Bedlamites

I just loved General Conference this past weekend.  I feel like a sponge just sitting there soaking everything up.  There were so many great talks, but definitely one highlight for me was Elder Holland, and his coining of the term, "Bedlamites."  Ha!  What a perfect description of the little people who fill our house!  I love how the leaders of the church truly understand us and give us counsel that will bless our lives.  I love that I can sit and listen for 8 hours, over the course of two days, and come away wanting to be so much better, but in an uplifted way, not an overwhelmed way.

On Sunday morning we had all the kids sit and watch the session because that was church for the day.  I'm  not sure when, but somewhere along the way, the little boys snuck off to play, and for my own selfish purposes, I figured I'd just let them alone so I could actually listen to the talks.  But when President Monson gave his address, we called those boys back in to hear the prophet speak.  When Hayden saw President Monson on the TV screen, his face lit up and he exclaimed,

"It's my prophet!!"

I am so grateful to live in a time when we can hear the words of a living prophet.  A prophet who speaks to Hayden, to me and to all of God's children on the earth today.  I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who speaks to us through his prophets.  They teach us what we can do to be happy and live life in greater and greater abundance.

We have had a sweet peaceful spirit in our home so far this week as we are trying to make good choices each day, and be diligent in those small and simple things--those little flecks of gospel gold.  And even though we have our share of crazy, "pull-your-hair-out" moments with our crew of Bedlamites, we also have a lot of  "stop-time" moments laughing and talking with, serving, and loving each other that I wouldn't trade for anything.

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ because of the joy and purpose it fills me with.  I know it is true and has been restored in its fullness in these latter-days through the prophet Joseph Smith.  And even if this whole thing weren't true, it would be worth living anyway because it makes me a better person and makes me and my family strong and happy.  Hurrah for Israel!

March Quotes

Daphne:  I know that spring is here because of all those little things in the grass that look like dog poop. (aeration plugs)

Sean, at IHOP:  She's taking forever to bring me my recipe. (food?)

Sean:  Wow, look at that Whole Moon! (full moon)

Recently in Hayden's Prayers:

Pleathe bleth that no piraths will get us.
?

Pleathe bleth that I can go to Hawaii.

(guess it's never too early to start praying for that.)

Dallin:  Why is everything fun on Sunday?  Don't they know that some people are Mormons?

Just random bits that illustrate Hayden's wonderful sense of self-worth.

Me:  Hayden, you are an awesome hiker!

Hayden:  Yeah, I am awethom.

Me:  Hayden, you are really good at drawing the letter H.

Hayden:  Yeah, I am really good.

Me:  Hayden, you are a funny boy.

Hayden:  Yep, I'm tho funny!

At the park:
Hayden and Sean were playing some make-believe game where Hayden was Indian Jones and Sean is his Dad.  They were having dinner, so Sean called on Indiana Jones to say the prayer on the food.  And this is what he said, "Heavenly Father, please bless the food make us healthy and strong, and bless Uncle Reed on his mission."  Sean said, "No, no, no, Uncle Reed isn't in this game.  Do it again."

Dallin's reaction when he discovered Hayden lost something of his:  

Curse you, Hayden!

and yes, he was being serious.

Hayden:  Mom, want to know why I don't like ice cream for dessert?  Because I don't like ice cream.

Mom:  Really?  You don't like ice cream?  Whose child are you?

Sean:  He's Hayden.

Hayden making small talk with the Costco Employees:

Hayden:  How'th it goin' guyth?

Costco workers:  Hey, it's goin' pretty good.

Hayden: Ethpicable Me ith a funny movie.

Cashier:  Yeah, that Mr. Gru is pretty funny, huh?

Hayden: Yep, he'th really funny.

As you can tell, Despicable Me is a big part of our lives lately.  I've found many of its quotes to be applicable to a wide variety of circumstances, for example:

"Too small for me!" -- me trying to squeeze into my ski pants.

 "It'th tho fluffy I'm gonna DIE!! I'm tho funny, huh, Mom?" 

--Hayden snuggling in our bed with us one morning.

Hayden's farewell to Aunt Emma:  
"Have fun stormin' at to the castle!" 

(nice that he's branching out and quoting a movie other than D.M.  Who knows this one?)

reality check

The party had to end sometime.

We said good-bye to Emma a few days after Spring Break ended.  We are so thankful she could come help us out during this really busy time in our lives (Arthur's Quadrathalon, and From Cumorah's Hill, plus all the regular craziness . . .)  She was such a huge help to me, and it was such fun to have three Stone sisters in the same town for awhile!

I cried on the way home from dropping her off at the airport.

The next morning was time for a reality check.  

When it was time to take the kids to school, I told everyone to get in the car, and Hayden said, "I'll just stay here."  

I said, "Sorry, you can't just stay here because Aunt Emma is gone, and you're too little to stay by yourself."  

He said, "It's okay, Mom.  Backyardigans will be my babysitter."

ha!

Well, it took me awhile to convince him that Backyardigans couldn't babysit him, and it was back to loading everyone in the car everywhere I go.  No more running to the store really quick to pick up a missing ingredient, or dropping kids off at lessons really quick, or having Emma to help take the kids to their activities.  It's all me now.  And besides being a second Mom, she was so much fun to have around to chat with all the time, and exercise with and quote movies with. 

boo-hoo.

Emma, Thanks for living with us and being our "manny"!  

We love you and miss you!

(And Mom & Dad, thanks for parting with her for all those weeks--we appreciate your sacrifice!)

Carlsbad Caverns

We drove to Carlsbad Caverns the day after White Sands, and when we pulled into the parking lot, I started to feel a little panicky because it was PACKED, with tons of people walking toward the Cavern Visitor's Center.  I have anxiety about taking my children in crowded places.  But I put on my brave face and in we went to the crowded visitor's center.  

We like to hike down into the caves through the natural entrance, and since our knees are all pretty young, we can handle the 800 foot elevation drop in 1.5 miles.  

We headed down, leaving behind the light and warmth and heading into the musty darkness.  I can't even imagine what it would be like to have been the first person to have discovered this.  And how in the world did he find his way back out!?

The Hall of Giants--the caverns largest formations.

So I'm not sure what genius scheduled an elevator renovation during one of the cavern's peakest of peak  times, but sure enough, the elevators were down and they were getting people out of the caves using the 8-passenger service elevator.  After we'd wandered around the caverns for a couple of hours we headed to the elevators to see how long the current wait was.

2 hours.

Well, I don't wait in line for 2 hours for anything.

So we decided to hike back out, an option they don't usually allow, but under the circumstances, they had made special exceptions.  Arthur and I were a little worried that we might have some problems with the kids -- it was almost 3:30, more than 3 hours since they'd had lunch, and it would be an 800 foot climb in 1.5 miles!

But I figured that walking out, even if it took us 2 hours, would be better than standing there, trying to control 5 squirrelly and hungry kids in front of a bunch of other cranky people trying to get out of the caves.  I braced myself for a couple of meltdowns from Sean and Hayden, and possibly Daphne.  But I told them as we started the hike up that we were about to do something pretty hard.  And we were going to feel amazing when we got to the top, and we had to keep going no matter what.  They said they could do it.  So we started up.

Sydney was asleep in Aunt Emma's arms, but all the other kids walked.  We figured we'd see how far Hayden could go before loading him in the pack.  He amazed us!  He kept going and going and going. We stopped several times for water (and some illegal fruit snacks that the kids ate very secretly so we didn't get the rangers called on us . . . and of course we were VERY careful not to leave any trace of garbage.)  At one point, we passed a couple of adult women who were resting.  As he was passing them, Hayden said to them, "Are you guyth okay?"  It made me laugh, to hear that coming from his little 3-year-old mouth.

Well, he made it 3/4's of the way up before his little legs just wouldn't go anymore, and we put him in the pack.  Emma and I traded off holding Sydney and the other kids just kept trucking on out of there.

This is a picture of all of them standing in the first rays of natural light to penetrate the cave's darkness.  

It was kind-of a profound moment.  And it was amazing how the sight of that light gave us the extra energy we needed to finish the last climb.

Emma said that hiking out of that cave was pretty epic.  I completely agree.   I think I heard some "Lord of the Rings" background music in my head as we walked up and up and up out of the darkness.

 

We made it to the mouth of the cave in just 40 minutes!  Arthur and I were so proud of our kids when we made it out of there, because we can honestly say, there was not a word of complaining from any of them!  And they felt really proud of themselves for doing something that hard.  They are just phenomenal bunch of kiddos.

White Sands

We took Emma and the kids to White Sands the last weekend of Spring Break.  It was pretty crowded, and the only spot we could find to eat was this handicapped area.  I sometimes think we should qualify for handicapped, so I didn't feel too bad that we were there.  Arthur roasted us some hot dogs and we had a dandy time.  

This is the only picture we got of Sydney smiling.  I thought she would be curious about the sand and want to crawl around in it, but after tasting it when we first put her down, she didn't want anything to do with it, and wasn't very happy the rest of the time we spent there.

Emma!  That white sand is BLINDING!

Here we are looking for a good place to slide down.

Climbing up the dunes is exhausting!

can't. go. another. step.

Last time we went, it was so windy, we didn't stay long because the wind kept getting in everyone's eyes, and just made us all really uncomfortable.  So this time, we kept our eyes on the weather before we left, and Friday was supposed to be pretty mellow.  Well, there was NO wind at all, and it turns out that you can get pretty hot without any wind out there.  So we found that if you dug a few inches down, you could cool yourself down with the cool sand beneath the surface.  That's what Sean was doing here in this picture.

A cool shot that Arthur took

I love the uniqueness of White Sands--I've never seen anything like it. 

Hayden had a blast-he was just covered in sand, and would go down and hike up and go down and hike up, over and over!  He totally wore himself out and fell asleep on the short drive back to the hotel when we were done at the dunes.

Sydney finding solace in her bottle.   

She does not like sand.

The girls.

Our family

(except Sydney who was drinking her bottle and it would have been tragic to interrupt her.)

And she is completely done with White Sands.

Heading back to the car.

We stayed in Alamogordo that night at the same hotel as our friends the McEntires!  So when the McEntire's got in we had a swim party in the pool.  Our kids thought it was so fun to see them there!  We were doing the same vacation in opposite order, and crossed in the middle.  Fun times.  

Elena Gallegos Hike

The weather was great during spring break, so we went for a little hike at Elena Gallegos one day.  We packed a lunch to eat there and then we went on a hike.  I promised the kids that if they didn't whine, we would go get Pop-Pop's afterward.  When one of them would start to whine, someone else would say, "No whining--don't you want Pop-Pops?"  Toward the end, I heard Sean and Hayden talking and their conversation went something like this:

Sean:  I'm happy.  Are you happy Hayden?

Hayden: Yep, I'm happy.

Sean: I'm not whining because I want to get Pop-Pop's afterward.

Hayden: Yeah, we want some Pop-Pops so we are not whining.  We are really happy!

Whatever it takes to cut down on the whining.  So I was happy because there was no whining.  And we had some delicious pop-pops afterwards which made us all happy!