Tyler's Toothy Turn...

SURPRISE!

TYLER LOST A TOOTH!

And YES... the TOOTHFAIRY did come!
Another $1 richer!

He's got another tooth that is pretty loose and will probably come out soon.

So stay tuned!

13 1/2 weeks!

Thought I'd better start getting this quickly swelling bump recorded!

So... here we are 13 1/2 weeks:

(yes this a self portrait-but it works right?)
For some reason, I have really been struggling with my body image this pregnancy. It has been bothering me that this baby is popping out so quickly this time around. I swear I wasn't this big with the others (and I do get quite big) until around 5 or so months.

But I think it bothers me even more that I am bothered. As I've said before this is a miraculous time and I want to find beauty in it. So... I am hoping that by keeping record of the different stages of this growing bump, I will better see that beauty.

One of the BRAVE...

I mentioned a small portion of this conversation with Tracen on Facebook the other day but thought I would get the whole story written for the records.

We've been reading the Book of Mormon together lately. I love it that he is interested in it right now. So as a plan to help me get reading it again, I asked him if would read one chapter each night with me. It has been great!

Well, the other night he asked if we could also read another "church book" we have called "Beyond Bethlehem" by David Bowman

Such a great author that helps bring the stories in the Book of Mormon to the child level and brings them a bit more to the present. Awesome illustrations too.

Well in this book it starts telling the story of Christ's birth beginning with the story of Samuel the prophet preaching to the Nephites. Tracen is fascinated with the part about the arrows not being able to hit him when he was preaching on the wall.

It mentions how Samuel told the people to watch for certain signs that would tell them of Christ's birth. Then it goes into the birth of Christ and then touches on how He will come again.

The book then asks, "How can you get ready for that wonderful day?"

It answers by telling us to BE BAPTIZED, FOLLOW THE PROPHETS, READ THE SCRIPTURES, SAY OUR PRAYERS, OBEY THE COMMANDMENTS, and to

LOOK FOR THE SIGNS.

It says that some of the signs are that the CHURCH GROWTH WILL EXPAND,

(we talked about being a missionary)

and that THERE WILL BE WARS.

This stirred some pretty intense emotions from my tender hearted young man.

He then asked, "Mom, will I ever HAVE to be a soldier and go to war?"

Me, knowing I had to be honest, "Well, Trace, Maybe."

(Trying to hide my tears, as this is a matter that is very tender to my own heart)

Tracen with tears welling in his own eyes, "Oh. Ok."

Pause. "But mom, I'd rather be a missionary."

I tried to explain that he will probably have a choice when that time comes and that he could probably do both if he wanted.

(No longer able to hold back my tears)

Tracen: "Who MAKES you be a soldier?"

Me: "Right now no one MAKES you be a soldier. You can volunteer to be one."

Tracen: "Why would you do that? They might die."

Me, trying to think this complex question through:

"Men and Women that feel they want to help protect our country and their families CHOOSE to be soldiers."

Tracen: "Soldiers are so brave."

Me: "Yes, they are."

I must confess, that I truly hope my boys do NOT have to make this decision,

that they will even have a choice.

I pray for PEACE. Yet, I know what the signs are.

And if they CHOOSE to be one of the BRAVE...

May the Lord give me strength.

I am so grateful to the men and women and their families for the GREAT sacrifices they make to help keep our country safe.

Thank You.

Psst... For another great Tracen conversation scroll through towards the end of the previous post.

Love, Love, Love...

For whatever reason, it has sure taken a while for me to get this post done.... but here we are.

We had a VERY LOVELY VALENTINES WEEKEND!

Starting when Dan got home from work on Friday, he surprised me with these beauties!
I do love flowers!

The thing with Dan and I... Valentines is and never has been a favorite or well celebrated holiday at our house. Sad? No. We just don't really get into the whole commercial side of it.

St. Patrick's Day? That is another story. Weird... yes, we know... Anyway...

I feel very lucky to have a man that I KNOW without any doubt LOVES ME ALWAYS and FOREVER! We often go out and have so many fun times together, he does little things that show me his devotion, he says and shows me his LOVE every day. So I haven't felt like we really "needed" Valentines Day....BUT...

because we have kids that have so much fun celebrating anything, I thought I'd better do a little better at the pink hearts and cupid thing.

So I actually got a few Valentine decorations (I'll emphasize "few")

and put red doilly hearts in our window.
(not a great picture, but it was too cold to get it from outside)

I made some special Valentine cards to send out...

( I thought they turned out pretty darn cute. Helps that I have such cute kids- eh?)

Made heart shaped sugar cookies (that still need some frosting and decorations)

and bought WAY TOO MANY Bliss chocolate hearts to give away

(and yes I did sneak some for myself too).

But I think the smartest thing we did this holiday was a little kid swapping with my sister and bro-in-law.

Friday night we took their kids to sleep over so that they could go on a date and then they took our boys Saturday night for Dan and I to have some time together.

It was AWESOME!

Dan and I met up with some great long time friends for snacks and good talks.

Then we went out for a "little" Indian food at Taste of India in Layton.

Seriously one of our favorite places to eat. If you haven't ever tried Indian food...DO IT!

Sooooo Good!

We then went home for a movie and a little time to ourselves!

PERFECT!

I LOVE YOU DAN!

We headed up to my sisters house early Sunday morning to help get the kiddos ready for 9 am church. We went to my sisters ward and then back to their house for a crazy kid filled Valentines dinner of Enchiladas, Mexican Rice, Refried Beans, Salad, festive red and pink jello, and

very FUDGY BROWNIES!

Like I mentioned, we haven't really gotten into the whole comercial part of this holiday before, therefore I have never given our boys anything more than a few chocolate hearts and a special Valentine card from mom and dad to say I LOVE YOU, which for the record I still think is all that is needed.

But this year, we decided a great way to show our boys our love would be to give them something that we love....BOOKS!

Tate got a very sweet little book called

How Do I Love You

by P.K. Hallinan

and Tracen and Tyler both got one of our favorite books,

The Book of Mormom

We worried that they wouldn't understand the meaning or think this to be a very cool gift, but boy were we wrong!

As soon as they opened it, both boys exclaimed,

"The Book of Mormon!!! My very own! Thanks Mom and Dad!"

But I think that the best part was that during Sacrament meeting I glanced over at Tracen and Tyler who I thought were being unsually quiet and still and saw they both had their books open studying quite intently, Tyler at the pictures with Dan leaning over him talking softly in his ear , but I noticed Tracen had his open in the beginning chapters of Nephi.

So I asked, "what are you reading about?"

Tracen said, " Oh just how Nephi is going to get the brass plates from Laban.

What does H E A R K E N E D mean?"

My heart was warmed.

But then to top it all off, this morning around 7 am Tracen came into my room and asked if he could watch "Cyber Chase". I said, "Huh? Oh sure Trace." and then rolled back over in bed and quickly fell back to sleep. I then woke to Tracen saying, "Mom, can I read in your bed with you?". Again, "Huh? Oh sure Trace". And I noticed he snuggled right up to me. So I rolled towards him and notice what book he was reading....yup... The Book of Mormon.

Trace:"Mom, did you know this is such a great book?!"

Me: "Wow, Trace, yeah it is one of the BEST."

I then asked him what he was reading about. He proceeded to tell almost the entire story of Nephi trying to get the brass plates from Laban.

Trace: "Too bad Laban had to be so bad and the Lord had to destroy him."

Me: "Yes, but if the Lord hadn't destroyed him and Nephi hadn't obeyed the Lord's command to get them, we might not have this amazing book to read right?"

This triggered the most wonderful conversation a mother can have with her child.

He asked all sorts of questions about obeying the Lord, and why doesn't everyone want to know about Jesus Christ, and missionaries.

Trace: "I am going to keep reading this book everyday so I can have it read before I turn 19 and go on my mission."

Me:" That's a great idea Tracen. If you haven't read this book all the way through you won't know what the Lord wants you to teach the people on your mission."

Trace: "What if I get to go to Mexico on my mission? I'm not very good at Spanish yet. How will they understand what I need to tell them?"

So I told him about the MTC and the spirit helping him know what to say and who to talk to.

He then told me that he was talking to a friend at his at school and asked him if he (his friend) knew who Jesus Christ was.

His friend said, "Who's Jesus?"

Tracen: "I tried to tell him who He was but he just laughed at me and ran away."

I tried to explain to him that on his mission there might be lots of people who don't "think" they want to know about Jesus Christ.

Trace: "Why would they NOT want to know about Jesus?"

Oh I love you Tracen!

I think this was the best "gift" a mother can get. The innocense of a child's honest heart.

Hope everyone had the Valentines Day they wanted and spent it with the ones they love.

We sure did!

It was a great weekend!

Thanks May and Ty!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Playing catch up...

Seems I've been a slacker in the blogging business lately.

Think I'll blame it on the pregnancy.

Ehhh... actually I think I just haven't "felt" like blogging.

Anyway, here are a few fun events I thought I'd better get posted before I got too far behind.

ENJOY!

Fun at the Cabin!

A couple of weekends ago we took advantage of our family's amazing Stratford Cabin!

It is truly the perfect getaway.

We had a few friends come up with us. Ok actually there were...

8 adults and 16 kids.

A bit on the CRAZY side, but so incredibly FUN!

We ordered pizza Friday night and "thought" we'd get the kiddos to bed early so the adults could play some games. We started at 8:30p and the kids finally crashed around 12 midnight. I guess that is what happens when that many kids all get to sleep together in bunk beds.

We still got in a few games and we finally crashed around 1:30am.

Saturday morning we discovered...
...this beautiful scene.

Notice how much snow is on our vehicles?

(can you even see them?)

So... we took advantage of the gift and...

...threw a few snowballs.

But WHY do these "gentlemen" look so pleased?

Because they built an incredibly FANTASTIC sledding hill for the kiddos.

It started at the top of the stairs to the deck...

and curved all the way around so you could then slide down the driveway until you crashed into something.

They kids LOVED it.

But wait... just the kids? I don't think so...

Yup thats gotta be around 500 pounds of

MANLY LOVE...

Only to end in...

...wait... wasn't there THREE?

Oh yes... here he is.

Need a closer look?

Then it was on to warmer things.

Mmmmm.... HOT CHOCOLATE!

Doesn't get much cuter than this.

The rest of Saturday was full of games, movies, a good walk and talk with the ladies, and lots more yummy yummy food!

Sunday we cleaned up and went to the local ward Sacrament Meeting which ended a good 25 minutes early even after 3 speakers. I'm thinking Dan and I will move into that ward.

Thanks to wonderful friends and a great family cabin we made a few more good memories.

Hardware Ranch

Last month we headed to Hardware Ranch with my family.
We ate at Jeremiah's in Ogden for lunch.

And then headed out of the fog and saw few of these beauties.
This was the largest Elk at the ranch. There were about 100 head, mostly Cows.
The kids found a new pet in the lodge.
And an "awesome" body sledding hill.

Of course I forgot the camera... (stole these pics from my dad) but I wish I could have gotten a picture of Tate being a super hero.

While watching the kids go down the sledding hill, Tate would stand in the middle of the walk path where people were going to get in line for the tractor ride to see the elk. He would stand there in his BEST SUPER STANCE. Then when group of people would try to pass him he would say, "Word Up!" (from PBS 's Word Girl) and then charge them announcing his moves in advance. "PUNCH... PUSH... KICK..." He got a lot of laughs.

Thanks mom and dad for this fun family outing!