Summer

So, due to the fact that I posted at the beginning of the summer, and then pretty much not at all after that, I figure I'll have a summer recap post. (Where did summer go??) This will pretty much be a random conglomeration pictures, events, etc. But, then we can move forward with fall.

So, here we go.

Fathers and Sons. Mike and Bradley had a blast, even though it got cancelled because of the rain. I was proud of my little man for sticking it out in the rain...until 5 am, at which point he woke Mike up and asked to go home.

Girls Camp: Fantastic. It was so much fun being with those girls. I pretty much got to spend a week with some of the most amazing people I know.

These two came to help pack up camp. What good helpers!

My Birthday: Umm, 30. Wow. I am old. I was actually at girls camp on my birthday. We were up at midnight, and we did dance around the fire. Best Birthday Ever. Unfortunately, no pictures of that. But, here are some pictures of my joint birthday party with Jess.

Megan Leaving on Her Mission. (She leaves for Taiwan TOMORROW!! Crazy)

Bradley saying goodbye to his Aunt Mimi. This picture makes me cry every time I see it.

Noah saying goodbye.

Eating at the Brick Oven before MTC. A family tradition.

Me and Meg.

The original 5. Me and my awesome siblings.

Noah's First Haircut

Family Reunion at Bear Lake (my mom's side)

This is me, wake boarding. You have now witnessed a miracle for the day. Mike also got up, on his 2nd try. But we don't have a picture of that, just a movie. :(

Daddy and Bradley on the boat

Love this picture.

Family Reunion (Mike's dad's side)

Antelope Island Moonlight Bike Ride. I will admit that the pictures would be much more impressive if it wasn't dark outside, but what do you do.

Ward Campout, and by ward campout, I mean my parents ward. Noah's first time camping. He did okay, except that he wanted the entire queen size mattress to himself. :)

And, last but not least, Bradley's birthday "party". AKA, family comes over for dinner. Because he's three.

And here are just a few pictures of my kids, because let's just face it, they are pretty darn cute.

I told Bradley to go up and put his underpants on and this is the result. This is a great example of "over zealousness". :)

This kid loves ice cream.

And that was our summer in a nutshell (with a lot of crazy in between :)

Bradley is 3!

Prayer Answered

I had a prayer answered. Today, Bradley somehow realized that pointing his finger and yelling “NO!” at Noah reduced Noah to sobs. (Anyone that knows Noah knows that he is a little dramatic, so these were very sad and dramatic sobs) So, naturally, Bradley continued to do that CONSTANTLY. And the hard thing was, even in timeout, or strapped in the car, he could still do it, even if he wasn’t close enough to touch Noah. So pretty much Bradley spent a good part of an hour in timeout and Noah spent that same part of the hour in hysterical sobs. And I spent that part of the hour in complete dismay and confusion. What do you do? I couldn’t explain to Noah that if he would just ignore Brad, then Brad would get bored and stop. And the more I got mad at Brad, the more he would do it to get the attention. Really, I wanted to leave him at home while Noah and I went to the park together, but obviously, I couldn’t leave my 3 year old home alone.

So finally, when I knew there was literally nothing I could think of to fix this, I announced that we would be saying a prayer. So we all folded our arms, and I prayed that Noah could feel happy and that Bradley could be kind. Then, I took them both out to the car so that we could go run some errands. (Oh how I was dreading the errands with these two boys).

Normally, once I strap them in and they can’t touch each other, everything is fine. But, as previously mentioned, Brad didn’t need to be close to Noah to torment him, and the screaming recommenced. So I cranked up the radio as loud as I could (without damaging any ears) in hopes that I could drown out Bradley screaming “NO!” over and over. Unfortunately, commercials. Change the station, commercials. Every pre-programmed station on my car, commercials. So I hit the CD button, with literally no idea what was even in there. Guess what was in there. Church Music. Yes, that is correct. Church. Music. Some mix of all my favorite most edifying church songs, hymns, efy, etc. And, the screaming stopped. And Bradley said, “Too loud, mommy.” So I turned it down a tiny bit, but left it on.

And I began to drive. As I’m driving, I start to remember the kind of mom that I actually want to be in this situation. You know, that mom that has it all together and is patient and loving even when her children are trying really really hard to convince her that they are actually monsters from another planet. I took a deep breath, and thought, “What would that mom do?” Well, I don’t know what that mom would do because in reality, I’m not her...at least not yet. But I decided that I would bag the errands. So, we turned around, went back to the house, grabbed the stroller, and drove up to 2nd Dam where we went on a little walk and sat beside the water and threw rocks for about an hour. There were ducks, there was a breeze, it was the perfect temperature, and it was beautiful. I was happy. The boys were happy. It was so great.

Then, we went home to grab some lunch. As I pull up, I see Mike’s bike there (meaning he is home, in the middle of the day) He had left his computer cord home, so he came home for lunch to pick it up. I walk in the door, and the kitchen is cleaner and lunch is made and waiting for us on the table. How often does this happen in my life? Close to never. (not because my husband isn’t awesome—because he is—but because like most awesome husbands, he does have a job)

So, basically, what this all comes down to is that I know that God answers prayers. Today he answered mine with music, nature, and my wonderful husband. And I am feeling really, really grateful about it.