Glimpses

I know you love these!  Right?  These are the glimpses into my life as a mother to five wonderful and entertaining children.

Last week Harrison's preschool teacher told me that he announced, "Bella is my dream girl!"  Isabella is one of my friends daughters.  Harrison and Bella have known each other their whole lives!  She is only 4 months older than him.  Yesterday I picked him up from school, and Bella was coming home with us too.  As I was buckling them in the car Harrison sighed, "I am so glad that my dream girl is coming home with us today."  We then had to go pick up the older kids from school.  With my 5 kids + Bella, all the seat belts in the back were being used.  Lily said, "Mom, if you have any more kids we are in trouble!"  Then Max said, "Mom, before we have 20 or 21 kids we should buy a limo."  I then had flashbacks to the hideous, brown, 12 passenger van that my mom drove around with all 7 of us kids piled in the back, often with a few friends as well. 

Harrison with his dream girl.

A couple weeks ago Jason went camping up on Mt. Hood with a friend and some Young Men from church for scouts.  Harrison was very VERY broken hearted as Jason was packing his gear.  He was crying big huge tears because daddy was going camping without him!!!  Jason said, "It won't be any fun!  It will be freezing and snowy!"  This was just about the dumbest thing to say.  Harrison just cried harder because daddy was not just going camping without him, he was going to PLAY IN THE SNOW without him!!!  Jason calmed him down and asked Harrison to please pray for him to be safe while on the mountain.  About an hour after Jason left, I heard Harrison in the bathroom.  He was on the toilet waiting for me to help him.  He yelled to me, "MOM!  Come wipe me!"  I guess I took too long, and he had some quiet time.  A few minutes later he yelled, "MOM!  I just prayed for dad to be safe on the Mountain HOOD!!!!!"  Harrison wanted to make sure and include daddy in his bed time prayers too.  He was very excited when daddy came home so he could tell him about all the times he prayed for him.

My kids always get really into Halloween and spend a lot of time figuring out what they want to "be."  It is not uncommon at all for them to say on November 1st, what they want to be the next year.  I usually just ignore them, because they will all change their minds about 20 times through out the year.  The other day Max, within 5 minutes, changed his mind 5 times.  I was laughing by the end of it because it sounded so silly. He came to me and said, "Mom, for Halloween I want to be Harry Potter (which is what he was last year.).....I mean I want to be Draco Malfoy this year, OK?  UH - Or... I mean I want to be Dumbledore..... would it be weird if I was a girl and dressed up like McGonagall?  Actually....  I'm going to be Draco's dad, what's his name again?  I want to be Mr. Malfoy."  It went on and on.  I think it is safe to say that Maxwell will be dressing up like another Harry Potter character of some sort this year. 

Harrison has a problem with lying.  He is doing better with it now.  About a month ago we had a Family Home Evening about lying.  We talked about what lying is and why it is not good.  We read some scriptures about what happens to liars.  The next day he lied to me about picking up his Mr. Potato Head toys.  I asked him if he wanted to live in hell with Satan.  He shook his head no.  Then he asked me, "Are you going to take me to Satan's house now?"  It was so innocent and sweet.  He was very scared and worried about it.  I reminded him not to lie.

We've been working on getting Harrison to wipe his own self in the bathroom.  I told him, "You need to wipe your own bum."  He responded with, "It's a BUTT mom!  NOT a bum!"



Jackson hugging Max and Harry, with his shoulder brace on.



Max always keeps on his tough guy persona.  He rarely wants to show off his sensitive side.  After the news came through that Osama Bin Laden had been killed we were talking about it at the dinner table.  He said that his teacher asked that the kids who knew about it please not talk about it so that the kids who did not know would not hear about it.  That made sense for me for second grade.  She felt that this was something for each parent to decide on.  Then Max confided in us, "But I did tell Ian on the playground because he LOVES violence.  I knew he would just love this news.  My teacher hates violence."   

Max had a hard time going to sleep on Sunday night after watching President Obama on the news.  He told me he was scared.  After talking to him I learned that he was very worried about my brother Jackson, who is in the Army.  Luckily Jackson is not in the Middle East right now.  He is safe in Provo.  He dislocated his shoulder and had to have surgery on the morning he was supposed to meet up with his unit to be deployed.  Max knelt down and said one of the sweetest prayers I've heard from a child.  It was very humbling and I was so grateful to hear him pray.  I just wish Jackson could've heard him. Max really loves him.  And so it turns out, Max does have a sensitive and spiritual side, he just likes to keep it buried deep... most of the time.



Harrison on leash, held by grandpa, at the airport.



I was in the van with Harrison and Bennett.  Harrison asked, "Hey, you know that guy Jody?"  The only guy I know named Jody is my dad.  I wasn't sure if Harrison knew that, I had no idea who he was talking about.  I answered with a question, "Yes?"  He took that as acceptable and went on.  "Uh, Yeah, I like that guy Jody."  I had to ask, "Are you talking about grandpa?"  Harrison looked at me like was a total dud!  "Yeah!"  Oh, OK, so now he calls my dad by his first name.  I asked him, "Why do you like that guy Jody?"  And he told me, "Because he is so nice to me!"  Well, I thought that sounded good.