Tanner Quote

Tanner: Dad is my favorite 33 year older that is a boy and you are my favorite 33 year older that is a girl.  Like even if I have another friend that is a 33 year older, they would still be second.

Valentines 2013

It's hard to remember waaaay back to Valentines day, but here are a few pictures I took that day. We had left over valentines decorations from a RS activity so I re-used those.

Then while the kids were at school, I decorated their little mailboxes we had been using with stickers and wrote a card to each of them. I decorated the table for when they got home.  I loved their faces when they walked in the door, especially Eden.  She was so excited to show me her Valentine's loot and when she saw the table she was wowed.  

And this is after all of the candy opening from their school valentine. I love it.

That night home-made chicken noodle soup hit the spot after all the candy.  It had little carrot hearts in it.

Peter brought home flowers of course so I was happy too.

Overheard Conversation

When Dallin was 8 we had the talk. Birds and bees.  I read the book "How to talk to your child about sex" by the Eyres and felt that way of going about it was very inspired and beautiful. 

We had a great experience with him going out to dinner with just Peter and I.  I pretty much used the script that the book gives (makes it a lot easier!) and then we read an illustrated children's book for the more detailed explanations.  It was awesome to see him fill in a gap of understanding and to have total influence of values since he had not had outside influences yet.   We explained what a wonderful thing it is for married people and to be able to have children. We did not act embarrassed, so Dallin wasn't either.

This has led to very open conversations whenever Dallin has thought of more questions.  He will tell us he has a question about something private and we will go into our room and talk very openly and comfortably about things that we would never have talked about if we hadn't opened that ongoing line of communication.   Many topics around human sexuality.  I am so glad it is coming from us first so that we can explain our beliefs and morals and that sex is not a gross or taboo subject. 

Anyway, I was carpooling kids home the other day and I heard Dallin kind of whisper to his friend something like, "You know, that special thing that married people do to make babies." his friend said "Oh yeah." Dallin said, "It really is an awesome thing. It is a miracle."  I don't know if his friend knew what he was talking about or not, but I just had to smile to myself because even at this age, he understands and appreciates the gifts that God has given us. 

I have learned one thing the hard way about this subject though.  If a child that is younger starts asking questions, do not give vague answers because that leads to more questions and confusions and full blown conversations that you aren't prepared for. It is better just to say, that we will talk about that when you are 8 and leave it at that.

Now Eden knows that there is a special date coming up this week that has to do with this really cool secret that you get to know when you are 8.  She can't wait.

Lukey Pookey

Little Luke lights up my life. He is so happy most of the time unless he is really tired or having separation anxiety.  He is Mommy's little buddy most of the time. Unless Grandma D. is around.  He loves her so and will just about leap out of my arms to get to her.   He runs around just like the big kids now.   He can be a little naughty, especially when the toilet is involved, but I have seen much worse.  So far so good.  Luke loves being around his family.   He also loves his crib.  He is starting to babble quite a bit with the dada, uh oh, mama kind of stuff.  I can see words are sitting right on the tip of his tongue. I love it when he sees something cool and says Oh and makes a perfect "O" with his his mouth.  He is pretty tough since being a big kid is a treacherous lifestyle for the runt of the litter. Luke is definitely NOT a fan of 1:00pm church. He is a fan of food however, and never rejects any of his options. He gives great cuddles and open mouthed kisses. He likes to sit in his high chair for a better view while I make dinner.  When I tell him we need to change him, sometimes he just lays down right there for me. Amazing! Just like all my kids, he likes to dance around to the piano's demo music. And of course, he loves baths:  

Meat

I am still an avid Green Smoothie Girl follower.  I believe that the principles she and other like-minded people teach about nutrition are the best and most scientifically sound.  We (yes, Peter too)  love the changes we have made in our family's diet because of the things we have learned. We are flawed and still easily fall back to old habits, but I celebrate each change we make and continue to strive for better. 

One thing I have a hard time expressing is defending our decision to eat only a little meat (eating out or cooking for guests).  Our society praises meat and its complete proteins so much that I feel like my strong voice for plant food changes to a little squeak about how we don't need meat.  

I read this article this morning and it gave words to my lack of words on the subject:

Click Here

I liked it so much I wanted to share. 

Stra ba ba ba ba berry

What? Don't you like to watch Strawberry Shortcake while wearing a Strawberry Shortcake hat while eating strawberries(and wearing monkey boots)?  

Eden's Baptism

Eden had been looking forward to her baptism for months. She and I found a beautiful dress and it had been hanging there waiting all this time. She got a baptism workbook from a special prep class and worked away and we had many long talks about what it means to be baptised. On February 2nd the day finally came. I will let her tell all about it in her own words:          









   











     

(Baptism coloring pages)









She will be a great blogger some day.  We put her story and pictures along with the baptism program in an envelope to save.  I am so glad that she wrote it all down.

The Big Surprise

Eden got this American Girl Doll for Christmas:
I was particularly bursting with excitement over it because her Birthday is 3 weeks later and I had a plan. On her birthday we gave her a card with some money in it and a note that Eden and Mommy were going to go to take a trip to Seattle to go to the American Girl Doll store.  She couldn't wait! Neither could I!
On Friday afternoon I picked Eden up from school and off we went.  4 hours later we walked into the store.  They had a bonnet craft so Eden got to match her doll. Then we did a scavenger hunt. We found all these little posters around the store and wrote down the clues on them. Her prize was a poster.  They even had a sing along with all the little girls in the store singing Yankee Doodle and the Star Spangled Banner.



We were starving, but they have a little cafe right in the store so we went in to have some dinner. Eden had never seen conversation starters before so we did them the whole time.



They put Caroline (her doll) in a high chair with a little plate set too.  Eden loved that.


After that it was getting late so we headed to our hotel 5 minutes away. We quickly changed and took a dip in the pool.  Eden loves swimming and we had the whole thing to ourselves..  We played about a million games and laughed so hard.  It was so fun to have this one on one time together.   We headed upstairs and kept our suits on and soaked in a hot bath since the hot tub was broken.  That was so funny. Then we tried to play a game but got too tired and fell asleep.

Sleeping in until 9:00am was amazing! Gotta love how dark hotel rooms are for that. The hotel had a Belgian waffle maker so we had a yummy breakfast.

Then we headed back over to the store for some serious shopping.  We walked around the store for hours looking at everything and collecting items that Eden wanted.  By the time we were done we had to weed through a lot of fun things to make the final decisions.  She got a pet, a violin, a couple outfits and a few other small items.

Eden loved the pretty bathroom.  When she came out the first time she said, "Mom, the bathroom is so fancy!"

Then it was time for the doll beauty salon.  Since Caroline has curly hair I hadn't even tried to comb if for fear of damaging it.  I was glad to watch and learn how to make it look new again.





We also got her ears pierced to help Eden prepare for our next item on our list.

One last picture before saying goodbye to the fun:

The store is part of a mall so we walked over to Icing to get Eden's ears pierced.  She was so nervous, but brave.  She got both ears done at once which I was hoping for.  I don't think I could bear to watch her go through this twice.  There were a few tears and a half hearted smile after that.

Then it was lunch time so we walked over to PF Chang's for some lettuce wraps and Chinese noodles. Since it is by the AG store there were other girls with their dolls there too.



 We got some ice cream and made a Target stop to spend a gift card before heading home.

Eden played with her goodies all the way home.  This was such a bonding experience for Eden and I.  I feel like we became a lot closer and made some great memories.  It was such a success that we decided that at age 8 we will take a one on one weekend trip with each of our kids.   I have found that this time together is so important that we may do one at 12 and 16 as well since those seem like critical ages.  Have I mentioned how much I love raising these kiddos?    Eden's birthday was over, but her special day was just around the corner...