Levi's Birthday

July 7, 2007, 07/07/07, the luckiest day of the century, after eight, long, hard, hours of labor, I gave birth to our little Levi Matthew, who had passed away due to an umbilical cord incident. We choose to remember this day as his birthday.

We started the day by attending the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. During the open house everyone is invited to come in and witness the beauty and reverence of the temple. We wanted to share this wonderful and peaceful place with our children.

Here they are in front of the temple water fountain with Levi's butterfly.

As Latter-day Saints, we believe that marriages sealed in the temple are for time and for all eternity. When children are born to couples that have been sealed in the temple they are automatically sealed to their parents. This ordinance can be done after a child is born. However, in the case with Levi, being stillborn, there will be no temple work done for him on earth in this life. However, because Matt and I were sealed in the temple 12 years ago last month, we know for a surety that this little boy is ours fo ever. We can be reunited with him someday.

After the temple we visited the Christmas Box Angel in the Salt Lake Cementary. This angel is based off the book "The Christmas Box" by Richard Paul Evans.

It is inscribed on the front with "Our Little Angel".

We brought a white rose and placed it, with one of Levi's butterflies, at the feet of the angel.

It looked like it belonged there.

This inscription is found on the back, on the angel's base. It invites anyone who has lost a child to leave a white flower at the angel's base. What is amazingly cool is it was dedicated on December 6th, 1994 and every year on that date there is a candlelight vigil that his held at this sight. December 6th just happens to have been Levi's due date.

The Christmas Box Angels all over the United States have become a place for parents to come and grieve the loss of a child, when they have nowhere else to go. This makes it especially inviting to those who have lost pregnancies, due to miscarraige. In our case, Levi was so small, at just 18 weeks gestation, there was no coffin small enough, nor did we want to go through the stress of a purchasing a burial plot and doing a service. It was so hard enough to say goodbye to our son's little body at the hospital and niether one of us felt like we could do it again, so we had him creamated. We later found out that a lot of parents just like us make that same choice. We are so grateful to all who made this partical angel possible. For more information about this Christmas Box Angel or to locate one in your area please go to richardpaulevans.com/angel-statues.

Just after Levi's passing Matt's work sent as an amazing arrangement of flowers. Right in the middle was a beautiful, blue butterfly. Ever since then whenever I see a blue butterfly it reminds me of Levi.

This year we decided to attach butterflies to our usual bunch of blue balloons for our balloon release.

All I could find were these white fabric ones. I thought it might be fun for the kids and I to decorate them. We got out blue paint and glitter and went to work.

Each one, although very different, was extremely beautiful.

We tied one on the end of each balloon string.

They looked awesome.

The balloons carried Levi's butterflies into the heavens.

It was an amazing sight to behold.

Even at a distance you can still pick out those butterflies.

Last year for Levi's birthday my mom made a blue butterfly cake. I wanted to carry on the tradition this year and have another birthday cake. However, I didn't feel like I could pull off an entire cake. I remembered the tiny cupcakes my sister-in-law Shanon made for her baby's blessing a while ago and thought I would give it a shot. They did not turn out as good as hers, but they do still look like butterflies and they are blue.

It was a perfect day. I couldn't have asked for more.

I had this posted as my Facebook status. I didn't think of it as being a poem at the time, but after several people called it such I made a few modifications.

I took my children to the temple.

I took a white rose to the feet of an angel.

I let my heartache drift to the heavens,

On the wings of a blue butterfly,

Attached to the string of a blue balloon.

Today I shed a tear for the memory,

Smiled for the miracle,

And Laughed for the promise of what can be.

Our Basement

After eight long years, we are finally finishing our much desired and much needed basement.

This is my laundry/sewing room. It is just off to the right of the bottom of the stairs. There will eventually be a very elegant folding door. The wide entry way will make it possibe for me to use the family room across the hall when working on major sewing projects, like quilts, and also to leave open while working in there so as not feel like I have been sentenced to life in a dark dungeon. However, I will be able to close it off when working on secrets or when guest or over and it is a mess, which most likely will be always. To the left of the washer and dryer, my very handy hubby installed pipe works for my soon to be washroom sink, equiped with a garbage disposal for all those puking incidents my children have become famous for. In the right corner will be my work area for sewing. The entire room when finished will look like a kitchen, but instead of an oven and dishwasher there will be a washer and dryer. I am more than estactic about spending time down here.

This is the doorway into the food storage room. It is off to the right when you turn into the laundry room.

This picture was taken looking out of the storage room. It is not as big as I hoped we could make it, but I gave up as much space in my laundry/sewing room that I could and still make both areas useful. There will be shelving around the majority of outer walls and one set of shelves down the center. Naomi is most excited about this room. She as always wished we had our own grocery store and now we will.

This is looking down the hall from in between the entry ways of the laundry room and family room. You can see linen closet door facing you off to the right, which is next to the bathroom door and across from the vanity, Isabel's door straight ahead, the boy's room off to the left, with the "shoe closet" door just before it.

This is the bathroom. We are installing a small pedestal sink there in the corner and a vanity with sink just outside the door in the hallway. Hopefully this will prevent any future fights between Isabel and the boys caused by too much mirror time.

The bathroom has a full shower and along with the toilet and sink, there is not much room for anything else.

This is Isabel's room. That doorway is to her closet. To save much needed space we will not be putting a door on, but it should look nice when it is all finished with a closet organizor.

This is the boys' room. It is huge. There will be enough room to get them out of the bunkbeds I hate so much and they will each get their very own desks. They also have their own closets on the wall to the left, which you can't see. Again designed to ward off many arguments.

This the family room looking out into the hallway. It is actually big enough to be two rooms and will be used as such. The back of the room will be for toys and games, the front for entertainment. Everything will hopefully be all tucked away behind closed doors so the room could easily be rearranged to fit more people on either side according to need.

I feel very blessed that we will soon have enough space to spread out a bit. We have been stacked on top of each other for so long. Housekeeping has always been hard for me, but has become increasingly difficult as the kids get older and their things get bigger. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more empty floors and enough space to organize the few things we do have.

Having our basement finished will also make it possible to finally create a home office upstairs for Matt and he will be able to then work from home. But best of all that means the computer and office space will no longer be in our bedroom.

Isabel's Birthday

Isabel turned eleven this year. Wow! It is hard to believe that I am a mother of an eleven year old.

She was not supposed to get a party this year. However, some cousins were visiting Grandma's from Arizona, so we used her birthday as an excuse to have a party.

Aunt Gloria picked out this beautiful cake. Isabel loved it.

Aunt Loretta and Aunt Gloria got together and gave her this bead weaving loom and lots of extra beads. Isabel is very crafty. She loves to create beautiful things. This was a perfect gift for her.

I will have to do a post later with all the amazing things this little girl has made, because it is absolutely fascinating.


Grandma got her Kit's new reporter dress. It was late coming in the mail, so I didn't get any pictures of it on her birthday.

We started a new tradition with Isabel's birthday. The birthday girl or boy gets to wear a crown and be queen or king for the day. An idea I got from my brother-in-law, Jeff's blog. Isabel had a blast with hers. She got to wear it to school and Blue and Gold Banquet. And for a girl that loves attention, that was an awesome present.

Last year, the trend for our family was a really nice fancy cake, made lovingly by their mother, for their birthday. This year they all decided to give me a break and order their cakes from Cold Stone. It tasted ten times better than it looked and it looked good.

In all those beautiful gift bags Isabel found: A purchase order for an American Girl doll flute (I was late getting it ordered), a Taylor Swift and an EFY CD, and a large assortment of fingernail care products.

This girl is not anything like her mother. Not only is she crafty, she is very girly and loves to wear makeup and do her nails.

Oma and Opa gave Isabel two books from her favorite series Fablehaven. She had alread read them, but was really excited to add them to her very own library.

Isabel is an amazing daughter. She is so talented. She plays the flute and the piano. She dances like a butterfly and sings like an angel. She has been giving dramatic readings since she was in kindergarten and can memorize books in a blink of an eye for her performances.

Isabel was our Honeymoon baby, coming just nine months after we were married and I felt an extreme amount of anxiety. Marriage did not come easily to me and before I even had time to settle into my role as a wife, I was a mother. Thus, her middle name Hope. Hope is what got me through that first year of my marriage and the first year of her life. Along with the hope, that all would turn out for the best she brought so much joy and happiness. I absolutely love and adore her.

Mischief Makers On St. Patrick's Day

I know these next few posts are a little late. I just haven't felt like blogging lately. I tend to go through stages. Sometimes I have a lot to say. Sometimes I have nothing. And sometimes I have a lot to say, but I can't find a way to say it.

The night before St. Patrick's Day we had what looked like quite a few mishief makers visit our house.

They left a trail of tiny little green footprints and four leaf clovers.

The footprints led the kids from their bedrooms, down the hall, through the dining room, kitchen, and living room.

In the kitchen the kids found their morning milk had been died green.

A box of Lucky Charms was left on the table.

A very special treat in our house.

I never buy cereal with marshmallows, because I can't stop eating it.

Thank goodness this was a small box and was pretty much gone before the kids left for school.

Gold coins were scattered at the end of the trail in the living room.

Of course these were better than just gold.

They were chocolate.

A Whole Lot of Style For Such Little Girls

The little girls had been bugging me for quite some time for a haircut. Naomi likes to keep her hair short. This make me sad, because her hair is so thick and beautiful. Every time she decides its time for a haircut I try to talk her out of it.

And every time, I'm surprised, how nice it looks.

We did a lot of compromising with this cut.

I wanted her to grow her bangs out. She wanted them cut.

The stylist blended in most of her thick long bangs and cut just a few wisps.

I always forget how much her eyes pop when her hair is shorter.

Naomi wanted to cut her hair really short. I wanted her to leave it longer.

So once again we compromised.

She left it longer in the front for me. I let her cut it shorter in the back.

Evalyn's hair as always been very difficult to care for. It tangles and ties in knots. I'm not just talking about after sleeping on it. It was always the worst in the morning and after naps, but just ten minutes in her car seat caused a mess of knots practically impossible to comb out.

Not anymore.

Twice Evalyn had tried to cut her own hair. Both times were right after a tearful session of trying to comb through all the knots. Twice she cut little clumps of fine, blond, baby, hair, from right above her right ear. I was able to hide it fairly well, by styling it to the right, but if you knew where to look, it was obviously thinner.

Without saying a word she let both the stylist and I know exactly what she wanted. And what she wanted was to have cut short, very short.
The entire time Naomi was getting her hair cut, Evalyn sat in the seat next to her, pulling up her hair with one hand and chopping at it with the other, like she was holding a pair of scissors.

I have to admit, when I left Great Clips, I wanted to cry.
It was so short.

As soon as I got her home, I ran a small curling iron through it. In less than two minutes I not only did I no longer feel like crying I couldn't stop smiling and giggling at her.

She was so beyond adorable.

It is like my baby became a beautiful, stylin', little, girl

while sitting in tall, twirly, chair in a hair salon.

Doesn't she just sparkle?

Now if I can just convince her not to cut her own hair anymore.

Just last Saturday I caught her once again with a pair of scissors. This time she had cut a big chunk of hair right up front on the top.

It wasn't until I was curling her hair for church on Sunday that I noticed the chunk she took out of the back.

Once again it isn't too bad. I can hide it with a couple of twists of the curling iron and a little bit of hairspray. Next time we might not be so lucky.

My Future Missionaries

I have been neglecting my boys. I try not to feel bad, because they are off season right now. They will start football here in a couple of weeks and then I will have lots to post about them. Until then I'll share this.

It is really hard to get good pictures of my boys. If they aren't moving around, blurring the image, they are making some silly face. One morning before church I told them to behave themselves and let me get some nice pictures. They were still being goofy. However, amongst all the goofy frames I found these.

Just nine more years and Noah will be leaving on his mission. Wow, he is half way there.

Lucas will be right behind him. He thinks he wants to go to Australia.

In fact, if Isabel goes on a mission, she will leave six months after Noah and they will come home the same month. Lucas would then leave the next month. If for some reason Noah gets his call a little late, I could have three missionaries out at the same time. Wouldn't it be cool if they all served in the same mission? Their idea not mine.

Of course there is some talk about all of us heading to Brazil before any of them are old enough to serve a mission. Matt would make an excellent Mission President and the kids already know the language. Matt has been talking to them in Portuguese since the day they were born.

The older they get, the more often I find myself asking, "What did Daddy just say?" The more I have to ask, the more Matt asks, "Quando vai aprender Português?" Which of course means, "When will you learn Portuguese?" And is usually followed by another "What did Daddy just say?" from me and a bunch of laughter from all of them.

Decorating With Duct Tape

It all started with a family picture in the front room many, many, years ago. In fact, Lucas, was the baby in the picture and he is now seven years old. So approximately seven years ago, there was a beautiful family picture, hanging on the wall, above the couch, in the front room. Then it was knocked down. The glass broke. The picture was torn. For the next six years I did not hang anything new on the walls. It wasn't worth fussing at the kids over. It wasn't worth fretting over.

Then, along came the summer Olympics in 2008. I wanted to use the opportunity to learn and to teach. So I purchased two large maps from Utah Idaho Supply, one of the United States and one of the World. I hung the maps on the wall in the dining room. I didn't want to make them anything permanent, because they were only going to be around for the Olympics. Anytime the Olympic announcers would mention a country, we would find it on the map. Anytime they talked about an American athlete and where they were from in the United States, we would find it on the map.

We had so much fun with those maps, I decided to let them stay. The problem, of course, was keeping them on the wall. By the end of two weeks they were getting torn at the edges by little fingers being ran along the wall. They were droopy, because they were to heavy for the push pins I had pinned them up with, after the tape on the corners no longer held. I thought about buying new ones and having them framed, but that was expensive and the image of the broken glass and torn family picture kept coming to mind. Then, I found the solution.

For several years now I have been taping the carpet in our dining room. We have some really cheap Berber carpet and over the years it had begun to fray. The kids being the wonderful, curious, lets see what will happen if I . . . little beings they are had pulled up a fairly large portion of the carpet one string at a time. I had tried gluing it like the manufacturers suggested, but every time I shampooed the carpets I had to re glue. Now lets think about that for just a moment. Carpet in the dining room of a house with five kids under the age of ten. Can you just imagine how many times a year I have to shampoo the carpets? So I did the next best thing. I duct taped.

So one day I was re taping, (only has to be done once every year or so, instead of once a month with the glue) and it occurred to me that I could duct tape the maps onto the wall. Not only did it keep the maps on the wall, they looked great. Every time I saw them for the first week, even month, I would say to myself, "Wow, that looks great." I would then turn to Matt and say, "Don't our maps look so cool?" It created a frame around the picture and gives the illusion of the map and the frame being painted on the wall.

Then Naomi got a few Strawberry Shortcake posters for her birthday. I wanted them to look nice and stay on her wall. So I trudged off to the store. I couldn't believe the variety of colors that duct tape comes in. I found a really dark brown and this beautiful red. Naomi choose the red. Don't they look awesome?

The dining room is quickly becoming the "school room" and I love it. I'm working on adding alphabet and number cards for Naomi. I am also planning a summer project, with a Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is a storybook character that gets flattened by a large memo board. He is so flat he can fit into an envelope and gets sent on some wonderful adventures. I think it would be fun for the kids to ship Stanley to people we know that live in different states and they ship him to someone else they know in a different state and so on. Whomever received Flat Stanley would then send a post card back to the kids, from Flat Stanley. It would be so cool to see how many post cards we could collect from places all over the United Sates, to add to our United States map wall.

I'm looking forward to getting the bedrooms finished in the basement so I can go to work decorating them with duct tape. Sports posters for the boys. Owl and dance pictures for Isabel. (I know kind of odd together. However, if you knew how she started collecting both, it doesn't sound so odd.) I even have dreams of hanging some black and white prints in the front room, using none other than black duct tape.