Cleaning a Mirror and Reflecting...

Tonight one of our boys informed us that he had one less present than his brother.

"do you really?" I inquired.

"yes" I was told.

I did the "good Mom" thing, talking to him about the meaning of Christmas and how it's better to give than to receive and ya da ya da. I even pointed out that of the bazilion gifts I've bough this year I only have ONE under the tree. (and sadly I know what they are, beaded earings Chase made me.) This talk didn't sink in.

I asked if he would rather us spend the same amount on each kid or give each kid the same amount of presents.

THE SAME AMOUNT OF PRESENTS!!! Of course.

Later this night as I was cleaning a mirror I started to plot. First on my to-do list, take away Billys presents under the tree. But until when? What should the proper dicipline be for this, that would instill the true meaning of Christmas while simultaniously not be forcefull and cause more contention.

I cleaned my mirror. I had some great ideas to make him earn them back, most of them went like this: Make him learn the true meaning of Christmas. Make him serve someone everyday till Christmas. Make him teach us a Family Home Evening on Christmas. Unfortunately forcing someone to understand the true meaning of Christmas might be counter productive. So I continued to clean the mirror. I said a silent prayer and thought some more.

This is what I came up with. I will have Billy read 5 Christmas stories in a book we own. Then he will chose his favorite one and read it to the family. THEN he can have his presents back. How can you not be touched by the Spirit when reading Christmas stories?

He'll have to be right?

Answers come when we clean mirrors. This is what I've learned so far from being a Mom.

My Biscuits are Burning!!!!

Yesterday I was I was rushing out the door to go to a play date I realized Adelle only had one pair of clean jeans, and they were wet. They weren't pee pee wet, but she had spilled my water bottle all over herself earlier that day. We were so late I did my "quick fix" I've done before, but never with jeans. I put them in the microwave. I supervised them for the first 45 seconds with no negative effects, they steamed beautifully. I walked away for the last minute. Bad bad mistake. I came downstairs to smoke. Inside the microwave.....FIRE. Great. Did the smoke alarm go off? No. I threw water on it and put it out. Now I had no jeans for Adelle, a smoke-filled house, and a broken microwave.

Want to know what really erked me?

Read on.

Today I made bacon. After 10 seconds of the bacon frying on the pan, the smoke alarm went off.

It's so reasuring to know that my house is safe from bacon, not fire.

Gotta Love Santa...

A picture's worth a thousand words.

To be fair Santa looks just as happy.

First Annual Apron Swap...

Here we are! Us girls decided to do our first annual apron swap. We drew names and made for aprons for our and then we got together last night and exchanged them. Of course I am the idiot who forgot who my person was and assumed it was Vanessa (when really Mom had Vanessa and I had Mom) so it got a little messed up. Sometimes I am sorry my family has to put up with me. And thanks to my Mom for being inspired and making an extra one for Melissa to chose from.

I made Vanessa's (black and white), Mom made Melissa's (teal and brown) and Vanessa made Mom's (blue and brown) Melissa had me and went ALL out and made little Adelle a matching apron. Is this not the cutest thing ever? Whenever I wear mine, she wants to wear hers. It is most precious!

Oh so cute!

After the swap we all went to Orso's and had some more wonderful. Of course Devin joined us, as he always does for our "girls nights". I've never blogged about our hotel sleepovers, but Devin joins for those too and he makes the perfect girl! (sorry Devin...we know your a man deep deep down...)

When I came home from a long day without my girlies they were so happy to see me. Honestly I think I was more happy to see them. Seriously the best day in a long long time.

I love my family!

So much fun in no particular order.

I don't blog much anymore because I've been so busy, and I don't feel like anything is exciting enough to blog about. But if I throw it all together it may seem more interesting.

Here was the BEST NIGHT EVER!!!! We (all four of us) went and saw Mama Mia! It was so wonderful, we ate at Orsoes (yum) and then enjoyed Mama Mia which was hilarious and so entertaining. (double yum) It was so great to have a night off.


We had our annual Halloween party at the Campbells as usual. They made a haunted house out of their garage and it was amazing. It was very well done and planned, they could have charged some good money. Ryan, the Elders and some others all did the scaring, and yes it was scary.

Little Red Ridding Hood lost her hood and didn't know where to find it.

It may not be obvious but I was the Count from Sesame street.

I am trying to give Adelle some good potty time.

She stays on the potty with gum and songs. Here she is singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider. There is nothing cuter than seeing a little naked bum sitting on a potty. Adorable!

Little Lydia is about the cutest thing ever. She is the happiest cutest baby, I keep wondering when I am going to find her fault. I know that sounds so high and mighty, but it's true. She's finally eating solids and she's growing like a weed. She also has two bottom teeth.

Today a friend stopped by my house and asked if Lydia was sleeping. I said "ya, she's down" and then she said "Oh there she is!" She was happily playing on her play mat and I totally forgot about her because she had been so quiet for so long.

I am a horrible Mom, but I love them both anyway!!!!

Moments that make you go "Ohhhh"

Many of you know we got two foster boys about two months ago. Age 9 and 10, brothers. When they came to our home they were Angy and sad, and fought with each other all of the time. They had behavioral problems that were severe, and a history that matched.

Ryan and I have been sharing the Gospel to these boys. They LOVE learning primary songs and singing them non-stop, we try to have Family Home Evenings each week, we read the Book of Mormon each night, the Elders have been teaching them each Sunday and we find as many opportunities to each them about the Gospel as we can.

On Sunday the Elders were over again and one of them noticed writing in B's Book of Mormon. He's the 10 year old. He asked B what was written. Ryan and I hadn't realized he had written anything on the blank page in the front and were initially worried he was graphitiing (sp?) in his scriptures. This is what he wrote:

"This belongs to B.A.O Jr given by the Missionaries Elder Stone and Elder Lowe in the year of 2010 Oct 4 about 7:30 pm 10 years old 5 months at Grandma Francis' house 5:30, Palmer Alaska in the living room by the fire place in a lesson of God and Jesus Christ. I will always remember this time."

It made my heart melt. This from a 10 year old! How wonderful sharing the gospel is. These boys have been happier since living and learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they play together so much better and their behavior problems are slowly receding. How rewarding to see the Lords Tender Mercies of our Heavenly Father in our lives.

"

Marbles and Life...

Remember those marble towers we played with as kids? You'd build this amazing course for the marbles to travel, and you made it your goal to put marble after marble after marble through the course without skipping a beat. How long could you do this for? Why was this challenge so exhilarating?

We got a marble tower set a week ago and my foster boys did this very thing and it made me reflect on my same actions as a child. Why we as children are attracted to the same monotonous action over and over, with a goal to KEEP IT GOING DON'T LET IT STOP.

Then tonight I was doing dishes. I was doing them at 10:00 at night because I knew if I didn't I would fall behind in the morning and I couldn't let that happen. One marble down the shoot. Pick up the toys before I go to bed....another marble. All of a sudden I realized my life is that tower. I load and unload that dishwasher multiple times a day, I get that feeling of satisfaction yet I didn't do anything different. Just setting up for the next marble so I don't lose my rhythm.

Maybe this is why we are so intrigued by this habitual game as children. Preparing us for the excitement of adulthood.

I have to say I am a little depressed at this thought.

Near Death Experience...

Here's how it happened. It was a beautiful sunny day and my dear sweet husband and I were outside talking about "to do" stuff. He was working on moving the fence but took a break so we could brain storm together. We talked about the things we needed to do around the house before it snows, and how we needed to save money. Saving money became our biggest priority, and we both felt really good about it as we walked away to do our own things. Ryan got back in the jeep to pull out the fence posts.

A moment later I heard CRACK. Ryan had pulled out a post that went through the back window and up to the front windsheild. See in the picture below where on the front windshield it hit? Right where the passenger sits. My husband, as STUPID as this was was at least smart enought to stick his head out the side window to protect his head in case this happened.

Thats right, my husband almost died! Now I am sure all of you out there are thinking how sad, and lucky I must feel and yada yada, but really, I was mad. After talking about saving money my husband breaks out BOTH windows, costing us over $400. I have good life insurance on Ryan, not so much on the jeep.

So there you have it. My husband almost dies and I am mad he did such a foolish thing almost killing himself, killing the car and costing us more money. I am working really hard on being more grateful for his life, that we were blessed and that he's still with us. I might still go to he__ because I am not there yet.

Gifts...

Adelle loves to bring Lydia presents. If I leave them together for even a minute I come back to Lydia burried in "gifts". Here we have: 6 books, a telephone, lotion and a speak n say toy.

The good thing is Adelle is getting better at not putting things on Lydia's face, but it still happens. The other day I cam into to find Lydia's face and head completely burried in a firemans hat. She wasn't even upset, probably just trying to figure out why everything went red.

I am happy to say these two are so lucky to have each other :o)

Autumn Awesomeness...

Here's a picture of Adelle that has nothing to do with Autumn, just very adorable. I thought it would be a good way to start this post :o) Notice the dirt on her face?

So we'll start here. My family and Mom and her foster boy Justin all went on a beautiful sunny fall walk around Kepler Bradely lakes, out here in Palmer. It was the PERFECT fall walk, the weather was perfect, just what my Mom and I needed.

My Mom, bless her heart, was either helping with Adelle or Lydia. She walked with Adelle for awhile because Adelle wanted to walk like everyone else.

We took the bike trailer for a bit of the way but then we had to ditch it because it got too bumpy. This picture cracks me up because Adelle looks like a goof, (not a peice of her outfit matches) and Lydia just looks adorable.

I just wanted to post those pictures because they're so beautiful. And our summer has been nothing but rain so we're FINALLY getting some sun and it has just been heavenly.