Wellsie, Wellsie, Wellsie -

I woke up this morning hoping you did not pee pee in your bed because I did not put a Pull-Up on you in fear of disturbing your sweet slumber. You see I found you yesterday evening at 5 pm all ready for bed. I tried to get you up to eat dinner with no luck. Don't worry though I did take off your boots, blazer and hat...which by the way was such a great look with those shorts. I wouldn't recommend wearing that little get-up again until the weather cools down though.

Lots of loves, hugs and kisses.

Love,

Mom

1st grade and nonsense

Today was the day. First time for ALL day school. First day to eat lunch in the cafeteria. I felt I went easy on these two today...only a half sandwich, chocolate milk, applesauce, cashew bites, chocolate covered granola square, water and a fruit snack. They better not get used to that. I told them they get carrot sticks tomorrow.

I noticed the following few differences in my girls this morning:

One got right in the shower without a fight..opposite day for the other.

One insisted on her shirt tucked in..the other out.

One said no way to any sort of hair accessory..the other would have worn five at one time.

One would not wear socks while the other could not live without them.

One wanted a kitty and a puppy on her folder..the other wanted a picture of a bug eyed cartoon girl in her bathing suit by a dolphin..with brightly colored peace signs.

As I drove away from the school this morning I took great comfort in the fact that they both were sitting right next to each other in nestled in their little desks on the front row.

Back to the girls school folders..I am still smiling about the little scenario that transpired after the girls came home from buying their school supplies with their Dad. After Maren walked out Maile came up to me and made sure that I was aware that she likes "nature and stuff "and that is why she chose animals and flowers. Then after a moment of silence she said "I don't buy the same kind of nonsense that Maren buys" (referring to Bratz looking type dolls). I had I good laugh inside. Seriously she had just called her sisters choice of school supplies "nonsense".

sweet

As I got everybody dressed for the day I thought about our plans to go and pick berries. I thought my little girl's strawberry shirt would be perfect for the day. Then I chose a red ruffly shirt for myself and decided to use the daisy broach that I had loved ever since I saw it at the antique shop. The wheels were in motion for a good day and I could just feel it in my bones. We loaded up and took the scenic drive to the U-pick farm. Upon arrival we met the lady in charge for a set of instructions and our buckets. I was very happy when she told us that part of the experience was to eat as many berries as we wanted to while we were picking. Seriously this place was a dream. How could somebody possibly eat too many perfectly sweet berries for free? As we gathered all of our berries and were on our way out I looked down to find a few mini white daisy plants growing wildly at the end of the strawberry patch. It was meant to be...the strawberries and and the daisies..afterall I had good thoughts about both of those items before the day had even began to unfold. You know what else is meant to be...a family. I can't even begin to express my love for the opportunity I have to learn & grow in my family unit. I truly believe that the theology of the family is based on the Creation, the Fall and the Atonement. Of course the Creation of the earth provided a place where families could live and even though life isn't always the easiest with them, I still get excited to think of spending eternity with my family after some of the sweet moments I get to experience here with them on earth. I also appreciate all of the challenges that come with being committed to the family..pretty sure I would not be able to have as many opportunities to become a better person without them. One thing I do know for sure is that I would go strawberry picking again with any of the above scallywags...especially if Annie would make homemade fruit snacks out of the berries again. Now I can finally forgive Annie for getting our sticker books thrown away on our trip to Indiana..if only she wouldn't have thrown a fit about wanting to trade back the sticker that I had felt was a rather good trade on my behalf. So maybe it was my fault? Twenty five years does things to ones memory, ya know?

P.S. - I love how Uncle Andrew (pictured above with Maren on his shoulders) was willing to ride in the car with my 5 kids for 15 hours at a time. He deserves an award.

summertime {candy colored dreams}

I am hoping that the summer of 2011 was magical for the kids. They had enough parades, candy, puppies and kittens to last them until next summer.

A couple of great memories that I have from this trip consist of afternoon rain storms and reading stories out of Grandma's old fairy tale book. It was such an enjoyable time to sit and read the children stories because there were no distractions. I still have images imprinted upon my mind of laying on the king size bed with the kids laying beside me as I held up the book above us so that I could read to them. There were not too many pictures so the children had to imagine the story come to life in their little heads. Plus it was also fun to see how some of the original stories read as opposed to how Walt Disney made them come to life. I do have to say that the illustrations that were there were so darn charming that I had to take a picture of a couple of the pages. Then almost every single day an afternoon rain storm was welcomed as it came through to cool the temperatures down while sending a slow rolling thunder that felt so fun and fresh every single time. We sat on the porch swing enjoying the rain while often holding the new white lab puppies & eating popsicles. Besides having to bathe the very dirty children every single day, fighting to keep them in bed all by myself, breaking up little tiffs, being tired from being woken up by little children who I shared a bedroom with, feeling a little cooped up and stressing out whether the kids were annoying their grandparents because they were SO loud then I would have to say I am very fond of summer. Thank you to Grandma and Papa for having us.

Whenever I need a good pick me up, I just pick me up one of the latest crafts the girls made all by themselves from random tidbits from around the house. Oh and yes that is part of the plastic that came off of the tortilla packaging.

creative parenting

Some kids just require I little more creative parenting.

Choney Baloney is just one of those kinds.

I always say that it is a good thing he came so darn cute or else....

Good ol' Choney stuck a little orange bead in his ear. To be quite honest I do not know how long it was in there before he started complaining about his ear bothering him. I finally took a little look to see what was going on and to my dismay could not get the bead to budge that was lodged into the ear canal. Afraid of pushing it in further we devised a plan that included a hose attachment, a juicebox straw and an vacuum. Like the game of Operation, Waylon carefully sucked that bead right out.

P.S. - Christian loves that big blue backpack and hauls his treasures around wherever his non-matching Crocs will take him.

I hope you dance

Maren thinks it is an option to either go to first grade or ballet class. I laughed and tried to explain in a very "fun" way that she will get to go to school for about 18 more years. While we were on the subject of extracurricular activities I asked her if she would rather me sign her up for dance class, piano lessons or sports. With a funny little expression in her face she said, "Sspoorts'? "I probably wouldn't want to do that because I might fall down and get hurt." A little silence followed and then she piped back up and noted that I may want her to do sports so that she could get a trophy. I smiled and told her I wanted her to pick what she thought she wanted to do. Of course she went back to ballet because she thought that they would give her candy after class. I think I am just going to go ahead and offer her double the candy if she chooses piano....

I can't wait to see what life brings for that little girl.

On a separate note the girls (mostly Maile) were getting nervous to be recorded saying the Pledge of Allegiance at kindergarten today. The school does this and then gives the videos to the parents when the kids graduate from 6th grade. Anyway trying to ease nerves I told them that we would practice this morning. They did good. It made me think about the time I had to get up in front of 50 people for a group interview and give a small speech without more than a 5 minute notice. What was to follow was one of my most embarrassing moments..."Hi, my name is Christina and I am from America". The thing about is that everyone there was American but possibly at best had driven in from as far as New Mexico or California. I really had meant to say Arizona and not America... I thought I was going to die right there. It was so quiet until I let out a little laugh. Everyone else in the room followed suit. Yah I didn't get my 19 year old dream job. It all worked out though because the next time around when I was offered the job I actually turned it down for a better opportunity. Sometimes it is so hard to see the whole picture and to just keep on getting back up and trying and not being afraid of failing.

I think I am going to go and sing "I hope you dance" to my kids now.

I am a huge fan of my them.