Too Many Titles!

P.S. (As in pre-script, not post-script. Usually I try to put on a song that has something to do with my post. This song is just cool:)

Have I ever told you about my little sister, Jen? She's a talented, sweet, beautiful girl. She is a great writer, sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek. Well, today I got an email from her entitled "Ode To An Empty Blog." It was a funny call to repentance for me. Here's a portion of her poem:

Onto the internet I log,
Cross my fingers and hope the blog
Of my brother and his wife
Will have an update (I have no life).


I check their blog about all six
Of their children – it’s quite a mix.
I also check the blog for Elli.
Did she learn a new word yet? (Like “jelly?”)


But alas, there is nothing there
Day after day, (feels like year after year).
Are they happy? Are they having fun?
What cute things have their kiddos done?

...

So write today, and make me happy.
Write anything…just make it snappy!

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Jennifer

So Jen, here's an entry, and it could be a long one. There are a few things I want to share, so I couldn't decide on a title. Instead, I'll favor you with subtitles as I go along:)

HI-YAH!!!

The other day I was in my office downstairs. I heard Jesi and Graci playing in the other room. By the other room I mean our family room/play room/guest bedroom. We don't have an extra bedroom, but we do have an extra king size bed. (An EXTRA king size bed ?!?!?!? you may ask. Well, it's too long of a story for this post, but you could chalk it up to "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.") Anyway, this extra king size bed is in the family room/play room/guest bedroom. The kids love to play super-wrestling-attack-jump-on-each-other and similar games on it.

This particular day, Jessica was Batman Girl. (See picture below)

(Not to be confused with Spiderman Girl!)

When Jesi is Batman Girl, she wears Parker's Batman gloves. These are really cool gloves that make batman-type punching sounds when the wearer moves their hands. So a little kid (or a dad re-living his childhood:) can punch the air with a bunch of cool sound effects. Anyway, from my office, I hear Graci scream, "AHHH! A spider, a spider!" I grab some tissue to deal with the invader and go into the room. There are Graci and Jesi, kneeling on the bed. Graci is looking somewhat scared by the arachnid. Jesi (who has no fear of bugs, worms, etc.) has made a fist with her batman-gloved hand and is trying with all of her might to smash the life out of the spider. Try to picture it. Jesi in her batman gloves, pounding away (and making sound effects) at this poor spider that is very dead by the time Dad arrives on the scene. I was cracking up!

GOING, GOING, GONE!

Have you ever watched something bad happen and felt like you were powerless to stop it because you could only move in slow motion...?

Last weekend we went on the 2nd annual Green Family Hike Up Lone Peak. This year, Christi's brother Matthew came with us. It's a great hike. Next year I'm going to take a GPS to see how far we go and how high we climb, but I'd bet it's about a 2 mile hike with about a 2000-3000 foot climb. It's a pretty good hike, especially when you carry a backpack that weighs 28 pounds and a gut that weighs 40. (Next year-no gut!!! But I digress.) Here are a couple of pics from last year's hike, since we haven't developed the ones from this year yet:






One of the things we like to do up there is sit on the big granite outcropping and look down into the valley below. It is a breathtaking view, made all the more wonderful by the fact that the only way to access this view is by a challenging hike. In other words, you feel like you earned it. We hiked up late Friday afternoon, looked out over the valley for a little while, then came down off the outcropping to set up our camp. After dinner, we went back up to the rock to see the sunset and watch as the stars came out. Even mid-July it can get a bit chilly up there at night, so we all brought our sleeping bags up to the rock to be cozy as we watched the heavens. Our sleeping bags were in stuff bags that were roughly cylindrical in shape. Shortly after we had come to the top of the rock, Parker put his sleeping bag down-still in the stuff bag-on the slightly sloped surface of the granite. It started to roll away. "Parker!" I yelled. But it was too late. I wanted to lunge after it, but I would have had to run downhill toward about a 30 foot drop-off. I helplessly watched his sleeping bag as it rolled down, down, and over the edge!

We looked for it on the sloped hillside beneath where it had fallen from the rock. It was just too dark to find a black stuff bag. So here we were, in the middle of nowhere, one sleeping bag short. Fortunately, this trip was in July (as opposed to last year's September trip!) The night was cool, but not dangerous. Parker slept the first part of the night in his clothes. He wore Christi's sweats on top of his own, and three sweatshirts. (He also wore a pair of my socks, which, for some 8-year-old reason, he decided were sufficient footwear to wander off in the woods in the middle of the night for a bathroom break! But that's a different story:) Early in the morning hours he got too cold, and Christi let him crawl into her mummy bag with her. What a great mom!

You know, I sometimes wonder why we love hiking and camping so much. My legs have barely recovered, and its over four days since we got home. I slept terribly (due primarily to the large root I failed to identify prior to laying out our sleeping tarp and the large slope of the ground I also failed to identify-oops!) It took forever to get the water to boil over our fire to cook our freeze-dried food. There was much clean-up after the trip was over. And yet, there are few things I enjoy more than camping with my family. There's something about getting out in nature. I think we feel a connection to our Father in Heaven that is hard to feel in the hustle, bustle and noise of our everyday lives.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE...AND WAY TOO MUCH TO EAT!

Tonight I went downstairs to put Elli to bed. I heard the sound of gushing water from the bathroom. The toilet had overflowed and continued to pour out water for somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour. Not good. There was about an inch of water in the bathroom and it had poured out into the hallway carpet and our two unfinished storage rooms. Remarkably, I kept my cool. I quickly put Elli down in her room and tried to figure out what to do. First I tried soaking up the water with towels, but I quickly realized that this would be almost impossible to do without WAY more towels than we own. Fortunately I was able to borrow a wet-vac from a neighbor and was able to make the headway into the mess. Christi had been at a church meeting, but I was able to get in touch with her and she rushed home to help.

Water, when in the wrong place, is a terrible thing. Nothing can really stop it. It seeped under the walls into the adjacent storage rooms. Fortunately, these are just cement floors, but several boxes that were on the floor got soaked. Right where it came into one room a queen size mattress set was propped up on it's side. (Yes, if you're keeping track, that technically means we have an extra king size mattress set AND an extra queen size mattress set. But you can't really count the queen. It's over 20 years old, has been passed down through a few generations, and is more like a model of the grand canyon than a mattress.) Bottom line-this added a lot of work, not just tonight, but through the next several days as we make sure everything gets dried out and try to rearrange the stuff we moved and took out of boxes to dry. But, you know, that's ok. Cuz' we really don't have much going on in our lives. We're not preparing for an invasion of 50+ kids tomorrow night for a combined Taylor-Jesi-Graci birthday party. We're not trying to get ready to leave on a two-week trip to China to adopt a 4-year-old with special health concerns. We didn't just find out today some news that is complicating this trip and the time-off needed to take it. We're not supposed to leave this weekend to be in Christi's home town for a family reunion. We're not in the process of trying to refinance this home and possibly put an offer on a new home for which I would be the general contractor for the final 1/3 of the work that still needs to be done on the house. Oh wait, yes we are! HOWEVER...it could have been much worse. It could have been an upstairs bathroom. It could have leaked for a longer period of time, or even at a time when we were gone.

While I was not very happy with the situation, I was calm and collected throughout. How, you may ask, did I demonstrate such self-control? Well, I have this friend. It's called chocolate. Have you ever heard of Flipz? (If you are trying to diet, stop reading now!) Flipz are divine and terrible at the same time. They are pretzels covered in your choice of Chocolate, White Chocolate, or Chocolate and Peanut Butter. At Smith's they were on sale for $1.00/bag. Quite a deal! One bag contains four servings of 5 pretzels each-20 fabulous pretzels with a total calorie count of 560 calories. Christi thought it would be a great idea to stock up on Flipz while they were on sale-the kids love them. OK, I said. But (and I'm not kidding) I told her as soon as I got home with them she had to hide them REALLY well. This she neglected to do. We are both trying to lose a little weight prior to our trip to China. She wants to lose about 5 pounds in the next 2 weeks. I want to lose about 35. Anyway, I had to make repeated trips up and down the stairs in the process of cleaning up the water mess in the basement. Those doggone Flipz were just sitting there at the top of the stairs. Over the course of the evening I ate two bags of them all by myself. That's the equivalent of 4 and a half Kit Kats! What a pig. Well, there's always tomorrow. Maybe I'll shoot to lose 34 pounds in the next two weeks instead:)

Jeremy

What Fun!

Today I dropped the boys off for a baseball camp on campus at BYU. They will room together in the dorms for three nights. At first they were a bit nervous to go, but once they got there, saw their dorm rooms and got their meal cards, they started to get a feel for how much fun was in store for them. They will work on baseball skills from 9-4 each day. In the evenings they will be in a group with an adult counselor. Tonight they went bowling and played games. On Wednesday night they'll be going to Seven Peaks water park. They're very excited. It was fun to go back to my alma mater. Much has changed, but much is still the same.

On the way down, we were talking about how the older boys at the camp will be going to a dance with girls from a dance camp. I told the boys that someday they would want to go to dances, too, and that someday they would think girls were cute. Parker volunteered that he already thought one girl was cute. He then named a girl from school. I'll call her "Sarah" to protect the innocent. After Parker told me that, Taylor let me know that Parker also had an "arch-enemy." (Taylor's words:) I'll call him "Joe." Parker agreed that Joe was indeed his arch enemy. The reason for this is that Sarah likes both Parker and Joe. Parker said, "I was thinking I would like to trip Joe. Then Sarah would think he would he was clumsy! I wouldn't really do it, but I was thinking about it."

So Parker is noticing girls and has arch enemies. They grow up so quickly:)

Jer

Phone conversation with Jesi:)

I've been in New Jersey for the past two weeks for training with my new company. WAY TOO LONG!!! But, it's almost over. I can't tell you how much I miss Christi and the kids. I missed Parker's first baseball All-Star tournament (including a home run!) But I'll be home tomorrow.

Tonight I called home to say hello. Jesi picked up the phone and I recognized her sweet little "Hello" immediately. I asked, "Is this Jesi?" "Yes" I asked, "Do you know who this is?" She said, "Daddy!" "Yes, sweetheart." "Why are you calling, Daddy?" "Because I love you so much," I said. "What?" Jesi asked. "Because I..." "Daddy, I have to go get ice cream!" Click. Well, at least I know where I stand:)

Jer

Happy Father's Day!

I have the most amazing husband, dad, and father-in-law! In honor of them, I am sharing a few videos of wonderful father stories. The first one reminds me so much of what I would catch Jeremy doing with our kids!! The second reminds me of the teachings and example of my Dad. The third reminded me of what a hard worker my father-in-law is, his desire to provide for his family, and the way he has dealt with challenges.

I am so blessed!!!!!!!

(Don't forget to scroll down and push pause on the music playlist)

Too much fun with Photo Booth!

My kids love sneaking in our room and taking funny pictures on PhotoBooth. Sometimes, they even convince us to join in on the fun. Today, after taking some pics with the kids, I scrolled back to look at previous ones. I was laughing out loud when I found a group of pictures taken by my Jeremy. Alone. Apparently, he was bored??? Anyway, I'm posting them at the end of the slideshow. We'll see how long they stay on here before he discovers and deletes them! Love you, hon! (:

By the way, good news on the Elli front!

Letter of Acceptance!

Those of you who followed our adoption journeys to Elli and Graci know how much we love ladybugs! The story goes that one Spring, there was an influx of ladybugs around the nation, followed quickly by adoption referrals for families that had been waiting for a long time. Since that time, ladybugs have become the symbol of good luck in the adoption community. We know that there's really no such thing as luck, but rather a God who loves to have fun with His children! I am not stretching the truth when I say that every single milestone in our adoption journeys have been marked with ladybug sightings of some kind or other. All of these sightings have been fun and unique, but one takes the cake. It was when my dear friend, Heather, sent me a Valentine package in the mail. Heather had originally had Graci's file, and she and her husband wanted so much to adopt her, but it didn't feel right. Jeremy and I had decided to pursue her adoption and had just filled out our letter of intent. The day we sent it to China was the day I got the package from Heather-- full of candy and other Valentine goodies. It sounds too crazy to believe, but I opened up a salt water taffy to find-- you guessed it-- a ladybug. It was dead, of course-- but it was just the craziest thing. Who finds ladybugs in their candy?!! I immediately called Heather who swore she had nothing to do with it and we were just laughing our heads off at the audacity of it all. A ladybug in taffy? In the middle of winter?

Another time Parker came walking in the house with a ladybug on his nose. That day we received pre-approval for Graci. Another day, Jeremy and I were leaving for our first adoption parenting class and a ladybug flew in the window of our car and landed on my hand. These are just a few of our ladybug stories!

So, like I said, every step of every adoption has had ladybugs involved. Well, as we were outside last Friday night, Parker found a ladybug. Jeremy immediately said, "Our letter of acceptance must be coming!" He told me he was just sure it would arrive at the agency on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday, and they aren't there on Saturdays). I smiled and thought it was a fun thought, but that there was no way. I have been following TONS of adoption timelines, and nobody was getting them that soon.

I guess that shows that I need to kick up my belief in the ladybug theory, because lo and behold, yesterday we got the email that our LOA had indeed arrived, just 49 days after our LID!!! (Those of you following timelines know how amazing that is.) I happened to be on the phone with my dear friend, Kim, when I opened the email, and it was fun to share that moment with her! She is also an adoptive mom and is as passionate about it as I am. When I called Jeremy, he told me he had been waiting all day for the call. (:

So, what does this all mean??? It means that we should be traveling to China in 7-9 weeks!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!! After waiting so long, it seems crazy that it is that close! We are so very excited!!!

My kids have been praying every day for a very long time that we could travel before their school starts. I know others have been praying for us as well. I was beginning to wonder if it was going to happen, because there are so many waiting families whose timeline has been much slower than ours. Some people who got their acceptance letters yesterday had been waiting well over 100 days-- we were at day 49. I have no doubt that the many prayers offered in our behalf closed the waiting gap for us, and that the Lord knew the desires of our hearts to travel this summer (besides getting him sooner, it also worked out so much better for childcare situations).

At the same time, I know that the Lord knows what's best for every family, and that waits that may seem unfair or too long may very well have a good reason behind them. I could not understand why in the world Elli's adoption took so long, but it just so happened that if we had adopted her even a couple of days earlier, Jeremy wouldn't have gotten the 6 weeks paid paternity leave that his company had just implemented. So hang on, waiting families-- we will all have our children soon!!! (:

I have finally updated Elli's site...

...and am pledging to be better at keeping it up. (:

(As Jennifer put it well, Elli may not be forsaken, but her blog is!)

Click HERE to read.


Also, being Memorial Day weekend, we are of course thinking of our sweet, amazing loved ones who have passed on. We are especially missing those we have lost in the last few years:

Tiffany Rose (Jeremy's darling little sister-- died at age 22 in a car accident)

Grandpa Larsen (my grandfather-- a WWII veteran and amazing man)

Grandpa Green (Jeremy's grandfather-- a hard worker with a quick wit)

Grandma Nelson (my grandmother and one of my most treasured friends)

Keltson Blackburn (our sweet neighbor and Taylor's primary teacher)

and of course our darling Jacob and Emily.

We love you.

Turn up your speakers and enjoy!

(Side Note: I've played on stage with Jon Schmidt before:)

Jeremy

Falling in love all over again!

I got the most amazing phone call on Monday, and it has had me smiling ever since. Let me start at the beginning. A few weeks ago, I was just DYING for some new info on our sweet little Chu Chu. Anything. Updated measurements, a picture, word that he was doing well-- I just needed something. It is so difficult to be waiting for someone we already love so much and have so little information on how he is. Well, I googled his orphanage, to see if I could possibly find a picture of it. What I found, is that there is an American adoption agency that has volunteers there in his city! I emailed them, praying that they might know something about our son. Well, on Monday I got a call from a very sweet lady, who after verifying that we were indeed talking about the same boy, told me that YES, she did know him. In fact, she has HELD him! She was there last summer and she KNEW OUR BOY!

My heart was swelling as she told me how much their staff loves our little guy. She said that there was something very special about him, and that they had prayed over him while there at his orphanage, and have continued to since coming home. Not only that, but she contacted the staff there, and they took pictures and gave us updated measurements. So these pictures were actually taken THIS WEEK! Imagine that! What a blessing to a mom just dying for a shred of news. She told me she would email me the pictures, and I was a mess for the next little while as I waited for them.

It was worth it.

Are you ready to see the sweetest little smile in the world???

You can click on the picture to make it big! (;



I cannot look at these sweet pictures without smiling myself. He has my heart. I love every square inch of him! I just want to eat him up!!!!!

Just when I thought I was on top of the world with these brand new fun photos, I got another email from the same woman, who told me that one of her coworkers has VIDEO of our boy! Imagine that! I have contacted him and am anxiously awaiting seeing sweet Chu Chu in action.

I am so grateful and indebted to these wonderful people who have done so much for our son. Because of them, Chu Chu is in a situation where he is in a foster care setting much of the time. He has been loved and prayed over for some time now. It is such a good feeling to know that there are others out there who are watching over him when I cannot. What an amazing blessing from a loving Father in Heaven.

P.S. As far as names go, I think I have lost the "Thomas" battle. We are now toying with the name Alexander Chase Green. It has been so difficult to come up with something that everybody likes, and this may be it! We could call him either Alex or Xander, or most likely, both. I personally like Xander, as it would fit with Taylor and Parker, and I think it's unique and fun! Also, his Chinese name, Xu Chu, and American name would be kind of similar-- Xu Chu and Xander Chase. I love Alex too. What do you think? (:

Mother's Day

We had a good Mother's Day:) Christi got breakfast in bed-eggs, bacon, lemon poppy seed muffins, and orange juice. She got the usual conglomeration of homemade kid presents. I won some points with my gift this year. About six years ago, Christi vacuumed up her wedding ring. We were able to get it out of the vacuum bag, but it had been severely disfigured. Since then, Christi has purchased a $7.00 crummy junk ring at Walmart about every 2 months. These rings turned green or brown or some other ugly color long before she would replace them. (Side note: One time Christi was talking to a friend while wearing one of her discolored Walmart rings. The friend glanced at Christi's hand and commented-Wow! A two-tone wedding ring! How cool! We laughed at the prestige to be found with this dime-store special:) Anyway, for Mother's Day I secretly took her original wedding ring to a jeweler and had it fixed. She is still smiling to have a real ring on her finger. I copped out with a Stouffer's lasagna for dinner, but it was delicious. I did make one of Christi's favorite desserts: Thai sticky rice with Mangos. The sticky rice is sweetened with coconut milk. It's delicious! So Mother's Day was good.

On Mother's Day morning, the ring got us into some conversations with the kids about our dating life. They were fascinated! It was so cute. They were particularly drawn to three stories:

1. Our first kiss. Christi and I hadn't technically been on a date yet. We were both counselors for a youth camp at Brigham Young University called Especially for Youth. (It is an AWESOME program, if you ever get a chance to send your teenage kids!) As a counselor you have virtually no free time during the week. It's a blast and you get to meet a lot of other college kids who are also counselors, but you have no unstructured time to just hang out. Saturday night is the only night you can do your own thing. So one Saturday night, a bunch of us decided to go to a country dance. Christi and I had flirted some, but nothing serious. (Besides, she had just volunteered to serve a year-and-a-half long mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I didn't figure there was much use in my pursuing anything with her.) Whenever we discuss this particular dance, Christi reminds me that I didn't ask her to slow dance even once. We danced a few fast dances, but nothing slow. I did, however, ask Christi's close friend to slow dance a couple of times. Oops! Another friend drove us back to BYU campus, where all of the counselors were staying in the dorms. During the ride, Christi and I got talking some more and I started becoming more and more interested in this attractive, fun girl. So when we got back on campus, I chivalrously offered to walk her back to her dorm. Before she went inside, we sat outside and talked. And talked. And talked. And I realized what a gem Christianne truly was and is. So at one point I said to her: "I'll bet you a quarter I can kiss you without touching your lips." Christi, thinking "How cute, he's going to kiss me on the cheek," said "OK." I told her to close her eyes. She complied, and I planted a kiss right on her lips. I said "I lose. Here's your quarter.:)" She was pretty surprised, but let's just say she earned a few bucks that night.:) The boys couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces as they heard this story, and are determined to use that line at some point in their future.

2. Christi's decision to marry me (vs. her high-school sweetheart). Christi had dated a really great guy all through high school and had fallen in love with him. The two of them (and most of their small town) were sure that they would get married after he returned from serving his two-year mission. I met Christi the last week of June, 1997. Her high school sweetheart was coming home from his mission in September of 1997. Even with limited math skills, I was able to see that I basically had 2 months to make this girl fall in love with me and forget him. Man, I did everything I could to win her over. I gave her so many flowers (including one week where she received some every day). I called her. I sang to her. I played guitar for her. But in spite of my best efforts and her growing feelings for me, she made it very clear that I was NOT to propose to her until after her missionary returned. YEAH, RIGHT!!! Here's the girl of my dreams, ("She's almost perfect" my future mother-in-law informed me the first time I was introduced to Christi's family-and she is!) and she expects me to sit around and wait for this other guy to come back and remind her of why she loved him??? NO WAY! I proposed to Christi the night before her missionary returned from Italy. (I planned a GREAT proposal date, if I do say myself, but that's a story for another entry.) Anyway, toward the end of a perfect evening, I got down on one knee, and, with my hand shaking visibly, held out the ring and asked, "Sweetheart, will you marry me?" Her response? "Did you ask my dad?" ??? Did you ask my dad??? Fortunately, I was able to answer, "Yes." (Yet another story. Yes, I had asked her dad. I had driven the 2 hours to Ferron, UT. Her family already knew that I had chronic problems with punctuality. I had called Dean ahead of time and asked if I could come and talk to him. I'm sure he knew what was coming. He agreed to meet me at the end of his work day outside the school where he teaches. So, as usual, I had timed things to the last second. I would have been on time if there had been no complications. I really would have! To get to Christi's home town, you have to drive through a 60-mile long canyon which for the most part is one lane in each direction. This is the truth: A semi-truck had crashed in the canyon, spilling huge amounts of re-bar all over the highway. Traffic was stopped for a long time. I was terribly late to an appointment to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. Not only that, but there was no way to call and let him know. There was also nothing for him to do but wait for me. We had agreed to meet outside the school. So when I finally showed up at least an hour late, poor Dean was still sitting sitting on the curb in the hot summer sun, waiting for me. It's a wonder he didn't just scowl and say "Get out of here and leave my daughter alone!" Instead, he completely cemented himself in the position of the world's most wonderful father-in-law (no offense Dad, you're awesome too.:). We went into the school, sat down at a couple of students' desks, and talked for a little while. Small talk at first, then, the question. "Dean, I would like to ask for your permission to ask your daughter to marry me." "Got it!" he instantly replied. No questions about how I was going to support his daughter. No lectures about how I had better treat her perfectly. He knew me well enough by then to know he would say yes. And instead of making me sweat it out, he made me feel like he was lucky to have me for a son-in-law. (And believe me, I'm sure he had MANY concerns and questions about my capabilities. I really can't express in words how grateful I am for Dean and LaRita. They have been amazing to me. I hope I can be the same for my kids-in-law.) So I answered Christi: "Yes, I asked your dad." She put the ring on that night, but never did say yes. She also told me she was going to the airport with her missionary's family the next day to pick him up. She took the ring off to do that. This was, of course, very fair, given that I had proposed when she had prohibited me from doing so. She spent a rough next couple of days deciding what she was going to do. Then she told a very disheartened young man that she had decided to marry me. After relating this story, our kids were fascinated by the concept that it had been such a hard choice at the time. They kept asking things like "Are you glad you married dad?" "Did you make the right choice?" "Did your missionary marry someone else?" She answered yes to all of them. What a lucky guy I am!!!

3. Christi got asked out on a date after we were married with four kids. She was at Walmart in Tennessee with just Jessica. With still years to go before I would fix her wedding ring, her hand was bare. She noticed that a particular guy always seemed to be near, no matter what part of the store she was in. At one point, Christi asked a Walmart employee where she could find a particular tool that I had asked her to purchase. The employee wasn't sure where or what the tool was. Enter the date-asker. The guy who was always near approached Christi and helped her find what she needed. Then he somewhat awkwardly said: "You may have noticed me nearby today. I've been trying to get up the guts to ask you something. I know it's a bit strange since you don't know me, but I was wondering if you would like to have dinner sometime." Christi was very flattered! She answered "Oh, that's so sweet of you, but I'm married with three more kids at home!" The guy was embarrassed, but it wasn't too bad. When we told the kids this story, they, the boys in particular, were so worried about this guy. They kept asking, "Do you think he found someone to marry?" "Do you think he's married now?" Do you think he's happy?" They asked these questions over and over during the course of the day. Their empathy and concern was so cute:)

Well, this entry turned out much longer than I had anticipated. But the bottom line? I'm married to the most wonderful girl and the best mother in the world and we have the most wonderful kids in the world. (Isn't it great that for me they absolutely are the best, and yet for you, your family is the best? God is good!)

Jeremy

Dance Pictures!

I'm What?

This morning I came upstairs looking for Christi. I walked into our bedroom where she was taking care of Elli. I started talking to Christi and after a few minutes Jesi came in and said, looking intently at me, "Dad, you're bugging me over!" "I'm what?" I asked. "You're bugging me over!" "What does that mean?" "It means, you're making me not concentrate on my TV!"-followed by a big, heartfelt sigh of despair. Apparently I talk too loud...:)

A couple of days ago one of Christi's friends posted a comment to our "Home Alone" post. In the comment she said "Jeremy-nobody does superdad like you do..." Christi was standing next to me as I read it, and I turned to her and said, "Lucky she doesn't know how much I stink as a dad sometimes!" Then, sweet little Jesi, who was also in the room, very seriously said: "Dad, you don't stink! You're so handsome!" Then she gave me a big hug. Made my day. Jesi does that often. Several times a day, she'll see me and excitedly say, "Daaaaddddyyyy!", then rush to me and give me a huge bear hug. It doesn't get any better than that:)

Last week Christi was very creative for our family home evening treat and toasted marshmallows in the oven. With ONE marshmallow, Jesi created this mess:

Gotta love kids!

Jeremy

Spring is in the air!

I thought I would surprise Jeremy by taking some pics of his beautiful spring flowers so I could post them and brag about what a wonderful husband I have! Then as I looked at the pictures, I realized the lawn needed mowing (which he is usually VERY good about keeping up with) and so he might not like the pictures. Nevertheless, I am posting them, because I think they are BEAUTIFUL! Thank you, Jeremy, for taking the time to plant these last fall!!! (: Also, as I was uploading these photos I found another interesting photo that I hadn't seen for awhile. This is from our sweet Taylor, who loves to chew on everything and once in awhile, accidentally swallows random objects-- you know, like screws and such. (:

Home Alone

Well, not exactly alone. I'm home with five ragamuffins but no wife. One can feel rather alone under those circumstances. Christi left last night and will be home tomorrow morning. Her mom is in charge of a spiritual/motivational conference for women in their area, and Christi was asked to give a 50-minute presentation. So I don't envy her the task of preparing for or giving the presentation. But now the conference is over, and Christi is relaxing at her parents home with no kids to take care of. I am a bit envious of that.

The morning started out with a bang. Elli went to the bathroom in the bathtub. (Sidenote: I am so proud of Jessica right now! She is sitting in my lap as I type this. She commented on how quickly I was typing. Then, just after I typed Elli's name, she said, "Why are you putting Elli up there?" WOW! I can't believe she was able to recognize Elli's name so quickly and so well. Cool:) Anyway, I discovered Elli's treat for me when I asked Jesi to look in on Elli in the tub. Jesi called out to me: "Daddy, the water is all brown!" Ah, the joys of parenthood. Everything has been cleaned up now, and the kids are doing pretty well.

For part of Christi's presentation, she put together a slide show of pictures about Elli. Here it is:



Have a great weekend!

Jeremy

No Stopping Ellie

No, I didn't misspell our daughter's name. I just had to post this poignant and heart-warming video from CNN. There is so much good that can be done in the world. So many opportunities to serve and help. I am determined to spend less time focused on myself and more time focused on helping others.

Jeremy

Faces, Followers and Flash Mobs

Some of you know that I'm a songwriter at heart. (Unfortunately, no one in Nashville who could do anything about it seemed to share that opinion. But I digress...) Anyway, as a songwriter, I adore alliteration. I'm particularly pleased when I can craft a clever catch-phrase as the preface to a post. But I must admit, I stretched it a bit today. All of the titular tie-ins work, but they're not as natural as the ones I usually use, if you get where I'm going:) By the way, a few of you have said you enjoy my posts on this blog. I really must throw a shout out to my little sister, Jen, who is an inspiration to me in many ways, not the least of which is her tremendous talent for turning a phrase!

Faces: (Well, I guess it's really just "face".)

The other day I was practicing baseball with Taylor. That kid is very determined when he puts his mind to something. He's played first base for several years, but his coaches this year haven't had the chance to see how well he can play that position. So he's playing in the outfield for the first time ever. The younger you are, the more boring the outfield positions are. In his 9-10 year-old league, there is beginning to be some action out there, but it's still a bit of a disappointment for him. Anyway, he wanted to practice playing outfield. I stood at home plate and he ran out to center field. I then began to hit grounders, line-drives, and fly balls to him. On the very first hit, the ball came at Taylor hard, and took a crazy bounce just as it reached him. It jumped up and hit him full on the chin. Taylor dropped to the ground in tears. I ran out to him and held him for a few minutes. I asked if we should just quit for the day, but that determined little man stayed out there for another 45 minutes. And he worked HARD! I'm extremely proud of him. He is going to accomplish great things in life:)

As a testament to the pain he suffered, I present the following photo:

See that half circle of little red dots to the right of his lips and chin? Those are the marks the stitches on the baseball left when it hit him!

Followers:

So this one was the stretch. I looked at a thesaurus to try and find a word that meant "imitate" and started with an "f." Follower was the only one. So Jesi is really more of an "imitator" than a "follower," but then we'd be absent the alliteration, now, wouldn't we:) Jesi LOVES Graci. ADORES her. Wants to be just like her. So tonight, they decided that Jesi would BE Graci. They dressed in jammies that were alike. Both wore bathrobes. Both wore glasses. They were both "Graci." Jesi demanded that we call her "Graci." Here are the cute pictures:






What, you may ask, is that black thing on Jesi's head? That is a pair of tights with a pony-tail in it. That was their way of making Jesi have black hair, just like Graci! Pretty clever-- especially to have come up with it all by themselves!

Flash Mobs:

For those of you who are not familiar with flash mobs, here is the wikipedia defenition:

A flash mob (or flashmob[1]) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via social media or viral emails, rather than those organized by public relations firms or for a publicity stunt.

This is a hilarious, recent phenomenon. If you waste much time browsing the internet anyway, you-tube videos of various flash mobs are as good a waste of time as any:) Here is one of the best I've seen. Remember, the people who aren't part of the group have no idea what's going on. (I recommend double clicking on the video clip, so it opens in its own window. Then blow the you-tube video up to full-screen.)



Well, I hope you've enjoyed my awful attempts at alliteration. I hope you've found the photos to your fancy. And if you ever find yourself forming a flash mob, feel free to phone me!

Jeremy

We'll miss them when they're gone...

One of the favorite posts I've ever read was written by my friend Teri. It was a picture of an apple core sitting in her bathroom sink, entitled "I'll miss her when she's gone." I thought it was the most perfect caption for such a picture, and immediately looked around at all the crazy things in my house that I would someday miss. Well, the other day, I grabbed my camera and went through the house. I didn't pose anything-- just took pictures of some of the things I would truly miss when they are gone!

Elli obviously gets a little carried away in her rocking chair!
Jesi's dress-up closet
game shelf

this wasn't staged (:
I had spent forever earlier that day looking for the syrup and finally making homemade!

Half of our blinds look like this, thanks to Elli...

What?

Our bedroom wall

Our boys have had these out in our kitchen for the last five years-- they save 10% of their money for their "Missionary Fund." Every time it gets filled up, we match it and put it in the bank. They are so proud of all they have saved!

Sign on the girls' door

The bunk bed ladder

Graci's "kiddos" make it hard for her to find room to sleep, but she will NOT get rid of any of them

Graci is GREAT at cleaning her room, but insists on keeping her vanity like this!

Jessica's dresser-- YIKES!!!
Last week, Parker was apparently having a bad day. I came into the kitchen, where Taylor and Graci were making him a "treasure hunt" to cheer him up. They even provided the treasure-- $3.00 and two pieces of gum. (:

boys' dresser-- need I say more?

Taylor's bed-- Spidey, Doggie, and Wooly. Sigh.

I told Parker to find a special place for his Wolf Cub Scout book so he wouldn't lose it. I guess I should have paid attention to the banging going on in his room... He does get points for creativity!


This is a picture of the contents of ONE of Taylor's pair of pants! The boy's pockets are like this EVERY DAY-- he has been like this since he was a toddler!

And I just HAD to add this one!


Oh how we will miss our precious children! WE LOVE YOU!

My New Boyfriend

Parker and Taylor have lately found great amusement and hilarity in leaving phone messages on our cell phones. Yesterday I got the following one from Parker:

"You're one HOT MAMA! Have I ever told you how much I LOVE you and how CUTE you are? And one more thing, will you go to the prom with me? (giggle giggle)"

Oh, the humor of an 8-year-old. (:

By the way, click on over to Elli's blog to see how well she is coming along!

More "Jesi-isms"

While reading a book about animal mothers and babies, I pointed to the pictures and said,

"pig...piglet"
"cat...kitten"
horse...foal"
cow...calf"

And then thinking that Jessica surely knew the answer to the next one, said, "Dog..."

She looked up at me with big eyes and a triumphant grin and answered, "doglet!"

..........................

After telling Jesi that yes, I would help her fix her hair, she replied,

"You will?! Oh, Mommy, you make Heavenly Father so happy! And you are such a kind, nice, beautiful person."

..........................

"Mom, I know how to shake my hips really good, huh? Do you just love it when I shake my hips?"