When There Is Love At Home

Our family "LAH" Award has encouraged several tender displays of love in our home.

The other day when I went downstairs to hop on the computer I found the screen

filled with love notes from Brinley. 

Avery had placed love notes on a picture frame and displayed it right next to the computer.

It is tender and special to watch the girls showing love one to another and it's especially nice to have moments, like the one above, when I am reminded of their sweet, pure love. 

Tomorrow night during dinner time the new "LAH" Award recipient will be announced.

I'm quite certain that Apsen will have an emotional struggle when she is required to pass along the award as she has been the proud winner this past week...hopefully the tears won't last long.

Wicked

Although the girls have never seen the Broadway production of 

Wicked

they know every single song by heart and have watched 

several scenes of the play on you tube.

The girls dance around the house singing these all too familiar songs  

over and over and over again, it's actually quite darling.

 

Often the singing is accompanied by costumes and reenactments 

 of various scenes from the play.

Often Aspen enjoys singing "Defying Gravity"  

at the top of her lungs while she is using the potty.

On this particular day the girls kicked it up a notch by painting 

their faces green like Elfaba.

We are anxiously awaiting for the summer of 2013,

for this is when Wicked will grace our city once again and we

 can take the girls to this play which they already love to pieces!

THIS is one of the wonderful talks we listened to today during the first day of 

General Conference.

We are looking forward to another day filled with inspired talks tomorrow!

Daddy-Daughter Date

Cody took the older girls ice skating last Saturday and

they sure had a fun time together!

Are they not just so stinkin' cute!?!

The girls have only been ice skating a handful of times in their lives,
but they did a great job!

HERE is a sweet clip about my high school friend Stephanie's book.
My Mom is globe trotting again. See pictures of a few of her adventures HERE.

HERE is a great resource for the Mothers out there!

Weekend Update

Reese is starting to be more interested in life.

She coos and laughs and blows little spit bubbles and looks at herself in the mirror.

Daddy loves her so much that yesterday he made the comment

"I just want to squeeze her so tight that her little eyeballs pop right out of her head."

It was a rather hilarious comment, but in all honestly we are doing our best to "squeeze" 

every last moment into adoring this beautiful baby while she is still a wee one.

We put up the trampoline on Friday and are much relieved that the constant nagging 

to do so has been silenced.

The beautiful weather has been nothing short of miraculous, my AC is running as I type. The girls have enjoyed spending a LOT of time outside drawing with chalk, riding bikes, 

playing on the backyard swing set and jumping on the tramp.

Aspen is our smoothie girl (as seen below). 

I am convinced that she would be perfectly content to drink down most of her meals, 

so long as we called them smoothies!

Aspen has perfected her valley girl eye rolling and head zig-zags which amplify  

the smirk little sassy comments which roll off her tongue 

more frequently than I would like to admit. 

We do our best to keep a straight face and properly re-direct and encourage more appropriate communication skills, but sometimes it can be pretty darn 

difficult to keep from busting up laughing.

Don't let that sweet smile fool you, she choose to spend about 30 minutes throwing a wild and crazy tantrum outside this afternoon because Avery would not jump on the tramp with her. I was watching from inside while nursing just waiting for some neighbor to come running into my backyard worried a child may have been seriously injured due to the volume and tone of her ear-piercing screams. 

Eventually she did calm down enough to join us for lunch. After lunch Avery decided to grant Aspen her presence on the tramp. Apparently Avery felt successful enough by this time at her ability to cause Aspen to scream for so long beforehand that she was willing to jump,

 which she had wanted to do all along but found it 

much more amusing to cause Aspen such heartache. 

As I cleaned up lunch and put Reese to sleep I heard terrifying screams coming from both girls. Because this type of behavior happens a number of times on any given day, I am not as quick to respond as I once was; 95% of the time it has nothing to do with someone being physically hurt. When I looked outside I discovered Aspen pinning Avery to the trampoline mat near the ladder with all the force her little body could muster up. Apparently Avery was finished granting Aspen her presence and wanted to get off the tramp (most likely to see if she could cause another gigantic tantrum) and Aspen was determined to force Avery to stay on the tramp and jump. We are still learning what types of encouragement work to get the things we want.

I simply opened up the door and yelled "nap time Aspen, quiet time Avery." 

 I will spare you from an explanation of behavior in the moments after that announcement was made.

On Thursday our friends Jeff and Liz and their son Jacob arrived in town. 

Jeff and Cody were co-residents and Jeff is now doing a fellowship at Duke University.

It was so fun to have them stay with us this weekend and meet Jacob for the first time! 

On Saturday evening we drove to Cincinatti to attend the wedding reception of 

another residency friend named Usha. Since the drive was almost 2 hours each way it 

allowed for adult conversation without constant interruptions and it was great to finally get a chance to really catch up.
Liz and I were also able to hit the greatest women's clothing warehouse,
which I try to expose all visitors to.

On Sunday Jacob was baptized at the Methodist 

church that Jeff and Liz attended here during residency. 

We were honored to be a part of this special day for their family.

On Saturday morning I resumed teaching classes at the gym!

How I have missed connecting with all of the wonderful 

members who religiously attend classes.

At the beginning of this pregnancy I mentioned that 

I could live on Panera soup for the upcoming nine months.

A couple of weeks later my Saturday Urban Iron class presented me with this darling card

and a $100 gift card to Panera for soup. I was VERY touched!!

They gathered before class one week, when I had a sub,

 to take the picture on the inside of the card 

and then gathered signatures from several of the people who participated in the gift. 

Rex, a die hard regular who has been attending my classes for years, put it all together and pasted my face on the gal who was laying down in front.

Obviously it's a treat to get back to teaching and motivating such great people!

When I returned home after the gym I happened upon this scene.

Reason #223453455 why Cody is a fantastic father =

he lets the girls paint his face and acts as if it was a total blast!

Because Brinley attended two birthday parties on Saturday, 

not only is her checking account from family economy responsibilities down to .49 cents 

(she is responsible to purchase the gifts for her friends parties), 

but she also missed out on some face painting fun. 

Apparently the parties were totally worth it!

Ta ta for now.

PS - THIS is going to be our FHE lesson tonight. Check it out, you may want to use it too.

Cousin Kenneth

I just had to share this cute little clip of Jill and Arian's son reciting a poem.

Because flying back and forth between England and Nevada every several weeks was taking a toll,

 they are now having the adventure of a lifetime living in England 

while Arian completes his Executive MBA program 

at Oxford.

Although Arian is rather occupied with schooling and starting up  

an international company called One Nest, 

Jill seems to be exploring every inch of the city with their three children in tow.

Little Kenneth has leaned the accent very quickly, 

they just moved there December 21st!

A Scattered Post Straight from a Scattered Mommy Brain!

Reese weighed nearly 11 lbs. at her 8 week check up on Feb. 23rd.

She was a happy little camper, that was until shots time came, 

boy can this wee thing scream.

Mommy has to turn away because I am likely to faint if I watch the 

needles go into her little thighs. 

You would think after enduring pregnancy and childbirth four times and vaccinations with three kids that I would get over my needle-phobia...nope, not even close.

I tell Cody "that's because it's a real phobia," then he smiles and laughs.

My Dad has the same issue when it comes to needles, so I pretty much blame it on genetics.

A nursing session post needles made everything alright again. 

Then we were off to pick up Aspen from preschool and Avery from AM kindergarten.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love being a taxi driver?

...in my world of positive thinking that is.

Side note: If you see a recipe on Pintrist for drying strawberries in your oven 

no not try it, take it from me, they don't work!

On the Monday before Valentines day  

we taught a "love" themed family home evening.

During activity time everyone was given a heart to write down one loving thing they would do for each person in our family during the week and told that they would report on their accomplishments during the next family home evening. 

Avery chose to have two sides of writing on her heart. She first wrote something each person in the family could do FOR HER to show HER love. 

We got a chuckle out of this. On the back she got around to writing

what she could do for each member of the family.

(Brinley wrote a nice letter to show Mom love)

It was tender to observe little acts of service going on throughout the week. 

We did have a reminder time every night at dinner to help the younger ones remember 

what their goals were for the week. 

After Valentines week was over  

I did not want to see the expressions of love disappear,

(due to the countless daily arguments the girls have, focusing on love is quite important)

and so our L.A.H. (Love At Home) Award was born!

Whomever Mom and Dad observe showing love towards family members the MOST throughout the week will win this award and be able to display it on their bedroom door throughout the following week and so on each week.

I'm sure the excitement over this award will fade in time, but for now it's helping to encourage the children into a positive pattern of finding ways to help, love and serve one another.

Side note: DO TRY this recipe on pintrist for 

roasted grape, goat cheese and honey stuffed sweet potatoes. They were VERY good!

Avery and Aspen welcomed this beautiful morning first thing by fighting over who looked at baby Reese the longest when she was smiling. 

Apparently Aspen is under the impression that if another sibling looks as Reese, at the same time she is looking at her, then they are somehow stealing "her turn,"  

oh the blessed three-year-old logic.

 Well, I must say, she is pretty stinkin' adorable and all smiles these days!

We continue to adore our four precious girls and are enjoy observing their relationships with one another blossom, especially when aggression is absent.

To Your Health

Gotta hand it to her, pretty amazing!

If Americans ate even ONE raw, nutrient-dense, meal a day we would 

be well on the road to solving the "heath-care crisis."

 

One of the reasons healthcare is so expensive in the US

is because sick Americans need so much of it...

and the reason we are such a sick nation is because of the food choices we make.

I wish I could link my brother and sister-in-laws blog to this, it's private now so I can't.

They are living in Oxford, England and WOW, it's obvious

that England is leaps and bounds ahead of the US in terms of good food choices,

and from what I have learned, so are a majority of other countries in the world

Holy Cow!

When I bring a baby into the world my body morphs into milk cow mode and produces

 about five times as much milk as my babies can possibly eat.

After Brinley was born I suffered through weeks of 

painful engorgement, hardly pumping at all.

With Avery and Aspen I pumped only when I became  
so absolutely engorged that I could
 no longer handle the pain and then I would 

pump just enough in between feedings to get pain relief. 

I even remember wearing a tight ace wrap after baby Avery was born to  

try and slow production, didn't work.

For me, the milk overproduction/engorgement phase is much 

more painful than actually giving birth.

This time around I came up with a plan, 

before baby Reese arrived, that I would simply NOT

go through the crazy prolonged engorgement pain again. 

Not only do we have a well fed baby on our hands, who is now 

completely sleeping through the night ...

this decision has resulted in  

90+ 6oz. bags of breast milk, 

which is completely overtaking our freezer!

Thank heaves our good 'ole trusty medela pump,

 we just may be on the look out for a deep freeze soon.