Meet Hannah

I am so lousy at this.  I haven't updated this thing for TWO years.  I suppose being Young Women's president consumed me for a while.  I was released 6 months ago, but I still miss it.

Anyway, I guess I will catch up on a couple of things - both in the baby department.  First, in July of 2013 we lost a baby boy.  It was a pretty big challenge and something that I NEVER want to wish on anyone.  (I will write about this another time - maybe.)  Second, on August 10, 2014 we had another baby girl - Hannah.  She weighed 8lbs. 14oz., 21 inches.  She was born at 5:35PM.

She is like Quinn in the fact that she is needing to be supplemented with formula.  She just doesn't want to be a chubby baby.

She is skinny like McKinley and looks like both McKinley and Jackie. 

Resolutions

I have been thinking about the things I need to change this year. I have a lot that I should do – to name a few . . . . . I should loose weight, not yell as much, clean better, not procrastinate, get more sleep, improve spiritually, focus on others more, build others up, be creative with school, do my visiting teaching . . . . . I could go on and on. With the new year, there are a lot of resolutions that are made. I don't know if I have ever made a new years resolution. For me that is just setting myself up for failure. You see, I don't have very good follow through. However, this year I kind of want to do something to change myself. I know I have a million areas that I could work on, but there have been a few things weighing on my mind these days. I want to do two things this year, and they kind of go together. I want to work on Family History (I want to write in my journal more – I also want to keep a scripture journal but that is something for another day – soon though), and I want to research a family name to take to the temple.

I read a talk from Richard G. Scott last week about turning the hearts of the children to the hearts of their fathers. In this talk he mentioned a young man who liked to play video games and then started working on genealogy. He said that at first he was disappointed that genealogy was taking up his game playing time, then later he said that he just didn't have time to play games. So with this goal, I want to evaluate the quality of my free time. I need to schedule my free time and include time to work on researching a name.

Like I said before, I don't have very good follow through, but I want to do something and I feel that at least writing this down here will hold me accountable. I am going to try to write in my journal at LEAST once a month and I want to find a name to take to the temple by April. Wish me luck! :)

My little cowboy

Around 4:30 this morning, I was awakened by a blood curdling SCREAM from Luke.  I went into his room and between his sobbing/half screaming he told me, "You left my hat (sob, sob) and my boots."  He is definitely a COWBOY!!!  I love him, even if we can not go anywhere without the hat!!!  It makes it nice when we are in a crowd though because I can ALWAYS find him.  :)  Thankfully he knows that cowboys do NOT wear their hats to church, otherwise Sundays would be torture.

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.

Motherhood Marks

I pulled this off my friends facebook status. I don't know who the quote is from, but I love it!!!

‎"Just as a mother's body may be permanently marked with the signs of pregnancy and childbirth, the Savior said, 'I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands'. For both a mother and the Savior, those marks memorialize a wrenching sacrifice -- the sacrifice of begetting life -- for her, physical birth; for him, spiritual rebirth"

I am so thankful for my kids and the person they are creating in me!!!!

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.