Elizabeth's Concerns about Heaven

Lately I've been showing the kids lots of old photos and video clips, some of them from before Elizabeth was born. She keeps asking where she is in the pictures, and I tell her she was in heaven. She does not like that our family existed for a while without her, and I think the whole "you were still in heaven" concept has been a little disconcerting to her. This week we started talking a lot about how we're going to go camping in Big Bend National Park on Saturday, and Lizza's all worried she's going to miss it because we're going to send her back to heaven somehow.

Whenever we mention Big Bend, she gets a worried look on her face and with panic in her voice says "I want to go - I don't want to be in heaven!!" Every day she asks me when we're going to leave and then she won't let it rest until I assure her that we're totally planning on taking her, and she doesn't have to be in heaven for this one.

I guess she figures that if she missed out on fun family activities by being in heaven before, who's to say it's not going to happen again?

I should probably do some sort of FHE lesson on the topic, so she can get a better understanding of The Plan, etc. I've never met a 2-year old so resentful of the time they spent in heaven and so determined to never go back.

Fancy Nancy comes to Pflugerville

We have recently become big fans of Fancy Nancy around here. I had never even heard of her until my mom came to visit and gave the first Fancy Nancy book to Rachel for her birthday. It was a huge hit.

I used to only see Rachel's girly side once in a while, but Miss Nancy has definitely brought out Rachel's inner "fancy".

Here are Elizabeth and Rachel dressed up like Fancy Nancy:





Rachel loves the way her fancy shoes sound on the tile. When she dresses up like Fancy Nancy, she likes me to call her "Rachey Pachey":



Elizabeth has always loved being fancy, and is thrilled that now there's a whole book about it. She prefers to just be called "Fancy". She thinks that's Nancy's first name:

Fancy Nancy: A Reading by Rachel Mott

Here is Rachel "reading" from her new book. I was impressed with how many of the words she actually remembered. (Yes, I am still giving her reading lessons, but no, we are not quite to this level. This is pure memorization):

A little Fancy Nancy dance. But first, a few points:

1) My favorite part is when Lizzy says to Rachel, "Rachey, make sure you don't touch the TV!", and then to me, "Mom, I made sure Rachey don't touch TV!". We recently got a new TV and had a little talk about how the kids should never touch it, and Elizabeth has taken it upon herself to be the TV police. Before Henry was born, she always told me about how when the baby came out of my tummy, she was never going to let him touch the TV. She has kept it very safe.

2) Will somebody please teach my children how to dance?




And the fancy dancers kick it up a notch:

Poor Lizza had to deal with a lot of wardrobe problems. Notice the switching of the shoes at some time during the clip. Lizza never really recovers from the shoe issues, but Rachel kept right on dancing. Or whatever that is she was doing.

Blessing Day - 9/7/08

Daniel blessed Henry a few weeks ago in church.

Here he is in all his finery. Notice how he is holding onto his thumbs for dear life. He has been doing that since he was born - he pretty much never lets go of them. I think it's super cute.




I thought I'd take a nice picture of all five kids together before we left for church:



Silly me - I hadn't learned yet that there's no such thing as a "nice picture of all five kids together." This was the best I could come up with.

Football Season

The boys had their first football games on Saturday. We had to drive down to San Antonio, which is 1 1/2 hours away. I think the rest of our games this season are a little closer to home, thank goodness. We left at 7:00 in the morning and didn't get back until 3:15. And we were sitting in the hot, hot sun from 9:00 until 1:30. (They each had a game, and the games each lasted 1 1/2 hours, and we had to be there early to practice). Luckily, at the last minute before we left, I thought to bring a big umbrella, and I rigged it to the chain-link fence on the edge of the bleachers, so the kids and I could huddle in some shade while we watched the games. I don't think Henry would have survived if I hadn't brought it. And the snacks kept the girls alive. I think they ate the whole time. Does anyone else agree that grapes are just the best thing in the world when you're outside and hot and thirsty and hungry? I love taking grapes to things like this. We ate a whole big huge bag.

The boys had fun playing, but I think it was a bit harder than they thought it would be. And poor Tristan was near tears at the end of his, because he had thought he had gotten 3 tackles and was so excited about it, but then found out that they didn't really count because he was just jumping on the pile at end and wasn't really the guy who did the tackle. It's hard for me to watch both of them out there when I can tell they're trying so hard to do something, but they don't know where they're supposed to be going, so they kind of run around tentatively and then don't end up doing anything. I guess this is how they learn.



Oliver before his game. When I see him out there on the field, he doesn't look like my little chunker anymore, and I realize he's growing up.


Daniel trying to get the kids somewhat organized during the game. Is it just me, or does #88 on the other team seem a little big?


Half-time pep talk from Dad.


Tristan getting ready for his game. He's so happy to be playing tackle this year. I don't think they give them near enough pads. I don't know how he survives out there. I guess they just do.



I know he feels very tough in his helmet and all his gear, and yet, I can still see those gorgeous long eyelashes peeking through. I love this kid!


Tristan in action (#7)


Henry watching the games from his carseat. He wasn't quite sure what to make of all of the excitement, but he was a very good sport. Thanks to the big umbrella I was able to keep him in the shade the whole time.


Ollie decided to give Rachel a little reading lesson during Tristan's game. What fun kids I have!

Holding Henry and Other Things We Did in August

I thought I'd do a big photo update to show what we've been up to lately.

HOLDING HENRY:
We spend a lot of time doing this. Everyone fights for their turn.

Here's our little man at two weeks old:


And again at three weeks:

And by one month old he was ready to watch his first BYU football game. Go Cougars!





OTHER THINGS WE DID IN AUGUST:

*Said goodbye to family and friends

Here the kids are with Grandma Orva and Uncle David before they left to go back to Utah. We had so much fun while they were here!

That same day we also had to say goodbye to our friends the Bates, who moved to Utah. It was a sad day. I'm hoping that someday we will move or they will move and we will miraculously end up next-door neighbors again like we were meant to be. (Note to the Bates: Lizza wants William back. She asks about you guys daily, and has started mentioning your whole family in her prayers. Just so you know.)


*Relaxed at the pool


*Got thrown in the pool by Dad

Rachel much preferred this:

And was not a big fan of this:

Or this:



*Practiced flag football in the backyard

So we could be ready for this (real football practice):




Tristan's playing tackle now. He loves it. I can't watch.

Oliver started flag this year. He loves it. Daniel coaches him.


*Waited for rain



*And waited for rain some more. . .

*And then played in the rain when it finally came

Rachel's Motherhood Plans plus A Few Random Sidenotes

Since Henry's been born, Rachel has become really interested in being a mother. She has always liked pretending to be a mom to her little dolls, but lately she has taken it to a new level. It's been making me laugh a lot the last few weeks, and I finally decided I needed to write down some of what she's been doing.

She now always has one (or several) of her dolls with her - carrying it, cuddling it, walking it in the stroller, and going on pretend trips to Wal-mart with it. Just recently she has started nursing her dolls, which has been kind of funny. She likes to sit on the couch with me and nurse her doll while I nurse Henry. She takes it very seriously, making sure to do both sides with burps in between.

She has also started asking lots and lots of questions about motherhood. The other day we were sitting on the couch nursing our babies together, and she asked me why she has to wait to be a grown-up to be a mom. I gave her a few reasons (you should be married first, your body isn't ready to get pregnant yet, etc.), but she still insisted that she thinks she's ready to be a mom RIGHT NOW, because she already "totally knows how to be good at feeding babies and kids". Which is partly true. She spends several hours each day whipping up gourmet little meals with her dishes and fake food and serving them to anyone and everyone.

During this same conversation, she got kind of stressed out about what she should name her future children. She said she is planning on having seven. Her words: "I'll start with a few and then just keep getting pregnant and pregnant and pregnant!" (except she says it "pregnick"). And then she pointed out that she'll probably be really busy taking care of her kids and her husband. (I'm starting to get a better picture of how she views my life: busy+pregnant.) Anyway, she really wanted to get a head start on choosing out some names, and she said she was having a hard time. I asked what the name was of the baby she was "nursing", and she said she hadn't decided yet, but it was going to either be "Rach, Lampa, Sweetie Belle, or Belle." I have no idea where she's getting these names from. She kept asking me for help with ideas, but I told her she should probably just wait until she gets married and then she and her husband can decide together which names they like (I'm guessing Lampa might get taken off the list). She was not very happy about waiting to decide, and she kept pressing the issue with me. Later that night when she was saying her prayer, she asked that she might please be able to think of really good names for her kids. I thought that was cute, but things went a little wild after that with the name inspiration. We were doing Rachel's reading lesson, and she got to a part where she read the word "sack" and then the word "sacks". For some reason she thought that was just awesome to say "sack" and then "sacks" right in a row, and all of a sudden she had this grand idea: "Hey, Mom! I know - I can name one of my boys 'Sack-sack', and one of my boys 'Sacks-sacks'! Wait, wait, wait. No - what about this? I'll rhyme them: One of my boys will be 'Sack-sack', and one of them will be 'Sack-dack. And then, one of my girls can be Jessica and one of them can be Dessica!" I am a little concerned for my future grandchildren if Rachel doesn't find a husband with some better name ideas.

(Side note about reading lessons: I just remembered something funny that Rachel does during reading lessons. Sometimes during the lesson there will be a long list of words that she is supposed to read. Instead of just reading each word and moving on to the next one, she often feels the need to use the word in a sentence. I think she wants to show me that she knows what the word means. The funny thing is, she always comes up with really weird, random ways to use the words. Here are some real life examples from one of our lessons:

Word: sit Rachel's sentence: "Like, if you think you need to go to the bathroom you should go sit on the toilet."
Word: is Rachel's sentence: "Oh, like, 'hey, look - there is a llama standing over there in the corner of the room.'"
Word: got Rachel's sentence: "Like, my mom went to the store and got a special My Little Pony for me because it was my birthday."

Oliver used to do the exact same thing during his reading lessons. It is always entertaining to see what they come up with. It can get a little time-consuming, though, and sometimes I lose my patience and I'll snap "don't say it in a sentence!" as soon as she's done reading the word.)

Besides names, there are some other practical issues Rachel's been trying to sort out about being a mom. I can tell she's really trying to think ahead. She keeps talking about what a big family she's going to have, and I guess she got a little worried about space issues. The other day we were eating lunch and I noticed she was just sitting there with a concerned look on her face. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "Mom, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to build a house big enough for my family." It turned out that she thought Daniel and I built our house, and she thought she was going to be in charge of building her own house when she grows up. She was asking me about getting enough wood to build it and everything. I tried to quickly clear that up by explaining that she could just do what we did and buy a house that somebody else built and just pay them money. She sounded relieved about that.

(Side note about buying houses: Lizza is very curious and pays attention to everything. She heard me explaining to Rachel that Daniel and I bought our house, rather than built it. She looked at me with a puzzled look on her face, and asked, "Mom? You bring this house home?? You buy this house at Wal-Mart????!" She thinks everything can be purchased at Wal-mart, but she was very doubtful about this one. It was so funny to see her trying to imagine out how somebody could buy a house. I think she was trying to figure out how in the world we fit it into a shopping cart.)

Rachel is already planning for other things she'll have to buy as a mom, too. I pack Henry all the time in a little front-pack that I have. I think she's heard me talk to other people about how much I like it. Yesterday she asked me where she could get "one of those pack things" for her babies when she was a mom. She actually wanted me to tell her a specific store, and she was not satisfied with vague answers. I finally told her that maybe I will buy one for her when she has her first baby and give it to her for a present. She thought that was a good idea.

She also came to me yesterday and said she had been thinking about it (I swear, this must be all she thinks about these days), and she knows her kids are going to want bikes, but she's not sure if she'll have enough money, so she was wondering if it would be okay to use some of her kids' money to buy the bikes for them. (I'm guessing she thinks this is acceptable, because we just bought her a bike using her birthday money that she got from grandparents. I wonder if she has been viewing that as us stealing her money from her. Maybe we need to clear that one up.)

It's been so funny watching Rachel, and it's made me happy when I think that she loves our family and little baby Henry so much that when she grows up she wants to do just what I do. Even though she knows that might mean she's really busy taking care of her kids all the time. My sister reminded me the other day about a song (primary?) our mom taught us when we were young, "When I grow up, I want to be a Mother, and have a family". . .I had completely forgotten about it, but as soon as she mentioned it all the words immediately came back to me, and it made me think about what a good job my mom did with making motherhood seem important and honorable to me and my five sisters. It also made me want my kids to know that I love what I'm doing (and not hear me complaining or sounding frustrated all the time). Obviously I'm in no hurry for Rachel to run off and get married and have kids, but I hope that she doesn't grow out of wanting to be a mom.



Rachel borrowing my pack to carry her doll around


Rachel with some of her babies


Practicing with Henry