Perry's game

Perry's ultimate favorite game right now is playing "a monster is chasing you around the house: run or be tickled". 

He loves this game of chase. When he wants to play, he looks over his shoulder and teases, "you can't get me". Or he just bothers Layla or grabs the things off the kitchen counter you need until someone takes notice of him and proceeds in this game of running all around the house.

We added another element of fun when we brought in the caterpillar tunnel. This way of hiding and penguin-running is much more exciting than simply crawling through the tunnel or simply running around the house. It made for some loud laughter.

Layla took a turn being the caterpillar monster, too.

it's thankful people who are happy

I am on the RS meeting committee and as we were preparing for our November activity (a dinner, short program, and making gratitude journals), someone shared this quote.

A lot of things in my life do not play out how I hoped they would. Sometimes that's a good thing, but sometimes it's a discouraging thing.

For instance, Eric and I were just walking down a path with his job and we really wanted this thing to happen. It was a dream of ours for it to happen. We saw so many benefits and blessings and opportunities that could be realized. And it was so close to working out. Really close. But then a week ago we found out it would not happen. It was so devastating.  

I took a day to be sad about it, and then we started thinking about the good life we have here right now without that big change in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for. 

One of the lessons I have to learn over and over again is to be content with my life. I always seem to be looking for the next big thing to come along and bring me some kind of adventure and joy. But I think true happiness is something you find along the way in your daily days and in your small moments. Even when things are crazy, messy, and hard, by focusing on what I am grateful for my life feels more complete.

I am thankful for safe schools and school buses. I am thankful we can save money. I am thankful for clean, warm clothes. I am thankful for working cars. I am thankful for a beautiful world--trees, the sky, leaves, water. I am thankful for good friends. I am thankful for a supportive, kind ward at church. I am thankful for phones. I am thankful for a house with enough room for all of us to live quite comfortably. I am thankful for costco and grocery stores filled with so much food (and a full refrigerator and cupboards at home).

I am grateful for whiny children, toys and art projects strewn around the house, kids that have to be tucked into bed 5 times at bedtime, closet doors that seem to always be left open, crumbs covering my kitchen floor, and coats and shoes covering my entry way. Because, as hard as those things may be sometimes, these things all mean that I am blessed with a healthy family--four energetic children and one pretty great husband.

Here to Serve a Righteous Cause: GC 3

In this talk, Carol F. McConkie told about Sister Ella Hoskins. She was called to serve in Young Women's at the age of 100 years old. At 102 years old she received her Young Womenhood Recognition award. When sister McConkie asked her how she did it, she replied "I repent every day."

Don't you love that? And isn't it true? We do need to repent every single day. Each of us. Most days,  for me, it is about more than one thing. I make many mistakes, we all do. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ we can overcome our weaknesses and shortcomings and mistakes. One day at a time. To be a little better. To grow a little more. As we humbly rely on him. As we serve the cause of Christ.

". . . to shine with the beauty of holiness, to stand with the Savior, and to bless others, we must be clean. Purity is possible through the grace of Christ as we deny ungodliness and choose to love God with might, mind, and strength. The apostle Paul taught 'Flee . . . Youthful lusts: . . . Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.' (2 Timothy 2:22) None of us is perfect. We have all made mistakes. But we repent so that we may be better and 'retain the name [of Christ] written always in [our] hearts.' (Mosiah 5:12)"

These Days

Layla was playing with some toys in the kitchen while I was cleaning up this morning. She was pretending her toys were talking to each other. All of a sudden, she looked up at me confused and exclaimed, "Wait! Why did I say that?! I just said chocolate goose. Why did I say that word?" I'm not sure, Layla girl. The funny thing is she has questioned her word choice and usage in very similar scenarios before. Silly girl.

While we were cleaning up after dinner one night, Eric turned kids songs on his phone and Perry took the phone in the other room by the piano to listen and play. A few minutes later, when Eric went in to check on him, the music had been changed to a Foo Fighters/ACDC station. Eric picked up the phone and offered to change the music back to kids songs for him. Perry protested, "No, I want the scary songs."

Kacin tried out for and got a part in the Veteran's Day assembly. He was one of the narrator's in the K-3 show. He worked really hard and memorized his part. Isn't that awesome? I was impressed. I don't think anyone else had their part memorized. He did such a great job at it!

My dramatic trip to the dentist to do the crown prep turned into a dramatic trip to the dentist to get a root canal a week and a half later. I was in a lot of pain so it had to be done. Thankfully, my dentist is really nice and set it up for me to get the root canal with oral sedation at his brother's practice an hour away. On their days off even. So I had two dentists working on my tooth while I slept and Eric waited. Four hours in the office and we were done and on our way home. Thank goodness for medicine, Eric, and good twin doctor's.

Kyler has been working hard on a few projects. Here is a poster for English. He also made an artifact out of clay for history, but I didn't get a picture. Our computer wasn't working for a few days, so Kyler and Kacin handmade their combined birthday party invitations. Creative Kyler made his a pop up.

The kids have been having fun with slow-mo videos and Lego Movie maker. It adds a whole new element to wrestling when you get to replay it in slow-mo.

Layla and Perry got cozy in their "beds" in the kitchen while I made dinner one night.

Perry's face here! haha. I'm not sure what he was doing, but I love this boy.

Worthy of Our Promised Blessings: GC 2

I really appreciated Sister Reeves' talk. It is a good reminder to hear "Our bodies are sacred gifts from our Heavenly Father. They are personal temples." It is important to treat them as such and to be deliberate and mindful of our choices and actions.

She warned us that just like how in Alma's day, Korihor, the anti-christ, led away the hearts of many people, "Satan has raised a Korihor-like banner in our day with increasing success. What are some of his tools? Seductive romance novels, tv soap operas, married women and old boyfriends connecting on social media, and pornography. We must be so careful, dear sisters! We cannot play with Satan's fiery darts and not get burned. I know of nothing that will qualify us for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost as much as virtue." I need the companionship of the Holy Ghost and I'm certain I can do better about making sure what I read and watch is virtuous. Because, like Linda S. Reeves says, "Regardless of our age, if what we look at it, read, listen to, or choose to do does not meet the standards in For the Strength of Youth, turn it off, rip it up, throw it out, and slam the door." I have always felt this same way, but it takes courage and integrity and it's easy in today's world to let our standards slip or assume it's ok just because it is all around us now. But I think it matters.

In our world today, we often expect instant gratification and answers. "In contrast, we will be exceedingly blessed if we exercise faith and patience and go to our Heavenly Father, the source of all truth, with our concerns. So many answers and assurances can come through daily searching and studying the scriptures and with sincere and pleading prayer, but there are no such promises on the Internet." I have found in my own life that Heavenly Father loves me and He is willing and waiting to pour out understanding, answers, guidance, and inspiration. All I have to do is go to Him, even for just a few moments a day, reading scriptures, pondering, and praying. When I am sincere and patient then line upon line, He blesses me with greater understanding.

We have been given tools to help us stay virtuous and clean. There is power in the scriptures, repentance, temples, the proper wearing of the temple garment, prayer, covenants, the prophet, and the sabbath day.

There are so many blessings promised to us. Sister Reeves said, "I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?" Like Amulek taught " 'this life is the time . . . to prepare to meet God. ' It is not the time to receive all of our blessings."

12 years ago

We celebrated our 12th anniversary over the weekend. 12 years goes by quickly. I am the luckiest girl to be married to my best friend and the best man the world has ever known.

Marriage is not really easy for us. We are annoying people with a lot of faults. This takes work. At each anniversary, I like to think about the things that we are doing to make our marriage work so we can keep doing it. My number one answer always seems to be that we pray together. We go to bed at the same time and we never fall asleep without saying our prayers together. It means we have time to talk each night and then end our day with our hearts drawn out to Heavenly Father in prayer, together. Weekly date nights are also high priority. And the fact of Eric being a saint with a ton of patience and kindness does not hurt us either.

We celebrated 12 years all weekend long. We went out to dinner on Saturday. Then we came home and took all the kids with us to get frozen yogurt.

On sunday, all four of our children were in the Primary Program at church. What a great way to celebrate our marriage by seeing our four children share their testimonies and what they've been learning in primary! We are proud, happy parents that our marriage has been blessed with these four.

Side note: Perry used noise canceling headphones for the first time during church (he has used them at school) and it went well! hooray! He liked them and it helped.

Second side note: Kyler and Kacin were pretty awesome up there with their parts completely memorized! 

Eric took the day off on Monday and, thanks to some nice friends, we spent the entire day together just us two. We went shopping and then ate lunch and went hiking in Anacortes.

I guess another title of this post could have been "a bunch of Eric and Laura selfies".

Yay for 12 years!!

these days

Perry went to the dentist a few weeks ago. He was calm and happy about it. They weren't too intrusive so that helped.

On the other hand, I went to the dentist and it was quite dramatic and traumatic. Six months ago, I cracked my tooth. I was scared and didn't know how big of a deal it was so I waited until my next 6 months cleaning to have the dentist look at it. He said it was the worst kind of crack you could have and I needed a crown. I have never had a cavity or any dental work like that before. I am a gagger. I am dramatic. Let's just say that the crown prep was not pretty. There were tears. Eric came with me, which was a good thing. except when he started laughing at me and my numb mouth. I told them all to pretend like I was 5 and to treat me as such. In the end, because of a super patient, kind, really good dentist and assistant, I survived. But now I have at least two more appointments to get through because my tooth is in a lot of pain still, which I don't think is normal. This is torture.

On a different note . . .

Layla as a clown was slightly less creepy and much cuter than a real clown. She was sad because Perry wouldn't honk her nose.

So I did and her smile came back.

I am so proud of Kacin. He wanted to run to be a 5th grade class representative. It was a pretty low-key election, but he did have to give a speech to his class. He has such courage! This boy is awesome. He started his speech by asking "Who likes cake?" Then he said a good leader is CAKE. Then he explained what each letter of his acronym stood for and how he demonstrated that. It was pretty clever--nice job, Kacin!

I took my second turn as Co-op preschool teacher. We studied the letter F. Layla loved helping to prepare for preschool at our house again. This co-op thing is going really well and I'm glad we are doing it.

We had parent teacher conferences a few weeks ago and we are pleased with the learning and progress of each of our kids. How did we get such smarties? They really are wonderful little people. We are so grateful for good teachers who work with our kids!

I found this gem on my iphone after stake conference. Love this boy!