mother's day movie

my sister-in-law took wonderful photos the day vivian was born.  i will share more photos another day because i love them.  sadie put some of them together in this movie for me for mother's day.  

(note: pause the music on my play list before you start the movie)

happy mother's day!!!

my kids are worth my best effort.

they are pretty much the greatest thing i've ever done.

i love being a mom.

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.