Fall in Full Swing

 Sherrie and the kids went up to This is the Place Park in Salt Lake with Sherrie's mom. One of the highlights was riding ponies. I think Clara would have taken off to the hills if the horses hadn't been tied up. 

 Nathan is becoming quite the breakfast chef. In the last few weeks he has cooked french toast, German pancakes, and waffles. While we might gain 500 pounds, it's been fun to have so many tasty breakfast treats. We'll have to see what's next on the menu.

 Our four little chillins. William is a good sport.

 We went on a short hike a few weeks a ago with Uncle Michael and Aunt Mel. We were originally going to go to Stewart Falls up by Sundance Resort, but there were abou5 50 billion cars and people and we had gone up to the mountains to get away from the throngs. We drove back down the canyon and hiked up to another waterfall (not sure of the name). We were the only ones there and it was beautiful.

 Here are some of the amazing fall colors surrounding Mt. Timpanogos.

 

We've been trimming a bunch of the trees on our property. This Chinese Elm was absolutely out of control. Uncle Michael misses using a chainsaw on a regular basis, so he is a willing helper whenever there is chainsaw work.

30 days hath September

 A victim of Nathan's sand escapades.

 



Brotherly love 

 Our 2nd Grader and Kindergartner

 

What will Kindergarten be like?

She discovered it's pretty good. 

The big slide at Hee Haw Farm.  So fun! 

Vegetable Art: A way to dispose of excess garden produce without feeling like you're being terribly wasteful. 

Our wild garden.  Mostly weeds and out-of-control zucchini and cucumber plants. 

Big gardens and new babies don't go together.  I was true to my vow that I would not keep up with weeding or make good use of produce.  Check out our 12-foot-tall sunflowers. 

Here's our "live doll."  Much cuter than the other dolls, I must say.

glimpses of our summer



Now that school has started and life is settling down,

I can post a few highlights of our summer:

 



 We read books...

admired baby William... 

 and admired baby William some more...

 

 visited David's parents in Sandpoint...

 

 spent time with family...

 

 posed for Grandpa's cowboy paintings...

 

 picked huckleberries in the mountains...

 

 and ate huckleberries...

 

 took naps...

 

 trimmed trees with the new chainsaw

 

and sold juice for 25 cents a cup...

 

...And tried to keep up with our vegetable garden...and failed

 

...And tried to keep our house in order...and failed

 

...And tried to keep our sanity in our noisy, messy house full of kids, surrounded by zucchini and cucumbers...and nearly failed

 

...And tried to have a great summer anyway...(We succeeded in that!)



Father's Day came early this year

Introducing:

William Grant Boren

7 pounds, 15 ounces

19.5 inches

This was our first experience with labor induction.  

The nurse told us that labor would start out mild and gradually intensify.  HA!

Baby arrived in just over an hour.  It was kind of like pulling off a band-aid all at once. (Except it hurt a lot more!)  I agreed to an epidural after about 50 minutes of HARD labor.  None of us realized how close I was to being too late for an epidural. 

The kids are very excited to have William join our family.  Nathan and Clara ask to hold him many times a day, although Clara is terrified of being spit-up on.  Christian loves his new brother, but is feeling a bit displaced now that he is no longer the baby.

Even after four kids, a new baby doesn't seem any less a miracle to me.  

We are so happy to have this new little spirit in our home.

Nesting

Last month a robin built a nest in the tree outside our window.

We got to watch the whole process.  Since motherhood has been on my mind a lot lately, this was especially fascinating to me.  This experience has influenced the way I view my job as a mother.

For a few days, the robin flew back and forth with materials for the nest. Then she spent a couple weeks sitting on the eggs.  When the eggs were ready to hatch, the mother perched on the side of the nest and peered down inside, cocking her head from side to side.

Feeding the chicks was a full-time job for both parents.  The mother sat on the nest for the first week to protect the tiny, featherless chicks from the chilly air.  The father would fly up next to her with a worm in his beak.  The mother reached up and took the worm, then hopped up next to him to feed her babies.  The father would watch for a while, then leave to find more worms.

As the chicks grew, we could see their wobbly heads and open beaks reaching up for food.  Both parents flew back and forth all day to find food for the growing chicks.  Each day, they were a little bigger and steadier. 

I took this last picture on the day before the chicks left the nest.  They didn't fit in the nest anymore, and were ready to fly and find their own food.  I was really hoping to see the moment the chicks left, but when I woke up the next morning, the nest was empty. 

The whole process took about a month.  It was over so quickly.

One night shortly after the eggs were laid, there was a big windstorm with pouring rain.  I thought of the nest and felt anxious for the eggs.  I got a flashlight, wondering if the mother would stay on the nest or find shelter for herself during the storm.  There she was, braving the rain and wind to protect her eggs.

Like the mother bird, I spend most of my time and energy taking care of my little ones.  They need constant attention and protection, and are always hungry.  Many of the things I enjoy have to be set aside while I'm raising my children.  By the end of the day, I am usually pretty tired.  Then before I know it, another day has begun and I get up and do it all again.  Sometimes it seems like I'll be doing this forever, but I'm told it will go by quickly and they'll be grown up before I know it, and that I will miss it terribly. 

As I watched the mother robin sit calmly on her nest or fly back and forth with worms, I thought about how accepting she was of her duty towards her chicks.  I find that I enjoy motherhood so much more when I am not "fidgeting" around on the nest, feeling restless and thinking of things I would rather do.  The enjoyment comes when I forget myself and find fulfillment in the work. 

When I walk past the window and see the empty nest, I feel a little sad, thinking of the time when the noise and the crumbs and the sticky hugs and early morning snuggles will be replaced by a stillness and emptiness.  And I realize that I don't really want it to end.

China!

 David and I spent 10 days in China this month.  We really appreciate my parents and David's sister, Jessica, who took care of the kids while we were there.

We went to visit David's parents, who are teaching English at Tianjin University.

 One of our bags didn't arrive at the Beijing airport, so we got to go shopping for church clothes in a gigantic marketplace in Tianjin.  

(Imagine 30 Walmarts crammed together, except much dirtier and smellier.)  Some of the mannequins were quite interesting.

 David's parents live in an apartment at Tianjin University.  

We walked around campus quite a bit.  This is the "student parking lot."

 One of the highlights of our visit was teaching David's parents' English classes one day. 

 These are all doctoral students.  

We spent much of the time telling them about ourselves and answering their questions.  They were especially interested in our family life; how we keep our marriage strong and manage our time and money with SOOO many kids.  Having four kids is unfathomable to them, since the Chinese are only allowed one child.

 We visited a beautiful water garden and zoo in Tianjin. 

The mandatory retirement age in China is 55 for women and 60 for men.  Everywhere we went, there were groups of retired people dancing, exercising, singing, and playing games together.  

At the water garden we stopped to listen to a choir sing several songs.  We were so touched by their beautiful music.  

Afterwards, for some reason, they wanted me to sing "Red River Valley" for them.  I only know the first verse, but they had me sing it for them about 10 times.

 The zoo was amazing.  It is not as clean and modern as American zoos, but we definitely got a closer look at the animals.  The camels did not like David, and kept trying to spit at him.

 We spent a day at the Great Wall of China.  It was kind of surreal to be there. 

 It really should be called "The Great Staircase of China."  

We took it pretty slow to accommodate my 7-month pregnant body.

 We spent a day-and-a-half in Beijing before flying home.  Lots of people!!!  

Here we are trying to get on the subway.

This is a small part of Tiananmen Square.  You can't really tell from the picture, but there were tens of thousands of people waiting in line to see the tomb of Mao Tse Dong.  You can only see a small part of the line here.  

No, we did not wait in line.  None of us wanted to wait two hours to see the embalmed body of the man responsible for the Cultural Revolution.

Our last stop before flying home was the Forbidden City.  Outside the city wall we found the tree where David O. McKay dedicated China to the preaching of the gospel in 1921.  We read his dedicatory prayer under this tree.  

The whole time we were in China, I kept having a feeling of how much God loves the Chinese people and that His hand is in that land, setting things in motion to allow them to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Many of them are anxiously waiting for it.

Boy crazy and Dad crazy!

It's been quite a while since I updated this blog.  My computer got eaten by a virus a couple months ago, so I have to snatch moments on David's laptop when (a) he is home, (b) he is not using his laptop, and (c) I have free time.  
Hence, it's been quite a while since I updated the blog.
I'll begin by explaining the title of this post:

Boy crazy: 

I was so boy crazy as a teenager and could never understand why boys didn't seem to be crazy about me.  The Lord must have felt pity for me, because He is now surrounding me with wonderful boys.  In addition to David, Nathan, and Christian, we will soon be adding another boy to the family!!  That's right...It's a boy!  Due June 15th!

Now for the Dad Crazy part: 

We had David's family over this weekend.  It was tons of fun, but I did not take any pictures. 
This picture is from last month's cousin visit.  David challenged all the kids to "Monster Olympics."  This means the kids try to outdo David in various physical feats.  For instance, he had to do the combined number of pull-ups that the kids did (28).  I think he lost that one.  Here they are counting sit-ups.  Nathan did 500 sit-ups at once a few weeks ago.  David also lost that one.

Every morning the kids try to prevent David from leaving for work. 

They especially like to do this on days when he is running late.

After he escapes from them, they run to the window to wave goodbye as he drives away.

It has barely snowed at all this winter.  When we finally got an inch of snow a couple weeks ago, David and the kids ran outside before dinner to build a quick snowman before it all melted the next day.
David is such a fun dad.  I really appreciate that he always makes time for the kids, no matter how busy he is.