Second Grade!

She was so excited she even went to bed early.  She must have loved it, because she went to bed early again!

Teasing, Materialism and LISTENING

***This post is not written to beg for lots of "poor you" comments.  I am only doing this to see if it will make me feel at least a little bit better.***

We went to Lake Shasta last week and had SO much fun.  We are already planning our trip for next summer.  The sun was shining, the water was 80 degrees.  AWESOME.  Friday we rented a waterski boat with some friends and had even more fun.  We, or I, came off with just one hitch....

BEFORE SHASTA:

AFTER SHASTA:

  I know it would be obvious that losing a wedding ring would upset someone.  Several reasons for my continued angst come to mind.  I'll start with the least important. 
1. The 3rd summer we were married, Ben and I went kayaking down the Weber River on the 4th of July.  It was lots of fun.  And when it was over, Ben no longer had a wedding ring.  Since then, we have both been pretty careful about leaving our rings in the car when we go out on the water.  And I have been relentless in teasing Ben about how careless he was to lose his ring in a river.  Who takes their wedding band on a kayak down the river???  So, now, after feeling MY ring slip right off my hand into 4 MILLION acre feet (whatever that means....I tried to do a conversion into a more reasonable measurement, but its a gigantic number) of water, My pride is damaged.  I used to tease Ben about how he has had several speeding tickets and I have not had ONE.  Then I got two in three years and I couldn't tease him again.  Same thing, only this time it cost a lot more money.  I guess the moral of the story is to not tease my husband about embarassing-type mistakes?

2.  I am usually not a very sentimental person.  If its not handmade and its worn out its welcome- I toss it.  If I lose something or break something....I don't usually lose any sleep over it...something else can take its place.  It didn't even really bother me that I lost one of the side diamonds out of my ring (and just finally had it fixed 2 months ago).  I have a sense of pride about the fact that I'm not attached to objects and can de-clutter my stuff pretty easily.  I get a thrill out of filling up the trash can.  I really like my stuff, but to me its just stuff.  SO I keep telling myself that.  This ring was only a temporal symbol of my marriage commitment.  The real commitment isn't wrapped up in that piece of jewelry at the bottom of the lake.  But I REALLY liked my ring!  I liked the engraving on the inside.  I liked that this was the one Ben designed, and the one I used to clean out with staples during accounting classes, I liked that it was the one that we took to the Temple.  And I can get a new one that looks exactly the same.  But its not REALLY the same. 

3.  I'm beating myself up over this one.  I jumped into the lake and looked right at my hand.  Something in my head said, "hey, you're wearing your ring, maybe you should take it off." And I though, "nah, my ring NEVER falls off." And after I fell off the tube pulled by the boat, I literally felt the ring slide off my finger.  I thought maybe I'd be lucky enough that it would still be floating?  HA.  I sometimes struggle with determining the difference between Spiritual promptings and random thoughts in my head.  I feel like Heavenly Father gives us a lot of room to make decisions based on our own thought and logic.  But someone said something to me once, and I'm reminded of it now, ALL GOOD THINGS COME FROM GOD.  So, if I have a feeling I should call a friend, or say something nice to a stranger, or smile at someone I  should do it.  It won't hurt anyone, it might even help someone out.  So I should act on promptings to help others.  I should act on those little tinges that tell my to spend time playing with my kids instead of plopping them in front of a movie.  I should TELL my husband I love him instead of just thinking it.  AND when I get a feeling, that is a GOOD feeling, that won't hurt anyone to act on it, like "maybe you should take your ring off", I should be in tune enough to know that all good things DO come from God- I should do it.   I think I make the mistake of thinking Heavenly Father isn't interested in financial issues or material things...and maybe He isn't....but He is interested in ME.  And that little thought, the little prompting, wasn't because He was worried about precious gems sitting on the bottom of a lake without anyone to enjoy them.  The prompting was for ME; so that I wouldn't have to feel the angst and guilt and what-ifs that have plagued me for 4 days. 
I will probably have to be reminded again, but for now, I think I get it. 

July.....so far

After Utah we drove home via Portland to catch Mary Poppins the Broadway musical.
I love that my girls enjoy seeing shows as much as I do.  It gives me an excuse to see more of them.  Can't wait til next season!

While in Portland, we stayed with Ben's sister.  These kids LOVE her!  She is so much fun.  She will always play with them and join us in our adventures.  Brielle especially gets SUPER excited when we plan a trip to Portland. 

After 3 weeks, we finally came home.  It was a good trip, filled with super fun things, but its always nice to come home to your very OWN home.  I love seeing stuff like this.  Ben is so good at taking advantage of being outside.  I tend to get busy INside and forget about enjoying the OUTside.  I love that he always wants to eat outside, or read scriptures outside or just BE outside.  My kids love it too. 

Brielle is now a champion non-training-wheels bike rider!  She is so proud of herself. 

Greta is TOO BIG!  I keep looking at her and think, WHAT HAPPENED!??!?  She is now SITTING UP!  Not to mention the finding toes, rolling over and grabbing toys that I haven't yet blogged about.  Its only because we've made it known she is the last one that she is determined to grow up faster than any of my others. Makes me sad.  But, I must say, she is pretty darn cute isn't she???

UTAH

As soon as school was over and the dance recital had been danced we took off for a trip to Utah to see our family.  We were busy every minute- but we had so much fun!

Temple Square

Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

(Levi would NOT get out of this helicopter!)

Swim party at Grandma Nilson's

Overnight to St George to see Little Mermaid at Tuachan

Greta got to meet TWO Great-Grandmas!

And boating with the Astle's (Ben's sister) was a HIGHLIGHT! The kids will not stop talking about it!



Dance Recital

This year I had 2 beauties in the recital.  Makes for a busy day- but makes the actual recital so much more fun! 
Brielle danced to Rockin' Robin.  She knocked my socks off at how well she did in the actual performance.  She knows how to Twist! 

Maija danced to Over the Rainbow.  She did awesome- though I was really excited about the actual choreography.  They just kind of swung purple scarves around.  Again- Maija did great....but, by no fault of the cute girls,  there wasn't a lot of real dancing involved. 

So glad my Mom was able to come and see it.  I'm sure the hair would have been less than perfect, children would not have been fed that day, and we would have all been late if not for her presence!

CAMPING!!!

We took our first camping trip of the year!  Greta seemed to enjoy her first experience sleeping in a tent. 

We LOVE to go camping!  Its so much fun to cook on the fire, run and play and explore, roast marshmallows and sleep outside. 
Have you ever roasted Starbursts???? You MUST try it.  SO YUMMY.  I love my S'mores, but hot and crispy Starbursts are a close contender.

This girl LOVES camping.

Chalk art

Maija loves to color on the driveway with chalk.  We seriously go through cases and cases of chalk each year with the amount of coloring these kids do.  I love it!  I was so impressed with Maija's latest masterpiece.  She even blended the colors to make it just right. 

First Grade!

I can't believe Maija is done with first grade! 
She had so much fun this year.  Her teacher, Mrs. Sorensen is amazing and we both loved her! Rumor has it, that after 40 years of teaching, she won't be there year-after-next to teach first grade to Brielle.  :-(  They put on a circus as their class play and Maija got to be an acrobat.  She had me convinced for WEEKS that she was going to be a lion tamer.  I'm concerned for the future if she can tell such intricate lies! 

Maija has improved in her reading by SO much this year.  She makes good friends and has proved just how sweet she is when kids pick on others and she takes a stand against it.  She loved first grade- but has been looking forward to summer for a LONG time! 

PRESCHOOL

Brielle is officially done with Pre-School.  She graduated from Mrs. Musser's Little Sprouts last night.  Can't believe I'm going to have TWO in elementary school next year. 

Brielle has learned so much in preschool this year.  She can read a little bit now and she loved every minute of going to school to see her friends and teacher.  She was the recipient, along with 2 others, of a special "Character Counts" award.  Her teacher says of all the 40 students she had, those 3 little girls were the most kind, happy and compassionate students.  Happy every day and nice to everyone all the time.  I know she didn't pick that up from me, but I'm constantly amazed how my two little girls are often singled out for being sweet and kind.  Makes my heart smile. 

Blog Slacker....

I know, I know.....

Here is a catch up....

Can you guess what this is?

Candles.  From a birthday.  MY birthday....there are too many huh? 
Ben never disappoints on my birthday.  The day (week) was complete with ice cream cake, filet mignon, a walk in the park, a replacement diamond for the lost one in my wedding ring, a Kindle and a REALLY sharp kitchen knife.  What else could you ask for?

Kids are super busy.  Maija and Brielle both have gymnastics twice a week and dance once a week.  Maija also takes piano.  I swore I would never have this life, living in the car carpooling kids to all kinds of activities- but once again I am eating my words.  They have so much fun and make wonderful friends.  Yesterday Brielle climbed to the top of the rope at gymnastics and got a little golden trophy for it.  She was SO happy!
Maija is almost done with First grade.  She is such a great big sister and helps me out with Levi especially.  He adores her and cannot wait for her to get home from school.  He is a normal little boy and will hit and push and grab from almost anyone, but never from Maija- he can't get enough of her.

Greta is FOUR months!!!  She is just almost rolling over.  She is the happiest little baby.  On Sunday I had to take her out of church crying, twice because she was tired and got bumped in the head- I got a million comments about it because no one has ever heard her make a peep.  She smiles and giggles all the time.....except when I pull out the camera.  She can be having the most beautiful day and as soon as I put that big black thing in front of my face she scrunches up her eyebrows and the smiles are GONE.  Still working on it-

LOVE the cheeks.  They get bigger everyday.  :)


We took a "nature adventure" to a lake nearby.  The girls had a blast.  Levi, not so much- he was grumpy.  I love the endless green here in Oregon- especially in the springtime after the LONG WET winter. 

Hey Mom! Do I look like a Mummy?

LUCKY ME

Happy Mother's Day to me. 



Easter!!!

Maija told me Easter is her one of her favorite holidays....right up there with Christmas.  I can't blame her, because this year we had so much fun.  Easter Bunny brought some great goodies on Saturday and then we had a giant egg hunt with lots of friends in our backyard.  It was awesome.  And now all those friends are telling us we have to do it again next year.  Wahoo!  So glad everyone else had fun too.  :)

Easter sunday was just as fun!  The girls both sat still long enough for a fancy hairdo (and also long enough to make us really late for church.  really late.  but its cute huh? )

Then we got all dressed up in our new duds.
I think these are my favorite Easter dresses to date.  They all looked so cute!  Thanks for the dresses Grandma!
After church we went to a friends house for the ultimate egg hunt and an even better dinner.  YUM.  Left my camera at home for that one.  arg.  (did I just sound like a pirate?) I love this kind of holiday filled with friends and SMILES. Happy Easter! 

Love this dude.

Today this little man wanted to dress himself.  He picked out his clothes all by himself and then put them on all by himself....backwards.  But I couldn't bear to change him because he was so gosh-darn proud of himself. 

He melts my heart 100 times a day!