Gratitude...

It is really late, and I have been up all night doing homework, so I hope this makes sense in the morning. We were watching "Amazing Race" as a family and the challange took place in Switzerland up on a very beautiful mountain that looked unreal it was so beautiful. The challange was the contestants had to ride a gondola up to the top of a mountain and parasail off. If you didn't want to jump off, or didn't want to wait for favorable wind conditions, you could run down the mountain instead. At the beginning of the challenge, one team member was chosen to jump and one had to go to the bottom of the mountain and wait. I know you are wondering what this has to do with gratitude, just stick with me. There was one older gentelman who wanted to do the parasailing, he had hurt himself in a previous challange, and couldn't run down the mountain. So many other teams got tired of waiting for the wind to allow them to jump that one by one they all started running down the mountain (it was a one hour jog). The older man was getting so frustrated because the wind wouldn't change, and everyone was getting ahead of him. He then said: "I can't ask God to help me with this insignificant thing, all I can do is just be grateful that I am here in this place, and be grateful for the opportunity that I have had to see this beautiful mountain." And right then (through the magic of television) the wind changed and he could jump. He was the only one who got to parasail because all the others ran down. I was just greatly struck that GRATITUDE CHANGES THINGS. Often times I think things should go a certain way, but when I am just grateful for the experience, even if it turns out diffrent from what I was planning, gratitude makes it all okay.

A 3 a.m biRth of tRipLEtS!

Last Sunday we got four more goats. One boy and three females all of which happen to be pregnant. I know, what will we do with all those goats??? I really don't know! Goats anyone?

On Mara's birthday, Ryan noticed that the one goat was going to have her babies soon, so he got her in the barn and sure enough, that morning three babies were born. Oh my goodness are they cute. Sam and Noah were up with us, we had started an alternating check every hour, first Sam and I went out and then Ryan and Noah went. At 3:00 am when Sam and I went she had delivered one already. Sam went to get Ryan and Noah, and they got there in time to see the other two born. It was so fun. We dried them all off and got a heat lamp for them. They are so cute, and the mom is a trooper.

Happy Birthday Mara!

She's Three!!!She has got to be the most patient kid I have ever had. She had to wait through Emma's birthday (most recently) and all day on her birthday, and never once begged to open her presents even though they started arriving at our house for her a week before her birthday. She would get them and quickly put them under my bed to await her day, never bothering them again! I was totally amazed.
Ryan grilled chicken for Mara's birthday dinner since I was in Helena at a conference all day.
What a great DAD!
When the time finally came, there was no holding back the

excitement!

And the Birthday cake...it was of course PINK! Even Barbie is giving a whoot!whoot! Mara loves Pink! Everything has to be PINK!

She did quite well blowing the candles out, and for once none of the boys sneeked in there to blow them out for her!
Her Princess costume with wings no less... and a pink bike. What more could a girl ask for.
The other day she said to me ..."Mom, when I grow up I want to be a boy."
I realize that she just wants to be like the older kids, and they all just happen to be boys, but I will be putting and end to all boyiness! Although I know that I will be fighting a loosing battle. She loves dolls and cooking and make-believe, but she can hold her own with the boys. I am actully quite glad about that since I always liked hanging out with the boys.
We are so glad Mara is in our family! she is such a great big help and has such a fun personality.

She's ONE!!!!

It truly can't be that Ems is one! What is that about? She is truly the light of our family's life. Everyone thinks that she is the greatest. When the boys come home from school, the first thing I hear is Where's Ems? Which is usually followed by ehhhhhhh! And the the most piercing scream you've ever heard (thank Caleb for that)! She loves her brothers. We are so lucky to have her. Wearing the birthday crown and getting messy with cake!

Ripping into it!

A pink horse, of course. It sings and she does her little head bop! I love it!

She really wanted to touch that candle. Max, of course, blew it out for her. She wasn't a real big fan of the cake, she squished it a little, but didn't really eat much of it.

We've Had Another Sighting!

This time, right before we left for church, Caleb actually let Sam tie a string to his tooth and then to the coat closet door and slam away! Can I just say that Sam, never in a million years would have let anyone do that to him. Caleb just stood there and took it like a man. This time his fairy was Indigo(that sounds better than purple right?) He now is toothless in the front, no top, not bottom. Sam thinks it's cool to put his finger in Caleb's mouth and tell him to bite. BOYS!

I Love My Life!

Today was story time at the library and Miss Nola gave all the kids free Frosty coupons for Wendy's. Max was so excited and insisted that lunch could wait until after we got the

free frosty's. So Max, Mara, Emma and I headed to Wendy's.

After getting our Frosty's...Chocolate for Max and Vanilla (white) for Mara, we sat down to eat. Mara wondered if she could put salt and pepper on her's. Max told me that if you got a freeze brain all you would have to do is suck your thumb and it would go away. Oh, really! I said and how do you know. "Watch" he said and proceeded to take four or five really big bites of icecream as fast as he could. The eyes started twitching and the forehead started wrinkling and he quickly stuck his thumb to the roof of his mouth and proceeded to suck. I was chuckling to myself and thinking, "I must be the luckiest person in the world to get to spend all day with my children who I adore so much." He cracks me up. As if that wasn't enough, on the way home he said "soon I will be 20" he knows that I hate it when he tells me he is growing up. "Don't say that to me !" I said. "Then I will be 30, then 40, then 70." he continued. "Max" I said "when you are 70 I will be 100." without missing a beat he said "If my mom is 100 I would be nothing but a rounded up cowboy!" Where does he come from. I really don't want him to grow up. I love him just the way he is... and it has taken a lot for me to get to this point where I will be the one crying when he goes off to school.

Emma's First Solo Steps!

On Thursday night we had the missionaries over for dinner. We are so lucky to be able to have them over every month. My kids really enjoy having them and I love that they leave us with a lesson each time...I must admit sometimes I purposely have them over on Monday night so that I don't have to prepare a lesson! Works great. In January when they came I told them that Emma would probably be walking by the time they came again but she wasn't. Elder Taylor (the one with black hair) is going home next week, and as a going away present Emma took her first steps to him. Here she is looking at Elder Taylor and thinking I would love to walk over to him.
And there she made it.
That is Elder Baumgarten from Columbine, Colorado in the background.

He was so tickled and she was so excited with herself. It was only a shuffle of
feet one or two times, but it was a first.
Ryan said "oh, how sad, that could be the last time we ever have a
child take their first steps."
I just slapped him and said "oh, be quiet."
(I have always said I can't know when it's my last or I would never let it be,
so we can't say it's the last.)

What color is your FAIRY?

Caleb lost his very first tooth. The others that have been absent for three Christmas' now were pulled, so they don't count. He came to me last night and said his tooth was really loose, and then he just pushed it until it came out. I can't believe how brave he was. He didn't freak out or cry or complain or anything. It was just a matter of fact thing. It hardly bleed at all. Now Caleb has a complete hole on top and bottom. it will be even harder to chew now. My friend Megan taught us that you can see what color your FAIRY is if you put your tooth in a bowl of water, the fairy has to go through the water to get the tooth and the color that they are is left in the water. We were so excited to try...Guess what color Caleb's FAIRY was....

Caleb's FAIRY was orange. It looked just like the reflection of his red desk, so at first he thought that the fairy had not come, but when the sun came up...You could see that it was definately a diffrent color. And the FAIRY left a dollar...I can definately see the inflation...I used to get 10cents.

Love the cousins!

My last blog was a downer, I guess, I didn't mean for it to be, I was just having an epifany that I am not ever going to be the best at everything, but I can still try! I was wanting to get a new post up sooner, but...I seriously have had an incredibly crazy two weeks. So I am happy to say...We got to go home to Utah for Elijah's baptism. It was such a great excuse to get us down there and while we were there we were so grateful to go to the temple. It was a much needed filler of our reservoir that was getting depleted. The kids had such a great time with there cousins. Definately the thing we miss most about living so far away is of course, FAMILY. Osten thought that Emma was a great toy! He was so cute with her! You could see that he just wanted to Hug her and Squeeze her and pick her up, but he tried to control himself. They were so cute together. They are seven months apart.

Emma loved to "hold" Cale. Like she is any bigger than he is, but she thought it was so funny to "hold" him and she just giggled.

Hannah and Mara had a great time playing together! I love it when they figure out that they can entertain each other. Mara loved being the older one and instigating the "let's play house". There was a hay-day going on in the basement!

Max, Rex, Caleb, Gabe and Sophie.

Sam, Kyle and Noah all hanging out in Kyle's bedroom. This was the first time that they were together where the "older" kids hung out by themselves...They are getting way too old to play with the "little ones"

We love cousins and totally look forward to hanging out with them whenever possible.

A visit to the colony

I know that we joked about Ryan growing a Hutterite beard, and leaving to join the colony,but here is Emma as a Hutte baby.

For my history of Midwifery class I have to do a project, and I decided to interview an old Hutterite midwife. My preceptor, Ems and I went to the top of Montana to see her. It was so interesting. The women of the colony were all concerned about Emma getting an ear infection because she was outside without her ears covered up. It was a really warm day and for once the wind wasn't even blowing...I had her wrapped in a blanket, but they insisted that she wear a hat. Then every where I went, people were confused and wondered whose baby I had and why I had her (hutterites are very superstitious) People came flocking out of their houses to investigate if I was hutterite who had left the colony because I had on "outsider" clothes, but was holding a Hutte baby.

A woman at the colony showed us all around their colony. She showed us where they ate. It was this huge long dining hall where all the colony eats all meals together with the men on one side and the women on the other in order of age. She showed us where they cooked. The women have a cook week once every ten weeks and boy oh boydo they have every advanced piece of kitchen machinery available. Huge ovens and fryers and skillets and pots for soup. It was incredible. Their bread mixer was as big as the room it was in. She showed us where each family had their individual fridges and freezers and all their storage for the food that they preserve each year. It was so cool.

I was so glad that I got that opportunity. It was nice to meet with them and get to know a little bit more about another culture. I thought it was very interesting how they strife for the benefit of the colony and share everything. I also thought it tragic that they don't promote education. 8th grade is all that is required for them. I met a few younger women who weren't married and didn't want to get married and wondered what they did. If you don't get married, then what would you do if you can't read and learn, or travel or anything. I would go insane I fear if my mind was limited.

Anywhoo...it was quite an adventure, and if you ever get the opportunity to go to a colony I highly recommend it...it was very insightful