I've got a sad face

Today when we got back from picking Alden up from school, we had quite the zoo. Thobe was asleep and wet his pants (ugggh), Hyrum was screaming because he hasn't been feeling well, and as usual, I was reminding Alden to get all of his stuff from school and to put it away in the house (teaching responsibility to a five-year old boy is difficult). In the meantime, I tried to carefully lift Thobe out of his car seat to keep him asleep without touching his wet pants (yes, I am a mom, but I still am not fond of being covered in bodily discretions). Unfortunately lifting 32 pounds of dead weight is not easily done when crawling on one's knees and trying to only carry the top portion of a child. Needless to say, Thobe woke up crying, partly because I was carrying him crazily and partly because he was soaking wet. I laid him down on top of a towel on the floor, thinking he might fall back to sleep, and then tried to get my sick baby to sleep. Unfortunately, none of my desires where achieved, and Thobe cried for awhile, and Hyrum didn't go to sleep either. When I realized that Thobe also needed comforting and that Hyrum was not going to go to sleep, I went downstairs with a clean pair of underwear and pants and tried talking to Thobe. He was happy to see me until he saw the pants that I wanted him to wear. He told me that he want to wear great big pants, not those pants. Exasperated, I told him that he needed to find his own pants. Again he threw himself on the ground, and the crying ensued once more. We then had the following conversation:

Me: Thobe, it looks to me like you need a hug.

Crying subsides to a small whimper. I give him a big hug.

Thobe: Mommy, I've got a very sad face.

Me: Let me see.

He indeed had a very sad face, and I hugged him again.

Me: Oh you do have a sad face!

Thobe: Yes, Mommy, I have a sad face. I want to have a happy face.

Me: I want you to have a happy face too.

Thobe: Sniff. Sniff. Ohhh, I have a happy face now, Mommy, look!

I looked down onto tear stained cheeks and a great, big happy smile and sparkling eyes. For those of you who know Thobe, he really has a smile that lights up the whole room. Oh, how I love that happy face!

As I'm writing this, I hear another very interesting monologue coming from Thobe. He says:

"Satan.... Satan..... Oh, I don't like Satan. Satan is bad. Satan is a friend of the Lamanites. We don't like Satan!"

I'm glad that we got that straight.

A Visit from Emily and Laura

We loved having Laura and Emily come and visit us. The boys love their aunts so much and loved being spoiled. Of course on our first trip to Walmart, Aunt Emily had to buy the boys a special treat, and Alden convinced her that he needed a Trans- former too. But more than being spoiled, they loved just spending time with their aunts. Alden was so disappointed when their plane was delayed. He thought when he went to bed on Wednesday night that he'd wake up and have his aunts there. As soon as he woke up, he ran downstairs yelling, "Aunt Emily, Aunt Laura, here I am! Here I am, Aunt Laura and Aunt Emily." When he couldn't find them and I told him they hadn't got to our house yet, he was very disappointed. Needless to say, when he saw them Thursday night, he was thrilled!

We did a lot of fun things while they were here. We played baseball in the basement, fought with light sabers, played transformers, went shopping--several times, took a road trip to Columbus, played board games, went to church, had Family Home Evening where Aunt Laura taught the lesson, went out to dinner, heard Aunt Laura's mission stories, and got to enjoy Aunt Emily's delicious cooking. My sister Emily is perhaps the best cook in the world! She replicated Costa Vida's Sweet Pork Salad with tomatillo ranch dressing --ummmmmmm (I think her salad was even better that the actual restaurant's though). The sweet pork was to die for, and she also made a delicious lime rice to also go on the salad (if you want me to send you the recipes she left me, I can).

Even more than I loved the activities and the delicious cooking, I loved spending time with my sisters and watching them spend time with my boys. When we went to Columbus, Emily took the boys to COSI while Michael, Laura, and I went to the temple. After that, we all went to the Eddie Bauer outlet where they were having a $4.99 jeans sale. Then Michael took the kids to Burger King and let my sisters and I have a stress-free dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Columbus, Salvi's Bistro (what an incredible husband, I have! I told him I'd rather that he come with us, but he said he didn't think the kids would enjoy the restaurant that much and told me to have a nice time with my sisters).

My favorite moments were watching the boys express their love to their aunts. As soon as Alden got home from school, he'd start talking to his aunts. He always had to know where they were and kept constant tabs on them. In church on Sunday, Thobe was coloring with Emily. He stopped coloring and in all seriousness looked up at his aunt and said, "Happy Valentine's Day, Aunt Emily." Although it wasn't Valentine's day, I think it was Thobe's very sweet way of telling his aunt that he loves her very much. The next day, I was holding Hyrum, and he was fussy. Laura was taking a few bites of a treat we made, and Hyrum started reaching for her. She asked me if he wanted cake, and I said, "I think he wants you." She went over and held her arms out to him, and he lunged for her and wrapped his little arms around her neck and wouldn't let go for anything. I think Laura loved that, but I loved it even more. The hardest thing about living here in Ohio is being so far away from my family. It warms my hear to know that despite the distance, my kids (even Hyrum who hadn't met his Aunt Laura until the Thursday before) will have a close relationship with my family and love them as I love them. That means so much to me!

On Tuesday, we reluctantly took my sisters back to the airport. We were sad but are so grateful for the sacrifice that they made to buy plane tickets and to visit us. Thank you so much for coming, Laur and Em! We love you and miss you!!!! Please come back soon!

Our Valentine's Day

I must admit that this Valentine's Day was one of my best Valentine's Days yet. From creative Valentine presents from Michael to hugs from the boys to a visit from my sisters, Emily and Laura, I loved every minute of Valentine's day this year.

A couple days before Valentine's day, the boys and I made a few valentines. I especially enjoyed supervising Alden as he made Valentine cards for all of his friends at school (I love that he considers everyone in his class his friend). One lady at Michael's work said she hated Valentine's Day because she hated doing the Valentine cards for her kids to take to school. Since this was my first real experience with such things since I was in grade school, I actually really enjoyed it. I guess it shouldn't surprise me too much because I loved making the valentines when I was in elementary. We would always make our own Valentine's box too, which I also loved! However, in all actuality, Alden did all the work. The only thing that I did was supervise the stickers that he put on them. He didn't bother reading any of the stickers he stuck, so I tired to make sure that he didn't put "You're cute" stickers on the boys' valentines. Other than that, he did a great job, and we had a lot of fun.

On Valentine's Day, Thobe had his Valentine's Joy School Party. He was so excited. When Laura Talbot (the other Joy School mom) told him that they were going to have a Valentine's party, he was thrilled! She told me that he kept saying, "We're going to have Joy School Valentine's party?" He gets so excited about parties. He had a great time with his friends Eliza and Annie. Eliza just turned 2 and her favorite word, at least when we're there, is Thobe. She says it over and over and over again. We feel so happy to have the Talbots as our friends.

Hyrum's Valentine's Day was just another day for him. He enjoyed pointing out the lights to us. Right now, his favorite word is light. He goes around the house finding lights that are turned on and repeats over and over again, "'ight, 'ight, 'ight." It's very cute. He also loves to open and close the garage. He tries and tries to push the button and when he finally connects, he opens his mouth as wide as it will go and starts jerking and shaking because he's so excited! Perhaps his favorite thing is to make messes. He loves pulling things out of drawers, spilling water out of cups, throwing food on the ground, and tearing toys out of the their buckets. He also recently began climbing up things. His favorite thing to climb are the little chairs that we have down stairs. He'll climb on top of the chair and stand there. It makes me very nervous. If it's close to the little table that goes with the chair, he'll climb from the chair to the table and turn the lights on and off saying, "'Ight, 'ight" the whole time. He's pretty adorable, and he knows it!

Personally, I had a lot of fun exchanging gifts and eating lunch with Michael. I feel so blessed that Michael gets to come home almost everyday for lunch. It is so much fun! Michael bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers that he designed himself. Later that day after I picked Alden up from school, there was a knock on the door. It was the Lima Beane Chorus, a local barbershop quartet from the area, bringing me a singing Valentine. It was so much fun. Alden, Thobe, and I loved it (Hyrum wasn't so sure about 4 strange men coming into our house). It was a very creative and fun idea for Valentine's Day.


After they left, while the boys were downstairs, I rang the doorbell and asked the boys to get the door. Alden was thrilled to get a surprise Valentine from someone. He kept trying to guess who might have brought him and his brothers a Valentine. "Maybe it was Austin? Oh thank you Austin! Mom, Austin brought me a Valentine" (Austin is a neighbor boy down the street who is in Alden's class). I suggested that it might be Grandma or Daddy or a Valentine fairy. He had such a fun time guessing who it might have left him a Valentine.

Perhaps the most exciting part of Valentine's day, especially for the boys, was to go to Detroit to pick up Aunt Emily and Aunt Laura, who just returned from her LDS mission to Riverside, California. Hyrum had never met his Aunt Laura, and it had been over 18 months since the rest of us last saw her. Laura and Emily were probably even more excited to see us, especially since they were supposed to get into Detroit 24 hours earlier! Their plane kept getting delayed, which did get them a free airline ticket, but we really wanted them here earlier. Nonetheless, we were thrilled to pick them up. When Alden saw Laura, he ran up to her and before hugging her or anything, he said, "Well, hello there!" It was so much fun to see both her and Emily. We stopped for dinner in Monroe, Michigan at Pete's Garage. I had been to this restaurant once before when Alden was a baby. Despite a very horrible diaper experience, I remembered eating a delicious dinner in an old car and having so much fun. Unfortunately, this dining experience was nearly as pleasurable. Since it was Valentine's day, the place was packed, the music was so loud that I couldn't even think straight, and they sat us right next to the smoking section that was only separated with a wall that was maybe six inches taller than our heads. We could have easily reached up and touched the smokers who never stopped smoking the entire time we ate. The meal was only so-so, but even if it had been as tasty as I remembered, inhaling all that smoke would make even the tastiest morsels much less appealing. Hyrum was tired and squirmy, which also made things less enjoyable. Fortunately, I loved the company and had a fun time catching up.

We got home around 11 to my sleeping Valentine and all fell into bed exhausted.

The Treatise

Wednesday, February 15, was not one of my best mothering days. My sisters were flying into town (at least I thought they were--Wednesday, February 15, was a horrible day for them as they were stuck in the airport or on the airplane for more than 8 hours and never did leave the airport). Anyway, because they were coming, I wanted the house to look nice. Our basement is always a mess. It is where we keep the kids' toys, and despite cleaning the basement several times a week, it always seems to be in the same state of chaos. On these cleaning occasions, I almost always have the boys clean the basement. Getting them to do it, however, is always very tricky. It usually involves a challenge where we race to see whether mom can clean up the most toys or the boys can clean up the most toys. I don't know why I always wait until I'm upset before I think of the challenge, but for some reason, on this particular day, I thought that my five-year-old and my three-year-old boys were old enough that I could work on other parts of the house and have them clean the basement. As you might imagine, this did not work. Then the bribing began. I told the boys if they would clean the basement that Dad would take the boys to the new McDonald's Playland for dinner (at that point I thought I was going to go to Detroit to pick up my sisters as soon as Michael got home. When Dad's in charge of dinner, Ronald McDonald is often the cook). They were very excited about this and began picking up toys. However, when I went up stairs to finish what I was doing, the cleaning stopped and the playing resumed. Michael came home and told the boys that they couldn't go to McDonalds. I then had an errand to run and left the house frustrated.

Just as I was finishing my errand, Michael called me and asked if it was okay if they met me at McDonalds. He said the boys had done a wonderful job of cleaning the basement and had made me something. Although slightly hesitant because I was still a bit frustrated, I said I would meet them. When the boys walked in the store, they were all very happy to see me and gave me big hugs and kisses. We then went to the playland where the boys mostly played, and we mostly ate. Michael then gave me the "gifts" that the boys made for me. I loved them so much that I just had to scan them in and save them here. Thobe's drawing is a heart-felt scribble. I'm sure it includes the Buckeyes, the Cougars, and even the Wolverines. I know that he was making it with me in mind, so it's very special to me.
Alden's drawing was also created all by himself with me in mind as well. He wrote the words himself and was so excited for me to see it. In case you can't quite tell what it says, it reads, "I love you, Mom. I'm sorry." What a sweetheart! It's funny how just a few short lines from a child can write volumes in his mother's heart. I really have great kids!

A Valentine for Dad

Several days before Valentine's Day, I found out that Walgreens had a special where they would give you 1-8x10, 2-5x7s, and 4-4x6 prints for a FREE Valentine's Day promotion. For those of you who know me well, I never like to let a good deal pass by me, so the Friday before Valentine's Day, after picking up Alden from school, I changed all the kids into their red shirts and began snapping pictures like a dog hopelessly snaps at flies hoping to get a picture that I could send to Walgreens and give to Michael for Valentine's Day. For whatever reason when I exclaim, "Say cheese," especially when I want an especially cute pic, Hyrum runs away, Thobe arches his back and looks everywhere but at the camera, and Alden flashes a fake grin that looks really, really, REALLY happy, although I imagine inside he's thinking, "Uh oh, Mom's got the camera again and wants us to sit still--I hope I don't get the blame for my brothers not doing what they're supposed to do--hopefully I'll get a reward for doing this because I deserve one." And he does. After chasing Hyrum around and around the room, yelling Thobe's name over and over and over again, and asking Alden to please try to keep Hy from running away, I realized that this probably was not going to work and stormed away. After thinking about what a great deal I was missing out on, I went back to the boys and attempted again and again and again. We finally got a few, one that I found acceptable. In the meantime, I also got a few pictures that I loved and will feature here.


Perhaps my favorite picture is this one of Thobe and Alden. For whatever reason, Thobe started crying. I can't remember the exact reason, although my guess is that it was over a minor dispute that he and Alden had that made Thobe cry and Alden very adamant that he was right and Thobe was most definitely wrong. Nonetheless, I told Alden that he needed to hug Thobe to make him happy. When I saw Alden's very happy face and Thobe's sad face, I couldn't resist the picture and ended up with this medley of emotion shot.


I also loved this picture of Hyrum kissing Thobe. Hyrum absolutely loves his brothers! He thinks they are the greatest! He gets really excited when I ask the boys if they are ready to go get Alden from school, and I often hear the three of them laughing their heads off. I feel so fortunate to have my boys get a long with each other so well. Don't get me wrong, they have their fair share of disagreements, but I really think they are each others' best friends. I'm so thankful for that.



Speaking of kissing, I also loved these pictures of Alden and Thobe kissing and hugging Hyrum. It was one of the few times of the "photo shoot" that they were doing what I hoped they would do, at least sort of.
















Can you guess which picture I sent to Walgreens?

Those Dancing & Singing Mondays

When Michael and I first got married, he asked me not sing early in the morning. I tried to not sing "Wake Up the Neighborhood" to get him out of bed in the morning anymore and also tried to temper my urge to break forth in song while we ate breakfast. I guess that should have been an early warning sign to Michael that our kids would also like music. Not surprisingly, many of the songs they sing and the way they sing them are strongly influenced by their dad, although I suppose the frequency of their singing comes from me. Any visitor soon finds that we really like music in our house. Our entry way has a really high ceiling, and I love to sing at the top of my lungs while I walk down the stairs to hear my voice echo. I have embarrassed myself at least on one occasion that I know of when I was singing so loudly that I didn't hear the doorbell. Unfortunately, there was no question that our visitor heard me.

Alden is also a boisterous singer. We never have a question where he is because we can hear him singing and imagining loudly. He especially loves to sing when using the bathroom. He also has embarrassed himself when we've had company as well by doing this (what am I saying??? He has embarrassed us).

Thobe loves to sing Primary songs and fight songs. Every Monday night we have Family Home Evening where Thobe insists that we sing at least one of his favorite schools' fight songs and one Primary song. Thobe knows BYU's fight song, Ohio State's fight song, Toledo's fight song, Bowling Green's fight song, and even Michigan's fight song. I love to hear him sing them. He also loves "Scripture Power," "I Am a Child of God," "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree," and "Munka Munka Snowman" (a.k.a. "Once There Was A Snowman). He is always running around the house singing songs. I love it!



Hyrum is like a fly to a light when it comes to music. When he hears music, he stops whatever he's doing and starts bobbing his head. If it's a song that he recognizes or really likes, he starts moving his little body to the music. Soon his arms and legs and feet are all involved. I've never seen a baby as young as he is love music so much. It always makes me laugh.

The following is a very fun clip of the boys singing and dancing. We've got Thobe singing parts of the Ohio State and BYU fight song, and we've got all the boys singing to and dancing to our favorite CD--The New Christy Minstrels' "Tell Tall Tales & Land of Giants." It is an awesome CD that has lots of traditional folklore songs and some really great patriotic songs too. Michael's mom gave us the CD, and we love it! Alden "whistles" to Johnny Appleseed and the three of the boys love hammering with John Henry (you'll have to excuse my annoying laugh during this part of the clip--I just couldn't help myself). You think they're ready to be the next Jackson 3?