Don't Blink...

...or this...

... turns into this!! Happy 12th K-shnips!! We love you!!

Happy Mother's Day

My good friend and brother is speaking in church today for Mother's Day. He needed some help. So I wrote a portion of his talk for him and these are some of my thoughts on my own mother this day.

In August of 1990, I was moving out of the home I'd spent the majority of my childhood. I had graduated from high school and was headed to BYU. It was my dream come true! I remember going to basketball games and football games and thinking that I wanted to go to BYU. I'd been working in the Special Events Office in the Marriott Center all summer long and was looking forward to moving into May Hall of Helaman Halls.

I packed all my clothes, and a few things to remind me of home. I found a small box with my things. It contained earrings and a note from my mom which read:

"Dear Amy, I'm so excited for you as you head into this new time of your life. When you wear the earrings, I hope you sparkle as much as they do. Have fun! And remember I am always here and I always love you! I'll miss you, but I'm glad you are not too far away. Check in as often as you can. Love, Mom."

This note is so my mom. She often left me little notes as I had important events occur in my life.

She was always there for me as I came home from school. I missed that at BYU as I would usually walk into an empty dorm room. Of course I didn't appreciate her being there at that time, but I do now.

She does always love me. Since I have had my own children, she has always been encouraging and positive with me. I love when she tells me we are doing a good job as parents and doesn't criticize or point out the things we are doing wrong because, of course, we are...what earthly parent is perfect. That's just what I need from her right now. Because anyone who knows me, knows that I am so much harder on myself than anyone else could be...and I'm pretty sure my mom knows this about me. Her positive comments give me the desire to work even harder at being a good mother and really doing a good job.

Thanks mom!! Love you!!!

Crib Climber

It is NOT a happy day at our home! The youngest, being only 20 months, has figured out how to climb out of his crib. Not good! I need to have the peace of mind knowing that he is sleeping safely in his crib at night...and for naps. He figured this out the night before last. Our solution was rocking him to sleep since we made at least 10 trips into his room to put him back in his crib. Yesterday at naptime, I also rocked him to sleep after 4 trips to put him back in the crib. The rocking took 10 minutes and then he slept for a half hour...sweet!! Super Nanny...apparently we need help!!

To My Family

I have been doing some thinking about events that happened on this day and I just want to tell my family that I'm so grateful for you...each one of you. Each of you are a blessing in my life!! Thanks for being the people that know how I feel and letting me talk about my feelings when needed and I hope that I've provided that same service for you.

As Hunter and I drove to St George, we were talking about the family I grew up in. That brought a conversation up about Tim. We talked about that day and how Hunter was told. His dad picked him up from Kindergarten Enrichment class he had two days a week. Jeff told Hunt he had some good news and bad news. I immediately knew the bad news, but wondered what good news Jeff could possibly tell Hunter...so I asked. The good news was that all the Lamoreauxs that live in town were over at our house.

Anyway, thanks for all of you and I love you!!!

PS...I enjoyed a couple of Jack in the Box tacos for dinner this evening.

GO COUGARS!!

We are all ready for the Cougars to play, are you?

Intense

Taft**Do you know what INTENSE means?**

Me**Yes.** But curious about Taft's thoughts I asked HIM what intense means.

Taft**It means really hard. I am doing this really hard {aka: intense} battle right now.** Gotta love the Lego battles.

My Monkey and The Class of 2014

THIS is how I found Monson earlier today. He is so busy with the most unusual things. Apparently, I did not polish the chrome to his high standards. I'll try harder next time Mons!!

In another unrelated matter, I had a pang of "time is moving too fast" yesterday. Kate brought home information on registering for Jr High. As I quickly glanced through, I noticed a bolded-outlined box that read "NEW FOR THE CLASS OF 2014!" YES...that is when Kate graduates from High School. That time already has a year assigned to it!! I paused for a moment and thought that the time is going way too fast. I admit...I did have to stop the welling up of tears. I just can't believe I'm at this point in my life with her. Gone are the days of her repeating things like *Don't cross that line,* *I want to see the broken bowl,* *Sarah burned the marshmellow...I was sad about the marshmellow* over and over and over again. Again...I just can't believe we are going to be starting Jr High.