fhe cuteness

Last Monday Makenna had the Family Home Evening lesson, and she surprised us with a lesson and activity on Mothers. She started by telling us what Mothers do for us, and then gave us a clue that led us on a scavenger hunt. It was really sweet. We found a rolled up "scroll" at the end of the scavenger hunt that said this:

A- always busy.
I- intelligent
M-Makenna, her daughter
E- Enos, she loves to study
E- enlarge, she enlarges her love for us every day

C- catches, she catches us being bad and tells us the right way
H- healthy, she keeps us healthy
R-remembers, she remembers the way
I- I love her!
S- sweet as sugar
T- trouble, she's never in trouble
I- inside out, she fixes Luke's inside out undies
N-nice, she is very nice
E-Ensign, she reads the Ensign magazines

W- water, she gives us water
H- hibernate, she doesn't hibernate
I- inch, she loves us inch by inch
T- turtle, she's not slow like a turtle
M-movie night, we like to have movie nights
E- enter, we enter the world of happiness with her
R-rabbits, she loves rabbits

I loved this!  It was a special way for me to see into Makenna's mind about what she thinks I am. She's really such a special girl, and it is fun to watch her grow. And I'm sure that I'll look back someday and smile at the challenges Luke is going through.  And I will love them all day long, and give them cookies and milk and yellow balloons (a plug for the song I loved as a little girl).

a doctor in the house

After an agonizingly long first morning of Spring Break, I decided I needed to take matters into my own hands, and organized a doctors office upstairs in the playroom to keep little minds engaged and busy. I could not believe the things that Makenna and Luke came up with! They crack me up. As I was lying on the hospital bed, being "examined" I was told the following:

Makenna: Mom, first let me work on your hair, because it is very out of date (ouch, by the way). First, you need a trim. There, you look much better.


Luke: (holding a mirror into my mouth) Ut oh, you have a silver thing on your tooth.
Makenna: Wow! Really! Let me see!! What is it, Mom?
Me: A cavity. Pretty gross, huh?
Makenna: No, that's awesome! I always wanted to have a silver tooth! (pause) but just not from a cavity.


Makenna: (inspecting my thigh--I was nervous for this one) Well, it looks pretty good, you have a good size bone. (um...thanks?)


Luke: (using the stethoscope to listen to my heart) Mom . . . you do have a heart! (Was there any doubt??)


Makenna: (tapping my throat with a comb) Oooooo. You have good rhythm, Mom! (wasn't she the one making the rhythm? It's okay, I'll take the compliment.)


Makenna: Well, it looks like you need to take 2 of these (hands me my pretend medicine) and take it easy, and don't forget to brush your teeth and say your prayers.


Good advice, Makenna! Thanks for making me feel better!

a report on brothers

Makenna had to give her 2nd grade speech this week, and her teacher let them decide on the topic. This is what she came up with...


Hello, My name is Makenna. Today I brought pictures of my two cute brothers to share with you.

I love my brother Luke very much.

Luke is 3 years old, and will turn 4 in 2 months. Luke is very sweet, but very hyper. He likes to play with tools and his hockey sticks.

We love to play together. Some of the things we like to do are jumping on the mattresses in our play room. My mom lays out two extra mattresses that we have, and Luke and I jump back and forth between them.

We also like to play with legos. Here is a castle that I made when we were playing legos. Luke likes to build towers when we play legos. (hold up lego castle)

During the summer we like to play in the pool and splash each other. Another thing we like to do is Luke will throw in a dive stick, and I will swim underneath the water and get it. Then Luke throws it back in again. It is a lot of fun, and work when he throws them into the deep end. Once he threw it so far into the deep end that I had to jump off the dive rock into the freezing water and swim all the way down into the water to get it.

Jared is my other brother, he is almost 10 months old. He will turn 1 in May. I love to make Jared laugh. He has such a cute laugh! I make him giggle by playing peek-a-boo. I play peek-a-boo many different ways, one is crouching underneath my mom and dad’s bed and jumping up and saying “peek a boo! I see you!”. Then Jared starts laughing, and laughing, and laughing. He also loves to drive a car (hold up a picture)

and brush his teeth (hold up picture).

He also loves to eat ice cream, here is a funny picture of him eating my Dad’s ice cream cone. (show picture)

We all love ice cream!

My brothers are my best friends, I love to play with them and make them laugh. Sometimes when we go on long trips in the car we all sit next to each other and play games. We have lots of fun together.

Thank you for listening to my Show and Tell. Now I hope you know more about my bothers and what I love to do with them. I have time for 3 questions.

I love to see Makenna's interpretation of her relationship with her brothers.  I hear a lot of "Mom, I need your help, Luke's picking at me!"  But I know Makenna has a deep love for her brothers, and it is fun to see that.

some luke love

This boy.  Strong willed and ready to test his will vs. mine.  But such a tender heart and so full of life and love.  Three has not been an easy year for you, and I spend many days on my knees asking for help on how to help you feel loved.  I would not trade this year for anything, though.  As I've cried and prayed, my love for Luke has grown.  And as we have struggled together to navigate these hard times, my heart is always keenly aware of how Heavenly Father sees you.  Your tenacity that will create opportunities to thrive as an adult are not always easy, confined in a three year old body.

Luke, I love you.  You make my job hard sometimes, but because of that it is the most rewarding also.  Love you to the moon and back, and even beyond.

Love,
Mom

simple innocence

Makenna and I were making a homemade cake. It sure looked pretty as it came out of the oven, but it didn't turn out as good as either of us had hoped it would. As Makenna was eating her piece, she said, "Mom, it is kinda sad that this cake looks so good, but it doesn't taste very good".

Light goes on, and I say, "You know, Makenna that is kind of a life lesson. Satan does that, he makes something look good, but it really isn't what it seems. He tries to trick us. Can you think of a way that Satan might try to trick us into thinking something bad is good?"

Makenna gives it some thought and her eyes light up all excited like. She then tells me "that one way Satan tries to trick us is with poison oak, it looks pretty and shiny, but if you touch it, it causes itchies all over your body." Yes, this is true, but I was thinking along the lines of something else.  I sure love her, and all her innocence.  

operation: new home!

Not to sound ungrateful, because I am very grateful! But our house was a bit of a "project". It was only 9 years old when we bought it, but was seriously not maintained. From the overgrown yard and green pool, to the cobwebs and dust, to the nasty carpet and filth, we definitly had our work cut out for us!

Ben had taken the week off to work on the house, little did he know he would be working way more now, then days when he would go to work. He worked from 7am until some nights 11pm. What an amazing guy! I wasn't a ton of help because Jared was brand spankin' new (as in brand spankin', he was born on the day we got our keys to the house) but luckily my family was! A huge thanks to Mom, Erica (out from Utah), and Brenda who came a runnin' as soon as they got word that Jared was born, they also knew that we were starting our huge project that day and knew we could use all the help and support possible. Mom and Erica stayed the week and were a complete life saver with baby Jared, packing, cleaning and painting new house, and cleaning old house as well. Couldn't have done it without you! By the way, thanks guys for putting up with Ben's perfectionism!

Before:

The house needed to be painted from top to bottom.  A lot of primer and paint

went into this house.  From sealing in the pet stains on the subfloor, to 

wall, trim, and ceilings.  I don't think there was a surface that didn't

get some paint on it.  A long and tedious process, for sure.

And the carpet had definitely seen better days.  I must admit, though, 

that new carpet is amazing, and I feel super spoiled.

During:

Luke wanted to be right in the mix of everything, and help 

with every project.  He loves having a big huge back yard to play in and 

the fort is going to be a huge hit...we just need to prune the apple tree off it first!  

So much painting needs to be done.  Halfway through this project, we

had a huge thunder storm, and lost electricity.  That didn't stop Ben 

though.  He pulled out a super powered flash light and rolled out the walls

right through the storm.  What a trooper!

Oh, Luke.  We just adore you and all the spunk you bring to life.

You have so many people cheering you on, and loving you

every step of the way, little dude.  

Carpet going in!!  Seriously one of the most exciting days 

we had during the whole process.  The kids loved reading and playing 

on the new floor, and this germ-a-phob mom didn't mind one bit.

Our house is still bare, not a whole lot of pictures and decorations, but it's a work in progress. And, yes, there are still projects we are working on (refinishing the deck, and getting the waterfall working on the pond, etc.) but we are getting closer!

Things I've learned: What an amazing process! It has been really fun to see the progress

 we've (and all who helped) made on our first home! It has been extremely gratifying to 

have a vision and see it evolve! I can't even imagine the man hours spent on this project, 

but how worth it it has been to see the end result! Ben is amazing, his hard work and 

dedication, especially that first week when Jared was so new to our family and he was so torn between working on the house and getting to know his new little man. 

I don't think I could ever convey how much I admire you, Ben!

And pretty sure, the kids love everything about this new house...including this (not green) pool.  

tushies and such

Our family has been sick, and I finally had to run to the store for a new box of tissues. When Luke saw them, he asked if he "could put the tushie in Dad's nose".. I want to hold onto that one a little longer, so I won't let anyone correct him quite yet. They are still called tushies.

Makenna has taken on a new nickname, Bubba. Jared says two things now, DaDa, and Bubba. Makenna is convinced (and Ben and I are thinking she might be onto something) that when Jared says Bubba, he means Makenna.

This morning Luke asked if he could watch Little Einsteins, his favorite show, and I said No, that he needed to get dressed and brush his teeth. He looked up with his big blue eyes, all puppy dog-like, and said, "But Mom, you are so beautiful and I think you have a nice shirt". He is wise beyond his years.


This picture is actually from last year, but I had to share, because it is one of my favorites! Luke is dying to be a boy scout! Every time Ben goes camping with the scouts, Luke is heart broken that he doesn't get to go. Some day, big guy, some day.

oh boy x2

We have sick boys! Both Luke and Jared have been sick this past week, and Thursday was so bad we ended up at the doctor to check Luke's ears, sure enough a double ear infection. Luke did not want anything to do with our doctor, Dr. Murdock. He cried the whole way there, he didn't want the stethoscope on his chest or back, and certainly didn't want her to look in his ears! But after one dose of amoxicillin that night, he suddenly loved Dr. Murdock, and is sure she is the best person ever! Luke kept telling me when Jared would cry that he needed to go to the doctor because she would make Jared feel better. It was sweet that he didn't want Jared to feel pain anymore and knew the cure to all his problems!

Needless to say, the next day was Jared's turn to go see the doctor, and this time Luke couldn't wait to go.

Thank goodness for a good big sister, Makenna, who wants to help...and help...and help! Her good intentions are usually reserved for Jared, but here was a fleeting moment when she was helping Luke to keep his mind off of feeling cruddy.

and lets be real...nobody feels sick when Dad comes home!