How to Babysit a Grandma

Our favorite part of baby sitting Grandpa and Grandma: going swimming every day! They were kind enough to take us to their hotel every afternoon and go swimming. Hopeful Hero watched us helping the boys and she wanted to be dragged around and kicked her legs and wanted to hang out at the ladder and jump in like the boys.

We took Grandma to the park. It is important for Grandmas to play at a park when you baby sit them.

 We also took her to a museum where we played on a fire truck.

 In the back of the fire truck.

 When you babysit a Grandma, you need to make her see how high you can be pushed on the swings. We took her to three different parks to show her all the fun things at the parks.

 Ending baby sitting a grandma with pictures, and making sure that at least one child wasn't looking at the camera at a time.

We were so glad that Grandma could come and visit us! We are looking forward to visiting her later this month! And for her birthday tomorrow! Happy Birthday Grandma! We LOVE you!

How to Babysit a Grandpa

At the end of May, we had the wonderful opportunity to babysit our Grandma and Grandpa. We loved having them come. Our Librarian Hero gave Grandpa and Grandma two books about how to Babysit Grandpa's and Grandmas. So we did our best to make sure everything happened.

We read lots of stories:

And played at the parks:

 And went to the Zoo, where we "helped" Grandpa see the animals.

 Pointing out different animals to Grandpa (And trying to get into the cage to touch them.)

We don't have pictures of making sure that Grandpa got a nap each day and feeding him snacks.

We do have to apologize that we didn't get Grandpa cookies and ice cream together. We had them on different days. I promise Grandpa--you come back we will get you those together!

Dropped the Ball

I feel like I dropped the ball this year. I haven't stopped feeling gratitude the whole month. We have loved saying Thank You and enjoying little minutes here and there.

But tutoring is starting to really pick up---between my eight students getting ready for finals, all available minutes are taken up with tutoring. I love helping them and I am really grateful that my business is expanding, but it leaves little time for things other than taking care of my family.

I am grateful for the Friendly Hero. He is kind and loving. He loves to play with the Peaceful Hero. He loves spending time with friends and he loves to help me out. He is starting to play pretend, and he loves to be the pretend daddy and friends are the pretend mommy. He is a great kind. There are days when he acts older than three, and there are days that he reminds me that he's three and we try to laugh through the temper tantrums. (Some days it doesn't work, and we do all we can to make sure that there isn't everyone in the family crying at the same time....and that usually works.) But he is a sweet heart and extremely loving. I love him dearly and am grateful for him and his playful spirit.

I am grateful for the Peaceful Hero. He is funny. He is getting into playing a lot. He has a concentrated face and he will sit and play with something for a lot longer than the Friendly Hero. He gets obsessed with things. Like the past two days, he loves to watch the furnace when the fire comes on, and is constantly checking to see if "Fire All Gone" or if "Fire Back". I have a little pyro on my hands....he is definitely my son. He also likes to play with friends, but is still the Peaceful Hero, it takes a lot to upset him and then a lot to calm him down. He also loves trains. He knows which of our friends have trains, "Jane Train?" "Fry Train?" "Ry-Ry Train?" and wants to go play at those houses all the time. to play with the trains. I love him and love his tender spirit and his joy in playing. I also love that he doesn't smile near as much as his brother. Our family pictures--I will share them in a little bit, are sooo funny. He is just sitting there being chill, and his brother is making the funniest faces, thinking that he is smiling. I love the Peaceful Hero.

I am grateful for the Christmas Season. I love this time of year. It is fun to go to the parties and to send out packages and Christmas Cards. I was double checking addresses for several of my friends who I was sure had moved, and everyone told me that they loved my Christmas Card. It was really flattering, that everyone looks forward to my card. The first wave is on it's way, so look for it soon.

I am grateful for the Savior. I am grateful for His sacrifice and His grace. I feel closer to Him this year, and I know that He cares for us. He watches over us---no matter how dark it appears, He's there, comforting and helping, as long as we let Him in.

I am grateful for this pregnancy. I am really excited to have a little girl, or Girl-la as the Friendly Hero says. (We think he thinks he's getting a gorilla. which wouldn't be as cool for me.) I am excited and happy that she is healthy and growing--even if that means that I'm growing a lot too. She sits a lot lower than the boys, which is nice, since she doesn't play with my ribs. But she kicks and punches my bladder, so it's just pregnancy. There's ups and downs and it's never 100% comfortable, but it's worth the sacrifice in my book.

I am grateful for the balance and peace I am gaining from meditating daily. I feel better physically--I have more energy, more focus, less pain from a low sitting baby, and better sleep. I feel better emotionally--I freak out less (about once a week) and then it's gone from my system pretty quickly, and I am just happy and mellow---not intensely hyper like I tend to get--which I can still get hyper, but I don't have the extreme high followed by an extreme low. I just am happy at a higher level, and not as stressed. I feel better spiritually--I feel closer to Heavenly Father, to Jesus Christ and I can feel them working through me. I feel like I have a lot more charity for my children and for my husband and for my friends and neighbors. I see that they are trying their best and I can still love them, even if there is poop in the underwear not 5 minutes after someone uses the potty. (Was I pleased about it---no way, but I was calm about it because I could still feel love for the child.) I feel like I'm becoming more like them, and that brings me peace.

I am grateful for the scriptures and prayer. I get more out of it since I've been meditating and it's like I suddenly have these awesome tools that just got even better. Like it was a Swiss army knife that I suddenly found a power attachment for it. I am grateful for all the places we have to connect with Heavenly Father and  His Son, Jesus Christ.

I'm grateful for my extended family. I love all my cousin's blogs. I feel edified and close to my family that I get to see once a year, if I'm lucky. I am grateful for my family and how we can support one another. At times I feel like I'm the one who gets the most out of this extended relationship--I'm the one edified and I don't know if I get to help them as they have helped me.

I am grateful to be alive. Life is wonderful and awesome. Even if I disagree with politicians, policies and family members. I have peace, love and gratitude spilling out of me.

I am grateful for my new van. I love it. I really love it. I love driving it. I love sitting higher. I love climbing in and out of it. It's a lot easier than Lance, our Ford Taurus. I love my new car. I am really grateful for it. The boys love it too. Which makes it nice.

Refocusing

I missed a few days because my dear Bug Hero needed our computer to do work and play. So I'm not putting this off until the end.

1. I am grateful for baptisms. We have a very special young lady in our ward who was baptized yesterday. She has fought off brain cancer, and is having some problems with her brain communicating with the rest of her body. She turned 8 on Friday and on Saturday she was baptized. I am grateful for her example, her smile and her love. She has the biggest smile on her face whenever I see her and she radiates the love of Christ.

2. I am grateful for the spirit at her baptism. You could tell that she is there, even if it's hard for her to communicate  but she was able to sing with her siblings, and she giggled as she came out of the font. There wasn't a dry eye in the room, including a lot of the little kids. The Friendly Hero talked a lot to me about how he was really happy because he felt that Jesus was happy with K***. I am grateful that he felt the spirit and knew where it came from.

3. I am grateful for family pictures. We took them yesterday and I haven't seen them yet, but I know that they are going to be awesome!

4. I am grateful for being kicked. I am feeling our girl move around a lot and I am grateful that she is healthy. I am grateful for her kicks, even though they are starting to become sharp and painful.

5. I am grateful that I know how to clean. Sometimes it doesn't look like I ever clean--but I do, and I am grateful that we are teaching the boys how to pick up their toys.

6. I am grateful for trains. The Peaceful Hero is on a HUGE train kick and loves to play with the trains. He will play with them for an hour--with minimal disruptions. I am grateful that he can focus on something like that. He's adorable as he plays.

7. I am grateful for family. I love talking to my siblings, to my parents, and to the Bug Hero's family. I consider them all to be my family.

8. I am grateful my Sunday School lesson went well. The kids responded to the group questions and were willing to share, even if they said that this was an awkward and uncomfortable topic. We talked about the Law of Chastity. But they were as mature and respectful as I could have hoped for. They are 13 and 14. And it was a much better lesson than last week.

9. I am grateful for the Friendly Hero. He says the funniest things! Yesterday, on our way to family pictures we told him that we were going to Purdue to get them taken. He responded with, "My daddy's work, I presume!" We are still laughing about it!

10. I am grateful for the Bug Hero. He is back from his conference, and it's so amazing to see things get done that I didn't do. He is so loving and helpful! I love his smile and his enthusiasm for toys and games. He competed in another tournament for his new game, and he won again! He got a prize gift card for winning. He's really happy about an inconsequential thing (his words, not mine).

11. We are grateful for extended family! We are going to go see an Aunt and Uncle for Thanksgiving and we are really excited about it! We love to expand our family circles!

Mustache Party

My younger sisters are awesome. (And my older sister--she is where we get most of our awesomeness from.) But my younger sisters started mustache parties. I think they're awesome--because I can still come--just borrow a mustache from a sister, and I join in on the fun.

Family

One of my dear cousins, got me on the Celebration of the Proclamation to the World. She participated by making a handout and I got on board. I am so glad that she did, because now the Bug Hero and I are working on our own Family Motto and Statement.

For Family Night, we talked about our Family name, and who is in our family. The Friendly Hero thought that all his friends who live next door were part of his family, and when we told him no, he moved on to his other favorite friends. (These live a whole 100 yards away.) Talking about who was in his family was a very important step. We did come up with a cheer that night, which the Friendly Hero loves to yell out: "We are the Oozes!* And We are AWESOME!"

Anyways, I would like to invite all to participate or read some of their posts by clicking on my button that is now on my blog. Also I came across a guest post on one of them, and I'm now taking up her challenge to read the scriptures to find the women in it. This also was amazing. The Bug Hero is helping me learn Japanese, and I learned yesterday how to say, "I am a daughter of God." "Ten no Otoosama no musume des." These little things are all adding up and I'm excited to study the scriptures and deepen my understanding of what it means to be a "Ten no Otosama no musume des." It's going to be a crazy, awesome experience.**



*This is the pronunciation he uses on our last name. It's pretty awesome.

**She challenges people to do it in a year--the four standard works, I'm going to try, but I'm going to study, so if it takes me longer, I'm not going to stress. I probably will have lots to say about little known women in the scriptures. She says there's a total of 588 different women in the scriptures. I'm excited to see if I get that number.