Josh turns 8

 What a time in our world right now and I have not even mentioned it yet. There is a new virus. Coronavirus or COVID 19-  and there is a lot of talk about. Every day there are new updates.

To briefly explain is it started in China and is now in the United States. It's a respiratory illness that is impacting the older population more significantly. It is considered a pandemic now which means that because it is new people have not build immunities to it and it's a very quick spreading virus. So, as of right now, New York, California, Illinois, and Ohio have told their residents to stay at home. We are also out of school till the 28 of April. 😳 That's right. Home school. Till the 28th of April. Social Distancing is also a very common phrase right now. It is all in hopes to slow it down enough so hospitals don't get over run.
With all this background to say Josh had his 8th birthday in the midst of all this. He will also be getting baptized. When anticipating the date of his baptism we were expecting a lot of family. We were expecting both sets of grandparents, lots of Aunts and Uncles and a slew of cousins. But, because of a very unique set of circumstances and growing concern that would no longer be the case. We had so looked forward to it. Sam and I talked about possibly postponing his baptism in hopes that if we wait we could have everyone there, but we wondered if a few months would really make a difference. I asked Josh for his thoughts: "Josh...would you want to postpone getting baptized or do you want to keep the plan we have?" Josh's immediate answer followed. " Keep the plan we have because I want to have the Holy Ghost with me." Simple as that. Josh once again teaching me what was most important. With tears in my eyes and thankful to have such a kid all I could answer was, "ok. Then we'll keep it." Josh's goodness is truly remarkable. He never second guesses doing the right thing, and clearly understands priorities. I feel like I have always said this but I am so lucky to have Josh as my son. I have no doubt in my mind that he is going to do amazing things in his life, and with the gift of the Holy Ghost and understanding how valuable that gift is I can only begin to imagine what that will be.  But, I do know he one incredible kid.

The only things I could offer Josh for his birthday was a non-day. I had them following a schedule for school and requiring them to split their school work with chores and piano practice, and of course, play, but for his birthday I pretty much let him decide what we would do for the whole day. 💁🏼‍♀️ Seriously --NO other options. But, luckily Josh is pretty easy to please with new legos and toys, and even being with us, again, all day. We love Josh so so much. And I am so very thankful for him every day. 

Lily Turns 1 💗

 My best girl turned 1. I am soaking everything that she does knowing this is our last. When she was crawling and almost walking I would think this will be the last we see these cute crawling buns around our home and sure enough-they are gone. She is walking now. She is such a sweet, fun, smirky, smiley little girl. She is an amazing eater and amazing sleeper  and those are some of the best qualities you would look for in a baby.

She completes our family more than we ever would have thought. It still is so fresh in my mind when I never believed I would have a daughter and I knew I was missed out something different and special in it's own way and mourned not knowing what it was. And because I can still remember I look at her sometimes and am overwhelmed with gratitude that we have her.

She loves gathering books, and pulling out Kleenexes. She loves waving at people, and is taken by her brothers and they are even more so with her. It is hard not to be. She is so pleasant and happy.

 She also loves to dance an singing with her brothers in the car. She does seem to want to "talk" a lot. I am excited for actual words. But, I really do love hanging out with her. She is my most favorite girl.

I am thankful for the day we welcomed her into our lives and hearts.

Darth Vader

So, as an accompaniment to our holiday Rowan has been feeling sick. Leading out to Christmas break he developed a cough and it was causing his to throw up and it just wasn't awesome. He had been coming down around 4 in the morning for 3 days in row and on the 3rd morning I had the thought I think he has pneumonia.  I told that to Sam who questioned me more than agreed but I made an appointment with him that morning and sure enough- he had walking pneumonia. He was put on antibiotics and a few days later was feeling a lot better. It was night we were eating burgers and he still thinks that cheeseburgers make him feel better. 

But, during that sick time and missing some school he played on the iPad. He had really started playing this Lego Star Wars game and became extremely into it. He would talk about Boba fett and then a couple weeks later he was more interested in Darth Vader. I kept thinking we just needed remove the game altogether because it was becoming a little too much. He would ask "Does Darth Vader choke people?" And as much as we would remind him that we don't really want to talk about that, and that, yes, in fact, he does choke people, but we don't. (Rowan never tried to choke anyone) but a little later on in the day he would ask the question again. He then had a day at ABA where instead of saying "Hi" to someone saying "hi" to him he would tell them, "Darth Vader chokes people." 🤨 Well, after that I made the executive decision I would be removing the game. I called Sam to let him know the decision and he agreed and then reminded me that a few years ago when we had the same game and Rowan started walking like a lego so it turns out it's just a game he can play. I broke the news to him. He took it pretty hard. When we got home I told him he could still wear his Darth Vader costume, and that seemed to help. He then followed me around in the Darth Vader costume using a Darth Vader voice saying, "You need to let Rowan play Star Wars." "You need to say sorry to Rowan."  😂 Which may not have had the effect he wanted because it was just really cute and funny. But, he was also really sad, and that made me sad but I knew it was the right thing to do. 

Rowan is now being treated for a sinus infection with more antibiotics and I am really hoping that he can start feeling 100% because we can tell he is not at his best lately. 

Rowan turned 6 years old this year and he wanted the cheeseburger cake he had seen at Safeway. He was really happy to be turning 6, and then reminds me that he will 7, then 8, then 9 😩 Oh, my little boy. He is the best. 

Rowan talks fully now, he is very direct and opinionated, he is protective of Jonah, and a very good big brother. Rowan also has a great sense of humor and still brings a light in a joy to our home that could not be filled by anyone else. 

Christmas Break

 We made it through the holiday unscathed. Everyone survived and we even had a little adventure. We didn't get much snow during the break, that is coming now.

I keep thinking about traditions and wondering what to implement, what to add, if we have enough. I try to relax though and convince myself that in fact we do have enough and as our family grows up and changes we will be able to add and change as we go. I suppose if my kids seem happy than that is a good indication.

Christmas Eve night Lily actually had a fever and woke up several times that night. Two of those times I sat in her room rocking her and what did I hear but little boy footsteps coming in from upstairs, rummaging through the presents, leaving, only to return again with double the feet and whispers of excitement and more rummaging.  I actually loved listening in. It was Kaj and Josh. This was 3:30 in the morning. They came down again at 4:30. 5:30 and finally at 7 we opened presents. 😂

Rowan was a lot more into the holiday more than past years and Jonah was also so fun to watch when he opened his gifts. The Lily bear was actually sleeping still when we opened presents because of the hard night she had and so we saved hers to open with her.

Rowan had actually been sick leading up to the break. He would cough so much and throw up, and for a few days was telling me his body hurt. The Saturday after school was out he came down uncomfortable again and laid on the couch at around 4:30 and suddenly it hit me he has pneumonia. I turned to Sam to announce my conclusion he had his doubts, but I got him into the doctor that morning and sure enough it was walking pneumonia. He got antibiotics and started feeling better. It was on a night we had cheeseburgers for dinner that he was feeling better and he still says that it was in fact the cheeseburger that cured him. He will say, "Cheeseburgers make me feel better!" Touché, my boy.

     In the meantime, I have been feeling really sappy about Lily lately. I am almost done nursing her and I am being such a boob about it (😂 I had to!) But, it really is making me sad. She is going to be 1 year old next month and as much as I really love this next phase I can't help but feel tender towards the little baby phase that we are past. I will never have a tiny baby again 😩 and I do love nursing-I mean after the first month. I love snuggling in bed and having that cozy time.

During the break we talked about going to Utah but when it came right now to it we were not able to pull it off. Since we did have a break and to do a littler get away we went to Portland and Tillamook. It was a really fun trip because we didn't stress about where we were going we just decided as we went. The kids were all really good in the car. We enjoyed listening to music and talking together. We ate some yummy food, and stayed a nice Airbnb. Rowan gets really excited about vacations and will say, "This is our new house?!"

We got the little kids down and played games with the older boys, but we also knew Rowan was not sleeping. He was making a lot of noises. He came in at one point after maybe 30 minutes of being in bed and announced, " I slept good." 🤪 We told him it was not morning yet and it was still night. He then said, "Ok fine, ok fine."

We also went to the Tillamook creamery, which is about an hour from Portland. They have recently renovated it and it looks nice. I don't know how it was before to compare but the boys really liked it. What was also great about the trip was how pretty it was in a part of Oregon we hadn't seen. It was so green with the moss on the trees, and the fields of farmland so high up that we would pass clouds by. We, of course, tried some cheese and had some ice cream. We took a detour from there where we wanted to go see some lighthouses but there had a been a landslide so we couldn't go there so we got out at beach area to look at the waves. It was a fun last hooray before school started back up again and good reminder of how much I love these people.

llama jammies 

Getting Back into the Swing

 Upon returning from our trip-especially with the flight situation- we really didn't have any time to relax and reset we just had to jump head first back in. We had soccer ending, Halloween, parent teacher conferences, and the primary program.

This year for the primary program they let the children write a portion of their parts by letting them finish the sentence that was given to them. So, it was probably my most favorite primary program that my kids have been a part of to date. Rowan's part was: Heavenly Father loves me because...
And when I asked Rowan to finish his sentence his answer was: He does. I thought it was perfect.
Rowan go right up to the microphone for his part and spoke every word very deliberately "Heavenly Father loves because He does." It brought tears to my eyes, but it turned out I wasn't the only one. When the bishop got up to talk emotionally he said, "I think Rowan Christensen said it best that Heavenly Father loves because He does. We don't have to do anything for Him to love us." 😢🙂 It was so sweet. Since I am on the topic on Rowan, I will update to say that he is an amazing kid.

He continues to progress in all areas and socially where he was perhaps more behind in before school started no longer feels like that's the case. He plays more and more with his brothers and he always seems to have friends that are saying goodbye to him at the end of every school day. When I met with Rowan's teacher this year for parent teacher conferences she had re-read the "Rowan pamphlet" I had made for his first IEP meeting. She expressed how moved she was reading it now that she knows him and how it was a reflection on us as parents on how much we have done fore him. How we started him so early and took notice and did something about it, and even said if there were more families like that she couldn't imagine how much potential would be unlocked. 😊 It was so nice of her to say those things, and yet another reminder that we took the right steps with him and do not regret it one bit. There were so many times that it seemed like too much and there are still days that it feels like that with how much driving we still do but, again, we see his progress, and all the inconveniences don't matter as much.

Rowan was trying on size 6 pants the other morning before church and he was getting so excited to be turning 6, and then 7, and then 8 and he told me, "I'm going to be so tall! As tall as you! I'm going to be a man soon." 😢 My little boy! 😩 Then he added that he was going to grow a beard and a mustache 😳.

Often times, probably at least once a week I tear up at the drop off line at school 😂 because I  am so filled with gratitude for Josh. I watch Josh patiently wait for Rowan to get out of the car and walk into school with him. He never runs off, he never seems rushed or irritated. He is so full of love that I just feel so lucky to have him, and lucky that Rowan has him. Rowan doesn't understand it all, but, one day he will, and I know he is going to be so grateful also for all the love the Josh showed him throughout his life. 

 The other parent teacher conferences went well. Though I was feeling that Josh's teacher must not know him very well. 😂 The reason being that past years and every conference when I met with Josh's teacher they would rave about him, and this time that did not happen. I thought you know we're talking about Josh Christensen, right 😂 I mean, I'm kidding, but also kinda of serious. But, I also know it's fine. My other boys in school need more focus than he ever does.

Kaj's teacher is very nice, and seems to really enjoy and is getting to know him. Which, for Kaj, it really is important. He needs more verbal praise and a nudge of attention to keep him feeling confident. Though, she did mention that, even though he is quite good at math and is usually doing it correctly there are times she notices he doing the work wrong but he is confidently doing it wrong, so it's easy to miss. 😂  I thought that was pretty funny. I am starting to realize that Kaj is really growing up. He has an attitude about things, he has his opinions, and is sometimes still going to do things even when I have advised the opposite. I am also realizing that I need to be OK with it. He is going to be figuring himself out and I am just going to love whether he thinks he is actually Spider man, or telling me about Minecraft, or wanting to stay in rather than go out and play with his brothers.

 We had a great Halloween spent with the Uptain family. They joined us for dinner, and Kyle even took the older boys on a couple extra loops and Kimberly and I trotted a long with the little kids. Every one did super well attitude wise, and we went a little over an hour and they have plenty of candy.

The soccer season also ended on a high note. Both won their last games, and both improved. They really enjoy playing and Josh is already talking about next year, wondering what his team name will be, what color his shirt will be, ya know, that kind of questions that I wouldn't begin to know the answer too.

I have been feeling really grateful lately for my family. I am really am thankful for each of them and just hope that I can be the kind of mom they each need...which I am not sure is possible, but I'm sure going to try.

London baby! October 2019

Yowza! Were we really in London a month ago?! Yes, a month ago from today we were beginning our travels to London. I remember we went to Kaj's soccer game in the morning with my mom there I kept thinking, " are we really going to be out of the country today?!" And even as we drove I would think "nah, this can't really be happening..." and honestly I was also thinking that I would really just love to spend some days with my mom too. 😳 I was also feeling very uncertain about how Lily was going to do on this epic trip of ours.

But now! I know how it was and how she did and I can celebrate the fact that it was really a great trip with a great baby. The hardest days really were the travel days and the rest was just awesome. We took planes, trains, "the tube," double decker buses-we got our Oyster cards which was very British of us. What is also very British of us was  talking in the accent. Sam refused. I did not. And I think it sounded pretty authentic.

Like we used the lift instead of the elevator, a nappy on Lily instead of a diaper, we shopped at the store with a trolley instead of shopping cart, we saw some "really cool trainers" which is their athletic shoes. I mean- it's obvious we were completely immersed in the culture. 😏

We were really lucky that we got to see so much of London. MamaJo was able to take off time at the visitor center to take us around and she really had immersed herself there in that she knew how to get around the city very easily. My favorite way to travel really was the double deckers buses  and you have to sit at the top at the very front because the vantage point it would give you was wild. You see- because the vehicles have the right of way so there were many many times where it would look like we would literally take someone out- whether they were crossing the street at a bad time or people were riding their bikes, and the bus drivers were not afraid of honking any chance they got making sure the nearly hit person knew exactly how they felt about that.

 We saw museums, we went to bridges like the London bridge, the Millennium bridge, and the Tower bridge--which by the way in my opinion should actually be the London bridge. If there was vote on which bridge you think the London bridge was you would probably get it wrong because you would think it's the Tower bridge. We saw the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. We went to the the top of the Shard-which is the tallest building in London so we could get the Eagle eye view. We saw 3 different castles which we where there. Kensington, the castle of Windsor, and Buckingham. We also learned that we were at Windsor while the Queen was there because they raise her flag when she was there and it was up. So, there's that.

We went to some awesome food places. We tried some delicious pastries at Harrods- which that place was crazy! Endless levels of the finest kind of everything from toys to kid clothes to the food court. We also went to the Borough and Camden Marketplaces which there is so much food you could try it actually makes it very hard to decide. My favorite place was this place that had this hand made pasta with butter and sage. 😋  Other favorites amongst our group was probably Gail's bakery. I didn't think that England was going to be so spot on with pastries but that was something that didn't disappoint-- which it's not as if I'm on a tourist on the hunt for their finest pastries either 😂 they were that good that it's worth mentioning. 

 We also went to some beautiful cathedrals. We were to West Minister Abbey and St. Pauls which really are simply amazing in the architecture and design and it was astounding to think how much time and work was spend on these buildings. (But, honestly, I found myself taking pictures of my beautiful daughter inside these beautiful buildings 😊)

We went to Churchill's war rooms and Shakespeare's Globe theatre.

We also went on a train to Legoland in London which when we got there we got caught in a complete downpour of rain that did not look like it was going to let up. I think it symbolized our children's tears if they knew we were there without them. 😂 It was really so cool! They had miniature land with all these countries build out of Legos. We really did feel sheepish being there without the kids- that really is the truth. But, it was fun.

 Another highlight-for me- was Liverpool. Sam was such a sport and took be to Liverpool. There was actually a few times on the trip that I thought if I could tell me 14 year old self that I was going to go to England to be in the land of The Beatles she would have lost her whole mind and never changed out of her Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds outfit. We went to the Beatles Museum first, then the Magical Mystery Bus tour, and that tour ended at the Cavern. Which is where the Beatles got their start. In 2 years the Beatles played there 360 times. 😳 Fun fact.
The funny thing the day before we went to Liverpool we met another missionary couple from England at Hyde Park where we went with MamaJo to see where they were when they first started their mission and we were telling him our plan to go to Liverpool and that I was a Beatles fan, and he told us a little history of the Liverpool that it used to be this huge exporting/importing city followed by, "it's really too bad about what has happened there," "people say there is not an honest person in the whole city." The joke is that if 6 men saw a man drowning in the river they would all be yelling, "Where'd you work?!" instead of helping him out. 😂 😳 Anyway--these are the things we heard the day before we went there. But, we did not get lied to or robbed.

Strawberry Fields

Signing the wall at Abbey Road Studios

ABBEY Road

Outside the Cavern in Liverpool

It really was a great trip. The time difference was  very dramatic as we knew it would be. It is 8 hours ahead, which whenever we could call the kids or I would want to call my mom calculating that she would still have a whole day to go when ours was wrapping up was a bit strange. We definitely missed the boys. But, whenever we checked in they had very little interest in actually talking to us. 😂

I will talk about our trip home because it was a doozy. We had to wake up at 3 in the morning to get to the airport because our flight left at 6. I felt like the Mike Birbiglia skit when he is talking about how it's so early that there is not even a road yet and there is someone on computer saying:we need a road, stat. It's funnier when he does it. 

We flew into Amsterdam--and this is when things started going south. We were actually hurrying to make our connecting flight only to arrive to discover the news of a delayed flight. After a couple of delays they announced our cancelled flight like this: "We are about to deliver...the worst news... you could ever hear...in your travels. And that is....your flight has been cancelled." Yes--they really did it that dramatically. Then continued to tell us it was not because of the technical issues, those had been resolved, but actually a crew member not wanting to work overtime was the reason we would not be flying out. 

We were able to get a flight home after a couple of different angles in doing so. We got on a flight that got us into Utah and then Portland by 10:00. Keeping in mind the time difference by the time we arrived at home we had actually been up for 31 hours, and they lost our luggage, and Sam forgot his phone on the plane...I know. Not great. BUT -what was great-Lily. Lily was-not exaggerating the very best traveling baby the whole trip including the really bad trip home. She slept the last couple plane rides as well as the car ride home. She rolled with all the punches. She slept in the carrier with ease, she ate when she needed to without any fussing, and she was the sweetest the whole time. 💗 

Boat ride on the River Thames 

When we arrived home my sleepy mom still came out to greet us. The house-spotless. The baseboards- on. Lily's room- cutely decorated.  My parents are incredible. They seemed to genuinely enjoy being with the boys, and the boys enjoyed them which is what I was so happy to hear. I said I wanted complete honesty about the time when we returned, and that was the feedback. We would not have been able to go on this trip without my mom being able to come out. I am thankful my dad could join in the fun. It was such a memorable time and I am truly glad we got go. 

double decker bus