My Favorite Things... About My Boys

I guess first off I should state the general news and state of things. We have accepted an offer on our house and, as long as everything goes smoothly, should close at the end of May. At which point, we will be homeless. Unless we land a job between now and then, we will probably head out to Colorado and stay with family til things get settled. We think. :) For one who does NOT enjoy change or uncertainty, I'm handling things fairly well, most of the time. Anyhoo, on to part two... the menfolk.

Calvin

1. His smile. It is quick to surface, and adorable. He has a dimple on his left cheek that I love.

2. The fact that he always has a smile for me. He's definitely a mama's boy, and that's okay with me.

3. He has recently started to crawl and he also has gotten more daring with pulling himself up on things. Just tonight he pulled himself up to standing on one of the kitchen chairs. I love how proud of himself he is when he does it!

4. Baby noises. He loves to hear himself, and is delighted when you copy his sound back to him. Keeps life interesting when he starts it up during Relief Society when he's bored and tired.

5. I love his laugh. He is delighted with so many things and laughs so readily.

6. He adores his sisters. They are fascinating. And he puts up with their "care" fairly well too. He also loves his dad, and laughs and loves to play with him.

7. I have a weakness for how he says "Ma-ma-ma-ma" when he is sad and crying. Even when I'm frustrated with him, it's hard to stay that way when he's calling me (even if I'm not completely sure that he knows he's calling me). He also sticks his bottom lip out in the classic pout, and I'm a sucker for it.

8. He loves to wrestle with me. I think this might be the only time when I can hold my own with him... as soon as he gets bigger that will have to be daddy's job, but right now it's fun. He loves to be swung around and held upside-down above me, just gets a kick out of it. And he's extremely ticklish, which is fun. As I said before, I love his giggles.

9. He's definitely a boy, and I love it. I was so nervous about having a boy, but Calvin is so fun. He has an affinity for balls and cars. He will watch cars drive up and down the street while we are outside, and he has already started pushing toy cars around on the floor--he knows exactly what to do with them. And he loves his little foam soccer balls, he will chase them all over the house.

10. Calvin loves to snuggle. When he is tired he will lay his head on my shoulder, tuck his arms in, and go to sleep. I can tell he's really tired when he does that instead of sucking his thumb. He also likes me to sing to him, which is kind of fun.

John

1. John is an amazing father. He is so great with the kids. He adores them, and they know he adores them. And they adore him back, because of it.

2. He can make me laugh. He can make me laugh when I want to scream. I'm still not sure how he does it. But he's a lifesaver.

3. John doesn't worry about things. He sees no reason why he can't take the girls camping that night (no matter that he thought of it two hours before) or why he can't decide Friday night to have a garage sale in the morning. And somehow, even though I see lots of reason why not, he'll pull it off. He balances me out pretty well that way. Spontaneity is not my strong suit.

4. He does so many things around the house, just quietly. The garbage is always taken out, the dishwasher unloaded, even the shower cleaned. I'm very very lucky.

5. He can tell when I've had it with the kids. He will gather every one up, and go for a walk, or take them outside, or something so I can get a few minutes of quiet, or a nap. This was a lifesaver when I was pregnant with Calvin, and would happen every other day.

6. John is an amazing handyman. Things that I think we will just have to throw out or give up on, he fixes. This goes for anything from the microwave to the car door. He just sees how things work (or how they should).

7. John loves kids. This partly goes with him being a good dad, but it's more than that. He teaches primary kids (Emily's class) and they love him. He's so good at making things understandable to kids, getting on their level and including them in whatever is going on. He's very patient and good at teaching them.

8. He loves to be busy. Sometimes, this drive me crazy, but I do admire his work ethic. He gets so much done!

9. John sacrifices so much for our family. He put up with a miserable job for over a year in order to provide for out family and keep things stable for us. And then he would be so great about letting me go out every so often and get a night out while he put the kids to bed.

10. Most importantly, John strives so hard to do what is right. He is dedicated with scriptures and prayer, and teaching those to our children. His heart and his priorities are in the right place, and he keeps our little family on track and moving the right direction. I love you, John. Thank you.

My Favorite Things...About My Girls

My friend Brianne did a post of her favorite things about her kids, and I thought it was so cute I'm going to copy it. These are listed not in any particular order, just as they came to me. FYI, I'm putting up pictures of my kids when they were babies, just so you don't get confused... :)

Emily

1. Emily is the best big sister. She is going to be a little mom to her younger siblings, which can be both good and bad, I guess. Mostly it's good, though. She looks out for Kimmie and loves to help with Calvin.

2. Emily is extremely obedient. She is less so now since she is coming into her own and knows her own mind more, but she still listens pretty well. If she is playing outside and I tell her not to go past the mailbox on her bike, she will dutifully turn around right at the mailbox and come back. I am glad she is the oldest, she is a great example to her younger siblings.

3. Emily loves puzzles. She is very detail-oriented and discerning so she's very good at them. We had a 500 piece puzzle out and she sat and helped Grandma Durrans for over an hour. She can see where the pieces go and how they fit. There was a part that was just blurry grass and she even found where a few of those went.

4. She is an artist. I don't know how old kids normally pick up on colors and how to use them, but she knows to color leaves green, skin pink, wood brown, etc. She also uses the whole paper. When she colors with her pastels/crayons, she covers the entire paper with color. I love that she's not afraid of color, and not afraid to use the space. And she LOVES to paint.

5. Emily also seems to have a math mind. She can see four or five objects and count them in her head, and can work out in her mind how many are needed to have so many more or things like that. It is fun to see her mind work.

6. I love how her mind works. She's really putting things together, asking how things work, taking facts and then drawing her own conclusions. For example, we had some BlueBell ice cream once, with the girl leading a cow illustrated on the outside of the carton. I was trying to explain why the cow was there, by saying that ice cream was made from milk and milk came from cows... she was working that out and said, "So if the cow's froze, then ice cream comes out?" Something like that... right?

7. Emily is kind. She has a good deal of empathy, and will think of things to help Kimmie or Calvin cheer up if they are sad. She also looks out for others in social situations and can understand how they are feeling. She is very sensitive to my emotions (which have been rampant, lately) and if my voice is wavering at all she has to make sure I'm okay.

8. Emily loves to be read to. We are reading (off and on) Charlotte's Web together, and she stays with it pretty well. The first day or so that anyone will come to stay with us, she keeps them busy by bringing book after book to read.

9. Emily has gorgeous brown eyes. I hope she never wishes she had blue (tonight she said "girls have blue eyes, and boys have brown" which made me sad, but I understand because we don't know very many brown-eyed girls right now) because she has beautiful, rich chocolate brown eyes, and the eyelashes to show them off.

10. Emily LOVES horses. It has been so fun to be in Kentucky because we can really take advantage of it. She has been to Keeneland a few times, and loves to watch the horses. Brother Hyde took us to his horse farm on Wednesday and she got so excited to see the horses up close, and even see the foals. We got to see a one-week old foal, and that was pretty cool. She keeps saying that she wants one for a pet, to keep in the backyard and feed it hay and she sees no problem with that. Poor kid will be lucky if she gets a fish.

Kimmie

1. Kimmie is spunky. She loves to giggle and tease and play. She loves to tease her dad and to be teased.. until she says "You have to stop doing that." Then she's done.

2. Kimmie also loves to read. She will read book after book after book. If it's quiet, and I can't find her, I will look around and usually find her on the floor in her room next to her bookshelf, or perched on top of all the stuffed animals in the purple tub, reading.

3. She has a great smile, and great dimples. When she's really delighted with herself she'll break into this huge grine, wrinkle up her nose and hunch her shoulders while we extol her achievements. She also has show-stopping eyes. They are brilliant blue, and she also has inherited her dad's eyelashes, so their shown off properly.

4. Kimmie is a great big sister, and a great little sister. She puts up with Emily's "orders" when they are playing, and she is also very gentle with Calvin and can get him to laugh better than anybody. He gets so excited to see her when she comes to play with him.

5. She says her "o" sounds in the cutest way, with kind of an "i" mixed in somehow, and her "l"s are not quite there yet, so it's just cute to hear her talk. She says "moine" for "mine," and "dandy-woy-en" for "dandylion" and several others that I can't think of right now.

6. She is very determined, and definitely knows her mind. She will say something, and if we question it or repeat it because it was funny, she says, "Yep, that's what I said." really matter-of-fact like. The surest way to get Kimmie to eat her dinner? Tell her not to. John does it really well, because he makes it a game. He'll say, "Now Kimmie, you better not eat those beans. I'm going to eat them, don't you dare eat those!" And she will grin and grab her spoon and stuff a spoonful of beans in her mouth. No matter that 30 seconds beforehand she had been turned around in her seat refusing to touch them. She'll chew them up and John will say, "Oh, no! You can't eat those! Don't you eat any more! No more beans!" And she will grab another mouthful. Til it's gone. Reverse psychology in its barest form. Who knows what we will do when she's old enough to see through this. But right now it's hilarious.

7. Kimmie loves pink and princesses right now. Yet, she likes to be comfortable in her clothing. No overalls, no scratchy shirts, nothing like that. And NO sweaters.

8. I can never predict what Kimmie will want. Like picking out a birthday cake design: we were looking through the patterns for cakes and I kept pausing on the butterfly, duck, cat, fish, or some such things, thinking she's pick that. What did she pick? The rocketship. She picks dark pink and light pink for the colors of it, but it is a rocketship. On the way to the grocery store, though, I had a brainstorm and asked her if she'd like a castle birthday cake (knowing of her princess passion), and she thought that would be great. A pink castle, of course.

9. Kimmie loves bugs. Don't ask me why. She will pick up worms, pillbugs, (fortunately not spiders) and ants. There are ants all through the house (my arch enemies) and she will find them on the floor and sit and watch them forever. Or she'll pick one up, bring it to me and say she wants to keep it for a pet. I don't think so. I don't know where she gets it, but John thinks it's awesome.

10. Kimmie has certain phrases that she will repeat back to us at random times, like "we don't eat poop" or "I don't suck my thumb; if I suck my thumb, I will get sick" (why we can't get Emily to grasp this, I don't know). She's completely her own person, and keeps us laughing.

And I am going to have to wait on the boys (John too, no I'm not announcing anything--geez people!) :) since it is late and people actually want to go to bed for some reason. Good night!

nothing in particular

I just thought I'd post my thoughts. Not for any particular reason, just boredom. And John's at the library so I actually can work on the computer. :)
Calvin's really crawling, and loving the new freedom and ability to do what he wants. This morning he was crying and so mad, and he came chasing after me. He crawled up to me and grabbed my pant leg and almost had a hard time keeping crying, because he was so pleased with himself for getting to me!
Emily is asleep right now in my bed. The girls have a hard time when there is thunder at night. There was that big crash and Emily literally woke up screaming. Any ideas on how to make lightning and thunder less scary?!? It's getting worse instead of better as she gets older. Kimmie probably would have slept through it except she had just woken up because she peed the bed. She goes six nights in a row with a dry diaper so we decide to try underwear... and she pees the bed. Why is that?!
We showed the house for the first time yesterday. Way to clean the entire house in two hours!!! We went to the park during the showing and actually met the people who went through it down there--they recognized us from our family pictures. They liked the house, but they are shopping for his mom, so we'll see what happens. I'm not exactly sure what will happen if we sell the house before we know where we are going. John and my parents may get some extra house guests for a while. I think it might take something like that to get us going. I don't like change, and John doesn't like to plan. Between the two of us, life decisions become almost hopeless. But here's to a good husband who has planned enough to set aside enough savings that this time in our lives is not nearly as stressful as it could have been.
Also, an aside thought... It has been interesting watching this whole polygamist compound episode. In reading the comments on news articles, I have been watching to see if "Mormons" come up at all--which they have. To me I think this whole thing is an insidious way to cast doubt, again, on the LDS church, and with what they have found in their "temple" I wonder what people will start to think of ours. Another example of how something beautiful and holy has been taken and twisted into something evil. How thankful I am for the good men who lead our Church and who testify of the Savior and all that is good. I keep thinking of the admonition to not let the world define us, to reach out and define ourselves. I think that will be needed more and more as time goes on. We must not be afraid to step up and defend who we are and what we believe.

crawling!!

Here's a video of one of Calvin's first crawling episodes. He started taking off in the middle of General Conference, so you can here President Packer in the background. Emily is the photographer, so that's why it's a little shaky, but she did a pretty good job. Calvin's really taking off and loving his newfound mobility. Yesterday he broke us in by officially making his first mess: he crawled over to the dvds, pulled himself up on the shelf, and pulled all the dvds off onto the floor. And so it begins...

I'll also put in a picture of him pulling himself up on his crib so you can see how he's doing that now. Between his crawling, strength to pull himself up, insatiable curiosity and daring, my life is soon to get a lot more busy. But it's so fun!

limbo

Our house is up for sale. The sign is in the yard, realtors are calling... it's all just really strange. We have lived here for almost four years, and (outside from the job) have loved it. It is strange to have our entire way of life suddenly turned upside down. We are moving, we don't know when, we don't really know where except for short-term, and we don't know what's coming next. This is a feeling that I've had with just about every life change I've experienced, but I still have not quite learned how to deal with it. It has all seemed not quite real, until I watched the realtor pushing the "for sale" sign into our front yard. Then I nearly started to cry. I feel like I am steadily losing my foundation here, and am getting closer and closer to drifting to who knows where. I really don't do well with uncertainty, and that is the one word that epitomizes my life right now. Fortunately the kids are doing fine with it, and haven't really picked up on any worries or stress that I can tell. Emily keeps talking about going to the pool in Colorado (or Idaho, or whatever location happens to enter her head at the time... but it's always a pool.) and toys she's going to take. I think she knows a little of what's going on, but I don't think it will really sink in--for any of us--until the boxes start getting packed up. Which I guess should be happening pretty soon. Where on earth do I get boxes?

Here's a picture of the girls in our backyard. I feel blessed to be able to see one last spring in Kentucky. It is my favorite season here. The blossoms on the trees and the tulips in the yard are beautiful.