"It's an emergency!"

There's a quote floating around out there, and I can't find it at the moment, and I don't remember it exactly, and I don't know who said it, but I do remember the gist of it.
Isn't my brain capacity just stunning?

Something about listening to the little things your kids say, so that when they're grown they'll tell you the big things.

I've thought a lot about that, and I agree with it completely. I can remember being five years old, and the things that I needed to tell my Mom seemed like the very most important things in the world! And to my tiny little brain, they were.
As it was with me, so it is with my kids.

Let's have an example. A few minutes ago I was in Jonah/Amelia's bedroom, putting her to sleep. The other three were at the table, munching away on their lunches. I told them, before I went in, to not come in unless it was an emergency.

Our ideas of emergency differ greatly.

All was silent in the room. Her eyes had just closed. The door creaks open. It's Jonah. He loudly whispers,  "Mom! It's an emergency!" Her eyes open.
"Ok Jonah, what is it?"

"Emmy was singing a silly song, and then I said 'There's a noodle dancing on the moon!'"

*giggle giggle*

It's a whirlwind around here, but we're having fun.

Progress, and how I need it

Life has its ups and downs, and some of the ups are incredibly high, but life is never, and will never on this mortal earth, be perfect.

 My kids are spastic, strange, and brilliant, and on most days I appreciate them for what they are.

 I aspire to be perfectly patient, to serve perfectly healthy meals, to dress them in clothing that lacks both holes and stains, to welcome them into a perfectly tidy home.

But the truth is, that is rarely-slash-never the case.

My home is usually clean, but rarely tidy. They only dress nicely on Sunday. Sometimes we eat macaroni and cheese for dinner, and sometimes I'm not so patient.

My mantra has been this; I can and should strive for perfection, with the understanding that I will not achieve it.

As long as I am progressing. As long as there is improvement. As long as I'm getting better, rather than worse. As long as that, I am content with myself.

I just need more good moments than bad, and I'm ok. I'm learning a few things, too.

I don't need perfect peace and quiet in order to meditate and ponder. I don't need sparkling baseboards in order to feel accomplished. I don't need them to be perfectly behaved in order to find joy in them.

I've learned that the only reason I ever feel impatient, is because there is something else that feels more important at the moment. When Jonah takes five minutes to buckle his seat belt, I'm only impatient with him because we're late to get somewhere else. When Claire asks me to sing "da Winnie Pooh song" for the 30th time at night, I'm only impatient because of the dishes and laundry that I need to work on. 

 When I am able to realize this, in the moment that it's happening, I'm able to quiet my inner self down. When I'm able to realize that they are more important, I'm ok. I can stay up 20 minutes later and get the dishes washed. Or not.

The more independent they get, the more I'm able to get done around the house. The more independent they get, the less they need me (makes sense, right?). Unfortunately, the less they need me, the less needed I feel. There is no fine balance! There is only the choice of whether or not to be happy. 

 I have finally realized, I don't need perfection.
I can be content, and pleased, with progression.

Two days in the life

This was my yard, just before halloween.

As excited as we are for snow, it's still fall time. Plus we really hadn't had a good day of playing in the leaves! I suppose that's the natural result of having zero trees in your yard. Enter Tess's brand new yard. 

Tada! Wide open lawn complete with fallen crunchy leafy bliss. We went north for a few days to enjoy some family time and get a few errands done.

 Tess and Chuck recently purchased this home, and are vigorously remodeling the inside. Once that is finished, this will basically be the perfect place to live. The exterior is kid heaven!

The neighbors to the west have an apple tree, and the neighbors to the east have all sorts of critters. When the west neighbors get a good pile of sub-perfect apples, they bring them to Lainey and Calvin to deliver to the east neighbor animals. It's workin out pretty good!

 This she-goat was the sweetest thing. I don't think I've ever said that about a goat before, but I've said it now.

 Look at these ponies! They're the funniest creatures ever. Ever.

 Then we walked/toddled/push-biked our way back to Tess's house. Look at this street. Cute, right? So cute.
Oh, and I got a new car. It's that white Sequoia in Tess's driveway (inner squeal of delight!). The van was good to us, and we loved our van years. But I can already tell you, I'm gonna LOVE the family SUV years! We looked for months, but Sequoia's were out of our price range. Then this one popped up for $3000 less than any other one online, because it needed the timing belt changed. We'll take it! Caleb took a few days and did the timing belt himself. Once again, Caleb's mechanic skills have saved the day.
Feeling extremely blessed around here.

Back at the ranch, Tess took Claire to check for eggs.

They found one!
Tess doesn't currently have an oven/stove in her kitchen, so the eggs are starting to pile up. Oh the trials:)

Then, because we're crazy, we took the whole brood to Costco. Partly because we needed food, and partly because it's fun to have a vehicle that we all fit in again.

One cart for food, one cart for kids. I wish I had a video of us making our way through the store. By the looks we were getting from everyone around us, we were entertaining. And we were entertained! These cousins are nuts.

Also, Tess took this photo, then I ran over to where she was standing and she ran over to the kids, and I took another photo. Then she photoshopped herself in. So many points for her.

Then the husbands arrived, terribly exhausted after a long grueling day of fly fishing, and after much hugging and kiss blowing, the two families parted ways.

Guess what we found when we got home to Heber?

Apparently this is what happens to a freezer when it gets left open for two days.

Officially Amelia Kate

Yes, she has a birth certificate and a social security card with her name on it, but it just doesn't really seem official until the baby is given a name and a blessing by her Dad.

Last Sunday, October 28th, Amelia's baby blessing took place.

Our fourth one, can you believe it? Caleb and I, as we were making silly faces and blowing raspberries at her last night, mused to each other how it doesn't matter how many kids you have; they're all very individual people, brand new, and definitely not just another baby. 

She came to this earth with a personality, a spiritual past, and a mission to perform. What will her life be like? What things will she accomplish? What will she learn? Who will she serve?

The 'norm' in our church is to perform the blessing during Sacrament Meeting, but it's not a requirement. Caleb prefers to do it after church, with close family and friends around us. 

And so in the evening we gathered, and were touched by who came.

Claire was kept very busy doing her self appointed duty of being W.'s Mother. 

Until she was scooped up, and W. was saved.

I have no idea who took these photos, but I'm grateful. I managed to remember to bring my camera, but I didn't see it again once we arrived at the church. Whoever took these, thank you!

We really love all of our sweet family who came, and so many of our dear neighbors were there, too! We've been here long enough that our friends are starting to feel like family, and we love it.

Look at this face. What are you up to, L? 

I love looking back at the other baby blessing photos. This one is different than the others in that we no longer have my Grandpa here. Other changes are we now have a new Bishop, and new Brother in law! 

The bishop was guessing which family the guests belonged to as they came in to the room, and when he met Tom he thought for sure he was my blood brother! It's the hair. 

After the blessing we all gathered back at our home for dinner. It's so lovely to have people come over, isn't it? It's worth the stress. 

Tess and her family stayed the night, and in the morning Amelia donned her gown again for a quick photo shoot.

Oh my baby. How I love you.

I confess, it has its good parts, too

We had three pumpkin plants in the garden this year. In years past we have always chosen one or two pumpkins from each plant to allow to grow, and we prune all the other ones off as soon as they appear in order to allow the chosen ones to get nice and big. Metaphors welcome.

This year, we let them all grow. We ended up with 28 soccer ball sized pumpkins. 

Twenty Eight. 

The kids put all of them on the front steps, which only allowed for a very small path to the front door. Then when it started freezing at night we had to bring them inside so they wouldn't go to mush. 

My living room was very full to the brim with all these silly orange orbs festive! 

We did manage to pawn a bunch of them off. But eventually, the inevitable family pumpkin carving night came. 

Which means the kids put in their requests and Caleb carved four pumpkins.

This one is Claire's. She requested a Piglet pumpkin, and I  personally think the likeness is startling.

 Jonah requested an Angry Monster. Check.

Our porch was looking spooky!

I decided to not think about Halloween for one microsecond before I had to, and that 'had to' happened on the day before halloween. When that day came, I really had my work cut out for me. Jonah wanted a Yoda costume. Hmm.

 I can do that. The three fingered gloves were Jonah's favorite part. In fact, he's still wearing them.
The hat? With the yoda ears? Never again will I sew one of those.

Fleece is a very forgiving sewing medium, I found, which is very good. With all the transgressions I made it had to be forgiving.

 I love this photo so much. And the little boy in it, too!

 Emmy wanted to be a pink flower. She had a very specific idea in mind for her costume, and this is it! All she required of me was a skirt of petals. Check.

And Claire, because she's two and that meant it was her turn, was the Giraffe. It's looking like every child of mine will experience these chubby buns.

Jonah was the sweetest little yoda I had ever seen. Every single house they went to, we heard him say "And here we have Claire!" "We have a little Claire coming, too" "Little Claire would also like a treat, please."

Looks like he's taking this big brother stuff pretty seriously.

Whenever my kids would talk about trick or treating, they always talked about trick or treating at this house specifically. We're big fans of the occupants.

And see the rest of the family who also came out to see us? We're friends. There's a lot of mutual admiration going on.

I didn't grow up in a neighborhood, and when I was little I didn't understand why people would want to live in one. I loved me some wide open space! But now I get it.

I still love me some wide open space, but I also love having the closeness of people who care about me and how I'm doing even though they're not related to me and they technically don't have to care. Plus trick or treating is SO much easier.

It was great to be out with all of my neighbors and all of our kids last night, enjoying the incredibly beautiful fall weather.

Sewing (eek!), candy, and freaky deadish monsters aside, I really like Halloween.