What every teenager needs.

Every kid needs to take a nap with a baby once in a while.  I think if everyone took a nap with a sleepy baby everyday we would have complete world peace.

Of course when this baby woke up his brothers "played" with him by spinning him around and around so they could watch him try to walk...poor thing.  Jackson laughed and laughed though so I guess it wasn't so bad.

We had a great weekend watching general conference.  I love conference.  Of course we ate cinnamon rolls with our favorite brown sugar caramel frosting. Yum.

I loved President Holland's talk about envy and coveting (among other things...).

Last night Rustin and I called all the kids in on our bed and talked about conference and about how much we love our kids.  We talked about President Uchtdorf's talk about forgiveness that began with a story about a mother who wrote about her children who weren't speaking to each other. I think I would curl up and cry if I had adult kids who wouldn't get along or who wouldn't come home.  The thought of not having my kids all together is terrifying.

Know what I am excited for this weekend?  Easter.  Jotham and Jamie are coming over and Jamie and I are going to make matching dresses for our girls.  Jenna never has a girl to match with on Easter. I'm so excited! Pictures to come...

Queen Solomon

We have six kids.  They are quite messy. Fortunately they are also good at cleaning up at the end of the day. Someday they will learn to just to keep things clean and then evening pick-up time will be super quick but until that day...we have chores.   Evening chores are usually just picking up, vacuuming as needed and dishes/dinner--Saturdays are for actual cleaning--when we get to it.

The way we divvy up the evening chores depends on the time of year.  In the summer we have a job chart that we rotate every week.  It works well because everyone gets a chance to do every job.  However, the job chart doesn't work during then school year because we never have the same kids home in the evenings.  We usually just assign each child who is home a room to clean. So that's where we were last Friday night.

Dallin and Landon had been assigned the big back family room but it had already been mostly cleaned so I reassigned one of them to help me with the dishes.  Dishes are NOT the favorite assignment so they decided to let rock, paper, scissors make the determination about who had KP duty.

After a minute I heard one of them say, "Yes! I knew exactly what you were going to do! I won!"

Then they both came in to the kitchen and declared victory.
 Hmmm.
Austin and I questioned and listened and questioned and we could NOT tell who really won. We went back and forth with everyone laughing hysterically.

"Dallin you lost--I can tell by the smirk on your face!"
Laughter from Landon.
"Okay Landon it was you.  I can tell. You can't stop laughing."
Dallin bends over slapping his leg, shaking with laughter.
"Okay Dal it was you.  I'm sure this time."
I'm not actually sure. I don't know whose voice I heard.

We couldn't tell.
So I had a brilliant idea.
"Okay let's just do it again. Rock, paper scissors..."
Dallin popped right up ready to go.
Bingo.
It was Landon who won.
Dallin did the dishes.

Cold Turkey. {August 1-7}

Sometimes we need to detox from electronics.  There’s no easy way to do it so we just pull the plug. Anyone who knows us knows for which child this is most difficult (and necessary).  Can anyone guess?

Getting rid of video games makes us really productive. 

The kids make their beds without being asked…

They pick up all their toys…

And they smile all day.

Just kidding on this picture.  Jenna took this self-portrait for fun—she’s actually been having a blast playing with Benson (and Rustin!) this week.

Dallin and Landon were at EFY this last week.  I actually sent them to EFY just so we could have the music CD.  I’m listening as we speak. 

A few outcomes of a week of EFY—

Both boys have learned to text {that unlimited text plan is on its way…last night Rustin asked Dallin who he was texting with and he said he wasn’t sure—two girls at the same time}.

The boys gave a great family home evening tonight about “becoming.”

We have been practicing swing dance moves all week in anticipation of the next stake dance. Jenna is going to get more dance practice than any girl I know with all these brothers!

  Jack still has an infected eye but the rest of us are doing much better.  Viva la summer!

A re-do wish?

I don't have a lot of regrets in my life.  Only a couple.  One of the biggest is that I don't remember the first six months to one year of the twins' life.

 I really don't.

There are a lot of reasons--severe sleep deprivation, a bit of untreated postpartum depression (see previous reason...), work, and denial.  I didn't realize at the time that my life with tiny twins was unique and would be gone in a second. I didn't keep a journal so I can't really trust my memories.  I started writing a blog a few years ago so that forgetting would never happen again.

But, every once in a while it feels like there just isn't much to remember.  There's nothing exciting to write about--I still feel nauseated (pregnant).  the boys love football.  we had another trip to the ER. homework still gets ignored sometimes and the socks STILL aren't matched.  Hmmm.

This line of thinking led me to a specific memory...

I do not like flying.  I never have.   I have a few stand out memories in my life that reinforce my dislike of airplane travel:  A tiny, toddling Benson grabbing a strange man's water and dumping it all over the lap of his nice suit pants;  running out of my stash of "desperation only treats" before the plane even left the runway;  trying desperately (and unsuccessfully) to keep two pairs of three-year-old legs from kicking the seat of the glaring woman in front of me.  Most of the time those things were just unavoidable and unchangeable side effects of flying with tiny children.

There is, however one particular flight that I really wish I could re-do.

 I sat next to a businessman who was eager to show me pictures of his bikini-clad identical twin toddler daughters.  He went on to talk (for most of the flight) about how he took his girls and the nanny ("who had her own separate room of course") on a business trip to Hawaii so his wife could have time to pursue her career.

"And sometimes", he bragged, "I have the housekeeper just take the girls outside to play so my wife can have time to cook whatever she wants".

And--he was quick to mention--his wife was busy writing a book about how to raise twins.  *excuse me while I chuckle for a minute...*

He talked about interviewing preschools for his girls so they could start on "the right path-because you can't get into the right schools if you don't start in preschool."  He talked about tennis lessons and music lessons.  He went on and on.  I felt like I was being lectured in a very subtle manner.  Like he was trying to graciously show a poor woman what real life is like.  For one of the only times in my life, I really didn't know what to say.

For the first time in my life I felt like a dowdy, uneducated woman who had a million (four at the time...) kids.

What I know now and wish I had said then is that I would never, ever trade my life for his.  Not even for a trip to Hawaii with a nanny. I am sorry for all the things those kids will miss.

I love to see my kids ride bikes down the street and run barefoot to the neighbors to see if they can play.

I love having sweaty, dirt-covered faces show up for lunch every single day.

I love that I don't have to have a number and identification to pick my kids up from school.  They see my car and come running.

I love sitting on the grass at football games while my kids play under the bleachers with all the other kids.

I love that I can go to the park packed with  moms and kids eating lunch and leave to see that not one person (I'm not kidding here) has left their garbage on the lawn.  Every other mom is saying "if you don't pick it up then who will?"

I love it. Love it.  LOVE it.

I come from a long, long line of happy moms who are married to happy dads who have raised happy kids who have made great contributions in life.  Who can argue with that?

Tennis lessons, fancy preschools and exclusive nannies are just poor substitutions.  It's the regular old life that I want to remember.  If I ever sat next to that man again I would tell him how sorry I am that he can't have my life.  And I would completely mean it.

And I'm going to write about it so I don't ever forget one minute.

Rockin around the Christmas tree

This last week was filled with sickness, laundry, overdue homework and a husband busy with tithing settlement... The freshly cut Christmas tree from Franklin was replaced with piles of half empty Christmas boxes. (We didn't get to go to Franklin this year after Thanksgiving...) I've been missing the holiday cheer that keeps me going this time of year.  Really missing it.  I mean like struggling-to-get-out-of-my-pajamas-before-noon....

Then, just when it felt like there was no rescue in sight, we had the perfect Saturday. 

No scouts, birthday parties or meetings.  Just us.  The weather warmed up to a toasty 32 degrees (compared with the previous -0 weather of the last couple of weeks. Rustin proved to the boys that he can still take all of them in a snowball fight.  Though I'm not sure how long that will last...

And we had all of my brothers and sisters home for our Patterson Christmas party.

We danced around the Christmas tree and ate lots of good food and played lots of games and sang Christmas songs.  

When we came home the house was clean and organized.  (At least to a tolerable degree...) Ahhhh. 


And today my sisters helped me regain my sense of family and purpose.  They couldn't have given me a better Christmas gift.

Tonight will be our first annual night of the Twelve Days of Christ--a new idea I have to help us really enjoy the spirit of the season.  I'll write more on that later.  In the mean time I am going to try to relax and enjoy the things I love.

A bit of perspective...

Late last night as I was balancing our budget it quickly became clear that our recent bout with doctors offices, x-rays, stitches, shoes for five growing children, school supplies etc., has left our bank account looking a little more slim than we would like.

I woke up this morning feeling really sorry for myself. It felt like those plans for our dream house were taking far too long to materialize. How long is a girl supposed to happily feed an army in a kitchen that is barely wider than the span of her arms? Surely I have a right to whine just a little. I need a new kitchen and a bigger house to go with it, right?

About that time I got a phone call totally out of the blue from Felita Benally, Rustin's Indian placement sister. She lives in Chinle, AZ which is right in the center of Navajo Nation. She just called to say hello. We visited her home and her kids (5) when we lived in Page, AZ. Very humbling. She lives next to her grandma who speaks no English--only Navajo, as she weaves blankets for a living. The grandma, by the way, still asks (in Navajo) 'I wonder how big that little blue eyed girl is now?' (Jenna!).

As we visited about life in general, Felita told me she still lives in her little one room hogan. She has no running water and no indoor bathroom. I mean seriously. She heats her place with a coal stove. She has five children in a house not much bigger than my living room. She told me how she wishes she could have a sink full of dirty dishes because then she would have a sink. Not even a big fancy kitchen or a dishwasher. Just a sink with running water.

It was probably not a coincidence that I got that phone call this morning. Someone's watching out for me. I think I'll go wash my dishes.

Heavenly Father created for me...

This morning we got everyone up and got all our swim meet gear packed and headed out for what we knew would be a long hot day of swimming. The last meet of the year is notoriously long and slow. As we pulled in to the lot we were amazed to see no one there. To make this story short, the swim meet was yesterday. They changed the date but failed to let us know!

Since we were in Wendell we decided to go over to Niagara Springs. We are so thankful that we did. We were the only people in sight. The water was completely clear and the grass was green and everything was quiet. No cars or people talking. This is why we love Idaho. The birds were singing and we could hear the water fall. It was the most peaceful and soul refreshing experience I think I've had this summer.

It made me remember what we were instructed to say in the tours of the first ordinance room of the temple (Rustin and I are tour guides). The room is painted with a stunning mural of the magic valley--"this mural is meant to remind us of the creations of our Heavenly Father in our behalf and of His love for us as His children". This is just the sort of thing I would want to do for my children if I were sending them to a far off world. To provide them with a serene and beautiful environment that I would hope would remind them of home.

This leads me to think of my own home. It's not the most important thing to have the biggest fanciest home on the block but our home should be a place where our children feel and experience peace every day. Our homes should be more loving, forgiving and uplifting than the world that they will go into. That way they will seek after things that remind them of home.

In all I'm glad we got the swim meet times wrong. One of those tender mercies.

Look what I did!

44 cups of strawberry jam, a gallon of frozen berries and 6 cups of strawberry puree! I wouldn't have made it without my friend Brittany. It was a fun (and very sticky!) day.






Did I mention we picked all the berries yesterday morning too? (11 gallons!) I'd say we get extra points for that.