The Bench

Will started t-ball last week so we've been playing baseball together a lot in the afternoons. For some reason, there is a random tile sitting in our grass but naturally it has become home plate. Will devised thus plan where he bats while Duke sits on the bench and then Will sits on the bench while Duke bats. Duke always starts crying when I take the bat to give it to Will, but then he goes and sits down on the bench and waits his turn. They cheer each other on every time they hit the ball.

This whole exchange is undeniably cute.

It makes the boring stay-at-home mom days worth it because I have these kinds of memories with the boys (I'm a really good mom when it's nice outside. When is raining or cold, it's pretty much TV city...)

Family: Aunt Sassy

In 2007, when Cortney and I left the Holy Land (Utah) to head to the great state of Ohio for graduate school, everyone thought we’d head back when we were done with our “adventure”. But deep down, we both knew we probably wouldn’t. All of our family members clustered together in Utah and California and since we have been at least 2000 miles away from our nearest biological family member, we’ve had to organize another family support group—our “friends” family. This family has been more supportive than I could have ever dreamed—through trials and triumphs they have been our first line of defense through it all. Our children have grown up knowing them only as “aunt” or “uncle” and even though we have sadly moved from Ohio, they remain our first line of defense. I wanted to take the time to document, for the boys, why and how some of these select few have become such an integral part of their lives.

Meet: Aunt Sassy

When the boys go on missions, graduate from college, or get married, Aunt Sassy will be standing proudly beside them. And she will have earned this coveted spot beside them because I know of no other human being on the earth that loves those boys as much as I do—except for Sassy. There is no doubt in my mind that she will have tabs on those boys for the rest of her life and will continue to love them just the same as she always has—completely.

Sassy came to us unexpectedly. She was a neighbor of a friend in the Marble Cliff Ward and although I had met her at a few outings, I can’t say that I knew her all that well until I was pregnant with Duke. She found out how desperate I was for help and offered to take the boys one day a week, which offered incredible peace of mind during that awful experience I have to refer to as “pregnancy”. Sassy has two children a year or two older than Will so it was easy for him to fit right in with their family.

She would often come over and just talk and those times when I was bedridden and I just had someone to talk to were so heaven sent. She has an incredible laugh and you can hear it a mile away and I just can’t get enough of it. Over the course of those nine months, I was constantly being served by Sassy. And even though we don’t share the same religious beliefs, I don’t think I will ever know a better example of a Christian than Sassy. She watched Will through many of my doctor’s appointments (he switched off between Sassy’s and Lauren’s) and by the end of the pregnancy when we were trying to figure out where Will should go when I went into labor, the vote was unanimous—Sassy. Will was so welcome in her home, and she never once acted like it was any inconvenience when he was there, let alone any extra work. She was just always thrilled when he came over, and she had three other kids!

When we told her the news that she was the “one” for Will while I was at the hospital, she was over the moon. And it was then that I realized we were more than friends—she was a sister. She’s given me advice on just about everything under the sun—some mentionable, some not. All those times when I was overwhelmed, emotional, fatigued, etc. she was always there to say, “Oh, honey!” or threaten to beat people up that were annoying me at the moment. Or call me when someone had done something rude and say, “Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?” Or give me tissues when I just had to let it all out.

Sassy brought Will to the hospital to meet his new baby brother and I don’t think there was anyone who was more excited for Duke’s birth (other than the pregnant lady, of course) than her. She was giddy like a school girl coming into that tiny hospital room with balloons in hand. And to this day, I think she will always have a special, unique relationship with Duke because she did so much to help me prepare for him—everything an aunt does.

Shortly after Duke was born, Sassy had her tonsils removed and was laid out for ten days. I brought over some dinner around day seven and she said she was feeling awful, but she wanted to hold Duke anyway. He slept in her arms for a few minutes and then it was time to go so she could rest. But from then on out, Sassy felt better! It was some miraculous turning point in the recovery and she is still commenting on how Duke has “healing powers”.

She went on being Aunt Sassy. She went on being my older sister. And she went on being our dear friend, laughing the whole way.

But then we moved.

And that was a very sad day.

Very sad.

I knew geographically we weren’t that far away from her—six hours—but no matter what the distance, we just weren’t going to be able to hop over and stop by on boring days. Or when we wanted to laugh. Or when we needed a tissue. Or someone to beat someone else up.

Life got pretty hairy after that. Will was out of sorts and we knew something was up, but just didn’t know what. I didn’t really talk to anyone, except my mom, for the six weeks after our move. Life was just too hard—too frustrating and too sad and too lonely.

When I started to come up for air, I posted the initial “My Quirky Kid” post on our blog. Sassy instantly text me, “I’m so sorry, I had no idea! I can come with the kids this weekend to help.” I immediately started tearing up—the same as I’m doing right now—because I knew. I knew she knew how much we needed her. And boys, this is why you will always have Aunt Sassy to stand by you throughout your entire lives—because she will drop absolutely everything to help you, because she loves you that much. And because she loves your mom and dad that much.

Will still asks to go to Sassy’s house, at least once a week. Even Duke asks, just because he hears Will ask about her constantly.

Well, Sassy came to visit this weekend. And it was so lovely I just can’t even put it into words. We purposely didn’t tell Will she was coming because I wanted to video him seeing her again. And it was just as priceless as I imagined. Will’s gigantic smile gleamed from his face as he said, “Sassy!” She walked in and bent down with open arms and both boys fled to her.

And we picked up right where we left off and we laughed late into the night both nights she was here. And I knew that would happen, but what I didn’t expect was the change in Will while she was here. He was so happy and even with unexpected visitors, having to sleep somewhere different, change in routine, etc but, surprisingly, we had virtually no behavior issues. He was constantly telling Sassy this or Sassy that. And his speech was incredible. He spoke in sentences for most of the weekend and when Cortney and I talked about this change, we both came to the conclusion that Sassy was a part of home for Will. She’s a huge part of his life (as were all of our “friends” family we left in Ohio) and seeing her again exemplified that those people were all still there and we didn’t say goodbye to them forever. I looked at Will periodically over the weekend and kept thinking to myself, “He is completely happy, right now, this very minute.”

We left the weekend slightly saddened that she was leaving, but mostly happy because she brought a new breath of fresh air with her. We’ve already planned to meet half way over the summer so Will can spend a few days with Sassy, Ethan and Leah, like old times. And it puts a smile on my face just thinking about the fun/shenanegans they’ll get into together.

So Will and Duke, when you care to read this in twenty years, and a smile stretches across your face when you think about Aunt Sassy, you’ll know why—because she’ll always be there for you, and she loves you like I love you.



P.S. Sassy isn’t her name—its Cathie. When I was in labor with Duke, Will learned how to say her name and it came out as Sassy, and the name just stuck:)

Sunday Afternoon Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a bakery style chocolate chip cookie-chewy and moist for days-that I'm happy to report I've perfected.

1 stick margarine
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups milk chocolate chips

1. Whip margarine, shortening, and sugars for 5 minutes on medium-high until very creamy.

2. Add in the egg and vanilla. Gently combine.

3. Add baking soda and salt. Quickly combine. With mixer on low, add flour a 1/2 c at a time.

4. Add chocolate chips

5. Drop dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. 350 degrees for 7 minutes. They are done when they are just barely golden brown around the edges.

Yucky

So this little cutie came up to me while I was getting dressed this morning and pinched the hoards of saggy skin on my abdomen and said, "yucky!"

He giggled and ran away.

Little bugger.

But I couldn't agree more.

It is pretty yucky.

And no matter how hard I work out, no matter if I get to that perfect weight, those two fists full of extra skin will still be there, reminding me of what a massive baby Duke was.

But it's what motherhood is all about, right?

Giving ourselves completely to raising happy, healthy kids-even tight abdomens.

*in other completely unrelated news, my campaign of "Tummy Tuck 2015" is moving along nicely.

'Cause if a 21 mos old can tell you need one, girl, it's time.

while daddy is away...

We eat cookies for dinner. And marshmallow mateys. And we may, or may not, have had donuts two mornings in a row.




We go to bed easily. It's always startling to me how easily the boys go to bed when they aren't clawing for attention from dad.




We play at the "dirty park" for hours on end and go home to take baths and eat bananas and yogurt.




I get a sleeping buddy that crawls in my bed in the middle of the night.




We watch cartoons at night and nurse chocolate milk.




But when daddy gets home, we put him right to work!

'round here

After thrashing his third set of plastic golf clubs, we decided Will deserved the "real" deal. Our grass now has lots of nice little divots. Both of Will's parents still hate golf and how he came to have an interest in the sport is still a mystery to them.




We have an awesome recliner and it is a favorite nap spot of each family member. This is a nap from last week after a hard day of sharing at preschool.




Duke loves to "quamme" and if you're not sure what quamme means, it's Dukeese for color. He even quammes on non approved quamme materials sometimes, ok a lot, actually.




Dark picture, but another nap in the big boy chair. Isn't it cool/weird how kids can fall asleep like this?




Will loves to play pretend church, which is the irony of all ironies because the kid could hate going to church any more. But even though we haven't made it through sacrament meeting in 3 years, he still knows the drill and he conducts sacrament meeting full of prayers, sustainings (his fav part), and talks. This particular evening he used the vacuum for a microphone.




Will asked me for a snack of the cracker sort after school and I thought I'd be the cool mom and bring him this. I've dubbed it the processed carb sampler platter.




Will had a good anatomy lesson at the Natural History Museum last month. His favorite part of the "bone lab" was chopping all the sets of skeleton teeth.




This is what happens when you give Duke red m&ms in the car.




And this is because sometimes you just need to go to Dairy Queen even when it's bedtime.

shoes and panda bears and combs

My mother-in-law sent us an adidas giftcard and the boys will now be sporting adidas for the next 2 years. When I was ordering them, all I could think was, "I would never ever pay $50 for kids shoes!"




But let me tell you, I would happily pay $50 for these shoes in 2 years when we're out of our current stock. These are the most fantastic little boys shoes we have ever had, and here's the reason:

They are completely rubber and vinyl which means they can be washed at least a hundred times and still look brand new. You know how some shoes can only handle being washed once or twice? Not these! I wash them once a week. And the rubber toe? Genius! Will has a tendency to drag his feet which riding in the stroller, but these have basically been bullet proof so far.

Just buy them a size for two big so you can capitalize on how long they'll last you:)




Every day when Will gets home from school, he screams, "I show you sompen!" and pulls out his artwork from the day. His class has been taking about bears for the last week and how they hibernate in the winter. They must have progressed to panda bears yesterday...

This poor panda looks like he lost a boxing match! It made me laugh so hard!




And this...well, this is proof that I wouldn't be a very great mom for girls. I bought this comb at Target to use to tame Duke's morning hair. The biggest problem is that I had to BUY a comb. Truth be told, I haven't owned a comb or a brush in over a decade. I haven't brushed my hair since high school...

I always comment that I don't know how to do my own hair, but this brings that statement to a whole different level. I am so infantile in my knowledge of hair that I don't even see the point in owning the proper equipment.

God bless any daughter that should ever grace our home.