.....These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

One of my favorite songs of the Christmas season is the one that Julie Andrews sings.....Favorite things. Well , yesterday was my 30th birthday and I have not been looking fore ward to it. I hate saying that I am now out of my 20's. So I decided to list some of my favorite things or memories from the last 30 years so that I can remind myself that I am grateful to be alive and loved. ( these are in no particular order)

--My husband, Anthony
--Sydney
--Haylie
--Tuione
--Rollerblading
--Being a Dental Assistant
--Driving to Nova Scotia, singing John Denver songs all the way.
--Playing softball
--Going swimming every Monday night for FHE with my dad
--Ice skating at Midnapor lake
--Snorkeling in the Bahamas
--Playing pranks on the boys in my ward in college
--Going to the temple with my family
--Falling of a cliff on a 4-wheeler....and surviving
--High school ( choir,sports, friends!)
--Hand stitching a quilt
--Sledding as a child and now with my kids
--Going to Hawaii with my sister
--My brother taking care of me when I re tore the tendons in my ankle
--Having my mother with me at YW camp
--Scrap booking with friends
--Giving my mittens to a homeless man ( giving service period!)
--Being Primary President
--Playing Rook with my family
--Taking my little sister on a jet ski cuz I was the only one she trusted
--Seeing my children happy on Christmas day
--Watching my husband play football
--Shopping with Sonya ( as much as it drives her crazy to shop with me)
--Surviving a Pulmonary Embolism
--All of the friend I have met through these 30 years!

These are 30 of my most favorite things, and I know that I will have many more to come.

Surprise!

I have always heard stories from other moms about finding surprises in their child's diaper. I have heard of people finding money or rocks, or even little pieces from toys that their kids had swallowed and then pooped out. I was always relieved to know that they can poop out those types of things.
Well I have always been very happy that my children just never swallowed anything that was not supposed to be swallowed........that is until now. My son, Tui, is a very curious little boy, as all boys are I'm sure. He has been very good at not putting things in his mouth, or at least understanding the word"NO" and obeying me. He even plays with the girls Polly pockets and never has put those tiny little shoes in his mouth. So I have not been too worried about him wandering the house now that he can walk. Silly me!!!
The other day My son was holing one of his sister's Halloween suckers in his hand and was using it like a hammer. Not 5 minutes later when I saw him, he did not have the sucker with him anymore. I didn't think anything of it until the next day. He was grunting and obviously doing a big "poopie". When I went to change him, what I found surprised me. Instead of a poopie in his diaper I found a plastic wrapper.......whole! He had swallowed the wrapper from the sucker. How in the heck do you swallow something like that.
Well that is not the end of the surprises ( and no the picture is not of my son......although I would like to see an x-ray of Tui's stomach to see what else he has swallowed.) . A couple of days later, as I was changing a poopie diaper, I was nearly blinded by the immense sparkle and shine that was coming from my son's poopie. It was the shiniest poopie I had ever seen. The poopie was riddled with little pieces of tin foil. He must have eaten one of those Halloween chocolates that are wrapped in foil.
I thought that I was a good mother and kept an eye on my kids........I guess not because I never saw him eat those things. I wonder what will be next.

Who is the teacher?

As a parent I am responsible for teaching my children right from wrong. Every day I see the many challenges and decisions that my children will have to face as they go to school and meet new friends. I see the struggles my daughter has as she tries to weigh in her mind and heart how to respond to situations at school and among her friends.

Have I taught her well enough? The situations she faces today are far simpler than the ones she will face as a teenager, and the choices are simpler as well. Or are they? The choices our children make today can only strengthen or weaken them for the future. The "process" in which our children make choices are, or should be, the same way they should make choices as a teenager. So what makes choices so hard for teenagers?

Story time; Just before Halloween, at a local Walmart, my children and I were enjoying an evening shopping for Halloween goodies. We were in an isle with all the gruesome masks and adult costumes( which happened to be all mixed in with kids costumes-----Big NO-NO). We were not alone in that isle. There happened to be another family there, an older family, one with teenagers. My children , who were playing with all of the ugly masks, decided to have fun with there older children. They would put on a mask and turn around and say boo, or trick or treat. The teenagers didn't seem to be too bothered by it and would act all scared. One of them was particularly playful with my kids and as Haylie said boo, the older girl took the Heavenly Father's name in vain.

I, who am supposed to be the teacher, said nothing.....who am I to tell a complete stranger how act or what to say? It was not more than a mere second before Haylie piped up and said very strongly...." you can't say that! That is Heavenly Fathers name." I could have been blushing, I do not know because I was focused on the poor girl my daughter had just lectured, who was definitely blushing. The girl quickly corrected herself and said..." oh, sorry.....I mean Oh my goodness". Haylie gave her a big grin and then continued playing with the masks.

Not 2 minutes later, in that same isle, my other daughter Sydney, came across something rather disturbing. Mixed in with all of the children's costumes were some very inappropriate adult costumes. Some of barely there dresses and others of men dressed as women. Sydney pointed to one in particular that a teenage boy was looking at. It was of a very obese man dressed in a bikini.....a string bikini. The teenage boy was asking his mom to get that one for him......and she was actually considering it. Sydney hesitated for a moment but then asked me why the boy wanted that costume. He obviously heard us ( since my daughter has no clue what a whisper is), and replied that it was funny. She replied back ," it isn't funny...it's gross! And it isn't modest".

Again I could feel my face turning red, but it was the boy's mother's face that was most red I think. She told her son that he had better pick something else. End of story.

So..... who taught who? Did my children teach the strangers in the store? Did my children teach me not to be scared to stand up for what is right? Did I teach them to be that brave? Will they always be that brave?

I am eternally grateful for the truths that my parents taught me and for the knowledge they had because of the restoration of the Gospel, through Joseph Smith. I am eternally grateful for the love of a Heavenly Father who would send us someone to teach us and ultimately pay for our sins that we might live again. I am always in awe of the love I feel from my Savior as I watch my children grow and answer their questions about the Gospel. I know that I am teaching truths to them and I know that they will be able to rely on their testimonies of those truths to give them strength . This is my testimony and I bear it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I have A Son?

You would think that after having two girls that I would be content to dress them up all girly and leave my son to be a boy. I thought that I was doing pretty good at dressing him in blue and giving him boys toys to play with. But as it turns out, my own brother ( who happens to be my only brother among 3 sisters) warned me that the inevitable would happen, and it has.

Tui loves to play with the girls toys. You name it......polly pockets, baby dolls, pink wigs, or pretty hats. He loves to play with his sisters and their toys.

I find some comfort in knowing that it will only be a couple of years before my husband, Anthony, has Tui running football drills. That will toughen him up! For now I will have fun with my girly boy.

Pumpkin Farm

I love all the seasons. I love different things about each season. My favorite thing about Autumn time is the chill in the air. It is not quite cold enough for a winter coat or hot cocoa, but just cold enough to put on a pair of warm comfy socks and cuddle up with someone. My cuddle buddies are my kids. We love to go outside and play in the leaves and then cuddle each other until we are warm.
This year we went out to Heartland Farms to go pick a pumpkin and play in their pumpkin land. The kids had so much fun playing in an inflatable dragon. The kids go in one end and come out the other( which is quite bulbous and round......it looks like the dragon is pooping out kids!). Then we went on a very bumpy wagon ride around the farm which was decorated all fun.
I was not sure if I should take the kids through the haunted house. It was in the little kids section of the farm, so I thought it would probably not be too scary. Tuione was fine. He didn't even make a peep. But when "creatures" and " zombies" started popping out of walls, my big brave girls( who had been begging to go in), freaked out. Haylie and Sydney both grabbed each of my legs every time the hydraulics would make a " thing" move. My favorite ( or I should say least favorite, since I am terrified of them ) was the giant tarantula that drops from the ceiling. It nearly touched my head.....yick!

As the sun started setting and the chill got chillier ( if that is even a word) we got some last minute pictures in the pumpkin patch and some caramel covered apples. What a perfect end to a perfect Autumn day.