Life is so, so good!

This is happening every day over here.

Baby Alive videos.

Who knew?

Apparently, there are videos for everything, and Tymber and Annie's favorite thing lately is to look up these videos and follow along.

They are keeping up with the other kids on data usage limits each month. 

Sometimes, I just want to hide all the electronics, and I do, but it is so sweet to listen to them talk sweetly to their babies, and then pull up a video about feeding them and watch as they gently wipe their face and slowly spoon feed them water out of the cat dish. 

Time is flying by.

I want everything to stop and just stay the way it is, but I know that isn't possible.

We have two kids in college that I wish were this little again. I don't want them to miss anything in their siblings lives, so we have revived the blog!

I am so excited to be able to record the everyday again, along with my thoughts and perspective, and my kids' opinions on how things went.

The football game that didn't go well, or the Homecoming week full of funny spirit days and a great halftime show, and everything in between.

I had put the blog on the back burner, because of some technical glitches, but everything is up and running, and I am determined to take a few minutes each day, and record this amazing life of ours. 

Life is truly wonderful. 

It is full of twists and turns. Lots of sincere prayers. It's really hard sometimes, and really wonderful other times.

I am so grateful to be a mother. I am so grateful for getting to be a part of each of our children's stories. 

It says in my patriarchal blessing that it is very important for me to journal my life.

I never really understood that as much before, as I do when I revisit the past years on our blog.

I thought I had an impeccable memory. ( I can remember birthdays and phone numbers of friends in junior high school when I lived in Alaska.)

But, I don't always remember the details in the moments. 

I know the way I felt when my husband saw Annie for the first time and my feelings as I watched our oldest graduate from high school, but I want to remember the joy one of our kids felt as they made up with a friend, or the great dinner that everyone loved, or those quiet moments each night as I put an extra blanket on each of the kids on a snowy night.

I don't want to forget anything.

I want my girls to know that things like motherhood, marriage and eternal friendships are the things that bring true joy. 

Not cell phones and Birkenstocks. 

I want my boys to know that life is full of challenges, but if you work hard and love those around you, life is incredible. 

And I want John to always know, that I love being his, and only his, FOREVER!

Long live the blog and the memories, accompanied with pictures and messes and lots and lots of FUN!

Tymber's teaching moment for her mom

I am so far behind in blogging, that I don't even know where to begin, so I think I'll start here.

This was one of my favorite memories from this holiday. I am fairly certain that every single nativity has something missing or broken, but I do not care one bit.

I loved going to find Tymber when she became quiet and I hadn't laid eyes on her in a few.

And this is where I would discover her...at the manger.

Oh, if I only would stop my fast pace, and find myself at the manger. 

She would move them around.

She would talk to them in such a loving tone. 

If you look close, you will find modern day touches to an ancient scene.

I love the rocking horse that was waiting patiently to give someone a ride. 

The reindeer food that she thought the donkey would like.

The mix of several different nativity sets combined to welcome a King.

Tymber, thank you for being you.

Thank you for this memory that I will hopefully, never forget.

I have a brand-new year ahead of me, and I want to find myself at the manger, 

remembering my Savior's sacrifice for me.

I want to enjoy the amazing life I have.

I want to soak in time with each member of my family, as we work together to become better and find ourselves happier in everything we do.

Today was one of those days...

Today was one of those days where clarity came in a flash!

How many days in our lives can we say that clarity of something that has been eluding us for so long, comes in a flash?

For those of you with flashes of brilliance, you may have many days like this.

But for me, today was a miracle.

I feel so blessed to be able to take the things that are weighing on my heart, and gain an understanding that I never had before.

I was touched by people around me who probably had no idea the impact they were having on me.

A sister who was willing to listen, a stranger who smiled while reminding me of promises, and longtime friends who said just the right thing to calm my heart.

I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who reminds me that I am important to him.

I am one of His daughters.

I am one of His children.

And he loves me...no matter what.

After letting go of things that aren't in my control, and feeling a peace that I haven't felt in a long time, I came home and witnessed this.

I watched as John mowed the entire property with Tymber safely tucked in his lap, singing "I'm yelling timber..." in her ear.

I love their smiles, and I hope I will never forget how I felt feeling my Heavenly Father touching my life, and watching Tymber's earthly father touching her life.

Life is a gift.

Nothing is guaranteed, but if we trust in the Lord, it will all work out!

Beginning the "lasts"...

This was Tymber on the way home from church yesterday.

Sound asleep.

Nothing would wake her.

Even as her siblings poured out of the hot car making dibs on the microwave for a quick lunch to fill their bellies...she slept.

Life has been a lot like this lately.

Living every minute to the fullest and then not being able to keep my eyes open.

It was an amazing summer full of memories that will keep, moments I never want to forget and the beginning of the "last" times we will be all together under one roof.

I don't want to miss a thing, and I don't want to forget either, so I am going to try my best to put it all here.  The good and the bad.  The setbacks and the triumphs.

I have played all summer and not gotten the pics up and the feelings documented, so here is to balance.

Living this amazing life with a family I am blessed to lead and love, and taking the time to get it all down, so they will never forget this time.

18 years ago it was a hot August, John and I were playing in a co-ed softball game and we were anticipating becoming parents.

I would never have imagined then, under the lights at the Castle Rock ballfields, that years later I would be planning and living that boy's last year in our home.

I would never have been able to imagine the prayers that would be poured out on my knees for that boy in my belly.  The prayers that he would be able to see what he could become.  The prayers that he would not become distracted with things that would take him away, even for a minute, from the path he was born to pursue.

I am so blessed to be a mother to this crew of 7.  I can do this.  We tell the kids all the time that "we do hard things."  But this may be the hardest...letting go.

Off to embrace the present.

Tiny Tym, Tymmie Two Step...Tymber Julia

The time is flying by!

I wish everything would just slow down, so that I can literally breathe in these moments of being a mother of this 1 year old, and all the other ones that love on her each day.

I love recording our life, but I get too caught up making sure the pictures are loaded, edited, and all-inclusive.

I am missing it.

The opportunity to record our life each day.

So, here is to capturing our life.  Raw. Unedited. And maybe sometimes without the perfect pic.

I have a dear friend moving away today, so I want to send her off with memories of her life here, but today I'm sharing Tymber's latest obsession of wearing Annie and Ellie's panties to be a "Big Girl."

She is a big girl.  Too big.  She knows too much, and not quite enough to know to watch out for nails on the ground (yesterday's adventure).

I love the layers.  Each one showing how she methodically pulls them up and over her diaper. Each layer proving to me that the time is short with these little ones.

Soon there will be Thursday night study sessions, early morning omelets before seminary, and late nights waiting to here all the details of our oldest headed to his first Prom.


I love being a mother.

I do.

I know I'm not great at it, but I am pretty good, and hopefully my children will make up the difference by who they are and who they will become.

Here is to life, and the chance to love...

And a little bye-bye picture to the bottle!

Just thinking...

Don't let the words, "just thinking" worry you. (What do you think Tymber is thinking here?)

I have just been reflecting over the last several days about my life, my family, our destiny together.

It has been a long time since I have taken the time to write down some things I want my children to know and always remember long after I am gone.

I have been busy with loading pictures of wonderful family vacations, fun times with the youth of our church this summer, birthday celebrations, and so much more, but not-so-much the stuff that is in my heart.

Like how I felt on that family vacation when a huge crater in my heart was healed when an outpouring of forgiveness happened.

Or how I felt when I watched A.J. finally take that field as a Varsity quarterback for his State winning team.

Or how excited I am for Madie to have the opportunity to show how beautiful she is, inside and out, on her Homecoming Court.

Or how I feel every morning when Annie and Tymber finally find me with their sleepy eyes and shy smiles.

These are the moments I never want to forget.

Motherhood is a privilege.

It is.

Don't let anyone ever allow the complaints, the trials, the hard work, the tears of frustration to override the honor that it is to be a Mother.

I have been a mother now for almost 17 years.  Actually, 17 years and 7 months, because the day I saw those two lines on that test all those years ago, my dream of being a mother began.

There have been so many days since then.  Some filled with amazing triumph, and others, deep dark despair.

But I never took being a mother for granted.

I think that just may be the trick.

I love seeing those messy chocolate faces if they are accompanied by a smile that shows a mouth full of baby teeth.

I love waking up to a bed full of little girls whose faces are made of some of the softest skin I have ever seen.

I am a realist too.

I don't like having to clean up that chocolate mess.  Especially, if it was consumed in the car seat, that is completely impossible to take apart and reassemble after washing.

But who can really be mad when the chocolate came from a sister who shared her sweet reward with her baby sister?

I don't like not sleeping well, because I am surrounded by little girls who bodies don't believe on sleeping with their head on the soft down pillow and their feet squarely at the bottom of the bed, but rather the diagonal position, or better yet, the horizontal sleep.

But who can really be upset when those sleeping beauties are tucked in next to the man I love who helped me create this amazing life?

I just wanted to take this random Wednesday, and thank my Heavenly Father for the good and the bad.

The days when everything seems to be falling apart, the parenting job I work so hard at seems to be failing miserably, and my husband is sewing his own collar button on an old shirt, because I forgot to pick up the dry cleaning on Saturday days.

All the way to the good days, where the older kids get up on time, have great attitudes, and are happy.

Today is one of those days.  Happy children, loving husband, and a very, very blessed Mother.

He is Risen...

Easter morning brought everything from yarn mazes to Resurrection Rolls.

In an attempt to "celebrate Easter as big as Christmas" like A.J. wanted, I may have bit off more than I could chew.

Last year A.J. spent the week before Easter researching everything from the suffering in the garden to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

He wanted to know why our family didn't make a bigger celebration of the Savior's sacrifice for us and his subsequent resurrection than we did for his birth.

After all, his birth, while yet glorious and beautiful, didn't even compare to what he did for each of us.

I planned to make it a ten day celebration and reflection, but with being out of town for Spring Break, and lots of other things, it all fit into a couple of days.

But...we did it right.

We learned of Him. Remember what He did for us. Reflected on how we can honor Him. Celebrated with family. Had a beautiful Easter service at church. And...had a very complexed web of colored yarn to follow to Easter morning baskets.

We started with the coloring of eggs. My camera is not playing very nice, (I MUST take it in and learn how it works. Oh, how I miss my Nikon!)

Annie took the painting of the eggs very seriously. She would not even look up for a photo.

Ellie and Brooke introduced Tymber to our ritual of eye-dying!

Easter morning, (and when I say morning I mean 12-5am) brought prepping everything from the baskets for the basket discovery, to breakfast prep, to previewing a video on the Savior and reading the account of that morning one last time.

The kids LOVED this tradition again! We just started it last year here after we found it on another blog we LOVE.

Tymber's yard color was green. It went from her basket directly to her crib! Mom was very tired when I got to the 7th basket!

Music and the Spoken Word directly from Salt Lake!

The boys made the Resurrection Rolls! These were absolutely perfect!

They tasted good, required only simple directions, and the boys made them perfect on the first try. (I actually made a second batch for my Young Women, and they didn't turn out near as good!)

There are recipes all over Pinterest, but the one the boys chose had you cut the marshmallow in half and it made perfect tombs.

Resurrection Rolls:

one tube of crescent rolls

4 large marshmallows (cut in half)

Melted butter

Cinnamon and sugar

Cut marshmallows in half, roll out dough triangles, roll marshmallow in butter and then cinnamon/sugar mix

place in the middle of dough and roll up, pinching the sides making sure there are no holes

Place in sprayed muffin tin and bake 11 minutes at 350 degrees.

The marshmallow melts leaving an "empty tomb"

**You can also make icing with powdered sugar, chopped pecans, milk to sprinkle on top.

Absolutely PERFECT!!

A.J. and Annie were playing "pioneers" during the Spoken Word. We especially loved A.J.'s bonnet!

After we had watched the story of the Savior's final week and discussed the price he paid for each of us, the kids quickly dressed in their Easter attire and went out front for a very melted chocolaty egg hunt!

I love this boy! He still looks great in braces!

Tymber ready for church and sporting her first "heeled sandals" as the girls called them.

Not one family picture was great...but these were the closest we had to good. (I love that Easton is "not smiling." I believe that had something to do with postponing the Easter egg hunt until a proper picture was taken.)

Our beautiful girls!

Tymber wondering why this hot pink egg, with her name on it, tasted like plastic!

Papa and Annie!

Brooke and Ellie smiling as always!

Tymber's first PEEP!

I am certain that is NOT on her approved 8th month dietary plan!

Madie helping in the kitchen, and Nana below making an amazing dinner of ham and potatoes! Love you Nana Cecil!

Annie wondering how long she has to wait before she gets to take a sip of that apple cider.

Papa & A.J. and Nana & Madie~

We all L.O.V.E. Nana!

Not the safest idea all day...but very cute and quickly fixed with a new outfit and safety on the ground.

Nana's beautiful Easter cake!

I love this picture of Annie..."Fun on the Swing"

The light was absolutely gorgeous, just like our little Annie. I couldn't get the perfect shot, but we tried.

This is Annie doing her "yoga" poses!

Ellie stayed behind sporting one of Papa's t-shirts and Nana's hug.

It was a perfect day. Full of fun traditions, time with family, moments of real reflection on the fact that the plan we all agreed to in heaven became possible because of our elder Brother, Jesus Christ. He said, "Send me." Then he went, lived perfectly and died perfectly. He is risen...and so will we. And when our family experiences that miracle, Sam and Gabrielle will join us in perfect little Cecil bodies.