I don't have any pictures to go with this post, but I have to write down this little story. It's so sweet! And, actually, so typical of my sweet Anthon.

The other day Anthon had a friend over to play. Erilyn had had some trouble taking a nap at her usual time, so I ended up having her sleep in my bed downstairs. She was still asleep when Anthon came home from school so I told him that when his friend arrived, they'd need to play upstairs until it was time for her to wake up. He was totally fine with that.

When his friend came, Anthon immediately took him by the hand and whispered, "Steven, shh. Erilyn is still sleeping in my mom's room, so we need to play upstairs. You can choose what we do until she wakes up, but when she wakes up, she gets to choose at least one thing that we do so she can be happy playing with us, too. Okay? Do you understand? Erilyn gets to choose what we play when she gets up. But you can choose right now."

It was so sweet! He has the most tender little heart and is so loving and caring toward Erilyn. It just makes me want to cry everytime I see him help her with something without being asked, by me or her, or when he does something for her just because he knows she'll like it. He is really the best big brother. I love you to pieces, Buddy!

Tryin' out a kinky new 'do

For Church last Sunday, I wanted to see if I could get Erilyn's hair to be really wavy by braiding it. It didn't really work--her hair was still wet when we took out the braids the next morning, and what was dry was straight within an hour or two anyway--but she loved having the braids! She slept in them like a pro, and has been asking me to braid her hair ever since...and all her dolls' hair, and all her ponies' hair, and...well, you get the picture.

Be My Valentine!

The day before Valentine's Day, Erilyn and I went to Anthon's class party and celebrated with him at school. Erilyn loved it! And Anthon still loves it when I come to his class, so we all had a great time. Anthon was really sweet with his friends at school. He had made some valentines at home and he was so excited to give them to his friends. He has such a sweet heart and is really learning to think more outside himself and about how others might feel. So sweet! We celebrated at home by spending a week doing secret things to show our love and filling up our "Love Bank," a jar we decorated and filled with hearts for each kind thing done. Anthon loved looking for ways to show love, writing notes on the hearts and filling up the jar. By the end of the week our jar was totall stuffed! We then celebrated with heart shaped pancakes. I'm not very artsy, so I was pretty proud of myself for the pancake. Erilyn was so excited about eating heart pancakes. It's so easy to make a two year old happy sometimes! Hooray for sweet kiddos.

Catching Up...

Once we got back home from our Christmas travels (which included a trip up to Kanab, UT to visit The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, which the kids loved), we tried to get settled in and ready for Mindy to come stay with us and help me through the next few weeks. She has been amazing! The kids love reading stories with her, going for walks with her, having boat races with her, playing with her, and eating all her yummy cooking! I've been so grateful that she could come and help. Kirk might be even more grateful she's here than me, considering it relieved him of all the cooking and cleaning! Thanks for coming, Mindy!

I had a great birthday. Thanks to everyone who remembered! Anthon thought it was fun that my birthday was also a holiday from school, and we had a great day hanging out at home. Kirk had lots of birthday surprises for me (I begged that a cake not be one of them!) and it was a great day.

I've discovered that if I take two different medications alternately throughout the day, and try not to do too much, I can keep most of my food down. It's amazing how much more energy I have when I actually eat! I've finally stopped losing weight (something I'm not usually happy about), and feeling well enough to tell Mindy that she can get on with her life and her move to Vegas. She leaves on Saturday. I miss her already!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Christmas in Arizona

I don't have many pictures from the last couple of months. Trust me, the vantage point from my bed, the bathroom floor in front of the toilet, or the couch is just not the great. But the kids had a great time in Arizona for Christmas. I spent most of the time in bed, but I heard stories: lots of stories!

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas break.

Three Cheers for Captain Kirk!

Kirk is my hero.

At church a few weeks ago, a friend was telling me a story about a lady she knows who has been sick with her pregnancy. My dear friend went on and ON about her friends' husband. For the sake of story telling, let's say my sweet friend's name is Sally, her friend's name is Anne, and her friend's husband's name is John. Okay. So, here's the story. (And for my fellow book groupies, I'm quite certain my apostrophes are being used incorrectly, poor dears, but at the moment, I just can't summon my stickler to care. Sorry.)

Anne is pregnant. She has been having a very bad day. One evening, she herds her two little girls into John's office and says, "I'm done. I can't handle anymore today." John, feeling sorry for his wife, and apparently not on a student budget, books her a plane ticket to Vegas, a hotel for a week, and tells her to go on vacation. Since he works from home, he says he'll manage with the girls while she is gone.

At this point in telling me the story, my sweet friend Sally goes on and on about how wonderful John is and how every wife could use such thoughtfulness sometimes.

I didn't say anything, but in my mind I was thinking, "Oh yeah?! Have I got a story for you!"

Here's my story. I'll use my own name.

It's late November, and Sonja finds out she is pregnant. So far, she's not feeling too yucky, and she's keeping her fingers crossed since her last pregnancy caused her to lose more than 20lbs in six weeks and landed her in the hospital every week to get re-hydrated. It seems that one thing her body is VERY good at is getting sick while pregnant.

Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, she gets sick. Really sick. I'm talking twice-hourly throw-up sessions and the general wasting away of the body that occurs from a total lack of nourishment. She has to make a trip to the hospital to get some fluids and she thinks, "Oh dear, not this again."

But, like any knight in shining armor worth his salt, her dear husband, Kirk, rushes in to save the day. Despite being crazy busy studying for finals, applying for jobs, applying to take the Bar Exam, getting things ready for Christmas, working, and whatever else he had going on at the time, he completely took over my jobs as well. And I mean COMPLETELY.

For the entire month of December, and part of January, Kirk did ALL the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and errands. He did most of the parenting and child care, gave me tons of hugs and crushed ice, and managed all this while getting all of his own stuff done. And done well, I might add.

My HERO!

He is one remarkable husband and father. Even after my sweet niece came to stay with us to help, Kirk didn't relenquish all his extra jobs. A-maz-ing.

I love you, Kirk!