Author: lilydarais

I have started giving Ammon a bath in the morning. His poops are just too big, and even after using twenty wipes, I still can’t get him to smell fresh. Considering we have been going swimming in the evenings and then take baths afterward, this boy is getting two baths a day this summer.

Our highlight yesterday was going swimming after Abe got home from work. He took the kids on the big, twisty waterslide and figured out the secret to going fast: Lie down and arch your back. Abe was so excited to discover this trick!

All of the neighborhood kids wanted to know who we were taking swimming with us since we took Eli and Chloe swimming on Tuesday. I always feel guilty saying “no” to the neighbor kids all the time, but honestly, there are so many.  Plus, I just prefer having kids in my home that I know well. This is hard because the only way to get to know kids is to spend time with them, but there are so many I am just sticking with the ones I know for now. But I do want to do nice things for the other kids (which potentially sounds charitable, but this desire actually stems from a wish to assuage the constant guilt I feel at always saying, “no,”) so we are planning on doing crafts Thursday with them.

Anamae came over and gave Lydia a harp lesson at home, which was so sweet of her because we totally forgot Lydia’s new lesson time on Tuesday. We were at the pool with Eli and Chloe instead. I love Anamae and feel so, so grateful for her. She is an incredible teacher and an inspiring woman.

Today was another glorious summer day. This is my first summer after a true school year, with Lydia in school all day and Mary in school half a day. I looooooove having the girls home!!! It is amazing to have our own family schedule and to create beautiful, fun days for the kids every single day. It’s glorious. It’s a luxury. I feel so lucky, grateful, and happy.

Tonight as I tucked Lydia in, she turned to me and said, “Thank you.”

“For what?” I asked, surprised.

“For this summer,” she said, smiling.

That touched my heart so much. I cuddled her and told her I wanted her to have a magical summer filled with fun and beauty every day. I told her I wanted it to be the best summer of her life. She responded, “I think it already is.”

Today I let the kids play with the neighbors during Clarissa’s morning nap, and I visited with my neighbor, Emily, while the kids played. I love Emily. I feel so bad that things didn’t seem to start on the right foot for whatever reason, but I love her now. And also: When I first met Emily, the Spirit whispered to me three times that I had just met my best friend. We are not best friends–yet?–but I can say knowing Emily better has really helped me love her.

Also–in the morning, Abe came home!!! He spent an hour here showering and recuperating before heading to work after two nights of red-eye travel. In the past two days he has spent two hours in a real bed. We are so happy to have him home.

Anyway, after visiting with Emily, I packed Eli and the kids in the car and headed to the park. It was the middle of the day and so hot that I honestly thought Ammon was going to get heat stroke. He turns bright red from head to toe when he is hot, and by the end of our play time at the park he was starting to act slightly disoriented. We got him quickly to the car, let him drink water, turned up the AC, and drove to Chick Fil-A.

We went into Chick Fil-A and I got the kids dinner, after which I took them to ice cream. Then we came home, changed quickly into swimsuits, and headed to Scera pool–with Abe!!! We also took Eli and Chloe with us.

Then we came home, put the kids down, and got absorbed in sorting our shirts. Both Abe and I got rid of a bunch of clothes. And now–Abe will FINALLY get to bed!!!

On Monday I spent a couple hours with the girls working on the skirts we are making for all of the neighborhood girls. Unfortunately, there is something wrong with my sewing machine. It is sewing  in knots. 🙁

I also went to therapy, which was good. Mary Lou, my therapist, is really great at helping me prioritize things in my life.

Then both Ammon and Clarissa napped, miracle of miracles! Since the kids were up so late the night before and then woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning, I took a nap too.

After naps we ate dinner and went to the pool. I was a little worried about taking all four kids at the same time, but the girls promised to stick with Ammon so I only had to look in one direction the whole time. Most of the time Clarissa let me stay with Ammon, so it was actually a breeze. I took them out for shaved ice afterward.

I had no way of taking pictures of the kids at the pool, but I got one of Clarissa in her adorable swimsuit right before we left the house.

On Sunday Abe had to leave for meetings in Michigan. It was a bit of a fiasco because when he got to the airport, he realized American Express had cancelled his flight. His boss had been out of town when Abe booked the tickets and didn’t approve the transaction, so American Express cancelled the ticket–but somehow still put the travel plans on Abe’s google calendar. Abe ended up having to rebook a flight on the spot. His new flight plans meant he had to travel all night long and arrive in Michigan right before his meeting. We feel so bad for him!

Meanwhile, I had a lovely Sunday at home. Both Ammon and Clarissa napped a long time, so after they woke up I took the kids on a long walk. Upon waking, Ammon decided that he was about to see Santa Claus and spent the rest of the evening yelling at the sky for Santa to come back.

Mary blew his mind by changing into her Santa suit.

The walk had some crazy moments. At one point, Mary felt left out by Lydia and Eli, who came with us. She threw herself onto the front lawn of the Reynolds’ house and refused to budge. Instead of moving, she screamed into their grass. In the meantime, Ammon was trying to run in the street and Clarissa was whining because the stroller had stopped moving. Eventually, we bribed Mary into getting up and going home with Nana for ice cream. It was hardly an appropriate consequence for a tantrum, but there are moments we just gotta do what we gotta do.

After our walk, we came home and played Junior Monopoly for FHE with Nana. Then we all went outside again and played until after 9pm. I put the kids to bed in high hopes they would sleep in on Monday–but no such luck! Maybe their long naps made up for the late bedtime.

Whenever our kids go through the stage where they have just learned how to pull themselves up to stand, sleep training regresses. Clarissa, who recently learned how to pull herself up, is so enamored with this new skill that she pulls herself up to stand by the edge of her crib instead of drifting off to sleep. It is now 10pm and the poor child is exhausted and in tears because she hasn’t gone to sleep but is too excited about standing to drift off. Sometimes life is so hard.

We had a packed and happy Saturday today. In the morning I planned our meals and craft projects for the week, while Abe made waffles with the kids and brought me breakfast in bed.  Then I briefly attended a baby shower before we all left on errands to Joann’s, Michael’s, Deseret Book, and Smith’s.

After we finished our errands, we came home and I made Sloppy Joe’s. Today is my Grandma Clarissa Cullen’s 100th birthday! She used to make Sloppy Joe’s, so this was an appropriate dinner. I actually forgot this was my grandma’s birthday, but in fact I spent a lot of the morning meditating on my grandma. I love her so much. She is a guiding star for me.

This Spring (now getting into Summer) has reminded me how much I love Utah weather. It has been between 60 and 80 degrees almost every single day for the past month or more. It has been so wonderful! Now I know what people in Southern California coast feel like every day of the year!

As for me, work was a bit tough on Friday. I didn’t sleep a lot Wednesday or Thursday night, and I had worked out a lot (to help with stress and because I love exercise) so my body felt very depleted.  On top of that, I was just feeling worn out from the demands of my player/coach role, that is, leading a team of 7 people, but still being responsible for a separate full-time job, which is fulfilling my own quota of $100,000 each quarter. One more promotion and my personal quota drops. I can’t wait for that! Anyway, I was feeling worn out Friday, but it was still a good day. Most of my focus was around an onsite presentation to a CMO, CTO and 5 VPs that I have on Monday with two teammates.  I hope it goes well!

Lily has been doing a lot of thinking about the paper she is working on to present at the Mormon symposium. She’s super overwhelmed, and starting to think it’s not worth it to jam it into her life right now, when there is such a beautiful summer to be enjoyed with the family without additional strains. At the same time, her writing feels very compelling to her.  I’ve enjoyed talking with her as she thinks through how she wants to spend her time.  She is beautiful!

When I got home, I spent time outside with the family, and gorged myself on three huge pieces of amazing pizza that Lily made. She hand-made a delicious whole-wheat oatmeal crust. I caught this darling picture of Lily with the two girls enjoying the good weather:

We got the children ready for bed after dinner.  As I was trying to coax Lydia into getting in the bath, she was excitedly showing me her new mask. She crafted it (with Georgia’s help) from instructions that came in her Rainbow Magic craft book that Lily bought for her.

Lydia is OBSESSED with Rainbow Magic books. I’m guessing that she averages reading about 3 per day. I couldn’t help myself so I staged this photo of her reading while sitting on top of a stack of 25 Rainbow Magic books (most of which I think she’s already read) and they are only a couple of weeks old!

Then we put the children down, except for Clarissa, who had a late nap.  I took her outside, and put her in the football hold with one arm while I watered the garden with my other. I couldn’t believe that our corn sprouted!  The garden is really looking good so far this year! Our strawberries are also doing very well.

Today Abe had a crazy, insane day at work. He was very stressed out about it last night, but now we are on the other end of the day and he survived! I am so proud of him.

I worked on my Mormon Symposium paper in the morning and then after lunch took the kids to This is the Place Park. I love that park. It feels like we’ve stepped back in time, and we were practically the only people there.

After dinner Abe and I took a long walk and jog. I read Abe what I’d written, and he helped me figure out that the scope of my current paper is way too large. I’m going to have to narrow it down, and I feel really overwhelmed and intimidated.

Today we had a play date with Heather and Olivia. I love them and will miss them so much when they move soon.

Monday was our eighth anniversary! The whole day felt so peaceful and full of love. Abe took the day off of work and we spent the morning at home with the kids, cleaning, overseeing music practice, and spending time together.

Abe read me a beautiful poem he wrote for our anniversary and gave me a beautiful tree of life necklace. The tree of life has four green stones to symbolize our four children, and then other stones to symbolize fruit in the vine of Christ. He also wanted me to have a tree of life to remember Heavenly Mother and all that we’ve learned about her this year.

Then in the afternoon we all, including my mom, took a drive into the mountains and had a picnic at South Fork Park. The weather was perfect and everything was lush and green. One of our favorite parts, honestly, was picking up all the trash people left in the park after their Memorial Day picnics. The part where we picnicked was clean, but right over the hill there were disgusting sections. It was actually really fun to clean them up. I thought about Heavenly Mother while we cleaned and expressed my love for her by trying to pick up every scrap of garbage I saw.

After our picnic, we went to the libraries and home, where I fed Clarissa and watched Ammon play outside while Abe returned to the library again to get himself a library card and check out a ton of new books for Lydia. Lydia has gone totally bonkers for the Rainbow Magic Fairy series, and we could not be more grateful. Bless you, whoever invented the magic fairies. Thank you.

Also, Bob the Anniversary Elf made his annual visit:

Then we sat on the grass and discussed polygamy, my favorite topic of late. I am presenting a paper on it in two months–but I haven’t even written the paper yet!!! So I really appreciate the chance to talk out the thoughts that I hope to write, er, really soon.

Then we put the kids to bed and Abe and I went to Barnes and Noble to pick out our annual audio book. Every anniversary I pick out an audiobook for Abe, and this year I picked All the Light We Cannot See, since that book changed my life.

Afterward we went to Pizzeria 712 and then came home. Poor Abe’s allergies were killing him, but we were still so happy and full of peace, joy, and love. It has been wonderful to be married to Abe. I always go overboard blogging about him, so I am going to practice some self-restraint. It’s so hard!

But: I love him. He’s the best. I know for a fact there is no one better for me on the face of the planet, either now or at any point in history–backwards or forwards. All praise and glory to God, somehow I won the husband lottery. Thank You for sending me Abe and giving me eight glorious years with him!

…well, it was happy for almost everyone! I guess it was happy for me too, but I really have not felt well for two days, and so most of this day consisted of me lying facedown in the backyard while Abe gardened. Clarissa and the older girls were crawling all over me, such as the piglets do to their mother sow. I was pretty unresponsive while they pulled and tugged my hair and exposed love handles. They loved patting my fat and listening to the noise that made.

We then took the show inside where I planted myself on the couch while Abe either cleaned or cooked or both. I have no idea what he was doing because I was out of it.

Then we had Karin and Jay over for dinner, which honestly was wonderful. We have been trying to get together for months, but we have difficulty coordinating our schedules. So it was nice to finally coordinate.

I made potato salad and a trifle. Abe took a picture of the trifle. It is on his phone, which is elsewhere. I am blogging in spite of that handicap because I fear getting behind again. Abe was up until 12:30 am last night catching the blog up! I don’t want his good efforts to go to waste.

And here are the photos!