A Moment of Gratitude

The past few weeks, I have felt so, so blessed. Sometimes I literally feel like God has opened the windows of heaven to me that there is barely room enough for me to receive all he's given me and my family. I don't know if I mention enough how much I love Michael. He is so good to me and such an amazing father to our boys. I am sometimes jealous of his ability to be such an incredible parent. He is so consistent with the boys. He has several lines that he has set that the boys know they cannot cross. If they do, Michael always imposes a consequence for them—always! For those of you who have seen Michael regularly with the boys, his greatest skill in parenting is not his discipline, but the way he loves the kids. His boys consider him their best friend. Michael has long, long days that begin at 4:45 every morning. He is out the door by 5:45 at the latest, teaches seminary (he is incredible at that too), and then he goes straight to work. When he comes home from lunch, which he does most days, he always spends at least a portion of his lunch playing a board game, playing ball, or just talking with Thobe and Hyrum. He usually gets home from work at 6:00 p.m. and rather than just kicking back and watching TV or reading the internet, he plays with his boys. We eat dinner, and he helps me clean up the kitchen, and then even though he's exhausted, he plays with his boys until we read Scriptures and say our prayers, and then he tucks his boys into bed. After that he spends time with me and somewhere in there he prepares a seminary lesson. I can't tell you how amazing he is to me and how much I love him!

Alden is also an incredible blessing in my life. He really is my right hand man and makes me feel so good about myself. He always tells me, "You look so beautiful, Mommy." He also is so good to his brothers. When Hyrum wants water, I can tell him, "Go ask Alden." Alden will drop whatever he's doing and get water for his brother. He is also doing really well in school. He really loves going and especially loves being good in class. He really prides himself on the fact that he never gets in trouble. I'm very happy about that too. He loves math and hates writing, but we're working on that, and hopefully by the end of the year, he'll love writing too. He is an incredible reader and loves to play with words. He is really interested in other cultures and is convinced that he's going to go on his mission to Japan. Alden is always telling me a scientific fact or something that I didn't know. When I question him, I find that he is almost always right! My favorite thing about Alden is that you can always find him singing a happy song and dressing up of course. He loves to pretend and has such a great imagination.

I can hardly think about Thobe without getting a little choked up. When Michael was in Germany a few weeks ago, Thobe started having a lot more potty accidents. I was almost beside myself with the increase of accidents—I HATE poopy underwear and nearly lost it many times with him. Trying to solve the problem, I started going with him to the bathroom to make sure he went to the potty. On such an occasion, I discovered that Thobe's urine was not yellow but appeared to have blood in it, a lot of blood. Extremely alarmed, I called the doctor who told me that she wanted to see Thobe right away. After doing a series of tests and taking six vials of blood on three different occasions, they decided to send us down to Dayton to see a pediatric nephrologist (a kidney specialist) at the Dayton Children's hospital. They were very alarmed that he had no other symptoms and that there was so much blood in his urine. The Sunday before we went to the hospital, Michael gave Thobe a Priesthood blessing, and I, along with my mom and all of my siblings and their spouses, fasted for Thobe. Many people prayed for Thobe. We all prayed that God would make him whole and that the doctors would be able to adequately determine what was wrong with him. I want to testify to you that prayer works, and that sometimes, God has things like this happen to us to teach us and remind us. I realized that my children are a miraculous gift from a loving Father who loved them as his children before I did. They are precious, and I need to treat them that way. Since Thobe's sickness, I've noticed more how sweet he is. He is always telling me, "I love you, Mom. I like your shirt. Will you kiss my finger?" He too sings all the time (one of his favorite songs in the Olympic songs--my kids love Michael Phelps) and is just a laid back happy kid. I still prefer him not to have accidents, but when he does, which has gotten more infrequent, I try to remember how much I love him, and I don't get mad. I hope I will never forget the lessons that I've learned through this, and he hopes that he doesn't have to get poked again—he didn't like getting all the blood drawn but was so, so brave.

Hyrum is also such a joy in our lives. Somehow, Hyrum has gotten completely out of his bedtime routine. Part of the problem is that we've graduated him from his crib because he hates it! Since this graduation, we haven't established a bed that is just for him, and regardless of the bed that we put him in, he can climb out if he wants to. Regardless of the consequences and the causes which I'm sure are partly to blame on me and Michael, we spend a lot of time with him after the older two boys go to bed. He loves the time that he has one on one with Mom and Dad. He has really started talking. Much of his talking is jabbering. We know he knows what he's saying, but we don't understand it yet. He understands us though and can do almost anything that we ask him to do. He knows what he wants more than Alden and Thobe ever did at this age. He clearly answers "Yeah" and "No" to our queries, and his favorite phrase is "I want _____" (he usually can fill in the blank with whatever it is he wants). Like the other boys, he loves talking about Cougars and Buckeyes (last night he also added Rockets to the list). Alden, Thobe, and Hyrum's names are all "Oby." Michael is Papa (which I think is just about the cutest thing in the world), and I'm Mama (Michael is sometimes Mama when Hyrum wants help). Hyrum is by far our most adventurous and curious kid. He is always climbing and trying to figure out how things work. Unfortunately with all his climbing, he also does a lot of falling. There are days that I seriously think that we need to follow the idea that our friend Allen Renfro had in Texas and buy our little Hy a helmet. I'm sure he wouldn't keep it on (I can barely get him to keep pants on), so it would probably be money wasted, but he's clearly got several guardian angels (thankfully). I know I write this all the time, but Hyrum loves music. He, like his brothers, is always singing, and as soon as we get in the car, if I don't turn on the music, he starts crying. I'll say, "Hyrum, do you want me to turn on some music?" And he'll respond, "Yeah," and stop crying. Whenever Hyrum hears a loud beeping noise, he waves his arm in the air. Our lousy stove top smokes frequently and sends our sensitive smoke alarm into hysterics, and we respond by getting towels and waving them over our smoke alarm. Hyrum always tries to help us by waving his arm too. He also loves to help me unload the dishwasher and is actually really helpful in putting things away from me. My favorite thing about Hyrum is his happy smile and the way that he loves us. He really has a smile that could light up a room, and he loves us so much. He is always giving us hugs and kisses and saying, "Uv oo."

I must admit that this is a wonderful time in my life. I hope that I will take the time to treasure it a little more and appreciate the great gifts that God has given me, for they truly are abundant!