Things to Remember 4-12-15

PORNOGRAPHY
We had the Bishop and Bro. Jacox give our lesson in YW on Sunday.  They talked a lot about self-image, self-esteem, pornography, repentance, morality.  It was SO AMAZING!  I really loved it!  I think it is so great for those girls to hear that stuff from men.  It means so much more to hear men, good, righteous, Priesthood bearing men talk about those things openly.  I loved it.  I hope the girls got something out of it, I know I did.  It was interesting to think about my self-image right now.  I feel like a big blob with this pregnancy coming full-force.  But to think about what this big blob of a body is accomplishing right now... well, makes it a little less blobby.  I LOVE that I get to participate in the creation of human beings.  I feel so blessed to have this opportunity and to have been able to do it so many times.  It is such a miracle.  And whether I feel beautiful during it or not, it is still miraculous and beautiful.  I hope that the Young Women know their worth and know what they have the potential to become.  4-12-15

MATERNITY PANTS
So a lot of years ago, not sure exactly, but I remember writing a post about shopping for pants.  For some reason I was shopping for pants with a few little toddlers in tow.  I don't remember all the details, but while I was shopping today, it triggered the memory of the event and chaos was the overlying theme.  It was bad enough that I wrote a whole blog post about it.  So anyway, I just thought I should report that I went shopping for some maternity pants (aka: torture), brought Erika and Jack with me, and all was well the entire time!!  I think we had more trouble just getting Jack dressed than we did with the whole two-store trip!  They stayed by me, they were adorable in the dressing room, they laughed and had fun together... it was really better than I ever could have asked for.  I'll give Heavenly Father the credit because I did ask him if he would help us to accomplish this task without too many problems.  So, prayer- answered!  I think my favorite parts were when Jack licked the mirror and then when I asked if he loved himself, he said, "yeah" and then kissed it as well.  Gross, but hilarious!  Also, when Erika told Jack to turn around and not watch me get dressed and he just looked up at me with his cute little closed lip smile like, "nah.  I'll just stand here and be adorable :)"  Made me laugh.  Another happy sidenote- these maternity pants have pockets!  Wahoo!  I think I will still have to invest in some comfy shorts like with Jack's pregnancy.  Who cares how hideous they are right?  So anyway.  On the way home from this trip I was trying to figure out if it's the kids that are different, or my parenting.  Then I came to the part where I wondered if I'm being TOO lax now with this little ones.  And THAT'S why they're so good in the store.  I didn't fight Jack at all on his desire to stay out of the cart after the dressing room.  Which with some kids, this may have been something I would have pushed.  But I guess the more that I think about it, it probably is both.  I am much better at controlling my temper.  I'm a lot more easy going (probably to a fault at times) about letting my kids run down the big aisles way ahead of me.  I think I just have a better attitude overall... if I can toot my own horn for a minute.  But I will say that Mr. Jack is one of the most well-behaved 2 year olds this family has seen.  He almost enjoys following the rules (wonder where he gets that... 6 good little law-enforcers I"m guessing).  Anytime I called his name he would come to an abrupt stop, turn around and then catch up with where we were going.  It was amazing.  I'll admit he's not always like this.  In fact the fight that ensued whilst getting his pants on this morning was NOT my favorite.  So maybe he's a little like Luke- just better when we're not at home.  Luke was always a dream when we were out.  Just not at home :).  Erika was a lot like that too.  Anyway.  Just thought I should mention this for posterity's sake.  It's not all bad :).  And it does get easier, whether it's actually getting easier or if you just adjust to it eventually :).  I'm gearing myself up for this next baby and trying to prep myself for things to be difficult again, but in the meantime....  4-13-15

JAZZ GAME
For FHE this week Nate surprised the kids with Jazz tickets!  This Jazz season has been so much fun with the kids getting so into it all.  We couldn't resist taking them to see a game live. It was the last home game of the season.  Everyone was SO EXCITED all the way there and into the Arena.  Nate wanted the kids to see the players warming up, up close, so we walked down through the lower bowl portals and walked all the way down, as low as we could go, as close to the court as we could get and watched them warm up.  The kids loved it!  It was a lot of fun.  They were all very star struck.  Especially Kelly!  One of the ushers was standing near us and urged Kelly to hold up her "We need a salute GOBERT!" sign so she did and then he got Rudy's attention.  Rudy looked over, saw Kelly's sign, gave her a serious little head nod and sent Kelly's blood pressure through the roof :).  It was adorable.  The girls had both made little posters to hold up during the game.  We were all wanting to get on the jumbotron somehow :).  So anyway, we made our way up to our nosebleed section and watched the game like true fans, screaming and yelling!  It was so much fun!  It's really fun to see Nate's little obsession rubbing off on his kids :).  Makes me happy :).  Jack even got into it a little, I taught him when to clap and cheer :).  He was a little nervous about how high up we were.  It was a really great game.  They were neck and neck until halftime when the Jazz just took control of the whole game.  I think we won by 30ish points (I'm horrible for not knowing the exact score, I know, Luke knows it).  I was so glad we won.  I didn't want to watch Luke, watch them lose :).  It was a fun night!  We're all very anxious for next season!

4-13-15

HAIRCUT
So maybe it was the nice shopping trip I had with the two littles the day before, or maybe I was just desperate for a haircut, but I decided to take them with me.  Just them and me.  I was so happy with how it went!! They really did surprise me!  They just sat there talking about me getting my haircut.  There were a couple other kids there, coincidentally, their dad has seven kids as well!  It was so cool.  I was so proud of them.  Sidenote: I'm not happy with my haircut.  I wanted it shorter.  4-14-15

POWER OUTAGE
When we got home from helping Dan and his kids move into Adele's our power was out!  I was grateful for the heads up I'd gotten from Jami via text, but overall, it didn't really bother me.  We had picked up some Arby's on the way home because our evening was just getting started, so it was nice that I didn't have to try to figure anything else out.  After we ate Nate took off with Kelly, Bradley, Luke and Erika to pick up the things we were needing from the store.  Kelly needed a bunch of stuff for her play and Charity needed poster and things for her SBO running.  So it was just Charity, Noah, Jack and I at home, in the dark.  Didn't really feel all that dark.  Maybe I was just too tired to care, but we could see just fine for most of the evening.  Charity had some trouble studying for her Foods Test once the light got really dim, but we managed.  I couldn't find any flashlights and it was definitely time to be in bed, but Noah and Jack refused, so I just made them lay on the couch.  We were boring.  I love how my kids go into emergency panic mode when those things happen, all the "what ifs" flying around.  I get a kick out of it.  It was only off for about 2 1/2 hours, came back on right before Nate got home, so life was good.  We were able to get everyone in bed and all was well.  Fun stuff.  4-14-15

APRIL SNOW!!!
We finally got some of our much needed moisture, in the form of a huge snow storm!  I am not sure how I feel about it, I have always been a big fan of random weather, and we never did get much snow this winter, but at the same time- it's SPRING!  I think we'll be glad we had it when Summer comes.  Fun stuff.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY!
I got to go with Emily and Lisa to Cafe Rio to celebrate Emily's birthday.  It was such a nice relaxing time!  I love that I have friends.  Emily and I realized that the two snow storms (2 of the 3ish that we had this winter) were on both our birthdays!  We are so totally cosmically connected :) )4-15-15

JULIE'S DAD
Almost a week ago I saw on facebook that Julie's dad had died.  Julie is one of those people who's love for their dad was always obvious.  He was the reason (in a round about way) that I had tried funnel sticks at Burger King :).  I knew this was going to be a tough one, but even worse knowing that it was very sudden.  No warning whatsoever.  Poor Julie.  I love Julie!  She's one of my favorite people.  I feel SO blessed to have met her 13 years ago and that she has always made me a priority in her life regardless of the miles!  And there have been many over the years.  It's hard to believe we haven't lived within an hour of each other for about 9 years.  So anyway.  I asked what I could do to help and she asked me to go to the funeral.  This Thursday was the funeral.  I was so glad I went!  I don't love funerals, they make me sad and cry, but this was eye opening for me.  I almost liked it.  I LOVED hearing about her dad.  He sounded amazing. I know he was too, just by looking at Julie and her brother Tony.  They carry a lot of his amazing characteristics and will pass on the goodness.  It's so cool to think that your legacy could live on through your children if you teach them through example the way their dad did.  I was so impressed.  I loved hearing that the funny things.  HOw he rarely got mad and when he did it was an "oh brother" or a "sheesh".  Just like Julie!  Funerals make me want to be a better person.  This one was no exception.  They made me want to LIVE more.  It's really hard to believe that there could be something better for him to be doing besides spending time with his family and watching his grandkids grow, but there really is!  How exciting is that!  I loved hearing that Julie and her kids got to have him visit over Easter and were able to spend one last time together.  It's too bad that they didn't know it was the last time, but it sounds like he made it as memorable as any last time could have been.  I love that Heavenly Father does that for people.  It gives me hope.  SO anyway.  I was glad I got to give Julie a hug.  Even at a time like that, she was still caring too much about me and not herself.  I don't know how she does that!  She's amazing.  I wish I could be more like her.  Hopefully she can spare a minute to hang out with me this next week, but most of all, I hope she knows how much I love her and wish her all the comfort and peace she deserves.  On a much lighter note- we got to see the COLES AND COCKAYNES!!!  That was really a nice little bonus.  They are such an amazing family.  I was so happy to see them.  They're like family.  It's hard to believe we only lived by them for three years.  I hope we really do a BBQ this summer with them all.  4-16-15

THE CRUISE SLIDESHOW
We all went over to Heidi's for the long awaited Cruise Slideshow.  They also fed us some delicious Lasagna.  It was a lot of fun.  I was so glad that my kids were good while we there.  Their place isn't huge, so to cram our big family in there seemed risky :).  But everyone did so well!  Made me happy.  It was fun to see all of Heidi and John's pictures.  They made me want to go on a cruise :).  We watched some Clifford afterwards.  Good times.  4-17-15

BIKE RIDE WITH GRANDPA HATCH
Grandpa came down with his bike and we all went on a bike ride.  It was pretty sparce on the actual riding part, but the kids had a great time.  We went over to the new snow cone place and it wasn't open and there was no sign about when it would be.  So we went over to 7-11 to get slurpees instead.  After that, Heritage Park was calling my name.  Played there for a while, then Luke was "STARVING" so we went to Big Daddy's Pizza, grabbed a few pizzas and headed over to Gailey park to eat it.  It was fun, just not as much bike riding as I had pictured.  Still fun.  4-18-15

20 WEEKS
I have been OH SO BLOATED lately!  It's killing me.  Pants feel uncomfortable and I feel like I can't move around.  It's been somewhat miserable.  I spent most of Saturday night in the bathroom which made Sunday difficult.  I'm not sure what is up with this baby's positioning.  Feels really abnormal.  She's SO LOW, and yet my belly is so huge up high.  I'm curious what will happen as she grows.  I can't help but wonder if my insides are just so jumbled up that maybe things are kind of out of place.  Weird.  It's been fun to talk to Jack about the baby in my tummy :).  I think he's catching on a little.  He says sorry when he hurts my tummy which is a new one for him.  The other kids are fun to hear talk about her too.  Erika is totally gearing up for her new roommate :).  Although, she thinks they're going to move downstairs... not gonna happen.  Hopefully things keep going well.  I'm anxious for my other ultrasound.  4-18-15