Scripture Power!

*Written, but not forgotten back in October. Where did September and October go?!

I've been stewing for a couple weeks over a profound mothering moment I had with one of my children. I had discovered this child had stolen something from school, had lied to me and was now sad and scared about confessing to his teacher. I pulled him to my lap and felt guided by the Holy Ghost in the words and things I shared. As his tears fell, I was able to tell him that sadness for what he did was part of the repentance process. I shared the story of Alma the Younger's conversion - how he and his friends had worked very hard for some time making trouble for people of faith until an angel appeared to them and told them to stop, largely in answer to Alma's father's prayers for his son. We talked about how Alma the Younger repented and made things better and what needed to happen now with the items stolen from school. The tears stopped and while scared about what the teacher might say the next day when the items were returned and a confession given, my son felt that glimmer of hope that everything would be okay.

As I read the October Visiting Teaching message about the profound influence righteous women, or "Mothers Who Know" have on the rising generation, this little experience with my son came to mind. I could have raged at my son for what he'd done, held him to the demands of justice, and very well have wounded his heart. But my heart was softened in that split moment as we stood looking at one another - me knowing something wasn't right and him not wanting to be caught. And I knew as I've reflected on this experience -- that the difference in me had come from one thing. I was deliberately consistent about being in my scriptures that week as an experiment. I'd had no particularly profound studying or "Aha!" moments, but I was consistently in them each day that week. There is great power in consistency.

In a recent Relief Society podcast I'd been mulling over, General Relief Society President, Sister Beck, spoke about how finding balance in our life was more about aligning ourselves with the Lord than being able to successfully juggle all the demands on our time. She particularly zeroed in on how consistently being in the scriptures each day was the best way to align ourselves with the Lord and thereby receive those blessings in the hour of our need. In this instance, I felt that promise being fulfilled because I was able to be the mother I want to be. One who teaches values by sharing principles and doctrines of the gospel in the moment it is needed, guided by the Holy Ghost.

The question at the end of the Visiting Teaching message asked, "What inspiration will I find in the Book of Mormon to face the challenges I face today?" For me, spending time in the scriptures each day keeps their stories and messages in my mind, ready for application. Daily time in the scriptures turns my heart to the Lord and allows the Holy Ghost to direct me because I'm more apt to listen, less quick to loose my patience because I have greater perspective in those trying moments. I know I am a better mother, a better woman each day that I'm in the scriptures. I was able to take hold of a teaching moment with my son and by extension, my other son too. I learned and they learned in action by applying Alma the Younger's experiences to our situation. It was truly one of the best feelings!

In short, it's like the chorus of my kids' favorite Primary song:

Scripture Power! Ev'ry day I need

The power that I get each time I read.

You've been Boo'd!

One of the best sounds in the world is to hear your family trying to contain nervous, excited laughter together!

Have you ever gone Boo’ing? We went Boo’ing for Family Home Evening on Monday night and it was a blast! Last week I was reminded of it when reading a favorite blog and when I explained it to the boys, they loved the idea. In fact, they immediately disappeared into their room and began drawing and cutting out ghosts with “You’ve gust been booed!” written on about a dozen sheets of paper. Easton thought it was gut-laugh-funny to write “gust” – he’s got such an easy sense of humor!

I baked up three loaves of my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip bread and wrapped them up so that we could go out right after dinner. I showed incredible restraint because I've been craving baked sweet breads lately. We were going to drop these treats on doorsteps of friends, ring their doorbell, and run like heck so we wouldn’t be found out. The kids were sooooo excited they could barely stand it!

Easton climbed the three sets of stairs to get to our neighbors with two little girls. He dropped the loaf outside their door, rang their doorbell, and ran down the stairs as fast as he could. He heard them open the door and begin calling out “Hallo? Hallo?” to which he couldn’t stop giggling over and Ryan couldn’t stop grinning!

Meanwhile, I’d already begun walking up the street with Morgan and Jake bundled up in the double stroller. McKay was hanging back so he could Boo the Blauchs as Dad and Easton left our building. McKay soon came running up the street with Dad with the biggest grin on his face! Success! Dana was brave enough to answer the door at night while her husband’s deployed but called to make sure it was us so she felt comfortable eating the treat from someone she knew.

Then we walked into downtown Schonaich to get our last door done, the Williams. This one would be tricky because they have a big friendly labradoodle and a locked gate we know how to open. Ryan took Easton, McKay, and Morgan on this one as I headed around the corner and down the street a bit – ya never know how families with strong young boys are going to react to being ding-dong-ditched and I wanted to get a good start. Soon enough, my crew came running and giggling down the road to join me. Seriously my favorite thing ever – hearing them all trying to contain their nervous, excited giggling!

It was the perfect clear, crisp fall evening and the walk home was filled with giggles and stories of their success. We've had a beautiful sunny fall this year! My family growing up enjoyed doing this sort of thing now and then for FHE. As much fun as it is to be on the receiving end of delicious treats, I think it’s so much more fun being the giver!

And because I'm in a serious sweet bread baking mood and perhaps you are too - especially pumpkin -- here's the recipe!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread - Moist, Delicious, Easy!

5 eggs

1 cup oil

1 15oz can of pumpkin

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

2 3.4 oz packages instant vanilla pudding

2 cups chocolate chips, optional

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix first three ingredients, beat well. Add remaining ingredients except pudding and mix until blended. Then stir pudding into mix, add chocolate chips, and pour into bread tins. Bake for approximately 1 hour - mine took 1 hour 20 minutes to pass the clean toothpick test. I placed foil on top for the last 30 minutes to prevent the top from getting too dark.

Makes 3 medium sized loaves or two 9x5 loaves. Recipe begged from my friend, Diana Porter. Enjoy!

Morgan is 3

My fairest little baby is growing up.

This little blue-eyed blondie is excited to be getting big!

When asked how old she is now, she declared, "16!"

When asked how he'd describe Morgan, Ryan said, "She is large and in charge!"

Dr. Grumbach, our local German pediatrician adeptly surmised last year, "She's not the biggest, so she's got to be the loudest!" I quote him often!

Her Favorite Foods:

Peanuts, rice cakes, yogurt, cheddar cheese, sour cream (on its own, everything else is a mere vehicle to deliver), whole wheat bagels with strawberry cream cheese, frosting but not really cake, and popcorn.

Her Favorite Activities:

Playing with "my boys" or girlfriends, jumping on the trampoline with them, snuggling and being tickled and thrown around by Mom or Dad, brushing teeth like the big kids and an electric toothbrush, being read to, counting (2, 9, 10 = 1, 2, 3 to her), singing songs at the top of her lungs, bossing her toys around, having her nails painted, and now potty training - she's in it for the treats!

Her actual birthday was a bit of a crazy day so we celebrated a day later. I wrapped her gifts and Ryan and I collaborated on her cake as the kids swirled around us. Morgan was so excited for her "birttay cake" and "p'esents". We invited our neighbors, the Blauchs, over to join us for her cake and presents which she thought was great! I loved hearing Morgan sing Happy Birthday with us.

McKay's favorite thing about Morgan on her birthday was "She blowed the candles out all by herself without me." I definitely saw a crosswind from his direction as she blew them out, but it sure was fun to see this little miss sunshine so excited about the celebration in her honor!

After cake and presents, she and Sophie jumped on the trampoline as giggly girls. When the boys joined, it just got louder. Easton's favorite thing about Morgan is that, "She plays fun!" Especially on the trampoline. He likes to make up little games kinda like Simon Says as they hop around. The rest of the kids love how he mixes it up.

Morgan's gift to us - staying dry with no accidents and much less reminding today!!! YAHOO!!!

Slice of life

These little ones give me a chance to swing between such a complex spectrum of emotions in such short succession it's dizzying! Here's what they've been up to.

Potty-training Morgan has begun after months of Ryan's urging and my cringing. She has been ready for a while and with her starting German kindergarten next month, it's a nice deadline for me.

My strategy? Talk it up, clear days free of errands, push the watered down juice, naked bottom time, and set my watch timer to go off every 15 minutes so I remember to ask her if she needs to go. For the first five days, we were in the bathroom almost every five minutes because she wanted the potty treat, she was bored, and loved knowing how to get my undivided attention every five minutes. I'd forgotten how involved this process is once you add in the intricacies of adding underwear and pants!

She's a tough negotiator on the potty treats. When she earned her first celebratory treat, I dropped one M&M in her hand. She gave me a look of death before collapsing on the floor in a full-blown tantrum. She wanted 10 M&Ms! We compromised at 3, since she's 3 now I explained. She drives a hard bargain!

One reason I held off was that I had to have a travel potty. A friend recommended one of these and it's perfect for the van! Fits right under our van's front passenger seat. The first week with soccer games and practices finds me spending more time at the van with her trying out her new potty than actually being on the field. Factor in nursing Jake too and I'm a veritably circus act! For $16, this Kalencom travel potty is sheer genius and works with regular plastic grocery bags and a paper towel.

In all, Morgan has had more dry days with no accidents than wet ones so I really can't complain. Last night, her first night without a diaper, she stayed dry. It was time to try since she woke up the other morning dry and went to the potty first thing -- with McKay's help! He's such a proud brother "teaching" her how to do big kid things!

Grade 2 school picture

Easton made me seriously proud yesterday at the dentist. Isn't he handsome?!!! McKay was there to get a cavity worked on and afterward got to pick a toy out of the treasure chest. Easton knew the routine and was anticipating the toy. As I was finalizing insurance details with the receptionist, she told me how proud she was of my son for asking for a toy in German. What?! Then she told him how proud she was of him in German and he got a sheepish grin. "Kann ich haben eins?" he'd said and didn't even think much of it. Awesome! Yes, we've lived here almost three years, but this is my son who told his German kindergarten teachers that he didn't want to learn German.

He's gaining a lot more confidence recently in a lot of areas. He scored a goal in one of his first soccer games this season. He regularly sits down to do art projects lately - 3D models of our house mostly although he recently found a stack of Sonic the Hedgehog coloring sheets among our colored paper stash. But his favorite? Yo-Yo! Ryan and I found a free yo-yo while organizing our storage area a month ago. Ryan showed the boys some tricks he know and Easton went to town on the basics. Ryan got him a better one to practice with and hardly a day goes by when Easton's not found practicing skills like walking the dog.

Taken by hospital photographer, August 16

McKay is loving life lately having joined Easton at the International School of Stuttgart dual language campus. His class has 16 boys and 6 girls, only six German speakers although about half the Americans in class attended German kindergarten like McKay did. He loves having lunch and break with Easton and all the K-2 kids. He's on the verge of really reading and enjoys "reading" the beginner books from school to us. The PE/art teacher at the school, who's Spanish/Czeck, told me she just can't say no to those eyes of his! The boys are both participating in an afterschool activity led by Easton's new teacher, Ms. Clem, called Chef's Academy. McKay loves to help in the kitchen so it's great for him and I love that Easton's tried new things and found that he liked them.

McKay's got some natural athleticism that we really enjoy watching. He has a knack for knowing where to position himself and other parents have commented on it too. He practices with Easton/Ryan's soccer team on Tuesdays, has tennis with Easton and his buddy Evan on Wednesdays, and his soccer team practices on Thursdays with a game on Saturdays. He's scored a goal and had a couple assists this season and his coach loves that he seems to grasp the game and drills a bit more than some of the younger teammates. I get such a kick out of how he runs to me after each kick and asks if I saw his "big kicks." He's so adorable!

Jake is now getting chatty with all those sweet smiles. He is seriously such an easy-tempered little guy and if I had my way, I'd hold him all day long because it makes me seriously happy! We all coo and baby talk to him to coax those smiles out and I think we wear him out pretty fast because he takes a lot of naps although we're still working on lengthening those nights!

Jake had his 2 month checkup with our German pediatrician and is doing very well. I'm fascinated by these checkups because they seem so much more thorough than I remember our stateside ones being. They do sonograms at each appointment to check different organs and joints that are more prone to disease or malformation, such as the hips and kidneys. He checks Jake's reflexes by holding him up in the air in different ways. At this visit, Jake just lay there coo-ing and smiling as Dr. Grumbach checked him out. It was so adorable! He did have to get a shot in each thigh but was quick to calm down when I picked him up. Oh how I love him!!!

Easton still loves to hold him and be my last minute packup lifesaver while McKay and Morgan ask to hold him now and then. I love hearing Morgan mimic my tone of voice when we go get him up from his naps -- "Oh baby Jake," she'll say in a sing-song voice.

Garmisch Getaway

Ryan loves our Bavarian Alp getaways to the Army's resort called Edelweiss. He craves his mountain fix, the American amenities at the hotel and particularly a really yummy American style filet mignon. So it comes as no surprise that Ryan is on their email list with special offers like the half off deal they advertised in August. We called the cousins to see if they'd like to rendezvouz there on Oct 3 when the kids would all have German Reunification Day off school. They were game! Hurray!

Fast-forward a couple weeks when Ryan saw how burnt out I was from sleepless nights and suggested I go check into a hotel with the baby to recoup. So sweet an offer, but the only problem was that I was too far gone to even imagine orchestrating replacing myself for a day and a half! I got close a few times checking local hotel options and my calendar to figure out the best days to be gone but it was just too complicated and expensive. I enjoyed teasing Ryan about taking him up on the offer when the evenings got hairy.

Then it dawned on me -- why not just book an extra room for me and Jake at Edelweiss?! After some sweet-talking on Ryan's part with the hotel, he was able to make it happen. Hallelujah!!!

To get the rest I needed/wanted, I should have disappeared for the entire trip but didn't want to miss out on time with the cousins and the stuff we wanted to do with them. We did our usual where the adults enjoyed dinner in the restaurant while the older Carter cousins watched the little ones up in the rooms with a pizza feast. Poor Camilla's arms and back got a workout from soothing Jake who became pretty fussy for them! It's so wonderful to have these girls around!!!

The following day we enjoyed the buffet breakfast, pool time, a hike up Partnach Gorge, and some good ol' fun on the rodelbahn {alpine slide}. It was fun to hear about the rest of the cousins' summer and how the beginning of the school year was going. We got a beautiful, sunny 70 degree day to enjoy the changing fall folliage around us on the walk up the gorge. Camilla shot these pics of our time.

Jake was zonked out the entire walk in his happy place.

Kid has a serious receding hairline!

The kids' reward for being happy hikers was those chalky candy necklace/bracelets. Ryan asked Easton if he could "look at the time" and tried to take a big bite out of the large clock piece. Easton wasn't too happy about that and wrenched free as we gave Ryan a hard time for teasing him. Easton recovered quickly but went to work on that piece so Ryan wouldn't get another go at it.

I actually can't remember what we did for the rest of the day after we parted ways with the cousins. We still had another night and day at Edelweiss and I was disappearing until 11am the next day. What did I do with my freedom? Read more than 2 pages of my book at a time w/o passing out from exhaustion, feed Jake, sleep, shower and get completely ready for the day - I even put on eye-liner! I seriously can't even remember the last time I did that, it's been years! It was glorious!

See, I've never been as excited about our jaunts down to Edelweiss as Ryan. I am more rested by days off at home where the kids can wake up, watch cartoons, and feed themselves breakfast while I sleep in behind closed doors. At Edelweiss, the kids wake up and we have to be up because they are hungry and on top of us. Then we have to get everyone dressed and ready to be seen, hobble down to the buffet breakfast where they demand specific favorites which you can't get fast enough for them, only to have them eat a few bites here and there before slinking off to watch the lobby's kid movie. By the time you've finished your meal and take them up to the room to get swimming gear on, they're hungry again.

The restful part of my getaway was not having to participate in all that. Thank you, Ryan!!! My little man Jake didn't cooperate too well with the sleeping part of my night off, but look at this face! He's easily forgiven!

This family picture means a lot to me. Ryan hates to wait around for things to happen - it kills him. When we met back up at 11am, he'd already loaded the kids into the van. He knew I wanted to take a family picture while we were down here but I don't think he figured on the process. By the time we'd gotten the kids' shirts changed, hairs put in some semblance of order, scouted out spots to take the picture, put bandaids on knees that got ouchies, and soothed tantrums, it was time to feed Jake. A full hour later and we were ready. Ryan was so patient with the process even though I knew it was seriously testing him as he paced. Man, I love him!!!

Afterward, we headed into downtown Garmisch because we'd always wanted to but never made the time for it on previous trips. We meandered, got the kids lunch and then some yummy gelato and then quickly browsed some fun Bavarian clothing stores. The best part was just walking the pedestrian zone and enjoying the atmosphere on a gorgeous day.

Cutest old man in his regular Bavarian attire. It's cool and familiar to me now to see the well-worn lederhosen paired with the dressier jacket and hat.

We love the Bavarian murals!!!

What's not to love about this cute crew! They'd just passed a young couple who did a double take counting the kids with Ryan. It was funny to witness from a distance. When I was younger, a bigger family didn't seem like such a big deal. Now that I've got four young kids, I often question my ability to keep up with them and look back and smile at how challenging I thought it was with just one baby, then two young boys, then three kids. Four is definitely working me right now! Tamsyn told me I'm in the hardest stage with them all being so young. I'd have to agree at the moment although there's much to love about it all the same.

A happy girl with her proud daddy who's man enough to wear the baby harness and give his wife a break. I'm one lucky girl!