This last weekend marked almost exactly one month since Evelyn turned seven. It also happens to be the weekend that we actually celebrated this event with a party. A little late, I'll admit- but it was still a great party. In fact, I would opine the the sheer awesomeness of this party was enough to outweigh the belated circumstances of the event.

Evelyn invited a lot of her school friends that we did not know, and it was fun to put names to the faces of the people she talks about playing with. It was also reassuring to see how well they knew Evelyn and the things she liked- all their gifts were extremely appropriate even though we never said anything to the parents about what sorts of things Evelyn was into. I don't know- I guess every parent wants to know that their child was doing okay socially, and this party was good to put any worries we had at bay.

The theme for the party that Evelyn chose was Ninja turtles. This was was pretty awesome- forget the "girly" stuff and go straight for the ninjas that were my childhood heroes. Yep- my daughter is pretty cool. Also, even though we offered to host the party at a skating rink, a climbing wall, an indoor swimming pool with a water slide, or a bounce house, Evelyn was adamant that the party be held instead at our own home. Plain and simple. We did our best to decorate, and I think we pulled it off pretty well. It was also kind of cool to me that Evelyn likes our house that much and was excited to invite her friends over.

As far as Rachel and I are concerned, we had a pretty normal week. On Friday we went out and watched the Gonzaga game (it's kind of a big deal around here), We also went out with some friends on Tuesday evening (St. Patrick's day) for a double date which was interrupted by a bagpipe band. Hey it's live music, right?!

This coming weekend we have our first BBQ of the season planned for Friday, and we are going out to see the Best of Broadway performance of Camelot in Spokane on Saturday. Next week is also the week that the mountaineering club I am a part of begins it's weekly climbing trips (as long as it isn't raining). In other words, there is a lot to look forward to.

Here are some pictures of the party. Have a good week!

All but the two most important things- cake and pizza! We had those too though. What's a Ninja Turtles party, after all, without pizza?

Green Slime Cake. This was good.

I think we got at least most of the people here. It's hard to say though- our house got pretty hectic and there could have been some people in the back still.

For the beginning of today's post I want to start by pasting something in that I wrote a couple of years ago. If you don't want to read it, then go ahead and scroll down to the page break:

When I was 14 years old I discovered music. It changed my life.

Before that time I was definitely exposed to music. I had taken piano lessons for years (more on that next week), and I had played the trumpet and the French horn in the school marching band. There was often background music in our home as well, although it was almost exclusively soft religious or instrumental music. We kicked up the tempo a little bit around Christmas time with the Osmonds (now that family was wild!), but by and large, I would say that my musical upbringing was…tame.

And then my family moved. We moved to Rexburg, Idaho which, as you can probably guess, was about as different a place as you could imagine from my California home. During this move I came across a box of cassette tapes that my dad had saved from his days as a missionary in Japan. I took these tapes and I hid them in my room on my closet shelf. At night time, after I was sure nobody was watching, I would covertly take out my new Walkman (for listening to religious talk-tapes of course) and listen to these newfound treasures.

Most of the tapes contained correspondence between my dad and his brother, who was also serving a church mission at the time in the Philippines. The back-and-forth between these two brothers gave me worlds of insight into my father, and I am extremely glad that I listened to them. The tape that changed my life, however, was different. Rather than a date scrawled on the tiny sticker across the top of the tape, this one was labeled with a single word written in all capital letters- BOSTON.

I curiously put the cassette into the Walkman, wondering when my Dad’s family had ever visited the East coast. What I heard instead totally blew me away. The music coming through my headphones was like nothing I had ever heard. The first three tracks blended seamlessly into an epic rock-and-roll tour de force. And then, with the fourth track, came one of the most emotionally, heart-wrenchingly beautiful blends of guitar and vocals that I had ever heard (never mind that electric guitars were a foreign species in our home to begin with).The experience I had that night was nothing short of transcendent for my fourteen-year-old self.

It is only in retrospect that I *think* I can describe what happened to me that night. The best way I can understand it is that I started to learn a new language. Or rather, I recognized this language for the first time as one that was a part of me. Different from other languages, though, music was not spoken with words to be filtered through an imperfect and prejudiced mind. Sure, words are fabulous at explaining ‘things,’ and a person who has a mastery over them can even, at times, describe certain ‘ideas’. But words will always fall short when it comes to communicating ‘emotion’.

I do not believe that we feel emotion with our minds, but instead with our hearts, our intelligences, our divine sparks- our souls. Whatever you want to call it though, words are, at their very best, hit-and-miss when it comes to stimulating this vital part of our human natures. And what’s more is that I have found that most of the important things in life- things like love, faith, fear, reverence, solidarity or passion- are best understood, not with our logical minds, but with this deep emotional part of ourselves which words can’t touch.

And that is where music comes in. In music, words are secondary. Ironically, this makes them all the more poignant-for the words, if needed at all, can bypass the mind entirely, being carried by the music directly to the heart of the listener. The words are then delivered as a perfectly packaged offering to the soul.

Ever since I first recognized the language of music for what it was, I have allowed it to fill my life with its many varieties- there is a place for all of it. Granted, that certain musicians are more adept, and certain genres are better than others at conveying specific ideas, but they all speak to me- to us, I believe- as human beings. And as I have done this I have found a source of inspiration, enrichment, and growth that has made me into the person I am today...

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So- why did I post this little thought? Because, I still love music just as much as ever, and especially when that music is found in a live venue. I love watching skilled musicians who seem to enter into another world when they pick up their instruments and just become lost in the music they are making. There is something extremely compelling and almost spiritual about it. Whatever it is, I love it. And so I try my best to get at least a weekly dose of live music, usually with Rachel along as a partner to enjoy fine dining and/or good conversation with. Truly, this is one of the finer things in life that I am privileged to partake of on a pretty regular basis. 

Rachel and I at a Blues establishment we went to last week. We will definitely be back.

On that note- I'll let the world know how disappointing it was that Alice In Chains is coming to Spokane and sold out in one day, leaving me and a lot of other people empty handed. We'll see what Craigslist has to offer though- perhaps there is still hope (if you are reading this and have tickets then feel free to contact me through this blog).

Changing gears a little bit, I want to go back and post a bunch of pictures that Rachel had on her phone (Rachel's pictures usually don't make it onto the blog). Some of these are recent- some are not. Either way, it will give you a glimpse into our lives.

Enjoy :)

For our weekly family dessert night Evelyn made leprechaun hats this week to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. 

The leprechaun hats were quickly devoured.

This was last week- we went to the children's museum in Spokane. This is one our our kids' favorite places.

I'm not sure when this was taken- about a week ago maybe. It just a picture of Evelyn on a normal day, about to go to school. (And a dirty diaper in the background)

This was taken sometime in the past few weeks. We are trying to get more pictures of Lindsey on here. She is definitely a "youngest child", and the lack of pictures is, sadly, evidence of this fact. 

Rachel with some of her friends at a Pinterest party that she hosted a while back.

This was a long time ago- like last Summer. Evelyn took an art class and in it they learned how to "Zen-tangle." This is Evelyn's creation.

Evelyn wanted me to do a Zen-tangle as well. This is what I came up with. I think it's pretty good.

Just Addy. I have no idea when this was taken.

This was semi-recent. The kids like to arrange random things to make "art." Some of the stuff they come up with is pretty ingenious.

The kids and the stuffed Animals they got for Christmas. These have become some of their favorite toys.

I didn't take this picture. Rachel didn't take this picture. It looks like we have an anonymous budding photographer in our midst.

Before I get into our week I want to take a moment to tell about a friend of mine. He is a climber- a good climber. He began climbing in the 60s and has done a lot of the "big-name" routes in Yosemite, Oregon, and Colorado. Obviously, he isn't climbing now at the same intensity, but he does climb regularly (I climb with him almost on a weekly basis) and he is a super fun person to hang out with because of his stories and his seemingly intuitive knowledge of all things that have to do with climbing in general.

Anyway- I mention him here, because I found out this week that he took a fall. A big one. He hit the ground from about 60 feet feet up and landed on his back- breaking several bones and putting him into physical therapy. He'll probably never climb again...at least not the way he is used to.

The crazy part? This happened in a climbing gym. Despite all the safeguards against such occurrences, he had forgotten to double check his harness and belay. In the end, it was his own complacency that led to this accident. I am not saying this out of any disrespect for him at all, but as an honest acknowledgement of the realities that led to this incident.

This is troubling to me on so many levels. This is a person who has been in some really extreme situations, and who has come out mostly unscathed to tell about them. He has done way more than I have, or that I will probably ever do. He was a "master of the rock," and yet he made a simple mistake that has led to catastrophic consequences.

And while the climbing community around here is coming together over this, and is reaching out in support, I think it is important to take a lesson away from it as well. Do we ever get complacent? Do we ever get so comfortable with things- in climbing or in other areas of our lives- that we forget to be on our guard? If it could happen to this man, then it can happen to anybody.

Let's not forget to be safe.

Okay. Enough said about that. On to our week.

This weekend, Rachel interpreted for the annual LDS event "Time Out for Girls." This is a big meeting where LDS celebrities like John Bytheway, Elaine Dalton and Hank Smith (who is that?) basically go on tour to speak specifically to the young women in the church about issues that effect them. Rachel had a fun time interpreting it.

And I had a fun time with the kids. Since she was gone, we had a lot of "Papa Time" this week. I asked the kids what they wanted to do and they said they wanted to go backpacking. Twenty minutes later we had each packed a lunch and our coats, and were on our way to a trailhead.

We had a great afternoon hiking around, picnicking, and exploring the beautiful area where we live. I had Lindsey on my back as well as mine and Maren's stuff. The other kids carried their own packs and they all did great. I am excited that they are old enough for us to do this kind of stuff.

Also, on Sunday I took Addy to a local community theater (CYT) production of Pocahontas. Rachel and I try to go on one-on-one dates with our kids on a pretty regular basis, and this week it was Addy's turn. The play was a lot of fun- lighthearted and playful enough for Addy to be totally engaged, while at the same time deep and insightful enough to hold my interest throughout the entire thing. The kids doing the play did a great job and a huge shout-out has to go to them and their parents that made this production possible. Way to go, guys!

Alright- I think I got the main things in for our week. I need to run off for work (lots of positive changes happening there that I'll mention in a later post), and I'll finish off with a few pictures.

Have a good week!

 Here are some pictures of our hike

Me and Addy and "Pawhatan"

I just looked at our blog. Wow! Has it really been over a month since I posted. I guess so. I need to step it up.

I hate starting blog posts like that. So negative and self depreciating and redundant- it doesn't get any information across that isn't already immediately obvious to anyone who is actually on the blog. But I'll leave it as a way of punishing myself so that maybe I'll have more motivation to write more often. Let's call it "aversion therapy," the aversion, in this case being the fact that I have to live with own bad taste in writing.

Whatever. Let's move on.

So...As you might suspect, February was an extremely busy month for us. Of course every month is pretty busy when you live our chosen lifestyle- but February stands out even for us. I had my busiest month of work in over two years, we had two birthdays, we maintained a very active social calendar, and we went on a family vacation to Utah and S.E. Idaho.

Let's take those things one at a time.

Work. I'll make this short. Work is going very well. I really like working with other doctors. I really like the team at the office. I really like that I am not the guy that has to be in charge of all the stressful stuff. I really like the amount of money that we are making. I really like all the cool stuff I am able to do as a doctor in this office because of the really nice technology, large CE budget, and support from colleagues. In brief, I really like my job. Things are good.

Maren's Birthday. My Maren is three! She seems so much older to me than our other kids did at this age. Maybe it's because her older siblings have forced her to grow up quicker. I don't know, but I am really enjoying her at this stage. She is pretty much the sweetest three-year-old ever...to me. Addy might tell a different story though (they have a hard time getting along). It is common for her to just come to me out of the blue and say "Daddy, guess what?" and I say "what" and then she'll give me the sweetest smile and say "I love you!"

Add caption

Not the best pictures, but it's all we've got.

Maren with the Elsa dress she got for her Birthday

Evelyn's Birthday. Seven. Wow. I have a seven-year-old. Every once in a while I look at Evelyn and I have to remind myself that this is the same girl who I was taking on bike rides through Cuyahoga National Park just a few short years ago. Now she is reading chapter books and has her own ideas about things and is developing into an amazing person who I love spending time with. And I make sure that I remind her EVERY night that she will always be...My. Little. Girl...No matter what...Even when she's big. And then she reminds me EVERY night that I will always be Her Awesome Papa. Yeah- it's pretty sweet. We'll see if she still feels that way in five to ten years. I hope so.

Me and Ev on one of our recent "Papa-Evelyn dates." Let me tell you, that water was COLD. She didn't seem to think so. I must be getting older. And wiser.

Evelyn with a dress she got for her Birthday. She is so grown up!

Social Calendar. This is mostly Rachel's territory. I'm just her "accessory." (She's not going to like that I put that. It's not totally true either...but it is a little bit true :). Anyway, we definitely have a lot going on. Besides stuff for the kids (school stuff, preschool, playdates, etc) and our own family traditions (Kroc night, dessert night, family walk night, family movie nights, one-on-one "dates" with the kids, etc.), Rachel and I meet with a group of friends every week to discuss...stuff. We also have had double dates and group dates with people on a weekly basis for the past long time, and it is pretty much just becoming the norm for us to have two date nights each week- one with friends and one with just us. It's fun. Also, Rachel hosted a pinterest party thing at our home this last week. I went and played with the kids during this time, so you'll have to talk to her about it. I think they made wreaths or something.

Family Vacation. We had an awesome vacation in Utah visiting Rachel's family. We also got to squeeze a little bit of time in with my family since they were nearby. We even got to see Griffin who was in Utah for some work-related stuff. It was fun catching up with people and strengthening family relationships in a way that just can't be done from afar. We also did a lot of activities and the kids had a great time. They are already asking when we can go back. I don't know- maybe we'll have to make these trips more often. That would be nice.

The kids and I went on an outing to Mcdonalds and Scheels while Rachel went out with her mom for the morning. This is on the ferris wheel (obviously). We took about a hundred other pictures, but this is the only one I'll actually post.

Grandma Almond has a great dress-up box that kept the kids busy for hours

You always have to get a picture next to Grandma's dragon mailbox

We went to the curiosity museum. The kids were a nice excuse to play at this place-  I could seriously come here by myself and have tons of fun if it was socially acceptable. What an awesome place.

We did a birthday party for Ev and Mar while we were in Utah. Very fun.

And here are a few other random pictures:

I came home early from Utah so I could work...and play. I have to admit, it was nice not having kids around for a while. This is one of the hikes I went on. I LOVE WHERE I LIVE! (Have I said that before?)

Not really sure why I'm including this picture even. This is an old bike that's been sitting in my shop for years. I finally came to terms with the fact that I will never get around to fixing it up and I gave it away yesterday.

Jack. I really like this guy. He won't let us cut his hair.

I was outside cleaning the yard when the kids said they had a surprise for me. This is what it was- a picture of some of the things I love. 5 kids, 5 guitars (the other electric one is absent in this photo), children's artwork, and...a Barbie? Hmm. One of these things doesn't belong.

Have a great week!

"You must be busy"

It is Saturday afternoon and Logan and I are out and about with the kids.  We arrive at Wal-mart in style in our light green Toyota Sienna mini-van.  So far this is a pretty normal occurrence at this family friendly store.  Then we walk to the side doors and out stream our sweet kids.  First an infant car seat emerges, followed by one, two, three, oh wait, four young children (with a six year old as the oldest).  We troupe to the front door and the children separate into two carts, each manned by one ready adult.  Let the sweet looks from grandparents, alarmed looks from other parents, sidelong glances, and encouraging sentiments begin!

We have found that these trips can be a sure set up for failure, or they can be a complete success. The outcome is almost fully dependent on if all of the kids are fed and rested. If these simple requirements are satisfied it is pretty smooth sailing.  If one or both are lacking the results can be pretty spectacular...

We have received a wide array of comments.  Some of my favorite include: "This is why God created grandpas" (from a sweet old man who was smiling at Lindsey), "Are you trying to recreate the Brady bunch?" (to which I sweetly responded that this was not the case because all of them were mine), and "You must be an amazing mom!"  The two comments I can count on pretty regularly are "Wow! You must be busy!" and "You must not have any free time!" Providing a response to these comments will do a great job at summing up our lives right now.

"Wow! You must be busy!"

The short answer to this comment is "Yes we are, and I wouldn't have it any other way!" I confess that I have a slight addiction to having a daily schedule.  I know exactly when I have workout time, laundry day, cleaning time, momma day, mommy time, quiet time, afternoon yoga, etc. Logan did a great job of summing up our  busy lives in our last post dated January 17^th.

"You must not have any free time!"

I am a stay at home mom with five kids and by all accounts ‘me time’ seems like it should be an elusive idea.  Surprisingly though, sometimes I feel like I have more than my fair share.

This is due, in part, to my scheduling prowess. My day begins at 6:00 when I wake up to have some time for myself before kids are up.  Lindsey’s overnight feeding schedule has recently adjusted allowing me to do this again (Waking up at 6:00 is difficult when combined with nighttime feeding). Morning time lately has been about catching up with current events, reading my book for book club, facebook, and anything else that sounds enjoyable.  

All of this is generally done while listening to the familiar sounds of Logan practicing the guitar in the background. He is now working on Sweet Child of Mine and he is sounding AMAZING.  Morning time is a time where each of us have our own individual time. Occasionally though, a great topic will come up and we will find ourselves in a good conversation.

During the week I workout 3 times at the Kroc center, have playgroups with the kids and my friends, have ladies night, enjoy a monthly book club, and I work 2 afternoons each week as a video relay interpreter for Sorenson. I feel like my sanity levels are very balanced, and this allows me to enjoy being a mom even more!  I feel like I can be more present and be a better mom when I have time outside of the home and time specifically for me.  I also enjoy momma time most afternoons. Things are just better after a relaxing yoga session and in a clean house (these two definitely don’t always happen, but it is oh so nice when they do!).  Doing things with the kids is not confined to that time, but I know it will happen if I have a specific time for it.

Logan and I are also in a good place.  Every day after 8:00 is time for each other. We fill this time with reading our book together (right now we are reading 1984 and this is something like our 75^th book that we have read out loud together), engage in a good conversation about current events, philosophy, random topics, etc, or watch a movie.  We are also back to our weekly date nights.

The good, the bad and the ugly

So far I feel like I have been standing on a bit of a soap box exclaiming about sunshine and rainbows.  We have plenty of those in our lives, but there is definitely another side.  Let’s rewind the story…

…We troupe into Wal-mart where the kids separate into two carts each manned by a ready adult…

In this story the parents end up frantically hurrying through the isles to the sound of one child sobbing, one child screaming, one child yelling “He HIT me!,” and one child vehemently denying that any wrongdoing occurred.  I left one child out of this scenario as a kind of hopeful idea that one of them was behaving.  This scene honestly would probably include the youngest toddler jumping off of the cart (because this is Walmart, and seat belt is broken) and running in the opposite direction we are walking.  

Yes.  This happens.  I can normally predict the trips that will be horrible because the kids are tired, hungry, or just done being out and about.  Admittedly they are all becoming much better to take places and are getting better at being polite and well behaved.  However, just the sheer number of them makes things difficult and a decibel louder than a normal level. This just comes with the territory of a large young family.

Now let us go back to our home which is always clean and relaxing.  Okay, I admit that the house I am referring to is actually someone else’s house.  The house we return to is wild and crazy!  I have my cleaning time set aside in the afternoon right before kid time.  There is a reason for this. I think the kids can happily mess up a house in a matter of minutes, and if the house is messy there is some kind of switch inside of my body that makes me grumpy and reduces my fuse by a few inches. As an aside, another time this switch rears its ugly head is after our kids are read to, teeth brushed, sung to, and tucked sweetly in bed… And one or more of them do not stay there or become very needy.  

The bottom line is that life is very good right now.  Logan and I both feel very balanced, and we are both enjoying the ride. We love the way our lives are shaping up and we are enjoying the intentional process of creating the family traditions that we want to shape our family.

Sometimes the house gets messy and very loud. Sometimes children fight. On the other hand, Logan and I are best friends, our children are best friends, we are constantly developing personal relationships with each child, the kids imaginations are amazing, we have a LOT of family time together, we love to be together, and we all love each other deeply.  

I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Logan took this picture of us doing Cosmic Kids Yoga together.  Check it out on youtube.

Busy. Balanced. Fulfilling. Fun.

These are the words I would use to describe our lives right now.

Busy

Our lives are crazy- and we like it that way. Here is a little bit of what we have been up to:

Last Weekend: I was in Kentucky for a work conference on Thurs-Sat. This was a great conference that was mostly just fun and games. Lots of live entertainment (music and comedy). Lots of good food. Lots of new friends. Very little work.

Last Sun: Church- Rachel went early to prep and then interpreted the service. Later, we brought out our projector and watched the CFP championship game between Oregon and Ohio. It was a disappointing game, even though the right team won. We topped the night off with our family dance and dessert night.
Mon: Addy and Jack Preschool. Rachel worked. Family Night.
Tues: Rachel had a 'Momma morning' with the kids. Rachel and I worked. Potluck party at our house with friends that night. Lots of people and good conversation.
Wednesday: I worked. Addy and Jack had preschool. Play-date day for Maren/Lindsey. That evening we went to a party at Rachel's work and met her co-workers/friends there. Rachel got to reconnect with her first interpreting teacher from Utah. Date night afterwords at my favorite Mexican restaurant.
Thursday: I worked. Thursdays are Kroc Center nights where I meet up with a group of climbers to set/work on new routes while Rachel works out. Kids have fun at the play place.
Friday: I worked (I placed an implant that day. I like doing implants). As soon as we got home, Rachel and I went on a double date with some new friends and had a great 3-hour conversation that we would have continued if we hadn't had to get back for the babysitter. We are definitely getting together with them again.
Saturday: In the morning we went to the "Family Fun Fair" at the high school- but it wasn't very fun so we went to the play place at the mall instead. When we got back we babysat our friend's 3 kids for the rest of the day so that they could spend time together for her birthday.
Sunday: Church- Rachel went early to prep, and then interpreted the service. Rachel was asked if she would be an interpreting mentor for her colleague. That afternoon we went out to watch the Seahawks game. Definitely one of the best football games I have ever watched. We are already looking forward to the super-bowl party. We finished up the evening with hide and seek in the dark and family dessert night.

Balance
I think that Rachel is going to do a blog post about this in more depth. Suffice it to say that we not only have a lot going on, but we have a lot of diversity.

Physical: We both work out at a gym 3-4 days/week. Besides this, I have my climbing night which moves outdoors as soon as weather permits, and Rachel does afternoon yoga during the kid's quiet time.
Mental/Personal Development: I practice the guitar an hour each morning before anyone wakes up and this is my "creative time" for myself. Rachel is part of a book club. We also both read and listen to A LOT of material (current events, fiction, and non-fiction) and have A LOT of great in-depth conversations about a broad range of topics. Those who know us won't be surprised to find recurring themes in politics and philosophy.
Social: The above list of events should demonstrate this better than anything. Rarely a week goes by that we don't have a very full social calendar. Rachel is part of a moms group that has a variety of weekly playdates, mom's nights, and date nights with the husbands.  She is making a lot of friends there.
Professional: We are both thriving and at the top of our games in our different career tracks. We both work for great companies that we could stay with for a long time. We are both highly credentialed in our skill-sets and doing specialized work in our fields. We both feel like we are doing things that challenge us and that we absolutely love, and it is easy for us to enjoy our jobs.
Financial: This pretty much follows from the things mentioned above. We are very comfortable.
Family: I love our family traditions! From daily "morning message" and story time to weekly family nights, scheduled activities, dessert nights, mama days, and papa days- we do a lot together and I feel like we are all growing very close. Rachel has time set aside each afternoon to be specifically with the kids and nothing else, and this has been fun for everyone. The kids just seem to get awesomer and awesomer as they grow up.
Spiritual: This one is pretty personal, so I won't go too into depth. I think it's adequate to say though that in our own ways we both feel more at peace with ourselves and with the universe than we have for a very long time.

Fulfilling
It seems to me that a lot of people talk about being happy. And I am that. I am very happy. But more important to me, I feel that life is very fulfilling for us right now. Personal integrity means a lot to me, and I feel like we are both able to live very authentically right now. What's more, is that the authentic "us" is doing really well. I don't really want to dwell on this too much because it seems somewhat self-aggrandizing, but we are both very pleased with the things we have chosen to be involved with, the decisions we are making, and the direction things seem to be headed. Life really is pretty spectacular.

Fun
Like I said before- our lives are crazy and we like it that way! Sometimes, when we are all together I am afraid that we can give the impression that things are totally out of control. The truth is that this only happens about half of the time :). The other half though is full of good times and I treasure that. I realize that the big family lifestyle doesn't fit everyone, but it sure seems to suit us well. I genuinely look forward to doing things and having conversations with my kids. If I had to choose anyone to spend forever with then it would be Rachel and my family without any second thoughts whatsoever. I think Rachel and I are both glad that we have so much else to help round us out, but in the end our family is what it's all about.

Anyway- I could get all sappy and write a lot. I already feel like this whole post is too full of sunshine and rainbows (I chose those symbols on purpose), and it's not my intent to imply that things are absolutely perfect. Of course we have a lot of fighting and crying, and things that break and bills to pay and other struggles as well. We are, after all, just a normal big family living a pretty normal big-family life. Right now though, things honestly just seem really, really good. I'm lovin' it.

This is the only picture I have to share. This morning, Evelyn got up early and made these stick puppets for everyone as a morning surprise (all totally her own idea). Each person has a White person and a Black person on a stick, and they are all smiling. She explained to us that they were all playing together. I think she has been learning about MLK in her class :)

This week...

We went sledding...

 ...and broke a sled.

The kids decided to make a band after watching "That Thing You Do." I really hope this comes to fruition in their later years :).

I especially liked Jackson's drum set. He worked hard on this and has been practicing with it all week.

Evelyn recognizes the need for every good rock and roll guitarist to have a signature style. Personally, I like her choice.

The kids discovered that we have an intercom system in our house. Bed times have become much more difficult as a result.

Rachel's family night lesson on goal setting. I thought this was a cute idea. And yes, I just used the word "cute." You should be proud of me.

I came home from work and Jack had hung signs all over our house. It turns out they were warning signs. Some of my favorites are found below:

Don't be sad on Christmas

Don't cry during family night

Don't walk under exploding volcanos

Evelyn decided to make a sign too.