Heat Wave

It's so beautiful with the sun shining, the birds singing, the snow melting...well, mostly. It's a balmy 46 degrees outside. How do I keep them cooped up on such a warm winter day?

Maybe the snow will be gone by Easter.

They build a fort out of half of the living room too. Now that's a winter thing to do.

Sam, while building it says, "Mom, is it ok if I just leave one way out of the living room?"

{that is unless I want to crawl under the blankets}

He's so thoughtful.

This is totally not working. I'll have pictures when my computer decides to let me use the ones I just uploaded

He's Helpful and other Emma things

Emma's on my bed.

I'm ironing.

The TV is on a country music channel and a video comes on where the cowboy is throwing hay around.

"Do you know what that is mom?"

"Ya, it's pretty cool." {admittedly not really paying very much attention to the TV or to Emma}

"No he's not."

"What? I think that's cool."

"No mom, he's helpful. He's out there giving hay to the horses and no one even had to ask him, he just did it on his own. That's being helpful."

"You are right Emma" {like always}

---------

Last night Clay had a little league wrestling match. There were alot of people in a little space. Since Clay is in one of the top age and weight brackets, he was going to be near the end. {we did not imagine he would be THE LAST, but we knew it would be awhile.}

Emma turns around with her cheeks pink, and her hands at her throat.

"I don't feel very good"

"You gonna throw up?"{frantically pulling her to a garbage can}

She coughs and spits a couple times. {a little social anxiety?}

It was clearly time to go outside. We went with Aunt Deb outside and got a little fresh air. Aunt Deb offered for Emma to go to her house and wait there until we were done with the wrestling.

She was a bit timid, but obviously liked the idea.

That was all she could talk about this morning. She gave a play by play of what they ate, watches, and did at least three times.

"Mom, do you know how much I liked going to Aunt Deb's last night?"

"I can imagine..."

"I want to have a sleepover."

{Well, if that doesn't tell you how fun it was, I don't know what would}

---------------------

Henry's Laugh

I've seen on tv and all over the internet, videos of a baby laughing hysterically. That baby has nothing on Henry. Just wait till you see him do the cha-cha slide.

Guatemala 2011

I got to go to Guatemala with Nate this year :) My mom came and stayed with the kids, and did a little tag team with Chris to keep the kids going while we were gone. They did great!!!

And we had the most amazing time. I've been looking at pictures and hearing stories about Guatemala and its people for the last 7 years...but the reality is...I had to be there to really understand.

Mark pulling teeth. He alone pulled about 100 teeth last week.

Hirsche Smiles Foundation: the group we travel with. Asorech: the group in Guatemala who finds places for us to work. {Their main work is to teach new planting methods and create systems to get drinking water to the Chorti indian groups living high in the mountains.
The new members of our Little League Wrestling Team above Olopa

("Europa: because it's so far away"...Horacio)

This is our way up the mountains from Zacapa. When our brakes went out on the way down, we got to ride the rest of the way in that green cattle truck.
Nate would go through the line about 10-20 people at a time to diagnose. I would put that on a piece of tape so when we had a chair open, I could get the next person in line for a filling or extraction.
Getting ready to work on Monday morning. This is La Perla, the hotel where we stayed in Chiquimula. By the end of the week we called it La Hurla by the amount of hurling that went on there that week, and because everyone could hear it all.
Horacio...what a good kid. He drove us a couple of days to our locations. He's waiting for a mission call. I told him he would go to the states because he understood everything we said...just wouldn't speak in english.

Beautiful baby!!!

Friday...Up at 6:00, leave at 8:30 for Guatemala City. 3-4 hr ride. Nate mapped it out. Market until 4, Temple from 5-7:30, dinner at 8. And miracle of miracles, it worked...mostly.

We had an absolutely amazing trip!!! It was very humbling to see the extent some people traveled on foot to have some dental work done. It was very humbling to see how they lived. It was very humbling to see that...with nothing...they are very happy people. It is so true that "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Mosiah 2:18

And I came away feeling like the one who was blessed.

{I'll post more pictures later...the kids need me}

12 to 2:34

In November, Sam got pinned in 12 seconds by an amazing wrestler. (that's Sam in the yellow and brown)

Last Saturday, Sam had to wrestle him again at a middle school tournament. He got pinned in 59 seconds.

Yesterday, Sam wrestled him again at another middle school tournament. He got pinned in 2:34 seconds. (that's Sam in the royal blue)

I'd call that improvement.

I don't think I was any happier when he beat the other kids he wrestled than when he had done so well against this kid.

Last week, when Sam learned he had to wrestle this kid, he came and told me about it.

"You nervous?" I asked

"A little" he told me

"Just remember, Sam...you are a better wrestler now than you were in November, so just do better than you did last time."

AND HE DID. I can't tell you how proud I was of that boy. Again yesterday, he was determined to do even better. He had analyzed how this other kids wrestled, and what he would need to do to do better. And he did. That's fun to watch!!!

5 Years, not 5 Hours

Just yesterday morning, there was a tiny little puppy sitting behind us at Sam's wrestling tournament. The girls went ga-ga, loving this tiny little thing. I mentioned to Chris that a tiny dog like that would be fun to have...in about 5 years. Well, it wasn't five hours later that the boys brought home this little thing.

Welcome, Cruzer. {the new Chevy car with an r at the end}

It had slipped my mind that Nate had done a little trading with a patient for this pure-bred Irish Setter who wasn't quite ready at Christmas. He is cute, but I think I'll keep my feelings about this to myself for awhile.

It's not too hard to see how the kids feel about it though...He likes to sleep with Emma. And there has been more fighting in my house the last 24 hours that there has been in quite sometime.

{"He's mostly mine, right?""No, he's all of ours, but I'm taking care of him the most." "wawa"}

{"I want to hold him" "No, it's my turn" "I never get a turn and you always do"}

kind of like that

Update

We didn't go to the hospital. Henry's fever went down, but he was still sleepy and needy. He woke up yesterday with a rash all over his body, and he seemed to be much more cranky!!! He just cried and cried. I guess with his throat feeling better it was ok to cry and cry and cry. The Dr. said the rash was viral and an indication that the sickness was winding down. oh, this is yucky. Henry slept through the night again. {he's pretty good about that...better than Emma even} But woke up having thrown up in bed, and just wanted sprite and some cuddles...now he's asleep on me and the kids have missed their bus. I'm sooooo lucky to have great friends who bring me dinner and shuffle my kids...any takers on laundry??? {jk}

Can't do a post without a picture....

Happy Christmas Morning Faces