Attitude

Life is full of decisions.  Most of them are in our attitude.  Some may say that why we do something doesn't matter as long as what we are doing is the right thing.  But it matters to us and our well-being.
I am

I am a caring person. I love it when I have the opportunity to serve those around me.
Especially when I can include my children.

I am a mom. I Love to spend time with my children and live for those moments that they ask for my help.

I am intelligent.  I love to read and discover.
I am fascinated by the world around me and hope to always be.

I am determined.  I am diligent.
Even if something takes a long time I will stick to it and feel joy that I Can do it.

I am healthy.  I prefer whole wheat.  I don't eat until I'm stuffed.  I love the feeling I get when my muscles are working hard. Vegetables and fruit are delicious and candy isn't all it's cut out to be.

This picture of me may not always be completely accurate.  O.K., I'll admit it.  Lately it has been very off the mark, but it is who I am.  Deep inside, regardless of the stresses, laziness, and general tune out, this is who I am.  I am not the actions and attitudes of the past, or even what may be in the future.  I am this person right now, at this moment.  Throughout this past week I have made the conscious effort to Be this woman, not just in my actions because that isn't the real me, but in my attitudes in my heart.  And I have found something truly amazing.  When I start feeling in a way that is inconsistent with who I am, if I remind myself this is what I want, this is who I am- it helps.  It helps me to make the right decisions, and, it helps even more for me to enjoy the moments, the everyday things that I have been taking for granted without realizing it.  It helps me to wake up!  Smell the roses, they are all around me.  Look around, stop staring at the ground in front of myself trying desperately not to trip, and missing all of the beauty and goodness in life. It helps me to live!  To feel fully the pokes, the bruises, the breathe-taking vistas, the slow meandering roads, the beautiful trees and the cold prickles of the wind and WAKE UP!

Picture fun

Fun with Cousins and Aunt Mezi!

My Mom and Dad and my brother Jake and his wife Milin went to Costa Rico.  It is really a neat trip because my dad went there on his mission and has been wanting to go back for as long as I can remember.  He got a phone call a couple years ago from Victoria.  Victoria was a 27 year old (or so ) that my dad helped to teach and baptize all those millions of years ago (your welcome dad).  She went to a lot of trouble to look him up, because she wanted him to know that she is still strong in the church and that hers sons and grandsons have served faithful missions and generally been doing well.  Super awesome phone call.  I can only imagine how he must have felt!
So, he told her he wanted to come and visit, fast forward to last week and they went down.  We skype with them regularly and things seem to be going well, other then the heat (poor babies, they missed -2 degree weather and a huge snow storm up here which has proceeded to mostly melt so they won't even have the fun of driving in it when they get back).
The funnest part for us though is that we get to hang out with their kids while they are gone!
They are tons of fun.  It has been much better then last time, because I am at my own house and have my own stuff, as well as my Hubby to help.
Tean has enjoyed traveling the world with us and getting ready for the Olympics!  The first day we went to the USA and learned about the mechanics of airplanes.  Then we built paper airplanes and tried them out (this activity continued all day and into the next). We then made cardboard box airplanes to take us to the other countries.  This week we've been to Costa Rico, Japan, Kenya and Russia.  We have had so much fun watching his enthusiasm and learning together.  Noah especially has enjoyed the opportunity to make school especially fun.
Mosiah is a head strong young man, and as Alayna said it is a good thing that he is just So darn CUTE!  The girls started out the week catering to his every whim, but that got old after a couple of days. They started to give him to me so that I could tell him no, and developed strategies to distract him and redirect his energy.  I love watching his business. I was cracking up at church because Joseph A., Joseph D., Alayna, and I had talks and were a little pre-occupied Sunday morning, so we forgot to bring toys.  I pulled out whatever I could find from the diaper bag and my purse.  He spent a happy sunday school putting things into and taking them out of his shoes, hiding a little star pin under his clothes and finding it, and dropping a crayon and pen in between the space between the chairs and then getting down to get them until a well prepared mom came in during Relief Society and shared.  Unfortunately, she shared her yogurt puffs too.  Mosiah decided that he liked them better then what I had and kept asking for more, gobbling them down in no time flat and demanding more.  Halfway through the container, she put them away, but Mo was having NONE of that!  He had seen where she had put hem and when she didn't respond to his yelling and demanding he proceeded to pull down the bag and try to get into it himself.  Needless to say, I decided it was a good time to go on a walk.
We sure do love living close enough to get to know these adorable little kiddos and are greatful to be able to spend time with them.

Update

So I've decided there will bee no apologies for lapses!  That would require guilt at a time I should be glad I'm writing. :-)
Isabelle has been sick since we moved here on and off, but mostly on.  She currently has the croup which is why I'm sitting here writing this and not at church with everyone else. 
Other then that she is doing wonderfully.  We have been weaning her off of her medications and it is agonizingly slow, but we are seeing her come back to life in front of us.  There was a interaction between the diet and the drug, onfi, so she reverted last year back to a newborn state.  We have seen some evidence that the wean may be causing some sort seizures, but it is worth it to have her out of zombie mode. 
Noah is completely healed from his sledding experience and recently wrote a paper on courage in which he mentions what happened and said that he was courageous to go sledding again.:-)  He only went for one ride behind the four wheeler, and with his mom, but he went.  I am proud of him.
Evelyn is really growing into a beautiful young woman.  She turned ten a couple of weeks ago, and she is a sweet kind lovely girl.  She is helpful and especially loves taking care of little kids.  Jake and Milin went to Costa Rica for a week and a half and left Tean 5 and Mosiah 1 here with us.  Evelyn is loving playing with them, feeding them, helping them, and taking care of them.  She is going to be an amazing mother, watch out world.
Alayna is great with them as well.  She has also started to care about studying!  She spends over an hour a day on math, and is working hard in her key of liberty class to learn, understand, and do well.  She is reading and getting Shakespeare and understanding where this great country of ours came from.
Joseph is thriving in Williamsburg.  The few gaps in his education are rapidly becoming filled.  He is also enjoying time with friends at the commonwealth school and seminary.
Joseph Daniel is becoming used his new job, and is already indispensable around here.  I love dating him, I'm sure it will never get old.  He is the light of my life and I am so blessed to have him forever.
And me? I'm happy to be with family, and missing the ones we left.  I'm thrilled to have a school room (not that it's where we always do school) but it is lovely to have an away place to keep all of the paraphernalia.  I'm still working on getting everything organized and on getting everything done, but it helps to know it's a process that I'm not expected to complete.  Just like there will always be something in the house that needs to be fixed, there will always be something in my life to work on. 
So overall I think this Lopez family is doing pretty well.  We have been blessed with amazing friends, New and old, amazing family all over the country, and out, and amazing solidarity to stick together through everything.  We know this all comes from our amazing Lord.  Thank you more then I can say.
Thank you.

Life changes

So we have moved to Idaho.  I have to give a huge shout out to my parents.  They have been nothing but wonderful through this whole thing.  They have let us stay in their basement while we have been looking for a house, they have helped us find a house, helped us change our brakes in our, watched Izy when needed, gone down to salt lake with her for support, and so on and so forth.  This move has been very difficult for all of us, but I know it would be worse if we didn't have their love and support.  So thank you thank you thank you. 
This whole thing has got me thinking about the nature of family.  How amazing it is to have people that you would do anything for and that would do anything for you.  I understand so much better now that I am a parent, the love and care that parents have for their children.  I'm starting to understand that that love never goes away even when, like my recently turned 15 year old, they become more independent.
The picture is from the trunk or treat that we went to.  We dressed up our car, and handed out candy.  Everyone in my parents ward does Halloween this way because it is took far too walk between houses.

Tender mercies

It wasn't easy moving, we felt out of place and didn't know anything about the area or have any friends.  We had searched and searched for a house. We felt like we had seen every house in the entire city and nothing felt right.  We had made a list of things that we were looking for and had prayed about them.  Our kids had helped us and the girls had one major thing on their list.  Secret room or passage way.  I really wanted a view, but that was secondary to many other things.  When we found this house, it wasn't love at first sight for me.  I liked it and saw the possibilities, but I felt a spirit here that said this is your home.  And it has felt like home since the day we moved in.  No getting used to it, or feeling like strangers.  As you can see, it has a beautiful veiw to help me remember that Heavenly Father cares about all of us and hears our prayers.

It  wasnt until we moved in and found a note on the counter relized the Lord had given them a tender mercy as well.  And its in their room!

Sledding

I really hope my son is not scarred for life.
There's I was enjoying some peace and quiet.  Izy finally sleeping, the other kids all outside passing in the fluffy, powdery snow that they have up here in Idaho.  It was actually fairly warm outside and the sun was out so I expected them to be gone for a while.  All of the sudden I hear Alayna yelling my name, and I'll admit it I thought "please just give me a little bit longer".  But there was something in her tone of voice so I rushed out and she said Noah asked into a tree.  I started running and asked her where he was because my parents have a lot of land.  She went to a section they weren't supposed to be sledding down and pointed.  I slipped and slid down the hill in my tennis shoes when he came in sight my heart did a somersault.  His face was smeared all over with bright red blood, and the air echoed with his screams.  I froze inside for a split second and then "mom mode" kicked in.  You know the one, it's the one that says, I have no idea what to do and what I do know seems too hard or gross but I'm the mom and there is no one else so I guess I'll do it.  The same mode enabled me to reach into the toilet and outlook out a spoon that one of my children had knocked in just the week before.  It was horrid but someone had to.
Any way, I slid the rest of the way down the hill and talked to him.  He seemed coherent if upset and so I set about trying to get him up the hill.  My shoes were slipping so bad I want being much traffic and after a short trial I determined that there was no Way I could carry him.  Joseph Ammon said he had already tried so each of us got on a side and helped him the best we could up the hill.  When one of us slipped and fell they would let go of Noah and the other would hold him up. Finally we got him to the top and inside to clean up and see what happened.  I was relieved when I got his face washed off that his teeth were intact and the injuries while painful were relatively minor. 
The picture here is after lots of ice and ibuprofen later that night.  Now only a week later he has just a couple of scratches on his nose to show what happened.  Of course, everyone is asking him what happened, and he typically replies "I learned that trees don't move."  That's my boy! Gotta learn lessons from those difficulties in life.  Keep it up.
So I'm not worried that the smart won't go away, but I am concerned that he won't want to sled anymore.