A Teen

I get melancholy and focused on the stark reminders that reflect how quickly time is passing that I often don't reflect on the more subtle occurrences. Yet somehow in between the 'stark' and 'subtles' of living, today I find myself with a THIRTEEN year old.

Yes.
A 13 Year Old.

I don't keep it a secret that I rushed the newborn and baby stage with my first two babies. It is one of my greatest regrets. If you remember this post here, I reflected how quick I was to have Megan do such things as ride a two-wheeler or start pre-school. I'm not doing those things with Drew. Funny isn't it? The perspective of a first child versus a last child.

I am certainly no longer in a hurry to move onto any new stages. I know now they will come all too quickly. After all, where in the world did the time go from this:

(Megan's first birthday picture)

To this?

(Megan's 13th birthday!!)

What a fabulous day.
Man, does this girl know how to make the gift-giver feel good:

Thirteen. I can remember so clearly being Megan's exact age. We are very opposite thirteen year olds, I had nothing close to the confidence, talent and security she has now. What a great thirteen year old she is! And what a fun stage to be in--I love having a daughter who can help straighten or curl those hard to reach pieces of hair at the back of my head, or who borrows MY shoes, or who offers me advice on what jewelry to wear with what outfit, or someone who is very capable to be left home alone with four younger siblings, or. . ., or. . ., or.

I think I might quite like this teenager stage.

(Anyone notice what is missing????)

When half the cake was eaten and even half the guests had left, my mother saw the 'Birthday Hat' sitting neglected in the center of the table! And so yes, we had to do the candles and singing all over again...

Happy 13th Birthday Megan!!

Guest Post-The Fight That Turned Into Flowerbeds

Today, I'm excited to be guest posting over at 'Our Garden Gate'! If you're interested, you can see what one of our very first fights was about as newlyweds...

Happy Reading!

The Longest Half Birthday

Bless Joshua's heart-it was a long day. From the minute he woke up exclaiming, "It's my birthday!" to the kids finally coming home from school so we could do his half cake and half present seemed like an eternity.

Half birthdays are supposed to be non-stress, but seriously, answering the question "When will the kids be home?" every five minutes for over seven hours, was not exactly non-stress.

(What exactly did I start with this half birthday thing? Drew's and Joshua's just ten days apart, and then in two days will be Megan's real birthday. Then in April when it is Joshua's real birthday, two days later is Megan's half birthday? Seriously? Don't I have enough stuff to do without half birthdays thrown in?!?)

I'm reconsidering the dollar store gift--this time around it only lasted five minutes (If that.)

Forget the non-non-stress day, hearing Joshua say in his bedtime prayer, "Bress I can be four and a half now" makes it all worth it.

Sort of.

Why I Don't Really Like Sundays...

Drew insisted on walking to church and in a kind gesture, I obliged. I walked to church with five children while Mike stayed home and had fifteen minutes quiet time before he met us at church. (His comment: "We really ought to have a car at church." screamed 'I want some peace and quiet away from you all.')

Upon taking our seats on the church pews, as is customary for Joshua, he laid down to take his Sunday nap. (He does not nap any other day!) Another family joined our bench and Joshua was forced to give up his sleeping prep position. By the time both families were fully situated, it was noticed that Joshua didn't even have a place to SIT let alone lay down. The lady behind us kindly let him lay down on the bench beside her.

He was brought into Primary 25 minutes late with a wrinkled shirt and bed head hair. On the bright side though, he hadn't 'wet the pew' like a few weeks previous. (!)

With a couple of hours of absolute free time after church, my children instead spend the entire afternoon hovering within inches of Mike and me.

Luke hooked an old horse lead rope to the back of Megan's pants in an attempt to give her a wedgie.

Ellie was asked to be the first to write on a card to send to the grandparents in Washington DC. She took it upon herself to take up all the space and acted extremely put out when I insisited the other kids get to write their own name.

Mike laid on the floor for the better part of an hour convincing one kid or another to scratch his back.

Megan and Ellie chose to fight over a Princess Storybook that I would have thought was far beyond an almost thirteen year old's reading interest.

Due to a 1:00pm-4:00pm church schedule, Drew took no nap. Enough said.

Megan and Luke began to get a little too hyper and spent a good fifteen minutes or so winding Joshua up.

Ellie sat on the couch good as gold oblivious to the wildness occurring across the room.

Somehow Mike's 'grabber' from the post-surgery-can't-bend-over-days appeared and Drew grabbed nearly every toy from the toy cupboard to carry across the room to deposit at Mike's side.

Surprise! Megan and Luke's wildness resulted in somebody crying.

Someone had the bright idea that our Family Council meeting would miraculously calm everyone down. Two children were asked to leave the room before we were half way done and the another was in tears because they weren't asked to say the prayer.

Drew oblivious to wildness, Family Council or naughty siblings continued to concentrate as he emptied the toy cupboard.

Mike made the mistake of getting down on the floor, and the mayhem escalated exponentially.

Sunday a day of rest?
Whatever, roll on Monday when more than half of these people will be GONE for the day!

The Real Deal

Though our visit to the Salt Lake Temple grounds last week was certainly a highlight for our little boys, the anticipation of also 'riding the train' was every bit as great. Our tri-annual treks into Temple Square always include 'riding the train.' We're simple. We're cheap. It's what we do for a good time around here.

Our train destination was to take us to the 'Pipes' that Megan and Ellie had done their best to describe to Luke and Joshua for almost a month now. Each description and subsequent discussion would always end the same way. With me yelling, "Just stop. It's too hard to explain, one day you'll just have to see them. Quit asking about them and quit trying to describe them."

Of course, we had to take a detour first as per Mike's request. We walked around the Gallivan Plaza and came upon  the TACKIEST and most distasteful wedding reception I have ever seen. It was a Halloween Costume theme!!!!!!! Besides the fact it was September 30th and not even the Halloween month, who has a reception like that?!? This photo does not do the reception justice, but I was already so bothered by this poor bride's wedding, I couldn't bring myself to further disgrace her by taking photos for purely mocking purposes.

(But don't you love Ellie in the bottom corner of this photo absolutely mesmerized by the whole affair?)

Eventually we made it to the 'pipes'. Even though Luke asked for some further clarification and explanation of what they were just prior to our arrival. I immediately cut into the conversation and demanded he just wait and see.

The 'pipes' were a great hit. Excuse the pun. They were literally a BIG HIT. Our kids had the whole 'field of pipes' to themselves and what do they do? They bend them and bounce them RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I think we had tears from at least two or three of the kids.
Seriously.

And so despite the 'reverence' and or 'seriousness' of part one of our Salt Lake Temple Square visit I described on Monday. This is just as much of our life.

Kids crying, a little contention, and believing the free ride on the Salt Lake light rail system constitutes as a 'train ride.'

Life is pretty simple around here.

Golden Days of Fall

I love the fall season. Every spring I say I love the spring, and I do, but I think my heart belongs more fully to Fall. And regardless of when school starts, or the leaves turn, or what an almanac says, October is the start of the fall season for me, and I love it all the way up to bedtime on Thanksgiving day. Then in my mind, winter begins.

I am amazed that we are as far into the year as we are. Last week Mike and I were trying to recall something that happened in March. For the life of us we couldn't remember the particular event like we needed to. February, March, and even April is all a big blur to us. All he can remember is laying in bed. All I can remember is him laying in bed.

But now we are into October. I LOVE this time of year. I love that my birthday is just 19 days away. I love that the days are getting shorter. I love the feeling in the air that everyone is getting ready to hunker down soon for the winter. I love the feeling of neglect that I can now give the weeds in my vegetable garden (actually, I think I've neglected them all year!). I love the reds, oranges and yellows in the mountains above my house. I love that I now have self-granted permission to make soups. I love the chance to pick every last home-grown tomato in my garden before we have to give way to store-bought ones for the months ahead.

I LOVE the FALL!

And even though technically, it has been Fall for a couple of weeks now, the weather around here hasn't been genuine FALL weather. I think today that may all change.
And I can't wait!

Happy Fall!!

I'm Going There Someday

This last July, while teaching Sharing Time during Primary I gave a lesson on Temples. Even to the youngest children within our church, we recognize and understand temples to be sacred, holy temples. Not only do we believe temples to be the House of God, we believe temples to be places of refuge, security and ultimately the key to our eternal salvation.

As I taught the particular lesson that July Sunday, I became emotional as I looked out at the Primary Children in the room that have all seen numerous temples in their lifetime. All of the children in our Primary can see a temple from their bedroom, house or nearby street. I explained to these children that there are some children in the world that very day receiving the exact same lesson they were, that would never in their lifetime see a temple.

A very humbling thought.

And then there is Joshua and Drew. Both of which began singing the Primary favorite, "I Love to See The Temple" before learning any other song. Both of them, but especially Joshua has always seemed to have a soft spot for temples, perhaps it is from having it within view of his bedroom window since birth. At least a couple of times a month Joshua asks to drive by the temple. Though only a ten to twelve minute detour at the most, I always seem too busy, too rushed, or too distracted to oblige.

On top of that, our two-three times a year visit to the Salt Lake Temple grounds has been put off for far too long. We have been long overdue for a visit.

On Thursday afternoon Joshua asked to drive by the temple. With a tight schedule ahead for the afternoon/evening, I began my typical 'not today' speech. But then I interrupted myself. I remembered my sharing time lesson from July, and while recalling the thousands of Primary children who have never seen a temple, I drove Joshua and Drew right by our temple. Their smiles were big, only stopping to sing out refrains from their Primary favorite. We circled the temple three times and went on our way.

Joshua, obviously feeling as though he had finally conquered one of his long term requests, stepped up his request and asked, "Now can we go see the 'other temple'?" Knowing full well I could not fit it in that night, I promised him, 'Very soon.'

About 24 hours later, I delivered on my promise.

I won't tell you that it was a spiritual, peaceful, family outing. It wasn't.
But we went.
We saw the beautiful temple, we basked in the beauty of the temple grounds, and I did my best to instill in my children the gratitude they should feel for having so many temples so close to them.

It was the perfect beginning to what we members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, call Conference Weekend. (A chance we have to listen to the leaders we believe to be prophets, seers and revelators, speak to us.)

Capped off with a visit on Sunday afternoon to a session of General Conference with Mike, Megan and Luke. I'd say it was beautiful, spiritual and enlightening, but I would be cheating myself of remembering that Mike grabbed and held on pretty tight to Luke's knee to prevent any further misbehavior during one of the talks. I swore at both kids as we navigated our ways through the crowded traffic. I gave Megan a threatening look to diffuse a giggling fit she and Luke were about to embark on at the wrong time. I packed and ate too many Hot Tamales during the session, that I ended up wishing desperately that I'd packed a toothbrush and toothpaste.

But it was spiritual and enlightening in it's own way. There is nothing that compares to standing and singing a hymn of praise with thousands of others. There is nothing like being within feet of our beloved prophet and leaders. There is nothing like having the exposures, and experiences that we do living within minutes of our church headquarters.

We are blessed, and I am committed to not let my kids take for granted their close proximity to our church headquarters, or to the temples scattered within miles of our hometown.

And so contrary to Luke's desperate hopes that I will never again get tickets to a session of conference. (I admit, two hours is a long time to sit listening.) I told him I will. Sometime when Ellie is old enough to go (children over 8 only allowed to attend inside the Conference Center), and then again when Joshua is, and then again when Drew is, we will do our best to attend a session of conference.

Like my little boys' favorite 'I Love to see the Temple' song says:

"...A place of love and beauty."

Indeed it is.