praise to the man

we were all surprised this evening to receive the news of our dear prophet Gordon B. Hinkley's passing today. At first I was felt really sad about it, he was an incredible man and he will be missed greatly. then i started to think about how sad he has been without Sister Hinkley and a smile came to my face to think of how sweet that reunion must have been. how grateful i am to know of the plan of salvation and to know that death is not the end. i will remember this great man most for his sense of humor, always waving his cane, his Book of Mormon challenge, his Be's for a better life, stand for something, his love for the youth, his admiration for the women of our faith and the many temples that came to be during his leadership. i will also remember how young he has always seemed to me, even at 97 years old. the twinkle in his eye and the smile on his face was always one of happiness and youth, something we can all emulate. i'm grateful for this man, for his work, for his legacy, for his love of the Lord and for his fellow man. he will be missed. praise to the man.

deceptively cute

today ethan looks so squishy and yummy in his church sweater that i had to take his picture. he's so hard to photograph lately because he runs all over the place and has better things to do than hold still. way too busy for holding still. so, my trick is to stand him on top of the table next to the window with great light and then he can't run away. spencer provided the comedy behind me to get ethan to smile. works like a charm. it is also a day worth documenting a photo of him because today was the first day that he stayed in the nursery the WHOLE time with no tears! YAY! during the sacrament though, he made up for being so good. during the process of trying to take the water, he managed to grab a hold of THREE cups, not all at once mind you, before i could pass the water back to the deacon who was trying not to giggle. it was pretty good, he's been taking tips from lightning mcqueen i think. so, this photograph pretty much says it all doesn't it? his face says, "i'm too cute and innocent to be guilty of anything like that!" his mother knows better.

**do you have embarrassing sacrament meeting memories?**

**do you love little boys (and big ones too) in yummy church sweaters?**

kissing....the pavement

spencer hates blood. in fact, blood makes him squeal like a girl, especially his own blood. normally, spencer can take a bad bad fall, even a broken arm and shake it off like it's no big deal. but as soon as his own blood comes into play, he's like one of those hysterical ladies in the movies that you have to slap to calm them down. i haven't had to actually slap him yet, but i've come pretty close! friday night spencer had a bad crash on his sled over at isaac's house. they were sledding where they really should've known better (i almost titled this entry "boys R dumb") and the jumping part went great, but when you land on a shovelled drive way with no snow, your tube stops and you keep going. are boys the only ones who DON'T know this? so spencer kissed the pavement, big time, he got a ridiculously bloody nose and face and by the time isaac's older sister called me, spencer was to the needing to be slapped stage. i heard at church today that the spot where spencer crashed looks like a murder scene, blood all over the drive way and in the snow, the mom said she couldn't believe how much blood came out of his nose. so i guess he had good reason to panic but when all was said and done, he just has some nice road rash on his face and a few sore teeth. how will he ever survive with his wife in the labor and delivery room?

**do you panic at the sight of blood?**

**do your boys think they are invincable too?**

happy birthday kristy

friday patsy and i took kristy to lunch for her 38th birthday! ethan came along and mooched everyone's food, everyone who wasn't his mother thought he was so cute. blogger lunch was so great and since friday we have another schedule except this time i think all the centerville bloggers are coming (and i'm going to try to find someone to tend ethan). it should be fun. we were talking about how some of our closest friends DON'T BLOG and how strange it is for it to be such a big part of our lives and not be able to share it with those closest to us. so needless to say, we had tons to talk about and it was so fun. i laughed reading patsy's blog about the lunch, she said she talked too much but that's excactly how I felt! it took me a long time to get through my yummy salad because of all the chatter. it was just was the doctor ordered though, something to lift us out of the winter blues. the best part about lunching with fellow bloggers is that no one moans when the camera comes out, all the cameras come out! :) we got this self portait which i thought was hillarious and was happy to see that my head looks like a normal size.

this wouldn't be kristy's happy birthday blog without a list of things i love about her. i will spare everyone the ten minutes and not list 38 things, but here goes...

1. she is almost ALWAYS smiling!

2. she always has funny stories to tell and keeps me laughing.

3. she has the most darling family.

4. she is a fantastic primary president.

5. she is super easy going.

6. she is a really hard worker.

7. she is very reliable and always does what she says she will (faster than i say i will).

8. she thinks she is not creative, but really is quite the contrary.

9. she's brave enough to re-do her whole kitchen by herself!

10. this is my favorite thing - she still loves me even though i volunteered her to co-chair fundraising with me at a meeting that she wasn't even at, and then proceded to put her through hell last year and maybe this one too.

happy birthday kristy! love ya girly!

**do you have friends who moan when they see the camera come out?**

sardines and fruit snacks

spencer has the two most fantastic teachers this year for fifth grade. they are way into learning about american history and then having everyone act out what they've learned in a short play. spencer has thrived in this class because as i've said before he is my drama-king and all joking aside, acting just comes naturally to him and he enjoys every minute of it. he's not the easiest kid to teach and he is soaking up everything he's learning this year through acting, it's been great. so friday morning was their class play about the american revolution. spencer was christopher columbus in the last play so this time he had several smaller parts instead but still a ton of lines to learn including the famous poem: paul revere's ride. (have you ever heard me say that spencer is "head and shoulders" taller than most kids in his class? take a look at the above picture and you'll see what i mean. we've got the jolly green fifth grade giant living at our house!)it was PACKED in that classroom, i felt like a sardine, especially with a wiggly toddler but we managed to get through with fruit snacks and spencer did fantastic! his favorite part of having me come to school for anything is being able to show off ethan to his teachers and friends. after the play was over he zoomed over to me, scooped ethan up and was off to show everyone his latest tricks.hi, remember me, mom? the lady who came to your play this morning? i'm so grateful for great teachers who help spencer, and all my kids, love learning.

**do you have a drama king or queen at your house?**

**do you feel claustrophobic at things like this?**

**are you good at memorizing lines?**

splish splash

today was my first time with a new visiting teaching partner and visitee (is this a word) and everything was going very well. ethan has a hard time sitting still, kathi assured me that he could head into her young daughter's room and not hurt anything in there. so for a while he was delivering arm loads of stuffed animals to me while we chatted away. the lady we teach is having a rather difficult time and there were a few tears that distracted me from paying attention to what ethan was doing. then i realized that i hadn't seen him for a while and so i excused myself to check on the little turkey. as i headed down the hall to the bedrooms i could hear water running - oh dear. as i rounded the corner i found ethan standing in the giant master bathroom tub in about four inches of water giving one of the stuffed animals a bath. somehow he had managed to turn on only the cold water - thank goodness - and plugged the tub with the stopper so it was quickly filling up, i'm sure just like he wanted. i saw him and started to work quickly. i sat him on my lap, removed his socks and rung them out, drained the water and left he stuffed animal to dry in the tub. we made it back to the living room and kathi said, "where did he find water?" and i said, "in your bath tub - i'm SO SORRY!" i related the scene as i had found it and she burst out laughing through her tears and exclaimed, "this was the comic relief that i needed this morning!" of course, i wanted to die, how embarrassing, i barely know her and already my kid is trying to flood her house! she made sure to make me feel ok about the whole thing, assuring me that she too has had toddlers and they have done much worse. i have to laugh about it now, but wow, leave this kid alone for 4.2 minutes and he's bathing the stuffed animals. who knew? i wish i could've grabbed a camera somehow, it was a pretty funny scene. i'm glad my humiliation could curb her saddness even if it was only for a few minutes. on our way out the door she said, "please be sure to bring ethan back with you next time".

**is your toddler fascinated with water?**

**how have your kids embarrassed you like this?**

**would anyone like to volunteer to tend this boy the next time i have to go?**

memory lane

i was asked to make a slide show video thing for new beginnings of the new beehives who entered yw this last year. it was suppose to include 15 or so photographs from baby to now and allie and i had way too much fun looking through all of her scrapbooks and other pictures trying to choose just the right ones. it was tough but we narrowed it down. since i already took the time to scan them all in - bleh - i figured i might as well post them. looking back on old photos is one of my most favorite things to do, so many happy memories and some even forgotten! we laughed and laughed and took forever to look through every last one. here are the ones we chose...

fatty baby...

this was so typical allie that year, always pouting...this is one of my favorite photographs of her ever...always in pink...ballerina girl...the year of the freckles...

little and big sister...her late night mud mask phase...(i have tons of these pics)the corbin bleu look like for her HSM2 party...her best friend lauren...my recent favorite - thanks kayleen!

anyway, it was so hard to narrow it down, there were many, many that i loved. it inspired me to maybe to more "memory lane" type blog entries to force me to document some of the great photographs or memories of the past thirteen years with children. motherhood is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. it saved my life really, it forced me to calm down and be responsible, all because i wanted a stable enviornement for taylor to grow up in. thirteen years later, it's still saving my life. they are the reason i get out of bed in the morning.

**do you love to look through old photographs?**

**how do you feel about mother/parenthood?**

**has your daughter gone through the mud mask phase?**

SPT - what's in a name?

the "t" in SPT can stand for thursday right? so this is a self portait thursday because i'm a little behind this week. lelly's spt for this week was how your blog got it's name. mine is so easy because several years ago i had to do a scrapbook presentation for our stake's women's conference. i was trying to show other women that it is important to include yourself in your scrapbook, some day the pages about you will be the most precious to your children. so, i did this layout about myself entitled "the view from my lens". the journaling reads:

It is true that I am definitely guilty of seeing the world through the lens of my camera. Special events are really just "photo-ops" for me, a good excuse to snap some pictures. This picture of me is probably a pretty accurate reflection of how my kids will remember me, behind my camera. But truth be told, I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't pin-point exactly what it is about photography that I love so much, the subjects, the lighting, the pure ART of it all. But, I do know that when a pictures come back with all of the right elements, I get a rush of adrenaline that's better than ice cream. My skill has improved over the years, but I still have lots to learn. Hopefully my kids will not grow too weary of posing and they might even appreciate some of the precious moments I have been able to capture.

Since this blog is really just a digital scrapbook/journal kind of a thing, "the view from my lens" seemed like an appropriate title. many of my moments, as a mother, a wife, and especially a photographer are experienced through my view finder. and that's ok with me, it's one of my biggest joys.

**is your hobby better than ice cream?**

baby tricks

ethan's latest tricks include saying "please" which sounds more like "pays", but when you're in speech therapy, everything counts. saying "bu-bye-yo-ee-yo" and "hi". and he loves giving zerberts. it's so disgusting, he slimes off my make-up every time, but it's so funny i can't help but laugh my head off. he thinks it's pretty funny too. he won't give rich a zerbert though because his face is too prickly. he saves his slobber for the softest cheeks, lucky me!

**how do you feel about baby drool?**

**do you sometimes feel shocked about how time is flying by?**

long haired hooligans

it started over the summer some time, the boys missed their hair cuts and i never re-scheduled them for some reason. then taylor says, i kind of like my hair a little longer, i think i would like to grow it out. spencer does everything taylor does, so of course, he's in on it too. so i figure, whatever, it's summer, who cares right? so before school starts rich insists that they at least get a trim which was fine, but since then neither of these boys have had a cut. they both really love their long hair. i told taylor as long as he was still going to church and passing the sacrament and getting good grades that his long hair didn't bother me one bit. and it doesn't, it bothers rich though and they get plenty of razzing from the family about it which they take in stride. i think i like their long hair because it says they have a bit of a rebellious streak in them which isn't really a terrible thing. so at spencer's basketball game, i was noticing how funny spencer's hair was all flailing around and how when he got sweaty it looked like an old man comb over king of thing on his forehead. then friday taylor came home from school and announced he was ready for a trim. spencer was not, but i told him he could either get a trim with no complaining or be shaved bawled and complain all he wanted. he chose the trim. so today, my boys went from this...

to this...

to this...

so it's still pretty long, but whatever, i'm fine with that. they do look a litle zac efron-ish if you ask me. since he's america's heart throb right now that can't be entirely bad right?

**how do you feel about boys with long hair?**

**how do you express your inner rebel?**

can you say air polution?

on saturday i had a serious surge of productivity despite the frigid temperature outside. i cleaned the garage! i didn't even take a before pictures, one because i was so focused on working that i wasn't even thinking about blogging (shocking) and two that because if i had thought about it, i would've been to embarrassed to let anyone see how crazy it had gotten. mostly furniture and unpacked boxes, but the formal room is done, so the furniture is getting put back or sold and the boxes are getting unpacked! i love it! someday we may even be able to park there - what a concept! during my productivity, ethan couldn't stand to be left inside so after some bundling i let him loose to play out front where i could see him. he has been afraid of the snow so far so i was kind of surprised to round the corner to find this...ethan's first taste of snow. gross, but i guess it's something every kid has to try, just like playing in the toilet water. have i mentioned how i love this winter hat?

double the fun

we've been begging for a chance to tend josh and lisa's twins one to give them a much needed and deserved break and two because they're just so cute! plus we love that cutie sydney and we knew she would come if the babies did. so for christmas rich and i had their names and we gave them dinner and a movie alng with a baby sitting gift ceritificate to go along with it. really it was a sneaky way to get them to let us tend the cuties. so friday was the big day! they came a little while before rich got home from work so allie and i had them to ourselves. we had a little bit of a rocky start, let's just say that natalie is a bit of a mama's girl, but we popped in a baby einstein dvd and gave ethan and sydney suckers and everyone was happy! i'm not below bribery. at one point, both babies were fussing and then ethan fell down and needed his mama, so allie handled both babies at once! she rocks. of course, she was telling me, "put down the camera and come grab one of these guys before i drop one!" but she was still awesome! the BEST part of the whole night was putting both babies in their bumbo seats - best baby invention ever btw - and feeding them dinner. i wish some how i could've taken a photo but they were both like hungry little birds crying in between bites because we couldn't feed them fast enough! i just kept laughing and laughing, rich was just shaking his head, hopefully their parents will get that on video to have for later, just so cute. ok, so it was so much fun but i have no idea how josh and lisa do this all day every day! they're like super parents!

cheering section

a month or so before christmas, one of spencer's buddies invited him down to the church with a bunch of other friends to play some basketball. a few days later i get a call from this buddie's dad inviting spencer to play on the competition bball team he is putting together. it turns out the casual basketball game was really an opportunity for the dad (coach) to see who had skills and who didn't. spencer of course was super excited to play, he really is an athlete at heart, he would participate in every sport if we let him and he's not half bad at whatever he decides to try. i have always loved going to my kids' sporting events, dance recitals, school programs, whatever. i love it. basketball is rough for me because i don't understand the technical stuff very well and so i never know what to cheer? i'm asking rich, is he supposed to be covering that kid over there or is this zone defense? rich doesn't answer me because he would prefer if his loud wife didn't do any yelling at the game, his answer, "let the coach yell the instructions". ok, that probably makes the most sense but still, "go spencer" only gets me so far. i guess as long as spencer has fun right? he also loves that he's playing with isaac, his best friend and a spit-fire of a basketball player! (red shorts) he's usually so quiet that it was funny to see this demon bball player emerge from such a tiny body. ethan made going to sporting events a little more difficult as a baby but let me tell you, toddlerhood is WAY worse. we pretty much had to assign allie or taylor to follow him in the halls because he kept chucking stuff on to the court, like my keys, and buzz light year. stinky kid.this was one of the only times he was actually interested in what was happening, the rest of the time it was up the bleachers, down the bleachers, up the bleachers, fall down the bleachers. the whole point of this is to say that i love being part of the cheering section, with or without a toddler. go spencer!

spt challenge

ok, so i'm going to admit that i had a really hard time with this week's SPT challenge from lelly...

is there a part of you, a part of your home, a part of your creativity that gets more attention from you than anything else? when you look at your reflection, do you automatically zoom in on a feature you love or you loathe? when you are in your creative space, is there one project that gets your attention before all the others?

so, when it comes to my life, i would have to say that i spend a lot of time trying to keep track of six schedules without forgetting anything and without going crazy. this translates to a full planner that has to be updated several times a day or i lose my footing. i have adhd which means i forget everything unless it is written down, hence the loaded planner full of little notes like "finish yw project" two weeks before it needs to be done because i know i'll forget between now and then if i don't remind myself now. i do love to look back on past planners,especially the really ridiculously busy days and think, i did it, we did it, i juggled all of that and it turned out ok. i also think that in the life of a SAHM, i often feel so unstructured that it's difficult to track what i've done all day and the planner provides some sort of evidence that i am needed in this family and that i do get things done. i think that's why i love blogging so much, documenting what i do and why i matter.

on to my reflection... the feature that gets the most attention right now is my hair, hands down. this is partly because it is so long that it takes more time to blow dry and style than anything else. this maybe seems silly or vane, maybe it is, but i'm willing to give it a few of my precious minutes each day because right now, i really feel like it's the only pretty thing i have going for me! that sounds an awful lot like self-pitty which is not really what i'm going for here. don't you go through phases where nothing about you feels great? right now, this is what my hair is doing for me, it makes me feel like, at least i have a feature, on the outside anyway, i know i'm drop dead gorgeous on the inside! he he. my hair helps makes me feel feminine during a time that i feel totally out of control with my weight, which, unfortunately is how i often gauge my self-worth, so dumb i know but it's hard to correct old habits. technically, these photographs are not self portaits, allie helped me take them while i was getting ready for the day. when i was looking through them trying to choose which ones to post, i laughed because they look so much like the memories i have of watching my mother get ready in the mirror! when i looked at these photos close up i was surprised to find that they say to me, i don't really feel very pretty. it's just a phase, it will pass, but for now, hey at least have great hair! i would never have thought of any of this if it weren't for the spt. some times i need a picture to see myself clearly, hence the need for SPTs, thanks lelly for the great journaling spring board you provide every week, even when the results are difficult to face.

**was this spt hard for you?**

**do you think i'm wallowing in self pitty after reading this?**

(i'm really not, but this post is kind of a bummer i agree)

no, it's MY turn to use the staple gun!

since we've had to move playgroup indoors the last few months, the sister-in-laws have decided that we could spend the time doing a little craft of some sort, especially since we had so much fun doing the apples for mom's tree. it started with the children doing a few christmas crafts like this snow globe made out of tiny ornaments, glitter, liquid glycerin (which you can only find in the enema section of the drug store - lovely), and a baby food jar. but the moms have since moved on to crafts for us because the kids just want to play. last week we made some adorable paper flowers at my house (i learned how to make them at a heartland class), these are jenny's darling creations. and this week, we made these fun bulletin boards at jenny's house.we all agreed that using the staple gun was the best part because it makes you feel sort of powerful. andrea tried to hog it the whole time but i made her share to set a good example for the children. :) jki'm completely incapable of doing the ribbon that crosses over the front, thank goodness jenny was there to save me. we had so much fun and now, i get to find a place in my kitchen (where it matches) to hang it and have yet another place to display the cutie faces that i love so much! i have to say that the fun crafts have been just a bonus of our little get togethers, i have really enjoyed having a chance to spend time just as sister-in-laws. next year we are working the playgroup date out to include lisa because this year, unfortunately, all the pre-school schedules didn't quite match up. it has been a great opportunity for ethan to play (and by play i mean learn to share) with the other cousins and for me to get to know my sisters more like girlfriends which i have really enjoyed. good times. i'm just kidding about ann being a staple gun hog.

**do you have awesome sister-in-laws too?**

**have you ever used a staple gun?**

**what's your favorite easy craft to make (i need some ideas)**