While the Boys are Away, the Girls will Play

This has been a strange 3 weeks for me. My boys have been with their grandparents in Nevada, and it has mostly been me and the girls. The house has been QUIET and for the most part clean. I can't help thinking at times that this will be my life in a short time.

I have had more time to work on projects with a willing helper. Nicole loves to do anything with me, and especially as she has been so lonely. We clean, cook and read together. I also have worked through a list of 41 things that I wanted to get done while the boys were gone and I had the time. I have painted, rearranged, thrown away, scrubbed, traveled, and organized to my heart's desire.

I have also made some painful discoveries. I have not been meeting the needs of my younger children the way I thought I was, particularly Nicole's. I really believed that she understood what we were reading at family scripture study until she was the only child in attendance. I also have recognized how often I was taking my frustrations out on her when I no longer had any. I feel regret, but I also feel a resolve to learn from this experience and change for the better.

I love the stories of when Christ heals the crippled, blind and maimed. I love the stories of when He called the little children to his side. After much soul-searching, I believe that He can heal me of my impatience and anger just as he performed all the miracles we read about in the scriptures. Our weakness can become our strength.

That is my goal for this coming school year. I want my children to see a marked difference in me, due to the refining power of the atonement of Christ. I want to see a marked difference in myself. Instead of falling into all the same ruts, I want to travel down a new road.

I believe that with Him I can do it.

The End of an Era

I have had a case of the nevermores after realizing that my season of little boys has passed. My youngest son Connor was baptized this month and has passed the era of playing with trucks and is now following in his older brothers' footsteps into legos and riding his bike to play with his friends.

He was blessed to have both sets of Grandparents come out for the occasion, and we had a wonderful weekend with everyone.


Connor had a special baptism, and he is such a good boy. It's hard to believe that he is so old so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that he was spitting up half of what he ate and sleeping all day, so he could be awake all night.

A couple of days after his baptism, all the boys left with their grandparents to go stay for a three week visit with them. The house has never been so quiet for so long and stayed so clean, and the refrigerator has never stayed so full.

I was worried how Connor was going to do, being away for so long, but when I talked to him a couple days ago, I needn't have worried. He told me that he has already had 17 Root Beers, and swims 6 times a day. He stayed up past 3:30 am playing video games (after Grandma thought they were asleep), and told me that Grandma asks at the store what they like, and then she buys it all. Tomorrow they are going with their other grandparents camping overnight and then to the new Nanny McPhee movie coming out. They are going shooting with their new uncle next week.

How did our Connor go from this:


To this:


We love our good boy!