find joy in the journey

thanksgiving week

Last week was a pretty busy week, with several big events in our family.  Because it was so crazy and we were all sick I never got around to posting about any of it.  Now that I'm out of that hurricane I think I'll take a moment to summarize.

THURSDAY -- Thanksgiving

Not a very good picture, but when dinner is sitting on the table, we're all grumpy and sick, perfection is not something I'm concerned about.  We're all in the picture . . . great . . . done.  Yes, we were all sick for Thanksgiving, but Scott and I had the worst of it that day.  Kind of made for a miserable day, but we trudged through it.  When I sat down to eat I took about 4 bites and I was done.  On the bright side, we got to enjoy a few beautiful things -- the table set with china, my apple pie -- things we only treat ourselves to once a year.

FRIDAY -- Conner's 6th birthday

He's a big boy!  For weeks, months leading up to his birthday, Conner would make me list (checklists, actually) of all the things that I needed to do to get ready for his party.  Things like make the cake, buy balloons, blow up balloons . . . Needless to say, he has been anticipating this birthday for a long time.  I think he had a good birthday.  His Transformer collection is stocked for quite a while to come.  Conner & Payton worked together to frost the chocolate cake -- with chocolate frosting and decorated with M&M's and sprinkles.  We had pizza for dinner at his request.  I picked up 6 blue and green helium balloons (his favorite colors).  And that was about it -- we stayed home the entire day.

SATURDAY -- the birthday party

Conner had his first ever birthday party.  We went with a "space" theme and we sent out invitations on postcards that had pictures of astronauts, the space shuttle, etc.  It said something like, "Congratulations!  You have been selected for a mission to outerspace."  When the kids arrived I gave them badges they wore around their neck that said their name, "Astronaut in Training", and had the NASA logo.  Then they spent a couple minutes coloring while we talked about all the different planets.  For games we played a moon rock relay, comet toss, astronaut & alien chase, and asteroid belt.  My favorite part of the party was the cake.  I had so much fun making these -- vanilla frosting mixed with crushed oreos so that it looks like the surface of the moon.  I was sooo excited when I found these little astronaut dudes online. We moved through all the games, cake, & presents so quick that I was left with time at the end before parents would arrive.  Luckily, Conner had received the Backyardigans Mission to Mars DVD the day before so we popped that in.  All the kids had a total blast.  Conner loved everything -- especially the presents.  But I'm making a mental note that in the future 8 little boys might be a bit much for little me to handle all alone!

I also have to give a shout out to my friend Tamra for sharing many of these ideas with me.  She also just threw a space-themed party for her little boy.  Thanks Tamra!

SUNDAY -- teach in Relief Society

It was my Sunday to teach again.  I knew ahead of time that this week was going to be crazy, so I actually put my whole lesson together almost a week in advance.  Then on Sunday morning I just had to print it out and go. 

The subject came from this general conference talk by Elder Wirthlin:  Sunday Will Come

MONDAY -- breathe again.  But only through my mouth.  My nose was still stuffed up.

nap time

So Anna will be 14 months old tomorrow, and she's decided to give up her morning nap.  That's fine.  I knew that was coming soon.  But what is driving me crazy is that when I lay her down in the afternoon she only sleeps for 1 hour.  That's it! 

I just don't understand how she can go from two - 1.5 to 2 hour naps everyday to just 1 hour TOTAL for the entire day.  I remember both of the boys taking 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon when they were her age.  This really is not working for me.

let it snow

The past two days we have had some snowy & icy mornings at our house.  Today AM Kindergarten was cancelled so Conner got to stay home.  We ventured outside to let the kids play in snow -- if you can even call it that.  It was basically a light dusting on the ground, but it stuck.  Anna and Conner loved it, but Payton was too cold and wanted to go back in the house.

Yesterday Scott even worked from home.  He left for work and was only 5 miles out of town when he had already passed 2 accidents and traffic was at a stand-still.  So he turned around and made an office in our bedroom.

The forecast shows Thursday to be the worst day -- maybe some freezing rain.  We'll see what happens!

checklist

Is it really thanksgiving tomorrow?  It seems so early this year . . . almost crept up on us.  Although, this year I purchased the turkey way more in advance and I am happy to report that it is sitting in the fridge fully defrosted.

Tonight I baked an apple pie.  I only make my apple pie once or twice a year, but it is oh so good.  I'm a little sad for Scott, though, because we weren't able to make it to Costco to pick up his pumpkin pie.  He says he'll just get one next week and he'll be okay.  I also whipped up a double batch of  crescent roll dough.  So tomorrow morning I will have a date with my rolling pin and kitchen rotary cutter thingy. 

I think I really have everything we need . . .

• turkey . . . check
• potatoes . . . check
• stuffing . . . check
• turkey thermometer . . . check
• martinelli's sparkling cider . . . check
• egg nog . . . . check
• we've pulled out the china, the linens are sitting on the dining table, the butter-making jar-o-fun is ready for some serious shaking . . . . I just can't think of anything else right now.  Oh yes, the bathroom scale for the pre- and post- Thanksgiving dinner weigh-in.  Seeing as Scott will be the only man at our table this year, I think I can safely assume that he will be winning.

It's time for me to go to sleep.  We have a case of the sickies going through our house right now.  Hopefully after all the cooking & eating & cleaning up tomorrow we can all sit down and take a giant nap.  Wouldn't that be wonderful.

In case I don't get to posting again for a few days, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

joy to the world

Is it too early to be listening to Christmas music?

I bought this CD last night and we listened to Track 1 - Joy to the World on our way to Conner's school, with the volume way, way up.  Conner had his hands over his ears, Anna was very confused, but I think Payton enjoyed it because he asked if we could listen to it again on the way home. 

The music totally gave me chills.  I got to thinking how fun it would be to go to one of their Christmas concerts . . . maybe someday.

Although it's only November 17, realizing I may really mess with some people who are looking forward to Thanksgiving, I feel like I have to say it . . . Merry Christmas!

fhe

Last night Scott and I experienced a big pay day as parents and let me tell you why . . .

Monday is family home evening night, but our usual nightly routine was completely out of wack because Scott didn't get home from work until after 7pm.  So I fed the kids dinner on my own, started bathing Anna & Payton while Conner cleaned up the dishes, and eventually he got his bath too.  The question of FHE came up -- what are we doing?  when is dad going to be home? etc etc.  Our FHE's are not usually planned all that much in advance, but we do have them regularly.  We think of a topic, Scott gives a great little lesson, add a song, prayer, game, and treat and we're good.  So Conner came to me, "Mom, I have a great idea for FHE!  Why don't we learn about 'why we go to church'!"  He was so excited about it and pleased with himself for coming up with this topic.  Dad still wasn't home so he asked if I was going to teach it -- sure.

Eventually Scott did get home and we were still in clean-up mode.  I let him know about the topic Conner had picked.  As I was finishing up a few things the boys started to gather with Scott, he told Conner what a great idea for a FHE lesson that was, and then, "Conner, do you want to teach the lesson tonight?"  Conner thought for a moment, and then with a BIG smile, "Yes!!" and I'm sure it was followed with plenty of his happy giggling. 

We began FHE and turned the time over to Conner for the lesson.  Not skipping a beat he shared this with us:

"We go to church to learn about the gospel and to learn stuff about Jesus.  At church we take the sacrament and we are quiet.  We go to church every Sunday, and sometimes we go to play with the kids.  We sit on lots of big benches.  The big kids go to the Primary room.  The little kids go to the nursery.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

It was perfect.  It was one of those moments where I'm just sitting there realizing how grown up this kid is getting.  And that maybe he really is learning and understanding what we teach him.  I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it was definitely a moment.

names

I've been tagged, so for this one I'm supposed to share why I named my kids the names that they have.

Let me first give a little explanation on the process that we use to choose a name. 

• First & foremost, when I'm expecting and we're trying to choose a name we are very secretive.  We don't tell anyone the names we are considering -- not our parents, not our friends (ok, I've let it slip a few times), my visiting teachers, long-distance friends I e-mail, no one.  My reasoning is, I don't want to be influenced by anyone in any way when I am choosing a name for my child.  Obviously you can understand this if you share the name with someone and you get a negative response.  But I even don't want to hear the positive responses because then I'll start thinking in my head, "oh, so-and-so likes the name so I'll keep it."  It's like each individual's response plants a little subliminal message in the back of my mind and I'll never be able to get rid of it! 
• Second, the name must have more than one syllable.  Scott says he has had a complex his entire life over being named Scott Ray Brown -- all one-syllable names.  Whatever . . . I just go with it.
• Third, we usually don't get serious about names until the 8th or 9th month of pregnancy.  We have learned from early experience that anything we come up with in the 1st or 2nd trimesters never lasts -- we always end up hating it at the end.
• Fourth, the middle name is always a "family" name.  Something from the family tree.
• Fifth, we don't ever make a final decision on a name before the baby is born.  We always go to the hospital with two names and wait to see what the baby looks like -- to see which best suits him/her.

Conner Ray

When I was pregnant we were way into names that started with C.  My favorite for a very long time was Carson.  That one bit the dust after we taught a CTR 5 class with a little boy named Carson who was bi-polar and emotionally messed up in many other ways.

I still don't know why but through the entire pregnancy Scott was pushing the name "Gunner".  Absolutely not -- it sounded like a hunting dog's name!  Ugh, but he teased me relentlessly about it. On and on and on and . . .

We also wanted to avoid all "S" names, because with Scott & Shannon already how cheesy would that be.

Ray we decided on from the get-go.  Ray is Scott's middle name, and it is Scott's dad's middle name.

When it came time for Conner to be born we went to the hospital with the names:  Conner & Zachary.  I was never really feeling the Zachary vibe, but Scott liked it.  When he was born we both agreed on Conner pretty easily.

Payton Scott

For this pregnancy all we could think about was "P" names.  It's weird how that works.

I suggested Scott as a middle name early on and Scott didn't seem to mind.  Just as long as the first name has more than one syllable!

On induction day we brought the names Parker & Payton with us.  We were both leaning more towards Parker.  When this little guy came out and we had a moment to look him over we both decided that his name should be Parker.  10-15 minutes had passed when Scott and I turned to look at each other at the same time (almost like in a movie), thinking the same thought, "Parker is not his name."  We kind of laughed and decided that Payton it was!

Anna Margaret

Holy cow, for this one we were all over the board and had a very hard time coming to a consensus.

The names I liked were Claire, Ella, Cali, I can't remember what else (there was quite a list).  Something that was definitely feminine, and leaning towards some of the "classic" names.

While Scott leaned toward names that reminded him of hot girls he knew in jr. high or high school.  Names like Jessica or Kristen weren't awful, they just were not what I was going for.

I chose Margaret for the middle name.  Margaret was my grandma (my dad's mom) and I always loved her spunky attitude, cheerfulness, and deep love of the gospel.

So on hospital day we showed up with Anna & Paige.  While in early labor we discussed the names.  I really liked Anna, but could live with Paige.  Scott really liked Paige (weird, because it is only one syllable), but could live with Anna.  We were at a definite crossroads.

Then our little girl arrived at 12:17am.  We could not make a decision.  We called parents to tell them the good news, but we didn't have a name. The morning came and we still could not agree.  Finally, probably about 6am Scott said to me, "you choose your daughter's name."  While you may think that I was relieved and jumped at the opportunity to have the final say, I was filled with inner turmoil at the thought of choosing alone and nervous that I was going to mess it up!  Scott seemed at peace with the "treaty", but for the next hour I stewed over it and stared into her eyes and finally, finally decided on Anna.

Next I'm going to tag Nicole, Lisa, and Heidi

remembering

Last monday (oct. 30) my grandma Neva passed away and I had the opportunity this week to go to Utah to join my extended family in remembering and honoring her.  It's always amazing to see how something like this can bring so many people together.  All 8 of my grandparent's children were there.  21 of their 28 grandchildren, and 4 of their 13 great-grandchildren.  Everyone was sad to see her go (somewhat suddenly) at the age of 69, but thankfully with our knowledge & testimonies of the restored gospel we know she is in a better place and we can all be reunited again someday. 

(me and Anna and my grandpa Blain)

I flew into Utah on Thursday evening and Kent picked up Anna & I on his drive down from BYU-I.  What a nice brother he is! and cute!  And single!

I flew back home on Saturday afternoon.  Scott and the boys had every intention of meeting me at the security gate to welcome me home, but their plans were foiled when Payton threw up all over himself & his carseat while on the freeway.  So, instead I met them at the curb with my suitcase and carseat and Anna.  They were still very happy to see me (by now Payton had recovered & was stripped down to his big-boys) and the whole episode made for a very funny conversation on the way home.