becoming strong

kindin comes from a long line of worriers and she has certainly inherited the worry gene.  lately her nervousness has been at an all-time high (i.e. avoiding multiplication tables in school, waking with bad dreams, and insisting on drs appts to ensure she's cancer free) and helping her through it has really had me contemplating weaknesses.  in the Book of Mormon, we are given a simple promise that through Him weak things will become strong.  given the nature of weaknesses, I'm certain the process is more complicated than what's given in scripture.  I think I can safely hypothesize that as we faithfully wait, a loving Heavenly Father gives us strength indeed not only to overcome but also increases our strength in other talents as a sort of compensation.  and I've seen this with kindin.  as she becomes strong, she shines with strength.  she is a nurturer, an organizer, is wholeheartedly willing to obey, intelligent, and full of integrity.

my little patriot

one of jack's favorite things about school (besides PE) is the patriotic song of the month.  this month, "I'm proud to be an American" has really struck a chord.  very often, he walks in the door humming it!  he is frequently singing it at bathtime.  and the other day, I giggled to overhear he and a friend bellaring the song while playing video games together!  ... i suppose it's all in the name of superheros saving America!

she's smitten

dalia has been slapped with many nicknames.  it seems her name easily lends itself to imitations (dolly, wolly, lolly, polly, walia), her birth order gives her perpetual nicknames of endearment like 'little one', and her boisterous temperament has us often calling her 'crazy'.  if asked, she prefers 'lolly' but she's particularly smitten with "polly wolly doodle all the day"!  in the most serious of faces, she'll say something like, "can polly wolly doodle all the day have a cookie please?" 
  

i vote for aug 20th

our dec 20th anniversary gets overlooked in the Christmas festivities.  (for those of you with jaws dropped because YOUR anniversaries involve special outings and elaborate gifts, let me explain:  there is no date night because we are almost always at a Christmas party or leaving for Christmas break; there is no gift exchange because we've just used our Dec 25 budget; and even flowers are dismissed because they will just die in an empty home while we're away.)  this summer, a return to fort Collins (and pseudo-celebration) opened my eyes to how special YOUR anniversaries must be!  and with my new enlightenment, I'm working to convince dave that august 20th is a much better anniversary! don't YOU think so too?  (honey, are you listening?!?) 
this dec 20th, our 10th anniversary, we were coincidentally (but unplanned- again, i vote for aug 20th) vacationing in our honeymoon spot- aka "parry-dise".  for obvious reasons, it was a very special place to be on our 10 yr mark.  we disappeared on snowmobiles, built gigantic snowmen with grandpa, hauled kids and cousins up and down the sledding hill, relaxed on a snow couch built for chatty sister-in-laws, and took very adventurous kids and omi on a snowy hike up the mountain!  ...we laughed and played!  then and now, dave's ability to laugh and play are two of his finest qualities and i treasure his ability to help us laugh and play through life -10 yrs later!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

a friend for all ages

over the last two years, this mama has been feeling age creeping in!  while i'm not going to describe the objective and subjective observations that validate said aging, I did recently divulge to my dear friend who I was recently able to reconnect with.  after all, amber has gone through so many important  milestones  with me- everything from math 119 at byu to grad school and from 2003 weddings to 2006 babies (and even subsequents).  we've celebrated lots of zany birthdays together and have even been roommates a couple times*!  so it feels like she really has been through it all with me.  after all of my whining, I felt so refreshed when she said, "I'm not ever considering botox!"  Oh thank you dear friend for embracing another life stage with me!

 

 

*roomies in phoenix!