Thankful

Thanksgiving was wonderful and so, so relaxing. The entire weekend was really.

Maggie was extremely excited for Thanksgiving. She asked me every day for a week if it was Thanksgiving yet and on Thanksgiving morning woke up at dawn thrilled that she was going to see her cousins. I adore her enthusiasm and love of her cousins, though I am a little nervous for Christmas if it was that hard for her to sleep in until a decent hour on Thanksgiving.

My lovely sister-in-law Jenn hosted. She did the majority of the cooking: PERFECT turkey (she had this magical roaster), mashed potatoes, green beans, and stuffing. Another lovely sister-in-law, Lisa, brought some veggies and fruit and covered the homemade pie angle--I'm talking delicious FROM COMPLETE SCRATCH pumpkin and raspberry pies. I am getting her recipes for some day when I am feeling ambitious. I showed up with my store-bought rolls, store-bought pies, and an easy-peasy salad. Basically, I got off nearly scot-free again. (Scot, does that term bug you?) That's twenty-eight Thanksgivings and counting. I'm thankful for that. I had until last-minute envisioned making homemade rolls, but we had a lot going on throughout the rest of November and I got lazy. Life is long. I have had and will have plenty of opportunities to make homemade rolls. Thanks to Mike for being really supportive of my decision. He went out Thanksgiving morning and bought plenty of yummy ones, so we had variety. And we enjoyed lazing around the night before Thanksgiving, just watching a movie and spending time together. It was heavenly. Between kids and work and school, etc., that is always a treat. Post-Thanksgiving was filled with more relaxing, a little shopping, and of course laundry. There is no vacation from that.

Here are my cuties at desert time...I think Maggie and Kate were in those jumpers last Thanksgiving. It's going too fast. And Maggie is wearing her favorite Hello Kitty shirt with short sleeves, even though I tried to tell her it was cold out. Oh well.

I am thankful for so many things right now. Here is a tiny sampling:

-the comfortable home I have to live in
-the car I have to drive
-I never want for yummy food to eat
-wonderful visits with so many family members throughout the year
-good friends near-by and afar
-my health
-little snippets of time I find to keep in touch with loved ones and the myriad of ways I have at my disposal to do so: calls, e-mails, blogs, facebook, texts, instant messaging (does anyone still call it that?), video chats, and good, old-fashioned letters
-all the good weather we've had this year and the park time that's been possible because of it
-outlets like running and music, writing and reading, home projects and photography, and even cooking and cleaning--even though I just dabble, those activities nourish that part of me that needs to grow and learn and accomplish
-the simple pleasure I feel every time I walk by a few recently hung pictures (just a little well-placed effort has given me so many moments of satisfaction)
-my camera, even though I always wish for more, I am grateful for the sweet memories it enables me to capture
-the gold loafers I just happened on to replace my well-beloved gold flats, which I recently discovered holes in
-my lovely little town
-Mike is headed for his last! semester of grad school

Most of all, I am grateful for my testimony and my family. I have a Heavenly Father who has a plan for me and a Savior that loves me and has made that plan possible. I have sisters who I adore, a brother who is just as loved, and parents I am proud to call my own. My in-laws treat me as their own and I feel lucky to be associated with each of them. And my beloved husband makes so many of my dreams reality and makes it possible for me to be at home each and every day with my darling girls Margaret, Katherine, and Emily. Thanks Mike!

Date Night

We didn't have a solid date night planned when Friday night rolled around. Most of our date nights are after the kids go to bed and are usually pretty simple: making a fun snack, watching a show or movie on Netflix, playing a game, doing a project. Relaxing and low-key. Every now and then we plan something really exciting or get a baby-sitter and go crazy. Last week, Mike made my day by bringing me Thai food on his way home from class, which we enjoyed while the kids were busy napping and movie-ing. This weekend, one of our sweet trio stepped in and provided a full night of unanticipated fun by flooding our basement.

I was getting Emily down for a late afternoon nap and getting dinner started while the girls played. I heard the water for a couple minutes, but didn't think too much of it. The girls often play with the water a little bit as they wash their hands. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, little missy resting and pizza dough started, I walked downstairs to see what my little misses were up to. As I walked into the room, the carpet squished a bit under my feet. Alarmed and puzzled, I queried Maggie and Kate, "Did someone have an accident?"

"No, Kate had too much water in the sink, but I helped her turn it off."

Sure enough, the bathroom floor was soaked, as was the entire hallway. Minor puddles had even eked out into the storage rooms. Luckily, the majority of the family room and guestroom were unaffected. I was too flabbergasted to even react. I just kept saying, "I don't understand. How did this happen?"

I think I've finally figured out that I only heard the water for a little bit because once the water got high enough it probably didn't make much sound. It just quietly flooded the vanity. Every drawer in it. The floor. And the hallway. Just minutes before Mike was scheduled to come home. I called him, slightly freaking out, because that's not the kind of surprise I would want upon arriving home. And because I was at a loss how to begin.

This is the week after Emily ended up needing her forehead glued just like her sister, requiring my second trip to the ER this year (and third ever). Pretty sure she hit the bookcase. (I think it's strange that they will both have scars dating close to their 2012 birthdays...I am planning on keeping Kate in a helmet throughout the month of December).

So, yeah, I guess I am not getting any gold stars this week. But seriously, these things happen so darn fast!

I had a talk with the girls and had them practice coming to tell me if a similar situation ever arose, though I pray it doesn't. Kate's version: "Oh no, Mom. Water."

Mike really "bailed" me out. (Bad pun, I know.) He used our neighbor's shop vac to remove several gallons of water. Then we (mostly him) spent the evening and much of the night on our hands and knees soaking every towel in our house. Drying them. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Last, we borrowed a de-humidifier from his brother and have had that and a couple huge fans going the past couple days. They seem to have pretty much finished the job.

Keep your fingers crossed that we have eliminated potential for mildew. I am. It's almost to the point where it's kind of funny. It was definitely a memorable date night. And I guess it could have been worse...?

Cause for Celebration

In the past several weeks...

1. Another half-marathon bit the dust.

2. Our littlest little had a birthday, so of course we had a fiesta.

3. These signs were mildly successful.

4. Maggie/Mike bought me gorgeous roses at the grocery store. (The story is Maggie picked them, Mike paid. Good to know who's looking out for me.)

5. Emily is official: We FINALLY took family pictures, after months of postponement. (Health, the weather, and travel were all conspiring against us.)

exhibit #1:

Halloween 2012

Yes, we celebrated Halloween. Do you still care? We had two princesses and a fairy. The older girls decided early that they wanted to be princesses--Ariel and Belle respectively. I decided early to buy costumes for the first time to circumvent any crazy, last-minute ideas I might have of making or putting them together. Especially as the image of the darling Ariel costume my darling mother made five-year-old me kept popping to mind. I just needed to keep it simple for my sanity because the last year has been busy, busy and I am still recovering time-management-wise from adding our third little girl. (Although, I struggled with time-management before I ever had children, if anything, having children has increased my productivity, even if it sometimes doesn't feel like it.) We had many opportunities to enjoy our costumes throughout the month both for party and play and I was glad many times over that I had taken the easy road this time around. Emily kept with the Disney theme as Tinkerbell, with some wings and a tutu we already had on hand.

In hindsight, even though I didn't manage to get any good pictures of the girls in their costumes on Halloween (or any of the parties preceding--church, library), I should have just posted this one of the girls in action and called it good.

But for memory's (aka future photo album's) sake and for extra practice with my camera, I knew I wanted to get a couple better ones and since I was going to take them anyway, I waited to post about Halloween until I did. Of course it took me a couple days to get around to it and another while to get them uploaded, add a few days for good measure, since my procrastination was now in full force. Silly Sarah. When will I learn?

We really did have a fun time though. Mike had class, so the girls and I trick-or-treated around town square and then visited with a few of our neighbors, including our local adopted grandparents Ed and Iris. It's always like Halloween when we visit there, meaning they always give the girls candy, so you can guess the girls like to go there as often as possible. One day last year, Maggie told me, "We need to go to Iris's house because she has better candy than you."

We got ourselves to our local pumpkin patch on Emy's birthday (the 29th) and spent family night picking and carving pumpkins. The girls were so cute. Kate found her pumpkin right away and toted it the whole time. Maggie kept running in search for "the perfect pumpkin" and several times announced she had found it. And Emily enjoyed the whole experience. This year we carved Huckle (from Richard Scarry's Busytown Mysteries) for Kate, Hello Kitty for Maggie, and the Y-emblem for our alma mater BYU. Next year when Mike is done, we may do KU.
 

Looking Through Windows

On Sundays, we rush around before church finishing lessons (me) and feeding kids (Mike) and trying to get five people into Sunday clothes. We dive under pews to catch a foot before its body gets away and struggle through missed naps because of afternoon church.

We also watch this clip a lot. The girls LOVE it. One Sunday, a while back, they watched it about thirteen times in a row. Mike helped me put it and some other clips on a DVD for the Primary kids to watch after their presentation on Sunday for a celebration of sorts.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Fail: Tried to take pictures of the girls in these cute coordinating summer dresses we had before it gets too cold. Couldn't find a sash. A missing sash is what held us up last time. Boo. Why do they even make dresses with detached sashes for little girls? (I have this sneaking suspicion it was being used as a dog leash one Sunday after church. Grrr.)

Success: Brought pumpkin cookies to a playdate today. They were a big hit, even with the picky kids.

Success: Finally finished switching out winter and summer clothes. It took me a week, which is actually pretty good for me. I always get distracted, then am waiting to put in some more stuff out of the wash, weather gets unpredictable, etc., etc.

Fail: Looked for Emily's little winter hat longer than I should have. Still didn't find it.

Success: When Mike got home before his class, the lasagna was ready.

Fail: The squash and garlic bread weren't.

Fail: After a little incident, Kate needed some washing up in the tub. I had something else rinsing out in the sink and as I was washing her up, I accidentally overflowed the sink. This soaked the floor, a rug, and the cabinet below the sink.

Major Fail: I called my mom for moral support while cleaning up the sink situation. Several minutes into my phone call, I realized Kate had gotten out of the tub. I found her quickly. Outside. Still naked. And she'd emptied the contents of a pot of dirt on the steps. I hope none of the neighbors noticed. You can't make this stuff up, folks. But sometimes, I kind of wish I was. : /
 
Success: Dinner was a bit cold at this point, but still yummy. Though Emily had gotten tired of being put off throughout the previous runaround and started to fuss a bit towards the end.

Success: Despite our rather inconsistent efforts at preschool lately, Maggie keeps surprising me with how much she knows. This evening, she asked me, "Mom, what does F-A-T-E spell?" She had spelled out the letters with some toothpicks and accidentally spelled a word. She also "borrowed" some stationary and wrote her friend Molly a letter. I asked her if she needed help writing Molly's name, but she explained she had already written it herself.

Success: Baths went without a hitch (well, almost, Kate did have a little head bonk) and pajamas were donned quickly. The girls helped clean up their toys and Maggie impressed me by putting away the books quite neatly. We even had time for a round of Pretty, Pretty Princess!

Success: A cricket found it's way into Maggie's bed, so I bravely got it into a cup, took it outside, and sent it on it's merry way.

Coming soon, some overdue updates and pictures of these cute, sweet girls who make it all worth it.

Conference Comes Again

I have posted before about how much I love "Conference," that is the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held every six months. (You can watch it here.) Conference always seems to come when I need a boost. The words of our modern prophets and apostles fill me with renewed determination to do right and live righteously. Each new Conference brings to my recollection good feelings and thoughts from Conferences past. I think of times when my mind and heart felt peace or glimmers of understanding of God's plan for me. I remember delicious eats made and eaten with family or friends during or around Conference. And I always recall going to Conference. Whether as a child with my family, eating BLT sandwiches between sessions. (Thanks, Mom!) Or as a teen at home on the couch, after we got the satellite. Or at the church when my dad had to set it up, nodding off towards the end from perpetual seminary tiredness. Or in college with friends at the dorms or our apartments. Or, best of all, at the Conference Center in person. It is a feeling like none other to be gathered with that many Saints who all believe in Christ and the restoration of His priesthood upon the earth.

Here is a picture of Mike and me at Conference when we were engaged. Six years ago!

Ain't it a beauty? I guess the guy that took it thought we wanted mostly the temple in the picture. I maybe should have asked a  woman. (Doesn't it seem that guys always think you want the background and girls are about the portraits?) Anyway, I still love it. It was a special day because I had been wishing we could go to Conference and then out of nowhere, Mike found tickets and made it happen. He's always been pretty good at that wish-granting thing.

This year, we watched at home on Saturday and planned to watch with Mike's family on Sunday. Unfortunately, Emily woke up with a fever (we hope from her newest tooth), so as a precaution I stayed home with her. At first I was a little disappointed, but it was nice to have a little alone time with my precious baby. And I baked and ate some yummy cinnamon rolls and pumpkin cookies and had no problem with any scorching this time! (If you remember, I wasn't so lucky in the spring.)

Without further ado, a few thoughts I wanted to record...
- Aaaaah! So excited about the new mission age options...and, yes, a bit jealous I wasn't born about seven years later. I wanted to go on a mission sooo bad when I was eighteen-nineteen. For those of you who may not have tuned in, President Monson announced that prospective missionaries can now be recommended at eighteen for young men and nineteen for young women, rather than the former age requirements of nineteen and twenty-one respectively. I can't wait to serve a mission with Mike someday.
- What a tender talk Elder Bowen gave. What a heart-wrenching experience to lose a child and how brave to share his process of coming to terms with the guilt, pain and anger. I loved his conclusion: We are lucky to have the capacity to feel sorrow at the passing of a loved one. How awful it would be if we could not.
- President Uchtdorf has a wonderful way with words. I loved his run-down of the various regrets people experience at the end of their lives (not spending time with loved ones, not being their best selves, and not letting themselves be content) and the perfect prevention: We can avoid the regrets of tomorrow by following our Savior today!
- I couldn't agree with Elder Perry more: Strong families are the best protection and foundation for stability and success. I hope to make mine as strong as I can.
- Elder Ballard encouraged us to pray for opportunities to serve others. I know I am grateful for the times I do. Serving helps me forget I am drowning in housework and cute children's demands! :)
- Elder Anderson is right. We all have trials of faith, even though we may not see others. But these times of pain or difficulty bring us increased faith.
-  Loved Elder Oaks standing up for the rights of children which are too often overlooked in our society. I feel so passionately about this. If we want to better society, one of the best ways to do it is to better invest in our children. Protect them from evil. Teach them truth. And give them the attention they crave. Not give in to every demand, but try to figure out what they really need. Children deserve to be raised in a loving, supportive environment by a father and mother who love them and each other. Obviously, we don't live in a perfect world and this can't always be the case. But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't remain the ideal.
- President Eyring made me reflect: What "pavillions" are obstructing my communication with my Heavenly Father and preventing me from getting answers and heavenly assistance I need and want? My attitude? My stubborness? My timetable?
- And I loved reflecting on the experience of the eleven disciples after Jesus' death with both Elder Holland and Elder Hales.
- Elder Scott renewed my desire to do some family history work of my own.
- I just want to be perfectly converted. To love and care for all those around me more perfectly and choose more wisely. To have my heart changed, and when necessary changed again, through Christ and his infinite atonement. Thanks Elder Bednar, Elder Hales and more for your reminders.

Yes, Conference was inspiring. And I still have to peek at the Priesthood session to see what gems they got. I sure appreciated the counsel we received as Relief Society sisters. (Loved the quote you shared, Rebecca.)

If you can only watch or listen to five minutes, I highly, highly recommend Elder Holland's talk. It was so, so powerful. His telling of the resurrected Lord's appearance to Peter and his fellow fishermen disciples is perfectly eloquent. And I love the message.