Jelly? Ketchup? Same Diff!

I don't know exactly what it is about it, but I LOVE Strawberry jelly.  I have always loved strawberry ANYTHING: ice cream, dum-dums, bon-bons, you name it.  It's always been my favorite flavor--for as long as I can remember. 

Much to my dismay, my children LOVE grape jelly.  I don't know why, but they will choose grape over strawberry any day...at least Tyson ALWAYS will.  When I look at the pros and cons of which flavor of jelly to buy at the grocery store, practicality almost always wins out.  Grape is CHEAPER...like ALL THE TIME.  Except last week.  Last week Welch's squeezable jellies were the same price, no matter which flavor I chose, so I merrily put strawberry in my cart!!!  (After all, Tyson has been choosing honey lately for his PB sandwiches anyway, and I thought I might be able to sway Emmett to eat it--he's not as picky with his food.) 

At lunch the other day, I was relishing in the delicious taste of my sandwich and I told Emmett, "This is my FAVORITE kind of jelly!"

He looked at me. Looked at his food. Eyed the squeezable container. He FINALLY decided to taste his lunch and proclaimed, "Mmmm!  This my favorite kind of ketchup!!!"

Whatever works, right?  Looks like one of my children is seeing jelly from my point of view, even if he thinks it is easily comparable to ketchup.  

Oranges and Independence

 

We have been so lucky to be friends with the Lamoreaux's who happen to have a little farm close-by that we sometimes get eggs from.  Mitch took the boys there on a bike ride and they got to come home with some "free-range eggs" and fresh oranges from the tree.  Last time we got eggs from them, they also shared home-grown broccoli with us which was actually the most delicious broccoli I've ever tasted, hands down.  The boys love to go there because they get to pet the bunnies and see the cows that Emmett calls "goats".  I loved hearing Tyson explaining the things to me he learned from the "girl farmer" on their trip. : )  It's so much fun.  You would think having oranges would seem like a common thing since we get them all the time from the store, but whenever the kids get ANYTHING from the Lamoreaux's farm, it turns into something EXTRA SPECIAL.

Emmett was my helper setting the table last night.  The first thing he did (all of his own accord), was set an orange in front of each chair--one orange from the farm for each of us.  Then I handed him plates.  He left the adult plates stacked, and put the kid plates out.  And finally he put the forks on the table...of course the adults ended up with the kid forks and the kids ended up with the big forks, but it was cute and he was happy to be setting the table by himself.

 We actually only ended up sharing one of the oranges at dinner last night because we had so much other food prepared, so this morning the boys wanted to eat oranges again.  Tyson, of course, asked if we could make orange juice from the oranges.  At first I didn't want a mess, and part of me wanted to say no, but you only live once, so we pulled out the juicer.  I'm so glad we did.  He was so proud of himself and beamed when he told me, "I cutted my first orange!"

 Team work

We finished juicing all the oranges. Tyson insisted on cutting them all on his own with a butter knife.  As you can tell...his skills didn't necessarily improve with each orange--they "halves" became less equal with each orange, but they still juiced just fine and he had fun!

The orange juice we made was SO SWEET!  I love fresh oranges--you don't have to add anything to them at all to have a delicious, tasty treat.  It tasted even better because of our kids' fun memories with the Lamoreaux's.  : )

Mo-Tab

So, we totally lucked out on Saturday when Trent & Rachel asked us to go to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with them.  They ended up having 2 extra tickets and let us fill in.  This was only my 2nd time seeing the choir live, and it was Mitch's 1st time.  Apparently it was the Mo-Tab's 2nd time EVER in Arizona.  Good thing Arizona is turning 100 tomorrow so that we could have a fun celebration.  We pretty much had the best seats in the house.  We were at the perfect range to get the the right sound mixing + the choir's natural sound coming towards us--my dad understands what that means, because it's a big deal to him, and the trio to have the right seating for the right sound mix at any concert. : )  We also had awesome seats because of Trent's skills at the ticket booth.  There was a mix up with the tickets and the Blake's ALMOST got jipped by getting nose-bleed seating even though they paid for a lower section, but the ticket booth was very accommodating and fixed the issue by giving us PERFECT seats!  We were only 4 rows up from the ground level, so we could see unobstructed past everyone's heads, and had a full view of the choir and orchestra.  The concert was great; I'm so glad we got to go for our early Valentine's date.  We ate at Pei Wei beforehand which meant I got crab wontons all to myself + we had excellent company.  We also ate dinner with Scott & Laurie, but I didn't take a picture until later.

My favorite parts of the performance included Alex Boye's solo on "Down to the River to Pray" (he sang each note with clarity and passion).  I also loved hearing "Come, Come, Ye Saints" live, and apparently my baby LOVED "Battle Hymn of the Republic", because he was kicking throughout the ENTIRE song.  So cute!  I also loved the Gershwin organ solo of "I've Got Rhythm".  Never in my life have I seen the organ played that way...I will probably never see something that amazing on the organ again.   I don't know how anyone can play differing rhythms and melodies between their hands AND simultaneously play a foot pedal line, too.  His whole body was in motion and the result was awesome.

Thanks, Trent & Rachel!  We had an awesome time and loved the Mo-Tab & Orchestra!

Tender Moments

D-Jo: I have the cutest kids in the world!

Tyson:  Are you sure about dat? Because there are a lot of kids in the world.

D-Jo: Well, you and Emmett are the cutest kids to me!

Tyson:  Well I think there are kids who are probably cuter.

D-Jo:  Like who?

Tyson:  Like Cory's baby sister or somefing.

We were fortunate to host a missionary discussion in our home last week for a friend who is looking into the church.  We were having a lesson on the First Vision and my husband was reading the passage.  To relate back to something that had happened to our friend, Mitch read the passage and stopped after her read about the pillar of light.  Before he started to expound, Tyson (who had been sitting quietly) piped up and said, "The light was Jesus and God."  It made me so happy that he remembered that and that he was being a little missionary.  At only 4 1/2 and he helped teach a discussion on the 1st Vision.  Gotta love it!

After church on Sunday, I asked Tyson what he learned at church.

Tyson:  I don't know.

D-Jo: You don't know what you learned about?  You forgot already?

Tyson: No, I don't know IF I learned.

D-Jo:  Well, learning is when you hear something new.  So, what was your lesson about.

Tyson:  The war in Heaven.

D-Jo:  Well, have you heard about that before?

Tyson:  I don't think so.

D-Jo:  Then you learned something!  Yay! (Knuckles)

Then we started talking about who won the war in Heaven.  And I told him that we're still fighting the war in Heaven here on earth now.

Tyson: I know that.

D-Jo:  How did you know that?

Tyson: That's what my teacher said!

D-Jo:  Oh!  And do you know how we win the war against Satan on earth today?

Tyson: By doing good things and being nice!

Looks like he's learning...even if he's not sure what "learning" is.  : )

Sometimes I ask my kids, "Will you be my little boy forever?"

Tyson's response is always, "You mean, your big-boy forever?"

Emmett's response is always, "Will you be my little mommy forever?"

Sometimes I tell Emmett he's a "cutie-patootie", and he says back to me: 

"You a tooey-tooey!"

And this last one endears me to Emmett, because it makes me smile.  He likes to "race" Tyson from the front door to the back door, although he doesn't truly care who gets there first, which is good because Tyson ALWAYS wins.  Emmett is always the one who starts the race when they're lining up on the wall and he tries to say "On your mark, get set, go!" except it comes out, "On get mark! On GET, GO!"

5 Examples of Child Censorship

My children have this deeply in-bred desire to tell each other--and everyone else--what to do. Don't ask me where they get it from.  The truth is that they probably get this trait from me, but I'd like to believe this is just a phase of child development.  Haha!

Here are some examples:

1) Emmett likes to make up words to try to make people laugh at his intentional gibberish.  He's even tried it during prayers.  Apparently he now understands goofing off during prayers is not allowed, because  just yesterday TYSON said, "Amen-a-doh-doh" at the end of a prayer and Emmett immediately censored him:  "No!  You has be reverent!"

 2) A few months ago, we were all sitting quietly waiting for the Sacrament, and for once Emmett was caught with his toys BEFORE the meeting and so he didn't get to sneak any cars in or anything like that.  Clearly bored and trying to figure out what to do, he started holding his fingers like a gun and made shooting noises.  Tyson immediately censored him: "No guns in church, Emmett".  Mitch and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh too loudly.

3) Mitch and I try to make sure we kiss each other before he leaves to work, when he gets home, and whenever else we can sneak one in between.  Every single time we smooch, Emmett will yell "yuck", but it really ends up sounding like a growling, "Yuuuuuuugghh!" 

4) Another time in church, we were sitting in front of the Endsley's, and their daughter Katie is only about a week younger than Emmett.  Well, my little "angel" who makes plenty of noise on his own decided to censor Katie that week.  EVERY time she made some sort of noise during church, he would turn around on the bench, look at her, and say, "Shhh!"    I found this equally hilarious AND embarrassing.

5) And last of all, my children like to argue over who's in charge.  Whenever my kids are playing and one tries to be the boss of the other we'll hear raised voices coming from the other room, "No!  You not in charge!  Mommy Daddy in charge!!!" 

Does anyone else have children who torture each other in this sort of fashion?  : )

Zoo Lights, Train Sets, Nativities

 December had some great memories for us.  The Borden's decided to go to the Zoo Lights...it was Nick & Ashley's idea...good thing they're the young newlyweds who remind the rest of us to have fun. : )  So we bit the bullet, bought the tickets and made a night of it.  I was actually quite impressed with the displays and thought it was worth the money.  I quit feeling guilty about making the purchase because we had so much fun. : ) 

Newlyweds--SHEESH!  : )

This picture below is of Dale and Myrna with their in-state grandkids.  I really wish that the rest of the Borden cousins were in state, but boy am I thankful that Caden is here.  My boys really look up to and adore him.  When Tyson was born, Caden told me at the hospital, I believe, that he was going to be Tyson's best cousin.  He's really living up to his promise, too.  Tyson refers to Caden like a "best friend", and has even called him his "best cousin" before.  It means a lot to me that my kids have a cousin close by to share fun memories with--like going to the Zoo Lights.

It cracks me up that Tyson is getting good at posing for pictures.  Don't worry--he didn't die from the Black Widow.

We also went to see some trains sets.  The first place we went was cool, but then we tried going to the Sirrine's House after and it was awesome.

Tyson enjoyed the experience, but I dare say that Emmett LOVED it.  For days after we went with Brian and Tina to see the trains, Emmett would randomly grab my finger and guide me to the front door, "Let's go see train sets!"  I felt so bad I couldn't take him more than the one night that was open to the public.  We'll have to make seeing trains a tradition at Christmas time for my little Emmett.  : )

My kids loved the train-wreck set up.

This picture cracks me up, because there was a really cool display behind us.  We should have asked the kind stranger who was taking our picture to stand at an angle that showed us WITH the cool train display.  Haha!  Instead we're BLOCKING IT!  We must be cooler than trains, though. : )

Every year at Christmas, my children have a couple Nativity sets that they're allowed to touch.  These pictures are just a couple of MANY different ways I found them arranged throughout the month of December. : )  Emmett is responsible for the addition of cars to the block nativity, and Tyson is responsible for setting up the figurines on a perilous ledge.   There's NEVER a dull moment around here.  Mitch and I adore these boys!!!!

Never-ending Happiness

Mosiah 2:41

 41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

I've been pondering this scripture ever since I heard it again on Thursday night.  I went to the temple that night with the Relief Society and I'm so glad I did, because we had a special little meeting in the chapel with a speaker and I needed to hear this.  This scripture means a lot to me right now, because of the promise that someday we can live with God in a state of never-ending happiness.  

I have always been a naturally happy sort of person.  It's not in my normal to be down.  But for the last 2 months or so, I have been struggling with depression.  I didn't actually understand what was happening to me, because I kept passing it off as "hormones" or "just being pregnant".  About mid-December is when I hit my all time low.  I was having daily crying spells and no matter what was going on that day (good and fun things), and no matter how much sleep I was getting or not getting, my first thought when I woke up was, "I'm not happy."  Logically there was no reason to have that thought as the things that normally would stress me out were not currently issues.  Everything was well with work, and home life, and cash flow, and scheduling, and health.  But I was still unhappy.

Thankfully my mother is inspired.  It's so important to talk things over with your mom if you can--it's like the motherly instinct never leaves you, no matter what age your kids are.  My mom and dad would joke with my that I was having "pre-partum depression", and after I started telling her about the crying spells she said, "That's weird that you're having the blues BEFORE you have the baby.  I wonder if that would put you at greater risk for post-partum depression after you have the baby."  And for the first time I clued in that I was having a valid concern and that this was not "normal" just because I was pregnant. 

So I asked my doctor at the next appointment about it.  He gave me a "Zen test" and his surprised response was, "Wow!  You are depressed."  That of course made me start crying because I would cry about EVERYTHING and I was so happy to know I wasn't crazy, that I had a real imbalance going on.  After we talked about other concerns I had with my pregnancy, he told me that my imbalance was being caused by my nutrition...or lack thereof.  And he said I wasn't getting enough vegetables.  I was surprised by this "answer" of sorts, although later it made complete sense to me.  A few months back my blood work showed up with a total lack of vitamin D.  How do you live in the Valley of the Sun and not get enough vitamin D?  I don't know, either.  But at that point he told my my baby would be at risk for rickets (bone softening & skull fractures) if I didn't take a daily D3 supplement.  Apparently that was just the first vitamin this baby started sucking me dry of, and only 2 months later I was out of all the nutrients that help me be happy.  It's not all the baby's fault, though.  I have to accept responsibility for eating a diet heavily loaded with chicken nuggets, breads, and dairy for way too long because they didn't make me nauseous.

Anyway.  It's been about a month.  I've been changing my diet.  I take a boat load of supplements (B6, D3, Niacin, Vitamin Complex pill, prenatal, folic acid, 5-HTP).  I drink green smoothies, I put vegetables in my eggs.  I eat cabbage and kale, and bell peppers, and squash.  I've almost eliminated dairy completely, and I've bought recipe books and have accumulated a lot of suggestions from friends.  All of this coupled of course with extra temple attendance, and priesthood blessings, and prayer, and I finally feel like I'm working my way out of this.

I still have low days.  Last week Wednesday was awful.  My exterminator and family friend was really like an angel sent from heaven that day.  He was so encouraging, let me cry without making me feel stupid, gave me some suggestions that I've applied, and as he left, he stopped and said, "You know, why don't we have a prayer?"  I will never forget his love and compassion as he knelt with me and my kids in our piano room, and he actually shed tears for me and my sorrow as he asked Heavenly Father for a blessing to be on me and my household.  I can't even describe the way I felt after he left.  It was a rare moment in time that changed me and I never want to forget it.

We may have unexplainable ups and downs in this life, but with the Lord's help we can make it through anything.  We just need to try our best, never give up, and he will make up the rest.  In the mean time--especially on my low days, I'm going to remember that there is a promise of a kind of happiness that NEVER ends.  It's kind of happiness that cannot be disrupted by imbalances any longer.  It's a kind of happiness that will always be with us at the end of this mortal life, if we will just hang on faithfully until the end.

This is my testimony, and I know the Lord lives.  

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.