Baylessfamily.org

When I was a young girl this cute little family lived across the street. I loved babies even at a young age and they had babies so I would go over there and the mom let me play with her kids. When I got older I baby-sat these kids, a lot. They eventually moved, but they only moved around the corner, so I would still baby-sit the kids. When I was 12, the mom told me about a church program that she was a part of called Young Womens. The girls got together every week and did fun activities and service and she invited me to go. The first time I went we played miniature golf at the church, each class had made their own hole for the course. It was at this activity that I met Teressa Love, who became (and still is) my best friend and a bunch of other girls who I spent most of my adolescence with. The “mom” who invited me was Anne Law, who is still one of my greatest friends and role models. Anne was awesome. She let us girls play at her house and with her cute kids, she hired us one summer to do yard work for her and earn some money, she let us come over to her house and just hang out and talk, she was always good for a talk, she even let us sleep out on her trampoline once. After awhile, we discovered that Anne and I had the same birthday! This started a tradition of going out for lunch for each of our birthdays, which we still continue today although Anne and I are the only ones who still live in Utah. The other girls, Teressa and Holly, my best buddies, have moved far away, much to my dismay, but we get together whenever they come to visit, usually at Anne’s house! Anne was there at my baptism and sealing and played violin at my wedding. She has visited me when each of my kids have been born, and has always been an amazing friend. When I got older and had a home of my own, I began to wonder, why did Anne always let us come over and hang out? We were so annoying at that age! We must have bugged the crap out of her! She is just that nice, I thought. Now here’s where the Deja Vu comes into play. I teach the 11 and 12 year old girls in primary and they are very sweet girls and love my kids. I was wanting to train for a few upcoming races but I had no idea how I was going to go running with all these little kids to look after. So I asked a few of the girls if they would want to come over a couple of times a week to play with my kids so I could go running. They all said yes! They come twice a week prepared with baby sitting kits and activities for my kids, and my kids love it. The girls are coming! The weird thing is this, when I am done running, we hang out. Just for a little while, but we talk and tell stories and laugh, just like my friends and I did with Anne. It’s like a part of my childhood is replaying before my eyes, it’s weird, but wonderful. I find myself really looking forward to their visits. I realize this post probably won’t mean anything to anyone but the people mentioned in it, but I really wanted to write it down. To be perfectly honest, the kindness of that one person opened a lot of doors for me and established relationships that have been paramount to the person I have become today. It sounds cheesy, but I am completely serious. I don’t know if I can been as an amazing influence on these girls as Anne was to me, probably not, but I am happy to begin to understand why Anne did the things she did for us. Life is amazing sometimes.

Oh how I was looking forward to Spring Break! Savanna is only in pre-school and it is only two days a week, but having a week off was really nice, I loved having her home. I don’t know what I am going to do this fall when she is gone everyday for kindergarten! The week before spring break was very rainy and cold and we had a lazy week of staying indoors and watching too much TV, so I made a goal for the week of break, we were going to stay busy and do lots of fun things and stay away from the TV. I think we accomplished that goal. The weather was really nice the whole week and we spent a lot of time outside. The kids love their new swing set and we spent a lot of time playing on it, their cousins came over and played with them too. On Wednesday my mom came over and we went to lunch and played outside some more. On Friday I had my friends’ kids over for the day, she just had a baby so I took her older kids to give her a little break. We played outside, did sidewalk chalk, ate lunch and made a craft. They were good kids but with a total of 6 kids it was pretty noisy! But they all had a good time. On Saturday we had a birthday party at a friends house, they had a huge bouncy castle and all the kids got to see their animals, baby goats, a pony, chickens, and a dog. Avery was especially excited to see the animals, she kept pointing at the dog and yelling at it. After the party we went to see Rio with Aunt Bubbas. It was the first time Avery had been to the theater, she didn’t do too well. I thought she would fall asleep because it was nap time, but no such luck. Miles, however, did fall asleep, so Savanna was the only one who actually saw the movie, but we had fun anyway. James has been working on a medical office renovation in Helper right next to the train station. On Sunday after church we headed down the canyon so James could do a few things he needed to do, then we ate lunch at Helpers only restaurant (it was really good) then drove by the station so Miles could see the trains. It wasn’t busy, no trains coming in and out on Sunday I guess, but they got to see a few and the drive through the canyon was really pretty and we got to have some good family time. I always feel good when we have a week like that, it’s tiring to stay so busy but it feels better than the lazy days and I feel like I am spending quality time with my kids and making memories.
Easter was wonderful as usual. We did our traditional egg hunt and the bashing of the eggs. James was the Easter bunny this year and he did a great job, he needs to do it every year! We had so much candy! I also made jello and cookie salad for the special day. We went to Nana’s for dinner and another egg hunt with another huge amount of candy. Needless to say, we were all completely overloaded with sugar, which made for an interesting Monday.

I love my flower beds. I’ve weeded this flower bed a couple of times, but if you look closely you will see those evil weeds popping back up.
.

My dad and stepmom bought us some flowers and helped me plant them. The tulips were already growing when we moved in. Andy also took some violets of other starter plants from his parents yard.
This is the only inside picture you will get so far because the house still needs to be put together. Most of the walls in our house were green when we first moved in. Thankfully I had Spring Break to work on painting the kitchen and living room. The downstairs went from olive green to porcelain skin (cream). Now it feels happier, instead of dark and dreary. Andy had a day or two off as well, and he would just come home from school and work on the house.
Here are a couple of the pictures I took when we moved in on April 9th. Andy’s family were real troopers!
Andy’s nephew Jonathan is above. Below you will see his dad (Jon), niece (Marrissa), and nephew (Brenden). His mom, a brother, and a friend were also there helping out.
Thanks to all the people who helped us get moved in. I also had my home teachers and visiting teacher help me move out of my apartment. Then my Aunt Mary and her 2 oldest helped me clean the apartment. A few of Andy’s brothers have helped in various ways. It is really great to have so many good friends and family members willing to help. Thanks everyone. We really love our new house.

Spring has been slow coming around here, the last week has been so rainy and wet. We are going absolutely crazy being inside for so many months! It is always a challenge to find activities to do indoors that all the kids will be happy doing and I try really hard to give them something to do other than movies and computer. They have been really into pirates lately so, on this rainy day, we played pirates! We made eye patches and pirate hats out of construction paper and elastic and they loved them! We also made a treasure map and I set up everything that I put on the map throughout the house. The marble machine is the pirate ship because the knob you turn to start the marbles looks like the steering wheel (if that’s what it is called) of a boat. Savanna made a pirate flag and taped it to the ship. We hung a blue blanket over a door to make the waterfall, a little plastic crocodile sitting on the couch was crocodile river, a pile of brown blankets in the hallway was the mud pits. I hid a box of change under a pillow and put a paper X on it for the treasure. I think they had fun! Avery did have a hat but she ripped it off in 5 seconds, so no pictures of her. A fun rainy day activity for sure!

I once heard a saying, it went something like “Cleaning the house when children are growing is like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.” This is how I feel all day, everyday. I am always shoveling and it is always snowing. Before having children I would say I had a clean house the majority of the time. When we were first married and living in an apartment I would spend the first half of every Saturday cleaning, and with that done the place stayed pretty nice the entire week. Even when Savanna was a baby, things were pretty neat at home. I and liked it that way, I still very much like to have a nice, clean home, it make me feel calm and happy. I am home most of the day and it’s easier to live in cleanliness instead of messiness. However, as more children came along and those children got older and began to collect a lot of stuff, keeping my house clean has been a major challenge. Preparing and eating 3 meals day here makes a mess. I clean the kitchen at least twice a day. The laundry piles up and as soon as a basket of clean, folded laundry is put away, it is filled up with dirty stuff right away. And then there are the toys, toys and books and crayons and paper everywhere! I try, I really do, but at the end of the day, it looks as if nothing has been done. This has become one of my biggest short comings as of late. I don’t know how to keep it all clean. My children have chores to do. They are responsible for cleaning their own rooms and the playroom, and they usually do a good job. Of course, once this is done, they get something out to play with and it is all undone. I want my children to be responsible, to have respect for their home, but I also want them to be kids. How do you find a balance? My goal is to let my kids be kids and play and laugh and grow and teach them to help out and want to have things neat and tidy. I also want to spend time playing with them and not spend all my time cleaning up after them. If anyone out there actually reads this blog, please let me know your secret of finding this balance. This is my mommy thought for the day!

We again had a few wonderfully warm days and we took advantage of it. We went on bike/scooter rides, Savanna tried out her new skates in the church parking lot, and covered the drive way with murals in chalk. I was inspired by the warmth to expedite my birthday present. I wanted to get a swing set for our backyard for my birthday (which is in May), but I convinced James that this weekend would be a great time to get it. We would be home for conference so James would have time to put it together and the weather would be perfect for it. So we went Saturday night and bought it and woke up the next morning to 7 INCHES OF SNOW! There was so much, that a few big branches broke off our tree in the back from the weight. Didn’t I mention in a previous post that I would cry when we had a snow storm in April? Yeah, so I didn’t cry but it was pretty disappointing. However, my champion of a husband went out in the snow and spent 5 hours building the swing set for us! He is amazing! I love him! Our kids love him! He is the best! We stayed in most of the day Sunday but the kids could hardly wait to get out there Monday morning and play.
This weekend was also General Conference. Ever since I joined the church I have watched conference and James and I have had the opportunity to attend conference in SLC several times. But for some reason it seems like this was the first time that I really heard what was being said and it all seemed really relevant to my life. It was really nice to listen and feel the spirit. Good weekend.