Diligence

Camden found his new calling. Hours and hours of pounding nails. I'm quite sure these two boards won't be coming apart any time soon.

70 is the new 90

Degrees that is. This spring has been so wet and cold I think it has re-set our kids perceptions of hot and cold -not mine- I'm fully aware of how cold it is. On Thursday morning when we finally had a mildly warm day Camden was outside running in the sprinkler before 8:00 am. Crazy. Not surprising however. He told me at one point, "it is so hot here it is like a desert." Uhh... no. I think there are still rain puddles in our front yard dear. We are more like a rain forest. Anyway, on to the photo proof of their craziness:

This was the early morning sprinkler time:

Later that afternoon Hudson came home and helped Camden set up the slip and slide. The temperature had easily climbed all the way up to 70 by then.

Warming up on the warm patio.

Hopefully we will see some more sun so we can see more things like this~
.

Double Digits!

Dear Ainsley,

Ten years is so long! I can't really think of anything outside of being married that I have done for ten years. Now, I've been a parent for a whole decade. I can't even believe how blessed I am.

You are just adorable. As I put you to bed tonight you could hardly contain your excitement over one of your birthday presents. We are letting you get your ears pierced. I knew you would be happy, but I didn't anticipate how much. An indication of how you are growing is that what you are so excited about is going to school tomorrow and telling your friends. We have officially entered the tween years with you. Everything is better when you get to share it with your social group.

Thinking back to other birthday letters, some things are still the same. You are still a wonderful sibling, you still love Adventures in Odyssey, books are still your constant companion, and you still think you want to be a nurse or doctor when you grow up. Other things are changing. You've gotten taller, look so much older, and sometimes when I have conversations with you I forget you are not an adult. And lets not forget that if you tried to fit into the shoes I wore at my wedding they would be too small for you! Fortunately pregnancy has stretched my feet out so my feet are bigger than yours are now, but only just barely!

You are both strong and gentle. This has been the year that we have really had to begin navigating through the social minefield of school. I know that this is only the beginning of "girl drama," and so part of me wants to just keep you at home and insulate you from the cruel world out there. But fortunately, I know better. I know that you are strong, and have wonderful character. I know that my job is to help you remember every day that your worth comes from the firm foundation of knowing that you are a Child of God. That God loves you and ultimately that is all that matters. I know that I need to help you (and myself!) remember to first love the Lord your God with all your heart strength and mind, and second to love your neighbor as yourself. The "neighbor" may very well be unkind and difficult. But you are called to love them.

And the way girls are, that same person could be your best friend next week!

When you or your siblings choose your birthday dinner menu I'm never denied entertainment. Your request was chicken, cheese bread, strawberries, and twice baked potatoes (the chicken and cheese bread are both Cyndi's recipes, I could have just sent you over there for dinner) and specifically no vegetables. I loved the no vegetables part.

This was your friend party year (we alternate years between friend parties and family parties), and you made the most of it. After much debate over what kind of party to have you went with a pool party at the Sandy pool because that way you could have lots of guests. Fifteen in fact. It was so fun for everyone. Your friends were all so sweet and polite and just enjoyed playing in the pool together so much. It was a great group of girls. We just finished making a movie of your party that captures how great it was. I won't be posting it to the internet, but I know we will love watching it and looking back on this fun stage of life.

I love you Ainsley Grace. Thank you for being the one who gave me the best job in the world. Forgive me for all of my shortcomings, look past my mistakes. Know that your daddy and I want you to look to God all the days of your life. These verses say it far better than I can:

"Ephesians 5 ¹ Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We love you sweet girl. Happy 10th birthday. Love mom and dad.

Camden's future pursuits

The following is from Friday- but I had to wait to post it until Sunday after Andrew used it in the church opening.

Camden, Reagan, and I went on a walk this morning. (YEAH NO RAIN-So far I love you April!) This was one of my favorite Camden conversations ever. I came home and gave both kids granola bars right away so I could do the best job possible of writing it word for word. Precious. And we have some work to do, but pretty much at 4 he is wrestling with what we all struggle with- earthly pleasure vs. Heavenly rewards.

C: All my friends are going to preschool (lamenting there was no one to play with on Friday morning.)

Me: Won’t it be fun next year when you go to preschool?

C: No, I don’t think I can handle it.

Me: Why not?

C: Because I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up yet, so I don’t think I can handle preschool or college.

Me: Honey, you don’t have to know what your going to do when you grow up for a long time, certainly not in preschool.

C: Oh. What does a Missionary do?

Me: They tell people about Jesus, remember? We’ve read about missionaries.

C: I want to do the thing that makes the most money and Hudson says that missionaries don’t make the most money. But I know that they get the most awards in Heaven. I want to do the thing that makes the most money and gets the most awards in Heaven.

Me: REwards in Heaven are much more important than making the most money sweetheart. Heaven’s rewards last for eternity, money on earth only lasts a little while.

C: I want them both.

April Fools Day

Tennille just asked me this morning to post something. I had nothing. Then, like Manna from Heaven the single best conversation ever with Camden. I came straight home from the walk it took place during to write it down word for word. As I was writing Andrew called and I told him about it and he asked me to save it until Sunday so he can use it for the Church opening (so all 2 of you don't hear it ahead of time :) ) Anyway- I made April Fool's Day treats for my kids lunch- "Doughnut Seeds" (cereal inside the seed pack!) and for dinner tonight we are going out for Jim's birthday so I made cupcakes- special ones. I took a picture of all of it so I have something to post.

i

In downloading the pictures I found these of RJ- pretty cute if your not the one cleaning it up!

But how far can you see?

A conversation with Ainsley that Camden must interject himself into:

Ainsley: Daddy your car stinks.

Daddy: No it doesn't. Mommy has the best nose in our family and she says it is fine.

Ainsley: I can smell better than mommy can.

Daddy: No you can't.

Ainsley: Yes I can, I can smell salad!

Camden: Well, I can smell God!

A little comparison.

Remember back when Reagan was 3 months old and I said she didn't look like the other kids? Want to see who she does look like?

Here is Reagan at 14 months.

Here is me (Tiffany) at 13 months.

***Please overlook the fact that my mother had far more time with me, her first child, than I do with Reagan, my fourth, to do things like; fix my hair, get professional pictures taken, and put shoes and socks on me.

Braces Off!

One set of braces down!

A tale of two trips to the store.

Camden is never boring. Here are two quick adventures to the store.

First was Tuesday night. I was tutoring. Andrew is a rock star and took all 4 kids by himself to the mall. What could possibly make him want to do something that crazy? His hope that the Duck Store would have stuff on sale after the game on Monday night. That, and he would rather be out of the house with them when I tutor rather than trying to keep them quiet in the house. When I take all four kids somewhere people ask me if they are all mine, and if I know how babies are made. When he takes them somewhere he is treated like a rockstar. People tell him how great he is and give him stuff. Amazing. Anyway, back to the Camden part. He was looking at a little duck light and walked up to the clerk (a young college girl) and said, "Excuse me nice, young lady. Could you please tell me how much this costs?" Not sure how you would make that sentence more polite or complete. The "nice young lady" part kills me.

Compare that to yesterday at Winco. Winco. What a place. Do they have a cart that the baby holding straps aren't broken? I can never find one. Consequently I'm always trying to keep Camden with me, while keeping Reagan from standing up in the cart and falling because the darn straps don't keep her in the little seat part. This while shopping, then bagging my own groceries. While bagging groceries Camden found a way to entertain himself. That turned out to be putting two packages of Lifesavers in his pockets, without paying for them. The part I can't believe is that he got all the way to the car, we drove all the way to Barlow to see Andrew, drove all the way home, and unloaded all the groceries before he took them out of his pocket! He then shows them to me and says, "Hey, look at this! I can eat these!" How did Mr. Impulsive pull off that sort of patience? So we promptly loaded back up in the car (which Reagan was so happy to do considering we had gone to Target before Winco- 2 hours in the car or carts at this point) to go back to Winco so Camden could return his stolen goods. We practiced what he would say in the car to the person when he returned them. He did a good job of saying what he did, apologizing and asking for forgiveness. I keep reminding myself that I'm so happy he got to learn this lesson at 4 rather than at 14!

Hudson turns 7

Happy Birthday Hudson,

What an awesome kid you have grown into. An example of just how sweet you are is last night I asked you what you wanted for breakfast on your birthday. You said, "cinnamon rolls." Then you said, "no pancakes, or how about both?" When I said you needed to choose one or the other, you said, "which one will be easier for you?" What a love. The other thing this little exchange shows is how important food is to you. You are pretty much always hungry.

This has been such a fun year with you. You are huge. I know I will think I'm crazy when you are 14 and have grown a foot taller than me and I'm saying your so big now at 7, but seriously, you have grown up so much this year. (I'm probably going to look back at the previous paragraph where I talk about how much you like to eat now and laugh compared to what you consume as a teenager, but I'm just going to enjoy being naive right now.) You are this little, big, grade-school boy. You love legos, nerf guns, and playing with your friends.

Speaking of friends, you are quite the social little guy. You really like playing with friends, and get along so great with them. You are able to play with different kids at whatever level they are. If the kid is super physical, wrestling all the time, you are right there with them. If it is a different friend that wants to just play with legos or draw, you are up for that too.

I have loved so much watching you develop into this boy who loves to play outside and be just a total boy. You love playing with Colby, a neighbor boy, all the time. I feel a little like it is a story out of a book from the 1950's. (or maybe that is just the extent of my experience with your age of boys playing). You guys will take off, and do who knows what. I think mainly you entertained with making forts, exploring the magic of pocket knives, riding your bikes, and building lego creations in our attic. I do know if the amount of fun you have is proportional to how dirty you get, your having a great time.

School is going great. You love first grade, and I am loving watching you learn how to read. If you had your way, about 90% of school would be P.E. or recess. Your standard response to questions about school is, "I don't remember." It takes quite a bit of questioning to get much information out of you. The day before yesterday you built the base of a gingerbread house at school. That night I got an email that had a picture of yours, which went way beyond the four walls and a roof and had a porch on the front and back, along with an extended addition to the house. Mrs. Breyer wrote, "Hudson is TAG at building gingerbread houses." So cute.

You have been plotting out this year's birthday party for quite some time now. Your goal was to get a bowling pin. So a bowling party it was. Narrowing down the guest list was torture for you. You really wanted to invite just about every boy you have ever met. We did a bowling theme for the party, but for your actual birthday at home (your party was the Saturday before your birthday) the cake had to be camouflage with lots of army guys on it. You love setting up little battle scenes and arranging the army figures. Your cake reflected this obsession. You couldn't wait to stick the figures on it after I had done my best to frost a camo design. Because really, what says "Happy Birthday" better than miniature, plastic weapons?

Once you decide you are going to learn how to do something you stick with it. For the past few months you have spent a great deal of time practicing some sort of cartwheel/hand spring. It is pretty cute to watch you practice it over and over. Amazingly even though most of the time your doing it in our not huge house, you haven't hurt yourself badly or broken anything. Yet.

You continue to be amazingly sweet to baby Reagan. I am still just shocked at how much you just adore her and how great you are with her. You and Ainsley still have such a good relationship and play so well together. You and Camden are a little more complicated. You sometimes play amazingly well together, and sometimes (okay, a little more than sometimes) your main goal is to elicit a reaction from him. You know better than anyone how to get him upset, and his reactions are so interesting for you to watch you do it frequently. WE NEED TO WORK ON THIS BECAUSE SOME DAYS IT MAKES ME CRAZY!!! I"m pretty sure that some day when you and your siblings sit around and talk about me as a mom, you will say that I always said, "don't stir up trouble!" I think you get tired of hearing me say it. But if you would just stop stirring up trouble I wouldn't have to! I am praying that this is a year that you and Camden really enjoy each other.

You really like going to Kids Club at church. You are the one who reminds everyone to take their Bibles. You have become more quiet, so it is sometimes hard for us to know what you have going on in your head, but more and more we hear you pop up with something that totally shocks us that you are understanding or know about. This year you finally got to go with the big kids at VBS in the summer and they have more of a worship band, this was the first time you really got into music. You now have some songs you like and are interested in. We are really excited about this, because until then you never really wanted to sing much at all.

You played soccer this year, but you LOVE basketball. Daddy can't wait for this season to start because of how much he thinks your going to like it this year. You also are really liking tennis and have an amazing swing for a kid your age. So far in the team sports you have played you have good skills, but haven't developed a competitive drive. You are just out there having fun, which mom thinks is great, but dad is looking forward to lighting a little competitive fire under you.

Hudson, I just can't even begin to tell you how much I love you. Your just such a great kid. Thanks for bearing with me as I learn how to parent a boy. Your daddy and I just adore you so much. We can't wait to see what amazing things God has in store for you. Love you big boy.

P.S. As I was just uploading pictures I have to mention how excited you were that we gave you the Lego Police Headquarters. Delighted beyond belief.