sunshine in my soul today!

I love Benjamin! If there is anyone who has ever had music in his soul, he does. When he was a baby, he would fall asleep in the car singing, "ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhh." He hasn't stopped singing since. He is currently down in the basement with a friend. I wonder if his friend thinks it is normal to sing about "Cranky the crane!" I captured this moment of him singing in the shower and couldn't resist. I'm grateful that his boisterous, bass voice can bring sunshine into my soul today...and everyday. Let those peaceful, happy moments roll!

"That's Mommy's!"

On Monday, we were getting ready to have my brothers over for a Memorial Day bar-b-que. I asked Phil to go and vacuum the basement. When he came around the corner carrying the vacuum, Micah pronounced, "That's mommy's!" My first response was, "Ha! See you don't pull your weight around here!" But as it sunk in for a minute, I realized nothing could be farther from the truth!

Today is our 9 year anniversary. When I contemplate the last nine years with Phil, I realize I couldn't have asked for anyone more supportive than my dear husband. Three days after we got married, we moved up to Seattle for Phil to go to school. His new wife was as timid as they come. Looking for a job was incredibly intimidating to me. But Phil was amazing in putting his faith in me, and we came to count on each other as best friends should!

The same thing happened when we moved to Connecticut, 8 months pregnant. Jacob was a hard baby and we were so far from home. Once again, I came to depend so much on Phil. I would count the minutes until he arrived home from work!!

And so it has been the past 9 years. We've gone through a lot of change in those years. While it may seem I've been a supportive wife, following Phil around the country, Phil has always been even more supportive of me, letting me pursue my dreams, while pulling more than his share of our family responsibilities. Recently he encouraged me to finish my degree and run my marathon, both which took quite a bit of commitment from him as well! He knows it's important for me to have some interests of my own, and it makes my life so much better! Thanks Phil. I'm glad I can glance at you and say, "That's mommy's!" All mine!
ps. nice pose!

The Island of Sodor

I took Benjamin and Micah to ride Thomas again this year. The ride up to Heber was beautiful! The setting was perfect: lush, green, snow capped mountains. The Island of Sodor couldn't be better! When all was said and done, Ben's favorite part was the cotton candy. There's got to be a cheaper way to have cotton candy, but there aren't many cuter things than watching a room full of little boys (dressed in their Thomas gear) following each other around a train table pushing their trains; each on its own adventure, complete with sound effects!

goin' chalkin'

Yeah! We finally have some Utah traditions!! (I feel like we had a bunch in TX!) We stumbled upon the Bountiful Chalk festival again this year. The shops on main street sponsor artists who come and chalk a square of the sidewalk. We love looking at the pictures and there's always extra chalk hanging around so that the boys can help decorate main street themselves.

Dream ON!

Isn't she lovely! This will be long winded, but I wanted to record my thoughts about my marathon yesterday. Here are the things I learned about life by running a marathon:

1) Consecrate thy performance unto the Lord - (2 Nephi 32:9 is an awesome scripture about this) He helped me get through. I've really tried this week to make this a matter of prayer and a spiritual experience and I think it was. I wanted to learn from it and help make me a better person. Hopefully it happened! I also had a big pain in my stomach at mile 5 and finally remembered to pray. It was much less noticeable after that!
2) Enjoy the ride - I was so nervous and asked Phil to give me a blessing. Very sweetly and shortly he blessed me that I would be able to enjoy it without reservation. When I would stop to remember this, I would remember to look up. There was some BEAUTIFUL scenery and it was awesome!!! I could have missed some great views if I kept looking at my feet the whole time!! In life we have to look up and around us or we miss out on a lot of great, beautiful things while looking at the monotony of day-to-day.
3) Laugh at yourself - It's been so cold here all spring. So I wore my usual sweat pants to run in. When the sun was up before the race even began I knew I was in trouble. It was so hot!!! So I pulled up the pant legs around my knees and looked like a big doofus. But I didn't care. I was hoping for a little cooler run and to bring comic relief to the other runners! My favorite sign: Any idiot can run, it takes a special kind of idiot to run a marathon! (that's me!)
4) The Power of Music - Last marathon I gave out about mile 18, so I told myself I could listen to my music at mile 18. It came at perfect time and totally helped me out!! A particular song "Life is a highway" was awesome as I was running down the highway looking up at the beautiful, rocky mountains with pinetrees growing out from them and a big waterfall etc. It was actually quite emotional!
5) Family is really all that matters - So my legs waited until mile 23 to give out on me. I had done 9 minute miles the whole time up until then, the last three became 12 minute miles (barely moving along) so I came down that last stretch just searching for my crew. There were a lot of people lining the streets but none of them made any difference!! I finally caught sight of Phil and the boys and it was so wonderful!!! I grabbed Jacob and he ran the rest of the way with me. That meant a lot to me!! I'm so blessed to have such a supportive husband! He is so great to let me reach for my dreams!!!

Now there are other ways to learn these lessons, so I'm not saying to go out and run 26.2 miles, but it worked for me!

happy mother's day!

I told my boys that the thing I wanted for Mother's Day was a decent picture of me and them. Not much too ask, right? Here's some of our other attempts:

through the looking glass

This morning was supposed to be a calm, breakfast in bed, happy mother's day sort of morning. It was interrupted by one small thing (very small): our caterpillars needed new milk weed!! Over the past week, Phil has found me at odd times of day staring into my glass jars searching for the caterpillars and making sure all was well. He hasn't understood until today!!! He helped me carefully take out the old milkweed, lay it on papertowels and transfer the caterpillars into their new home. It is stressful work! They have grown so much over the last week, but are still only mm's small. Afterwards, as I was rushing around like crazy trying to get the kids ready for church, Phil was staring into the glass jar saying things like, "Where's Chubby?" and "Where does Slim think he's going?"

So I've been thinking about this all day. How many tiny little critters do we come across everyday. Each one has a story about where they came from and how they happened to cross our path. And then splat! I step on them! More importantly, how many people come across our paths each day? And what is their story? There are many that we'll never know. But if we stop and spend a minute with them, we come to find out their unique story and how they came our way. By taking a small minute, and better yet, serving people, we come to really care about them because we know a little bit more. We just have to take time to glance through the looking glass.

mesmerizing!

This may not seem like much to you, but it's kept me busy for hours this week!! On the right side of the photo are some tiny, yellow dots. These are actually caterpillar eggs!! They've hatched and we've been watching over these tiny little critters this week. I'm hoping we'll be able to have at least one grow up into a butterfly. Until then, we're naming them after our house guests and making Jennie crazy by having them creep into her dreams at night!! I'm trying to get a picture of the little caterpillars (they are soooo cute) but they are too tiny. I'm amazed at the details and intricacies of life. It is truly a miracle!

"the joy of motherhood comes in moments"

"There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction." After rereading M. Russell Ballard's talk from conference on motherhood, I've decided I need to "live in the moment" more!! So as Mother's Day approaches, here's to living in the moments with my sweet boys!

75% Inspiration, 25% Perspiration

I've just been inspired my 1st grader! Today Jacob's school did a walk-a-thon to earn money to purchase a canine buddy for someone who needs one. The kids collected pledges and then walked as many laps as they could. Jacob wanted to fill his card - 25 laps! - and he did it!! He was the last one to finish because he wanted to get the final lap in. In my estimates, he walked about 6 miles!! Pretty impressive! I think we all know where he gets endurance and I'll know where to turn to for inspiration in future races!!!