Spring!!

The crazy cold winter followed by a super rainy February and March has made this one of the best bluebonnet seasons in a long time. We decided (this is the "royal we" here) for family home evening to scrounge up some semi-matching clothes and head for the great outdoors to take bluebonnet pictures.

I could just look at this face, and look, and look. I need to make a life-sized version and hold it up in front of me when he is telling me "It's going to take forever! It's taking forever! Why are you taking forever? You took forever!" or when he is getting his ninja on, or several hundred other moments during the day to remind me that this little boy is in there. . . somewhere.



Ditto on these smiling, happy, friendly looking kids


Ahhh, brotherly love. Look! You can barely see a scar, and you probably wouldn't have even noticed, but I just pointed it out.






She's touching my hair! She's pulling on me! She's making me hot!
We finally went for the "together but apart" look.




The kids know how to take a picture without cutting off heads.


If you zoom in here, you can actually see his awesome tongue condition. It's real, and it's called "geographic tongue."


"Family Picture"


The family that selfies together stays together!


Happy Spring!

I just wanted to share...

Where has this information been all my life? Obviously out there, but I really could have used this very clear, concise version a long time ago. I am so glad to have it now!!

In other news, I started a part time job about three weeks after my last post, and it has taken me the last six months to adjust to the new normal. I can't promise much here on this little blog of mine, but I have not forgotten that one of the main reasons I keep at it is to preserve memories and pictures of my kids that I wouldn't have otherwise. I've been filling my need to write in lots of other ways and spaces. Life is still going full steam ahead, and it still cannot get better than this.

Home

Things are back to pretty normal around here. We got home Monday afternoon and played with Nana, visiting cousin Kason, and Ellen, Jack, and Rose.

Tuesday we all went to the summer dollar movie to see "Walking with Dinosaurs." Wednesday we went to the Hewitt Library end of summer splash party and Hewitt Park. Mostly we played at the park. Elijah was too short for most of the inflatables and wouldn't have been able to climb them anyway. (No pushing or pulling for 4-6 weeks to allow his sternum to heal.)

Elijah had an appointment with his pediatrician to check in after surgery. Dr. Clark's medical student got to play twenty questions with us and try to "diagnose" Elijah. Fail. Elijah's heart defect is one of the most rare of all congenital heart defects. We had a nice visit and got the all clear for Elijah to go ahead and have his teeth cleaned as scheduled with the other kids next week.

Pa came in time for dinner Wednesday evening, and Thursday he took Kason and Nana back home. We will miss them, especially the kids, who have been super spoiled by all the Nana and Pa attention.

Thursday afternoon we went to turn in our library reading logs and eat lunch with some kids meal coupons the kids scored for reading. Then we spent some time at the Mayborn Museum and finished up the day with dinner and a movie at home for Daddy and the kids, and a fun baby shower with dinner and friends for Mommy.

Today we did yard work and errands, cleaned the house and went to see another movie. We are really living it up here, taking advantage of Daddy's last few days off. 

And loving the nice weather.

Ten years

Ten years ago today, Jack and I both got up early in the morning to get ready for a trip to Dallas. Ten years ago today, we would never have imagined making a similar trip for such a different reason. Ten years ago today we spent several hours in a location less than a mile from where we are today. Ten years ago today Jack and I had lunch together, just the two of us. It doesn't happen very often, but we ate lunch together today.

A couple of months ago, I called Elijah's doctor to schedule a surgical procedure that we knew he would need to have done this summer. Jack told me to schedule it for the first available date after the 4th of July. I scheduled it and wrote it on the calendar. 

When Jack got home from work, I gave him all the details, and his first response was, "Why did you choose that date?" "What? You said to choose the first available date after the 4th. Do we have something else going on July the 16th..... Oh. Right."

Yes, yes I did schedule Elijah's heart cath for our tenth anniversary and heart surgery for the next day.

Ten years ago today we spent the morning at the Dallas Temple. We are spending today at the hospital a mile down the road. Today I am really, really grateful for the promises and covenants Jack and I made with each other and with God ten years ago. No matter what happens in the coming hours and days, our family is sealed together for eternity.

Thank you to our families and friends for helping with our other children so Jack and I could take this amazing tenth anniversary trip together.

We're getting old. It took a while to figure out how to take a semi-okay picture of ourselves at the Dallas temple last Friday night.

Testing, testing...

I still have a few more back posts to do to get all caught up. This blog is not my journal, but it has become something of a family scrap book. The longer I keep it up, the more valuable the stories and pictures become for our family, and especially our kids. I started it as a way to share pictures of the kids with our parents and grandparents, but I am also realizing that Ellen, Jack, Rose, and Elijah already love looking back at pictures and reading what they were like when they were "little." I believe they will treasure the stories and memories from their childhood even more as they grow.

To that end, I have also been more mindful of recording my own memories and stories, not just of my life as a mom of four children and a wife, but also of my parents, grandparents, and grandparents, and another people I love who have helped me become the person I am. I want my children and their children to know who they are and where they come from. I have volumes and volumes of personals journals that may never see the light of day. That's okay.

I'm a paper and pencil kind of gal, and the rapid changes in this digital age feel a little disorienting sometimes. For example, I have no idea what I touched on this touch-screen iPad to make this picture show up just now, but that is my mom and dad on their wedding day. Just looking at that picture makes me want to be better, do better, live better, and love better. Our family has a couple of huge events coming soon, both joyful and scary. I look forward to recording and sharing some of my thoughts and feelings then.

Playing house, ninja-style

My kids like to play house. They call it "playing Mommies and Daddies" or "Mommies and babies." Their version also involves the baby crying all. the. time. Recently Elijah and Rose were playing on their own. Rose told Elijah it was his turn to be the Mommy, and that she would be the baby. It was pretty hilarious to watch and hear him spend the whole time running around, fighting imaginary "bad guys," and have him run in and tell me he had to "get the bad guys away from the baby." Ha ha. He still insisted that he was the "Mommy," but he definitely had a different handle on how to get the job done.

Easter camping. and candy.

I'm not really sure how we ended up with no pictures of our Easter weekend, but maybe some will show up. We surprised the kids and took them to Nana and Pa's house in Gilmer. Jack Jack had been asking about camping and got the other kids talking about it. So Friday evening Jack's dad set up a tent in the back yard, found sleeping bags and a cot, helped start a fire, and got smores ingredients together. Nana helped the kids find chairs and roast marshmallows. She told them all kinds of stories about their dad when he was a kid and they were in heaven.

I'm really not sure how I ended up sleeping outside in a tent in a cot with a kicking child a couple of yards from a house with a warm bed in it, but I made it until about 5 am and then found a blanket on the couch. I remember being awake most of the night and being cold. I remember the smoke and dirt. But mostly I remember that it was fun being outside with the kids and seeing them so excited. They thought (and still think) that it was the best night ever.

Is it possible to romanticize camping? I love the idea of camping. I have great memories of the one camping trip my parents took us on when I was a kid. They had some persuasive friends, and we had great times on the Texas-Oklahoma border at the Red Rock Canyon. I have great memories of Girls Camp as a youth. I loved it so much that I went the required four years, two more years as a youth leader, and another year after my mission as a ward camp leader. I went camping a couple of times while I was in college, once in the winter when I thought I was going to freeze to death while simultaneously awestruck at the beauty of snow in the mountains in the moonlight, and once in the summer with a group of friends to help someone fulfill a rec management class requirement. I would repeat any of those camping experiences in a heartbeat.

Even the morning after "camping" at Nana and Pa's, even remembering the cold and the no sleep, just thinking about it made me happy. My girls already think it is completely unfair that Jack and Elijah will have myriad camping opportunities with scouts and the father and son's campout. I remember thinking exactly the same thing. Hopefully there will be more camping in our family's future. (Jack is reading this and shaking his head. No romantic ideas about camping on his part.)

And if the kids didn't receive all the desires of their little hearts camping, all their hopes and dreams came true Sunday after church when all Daddy's cousins arrived with their kids for lunch and the Easter egg hunt in Nana's front yard. Candy and quarters. Need I say more?

Best General Conference prep ever

Early on the first Saturday in April, we walked up to the elementary school to participate in the First Annual Color Me Woodway 5K Color Run. I planned to jog ahead with Ellen and Jack Jack, and Jack planned to walk with Rose while pushing Elijah in the stroller.

When it was our turn to start the race, we ran around the corner of the school and started down the street. At this point, most people started walking. Ellen and I slowed down, but Jack Jack just kept going. So I had to encourage Ellen to keep up the pace, keep an eye on Jack Jack up ahead, and try not to kick myself for not running any substantial distance in the last 15 years.

We ran through several color stations and got to the half-way point, had a drink of water and turned around to run the same course back to the school for the second half of the race. A few minutes after we had turned around, I saw Rose running along all by herself. I stopped for a second to check in with her. She was supremely confused to see me running "in the wrong direction" and said Daddy was somewhere behind her. I told her to keep going, and I would see her soon. I figured that with the 600 people running, mostly kids and their parents, she wouldn't get lost, and I could always find Jack and send him to get her or run back to her once I finished with Ellen and Jack Jack.

Jack was waaaay behind Rose, and it turns out that she started with him, but as soon as she saw everyone else running, she took off running, too. 

Elijah was a particularly attractive target for all the teenage female volunteers throwing colored chalk at the color stations. He was cold because I didn't anticipate how cool it would actually be, and he rode the entire time, so he wasn't really feeling it by the end.

I finished the 5k with Ellen and Jack Jack (who ran most of the way. That's three miles!) Then I went back for Rose, who also was still running along, looking very earnest and intent, and maybe a little worried. But she also ran most of the way.

For our first family 5k, it was amazing. All of us had so much fun (well, maybe except for grumpy there in the middle), and we were set to go home and watch eight hours of General Conference over the course of the next two days. I cannot wait for our next race!

Homecoming

Last fall when I was making holiday plans, I asked my out-of-town sister if they were coming to Texas for Christmas. She said she wanted to come in February when our youngest brother got home from his mission instead. That sounded like a great idea to us, as well as a potential photo opportunity for my Dad and siblings since the last family photo we took was in 2011. My brother Mark was still on his mission. The last time we had a family picture made with everyone there was ten years ago.

Megan Kunz Photography

Once we found out when Matthew would be speaking in church, we started talking photographers, meals, and fun activities for the kids, and things kind of got out of hand developed into a full-blown family reunion. It was really fun to have aunts and uncles and cousins arrive over several days, so we started out slowly and then went into crowd control mode Saturday and Sunday.

Friday afternoon we met for a picnic lunch and a tour of the train museum at the Amtrak station in Temple, Texas. The push carts were a big hit.

Evan, Garin, Caleb, Jack

Ellen, Karen, Eva, Rose

Liam, Lucia, MaryEllen, Jill

Eva, Jill, Ellen, Claire, Hannah, Rose, MaryEllen, Karen, Lucia

Lots of cousins, who immediately got up when our tour guide started explaining why we don't play on railroad tracks. Good thing these don't actually go anywhere.

Another try for cousins in front of the locomotive. Lots of wiggles in this crowd of nine years old and younger.

Saturday we beat the rain and had a great family photo shoot at this park I didn't even know existed near Waco. Waterfall, stone quarry, cave, green grass, but not quite spring yet.

Artistic Images by Brigham Mayfield

Saturday afternoon we had a "talent" show for the grandchildren, featuring piano playing, dancing, jokes, tumbling, and lots of belting out "Let It Go" from the movie Frozen. We had dinner and surprise cookies for my brother William's birthday.

Sunday morning we all went to sacrament meeting together, and I remembered that I should probably think about how Primary was going to handle twenty visiting children. I had also gotten permission for my family to sing an arrangement of "Abide With Me, 'Tis Eventide." My best family memories growing up involve singing, so this was a highlight for me.

We loved spending our Spring Break with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandpa. We loved being together to welcome Matthew home. Hopefully we won't have to wait another ten years to do it again!

The end of an era

At the end of February, my youngest brother came home from his mission to Argentina. He is the sixth of my six brothers to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since 1996, I have had a sibling serving a mission or preparing to serve a mission, including my own service in the Spain Bilbao Mission from 1999-2000.

We went to see him arrive at the Waco airport. Rose was so excited she wouldn't be still for a photo, so I handed her my phone, and she managed to get one picture out of a dozen blurry ones (she jumps around while she takes pictures).

We survived the coldest winter ever, and Matthew came home to freezing weather after his summer and sunburns in the Southern Hemisphere. It was such a huge occasion that it turned into a Jackson family reunion, with all eleven siblings, wives, and all my dad's grandchildren in attendance. More on that coming soon!

Welcome home, Matthew.

Holidays, holidays

Nana's Christmas gift this year was a huge joint effort. We all got together for Uncle Richard's wedding after Christmas. Aunt Jenny made the boys matching ties. I scored the cutest dresses on clearance at Wal-mart in Waco the night before we had to leave to get to Gilmer.

Aunt Jenny bribed the boys with the promise of candy, but the girls weren't feeling it. Typical.

This is when she was happy to take a picture :).

The world is quiet here.

On my blog, I mean. And in my head, and at night when everyone is sleeping. But in the world where I'm a wife and mom and friend, teacher, primary leader and room mom, the world is a loud, chaotic, relentless perpetual motion machine.

How did we get from full on summer water fun to three weeks of school under our belt?

Again, I LOVE the summer reading program and reading in general. Both Ellen and Jack are starting out the year reading beyond what they were able to do at the beginning of the summer. In all truthfulness, I credit their reading ability to our continual work on reading the Book of Mormon together as a family. There are enough easy words to keep them motivated and enough hard words (Maher-shalal-hash-baz??) to challenge them. I recommend it.

Remember how Jack told me he wasn't taking any time off this summer? We ended up taking two (2!!) trips to the beach anyway in August and September. Maybe I'll blog about it. Corpus Christi/Padre Island and Galveston. So much fun, so much drama.

We had a Relief Society meeting about exercise and health. I did the high intensity interval workout and thought I was going to die about 3 minutes in. And I love it, love it, love it. Definitely will  keep this up.


In the middle of completing a list of errands requiring short visits to several places (laminate for primary, register the car, pay the late water bill, get the other car inspected, pay a ticket because the car registration was late, . . . ) I stopped at Walmart to get aspirin for Elijah and returned to the car with Rose and Elijah to find it locked.

And running.

And I had just told a friend I'd be home soon, and sure she could drop her kids off for me to babysit for an hour while she went up to the school for a meeting. Um. Fortunately, Jack could take an early lunch and come rescue me and my absent brain.


"You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." I'm not quite sure how this applies to me, since I've never been a country girl, but I do love riding horses. I convinced the kids to try it, despite their fear of animals, and they loved it, too. Oh, and we got to celebrate our friends leaving for college and going on a mission soon.


This girl's hair is finally growing out a little, and swimming, speech, and preschool may be in her future. She's super excited about all of it.

Captain America. Oh, Captain America, how far you have come. Potty training. Need I say more?

Probably not, but I'm going to anyway. I can't believe how much harder it has been since my older kids are in school to find three days in a row in my schedule that I can stay home, fill Elijah with fluids, ply him with salty snacks, and praise, praise, praise him for being a big boy. To his credit, he has been amazing, and I am even more aware this time around of just how many different skills are necessary for eliminating human waste in a sanitary manner. I am also grateful for the unexpected opportunity to focus completely on my baby boy and get to know him better. I'm glad for a chance to slow down and be quiet. When the world in my head and heart is quiet and calm, I'm such a better wife, mother, friend, teacher, and leader.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Sarah!

Happy birthday to you,

happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday,

dear Sarah,

Happy birthday to you!

We love you so much,

We love you so much,

We love you, dear Sarah, we love you so much!
December 2004 was fun :)