A Million Thanks!

to my husband who let me practically take a day off of mothering to go to the regional conference with Julie B. Beck. It seriously was remarkable and I'm so grateful that I could go!! Sister Beck has been someone I admire greatly for some time now, so it was just so amazing to be there with her and feel of her strong spirit and faithfulness. I was able to sing in the choir and she came out and talked to us before the meeting began. She is amazing!! Did I mention that already?! And I got to give her a hug!! If I didn't know better I would have snuck in a camera, got her autograph, and told her how much I admire her and how she has influenced who I am and want to become....but bringing a camera was against the rules, as far as the autograph goes...well it isn't exactly necessary, and I really could talk her ear off about how neat I think she is, but other people wanted to talk to her too and never mind about me freezing when it was my turn and actually not being able to say anything but "thank you." (world's largest sentence)
She organized the meeting to be a question answer session where women could go and ask questions when prompted by the spirit. Her knowledge and use of the scriptures was incredible and I love how she doesn't mince words. She tells it like it is and doesn't apologize for it. Which I think the world desperately needs! It was most definitely an inspiring meeting! Jed and I went on a date yesterday evening and I think I wore his ear off talking about the things that I had learned. But I am excited to work on some new goals for myself and put those impressions I had into practice in my life!

Preciousness

Hannah said something today that just made me smile. I had to record it before it vanishes from my memory! Hannah randomly came up to me and said, "Mom, thank you for my happiness."

So sweet. I don't know where that came from, if she heard it somewhere or not....but regardless....it made this mother's heart melt.

As far as this picture goes, this is Hannah's look of shame.
This is what she does every time she knows she has made a bad choice. I think it is cute too!

Livin On Love!

We had a great v-day. Madelyn and I heart attacked our family the week before the big day.

We gave everyone several Valentine's and it was a fun surprise for the family.

The kids loved having their Valentine's where they could see them every day.

Our traditional Valentine's breakfast of heart-shaped waffles.

The girls helped me make some Valentine's day cupcakes to share too.

It was a great day. Gotta say that I LOVE my family!!

Carpet

We have had our carpet for one year now, and unfortunately some of the lighter strands of carpet have unraveled quite a bit. It has left the floor looking a little fuzzy instead of like plush carpet. This really wouldn't be a huge deal to me, but since the carpet is only one year old and it has a warranty, I called the store about it. They sent over a carpet inspector who reinforced the idea that it needed replacement. This they will do *free* of charge. It has been nearly a month since we've heard anything more about it, which has ended up being a HUGE blessing. This last week, our carpet has seen more mishaps than it has in its entire year history. Unfortunately, a stomach flu bug has visited my oldest three children. There have been atleast 6 cases of throw up on our carpet. I have been busy in the middle of several nights this week washing bedding, disinfecting, mopping, scrubbing, etc. To add to this, Hannah for the last few weeks has been into changing her own diaper. This sounds ideal...but not when you see a little dirty bottomed girl running through the house and you are frantically chasing after her so she does not sit down on anything! Well yesterday, it happened. I was finishing up in the shower and came out to see a dirty diaper on the floor and a mess on the carpet......sigh..... I'm just so grateful for whatever is causing the delay at Carpet Mart!! It has saved me some stress. And I think as soon as we get this diaper thing figured out and the flu bug is finally gone, I will making a reminder phone call to Carpet Mart.

As a cute sidenote, Hannah came out to see Drew throwing up in a big bowl. She kept saying "You throw up Drew? You sick?" Then she said the cutest thing, "Drew, sometimes I throw up too." So cute, and since she had just gone through it, she definitely said it with compassion and empathy.

CONGRATS JED!!

Yesterday I got a phone call from the district scouting office. They were asking if Jed and I were planning to go the the Scouting banquet tonight. I told them we had thought about it, and the lady told me that Jed would be receiving an award so she thought we might want to plan more seriously to attend it. Jed doesn't really like me to do any online bragging on him, but I was just too excited and happy for him to resist! WAY TO GO HUN! I think you're awesome and have dedicated your time to something so worthwhile and meaningful!! Love you!

Life

Drew participated in his first pinewood derby this year. He is not in scouts quite yet, but they allowed him to come and race as long as he did not win. Drew's is the orange car, Jed's is the rig! :)
He absolutely loved it. He was just running back and forth as fast as he could. Everybody better watch out for when he can race! He'll have his tricks mastered by then!

After much wiggling, Drew finally lost his top front tooth!

I tried to capture the most gorgeous winter morning on my camera, definitely didn't do it justice. Everything was pure white, but the sun was out covering everything with a warm glow.


The girls have been overly obsessed with dress-up clothes as of late.


Hannah did not want her picture taken.

I just noticed as I was looking at this published post, something caught my eye that was embarrassing. Yes, that little green and white wad to the side of Hannah is a stinky diaper. Welcome to real life.

Check out the size of those rings. Madelyn even wore her dress up clothes to town complete with peptobismal pink tights, several necklaces, bracelets galore, clip on earrings that went pretty much to her shoulders, these rings the size of ring pops, and lets not forget the dress up heels!! She loved all the compliments she received from all the strangers, just feeding the flame!!

Girls. I'm sure Lily can't wait to get in on the action.

Lily is quite mobile now. She gets pretty much anywhere she wants to. She is just starting to get the hang of full-out crawling, but has the army crawl mastered. I just love to see what catches her fancy.

Drew thoroughly enjoyed making his car. He designed, sanded, and painted it by himself.

I think working with his dad on a manly project was probably the highlight.

This little Lily is just too cute.

When no one was watching, Lily got her hands on a delicious snack.

My exhausted little girl fell asleep sitting up in her bed.

One of Lily's favorite pasttimes is pulling hair. She especially loves Drew's and her Dad's. She gets the most crazy look in her eyes, it is hilarious!! Check it out:

Lily loves to play peek-a-boo in her car seat. It is too cute.

Just a brief little update:

Lily is doing much better eating real food. She is starting to feed herself and loves that. She adores pickles. It is so fun to see her interact more and more with her brother and sisters. Lily is still as good as gold. When she cries, all of the kids run to her aid because it really is such a rare occasion.

Hannah has decided that naps should be a thing of the past, that is always a hard adjustment to make. Not for her, but for me. Hannah is still hilarious as ever. The other night we were eating breakfast for dinner. I made hashbrowns and she asked for some. She noticed there was pepper on the hashbrowns and told me she did not like pepper. I told her it would be too hard to get it off and I said that it would probably be ok. She thought about it then looked me right in the eyes and said,"Mom, I forgive you." Hannah also taught her 1st FHE. It was very cute and taught us how Jesus loves a boy (she was showing us a picture she colored in nursery) and had us sing the ABC song with her too.

Drew and Madelyn went to the dentist for the first time ever. They were scared to death! Then when we were driving home they both were asking how soon we could return. The dentist is now right up there with Disneyland!

Madelyn is reading like crazy. She loves to do math too. I'm getting kind of worried that she will be bored in kindergarten. But I guess we will jump that hurdle when we get there.

The other night I heard a pretty comical exchange from Drew and Madelyn. We had attended one of Jed's Elders Quorum bball games a couple of nights before, and I heard them talking in the kitchen:

Madelyn: Ya know, when we went to dads soccer game?

Drew: You mean football game?

I guess it is apparent we're not too into the sports thing.

Jed just spruced up our bedroom with surround sound and a new tv. It's pretty fun. He is going to be on staff for a Wood Badge training course this fall, so he attended his first training a couple of weeks ago. He gets to work with some great people and he is excited about that. They have also asked him to speak this Sunday for Scout sunday. Even though they snatched Jed up in the Elder's Quorum, he is still the scout committee chairman and he loves having his foot in the door of scouting. He loves scouting and it has rubbed off on me, as well as Drew.

Our stake invited Sister Julie B. Beck-Relief Society general president-to come and speak at the BYU-I center in Rexburg in a couple of weeks. As soon as I found that out I was SOOO excited!! She is just someone I completely admire. Then to top that off I was asked to be in the choir they are organizing for the meeting. I don't consider myself an amazing vocalist or anything, so I'm grateful that they asked! It's been wonderful and inspiring as we've practiced, to join with women and deliver a united message through song.