Girls Camp

A couple weeks ago I got to go to girls camp.  I serve as a counselor in the Young Womens program in my church, and every year a camp is held for all the girls in our stake, ages 12-18.


And I have to admit I was a little nervous because it's been years since I've camped.

I also regard foundation in the same way I do a shirt...I never leave the house without it.

So needless to say, I was curious to find out how far I'd come in the last ten years....yeah ten!


The other part of me was excited because I would have a break from all the mommy-related responsibilities of taking care of home and kids (and husband). 

Elon and I drove down together the first night because it was "Bishops Night", and he got to give the girls a little fireside meeting after they did their skits. He gave them a great message.  I hope they thought it was as great as I did.

Then he left me there....with the elements....and the most beautiful girls ever.  Seriously, these girls were SO pretty...each and every one of them.  There were about 85.

Lucky for us a scout camp left before we got there and they left behind a big tent they had used. 

It became known as the "ugly tent" and it housed all the food and mail boxes:

 Anne brought her pop-up camper and shared it with Tara, Amy, and I.  And boy was I ever grateful to have that as my sleeping quarters!

...because starting at midnight that night, the rains came...and about three quarters of our super cute tent dwellers got soaked.

But to our amazement...the inhabitants of one of the wettest tents (our first-year girls), woke up with smiles stretched across their faces and the desire to go swimming in the lake! 

 
 























My niece, Leah (on the right) is actually a second-year girl.

Unfortunately the clouds never lifted and the forecast looked wet for the remainder of camp, so our stake leader made the ultra-tough decision to cut it one day short.  

But from what I saw, the girls were extremely mature about that decision.  

So that last day, all of the activities that the YCL's (youth camp leaders) had planned for these girls were put into action.  And boy did it look like they had a blast.

Then I think the favorite activity that the YCL's did for these girls was the spiritual one at the end that involved blind folding all of them, and then sending them out to search for something. 

After hopelessly wondering around for a while, alone, and no doubt discouraged, they heard distant singing.  Each one walked toward the sound where they were then embraced by a youth leader. They were "home".

It was the spiritual parallel that really touched these girls to the core. 

While these activities were happening, I got to work with these lovely ladies to take down camp:

 Sue (above, left) helped with the food.  She had the girls eating like the queens that they are:

Here is Anne "mopping" herself out of the pop-up.  

Why?

...because she's a princess. ;)

Camp ended with a testimony meeting that tugged at my heart strings and had my eyes swimming by the end of it.  I am so blessed to work with these amazing girls.  The way they treat themselves and each other reveals their heightened perspective that is so needed in the world we live in today.  

The whole time I was there, I felt nourished and fed by their example.

Oh...and a little ways in, I forgot to care that I wasn't wearing foundation. :)

I came home to a pristine clean house, and the best hugs ever from my handsome husband and adorable little ones.

I swear those two grew while I was gone. 



 
 

Hallie got mail!

 

She seems a little indifferent about it don't you think? ;)

Every now and again Hallie's Great Grandma Jerree sends her surprise letters in the mail...and they usually come with $2.00 tucked inside, which has this girl brimming with excitement to go buy a plastic animal at Agway with her dad!  

And because she didn't have quite enough piggy-bank change to go along with those dollars, a certain nanny friend hid some loose change for her to find.

She thought this was great!

She ended up buying a really pretty white horse.

She named it "Whitey." 

Actually, the name Whitey belonged to her previous horse purchase (which happened to be an ashy gray), but because this new one was actually white, she gave the name to it, and named the gray one "Bree."

....I'm glad that got all straightened out!

 The other night we had ice cream cones for dessert.

Chandler was a fan!

 

 He sure does makes that cone look yummy!  Don't you just want to slurp off the frothy top of it? 

  

With all this catching up to my blog I've been doing lately, and sorting through all these picture, there is one common denominator to each of the different events and circumstances that have surrounded our family over the last few months, and that is....

...that these two are Besties: 

I mean, they really truly are...and that makes my heart swell every time I see it.

Which is a LOT.

Still catching up...

Spring Arrived!  

And with it came a bounty of beauty around my house.

This tree is right on the line between us and our neighbor, and I think it's just about the prettiest tree ever!

 

Our tulips amaze me every year when they poke their little greens up through the ground before they open those velvety red petals.


It's just too bad they only last a couple of weeks.

 

These rhododendron bushes are always a visual treat for us...and those who drive by.

 

 And there's nothing quite like Mother's day pansies handed to you at the end of sacrament meeting by your adorable little girl:

 

 And along with the arrival of spring, came the arrival of...

Naomi and Sunshine!...

Like a lot of Americans, Naomi's house was foreclosed on and will be up for auction in a couple of weeks. (She gave me permission to talk about this.)

She's been a close friend for a long time...and neighbor...and member of our church.  When she needed a place to stay for a couple months, we were happy to take her in....and her little dog too. ;)

She loves my kids.

And they love her.  

Hallie calls her "sister."... (which is exactly what she is).

Naomi is a HUGE help to me!

 

She cooks twice a week.

She cleans constantly.

She babysits my kids on a whim. (!)

Did I mention her meals are of a decadent nature?...they are!

There is something to be said for "live-in" nannies.  She calls herself "Nanny Naomi" with a smile on her face.

She also became my "stunt double" when it came to a missionary wanting to take a picture of our family right before he was transferred, and I wasn't there to be in it.  Darn. 

But she told me it was okay...she was my stunt double.  I thought that was hilarious!

She had this floor looking like it did the day her son Peter put it in for us. (We had forgotten it was so light in color!):

  

We went from wondering how we were going to adjust to having a new person living with us to wondering what on earth we are going to do when she leaves.

My kids also love Sunshine.

...with a passion.

   

 

We went outside to play with the dog and to "teeter-totter."

...and it was a bit chilly! 

 

Sometimes I fail to carve out the time to wipe down Chandler's face, and comb his hair.

But I think if anyone could pull off the results of that kind of neglect, it's hand's down this boy right here:

 

Did I mention they love Sunshine?

To be completely honest, that girl on the left dreams about owning a dog every second of every day.  

 

She doesn't understand that a dog may just push her mother over the edge at this particular stage of life.

What with the prospect of more babies and all.

I'm not pregnant.  

But hope to be a couple more times before all is said and done. ;)

 

Finally back in business!

My camera hasn't worked great since the day I bought it, and has only continued to decline over the past five or so years.  In fact with all the dropping and drooling and smashing it's endured from curious toddlers, I'm surprised it'll still snap a picture.

It did however give up the picture-transferring ability. 

But luckily my mom came to my rescue for the umpteenth time when she brought over her media card cord thing-a-majigger, and transferred all of my poor hostage pictures from the last several months onto my computer.  Thanks mom!

I'm going to review in a nutshell the goings on of the last several months....

First of all...Chandler loves his "Bampa."

 

Then one day as Chan and I sat to eat our breakfast I noticed that he was extremely happy.  And then I realized that I accidentally gave him a cup instead of a sippy!...He thought that was the best thing since the "ball." 

I loosely learned the skill of french braiding.

  

Obviously it needs some perfecting but I'm tickled pink that my fingers can produce something that looks somewhat like a french braid....thanks to my sister in law Anne, my mom, JaNeal, Tori, Tara, and anyone else I might have missed who gave me a tutorial.  All of these lovely ladies have a different technique which wreaked havoc on my mind, but there you have it...a "braid" on little Hallie. 

I'm head over heels for this boy!

I love this picture:

...and this one:

We joke that Chandler is going to be a conductor someday because very early on in his young life, he's imitated every conductor he's ever seen.

He leads at church.

He leads with me at Family Home Evening.

At 18 months he went ahead and lead the Mormon Tabernacle Choir:

We've done a lot of baking but Elon and Hallie are the ones who head it up when it comes to the "snickerdoodle."  Elon loved to make these as a kid, and has rubbed that same love right onto his first-born. 

Not sure what that pout-face is all about down there.  It's pictures like this one that remind me I need a new camera...(and a few photography classes.)

Easter came and went.  I won this cute center piece at Women's Conference!

This girl looked super cute all decked out in her new Easter dress.  And because I had to stay home from church with a sick Chandler, I had ample time to do her hair all pretty....too bad there's not a side view here. 

Then....skipping ahead a little bit, my Aunt Julie is up from Utah for a few months and took me to get pedicures and to try sushi! A first on both accounts for me.

That middle group is raw eel and avacado...

yup...my mouth welcomed, chewed up, and swallowed raw eel.

I actually thought it was the tastiest of the three. 

Ballerinas, bathtubs, and the letter "A"

Not everyone gets a ballerina who will put their silverware away...

 

But I do!  

I love the outfits she chooses when there is no school.

Bath time is always a hit at our house...

This boy's closed-mouth grin is one of my fav's!...He does it a lot :)
And because I had to zoom way in to hide some key parts of the birthday suit, I believe this pic has a little "noise" in it...am I right?  Thank you dad Firmage for educating me. :)

You can't tell my kids like the bath at all can you?....And it's amazing to me that out of their one million bath toys, not one of them is shown in this picture...that's just plain freaky! 

As for the letter "A"....

I'll let you guess what my little ballerina and I will be working on for the next little while... :/

Insomnia...

It's 2:12am, and I just can't fall back asleep after waking up at 12:54am thinking I heard a baby cry.  After checking both kids and realizing I must have been dreaming, I have been laying awake with a wide range of random thoughts floating around in my head.

Thoughts like, I'm excited to be waited on this Thursday at the Relief Society birthday dinner.  The guys are serving us ladies!

Elon is actually staying home with the kids and sending me up with a salad that I'm so excited to say he's making himself!  (He's a great cook, but chopping veggies for a salad is not exactly his forte.)

I want to become a good photographer so much it hurts. 

I'm yearning to know what terms like "noise" and "saturation" truly mean.  My sister gave me some valuable encouragement when she told me that a lot of great photographers start out doing exactly what I'm doing right now; asking questions, taking a million experimental pictures, asking more questions!  If I ever find myself in the midst of a "titled" photographer I carefully corner them and pelt them with every question under the sun in hopes of remembering at least one or two things they've said.  

I don't know why but another thought I had in my unsuccessful quest to fall back asleep was that I love Hallie's voice over the phone.  While I was in Vegas, I couldn't soak up that little voice enough.  I loved hearing how daddy made French toast for dinner and how he took she and Chandler to pick out a movie from red box to have a special movie night.  Nothing is better than being reminded of the kind of man I married, channeled through a voice that turns my heart to mush every time I hear it over the phone. 

Speaking of my heart turning to mush...whenever I have a hard time sleeping I often reflect on those first weeks of having a newborn,  where I would yearn with every fiber of my being for the opportunity to just lay down and not have to get up with a baby who doesn't seem to know the night from the day.  

That got me thinking back to when Chandler and I spent a good portion of the night in my dim-lit master bedroom, while Elon slept on the couch just to give us more room in the bed.  These were Chandler's "awake" moments and I remember putting his head on my shoulder to pat his back after a feeding.  He then lifted that fuzzy little newborn head and stared with wide eyes at the wall behind us.  I remember being wrapped with pure love for that little bundle.  I told myself I never wanted to forget this picture right here...of Chandler staring wide-eyed at that shadowy wall.  There's nothing really significant about that typical way I was holding him, or that way he often stared at things...but in that very moment, a hefty dose of unconditional love seeped into my heart for that boy that I never want to forget.

It's funny how little miracles happen while walking through the trenches of life...because I can't begin to describe how hard those sleepless nights were for me.

I love being a mom.

And even though most days I feel frustrated and tired, and too afraid to pray for the patience I desperately need,  I love that I have this opportunity to love in a way I didn't think was possible.

Can you tell it's 3:03 in the morning? 

I get a little sappy when I'm over-tired.  I should try to go catch a wink before my well-rested-bright-eyed-and bushy-tailed little ones wake me up!

Stuck

Hallie is an expert at getting dressed.

But even experts hit roadblocks every now and again: