It's all in a days work...

Sometimes its seems like my days are all the same. And then I stop and really think about it, and I realize that they are in some ways all very different. Every day brings a new set of smiles, tears, fights, struggles, losses and victories. Here's a sampling of a few of my favorite recent moments...

Watching an old episode of The Gilmore Girls with Lily...
Lily: "Mom! Lane is dying her hair purple!"
Mom: (thinking that there is a teaching opportunity here somewhere - I don't want Lily seeing purple hair in her future) "Ya, Lane is a silly girl, isn't she? Why would she dye her hair purple?"
Lily: "I know!! If she was going to dye it, why wouldn't she dye it PINK!"



Sophie is a house wrecker, and consequently spends most of her waking time gated in the family room. Tyler is there with her the other day, and I am in the kitchen trying to fix dinner. Sophie is standing at the gate SCREAMING "MOM!! MOM!!" Then it gets quiet. She has decided to take matters into her own hands...




Lily came home from preschool the other day with two great works of art. She was so proud. The conversation went like this:
Lily: "Mom, I made this at school today!"
Mom: "It's lovely! It's very...colorful...and...original. What is it a picture of?"
Lily: "These are called splats. Do you like my splats? I'm a good splatter, aren't I mom!!"



Sophie figured out yesterday how to pull a stool up to the fridge and press the ice dispenser button on the front. She LOVES ice. The only problem is, she just stands there holding the button down while the ice scatters all over the floor. So, being the clever girl that she is, she went and dug an empty pop can out of the trash can and tried to fill it from the dispenser. What a mess!
And then of course, there is Hunter. As I was writing this I realized that I didn't have any recent Hunter funny moments, and it made me sad when I realized that part of that is because he is getting "old", and part of it is because he spends as much of his day at school as he spends home with me. I miss him! However, we did watch "The Game Plan" a couple of weeks ago, and he has been doing Elvis impersonations ever since. It's hard to explain here, but next time you see him, ask to see his Elvis.

Looking Back...

I was working on some things for Young Women the other day and looking through all the pictures on my hard drive. A little mini trip down memory lane. I was especially struck by how much Sophie has changed since this time last year, and I was thinking that some of these pictures never got a chance to get "shared". So I put together a little slideshow with a couple of pictures from each month of last year. It was fun to put it together and watch my kids change right before my eyes, (although it made me a little sad too!) Anyway, I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed making it! Without further ado...

Picking and Choosing...

This morning was one of those mornings. You've had them too. Dad is out of town again. I am trying to get three kids up, dressed, fed, brushed, packed, etc., etc., etc. Sophie is in her highchair screaming "Lella! Lella!" because she wants the princess cereal. She likes the princess cereal becuase it has marshmallows in it. Unfortunately, she eats ONLY the marshmallows. That's why I don't usually give her the princess cereal. So in a good hearted but misguided attempt to "help", Lily hands Sophie the entire box of cereal. Before I realize what has happened, Sophie has dumped all the cereal left in the box onto her highchair tray. It's her idea of heaven: a huge pile of cereal from which she can remove every single marshmallow. So, since it was one of those mornings I decided to laugh about it, since that was the only way I could think of to save my sanity. As I was watching Sophie have her fun I thought, "It must be nice to pick and choose only the pieces you want." Wouldn't life be a lot easier if we could pick and choose? If we could take the stuff we like, and just leave the less pleasant stuff sitting on the tray? It sounds so good. But then I thought a little bit harder, and I realized, if we never ate the other stuff, we would never really apperciate the marshmallows, would we?

Oh Lily...

I must say that to myself at least fifty times a day. Oh Lily! She has so much personality! She is also a study in contrasts. She loves to wrestle with her brother, get dirty, throw balls, and all kinds of "boy" things. In fact, the other day someone asked me if Hunter missed not having brothers, and then they said "Oh wait, he has Lily!". And then there is the softer side of Lily. She was ecstatic to go to preschool on Wednesday, because they were having a teddy bear picnic. The night before, she decided to take her purple bear Violet to school with her. At 7:40 the next morning, as daddy is out of town and we are trying to get out the door to take brother to school, she comes flying down the stairs with a box of beads and says "Mom! We need to make Violet a bracelet before I take her to the picnic!" Ya! 'Cause that's all I have to get done this morning! So, we take brother to school, come home and spend the next half hour not only making a bracelet for the bear's big day, but then documenting the momentous occasion with an impromptu photo shoot. You have to admit, Violet looked lovely.

And then the next day, she gets up from her nap and comes downstairs all dressed up and announces to me "Mam, Princess Lily will be riding with you to the school today. Will that be all right?" All I could do was chuckle. She does look like a princess, doesn't she? But we all know that looks can be deceiving!

Take the Challenge!!

So, maybe you have all heard about this already, but I just heard about it in Gospel Doctrine today and I think it's really cool. There is a website called The Hinckley Challenge. The idea is that you commit (starting tomorrow) to read the Book of Mormon in ninety-seven days, one day for each year of the prophet's life. You can register on the site, and it will tell you how many other people have registered do far, and you can also track your own progress. It ends on May 11, and if you read every day you only have to read 5.4 pages a day to finish in time. I am not always the best about this kind of stuff, but I am going to commit to it this time. And to keep me honest, I am putting a graph on the right side of this page to show all of you the progress I have made in my reading. That way, it's harder for me to quit! Anyway, I think this is a really neat idea and wanted to share it with you all. Anyone up for a challenge???