Arrow of Light

Our Matt earned his Arrow of Light last week at packing meeting for the Cub Scouts. It was
such a fun night to be with him and I feel so grateful for our cute boy and all of his hard work.
He also earned his Webelos award and the Religious knot. I was incredibly proud of him

I can hardly believe that he will be moving on to Boy Scouts. It truly seems
like about 17 days ago that I watched his older brother do the same thing,
so when I realized it had been four years, I was pretty amazed.

We sure love our Matt. And his good heart and his hard working self.

Our library doesn't allow food or drink

Jacob texted me a picture of his "dinner meeting" tonight. Yeah, just eating at the Library of Congress and all.

I responded, "That looks a whole lot like my dinner tonight. Both the setting and I'm sure the food. What are the odds? Did the person who said your opening prayer pray, 'Please bless the food...that it will have a good day in our tummy.' I can only hope you were so lucky."

It is like he lives my exact life. Only a little less glamorous.

February phone pics

Remember when my kind brother-in-law left me a little gift on our bookshelf

after the last time we all got together? Well, I decided to return the favor.
When we attended the baby blessing of their sweet little girl, we brought along

the treasured book and found a lovely place for it on one of their bookshelves.
They haven't said anything to us in the month since we put it there, so either they
haven't noticed or they think we are dorks for being so weird. Likely the latter.

The evening I hosted my friend's surprise party, I looked outside and realized we had some
weeds in our front flower beds. Unfortunately, weeds are not uncommon in our yard,
but I can truly say that in about 38 years of celebrating my birthday in February, I've never
had to head outside to weed the night before my big day. Seriously, this weather has

been amazing. I'm incredibly scared for this summer and for our lack of water though.

After hosting the party for my friend one evening, then celebrating my birthday

the next day, we just left a whole bunch of balloons floating around our house for

a couple of days. The next morning, when I went downstairs to make sure the

basement was tidy for the day, this greeted me in the bathroom. Okay then.

For once in my life, I don't have a comment about this strangeness.

 As a gift for successfully turning another year older, Jacob gave me a good chunk

of free time the two days after my birthday. On Saturday afternoon, I spent some

time in the temple. I love it there. A lot. And feel so blessed to have it close by.

One night several weeks ago, Jacob went downstairs to make sure everything was
locked up and turned off for the night and was met with this sight. Yes, Matt was completely
asleep. No, I have not an idea in the world why this happened. Unibrow covetousness?

This boy spent a large amount of time creating this masterpiece. I think my favorite

part was when we were getting close to dinner and I told him that he needed to quit

adding more cups since it was almost time to clean up. He looked at me, looked at

his creation and said, "Umm, I feel like it is missing something. Ohh, more cups!"

My walking buddies, and their sunglasses, in the morning.
Did I mention our weather was amazing?

National Junior Honor Society

This past Friday evening, Jacob and I were able to go Annie and Campbell's
junior high to attend a National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony.
Where our sweet Annie was officially made a part of NJHS.

I grabbed this photo of her at home, since I knew the lighting might be interesting at
the school when she was actually getting her certificate. We adore Annie like crazy.
She is so intensely good and brilliant and hard working and beautiful inside
and out and mostly kind. I can't get over the privilege it is to be her mom.

 And we decided we would bring along Campbell, even thought he wasn't being
inducted into the organization. But since he had been chosen as president of NJHS
this year and was conducting the meeting and giving a speech, we elected not to
 leave him home. Here he is right before they started. Cam doesn't often get nervous,
and while he was hiding it well, it kind of made me smile to see that he was
a bit anxious about conducting and speaking. I think it was good for him.
 

 And right before his big speech. (The photo I took of him actually speaking
didn't work out thanks to the lighting at the podium.) He did an amazing job
and that is truly not just his mother speaking. I have a video recording to
prove it. It was definitely a night to be proud of this boy--his good heart,
his good choices, his hard work and especially his deep kindness.
 Like Annie, I truly don't take for granted the honor it is to be his mom.

And afterwards, we spoke to their principal. There are not enough words to share
how impressed we are with this good man and the effort and work he puts into running
this junior high school. We have been a part of several good schools in the last many years,
but nothing has compared to this particular school. And the way the principal not only
spoke of each of our children, knowing things about them that he would never know just
by working in his office, kind of blew me away. I have been so thankful ever since.

I've said it before and I'm sure I will say it again,
"Be kind to me and I will be grateful.
Be kind to my children and I will love you forever."

I love being a mom. I love good people. And mostly, I love these kids of ours.
How in the world I could be so blessed, I will never figure out.
But I will never stop being grateful for the amazing privilege.

Zoo visit ~ People I love edition

Zoo visit ~ Miscellaneous edition

Zoo visit ~ Otter edition

Zoo visit ~ Lion edition

Campbell's posse

Cam truly amazes me. He is so kind and fun when he plays with his siblings and now that has

extended to the neighborhood kids. This was just a few of them the other day. That boy of ours

has developed a following. Little wonder to this mom though. I'm the president of his fan club.

She is still riding...

And loves it like crazy. As does her mother.

Here we go.

Warming up.

And adding a little speed.

This was just perfection.

I'm not sure if her smile is because she is proud of herself for that jump

or if she was reacting to her mom's huge goofy grin. Maybe both.

Oh I love watching her do barrels.

Love this picture, love this girl.

Kindness

(I originally wrote this on December 2nd, when it happened, but didn't post it until today. Whether it was on the correct day or not, I wanted to make sure it made it on our blog, in order to remember such a sweet experience.)

Today was a really rough day. Actually, beyond rough and painful. And as I was backing out of the driveway to take care of one of my children's needs, I noticed a car coming from one direction. I let it pass and then without thinking and without looking, I backed onto our street. As I did, I noticed (but too late), that someone had turned the corner and was coming the other direction. I backed right in front of them and completely cut them off. If this person had not been paying attention, it could have had a bit of a sad ending.

It was totally and completely my fault and I was so embarrassed to have done what I did. I waved apologetically and even mouthed "I'm so sorry." I shouldn't have done it, but honestly, because of the day I had had, I just wasn't thinking straight. I felt so ridiculous and silly. I felt like I could cry

And then this women--this kind, kind woman--drove up closer to me and gave me the most sincere, genuine, gentle smile I think I have ever seen. I have seldom had anyone look at me with that much kindness and sincerity, never mention someone that I completely cut off and risked their safety. I smiled back (mine more a smile of grateful embarrassment) and drove on.

And then I did start to cry. All of the difficulty and pain of the day definitely made me emotional, but that wasn't why I was crying. It was because someone had an absolute right to be frustrated with a dumb decision I had made and they chose kindness. They chose to make me feel cared about and loved, even though they were a stranger and even though I had acted unintentionally unkind to them.

I know it seems like something simple, but it felt so much bigger to me. I can't imagine ever forgetting the look on that woman's face. And I have thought about it 1829 times today. And prayed that Heavenly Father would bless her because of her actions toward me.

Every part of me wants to be a kinder person after today. If for no other reason than to make someone else feel how I did today. That woman had no idea I had been struggling so much today. But she didn't care. She responded in a way that made me feel God's love for me in a moment when she had every right to feel frustration and annoyance instead. And it changed me.

Now to make sure my actions show just how much.

Surprise!

I have a friend named Julie. She is seriously fabulous. She is one of the funniest people I have ever
known (hands down) and we happen to share a birthday. And because she makes every person in the
neighborhood feel loved (or mortified) on their birthday, I decided she needed herself a surprise party.

And surprise her we did. Oh man, we pulled it off and I was pretty thrilled.

(I'm two for two now, just for the record.)

So I wanted to share some photos to remember the awesomeness of tonight.

(Side note: I truly believed that only Julie knew we shared a birthday, but apparently, Julie mentioned
that to one other person a while back and she remembered. So when I sent out the email to ask
everyone to be a part of Julie's surprise, this sweet friend (hi Jess!) and her partner in crime (hi Jana!)
sent an additional email and had others bring me a funny gift in addition. It was so incredibly kind
of them, but oh man, I was sad I didn't keep that one under wraps. I managed to keep almost all
of the focus on Julie, but still, it was so very nice of these sweet people I call my friends.)

Okay, back to the fabulous photos.

The decorations are up and food laid out. It is go time.

So many fabulous friends attended. I was pretty overwhelmed at the response.

And while I didn't get a photo of the actual moment (as I was too busy pretending to invite

Julie in for a second before we headed out to dinner together), I did get a photo of how good

these wonderful women are to me and to our kids. Jacob was out of town on a business trip, 

so the kids hung around at the party for a bit before heading to bed. Everyone is so ridiculously

 kind to our children and it means more to me than anything else. I'm just so grateful.

Time to open the humorous gifts we all brought for Julie.

Another group shop of everything enjoying the unwrapping and Julies' hilarious commentary.

And the birthday lady. The tattoo sleeves, the fake teeth, the hat...she is the best.

Happy Birthday my twin! I seriously adore you.

Shoulders