When Was the Last Time...

...I read a bedtime story to Katelyn?

...Or washed Emily's hair for her?

...Or picked Lauren up in my arms and carried her somewhere?

...Or took Hannah for a walk in a stroller?

...Or supported Olivia's neck and head when I held her?

Some things we purposefully put a stop to. Like changing diapers, for example. As Hannah approached her third birthday, I knew the last one was getting closer. The last time I changed Hannah's diaper, I was well aware (and happy to decide) that it was the last time I would do that for her.

But I don't recall ever making a conscious decision, for example, to stop making a bedtime story part of my daily routine with Katelyn. Somehow, though, it happened. And now, it's been so long, I don't even remember when or why.

Was it because she preferred to read to herself? Was it because she grew too big, and I didn't fit comfortably next to her on her bed? Was it because I was too busy tucking in the others, after reading them their stories?

Or, did I stop in the middle of a move, when I was too busy and overwhelmed with packing and upacking, placing and rearranging, canceling and registering, selling and buying, choosing and second-guessing?

When kids are young, they go through a lot of growth and changes in 8 months. That's how long it has been since we started the whole process of this move.

8 weeks from now, the moving part of this process will be over. I can't wait. I would really like to get back to "normal life" (if that really exists)...

Before another daughter stops needing a bedtime story.

I have a few words to say

about Spring Break.

It was, pretty much, awesome.

I just looked over the pictures we captured during the past week, and it made me want to turn around and go right back to Grandma & Grandpa's house (affectionately known as "Casa L.").

Does this not look like paradise?



Unfortunately, my camera battery ran out of juice early in the week, and I realized I left the charger at home. (I always forget something!) But really, it was mostly just more of the same. Two words: perfectly relaxing.

See that fruit? They grow it in their backyard. I picked it. I ate it. It was juicy. Yum. Peeling an orange for myself was the most culinary thing I did last week. Grandma treated us royally, as always.


The girls loved playing with their Grandma and Grandpa...And their animals.

Emily especially loved spending time with the dogs, cats, and chickens.
As if that wasn't enough, we saw lots more animals at Sea World, and Grandma arranged for the girls to ride a friend's horse.
Speaking of animals,

There was a visit from the Easter Bunny. He (she?) left loads of candy there, which we all gladly consumed. I also celebrated my birthday in California. We spent the day at the beach, where I watched Doug and the older girls use boogie boards to catch some waves, Hannah collected shells and sand dollars ("Are Sea Dollars for Sea World?" she asked. When I said no, she scrunched her eyebrows and wondered, "Then what are they for?"), and Olivia had her first taste of sand. Then Doug and I did a little shopping and he took me to dinner. Really, when you're my age, doesn't that sound just about perfect?


The best part of Spring Break was spending the entire week as a family, away from the cares of our normal life. No work, no school, no worries.
Now that we're back, we're still enjoying a couple more days of family time, just not without the work (we bought our new home this month, and we're really getting into our home improvement projects--hopefully we'll finish in time to move in by June) or the worries (such as--uh oh--apparently one of our basement window wells flooded while we were gone, leaving us a welcome home gift of soggy carpet in Olivia's room. In this case, I'm glad to be a renter!).

Tis Better to Give

The other day as we were packing for our Spring Break vacation, I asked Hannah to grab toothbrushes for herself and her sisters. She came to me with a couple of options. She held up two sets of toothbrushes: one pair for her, and one pair for Lauren. (Yes, we often have more than one brush per mouth at any given time.) Each of them have a battery-powered toothbrush. But Hannah showed me hers, and explained that Lauren's still works, but her own does not (batteries died), and since "that's not fair", she chose to pack the regular toothbrushes for both of them (shaped like crayons, in yellow and pink), instead.

I thought it was funny, because it reminded me of myself, when I was about Hannah's age, or maybe a little bit older.

My sister, Jill, was about to celebrate her birthday, and my mom took me to the toystore and let me pick out a gift to Jill "from me". Plus, she agreed (through no small amount of pleading and pestering on my part, for sure) that whatever I picked for Jill, I could get one for myself, too.

Well, I don't know about Jill, but I knew exactly what I wanted! A Sea Wee Mermaid mommy/baby set that you could take in the bathtub! (Wish I had a picture, but you'll just have to look it up--or use your imagination.) These tiny plastic doll sets came in various colors, all very pretty, but the most beautiful of all was the blonde mommy mermaid with the gold scales.

Dilemma: I was old enough to know that since it was Jill's birthday, she deserved the best set, and it wouldn't be right for me to choose the gold mermaid for myself and gift her something of lesser beauty. But I was also old enough to know that I would suffer from severe jealousy every time I saw Jill, not me, swimming that golden mermaid through the bathtub bubbles. And it wouldn't be "fair." I mean, what if she didn't even value the gold mermaid as much as I did?

What to do?...

I had the wisdom of Solomon. (Or, at least, a tactic I had learned from my mother, who constantly had to resolve two girls' fights over one toy.)

Neither of us would get the gold.

Instead, I chose pink for her (because the pink one had brown hair like Jill), and blue for me (because she was blonde, like myself). And I felt very noble for letting Jill have the "girl color".

Does Jill even remember that mermaid toy? I doubt it. Apparently, not many people do, because I can't find a set of any color in its original, circa 1980, packaging.

But, just in case you're wondering what I'd like for my birthday today, here's one idea:

The gold Kenner Sea Wee mermaid set, please.

At 11 Months

Olivia has learned to get around. She went from sitting to scooting to crawling to pulling herself up on things (like her crib, which complicates sleepy time!), all in the last month.
She has enough hair for little piggy tails.
She loves to eat. Some of her favorites are avocados, sweet potatos, peaches, mangos, and bread. But she'll even go for plastic play food.

Or fingers.

Watch out, she bites! She has six teeth, and for some reason she's toothier on the left side.

My baby is quickly growing up and becoming "one of the girls".

The Temple

I love the temple. I love to see the temple, I love to go to the temple, and recently, I loved being there with two of my favorite people for their first experiences. Last Thursday, Doug and I took Katelyn to the Mount Timpanogos temple for her first opportunity to perform baptisms for 20 of our ancestors. It was a very sweet experience. The next day, Doug and I were in the Bountiful Temple with my parents and all of my siblings, including my sister Jennifer, who was there for her own endowment. I always have a good feeling when I spend time in the temple, but being there with family just can't be beat.

It was interesting to spend the following two days listening to General Conference, and to notice how many of the talks were focused on the temple. At first I wondered if it was just me (like when you buy a new car, you suddenly notice all of the other people on the road who are driving the same type of car), but after the closing prayer of the final session of Conference, I realized that it really was one of the "common themes" of the weekend, and not just for my family.

I had been eagerly anticipating Conference for the past few weeks, and I came away from the weekend every bit as nourished as I expected to be.

If only...

During our first year of marriage, I played the best April Fool's Day joke on Doug. It involved a phone call with bad news from our auto insurance company regarding an encounter he had with a deer the previous weekend. It took Doug several years to get me back for that one. But finally, he did it on April 1st about 7 years later, when I was least expecting it, in the form of another official phone call delivering bad news. So he and I are even, and now we leave April 1st to the other fools out there. (Besides, with caller ID, our jokes would never work now!)


Last night, however, the girls were getting giddy about today's possibilities. Lauren sponsored the idea of playing tricks on Daddy in the middle of the night, using make-up and shaving cream. Even though we discussed that funny thought last night, my sleepy mind was confused this morning when I woke up to find Lulu climbing onto my bed with her case of make-up in hand. Lucky for Doug, he's no fool--he's an early riser. She also told me that she would be nervous to eat breakfast this morning, and she planned to wait until everyone else had eaten before she took a bite, just to make sure there was no tricky food. I've never done anything like that in the past, nor had I even considered doing that today.

Apparently I'm not a very funny mom when it comes to April Fools celebrations. But there is another mother today who's having herself a good laugh:


Mother Nature.



If only this were just a trick. Too bad it's for real.