Garrett's big Weekend

Our Garrett J is 4! He was SO excited for his birthday, and Molly helped him get really excited by helping him "plan" it for about two weeks. She does this every year for her own birthday, and it stresses me out...and she decided she would stress me out for Garrett's now too. :-) She was also sweet enough to help me get ready. She LOVES parties, and LOVES to get ready for them. She helped me remember things that we had bought for it, she helped take care of Hansen and read him books, and she saved the day by remember to get s'mores stuff...she is a party planner for sure. Heaven help us all when her wedding day arrives.

Garrett got to go to Fathers and Sons. It is held right around his birthday every year. He LOVES camping. He got to sleep on the top bunk, he got to hike with his Dad, and he got to eat marshmallows. It's hard to see a close up on his face...but it is MESSY. He walked in the door holding a bone. Nothing like bringing carcasses home. Love that. But it was worth it when he said, "Mom look! I found a WEAL bone from a deer. It's a wibbon bone!" And yes, it was a rib from a deer, and I am not sure what to do with it. :-)
My kids get to go to a cake website and pick out whatever cake they want me to make. Garrett skipped over the dragon, and the dinosaur, and surprisingly picked the fire log cake(which was good, cause the dragon looked really hard). He loved it...I think Molly might have loved it even more...but I loved making it and it was tasty! I love chocolate cake. Mmmm. This is becoming my favorite hobby...that I do three times a year. :-)
We skipped a LOT of the stuff that Garrett had planned...but I think opening presents made up for it. He got his pool, and his scary stories in the tent, and his "real fire" to roast on. It was a great time for all. We were especially grateful to have so many family members be in town and celebrate with him. It was a great day. Our Garrett is growing up. He has always had a very soft, sensitive side, and it is starting to come out more and more. He is very protective of his sister and gets mad at me anytime me and Molly are disagreeing. He is too helpful with his little brother...but Hansen loves to watch Garrett and try to do stuff he does. He is trying hard to learn to make friends. He loves to fish, ride his bike, and play pretend...anything. I just love him.

Mother's Day

This was a great Mother's Day. Memorable. I got to sleep in...and then I woke up to Molly crying. Sam then informed me that she was throwing up. Nice. Happy Mother's Day. (On a side note, I told someone at church about her, and she said, "That's funny...last Mother's day was the first day I met you. You walked into the mother's lounge and Hansen(1 month old) had pooped out, all over everything. You came in with a smile and said, "Happy Mother's day!" I told her I was glad she reminded me of this so I can look forward with great anticipation to next year) So I went to church(so I could get my tomato, basil, cilantro plant from the Cooks of Cook's nursery), and sat with Garrett. He was great. He was telling the kids in front of us to be reverent and he would give them a piece of his gum he'd bought at the store. It was hilarious. Then before he was supposed to go up and sing with the primary(I got a little worried, bc I had always depended on the fact that Molly would be there with him to coax him into it) So I gave him a little warning that he was about to go up and sing. He looked at me very worried, and then a few seconds later said, "I will sing, 'The Lord Commanded Nephi...'" I told him he was singing mother's day songs. He then looked really worried and said he can't sing those all by himself cuz he doesn't know all the words. I then realized he thought singing in Sacrament meeting meant he had to sing ALONE. :-) I explained that he got to go up there and sing with everyone. And if he was a little nervous, he could wink at me and I would wink back. He stood up there as cute as can be...and winked. Later on, he gave me a little thumbs up. Melted me. I wanted to just squeeze him tight. I was then asked to help with a little thing in primary where they asked the kids questions and we had to guess what they answered..."What is your mom's favorite food?" G said Eggs, I said French toast. "What is your favorite holiday?" G said Halloween, and I said Halloween just cause I knew that is what Garrett would say. Then...they asked, "Would your mom rather read a book or watch tv?" I said Neither, cause Garrett is asleep when I do stuff like that...it's not like I can read or watch tv when they are awake. He responded SO matter of factly when it was his turn, "My mom likes to watch basketball." :-) Hilarious, that got a good laugh...especially from me. I then missed R.S. and came home to the throw up.

Sam got me flowers, aka: No flowers, but a new shirt in a flower vase with my favorite honey dijon chips balanced on top. We then had my mom and dad over and my sister and her fam for dinner. Shrimp scaampi for my mom and watergate cake for my sister. I then opened presents from the kids...signs to stake out in the garden...so cute. An exceptional day that was made even better by a woman in church who talked about gratitude. She didn't talk about being a mom, or anything like it...she spoke about gratitude. This is a woman that has made it through cancer...twice...and she spoke simply and clearly on gratitude. It was truth...and I was grateful to have been there.

Hansen's stitches

Well, Saturday was a great day...almost. Molly had a little dance performance at the mall. She did great! She isn't nervous, just does her thing. She's a smart little one. I asked her what she was going to do, without the teacher in front doing it. She said all matter of fact..."There's this girl who knows it really well, I just watch her if I forget." Pretty cute. But then....this happened...
As my mother in law says..."This kid is stiches waiting to happen." It's true. He falls all the time. Sam was standing right next to him, but he tripped and slammed his head against one of those toy car things at the mall. The cars that Garrett begs me(and strangers passing by) for quarters. I hate them even more now. He fell asleep on the way to the hospital sucking his fingers and moaning in the back. It broke my heart. But that was only the beginning. Everything was great about our ER visit until the doc came in. He poked litocaine in him and got him crying pretty good...but then started stitching. He didn't wait more than a minute. I just figured they had some pretty great numbing stuff....oh no. The first stitch went through and Hansen screamed BLOODY MURDER. It was horrifying. As he continued as if nothing happened. I voiced my concern(in a very nice way...not crazy mom way) about the numbness. He just kept going. That sound coming out of my baby boy's mouth will haunt me forever. By the end, I wanted to grab the hook and put it right in the doc's face. I took Hansen out of there...and this last pic is what he looked like right after. He is fine. Happy. It is moments like these that I remember that this life is "but a small moment." Some of the teeny tiny moments are so heart breaking. But we can only do the best we can. It made me more grateful for those REALLY good people you meet in life.(not the mean ones) Those people that are just kind to complete strangers. Like tonight Garrett went fishing and a complete stranger would hook a fish and then hand the pole to Garrett and say, "Hold my pole, I gotta go get something." So Garrett thought he had caught it. This guy had nothing to gain, and was just kind. I want to be like that.(Not like the ER doc we hope to NEVER meet again).

A little time off...

Sam surprised me with a little trip back to Encinitas(He flew his mom in to take care of the kids). It was...it is hard to describe it. It was bitter sweet. It was relaxing. It was easy. It was wonderful. It was needed. My favorite part was taking a nap on the beach. :-) It is fun to take a vacation to a place you know. There isn't any stress involved(getting directions, figuring out where to eat, etc...) We enjoyed every moment together. He even called my cousin who is in our old ward and set up a little lunch get together. It was so fun to see everyone. Kind of emotional too. The kids were VERY excited to see us to tell us about all of the fun they had with Grandma. They loved the giant shoe, and our accompanying story about the giant on the beach, and tell everyone that will listen about their shoe. :-) It almost seemed like time stood still while we were away. Our kids are still moving at a frenetic pace...and I had to get my wheels turning to keep up on Saturday morning. :-) I felt like I was in slow-mo. But now I am back. :-)

The little things...

Hansen has learned how to get down the stairs...finally...after attempting it forward and falling, he has finally got it. Except for he starts his backward crawl about 5 feet from the first stair...which is just funny. So cute..and funny.
He finally has learned to put something in his mouth. It took about 20$ worth of sippy cups, but we count our successes one small thing at a time around here.The kids and I got to go cheer Uncle Joe on in his inner tube waterpolo match. He finally got his intermural t-shirt. We were all so proud. The kids cheered loud. Garrett just kept saying "Go Joe Flounder!" and hanging his poster and half his body over the edge...just to remind me why I don't take him anywhere after 8 o'clock. His ears turn off at 7. Seriously. They do. Molly had the french immersion teacher come into her Kindergarten class today. She came home saying Bonjour and Je m'appelle...but then I caught her in her room just babbling in kind of a french tone. It was hilarious. It reminded me of the Saturday night live and the french teacher...classic.

Love these little ones

If I learned anything yesterday while Sam had the kiddos and I enjoyed Saturday sessions with my family...it is that I love these little people. Love them. Happy Easter.

Happy Easter

This is my sister's friend from Brazil. She wanted to do all the tours up at Temple Square. Emily was nice enough to take Molly along for the trip up to SLC because Hansen was sick. They had a great time. I am looking forward to a wonderful conference weekend/Easter sunday with a lot of family. Being together is very fun.

On a side note, Garrett, while I was posting this was shooting his rubberband gun. While loading it shot back at him(cause the rubberband was too small). It hit him HARD. He didn't cry...he just started breathing kind of hard and then said, "It's okay Mom, I'm okay...wow, that huwt weally bad" Then a few minutes later as he was shooting it again said, "Wow, my face it kind of buwning...ow." He still didn't cry or whine. Just kept telling me that it was alright, and that he was okay, but it hurt really bad. Sure enough after a few minutes a welt appeared on his face. I put some calendula on it, and he said, "Awww, yea...that is just fine...thank mom." Writing doesn't do it justice, well at least MY writing doesn't, but it will be a funny memory anyway. :-)