A Family Night to Remember

Tonight, for Family Night, the kids and I learned about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. We had a great discussion on the blessings that the Lord has promised those who honor the Sabbath and the things that are expected more than just "not working" to keep the Sabbath Day holy.

Then, since daddy was working tonight, we got some dinner and took it to eat at work with him. We shared a summary of what our lesson was about and then ate our yummy food. While eating, Ariana, who was sitting on my lap, suddenly reached forward and grabbed the container of warm sauce. It spilled a little on the table and onto my hand as I reached to stop her, and I jokingly exclaimed, "Who said you could have hands??" I think I meant something more along the lines of, "Who said you could have such quick hands," but the first is what actually came out. Joseph, never missing a beat, calmly set me straight with a single word.... "God."  

I love my children! There are a lot of moments when I feel that I am at my wits end with them, but then I am reminded that I am literally living my lifelong dream of being a wife and mother every single day! I couldn't be more blessed. I have an amazing husband and 4 of the most incredible children ever. And I am sealed to them for eternity! Today and every day is just a glimpse of the forever joy and happiness that we get to experience together. I'm grateful for the reminders that make me pause long enough to cherish the small moments of these years that are going by way too fast.

When's the last time you stopped to smell the roses of your life?

"That's a Really Funny Story!"

Alright. Funny story time. After a much needed bath (we roasted hot dogs and smores at a campground tonight), the kids were getting pjs on and getting ready for bed. Jopes went back to the kids' room to check on their progress and came back with this story:

The camping pads have been pulled out for a few nights, and the kids had slept on them and the floor last night. Jopes told the kids he wanted them to each sleep in their own beds tonight though, and Everlit said, "Here's the thing. I'm gonna sleep here (on the camping pads) and Eva sleeps up there (on Joseph's top bunk)..." and she didn't get to finish because try as he might, Jopes just couldn't keep from laughing and she stopped when she heard him.

Yes, our children get away with way too much. We know. But you know what? Sometimes you've just gotta laugh and go with it because all too soon, they will not be 4 years old anymore.


Have a happy rest of the week!

Little Moments

Recently, Jopes and I were talking about our favorite parts of family get-togethers and reunions. Almost always, we agree that the best parts are the small moments when we're casually visiting with someone, rather than the big events. I've been thinking about those small moments in the home lately as well. As I was looking through some pictures tonight, I happened upon some and thought I'd share.

The time my mom went sledding with me and the kids. 

It was probably the last thing she wanted to do, but I'll always admire her for it.

The times my hubby and I get to snuggle each other or the kids.

Time with extended family.

Spontaneous family adventures.

The girls and the boys.

And especially these moments when my children are helping each other and playing happily together. 

"[Families] are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25).

Long Overdue

Joseph (6) - Everlit (4) - Elizabeth - Eva (23 months) - Jopes - Ariana (7 months)

I'm sure everyone's forgotten all about us and this blog since it's been so long since I last posted, but we're still alive and I'm back. I thought I ought to start with an update:

We are happy!

Jopes works hard for us and is great at his job. He's good at what he does and is even better at working with people, both coworkers and customers. He was just released from his church calling in the Elders Quorum presidency and looks forward to the next opportunity he'll have to serve.

I am still in school part-time. It's a slow process, but I'm closer than I've ever been to finishing! For a class project last semester, I wrote a song. It turned out great (with help from my family) and I loved doing it. I look forward to writing more in the future as a new hobby. I am the second counselor in the young women presidency and love my calling. I work with wonderful women and love each of our girls. Most of all, I love being a mother. Having four has been by far the hardest for me and I've struggled trying to figure things out all over again. I just keep trying to be a little better mom every day and I hope I am making progress. I love my family so much!

Joseph is in kindergarten and has absolutely loved it. He has really grown in confidence and it has been so neat to see him learn and read and grow into such an amazing little boy. He's made friends at school, he can read, do math, and has such a clever sense of humor. He's a great help and a fantastic older brother. He loves all things superhero, fishing, camping, outdoors. He rides a 2 wheel bike like a pro.

Everlit can't wait to start school just like her big brother. She also wants to do dance and ballet and play at the park every single day. She has so much energy and enthusiasm. She's my earliest riser in the mornings and loves having her breakfast right away. She doesn't consider breakfast complete without a bowl of cereal, even if we've had something fancier for breakfast that day. She is an incredible helper, especially with the baby. She loves to carry her around, even though she's half her size. She's gotten really good at wearing her glasses and they help her a ton.

Eva is a tough little girl. She thinks she's invincible and does some crazy stunts. She gets hurt a lot because of them, but nothing seems to keep her down for long. She is addicted to her binki, and if hers is lost she has no qualms with stealing the baby's. We can't keep shoes on her for two minutes whether we're outside or inside or on the way somewhere. She has a way of making everyone smile and laugh.

Ariana is adorable. She wants to be mobile so badly but just isn't quite there yet. It makes her so mad. She's a big time momma's girl. I've gotten pretty good at doing most things with one hand since I am holding her constantly throughout the day (and night). I know I "spoil" my babies, but I don't know how else to do it. Ariana has a really cute laugh and a smile that makes both mom and dad do her every bidding. She is always happy to be outside and wants nothing to do with baby food. She must have whatever we're eating.

We were blessed to be in the presence of a bunch of family last weekend in Utah. We even got to go through the Payson Utah Temple open house. It is a beautiful temple and it was wonderful getting to go through with my little ones and explain some of the special parts and blessings of the temple to them. The three oldest were all so excited that they could to go inside. Joseph and Everlit are often asking about when they get to go through the temple when they get older and they always start singing, "I love to see the Temple" whenever we are able to see it as we drive through town. Walking through the open house, Eva insisted on walking almost all of it, even the many flights of stairs we took. She kept saying, "Temple!" in her cute, binki-muffled voice. The above picture shows us all in our booties that we wore through the temple to keep the floors clean. The kids loved them and we all loved the experience. I know that Heavenly Father has given us temples and sacred ordinances so that we might be together as families for eternity, not just life on earth. I know that they are Houses of the Lord, and are truly sacred and dedicated for His purposes. I am grateful to live near one and to have been married and sealed to my family so that we can look forward with joy and confidence to our days as an eternal family so long as we keep the covenants that we have made with the Lord in temple. Families can be together forever!

To learn more about temples, visit https://www.lds.org/church/temples?lang=eng

When You're Not Paying Attention

You Find This...

Yes, that is an entire dozen eggs cracked into a bowl, garnished with baby carrots. 

You may turn your head and gag now, I'll wait.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

I'm not sure how I missed the carton of eggs leaving the kitchen. But somehow, I did. So Joseph and Everlit, who I thought were playing nicely together in their rooms, made this hideous creative little dish.
But how do you get mad at these two faces??

I mean, seriously. I couldn't.
So I just took pictures.

Anyway.
While I'm here I might as well give a little update since it's been another century since my last post. 

Jopes and I are both in school this semester, each going part time. We rotate classes and being home with the kids in the mornings, and then he goes to work an hour or two after we're done. He's working full time, so we don't get to see him nearly as much as we'd like, but we're grateful for the time we do get to spend together. 

We've somewhat recently moved to a different place of abode. It's very nice, and we like it a lot. We've got more space, a little yard, a small garden area, and a nice shed for storage. It's wonderful. We just miss our good friends back in Green Gables and the ward.

Joseph is 3 and Everlit will be 2 come the beginning of August. I can't believe they are getting so old! They are the best though. Joseph loves the Avenger cartoons lately and has a fantastic imagination. He has a shield made out of a frisbee and helmet that he uses to play Captain America. He uses the tray from our baby Bumbo as a hammer when he's playing Thor, and just overall loves to re-enact and make up scenes as his favorite super heros. Today we took him to Seagull Book and got him a couple of the Book of Mormon hero action figures. It's been nice to see him playing with them, too.

Everlit loves books lately. It was neat when my parents and Andrew came to visit for the Bill Cosby show, and she just sat and rocked with my daddy and had him read to her, book after book after book. I think my dad really enjoyed it too.

I'm in the middle of coordinating Walgreen's team efforts for Relay for Life. It's the American Cancer Society's annual fundraising event. Even though it sounds like a running event, it's actually more like a carnival, and it's pretty fun. Our team will be selling fresh made scones and doughnuts, with chili, hotdogs and hot chocolate as well. It'll keep us very busy at the event, so I'm hoping we have all our helpers there! If you're interested in making a donation to the American Cancer Society, you can go to my Relay page to do so. Sorry for that plug. Couldn't help myself.

Also on my mind are the two family reunions we have coming up as soon as the semester is over. The first is the Jamison one. Becca and I are in charge of choreographing and picking a song for the whole family to make a fun video to. It should be fun, though interesting to see what we can come up with during the rest of the semester. The second reunion is all of my parents and siblings (and hopefully some extended family as well) at a cabin. Steven and I (and all the other siblings via input) will be planning it and it should be a fun family gathering. I'm excited. Lots of big projects though, it's hard to stay focused on just one for too long. I do have to focus most on school though, for another month.

Our lives are so blessed. I am the luckiest wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. I really think I am.

Looking Forward

I have been terrible at blogging. Again. So, here's a quick update for our family:

Jopes just got promoted to Head Photo Tech at Walgreens. We are so grateful for this job. It's been wonderful for us. We recently got a new Bishop, which means a whole new Bishopric, which means Jopes got released as 2nd Counselor. It was a bitter-sweet day for us, but he's already been called into something new and we're glad he's being put to work.

I go back to school in a few days. I think my classes will be great, but I do look forward to the days after graduation (still way too far away) when I just get to be mom and wife, not student. :)

Joseph is our big little helper. He loves to be in charge of "making sure Everlit's happy." He acts so grown up and sometimes we're in awe at his ability to think and reason like an adult. He still loves robots, drawing, and movies, but he's really starting to play with his imagination. He loves to fly himself and his toys around the house. He plays really well with Everlit, though sometimes he just wants to play by himself. I can't believe he'll be 3 in just a few months!

Everlit is our social butterfly. She is so smiley and friendly with everyone. She adores her daddy and her big brother. When daddy comes home from work and she hears the door open, she drops whatever she's doing and "runs" out to great him with a great big hug. And any time she gets to play with or do something just like Joseph, she's a very happy girl. She loves shoes and clothes and baby dolls and anything girly. She's getting to be such a big girl and we've noticed that she is much more adventurous than what we're used to. Her first year went by so fast!

With the new year, we've of course made some new goals and some re-newed goals. We loved 2011 but hope to better ourselves a little more with each day of 2012.

Happy New Year!!

Contest/Giveaway!

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I don't care who you are--you can make a deck that is meaningful and fun for you, a family member, or a friend. You can't not check it out. It's too great a thing! Especially with the holidays just around the corner. So PLEASE check it out and share the idea with everyone you know!

How to enter:

- Sign-up at OurFamilyPastime.com- Create as many "14 Things" decks as you would like.

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Each winner will have their deck setup, printed and shipped to them for free.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

The contest ends on Halloween, Oct 31st, 2011.

Joseph & Everlit. A Book Just for Them.

I hope they are always such good friends.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

A Story. No, A Memory.

Monday was Labor Day. Monday was also the day that I met my husband 8 YEARS AGO. It was seemingly a normal Labor Day at first. Full of yard work and house work (because it's the day of LABOR). But THIS Labor Day soon became unforgettable. Because Sister Brake invited my family over for dinner, and the Frees were there too.

It was 8 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting at the kitchen table, watching Aisling work on an art project. My new bishop, Bishop Free, was sitting next to me too. There were a few others standing around, and we were all just visiting. That's when I found out Bishop Free had 8 kids. I hadn't thought he was that old. He told me his oldest had just started at BYU Provo, and the rest were outside. Then HE walked in. He was wearing a white sport tank top and red swim shorts. Bishop Free said something like, "Oh. See, this is my oldest son, Joseph." He came and sat on a bar stool to visit with the rest of us. I found out he was a swimmer, and a senior.

Then it was time to eat and everyone migrated outside. My brother and I sat next to Joseph on the steps and visited with him and Michael, who was sitting across from us on the porch. I learned that Mike was a runner. I remember Joseph tapping rhythms with his toes on the steps-same as he does to this day. The youngest, Adam, was only 2 at the time, and started making faces and playing games with us through the glass on the back doors behind us. Then we went inside to play with him. Joseph played some little game with him hiding under the pillows on the couches. After a little bit, Adam left to play with others and Joseph sat on the couch across from the fireplace hearth, where I was sitting. By the way, I was wearing some rust colored capris, a tan button-up shirt, and tall wedge sandals. The two of us just sat there and talked the rest of the time. I remember finding out that he didn't know much about cars, and that we had a lot of other things in common.

Toward the end of the evening, my mom came over and sat on the couch to visit with us. She asked him how old he was (17), what grade he was in (senior), if he was going to the homecoming dance (he didn't know, probably not). At that, my mom shared that she always told her boys it was their priesthood duty to make sure the girls got asked. And I remember hoping for an instant that that conversation would spark the idea in him to ask ME. He didn't.

As my family left that night, I remember thinking that I wanted to get to know him better. And that's how my CrAzY cRuSh began. I can hardly believe that was 8 years ago, and yet at the same time, it feels like I've known Jopes my whole life.

I sure love you, Joseph Jamison Free! Thanks for 8 fun years of knowing each other and the infinity more that we have together!

Things to Blog About

I'm behind. Again. But I still don't have time right now to fully blog about all the things I want to tell you about, so here's a list of all those things I'd tell you about if I could right now.

* Family Pictures - we got professional family pictures taken for the first time.

* Everlit's Birthday - she's 1 now! I can't believe it.

* Joseph's Potty Training Attempts - enough said.

* Our Surprise Find - so unexpected and just at the right time!

* Family Update - kids are growing, life is great!

Hope you're looking forward to the full stories.... :)

The Last 30 Days

I was looking at pictures we've taken recently, and realized I haven't shared any in a while. So, here ya go. Pictures from the last 30 days... May 20th-June 20th. :)

Oh, and a couple things I'd like to add, though I don't yet have pictures:

1) Joseph loves the carousel at the park. We've been riding it lots. He tells us almost every day that he wants to ride the horses. And then he tells us which color horse he wants, and while he's riding he says things like, "Woohoo!," "Giddyup!," and "Yeehaw!"

2) Everlit loves the splash park just as much as Joseph does. Even if it's cold! Today for example, I was holding her hands to help her walk, and she walked right over to the little baby spouts, right up to her favorite one, and plopped herself down to play in it. She tries to grab the water over and over again and just loves getting wet.

3) We got a go-ped for Jopes to ride to work, frisbee, etc. Our poor car has been getting bad gas mileage lately, and we were spending more than usual on gas. So, now he gets 100 miles to the gallon, and I am no longer stranded at home without the car. Oh. And, apparently he really wanted a go-ped when he was a little boy, so now he's finally got one. And let me tell you, the look on his face when he first rode it around was great. Dream come true.

And that's about all folks! Oh well, if you haven't seen our garden updates and you'd like to, you should look here.

Date Ideas, Anyone??

For my class Wednesday night, I'm supposed to come with 4 great date ideas.

2 for before marriage,

and 2 for after marriage.

Any suggestions??

What have some of your favorite dates been?

Thanks!

Success!!

All I'm going to say is:

1) it's about time! AND 2) I am SUCH a proud mommy!

A delicious victory and important milestone!

A Weekend Away, Now Back to Reality

But first, an extreme overload of pictures:

HELLO!

Happy Easter!

So glad these two get along so well.

Joseph likes to play in the sink and do his own hair. Actually, he's been trying to do a lot of things all by himself lately. Socks and shoes, clothes, etc.

A family picture from Melinda's wedding this last weekend. My kids look so excited about this picture.

Lots of pictures of my kids, 'cause I just can't get enough of them.

The beautiful bride and groom, Melinda and Jeff Smith!

We got to see Jess for the first time since she's been home from her mission. LOVE HER! Can't wait to see her again.

Now. For those of you who are still here, a quick update:

School is going fine. Work is too. Jopes has asked to only work 4 days a week so he can have a day for homework. We never see him for more than 40 minutes in a day. And in that time, he's usually snarfing down some food and getting dressed to leave again. But we are proud of him and all his hard work. We love him. A couple times now, we've taken dinner down to eat with him at work. It's about the only way we get to have a meal with him. Still, we feel very blessed in so many ways. We know Heavenly Father is watching out for our little family. Joseph is growing up so much! He still loves puzzles, electronics, drawing, and movies. He talks in sentences a lot, and is such a smart little guy. And a cute one, too! We love him lots. Everlit is getting so big! She's 9 months old now, which I can't believe. She's beautiful. And strong. And smart! She knows exactly what she wants and she'll tell you all about it! She has no interest in crawling, but at the same time wants to be mobile like her big brother. She's a funny girl, and we can't get enough of her.