and a little child shall lead them...

These are scenes from our latest desert hike. We have been on many the past 2 months but the pictures are on our camera phones and as yet, I have been too lazy to upload them to my computer.

Our lives are very full right now and we are glad. When I start to feel overwhelmed, I think, "How bored would I be right now if I didn't have these two rowdy boys, three callings and all the business books to do?

Speaking of rowdy boys.... I had an experience with Kaeleb the other night that I want to share. Those of you who know him well know that I am not being a totally biased mom (just a bit biased maybe) when I say that he is an incredible child. We have often, just between Kwint and I, (and now all of you) likened him unto Mormon, who described himself as a "sober child." He is a serious thinker and communicates well beyond his age, he always has.

So, a few nights ago the boys spent a good hour throwing things at each others heads. Books, toys, balls, pillows, you name it. It was a game they found hilarious and I found infuriating. Kwint was gone on Elder's Quorum visits and I was exhausted. I kept my cool, for the most part but Kaeleb could tell I was tired. So, when I said "That's it! Off to the showers with you!" he became contemplative.

After asking "Are you ready for shampoo?" for the 3rd time, Kaeleb answered, "No. I am sitting on the floor because I feel sad." I said "Well, let's talk about why you feel sad and see what we can do to help you feel better." He said, "It's because I did all those bad things." I talked him through an apology and told him everything was fine.

At that point he launched into a half hour long soliloquy which I will abridge for your sakes, but use his words otherwise. He said, "I am trying to be good. I know Heavenly Father and Jesus want me to be good and they are happy when I am, so are you and Dad, and so am I. And I am doing my best to be good because Brennan wants to do my example and I want him to be good when he is as big as me. And Mom, sometimes when you get tired you are grouchy. So, I have an idea- stop doing that. But I want you to know that you are the best mom in the whole wide universe and world and I love you no matter what." He mentioned many other personal-to-me things and as I had been feeling insecure that day, it gave me a boost and I said, "Well, I guess you are just answering all my prayers tonight."

Then he said, "That's because Heavenly Father is talking to my heart and telling me what to say." That was a heart melter. I held his little face in my hands and told him how proud I am of the person he is and how much I love him.

Our talk continued as we got ready for bed and when we were reading the Book of Mormon he said "Mom, are the scriptures true?" I said, "Yes. I know they are true. Do you want to know why I know? Because when I read them I feel happy and when I pray to ask if they are true my heart feels warm." He got excited and said "Mom! That's how I feel when Heavenly Father talks to my heart! And today when I was looking at my scriptures I felt warm in my heart! So they must be true!" I looked at him and saw that there were tears in his eyes, which amazed me. Then he said, "Now I know why all those people cry when they are up there talking! (testimony meeting :-)) Mom! They're crying tears of joy!"

I am still amazed when I think about it. You parents can understand the joy of those moments when you know they are "getting it" and this was one of those. I am so thankful to know that my 4 year old has a testimony and amazed that he not only recognizes the Spirit, but recognizes the Spirit working through him!! I hope no one feels like I am bragging, because honestly, it's all him. I can't figure out why I was chosen to be his mother. I didn't figure all that out until I was a teenager. Kwint equals my sentiments, though I am sure I know why Kwint was chosen to be his father- he is amazing, too. We really feel like we are the ones being taught.

We are also grateful for friends and family like all of you who are good examples to us and our boys and we love you so much.

BTW, for those of you who are aware of Kwint's mom, she is doing great, recovering from surgery and all her pathologies are clear. Woo Hoo!! We love her tremendously and thank God for his miracles!

My guys

Not much to say.... just missed a little of this!

The Mouth of Babes

Still no pictures... getting a new camera soon...

I had to take a moment to jot down a few funny things we have been hearing around our house.

We went for a hike on Saturday. Picture little Bren running as fast as he can down a dirt path, huffing and puffing and saying over and over, "Me wun, me wun, me wun!"

Last week, with a quick jolt of his head, Kaeleb exclaimed, "Whoa! Mom! Did you see that? Boba Fett just threw a thermal detonator right through the house!"

During bedtime last night I began the usual lullaby. Bren said sweetly, "No." So I tried another song. Again, "No." I tried two more, the final try being "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." The response was again, "No." I said "What, you don't want a lullaby anymore?" He said "No." Then in a sweet little sing-song-y voice, "Lalalalalal yaya star, yayaya lalal star, star, star...." He sang us all to sleep.

Finally, our son the therapist. (like father, like son) Kaeleb has been listening in on our conversations and giving frank advice to us. One example of many, which I only mind sharing a little bit, happened when I was whining about having eaten too many cookies. Everyone can relate, right? I didn't even think he was paying attention, until a few minutes later he said "Mom, let's talk about this 'treat' problem you are having." Shocked, and yes, a bit embarrassed, I said, "Ok." He said "I think what you need to do is just eat a lot of real food every day and only one treat. If you want more after that then you just need to deal with it and wait until the next day." Oh, the mouth of babes.

Kwint just yelled from the other room that Brennan made a basket in the 4 foot hoop. Not bad for being only 2 and 1/2 feet tall and having really short arms. They are shooting hoops in the entry way:-)

Miracles DO happen!

Big miracles are really neat, but I think I like the little ones just as well.

We have been praying and fasting about our sons recently. We have had some issues lately with each of them, as every family does and today our prayers were answered, albeit in simple ways, on both accounts!

First, Kaeleb has been struggling with severe separation anxiety. He has always been fine until he got "lost" at a birthday party last month. (He wasn't really lost, but he thought he was.) Since then he has refused to go play with friends and has cried desperately every time I leave him, even with Kwint. He won't go to sleep unless one of us is in his room and screams bloody murder if we try to leave. He has thrown full blown tantrums every school day (and he LOVES preschool-it was totally weird)and refused to go to Primary. I walked past Elder's Quorum to get water for the nursery and I saw Kaeleb's little head in the sea of Elders. What 4 year old would rather sit through EQ than Primary?

We tried everything from threatening to forcing him and things just got worse, especially at school, because I refused to pay 75 bucks a month to have him sit at home, so I was yelling (which is something I NEVER do with my kids), forcing him kicking and screaming into his car seat and dragging him into school where I handed a flailing, screaming child off to his teacher, then I cried all the way home, every day for two weeks.

Kwint had been feeling prompted that we need to honor his agency and let him stay home if he wanted to, with attached consequences. I was being stubborn about it but finally consented. We all sat in time out together (because Kwint and I had been just as naughty as Kaeleb with the whole thing), then we each apologized and said what we would do to make the situation easier. We said we would be calm and offer him choices and he said he would not throw conniptions and try to be more brave.

We told Kaeleb he could choose to go to school where he would have fun, play games, learn, and be with his friends, then come home and have fun, too OR he could choose to stay home but that meant sitting in timeout for the duration of school,and no friends, no tv, no toys for the rest of the day AND he had to work off the debt of the 8.50 dollar a day school fee.

What was his choice? Being the stubborn son of stubborn parents, he chose to stay home on Monday. I calmly and kindly said "Ok, that is your choice. I will get the timeout chair ready." He immediately yelled "NO! I will go to school!" He whimpered a bit when I left him at the door, but that was it. We praised him like CRAZY all day for how brave he was and what a good choice he made.

Today he didn't even put up any sort of fuss. When we got to school his face contorted with fear but he just said "Will you walk me to the door?" I am so proud of him!! It was such a miracle!!

Now, about the Brenster. We love Brennan completely, so when I say this, don't take it wrong. Brenny is a bit mischievous. He loves to play- life is a game to him and it should be fun, fun, fun!! When we say no, he laughs maniacally and does it anyway. Then we pick him up, say no again and remove him from the situation, at which point he yells loudly and hits us or pinches our faces with his razor sharp nails. I don't think he is trying to be naughty and doesn't understand that he is hurting us, he is simply determined to have fun and his will to play overcomes the rational thought of "Hmmm, maybe I should obey."

So, we have prayed and fasted and received many answers, and the results are slow in coming- but today one came! Some of the inspirations have been that he is so filled with joy and we shouldn't squash any of that out of him by yelling "no" in his face all day long. We don't want him to believe that he is bad or that we think he is because of our exasperated tones. So, we try to speak kindly when we say no and teach rather than scold. Like today at lunch, he kept climbing onto the table. Instead of saying "No!! Get down!" from across the room like I usually do, I walked over to the table, picked him up and calmly said "Tables are for eating. Chairs are for sitting. Please sit on your chair." He kept climbing up, but neither of us threw a fit and it just felt better.

That wasn't the miracle though-the miracle happened earlier this morning. He is an early riser so I usually have to shower after he wakes up. If I let him run free he destroys the house. Especially the bathroom. He pulls things out of drawers, throws things in the tub and turns on the water, throws himself in the tub and turns on the water, etc. Sometimes I put him in the tub and shower while he takes a bath (our tub and shower are separate), but then he splashes water all over the floor and throws the tub toys out. So I usually end up putting him in his play yard- which he hates. It feels like no sort of play to him at all. Once I am done I take him out and let him play while I do my hair and make up, but he likes to climb up the tub and onto the counter and into the sink where he puts soap on our toothbrushes, then pulls things out of the medicine cabinets.

The rule is, he can get out and play if he doesn't climb up. So I tell him every day, "I will let you out if you stay down. No, No up. If you go up, I will put you back in here." But every day, what does he do? Climbs up. Then he throws a fit when I put him back in the play yard, as if it were a surprise.

This morning when I got out of the shower he said "Ah wa down." (translation "I want down.") He repeated, "Ah wa down..." then pointed to the counter and said "No, no up. Ah wa down, no, no up." So I took him out and I'll be darned, he didn't even TRY to get up! He played happily on the floor with my bobby pins and shoe polish for a whole half hour!! A miracle!!

Parenting is the hardest job on the planet, hands down. It feels so good to have two little successes in the same day. Sigh....

Everything boke.

I haven't had time to blog lately and I still don't, but I am getting so irritated about the chaos of life that I am rebelling against bedtime and blogging anyway.

This may be long, and I have no pictures, so if you get bored, feel free to stop reading at any time....

Life has been a bit busy, as usual for all of us, right? It has been filled with lots of moments to remember, though, so let me start with the funny ones.

My kids have been saying the funniest things! Here are the top two:
Bren was walking around with an Xbox controller saying "Butt. Butt. Butt." Kaeleb was appalled and said, "He's saying a bad word!!" I finally realized that he meant to say "Button." and said, "Yes, you are pushing buttons." He smiled and said "Ah puss butt!"

Kaeleb was helping Kwint do the dishes yesterday and Kwint complimented him that he was doing a great job at putting away the pots and pans. Kaeleb said, "Yeah, it's my job. I have two jobs: cleaning up and saving the world."

In other news, this month has been the month of breakage. Our washer broke, the Xbox 360 broke (aka red ring of death for all of you gamers), the vacuum broke, and our camera broke (hence, no pictures this time). But, the Lord has been good to us. The washer was just a simple broken clip, cost 50 dollars to repair. The Xbox was still under warranty, and the vacuum was a 10 dollar switch fix. We will be buying a new camera, but I am glad we are not buying a new washer, Xbox, and vacuum... that could have been a couple thousand bucks altogether.

One of Brennan's favorite words is "boke" (broke). He has been livin' it up all month, talking about all the things that "boke". His all time favorite thing, if you remember back to his birthday, is the vacuum. He wants to vacuum every day. He has a toy vacuum, and his favorite thing is for us to vacuum together. He once threw a fit in Wal-mart when we we passed a row of vacuums and I wouldn't let him out to play.

You can imagine his devastation when we left the beloved Oreck at the vacuum repair shop. As I carried him out to the car he was reaching for the door screaming "Yoom! Yoom boke! Yoom! Yoom boke!"

One more on Kaeleb before we move on to the exciting story of the week...
If you know Kaeleb well, you know that he is a very literal person and although he loves to have fun, he is very serious and inquisitive. If you tell him a joke he will often say, "Are you teasing?" and if you say "yes", then he will laugh.

In preschool they read a story about a rainbow fish who had beautifully colored scales. His friends loved his scales and were sad that they didn't have brightly colored scales. The book is all about how he decides to share and gives a scale to each of his friends so that they all have one. Kaeleb's teacher asked at the end, "How do you think the rainbow fish felt when he shared his scales?" Kaeleb piped up and said, "Well, he did the right thing, but it really isn't possible for a fish to take his scales off and give them to another fish." She thought it was pretty funny.

So, the breaking news of the week is about our cat.

This is Howie. Howie is the best cat ever. He loves to snuggle, loves kids, and always stayed around. He played in the backyard (ie, weeds) or sat in the stroller in the garage all the time. Until... we went up North for Christmas. We were gone for 8 days, longer than we'd ever left. While we were gone he ran away. We think he got lonely and thought we'd abandoned him. We were so sad. We left his food out and the cat door open for so long, waiting, but he never came back.

We discussed the possibilities and although we knew the likeliest thing was that he had been hit by a car or died from some cat disease, we hoped that he was adopted by some nice family who thought he was a stray. (He had a collar but it fell off a few months before and I was too lazy to replace it.) So, we went on with life for two months.

Tuesday I was at the park with some friends and made a random comment about our cat who had run away. One of my friends jokingly asked, "He's not big and gray is he?" I said, "Yes, actually, he is." She said that around Christmas a big gray cat had appeared at her parents house and her mom was too nice to ignore him, so they started feeding him and he has been going back every day. I called her mom when I got home, and I'll be darned, it was Howie! He is skinny but massive because of how mangy his winter coat is, and matted- holy cow- he is a tangled mess of hair clots. But he's alive!

We brought him home and he warmed up to us quickly, purring and rubbing on our legs. We can't keep him inside because Kwint is allergic, so we tried keeping the garage shut so that he couldn't leave, but he escaped on Saturday and went back to his adopted family. We will try again, but I don't know if we can keep him from leaving us every time. We are just glad he is ok and that someone nice has taken care of him. He is living the life of a stray, but he knows he has somewhere to go.

We have been busy little beavers with work and family stuff. We had a great President's day weekend with Kwint's family and have been on a couple good hikes. We are going up on Thursday and hope that we can see all of our friends who are up there on Thursday night. We are scheduled out the other days, but get the word out- If we don't call you, call us or any of the friends and make sure we don't forget anyone!! We haven't had the whole group together for sooo long and we'd love to see you all.