Learning to Fly

Today is my oldest daughter's 15th birthday.

(Actually, she's technically not the oldest.  Her older sister was stillborn 2 1/2 years before she was born, but that's a post for another time.)

In her blessing dress....which is the same one I was blessed it.  Doesn't she look thrilled to be wearing a hand-me-down?

I can remember so many details still about the pregnancy and delivery.  I was so joyful after discovering I was finally pregnant again.....I enjoyed every moment of it.

Except the morning sickness.  Which lasted all day, every day for about four months.  THEN I enjoyed every minute.

In the last trimester, I craved Taco Bell 7-layer burritos.  At three a.m.  Sweetie dutifully went on Taco Bell runs for me.

I was induced and I remember having some pretty intense contractions, but the God of Pain Relief (anesthesiologist) came to my rescue, and her delivery went pretty smoothly.  There were some concerns about her lungs and we stayed an extra day in the hospital, but it was no big deal.  We were sent home to be Parents.

That first night was quite the adventure.  We came home, and she fell asleep.  I put her in her crib (which was in our room), we crawled into bed ourselves.  About 13 minutes later, she woke up.  And never fell back to sleep for the rest of the night.  Or so it seemed.  At around two a.m., Sweetie came out into the living room and told me to go to bed, and that he would take care of her.  That was one night that he won my heart forever.  Again.  I'm convinced that because of that first night the two of them spent together, they've been bonded in a way that I can't explain, replace, or duplicate.  But he was my hero that night and when I woke up at 6 a.m., I went out into the living room and found them both asleep.  She in her carseat, and he on the couch.  That, my friends, is true love.

Fast forward 15 years.  She regularly goes to bed at 7:30 p.m. (unless homework prevents it), and gets herself up at 4:45 every morning to get ready for the day.  She and Sweetie still bond every morning as he drives her 25 minutes to seminary.  She is growing up so fast and the years go by faster and faster.  It seems as though it was just yesterday that I was picking her up from her first day of kindergarten.  She'll be a sophmore next year and we are talking about what she will major in, where she'll go to school, and a possible mission for her.  It's just breathtaking at times.

She's always been a mature soul, having a vocabulary beyond her years.  She comprehends things I couldn't even fathom at her age.  She's a special one, a strong one.  I'm trying to get her to see it, but she looks at me as though I'm crazy.  Which I am.  Just a little.  Why I've been blessed to be her mom, I'll never know, but I hope that I'm doing her justice.

Just a few more years and our little chickadee will be a beautiful and graceful eagle, ready to stand on her own in the world.  It's hard to encourage her to begin taking those first steps toward the edge of the nest, because I just want to hold onto her forever, to protect her, and keep her safe.  But Heavenly Father has plans for her and keeping her here isn't in His plan.  So while I've got her, I need to help her learn to fly.  Because when she finally does leap, I know she will soar.

That's my girl....

Then.....and Now

Today is my youngest child's birthday.  Noodle came into this world eleven weeks early....apparently in a hurry to get here and get his work done.

If you know my Noodle, you know he does things on his own time frame.  Always has, always will.  He has a ready smile that lights up his face (crooked rows of teeth notwithstanding), and willingly hugs me and kisses me on the shoulder.

(I don't know why it's the shoulder.  It just is.)

I'm amazed at how big this little 3 pound, 10 ounce baby is today.  His autism just adds to his charm and while some kids at school may laugh at him (which hurts my heart!), all adults that he comes into contact with love him.

So, behold the following pictures and watch how this special child of our Heavenly Father has grown.  I can't believe he's TEN!

Happy birthday, Noodle!  I love you so much!

At the dinosaur park in 2004

In our back yard in 2005

A Valentine's Party in his Autism Class in 2006

Pictures: Spring 2007

Seventh birthday!  2008

Pictures Spring 2009

Spring Pictures 2010....what a handsome kid!

Tradition......TRADITION!

I grew up in a family where tradition was, well.....tradition.

Some traditions were big, and others were small and just part of how my family was.

Sundays held that we had dinner when church was over...whether it was at noon or at four p.m., that's when Sunday dinner was held.  Dishes weren't usually done until after Nap Time (and whoever was the buddy of the baby of the family took care of said baby and typically did not get to nap), and Family Home Evening was on Sundays.  We always held it then because we were pretty busy during the week and that's the only night that we were home together.

Summer vacations were typically camping.  With my father being a school teacher and my mother staying home, money wasn't abundant and that's what we would do for a vacation.  I was never fond of it, and avoid camping to this day if at all possible.  I prefer being clean and sleeping in a real bed and camping as a child really reinforced this.

Christmas, as in most families, was steeped in tradition.  Christmas Eve dinner was an Old English feast, served in courses.  We would have wassail, cornish game hens, flaming pudding....and sing carols between each course.  I loved it.  Family Home Evening would follow and we would always wrap up the night with the Living Scriptures version of the Nativity.  Once we were sent to bed, we were not to be seen until we were called upstairs at seven the next morning.

In our family, Kris Kringle was Santa Claus' wife and she would visit every New Years Eve and leave small gifts under our Christmas tree....usually coloring books, puzzles....things of that nature.

With my own family today, we still continue some of those same traditions.  We hold FHE on Sundays, we have our own type of Christmas Eve feast (we eat steak every year.....not sure how that one got started and continued), and we always go on vacation every year.  It NEVER includes camping.

But there are some other traditions that we've started that I'm pretty fond of.

Whenever Scott and I go to the temple, we always stop by Great Harvest for a yummy loaf of bread to bring home to the children.  They LOVE when we go to the temple.

Christmas decorations always go up the day after Thanksgiving and the day after that, we recover by having a Family Fun Day and going to the movies.  Christmas ends officially at our house on New Years Day, when the decorations come down.

When Anner was little, I promised that she and I would go up and attend the Young Women's Broadcast in Salt Lake City every year.  When she was two weeks shy of 12, we went.  We shopped, had lunch at the Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial building, and ended with a wonderful broadcast.

2008  (Doesn't she look like a baby?!?!?)

2009

2010

2011  (She's getting spunkier every year...and learning to dress warmer!)

Shopping, lunch at the Garden Restaurant, and the broadcast.  After four years, it never gets old.  It's been great to bond with my girl.  She's now asking if we'll do this with the Relief Society Broadcast when she's 18.  I tell her I don't know....it depends on how far away she'll be.  We have just a few more of these broadcasts left and I dread our final year of them, because I just don't know what her life and path will take her.  Will she stay close to home and go to school?  Will she fly the nest completely and be thousands of miles away?  I'm not sure.  But there is one thing that I do know.  She and I will have seven years of memories that will never go away, no matter how far apart we may be.  That right there is worth more than any of the money we have spent shopping.

One awesome thing about this tradition is that it has now bled over into the men of the family.  Sweetie took Mundo up to Salt Lake City this past October for their first annual Peterson Men Priesthood Session trip.  They had a blast....and much better weather than Anner and I will ever have in Salt Lake in late March.

Tradition.  It rocks.