love this!

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

spencer...spencer...spencer!

i think I have mentioned before that my son spencer thinks i have a magic power. He thinks i can see through walls! He thinks that of course..because that's what I told him. Is that bad? About 6 months ago or so we were having issues with him not telling us the truth on a few things that we already knew about. We needed him to tell us the truth so that we could give him the lesson " you get in more trouble for lying than if you just tell the truth"!
Well, we couldn't get it out of him. Finally I told him I already knew what he did because I can see through walls. He totally believed me. He asked " can you see through ceilings too?" (I'm thinking, he must do some sneaky things upstairs so yes, I can see through ceilings too!!!). So we resolved the issues and we really have had no problems with him lying since. He always comes right up to us and tells us what happened immediately. And in return he has learned that we can resolve anything when he is truthful to mommy and daddy.
So, we have not talked about the "seeing through walls" thing for some time. And by the way, I can only have that magic power with my kids. But you know I remember as a kid if my parents thought we were fibbing about something they would have us stick out our tongue. If our tongue was green that meant we were fibbing. If it was pink we were all good. They told us that they were the only ones that could see the green on our tongues. That really worked for them, and this is really working for me so I'm sticking with it as long as I can.
Tonight Spencer was in the family room with Christopher and I was in the office. He kept kicking a ball around really hard, I kept asking him to stop but ofcourse he did not. Then as you all can imagine I hear a big bang and then a huge crash. I kept my cool, Spenc walked in the office and said "Mom" I said I already know. and he said...I know. I said why? And Spencer said because you can see through walls. YES!!!!!! We went in looked at the damage, picked it up, he said he was sorry and I gave him a hug. He knew he was not in that much trouble because he told the truth. Now some of you might think I'm a little crazy making him think this, but I think i am just pure genius and you are more than welcome to use it on your own kids if you want too:0)

a daddy invention

Is this amazing or what? Christopher is almost 2 and he of course is not walking on his own yet... but there are no walkers/ push toys out there that are stable enough for our little guy to strengthen his legs with and to practice walking.
Of course we could get a walker for him, and we will.... but that takes time and lots and lots of money. So, in the mean time daddy created this little walker out of pvc pipes. It is so amazing! He took Christopher to Lowe's with him to measure his hand to all the pvc pipes ( we wanted his hand to fit perfectly around it). Then he brought home a tall piece of the pvc and cut it down to the perfect height for Christopher. he made the legs wide enough and long enough so he could not tip over....Once he had it together Chris was off and walking with it in no time. Every day he gets better and better, and walks longer and longer. The great thing about this walker is it was fast to make and it cost us under ten dollars. Can you believe that? It's great because lots of families cannot afford expensive equipment, yet they have to in order for there kids to grow and progress. This is a great way to have their kids get around in there home. Anyways, we love it, and I am so proud of my husband. He would do anything for his kids. He is always thinking and thinking of ways to help make things as easy as possible for our little Chris. We think he is Superman!