Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Yesterday I was looking through some pictures of my kiddos on the computer. (I REALLY need to print them off so we can look at them more.) I got lost in the pictures, in the memories.  How on earth has time gone so fast?????  I had the kids come in and look at a few funny ones like the ones when Jackie got stitches, and when McKinley had stitches (okay it was just super glue and closures).  We probably spent 2 hours looking and laughing at pictures.  It made me miss my kids, even though they were sitting right next to me.  McKinley, believe it or not use to have chubby cheeks - Jackie used to have hair that didn't want to lay down so we had to spike it a little in the back (cute).  Grant was (and still is) a handsome little guy.  Luke - well, he still has his squishy puffy cheeks.  :)  It made me dread the day when we won't have toddlers and babies.  Even though some days it is hard and I think I am going insane, I will miss these days.

Anyway, the whole reason I started this post was because of what happened tonight.  I was reading stories to the kids and Luke wanted me to read, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See".  We read it twice and McKinley read / recited it once.  That was one of her favorite books when she was about 2 and she memorized it.  This book always reminds me of her because at this same time she was learning about colors and I would ask her what color something was and she would respond with the appropriate, "Red Bird" or "White Dog", etc.  I haven't thought of this memory for a while and it was fun to remember it.  I need to keep track of the day to day memories because one day they are going to fade.

Puddin' Face

Kissing the squishy puffy cheeks of a sleeping two year old with a chocolate puddin' goatee could be a new addiction! ;)

Memories - Part 1

In Young Women's today our lesson was on "Honoring your Parents" and it kind of made me cry. (Just side note - (I don't think have shared this yet) - I was put in as our Young Women's President about a month before I had Quinn. Crazy - yes! Stressful - yes! Fun - yes! Inadequate - DEFINITELY!!) Anyway, back to our lesson.

During the lesson, we were given a little questionnaire about our parents. It was titled, "What do you know about your Mother? / What do you know about your Father?". Well I was just reading some of the questions, 1. Maiden Name, 2. Birthplace, 3. Was she raised by her parents?, etc. Then I got to some that I couldn't answer, 13. What are her most memorable school experiences?, 14. What kind of work did she do before her marriage?. I remember hearing stories about some of these things, but I couldn't for the life of me remember any of them. At the end of the questionnaire I got to this, 18. What hardships has she overcome?, 20. What does she enjoy doing in her spare time? The way these were put stuck in my mind, they didn't refer to her as past tense, and it made me think of what she is doing right now. What does she enjoy doing in her spare time?

I know that my Mom is waiting and working in Heaven. I also know a lot of times I wish she was here. I have given birth to five beautiful children and not had her there to give me some motherly advice. I have experienced some of the best times of my life since I became a mom and I haven't been able to share that with her. I know I took a lot of things for granted when she was alive and I really regret that. I wish I could have just one day to sit with her and talk about all the things I want to know about her and about her roll as a mother. I also know that that day would not be near enough because I would also want her to know my joys about being a mom and to know each of my children. To say that she would have loved to spoil them to death is an understatement. I would love to hear her say she was proud of me, but somehow I think I know she is. At least I like to think that. :) Only two more years and I will have lived just as long without her as I did with her. That kind of scares me. I worry that I will forget things!! Which brings me to the real point of this entry. (Sorry - I went off on a little tangent there.) During our lesson today I thought to myself, "I need to write down stuff like this for my kids so that they can know me and my grandkids can know me after I am gone".

For one of our read-alouds for school we just finished "In My Grandma's Attic". It is a book that someone wrote all the stories that their Grandma told them about when she was little and published them. Since reading this McKinley keeps asking me about things I did when I was a little girl. Even Jackie asked me yesterday if I was ever 6 years old and what did I do when I was 6. So I am going to try to write some stories about myself and my life for them. However, I will have to do it later this week because it is getting late and I need to get to bed. I think I will start just by answering the questions on the questionnaire.

1. Maiden name - Wendy Graves

2. Birthplace - SLC

3. Was I raised by my parents - yes.

4. Number of my brothers and sisters - two sisters.

5. My place in the family (oldest, youngest, etc) - youngest.

6. Occupation of her father - Construction Worker.

7. Did they have financial security? No, Dad worked hard to get us what we had, which wasn't much but it was enough. Mom worked most of the time too probably until I was in High School.

8. Religious affiliation of my family - I was raised LDS, but Mom and Dad were never active. Dad would go to church when someone was blessed or baptized and he would go to our Young Women's Programs and Daddy Daughter dates. Mom would go when she had a calling in Primary or Young Women's.

Well, that is enough for tonight. I will answer more this week sometime.

He's Dr-o-w-n-i-n-g

I was just sitting here checking my e-mail after I put a load of laundry in the washer. I threw Little Foxy (Grant's stuffed fox that he plays with all the time) in the washer too because he was getting pretty dirty and because Grant asked me to wash him. Well apparently Grant, McKinley and Luke went in to see if he was being washed and they spotted him swishing and swirling around the machine. It must have disturbed Luke because he came running in the office all in a panic and announce to me (in his broken syllable speech), "Mom, Lil' Fo-ty - he D--R--O--W--N--I--N--G!" Too Funny!

Catch - up Time

So it has been MONTHS since I posted last and I am a little behind. I just noticed that I didn't even post anything about being pregnant. Well, I am NOT pregnant anymore.

Meet Daniel "Quinn" Rasmussen. He was born on November 28th at 7:44 AM, he weighed 8lbs and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Quinn was quite alert while we were in the hospital.  He just wanted to look around and see what we were all about.

Luke was a little possessive and wouldn't let the girls or Grant kiss Quinn.

And what would a hospital stay be without someone crawling behind the bed trying to destroy it?  Luckily nothing was broken this time.  ;)

I have heard many people say that after you have 3 kids you may as well have 12 and that 3 is hard. I have also heard 4 is hard, but for me - 5 is hard. Okay, so maybe it isn't so hard, we just have a few different things going on in our life that is making it a little harder than the rest. #1 We have never homeschooled with a newborn (I am finally getting a handle on it though - I think), and #2 About a month before Quinn was born, I was called as the Young Women's President. This may be the big stresser because Sundays seem to be worse for me than anything. Church was at 11:00 - so getting to my meetings, getting everyone ready for church and getting Quinn fed in between was a tight squeeze for the morning. However we now have church at 1:00 so it is A LOT better.

Having a little newborn in your home really changes things. It always makes me want to sit and snuggle and not go anywhere. However, with 4 other kiddos running around, snuggling is a little harder than it has been with the others. Plus, there are more hands that want to hold Quinn too, so I have to share????!!!

When we went in for Quinn's 2 week appointment he only weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz. This was unusual for us because we like to leave the hospital a full pound heavier. We had to go in two weeks later for a weight check and he weighed a whopping 7 lbs, 10 oz. Two ounces in two weeks are you kidding me??? We we now have to add formula to breast milk to give him extra calories - twice a day. Another two weeks and we were back at the doctors office for a weight check. This time he weighed 8 lbs, 11 oz. YIPPEE!!! We are still at it with the formula supplement thing and he is at least getting bigger. He is no longer in the newborn jammies. (What a fatty!) We have his two month appointment in another week or so, so we will have to see how chubby we can get him.

I am going to try to post more often this year, but I can't make any promises. Until then . . . . . .

Squishy Puffy Cheeks

Is it wrong for me to not want my kiddos to grow up? I really think that someday I am going to miss them falling asleep in the car, and me having to carry them into the house and being able to kiss their squishy puffy cheeks as they lay there sound asleep!!

Do teenagers have squishy puffy cheeks??

Confidence

The past few weeks I have been having an internal struggle about how I am doing as a mother when it comes to my kids self-esteem and confidence. I have had a HUGE decision placed in front of me and after weeks and weeks - I still don't know which is the right choice for them. The reason it is so hard to decide is because it is a choice between two very good things. Plus, I can't seem to make a decision to save my life these days. AAAHHH!!!

With that in mind - what do I do to make sure they gain a sense of self and have the confidence in themselves to face this scary world? This has been a constant worry on my mind and probably will be until the day I die!

I think one way is to always talk positively about them. Which I feel sad to say is sometimes hard - not because they don't do things that are positive, but because the world these days thrives on the negative aspects of life and we all get caught up in it.

There have been times when talking to a friend or family member or even a stranger at the grocery store, when I don't stand up for what I believe and stand up for my kids. For instance, if someone at the store says, "WOW - you sure have your hands full" (which if I had a dollar for every time someone has said that to me we could have a round trip to Disneyland paid for.), I have a tendancy to respond by saying, "You have no idea" or "I sure do". Instead of saying, "Yes I do and we have a blast together!" or "Aren't I lucky to have each of these beautiful faces?"

Growing up I had an aunt that would always say, "Little pigs have big ears", which was code for there-are-children-present-so-watch-what-you-say. When these comments are made to me, my kids are right there listening to them and to my reaction. I want them to know how much I love them and to see the love I have for them by my actions and how I talk about them to others. Rather than hearing me at that weak moment after I have spent 30 minutes chasing around the store just to get some milk and eggs and I have to hear the SAME comment again from the checker who told me the SAME thing when I was there a week ago. I need to do better at showing that I love them no matter how worn out I am at that moment.

I believe that this is one of the most important factors in helping them gain a sense of confidence in themselves - to let them see how much they are loved. I also want them to know not only know how much I love them, but how much their Father in Heaven loves them. Am I showing them how much he loves them by how much I love them? I would like to say that I am, but I know I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I ran across this quote the other day, and I keep thinking about it, "Ask yourself: What is the most important thing in my life? And if the answer is your children, then live like that. Make them your center. There is nowhere higher to go. This is the Consummate Job." Iris Krasnow

Do I live like my kids are the center of my life???? Because they are my life and I love that, I love waking up each morning knowing that I get to be with them. Their innocence and imagination bring such joy to my life and help me remember Heavenly Fathers plan for all of us. They help me to see the bigger picture.

There are some days when I want to pull my hair out, but others that make it soooooo worth it. I know that I am supposed to be doing what I am right now in my life and that raising a family is the most important thing I could be doing with my time. One of these days I will wake up and all of my kids will be grown up and gone and I know in my heart I will wish that I could have one more day just to be with them. But for now - while they are still here I want to spend as much time with them that I possibly can.

I want to be the best mom I can be and I don't want to look back some day and feel bad that I chose one thing over the other for them and think, "That would have made all the difference". Despite my parents attempts to teach me to work hard, I have a natural tendency to be lazy and I don't want to take the lazy way out with my kids. They are so much better than that - they deserve so much better than that.

Perspective

Starting late Sunday night and early Monday morning a head cold snuck into our house and by Tuesday morning ALL of us had it. We have consumed approximately 6 - 8 large cans of Campbells Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup and about 16 - 20 quarts of Orange Juice. Needless to say it has been a LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGG week.

I kind of feel guilty saying this, but it needs to be said. One of the good things that I liked this week was that the kids were sick and wanted to snuggle more than they wanted to make messes and get into things. It was kind of nice to see them just lay there. Sorry I am a horrible person, but it was a little nice. Mainly it was nice because for a couple of days all I could do was just lay there most of the day too.

But after wiping noses 976 times, being showered by 5, 381 sneezes and hearing 26,782 coughs, it got a little tiresome (not to mention the numerous "reminders" to COVER YOUR MOUTH). I am sorry to say that I did not have very much patience left by yesterday morning. We were actually supposed to go to Provo today to support Tyler (Bart's cousin) going through the temple, but we ended up just sending Bart as our representative. Last night I announced to Bart that we were all going no matter if we were sick or not, we needed to get out of this house so I didn't strangle one of the children. Then this morning I think Bart was having second thoughts about going because he was afraid to leave me alone with the kids again because he might come home to one or two less than what he left me with.

Well seeing Bart struggle with his decision this morning made me think a little and realize that even though I am a little sleep deprived (understatement of the year), the kids are probably feeling the same way I am. In fact they are probably silently pleading their dad, "please don't leave us with this psychotic woman again". Anyway, I was just thinking that when I am up with the kids I need to remember that they are awake and missing out on sleep too. I also need to remember that when one doesn't let me go to bed until 1:30 in the morning and another one makes me get up at 4:00 for the day, it doesn't mean that they are ganging up on me and trying to make me get more gray hairs.

After I had this epiphany I decided that I needed to change ME in order to set the mood for the rest of them. I have to say I am still trying to be patient (even when McKinley washes her hair in the bathroom sink with 1/2 the bottle of shampoo - spilling 1/3 of it on the counter). But this made me think about the kids and their feelings a little. I know this week I have been a little testy when any of them asked me for anything like when Grant asked for the 14th time to type on the computer and when Jackie asked for her 8th cup of milk. Anyway, I decided to take time to play with them. So I gathered up Luke and we went into McKinley and Jackie's room, sat crossed legged on the floor, and had brunch. We ate eggs, hotdogs, hot chocolate, milk (which Luke kept spilling on me - I now know why sippy cups were invented - even though we were just pretending), turkey, grapes, secret ingredient soup and 3 different kinds of pie. It really helped me to remember that they are just kids and that I need to chill myself out and stop adding my temper tantrums to the mix.



I know that having herbal tea isn't going magically make me have more patience, but it helped me to have a better perspective on the things that are important to me - my kiddos and their feelings. Sorry guys!

Cheesy or Brilliant??

We have had a little trouble around our house lately when we say our prayers. Someone is usually yelling that they want to say the prayer ("but I want to , but I want to"), another is saying the prayer but twisting on their stool with their eyes open and arms flying all over the place, and the other is trying to sneak bites of dinner. I have to say that even mom and dad aren't too reverent because usually one of us is playing referee with all the kids.


Well the other day I saw an idea for a family home evening on reverence that I thought would help us with reverence during our prayers. And since our kids are suckers for playing dress up I just knew it would work (at least I hoped it would). Anyway, I made a reverence crown and wrote "King of Me" on one side and "Queen of Me" on the other. This is to show that they have control over themselves and are the only ones who can make themselves be reverent. Then whoever is the most reverent during the prayer gets to wear the crown during that meal.

When I was cutting the crown out of the posterboard, I asked Bart what he thought about it and he said it was kind of cheesy. UUHH!!! What support! :) Well the next morning at breakfast it was decided that I was BRILLIANT!!!! In fact it has helped us so much that sometimes I "forget" to give the crown and they forget too so they are reverent just for being reverent. AAAAHHHHH Nice!!!! Jackie usually only gets it when she is saying the prayer because she is the "but I want to, but I want to" girl. But one day she will get there. This morning we even let Luke wear it. He sure looked Kingly!! :)


I also have to point out that you can be stripped of your title as king or queen by not being reverent while you are wearing the crown, hereby renouncing the thrown to the next reverent subject.


Brilliant - I know!

The Smell of a Baby - Part 2

The other day McKinley answered my question - "What makes a new baby smell so darn good?"

I walked into the bedroom and she followed me and told me that she wanted to smell my lotion skin. "?????" Okaaaayyyy. Then she told me she wanted to smell Luke because he smelled like Heavenly Father. Apparently I told her when I was putting lotion on him that it made him smell "Heavenly". So now she thinks that he smells like Heavenly Father.

So there you have it - the reason babies smell so darn good is because they just came from Heavenly Father and they still smell like him.


Profound thoughts or just a good imagination?? I love how this girls mind works!!

"Tootsie Rolls" All Around

Jackie has been trying to potty train since before Luke was born, but I was not ready for her to do it so I did my best to NOT encourage it. This week I decided that I was ready to devote the time to full-on potty train her.

In the last 3 days we have pottied on the carpet about 3 times and the tile about 5 times. I decided to do what we did when McKinley was potty training. When she potties in the toilet, she gets a tootsie roll - works like a charm. There is only one thing - when she gets a tootsie roll EVERYONE has to get a tootsie roll. This makes it a whole family affair, because McKinley and Grant cheer her along so they can get tootsie rolls too. Needless to say, we get tootsie rolls every 17 - 30 minutes (depending on how thirsty Jackie is).

Everytime Jackie goes to the bathroom, she has to strip down to nothing. So we have had to re-dress her every 17 - 30 minutes also. Which usually there is a little coaxing involved to get her dressed again, so we have spent approximately 10 hours (give or take) this week just getting Jackie re-dressed. This does not include the time that she just runs around in her panties because I am too tired to fight her about getting dressed AGAIN. She must think it is a game or something and loves to just shock us by streaking across the room - she also must like to hear us say, "Jackie where are your clothes?"

Good job Jackie!! It will be AWESOME to get back to only one child in diapers (except for naptime and bedtime)!!! Church is tomorrow - hopefully we don't have accidents there!!! :)

The Smell of a Baby!

Whenever I have a new baby I always think of this question "What makes a Baby smell so darn good?" I mean when they don't have a dirty diaper of course. I am not just talking about my babies, but every baby. They have the "New Baby" smell. After thinking about this for a while I went to my bathroom cupboard to discuss it with Johnson & Johnson. The only thing I got from them in their Baby Lotion is "Fragrance". So what is this "Fragrance" and why is it so intoxicating for most women? And here is another question, why does it not affect men the same way?? The smell of a baby is as good as the smell of chocolate to me maybe even better. I mean whenever I hold a new baby, I automatically have to smell it, to breathe that sweet smell - AAHHH HEAVEN!

My sister and I have joked about making a "New Baby" smell and marketing it to moms that have older kids, they can spray it on their older kids and then they would smell like a "New Baby". Kind of like how there is a "New Car" air freshner. Anyway, Bart's cousin Kristin told me a few years ago that she saw something called "Baby Cologne". And yep you guessed it - it is made by Johnson & Johnson. I have yet to see or smell it, but I will some day!!!!!

So I better explain why I have been thinking of this today. My day actually started at 5:30 this morning when Luke didn't just go to sleep after I fed him and I laid in bed just holding him, not wanting him to get bigger. So after I sat there for 1/2 hour, Grant got up and so I decided to get up and make breakfast early. The house was freezing (62 degrees) because the kids turned the furnace off when they got some chairs out of the furnace room last night. So I had to wake up Bart to turn it back on too. While Bart turned on the furnace, I made breakfast and listened to Sheri Dew. Then at breakfast we read our scriptures (a whole chapter - we keep sleeping in late and either don't read or only do 1/2 a page or something). It was really nice and a great way to start our morning. So I guess the saying "Early to bed, early to rise, . . . . " worked real good for me today. I even put dinner in the crock pot at 11:00 this morning so VIOLA, dinner is done. What is up with me today?



After breakfast Luke was tired and hungry but needed a new diaper so I changed him and went to throw his diaper in the garbage. About 1/2 way to the garbage he nestled right into the side of my neck and cheek and fell asleep (about 25 - 30 seconds after I picked him up). I thought it was so cute and I just couldn't put him down. Just to feel the weight of his body on my shoulder was so nice and comforting. I had to kiss his cheek a few times and just listen to his steady breathing and feel the rise and fall of his chest against my shoulder. It was amazing and I wanted to stay like that all day. I think that having a baby or any of my kids sleeping on my shoulder is so soothing. Kind of like when you are upset about something and someone simply puts their hand on your shoulder to comfort you - that is what it was like. After lunch I gave Luke a bath and just walked around smelling him.

Sorry to be so chipper it is just that I have had a real good day today. This whole "early to rise" thing is really getting to me I guess. I even worked out while Luke was taking his morning nap - I must be sick. Actually, my skinny pants are just getting a little snug again. :( Anyway, I guess I am just trying to say, that I love being a mom today, and I am reeeeally going to miss having a new baby here in a couple of months. Luke started rolling over Monday (thanks to Kaelyn's example). Before I know it, he will be walking and talking and having his second birthday. And I will wonder how it went by so fast and why I didn't cherish the babiness more.

No reason to put this on here - just a fun picture that I wanted to share.

The Sabbath - a day of Rest!!!?????

Sunday was a particularly busy day for at least one of our family members. Jackie wanted to give mom and dad a run for their money. She started out by getting into the Crayola Color Bath Dropz and dumped the whole thing in the tub. She apparently wanted to know what would happen if you mixed ALL the colors together - FYI - it makes black. Then when we were getting everyone dressed and ready for church, she found my mascara and proceeded to "paint" her arms, legs, belly, and anything else she could find with it.




We went to Stake Conference where she chased two moms out of the mothers lounge because she was talking to loud (she was talking and singing into the vented door that echos into the baptismal font) and not letting the other babies go to sleep. Then when we went out to sit in our chairs she and mom played a good game of Church Wrestling. I still can't decide who won. :)


When we got home, I thought we could relax and spend time together as a family. HA, HA, HA, HA. Jackie and McKinley went into our bedroom and found a box that I had neglected to throw away that still had the styrofoam packaging in it. When I found them it looked like it had snowed in Luke's bed. They also had the little balls of styrofoam stuck to their hair, legs, eyelashes, diaper etc. (Oh, by this time Jackie had also stripped down to nothing but her diaper - if I get her to wear clothes for a 4-5 hour period I am doing great!) This little excursion took me about 20 minutes to vaccum all the tiny little balls out of Luke's bed, the bookshelf, Luke's swing, my bed, the floor, the wall etc.


Immediately after being chased out of the styrofoam bedroom, Jackie went to the kitchen and tried breaking all my mason jars that I was boxing up to make room in the pantry. Luckily Bart stopped her at just one. What a busy day you might think? Well it wasn't quite over. McKinley and Jackie wanted to move Grant out of his closet so they took all his clothes off the closet rod and placed them neatly around his room. The only sanity we got for the day was when Jackie fell asleep at the dinner table around 6:00.


Now you may think - where on earth were her parents during all of this???? Well, isn't it obvious? We were cleaning up all the previous messes.



Even though Jackie pokes her finger in 3 eggs in the carton, dumps 1/2 a bottle of bacon bits on the floor, or squirts toothpaste on my newly washed rug; or when McKinley fills up the bathroom sink to play swimming pool with the toothbrushes for the umpteenth time, they usually make up for it in the end. The simple "Me too" response I get from telling McKinley "I love you", or the cuddles I get from Jackie while I am feeding Luke with all three of us squished into the recliner, or the "your silly mom" that Grant tells me as I rush him out the door for the bus, makes my crazy days seem worth it.

Right now I feel like I spend 88% of my time chasing one or the other around cleaning up from their latest excursion - but I find that I love them more and more every day. I have been re-reading a book that I read this summer and in it the author talks about serendipity. The definition of serendipity is ". . . . . finding something good while looking for something else." The past few months I have only been focusing on the "something else". I have just been trying to get the laundry all caught up or the living room vaccumed. Instead of taking time to enjoy the moment with my kiddos and treasure the precious time I have with them. I know I need to focus on the "finding something good" everyday. Before I know it they will be going off on their own and I will be wishing that I could clean up the cookie sprinkles that have been half eaten - half sprinkled all over the pantry floor. :)

"Motherhood is like being pecked to death by a duck"

On Fathers Day my Dad gave me a book for Mothers Day called "A Mother's Book of Secrets". I have been reading a little bit here and there and it has really boosted my enthusiasm for being a mom. It was given to me after an exhausting week of one of my children complaining about everything that I would set in front of them at meal time. I either gave them the wrong bowl, the wrong spoon, jelly on an all peanut butter sandwich, the wrong cup, etc. I was beginning to wonder if anything I was doing was right.

Now, looking back, I can tell what I was doing wrong. I have just started my third trimester of my fourth pregnancy and I have all of a sudden been blessed with a boost of energy. During this horrendous week of trial, I rearranged and reorganized Grants bedroom and my bedroom, my house has been freakishly clean (for me) and I didn't give my kids the attention that they needed. In this book, the author is quoting an essay by someone that talks about a picture that she ran across while cleaning one day. The picture was of her kids sitting on a blanket in the shadow of the swing set. This woman said something that made me stop to think. She said, "I wish I could remember what we ate for lunch that day or what we talked about. - I wish I would have lived in the moment more."

So for the last week and a half I have been trying to live in the moment more with my kids. What a difference it makes, not only with them, but for me. I have been able to use my imagination and pretend again. I still have kept the house clean somehow, but I have also played with them and taken time to take a picture or two of them playing well together. It has been a wonderful thing to get to know their little quirks more and to just be carefree like they are.

There was a chapter that I read this morning that the author talked about how she idolized moms that she categorizes as "Library Moms". These are the moms who take their kids to the library, and to story hour and "speak to their kids in hushed tones". Their kids have clean faces and perfectly combed hair, etc. She goes on to say that she is usually the exact opposite of the typical "Library Mom" - she is the one that is racing through the library trying to keep up with her kids with a baby on one hip and a stack of books on the other. While trying to get her kids to stop yelling with excitement about the book that they have picked out. This made me chuckle, because this is how I feel a lot of the time. In fact it wasn't too long ago that I was out running errands and was trying to get home for lunch, when McKinley (whose hair was neatly done), decided to pull her hair out and look scary. So we had to add one more errand to our list and stop by the house to get a spray bottle and a comb to re-do her hair before I went to another store.

Anyway, this has been fun to be reminded of the work moms do for their families. And to remember and be thankful for the opportunity I have to be a mom. I love being a mom more than anything in the world, and love each of my kids individuality and spunky little quirks. Even after a long trying day or week, just to hear the words "I love you too mom." makes it all worth it. Just to have 30 minutes of listening to all three of my kids or even just Grant and McKinley playing and imagining together, makes all the arguments and complaining about dinner or breakfast seem like nothing. I know that I am not a "Library Mom" no matter how hard I try I probably will never be one, but like this author said, I am trying to "become my own kind of "best mom".

Grandpa Wally gave us his trampoline and Jackie is still getting used to it.  She has graduated from just jumping one foot at a time to both feet and she is starting to get pretty high.

"Ring around the rosy . . . "

"Pocket full of posy . . . "

"Ashes, ashes, only one falls down?"