Michael

Michael is often quite fierce when his siblings bug him, but he is also very loyal to them and is a good friend to have. Sometimes when Jill gets in trouble and runs away crying I will find Michael on her bed with her, reading her a book. And just today he built her a fort just so she could have a place to change her clothes.

And yesterday he decided to make an extra effort to talk with Timmy all day, and he loved hearing him respond. It was cool not only that he chose to interact with Timmy, but also that he enjoyed it. Timmy definitely has all of us cheering for him. :) The boys and I talk about him often, and we're all in awe. :)

And speaking of smart boys, yesterday I took Brom to give him a bath, and I sat on the edge of the tub to fill it. He saw the tub and got all excited. He started kicking his legs, waving his arms, and rotating his hands like he does when he's excited. It was cute. I've never seen him get excited about a bath until he was in it before. What a smart guy!

Oh, one more thing - last night Michael and Timmy were playing with pieces from a game called Quirkle. I think it's something like dominoes. It has a bunch of wooden squares that you match up by the color and shape on them. Anyway, they were having fun lining up all the pieces. Timmy called it a puzzle and actually spent quite a long time arranging those pieces. Anyway, at on point Timmy heard Michael toot, and he said something like, "Don't a poop it a bum!"

Awww

Little fella has a fever. I laid him on my bed for a while and he slept after he had already taken a nap. He is usually eating this time of day, but he just fell asleep again. He seems mostly happy, but poor fella. He doesn't seem to feel so good. Pretty darn cute, though! Yes, thank you, I will be glad to sit and cuddle him.

Picture Wednesday

First of all, my new camera got sent away on March 10, and it is finally supposed to get back to me on Monday. I am dying for a decent camera! Why, oh, why did I have to lose my old one? :( I hope the new one will work better now!

And now for Mama's pictures from Joshua's ordination day. I was a lame-o and didn't take any! I was too busy worrying about feeding everyone, I guess. Thank heavens my mother has my back!

I love this boy! I am so proud of him, and I can't wait to watch him pass the sacrament with Hyrum on Sunday!

 

My dad ordained Joshua. :)

 

These ones aren't from the same day. Mama saw me trying to take pictures of her daffodils as the sun was going down (they didn't turn out), and she sent me these. Aren't they lovely? Daffodils are among my very favorites. Yellow is such a happy color! I set the bottom one as the background on my computer, and it made me smile. :)

 

And one last post

We've had a little trouble with Timmy at church. I've talked about it before I think. One of the counselors in the Primary presidency has asked that Timmy be accompanied by either Jeremy or me wherever we take him (Primary or nursery) for the other kids' safety. He has a hard time with singing time and sharing time in Primary. He can't hold still. It's not just that he is three. It's that he is autistic and there are too many people in there. And he had trouble in nursery for a while because he was going through a phase where he hit and knocked down other kids just to see their reactions. So the lady from the presidency told me he couldn't go by himself because some of the kids were afraid to go to nursery. It turns out that one of those kids is her son, and he is spoiled. He cries all the time and takes things from the other kids. The nursery leader has noticed that Timmy is just doing fine most of the time now, so she tells us we can just go to class, but the lady in the Primary presidency doesn't see that. She disapproves when she sees him in there without us.

And yesterday the Young Women's president asked me, "Are you going to go get Timmy?" Apparently, her son is the other one who won't stay in nursery. I told her that it was a super busy day, so I had just dropped him in nursery. (I didn't mention to her that 99.9% of the time HE DOES FINE IN THERE! He gets upset when Chase steals his toys, but he's not hitting much anymore.) I said I was going to try to get him to go to Sunbeams for class time. (It is a smaller group, and while he's still a monkey, he does better in there than with the whole Primary.) I felt stuck and frustrated, and I also felt hurt and judged. I didn't like that I didn't feel like I could go be with my parents, and I hate that they judge him without knowing what is really going on and without realizing it was just a phase. On the one hand, I can't blame them for wanting to protect their kids, but on the other hand these ladies have never shown that they liked me at all. They have never talked to me other than these times, so it's hard to feel like they care or that they have any interests other than their own at heart, even the one who was supposedly speaking for all the kids.

So anyway, I went with him for part of nursery, and so did Jeremy. Jeremy thinks this whole thing is dumb too and was tempted to video Chase taking things from the other kids all the time. The Young Women's president brought her son to nursery anyway and he did great. He didn't even notice when she left. And after Joshua's ordination I put Timmy in his Primary class and left, and he did just fine. I just want them to see that the phase has passed and to just leave it alone! We shall see. I'm trying to take care of my son too, ladies.

And on a different note, if you're reading this, please pray for Jeremy! He has applied for a lecturer position at SUU. He is qualified for it, and it would be such a blessing to us in so many ways! It would help us get out of Globe where Jeremy is so terribly allergic, and it would help us get back to Cedar City. It was such a good place for our family. He really is hoping to get it. Please pray with us that he can!

Quite a week

We went to St. Johns to visit my parents last Tuesday. We left in the morning and came home that evening. Robert and Kelly were there too. It was so nice to see them all and to finally see Mama's new kitchen! Its still strange to me that she has a dishwasher! But its great, and the kitchen is lovely. :)

I got a new toy from my dad in the mail a few days before our trip. It's a birthday present. It is a Nexus 7! I feel horribly spoiled. It's fun to have a tablet, though, and it's much more portable than my old laptop. Its fun playing around and figuring out all it does. The boys love that they can say, "OK, Google," and then ask a question. And right at this moment I am composing this blog post on the Nexus. The Blogger app for Google devices needs a lot of work, but it works just fine for a basic post, and it's nice that I can do it one here when all the computers are in use!

Anyway, so my dad sat down with me and helped me get a movie and songs and a few other things on here. The boys have now watched The Emperor's New Groove a few times on here. Dad told me where to get stuff on my PC so I can get more movies on here. I am still working on that. (Windows 8, grumble, grumble. Ha ha. Really, so far Windows 8 has been fine. It does seem to run a little slow because of the start page running in the background, but we've found some fun apps, and overall it just needed getting used to.)

The kiddos had a great time. They jumped on the trampoline and went to fly kites and airplanes. Timmy put together two big puzzles and had so much fun playing with all the different toys. He was mad when we left. Mama made pizza for dinner, and we got home around 10:00 I think.

Joshua turned 12 on Thursday. The night before, my parents came to town. They left Robert with us, and I made spaghetti while my parents took Joshua to dinner.

On Thursday morning we saw them all again before they went on to the Gila Valley. Mama went to Walmart and Dad took Hyrum to fly helicopters. I also ran to Walmart to get Joshua a birthday shirt.

My parents went on their way, and we had lunch and headed to Mesa. We went to the dollar theater at Superstition Springs Mall to celebrate Joshua's birthday. He chose the second movie of The Hobbit. We really wanted to see The Lego Movie, but it wasn't there yet. They two older boys really enjoyed the movie. Benji and Michael were kind of wiggly. I think they prefer watching at home where they can get up and wiggle if they need to. Brom did awesome. He ate for a long, long time, and when he wasn't eating he was just happy. Jill and Timmy were just fine for a good 2/3 of the movie, and then they were just done. Jeremy ended up taking them outside to play in the water and stuff. One problem was that Timmy had lost one she and Jill had lost both in the theater. We found them all later, thanks to the handy dandy flashlight app on my phone, though. Another problem was that Jill got stubborn and kept trying to go off on her own. That's something we specifically told them they could not do at the mall. The consequence of that was that we couldn't walk around the mall after the movie. Hyrum, Benji, and Jill were all mad about that. And the other problem was that those little ones got really impatient at the end of the wait. I came out of the theater with the five other guys and sent them all to the bathroom, and then I saw Jeremy out the window holding two very squirmy and sad kiddos. Poor Jeremy! However, this experience taught us that with four big tubs of popcorn and a more kid-friendly movie we could do that again! That's fun. The last time we went as a family was when we saw Finding Memo a long time ago. That didn't go well...

So anyway, we got ice cream on the way home. Joshua had made cake that needed frosted. It fell all apart as we took it out of the pan, so I helped frost it back into shape. He had picked some gummy shapes and swirly candles to put on it. He was pretty pleased with the finished product. But between that and frying frozen burritos (Joshua's choice) and feeding the little guy  it was like 9:00 before we had a birthday party, and then Papa and Joshua decided it was too late to actually eat the cake. I wrapped it up and hid it in my bathroom. Jill and Timmy were really upset about that.

From us Joshua got a gray Garfield shirt (gray is his favorite color and he loves Garfield), a new sleeping bag, a new R/C helicopter, some ties (he is a deacon now, after all), and a castle puzzle. He picked the sleeping bag and puzzle and was pretty excited about all of it. (Well, except for the ties. Ha ha! Ties aren't very exciting.)

On Saturday I tried to get the house clean for Sunday. I wasn't as successful as I hoped. I really wouldn't have been successful at all if Jeremy and the boys hadn't helped me! With all that went on dinner wasn't ready until like 9:00, and then I still hadn't gotten throwaway dishes for Sunday dinner. So I got the kiddos started towards bed while Jeremy went to the store. It turns out that was a really bad idea. He came home wheezing. He used his nebulizer and took a hot shower, but he came out wheezing more. I was in Jill and Timmy's room trying to get the three little ones to sleep when I heard Jeremy yell, "Honey!" I ran out to the living room. He was using his nebulizer again but could only breathe in short puffs and could hardly talk at all. I grabbed my phone and called his dad to come and give him a blessing. The hurried over. Jeremy decided he had probably better just go to the hospital, so they took him there. I think they gave him a blessing on the way or something.

At the hospital they injected him with steroids and got him on oxygen and another nebulizer. It all helped pretty quickly. Thank heavens! He was gone until 12:30 or so. I felt bad having them all out so late, especially since Aaron had just spent a long night camping the night before, but I was so thankful that they came and helped. Jeremy came back talking and laughing, and his shoulders were no longer tense like they get when he is struggling to breathe. He also got a prescription that needed filled right away Sunday morning. He took it to the pharmacy as soon as it was open right after Sacrament Meeting and then he picked it up after church. I am so thankful that he is OK! Those asthma attacks get so scary so fast!

We made it to church on time for once! My parents came and sat by us. Joshua got sustained to be ordained a deacon. And he got spotlighted at the beginning of Primary. The way they do it - they don't tell who is being spotlighted at first. They have everyone stand up, and then they call out things about the person, and everyone that those things don't apply to sits down. The last person standing is the person being spotlighted. The problem is that since it's a surprise I can't asked them what their answers would be, so I'm never sure if I've got it just right. And the spotlight sheet is worded weird. It's written like a poem and asks for some weird things. And Joshua is a very literal person. If you say he likes to do something you are saying he does it all the time. So when they were reading from the spotlight page Joshua kept standing up and sitting down. I guess I didn't get things exactly right. He knew they were spotlighting him, though, so he always stood up again. It was hilarious.

And after that we took him to Sunday School with Hyrum. He's all done with Primary now! That's how they do not in this ward. He is pleased with that. He feels like they talk to them all like they're little kids, and to be honest, they really do. He has been wanting to be done with that for like two years. Every now and then we'd just let him come with us to our class, and he liked that better. He says that he liked going to Sunday School and Priesthood better, and that the likes the scouts. They are good, nice boys.

We all went into Priesthood right at the beginning because that's when Joshua was ordained. My dad ordained him. He was given a nice blessing. I think if I wasn't worried about that sad little Brom and Timmy bouncing on my lap I would have thought to write it down. Ha ha! Oh, well. What I remember is that he will hold fast to the church and prepare to serve a mission. That is something I've already noticed about him. He does indeed have a budding testimony, and he is planning on a mission. I like how the Gospel is a fundamental part of his life. He's always liked to know how things are and have them stay that way. The Gospel and the standards we live by don't change, and he recognizes that blessings come from following those "rules." I wish I remembered more of the blessing!

After that I took Timmy to his Sunbeams class and Mama and I went to Relief Society. It was fun to have my mom there, and I liked hearing Kenzie's comments from the back. :)

And after church Mama and I went right to work making 6 pizzas. It quickly became apparent that she's not used to Timmy cooking with her. Ha ha! Sorry, Mama! I don't dare squash his enthusiasm, and I like that he likes to help. He drives me crazy too! I made the dough and Mama made coleslaw and made the dough into pizza. My dad helped Timmy and helped put cheese and meat on. It worked out pretty good, and it was yummy! And as soon as the pizza was out Joshua was making red velvet cupcakes and cream cheese frosting. He did awesome! The cupcakes were light and soft and the frosting was fluffy and great. Yum! I was so pleased with how it all worked out!

So there you go. That was our busy week. Busy and full of blessings. And we thought Jeremy would get some sleep to help stave off asthma attacks. Pfff! ;) Hopefully we can get him to bed sooner this week!

Little Guy

 

Here are some things about six-months-old Brom:

 

He still likes to play with  his own hands sometimes. He'll notice them in front of him and get really serious and try to grab his own fingers. You can see he is working really hard at figuring out his hands.

 

He now naps at least once a day. He had stopped napping for a while, but he usually slept through the night. Now that he takes little naps he doesn't sleep as long at night, but he still sleeps pretty good.

 

A couple of weeks ago he was sick with a yucky cough and horrid allergies. His eyelids were red and his nose ran like a faucet. I think he got a bit of a cold too. I took a lot of Vitamin C and it helped. Hooray!

 

He is great at sitting. He likes me to sit him on the floor with toys. He can sit for a good five minutes or so before falling over. :) I love it. He looks so cute and tiny sitting there.

 

He gets really happy about being laid on flat surface (i.e. the floor, the little trampoline, my bed, etc. He throws his arms out to side and kicks his legs making excited sounds.

 

He can entertain himself for bit now. I can put him in his swing and he'll grab the flowers that hang above him and play happily for ten minutes or so. He is tall enough for a walker now, too. He likes that. There's a flower with a mirror on it, and he likes to eat it. He scoots around backwards. Fun times! (Just a side note -Timmy also likes the walker. He sits in it and walks around, and he turns the flower like it's a steering wheel. Ha ha!)

 

He is still a very good easy-going baby. He is usually happy, and he does great at church. Her is very smiley too. He smiles at pretty much everybody, especially when he makes eye contact. He laughs easily too. It's cute how his sense of humor is developing. Sometimes he'll pick one word out of something I said and laugh about it. He never laughs very hard, but he does laugh.

 

He got his first tooth last week and also rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time. He can easily roll from his back to his side. He really needs more opportunity for practice. I just like to hold him - a lot.

 

He is pretty ticklish. He likes me to kiss his checks while my chin tickles his neck. His sides and thighs are ticklish as well. Pretty fun. :)

 

He likes baths. Baths are magic. They calm my sad babies right down. I still lay him down for a bath because the tub is slippery, and he likes it. He waves his arms and legs around like crazy. I love giving him baths.

 

He likes to eat everything he can get his hands on. He has also been really interested in whatever were eating, so we give him little tastes now and then. He likes that.

More stuff

Have I ever mentioned that I dislike coming up with titles? I sure do. I feel all pleased when I come up with a good one, but I have a hard time making them up.

Ok. Gotta hurry with this one.

We've had some good wind (not like crazy blow-your-face-off St. Johns wind.) and some rain. I hope we get more. I like spring, but I still wish it didn't bring hard times for Jeremy. Jill wanted to get a little swimming pool today, but it was too windy and we'd need a new hose to fill it. We may have to get those when the wind quiets down.

Today Brom and I went to the Dr. Since last spring I've been having something like asthma to go along with my allergies.  I wasn't diagnosed with anything today, but I have an inhaler and an anti-allergy medicine too. I am glad to have it because I've been borrowing Jeremy's inhaler, and I don't want to be using up his medicine during spring time! But every now and then I need some too. I'm glad that's done. It feels weird that i have an inhaler. Oh, well. It is one of the use as needed kind, not the twice daily kind.

Also, the good news is that I weighed about ten pounds less than I thought I did. (I avoid weighing myself like I avoid the plague. I am afraid of what the scale will say!) And that means that I have lost about 30 lbs since I got pregnant with Brom. Whoa! I hope it stays lost! And I am pretty pleased.

And Brom got his six month checkup. He has gained about 10 lbs since birth. He is still in like the 98th percentile for his height, but his weight percentile went down from like the 74th to the 41st. He didn't lose weight, but his weight gain just isn't following the same curve that he was. I'm not really worried about it. A couple of weeks ago he had a yucky cold and kept choking on the guck in his throat and throwing up. I figure that's why his growth rate was lower. But she wants to check him again in 2 weeks and see if his weight is bouncing back or if she needs to worry.

And, of course, he got shots. :( He got one oral vaccine and 3 pokes. It is so sad. He was such a good, happy boy for most of the time we were there (2 1/2 hours!), and then he got poked. And later he didn't feel good at all. And to top it off, he is still teething. I held him as much as I could this evening. Poor fella had a tough time. And I feel so bad, too, because Jeremy doesn't think vaccines do any good. So I feel like he thinks I just went out and wounded our child for nothing. I really don't dwell on that too much, though. I can't change his mind, but getting their shots is important to me. I don't want my kiddos to get those horrible diseases! So I will keep at it, and before we know it he'll be 4 and pretty much done until 11. Thank heavens he doesn't have serious reactions. Then I would feel stupid AND bad. Ha ha!

So anyway, sad day for the buddy. Bathies are magical. They pretty much always help, even when my babies are at their saddest. And I held him like I promised. He is sleeping now, and I am going to join that party! Good night!

Timmy

Just want to record some things really quick.

We've decided not to bother with DDD for Timmy. He has been progressing by leaps and bounds lately. Not only is it neat too just watch him progressing on his own, but DDD wants us to go down to Mesa for an intake. I can't stand the thought. Running all over for a babysitter and going somewhere I don't know to try too get services that may not even help. I know I'm kind of a whiner, but I'm a homebody and a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of seven. I can change my mind later if I want. But for now I think I'd rather just keep watching him.

Just watching him you can tell he is different from other kids his age. Jeremy and I have been taking turns taking him to Primary on days that we feel we all can handle it. (Other days he just goes to Nursery.) Those days that we stay with him I do miss class, but I love how even though he doesn't make eye contact or look at anybody much he will still come and hug me or play with my hair now and then. Its like we keep his world grounded, make things feel secure. I guess that's what parents are supposed to do, huh? But with Timmy it is different because he doesn't demonstrate a knowledge that other people, including his parents, are actual people. If you sit and think about that you can imagine a little bit how the world is for him. He also has anxiety over changes in his plans that he makes in his head: like when he gets the iPad taken away for being destructive with it, but he doesn't understand why it's taken away, and we can't help him know at this point because he doesn't understand how actions and consequences work. And that points back to what I said before - he doesn't realize that other people are people. So in his mind the environment is causing him random suffering. And he sometimes will go whack people just to see their reaction and then walk away smiling. Punishment would do no good because he wouldn't understand that the punishment is in any way related to what he did.

This is all interesting stuff, isn't it? Jeremy was never diagnosed with autism, but in learning about it for our sons he has realized that he is autistic. I was kind of skeptical when he was talking about it when Joshua was first diagnosed, but with Timmy I have really come to realize that, by golly, he is right! Jeremy and Timmy both had delayed speech. They both had this and that and the other thing. So yes, I do think Jeremy is autistic. One thing that he said that I have also found interesting is that it wasn't until like middle school that he realized that other people are people, and it wasn't until like high school that he realized that other people have value. You know what I'm saying? That they have feelings and that they're worth something just like I'm am, for example.

Anyway, I can see that that is where Timmy is as well, and I'm hoping that, knowing what we do, we can help him understand. And the real reason why I want him to understand is that there are so many things that we learn just because of socializing. Seriously! If you don't socialize you don't realize the importance or existence of so many things! What's the need for getting potty trained? Who needs to talk? And how am I going to learn to do these things anyway if I don't know that I need to (and at times even HOW to) pay attention? So you see, more than I want him to know I'm a person with feelings and that it does hurt when my hair is pulled, I want him to learn to work with people so he can learn how to live!

Well, anyway, this is a lot more than I meant to say, but I'm glad to have it written. And like I say, he has really been making progress lately. He is even using sentences now and then! Yesterday he followed me into the pantry with a toy airplane and said, "Mommy! I found a airplane!" That is HUGE! He addressed me. He used my name! And he told me a complete thought, something his voice told me he was pretty darn pleased about. Another thing: we've been reading books, and usually now he will let me actually read the words on the page before he turns it. Its like he suddenly discovered that there is something in a book! I think Grandma Badger helped with that when Brom was born. (She taught him colors when I didn't know he could understand that much. Boo to me for underestimating once again, right? ;) Anyway, one of his favorites is Go, Dog, Go. He loves to stop on each page now and talk about big and little and red and blue and yellow and green. Well, tonight I noticed that his bum was a little red. I said, "Timmy, your bum is kind of red." He responded, "Red bum. Big bum. Little bum." with his usual pauses between words like when we're reading his book. Ha ha!

OK, one more. Last night we were having trouble getting Buster to go to bed. Timmy was in the living room with me as I as getting some things put away before bed, and out came Buster. Timmy told me one way or another that Buster needed to go to bed. I said, "Yes, he does. Why don't you take him to his room and put him to bed?" So Timmy walked up to Buster and said, "Come on, Buster. Let's Go." And Buster went with him! He didn't stay, but man! Timmy followed directions! And Buster did too! That Timmy is the same one who just months ago could not follow simple instructions like, "See your shoes right there? Bring them to me and we'll put them on." Not only is he learning to follow instructions, but he's starting to learn to give them.

Yeah, I said that was the last thing. I was wrong. Timmy has also been nuts about cooking lately. Before he preferred to find his own food rather than let me get it for him. Now he prefers to cook it too! He likes to make toast and butter it all over. He sees the boys learning to use the griddle and figures he can use it too. He sees them using sharp knives and figures he can too. He knows I use the Bosche to make pizza, so he will drag the thing out and put it up on the counter! He is dang strong! He has cuts on his hands from knives, and he won't let us doctor them, and he certainly won't keep a bandaid on when we forcefully doctor him. I had to hide all the knives, so now I have to go to the pantry to get a knife. And he still finds the knives somehow anyway. Ugh. And we always have cut potatoes everywhere. And I had to hide the Bosche in the shop. And he puts peanut butter all over some pieces of bread and then gets the griddle out and turns it on with the bread on it. We don't know anything about it until we smell something cooking! I tell you, that boy is determined too do this own cooking! It was a blessing in disguise when the lighter on our stove went nuts because now we have to light it with a lighter, and he can't do that. We have gone through a lot of bread and potatoes lately. Ayayay, I wish I could feel confident just turning him loose in the kitchen. He wishes that too. But he is three.

So anyway, all in all I am pretty dang proud of him. I'm tickled pink watching him. Some days I feel like i should be chasing him around with a notebook and pen. He astounds me all the time. The Autism Awareness Month symbol is a puzzle ribbon, and for good reason. Autistic people are like a puzzle, but if you know me, you'd better believe I LOVE a good puzzle. :)

PS Jeremy says I make a face just like this one of Brom. What in the world? But anyway, it does make me laugh. :)

Pi Day

It's pi day! That means I should make pie today! And that makes me remember I have a box of Jell-o no-bake cheesecake in my pantry. And that makes me remember that when Jeremy and I were newlyweds living in the little house above the garage in Thatcher (just around the corner from President Kimball's childhood home, no less), every once in a while we'd buy one of those cheesecakes for $1 and enjoy a slice or two each and then the rest ended up going bad in the fridge. Sad! Nowadays they cost like $1.69 and we've got a few kids to help make sure that no cheesecake goes bad in the fridge. In retrospect, though, cheesecake is usually worth it, even if the rest does go bad in the fridge, and even if it does now cost $1.69.

Monday Meme

1. Name? Christine
2. Nickname(s)? Hunny (but only Jeremy calls me that) and Dean (But only my siblings and dad call me that, and that's how I like it.)
3. Birthday? February 3
4. That makes you... 36
5. Where were you born? Pinetop, AZ
6. Location right now? Sitting at my computer.  I'm sitting on my feet to keep them warm and it's hurting my back. Ha ha!  Time to suck it up and put my shoes on.
7. Shoe size? 9
8. Piercings? Just 2 (my ears).  And I haven't worn earrings since we were living in Utah.  And I think I only wore them once there.  The problem is my ears are sensitive and I'm lazy.  By the time I get around to wearing earrings again I've forgotten which ones hurt my ears, and then I spend all of church with hurting ears and then take them out as soon as I get home.  Fun, huh?
9. Tattoos?  No.  It's gonna stay that way too.  But this reminds me.  When Anne got married, Laurie was excited that Rob was tattooed too and said that that meant I needed to go get a tattoo so I could be like her and Rob (the other in-laws).  Ha ha!
10. When you wake up you're... Getting up to feed the boy and hoping I can sleep again while I do it.
11. When your about to sleep you're... Overwhelmed.  It's a lot of work to get everyone to bed.  But I suppose by the time I can get in bed everyone is already asleep and I'm excited to lay down.  I love my bed!
12. Zodiac sign? I have no idea.  Every now and then I am told what it is, but I purposely forget.
13. Chinese sign? Snake.  I do know this one, but mostly because I think it's kind of funny and because we go to China Taste and it's on the place mats. 
14. Righty or Lefty? Righty
15. Innie or Outie? Innie, but after all these pregnancies it's all stretched, so it's more open than it used to be.
16. School? I graduated from St. Johns High School (Go, Redskins!) and then finished an AA degree in music education at Eastern Arizona College (Go, Gila Monsters!).  I want to get a bachelor's degree in writing someday.  Either way, I love learning, and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of that my whole life.

Section Two: Looks

17. Nationality? American (I have some ancestors who lived in Massachusetts in like the 1600s) and Swedish (through my mom's dad) and Mexican (through my dad's mom - the Mexican polygamist colonies, you know) and probably others that I can't think of.  Any more, Mama?  I am pretty proud of my heritage too, if you're wondering.  Yes, even the polygamists.  Maybe I should discuss polygamy sometime.
18. Hair color? Brown
20. Weight? I have no idea.  I like to keep it that way.  I would definitely like to lose some lbs., but I don't feel like I need another thing to stress out about.  I just need to get running again or something and I'll be just fine.
21. Height? About 5'5"
22. Braces? Nope
23. Glasses? Trick question. ;) Currently, I don't wear glasses, but my need for glasses has fluctuated with each pregnancy.  I got reading glasses in college, and they were very helpful, but the kiddos broke them.  I'm not sure they would do me any good now anyway.

Section Three: Private Life

24. Do you have a boy/girlfriend? LOL Yes.
25. If so, who? Jeremy (*giggle, giggle*)
26. If not, do you have a crush on someone? N/A
27. Who has a crush on you? I'm pretty sure Jeremy does.
28. Ever cheated on your bf/gf? No way.
29. Who was your first kiss? Jeremy
30. Who was your last kiss? Jeremy
31. Have you ever been in love? Oh, heavens. Yes.
32. Broken any hearts? I don't know.  It's possible.
33. Got your heart broken? Yes.
34. Ever liked a friend? Yes.  Haven't we all?
35. What happened? We all moved on.

And that's enough.  I don't think I need to discuss relationships (that was the next section).  I really liked Richard in high school, but you know, that's been like 18 years ago.  (I'm pretty sure I'm over that by now.)  I also really liked John there for a while.  Both boys turned out to be idiots.  I don't think I need to go there.  I'll stick with my non-idiot. :) He is pretty great.

The Weekend, Part 2

On Saturday morning I drove Hyrum to our church and he was gone all day practicing for the evening's cultural celebration.  He had been there all day the Saturday before for the same thing.  A LOT of work went into that thing!  I think the final count on youth participating may have been more like 12,000.  That's still a lot, and they say it's the biggest cultural celebration for a Temple yet. The youth were working on the dances, songs, and sign language every Wednesday during their Young Men/Young Women time, and also for a little while every Sunday during class.  That first Saturday they kicked up so much dust dancing that they had to cancel the last run-through.  People were getting sick.  Well, this last Saturday it had rained the night before, so the dust was not a problem.  But there was also a 100% chance of a good rain forecast for that day.  It sprinkled off and on during the day, but as soon as the program started that night, down came the rain.  It dumped on them for the entire performance.  I'm sure it should have been pretty miserable, but everywhere the camera was pointing all of the youth were just so happy and excited.  Hyrum said that he said just before the program that night, "We're gonna do this if we have to do it in the rain!"  And they did!

If you haven't seen that cultural celebration, you should!  I can help you find where.  It was put together very well and went off without a hitch as far as I could tell, despite the rain.  There was definitely some cheesiness in some parts of the video that made us laugh. But they celebrated some heroes from the scriptures too.  They had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (complete with fire dancers acting as the fiery furnace).  They had Native Americans doing a basket dance and a hoop dance.  I was surprised realizing that was the first time that my boys have been exposed to Native American music.  That's kind of sad!  I heard it a lot growing up so close to the reservation.  We're not very far from one here, but we don't hear it much.  There was a little guy about Jill's age in the hoop dance, and he was really good at it!  It was so cute!  Hyrum's dance was a square dance.  I think it's pretty cool that Hyrum discovered his love for dancing during this production.  Considering his parentage he'd dang well better like dancing! ;) And he does a good job!  He learned it quickly and people kept telling me what a good dancer he was.  I was sad that we couldn't see him in the broadcast (we watched it on the church's website at home).  But he was in the back right corner with our stake.  All the nice videos and pictures I've seen have not included any back corners.  (But I am promised that there are pictures and I'll get to see them. ;)

A while after the program was over I got a call from my friend who is the Stake Young Women's President.  She said that Hyrum had ridden with her there and was supposed to ride back with her, but they couldn't find him anywhere.  It sounds like they had a few people who got lost like that or left by people in a hurry to leave.  One lady in our ward left her own daughter.  Ha ha!  Anyway, she promised she would call if they found him and asked if I could call Aaron and Kenzie and see if they knew where he was.  I called, but they didn't know.  About 15 minutes later I got a call from a number I didn't recognize.  It was Hyrum on a borrowed phone (the youth were not allowed to take their cell phones because they would be too much of a distraction) to say he was at gate 4 and to ask if I could tell Sister Gordon or something.  The poor guy sounded close to tears.  He must be related to me - getting lost and crying about it.  Poor guy.  But I did call Sister Gordon, and they found him and the group that Sister Jensen left, and everyone made it home fine.  And, of course, Hyrum came home soaked through and dead tired.  Poor guy.  We hurried him to the shower and I made hot water to make him some cocoa.

Unfortunately, though, I couldn't finish making him cocoa because we had some shenanigans going on.  That day Jeremy I were both sick, and so were Jill, Timmy, and Michael.  Allergies were horrible, and that day was particularly bad.  The little ones developed coughs to go with it.  It is so sad to see Brom's cute little face looking so allergic and to hear him coughing.  He has thrown up on me at least 4 times in the last few days.  He chokes on the mucus in his throat and throws everything up.  Poor fella.  He's got red all around his eyelids and his nose runs like a faucet.  He has had a hard time.  Thank heavens he is feeling some better now!  He still looks allergic and has a cough and runny nose, but he's not crying all day any more. (Oh, and he's been teething too, so I'm sure that helps, huh?)

Anyway, that night after the cultural celebration I got Jill and Timmy to sleep and Brom started screaming.  That woke Timmy.  And then they kind of played tag team all night.  Brom's crying woke Timmy, and when Timmy realized I wasn't in bed with him he was MAD.  I couldn't calm either one.  We ended up waking every hour or two all night.  Of course, in the end I was crying too. I had hoped to be awake to get the older 4 boys and me to the stake center for the 9:00 session of the Temple dedication, but I was too tired.  Jeremy told me I had to sleep in.  The last time Brom woke I just kind of cried, and Jeremy got up with him instead.  After a while Jeremy came and laid him on the bed next to Timmy and me.  I put his pluggie in his mouth a few times and worried that he would fall off and then immediately fell back asleep. 

I woke up in time to get us to the 12:00 session.  I hurried to get the boys fed and dressed.  Joshua decided he didn't want to go.  Benji and Michael didn't really want to go either, but I made them. And Hyrum came too.  I was glad to have them with me because I went alone last time.  Benji and Michael were kind of crazy.  I felt bad.  There was really nothing I could do.  At least they were quiet.  And they looked forward to the Hosanna Shout.  They seemed to like that part.  (Why do we never shout it, though?  Hmmm...) The one real disappointment I had was when I realized that the cornerstone ceremony wouldn't be repeated.  That means I missed seeing Aaron and Kenzie in that choir. :( Boo! Well, the talks were all good, though.  I was thankful we got to go.

OK a few last things.

Buster has also been sick.  Poor doggy.  He has thrown up some, but not very much.  He just sat there sleeping and looking sad for all of Monday and most of Tuesday.  He wouldn't eat or drink anything.  Today he is pretty much back to his old self, though.  Thank goodness!  But I must admit it was nice to not have to worry about getting him out the door.  He simply didn't need to go potty.

On Friday we came home with the wet baptism clothes, and I put them right in the washer.  I put the white clothing from our Temple clothes bags in too.  I'd been meaning to wash them for a while.  I was glad I did.  But it meant that the next day I had to iron them.  My robe has pleats, and while I do love how it looks, I do not like ironing those pleats!  The boys watched me ironing and Benji and Michael begged to help. I finally told them they could iron their white handkerchiefs for the Temple Dedication.  They were so excited.  And they did iron those handkerchiefs quite diligently.  Benji's been begging to iron more, but he got his church clothes dirty again, so we'll have to wash them again first.

Also on Saturday morning, there were free books at Safeway like they have every year.  (It's that Gila County Reading Coalition or something like that who does it.)  Grandma Burk came and took all our Joshua, Benji, Michael, and Jill to that.  I don't remember what Benji and Michael got, but Jill got a book about a little girl who gives away hearts, and Joshua got a book about Greek mythology that he has really enjoyed.

And concerning the cultural celebration, there has been a lot of talk about the rain.  People have quoted this scripture: "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." (Matthew 7:25) There was a blog post from someone who had hoped it would rain.  They said that the sacrifice of doing it in the rain would make it mean more to the youth. I also like this that Mama said: "Elder Kent S Richards said in his talk in the 3rd Dedicatory Session something to the effect of 'The Lord opened the windows of Heaven last night and poured out blessings upon our youth.' Because we live in a desert place, we know the value of rain & water and we know where it comes from. Sometimes the Lord sends it distilling like dew from Heaven and sometimes He pours it out upon us! The rain made the Celebration all the more memorable for the youth. They will never forget this experience!"  I agree.  The rain definitely added to the overall experience which was already something they would never forget.  In essence, I think the rain was a blessing in more ways than one. After all, it was a dry, warm winter and we have all been praying for rain.  The fact that the celebration went so well despite the rain, I think, is a testament to their resilience and their faith.  One thing I might add is that I was afraid some of them would catch pneumonia from this, but Hyrum said they all prayed that nobody would get sick from it.  So far I haven't heard of anybody who got sick from dancing in that rain.  And Hyrum hasn't had so much as a sniffle, even after all the time dancing in the rain and then being lost and then driving home an hour and a half in wet shoes and clothes!  Very cool.  I'm thankful beyond words that Hyrum could be part of that.  Truly, our youth are destined for great things.

The Weekend

This last weekend was definitely one to be remembered. On Friday Michael was baptized. On Saturday Hyrum performed with about 13,000 youth in the Gilbert Arizona Temple Cultural Celebration. On Sunday Hyrum, Benji, Michael, and I attended the dedication of our new Temple via broadcast to our Stake Center. We have been looking forward to all of this for months! Here is the story of how it was from my point of view.

Michael's baptism went well. The day before the baptism Michael made batter for 48 cupcakes. I helped him fill the cups and bake the cupcakes. And then he frosted every one of them by himself and put red sugar crystal sprinkles on. My parents came early and visited and helped with the little ones while Jeremy and I made 4 pans of Cowboy Casserole. Mama brought green salad and chips to go with it, and Grandma Burk brought Neapolitan ice cream and color cones. All of this was per Michael's request. Oh, and we even got way fancy and gave in to his request for soda. There were 3 kinds. Whoa!

So we got everything together (everything, it turns out, but Brom's pluggie and extra underwear for Michael) and got everyone dressed (Thank heavens Grandma and Grandpa helped!), and we made it to the church just a few minutes before starting time. My little sister Kelly was sitting there in her car waiting for us, but at first the boys didn't recognize her. Here was their conversation I overheard: "There's a lady in that car! She has lipstick on! Wait! That's not a lady! That's Kelly!" Ha ha! So we found Kelly. She brought a book for everyone to sign and for everyone to write little notes to Michael in during dinner. :) (Thanks again, Kelly!)

We went in and I knew we needed to get Michael dressed. We needed to set up tables for the dinner after the baptism. We needed to run off programs. We needed to take pictures. And there was like no time. Bit it was a happy occasion too. And right when I came in I found Brother Brown holding Jill's hand as they watched the font finish filling. It was so cute! I grabbed my camera, but I was too late. (Alvie Brown and his wife Getty live up the hill from us. Like you look out our front door up the hill straight across from us and they are right there. They are some of my favorite neighbors. They are so kind and so fun to chat with. Love them! Oh, and Brother Brown is in the bishopric, so he was there to conduct.)

So anyway, I put my stuff down and handed Brom to Kelly, and just as I was trying to set up the sign-in table by the Relief Society room the guests started to arrive. Sister Williams and Sister Holyoak saw me trying to get things set up and came to the rescue. They found the vinyl tablecloths for the round tables. They found paper cookies to set water pitchers on at each table. They set up the plates, cups, forks, and napkins (I didn't even think to bring napkins! Thank goodness the Relief Society is prepared!) I popped the casseroles in the oven to warm up. Brother Brown found Michael and Joe baptism clothes and copied the programs. (Michael came running down the hall holding his, saying, "Mommy, will this one fit me?" Yep. It was just right. :) Brother Goutcher took pictures of us (Sad thing is- he had to remind me to go get Brom for that. I was so flustered I couldn't think straight. Well, it all got done. I wish I had planned better! Maybe next time... ;) Michael didn't like picture time and kept trying to weasel out of it. He was ready to start!

Anyway, we were about 15 minutes late starting. The room was so full we had to split our family up. It was ok because they all wanted to sit by their grandmas and cousins anyway. Becca played the piano for us and Grandma Burk led the music. We sang "When I Am Baptized" for the opening song and then Aaron said the opening prayer. Hyrum gave a talk on baptism. He was really nervous about it. I helped him figure out a format or what to say and gave him some places to look for what to say, and he wrote it all out. He wanted to say it all without his notes, but it didn't work. It was fun for me to watch him. He is going to be just fine. :)

Afterwards we all went to the baptismal font. I popped in the kitchen on the way and turned off the ovens and made sure all my kiddos were in the room with the font and then we were ready to go. But not before Timmy reached up over the plastic window holding a handful of Angry birds Cheez-its and made everyone jump. They all thought he would throw them in, but he was just pointing at the water.Joe baptized Michael. Michael seemed a little wary coming down into the font. I wondered if the water was a little cold, but I don't know. It is so neat to watch my children be baptized. There is no feeling that quite matches it. It makes me so pleased and proud. I feel like a torch is being passed on, a legacy far greater than money or jewels. It is pretty cool.

Michael's foot came up the first time, so they had to do it once more. Michael didn't seem to mind. :) Then we all went back to the Relief Society room to wait while Michael and Joe changed out of their wet clothes. Becca played some music while we waited. Michael came in looking all spiffy in his suit. I had forgotten a comb too, but Papa managed to get his hair comes somehow anyway.
Then Kenzie and Brookie sang "Beautiful Savior" and Austin gave a talk on The Holy Ghost. Michael was then confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by his Grandpa Burk. I like to write what is said in those blessings, but by that time Brom was HUNGRY. He could not be calmed. I didn't hear a word of the blessing, but it is hard to feel upset taking care of a sweet boy who has been so patient and just can't wait anymore. Jeremy's mom texted me later, "I didn't know if you got to hear the blessing yesterday but I wanted to be sure you got to know that it said that Michael would live a long life and have a large posterity." I like that. That means lots of grandkids for me! :) (Pssst! If any of you heard anything else in that blessing please tell me what it was! Comments, plz!)

And then we sang "I Want to Be a Missionary Now" and Jeremy gave the closing prayer. We stood in the hall for a bit and thanked everyone who came (we have such a great ward) and Michael gave some cupcakes out, and then we had dinner with our family members who had come. Oh, it was great! It was just such a happy time! And Robert even went and played the organ. I miss hearing him play! It is sad that my boys didn't know he played. I told Hyrum and Michael to go up and watch him even though I knew it might drive him crazy, just because it is fun to watch him play. I do wish that bar wasn't right in his back! Anyway, that was awesome.

I loved that day a lot. I love celebrating my children. They are great people and I'm so blessed to be their mother. I love that Michael fiercely and am so proud of him. It was fun to put together the program with him. He knew just what he wanted. It was neat. He didn't hesitate choosing anything.  I made suggestions here and there when he didn't know, and then he chose immediately and looked so pleased about his choices.  It was cute.  He was ready to be baptized.  I'm sure he'd have loved to do it sooner even. I'm thankful for how well things came out, especially for Michael's sake. He was able to just enjoy his special day.

And with that, I think I'll leave off for now. I'll discuss the rest of the weekend later.