At the church

There was one night when we were all supposed to be together.  While we had 18 total people coming to Denver only about 20 were staying at the house - and two families were coming in for barely 24 hours.  That gave us only 1 dinner where we were all together.  I didn't think we could have a very happy togetherness dinner at our home so we reserved our church building.  I made the dinner for everyone (since we were the only one with a home - I felt bad about asking people to bring something - so I just did it.  I made herbed pork, garlic mashed potatoes, a vegetable stir fry, and home made garlic bread with roasted garlic.  I was pretty proud of myself.

The boys played a wonderful football game.

Later we hooked up a tv and the kids played one of those dance video games (I don't know which one) and the adults played a game of Herbert family trivia that I had put together.

Mini Golf

Another day we went and played mini golf.

Grandma helped the older girls cheat by putting her feet around the holes and then guide the ball in with her golf club - lame!

Jason played a mean game against his brothers.

Cute, cute, cousins.

Herberts - Rockies Game

One night Randy took all of us to the Rockies game.  Jason's dad (and children) are loyal Dodgers fans and it just so happened  that the Dodgers were playing the Rockies during the family reunion - so of course we had to go.

Jason does not love professional athletic events, or pictures, but he does love us!  ha

The Herbert Reunion

Jason is one of 7 children.  His family isn't close.  They don't seem to need each other the way other families do.  They are all very independent and left the house early and haven't felt a strong need to come back.  I have known Jason for 15 years now and in the 15 years have been with the "whole" family once or twice.  There are many members of the family who have never met other members of the family (like cousins).  They also live all over the country (and for a little while, the world).  

This summer Jason's only sister had her first baby.  Kasey is well loved by everyone and she has worked hard to maintain relationships with all of her brothers and is a wonderful aunt to her nieces and nephews.  I saw this as an opportunity.  I called Kasey and we hatched a plan.  I told her that if she emailed everyone and told them she was coming to Denver and that they could all come and meet her new baby - I bet they would all come.  Denver was a good half way point for everyone.  I was right.  They all came.  All of them.  All 28.  To our home.  For 5 days. (they weren't all there for 5 days - that was how long we were hosting).

Jason and I were very excited.  We had never hosted anything like this before.  We were grateful for a house that we felt like could handle it and for being in a financial situation where the thought of having one family over didn't make us cringe.  I prepared for months.  I am glad I did - it ended up resulting in a perfect storm of craziness.  You will find out in a few posts that Jason and I decided to have a 15 year old boy come live with us for the school year and he came with his whole family while Jason's family was here.  Then the kids first day of school got moved up and they had to start while they still have their cousins at our house.  It was unfortunate.  But we made it through and were grateful our children got to spend time with their cousins and we got to grow some bonds that have needed some attention.

The girls and I were beyond thrilled to have a little newborn in the house again.  This is Miles and I got to babysit him a lot while his parents went and explored Denver.

One day we rode our bikes to our local park and the boys fished.

And the girls played tennis.

Megan and Lelani.  They are just about a week apart.

I mostly fed the kids out on the deck.  Occasions like this make me grateful for my preschool because I have an endless supply of children chairs and tables.  I LOVED having these kids in our home for 5 days.  I wish we could do it every year.

Family History

I was struggling.  I was praying for help.  I got an answer.  Do family history work.  My problem had nothing to do with family history work.   I dismissed it.  You see, when I was living in Provo and just married I heard a talk by Elder Scott about the seasons of a woman's life.  He said that we have many seasons and that we should embrace the season we are in and not worry about the things we don't have time for in a particular season.  One of his examples was family history work.  He said something to the effect of, when you are a young mother with little children, it is not the season in your life to do family history work, that season will come, and there are other women who are in that season who are doing the work for you while you raise your children.  Oh how I loved him for saying that.  Well as you all know the church has changed its tune.  Apparently every season of life now has time for family history work.  I have been slow to heed this council and have embraced Elder Scotts.  (yea, yea modern revelation... blah, blah).  

I kept praying and searching for help.  The answer kept quietly coming, do family history.  How?  How on earth could family history help me with my problem?  After about a month (I am a s l o w learner) I went to my ward's family history class and started this incredible journey in family history.  

I turned our hallway wall into a visual.  It helps me work.  It helps remind me and focus me.  It lets my children know what I am doing.  I have a line I am working on.  There are times when it seems like it is helping my problem and then there are times when my fear overcomes my faith.  But for now I have faith that by heeding the spirit's whisperings, blessings will come.

"I got this"

Back in the days of toddlers, babies, diapers, sippy cups, car seats, high chairs, and Super Why I felt like things were hard.  It was hard to get to the store, hard to get dinner made, hard to do the dishes, hard to get anywhere, hard to do baths.  And it was.  It was hard.  Everyday was a struggle.

Things are hard now.  Hard in a different way.  But that is not what this post is about.  This post is about how some things that used to be hard are now easy.  Not necessarily with the kids - but just with me.  I have been making dinner every single night for 12 years.  And just in the last year has it become finally easy.  It took ELEVEN years for making dinner every night for it to become natural, easy, and habitual.  It is not something I stress over anymore.  It is not something that takes up a lot of brain power or emotional energy.  I just do it and it gets done.  I remember wondering if I would ever get to this place - and I few months ago I was in my kitchen making dinner and I realized how I hadn't stressed about it in months - it was just easy.

Dishes are the same way.  I used to dread doing the dishes after dinner.  I am one that can't leave dirty dishes in the sink - so dishes are always getting done all day - but at the end of a nice dinner I just made and fed to 4 people who didn't appreciate it and out right hated eating it - I had no emotional or physical energy to do the dishes.  But I always did - it was just hard.  But not anymore.  I get up and just start doing the dishes without even a thought.

Some things are still hard.  Laundry is hard for me.  Not hard in the way that our clothes were always dirty or we had beds pilled with clean clothes that needed to be folded.  Just hard emotionally.  So hard in fact that about 2 years ago Jason took over and he does the laundry every Saturday.  It is nice.  Deep cleaning is getting easier - but definitely not habitual yet.  But I just wanted to make note - that it took about 10 years of doing dinner and dishes every single day - but now I feel like "I totally got this".

One summer day...

One summer day we went to a place called Hudson Gardens.  It is only about 15 minutes from our house and is free.  I knew about it since we moved here but never went.  Which is now angering me because it was amazing and I feel like i wasted 3 years of awesomeness.  It was wonderful.  A truly perfect summer day.

There were frogs to catch.

And waterfalls to climb