The show must go on!

I thought Mom would appreciate this, since she single-handedly supervised practicing while she and Daddy were here. And Dad, since you juggled the kids most the time, you'll appreciate the background noise. This is what happens when a violin recital falls on the same night as Seth's manditory night class and I have a brand new baby and two other ornery, hungry kids in the audience. But Lyd did a good job, in spite of all distractions!

Seth the Brave

Seth is a pretty fearless guy. I mean, he bikes down mountains, loves driving his truck off-road, and balances our kids on one hand (perhaps "reckless" is a better word). But when it comes to anything creepy-crawly, he is a regular Ron Weasley. The other night Seth came in from the garage hollering for me--I thought we had another broken arm on our hands . . . but no. He had been lifting weights and had felt something funny twitching between his shoulder blades as he benched. Muscle spasm? Nope, how about TARANTULA!!!! He had killed it by laying on it and had felt its last dying twitches. And of course, this would happen to Seth, who is already terrified of most bugs, especially spiders. He couldn't function the whole evening; he kept getting jittery and jumpy whenever he saw something small on the floor. Poor guy! He needed a big hug after that one.

Oh yeah, did I mention he's scared of dogs? Especially the small yippy ones. Or the huge barky ones. This is why we have no pets.

This isn't the tarantula he squashed, but it is a tarantula I found on our rocks by where the kids were playing. We also had one outside our front door last week.And this little beauty is the scorpion I killed because Seth was too afraid to do it. He tried catching it in a jar (he also has this thing about killing anything, bug, animal, what have you, which I really admire but do not share. If it's in/around my house, it must DIE) but it almost got him. So I took his shoe, squished the living daylights out of it, then jumped on the shoe. And my sweet Daddy--animals flock to him whenever he comes. He caught this frog/toad by our garbage can. I've never even seen one in St. George!

Jacob was actually stung by a scorpion, and we've also had skunks and California Kingsnakes (how appropriate!) in our yard. And a lizard that ran into our house--I wasn't so brave on that one!

Seth may kill me, but here's the video of him explaining the episode. I think he intended this only for posterity.

Easy Burdens

There's a story I love in the Book of Mormon that has recently taken on new meaning for me. Alma and his people had just been captured by Lamanites and put under Amulon's rule. He wouldn't allow them to pray, but they prayed in their hearts. The Lord promised them this beautiful blessing in Mosiah 24:14-15:

"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs . . . that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

There have been moments since Gabriel's birth and clubfoot diagnosis when I have felt very discouraged (i.e. when Jacob broke his arm). But then after praying for help, I have felt the immediate fulfillment of this blessing, just like Alma's people:

"And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

This is just a thank you to all you who have eased our family's burdens and made them light. My good friend Abi Collins (thank you Abi!!! and John for watching the kids for her . . .) drove me to Gabe's appointment. It was such a blast! We even ended up getting "glitter toes" done by a friend of hers on the way home. Thanks to Mikel who watched my crazy kids back here in St. George! Thanks to Debbie Morley, who drove me a few weeks ago, Michelle, her daughter, who rode home with me; Verle, my cousin, who drove me home 2 trips ago and let me sleep the whole way; Danielle Jones & Elsa Picklesimer, who watched Jacob & Eleni two different weeks, and Danielle & Kathie who lent me their cell phones for different trips. Thanks to Aunt Judy, who put up 2 boxes of peaches for me, since I never would have gotten around to doing it. Thanks to my wonderful moms who met me last weekend and watched Lyd & Ellers for me. And thanks to Seth, who held down and cleaned the fort each evening I was gone. And especially I need to thank my heavenly Father, who has blessed all of this to pass much more quickly than I expected.
Gabriel had his surgery this past Friday. I'll post pictures later--I don't have the camera. The surgery was only 5 minutes long, and he hardly cried, the doctor said. It is incredible how much his little foot has stretched since then! He needs one more cast next week, then has a break for a week and (HALLELUJAH) gets the last cast off on Halloween! Jacob gets his off the day before. Can I just say, I am going to strip those boys down and give them one enormous bath--Jacob especially beginneth to stink.
Grandma Yaya (Elaine) and Grandma Kaye
Jacob & Ellers in clean clothes with their hair done--it's so much easier to love them when they look nice! :) And this is Lyd's school picture (yes, I know it's probably copyrighted).