Sibling Love

Kent loves Rachel. And Rachel loves Kent. Kent wants to do everything Rachel does and play with everything she plays with. 

When Kent is not getting his way with one parent, or if one of us is making him do something he doesn't want to do he will ask for the other parent, and the switch off is usually all he needs to decide to be obedient and listen to what we are trying to get him to do. The switch off is key with him for some reason. Well when Jacob isn't home and I'm trying to get him to do something, instead of asking for Daddy he will say, "I want Rachel!" The other day, I was trying to get Kent to stop what he was doing and go in and go potty (which he was completely refusing to do) and he said, "I want Rachel!" So Rachel came over and said "I can take him potty!!" And the result was the picture above. She put her arm around him and walked him to the bathroom and told him what to do and he listened! That same scenario has actually played out a few times since then. It makes me laugh a little that my 3 year-old is taking my 1 year-old potty. 

Kent is also in full blown 2 year-old tantrum mode (even though he's not quite 2.) When he is in the middle of a tantrum he does not want anything from me (except whatever he was throwing the tantrum about) and yells and cries. Rachel has taken to going and talking to him in the middle of his tantrum and giving him a talk and most of the time it snaps him out of his tantrum and he actually listens to what he has to say. And the things she says to him totally crack me up. She talks to him in a super sweet voice and says things like, "Kent, when you make wrong choices then the Holy Ghost can't be in our family, and it makes us sad when we make wrong choices. And when we make wrong choices, we can't go back to love with Heavenly Father again, so it's really important that we repent and make right choices." It makes me laugh to hear those things coming from her mouth and it makes me feel good too because it makes me feel like some of the things we are telling her are getting through to her. I love to see how much these kids love each other. Oh they fight over things too, but they play well together and it just makes me happy. 

Swim Lessons

Today was our last day of our first session of swim lessons and I am thrilled. I was in a mommy and me class with Kent while Rachel was in a swim class at the and time. It was Monday through Thusday for two weeks. The kids loved it. 

Kent has asked to go swimming everyday and he's been loving swimming in a warm swimming pool (the one we normally swim in is significantly cooler). The first week he listened really well to what he was supposed to do. The second week he was tired of listening and just wanted to do what he wanted to do in the water. He wasn't particularly afraid of water or anything, but his confidence in the water has grown a lot and he will now jump into the pool from the side and can climb out of the pool on his own on to the side and he gets the arms and leg movements all correct for a front crawl. 

Rachel did extremely well in her class. She has always loved water and swimming but has never loved putting her face in the water and has always absolutely refused to jump into the water unless we were holding her hands. She did so well in her swim class that her te her said she souls skip the next level and go into a higher one. Rachel can now swim underwater and jump into the water on her own. I actually don't know all what Rachel can do now though because I was in the water helping Kent and didn't observe her swim lessons. We will have to go to the pool so she can show me all of the things she learned. I have Rachel signed up for another session of swim lessons, but not Kent. I feel like she is really learning from them and for Kent it is mostly just for fun. I think he's going to be sad when he doesn't get to go swimming and Rachel does. I feel especially bad because Rachel has swim lessons on Kent's birthday. I've been asking him what he wants to do for his birthday and he keeps telling me, "Go swimming, my birfday!" In fact everyday we go swimming, he has been telling me that. Funny kid! I'm not sure he gets what a birthday is. I think we may have to go swimming on the days Rachel doesn't have swim lessons and maybe again for Kent's birthday. 

Anyway, I'm glad that our new round of swim lessons is only twice a week for 4 weeks instead of 4 times a week for two.  It has thrown our normal schedule out the window and has made it hard to do things with friends. 

And Night

Morning

17 Miracles

I watched the movie "17 Miracles" with my family the other day. That movie always makes me cry, but especially while I'm pregnant. I can't even imagine going through that experience. The sacrifices of those who crossed the plains were so great! I always try to imagine what it would have been like crossing the plains with my little family and it makes me so sad to think of watching my children be sooooo starving that they would pull rawhide off of the handcarts and roast the hairs off and eat it. Or to have a child be soooo sick but not be able to stop and take care of them. Only being able to put them in the handcart and pray while you pulled it. I can't imagine being pregnant and sleeping on the hard ground every night and walking and walking and walking day after day. I can't imagine how much your body would just ache. I can't imagine giving birth along the trail. Not having adequate time to allow your body to rest before you are walking and walking as walking and walking again. Not having Doctors or a hospital if things went wrong. Knowing you could end up burying any one of your family members along the way. I can't imagine having to split your family up and sending some ahead of the rest because that's the only way you could afford it. Trusting someone else to raise my child for what could be years! I can't imagine having my husband called on a mission after we were married and had kids. A mission where he could be gone for 3 years or more with no phones or emails or skype or FaceTime. That would be so long to be apart. The story that always makes me cry the most from that movie is the couple that decided to wait to get married til they could be sealed in the temple. Through the movie, it shows their love and the sacrifices they make for each other. One of them ends up dieing on the way. Then it talks about how years and years and years later one of the prophets heard about their love story and had them sealed together in the temple. Even just thinking about their story makes me tear up. The blessings of the temple are real and amazing. 

I have quite a few pioneer ancestors, but one in particular that was with the Willie Handcart Company that had such a hard time and was partially portrayed in the movie. Her name was Elizabeth Xavier Tait. I guess I've been drawn to her story a lot recently. Rachel's middle name is Elizabeth after her and Elijah's middle name will be Xavier after her and her family as well. She was from India. Her husband came to Utah with their son ahead of her. She was pregnant and decided to wait til after the baby was born. Her baby died before she either while she was crossing the ocean to America, or shortly after. One story I remember about her specifically is one day while crossing the plains, her and a friend who came from India with her sat down to rest at lunch time and woke up hours later and the company had gone on with out them. They were panicked! You did not want to be lost and alone with no provisions in a place like that. Or any place really. They were able to catch up later that night but I can only imagine the thoughts and feelings and prayers going through their minds. 

Also lately I've been reading through and re-typing up a history of my grandparents, my dad's parents. I'm so grateful to have those stories of them and to learn more about them now. I wish I had asked more questions when they were alive and taken that opportunity to get to know them when I had the chance, and regret that I didn't. It's been fun hearing about their lives. My grandpa was a major trease which he passed down to his kids (especially his boys.) On their wedding night, grandpa told grandma that he had his fingers crossed while thy were getting married so they weren't really married. She was so mad at him that she went down the hall to the bathroom where she stayed for 3 hours. They had 9 kids, 7 of which were boys. They had a farm and grew potatoes. My grandma had to make bread every other day to keep up with her family. 5 loaves at a time. She had to do laundry every other day and until she got their first automatic washer and dryer, it was an all day chore. My grandma worked sorting potatoes for years so that they could afford to send their boys on missions. Hard cold work that she was willing to do for her family. In my Grandma's patriarchal blessing it says that as long as her family (children and grandchildren) pay their tithing, they would never want for bread. What an amazing blessing. I feel blessed just with the knowledge I have been gaining about my ancestors in just reading about them and getting to know them. 

Funny things

Rachel just told me that if you frown at a crocodile then it won't eat you. (Because of the song "Never smile at a crocodile." I love her 3-year old logic! 

Also, last night I made chicken taquitos, Spanish rice, and black beans for dinner. The kids both though the rice was spicey (my kids are super wimps), Kent didn't love the taquitos, but he LOVED the beans. He kept asking for more and more. Since he wouldn't eat the rest of his dinner and since beans are good for you I let him have as much as he wanted. HE ATE THEM ALL! He ate at least a can of beans worth all on his own! I couldn't believe when he kept asking for more. After he finished them all and still wanted more, I let him have a few cherries. I made him stop after 4 cherries because he kept eating the pit and I couldn't believe that he could possibly be hungry still. After dinner we read scriptures as a family and the kids get to drink milk while we read. Kent drank his while sippy cups worth of milk and I think he was just busting at the seams because after a few minutes he had a little burp that made a little milk come up. It got on his shirt and he looked down and said, "I spilled!" Jacob and I just had to laugh. Poor kid ate so much that he "spilled" his milk back up. I guess we need to teach him a little temperance. Lol.