Best Valentine's

Our family has some fun Valentine traditions, but my very favorite Valentine's Day was five years ago. I had just brought a brand new baby home from the hospital.

If you look at that picture and think Detmer's shirt stepped out of the 1970's, you are right. It is part of an outfit that Kelly received when she was pregnant with Zack, who was born December 23. Someone gave it to her along with a letter explaining that she (the giver) had always wanted a Christmas baby boy, so she bought this outfit in anticipation. She waited and waited, time passed and the little Christmas baby boy never came. In fact, no baby ever came and her arms remained empty as she said good-bye to her dreams of that sweet baby and passed on the outfit.

I, too, dreamed all my life of a baby boy. And five years ago, my dream came true and each day my boy has brought so much joy I am continually grateful for the blessing of him in my life.

I am glad I have this picture of him in that special shirt. When I think of my dream fulfilled, it brings me joy. When I think of others dreams passed by, it gives me compassion. Despite everything, I will never understand how hard it must have been to pass on that sweet little outfit.

The Boy

My little guy is now FIVE! He had a fun WEEK. I think one of my kids' favorite things about their birthday parties is delivering the invitations. Allie, Detmer, and Kendall all had to get out and take the invitation up to each door and they were giddy with excitement.

We had Detmer's birthday party on his actual birthday. I have always done 10 am parties so the kids don't have to wait all day, but from here on out school is going to be cramping our style, so the party as at 2. "Mom is it 2?" ALL DAY! Detmer was so excited. We had lots to do to get ready (whether real or made up-just to keep him occupied). The party was a huge success (all I need for it to be successful is for the birthday kid to have a blast!). My friend asked me today if I had recovered and told me she could hear the party all the way down the street. Fun was definitely had.

Tonight we had his family party. Detmer requested a chocolate cake with sprinkles. Thank you.

Opening up his birthday bucket.

On Detmer's birthday he got to go on a birthday outing with Dad to Boondocks. He had so much fun and came home exhuasted! I bet he was asleep within five minutes, still flying high.

Detmer is such awesome boy! He has such a passion for life and is so loving. He is the best brother and wants to carry Maci around everywhere. He is such an easy kid. We rarely have any trouble with Detmer. He is also a great friend and loves to play with friends. He constantly makes us laugh and has the craziest imaginations where he can play with any toy for hours. The kids have Valentines boxes they made that I occasionally put little surprises in for them to find. The other day Detmer got a puzzle and he played with the puzzle pieces for hours! I am such a lucky mom to have this guy in my life!

SKI

If I was a spry young thing like I was when I left the house this morning, I would run out to the van and get the pictures to go with this post. But I've aged about fifty years since then and I really should be in bed at this late hour (9 pm), but I've already talked to anyone who will listen about my fun day (hi Cob!) and it's not out of my system yet.

I might have mentioned that Dave got me ski passes for Christmas. Today we were finally able to go. It was so much fun!!! I'm addicted already and can't wait to go back.

I took two pretty serious spills. The worst one was when I was at the bottom of the hill trying to practice! Not even some sweet spill flying down a black diamond. But man, I am PAYING for that one right now. I also took another pretty bad one where I laid on the ground and I only knew it wasn't the afterlife because there was snow and there is definitely not snow and coats in heaven. But a concerned citizen did rush over to make sure I was still alive. I just started laughing. That was all I could do because I knew I looked like an idiot and I wished they made you wear bright orange if it was your first day or something so everyone could BEWARE!

It was really precious watching all the kids Kendall's size woosh right on by as I slowly and steadily made my way down the mountainside.

I encourage all parent's to take their kids skiing at a young age. Falling is so much easier and more graceful when you are that close to the ground. Although the thought of my tiny children on those chair lifts is enough to make my heart stop (and I've already had enough near death experiences for the day.)

We ended up having such a good time we hit the slopes for five hours straight with no breaks. We took my 11 year old nephew Trevor with us and I thought it would be good to have another novice skiier by my side. Oh my heck, that boy kicked my butt. The only reason he wasn't doing Black Diamonds and back trails was because I told him he could only do that with parental supervision. He took some pretty bad falls but was running around within two minutes of when we got home, whereas Dave and I are both afraid to get up off the couch tonight because it's GOING TO HURT!

I'm so glad Dave took the plunge and bought our tickets. I know if they hadn't been already bought I would have made excuses not to go (I've been wanting to go skiing forever, I just would have been too lazy to figure out a schedule for the kids).

PTC

Allie at Parent Teacher Conference.

wow

I try to teach my kids that just because they had a bad minute, that does not mean they have to havea bad hour. A bad hour does not mean a bad day. Things can always improve, especially with a little change in attitude.

With that said, this past week SUUUUUUUCKED. The bad minute turned into a bad hour, the bad hour turned into a bad day, and the bad days stacked up and I was ready for the week to be over.

Today was our Stake Women's Conference. By Thursday night I had talked myself out of going, justifying why it be just fine for me to stay home with my family after such a rough week and all.

Begrudgingly I realized I needed to go.

From the second the meeting started the time I walked out the door, I felt as if I could have been the only person there. Each and every single message seemed to be written just for me. To remind me, uplift, edify me, build my testimony. Each of the speakers addressed some very specific things I needed to hear. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father continually reminds His stubborn children of His love.

I sat with a group of friends as we listened to the keynote speaker, Susan Bednar (wife of David A). I just love her and how she was so easy to relate to and so real. After she spoke we were to divide into groups. There were eight speakers but each group would only get to hear four of the speakers. As I heard my friends discussing what room they wanted to go to, I felt strongly that I should go to the Young Women's room. I didn't hear anybody else talking about that and I thought it might be more fun to go with friends, but as it came time to separate I knew without a doubt I needed to go to the Young Women's room. Sure enough, there was not a single other girl from my ward there. However, I knew I was lead to go there, because I couldn't have possibly gotten more out of that day than I did from hearing the four speakers I chose. In a future post I want to share my feelings about what I learned today. Hopefully it will be coming soon, before I forget. I have to write all these things down!

Happy New Year

Of course everyone is aware it is the Chinese New Year. It's been a super fun week for Allie's class. On Monday they had a parade. All the kindergarteners were dressed in their Chinese clothes and holding different Chinese momentos. Allie had a fan and she was so excited about it.

Allie is a distracted performer. As soon as she saw us during the parade she would yell, "DADDY! DETMER! KENDALL! MACI!" She was so excited to see them (I had already been with her getting her changed.) Then every friend she saw she would call out.

Today there was an assembly. Allie's teacher taught about some Chinese traditions, then the kids sang some songs in Chinese. Since, if all goes well, my kids will speak Chinese fluently, I would love to learn more about their traditions and incorporate some into our lives. We'll see if I'm ambitious enough for that.

We are 96 days into the school year. I know because next week I will go in to help celebrate "100 DAYS OF SCHOOL!"

I was so terrified of Allie starting school. We loved our routine and the joy of doing what we want when we want. But as with everything in life, I have tried to move into this next phase gracefully. I admit I LOVE days off and get the blues when it's time to go back to school, but so far we could not have asked for a better experience this year.

Allie has got two (both English and Chinese) of the most amazing teachers. I love both of them so much and pray we continue to be so fortunate.

Out of this week and next (ten school days) I will get to be in Allie's classroom five times. I love it! I love seeing her in action and I especially love how excited she gets when I come to her class. I'm so grateful I get to be available for all these little and big things. Especially grateful that when I had to take Detmer, Kendall, and Maci with me they were as good as gold. Everyone commented on what a good baby Maci is. That girl, what an actress!

Smash

Unfortunately all the Tebowing in the world couldn't help the Broncos last week, but we had fun showing off our gear at the party we went to last Saturday (the one we had to rush home from in order to watch the Broncos get slaughtered).

Maci was a let down with her smash cake. What the heck? This is the most she ate. I thought she was going to love it. She was not interested. The missing cake is just where I tried to get it going. She had maybe two bites. All of her siblings did better (including Allie who is not pictured).

Maci had her one year check up on Friday. The doctor was super pleased that she is up to 17 pounds and in the 5th percentile. I was just glad to avoid another lecture from him, because I knew she was just fine. She also has two birthmarks. Hopefully she never catches up with Kendall (who is up to eight birthmarks) but the pediatrician did say with Maci having two and Allie having two it makes it seem more genetic and less worrisome about Kendall.

Maci is and always has been such an awesome sleeper. And also loves to just lay in her crib and suck her fingers.

She is IN LOVE with her siblings. She sat with me today in primary and Detmer was right behind us and they would not leave each other alone.

The pediatrician ask me if she was walking and I said, um no she barely started crawling. Which was good because then he acted like she was a total genius when I said she is cruising.

She loves standing (supported) and climbing.

She is very ticklish, especially on her belly.

Every morning when she wakes up and I bring her out from her crib Allie, Detmer, and Kendall make a big fuss over her and she loves it. She claps and waves and bounces up and down.

She is starting to repeat words. I love when they start talking!

I take her to the gym, she's as good as gold. I leave her with Dave, she's good as gold. For me, she pretty much fusses at my feet until I pick her up. Spoiled!