Rub-a-dub-dub; 3 in the tub!

Melissa thought it would be fun to play around with the kids hair while they were in the tub. She was putting their hair into all different kinds of shapes & styles. The little ones thought it was so fun. They would get their hair done & then want to see it in the mirror. Even Brooke was having fun with this. It was cute to see their crazy hair.
After Brooklyn is done with her bath, I wrap her up in her duck towel. As soon as it is on her she starts quacking. It is so funny. She has such a fun personality & always keeps us laughing with her little sounds, words & actions she does.

Playing happily together!

It's so nice when my kids not only play together, but play nicely together. I love to hear them laugh & talk calmly like they are best friends. Today, Nicole & Allie thought it was fun to ride on each other's backs. I always get a little nervous with this activity, afraid that they will topple over & hurt themselves. I'm sure it will happen one of these days, but on this day they couldn't contain their laughter. I love hearing the laughter of my children in our home!

Nicole's Teeth

Our children seem to be related to the shark family. They all (well the older ones) have had their bottom front permanent teeth come in behind their baby teeth so they end up with two rows of teeth. Nicole's teeth did the same thing, so Jake took her to his office, numbed her & pulled out her 2 bottom teeth. She was very excited until her older sisters told her she would be getting a shot. That started to freak her out. Jake said it all went well & Nicole handled it great. She was very happy when she got home to have 2 fewer teeth, a treasure box to keep her teeth in & the shot behind her. Congratulations, Nicole, on losing your first 2 teeth!!

Once there was a snowman...

My kids have loved playing in the snow this winter. It's been nice to have more snow than normal so they could actually build snowmen. They got their Dad to go out with them & build 2 big snowmen from the last storm that came through. They ended up using all the snow in the yard, but the snowmen looked great! I love watching them play outside together & having fun. The joys of childhood!

Brooklyn's Hands

Jake started a tradition almost 10 years ago. In 1998, for Mother's Day, Jake used some dental impression material to make molds of Melissa's hands. I loved it & he has done it for each child since then. We finally got around to getting Brooke's hand molds made & Jake tried a different kind of impression material. This stuff molded so good to her hands that it was hard to get her hands out of the cups. The first hand came out somewhat ok, but we noticed a few red spots on her fingers. I thought she had some scratches on her hands before we did the molds so we didn't worry to much about it. We did the next hand & I wasn't sure we were going to get her hand out without needing to break the mold. Jake had to pull pretty hard & I was getting nervous about her fingers. Brooklyn was kind of crying, but for what she went through I can't believe she didn't cry harder. What a brave, strong, tough little girl! Anyway, her fingers finally came out & they were purplish/black on all her knuckles! I had Jake look at them & he first thought they were dislocated. I about died. My poor little baby!! She wiggled her fingers fine so we tried to figure out what happened. We figured that as her fingers were being pulled out her skin was being suctioned to the mold. It was forming hickies on her knuckles. She never complained about her fingers hurting so we decided that that must have been what happened. The hickies didn't go away for days so everytime I looked at her hands I just felt so bad. I tried to take a picture of them, but she wouldn't hold her hands still long enough to get a good picture. She probably didn't trust me holding her hands down. I'm sure she thought something else was going to happen that would hurt. The things my kids sometimes have to go through to keep me happy.


This picture really doesn't show how bad her fingers looked. The way they look here is how they looked on day 3 or 4. The color was so much darker--a really deep purple/black.


I love all the molds of my children's hands. Now I just need to figure out where to put them & how to display them. I would die if one of them broke!!

My buddies at home

Allie & Brooklyn are my little buddies. After the girls head off to school, we finish breakfast & get ready for the day. Sometimes we have to get ready quickly so we can get some errands done before Nicole gets back home, but many days we just take our time & do whatever around the house. Too many times I get caught up in all the cleaning & other random things I do around the house that I forget they need some attention. They often hear me say to them, "Let me finish this & then I'll come help" & then I forget about what they needed & I'm starting on something else. My goal is to focus more on enjoying my time with them now so I don't regret later not playing with them when they were young & at home with me. I love these little girls & I know one of these days I'll miss having little people around & I'll want to hear their voices. I will have housework for the rest of my life, but each day that comes is closer to them heading off to school & it may be one more day I lose some precious time with them.

On the right track!

Jake & I attended the Worldwide Training Leadership Meeting together. The topic was on Raising a Righteous Posterity. It was a great meeting & as I sat there & listened I thought about our own little family & how we were doing. There are always things we need to work on & we definitely are not perfect, but I was feeling so good about what we were doing & the path we were on. We finally have been consistent with family prayer, FHE & scripture study. Prayers & FHE have not been hard for us to do, but scripture study has been. For years, we would read to our kids from the Book of Mormon stories book that told the scripture stories with the colorful square pictures (you could also get tapes to go along with it, too). We had books for all the scriptures & we would rotate through them. The girls loved these books & they learned so much about the people & what happened. We decided to try & start reading from the actual Book of Mormon with our kids a couple years ago, but it was hard & we were not consistent at all. At the first of this year (2008) our bishop challenged everyone in the ward to read 3 pages a day & you could finish the book by June 30th. We decided to give it a try. We have been reading almost every night since then & the nights we do miss we catch up the next night. We are right on track & it has become a habit for us. We read each night right after dinner & so far that has worked for us. I am proud of my family for working hard to be dedicated & follow the teachings of our leaders. We still have a lot of growing to do, but I have noticed in my life that I have more patience with my children, I am more relaxed, my relationship with Jake continues to get stronger & my love for the Savior is greater. I know that by doing the things were are asked to do by our church leaders then our lives are blessed. I see it in my own life & others around me.