Aunt Bethany

Happy Birthday Aunt Bethany!!!!!!!!!! So sorry that I am posting this at the very end of your birthday, but at least it is ON your birthday! Bethany is a great and wonderful aunt to the girls. In honor of her birthday, I am telling a story involving the girls at her house. When we lived in the same town, she would pick them up at a moment's notice, keep them while we ran errands, whatever we need. That is a little more difficult because she lives an hour away, but we are so thankful it is only an hour, and not 500 million hours away! Right before school started, Bethany offered to have ALL FOUR girls spend the night at one time! I don't know what Jarrod was thinking! The girls of course LOVE to spend the night at her house. They love watching as much tv as they want to, fishing with Jarrod, eating homemade ice cream (at 10:00 at night) and whatever else they do while they there! They actually spent 2 nights there, so that was double the fun!
There was a smoke alarm in the room where the girls slept, which totally freaked S out. S is SCARED TO DEATH of fires. I mean, this girl will sometimes just start worrying that our house is burning down, which kind of freaks us out because we think maybe she knows something we don't, but so far it hasn't burnt down. So we go through our fire escape plan often and have fire drills in our house. We have even waited until they just fall asleep then set off the fire alarm and practice getting out. Practicing seems to make S feel better.
Anyway, back to Bethany's house....S sees the alarm and and asks Bethany what that was cause it looks different than ours. Bethany told her it was a fire alarm........oh dear........you did NOT just call that a fire alarm. That of course did not go over well with S....she worried. Bethany prayed with her, tried to comfort her, and so on. Well, at 4:30 in the morning, S was still worried about that fire alarm!
The next night, Bethany changed her terminology and called it a smoke alarm. She went over the fire escape plan and prayed, and bedtime went MUCH smoother. So, lessons learned:
1. it is called a smoke alarm not a fire alarm, to S anyway
2. have a fire escape plan
3. don't worry about it..........they are at Bethany's....she can handle it!

We love you Bethany! Hope your birthday was wonderfully great!

Birthday Celebration

I love birthday celebrations. We always celebrated a lot growing up, and the tradition has continued. Now, it doesn't take much to make a party. I mean, come on, you can pass out carrots, but if you say its a party and make it fun, it can be the best party EVER! So yesterday was my 31st birthday, and we had a day FULL of celebrations, and no, we didn't have a carrot party!
The day started with our birthday tradition...the whole family (except the birthday girl) wakes up early and fixes breakfast and decorates the kitchen/hall/birthday person's door. So I woke up and got to break through a maze of streamers just to get to the bathroom! We had a lovely breakfast of eggs, bacon, great coffee for EVERYONE (sorry teachers) oh, except for Autumn cause she can't have caffeine, and a great rendition of the happy birthday song! I got my birthday present way early....it was my underwater camera. And the girls enrolled me to a cake decorating class!
I got a couple of early morning birthday texts from Becky and Pam, took everyone to school, got a call from my dad and Bethany, worked for the morning, got flowers from Bethany, Jarrod and B. I came home for lunch and checked the mail, and I was so happy to only find "fun" mail! There was no junk, no bills, just some birthday cards, thank you notes, and birth announcement! That was a good surprise!
Then I got on the computer and got on facebook and found that I had 64 notifications! I love getting notifications on facebook! It's like opening a present every time! I read every sweet birthday note from my friends (and they kept popping up all day! I love that!). I got a couple more birthday texts and calls from friends, enjoyed my tarimasu crepe that Autumn got me (my favorite), and a nice little nap before going to get the girls from school.
We came home, got ready and loaded up to go to a nearby time to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants to meet Bethany, Jarrod, and B to eat. We love this place and go there fairly often. It has good food, plus it is a good meeting spot, not too far from Bethany and the fam. People at Mexican restaurants always notice the girls...well, actually, wherever we go, we are pretty noticeable because we are kind of a circus....anyway, Mexican places really notice them cause the girls are Mexican and they try to talk Spanish to them and so on. Anyway, we go in, say hello, and sit down and order our drinks. A loves to talk to people and spout out random information to people in about 10 seconds after meeting them. She looks at the waiter and spouts out that it is my birthday...no big deal. I was not worried about this at all because of all of the many times we have been to this place (and on my birthday before) we have NEVER seen them do any kind of embarrassing things for birthdays. Some places come out singing and so on, but not this place......or so I thought!
We got our dinner and were enjoying eating, when all of the sudden we hear whistling...LOUD whistling! Hear come like 10 waiters (they are all men, no women) and they are whistling so loud that I thought at first it might be a fire alarm. They surrounded me, put a sombrero on my head, and start singing something to me in Spanish! All I could think is...why have we never ever ever seen them do this to ANYONE else! During their grand song, they start swaying me back and forth, then they come out with a sopapilla with whipped cream on top. Oh wow...how great! I am now thinking this is worth the embarrassment! But then something happened that I have NEVER seen at a restaurant.......they shoved that whipped cream sopapilla in my face! Yes they did! I could not believe it! I am sure that my eyes about bugged out of my head because I was so shocked! I mean, I have gotten many pies in my face at VBS, but never expected this in a restaurant! It didn't go on my hair or anything...just my face!
Autumn, in the midst of all of the birthday chaos, grabbed my camera and started shooting. My camera is on manual, so she was frantically trying to get pictures, but there are no windows in the place, which is terrible lighting for pictures, and I never use the flash, so it was a little tricky getting it all done. So she got pictures, although the lighting isn't the greatest. In her hurried effort to get pictures and capture the moment, she totally missed the moment. When we were talking about it later, she kept saying, oh I missed that cause I was trying to get a picture!
At the very end of the song and at the moment that they shoved that treat in my face, B got scared and started crying. Jarrod picked him up and B just clung to him.....he didn't want anything to do with me! It immediately brought back a memory of when I was 4 or 5 I think. My dad had dressed up like a woman (it was for something for church, not something he just did for fun, just so you know). Tracye was babysitting us girls and I guess brought us to the church and dad came out with my mother's dress on, and I just clung to Tracye. I wouldn't even go to my mother until my dad was all the way looking like himself again. That is what this reminded me of. B was scared, I was getting the cream off of my face, and Autumn was still trying to take pictures! It really was funny!
Finally, he came to me, we hugged, and I assured him that it was done and those men were all gone! We sat down to finish our dinner, and I look across the table at A. She slouched down in her chair, leaned against her uncle Jarrod, looking so sick to her stomach, and she said, "I'm sorry I told them it was your birthday!
Oh. My. Goodness....I laughed so hard! SO FUNNY! We finished dinner, went to walmart, then to braums to get some ice cream to go, and came home and I got a couple more calls from friends and family! It was a great birthday!!!
I keep forgetting and I upload my pictures backwards....this is right before we left. The car can bring hours of entertainment....it is like a fun house mirror!

M being silly.

I really like this picture....I like the lines and the colors in it. It is A playing outside the restaurant.

Some of the girls went inside and were entertaining B who was outside.

S and B.

Love this picture of A!

That orange background with her dress looks great!

Playing outside the restaurant.

Autumn, me, Bethany.............LOVE this one!

I really like this picture!

A friend told me to be sure to turn the camera and make sure I was in some pictures.....so I did. Love my little guy!

I like these next few.....me and the gang!

I really really like this one.....his little hands and fingers.......they don't stay little for long!

This is after the big song......he finally came to me.

Clinging to his daddy......a little traumatized!

Me and the big huge sombrero.

This is after they shoved it in my face! You can see the whipped cream on my shirt!

Sweet Prayer

I love to hear my girls pray. It is just the sweetest thing ever, and I love to hear their perspective when they pray. I learn a lot from them when it comes to prayer. I love the way they just talk to the Lord and tell Him about their life....I need to be more like that. I love it that they just ask him for things with faith that yes, he will answer them! For example, S once prayed for our friend....she prayed that someone bring dinner to his house. Later that evening I checked with that friend to see if the prayer was answered....wouldn't you know that "randomly" someone DID bring dinner to their house! I love it that they are persistent. I love it that they love the Lord and they express that to Him.

Our church is about to start revival meetings next week, so this month we have been having prayer times in different people's homes each week. The girls haven't made it to all of them, but they did go the other night. I was just a little bit nervous that they might not sit still during the prayer, or they might throw a fit, or something. While we sat and waited for everyone to get there, the girls talked to everyone about school and such. Then we started to pray. There was no order, just left open to whoever wanted to pray. The girls were still for the most part. A kept looking up at us and mouthing to us that she wanted to pray. We nodded our approval, but when one person got done praying, she just couldn't get the courage to jump in and someone else would pray. This cycle went on.....then it was silence.....the leader asked if there was anyone else.....A raised her hand.....but everyone still had their eyes closed, no one saw her. Autumn gave her a little nudge and this sweet little 6 year old began to pray out loud in this group of adults. Very courageous! And her prayer.....so sweet! She prayed for sick people to get better, she prayed that people would come to know the Lord, and she prayed that our church would quit going down and get God. A few tears trickled down my face, but I held back the waterfall that so badly wanted to come out! After she prayed, H prayed as well. She prayed a very mature and sweet prayer as well. So proud of my girls! SO PROUD!!!!!

Thank you Lord for their examples! Thank you Lord that you shine so brightly through them!

proud moment

Our girls have come a long ways in so many areas. They have progressed so much. However, it is very hard to see this progression most days when one child has a bad attitude and another is crying about absolutely nothing! It is hard to see progress when it is so gradual, but then there are those moments when they make the right choice, when they have compassion on others, or just act grown up. Well, let's just say that this has been a week where it is very hard to see the progress. Going back to school just wears them out, and we all know that we do not act our best when we are worn out and tired. Getting new teachers and new rules also means that especially our two youngest will test the rules and push the teachers. Needless to say, I am worn out. Luckily, we have wonderful teachers that are consistent, so hopefully it won't take too long before they realize the rules won't change no matter how much they push.

Anyway, the Lord knew exactly what I needed today. My friend Susie has a little girl A's age and last year she took A to her house on Wednesday afternoons to play and brought her to church that night. It was great for A. Our girls don't get a lot of time without their sisters, so this special attention was very good for A. Since school started again, the Wed. afternoon plan was on again. Susie picks A and S up everyday and transports them to Autumn's school, so today S was the only one that got out....A got to stay with Susie. As you can imagine, this was SO exciting for one girl, and SO NOT exciting for the other. We knew we would have one unhappy camper, but we all felt this setup is so good for A that it is worth a "little" fuss. So we prepared S yesterday that she would not get to go, hoping to diffuse the situation. Well, the preparation did no good. S put her best pouty face on and here came the tears. Susie later told me that while I was dealing with the fit, A looked up at her with her tender, compassionate brown eyes and said that she would go home if S really wanted to go that bad.
WOW!!! Going to Susie's house on Wednesdays is not taken lightly by A, so giving that up is a HUGE sacrifice! WOW!!!!!! Yes, this was a VERY proud moment. Thank you Lord for speaking to my girls. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you that you keep teaching us. Thank you for the greatest sacrifice ever.....the sacrifice of your son!

And just so you know, A did get to go to Susie's house, S did not....we stuck to our guns and did what we thought was best for her. Also, thank you Susie for taking A each Wed. and for pointing out her sweet moment to me today!

more white water

I know you are probably wondering what in the WORLD I could say more about white water. I know......really, I am a bit surprised that I have so much to say about it too, but I do. Bethany, I started to write the story of the cleaning lady, but it just came out as griping, so I didn't. Anyway, this is funny and short. S still says her "K's" like a "T". So instead of Cookie, she says Tootie. It is really cute, although I do realize we should get her help because while it is cute in kindergarten, it won't be so cute at high school (or stool) graduation! But at white water, this little speech thing was more humbling than cute. When we were done swimming and headed out, S wasn't thrilled. She wanted to go to the kitty pool. So, she starts screaming, "I want to go to the kitty pool! I want to go to the kitty pool!" Now say that like S would say it. Yep, pretty embarrassing!

growing up

I don't know why the white water trip story is so long and why I have so much to talk about from swimming, but I had a lot of realizations at white water.....there was a lot of growing up!

We get passes to White Water every year. We love it. We didn't get to go a whole lot this year, but we did swim a lot at other places. We went today, probably for the last time this summer. We had a great time, but it was kind of sad. But, for you to understand why it made me sad, you need a little glimpse into our previous trips to white water or other pools.

The first summer with kids, we had M and another girl in our home. M was 6 and did great in the water. She wore her life jacket in the deep ends, but wanted it off in the shallow ends. If she was afraid, she wanted to be by herself. Yep, this feisty fireball wanted no one touching her if she was nervous. Having no one touch her gave her a sense of control and security. We had a great time at any pool we went to, and she naturally learned to swim. She swam with her life jacket, and when possible, she just gradually and naturally learned to swim. Before we knew it, she was a pro. Actually, we were with our friends at a hotel pool, and we wanted a picture of them all jumping into the pool together, but we couldn't get the picture fast enough, so we had them jump in, swim to the side, get out, and jump back in. After they had done this a couple of times, we realized that M was SWIMMING all by herself over and over in the DEEP end! And that was it....off she went.

The next summer we had M, H and A with us. H was very similar to M except that she did NOT want to keep her life jacket on. Every chance she got, that jacket was off and she was trying her best to swim. She, like M, just gradually and naturally became a swimmer. H is a quiet girl, but she is definitely determined and strong willed. She follows the rules, for the most part, so we weren't to nervous with her.

A, on the other hand, did NOT like the water. I am not just talking about kind of not having a great time. I am talking screaming and climbing up our legs afraid of the water that barely covers her TOES in the beach entry pool! Oh my!!!!!! We were thinking that if we just held her , she would be just fine, so we went straight to the lazy river and tried holding her in it.....surely that would work! Umm.....NOPE. That did not work. She clung so hard to us that it hurt. She was very afraid. We finally figured out what worked best......we put a small floaty ring around her waist, she sat on a bigger floaty ring, and then sat on an inflated boat. We held on to that boat as well. She STILL did not feel safe. She did float down the lazy river in it, but her face was tense and strained, not relaxed. I would not say she had fun, but she eventually tolerated it. Really, what kid cries when you announce, "We are going to white water today!"? We tried. We tried hard. She acted like that every time we went to a pool. We figured that the next year would be better.

Well, the next year we had S too. A was NOT better about the water, well, not really. S took after A, not H and M. S did NOT enjoy the water either. So, gradually and eventually, they took baby steps. They would just sit on the stairs at hotel pools, and we would just put on those life jackets and floaties and more floaties and take them in the deep end and endure the grunting, groaning, screaming, crying and clawing. Hmmm.....and I wonder why people don't want to go to white water with us......sounds so pleasant! Just kidding!

Fast forward to this year........we went to White Water, and while there have been gradual steps and small victories in the pool adventures, it just kind of hit both Autumn and I all at once. It just seemed like one day we had to force them into water covered in flotation devices, then the next day they were just swimming away!

Yes, folks, our babies swim! Let me tell you about our day at white water with our 4 grown up children. They put on sunscreen. Let me rephrase that.....they put on their OWN sunscreen. They have kind of been doing that for a while, but it just seemed so grown up on this particular trip. We went directly in the wave pool. No whining, no grumbling or crying about how deep it was. There was no crying about sharks in the pool (yes, that has been an issue in the past). They just happily got on their life jackets and splashed on into that pool right to the deep end. The two big girls went out with little floatie rings and hung onto them, then swam around and came back to the rings.

We got out of the wave pool, and they wanted to go to the big huge tower of slides. Yes, they have all gone down these slides before, but this time seemed different because they ALL wanted to go and we didn't have to talk anyone into it or bribe anyone to go on it! The two big girls decided they would go down the big huge straight down slide. I don't even or haven't ever gone down that slide! We asked if they were really really really sure like a hundred times, and they said they were, so off we went up the huge tower. The two little girls and myself got a tube and went down the twisty slides, and the two big girls and Autumn went down the slide of death (that's what I call it, not them....and I only call it that in my head not to them, just so you know). I was just sure M would have to come walking down the stairs because she chickened out of it, but nope. They all three came down with smiles on and loved it!

We then headed over to the lilly pads. If you do not know what this is, it is big lilly pads that float in the water and are attached to a rope from the bottom. It requires a lot of balance to get across those pads, and there is a rope above you to help pull yourself across. My first memory of the lilly pads was from when I was a little girl. My mother and my aunt Nancy were DETERMINED to get across those things. It seems like we stayed for hours while they tried time and time again to get across, falling in the water every time. It could be that they fell because they were laughing so hard! I remember my mom being so amazed at all the little kids who could get across, but these two grown women couldn't. So I had two things in my mind with the lilly pads: 1-grown women should never try because I remember feeling so sorry for them when they kept falling off. 2- they are pretty much impossible to cross.

M and H have been able to cross those lilly pads since we first started bringing them. It was a struggle at first, but they are so determined, that even if they were just barely hanging on, and it took forever, they did NOT let go. They made it to the end. Every time they cross those silly lilly pads, I think about how proud and amazed my would have been! I know it is silly, but I do think of that every time! So this time A wanted to try. Really? Yep, she wanted to try. Let me tell you that she is just as determined as the oldest two and she crossed those lilly pads! Watch out world because these girls WILL do what they set out to do!

Then we went on to the yellow slide. This isn't the tallest slide, but it is enclosed, and you do not go down it with a tube. You go down this slide on your own and end up in the deep end....yes the dreaded deep end. Earlier this year, we decided to all go on it, instead of one of us staying with the little girls. They were kind of excited, but VERY scared. And they did have on life jackets, so we weren't expecting them to swim by themselves in the deep end. While standing in line, we got a million questions, as well as very wide eyes. When we got to the top, Autumn went first, then M, then H.....then S. She was scared, but she went. Then A........the lifeguard looked at me and gave me the head nod. I then proceeded to sit A in the blasting water and shove her down the slide.....easy right? Ummmm......not so much. She wouldn't sit. I lifted her up, but she put her feet down to stand instead of sit. With everyone behind me getting a little irritated, I had to do something. So I lifted her little screaming self up, kicked her feet out from under her, and sat her down in a hurry before she could get back up. All that was left was to shove her down, but oh man, she latched on to the bar above the slide. So what do I do? After I kicked her feet out from under her, I scraped one hand off, then the other as she screamed like crazy, then shoved her on down! The lifeguard looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and said, "Oh she'll like it, don't worry!" I went down the slide and caught up with the rest of the family where A informed that the slide was "so cool" and she will go back next time! That is when I brought out the lecture about trust. "You just have to trust us A. Sometimes we know things you don't and we want what is best for you. You just need to trust us." In that split second, I thought about how true that statement is with our heavenly father and us. A did not appreciate my profound thoughts in the middle of white water and only cared about getting to the next thing.

This time, however, the "yellow slide" experience was much different. We said we were going on the yellow slide, everyone got out of the pool and came, we got in line, everyone went down the slide on their own, and a good time was had by all. Wow they are so grown up!

The last thing we did was the lazy river. It was almost closing time, so there wasn't a lot of people at all in the lazy river. After we were in it for a while, Autumn and I talked about how different this experience was. Autumn and I had all of the floaties and we were being lazy on them in the lazy river. The girls (all of them can touch in the lazy river) were ahead of us being "dolphins" in the water. All four of them were "diving" in and out of the water, swimming and having a great time. On one hand, it was so fun to not have to watch them as closely and to relax a little and to not have to hold them. On the other hand, it was so sad to see how much they are growing up! How does this go so fast?

One of those days

Well, since I can't post the pictures I from the first day of school, I will tell you about the other day. It was just one of those days where things just weren't going as planned. I know you have had those days. It was one of those days for us. We headed out about noon or so and headed to the big city to get some errands done. Of course this doesn't sound like fun to the girls, so we talk to them, prepare them.......well, really we bribed them! Yes, we told them if they were good, we were sure to get a treat before returning home! Off we went. We had some specific things that needed to be done. Let me tell you, that one particular errand, we have been trying to do for a long time, and it involves a lot of waiting. We went to a place the other day (with 4 girls) and waited over an hour and a half just to find out they did not do what we needed to do....we had to go to a different office. We were so happy that on this particular day we would finally get this task done and checked off of our list.
We arrive at the parking garage, find our parking spot, and get out of the vehicle. Ummmm......problem........we do not have the right papers. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? No.....no papers. That means we have to try a DIFFERENT time! While I can laugh at this problem now, it was NOT funny to me at the time. In fact, I was not a very nice person for just a little bit. I did not act very nice at all. So we keep driving.
Autumn had the idea to go to a hospital, since we were nearby, to visit a person we know. Well, I guess we don't have anything else to do, so let's go! So we went to the hospital, and as we were going in the parking garage, there were no spaces, so we had to keep going up. Remember, I was in a bad mood, so this really irritated me. However, my children found great joy each time we went up the little hill to the next level. Why do we buy passes to amusement parks when we could just go to parking garages? So we went to the very top of the garage. That's right....we passed up a ton of spaces just to go to the top. We got to ride the elevator, go through the tunnel, ride another elevator, find the information desk (which also had really fun displays), ride another elevator, find our friend, then ride all of the elevators back again. THEN, we got to go DOWN the parking garage. While I got a little car sick and dizzy from it all, the girls had a blast! Ok Trinity, CALM DOWN and enjoy the moment. I don't think God could have spoken it clearer. It seemed that no matter how stinky my attitude got, the girls found joy in the things I thought were irritating.
Next stop.....to the mall to pick up my contacts. Check. That didn't take very long at all. And by the time we got there, my attitude was MUCH better....you might have even considered me a little fun by this time! And just guess what the eye place in the mall was next to.....an escalator! So guess what we did? Yep....we rode it up, then back down. The girls wanted to just walk around the mall, so we did! And in our walk around the mall, we rode every escalator and elevator. We got a treat and went to the other stores for the day.
So, the lesson I learned............RELAX......don't stress out over things that don't really matter.....enjoy the moment.......and........ride some elevators.......they might make you a little sick, but the six of us sure had fun!