Bryan and Sarah Graden: March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

OR would you guess...

...that often on Sundays Alex is wearing a PJ shirt under his church clothes?

It is a battle I have given up on. We'll look back on these times and laugh, right? :0)

would you guess...

...that one of Alex's favorite toys is this train?

What you may or may not be able to tell is that it's TINY. It's actually a Christmas ornament for a mini tree. But last Christmas he claimed it for his own and often carries it around.

Unfortunately it is so small that he often loses it. Like when he takes it to bed with him and wakes up to it missing...having surprisingly slipped through the crack next to his bed. We've had many a rescue mission ;0) But it is always a joyous moment when he is reunited with his beloved train car!

cheer up!

Last night I was sitting on the couch crying while talking to my Schmemmers (Oh how I'm grateful for the way my Emmie has always listened, no matter how illogical and emotional I get!). Brie must have heard me crying after she got out of her bath and hopped down the stairs in her purple hooded towel. She knew jumping around like a purple jelly bean had cheered me up once and was trying it again. I thought that was so thoughtful. Then after she got dressed and ready for bed she came down with my white fuzzy blanket and an armful of stuffed animal friends to tuck in with me on the couch. AND THEN she sounded out and wrote the sweetest little note to me...

Dear Mom,

I love you. I want you to be my mom forever.

From Brie

What a perceptive and thoughtful girl. I was so grateful how of her own initiative she worked so hard to cheer me up. I love you, Brie!!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

for my Dear Friend.

old picture, but the same sweet family that I love!

After several years of trying to have another baby, my dear friend recently found out that her options are in vitro or adoption. Her family is rallying together to do a fundraiser, selling a beautiful set of Easter eggs to tell the true story of Easter, and to raise money for Rebecca's cause. I've often looked for ways to make Easter more Christ-centered and this looks like a beautiful way. And all of the proceeds go to my friend and her family's effort to have a baby! Such a wonderful endeavor. Definitely check it out and spread the word!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Ed & Ruth Anne.

Since Ruth Anne had been at Lij's birthday, but wasn't able to make it up for his birthday, they came up the next week and we did a little belated celebration for our little man. It was great as always to visit with them and fun to spend the day with them! It's amazing how God brings different people into our lives at different times. They really have been the kids' "Midwestern" Grandparents. We sure love those two!

We had to get a picture of Elijah and Alex each wearing Ed's baseball cap like we did at Alex's first birthday party. Ruth Anne decided that would be our little birthday boy tradition with them :0)

Irish Heritage.

For St. Patrick's Day this year we: put out a few decorations, the green banners were still hanging from Elijah's party, listened & danced to a Pandora station with Irish music (not the pub and drinking songs, but the awesome and lively traditional instrumental music), watched a few youtube clips of River Dance, wore our silly leprechaun hats and over-sized glasses, baked up a mix of Irish Soda Bread (good ol' Aldi!) and had a "green" dinner (artichoke heart & pesto chicken pasta with a green salad and sparkling grape juice from our neighbor Katlyn). Since it was Monday, we did our family night on money (going along with our month theme of God given treasures/resources). I didn't have a festive dessert planned, but Aunt Rachie sent a box of Lucky Charms in the mail so we enjoyed bowls of that for our treat :0)

Grandpa Stevenson sent out an email reminding us that Grandma Stevenson's grandparents were from Ireland. And it got me thinking about Bompa having served his LDS mission in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Maybe next year we can hang up some pictures of Bry's ancestors and of Bompa serving on his mission to make the holiday more meaningful to our little family.

There again.

A year ago my Mom was in town awaiting Elijah's grand début. This year she came to visit and celebrate Lij's first birthday. It was special to have her here and to reminisce about the days surrounding his birth.

Brie's CUTE portrait of Mémé, pretty lipgloss and all. And she drew the sky and sun because, "she's so tall she can practically touch the sky."

Some of the highlights from her visit include: all of the thoughtful little gifts she'd been collecting since December and brought for us * Seeing Brie light up when Mémé & Bompa (via Skype) unveiled her Easter dress * attending the Stake Women's Conference together * BIG Costco run * Brie snuggling with Mémé in the mornings and during afternoon quiet time * Mémé and I doing a sewing project together (green buntings) * the Alfajor cookies she brought us from South America * listening to our Disney Pandora station, hanging up vines while the kids ran around the dining room and colored pictures of dinosaurs * hearing about two particularly sweet moments she had with Lij (rocking and praying with him at night when he was crying and him going right back to sleep. Her waking up one morning to find Lij eye level with her {she was sleeping on the couch} and smiling!) * all of her help getting ready for the party, including buying fun food (dino spikes and droppings, etc.) for the party * lots of fun shopping, errands and runs to Target * Mémé giving me & Brie manicures * reading stories * making meals together, including chili on our snowed-in Sunday * all of her help with dishes, laundry, meals, the kids, shopping * her trimming my hair like she has always done * watching Studio C and Jim Gaffigan clips * chatting and laughing and sharing * our FHE on being unique coins that shine brightly * her words of encouragement, always cheering me on in my roles as wife & mom *

I love you, Mom! Thank you for a wonderful visit!!

Father's Workshop.

I was thinking about an experience that I had as a new missionary in Québec City, and wanted to make sure and include it in our family history.

I was called to serve as a French-speaking missionary, but after a short time in the mission field my mission president, President Petion asked me to start learning Spanish during my morning studies. I excitedly accepted the invitation, but quickly became overwhelmed. I was over zealously attempting to learn all of the verb tenses simultaneously and quickly {and understandably} found myself frustrated and getting burnt out. One night before bed as I was kneeling in prayer I voiced to my Heavenly Father my feelings of being overwhelmed. The thought came to me that He had asked me to learn Spanish because He knew I loved languages and He wanted to work on it as a project together, the intent was never to frustrate or overwhelm! In my mind I envisioned a father inviting his child into a workshop to do a project together. It wasn't so much the finished product that would be important, but the lessons learned and the time spent together.

I have often thought of this since. What other projects has my Father invited me to work on with Him? What things may seem daunting because I have tried to do them in my own way and inadvertently left Him out of the picture?

Lately I'm coming to realize that this season with Alex may be one of these invitations into the Father's workshop. I'm grateful for the invitation and know that as I turn to Him each step of the process He will be there to guide me, to provide perspective and share His love.

Oh how much He desires to teach and to bless us and to spend time with us! God is good.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Rating Myself.

Today in Sharing Time the lesson was on repenting and coming to Christ. My friend Hannah used little paper feet to illustrate the path that we choose with the choices we make, and that when we make poor choices we can repent and get back on the path. I needed to be reminded of this. This last week was a hard one, and I felt like I kept veering off of the path and choosing anger and impatience. BUT I can return again. Resenting myself for those choices will not improve the situation, making better choices will. Each day is a new day. Little by little things will continue to get better! I think I got sucked in to the stress of the week and lost sight of how much better things have been. The adversary is sneaky and will put such thoughts into our head to get us discouraged and to keep us from the things we really want! (I thought this was a great little video about being aware of Satan's deceptions)

Our theme this week was on earning (and saving) money by doing chores. Brie and Alex started the week with chore charts (thanks Mom!). When it came time to assess their chore with a sticker they could either get a green smiley, a yellow squiggly face or a red frownie face. After a rough day with the kids on Monday, Tuesday it dawned on me that this week I didn't need to learn about earning money, but I needed to work on rating my "chores". On my chore chart I wrote:

Get dressed
Brush teeth
Respond sweetly to Alex at breakfast
Respond sweetly to Alex at lunch
Respond sweetly to Alex at dinner
Be patient with Alex before snack
Be patient with Alex before lunch
Be patient with Alex before dinner

You can easily tell what I needed to work on this week ;0) It was an interesting exercise to hold myself accountable for my choices, and it was valuable by the end of the week to see patterns form on the chart. I realized that from breakfast time to snack time (7:00-10:00) is one of my challenging times of the day. Probably because for two of those hours all 3 kids are awake and during breakfast and getting ready time there are a lot of opportunities for Alex & me to butt heads, be resistant and get frustrated. I'm hoping I can be a little more prepared to face the beginning of each day with more optimism and love....and pray for Heaven's help!

Two Elderly Gentlemen.

The other day the sun was shining and I decided to take the kids out to run errands. The Post Office was our second stop. Brie and Alex did a great job holding hands as I held Lij and we all crossed the parking lot and the little road in front of the strip mall. Once inside the lobby Brie rushed over to the handicap button to open the door to the post office. Alex, who had apparently wanted to push it, instantly dropped to the floor in a tantrum, right outside the post office doors. Considering that I could keep an eye on him through the glass doors (and wall), I went in, took a number and let him storm in the lobby. As I turned to look back at Alex I saw two elderly gentleman, each at either side of Alex reaching for the door handles. They both looked down at him, not with frustration or judgement, but as if they saw a much younger version of themselves in him. They both came in through the doors, gently inviting Alex to come in. Alex didn't budge. The gentleman at the right door then turned back, opened the door again and kindly said, "I've got it opened for you, come on in..." Surprisingly Alex stood up and came in. I was so touched by the man's kindness and gentle persistence. After leaving the post office and pulling out of the parking lot my eyes filled with tears as I reflected on that short but poignant experience. The thought came to me that those elderly men had made it through those early defiant years to become weathered and wise men and that Alex would too. It was a little love note from God, letting me know that He was with me and that we'd make it through this time. God is good!

Friday, March 21, 2014

ice cream truck.

Last night, just as we were setting out for a family walk around the cemetery, we heard the familiar sound of the ice cream truck. We have never bought the kids ice cream from the ice cream truck before and we had promised the kids dessert, so we told them that if we found the truck we'd buy them a treat. We headed out on our walk. As we turned into the church parking lot to enter the cemetery...

Brie: "The ice cream truck won't go in there?"
Me: Why not?
Brie: Because there aren't any road and it's bumpy...and there aren't a lot of people back there...
Bry & I kept quiet and waited to see where that train of thought would take her.
Brie: Actually, LOTS {of people}!!
Maybe it's been a long week, maybe we were needing some comic relief, but for whatever reason that totally cracked us up :0)

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Celebrating our Little Lijasaurus.

When Em came to visit last October, we crafted up a storm, getting things ready for a dino baby shower she was planning. When thinking about a theme for Lij's first birthday party I thought dinosaur was fitting (he roars and toddles on two feet :0))...

and since everything was already designed and most of it already made, it was perfect!

(I saw a similar invitation on Pinterest and patterned this one after it.)

In February my Mom mentioned the idea of coming out for a little visit, and we decided it'd be fun to have her here for Lij's big day. It was great having her here...she was so sweet to buy most of the party food, helped me get the dino jungle hung up (love the yellow tissue paper flowers that she added), and helped me get the house all clean the morning of. Our guests would have been sticking to the floor otherwise ;0)

My friend Sarah was great help too! She printed off dinosaur coloring sheets, bought the butcher & construction paper and helped me make the vines, then came early to help get the food ready. I was running behind and couldn't have done it without her help.

Carnivore Camp: Ritz Crackers with Turkey and American Cheese

Chocolate Excavation: Chocolate Chocolate Birthday cake (I actually made the frosting!)

Dino Droppings: Milk Duds and Whoppers

Extinct Eggs: Malt Easter Eggs

Herbivore Valley: Snap peas, Grape tomatoes, Carrots and Ranch Dressing

Raptor Claws: Bugles

Stegosaurus Spikes: Cinnamon and Sugar {triangle} Crackers

Watering Hole: Ice Water (with little shot glasses)

(Tiff, Laura, Mémé, Diana, Daniel, Cynthia, Michael)

(click to enlarge)

It was so fun to spend time with friends and family and celebrate our little Lijaroo.

Elijah was wearing a little spiked hoodie and dinosaur tail that I had sewn for the occasion. Both were Pinterest ideas that I couldn't pass up. I thought it'd be too cute to see him dragging around a little dinosaur tail since he was already walking at that point. It was cute :0) At the end of the party I read a little story about a surprise party for the littlest dinosaur. It was a fun finale. I want to incorporate "story time" into the kid's birthday parties while they're still young.

When it came time for the double chocolate double decker cupcake, this little dinosaur devoured it! He takes after his Mom ;0) I can't even remember why he was making this face, but it's priceless. I posted it on Facebook to see what captions people thought of...