16 years

Last night for family home evening, we celebrated the 16th anniversary of the day that Bob asked me to marry him (Feb 28th). When he asked me, it was at a playground in Salt Lake City where we had stopped to swing on some swings after walking around Temple Square. On that day, I sure didn't envision that 16 years later, I'd be swinging again, this time with a group like this:

Yes, we had the kids bundle up, and we all went to a local elementary school and had a blast swinging and playing on the playground. How often do we do something like this, especially on a night when it's cold and the ground is covered with snow? Not nearly often enough, I've decided (especially after hearing Bob laugh out loud like a kid as he was swinging.)

Every day I honestly feel in awe that such a perfectly wonderful person as Bob wants to be married to me. I'm so grateful he asked me to marry him back then!

Nerf Wars

Aliysa and Jace had a bunch of friends over Saturday evening for a party. They started off with snacks, a few games, threw some darts, and then when everyone was finally here, they had a huge Nerf gun war (see videos below). They all had fun shooting each other, and to keep it moving and the guns getting rotated, they had the rule that each time someone gets shot 3 times, they had to pass their gun off and stand by the back door waiting until someone else has to pass for someone else (No one waits very long.)

After that they enjoyed ice cream, basketball, and everyone headed home. I'm so grateful for the great friends that our kids have - they are absolutely wonderful people!

And I'm thankful for the fun husband I have - he joined right in of course, and had as much fun as any of the teenagers. (He's the best type of chaperone for a teen party).

Chicken Pot Pie

Yesterday my cousin Kathryn came over and had dinner with us. She made four homemade chicken pot pies (she hand-shredded 10 lbs of chicken for these!)

When I told Zach that Kathryn was coming and bringing chicken pot pie, he got a horrified look on his face. "What's the matter?" I asked. "Chicken POCK Pie?" he asked. I had to laugh and laugh. Poor kid, I would have been disgusted as well.

Luckily they were much yummier than that. In fact, they were delicious! Thanks Kathryn.

Abby has quite advanced language skills for her age. She doesn't talk a lot when we're out in public (except during Sacrament meeting), but at home she talks, and talks, and talks. She asks questions that amaze me, and when it gets noisy around here, she tries to talk louder than everyone else.

This morning, she came in my room when Bob and I were just waking up, and while she was sitting on the bed, she leaned over and asked "Where are you guys' (guyses) Mom?" Bob and I both thought, wow, that is quite an abstract question. I answered her: "My Mom is in Utah, and Daddy's Mom is in Romania." She sat, blinking at me for a few seconds before she repeated her question in a very clear voice: "WHERE are your GLasses, Mom?" Ah, now that is a more reasonable question from an almost two-year old.

She always says "My hair is so pwetty, Mom". Then she tells me: "Your hair is so pretty, Mom", (this made me feel great until she looked at our big chubby dog, Rocky, grabbed him by both ears, looked him right in the eyes and sincerely told him "Your hair is SO pretty, Rocky").

One day she told Andrew "Your hair is so pretty, Andrew." Andrew laughed in a deep chuckle, and said "Nooooo, it's not!" I told him that she just meant that he was handsome, and she doesn't know that boys are not called "pretty" yet. I told him just to say thank you. He must have really thought this through, because the next day when she tried to tease him by saying "you are a pretty girl, Andrew" he sweetly said "Thank you, Abby".

Never have a "bad day" again

This is from a recent BYU-Idaho devotional by Brother Waddoups, who used to be a veterinarian. I just had to share it with all of you, it is one of the funniest stories I've ever heard.

"I would like to ask you a question. Have any of you ever had a bad day? Raise your hand if you think you have had a bad day.

A number of years ago my brother called me and as we visited, I asked him that same question, he said he had had better days. He then asked me how my day was and I told him that I no longer had bad days; of course he wanted an explanation.

That day some unusual things happened. I was at work trying to keep pace with a busy schedule. I had just finished my morning surgeries and hurried to exam room one to see my first patient, in our practice there is a small slot in the door that holds the medical records where the technicians write their findings as they interview clients and examine the patient. Today the card was empty. That was strange and as that fact was beginning to register, something else out of the ordinary happened. The door softly closed behind me, and the technician who normally followed me into the room was on the other side of it. There was a scruffy white and black dog sitting on the exam table, you have never seen such an emaciated mess in all your life. He had one red swollen eye and what looked to be a large dirt clod on his head. His coat was dirty and unkempt and he was very gaunt.

Having no idea what we were doing, and learning only that the dogs name was Cholo from the record, I asked, “What are we doing for Cholo today?” For a moment no one answered, there appeared to be a whole family there, grandparents a mother and father and several kids, and they all looked at the floor. They were Hispanic and as is often the case an older woman touched a young girl on the shoulder and she began to speak. “We had Cholo put to sleep a week ago.”

With that flat statement my gut tightened slightly, I could envision that we had put Cholo to sleep a week ago and that somehow we had not done a very good job, and he had come back to life, you know that can be considered as one of the ultimate failures. That is a hard decision for people to make and if it had gone poorly, I could imagine that they were not happy, so tentatively, I asked, “Did we put him to sleep?” They smiled and the little girl said “no”. Now relieved but still confused I prompted them to continue. This time the mother in broken English began to explain. “A week ago Cholo ran into the road and was hit by a car, it didn’t kill him but he was badly hurt.” “His eyeball was popped out and his skull was fractured, we could see his brain!” “We knew he could not live and so my husband’s friend took him into the desert and put him to sleep.” I asked, “How did he put him to sleep?” She answered that he had shot him five times. I laughed and commented, “He must not have been a very good shot.” “Oh no”, came the reply, “Cholo was dead, and we buried him in a shallow grave.”

This was becoming more bizarre by the moment. Still perplexed, I ask, “How did he get home.” She said, “An hour ago the phone rang and my husband’s boss said your dog is out here and he doesn’t look very good, you better come and get him. We tried to explain that it could not be our dog that he had been dead for a week, but he said he was sure it was our dog and that we had better come down. It was Cholo and so here we are.” Still not sure what they wanted, I ask, “What do you want us to do, put him to sleep?” The mother became excited and began to shake her head, “No, no, Cholo is a good dog, after all of this, he came home to us. We want you to fix him.”

Cholo had had a bad day. He set a new standard for bad days. He had been hit by a car, had his skull fractured, his eyeball popped out of its socket. He had been taken out into the desert away from his family and shot five times. Then to end this bad day, he was buried alive. So with this as our standard, I would submit that I have never had a bad day and neither have most of you.

These were poor people so I began to explain that we would want to take x-rays and run some tests to see what would be best for Cholo. The mother looked at her hands and said “We only have $1200.00.” I am sure this was all the money they had in the world. I told them to have a seat and we would see how extensive his injuries were and then we could talk of the costs involved.

I really expected to find very little when we x-rayed Cholo, but when the pictures were developed, he had been shot five times in the head and neck. I don’t know how he was alive, but he was. The dirt clod on the head turned out to be a large laceration and a fracture into his frontal sinus. What they thought was the brain was actually the sinus cavity. We cleaned it up and sutured his wounds. The eye was very red and hemorrhagic; it had been proptosed and because of the loss of blood it had sunk back in to the socket and his vision was fine, even though the eye was very blood shot. Cholo required very little attention, a few sutures and some antibiotics and pain killers. He was a modern day miracle.

Many of you may think that these folks must have been cruel monsters to have put their friend through so much. But if you examine what they did, they were trying to help, not hurt. They knew that Cholo was hurt and that he was suffering, so they sought to alleviate that suffering.

Life is like that. Many times well meaning people try to help make things better, but inadvertently they make things worse. Something is said, offense is taken or help is offered and injury occurs. Once the hurt happens, then it falls to us to decide what we will do with it. Pres. Faust gave us this council.

“Most of us need time to work through pain and loss. We can find all manner of reasons for postponing forgiveness. One of these reasons is waiting for the wrongdoers to repent before we forgive them. Yet such a delay causes us to forfeit the peace and happiness that could be ours. The folly of rehashing long-past hurts does not bring happiness.” (President James E. Faust, “The Healing Power of Forgiveness,” Ensign, May 2007, 67-69)

Many of us feel that one day is much the same as the next. We allow with that feeling a sense of monotony and of the mundane. Sometimes we even believe that we have had a “bad” day. Yet if we look at the scriptures, the Lord feels just the opposite, as He uses phrases like, “upon this day”, and “the day of the Lord”, “there cometh a day upon which…” Over a thousand of these types of statements leads me to believe that the Lord accounts each day as special and as an opportunity to teach and lift us closer to Him."

Isn't that great? I don't think I'll ever say that I'm having a bad day again... You can read the rest of the talk at:

http://www.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2010_02_02_Waddoups.htm

Have a good day!
Tasha

Courtney's Happiest Day

I am sad to say that a certain 3- year old boy recently dropped my camera and it will not work. So, the pictures of this event, and many others (like Christmas) are not available at the moment. I do have a digital camera that has one broken switch that I'll try to use to take pictures in the next little while.

Courtney recently got her ears pierced. I told her she had to be 12 years old, or finish her 6th grade math program. I don't usually bribe for schoolwork, but it worked quite well in this case.

I'm going to quote from her journal, because it is so cute:

"12-23-09 Math
Today I got my ears pierced! It is the happiest day of my life, (so far) & there's two days until Christmas! I had a goal to get my ears pierced by Christmas, it was 5 days until then, and I had 35 lessons left.

Well, the day before yesterday I did 8 lessons! 11 was my record. I had to get them pierced the day before Christmas Eve because the store would be closed then. I wanted them pierced by Christmas. I had no hope. I thought I would have to set my goal for New Years day. BUT, the next day, I did 25 LESSONS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had 3 lessons left and I did them today! So I did it & got them pierced today!"

It was interesting to see how she progressed in math. Earlier, she would get boggled if she would try to do 3 or 4 lessons in a day. (My children are assigned 1 or 2 a day) Each lesson has a lecture, practice problems, and then about 25 problems to solve.

After she did 11 lessons in a day, her mind seemed to learn to process math more and more quickly. She would fly through the lessons, and she usually gets 95-100% on each lesson. I guess it makes sense that if you are training yourself to solve problems, you will naturally get quicker and quicker at processing math facts.

Her concentration level is what really improved dramatically, though. The day before she got them pierced, she woke up before 6am, did all her morning chores, and was doing math when we got up at 6:00. We let her do it all day long, just pausing to eat, and do kitchen jobs, etc. When she needed a break, she would get up and do handstands or cartwheels, and then get back to math. I watched her doing a handstand in our kitchen as she listened to and watched one of the lectures. I don't know how well that would have gone over at public school :)

One of my main problems with extrinsic rewards is that they can often remove the instrinsic joy of completing a task. I've written on our homeschool blog about how this happens. But the goal of getting her ears pierced didn't do that in this case. Instead she says that she loves math and wants to see how quickly she can get to calculus. She is confident with her ability to do hard things in math, and that makes me quite happy. I better get her next level installed on our computer now!

Biology

This year Aliysa and Jace are taking a a great biology class from Brother Butikofer who is a superb teacher. He has inspired our kids to think about, love learning about, and discuss biology.

One of their assignments is to periodically update their class blog, which you can check out at: http://havbioscience.blogspot.com/

At first, they learned a little bit about Latin scientific names. They each chose a Latin name for themselves (Aliysa is Animalia, and Jace is Fungi.) You can check out the name they gave to their blog. There are also some fun pictures of their field trip to the lake to get pond water specimens for an upcoming experiment, etc.

Jace had so much fun looking in the microscope the first few weeks. He has simply loved being a part of this class. At first, we let him be included just so he could pick up a little bit, while the focus was going to be on Aliysa and her friends, because it is high-school level biology. I have been surprised how much he has learned! I'm sure it has to do a lot with the small class size and one-on-one tutoring he receives. The other day, I overheard Jace teaching Spencer about osmosis. Often he discusses in depth what he has learned with Bob and I. For Christmas, we gave him the biology textbook, audio book version, on MP3. He loves to listen while he reads along in the textbook. Jace is quite an auditory learner, if he hears something, he rarely forgets it.

Aliysa has also been inspired to read and study diligently on her own. This has been a great experience. We're so grateful for Brother Butikofer, and his efforts this year!

The accumulation of dirt

We have been starting the New Year off by dejunking and cleaning up a storm. I think I may already be having a nesting urge, and my body knows that it will take at least 6 months to get everything how I want it before the baby comes. It's funny how much longer it takes to get everything ready with each additional child! If anyone has a deep desire to wash and re-paint all the walls in my house, let me know. (I'll bake you some cookies)

So, I finally tackled a task I've really been dreading- a complete detailed deep cleaning of our big 15 passenger van. We've never had the carpets cleaned in it since we've owned it, and I've always wanted to. Our van had started to smell musty, and it seemed to be getting worse with all the wet and snowy feet that have been getting in and out of it. So.....reluctantly, I had the kids get me started. Jace helped by taking all the benches, except the fourth row, out of the van and bringing them inside. All the kids cleaned every single item out of the van, and Aliysa did an amazing vacuuming job inside. Courtney vacuumed all the benches that we brought inside. What great workers they were!

I then realized that there was no more putting it off. So, I went out and, thanks to the blessing of owning one of these fabulous machines: I cleaned all the carpeting and the back bench of the van. Emptying the container of dirty water out over and over and over was the worst part. Realizing that a vehicle can collect that much dirt makes me seriously want to go and join the likes of Howard Hughes and live in a sanitary, air-purified bubble. I wanted to just keep steaming and cleaning until the water came out looking completely clean, but I've tried that before on home carpets, and I've found out that there isn't a carpet machine on the planet that will ever be able to suck up all the dirt.

Anyway...the carpets look so nice and clean! One trick to cleaning carpets is to just use super hot water and white vinegar, not soapy solutions. You can never get all the soap out, and it will collect dirt afterwards. Only use a bit of soapy stuff if you have a real difficult stain to get out (spot clean it). White vinegar kills about as many germs as bleach, and the vinegar smell disappears when it dries (At least, I sure hope it does, because now our van smells like vinegar and vanilla Febreeze) We have two space heaters going full time to dry everything quickly, so it won't mildew.

Then I tackled the four car seats/booster seats. Again, it just is not fun to see how dirty these can get. Two of the seats I removed and washed on a "sanitary cycle" in my washer, and two carseats I put in the shower, turned it on hot, then scrubbed them with a scrub brush & vinegar/soap/spray & wash/oxyclean, then rinsed. Wow, what a job! I think I'd rather wrestle a hog than do that very often.

The next part I was really dreading. Cleaning out the little parts on the floor of the van where the seats hook into. They were filled with caked on dirt & crumbs, etc. Well, this turned out to be the easiest part of the job. I filled them with hot soapy water, scrubbed down in them with a toothbrush, and then sucked them out with my mini shop-vac. Here's my sales pitch for this amazing little machine:
I think every home should own one of these. It is tiny, but I have used it for so much! We keep it in our van, along with an extension cord, and when I need to vacuum the van, I just plug in the cord, and vacuum everything up with this. I bought it on Amazon.com for less than $30. It has an amazing amount of power for something so little. And, it can also (when you remove the filters), be a wet-vac, too. It's amazing.

We also cleaned all the windows, and shined all the surfaces with Armor-all protectant. Now I just need to steam- clean the three van benches that are sitting in my family room, wait for everything to dry, and put it all back together.

Whew. We'll never allow food in this van again. Or kids, for that matter. :)

The Christmas Spirit

This video message by the church is pretty cute.
The Christmas Spirit
Merry Christmas!
We hope "The Spirit of Christ" is in each of your homes.

Abigail Lamoreaux

I just purchased some photos from my sister Lisa's wedding that was held in September. I bought the pictures mostly so I could get these two of the cutest one year old in the whole world. I absolutely love these pictures!

Enjoy the snow!

We're not bothered by the cold around here. This picture is from the first good snowfall of the year.

A Day of Rest

How do you spend your time when:
Bob's long hard internship is over,
He's finally able to get more than three hours of sleep each night (a first for the last 2 weeks!)
His first difficult trimester of seminary is over, and Christmas break is almost here?
and...
Tasha just survived and recovered from a kidney infection?
and...
Our ward was just split, so neither of us currently have church callings or home teaching or visiting teaching assignments?
and...
It's cold and snowy outside, and nice and warm by the fireplace?

Well... you get really ambitious and spend Sunday afternoon like this:

(Jace snapped this picture of us)

We might be feeling lazy, but it sure sometimes feels good to just crash!

Acrobatic Mishap

Jace had a rather eventful day at gymnastics today. While he was waiting for his class to start, he was doing tricks on the uneven parallel bars. He missed the high bar, and fell back. He reached back to catch himself, and felt his right arm buckle under him. He stood up, walked into the lobby, and told his friends "I think I dislocated my arm." They looked over, and they both started saying "Jace! Sit down!" "I'm going to go get you some ice!", etc. They went and got his teacher, who took great care of him. She had him lay right down because he looked like he was going to pass out. She put ice on it, and covered him up, and sat there with him while her assistant took over teaching the classes.

I was gone running some errands, so when I got to gymnastics I was told by a couple of my friends that Jace had broken his arm, and his bone was sticking out the side of his arm. They had gotten a hold of Bob, who was about to deliver a presentation at the e-center. He was almost to the gym when I arrived. Jace was pale and shaky, and his arm was limp, and a bone was sticking out the side of his arm.

Well, after a trip to the emergency room, we found out that his arm was completely dislocated at the elbow. They put an I.V. in, gave him some morphine, and then some other drug that instantly knocked him out. Jace said: "when they gave it to me, Dad asked how I was feeling, and I said 'a little loopy'. Then I looked down, and I had a cast on."

He did break a few small pieces of bone off of the elbow, but we are so greatful that it was not worse. He has an appointment with an orthopedic doctor on Monday to make sure there is no damage to his growth plates, etc.

Thanks so much to everyone who offered to take our children, thanks to Jennifer who made dinner for our family tonight, and thanks to Jace's teacher and friends who took such good care of him. (Thanks Morgan for going outside to dig ice off the sidewalk with your hands to put in an icebag for Jace!) We feel so grateful to have such wonderful friends!

2009 Family Letter

Happy Holidays From the Lamoreaux Family!

Our 2009 Family Letter

This has been a busy and happy year for us.

Bob continued attending school at BYU-Idaho throughout the year. This semester has been his busiest by far. He is a student teacher teaching released-time seminary at Madison High School in Rexburg, and he is also completing an internship working as a junior analyst for a Venture Capital firm. He had so much fun playing competitive league football at the college, where he won the “spirit of the league” award, and had two local newspapers feature stories about him.

He’s up by 4am or 5am most mornings, has scripture study & prayer with us before he leaves at 6:30, and then is gone most days until about 8pm. We’ll be happy when we get to see him more often, but we’re proud of how hard he works at everything he does. He also teaches the Gospel Doctrine Sunday school class at church each week, and does a super job with that. I (Tasha) absolutely love being a mother and a homeschool teacher. It keeps me busy. I am currently serving as the Young Women president in our ward. It has been a wonderful experience so far. This summer I trained for a 5K race this year with my friend Katherine. We ran at night after the kids were in bed and really enjoyed huffing and puffing together. It was so nice to have someone to run with, and I finally experienced the “runner’s high” that makes you look forward to running. Aliysa joined us halfway through our training and ran the University Place 5K with us (well, to be truthful, way ahead of us) in September.

Aliysa turned 14 this year and will begin Driver’s Ed soon. Some of her highlights of the past year are: swim lessons at Green Canyon, playing soccer, helping train a horse and participating in the Great Western Horse show, beginning seminary at Rigby High, participating in gymnastics classes, and being in a wonderful Biology class. She is constantly drawing or sculpting, reading, or writing stories, most of them very humorous stories that make us laugh. She is a wonderful daughter who serves her family selflessly and is a peacemaker in our home.

Jace is 12. He is very organized and determined in life. His favorite things this year were Scout Camp (where he earned 8 merit badges), swim lessons at Green Canyon, playing Grid Kid football (with Bob as his head coach), and gymnastics. He recently won the headstand contest in his gymnastics class. He and Spencer have continued learning German from Bob Breckenridge, a retired German teacher. He will be leaving soon for a mission with his wife, and they will miss him a lot.

Jace also loves to draw, read, and write stories. He is currently serving as Deacon's quorum secretary. He is a wonderful big brother, always playing football with little brothers, reading to little siblings, or taking care of Andrew and Abby. He absolutely loves to cook, and will always agree to cook meals or dessert for us anytime. He has learned to cook health food well with whole wheat & no refined sugars, and his recipes usually turn out great! Jace has a great scout leader, Brother High, who works for the Fish & Game dept, so he takes Jace’s scout troop fishing a lot. Jace has fished all summer and autumn, and he never tires of it.

Courtney is 11, but counting down the days (literally) until she turns 12. She wrote a list of all the things she gets to do when she turns 12, and she can’t wait. While she is waiting for her next birthday, she also spends a lot of time doing her favorite subject, Math. She loves to get together with her cousins for a monthly “Cousin’s club”, and she also has a book club with four of her friends where they get together monthly, discuss a book they are reading (The Secret Garden is their current book), do a fun activity and enjoy a treat together. She loves scrapbooking, crafts, gymnastics, writing stories about fairies, riding her bike, and going to Activity Days at church. She and Mallory are best friends, and Abby loves playing with them in all their pretend & dress up adventures. Courtney’s tender and sweet personality adds so much to our family.
Spencer just turned 9. He loves going to Cub Scouts, reading, doing math, and participating in gymnastics (he worked super hard practicing for his headstand contest, and came in 3rd place in all the classes by staying up for 4½ minutes). He is in a homeschool group with a bunch of fun boys who he has become great friends with. He and his neighbor friend Cody love to go fishing together, build huts together, and play football or capture the flag with the rest of our children. He diligently does all the farm chores around here (Jace was extremely happy to take over Spencer’s kitchen jobs in exchange for not having to do “farm chores”) Spencer’s attitude about life is so contagious, he inspires us all to work hard and enjoy life. Mallory is 7. She has lost lots of her teeth this year, along with taking swim lessons, riding her bike, taking care of her little brothers and sisters, learning to love reading, and participating in gymnastics. She is the responsible one around here who loves to change diapers, take care of people’s owies, help to cook, give footrubs to Mom, and anything else she can do to serve. She has a funny little sense of humor that makes us all laugh. Her example that seems way beyond her years teaches us all every day. Zachary is 5, and is still tiny for his age, but so smart & physically coordinated. He has an imaginary football team that he takes very seriously. Each day he tells us that he has a game or practice to go to, then he’ll suit up in Jace’s old football pads, helmet, & uniform, and practice, practice, practice. Then he usually comes in and in a very serious and proud tone of voice tells us all the highlights of the game. We’re trying to figure out how he can play every position, score all the touchdowns, and win every one of his games. Sometimes he will admit that he had a fumble or two. He loves gymnastics, school, riding his two-wheeler, and helping with the farm chores. We all love Zach so much. Andrew is 3. He and Zach have become best friends. They play together so well all day, and are basically inseparable. He is such a tough little kid, who loves doing gymnastics, football, riding his bike, and laughing with Abby. He is very sneaky about food lately. If we can’t find him for a minute, we go straight in the living room, and usually find him behind the couch with some food or treat that he isn’t supposed to be eating. The other day he climbed up the bookshelves to get a bag of suckers. He admitted to me later that he and his “mirror friend” (that’s his imaginary friend that lives in the mirror that looks just like him) ate some of the suckers. He “ate one”, and his "mirror friend ate three.” Andrew has a way of saying things that just melts all of our hearts. We love that little guy! Abby turned 1 in March, and she is a joy to our family. We all love her so much. She is a bright, energetic, determined, beautiful little girl that has captured our hearts. She smiles and is charming most of the day, then when we go somewhere, she tends to scowl at everyone she meets. She is a chatterbox, just talking and singing all day long. She loves us to read “bookies” to her, she enjoys Andrew’s gymnastics class where she thinks she is in charge of the whole class, loves singing, playing with dolls, and doing puzzles. She is doted upon by all her siblings.

This year we have all had our testimonies strengthened about the power of daily scripture study and prayer, and frequent temple attendance. When we are diligent with those things we definitely feel closer to God, and see many miracles in our lives.

We are so thankful for all of you, our friends and family, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

With love, from the Lamoreaux Family


Family pictures courtesy of our extremely talented Brother-in-law, Dave Summerill. www.wix.com/DavidSummerill/summerill or http://summphoto.blogspot.com/

The gift of children

“In the eternal perspective, children-not possessions, not position, not prestige-are our greatest jewels.” --Ezra Taft Benson

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I know that my capacity to love has increased with each child that has come to our family. I have especially noticed this over the past year and a half of raising Abby – I think she is the most beautiful baby girl in the world. She may be headstrong and determined, she may scowl often, but I simply and completely and totally adore her.

The other night when I laid her in bed I started crying just because I love her so, so much. There are no words to describe that kind of love. I just have to pick her up and squeeze her and grit my teeth several times a day. I agree with one of my great grandmas who said she wore out two sets of false teeth, because her kids were so cute.

My mother in law, a mother of fourteen children, told me once when I was a young mother that when you have each child, your love isn’t divided, it multiplies. I didn’t know how true that was then, but I do now.

I remember when Aliysa was 9 months old and I was shocked to find out that I was expecting another baby (what! We were going to wait at least two years between each baby!) I laid on my bed and cried and cried because she was still so little, and I felt sure that I would never be able to love another baby as much as I loved Aliysa. But here’s a memory that will always be etched in my mind: When Jace was born, I had an experience that I’ve never had with any other baby. The doctor held him up, and I knew instantly that I had already known Jace for a long time. It was a feeling of “oh, it’s Jace!” I recognized and loved him completely and totally in a split-second.

I think I started out with all sorts of ideas of how my children would be, what kind of a parent I would be, and how many children I wanted to have. Bob and I planned to have a large family - six children! We would wait for a year before trying to have a baby, and then we would space our children about two years apart. We thought that we had a great plan.

It is impossible to explain all the experiences that have changed our outlook on rearing children, it has been a sacred and personal journey that Bob and I have experienced, but one of the main quotes that changed our minds about having a family was from Spencer W. Kimball:

“Come home, wives, to your children, born and unborn. Wrap the motherly cloak about you and, unembarrassed, help in a major role to create bodies for the immortal souls who anxiously wait.”
I read that quote in the book “The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson” that I was reading on the bus on my way to and from work each day, and I just knew that I was supposed to come home to my “unborn” children. I mentioned it to Bob, but of course, he didn’t see how we could afford to have me quit work.

So, I continued to study, and started writing down more quotes in a little spiral notebook. One day I left it on our bed. Bob came home from work and innocently picked it up and began reading. And then, the moment that changed our lives. He came out with the notebook in hand, and said in a sheepish tone of voice “well, it’s pretty clear, isn’t it?!”

We were lucky enough to be blessed monetarily almost immediately after we made this decision. Bob got a much better job, and soon we realized the truth of this statement:

“Love realizes his sweetest happiness and his most divine consummation in the home where the coming of children is not restricted, where they are made most welcome, and where the duties of parenthood are accepted as a co-partnership with the eternal Creator.” --David O. McKay

We continued researching and found over 14 pages of quotes from our church leaders about birth control and having children. This led to a life-changing decision to have as many children as God wants us to. I would be lying if I said that I’ve never doubted that decision, but God has patiently helped re-confirm that decision for me on numerous occasions.

“Of course, it will be harder to get your college degrees or your financial starts with a family, but strength like yours will be undaunted in the face of difficult obstacles. Have your family as the Lord intended. Of course it is expensive, but you will find a way, and besides, it is often those children who grow up with responsibility and hardships who carry on the world and its work. And…do not limit your family as the world does.

… When you have fully complemented your husband in home life and borne the children, growing up full of faith, integrity, responsibility, and goodness, then you have achieved, your accomplishments supreme, without peer, and you will be the envy through time and eternity of your sisters who have spent themselves in selfish pursuits.” –Spencer W. Kimball

“It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can."

-- Brigham Young

‘Latter-day Saints take literally the command of the Lord to the first couple: "Multiply, and replenish the earth." (Genesis 1:28) …We understand that hosts of waiting spirits desire to come on earth through our lineage. We know that the family is the unit of heavenly society; and that the greatest gift of God is to give His children the opportunity of continuing family relationships throughout the eternities. Gospel doctrine should make every Latter-day Saint married couple eager for the privilege and obligations of parenthood. And they should have the faith and trust that the Lord will provide the means for obeying His law.” –John A. Widstoe

I certainly am not sharing these personal thoughts to condemn anyone who has less children than us. This is such a personal and sacred decision. I also do not want to hurt anyone who hasn’t been able to have as many children as they would like to have. One person who I have been thinking of and grieving for a lot lately is one of my best friends who just had her ninth miscarriage. I can only try to imagine the heartache that must come when you want a baby so much, and you lose that baby, or many babies.

I simply want to share this because it has been on my mind so much, and also for anyone who may have wondered why on earth we have so many children, or wondered how many children we are going to have.

I also want to happily announce that we are going have another new baby come to our home next June.

Sometimes the responsibility of raising all these little ones is completely overwhelming, I used to wonder why God would be willing to send so many children to such an imperfect mother as me. That thought changed when I realized that each child that comes to our home always receives love, food, shelter, and is taught the gospel. Anything else above that is a bonus, but I’m sure there are lots of spirits that would just love to come to a home where they could have those four things.

“Don't think you will love the later ones less or have fewer material things for them. Perhaps, like Jacob, you might love the eleventh one most. Young folk, have your family, love them, sacrifice for them, teach them righteousness, and you will be blessed and happy all the days of your eternal lives.” --Spencer W. Kimball

We are happy to know that another spirit will be a part of our family soon.

Just when you think you know it all

Well, sometimes I begin to think that I am a pretty experienced mother who knows a thing or two about parenting. Take potty training for instance. I decided after the ordeal of potty training my two oldest that I would take the advice of my sister-in-law, Bet, and wait until the child begged to be potty trained. It worked like a charm. All my children after that would potty train themselves in less than a day, because they were the ones who wanted to do it. No treats, bribes, begging, sweat, or tears.

Then along comes Andrew. It's amazing how a child who so completely captures your heart can also challenge every parenting technique you have developed.

Andrew has not had any desire whatsoever to be potty trained. None. So, after realizing that he was too big to fit in his diapers any more, and he wasn't getting any younger, I announced about two weeks ago that he would stop wearing diapers on Monday. He pretended to be on board with this idea on Saturday, and most of Sunday.

When Monday morning arrived, I put the "big boy" unders on him, and explained the new details of his life using the toilet. About an hour later, he had a crisis in his life. I've never experienced the like of it.

He decided that he needed to go to the bathroom, but he wanted a diaper. When I had him use the toilet instead, he ran to the diaper cupboard (which had been emptied of diapers), and began wailing "I'm a BABY!!! I need dipaaaaaaaahsss!" (Spoken in a baby voice) We tried to tell him that he was a big boy and he didn't need diapers any more. To which he responded with only one word: "Diiiiiaaaapaaahs!" Over, and over.

How on earth do you motivate a child with that attitude? I now had a dilemma on my hands. I knew if I gave in and let him wear diapers, I would probably be sending him off to college with a box of Huggies, but if I continued trying to convince him, it would probably be a lost cause. "He has to be motivated to do this", I told myself. "If he's this hysterical, he'll never use the toilet!" What to do?

I finally took his little tear stained face in both of my hands, looked him in the eyes, and explained to him that it was okay if he was a baby, but some babies know how to use the toilet. I told him that Aliysa was only 1 when she learned to use the toilet (I left out the fact that it took her probably the next three years to fully recover from the trauma of early potty training.)

Well, he perked up and went to play and has told me almost every time he has needed to use the toilet. I am simply astounded. He's doing great.

Another odd fact is that he is even staying dry at night. Andrew is the best sleeper I've ever known. I am not exaggerating when I say that he has probably only awakened in the night probably five times in his whole life. Even when he's sick, he sleeps until morning. Each night when he is tired, he lays down, scrunches his eyes shut, and lays there until he is asleep. I am convinced that this attribute of his was a gift to me, coming close on the heels of a trial for me of having the worst sleeper on the face of the earth (Zachary). Anyway, I was just sure that he would sleep way too deep to ever stay dry. I am happy to have been proven wrong.

So, wahoo! I am puzzled but extremely pleased. And I promise not to share details about children's bathroom habits on this blog, at least very often.