The Bosley's

Autumn and the boys got to come to Utah for a couple of weeks for a visit!



 

Hope Loves School

So far so good. Hope still loves school! She was actually reading a few words in one of her stories last night, so she is getting smarter by the minute.

I'm definitely grateful that she has her cute little friend Aubrey from church in her class. From what Hope tells me, they play together pretty much every day. Earlier in the week I found this adorable card from Aubrey in Hope's backpack.

 

How precious is that?

Speaking of precious. We got Hope's school pictures back already! I have to admit, I did shed a tear as I looked at her pretty little face in front of that generic school backdrop. I can't believe she is old enough to be getting school pictures taken.

 

 

I like that she is wearing her CTR butterfly necklace from Grandma Bosley in this picture. This picture made me remember my kindergarten photo....which is nothing compared to this awesome one, but just for fun I am going to try to dig it up and do a comparison photo. Maybe I can find Ben's too.





Say What?

Mom: Did you sing a song today in school?
Hope: Mmmm...we keep singing to the flag.
(The Pledge of Allegiance)

Eden: *jabbers*
Grandma Bosley to Hope: Did you understand her?
Hope: No. I think she's talking spanish.

Hope: One of the boys was acting like a zombie. He was going like this. *Puts her arms out in front of her like a zombie* It was funny...like a chicken.

Hope: I played with the new girl today.
Mom: Oh yeah? What does she look like?
Hope: Her is brown like Noah and her has long beautiful hair and her wears beautiful shirts and beautiful shoes.

Sunshine turns FIVE!

***Every now and then I get a little blogged out. Call it writer's block, call it lazy block, call it blogged out....today I'm calling it emotionally drained.  Several times I have started to update my blog and the thought of it just makes me tired. So much has been going on physically and emotionally that once an experience has past I have to refocus all my energy on getting through the next experience and I have nothing left to revisit the one I just got through, which let's face it, is exactly what journaling is all about. Or at least this "journal".  Lots of great things are happening during this most recent storm for me and in an effort to focus on the positive and being more positive in general, blogging about those little rays of sunshine through the storm clouds might just help me do that. So here's hoping I can find a plug for my "emotional drain" and build a reservoir again. :)***

 

A little over five years ago Hope Elizabeth Maxwell was born. She is my second child, but to be honest I was a little nervous about being mommy to a newborn again because the first time around included some severe post-partum depression and I was worried that might happen again. Fortunately for EVERYONE, it did not. I had the experience that I had hoped I would have with all of my newborns. I was in love. I was in awe. I couldn't stop looking at her. Even when she had woken me up for the third time in the early morning hours, she somehow made me smile. Somehow I could see those precious dimples through my sleep-deprived eyes and still feel amazement at how bright she could make a unlit room.

 

I constantly received compliments on behalf of her beauty. I remember one Sunday a lady touched my shoulder and said, "She is so beautiful I can't stop looking at her. Usually they aren't that pretty when they're first born." What can I say, I make pretty babies. :)

(Eden, Hope and Aubrey at the party)
 

Sometime in the first year we all began singing "You Are My Sunshine" to Hope. She loved it. It was her favorite, and if I remember correctly, it was the first song she memorized. She also has taken many liberties with the song. Once she changed the lyrics to be about her "toot". She hopped around on the bed singing, "I toot, I toot!" She was indeed our little sunshine. Since I've called her my sunshine and she's asked why several times. Once in response to her inquiry I said, "How do you feel when you see the sunshine?" She just smiled at me. "Do you feel happy, and warm and wonderful?" She nodded with her pretty little smile and dimples all aglow. "Well, that is how you make me feel. So I call you 'My Little Sunshine'." She giggled and seemed okay with that answer. Something about that little girl literally makes my heart feel warm and full. Even just thinking about her I can feel it. I think it partly has to do with her name.

(Eden, Ry, Hope and Aubrey)
 

When I was pregnant with Hope, once we found out she was a girl, I knew without a doubt her name should be Hope. I felt her name was Hope because I had been without actual hope for so long in my life until I met her daddy. He sparked hope in me again and that is something pretty significant to happen to a person. Now that Hope is her own little person I can see another side to why her name was and is HOPE. She emits hope. She hands it out freely like a gift to everyone she encounters. It is, no doubt, a gift from Heavenly Father (or Harry Potter as Hope confusedly calls him) that will only grow stronger as she herself grows. I am honored to be her mother.

(Hope, Aubrey and Eden standing on the "horse track")

 

A few fun facts about Hope right now. She still cannot fall asleep on her own. I have to sit in her room with her until she falls asleep. Right now grandma is visiting, so grandma "gets" to do it, because hey, when grandma is around what good is mommy? :) She likes to tell me to think about good dreams and she thinks about them too. This is because one night as she was trying to fall asleep she said she was scared she would have another bad dream. I told her that she can help herself to have good dreams if she just thought about happy things that she would like to dream about while she falls asleep. So now every night we have to think about happy dreams. Hope's favorite color is purple. It has been for a long while, and looks like it will continue to be. She has started drawing the past few months and has become quite talented at it. There have been many days when all she wants to do it draw. She gets better every day and loves to show off her masterpieces.Two Sundays ago, she was drawing in sacrament meeting and she told me she was drawing that picture for Jesus. Hope loves primary! She is no longer afraid and will skip on into the primary room, give her teacher a high five and sit in her chair with that sunshine smile on her face. She has said the prayer in primary twice now. She has made many friends with both the boys and the girls and is surprisingly outgoing for being the child of someone like Ben and I (who are not outgoing). She is an incredibly picky eater. She still doesn't like meat, but will eat Chicken McNuggets the few times we go to McDonald's. I don't know if that really classifies as meat, but you know..... she still likes Mac N' Cheese, but it has to be the right kind and the right brand. Still loves apple juice and will settle for water at night. She has been doing quite well at the dentist and the doctor's office. The past several visits were met with bravery and dimples. No tears. Like I mentioned above, she gets Heavenly Father and Harry Potter mixed up. She has some speech issues that certainly don't help. Now that she's started school I am sure speech therapy will be in her future. Her problem letters are "R", and "L". Grandma thinks it's quite funny to try to get her to say "Lizard Lickin Lemon", which comes out, "Yizzard Yickin Yemen".

(Aubrey, Grandma Verla, Hope, Grandma Nikki and Eden)

She does not like for me to fix her hair. She lets me comb it and will occasionally wear a clip on the side or a headband, but forget about anything else. She has NO interest in getting her ears pierced but will let me paint her nails sometimes. Sometimes she lets me paint them, but wants me to take it off immediately after. She adores her big brother who helped teach her how to swing all by herself. She talks about him often and misses him a lot when he's away. Her relationship with Eden is growing. Still not great, but they have their moments of wonderful, melt-your-heart kind of bliss. She loves school and is excited to go everyday. I can't wait to see how she grows.

(Hope, Eden, Grandma Bosley and Aubrey)

I love this picture of Grandma Bosley!!!

Giraff-ES

Remember that post that I made several months ago about how Hope isn't really interested in drawing and just scribbles around the page? All that has changed. She spent about a week and a half where all she wanted to do was draw. Mostly giraffes, though she calls them "giraff-es". She has suddenly burst into a tiny creative genius.

The big guy waving his hands in the back is Alex the lion. There is also Gloria, Melman and Marty, so obviously this is a scene from Madagascar which is among her favorite movies. I'm not exaggerating when I say she would draw all day. It is the first thing she asked to do in the morning and she was still talking about things to draw while I would put her to bed.

She got better and better with each new masterpiece and surprisingly detailed. In fact, disturbingly detailed. Can someone tell me WHY my not even five year old is drawing anatomically correct animals???? Though I must admit the detail is impressive. I asked her about it after she proudly showed me the picture and she giggled and said it was "milk". Her pictures are almost always of a mommy and baby whatever so that relieved me a little, but still shocking. I didn't include any of those pictures and that is too bad because they were excellent, minus the "details".

This is one of the first pictures she drew. As you can plainly see, it is a family of giraffes. The story that accompanies this piece of art goes as follows: The daddy giraffe almost knocked into the tree because he was looking out for the dogs (who apparently can fly), but instead the dog knocked into him. She had a specific story line with each new picture.

Finally daddy went out and bought her an extra special drawing tablet just for her pictures. This is the first picture she drew in it. She loves rainbows right now and is always sure to get the order of the colors right. Little smarty pants.

Grandma Bosley, I will have you know that during her week of artistry she kept saying that she was making a book of drawings for you for when you come home. After I would tell her how much I liked one of her pieces she would say, "I think gma will like it too."

Also in Hopie news: the other day she was playing with some wiki stix and turned her dog into a pirate. I thought it was pretty funny so I had to take a picture.

When Eden saw me get the camera out she snuck into the picture and took a picture of me taking a picture. What little cuties I have. It helps to reflect on these moments during the MANY tantrums and sibling rivalry they participate in daily.

Miss Chevious Eats

I don't even know where to begin with this post, but I know I have to document this child's behavior for a couple of reasons: 1) Because she will get a kick out of it when she's older...and so will her significant other. 2) Because one day she may be blessed with a Miss Chevious of her own and I can refer her to these posts and then laugh...in her face. 3) To remind myself that I DO have patience with my children in those moments when I feel like curling up in a ball like a roly poly. 4) To give myself a good laugh when the moment has past...FAR past. And finally 5) To let other parents out there know that their child is not the only half angel half devil.

This post isn't really even about anything extreme, just dinner time. Sounds like a simple every day happening in which family gathers around the table to discuss their day and enjoy each other's company and some good food, right? HA! There is an old family story that my mom likes to tell about when I was around Eden's age. My siblings and I had assigned seats at the dinner table and mine was next to my oldest brother, Bobby. Bobby is 10 years older than I am so I am sure he remembers this incident well, and I just have to thank him for having patience with his little sister and not screaming or slapping me into the next room like many other children throughout the world would've reacted in this situation. So one night we were enjoying mashed potatoes. My mom makes great mashed potatoes and unlike my little Hopie, I ate what I was served for dinner, well, I guess I should say "ate". Bobby says to my mom, "Mom, do I have to sit next to Lindsey?" Mom looks over at Bobby to see that I am massaging mashed potatoes into his hair, slathering it around like shampoo.

My children haven't ventured to siblings hair yet, but they've mastered the art of food shampooing with their own hair.

First Hope with the instant oatmeal

and now Eden with the spaghetti.

As a side note, spaghetti is not easy to get out of hair.

You can see she is very pleased with herself. I think she believes she is creating art when she does this. For example, a couple of nights ago we had mashed potatoes and broccoli with our chicken and she made a beautiful piece I like to call, "The Lone Tree".

She does eat most of her dinner and she is quite fond of broccoli. It is when she is done eating that the havoc starts wreaking. :) I suppose now my mom is laughing...in MY face.

In other Miss Chevious news (not having the slightest to do with eating) is her new potty routine. And by potty routine I mean the way she messes her pants, promptly sticks her hand in her diaper to grab a handful and either come show it to me or smear whatever is nearby. In some cases far away objects as well, she isn't picky. Last year she started doing this and I thought I was pretty clever about adding a onsie to her daily outfit so that she couldn't reach down the back of her diaper. That worked well until a couple of months ago when she discovered that she could reach up under her leg and get through both her onsie and the leg hole of her diaper! She does this just about every day and I have started follow her around the house when I know she is going or about to go because I am not about to let her out of my sight when I know what is transpiring. Alas, I cannot watch her 24/7. Let me just stop here to tell any judgemental people who are reading this and disagreeing with this fact to "shove it." Going on...because I cannot watch her like a hawk, sometimes poop ends up on the walls and floors...windows, door knobs, crib, toys, water bottles...you get it. Sunday was special because she decided to share her poop with Muffin.

I was not present at the time or I obviously wouldn't have allowed it to happen, but this is how I imagine it in my head. Poor, poor Muffin was asleep in the front room resting peacefully on a computer chair when in walks a defecating Miss Chevious. She stands by the chair watching the cute kitty sleep while she finishes her business. She reaches into her diaper and pulls out a handful of the mess she just created and plops it down onto Muffins fluffy fur. Meanwhile, I am in the kitchen and suddenly realize how quite Miss Chevious is being so I start to hunt for her. Luckily I find her before she has a chance it mash it into his fur, but she still has a handful and Muffin has woken up and is looking around as if he might try to escape. I have a dilemma here. If I take care of Eden first Muffin will likely pounce away and poop will go flying. If I take care of Muffin first, Eden will run around in anticipation of my cleaning her up...and poop will go flying. Hmmm....it's a good thing it was Sunday and daddy was home. Ben contained Eden while I cleaned up Muffin and then I was able to clean up Eden. Flying poop averted. Whew. Now it is time to dust off the old potty chair for Miss Chevious WILL BE POTTY TRAINED!!!

I love this child. I do. I adore her. I could look into her chocolate eyes all day. She is such a wonderful, beautiful, snuggly, loveable little weirdo. But dealing with this much poop is exhausting.

Time With Grandma

"Mommy Dearest", as I call her, came to visit for a few weeks! Hope has asked pretty much every day since she left, almost a year ago, when she was coming back so she was very excited to get to spend time with Grandma Bosley! We are so proud of her butterfly journey and her weight-loss and healthy life-style and we enjoyed many things we couldn't before it. Such as...

going to the park...

and to the zoo...

Eden taking a picture with her little toy camera.

and playing in the backyard.

We get to spend a few more days with grandma. We sure love having her around.



Hope Says...

Mom: Did you eat the frosting off that cookie?
Hope: Sure I did. I tried just looking at it. But I wanted it.

*Hope lies on her tummy rests her chin in her hands and sighs.*
Dad: What is that sigh for?
Hope: Nothing. I'm just thinking about grandma. I miss her.

Dad: Are you excited for Thanksgiving?
Hope: You're welcome.
Dad: No, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We are going to have a big turkey dinner.
Hope: Who will be joining us?
Dad: No one. It's just going to be us.
Hope: Oh. There's going to be a lot of food.

What a shame it is to have such brilliantly witty children and not write down every word that comes out of their mouths. So much has been said that I'm sure I have forgotten, that I swore in the moment I would remember forever. From now on I will do my best to document those beautiful words on this blog to keep for my children and to share with you.

Hope's 4th Birthday

We celebrated Hope's 4th birthday in Texas this year! It was extra special because we got to have her party with my family that we don't see very often. Hope really enjoyed being around all of her family.

The Decorations & Carousel:

Ben and I put up purple streamers and got a few purple balloons for the kids to play with. Hope thought this was really cool.  Then most of us went to the one of the malls there in Houston where there was a two story carousel. We rode it a couple of times and then walked around and Hope got some cool pink sandals that she doesn't like to wear. :)

The Cake:

Since January Hope has been telling me that she wants a Tom & Jerry birthday cake. Since her birthday isn't until August I thought for sure she would forget and change her mind. No, she reminded me at least once a week from January til the day of her party. Of course Ben and I were going to make one, until we decided to go to Texas. It would've been too much trouble being out of our element and with so much other stuff going on, so I finally convinced Ben to order one. We ordered a Cinderella background and found the Tom & Jerry ornaments at Hallmark. I know Ben was disappointed, but I think Hope thought it was great and she really liked having the little figures to play with after the cake was eaten.

She really only wanted the frosting anyway, which we got to coordinate with her favorite color and the rest of the decorations which were purple. Love her dimples in the bottom pic where she is blowing out the candles.

Presents:

Everyone spoiled Hope with presents and she loved every minute of it. Luckily, we were able to fit it all in our luggage for the plane ride home. Thanks for all the presents!!! I would list everything that she got but I am afraid I will miss something. I will just say that it is obvious by the pic in the top left that she is very pleased with all her gifts!

My happy little Sunshine.

She is already talking about what kind of party she wants for her next birthday. At least she knows what she wants.