Stop & Smell the Roses Once In A While, Already :)

Today, I am thankful for the beauties of the earth.  Hasn't Heavenly Father blessed us with the most amazing planet to enjoy.  I've always LOVED late fall/winter time until I had kids and then it was really hard to not be able to let 3 little, wild, and crazy boys outside to play.  Now they are ALL old enough to play outside in the snow and be just fine.  We just bundle them up like the little boy on A Christmas Story and they're good to go.  The best part, I get to still love late fall/winter!  I think I like it so much because this time of year just seems so magical, what with Thanksgiving and celebrating Christmas from the day after Thanksgiving all through til January 1st.  I love Christmas trees and decorations.  Going for rides to look at Christmas lights.  Hot cocoa.  Warm, snugly sweaters, and blankets.  Cute boots.  Nativity sets.  Christmas programs.  The Nutcracker.  Christmas dresses for my daughter and nice sweaters or sweater vests for my sons.  The music.  Who doesn't love Christmas music?!  The feeling of looking out the window and seeing a blanket of snow on everything.  There is something so peaceful about that. (As long as you don't have to drive in it.)  Icicles.  Making snowmen and snow angels.  Snow covered trees.  Seeing the lights on Temple Square.  Christmas movies.  And just think about a lot of the best movies ever, that are set at Christmas time because...hello, it's magical and so romantic.  For example...Serendipity, While You Were Sleeping, The Holiday... I could go on and on. 

Springtime is so incredibly beautiful!  I absolutely love seeing all of the pretty tulips, daffodils, and lilac trees in bloom.  The grass begins to turn green.  The trees begin to grow leaves again.  The world begins to have color and life again.  Isn't it fun to see all of the cute little lambs, colts, and calfs.  The air starts to warm up again a little bit so that we can pull out our light jackets, capri's and flip flops.

Summertime is so much fun!  I never was very thrilled about it before I had those 3 little boys I talked about earlier.  It is wonderful to be able to just let them be free and play outside without coats, boots, gloves.  I loved seeing my babies chubby little legs and arms when they started wearing shorts and short sleeves.  It's such a beautiful time of year, too.  We love to see waterfalls, rivers running, The Garden's at Thanksgiving Point.  Everything is colorful and lovely. 

And living in Utah is really fun when Fall comes along.  I had never seen such spectacularly colored leaves of trees as when we moved to Utah from Kansas.  I still remember how awe inspiring it was the first time we drove through Price/Spanish Fork Canyon in the Fall.  The mountains in Utah are just beautiful no matter what time of year it is, but I especially love it when they are full of beautiful fall leaves.  I just can't get enough of it!  And, seeing Temple Square this time of year is my new favorite!

There are so many gorgeous places in our state, our country, and all over the world that I would just LOVE to see some day.  This earth was not made by accident.  There was so much thought and science to it.  Heavenly Father and Jesus are so amazing!  The beauty of it is such an amazing gift to all of us!  Sometimes I think we just get so wrapped up and caught up in the stress and duties of daily life that we forget to look around us and savour the beautiful world we live in.

Pageant, Rockets, Summertime, S'mores, Scripture Marking Class

~I went to The Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti last night with the Y.W. It has been so many years since I last went that I can't remember how long ago. Before we had kids anyway. We ate BBQ Turkey dinners at a ward building...the only way to go! Then we ate yummy custard and Italian Ice treats. SO YUMMY!!! Then we watched the pageant. There were parts in it that I didn't remember from years past. I'm sure they were there before but now that I'm old (they are having our 20 year high school reunion this year...that's OLD!!!) and have kids and have a stronger testimony and such, it just was so emotional for me to watch. I got teary quite often. When they portrayed the part in The Book of Mormon when Jesus visited the Nephites and blessed them and healed the sick and taught them and blessed their children, I really cried. It was so spiritually moving and just wonderful! Of course it's one of my favorite parts to read so being able to see it acted out was really neat. I am just so grateful for the opportunity I had to go this year. I was worried about going. The umbilical cord doesn't stretch all the way to Manti ya know. :)  But I went and I am so glad I did! It was even worth getting home at 1:30 a.m. and not sleeping until 2:30a.m.! Our Y.W. are such amazing girls and I just love spending time with them! I want to go next year with my little family.

~This morning the kids woke us up at 7:30 and we got ourselves ready and went to the home of some of our church members to watch an awesome rocket show! They set off tons of rockets. All different sizes. From super tiny to about 5 feet tall. I figured I could put this in the category of "things we do for our children". I was super surprised when I actually had a lot of fun watching! The time flew by! It was fun for everyone there, especially the kids! They all wanted to be the one who found the rocket after it landed. The people live out in the boonies so the kids had plenty of room to be free and run wild! Who can ask for anything more than that when you are a boy? Gracie hated the experience. It scared her to death each time one went off. But there were some adorable little baby bunnies nestled together by their house that a wild bunny had and oh they were the cutest little things! Gracie really liked them so at least it wasn't all bad for her. The ward member's who invited everyone out do this show every year. They invite people from the college out since he used to teach at the college, they invite ward members and friends. Their kids plan their summer vacations for the rocket show weekend. It's so much fun! One of their daughters said to me that she was surprised by how many people came out for the show. I said, well, there isn't a lot of entertainment in this town so when someone invites people for a fun time we're all there!!!

~Don't you love summertime. Some days I just absolutely love summer?! Some days not so much! When the kids get along pretty well...and they make the most of the opportunity to ride bikes and dig in the dirt all day long in our back yard...we eat some kind of yummy summer food like a BLT, juicy watermelon, corn on the cob, BBQ ANYTHING, yummy potato salad and Aunt Marilyn's fabulous baked beans...we walk through the store and smell the sweet scent of ripe nectarines and peaches throughout the produce area and my mouth starts to water...Strawberry Shortcake...spending lots of time outside...the smell of freshly cut grass, lilacs, and roses...THEN, all is right with the world and I LOVE summer! 

but...

when the kids can't stop fighting with each other, hurting each other, and hurting each other's feelings...having to take 4 kids along when I go to the grocery store...having to pull pokey stickers out of my kids feet constantly because they refuse to wear shoes outside...the whining...complaining...fighting over which wii game to play or movie to watch...the constant messes...not being able to afford to go on nice little mountain drives because the price of gas is OUT...OF...CONTROL!!!, THEN I'm not such a big fan of summer!

~There is a fire pit in our back yard. Tonight we're going to roast marshmallows over it and have s'mores. I can't wait!!! Brian is cooking some delicious chicken and rice in the dutch oven. I sure do love to eat! :)

~Thursday night there was a scripture marking class for a Relief Society activity. Oh, it was awesome! The lady brought us fun little sticker things to put in our scriptures. She suggested some fun things like, mark words in your scriptures that are about Jesus, Heavenly Father, good, happy things with yellow soft color pencil. Mark scripture mastery scriptures in kind of a rainbow pattern. Mark things that are about Satan or evil with red pencil. Use other colors you like for other things. She just really got us all excited about the scriptures and taught us things that will help us be able to understand the scriptures better. It was a really great experience! I can't wait for her to come again!

I'm melting...

Wowzers it's HOT today!!! Oh, I'm not complaining!

I welcome the sizzling hot days of summer!!

 It's nice to see a little variety in our lives besides snow and freezing cold!!

 I'm loving it!!! 

Happy hot summer day everyone!!!

IT'S ROUGH!!!

So when life gets really rough I have to count my blessings so that I don't let the negativity take over, so, here goes (in no particular order)....

I am thankful for:
blue skies
HOT summer days
seeing friends for the first time in 5 years
brown eyed baby girls
watching my kids run through the sprinklers
having a clean bathroom
the rubbermaid tote we found in our cellar that is FULL of novels
bbqs
Max's big blue eyes against his green tball hat
feeling the spirit
being married to my best friend
my wonderful brother in law, JJ. All I can say is I'm sorry you had to get hurt in this after you were being so generous and kind and thoughtful and good.  It breaks my heart!!!
ice cold Cherry Coke
Mississippi Mud Cake
AND...
last but not least
air conditioning!!!!

Time.........

~Yesterday was a gorgeous day!  The sun was shining brightly.  It was warm.  And the wind only lightly breezed by a few times.  I love days like that!!!
~I'm still unpacking.  Brian and Zack brought over the last of our things in storage yesterday so I don't have to worry about adding more to the mix, which is a HUGE relief!!!  This place is bulging at the seams.  I've already taken out something like 5 boxes of things we are getting rid of which is nice but there is still so much more.  Our boys have always LOVED dressing up in costumes. They are so cute!  You never know "who" is going to walk in the room.  As I've been unpacking and organizing and sorting I've run across many of the cute little costumes our boys have always loved dressing up in. Of course Matthew and Max were so excited to see them again after being away from them for the last 8 months.  They put them right on and much to my surprise and both of our disappointment...they have grown too big for most of them.  I knew they were growing like weeds this year but I had no idea just how much until now.  It's sad that they are growing up so quickly.  It's wonderful that each new phase brings new joy and excitement for them and for us.  It's so exciting to watch them grow and change and progress in so very many different ways.  I'm a little scared of what the future brings.  It's kind of a crap shoot.  You raise your kids the way you believe you should and some of them turn out great and others...not so much.  There is no secret.  There is no magic potion or formula that will ensure that they will turn out the way you hope they will.  I have seen so many people that have been very good, decent, people and they raise all of their kids in the same way, in the same home and each result is different.  I just hope and pray that our children will turn out to be happy, good, kind, decent, loving, family oriented, successful, spiritual, productive, honorable, upstanding, members of this world we live in.  They are growing so fast.  I hope we are doing it right.  I hope they are taking the good things from life.  I hope they hold onto the good things of their childhood and not the bad.  I hope I can try harder to enjoy the moments before it's too late and they are grown and the opportunity is gone.  I see my nephews and nieces and I can't believe how quickly they have grown.  I blinked and they are all in their late teens/early twenties.  Some are parents.  I just can't believe how fast time flies by.  I want to capture this time somehow and remember it forever.  Everyone that is past this stage tells us to savor the time, enjoy it more, it goes too fast, don't let it slip by without taking time to just ENJOY.  I'm trying.  Really, I am.  Sometimes LIFE gets in the way and time slips away a little more and I stop and think, wait! Hold up! SLOW DOWN!!!  Crazy how it doesn't.  It just goes by faster.  One thing that might help is to take more pictures.  The more kids I have, the fewer pictures I take.  Too busy taking care of everyone to think about capturing the moments.  If I do though I will at least have the pictures to look back on and help me remember this time after it's gone.  Scrapbooking is so great for this.  I should do it more often.  If you scrapbook you are thinking all the time of the scrapbook and what moments you want to capture in their books forever and you take more time to really look for those special, sweet moments to capture on film.  I am so grateful that our children are so healthy and can grow and flourish.  I wouldn't want it any other way.  I will ENJOY this time more and appreciate it more and try harder to make this time more enjoyable for all of us!!!!