Bevan's Burglaries, Bows, Books, Best Friend Becky, and Beautiful Shoes!

Frequently, I will be walking through the kitchen and find the fridge has been left open again, or so I think until getting closer to find our Food Burglar Bevan hiding in the fridge with whatever food she can find. She will sneak into the fridge whenever someone else has opened it and sit herself down on the bottom shelf and then, in a very unsafe manner, pull the fridge as close to shut as her body allows hiding herself from the world as she enjoys her food. Usually we'll catch her with a big grin on her face as if she's doing nothing wrong. The usual confident Bevan response.

Bevan has grown physically the last few months for sure, but she has grown leaps and bounds in maturity, almost surpassing her 3 year older brother; Brigden. She decided to start speaking around her 2 year old birthday and now says most words. The only question is whether or not you can understand her, but according to her, and her confidence level, you can or at least you should!

She frequently shares her love for food with us as she walks around the kitchen demanding food in her favorite pink or purple colored bowl and her sippy cup full of milk. All I can say is Harris has met his match when it comes to extreme levels of determination.

What has been fun is watching her become so independent along with her confidence. She loves loves loves to be outside. She is now putting on her own shoes and heading out the door as fast as she can when she finds it left open momentarily. Our next door neighbor is a wonderful lady and friend named Becky and given Becky's kindness and fun basket of toys, puzzles, and games in her living room, Bevan usually heads straight over to Becky's home whenever she gets out of the house. At times, when Becky isn't home, I'll sit on our front porch and watch Bevan pound on Becky's door from Becky's front porch over and over waiting for her to open the door. I'll tell Bevan over and over Becky isn't home, but Bevan is sure she is. Again, confident! Eventually, I'll just have to go and get her because she won't give up.

Some of her other favorite items are Bows, Books, and Beautiful shoes. She loves her white Sunday shoes and chooses to wear them on Sunday and every day thereafter. They're not even her size yet, one size too big, but she makes them work because she loves them so much.

It's great fun to watch Bevan find a bow or flower clip anywhere in the house because she immediately runs through the house saying, "Bow! Bow! Bow!" holding it to her head while looking for anyone who can clip that bow into her hair as if her life depended upon it. When we get her dressed in the morning she is insistent on picking out the bow to go with her outfit, which almost always doesn't match her outfit. You'd think her mother created this bow monster, but this is far from the truth. I put one bow in her hair and then it was all over. From this point on she was insistent on her bows! Bevan's other love is books! If you ever find yourself sitting down in our family room to relax, don't be surprised if within seconds Bevan has hopped onto your lap with a book in tow. She loves to be read books and usually the same ones over and over. I love spending time with her and actually find it adorable that I can't get much done when Bevan is around, unless it means I can do it with her on my lap and her book in my hands. I wondered what kind of child would pressure my appendix to such a great amount causing an appendicitis, but now that we are truly getting to know Bevan, I wonder no more. She is amazingly persistent and determined, and yet very charming and loving in her desires. Strange, she reminds me of someone I know very well as well; her father David. I guess it isn't such a coincidence that they look so much alike!

Sweet Somethings from Halen

Dave, Brigden, and Harris took off this morning on an ice fishing day trip and left Halen, Bevan, and I for a girl's day of our own. After chilling at home for a while we decided to head to a particular store for stylish girl clothing. Halen has been wanting to visit this store for quite a while and was looking forward to our shopping trip. At first she mentioned she knew we were only going to look around because of our very limited budget, but upon arriving I surprised her and let her know this shopping trip was a special "girls day" occassion and she would be able to buy one reasonably priced item of her choice. She was very excited and overwhelmed.

We shopped for quite a while trying to find the right item to buy and after trying things on in the dressing room she started to look at price tags. It was in this moment that I was once again reminded she is really a young adult looking like a young girl. Upon realizing her favorite item, a beautiful sweater, cost more than we've ever spent on one item for her she started to back pedal and explain she didn't need any of the items and that she didn't have to get anything at all. I had tried to be really careful in my words concerning money, but she is so sensitive and insightful, I didn't have to say anything.

She asked if she could get her other favorite item, a jacket, instead which was half the cost of the first item and said that she didn't really need any of the other items anyway. I started to cry and told her that I wanted to buy her many beautiful things that she wanted, but wasn't able to financially. I also explained that it broke my heart we weren't able to buy nice things for her over the years, but that it wasn't because we didn't want to, but because we couldn't. She graciously took the hug and tears, grabbed her jacket, and walked out with as big a smile as possible. She is truly a blessing!

While the financial difficulties we've encountered have been very difficult, I amazingly wouldn't trade them for such wisdom in my child. Of, course, that's easier to say when they're over, eh?

Mom & Dr. Mario

Yes, video games may fry your brain, but nobody ever said your brain wouldn't be happy while being fried! One of my most favorite things to do with my mother as a child, teenager, young adult, and even young mother was playing Dr. Mario on Nintendo. My mother loved loved loved this game and was amazingly good at it. Well, actually it wasn't so amazing when you considered the hours she invested in the game against her children and spouse. It was always an accomplishment for us to beat her at the game.

Over the years Dave and I haven't invested much in gaming systems until recently when we were able to get a Wii off of an entire gift card from RC Willey because of a previous purchase years ago. I wasn't very excited until I realized I might be able to somehow find an updated version of Dr. Mario for the wii. Just last month the game became available online and I nabbed it! I played it immediately just like a child and my kids grew to love the game immediately as well. It's addicting for SJ's like me and very easy to learn. As every weekend should, today included a good hour or more of frying my brain playing video games with my children.
Their goal is now to beat their own Mother, just as mine was years ago. I must say they are getting better and better and I have to work to stay ahead of them in some games.

In one of the games I was playing against Brigden and I was enjoying myself too much because before I knew it I was about to lose. I realized it too late and my only hope was to distract him. I wrongfully yelled "No" as he was making his last move to win, hoping to shock him enough to ruin his move and give me more time to win. It did shock him, but surprisingly, didn't ruin his attitude. Brigden being the cheerful champ that he is, turned to me and said, "Mom, why did you yell?" I said, "because I wanted to win." His very mature reply was, "But, Mom, it's just a game ya know."

Wow! Such wisdom, you know he had heard those very words from my own mouth before and here I was being scolded. Such is life. I just didn't think that my own parenting words would come back to haunt me so soon!

Weekend Highlights

A few of our weekend highlights which brought great joy and laughter to our lives involved Brigden & Bevan. Brigden is constantly saying things that just crack us up, but rarely make it to the paper to remember days or even moments later. Today, during Sacrament Meeting, Brigden saw a picture of President Thomas S. Monson in my bag and said out loud to anyone that was listening as if he were the prophet speaking,

"I'm Thomas S. Monson.
I'm the prophet.
You need to be more righteous."

Then he continued on in his unrighteous irreverent play as if the prophet never visited verbally. He cracks us up. You just never know where his mind is until he says something and then you wonder why a 4 year old is thinking what he's thinking?

Yesterday for our New Years Day celebration the kids, Collin, Megan, and I enjoyed playing arcade games and bowling at Boondocks. Bevan was very excited to be able to play since there wasn't much she was able to do with the arcade games. After watching her brothers and sister play, she summised that in order to be effective at bowling she would have to throw the ball and then stand as a statue in a point stance to magically guide or direct the bowling ball to hit the pins. It was hilarious to watch her "point stance" after each throw as if it would make the throw even better somehow. Here is a video to enjoy of Bevan bowling.



In this video she is showing us a better late than never point stance.

Oh the joy of children when I remember to laugh!