Finger Butters and other little treats

Pmc lately has been trying hard to be diligent about studying the scriptures each day. So he came up with a little plan to help it become a habit. I bought 3 bags of fun-size Butterfingers at NPS, and each day that he studies before breakfast he gets 3 of them (he likes to share his spoils!).

Well apparently Cpc has figured this whole thing out because he walked over to Pmc yesterday morning and this is what I heard:

Cpc: "Daddy, have you wed you swiptues yet?"

Pmc: "Uh, yes!"

Cpc: "Oh, great! That means I can have a finga butta!"

Oh how that made us smile. But actually the thing we're loving most is how he'll go grab his scriptures a few times a day and ask "will you weed me a swiptuw?"

Cpc is also working really hard on his speech and was so proud of himself when he got to talk to his Uncle Steve and he could say it PERFECTLY! Now he's working really hard on "special."

Cdc has become obsessed with the "tato head gasses," you know the ones you saw in the last post? He wants me to put them back on every time they fall off, and he can't seem to figure out that they are what's causing him to run into all kinds of things. This morning he had them on at breakfast and he kept whining that he was spilling milk on his pajamas. I told him he'd just have to take off the glasses and he started bawling. Oh well! He is also pretty obsessed with the toy baby bottle. He goes around sucking on it, and he has decided that it is his drink of choice at every meal. I love this kid!

And I'm putting this in last because I really don't want to make a big deal out of it - but the potty training stuff is REALLY driving me crazy. It is just up and down all the time. Cpc will be really good at it for like a week, and then just pee in his pants four or five times a day for the next week. Sometimes I am utterly convinced he really truly doesn't feel it coming because he just looks at me with utter surprise, and tells me he didn't feel it. And I am perfectly willing to believe that his sensory issues may be causing that. So what in the world do we do? It is simply too late to go back to diapers, he can't handle them. They drive him crazy. But the whole changing underwear and shorts/pants so many times in a day is driving me crazy. I feel about this just the way I did about the sleep issues we somehow survived (and still survive sometimes). It's useless to ask people for advice because they simply don't understand the real issue. Maybe it's time to take Cpc back to some Occupational Therapy. I don't know, but I really don't want to have damage to our relationship over this like we did with sleep. ANYONE?

Tidbits of a Simple Life

This is what we've been up to lately:

I don't know how many of these pictures we have of my kids sitting with my friends kids - but shucks, I might as well make it a tradition huh?

This is my dear sweet Grandma. We had such a great visit with her this time. She wasn't as down as she has been lately (being a widow for over 50 years is not easy) and I loved letting my kids get some good one-on-one interaction with her. She is such a great teacher, and when there are children around she can't help but pull that beautiful smile out.
We just need to get over and spend some more time with my other Grandparents soon!
This kid is PRO at cleaning the car. In fact, he's a very big helper all around the house!
My little sister and brother have been going rock-climbing every day for the past week. I let them drag by weak mommy muscles up there (along with the kids). I haven't done that kind of climbing in 7 years. It felt really good, but oh those muscles were tired.
Gotta love those Mr. Potato Head glasses.
This is a shot Cpc took of me the other day. He's been seeing a lot of this lately. This whole Mind Organization for Moms has really helped me to reach towards my goals - even as a mom. I've been tap-dancing as my exercise. I have wanted to tap-dance since I was 10 years old. I LOVE IT!

Last but not least - we've been enjoying ice cream cones lately - to make up for the lack of it we had all summer. This particular night we had told the kids we were having ice cream. After dinner we cleaned up and got them ready for bed and totally forgot the ice cream until like 5 minutes later. So, to mix things up a little we decided to go ahead and get them out of bed. I cannot express how much joy that little thing brought to our family. We ran in their room and said "surprise! We're going to have ice cream!" Those two little boys giggled like you wouldn't believe - or maybe you would! We spent 15 minutes just watching their pure joy at getting ice cream after bedtime. Cdc is particularly cute with the way he licks his ice cream cone - I wish we had that on video!

The Bear Lake Shack

This is the cabin my family had growing up.

Actually it didn't have that fancy deck - it had a nice wood deck that I'm sure we painted every summer.

Anyhow - I love that cabin. I miss that cabin. I think I left a part of my heart in that cabin long ago. It holds the best memories of my childhood. For me, even though there were crazy things that happened there, just like at my home, they all seem to have melted into the lake, or at least become funny.

This is the fire pit we sat around every night roasting s'mores and talking and fighting.

This is the grassy area (that extra bit of deck sticking out wasn't there) on which we played volleyball and badminton. We also set up lots of tents on that lawn when the youth from our church came up (my mom served in the Young Women's organization for many years).

These are the two trees that hid many a birdie and volleyball.

This is the spigot through which we gained access to water during the many many many times our indoor plumbing struggled - mostly after failed attempts to install a dishwasher.

This is the under-deck area which we were all terrified of. You can only kind of see it in the corner of this picture - but there was one of those OLD lawnmowers - the kind that you simply rolled - no engine or anything! I tried to help mow the lawn with that thing. Trouble is - the blades were dull.We never had a canoe under there, but we were forced many times to retrieve birdies and volleyballs from down there. Why is that so scary to a little kid?

There is the awesome smoke-stack, attached to the lovely bright orange wood-burning stove inside. We were always terrified that during a lightning storm that would be hit and our beloved cabin would burn to the ground in 3 minutes flat. One time during a lighting storm my parents saw rings of electricity coming down the smoke stack inside!

This is the little path down to the beach. Don't let it fool you. It looks nice, but it was LOADED with pricklies. We all knew not to go down it without flip-flops (or as we called them those days - thongs!) on.

This is the amazing, beautiful, sandy beach we enjoyed. Of course, most of the time it was another quarter-mile or so down to the water. The water was really high this year when I took the pictures. That big huge tree seems perfect right? Yeah, not so helpful when the water is so far away!

This is the view of our cabin from the road. Whoever saw our cabin first got a brownie point (we also got points if we saw the runaway truck ramp in the canyon, or the lake - first that is). We all fought over getting the brownie points, but they never did anything for us!

This is the Northwest corner of the lake. Our secret hot-spot for glassy water. It is the LAST place on the lake to get choppy. Only a short drive on the water from our cabin on the northeast shore. Only trouble was when it got choppy, it was already scary for us to drive back over the water near our cabin to get home. Our boat was tiny (absolutely perfect for waterskiing - no wake whatsoever), and we were always afraid of sinking it in a storm.

Emerald Beach - our subdivision - fitting for that beautiful beach right next to that beautiful emerald lake! Oh and see those lovely dumpsters? Yeah, that's where we dumped our garbage. No, that's not what I'm talking about. When I was almost sixteen my mom let me drive our suburban up to the dumpster to dump the trash, after my sister talked her into it. I did fine at first. Even stopped to open the gate. But when I drove toward the dumpster I got confused with the gas and brake pedals. I knew the difference, but I didn't realize how hard I needed to push the brake and worried that I was pressing the wrong pedal and went for the gas. I knocked one of those lovely dumpsters right over and into the fence!

Those are the hills behind our cabin - we biked and motorbiked those hills with our cousins.

I know, it's just a cattle-trap. But, my little sister Ace had some great one-liners, and this is where one of them occurred. We drove over this thing and my little sister yelled from the backseat "uh-oh! A tire popped!"

My other little sister Cse told us as we drove by this little cabin once (before it was boarded up) that there was a refrigerator in it. We all thought she was lying and my mom told her she'd buy her a raspberry shake if there was. As a matter of fact, there was actually a refrigerator in it a few years ago. I don't know where they got their electricity for it!

This is the little drive-in where we bought a lot of gas and rented lots of videos. I feel so archaic using that word.

So I want to be all eloquent writing this post. All these things have so much meaning to me. But like I've said, I'm not a writer - and I don't know how to share all the little details that mean so much to me. Maybe all these things are merely symbols of the happy things that I experienced growing up. Because my parents' divorce was so ugly and drawn out, sometimes all I can remember are the sad things. So the little happy things are what I want to remember and record for my children. Not because I don't want my children to think life isn't hard - but I want my children to know that there were happy times, even if I can't remember them, and that my parents are wonderful people. I want my siblings and I to be able to talk fondly of things past and gone. I want to remember that there were times where we were happy together as siblings when we were little.

So - here's some more random memories.

One night while we were enjoying a bonfire on the beach with our cousins, Ace (who was 3) walked over and said "That's a straight-up fire!"

We often played "steal the flag" with flashlights as flags on that ginormous beach. There used to be some barbed-wire fences along that beach and one night I tripped over some during the game. Being the little girl that I was, I totally milked it and made my big strong cousin carry me up to the cabin.

Since I have a summer birthday I LOVED taking friends to the lake for a birthday party. One year my lovely friends helped us row the boat in from the middle of the lake using waterski's. Our boat broke down a lot, but I was SUPER embarrassed that my friends had to do this for my birthday. The year I turned 16, a week before my birthday my mom still hadn't said anything about a birthday party so I attempted to make my own. All my friends said they were busy and I was super depressed about it. Then after one friend took me out to lunch on my birthday I came home to a whole gaggle of my friends waiting to go to the lake with me!

We had an old upright in the cabin, and my mom made us practice with her all summer. We often spent a week at a time at the lake, only driving home for violin lessons.

The cabin had one bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen, dining area, living room, a storage loft, and a sleeping loft. We managed to have 11 places to sleep there, plus a crib. And when I could talk my mom into pulling everything down from the storage loft I made my own bed in the storage loft. I thought I was so special up there.

On the days that were sunny, if the boat wasn't working, we'd spend hours playing in the sand and waves. We also managed to make little "hot-tubs" to soak in by digging out a shallow place for water and letting it heat up in the sun. One summer my cousin and  I built a whole island called "Drippia." It was made of sand castles that were "dripped" instead of built with buckets - Bear Lake sand is just right for that stuff.

We spent many nights sleeping on that grassy area looking at the stars. Or, when we could get our Uncle Rick to let us, we slept on the tennis court next to their cabin. Unfortunately for us, Rick was a little protective of his family time and tended to send us home more often than we liked. This and a few other things we didn't like as cousins led one of my cousins to coin the phrase "I HATE that Rick!" Nevertheless, we have exceedingly strong relationships with those Eyre cousins of ours.

I'm grateful my mom got a cabin (or a lakehouse as we like to call it - it's just not quite a cabin to us unless it's a little shack that we're afraid will burn down every time a lightning storm comes our way!) so that I can share the lake with my kids. I love Bear Lake. I do. I do. 
I'm grateful that I have an AWESOME little brother to be a good example to my boys! They got some quality time hanging out with him this summer.

And, as long as I shared a few of my sister Ace's one-liners - I think this an appropriate time to share my favorite one, even though it has nothing to do with Bear Lake. Our cousins from California came into town and didn't get to our house until about midnight. They came in and opened the freezer to discover that we had no ice cream in the house. They thought that was appalling and deciding to go straight down to the grocery store. My parents had let us all wait up for them - so we went down to the store with them. Ace was probably 2 at the time, and got to ride on my cousin's shoulders (all my cousins are exceedingly tall by the way). So anyway, as we walked down the beer aisle my cousin jokingly said to her "Ace, go get us some beer please." Apparently Ace had already learned well that beer was not something we drank (or ate!) because she shouted at the top of her little lungs (which were the strongest set in our family) that "Sorry, we don't eat beer!" The couple that was selecting their beer behind us gave a little laugh and went on their merry way.

Just Happy

We've been having some major meltdowns in the afternoons. Cpc gets TOTALLY disregulated and starts going crazy. Cdc starts whining up a storm. I start losing my temper. Pmc gets home and I'm hoping for some relief, while he's thinking "I'm tired from working all day." All I can think is "me too - how in the world is this cycle ever going to change!"

And then today happened. Cpc started doing headstands on the couch, falling over on Cdc multiple times making him whine. I was trying to send off a quick important email. Then I stopped. What in the world am I doing? This email is not as important as my kids. I always told myself that I would make that choice when I became a parent. So today I did. Today I stopped what I was doing and asked Cpc if he'd like a snack.

MAGIC! His whole face lit up and I could tell he knew I love him.

Hopefully I can pull this kind of magic every afternoon now!

Leading my first Power of Moms Workshop

Ready to become the mom you really want to be? Want to have fun while learning from other moms?

Come enjoy laughter, learning and light refreshments at an unforgettable gathering that just might change your life in some very important ways.

What: A fabulous Power of Moms Workshop: Boundaries, Balance and Becoming - Taking Care of the "Me" in the Mom

When: Thursday October 13 7:00-8:30pm (hopefully you can get your husband or a babysitter to put your kids to bed! Babes in arms are of course welcome!)

Where: Sprague Library in the basement meeting room - 2131 S. 1100 E. SLC, UT 84106

Who: Tenille Eyre Cundick, a Certified Power of Moms Trainer, will be leading this workshop. The workshop will be limited to a small, intimate group so that we can have some really great discussions and really learn from each other.

Price: FREE

Register by sending an email to tenille.cundick@powerofmoms.com so we can get you on our list and secure your spot. Since space is very limited, act fast!

Seven Peaks

We managed to get the Pass of All Passes before summer started and we've been having a BLAST at the waterpark all summer, whenever we weren't at Bear Lake. Sheesh, I make it sound like all we've done is play all summer. I make it sound like we have no money, which we don't, but when I post all this stuff I sure recognize my blessings. We were able to have a lot of fun this summer for a very low price, and I am so grateful for that.

Cpc really needed all that water play - it really helped his sensory issues. He's been pretty well-regulated all summer. I don't know what we'll do when winter hits. No, I do, it will just be a little harder. Anyway, cdc overcame his clinginess this summer too, and I attribute it entirely to us forcing him on a couple of water-slides until he loved it and realized that it was okay to try things that scared him.

Pmc and I really enjoyed just helping the kids to enjoy things, but we did find a little time here and there to enjoy a few non-kid-friendly slides ourselves!

Aunt Cse is going on a Mission!

My little sister has decided to serve a mission for our church. She received her mission call while she was in Germany this summer. She has been called to the Spain Barcelona Mission. We are so excited for her! We will certainly miss having her around - but I know that serving a mission will bless her and her family the rest of her life. She will be leaving in November, but while our other sister was in town she went ahead and spoke in church at the ward we went to growing up. I felt the spirit as she spoke, and I can tell she has a strong testimony. I know she'll make a wonderful difference in the lives of those she will serve. Afterwards we had a little get together at the park with family and friends.

Don't you just love that little 3-year-old in the front picking his nose? We're working on that.

Also, before Cdee and her family left to go back to SD, we took a picture of Cse with the kids! Too bad we were missing the M family!!!!

Power of Moms Couples Retreat

"Wow! I tell you what! WOW!"

Anyone know what that's from? My favorite movie! But that has nothing at all to do with this retreat. I have lots of other things to blog about right now - but I have to get this in real quick.

Pmc and I went to the Power of Moms Couples Retreat this weekend. It was absolutely AMAZING!!!!! Remember back when I talked about how awesome the first retreat I went to was? Well, it was even better to get to go over this stuff with my husband.

The best part for everyone who might be reading this however, is that they are really working to make the stuff we learned available online. See, this is not just a money-making venture - but the Power of Moms is really about helping moms (and dads and families) to become their best!

After coming home from the retreat last time I set to work getting organized and implementing some new parenting techniques - and it worked. Mostly. The only thing I really struggled with was helping Pmc to understand just what I was trying to do. He could definitely see that things were drastically improved - but I couldn't ever quite help him understand exactly what I had learned. But now? Now we're on the same page. It's not just that we learned new techniques, we learned principles and then we're deciding how to best implement them for OUR family.

In fact, without me trying to talk Pmc into anything, we decided together to spend our date night tonight implementing some of our "Mind Organization" stuff. I previously attempted to help Pmc get the organization principles I had learned - but he just said it wasn't his style and wouldn't work for him. But now, now he gets it and he's all in! I can't wait to see how it does work for him. We'll let you know!

I don't have any pictures because I was busy helping - but you can go the website or my cousin's blog. There's even a closeup of Pmc and I in the last collage on that last link.

I don't really consider myself a great writer, or I would write articles for the website. But I am going to put in some effort into adding the the "deliberate mothering tips." I'll let you know when I get that far. I feel like The Power of Moms has really helped me blossom as a mother. I am grateful that they are making strong efforts to spread the message to as many families as possible by making lots of stuff available online as well as programs for people who want to go to retreats/workshops but can't afford it!

The Cabin Suite

So, after our fun at Bear Lake my sister and her family went up to her husband's family cabin up Weber Canyon. We all went up to enjoy the other half of our family reunion with my dad.

We pretty much rode horses and ate good food. And that was enough for us! Cpc was THRILLED about riding Millie the horse. He went on two one-hour rides, and absolutely loved both of them. On one of our rides we saw a herd of elk. It was amazing. I love the Aspen trees in that canyon. If I'm not at Bear Lake, I want to be in a grove of aspen trees. They make me happy.


Now let me just discuss this last picture for a moment. This was my attempt to capture something that's been happening lately. My sweet little Cpc is turning into his dad. Have I mentioned in the past how my husband is a complete gentleman and I love it? I adore him. Well, my little Cpc has become Mister Gentleman. I don't think he's being coached either. I think he's just observing his dad. He brings me flowers every time he finds them. And because I'm watching a tv show right now with my honey while I'm typing this, I can't for the life of me think of other examples. But it's happening, by little boy is becoming a little gentleman. I couldn't be happier about it either.

Anyway, so I don't have any pictures somehow of our time at the Cundick cabin which is also up Weber Canyon. But we had a blast there too. We had some great time with family, great food, and great games. The kids played to their hearts' content with each other. Once again, making my heart happy by getting that awesome time with cousins.

So quick story here. Pmc's grandfather is a composer. He wrote a five-movement piece called "The Cabin Suite" inspired by the family cabin. When I was in high school I was in a community orchestra which Pmc's grandfather selected to "premiere" his Cabin piece. My stand partner and I were best friends and sat at the back of the orchestra. We weren't the most focused violinists in the group. Anyway, she and I are pretty classical violinists - perfectly comfortable with tonal harmony. The Cabin Suite wasn't exactly tonal harmony, so we really didn't like playing that piece. It makes me laugh to look back and think about the fact that all that time we spent practicing that piece, and performing it all across Europe for that matter, I was actually in a very real way connecting with my future husband. Now it's very easy for me to comprehend just what the love for that cabin is in this family!