A few weeks ago I was looking through some of my old blog posts and I came across a post that mentioned that we had tried putting Brigham in his toddler bed but it didn't work out. I looked at the date and realized that it had been more than a year since that day. Brigham was still in his crib, and I was a terrible mother. We kept putting it off and I realized that there was no reason to. There were no upcoming events that might make the transition easier or harder. So we decided to just do it. Do you know what? He handled it like a pro! He stayed in bed and everything. It made me feel bad that I had put it off for so long.
Another indication that Brigham is getting older is that he has started going to Primary. He was supposed to be a Sunbeam this year but he just wasn't ready. Well, a couple of weeks ago when I was walking him towards the nursery, he walked right into the Primary room(which was on the way). He didn't even pause. So I went with it and sat him down with his class.
He's still getting used to it, but he definitely does not want to go to nursery. I think he can tell that he's too old. I'm so proud of him for deciding to go to Primary. It makes my job as secretary a little harder though, since I have to sit with him to make sure he stays in his seat and doesn't jump from chair to chair on the Sr. Primary side.
It happens every year. Since Halloween is on the last day of October, my Halloween post tends to be the newest post for most, if not all, of November. So I'm happy to have an excuse to post about something that is more appropriate for the season: Death and Destruction!
Well, actually, there most likely will not be any death in this case. But there is definitely a fair amount of destruction. The Saturday night snow storm claimed several large branches of two of our trees. I know we are not the only ones. There are several houses in my neighborhood who lost a lot of branches. I don't know if I saw a branch as large as the one we lost though.
This is the least of our losses. It came down right across our driveway. We would have had to move it Sunday morning to go to church but a guy came to our door and offered to shovel our driveway since he'd been out of work for a while. So he took care of it for us.
Here's the worst. Here is the break. We figure the larger branch on top fell and broke the smaller one underneath. That's not a small branch!
As you can see, it fell into the road. We didn't notice it until Sunday morning so there was little we could do about it. But after church Jaaromy clipped all the branches off that he could with our clippers. You can see how far into the road it was by all the leaves on the ground.
Jaaromy said it felt good to do that kind of work. It brought to mind a couple of images for me: President Bush working on his ranch
Harry Connick, Jr. I had to scan this from his Christmas cd since I couldn't find it online and, based on some of the pictures that came up, I didn't dare search any deeper.
I'm thinking that this is the last year that I can get away with reusing Halloween costumes. I asked the boys what they wanted to be at the beginning of the month. Nathaniel said he wanted to be Mario again and Jonathan said he wanted to be Link again. And with Brigham big enough to wear the astronaut costume, I was totally on track to having a sewing-free October.
As you can see, Nathaniel is not Mario and Jonathan is not Link. A few days before Halloween I asked them again about their costumes and Nathaniel decided that he wants to be a skeleton and Jonathan wants to be Luigi. I don't think they understand that they have to have their costumes decisions made in stone the first week of October. There is not a lot I can do when Halloween is two days away.
The skeleton costume was a bit of a stretch. The shirt fit fine but the pants were about four inches too short. I kept telling Nathaniel to wear the pants as low as possible. I didn't realize how old this costume was until I was scrapbooking Halloween 2007. That was the year he first wore it. Three years ago! At least this time he had some skeleton gloves that I found after Halloween the last time he wore it.
Jonathan lucked out too. The Luigi shirt still fit okay, but he had to wear the overalls that Nathaniel wore for Mario. I lucked out and found the buttons and gloves. Since the original plan was for Nathaniel to be Mario, I really should have had those ready anyway. So I guess I just slacked off on that one.
Isn't he the cutest! I was really excited that he would fit this costume this year, and probably next year too. He really was cute and he even kept the helmet on, I was really surprised by that one. I couldn't get him to stand still so he's mid-stride in this picture.
This year we decided to shake things up and Jaaromy stayed home and handed out candy while I took the boys Trick-or-Treating. I think it worked out well. If you remember my post from last year, handing out candy stresses me out. So much so that I wasn't even looking forward to Halloween this year. So this switch-up was a welcome change. It was a little wet, but it was fun to take the boys around. Brigham didn't really get it. I had to hold his bucket out for him, but he went along with us happily. He got a lot of comments about his costume which made me super happy. I had plans on where to go in our neighborhood but the boys got tired before I did. Brigham just stopped using his legs and I knew that wasn't going to fly, so after picking up a couple of houses that we knew from church, we went home. It was great, the boys had fun.
There was one dark spot on our Halloween festivities this year. Monday morning as I was sending the boys off to school I noticed that my Halloween witch had been stolen off my porch. I can only assume it was teenagers. I used to love Halloween but over the years my enthusiasm for the holiday have diminished significantly and it is mostly due to teenagers. I know a lot of good teenagers, but there are enough not-so-good teenagers that it really ruins it for me.
Oh well, I won't let a couple of bad apples ruin it for me completely. I'll be back next year with a new witch, newly-made costumes and a big bowl of good candy, not the crappy kind.
I know Halloween is over, but as usual, I'm behind. I hope you'll cut me some slack. Shutterfly was having a sale on photobooks and I've been working hard to get our 2007 yearbook finished in time. Mission accomplished. Now on to blogging.
As usual we had the choice of painting or carving. I was planning on carving but everyone else wanted to paint so I caved in to peer pressure. That and carving takes longer and I didn't want to still be carving long after everyone was done painting.
Poor Brigham. As I mentioned in my previous post, he wasn't feeling well that day. But he tried for a little while.
I love Jonathan's simplicity. That and his awesome planets!
I love how Nathaniel used a triangle shaped blemish as a nose and worked around it.
Jaaromy was excited that he didn't have to gut any pumpkins this year.
While I'm sad that we didn't have any glowing pumpkins this year, I'm pleased with how my pumpkin turned out. Especially when I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I was forced into painting at the last minute, remember?
I love Pumpkin Day, and I love it even more since we started calling it Pumpkin Day. We even have a song for it. Although Jaaromy and I are usually the only ones singing it.
On Monday my poor 3rd child got a stomach bug. He couldn't keep anything down all day. At first I tried a little Sprite, and then later I tried some Gatorade. By the way, the Gatorade was blue. Think about that for a minute.
See how sad!?
Anyway, so I couldn't give him anything and it wasn't until the next morning that I dared give him something to eat. So he hadn't had anything since lunch on Saturday. He didn't eat dinner the night before, foreshadowing perhaps? So I was getting a little worried. He was so weak Tuesday morning, I decided to wait a little bit longer before I tried to give him anything. Apparently, he was ready to eat because he got off my lap and pulled me upstairs and climbed into his booster seat. He must have been really hungry since I know he was really weak. So I dared to give him some Cheerios and water and a little bit more Gatorade. After waiting anxiously I decided he wasn't going to loose it. What a huge relief!
This event and the emotions surrounding it were made more intense because I started bleeding Friday night.(Sorry, no pictures) By Saturday night it was pretty clear that things were not okay. By Tuesday night I had officially had my 4th miscarriage. Knowing this made me hug Brigham longer. He is so precious to me. All my boys are. Brigham especially reminds me of this since he was my last successful attempt at bringing children into our family. The whole time he was sick I was reminded of how fragile life can be, how things don't always go as planned, and how sometimes we are left wondering if our prayers will be answered. I read a blog the other day of another mother who was going through some tough trials. While at the gym she noticed a bird outside trying desperately to fly forward in the face of some powerful wind. The bird was flying as fast as she could but was making no progress. When I read that I wanted to shout "YES!" That is exactly how I feel about the last three years of my life. If I'm honest with myself, I'd have to say that I have felt that Heavenly Father knows my trials and I can imagine him saying softly to me to just be patient. At the same time He has definitely let go of the bike, so to speak. I'm doing my best to keep moving on my own, but I can hear Him from behind telling me to keep going, just a little farther, you're almost there.
I'm handling this all pretty well actually. I really should be devastated, but after a day or two I'm ready to get on with it. This is not to say that it wasn't extremely painful, emotionally, even now. I guess I'm just not the type to stay down for very long. As long as I've got a uterus, I'm going to keep trying. What can I say, I'm an optimist. So if you're wondering what to say next time you see me, you don't need to say much. Just give me a hug so I know you're thinking of me. And if you want to bring me a plate of cookies to cheer me up when it's hard to be optimistic, that would be okay too.
For Fall break we decided to take a trip to Boise. We had so much fun last year with our little trip to Logan and Franklin, Idaho that we thought we'd take another trip. This time it was to Boise. Our Clark Planetarium membership gives us discounts to other science centers around the world. We chose the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise because it was the closest. It was still a five hour drive though, but the kids did great.
We left Thursday afternoon and stopped in Twin Falls for dinner.
We stopped to see the Twin Falls temple before we went to dinner. We ate at Golden Corral which was not a pleasant experience. There was nothing that Jonathan would eat, and honestly nothing that I was super excited about either. I don't want to sound snooty but I felt a little out of place. With few exceptions, I think Jaaromy and I might have been one of the skinny ones there. We probably won't be going back.
We got to Boise shortly after ten. We brought our telescope with the expectation of taking it out about a half hour out of the city. The sky is much darker in Idaho and I really wanted to see the Milky Way. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop. We hoped we would get a chance the next night, but by then it was cloudy. I'm so sad that part of the trip didn't work out. I guess we'll have to take out the telescope somewhere around here, but we'll have to drive farther to get away from the lights.
The next morning was the activity that everyone had been waiting for, and the whole reason for our trip. The Discovery Center! So, after a quick breakfast at IHOP(so tasty!)and a short stop to Shopko(Nathaniel forgot to pack shirts and Brigham had already gotten his pants dirty) we were off.
Jonathan got right to work with the remote control robot cars.
Nathaniel told the robot arm to spell his name with blocks.
Brigham loved this exhibit. I'm not sure if it was because it looked like Neptune or because of the cute girls.
Nathaniel and Jonathan were both excited to try the Air Brake Chair. They pulled themselves up with the rope and when they got to the top they let go and the air brakes brought them slowly back down.
They also tried the Centripetal Wheel. We could never get it going fast enough to keep the stuffed animals from falling off though. But I love how it looks like that bear is running up the side of the wheel.
Brigham got a kick out of this magnetic induction exhibit.
And when Brigham saw this computer he got right to work.
Jonathan and Brigham both loved this planet sphere. You can't tell in the picture but there is a projector on the inside that projects the surfaces of planets, their moons and several of Earth. They, especially Brigham, pretty much camped out here for the rest of the visit.
After the Discovery Center we walked across the bridge that's behind the Center to a park.
While we were there we saw this squirrel. It didn't seem to concerned about the people around, but just in case, I didn't get any closer.
Then we went back to the hotel to go swimming. We were the only ones in the pool and it was so cold that Jonathan and Brigham's lips started turning blue. It wasn't too bad as long as you were moving, but Jonathan didn't want to move, but he also didn't want to get out of the pool. In the end I decided to have everyone get in the hot tub. Brigham and I technically shouldn't be getting in but it was so cold, so we sat on the steps. It worked, Brigham warmed right up and even Jonathan said that it felt nice. After everyone warmed up, we went back to our room to get dressed for dinner.
I feel silly mentioning where we went for dinner and such, but planning meals was a big part of the trip. We went to Chuck-A-Rama that night and it was so much better than our experience with Golden Corral. The food was so much better and the people were normal looking. Plus, it cost the same. I love Chuck-A-Rama.
Jonathan and Nathaniel both started getting colds while we gone and Nathaniel even woke up the second night with the croup. I thought he was too old for it, but at least it was easier to talk him through it.
Another small note: In researching our hotel I learned that it had a great breakfast buffet. We never got the chance to find out if that was true since they closed it down at 9:30. That's just too early for us. So, our last morning there we had a quick breakfast at Denny's(didn't go so well) and then we stopped at the Boise Temple before we headed home.
This was so funny to watch. Brigham's backpack was really heavy but everyone's hands were full so he had to carry it. He couldn't walk straight, but if I held his hand, he could do it.
The boys have never seen a temple with this design before so it was kind of a novelty for them. We walked around for a while, it was good to get in some walking before the long drive home.
The kids did great on the drive. Nathaniel got a little onery when he realized that he wouldn't have much time to play on the computer when we got home. Jaaromy and I were getting a little grumpy too. But over all, the trip went well and I can't wait for next year. I think we're going to Flagstaff to see the Lowell Observatory and Meteor Crater. So exciting!
Last October we were driving along 90th south and passed by a pumpkin patch where many families were picking out pumpkins for Halloween. We had already purchased our pumpkins at Macey's but it looked so wonderful, and so fun that I decided we would do next year.
Well, it's next year and I was so excited to take the kids to go get our pumpkins. Jonathan, being my son, was also super excited. But even if everyone wasn't as excited and Jonathan and I were, we all had fun.
Jonathan found the perfect pumpkin. No, really, it's just about the perfect shape and color.
Nathaniel chose the biggest pumpkin, but was still able to bring it to the wheel barrow.
Brigham wasn't really interested but he cheerfully walked along with us. That's not the pumpkin we ended up getting for him, but he didn't mind. I'm sorry I'm not smiling. Brigham wouldn't look at Jaaromy and when he finally did, of course, I wasn't smiling.
We found some pretty nice pumpkins if I do say so myself. It was so much fun and it didn't take too long(Nathaniel was worried about that).
Don't they look fabulous! I can't wait for Pumpkin Day!
For those who didn't notice my ambiguous status update on Facebook, I have some news to share:
It's a little early to be telling anyone but it's been such a long time since I've made it this far that I figure it was cause for celebration. Even if it doesn't work out, everyone will find out anyway.
So, there you go. I hope it stays this way for a long time.
Before any more time passes, I wanted to share a picture of the moon I took on Sunday. As many of you know, there was a fire on the south end of the valley that we could see and smell all the way out where we were. As the sky got darker I could see the effect the smoke was having on the moon. By the time it was full dark, this is what the moon looked like.
As usual, I'm a little late posting this. I have no excuse other than I had already been on the computer for a while and didn't want to spend anymore time sitting down.
Nathaniel and Jonathan started school last Monday. I think they are both excited to go back. Nathaniel didn't complain as much as I thought he might and Jonathan was excited once he finished waking up. Nathaniel can pop right out of bed but Jonathan is like me and likes to take his time.
It's been a while since I've been through this routine so we were a little behind schedule. But the boys were excited to go and so it was easier to get them to make up some lost time.
Jaaromy walked with them to make sure Nathaniel knew where to take Jonathan when they got there. I didn't include him in the picture though because it's more poignant to see them walking on their own.
I'm excited for them. We had met their teachers the week before and they both seem nice and I think the boys will have a good year.
Jonathan's classroom is on the opposite side of the school from where it was last year so I decided to walk down to make sure Nathaniel knew where to find Jonathan. Unfortunately, I had to take Brigham with me. He was fine until we passed the park. He was not happy that we didn't stop to play. Of course, the park is only a few hundred yards from our house and so it was a long trip to get the the school. I had to carry him part of the way because he would sit down in protest. If I put him down and threatened to walk away, he'd just turn around and start walking towards the park. I finally got him to walk although he was still crying. Luckily, we left in plenty of time so on one of his protests I let him just sit there.
Turns out this was excellent thinking on my part because after that he was more willing to keep going. He was happy to see his brothers and the walk home was nice. Of course we had to stop at the park on the way home. Nathaniel went ahead home but Jonathan came back after he dropped off his backpack. It was a busy day and I was so exhausted when it was over, but I'm so excited for them to be back in school.
Just one more week and Brigham will be back in school too!
I love to read about politics and current events. No surprise there to those who know me. Lately, I've been feeling anxious that I seem to be the only one in my family(minus Kevin and Shaela, perhaps) that sees what's going on. We are in the Last Days and Satan is building up his kingdom. We all know this was going to happen, but did we consider what that might look like? I think too many of us seem to have a watered down picture of Satan in our minds. Yes, he's out there trying to get kids to do drugs and good Mormons to not do their Home and Visiting Teaching. He's also trying to destroy the family and I think most people are aware of that. We know he is trying to take away our Agency by tricking us into destructive habits. But have we considered that he is trying to take away our Agency externally as well? Satan's plan was to force us to be good so that we will all be saved collectively. We know this is a lie because you can't get something for nothing. We can't gain Exaltation without putting in the work ourselves.
In D&C 101:77-80 it says: 77 According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the brights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles; 78 That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment. 79 Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. 80 And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.
Heavenly Father wants us to be free to exercise our Agency. With His inspiration our Founding Fathers gave us the Constitution which, in turn, gave us the freest society in the history of the world. This was the only environment that His Gospel could be restored and also flourish in. This Constitution not only gave us the Restored Gospel but also unprecedented economic and technological advancement. The Founding Fathers lived and worked similar to every society over the last 5000 years, but in just two hundred short years look how far we've come. All because of freedom.
One major reason why this works is that the Declaration of Independence makes it clear that we get our rights from God. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The Founders actually wanted it to say "Life, Liberty, and Property" but they were worried that some people would use that as an excuse to continue slavery. The government exists merely to protect these God-given rights. Too many of our government leaders act as if they are the ones who grant us our rights. Like the newly created "right" to Health Care. You can not have a right to someone else's labor. Otherwise that would make them a slave to you. The other problem with government-granted rights is that what the government gives, the government can take away.
The whole reason I started this post was because of this video. I think it perfectly illustrates how far we have fallen.
If people don't pay attention to what is going on around them, they will be taken advantage of. Power corrupts and if not kept in check it will, by it's very nature, take our freedoms away.
"If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.... If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed." -Thomas Jefferson
Thanks for reading my long post. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm very anxious about where our country is going and I feel like I'm the only one who is noticing.
So I was looking at our garden and was pleasantly surprised to find this:
I'm pretty sure these aren't weeds. They are not like the other weeds in the garden and they are in the center of the mound spaced roughly 3 inches apart. I think maybe, just maybe, they're for real!
It's been over a week now and I'm finally getting around to posting about Brigham's birthday. Honestly, I wanted to post about it the next day but I was behind and had to catch up first. It was such a fun day I couldn't wait to post about it.
Well, I suppose it started Saturday. Jaaromy was getting frustrated with his phone. It's almost two years old now and was starting to show it's age. Mine was too, but I'm not as technologically picky as he is. So we called around to see if any of the AT&T or Apple stores had any in stock. They did not, but the Apple store said we could be put on a waiting list and they would e-mail us when they got another shipment. We were expecting another week of waiting but on Brigham's birthday Monday morning I got the e-mail. I wasn't sure what we were going to do. We really wanted to get the new phones but we didn't want to take anything away from Brigham's birthday so we came up with a plan. Jaaromy bought his present while he was at work and as soon as he got home we would go downtown to the planetarium and then walk over to the Apple store and then eat dinner at the food court and then go home and have brownies and open presents. It was the perfect plan.
And do you know what? It was! What a fun day we had. The kids always love to go to the Planetarium and since we didn't see a show they were able to just have fun and look around. I was most worried about going to the Apple store. We decided that if the kids got anxious I would take them outside to see the fountain. As it turns out, there was no need. There were a lot of people and Jaaromy had to wait in line for quite a while, but if any of you have ever been to an Apple store, it's like a toy store! They had iPhone 4's out for people to try out, laptops, and the funnest of all, iPad's! The boys and I started out looking at one, then the person next to us left so we had two, then the person next to us left again and we had an iPad for each of the kids to play with. Nathaniel was reading Beezus and Ramona on his, Jonathan was playing with, perhaps, the coolest Planet app in the history of the world, and Brigham played with the Magic Piano app. It was so fun! On a completely unrelated note, I know what I want for my birthday!
Dinner at the food court worked out great because we could each choose what we wanted for dinner. Then we went home for brownies and presents.
Brigham is finally starting to get the idea of blowing out candles. He still needed help but at least he's trying. After we sang to him he clapped his hands and said "Yay". It was so cute!
For presents, we picked up a planet video while we were at the Planetarium and Jaaromy also got him a bubble gun and a Bubble Storm.
They're both fun, but the Bubble Storm proved to be the most awesome present. It was pretty late by now but we still took it outside to try it out.
You pull on the trigger to wind it up and when you let go the helicopter flies into the air leaving a trail of bubbles behind.
Since we weren't eating at anybody's house on Sunday(two Sunday's ago now) we decided to go see one of the many beautiful temples in our valley. We had visited the Oquirrh Mountain Temple recently and so we decided to go see the Draper Temple. Last time we saw it it was still under construction. It is in a beautiful area, and I can see why people might pay more money for that view, it is spectacular. Especially at that time of day.
It doesn't really have a path to walk around like the OMT but it does have a nice sitting area. So I decided to take a couple of pictures with my phone.
We're still working with Nathaniel on how to achieve a natural smile.
I even had Nathaniel take a picture of me and Jaaromy.
I think he did a pretty good job.
We had a fun time. While we were there, a valve in the sprinkler box had broken and was flooding onto the street and into the lower parking lot. So the kids and I took off our shoes and waded in it. Brigham didn't want to get his feet wet so he walked on the curb while I held his hand and waded in the water. I was a nice temple trip.
