Just Needs A Little Watering

A friend of mine posted this a while back, and, given our particular family's fondness and reliance on grass, it stuck in my mind.  It said:

"The grass isn't greener on the 'other' side; it isn't greener on your side. It's the greenest where you water it."

Today is one of those days...the lazy, cloudy, stay-home-in-your-sweats kind of days.  I love these days.  The cool thing about today is that all my kids are home and it's still a peaceful, indoor day.  Not only is it us here, but my nephew is here too.  I'm grateful he's here.  He (without going into too much detail) has had a rough life. He's growing up so fast and since he lives in Salt Lake, we don't get to have him over much.  Last night, I decided it was time.  I just had one of those feelings.  Who knows why. Just did.

So here we are, not doing anything special today - just playing cars, building forts, playing house, reading books, etc (a normal day at our house) and I hear him tell Brock, "Isn't today just the greatest day ever?" And my heart melted a little bit. Then, a few hours later, with the kids all eating their "picnic" lunches together, I hear this: "Thank you, Aunt Kristin.  This is the yummiest lunch I ever, ever had!" And my heart melted A LOT.  And I'm not even done yet!  Next, it was time to clean-up the lunch mess and do a few chores.  He and Kaitlin went from task to task working side by side with Kaitlin "instructing" him on all the little particulars.  When we were completely done, I felt a big squeeze on my leg and he said, "Is there anything else you need help with?" Seriously!?

I think what strikes me most about this whole day is how such little things can make such a big difference.  We didn't do anything special today, but I did put a little extra effort into making their lunches "cool."  We didn't do anything special, but the kids did try a little harder than usual to help him feel like he is extra special while he's here.  We didn't do anything special at all, but for him, being part of us was special.

It never ceases to amaze me what happens when I actually stop and follow the simple promptings that I feel. And sitting here right now, listening to these cousins play and talk to each other (overlooking the gigantic toy mess that covers my front room); I feel like everything is all right in the world. In fact, I even feel a little like I just may have the greenest grass in the world! (There's just no other way to describe it!)

I LOVE Valentine's Day - the Finale

This Valentine's Day was the best one I've ever had!  I think it had a lot to do with having such energetic little kids around, such an amazing husband, and a little extra planning on my part! The kids were so excited about Valentine's Day that it could have been the equivalent to Christmas Eve at our house!  They hurried and got everything done and were in bed and asleep as fast as they could be because they wanted Valentine's Day to come quickly!

The morning started early at 5:30am! Cole and I weren't sure if we would be able to squeeze in a run Monday night, so we decided to get up and get it done early! If running with your wife at 5:30am on your day off isn't a great Valentine's day present, I don't know what is!

After that, the kids woke up to find the much-awaited scavenger hunt! Even droopy-eyed and cold, they were STILL excited that Valentine's Day had finally come! ( I love the tissue shoved in Kaitlin's nose. She's going to hate me someday for posting this picture!)

After following clues all through the house, they finally found their surprise, which of course led to a few wrestling matches to see who got to hold it first! Oh, these kids!

 And...Brandon is the winner! (By default - the others gave up!)

 Breakfast was so much fun, especially since Daddy took the day off!  He is definitely the best breakfast-maker in this house! We had yummy food and played BINGO while we ate! 

 Then it was time for school and they headed off with their hands full of Valentines for their friends and teachers. (I even packed a few little surprises in their lunches, but, I forgot to warn them that the marker was edible! Oops! Kaitlin ate her sandwich anyway, Brock ate around the letters and Brandon skipped his sandwich all-together!)

While the kids were at school, Cole and I made our day count.  First, we started off with a Couples Massage - my favorite!  After that, it was a little hard to want to do anything but go home and take a nap - I was SO relaxed, but then,we ate lunch at Brick Oven with my parents.  After which we went "Heart and Sole" shoe shopping!  I mentioned this idea to Cole - that we buy each other a pair of shoes each Valentine's Day (instead of chocolate and flowers and stuff) - but he didn't really seem to think it was a great idea:(  so I didn't really think any more about it!  After all, I thought the massage and the run and lunch were great enough!  But, he surprised me and took me shoe shopping!  I was in HEAVEN! It's not that I love shoe shopping, but I have been needing a good pair of cross-trainers for a long time.  I did have a decent pair, but they were ruined in the flood and so for the past 2 months, all I've had was my running shoes.  I love my running shoes, but all that extra room in the toes is just no good for playing volleyball, basketball, etc!  So I was so excited to finally go shopping for a pair of shoes!  We shopped and shopped, making sure we didn't miss any deals and finally found the perfect pair!  In fact, they were matching pairs! How funny is that?! We both ended up buying a pair of Nike Air Max Torch 4's! Of course, we had to order mine because they didn't have the color I wanted in stock, but I am so excited about them!

After all that shoe shopping, we rushed home to meet the kids! We munched on these cute little cupcakes I made (which were so perfect for my motto this year that I couldn't resist making them) and we played baseball in the front yard! Then we delivered some valentine's and had some yummy dinner!

 Kaitlin made these heart-shaped Jello Jigglers and we had yummy roast, carrots and potatoes!

After that we played a few games of BINGO and then it was off to bed for all of us! It was a fun, exhausting (in the good kind of way) day!  I am so grateful for Cole and all he did to make this day super special. He just keeps getting better with time and I think this Valentine's Day was the most perfect I could have ever asked for!  I know I am lucky to be surrounded by these people I love everyday and I can't imagine my life without them!  I am so happy I CHOSE the best valentines this year!

I love Valentine's Day - Part 2

Sunday was nice and restful!  We had fun playing a few games and making these yummy Valentine's Day treats!  This is how Kaitlin's hair looked for church!

And here is a few examples of what kept me SMILING all day long!

I love Valentine's Day! - Part 1

I haven't always loved Valentine's Day, but this year I was determined to make it different.  It all started with Krystal and I making our cute valentine craft.  For the first time ever, I actually have a few valentine's day decorations! From there, I even went and bought a Valentine's wreath and although it's seems silly, those two minor events really made the difference for our Valentine's Day this year!

Our Valentine's Day weekend started of with a boost from these sweet girls.  These are all the girls in Kaitlin's primary class.  They are all such sweethearts and after their last Activity Day activity, they decided they wanted to make some special valentines for their leaders.  They completely arranged the entire thing during their walk home.  I was outside when they came by and so they relayed the entire story and party idea to me!  It was so sweet, except for the part where they were going to have it is some one's backyard!  I told them they could just have it our house (Kaitlin was thrilled!)

So Friday afternoon, our home was flooded with giggles, chatter and a whirlwind of ideas!  It was so fun to see these girls put their whole hearts into something that was so important to them.  They ate a little snack and then they wrote poems on the computer, made hearts and butterflies and treats and chatter, chatter, chattered! We even painted every one's fingernails for Valentine's Day!  It was a very fun afternoon! I love how each of them compliment each other and how they are so sweet to my boys and to Alli!  Most of these girls don't have younger siblings like Alli, so they all are very doting! Allison loves them!

Loaded up with their gifts and on their way!



I don't know why these pictures touched me so much, but it was just so sweet to see them glowing with excitement. Heading off like that, they just seemed like such a visible force of goodness. I love these girls!



 It was sure a fun way to start our Valentine's Weekend off.  Those girls were certainly full of valentine's day ideas and were so cute to listen to! I am so grateful Kaitlin has such a fun group of girls to grow up with. They were absolutely ecstatic when they got back from delivering their gifts.  I don't think I could even attempt to relay their chattering, but it was such a joy to be a part of!

On Saturday morning we kept the Valentine's theme going! Kaitlin and I got a nice, early start on her Valentine's box (thanks to a 6am Worldwide Leadership Meeting!) I love Kaitlin's style!  It took her a while to narrow her decorations down to this - she had so many fun ideas!

 

After the Valentine's box was finished, we moved on to a few fun crafts with the boys!

Brock was so proud of this little guy!  Especially when Kaitlin and Brandon wanted to copy it because they liked it so much!

This is what Kaitlin and Brock made for Grandma and Grandpa!



Kaitlin liked it so much she decided to make one for her teacher, too!

After all the fun crafts were done, we got down to the serious stuff - our "House Heart Attack!"

I love how seriously the kids took this! Initially, each of the kids took their dear, sweet time making one heart for each family member ... and making them PERFECT!  After that, the boys lost interest and went to play for a bit, while Kaitlin and I kept working away!  When the time came to start "attacking," their moods changed entirely!  All of the sudden, the boys were writing notes like crazy!  Once those hearts start covering the wall, you want more and more ...and that is just what happened!

I just couldn't help but love Valentine's day when our house looked like this all weekend!  Everywhere I looked there was a reason to smile and want to hug my sweet family!

...And this is just a sampling!  Most of the rooms looked like this!

I LOVE this kid.  This has been a rough week for him.  It started Monday morning when he woke up with an earache.  I gave him some Tylenol and used my "mommy magic" and told him to try to go to school.  I reassured him that I would come grab him at anytime if they kept hurting. When I sent him on his way, he had tears welling up in his eyes and I had a feeling that I would probably be getting that phone call before too long.  I did and he came home and cried for a few hours.  Nothing helped, not even "mommy magic."  I tried everything I could come up with to relieve ear pain and finally, exhausted and with the help of some leftover Lortab from his ear surgery, he fell asleep in my arms. 

He stayed home from school Tuesday even though he said his ears didn't really hurt that bad anymore.  As I was changing sheets later that day, I found blood on his pillow.  Later he came to show me the fluid oozing from his ears. One side had dried blood in his ear canal.  Sigh.  It happened again.

I keep hoping that time and growth will change the problems Brock has with his ears.  I keep praying that we can get past all of these awful earaches and recurring tubes, but each time that he gets them, a little piece of hope chips off.  As of about 6 months ago, when his ears were clear and tubes were in (optimal hearing conditions), Brock was already legally deaf in his left ear. His hearing in his right ear is below normal, though it allows him to function normally for the most part.  I thank heaven for that right ear.

Every now and then we get a glimpse of what could be.  This started Wednesday.  I was talking to him at breakfast and after a while, when he didn't respond, I realized he hadn't even heard a word I said.  I felt that pit in my stomach start. My heart just breaks imagining what he will go through if his hearing continues to decline.  Throughout the day, there were tons of instances where his lack of hearing was evident and each time, my heart broke a little more.  Thankfully, for now, I know that this is just temporary.  The fluid will drain and within a few weeks, he'll be back to his baseline hearing.  In the meantime, it's hard.  Every time I see him uninvolved in a conversation simply because he can't hear, or asks "What?" several times, or pauses when I talk to him because he's trying to process the sounds he's hearing...I feel like I just want to cry.  I wish there was something I could do. I wish he didn't have to go through this, I wish..., I wish...

The kids are good to help out when these episodes start.  Kaitlin and Brandon both help him when he's outside playing because he can't hear the cars coming at all. We all make a special effort to make sure we talk slowly and are looking at him so he can read lips. We also make sure his right ear is toward the conversation at the dinner table.  It's hard, but it could be worse.

The point is, today watching him play in his own world, I began to reflect on how similar Brock's situation is to my own.  I'm not suffering from loss of hearing in a literal sense, but how many times has my Father in Heaven felt this same heartbreak watching me go through my episodes of deafness?  How many times have I sat quietly in my own sphere unable to hear all that my Heavenly Father is trying to tell me? How many times has he made special circumstances so that I could listen? And how many times has his heart been broken as he watched me make mistakes and be hurt simply because I couldn't hear his warnings?  And then I wondered, have I been deaf in those moments? or have I just chosen not to listen? Whatever the circumstance, I pray that I can choose not to be deaf any longer.  I want to hear the whisperings of the Spirit and know that I am doing all that I need to be doing to make sure that these little episodes of hearing loss in my own life don't keep reoccurring. I will do all that I can to help Brock and need to do what I can to fix my own hearing. After all, I know that my Heavenly Father is just like me - willing to do anything he can to help his child hear.

Not ours, I promise!

So apparently when the guy at Costco asked me if I wanted a box, I should have said, "Yes, one that I'm not embarrassed to have in my trashcans, please!" Instead of just the "Yes, please," that I said! I didn't even realize it until I started unloading, but when I was done, I thought, "I can't just go throw those in the top of the trashcan!" Haha! So I hid them in the house until today and then crushed them up and buried them in the trashcans instead!  I much prefer the apple and avocado boxes I usually come home with!

Eyes on Me!

It has been beautiful here!

 I think we sometimes take for granted how mild our winters really are and how soon our Spring begins.  It feels like Spring here now and Spring brings so many things ... but at our house, it brings being outside and playing! Lately, it has been gorgeous when the kids get out of school.

Cole didn't have a lot of work to do last week, so he was able to be here most of the late afternoons and we spent them all out front hitting baseballs (tennis balls - much softer!)

I love watching my family play together! 

There is just something spectacular about watching the camaraderie and the competition between Brandon and Brock. I love the look in their eyes when they totally NAIL one! They are both getting really good at catching and it is hilarious to watch the taunting that goes on when they catch each other's fly balls and get each other out! 

I love the way Kaitlin cheers them on and just loves to be a part of it all,

even if she can't hit as well as her brothers. 

I love the way Alli chases the balls and throws them back as hard as she can.

And most of all, I love watching Cole coach and teach them all the little particulars

 about this game that he loves so much.  When he is out there pitching to them, he's "in his element" and that is just so fun to see.

I really just can't imagine spending these afternoons any other way.

Well, last Tuesday at mutual, one of the young women in my ward came up to me and said, "I saw you outside playing baseball with your kids today and you looked like you were having a lot of fun.  You looked really happy."

Her comment really touched me.

 Partly because I WAS happy that day, but also because I want these girls to know that life IS good and that being a wife and a mother IS fun and that it DOES make you happy.

It also made me realize that whether I like it or not, these young women are watching me and they are making their own opinions and conclusions from what they see. 

It was a strong reminder that what I do will influence them far more than what I say and it was also a reminder that she was right, I am happy!

 Look at that cut!  I love the way this little guy swings with everything he's got! (Note the van driving by, which is why we use tennis balls! We've definitely hit a few, despite our best efforts to time the pitches, etc!)

 Brandon's out in the street because Brock always hits to his right!

 The girls were hiding behind this umbrella so they didn't get hit!

Cole pitching...and when I say pitching, I do mean PITCHING!  He throws the ball so stinkin' hard I don't know how the boys even hit it... But they do!

I mean, seriously...it just can't get much better than this! Look at the beautiful sky and notice the short-sleeves - life is good!;)