Blogging has been put on the back burner as of late. I think I'm going through a 1/4 + a smidgen life crisis because a lot of what I thought to be true about myself, our future as a family, my abilities as a friend/person have all been somewhat jumbled in my head and heart, thus making it difficult to be inspired to make record of what is going on in the life of me and my family. So, since it has been almost a month since my last blog post I will begin by catching you up on each of my children:

Savannah, the ever-able first grader is LOVING being at school all day (I'm not enjoying her being gone so much). She is still sweet and smart and prefers home lunches to school lunches. Speaking of school lunches, Savannah went on a field trip to the Dinosaur Museum last week. She had already signed up for a school sack lunch, but I forgot and sent her to school with a lunch anyway. When she got home and said she went on a field trip I asked her what she did with her home lunch? To which she replied, "Well, there was a girl who was crying because she didn't have a lunch so I gave my school lunch to her." My heart smiled. Another sweet Savannah moment happened last Friday night when we had the cousins over and I was making my special homemade popcorn and Kool Aid. When Savannah saw me stirring the Kool-Aid she exclaimed, "Mom! You can make Kool-Aid?" I guess I need to start doing more things like my Mom did and make Kool-Aid and Finnish pancakes on a regular basis. I love that it doesn't take much to make children happy.

Benjamin my buddy boy just finished his second season of soccer. He probably would have played soccer every day of the week if there had been the opportunity. His love for all sports has increased exponentially over the past month or so. Some mornings he will wake up and the first thing out of his mouth is, "Is there a football game on today?" He can often be found tackling and being tackled by his cousin Max and shouting out things like, "Oh! That's a 1st down!" or "Which team do we want to win?" or "We have 10 points and they have 3, that means we're winning, right, Mom?" Of course, Tom LOVES this. The two of them can often be found cheering for their favorite football, basketball, baseball team, or tennis star. Benjamin continues to have an abundance of energy and this becomes a challenge on Sundays when we are trying to encourage quiet activities and keep sports from dominating the television. Yesterday, he asked Tom if he could play a game on his phone and Tom said, "as long as it's a puzzle game or something like that." After a few minutes Benjamin said, "Dad! This is a boring game so I can play this right?" I'm not sure if he is quite catching the vision of what it means to keep the Sabbath Day holy, but he sure makes us laugh. When Benjamin isn't watching sports, playing sports, playing games on Tom's phone, or playing the Wii, he is going to Preschool 2 days a week. He loves it and I'm so grateful to have such a good friend to be his Preschool teacher.

Jacob, Jacob, Jacob... just started to use WALKING as his main way of getting around! If you could see him crawl, you would know why it took him so long to walk because he is a speed demon on all fours! But he's sure cute toddling around. And he is definitely a toddler, as evidenced by the fact that he went to NURSERY for the first time yesterday and I am happy to say that there were no tears. And he didn't cry either. :-) It's another milestone that just solidifies the fact that I am no longer a mother to a "baby". It is so good for him to be growing up, and it makes such a huge part of me happy, but I still feel like I need to acknowledge that other part of me. The one that mourns each new stage because it helps me to accept the way things are. And I'm sure you don't mind me mentioning my sad parts, right?

We are still trying to figure out the source of Jacob's tummy issues. A couple of months ago we took him off of cow's milk and that seemed to help. Until a few days ago when he developed another nasty diaper rash and I am back to changing up to 7 diapers a day. Hopefully when we go to his appt. next month we can find some permanent solutions. Hmmm...what else? Can we say "Yo Gabba Gabba" anyone? A little back story: When Benjamin was a little older than Jacob is now, someone told me about this children's show. I was curious, so I looked up an episode online. After 3 seconds I said to myself, "Who in their right mind would EVER want this show in their home?" And not because it was inappropriate in any way, but because it was so bizarre, so strange, that I didn't see the appeal. Well... Jacob does. In fact, he LOVES the show. I even had to put him on a Yo Gabba Gabba diet because he was "asking" to watch it constantly, and then giving me the remote if he didn't like the episode I had chosen. Since then, we believe that there should be moderation in all things, and that certainly goes for Yo Gabba Gabba.

As for me and Tom. Yes us, the creators of the aforementioned 3 little people. We are just plugging along. Tom in his Real Estate ventures and calling as a father (Jacob is a Daddy's boy by the way), and me in my calling as mother, R.S. secretary, chauffeur, nurse, educator, counselor, maid, and barber. I would say that one of my callings was that of "chef" but I haven't really been feeling the culinary inspiration lately. I will say that I have been able to keep my freezer stocked with cookie dough so I can carry out Holly's idea of having homemade cookies every Monday when Savannah comes home from school. It's one of the only things I feel like I can give myself a pat on the back for. And don't we all need to do that every once in a while?

So that's that. Our life in a nutshell. As a side note, I really, really, enjoyed many of the talks in General Conference last week. I'm learning more and more that these messages are for us. To feed our souls and give us a little nudge to try and be better. AND as President Uchtdorf so gently reminded us, "to be patient with ourselves." I really needed that. Until next time...