No scurvy here

We're out of bananas again. I shouldn't be surprised since bananas are eaten like mom's homemade chocolate cookies at my house. It's exhausting though buying banana bunch after banana bunch just to turn around and it put it on my shopping list again. I mean really, how many bananas can 3 little people really eat?! This led me to think about the amount of fresh fruit that was consumed at my house in the last week. As far as I'm concerned, the results are staggering. No wonder the grocery bill is continually rising! :) Here are the stats:

3 lbs. grapes
4 lbs. oranges
5 lbs. pears
7 lbs. bananas
9 lbs. apples

For a grand total of 28 lbs of fruit!!! Now my big questions is, how will our budget ever survive the teenage years??

Rub a dub-dub, three kids in a tub

Tonight after dinner all three kids got in the tub together. They have only bathed together a couple of times before tonight because, naturally, I always fear for Charlotte's life with 2 rowdy boys and lots of water. Things were going quite well - the kids were all having fun - and when I stepped out of the bathroom to grab a couple of towels I heard a conversation that, to be honest, I'm surprised hasn't happened before now:

Landon: Hey Brayden - Charlotte doesn't have any privates (what we call, um, you know, the parts...)

Brayden: Yes she does.

Landon: I don't see them...

Brayden (in all his 4 year old wisdom): Well, she has privates Landon. They are just iiiiittyyy-bitty.

That seemed to satisfy Landon and really, I probably should have stepped back inside the door and taken the moment as a teaching opportunity about the differences between boys and girls and Adam and Eve or whatever else is supposed to happen in those conversations, but tonight I was more than content sitting back and getting a good laugh out of the 4-year old wisdom that is so often flung around my house.

Wii

I will preface this post by stating that we are really not video game people. I have especially strong feelings about kids playing video games (for long periods of time, unsupervised) and I basically vowed to never have video games in our house. And then the Wii came along and even me, the non-gamer that I am, became enticed. Ryan had played a bit with Brayden at my parent's house and they had a blast. Then Ryan and I played with Ryan's sister and her husband and it was so fun. So, when Ryan brought up the fact that he wanted one, I didn't even put up a fight. If anything, I encouraged. :) Our only problem has been finding one, and that problem ended yesterday.

Ryan came home last night from work with a Wii in tow and we all had so much fun playing! The boys played tennis and golf with Ryan before dinner and then once the kids were in bed, I took their spots and played with Ryan. I think I even have tennis shoulder (I'm sure that's not a real thing) from playing last night. Ryan and I started out playing tennis doubles and we were rockin' (it doesn't matter that we were playing at the beginner level). If only the boys could have seen us play I think they would have thought they were in a parallel universe or something at the way we were behaving. Every time we won a game it was a mini-celebration full of lots of "Woot Woot!" and very bad dancing. It was awesome. The golf was pretty good too. Towards the end of our game I was even getting pretty good at "reading" the greens and various wind speeds. Ryan swore I was taking way too much time on each shot for a video game, but I think he was just sore that I was beating him. It seems as though his athletic dominance may be coming to an end around here. Thank you Wii. :)

My New Calling

So today I was called and sustained to be the Young Women's President in my ward. Needless to say, I'm a tad shocked. Actually shocked doesn't quite do my emotions justice...more like OVERWHELMED!!! As I was standing in Sacrament meeting getting sustained, my hands and legs were shaking so badly I thought I was going to collapse. The enormity of the calling was definitely starting to hit me.

Despite all of my anxiety, I am SO EXCITED for this calling and for the opportunity to work with the young women in my ward. They are all amazing! I am also excited for Ryan and his new calling. He was released from Young Men's and is now Brayden's primary teacher. It's really cute to see my two little twinners head into primary together. This whole experience has also been a big testimony builder to me of many simple truths. First, that we are all important and known by our Heavenly Father. As I was choosing my counselors and advisors, I felt the spirit literally speaking to me - telling me the names of the women that should hold those positions. I could feel so strongly that Heavenly Father knows me and is aware of me. Seriously that has to be one of the greatest feelings ever.

Secondly, as I was sitting in class today looking at each of the young women, I began to realize how strong they are required to stand everyday to overcome the wiles of school life. I immediately became extremely grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel in my life because although I don't face peer pressure anymore, there are many challenges in my life that I am able to overcome because of the basic truths that I hold dear. I am thankful to know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that he came to this earth to die for me (and you) so that we can return to live with Him someday. I am thankful for the ability that I have to pray - and listen - to build a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father. I am thankful for the scriptures that we have, that I can learn from those that have gone before, and also learn what I can do to become a better person. Right now, I am most thankful that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with this stewardship. I feel totally inadequate, but extremely thankful. As I said to the young women today, "It's Party Time!" but I am definitely going to need prayers - and lots of them!

Happy Love Day!!!

Sunshine....FINALLY!

While Ryan and I were engaged, Ryan got his job offer to come to Portland and work for PwC. We were so excited as we had both been to Portland and really liked it. However, we had both been to Oregon and the Coast in the summer when Oregon weather is unbeatable. The winters here are a totally different story. I don't mind the rain, it's the lack of sun that drives me insane. By the time it reaches February, and I haven't seen the sun in 4 months, I can hardly pull myself out of bed in the mornings. So, when I woke up this morning and the sun was shining (and my thermometer read 58 degrees!) I thought I had died and gone to sunshine heaven. Ryan was even joking that when he went outside and saw the sun he had to shield his eyes because he was "blinded." We definitely could not ignore the beautiful weather so we tossed our to-do lists out the window and had a play-day! After playing in our yard this morning we went for a walk to a nearby park to play this afternoon. There were tons of families at the park and I even overheard 2 women talking about how the sunny day would allow them to skip their light-therapy session this coming week (for those of you that don't live here, this is not an unusual thing in the wintertime.) As always, it was so fun to spend good-quality time together as a family. Also, Brayden has wanted to learn how to cross the monkey bars all by himself since was 2, and today he did it! I was so proud of him!