Lots-o-library

I should be cleaning my house for my card party tonight, but this is way more fun! We have already had a fun filled day, and it's only half over! We are half way in between two libraries. Both are less than a mile from our home, so we keep up to date on all the activities at both of them. We hit up our regular story time at our first library, which is always a blast. Our triplet friends are always there and our kids just love playing together. Sometimes they hinder each other from sitting quietly to listen to the stories, but they sure love going and playing together!

After that story time we immediately drove over to our "other" library for "Dia de los ninos." I'm not sure why it was in Spanish... perhaps it's Hispanic heritage month or something? But not to worry everything was in English and Spanish. I did bust out a few Spanish words/sayings so we maybe sounded a little more like we belonged. Or maybe we just looked like the big white family trying to blend in. Okay, there were tons of Hispanic and non-hispanic alike and we weren't out of place at all and it was great fun! 

There was a children's entertainer/comedian/magician there. 

There were tons of crafts: stamping, making bookmarks, making buttons/pins, etc. There was live music that my kids loved!! They just stood up front and danced for a good 10-15 minutes. There was also facepainting. 

And then Spot the dog was there... I have no idea who that is, but my kids were thrilled that there was a huge, stuffed dog walking around that they got to take their picture with. They don't look like they liked it in the picture, but they did. 

After Dia de los Ninos, it was kind of late, already over-due for lunch, so we met up with Jefferson between class and clinic and grabbed a bite to eat. We actually sat outside- it's so beautiful here today! I think a walk will be in order for after naps. 

Should not I spare Nineveh?

Note: This is kind of a journal entry- no pictures. :)

I just finished a book called “The Peacegiver” by James L Ferrell and would highly recommend it. It’s a fictional story of a man and wife struggling in their relationship and the man has dreams/visions that help him see the need for the atonement in his life. It has made me realize how much I need the atonement in my life and has given me a deeper insight into what the atonement is, other than just the Savior suffering for my sins.

There are a few parts that were particularly poignant to me. The husband fears that he will fall back into old habits and old sins and that he won’t be able to sustain his change of heart. He is gently reminded that’s what happens in this mortal life: “The Lord does not give you a new heart only once. He gives you a new heart every time you come to him repentantly, in faith, believing that you will receive. We need the gift of a new heart every day.” There are small things that happen every day of my life that I wish I could take back, that I wish I wouldn’t have said or done, that I wish I would have done. I get so frustrated when I commit the same sin twice and wonder why I can’t just get it right all the time! That’s why we need a new heart every day, because we are not, and will never be perfect. In fact these infractions serve as a reminder of how much we need our Savior, and consequently draws us closer to Him, and ultimately to salvation. 

There is an analogy in the book that I also love and helps me understand a little bit better how the Savior can love so unconditionally.  The author points out that when we hurt something on our bodies, in the case of the husband in the story, his shoulder, we don’t get angry at it, treat it roughly, cause it more pain, but on the contrary, “we dress it, and succor it, and nurse it back to health. If anything, we love most those parts of us that bring us the most pain. For they need us the most, and we, them.” In the scriptures it says that we are all members of Christ’s body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Of course, if we are “injured” he is not going to chastise us or hurt us more, but offer us peace and healing. It then says, as in the scriptures, that we need to be one flesh with our spouse. How differently we would treat our spouse if they were literally a part of us, and every time we hurt them, it in turn, literally hurt our self (when in actuality, eternally it does).

I also loved how the author explained that not only did Christ suffer for our sins, but when he was in the garden, he experienced every temptation and sinful urge that we will ever have. Because He overcame every personal struggle that I have had or will ever have, He has proved and provided a way to avoid and overcome these temptations and struggles. I don’t know if that adequately describes what I understand, but that is kind of the gist of it.

There were so many other wonderful insights into forgiveness and begrudging others that I just can’t eloquently explain. It was an easy read and made it easy to apply the lessons into my own personal relationships. It definitely increased my testimony of the Savior and His atonement. And even though I wouldn’t consider myself a “huge sinner,” I recognize now how much more I need the atonement in my life and feel a deeper understanding and appreciation for it. I love my Savior.

Jefferson found out he passed two more sets of boards!! 4 sets down, one more to go, and then he'll be an official D.C.!!! Way to go babe!! We are so proud of you and your smarts!

Potty Post

A warning that this is a potty post, for all of you who are not parents and/or who have not potty trained a child. It's not near as disturbing as my last one (remember Carter sharing the goods of his diaper with his little sister one night?) and in fact, is CLEAN!

We are on day 5 of no poopy diapers for Carter!!! No, not because he is constipated, he has been going in the big boy potty!!!! If I am this proud of my child for pooping on the potty, I can't imagine the overwhelming sense of pride I will feel when he starts to read, scores a goal, gets baptized, graduates high school, or graduates college.

We left him in his underwear on Saturday night to go to bed. Usually we put a diaper on him and he will go poo literally within two minutes after us closing the door to put him to bed. We had finally had enough. He obviously can control his bowels just fine. Boy was he mad when he realized no diaper was coming his way!! We put his little potty in his room and told him he could come out if he needed to go potty, but we got a lot of tears, and no pooping. After he was asleep we put a diaper on him and hoped he wouldn't go poo in it when he woke up. He didn't. He would still not go poo in the morning. After church I was at a meeting and Jefferson was eating lunch with the kids and Carter said he had to go potty, so he did, by himself, like usual. He came out and told Jefferson that he had gone poo on the potty. Jefferson was skeptical and told Carter to show him. So he did, and he had gone poo!!! We made a huge deal of it and offered treats galore and did a potty dance when I got home just a few minutes later. 

Same thing Sunday night and every night since, no diapers, but he still won't come out to go potty. (I never thought I would complain of my child being too well trained!) He went again Monday evening with a little encouraging from Jefferson. Then he was a little scared this morning, but I made him sit on the potty, because I could tell he had to go. I kept it positive and encouraging and he went again!!! I am hoping we have made it over the potty hump and that I will never have to change his poopy bum again! Tomorrow we are going to the Disney Store to pick out whatever toy he wants... he has already told us he wants the Buzz Lightyear gloves. 

Way to go Carter Mac!!

New nephew!

We have a new nephew/cousin: 

Easton Crew Mitchell:

Isn't he handsome?! This is Jefferson's step-brother Bryan and his wife Jamie's fourth little one. They have a beautiful family and we can't wait to meet this little guy one day. 

Congratulation Mitchell's!

Tulips!

We headed down to Woodburn to go to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival today. It was so beautiful. I wanted to sing that primary song.... "I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world, Heavenly Father created for me." I wish I could have walked around the tulips to appreciate them a little bit more, but two toddlers had other plans. We met up with Sharon, Gray and Cal. Carter and Gray loved palling around together, and Andi tried to keep up.

They had a great kids area with fun things to entertain the little ones. There was a water pump duck race, and anything that has anything to do with water makes my kids happy. There were hay bales to climb on, slides to go down, tire swings... 

Carter went down this slide about a hundred times! He loved it... as did Andi.

It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon in this perfect weather. It is well worth the drive if you live in the area and haven't made it yet. 

Life:

Here's what we've been up to (in the past two days since I posted). We went to OMSI yesterday with our friends, the Culbertson's (Carolyn, Isaiah, Ava, and Eli). My kids always love it there. Unfortunately, we were unaware that it was "national take a field trip to OMSI day." I kid you not, there must have been 8 different field trip groups going through there. Luckily, the kids were older so they stayed out of the Science Playground where we always spend the majority of our time. It was still crowded, but fun.

Ava and Andi putting on a puppet show:

DJ Carter:

I used to always have to be within Carter's sight, or else he would freak out if he couldn't find me within .2 seconds of looking. Not anymore, apparently. Carter took off running the second we were inside, and never looked back. I was trying to keep my eyes on both the kids, and they usually were playing in the same area. But Carter ran off and after a minute I went to look for him just to check up on him and this is how I found him. He is apparently pretty capable. He took his shoes off, put on a smock, and was putting on rainboots so that he could go into the water area. 

Playing in the water... always a favorite:

Finger Painting:

Carter loved this air tunnel. A flying ball is pretty magical!

The kids at lunch:

Today Jefferson had to go to school and study. Part IV of the national chiropractic boards, the final part, is coming up in less than a month, so it's time to study, study, study. We all went out for a hot breakfast; Jefferson's idea. It was nice not to have to cook or clean up. But then he had to head to school and my house desperately needed to be cleaned. So the kids and I made a fun time of cleaning. I put on some fun music, we danced a lot, we painted the kitchen floor before we mopped it, both the kids got to take a turn vacuuming... we all enjoyed ourselves, and I LOVE having a clean home. 

After naptime, Jefferson came home and we headed to the fish hatchery since it was such a beautiful afternoon. The kids had a blast feeding the fish. 

22 weeks

A bite of bagel

It has been wonderfully warm and sunny weather this morning so we decided to take advantage of it, since it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. After story time we walked around "historic" downtown Gresham. We mostly just window shopped and enjoyed stopping to look at dogs that passed by and people watch. We did stop in the toy store too, of course. Then we ended up at Jazzy Bagel to grab a bagel for lunch. The kids enjoyed it, as you can tell. 

Here is a random picture from yesterday of my sweet kids reading together.

Whew!

What a crazy weekend it was! It all started on Wednesday evening when I was asked to sing last minute in our Easter program. That brought a rehearsal Friday morning and Saturday night. Friday afternoon my dad was in town for meetings so we met up with him for lunch. Friday night was cake making and party prepping for Carter's birthday on Saturday. Saturday was birthday party, family party, prepping for my first Sunday as primary chorister, and then going to a friend's birthday party that evening. Sunday was singing in church, singing time in primary, Easter festivities, driving to Salem to play, and then home again. It was such a fun filled weekend! Check out the posts below.

Happy Easter

We had a fabulous Easter. Our Sunday Easter program was very nice. And since church was at 9, the Easter bunny came while we were at church. The kids loved their Easter baskets and couldn't believe that there was more celebrating to be had after the fun filled birthday the day before. 

After Easter baskets and naps, we headed down to Ben and Sharon's for Easter dinner. It was delicious, and to say the kids had a good time would be an understatement. Carter and Gray were so wild!!

 The cousin pictures:

Then, here is the picture of the grown ups taken by Carter:

Carter and Gray were our photographers and Carter snapped one of Gray in action: