Can't it still be April 22 just for me?

I really didn't forget Brandon's birthday post. There were too many things that kept me away from doing it on that day. So for posterities sake, (and so he wont wonder why I love everyone else more than him) I am going to do one a little late...no need for belated comments from you (unless you don't want him to wonder some day why you don't love him as much as everyone else...)

11 things you MIGHT not know about Brandon:

1. He has been riding a 2 wheeler for 8+ years. That would make him not even 3 years old. He wasn't even out of diapers yet. (But he was out of those by 3!) That little feat would lead us to believe that he was a genius. That belief would soon be dispelled when he turned 4 and...
2. He had a hard time learning from his mistakes as a youngster. After replacing 3 windshields of various people's cars in our appartment complex, fixed the scratches on two, and over a thousand dollars later, his mom sure learned from her mistakes and had him on house arrest until he was 8. Then he was at the age of accountability and it was on his head.

3. Since he was the only boy in our family he is grateful for a little sister who is not into all the girly stuff. In fact she is the first one to tell everyone she meets that she is half Tom Boy. They have been the best of friends since she was old enough to play cars with him. There have been many times she has had to teach him how to be brave and tough. He is amazed by her. (Oh yeah, this is not about Megan.)

4. He is playing baseball for the first time this year. (Well second but we will not count T-ball...) He is doing really well and his team has won 3/4 games. He has a passion for it and if you can't find him, try checking out in the pasture. He will be there with his shadow playing catch or hitting balls.
5. He just earned his weeblos and arrow of light.
6. He is allergic to milk. It makes him cough all night, he will have asthma symptoms from it.
7. He hates to see anyone get into trouble. He will often ask to take their punishment. A little example...The other day Megan was mad at him and refused to do her chores before school. I told her that she would be grounded for the weekend if she did not get them done before it was time to leave. Brandon jumped right in and started to do them for her. Did she deserve it? NO. But he couldn't stand the thought of her being grounded...
8. He has the biggest heart of anyone I know. He is always the peacemaker in our house.
9. When he was little he declared that the only way he would go on a mission is if I could come with him.

10. His heart was broken as a young child when he had learned that his baby sister had fallen down the stairs. His older sister was expressing how she had wished that it was herself that had fallen and not Alexis. Brandon piped right in and agreed with her..."Me too Jordan. I wished it it was you and not her." Very sincere, but he wasn't about to volunteer himself.
11. Like above he does not think much before he speaks and often finds himself saying things that do not sit well with his older sister. One day while we were driving we were discussing how old Jordan was. The younger ones were trying to remember if she was 7 or 8. She was not thrilled with the conversation and smarted off to them. I tried to jump in and stop what would soon become a huge argument and gently reminded them that she was 8 and they should have remembered that because she had been baptized. I then turned to Jordan and told her that she could have been nicer and asked her "what are we going to do with you!?!?" Brandon came up with a brilliant idea and blurted out..."maybe we just need to dunk her again!"

Well I could go on and on but I will stop there. Hopefully you got to know him a little bit better. He is truly one great kid. (After we got it in to his head that it is not fun to get into trouble for breaking windshields and scratching cars with rocks, and a plethora of other naughty things.) I look forward to many more years of being his mom!

Happy Birthday boy!

Spring is Springing

We couldn't help ourselves. We enjoyed our first nice day to its fullest Saturday. The kids listened when I said, "oh go fly a kite!"


But did not listened when I said, "stay away from the power lines!"

The husband quickly obeyed when I said, "burn it all!"




The plants and flowers obeyed when I said, "show yourselves!"




The hot dogs cooked and sizzled and smelled so yummy when I said, "feed us!"





Lucy did NOT listen when I said, "NO, NO!"



The roof did not listen when I said "hide yourself!"
Thus you get to see my other half while I tell the clothes to "hang themselves." They did not listen.


No there is no crack there!

oNcE uPoN a VERY LoNg TiMe aGo...

...there was this child princess

who lived in a castle on top of the world.

=

She lived a carefree life and she often danced around the nearby meadow with the butterflies and birds.

She had many animal friends, her favorite being a dog named Skyler.

This princess also had many wonderful sisters but none so fantastic as her favorite sister .

The princess and her sister could often be found with their make believe princes who would take them to their kingdoms far, far away. When the princess wanted to go back to the castle on top of the world, her favorite sister would insist on staying for one moment more.

Because this was her favorite sister, she couldn't help but oblige. In fact this act of peacemaking was often how the story would play out; when Favorite Princess Sister wanted something, the princess of this story gave it to her. NEVER the other way around. It is said around the land that this is where she grew her giving heart.

As she grew older, she was often found giving all she had to others who did not have. "Oh you want my wallet? Here take my car too." When it was noted that this was not enough, she gave them the key to her house as well.

This princess was blessed with a prince who was better than any of the princes of her imagination (Trust me. Favorite Princess Sister never liked them much. They were never good enough for her. Especially the one with dark hair that would never go away.)

The new queen and king moved out of the Castle on top of the World to a castle in a very hot land. They were soon (very soon) blessed with 4 very young and very handsome princes.

The king and princes are the love of her life and she gives them everything she has. The neighbors are also pretty special to her and they are often the recipients of her giving heart.

The strangers and robbers must also be pretty special to her as her home used to be open to them on many occasions. Favorite Sister has educated Queen that this is not a good idea and King has now stocked their house with many guns and swords, and uzzies, and hand grenades with lots of shrapnel, and tear gas, and pellet guns, and alarm systems (the cops have been training and they can be to her house in 0.6 seconds), and dead bolts, (they used to have a ferocious dog but he was too dangerous even to the family) and her giving heart will not give any of it to you, even if you ask.

That part of the story being told, I will now tell you the rest of the story...

This is the princess-turned-queen's birthday and she does not know it yet, but she is NOT getting the trip to Hawaii that she asked Favorite Sister for, nor is she getting the suburban that would fit her growing family in, or the castle on top of the world (as that is Favorite Sister's right now and if you remember from the story that Favorite Sister does not have a giving heart), or any of the five kids of Favorite Sister as per above and also because they are ungivable (unless she dies from shrapnel wounds in the middle of the night when she is staying at her house). Favorite Sister does not know what Queen is getting for her 38th birthday, but she REALLY hopes she has the best birthday ever. She CAN give her that (and the three hours of precious Saturday morning time that it took to write this post. Every minute of it worth it!)!

hApPy BiRtHdAy Older-Sister-Than-Me! (The older part NOT being a good thing!)

He-he- he, ho-ho-ho, yadda-yadda-yadda, yo-yo-yo! (ok, I now turn the time over to birthday girl!)

Spiritual Feast

After this weekend and the previous unforgettable (for many reasons) weekend, I feel like my cup is running over with the almost tangible love that my Heavenly Father has for me. There were so many delightful and informative things that I heard from our beloved prophet and church leaders but just as impressing are the things that I heard from the spirit.

I was telling my children after conference about the difference between feelings that come from Satan and the feelings that come from our Heavenly Father. The last couple of months have been a very hard adjustment as I have tried to juggle a full time job with being a full time mom and if you add that up there are not enough hours in the day to cover those two jobs. I was not being a good visiting teacher even though I encouraged others to be, I haven't been to the temple in many months and my house was falling apart. Things were really piling up and I felt bankrupt. Of course there were all the thoughts that came with that of guilt, despair, feelings of not being good enough and just wanting to give up everything. As I listened to conference, I had a whole different feeling. As I listened to the speakers talk I was gently reminded of the things that I needed to be doing. It was in no way the same feelings I had been experiencing. Instead I felt a resounding YES, you are right, I need to be doing those things! And I walked away with a great desire to do them. What a difference and mighty change of heart. I have truly feasted this weekend.

Last weekend I braved the unknown and went into the BIG city. As I have told before it was scary and unnerving. But I promised to tell you the second half. I was actually waiting for Jordan to tell it because she wanted to but never got to it.

As we got in and found our seat I was finally able to relax and look around at the beautiful conference center. I started to feel the spirit so strong. The meeting was so beautiful and Jordan and I both had tears through most of the meeting. That was worth the nightmare of getting there to see my daughter so touched; But how could she not be? The talks were all focused on Heavenly Father's love for us and I felt like I got to have His arms around me for just a moment. The choir was amazing; much more so than just watching it on TV. It came to an end all too soon and people were getting up to leave before the last song. The anxiety kicked in and I almost grabbed Jordan so we could make a mad dash, but for some reason I stayed there. It was a song for the audience to join in on and I could hardly sing. I felt like there were angels there singing with us, but as I did sing I almost felt like I was shouting out the words, because that is what I felt like doing. I had to look around and make sure that no one was giving me dirty looks for drowning out everyone else.

As we left we got to be a part of another event that I would have missed if I had run from it like I wanted to earlier. We were swept out the door by a SEA of beautiful young women and their mothers in dresses who had braved the trip to be here. That was another testimony to Jordan and I of the truthfulness of this gospel. It was a beautiful sight to behold. I tried to get pictures of it but I did not do it justice. We watched as people came out of the conference center and fill the streets. It reminded me of ants that filled any available space as they moved along. People in cars were taking pictures with their phones and someone from out of state stopped to ask what event this was. I felt so good inside as someone answered that we were coming from the General Conference. She didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but I bet she never forgot that sight. It was beautiful.

The 1-1/2 hour ride home was also priceless (after we got back on the freeway). Jordan and I got to have one of those heart to hearts were I got to explain many of life's mysteries to her. She shared many things with me and I cringed as I thought of what I would have missed out on if I had talked her into staying home.

I can crop. Can you?

So I was given some cropping lessons and while I am not trying to make my cropping teacher look bad I am going to show off my skills but in a backwards kind of way. I took a great picture of my parent's house that I would like to share. You see they have not yet seen the new roof that was so generously redone for them while they have been away so...

I wanted to share that last. Here is the end result of my cropping. Not too bad eh?

And now the original.
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Come on you did not expect me to really show you the roof did ya?

Help and prayers for this little girl

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