6.13.2010

“He’s Our Bishop…”

Aaron and Scott

Earlier this week the stake President asked to speak with us. We knew that there were some openings in the High Counsel and thought maybe Aaron was getting called back to fill one of those positions or maybe the Second Counselor position in our own bishopric. To say that we were surprised to have him be called as our new bishop would be an understatement. It think Aaron just get wondering why me? What do I have to offer? A loving heart and humble attitude for starters I think.  He is such a wonderful man who wants to serve the Lord. After the initial shock we both felt at such peace. We have had trials this last year that haven’t seemed to fit together and now suddenly without really knowing how they fit together there was this overwhelming sense of peace that somehow all was good.

It was hard to keep it from the kids until Sunday, and then to actually get to church on time so we wouldn’t miss the change=). Brianna was so excited because it was going to be her first Sunday in Young Women’s and her first Bishopric Youth Fireside that night. Imagine her surprise when they announced that her dad was the bishop. That night and the next day the kids practiced singing the Primary song “He’s our Bishop..” so they could sing it for Family Home Evening. Brianna organized it all so that each of the older kids sang a verse and then they all sang the chorus together. Even little Scott had his mini Children's Songbook and was singing along. At the end they changed the words to “He’s our bishop  daddy!

We had a lesson on what bishops do taken from a talk written years ago by one of the General Authorities, and then talked about each of our own callings to help daddy. They each got an envelope with a slip of paper in it with their own calling on it. It read:

Brianna: You have a special calling as the daughter of the bishop to:
Pray each day for him that he will have the Spirit to be with him and he will be able to listen to it.

Austin: You have a special calling as the son of the bishop to:
Remind him each day if he has thought about the Primary kids in the ward.

Brooke: You have a special calling as the daughter of the bishop to:
Ask him each day if he has read his Book of Mormon. Maybe he can tell you one thing each day he read about.

Erika: You have a special calling as the daughter of the bishop to:
Pray each day that he will be able to be strong and healthy and sleep good at night.

Abby:You have a special calling as the daughter of the bishop to:
Give him a hug each day and tell him you love him.

Scott: You have a special calling as the son of the bishop to:
Go to your nursery class. (Something he hasn’t wanted to do)

A few years ago when Aaron was the Elder’s Quorum president and it was stake conference, there was a special meeting before for the wives of bishops in our stake. Somehow, the announcement of it in a meeting caused some confusion  and Aaron thought it was for all the bishopric wives and Elder’s Quorum. We got there early and walked in to be happily greeted by our own bishop’s wife. I was quite embarrassed to learn that it was only for the bishops wives, and wanted to just wait in the foyer until the adult evening session began. Our bishop’s wife sweetly asked if I would stay and listen, maybe out of pity because we had gotten a babysitter and were already there, but I think more out of listening to the spirit. The Lord knew someday I would need all the gentle advice these sweet sisters were sharing with each other to make the time that their husbands were the bishop to be an uplifting and a time where the spirit would be poured out upon their families. Thank you Tami for listening to the spirit and loving reaching out to me. I look back and can remember specific advice that gave that will be helpful to our family.  What an exciting time this will be for our family to grow together and see how much the Lord loves all the people in our little ward.

6.12.2010

{ Brianna’s Golden Birthday }

12 years! How in the world can twelve years have passed by so quickly? This year was Brianna’s 12th and “Golden Birthday”. We pondered about what would be fun, but not too childish for her. We finally decided on a fun Charlie and the Chocolate factory party with GOLDEN tickets and lots of chocolate fun. We made these cute golden tickets that everyone got at breakfast the day before, and we watched the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the night before for movie night just to get us in that chocolatey mood.

Brianna's birthday invitation blog

All the presents were neatly wrapped in yellow wrapping paper, yellow balloons everywhere, and Wonka style games set up throughout the house. The kids were so excited! And afterwards we were are full of candy. A Wonka party wouldn’t be a Wonka party without lots of treats. Here’s the run down of our fun day in Brianna’s own words:

“Then we did Golden Egg Game. We had this bag of balloons on the fan in the living room and we pulled the string and we had to pop the balloons to try and find a piece of paper inside that said it was a good egg. If we found one than we were able to go to the candy store and get a big box of Gobstoppers, Mike Ikes, Starbursts, Nerds, or Sweet Tarts. I got Mike Ikes. Then we went to the inventing room. There we made my cake.  After we put everything to make my cake and it was in the oven we went to the candy store again and we got another big treat. Then we went to the Tasting Room. We had to taste these things and than write them down. The fist one was Sugar. Than Cinnamy thing. Than Salt. Than this K9 (cayenne pepper) stuff.  After we about washed our mouths about 20 million times we went to the candy store. This time we got fun dip. After the candy store we went to the Fizzy Drink Room. We drank these tiny Twist Ups and than we had a burping contest. Of course Austin won. Than we went to the candy Store and got Laffy Taffies. After that my mom was on the phone forever so we had a contest with the remaining "Golden Eggs." We had to try and throw all of the eggs to the other person's side and try to keep them over there for 1 minute. Who ever has the most eggs on their side lost. Finally my mom got off the phone so we were able to open presents. I got a whole bunch of clothes. After I opened the presents we went to the Chocolate River. Here we had two teams who had to drink all of the chocolate milk out of the bowl and try to sink the ship with straws. My team won. After that we went to the Candy Store for the last time. We got sugar in the straws. After that we went to see Karate Kid at the theater( her, Austin, and daddy).”

It is so fun to see how Brianna has changed over these last few years. Her cute little personality is shining through. Watching her open her presents showed exactly that. She is spunky and fun, and still gets excited over little things. I love that!

Brianna with presents blog

Brianna with  presents wild hair blog 

She mostly wanted clothes this year, but we surprised her with one “Golden” present she wasn’t expecting. A few years ago for her birthday she got a pearl that they harvested when we went to Sea World. It has a really tiny opening to thread a necklace through, and the only cheap one we had, had since broken. We splurged and got her a really nice one for her to wear. She was so surprised and it has been so fun to watch her wear it with such care and be so delicate with it.  I love these pictures, with Austin right there beside her as excited as she is. There are still close, and it is such a joy to see them play and interact. Even when they sneak in each other’s room at night to read books together when they are suppose to be sleeping!=)

       Brianna opening necklace 1 blog     Brianna opening necklace 2 blog     Brianna opening necklace 3 blog

Every birthday our kids receive a birthday book. Since, Christmas when one of Brianna’s friends got a cooking book to fill out with her mom, Brianna has been hinting she wants one too. Her birthday seemed the perfect opportunity for it. Thanks Lisa for such a fun and cute idea. She got a binder to write down recipes in that we cook together and some new bowls and spoons.

 Brianna with birthday book blog 

Brianna with new bowls blog 

After she opened all of her presents she wanted to have a fashion show and have me take pictures so she could remember what outfits go together. Very fun when your 12! As you can tell we were hurting in the Sunday wear department this year. She has shot up in height so much that most of her skirts were too short now.

Brianna outfits blog

Brianna with birthday cake blog

Happy 12th birthday BB, we love you so much!!

6.07.2010

{ Mr. Sticky Fingers }

Scott pb looking blog

It seems lately that every post I write about Scott involves food and him making a mess. I promise I do actually supervise my children, but making messes and food are what his life is all about at 18 months.

Abby had come to me one afternoon and asked if she could have “butter on a spoon”. Who doesn’t love nice creamy peanut butter to snack on?, so I quickly agreed. She insisted she could get it herself, so I let her go on her way. We keep our 3lb. tub of peanut butter (we go through a LOT of peanut butter around this place) in the pantry on a higher shelf, but one that Abby can still reach. A few minutes later, Abby was at the table with her spoon of “butter” happily enjoying her snack.

As the next few moments went by, I realized that Scott was rather quiet. His normal reaction to seeing Abby at the table with peanut butter would be constant grunting until someone comes and gets him some too. I venture into pantry to find him elbow deep in the peanut butter jar. I tried to run fast, but not too fast as the alarm him, and grabbed my camera. I tried to snap as many as I could before he came after me with those sticky little hands wanting to see himself on the camera.

Scott pb 1  Scott pb 2  Scott pb 3  Scott pb 4  

Then to top it off, he did his little Scotty thing when gets really excited and his hands go straight to the hair. He has this innate reaction to any of the words, “hands up (straight to the hair), hold still (straight to the hair), just a minute while mommy gets a towel (straight to the hair) saying nothing so as to sneak up on him with a towel (straight to the hair). Needless to say we enjoyed a nice afternoon swim in the tub with lots and lots of shampoo.

6.06.2010

{ My 3 Girls }

three girls blog 3 girls in 3 years! At the time when I had three under the age of three, I think that some days I was unsure if I was going to make it through. Now that they are older, I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, that they are so close in age. They are the best of friends and playmates. I love it when two of them will come inside arms around each other and say, " She's my best friend!" Whenever we say the "little girls" everyone knows who we are referring to. Too bad they aren't staying little for too long. 

Things they love to do together:

  • play babies
  • jump on the trampoline
  • ride scooters and bikes together
  • playing school-they often have a hard time deciding who will be the teacher and many times end up either arguing or having a class with three teachers and invisible students, which they say is more fun anyways.
  • coloring
  • playing Strawberry Shortcake game
  • loading up my bed with ALL of their toys. I am not exactly sure the name of this game. Some days I think it's called, "Make mommy frustrated game"
  • playing doggies with their real leash. It usually  ends with Scott attacking their dog bowls full of water or goldfish. They are trying to teach him to crawl around and be the dog and that seems to be working better.
  • Reading to each other

Brooke blog

Brooke 7 years Old

  • Loves to color and write letters
  • Loves to do homework and any worksheet she can get her hands on
  • Loves her new 2nd grade teacher
  • So excited for the new baby to come. She can't stop staring at my belly each day and exclaiming, "It's just getting so big!"
  • Likes to sneak flashlights in her room so she can read after she has been tucked in bed.
  • Very dramatic!
  • Likes to use big words-some are real, some are made up; and then look for our reaction when she uses them in a sentence.
  • Definitely has a lot of fashion sense. A couple years ago she used to lay out "outfits" for me on my floor.I might need to have her do that again. I feel very drab in my outfits these days.
  • Having her hair pulled partially back with a ribbon is her favorite way to wear her hair. Having it down and straightened with the iron would run a close second.
  • Likes to wear flips flops and any kind of "high heal" type of shoe.
  • Loves to build tree houses with Austin and the girls.
  • Loves organizing
  • Loves to put pencils, notebooks, crayons, markers, and paper in backpacks and folders. Has to always have all these things with her when we leave the house. Even if it's just for a few minutes, she loves to be prepared for the off chance of possible boredom in the van.
Erika blog

Erika 5 years old:

  • Loves to write letters to everyone in the family and tape them on our doors or leave them in special hiding places.
  • Loves kindergarten
  • Loves to play school
  • Still loves milk. She is down to the 2 sippy cups a day habit. Yes, a sippy cup. I am weak, very weak.
  • Loves to get out of the bath and brush her hair smooth and straight. She is often disappointed in the morning when it is “puffy” as she puts it.
  • Very laid back about what she wears. She will still let me pick about anything out for her to wear without much discussion.
  • Loves to eat pasta!
  • Very excited for her birthday. She is always counting down the days-usually starting the day after her birthday.
  • Not a big breakfast eater.
  • Loves to play outside.
  • Gets excited for fast Sunday because “it goes so fast” she insists.
  • She is a morning person. She wakes up happy and cheerful and at the same time everyday. She is always the first one awake on weekends too.
  • Gives great hugs
  • Loves to practice her word lists

Abby blog
Abby 4 years old:

  • Loves to play babies. She carries around her pink baby diaper bag with all her babies stuff in it. She is very nurturing and loves to rock her babies to sleep and hold them propped on her hip.
  • Still takes a nap with me.
  • Shares a room with Brianna.
  • Loves to drink juice. Most our kids love water or milk, but she is a juice girl.
  • Calls Honey Nut Cheerios-Honey Butt Cheerios. I try to correct her every time, but she still says it this way -and with a straight face.
  • Is in the awkward squinty eye phase for picture taking, and doesn’t let me take pictures of her as painless and often as she did before.
  • Only weighs 3 lbs. more than Scott who is 2 1/2 years younger than her. She was our tiniest baby and still is very petite.
  • Very emotional about how her hair is done on Sundays. No other day-just Sundays.
  • Loves to wear flip flops.
  • Likes to ride her bike with training wheels on it.
  • Has issues opening the back door to come inside. At least 5-10 times a day she will come to the door. Knock. I will look at her from the computer and say,”turn hard”, and she will say in her cutest voice, “my hands are slippawee” (slippery).
  • Loves to play with Scott until he pulls her hair or tackles her down.
  • Loves to practice writing her letters and drawing pictures.
  • Is not a morning person. She is usually the last one up, and like me doesn’t usually wake up very cheerfully.