Grandpa's 80th Birthday Party

Last weekend my family got together to celebrate my Grandpa's 80th birthday! It was really great to get together with my dad's side of the family. They are a fun, artistic, beautiful, strong group of people who I love and adore. I'm proud of this part of my heritage and was excited to spend the day in honor of Grandpa.
(the whole family)
(just the cousins)

After a lovely lunch we enjoyed a little program. First, Grandma Donna's daughter and son sang a song called "Two Little Boys" that has been a favorite of my Grandpa's since he was a little boy. Then my dad read a poem that my Grandpa loved when he was little and used to have his sister read to him every night before bed. Then there were various musical numbers including my sister who played the fiddle,
and my cousin Emily who sang a song while her brother Jason played the drum. This girl is so bursting with artistic talent, she should be famous someday.

I loved looking at the old photos of my Grandpa that were displayed as well as a few newspaper articles about him. Hearing some memories from his life from his kids was touching. I always remember going to his barber shop in Idaho Falls and getting a sucker. He still calls me his Little Firecracker because I was born on the 5th of July. He loves football, especially IF High School and BYU. I loved going to his house for fresh raspberries with cream and sugar. He usually has a couple of cows on his property and a coup full of birds that he loves to tend to. I love you Grandpa! Happy Birthday!

Draper Temple Open House

Friday afternoon we took the kids to the Draper Temple Open House. Charlie saw me getting ready and said, "I go get dressed go to temple." Then he went and pulled his tux from Ericka's wedding out of his drawer and put it on, without a shirt. He also had a pair of sunglasses on top of his head! He climbed into his crib and fell asleep.
When everyone was dressed and ready, we went to a nearby church where the tour began. There, you watch a short video about temples in general. The schedule was running behind and because we were short on time, we chose to skip the video. I wish we could have seen it! We had to wait quite a while before we could get on the bus. Hopefully they will be able to improve the busing system for the rest of the tour days. Here we are on the bus.When you get to the temple, you walk through a long tented tunnel that leads to the entrance. The interior is SO BEAUTIFUL! I've been in a handful of temples and they are all beautiful but I really loved this one. The wood was so stunning! It was African Cherry imported from the West Coast of Africa. The windows were also breathtaking. Most of all, the chandelier in the Celestial Room was amazing. The ceiling was so high and the light fixture seemed to go up forever. It was so brilliant and reflected a full spectrum of glittering colors. There was no photography allowed within the temple so go see it for yourself! The open house goes until March 14th.



When you come out, you go back through the tunnel and into the church next door where there were some delicious cookies (don't miss out!!) and you could have any questions answered. Then we had to wait a while again to get on a bus back to our car.

It was really a memorable experience, especially for the kids I hope. They were excited to get to go in. They were most interested in seeing where the weddings take place. We had a neat moment inside a sealing room looking into the mirrors that go on forever as a family. I'm glad we did it, even with all the waiting involved and look forward to spending time there in the future. I recommend everyone go!

Learning

Who doesn't like to help, right? I do! I love the opportunity to do a little something that means a lot to someone else. It warms the heart. It makes me feel like a good person.

What I'm not good at is asking for help myself. I guess I've always wanted to be the "strong one" who can handle everything. The fighter, who will hold the world up on her shoulders, and keep her family intact. I'm now learning a new facet of strength.

The strength to know your own limits. The strength to know it's OK to ask for help, and still feel like a respectable person. Along with that, a greater respect for those whom I have served. And I feel much less likely to pass judgment on someone in need.

I've been compelled to humility by my pregnancy and the associated sickness. I think I expected too much of my husband, and myself. He gave me a beautiful Priesthood blessing the other night in which I was taught many Divine lessons. Among other things, he said to ask for help when needed because there are people around me who need the chance to serve. I guess that's the backwards way to get me to do it....so that I think I am the one doing the favor!

I truly, truly do appreciate all those who have been so kind and thoughtful already. It really lifts the spirits to know there are people who care and will help without judging. It's a very tender way to create closeness between people.

So, feel free to decline, but expect me to learn from this experience by being more open and honest with my needs and more willing to accept help. The ironic thing is, once I came to this realization, a huge stress burden was lifted and I already felt a lot better physically. The Lord works in mysterious ways. He will ALWAYS give you opportunities to learn what you need in order to be your best self. And most the time, those around you learn through you too.

Seven Weeks

I promise I won't bore you with constant pregnancy updates for the next 7 months but THIS post is going to be just that!

We had fun telling the rest of our family on Christmas day. Jon's parents came over to see what Santa had brought the kids. The last gift they saw was the note, which Julie read out loud. She said at first she thought it was going to be a dog! They seemed excited.

That night we went to Logan to spend time with my family. The last gift to be opened was to my parents and was a note similar to the one we wrote for the kids. Everyone was excited and surprised. My parents both shed a few tears which was cool.

The girls were so good about not spilling the beans to the neighbors for 2 weeks! Then I went ahead with the last post as my way of telling everyone else.

The girls are excited. They talk about the baby everyday. Paige wants a boy to even out the numbers and "so Charlie won't wear dresses anymore". Haily wants a girl because "it would be SO CUTE like Hannah (her cousin)". Jon is voting boy. Charlie, girl. I think it would be fun to have a baby girl again. They are so fun! But another boy would be good for Charlie.

The other day, Charlie came up to me and said, "where's the baby, Mom? Your belly?" and tried to lift up my jacket. Then he said, "Smoosh baby!" and tried to push on my belly. I removed his hands and he said, "kick baby!" and tried to lift his foot high enough to reach me. I told him we don't hurt the baby, we kiss the baby. So he kissed my belly.

Lately he has not been sleeping well and always wants to be with me, not so much Jon. I think he knows more than we realize and he is already looking for reassurance that we love him still. It makes me a little sad. It reminds me of when I went into the hospital to have Haily and I felt a tremendous sense of guilt about what I was doing to Paige. Of course, everything turned out and everyone adjusted so I am hopeful it will be the same this time around.

The past week the sickness has set in. I knew it would so I tried to enjoy every day (and meal) I had before then! After a couple days I felt really discouraged, knowing how far I had to go! So today I got a prescription for Zofran aka the wonder drug. In my previous pregnancies it was a fairly new drug so there was no generic available. And they practically charged your 1st born to get it! Seriously, about $800 a month. I had to find some (possibly illegal) loopholes to get it. So imagine my JOY when I went to Costco today and it was $22 for a full 30 pills!!! YIPPEE!

Morning sickness makes me totally lose my appetite and in fact the thought or scent of food makes me dash for the nearest toilet, or sink in a pinch. But not eating makes it worse so the challenge is to find food that I can hold down. And it changes everyday! One day it was plain Eggo waffles. Cheese sticks used to do the trick. I thought pickles sounded good one day so I bought a jar and haven't wanted a single one! A vanilla frosty hit the spot one day (thanks Michelle!)

On the other hand, one morning I opened the coat closet to get my coat and caught the scent of gum in my purse, which caused my stomach to lurch and I ran to the bathroom. Then one night I opened the pantry to turn off the light and the scent of the food was enough to do it. The nearest receptacle that time was the sink. Charlie was there and asked, "you had burp, Mommy?"

I just have to get through one day at a time and keep in mind the reason for all the misery. When I look at the faces of my three kids I know I would do it again, a thousand times over to have them. It's truly an honor and a privilege to be a mother. I am grateful that my body is able to carry children. It is a joyful time!

Gifts of Chrstmas

Christmas Eve:

New PJs brought and hidden by Santa's elves at Grandma JuJu's house. We had a delicious dinner, found our PJs and put them on, watched a beautiful little video, and exchanged gifts. As you can tell by Haily's face, there were a lot of holiday goodies.

Christmas Morning:

We had drifts up to three feet deep on our driveway and in our street! Jon got it cleared so his parents could stop by then later spent the whole of the afternoon helping neighbors. The plows did not make it to our circle so we had to be pushed out by our neighbor (in 4low!) We had family stuff in Logan that night but almost didn't go because of the weather. The highway was actually really dry and clear until Sardine Canyon, which was a white-out sideways blizzard! There were several cars off the road and lots of police and ambulances. It was scary, but thanks to Jon we made it!

Charlie's favorite gift was these boots! He put them on immediately and wore them all day!

Haily got this darling new coat and they all got a battery powered toothbrush on their stocking.

The last gift of Christmas:
(Turn blog music off!)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!