Most of my blog posts just glaze over our life, and I wanted to have a post covering the nitty gritty.
Michael is 100% the steady hand that keeps this family from going completely crazy. Especially me-he is my sounding board. Somehow he manages to take on the world of responsibility he lives in and come out on top every day. For some reason, responsibilities like his bury me and I end up feeling like I am drowning.
One thing I love about this man is his deep love for the gospel. One of our neighbors has stared coming to us to have "discussions" (More like he wants to hear our side on a touchy subject) And I love to hear Michael explain his reasoning behind his opinions. He is a natural teacher and has a passion for the truth.
He also has found a shooting range close to our home. Anyone who knows Michael knows that he is a saver. He won't spend a dime on himself, which results in him wearing clothes that he was wearing in high school. The only thing he does spend money on is guns. At first I was shocked to realize the gentle man I married eventually wants to own his own armory, but the soldier that he was I should have realized it. Now it has become a great source of relief to me. Birthdays, Christmas, Anniversaries, fathers days, those holidays are covered. I love how much fun he has when he is out shooting and how relaxed and happy he is when he gets home. Everyone needs a stress relief and I believe that this fulfills that for Michael.
I have recently found out that I have a carbohydrate intolerance. What this translates to is that I cannot eat foods that break down into sugar because the cells in my body are becoming insulin resistant. Simply stated I cannot eat any sugar or flour product. Most starches are out of the question as well. At the beginning when we found out that this is what all my stomach pains meant I felt like my body had betrayed me. But the truth is after the first month it became so much easier to live it. All my pains are gone, I don't feel addicted to any foods and even other issues I never associated with eating (like allergies) have disappeared. I am not going to lie, the first month was brutal. I had to switch over to eating mostly vegetables, protein and fat, with a few carbs that my body can handle because they are more complex-like brown rice. I also can eat simple sugars that don't need to be broken down, like fruits. As an added bonus it has helped me get down to my marriage weight-and even a few pounds lighter. I really am grateful we discovered this problem when we did, because it most likely would have turned into diabetes. Unfortunately, I am struggling trying to find new creative outlets. I loved to cook, and did so as a stress reliever, but the fun from that is gone. I also cannot do any really strenuous exercising until my body has switched over from using carbs as an energy source to using fats.
MD is growing up. That has many positive aspects, but also a few negative ones. One thing I absolutely love is how much we visit now. I love his conversations and I love how important it is to him to tell me those conversations. One thing I have realized is that MD considers himself to be an adult, and so when I present him with something he does not agree with, he argues it out with me. For awhile I was frustrated with all the arguing taking place, but I realized that it is more important for him to feel like he was listened to and understood, then for him to get his way. After he presents his side of the situation, I can usually explain to him why he needs to do it the way I asked. Sometimes though he really has a good point and so we go with his suggestion.
MD is also a really good brother and turning into a wonderful helper. The other day we combined the boys beds and turned them back into bunk beds and the boys played in their rooms for hours! MD sleeps on the bottom bunk with Hyrum and I could hear them giggling late into the night.
MD is SO creative. I love hearing his imagination at work. Lately he has decided that bugs (Ants in particular) are his friends. He spends most of his outdoor time digging in the dirt and watching the bugs crawl around. He told me the other day that an Ant was his best friend. But then a spider ate that ant. Luckily these ants aren't as vicious as the ants in Texas. However they still bite and we found about 15 bites on MD's arms and legs the other day. It was a sad day for MD when we told him he couldn't sit in ant piles any more...
Hyrum is a ball of fun energy. he still loves superman but over the past two weeks he has stopped wearing his capes. It is kind of bittersweet-On the one hand it was so cute to see how seriously he took being superman, but on the other, his cape would reek after a full day of playing and he fought us every time we would wash it. Now he is turning to other activities. He asks me almost everyday if we can go to the pool and he loves to play outside on our porch. Both children have started playing on the porch when I am downstairs. For them it is a piece of freedom to be outside away from their mother. For me it means a couple minutes of quiet as I work in the kitchen and watch them through the open door. I absolutely LOVE it. It has meant more sanity for me and the boys get to play out in the sunshine to their hearts content.
Hyrum also loves his baby brother, but unlike MD, when Hyrum plays with Seth it looks like a frenzied bear attaching a peace of meat. It takes about a second for Seth to start screaming, so Hyrum is HIGHLY supervised during those play times.
Hyrum has started leaning more towards his father. When Hyrum was a baby I wondered if he would have been one of those children who grow up preferring their daddy. Watching him now I am pretty sure he would have if his daddy hadn't been deployed.
Seth is the cutest little monkey baby. When he was a couple of weeks old we started calling him Seth monkey (We would sing "Seth monkey, you chunky monkey!") and so the nickname monkey has stuck. Well it stuck and has mutated into Monkers. He gets more compliments in one day at church then any of us get in a month. Last Sunday I had 4 women come up to me and tell me just how adorable he is. After that I passed him off to Sam who proceeded to get 3 more compliments as he walked down the hall. Lucky pretty boy :)
Seth's personality is coming out, and he is turning into a screamer. Anytime I walk out of the room he lets out a scream until I come back in. He screams when Hyrum touches him, screams when a toy rolls out of his reach, and screams if I am not getting his food fast enough.
He is starting to scoot forward very slowly. Most of the time he gets too frustrated at how long it takes and so he screams for me to come grab him. If he can't see me, he usually switches over to rolling to get to where he wants.
I wanted to throw up some recent pictures of everyone-unfortunately I haven't been taking that many pictures.
This was during a family home evening activity where we were playing charades
MD loved playing, but we could never get him to act out what he drew-right now he was acting out a whale :)
The boys new bunk beds!
We pretty much live the good life.
Sweet Hyrum was trying to help catch Eliza as she came the slide
I love this picture because of the stance Maddie is in. While they spend most of their time playing, every once in awhile the girls decide to play mother and try to put the boys in time out :)
I love these fun boys!
Our captain Dan
And his awesome wife Eliza
Hyrum asked to go out on the tube with me, but he hated it and only rode for about a minute.
I liked it though
Seths face the whole time
Taking a bottle break
When they weren't out on the water they were playing in the dirt.
Eliza, after her husband dumped her out of the tube. She was a good sport.
Waiting to head out. Maddie (Dan and Eliza's little girl) wanted to hitch a ride back with us.
The boys new bunk beds!
The boys spent most of the evening climbing up this side of the mountain
Oh, and having Sam with us for all of these activities has just made it so much more fun! We are really going to miss him when he leaves next week.
Afterwards we stopped at the base of the mountain in a field of wildflowers and let the boys play.
The guys waiting for the fire to get big enough so we could cook our food.
Seth hanging out on a blanket
Samuel made friends with Seth and they ended up sticking together for most of the vacation
It took a little more to convince the other boys.
I sat and waited for over an hour for my food to cook, just to find out it burned to a crisp! I ended the night eating watermelon.
I hit a cereal box-on my 20th try :) I also hit a tree-but I wasn't aiming for that
