A Puppy???

What would you do if you came out of church and saw a super cute puppy tied up to the stair rail there and three hours later, she was still there, shivering and hungry and seemingly abandoned? And the animal shelter was closed because it was Sunday? And no one around had any ideas of what to do with her?

Well, we had a puppy spend the night last night.

And when I called the animal shelter this morning, no lost dogs had been reported. They said we could bring the dog to them and they'd try to get her adopted.

But the twins' birthday is TOMORROW and their dearest wish for their birthday is to have the puppy stay just one more day.

How could I say no to this?

But we're really not set up for a dog - no fenced area in the back yard, no good place for the dog in the house, no idea how to train a puppy, no desire to deal with the messes and whining (off and on all night) and walks and destroyed property involved (this little girl wants to use those sharp baby teeth non-stop, it seems!). What would we do with a dog when we go out of town or go skiing for the day? What would I do with a dog whining and wanting my attention all day when the kids are at school and I need to get all my Power of Moms work done and run errands? And the kids are actually seeing that puppies are a LOT of work and they have very sharp little teeth when they're being playful. Having this dog for a couple days may be the perfect way to help the kids stop begging for us to get a dog . . .

So we've got the dog until the twins' birthday is over. Then she needs to go somewhere else. Do you know anyone who might want this very cute, sweet puppy!

Fun at Grandma's House

After Christmas, we headed to Grandma's house up in Ashton, Idaho for a few days. We had a great time with Jared's family catching up on each other's lives, snowmobiling (sleds pulled behind snowmobiles are always a big hit), playing basketball at the church gym (even I played - and I think I'm actually not too terrible at basketball . . .we'll have to do this more!), and playing games that had us laughing to tears.

Here are some glimpses of our time in Idaho:

It was clear and gorgeous but COLD on those snowmobiles!

OK, how pretty are those Tetons? I can't get enough of the scenery in Ashton.

Opening presents from Grandma and gifts from cousins:

Cute Parker was pretty excited about all the puzzles Eliza carefully picked out for him and they had some fun doing some together.

Our kids love being with all their cool cousins and aunts and uncles at Grandma's house where there's always plentiful delicious food and tons of fun.

Here's Jared installing our gift to his mom - a new kitchen faucet. A woman who cooks so much for so many deserves a really great faucet!

Here's a shot Ashton got of the girls' team during Reverse Charades. We were all laughing so hard! We also played "signs" and "fruit basket." So much fun.

Cousins at church together

Eliza was so excited that Aunt Michelle took the time to do her hair in such a fun way - so she could match with her cousin!

2014 Family and Personal Resolutions

For Family Night last night, we talked about resolutions, shared some of our personal resolutions, and brainstormed some family resolutions for the year. Each child picked one thing they think we should really work on as a family and together, we honed the list of everyone's suggestions and decided on five resolutions we're all committed to working on together.

Then each child made a sign to go with one of the resolutions - handy having five resolutions and five kids!

Here's what everyone came up with:

BE ON TIME 

*Note that Eliza included the things I guess I'm always saying in those bubbles at the top - "We're late!" "Hurry! They have been waiting!" "I"ve tried so hard to be on time - work with me here, people!" "If you hurried a bit faster, we could have been on time!" - yep, definitely a resolution we need in our family and I need to get better at padding the time it takes to get places...

BE OBEDIENT

* In case you can't make out what it says at the bottom, it says "Quickly, hapilie, well." We're going to work harder on doing things quickly, happily and well when asked. Oliver came up with some cool and interesting designs for his sign!

EXERCISE

 * Silas included pictures of a guy skiing, doing push-ups and running. We're all excited to ski a lot this year and make sure we get some sort of exercise every day to keep our bodies healthy and keep the kids from getting stir-crazy and hyped up so much. Silas also insisted I include this photo below where he's trying to do sideways pushups while holding his sign.

BE FRIENDLY

* We're going to reach out to those in our school, neighborhood and community to make new friends and help those in need. We'll report back to each other every week on the people we've gotten to know and the ways we've been able to help. Below is a closer-up version of Isaac's sign so you can read it better.

BE THANKFUL

* We have SO much to be grateful for! And when we take the time to express our gratitude, we realize more fully how much we have and we feel happier. The kids have been good about writing little thank-you notes to teachers, coaches, etc. through Thanksgiving and Christmas and we want to keep this happy feeling of gratitude going all year but reguarly expressing gratitude.

We'll post the signs on the fridge so we can all keep them in mind this week. Then each Sunday, we'll talk about how everyone is doing with each family resolution at the dinner table and nominate ourselves or someone else to receive the "award" for being the most thankful, friendly, obedient, on-time, or good at exercising. Then they'll simply put the sign that goes with what they've been awarded on their bedroom door for the week, bringing it back to the Sunday dinner table to be re-awarded the next week. I'll put each paper in a plastic sheet protector so they stay in good shape throughout the year.

And who knows? Maybe we'll want to switch things up after a while and focus on some different resolutions. That'll be fine. But the kids picked these resolutions and feel a real sense of ownership of them so we'll honor that and start strong with these five.

I'm still working on my personal resolutions, but here's what I've got so far (I'll be more accountable if I put them on this blog!)

1. Exercise at least 6 days a week for at least 30 minutes (a simple walk or sit ups or push ups count!). I've always been great about exercising 3x/week but on the days I don't exercise, I just feel sluggish and I know daily exercise combined with fresh air most days will make me a happier, nicer, more energetic person.

2. No eating anything but fruits and veggies after 8pm (except on holidays or super-special occasions, not to exceed 1x/month). I sleep better and wake up feeling much better when I follow this rule. Eating late at night makes me have weird dreams and wake up feeling sort of sick to my stomach.

3. Read scriptures daily - even one verse will do. At least 5x/week, write up what I've learned in my scripture journal (one sentance will do).

4. Write every day in the 5-year journal Dad gave me for Christmas. I blog and that makes a pretty good journal but I want to do a better job recording my more personal thoughts and specific events and memories on a daily basis - plus it'll be great to see what's happened the previous year on the same day as I keep doing this for 5 years...

5. Express specific gratitude daily via an email, phone call or the like. There are so many people who do good things every day and who could use more "thank you's." When I express gratitude, it always brightens my day while brightening someone else's as well and helping perpetuate good will. If I stop and think for a minute, I know that every day I can think of someone who I ought to say a special thank-you to or who should know I admire something about them. Compliments and thank yous are so important but it's so easy to wind up leaving them unexpressed.

6. Really follow through with the kids - when I say "one minute" I will really mean one minute - not 15 or 30. When I say I'll check to see that a kid's room is clean in 5 minutes, I'll set a timer and really go check in 5 minutes rather than forgetting about it then being frustrated when it's not done a couple hours later and I remember to check. I expect them to do what they say they'll do and I need to be better about doing the same.

7. Better bedtimes - pad the time more, express love, give every child a personal compliment as I say goodnight, switch off which child I spend extra time with each night and just let them talk - we have the best conversations at night if I just sit on their bed and listen.

8. Get out on a weekly date with Jared. We haven't been good about that. We need more simple, relaxing times together.

9. Relax more. Just sit back and listen to others or do what they feel like doing without feeling like I need to drive specific and meaningful tasks forward every minute of every day. I need to be more fun - even if it means being less productive.

Happy Birthday Ashton!

I have been a mom for FOURTEEN years now. Wow.

This past year, Ashton has certainly introduced me to the somewhat scary and very humbling world of mothering a teen. But we're muddling through pretty decently for the most part. I'm so grateful for this young man of mine, for all he's brought to my life, for all that he teaches me on so many fronts.

How did this baby . . .

Become this young man who's taller than me and so mature in so many ways?

Here are 14 things I love about Ashton right now:

1. He's super smart - book smart, computer smart, street smart, music smart. He just gets things in a remarkable way.

2. He's learned to be much more responsible about completing his schoolwork and studies this year. This responsibility coupled with his natural academic abilities and some great teachers have helped him start getting grades in school that more accurately represent his potential. Yeah!

3. Whenever I have a problem or question on my phone, computer or any other gadget, he quickly and efficently (and patiently) finds a solution for me and explains things to me. He keeps me up to date on what's going on in technology news and shows me what's out there when it comes to phones, computers, aps and gadgets I might want.

4. He's amazing with little kids. All the neighborhood kids and little kids at church totally love him and look up to him. I love seeing little kids' eyes sparkle when they catch sight of their cool big friend and seeing them run up to him with joy. After helping pass the sacrament in church each Sunday, he sits with families with little kids who could use some extra help and that's helped him bond further with some of his little friends.

5. He introduces me to great new music and can answer most of my music questions quickly and correctly when I'm wondering about a song that comes on.

6. He's got serious guitar talent and can teach himself just about any song and play it very well (practicing isn't his favorite but when he feels motivated, nothing can stop him!)

7. He can tease his siblings mercilessly and make not-so-nice comments to them, but deep down, you can tell he really loves and appreciates them. He's always pointing out funny/cute things the twins say or do and when push comes to shove, he shows his true colors and does what's right when it comes to his siblings.

8. He is an excellent public speaker. He's well-spoken, articulate and composed. He can give a great talk in church at a moment's notice and does a really stellar job as the emcee at our Children for Children concert every year.

9. He's funny. He's got this awesome dry sense of humor and has the best smile (when he let lets it sneak out).

10. He was my right-arm man and an awesome partner on our road trip across the country while Jared couldn't be with us. He helped me navigate, find hotels, keep good music going, find rest stops and places to eat. I couldn't have done it without him!

11. He's got a solid testimony and understands the gospel on a level beyond his years.

12. He's a great volleyball player and is good at any physical thing he sets his mind to do. He's strong and agile and athletic.

13. He's handsome. He's got great hair, beautiful blue eyes that sparkle when he smiles, and a great unique sense of style.

14. He has a strong sense for what is right and I know I can trust him to always make right choices about things that really matter.

We celebrated with Ashton's favorite breakfast - banana pancakes, me taking Ashton to lunch at his favorite place - Warrens (burgers - he's all about the burgers lately), then we finished off with a fun party.

The younger kids put their hearts into decorating for Ashton's party:

 Ashton had a nice group of friends over for pizza and lots of fun games followed by cake and ice cream.

 

Getting Unstuck and Setting Resolutions

Yesterday, New Year's Day, Jared and the kids went skiing. I opted to stay at home and have a little quiet time to think through what I want to do and be in 2014.

There's a lot I'd love to see happen this year and a lot I've learned in 2013 and need to more fully apply this upcoming year. But when I sat down to start the process of some self-assessment and resolution-setting, I just felt overwhelmed and stuck. Then I realized I needed to exercise, shower and take care of some of the holiday clutter and dirt around here before my brain could wrap itself around the whole resolution-setting thing. Yep, I needed to take the advice in this podcast I made with April. We really do have to get our space and brain cleared up a bit before we can really think about moving forward with goals and plans - otherwise, we can feel pretty disheartened and uninspired.

So after getting some exercise, taking a shower, tackling the toppling pile in my inbox, putting away the random things that have ended up in random places over the past couple weeks with everyone at home and all the presents that have been opened, doing a couple loads of laundry, and cleaning a couple bathrooms that have really been bugging me, I felt much better about my ability to actually move forward.

I did the self-assessment in the Bloom Game that I haven't done for ages, realized some areas I need to work on, and got some basic resolutions set (that I'll add to this Sunday when I've had a bit longer to think things through). Now I'm feeling like I really can move forward.

Today, a bunch of neighborhood kids are here playing games and enjoying a big snowball fight which would have totally overwhelmed me yesterday before I took the time to de-clutter my house and mind. I'm in a much better place today. Bring on 2014. I'm ready.

Happy New Year!

We love getting creative, beautiful, fun and informative holiday greetings in the mail from friends and family far and near. We put them up all over our kitchen and enjoy looking at the faces of the people we love for weeks.

But years ago, I gave up on trying to send out physical holiday cards. My list got too long as we kept moving and making wonderful new friends and as I developed long lists of great friends through Power of Moms. And for years, I've felt like I just don't have any discretionary time or money and that putting together a decent Christmas experience for my family took any discretionary time and money I did have.

So while I totally admire and appreciate those who send us beautiful cards in the mail and I feel a bit guilty about not reciprocating, I don't think we'll be re-joining the ranks of card-senders anytime soon. We've grown quite attached to the convenience and immediacy and price of emailed/blogged cards and I think my snail mail addresses for all the people I know and love are hopelessly out of date.

So here you go - our digital New Year's Card including a couple collages to give you a quick snapshot of our year and a list of everyone's favorite highlights. It's been quite a year! Of course there were plenty of hard things that went on, but we'll focus on the positive here as we reflect back on all that 2013 brought to our lives.

(Click on photos to enlarge/see the part that insists on being cut off when I publish this post . . .)

2013 Highlights according to each family member:

Ashton:

• Being on the school volleyball team - great coaches and team members, learning to play a new sport
• Chicago - the pizza was absolutely amazing, the Bean was so interesting and cool
• Boston - seeing my cousins' house for the first time, winning the taco-eating contest, cool to see where my parents went to school, super cool robots and stuff at the MIT museum, street performers at Quincy Market
• NYC - the Apple Store, FAO Schwartz, Dad getting in a street performance, staying with my super cute little cousin, musicians in Central Park
• Washington DC - meeting my newest cousin, finding the apartment I want to live in some day (Eli and Julie's awesome modern apartment with a view of the Capitol), the new Air and Space Museum with Eli, visiting the memorials at night
• Bear Lake - seeing all my cousins I wish I could see more, wakeboarding, jet skiing, 
• School - great friends, my photography class, going on an awesome backpacking trip to Havasupai with a school group (check out the video I made here), getting good grades
• Doctor Who - discovering the greatest TV show of all time, having a special party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show
• Ghetto Racer - transforming a shopping cart into a downhill go-cart with one of my friends (picture)

Isaac:

• Going to Washington DC TWO times this summer - once with my family and once with my aunt and cousins, loved staying with the Archibalds, meeting new cousin Zara, touring the Capital building, watching the fireworks on the 4th of July, going to Busch Gardens
• Chicago - the awesome pizza, walking around all the big buildings, the Bean, great music at the amphitheater
• Ohio - visiting the Turner family, playing soccer with them, jumping on their trampoline
• Bear Lake - going on an RV trip with my grandparents and cousins to Lagoon, getting good at wakeboarding, playing with my little cousins, running in the Eyrealm relay race
• Cross Country Team - had a lot of fun, really improved my time 
• Soccer - great coach and team
• School - excited to get my best report card ever and have some of the best teachers ever, really good friends
• Church - was ordained a Deacon, pass the sacrament each week in Church, favorite church youth activities - scout camps, shooting guns, going to Temple Square on the train.

Eliza:

• Bear Lake - getting to be with my cousins for lots of days in a row, Grammie Camp, playing on the beach
• Road Trip - going to Subway like 100 times (well, I got bored of it by the end), staying at good hotels with free breakfast and swimming pools (one with an awesome water park), reading good books in the car, seeing the church history sites, especially the Kirtland Temple and Nauvoo Temple.
• New York - seeing the really tall buildings, street musicians in Central Park, Metropolitan Museum of Art, being with cousin Annina
• Boston - staying with cousin Hazel and having fun in her attic, the cool old buildings everywhere, 
• Kansas City - making a new friend named Abbie while my mom did the Retreat there, seeing Liberty Jail
• Basketball - getting first place in the "hot shot" competition, having all my friends on my team and my friend's mom as our coach, getting better at basketball (she was one fiesty player - great at defense)
• School - elected the school Historian, love being on Student Council, awesome science teacher, great friends, being the only blond-headed kid in the Spanish-for-natives class (I love Spanish!)
• Dance -  performing in three big recitals this year, having great friends I've been dancing with for 3 years, my teacher, Miss Jasmine
• Violin - Started 5 months ago, almost done with Suzuki Book 1, wonderful teacher - Miss Hailey, performed in my first recital, love playing my mom's beautiful old violin from England

Oliver:

• Being with you, mommy. (yep, it's nice to be adored and to receive tons of hugs from these twins of mine - I'll take it while I can get it!)
• Seven Peaks water park
• Nauvoo - the temple and the blacksmith shop where we got our own rings made of horseshoe nails
• Boston - the old Statehouse where they read the Declaration of Independence from that little balcony and that started our country
• Scouts -  I love EVERYTHING about Scouts.
• School - playing with my friends at Recess, math and computers, having all my best friends in my class

Silas:

• Bear Lake - swimming and having fun with cousins and staying on Grandfather's boat overnight with my group and Uncle Josh
• New York - staying with Tal and Anita and seeing the big screens in Times Square
• Chicago - feeling like I was teleporting when I was seeing myself reflected in "The Bean"
• Boston - building forts with cousin Charlie and sleeping in it in the attic of his old house, following the red line on the sidewalk to do the Freedom Trail
• School - my teacher, hula hooping at recess, math and all my friends
• Scouts - being with my friends, having awesome leaders, doing the Pinewood Derby and Raingutter Regatta (I had to sand my car and boat a LOT but it was worth it)

Saren:

• Fulfilling my long-held dream of an epic family road trip to visit interesting new places (Chicago, Kansas City, Nauvoo...) and places that helped shape me where dear family members live (Boston, NYC, Washington DC). Loved the time to really talk in the car, the chance to with our kids some places we loved and experiences we had while creating great memories. So enjoyed spending time with great moms at the 5 Power of Moms Retreats I helped conduct as part of our travels.
• Spending relaxing time at Bear Lake and in Ashton Idaho with family, soaking up the beauty, seeing cousins bond, catching up with everyone.
• Seeing Power of Moms reach tens of thousands more moms and learning new things every day through my work on the website.
• Seeing Jared do such a great job as our ward Bishop and getting involved as a family in helping and learning from many people in our community.
• Enjoying exercise and fresh air and beauty through weekly hikes.
• Going on a wonderful trip to CA with my mom and sisters and learning so much from each other while laughing ourselves to tears.
• Seeing our children really come into their own as they've pursued new interests and talents, found new friends, and actually surpassed me in height (in Ashton's case). I love being with my children and I'm blessed to call them some of my best friends. (Yes, there are times when they drive me crazy . . .)
• Learning to let go of a lot of things and finding more contentment in life, bit by bit.

Jared:

• Work (Director of Software Architecture at a company in Salt Lake that creates products for tire companies): Launching the product I've been working on for a year and seeing it move forward successfully.
• Church: Completing a year as Bishop of our ward, working with really great people, learning a ton.
• Family: Seeing the kids getting excited about sports and other pursuits and doing well in school. Skiiing with the kids and seeing them really progress.
• Travel: Great times in Boston and New York for the part of the road trip I was able to join the family for, good times with extended family at Bear Lake, in Ashton and at family weddings.

Thanks for caring about our family enough to read this blog. I so appreciate the support and kindness I experience here quite regularly.

I started blogging as an easy way to keep a family journal/scrapbook. And somehow I wound up with thousands of blog visitors every week. Many of you are dear friends and family members.
Most of you I don't know - but you're surely fabulous people who I wish I could know in person.

Thanks for being part of this little micro-community and I wish you a fabulous 2014!

Christmas 2013

What a wonderful Christmas we had! After our big Christmas last year with a lot of my family at my parents' house in Park City, it was nice to just be home this year and have my parents come join us for a nice chunk of the day. Oh how I love just staying in our house in our new Christmas Eve pj's all day long on Christmas, enjoying a lovely diet of chocolate, jelly candies, and some rich Eggs Benedict in between rounds of opening presents, taking time to really play with and explore each present before opening the next. It takes us all day long to get through our gifts and it's mellow and pleasant and I just love it.

Here's the story of our Christmas Eve and Christmas in photos:

Christmas Eve we made gingerbread houses, wrapped gifts and then had a delicious dinner with our neighbors before starting our traditional "Nazareth Supper" of simple Bible era snacks (pita bread, goat cheese, grapes) and sending Mary and Joseph off to Bethlehem.

 

Everyone got to open one present. And surprise, surprise - they got new pj's!

Everyone put on their pj's to head off to bed:

Cookies (made entirely by the twins) and a note for Santa, veggies for the reindeer ("and for Santa if he's sort of sick of treats by the time he gets to our house...")

 
The kids sang on the stairs to wake us up promptly at the negotiated time of 7:10am. Their songs were extra good with Ashton accompanying them on his guitar.

Then we opened up our stockings together (Santa brings stockings to our bedrooms like he does in England):

After enjoying some stocking treats, the kids got ready to head down and see what Santa brought - so exciting!

 

Sure enough! Santa came. And brought the very things each child wished for:

I

 

Isaac got the long board he asked Santa for - plus a bonus - a unicycle that he practiced on all day on Christmas and has really started to master. Despite all the crashes we heard every few minutes all day as Isaac worked on developing unicycle skills by hanging onto furniture for balance, Isaac's body and everything in the house still seems to be in tact.

  

Ashton got a bike. A very very similar bike to the one he got last Christmas which was stolen just a few months after Christmas. This time Santa gave Ashton a nice lock to go with his new bike. Hopefully this bike will stick around a little longer!

 Silas, Oliver and Eliza all got skis, boots and poles which they were so hoping to get:

 

And Santa brought a surprise TV! Our TV has been on its last legs for a long time, flickering all the time.

Eliza got the best thing from her cousin - a knitting kit for making hats. She got right to work.

 

 

Oliver's cousin gift was exciting legos and a dog that thrilled him to the core:

Silas got legos too - from grandparents and cousins. They spent much of the day very happily putting things together.

 

My parents came for our traditional Eggs Benedict brunch and spent a wonderful afternoon with us:

After breakfast, we did presents from Grammie and Grandfather:

Lego sets for the twins (more! Yeah!)

 keyboard and headphones to go with Ashton's Nook:

 New shoes and watch for Isaac:

Eliza got a watch too but somehow I don't have a photo. Plus they gave her the very exciting gift of a new violin case and bow and a fixed-up old violin for me to play so that we can play duets together. Yeah!

One of my very favorite parts of Christmas is watching the kids give each other the gifts they so thoughtfully and carefully pick out and wrap for each other.

Isaac and Eliza spent serious money on nice shirts for each other:

Liza gave Jared a very nice card and a bunch of coupons for kind services by her:

Ashton gave the twins their favorite junk food:

Eliza went all-out and gave the twins books and lego sets and gum:

The twins were so excited to give thoughtfully-selected dollar store gifts that they proudly paid for at the cash register themselves with their own earned money:

 

 

Lots of love going on as the kids give their thoughtful hard-earned gifts to each other:

I like the mess of wrapping paper. Maybe I'm weird but I like to leave it there a while and sit amidst it as we open presents and feel the abundance and love that the pretty paper and bows strewn about represents.

Ashton has been talking about how cool fedoras are. He was pretty darn excited to get this:


And the kids got some clothes they've been needing and were pretty excited about that.

So nice to have my parents there. I'm so amazingly blessed to have these wonderful people as my parents.

The kids sure adore their Grammie and Grandfather who shower them with love and praise and help them feel so great about life. I'm so grateful to live relatively near my parents and have my kids know them on a whole new level.

 My gift to my parents was a book full of photos of all us kids growing up - almost 20 years' worth of photos gathered together in one place for them. It was actually way harder to make this book than I ever would have guessed - but I'm so glad they loved the gift so much. And I ordered a book for myself too so that I can have these photos handy to show the kids anytime. So many wonderful memories in that book. How in the world did they raise NINE children so beautifully? Wow.

What a Christmas!