Belmont Ward Campout

Last week was busy with preparing for the ward camp out. I am still the Activities Committee Chairman, so that made it a fairly busy around our house. It is hard to get an activity together the day before and day of the event. But then, as it gets rolling it usually starts to be fun. That's how it was again this time. By about a half hour into the cookout I was enjoying myself. My family had a great time too, so I am thankful for that. I was appreciative of their help. I also appreciated the help of Patsy Willis and Joyce Seay who are on the Committee with me and Bro. and Sis. Butler who brought tables and brought a riding lawnmower out a few days prior to mow the land! What a huge help!

We camped at the land across from Shoosmith Brothers again. It is pretty there.

Lilly pads on the lake

We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up for the cookout. It was hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought sides to share. After we ate, families participated in a Nature Scavenger hunt. it was pretty fun. The hardest things for our family to find were berries and a feather, but we managed to find everything on the list! Yea!

Then, we had a brief campfire devotional. We sang and prayed and our bishop, Bishop Farthing, spoke about handing our burdens to the Lord. It was a good spiritual thought. Then we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed s'mores!

"Mom, don't take a picture! I have smores on my face!"

Nice face, Christian!

Christian doesn't like smores, but loves marshmallows. Look at how filthy this boy is! He loves camping and sure had fun being outside with his friends.

Here he is bouncing around with Tyson and Greyson. Are they goofy or what?

Please ignore the stick. What is it with boys and sticks. After I took the picture, I took the stick. No worries about stick injuries. But on the topic of injuries. While chasing Christian, I caught a prickly weed and got about 15 itty bitty little thorns stuck in my toes. It got pulled right across the thong of the flip flop between my big toe and the one next to it. They were tiny, but ouch! The next morning I wore close toed shoes. I am thankful for Amy's tweezers.

I am also thankful for women and young women from church who helped with holding Grant! It helped me get the things done that I needed to do and allowed Danny to focus more on watching Victoria and Christian(mainly Christian). Thanks, Samantha!

It was a good night. It took us a while to get settled in the tent, but everyone slept OK. Grant slept in a pack and play and then with me. He wasn't so sure about what was going on, but was good anyway. We were able to nebulize in the tent thanks to the adapter that we plugged into the van's lighter, and his wheezing never got much worse than it started.

The next morning was pretty chill. We had breakfast(the AC wasn't in charge of it this year because the Cub Scouts had a fundraiser breakfast down the road. If people didn't go to eat there they were responsible for their own food). It was kinda nice not to have to be responsible for cooking tons of pancakes.

We just played for a few hours. Lots of people brought canoes and kayaks, so we took a few turns riding on the water.

Christian thought it was so fun to ride with Avery and Anson and some of the YW(young women 12-18) in our ward.

He also had fun playing with his friend, Tyson. I found you! He played with Zane a lot too. So, he had a lot of fun. However, one part was not fun! Being stung 7 times by a hornet! Seriously! It flew into his shorts and got him 4 times. Danny got the shorts off and shook them out. When he put them back on he got 3 more bites! The hornet was still inside! Poor kid! I didn't witness this because Victoria and I were out on a canoe, but Danny said that Christian handled it pretty well and was back to playing with his friends pretty quickly.

Grant and Daddy driving the Jeep.(No keys really) I just needed free hands for a minute. Grant sure thought it was funny though.

Then, it was time for games- everything that I had planned wasn't really working out, so I had to improvise, big time! But with Danny's help I was able to come up with a relay race, an obstacle course, and a game of sharks and minnows. Danny came up with the idea to have a ride in the trailer. The kids had fun!

V and Makayley were on a team together for the water relay

Wiley's team filled their container first and won!

Sharks and Minnows

And the non-hay, hay ride!

As they rode around I threw together an obstacle course. Zig zag through cones, jump over some caution tape, crawl under the picnic table, run around the bush, balance on the balance beam(a long board that I was lucky to find) and hop over the aluminum pans. It was fun and the kids did it over and over again to see if they could set a new personal best time. Sad to say, no pics of that. I was busy working the stop watch.

Victoria looking naturally beautiful with a lilly choker that Dad helped her put on.

A lizard that the kids found in the picnic pavillion. Here it is in front of an empty bird's nest. This is where we found our feather, by the way.

So, as we pulled out both boys were asleep within 5 minutes. How cute are they?

We wore them out!

It was a fun time. I think it is a fun tradition for the families in the ward. I know it was fun for our family. The kids told grandma how "awesome" it was! It was nice to spend time enjoying friends, family, and our beautiful world!

the rivah

I'm not going to type a lot. When Danny went to Helaman's Challenge, the kids and I went to the river house. It was a good time and the first time we'd been since Christmas, I think. We always love it there. My parents were there and Craig, Lorel, and Ella too. It was beautiful outside. It was kinda chilly for bathing suits, but the kids got wet for a little bit anyway.

I had fun with my camera there and the pictures turned out to be pretty cute, so I'll just post a bunch. Some help show what we did and others I just like.

Thanks mom and dad for having us and feeding us and taking us out in the boat. It was fun!

To the bustop with camera in tow

Beautiful baby boy enjoys strolling to the bus stop and is excited when V gets off the B-U-S. Yes, we spell it in a little song we sing. My mom made it up long ago, I think.

Christian finds something to do while we are there.

This day it was building a pyramid of some sort.

So much fun with rocks and chunks of asphalt.

And we happily walk home. V has the best little calf muscles.

Random post, I know.

Christian "tired" of me!

So, here's a glimpse into a not so great mothering moment, but it is funny.

Danny had a trailer full of hay and tires for Helaman's Challenge, a big camp out for the young men in our church that he was working on. It was a group effort, but he was in charge of organizing it and coming up with the location, challenge, etc. A post for another day. Anyway, Christian was climbing on the tires, so I wanted to take a picture.

I suggested that he get in the tires for the next picture. There were some spiderwebs inside, so he didn't want to. But, we cleared them out and I put him in.

Pretty cute, eh?

Well, he started getting frustrated with me and wanted me to take him out because he was stuck. But the faces he was giving me were hilarious and I wanted to take more pictures so he had to wait for a few minutes. (Really, fewer than 2 min.) It really was funny though. Here a just a few of the faces I got. He is such a funny kid. These are sincere looks of anger.

"Get me OUT!"

Hitting the tire, but wanting to hit me

And my favorite.

I love this boy. He has such strong emotions and is such a character!

Mother's Day with the sick kids

So, that post from Danny and the kids sure was a nice surprise for Mother's Day! I'm thankful for my husband and to be a mom to V, Christian, and Grant. Here's a quick post about how Mother's Day was around here this year.

Breakfast in bed! Lucky me! I do like the tradition of breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. It was nice to get up and get a shower and then get back into bed to wait to be served.

Please, ignore the bedding. Christian and Grant took turns throwing up the night before and our bedding was one of the targets. Thus, the crazy array of spare quilts and towels. They both seem to throw up every time they get fevers no matter the cause, Christian in particular. So yucky. It was strep throat and a virus for Christian and just the virus for Grant. Unfortunately, whenever our kids get sick their asthma flairs. Christian who normally is our best breather (he usually doesn't get as wheezy) was definitely the sickest this time, but was better after about a week of treatments. Grant is still having breathing treatments 2 weeks later after a round of the oral steroids and hundreds of doses(every 3-4 hours round the clock) of inhaled albuterol. He was getting worse again this week and so he was prescribed Pulmicort (the same preventive medicine that V inhales everyday). It has helped so much in just three days! We are so thankful that something is working! We are also so thankful that he is a happy little fellow even when he is wheezy and tugging.

I was not going to include all of the asthma stuff in the blog, but I never have before and honestly it will be good to go back and remember one day. Hopefully they will outgrow this stuff. Plus, the asthma is a big contributor to our craziness. To put into perspective, when just Grant needs breathing treatments every 3 hours, that means that I spend roughly 2 hours and 40 minutes of the day "nebulizing." If Victoria and/or Christian need theirs too it can take up a huge chunk of our lives! Although they can administer their own during the day. V does a breathing treatment on her own every night before bed. We use that time to read books though, so it never impedes. When it is at night though and they are symptomatic coughing and wheezing, Danny and I have to hold them upright with the masks on their faces while they sleep. Luckily, it is rare when all three need it. There have only been a few days of overlap. On those days I get about 3-4 hours or intermittent sleep. It stinks terribly. But enough of that!

Back to the good stuff. I got really cute little presents from Danny and the kids- V decorated them! Each was a pack of candy. Love it!

Victoria and I went to church for Sacrament meeting and then came home. Danny stayed home with the fellows. I did not want to miss Victoria singing with the Primary. They were great and Victoria was glad to sing for me which made me very happy. The whole sacrament meeting was very good. Whitney and Clark Ramsey spoke and did very well.

After church I came home and helped take care of Christian. It seems that when he gets sick it hits so hard. Poor buddy. We were all pretty tired from the night before. Christian kept having bronchiospasms and just couldn't stop coughing(literally). He had a blessing and we just prayed that he could make it to morning. We had to increase his breathing treatments to every 2 hours per the weekend on-call doctor's orders. It was very scary. He told Danny and I to take turns sleeping with him to make sure he was OK. Uh, yeah, we were in there anyway making sure he was breathing. I know I can be dramatic and a big worrier, but really, when Danny is up counting respirations it is bad. After the antibiotics cleared up the strep and a few days of the oral steroids he was back to his wild happy self, thankfully! We do not want to have a night like that ever again.

We had invited my mom and dad over for dinner, but since our house was turning into a sick house Victoria and I just brought it over there with a book that the kids and I made for her. I didn't make it the best Mother's Day for my mom, but at least Danny made a nice dinner for them. I am thankful for my mom. She has been a great mother and grandmother and I am really blessed to live near her and see her so often. She and I are pretty good friends.

Back to the dinner- Danny made ham, rolls, 5 cup salad, tossed salad, and really yummy peanut butter bars. I really enjoyed it.

So, despite the sick boys, it was a good day. I really am thankful to be a mother. I feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with our kids. I am not the most patient person and I tend to get stressed out easily, so some days are pretty tricky, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am thankful that I am able to be the one who cares for them when they are sick. I love to hold them and tell them that it will be OK. On normal days, I like to play games or pretend with the kids. We like to put on puppet shows or do artwork. I love it when they help me cook. It is also great working together. It makes me so happy when we can work together towards simple goals like unloading the dishwasher or doing the laundry. I love throwing birthday parties for them and planning playgroups. I love teaching them. I love watching them learn and grow. It makes me so happy when I see them choose the right. I love holding and nursing a baby. Just seeing their smiles makes me so happy. I love to put the kids to bed at night. I love to read books, say prayers, sing songs, hug and kiss them and tell them how special they are to me and to Heavenly Father. The one on one chats and hugs and kisses at bedtime are the absolute best! I am truly thankful to be a mother.

Happy Mother's Day!

Brooke never thinks this is very romantic, but probably the number one reason I love her is that she is a great mom. She is what I always pictured my wife would be like: she stays at home with the kids, shes a room mom, she volunteers to help with reading stations at the school, she teaches joy school, she is the driving force for family home evening, if I slip and say something like "crap" she is the 1st to remind me that the children can hear, she's sexy, she stays up all night with the kids, she makes their birthday cakes, she brings the kids to visit me at work, she constantly tells the children that she loves them, she puts our children first in her life (no matter what the personal sacrifice). The other day, Brooke took the kids to a homeless shelter and was explaining how homeless people lived. Bishop Marquez saw this and said, "She is always teaching." It was a prideful moment for me and I didn't have anything to do with it. I out punted my coverage when it came to picking a wife. I must be the blind squirrel who found the pistachio factory.

Here are some thoughts from the kids:

Christian:

"I love you Mom because you hug me and kiss me. I really like you playing with me. And I really like to hug you. I like to play Candy Land with you. I very love you because you kiss me. And I love you because you let me watch TV. You let me go to Joy School sometimes, but sometimes I'm sick. You let me play sometimes."

Victoria:

"I love my mom. She comes to my school. She helps my teacher; I like it. I love my mom."

Grant:

"I love my Mom because she wants me to stay a baby forever so she can cuddle me. Being held by my Mom is the most comfortable place in the world. Sometimes I'm perfectly content in my Daddy's arms, then I hear Mommy's voice and know that there's a better option. Mom is the best!"

Here are some pictures by Victoria of her mom that she wanted to add.

CARITAS

For the past 4 years I have had the privilege to work with our church and other area churches to provide relief for Richmonders who are currently homeless. We volunteer with CARITAS, Congregations Around Richmond Involved to Assure Shelter. Different churches take turns opening up their church buildings to be temporary shelters for one week at a time. Though the guests stay at a different church, we help to host by providing breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. We also visit, donate hygiene items and clothes, help the CARITAS staff by spending the night, clean the building, etc. It is a pretty great idea and I enjoy being a part.

My involvement is not a "calling" really, but a special assignment. I especially enjoy it when I am actually there interacting with those whom we aim to serve. The planning and preparation can be sorta overwhelming and the past couple years I have wondered why I have been asked to do it when I already feel busy enough (I know that most my "busy-ness" is my own fault. A lot of it could be prevented by being more organized and on top of things, nevertheless we usually feel kinda crazy at our house), but after the hard work is through I feel really glad to be a part. In fact, I look forward to doing it again next year! You see, I am crazy.

So, that was a big part of out week last week. For the past couple weeks we passed around lots of sign up sheets at church to ask people to donate food, serve meals, spend the night, do laundry etc. A lot of people were willing to contribute. I appreciate it and was especially thankful for the men who volunteered to spend the night, and for the women who volunteered to do laundry.

Early in the week Christian and I packed lots of lunches (except for the sandwiches which were added at the last minute.)

He was a happy helper and I was thankful. He and Grant were also great about going shopping and back and forth to the churches and other errands.

Grant helped too, by being so patient with me while receiving less attention than usual. Here, play with these fun boxes!

Danny helped me big time by making one night's dinner with me. Lots of teriyaki chicken, stir fry, and rice. Checkout this carload! The Jeep's seats were down and it was full of food and supplies!

So, two quick stories about how Heavenly Father wanted us to do a good job:

One, it is always hard to find men to spend the night. Honestly, I do not know why. Nancy Alaya and I did it a couple years ago and it was no sweat. Fun even- a little sleepover. However, because sometimes there are male guests, the bishop decided it would be best to have men. I understand, but it is hard to find guys willing to do it. Bro. Westbrook volunteered and asked in Priesthood several weeks for another man, but no luck! Even the night before, the bishopric was helping me call and ask people, but again no luck. I even tried calling people the day of and on the way. By the time I actually got there I decided, 'oh well, we only have one and that is all I can do.' Well, when they asked who the other man would be and I said there was only one, they said that that wasn't allowed and we needed to find someone quickly. 'OK, great!' Well, Anna Capelli was there dropping off some dessert and said she would help me. I was thankful. She called a couple men- no luck. She looked at me and asked if I had any last ideas- How about Chad Tross. She called him and he said yes. We were so glad we gave high fives. I called Danny and told him the good news. He said that he and the kids had just said a prayer that everything would work out. I am thankful to have a family who prays for my success and friends who help when help is needed.

Story #2. Dinner was a success. Thanks to Sis. Reynolds and Kelvin and Karla Battle for serving, I was able to talk to some of the guests and really enjoyed that. Then, we started with the laundry distribution. 20 of the ladies turned in laundry to be washed- 1-2 garbage bags each. So, my jeep was full and I was thankful that we had a good number of volunteers to help do the laundry. I called a few of the women to say that I was on my way. It was a dark and rainy night. As I was driving I heard wind and I thought that the back window was open. I looked, but I couldn't tell for sure. The lights inside the Jeep don't work so I really couldn't tell, plus there were tons of garbage bags obstructing my view. I decided that I better pull over to check on the window. So, I pulled off of 288 and got out of the car. To my shock, the back of the jeep was fully open. Here I was, responsible for such a large percentage of these womens' personal belongings and they might have fallen out of the back of the car over a span of many miles late on a dark and rainy night. I was so worried. I prayed that they would all still be there. I dropped of bags at a few houses and then got home and counted the rest of the bags. Thankfully, I had them all and we were able to get them all laundered and returned to their owners!

Overall, CARITAS was a good experience for me and helped me to recognize the many blessings that we enjoy.

For more information about CARITAS please go to the website. http://www.caritasshelter.org/ That will explain it better than I can.

Army crawling Grant

I haven't written a Grant post in quite a while. He is a huge focus of my life and I take tons of pictures of him, so not sure what has been taking me so long. Here are a few things that he has learned in the past few months. He learned to roll the day before he was 5 months old. Finally. He is a total Roley poly now. Then, the week before he was 6 months old someone asked if he could sit by himself. We said let's see and he could! He grew in two teeth this month and also has learned to get around another way. Here are a few pictures to show you.

Watch this, mom!

I've got my eye on the goal!

Reach!

You did it, Grant!

He has a difficult time getting his belly up to crawl, but figured out a different way to move where he wants to go. It is kinda a combination of an army crawl and an inch worm. He likes the new found independence. He loves this lacrosse stick- I think it is the contrasting colors. He also loves to crawl for dangerous things like cords or keys or small toys. This is a stage when he definitely needs lots of supervision. He will be 8 months old on Mother's Day! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. He is still such a good calm baby. He is a pretty big Mama's boy, so we will have to make sure that that doesn't turn into a problem. But for now I will just be flattered and be sure to give him to other people from time to time so that a huge separation anxiety problem doesn't start. I love him so much and am totally glad to be this little guy's mom.

Softball Season

Danny loves softball season, and we all like it too. He plays in a church league. The team is mainly players from our church, but also several of Danny's friends from work. It's a good group and they have fun.We like to go and cheer for him and play with our friends too.

V playing with her friends

Mom's friends watching/supervising the kids/ chatting

Christian riding around on another kid's car

And of course, the awesome softball player through the fence. Next time I'll bring a telephoto lens and do a little better. Go Belmont!

And there he runs to home plate! Woo hoo! Great job!