Our Grown-Up Kimberly

Well, our little Kimberly is growing up on us again! She's now running around, following Skyler everywhere he goes, & getting into everything! Although she might LOOK cute & girly, her favorite thing to do lately is to play outside in the garden, lay in the dirt right on her belly & dig around for rocks (those rocks are her treasures---she'll carry them all around with her outside!). I've finally had to designate a certain jacket for playing outside in (because it comes back filthy dirty every time!) & another jacket for going into public places with.

She also loves stuffed animals & has to sleep with a specific one every night. She loves carrying around her baby & gets very possessive if Skyler tries to play with it. She also LOVES animals & could sit and watch the horses behind our yard for hours if we'd let her! If we ever find a book from the Library about dogs or cats or horses, she'll look at it every day, grinning from ear to ear as she points them all out to us.

She is also quite the independent girl & thinks she can do anything Skyler can do! If Laron & Skyler go outside to do some yardwork or something, she'll cry at the door with her shoes until they come and get her. That being said, we have to watch her really closely because she LOVES pushing the limits of things that we tell her not to do: going into the road, pouring out her water all over the floor, etc. And of course, all the while she'll look up at us with her mischeivious little smile, making sure to flash that dimple of hers at just the right moments.

And although Laron loves being rough & tough with his Skyler, I can tell he has a soft spot in his heart for his little girl, and she knows it! As soon as she wakes up from a nap or something, she loves running to Laron & having him pick her up, then pointing all around the kitchen to various places or foods & having Laron get her whatever she wants. And boy can that girl eat! She especially has been getting into vegetables lately, and ate probably a whole can of green beans the other day for dinner all herself! What a cutie!

My 1st Attempted Flower Arrangement

So a couple months ago, we were able to finally purchase this certain sofa table I've been eyeing to be my "decoration" table. It's too intimidating to me to decorate for holidays more than that (other than Christmas I suppose), but I still really craved to have an area designated specifically for holiday decorations. And so, St. Patrick's Day was my first holiday to decorate for on my new table... It was a lot harder than I thought to find St. Patrick's Day decorations that I liked, but I was well pleased with the end product! Simple, yet just my style.

And then came the next holiday: Easter. Any time I go to a craft store, I LOVE browsing through the floral department. I love looking at the pre-made flower arrangements (and gasping at the price tags on them!) & I love looking at the individual flowers and imagining how they might be put together beautifully (although I never was brave enough to actually attempt it). And so I searched for that perfect floral arrangement or wreath to add to my Easter table...

Well, after much searching and not much finding of anything to my liking within my price range, I decided to attempt putting together my own floral arrangement... And boy was it ever thrilling! I felt just like a little kid at Christmas-time as I was able to create something of such beauty! I'm sure it's not perfect & it probably doesn't follow all the right rules, but I have to admit that I was quite pleased with the end result! I was amazed at how proud I was of my little creation & at what pleasure & satisfaction it brought me to make it. That being said, I'm now kind-of craving to make another one or maybe even take a floral arrangement class someday to learn more about this particular kind of art. Either way, here was my Easter decoration table...

Now my only problem is figuring out decorations for the next holiday (the 4th of July)! I've been constantly amazed though at the process of beautifying and decorating our first house over the last year... I find such pleasure as a wife in making our house beautiful & liveable & a place where we can feel the Holy Ghost. Who knew that something so simple, could be so invigorating & yet so challenging?! It's sure a good thing this job isn't left up solely to our husbands though! :)

Almost there!

Well, with only 3 weeks left until my "due date", I'm feeling pretty ready to be done being pregnant... But then again, I also am well aware what I'm IN FOR at about that time: labor & delivery (I think that's self explanitory! Ahhhh!) & then sleepless nights of breastfeeding every 2 hours thereafter. So which would I rather? THAT or being sore, hot & swollen for another couple of weeks? I haven't quite decided yet.

Anyway, that being said, my body seems to be preping early like usual... As of my appointment this morning, I'm already dialated to a 4 & 70% ephased! I keep thinking that maybe I'll go early this time, though of course I never have, so we'll see. I'm just not quite sure what to expect in that department, since I've ended up being induced on the last 2 pregnancies, but there's certainly a first time for everything. Either way, I've got my bags packed & a few freezer meals made, so hopefully we'll be ready whenever our little Bailey Ann decides to join us.

Until then though, here's to enduring my last few weeks of pregnancy!

Skyler-Comments

I've been writing down funny or cute comments that Skyler has said over the last few months occasionally, & I'm getting quite the list, so I thought it was high-time I started sharing some of them!

-Ever since the first of the year, Skyler's been pretty proud of being a "Sunbeam". And he constantly reminds us of the fact in various settings by saying, "Mom, I'm a grown-up Sunbeam!"

-I asked Skyler the other day what his favorite thing to do with Daddy was. His answer: "Weeding in the garden!" I sure hope he continues to love doing that all his life!

-Several weeks ago, Skyler kept talking about "his brothers"... Our conversation would go something like this:

S: "Mom, my brothers always dip their apples in ranch dressing."

Me: "Skyler, you don't have any brothers."

S: "Yes I do... Christ & Jeff."

Me: "No, those are my brothers... They're you're uncles!"

Apparently he doesn't quite get it sometimes though, because he still occasionally talks about his brothers.

-One day Skyler overheard me talking to Laron about taking the kids to my parents' house. Skyler apparently was listening & asked, "Are Grandma & Papa your parents?" I gave him a prolonged, "Yes," with a smile. "Yeah!" he told Kimberly, "We're going to Grandma & Papa's!" It's funny when they start putting things together like that!

-One day after I told Skyler he could eat the extra hard-boiled egg I cooked, Skyler told me, "Mom, you're a good lady!"

-We asked Skyler what he wanted to be when he grew up. His immediate answer: A missionary! Good answer!

-We'd been talking about food storage awhile back & why we have it. All day long, no matter what we ate, Skyler would ask, "Do we have this in our food storage?" If the answer was affirmative, he'd respond with, "Oh good, so if something bad happens, we can still eat -----." The next week Skyler helped me put some extra cans of "vienna sausage" (which he loves!) in our food storage. On the way back upstairs he said, "Now, if our house burns down, we can run downstairs & get the vienna sausage & then get everyone out of here!" Pretty close Skyler.

-The other day when Kimberly was loudly crying over something, Skyler walked over to her & stroked her cheek as he kindly said, "Kimberly, I can't feel the Holy Ghost when you're crying."

-S: "I'm going to miss you Dad, while you're at work."

L: "I'm going to miss you guys too."

S: "Do you want to think about Mom & me & Kimberly in your heart while you're at work?"

L: "Sure!"

S: "Do you have enough room for all of us in there?"

L: "Of course I do!"

-A couple weeks ago Skyler & I had been talking about what foods come from what animals. The next day we were having Spaghetti O's for lunch when Skyler asked me, "So Mom, what animal is this made out of?" I just had to laugh!

-One day I overheard Skyler tell this to Kimberly after she'd apparently done something good: "Good job Kimberly! You're choosing the right! Guess what? If you be a good girl, you can live with Heavenly Father someday!"

-After a Family Home Evening lesson the other day on paying our tithing & reading the scripture in Malachi about the blessings that will be poured out upon us if we pay our tithing, Skyler said this a few days later: "Dad, when I look at this house, I can see all the blessings Heavenly Father is pouring on my head." Laron just looked at me, with raised eyebrows & said, "Wow, Family Home Evening is really working!"

-Skyler also loves looking at MAPS lately & loves choosing out destinations that he wants to go to someday. He's also at that stage where he thinks GUM is the coolest candy ever! If I bribe him with gum, I can pretty much get him to do whatever I want him to.

-Out-of-the-blue one day, Skyler said this: "Mom, aren't you glad you have a son like me?" Yes we are Skyler. Yes we are. You keep us entertained, amaze us with your kindness towards others, you say the BEST prayers, you pay close attention to everything we teach you & you remind us constantly why the scriptures say we need to become more like little children. Thank-you for your love & hugs & example! We sure love you!

Seminary Update

Just a quick update, for those of you wondering how things went with the Seminary Teaching thing... We just found out yesterday that Laron didn't make the cut to go on to Student Teaching. We're both disappointed, although Laron seems to have a great attitude about it, like always. I suppose it's better to get cut now, then to go on Student Teaching for another year and THEN not get offered a job. And he HAS learned a lot about teaching in general, that I'm sure will come in handy in many church callings to come. So without further ado, great job trying for your dream! I'm sure something will work out for us in the future!

Patience in the Lord's Timing

So, our last few months have been full of ups & downs... Some of which I'm going to talk about here, & others which are just part of every-day life. While no one enjoys challenges, sometimes it's easier to see the bigger picture or the blessings when you look BACK on them. So here's to going back a few months... :)

And so, on to our first dilemma... Obviously, last fall we knew we were expecting our third baby. We also knew that you just can't fit three car-seats into the back seat of a car. And so, we knew that in the next few months, we'd need to be upgrading vehicles to a van. Well, only a few weeks after we'd found out we were expecting (and before we'd even announced it), my Grandpa Erickson asked us if we were at all interested in buying his van from him. We assured him that we were! But he's a pretty down-to-business, take-care-of-it-right-now kind of guy, & so he arranged right then & there to have us come talk with him about it that upcoming Friday. Well, this wasn't something we'd exactly budgeted for yet, but having lived with him for a year, we knew that he'd be hoping for payment ON that day. And so, we eventually decided to use up our "Emergency Savings", as well as my "Piano savings" & pay him cash for the van, instead of trying to take out a loan for money that we DID already have. Although it never feels good to part with your "Emergency Savings", it was a lot harder for me to part with my "Piano savings", because I knew that it probably would never be replaced, at least not in the near future. And to make my heart-ache even worse, we just been looking at pianos over the last few weeks, which made it that much harder to part with. I knew we needed a van, but I was really looking forward to having my very own piano too. Selfish, I know, but it's hard to change gears from wants to needs, when your want is so close to being satisfied. But, without further ado, we bought my Grandpa's van from him, paying cash & now being pretty savings-free. A scary feeling, but at least we were debt-free, right?

Then, only a few weeks later, our dishwasher leaked... I was visiting my parent's house one evening & returned late at night to find water all over the floor. Being late & since Laron was at work, I simply got a towel & wiped it up, thinking that it probably wouldn't end up being a big deal. By the next day though, the floor had warped up & was considerably "bubbled" in the middle, making me realize that this was indeed a bigger deal than I had first thought. After talking with Laron about it, making calls to the insurance, & having a flood restoration company come out and look at it, we realized that because of our high deductible on our insurance, it would cost us about the same amount of money to replace the floor through the insurance or to just do it ourselves. And since we knew we didn't have the money to fix it right then (with Christmas coming up, as well as a new baby on the way), we decided that our only choice was to eventually fix it ourselves (the key word being eventually).

And so, for several weeks, we dealt with an annoying hole in the floor, where of course every crumb on the floor seemed to make it into & where each of my children craved to pick at & play in. A couple weeks later Laron found a website online where he could order free sample pieces of our kind of wood floor, so we hoped that maybe we could just find the right color for our floor & patch up the hole without spending SO much money out of our pockets. But we soon discovered that it's just about impossible to match a 30-year old wood floor color, because it has faded & been worn down so much over the years. And so, out of necessity & despiration, Laron creatively decided to just patch up our floor with our growing assortment of sample pieces & call that good for now. So now we've got a lovely little patch of mismatched wood colors right in the middle of our kitchen floor, with no real replacement date in the near future. But I DO have to admit that it is nice no longer having a torn-up hole in the middle of our floor anymore.

And so, the big question on our minds is, NOW WHAT? Our dishwasher had never leaked before & it's never leaked since, so do we start by replacing that? For now, I guess we'd just better start saving up at least for a new floor, but no one wants to replace a floor if the dishwasher's just going to leak again. But, as far as Laron is concerned, the floor is "fixed", so he's not too worried about it. But as for me, I'm still dreaming for the day when my entire kitchen floor will be the same color...

Then, around the first week of December, I got a phonecall from my Mom asking me if I wanted a free piano. I was pretty skeptical when I asked for details, because I knew from my experience looking for a used piano on KSL that free meant in terrible condition. But she said her next door neighbor was getting a grand piano & was looking for someone to give their old one to before the following weekend (when they'd be hosting a big get-together). I still was hesitant, although grateful for the offer, because while I knew that my "dream piano" was now farther away than ever, I also didn't want some ugly, shabby looking thing in my nice new house cluttering it up, even if it was a piano. And so I went to look at it, and although it certainly wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it was in pretty nice condition for being "free". It definitely could use some touch-ups (if I could just figure out how to touch-up a piano!), but I think the longer we've had it, the more I like it. And interestingly enough, the following week I was given a calling to be a Music Director in Young Women's (putting together musical numbers & teaching camp songs, etc.), & just this last week was given the calling of playing the piano in Relief Society (in addition to my other calling). And so, I'm realizing that when the Lord has a need for you in His kingdom, he prepares the way for you to fulfill it. He didn't grant me the wish of my "dream piano", but he filled my need of obtaining a way to practice the piano for my callings through another avenue.

Also, another blessing through the whole piano adventure was that my parent's neighbors were needing to down-size their Christmas tree in order to have room in their living room for their new Grand Piano, and so that was offered to us as well! Just a few weeks earlier, when we were setting up our old Christmas tree (a hand-me-down that was only 4 feet tall), I was sulking over the fact that our Christmas tree looked so pitiful in our nice, new house & was feeling sorry for myself that we'd not been able to purchase a nice, new full one. But the Spirit whispered to me to just be patient, and so I'd been praying to be able to be content with what we had until next year. And so, when we put together this magnificant, FREE 7-foot Christmas tree in our living room only a few weeks later, I had to shed a tear as I realized how mindful & aware Heavenly Father is of our concerns, no matter how frivilous they sometimes may seem.

And so we come to our last area of concern, worry, & excitement. About a year ago, Laron was feeling unhappy with his job situation (working nights & not working with people), and so we were praying about what other routes to try (we've tried a LOT of different things). Through kind-of a series of events & details, we really felt like Laron needed to explore the option of becoming a Seminary Teacher. And so, for the last year, he has been taking classes to do just that. A few weeks ago he taught Seminary in a local high-school for 2 weeks & was observed and evaluated, and now we're just waiting for the final word on whether he'll make the "cut" to go on to Student Teaching. Everyone that I've told about this admits that they think Laron would make a GREAT Seminary Teacher & I totally have to agree (although I might be a little partial!)... He has great people-skills & has a personality & a love for the gospel that is very contageous. The only tricky part is that only 3 people out of his class will be chosen to go on to Student Teaching, so it is VERY competitive! If he gets chosen to go on, then he'll do Student Teaching for a year (while still having to work on top of it) & have ONLY that time-period to be potentially offered a job (they don't put people's names on a waiting-list for the next year or anything). So even if he makes this cut, it still will be a hard next year of work & lesson preparation & waiting for a job offer. But we know that if this is what is meant to be, that all the details will work out, just like they have in other areas of our lives. We know that the Lord has a plan for us, but it's often difficult trying to figure it out.

But our waiting period for this portion is almost over, as we should find out next Monday (May 9th) whether or not he's made the cut. And so, here's to wishing Laron the best of luck & letting him know that he's #1 in my book!

Easter Egg Hunts Galore!

Easter this year was a PACKED weekend full of Easter Egg Hunt after Easter Egg Hunt... That wasn't how it was originally planned out, but we just kind-of went with it & I think the kids had fun. Laron was working (or sleeping--he works nights) through all of it though, which made for a crazy weekend for Mom, but I suppose it was worth it. We started off early Saturday morning to go to an Easter Egg Hunt at Smith's (the Grocery Store), where the kids enjoyed being able to run up & down an aisle covered with candy for just other little kids their ages. Skyler even got an egg with a coupon in it that said he could pick out his own 2-liter bottle of pop, which he was SO excited about!

Then, on our way home, we noticed a local park that was about ready to do an Easter Egg Hunt, so we pulled over & joined in the fun there. This one was probably our least favorite one though, because the kids FROZE while we waited for it to be time to start. I guess I hadn't dressed them quite warm enough for an outdoor hunt, since the one we were originally going to was an indoor one. So sorry guys!

Then we headed home to go through our spoils... And BOY were they spoiled! Kimberly definitely got into it, and felt like she needed a piece of candy in her hand & mouth through the entire process. And I probably gave in a little more than I should have, because well, it WAS Easter after all!

Then, that afternoon, right after the kids woke up from naps, we had a neighbor boy come over and ask us if we wanted to come over to their house for another Easter Egg Hunt (sorry, no pictures)... They've got this really great field in their backyard & apparently invite neighbor kids over for it every year. And the kids sure didn't seem to mind that it was our 3rd hunt for the day. Actually, this one was probably our favorite one, mainly because it was a little slower paced, so the kids could just wander around their huge field and find plenty of candy scattered out all over. And at this one, Kimberly finally seemed to be figuring out the whole concept of picking up candy and putting it into the basket... Before she seemed to be nervous about handing over her candy to me, because I think she figured I probably wouldn't give it back! Smart girl!

About 20 minutes after we got done with that Easter Egg Hunt, we headed down to Bountiful to my Aunt Linda's for our 4th & final hunt for the day. The kids still seemed to enjoy it, but I was thankful that my parents & brothers were there for this one, to help me out a little with the kids!

And then Sunday afternoon, we traveled to North Salt Lake to my other Grandma's for our 5th Easter Egg hunt of the season. By this time my kids were pros. Neither kid needed or wanted my help (but help from Grandma & Papa was okay) & it was kind-of relaxing to just sit back & watch them run around all excited.

I can't imagine that we'll ever go to FIVE Easter Egg Hunts in one weekend again, but for now, I just hope the kids enjoyed it! And although we had fun, I sure don't know what I'm going to do with all this Easter candy!!! :)