EVERY-THING'S ITCHY!

Lately i have been letting Annelies completely dress herself. she is in control of her wardrobe. let me just tell you why i have handed over all control to this little stinker..... she is a pain to satisfy in the clothing department! 

every time i choose something absolutely perfect for her she 'claims' it is too itchy. EVERY-THING IS ITCHY!! i even let her choose her clothes and shoes at the store. she promises she will wear it all the time, but still i have the same issue. 

tonight i asked her as we were once again looking for something to wear, "annelies, why are all of your clothes so itchy?"

her reply, "it's the buttons.... they are all so itchy."

i say, " but you won't wear this dress, it doesn't have buttons. why does this one itch you?"

her reply, "it has straight lines!"

WHAT?!? give me a break. 

now all she will wear is this long, pink ruffle skirt and a tank top that doesn't even match!

UGH!!!

SOFITA PITA

Sofia is the funniest little thing. she will do anything for a laugh. she likes to make funny faces or walk away from you with her underwear pulled down so her little tush is showing......

she also likes to be very annoying. she LOVES to pester her brothers and sisters until they can't stand it anymore. there are two things she does really well, if you ask her to do something she immediately says, 'what?'  you repeat yourself and again she says, 'what?'. Before you start to repeat yourself you realize she is only trying to get out of what you are asking her to do. then she will give that i am so sneaky look with a cute little smile. 

another thing she loves to do is ask the obvious question. for instance if i have just come down the stairs with Oliver after his nap she will ask, 'is ollie awake?'. it drives me crazy!! (like i said, she thinks she is hilarious!!)

the other day i spilled some yogurt on the kitchen floor and refrigerator. Sofia was right there to help clean up the mess and to point out where the mess was. she said in a little 3 year old voice, 'thew is yoguwt on the floowr, there is yoguwt on the wall, and thew is yoguwt on the fweekin' wefwigewater!!' i couldn't help but start laughing. and she of course got a kick out of my reaction. she is something else and always keeps us all laughing.

MISSIONARY MOMENT

during some relaxing pool time with my family i became engaged in conversation about miscellaneous things with a stranger. i learned that she is a teacher at the baptists school around the corner. i talked to her about enrollment and how they do excepting outside religions. she responded by saying it is a grueling process of many questions and background check. i then pushed it one question further and asked how a member of the church of Jesus Christ of LDS would be accepted. she very politely answered, 'oh i'm sorry, but they would not be excepted at all.' i was taken back a little and asked, 'well why?', her response was, ' our views on salvation are too different.'

this TOTALLY sparked my interest and i unfortunately did not have a response. oh how i wish i could go back and ask her what she thinks our views of salvation are..... i would be interested to see what her response would be. now i have the information i need to proceed with that conversation. 

i went home and looked up the definition of salvation and then i looked up the churches definition of salvation (plan of salvation) and came up with a much more in-depth answer. i also emailed my mother-in-law to tell her about my experience and ask her what the difference between our views and others views are.  her answer was simple....

Salvation means different things to different people. The most general term that everyone agrees on is being saved / being able to live in God's presence. The means to get to that point vary. Some people believe that all you have to do is raise your hands, say "I believe" and you're saved. ..in an instant. We believe that by their terms, yea we can say we are saved also because we have faith in Christ. We regard him as our Savior...but the broader meaning for us is 3rd article of faith...

3 We believe that through the ^aAtonement of Christ, all ^bmankind may be ^csaved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

MAY is a key word there...salvation is contingent on our faith in Christ, repentance etc.

  4 We believe that the first principles and ^aordinances of the Gospel are: first, ^bFaith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, ^cRepentance; third, ^dBaptism by^eimmersion for the ^fremission of sins; fourth, Laying on of ^ghands for the ^hgift of the Holy Ghost.

Faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and in his grace (ability) to do so....is where salvation lies.

Our works prove our intent and improve us but at the end of the day, Christ is the only way and means to salvation (entry in the Lord's kingdom).  2 Ne 25:23

Christ showed us the way of salvation. He said "Come follow me" He sought out John the Baptist, known to have the authority to baptize, explained the importance of that ordinance, he modeled the proper mode (immersion), and then by his life showed the way to live and love deferring to the will of the Father in all things.

i am so grateful that we have this plan and that we have the opportunity to live with heavenly father again as long as we live obediently and follow the commandments! i hope next time i am faced with a 'missionary moment' i will be better prepared! 

THANKS

thanks for all the suggestions. it is a hard decision. i think at this point i am just going to wait and see. with jakob there are not a lot of options. i can't just drop him off anywhere and go on with my day...... i am going to see about getting someone to come to the pool with me to be in charge of Oliver and Sofia. that way i can be one on one with jakob and be ready if he shows signs of throwing up. HIS MOST FAVORITE THING TO DO IS SWIM!! so it is very hard to take that away from him. i called the doctor and made the first available GI appointment. that is about the extent of my abilities at this point. if it happens again, i will have to get more creative i guess!! thanks again for all the support and advice and keep it coming. 

*** note*** jakob's teacher just sent me info about a special needs camp taking place in july that is just down the street from us!!! interesting how things work out!!

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO

Let me just tell you about my day. summer is killing me and it has only been less than a month! it is too hot for the kids to play outside, there is always the pool, but i'm not really feeling it today, so my kids are either chasing each other through the house, watching TV or hanging off my leg and asking me for food and water. this is all occurring of course while i am either on an important phone call or working with my mother in law on the computer. my nerves are fried and my patience is up. I HATE SUMMER (today anyways)!! As if mine and my kids boredom is not enough, we try to finish the day with family home evening at the pool with all the other church members who have a pool membership. we are not there 15 minutes and Jakob throws up. i am mortified because not only did he ruin the evening plans for everyone, but the pool is now closed for 24 hours and this is not the first time this summer it has happened. I am not sure at this point if i jump in a hole and hide or just go on like it's no big deal. Last year this was not a problem, but this year it apparently might ruin our summer. now i feel like we shouldn't go as much and i do not want to be responsible for ruining anyone else's summer. i even had one of the ladies at the pool pointing at me tonight as if to rub it in and make me feel even worse! HOW RUDE!! my other four kids are beginning to resent Jakob a little bit and blame him for not being able to swim, so i can't imagine the reaction of strangers. so what to do?? i'm almost considering revoking our membership, but then what am i supposed to do with five kids all summer. i think i will really lose my mind then!!

POWER OUTAGE FUN

annelies and sofia performing a duet

annelies suggesting what i should sing

nico was not up for singing, he played the shy card!!

 our wonderful host

 the 'clown' of the show!

Our power went out for TWO hours last night. luckily it was still light outside, so we didn't really need candles and flashlights in the main part of the house. our first mission was to get prepared for an all night outage, so we scavenged up all the flashlights and candles just in case. next we set up a BIG picnic blanket in the family room and ordered pizza for a 'pizza picnic'. We then grabbed our flashlights to go on a kitten hunt. this was fun because the basement (where we are keeping the cats for now) is pitch black. we found those silly kittens in the most interesting spots, not where they were supposed to be. two little munchkins apparently left the basement door open and let the cats roam free. once our hunt was over i wasn't sure what to do next. i knew they wouldn't go for bedtime since it was only about 7 at night and the pool had to be closed because of the thunder (no rain). so i quickly suggested family music night. the kids were ready and turned it into american idol of course. it was fun to see them make up songs and dance together and fight over who's turn it was. Jakob finally stepped in and took over the role of host and then decided for himself who would be next to 'perform'. we had so much fun. unfortunately my camera was not willing to fully cooperate and i got some very pixally pictures. but you can get the idea of the fun we had anyways.

MISS BESSIE AND HUNKLIN

i have discovered that i have 2 very creative (or strange) little girls. it was brought to my attention this past winter that annelies and sofia regularly play outside together and call themselves miss bessie and hunklin! i found this quite humorous and have been observing them playing this now for about 4 months now. i have noticed that although hunklin (annelies) is the "child", she is very bossy with Miss Bessie (sofia) who appears to be the "adult". Miss Bessie puts up with Hunklins demands and does whatever hunklin asks of her. Hunklin continuously asks miss bessie to roll her around in the baby cart, not because she is a child, but because she is unable to walk due to some sort of injury. the adventures of miss bessie and hunklin are never ending and they have so much fun making up new stories for them! oh~ to have the imagination of a child again!!