Soul Searcher

Natalie is pretty good at winning staring contests. You gotta have a clear conscience to be able to face these beauties:

"Are you looking at my soul?" (see 4:25)

We still have Brian Regan on the brain from the show last week. So funny. Plus we have to review that video clip above cause we're going in for eye exams next week. It always makes the appointment more enjoyable when we get to snicker at the questions they ask cause Brian has the whole experience spot on ~ "Do you like #1 (click) or #2 (click)" "They're about the same! What do you want from me!"

"The Hold"

It happens every child. It's usually around age 4. ...Sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but sooner or later, every child needs to be broken. This past week, Lily got her turn. 

She woke up after going to bed and then started screaming bloody murder and ranting and raving for no apparent reason, gnashing her teeth and everything like a damned soul, and Corey thought it was about time we get the demons out of her for good. So he held her and gave her kisses and loving words while she screamed at him. "I DON'T WANT YOU!!! I DON'T WANT YOU TO HOLD ME!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!" We call it "the hold". He just holds them until they calm down and relax. I think Corey invented this child therapy on his own, and we both give it credit for our children sitting still and being well behaved at church.

He just holds them until they calm down and realize that 1) they have no reason to be freaking out 2) he is not hurting them at all and 3) they will remain in the hold until they stop freaking out. Here's Abi during one of her "hold" sessions. I don't recall Wesley ever needing the hold, he's just been a sweetie through and through. Hyrum needed it, he was super feisty as a four year old. Ethan, Melodie... yes, and yes, although those were both in the days before I blogged, so no links to share with you there. But perhaps someday I'll share how Melodie handled the hold ~ those are epic parenting tales that still live on in our family folklore. Joseph got it too, but he got it when he was one I think, we took care of him early. One session of the hold usually takes from 15 to 30 minutes. It works like a charm. :) Thank you Corey for holding each of these kids, I give you all the credit for their good behavior in public, you go!

Superbaby

Natalie has a new trick. Ethan documented it for posterity. It starts like this:

One cute baby in a high chair. And then, she tries to fly with an up, up, and away!!!

Hmm, didn't work. Maybe I need to try with both arms? Ok ~ Up, UP, AND AWAY!!!"

I said "UP UP AND AWAY!"

 Why isn't this working?! I was able to fly before... hm.

Up Up and AWAY!!

 Darn this mortal body and temporal world of flesh and gravity!

 Well, a baby can still dream.

 Someday I'm gonna fly outta here.

 And away from all these people...

 and their stupid camera lights flashing in my face!!

 GIVE ME THAT CAMERA!

Tooth Fairy - Busted

Well, the world is a little less innocent today. Actually it happened on Sunday. You see, Abi lost another tooth, and she wanted us to call the tooth fairy STAT to let her know she had to come visit her. (Not sure where she got the idea that the tooth fairy has a phone number you can call?) So, since her father knows who calls the shots around here, he obediently picked up his phone and dialed... his mother. "Hi can I speak to the tooth fairy?" His mother played along, but... Abi was listening and she would not be fooled. She called him out on it. "That sounds like Grandma..."

 

"...Okay, you got me, that was Grandma. I'll call the real tooth fairy now..." Then he called his brother. "Hi, can I please speak to the tooth fairy?" Again, without missing a beat, his brother replied "Oh, I'm sorry, the tooth fairy is not in right now, but this is her office. May I leave a message for you?" After a minute, Corey got everything covered and squared away. But... after hanging up, Abi kept pestering for details. Soon Corey fessed up that that was his brother, not the tooth fairy's assistant. Corey tried again and called my cell phone. I tried to hide in the closet upstairs as I talked, but I quickly heard Abi say "That sounds like MOM!" Doh! Corey's bluffs were not able to stand up to the scrutiny of this six year old. Abi, show me your "Don't lie to me, Dad" look:

There it is. That's the death scorn she glared at the father who dared try to trick kids!

Then Corey told me I had to get her folded arms in the picture for accurate documentation. He felt like he was in TROU-BLE! So, she came upstairs to where I was and told me that she knew that Dad called me and that she doesn't like it when parents try to trick kids! I told her it was just a game to play, but yes, you're right, we give in! There is no tooth fairy! I'm the tooth fairy! And she had had it with all our lies so we went down the whole list of things that we don't even preach to them anyway but I guess they just learn about at school. Santa is not real, there is no Easter Bunny. Leprechauns don't pinch you on St. Patrick's Day, there is no cupid. It's all just for fun. Except for Jesus, that one is real. "And here's another thing (none of this was spoken in anger, just matter of fact) I really don't need your teeth anyway, I don't have to buy them from you." I confessed that I just throw them in the trash. Sorry little girl, you want the truth, that's the truth. So, I'll pay up this one last time though. "Do you just want it now or should we play the game one more time and put it under your pillow?" She decided to just do the exchange now, and she handed me her tooth in an envelope. I handed her the Cold Stone gift card I had in my pocket,and that was that. Innocence is gone, she's not a little girl anymore.

Now that the jig is up, I told Abi that, unfortunately, there will be no more tooth fairy surprises for her. That helped my frugal conscience justify giving her the $5 Coldstone gift card I had on hand, which was the only reward the tooth fairy could give her on such short notice. She's growing older, but after taking her out for her treat, I remembered she is still young enough to not know what's gross and what's not - she asked for a concoction of ice cream and sugar that so repulsed me that I wasn't even tempted to ask her to share. Good for my diet, but next time (for Lily/Sophi) I'm gonna skip the elaborate stuff at Cold Stone and just do the Wendy's frosty route. Abi got gummy bears for her mix-in. Gross Abi, I'm telling ya, cookies and chocolate! That's the only way to go.

Present and Focused

Three years ago today, they kids were headed off to the first day of school... in Chile. It is really weird to think that was three years ago. We've almost been back here in Utah for three years, and that seems like the same amount of time that those 5 months felt. ...and like the same amount of time that 3 months in Costa Rica felt. The years slip by pretty quickly once we're in a routine and living in familiar circumstances. So, here we are. We are glad to be here. When we were enjoying the slow and somewhat care free life of Costa Rica, and also in the "it's just us" family life we experienced there and later in Chile, I made some goals of things I wanted to do and to become. I'm still working on them, and I'm okay with that and understand that it will be a lifelong process. That's what "progress" is all about anyway, right?

In 2008, we were renting at a different house in Sandy, and it was a busy Saturday when Corey and I were trying to listen to the first session of the April of 2008 General Conference. There was a swirl of busyness and kids and toys and noise swirling about us as we tried to listen. As I felt myself sinking into helplessness, they quieted down long enough for me to hear this one statement from Cheryl Lant:

"Are we consciously creating righteous traditions, or is life just happening to us?"

I sat there a little dumbfounded as I nodded my head with enlightenment and thinking "YES!! My life is "just happening" to me! Heeeeeelp!!!" I wanted control and I wanted purpose but felt both areas severely lacking. I think it's been a continuous search and daily struggle since then to work and pray and fight for a purpose and joy in daily life (which "daily life" actually comes to make out what our whole life will look like at the end, right? The "years" we look back on when we are older are just going to be a bunch of our "today"'s.) We need to live consciously.

And then last week I heard this BYU Forum address by Andrea Thomas, and the part that stood out to me the second time were some thoughts near the end (start at about 24:52 through the end) of how it's not about finding time in our life for everything, but finding meaning in the things we give our time to. "Balance is about meaning rather than time." The things that we spend our time doing have got to edify us and lift us, or we will spend most of our life feeling bogged down and dragged through the mud. And along with that were more thoughts about how important it is to be present and focused. In this talk, Elder Soares shares that Michelangelo just used a hammer and a chisel to create the sculpture "the Pietà."

I can make a masterpiece of my life too as I use my effort like a focused chisel and hit it with a hammer of hard work. So there is my "preaching-to-myself" post for today, going to go focus five minutes at a time (the five minutes thing really works!) and work hard at things that edify me and make a difference for my family. :)

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." 
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Brian Regan on Tour!

Went to see Brian Regan last night during the first of two sold out shows in the 12,500 seat Energy Solutions Arena. I'm so happy for him that he's having so much success and am so happy to support such a family friendly comedian like him. To go from riding the greyhound bus from comedy club to comedy club to having over 24000 tickets sold in a city? Now that's just a great success story to the value of work and persistence and all sorts of quality traits, don't you think? So we had a great time and loved the show, so funny!

Let's see how many I can remember...

• February is the only month that he knows how many days it has ~ 28 days! Fits perfectly onto a calendar. No dates have to share their square. Other months he can't keep track of, but his mother had this knuckle thing she used to do "What month do you want to know?" "No, don't punch me!"
• New year's goal, lose 20 pounds, already gained 6.
• Krispy Kreme - Are you new? It's a doughnut! No trans fat, no nicotine!
• Doctors always late for appointments, need blood under the door for that to be okay. clamp that shut and get me in.
• His doctor has his jacket buttoned up wrong, No... I don't want you to see me.
• Dancing in a room, aliens are gonna come steal all your stuff.
• People cutting in line in front of him at Disneyworld? Grab his wallet as he passes and throw it, and taker her purse and hurl it as far as you can into the bushes ~ if they look at you like you're the jerk "Well it's obvious that this is our spot cause we've all been standing here squished together for 30 minutes... so I just thought you wanted total anarchy!"
• Checking into a hotel, Zip Itty Do Dah, magnetic card doesn't work, they make it look like you're the problem "The customer is always wrong"
• he used to feel mad and irritated at people on the airplane that make everyone wait behind them in the isle while they get situated. Instead of feeling irritated, he decided to make a game out of it, that he has to try to guess which passenger is going to be the problem man. "No... No, she looks nice... that guys okay... Oh no, there he is..." and then the next game is to guess (using his iphone timer) how long the person will make them wait. Sometimes he wins both games! "Now where is my crossword puzzle book, I know it's in here somewhere, I only had an hour and a half of wait time and the 2 hour delay to strategically place this in a convenient spot at the top of my bag,  hmmm..." and Brian's cheering "Keep going! You're breaking the record! You're at 2:14!!!!"
• Do you have a rewards card? No. And can we never ever have this conversation again? I have the item and I have money, can I give you the money for the item? I am a member of the full price club. Please? I see the sunlight outside, I want to return to my wife and children! 
• I like the stage cause I'm in control and I know what time it's supposed to end. You don't get that at social gatherings, when you're standing in a group with someone talking... when is it okay to walk away from people who are talkin? And then he acted it out, so funny cause we've all been there, right? Trying to join in with or leave from a group of people talking, kinda awkward!
• I guarantee you say this at a group party "Hey, how 'bout that $340 million lottery!" someone will always say "Well yeah, until taxes...." "Did you think I didn't know about taxes? That's still going to be millions of dollars, alright?" 
• There's a group of people that go to these secret meetings where they learn the real motivation behind things, and they get to go out into the world to be the bearer of bad news. "I'd love a playoff system in the NCAA" "Well they can't do that cause there's too much money in the bowl system..." "Wait, there's money!!?! How did you know that! You think I didn't know that? I still want to see playoffs..."
• You know why people rob banks? It's the money! 
• I refuse to be friends with people that say "cat-sup", "trousers", or "cinema"
• Kids! Guess what I found! I had to look at 10 stores to find it and had to search behind all the smooth and I was so lucky to find the very last one... Crunchy peanut butter!!!

and here are a few funny things from his twitter account for fun ~

• Useless if stolen
• Third Cone
• Seatbelts Save Lives

Fun to look through the pictures there. :) And since I'm sharing funny things, here are two more from facebook this week that made me lol and koc (kind of chuckle) ~ the Manslater, and "Let it Go" Mommy edition.

Tech Rehearsal

Today we went down to Provo for the final Tech Rehearsal for Studio C Season 4 (set to premiere April 7th!). We've tried every time to get tickets to be in the audience for the filming but were never chosen. So sad for us.

Lily wanted a picture with Natalie... "just like our Natalie!"

Well, we might have gotten selected for the final viewing tomorrow, but we didn't register for that one cause we're gonna be at BRIAN REGAN!! (whoo-hoo!) and it was okay cause on the Thursdays before their Friday filming sessions, they have a Tech Rehearsal for the camera men and lighting crew. Their facebook page said they give out wrist bands at 1:00 for the 2:00 filming. I thought there might be high demand for this one cause it was the last one of the season, and plus I wanted to make sure we got tickets because my friend Nicole is visiting from Maine and they wanted to go too. (Get this, she drove out here again, but not just to Utah, she planned a 6 week coast to coast road trip (wow) and she's on her way back to Maine after hitting Arizona for the Temple Open House (just like the Brigham City Temple Open House last time) and then she kept going all the way to San Diego. Yeah, impressive, she is good... talk about ambition. I'm not embarrassed to tell her that I can barely keep up with her for one outing...)

So! since all of her kiddos are big Studio C fans too, it was on the list of to do's while they are here in Utah. She continues her trip home tomorrow. Anyway, so down to BYU we went. She went to the amazing "Sacred Gifts" Art Exhibit , which I didn't dare face with my brood, so I decided we'd just save our place in line for Studio C. And we got first place thank you! but it's not just cause we need to get a life...

Yeah, I knew 10:30 would be way too early, but I wanted to beat any other possible die hard fans who I thought might show up at 11. Plus I didn't know how crowded it would be with it being the final rehearsal, and didn't want Nicole's family to miss it. But now I know for next time that we could have gotten there at 1 and still made it in for the show. Although there's not gotta be a next time unless they make it to season 20 when all my kids might be old enough to handle the wait. It was a long wait, so the kids read books and drew pictures and asked me "how much longer" til it started about, oh, 127 times...

As we waited in line, we saw Stan Ellsworth from American Ride, the kids all thought that was super cool!

It was drizzling rain but not too cold. We made pb and j in line (cause Nicole's a pro and came lunch prepared, I just had pretzels and walnuts and raisins) and we got tweeted by byutv. After handing out the wristbands (#1 and #2 in line, oh yeah) they let us into the building and we waited for another hour.  It was a little exhausting for us mothers and for the little people too...

But lookie at Nicole - she's still smiling! Ya can't keep a good mom down!

Finally into the studio audience seating! Front row!

My sweet two year old Sophia was pretty terrible for most of the experience. She wanted me to hold her and I tried in between trying to discreetly nurse Natalie and hold Lily and stop Lily and Sophi from fighting (that darn pecking order...) Sophi finally fell asleep right before it ended.

Then we headed to the car and went home, after getting some hamburgers. And Krispy Kremes. Cause you can't go to Provo or the BYU Broadcasting building without a stop by Krispy Kreme. :) Good memories. And we'll miss you, Freemans! See you in another year or two!

Hangout

After my uncle's funeral, my mom mentioned that she wished they had gone out to visit Phil more and gotten to know him better. Cause a lot of life happens to you by the time you're 60+, right? That's gonna happen to us too, we're gonna be busy with life, and my sibs decided we need to keep in touch better. In an attempt to do that, they've done a few weeks of chit chatting via google hangout. Pretty cool ~

This was my first time joining them this past Sunday. Kinda fun. There were lots of things to do on it that are new to my children and that they were excited to try - such as...

Abi the pirate. And check out pirate Natalie - it's her birthday!!! and she's a bit farsighted. And grew a little facial hair.

Yeah, on my end we played with the program's features and stared at the screen a bit more than we talked. Once the novelty wears off hopefully I'll get more conversation in. But it was fun. I have great siblings. They're awesome.

I'm happy that my kids do too. It will be even better when they all grow up and become friends and confidants and realize how totally awesome each other is.

Tenor Sax

Corey got a Tenor Saxophone for Hyrum off of the classifieds this past week. On Friday to be exact. Which was perfect timing for the family pics. Rochelle took one of  each of the kids with their instrument and we also got a group shot, sweet!

A group shot was now possible for our little up and coming musicians cause they all have their own instrument. The tenor is almost as big as Hyrum! And Wes isn't really playing the soprano much yet, but he will be. Now that they all have horns, Corey's ready to really get to work. With four saxophones kickin' around, hopefully atleast one of them will be up for grabs for Corey to teach with.

Corey bought the sax more for himself than for Hyrum. He needed one since Joseph has assumed ownership of Corey's alto. And once Hyrum starts band in Jr. High in another year and a half, he might get to have the tenor, but until then, Corey's get to toot his own horn. :)

Individual Shots

Presenting... the children as their individual selves, not in order by age or by order of picture taken, but in the order that they were downloaded, just to change it up a bit and to let them know that they don't always have to fall in line. :)

#6 - Abbers

#3 - Eth!

#4 - Little H

#1 - Jose

#7 - Lillers

#2 - Hey Mel

#9 - NATALIEEEE!

#8 - SOOO FEEE!

#5 - Wessers

Family Pictures 2014

What did I tell you? Is Rochelle good or is she good? Despite Lilian's lack of cooperation, (and here below we have another example for ya...)

...we still got some that turned out with a few extras to spare. Let's give a big congratulations to Natalie ~ she's made it into the family photo! And now our walls and blog will be up to date with her little face to say hello to everyday. Good bye family photo with 8 cute kids -

Hello to our new happy family ~ Corey and Me and kids equals a big ol' party everyday.

And now 2014 is officially documented. Oh, would ya just look and Natalie and Sophi's little faces!!! So stinkin' cute. Sophi's got such dark eyes, and Natalie's baby blues, sigh. Wish Joseph would have had a companion kid closer to him up there on top. And Mel's a little scrunched. Hyrum's face got it last time, this year it's Melodie's turn. You can kinda see her shirt there, but with her hair in the shadow it all just kinda blends into mine and makes her look like a bodyless head. Well, you'll just have to squeeze in a little taller next time Mel. :) 

We try to get family pictures or some other kind of full group shot twice a year. Sometimes very simple, for example: The family picture taken at the hospital on the day Natalie was born? Yes, that counted. And every other year or so we try and get them professionally done. 

I've tried to make sure we have family pictures taken twice a year since back in 2008 when I heard this quote: 

“These things are important: 

temple marriage, mission, college. 

Press on, set goals, write history, 

take pictures twice a year.”

That quote right there, by a man named Jay Hess, was shared by a prophet of the Lord in a message he shared back in October 2008 - Finding Joy in the Journey. (about half way down in that article). I'm really glad that he gave that advice and that we've tried to follow it. It is so wonderful to have living prophets on the earth today! You know Moses? Peter? Yeah, President Thomas S. Monson is one of those. There are apostles on the earth today too, just like when Christ called and ordained to lead the church when he was on the earth. And it's for real too. If you're wondering "what kind of message would a prophet give if he were living today?" Finding joy in your life's journey is one message he would share, plus so many other wonderful things that help us be happy if we choose to follow them. Messages are shared each month in the Church magazine, the Ensign, and also every 6 months we have a full blown feast with General Conference. Here are a few of my favorites from President Monson.

April 2003 "In Search of Treasure"

January 2012 Ensign "Living the Abundant Life"

October 2012 "Consider the Blessings"

Another General Conference full of inspiring messages is coming up soon in April! :) Good stuff. I love my family and am thankful to belong to a faith that believes in and supports the family so much.