Frenzied, fun-filled February

Now that half of our little family's birthdays are in February, plus Valentine's Day with kids in school with parties to help with and Valentine's to make, it kind of felt like December all over again. Not enough time to do everything I hoped or be as creative as I would love to be someday...but hopefully, in the end, everyone felt loved.

I'll make a separate post for Eden's birthday party, but she celebrated 6 times over the course of a week or so. A candle in her oatmeal (below), a dinner with the Lehnardts (who also know how to pack a month FULL of family excitement), a birthday lunch with Mama KK and Papa Stan, a birthday dinner with just our little family and Grandma and Grandpa Linkous, her little Snow White birthday party with her 3 playgroup buddies, and a joint birthday dinner with Anne-Loren and the rest of the Ellis/Whipple contingency. So 6 times blowing out candles and making wishes. She must be on the brink of an amazing year!

I've seen lots of families that write love notes to each other during the month of February and always thought that would be fun to do. For our FHE debut fevrier, we wrote one to each person and put them up on the cabinets in the kitchen.



Then we set out individual mailboxes on the island with blank hearts and a pen so that every day leading up to Valentine's Day we could write more notes about things we appreciate about each other. I loved it! I loved having that reminder on the counter to think about something specific I loved about each beautiful soul every single day, and then taking opportunity to tell them about it.


On Valentine's Day, since Kevin has to leave for work before everyone wakes up, I decided we needed to celebrate for dinner. When Kevin got home from work, we had most of the food cooked--the girls love helping make any- and every-thing. We sent my little kitchen helpers upstairs so he and I could decorate, finish the dessert and set the table. Like Christmas morning, they came down with their eyes wide with the thrill of surprise--so excited for our own little party.

That is one of my absolute favorite things about children. They find shere joy in every tiny piece of happiness.

We had salad and a yummy roast with 'bejibles' (one of my favorite Eden words right now) and heart-shaped, ganache-covered brownies with strawberry arrows for dessert.

We each opened and read all the notes in our mailboxes and our cards from Mama KK and Papa Stan. It was a blast.

Sweet Darren is ONE! We had a joint party for him, Kevin and John with the Ellis clan plus a few healthy Lehnardts and another fun dinner with the Linkous'. Kevin keeps claiming he's 29 or somthing like that, complaining about his gray hairs that are popping up and the wrinkles around his eyes. And I keep telling him how handsome he is, how wonderful he is and how thankful I am for every one of his 36 years, especially the 14 we've had together. This is the present my great friend Michelle helped us pull off for him--a 16x20 of those baby blues.

I've decided it is worth every ounce of effort to make holidays/birthdays/other special things a big deal. The scale of the big deal might depend on finances, other factors contributing to crazy life, timing, etc, but somehow, some way-- making that day different from all the others lets that sweet person and those wonderful people know that you love them. That they're worth it.

Ah...l'amour... it's what makes life worth living :)

the dance

Since his birth, Darren has been hovered over by all of his adoring sisters, but Elle is his constant companion. If he wakes up and is crying in his crib, she will climb right in next to him with toys, stories and songs to keep him happy until I come to get him out. Every other minute we're reminding her that she can not carry him. The reminders might be falling on deaf ears....

Now that he's on the brink of walking, she loves to dance with him until his legs give out.

but he looks pretty happy to me. So we'll just keep praying for no major injuries :)

Everything good

A friend of mine asked for the recipe of our favorite cookies today. We call them our "Everything Good Cookies" because we put everything we love in them. It's just a basic oatmeal cookie recipe with a few tweaks.

1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c. flour
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. coconut

Mix everything together and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, pulling them out before they look done (edges just barely turning golden brown) and letting them cool completely on the cookie sheet.

I was thinking how much my life as a mother is like these cookies. Cheesy, I know, but this is what I was thinking today with all my little kids running around me (no one had school today :) ). The recipe for these cookies was pretty good to begin with, but we needed to change some things for it to become our family's favorite. We didn't like cinnamon or raisins in our oatmeal cookies. We wanted them to be more buttery (ours is double the butter of the original recipe) for richer flavor. Nothing is complete here without chocolate. And walnuts and coconut put Kevin in seventh heaven.

Lately I've been reading and hearing lots of ideas from other people about what it takes to be a good and successful mother. And I appreciate all those ideas so very much. But ultimately, I have to decide what will work for my own family and what will make us the happiest. So I take the great ideas I hear and I use what I can and add a few specifics that make it work for us. I'm trying to make room especially for the things that we really love--family, music, French, friends, service, scriptures, Family Home Evening, just playing and laughing with each other, reading books. And the result is so great! Right now, my life is Everything Good.

We went to Disneyland!!!!

There has never been a more magical day at Disneyland as far as I'm concerned. Our girls are at the perfect Disneyland ages--they're excited about everything, they don't complain about lines, they don't care about going on the big rides that have big lines, their day is a success if they just catch a glimpse of their favorite princesses/characters, they loved just being together as a family and being with Matt, Nat, Sam, Ethan, Mia and Kate so everything else was a bonus.

We spent the night in Vegas on the way down, so we had the added blessing of seeing Jody, Dan, Josh, Zach and Anna. And we stopped off at the Disney outlet there to get our souvenir shopping done where it wouldn't be quite as expensive. Each girl picked out a princess doll and an ornament for our Christmas tree. Those dolls faithfully accompanied them on every ride and at every moment of our Disney day. In fact, Elle's day wasn't complete until we had gone on the Ariel ride so she could 'show' Ariel her doll.

First rides checked off the list: the rockets and Buzz Lightyear laser quest.






Natalie stood in line so we could meet Rapunzel. Mia was star-struck sitting on the lap of her favorite princess and asked in awe, "How did you find me?" And Elle couldn't believe she was holding all of that magical hair on her lap!


The girls had been watching Mary Poppins in the car all the way to California and so we were thrilled when we got to see her and Burt walking down Main Street. The girls even got a dance with them!

Our little family of females was introduced to the magical world of Star Wars when Sam and Ethan participated in some serious Jedi training. They loved it so much that they've since seen all the original movies, and all got Star Wars figures from Santa!



The boys were not quite as enthousiastic about visiting the Princess coronation, but fair is fair, right?

One of my favorite things about Disneyland is all of the great rides for little people. Not the scared-silly fast ones, the no-line pure fun ones.

It was fun to see the park all decorated for Christmas

And through it all, Darren was an angel.


Eden was convinced she would see the Beast while we were there. I was a little worried about that since I'd never seen him there myself, but sure enough, there he was near the end of the parade! Asleep in the stroller by this time, I had to wake her up to see him.

Elle and Ethan watched with big eyes from their front row seats on the curb.

We laughed all day long and loved every minute.

Kevin did such a great job taking pictures! Yeah, Kev!!!! And somehow I'm not finding videos that I took on my phone, so if I find them I'll add them later. :(

One Terrific Turtle

There's a hole in my heart. That's what losing someone I love feels like to me--like someone actually has taken a part of me away. My amazing Grandmother Turtle died today. Lucky Ryn got to talk to her this morning when she called to sing Happy Birthday with Bob. I last talked to her on Sunday and she was on oxygen, breathing heavily between every few words. "I was always just going so fast, doing so many things....I never thought I'd actually get old....but I'm glad I did (tiny chuckle, then more labored breaths). Enjoy every moment, Kit. In every challenge think "'I'm so glad I get to experience this!'" My Kitten.....you're my Kitten.....I love you so much. And Ryn and Elle and Eden and that beautiful baby Darren. And hearing you and Kevin sing. Your voices just blend so beautifully!"

How thankful I am that Mom made the push to get all of Grandma's posterity there for her 95th birthday a month ago. All 4 of her children, her 12 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren

The party was a grand affair, planned perfectly by Mom. She had a chart drawn up with spots for everyone in this picture so we could take it as quickly as possible, seating charts and name cards on the table, menu complete with mac and cheese for the kids, those two adorable turtle cakes, a little song/skit from each of our families, and then lots of music and dancing.

After church the next day, I had to stop by one more time to see her before we left to drive home. My little family went in and sang to her while she lay on the couch. The girls sang "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" and Kev and I sang "Au Jardin" and "Stop and Smell the Roses". We said goodbye to sweet Bill and Marion, too, and as we were leaving I wondered if that was the last time I'd get to hug my grandma and hold her lovely tiny hand. How I love that woman! I loved it when she would get excited about something and use her hands to show how beautiful something was. I love how she tried to keep learning and living life to the fullest right up to the end. 95 years of "getting to experience" every single thing possible.

I know I'll see her again. I know she lived a long and full life and is surely happy to be reunited with the people she has been missing (she outlived everyone she ever knew, basically), especially Grandpa Lynn. But I've been crying enough that Eden just had to tell me, "It's OK, Mom. We don't cry on birthdays. Everything is going to be OK." And it's true. I'm just going to miss that great woman until I see her again.