We are 12 years old! Let the immaturity begin (or continue)

Sure, I am 33 and John is 35, but WE are 12 years old this month.  We have had some wonderful times and some difficult times these past twelve years, and strangely some of those occurred simultaneously.  These past twelve years have been big for us, we have graduated from college, had all of our babies, moved 4 times, had 3 different jobs and one year of unemployment in-between it all. 

I am so grateful that I have been blessed with John as my husband, he has helped me find happiness and joy in the zombie years of having newborns, the frazzled years of toddler-hood and he is still sticking with me and encouraging me as I continue to figure out this whole wife/mother thing.  There is no one that I would have rather spent these past 12 years with.  To celebrate our immaturity together, I put together some of our snapshots through the years and set them to music.  This isn't just any music, this is a song that John recorded when he was 14 years old.  I love the words, and he sounds so cute!  I'm so glad that he is my BFF! 

;)

Lyrics to the song "When I'm 64" by the Beetles

When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I'd been out 'til quarter to three, would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm sixty-four?

You'll be older too
Ah, and if you say the word, I could stay with you

I could be handy, mending a fuse when your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside, Sunday mornings, go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds, who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm sixty-four?

Every summer we can rent a cottage
In the Isle of Wight if it's not to, dear
We shall scrimp and save
Ah, grandchildren on your knee, Vera, Chuck and Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say, yours sincerely wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form, mine forever more
Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm sixty-four?

Those grandmas need to learn some manners

A few weeks ago Maddie, Lucy and I went to Bancroft for a day to visit my mom and bring her to our home to visit for a week.  When we arrived, my mom was still at the church at a D.U.P.  meeting (daughters of the Utah pioneers) she had told me to come to the church when we arrived.  Most of the people who join the D.U.P. organization in the Bancroft area are 60+ years in age, so when we walked into the church Maddie saw all of these women and  happily stated "this is a grandma church." I didn't really take note of what she was saying, I just thought that she meant that this was grandma's church.  Lucy needed to use the restroom, so we immediately walked past the room where the D.U.P. were meeting and headed to the restroom.  Maddie tried out the cooshie rocking chairs in the restroom where moms can nurse and rock their babies.  I noticed a confused look on her face, and then she said "grandmas don't have babies!"  I just answered "no, not usually" and then we left. We decided to just head over to the school playground and play while we waited for her meeting to end.  On our way, Maddie saw that someone had thrown a half eaten apple into a bush just outside of the church.  Maddie laughed and said "those grandmas need to learn some manners."  Finally I understood what she meant with all of her statements about grandmas.  She didn't think that this was just grandma's church, she actually thought that only grandmas went to this church!   I laughed hard then, it is so funny to see the world through the eyes of a five year old.  I still laugh every time I think of how those grandmas needed to learn some manners.

Muddy Buddies

We've been pulling things out of our garden all summer, and I am just getting around to writing about our spring.  If I had to distinguish the seasons by looking at our children, I would always be able to tell when Spring had begun.

They always seem to look like this,

 

because they like to do this.

..and this...

and not necessarily this....

I love seeing their excitement as it turns into this...

...and this...

...and this...

(I love Lucy's face in this picture)

This year Hannah grew peas in the spring and then decided that she wanted to plant some trumpet vines to attract hummingbirds when the weather got warmer.  We will see how that turns out, she started them a little late in the season and they only have a tomato cage to support them.  Maybe we will put a post in her garden next year if they survive the winter and she decides that she wants to keep them for a while.

Johnny decided that he wanted to grow Zinnias because he felt like our yard needed some color.  I loved it when he would bring flowers in to me, even though he only brought them in because he knew that I would pay him 10 cents a flower (1 dad dollar).  It always seemed so sweet, and they looked beautiful on our mantel.  I told him that when he is married someday, maybe he can grow a flower garden and give his wife fresh cut flowers in the summer.  Wouldn't that be awesome?

Maddie grew spinach in the spring and watermelon in the summer, they were delicious. She even gave a watermelon to her little neighbor friend.

Lucy decided that she wanted to grow a pumpkin after her peas were finished.  It was a little late when we got the seeds in the ground for pumpkins, but she has faithfully watered it and patiently sits and waits for it to grow.  I hope that it turns orange before Halloween.  If not, we may have to break out the paint.

Remembering Johnny's big step

I have thought many times how wonderful it would be if I became one of those amazing photographers who could take beautiful pictures of my children.  I sometimes wonder why I haven't taken the time to learn how to Photoshop photos or why I haven't spent the money on a really nice camera, and then I remember...I have about 10 other hobbies that I want to pursue before that one.  The pictures that I take in my mind are gorgeous, I wish that I could somehow blog with those.

Anyway, I decided that I wanted to remember how great Johnny looked in his new suit when he turned 8 years old.  I decided that our family would take a Sunday trip to the Bountiful temple so that I could snap some pictures of him.  He wasn't too happy that everyone else got to change out of their Sunday clothes and that he had to wear his least favorite Sunday outfit ever. Thinking back, I should have had everyone keep their church clothes on, but I wasn't feeling up to the struggle that day.  He still had a great time running around and exploring the grounds once we got there.  After all, an eight-year-old boy is still and eight-year-old boy, even in a suit.

He sure did look handsome, but once again my pictures can't show the pride that I feel for this boy, or the happiness that we felt while walking around the temple grounds as a family.  It was a great day.

We love you Johnny, and are proud of you for the step that you took to become a member of the church.  It was a big step, and the beginning of many big and important steps that you will take in your life.

-

 

Ballerina in training

It is so fun to see the differences in our children, they really do come with their own personalities.  I mention this because, for the past two years Maddie has told me that she wants to "dance with a lot of girls in dresses." I never thought of putting Hannah in dance, she was about as excited about dancing as most of us would be to get a flu shot.  Luckily she has about a million other interests, so I didn't feel like she was lacking in any way. 

 I bit the bullet this year and decided it was time to sign Maddie up for a class where she could dance with a lot of girls dresses=tutus.  Actually, they just wear leotards and footless tights right now, which she is a little disappointed about.  It is only during the recitals where they wear anything different

 She just can't stop skipping and leaping, I think that she loves it, and she seems to be learning a lot.

 ...and just for fun, I thought that I would throw in another random picture of Maddie's randomness.

Teaching an old trick to new puppies

One of the great things about having kids is that we have new subjects to play practical jokes on, and it is all new to them.  I love that they think it is so funny, because it is one of our favorite things to do.  I realize that we have quite the theatrical group here, welcome to our family.

sew we sew

So for the past year Hannah and her friends have spent hours in my craft room cutting and hot gluing scrap fabric together to make outfits for their stuffed animals.  It is fun to see what they come up with, and pretty amazing to see what can be done with hot glue.  She and I have played with the sewing machine  off and on for the past few years, but it wasn't until a few months ago that I finally decided that it was time to teach her how to make something for herself that she could actually use.  She loves going to fabric stores and she seems to have much more appreciation for designs in fabrics than I ever did.  She was excited to pick out three different types on fabrics for some p.j. pants and get to work.

I didn't realize that it would be so hard to carve out time to sit with Hannah and teach her how to sew, life is pretty busy right now, but she made sure that it happened.  I had a great time chatting with her after all of the other kids had gone to bed, and she seems so happy when it is just the two of us.  She did an awesome job with the p.j. pants.  All three of them are very cute on her...although what wouldn't be cute on this girl?  I know that our floor is kind of gross here, I hate having carpet in the dinning room.  That's something that I hope to remedy sometime this year.

 

 See that thing which Hannah is using in the picture below, yes that is a SERGER!  The Woot website is now my best friend.  There have been times when it has been an enemy to me, like when they were selling the howling monkeys (which John bought for our kids), and the camoflauge telephone that works better than any of our other home phones, but which we can never find.  They had a great deal a few weeks ago and John surprised me with this awesome gift, a serger which came with a brand new sewing machine.  They are both very cool, and I can't wait to try some more fun stuff on them.