I'm Behind!

Well, it's time to do a little catch up!  We have not done anything way exciting, just life, so here goes.

I went to a Zumba Instructor workshop all day about a week ago.  Then the following day, I went to the Draper temple dedication for most of the day.  That left Daniel with the kids for 2 days in a row.  I was a little worried about how things would turn out, but Daniel was wonderful.  He even cleaned the house and did laundry on Saturday, and had dinner ready when I got home on Sunday.  It was great!  He was great with the kids and as a result, Matthew likes him even more now.  Daddy is definitely his favorite.  As a matter of fact when I got home on Saturday night, it was like he hadn't even noticed I was gone.  He didn't even want me to hold him.  :(  Oh well, I'm glad he likes daddy so much.

This was taken last week.  Matthew sat and cuddled with daddy for about 10 minutes!  This never happens as he is not a cuddly baby, so I had to get photographic evidence.

Another Matthew moment happen about 2 days ago.  I got him out of bed and put him in his highchair to feed him breakfast.  While I was feeding him, he would snuggle his "da-ty" (teddy) and say "ooooooh!"  Then he would hand him to me and I would do the same thing.  We went back and forth like that for about 5 minutes.  He was so darling.

This was later that day, but at least it is a picture of him and his "da-ty."

On Saturday last week, Emma and Matthew played so well together all day long.  I was able to get a lot done because Emma was keeping Matthew occupied.  I ground a whole 5 pound barrel of wheat into flour.  I also cleaned out the barrels we bought (5 months ago) and put the flour we bought in those.  I mopped the floor, tidied the house, cleaned the kitchen and made bread as well.  It was great to get so many things done and wonderful to see them playing so well together.

Here they are all squished in a little corner sharing crackers with each other.  And they really did share the crackers too.  I was so proud of them.

A couple of nights ago, Emma and daddy had a little dance together.  He was teaching her how to do the jitter-bug.  It was so darling.

Things look quite different through the eyes of a child.  I gave Emma the camera the other day and let her take some pictures.  This is a little collage of the pics she took.  I helped her take the one of Bubbly and Daddy, but the rest were her own artistic genius!

Anyway, life is good!  We are doing great!  Business has picked up some at the rental center and will hopefully continue to get better as the weather gets warmer.  I am excited to start teaching a Zumba class at the end of April which should help things at the dance studio as well.  All in all life is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Cute little Emma!

Yesterday was a really good day for Emma.  She was so good and we didn't have any problems the whole day.  (A rare thing lately)  Here are a couple of funny little things she did.

Yesterday, while Matthew was napping and I asked her if she wanted to read a book together.  She said she couldn't because she was being a doctor.  Then she told me I was sick and she was going to take care of me.  She told me I needed to lay down on the couch and take a nap.  I had to follow the doctors orders, so I did lay down on the couch.  Then she whispered that she would turn on the "star light" (the nightlight lamp that we turn on in her room) so that I wouldn't be scared.  Then she quietly tiptoed away.  After a bit, I started to doze, when all of a sudden, I felt something on my cheek and I jerked to consciousness.  I realized that Emma had kissed me on the cheek.  Lately when we put Emma to bed, she will ask us to check on her before we go to bed.  I go in every night and "check" on her and give her a kiss on the cheek.  Often times, the next morning, she will ask if I checked on her and I will tell her that I did and that I gave her a kiss on the cheek.  So, she had come back to check on me and gave me a little kiss on the cheek.  It was so sweet and she was taking such good care of me.  I think she is going to be a great little mother when she grows up.

One more fun little story:  As I started making dinner yesterday, Emma decided that she was a spider.  She started crawling around on the floor and saying things like "The spider is thirsty," or "the spider wants a toy."  She played like this for several minutes and then started talking about the "mommy spider," (me) the "baby spider" (Matthew) and the "daddy spider" (Daniel).  She was in this little mode of pretending when it was time to start dinner.  She wanted to say the prayer, and this is what she said:

"Heavenly Father, please bless the baby spider to be good.  And please bless the baby spider that he won't pull my hair. In the name of... oh and please bless the food, and please bless - in the name Jesus Christ, Amen."  (Lately she says "please bless" at the end of every prayer, but doesn't add anything to bless.  So that is not a typo at the end of the above prayer, that is how she said it.)

It was all I could do to keep from laughing right out loud, especially when, in the blessing on the food, she blessed the food as an afterthought.  Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny. 

Help!! I need ideas!

So, here's the deal.  I have to do a float for my ward again this year and I need some help with ideas of what to do.  So, please leave me a suggestion of what you think a good idea would be.  The more the better, so if you want to ask friends or other people and get me more ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.

The theme that the float has to follow is, "If I could I would..."  It's pretty broad, so most any idea will do.  Thanks in advance for any help.  :)

Time For a Post!

It's been a while since I posted, so here are some random things that have happened lately.  (I actually started this post a couple of days ago, and am just now getting it finished.  Oh well, better late than never.)

I gave Matthew a haircut for the second time.  Here is a picture of it just after he woke up.  Of course with the 5 cowlicks on his head it usually looks like this about an hour after I comb it anyway.  So here is a picture of him in his normal state.

Matthew has learned a few words lately and he loves to say them.  He has recently learned how to say "boo," "ga-ka," (cracker) "da-ty," (teddy) "pitza," (peaches) and his favorite, "NO."  He loves that he knows these words and finds every opportunity to use them.  He has learned how to open our pantry.  He will open it up and get the crackers off the bottom shelf and bring them over to me saying "ga-ka, ga-ka."  It is not specifically that he wants a cracker, I think it is more that he is excited to be able to say it.  I suspect this because as soon as I give him a cracker he will take one bite and then go and get another box of crackers and bring it over saying "ga-ka, ga-ka" again, and leave the previous cracker on the floor with only one bite taken out of it.  It is a very cute little ritual.  I have taken to leaving the crackers on the counter because he does it so often.

The other day, Emma and I were reading a book on the couch and Matthew went behind the television and started playing.  I kept calling his name and he would bend over and peek out from behind the television.  Then he would disappear behind the television again.  We probably did this ten times and I just thought it was so cute that I had to take a picture.

The other day, Emma was eating her smoothie and suddenly said, "Look at my pretty lipstick mom."  I turned to look and saw that she had purposely put smoothie all over her mouth and pretended it was lipstick.  So, here is another picture of her with a smoothie face.

Whenever we put "lipstick" (lipgloss) on her, she does little kissy lips like in the picture above.

When Emma grows up...

My grandmother finally passed away yesterday morning.  She went peacefully, in her sleep, for which we are all very grateful.  I am so glad that I had the opportunity to know her and feel of her goodness and the faith which guided her life.  She was a wonderful example to me and I am grateful to have been blessed by her life.

Today I was talking to Emma about my grandmother passing away and how she gets to be with her husband again.   I told her that grandma is so happy to be with her husband again because she loves him so much.  Out of the blue Emma said, "When I grow up, maybe I can marry daddy!"  It was precious.  She loves her daddy so much!

Smoothies and Emergencies

Yesterday was a really nice day.  There was nothing terrible excited that happened, but it was a good day.  The kids were wonderful and cute all day long and Matthew took a 2 hour nap which was fabulous.  Daniel came home about 2:00 and it was nice to have some extra time to be with him.  It was fabulous.

Here are some funny things that happened yesterday:

Lately I have been making berry smoothies for breakfast.  I drink mine out of a very large cup, Emma drinks hers out of a small cup and I mix Matthew's with some baby cereal and feed it to him.

Yesterday, Emma dropped her smoothie.  It splattered all over the floor.  I still had a little bit left in my large cup, so I told her she could drink it.  She proceeded to drink it while I cleaned up the mess.  As I was finishing wiping the floor, I looked up at Emma and she had smoothie all over her face.  It was above her lip like a mustache as well as across her forehead where the top of the cup hit.  She looked so darling.  Matthew also had it all over his face like it always gets when he eats it.  I just had to take a couple of picture because they were just so darn cute!! 

Matthew's looking at her like, "You got stuff all over your face!"  They were so cute!

Then, later on, I put Matthew down for a nap.  I usually turn on a movie for Emma to watch while he naps and then I am able to get some things done for a little while.  Lately I have been going down stairs and exercising.  I told Emma that if there was an emergency she could come and get me and I went down to walk on the treadmill.  

About 15 minutes into my exercise, I heard Emma calling me as she was coming down the stairs.  I went to the bottom of the stairs to see what was wrong.  She said, "Mommy, you're not listening to me.  I'm havin a mergency cause daddy's home!"  I realized that Daniel had just come home and Emma had decided that must be what an emergency was.  I guess it's time to explain what an emergency is.  I chuckled about that one!

My Grandmother!

My grandmother Spendlove, the last of my living grandparents, is dying.  I found out yesterday morning and at the time, they thought she would not last long.  I was in the middle of breakfast, and was praying much of the time until I could get up there to see her, that she would still be there for me to say goodbye!  I did make it and was surprised at how emotional I was.  I would have been sobbing if I hadn't been trying to hold back with all of my strength.  As it was I was crying a lot.  I wasn't prepared to say goodbye so quickly. For the last couple of years I have known it would be a blessing for her to go, but somehow it was much harder than I thought it would be.  

Let me go back though.  I was never very close to my grandmother Spendlove while I was growing up.  I have vague memories of sleeping over at her house as a child, but they are just snippets and not really coherent memories.  I was quite shy as a child and so never formed a very close relationship with anyone that I did not see at least weekly.  This all began to change after I had my first little bundle of joy.  

Shortly after Emma was born, I started going with my mother to see my grandmother once a week.  At first I felt awkward as I did not know my grandmother very well.  She was someone that had always been in my life, but that I had never taken the time to really get to know.  I am often still shy, so it was a little hard for me when the conversation would lag.  However, I found that I enjoyed getting out.  But more important, I felt like grandma enjoyed having me come, so I continued to go.

Grandma could still get out a little at that time, and we got to visit a little at a shower for the bride-to-be of one of my cousins.  I was glad that I had taken a little time to know her a little more and that she had the opportunity to be getting to know Emma a little.

Out of necessity, grandma moved into a care center not too long after I started visiting her weekly.  Shortly thereafter, she got shingles which rendered her right hand useless.  This meant she could not feed herself because she was shaky and did not have very good control of her left hand.  I remember it was very hard for her to be there and to feel so helpless.  I was so impressed to see the change in her as time went on.  She learned to eat with her left hand.  She also grew to accept that she could no longer take care of herself, and that she had to live in the care center.  She was an example of faith and enduring to the end.  She never complained very much to begin with, but in time, she stopped even the little complaints that she had and resigned herself to her situation.  I was very impressed with her faith, as if she seemed to be saying that if that was Heavenly Father's plan for her, she would accept it.  

I remember that she loved to see Emma growing up week by week.  She seemed to like to hear the little stories of cute things Emma would do or say, and I began to feel more and more comfortable with her.  There were still times when the conversation would lag, but it was no longer a problem because I felt like I knew her better.  Some of my favorite times were when we could get her talking about her life.  She had a hard time remembering things and that frustrated her, so we didn't talk about her memories often, but I enjoyed the times that we did.

After a year or so, Matthew was born.  I felt so overwhelmed with having two children that I almost decided to stop taking the weekly visits with my mother to see her.  However, I decided to continue going.  I am so glad now that I made that decision as I have enjoyed the time so much.  The picture above is the first time we took Matthew to see grandma Spendlove.

At this point, Jenn was not working and was able to come with us for a time as well.  I am so glad that I had the opportunity to continue visiting my grandmother.  She loved little Matthew.  He is a pretty happy baby and as he got older we could usually get him to smile and laugh for her.  I loved to see the way her eyes would light up as she would smile and laugh back at him.  I really think having little kids around brought so much joy to her.

I was surprised at how well Emma did with my grandma.  She is an incredibly shy child and would not always give grandma a hug, but there were also many times that she did which is huge for her.  There was one day when we went in and Emma sat on Grandma's lap and hugged her for a good 3 minutes.  It was so precious and I couldn't believe it had happened.  Grandma really seemed to love that moment of tenderness, especially because she had seen Emma's shyness first hand.

The two pictures above were taken on Halloween when we went to visit grandma and go trick-or-treating around the care center.  She seemed to really enjoy seeing the kids in their costumes and Matthew even held still for a minute for a picture.  We had a lot of fun.

 

This is not the best picture, but it is the only on that I have of the four of us.  (Yes, Emma is about to sneeze.)  

I have enjoyed having the opportunity to become closer to my grandmother these last few years.  I am so grateful that my children got an opportunity to know her at least a little, even if they do not remember the visits later in life.  She is such a wonderful woman of faith, kindness and great love.  She was always worried about inconveniencing others and made it a point not to do it if there was any way that she could help it.  I wish I had known her better earlier in my life, but I am grateful that I was able to know her before she passed on.  I will miss her, and the time that I will no longer spend with her, but I am happy that she will be with my grandfather and other loved ones again.

I love you grandma, with all of my heart!