Mitch:  I love you.
D-Jo:  Why do you love me?
Mitch:  Because you make my life interesting.

: ) 

<3 p="">

When You Have Kids

When you have kids, nothing is allowed to be normal.

You can't just get in the car and drive somewhere.  You have to search for your keys for 10 minutes, pray for guidance, feel prompted to go back and check in the car again, and then hear your 3-year-old say with a smirk, "Maybe da keys are hiding under da couch!"

When you have kids, you can't just listen to music on the radio. You have to deal with logical arguments against your favorite music, such as: "Girl songs are boring," or "Change it! This is not a boy song!"

When you have kids, you cannot "just" dress them for church.  You have to coax, persuade, and eventually compromise to get that collared shirt buttoned up and on with a tie.  Eventually you don't care anymore that when you walk into church people will probably see that your son's favorite t-shirt is actually on UNDERNEATH his dress shirt, and hanging out the bottom a little, because that was the compromise.

When you have kids, you don't just leave church as a happy family and peacefully load up in the car to go home.  You have to stop to teach your 5-year-old that even though he's outside the church building, it's still not appropriate to be goofing off in the grass as cars go by with his shoes off, holding his Sunday shoe by the shoe-string, and twirling it around his head like the slingshot in David & Goliath.

You know that can of Pringles in the pantry?  Can't have it!  Your kids downed it in 0.5 seconds!

That final, most crucial hour of sleep that you desperately need?  You're joking, right?!  There's no end to the ways your sleep patterns might get interrupted by your kids.

All of these events listed above really happened (today or in the last couple of days) to me and my kids.  And just when I was tempted to wish the day away and want peace and quiet, I had a flashback.  One day when I was pregnant with Miles, ALL I WANTED WAS A BREAK.  All I wanted was some peace and quiet, and Mitch was gone somewhere and so were the kids.  I don't remember any other details, but I do remember that I sat down at the table and ate my dinner all by myself, and I cried the whole time because I didn't want to be alone.  This is a true story.  "Isn't it ironic?  Don't ya think?" 

Last night I saw my friend Lori, who happens to be raising SEVEN BOYS--more than double my crazy life with THREE.  And I asked her how it is.  She said, "Oh it's crazy, but it's better than being like, "huh?" [with nothing to do]."

You know, I have to agree with her.  She's right.

I'm glad I have kids.  And I just have to laugh, because everything I do that used to be easy or "normal" isn't normal anymore.  Not by a long shot.  That's what I love about having kids.

The Solution

The movie Cast Away is one that has left an impression on my family for a long time.  There's this part in the movie when Chuck Noland and Kelly Frears are in a work room and his work schedule has been so hectic and she's working on her thesis, and they can't even enjoy the holidays together like they want to because their time keeps getting interrupted by their on-the-go, stressful schedules.  And when they're together in the work room, he holds her in his arms and starts swaying back and forth as they dance to the sound of the copy machine. 

I remember watching this movie with my father one time, he seemed to get almost choked up and slightly teary eyed as he said, "Aw, that's sweet--they're dancing to the tune of the copier."  At that time I thought it was interesting that particular scene would stand out to him.

Well, I am there.  I have reached a part in my life where the idea of that work room scene makes me cry.  I get it.  This last month, I have felt pushed to the brim--the very max of what I can handle--and Mitch is doing ALL he can to take care of his responsibilities to the best of his ability.  We have been blessed with a hectic, on-the-go, crazy schedule.  And every once in a while, amid the chaos, you might find him, holding me in his arms as we sway back and forth to the tune of the washer and dryer, or to the sound of distant traffic as he hugs me on the driveway.  Sometimes he sings songs to me that made him think of me as he was driving around for work, and I just tear up right away, as he transforms the most unromantic of places into a cherished memory.  I love him so much--I would follow him to the ends of the earth.  I thank my Father in Heaven above that I have him in my life.

"Well I came home,

Like a stone,

And I fell heavy into your arms,

These days of dust

Which we have known

Will blow away

With this new sun...

...I will wait for you."

--Mumford & Sons

 

 

One more thought--we have been sucked into the Once Upon a Time TV series.  We watched all of Season 1 together.  One of my favorite episodes is with the Mad Hatter, and his most poignant line is something like: "You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problems, but everyone refuses to believe in magic."

 

I have realized lately (thru all of the chaos we've had) that LOVE really is MAGIC, and that love is the magical solution to our problems.  LOVE can break the curse--any curse that you might be experiencing.  We need to seek for it, harbor it, and express it often to others, or they might forget that the magic really exists.

 



Checking In

The holidays were wonderful.
          I have tons of pictures that I need to post.
                   We made awesome memories, but most of all,
                           I'm just glad we survived  "THE PLAGUE OF 2012" - you heard me!

105 fevers, strep throat, ear infections, throwing up, diarrhea, pink eye, sore throats, coughing, hacking, sneezing, runny noses...and a teething baby on top of it. We truly had a miserable 9 days, and apparently so did the rest of the United States in the worst flu season I've ever heard of in my life...I personally speculate that it affected so many more people than the H1N1 virus that scared us all just a few years ago.  I truly understand now, how children can die from the flu.  Other than that everything has been perfect since my last post.


Each day I look at my kids, or listen to them, and I feel wonder. I wonder who these children really are, and how I got so lucky to be their mom. I wonder where they come up with their hilarious ideas. I wonder what it was like for them in Heaven before they came to me, and I wonder who they'll be when they grow up and leave my home. Several months ago I was sitting in the parking lot of Chick-fil-a, feeding my newborn and older boys. It was kind of a new experience for me to be a nursing mom on the go, but with 3 kids it became a necessity. Venturing out to lunch really was an adventure for us, an EVENT to look forward to, and an experience to rest from when it was done. An employee from the store left her shift and she saw me & my baby and said, "I remember those days."  I replied, "Yeah, they're wonderful and time consuming." And she simply responded, "BEST days."  I've thought a lot about that over these last few months with this new baby, and I'm so grateful for her reminder.  She is so right, I have to remind myself to forget the stressful part of it and to forget the time consuming part of it and just remember that these days are the best days of all.  Truly these days go by too quickly.


Here are some of my favorite moments:

Miles can say "Bababa", and "Dada".
His new pastime is trying to reach for choking hazards and old hardened food particles that no one else knew existed under the fridge. YUCK!

Emmett likes to yell, "I'M THE FIRST ONE TO SEE THE GILBERT TEMPLE" any time we drive past it.  This last week I took him to the temple sight to watch the tractors, cranes, & cement trucks:
Me: Do you know what happens at the temple?
Emmett:  Uh-huh
Me:  You do?  What happens there?
Emmett: THE ANGEL MORONI!!!!!
That was good enough for me.

Tonight I was telling the boys the story of David & Goliath for scripture study and we were reflecting on the lessons we could learn from the story.
Me: Do you know how God helps you?  When you pray to him like David, He helps you with your problems.
Emmett: Like being safe from bad guys.
Me: Yeah, and when we need help, he will tell us what to do by helping us feel good in our hearts and giving us good ideas in our minds of what we should do.
Emmett:  Like a spear.

Before Christmas I couldn't keep up with normal life and all my Christmas projects, so I hired a neighborhood girl to help me pick up & clean my house.  She happened to come over on a day that I was teaching piano students and I told one of my students while she was waiting for her lesson that I would pay her, too, if she helped the other.  Well, these 2 girls were friends and were enjoying each others company as they were working and Tyson didn't think they should be talking so much and he came in and said to me.  "MOM!  They were just talking in there and I told them, 'A little less chit-chatting, and a lot more cleaning!' "  I about died, it was so funny.  I tried to also make sure he realized that this is his house and he's responsible for his messes and that he needed to get in there and help them, but I thought it was so hilarious that he used the expression "chit-chatting." 

Rise of the Guardians

Last night we got to see a Sneak Peek of the movie, Rise of the Guardians!  It was awesome!  We had 6 Sneak Peek tickets that we got FOR FREE at the Everything Kids Festival.  We had to drive for 40 minutes to the theater in order to see the movie, but it was totally worth it.  The tickets were only good for first come, first serve, so if we didn't get there soon enough we wouldn't get in--even with the passes.  We invited Caden & Tina to come with us.  I was a little sad when we walked into the theater, because 3 rows in the middle were being reserved, so we had to go find a place for all 6 of us on the 2nd row.  But, didn't you know that 3D movies are BETTER when you're up close?  From the beginning snowflake, the 3D felt magical, and I was so happy we were sitting close.

 

 

Tyson was enthralled with the move the entire time.  In fact, everyone liked it.  I loved looking over at my kids with their 3D glasses as they would giggle at the movie.  Miles' favorite part was squirming everywhere and pulling the straws out of the cups.  We all had so much fun!

 

After the movie, the kids were pretending to be their favorite characters.  Emmett's favorite was the Easter Pageant Bunny  (he inserted the pageant part himself, haha!).  And Tyson was pretending to be Jack Frost...ALL THE WAY TO THE CAR.  People were smiling at him as he zoomed by in his own little world.  I said to one passerby, "He thinks he's Jack Frost." And the young man said, "No!  He IS. You've got to believe!"  He was right though--these are the days of wonder and imagination, and you've got to believe, because right now the MAGIC is REAL.  I love my Jack Frost & my Easter Pageant Bunny.  : )

 

This picture cracks me up.  Emmett LOVED the movie. He LOVED having his own drink & popcorn, he LOVED the characters and would talk totally loud during the movie trying to tell me the parts that just happened, and he LOVED being his favorite character after the movie.  But what he DIDN'T LOVE was the idea to take a picture afterwards.  He has a mind of his own, and it wasn't his idea, so tough noodles for the rest of us for trying to get him to look happy in the pictures, because he WASN'T going to do it. 

 

 

At any rate, I'm thankful for wholesome movies that have messages of wonder and belief at this time of year.  It's so important.  I always want to keep the magic alive.  The Rise of the Guardians is a MUST SEE--and Tyson already asked if we can buy it.  So fun!

Find Your Happiness

What's your happiness? 

 

Ours is Rita's Water Ice

(according to Mitch, the appropriate pronunciation is "Wooder Ice"--like they say it in New Jersey). 

 

 

Mitch says Bahama Bucks is trash compared to Rita's.

 

 

Ever since Rita's has decided to franchise out West, it has become a regular part of Mitch's diet.  However, we'd pretty much been sinning, because Rita's has been in the Valley of the Sun for a good year, but never once had any of the other Borden's experienced the joy that is Rita's.  I'm so glad we repented and took the family, because I will never forget the GRIN and excitement on Mitch's face as we were sampling the flavors of the day when he said to Nick: "Tell me that isn't Swedish Fish!  Can you believe it?!"

 

 

I love that everyone is focused on the flavors and Emmett is sucking his thumb.

 

 

This is happiness--when you take a picture like this you see that the Borden family is growing...and this isn't even 1/2 of us.  We had a totally awesome family night--we went to JumpStreet, where I did a flip on the trampoline for the first time in ages (love the sensation), Mitch & I rode the automated bull...we'll just say that HE did great, the kids jumped in foam pits, bounced all over the trampolines & played in bouncy houses, Mitch & Nick played dodge ball, and then we ended the night by FINALLY taking the clan to Rita's.  Going to Rita's is like entering a mission time-warp portal to New Jersey for Mitch.  And whenever you're with him at Rita's, it's like for a moment part of you is in New Jersey by his side, and you're happy because he's happy.  But you're also happy because you just got your own gelati with jimmies under the "Pick Up Your Happiness" sign. 

 

Miles getting his first Rita's (at the hand of Mitch, of course).

It was a beautiful thing.

 

 The only thing that's really left to say, is that

"The World Needs More Rita's"

 

Of Maggots, Earthquakes, & LOVE

You have to realize that these are PRECIOUS pictures that you're viewing here.  My brother, Taylor, has been on his mission in Guatemala for almost half of a year, and within that time frame he's only sent home a handful of pictures.  We wish we could see more, but these are beautiful glimpses into what life is like down there on his mission. 

 

This picture is my favorite--I love how TALL Taylor is compared to his friend.  These are probably the only 2 years of his life where he'll be the tall one almost everywhere he goes.  : )  We think that this is the picture that reminds him of Nacho Libre--"Hey, I like your cow." 

 

In his letters home, he's been pretty up & up. However, he DID write my brother Heber a personal letter in which he divulged some of the wonders of his living conditions. For most of his mission he has NOT had running water, or a bathroom in his living quarters. He has to drink bottled water to avoid getting parasites. It's like he's on a 2 year camping trip--no joke.  Are you ready for this? When he gets to take a shower/bath,  the water they use is dirty and sometimes has MAGGOTS in it, and they have to be careful when they're washing to make sure the maggots and gross things in the water don't remain in their hair.

Talk about making sacrifices to share the good news of the gospel.  : )

I love this picture, too.  We're not sure if this is a miniature garden where they're growing corn, or if it's a back yard, but I love seeing Taylor with the people.

 

This week, the day that Conservatives were proven to be the minority in America, I also happened to be sick, and just when we all were down and out and thought the day couldn't get worse, my dad got a text from Bishop Keller saying he heard there was an earthquake in Guatemala.  Mitch called me, I called my mom, we texted Erin, and did a Google search.  My boys were CONVINCED that the earthquake was caused by the VOLCANOES Taylor wrote home about.  Fortunately there were no volcanic explosions causing this earthquake, but we didn't know if we would hear from him, or how he was doing, so we kept up with the news reports.  Finally, the next morning, my mom couldn't take it anymore and she called church headquarters, where she learned that all the missionaries were accounted for.  About an hour later, she got a phone call from an AP letting her know that the missionaries were okay, and then much to our surprise we got an email from Taylor, too.  These are the highlights:

 

"When the shock wave hit us, me and my companion were walking in the street on our way to a lesson appointment. Also, side note, when a large semi truck passes by you in the street, you can feel the ground shake because the people don't really compact the ground very good before they put down pavers, but at any rate, when the earthquake happened, a large semi truck was passing by me and as usual I felt the ground shaking, but as it continued to shake even after the semi truck passed, I looked up to see the buildings and telephone poles around us shaking hard. I knew I would be protected because Monday I had the impression come to me of what to do if I was in an Earthquake and where safe places would be that I should go. I now realize that was revelation that I received just a day before the earthquake, and I realize the Lord was preparing me to be safe....It felt like a 5 on the richter scale when it hit us, and it reminded me of the feeling of being on a bridge over the ocean, and when a strong wind comes and shakes it, you can feel the bridge moving beneath your feet, that's the feeling of the earthquake. Hahah after it happened, everyone in the street was silent, but me and my companion high fived each other saying, my first earthquake, my first earthquake hahaha it was really funny."

 

 

I love this picture, because he looks so happy.  It reminds me that we take for granted all the blessings we have in America.  Even my kids are amazed with the kinds of houses these people live in.  We are so lucky to have sheets on our beds and drywall on our walls, and air conditioning and heating capabilities--not to mention running/fresh water.

 

One of my favorite stories from Taylor came two months ago when he got to perform his first baptism, and it was clear to me that he is serving the people in that country out of LOVE for the Lord, and LOVE for them.  The meeting for the baptism seemed to start out with a bit of chaos & people wanting to look at the Elders' cameras and last minute changes getting made to the program, but this was my favorite part of what Taylor said:

 

"The Family Escobar was my first baptism in my life, and was cool to say the least...because I got to bear my testimony before, that this was the beginning of their discipleship and the road isn't always easy, but its worth it. At times it isn't fair, (like 20 minutes ago when I thought this thing was going to go smooth haha)(I didn't say that, I thought that) but if we are patient and keep our covenants, it will all work out, the atonement will cover it for us. I then baptized Rolando Escobar, the husband. It was so fun to baptise someone. It was spirit filled as I held my arm to the square and used my priesthood, a literal power, to bind someones outward expression of an inner commitment, to the eternities. I left the font happy and as we changed into our clothes, i said to Brother Escobar in Spanish, "Rolando, you are my first baptism in my life. I will remember you forever. When we get to heaven, we will rejoice as we look back at that moment in our lives back on earth, where you first began your journey to Christ." What a blessing. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God."

________________________________________________________

 

I'm so happy for my brother, Elder Tenney, and that he is taking advantage of this ONCE IN A LIFETIME opportunity to share his LOVE of the Lord with the people in Guatemala--a land so far and foreign from home, but a land that will now FOREVER be ingrained into his heart.  These days are becoming a part of who he is as an individual and as a willing servant of the Lord.  I am so happy for him and am grateful for his example--weathering earthquakes washing in filthy water, and changing lives forever.

 

If you're reading this, I love you, Taylor!!!!!