what's been going on

Obviously it's been a while since I've posted anything regularly here. Every once-in-a-while I toy with the idea of getting rid of the whole blog. So you know, I'm pretty sure I never will, so this is not a call for comments requesting that I keep it. If we haven't had contact in a while, though, feel free to leave a comment with your email address (I won't publish it) and I'll get back to you!

Everything has been going quite well - of course with struggles here and there.

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was great to have Spencer home for almost four whole weeks! His first round of boards is scheduled for 14 June, so he started studying for that over the break, but we had him around plenty. We love celebrating Christmas on our own. We always miss family, but while we are here we look forward to the opportunity to have our own family celebration. It's nice to be able to stay home and do things according to our schedule.
It was actually a white Christmas this time! On Christmas Eve we got a lot of snow. It was pretty fun - unnecessary for me, but fun all the same - especially because we didn't have anywhere to go. Traveling in snow is definitely not on my list of things I enjoy to do. Spencer took the boys out to play in the snow a few times and they really enjoyed it - until they got too cold.

On New Year's Eve we played Monopoly with our friends Steve and Lynsie. We (at least I) have a renewed love for that game. We had so much fun playing. We actually played twice over the break with them and had a great time.

Always around New Year's I think about my dad. My dad isn't a big fan of New Year's resolutions. He thinks that if you need to change something, change it. Don't wait for the new year. I agree with that idea. I also agree with my mom that the new year is a natural time to be thinking about those things and it's never a bad idea to re-evaluate. I had a nice time mentally reviewing 2009. 2009 was a good year for me. I learned so much and progressed in many ways. I still have many areas in which to improve, but who doesn't. I look forward to the eleven more months (one down already?!) we have of 2010 to continue to become the person that God would have me be.

The kids have been doing really well. Here are some much-needed updates on them:

Benny is doing quite well on going to the bathroom. There are definitely things we're still working on, but I'm pretty much done cleaning up accidents. He's enjoying more and more being a "big boy."

I need to get more puzzles to challenge Benny more. He can do all the puzzles we have in under an hour (3 24-piece regular size, 1 24-piece jumbo, 2 48-piece jumbo, and two train puzzles - numbers up to 20 and letters). Two of the puzzles we have are dinosaur puzzles. He and Andy love the dinosaurs. The other night to get the boys to eat the vegetables in the pasta dish I made, we all ate like dinosaurs. Yes, I was thinking of this movie scene. Hey, it worked. And it wasn't messy. Our dinosaurs use forks.

Andy is talking more and more. The other night at dinner I saw him working to get a three-word sentence out. He said, "Giraffes eat trees!" (Benny had been talking about how elephants eat from trees and Andy wanted in on the action.) Every day he's communicating better and it's fun.

Recently I discovered that Andy has a scar on his head (he's got multiple) that makes his hair stick out on his right side. After almost every nap it's sticking out. I'll try to get a picture some time. It just makes him look more like Andy.

A few mornings ago Spencer got up when the boys got up (he usually does, the wonderful man that he is!). The boys had been wrestling around having a grand old time without their pajamas! They ended up coming next to my side of the bed, huge smiles on their faces, wearing just their diapers, and Benny, happy as could be, proclaimed, "Mommy, we are skins!" I couldn't help laughing.

Lilia is growing up so much. I can't believe she's 7 1/2 months already. Where did the time go?! She crawls all around the house. She's been doing that for a while. She also gets to her feet as often as she can. She's working hard at being strong enough to stand all the way and walk. She wants to be with her brothers. She's a very happy baby and still mostly cries only when she's hungry or tired (and not even all the time then). Sometimes it's easy to forget we have a third.

Spencer's doing well and working hard at school. I'm so glad to have him around as often as I do. He makes great sacrifices to be with us whenever he can.

Benny is now a Sunbeam. I can't believe he's old enough to be in Primary. He's doing great. He gave the closing prayer in sharing time on Sunday. He asked for my help, but I think that was only because I was there. He did a great job of talking into the microphone and wasn't skittish. His first Sunday they made crowns that said "I am a child of God." The next day Benny wanted me to make crowns for everyone else. We enjoy being kings, queens, princes, or princesses around here.


We have white shirts and ties for the boys to wear to church now. They love looking like their Daddy. We got a shirt that came with a clip-on tie for Benny but Andy is still wearing one of Spencer's mission ties (I'm getting quite good at tying a shorter tie for him. Sunday I did it on my first try). Someday he'll upgrade to one his size. I also attempt to come their hair before church. My water spray bottle has something else in it so I've been using the iron sprayer to wet their hair. The boys get a big kick out of that. I say whatever gets the job done! Their parts never last very long, though, so I may just give it up. We'll see how it goes.


Lilia eats more food than you can imagine. Her growth spurts seem to be about every-other-week. On a regular basis she eats 8 fluid ounces per meal of pureed vegetables that I make. There is almost no water added to these vegetables. It's thick stuff. And when she's growth spurting, she'll eat 16 fluid ounces at a time. I can barely keep on top of it. You wouldn't know it to look at her, though. She's such a skinny little thing.


I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice for the --teenth time last night. I've read it almost every year since I was in 7th grade. And, if it's possible, I love it more and more each time. And I don't know how it's possible, but I almost forget how much I love it between readings. I think I get tired of all the talk about the movies and how good they are. The only movie version I've every really enjoyed is the 1940 version with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. I netflixed it and plan to watch it this weekend! I might be a Pride and Prejudice snob. Not necessarily a good thing.

This week we were preparing for the ice storm that his us yesterday. We haven't lost power (thank goodness!) and we're doing just great holed up in the house. Spencer's school was closed at noon yesterday through the weekend. We've been trying to tell the boys that his school is in our room right now and they're doing a pretty good job of leaving him alone. I probably need to be better than anybody else about that. I made bread and rolls yesterday morning because at the time we only had one loaf of bread left (Spencer picked a couple more up on his way home). I've always been able to make successful rolls, but yesterday I made my first successful loaves of bread. I had to borrow Lynsie's bread pans because I threw away my one rusty pan several months ago, but I think it's time to invest in some of our own. I'm quite enjoying it! I'm grateful to be in a position to be as prepared as we are. My biggest worry was not having Spencer when the storm hit and being alone with three kids and him being stranded somewhere. If I don't have to worry about that, I'll be just fine.

Benny "reads" Truckery Rhymes

This is mainly for grandparents and other family members. It's 9 minutes long, so you don't have to watch it by any means.


Grandma and Grandpa Cotterell gave the kids Jon Scieszka's Trucktown Truckery Rhymes for Christmas and the boys love it. It's a whole lot of nursery rhymes done with lots of trucks. It's really cute. At first I thought Benny only knew a couple of them. Last week he surprised me by sitting down and "reading" them all.

Emergency Response to Haiti

My dad has provided a lot of mental health disaster relief in the past (Columbine, Louisville flooding, 9-11, Indonesia, plus). While in California visiting my sister and her family with my mom and brother, he got called to go to Haiti. The church put together a team of medical personnel to assess needs, resources, etc. He left Sunday for Ft. Lauderdale via SLC, was rerouted to Miami, flew to Santo Domingo, then rode a bus from to Port-au-Prince where he arrived some time today.

The Deseret News has an article here with some information.

Any prayers are appreciated.

overheard

benny (from under his door waiting for quiet time to be over): "B- B- Ben-ny in the jet!"