How may times can I use the word "Puberty" in one post?

Almost everyday since Nate started the unit on puberty in school he has made some comment about starting puberty.

(by the way I HATE the word puberty!)

It started with

"I think I'm sweating more. I'm pretty sure I going through puberty".

Then It was

"When do you think I get my growth spurt? I am going through puberty, you know.?"

And tonight it was

"My voice is starting to get squeaky. I'm definitely going though puberty."

I'm glad that he wants to talk about these things and doesn't seem at all embarrassed about

puberty

but really, everyday.

I was not raised to speak openly about any of these things and it really is a challenge for me to talk to my kids about these things and not let on that I'm totally uncomfortable with it, but I do it because I want us to be open, but maybe it would be nice to go one day without hearing the

"P"

word.

You know puberty.

Sbetial Scripters

I've noticed Abby sitting and reading her Scriptures by herself lately and tonight McKay opened her scripture case and this note feel out. On the out side it says "sbetial scriptures", or "special scriptures."On the inside of the note it says "My Scripture list by Abby" and under that it says "3Ne 4:31"

so I looked in her scriptures at 3 Nephi, chapter 4 verse 31 in the Book of Mormon, and this is what it says,

"And it came to pass that they did break forth, all as one, in singing, and apraising their God for the great thing which he had done for them, in preserving them from falling into the hands of their enemies."

It goes on to say in verse 32 and 33

"Yea, they did cry: Hosanna to the Most High God. And they did cry: Blessed be the name of the Lord God Almighty, the Most High God.

And their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears, because of the great goodness of God in delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; and they knew it was because of their repentance and their humility that they had been delivered from an everlasting destruction."

That is a special scripture Abby. You amaze me!

I also found in her scripture case a note to her primary teachers, signed

Senserly: Abby

I'm a runner-week 2

I went to the rec center to run today, even though my back is still killing me, cuz that's what runners do.

I'm on week two of my run/walk program. Walk 5 min, run 2, repeat 3 times. Last night I was pretty sure that after one whole week, my running career would be coming to an end, but this morning I woke up with the motivation to press forward. Wait a minute, when I started this program I prayed for that and I got it.

Even God wants me to be a runner!

So I started with the walking and it was going great then came the running and two minutes seemed like a really long time. Then back to the walking and really 5 minutes seemed like a long time. I was ready to run again. Then came the second 2 minute run and I was hurting, and by the third 2 minute run I was really hurting. I had 30 seconds to go and I was trying to talk myself through it.

"You can do this. It's only 30 seconds, you can do about anything for 30 seconds. Now 20, keep going. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1."

Then something came over me and I just kept running for 2 more minutes. I realize that it is only 4 minutes of strait running, and that it is really not that big of a deal, but in that moment, to me, it was a big deal.

Pain, Puberty, and Painting Pinewood derby cars

That pretty much sums up my day.
I really hurt my back while rollerskating. So I spent most of the day on the couch trying to avoid too much pain.
Nate's class started the 5th grade puberty unit at school today. When he got home I asked him how it went and we ended up having an interesting and humorous conversation on puberty. He told me a lot about growth spurts and sweat glands. When I pressed him for more he started to tell me about some stuff that they learned about the "boy thingy" I asked him if he was uncomfortable calling it by it's real name, and he said "Yes, but Mr. R sure isn't". I had a really difficult time not laughing.
Tonight we started painting the pinewood derby cars. The big race is on Wednesday night. Sam has done a great job helping the boys with their cars. Bryce's car is pink?, and Nate's is blue, and we are all getting high off of spray paint fumes.

Skate City

I love this picture because even though they just wiped out

it actually looks like they are break dancing or something.

Gracie's BFF, Abby C., had her 5th birthday party at Skate City. Gracie has never been skating and was a little worried about it. In fact, at first she was refusing to go. Then she tried to convince me that Abby told her she wanted to have her party at the bowling alley instead. I was not going to go with her originally but she felt better about going if I went too, so I did.
The kids had a great time and now Gracie isn't afraid of skating. They fell down a lot but jumped right back up and kept going.
I, however, have not been in so much pain since the last time I was pregnant. My feet are killing me, my back is killing me and I'll be surprised if I can walk in the morning. I will need to be in much better shape before I strap on another pair of skates.
My favorite part of the day was seeing Grace and Abby C. skating along together holding hands. Sooo very cute.

Nuggets game

It was Douglas County School night at the Nuggets game, so out tickets were only $15 and because our elementary school was one of the top sellers the kids got to go to the Pepsi Center today at 1:00 and shoot baskets down on the court. Sam took Nate, Bryce, Abby and our neighbors, Jake and Alex. They had a great time but we don't have any pictures of that.
The game was at 7:00 and we took the whole family plus my parents and Jake and Alex. We had pretty good seats in the club section, usually $82 seats, so it was a pretty good deal. It was a close game and it went into over time but the Nuggets won. It was a fun day.

Today my sweet, wonderful, beautiful little girl walked through the door after school and broke down in tears. I had company here so I waited for them to leave and then called her in to talk.
Me- What happened?
Abby (with tears running down her cheeks)- This girl (we'll call her mean girl) on the bus was making fun of me.
Me- What did she say?
Abby-She said I was a cry baby and a scaredy cat.
Me- Did she say anything else?
Abby- *sob* She *sob* said *sob* that *sob* my *sob* family *sob* has *sob* mental *sob* problems!
I don't even know who this girl is. How does she know about our family's mental problems?
Apparently this is not the first time there has been issues with this girl on the bus. She was calling Bryce and Abby names about a month ago and telling a couple of boys to call them names too.
I told Abby I would see what I could do about it and for her to try to stay away from mean girl and ignore her. I also called Sam and told him about it. When I told him that mean girl told Abby that her family had mental problems, he just said "duh"

I'M A RUNNER!

I'm on week one of an 8 week run/walk program. You start slowly, mostly walking interrupted by short bouts of running. Each week you walk less and run more, and at the end of the 8th week I will be running 30 minutes strait. That's the idea anyway. I will be done with my 8 weeks just in time for the St. Patricks Day 5K on March 20, in Highlands Ranch. Who's joining me? Then I get ready for the Bolder Boulder. Here's the thing, I hate running, but I've always felt like there was a runner inside of me, and this is the year that I find her. Maybe next year I will find my inner hiker, but this year I'm looking for the runner. I started my program last Thursday and so far so good. Every day I write in my exercise journal "I'M A RUNNER!", along with what I accomplished that day. I'm sort of in the "fake it til you make it" mode, but I'm happy with my progress. One thing I read said "If you are not running because you enjoy it, than you are not a real runner." So I guess I'm not a "real" runner yet, but I'm a runner none the less. I can't wait to post my finish line pictures, because that's what runners do.

Hope

I LOVE THIS!!

for more reasons to hope go HERE

ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need

Lacey, one of my totally awesome girls from primary, called me yesterday to let me know that she was trying to raise $500 to donate to the Haiti Earthquake Relief. As a bonus she is making a dozen cookies for anyone who donates over $5. What a good girl, right!? I told her that I would donate $20. Last night I was telling Sam what Lacey was doing and that I had promised to donate $20. Bryce heard us talking and said he wanted to donate $5 of his own money. He is sooo sweet. This morning he came to me with his $5 then went in the kitchen to have breakfast with the other kids. I overheard them talking.
Bryce-"I'm donating $5 to the people in Haiti."
Nate-"I don't have any money to spare."
Abby-"Me neither"
Before I could respond the phone rang. It was Sam. My first words to him were "Where did we go wrong?"
I got off the phone with Sam and my first thought was to go talk to Nate and Abby and tell them how selfish they were being and how disappointed I was in them. Then I had another idea. I went and got my scriptures. I started looking for verses about charity. The first one I found was Mosiah 4:16 in the Book of Mormon.
"And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of you succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish"
We had to talk about what succor means.
Then I asked them if they could think of anyone who was in need of our help right now. They said the people in Haiti. Then I ask if any of them would like to donate any of they own money to help. They all went and got there money jars. Abby donated $3. Nate who spends his money faster then he gets it only had some change probably less than $2 worth but he said he wanted to donate it all. Gracie got $2.01 out of her jar to donate. Bryce even went and got some more of his money and McKay came with his jar of coins and dumped it all into the collection bag. As he was dumping his money I looked at his smiling face and thought about the sweet little kids just like him in Haiti who have nothing and I felt so sad and at the same time so blessed.
In the end the kids had donated $14.11.

Time out

Sometimes I want to beat him,

but the fact is he is just too sweet to beat.

So when he bites his sister

this is what I do.

Nose in the corner,

no talking allowed.

He's so dang cute

and she probably deserved it!

That's what you get for having big sisters

I told McKay that he needed a coat on if he wanted to play out side,

GRACIE,

being the sweet sister that she is,

helped him find this.

He is, as I type this, outside playing

in this very coat,

and I think he's adorable. Bryce just walked in the house and I asked him,

"What do think of McKay's new coat?"

He just laughed.

This is one of my family's favorite dinners. I just made it for a friend and got rave reviews. Another friend was at the first friends house and her family loved it, so today she called for the recipe. So I thought I'd share it here as well. I originally got this recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, but I've made a lot of changes to to. Mostly leaving things out that some people (Sam) in my family don't like. It's really quick and easy, especially if you use canned chicken. And it doesn't have any obscure ingredients which is a must for me.
I didn't think to take a picture of the enchiladas I made so I found this image on http://www.freewebs.com/

Chicken Enchiladas

1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups chopped cooked chicken (most of the time I use canned chicken)
3/4 cup shredded cheese

12 7-inch flour tortillas or 6-inch corn tortillas
1 4-ounce can diced green chili peppers, undrained
1 10.75-ounce can reduced-fat condensed cream of chicken
1 8-ounce carton light dairy sour cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese (3 ounces)

Directions
1. In a medium bowl stir together cream cheese, the 1 tablespoon milk, 3/4 c shredded cheese and chicken. Stir until combined. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto each tortilla near an edge; roll up. Place filled tortillas, seam side down, in a greased 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Set aside.
2. For sauce, in a medium bowl combine the chili peppers, the soup, sour cream, and the 1 cup milk. Pour evenly over the tortillas in the baking dish. Cover with foil. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven about 35 minutes or until heated through. Remove foil. Sprinkle enchiladas with cheese . Return to oven; bake about 5 minutes more or until cheese melts. Makes 6 servings

Add toppings like

olives

tomatoes

shredded lettuce

salsa

Didn't I just call her a princess in my last post?

I took McKay to Subway today for lunch and he got a cookie. After lunch we picked Gracie up form school, she eats lunch at school. McKay was still eating his cookie when Gracie got in the car.

If Gracie had said to me
"Mom can I have a cookie too?"
I would have said to her
"Sure Gracie, I'll get you one when we get home.",
but that's not what she said.
What she said was,
"NO FAIR, GIVE ME A COOKIE!",
so what I said was
"If you had asked nicely I would have been happy to give you a cookie,
but since you are throwing a fit and yelling at me, you get nothing."
To which she said,
"YOUR MEAN!!"
to which I said,
" You Think I'm MEAN! I'LL SHOW YOU MEAN! If you don't stop being rude, I'm going to smack your mouth."
At least I kept my cool, right.?

At that point McKay reached over and smacked Gracie on the mouth.
Gracie started whining,
"McKay, hit me on the mouth."
To which I responded in a super mature way by saying,
"Good, you deserved it."
Then McKay said to me.
"Mommy, you nice".
Then I said,
"Your nice too, but you shouldn't hit your sister",
"Okay, mommy".
Then Gracie said
"I'm sorry mommy"
and in the same breath
"Can I have a cookie now?"

She did not get a cookie. Instead she got a long lecture on why, when you do or say something hurtful, saying sorry doesn't make it all better and she still has to have consequences for being rude.

I'm sure that our little conversation did the trick and she will never yell or be rude to me again.

rub a dub dub

Two kids in a tub

And who do you think they be?

The princess, and monkey.

Both smelled a bit funky,

But now they are clean, you see.

What I'm hearing from the other room.

Gracie-

"I'm an old lady. Can you help me find my teeth?"

McKay-

*hysterical laughter*

Happy New Years Mom and Dad! 2010!!!

(click on picture to enlarge)

This is the card Bryce gave Sam and me for New Years.

In case you can't read it this is what it says-

Dear Mom and dad,

Happy new years!

I hope you had the

best deckade ever! I

am so glad that you

are my mom and dad.

Thank you for razzing

me. You are the best

parents ever! I hope

you are happy the

rest of your life but you

have a long wase to go.

thank you for every thing

From Bryce

Isn't he sweet! And I love the spelling, and the fire works on the right side.

another year.

My friend Rachel started out 2009 with the theme

"2009 is going to be fine"

or something like that

and ended the year with something like,

"2009 made me whine".

This is a sentiment that I've heard from a lot of people. It seems that 2009 was a difficult year for many. For us, we had the usual ups and downs, along with some usually good ups and some unusually bad downs, but the important thing is that we all survived to see another year, heck, another decade, and we are still putting one foot in front of the other.

Last week we lost a wonderful friend and neighbor. He was 37 years old and has a wonderful wife a two amazing boys,

ages 9 and 13.

With no warning he had an aortic aneurysm that ruptured.

We are so sad and shocked, but trying to take the lessons of this tragic event to heart.

Tell the people that you love how much they mean to you.

Speak a little kinder,

hug a little longer,

forgive a little quicker.

You never know when you won't have that chance anymore.

I'm not making resolutions for 2010.

I didn't keep any of the ones I made in 2009.

So there you go.