Freedom

Spring break last week was glorious. The weather was beautiful and warm and the sky was a lovely blue. Other than going to the zoo and the library we stuck close to home. We walked to the park several times, but that didn't require driving. We moved at our own pace enjoyed not having to rush about or get anyone anywhere by any specific time. We spent days reading books and doing art projects, bouncing around the backyard and playing blocks in the playroom.

Can you tell who the reader here is?

This might sound sad, but I was surprised, shocked even, that I enjoyed the break so much. Peter is so intense (and Cooper and Phoebe often follow his lead) that I wasn't sure I would have the energy or patience needed. But I did. And maybe it's because we didn't go many places, but the kids were better behaved. Yes, we still had timeouts, but they were served willingly and not with tantrums. That was a lovely change.

Perhaps the best part of the break was that Sophie got to sleep whenever she needed to. And let me tell you, that girl can sleep! I've never had a baby sleep this well before. Is it a special gift after having kids that struggle so much with sleep? Is she the only one that got my sleep genes? Yes I know it's obnoxious and braggy, but wow, I am so glad she sleeps. During the break I didn't have to wake her up to take the boys to school. She's already such a smiley, happy baby, the extra sleep just added to it.

I've probably jinxed her sleep by writing about it for a full paragraph. We'll see...

We Have Another Talker

Speaking of the San Diego Zoo

The day after my sister got married, waaaaay back in December of 2011, we went to the San Diego Zoo with two of my brothers and their families. My sister-in-law Falisha took lots of pictures. That night I asked her if I could use some of the pictures for a blog post and she said yes, so I pulled them off of her camera and saved them on my computer.

And then 2012, or "The Hiatus Year" struck. There were lots of things that I wanted to write about, but didn't. And this post that just had pictures in it, remained unpublished.

Tonight, out of curiosity, I looked at the posts in my draft folder and found this. Since I wrote about the Oregon Zoo yesterday, I figured I might as well write about the San Diego Zoo today. Consider it a Throwback Thursday.

Look at how young and full of energy we all are.

Seriously, so young. And so cute.

Our whole family, at least at the time.

My brothers Ian and Isaac. My brother Jordan had to fly back home that morning so he missed this particular adventure.

This picture shows their personalities very well.

And amidst all the picture-taking we saw some animals.

It was a fun, albeit cold, day. We stayed until we were all tired and cranky and freezing, which is always a good way to tell if you've spent enough time somewhere. Then we drove to my parents' house, got Cooper and Phoebe to sleep, and let Peter play Uno and stay up until midnight to ring in 2012 while we played and talked and ate leftovers from my sister's wedding reception.

Thank you Falisha for letting me use your pictures!

I Went to the Animal Fair

Growing up with the San Diego Zoo as the one you visit on school field trips really ruins you for pretty much every other zoo you'll go to. The poor Oregon Zoo never had a chance. But the kids loved day three of spring break despite my mental zoo comparisons. And I loved that Bryan took the day off from work and joined us.

Bryan was on stroller duty most of the day. The stroller doubled as a place to serve timeouts (given mostly for a little girl that thought running off was funny) and a place to rest after wearing yourself out by walking all day.

You can't tell, but they're sitting on a badger statue. 

This was a mini-park to see if you could swing like a monkey. When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was, Cooper and Phoebe both named this.

Inside a mongoose habitat.

See that?! It's a blue sky! That almost never happens here.

Oh look, Sophie and I were there too.

Peter spent a lot of time holding hands with his siblings while he walked. It was sweet.

"Mom, take a picture of me on this goat statue!"

You'll notice that for a trip to the zoo, these pictures are awfully low on animals. Yeah, so was the zoo. We did see some (lions, giraffes, gazelles, bears, penguins, a leopard, a goat, among others) but all of those pictures are on Bryan's phone.

Also, we packed a nice lunch and left it on the counter at home. We made it all day with only eating a snack (except for Sophie who ate every few hours) and ended our adventure with a big dinner and free pie. Pie!

It was a good day.

Discipleship

I love General Conference weekend. I start looking forward to it in January, at least I did this year. I tried to duplicate the success of the last Conference, but it didn't work quite as well. I'm not sure why. Maybe everyone just had more to say, and it was hard to hear the talks over all the chatter. I caught bits here and there, but not much.

I've already started listening to the talks again in an effort to catch what I missed the first time around. I'm starting with those that stood out to me. Yesterday I chose President Uchtdorf's talk Grateful in Any Circumstances. The whole talk was important for me to hear, but there were a few quotes that were especially profound. The first:

Commandments are opportunities to exercise our agency and to receive blessings.

I want that one printed and framed and hung on my wall. The second:

We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny.

Tonight was Elder Holland's talk The Cost-and Blessings-of Discipleship. Elder Holland is one of my favorite speakers. His talk follwed one of the major themes of this Conference, that what we believe will not be popular, but it is still right and we must defend it. It was a bold statement and I loved it. He said:

Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it.

Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world.

Be strong. Live the gospel faithfully even if others around you don’t live it at all. Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them.

I want to memorize that last statement and I want my kids to commit it to memory as well. Cooper and Peter both struggle with the question, "But what if my friends don't believe the same things I do?" I think this has been the biggest culture shock of moving out of Utah; they are no longer surrounded by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they're still adjusting to it. This was one reason we wanted Bryan to find a job outside of Utah, to give our kids the opportunity and ability to stand up for their beliefs. We often talk about how their friends say and do things that we don't, and that's okay, but we need to be examples and live what we believe to be true. We'll be studying this talk as a family.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to tackle Elder Oaks' talk from the Priesthood session, The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood. I did get to listen to most of that talk on Saturday and, wow, I am excited to hear it again.

A New Game

I left the kids alone this morning long enough to get dressed and when I came out I discovered that they had created a new game. They called it "Moving."

The purpose of the game is to move everything out of one room (Phoebe's, in this case) and into another (the boys') as quickly as possible.

Phoebe's room as I found it this morning.

And here's the other side of the room. They were pleased with their accomplishment, can you tell?

The boys' room with all of Phoebe's stuff in it.

I made some funny trying-to-stay-calm-and-not freak-out sounds when I saw the game, then I told them it was time to move her stuff back into her room. To my surprise, they happily played my version of the game; I call it "Unpacking." They were done with the whole thing by 10 o'clock this morning.

Phoebe's room after they put it back together.

Add trips to the library, the park, and the backyard for a picnic and day one of spring break has been exciting, no?

Connecting

Thanks to everyone that has commented on the blog in the last few months. I've never been good at leaving comments for others  on what they write, even though I faithfully read everything that shows up in my blog reader. Does that make me a blog stalker? Or just a good friend that doesn't usually have hands to type or brain power to sound coherent? Maybe if I were leaving comments all over the place I might get annoyed at a lack of responses, but since I don't, I get extra excited when I get a comment.

This motherhood thing can be a solitary business. I am naturally outgoing and social. Too much alone time (or time with just me and the kids) drains my energy. Seeing a comment on something I've written or something the kids have said or done gives me a boost.

If you have a blog and I have the address, I read it. If you have a blog and aren't sure if I have the address, would you leave it in the comments? And if you have a blog and I know nothing about it, would you share it with me? On days when I haven't changed out of pajamas or am covered in slobber, reading your blog (and your comments) helps me feel like I'm still connected.

Have a glorious weekend.

Gotcha

Something amazing happened yesterday! Both Peter and Cooper brought home a Gotcha Ticket from school. The kids can earn these by exhibiting good behavior which is then noticed by an adult. It was Cooper's second this year and Peter's first.

Let me take a moment to say how remarkable it is that Peter was noticed for good behavior. REMARKABLE! And Cooper's teacher reported to Bryan (who picked the boys up) that she is so happy with Cooper's behavior in school.

Both boys ran into the house, waving their tickets and beaming. I reacted with appropriate cheering and smiling and hugging. Then I pinned those precious papers to the bulletin board in the kitchen where we can all see them and be reminded that good choices make us all feel wonderful.

Bed Head

I regularly get the same five comments about Sophie's appearance:

1. "Wow, she has so much hair!"
2. "Oh I just love her cheeks!"
3. "She's so big!"
4. "What's that on her face?"
5. "She's so cute/sweet!"

I usually respond in the following ways:

1. "Yes she does. Too bad we can't get it to lay down. Maybe I should learn to do something with it."
2. "I love her cheeks too!"
3. "She's tall like her dad. And she is a highly proficient eater."
4. "It's a birthmark. It might not ever go away. I used to notice it, but most of the time now I don't even see it."
5. "Yes, she is!"

da Vinci

Phoebe spent the late afternoon drawing pictures of our whole family. She carefully showed me who was who, and at one point had them all strategically laid out on the floor in "a puzzle." I took pictures of everything, but I'll only share my two favorites.

This is Bryan.

Phoebe told me that he has a grumpy face in this picture. And at first he was bald, then she added what she called "his handsome hair." Well, she's right Bryan does have handsome hair.

This is Sophie.

Sophie does have a lot of hair, though perhaps not quite this much. Each picture had more detail than the last. This was the final in the series that Phoebe did today. One thing that stood out to me was that she drew it upside down. I'm not sure if it was for my benefit as an audience member of if that's just how she wanted to draw.

We go through A LOT of paper, but I'm glad the kids all love to draw.