Pictures, pictures, pictures, and more pictures.

Rachel 3 months

Emma and Stratton

I love to swing.

Soooo COLD, but loving it.

You gotta love that face.

Emma on the Wii

What we do for fun on Tuseday night while Dad is at young men's.

Seth and his new glasses

Aarong can make some of the funnist faces. You may see

a few in the ones coming up as well. They just make me laugh.

My fingers, Yummmmm!

Mom look, I'm a puppy playing with my car.

More funny faces.

One day while feeding Rachel, Aaron thought it would be

nice to clean the floors and Seth took the picture, pretty good

if you ask me.

Rachel with her brothers. They will keep her safe no matter

what. (Emma was at preschool)

Such a happy, smily baby.

Growing so fast.

Kids grow so fast, and it has been a while since the last blog so here we go. Earlier this month we have taken Seth to an eye specialist because his left eye would turn inward. They ran a few tests and sent us home with a prescription for glasses. Seth has what they call accommodative esotropia most commonly known as crossed eye or crooked eye. The hope is that with wearing the glasses his strong eye will become weaker and the weaker eye will be come stronger, and when he gets older he will not have to wear them. He hates to wear the glasses because he can see better with out them, but is doing better at keeping them on. We have another appointment at the end of April to see if there has been any improvement or not. I may be predigest, but I think he looks studly in his new glasses. We love you so much Seth, keep smiling! You are truly a delight in our family.
Emma is loving every minute of preschool and learning more and more of just who she is everyday. She still is in love with princess and wants to be just like them in every way. She hates wearing anything other then dresses, because that is what princess wear. She is a great help at home and we love her dearly.
Aaron is becoming more and more vocal every day. He loves his dad and is attached at the leg or the hip once Jeff walks in the door from work. When Jeff has to leave again for young men's he has the biggest fit and just sit and cries and wants nothing to do with mom. (At least for the nest few minutes, until he realize attention from mom is better then none.) He loves shoes, outdoors, trucks, and balls. He calls everything a ball. We love you Aaron and are glad you are a part of our family.
Rachel, wow she is growing so big so fast. I remember when we brought her home, how tiny she was. Now she is much bigger and a bundle of joy. If you are ever having a bad day, just come and hold Rachel, she will brighten your day like no one else can. She has the cutest big smile and it's genuine, not gas. (Although she has a lot of that as well!) She tries to talk and makes the cutest baby noises. It is so much fun having her for a daughter. We love her to pieces.
Dad, is amazing, busy, and even more busy. Weather it is doing things around the home, working, out with a young man in the ward to help them know they are loved and needed, at meetings, home teaching, or with the young men's group. Jeff is a very spiritual person and wants nothing more then to serve the Lord. To give back to the Lord, what He has blessed Jeff and I with. I love you so much Jeff and am so grateful for all the hard work that you do. Jeff has a great outlook on life and as many of you know is always full of life and happy. I don't nearly thank him enough for all that he does. I love you Jeff!!!
Mom- well as for me. I am loving my life. I love the time I am able to spend with my children and with Jeff. Things are going great and I can't wait for the warm sunny days to take the kids outside and play. I love the summer time, just for that.

Lessons in Life

Today I had the opportunity to teach my kids an important lesson about life, or rather the lack there of. Death. To give you a little background, for Family Night each month we pick a topic to discuss though out the month, then tie it into something gospel related. For example in January we learned about hands then talked about the Saviors hands. For March we choose animals. Earlier this month we talked about how some animals help us and what they do, such as cows gives us milk and meat. Sheep give us wool and so forth. This week we talked about animals that are more for our fun and enjoyment, such as pets. We thought it would also be a great time to bring in the art of learning more responsibility and have the kids take care of a pet. While we would love a dog, we are not quite ready for one just yet. So we took the kids to the local Wal-Mart and let them pick out some fish. This morning as you may have guessed, we found one dead. When it came time to flush the fish down the toilet. Emma and Seth began asking questions about the fish. Like wear it was going? Would it come back? Is it just sleeping with it's eyes open? Who would watch the fish and take care of it? I saw a great lesson about death could be learned, so I sat them both down and told them that the fish had died. That we have a spirit and a body, when we die our body stays here on earth and our spirit goes to Heaven. In this case I told them that the fish went to fishy heaven. Emma with her tender little heart got all chocked up, told the fish she would miss it and then started to cry. There was not much I could do but hold her. Seth then chimed in and asked, did he (the fish) die just like Jesus, mom. I told him yes. He smiled a little smile, then said, then he will be okay. Then just like that they were both asking if dad could bring home another fish that they could name Aleeo Jr. after the fish (Aleeo) that died. By the way Emma named the fish.
Kids really are the greatest teachers. Here I was thinking how great of a mom I was for seizing the opportunity to teach my children about death, when in reality they were teaching me. Yes, I may have taught them a little about life and death this morning, but Seth reminded me of a greater lesson. One that means so much more then life and death. A lesson that really maters That when we do as the Savior has done, we will be just fine. For just like the Savior did only what He saw His Father do, we to must follow in the footprints of the Savior. Even until death, and then some. Life will always go one, what matters most is how we spend the time we are given. If we are doing our best to do as the Savior has done, then we will be just fine.