This is what happens when,,,,

This is what happens when we have olives with dinner...

This is what happens when Doug lays down on the floor...

This is what happens when I tell Silas to get out of the clothes....another one joins him!

Sounds of Today

I woke up to Doug saying, "Sharlene!" Followed by groans of pain. He has had a tight neck, and he really tightened up and was having spasms in his upper back. The blender whirred and grinded as I made him a smoothie to get potassium and calcium in him, along with ibuprophen and Tylenol. Pain-a-trate and a heating pad seemed to make it bearable. 

I left the boys and Doug to the sounds of "rockadoodle" and went outside to have the wind rushing by my ears for three miles of running.

Sounds of happy laughter and my boys playing together are sounds that make me smile. I hear them announce, "...And the winner is....Brigham!" Followed by a smaller voice saying, "and da winner is me....Silas!"

"Uh, uh, uh!" Is the sound Adam makes when he wants something I have, like granola. 

There are also sounds throughout the day that make me want to plug my ears. Like the screaming and the "waaah's", but the cute little sad faces make it almost entertaining. 

The night ended with some very sweet sounds. Silas's prayer, "fankee (thank Thee) for ows (our) home and....dinner and...cookies". Adam's sweet laughter while I was singing to him. He kept putting his hands in my mouth so I would quickly turn my head away and turn back to look at him and he would erupt with giggles. Good night!

Funny and Sweet Valentine Surprises

A few days ago, Doug took the laptop and sat on the couch to do his homework (so I assumed). I ran outside to finally pick up the beach toys that were blown around our yard that the boys used to play in the snow with. A little shovel was blown right in front of the window that Doug was sitting by. I picked up the shovel and decided to knock on the window right behing him and say, "hi". He turned around with some wide eyes in surprise and then gave a really sweet smile. I thought, "oh what a cute smile!" But there was something a little funny about it because I wasn't expecting him to really smile like that. 

Valentine's Day as we head out on our date, Doug reveals his gifts to me. One very special gift was that he printed out our wedding pictures and put them in an album we got for our wedding (you'd think that we would have gotten around to it after nearly six years). I was so happy and so surprised! Then he asked me, "so, you didn't see what I was doing?" He then explained that he took the laptop to sit on the couch so that he could hide his surprise of getting the wedding pictures ready. So, then when all of a sudden I pop right up behind him, he thought he was caught in the act! Then he just smiled to pretend like nothing was suspicious. Ha ha ha! I laughed so hard when he told me...I knew there was something funny about that smile!

My surprise for him was heart-attacking his car. I put hearts on different parts of the inside of his car like on the heater the heart said, "you are hot!" On the cruise button,"let's cruise baby!" And other cute and cheesy stuff. I left him a chocolate strawberry and cologne. He was happy. Oh! I also put a song on so it would turn on when he started driving. I was a little nervous about it though because Doug had just gotten an email from the principal saying, "make sure you lock your doors because suspicious behavior has been seen in our parking lot". Well, I hope tho one saw me getting into Doug's car and thinking that was suspicious!

We enjoyed a nice date. We were going to go to Texas Roadhouse, but the wait was 1 1/2 hours! So we went to Red Robbin then the Saratov Approach. It was nice. Happy Valentine's Day! 

Black-eyed Brigham

Brigham was so excited when Daddy came home with the prizes he had earned from doing the fundraiser. He got a remote control helicopter, a nano bug, and a spiky ball that lights up. 

We had a short family home evening and then went to support Doug at his basketball game. During the half-time, Brigham's head collided with his friend's head while they were running around. Brigham happened to hit at the perfect wrong spot above his eye to get a popped blood vessel and a very swollen eye. Youch! I ran outside to get a snowball and put it in a bag to ice it. I didn't watch the second half of Doug's game because I was preoccupied with my little Brigham. But Doug's team won easily

Our FHE treat was kiwi loco. The boys really enjoy picking their flavor and toppings. It's fun! 

It was sure sweet to cuddle with Brigham tonight. He will have a nice shiner for show and tell tomorrow!

Little Miracles and Russia Olympics

Brigham is fever free, lungs are clear, and hasn't been coughing!  I am so grateful that he is better.  I love little miracles.  They happen every day of our lives.  Sometimes we don't see them because they are disguised as trials.  But, there are indeed little miracles (and Big miracles) happening every day.  Some people call them tender mercies. 

These cold fevers have been replaced with other fevers....one is olympic fever!  We have only watched a few events, but Brigham has already started earning his own medals.  He built is own slope-style snowboarding track out of printer paper and toilet paper then showed me how he "boarded" down it by jumping from paper to paper while making sound effects with his mouth. 

Doug doesn't have the Olympic fever, but I would say he has contracted Russian fever.  He speaks Russian, you see, so the sounds of the Russian dialect he has heard from the opening ceremonies and hearing a missionary's testimony who just returned from Moscow has awakened him to want to talk and sing in Russian more.  He even made us Blini for breakfast on Saturday which is a Russian version of crepes.  It's cute. I love my Russian Man!

It is a Privilege to be a Mom

My little Brigham was born premature and due to that his lungs have not been as strong. This cold has been hard on his lungs. He is super wheezy and has been coughing like crazy. He received a priesthood blessing which brought a sweet spirit into my heart. I was able to feel what a strong and noble spirit Brigham has. He is a special son of Heavenly Father. This morning Silas got up and said, "I want a bessing". He ran to the chair that Brigham sat in the day before and waited patiently. I had the strong feeling that it is such a privelege to be the mother of these special boys. They are sons of God. I get to love them and teach them every day. I take that back...they teach me every day!

Happy Snow Day! (I mean wind chill day)

We have been little hermits this week, the little boys and I. Brigham and Silas have been sick so we have stayed inside to keep our germs to ourself. Well, school was cancelled today and daddy got to be home.(well, sort of. He did a lot of errands). So we went out today! We went to Lowes to look at water heaters so we raced down the wide aisles in the racecar cart! We went to Costa Vida and Kiwi Loco! Adam has been playing dress up all day with daddy's stuff. He loves to put on daddy's things and he just says, "da da, da da" when he wears it. We cut off some carpet in Brigham's room a couple days ago and he hasn't wanted to sleep in that room since. Today we convinced him, but while I was reading Silas a story, Brigham got about six blankets to lay down over the cement to make him feel better. He was really worried about the poky carpet strips on the edge of the room that were exposed. He thought his little brothers were going to tear up their feet. I said, "Brigham, you don't need to worry." He said, "yes I do! I'm the big brother!"