Mom Remembers

I can't believe it has been 5 years since Soren was born!  I remember the hospital staff wheeling him into my room, clean and beautiful, small enough to fit into a Christmas stocking.  Sometimes it seemed like he would never be big enough to do anything and now it feels like he has grown up in the blink of an eye. This is what we did to celebrate his big day: 1. My brother and sister came up from Provo to play with the kids all day.  The boys *love* their aunts and uncles, who have loads of energy and enjoy raucous games.  So that was a special treat. 2. The first thing that Soren did when he woke up was make an invitation for his neighbor, Ethan, to come to a birthday party.  I had not planned on inviting any kids over for cake because I thought Soren preferred adult company.  But I guess he knows that birthdays mean having other kids over so he took some initiative.  He wrote the invitation and delivered it all by himself, inviting Ethan (who...

CARL:  There is a frog fetus in my throat and at Christmas-time, I am going to get even fatter! SOREN:  Boys can't have a uterus and birth canal.  Your birth canal is between your legs.  But kids don't have them. CARL:  When the frog fetus comes out of my belly, it will be a new member of our family!

I was reading the voter information for the upcoming election and Soren was reading over my shoulder.  I was looking at the issues and trying to decide who to vote for but he was looking at the big, flashy sloguns.  He says to me: SOREN: I am excited for Utah to lead America! Oh, the gullible heart of a child.

Soren adores his teacher, Brother Lanier, and he is super nervous about speaking in church.  So, for the 2012 Primary Program (and Soren's first talk in sacrament meeting), Soren and I wrote a talk that he could give with  Brother Lanier.  I don't want to loose it so I am posting it here. SOREN: My name is Soren and this is Brother Lanier, my teacher. BROTHER LANIER: We are going to talk about following Jesus. SOREN: I can choose the right by following Jesus. Jesus gave us his love. I can follow his example by giving my love to him. BROTHER LANIER: We can also follow his example by giving our love to each other. SOREN: I love Japanese characters even though they are really hard to learn. BROTHER LANIER: That's good but Jesus showed love for other people . Who can you show love for? SOREN: I can show love to everyone. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. By the way, the presentation of it went really well.  He was a lot...

ELLIOT (who is 6 years old):  Do you know how to read? SOREN:  A little bit.  (pauses)  But I don't know how to read in the dark.

1. OK, so there are 2 things on this list that should have been posted on last week's Friday Favorites.  But we were camping in Goblin Valley on Friday so I didn't get around to posting.  Which is my #1.  Camping in Goblin Valley last week was AWESOME!  We went with our neighbors, the Cowarts, and it was probably our best camping trip ever.  One of the reasons it was so great was because of the company.  Another reason is because our kids slept so well.  Usually they keep us up all night but this time, they slept pretty much as well as they do at home.  The weather was pretty much perfect until the thunderstorm that began just as we were leaving.  But the best part was the location.  Goblin Valley is a very unique place and the kids really enjoyed climbing around on all the cool rock formations. There was lots of sand to play with and tons of neat nooks and crannies , including an awesome cave . 2. And my second thing that I should hav...

1.  Last weekend, I pulled out the clothing bins to change our summerwear for autumnwear.  And I finally  switched Carl into 3T clothes!  We dug out all big things Soren was wearing last fall and now Carl is wearing them!  He has looked bigger and stronger and more capable to me all week. 2.  We are getting ready to celebrate Michaelmas tomorrow, so a lot of my favorite moments this week were preparing for the festivities.  Scott repaired the boys' wooden swords and made cardboard shields on Sunday, so that our sons will have all the tools they need to fight evil dragons!   Soren and Carl painted their shields as part of our Kindergarten class on Monday.  We are keeping the armaments in reserve for tomorrow, when the boys insist that we are going to have a special Michaelmas fight.  (I still have no ideas about that.) 3.  On Tuesday, we went up in the mountains with our neighbors to collect goldenrod in the hopes of turning i...