Phone Photos

 Brad received the citizenship award at his high school.  They choose one boy and one girl out of the whole school!  We think that is the best award to get!

 Baseball season has begun!  This is one of Reagan's games.

 Eden is TWO!!!!!!

 She is picking her birthday present!

 First game!

 Rylan did a puppet show!

 He is the orange cat in the Little Red Hen.

 A fairy house Aubryn built.

 Reagan with his teacher, Mrs. Randall.

 Class program for Reagan.

 watching

 Wesley turned 4!  We went to the grocery store and Johnny sang to him over the P.A.  Wesley didn't like it.  He said it was weird.  Ha ha!  Then people were telling him happy birthday and he just looked down.

 Ogden Temple!

School board voting on boundary changes.  It was unanimous for proposal A.  The whole deliberation took about two minutes.  You never would have known all the heat behind the decision.

Brad asked James, "What is the easiest thing in your life right now?"
James responded, "To be nice."
Then Brad asked, "What is the hardest?"
"To not be mean."

Aubryn's Dance Recital

Brynn gave Aubryn the "Elastigirl award". Aubryn worked super hard and used tips given to her.  She impressed me so much with what she accomplished!

This was Aubryn's first dance class.  Her teacher was great and Aubryn made lots of progress!  She can do the splits now!

Elementary School Performance Choir Concert

Aubryn did AWESOME in her concert!

I sewed her dress and lace leggings.  She is growing up and is such a beautiful girl!

James referred to Aubryn's diary as her diarrhea.
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Rylan came with me to get my temple recommend at the stake president's office.  He sat on the couch next to me as I waited my turn to be interviewed.  He was coloring.  The stake president came over and shook his hand.  Later I over heard Rylan say to Reagan, "Reagan!  The stake president shook my hand! Then he said, 'Wow, you are going to town.'"
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Reagan and Rylan did a basketball camp for three days after school.  I paid $25 each.  My boys are really obsessed with money.  On the way home on the last day Rylan said, "I know what they spent all their money on.  Titsie Rolls!" (I can't get him to say Tootsie Roll for the life of me!)
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When we pulled up to a house of one of Brian's insured, Brian asked if we wanted to come in with him.  James asked, "Are there ninjas in there?"
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Rylan had the "hikky yippy ups."
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I was rocking Eden one night and asked her what we would do the next day.  She said, "Daddy. Watch. TV. Stairs."  I think that was kind of a first sentence!
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When I pushed the shopping cart from the store to the van with James, Wesley, and Eden in the cart they said, "We're the groceries!"  So when I picked each one up and loaded them in the van I pretended to eat them.  They all tasted like different foods.  I said Eden tasted like ice cream and Wesley said, "She's going to melt!"
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As we were driving one day, James told me he was sad.  I asked, "What are you thinking about?"
He said, "Isaac.  I know HOW he died.  I just don't know WHY he died."
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I told the little boys one day that before they could play on the computer they needed to write their names.  Then James told me that before I could get on the computer that I needed to sew my name.
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With the proposed school boundary change (Which didn't pass.  The kids will stay at their same school.) Aubryn expressed to me that she hoped to go to the new school.  I asked he why and she said, "So my diary would have an interesting story."
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After watching the church's videos on the Sabbath, we asked Rylan what he heard or learned.  The ONLY thing we could get out of him was, "If you're sweaty, get up and get a drink of water."
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Reagan was sad when he was not allowed to go see a movie that had a low rating.  He wanted to go so bad and I felt bad too.  So I tried to give him a hug.  He was a little resistant turning his head and cutting it short.  I tried again.  Same reaction.  I asked him why he didn't want me to hug him.  He said, "I'm just not in the mood for that."
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It was Wesley's long awaited fourth birthday on Thursday.  He has wanted to be four for sooo long.  Most of the time when he was three he would say he was four and would not admit that he was three. He would get mad if you said he was three.  On the big day we were all excited to see him be four!  He said he was not four.  He thought when he ate his cake, then he would be four.  After dinner he scarfed his cake down with both hands shoveling it into his mouth. He had big eyes and looked excited.  I wondered what he expected to happen.  Then he hopped down from the table and ran to the measuring ruler on the wall to see how tall he was.  3 1/2 feet tall.  He hung his head low and walked away saying, "I'm not even four years old."  He is still saying he is three and will not believe any of us.  I feel sad for him.  He is so disappointed.
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Brad was in an interfaith choir for the national day of prayer.  We attended the performance.  We ended up sitting in the cry room to watch it.  James was sitting by a lady and then ended up on her lap.  He makes friends wherever he goes.  He is very friendly!  I overheard him talking to her and he said, "Do you know what my name is?  James.  My mom wanted to name me Parker, but she named me James.  Do you know what I really want my name to be?  Mohawk!  I like Mohawk.  It is an Indian name."
She replied, "I'll call you Mohawk."
Brian said she asked him when his birthday was.  He told her, "I don't know.  My parents won't tell me."
Another time I was with him and someone asked him when his birthday was and he told them Wesley's birthday.

How's Your Mother's Day Going?

I received this lovely poem from Reagan (9yrs old)  

Interestingly, watch this video.  Skip to 3:30.

Christ Like

What do you think of when you hear that phrase?  When someone is trying to be "Christ like" what comes to your mind?  They are trying to be like Jesus?  They are trying to be good?     

In the book "The Midwife" by Jennifer Worth, she tells us about Sister Evangelina.  She was a nun who was a home nurse to the very poor in London in the 1950's.  She was gruff, not at all polite, and had a crude sense of humor.  She was the opposite of the sweet nurse nun.  The people (Docklanders , Cockneys) loved her despite this.  They called out to her in the streets when they saw her, "Mornin', Sister Evie!"  The author was trying to understand why they admired her so much.  Then this is what she writes,  "I ceased to be startled, because I realised that this was what the patients loved about her.  She approached them all without a trace of sentimentality or condescension.  The older Docklanders  were accustomed to meeting middle-class do-gooders, who deigned to act graciously to inferiors.  The Cockneys despised these people, but Sister Evangelina had no patronising airs and graces.  She would have been incapable of them.  She was unswervingly honest, and reacted to every person without guile or affection. "  She became one of them, even though she was not a Cockney.  She never looked down on them or esteemed herself as better than those she served.  Those she helped never felt intimidated, less than, or judged by her.  They welcomed her help.  Shouldn't we all serve in the way Sister Evangelina did? 

When someone says they are trying to do the Christ like thing, I think they have good intentions, but it can sometimes have a self-righteous tone to it.  Like, they are in the right no matter what.  What better then to claim to be trying to act as Jesus would.   I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts into words without sounding condescending and self righteous myself.  I just see so much of this everywhere I look. (mostly online)  People who know better then the rest of us.  I am guilty myself.  I wish more people could see things my way.   I have limited understanding of others.  We really can't fully understand.  Only Christ has a complete understanding.

If you strive to be Christ like, truly wanting to act as the Savior would,  you are not better, superior, or more important than those around you.  Christ served, and was served.  I am not being anymore Christ like to take dinner to someone, as they are to receive it.  We are all sinners.  ALL OF US.  Our sins just wear different hats.  Christ loved, and was loved.  Christ was kind to all.  Jesus loves us all, always.

If I help you, I'm not better.

if you help me, you're not better.

If I see you do something that I think is wrong, I am not better.

If you see me do something you think is wrong, you are not better.

We are all doing our best. We all want to be happy.  We all want to be loved.  We all sin.  We all need help.

Being Christ like isn't just being the one who is able to be on the helping side.  When serving others,  get rid of the pride.  Christ did serve others.  He loved others.  He also was served, loved, fed, and Simon carried HIS cross.  We are all in need.  We all need to love as the Savior did.  We all need to be loved as the Savior loves us.  Nobody knows what is in another's heart.  No one, but Jesus Christ.  He loves us.  He died for us.  All of us. 

So, what does Christ-like mean?

 John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Aubryn's Owie

Friday Aubeyn fell in the road riding her rip stick. She landed on her elbow.  She came crying into me.  She had scraped her elbow pretty deep through her shirt.  I checked it and bandaged it up.  It hurt her pretty bad and it was hard for her to bend her elbow.

 Saturday she really complained and whined about her elbow.  I finally decided to take her in to get an x-ray.  She didn't want to move it at all.  It had developed a little bruising.  No swelling.  I wasn't sure.

 Here she is waiting for an x-ray.

 Getting her x-rays.

I looked over at the screen and when I saw the picture I thought, "Good grief!  She broke off the tip of her elbow and I waited a day to take her in!"

We went back to the exam room and waited for the doctor.  He walked in and said everything looked fine and there was NO BREAK.  Turns out that is a growth plate.  It had me fooled!  They gave her a sling and sent us on our way.  Glad she is okay.

Birth Photos

Link to Birth Photos I took for my latest doula client.  Awesome experience!

More Phone Photos

 James

 Aubryn has worked SO HARD to get this down!!

 Water rushing down the road!

 I was stuck behind this play house frame when I carried it up the stairs from the basement and couldn't fit it through the door.  I was there for a bit before Brian came and took the door off so the thing could fit through and let me out.  Eden was worried.  They joked that they wanted to leave me down there.  They liked having me stuck in the basement for so long.  I told them I kind of liked it myself!!

I made this for a friend.

 We visited an older lady that is insured with Brian.  She is sitting there at the table with him.  While they talked business I protected my children from this MEAN cat.  The cat is so mean that it lives in this cage on the coffee table.  It was hissing and trying to bite and scratch us!  So odd to have that right in the middle of your home.

 Eden was feeling super comfortable, so she took her shirt off.

 Card that Rylan (7) made for James (5).