BANAN-O-LANTERN?

Not quite sure what this banana ever did to Phillip, or if he just has a gripe with produce in general, or maybe he's trying to hone his fruit whittling skills.....

Notes to self:

1. Do not let Ryan "watch" Phillip if they get up at the crack of dawn,
and I want to try to sleep a few more minutes.

2. Keep all knives under lock and key

Confessions of a Mean Mom

Last week I went into Maddie's room and noticed a few candy wrappers on the floor. Being the super nice mom that I am, I thought I would do her a favor and pick them up for her. I started to do so and saw a few strays had made it under her bed, so I knelt down in order to retrieve them. As I did so I saw a very unpleasant sight. There, under her bed was stashed a pile of clean, folded laundry. Why she decided it would be easier to have to bend down and push these clothes under her bed instead of put them in drawers not two feet from her bed, I don't know. What I do know is that, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. You see, this is not the first time this has happened. Maddie seems to go out of her way to put things where they DO NOT go. I have found similar piles of laundry shoved in her closet, behind her bookcase, and UNDER her dresser, to name a few and I was at my whit's end. I went downstairs, grabbed some trash bags and proceeded to empty her entire wardrobe into them. Being the nice mom that I am, I did leave her with ONE outfit, ONE pair of PJ's and enough socks and undies to last a week.

Maddie was slightly stunned when I asked if she liked how I cleaned up her room when she got home from school that day, but also thought it was slightly humorous. We'll see how humorous it is after a few days of being seen in the same thing at school (Sophie seems a little more horrified about this than Maddie at the moment).

I started to question the rashness of my actions the next day, but then Maddie came out of her room kind of giggling and wearing an outfit that was NOT the one I gave her. In fact it was a BRAND NEW outfit I had given her the morning of the whole incident. Being the nice mom that I am I couldn't wait for a special occasion to give her this really cute outfit I got a great deal on. I asked her repeatedly where she got it (knowing it was not with all of the clothes I had unloaded the previous day). Finally she fessed up that she had gotten it from behind the chair in my bedroom where she had stashed it after I gave it to her. I guess that was just the validation I needed.

Being the super nice mom that I am, I have given her a way to earn back some if not all of her wardrobe. In order to earn clothes back she has to keep her room cleaned and things put away (WHERE THEY GO). At the end of one week she will earn a new outfit. At the end of two weeks she will earn back another, and so on and so forth.

There is one problem I did not foresee happening when this all began. A friend of mine did bring up the fact that she might not even care about having to wear just one thing and this might backfire on me. Very possibly a likely outcome, however we'll see how much she likes this outfit in four years......

Age progression - 4 years

After the rain

I had a really rotten day on Monday. I got an email that shook me to my core and I cried and cried and cried some more. I started to question some of the things in the email and then everything about myself. Was I not a good mother, friend, wife, yw president, person? Maybe I was doing it all wrong. I really let it affect me and depress me. My poor kids kept seeing my tear stained face and asking "are you o.k., mom?" "What's wrong". I definitely do not have a good poker face and can't conceal my feelings very well.

The next morning I woke up a little worse for the wear, but feeling a little better, got the kids off to school, but still couldn't shake a lot of the emotion from the previous day and then I had an amazing experience.

First I got a call from a friend who is going through quite a personal crisis in her life. Throughout the conversation she would say the nicest things to me which really uplifted me. I was so impressed and touched that even in the midst of trials she was reaching out to others (in this case, me) and serving them with her words of kindness. I thought, that is the key to happiness - forgetting myself or my problems and reaching out to others. I know this, but so easily forget it when it comes time to apply it.

No sooner had I hung up the phone with that friend, then another good friend of mine called that I don't get to talk to very often. She is the epitome of happiness and optimism. You can't help but feel better about life after talking with her. After our conversation I did feel better. I truly felt the tender mercies of the Lord. He can't take away all the painful things that might come into our lives, but he can provide experiences to remind us of his love for us. And really even though they are painful, trials can be building blocks for us to become stronger and more like the Savior. We can't have rainbows without a little rain.

Happy 35th Birthday, Dave

35 Things I love about you:

1. The dimple in your chin
2. Your blue, blue eyes
3. Your boyish smile
4. The way you make me laugh
5. Your mad "key-tar" skills
6. Your loyalty
7. Your drive (not talking about your car here)
8. Your eyelashes (thanks for giving them to the kids)
9. Your work ethic
10. Your pancakes every Saturday morning
11. Your love of movie-going (don't forget the popcorn)
12. Your kindness and service - always willing to lend a hand to others
13. You took me to Hawaii
14. Your easy-going nature (keep trying to rub off on me)
15. Your dedication to family
16. Your endless nicknames for the kids and me (Feline, Munch, Rionicle, Nuchacho, Buchen, to name a few)
17. Your long legs (may our children get them, please)
18. The way you communicate in movie lines ("But what will I wear?")
19. The invention of tweezers and how well you use them
20. Your patience with me and the kids
21. Your smoothies
22. The way you diffuse a tense situation with your quick-witted-ness
23. Playing Mario-Kart with me
24. The way you make me feel beautiful no matter how I might actually look
25. Your love of the Lord and church service
26. The way you father our 4 beautiful children
27. Your love of getting the mail in anticipation of something "good"
28. The way you kiss me in front of the kids, thereby grossing them out completely - one day they'll appreciate it....
29. You take over with the kids after a long day
30. That you do all the driving on road-trips
31. Your amazing back rubs
32. You don't care what others think
33. Your land-surfing skills
34. You don't sweat the small stuff
35. You picked me to take along on this amazing journey through life and the eternities.

Happy Birthday, babe!

My Hero

Christmas 2008

On Christmas Eve we had the Rodabough and Williams families over for dinner and then the kids did a reenactment of the nativity. From left to right: Natalie Rodabough and Maddie as angels, Caleb and Cannon Williams as shepherds, Sophie as Mary, Sam Rodabough as baby Jesus, McKay Rodabough and Ryan as Wise Men, and Aspen and Hallie Williams as angels - SO CUTE!!

The kids in their Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve.

Apparently Phillip thought that the bubbles he got in his stocking were one-time use only, as he dumped the whole thing in the tub.

The day after Christmas, we drove to Michigan to spend some time with Dave's family. Here's one pic with cousin Beatrice (Bea).

We took the kids ice skating for the first time. They (well, when I say "they" I mean the older three) really started to get the hang of it. Only a few bumps and bruises.

I actually got a picture of Phillip in the 28 seconds he lasted on the ice before deciding it was much more fun to have Dave chase him around the outside perimeter of the rink.