Some November happenings

Practicing our letters for "Mom and Blake school".  We will play games in the car or walking around but we still try to sit down and do some things a few times a week.  I LOVE it and so does he.  He is my buddy and I have LOVED this special year(s) with each of the kids when they are not the "baby" but they are not in school and so we get a lot of one on one time.  

Blake had been waiting for weeks to have enough leaves to play in them.  He was adorable running, kicking and throwing them.  Clara was strapped to me in her carrier and was just giggling watching him. 

Co-op preschool with some of the neighbors.  We did this with Aubrie and I've wanted to do it again but haven't lived in a place where enough of us lived close.  Blake sure looks forward to it. 

Such a busy body.  Today she literally turned blue in the face and kind of melted onto my shoulder from not breathing she was crying so hard.  Because I took something out of her hand she couldn't eat.  Her personality reminds me so much of Aubrie at this age.  Just intense and busy busy.  She is the happiest baby too, it doesn't matter if she's hungry or tired or ready for a change of scenery, she is still almost always happy and easily distracted.  

Mom and sister (minus a few) date night.  Cara and I REALLY need to work on our selfies.  We went with Cara to FINALLY get her haircut (After 2 years) and then to Tacos 180 (ABSOLUTELY delicious--its the main chef from Cafe Rio that started the place.  Very unique recipes).  

Blake and I continuing our tradition from last year (though the grapefruits are not near as good as NH's), grapefruit for lunch! 

Hallie looking so happy at her class's play about the "Little Lost Witch".  Hallie was the gray mouse at the last house that the witch went to to try and find where her house was.  

After much deliberation, we moved the two older girls downstairs.  Being in the same room with Clara as a baby wasn't working out completely. It was so hard to have quality time with the older girls at bedtime, they could never get their room cleaned, they got in trouble for talking in bed all the time (waking Clara up), etc.  It was one of our smarter moves.  Their room is amazing, it has new carpet, they are in side by side beds instead of bunkbeds and they have their space.  They have made up so many jokes, games and stories together since we moved them!

Oh you sweet blue eyed baby!!!! Clara at 8 months.  She loves her fruit for lunch!

Hallie's first talk in primary

Ryan is so good at helping them to prepare for their talks. They talk a lot about the subject and general things and he helps them come up with bullet points so that they can talk from them instead of just reading--which is a great skill that he has and I hope will be passed on. 

She was nervous but she stood up and did it and did a really nice job. 

I particularly loved her story from general conference about the boss and some other men walking through the airport and the boss put a quarter in the newspaper stand and opened it and passed a paper around to everyone. The general authority there felt bad about it, said I don't want to give up my integrity for a quarter, Went back and put a quarter in the machine and the others followed suit.

thoughts on Nov 4th

I fairly regularly find the kids reading our "blog books" that we print out every year. Sometimes I'll even join them. I hear them laughing at pictures, funny things that have happened to them, or "remember when we went there or did that or wore this" type comments.

So, I like to use the books to "remember" and create a stronger family unit/culture through remembering. I have tried to capture "snapshots" of them every once in awhile and capture family traditions, etc.  And I've always loved to "journal" anyway.

But maybe I could use them to "teach" to. When our kids are reading through these books I want them to have a sense of what the world was like at the time and most especially my feelings and thoughts about our world we live in (good things and bad things) and maybe it will help them later on when they read through our books.

Recently I have felt so sick about Brittany Maynard and the news stories about her decision she made (she was given a few months to live after a inoperable brain tumor was found, she set a date to have her doctor give her pills that would cause death)--and I certainly don't have or want to know all the details of her life.  I have been amazed out how many millions of people are supporting that decision she made and making it sound like it isn't what is really is--suicide. I don't even need the details to know how I feel about the decision that she ultimately made to kill herself.    Suicide is wrong.  And all of the ways that her dying is being described as "dying with dignity" and the way that euthanasia is being talked about, written about and described--making it sound so flowery and respectable and trying to push for our "right to die with dignity".   It is so wrong. She chose to kill herself and that was not and should not be her decision to make.  God is in control of our coming into this world and He is in control of our going out of this world.  And that's it.  There is no way around that, nor should there be.

And dying of cancer, or a brain tumor or having someone you love so much pass away, or struggling through life to make ends meet or going through difficult relationships and and many other extremely difficult trials that we have here during our life on earth all have purpose for making us who we are. The way that we live day to day through our trials and who we become as we grow and develop and become different--hopefully better people--means something long term.

It scares me that Aubrie, Robbie, Hallie, Blake or Clara will not see something like this situation as matter of factly as I do someday.  That things will have become so skewed because of the persuasive voices that are so prominent.  It is not progressive thinking.  It is skewed and wrong and manipulating people to believe differently than the way God intended.