love

Why does the simple phrase “I love you” evoke such universal joy?

The real reason is that every person who comes to earth is a spirit son or daughter of God. Since all love emanates from God, we are born with the capacity and the desire to love and to be loved.

When filled with God’s love, we can do and see and understand things we could not otherwise do or see or understand. Filled with His love, we can endure pain, quell fear, forgive freely, avoid contention, renew strength, and bless and help others in ways surprising even to us.

I testify that when we are ready, His pure love instantly moves across time and space, reaches down, and pulls us up from the depths of any tumultuous sea of darkness, sin, sorrow, death, or despair we may find ourselves in and brings us into the light and life and love of eternity. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder John H. Groberg. “The Power of God’s Love.” Ensign, November 2004.

mila grace | 5 years old

Today I'm talking about Miss Mila Grace. My sweet, thoughtful, spunky, and oh-so-wonderful five-year-old. 

Mila is in kindergarten. Having a kindergartener for the second year in a row is helping me to see that some of the emotions and struggles just come with the grade. Being away from home on a daily basis has been a tough transition for my girls. Mila has some days where she gets up in the morning, gets ready for school happily, and heads off for a new day with a smile on her face. These mornings are fun and joyful . . . and few and far between. Most mornings Mila - who has LOVED to sleep ever since she was born - either wants to sleep longer or just plain refuses to get dressed. She'll either climb back in bed or lie down on the floor and not move. Or cry that she is NOT going to school. Or all of the above. Once she's at school, she's great. She works hard and stays focused and usually comes home happy and telling about what a good day she had. But getting her there can be hard.

Like I said, at school Mila really focuses. She likes to get things done, mostly because she wants to listen to what her teacher asks her to do. Sadly, she tells me pretty regularly that kindergarten is boring because she has to do too many worksheets. I know they do a variety of other things, but they do also have a lot of worksheets and do at least a few routine things every day.

But one routine Mila loves is coming home and holding Ever first thing. She is always the first to ask to hold her - every morning as soon as the baby wakes up and the minute she walks in the door after being gone anywhere. She ADORES her baby sister. And she's also really sweet with her. I only have to tell Mila one time how something needs to be done for Ever (like make sure not to carry her around or sit behind her so she has support and doesn't fall over) and Mila will make sure to be careful and follow my instructions every time. She's very conscientious about taking care of Ever. She's also so willing to help out by running to get anything I may need - as long as it is something for the baby.

She has really started being silly lately, which I attribute in part to her cousin, Tave. She loves hearing his jokes and telling them. She has started tickling people and thinks it's so fun try tickling anyone - even people she just barely met. Which is so opposite to her shy, reserved personality; she usually is very quiet around new people and will only whisper answers to questions or whisper things she needs to me if we are in front of people she doesn't know very well. And yet she will run up and tickle them like they've known each other forever. Funny girl. She thinks that everyone loves being tickled as much as she does, because Travis plays a Tickle Monster game with her that she LOVES. I try to tell her that most people don't like being tickled, but she doesn't seem to believe me.

She looks up to her big sister SO MUCH. After getting home from school she is always impatient for Kapria to get home so they can play. They play so well together and on a good day when they are both being kind and loving, they end up playing for hours. But if one of them is tired, play time is usually cut short by arguments and each of them hurting the other's feelings.On days like that we usually have some individual quiet time or watch a show to cool down.

I've started doing Mom&Mila time - 15 minutes a day that the two of us do an activity together of Mila's choosing. Mila LOVES this time and requests it every day. Her favorite activities for us to do together are talking about our day while I push her on the tree swing and dancing to music in the living room (right now her favorite songs are "This Girl Is On Fire" by Alicia Keys and "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. I've enjoyed this time just as much as her because I love hearing what she's thinking about that day. This has really helped the two of us get closer and so I'm trying to make sure it happens regularly for all my girls.

The girls took a gymnastics class together, and at the time they both would tell me they didn't want to go. So when the semester was over, we decided to try a different sport. But since then, Mila has been practicing gymnastics at home almost every day. She is determined to perfect her cartwheel and to figure out handstands. She also recently started doing the monkey bars at school and wants to practice on them at the park all the time.She has turned into such a climber! Which is perfect, really, because the sport we all decided they would do together is rock climbing. Travis is their coach, and he takes them to The Quarry for a couple hours every Wednesday (his day off). Both girls love it, and Mila is such a talented climber! When she was about 3, she was really nervous to get on the rock. But she sure loves it now. It's so fun to see the girls enjoying a sport with Trav. It makes me so happy and I know Trav feels the same. (More on this in a later post.)

Mila really pays attention to the things that go on around her. And when I least expect it, she'll have an insight into something that she gained from a totally different experience or conversation. She regularly reminds us to read the scriptures, and during our reading she will share such astute comments about faith and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She's really listening and she really loves the Savior. It is such a beautiful thing to see her faith in God and our Savior grow. I love the gospel discussions we have each night as we read stories from the Old and New Testament and the Book of Mormon. (The same can be said of Kapria.)

I could go on and on about all the amazing qualities Mila has. She is kind and thoughtful and forgiving and patient and understanding. She is quick to cry about things that upset her, but also quick to get over them and be happy again. Some days she can throw a good tantrum - I'm learning this is normal for kindergarten. And when she does, it's a pretty big deal meltdown. She will usually end up cooling off on her bed and will sulk there for awhile. But once you get her laughing again, she moves on and is happy as can be.

I'm continually amazed by this loving, beautiful girl. I'm so grateful she's mine.

kapria faith | 7 years old

I want to talk about my Kapria Faith. This girl is AMAZING.

Kap's in first grade. This means that she knows all about how everyone should be doing things and that she knows better than me. This can make for some really hard moments. (Like when she wanted bangs and I said no. So she cut them herself.) We've been learning how to communicate better with one another. The first few months of first grade were rocky with a lot of meltdowns from Kap and poor reactions from me (which only make the situation worse). But I've been reading Parenting with Love and Logic and have been trying to be more conscientious about parenting and it seems to be helping both of us. One thing that has really worked - which Travis started - is the "restart." When one of us is struggling, we can restart the moment over. Apologize and begin again. Kapria has really taken to this, and it has saved us all in moments when we're going down the out-of-control, unkind road. We've done a restart, and she has followed it up with the sweetest service - like making my bed or giving me a huge hug and kiss or fixing Mila's necklace that she broke. 

Kap and Mila love each other so much. They share a room (always have) and get along most of the time. Like any siblings they do annoy each other: fight over borrowing clothes, refuse to play each other's games, and make each other cry regularly. BUT those moments are surrounded by love: cleaning up each other's messes when the other is having a bad day, loaning toys and clothes, playing for hours, and recently helping each other with reading. As Kap says, they're, "Best Sisters Forever." And seeing them happy together makes my heart so full.  

Kapria is CRAZY in love with her baby sister and loves being in her face all the time. Because she loves Ever SO MUCH she doesn't know what else to do but to intrude on her personal space. It's so sweet and yet so overwhelming at times. When Mila was born, Kap was just 2. I didn't have to fight over being a mom. I could easily distract her from bothering the baby and could mostly hold the baby all I wanted. Now I find that my baby time has to be shared with two other moms who think they often know better than I do what Ever needs. Sometimes I'm patient with them. Other times I'm not. It's been an emotional but wonderful ten months.

Kappy has the biggest imagination and is great at telling stories and doing pretend play. She loves to put together costumes for a favorite character in a show she's watching. So if she's watching Scooby Doo, she'll pause the show to go put together a costume to look like Daphne. Or if she's watching Monster High, she'll put together a costume to look like Laguna Blue. The costumes are always super creative. I love it. She loves to create things, too, with paper and tape or string or anything she can find. She'll put together a whole setup across the living or create her own kite - pretty much if there's something she wants that we don't have, she'll figure out a way to make her own. She's ingenious.

She is learning to read, and it's slow going, but she is doing so great. At the beginning of first grade - and for several months - she still prefered to tell book stories in her own way rather than reading the words on the page. But we have made sure to read daily, and as she is recognizing more and more words, reading has become exciting to her. She has started listening to Mila read and helping her, and I love seeing them read together.

She's very much into what's fair and right and equal. If she feels wronged, she gets very frustrated and REACTS. We are working on ways to appropriately and kindly respond to injustice and honest mistakes alike.

She has so much energy to use up in a day that must get out through some means, even if it ends up being through bouncing off the couch and into the love sac or wrestling with her dad.

She adores her sisters and loves her cousins. Loves rock climbing with her dad. Loves singing and dancing and absolutely NEEDS to be outside every day. She has so much energy and excitement and JOY. She truly is happy every day all day. Sometimes it can be hard to remember that her excitement for life is just that - because she doesn't want to listen in her excitement. But her happiness is so all encompassing that it shines throughout our home. 

She has a fierce love of Christ and is always the one to remind us of reading scriptures every day and saying prayer. She regularly tells me how much she wants to see Jesus and how much she loves him. She longs to bear her testimony in front of others, but gets nervous. She has born her sweet and simple testimony to me on two different occasions. Each time she was nervous, but so proud when she finished. And each time I felt her sincere desire to share what she knows to be true and it was beautiful.

I love this girl with all my heart. She amazes me every single day.

here again

It's been too long since I posted, and it's made me sad to realize how much I've not written. The girls love looking through this blog to see photos and watch videos. It's our family journal, and I've woefully neglected it. So I'm making it a goal to update more regularly. And to hopefully go back in time a bit and talk about some past big events too (like EVER SOFIA joining our family!).

But we'll take it one day at a time.

Here's to celebrating the daily joys of being mom to these glorious girls:

Ever Sofia (9 months) - Kapria Faith (7 yrs) - Mila Grace (5 yrs)

all tucked into bed

Mila took a nap today. Now that she doesn't take regular naps (sadly), if she does take one, come bedtime she is wide awake. She walked out of her room around 9pm, just as Trav and I were sitting down to watch a show. Normally I would carry her back to bed, tuck her in, and remind her that to earn TV in the morning she must stay in bed all night.

But this week has been hard. I've been working every day because it's the week of our annual company conference. (My normal work schedule is M-W-F, so I usually have T-Th all day home with the girls.) When Mila climbed onto the couch and sat next to me, I realized how much I've missed seeing her. So I pulled her on my lap and she snuggled with us while we watched Parenthood.

When the episode ended, I carried her to bed and tucked her in. She wrapped her arms around my neck and said:

"I got some Mommy snuggle time and some Daddy snuggle time. I'm glad because I love you and Daddy more than anyone else. Because you're awesome. And your glasses are cool."

I sure love my Mila Bean.

kissing cousins

One thing I love about living in Utah again is being close to so many cousins. We get to see cousins at least once a week, and the girls love it. I love it! The kids all get along really well (of course with a healthy dose of arguments and tears). But most of the time they really love seeing each other.

Mila and Tave have been getting along super well, and Tave's name is mentioned daily at our house. Here are a few tidbits I remembered to write down.

Conversation while coloring -
Kapria: Mila, I don't like your scribble scrabble.
Mila: Tave loves my scribble scrabble. [said so matter-of-factly, then walks away.]


Mila to Tave: The dentist said 'no more pacifier for Mila!' But I want my paci back.
Tave: Just use your fingers. Like me.
[Then he sticks his two middle fingers in his mouth, as he's done since he was a baby. Mila tries it, then takes her fingers out of her mouth immediately. Over the next few days I notice her trying to suck on her fingers at random moments, probably when she's missing her paci.]

Mila at the dinner table: Tave said 'I eat poop!' Ha ha ha! Poop. Poop. Poop. Ha ha ha!

Mila to me: Can I call Tave to see if he misses me and I miss him?

She also is convinced that she and Tave will get married when they are older. No amount of explaining has helped change her mind. And every so often she'll attack him and try to kiss him. She nearly bowls him over in her kissing attempts or, if he's lucky and sees it coming, he runs away. I think all kids have a crush on an older cousin at some point. (I know I did.) So I'm not worried about that. But how did my sweet baby girl become such a kissing monster?

dear santa

(Mila decided later that she wanted to ask for a LaLaLoopsy girl instead of a Santa costume.)

super fashion and s'mores

byu game

fingerpainting

our conference weekend

Mckenon drove down from BYU-I with a friend and we enjoyed spending Sunday together as a family. Made glue goop for the kids to play with, felt spiritually enriched, and had lots of fun together.

happy nine years

Trav really wanted to go to a BYU football game, his first since Grandma passed away (he got his BYU football enthusiasm from her). I tried to surprise him by buying some tickets at work, but the price ended up being too high for our budget. Then some coworkers of mine surprised me with free tickets - on our anniversary! And then I remembered some free birthday meal coupons I'd gotten in the mail, and THEN Nicole and Jeff offered to watch the girls for us overnight. Suddenly we had the makings of an awesome (and incredibly affordable) anniversary weekend. It included:

Tucanos for dinner, running to the stadium in the rain, a BYU football game, and a night of uninterrupted sleep! Loved it all, and especially love this hubs of mine.

 

more california goodbyes

We tried to enjoy every moment we could with our friends before moving. I'm so grateful for the wonderful friendships that not only I made, but the girls also. They grew so much over the past two years in California, and a large part of that learning came from their relationships with friends. I'm so grateful for the amazing families we were able grow close with.

We also were lucky enough to find a great preschool teacher for Kapria (short as her preschool stint was) and an amazing babysitter. Marissa was so great about playing with the girls and making my work time fun for them.

Love these favorite people of ours!

parties and goodbyes.

We had a busy month in August. The first week started out with lots of parties. Here we are at Aaron's birthday at a splash park. So much fun!

Later that evening we attended a farewell party that our good friends the Lillenbergs threw for us. We loved seeing all our friends together, but it was sad to be saying goodbye.  Two years went by so quickly! I think I'm a four year person. I need four years in a place to be okay to maaaaybe leave. Maybe.

 

 

last day of gymnastics

Kapria and Mila loved their gymnastics classes in California. We went in one last time for an open gym day. Kapria was able to say goodbye to one of her coaches. Mila's coach was out of town and wouldn't be back before we moved, so we were sad that we didn't get to say an official goodbye.

We packed a lot of fun in an hour. The girls love jumping on the trampoline and jumping in the foam pit.

One day when Trav was in class with Mila, she started doing flips into the foam pit. It's good to have him there, because he encourages them to do things that I'm too scared to have them try. And of course both girls had to practice their flips on the last day.
 

Kapria:

Mila: