Fully Invested

We split up for Thanksgiving this year. Kelly stayed in Spokane with Wilson, Cooper, Eliza, and Max. They upheld the tradition of delivering meals on wheels, and enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast in Spokane with the Frederickson family. Marcos and I flew to Utah to be with the Lundberg family. Marcos traveled incredibly well. I know that we were being watched over (it was probably Kelly's prayers). I could not remember how to get to Elk Ridge, but miraculously we drove straight to Russ and Pam's house. We were immediately welcomed, and fortunately food had been saved from Thanksgiving. Marcos greeted the family with a blowout diaper-that boy can fill a diaper. After he was cleaned up (so bad it required a full body bath), he was ready to play with his cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents.

Everyone teared up as Mom and Dad told stories from their mission. They told story after story of prayers being answered on a daily basis. Dad said "be careful what you pray for, because you will get it." We each shared our gratitude for grandparents who know, and live the gospel. What a blessing. We can all look to grandma and grandpa for a shining example of how to live the gospel. They are truly fully invested.

On the first night I stayed with Pam and Russ in order to go running with Russ in the morning...... Bad choice.....I am still stiff (just kidding). What a beautiful place they live in. Marcos slept all through the night and was again doted over in the morning. On the second night, I slept at Rand and Debbie's due to their proximity to the stadium, and the BYU bookstore. We went to the bookstore, and bought our new BYU cougars attire, with our fully invested T-shirts, and our face paint.

On the second night Marcos and I went to visit Tyler, Chelsea, Kate, Evan, and new baby Beck. What a beautiful baby, with perfect little features. I was taken back by his sweetness. I fed him a bit too much, and he paid me back with a nice spit up. Together we watched the Louisville vs BYU basketball game. Yea! This was a good start to the Cougar weekend. I then got to stay and talk with Tyler and Chelsea. I had them all to myself this time. I stayed until almost 11:00pm. I hope I did not over stay my welcome. They are so easy to talk to that time goes by fast. I then went back home to Debbie and Rands. I woke up early the next morning to prepare for the game. We painted our faces, got pictures, and then went to the game.

We were fully invested. We got there 1 and 1/2 hours early, and sat and enjoyed the energetic build up to the game, with music stretching, and dancing. Russ wanted to develop our own dance routine.....but Rand was not quite confidant in the dance so we nixed that.

I cannot believe it. Another year, another last minute win. Two years in a row I have bought tickets to the "Holy War" on e-bay and have been 20 rows up from the game winning touchdown. This year the stakes were definately higher. With Rand, Russ, and myself having painted our faces blue (see picture) with white letters, and black outline. The true, the proud, the TRUE BLUE COUGARS were fully invested. We each had a fully invested t-shirt. Due to the fact that we were not able to "storm the field" last year at Rice Eccles Stadium, this year we decided to join the crowd in storming the field. What an incredible game......Let me remind you.... 4th down and 18 yards to go with about 1 minute left in the 4th quarter of the game. Austin Collie gives the juke to his defender and streaks down the sidelines as Max Hall tip toes through a narrow pathway to freedom- to launch the bomb, Collie catches and gets pushed out of bounds. The crowd goes wild. Then Harvey the Mack Truck Unga blows through the hole and bowls over defenders, running in standing up in the endzone. The mania begins. Just then a couple of coeds rushed down the stands whispers to us "the zealots with face paint" to help them storm the field. Rand gave them the thumbs up, but said we first wanted to watch the rest of the game. As the game ended I felt like I was part of continuous flowing river. We got sucked into the river's current of bodies, and flowed onto the field. High fives, jumping, singing, and pandamonium. The announcer then requested that the fans "please leave the field"...... and as true blue BYU fans do.....we obeyed.

I cannot wait until next year.

marcos in a month

Marcos is changing our family. His arrival has changed Tony into Superdad--no kidding. Superdad does things like fly to Utah with the baby, single-handedly get all the kids ready for family pictures and offer to take the baby to church meetings. Superdad uses his new powers to see things that need to be done without the Mom asking. Superdad has even shown signs of multi-tasking. (He was once sighted feeding the baby and doing charts at the same time!) I'm falling head over heels in love, again, with our new family hero.

Other miraculous Marcos-inspired changes have shown up in sweet tenderness from Wilson and Cooper. The other morning I was getting ready for teacher-conferences and asked Wilson to dress the baby. I couldn't help but do a quick peek and saw a tender moment when Wilson carefully bathed, lotioned and dressed his baby brother. I wish I had been quick enough to catch on film Maxwell feeding Marcos his breakfast the other morning. He did a great job with an estimated 50% of the food actually making it into Marcos' mouth. Maxwell's biggest problem is that he loves to climb in the crib and snuggle with Marcos. Inevitably he wakes him up and the wrath of Mom is kindled. Marcos loves the feel of Max's hair. Eliza, in her continual role as family librarian, engages Marcos in personal story-time every day. Cooper was born kind and tender, and Marcos brings out all of his best traits.

I on the other hand, reached a low parenting moment the other day. Wilson was dishonest with me about his homework and hid his book in his closet on the highest shelf. I indulged in extreme overreaction and called the town Sherrif to see if he would confront Wilson at the school, and hopefully take him to jail or something. Luckily for me he declined and I took the book up to school myself. I found out that two of Wilson's friends did the same thing on the same day. Those lucky kids don't have parents who call the cops. It's a good thing I was the first child, the guinee pig, because I sure am messing up a lot on Wilson.

We had to clarify with Maxwell tonight at dinner that we will not be "stealing Marcos from the temple on December 1st" we will be SEALING Marcos in the temple on December 1st." I'm glad we got that straight.

Marcos has reached a few milestones: two little teeth have emerged (just as Eliza is about to lose her first one!). Marcos has become an expert clapper and has learned reverse gear. He scoots backward on his tummy, as well as to the left and right for something he wants. It's a good thing he's my fifth or the fact that he won't crawl before his 1st birthday may have had me hiring physical and occupational therapists round the clock. Incidently, language skills are progressing nicely as well, with great vocalizations and verbal play.

My last Enrichment meeting was last Tuesday. I hope I learned the lesson intended for me from this calling because I think it will be the most challenging calling I have, or ever will have had. Today was my first day in Primary. It was like that feeling you have when you have been on vacation for a long time and you get home to everything familiar and sleep in your own bed again. I felt like myself at church for the first time in years. My greatest challenge is trying not to be too emotional everytime one of the kids says something tender. I need to try really hard to write down things that the kids say to tell their parents. I love it when people tell me things that show my kids are learning the gospel of Jesus Christ. This primary is particularly well organized, the music people are awesome and the majority of teachers really like the kids. I am happy that the structure is in place so we can just focus on how fun it is to live the gospel.

Tony spoke on gratitude in church and had such a good insight. He said that entitlement is Satan's replica of gratitude. I've been thinking about that and hope that this Thanksgiving we replace all entitlement with gratitude. Of course everytime I look at that sweet Guatemalan boy the gratitude spills over. I guess that's that biggest Marcos change in our family--we are just more thankful.