A Heart That Melts

Hooray , Charlotte is smiling . The first time she smiled knowingly with her eyes wide open was about two weeks ago . It was the sweetest thing and my heart completely melted.  I hadn't had a moment where my heart melted like this in a long time . I love the way Charlotte stares at me . Her sweet little expression on her face as her eyes follow me all around the room . This particular night I was getting ready to get into bed so as I undressed I laid Charlotte on my bed . Staring at me she began to scream with an outburst of frustration. Charlotte has been sleeping with me for the last 9 weeks and she couldn't believe that I would actually lay her on the bed all by herself. Immediately she panicked and so I walked over to her and climbed in bed and all of the sudden she stopped crying and this huge smile emerged. All of the nights of her sleeping right next to me in our bed seemed worth it at the moment. I couldn't help but think how helpless my sweet baby is but she is fully aware of the feeling she gets from love and comfort.

Charlotte is sleeping 6 and 7 hours at night and I couldn't be more happy . It was one of those hooray moments when I put her down at 8:00 and expecting to wake and feed at 11:00 I didn't here her cry till 3:00 . I feed her and then she sleeps until right around 10:00 . So crazy and I feel like a new woman , I have all the energy in the world. Thank you Charlotte for being so good to your mama. She also loves laying on the ground by herself and the coo that she does is priceless . Charlotte you are just such a happy baby and we love you so much .


A day spent with Stratton is a day guaranteed full of laughs and fun . He is so much fun to be around and the things he comes up with always keep David and I smiling . Stratton has more imaginary friends and playmates then any of us know what to do with . It is an interesting thing though because all of his friends names start with the letter J. When he has kids of his own someday I will be interested to know what he names them .  The ones that I can remember off the top of my head are Jace , Jack , Jibb ( who by the way lives in Mexico and calls Stratton all the time and keeps waking him up so he has to get out of bed ), Jared , Jonas and Journal ( this is his other dad , he assures us that he has two dads).  I smile when he asks me if I want to play with Jared , Journal or Jace because they don't come around as often as Jibb and Jack and he says , " what's wrong Mom , are you very shine (he means shy) of him "?

I picked Stratton up from pre-school and it must have been the same week that the state of Arizona celebrated it's 100th birthday . Stratton had created a craft in school with a cactus and coyote on it and it said Happy 100th Birthday Arizona. When we got in the car I asked him what he had learned in school and I told him that his picture sure was pretty . He replied by saying with excitement ,         " Mom, Arizona is having a party " ! 

On Sunday we were eating breakfast and Grandpa Dean had a program on the BYU channel that was talking about the life of Joseph Smith . Stratton looked at me and said , " Mom I know who Joseph Smith is right "? I said , "yeah Stratton you do know who he is"  and then Stratton said , " Yeah he is our prophet but he has hair , he is not Thomas S. Monson though " . The things that kids recognize about people . He recognized that both men are our Prophet's but that Joseph Smith has much more hair then our modern day prophet Thomas S. Monson.

On the I pad we have all of the Living Scripture series for kids . These are cartoons created after the stories from the Book of Mormon and Bible. Stratton was watching the story of Nephi going into the house of Laban and retrieving the gold plates. The entire day after watching this cartoon Stratton and I spent going to the house of Laban in our backyard. It impressed me how much he reenacted the story from the Book of Mormon . We walked over the big hill and he took his sword with him carefully tucked in his belt which by the way is a dog collar that fits his waist perfectly ( I try and get him to use his actual belt but with out fail he prefers this bright red leather dog collar with some wavy design on it. He also wears it over his shirt with his sword tucked into it and not threaded through the loops on his pants.). Then we would reach the gate to Laban's house and Stratton had gathered stones that he made Emerson and I draw from his hat .  He would always choose the stone that made him go face Laban . He would go behind the trees and pretend that he found Laban and used his sword to kill him . Then it was crazy because he told me and Emerson to say , " is that you Nephi? " as he walked toward us . Watching his imagination rolling through this whole process was really eye opening and once again he impressed me . For the rest of the day he didn't want to be called Stratton and would only let me call him Nephi.

Last week on Friday , around 4:00 I was exhausted and while feeding Charlotte I must have fallen into a light sleep on the couch . I told Stratton and Emerson to go play outside and that I wanted to take just a fifteen minute nap. They both went outside willingly and 5 minutes passes when I hear Stratton coming down the stairs saying, " Mom , I have a surprise for you " . A little irritated that i wasn't able to even get five minutes of sleep before being bothered I told him he could show me when I wake up and not to bother me . I could here him getting closer and closer saying the same thing over and over , " Mom , I have a surprise for you " . I assured him I would see it when I woke up and I was not opening my eyes . I could feel he was right in front  of my face and just as I opened my eyes Stratton was holding what either is a large dead rat or a dead gopher and that was my surprise . Startled I screamed and jumped up and we found a nice resting place for the dead rodent outside , washed our hands and had a friendly talk about how it is best not to touch dead animals. Stratton wanted to keep him as a pet and assured me that he was just sleeping.

On Sunday last week Stratton had to give the talk in primary . The month of February was assigned to the sunbeams and they were responsible for the talk , primary theme, scripture and prayer. Stratton had the scripture one week and also the prayer the following week . Both weeks I had several people come up to me and tell me just how funny Stratton was and that he was so cute. I wasn't in there to watch him for the first two weeks because no one told me he had an assignment  the following two weeks I made sure I was in there to help. Stratton gives wonderful prayers and he makes sure to remember everything that seems to be important in our lives right now but maybe not necessary for primary compared to family prayers. His prayer goes something like this ... Heavenly Father thankful for Mom , and Dad and Me and Emerson and our baby Charlotte . Bless us to be well and Grandma and Grandpa . Bless our Business  DMEHosting and OpticCDN. Bless our prophet Thomas S. Monson he be well . Name of Jesus Christ amen. This is the prayer that Stratton says for morning , meals , and night . It is a wonderful prayer for a three year old and he really does a good job and quite a few people enjoyed it in primary .The following week he had to give the scripture and he didn't want any help because he thought he knew it and didn't need anyone to tell him what to say . He stood up there in silence and then when Sister Owens the primary president started telling him in his ear he said , " I can't remember all that . " She finally just said the scripture and Stratton stood at the microphone proud as can be and just nodded his head as she read . They love Stratton in primary ! The next week he had to do the theme and I realized when we got home that the concept we failed to teach Stratton was repeating . He had never learned to repeat after me and really it is kind of a difficult concept if not taught to a child. He thought that he had to memorize rather then repeat and at three years old this would be a little overwhelming. We worked on the theme and that Sunday he not only had it memorized but did a great job repeating after me. The following week Stratton had to give the talk so we prepared a short little talk on how if we choose the right and make good decisions Heavenly Father will bless us . This particular Sunday Stratton made sure to take his Book of Mormon to church and had even laid it out the night before so he wouldn't forget it . When it was his turn to give the talk he walked up to the microphone and before he could start speaking he opened up his Book of Mormon and place it on the stand . During his talk he held his Book of Mormon opened and looked down as if he was reading from it. Loud and proud he gave his talk on choosing the right. I hope that he always cherishes the words from his scriptures just as he desires to now.

Emerson Loves Charlotte and is very attached to her . I will often find him rubbing her head and smiling at her . He doesn't quite understand that Charlotte at this point only drinks milk and so I will catch him putting a piece of cheese or bread just in reach of her hands. Luckily she can't grab anything yet but it is so sweet that he thinks she would like a little snack too. He also is fascinated with helping change her diapers . When he is poopy himself and I ask him , " Emerson , are you poopy ? " He will rush over and peek into Charlotte's diaper and say , " no , baby poopy yuck" .

 

 

 

 

 Almost everywhere many people will stare at me and the three kiddos as if I was crazy having three kids right in a row .  Most of them just do a double take at our stroller or cart but some feel the need to say something like , " wow you are really busy " . I always find it funny and depending on what mood I am in I will say something like , " oh me, yeah I guess I am ." So even though life gets busy and sometimes things are a little crazy I would not trade any aspect of my life for another . I love my three kiddos and having a wonderful husband I think makes all the difference.