A Full Quiver

House Bill 250

2012-01-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

If you have a couple of minutes and you live in Utah, please send an email to Representative John Dougall at jdougall@le.utah.gov, in support of House Bill 250, which reinstates a state tax credit for families of kids with special needs. Reference HB250 in the subject line. (He needs these emails by Sunday.)

Thanks!

-Jer

No Offense...

2012-01-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

We have a gut-wrenching, tear-your-heart-out hobby around here. We peruse adoption agency waiting children lists. We're not looking to expand our family, but with our collective appreciation for and love of all things adoption, we tend to visit these sites periodically. Usually, it's just Christi and me. But today, Christi had the kids gathered around her, looking over her shoulder at the iPad. We saw a couple of boys from Thailand, ages 9 and 7. We saw a pair of siblings from Taiwan. Then we found a 13-year-old girl from China. This sweet girl will turn 14 in May, at which age Chinese law prohibits her from being adopted. The agency is looking for someone who has their paperwork all completed and can go soon to bring her into their family. But this post is not about the joys, trials, rewards and blessings of adoption. At least not another adoption:)

This is about our sweet Graci. Our sweet Graci who's favorite phrase is "no offense." As in, "Dad, you have a fat tummy...no offense." Or "Dad, you don't have very much hair on the top of your head...no offense." She finds many interesting ways to use this phrase. We've tried to help her understand that if you say something offensive, then say "no offense," it doesn't quite work. But somehow the concept is still a little fuzzy for her.

So today, we're looking at the profile of this beautiful 13-year-old girl. Graci says, quite sincerely, "She's cute! No offense, but I'm cuter." Ah, our Graci. Never afraid to speak the truth, no matter how awkward it may sound:)

Jer

Happy Thanking

2012-01-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

The sign Jessica hung on our door over Thanksgiving:

Freudian Slip?

2012-01-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Jessica, after observing the tattered state of my clothing, went to Christi and said, "Mommy, can you go to the store and buy a new Daddy? I mean buy a new shirt for Daddy? His has holes in it." I'm sure Christi gave it some serious thought...

Jer

Hoops Heaven

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Taylor and Parker have put a lot of time and effort into improving their basketball games. Parker plays point guard on their team and Taylor plays forward. Parker's ball handling skills have improved dramatically from last season and Taylor continues to improve as a shooter. When he is on, it's really kind of crazy. He scored 21 in our game last week, including 2 threes.

Besides the Salt Lake County league they play in, Taylor has also been playing on a church team. The church league is at a lot lower skill level than the other league he plays in. It's just a "whoever shows up can play" kind of league. But it's for 14-15 year olds. There weren't enough 14-15 year olds in our congregation, so they invited Taylor (age 12) to play up with them. Instead of being the tall guy on the team, Taylor is the shortest. He plays point guard for them. Last night he scored 26 of their 56 points, had some beautiful passes and led them to a 30 point victory. Afterwards, one of the 15-year-olds (who's got to be 8 inches taller than Taylor and built like a man) came up to him and said, "You are officially a better basketball player than me!" Needless to say, Taylor had a huge grin on his face all night:)

Jer

Sorry, Hon!

2012-01-20T07:53:00.001-07:00

"Hon" is now Sophi's favorite word. As in, "Sowwy, Hon." "Bye-bye, Hon." "I love you, Hon." It's the cutest thing:)

Jer

Baseball Heroes!

2012-01-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

Last spring I coached Parker's baseball team. We won first place:) Parker's best friend Cole's dad and I have coached their teams for four straight years. We've finished 1st, 3rd, 3rd and 1st. Loads of fun:) Our season last year ended with a tournament. We won two games and lost two games in the round robin portion. That put us facing a very tough team in the single-elimination portion. We were down 5 or 6 runs in the last inning...and pulled out the win! Our whole team (including a very passionate yours truly) went crazy. It was of the two best experiences I've ever had as a coach. (The other being when Taylor hit a game-tying shot with less than 1 second on the board in a 3rd or 4th grade basketball game.) I'm a fortunate dad! Here's a picture of Parker with his 1st place trophy.

We have a lot of stuff to catch up on!

Jer

Just because you needed this in your life:)...

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

Wow! We had an amazing Christmas! We started out our Christmas Eve with our usual traditions. We loaded up the van, went through the drive-through at Arby's (2 Reuben sandwiches, some fries, and about 20 jr. roast beef sandwiches:). While we ate our dinner, we drove through the annual Christmas Light Festival at Thanksgiving Point. On our way back, we listened to a version of the Christmas Carol that the Green family has been listening to for over 60 years. It is a 1930's version with Basil Rathbone as Ebeneezer Scrooge. I listened to it every Christmas Eve as a kid, and we have continued with the tradition in our family. The older kids really enjoy it, and this year was even better because we saw a stage play version earlier in December. (Graci and Jess probably prefer the "Barbie Christmas Carol Movie" but hey, at least they'll listen with us.) Once we got home, we acted out the nativity.

Graci was Mary, Xander was Joseph, and Lex was baby Jesus

Taylor was the donkey?!?

Jessica was the angel

Dad was the narrator

Parker was a wise man (giving a gift to baby Jesus)

And Sophi was just cute!

After acting out the nativity and singing several Christmas Carols along with it, we moved along to "grand bags." Originally, these were "grab bags" started by my dad. He got a few presents for each of us one Christmas many years ago, but didn't have time to wrap them. He got a paper grocery bag for each child, and put the gifts in these. Then we went around, with each person pulling out one thing from their grab bag each time it was their turn. This became a tradition that has lasted well over 20 years. The first few years we had kids, we went to my parents house for Christmas, and my dad put together one his grab bags for each of his grandkids. But Taylor and Parker, knowing they were from GRANDpa, thought they were called GRAND bags. And so they have been "grand bags" ever since:) Grand bags contain mostly food items that you wouldn't normally get throughout the year. Favorite cereals, different types of cookies, crackers, chips, and juice. Nuts, pudding, whatever. The kids love them. I went a little overboard this year-four of the kids had to have and extra bag to hold all of the loot I got them! Fun stuff:)

Jesi gets her very own Pumpkin Hot Cocoa!

Then, just as we were getting the kids tucked in altogether downstairs...

...we heard a knock at our front door! Christi and I had an idea what might be waiting for us on our front porch. A couple of weeks beforehand, we received a phone call from Santa Claus! He told us he would be calling back in 24 hours and wanted us to put together a Christmas Wish List for our eight children! True to his word he called back, and we listed a few things that each child had asked for. We figured he would be able to have some flexibility that way. Instead, Santa brought everything the kids had asked for, plus stockings full of treats, plus a Christmas Dinner complete with a delicious ham, plus several presents for mom and dad!!! Wow, were we spoiled. Thanks, Santa Claus:)!

We each opened a present from Santa on Christmas Eve. Boy did our kids feel special that Santa made a special, early visit to our family:) The next morning, we opened another Santa present, then we got our sweet, beautiful kids all ready for church. When we got home, we finished Santa presents and presents from each other:

What a great way to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Thanks to the many, many, many people who have done so many, many, many wonderful things for our family. Merry Christmas.

Jer

Ha!

2012-01-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

I have a set of wooden blocks that I made one year at a Relief Society activity. There are nine blocks, each double-sided. They spell the words joy, hug, hop, fun, boo, and yum (representing different holidays/seasons.)

I found it humorous that on New Years Day, one of the kids inadvertently turned the "y" on the wrong side after knocking it off the shelf. I was about to change it, then realized it was perfect for New Years:

I think it's trying to tell me something!!

By the way, we had a magical Christmas. I will blog all about it as soon as I can see carpet in each room of my house. (;

It's Strep:)

2011-12-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

The day before Christmas Eve. I took 7 of the kids down for flu shots today. Quite the experience. Sophi yelled the loudest. Xander howled the longest. Lexi totally freaked out when she heard it was coming, but calmed down almost immediately after. Then she said to the pharmacist: "Thank you for the shot!" What a cutie:)

Christi has strep. And a broken toe. Elli is screaming at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason. I'm in charge for at least the next 24 hours until the antibiotic kicks in. It's times like these that make it painfully obvious how inept I am and how much our family depends on Christi. Questions like: "What do I feed Elli?" or "Is it too late for Sophi to take a nap" indicate my level of competence. Does anyone else find it strange that you need a license to open a car wash, but there is no vetting process to have a child?

Well, the wails (now from Sophi, Lexi, Jesi, Xander AND Elli) are becoming too incessant to ignore. Guess I better be a bit responsible...

Jer

Twas the night before the night before the night before Christmas...

2011-12-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

And Christi was out.
102 fever, trying not to pout.
Jess brought a soothing damp rag from the sink
Too bad it included a 3-day-old stink.
Jer's back is aching, he cant' stand up straight
(Middle-aged basketball-just tempting fate.)
Kids want to wrap presents, go places and play
Mom and dad need to rest in their bed for the day.
With all of the prep that still needs to be done,
Please say a quick prayer that our Christmas is fun!

-Jer

Today

2011-12-21T23:16:00.001-07:00

Today I:

bathed, fed and dressed Elli and got her on the bus

fed the kids leftover pizza for breakfast

had a family council to plan the next few days

read with Sophi

had Lexi's best friend over for a few hours

cleaned, cleaned, cleaned (though you certainly wouldn't know now)

made caramel popcorn
settled a few domestic disputes

went to Taylor's Court of Honor

made glittery snowflakes with the littles

took Xander and Taylor to do their Christmas shopping

made sloppy joes

stayed in my pj's until 1:00

helped Jesi and Graci deep clean their room

was in tears over the bags of things they were ready to get rid of-- so hard to watch them grow up!

took Sophi to the bathroom about a jillion times

watched "The Grinch" with the big kids

ate a lot of junk food

read lots of Christmas cards/letters

visited with good friends

had sweet conversations with each of my kids

took a long, hot shower

I love having the kids home for Christmas break!

It's Gone

2011-12-19T22:40:00.001-07:00

I could just feel the manliness oozing out of me tonight as I sat down in the auditorium with Jesi and Grace to watch a performance of the Nutcracker. Two hours of men in tights. Enough said. However, I must admit that I was quite entranced by the amazing talents and skills of the performers. I have never been to the ballet. I can honestly say that I would like to go again. Not tomorrow! But someday. And the girls just LOVED it. Graci was actually cheering out loud at some of the lifts. That girl wants to be a performer so bad. An actress, a dancer, whatever. But she really wants to be up on stage.

On the way home, I asked Jess and Graci what they were most excited about for Christmas. Jesi replied: "I like that it is Jesus' birthday and I like the presents." Graci's answer? "I'm excited cuz it's on Sunday and church will be shorter." Ah, Grace. Such a unique perspective on life!

Now somehow I just have to get my manliness back before I coach the boys' basketball game tomorrow...!

Why you have to love Jesi...

2011-12-15T23:00:00.002-07:00

First of all, Jeremy found the diamond in our bed. As in, between the sheets. Which makes absolutely no sense at all, because on Monday I tore the top sheet completely off the bed before making it. Wouldn't I have seen it then? So weird! To be honest, I was in more shock when he showed me he had found it than when I found out it was missing! I didn't think there was any way I was seeing that diamond again. It's good I have children and a husband with much more faith than I have. They had been praying every single prayer that we would find "Mom's diamond." (: Yay for answered prayers!!!

I found a few cute pics of Jesi I had to share:

"Raking" leaves in her pajamas

Jesi got Sophi all dressed up warm and brought her out to play without being asked. Notice all the warm clothes, but no socks or shoes!

The sign posted on our door on Thanksgiving

Jesi had to drink some nasty stuff for a medical procedure. She hated it, so she alternated between it and a cup of Sprite. It was hilarious to watch her go back and forth at the speed of lightning. She was such a trooper!

We Found It!!! :)

2011-12-15T10:59:00.001-07:00

Ugh.

2011-12-13T14:00:00.001-07:00

I have such bad luck with jewelry. I am always losing an earring or breaking a necklace. Jeremy has bought me one expensive piece of jewelry (besides my wedding ring) and I managed to leave it at a hotel. I was sick, and told him to never buy me anything expensive again. He loves to give me grief about that bracelet, but always ends with, "At least you still have your ring..." (This is the ring that I managed to vacuum years ago, and that we spent a good deal of money fixing.)

Well, Sunday at church, Lexi was holding my hand and said, "Mom, why your ring broken?" Sadly, I didn't pay any attention to her. I was talking to someone else and thinking, "How could my ring be broken?" Didn't even think to actually look at the ring.

Later that evening, at a Christmas concert, I looked down at my wedding ring to discover that the diamond was gone. I think I kind of went into shock at that point!! I'm not sure what is worse-- thinking about the sentiment of it, or the money that just vanished, or the teasing I'm going to receive for the rest of my life.

The only good thing that has come out of this is that I have finally cleaned my very messy room, in an effort to find the missing diamond. No luck.

At least I have an excuse never to vacuum again...

Treading Water With Jesus

2011-12-11T22:52:00.004-07:00

One year ago this week, we were in China, on a journey to give two precious little girls a family.

It seems SO long ago! A world away, really. What did we ever do without them?!

This year has been life changing, that is for sure. Adding two little girls, (who couldn't speak a word of English and had pretty significant special needs) to our already big, crazy family has been a journey of faith. And it is a journey I am so privileged to have taken. I remember well the prayers we prayed as we contemplated bringing two more children home. It seemed crazy. It seemed overwhelming. It seemed so, so scary. And it seemed right. I kept holding onto the quote:

" Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown. Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness. If everything has to be known, if everything has to be explained, if everything has to be certified, then there is no need for faith. Indeed, there is no room for it." (Elder Boyd K. Packer)

We had to be willing to take a few steps into the darkness. If we knew how it would all work out for our good, it wouldn't require faith and a dependence on our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so I prayed. I prayed for help in managing our home. Help in meeting the emotional, spiritual, and temporal needs of each of our children. Help in becoming more selfless. Help in not going off the deep end. (:

And I received it! We have been so blessed this year. So many people have stepped in to strengthen our family in many different ways. Dinner fairies, laundry help, playdates for my kids-- even just words of encouragement have kept our heads above water, when otherwise we would have felt as if we were drowning. So, thank you, for your part in bringing home these two precious daughters of God.

You know, I try to be careful when speaking about adoption. I know very well that every family is unique in their circumstances, and that adoption is not for everyone. I know that there is no way for me to ascertain which family it may be right for. And I certainly never look at any specific family and think, "Oh my goodness! Why haven't they considered adoption?!!" So please don't worry that I would ever judge anyone for not adopting. Everyone is called to do different things. I know that.

BUT... (:

But sometimes I want to just climb up on my rooftop and shout to the world, "YOU DON"T GET IT!" There are orphans on this earth! They are real. And they want families!! I want to scream and cry and bang my head into my pillow over and over! Because there are beautiful, beautiful families out there who could be so richly blessed by opening their hearts to adoption. And there are beautiful, beautiful children all over the world who will not know Santa this year. Worse, they will not know the love of a mother and father and brothers and sisters. I do find solace in my faith that they WILL know the love of the Savior, who has not forgotten them, and who will not forsake them. I have to have faith He is holding them, and loving on them, and strengthening them, even as He waits for us to open our hearts to them.

It was two years ago yesterday that I wrote THIS post. Maybe there is something about this time of year that especially pulls on my heartstrings. (:

You know, I hope I have never come across like adoption is easy. If so, I am sorely misleading you! Our life is hard. It just is. But it is good. It is what our life is supposed to be. My sweet friend shared a dream she had. In the dream, she was in the ocean treading water. She was aware of people around her, who she knew, also treading water. And she was tired. But she knew that Jesus was also treading water with them. She saw Him, but His back was to her. At one point, He motioned for her to help someone in the water. As she turned to help this friend of hers, she saw the beach. It was a beautiful, white sandy beach full of people playing and having a good time. And yet she thought to herself, "Oh, it is so sad! They don't know that Jesus is in the water." That even though it was hard, and she was so tired, she wanted to be with Him.

That dream really spoke to me. It reminded me that this life we have chosen, is where Jesus is. We could have taken an easier route. We could have played more and literally gone to the beach more! (: But this is right where I want to be. Tired, and treading water. But treading it with HIM.

And, because of Him, and because of you, I know I won't drown. Even when sometimes it feels as if I will.

I love you, my sweet Alexis Li and Sophia Breanne. I have loved watching you blossom and grow into such beautiful, strong little girls. I admire your strength and determination and happiness, in spite of your daily challenges. I am so humbled to be your mother.   I am so grateful to breathe your spirits each day. I have had such a sweet time this week going back into the blog archives and reading about our first days with you. I loved you then, but I love you ever so much more now.

And I love you too, my sweet Taylor, Parker, Jesi, Elli, Graci, and Xander. I love you for everything you are. I love you for being willing to open your hearts to two new sisters. I love you for your sacrifices and your examples and your sweetness and your testimonies. I love you for your ability to do hard things. And I love watching the Lord bless you for doing those things. Bringing Lexi and Sophi into our family has strengthened my love for you, and made it grow by endless bounds.

My friend Cristie is on her second adoption journey. They just traveled to meet their newest sweet son. You can read about it here, and scroll down just a bit to watch a video of it. I would hope that maybe some reader out there will be open to promptings of their own to "visit the fatherless in their afflictions." I am telling you, there are some of the most precious children right now on the waiting children lists! (: There is one little boy, in particular, that has our hearts. He is one year old, and was born with hypertrichosis (covered with hair.) Oh my goodness, is he adorable! I wish our family was in a place to give him a home, but maybe instead I can open someone else's heart to finding him a family. Remember, you don't have to be anyone special! Really, you don't! You don't have to be any one type of family. You can even be single to adopt. (;

I think I've said enough. (:

Happy Gotcha Day, Lexi and Soph!

Don't Scare Me Like That!

2011-12-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

I just opened a letter from Lexi's school:

Dear Parent or Guardian,
Recently at a vision screening at your child's school, your child was unable to see the critical line for their age and did not pass for this or other issues...

Glad they caught that!

Jer

I think I'll keep them...

2011-12-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after church, Jeremy asked if I wanted to go on a Sunday ride. Let's see... go home and face the huge mess we had created that morning and the night before, or take a leisurely drive around town? Of course, I picked the drive. It wasn't very long before a few of the kids were obviously not having fun on the drive, so we offered to drop them off at home. We kept Sophi, Lexi and Parker with us, and started off again on our drive. I looked in the back and mentioned that Sophi looked a bit pale. Seconds later, we heard a choking sound, followed by two rounds of VERY projectile vomit.

Just what we needed. (:

So we turned right around (we were only a few blocks away) and I went inside to clean up Sophi. I got her bathed and down for a nap, put Lexi in the tub, and went back out to the van. Jeremy worked on getting that all cleaned up. I was still not ready to face the house. So, we did what any responsible parent would do... We told the kids that we were still going on our drive, except this time by ourselves! We asked Graci to get Lexi out of the tub and otherwise left them with no directions. You can do that with responsible kids like Taylor, Grace, and Parker.

Awhile later, we pulled into the driveway. Taylor came out and told us that we should really go out for awhile longer. In other words, we weren't supposed to go inside. Hmmmm....

So, we continued on our relaxing drive around town. When we finally got home, we walked into a beautiful, clean house. The kids had obviously thought it would be a fun surprise, and boy were they right! (: What started out as a very overwhelming afternoon turned out to be a very pleasant evening. We had pumpkin waffles, read, and played games.

Thank you, sweet kids!

Cornbellys

2011-12-02T00:01:00.003-07:00

We love our annual trip to Cornbellys... it wouldn't be Fall without it. The dress ups, Pumpkin Princess, corn mazes, haunted houses, giant trampolines, slides, play areas, hot chocolate and donuts, train rides, shows, campfire-- we love it ALL!

We are going to pretend that Elli did NOT eat mouthfuls of corn this year before I noticed what she was doing. We are also going to pretend that Graci and Jesi didn't manage to get completely lost in the corn maze for a VERY long time, and that Jer and the boys didn't get lost trying to find them! It also certainly didn't end this year in a late night trip to the emergency room for Jesi (torn ligaments and sprain.) Always an adventure with our family! (:

We'll also pretend Elli actually enjoyed herself. (;

Halloween 2011

2011-12-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

Graci went trick or treating with her friends this year: cowardly lion, the good witch, scarecrow, and Dorothy (:

Mexico

2011-11-30T23:43:00.001-07:00

Jer and I were phenomenally blessed to be able to go on a week long trip to Mexico earlier this month. Even as I type this, it seems like a far away dream!! We had not been on this long of a vacation together for 9 years, and it felt sooooo good. Earlier this year, Jeremy won a travel card at work that helped us pay for a Disneyland trip for the family, and it also helped finance this trip for us. (:

We are so thankful to my parents for watching the kids for the first two days, and for Jeremy's cousin, Chelsea, and her mom (Jer's aunt) Debbie, for watching them the rest of the time. It was no easy task, and I should know! (: I tried to make it a week that wasn't packed full of stuff, and I tried to be organized and do the grocery shopping and laundry and homework projects and everything ahead of time. Still, as they later said, "We had NO idea!!" I was a bit relieved that it wasn't just a cakewalk for them, watching these 8 kiddos of mine. If it was, I would feel like I was doing something wrong, because it's certainly not a cakewalk for me! (: Anyway, a huge, huge thank you for providing us with such a perfect vacation. And much gratitude to our older kids, who were extremely helpful while we were gone. We missed them! (But not too much. :)

Cozumel was paradise. It was a much needed time for us to catch up as a couple and fall in love again. We had a perfect blend of rest and adventure. Jeremy talked me into going scuba diving while we were there. I was terrified. It sounded so claustrophobic and scary. It took me weeks to warm up to the idea, and I finally consented to a trial dive. Cozumel is a world famous place to dive. In fact, it seemed that everybody on the island had come there for the diving. You have to be certified to go lower than 45 feet, so that's as low as we went. When I first got in the water and tried breathing with the scuba gear, I hated it. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I totally panicked and was about to just get out of the ocean. But our divemaster would have no such thing. He just calmly led me through the steps and before I knew it, I was underwater. I didn't like the first dive AT ALL. I didn't know it at the time, but it was mostly because my mask was super fogged up. Somehow, Jeremy talked me into doing a second dive, this time with a new divemaster. He was so much better than the first and made me feel much more at ease. And... I LOVED it! It was so amazing. I have been snorkeling several times (and LOVE it.) This was like snorkeling on steroids. Amazing! I liked it enough that we went on a third dive, and even signed up for a fourth dive, but it was cancelled due to weather. We both are so excited (and I'm still a little scared) to go again someday. (: (: (:

We also swam with dolphins, had a romantic dinner alone on the beach, rented a jeep and drove around the island, toured Tulum (Mayan ruins), shopped, watched a sea lion show, went night snorkeling (out by ourselves in the dark ocean-- fun!), ordered room service every single morning and ate it on our balcony, napped in our hammock, discovered our favorite drink (virgin strawberry margaritas with lime), watched romantic movies, had massages and pedicures at the spa, enjoyed our huge jacuzzi, went to a local church (we just LOVED that), ate five thousand quesadillas, and read our books sitting out on the beach. I kept trying to take mental pictures so I could go back to that relaxing state when I got home. Ahhhhh....

I love you, Cozumel!

Dinner on the beach

I loved that hammock!

My favorite pic!

A fire show at our hotel

Love those photos you take by yourself...

view from our balcony

Ready for my first dive! Can you tell I'm deathly scared?!!

This is the life

At Tulum

If you look closely, you'll see the picture we're holding is of the sunrise coming through the ruins directly in back of us. Our guide insisted we take a picture of our profiles, holding this picture. Kind of funny.

Did I mention how much I loved that hammock?

Sad to leave!

I love this guy!

Something that makes me smile...

2011-11-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

I mentioned that Sophi "reads" braille, but did I tell you she's brilliant with Lexi's cane? She loves going from room to room with it. Did you notice the underwear? Yes, we are trying to potty train. Fun times!

Sophi Quotes

2011-11-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

Me: Who do you love, Sophi?

Sophi: Sophi!

Me: Mommy loves Sophi! Who do YOU love?

Sophi: Sophi!

Me: Do you love Mommy?

Sophi: I love Sophi! Cuz I too cute!

******

Sophi: I want make up!

Me: You want make up?

Sophi: Yes. I want pretty eyes!

I put makeup on her, and she looks in mirror.

Sophi: I is pretty! I want sit by Cole now! (Cole is Parker's best friend and Sophi's biggest crush)

******

On the way to Primary Children's, you have to drive onto the University of Utah's campus. (They are BYU's biggest rivalry.) I don't know why, but completely out of the blue and the second we drove onto their campus, Sophi started chanting, "BYU! BYU! BYU!" I still am getting a kick out of it. How could she know where we were???

******

Me: Sophi, Mommy loves you soooo much!

Sophi: You love ME? Ohhhhhhh. Good!

*****

While watching me dress Elli:

Sophi: Oh, Elli have feet?

Me: Yes, Elli has feet.

Sophi: And Elli have hands?

Me: Yes, Elli has hands?

Sophi: Both?

Me: Yes, Elli has both.

Sophi: Ohhhhhh. I have feet hands!

Lovely.

2011-11-29T22:45:00.002-07:00

Today Jesi had an appointment at Primary Children's. I had to bring Sophi with, and she was being very distracting during the visit. Luckily, the physician was enamoured with her and not bothered at all. At one point, she gave her a roll of stickers to play with . Sophi peeled them off one by one and put them on my shirt. I wasn't really paying attention to the whole thing-- just happy that she was finally being quiet while I was visiting with the physician. By the end, I had at least fifteen brightly colored stickers on my shirt. All along the top part of my chest, if you get my drift.

I totally didn't even think about the fact that I had all those stickers on my shirt, and proceeded to run errands the rest of the day. Don't ask me how I didn't notice them. I chatted with the guys at the Smith's checkstand, ran kids here and there, visited with acquaintances, etc. All without a coat or jacket on. It wasn't until I went to pick up Lexi and Xander from "sports camp" (an adaptive camp for kids with special needs) that I realized people were staring at my shirt.

Um, oops.

I love being a mother. (:

Time Out and the person I would most like to meet!

2011-11-28T23:08:00.002-07:00

So my gem of a husband came up to me a few months ago with a flyer I had gotten in the mail for a Time Out for Women conference to be held in November. He handed it to me and said, "I think you ought to get a hotel with your friends and go!"

Enough said. (:

You may remember Heather from my "everyone needs a Heather" post. She's also the author of my favorite blog and one of my bestest friends. But have you met Kim and Vanessa yet??? These three girls have brought me so many smiles and laughs and good times in the last eleven years. They flew out to visit me TWICE while I lived in Tennessee and have been with me through the good, bad, and ugly.

I LOVE them.

We had a great time at the conference, came back to our hotel, where Vanessa starting throwing free scarves and sweaters and hats our way (she sells them), stayed up WAY too late (4:30 a.m.), laughed, shared advice, and filled each others' buckets. I don't know what I would do without friends like these.

I probably shouldn't mention, because I'll seem TOO spoiled, that Jeremy offered to let me stay an additional night in the hotel. BY MYSELF. I don't think he thought I would accept, but I sure did! That meant he got all 8 kiddos to 9:00 church by himself. I'll give him a pass on the girls' hairdos. (:

I slept and slept and slept some more, read my scriptures, and ate ALONE. It was nice. It was needed. (: Sunday afternoon I drove a few blocks and stopped at the first church I came to and went inside. LDS churches in Utah typically have wards (congregations) that meet at 9:00, 11:00, and 1:00 (all for three hours) so I knew it was likely that there would be a Sacrament meeting I could attend. (Of course, it was 1:00 after all that sleeping!)

So, don't lose me here...

A few days before, Parker had asked me if I could meet anyone in the world, who it would be. He chose President Monson (president of our church and a prophet of God.) I told him that was a great choice, but that I would have to choose Jeffrey R. Holland. He is in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and one of my favorite people in the entire world, even though I've never met him. My dad got to meet him a few months ago and I was pretty darn jealous.

You can see him HERE and HERE. I LOVE the second one. (Go ahead and watch-- you don't have to be a member of this church to enjoy these messages ;)

Anyway, that afternoon as I prayed before leaving for church, I remembered the talk given by Brad Wilcox, in which he shared an experience where he was struggling with his testimony. He told of asking, "God, are you there? And do you know me?" I found myself asking those same questions during that prayer. Does He know the desires of my heart? Not that I didn't know, just that I love getting reassurance now and then. (:

So anyway, I sat down in the chapel and waited for the meeting to start. A sweet lady came and sat by me and we began to visit. Then the meeting started. The brother presiding over the meeting mentioned, "We'd like to recognize so-and-so (naming three men) who are on the stand with us presiding at this meeting." I recognized one as a general authority of our church and assumed the other three to be as well. (I know I'm losing you here if you're not LDS. Just bear with me.)

Then he continued to say how grateful he was for the presence of so-and-so (naming two other men and their wives) who have served as general authorities in the past.

At this point, I turn to the sister sitting next to me and whisper, "Just HOW MANY general authorities do you have in this ward?" She laughed and said, "Well, besides the 6 men they mentioned, we have Elder Holland."

I was like, "You have got to be kidding. He's the one person in the world I want to meet more than anyone else!" I remembered my prayer from just minutes before and thought, "Of course God knows me! He sent me to Elder Holland's ward!!" (: It was just like a little wink from heaven. By the way, there happen to be over 28,000 LDS wards. Not sure how many in Utah, but a pretty high number. So it really is pretty cool to randomly show up where I did.

But, alas, Elder Holland wasn't there that day. Apparently he's too busy serving people all around the world to be at his own ward every single Sunday. (:

Maybe another time... (: I still felt loved. (And I may be stalking that particular congregation!)

A perfect weekend. Thank you, honey.

(The first picture is with Brad Wilcox, one of my favorite speakers ever. He's like a big teddy bear and has been since I first met him as a young teenager. He hugs everyone he meets and is just full of the light of Christ. The second picture is with Hillary Weeks. She is basically AMAZING. She and Heather are neighbors and friends. (Makes me feel kind of cool, to know someone she knows. Ha.) You can see one of her videos HERE. So good. Her newest album is #6 in the Christian music charts. The video also has footage of two other ladies that were at the event, one who almost died in a plane crash (you've likely heard of Nie Nie) and one whose family was killed in the wars in Africa. Both inspirational.)

Healing

2011-11-27T23:00:00.001-07:00

Lexi knows that she is blind. But what does that mean, exactly? Does she have any concept of what sight is? Does she understand the implications of sight?

I often wonder.

Lexi accepts her blindness, but is very excited about the healing that will someday take place for her. She tells everyone that when she gets to heaven, Jesus is going to fix her eyes. (Of course, when Lexi passes away, she will probably immediately be healed, without Jesus physically healing her, but she has decided this is going to be a big, special event in heaven.) A few days ago, Lexi asked me if she could sit in my lap when Jesus fixed her eyes. I said, "Yes, you can sit in my lap. That would be very special." She then asked if I would hold her hand, and went on to explain that she was scared that it was going to hurt. I reassured her that it wouldn't be painful. I said, "Jesus will just put His hands over your eyes, like this (I put my hands over her eyes) and when He takes them away, you will be able to see." (I'm not sure that's exactly how it will happen, but it's got to be something like that, right?) (:

Lexi was very happy about this, and has shown at least a couple of people how Jesus is going to heal her. She gets very giddy just talking about it.

Tonight, Lexi tripped on something in the living room and fell against a bookshelf. She wasn't hurt badly, but she was crying hard, and wailed, "I can't walk when the floor is messy!"

That about broke our hearts. Just try walking around your house right now blindfolded-- it's pretty scary! I tried for less than a minute after her fall and my heart just ached for her and Elli and their daily struggles. I will often remind my other kids to do the same, just to help remind us all to put our things away.

Tonight as I was tucking her into her bed, I was just overcome with how much I love this beautiful, special girl. It's been almost a year since she joined our family and I can't believe her grasp of English, her resiliency, her happy demeanor, and her pure testimony of Jesus Christ. As I kissed her goodnight, she said, "Mommy, can I fix my eyes?" I said, "No, sweetie, only Jesus can fix your eyes." She replied, "But I know how! I just have to go like this," and proceeded to put her hands over her eyes.

Such childlike faith.

I have no doubt that it is faith enough to be healed now, if it is His desire for her.

I love that sweet Lexi of mine.

Science Fair Help ADDENDUM

2011-11-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

Wow! Thank you so much for your input-- it has helped a TON! Keep it coming, please!!

Ok, so this is the deal-- we need more MALES to watch the video. We are getting a disproportionate number of females/males and we need them to be equal. So... ask your sons and hubbies, if you don't mind. (:

A big thanks from Graci and Taylor! (:

Science Fair Help

2011-11-26T13:03:00.002-07:00

It's my favorite time of year again-- science fair! This year I get to help THREE kids put together their science fair project. Lucky, lucky me! (;

Graci and Taylor are requesting your help in their projects. First of all, for Graci's project, if you could watch a short video and then leave a comment with the answer to the last question it asked, that would be sooo helpful! Please state if you are male or female, as she is investigating whether gender affects the results of the test. You can have family members take it too, if you feel so inclined to help even more! (:

The video is HERE.

Secondly, Taylor is investigating the Birthday Paradox. If you could just leave a comment in the comment box with the birthdates (without the year) of you and your family members, it would help tremendously.

The more participants, the better. (:

Thank you, wonderful readers!!!

Happy Birthday, Parker!

2011-11-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

I am 100% convinced that there is not a better boy in the world than our Parker. If you know him well, you know what I mean. Parker is not only athletic, funny, super smart, cool, and talented in so many areas, he is also generous, kind, spiritual, and so tenderhearted. He has always amazed us with the love he shows his siblings. Often, when he can sense me getting frazzled or frustrated, he will quietly step in and help. I don’t think a day goes by that he doesn’t offer to do something for me. He is protective of all of his little siblings. Every day after school, he picks Lexi up from her 1st grade classroom and walks her down the street a block to the place I pick the kids up. He does this despite the fact that his friends are running ahead of him, horsing around and having fun. And he has never once complained about it. That’s the kind of brother he is.

Parker’s birthday was yesterday. He chose a fried egg sandwich, sausage, raspberries, and mangoes for his breakfast in bed. After I sent the kids to school, I got thinking about how Parker had not-so-subtly hinted several times that he really wanted to stay home on his birthday. We had told him that no, he couldn’t miss school for his birthday. But I got to thinking about how happy it would make him and I decided to go pull him out before lunch. When I checked him out, he had a huge grin on his face. We came home and ate fettuccini alfredo together (his favorite food), played a game, and then cuddled and watched TV while Sophi napped. Best afternoon for both of us! I could do that every day!! Parker has declared that it MUST become an annual tradition. (:

Parker had his friend party tonight. He has such good friends-- I am so grateful! I took them all to the rec center to swim and play basketball. Then we picked up pizza and came to the house. Parker wanted warm pie and ice cream instead of cake. After they ate, they were hanging out in the living room just being boys. I was in the kitchen cleaning up, and after a few minutes, in came Parker to ask me if I needed any help. I think he’s going to make some girl VERY happy someday.

We love you, our wonderful Parker Matthew Green, more than we can ever say. Happy 11th birthday!

PTC

2011-11-04T00:09:00.001-06:00

Came home from parent teacher conferences today. Saw Jess and told her that her teacher said she was a joy to have in the classroom. Jesi responded: "Well obviously!"

:)
Jer

The note I just found on Jessica's door

2011-10-27T13:13:00.000-06:00

I am not kidding!
Parker and Taylor
Don't come in.
Not even if it's an a merchitce.
no!!!!!!!
Just for today.

(decorated with pictures of said boys)

We love Annie!

2011-10-22T22:06:00.004-06:00

We have the most wonderful neighbors. Most days we have at least a few extra kiddos over here. One darling girl, Annie, has practically become one of ours. She is friends to Jesi, Xander, Lexi, and Sophi, and they all constantly ask to play with her.

Today I found the sweetest letter in Jesi's bedroom. She had just written it to bring over to Annie.

Dear Annie

You are a good friend to me. You are so in joy a bowl to me. I can trust you for secrats. I think you are smart.

Your friend,
Jessica.

P.S. We're playing candyland. Bye.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

So grateful for good friends for our children!

You may be wondering...

2011-10-13T13:47:00.004-06:00

... what's up with all the blog posts this afternoon.

It's simple, really.

It all started earlier this week when I had just folded a huge batch of clothes and had them sitting on my nicely made bed.

Insert Elli.

Within minutes of her going into my room unsupervised, she had not only thrown all of the clothes off the bed and strewn them about the room, but had taken the sheets and blankets off the bed, knocked various items off the dresser and nightstand, and was tearing up papers from the desk. Oh, and she emptied Jeremy's very organized card file, which he was oh-so-happy about.

I was too overwhelmed and busy to clean it up then, and in the last few days that mess has multiplied. (That seems to happen a lot around here.) Now you can see approximately three square inches of carpet in my bedroom. Which is why it was supposed to be my project this afternoon. And I would think you would agree, if that was your project for the day, you would rather blog too!

AGH!!!!! (:

How can you not smile?

2011-10-13T13:39:00.003-06:00

Xander is a hoot.

This is him getting ready for his imaginary camping trip:

Yesterday Jeremy asked if he wanted to go to basketball practice with him and the other boys. Within seconds, Xander had donned this outfit and was ready to go. I just worry about his lack of personality. (;

Like going back in time...

2011-10-13T13:24:00.005-06:00

My little sister, Leslie, and her family came up here last weekend. Her son was getting sclerotherapy the same day as Xander, and by the same doctor. We didn't even schedule that on purpose-- crazy!! Both of their surgeries were successful, but it was obviously not a fun experience for either of them (or their moms!). It is so hard to watch your child hurt.

At least the other kids got to have some fun!!

Leslie's three boys are so, so darling. Whenever we are around them, Jer and I will have flashes of Taylor and Parker at their ages. Trey looks so much like Taylor, and Lincoln like Parker. I'm not sure if you can see it in these pictures, but it really is crazy how similar they are. I am so glad to have them around to remind me of my cute little boys that grew up WAY too fast!

Leslie makes these cutest headbands. I'm thinking I should take lessons...

Sophi's kisses...

2011-10-13T13:19:00.003-06:00

...are seriously the best thing on the planet.

Could she be any cuter? Seriously??

Three cheers for Elli!

2011-10-13T13:04:00.003-06:00

Elli has been so happy for the last couple of days. Her teacher said that Tuesday was the best day she's ever had-- yay! Yesterday I met her class for a field trip. I wish I had brought my camera-- the kids were all so sweet! It's always good to be around other moms and teachers who understand a lot of what you are going through with these special kids. Something so random-- one of my roommates from BYU has a son with autism who is in Elli's class. We hadn't seen each other for years and then that happens!

I was visiting with her teacher at the field trip, and she thinks that I need to take another shot at potty training Elli. Um, that sounds like as much fun as pulling out my toenails! I am not kidding. But I'm going to try. Elli does usually go on the toilet when we take her, it's just that she doesn't tell us when she needs to go. And she dances around on the toilet and makes all kinds of fun messes. Apparently at school, they have been taking her very consistently (giving her treats as rewards-- she'll do anything she can do for treats) and she is staying dry there. She rarely stays dry here, but then again, I am not at all consistent at taking her. So I guess we're going to give this thing a try. Starting Saturday. I'm trying not to panic.

I LOVE my Elli. I have said before that she is like oxygen to me-- that I just have to breathe her every day. Admittedly I feel more that way when she has good days like these!! (:

She is an angel on earth, that girl.

Sisters

2011-10-13T12:52:00.003-06:00

These two crack me up. Their interactions are just so funny. Sophi will try to read to Lexi by running her toes over the braille letters while making up a story. Lexi will try to carry Sophi around like she's her little baby and will constantly run into things and drop her, which they both find very humorous. Lexi will try to teach Sophi how to pronounce things correctly (hilarious!) while Sophi will try to tell Lexi what to do. Sophi will feed Lexi with her little toes while barking at her to come closer, and Lexi will feed Sophi but miss her mouth half the time. They just laugh through it all.

I love them!

Toothless Wonders x 4

2011-10-13T12:40:00.004-06:00

This is my attempt at getting a picture of how these four darlings are currently missing their two front teeth. As you can see, it wasn't very successful. (:

Our family just might put the tooth fairy out of business...

Which reminds me, I found it quite humorous that Parker was determined to wiggle his tooth loose while we were down in Ferron visiting Grandma a couple weeks ago. Apparently, he had learned from past experience that the tooth fairy pays a lot more at Grandma's house. I told him it may have just been a one time thing, but he was quite sure it would happen again. He was right. (:

No such thing as a few minutes alone...

2011-10-12T15:39:00.005-06:00

After repeatedly telling the kids that I was busy for a few minutes, (ie. leave me alone, please!) I received this note on my counter:

"Dear Mrs. Green,

I think you will not Be happy about this. Lexi said she needs you. She's in Jessica's room. so sorry to interupt yoour cooking."

The handwriting points to this cutie:

Random Cuteness

2011-10-12T08:20:00.002-06:00

At some point on most school mornings, when Sophi is Christi's incessant, noisy, demanding shadow, and continually shouts to ensure her voice is heard above the general din of getting seven other kids out the door, Christi hollers out to me, "Don't forget that today is take-your-daughter-to-work day!"

Last night Taylor and Parker had basketball practice and I was coaching them. We were gone for an hour and a half. During that time, Graci had helped out a lot with the little kids. The boys and I got home and the family immediately sat down to a late dinner. It was obvious that the boys were exhausted, and I told them to just shower and go straight to bed. Graci, in an abrasive voice, barked at me "Do I have to help?" OK. I understand her point. The boys get to play while she works. Then, since their play was so intense that it wore them out, they get to go to bed while she helps clean up dinner? Doesn't seem fair. But her tone of voice can be quite similar to nails on a chalkboard at times and can create in a person a desire to bark back at her, "Yes!!! You do have to help!!!". But I, being the sweet, thoughtful, kind dad that I am, decided to take the patient route. With a smile on my face, I explain to Graci that I empathize with her. I give her an example of a different way to approach me with her request: (In a syrupy, sweet voice and batting my eyelashes) "Daddy, I worked so hard while you and the boys were playing basketball. I helped mommy so much. Would it be OK if maybe I could relax after dinner like Taylor and Parker? Grace, do you see the difference?" I asked. "Yes," she replied. "OK, why don't you try asking me again." Graci, in an ever-so-slightly less abrasive voice than the first time: "Do I have to help?" I stared at her for about 2 seconds and then busted up laughing. No Grace, you don't have to help:)

Christi, after observing Sophi walking around wearing one of my big, white t-shirts and looking quite like a Halloween ghost: "You know, depending on how gory we wanted to get, Sophi could have some really incredible Halloween costumes when she gets older..."

Too many kisses!

2011-10-04T18:27:00.003-06:00

Christi was holding Sophi in her lap. I came up and suggested three-way kisses, which Soph loves. Christi and I pressed our lips together and waited for Sophi to put her lips up with ours. She did. We all made a big "MMMMMM-AHHH" sound as we gave each other the kiss. We did it one more time. I started on a third try and Sophi emphatically said, "ENOUGH!!!" "Enough?" I asked. "ENOUGH! K?" OK Soph:)

Jer

Stuff

2011-09-29T09:07:00.011-06:00

First of all, remind me to never make promises again about daily posts. It seems each time I do, life gets busier than ever before!!

Something about each of us:

Lexi-- I loved this email I got from her teacher this week:

"I wanted to share a cute story about Lexi that happened the other day. I was talking with her and she was holding onto my arm. She felt a little bump on my arm and asked me, 'What's that?' I replied with, 'Oh it's just a little bump on my skin.' She said, 'No....That's not a bump...It's the letter A.' It took me a minute to remember that the letter A is one dot. I thought that was really cute."

I don't know if I mentioned it, but Lexi is in a regular classroom. She has a full time aid that helps her and she has vision/mobility specialists that work with her as well. She is doing really well at learning braille and just LOVES school. The special education department head said in an email this morning, "We are LOVING Lexi, she is just this bright light in our school. Always so positive and kind."

Xander: We received quite a shock a couple of weeks ago when we took Xander to a new doctor up at Primary Children's. My sister had found this doctor through her son's orthopedist and we were both delighted to find that he actually knows what he is talking about when it comes to conditions like our sons have. He just came from Boston-- the absolute best treatment center in the world for these kinds of conditions. Anyway... we have been told this whole time that Xander has KT Syndrome, when in actuality, he has Cloves Syndrome. They are similar in many ways, but this new diagnosis is actually a very good one for Xander! There are only 55 diagnosed cases worldwide. It brings with it some good news-- there is a possibility of debulking his leg!! He will be getting a few rounds of sclerotherapy, starting next week, and then we'll see where we are at. It looks like we may have to travel to Boston for some surgeries. Totally not what we need right now, but on the other hand, I've always wanted to go to Boston! (: I am so glad that he is now under the care of an extremely competent and likable doctor. YAY!

Parker: Received his Arrow of Light this week. I can take virtually no credit for it either-- his dad does all the scouting at our house. But it's nice that it's the moms that get to come up and have their boys give them a pin. (: We're proud of you, Parker!

Lexi loved playing the drums!

Taylor: I always talk about how good Parker is with the littles, but I forget sometimes to mention that Taylor is pretty sweet himself! The other day I asked him to watch Sophi while I ran somewhere. When I came home, he had dumped all of the toys out of the Barbie basket and had her in it, "giving her a bath." They were playing some make-believe, darling game that made Sophi so happy. I think it's a pretty good brother that would do something like that.

Graci: Grace was so excited to share with us that she got one of the top three scores on a test in her math class-- woo hoo! She does so well with her schoolwork, despite the fact that she's doing it all in her second language. (: On a more serious note, at Graci's last cardiology appointment, we found that her health issues are getting a bit worse. She is going in today for a cardiac MRI that can hopefully show the doctor what to do next. We would love if you would keep her in your prayers.
This is Graci with the things she knitted for her dolly. (:

Sophi: Is finally loving preschool! Took her awhile to get used to going, but now she leaves with a smile on her face. YAY! She goes twice a week for two hours, which is perfect for her. Here are some "first day of school" shots that were actually taken on the third day-- oops!

Elli: Elli, oh Elli. What can you say? She fluctuates from being the sweetest thing on the planet to a HUGE handful. Sometimes it's day to day, and sometimes minute to minute. Good thing we love her so much!! We were able to go to a school carnival/fundraiser a couple of weeks ago and meet her wonderful teachers. What would we do without these kind of people in her life?!!

Jesi: Started ballet and loves it. She loves to come up with different outfits to wear each week. (This is actually Graci's skirt from Grandma-- isn't it cute?)

Us: We had the absolute greatest time on our little getaway. We drove down to Manti and attended a session at the Manti Temple, where we were married. It was such a beautiful experience for both of us. We stayed that night in a nice bed and breakfast and just had such a good time being together and SLEEPING IN! We drove the Nebo Loop on our way home. It is a gorgeous drive. Especially breathtaking this time of year with the leaves turning colors. That evening, I attended Women's Conference with my mom up at the Conference Center. The talks were all wonderful, but we both especially enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's. He is such a great man. What a treat for me-- two nights off in a row! (:

Emily Anne

2011-09-28T14:42:00.002-06:00

"The Lord takes many away even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again. . . . All children are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and the moment that children leave this world, they are taken to the bosom of Abraham. The only difference between the old and young dying is, one lives longer in heaven and eternal light and glory than the other, and is freed a little sooner from this miserable wicked world.”-- Joseph Smith

"Each of us will have our own Fridays--those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

"But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death--Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

"No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or in the next, Sunday will come.

"I testify to you that the Resurrection is not a fable. We have the personal testimonies of those who saw Him. Thousands in the Old and New Worlds witnessed the risen Savior. They felt the wounds in His hands, feet, and side. They shed tears of unrestrained joy as they embraced Him."-- Joseph B. Wirthlin

My tiny sweet angel, who changed my life in a thousand ways... Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jer!

2011-09-23T12:58:00.009-06:00

Can you tell she adores him?

Today Jeremy turned 39-- just one year away from the big 40! I think he gets hotter every year-- I LOVE the salt and pepper look on a guy!

I am so grateful to have this man in my life.

He is kind and fun and thoughtful and forgiving and intelligent and spiritual and talented and amazing.

Except when he is not.
(He deserved that!)

This morning for his birthday, Jeremy had a small breakfast in bed, then got up to make lunches for all the kids. After that, he transformed into Johnny Appleseed so he could surprise Jesi, Xander, Lexi, Elli, and their respective classes. Johnny Apppleseed's birthday is next Tuesday, but Jer couldn't do it then, so he volunteered to do it today instead.

This is how he feels about dressing up as Johnny Appleseed:

Ha, ha. Actually, he is a very good sport. He sings the Johnny Appleseed song with them, reads a story, and hands out caramel apple suckers. This is just one example of why my kids have the best dad in the world. (:

Quotes from men I admire:

“Brethren, noble fatherhood gives us a glimpse of the divine attributes of our Father in Heaven. A father should be many things. He should magnify his priesthood and be an example of righteousness. In companionship with his wife, he should be the source of stability and strength for the whole family. He should be the protector and the provider and the champion of the members of his family. Much of his love for his children should flow from his example of love, concern, and fidelity for their mother. By his uncompromising example he should instill character into his children.”-- James E. Faust

"What more can a husband do to support his wife, the mother of their children? First, show extra appreciation and give more validation for what your wife does every day. Notice things and say thank you—often. Schedule some evenings together, just the two of you.

"Second, have a regular time to talk with your wife about each child's needs and what you can do to help.

"Third, give your wife a 'day away' now and then. Just take over the household and give your wife a break from her daily responsibilities. Taking over for a while will greatly enhance your appreciation of what your wife does. . . .

"Fourth, come home from work and take an active role with your family. Don't put work, friends, or sports ahead of listening to, playing with, and teaching your children."—M. Russell Ballard

I'm so grateful for a husband who is this kind of father and husband. I am so blessed to call him my best friend. And I am so excited to go on an OVERNIGHT birthday date with him tonight (our first overnight in over a year-- thanks, Mom and Dad!)

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! And Happy Birthday, Jenny!!

PS. Honey, this is for posting pictures of me at the hospital. (:

Quotes from the Kids

2011-09-21T08:24:00.002-06:00

Last night Taylor gave me the following sage advice: "The only thing women like better than to be told they're pretty is to be told that they're prettier than someone else." Thanks, Tay:)

The last several evenings Xander has asked, "Can we read more of 'Ginger Bread?'" He is referring to Eleanor Estes' Newberry Award-winning book: "Ginger Pye." Cute!

Jer

Disabilities

2011-09-18T22:16:00.002-06:00

After church today we loaded up into the van. I glanced back into the rows and rows of seats behind us and noticed that Lexi wasn't buckled. "Lexi," I asked, "can you buckle yourself?" She responded: "No. But I blind." Wow. That hit me like a ton of bricks. Where did she get the idea that her blindness prevented her from buckling her seatbelt? What other preconceived notions does she have or will she pick up as she gets older. Lexi, you can do ANYTHING! A silly little seatbelt is a piece of cake. We will continue to look for more and more opportunities to help Lexi see what she can do in spite of her lack of vision.

Jer

Quote of the Morning

2011-09-16T08:42:00.002-06:00

So many to choose from, but I'll have to go with Graci's:

"Mom, can you make your homemade rolls for my cooking class today? And don't worry, cuz it's not til 11:10."

I love kids.

Surprises

2011-09-14T08:39:00.002-06:00

This may come as a shock to everyone, but there are lots of jobs to do around our house. It's true. Xander loves to help out, but his ability to actually move the work forward is somewhat limited. One job that he can do very well is take messy diapers out to the garbage. He has become our default "dirty-diaper-taker-outer." Now, this job is not really as disgusting as it could be. By the time he receives the package, it has been placed into an old Walmart bag. The bag has been tied up so as to minimize exposure to any toxic contents. All he has to do is hold it by the handles, go outside and to the side of the house and deposit it in the trash can. Not too terrible, right. He often lets us know his displeasure at the assignment, but given the small amount of work he does overall, I'm not that concerned about it.

Apparently he is. Unbeknownst to us, he has begun protesting his lack of union representation through an act of civil disobedience. Taking these bags of human waste with a smile on his face, he has quietly been walking out the back door, stopping on the porch...and tossing them in the window well just to the side of the patio! Monday evening I happened to look down into said window well and there were at least 15 messy diapers piled up down there! I actually impressed myself with my reaction. First, I asked who had done this. Xander admitted it was him and I thanked him for his honesty. I then gave him a bucket and lowered him into the window well to clean up the mess. He pretty much freaked out in fear of spiders and whatever else might dwell down in those depths. I doubt he will ever put another diaper down there again:)

Jer

Funny, Sweet Kids

2011-09-12T20:58:00.003-06:00

Graci picks up some interesting expressions. She often says the word, "Curses!" Tonight we were playing a card game called "Set." (It's a cerebral game which is great for older kids and adults.) I got a point that Graci thought she was going to get. She exlaims: "Curses you! No offense, but Curses You!" No offense taken Grace.

Tonight we cooked out. After we were done with our hotdogs, we cooked s'mores over the grill. Christi says: "Lexi, do you want a s'more?" "No." "Lexi, a s'more is a marshmallow with chocolate." Huge grin: "SURE!"

I love listening to my kids say their prayers. They are so innocent and sweet. Apparently Jesi has recently learned the word, "ability." She went through each of our children in her prayer last night. "Please bless that Elli will have the abilibity to see someday. And please bless that Sophi will have the abilibity to have arms someday in heaven. And please bless that Graci will have the abilibity to have a healthy heart.... You get the idea. She is very sweet. I hope that I can have the abilibity to have the faith of a child.

-Jer

Some pics from my phone:)

2011-09-10T14:11:00.013-06:00

If I had to use one word to describe Lexi, "meek" would be a strong contender. There is something so sweet and accepting about her. She can be a bit demanding when she wants something, but that is at least partly due to the culture change she experienced less than a year ago, not to mention how a lack of vision inhibits her ability to observe how other people interact with each other. Lexi has her MRI:

Lexi can fall asleep anywhere...and frequently does. The other day on the floor of the living room:

Graci had a school assignment last year where she was supposed to dress up as a historical figure, real or fictional. Christi is the master of coming up with a fantastic project from virtually nothing. Thinking through wardrobe choices, Christi thought of Graci's "Make-a-Wish" dress. By putting it on backwards, the ties would look like something from the middle ages. Hence, we have...Lady Katherine Rose. (A name Graci came up with herself:)

Jesi receives her t-ball trophy this year. You've never seen a cuter player:)

Sophi with her cousin, Katie Rose, at our annual family reunion. This year we were at Island Park, ID:

Taylor had a birthday party at the park this year. They played night games and had tons of fun:

Graci goes in for her back surgery. What a cutie:)

Christi goes back for her appendectomy. She's not quite as at peace with this process as Graci seemed to be:)

(Almost) All of Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's grandkids. Just missing the youngest two (Soph was taking a nap).

Grandma Nelson with three sleepy girls:

Taylor and Parker visit the "Up!" house. This was part of the Salt Lake Parade of Homes. The interior was decorated just like the movie. VERY cute!

-Jer

Cereal Box Saga

2011-09-09T09:04:00.002-06:00

Teri, I’m seriously considering your offer. (:

After reading Jeremy’s posts I committed to not make the Walmart runs quite so frequent. As I was first reading them, I thought he was stretching things a bit, but the more I thought through the last couple of weeks, I realized he wasn’t stretching it at all—I had been calling him daily asking him to pick up various items. Yesterday I was determined that we would go Walmart-free. (: I guess that’s just not in the cards for us right now…

Let me backtrack… Wednesday after school, Parker told me he had to decorate a cereal box into a “writing box.” Ah… the first school project! (Actually, as I type that, I realize that’s not true. We’ve already decorated paper dolls for the first graders.) Anyway… I told him to call Jer, because he had already mentioned he was stopping at Walmart after work. (Surprise, surprise.) By the way, not all of these shopping trips have been for food. Sometimes it’s a “Mom, I need a padlock for PE,” or “Mom, we’re supposed to bring a different kind of notebook than what you bought,” or “Mom, I need a zippered pencil box I can put in my folder.” You get the idea…

So anyway, Parker called his dad and asked for a cereal box. It was kind of strange that he had to do this in the first place, as we are a cereal family. We ALWAYS have cereal. TONS of it. But we always stock up when there are big cereal sales and fill the storage room shelves full of it, and it has been a long time since there was a big sale. Currently, we only have the Malt-o-Meal bagged kind.

When Jeremy came home with two boxes of Cracklin Oat Bran, I was so excited. My favorite cereal, hands down. (Even though when we have brought it to church in baggies as a snack, children have been known to ask, “Why are those kids eating dog food?”)

The only problem with this cereal is the size of the box—too small for Parker’s project. Of course. So that evening, after his church meeting, Jer stopped at the store once again. This time he got Lucky Charms. We never get Lucky Charms, at least the brand name, so Parker was excited not only about the size of the box, but for the cereal itself. Score.

Except for one thing. The power went out. His idea to decorate the box from pictures on our computer wouldn’t work. And at this point, I was getting frustrated. It was late, he was supposed to be in bed, and we were working by the light of a candle. We tried some different ideas, but nothing was working. I finally told him he would just have to ask if he could have one more day. It was at this point that he decided to tell me, “Well, I guess that might work, ‘cause I don’t even know if it’s due tomorrow.” Thanks for telling me that NOW, sweet boy!

As it turns out, it wasn’t due until Friday, so we did have another day. And, you’re going to laugh… as I told him to fetch the Lucky Charms box last night so we could get started, Jeremy walked in holding it saying, “You mean, this box?” The box he was referring to was indeed the correct box. Except it had been completely cut up by none other than our sweet Graci. In her defense, she was only following the directions on the back of the box, which was to cut it up to create some sort of game.

At this point, the littles were already in bed and I was already out of gas. Like I said, I was committed to not make any more trips to the store, so I told Parker he would just have to borrow a box from a neighbor. Our cute Parker hates to do things like this, but I told him he would just have to be a man and do it. He went to our next door neighbor. He’s the nicest guy in the world, even if his rooster does wake us up in the morning. (As a side note, that should end today, as he has told us that rooster is their dinner tonight. Whew.) Parker came back with a cereal box, but once again, it was too small. He begged me to go the store, but I said we’d just have to try another neighbor. This time I called first and specified it had to be a big box. He went over to get it. Rice Krispies. In a big box. Except even though it was big (very tall) it wasn’t quite wide enough. Oh well, it would have to work.

We get to work on the computer picking out pictures. His idea was to put funny, crazy pictures of our family all over the box, collage style, with a caption that said, “I get my writing ideas from my unique family.” Pretty cute! We had a ball picking out silly pictures, and stayed up a bit too late doing so. We finally sent the pictures to the printer. After one page printed, the printer stopped. Two cartridges were out of ink. No problem, I think. Jeremy’s always got spares on hand. Except of course, tonight he didn’t. Which meant…

Another trip to Walmart.

Actually, I tried for Smith's first (it's closer) but of course, they didn't have the correct kind of cartridges. I did however, get a box of Corn Flakes that was just the right size!

Luckily, as I was at Walmart walking down the aisles like a zombie, I called my mom, who mentioned the fact that Elli’s birthday is today. A fact I already knew, and had thought of all week, but had spaced that whole day. I needed to get her present and little noise makers to share with her class, making it a good thing that I ended up at Walmart after all. (:

I shouldn’t admit that I sent Parker to bed and stayed up gluing the pictures on the box myself. I usually don’t do homework projects for my kids, but he needed his sleep and the whole thing really wasn’t his fault. It turned out pretty cute!

If you're keeping track, these are the cereal boxes we went through: Cracklin Oat Bran (1st trip to the store), Lucky Charms (2nd trip to the store), Honey Bunches of Oats (neighbor), Rice Krispies (other neighbor), and the winner, good old Corn Flakes. (:

So what do you think, can we make it today without visiting our second home???

--Christianne

PS. I’ll try to come back later to blog Elli’s birthday. We sure love you, birthday girl!!

PS

2011-09-08T09:23:00.002-06:00

A funny? side note...When I came home from Walmart last night, Christi saw the chili-chocolate bar in the bag. Knowing that I shouldn't eat it, she snatched it away and ran, trying to hide it from me. I was too quick for her and grabbed her arm. She called out to Taylor to come into the room so she could toss it to him. He didn't hear. I finally got it back from her, but not before my elbow accidentally smacked her nose. So now she has a broken toe, a broken tailbone, and maybe a broken nose...

Walking Walmart

2011-09-08T08:03:00.005-06:00

Some people have to go the gym every day to get a workout. Me? I just count my daily trip to Walmart. Well, I do try to get to the rec center regularly, but I really do go Walmart almost every day. It's kind of crazy. It's never been this way before. But there's something about making seven school lunches that changes things a bit. There are certain types of items that just work well for a school lunch. If we're all eating at home, we can make a big pot of spaghetti or warm up leftovers for lunch. But when I'm packing for the kids I try to put in a sandwich, fruit, some kind of dessert, pretzels or chips or crackers. Then there's the snacks for the 1st and 2nd graders. And we just blow through it so fast. Plus, our pantry is tiny, so we can't stock up too much. I'm sure we'll get the purchasing down better as we go along:)

Yesterday as I wrote I forgot to mention one thing. I really enjoy making lunches for the kids. At one point, Christi and I talked about how much we actually save packing them instead of buying hot lunches. It's not that much. On an hourly basis, I'm probably making less than minimum wage by preparing them myself. But I really do enjoy it. It puts me right in the middle of the morning school rush with the kids. I enjoy getting them all packed up and waving to them as they run out to their carpool. They're good kids!

Abrupt topic change: why is it so hard to lose weight?!? I've been between 220 and 226 for a long time. Years. I know I should be around 190. So why don't I just do it? I did get down to 190 about 7 years ago. That lasted about three months. I feel so much better when I eat healthy and drop a few pounds. And then there's the other end of things. Mornings like today, when I have what a friend of mine calls a "fat-boy hangover." I've never had a real hangover, so I don't know what it feels like. But it can't feel a whole lot worse than this. I woke up at about 4am with some wicked heartburn, and it's still with me. Plus a headache. I just drowned my sorrows in a cup of alka seltzer. I use different remedies depending on what we have around. Christi's favorite is when I drink pepto straight from the bottle. She tells me it's hot when I do that:) So what did I ingest yesterday to precipitate this type of misery? Well, I started out very well. (I start basically every day thinking this will be the day that I really begin to eat healthy. And I'm not necessarily talking about a super-calorie-restrictive diet. I'm just talking about healthy.) By lunch time I had had a bowl of oatmeal, a banana, a tuna sandwich on whole wheat and some almonds. Pretty good. Then I got the cravings. Through the rest of the day, in addition to a good sized dinner, I had a large Butterfinger Sonic Blast (similar to a Dairy Queen Blizzard) a Skor bar, two bowls of Cracklin' Oat Bran and a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. And my bowls of cereal aren't exactly small. Then, just to top it off, I had to make a SECOND stop at Walmart to pick up something for a school project for Parker. Of course I meandered down the candy aisle. Actually, there was no meandering about it. I knew exactly what I wanted. Have you ever had chocolate infused with chili pepper. Sounds strange if you haven't had it, but it's actually quite delicious. But it's a "gourmet" chocolate item, so it only comes in the giant sized bars. It is dark chocolate though, so of course it has some healthy anti-oxidants in it, right? (Yes, I realize that is pathetic:) And so I proceeded to eat 75% of that giant chocolate bar to end the night off. And that, folks, is a great recipe for a "fat-boy hangover." May you never suffer through the consequences of such a binge. Actually, may I never suffer through the consequences of such a binge. You're on your own!

Jer

Dab makes lunches!

2011-09-07T07:54:00.005-06:00

Sophi call me "Dab." She can say "Daddy," but can't seem to put the "d" sound on the end of a word. This morning she sees me stumble into the kitchen to make seven lunches for our fantastic kids. "Dab?" she hollers out. "Yes?" I respond. "Morning, Dab." She truly is amazing, just the way she is:)

I grew up in a family where if you were served food, you ate it. Period. With a smile on your face and gratitude in your heart. (And for the record, that would still be my policy, if it were mine to make.) Christi grew up in a home where if you had different taste preferences, the head chef would make something different for you. (Which, for the record, is a very loving way to cook for your kids.) Early in our marriage, I tried to curb Christi's tendency to cater to the individual culinary appetites of our individual children. We had some "discussions" on this topic. I finally came to the realization that if someone is willing to cook 99% of the meals for me and my family, I better shut my mouth and let her cook whatever she wants for whomever she wants. (This is similar to the realization I came to that if someone is going to do my laundry, I better not complain that the shirts are hung up facing left instead of right. But I digress.) I will say that on the rare occasion that I do cook, the kids know that they will eat what is served to them. Period. With a smile on their face. Chili and pears from a can are AWESOME. Now eat!!! Actually, I've become a bit of a softie myself. For example, when I make mac and cheese, I will hold out some of the macaroni before I add the cheese. This is for Jesi, who likes it with spaghetti sauce. Anyway, you get the idea.

So when making lunches for seven kids who are used to being served foods that they personally prefer, there are a lot of things to remember. Graci won't eat chocolate. Jesi will only accept a half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. No tuna. No turkey. No peanut butter and honey. And it has to be seedless jelly. Grape is best. Taylor prefers white bread for his sandwiches. Unless it's tuna. Then he prefers wheat. And the tuna has to made with fat free Thousand Island dressing. Not mayo. Graci prefers turkey, but will eat peanut butter and jelly. Especially if it's raspberry jam. But if you put it on wheat bread, she will only take about one bite of it. Parker wants ranch on both sides of his Turkey sandwich along with cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles. Taylor wants turkey AND ham (two slices of turkey, one of ham) with mustard on both sides, cheese and lettuce. NO TOMATO! Graci only wants a little ranch on one side, lettuce and cheese. Taylor prefers plain old traditional potato chips. No Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, sour cream and onion or barbecue for him. He will settle for Sun Chips if that's all there is. Graci prefers Cool Ranch Doritos, Cheetos, Regular Doritos and Sun Chips. In that order. Elli will only eat a sandwich if it the second Tuesday after the full moon. Chips are the third Friday. She does better with a granola bar and pretzels. Got all that and have an hour a day to spare? You're hired!!!

Jer

Happy Birthday, Sophi!

2011-09-06T11:18:00.008-06:00

Our little Sophi bear turned three on Sunday. I can't stand how fast she is growing up! She was treated to breakfast in bed (oatmeal, yogurt, and chocolate milk), small gifts from all the kids, and lots and lots of “Happy Birthday” songs. Of course, she LOVED all the attention.

As I think back on the story of Sophi, and the great leap of faith it took to pursue her adoption while already in the process of adopting Lexi, my heart is filled with gratitude. I am so grateful for the promptings of the Spirit that led us say “yes” to this little girl. We cannot imagine our lives without this precious daughter of God, and we are so humbled that she is ours.

A few things about Sophi:

She knows how to use the potty, and if we take her often enough, will stay dry. However she is terrified of wearing underwear, so I think it will be awhile before potty training is complete. Sophi isn’t picky, but especially loves fruit, sweets, and yogurt. She loves playing with her baby dolls. She is very particular about her bedtime routine. She needs both Minnies, both babies, her blanket, a sippy cup with ice water, and Aquaphor on her legs (for her eczema). You have to sing her “Jingle Bells” while dancing the two Minnies to the beat. (I think it’s her favorite song because we adopted her at Christmastime, so it was the first song she learned.) She says her prayers by herself. Then she wants a “poof story.” Which is basically a made-up story with lots of “poofs” in the middle, where crazy or funny things happen or someone unexpected shows up. I think we learned this from the Merediths. (: Sophi is starting to talk so much more, putting together short sentences and communicating most of her needs. She loves to go places, and starts begging to go as soon as she hears keys. She is a pro at whining, but is usually good to change her ways with a little reminder to talk nicely. She is amazing at figuring out ways to accomplish what she wants. For instance, she might put a wrapper in her mouth and walk to the garbage to spit it out. She is getting so adept at walking, but will sometimes take a spill, and it’s heartbreaking to watch her, because she can’t catch herself like most of us can. She sprained her weak ankle last Thursday and so is mostly scooting right now. ): Sophi started preschool today. She will go two days a week for two hours. It’s an early intervention preschool that is just fabulous, but I must say it was so tough to walk away to her screams! I am praying she will adjust quickly and that it will be a wonderful experience for her. (And that I can get a bit more organzized!) Sophi has a new "smile" where she scrunches up her nose and squints her eyes anytime there's a camera around. She is so loved by her brothers and sisters and they take such good care of her. Her nicknames are Soph, Sophs, Sophi Bre, and Butterfly.

Happy Birthday, Sophia Breanne!

I was at the store buying stuff to make a cake, and when I went to get the ice cream, saw these premade Pepperidge Farm cakes on sale "buy one get one free." They looked so yummy, so I put the other stuff back and got them instead. While it was nice to not have to bake, these are not as tasty as you would think for Pepperidge Farm. (:

The kids were babysitting Soph while Jer and I were busy, and this is how we found her on the couch.

Ten p.m. train of thought...

2011-09-01T21:56:00.009-06:00

The kids are doing so great in school. I feel we have been blessed with especially good teachers this year. A few weeks before school began, Parker told me he had been praying this summer for a particular teacher. When we found out he had her, we were both seriously overjoyed. He comes home every day and talks about how awesome she is. I could say the same for all of the teachers my elementary kids have. As for middle school, it's different for me to know Taylor and Graci are switching up teachers all day. Definitely good in lots of ways, but it's hard to feel like I don't know the teachers yet. So far, no complaints from them-- so that must be good.

Jen, you asked if I liked school uniforms and the answer is YES! I didn't think I would, but now that we have done it both ways, I wouldn't change it for anything. I love so many things about it, including that my kids can always put their own outfits together, it simplifies things, it unifies the school, it keeps kids from getting judged on their clothing, it keeps kids dressing modestly, I like how the uniforms look, and I think it helps the kids act more professionally. (:

I was able to go into all five of the first grade classrooms and talk about Lexi's blindness and Xander's legs/feet. The kids were so cute and responded very sweetly. Xander was so happy to have me show up and was so matter-of-fact about his condition, much different from last year when he felt more self conscious. Lexi was happy to see me, but told me I wasn't supposed to be at school with her. (: I brought Sophi in and they were especially enamoured with her. The kids asked lots of questions and loved watching her do things with her toes. She was like a little rock star, and had them eating right out of her hands, er, feet. (:

*****

Speaking of Soph-- I took her to Shriner's Hosptial today and she showed off her walking skills. The doctors were duly impressed and are trying to figure out the best way to help even out her legs and give her some stability. We are trying some new shoes with lifts, and they are also making a brace for her. We had a cast made today and should be getting them in a few weeks. I don't think I ever posted a picture of her first shoes made by Shriner's. She used them to practice walking in her walker. Pretty cute, right?

******

Speaking of cute, check out our Jessica in her baptism dress.

Jesi was baptized last Saturday. It was a beautiful service for a beautiful girl. She wore the dress that Rosemary (Jeremy's mother) made for her daughter's baptism over 30 years ago. Graci had worn it for her baptism as well, making it extra special. Jessica was able to choose the program, and she wanted everyone in the family to participate, which I thought was really sweet. Xander was the chorister, I played the piano, Taylor and Parker spotlighted Jessica, Lexi and Sophi bore their testimonies, and Graci gave a prayer. The family sang a song together. My sister-in-law, Megan, gave a wonderful talk on the Holy Ghost and my mom on baptism. Baptisms are such beautiful events. I love the spirit that is there and the sacredness of the ordinance.

Jesi, we are so proud of your decision to follow the Savior into the waters of baptism. We love you with all of our hearts.

Thanks to our wonderful family and friends who came to her baptism.

*****

Speaking of wonderful people, I am feeling so, so much better due to the thoughtful people in my life. The cold I had turned into a sinus infection and bronchitis and the doctor said he was actually going to treat me for pneumonia because he felt that's where it was heading. Dealing with that on top of all the surgery stuff had me feeling so miserable. We continue to be blessed by such good people all around us helping in so many ways. I love the words "The errand of angels is given to women, and this is a gift that as sisters we claim." How grateful I am for the women in my life who have taken on the errand of angels.

*****

Speaking of angels, don't you just love this quote?

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away." ~Dinah Craik

My Grandma Larsen had that quote up in her home, and as a young girl I committed it to memory because I thought it so beautiful. Today I was thinking of this quote and feeling so grateful for the people in my life that make me feel that kind of comfort. While it's good to weigh words, it is so freeing to have friends who just "get you" to the point where you don't have to worry about coming across the wrong way. I am resolving right now to try even harder to "sift" and to always have that breath of kindness!

*****

And finally, speaking of quotes, some of my favorite have come from Time Out for Women conferences. And, crazy enough, our blog has been featured this week on the Time Out for Women website. We are honored! TOFW loves to share stories of inspirational people, and I can't think of anyone more inspirational than our Sophi. (:

TOFW has been a great blessing in my life. I attended events in Nashville when I lived there, and in St. George with my sisters. The speakers there have uplifted and strengthened me-- thank you, TOFW.

Speaking of TIME, I think it's time I went to bed...

Goodnight!

--Christianne

Daughters, Daughters everywhere!

2011-08-30T08:28:00.010-06:00

It's that time of year again-camping season:) No sports and no coaching from July to November! Eventually I think our boys will insist on playing football, but so far, they have been ok with the "two sports a year" rule. It really has been a good thing for our family to enjoy several months each year with very few structured activities.

Two weekends ago I took Graci, Jesi and Lexi on our second annual Daddy Daughter campout. Last year, Graci pointed out that I took the boys camping more often than the girls, and so a tradition was born. We went to the same campground that we went to last year: Clover Spring Campground. It's a little over an hour to get there, and it's quite a beautiful setting. In the foothills of the rocky mountains, the campground is next to a natural spring that feeds a good-sized river which provides water for a small rural town.

With Graci's back still somewhat sore and Lexi with some obvious limitations, including this being her first ever camping trip, it was up to Jesi and me to pitch the tent. It went pretty well. Jesi is a good sport and always wants to help. After the tent was pitched, we built a fire and had hot dogs, chips and s'mores.

Lexi had really wanted to come, and was happy to be there, but she just didn't get it. The whole evening she just kept asking: "Can I go to bed?" Once she was in bed, the rest of us enjoyed the fading campfire and the brilliant stars. I love camping!!!

That night was pretty terrible. As I was tucking Jesi and Graci in, I had an experience I've never had before. I glanced around the tent with my headlight flashlight on, and caught the bright reflection of two little eyes looking back at me from the corner. A mouse had somehow found it's way into our home for the night. Yikes!!! The girl's didn't see it at first, and I tried to keep it that way lest they freak out. Graci kept asking what I was doing as I moved back and forth trying to keep Mr. Mouse on the opposite side of the tent from them. Eventually, they saw it. I was very proud of their reaction. Instead of squealing (like their mother would have), they were enamored with the cute little guy. Graci quickly dubbed him "Melchisedec" after Sara Crewe's pet rat in "The Little Princess," which I am currently reading to the kids. I chased him around the tent for awhile and was finally able to trap him under a pair of Graci's pants and toss him out into the wild from whence he came. A memorable experience. Then came the (lack of) sleep. Jesi kept having some kind of nightmare. She would start calling out in her sleep and I'd jerk awake and have to help calm her down. This wouldn't have been too bad were it not for the fiendish folks in the motorhome across the way. If ever there were people who deserve the cruciatus curse it is those oblivious campers who decide it's ok to run a 500 HP generator ALL NIGHT regardless of how entirely disruptive this is to the sleep of the poor folks who are trying to make through the night in a tent! (Several alternative courses of action ran through my head as I lay there awake at 3am. Go turn off the generator myself. Pour sand in the gas tank. Etc. Ah, the musings of the sleep-deprived mind.) Enough said. (Taylor, Parker and I just finished the Harry Potter series, if you can't tell:)

The next morning, we had a small breakfast (Dad forgot the eggs!!!) of bacon, zucchini bread and kiwi fruit. Have you ever tried to cook bacon over an open flame on a hot-dog roaster? Don't! Fortunately, we had a frying pan with us for the rest of the bacon:) Before we took down the tent, the girls posed for a couple of photos:

Next we went for a small hike. Inspired by Eric Weihenmayer, who I recently heard speak in person, I decided to have Lexi hike right along with us. I talked her through things, but gave her very little physical help. At first she was nervous on the steep, rough terrain, but once we got going, she really enjoyed it, giggling every time she slipped. I had her hold on to my waistband and just follow me. Good girl, Lex!!!

To end things up, Jesi and I "braved" the cold spring water by dunking our heads in it. I know, a whole two inches, but it really was cold. And to get any deeper would have been pretty challenging without falling in.

So there it is. A great weekend trip. With three of my five daughters. Full of memories to store away now so I can have them years from now when these girls have grown up and gone. "God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December." James M. Barrie. The most powerful experience of this trip for me was on the drive there. We popped in a CD that Graci had received in the hospital. It had pop songs on it that had been redone with kids as the singers. One song hit me so powerfully. It's "Just the Way You Are," by Bruno Mars. I put it as the first song on the playlist for our blog. Listen to the lyrics and think about our girls. There's one line in the second verse that doesn't work for a father singing to his daughter, but other than that, the song perfectly expresses my feelings about my five little girls. Looking only at the physical, my girls have some differences and imperfections. But each one of them, in her own way, is truly amazing--just the way she is!

-Jer

First Day of School

2011-08-29T09:27:00.006-06:00

I just ran a marathon!

Well, not really. I just feel that way, after getting SEVEN kids off to school this morning!! It all started at approximately 5:40 a.m., when I heard Lexi and Sophi chatting away in their bedrooms. I wondered what had awoken them so early, but I didn't wonder for long, because after trying to settle them down and returning to my bed I heard the sounds of our neighbors chickens. Repeated every 15 seconds or so for the next hour. No, we don't live in the country-- our neighbors just happen to have chickens. And to be fair, I usually don't notice them. But of course they would be loud the one morning I wanted the kiddos to get enough sleep! (:

When I finally rolled out of bed at 6:40, I found that Graci was already up and dressed (no surprise there.) I thought I had plenty of time to get everyone off on time, after all, Jer and I stayed up last night getting lunches and backpacks ready. It seemed simple-- Taylor and Graci leave at 7:25, Parker, Jessica, Lexi and Xander at 7:45, Elli at 8:35. I'm still not sure what was so hard about getting them all out the door, but it was quite the feat!

It really hit me last night as I was making lunches how much food we're going to go through this year with three more in full day school (Lexi, Xander, and Elli are all in 1st grade this year!) I opened a box of Capri Suns and by the time I had seven lunches packed, realized that the two boxes I had purchased won't even get us through 3 days. Besides the amount of food, I have to really think about the type. I don't want to send anything very messy with Lexi, and Jesi and Elli are both pretty picky. This is going to be fun!!

So here I am, just me and Soph. It's so quiet! I should probably be excited, but I just feel kind of empty. I love summers and having all my kids home with me. I really, really miss them. Not only that, but the house is a mess, Soph wants to play, I need to go shopping, and there's so much to do-- so it's not exactly like I'm getting a break. Believe it or not, I'm just wanting the time to fly so I can find out how the kids' day went-- I'm always nervous for them on their first day1

Now that school has started, I am making a goal to blog every day. It makes me so happy when I see the kids sitting here at the computer, reading through past posts and smiling. I love how journaling helps me keep perspective and remember all of the blessings I have daily. I love having a record of this wonderful, crazy life of mine. So, here's to a new school year, new experiences, and lots of blog posts to capture them. (:

Christianne

Here is my attempt to get Sophi to watch a show while I blogged. I figured if I set her up well enough (she has to have her two dolls, two Minnies, and a drink) that maybe she would actually last through a whole show. Not a chance, but it did give me 15 minutes... (:

Quotes of the Day

2011-08-26T11:06:00.003-06:00

From Lexi, at her IEP Meeting with her classroom teacher and four other professionals, in answer to the question, "What's wrong with your eyes?"

"I can't see." (giggle giggle) "But Jesus, when I die and go to heaven, will help me. And He will fix my eyes!"

Preach it, Lex!!

************

From Jeremy, serenading me with the song, "Amazing." Original words, "Girl, you're amazing just the way you are."

Jeremy's version, "Girl, you're amazing, except when you are not."

Wow.
Don't worry, I was laughing. (:

************

From Jesi: "Mommy! Xander almost tattled!"

Magnificent Sophi

2011-08-20T15:39:00.008-06:00

I was looking at pictures and thinking of how much Sophi has changed this year. She came to us quiet and serious, so much like her referral photo:

I remember so clearly the moment she was handed over to me, all bundled up in her big yellow coat and screaming in protest about being put in my arms. My heart ached for her sadness, and I longed for her to know just how much I loved her, and that she was finally home.

Well, take a look at her now!!

These two are so sweet together. Usually.

Not sure the story behind this one-- I just found it on the camera.

I often walk into the kitchen to find Sophi has helped herself to "breakfast."

Sophi isn't always this messy, but sometimes she just likes to play with her food. I think this time she decided to forego the fork and just dump it out on the table and dive in head first!

Helping herself to breakfast again.

Graci opened the pantry door to find this.

Disclaimer: the pantry isn't usually so full of junk! This was after company and parties.

Sophi likes to help clean, and she is very resourceful in figuring out how to help!

Our little sausage.

Happy 8 months home, baby girl! You are sooooo loved!!

And, these are obviously not of Sophi. I just found them on the computer and thought they were funny. I'm not sure the story behind the bow. (:

--Christianne

For Teri

2011-08-17T22:17:00.019-06:00

First, a run down...

I am feeling so much better from the surgery. Sadly, I woke up with the cold that our family can't seem to get rid of-- of course, right? My throat is so raw and my body aches. I visited the surgeon today and had my bandages removed. There's still some swelling, but I'm definitely on the mend. AND, I was able to take a hot bath tonight now that my bandages are off!!

Jeremy is feeling better and won a work contest today-- woo hoo! He's been good to do all the lifting of the kiddos (which is a lot) and even gets up in the night with them. (:

Graci is fabulous! She got her stitches out yesterday-- all 22 of them. It wasn't pleasant, but not too bad either. The doctor also took an x-ray of her swollen hand (she injured it a few weeks ago trying to do a handstand) and we were happy to find it isn't broken. We so didn't want to add a cast to the mix...

Taylor has a horrible cough. He's milking it for all it's worth by getting lots of TV and reading time.

Parker is working his tail off to earn money for an ipod touch. He has been saving for a VERY long time and has just over $100. He checks KSL every hour or so trying to find a good deal. I'm loving his desire to earn money-- then I don't have to feel quite so bad when I ask him to help out so much while I'm feeling crummy.

Jesi had a frenectomy on Monday. Luckily, our dentist has a laser, so it was done without putting her out or putting her through too much pain. We're glad to have it overwith and it's healing nicely.

Lexi is bored. She needs to start school! It's so tough when she can't do so many of the things that the other kids can relax and do (read, watch tv, etc.) And she's got the cold too.

Elli is Elli. Her two favorite words are "flip flop" and "stroller." Don't ask me why. She says them over and over hundreds of times a day and laughs and laughs when we say it with her. Last night when I tucked her in, I said, "Flip flop! Stroller!" and she got the giggles, so we kept saying it back and forth to each other for about 20 minutes while I cuddled her in bed. It was fun to have her go to bed laughing.

Xander is having fun with Jessica. They are hanging out a lot lately, playing spy kids and jumping off bunk beds. I love it.

Sophi is just charming us every day. I am so in love with her. She comes up to me multiple times a day and says in the sweetest voice, "Mommy tummy owie? Oh, I sorry!" and kisses it. Oh, and she has dazzled us with her new skill-- getting UP the stairs!!! We call her our little butterfly, but she looks more like a cute little caterpillar as she wiggles her way up the stairs.

People continue to be so, so good to our family. Meals keep rolling in, laundry keeps getting picked up. I am amazed and grateful-- more than I can say. All the food has been great, but the dessert tonight deserved a picture:

It's a cheeseburger cake, made by Xander's primary teacher. So cute, so yummy.

Oh, and then there was the pretty fruit bouguet from my girlfriends:

Once again, feeling so so grateful.

I know this is late (I'm behind on posts) but I wanted to journal Jessica and Graci's birthdays. Graci turned 13 (yes, we have a teenager!) on August 4, and Jessica turned 8 on August 6. Graci had breakfast in bed, went shopping with me, and had Kent and Terri (her Make-a-Wish granters) come over for a barbeque that night. Just before we were going to start, there was a knock on the door with a surprise visit (and presents) from Grandma and Grandpa. I didn't even know they were coming! It was such a fun night.

We thought Dad needed Graci's hair extensions more than she did. (:

Since the girls have such close birthdays, we had a combined party on the 5th. We decorated in pink and purple, had the girls wear pajamas, played "pucker up for the prince," had a princess pinata (which malfunctioned), made paper bouquets, had pedicures, ate popsicles and popcorn, would have eaten pumpkin pie if it hadn't turned out so badly (forgot the salt), and watched "Princess and the Frog" on a giant projector. You're getting the theme, right?? It was perfect. Jesi has a favorite babysitter that she always asks to her parties-- her name is Kylie. This year, Kylie AND her parents came (her dad let us borrow their big projector screen) and I was so grateful for their help.

Jesi loved her breakfast in bed, and was especially happy to have her cousins there to enjoy her day with her!! Alissa, Charity, and Mariah got to spend a few days with us. We LOVE LOVE LOVE them and just wish they could have stayed longer.

I'm so blessed to have these two sweet girls in my life! They bring us so much joy, and I love every single thing about them. Love you, Grace and Jes!!!

And now, off to get the big kids to bed-- I let them stay up waaaayyyyy too late just because I was too tired to get up from the computer and tuck them in. (: Goodnight!

Thank you...

2011-08-12T12:38:00.004-06:00

...for the good advice to talk with my doctor. Apparently I had a bowel obstruction. Not fun. However, I feel blessed that we were able to get by without surgery, despite a very long, painful night where I just wanted to die. And it was my anniversary. And Jeremy had came down with a terrible cold. Things HAVE to start looking up for us, right?!!! (:

Feeling so much better now, looking less pregnant, and my body is starting to work again. Sure you wanted to know. (:

Graci is home and amazing us all with her strength. The doctors and nurses are thrilled with her recovery. She's still in pain, but doing so great!

Christianne

PS All you wonderful angels taking care of my family, I LOVE YOU!

Questions

2011-08-11T07:36:00.002-06:00

Any of you fellow appendectomy-goers:

Is it normal for your abdomen to be so swollen that it looks and feels like there is a bowling ball inside? Is it normal for legs to swell the size of Texas? (No redness, just swelling)

These are real questions.

Thanks,
Christianne

The Blind Leading the Blind...The Armless Tormenting the Blind...

2011-08-10T21:49:00.002-06:00

Our kids have some of the funniest interactions. Poor Lexi is always wanting to play with her brothers and sisters. Often they will play with her, but it is easy for them to forget that she can't just follow them as they move quickly from room to room, and she sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Often, Lex will try to get Elli to play with her. Elli is not a great playmate. Elli likes to sit on the couch and play with her musical toys. When she is happy there, it is generally better not to interfere with her. But Lexi is determined. She will take Elli by the hand and say "Elli come play with me!" You have to realize that both of these little girls can be very stubborn. Lexi will yank at Elli's arm until Elli moves. Elli will resist, wanting to stay where she is. Lexi will finally get Elli off the couch and drag her towards the stairs.

The other day I found Lexi trying to put Elli's hand on the railing to get her downstairs. Elli was yowling, not wanting to go. Lexi, determined as ever, kept repeating, "Downstairs, Elli!!!" and pushing her down to the next step. I told Lex that Elli didn't want to go downstairs and that she (Lexi) needed to stop trying to take her down. I helped Elli back up onto the couch and went back into the other room. Pretty soon I heard them at it again, but this time Lexi had maneuvered Elli all the way down the stairs. Like I said, Lex can be a very determined little girl:)

A few nights ago, I checked on Sophi and Lexi before I went to bed. The two of them share a double bed, but since they are both so little, they sleep sideways on it. This makes it short, but very wide. It's a little wider than a king. So I had to chuckle when I went in and Sophi had scooted (in her sleep) all the way over to Lexi. Soph was was squished up so tightly to Lexi that Lexi's arm was pinned to her side. I moved Sophi back to her side of the bed and then went in to bed myself.

In the middle of the night was suddenly woken by the sound of Sophi screeching. (This is not a terribly uncommon experience.) When I went in to check on her, I found her even farther over on Lexi's side of the bed. This is a metal bunk bed, and on the side by Lexi, the bed rails come up about a foot above the mattress. Lexi, still asleep, had rolled onto her side and was facing the metal rails. Sophi had pushed completely up into Lexi and was using her (Sophi's) legs to push against Lexi with all her might. Our two-year-old with no arms was smashing our six-year-old into the metal rails of the bed. Wish I had taken a picture:)

On the other hand, Sophi tries to help Lexi when she can. We will often find Sophi feeding Lex with her toes. Soph will find fruit snacks in the pantry and feed Lexi. Sometimes at dinner Sophi will pick up her pasta with a fork and feed a bite to Lexi. Sophi also loves to follow Lexi around as Lex walks through the house. It is quite delightful to watch these darling interactions.

Graci is doing well. The epidural came out today and she is doing well even without it. She is eating well. She is able to get up and walk around just a little bit. Thanks to the Hills for coming to visit her tonight. It made her day:) Hopefully she will be able to go home tomorrow. She is a strong, special young woman!

Jer

Recovering

2011-08-09T21:53:00.001-06:00

Graci's surgery lasted about 2 hours and was somewhat more complex than anticipated. She is recovering well at this point, although she does have an epidural that is helping keep the pain in check. She is eating well. She has to lie flat until tomorrow around 1pm, and that is driving her crazy. Hopefully she can go home on Thursday. I am exhausted. Good night.

Jer

The Worst Part...

2011-08-08T21:52:00.009-06:00

Was not lying in bed for hours with what felt like pregnancy contractions that wouldn't stop.

Wasn't trying to take over with the kiddos when I walked into the living room to find Jeremy dead on the couch from the previous day's 5 mile steep hike with the scouts.

Nor was it spending the entire day trying to decide whether or not I actually needed to go to the ER or if I just had a really, really bad stomachache.

It wasn't being poked at least 6 times in different places as three different nurses took over an hour trying to get an IV going (I always have this problem.)

Or when I looked in the mirror for the first time that day and realized I had come to the ER in Jeremy's baseball shirt, greasy hair that hadn't even been combed, and no makeup.

It wasn't when the Morphine didn't do a thing for the pain, or when the other narcotic made me so sick I wished they hadn't even tried it.

It could have been when Jeremy busted out laughing when the doctor walked in and announced that the imaging results showed I had appendicitis, but then again-- I laughed too. I mean, come on-- OF COURSE it was appendicitis. We are not the kind of family who would have gotten away with a "just a bad case of gas" kind of diagnosis, especially on the night before Graci's scheduled surgery.

It wasn't throwing up after being taken on an elevator in my narcotic-induced nausea.

Or having to wait 10 hours from the time of diagnosis to the time they actually performed the surgery.

It should have been that the pain never subsided that whole time, but it wasn't that either.

Or waking up and having a sore throat from the oxygen tube and soreness from my three incisions.

It wasn't trying to figure out how to make Graci's surgery work, and contemplating going there to be with her despite my miserable condition.

Or driving home feeling terrified each time we hit a bump or made a turn.

It certainly could have been the fact that this whole episode completely took away my one comfortable sleeping position-- lying on my stomach with my toe off the side of the bed! And the fact that my tailbone is going to have a harder time healing now that I'm laying on it ALL THE TIME.

Why wasn't it any of these things? Because as you may remember, I began exercising last week, and eating "diet-y" too, and was so excited to have lost a couple of pounds and be on my way to getting in great shape. So that entire time I was in pain, I kept thinking, "well, at least I haven't eaten anything besides some crackers and jello, so I've got to have lost a couple more pounds." And, upon getting home and finally hobbling into the bathroom, was excited to stand upon the scale, only to find...I had gained EIGHT pounds! EIGHT!! In two days of eating practically nothing. I weigh more than I've weighed since I was pregnant. I weighed myself three times just to be sure, and the same wretched number kept popping up. I must say I was pretty darn discouraged, until my mom just explained to me that I'm just retaining water. May that be true!!!

(:

What I really came on to say, though, is thank you. I am overwhelmed at the kindness shown to our family today. This past hour I am feeling much better, as evidenced by the fact that I finally made it out of my bed and am able to write this. I know it is because of your prayers and I love you for it. To those who said that God would take care of us, you are right. And I have found that He does so through the thoughtfulness of other people. Thank you Kylie, Heather, LuAnn, Breeana, the Short family, Bishop, and my wonderful parents. Thank you for the sweet comments on the blog. Thanks for all the calls-- I know about them even though I haven't personally received them. You are all wonderful. Now please keep our Graci in your prayers. I will certainly have more empathy for her, as her surgery is much more intense than my own.

Christianne

PS Oh, and Becky-- having a few of your children here for the weekend had absolutely NOTHING to do with my appendix, so stop worrying! We would love to have them ANY DAY. They are so much fun.

Graci rescheduled

2011-08-08T14:18:00.001-06:00

FYI...Graci's surgery has been changed to tomorrow morning. Lucky to be able to get her in so quickly!

Jer

Appendixless!

2011-08-08T12:13:00.001-06:00

Christi is out of surgery and doing well. Correction. This is a direct quote from her: "I am not doing well. I'm miserable. I want to smack everybody! But if you want to lie, go ahead." So in other words, the surgery went well, but she still ain't feeling too hot.

Jer

Are you kidding me?

2011-08-08T00:26:00.002-06:00

Christi only THOUGHT she was falling apart at the seams. In actuality, she was merely building up to it. Now that she has been admitted to the hospital with an appendicitis attack a
nd is scheduled for emergency surgery at 7am, she can officially claim "falling apart at the seams" status! This, of course, wreaks havoc with Graci's scheduled spinal cord surgery. Christi at one hospital at 9am. Graci 30 miles away at 12:30 pm. How's that supposed to work?!?
Jer

Falling apart at the seams

2011-08-03T11:01:00.004-06:00

So you may remember me mentioning that I was pretty sure I had broken my toe several weeks ago. (It still really hurts--not a good sign.) As it turns out, the toe was just the beginning...

On our way to Idaho, we made a stop at Lava Hot Springs. I would LOVE to go there and raft someday, but this time we just stopped at the water park. There is a very nice outdoor pool and some water slides. There are also three diving platforms, the tallest of which is 10 meters. This may not seem very high, but believe me-- it is!

I've always been a bit of a daredevil, and these platforms looked like FUN! I also had the mindset that they had to be safe-- I mean, we are at a pool, after all-- not cliff jumping in the middle of a lake (which I used to do.) So I signed the release forms that allowed Taylor, Parker, and myself to jump. They immediately went off it-- before we were even done getting sunscreen on all the littles. I was shocked and proud!! Not many kids up there... In fact, not many adults up there!

As soon as I had the chance, I climbed up there myself. As I climbed, I realized that almost everyone was getting off at the lowest platform, and a couple at the middle. I was the only one that went to the top and stood there by myself. It looked much higher from up there!! In fact, the platform was the same height as the top of the waterslides. The lifeguard finally gave me the signal to jump. It took me a few seconds, but I did it. I thought I went straight in, but apparently I must have sat just a bit when my feet touched down. I immediately felt a very sharp pain in my tailbone. I swam to the side and just stayed there, trying to breathe through the pain. After it subsided a bit, I realized that the backs of my thighs hurt too, and I couldn't move my neck. I tried to pretend like I was fine, as the whole thing was quite embarrassing. As I held onto the side, I watched another girl jump off the high one, and she was yelping in pain after she landed.

I climbed out of the pool and back to the shallow area where my kids and Jeremy were playing. I told Jeremy the kids were no longer allowed to jump-- it was dangerous!! Taylor and Parker were not very happy with me, as I think they didn't understand the full extent of my injuries.

Before I knew it, Jeremy had taken off with Taylor. Apparently, the "man" in him decided that there was no way that he wasn't going to jump off that platform now that his wife had. I watched nervously, praying that he wouldn't get hurt. Two people are allowed to jump at the same time, and he later told me that if Taylor hadn't been standing right next to him counting down, there was no way he would have jumped. But he did. And he twisted his ankle on contact with the water. Go figure.

Afterwards, the boys were still asking to go again and Jer and I were both adamant that they not. A lady sitting mext to us in the pool spoke up and told the boys that she had worked there for three summers and had seen broken backs, necks, legs-- you name it.

THEN WHY IS IT STILL OPEN???!!!!

It took several days for my neck to calm down enough that I could turn my head without pain. The backs of my thighs were completely purple/black with huge bruises. And my tailbone is STILL hurting.

One of the days in Idaho was spent on jet skis and I missed a couple of areas when I applied sunscreen, so add to my injuries a couple of bright pink sunburns and it was almost impossible to sleep at night. No matter what position I would lay in, it hurt.

Well, now it's been a few weeks and I am feeling much better. The sunburns have peeled and gone, my neck is fine, the bruises are almost gone, and my toe is somewhat better. Is still hurts to sit, and I struggle to sleep at night because the only position that doesn't hurt my tailbone is to lay on my stomach, but that puts my toe in a painful position. Ha.

I was very excited over the weekend to be feeling so much better overall, and then Parker asked me if he could start getting up early and jogging in the mornings. I didn't want him to go by himself, so I told him I would jog with him. "Cept there's one problem here-- I haven't exercised in a year or so. AT ALL. Besides that, I'm not a runner.

Needless to say, my body is hurting all over again. What a wuss, right?!!

I must be getting OLD.

Beware Lexi!

2011-08-03T00:44:00.002-06:00

Lexi loves to ask people their names and how old they are. The other day Christi and the kids were at a church party. (Names will be changed in this post.) Lexi was eating at a table with a more mature member of the congregation. "What's your name?" Lexi asked. "JoAnne," the lady replied. Lexi: "How old are you?" Joanne: "29!" Lexi accepted that with no problem. A few minutes later, one of our neighbors, who Lexi knows well, sat down at the table. Once Lexi recognized that it was Linda, she blurted out: "Linda's 40!". Linda quickly replied, "I thought that was our secret, Lexi."

Someday Lex will have a better grasp of tactful communication. Until that day comes, be careful what you share with her:)

Jer

The Sealing

2011-07-31T22:21:00.006-06:00

First of all, jump on over to Elli's blog to read a beautiful post from Jeremy. I love him. He is such a good father. As we lay on our bed after I read it, both of us crying, we talked about how there aren't words to convey the depths of feelings raising and loving Elli evokes in us, but I think he did a pretty good job. (:

I'm a bit late in writing this post. I have actually tried a couple of times, but couldn't find the words to do it justice. I still can't, so I'll just rely on pictures!

On May 28, we took our family to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to have Lexi and Sophi sealed to us. For those of you who don't understand the significance of that, I will explain. In our church, we believe that when we are married in one of God's temples, by proper priesthood authority, we are sealed to our spouses for all of eternity. We believe that family relationships perpetuate beyond the grave, and that children born to us under the sacred covenant of marriage are sealed to us forever.

When we adopt a child, that child has not been "born in the covenant," so there is a special ordinance that takes place to seal them to our family. During this beautiful ordinance, the children kneel at an altar with their parents, all dressed in white. When completed, those children become as if they had been born to that family, with every blessing and privilege.

There are no words to describe seeing your children, all dressed in white, in such a holy place and being reminded of what awaits us in the eternities. There is nothing like it to put daily struggles into perspective!

We had some very special, sacred experiences while in the temple. I am so grateful for my knowledge of Christ and for what He has done for my family.

Love you, our two newest girls!!

And... just for fun:

Elli's sealing, Salt Lake Temple, 2007

Graci's sealing, Provo Temple, 2008

Xander's sealing, Oquirrh Mountain Temple, 2009

The Exciting News... (:

2011-07-28T21:45:00.006-06:00

Ok, so I didn't mean to be a tease like that! I had expected to get a video up before we left on vacation, but it just didn't happen. I don't know how... I mean, we had so much time on our hands!!

Well, I still haven't made the video, and Jeremy happens to be at scout camp for the week. (I don't know how to upload our videos.) But since you asked, I'll go ahead and do it with pictures instead of a video. (:

Anyway... I hope this isn't anti-climactic. This is such a huge event in our lives, but probably doesn't seem all that significant to some. As you may remember reading here, we didn't know if Sophi would ever walk. This is due to her weak right leg, missing fibula, and significant leg length discrepancy. However, we have worked a lot with her. I didn't see how she could possibly ever learn to walk, and some doctors doubted it too, but eventually she did learn to stand. Her poor right leg would just shake, and she couldn't stand for more than a couple of seconds, but she could stand! And then, almost overnight, she did it-- she learned to walk!!! It is the sweetest, most endearing little walk ever. She LOVES it. She wants to walk everywhere now and takes such pride in it.

We are so happy for our little Sophi!! I am hoping to get her to Shriners again soon. Now that she has learned how to walk, I am wondering if some sort of brace could be made for her to help give her weak leg some more stability and height.

So, so proud of you, Soph!!!!!

PS I am going to assume, because of our past pattern, that some of you thought the exciting news had to do with a new addition. (: That would be amazing, for sure, but we very much have our hands and house full right now. HOWEVER... I can't resist telling you that there is the sweetest, most precious little two year old girl waiting for a family. She is breathtaking-- just exquisite. I am sure I am drawn to her because of her special need, which is vision loss. She does have limited vision, and I have no doubt that if she is to retain it and possibly even gain more vision, she needs a good doctor soon. If any of you reading this feels a tug at your heartstrings and want to know more, please email me at christi405@yahoo.com.

Let's find this princess a family!

Taylor's Fave Five

2011-07-25T08:30:00.003-06:00

What a week and a half!!! Friday the 15th, we left for Island Park, ID (six hour drive). My brother Matt's in-laws have an unbelieveably beautiful cabin on the reservoir up there, and we were able to stay for five nights and have a family reunion. It was the first time in many years that my mom and dad and all of my siblings were together. All 13 of my parent's grandkids were there. We missed Tyler's wife, Laura, and hope to see her soon, but everyone else was present. It was a lot of fun:) We rented jet skis one day, visited Mesa Falls and Sawtelle peak, and played lots of games. We had our annual Thai food night, which of course I love:). The cabin was plenty big enough for all 22 of us comfortably. I'll post some pictures soon.

We got back from ID on Thursday night and left Saturday afternoon for Richfield, UT (2.5 hour drive) for a short reunion with Christi's family. Saturday night we drove from Richfield to Ferron (1.25 hour drive) to stay at Christi's parents house. We went to church in Ferron and then I had to drive Taylor back to our house (2.5 hour drive) so he could get ready to leave for scout camp. We got home about 8:15 last night and then spent 3.5 hours packing and prepping for his camp. He left at 8:00 am this morning. Christi and the kids are still in Ferron. They have to come home tomorrow in order to be ready for Jesi's medical procedure on Wednesday morning. Yeah, we're busy!

Last night as Taylor and I were eating cereal for dinner, he commented on it being a rather pathetic Sunday meal. He obviously missed his mom's cooking! I asked him what his favorite food was. He gave me this list:
-With a goofy grin on his face: IHOP's cinnastack is hard to beat!
-Mom's homemade chicken soup with rolls. (an excellent choice:)
-Arby's roast beef sandwiches
-Subway meatball marinara or turkey and ham
-He stopped for a few minute then remembered: Grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup.

The kid is pretty easy to please:)

Jer

Random Tidbits

2011-07-14T16:30:00.002-06:00

Sophi calls herself "Wafee" (rhymes with "toffee")

Xander decided to "help" today and put in a full load of laundry (mixed colors) and even added an undetermined amount of detergent and OxiClean (of course in the wrong compartments).

Our microwave is possessed. Sometimes it works fine, and other times you push "5" and it turns the light on, or push "1" and the fan starts. Today I had to push approximately 30 buttons just to cook my oatmeal.

Tonight I have the job of packing for 9 people (Jer mostly does his own) for our upcoming adventure in Idaho. Nine people plus seven days equals LOTS of stuff. Lucky me!

Speaking of numbers, last night I counted 17 cute kids in my house. And that doesn't count Graci, who is at Girls Camp. I love summer nights and that friends like to hang out here.

I'm pretty sure I have a broken toe.

My sweet friend, Mary, is not only cooking dinner for us tonight, but just called and invited my kids to come eat it at their house.

AND... I have such exciting news to share! But I'm waiting for Jer to show me how to upload a video.

(: (: (: (: (:

Phthisis. Retinal Detachment. Band Keratopathy.

2011-07-13T16:55:00.005-06:00

Those are the three words written on sticky note by Lexi’s opthamologist.

I didn’t realize how much I had held onto a sliver of hope that doctors here in America could do something for our Lexi’s eyes until I read those words. When we reviewed her file and fell in love and decided to adopt, we did so knowing that she was completely blind, and knowing that she would likely always be so. And whether or not there was anything that could be done to give her some vision had no part at all in our decision.

But I still held on to the idea that maybe, just maybe, sweet Lexi could have some sight. Shadows. Light perception. Anything.

We wanted her to be seen by a pediatric opthamologist from Primary Children’s. It took several months to get her in, so that entire time I was cautiously hoping, hoping, hoping. When I finally brought her in, the eye doctor was very optimistic. I told her that she was completely blind, and he said, “Well, I don’t know about that. We’ll just have to see!” He then went on to talk about various things that could likely be done to restore some vision. He spoke with hope. This after just a partial eye exam. So, for a short time, my heart was beating fast and I became a bit giddy inside.

Then he did an MRI on her eyes.

As it turns out, there is absolutely nothing that can be done. He sympathetically wrote those three words down without being able to look me in the eye the rest of the time I was there. He told me there was no reason to have her seen again unless she experienced such discomfort in her eyes that we wanted to consider removing them and giving her prosthetics. I put on my brave smile, assured him we already thought that was the case, and proceeded to gather our things.

Then I walked out to the van with Lexi, and I cried.

I allowed myself the evening to feel all of the emotions that finding out your child will never see (in this life) can bring. Then I decided to put a lid on it. After all, feeling sorrow, pity, disappointment, hurt, and grief for my sweet Lexi will do nothing for her but give her a depressed mother. I’ve learned that over the years—after hearing things about my children that I just didn’t want to hear…

Several people have asked how her appointment went, and I haven’t been able to share. It’s been over a month now, and I’m ready. Ready, and oh so grateful for my knowledge that she (and Elli!) will see me someday. That she will no longer tell me, “Mommy, my eyes need batteries. Can you get me some batteries for my eyes?” That every disappointment related to blindness will be compensated for by Christ’s atoning sacrifice. That every tear of sadness will be replaced by many more tears of joy for her!

This knowledge is mine, and I couldn’t live without it.

I love you, dear Lexi.

Even More 2010 Beach Trip Photos

2011-07-12T20:24:00.009-06:00

Great parents, huh? First we let Parker try to feed the seagulls out of his hand.

Then we let him go a step further and feed them off of his head. He was successful, by the way, even though we didn't catch the big moment on camera:)

At the Butterfly Garden:

At Newport Beach on the Oregon Coast:

Play time during a picnic in the sand:

Flying a kite:

Around the campfire:

My brother Steven:

Always chilly on the Oregon coast!!!

Family friend Lori with Xander

The keeper of the fire-my dad, Allen:

Boys will be boys!

On the drive home we stopped at beautiful Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge:

We stayed overnight in Boise, ID at my cousin's house. (Thanks Spencer and Ilah!!!) While there, we narrowly escaped the clutches of Iron Man and Buzz Stormtrooper. You never know when a pink panda doll will be useful in placating a menacing action figure:)

This is what you get when you let Elli sit near an unguarded bag of starbursts. We noticed something in her mouth. I got to fish out this mess, wrappers and all:)

An so we come to the end of our 2010 Green Family Reunion. It is such a great thing to get together with family. My brothers and sisters are a particularly tight knit group, and it is fun to be able to spend time with them. So Jen, Matt, Ty and Steve (not to mention Mom and Dad): see ya'll real soon!!! And somehow, I think Tiff will be nearby as well.

Jer