dreaming

look who slept for eight hours last night!!!!

way to go, vivs!

three weeks

*picture edited by abe

lovin'

 lovin' vivs before school.

hotwheels

i woke up to an excited max standing next to my bed holding out his new hotwheel car for me to see.   his wide eyes told me how thrilled he was.  he said, "this one has golden plates!!"  i looked at the clock and it was not much after 6am.  he disappeared upstairs and i could hear the sound of cars racing down his track.  i think he meant nickle plated axles, but i liked golden plates better.  dave took the boys to spend their hard earned money on some new cars the night before, and they were so excited to wake up and try them out.  they are all trying to defeat dave's car with nickle plated axles that he bought himself so he could get into the action and give the boys some competition. our boys have quite the car collection and they spend a lot of time racing.  dave's car, i believe, is the fastest.  

 the new VW collection

 rainbow sorted

an orange version of the car dave had in high school.  the boys love the story about the first time dave drove me home in high school and the bumper on his yellow VW bug fell off:)

thoughts

dave promised abe a new mountain bike when we moved into our house.  abe has a biking field trip coming up at school and mentioned he really did not want to ride in the 'support vehicle'.  a couple days later, dave gave abe an awesome bike...and they have totally loved mountain biking together.

this picture was taken right before dave took the boys mountain biking.  when they got home, dave forgot that the bikes were on the top (too much on his mind) and drove into the garage!

i have been thinking about my kids a lot since we now added number five.  it is a big responsibility, teaching these kids.  i have been thinking a lot about what makes kids want to do what is right.  a scripture in the book of mormon has been on my mind.  laman and lemuel are being rebellious and it says, "and thus, laman and lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father.  and they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them." (1 Nephi 2:12)  so how do i help my kids 'know the dealings of that God who created them'?   i'm not sure exactly, but i have been praying that my kids will have spiritual experiences.  i want them to feel it and know.

so back to this picture....
when dave told me he ran into the garage and scratched up the house and car, completely broke the bike rack, tore off the car rack, and messed up the bikes...it was saddening.  then he told me the experience they had while biking.  kai crashed right at the beginning of the trail and dave knew it got more dangerous.  he was really nervous to take kai on that trail, but abe had already gone ahead.  he took kai down a different, easier way.  abe came to an intersection of paths and was all by himself, in the mountains, and didn't know which direction to go.  after waiting for several minutes he was getting nervous.  he decided to get off his bike and say a prayer.  right as he was finishing he heard dave call out his name.  dave could see abe even though he was a ways away.  he called out to him to continue down the trail and meet him at the car.  abe felt like this was an immediate answer to his prayer.  he told dave about it on the way back.  dave said it was a neat experience for abe.  so, in the scheme of things, i will take the scratched car and garage.  it reminds me what matters most and that Heavenly Father answers prayers of eleven year olds and moms, and hopefully we both know a little better the dealings of that God who created us.

sparkling

sadie's teacher won teacher of the year and she asked sadie to be the student presenter that introduced her at the ace award banquet.  i thought it was a huge compliment that she asked sadie, but on the way home from the banquet i realized what a blessing this teacher is in sadie's life.  everyone needs people that think they are wonderful and this teacher sees sadie as important and capable and sadie feels it.  she is an amazing teacher and i know it was a tender mercy that sadie crossed paths with her.

sadie gave a two minute speech* she wrote as an introduction, then presented mrs. porter with a mountain dew.  mrs. porter gave sadie a bouquet of flowers and then before she started her speech she said to everyone, "isn't she sparkling?" 

 it was a neat night watching the teachers being recognized and awarded the ace award.  i even shed a few tears.  it could be that i just had a baby and am slightly emotional, but mostly it was watching  things like a special needs student introduce a teacher that she loves, and watching teachers who help their students sparkle.     

**sadie's speech

I moved to Wasatch County last year in the middle of 7th grade.  I heard a lot of great things about the TV broadcasting class, so I decided to sign up and see if i got in.  They only accept about 35 students and about 100 apply.  I was thrilled when I found out I did. On the first day of school, I walked into TV broadcasting feeling slightly nervous. I didn’t know that TV broadcasting would soon become my favorite class ever.  

To get to know each other, everyone in the class picked a candy out of a basket.  Each candy represented a question about yourself.  Our amazing teacher, Mrs. Porter, really took the time to get to know all of her students well and help them get involved.  She found ways to make everything exciting. TV broadcasting had a lot of fun kids, but the thing that really made the difference was the teacher.  Mrs. Porter somehow got 17 crazy 8th graders to film and produce 5-10 minute news broadcasts two times a week.  TV Broadcasting helped me a ton.  It was a fantastic start to a great year and somehow, that class boosted my confidence.  Mrs. Porter has really contributed to my year.  I miss her class so much and ever since it ended in January, I have gone to visit her every day.  I even got to help her teach her new students.

Not only is Mrs. Porter a phenomenal teacher, she is one of the hardest workers at Rocky Mountain Middle School.  Mrs. Porter is a teacher, the librarian, she is in charge of core testing, she does presentations for classes, she is in charge of all the technology at the school, and Mr. Judd makes her send out all of the emails and she is a mother.  It is no wonder that her favorite drink is Mountain Dew.  She must need it to keep her going!

Mrs. Porter deserves this award. She is a hard worker and she is a huge role model to me, and most of all she is my friend.  I am so glad I had the privilege of being in her class and getting to know her.  Thank you, Mrs. Porter.

 

random moments

 i thought i'd capture a few of the random, happy moments from the last few days.

i hadn't seen dave in a while and found him and abe reading way past bedtime.

  

my mom spent a few days with me when dave had to work late and overnight.  it was heaven.  she cooked and cleaned and taxi'd the kids everywhere.  i took naps and completely enjoyed holding my baby.  i love laying next to her, looking at her and hearing her breath (purr) and squeak.  my mom even sent my dad up for a day.  he walked in and told me my mom made him come to vacuum.  he drove an hour each way so he could vacuum my house and please my mom.  he would vacuum, then sit and have a snack and check his tweets from greg wrubell.  then he would vacuum some more.    

sadie photographs vivian often.  i think this one of her holding sadie's hand is precious.  i love viv's fingers and toes and her hair that sticks straight up.  i love watching sadie love her too.

this baby girl is an amazing gift!  i love when she puts her little arm around me... she and i belong together.

kai loves her and so of course he wants to share with her something he loves, like taking stats.  not real stats, just making them up for fun.  i think he likes to watch the numbers change and so he thought she would enjoy it too.  

impressive stats!

vivian's first real outing was to the elementary school for kai's first grade program.  i was a little nervous taking her because i'm sure walking into the elem school is like walking into a big germ.  it was good we went though.  kai knew every word of every song and had a dancing part that was awesome.  he also liked showing off his new little sister.

dave had the week off of work when we had vivs, but now that he is back to work he is quite busy.
he holds her when he gets the chance and i love to hear him talk to her. he is always telling her how beautiful she is and how glad he is that she came to our family.  

(did i mention i love her hands and feet?)

 abe tied his own tie for church and was really proud of his knot.  the tie was a little shorter than he expected....we like to call it 'fun size'.

kai and max went to soccer practice and on the way i could hear kai saying how much he hoped he got the orange pinny because then his outfit would look so awesome.  his wish came true:)