One more day

There is this sister in our ward whose baby died on Wednesday morning. She was two months old. There were no health problems and nothing to indicate something was going to happen. I went with my girlfriend to the viewing last night to offer support and it was heartbreaking. The baby girl was just beautiful. She looked like a porcelain doll. When I got home, I found myself hugging my children even tighter, especially Kam. Ever since my friend in Texas lost her son, I have noticed my own sense of relief each morning that I awake and still have my children with me. Over the past two weeks, Kam has been waking up in the middle of the night and I am GRATEFUL when I go to him because I know he's okay. As irritated as I might be over the sometimes incessant squabbling, at least I am lucky enough to have them here with me. And Kam....who seems to be going through another "Mommy I need you to hold me ALL the time" phase, is sweeter. He is such a sensitive child and is quick to give me loves, which he does frequently.

All the loss has made me realize what a blessing each day is and to be able to share that day with your children is an even greater blessing. I am such a lucky mom.

Perspective

It seems so unfair that the world should continue on as if nothing happened when a son from Helaman's Army has been called home. A parent should never have to bury their children, but sadly it occurs all too frequently. The son of a friend of mine was called home today. At 17, he truly was everything the sons in the Army of Helamen should be. His calling now is so much greater than we can ever understand and this tragic passing has put things into perspective for me. In the end, it won't matter how many friends you have, how well you kept your blog up, how clean your house was. It all comes down to how you taught your children. Did you teach them to hold to the rod with all their might? Did you teach them about the light of Christ and how to receive him in their countenance? Are they part of the army willing to share the truth of the gospel with the whole world? Did you teach them to love God? Did we teach them that God is loving and just? Did we teach them to LOVE?

As we were reading scriptures, Shelbi was unfocused and distracting so I sent her to bed. I was angry because she wasn't listening and I don't want her not knowing what sets our church apart from the others. As I was turning out the light, she said to me, "bye bye, Mommy." I started to cry as I recognized a teaching moment was about to pass. We might not get 15 or 20 more years with our children and I couldn't help wanting them to be closer to me tonight. As I hugged her, I cried and told her she would someday need to find out for herself if this is the true church. I want my children to be valiant and brave and ready.

My heart goes out to my friend. I love you and your son has been such a righteous example and influence. He will be greatly missed by all whose lives he has touched.

The epitame of all things not funny

The evidence: It all started a few days ago when I felt some irritation towards Shelbi because I found a yellow foam disc (from her foam disc gun...they're about the size of a 50 cent piece with a hole in the middle) laying on the rug in the living room. It looked like it had been picked and there were tiny pieces of laying on the rug....that I had just vacuumed. Shelbi is notorious for picking things....especially foam (you should see the Texas Rangers pointer finger we got for her...or what's left of the lettering). The next day we found what looked like flaking by our garage door. We figured it was part of the weather stripping (which it was) that had gotten crusty and needed to be replaced. Yesterday I opened our hall closet to fetch a blanket and found a few small scraps of toilet paper on the floor. I was momentarily suspicious until I remembered that Kam has learned how to unroll the toilet paper. After the unrolling, he will grab some, then proceed to tear it to pieces. Makes me laugh, but still frustrating!

It all came to a head this morning. I thought I had done well hiding the Easter candy in our closet behind some clothes that were hanging up. When I went to retrieve it, this is what I found:

Conclusion: The Easter candy was indeed raided....but not by my children. As Dallin and I talked, other things became more clear. How did we not see the signs? Oh, we saw them! We just didn't dream something like this could happen in our new home when we're only lived her for 2 months! Not to mention it is still WINTER! After some brief searching, we found the culprit....which I don't have a picture of because I was in the living room with Kam ready to scream "like a little girl" (as Gavin put it)! Dallin found the mouse in our hall closet and devised a plan to catch it then beat it to death (he got the idea from Chevy Chase on Christmas Vacation). We closed Kam's door and the bathroom door and stuffed blankets under them in the event the mouse escaped and made a break for it. We put boxes in the hall to block its escape into the living room. Gav and Shelbi were armed with bats and told that if it jumped the boxes, they were to beat the mouse! Luckily for them, Dallin caught the mouse under a towel and trapped it. That was when he looked in the closet and discovered ANOTHER surprise....


4 baby mice! Seriously, what is it with wildlife in our house? It's just gross! Because the kids LOVED the baby mice (again....ew!), Dallin decided that he couldn't just pound the mother and her babies. We would release them in the wild.....far, far, away from our house.



The mother is trapped in the towel by Dallin's left hand. The kids really wanted to keep them, but we told them no. Mice are just GROSS!



We drove the mice out of town and release them into the wild. We think this was a fluke thing (it better be) and that there are no more mice in the house. Just beware of the fumes! I don't think you can ever use too much bleach!


P.S. Maybe we should get a cat.....

My little James Dean!

Do you ever sometimes look at your son and his faux hawk and think he is the most adorable kid in the world? Me too! I was watching Kam the other day and the way I had done his hair REALLY reminded me of James Dean in the 1950s. There was something about the way it sort of curled onto his forehead that screamed, "I'm CUTE! Take a picture!" So, I did.

I couldn't get him to stop sucking his thumb for a picture, but you can still see the hair! He was a doll that day! And, he hasn't had his 1 year check up yet, but there are a few things we can share about him. Kam weighs in at a whopping 18 pounds (on a heavy day)! He's still pretty small, but he is full of action! He crawls and cruises, but is too scared to walk independently....in fact, he won't even try! He loves to be chased, throw his food, throw anything, throw anything he can down the stairs (followed by uh-oh every time!). He loves animals and especially his MOMMY (most of the time it's really sweet, but it makes it hard when I'm trying to get something done). His vocab isn't huge, but he can say dada, mama, uh-oh, ow, no no, and tries to say cheese (when you take a picture of him and tell him to say cheese, he really does try and comes close...will have to post footage another time). He points at everything and babbles and is just so stinkin' cute that I sometimes want to eat him! Ok, not really, but he does do really cute things! He can now navigate his way up the stairs, but is not proficient at coming back down. He LOVES sleeping in his bed and is not one to be rocked to sleep. He is such a sweetie!

Kam is 1!

Gav and Shelbi have been waiting since March 1st for Kam to turn 1 (and it was not all that patient!). Nearly every day, Shelbi would ask me if it was his birthday! We waited until after his morning nap and lunch to begin the festivities.

We started out with balloons....Kam's favorite!

Then on to opening presents...yes, he really did love tearing the paper more than the gift itself!

His birthday cake didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it, but it was good enough!

I think he wasn't sure if he should touch it, but once he did and then tasted it....he loved it! His first major dose of sugar (the little bit of ice cream doesn't count)!



Kam was not nearly as messy as my other two and he actually ate more of his cake then they did! Overall, it was a great day and now my baby is not such a baby anymore! Happy birthday, Kamron! We love you!

Just for the record....

Ever since Dallin found out he and his brothers drew out for the non-resident hunt in Wyoming, he has been walking around the house in his hunting boots, wearing camo hats, watching hunting shows, and looking at the latest camping/hiking equipment. Sigh....the hunt is not until OCTOBER! So, I fear I will have to endure the obsessive nature of my husband for the next 8 months! And, just so you know, he wears a different pair of hiking boots every day! He has printed out a topographical map of the area they will be hunting and is already studying the lay of the land. I think I need another girl in the house...my boys are on a hunting rampage! I know there must be others that can relate?! Maybe the girls need to plan a HUGE party to be thrown upon their departure and we can spend the next 8 months planning it! Who's with me?

The field trip

It all started when Dallin volunteered to help a man in our ward wrangle sheep. The man needed to corral his sheep into the sheep barn so they could be sheared. The night before this event, Shebli asked Dallin why he was wearing his camo. Was he going hunting? He told her no, he was going to herd some sheep. Shelbi, looking at her dad with the saddest expression and near tears, says to him, "Daddy, I don't want you to do that. We love sheep!" It took a moment to understand her sadness. When Dallin said he was going to "herd" sheep, Shelbi thought he said "hurt" sheep (I would cry too)!

The next morning, Dallin calls and says that I should bring Kam and Shelbi out to this man's house because they would really enjoy seeing the sheep get their hair cut. So, we loaded up and away we went!

The missionaries in our ward also helped. Shelbi was elated when she saw they were there! Both Gav and Shelbi LOVE the missionaries!

This is after the shearing. Shelbi asked if it hurt and I told her no. However, I was really glad she didn't notice that some of them had a little blood on them (from being nicked). Kam loved the sheep, but I think he was more excited about the dog and the chickens that were there too! I laughed almost the entire time they were moving the sheep into the pens! The sheep didn't want to go and tried to escape and sometimes the boys were run over....by sheep! Good times!