Throw back Wednesday

I found this email as I was cleaning my inbox of  OVER 5,000! Sheesh. I don't think I believed in deleting or putting things into folders in my early days of gmail. Now that's the first thing I teach my kids!

Anyway. This email was to all of Kevin's female cousins' wives, his grandma Janice, and Lyndi. So basically anyone from that side of the family that didn't live close. It was sent 02/06/07. I was pregnant with Tennyson.I'm also going to include the responses to the email.

 The pictures below were also attached. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,
     Since we don't see each other that often, I'm taking a page from Katie's book and sharing our news through email. I hope we can see each other soon!
We have two big announcements this month. On Jan. 25th we found out we are having a little boy! Karaia was a bit disappointed about not getting a sister. This pregnancy just isn't working out for her. No twins and no sister. But, she has thrown her sorrow into naming her new brother. The current frontrunner for her is Marvin..............which is really a step up since her first choice was Dinosaur Web. Beckham has refined his name choice to 
Buzzlightyear The Robot Daly. Kevin and I currently have no favorites. Or even a list for that matter. And on Jan 13th we bought a van. WeLOVE the extra room and that we can transport more than just our little family now. We bought a new 2006 Toyota Sienna.
   In Jan. we also took a trip to Bear Lake (in our new van with the extra room) and we went snowmobiling (no Emilie did not go) and extreme sledding. Karaia loved both and Beckham's pretty sure making a child participate in those kinds of activities can be categorized as abuse. The "hill" was about 1/4 mile long and VERY steep and fast. Karaia could not get enough of it. "I just like to scream on the way down", she told us. Beckham wouldn't even SIT on the sled...... even while it wasn't moving. Emilie finally put him on the sled kicking and screaming and just pulled him around awhile. He did eventually warm up to snowmobiling. And when we asked him later what his favorite part of the day was he said, "The snowman building ride".
    Speaking of funny things our kids say. Karaia was asking about baptism and she wanted to know if you got baptised with your clothes on because you go in the water. We told her yes, and explained how they are white because they symbolize being clean. Then Emilie said that when you come up out of the water all of your sins and mistakes are washed away. Karaia asked, "Do they go to the bottom?". To which Emilie explained, "No, you can't see them. It's kind of like a metaphor." There was a long pause from Karaia after which she finally announced, "Mom, I think you're speaking Spanish."
     Beckham's been learning what letters words start with and had quite the amusing if not confusing conversation with Kevin.
Beckham : "B is for me!"
Kevin: "I thought M was for me."
Beckham: "No, M is for mommy. D is for you!"
Kevin: "I thought Y was for you."
Beckham: "No! B is for me!"
 Aw the mind of a 2 year old :)

Love, Em

-------------------------------------------------

Katie Longhurst	2/6/07

love it!  keep them coming. 

kade and i laughed so hard at beckham and kevins conversation, classic!

--------------------------------------------------

Teresa Longhurst

Hi Emilie--I laughed out loud at your email.  Thanks for sending it to me.  We just bought a van too.  I keep telling myself over and over, "I can still be cool and drive a van!"

Hope to see you soon,

Teresa

---------------------------------------------------

Janice Holmgre

Thank you.  I love getting these letters and pictures.  I copied the family one for the frig.  Love Grandma Janice

--------------------------------------------------

Records and Mom's Surprise

Too much time has gone by since I've recorded my family's journey...and they've still grown and changed. Stinkers.

We are entering a new era around here and I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about the things I haven't written down. However, I can't change the past, so I'll reshape my future instead.

I don't know how often I'll write, or even if I'll keep this a public publication. Sometimes I really want to document the less than perfect parenting moments so my children will know it happens and how I learned and grew from it. I'm not sure that's something I need to world to know about though ;)

We went to Lagoon at the end of July. It was the first time our whole family was able to ride on just about every ride if we wanted to. It was also the first time we could send some of the kids to ride one ride while the rest of us stayed back to ride another. IT. WAS. MAGICAL.

I loved it. No one whined. Everyone communicated their needs and wants like human beings. They were grateful and plain ol' fun to be around. It made me so excited for this stage.

A few things I learned about my kids:

Sanders has turned into an Adrenalin junky, just like his sister. He would hardly go an any rides last year and this year he went on Cannibal at the ripe age of 6. He was in tears when he thought he might be too short and not able to ride it. Thankfully his hair topped him over ;) He thought it was the best!

Tennyson, like me, has a strong sense of survival when it comes to amusement rides. He opted not to try Cannibal, but declared his favorite rides to be Wicked, Colossus, the White Roller Coaster, and Wild Mouse. Which is a far cry from refusing to go on ANY daring rides at all last year.

Beckham, has learned that he traditionally feels flutters and anxiety before the big rides, but if he powers through those hurtles, he LOVES those big rides. His strong sense of mortality and his need for the rush and, to be completely honest, a good story to tell, fight with each other. He's learning to trust the statistics that most people simply do not actually die on roller coasters. It's been fun to see him work through this process and not let fear keep him from doing things he loves.

Karaia is CRAZY! The bigger, the faster, the higher is all the better in her book. She reminds me a lot of her Uncle Landon who does big adrenaline rush things because 1. It sounds fun. 2. The payoff of fun is so much better than wondering what it would have been like if he'd done it. It's just not worth staying up at night wondering about that stuff I guess.

Kevin loves a good roller coaster too and thankfully thinks the same amusement park rides karaia likes are pretty awesome.

I went on Wicked for the first time this year. I used to be SO afraid of roller coasters and never once felt like I was missing out when I politely, but firmly, kept my feet planted to ground while others strangely rushed off smiling to be nearly killed. Something changed this year. I found myself thinking, "I could probably do that without hyperventilating".

When my family rushed off to ride Colossus, I found myself sitting next to Wicked with these thoughts. Next thing I knew I was in line, BY MYSELF. Then, without any warning whatsoever, I found that I had willingly buckled my seat belt on the ride.

 Just as I clicked the belt, my phone started ringing. It was Kevin. My family was wondering why I wasn't predictably waiting on the ground for them. The kids joked, "What if Mom comes walking out of the Wicked exit?" To which Kevin nearly forgot how to breath because of the laughing. He has known me for 18 years and that scenario was 99.9% unlikely to EVER happen.

Except it did. It was perfect. Like you'd expect to see in a movie. The kid's mouths broke out into HUGE smiles and they all rushed over with lots of whooping and screams of delight giving me big hugs and high fives. Kevin's jaw dropped and his feet became glued to the ground. Where were the prank cameras? There is no WAY this just happened. But I saw the twinkle in his stunned eyes.

Perfection.

The kids begged me to go on it with them. So we all went, as a family, together.

 The beginning of the end of our time with the kids home is so bitter sweet.

Preschool program

Sanders had his preschool graduation at the exact same time as Karaia and Tennyson's soccer games. Who's ready for summer? THIS family! 

Sanders was hilarious. He only recently began to think that singing was "cool". Before that, any time I sang to him or asked him to sing he would only tolerate it and that was only if the song was on his short list. A list that mainly consists of Thomas the Train songs. I was over the moon when I Am a Child of God made the cut. 

Church songs were always met with glares and then lectures about how much he didn't like church songs. He happens to call this song the God song. I don't care what he calls it. I'm just glad he will let me add to our playlist and more importantly sing part of it with me.

But I digress. Sanders loved his program. He was wiggly and excited. He knew most of the actions and occasionally graced us with a word or two of the song. I know he knows more because he sings to himself now and again. But mostly he just did his thing and forgot that he was in front of a bunch of people. There may or may not have been some nose picking, booger eating going on that makes me gag. WHY does anyone do that?!?!!??! 

The highlight of the whole evening came after the last song. He thought his teacher had given them permission to give their moms the gift they had made us. Instead of walking around the tubs that held the props he, like any rational, fun loving boy, decided the fastest, most fun way, to me was to jump over the tub. 

Yup. You guessed it. His foot caught the tub, tipped it over, while the teacher was still talking, and he sprawled out on the floor. 

SO funny! AND I caught it all on tape!

He's a cute kid and always keeps us laughing. 

Sanders' picture is at the top right above him.

Oh how we LOVE Mrs. Karen!

In other news, we have decided to have Karaia and Beckahm go competitive in soccer. We found a leauge, DFC (Davis Futbol Club) that will give them the competition they need without sucking the fun out of soccer and there isn't too much travel. Karaia had try outs today and Beckham's are tomorrow.

Faces

 Sanders had to get shots today at his well check up. I told him we were going to go get ice cream because he'd been so brave.

"I wasn't brave. I cried."

"But you didn't wiggle or try and stop the nurse from giving you your shots. You can cry and still be brave. You still let them give them to you.  That is very brave!"

These faces kill me! 
 

He LOVES stickers. More specifically he loves stickers on his face.  Particularly stickers you find on fruit. This is a very typical, daily, look for Sanders :)

Look at how long Karaia's Hair is! She is a doll.

My sweet Tennyson. We have either really amazing days or days where, to coin a phrase I heard my cousin use, we learn a LOT from each other. 

Isn't that the best way you've ever heard to say that?

I wish I had a picture of Beckham today. He was running around so much we barely saw each other.

The older two didn't actually get home from school until after 8:00 pm. They came home just before 4pm. Long enough to grab a quick snack and change into soccer stuff, then they were off to activity days (Karaia) or soccer (Beckham).

I picked Karaia up from Activity days to drive her to her soccer game on our way to Tennyson's soccer game. When her game ended after 7pm, she had piano starting at 7:30pm. Kevin picked her up after her lesson and took her grocery shopping with him. They got home just before 9pm.

Meanwhile, after Beckham's soccer game he had just enough time to shove a hot dog in his face and then change for scouts. They went hiking. Poor little guys legs were killing him by the time he got home around 8:15.

This was all after Karaia and Beckham got to go to the Rec Center and swim for a few hours for a field trip!

We are so ready for the non-schedule of summer!

Pictureless day

There were two, not the usual three, soccer games today from 5:00pm to 6:00pm.

Good thing, because Karaia and Beckham had a choir concert starting at 6:30pm.

Their mother did not take one single picture of any of the three events.

You really can't be too mad at her. Sanders was really patient attending all these events that he doesn't get to participate in until the last 10 minutes of each event. She tries very hard to keep him entertained while watching and supporting the other kids. Throwing picture taking into that mix felt like too much of a challenge tonight. Thank goodness for Kevin and her mom at the choir concert! Mom's entertainment was starting to lose it's effect.

The kids did great and we feel really blessed they get to have so many fun things in their life.

After the concert I took Tennyson out for ice cream because he scored a goal during his soccer game. This is a very big deal for him seeing that last year he thought watching his shadow as he ran around on the field was a much more productive use of his time that paying any attention to the ball.

He is getting to be a very good player. He can anticipate where the ball will be headed and try to position himself accordingly.

We had a wonderful time and ate our dessert before out dinner! I tried to get him to open up to me when it was just the two of us. We have a unique relationship and his choices don't always allow for a lot of positive bonding. Something we are both working on. We adore each other and I think this little rough patch makes both our hearts ache a lot.

I asked him what he thought of the new chore chart.

"I like it!"

"What do you like best about it?"

"Well, see, I really like jobs more than I like playing."

Believe me when I tell you, It's a good thing he told me!

First project

I'm sewing my first project with the Mary Jencks line. Karaia's Easter dress!

Considering I have one full day left before Easter and I only need to add one more bottom section  and sleeves I'm going to call myself ahead of the game.

Although the zipper about did me in!

Growing up

We went out with our friends Jon and Rachel tonight. We haven't seen them in nearly a year, even though we live right next to Jon's parents. I never realized, as a kid, how busy with life adults are.

Karaia baby sat for us. She had a few struggles with the little wanting to go to bed, but she takes it seriously. She'll get there. I'd rather get practice on our kids then another family.

Macaroni and Cheese

I told Kevin I didn't know what to write about. He told me to write about Macaroni and Cheese.

He's so helpful.

In other news our freezer is working, but our fridge seems to be getting warmer.

Lovely.

Karaia has a bit of a dramatic personality, lately anyway. I'm chalking it up to her getting older. I've seen it seep into some friend situations. Usually, they really aren't big outside looking in, but at the moment, to her, it is a HUGE deal.

They always end up being good teaching moments, but man alive...she is entering that moody tweener stage faster than I care to admit.

Birthday Friend

Eliza and Karaia had a great time at the Capital today. As I mentioned last night, it is Eliza's 10th birthday today. Her dad is a State Senator and so the girls planned it all out that Eliza would be up there with her dad and Karaia would schedule her day with Grandma for the same time. These two are the only girls in their family and both have 3 brothers. Except Karaia is the oldest in hers and Eliza the youngest. They are only two months apart and met when they were both under a year old. I think Karaia was 9 months. I joked with Karaia that Eliza is the like the sister she doesn't have, but I was met with stone face and a serious voice informing me, "I guess. Except I don't get to see her every day. "

Ah well, a mom can try.

It sounds like they had a wonderful time! They must be in tune psychically because their outfits even matched.

Karaia couldn't wait until the party tonight for Eliza to open her present so she gave it to her on the way up. Karaia says Eliza loved the watch and kept showing everyone all day what she was wearing.

Look at these gorgeous girls!

Karaia was wiped out when she got home which is a sure sign of a day well spent! We love that Eliza girl and are so happy to have Karaia spend her special day with her!

You've got that ONE thing

On Valentine's day Karaia came home excited to show me a certain valentine she got.

She pulled it out of her box, hid the picture from me, and then slowly brought it up to just under her eyes. She then quickly turned it around to show me the picture and said with every girlish squeal you have ever heard, "It's miiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!"

I immediately thought, "I had NO idea she even knew about them...and she is in deep. Really deep."

I'm still not sure how she knows so much about them.She's only 10. Then again, I guess that's their target market isn't it.

On the valentine was a picture of the current boy band, One Direction.

Sigh. Oh, that's coming from her, not me. I'm not the one who thinks Harry is just, "Soooooo cute!"

Now she says things to me like, "Mom! Do you know what else makes One Direction so awesome? ....They're British!"

I laugh only because I remember being her age and having the same feelings, only it was over The Monkees and Davie Jones.

I know. What was I thinking? Weird.

Her friend, Eliza, who also has "Direction Infection" ,as Karaia tells me it's called, has a birthday tomorrow. Karaia knew just what to get her. A watch, but not just any watch. That's right a 1D (nick name for One Direction for all of you still trying to catch up) watch.

Thankfully, Kohls came through.

She choose the white one with the charms on the end to give to Eliza. She wanted the silver one for herself.

Afterwards we were so wiped out we had to get a smoothie. It tastes better on a lip couch.

It does.

You should try it sometime.

THEN, Karaia had a gift card burning a hole in her pocket and she found just the thing to spend it on and make it the most perfect day.

She pets it like it's a cat.

I love that girl!

Email

Karaia got a player for Christmas that also does videos, camera, and internet. We have strict rules about where and when she gets to use this fun toy. To get everything set up we had to create an email account for her. She remembered that yesterday and has been sending me random emails. While I was at the conference I got this one

"Hey mom this is Karaia guess what while I was making mac and cheese for lunch I burned my self and it hurts soooooooo bad!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry! How did you burn yourself?"

 "While I was pouring the noodles in to the strainer and put my arm flat on the pot I pulled my arm away from the pot and found out that it burned me. It HURTS!"

"Oh sad :-( is it a big burn?"

"yep its pretty big :-("

 It makes me pretty excited for when she can text. Random insights into her world.

I've also gotten ones like these complete with pictures. Yup, she's learned to talk a selfie, upload and attach it. She is always in a silly mood when she is taking her picture. Her main goal of the picture is to make me laugh...well, you'll see.

"you did a great job on your talk i'm glad I listend to it. I made my heart feel happy"

 I have also gotten an email with the subject of "Advice" it read, "9 was a good age"

And then this one

"Love you too!"

She cracks me up!

Learning about friendship

I just had the best talk with Karaia. She came to me because she was horrified to realized that last year she hadn't treated one of her dear friends very kindly.

I actually was horrified too when she told me, but I was also so proud of her for realizing that it was a mistake all on her own and feeling remorseful about it.

We talked all about friends and which ones of her friends she feels like are the better influences in her life. We talked about the difference in being inspired by a friend to change something about yourself because their lives make your realize you can be an even better verse of you vs feeling ashamed of something about your self because of how a "friend" makes you feel about less then the awesome person you are.

I am so grateful she has discovered these lessons, on her own, at such a young age. Karaia is a wonderful person and I am so excited to watch her grown and turn toward a path that will bring her so much light and happiness.

Front row

The two little boys got to the chapel first. They LOVE change and are always trying to get us to sit at a different bench. You have to understand that sitting in a different bench in church would just mess people up. Everyone sits in the same bench, every week, for years and years. It's just what happens. 

Well, today the stars aligned in Tennyson and Sanders' favor. They got to the chapel first and half of the ward was gone and, AND, they asked their dad before they asked me. 

Do you know what bench they chose? The front one, thankfully off to the side. At first I reacted like this, "Oh, I do not think so. That is so not going to work. No way!" Then Kevin and the two boys pulled puppy dogs eyes on and I caved. 

Sigh. 

But they were so go, comparatively. I mean, my boys will always be boys that don't sit quietly compared to girls, but for them, they were excellent. 

Karaia, on the other hand, had to be convinced by more than just me (read other members of our ward) that she needed to move and sit with her family in the front. When we finally got my oldest, my only girl, my 10 year old up to the front bench, she sat there and cried and pouted and then pulled her head into her coat like a turtl. And then she just got mad. 

Kevin and I were laughing so hard because we'd look over and she was just mumbling under her breath about things not being fair and how she will NEVER sit on the front again. all the while fervently writing in her little note book. So Kevin smiled at her. Which caused a  chain reaction of notes back and forth between the two of them. Karaia handed Kevin the paper she had been attacking in her semi-silent fury. It looked something like this:

"never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never..."

You get the picture. 

Kevin wrote, " We are going to sit on the front row every week until you are happy." He was stifling a laugh the whole time. 

Karaia's rebuttal was,"Then I will always be grumpy."

Ha!

Technically she has 3 more years until she is a teenager. As if! 
( Hair flip and mouth left open) This is going to be hilarious!

Just so you know...

...I am not perfect. What? You already knew? Yeah, me too.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. It leaves all sorts of room for improvement and new found awesomeness.

Today was a less than perfect mommy day. Some, most, days are better than others. This was the opposite of better. But only during the witching hour between 5pm and 6pm when at some point Kevin arrives home.

I lost it. Like really lost it on Karaia. Unkind tone, harsher than necessary words. She came to me later and said, "Mom, can I talk to you? I've rehearsed this but I don't want you to get mad."

"Make sure you don't say anything disrespectful/rude and I won't." (yes, I recognized the irony as I said then too)

In a very loving way she said, "You always tell me I can use kinder words and tone instead of just going straight to saying things angry and I feel like you could have used kinder words and tone."

And then she left.

I was left with my thoughts and my heart. What she said was not new to me. I'd been giving myself the same lecture since the words flew out of my mouth. But I was so, so proud of her. The bursting kind of proud. She had been listening.....AND learning. Learning enough to teach.

I was proud of her for loving me enough to teach me. I was proud of her for doing it in a loving way. And I was proud of her for understanding her role in what happened and while I definitely could have delivered my words better she knew the core of the message was true and she owned her part in that.

We both had a good cry and lots of sorrys and I love yous. I am grateful for the hard, real feelings and emotions we share around this home. It makes me excited for our future.

Karaia is 10!

Karaia turned 10 Dec. 18th! She was so excited for this birthday and would spontaneously break out into giggles and crazy faces and body movements when her brain reminded her of the upcoming event.

We decided to have her friend party on Dec. 14th. She wanted a pajama party with manicure, pedicures, and facials. I thought that was a great idea. The one problem was I had a deadline for my designs. I worked on my designs all throughout the week and my plan was to plan and shop for the party the morning of the 14th. It would have worked out fine except I woke up with the flu and even blinking my eyes sent dangerous waves to my stomach.

I called my mom who graciously went shopping for gift bags and fun spa things to do. My friend Jo'elle came and grabbed the two younger boys so I could sleep. And Kevin took a half day off of work, picked up the boys and then started cleaning the house. I kept trying to get up and help, but it was no use. I was down. We talked about rescheduling it, but with the holidays looming we quickly realized it had to be that day or some day in January. My mom found the most perfect things for the party and put everything all together. I gave Kevin some last minute instruction and then crossed my fingers and toes...as slowly as possible...and said a thousand prayers and nine 9 and 10 year olds began to arrive for the party.

Kevin was amazing. I could hear the girls laughing. Karaia kept running in my room to show me the present she opened. I love that she was trying to include me. Such a sweetheart! After it was all said and done one of the little girls looked and Kevin and said, "This was a pretty good party, even if it was run by a boy!" Success!

Seriously. I married an amazing guy. He even showed them how to do mud masks!

Her actual birthday was on Tuesday. She got some new clothes and Lego Friends.

They are a big hit and I am reminded how much I love legos.  We also had our family party that night. We love that we live so close to family and that they are willing to add something else to their holiday season if they haven't got anything else that evening. It would be so easy to say no, this is our one night with nothing to do. Thank you! And thank you to everyone who was there in spirit or celebrated earlier with us!

Between her party and her birthday Karaia had a dance/choir recital. She sang a solo. I had tried to get her to practice before hand, but she struggled to get herself to sing in front of me. Finally I suggested getting in a dry shower with the door shut and I would just be in the room, but she wouldn't have to see me. Still struggling after that, I said, "Karaia, this might be a problem. How are you going to be able to sing in front of a lot of people if you can't sing in front of me?"

"Mom. I have this weird thing. I can't sing in front of my family, but I can sing in front of other people."

"Well, that's not fair! I helped make that voice. I should be able to hear it."

"I said I was weird, not awesome."

After that little exchange she managed to make a few noises that vaguely resembled her part. I thought, well, she'll do just fine. At least she's not scared.

 

At the performance, I was frazzled because Sanders did. not. want. to. sit. still. Holidays are hard for 3 year olds. There are a lot of places to be and a lot of people trying to entertain you while you be still. Then Karaia started singing. She was amazing! I had no idea she had such a voice! She wasn't nervous and her tone was pure and lovely. I was grateful she had that opportunity. It was such a treat that it was a surprise to me and I got to hear it for the first time along with everyone else. I learned my lesson. Weird is way better than awesome some times ;)



Karaia has been so fun this last year. We've started shifting the paradime of our relationship. While I will always be more her mother than her friend while she is growing up we've begun to have a lot more friend moments.

She has become so responsible as well. We have made her our go to babysitter for short outings. She takes it seriously and tries her best to learn from the challenges of the previous time.

She enjoys all of her brothers, but her and Sanders have a special bond. It's darling to watch.

She is an excellent friend and can't stand when one friend is mean to another. She just doesn't understand it. Which I am grateful for.

We are so happy she is a part of our family!