I love to scrapbook and so I'm always looking for ways to communicate what the photos on the layout aren't saying.
For me, personally, I haven't been 'journaling' my journey in life. I'm one day going to reach the destination of who I really am and I'm not going to remember squat about it.

Bryce currently has some fecal fascination and I can't keep the stuff off his hands. He won't tell me when he uses the toilet and how am I supposed to know? We're working through it. He'll look at me with those amazing big eyes and I sense that he's waiting to see if I explode or manage to stay in control and promise him a treat if he'll do better next time. He's crazy full of imagination right now. So alive and not out of control, but full of everything wonderful a toddler should be.

I know that God loves me because I have three wonderful kids that teach me daily that I am important to someone. Mothers definitely get their share-more than their share-of criticism. Half the fiction books out there have some mention of the wrongs the protagonist received at the hands of their mother. One day, my kids will be grown and they might sit around and discuss what a crummy job I did with this choice or that choice I made as a mother, but if their experience is anything like mine, they will also be able to love me just because I am me and they will somehow know that, despite it all, that I loved them with all my heart. That I broke it a thousand times for them. If I'm really blessed, they'll be able to see that they broke it, too, sometimes, so much so I didn't think I could go on with the next five minutes.

There is so much drama in little kid/parenting life.

Ella is so tender, but it sure seems like she's been working the emotional system lately. I cannot even give gentle correction without her eyes pooling with tears. It's frustrating, but it is making me more aware that her needs are different from two boys and that I can accomplish that without coddling.

Hang on- Bryce just earned a treat (see above mention of Bryce).

Dane is an amazing kid. He is very concerned for others, yet at the same time, he uses very selfish tactics. This polarizing way of living seem very appropriate for an eight year old. They do make sense. He can really help around the house like never before and I have seen him be fascinated by the things he sees me and Cam do and then I show him he can do them too and he gets excited. Yesterday I showed him how to use the electric can opener.

Ella's crying because Dane has teased her. I never know if it's a big deal or not. I finally understand why my mom said (when we came to her with over-the-top crying) "You'd better be bleeding!"

She's snuggled against my chest now. I have learned lately that she really just needs time and a hug. I try. She is so lovely. So affectionate and I do love how she looks us right in the eyes, still, and communicates her love to us. She is all that i wanted in a little girl. She is deliciously imperfect perfection.

It's time to have a place to record the little wonders in my life, especially when I get to have a two-way with God. I'm getting myself a journal that doesn't have to plug in.

E*Bay is really not fair.

How is it fair that someone is auctioning the favorite doll fof my childhood, whose box has never been opened? And how is it fair that the opening bid is $99.00?! link here
Dang, she's precious. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED this doll for years. I have dreamed about this doll.

My toys and books were very important to me as a child. I just wanted you all to see her.

Join me in a collective 'aaawwwwwwww.'

This little guy was my brother Ryan's doll. I played with him more than Ry did and I loved his hair. His name is Baby Jeans Beans. I knew it was him because of the rainbow applique over his heart.

I just know if Cam grew his wavy hair out, it'd look like this.

Friday:
Met my aunt Suzanne, my cousin Summer and her son Gabe at Gardner Village. Shopped a bit and fed the ducks, but oddly only took pics of us. I took 13 photos of this pose and this is the best one? Yep. These two are tired of looking at this camera in their cute faces.

Snacked on Oreo cookies ===>

The kids loved the kissing sound the koi made as they ate pieces of bread.


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Friday evening: Summer and I did a fun photo shoot together. (she stayed at my house)

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Saturday: The Adams Family Reunion (oh, you know you're already humming the TV theme and snapping your fingers...) This is my dad's mom's family.

After breakfast, the kids began to build rockets of paper and foam to be launched over and over again.

And i think it's gonna be a long long time till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think i am at home

Oh no no no i'm a rocket man

Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

As we were doing the rockets, lunch, the pinata, the waterslide, and tie-dyed shirts, Cameron went with my dad, my uncle, my dad's cousin (younger than me) and two of my great uncles on a foolishly long hike and they about killed themselves and came back completely exhausted...and hungry. We packed it up shortly after that (7:30 PM now) and we all fell into bed before 10 and slept hard!

You've gotta click on these photos for a bigger version. They're pretty cute!

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Sunday: Summer came to church with us, then we went down to my parents house. Attending were: my family of five, Grandma & Grandpa Mortensen (with me, here), my uncle Dennis, Suzanne, Summer and Gabe, my aunt Carrie and her grandson Dillon, my uncle Tad & aunt Grace, Leanne, Kristen, Ciara, my brother's family of four, Mandy, Jonathan, and my grandpa's brother Val and his wife Diane. FULL HOUSE!

Summer and I did a bit of scrapbooking as well as an impromptu concert at Uncle Val's request. I sang I Stand All Amazed then Summer sang You'll Never Walk Alone. We then reprised a song we sang for my grandparents farewell back in 1999, a powerful arrangement of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief (which Summer amazingly remembered the descant). The spirit was so strong there and beautiful. I haven't started choking up during a song for a long time.

I love when my dad's family gets together. There's always guaranteed to be some kind of interesting gospel discussion going on and I was not disappointed. It's such a blessing to have these folks in my life and in my family. What a blessed weekend! We missed you, Eric!

Here's a peek into my brain. May be I'll invent crayon therapy (turns out I'm too late!). All I know is that it was a lot of fun to scribble with my kids. I was trying to help Bryce. Anyway, I highly recommend that you go and grab a box of crayons and a blank piece of paper and begin having fun. Coloring can be amazingly relaxing AND you might even create something that someone might pay half a million bucks for 100 years from now.

Oh, I am SO excited!

I spent around 11 years of my young life singing with the Utah Valley Children's Choir headquartered in Spanish Fork, UT.

Being part of this wonderful, spritual choir really shaped who I became and what I value.

Anyway, it's been 25 years since this choir began and now they are having a little reunion in the form of a fund-raising gala. I am so going.

I have to get my sister-in-law in on it as well. It was on our final choir tour that we really cemented our relationship. We used poetry as mortar. This, of course, eventually led to me marrying her brother, but that was many years later.

The most exciting thing for me is that we'll get to sing some of our old songs together, as well as a new one by a composer from our choir.

It is also exciting that a collection of the 3 tapes we recorded with songs from The Primary Children's Songbook is being re-released on CD. My 16-year-old self sings the first verse of Baptism as a solo on this.

That's me on the left, before a choir concert at the Provo Tabernacle. Gotta love the hair!