A Bunch of Little Things

I really like to share my Mari van Ormer thoughts, feelings, and opinions. But what is even better is sharing pictures from real life at home, daily activities, and the little things. 

This is one of those "real life/little things" posts . . . 

Henry loves playing with the big kid toys while they are all away at school. He has free roam of the house when the kids are gone. He loves his free time, without the others shouting, "NO HENRY!" Henry can create a serious tornado of destruction. He can mess up the entire house in less than 2 minutes. He also got a haircut a few days ago, and he seems to have grown-up overnight because of it! One of his favorite things to do is mimic sounds and music. Sammi has him singing all the songs from The Phantom of the Opera, and he can even hum the theme to Iron Man. He also makes the buzzing noise my phone makes when it rings. He really has a good ear for sound. I NEED to make a video of his repertoire of music/sounds. 

Henry likes to grab my phone whenever he can. He managed to push a call-back button, and he rang the Red Cross.

A beautiful friend brought me some beautiful flowers to brighten a gray January day. 

Daniel is in the middle of basketball season, with games about twice a week. Notice his shirt . . . he needed a white shirt the night before a game, so we ran to JoAnns and got one for $3.00, and quickly made him a pretty cool iron-on Captain America shirt. Not bad, not bad at all.

Sometimes we have quiet nights where we just like to gather on the couch, watch a show, and "hang out" together. You will notice there is basketball on the TV in the background -- we never watch basketball, ever. But after Daniel's games we realized it might be a good thing for him to see how basketball is really played. We used the YouTube feature on our TV, and we looked up old Michael Jordan dunking moments, games, and contests -- it was pretty awesome to watch. I watched his games growing up, and there is really no one like him! After some basketball we looked up amazing and extreme sports, and watched people do some pretty crazy things -- it is inspiring what the human body can do! Did I mention that I LOVE YouTube? I do! It is so fun!

After watching all the things that physical bodies can do, the kids felt like wrestling and exercising. It is pretty funny how that works. I can remember pretending to be an ice skater in the kitchen, after watching figure skating.

Anyway, there were some arm-wrestling contests . . . William is pretty strong for his age. :-)

Check out their faces. Sammi is all relaxed and focused in peace, while Daniel looks like he is ready to use Superman laser-eyes. I am not going to say who won here, but let's just say the winner is following in her mother's footsteps. ;-)

 They just wanted to test their strength . . .

 No problem.

I think we might need a bigger house, these kids are getting HUGE! (Bigger house update coming in the future . . . )

 Lifting some weights . . . even Captain America has to workout, right?

Cuddling with Daddy on the couch. Do you see that silver remote? That thing gets lost EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! Even Henry knows how to yell, "WHERE'S THE REMOTE?!"

 Daniel was body-slamming Sammi, trying to get her to move.

 A little balancing/teamwork practice . . .

Daniel is growing like crazy right now. I am really curious to see how tall he ends up. All the boys in my family are over 6ft tall, with some closer to 7ft! These kids get to do the Youth Pioneer Trek in about 2 years . . . they will be ready to pull those handcarts if I have anything to do with it!

Sammi trying to offer instructions of how to work together. 

And here we go, really random, some Christmas pictures . . . William the Elf. (He wanted to push his ears out like that.) 

We were all so sick at Christmas, I tried to take some kid pictures, but I was not happy with how they turned out -- I prefer outdoor pictures. The kids were all wiggly and scruffy, too. My house is not really big enough, or bright enough, to get good indoor images. 

 Most of the pictures went something like this . . .

Sammi studying on the floor. She does that a lot. I remind her there is nice comfy couch to sit on.

 When we come home after church we all race into our pajamas. Henry is halfway out of his clothes . . .

 Sammi doing activities on the floor . . .

 A little whack the stick game with Henry

 William loves his Spiderman jammies and playing with toys

 Sammi helping Henry "fly"

 And fall . . .

 The oldest and the youngest -- there are 10 years between them!

Daniel loves to build Legos. He plays with them ALL the time. Both he, and William, really love to build. Legos are so awesome now, so detailed and fun!

Henry is pretty happy about eating spaghetti. There is just something special about eating noodles and being all gross and messy.

 Yum!

I have been doing a little winter running. For awhile there, it was REALLY cold, and not so fun. It is a little warmer now, but it is so gray and the inversion is so bad, I have been doing TaeBo instead.

 Part of my running trail . . . look at that blue sky! I haven't seen that for ages!

Charles got me a face mask to keep me from freezing to death. The funny thing is, I have seen people out while I am running, and they still know it is me?

We had some fun Christmas concerts to go to. Sammi had an awesome choir concert, I was really impressed with the quality of the performance. The concert was at the high school, which is where we will be attending concerts for the next, I dunno, 18 years or so?

 Henry was happy to be there.

 So was William.

I should have brought my real camera to capture the moment they sang "Light a Thousand Candles". It was an amazing moment. Very beautiful. They turned off all the lights and the kids in the choir held REAL candles! I also loved that they sang songs about Jesus for the Christmas concert -- I love living in Idaho!

 Sammi in her choir robes.

I was trying to find a picture of us all together, this one is from the summertime, but it made me laugh...

Life takes on a different pace when you have older children and babies, at the same time. Sometimes, with 4 children going every which way, I can get overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done. When the kids come home from school there is an instant, "Mom, MOM! I need this, and that, and I need to go here, and there, etc." Meanwhile, I have poopy diapers to change, Legos to get out of Henry's mouth, dinner to cook, lessons to prepare, work to do for Charles' business, emails to return, phone calls to make, homework to help with, a house to clean, exercise to do, showers to take, etc. (I am leaving out most of the good stuff, like scriptures to read, family history to do, etc.) The reality is, life can be CRAZY sometimes. We had a super crazy day yesterday, but at the end of the day, we got it all done, and we are still alive.

Being a mom is challenging. These kids need me! (Not to mention Charles needs me!) I have devoted my life to their well-being, and I would not have it any other way. I love being a mother. There is nothing else in this world that would satisfy me more than motherhood. I have worked in the business world, and I know that the business of home and family is where I belong.

I am not perfect at this mothering thing. I used to think I was an awesome mom when my kids were tiny -- but wow my perspective has changed! The only thing I know for sure about mothering is what my grandma told me years ago . . . The most important thing you can ever do as a mother is to love your children.

And love my children, I do!