Happy things...

Or things that are making me smile today

• cleaning my house to the cranked up stereo blasting Keith Urban
  
• My new pink swiffer
  
• the sounds of my two littlest boys playing and laughing while I clean
  
• It's Thursday...my favorite day of the week
  
• The sun is shining!
  
• We have railings! Thank you Brett and Jed!
  
  
  
  
  They are almost done! After picture soon to follow.
  
  
• Cameron yelling from the cross-walk on the way to school "Bye Mom!" not yet embarrassed to be seen with me.
  
• Cameron bursting through the door this afternoon yellling "Mom! I saw a frog at school today. It hopped on my arm. He was so cute!"
  
• Erik coming home looking all defeated saying "Mom, I have sooo much homework today." Then I saw the corner of his mouth turning up ever so slightly, as he desperately tried to stifle a smile and then I knew that he was messing with me. No Homework Today!
  
• Ethan's fuzzy blonde hair that stands straight up no matter how hard we try to get it to lay down.
  
  
  
  
• Ethan's attempt at conversation which sounds something like this : la der la der la der Mom. Boy I wonder what he is saying, but no matter, it's cute!
  
• Austin all set up and ready to play a game. I laughed when I saw him sitting on the floor wearing the chef hat ready to play Green eggs and ham
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• And this little conversation that I had with Austin yesterday:
  
  Austin "Mom!, I didn't give dad an Austin hug this morning."
  Me: "Oh no, you'll have to give him one when he gets home tonight or maybe you'll have to give him two."
  Austin: "No, you only get one per day unless it's a special day."
  Me: "What is a special day?"
  Austin: "you know like when you go somewhere to a house you can use (Tahoe) or Christmas or Mom's day or Father's day"
  
  So there you have it, Austin hugs are pretty special and I am proud to say that I am the proud recipient of just ONE today!

Hope that you're smiling too!

Tahoe...

Having the boys on a year round schedule has been a blessing. We have always looked forward to our times "off" and it has been nice to be able to vacation all throughout the year during off peak times to avoid the crowds. Now with Erik starting middle school next year and the announcement that the elementary school is going to a traditional schedule, we celebrated the boys last off track time with a trip to Tahoe, one of our favorite spots! We rent a house there and as always we had a great, relaxing time. I will miss our times "off-track" But I feel grateful that my boys will all be on the same schedule next year.

Here's what we did:

Played in the snow and boy was there A LOT of it!




Hot tub
Brett and the boys got in...it was just a little too cold for my taste, so I watched them from inside the warm house, sitting by the fire.



Commons Beach playground by the Lake




Picnic
If it looks like we're in the car, it's because we are. We packed a picnic and headed off to the beach, but it was soooo cold and windy that after we sat down at the picnic table to eat, Brett and I looked at each other and burst out laughing, because it was FREEZING! So we headed back to the car to finish our "picnic" somewhere warm




Shopping

Object lesson

I just had to document this little experience so that I wouldn't forget and so that someday when Austin says "Mom, tell me a story about when I was little" (as he so often does) I can share this cute story with him.

Brett had the opportunity on Sunday to present a sharing time to the primary children. His sharing time was based on the 6th article of faith:

We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

He used this object lesson that he used to use on his mission to help the children understand that our church is organized the same way that Christ organized his church when he was on the earth.

Later that night Austin grabbed a handful of cups and said "Mom, I want to tell you a story." He then proceeded to stack the cups just the way Brett did explaining to me how the church is set up. First he layed out 12 cups (and this was my favorite part.) I asked him why there were 12 cups. He said they were for the 12 "opossums" (apostles). How cute is that?! Then he stacked more cups "building" the church. Then he told me that the church fell down (as he knocked it over). I asked him why the church fell down and he said "because they killed Jesus and the opossums (apostles) died". He then proceeded the build small little structures telling me that different churches were organized and that "Sister Smith" (He meant Joseph Smith, but his primary teacher is Sister Smith. I got a little chuckle out of that) didn't know which church to join, so he prayed and God told him that he shouldn't join any of them. Then He proceeded to lay out the cups again to build the church just like he had in the beginning telling me that Heavenly Father helped Joseph Smith restore the church to the earth just as it had been when Christ was on the earth. This was such a sweet moment for me as a mother because you often wonder if your children are listening or paying attention to what is being taught and to see that this lesson made such an impression on him makes me realize that they are listening and picking up on so much more than we even realize. I shared this story with Brett and we both got a little chuckle out of it. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and for the influence that it has on my children.