Daradie's Day (a.k.a. Ohhhh the Joys of a Mom....)

Daradie. Daradie. Daradie. Love her to pieces. I can't believe how grown-up she is now. I can't believe how fast she picks up on things at school and church. I can't believe the questions she asks me (and I can't believe the answers I give her)!Picture of Dear Daradie sleeping. She can't just sleep with one or two and have them half-hazardly strewn about but she won't fall asleep until they are ALL lined up, facing out and sitting up straight. She makes me pooped just watching her "prep" for bed.
Just tonight while in her bedroom she was reading to me while I was adjusting her lamp. In the process, I moved her radio from her drawers to her bookshelves, bumped over 13 books she had lined up dominoe style on shelves, knocked down 5 rolls of the leftover toilet paper roll that she claims is going to be used as a snowman craft, stepped on her Hello Kitty slippers that were placed precisely by her bedside on the floor on top of a lacey pillow that was on top of a blanket that is now her "rug" and tripped and grabbed onto her scarf that was pinned to her cork board with 4 push pins and sharing 4 more push pins with her Home Depot wood shop apron. (Earlier this morning we had a discussion about push pins and booby traps. Push pins need to be in the cork board and not on the floor in the doorways of bathrooms, stairs and Koen's bedroom and that no one in this house is a spy and no dangerous booby traps allowed.) Back to the 30 second lamp adjustment.....After grabbing on the scarf I smashed her old science fair poster board that was converted into a shower for her doll using strings pulled from her pom-poms, several rolls of scotch tape and a pencil. All that before saying in exasperation, "I wish you'd just put things away instead of decorating everything you get your hands on!" (And then insert guilt of previous comment and wishing there were "take backs.")

Which leads me to things like above. That girl soaks things in. Seriously. That's Joseph Smith and the first vision. Notice what Joseph is saying, "Wow!" And then she explained to me that she would feel just like Joseph in her picture, "Wow! Just wow that I could see Heavenly Father. I wouldn't know what else to say but 'Wow!'" She asked me where she could read about Joseph in the scriptures. I showed her. She kept reading for awhile and then moved onto the Ensign magazine and read that until dinner. She gave a beautiful family home evening lesson of the first vision.

And that's what I have to say about Dear Daradie, "Wow! Just wow!"

A Level of Trust

Trust. A simple word that we hear and use almost daily. Let's take my family and home for example.I trust Dan in choosing awesome colors for paint. If curious, we went with the light tan and I was disappointed--at first. But as usual, Dan knows his color and now I love the paint job. I trust Dan in assisting his color blind wife (I do believe that I am the only female on the planet with this disability. But I think it's more the "meshing" of color coordination rather actual blindness. Love you for venturing in fabric stores with me, babe!) I trust him when he says that wearing shoes while painting the stairwell is harder than wearing them. I trust him when he says he'll paint it too fast to bother with getting a ladder out.A level of trust has now been extended to our 5 year old son holding a gallon of paint on a banister over the carpeted stairs without tarps.

I had no idea that I was so trusting of Koen and casually took the picture like it was nothing...why the heck didn't I rush over to protect the carpet? Sheesh. There are now levels and levels and levels of trust.

I'm Turning into my Mom

Now, my mom's not a bad person. She's taught me a lot of good things. So much that I'm slowly turning into her. When I was little, we had to ask first if the cookies or bread or whatever was just pulled out of the oven for us or for someone else. We had to ask which container we could eat the treat out of because the nice ones always went to a neighbor that needed them. Anyway, I've just realized this fact when I heard something like this....

The buzzer on the oven begins to beep and Koen is screaming throughout the house, "Mom! Mom! The buzzer's going on. Hurry! Don't let the cookies burn. Hurry! They're for someone else!"

And that's when it hit me. Not one cookie or loaf of bread or crock pot of chili was for my family. I'm now my mother that has taught her children to always give their best.

Ohhhh... the Joys of a Mom

While tucking Koen into bed last night:
Koen: I love this house and yard. I'm going to live here forever.
Me: No you're not.
Koen: We're moving?
Me: No. But when you get old you'll want to move somewhere else and find a new home of your own.
Koen: Why? I love this house. Well, mostly just the backyard.
Me: You'll find another house with even a better backyard when you're old.
Koen: Okay. I'll move when I'm 100.
Me: You'll move before that, trust me. Now close your eyes and good night.

This morning, I discover a continuation of the night's conversation:
Me: What are you doing?
Koen: I'm cleaning up because I'm moving.
Me: We're not moving.
Koen: No, I'm moving. You said so last night.
Me: You'll stay here a long time until you get older.
Koen: Like Ethan?
Me: No, lots older than Ethan. Probably even after your mission.
Koen: Can I stop cleaning?
Me: No, keep cleaning.

Phoenix Phun

Our destination: Sun City West, Arizona. Travel time: 5 days. Car was packed with plenty of movies, surprise presents for the dole drums, and snacks. We were ready to visit Grandpa and Grandma Bunny. (They were given that name per Daradie. She has fantasized about Grandma Bunny because of the coolness factor of her name and so they are both awarded the name "Bunny.") Our first lay over was in Las Vegas. Stayed at Circus Circus. Gave the kiddos a couple of free roller coaster ride tickets. (We secretly held some back for ourselves and ran downstairs once they were asleep and rode them ourselves.) Next stop was Arizona! Here is the whole gang at Grandpa Bunny's house. They were so worried that it was only 50 degrees there at the time. But hey, it was 50 degrees warmer there than at our house! Our kiddos were the only ones in the outside pool at the hotel. One afternoon we hiked to a waterfall and saw some petroglyphs along the way. (Petroglyphs are in the middle of the giant rock.) Cousin Aspen and Jackson came along with us. They were all glad to have someone to play and laugh and pretend with.
One night at the hotel we even had a fire alarm...at 3:30 A.M. Dan took the car keys and wallet and I just ripped off the blankets so we could wrap up in them. Daradie was "Miss Fire Drill" and told us all the procedures they did at school and how her parents were breaking all of them. We cuddled up in bedding in the car and watched a movie while we were all cleared to go back in. Every night we ran into some type of "interesting" problem in the hotels. This one just happened to be the most exciting for the whole family....for Dan and I. The kiddos were more scared and ole Daradie wanted her parents to behave more orderly in such a serious moment.

And a 4 generation shot with Great Grandpa David Johnson, Debbie, Dan, Daradie and Koen. Dan absolutely loves his grandpa. His grandpa collects guns, loves westerns, traveled all over USA in a motor home and has some great stories about his childhood. Plus, his grandpa thinks we moved to "God's country" and wishes he could travel more easily to spend all summer with us.
On the way home we stopped and toured the new bridge they built at Hoover Dam. While traveling, Dan and I played a little game during the many hours on the road. We kept track of how many states we'd come across on license plates and we found all but 11. Anyway, our kiddos did awesome in the car. It was a lot of driving for them. We had a few detours along the way such as road closures around Flagstaff from a severe storm, snow in Vegas (that town shuts down), an earthquake outside of Mesquite one night and witnessing the after effects of flooding from the Virgin River in St. George. And to think we missed some of those events by just hours!

As Koen said while being carried into bed, "I'm so glad to sleep in my own bed." It's good to be home...and begin shoveling off the sidewalks.