Sailing Around The World

My friend wrote on my facebook wall yesterday, saying "Are you sailing around the world, is that why you haven't updated your blog?" I desperately wish that were the reason for my lack of updates! I would be thrilled to tell you about my travels to distant lands and all the cheer I was spreading there! However, it's not the case.

I've been in the trenches of life lately. I haven't been depressed, that's not my style (not that there's anything WRONG with that!). I've just been cleaning up spills, disciplining rambunctious boys, and doing homework until I'm ready to throw it out the window....you know, the trenches.

However, this evening I became very grateful, out of the blue.

I'm so thankful I have the most amazing husband. He is so supportive of whatever I am doing, even if it's laying on the couch vegging! He doesn't freak out when I spend a small fortune on hair products, nor does he freak out when he comes home to an empty dinner table (I have "what should we have for dinner" disease a lot!). He is funny all the time and doesn't get discouraged when I don't laugh at every joke, it just makes him try harder! He works so hard at his job, in his calling, and at being a father and husband. He's just fabulous!

I'm thankful for my kids.

Carson is teaching me how to be a mom to a tween. Overall, he's a great kid, but lately I've been getting glimpses of what he'll be like as a teenager. It's taught me great patience! I like the changes, he is acting more and more grown up and we have some pretty funny conversations! Here he is with my new niece (more on that in a second):


Parker is soooooo funny! I would love to be a fly on the wall and watch him for an entire day, just to find out what I miss when he's at school! For reals, he is mini-Sam in personality. A few weeks ago the Primary kids sang in church. After the song, when all the kids were going back to sit with their parents, Parker waited until almost everyone had sat down, and then he proceeded to walk BACKWARDS off the stand and to where I was sitting, towards the back of the chapel! He seriously went down the steps backwards and kept going until he reached my bench. On the outside I had a pleasant, yet stern look. On the inside I was laughing my brains out! But the best part? Once he sat down he did not look at me to see if I was laughing. He just sat down and stared straight ahead as if nothing unusual had just occurred. Who does that?? A few days ago I was at my cousins house and Parker ran into the room, sat in front of her fireplace and started to meditate. Have I ever seen him do anything like that before? Uh, NO! His little cousin Sloan even tried getting in on that action!



Cameron finished up preschool for the year. I got to help in the classroom on the 2nd to last day. The teacher had the kids washing their cubbies and toys...brilliant!

Because Cameron is mostly with me during the day, I get to hear the great things he says. The other day he was jumping up and down and listening to the liquid slosh around in his belly. Then he said "That's just the duck. My stomach is going to hurt in 2 minutes. I need to go get my blanket!". I just stared at him, not really understanding what the crap he was talking about, so he repeated himself like 3 times until I said "oh, okaaaaayyyyyy.....". Love him, Love him, Love him!
He discovered the headlamp we use for camping the other day and has been wearing it all over:

Tonight I asked him to put dad's shoes and backpack away. He was eager to please!

He got his first pair of flip flops (don't try to call them shoes, he gets very defiant until you call them flip flops) and after a day of throwing tantrums he finally learned how to walk in them.


I'm thankful the sun was shining today! We have had the wettest May in over 150 years here in the Salt Lake valley. It's been pure craziness! It was like living in Seattle all over again! I finally got my summer flowers planted during a break in the rain last week and my zinnia seeds have already started to sprout! Yay for wet weather! I took the boys to a local nursery and let them each pick out flowers they wanted to plant. Carson picked out some crazy striped petunias, Parker picked out some hot pink petunias, and Cameron picked out some little paintbrush type flowers, I can't remember what they are called. They look like little pink, orange, and yellow paintbrushes....Fern, what are they called? Anyway, it's pretty cute because every time they walk past THEIR flowers they get so excited and tell anyone within earshot how they picked them out all by themselves!

I'm thankful I live so close to my parents. Not only do we get a gourmet meal every Sunday, we get to hang out with them quite often and they are FABULOUS grandparents to my boys. They have an endless supply of fruit snacks and dum dum suckers, which make my boys swoon! My mom had knee surgery over a month ago and she is doing very well this time around. It's so great to see her make more progress with her knee over this past month, than the past 2 1/2 years combined! She is such a trooper to deal with all the pain, I am amazed at her attitude. My dad has been extremely patient with Carson over the past 3 weeks as we've been teaching him to mow their lawn. He's even had the edges already mowed before we get there so Carson can understand where to start! What a good grandpa! They are so nice to babysit for me at the drop of a hat, I'm seriously blessed to have them in my life!

I'm thankful for my extended family as well. I love hanging out with each and every one of them! This past week has been crazy eventful for my little brother Curtis. He and his wife have been trying to adopt a child from the Navajo reservation in Arizona for the past few years. They assumed they would receive a toddler, which was just fine with them. Biologically, they have Dexter, who is 4 years old, and Lucy who just turned 1. Last week my sister-in-law, Shandy, received a call from her social worker who told her they have a baby girl who was born on May 17th that they would like Curtis and Shandy to adopt. It's a VERY spiritual story told by Shandy, and the end result is this baby was MEANT to be with their family. She truly belongs to Curtis and Shandy and we all know she was meant to be with them since before the beginning of time. To hear them tell the story brought tears to all our eyes. Even though they have only had her for 5 days, I feel like she has been in the family forever. Her name is Phoebe Patricia Clark. My mom's name is Patricia, so you know she's elated about that choice! :) This experience has reminded me, once again, that Heavenly Father is in charge. He has a specific timeline for each and every one of us. Sometimes we question it and get frustrated, but as events unfold in front of us, we can truly say "Now I understand why things worked out this way!!"

From the reservation, Shandy texted me this picture. I fell in love instantly!


On Sunday we got to hold her and love on her! This picture make me laugh. This is Lorraine, Shandy's mom, holding Phoebe. No, she isn't crying (she never cries, just whimpers when she's hungry!), she is yawning. Look at those long skinny fingers!


Here is my mom, holding her namesake!


Here's me!


A gorgeous picture Shandy just posted on facebook:



And, just for fun, here's their one-year old Lucy. ha ha! See that dart on her forehead? She was eating the foam from those darts without us knowing. See the box she is holding? She was eating that too, without us knowing. Guess how we found out? 5 minutes after this picture she HORKED all over the dining room. It was AWESOME! In true mom-instincts, Shandy grabbed her and said "Curtis, do you want to clean up Lucy or the floor?" Curtis quickly said "floor" and Shandy raced down the hall to Lucy's room. About 1.4 minutes later, Lucy was cleaned up and so was the floor. I'd like to think Carson helped them deal with unpleasant puke. Once when Carson was about 4 we were at their house. Carson suddenly puked in their hallway. When we asked him whassupwithdat, he said "I was just looking at the dog's bum and all of a sudden I threw up". Um.....okay..... good times!


I could go on and on, I already did, but I want you to know that I'm thankful for my day to day life. It's not fancy or filled with exotic adventures, but that's okay, I'm a homebody! Life really is good! Now.....I must go clean the toilet...living in a house with 4 boys is like a box of chocolates, I never know what I'm going to see when entering the bathroom!