes on her made her look so big, and made her mad.  She didn't like that at all!

Growing up so fast little one, my little Lily, we love you!

Emalie

What can I say about this little minx?  She is sugar and spice and everything nice, but when she is bad, she is awful....or something like that.  It has taken her awhile, but she has hit those terrible twos hard!

But what can I say, she is hilarious!  She says the funniest things and does the most humorous things.  It cracks me up to hear her repeating some of the things she hears me say.   I tend to say, "you're trouble" a lot.  One day we were driving in the car, and Aynsli was bothering her.  She says to Aynsli, you're trouble! : )  What do you do?

She is growing up so fast!  Her favorite thing to do is go outside and play on the swing set.  She'll spend several minutes at a time just swinging.  Swimming is also a favorite.  Or at least playing in the water.  She got quite the tan line this summer.   She is definitely my girly girly.  She loves for mom to do her hair, and LOVES shoes.  And she doesn't like to be messy.  (Although she is great at making them!)

She is definitely not a baby anymore, and is growing up into my beautiful little girl.  We love you Emalie!

Wesley

Wesley came to spend 6 weeks with us this summer.  It was fun to have him here, and the girls just adore their brother.  And he is so good to play with them.  We celebrated his 11th birthday--wow--and he got some cool things.  We did a lot of water playing.  Mostly outside in the backyard, but we went to the Splash Pad too.  We played with cousins, saw grandmas and grandpa, and just had a good time being together.

While Wesley was here with us, he had the chance to meet with the missionaries, and take the lessons in preparation for baptism.  We had some great missionaries, Elder Meisel and Elder Davey.  Elder M is from California, and Elder D from England.  He was fun to listen to, but they were both wonderful elders, and did a great job teaching Wesley.   Wesley's mom gave her permission, and we planned his baptism for the morning of the day he was to go home.  His mom was going to fly over, attend the baptism, and fly home that evening with him.  Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it.  I thought he would have a more difficult time with that, but he was strong, and knew that he had to do what was right.  And he was so excited.  He was up and dressed by 7am!

It was a wonderful day!  We had Grandpa and Grandma Condie there, Grandma Weaver, and all of his Utah cousins from my side.

We also had some good friends, and many ward members that came to support him.  It was a Tuesday afternoon, but we still had over 60 people in attendance.  It was a beautiful baptism, and I know that Wesley is being blessed for making the right decision!

Wesley is growing up, and is such a loving and helpful young man.  We love him so much, and are so glad that he is part of our family!

Lost and wandering

I am sitting here, not quite sure what to do with myself. I've put my firstborn on the bus for day number 2 of Kindergarten--and the bus even came on time today!  My baby is down for her nap, and my 2 year old is taking a trauma induced nap--majorly pinched pinky finger = 30 minutes of crying, now sleep.  I will pay for it tonight when she won't go to bed, but right now,  the quiet is deafening.  I haven't heard this in so long during daylight hours,  I am lost.  Where do I start?  What do I do?  Heaven knows I have a list a mile long of things I need to do, and want to do.  Grocery shopping, menu planning, toilet cleaning, closet straightening, scrapbooking, blanket making, blog posting, floor sweeping, (amazingly laundry is all folded and put away)...the list goes on and on, but it is almost like I don't know what to do with out little hands pulling on my legs, little voices needing this and that, or little bodies sitting on my lap while I try to do most anything.
Since I have been feeling terribly guilty about my lack of blogging, which I enjoy doing, and want to do, I think I'll sit for a minute and try to share some of the goings on in our life.  I can't "catch up", it goes too far back and there is too much I have missed. I think I'll hit some of the more recent highlights though...
 - Aynsli started Kindergarten yesterday.  It is hard to believe she is old enough for that.  It seems like just the other day I was put on bedrest to ensure her safe arrival.
 -Lily turned 1.  One?  Is that really possible?  Where has the last year gone?  It is passing so quickly, and I am not ready for it.  But yes, she is walking, climbing, starting to say what sounds like words, and is full of joy and sunshine.
 -Emalie has entered the terrible twos with a vengeance.  She is a little trouble maker, but she is also such a hoot.  Both she and Aynsli are into horses, and E will make anything a horse.
 - We had Wesley here for 6 weeks this summer, and had a great time.  That is the longest we have had him with us in 6 years, and it was really good.  We did some fun things, and had good times, and the best thing of all was that he was able to be baptized the day he went home.  We are blessed that he was able to receive that in his life.
-We spent some time in Logan with cousins, and spent a week in Park City for a family reunion. Those were both fun things, and the kids really enjoyed them.  PC was great because the girls got to swim everyday, and they LOVED that!
 - We did a garden this year, and tho we've had some rough spots, we are reaping a harvest--more zucchini than we know what to do with, some basil, tomatos, green peppers, and corn.  We have 2 watermelon growing, and they made it bigger than last year, but   for some reason they never turn out edible.  We'll have to work on it.  
It was a great summer, and the kids had fun, and were healthy!  We actually went 3 months without anyone going to a doctor!
Now, a new phase of life has started.  We are parents of a school go-er.  No more spontaneous trips, no more late night ventures, no more unplanned outings.  We are structured, regulated, and routined (Ha!).  Well, at least we are trying to be.  But we are enjoying it.  And are grateful for the relative boringness and health of our family.  We are blessed, and we are happy!