Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Highlights...Lame, I know

Since I am now a terrible blogger I decided that a highlights post was going to have to do for this month. I had great ambitions to be a better blogger and we can all see how well that went. 

Bear with me while I get a little reminiscent....

I recently read a book I loved.  It's called "These is my words."  You should all read it.  It is a diary style book written from the point of view of a woman traveling/settling the Arizona territories in the late 1800's.  Towards the end of the book her entries get further and further apart as her children grow.  It made me so sad.  I wanted her to keep writing until the day she died so that I would know everything that happened to her and everything that she thought.  I picture my kids one day reading this and getting sad as they get older and my entries get farther and farther apart.  I want them to look back at this blog and have reminders of their childhood.  Unfortunately life and schedules get in the way and I continue to find blogging harder and harder.  I'm determined to stay with it!  Although I have admitted to myself that I will never be the blogger I once was, I will at least continue so that my children will have a record to look back on.

And now on with my lame recap!

First:

John's parents were here the week before and after Emmie's birthday watching Dan and Paige's kids while they were in Africa.  It was nice to have them nearby and to be able to spend time with them.  I miss seeing them on a regular basis and my kids always love having them around.  One Saturday afternoon we ventured out and hiked table rock with the Dinger Cousins and grandparents.  Despite an unfortunate "incident" fun was had by all (at least for the first half of the trip:). 

 
 
Next:
 

I also lost Emmie at Costco last month.  Like truly lost her.  I have gone through nearly 11 years of motherhood without losing a child, so I guess it was my turn.  I lost Emmie in the toy section when I headed over to the produce section with a card FULL of groceries.  I picked out my oranges and turned and realized Emmie wasn't with me. 

So I pushed my heavy cart back to the toy section assuming she would be there looking at the toys.  But she wasn't.  I searched for a few minutes.  Couldn't find her.  Ditched my cart and found a worker and told her I needed her help.  We both searched and couldn't find her.  I found another worker and frantically told her I needed help. Three of us were running and calling her name.  I kept hearing crying and trying to head to that but they told me to stay put.

By this point I was frantic and my mind was thinking the worst.  Costco is the worst place to lose a child.  No intercom, no way to communicate to everyone that a child has been lost.  Anyone could kidnap a child there with little effort at all!  After about 5-10 minutes the second worker I found had been to the front of the store and heard that someone had found a little girl.  She raced back to me and we went to the front of the store.  Emmie wasn't there.  Finally through some walkie-talkie communication a worker at the back was instructed to bring Emmie to me.  I'll never forget Emmie with her brave face on walking up the main aisle at Costco holding the hand of a nice worker and then crying and running as soon as she saw me.  I may have finally cried a little too as we had our little moment there in the middle of Costco. 

We then talked about what had happened and what to do if she ever got lost again.  She eventually told me about 20 minutes later that the "nice lady giving the samples said "did you lose your mom?"  I'll forever be grateful for that nice sample lady.

Also:

We also celebrated Thanksgiving.  We had delicious turkey.  Played a little football.  Shopped a bit.  rested a lot.  And ate even more.  It was wonderful.  Syd surprised my parents with a visit for Thanksgiving where she announced that she and Cy would be moving up here in December in order for Cy to start at BSU in January.  All of the Welch's are in Boise again.  It's been over 15 years since we all lived in the same city!

And Finally:

Christmas is already in full swing.  The tree is up, the house is decorated, and my closet is slowly being taken over with stuff waiting to be wrapped.  It's wonderful!



Emmie's 5th Birthday

 Emmie turned 5.  About a month ago.  And I'm finally getting around to writing about it!  First of all I can't believe Emmie is 5.  How do I not have a baby anymore?!  I love it and hate it all at the same time.  Emmie is an amazing little girl and she truly makes our family better.  She is somehow feisty and a peacemaker at the same time.  She is funny and kind and she is the youngest and can therefore definitely hold her own when necessary.  I've known from the time she was a baby that one of her spiritual gifts would be her ability to be likeable and a good friend.  Her friends all love her and she is good at helping all of her friends to get along.  That skill will surely be a blessing to her in her life.

And now onto the party stuff...

Emmie got to have a family party with both sets of grandparents here. That never happens with my  kids!  It was so fun to have lots of cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents to celebrate with us. 



Emmie's birthday was also the day of the primary program.  All of my kids did a stellar job.  Of course.  And they even had their parts memorized!  If it weren't for church policy I would have pictures and a video to share, but what can I say, I'm a rule follower.