Light.

This, as you may already know, is typical Stephen.

He always has a new book to read and often after school, he plants himself

here on the couch for the afternoon.

(at least until a friend comes over to play.)

Our church magazines came in the mail today and as I was reading the New Era, 

I was reminded of Elder Hollands talk and why it was one of my favorites:

"In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited...When those moments come...hold fast to what you already know and stand strong until additional knowledge comes...The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue-it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know. 

"...I am not asking you to pretend to faith you do not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have. Sometimes we act as if an honest declaration of doubt is a higher manifestation of moral courage than is an honest declaration of faith. It is not!"

-Elder Holland

I'm excited for this weekend for many reasons...

the number one being that as soon as Trevor is out of the shower

we'll finally be watching The Hobbit. 

It's about time!

I hope you have a light filled weekend!
(try reading the Ensign and you will be sure to!)

Strange but in a good way.

Joshua has this glove that he's cut all the fingers out of. 

You can find him wearing it most of the time here at home.

He also has adopted his own sense of style. 

Everyday it has to be a long sleeve shirt (sometimes with another shirt on top),

jeans (no shorts...yet), 

and one of his hoodies. 

And often his glove. 

Annabelle is starting to get her summertime freckles again. 

She certainly has some rosy cheeks. 

Stephen started baseball again and is doing great!

He's the oldest on his team and it shows...

Ignore the dirty window below and instead focus on the kid underneath. 

And the glove. Typical.

You can't see it but I'm sure the stink in that room is horrendous. 

I had to buy Josh a second pair of school shoes this year. 

The first ones were really good New Balance shoes, 

second ones were cheap Kmart shoes. 

Never again will I buy Kmart shoes. 

The cheaper the shoe, the stinkier the feet. 

That's wisdom from a wisdom-less girl.

Ahhh-mazing

While I run on the treadmill, I watch The Killers Live at the Royal Albert Hall and this is one of my favorites from the whole concert.
The best part of the song comes at 5:10 and then he starts doing his Irish jig- Trevor and I always make sure to make fun of that...Oh but it is an amazing song.

Whirlwindy.

It's been a whirlwind of a day...literally. I'm not sure how windy it actually got but it was crazy. Aaannd...I'm not a huge fan of the wind. It always seems that the truck door gets blown into the car parked next to us at the store or at least it almost does. Today it really did. I left a note on the windshield, secretly hoping they wouldn't be able to see the slight damage done, but they did. At first they were fine and then they were not so fine with it. So I'm waiting to hear back as to what they want to do about it. I feel badly that it happened and they seem like a nice person (at least texting they're nice).
For Scouts today we made kites. It was too windy to actually fly kites but the boys liked to take them outside and see how ruined they could get. Stephen didn't want to ruin his kite so he waited a bit before he flew his and it survived!

 I often times remind my family of how much I love our house. It has flaws...like we need another bathroom, we need to replace all the floors (soon!), we need a garage, we need our grass fertilized and stuff (this week-thanks to Weed-Man USA!), and lots of other things could be added to the list. BUT I really love this house. Especially our living room. The light in that room is beautiful no matter the time of day and it's our place to go to relax. I love how easy our house is to clean and to keep looking nice.

 Joshua loves Curious George. When we go to the library all he wants to check out is C.G. books. Sometimes he even pretends he is C.G. And I think they look a lot alike. Tonight after FHE, while eating Popsicles and getting ready for bed, I sat and read to Josh. It's been my favorite part of the day so far.

And I've almost made it through a whole blog post without mentioning Trevor...but I can't do it. He has to work late tomorrow (inventory~the most dreaded day of the year) and so we're going to hang out as soon as he gets out of the shower, maybe eat something, maybe watch something but definitely go to bed early!
Oh and we ate at 6:30 tonight...I know, I know, what is happening to me?!?
(in case you didn't know, we generally eat dinner at 7:30 and Candice thinks it's crazy!)

fuzzy wuzzy

Since I had my wisdom teeth pulled, my mind has seemed to be so fuzzy. There have been things happen in the last two days that I've wanted to remember so that I can share with Trevor or on my blog that I just can't bring to mind. But tomorrow is a new day and I'm determined to be all healed and non fuzzy by morning time (which means I should go to bed but I'm waiting for Trevor to get done showering).
Yesterday me and the kids spent the majority of the day outside cleaning up outside and doing yard work. I guess I must have become dehydrated because after I talked to Candice, she texted Trevor to let him know that I was acting loopy. I can remember vacuuming when we got off the phone and thinking to myself about how much I love my liver and how proud I was of it doing it's job. I know, that's super weird.
Trevor called and told me to drink some water and then I laid down for awhile. I think he came home to a somewhat sane wife. Of course, he always thinks I'm a little crazy and I like that.
But dang it all, I know my kids have done cute stuff and said funny things, I just can't remember them right now.
I'll just leave with an old cute picture that shows off all their cuteness:

A little less wiser

My wisdom teeth were finally pulled out yesterday. Everything went fine, even though I thought I was going to die, I didn't. The nurse took me back to the chair with me crying like a little baby and Trevor feeling helpless. Of course I had taken a Valium the night before so I'm sure that didn't help with my weepiness but I was genuinely scared (although it did give me some weird dreams. And I could distinctly remember them the morning when I woke up-we had bunch of little people move in next door and they wanted to fight Trevor. So they fought in our kitchen and Trevor got out a diet coke and started hitting it on the little persons forehead and then spraying him with it. I guess Diet Coke was like his Kyrptonite.  And the field across the street they made into a grand canyon-like place with huge boulders everywhere...).
After I had calmed down and was resting for a minute the doctor came and put some kind of powder under my tongue to make me less aware and more relaxed. After that kicked in, all I can remember is drilling noises, the nurse telling me to breath through my nose (I had nitrous oxide), the nurse telling me to stop making noises (the Bradley method has more uses than for just during labor), and seeing the string that was being used to stitch me back up.
After they finished, I can barely remember the rest of the afternoon. I guess I talked to my dad and Candice on the phone but I can't remember the conversations at all. I really tried to keep my mouth shut so I didn't make a huge fool of myself.
I slept all afternoon and most of the evening. Trevor kept telling me to drink water but it was hard. He made me mash potatoes and stayed by my side the whole time. At one point I ended up fainting while laying down and that kind of sucked. It freaked Trevor out pretty good. My eyes were wide open and my pupils were dilated~ I didn't wake up for about a minute. Just in time for him to reconsider calling 911. That evening around nine o'clock the doctor called and told Trevor to make me a shake with a RAW egg in it. So disgusting but not knowing the egg was in there, the shake was actually really good. Then I had another bad spell of fainting, sweating, dry heaving...you know, the fun stuff.
So we watched Raising Hope and then went to bed. I slept all night long and woke up feeling so rested. And in no pain. Trevor had Emily stay home with me and she did a great job taking care of me although I was completely fine. Seriously, I felt great. A little unsteady on my feet and a lot of pressure in my jaw where one of the teeth was impacted, but other than that, I felt really good. And I still do.
Trevor gave me a blessing the night before and so I'm positive that is what has helped me feel better so fast. I am just so glad to have it over with. My dentist has been telling me for awhile that I needed to get them out and I just kept putting it off and putting it off.
But it's over and wasn't nearly as big of a deal as I thought it was. We have such good friends and people who are so willing to help out however they can without even asking. My friend brought us dinner last night. And another friend brought me soup and popsicle's and Emily and Joshua lunch today. And she brought me a 2 liter bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper. That's a true friend who's willing to support your not so healthy habits but does so because she likes you!

And that's the end of my wisdom teeth story. 

Trevor-isms

Trevor is a pretty funny guy. There's not a day goes by that he doesn't make me laugh for some reason. Whether it's jumping over spilled water or trying to kick his leg as high as possible and falling on his back or by just saying something witty, he makes me laugh a lot.
Yesterday he was trying to explain to Emily why being being sweet is more productive than not. He taught her the saying "It's easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.". And he asked her whether she would rather be honey or vinegar. She replied that she'd rather be "honegar". She definitely gets her wit from Trevor.
Tonight Trevor and Stephen were getting ready to check on the chickens but Stephen couldn't find his shoes. Finally Trevor just got frustrated and said "What do you want me to do- knit you a pair of shoes?". Trevor and I just looked at each other and laughed. I don't think either of us knew that he could knit shoes.
Witty and talented.
And very wrinkly.

I actually have some things to say.

Last Sunday I wasn't feeling well. In fact that night, I slept horribly. It was so bad that I slept in and Stephen had to come in and wake me up at 7:30 so that I could make breakfast and lunches before driving them to the bus stop at 7:45 (!).That night while eating dinner Stephen was (tattling) telling Trevor how late I slept in and so I started to excuse myself with the whole -i-slept-horribly-speech. Trevor turned to Stephen and said "She still got everything done that needed to be done so it doesn't really matter how long she slept, right?".
That's Trevor.
He's just so good to me. Too good. Sometimes I feel like Mary (Downton Abbey!) in the last episode of season 3 when she tells Matthew that she hopes she's always the Mary he knows and not the one the world knows...or something like that. Trevor thinks I'm better than I am and that makes me want to keep trying to be as good as he thinks I am.
We went on our weekly date night tonight. I always feel nineteen again when it's just the two of us. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not...maybe I just haven't matured quite yet. No matter, we definitely have fun while we're out. Nacho movie night used to be my most looked forward to night of the week but it's been pushed to second (a very close second...I still love our nacho night!)

While looking at the pictures on my camera, I found pictures! (imagine that...actual pictures on a camera)

The girls had some really poufy hair one Sunday morning...no worries, we fixed it before church.

Stephen presented his Science Fair project. 

Can you believe that Great Value chips were the cheapest and the healthiest? 

Crazy. 

I say just don't buy potato chips. 

Trevor bought me flowers just because he saw them and thought I would like them. 

He was right. 

I love them. 

And josh got a haircut since this last picture was taken. 

Trevor and him begged and begged me to cut it so I did. 

He looks like a really young old man.

It actually happened.

Emily turned twelve years old! 

That means make-up, shaving, going to Young Womens....

and that makes me and Trevor a little older. 

 As part of her birthday gifts, we gave her face wash with the requirement that she has

to wash her face each night or she doesn't get to wear make-up the next day. 

That sounds harsh and micro-parenting maybe but we have to instill in her good habits...

Right???

"Best day of my life."~Emily's own words. 

When we were in the bathroom shaving her legs, we were shocked at how much hair was

left in the tub. It was kind of gross. 

I'm taking her shopping this weekend and I have a feeling 

shorts are going to be at the top of her list...

She is an amazing girl; 

funny, kind, FUN, unique, confident, and absolutely adorable.

WE LOVE YOU EMILY!

Dead.

This morning I looked out the kitchen window and could have sworn I saw

the rump of a deer on the ground in the back yard. 

I figured it wasn't a dead deer and didn't think about it again until

I was at my neighbors house that's behind mine

 While we were talking, Annabelle came and told us we 

had a dead deer in our backyard!

I should have gone and checked this morning...

But it gave the neighbors some great drama!

We called to find out what to do with it

and were told to drag it down to the river. 

Gross. 

People swim in that river. 

However I will not be. 

Top five.

I made cabbage rolls tonight for dinner 

and it's now in the "top five worst meals I've ever made" category. 

I didn't like them, Josh didn't like them and

so of course Trevor didn't like them:

Oh well...you win some, you lose some.