Quotation of the day

You may have tangible wealth untold;

Cachets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be - -

I had a mother who read to me.

Strickland Gillilian

The tale of the balloon...

Once upon a time, there was a tiny princess who loved balloons. I mean LOVED balloons. One glorious day (three weeks ago), she was invited to her first tiny birthday party, where she played pin-the-belly-on-the-Care-Bear, ate cake, and was given a balloon to take home. Happiness. UNTIL. The princess and her mother got in the car and somehow the balloon (which was actually tied to the princess' wrist) slipped off the tiny wrist and floated to the sky. The poor devastated princess sobbed as she watched her prized possession slip into the big blue sky. Her mother promised her another balloon. For the next three weeks, the tiny princess never forgot the balloon.
"Mom, balloon fly away in the sky. Need another one."
"Yes, I know. I promise we will get you one."
Yesterday, the royal family went to Sunflower market (the queen's favorite), where the kind workers gave each of the royal children a balloon. The tiny one literally squealed with delight. This time, she not only had the balloon tied to her wrist, but she held on to the ribbon for dear life. The family finished their shopping and went to the car. As they climbed in, still white-knuckle holding on the the ribbon, they discovered that the worker had not tied the ribbon to the balloon very carefully and the balloon popped off of the ribbon and once again, floated away into the sky. The tiny and horrified princess let out the most heart-wrenching howls. The queen frantically shouted, "SOMEONE GIVE HER YOUR BALLOON." The beautiful, kind and compassionate oldest princess quickly ripped the balloon from her own wrist and put it on her tiny sister's wrist. (I just found out that the sweet and loving prince also tried to give her his balloon, but the older princess was faster. What amazing children.) Crisis averted. Except... the tiny one could not forget that she had lost her second balloon.
"MOM, BALLOON FLY AWAY IN THE SKY AGAIN."
"Yes, but Ashton gave you her balloon. Isn't she nice?"
"Oh, yep."
(This conversation repeated frequently for the rest of the day.)
Here are the royal children and the remaining two balloons.
Don't worry. The royal grandmother promised to pay for the tiny princess' therapy that she will undoubtedly need after all this.

The temple

We went to the Draper temple open house yesterday. What a beautiful experience. After walking through the temple and seeing the beauty and feeling the Spirit, we were led to a sealing room where a couple talked about the blessings of forever families. The kids got to look in the mirrors and see eternity. I know they felt the Spirit there. Before we were shuttled to the temple, we met in a church where we watched a short video about the Draper temple. On the video, Elder Holland spoke just for a minute, but what he said really touched me. He said that he could not think about Heaven without his wife and family. It would not be Heaven without them. Then he said that some may call it wishful thinking, but he knows that there is something eternal in the words, "neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord" (1Cor. 11:11). It was very tender and beautiful. I, too, believe that without my family, Heaven would not be Heaven.Speaking of Heaven, Christian loves to take pictures of the sunset. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Quotation of the day: "A happy family is but an earlier heaven."
Oliver Goldsmith

Quotations of the day

So, the kids have been doing copy work for school. Then, if possible, they memorize the quotations or scriptures they copy (copy work helps with penmanship and learning grammar and punctuation - also, I heard that if you memorize something every day, you can develop a photographic memory - worth a try!). I thought I would share our quotations of the day with you. We have done 4 so far:

"All of you are children of the most high."
Psalms 82:6

"Character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking."
J.C. Watts

"With books we stand on the shoulders of giants."
John Locke

"The things taught in colleges and schools are not an education, but the means of education."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The tale of the paci...

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who liked green smoothies (that were sometimes not green)...
Really the smoothies had nothing to do with the story, I just wanted to post that picture because it's so cute.
The beautiful princess loved her paci (pacifier). She was only allowed to have it when she was in bed. The queen had never let any of the other children keep theirs so long, but this princess was so sweet and agreeable. Well, the queen started noticing that the tiny princess's teeth were paying the price of her mother's push-over-ness. So, the king and queen decided it was time to say goodbye to the paci. So, the queen, stealthy as she is, slipped into the princess's room while no one was looking and snipped the top off of the paci. Then, at bed time, she informed the tiny one that her paci was broken. The king and queen braced themselves for a temper tantrum. This is what they got instead:
The tiny bewildered princess held her broken paci and said: Paci broken?
King and queen: Yes, paci broken
P: Oh. Need to go in the garbage?
K&Q: Yes. Go put it in the garbage.
P: Oh. OK.
(She puts it in the garbage.)
P: Paci broken in the garbage.
K&Q: Yep. Broken in the garbage.
P: Oh.
P: Mom, paci in garbage with pull- ups?
Q: Yes.
P: Oh.
After she was tucked in, she would yell from her room: Dad, paci broken, in the garbage! This conversation continued for 1.5 HOURS. Each time we (the king and queen, in case you wondered) confirmed that, yes, indeed, paci is broken and in the garbage with the pull-ups, she would respond with a very confused "Oh." But not a single tear, the big brave girl. Finally, she sang herself to sleep and slept all night...

Big snow

As all three of you who read my blog know, we had big snow. So, naturally, Ashton decided to bury Christian in it.
He decided to return the favor...
Roxie just wanted her picture taken. Notice that the snow banks are taller than she is!
Look how deep it was on Christian - and it wasn't done yet!

Random photos

Sometimes you just need to share some pictures.

As many of you know, I have a two year old who LOVES to make phone calls. For those of you on the receiving end of one of these phone calls, and have ever wondered what it looks like from my point of view, I took this picture:That same phone-talker LOVES to have her nails painted. My friend Shan first painted Roxie's nails when she was only days old. Roxie, apparently, has not forgotten. She expects Shan to do it every time she sees her now. Check Shan's blog for more details.
My parents out-did Santa this year and bought us a Wii. Christian plays it with his tongue hanging out. It cracks me up. I took a video of him boxing, too. I will post it later. FUNNY BOY!
Most mornings, I make green smoothies. That way we get a little extra veggies (and also some unusual veggies - like dandelion greens and rainbow chard) in our diet. We love them. Every time, Christian gets it all over his face. Usually even in his eyebrows somehow. Luckily, I snapped a picture of his green mustache and his eye-rolling in one shot. I keep telling them that when I was 11 or so, I rolled my eyes at my mom and she threw a container of cottage cheese at me. I guess they think that because we don't eat cottage cheese they are safe. They should not be so bold in their assumptions...
My little fruit bat. For her birthday, she had a fruit salad instead of cake. She is the queen of fruit, I tell you. There never was a cake that was more delicious than that fruit salad, though. It had fresh pineapple in it. Heaven.
Every day is an adventure. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes not. Either way, what a journey!