Happy Birthday, Zach!

Hard to believe this little guy's already two! This last year especially seemed to fly. We are so grateful for Zach and the humor and spunk he adds to our home! He is a very funny little kid, and the funniest thing about him is that he knows he's funny and knows how to draw a laugh. His comedic timing is impeccable, and he's not even talking yet! He has super funny facial expressions and gets out of a lot of trouble just because he's so dang cute when he's naughty! For Zach's birthday, we had donuts and opened presents with Daddy in the morning, and then went off for a day of fun at the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson and Aunties Gaylyn and Brenda and cousins Cole and Logan. It was a fun-filled, high-energy day, perfect for our Zachers.

 

 

It almost felt mean giving him this medical kit after all he's been through with so many hospital and doctor visits, but since this is a part of our life with Zach, I thought a little role-play at home might ease his anxieties and help him through his health struggles. And the doctor kit has actually become one of his favorite toys ... it's just sad that he knows exactly what to do with all the tools! :(

 

My little monkeys had a great time at the zoo, even if they wore their mama out!

 

And being with cousins, aunts, and grandparents made for an over-the-top fun day!

 

 

We love our little Zach! Such a handsome, curious, loving kid! We've learned to appreciate the good days, wild and crazy as they may be, because we've seen him down and struggling, and we'd much rather see him up and about being the rascal that he is!

Here are some fun facts about our recently turned two-year-old:

• He LOVES puppies and gets so excited to see them!
• He has a soft spot for stuffed animals and would have a room full if mom was as much a sucker for them as he is.
• He has a MAJOR sweet tooth and loves fruit, berries, suckers, candy, cookies ... anything with high amounts of sugar! And he can hear a wrapper open from a mile away! No secret treats on the way home from the grocery store anymore! This kid's on to me!!
• He loves to brush his teeth (read: he loves to suck the toothpaste off his toothbrush and chew on the bristles).
• He's gotten pretty good on his feet but is still hesitant on stairs. He flies down them on his tummy, though!
• He can repeat back most anything you say to him, but only when he feels like it.
• He can screech and squawk like nobody's business. He can absolutely fend for himself and if anything, I think Eliot's more intimidated by his younger brother than the other way around!
• His favorite "shows" to watch are "Guys" (Toy Story) and "Puppies!" (Lady and the Tramp)
• He loves his big brother and will call for him before he calls for me, and Eliot loves and adores him right back
• He's my outside kid. He could spend all day outside playing in the water, swinging, and getting as dirty as possible. He'll do anything to be outside ... including crawling through the pet door on our garage door!
• He's partial to his grandfathers. "Gampa" and "Peh-ee" (Peppy) are the ones he calls out and reaches for first.
• He's exceptionally good with his hands and figuring out how things work. Our future engineer!
• He's starting to love music, and it's so funny to listen to him try to keep up with the lyrics but usually just ends up singing out the last word/sound in the phrase. His favorite songs are "Give, Said the Little Stream," "You Are My Sunshine" and "Ants Go Marching."
• His favorite books are "Humpty Dumpty," "The Farmer in the Dell," and "Bingo." (Again, the music thing!)
• He's starting to show excitement for things he sees on walks and rides in the car. He especially loves trains and horses, and of course, puppies!

Preschool Graduation

Mr. Eliot is officially DONE with preschool! He had the BEST experience at Miss Jen's Lehi Ranches Preschool Academy. I'm so grateful I found her and think she's an absolute angel! Not only are her setup and curriculum amazing, she is such a perfect blend of sweetness and high educational expectations. She is so loving and patient and gets amazing results from those kiddos! I can't say enough good things about her, and now, looking back on my decision to keep Eliot back a year from Kindergarten, I feel 100% confident we did the right thing! Thanks go Miss Jen, we've been exposed to the Magic Tree House book series, which Eliot has just gobbled up this year and will even be attending her book club this summer.

Here he is with Miss Jen.

And his classmates. They really were such a sweet group of kids.

And if they had caps and gowns, of course they had to have an official graduation march ... watch for the moment when Eliot spots his grandma. :)

Zach was such a proud younger brother and called out to "Ehiot" several times!

Eliot's special part in the program was reciting "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" with his friend Christian. One of the things I loved about Miss Jen was she wanted the children to learn classic rhymes and stories. So each of the children got to recite a rhyme with a partner.

The closing number was a celebration of the end of school and beginning of summer, complete with throwing their graduation caps in the air. Way too cute.

And speaking of cute ...

Each of the kids had their own special hook to hang their jackets and backpacks on during the year. Their graduation pictures were hanging over "their" hooks for the parents to go pick up and turn in their caps and gowns. I may have cried a little.

We're so proud of Eliot! We're so excited for him to head off to Kindergarten and start a whole new adventure!

Nanny and Peppy McEuen came to support,

as well as Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson, who brought Eliot this awesome bouquet of balloons ...

Hooray, Eliot! Off to new adventures and so much more to learn! Watch out Kindergarten, here he comes!

Daddy's Birthday

Grant's birthday was simple and sweet this year. That evening was also Eliot's preschool graduation, so we had a low-key barbecue steak dinner with just our little family, then had Grant's parents over for cake. Grant's request this year was a cookies and cream ice cream cake, and I have to admit, it turned out awesome!

Eliot was SOOOOO excited to help me decorate, and did a great job, too!

Lots of cards from family ...

 

It's getting harder and harder to surprise Grant, but we did have a few tricks up our sleeves, like a Bluth's Banana Stand t-shirt in celebration of the new season of Arrested Development. 

Zoo Field Trip

I got to go with Eliot, Zach, and our neighbors, the Everetts, to Eliot's preschool field trip to the zoo. The weather was PERFECT, and it was so fun to check out the new Rocky Shores exhibit we've been hearing about with polar bears, sea lions and seals. It was a great day!

Eliot and his buddy Christian.

Z loved the sea lions and polar bears. The new Rocky Shores exhibit is pretty amazing!

 

I loved how the mama and baby giraffe were snuggling!

 

 

Eliot's favorite animal of the day ... the sloth! He kept telling me there was one at the zoo, and sure enough, we found one! Can you spot it? He loved that and the gorillas the best.

 

My biggest adventure of the day was tromping around the zoo in these beauties ... yes, I did. My flip flop snapped literally after we had set foot in the entrance (who wears flip flops to the zoo anyway? Not me anymore!). This was all they had in the gift shop (for a meager price of $20, no less!), and we were on a tight schedule and couldn't afford to drive down the road to find a shoe store ... If you didn't know this about me, I am really easily embarrassed, so this was pretty mortifying for me. Thankfully, the kids and the friends we were with didn't mind a bit, and it made a great story.

"Little Wing"

This was the second year we raised butterflies from larvae. We raised several on our own and released them with cousins, and then Eliot's preschool teacher sent home another caterpillar for him to raise. Eliot named him "Little Wing." Little Wing's wings didn't develop properly and were a little folded at the top, which kept him from flying well. I kept hoping he'd get stronger and the problem would correct itself, but it didn't. So we kept Little Wing for a pet for longer than we would normally have kept butterflies inside because I couldn't bear to set him free knowing he couldn't fly well. The boys loved waking up and checking on him, feeding him watermelon, and taking him outside to see if he could fly yet. I love these pictures of the boys, especially the ones of Eliot helping Zach to hold Little Wing. Eventually we did set it free in an orchard not too far from us. It really is such a miracle to watch butterflies grow!

The Boys Love to Play ...

Luckily, the novelty of the play set hasn't worn off ...

They're still climbing,

... exploring,

 and swinging ...

 all three of them!

Let's Play Music Recital!

Eliot participated in a music program called Let's Play Music this year. A good friend of mine discovered the program when she was living back east, and loved it so much that she became a teacher when there weren't any classes offered in her area when she moved to Arizona. It's a program started by a BYU Music graduate who wanted to tap into that amazing age when kids have such a natural ability to learn languages and music. From her own experience, kids in that preschool window of 4-6 are still too small to reach the pedals and stretch those little fingers wide enough to play the piano, so she wanted to start a program that would teach kids the foundations of music theory in a fun, interactive way when their minds are such great little sponges. The result was the Let's Play Music program, and though my friend had told me great things about it, I was blown away by what Eliot learned over the year! One of the neatest things about the program is that parents get to attend every other week with their child, which provides built-in one-on-one time to interact with your child. Together we learned the Solfeggio signs (something only my A.P. Music/Music Major friends learned by I never did in my 11 years of piano lessons and 4 years of violin lessons), we were introduced to four different classical pieces through amazing, fun puppet shows, and, though he doesn't realize it, learned how to read notes on the staff! He can even find the pitch for "Do" (middle C) without hearing it first, and knows several different rhythms. Cool, huh!?  The program will last three years, and then he'll be more than prepared to start private piano lessons. All I can say is "Wow!"

The recital was a little crazy (which happens when you have 30+ kids ages 3-8 all together in front of a large crowd!) and didn't fully reflect the kids' abilities. I think they got their first dose of stage fright (another skill I'm glad to see Eliot learn -- how to remain composed in front of a large group and perform under pressure), along with a fair amount of silliness and distraction, but even still, it was so cute to see them show off their impressive musical skills! This is Eliot clapping and singing "You Can't Bug Me" which taught the kids several different kinds of notes/rhythms like quarter, eighth, sixteenth, half notes, etc. It was one of the kids' favorite songs all year! 

 

With Miss Alicia, his teacher. We sure loved her enthusiasm for music and patience with her group of almost all boys. We had lots of wiggly days, but a ton of fun, too!

Eliot performing on the bells with two other classmates.

 

With Cousin Mikey, one of many family members who came to support Mr. Eliot!

 

The grand finale number, "Do, Re, Mi" (from Sound of Music ... but that's not where "do, re, mi" originated -- those are the basis of the Solfeggio names and hand signs that help develop perfect pitch). Took Eliot a while to want to join in on making the hand signs!

Happy ... Spring?

It wouldn't be Utah if we didn't get at least one freak snow storm well past the start of Spring ... but on the first day of May is a little ridiculous! It was beautiful, even if it did freeze a lot of my peach blossoms. :(

And because it's Utah, we usually rebound pretty quickly and get plenty of beautiful warm days with gorgeous blossoms ...

Loving this new yard of ours and that there's always something in bloom!

It's in Their Genes ...

Little Zach's middle name is Bryce, after my dad. We're learning more and more what a fitting name choice that was -- everything from the hair that flips in the back to his strong will, from his stance when he stands, to a new stance we discovered last week -- his golf stance! I grumblingly (yes, it's a word) obliged to a mini golf outing with cousins, not super excited or hopeful for how it would go based on past experiences. To my complete surprise, Zach was mesmerized by the experience!  He had a very "me do it" attitude the whole time, but let me show him how to hold the club, and he even made two holes in one! Seriously! Looks like he's truly his grandpa's namesake!

Eliot takes after his "Peppy" (Grandpa McEuen) in different ways. He shares Peppy's avid love of reading and devours books almost as quickly as my dad does. He also loves to ride horses, which probably comes from those McEuen cattle rancher genes, too! At Farm Country last week, Eliot unabashedly chose the biggest horse and grinned the whole time he rode. Looks like Lehi's getting into his blood!

And as for this inherited trait, I won't mention that my dad's spent a night (or more?) in jail ... I was of course referring to my Dad's and Grant's connection to helping keep people out of jail! Right?

 

No matter what ways my boys take after my dad, I' m proud to have them inherit some of his traits! We've been learning some really need things about family history in our ward lately, including this quote shared by our home teacher, "Hearts before charts," meaning that we have to turn children's hearts to their fathers before they will truly gain the desire to fill out pedigree charts and do the "work" of family history. Brother Brown has shared with us some very touching videos exemplifying how stories about our family and ancestors is what turns our hearts to them and plants within us the desire to perform their temple work.  I want my boys to know about their grandparents and relatives so that they can better understand themselves, even if it's the simple interests and skills they inherited -- their passion for golf, their love of horses, their interest in the law ... these are all things that have been passed down to them and make them who they are.

"For the Joy of Human Love"

It was on my mission when I first heard the hauntingly beautiful melody of the Irish folk song, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms." My companion had been sent a video copy of President Gordon B. Hinckley's 90th Birthday Celebration, and Jennie Oaks Baker performed the song on her violin in remembrance of President Hinckley's mission to the British Isles and his love for the people and culture there. As a former violinist, I was enthralled by the beauty of the song, and remembered that performance for years after. I have since collected many of Jennie Oaks Baker's albums, including her greatest hits, which includes "Believe Me ...".  It wasn't until recently that I learned the lyrics and the touching story behind the song. Gerald N. Lund includes the lyrics, along with the widely accepted story behind the folk song, in one of his The Work and the Glory novels. The message of the lyrics rang so true and sweet to me, and knowing the words that match the beautiful melody adds depth to the song.

"Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" 

by Thomas Moore

Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,

Which I gaze on so fondly today,

Were to change by tomorrow and fleet in my arms,

Like fairy gifts fading away,

Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,

Let thy loveliness fade as it will;

And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart

Would entwine itself verdantly still.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,

And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,

That the fervor and faith of a soul can be known,

To which time will but make thee more dear.

No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,

But as truly loves on to the close:

As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets

The same look which she turned when he rose.

Wikipedia summarized the story behind the song almost exactly how Elder Lund told it, so I'm going to trust it on this one: "It is said that after [Irish poet] Thomas Moore's wife contracted smallpox, she refused to let herself be seen by anyone, even her husband, due to the disfiguring effects of the disease to the skin on her body, and because she believed he could not love her after her face had been so badly scarred. Despairing at her confinement, Moore composed the lyrics of this song to reassure her that he would always love her regardless of her appearance. He wrote later that after hearing him sing to her from outside her bedroom door, she finally allowed him inside and fell into his arms, her confidence restored."

I think in each of us lies the longing for this kind of love -- love that is lasting and independent of beauty and all other external factors. I believe that kind of love is God-given, and that pure, eternal love is at the heart of God's power. It is the purpose behind our life on this earth and the motivating force to form and preserve families. A few years ago, I read a beautiful book by Bruce C. Hafen called "Covenant Hearts." Grant and I read it together in preparation for a family book club. We each had our own copies, and we would read and discuss as we read. My copy is marked with brackets and stars and notes in the margins. My favorite part of the book is the last chapter, which recounts journal entries of Elder Hafen's great-grandparents, John and Therissa Clark (a modified version of this chapter was printed as an article in the Liahona magazine during the time I was working there. I remember tearing up as I read over a mock-up layout that I was to deliver to Elder Hafen's office for approval. It is a beautiful, touching account if you have a moment to read it). In his journal, John writes of a day in which the two, by then in their final years of life, had been visited by friends and family and then left to themselves at the end of the day. He writes of his deep love for his wife and says writes as though speaking to her, "Where you are is home." His Therissa adds to his entry a few years later, just after his death, expressing her deep sorrow over his loss, and says, "I am only content at home were I feel that he is watching over me, his presence always with me."

I admit I have much to learn about marriage and the kind of love so eloquently described by the poet Thomas Moore. I know I have many more years of effort and sacrifice ahead of me before my love for Grant will be as deep and tested as the love shared between John and Therissa Clark. But there have been moments when I have had glimpses of a love that is so deep and profound there's barely room to hold it in my heart. Certainly as I knelt across an alter in the Salt Lake City temple on a crystal-clear November morning. Definitely as I held each of my newborn sons in my arms and marveled at the sacred privilege of being a parent, side by side with my loving, good husband. And maybe just as much so or even more so in the unseen moments of struggle and strife, in those private hours of receiving a priesthood blessing of comfort for heartaches known only to me, Grant, God, and the Savior. In the hours when Grant has held me close to try to bring peace to my troubled soul, or in the moments when he doubted his ability to get through the rigors of law school or keep up with the pressures of his job.  I think it is those moments that inspire lines like "It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,/ And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,/ That the fervor and faith of a soul can be known,/ To which time will but make thee more dear." It is those moments that prove true Elder Hafen's teaching that "the most sanctifying experiences of our spiritual lives should also be the most demanding experiences. ... Marriage and family life are among God's chief institutions for perfecting us, often through painful, incredibly demanding experience. No wonder we cannot be exalted without being married, because marriage is such a potent laboratory for helping us develop Christian character."

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above, 
For all gentle thoughts and mild,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
("For the Beauty of the Earth" Hymns, no. 92)