Mother-daughter time

My Mom is the best. There isn't a better way to start the day than with an email from your Mom 5,000 miles away that says: "I'll be here tomorrow". Totally made my day!

I would like to add that over the last few months, my Mom has called me every single day to check on me (even though it means getting up at 5am to catch me at good time here). That's my Mom.

The visit was unplanned, but it couldn't have fallen at a better time, not only was she here for the Bolder Boulder and the Creek Festival, but she was also here for French Mother's day.

We went out to my new favorite restaurant in Boulder (the Med) and had a lovely time.

Arugula salad with caramelized dates and gorgonzola, with a side of sautéed mushroom and bacon wrapped dates and finally eggplant parmesan. Scrumptious!

 Then we treated ourselves to a nice pedicure

The day after she arrived, we were at the grocery store when I got a phone call from my sister in law (who lives in Utah). I answered the phone and totally matter of factly told her I was grocery shopping with Mom. She asked with surprise : "whose Mom?" and then I realized my Mom's visit was so spontaneous she hadn't had time to tell any of my other siblings. It was just perfect that my sister in law was calling to ask if they could stop by to see us on the way back from their vacation to Illinois!

The cousin table missing Laurine (Josh and William were litterally bouncing off the walls that night)

And the adults, they will hate me forever for posting this horrendous picture of their tired faces after what? 15 hours in the car, but that's the only proof I have that we were together!

She was also here for the Children's Festival, my favorite Family Housing event, which helped tremendously. Again this year it was a great success. It was my 4th time working this event, wow! 

Maggie explaining the rules to her obstacle course with Josh and his friend Zeke waiting in line.

My colleague Nichole painted the flower on my face

William played at the toddler area

Josh in the bouncy slide

William in the bouncy slide

William and Grand-Maman

Josh and Maman

Driving the police car

Showing his gun to our police officer

This one is funny because it totally looks like he's getting in trouble (but he wasn't)

The "sound system"

The acrobats

Pretty cool...

Zoe and Sierra imitating the acrobats, I'm impressed! : )

Another Mother-Daughter date, we went to Panera:

Flew a kite, it is fun at any age:

except when the streamer gets in the way...

Introduced my Mom to Coldstone. The experience involves watching someone slather your ice cream on a cold counter top and furiously stab it to incorporate various toppings. I'm not germophobic but it gags me a little every time... (the result is worth it tho).

Visited the temple:

And last but not least, had dinner at Chuck E. Cheese with our friend Brother Gibson. He is now officially the boys' new hero.

I think we should do it all over again... tomorrow. Ok Mom?

Remembering a friend

Someone brought to my attention today, that President Hinckley's (103rd!) birthday would have been yesterday. President Hinckley was my favorite prophet, he was the president of the church for all of my teenage and early adult years and I still think of him as "my prophet". His example and his counsels have played an important role in the shaping of my beliefs. I loved his joyful personality, he was always optimistic and I always felt safe and confident when listening to him, and I felt loved even though I'd never met him personally. In a word I considered him a friend. I never had a doubt about his sincerity or whose interest he had in mind.

When I think of him I picture his friendly smile, his somewhat crooked finger (sometimes his full hand) he waved in the air to emphasize every important word he said, and the "cane wave" that had become his trademark after doctors told him to carry a cane, and he did just that... carry a cane.

I wanted to be like him, I wanted to love people the way he loved people, I wanted to serve the way he served, trust in humanity the way he trusted in humanity, and hope for a better world the way he hoped.

Today I went on Pinterest to find quotes from him (I know that's a weird place to look for quotes from a Mormon prophet, but there are actually a lot and I like to read my quotes on a nice font and background : ). We read the quotes with the boys for Family Home Evening and I decided to post them here tonight so I can share them and also re-read them whenever I want. (I do realize he may not be the author of some of these quotes - at least one or two of them  - but they are things he believed in and shared, that touch me and inspire me).


The constant optimism:

http://pinterest.com/pin/229683649718645419/

http://www.creativeldsquotes.com

The advice:

http://pinterest.com/pin/99994054197622691/

http://pinterest.com/pin/201465783303512114/

http://pinterest.com/pin/157274211959495252/

http://pinterest.com/pin/344243965237686007/

http://www.meetmormonmissionaries.org/2084/young-women-gathering-before-they-serve-their-missions

http://www.etsy.com/listing/119545064/gordon-b-hinckley-quote-when-life-gets

http://pinterest.com/pin/535787686888937809/

http://pinterest.com/pin/86694361549587187/

The words of encouragement:

http://scomo.me/dont-nag-yourself-with-failure/#

http://behappy.me/you--have--not-failed-until--you--quit--trying/

The advocate of woman/motherhood:

http://pinterest.com/pin/523121312936526103/

http://pinterest.com/pin/134052526380862837/

 The cane-waver:

And the peaceful smile of a man who knows everything is going to be ok:

http://spirituallythinking.blogspot.com/2011/10/gordon-b-hinckley-quote-updated.html

Raising boys

This post is random, but I'm one of those people that takes out her phone to snap a picture every half second, ends up with billions of random pictures on her phone, and can't resort to throwing away a single one of them... I guess I'm a picture hoarder... maybe I should start a reality TV show.

First is a picture of the boys at the library a couple of months ago (I don't remember when exactly). The library was planning some renovation and wanted the opinion of parents and children. So they had a special story time combined with a brainstorming meeting. They asked the kids what changes they'd like to see at the library. Josh said he'd like to be able to buy toys there! I think he specifically mentioned guns... Here he is, proudly coming back to me after going up to the stage to share his idea, and tag-along-Willy looking just as proud and obviously sharing the fantasy. Oh the paradoxical feelings motherhood brings, the combined sense of pride, endearment and shame all at once. 

 This one is a second attempt at making slime with a different recipe. It yielded a different, stiffer slime, that wasn't quite as fun in my opinion, but apparently was the perfect consistency for a headband?

Then there was the fun run at Josh's school, sometime in March. It was scheduled at 1pm but Josh's preschool class is over at 11am so I thought we were supposed to come back if we wanted to participate. So we did, only to realize he had already run a "pretend" race in the morning with his class. But since we were there, they let him run again with the afternoon class (and William too) and with all the other classes cheering (up to 5th grade) and he had a ton of fun!

it rained a little bit before the race

I don't know why William was holding his hands in his back like this but it was super cute!

Don't ask me why they put their bibs on their back

Chasing the 2 bunnies (older kids who were showing them the way) - Josh is the 2nd kid behind the bunnies

William crossing the finish line

 Josh did really well, I think he arrived 3rd of 4th, but he was very disappointed he couldn't catch the bunnies and a little girl he didn't know passed him.... Haha! A little bit of manly pride. He got over it quickly. William did really well too and arrived only a few seconds after Josh (the power of competition!)


I started a chore chart for Joshua in April. I'd been thinking about it for a while, I thought he was ready for a little more responsibilities and it would be a good way to keep track of what day it was, help him gain a little more control over his life. So I drew out a 4 week calendar and decorated it with stickers to help him remember what day it was. I put it on the fridge and he moved a magnet to the right day every morning.

The chores were: making his bed in the morning, putting his dishes in the sink after eating, and cleaning up his toys before bed time. When he did it, he got a smiley sticker, and the goal was not to miss more than 2 days in a week.

We decided on the reward ahead of time. He'd seen a toy-riffle at the store and wanted me to buy it for his birthday. Well his birthday is in December so instead I told him he could have it as a reward for doing his chores. He was completely ecstatic! It was the best motivator, he carried a picture of the riffle in his pocket for weeks. (What's up with boys and weapons?)

After he earned his riffle... best day of his life!

sharing with William and playing cowboys or policeman

I am really proud of this big boy. He has such a grateful heart. He bounced on the walls, hugged me, thanked me, called me the best Mom ever. What a sweet heart. The sweetest thing is he'd picked this toy because there was also a smaller gun he could share with William. They played cow-boys for a really long time. This toy is still one of their favorites, even one or two months after having it. Oh, and I'm sorry if this makes you nervous... for some reason it doesn't make me nervous, and I know if he didn't have this toy, he'd still be doing the same thing with a stick, a piece of bread cut up like a gun, a knitting needle, legos, magnets, an empty roll of paper towel, or any kind of rod shaped instrument, believe me...

Oh and if anyone's wondering how the stroller is holding up, I'm happy to report it's as good as new. I replaced the tires a few days after changing the ball bearing (yes that's how bad the tire was worn) and I've resumed abusing it daily.