Transformation

Our Lily is changing. She is not the same girl she was 2 1/2 weeks ago. She likes a bit more control. (See the above picture of her driving the go-cart)

She likes to do big kid stuff.


She makes a little mischief--the potty is a favorite site. As is the bathtub, when her siblings are bathing--she likes to get in on the action. (I say a little because she is not as curious and constantly busy as Hannah...but only time will tell.)

She loves to play with her brother.

She is joining the rest of us in chore time.

She loves to talk on the phone.

She can go up and down the stairs.

She gets a wild look in her eye when she is up to something.

And she can have piggy tails!!!

She loves the go-cart and when her daddy starts it up, her eyes widen and she just jumps up and down with excitement.

She actually knows what "prayers" are and will fold her arms and mumble something!

She is no longer easy-going and quiet. She has an opinion that she has been quietly forming for the past eleven months, and now she has decided it is time to let it shine!! She can scream with the best of them (and the best of them is Hannah). And though she may not be as easy going, she is definitely a little sweetie and every single person in our family adores her. When she wakes up, she has to make the rounds and give hugs to everyone because they all have outstretched arms for her. We love you Lil!! And I'm pretty much in denial that she will indeed be turning one in a couple of weeks!

I'm a little giddy...

...about this project....

I get so excited every time I go outside now. Our house is getting its final exterior touch-up project and I am thrilled about it. We are getting rock on the house! It's like Christmas in May. Love it. And I can't wait to see more of it completed as the days go by!

Making some Changes

So Jed really thinks that I should make this blog public again. I have had such mixed feelings about blogging, private blogging vs. public blogging.....or blogging at all! Oh goodness. I always have a lot of thoughts I want to write down, but I don't know if anyone cares to read them.. or if anyone does not share my opinions, so sometimes I just want to write for myself.... But I have decided to go public again....for now and just see how it goes. And if I decide to go private again in the future, I'm sorry for any hassle!! I'm just fickle.

The BEST 8 years of my life!!!

Today is Jed and I's 8th anniversary! I can't believe it has only been 8 years, and I mean that in the best possible way! Jed is my best friend and the perfect husband for me. He tried to sneakily plant roses around the house with little notes, but our little ones interfered a bit with....."are those flowers??" So, the behind the scenes work was exposed, but it was still a wonderful surprise!

These 8 years really have been the best years of my life.

Eight years really doesn't seem that long, but it is so neat to look back on what has happened in this short time:

1- Had 4 beautiful children

2- Lost a child

3-Built a home together that we now live in

4- Experienced wonderful joys and some life tragedies

5- Accomplished goals and learned new skills

Just to name a few... I'm so grateful to have had Jed at my side through it all! I could go on and on about how I love Jed and what an awesome person I think he is, but I think I will spare the public my further mooshy details!! :) Suffice it to say, I am one happy/lucky girl!

Catch-up

It seems like we have been busy with one thing or another around her for a few months now, and I've recorded our major happenings...but feel like I have so much I haven't recorded. They are things that I just personally want to remember.

• Jed was gone for 3 1/2 weeks drilling wells out of town. The best thing about that is when he comes back home! :) I already appreciate him so much, but I am reminded of what a team we really are when he isn't around. I'm grateful for him and all he does for this little family.



• Our family went down with the YW in our ward to the YW broadcast. It was awesome. I loved the messages, and the spirit which was there. And I love to be in the presence of the Lord's mouthpiece, incredible! One of the girl's said "Are we really here?" when we came into the conference center. I just love being there with them in a testimony strengthening atmosphere and getting them so excited about the gospel. Our kids were SO amazing on the drive. No movies, but Drew and Madelyn had a couple of old cell phones that still take pictures. I was going to do a post with their pictures from the trip...but I just don't think that is going to happen! They got to go through the children's section of the church history museum with daddy (and the bishop) while I was at the broadcast. Everything went so smoothly the entire trip, there was just perfect timing the entire time. I think we were blessed.



• Hannah's sleeping habits have been extremely out of whack. She does not want to go to bed and sometimes stays up later than Jed and I. She will sleep pretty much anywhere in the house except her bed. Seriously. I thought I would take pictures of the places she ends up because they can be funny. I took one of her halfway in the bathroom...but then I gave up on that whole idea because I just don't feel like taking pictures when I have to hunt her down in the middle of the night. She does not take naps. But sometimes she will absolutely collapse right before dinner at any given place in the house. But if she does that, then she will have an extra rough bedtime. She gets so exhausted in the day that she will just get her blankie in tow and loaf around all day long. I don't really know what to do with her. She has got to be so tired. It makes me more tired when I feel like my children are still up until I go to bed. I am just really fond of my two hour mommy recharge time when they go to bed. I'm sure it is just a stage and I just need to hang in there. I'm hoping....



• I had to speak in church with the YW presidency a couple weeks ago. I always tease Jed because he speaks in church SO much more than me. In fact when we speak together people will come up to me and say "Your husband did such a good job. He is such a good speaker." And I wholeheartedly agree. He is. I just feel silly when that happens!! So this is the first time I have ever spoken without him since we've been married. I am seeing some growth in myself. I have always feared public anything, even prayers. But this time I really didn't stress about the talk. I prepared and then as I was on the stand, my nerves kicked in. But the fact that they didn't kick in until I got up to the stand is seriously incredible for me.



• I've had some neat experiences with the YW that I teach, one in particular. I just had one of those "in the right place at the right time" sort of experiences. It was very neat.



• Madelyn is really getting to be a good helper nowadays. She is helping me so much more around the house and with Lily. It is wonderful. She is learning to be a loving leader. And I'm going to lose her to school in the fall! She is so ready for it and will love it so much.
  


• Lily is at such an adorable stage. I love it. I am totally rubbing off on my kids though because I hear them say things like "You are soooo cute. You just can't grow up, you have to be our baby forever!" That sounds really familiar! She loves to tease Hannah. She loves to tackle her and steal her blankie!! It is so funny. We all just love to pepper that little girl with so many kisses. We went to my brother Gerald's daughter's 1st b-day party last weekend. When it was time for my niece to dig into her cake she just wouldn't. My sister-in-law Michelle and her sister were trying to teach her how to get her fingers dirty, and she still just wouldn't get into it. Well my other brother was holding Lily and he was handed a piece of cake, and not but a second later, Lily was all over it. She was eating it just handful after handful and everyone was just laughing. Then Gerald said, "Way to steal the show!" Oops, sorry! I guess it is just in my children's blood--and I'm the one who put it there!



• Drew had his school singing program that we went and watched today. It was fun, and even though I couldn't tell he was singing he assured me that he was. I am getting quite ready for Drew to be done with school! I just feel like there just isn't enough time with him. When he gets home from school it is homework, cleanup, dinner, cleanup, a little play time, get ready for bed.... I'm ready to play hard this summer and have some fun with my kids!!



• And as always, we've been working on projects on our house when we can spare a minute. Which just doesn't feel that often anymore.



• I'm sure I'm missing some more things that I wanted to write down, but atleast I made it this far!

Our Easter Celebration

After having really cool St. Patrick's Day bread, I decided to try my hand at making Easter bread. It was a fun experiement!! I even tried to tie in a little Easter meaning into it all, the "rising" of the bread...It was a stretch, but I figure the more I try to tie in the real reason we celebrate Easter, the better.

It was fun to see how each loaf turned out. This loaf was yellow and pink in the beginning, then it had blue and green at the end. The other loaf we made had all of the colors at once. The kids thought it was awesome!
We went up to Swan Valley and stayed at Jed's family's cabin. We had a good time with friends and Grandma and Grandpa came by for a visit. We had a good time, the kids ate a ton of swedish fish, and we had a late night. Hannah didn't go to bed until 1:30 A.M., but her bedtime issues are for another post on another day.... :)

Real rabbits.

Getting extra candy from the easter rabbit.

Then time for the big hunt. I took Hannah over to the 0-3 yrs hunt while Jed took Lil and the older kids to the other hunt. Hannah loved the hunt and was enamored with all of the stuffed animals. While the other small children collected candy filled eggs, Hannah picked up 3 stuffed animals! She picked up a few eggs too, and I think if she knew what they contained before the hunt started, I think she would have stocked up a bit more on the eggs! :)

So the above picture is what I saw when I came over to meet Jed and the kids at their hunt. Madelyn in tears because she didn't get any stuffed animals or eggs. Madelyn told me a girl who didn't have any eggs gave all that she did have to her! I was so impressed and I tried to help her understand that what that girl did was extremely nice. I asked Hannah if she would be willing to share a stuffed animal with Madelyn, Hannah quickly picked one out for her sister. Then I asked Madelyn if she would trade some candy with Hannah for the stuffed animal Hannah gave her. She returned the generosity with a single starburst! :) We'll work on generosity later I guess... I do love this picture with Drew's arm around Madelyn though.

Hannah and her stuffed animal loot.

Then it was off to play games. These guys were being such nice siblings that day! Drew waited for Madelyn to catch up when it was time to turn around and go back to the finish line. It just makes me so happy to see them treat each other like that, just makes my day.

More games.

Drew's turn.

Lunch break!!

Hot dogs and cupcakes!

There was a live bunny chase where they took a bunny out to the far end of the park and set it free. Then they let this mob of children chase after it and whomever caught the rabbit got to take it home. Drew really wanted that rabbit, he actually returned from the chase in tears because he wasn't the one who caught it.

"Dad is great! He gives me chocolate cupcakes!"

Hannah won a bike. If that sounds familiar, that is because it is! Last year Hannah also won a bike. Our family is definitely outfitted for bike rides. That lucky girl!!

Drew also won a stuffed easter rabbit. It actually had a mini rabbit on its lap so Drew, of his own accord, decided to let Dad cut the little rabbit off so he could keep it, then he gave the big one to Madelyn!

So here is Drew, totally content with his little rabbit, Madelyn overjoyed with the plush pink rabbit Drew gave her, Hannah on her new bike, and Lily mesmerized with the bike's tassles and completely content because she had chocolate frosting all over her!!

Now Saturday was awesome, the kids had a blast. Then Sunday morning came and for some reason it was one of those stressful mornings. . . I wish I could do that morning over!! But we did have great church meetings, and we all enjoyed flying kites and spending an absolutely gorgeous day outside!!

The kids hunted throughout the house for their baskets. Hannah found hers under the table.

Lily found hers under the computer desk.

Madelyn found hers in a cupboard in the laundry room.

Drew found his in the dryer.

Overall a very fun Easter! I learned it takes a bit more effort for things to run smoothly on Easter morning with early morning church, easter baskets, egg hunts, and getting everyone ready. I'm starting to be a fan of the whole Easter baskets/hunts on Saturday morning idea....maybe we will try that next year. Sometimes its hard to change things up, but that would help remove some clutter from Easter Sunday. We'll see.

I am very grateful that we have such a special day to remember the gift the Savior has given each of us. I am so grateful for His life, His love, His example, and His sacrifice.