just in case you're wondering...

when you put a 3-year-old in timeout for squeezing his sister's hand to be mean

and he keeps getting off the chair saying he needs to go to the bathroom,

then let him go.

even if he uses that stalling tactic to get out of everything,

i would still recommend letting him go to the bathroom.

if you don't he might just pee on the floor just right where the rug and hardwood meet.

that's what happened to me today.

will showed me.

if i wouldn't have been about to explode with laughter and rage,

then i would have put him back in time out.

just in case you're wondering...

i don't want to miss a thing

maggie

1. you didn't mind watching your brothers ice skate. you preferred the up close and personal view- so close that you could suck on the window. 2. you have spent lots of time with "grandma" norma this week; you smile so big every time you see her. 3. you are a kid who LOVES to eat! you eat anything you get your hands on... large chunks of bread or tiny pieces of plastic off the floor. today you found a potato peel. as i tried to take it out of you mouth you started swinging your arms wildly trying to bat me away. i feel a lot of joy every time i can prepare your food and see how much you love eating healthy things. your favorite is butternut squash, yams with applesauce, and bananas. you would sit in your high chair for an hour munching on cheerios or just hanging out. you are not high maintenance (yet!). fyi... that aqua skirt and gray tights is one of my favorite things you wear. 4. you are such a smiley baby; everything makes you laugh. i love that you are still so little and easy to carry around. i also love that you sleep through the night. you go to bed at 8:00 and wake up at 6:30. i put you in bed with me then and let you eat and snuggle. the boys can't wait to get in bed with me once you have arrived. that is one of your happiest times of day; all the boys have to do is look at you and you explode with laughter. you crawl all over them, and that makes them laugh. you are jabbering like crazy with a very distinct "maaaamaaaa", "daaaaadaaaa", and "babbbaaa". you are also waving, and every time you want more food you raise your hand until you get it. there's no secret about it... you are one loved little girl!!

will

1. this was your 1st skating lesson; you caught on very quickly and looked like you were almost skating by the end. you really liked it once you were on the ice; you cried every time except for the last class. you are going through a bit of separation anxiety again (including at primary and playgroup). you just like knowing that mom is close. 2. trying out your hand on the new chalkboard wall in your room. you love drawing lots of lines; you are getting good at drawing people, and i love how you draw a head and stomach connected with arms and leg lines coming out. 3. you love your sis! you are normally so gentle with her minus the occasional kick or laying on. you love to hold her hand and kiss her head. you have also been loving to help change her diaper; you always say you want to learn. 4. you're just a cute kid who loves life. you want to go to auntie's every day, and you always talk about going to grandma jane's. you play hard with mack; you loved jumping on cardboard boxes together this week. your lips have been chapped, and you love putting on chapstick. you always want cereal for breakfast and will always drink a smoothie.

sam

1. finished up ice skating lessons; your balance improved tons from last year. you learned to skate backwards and glide forward- good progress. you loved being in class with emi. 2. loving your new chalkboard wall in your room; so far you have drawn watermelons, cars, robots, M-O-M and tons of other letters. 3. lots of time playing with emi this week. the 2 of you spent the afternoon in the backyard; "fixing" the playhouse roof was pretty special to watch; you spent the rest of the time jumping on the tramp, playing football, setting up tables for craft projects, and finding dead birds. 4. you are a kid who lives for summer! you are dreaming of the day when you can move to mexico (your choice) so you can eat burritos in your shorts on the beach. this day was the 1st day of sun we have had in ages (the temp. was 39), so you put your shorts and t-shirt on and went to work on building a new garden. you plan on planting corn and cucumbers.

water balloon magic

1. in action- sam catching a water balloon 2. water balloons in the tub; just a fun january activity when you are secretly wishing you can just play outside 3. will loaded and ready; he loved the throwing but not so much the getting hit.

friday book review: how to catch a star

how to catch a star

by oliver jeffers

suggested reading level: ages 4-8

in this whimsical picture book, a young stargazer decides he wants to catch a star.

he tries again and again with many different tactics to catch one.

then he sees a star reflected in the water and figures it fell from the sky.

he tries to grab it,

but it just slips through his fingers.

on his walk home along the beach he finds a starfish and thinks it is a fallen star from the sky.

this is somewhat of a magical story with beautiful illustrations.

sam received this book from pete's grandma for christmas,

and i must admit it has been in our favorite rotation ever since.

i love how the story play upon a young child's wish to have a star of their very own

and all the ways a young child could dream of catching one.

even as many times as we have read it the ending seems magical every time.

what a simple and beautiful way to make a child feel like their wish really came true!

it is a quiet flowing book,

definitely great for bedtime.

my boys relate to the pictures and their imaginations go wild as if they were chasing their own stars.

i have a feeling this will be a book that i remember with fondness from this time in our life.

i hope you like it as much as we do.

i have one friend

pete and i teach the 5 year olds at church.

we have the privilege of having sam in our class.

on sunday i had an introduction activity to help them realize they needed directions.

i told them i had a friend that i wanted them to meet.

i instructed them to find her house.

i did not give them any other info even though they would obviously need it.

they were all trying to guess where this mysterious friend lived and how to get to her house.

after a minute sam piped in and said:

"i know! she lives on center street!"

sam guessed it!

he knows my main friend is my sister,

and he has been to her house so many times he knows exactly where she lives,

even right down to her address.

i loved it!

and i haven't stopped laughing!

he guessed it with not one clue.

it's true,

she is definitely my friend,

and i'm glad she's my sister.

warning! you must read this!

i don't believe in coincidences.

i believe everything happens for a reason.

and i believe that you must act when you get the chance.

you must always listen to those feelings inside that may prompt you to do something out of your norm.

of course that lesson was burned into me after pete's cardiac arrest.

it was etched even deeper into me tonight after getting an email from a friend.

it was a reminder that even the actions of a 3 year old aren't a coincidence either.

and that my friends, gives me a warm feeling inside.

please read on to hear my friend's experience.

if you decide to not read on, then just take away this message:

install working carbon monoxide alarms in your house,

keep them current,

plugged in,

and new batteries.

and while your at it...

get your furnace checked.

and make sure you have fire alarms just in case, too.

Here's the story...

Elisabeth (she's 3 or 4 )woke me up around 1:00 am Wednesday during the night saying she had a stomach ache. When I woke up right away I could smell a strong, strange chemical smell in the house and felt sick to my stomach. (she's lucky the CO2 was oxidizing in clogged duct so it was creating a smell; CO2 doesn't normally have an odor) I ran to the bathroom to throw up but collapsed in the hall. I didn't lose consciousness so I was able to drag my self to the bathroom. After I threw up I woke up Tony (her husband) then went downstairs to see if I could figure out what the smell was but I collapsed on the stairs. After that I knew we needed to get out of the house because I thought it was CO poisoning. I got upstairs and grabbed Sam (he woke up when he heard me sick in the bathroom) while I called 911. As I was leaving the house with Sam and 911 on the phone I saw Tony collapse in the hall and lose consciousness- so scary. I stuck Sam in the car and turned it on (with the garage door up and instructions not to move) then went back in for Elisabeth and to check on Tony. Tony was up and getting Anders out of bed. We all got out and then we all sat in the car until emergency help arrived.

Elisabeth is our hero! Without her we probably wouldn't be alive. We were told a persons CO level of 40 is when the heart stops beating and my level was 37, Tony's was 34, and the children were in the teens (which is a lot for their little bodies). Our house had a CO reading of 4000 ppm downstairs which means cardiac arrest in approximately 20-30 minutes so it's highly unlikely we would have made it through the night with eveyone alive.

The gas company determined it was a malfunction in our furnace. Carbon monoxide can't be smelled but it combined with something else in the air to create the strong chemical smell I immediately smelled when I woke up. We have a CO detector but we had taken it down to do some painting and forgot to put it back up and put new batteries in it.

The ambulances took us to LDS hospital where we all had several hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatments for a day and a half.

We are all home and doing well now (with a new furnace). I sent this to you because we love you guys and want you to be safe.

what a child wants

i was recently thinking about an evening in november.

we had just finished dinner.

pete & i were too tired to think of some extravagant activity to entertain our children before bedtime.

so instead we got down in the floor with them and played cars with their $1 dragon car track they got from the DI.

i haven't seen them enjoy us or themselves that much in quite a long time.

it was fun,

and simple,

and even relaxing.

i loved watching where their imaginations took us.

they designated my yellow car as the grandma;

they were constantly wanting to have a sleep over & cookies at grandma's garage.

i laughed on the inside and loved it.

they could've carried on like this all night.

i love the reminder that our children don't need much.

they could have every toy stocked on the shelves of toys r us

and be enrolled in every lesson possible,

but those things will never be as meaningful as the time together as a family,

making up silly role plays with a junky, used $1 dollar car track.

i hope the time will always be so meaningful and so sought after,

and it's my goal to keep our lives simple enough that we can have as many of these moments as we want.

a year in review

when i was a child time seemed to drag on.

i don't think i can count the times i heard a grown-up say:

"it goes so fast when you are an adult!"

i get it now.

sometimes as a mother the day-to-day tasks forget the past and lose focus of future days.

the past month i have not spent much time recording the present moments.

i've spent more time just enjoying the present.

i haven't thought much about the future at all,

but i have spent time reviewing where we have been the last year.

there has definitely been a recurring theme of gratitude and time together.

it has been a year of healing, adjusting, and celebrating.

i like remembering the highlights....

having pete back home,

lots of fun moments, at home with the boys, like buckets on the head, and toy chair trains, and pea soup, and sledding with a motorcycle, and busting out dance moves, and lemonade stands in the rain,

creating the magpie's nest,

and then of course her magical arrival to earth,

and then lots and lots of love and doting over this new baby,

will potty training mostly by himself and sam,

finding a perfect home for calvin,

and who could ever forget the beach house trip!,

a 9 year anniversary,

will losing his tonsils,

sam starting preschool,

a trip back home to oklahoma,

a one year anniversary of pete's life,

and lots of grounding realizations, like this and this .

i hope to move into a new year with an attitude of excitement.

and with no specific resolutions,

not even to be skinnier.

when the year is over i hope to look back and just see a common theme of fun, relaxing, & lots more time together.

a return

the holidays and much sickness around here forced a blogging break,

but i think we are finally on the up and up around here.

(thank goodness for lots of breathing eucalyptus steam!!)

i'm planning on picking up blogging again.

welcome back.