Mother's Log April 2017

April 8
Emmy, Jeremy, and I went and watched a neighborhood boy, Ty, be baptized today.  What a neat experience for Emmy.  Ty is one of her best friends and she was very intent on what was happening.  She even noted how neat it felt in the room and recognized it as the Spirit.  I think she also enjoyed getting time alone with Mom and Dad. 

The date didn't last long though.  :(  Jeremy and I went to the Tuachan Preview in Salt Lake.  Jeremy is good friends with the head of the board there so we get invited to the review every year.  The talent is just incredible.  Maybe in another life that could have been me but I appreciate others touching me with their amazing talents. 

April 15
Our neighbor passed away this week.  She's been the owners of the lamas in our backyard for years.  Now they will likely sell the land behind us and our happy woodsy view with amazing sights of the valley will turn into views of houses.  😕 

April 16
Happy Easter!!   It's been a really good day.  The girls looked beautiful in their "new" dresses (actually their Christmas dresses but didn't get worn because we were snowed in).  The younger girls sang at church as did my choir.  I had the opportunity to be in the middle with my choir in front of me and the children choir behind me as they all sang "I Wonder When He Comes Again."   It was a rather incredible experience.  I truly think that certain kinds of music can at times open the doors of Heaven.  This felt like one of those times.  I love Easter and all that it stands for.  I love being able to spend it at home and keep it precious. 

April 19
Sami had her jazz festival for jazz band today.  She looks so cute in her black slacks and shirt and white tie.  At first I was bummed that she won't be elegantly dressed for performances anymore but she was not hurt by it at all.  And now, having seen her perform the elect band of the school and looking so cute in her tie with her big trombone... I'm a fan!  She loves playing the trombone and you'd never guess she just picked it up less than a year ago. 

Ally also had voice lessons again today.  She's singing "How Far I'll Go" from Moana at the end of her lessons right now.  There were parts where she was "making magic" with her voice.  She's come a long way and is really starting to get strong.  I love hearing her sing. 

I'm pretty proud of these two girls today. 

April 25
Kassi is planning her 5th birthday party today... as it snows outside... She is planning popsicles and merry-go-rounds and balloons and basketball and slides and peaches and Band-Aids and bounce houses and the list keeps going.  But my favorite part of all: "everyone gets a kitten!"

April 28
Bad Mom moment today.  My child was the only one at Preschool not in her PJ's at the Pajama Pancake Party.  Thank goodness Kassi is so easy going about that kind of thing.  After the night of no sleep I had last night (and I've been having for the last year, really, but last night was SO BAD), I was just glad I got her to school.  I didn't even think to look at the calendar.  

April 29
Really hard week.  I've been a mess.  Forgetting things.  Getting the wrong time for appointments in my head.  I'm so tired!  To top it off, Jeremy is out of town with the three older girls, Lily might have hand, foot, and mouth, and I got a flat tire at Lowe's.  I'm sick of painting my banister.  It will never get done!  And I want to just sit and cry.  Sometimes life is so good.  Sometimes life is hard.  Sometimes it just feels off.  I'm in an off moment.  I hope I can snap out of it soon.  Sleep would be nice.

Mother's Log March 2017

March 12
Eventful Day! 
Lily went to Nursery without me--she's finally old enough!! 
We had our first day of choir practice at the house routine.  (Still made it to church late thanks to daylight savings...)
Jeremy was finally beat at Scrabble!! (By Sami)
Lily drank out if the dog's bowl.  Came into the room carrying it and drinking.(Yeah... stomach still turning on that one)

March 14
Lily was stuck on the brick while I showered today.  Apparently the one inch off the carpet made her nervous and she just stood there crying and frozen until I came to the rescue.  I'd say she's scared of heights but she's really not.   She tried to do a flip off the upstairs banister last night!  
Lily is so big!!  We had our 18-month well check today.  She's in the 50th for weight, 75th for height, and 90th for head!!  Whoa!

March 15
We went to the park again today.  The weather has been so warm.  Kassi and Lily play well together at the park.  Lily is insane on slides.  She doesn't care how big or steep it is, she goes head first! 

March 27
Happy Birthday to my dad.  It's been 2 1/2 years since he passed away.  I miss him. 

March 29
Happy Half Birthday Sami!  Growing up too fast and looking less like a girl and more like a young woman everyday. 

Today marks five years since Mike passed away.   It doesn't feel like five years.  It feels more like one or two... Life has just gone on.  Kids have been born.  Families have changed.  Everyone is older.  Mike would have been 37 this year. 

On a funnier note:  we sat down to dinner tonight and the middle girls were being rowdy.   I was trying to get them to calm down for prayer and suddenly Lily says (in toddler accent), "guys stop!"  We all looked at her stunned and started laughing!  Then she leaned forward and pointed her finger at her sisters and said, "No, no, no!"  ...  yeah... hilarious!

March 31
It's been a really long week.  Lots of tears.  Some humble pie.  Apologies given.  Lessons learned.  Restless nights.  Sick kids.  I can't wait for Conference Weekend to start tomorrow and Spring Break next week!  It couldn't have come at a better time!

March 1 at Valley View

The following was sent by the girls' principal yesterday.  I must say,  I'm rather proud to claim this school as "mine."  Mrs. J has been a blessing to the school.  This is her third year as principal and what a three years it's been!  She adores my girls and still hugs Sami whenever she sees her.  The community at this school is so unique.  What a blessing Valley View Elementary is in my life. 

***

Hello Valley View Families!

You may have heard yesterday was a busy day here at school!  We had a surprise assembly where our very own Wendi Stringfellow was the first recipient of the Heidi Martin, Mighty Heart Educator in Excellence Award!  She was nominated by a parent for the award.  She received $10,000.00 to purchase items for use at school, Jazz tickets, a night's stay at Little America, dinner at Ruth Chris, and a beautiful plaque.  KSL's High Five anchor Lori Pritchard visited and we all gave Mrs. Stringfellow a "High Five."

If that wasn't enough, our school counselor Miss Sara Carver received her own "award," a marriage proposal from her now fiancée Hayden Spencer.  The students helped a blindfolded Miss Carver locate her award by clapping hot and cold until she reached him.  By the way, she said, "Yes!"  The day ended with our wonderful school musical production of "Meant to Invent."  It is an honor and a privilege to serve as principal of this amazing school!  I just wanted you to know about the great day we had!

Respectfully,

Mrs. J

Mother's log January 2017

Jan 1
She walks!!!!  At last she walks!!  Last night at the New Year's Eve party at the Fisher's in St. George, Lily just decided to walk.  She walked to me from across the room and then walked everywhere. 

Jan 27
Jeremy and I are at a firm retreat at the Zermatt in Midway.  Nice place.  I called to say goodnight to the girls and Lily said "hi Mom" and then "I love you" I can't believe how much she's growing up!

Mother's Log June 2016

Highlights for June:

What a crazy month!  I piled all the summer lessons into a few weeks.  What was I thinking?!  Plus we started Summer chores which are going well. 

House repairs from lightning strike are going on but they move way too slow.  

The backyard is nothing but dirt.  They move slow too.

Lily started army crawling! 

I turned 34

Kassi turned 4. She is getting so big!  she's talking so well and she's such a goofball!  She loves being a big sister to Lily and playing with her older sisters. She's really into and Barbie dolls (much to my dismay).  Kassi also just loves jumping and climbing on everything!  She refuses to ride the balance bike which means we won't be peddling anytime soon... she loves her tricycle and is perfectly content there.   She doesn't like to wear shoes for some strange reason.  She's been a bit of a tyrant this year and definitely has the temper tantrum thing down but we love, love, love her to pieces and can't imagine life without her!

We went to St. George as a little getaway. We saw "Tarzan" at the Tuacahn.  It was amazing! I am so impressed with what they do with the stage there.  They use the natural setting in such an incredible way!  We had really great seats! Tarzan went right over the top of us several times and we had gorillas picking at Jeremy's hair!  Ha!  I love the way they did the ape costumes- in the light it was a little interesting but as the night got darker and the stage lit up more, they were really cool gorilla costumes.  At one point, though, when things got crazy and Kerchak died, Emmy leaned over to me and said in a very dry tone, "Drama, drama, drama..." It was all I could do not to laugh out loud!  Kassi screamed at the cheetah and said "EW!" really loud when Tarzan kissed Jane!  The whole night was really fun!  The kids all enjoyed it.  Lily wasn't able to go to the show (too young) so we did Show Care with her.  I was really nervous and concerned that she was just going to yell at them the entire time and I would have to go in during intermission and not watch the rest of the play.  But she did really good!  She played for a while, drank her bottle, and went to sleep!  What a good day it was!  Such a fun adventure for the family and I hope we do it again next year.  :)

Mother's Log July 2016

July 4th
Happy Independence Day! 
We had a fun-filled day with Auntie arriving! We went to a movie and saw "Finding Dory" Lily is now banned from the movie theater for a long, long, long time. First she dumped water all over my lap.  Then she dumped water all over the person sitting in front of us by pulling the bottle over.  So I moved the bottle to the other side of me and she dumped water all over the person sitting in front of us on the other side by kicking the bottle over.  Then she got chocolate all over the place and proceeded to climb all over me giving me some very sticky chocolate kisses.  She wanted her bottle but that had been thrown on the floor and whenever I gave her her binki, she would spit it out and try to throw it too.   She wanted to jump and play and not watch the movie.  She drove me crazy!  I thought that movie would never end...and of course, whenever the movie got quiet she got loud.  She's discovered this noise she makes in her throat that sounds like she's  hyperventilating.  She must really like the noise because she does it a lot and it makes everybody around her very nervous even though there's nothing wrong with her. That noise going on in a movie theater gets a lot of looks!  yes, banned!  Banned from the movie theater for a long long long time!

July 6
I think Heavenly Father must give us really good days or even moments to prepare us for what's ahead.  We had a really good long weekend but then Tuesday hit.  We went ice skating with auntie and while we were there Emmy fell and split her eyebrow open.  Seven stitches (three inside and four outside).  Then today my car broke on our way to take Auntie to the airport.  My dials and lights were going crazy and my gas petal was delayed.  We ended up at the dealer which is on our way out of town instead of going to the airport.  The freeway just felt like a bad idea...  now we are sitting at the dealer, stranded.  They are out of loaners and they don't have any rentals big enough for my family.   Luckily Jeremy was in a position to come take Auntie to the airport (he was faster arriving than a taxi) and will soon be back for us.  I have a sinking feeling that he's going to insist that we replace the van now and get a vehicle for him that holds all of us.  I'm never going to be able to redo the outside of the house...

July 15
Just got back from an escape from the kiddos. Jeremy and I went to celebrate our anniversary a couple weeks early. We went shopping at the mall, had dinner at The Roof, and caught a  movie watching the new Tarzan.  I missed a Lily a lot.  But it was really nice to get away and have some fun with my hubby.

July 16
Visiting GG today!  we love GG!!  She's such a great person.  It's our first time back since the funeral though and it does feel strange to not have GP in his chair.  GG is a tough woman and is keeping herself busy but you can tell she misses him.  We all do. 

July 17
Things I love:
Lily hugs and scrunchy face
Kassi smiles and belly laugh
Emmy snuggles and evil laugh
Ally giggles and witty humor
Sami talks and goofy side

July 31
Lily finally has teeth!!  She got her first tooth at 10 months and 10 days old--the bottom, left, front incisor.  The second tooth came 10 days later (10 months, 20 days) but it caught us off guard. It's the top, left, second-to-front incisor!   I hope she gets more teeth soon or she will have one silly looking smile...

Crawling.  This child doesn't crawl on her hands and knees.  Instead she kind of army crawls... but not even.  She used to look like an aligator,  with her arms and one leg moving quickly in sync, dragging her left leg behind her as if it were her tail, belly sliding along the floor.  But now.  Now, it reminds me more of a seal out of water.  She throws both her arms forward and, using both arms and her right foot (left leg is still just a long for the ride),  she propels herself forward with a kind of plop.  It's a very fast movement--this girl is quick!--but still very humorous to watch.  She will get up on all hands and knees and rock as if she plans to crawl.  She gets into a bear crawl position, but usually that is so she can pull herself up to climb or stand or to tuck one leg under and sit.  It's as if this little girl is insistent that she is her own person.  She won't be caught doing things normally.  And I love her all the more for it.  :)

An inch-worm crawl...