Keepin' it real

I had one of those moments this evening where I thought, "this is perfection"! I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and looking out my window to this.

They were playing together. They were laughing. My heart was melting. This is a rare moment in our home. I'm addicted to my children's laughter. If I could bottle it I would and save it for those days that they are quite literally driving. me. crazy!

Of course, the moment lasted for just that. A moment. It wasn't long before we were back to what seems to be the norm around here lately.

All in a week:

- Abby peed on the floor and then ran and hid.
- Joe is sleeping for two hour intervals at night. I'm exhausted!
- Hannah bawls and bawls over a broken necklace that Nathan "accidentally" threw over the neighbors fence. The neighbor is not home to retrieve it.
- The kids like to play 'rough' with Joe. Drives me batty!
-  I mowed the lawn and got eaten alive by mosquito's.
- I saw a snake in our garden.
- The chickens have pecked some of my very best looking tomatoes. I want to eat those chickens for dinner!
- I ask the children to clean up their room before bed time. I come up to see this:

- I yelled at the kids to be reverent during the prayer. What a great example I was setting of being reverent!
- I woke up with 25 minutes to get the kids breakfast, Hannah dressed, do her hair, and pick up her friend for school. We barely made it.
- Nathan bawled and bawled because I'm trying to teach him how to wipe his own bum after he does his business. You'd think I cut his right arm off with the fit he was throwing over this.
- Nathan and Abby like to fight in the car.
- I got in an argument with Aaron. Lasted 3 days. Not Fun!
- Had a jar of salad dressing, with oil, spilled on me.
- Got pooped on and thrown up on multiple times by my beloved baby.

On the bright side, I captured shots like this:

This one is totally posed, but it still made me smile.

My favorite one of all...

..because despite all of our mishaps this week, (and this is only a few) my family still loves me, including Aaron even though I can be a bit of a pill to live with sometimes.

A tribute to my Parents

These two love birds have been married for 50 years today! Wowza! That is something to celebrate! and we did!! Their 9 children threw them a celebration party to remember. Thanks to my sister, Susan, who organized the whole thing, it was a wonderful evening and tribute to these wonderful people. There was over 150 people flowing in and out that evening to congratulate my parents on this feat, but more than that, these people came to show their love and support to mom and dad for touching their lives. Sometimes I forget just how influential my parents are. It would be impossible to list the number of people they've helped and blessed. They are dearly loved and Friday night was just another reminder of that.

We honored them with a program of a timeline of their life together. Each of us kids read a part of their life history. They sure have done a lot and experienced some amazing things during their marriage. Theirs is like any marriage full of ups and downs, joy and sorrow, accomplishments and mistakes. They are a tremendous example to their offspring. Perfect, no. They are not perfect. But boy oh boy, they sure have done so many things right in their life and marriage. During the program, the 9 of us sang the song, "Love at Home". It was a staple in our home each Monday night for Family Home Evening. It was one of dad's favorites. It was difficult to sing without crying since so many memories flooded each of us in different ways because of that song.

I'm grateful to these two people for braving 9 children, and now 28+ grandchildren. I'm grateful for the commitment they have to each other. I'm grateful for their example of marriage, partnership, and hard work. I'm most grateful for their example in their testimony of Jesus Christ and for making Him a vital part of our family to learn and study Him.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you both so much!

Mom and Dad's 9 children

Mom and Dad's posterity

Homeschooling

So, with one week down of my homeschooling Nathan on the days he's not in preschool, it's time to evaluate how that first week went.

Each morning starts with devotional. We sing a primary song, read from the Book of Mormon, say the pledge of allegiance, look at our world map and find one of the temples, and end with family prayer. Lasts all of 5, maybe 6 minutes. Then we kiss Hannah goodbye as she heads off to school. This is a staple every day. Then, I attempt to set out Nathan's work. I use his preschool stuff for practicing his spelling. He actually seems to like it a lot. He has to write his name four times. He doesn't like doing that very much at all. There's also a puzzle game to spell his name. Win! Win! He loves puzzles and therefore loves this activity. Then we spend ample time on the couch reading books together. My favorite part, as long as Joe is sleeping and not needing me. This is tricky though, because so far, no day has been without distractions of attending to an adorable baby. Getting Nathan back on track has been a little challenging. My greatest desire is not to make this into something he dreads, so if he starts playing with Lego's or something else, I usually cave and let him play for a bit and try again later. That's exactly what today was like.

I will be adding some science experiments and artsy stuff too eventually. I need to take advantage of the cooling weather we are enjoying now and go for some nature walks. Overall, I really enjoy teaching my kids. Abigail loves to tag along with any activity we are doing and I have some fun things for her to do too while Nate and I work on his school stuff. So, for week 1 I think it's been a success!

Nathan on his first day of preschool with Mrs. Tecia. So happy to be back with her again this year.

Joe is Blessed

We had such a wonderful day with family yesterday. We woke early to go to the twins blessing. It seems like it's been so long since we've had a baby blessing in our family. Emma and Van were absolutely adorable all dressed in white. We all gathered at mom and dads afterward for a brunch. With a crew of 57 people, we had quite a feast. I was so distracted that I failed to take pictures, but it sure was fun to visit with family and friends. Thankfully Carlee snapped a couple pictures for us so we'll always remember this special day.

 Once we had our fill of yummy food, we all caravan over to our church to bless Joe. Oh what a sweet baby he is. Not a peep did he make and Aaron gave him a beautiful blessing. The one thing that stood out to me the most in his blessing was the name we gave Joseph. Being named after his Grandpa Lombardo, Aaron blessed him to live up to the name of his grandpa. I'd like to think that my father in law was given a glance on this special day for us and that he is pleased to have a grandson with his name.

I love this sweet family of mine. I'm so grateful to be a mother. I'm so grateful for our little baby that we all can't get enough of. I'm so grateful for the things he's teaching all of us. I'm so thankful for the sweet spirit he is in our home. A family of 6! I feel so blessed!

Celebrating 9 years together

There's so much to celebrate in 9 years. 4 children, career changes, multiple moves, several different callings, each that have stretched us differently, many new friends and old friends too, new talents to find.....like becoming a cowboy!!!

Check him out! This look is good for him, right? I love it! I am a total country girl at heart. Aaron surprised me with an absolute night to remember for our 9th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner where he gave me a gift of my favorite perfume that he lovingly refers to as "Melissa" and he also had some pictures of him taken with Joe that I absolutely LOVE! This is one of my favorites.

After dinner we drove around Provo to where we first met, our first kiss, where we both lived. It was so fun! I haven't been back since we met, so it was truly a walk down memory lane. And all those ooshy gooshy feelings we had came flooding back instantly.

The last part of the date I couldn't have expected in my wildest dreams. He drove me up to the base of the Y hike and parked his truck. Told me to hang tight while he set things up. He brought out Christmas lights and started making a large square on the ground with them. Once he was done, he turned on some country music and then offered his hand to me where he proceeded to swing dance with me. This guy of mine has secretly been taking swing lessons so he could dance with me that night. I about died!!! We've come a long way in 9 years! This is the guy who never liked country music, didn't know how to country swing (one of my favorite past times), never wanted a truck, and probably always made fun of the guys dressed up like he was that night. He knows how much I love all of those things and so has taken the leap to my side! What a guy!!! I couldn't adore him more.

Best night ever!

It's happened

I've known we probably wouldn't escape it. There seemed to be ample opportunity for it to happen. I tried to predict how I would react when indeed it would happen. Today it finally happened. Nathan cut the hair of a cute neighbor girl. I should have known since I did know they were playing barber shop, but I had no idea that he even had scissors. And when he came to me and said that Mara needed a hair cut, I immediately said, "Oh no. Please tell me you didn't really cut her hair".  To my horror, he did. This picture doesn't show just how much he cut off.

Fortunately I think it's fixable. And thankfully, I didn't blow up! In fact, it was pretty hard to get too mad at Nathan since he really had no idea that this was wrong to do. When I told him that we never ever ever ever cut someone else's hair, I could see the weight bear down on him and he felt so bad. When I called Mara's mom to tell her that her daughters struggle to get her hair to the length it was, might need a bit of a hair cut to even it up, she was all laughs. What a good friend. "Hair grows" she said.

The most surprising thing about all of this was that it was Nathan. I really thought this would be Abigail's doing. Still could be I guess. Knock on wood.

1st day of 1st grade

Hannah said her favorite thing today was the play ground, with lunch being a close second. She is quick to make new friends and "boy" friends. Sheesh! This girl is going to kill me with her childhood crushes. And there are many!

Summer Highlights

School started today. Today! How on earth did it come so quickly? More on that later. I think we can say that this summer was full of random fun. Plenty of swimming, lots of farm country and splash park fun. We spent lots of time at our library, read lots of books together, went on bike rides or leisure walks, played with cousins, cleaned and organized the house umpteen times, grew a garden, and enjoyed dance and art lessons.

New for us this year was the jello fight at Thanksgiving Point gardens. Hilarious! I mean, why wouldn't you want to throw bright, red jello at each other and get all sticky?

Abby's dance lessons. Didn't get any pictures of Hannah. And in Susan's words, "this is the most adorable thing I've ever seen in my life".

Aaron took Hannah and Nathan on multiple camp outs this summer. I was super jealous.

Some of the kids art work this summer.

And most recently, we took a quick trip up to Idaho to see my sister and her family and also our good friends. We had an absolute blast and didn't want to come home.  I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard and so much. Good for the soul!

Now it's back to the grind. Looking forward to structure again. Sort of.

Preston's Wedding

My cute nephew, Preston, got married last week. He sure is a cute kid (man) and he married an absolutely darling girl. They both register a tad on the shy side. In my book, they are a perfect match!
Wedding Dinner

The next day was their wedding ceremony. Lauren was a beautiful bride and their ceremony was wonderful. We all came away with lots to think about and reflect on. I sure love the temple. That evening was their reception in my brothers back yard. Hannah was over the moon excited to see Lauren in her wedding dress. On the way to Trent's house we passed by the Temple and Hannah was thrilled to learn that that is where they were married.

The kids loaded up on the ice cream bar and danced till their hearts content.

I so remember being Hannah's age and dreaming of my own wedding day, just like her. It's so fun to see her eyes sparkle when she looks at a beautiful bride. For a second, she thought that Lauren might give her her bouquet of flowers.

She was pretty happy just to hold them. Weddings are so fun.

Nathan was nowhere to be found. He was busy keeping himself full of ice cream and hiding under tables. Such a boy!

10 weeks

Bah! I can hardly stand all this cuteness from this little guy.

And, what else is there to do when you're nursing but to take pictures? I'm sure I don't know.