Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet, accident-prone Will!

Today is Will's second birthday, yay! Will continues to be such a sweet, happy presence in our family and we are all completely smitten with him.

Will loves the alphabet, hence the ABC cupcakes (thanks to Grandma Pam for finishing them for me!!!).

In the few days leading up to his birthday, Will apparently became worried that he hadn't experienced very many childhood rites of passage, so he decided to hit two of them in two days: stitches and a broken bone.

First up: stitches. Wednesday afternoon Clyde and Will were jumping around back and forth between our two couches, a daily (sometimes hourly) activity. Unfortunately this time Will lost his footing and fell behind/in between the couches, where our wooden magazine holder sits.

Initially, I'm not sure who cried more: me or Will. Luckily Chuck was home (jarringly awoken by my screaming!) and kept a level head. We initially took Will to our nearby urgent care clinic, but they were a little intimidated by the depth of the gash (trust me, that picture doesn't do it justice) as well as its placement on a small child's face, and sent us to the ER. They did put some numbing medicine and gauze on it, so that was good.

So we went to the ER, our first time at the hospital here in Nampa. (Quick shout-out: THANK YOU to the Littlewoods, who graciously took Clyde ALL afternoon for us; we owe you!!!) We spent most of our time in the waiting room watching Animal Planet, good times. Then we were taken back for the stitching, which makes it near the top of the list of the worst experiences of my life - and I was sitting off to the side! I can't even comprehend how hard it was for Chuck, who had to help hold Will still, or Will, who was actually being stitched up.

But we all survived and for as miserable as Will was at the hospital, he was a complete doll afterwards. Chuck was already late for a work meeting so Will and I drove into Boise with him and waited, and Will was delightful the whole time.

He loves scrunching up his face and closing his eyes when I go to take a picture of him, goof :).

Thursday started out well; Will's chin didn't seem to be bothering him. During his nap, Clyde helped me decorate so we could celebrate Will's birthday that evening before Chuck went out home-teaching.

Will woke up from his nap happy and started playing with Clyde while I made cupcakes and Chuck worked on some scouting stuff with our friend McKay. THEN we heard a crash from the playroom followed by Will crying. Somehow the chair that Clyde and Will were spinning on toppled over, leaving a very sad little boy. He didn't calm down very quickly, which was odd since he usually shakes things off pretty well, but I chalked it up to his face hurting. We cuddled for twenty minutes or so, and then I went to put him down on the floor. Immediately he crumpled to the ground, unable to stand. AWESOME. After our broken leg experience with Clyde last spring, we know that any time a child refuses to put weight on a leg or foot, it needs to be checked out. Luckily my mom and Cody were already on their way so we left Clyde home with them while we took Will in to the urgent care clinic.

Isn't he such a cute patient?

First Chuck reviewed the x-rays, and then the doctor did :). Sure enough, Will's right foot showed a fracture.

They put a splint on it there, and then Monday we'll see the orthopedist for the hard cast.

He was such a trooper! Doesn't his little foot look so sad? Luckily there was still some fun waiting at home for him. . .

Birthday cupcakes! Will was such a pro at blowing out the candles; we didn't even have to explain what to do, he just went for it :).

W is for Will.

U is for Uncle Cody.

G is for Grandma Pam.

C is for Clyde.

D is for Daddy.

And M is for Mommy!

After that it was time for Will to open up presents, which Clyde only let him do unassisted because he was busy playing with a little airplane glider that Cody put together.

And a quick family shot:

Today has been very mellow, starting with a crawling lesson this morning for Will. We ventured out once for a quick bike ride (complete with helmets, as always) but spent most of the day watching movies, cuddling, and trying to keep Will off both his foot and the furniture. Happy birthday sweet baby Will - I love you more than life itself!

Late night (early morning?) goal-setting

Well, it may be a little late in the year to adopt a theme/slogan/resolution, but I'm going to do it anyways. Because I'm rebellious like that. My inspiration came a couple of weeks ago during a Relief Society lesson in Melissa's ward; the teacher referenced President Uchtdorf's talk "Lift Where You Stand". In it, President Uchtdorf relates a story about a group of brethren given the daunting task to move a grand piano from the chapel to another room in the church building. After many unsuccessful attempts and rearranging the lifters based on strength and size, one of the men spoke up and instructed, "Brethren, stand close together and lift where you stand.” The men did so, and moved the piano easily to its destination. The Relief Society teacher asked for input about what we thought it meant to 'lift where you stand' and a lot of good feedback was given about service in and out of the Church, and how much can be accomplished if we all reach out and find opportunities to help others around us.

That idea stayed with me and prompted a lot of thought. I've always been a big fan of the notion that everyone doing a little bit adds up to a lot getting done overall, a la 'Think globally, act locally' or Ghandi's instruction to 'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' So the charge to lift where I stand appealed to me - I'm not being asked to do more than I'm capable of, or hold up the entire world, just to lift right here where I am. I can do that - I can be kind and friendly and generous and leave people better than when I found them. Back in my baby-sitting teenage years, my mom would always encourage me to leave a family's house a little cleaner than it was when I got there - you know, finish putting away the dishes, or help the kids pick up their rooms a little. I saw the same idea in this - help someone's day/job/church calling/drive be a little easier/better/happier/less horrible because of an interaction with me.

I was feeling really good about this; I happen to be a pretty outgoing person anyways, so trying to be friendly with the store clerk or say 'hi' to someone on facebook didn't seem like that much of a stretch. Which is when I realized that if I felt that good about my goal before I even started working towards it, it probably wasn't going to promote much personal growth (darn it). So I decided to keep that goal but also dig a little deeper to challenge myself more.

So I thought more about where I spend most of my time 'standing' - my house. And since I'm pretty proud of how much I 'lift' Clyde and Will (both figuratively and literally), that left my sweet husband. I love love love Chuck, but I could certainly improve how much I show him that. For me, it's often easy to be kind/patient/understanding to strangers or acquaintances I only see for a few minutes, then go home and stop 'trying', essentially. So frequently I take Chuck for granted and fail to recognize and appreciate how hard he works for our family or the little things he does to make my life easier and happier. I'm sorry to admit that often I fall back on the knowledge that Chuck loves me unconditionally and deem him a safe person to take out my unrelated frustration or anger on. He puts up with it pretty well, but how great would it be if he didn't have to? What if I focused more on putting him first? What if let opportunities to be grumpy or offended (and the need to be 'right') go? What if I put more time and energy into building him up and voicing my love and gratitude instead of only speaking up to complain or add to his 'honey-do' list? What if I both forgave and asked for forgiveness more freely? What if I did more to help our home be a safe haven from outside worries and stresses and helped him feel more safe and protected here? What if in every interaction I sought to help him understand how much I truly love him? I think only good things would follow.

So that's my plan for 2010 to lift where I stand:

1. to consciously be aware of opportunities to lift others - family, friends, strangers, (maybe enemies?) and brighten their spirits

and

2. to resolutely stand next to Chuck and help him feel uplifted.


I think it's going to be a good year.

Just some fun at the fair.

A couple of weeks ago (say, Saturday February 27th perhaps) the little boys and I ventured out to a little shindig in Boise called Kids Fair so that Chuck could sleep in peace (a rare occurrence). And while I did see a friend from the ward there alone with her two little girls, I am not that brave. I chose to recruit two gentlemen for the afternoon:

my biggest brother Cody
AND my dad! And my plan worked perfectly; they provided the hands-on care for the little boys and I documented all the fun with the camera :).

We started out at the bouncy house thing and if Clyde had his way, we would have stayed there the entire time.
He kept bouncing over to the window to say hi to us. It was cute.

Will liked it pretty well, considering how much time he spent on his little bum. Whenever he got his balance recovered enough to stand up or attempt to walk, some bigger kid would bounce next to him and send him down again - luckily his response was always to laugh!

We lured Clyde out of the bouncy house by promising to check out the animals next.

Cody and Clyde liked the little bunnies.

Zamzows had a whole big exhibit, complete with hatching, already hatched, and not quite ready to hatch quail.

Grandpa and Clyde touched the little horses in the petting zoo area. I did not touch the little horses, perhaps my favorite benefit of having my dad there.

Then Grandpa was put on 'Will duty', which meant keeping him entertained without letting him run wildly and giggly through the throngs of people. And Pops made it look easy!

Oh, funny story. So there were tons of booths marketing different businesses, programs, etc. and they all had stickers to hand out, but my goofy 3-year-old isn't super into stickers, so he kept saying no. Cody opted to take the stickers, and sneakily stick them on Clyde's back - it was hilarious how many he ended up with.

Clyde forgot all about the bouncy house when he found the bouncy obstacle course. It was a pretty popular attraction, which meant there was a line, but Clyde patiently waited so that he could do it several times. Getting to stand on Uncle Cody's feet made the wait more fun.

Climbing up the ladder . . .

and coming down the slide!

Meanwhile, Will found the St. Luke's 'climbing gym' (aka ambulance) and promptly commandeered the driver's seat. Seriously, he wouldn't let any other little kids sit there or play with the steering wheel. . .

no matter what it took. Isn't this the funniest thing you've ever seen? Don't worry, I scooped him out right after this so that other small children could have a turn.

Continuing our tradition of pondering poses, Cody and I stopped for a photo op with the moose on the side of the ambulance.

Will was running around outside as we left, so I took this picture for Chuck since it's the only radio station he listens to :).

And that's a wrap! Thanks for accompanying us (oh, and paying for all of it!) to the Kids Fair, Grandpa and Cody; we had lots of fun!

A quick trip to Elko

. . . for our niece Courtney's baptism! Isn't she so cute?

It was a very quick trip; we rolled into Elko around 7 on Friday night and left Sunday afternoon, but we fit in lots of fun! The main event was Courtney's baptism on Saturday afternoon - Melissa's blog has sweet pictures of Courtney and Kevin beforehand. It was so nice to be there; we're very proud of Courtney for making such a great decision. Afterwards we all went back to Melissa and Kevin's new house to hang out (and eat yummy food!). Between handing my camera to various children and using it a lot myself, I ended up with tons of pictures, so consider yourself warned:

Puzzles were a big hit - Clyde and George teamed up to complete one, while Lily handled another solo.

Will did the ABC puzzle several times with moral support from Daddy,

and later on Grandma as well!

Mallory and I took advantage of a photo op. I love being an aunt :)

Another photo op with an obviously distracted Clyde. . .

who later had lots of fun wrestling around with Uncle Kevin.

Ooh, more puzzle time. Will and Lily combined forces for this one, with Aunt Amanda and Pops double-checking their work :).

Then we randomly started dancing. Who can remember why or how?
This is a lovely shot of me demonstrating the 'shopping cart' dance - at this particular point I was 'clearing the shelf', a move I may have made up, to be honest. I have a distinct memory of my older cousin Janessa teaching us these dances (the shopping cart, the lawn mower, etc) at my cousin Ryan's wedding reception when I was 12, so I figured it was about time to pass them onto Mallory :).

Mallory was showing us the worm, and Clyde was eager to try it too!

Uncle Steve lost brutally to Mallory in Battleship and then he attempted to take on George - I never did hear the outcome of this match-up, though.

Then it was definitely time for some good ol' Hide and Seek.
Here's Courtney counting . . .

and Chuck hiding :).

Here's George counting . . .

and Chuck hiding :). Chuck and Steve (aka the only two adults who played multiple times) were usually the last to be found. Steve had some pretty amazing hiding spots - perched on a windowsill in the basement, between the mattress and box springs of George's bed, etc. The kids were going crazy trying to find him; it was hilarious.

Lee and Aleesha came over, too, yay!

And of course they brought their sweet Bri. It was so funny; she wandered off with Aleesha's phone (a blackberry, I think) and then came back holding this play phone - nice trade, eh?

Oh, my sweet Will! I love how entwined our fingers are; he loves spinning my wedding rings around and around my finger.

Will and Grandma heading down to play in the basement.

At one point, brave Uncle Steve took charge of all seven kids downstairs, where they played games like "Smash on the Mattress".

Amanda and Chuck deeply engrossed in 'Sorry'. Melissa and I were mostly playing too but kept getting called away or distracted by other things, so Amanda and Chuck dutifully carried on, taking our turns for us.

I love my husband. (And yes, I am very good at the long-armed self-portrait shot).

We had such a fun time visiting Chuck's family - the highlight for Clyde was getting to plant doughnut seeds with Grandpa on Saturday night and waking up Sunday morning to freshly grown doughnuts :).

We got home safe and sound on Sunday evening, albeit to a chilly house. I quickly turned the heat on and mixed up some cookie dough so that we could turn the oven on, too (every little bit helps!). Plus, that way I got to break my fast with cookie dough, which makes fasting a much more enjoyable experience!!

Clyde managed to get one oven mitt on by himself but requested help with the other one, so that he could 'check on the cookies'. Goof!