Blessing Day

I thought that Lila's blessing day might be sad for me because my parents, siblings, and other relatives who have always come would not be in attendance. But luckily I just felt so blessed. Debbie had been here for about 10 days and Guy flew in on Friday night to be here. Aaron, Allie, and the kids came. Chancho's Uncle Jim and Aunt Sue came, along with daughter Katy and Jessica. Also, their sons, Nick and Jim, came with their families. I really love them all so much and felt so blessed to be a part of their family and to feel such a closeness to them.

Instead of trying to plan a meal, we invited everybody over to our house in the evening for a Baby Lila celebration. Catherine let me use all of her beautiful party serving wares. Debbie bought me a 3-tiered server that I've been wanting. I bought and made lots of yummy food and a great time was had by all. I hope!

My three girls:

Pretty little flowers on a pretty table:

The Jims:

Matt, Catherine, and Grace M.
Matt & Catherine:
Guy & Deb flew from Utah to be here for the event:
Cousin Ruby:
Allie & Emma (who looks more like 17 than one who is not even an official teenager yet!)
Deedle loving on her baby sister:
Cousin Hannah, who loves babies more than anything in this whole world:
Grandma Debbie:
Cheryl & Allison. People are always telling these two that they look alike. Perhaps not so much side by side, but I love them both and they do remind me of eachother.
Proud parents:

I LOVE MY BABY GIRL!!!

More of mother and child:
Finn & Ly-Ly:
Even more me and my wee one:
Sue & Jessica:
Nick:
Jimmer:
Whoa. Another one of me and baby-kins:
The cake:
Josie & Aaron. People have often said that I look like this older brother of mine. I wasn't so sure. But if you took away the facial hair (and the scalp hair), this could almost be me. A more manly version, but still...
Guy and Paul (Debbie's brother):
The spread. Spinach dip for baguettes, brie for crackers, raspberries, blackberries, oreo truffles. YUM!
Allison & Emma:
There were lots of other kids running around. Mostly couldn't get them to stop long enough to take their photos. Or maybe they were just outside in the heat getting bitten by chiggers.

I am so in love with my baby girl. My love just grows for her every day and I hardly want to put her down. Rather than looking forward to her being in a big crib and sleeping in SC's room with her, I love that she is still in a cradle next to her bed and that I can hear her breathe all night long. I can't believe we almost didn't have her. I can't help but play the Tom Petty line over and over in my head, "I can only thank God it was not too late. I can only thank God it was not too late." And then I pray that He will protect her and never take her from me.

Smiley Liley

Lila is now over 2 months old. She had her "well child" check up today. She weighs 10 lbs 13 oz! She is still very long (23 inches), but is starting to get a little bit of chub on her cheeks. She has the most beautiful legs I think I've ever seen on a baby. Her weight is in the 50%, her head is in the 50%, and her height/length is in the 75%.

Dr. Lin was very impressed with how attentive and alert she is. He said, "She seems very advanced for only 2 months old." And indeed she is the most communicative of any of my babies at this age. Well, actually, that is not true. When we met Loumy at exactly 2 months of age, he was amazingly alert. The first thing he did when I picked him up out of his sweaty little playpen in the orphanage was look into my eyes and give me a huge smile. He had my heart immediately! But anyway...this is about Lila Pearl. She really loves to make eye contact. The other night I was feeding her and reading at the same time. She kept being fussy while eating so I would stop and look at her. She would then lock eyes and immediately eat nicely again, but if I looked away from her, she would start being fussy. She tries so hard to make sounds and talk. She is making the cutest little coo-ing noises. She seems to have her Daddy wrapped around her teeny, tiny, pink-painted-nail, finger. She talks a lot to him, kicking excitedly and seeming to use every part of her body to emit one small syllable. She's been smiling consistently for two weeks now. Regrettably I have not caught many good photos. When the camera comes out, she just stares at it, but these will give you a little bit of an idea of her cuteness. I must get a full grin soon because she has a darling dimple on her right cheek. We sure love this baby girl!!!

Memorial Day 2011

Nearly every Memorial Day Weekend of my earthly existence has held the same tradition. It involved visiting the graves of my grandparents and many of my greats in Ogden, Utah. As kids we would drive the mile and a half over to 27th street to pick up Grandma Edna (my only living grandparent from the age of 4 until I was 22). We would gather roses from her fabulous bushes and place them in mason jars of water along with lilacs and any other flowers we might have. Mom would tell us stories and show us pictures of our dearly departed. I wasn't always the best sport during those times but now they hold nothing but fond memories for me. After the graves we would go to Farr's icecream for a cone.

After Grandma died, the tradition continued, but with even more meaning because now we visited her site as well. And once I was married and with children, we would ask Mom and Dad to take us to continue the tradition. It went from something that as a child I only mildly tolerated, to being kind of special, to being something that I truly loved and longed to take part in.

This Memorial Day, I knew, would be different. We are now a million miles away from Ogden--clear down in Texas. Temperatures were in the 90s and humid. The kids had to attend school to make up for the snow days we had in January. Chancho was off and his mother, Debbie, is visiting us, so we went out to lunch and I bought a cowboy hat at Cavenders. I thought, "Well this is not the Memorial Day of the past, but its nice, I guess."

After school Deedle asked when we were going to visit the graves. I sadly told her there were no graves to be visited.

"There is one," Chancho said, to my surprise. "My great-grandfather Guy Taylor (same name as C's own father) is buried in Fort Worth."

WHAT???

We all hopped in the van and ventured off to find Mount Olivet Cemetery, area of "Garden of Gethsemane", plot 845. It took a little searching but we found it pretty quickly.

The cemetery was beautiful. Very well maintained with tons of trees all over. Very religious statues and carvings, including this of the Virgin Mary.

And Guy Taylor Cox's grave is located just in front of this .... what is it...? this "thing" of the Last Supper.

I'm not sure why the cemeteries are so well attended in Utah on this weekend. It is hard to get in and out and through the other cars parked on the narrow streets. Is it because of the emphasis that the LDS church and their people place on family history and the connections we feel to our dead? Is it the history of the state and the fact that many of those who settled had posterity who stayed around? I'm not sure, but it didn't seem to be the case here.

However, there was a very nice Memorial service taking place to honor the veterans. It was perfect. We visited the site of my children's Great-Great-Grandfather. We brought along a black and white photo and just as we were trying to stick some flowers into the grass, Chancho's dad called (to ask Debbie where she keeps the placemats) so we had him tell us a few things he remembered about his grandfather. I wondered if this man could possibly have imagined this little troupe of ours would be visiting him all these years later. I like to think it pleased him.

The Memorial service was just beginning after we spent some time at the grave, so we walked over to see what it was about. We saw flags, a replica of the Liberty Bell, a piper, lots of men in uniform, and guns, so we decided to listen in. It turned out to be very patriotic and we stayed for the whole service.

After leaving the cemetery we found a Braum's and had icecream. I felt a real sense of peace in my heart. We were continuing a tradition that was very much the same as I'd had in my family for all my years. But it was different. We were making connections with roots in a way that had not previously been made. I have felt very "up-rooted" this past 10 months and this was a wonderful feeling. I had another small whispering in my soul that said, "You are supposed to be here."

Service Love Notes

I've been thinking and praying a lot about how to have more love and peace in our home and less contention. I don't know if my kids argue more than other kids or if its just that I've always been very sensitive to contention...but when my kids are playing happily together and being kind to each other, nothing else really even seems to matter to me. They could break the windows and track mud across the carpet, and still I start to sing, "Home can be a heaven on earth!" and I walk around doing jazz hands and smiling while I do the dishes. When there is yelling and fighting, I sink into despair, cover my head and wail, "Why? What have I done wrong? I am a failure as a mother!" Or something along those lines.

I've tried using a method from my childhood home. Its goes something like this: kids are fighting, you sneak up to them and bash their heads together, then they stop fighting. But that didn't work with my kids for some reason. Instead they were just fighting AND crying...

Anyway, I know that one way to feel love for others is to serve them. I have found that to be a true principle through out my life. So, I came up with an idea to get the kids serving each other more. We had a family night where we talked about service and came up with lots of ideas of what it means and how we can serve. I got a little can and cut a whole in the lid. I then explained that the kids would have one week to do service for each other. They would write what they did on a "love note" and put it in the jar. To encourage and establish a pattern of behavior (not bribe), the kids helped us come up with some rewards. If the jar had 15 notes in it at the end of the week they'd get a piece of gum, over 25 notes they'd get a candy bar, over 45 notes they'd receive Glow in the Dark chalk, and if it contained over 65 notes, we'd take them to get a kids' meal at McDonalds.

They didn't put their names on the notes, but I could figure most of them out. :) I really loved this experiment because the kids got so excited about it. At the end of the week we had 75 notes! I did notice a marked decrease in fighting and I loved hearing them say, "Oh, that's an awesome service!" or "Hold on just a minute, I am just finishing a service."

A lot of the notes had the same theme:

Hm...I wonder why?
The kids also got creative. They thought it would be a blast to wash the van and surprise me with it. They got dish soap and towels. They tried really hard. It didn't turn out very clean but they got an A+ for effort. And more importantly, they had a really fun time together.
Here are a few other examples:
And here is a picture of Lila for no reason except that she's cute:
And now you will be enjoying my favorite two notes. They are very funny for multiple reasons. The kids were really excited to wrap small gifts to give to their teachers for "Teacher Appreciation Week". The service experiment was definitely a success. We finished the week with kids' meals and an FHE talking about why we serve others and the blessing we receive within ourselves, our families, and in heaven. We are continuing to emphasize service and will bring out the jar again next month for a week with some new reward incentives to liven things up.

What do you do in your families to help your kids get along?

P.S. No presents were harmed during this experiment.

Baby Girl

Lila Pearl is over 5 weeks old now. She had her well baby visit with our pediatrician, Dr. Lin, on Friday morning. She now weighs 8 pounds, 3 ounces and is 21 inches long. She is starting to focus on our faces and looks like she is trying hard to communicate with some sounds. I think she smiled purposefully at me a few days ago. I know its pretty early, but she was eating and staring straight into my eyes. I looked down at her and smiled so big and she smiled back. Wow. It hurts that she is growing so fast but it is also very exciting for each new thing that she does.

Here she is sitting in her carseat while her siblings were splashing around in the pool yesterday.

The Pool is Open!!!

Yesterday we drove by our neighborhood's pool. It is REALLY nice. It is huge, has lots of chairs, has a splash pad and a kid's pool, lots of shade and tables. Nice. Anywho...we drove by and we saw it was open! The kids flipped! I promised that after chores, football and soccer games we could go. There was NO complaining during chore time. The temp was 90. Water was cold. The kids were thrilled. We had a very happy time indeed.

I love these photos of Loumy. I think you can really see what he is going to look like as a grown man. We'll see...

Mother's Day (a prayer)

Doctrine & Covenants 46:32 " And ye must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing ye are blessed with."

Thank you THANK YOU thank you THANK YOU thank you. I've had lots of different feelings on mother's days past and lots today, but mostly just this one:
THANK YOU, my dear Heavenly Father.