Song of the Day

Just thought I'd share the song Chase & I made up on our bike ride this morning. We had gone a little too far from home, and he was thirsty, so we wanted to find a faster way back. We took a dirt road, that he ended up saying was the longest road EVER. So in our boredom we came up with this--(To the tune of "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission"):

I hope that we can find a shortcut,

To get us quickly to our house.

We just might see some snakes and lizards,

And gophers, rats, and birds,

And possibly a mouse!!!

Please don't roll your eyes. We were pretty proud of that!!! ;-)

Simple Joys

Years ago I heard a speaker in General Conference counsel parents to give our children "things that money cannot buy." I've had this as one of my (many) mottos for years now, and I hope and pray constantly that after all is said and done, despite this overindulgent world we live in, my children will realize that it's the little things in life--the things that don't cost a lot of money--that are really the most valuable.
Today's "simple joy" for me was a bike ride with my Chaser-Boy. He's my buddy, my right-hand-man, now that everyone else is in school all day. My wonderful hubby fixed my bike tire last night so we could ride the bike with the baby seat on it. So, after we got everyone else off for the day, Chase & I set out for some fun. The first words out of his mouth as we started down the street were, "Yih! That's what I'm talkin' about!!!"
As we rode along we talked about why a sidewalk is called a sidewalk, we thought of words that rhyme, he played "drums" on my back for awhile, we had fun watching lizards run frantically out of bushes as we passed them, and after waving to a stranger we passed he informed me that, "All those persons in cars is a Child of God." He told me he would like to "do some jumps," so I found some bumpy areas of a dirt road to go on =), and we also decided some sprinklers looked good for riding through. Unfortunately, we didn't have much success trying to ride up the grass hill they were on. We suddenly came to a dead stop, and fell over!!! Thank goodness we were on a slope, so it wasn't as far a fall. Chase thought it was hilarious!!! He'll probably ask if we can do that again next time!

These are the moments life is all about... Finding joy in the simple things!

Being the Youngest

Ashlee had a fun opportunity a few weeks ago to hold a 4 month old baby girl during Sacrament Meeting. (One of her YW leaders was speaking in church, and her husband would be busy with the 2 year old, so she asked Ashlee to keep the baby.) Ashlee was loving it!

Ashlee was next to the aisle, and Chase was more toward the middle, with Rob, me, and other kids in-between, so it was a little while into the meeting before he noticed the baby. He started to make his way along in front of all of us, and I thought he was coming to sit with me. I put my arms out to him, but he didn't even glance my way. I realized his eyes were fixed on only one thing: THE BABY. He could hardly make his way over everyone's feet, church bags, etc. that were in his way, because he wasn't going to look down for a second. His attention was 100% on THE BABY.

He was finally a couple feet from her and he just stopped and stared at Ashlee with this baby. After a few seconds he turned to me and said, "Where did she get THAT?"

It was so cute! I didn't know whether he was hoping he could find one too, or whether he was trying to figure out how Ashlee had one of these things that only Moms usually had. Even though he's our baby, I've always figured he was around other babies enough (cousins, etc.) that it's not too strange a concept to him. But watching him with this baby made me realize that he really doesn't get a lot of interaction with babies, especially not like kids do with a sibling.

After he took it all in for a minute, and we explained the situation to him, he plopped himself down next to her and played with her. He was fascinated as she gripped his finger, he giggled at her little sudden movements, he loved having her stare at him... He was in love!!!