I Can't Believe I Have a 6 year-old!

Babies grow up so fast! Wow! Do I really have a 6-year-old? Here is a little spotlight on our Birthday Boy.

 He is such a smart boy. He is progressing in his reading really well and he is able to play games with Doug and I like Sequence, mancala, and quirkle. He beats me half the time at connect 4. His math skills for his age are crazy! He has a talent; I mean he has been putting together puzzles since he was 2!

He is my coordinated little sports man. He loves basketball, soccer, baseball, football. You name it. He has loved being on his junior jazz team the last couple of months. Whenever it's nice outside he wants to shoot hoops, kick goals, or bat at balls (with a plastic bat, but he just got his first real bat). 

Brigham is also my little artist. He loves to cut, color, and create. He can entertain himself with crayons or markers for an hour. 

Brigham is a tender-hearted boy.  He really cares about doing things right. He likes to please others. He is a sweet boy!

Doug and I enjoyed taking Brigham out to eat tonight. It was a special date with just him. It really felt special and allowed me to feel of Brigham's sweet spirit. We sure love our Brigham and are so grateful for him. He adds great depth to out family. Happy Birthday, Brigham!

Mom and Sons' Little Adventure

Thursday, February 19, 2015

 It is a real struggle at times to figure out a plan of something fun to do with the kids. I hang out with them all day, every day. Sometimes I would rather do the dishes than play with my kids. Which is really sad. 

Today I think I did a few things right though. It feels good to have a day like this now and then. It started bright and early in the morning when I took the two youngest to story time and then picked out 20 books from the library. 

When my kindergartener got home they all wanted stories. We read book after book. We already got through half of them. 

It was time to get outside though. I was kind of put off by the wind and suggested we go back inside, but they still wanted to play outside. So we grabbed the kite! We had fun trying to get it in the air and we eventually did and it stayed up for a few minutes before it came crashing down.

After that, our real adventure started. We just began venturing out and ended up walking across the field and I remembered our neighbors (3/4 mile away) just had baby goats. So my little troopers trucked across the dirt for just under a mile to see baby goats. We climbed in and out of dry canals and over dead trees. I put them through quite the little adventure. 

When we got home, I let them help me make fruit pizza. It takes patience to let kids help with things, but the times I do let them help, it feels worth it. I enjoyed being with my boys today! 

Expressing Gratitude for the Angels in my Life

There are so many wonderful women that surround me that have come to my rescue and dropped what they were doing to help me recently. They literally have been my guardian angels. I really want to express appreciation to them and let them know how much they have helped and blessed me. 

In this pregnancy, I have had a small hemorrhage which has caused worry, confusion, fear, and pain. (However, let me reassure you that everything is fine). 

When I had the first symptoms of this hemorrhage, I of course thought I was having a miscaairrage. I was devasted and didn't want to get out of bed until i had to go to the Dr.  My visiting teachers were the angels for me on this day. One of them brought my kids lunch, played and babysat them for four hours, and also ended up rescuing my husband from getting his car stuck sliding into a ditch. My other visiting teacher showed up with dinner that night. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. 

I ran to the Dr's again because I was worried about symptoms I was having. My sister came to my rescue this time. She came and watched the boys on such short notice. What an awesome sister! 

A third time I went to the doctor because of horrible constant cramping. This time I took the kids but I was supposed to pick up the kindergarten carpool. I wouldn't be able to do that because the appointment was taking a long time. I called a wonderful friend who said she would pick up the kids and take Brigham home with her. When I came to pick Brigham up, she said, "drop off your other kids and go home and take a nap". She just offered to take all of my kids for a few hours so I could get some rest. Not to mention that she has taken my shift for carpool like six times. This friend is amazing! She is literally a guardian angel to me and many others.

Our family also came down with the flu earlier this year. We had a few angels take care of us then too. 

A dear woman came to be with the younger two (she even left her service shift to come) while I took Brigham to see the Dr due to a 105 degree fever. 

My sister brought us dinner when the other boys came down with it too. Wow!

I also feel grateful that my mother-in-law could watch the boys when I had to work recently. 

I can go on and on. I continue to be amazed at such compassion and care from these women. These women have their own families to take care of and yet, they take care of others as well. I am so grateful for these women!!! These angels!

Five things I love about each of my kids

To be truthfully honest, I could probably easily list a ton of things that my kids do that bother me. However, these kids are the most precious little people in my life. I love them a whole heap!!!

Brigham: 

1. He is smart enough to play games with even if they are for 10 and up.

2. He can entertain himself with drawing or coloring for a while.

3. He can be super helpful when he is in the mood.

4. He is very sweet and sensitive. He has a very caring heart.

5. He writes me notes all the time that say, "I love you." And he likes to bring Doug and I breakfast in bed when we try to sleep in til 8am. It usually consists of toast, yogurt, and a banana. 

Silas:

1. Silas makes me laugh. He says things like: "hey, can you smell something under your bed? If you can smell something under your bed it's me! Can you smell me?"

2. Ok, I just think he has the cutest face. I love his face!

3. He can make others feel loved and can be super sweet. They each got a chocolate bar from their Grandma for valentines day. Brigham was eating his in front of his little brothers and they were asking if he would share. Brigham refused. Finally Silas ran downstairs to get his and shared a piece with Adam. 

4. I love his imagination. 

5. He tells me frequently, "Mom, I will always love you."

Adam:

1. Listening to Adam talk makes me happy. He has a cute voice and he says the cutest things. 

2. He is a little comforter. When I want some comfort, Adam  will snuggle with me and it really makes me feel better.

3. He is a pretty happy kid.

4. He puts up with his big brothers and will even dish it back at times.

5. I like to much his cheeks.

First of February Fun

You wouldn't know it was February with all this beautiful weather!! The sun is warming our health and attitudes. It seemed that the majority of January we stayed inside, away from people, kept our flu germs and other germs to ourself. I started to feel a little gloomy. But, what a wonderful gift we have had in February. The sun has been shining, inviting us to go outside and feel fresh air and breathe in happiness. 

We took a walk around the greenbelt and some ducks came flying to us from the river. They landed right at our feet and were following us on our walk for a little ways. I am sure they just wanted us to feed them, but we can pretend that they liked us and wanted to be our friends. 

It's also basketball season. We sure have enjoyed watching our cute little junior jazz player. Brigs simply lives for basketball right now. He relates every day to being so many days before his game or practice. 

We haven't taken the boys to the movie theatre in a LONG time. We took them to the cheap theatre to see Big Hero 6. We also got them their own little bags of popcorn (FYI, the popcorn at The Pramount is so much better than Edward's and it's like $4 cheaper!)with a drink and a tootsie roll. They were in heaven. Silas was relaxed in his own chair with the booster seat munching popcorn and happy as a clam. He wants to go back to the theatre real soon!

Hope everyone is enjoying their February too. Here is to more fun the rest of the month!

Brigham's Basketball

Brigham has been waiting for a long time for it to be his turn to be the one playing basketball and for people to watch him play. For the four previous years he has enjoyed watching his aunt play college ball. When it was her last game he said, "I am going to be the next Bitter basketball player and everyone can come see my games"

This Brigham basketball boy has had two basketball games. He is playing in the Jr. Jazz league with K-2nd grade coed on his team. His first game he even scored a basket! He sure gets excited for every game. When one gets over he says, "I can't wait for next Saturday!" 

Brigham is really good at passing to his teammates and dribbles down the court sometimes. He knows who he is supposed to be guarding and takes that defensive job very seriously. It's fun and entertaining to watch these kids play. Love it!

Prayers for Potty

I

So, this 3 1/2 year-old I have been wanting to potty train but he was just not interested. There is just no way to try with Silas if the interest isn't there because it's not going to happen. But when will the interest happen? 

So, I started to pray nearly every night for Silas to desire to be potty trained and that he can understand how is body works that way. One day he finally said, "Mom, I want to go potty." I was like "you want to go potty?!" He said, "yeah". So we got him settled on the potty. I noticed that he had a tiny bit of poop in his diaper and thought he must have more to do. So I bribed him with chocolate chips to sit there until something happened. Well, after a little while....he started to smile and looked at me and said, "it's working!" Sure enough! He got a small something out. 

Right after that he wanted to wear underwear. So I let him wear big boy underwear for the rest of the day. The amazing thing is that he kept his underwear dry and clean for the rest of the day. The wierd thing is that he never went pee; he only pooped small amounts the rest of the day. He went to bed with a diaper on and sure enough woke up with a very wet diaper. 

This day was Saturday and we let Silas wear underwear again. Well he had accident after accident after accident and by the end of the day he was crying that it was too hard and he wanted his diapers. "Oh great" I thought, "now it's going to be a long time before he wants to do this again". 

Sunday he wore diapers all day and was happy and comfortable with that. 

Monday morning as I was changing his first diaper, I asked if he wanted diapers or underwear. He chose underwear. I explained that wearing underwear means he has to sit on the potty a lot during the day and try to keep them dry and clean. He said, "ok". 

After he drank some apple juice and some water I was sure he would need to go potty. So I sat him on the potty and read stories to him for about a half hour with nothing happening. I was worried he didn't understand how to do it on demand. He sat down several different times and nothing worked. I kept praying over and over for him to be blessed with the understanding of how it worked. Finally at 1pm he said, "I think I need to go potty." I said, "ok you go and do it by yourself. Maybe you just need to be by yourself." He went in the bathroom and then I heard the tinkle of potty in the toilet! I was so excited and so grateful!!! I know Heavenly Father answered my prayers that day. The awesome thing is that was all it took. He has kept his underwear dry and clean every day this week. Hooray! I am so grateful for having him potty trained. Prayers are answered even when you pray for potty.