5 Gray Hairs

At Britton's tee ball game tonight Adam was sitting in a folding chair and I was sitting on the ground in front of him. He started out with, "Oh, you have another gray hair!" I noticed my first gray hair when I was pregnant with Korinne so I replied with, "you mean I have 2 gray hairs now?" Adam, "yeah, oh wait, there's another one. . .and another one. . .and another one." The grand total?? 5 and another hair that looked blond, so he didn't count that one. I just laughed. I really don't worry about getting older. I actually really like being 31. My hair got so dark after I had kids that I won't be able to hide gray hairs for long, but I'm cool with it for now.

Britton was sick yesterday and didn't go to school. It was the first time he has ever missed school, but he decided it was Ok because Monday is art day and he doesn't much care for art. He is definitely a math and science guy. He doesn't like it when he has to read books that are just stories, he prefers to learn about something new, like animals or reptiles, or any number of other subjects. He tested into the ALPS program (Advanced Learning Placement for Students) for next school year which means that until we move he will be in a class with other accelerated learners at a different elementary school.

Jenna has been telling me for weeks that she gets to go to Kindergarten after she learns about the letter Z in preschool. When I picked her up from preschool today she said, "Mom, we learned about the letter Z, now I can go to Kindergarten!" I had to explain to her that she still has another month to go and then a summer break. She took it well, but I think she was still a little disappointed. She is excited to start school in the fall.

On Thursday Adam is becoming his own branch and will be working exclusively from home. He is excited about the new commute--especially with gas prices. :-(

Korinne took 2 baths today. Are we surprised? No. She has got to be the cleanest little girl EVER! She is definitely my water girl.

Number 8

It has come to my attention that April has not been my best blogging month ever. Oops. Perhaps I'm experiencing "bloggers block." I'll try and get my ducks in a row from now on.

MY Korinne

Korinne is at a funny stage right now. In her 2 year old mind everything belongs to her. She always says, "my shirt, my book, my cracker", etc. She even calls her Aunt Kim "my Kim." She has the funniest facial expressions and goes on and on about everything. I wanted to get a little video clip of Korinne just being Korinne. Earlier tonight I was cooking dinner so she got out her apron so she could help. I got the funniest clip of her but for some reason I couldn't get it to upload. (We got a new camera so I've got a few things to work out) If I can figure it out I'll post it later.

I've never actually heard Korinne say her own name. She says Britton and Jenna and other names very clearly, and she definitely knows her own name, but if you ask her what her name is she will reply with, "Me." My favorite is when she puts her hands on her little hips and with a serious look on her face says something that usually ends with, "Ok Mom?" It's hilarious.

Eight down, forever to go. . .

Let's see, I think I'm a few days behind on blogging. Monday was my 1/2 birthday--always an exciting day. Adam greeted the kids in the morning with, "Today is Mom's half birthday!" They got all excited and Britton even came home from school with a "half birthday" card for me. It was fun. Tuesday was our 8th anniversary. Tuesdays, unfortunately, are our most hectic days with dance, T-ball, presidency meetings, etc. so we opted for a belated celebration. I went on a field trip with Jenna's preschool class to Wheeler Farm earlier in the day. Korinne got to go with me and they had fun feeding the ducks while we waited for our tour guide.


Here is Jenna with her preschool class. You can always find Jenna in a picture because she is the one posing for a perfect shot.

Jenna insists on wearing a skirt or skort every day. Last year I got her several pairs of shorts for summer and she refused to wear any of them. This year I didn't waste my time or money on shorts, I went straight for the skorts and long summer skirts. So far so good, she loves them all! (Now if we can just get the weather to cooperate with our summer fashion plans--it actually snowed yesterday! )

We've been working hard to get our house ready to put on the market this summer. This last week I cleaned out all of closets and washed the walls and got rid of 6 bags of stuff. Our "to do" list is long, but we are started to chip away at it. This weekend we are hoping to get tile in the master bath so we can be ready for carpet next week. Good times.

It's all fun and games

Britton had his first Tee ball game on Thursday. For a majority of the kids it was their first Tee ball experience which means that they didn't have a clue about what they were supposed to do. Britton got the whole concept and was 100% into it. Most of the other kids would run after the ball after they hit it or forget to run to base or wander off of the base once they finally got there. Every time one of the kids would hit the ball off of the tee there had to be at least 5 or 6 parents directing traffic and helping the kids get where they needed to be, even then there were always a few lost souls. It was quite entertaining to be sure. Britton was really into it and was involved in almost every play. He loved it, but couldn't understand why some of the kids weren't running to base--it was all so clear to him.



Yesterday Adam and I were talking to Korinne in the kitchen and I said, "Korinne you are getting to be such a big girl!" She smiled and Adam asked her, "Korinne, are you a big girl or a baby?" We were expecting her to say she was a big girl, but she smiled and said very resolutely, "I'm a baby!" What?! Uhh, I guess she has every intention of remaining the baby of the family. We have asked her the same question several times and the answer is always the same. I think we are in trouble.

Settlers of Catan. It's a game that really deserves its very own blog entry, but I'm combining it tonight because it fit so nicely in the 'fun and games' genre I was going for. If you know about Settlers and know how to play it there is a 98.7% chance you love it. My sister Libbie and her husband Jeff taught us how to play the game a few years ago and we have been converting others ever since. Our latest conquests are my cousins, Dustin and Larah.

It is amazing what you will do to fit in a game of Settlers. They had their kids sleep at their Grandma's house so they could come over to our house and play a game after using theater tickets earlier in the evening. Dustin is still pretty miffed about having not won, yet. I have a feeling he will not rest until he does!

For those familiar with the game you no doubt have tried to make little towers or other things with your game pieces while you waited for your turn. This particular tower should go in the Settlers game piece hall of fame!! Look at it! I used every last piece and it stood until I built a road and had to pull one out. For those of you who have no idea that Settlers of Catan even exists, you can just nod your head and smile.

I know, I know, I'm easily entertained. Just remember, its all fun and games until someone gets an eye poked out.

Throwing Caution to the Wind

Yesterday morning I received a phone call from my friend Cyd at 8:00 a.m. This is how the conversation unfolded:

Me, "Hello?"
Cyd, "Hey Hill-billy (Cyd is the ONLY person who can call me that and have it actually be a term of endearment), what do you say we throw caution to the wind and go to Logan today and surprise the crew?"

Our college roommates (a.k.a. 'the crew') were getting together in Logan at 11 a.m. Immediately I started to think about my "Mom commitments" for the day--Britton had morning kindergarten, Jenna had preschool and dance later in the day, I was supposed to go to my Mom's house to work on a few things for her, etc. Then I started to think about how I could realistically work it out. After talking to Cyd for a minute or two she said, "Ok, Hil, you've got 30 min. to decide. Call me back" When I went to talk to Adam he laughed at me and said that if I took Korinne with me he could work from home and be home when Jenna and Britton got home. He ended with, "Yes, you can go and play with your friends today." When I called Cyd back we were downright giddy. It had been a long time since we had done something so spontaneous we could hardly contain ourselves. By 9:30 a.m. we were on the road to Logan. It was fun to surprise our friends and we had a great time. Here is the Crew minus Korinne who was too busy playing to pose for a picture.

It's been a long time since we've had a get-together with so few children. All of the older kids were in school. 5 moms and 6 kids--that's amazing when you consider how many crewbies there really are!

This is Korinne and me waiting to be seated at the Firehouse Pizzeria. (Thanks for the Pic, Malin) She was so good the entire day and really enjoyed the adventure.

I've decided that throwing "caution to the wind" if done in a responsible way, of course, is what every stay-at-home Mom needs every so often. Thanks, Squidnee Bean.

Weekend Update

We are entering a new phase around our house. The kids are getting older and I've started to notice that they are getting kind of sneaky. For example, I'll go down to the food storage room and find an empty box of crackers. Obviously we don't have a mouse who cleanly opens the box and takes out an entire package of crackers so the only logical explanation is that Britton and Jenna have in some instances decided it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. It doesn't just stop with the crackers, oh no, I also find fruit snack wrappers in odd places, and this week I caught the kids getting into the. . brown sugar! Since when do kids secretly get into brown sugar?? Britton decided he thought it was good and I actually caught him with a zip lock bag of brown sugar. He has never even asked me for brown sugar before so I'm not sure how he came up with it. Korinne refuses to ever be left out on anything so let me show you what she did this week. She loves cheese. Always has, always will. I had a big block of cheese out and gave her a piece before going into the other room to get something. When I came back into the kitchen this is what I found:

This is clear evidence of a 2 year old trying to get as much cheese as she can before Mom comes back. I looked at it and said, "Korinne, why did you do that?" (Which, by the way, is a totally pointless question. Clearly she wanted cheese and that was the only way she knew how to go about it) She looked at me with a guilty smile and kind of raised her shoulders in a way that implied, "I don't know" and then pranced (yes, pranced) off to play.

T-ball starts next week so this week Britton has been out practicing. Adam went to the store one night last week to get Britton a left handed baseball mitt. He came back with a mitt for Britton, a pink mitt for Jenna (with a pink ball) and a T-ball stand. ( It is always entertaining to see what Adam comes home from the store with) So here is Britton practicing and the girls in the "outfield" waiting for the ball.

As you can see it has still been pretty chilly around these parts. It is supposed to start warming up, but well, you know. . . My kids are wanting to wear summer clothes when the sun is shining, but then they realize that it is still kind of cold. This was Korinne yesterday. She wanted her shorts and her furry boots but couldn't live without the jacket. It turned out to be quite the combination.

Called to Serve

This last weekend was the first LDS General Conference with our new Prophet President Thomas S. Monson. Adam and I were able to attend the Saturday afternoon session at the Conference Center. It was a first for me, I've never actually seen conference live and it was such an enjoyable experience. I was excited because my Mission President was called to be in the First Quorum of the Seventy.

President Godoy, or should I say Elder Carlos A. Godoy, was an incredible Mission President and I remember when I left the mission saying something like, "Someday he is going to be a General Authority, that is for sure!" 9 years later it has come to pass. Here I am with President and Sister Godoy on my last night in the mission.

I served in the Brazil Belem Mission, right in the heart of the Amazon jungle. This was my first area--Abeatetuba (it took me 3 days to learn how to say the name of the city right).

The Amazon river ran through our mission and I had to travel on it to go to Mission conferences or for transfers.

I loved my mission and had so many great and unique experiences. It was a great time in my life when I could literally forget myself and go to work. President Godoy taught me so much and I look forward to hearing from him in the years to come. He was only 36 when he was called to be a Mission President making him only 10 years older than my trainer in the mission. That's kind of funny when you think about it.

Here are a few highlights from serving as a missionary for the LDS church on the equator in the Amazon jungle: being transferred to new areas by boat, bus, and plane; being pleasantly surprised to find running water in our house, hearing the sound of a telephone in someone's house after 9 months and not knowing what it was (because really, who has a telephone IN THEIR HOUSE?), experiencing 115 Degree heat with 100% humidity and walking around in it all day long, realizing a good bucket is your friend--how else are you going to shower or wash your clothes? It wasn't a mission for the faint of heart, and I loved every minute of it!

You know, at one point in my life I was super brave. While in Brazil I wasn't bothered by the REALLY REALLY big spiders or the "life size" rats, or the ants in my bed or the geckos and cockroaches that had free reign of the house. I thought it would last but the bravery left me once I returned to US soil. These days I won't even catch a teeny tiny harmless spider with a tissue--that is definitely a job for Adam!

Ahh, good times. Here are a few pics:

You thought I was kidding about the little critters, but I wasn't! Here is a picture of a gecko eating a cockroach on our wall


I know, I know, TMI! Adam served in Bogota, Colombia so the 2 of us have a lot to talk about when it comes to missions. We start to lose each other when he talks about missionaries hitting the deck to avoid gun fire and I talk about taking all night boat rights to get to mission conference. We both loved the work, however, and it really was a privilege to serve.

Destined to be a pack rat?

We were cleaning out our coloring supply cupboard this morning. It was obvious that many of the coloring books needed to be thrown away so Britton took it upon himself to go through each one of them. He would pick one up and based on how many pages had been colored would say a definite, "I hate this one" or "I like this one" and hand them to me where I would place it in a throw away pile. This system was working quite well until Jenna entered the scene. She was having the hardest time parting with any coloring book that had to do with princesses or anything girly. "Oh, but I love that one" she would say. Never mind that every picture in it was already colored. She went through the throw away pile and tried to rescue several old coloring books saying something like, "But, I might want to use that one later." I had to laugh because I have seen this scene played out several times in my own parents house. My Dad will go through the mail or a stack of papers and throw out everything he thinks is junk while my Mom secretly goes back and "saves" things that she thinks she might need someday. Britton and I are definitely like my Dad, the more you can throw away the better. Jenna acted exactly like my Mom. So, being a pack rat. . .is it nature or nurture?? Talk amongst yourselves. :-)

Yesterday was observation day at Jenna's dance class. Here she is practicing for her "Singing in the Rain" dance.