March

March was a fun month with lots of activities going on.  As the weather gets warmer it seems like more and more things start happening! 

 

 Caleb had his Blue and Gold Banquet.  The theme this year was Wild West and the cub scout leaders really outdid themselves!  They took pictures of each of the boys dressed as outlaws, complete with really interesting facial hair and then made each one onto a Wanted poster and hung them up around the gym.  All the other decorations were fun and western-y, too. They had a couple activities that went on through out the night (a rubber band gun shoot and a western themed photo shoot).  Plus each boy was supposed to bring a dozen cupcakes, decorated with the theme.  So Caleb and I jumped on Pinterest and rounded up some ideas. He loved the idea of the Pringles chip with  a gumdrop in the middle to look like a cowboy hat.  He also liked the rattlesnakes and cactus made out of fondant and the campfires made out of pretzel sticks and red frosting.  So I assembled the ingredients and he went to town.  I'm blaming the fact that I was making dinner at the same time he was decorating (he decorated for about two hours) as the reason I didn't get any finished product pictures.  But he did such a good job and he won the Rootin'est Tootin'est cupcakes award.  And then he was excited to finish eating all the extra ingredients. 

 One day I was making dinner and I cut an onion in half then pulled off the flaking covering and scooped it into a pile to throw away.  Caleb saw it and combined it with some other throw away pieces and built little houses.

 They remind me of the Fairy Garden's that are getting so popular right now.  I love Caleb's creative side.

Farris turned 38 on the 19th.  We spread his birthday out for about a week because it seems like there was always something going on, he's so busy with his calling and work and my calling and kids and...

 And I made his traditional Angel Food cake, of course.  It's his favorite, his grandma used to make it for him.  So pretty early in our marriage I started to perfect that recipe, it takes more work and time than any other cake I make all year, and I only make it twice a year: his birthday and father's day.  I'm still not there, but it doesn't sink down and weigh as much as a brick anymore!  A small price to pay to show him I love and appreciate all he does for me and the kids. 

 Felicity was in the 4-H theatre class again and they decided to put on the play Sleeping Beauty.  But they changed it up with a Greek god theme.  She liked her costume and I appreciated that I didn't have to sew anything for her costume, just drape, pin, and go!

 Abby and Seth decided to play the piano together after church one day.  I love the expression on Abby's face in this picture, it cracks me up.

 The most exciting thing for the month?  Blake got his mission call!  The change in missionary age has changed so many different things, including getting your call during your senior year of high school.  One of his friends and soccer teammates got his call, so on the way back from a game the school bus carrying the team stopped at his house so they could see him open the call.  Blake had about 40 people there to see him open it, plus my parents on the phone and Tarilynn's parents on Skype.

 We were the last people to make it there, so we're in the back watching...

 Drum roll...He's going to Oslo Norway!  We're so excited for him!  He'll be leaving right around the same time his brother Tanner gets home, right now it's looking like they will miss each other by one day.  Tarilynn is praying that it will be the other way around, Tanner will get home the day before Blake leaves, but either way we're so glad to have two boys in our family (and more coming) that are willing and eager to dedicate two years of their lives to the Lord. 

 Congrats, Blake!  You'll be an amazing missionary!

Felicity had another choir performance, she's had so much fun with it this year.  They sang songs where someone had written words to some classical songs by Bach, Mozart, Chopin and others.  The most memorable one for me was about why they should be able to keep their rooms messy.  They all had big smiles as they sang it.   

They will only have one more concert, when they sing at UVU for the Hope of America concert, we're looking forward to it.  Felicity has been practicing, and practicing, and PRACTICING.  All the kids will probably be singing along with her during the concert because they've all learned the words with her.  I'm glad she had this opportunity to be in a choir, but I'm also glad that a lot of her extracurricular activities are coming to an end, she's been a busy girl this year! 

February



February went back and forth between many different things and emotions.  The first weekend we were in Burley for Savannah's funeral, and then the next weekend we were in Richfield for my brother's two daughters:  Lyndsey was baptized and Elizabeth was blessed.  Two very different weekends celebrating three different phases of life.  Again, how blessed we are to have been taught the eternal perspective in life!  They were both good weekends to be with family.

 

Little Elizabeth was actually blessed on my birthday so we celebrated a little with family and then celebrated at home later.  Wow, 35!  I remember thinking that was so old...and most of the time I don't feel old, until I realize it's harder to get up and get moving and my face is getting a little more wrinkled!  But 35 years have brought me: a college degree in an area I love, a wonderful husband with a happy marriage, five terrific kids, and good relationships with all my families and many friends.  I've learned a lot, and like President Packer talked about in his talk, why would you go back to a younger self and have to unlearn all these things you have learned?

 

 Abigail's favorite place is the bathtub.  We have to really careful to drain out all the bathwater because she'll crawl right in once the bathroom door is open!

 I seem to celebrate a lot of holidays by making chocolate chip pancakes and dying them a color.  That's ok, the kids love it and so do I!  So Valentine's day brought pink pancakes.

 Our home teachers are an amazing couple in our ward who treats our kids like grandkids, even when they wiggle and giggle through any lessons.  This year the kids got their own Valentines cards in the mail from them, and it made them smile!

 We decided to try out a heart hair style this year, with one heart on each side of her head.  She liked it, but she said not too many people figured out they were hearts.  I've never claimed to be a hair artist!  And she liked it, so I was happy.

 

At the beginning of the year Joseph asked me to volunteer for his V-Day party at school.  I picked out different game ideas on-line and he wanted to do a variation on the "Ghost Busters" game I did for Caleb's class.  This time, we were "Heart Breakers" and each kid got to pop a pink balloon with a heart drawn on the side.  Before each group started I asked them if they'd ever had their heart broken before.  Ha!  First graders make me laugh!  I got sad little smiles and nods with sighs (mostly from the cute little girls) and moans with eye rolls (mostly from cute little boys).  But all of them had a lot of fun breaking those hearts.

 

Abigail loves to help me in the kitchen.  She helps by taking out all the measuring cups, wiping up any real/imagined spills with ten dish cloths and her favorite is to get into the flour and sugar bins and make sure the floor is well floured.  Or sugared.  She usually gets pretty covered in the process, too. 

 

 

 But the dirty hands, oh, she does not enjoy.

 Abigail also learned how to climb out of bed.  She'd done it before, but now she became a pro.  Which made it hard at bedtime.

 

 And finally, the new fashion around our house is Wearable Recycling, in Raisin Bran Purple. 

Very stylish and green.

 

 Lowering our carbon footprint, baby!

 

 Love this picture!

 

 Felicity went to the district science fair.  Here she is all set up.

She was hoping, hoping, hoping that she would be close to her best friend, and she was!  Bailey will be moving soon and we're going to miss her around here.



Savannah

I've been putting off writing this post for our blog because I know how hard it will be to write.  Today was the final two sessions of this year's April General Conference and it always helps to sooth the spirit and put everything in perspective.  I know this is an important post to write,  as an important part of our lives and as a tribute to a sweet daughter of God.  I also believe it is important to share my testimony of Christ, His Atonement, and the salvation and love He gives us freely.

This picture is of Savannah and her best friend cousin, Addie a couple years ago during an Easter Egg hunt.  I found this picture a couple weeks ago and I love it.  They are so cute!

On January 25th we got a call early in the morning.  I was actually downstairs sleeping with Abby because she had been sick in the night.  Farris came down to wake me up and told me his mom had just called.  His older sister Geri and her husband Cody were lifeflighting their daughter Savannah to the Pocatello hospital.  She had some kind of an infection that was spreading through her whole body, and the Burley hospital couldn't handle it.  They were letting us know so we could pray and gather things together so we could drive to Idaho if we needed to.  Within an couple hours we got an update that Pocatello could not give her the help she needed and she was being prepped to fly to Primary Children's Hospital.  Farris immediately began driving to Salt Lake to meet up with his family.  I kept the kids home from school and waited.  Farris was only gone about 30 minutes when we got one more phone call.  Farris' brother in law Scott told us that she hadn't made it.  He didn't know very many details, only that they were not in Salt Lake, she had died before making it to Primary's.  It was a devastating moment.  I can count on one hand all the young children I have personally known or been connected with that have died.  I was completely shocked.  How could Heavenly Father let this happen?  This could not be His plan!  Only about ten minutes after I called Farris to let him know, the phone rang again.  It was my sister Melissa.  She was at a conference in Boise and felt like she needed to call me.  I bawled, she bawled, but through it all I was grateful for the tender mercies of our Lord.  Melissa has always been the "comforter" in our family, she always seems to be around when anyone needs someone to cry with.  And in that tiny moment Heavenly Father knew I needed that.  How many other tender mercies were happening in our family at that moment?  Melissa called all of my family to let them know.  My family loves Farris' family and were always delighted to meet up with Geri and Cody at different places in Twin.  Everyone in my family began calling to see what they could do to help.  Is it any wonder that families are a part of Heavenly Father's plan?  I don't know what any of us would have done without the support from our families.  My parents were especially touched, they lost a son when he was only two, before I was born.  There's always something especially hard when losing someone that young.  I think all the "what would he be doing now?" go through your mind every day.  My parents have such strong testimonies of the sealing power of the Temple, and wait for the day they will hold Todd again and be able to watch him grow.  Isn't it amazing how Heavenly Father designed our lives so that every little thing that goes wrong or seems unfair will be taken care of through the Atonement?  A favorite quote from today's morning session is from Elder Cook's talk on peace: "The Savior's atonement will overcome and compensate for all of the unfairness of mortal life and bring us peace."  Yes, it will be so hard, but peace will come from the Savior and someday the last of that sadness will be taken away. 

To get back to the story, Farris came back just to pack for the night and then he drove to Ogden to carpool to Idaho with his brother and sister.  Since several of our kids were recovering from the flu I stayed with them.  Before Farris left we gathered the kids and told them what had happened and talked about how Savannah was with her Grandpa again and with the Savior.  We said a prayer for Geri and Cody and all the family. A memory kept coming back to me.  A friend of mine had a brother killed in a car accident on the way to stake conference.  A car load of the family, including my friend, had gone up earlier  for the early morning youth session and they were pulled aside in the church to be told.  Immediately they knelt down to pray together as a family.  Yes, they were terribly saddened, and it was so hard, and they still miss him today, but they were strengthened through their strong faith in Christ.   They felt that it wasn't an accident, that it was something that was supposed to happen and all part of Heavenly Father's plan for him and for their family.  I can still picture them in a church classroom kneeling in a circle receiving comfort from their Savior.  It is amazing that Heavenly Father does this for each of us that have gone through tragedy!

The funeral was a wonderful celebration of her life. Her viewing took hours longer than it was planned for.  Geri and Cody are special to many people in Burley, and Savannah was loved by everyone who knew her.  Her school class even sang a song they were learning in class at the funeral.  Such sweet little voices who were glad to show how much they missed their friend.  The most poignant part of the funeral was when everyone was invited to dance to a song.  Cody picked up Addie, Savannah's favorite cousin, and danced with her, like he had done with Savannah.  It was a beautiful way to say goodbye.

They picked the prettiest cemetery for her to be buried in.  It's an old pioneer cemetery, up in the mountains.  It's fairly secluded and not many people even know about it.  Because it isn't used very much any more, the people who take care of it let it go mostly wild and they can plant anything they want for her.  It's a wonderful place to remember her and feel peace. 

Savannah was a happy, busy little girl that I always picture skipping and dancing.  Like any kid I'm sure she had her moments, but I only remember her smiling.  She was a miracle baby for them. She was prayed for, for a long time. When she did come, she came fast, she was actually delivered by her dad because the midwife didn't make it on time!  Maybe Savannah knew her time was limited and wanted to get here as fast as possible. There was a complication with the cord being wrapped around her leg during the delivery, but she was healthy and loved. My mom made the comment that it wasn't that she was taken early, it was that Heavenly Father gave her parents 8 years with her because of their praying so earnestly for her.  I do believe that, she was a blessing that they received because of Heavenly Father's love for them.  In the obituary that Geri wrote, she asked for everyone to do something special with their family instead of sending flowers.  She and Cody are wonderful parents, and are a good example for all of us.  They ware great at spending time and serving their kids and really enjoying them.  I hope I can focus on my kids as much as Geri and Cody do.  And I continue to pray for peace to come to them, even as they continue to love and miss their Savannah Rose.

January: A Month of Snow and Silliness

My goal is to catch up in this blog so I can again write down the silly memorable things that make up every day, like how Farris had to get out his pliers to pry a Lego out of our garbage disposal yesterday, instead of only the things I remember because I captured them on our camera.  So here goes another long post about the entire month of JANUARY!

 

Except for this picture, which was taken on Christmas by my sister Nicki and I forgot to put it in the last post...and I just thought Nicki caught her smile perfect so I had to share.  Now back to JANUARY...

 

We have a family that we're friends with that matches up with us almost to the month with kids. Every now and then we'll send one family over to the others so one set of parents can have a break, while the other house descends into chaos for a few hours.  Can you imagine having five sets of twins?  It's actually pretty fun (when it's not a permanent thing) and the kids have a blast having some of their closest friends over.  So we watched them one night and toward the end of the night I brought out all of our library books, stacked ten kids on and around our couch and read Elephant and Piggie books (we love Mo Williams).  How to get eight out of ten kids highly entertained and two toddlers mostly entertained.

 We had a couple fairly big snowstorms go through in January, no snow days from school unfortunately!  But the kids loved playing in it.  Abigail loves snow and dives in hands first, then gets a little cold.  She cries every time we take her inside, even when her hands were little icicles.

 Shoveling/playing in the snow.

 Caleb thought it was so funny when the van got a Mohawk because he wasn't quite tall enough to brush off the middle of the roof.

 Collecting blocks of snow.  This snow was just right for building snow forts after it sat for a couple of days.  Farris and the kids cut out and hauled blocks from all over our yard then stacked them into a fort a' la Calvin and Hobbes.  That comic strip is the perfect inspiration for many winter activities!

 It ended up being pretty tall with nice thick walls, perfect for a siege.  Farris, of course, tested out it's safety from marauders by becoming one himself and pelting the kids.

Caleb gives it a thumbs up.

 

 

Now it's time for: Which sibling does Abigail look the most like?

Abigail...

Joseph.

 

 Abigail...

Felicity.

When Felicity was about 18 months old, my sisters came to visit us.  We decided to hike down Canyon De Chelly  to White House, a wonderful Anasazi ruin and a great hike. (If you ever are down in the four corners area, go to Chinle to see the canyon.  It's gorgeous.  There are several overlooks and you can hike to White House but every where else you need a Navajo guide to take you in, you can find one at one of the local hotels.)  Lissy borrowed Melissa's sun hat and it took awhile to convince her to give it back, and Nicki got this great shot.  I was trying to recreate it one day when Abby found a straw cowboy hat.  She was posing perfectly until I got the camera out.  That's when I got all these shots:

 

 

 

 Abigail...

Felicity.

 Yeah, I nailed it.

 At an after Christmas sale at Old Navy in Idaho, I found all these BYU shirts marked down.  The boys were only a few dollars.  Since we were lacking in BYU shirts for the kids (we do have some Aggies shirts, but we need to show support for our other favorite school) we nabbed them and then waited for the perfect opportunity to give them to the kids.  The Men's Volleyball Team was amazing this year, so when there was a game with free tickets, we handed out new shirts and headed to Provo.

 Between sets I tried to take a group picture in their shirts.  Yeah.  It's hard to corral five excited kids, these were the best two I got.  Oh well, we'll get some spirit pictures some time!  (And BYU won the game) 

 

 Felicity found the perfect science fair project.  It involved racing beads.  The idea is to get several different materials, put a dab of butter with a bead on each one and then heat the materials with hot water.  The material that conducts heat best will melt the butter and the bead will slide down.  She did a great job and made it to district.  We'd never been before, so it was a little crazy, but once we figured out what we were doing Felicity had fun and did a great job.  She worked hard and planned pretty well and I think it was a good experience for her.  She was nervous about being interviewed by the judges, but she said it went well.  Next year we'll have two in the science fair...we'll see how that goes!

 And a cute innocent picture from Abigail...

And a cute sleepy picture from Abigail.  Yes, she did fall asleep in our magazine rack.

 

And that is January!