Easter 2013

 I love Easter!  I love that it's always on a Sunday so we are truly in the spirit of what this wonderful holiday is all about.

I love how excited the kids are about the traditional  Easter baskets.  How Emry loves her new beach towel but equally loves playing with the little kids erasers and squeenkies.

 I love all the food.  I saw these blue cheese cornmeal crisps and knew they must be made for dinner, along with a broccoli salad, kale salad, salmon, sweet potatoes and rolls.

We ended the evening with a lesson and scripture study on the Resurrection.   Emry made a cute little craft last year with her church class where you open plastic eggs to reveal parts of our Saviors life leading up to the Resurrection.  It got a little rowdy at times but we got it done.

In attendance is Glenn & I with our three munchkins, Jeannette with her three, my brother Kyle with his daughter and my mom.

My dad is in the hospital with a broken hip!  He went swimming yesterday and slipped while getting out of the pool.  He had surgery today and is expected to be as good as new soon.

We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ.  For His Life, Atonement, & Resurrection that enables us all to be forgiven and live with Him once more.

March 24, 2013, 8 Years Later

8 Years ago I was in denial about being in labor.  For starters my due date was still 2 weeks away.  Secondly my water hadn't broken like it had before labor started with the girls.  Third Glenn was out of town on business.  Surely woman don't go into labor when their husbands aren't around!

My neighbor called to check on me and convinced me I was, in fact, in labor and she would drive me to the hospital.  We called Glenn en route and left him a message to drive straight to the hospital when his plane landed.  He made it just in time to see his son born.

Every day has been a joy, you have added so much to our family Ethan.  So much love, fun, energy and sweetness.

I stayed up late making your cake.  I woke up at 5 am to prep food.  After church I was in the kitchen for another 4 hours making pizza dough, chopping, cooking, cleaning and repeating.

Right to left  - veggie pizza on the grill, the kids,  Birthday Boy with my parents, the Heath bar ice cream cake Ethan requested, cheese & pepperoni pizza,  pear/gorgonzola/caramelized onion pizza & pesto chicken pizza, and lastly Emry pulling kiddos up & down the block.

You told me today "Thank you" a million times,  "I love you" a million times.  Your heart is full of gratitude and because of that I'll do anything for you.

Happy Birthday to one of the Loves of my life!!!!!

Bigger

My kids are literally growing right before my eyes.  I see it everyday and I don't like it.  When they were babies I couldn't wait for the next milestone -  crawling, walking, talking -  it was all so exciting.  But now I am done with them changing.  I am done with them outgrowing my arms and running towards something bigger and better.

I admit I was (am?) weirder than most parents.  I watched my babies sleep.  I didn't like to get babysitters (much to Glenn's dismay), I didn't send them to preschool because heaven forbid they should learn something without my being able to witness it.

Of course I would get frustrated at the disaster that was my house, but when Glenn took them to the beach for a few hours so I could get some work done, suddenly it didn't matter anymore, I wanted to be with them.

When you have a baby, or 3, so many moms and grandmas smile at you and say "Enjoy them while they're young, they grow up so quick".  I got really good at smiling at them, truly appreciative of the attention they were giving my little ones, but I would hug my chubby baby harder while inwardly thinking, "what do they know, my baby's not going anywhere".

Turns out they knew a lot.

I knew realistically there would come a  day when they'd all be in school, but I didn't think it would happen so soon. 

So now my house is spotless.  Groceries are bought, dinner is prepared, laundry is done, the dog gets attention, I actually get dressed instead of wearing workout clothes all day and I've had time to broach this new fangled thing called a computer and start a blog.

I guess I am all sentimental because we watched a few hours of home videos on Sunday afternoon.  My kids can't get enough of their younger selves.  I love watching them dance around (dancing figures into about 95% of our footage) and truth be told I love watching me.  My clothes are thrown together, my hair is in a ponytail, I have no makeup on and should have been running from the camera.  But I didn't.

I am glad I didn't because I am always so happy in those videos.  Happy that Emry is jumping naked on the trampoline.  Happy that Lila is pretending to be a cat in her dress-ups.  Happy that Ethan is dancing to a singing frog.  I can hear it in my sing-songy voice and see it in my eyes how much I truly love those little kids.

And no matter what trials and angst may lie ahead of us, I am glad they have proof of how much I relished in them.  All 3 of them.

But I still have many more memories to make, so slow down already.

Feeding Five

Emry you've equaled me in heighth and are now on the road to surpassing me.  What's more interesting is that I feel your mind is on that same road.  It is the strangest thing to see a child, your own child, know and understand things that perplex you.  I can't figure out if you're just naturally a genius, or if you get up when we're sleeping and study all night. You are so sure of yourself, you know who you are and where you're going.  You're a 'take charge' kind of girl.  You've thrown yourself into the thespian life with so much joy and vigor, it's so fun to just watch you burst into song and dance at any moment .  You're still a slob.  You give me a hard time about walking Brutus. You don't let me pick out your clothes anymore.  But it's a small price to pay to stare at you and feel my heart speed up as I anticipate your future.  You've always jumped in with both feet, there's no middle ground for you.  You don't have a scared or embarrassed bone in your body.  You're open and honest and tell it like it is.  I adore you.  I want to be you.  Wherever you go in life........ take me with you.

Lila.  There is one word that encapsulates who you are.  Sweet.  When anyone describes you that is the word they use.  You are rainbows and fairies and ponies all wrapped into one.  You love little things and even have a 'little things' club at school.  Little Pet Shops, little 'Squeenkies', it doesn't even matter what, as long as it's little and cute.  Which is funny because those words are YOU!  You are also our resident rubber band as you cartwheel and back flip through the house.  Rest assured I am well aware of your mischievous streak as well.  Ever since you were 3 and I saw you rub your hands together saying "bonk the Ethan" and then you did!  Oh yes, Lila, I am watching you.  I love, love, love every night when I come to tuck you in and you grab my neck, pull me close and say "I never want to stop hugging you loving you!!!!"  I never want to stop either.

Ethan right now I am your world.   The first thing you do when you wake up is come to my bed and say "I love you".  They are also the last words you say at night when I tuck you in.  You love Tom Sawyer and Moby Dick as well as The Wimpy Kid.  A day doesn't go by that you don't read.  I think I've kind of spoiled you and hope somewhere out there in the world is another 7 year old whose parents love her so much she will be able to pass on that love to you and adore you as much as I do.  You don't like to be alone, if Emry and Lila are busy you are beside yourself.  But when you get together with your cousin Nathan, oh my gosh watch out, you two don't stop.  You will play Army in the bushes for hours and proudly show off your 'war' wounds upon arriving home.  I give thanks that you have a boy cousin who teaches you how to be tough.

I love feeding you kids.  I love feeding your souls and heart as well as your belly.

The Weekend

Busy!  We did not stop this weekend.  If you want to take a nap, don't have kids, they expect too much. Things like a snack after school, and since they love those soft mall pretzels I celebrated the end of the week with a favorite treat.  Yes that is a full cookie sheet, those pretzels are Huge!

The main reason I make yummy homemade baked goods is because I want the kids to have these moments burned into their memory.  I want them to tell their kids (and friends, acquaintances, anyone who will listen) "my mom was the best, she always made the yummiest stuff when I was a kid, when I came home there were cinnamon rolls or cookies or homemade bread.  EVERYDAY!!.....and then we went and played in the backyard with our unicorns and ponies".  Of course I don't bake everyday, but we all know how memories go, and whatever my motives, homemade stuff gets made.

1. Saw a rainbow during a run.
2. Played Cranium with Ethan.
3. Took my kids, Jeannette's kids and a friend to Jamba Juice.
4.  My brother Adam's dog, they came for a short visit.

5.  Took the kids to a pet store. That bird was 2 grand.  Of course my kids begged for it but it was so loud and annoying I told them they couldn't pay me 2 grand to take it.
6.  Finished this book with the kids.
7. Made a Mississippi Mud Cake. RICH!!!
8. Made their Christmas list for the next 10 years at this toy store at the mall.

Let me wax poetic about this book.  A few years ago I came across a Gigantic book at the library.  It was the biggest book I had ever seen in the kids section and the cover as well as the drawing on the back immediately sucked me in.  I took it home and read all 550 pages to the kids in 1 rainy day all curled up on the couch.

About half the book was words, and half the book was pictures, both were mesmerizing.  It was wonderfully written and I can't say enough how much I loved the originality of the book.  The title of the book was 'The Adventures of Hugo Cabret'.  About a year later I heard they were making a movie of the book titled 'HUGO'.  Of course being in love with the book we had to see the movie.  It was spectacular.  Reading the book first and then seeing it come to life so fantastically on the screen was wonderful.

When I saw this book 'WonderStruck' by the same author, Brian Selznick, at Costco I was so tempted to buy it, but it kind of goes against my nature to pay full price for books.  So seeing it at the library last week I ripped it off the shelf before anyone else could.  Not that anyone else wanted it, but better safe than sorry.

In the same vein as 'The adventures of Hugo Cabret' there is both writing and beautiful drawings, twists and mystery, suspense and intrigue.  I love Brian Selznick's mind.  From his books it is apparent he has a fascination with the out of the ordinary and is a genius storyteller.

Let me also expound on the cake.  I have lovely visions of baking with the children, but what started out innocently enough with it being Ethan's turn to 'help' turned into Lila pouting on the sofa with me being the nurturing mother I am telling her "Lila, I know your pouting you need to get over it it's Ethan's turn",  I am super sweet like that. Oh have them work together?  Yeah we tried that.  I think that's where the phrase 'too many cooks in the kitchen' comes from.

Then the kids proceeded to use the leftover marshmallows for some sort of basketball game involving cups of milk all around the kitchen then they decided to make 'marshmallow taffy' in the microwave, their original recipe.  Good times at the Wallworks.

Oh & I stand corrected.

Game On!!

It's Baseball Season!! You'd think after growing up in a family with a sports-obsessed dad and 6 equally sports-obsessed brothers I'd want nothing to do with it.  I thought so too.  I mean my childhood was basically ruined because there was a football, baseball, or basketball game on (our 1 T.V.) at any given time which meant the chances of me watching 'The Brady Bunch' were slim to none.  I learned to loathe when my dad said 'only 10 more minutes' because even though it took me a while, I soon realized that '10 minutes on the clock' is completely different than 10 minutes.

But all it took was seeing my sweet boy out on the field having fun to make spending almost 3 hours freezing my butt off something I look forward to.

Ethan cheers so loud for his teammates, he gets so excited and there is nothing he loves more than making a good play.  He's learning and so am I.  I am learning the other moms bring blankets and heaters.  I forgot my beach chair last night so I sat with the opposing team on the bleachers.

The first hour of the game was pretty boring.  Ethan struck out in less than 30 seconds, their pitcher was no joke.  His next time up to bat he made it to first and was brought home by another player.  YES!!!!!

But the real shining moment came when he was between 2nd & 3rd  (I am still learning all the terms, give me time) and with the bases loaded for the other team & 2 outs a batter made contact and up, up, up the ball went.  I realized it was going in Ethan's direction and suddenly everything went in slow motion.  Before my heart could stop Ethan caught it, & held on to it!  He raised his glove up and I jumped up and started yelling and cheering.  Then I quickly walked over to the other side and decided it was better to stand with my team than sit where I clearly didn't belong.

Glenn was busy with his church calling and when I texted him about the play I think it literally broke his heart that he wasn't there.  But I was happy enough for both of us.

There's more to it than just that play.  It's seeing Ethan realize that hard work can pay off.  That teamwork is essential and the joy that comes from personal accomplishment feels great.  All sports are tough, fantastical plays like that are few and far between, so it's nice when they do happen.

Ethan got the game ball that night. And his team won. 

My feet were frozen, I was tired and hungry but it was the best night ever.

Out of Towners

 Glenn's sister Amy and her husband Dave came from Clovis, CA to visit us over the weekend.  It was great fun having 2 other people in the house for our kids to jump on.  Amy and Dave are the best sports and love our kids so much.  Their four kids are all adults now so it's somewhat of a fun novelty for them to be around our spaztastic kids for a few days.

Saturday found in us Old Town Temecula walking up and down Main Street.  There are so many charming antique stores but of course the only 2 stores my kids care about are the Candy Store and the Root Beer Shop.

 And somehow after all our sightseeing the kids sneakily led us to a park since they were high on sugar.

 Fun day, fun weekend, fun times.  It went way too fast, but gets me excited for warmer weather, more company and all the summer fun I have planned.  Thanks for coming Amy & Dave.  And the kids thank you for all the girl scout cookies and candy you left behind.