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 . . . . . .

Funny Things Kids Say

I have to record a couple of funny things the kids have said over the past few weeks. The first one was when we went to Luke's 18 month checkup. All of us went and we were looking at some books until Dr. Staker came in the room. As soon as he walked in someone switched on everyone's chatter boxes. Grant, McKinley, and Jackie were all trying to talk at once. Dr. Staker was smiling and politely looking at each child trying to give each of them attention, while I tried with no avail to get them to take turns talking. Anyway, everyone stopped talking at almost the same time right when McKinley said, "Dr. Staker? I have a question. Are the pink freckles strawberry and the brown ones chocolate?" Dr. Staker chuckled and said, "I don't know have you tasted them?" To which McKinley giggled and said, "I can't reach them with my tongue." (FYI - McKinley has a "strawberry" freckle to the right of her nose.)

Every Memorial Day we go to the Neola Cemetery and watch the flag ceremony and the 21 gun salute that the American Legion does, then we go back to Bart's parents house and have lunch. In between the Neola Cemetery and lunch we usually run to Lapoint and put some flowers on my grandpa's grave. This time we only took Luke (who fell asleep before we left Neola) and Jackie. To enter the Lapoint Cemetery you have to cross a cattle guard - it is a little old and quite noisy. When we went in Jackie asked, "What was that Mom?". I told her, "That was the cattle guard.". I got out put the flowers on the grave and we left - again crossing the cattle guard. When we went over the cattle guard for the second time, Jackie asked, "Mom, WHAT was that?" I told her, "It was the cattle guard". To which she replied, "Why is it shooting at us?" Too funny!!!!

The other day McKinley got to stay up late with Mom and dad.  She was sitting on Mom's lap and said, "Mom, I have lots of skin."  She then paused before going on to say, "because people tell me I'm skinny."

This morning when we dropped McKinley off at Pre-school, Grant said, "Mom there are two kids" (meaning him and Jackie).  So I told him, "yes there are two now because McKinley is at school, but there will be three when she gets home - McKinley is a fun girl huh."  Then Grant said, "Hmmmmmm McKinley is fun at my Grandpa's house."  Pretty funny, but I do know that he things that she is fun at our house too.  In fact I overheard them while they were playing the other day and they were saying that they were best friends.  Fun for them to be so close.  

The other morning I was feeding Luke and Jackie was sitting by me when my stomach rumbled quite loudly.  Jackie said, "What was that?", and I said, "I don't know - what was it?".  Her eyes got real big and she gasped and said, "A LION".  :)

Teeth Brushing

Last month we went to the dentist and found out that we have to go back to the dentist about 14 more times for Grant so we have been pushing, pushing and pushing for him to brush his teeth better.

This morning while reading scriptures, Grant was looking at the scripture readers and leaned over to Bart and whispered, "Dad, did Jesus brush his teeth?"

I was reading at the time and got the giggles. Sooooo - what do you think? Did Jesus brush his teeth?

2011 Snapshot

So I am a little behind on blogging but I am going to make more of an effort. I am about a month and a half behind on things and can't seem to get caught up. I still haven't done a post about our vacation in August. Hopefully one day. There are just a lot of pictures and we did so much that it overwhelms me just to think about how to do a post about it. I will soon though (hopefully).

Anyway, I figured I should at least stay up to date as much as possible, so I will do our 2011 snapshot.

I have to start by saying that one of my favorite quotes from President Hinckley is, "Life is to be Enjoyed, not just Endured." So here are some things that I enjoy (and some that I don't).



Jackie stands on a step stool to eat. She doesn't want a bar stool or a chair. (That is good because we are in the market for some new chairs anyway.)

Luke would stay outside wandering in the backyard or a week if I would let him. (Aspen kisses / attacks and all)

Grant loves to read the scripture stories (I love that he loves them).

Jackie is always singing songs. (Not always the right words, but does that really matter?) Follow the Prophet and Gunny Bag are her favorites.

McKinley's hair is finally long enough to do pigtails since she cut her hair 2 days before Christmas.

I would rather read a book than watch a movie most days. I just need to stay awake longer or maybe I need to read at lunch rather than when the kids are in bed.

Grant loves that he is able to read more. (I love that I taught him how and I love to see hem get the words right and be able to read new words on his own.

I still haven't finished mending Barts work pants that have been waiting for a good 7-8 months for me to get to them.

McKinley likes to "surprise" mom and dad by setting the table for breakfast every morning. We have to pretent to not notice until we sit down, then be way surprised when we see what she has done.

The last 2 weeks I have not seen Jackie in anything other than McKinley's BYU cheerleader dress (aka. Jackie's Cougar dress - she also has to wear it with a pink t-shirt with horses on it. We wash it when she is sleeping or in the tub.) If we go anywhere I force her to wear pants under it.

Most days when she is not wearing the cougar dress, Jackie can be found wearing a skirt - SHE HATES PANTS. She will occasionally wear shorts "short pants".

Luke feeds Aspen everyday - twice a day. He cries if you do it without him - which rarely happend because he comes running when he hears us pouring her food into the cup to take it outside.

Bart has been doing a lot of reading as well, but is about to do nothing but watch basketball for the next few weeks (NCAA tournament).

McKinley loves ballet and is doing well in it.

I STILL yell too much, but I am working on it.

Bart is still in Young Mens.

I am the secretary in Primary. (I still don't know how I lasted 71/2 years in this ward without having a primary calling.

Grant asks about 5, 382 questions a week.

I have cried when I couldn't answer a few of his questions. (Satan's B-Day - It was a really long week and about 33, 682 questions OKAY!!!)

McKinley loves let Luke wrestle her to the ground - which Luke also loves.

Jackie quotes movies like they are going out of style.

Grant, McKinley and Jackie play really well with each other most of the time.

The kids love to play board games and card games. We even play imaginary go fish quite frequently. :)

The kids like to play "Evil Dr. Luke" or "Luke Monster". (They all run screaming while Luke chases them everywhere growling and "tickling" the air.)

When we say our prayers soeone usually prays for another to sit still or stop eating the food during the prayer. Apparently we need to work on closing your eyes during the prayer.

Luke still waves with his hand way above his head - it looks like he is really happy that you are coming - - - or going for that matter.

Well, I better stop for now.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I have about 3 memory cards that need to be downloaded to my computer.