In the trash...

A lot can be said about a person's trash (have you seen the movie "Along Came a Spider"?). Thankfully, I'm not talking about stalkers. What I am talking about is a one year old little boy who loves to "help" mommy around the house. After all, he is cleaning up isn't he? These are some of the things we have recently found in our trash: Shelbi's rag, a stuffed animal, mp3 player (glad we caught that one!), toy dishes, a roll of toilet paper (or nearly a roll that Kam unraveled into the trash), my scrapbooking stencils, a childrens book, and various other toys. Sometimes I don't really mean it when I say I'm going to throw something away, but this kid has taken it to heart. I need to put some sort of alarm on the trash cans to alert me when something goes in! And those are the things we've found! Now, if something is missing, we wonder if Kamron did away with it!

For those of you who haven't read my FB page about Shelbi and her silliness recently, you should. Today she received a Book of Mormon from her primary teacher. We told her she needed to be really careful with it and take good care of it. Her reply to this was, "I know, 'cuz it's incredibly awesome that she gave it to me!" Love her vocab!

Mommy and Me

Last night was the Father and son's outing for our ward. Dallin and Gavin left right after Gav got out of school and me, Kam, and Shelbi planned a night of fun! Shelbi wanted to go to McDonald's for dinner, so we did. Then we came home to watch Princess and the Frog. However, shortly after we got home, my doorbell rang. It was the neighbor girl wanting to know if Shelbi could play outside for a little while. I consented and Kam and I joined them in the front yard. I left my front door open and I was on my cell talking to my dad (it was his birthday). After several minutes of playing, Shelbi came to me with a VERY concerned look on her face. Mothers instinct told me what had happened. So I asked the question of which I was afraid to hear the answer, "is the front door shut?" You can open our front door from the insider EVEN when the door handle is LOCKED! I, of course, had forgotten to unlock the knob before I stepped outside. I guess I assumed the front door would stay open. Shelbi had gone in the house for something and SHUT the door behind her when she came out (curse my teaching them to shut the doors!). I was unable to find a spare hidden on the property and all other doors and windows were locked. And, the only one wearing anything on their feet was Shelbi. It wasn't too cold and Kam was loving being outside. I got the number for a local locksmith and called him. He said he would come out, it would cost $55 to unlock the door, but he wasn't sure if he would be ABLE to pick the lock. He stated that most of the houses in my subdivision had locks installed that were not pickable, but he would be able to tell when he looked at the lock. So, while we waited for him to show up, we said a prayer that our lock would be one of the few in the neighborhood that could be picked (in retrospect, this seems a little strange because the whole purpose of having a good lock is so that people can't pick it!). Our neighbor had also come over and said that we could go to his house (his wife was at home) and stay if we needed. We only waited for about 15 minutes before the lock guy showed up. I think it took him less than 5 minutes to get the door open! I was so relieved I thought I might cry, but since you all know how I am about crying in front of other people, I kept my emotions in check! Still, it was an adventure and hopefully I will learn something from this (unlock the door if I go outside)! I think Kam's favorite part was the driveway. He could get going really fast when he walked down it (it slopes).

Also, a few weeks ago, Kam decided that he was going to walk. He was already standing up by himself in the middle of the room. It seriously was one day he was crawling only and then the next he was walking.....and he doesn't crawl anymore! He tries to mimic things you say too, which is really fun!

And, Gavin has been referred to a summer program for kids who are excelling in their grade. His teacher referred him and we are so excited! We will know if he got in sometime this month.

Shelbi is still my little helper and seems to really like helping me do chores around the house (she especially likes shucking corn!). When we go to the store, she likes to get the little people shopping carts and do the pushing for me. She's a huge help with Kam too and tries to keep him from "wreaking havoc!"

It's been a good day!

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!