kicking back

Kevin had ankle surgery last Wednesday. Everything went well and the anticipated 75 minute surgery only took 45. Post-op, it has been a long week of hopping "like a bunny" (said Elle when she saw him trying to move around), painful crawling on all fours, and bruising the heels of his hands on his crutches. But it has also been a week of heavenly cuddle naps with his girls and appreciated extra help for me :). I've been able to run almost every day, I've had the car to make easy quick runs to the store alone or take the girls out, and the bottom line: everything and everyone is better when Kevin is around. Period. There's a reason some anonymous mom wrote the well-loved children's primary song.... "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home". He has his appointment tomorrow for a walking boot and then it's back to work and back to waiting for Daddy's homecoming each evening, glad as we can be.

A song for Ethan and Nolan

We were watching some old home videos and Ryn saw Thanksgiving of 2008 when we came home from France and were in Austin at the Park compound.
When she saw her little buddy (yeah right, little:), Ethan. She said, "Look there is Ethan, awe, I miss him." So cute so she wanted to send him a song. I tried to find Matt & Nat on facebook but, uh where are you guys? Even the Turtle is working facebook:) j/k
So without further ado, here is a song for Ethan! We love you guys!


Elle was watching this post and decided Nolan needed a song from her, so Nolan, this one's for you :)

January's smiles

"Mom, I got stuck!"

Jan. 1--Eden's crying woke Elle up early from her nap. Still half asleep, she stumbled out of her room, rubbing her eyes against the light, saying, "hey, Mom, does Eden need me?"

Jan. 3--Ryn and I were sword fighting, while Elle watched from her seat at the table. "Be careful so you don't get hurt," she warned. "Don't kill anyone!"

Jan. 5--Elle and Ryn were still eating their lunch and Elle asked Ryn, "Did you know that my mom and dad love me? They love me so much." Then she paused for confirmation from me, "Mom, does Daddy love me?" I assured her that he does and then she added this about him, "He's a handsome Daddy!"

Jan. 6--A little more stroking of Kev's ego :)....We were back to the sword fighting and Elle must have threatened that she would fight Dad when he got home, but Ryn flew to his rescue and defense. "Nobody can kill Daddy. He's strong. If you fight Dad, I'm going to fight you! I'm going to make a sword out of play dough and fight!"

Jan. 9--We were reviewing the story of the 3 Little Pigs and when we said that the Big Bad Wolf "gobbled that piggy (the ones who built their houses of straw and sticks) all up", Elle applied that story to her own experience. "You mean he gobbled it up like a big girl?"

Ryn and Elle had been coloring with some colored pencils that needed sharpening when they got down 'into the wood'. Elle was not satisfied with the sharpness of the one she was using and said, "Mom, this crayon is getting in the hood!"

Jan. 10--Elle: "I want to go up to heaven to give Heavenly Father and Jesus a hug. But I need help. I need an airplane."

Jan. 11--Still concerned with long distances, Elle was telling us that her family (Kev's sister and family) lives in "Her Megas" (Las Vegas)

This was a Monday and for Family Home Evening's game, we went to the library to watch some international folk dancers. Eden, our next little dancer, was really getting into it :)

Jan. 14--Ryn was cooking up some 'delicious lemonade cookies' in their play kitchen so I asked her for the recipe (I'm always up for a newer, better cookie :) ). For all of you cookie lovers, here it is: Watch out, Mrs. Fields!

"a tomato--just cook that first for 28 hours....

then lemonade, chocolate and also....syrup, ha!....

and Honey (their name for whoever is playing the child in their game of house--Elle, this time) is going to help me stirred it up with a spoon." Yummy!

That day I had been telling Ryn and Elle the things they did when they were Eden's age. Elle would do a very dramatic bow and Ryn walked around with skewered Legos on her index finger. Hours later Eden was unhappily screaming about something and Ryn asked, "Mommy, When I was Eden's age, did I scream like Eden?"

Jan. 15--We eat oatmeal with blueberries almost every morning for breakfast + one of Elle's 2 favorite colors is purple + she is always looking for some bit of style to admire= this compliment: "I like your purple lips, Ryn!"

Kev was telling Elle to get back in her chair at the table and her independent refusal, "No!", was quickly reprimanded by Ryn, who had risen to her knees on her chair. "Elle! You say, 'Yes, Sir!' when the King says something."

When Elle told us how scared she had been the night before of the "big green finger in [her] closet" we just thought it was a crazy nightmare...until we saw the fuzzy handle of her green purse peeking out from under the closet door :).

Jan. 17--Elle was assigning roles for everyone and I was supposed to be Grandma, but Ryn didn't know we were pretending. "She's not a grandma yet. Call her 'Mom'. Call her 'Old Mom Person.'"

Jan. 19--The ultimate tactic for staying up past bedtime: Elle came out of her room with her huge brown eyes and tiny little voice. "I want to do something really important. I want to learn how to speak en francais like you, Mom...and you, Dad."

Jan. 23--Driving in the car, Ryn's seat is back in the 3rd row so she can smile and sing and keep Eden happy in her car seat one row up. She stopped singing to tell me how cute Eden was, "Mom, I LOVE that smile!"

Then she stopped herself in the middle of telling Elle that what she was doing was wrong and said, "Wait...am I not in charge?"

Eden was taking steps behind her walker and Elle got all excited. "Great job, Mom, teaching her to walk!"

Jan. 24--Another compliment from style critic Elle: "Ryn, I LOVE your dance move. It's well done!"

Jan. 25--Here's one more killer soup recipe for Christa from Ryn. "Does anyone want some hot dog and water soup?"

It was bathroom cleaning day and Ryn kept coming in, wanting to help. "I don't want to play. I want to help you clean the toilet!" Two seconds later, Elle came in and repeated this plea word for word. Guess what, girls? I'll be reminding you of this post when you get a little older :)

We sat down to read a story with Ryn on one leg and Elle on my other and I just couldn't believe, once again, how lucky I am to be the mother of these girls. I squeezed them both and told them I loved them. They are sisters, so I guess finishing each other's sentences is normal, but this was too much for my already full heart. (Ryn) "We love..." (Elle) "...you, too, Mom."

Jan. 27--A little frustration with the lack of speed at the table (do we sense a recurring theme here?) started to come through in my voice. Elle's teary, "We don't want you to be mean. If you're mean, it makes us scared," snapped me back to where I and my tone of voice needed to be. I hope I never hear those words again. Not to excuse myself in any way from what Elle said, let me include a picture of me trying to make dinner on this day to provide a little context. Eden would cry the second I put her down or in her high chair, and Ryn and Elle wouldn't let go of my legs for about 30 minutes...oh, and I'm smiling because this was a re-creation of the scene after Kevin was home to help (and take the picture)

Jan. 30--On walks, Ryn often wants to push the stroller for me. It's big and heavy, she can't see over it, and I don't want to have to keep pulling it out of the grass and mud next to the sidewalks, so I try to help steer with one hand. She hates that. "Mom, I know how to stroller."

And one last exchange between my 2 princesses: R--I love Snow White. [sigh] E--She's a really good princess, huh?

The color and warmth of winter

Wouldn't it be great if the cold ended when the holidays did? If spring started popping up as soon as the Christmas tree and lights were put away? I guess we wouldn't appreciate the color and warmth of spring without the cold, grayscale of winter :). But today, my girls proved to me just how much color and warmth there are to be had every day of the year.

First, Elle lit up the kitchen with her "Whistle While You Work" rendition (several octaves above the original already-higher-than-necessary version).

Then, when the 'work' was done, we decided to take a long winter's nap....(I wish :) )....I mean, walk! :) Eden snoozed the whole time in the stroller while Ryn, Elle and I enjoyed a veritable treasure hunt. We found lots of happy birds who sang to us....

the siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp and we sang to them ('we are si-am-ee-eese if you please')... a beautiful blue spruce (maybe? someone who knows plants can comment and correct me here)--whatever it was, it was beautiful :)....
...the bridge over the creek where the ducks must have flown south.......and a 'real' wishing well! Elle started singing immediately, "I'm wishing, I'm wishing, for the one I love...." Ryn couldn't believe it......so she started to wind up the handle to see if a prince really would come.... And then the winter wind helped us power little whirling bursts of color all the way home.

Choosing faith

One of my callings at church is to write, each month, a small section on spiritual strength for our Relief Society provident living newsletter. I've decided to keep a record of them here since many are written about what I've been going through or trying to accomplish in my own life. There is always a challenge at the end to give the me and the other women a small, attainable way to progress in that area each month. Maybe it could be of help to someone reading this blog one day, too.

January 2010
To be honest with all of you, even with all of its blessings, 2009 was one of the hardest years of my life. There were several moments every single day when I didn't know how I would overcome one challenge or another. And to make matters more difficult, most of them were challenges that no one on earth could help me with. They were mine to bear, mine to overcome, mine to learn from. One thing my dad taught me from the scriptures seemed to be the key to my survival:

"You always have a choice between discouragement and faith."

He taught me this principle through the story of Nephi and his brothers' attempts to get the plates from Laban. Each time Laman and Lemuel refused to help or obey the Lord, Nephi reminded them that they had the power and the responsibility to choose faith instead of discouragement (1 Nephi 3:7, 15-20; 4:1-3). Even though no one else on earth could help them get the plates, "the Lord [was] able."

And He is able. He is able and wants, more than anything (Moses 1:39, Alma 7:12), to help us through every challenge we face. I have felt that so deeply this year--each time that I humbled myself and chose faith. Of course, it is much easier to give in to discouragement--in all its forms: anger, doubt, self-pity, frustration, desperation, sadness, loneliness, fear--than to choose faith and the hard work that must accompany it. But, as described in Helaman 3:35, it truly is worth it.

Challenge: Try to specifically choose faith in each trial (big or small) that you face this month.

My life is a musical

I have to say that I honestly didn't think it would happen. Tyler Ginn and Brandon Black--two crazy guys from my senior English and Seminary classes at Klein High School--predicted way back then that my life would be a musical. Knowing how much I loved to sing, they joked around about how my husband and I would one day sing even the most trivial of things to each other non-stop.

Turned around in their desks, this is what I would hear daily from them during first period:
[insert football player opera voices]
"Honey, please pass the butter."
"Sure thing, dahhhh--ling."

Tonight, while I left Ryn and Elle eating their dinner so I could change a sleepy Eden into her clean diaper and pj's, I realized that Tyler and Brandon's prediction had come to pass. Ryn started making up yet another song about something and then didn't stop singing as she moved right into a musical conversation with Elle:
[insert sqeaky little girl opera voices]
R: Here is a pacifier.
E: It's miiiiiine!
R: Eat your food. You've got- to -eat -your -food (Staccato). Plee-ease!
E: OK!

So, OK, I admit it. I guess I really do sing all day every day, and make up songs to fit whatever we're doing...."mess-maker, mess-maker, make me a mess"...."I love my Ryn, I love my Elle, I love my Eden oh so well, I am so glad to be their mom cause I am happy all day long!"....but doesn't every mom do that? I know my mom did--maybe this whole thing is genetic :). Whatever it is, I'm grateful for it and I'll keep right on singing my way through this life and the next.

p.s. To clear Kevin from being implicated by this post...he has never asked me to pass the butter in song and I've never heard him make up a song about pacifiers or eating or any other daily task. But I do love singing with him any chance I get.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve this year was spent dancing the night away with the Linkous' and eating some of Kev's insanely amazing grilled salmon. Fabulous.

Then we had a fun little party with the girls on New Year's Day. They get so excited with the mere mention of that word. "A party?!" :) [squeals, screams, jumping and clapping] Oh, how I love little girls.

Making our own party hats from cereal boxes and scraps of ribbon, a fort over kitchen chairs and the TV where we could have a picnic viewing of G-Force, an exciting round of Chutes and Ladders, and pancakes (smothered in "sticky syrup") and eggs for dinner. When I was clearing the dishes and announcing bedtime, Elle turned around in that little pink seat and said, "Thank you for this fun party, Mom." I came over to give her a hug with a "you're welcome" and Ryn ran around the table to sandwich me between my happy party princesses. I marveled again at how simple happiness is for children. Uninterrupted, stress-free time with mom and dad (and a few M&M's thrown in for good measure).... and that hug of gratitude lasted for at least a full 5 minutes.