spencer's house and old pals

 I had to work, so the girls went to Rachel and Spencer's.  They have a duck pond at their condo.  Julia likes to scream at the ducks.

 Kaelie and Avrie came down to visit from Rexburg ID (and their new baby Lyndee).  We had a great time....reading of course.  Both these girls started reading at 3 and both read very well.

 They also played together very well all day.  No fights.  Amazing.  They made this hut in the sandbox.  Basically they piled all the plastic junk we have in a big pile.

 Avrie is actually 3 months older than anna.

 They were posing here.

 Next morning we all went for a bike ride to the park.  Avrie was a trooper.  She rode the crap bike the whole way there with a flat and didn't complain.

 Oh yeah, we had spencer those days too.  I bit the bullet and fed him real food.

 He did well and is so cute.

 JJ + Trina and family came over too.  It was amazing to watch the girls play, just like old times.

 Look at these cuties.

 This is LL, isn't she beautiful?  Look at that hair!

 They picked a pear off the tree and were daring eachother to eat it.  Look at anna's face (eeewww)  Look at JJ's face (eeee).

 These girls.  I wish we all lived in the same neighborhood again.

 I hung up some laundry and I love the view of the mountains over the sheets that are blowing in the wind.  Life is good.

 More girls playing.

 Finding more junk in the sandbox.  It took approximately 30 minutes to get all the sand out of their hair that night.

 The mom's.  Trina, Kaelie and me.

 And a cute pose of Julia.  Kaelie and crew stayed at our place while we went on our backpacking trip to the uinta's that night.

biked to the pool

yesterday we were all up super early.  we biked to the swimming pool (alta canyon).  we didn't swim, but there is a part right near there the girls played at while I did some push ups and other exercises.  I think it's probably a mile to the park, so anna did a great long ride!  we even took a little trail home, i told her she was mountain biking. She loved it so much she asked if we could go for a family bike ride later.

we didn't.  Instead we came home and I cleaned up the house and she did her preschool.  then we ate lunch, got julia down and lilly came over to play.  they played for 2 hours, lots of imagination.  I think they are starting to get used to each other now and they play pretty good.  there is always some drama though, someone getting mad at someone else, then they get over it and say "it's okay, we are still best friends..."  hilarious girls.

then i had to work so we took the girls over to rachels.  they love to play with baby spencer.  julia loves to chase and scream at the ducks that live in her apt complex (quail hollow on 9th E).  We drove home, made some dinner for the neighbors and ourselves.  rich went to young mens.  There was a thunderstorm.   we walked over to some neighbors barefoot and anna stubbed her toe.  it looks pretty painful, she tore off a lot of skin.  she'll survive though.

rich and i packed for our upcoming backpacking trip this weekend.  we are thrilled to be going hiking again.  i think i love preparing as much as i love going.

today is busy. we have spencer.  amy is coming down from morgan.  kaelie is coming down from rexburg (and staying through the weekend at our house while we are gone).  lilly and brody are coming over this afternoon while their mom goes tot he dr.  it will be a good and busy day.  hopefully i'll take some pics.

we painted

i spent the past several days painting.  period.  I'm too lazy to get the pics right now.  I painted all the ceilings upstairs.  That's a lot of work.  I'm tired.  Then I spent a whole day prepping nad painting the walls in the front room, half green half white.  We are going to put up some wainscoating - maybe in the next 5 years......

grandma and grandpa buhler came.  joyce had a class reunion in peoa.  they were kind to take the girls most of the day saturday to great aunt hannah's and shopping.  I got lots of painting done.  and listened to "to kill a mockingbird" audiobook on youtube.

rich has been working on the landslide in north salt lake.  ive been working quiet a bit too.  I worked thursday and virginia came and watched the girls.  then she spent the day.  the cousins had a great time sliding off the guest bed in a huge box.  they played a good part of the day with the trampoline box.  i work tomorrow and the girls go to Rachel's house.  they love playing with baby spencer.

we are getting ready for our big backpacking trip (only backpacking trip) of the summer.  

annas been riding her bike like crazy.  she's getting better at going around curves and down hills.  I got my bob stroller back from rachel (she borrowed it but never used it) and so now I run along side anna with julia in the stroller.  it really honestly is a dream come true.  I've always wanted to be able to do that with my kids.

we found a new park today.  the girls were playing that they were driving to hippo land and then that they were vets and were taking care of the animals.  it was cute.

this afternoon anna got to go down and play at lilly's house.  she hasn't played at a friends house alone since we moved from portland....seriously.  no wonder she's got issues!  im glad we moved here.  but i'm still exhausted from all that painting and am going right to bed.

Julia loves aunt amy

Love amy: http://youtu.be/DwYNRefMFpU

tuesday

i worked for 2 hours
rachel watched the girls
they love baby spencer
we came home
anna and I made glitter butterflys per her request
she is good at drawing butterflies!
She even drew a proboscis (and told me "look, it's a proboscis!")
julia slept from 2:30 - 5
we went for a family walk/bike ride and got rained on
the neighbors trailer was broken into
kaelie is coming to visit next week for 3 days
there was a landslide in N Salt lake, rich was interested

splashing in the rain and a halloween boogie

we had a good start to our day.  I woke up at 5:30 and ran about 5 miles.  Then we ate breakfast and Anna straight away wanted to go for a bike ride.  So by 8:15 we were at the park splashing in puddles.  We came home, anna played her preschool game (julia watched) and the girls played outside while I washed, dried and folded 5 loads of laundry + cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen and vacuumed.  I'm not sure where all that laundry came from.

Anna was playing all sorts of imagination games today.  When I checked on them downstairs Anna was telling Julia that they were going to the fair (or maybe it was the circus) and she needed to bring the baby tiger along so it wouldn't get lonely.  Then during dinner she was playing a princess game and she said that the king died.  So I pretended to cry and she said "it's okay queen, we can remember the king by smelling the stinky shoes he left in the kitchen - he had stinky feet"  Not sure where that came from.  Then I said "hurry run, there is a mean wizard coming"  She RAN into the house and started wailing "i'm scared im scared, there's a mean wizard outside."  She was really scared, she thought there really was a wizard outside.  It took at least 5 minutes to calm her down.  Her imagination runs wild.

And then after that she performed this gem (im sure this song is on the "wee sing halloween" book I picked up for her last week.  She is crazy about holiday music):

Oh these girls.  I have to work tomorrow so we are going to Rachel's house.

sunday sunday

It was a good sunday.  Well it started out bad.  Anna peed the bed at 1, which woke us all up including Julia.  then they started to play in their room (we have all moved downstairs since the breakin).  We ended up moving Julia back out of the playroom and got back to sleep finally.

but then we woke up and it is fast sunday.  I had some chicken thighs in the fridge I needed to cook, and I wanted to try this tandoori chicken recipe - so we had a mid-east feast at noon (tandoori chix, tabouleh, hummus, homemade naan, indian rice pilaf and fruit).  It was amazing (or I thought so anyways).

rich and I both talked in church -he in young mens (his calling).  Me in relief sociecy (not my calling).  This is my talk:

When I think about Mary, the mother of Jesus, I think about her from my perspective – which is that of a young mother.  At this time in my life, I have two girls, 4 and 2.  I want everything for them.  I want them to be smart and kind and motherly and athletic and beautiful and nothing short of perfect.  I spend most of my day every day trying to accomplish that goal.  I also focus my spiritual growth on that goal, each day asking God to guide in helping my girls become the people God wants them to be.

So, when I think about Mary, the mother of Jesus, I see her experience through mommy goggles.  I think of the burden she had to raise Christ, the son of God.  She knew of the prophesies concerning his coming.  I can’t imagine the weight she must have felt when she realized that SHE was the receptical through which he would come!  I wonder how she went about making sure that Jesus grew up to be the Man he was supposed to be.  To find out what she thought, I turned to the scriptures.  There really aren’t a lot of scriptures about Mary.  But there is one section in Luke Chapter 1 that really stuck out to me.

After the Annunciation she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth.  In her conversation with Elizabeth it is recorded:

Verse 46:  And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

 48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

 49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy ishis name.

 50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

 51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

 52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

 53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

 

These scriptures gave me the answer to my question of how Mary went about raising Jesus, Listen to the words of these scriptures: “my soul doth magnify the lord” “he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden” “he that is mighty” “fear him” “he hath scattered the proud” “he hath put down the mighty” “he hath filled the hungry with good thing; and the rich he hath sent empty away”

Mary’s words indicate that the reason she was chosen as the Mother of Christ was her HUMILITY and lack of pride.  Mary was meek, lowly and obedient.  She knew God did not choose her because she was the best mom prototype around.  He didn’t choose mary because she was the most learned in scripture and thus could teach Jesus everything he needed to know.  He didn’t choose her because of her family, because of her beauty, because of any of that.  He chose Mary because he knew she was willing to submit to His will.  Her job was to do what God wanted her to do.  Her job was to listen to the promptings of the spirit and to direct Jesus according to the will of God.

Her quality of humility is further exemplified in the manner of Jesus’ birth.  If I was pregnant with the Son of God, I would think that we would be giving birth in the Taj Mahal of birthing centers.  I would expect to be waited on hand and foot!  But Mary didn’t expect anything.  Christ was born in a stable of some sort, his first bed a manger.  The first visitors were shepherds.  That is humility. 

I think Mary likely continued to teach Jesus with Humble Obedience for all of his growing up years.  Of Jesus’ home life, elder Robert J Matthews says:  The atmosphere of the home was one of obedience to the Lord as commanded in the divine law. It was at home that Jesus probably received his first lessons about the history of Israel and of past deliverances of his people by the hand of the Lord; here he also undoubtedly learned of the hopes and expectations for the future, as written in the scriptures. The preparations of his parents each week to observe the Sabbath, their attendance at the synagogue, their observance of feast days, and their preparations and conversations each year as they made ready to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover would be impressive object lessons to the young Jesus.

Mary’s humility led her to strict obedience to God’s commandments.  By living the way God wanted her to, she was able to help Jesus become the man he was foreordained to be.  It seems to me that the traits Mary exemplified should be magnified in each of us.  As I mother, I often have to catch myself and remember that my Children are not mine.  They are Gods.  It is not my job to turn them into musicians or scientists or what have you.  It is my job to help God shape them into the people he wants them to be.  I need to let go of the natural man, let go of my pride and the “vain foolishness of the world” and simply ask God to direct me, then listen to his direction.  I need to carefully follow the commandments.

But I think we can take it one step further.  We can allow God to direct us in the way we nurture our own characters.  If our objective is to feel better about ourselves, we will never become what he wants us to be.  We do as King Benjamin warns us in the book of mormon: yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Mary was a supreme example of the type of woman we should want to become: pure and clean so that she could be a receptacle to the will of God.  I hope that we can remember why we are here, and let go of our own will so that we too can be filled with the will of god. 

After church we decided to have some neighbors over.  We had the Rich's over for dinner, they live 2 houses down and across the street.  They have a 3 year old and 1 year old (both girls).  Anna lisa is an exercise instructor, so I like to get together with her.

That's pretty much it.  Richard is really excited about the pictrues from the game camera his dad got off the mountain in the uintas.