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???

Here's to you . . .

I find myself wondering how you can be so affected by the passing of a man who, by all accounts, you don't really know. I feel that way about President Hinckley. I am sure may of you do too. I am so relieved at the knowledge that I have that the church remains true, and that there will be a new and wonderful leader for our church. However, I still feel like a have a little hole in my heart tonight. I had the opportunity once to shake President Hinckley's hand, a sheer coincidence. I was a student at BYU at the time, and having a VERY bad day. I was standing outside the Wilkinson Center next to the driveway waiting for a ride to come and pick me up. Out of nowhere, men in suits appeared to block off the street, and I watched a green Towncar pull through the cones and right up to the door of the Wilk where I was standing. Another man in a suit got out of the front seat of the car, opened the rear passenger door, and President Hinckley appeared from behind the tinted glass window. No one knew he was coming, so there were a very few students standing there. He shook every one of our hands on his way into the building. He looked right into my eyes, and I knew. I knew that he was a remakable man. I knew that he was a prophet of God. I knew that I was privileged to shake his hand that day. So, here's to you President Hinckley. You will be greatly missed. And thank you for saving my very bad day.

Playing catch up

Well, we've got some catching up to do, but the good news is that we have a camera again! YEAH!! So, here's a little look back at our last few weeks . . .

Enjoying the lights at the zoo . . . with the wild animals where we belong!

The highlight of January was a visit from Nana and Papa Monson. They came to meet our new cousin Brett, and luckily to see us too! We had a wonderful time being together for a whole week!! Papa kept busy playing the role of the handyman at our house, and we are SO GRATEFUL for his help.

We capped off January with our annual trip to the Stock Show with Nana and Papa Whitmill. Sophie didn't want anything to do with the animals in the petting zoo, (see how happy she looks in the picutre!), but the other two had a great time. Unfortunately, dad couldn't join us because he was busy with his new calling as the secretary in the Stake Young Men's Presidency.

Don't give up on us yet . . .

I know a few of you have been diligently checking to see when in the world I would finally get around to putting up a new post. Well, here's the thing. Do you ever feel like the fates are against you? Apparently, those "fates" have decided that I am not supposed to put new pictures on our blog. (And that's the real reason for the blog, right? Cute pics of my kids!) Anyway, so a couple of weeks ago Tyler's folks were here, and I left the camera bag at my brother-in-law's house without realizing it. I looked high and low around the house for the bag, which contained the cord I use to connect to the computer and upload new pictures. So, no new pics. Well, I got the bag back on Saturday and was ecstatic, but we were having wireless problems over the weekend, so I couldn't get to the blog. Another fabulous brother-in-law came over last night to help us fix the wireless, and I was all ready and excited to make a new post after the kids went to bed. Just one problem. Now I can't find the camera. I am pretty sure that I am too young to have Alzheimer's, but I am beginning to wonder. I know I had the camera Saturday for our trip to the Stock Show, but we rode with Nana and Papa and I haven't seen the camera since then. So, I am hoping against hope that it is in Papa's car . . . which is at the airport until Saturday. Are you kidding me?!?! So, leave us some words of encouragement if you feel like it, or maybe a "brainless" anecdote of your own. At least you can enjoy some good tunes while you are here thanks to Tyler. And here's hoping for some new pictures . . . next week.

The FACE!

Oh, my sweet youngest. She is such a live wire! Just in time for Christmas, (of course), she has an all new "picture face". No matter what she is doing or where, I cannot get her to smile! Every time I even get the camera out she throws her head back, scrunches up her face, and gives me this CHEESY face. I don' even think it can be classified as a smile! I was getting frustrated that I couldn't get just ONE good picture of her for the holidays, but as I flipped through all the pictures, I just had to laugh. The same cheesy face over and over again. So, I am sharing them here in the hopes that they will make you all laugh too. What a goofball! You gotta love her. She really is a cute kid, I promise. Maybe we'll be able to tell next year in the Christmas pictures!