Live Life * Tell the Story
Joey was laying on a leather couch at our vacation home, squirming around trying to get comfortable.
Beth, hearing the noise, asked her brother “Is there a storm outside? Because I think I hear thunder…”
JJ pointed to where Joey lay squirming, and Beth said “Oh, it’s just daddy moving around.”
Yea, apparently Joey now rivals a storm.
Beth is such a social butterfly. She loves playing with her friends. She is always asking for playdates and talking about her friends at school. I don’t arrange playdates very often because it always seems like such a hassle with how busy it gets, but I really should do it more often. Beth loves to be with her friends.
Beth finally got to have her friend, Natalia over for a little while. They had a picnic and played outside. I think they had a great time. The next week, Beth got to go to Natalia’s house and they had a tea party and made cupcakes.
Before I left for the Blogger Conference in March, the kids and I got haircuts. I rarely do anything to my hair and I just needed a change. I got several inches cut off, some layers, and some highlights. JJ just got a buzz and Beth got a few inches off her hair. We all love our new do’s! Just right for Spring Weather!
So on Monday, we were at our “vacation home” (that’s what my kids call our timeshare) – and I was in the kitchen but I could hear the kids whispering back and forth to each other. I wondered what was going on, but I figured I would find out soon enough.
A few minutes later, Beth came up to me, looking very serious. As usual, JJ was tagging along behind, and was just fine with Beth doing the talking. Beth said, “Mom, is the Easter Bunny real?”
I said, “What do you think?”
She said, “Well, I think he’s not.”
I looked into her beautiful blue eyes and saw how serious she was about it and there was sadness there and I just couldn’t lie to her. “No, Princess, he’s not real.”
JJ piped in, “I knew that.”
I gave Beth a hug and she asked one more question, “Santa isn’t real either, is he?”
I said, “No, I’m sorry.”
Beth said quietly, “So you and Dad are the ones who give us presents?”
“Yes, we are.” I looked at both of my kids, “Are you guys okay?”
“I just wish they were real,” Beth said.
“I know sweetheart, me too.”
I gave them one more hug and that was it. They both seem okay with it and I think it went over better than I thought it would.
I’m actually kind of sad that “the magic” is over. It will be different now. I remember when I found out – I was 10 when my friends told me and I was so disappointed. I feel like “the magic” came back after I had kids. Of course we have always focused on the true meanings – The birth and the resurrection of the Savior – but still the other parts were fun too. I guess my kids are just growing up and its just way too fast for me.
When did you discover the secret?
I want to remember these amazing little moments that make life worthwhile. I love these 2 kids so much. How did I get so blessed to be their Mom?
On Sunday, March 4th, JJ and Beth were playing a game that they love to play with their Dad. Joey is the tickle monster and he has to stay in his chair at his desk and the kids have to try and get around him without being tickled. They have to be pretty sneaky to get by him. They could play this for hours. It sometimes moves to other rooms and especially on our bed, but in this instance they were in the living room.
After playing for awhile, JJ started helping Beth get away, even though it made him get captured by that tricky Tickle Monster. As he was being tickled he called to Beth, “How about I always be here to save your life!”
That sounds pretty good to me. I hope they will always protect and love each other.
My daughter loves to read. That should come as no surprise to my family since her parents are both read-a-holics. I have really enjoyed seeing Beth come into her love of books. She has her favorites – she’s really into the Rainbow Magic Fairy books and the Magic Treehouse books right now. But she also loves when a new issue of the Friend comes and she basically reads it from cover to cover.
But there is something that she doesn’t enjoy reading as much – Baggie Books. Her school has a reading program where they achieve different levels of reading by bringing books (in ziploc bags) home to read to their families. She gets a new book every weekday to bring home and read. These are small readers that get harder/longer as they level up. Actually Beth is on the higher achievement now and brings home 2 books to read every day. Anyways, she’s never really too enthused by these book choices. She still reads them out loud and does a good job and sometimes she does enjoy some of the stories. But a few weeks ago, she brought home a book that interested her so much. It surprised me a lot – enough for me to stop what I was doing (making dinner) and actually sit down next to her and discuss it.
The name of the book was Telling Stories Through Art and she kept reading it and exclaiming things and showing me the pictures. Almost every paragraph ended with “Wow. That’s so interesting!” It was adorable to hear that coming out of her mouth. I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised that the history and paintings of indians would interest her. Growing up, many of my family vacations were to visit historical sites and indian ruins. It’s something that my Dad really enjoys and I always enjoyed it too. But its also something that I haven’t really shared with my children before. I’ve never really visited with them about historical sites and stuff and obviously its something that I need to remedy. Beth hasn’t stopped talking about the indian carvings and paintings and how she wanted to see some “for real.” I am definitely going to have to do some research and see if there is some places we can visit. How neat to see that Beth is experiencing a new interest in history. I can’t wait to visit some new places with her and I hope this love just grows. I think it will be really fun for her to learn and grow through the history of our country and the history of the people on earth and even the history of the people in the scriptures. I’m excited to share more of this with her!
This week’s recipe | CHICKEY PASTA A delicious pasta dish that is light and yummy! The chicken pieces are heaven – in fact, you could just make the chicken and use as homemade chicken nuggets! Chickey Pasta Save Recipe Print Recipe My Recipes My Lists My Calendar Ingredients2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into[Read More…]
I am DeDe Smith of DesignZ by DeDe and I’m the proud creator of the TearZ, ScatterZ, and many more collections! I am a Digital Scrapbook Designer. I specialize on creating digital kits that help customers scrapbook the special moments in their lives. I hope that you can use my products to share your story[Read More…]
I am so thankful that I started writing some of my memories down about this trip on the blog, because I think there is a lot I could have missed! I’m so thankful to not forget these stories! I didn’t write everything down, so from now on this album might not be as detailed, but[Read More…]
