Twelve

My Jackson turned twelve this week and today he received the Aaronic Priesthood. As he was being blessed, certain moments of his life flashed before my eyes. I know that sounds kind of dramatic, and I'm so not dramatic, but it's truly what happened.

Obviously I thought of some of the moments after he was born. I saw him 8 days old on Christmas day with his new Air Jordan's on from Grandma and Grandpa.
I also thought of a special moment for me around that same Christmas when I was bathing him and became emotional because I was thinking about how much I loved him. And I thought about Mary taking care of her baby and if I loved my boy this much, how much her heart probably swelled with love for hers, especially knowing who He was. I have had similar moments with each of my children.

I thought of him at age two, singing "Silent Night", saying "Round yon virgin, father and child. Holy infant so tinderella mild." And for years his constant request to be sung all 4 verses of "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" as his bedtime song.

I saw him at age four when he majorly wiped out on his bike and scraped his face up really bad.

I saw him through preschool, kindergarten and first grade when he starred as Bubble Gum Bart in the school play.

I thought of his baptism day, his determination to learn to ride a ripstick, and jump a 6 foot gap on his bike.

I thought of the time he told me he loves to listen to his primary president talk because it makes him feel really good inside. And two weeks ago when he bore his testimony for the first time in front of our entire church congregation.

And lest you think he's perfect, I saw a 3-year-old Jackson pushing his 1-year-old sister down 17 stairs. And 7 years later, telling the same sister that the water in the font turned black when she was baptized.

Jackson shares a room with his favorite 2-year-old, Justin. Every night when Jackson goes to bed he covers Justin with his blankies and with kisses. Sometimes he looks at him for awhile and rubs his head.
Once in awhile if they go to bed at the same time, I will later find Jackson asleep on the floor next to Justin's bed. When Justin was born, I wondered if there was a connection that could possibly be made between boys nearly 10 years apart. Well, I think there is. ☺

I hope he stays the same fun, happy, thoughtful, funny, not too old to snuggle up to me, homework helping, open-minded, smart, witty, spiritual, wise young man he is now.
Happy Birthday Jackson! Love you bud! ☺

Thanksgiving - by Audrey

Look away PETA, just look away.

Hungry

I love it when these guys come over to eat dinner at our house. They're not your typical dinner guests. They're missionaries. They bring more than an appetite for food. They bring a hunger to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a desperate hope that we have someone in mind for them to share it with. They make our kids want to bounce off the walls with hyperactive happiness. They make us want to be better people.

One of my favorite things to do when they come over is take a picture of them and e-mail it to their mothers to show them their bellies are full of a home-cooked meal. Taco Bell didn't make any money off them that night.

One of my favorite things to observe is the sparkle in my husband's eyes as he talks to them and reminisces about the 2 years he put his life on hold, at the ripe old age of 19, to serve a mission in Argentina. No family, no girls, no music, no movies, no ESPN. Just 2 years of searching for people who were internally searching for the full gospel. 2 years of living expenses paid for out of his own pocket. He refers to those years as some of the best of his life.

My dad did the same when he served a mission to Florida. My four brothers saved up their hard-earned money and spent 2 years each in the countries of England, New Zealand, Peru and Argentina. My nephew is finishing up his service in Chicago. He wants to extend his mission a little longer because he's on such a spiritual high. Go here to see an important reason why they sacrifice so much to go.

Someday when my boys, and maybe even my girls, serve their missions, I will let them go knowing they will be taken care of wherever they are. And maybe every now and then I'll get an e-mail from a mom who fed them a home-cooked meal. ☺

Seen And Heard

A crew of diverse characters unusually getting along.
A scurvy pirate and his first mate,
who moonlights as a basketball player.

A lonely leper pumpkin.

The tooth fairy.

Candy negotiations.
Notice the socks used as boundary lines.

A new bathroom (you can see the before here).

Hot dog cravings.

A pretty girl.

A handsome trumpet player.

A borrowed car....

For a first date.

Kickball games with good friends.

Good dreams.


Onions make me smell like B/O. Especially when I have to cook 50 pounds of them.

Your husband truly loves you when he slices 50 pounds of onions even though you are the PTA member who volunteered to do it, and then lets you go to bed while he finishes cooking the last batch.

Summer is allergic to 1% milk. She can only have skim and 2%. I can personally guarantee that she's not allergic to 1% milk.
(Summer is our neighbor. We affectionately call her "the Buzzard" because she circles around in front of our house on her bike waiting for us to get home.)

There is a boy named Keith in Audrey's class and spit comes out of his mouth when he talks.

You can go broke if all of your school-aged children make straight A's on their report cards at the same time.

The ladies at church like to hit on my husband. Right in front of me. But he pays them no attention. He likes a woman with a good strong B/O.

Seven Heaven

So, what does the cutest little six-year-old in the world do all day?

She swings.

She surfs.
She picks fights.

She bakes bread.

She hangs out with her BFF's at school.

And she just hangs out.

She takes tennis lessons.



And piano lessons.

She plays kickball....in flip flops.

She gets in on some BMX action with the boys.

She pretends to be cranky because she rarely is.

And she is just so darn cute no matter what face she makes.

And then she has a birthday.


And turns into the cutest little seven-year-old in the world.
Happy 7th Birthday Audrey! We adore you!

A Letter

Dear Taylor Swift ~

You are adorable. I think your songs are cute and catchy and innocent, as far as I know, and I really like your personality.

Here's the thing. I know a lot of little girls who like you too, including my two daughters. Please don't disappoint them (and me) and turn into someone other than who you are now. Please don't pull a Vanessa Hudgins or become another Britney. And try really hard to resist the urge to choose the lifestyle Miley Cyrus seems to be eyeing more and more lately. I'm trying to give her a chance, but it's kinda tough to explain to a 6-year-old what pole-dancing is.

Keep up the good work and try to remember how many young, extremely impressionable girls are watching you.

Sincerely,
A Mom

Pretty In Pink

He wears pink flip-flops too.
It's cute......for now.

37 plus about a month

I wanted to do a Day In The Life Of kind of thing for Steve for his birthday post last month but he was too embarrassed to have his co-workers take pictures of him doing what he does all day.

I managed to sneak in the courtroom to get this one.


"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

Truthfully? My man is way more handsome and he gets better looking with every birthday and every gray hair.

Word Of The Day

I would rather be working on a project I'm painting but it's dark now and painting by lamplight is no bueno. So here is a word of the day I was reminded of last night when one of these guys crawled into the house through the garage door that was left cracked open.

No, this is not the one that came in the house. We don't feed them.
Or use them in a photo shoot.

Freddy - A large American Roach.

I think my brother, Brian came up with this word, and it must have been back in the Freddy Krueger era because these things scare me just as bad.

I know. I know. I live in the wrong state to be afraid of a little Freddy but that's what Pest Control is for. This was the first one I've seen in quite a while so I had a hard time falling asleep last night.

Then I got woken up at 1 am by Sadie, who was moaning in pain from a stomach ache, that went on for an hour. The 6:30 alarm came way too soon so.....peace out.

Watch out for Freddies!

I Never Win Anything....

But I so want to win one of these!! I love my Burley but one of these babies would just be so cool!
So, click on this picture for me. If I win, I'll give you a ride around the block. ☺

Maggie

We gave our kids 3 options to choose a vacation for our one and only available week to get away before school started.

1. Rent a beach house somewhere, like Destin
2. Buy season passes to Universal Studios, which would not only be the vacation but would last us for a year of weekend trips to the park.
3. Maggie Valley, North Carolina

They made a most excellent choice and we were off to Maggie. They may have been raised on the beach like me but they definitely have some mountain blood in them from their daddy.

Since it's like 200° outside right now, Universal would be a blast but not until about October or November. And since we live like 8 minutes from the beach, the mountains of North Carolina was a natural choice over a beach house.

We've been to our beloved Maggie Valley several times so the kids know what it's like. I think we could live there. Seriously, if my parents and my siblings would come, we would.

What we love about Maggie:
1. Mountains (duh)
2. Seclusion of staying in a cabin in the mountains
3. Cool(er) weather
4. Antiquing (for me - but alas, we had no trailer this time so I didn't bring any treasures home, unless you count homemade jams, pickled onions and rock candy)
5. Scenery
6. Exploring
7. Playing games and just chillaxing

This time we drove a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which we had never done before. I don't know why because it's beautious. We also drove through the Smoky Mountain National Forest to get to Gatlinburg, TN where we went to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Aquarium, which was awesome. The older kids and Steve went white water rafting, we did some gem mining in Cherokee, and braved the icy waters of Sliding Rock.

What I love the most is how appreciative the kids were of how beautiful everything is. They were like old people sitting out on the porch swing enjoying the scenery.☺
What I also love is how wonderfully good Justin was through all that driving. We're talking hours a day over the course of a week. All the kids traveled well. Sometimes that makes the difference between a horrible trip and a great one, don't you think?

Pay no attention to what the kids are wearing in the pictures. Having been there before, I told them not to pack anything nice because they like to climb on rocks and dirt. And we don't know anyone up there anyway.
















Don't worry, they all had their bathing suits on.
Well everyone but Justin had a bathing suit on. Oops.

















All good things must come to an end though.
Here they are just a few days later on the first day of school.
Let the fun begin.