it is inevitable that when you have a brother that is just like you and plays with you as your best friend there will be times of frustration and anger. as much as jack and morgan are blessed to be together in this life at the same stage, they also experience times when it is just down right ugly. feelings get hurt because each knows exactly what to say to bring the other one to a roaring temper tantrum or tears.
this weekend we went to the cabin for a day where the two boys played tether ball for hours. i knew there would an opportunity to capture "anger" on someone's face eventually after their playing for about an hour. sure enough, someone did an illegal "ropie" and caused some big friction. the pout that followed was clearly a sign of boiling feelings that would take a kind word and apology to mellow again. luckily most of the time the feelings cool and laughther replaces the pout. and then the tetherball game continues.
sam is now six months old and pulling not only his chest up off the ground when on his belly but also his legs up almost every time he is on his back. he plays with his toes and loves it! i love to see him lift up his legs and hands because it just looks like he is having such fun!
my mom is one of the most genuinely kind-hearted persons i know. she is mild mannered and reserved. she has steely blue eyes and a petite figure. but don't let that fool you. she can move mountains without raising her voice and she has people fooled into thinking my dad is in charge--but we all know that is not the whole truth. she has a deeply rooted love for Christ and His truths. she is a perfectionist and stresses over teaching a lesson for weeks before but then when it comes time to deliver she makes it look like she is as calm as can be. she treasures the written word. she paints beautiful watercolors and sees the world through a painter's eye. she is fiercly loyal to her husband and children as a wife, mother and grandmother. happy mother's day, mom. having you near this month before you leave for africa is a pocket of treasured-time. i for one am so proud of you for being willing to go and do the extraordinary work you and dad will do in kenya once again.
my time with this little big man is precious to me! sam is a joy to have around. his happiness shows so clearly on his face when i interact with him. he loves to see me in the mirror in his room and when i say hello his entire face lights up. it is just pure goodness. when i am with him i want for only the good things in life to come his way. and when the light outside shows up in his eyes like this i just have to snap a photo.
this month's theme was spring. every spring i stress and stress over the upcoming summer heat and i dread the needed shopping trip to find a swimsuit. this year however, i think i hit a jackpot with pinkdesert.com. she carries almost every brand of modest swimsuit on the market. i chose three that i'll be rotating into this summer. there is actually one more that i really want but i am waiting for her to get it back in stock. this could be a good year at the pool or beach!
i love that trees is the theme for this week even though my photo is taken on my iphone on a walk we went on after school. i had to grab a photo of this corner I pass almost daily as we round the bend to our home after our daily walks. i love the big trees that line our streets. growing up here in vegas where i did there were not any sidewalks and no street lights and that meant no tree-lined streets to walk. everyone had trees in their yards and those grew big and beautiful but here where we live now in vegas, there are beautiful walking paths and tree-lined streets everywhere! i really treasure our location! this is the turn into our neighborhood gate and i smiled when i saw this the other night. this one photo a month based on a theme makes me appreciate things i see every day but in a new way. for that, i am grateful.
i had lots of ideas for the theme this week and yet no time to execute them. i was sitting with sam this morning and found that he seemed so big all of a sudden. he is eating baby food daily now and loves being in his high chair. then i saw his little bare toes and realized he may seem big but really he is still just tiny. this is a benchmark photo to start from and measure his growth because someday those little toes will be bigger and not hang so high up in that chair!
i am back to washing bottles although there are far fewer to wash than there were with the twins as babies. i still like to have enough so that i don't have to wash them all the time--maybe once a day. the dr. brown's bottles we use have lots of little components to them so it is about a twenty-five minute wash gig to get all of them scrubbed and santized. but i don't mind. i love that there are bottles back on the counter next to my sink. they don't take up that much mess on the cute little drying rack i have for them. seeing them makes me realize just how quickly this time will pass. sam will only be little for so long and so i relish the fact that there are bottles back on my kitchen counter. can i really consider that work when i enjoy it so much?
sam is such a happy boy. he loves to go on walks in his stroller with the dog and me. we go for an hour or sometimes less and he just takes in all the world passing around him at our walking pace. somedays he is in his p.j.s and other days he is dressed for the outing. regardless of his attire he is happy to go. how i love my little walking companion!
the other time of day that i love the most with him is his just-before-bedtime ritual. we usually do a warm bath and clean him up and put on a clean white onesie with the cutest gap p.j.s in his size. then we snuggle in the rocking chair with a blanket and he drinks his last bottle of the day. the shutters are closed and the lights are out. the sound of the ocean waves is in the background from the white noise machine. the rocking chair makes a creaking sound and i hear his heavy breathing and sucking. this happens between 6:30 and 7:00 pm every night. i just love how calming it is. no matter what the day has been like, that time of night with everything in the room quiet is as close to heaven as i think i might come! having sam is a joy. we all treasure him at different times of the day but that bedtime routine is something i guard almost religiously.
jack and morgan have been having fun lately "playing" with sam. they make him laugh and laugh by tossing a soft squishy ball to him and it bounces off and they say, "i throw the ball to you and you throw the ball to me." he giggles with glee. it is the best thing to hear in our home.
this was one of my very favorite easter sundays we've ever had as a family. i really can't explain it. there was just less hype this easter and less commercialization of the holiday for my family. we didn't even decorate eggs or participate in one egg hunt. and i have to say i don't miss that at all really. this year we chose to focus on the religious reason to celebrate the holiday. so much of our easter was about jesus christ. i just loved the day!
for weeks now jack and morgan have been practicing a new song that they sang today in our sacrament meeting with all of the primary aged children. i'll enclose a video of that song so that anyone who wishes to hear it can. it is one of the most spiritual songs when sung by children. my boys know it well and love to sing it! so that was a huge spritiual highlight of our day--hearing them sing it to the best of their abilities after so many weeks of practice. it was remarkably moving. let's just say they have one very "in-tune" in more than one way--music leader at church!
the other thing that was exceptional today was the gifts the boys found actually four days ago that were intended for their easter baskets. i purchased each boy a copy of their very own scriptures and had their name engraved on the front of them. we've been reading from them each morning and today was no exception. they are so happy to sit and read morning scriptures. it makes me thrilled. we watched videos on the lds.org website that had to do with easter. there are some fabulous little videos on that website! those videos led to some great small teaching moments about resurrection and the true meaning of easter.
this morning the easter bunny came to our doorstep as he has done the past eight years. it is always such a fun treat to open the door in the morning and find his fluffy white footprints that dribble down the street and out of sight. this year he even remembered sam! what a wonderful bunny! then jack and morgan followed clues to their normal parent-given easter baskets. we again kept it simple this year with FAR less candy and fewer gifts in the basket: a book, a pair of new flip flops for summer, hand puppets to design and a few giant eggs filled with small chocolates. it was easy and they loved going to hunt for their baskets based on the clues we gave them in their notes that they found sitting by their alarm clock lego man waiting their awakening in the am. they spent the morning designing their hand puppets and playing with them. it was a calm and peaceful sabbath morning.
i spent the morning finishing up preparations for my lesson. i get to teach all of the primary sharing time lessons this month. so my entire lesson was on christ as a perfect example for us to follow because he lived what he taught and showed us how to live the best lives we can. my lesson was so fun to do because i had built into it tons of participation from the children themselves. i love teaching the children at church. they are the most innocent ages and so sweet. really, it is one of the best ways to feel the spirit of christ at church! so that portion of the day kept us focused on the importance of the holiday as well.
tonight we had an overly simple meal and then went to friend's home for dessert and dancing! well, jack and morgan and their children pulled off the most fun to watch dance fest ever! we adults sat and chatted and then watched as they all worked up a sweat showing us their moves. i love nights like that. i love the simplicity of time with good friends like that.
sam didn't sleep much today and we are not sure why but he was happy most of the time. he is a happy baby and we are complete with him in our family. he was the cutest dressed 5 month old at church today!!!! he is just at the perfect age where we doesn't pull of a hat i put on him so he wore jack and morgan's newsboy hat for easter! love those little clothes coming back from eight years ago when jack or morgan wore them!
easter is so wonderful without all of the hype and endless egg hunts. it was simple this year for us and meaningful. i hope we can replicate it again next year! certainly for us this year less was far more.
