Nananananananana Bat Sam!

Here are some random pictures of Sam. I just think these are kind of funny.

Andrew is already recruiting a new little superhero lover in the family.
Sam can put his whole fist in his mouth!

Merry Christmas! (finally!

Here is our awesome Christmas card for the year. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to print and mail them so I'm going to e-card it for most everyone this year. Mikey I think did a pretty kick-butt job on his design, though.

So, let me tell you about our year.

We spent January living with my parents and four siblings, who I'm sure were DONE with that by the time we left. We closed on our current home in February and now live right smack in the middle of Idaho Falls. We love our ward and our wonderful, big, warm home with no renters. Truman also learned to walk (at 18 months!) as soon as we moved in.

Spring was spent catching up it seems. I think the first half of the year kind of got away from us a bit with all the changes and stuff. I spent a lot of time at the YMCA working as a personal trainer to two sweet women- Lizzy and Bonnie- but I mostly quit working after Sam was born.

Living close to family (but in our own house :) ) has been really nice. The kids have had several sleepovers at Grandma Andrews' (THANKS!), which has given Michael and I some nice time off alone. In May we went to Bear Lake for a couple nights and relaxed together, visited the Logan temple, and just enjoyed some down time before we added one more kid to the picture. Then in August, we got to take a "business" trip to up the Salmon River with Roger Ball and a company called JD Premium, filming a retreat for their top sellers. It was AMAZING! I had my first day of almost complete solitude in almost six years!

The rest of the summer was spent jumping on the trampoline (one of Truman's favorite things), potty training Truman- who is 100% potty trained and did it in record time!, and .... looking for our sidewalk chalk... :) Honestly we had kind of a boring summer I think mostly just trying to adjust to four kids. I will tell those who are wondering though that the adjustment to four was much like the adjustment to three, except I knew what to expect so it went by a little faster and less painfully. We did attend some family reunions, of course, and it was good to see everyone.

We have made some really good friends in the ward, which has saved my sanity. Michael still gets together with the guys on Tuesday nights, so I have been going out on Thursday nights to get my fill of adult conversation with other women. It has been really nice.

In August we took a family vacation to the Wolf Creek resort (we had bought one of those trial versions of the timeshare thing done by Windham. We spent a week with just the family and no distractions, despite chaos at home (our car broke down right before we left, and while we were gone a tree fell over in our front yard!). It was so great to relax and focus on each other for a while. I just wish we'd taken some pictures!

Andrew started Kindergarten this year at Edgemont Elementary. He's loving it and making lots of friends, but he does hate the homework he's already getting. He has also lost three teeth! He and his dad have developed a new hobby of trying to catch the Tooth Fairy, with a few reservations because Andrew wants to be a "gentleman" and feels a little guilty. We've told him fairies are mischievous and don't mind the tricks.

Evie is learning to read and write almost as quickly as Andrew, just by teaching herself mostly. She loves to learn and she's so smart! She also brings a little girlyness to my life, which I'm thankful for.

Truman has really gone from a baby to a kid this year- learned to walk, talks and sings all the time, and is really playing with his brother and sister just like one of the group. He is such a wild little two, but we love him and his silliness!

Sam was born on the first of June. He is fat and smiley and rolling all over. I think he may actually crawl and walk somewhat on schedule (but I'm still not sure if that's exciting...). "Samabama," "Sammy," "Baby Sam," "Sweet Chub" is still a novelty to the kids, who just want to hold and kiss that little guy as often as they can.

Michael and I were called this fall to teach the 9 year old primary class. We love it! Our kids are so funny and it's really cool to have a calling together. We're really going to miss those kids come January.

We have been so blessed this year! I am really thankful to be in Eastern Idaho, to live in our own house, to have enough money to pay all our bills, to have so many good friends around, and especially for the attached garage to keep us from scraping windows! Merry Christmas! We are thinking of all our friends and family, and even though we are lame and didn't actually mail this out, we do love you all and hope you're doing well.

Love,

Michael, Jamie, Andrew, Evelyn, Truman, and Samuel Borup

Nights Off

Being a mother of four is both elating and completely, unbelievably exhausting.  I love my kids to pieces, but I can't describe how mind-numbingly wiped out I am at the end of so many days.  By the time my kids are in bed and I now have the time to do all those can't-do-it-when-the-kids-are-around kind of projects, I just want to lapse into a coma instead.  And the process of actually putting them to bed really seems to put me over the edge from somewhat tired to don't-even-think-about-asking-me-to-do-another-thing-today wiped out.  That's when I'm thankful for my nights off.  Michael lets me go out every Thursday with a good friend of mine from the ward, putting the kids to bed himself and not worrying when we talk until 1am or so because we never seem to run out of things to say or even be able to shut up long enough to watch a movie when we're together.  Just that one night a week when I don't have to do the exhausting bedtime stuff and when I can just talk to another woman does wonders.  

And then there are bonus days, like yesterday, when I just really don't seem to be able to make it through the evening stuff, and my sweet husband kindly tells the kids to kiss me goodnight and sends me to bed while he handles the rest.  So I listen to my sweet little family bonding and having a good time with their amazing daddy.  He reads to them even though he hates to read, makes up a great bedtime story, sings them a song, prays with them, and kisses them all goodnight while I eavesdrop from a nice hot bath in the other room.

Thanks for making my life easier and doing a great job of it, Mikey.  I love you.

MHR: My best friend

Michael is my best friend.  Truly.  When anything happens to me, the first thing I think of is telling him.  We share everything and we love spending time together, but we also encourage each other to do our own things too.  I laugh my hardest when he's around.  I'm just happy to be with him.  I guess that's what I think a best friend ought to be.  I'm so thankful that after almost seven years together he's still that kind of friend.

(I know the pic is blurry, but it's a candid shot from when we were getting our engagement pictures, and I just love it.)

Amazing In-laws

For the last weekend in June we went to visit the Borups in Boise and I was once again reminded how cool Michael's family is.

My mother-in-law, Judy has managed to save complete sets of all the really cool toys her kids had growing up- we're talking loads of action figures, fisher price people, old games, legos, and building sets of every kind, just to name a few. They could probably make a million dollars on eBay, but instead, they're letting their grandkids play with them. 

Andrew discovered a robotix kit while we were there and built himself a spaceship type thing with it. He didn't get a chance to see how you can actually attach things to make them move, but maybe next time.
My father-in-law, Keith set up a water carnival for the kids. This included a reverse dunk tank made from an old toilet (you sit on the toilet under a scaffold type thing that is holding the toilet tank and when someone gets a ball in the bucket, the tank above flushes water down on your head); water rockets made from old pop bottles that would shoot into the air; and a big water balloon slingshot.
Also while we were there, we had a family pinewood derby. And my in-laws of course have their own pinewood derby track. Lots of fun. I'm bummed because I forgot to take pics of all the cars, but there were a bunch. We even made perhaps the first ever GIRL pinewood derby car. Our awesome Bro-in-law, Matthew cut it out for us to decorate.  It was pink (painted with nail polish), with glitter, flowers, and the word "cute" in rhinestones. I think it was one of the fastest. It's so cool to be related to such creative and talented people!

MHR: The Handyman

Once I was writing my grandma's life history and I asked her what she admired about her husband.  She told me it was that he could fix or fake just about anything.  She said despite his lack of education he was smart about those things and had saved them a lot of money. 

That's something I took for granted growing up-- like his father, my dad could fix everything himself.  He didn't buy a lot of new stuff or pay someone to do things for him, he just figured it out on his own.  If he didn't have the parts or the tools, he'd find a way to rig something up. (Or he'd call Grandpa and they'd work on it together).   

Mikey is super smart and frugal just like my dad and my grandpa, and just like I would expect a man to be.  It's not until recent years I realized this isn't totally normal.  Lots of guys don't know how to do things like fix a toilet or a sprinkler system, put in a garbage disposal or dishwasher, or replace a damaged pipe in the plumbing (all of which Mikey has had to do in the past year or so).  I'm so glad Mikey can do all this.  He has saved us a lot of money and a lot of trouble, and honestly, I think he's more manly for it.

Oh, and last month I had written a list of things I needed to remember to ask Mikey to do, and before I had mentioned it, he found the list and completed  all of it, plus a couple other things I hadn't written.  What a great guy!

Ha ha! We're so cool!

I was going through old pictures a couple nights ago, and I found these that I just had to share:(You may recognize this one from our old blog...)

Yes, we're dorks, but we know how to have fun!

My husband rocks because all I have to do is ask

A little something I learned somewhat early on about Michael is this: when I want something to change- i.e. I want him to do something different (with or without my participation)- all I have to do is ask him, and he does his best to make it happen.  

The other day, for example, I told Michael I needed more romance and more time with him where we could relax and just be together before we drop dead on our pillows at the end of the day.  So, that very day he made a special effort to cuddle with me and talk to me during nap time (he usually isn't tired and does his own thing), and that night he invited me outside to watch a huge lightning storm with him.  The storm was amazing!, by the way, and spending time with him was pretty great too.  

I love knowing that if I tell my husband what I want, he'll do his best to give it to me.  I'm never disappointed.

Have I said "thank you" lately?

Once a week (on Tuesdays, to be exact), Michael is gone ALL day- from about 7am to around 10pm or later.  I encourage this because he deserves it.  But meanwhile, I spend the day realizing just how much easier it is when he's around for at least a few hours.  He helps me get the kids fed, dressed and ready to go in the mornings, as well as standing guard so the kids don't burn down the house or smother Sam with well-intended but very aggressive hugs and kisses while I take a shower.  He runs errands for me and/or helps me make dinner at the end of the day.  And for some reason the kids will stay at the table instead of trying to get up and run all over the house during dinner time when Daddy is there.  Michael helps me put the kids to bed every night and covers for me when I have to drop everything and go feed Sam.  Things just run much more smoothly when he's around.  Tuesdays are the days I realize that.  So thanks for all you do on all the other days, Mikey.  I don't know what I'd do without you.

By the way, I'm definitely not complaining about him being gone on Tuesdays.  I want him to take his guy-night.  Someday I'm going to want something big...  :)

Some more pictures...

Here are some more cute pictures of Sam. He is officially heavier than when he was born now (as of a week ago he was 8lbs. 2oz.) and he's doing really well, although at this age there's not a lot to tell.




I had to post this one too-- I just think this is a cute one of Truman. He's always super excited about things, and this kind of shows his personality a bit.

Rainy Days

We've been enjoying the rain a bit lately.  The kids love to jump on the trampoline in the rain because it gets "extra bouncy," and they have also had a chance to splash in a few puddles in the backyard.  

The greatest adventure so far, though, was one particularly rainy morning last week. I took all four kids for a walk around the block at 8:30 am and let my kids wade in the full gutters and practically swim on one corner where the water seemed to be having trouble draining, all while the rain continued to pour down on our heads (Samuel slept warmly and peacefully in his infant carrier on the stroller, covered in blankets the whole time, don't worry!).  

When we got home they were all so soaked I made them take off their shoes and pants before they came in the house.  Then we drank hot chocolate together in our sweats.  It was cool.  Andrew said, "This is the best day ever!" which always makes me feel good.

MHR: Mmmm.... hugs!

Wow, things have really been busy lately for some reason!  

Well, now that I have a chance, I'm going to write about one thing I really appreciate about Michael, especially right after having a baby: he gives really great hugs.  Now that my belly isn't in the way I'm remembering how much I love to hug my sweet husband.  He hugs like he means it-- tight and long and still (I think he has broken the habit of playing a drum beat on my back when we hug somewhere along the line).  It's great.  And I'm not the only one who appreciates his hugs.  I remember watching him hug his mom the first time I met his family and thinking, "I could marry that guy-- he loves his mom."  He also hugs our kids good and tight-- and often, which I think is important-- they know their daddy loves them, and I'm grateful for a husband who can show affection this way.

Samuel Neil Borup

Samuel Neil Borup was born on June 1st 2009 at 11:29 pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. (by far our biggest baby-- check out his fat little face!), and was 21 1/4 inches long.

Everything went really well. I went to the doctor Monday morning and he stripped my membranes and scheduled an induction for 7:30 am on Tuesday, so of course I knew I'd be going into labor before then, or where would the fun be? I started having pretty frequent, hard contractions around 6:00 when we had to go pick up Mikey from work, but nothing really regular, so we went ahead and cooked dinner and ate, then I did the dishes while we waited for DaNae to come watch our kids (by then the contractions were like four minutes apart). We got into the hospital at around 8:00, and for the first time we were admitted on the first trip to the hospital! Hooray for us finally learning! It was a very easy, uneventful, epidural-numbed labor and delivery, just the way I like it.

We are very excited to have Samuel in our family. All the kids are thrilled with their new baby brother, including Truman who came in to see him at the hospital and exclaimed, "Hi, cute baby!" Now it's just a matter of me managing all four kids at once-- I don't see us going on a lot of mom-and-kids outings in the near future, but I think we'll be alright.

...guess I did something right...

This afternoon, Andrew came up to me and said, "Mom, you're the best mom ever.  I love you.  I don't wish I had a different mom."  

Wow.  All I had to do was play Nintendo and make paper airplanes.

(By the way, this picture would be much less confusing if Andrew were looking at me, but at the last second he got distracted by the kid coming down the slide and looked away).

MHR Tuesday

Okay, so the guy-night has been changed to Tuesdays, which means I'll probably be posting on this particular subject most Tuesday nights.

My husband rocks because not only is he a great husband to me, he's an awesome dad. It's not until after you've been married a while that you get to see what kind of father your husband will turn out to be, and I'm so thankful to see that I got such a good one. Michael makes it a point to show our kids that we have a good relationship with each other, and he takes the time to develop good relationships with each one of them too.  

Over the weekend, Mikey played on the trampoline with all the kids, cooked breakfast with Andrew and Evie, involved Andrew while he worked on fixing our sprinkler system, wrestled and cuddled with the kids, and much more. My favorite moment was watching him play guys (action figures) with Andrew and Truman-- Michael was the Joker and he was tap-dancing on his suitcase (the Joker tap-dancing on the suitcase full of weapons that came with him) saying, "You can't stop the dance!"  It meant a lot to both me and the kids that he chose to use so much of his time off to really play with them.  At the end of this amazing, dad-filled weekend Andrew actually cried because he was going to miss his daddy so much being gone all day. So Mikey came home for lunch so he could say hi to the kids today. 

This picture is actually from a few months ago-- Andrew and Michael were playing Star Wars Chess.  At first he was teaching Andrew how to move the guys and actually playing chess, but eventually both sides just charged each other.  I guess it was a tie.

My Husband Rocks!

So I stumbled across a blog last night that celebrates "My Husband Rocks Friday." (here)  I thought it was a great idea, but since Friday is date night, I don't see me doing a lot of blogging.  Wednesday night (Guy Night) on the other hand, leaves me with some free time, so I'm going to try to remember to celebrate MHR Wednesday.  Here is the first:

My husband rocks because he is so positive.  The man is an optimist to the core, and I love it!  He expects the best from life, chooses to be happy, and always looks on the bright side.  Michael has taught me to believe I will get what I want, to assume the best about people's intentions, and to enjoy every moment of gleeful anticipation for tomorrow-- because, of course, we're expecting tomorrow to work out just as we hope.  Because of Michael I have discovered that the avoidance of getting my hopes up doesn't soften the blow of disappointment, it just makes life less fun.  So I will keep hoping and dreaming big with my love because, no matter the eventual outcome, it's a lot more exciting in general.

One last thing...

I, like most, take ages between posts and then suddenly have to post twelve times in one night.  But this is the last thing I have to say tonight, I swear.  I'm a little concerned about how Truman's going to cope with a new baby brother.  He's been the baby for the longest, and probably the most spoiled.  Since he learned to walk so late (18 months) we carried him far too much.  I still find myself carrying him a lot, even though I'm 8 months pregnant with a hernia (it's just so much faster to get where we're going!).  I don't know what he's going to do when there's suddenly a new baby in my arms so much of the time and he is forced to become the big boy...

I married a chef

My husband is an amazing cook.  He makes killer fish and chicken, pizza we have to kind of brag about, and some pretty great soups, sauces, and copy cat recipes.  His most recent accomplishment is this amazing bread.  It is crusty and delicious with a nice, chewy, bubbly inside.  A lot like french bread.  He is holding it here on the pizza peel he made himself in his dad's shop.

Andrew lost a tooth!

Andrew lost his first tooth on the day of Jordi's wedding- April 11th.  He was pretty excited to lose it, although he was pretty freaked when he first discovered it was loose- he thought he'd hurt himself or something.  Michael offered to help him set a trap to catch the Tooth Fairy, but he was afraid he wouldn't get his money that way.  The Tooth Fairy Brought him a gold dollar and left freely instead.  

Truman's first real fear

Truman has recently developed a pretty intense fear... of cows.  It all started conference weekend when we went to Reed's Dairy with my parents for some ice cream.  DaNae and Aaron took Truman out to see the cows in the back and he was okay-- mooing at them and having the normal toddler-cow interaction-- when suddenly one mooed back.   He HATED it!  He buried his face in DaNae's neck and said, "No like it!"  He has been afraid of cows, and most animals, ever since.  He even refuses to look at stuffed animal cows, or cows in books.  Andrew thinks this is hilarious and likes to moo at him and show him pictures of cows, etc.  (He is then punished for being mean and told made-up stories of when he was afraid of silly things like milk.)  Every once in a while Truman will go, "Moo! .... No like it cows."  Then I have to ask him, "Then why did you just say "Moo"?

My kids are my sunshine!

My kids are, next to Mikey, my favorite thing in the whole wide world! They make me smile every day, even when it's snowing like crazy all through the spring.

Truman is goofy, just like his brother and sister. It's so fun to see his personality coming out! The boy is hilarious and wonderful. There is nothing like Truman's smile when he's happy to see you, nothing like the hugs he gives from behind when you least expect, nothing like his sweet blue eyes looking into mine and silently telling me that just having my attention right now is enough. His favorite things are: waking up with Andrew in the morning, seeing his daddy after work, being chased and tickled, socks and shoes, and his dinosaur, "Saur."

Evie is my crazy girl. I didn't know she could, but she seems to be getting even more wild. Still, she brings femininity into my life like I've never experienced before- she loves nail polish, sparkly things, being a princess, and cute dresses, so I have learned to be girly with her. She also loves getting her hair wet to make it curly, telling stories (she tells us her bedtime story most nights!), pretending with Andrew, coloring, playing with gak (she calls it Goob), and talking on the phone.
Andrew is my big sweet guy. He is wild as can be, being a five year old boy- running and yelling and generally causing a raucous- but he is also very affectionate and thoughtful. He gives us all our share of hugs and kisses, holds the door like a gentleman, and asks forgiveness whenever I get impatient with him (like tonight when he jumped on my back for a hug and I told him not to EVER jump on my back when I'm pregnant because it really huts, he just sat down and said, "Do you forgive me, mom?"). Andrew loves superheroes, his siblings, making new friends (whose names he never remembers), having special time with just mom or dad, and doing tricks- including making a lightning show for me with the static in his pillow at night, jumping down the stairs into the beanbag chair, and blowing bubbles with the aforementioned gak.
Sometimes I don't feel like a very good mom. Because I need a nap EVERY DAY, because I hate the cold and refuse to play outside with my kids in it, because I tell them "just a minute" and forget what they asked for way too often, because I have looked back at the end of so many days and wondered why I didn't take the time to enjoy them more. Tonight I was having one of those times, and I decided to look at the pictures on our camera. This one stood out to me.  A couple weeks ago while Mikey was out with the guys, we decided to have a party. We had pancakes with berries and finger jello and kiwifruit picnic style in the family room while we all watched a movie together and cuddled. At the end of that day Andrew said, "Thanks mom, that was a really fun party." I guess I'm doing okay at least some of the time.

Old friends from Sandy

So, I just got a chance to relax and check out all the stuff I forgot about on my little iMac that's been stored away, and I came across my pictures from last summer in Sandy. We had some good friends there we're going to miss.

This is Evie with our good friend Karen Myatt (They were pals-- she called Evie "Evielicious." They kind of look alike too). Karen is amazing. I miss Sandy just because she's there.  

We also miss our good friends, the Reynolds. Here's Andrew with his buddy Reese about a day before we moved.

So, if any of you Sandy friends read this, just know we love you and we're still thinking of you.

Eureka!!! Here are your promised pictures!

Okay, I found it a while ago and was putting off taking pictures until our house looked somewhat decent. Here are some pictures of our new house. I'll post more later. We are loving the place so far, especially all the space we have and the nice flooring upstairs. It will be more exciting to be in this neighborhood and stuff when it gets warmer and we actually go outside. Until then, I'm thankful for a garage to park in.

(Our messy family room)
(our living room and dining room)
(this is the kitchen, obviously, with a weird little planter box near the stairs on the left-- we're going to try to grow strawberries in it.)
(Here's our kids playing in the front yard for the first time.)

Some news... but, sorry, no pictures

I know I promised pictures ASAP, but I seem to have lost my camera charger.  It's probably around here somewhere...  I'll try to get on that soon and post something interesting.

We are almost all unpacked (just a few boxes in the office and garage left!) and we're settling in quickly, which is great.  We got a new washing machine: a Maytag Neptune.  It's the nicest washer I've ever had.  It's lame to be excited about laundry, but I guess I'm kind of lame.

In other news, we had another ultrasound, and this time the baby was pretty clearly a boy.  We're still trying to think of a name...  This is the first time we've kind of drawn a blank on names.

My client, Lizzy, is starting track next week and will be pretty darn busy, so I get an early maternity leave, which I'm actually pretty grateful for.  I have a hernia that's not liking me so much.  I hope I keep exercising though.  Actually, I think it might be easier now with my entire schedule kind of cleared.  It was kind of a pain  going in at 4:30.  

I'm going to go chill for a bit with Mikey and go to bed.  I love sleep.

Buying a house

I haven't been up blogging  at 5 am since Truman was born, but I was too worked up to sleep.  We are buying a house and hoping to close Friday morning, but no guarantees of course, so it's a bit like Christmas, only you really aren't sure if Santa's going to come.  I'm hoping the typing will be calming enough for me to get another hour of sleep in before morning.

I guess I should tell you about the house: It's in Idaho Falls, in our first real (not numbered streets, off out of the way, not ghetto) neighborhood, between 17th and 25th streets, behind Apple athletic club (and pretty close to Baskin Robbins too!).  We love the location so close to everything, and we've been going to the ward for a few weeks and like them too.  They gave me a visiting teaching assignment already, but couldn't remember my name, so they just wrote "New Sister" on everything.  

Our house is the biggest space we've ever lived in, by far.  I think it's like 2800 square feet, with a one-car garage attached.  It's got three bedrooms and an office, plus a formal dining room which we love, upstairs.  It has a unfinished basement with a LOT of potential, storage space, and a room we can use for a playroom downstairs.  It has new carpet in the entire upstairs, plus some really great hardwood floors I'm excited about.  It also has two fireplaces (okay, they're really more like stoves): one wood burning upstairs and a gas one downstairs.  The yard is tiny compared to our Sandy yard, but it has room for a garden, which is all we're really looking for right now.  I'd post a picture, but since I'm not sure where/if we've saved them, it'll have to wait until we move.

We're excited, after SIX MONTHS! of living in my parents' basement, to get our stuff back, our routines back, and our own space again.  It's going to be so great!  Even Andrew's been counting down-- he misses his own bunk bed and our own family time most.

(I still don't really feel sleepy, but I need to try to get some rest or tomorrow may very well turn out to be either Movie Day all day, or Mommy's Gone Crazy and is Yelling At the Kids Day.)  

It's a ....????!!!

Well, you guessed it (probably a while ago)-- I'm pregnant.  We decided to wait until we found out the baby's sex before we told everyone (including our kids!) but when we went in for the ultrasound, the doctor was really not that enthused I think, and couldn't "get a good shot".  So we are going back in three weeks for another, more informative we hope, ultrasound.

The good news about the ultrasound is that he moved my due date up by two weeks (sweet!) which puts me about 21 weeks along right now and due on June 7th.  

The kids are really excited (oh, yeah, we gave up and told them too).  Truman likes to say "hi baby!" to my belly; Andrew likes to touch my belly and try to feel the baby; and Evie likes to ask things like, "Why is there a baby in your belly?".  Good times.  It's exciting.  

I just hope I can handle four kids... three was really tough to adjust to.  

And just so you all know, my husband Michael drew this cute picture to help announce our pregnancy to his family.  The title is "Sunshine, lollipops, and babies."

My date with a five year old

So, Andrew turned five last week.  Holy crap.  The kid is awesome.  Since he's starting kindergarten this fall, I'm really feeling like these are my last months with him, which makes me appreciate him more, and also just get kind of sad.  I'm going to miss him a lot.  I really need to do better at finding quality things to do with our time together.

Anyway, for his birthday we just did the usual cake and presents after dinner.  He chose to have Tilapia for dinner, which was interesting to make for 11 people, but so good. 

 What a crazy five year old to ask for fish for his birthday.  

My favorite part of Andrew's birthday was the saturday after when I took him on a breakfast date.  We went to IHOP and had this pleasant date-like meal, complete with bendy straws in his chocolate milk.  He didn't really eat his pancake, despite the strawberries and whipped cream on top, but we had a good time, and my food was delicious.  Then we went to Toys R Us, where he used his birthday money from his great grandmas, plus some money I pitched in, to buy a new Transformer plane.  It's pretty cool.  It has already replaced his batman wings we got him as his favorite toy, I think.  The best was when Andrew and I were eating, and he looked up at me and said, "Thanks for taking me on this date, mom."  Then that night he told me, "Today was the greatest day."  It made me happy.  I love my awesome boy.  (Nice pic of us, too, huh?)

Benevolence thrust too far

Lately, I keep seeing signs at stores and in offices that have to remind people how it's rude to talk on your cell phone while you're being served.  Even going into the temple they have to tell you to turn your phone off and not bring it into the session with you.  I think these things ought to be obvious, but apparently they're not, and I think it's sad.  I also think it's sad that talking to people over the internet is so addicting that all of us occasionally miss out on spending time with our family who is RIGHT HERE in order to do it.  

I remember as cell phones and different social interfaces and things were becoming more prevalent people were so excited about how technology was "bringing people together" because we can get to know people on the other side of the world as conveniently as our own neighbors and yet, now, we ARE getting to know people on the other side of the world instead of our neighbors and even our families, and people won't even get off their stupid phones for five minutes to have a face-to-face conversation with a real person.  This paradox keeps bringing me back to a quote from The Screwtape Letters read in General Conference last year:

“Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.”

Isn't that exactly what these convenient communications technologies are enabling?  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be here occasionally to keep in touch with people I can't see in person as often as I'd like, and to share news and whatever quickly (AND with pictures) but I think we all need to be a little more careful about when and how often, and it worries me how easy it is to lose track of time with this stuff.  Let's not forget while we're talking to China, that there are people all around us we may be ignoring.

And don't even get me started on the degradation of the English language through texting...!

Some random pictures from the last while

I just realized I had all these pictures on my camera that I hadn't imported, so here are some cute ones.

Evie's Palm Tree Girl hair.

Evie in Wonderland (hiding in the dollhouse Andrew built for her).

Truman playing Guitar Hero with DaNae.

The kids playing on a sled they found (I was pulling them down the hall) after a bath.  

Eventful month

This month so far:

• Evie started primary as a Sunbeam.  She loves it, and it's so cute to see Andrew standing there with his arm around her when we go to pick them  up at the end of church.
  
• Truman started nursery.  Today, actually.   My mom's working in there, so I got the scoop:  He was really good-- played with toys, helped pick up, tried to walk when he saw all the other kids doing it, drank his water really well at snack time all by himself, and had a pretty good time.
• Michael joined a Biggest Loser contest at the YMCA and will weigh in for the first time on Monday.  We're both excited to start being more health conscious and eating better and working out and stuff.
  
  
• I got a much needed hair cut and color.  Actually, the color is pretty much just to bring out my natural color a little more and make it less blah, so it's really hard to tell I've even done it.  I might be a little more bold next time, at least with the cut.

There's more to come too:

• Tomorrow, Truman starts physical therapy to help him learn to crawl and walk.
• Thursday, Andrew turns 5!  He's getting so big. I can't believe he starts school this year.
• We are set to close on our house (selling) this week.  Then we are all ready to put in an offer on another house we found in Idaho Falls.  More about that later.

I'm excited for all the things that are happening, and so grateful for where we are now.  Heavenly Father has always blessed us with exactly what we need, even when it's not exactly what we want at the time.

January 8th, 2009: No regrets day

There aren't very many days when I feel like I just might have done most things right, with my kids especially, during the day.  But last week I had a day like this, and at the end of the day when I realized it, I wrote this:

Today I spent a lot of time on the floor playing K'Nex.  Then making cookies.  Then reading picture books.  It's the most time I've spent really paying attention to my kids in so long!  The K'Nex got boring, and my mouth got twisted up reading all those crazy, rhyming words, [we only made one pan of cookies so I didn't have time to get tired of it], but I kept thinking that someday I'm going to really miss all this and my only real regrets are going to be in not spending enough time really being with my kids, without rushing or being somewhere else mentally.  That thought was enough to keep me playing there most of the day pretty happily, enough to make me drop what I was doing whenever my kids asked, just because they "want me," and enough t keep me from thinking much about what wasn't getting done.  Strangely enough, I was still able to get more done (besides nurturing my kids and giving my heart something to grin about) than I have in a long time.