Mother, Let me count the Ways. . . .

On this last Mother's day, Ruby gave me a book she wrote for me while she was at school.  It's extra fun with all her pictures she put on each page.  For example, the last page has a face that is asleep with a bubble coming out of it's wide open mouth (perfect circle).  The bubble has "OYOY" in it.  On the page for X, she drew a picture of Jarom with his arm that broke as if it were an x-ray.  For K, she drew two big lips.  G, H, I, and S don't have any pictures.  Her picture of mac and cheese requires some understanding of the text to comprehend.  On N, she drew a picture of "The Book of Mormin" (Mormon).   I have wanted to share her creativity here, but I'm only just getting to it.  Here it is:

A Is For Mom
by Ruby Olsen

A is for Mom because she is awesome.  She loves Alissa (Alyssa).
B is for Mom because she is beautiful.  Her necklace is beautiful.
C is for Mom because she loves C.C. and Callie (Cali).  She is cool and cute.
D is for Mom because she makes the best dinner.  My favorite is mac and cheese.  It is really, really yummy.
E is for Mommy because she loves everybody in my family.  E is for Mom because her eyes are pretty.
F is for Mom because my mom lets me play with friends.  I play with friends a lot.  Mostly I play with Lainey, Meg, and Abby.
G is for Mom because she needs my brother Garrett.  She needs Garrett because he helps my mom lift up heavy things.
H is for Mom because she gives great huge hugs.  I love the huge hugs.
I is for Mom because she is intelligent.  She is intelligent because she helps me learn not to tell a lie.
J is for Mom because she loves my brothers Jarom and James.  I love them, too. 
K is for Mom because she gives lots and lots of kisses.  And I love them.
L is for Mom because she is great at loving Lena.  My mom also loves Ladd.  Ladd is my dad.
M is for Mckenzie.  Mom loves Mckenzie.  She is my sister.
N is for Mom because she is nice.  She teaches me about the scriptures.
O is for Mom because our last name is Olsen.  Our last name starts with an "O".
P is for Mom because she is pretty.  P is for Mom because she buys us popcycles.  She buys the ones that are kind of like a stick.
Q is for Mom because she is the queen of the house.  She is the queen of the house because she is the mom in the house.
R is for Mom because she sometimes reads books to me.  Sometimes I read books to her.
S is for Mom because she has to take care of Shalyn.  My mom's name is Sharla.
T is for Mom because she wants to have time to sleep.  She doesn't have time to sleep because she has to take care of Shalyn.
U is for Mom because she lives in Utah.  She lives in Utah with me.
V is for Mom because sometimes my mom takes my family on vacations.  Once my family went to a cabin with a lot of my cousins.  My grandma and grandpa were there, too.
W is for Mother because she is wonderful.  Once she bought my family a watermelon.
X is for Mom because she's an x-tra good mom.  One time she went to the doctor with Jarom because he broke his arm.  He got an x-ray.
Y is for Mommy because she makes yummy food.  She makes yummy Ramon Noodles.
Z is for Mom because I wrote a lot of numbers in the alphabet.  ZZZZZZ   ZZZZZZ  ZZZZZZZ

June to July 2013

The rest of the month of June passed  quickly.  Cali and Cecilia spent the 18^th thru the 21^st at girls camp.  Ladd went up to spend one evening with them and seemed to enjoy his time up there.  When the girls came back, Cecilia hugged me and immediately thanked me for the letter I’d written to her.  Then, in typical Cecilia, she said, “They said it was a note, but yours was a three page letter!!”   We spent some hours working feverishly to get our house ready to receive the cousins while Ladd and I (and Shalyn) went to join in the 50^th anniversary dinner and festivities at Lane and Mindi’s house.  Dinner finished around 8 p.m. and then we started the program.  It was a special couple of hours, but it was around 10 p.m. when the grandchildren were welcomed for dessert and more programs.  Poor Cecilia and Cali were beat by then!  Needless to say, it was a late night!  On the 22^nd, we headed over to Sandy for Grandmother Clement’s 100^th birthday celebration.  I met some of Grandpa Clement’s relatives (Nina’s children Kathy, Kimber, and Patsy).  They were fun to talk to amid all those unfamiliar faces.  After we had helped pack up a bit, we headed to our house.  On the way, we had a flat tire and it took Ladd, Nate, and Garrett awhile to change it since we didn’t have any tools in the van.  And, while they were changing it, the van slipped off the jack and dropped the car quite a bit.  That was scary!!  We finally made it to our house and we started fixing dinner with Nate and Sherilyn’s family.  Ladd took off before it was ready to go over to Chad’s house to play basketball with his brothers.  He stayed there quite late.

The week of June 24^th thru the 28^th was filled with dentist visits.  Lena was the only truly excited one about it.  She was overly so and loudly proclaimed her enthusiasm to any who would listen to her.  Alyssa actually let the dentist look at her teeth this time, although they had her share the chair with Ruby.  That worked well since Ruby wasn’t afraid to open Alyssa’s mouth manually!  Garrett had one cavity; Cali had five.   Jarom had six cavities and three teeth that needed to be extracted.  James had one filling that needed to be fixed and three teeth that were pulled out as well.  Ruby has one cavity they are going to “watch.”  And, Mckenzie’s supposed to have pulled out one of her teeth already.  Oh, and James threw up all over the chair, the floor, and the back of his shirt just in the process of trying to get his x-rays. . . .

On June 26^th, we spent an hour and a half in the Haerring’s pool in the evening after Ladd got home from work.  It was a fun break from the normal stuff we are currently filling our life with.  Even Alyssa enjoyed the water.  In the past, she’s been afraid to be in the water – even with a life jacket on.  But, she seemed to be over most of her fears, thank goodness.  She even went off the diving board and the (very tall) slide.  I mentioned to Ladd that Alyssa was going to go down the slide again, and he said, “Oh, but don’t let her climb the stairs by herself!”  We turned to look and she was already sliding down the slide.  J

I went to the library to find a book for Garrett and came back with one too many books for me to read.  They were all very interesting and time consuming.  Not the best time for reading with our trip to Oregon and Washington on the horizon!

Garrett, Cali, and Cecilia all had the Lehi round-up parade on June 29^th.  They had the BBQ afterwards and I took them to Arctic Circle afterwards when I picked them up.  The rest of the day was spent doing normal things for a Saturday.  Ladd went over to play games at Chad’s that night.  On Sunday, the choir performed and did a great job with the “Our Flag” and “God of our Fathers”.  I’m glad it’s over.

July 1^st was Alyssa’s birthday.  When I’d asked her what presents she wanted, she said, “I want a pink one and a blue one and a purple one.”  She had skipped Sunday dinner since she was sleeping, and so, when we went to have the doughnuts and yougart, she threw up all over the table, chair, floor, sink, and herself.  So, for her birthday breakfast, she had saltine crackers!  She seemed to like her presents and her princess cupcakes (the frosting, at least).

July 2^nd, James went to his 11 year old scout camp overnighter at 6 a.m.  Jarom had a hike with his trek family at 6 a.m., too.  Alyssa had her well check visit  for three years old (I can’t believe she’s three!!!).  She did fine and I had fun spending some time with her.  She’s currently deathly afraid of ants and the sprinklers.  J  I did lots of baking and laundry and cleaning and packing!

Today, we did lots of cooking and packing and cleaning!  James came back early from his camp, and so we tried to get out the door tonight instead of tomorrow morning.  We finally got on the road around 8 p.m.   Here we come Oregon!!!  I guess the plan is for us to stop somewhere along the way to sleep at a rest stop.  Alyssa’s already done an hour and a half into the trip – she’s been trying to take her arms out of her car seat -- and Shalyn’s not very satisfied.  Shalyn had a blow out just before we were going to go and so she didn’t eat completely before we left.  Ooops!

2 for 2

We were just watching Peppa Pig.  In the show, Daddy Pig runs into a tree because of fog.  He says, "Who put that tree there?!"  Lena yelled out, "Jesus did!"

Yesterday, Lena took her arm out of her sleeve so that her shirt ran through her arm pit.  I saw her and reminded her that she needed to be modest.  She said, "But I'm ________."  I couldn't tell who she said, so we repeated this same conversation for awhile.  Finally I understood her.  "Oh.  Laman.  You're being Laman!"  "Yeah, we still have to be modest even if we're being Laman." 

Lena must've been bored yesterday because she ran up to me and yelled, "I've made some muddy puddles!"  (If you've watched Peppa Pig, you'd understand).  Sure enough, she'd dumped water out on the carpet in several places.  Not my favorite thing she's come up with!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed Lena was dancing her potty dance.  I told her she needed to go to the bathroom.  She yelled, "No.  No, mommy!  My potty is so far away!"

Alyssa has consistently come up with advanced vocabulary when she says something.  For example, she constantly says, "Mom, I'm STARVING!"  I would've thought the word "hungry" would be an easier and more often heard word.  Last week, I saw her struggling with something in the living room.  She got frustrated and said, "This is soooo difficult!"  I wish I could remember till my dying day hearing her small voice pronouncing so clearly these particular words!!!

I guess it shouldn't be so surprising, then, that she is so advanced in her thought processes.  Last night, I went to get a piece of Jarom's leftover birthday cake.  Alyssa said, "Mommy, you don't need any cake because your tummy is already so big."  WOW!  That was harsh.  Blatant honesty coming from my little toddler!!!  How did she make that connection at her age?!!!

Out of the mouths of babes!!