Token Valentine Post.

This is not your average valentine's day post. Here at our crazy house, we tend to think outside the box a little. I hope not to make you uncomfortable, but this is how we roll.

I put up a themed wreath for the 14th. "X-O". Do I do it willingly? Yes. But I still think that Valentine's Day is a made-up day. We all know it is a way for greedy companies to make an extra dollar selling garbage disguised as love-in-a-package. This is the part I hate. I, as a loving wife am expecting a six dollar card that states how my husband loves me and counts the ways. This proves I can read, yes? Does it prove that he loves me? No. Maybe that he took the time to think of me, I
I'll give you that. If not a card, then a box of chocolates? Flowers? Do I tell him what I want? Do I wait in silence, hoping he'll read my mind and do what I think he should because the 14th is a day of magical romance where unspoken expectations cease to exist?

This is the part of Valentine's day that I think is dumb.

Here are the reasons I think Valentine's day is fun: Max. Sam. Elle.
They LOVED filling out the cards for their friends for FHE this week. They LOVED sending Gramas and Grampas their Valentines in the mail. They LOVED rolling out cookie dough for Max's classmates. They LOVED helping me make heart shaped french toast for Dustin's breakfast. I feel like my kids teach me something everyday. This week, they taught me about love. Real love. Not boxed- up- bought- in- a- store- love. I know all the things around a holiday like Valentines day are fun, because they break up the monotony of everyday. However, I also know that kids have a purity in their hearts and want to show kindness and love. This is why I think our kids love Valentines. My kids are the reason I will keep putting up the wreath, baking sugar cookies, and filling out Valentines.

Instead of buying, spending, worrying each February, Dustin and I do things differently. In John 13:34 it reads, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also have love unto another." We show each other every day that we love one another (or try to, at least). I made Dustin's favourite supper, and he did the dishes. That was it. I know he loves me because he shows me. I hope my kids see that in him. I hope my kids see that in me. I hope my kids will love because He commanded us to love one another.

X-O.

To Catch Up-

Hello faithful followers numbering 9:

I realize I have some catching up to do. Now I can actually do it because I'm not in school this semester. I decided getting ready for baby was kind of paramount since the other three might want to see their mother less insane than their worst nightmare. Here we go.

Dustin's cupcake tower that he made for the party. Each cupcake has a letter made from lego candy bricks that spells HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX!

Max turned 7- what? Only one more year until he's baptized! I can't even believe that as I was buying his baby book (from birth to baptism) thinking that eight years would go by so slowly. I was wrong. Sometimes when I feel this baby move, I try to remember that first pregnancy with Max. It's hard to think that big boy was once so little and dependent on me. Here are some things that Max can do:
-Make his own toast/ sandwiches/ concoctions. Sometimes in the morning I ask him to make his lunch and he loves getting everything out that he wants on his sandwich. (Don't worry, no sharp knives allowed)
-Read in French and English. Seriously. So. Smart. He loves to read the books at story time at night, "I haven't read it yet today". Dustin sometimes finds "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" slightly...ummm... dragging. Max does really well, though, using intonation and proper rhyme timing. (did you catch that one?)
-Walk to school and friends' houses on his own. He loves to be independent.
-Floss. ( Which is AWESOME because I HATE flossing the kids' teeth.)
-Vacuum and unload the dishwasher and all sorts of chores. He's an awesome helper.
-Create. He still blows me away with his imagination!

This is Max's "Mr. Raisin Bran", Potato Head's only friend. Poor Potato Head.

Max also lost his first tooth (Sept 27th). Then his second (October 18th). We're waiting for the third.


Second item of business: Elle is potty trained. Well, mostly. She knows when she needs to go so she only wears a diaper at night and naps. So much better! She spent most of the Christmas holiday in the nude so that wasn't too bad to endure. She would occasionally ask for her "underwears". Now she says "Where's my panties?"-I'm sure all of you know how I detest that word.

Sam has started Club De Jeux (Play Group) at the school again. He's been very busy pretending to be Super Heroes, and learning letters with the sounds they make. He's been such a good helper with Elle. Sam loves to play with her and show her things like, how to eat (even yucky suppers), how to play in the toy room, and play puppies. He's a very sensitive little guy, and wants to play all the time.

Lemonade stand at G&G Wilde's in the summer. When he saw the kids across the street, he stated, "Those guys might be my friends over there", and skipped over to introduce himself.

Spidey. All. The. Time.





April 2012. Number four. Another one to blog about. Because I'm so awesome at blogging. We're excited to be surprised with this one, because it's our last chance! So what do you think? Boy or girl?

Elle

 Our little Jelly Belly turned 2 this week.
We started off the day by singing "Happy Birthday"
and "Bonne Fete" specifically at Sam's request. If he had his way, we would have sang it all day long. Elle loves to be without clothes so we let her run free most of the day except for her cute little shirt. I feel like if she were to wear this to the store, the clerks would be a lot nicer to me by understanding her "sweet" age.  We had pizza for supper and went over to Amy's for ice cream cake because it was SO HOT!!! I can't even tell you how insanely hot it was, but if I were a make-up wearer, it would have melted off my face. I was so happy we opted for the ice cream cake- it was cold and Elle loved it! We love our little dolly. She's so expressive and talkative. She repeats things when asked, this makes for GREAT prayers. Elle loves Special K in the morning, but she loves gremlin-saying special k- it sounds like a gravel truck. She loves to play with her brothers, often throwing herself into the fray. Elle can count to five, help read books, and pass dishes to Max from the dishwasher. She loves to run, and climb and swing. Monkey.

 Elle loves taking care of baby dollies, but she likes sitting in the stroller more. Here, she had singing Annie from Little Einstein's that she absolutely adores. This is the one time she wanted to push her instead of holding her while sitting herself down in the stroller.

 The day after with homemade sidewalk paint. It was CLEARLY more fun to paint herself, not the sidewalk! Painting toes, and not missing her chin!

Birthdays

So, Despite my best efforts, my babies are growing up. Elle is turning two in a couple of weeks, so I wanted to get the boys' birthdays up from this last year. Can you believe our little Sammy turned four in April? We were so happy to have both sets of Grandparents here, and Amy and Tyler's crew as well. We had a yummy BBQ, Sam loves hot dogs! Our little superhero got some mini superheroes, stretchy batman and a bear hat that roars! He still loves it, though it's stopped roaring now. At four, Sam can: eat at least 3 bowls of cereal in the morning; dress himself as Batman; put away the utensils from the dishwasher-sorting them properly is something that we're working on-; jump off just about anything from any height; ride his bike a little with a little help from mom and dad. Sam also wants to run with Mom whenever I go out. He's very active and loves to yell and play Batman.

 Don't mind my gut here, I was trying to push out to show you what not to do while carrying your child's birthday cake as your husband takes the worst picture ever. =)

Our (other) boy genius turned six last -ahem- December....I know I've slacked with the blogging! Anyway, he wanted a robot cake, so a robot cake he had. We had all the cousins to Duffy's Fun Centre, here in Brooks. We enjoyed some delicious pizza, fun games and some novelty cake. Max's favourite part was the candy watch. (Forget the other parts that took me like 3 hours to do!) Max got half a DS from us, he worked for the other half and paid for it himself, some DS games and a sweet RC car that drives up the wall! Grandma and Grandpa Wilson were able to join us for some pizza, too. We loved having everyone there. Max is excited for next year when he can invite friends as well as family to his party.

We still have like, a zillion, points to redeem at Duffy's. Uncle Tyler found the ultimate jackpot game and played it over and over and over. Then he gave all the tickets to Max for his birthday! How nice was that? At six, Max can: read and sound things out on his own; speak fluent french to his dad and teachers; unload the dishwasher by himself; vacuum the living room on his own; walk to and from school without anyone to help him cross the street!

I read a poem the other day by Emily Dickinson- my all time favourite poet, called Forever is Composed of Nows:

Forever – is composed of Nows –

‘Tis not a different time –

Except for Infiniteness –

And Latitude of Home –

From this – experienced Here –

Remove the Dates – to These –

Let Months dissolve in further Months –

And Years – exhale in Years –

Without Debate – or Pause –

Or Celebrated Days –

No different Our Years would be

From Anno Dominies –

To Max and Sam and Elle:

I can't help but feel gratitude to my Father in Heaven for blessing us with the knowledge of eternal families. These little moments of "NOW" will forever be my eternity. I can't think of any better way to explain it, to fully express my love for my little kids, who won't stay little forever. I'll always have my now times to remember infinitely. Happy Birthday, Stinkers.

Love, Mom

At LONG LAST!!!

You know you haven't blogged forever when the format has changed on blogger. Oh boy. Well, after talking to my friend, Lauren, I decided I've slacked too long. I found my camera, found my SD reader on my iMac, loaded all the pictures from Dustin's iPhone, categorized them and -as Max would say, VOILA! (pronounced wa-laa- I learn something new from our little frenchy everyday)

Speaking of our little Frenchy, he graduated from Kindergarten, earning his diploma on the First of June. The School did a ceremony with the whole school ( I think there are 80 kids total) and each child earned an award for something they did well. Max brought home an award for Math and French. The kindergarten kids worked hard on making their caps out of construction paper and the gowns out of garbage bags.
Max explored the halls at the College where they held the ceremony, nearly missing his class march. He especially liked the snacks that evening. They had fruit and crackers and cheese. We took him out to Boston Pizza before the ceremony, where he chose and ordered his favorite- Bugs and Cheese. He's growing up, this little guy!

Along the same line, Sam graduated from his Joyschool group, too! He had lots of fun this year, learning how to write his name, how to count to 20, and colouring in the lines! His favourite part of graduating was the Tim-Bits that Randa brought. He also liked his cap that Rachel made.

I don't want to leave Elle out. She's been busy growing up, getting over e. Coli, and pestering her mother. Jokes, she mostly pesters Max and Sam. She loves jumping on Dustin, and jumping off various things that she climbs. She swings precariously off the Jungle Gym, where no child should swing. Without further ado, I give you Elle:

Elle's finally able to put hair in piggy tales, so I thought you should all see how cute she is. There you have it, I'll try to keep up with this as best as I can.

Oh, to be Young AGAIN!

I was going through my pictures folder today and found some sweet ones from Europe. I thought I would post so I can look back next week (when I'm 28!) and remember how sweet it was to be 27 in Paris! Happy February!

pensive in Luxembourg

Scary at Pirates 3 in 3D
Gaining weight in Lux
Last Night in Paris

Things to Remember

I should be folding mountains of laundry.

I'm not.

I'm thinking and remembering my kids. They really are little jewels in my crown.

Today, Sam and Elle and I went out to a historical building here in town. It's a five minute drive, but Sam insisted on bringing "Puppy" or, "Hook" as he is sometimes referred as. Sammy jabbers constantly in the backseat so I tend to tune him out. I caught a little something that I'm glad I didn't push out.

"...Please keep puppy safe. Please, Heavenly Father, let puppy love me. Let him know I love him. Please help puppy to keep me safe..."

Me: 'Sam, did you say a prayer for Puppy?

Sam: "No, I gave him a blessing."

Me: "That's nice because a blessing is a prayer, good practicing for when you turn 16."

Sam: "Elle wants one too, Mom. Not from Dad, from me, because I'm her best friend."

Me: Sobbing in the front seat.

Sometimes I forget how fresh they are from our Father in Heaven; How close they really are to Him. I read a conference talk by Elder Cook of the Seventy, entitled: It Is Better To Look Up.

I often feel like my briefcase is heavy and I can't help but think, "I can't possibly do this!"

Elder Cook states, "Why is it a challenge to consistently look up in our lives? Perhaps we lack the faith that such a simple act can solve our problems. For example, when the children of Israel were bitten by poisonous serpents, Moses was commanded to raise up a brass serpent on a pole. The brass serpent represented Christ. Those who looked up at the serpent, as admonished by the prophet, were healed.⁴ But many others failed to look up, and they perished."

I wonder sometimes if I would be one who failed to look up, overcome with my own grief and worries, bothered by my kids' inpropriety at throwing their boots at glass cases in the museum. Instead, I need to "look up" and "step up", and remember He wants me to be HAPPY!

My friend, Lauren and I asked Max once where heaven is. He replied, "In outer space!" I think he was 2 or 3 years old. I asked him yesterday what a covenant was. He said, "A promise that we make with God. He promises and you promise." Max helped me remember that when I take upon myself the Lord's name and do all things by him, I "will have his spirit to be with me", to be uplifted and fulfilled during my time on this earth.

I love my kids, I'm so grateful for them. Elle who has decided she won't be sleeping at night anymore. I went in at 6 this morning after she had yelled for about an hour, turned on the light and looked at her. She was sitting in her crib with her legs straight out, and turned her head up to look at me. She didn't have tears, just a little cherubic face that broke into instant smiles and banter. When her arms went up and out toward me, I felt like I could hold her forever. Her little head nestled in my neck and her arms squeezing mine.

These really are the "small and simple things by which great things are brought to pass." Like changing my heart and helping me to look up.