Mean mom

We had the funniest thing happen at our house last week. Mark installed a pull-up bar in our exercise room and the kids were taking turns on it using a band to assist them. Zachary had freaked out on his first turn because he felt like he was 100 feet in the air. He was actually only about 4 inches off of the stool. So savvy got my iPad to film Zack and show him that he was being a big chicken.

Well, his dismount went terribly wrong, and Savvy got it all on film.

I was laughing so hard that I honestly could not help Zack get out of his situation!  Mean mom.

Aubrey wasn't here but she laughed so hard about the video that she made a page on her blog post about it. It is one of my favorite cartoons she has ever drawn.

My missionary

When Abram left on his mission last May, I thought letting him go was the hardest thing I had ever done.  I learned throughout last year that there are some things much more gut-wrenching.

His weekly emails make my life. I can't function on Mondays until I hear from him, and I love to catch him online and go back and forth with emails for a few minutes. Mexico is the best place I can image him spending 2 years, and I am so grateful that he had the desire to serve a mission, and that I had the courage to let him go.

He has been gone nearly 9 months, and I have a whole bunch of Mexican Facebook friends now. I know he is well loved and being taken care of. Missions are awesome.

Je parle français

One thing I am so grateful for is that my dad taught me to love languages. He always had cassette tapes of languages in the car and at our house. He learned German on his mission and for the rest of his life he would light up whenever found someone to speak German with. And then he tried to learn a little of every other language he could.

Although my German never progressed beyond singing Stille Nacht and O Tannenbaum, I did learn French. For 5 years in school I took French. It is still in my brain, and I love to use it, although I am afraid to speak it.

My senior year I switched to Spanish and I ate it up. I love Spanish. I don't know much, but I am working on it.

I really love to sub for French and Spanish classes at the high school.  It's something that makes me happy.

Paper projects

I would like to think my kitchen is always clean.  It's not.  I really have this thing about being able to see the entire counter in order to be OK.  But I have two crafters who live here who keep the counters very, very....crafty.

Zack and Savanna have two kitchen cupboards full of paper, scissors, buttons, glue, popsicle sticks, pompoms, etc.  They are always making stuff.  So I just sort of get used to seeing the counters with a pile of craft materials on them.

Someday that won't happen any more and I know I will miss it.  So I am trying to appreciate the "craftiness" while it still lives in my house.

Mon beau sapin

Roi des forêts, que j'aime ta verdure.

I have some pictures from our Christmas tree adventure this year.  It was 19 feet tall, and yes, we brought it home on top of the minivan again.

Lots of fun, but a little more difficult missing our two oldest children to help lift it onto the car, drag it into the house and then get it upright.  Good thing Mark is so handy on ladders, because he is very good at lighting up a tree.

HAPPY New Year

Let's just say that 2013 was difficult. Too many sad things and way too many goodbyes.  I have been in a sort of funk recently. Things seem tough right now. And today I decided I need to start focusing on things that are awesome and fun, and hopefully the things that are worrying me right now will seem less ominous and impossible in the process.

So here we go.

Jacob has a new banjo and I love hearing him figure out a new instrument. It has a happy sound and Jacob is super talented.  

Savanna dressed up like a granny on Saturday night and did a very entertaining impromptu skit. 

Noah is my shooting buddy. I am so thankful to live on our property where we have a shooting range in the back. Noah is so cute. 

It's pretty fun and therapeutic to shoot.  We used the 22s this day and shot up the gingerbread house, and all the aging produce I could find in the fridge.  It was a spectacular mess.

I got to talk to Abram on Christmas. It had been almost 8 months since I had seen his cute face and heard his nerdy laugh. I love my missionary!

Zachary is an angel. Everything he does is cute and very artistic. He loves to have me read him Spanish children's books. 

Aubrey was home for 3 weeks, and we had so much fun with her.  I loved hearing Jacob and Aubrey playing the piano and singing together.

Joel makes everything interesting.  He was such a helper cutting down our big Christmas tree and getting it into the house.

 Aubrey learned how to make meringue mushrooms for our Buche de Noel.  She also became a wild and crazy knitter over her time at home with us.  It was pretty much a 3 week long party.

Savanna helped me roll up and decorate the Buche de Noel.

Lots of happy things to think about and remember.  My kids are pretty dang cool, and I love each of them forever.