Happiness

Family. The nucleus of Heaven Sent to Earth. Father, Mother, Sister, Brother. They breathe Heavenly breaths of Eternity.

Nestled The Baby Nestled it's Warm head Into my soft Shoulder. It's soft, downy  Hair brushed My cheek, The weight Of his bum Settled in My upturned hand. I felt Grounded, Settled & At peace.

My 4 children, on 3 Kings Day Yesterday, while I was subbing as an aide in an 5th/6th grade combo classroom for kids with Autism, I overheard a conversation between the head teacher and another aide. They were discussing a meeting to be held after school over a student and the head teacher expressed concern that the Mother is not able to make good decisions for her child since she is one of 5. At first she said, and I quote, "her and her 7 children!". The aide corrected her and said "Doesn't she have 5?" The other teacher responded "Oh, yes, five. Whatever." The aide agreed and added "once you have over 3..." As I stood at the white board, knowing this child's Mother and her sweet family, knowing all of the challenges this family faces- twins, a daughter with autism, an infant, a busy schedule, and being on the brink of having a 5th child myself I took this somewhat roughly. The teacher was inferring that because this child's ...

Aaron and Sophie Latest Update: Gilbert Temple Open House: Josh's brother Aaron and his daughter Sophie are visiting! When their kids get to the 5th grade (or so) they study the States in school and they get to pick a state to visit (their Dad travels a lot and gets frequent flier miles). Hannah went to Missouri (Maggie chose?) and Sophie chose Arizona! My kids were so surprised- they said that they would have chosen Hawaii. I assured them that she had gone there already. They had a few fun things planned to see and do (the State Capital Building, Botanical Gardens, etc) Oh, and go to the Gilbert Temple Open House! Our family's reservations are for February 12th (they went really fast and that was the date we got!) . Josh couldn't go with them because of a meeting, so I went along! It is GORGEOUS! Seriously, if you live 6 hours or less from here (Mom, Dad!) and want to see one of the most beautiful places, come! Or come when you visit!...

In Fourth Grade here, the kids do a unit on Electricity and circuit building. They get into small groups and build small open and closed circuits with tiny light bulbs. They really get into it and have a fun time with this kind of hands on learning. One day, they even built a whole circuit as a class to see if they could still get the light bulb to work. They also spent some time building and designing their own cardboard box house, complete with a working light bulb. The Parents got to come in and check out everyone's houses (it was Pajama Day as well!). Elizabeth loved doing it last year (she would not let me throw it out!) and Ethan and Jonah had a great time doing it this year- they kept bring various things from home to work on it. Jonah even requested a small picture of himself to glue into the home. Who knew that 4th graders still like building houses?  Jonah's Electrical House  Ethan's Electrical House (their classrooms are right next to each other s...

So excited!!

While we were in California over the break, we stayed with my brother and his family in their new home. We loved seeing them and spent some time hiking in the High Desert! Elizabeth was so happy to play with one of her few girl cousins- Kalea! Elizabeth and the High Desert. I spent a lot of my free time growing up exploring in the desert, chasing lizards and picking sage brush to make my own perfumes so it brought back good memories! Good thing some of my family still lives in my home town!   The Abbotts, some Kleinmans and the Andersons For the rest of our vacation, we stayed with Gma and Gradndad Abbott in Paso Robles and visited with cousins. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and their new Christmas toys! We, of course, made a trip to the beach (although I went home early) and on a hike in the Elfin Forrest. There are very old trees here and it is a really cool place. At one point, a lady came up to us and asked us not to climb on the trees s...

So far this week, I have locked my car keys in the car in the parking lot of Wal-mart (only to discover the fact after I did a weeks worth of shopping) and tripped off the curb in front of the library and twisted my ankle. Yep, pregnancy does great things to my brain and my sense of balance! Whenever I sub at the school lately, people ask me how I am feeling. Fine, I tell them! Which is true- thankfully! I still get a lot of comments on how small my belly is. Last night at the PTSO meeting, I got these "I look like you when I am 2 months along!" and "I look like you right now!"My shirt was pretty baggy, so I think I'll have to wear something more form fitting from now on! Two things that I wanted to share on this post. 1) A Few Pics of the Year. My netbook died, causing all pictures to be loaded onto disc keys and so I won't do any long, end of the year Review Posts this year.  Last Year- 2013 - was Amazing ! We found out that we are expecting a Li...

I first saw this youtube video at Church on Sunday during our Young Women's Lesson. I loved it! I woke up this morning with the song in my head- after having gone to bed early and having eaten a large $6 burger from Burger King. Hamburgers- my MAIN craving this pregnancy!) I shared it with Elizabeth and wanted to share it with you too. Hallelujah- Christ is born! He came to Earth as a small baby, so helpless and needy- as we all are sometimes- and later became the Savior of the world! Here is Elizabeth playing the piano at her recital last month. She did an awesome job!

I still haven't blogged about Christmas yet- We had a great Christmas: we stayed home for the first part of Christmas Vacation, up until after we opened presents and then headed to California late morning Christmas Day (I probably wouldn't do that again, as Christmas plus pregnancy brain caused me to forget to pack a lot of things!). Here are a few snapshots of the morning.   Dressing up as the Nativity Christmas Eve Opening one present on Christmas Eve (pajamas!)   Christmas Morning! (Footie pajamas are too hot in Arizona! Darn!)   Jonah and his Santa Present!   Asher and his Santa Present!   Ethan!   Elizabeth and her new bike!   Elizabeth opening her Maryland shadow box (she asked for a small piece of Maryland for Christmas and Josh put this together for her). So sweet!   Love it when the kids get each other presents!   Ethan (and Jonah) both made Ornaments from Lightbulbs. ...

Kelsy and Cliff DeSpain  This wedding happened after Christmas- on December 28th, 2013. Since I still trying to recover from all that is Christmas and our trip to California so some of the pictures I am going to post are done by Larissa (thanks, Lariss!) .   Kelsy- my youngest sister- and Cliff had a beautiful wedding! Beautiful weather, a beautiful Temple, a beautiful, happy Bride and her handsome Groom and a wonderful wedding party! Kelsy and Cliff got married in the Newport Beach Temple last Saturday (almost a week ago- how time flies!). The Temple sealer gave such great instruction on the Ordinances of the Gospel and Temple Marriage. I really learned a lot of new things while there. All of my brothers and sisters and Mom and Dad were able to be in the small Temple sealing room together as witnesses to the marriage. It was lovely and touching- so sweet! A day to remember!  The stomach flu had been taking turns hitting various members of our family all throug...