Hands

Lincoln played in the bathtub for 45 minutes - at least.  When he finally got out and I was clipping his nails, I exclaimed, "Wow, Link! You have really raisiny fingers!"  He examined them thoughtfully for a moment and then said, "Yeah...like Grandma Great's before she died . . . [another thoughtful moment passes] . . . And we really miss Grandma-Great, don't we mom?" Yes sir, we do.


By The Way...

...yes, Greg is home. My boys are overjoyed; it took less than 2 minutes for them to readjust to having him back. And almost immediately, the wrestling matches ensued.

Stick Figures

Michelle, Kassie and I each take a 3-hour turn with all the kids once a week, allowing the other mommies 6 hours of uninterrupted time for errands, cleaning, running, napping or whatever. Last week during Michelle's designated babysitting hours, Lincoln (who absolutely LOVES to draw stick figure portraits of mommy and daddy and has a strong appreciation for all things lovely), asked Michelle to draw for him.

Link: "Aunt Michelle, will you draw my mommy?"
Michelle proceeds to draw a stick figure with girl hair.
Link:  "Okay. Now she needs a shirt ... like mine."
"Okay, now a skirt."
"Now mommy shoes."
"Now a pretty necklace."
"And earrings."
"And a beautiful bracelet."
"And now her sparkly ring."
"That's good ... now can you draw my daddy?"
Michelle draws another stick figure, simple, no hair.

Link:  "Okay, that's good!"

Portrait of mommy and daddy, by Lincoln

The Love of a Boy

Porter was up a little late with me last night because he had an incidental nap during the afternoon. We were sitting together on the couch and he looks up at me with his blue, blue eyes and says in his sweetest little 2-year-old voice, "Mommy, do you miss our daddy?"

(Is your heart melting like mine did?)

Of course, I told him I did and that Greg loves him so much and can't wait to come home and wrestle and snuggle with his boys. 

Again with the sweet little voice:  (sigh) "Yeah. I love all my guys."  Because in this house, besides mommy, there's no one to love but all our guys.  And boy do we love them.  A lot.

Heavy on the Prayers

It seems like most of my posts have been on my children's prayers these days.  Not an apology by any means, just an observation.  In fact, I have become keenly aware of my children as three "tender mercies" while Greg is away.  They ground me, inspire me, make me crazy, and bring me joy each day.

I mentioned to my boys last week, after listening to a prayer in which we were "grateful for this day" and then proceeded to begin asking for things, that we should focus on being more grateful in our prayers. They listened. They are grateful that snakes and monsters and bears and bugs stay away while we are all sleeping.  They are grateful that "our lives don't have any problems." And this morning, after I said the prayer at breakfast, Ethan reminded me that we needed to express more thanks during our prayers. I then proceeded to begin naming things we could be grateful for: the beautiful snow-covered mountains, the Gospel, knowing that Heavenly Father and Jesus love us, the warm weather we have this week, strong bodies, a happy family, people who love us, a daddy who works hard, brothers who are friends ... and "no matter how many times we move, we always have a comfortable home."

Ethan then added:  "And no matter where we go, we're in the Promised Land."

Amen, Ethan.

Where the Wild Things Are

These are the most darling temporary tattoos I've ever seen. Application, however, was tricky.  If only my children understood the meaning of "be still."  They were magnificent, if only for 5 minutes before the wear and tears began to show. 

Happy Valentine's Day to the wild animals at my house. Love, Granny and Grandpaw.

Tough

Ethan has been gnawing on a piece of our Sunday roast for 10 minutes. He resists swallowing, claming he simply cannot. "I just can't get it past my uvula!"

A Child's Prayer

Porter has just begun requesting that he say his prayers without help.  The result? Some of the most darling prayers I've heard to date.  This morning's:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you that we got to go to bed and then the sun came to warm us up. InthenameofJesusChristamen."

It made my heart flutter.

Prayers

Greg has been gone for 2 weeks (and has 2 weeks to go) in West Virginia.  He is there training with the company for which we hope he will be doing private contracting work overseas.  His. Boys. Miss. Him.  Little do they know (yet) that this is just a small taste of the 3 months away/1 month home schedule that is looming. 

Anyhow, Ethan prayed at bedtime tonight and it went a little something like this: "...And please bless that daddy can come home soon, and come really fast when he comes home, but please don't let the police get his airplane because it is going too fast. Just bless him to come home fast...and safe."

It doesn't get much better than that.