December 28, 2015

Two cute girls ready for church not wanting to leave some of their Christmas gifts behind.
Marianne lucked out and I let her take this "cumbrella" like she calls it to church since it was snowing and she "didn't want to get snow on her Rapunzel hair"  I told her I thought her hair was the longest in our family when I was curling it for church and she said "its like Rapunzel, it glows and I can slide on it"  

Bethany was a little fearful of this rocking elephant she got for Christmas. But after seeing the other three kids fight over whose turn it is to ride it, she braved up.  She fit into this awesome Christmas coat and dress and hat that was Kate's and I couldn't get over how adorable she looked- like a little Russian Princess Baby riding an elephant.

December 24, 2014

We decided to go sledding Christmas Eve Day.
But we did not have one fleck of snow at our house- which is very unusual for Thanksgiving let alone Christmas. So we drove.  We drove up the mountain twenty minutes and found SOME snow- but still not tons.  The kids had gathered a bag of assorted foods to make a snow man with- but their was not enough snow to make a snow man.  We mad a face in the snow- and Beth's favorite part of the day was eating the nose off the snowman.  Jake was a super Dad like always and towed the kids in the sled- all four of them up and down a little hill.  Marianne was too scared so she came and hung out with me.  Kate and Sam tried to make snowballs, with some luck.  It took us over and hour to get everyone dressed- and we lasted about thirty minutes outside- and we deemed it a successful sledding trip.

December 17, 2014

This was our Christmas Card picture this year.

Often Christmas cards come with newsletters or Christmas letters talking about accomplishments and joyful moments and high points from the year.

I didn't do that this year.  

I don't think I need to.  As this picture so clearly expresses how happy and blessed this past year has been for us.

I look at those four adorable children and my husband and I and can't think of anything more I could want.

I am so blessed.  Beyond measure and beyond what I deserve.

As we were decorating the Christmas tree this year we hung up three stars with the words "hope" "peace" and "joy".  And our Christmas Card this year had the words "joy" and "love" on it.

And I was thinking how each one of my children seem to encompass one of these "Christmas" words" so well.

Hope

Kate is the Hope of our Christmas card picture.  To begin with- enough tears and time passed while Jake and I awaited her arrival into our family. And when we discovered that by some miracle we were pregnant with her the hopelessness we felt disappeared in an instant.  And we had hope that our family could be just as we always pictured it.  As she has grown she seems to have an attitude of Hope and Optimism.  She is our planner, our one who is always thinking of great things to do or make or be.  She has great hope for the future.  She has great Hope and faith for things not seen- or really understood by seven year olds I think.  Every prayer she says gives gratitude that one day we can return to Heaven and live as a family forever.  What Hope that brings to our home each day.

Love

Sam is the Love of our Christmas card picture. As a baby he loved to cuddle and be held.  When he was born the Love I felt for him was an instant thing.  He seemed to make my heart grow in a new way I hadn't experienced before.   It seems to have continued into the sweetest five year old boy that ever was.  He loves to help and spend time with each family member and that is because he loves them.  He is kind and thoughtful.  He continues to teach me about love everyday.

Joy

Marianne is the Joy of our Christmas card picture.  She was born a few months before what was the hardest year of my life.  We moved away from a great circle of love and support, only to face serious kids health issues, some crushing business blows, and postpartum depression.  And through it all was my delightful new baby- who was always there to make our entire family laugh.  She was a big ball of joy, and I have not one doubt that she came to our family to help us be happy through a very hard year.  She continues to be that joy.  Always happy and having fun and loving us.  Her entire face lights up with joy and she seems to skip through her everyday with some higher level of happiness than I am use to knowing.  It is hard to not be happy when you are around Marianne.

Peace

Bethany is the Peace of our Christmas card picture.  I'm not sure what characteristic for sure she will encompass as she develops more personality.  Currently I wouldn't say she is a peaceful personality- she is kind of feisty actually.  But she seems to bring our family together in a peaceful way.  Everyone loves her  and comes together to care for the baby-and really, she seems have little bits and pieces of each of the other children in her which makes our family seem very well rounded.  A certain peace I have gained raising her too.  Something about this baby has made me learn to be less stressed about the things I can't control and less worried about what the future holds.  I can remember feeling we had another child  in our plan for our family. It was before we had a handle on even three kids and it seems to overwhelm me.  But then she came, and not only has it not been that difficult, what once seemed to overwhelming to me has been one of the greatest blessing of my life.  That has somehow brought an inner peace with whatever will come to my life.

Christmas cards wish the recipients Hope, Love, Joy an Peace for the Holiday Season.  I'm so grateful to have mine not only through the Holiday Season but everyday and Forever.

December 15, 2014

Jake took me on a date on Monday night.
It was suppose to be a surprise.  But he is the worst at keeping a secret.  It is basically the only thing he is bad at. He tries, but I can read it all over his face.  All he said was "keep monday the 15th open"  and somehow I knew that meant he had gotten us tickets to one of the Lower Lights Concerts even though we hadn't exchanged a word about it. He is a man of few words and sometimes it is scary how well I have learned to interpret everything around the words. And somehow that makes me love him more, because I know his speech and looks so well it is like I can read his mind.  I asked him if I could guess why I should save the date and he said "no- you'll guess right and I want it to be a surprise".  It is a funny thing to realize you know somebody so well.  Somebody who knows me so well back that when we talk with the kids about  favorite colors he say "Mom says her favorite color is yellow, but I'm not sure why because actually her favorite color is Orange." And he is right.  I always say my favorite color is yellow.  I think it is my favorite color, but I always pick orange things and gravitate towards things that are orange, which is why he knows that even though I'm not aware of it- my actually favorite color IS orange and not yellow. so funny.

So our date came.  He made reservations at a very on trend restaurant in Salt Lake called Massa.  Which is gourmet Lebanese food.  I'm a big fan of Thai and Indian food so he knew I'd be up for it.  It was delicious and different and fun.  Then we went to the Lower Lights Concert- which is a bluegrass folk type band who was doing a Christmas Concert.
It was a fancy date- and our dates kind of have to count since we seem to make it out on a real date that isn't just grabbing dinner somewhere close or running to Home Depot together about once a season.  And so our winter date was great.
At dinner two men sitting beside us nearing 40 years old talked about the things they were up to with one another.  One claimed he was so happy to be single.  And at the concert two single younger girls sat behind us talking loudly and very annoyingly about how much they knew about relationships and marriage.  And we tried to not mock them loud enough for them to hear because it was all very flawed material.
Then I took this picture of us with my cell phone.  And I noticed all our wrinkles.  And I loved them.  We aren't that old.  But this night made me feel old enough to almost be wise at least about one thing.   And I liked the pictures contrast showing me our wrinkles only prove the path we have traveled together from where the girls behind us are to where we are now.

I decided too that we were celebrating our five year anniversary of not being employed. That night-
December 15th marks the date that we quit getting a paycheck.  And that seems like a strange thing to celebrate, but that decision has changed our life for the better in more ways than I can account for.
And the fact that my Jake decides he wants to do something and that means he actually CAN do it amazes me.  He is pretty humble about the whole thing.  Like the fact that he read a few books and decided he could support his family better in advertising than at his job as an attorney.  And I laughed at him, and stressed and worried when it didn't look like that would be so.  But then it was so. And I ate my words.  Like how early this year he set a goal for his business.  I laughed at him, and told him he was way too optimistic like always. And I ate my words when he blew past his goal only 7 months into the year.  Because he is a genius.

And I'm so glad he didn't listen to my nay saying five years ago when I didn't want him to quit his job and didn't believe in him as much as I should have.
After eating my words almost repeatedly for the last five years you'd think I'd learn to just believe that whatever Jake thinks he can do- he can do. Not because everything always comes easy.  But because he is smart, and determined and never frustrates.  and because without a doubt there has been divine direction  for him more than a couple times.

He just laid tile in our new bathroom that our contractor said was better than the work of any of his tile guys.  And I wasn't surprised one bit.  Of course Jake is a professional tile guy... he watched that one Youtube video  that one time about it 12 years ago.  :)

He never ceases to amaze me, and on the five year anniversary of self employment I think I'm allowed to blog about him.

And I didn't even mention that adorable smile that rarely leaves his face.

Dec 9, 2014

1.  Beth disappeared into Kate and Marianne's room alone for two minutes.  She came back out wearing a hat, necklace and princess shoe.  She has never dressed up on her own except her shoes to go outside- or somebody else's shoes hoping to go outside. It was so funny to see she knew she was dressing up and was so proud of herself.  I guess her sisters have taught her well because I have never played dress up with her.

2. One day during their Thanksgiving Break the kids and I decorated our tree.  We waited until Beth was napping knowing she would make it impossible.  We just have a little fake tree, that we hide behind the glass doors in the front office.  I am allergic to pine and it seems a good excuse for the rest of our lives to not have to deal with a big real tree.  The kids don't seem to know yet either way.  I took them that morning to pick out a new ornament.  We picked out a fox for Beth, Kate picked a pink shiny snowflake, Sam picked a Star Wars character with a Santa Hat and Mari picked Ariel.  Then we came home and I let them go through their box of ornaments from years past.  They each have a decent collection already.  Then we put everything up.  Then we decorated the rest of the house.  We played Christmas music and everyone enjoyed it.  Then Beth woke up and we let her look at it for two minutes and she broke an ornament.  Any time anyone leaves the glass door open she runs in their and tries to grab a teddy bear she likes off the tree.

3. More pictures from Kate's choir performance.  She did so wonderful and it was such a special night with her.  She really has taken to choir and says it is her favorite after school activity.  She looks like an angel too!