I had the most amazing thing happen to me yesterday that testifies of the goodness of people in general and also of Heavenly Father's watchful care over me. So yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with my OBGYN in Salt Lake, just my regular yearly checkup. Since I was driving into Salt Lake and gas isn't cheap, we tried to combine everything I could into that same visit. I left as soon as the kids left on the bus, bringing all three little boys with me. I got the oil and filter changed and tires rotated on the van and then headed to my appointment. After that, I promised the kids lunch at Costco. Then shopping at Costco, Walmart, and Deseret Book. Unfortunately, my doctor was running about an hour behind. And then, when I got into the room, it still took about another 20 min before I saw her. So by the time we were eating lunch at Costco, it was about 1:15. The kids get off the bus at 3:45, and Lindsey had to go into work at that same time. I determined I was going to have to cut something out to make it home in time, and since I was already at Costco, I decided I would cut out Walmart. We did all of our Costco shopping. I had planned on spending about $50, but it rang up about $98. Depressing.
Then I remembered that I had no idea what my PIN number was. Costco doesn't take my VISA card, which is what I always use. I had to use my debit card. I had written down my PIN number at one point but had lost it, and I haven't had to actually use my debit card in months and months. I could vaguely remember the numbers, but after three tries, the checker and I both decided I wasn't going to get it right. I did not have my checkbook, and I informed the checker I lived too far away for them to hold the groceries for me. I was so embarrassed because Costco was SUPER busy and all these people were waiting, and I was so angry at myself for wasting all that time on a day when I was already pressed for time. Now I would still have to cut out the Walmart shopping and I wasn't going to get Costco done either. I was biting back tears and apologized several times to the workers as she announced a "1021" or whatever into the loudspeaker for someone to come get all my stuff. I began unloading my kids from the cart when the lady behind me in line came up and handed me a receipt. I said, "Oh, thank you," confusedly. She smiled at me and told me to have a nice day. I looked at the receipt and realized she had paid for all of my groceries. I just started bawling. I am still crying now even writing about it. A $100 is a lot of money to just give away to a total stranger. I reloaded the kids and thanked her again, but I couldn't talk very much through all the tears. She just smiled again and told me to have a great day. I don't even know her name. She doesn't know mine. But she is my sister and truly an angel from my Father in Heaven, and she was definitely on His errand yesterday. She was a huge blessing to me, and I only pray that someday I will be in that same situation and I will be able to help someone like she helped me. It meant so much.
The Lord truly watches over us and takes care of us and sends us angels like this when we need them. I did not expect the help. I don't know that I deserved it. With just a little foresight, I could have avoided the whole situation. But the Lord blessed me anyway, and I am so grateful for Him and for the wonderful woman he placed in line behind me.

Yesterday evening I went to the grocery store with Wally, Richie, and Russell. Wally and Richie hung onto sides of the cart and did pretty well, although a little hyper, throughout the store. Then at the very end, Richie wanted Wally's spot on the cart, and Wally did not want to share. So began his royal fit. It began as screaming and sitting down, informing me he was "not going to leave this spot." I walked away. Then he followed screaming, trying to force his way back onto his spot on the cart, lots of jumping up and down, throwing himself on the ground, and more screaming. He did not hit, which looking back on it, says a lot. I did not help matters very much and mostly ignored him. I should have stopped and talked him through it. Wally is the kind of kid that works very well with, but I didn't. And as I was trying to leave the store with him trying to block my way (screaming all the while), I finally grabbed his arm, pinched him, and told him I was very close to spanking him and he better move NOW. He did. But he was not happy with me. Yelling about how I hurt him, he followed me to the van. When we got there, he yelled to me that when daddy got home, I was gonna be in trouble! I said when daddy got home, HE was the one who was going to be in trouble. He responded that he was going to tell daddy that I had pinched his arm and daddy was going to be mad at me! I told him that I would tell daddy how he had thrown fits in the grocery store and daddy was going to mad at him! But I was honestly laughing very hard inside. He was threatening me with his daddy. Scott has made quite an impression on our children. He makes us all believe that he will back each of us 100% of the time and will always be on our side. I know I feel the same way (although with me it's actually true). That is a difficult task to accomplish, because he even though he definitely still disciplines them and makes them obey, he lets them know he loves them and they know he listens to them. I don't always listen, as I proved in the store. I often just react or send them away to their rooms so I can ignore them until they calm down. He is such a good, patient father.

This morning during my cereal, I read the talk by President Boyd K. Packer from this last General Conference address, entitled, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them." Beautiful, amazing talk. It made me cry to hear it and cry to read it again. He gives a quote from Psalm 127:3,5. "Children are an heritage of the Lord: and... happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." When I read that, I immediately thought of my experience with Wally at the store last night. I definitely feel like my quiver is full of children, and I don't know that I felt happy about it last night during Wally's tantrum in the middle of Soelberg's. Ok, I didn't feel happy about it. I felt embarrassed and frustrated and somewhat angry. But if I would have thought more on this scripture, I could have had a better outlook, and probably been more helpful to Wally. He isn't just a little boy throwing a fit, he is an heritage of the Lord. And the truth is, I am happy, so happy to have Wally.  Just like I am happy to have my sweet little girl Erin, even after she bawls at me that nobody in this family loves her or understands her and runs down to her room dramatically. I am happy to have my hilarious little Zachie, who gets in trouble at school for talking out of turn or taking other kid's things just to get attention. I am happy to have adorable little Richie, who unrolls the whole roll of toilet paper in the bathroom or leaves his popsicle melting all over the countertop, ruining notebooks and bills and every other paper I have laying around. And I am so happy to have my sweet, happy little baby Russell, whom I stayed up nursing for over an hour last night and finally got him back to his crib, only to have him wake up again in a half hour.

I am happy to have each of them, as close as they are and no matter what hard times we have. They make me laugh so hard and they make my heart full when they hug me or draw me pictures or pick me flowers. I LOVE having my quiver full of children. I love being surrounded by them at church, and taking their pictures with them all lined up. I love turning on music to start cleaning and watching them all dance around the house. I think of my good mom, who now has an empty nest at home and how much she still would much prefer to be surrounded by her children and grandchildren than to have peace and quiet at home. I love this stage of my life. It is not always easy, it is definitely not quiet, but it is happy. I am so grateful to have my quiver full of children. What a blessing they are to me! This Mother's Day weekend, I am reminded how lucky I am to be a mother to so many wonderful little children. They do make me happy!!

I know why they nickname this stage "the terrible twos." My little Richie has been so easy-going and easy to take care of since he was born. He was happy as a baby and slept well. He has even now taken to potty-training very well. He has so many wonderful qualities and makes me laugh all the time.

But boy is he a little stinker! I remember getting so frustrated with Wally during this stage of life, and it has now really settled in that it is not the child, it is the age. The other day, Wally came to tell me that Richie had locked himself in the bathroom and couldn't get out because the doorknob was all soapy. Perfect. So I got a butter knife and unlocked the door and found soap all over him, the countertop, and all over his head. I stuck his head under the bathtub faucet and rinsed off his head amidst screaming and yelling and lots of kicking. He remembered it well enough to tell Scott about it that night. "Mommy got water on my head and me cried and cried. Waaaaaa," as he put his hands on his eyes. He is a good actor. I am hoping it was traumatic enough to make him not do it again. We'll see.

He also is consistently doing things I tell him not to do as he looks at me and smiles. He loves getting a reaction out of me until he gets a reaction. Then he cries (and continues to fake-cry long after the real cry ends) and tells me how I hurt him and how I made him sad and now he is "crying."

He loves little Russell, but he can be too rough with him and I am constantly getting after him. "Get your feet away from the baby's face!!" "I told you that you can't feed the baby anything! Only mommy!" "Don't hit the baby on the head! That hurts!" "Why did you take Russell's toy?" "Get off the baby! You can't sit on him!" Each one of these comments is followed by a smile but nothing else until I stomp towards him. Then he quickly stops hitting or gets off the baby or runs away and drops the toy. It is often frustrating to raise this child. He thinks it's funny to get my attention and just laughs when he does something wrong. He reminds me so much of Zach that it's unreal. Scott and I talk about it all the time, about how much Zach has prepared us for Richie. One thing about it is Russell is going to be pretty tough, if he survives.

Richie idolizes Wally and often just follows him around and repeats whatever he says. Wally: "Mommy, I want a snack." Richie: "Mommy, me want a snack." Mom: "Then go get one." Wally: "I want you to make me a sandwich." Richie: "Me want you to make me a sandwich." Mom: "Not right now." Wally: "Aawww. Please, mom?" Richie: "Aawww. Please, mom?" Seriously, it goes on and on and on. It's pretty stinking adorable. Richie has given me the same problem every other two-year-old I have raised has given me. Frustration and anger and ready to just beat the child and then laughing my head off the next minute. I know I give mixed signals all the time, but sometimes I can't help it. He is a stinker, but he is a smart one and he truly makes me laugh all the time. He insists lately on being called, Richie Richie instead of just Richie. He really is a wonderful boy and always wants to help, and he loves to sing and laugh and dance. His dancing is truly hilarious. So, terrible twos? Yes. Terrific twos? Yes. All within ten seconds of each other. Nothing else is like motherhood.

Here is a picture of Wally in the hospital right after he knocked the light fixture down on his head.

They glued it shut. It's been several weeks, but as you can see from this other picture, the scar and the glue are still there. I was looking at him yesterday with the scar on his forehead, bloody nose tissue and dried blood all over his face, big fat lip from a trampoline accident, and even walking with a limp from crashing into Zach at the park. I had to take his picture. He is my daredevil, live or die child. Sure to cause me lots of worry and lots of money. :( My mom said he was my "little Jeremiah." Those of you who know my brother Jeremiah will understand what that means. ;)

And from this cutie little patootie, you can see Richie and I have been working on potty-training! Oh, exciting time of life. So much money saved on diapers, so much spent on carpet and laundry cleaning expenses. (Not to mention therapy for me from all the stress. haha) Seriously, though, he has been doing a really good job. There have been several days where he goes by without a single accident. The last two days he hasn't had a "Number 1" accident at all. He even goes on his own, pulls up his pants and everything without me reminding him. But he has had "Number 2" accidents both days. Ugh. I am getting tired of it too. It is seriously disgusting. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Wally and Richie sat there watching me wash Richie's underwear off in the toilet bowl and Wally asked me why I was doing it. "Because Richie pooped all over his underwear and somebody has to clean it now, right? And guess who is the mom? Me. So guess who has to clean up all the gross stuff? Me! Because I'm the mom. Me! Me!" as I angrily scrubbed underwear in poopy water. ha ha ha... He was quiet after that. Probably thought I had lost my mind. But Richie really is trying hard, and I am impressed with how well he is doing. His biggest motivation is not treats or stickers or anything, but the ability to wear pants. He HATES it if I just make him wear his underwear. That's his punishment if he has an accident, and I sincerely think that is why he goes so successfully. He always mentions getting to wear his pants because he is such a big boy. What an adorable little guy. I seriously just love him!!!

So I have always known how much I am like my mom. I notice it more and more the older my kids get, but it is nothing really new to me. But yesterday, I also realized how much I am also like my dad.

My dad has the habit of beginning a project and quickly going crazy with it. Don't deny it, dad. You know it's true. No one could ever possibly deny that you do the project well. Very well. It's amazing how much you accomplish and how awesome it looks afterwards. We just have always felt you kind of go crazy with it. It's like, he decides that he's going to sweep out the garage. That's how it begins, but pretty soon everything -- cars, cabinets, toys, tools, etc -- have been emptied out of the garage and he is putting up drywall, texturing and painting, and then building shelves on every wall. Ok, this isn't an actual example, but situations like this have happened over and over and over again. He just gets carried away.

So yesterday, I decided I was finally going to redo the caulking on the floor around the bathtub in the kid's bathroom. They had begun ripping up the old caulking just for fun. What else are they gonna do with all their free time? I mean, really? And with how much they splash with their bath routine, I knew this would quickly become a problem. So I ripped up the old caulking and cleaned up everything like I should, and put down new caulking around the floor of the tub. This took me quite a while but I finally got the hang of it as I finished. Then I saw a few spots around the tub that could use some re-caulking, which I also did. Then I proceeded to do the bathroom sink, the back of the backsplash on our kitchen countertops, the sink in the master bathroom, and to finish it all, I scraped and pulled and removed all of the caulking around the tub in the master bathroom and put new caulking around our tub. It took me hours to complete all these tasks. It was early day for the kids, so they were home and needed my attention. I had laundry that I needed to take out of the dryer and fold and put away. My dishes were so backed up and piled all over the countertops. I have a goal to exercise every day, and I had not exercised yet -- obviously not showered or anything that comes after exercising. Plus, I was getting closer and closer to beginning my piano lessons for the evening. I had thrown a quick lunch together for Wally and Richie, but I hadn't eaten anything, and I was getting more and more onery the more obsessed I became with completely re-caulking our home.

After doing our tub, I decided it was time to be done (It probably helped that my baby Russell was starving and demanding to be fed). It wasn't until later in the day, however, that it suddenly occurred to me that I am just like my dad. I began what should have been a simple and relatively quick project. But it turned into this huge ordeal and took hours out of my day, successfully eliminating my opportunity to exercise or finish the laundry. In my defense, I do think I did a good job -- just like my dad.

Yesterday we had just a small square of cheesecake leftover from Gabe's birthday dinner at their house on Sunday. I asked Wally and Richie if they wanted to eat it with me. OF COURSE. So we got it out and Wally asked if we would be cutting it up into three sections. I said, no, let's just each get a fork and eat what we want, for some reason thinking it would be a similar experience as when Scott and I share something. It was not. As soon as I gave them their forks, Wally and Richie attacked this thing like their lives depended on it. I mentioned to slow down, but they both kept going full speed, not taking time to swallow or hardly chew before another bite was shoved in. Wally even grabbed little pieces with his fingers that were taking too long with his fork and shoved them into his mouth. Finally, I just put down my fork and started laughing until my sides hurt. Next time, I will make sure I cut it into sections. Do boys always eat with such desperation??

Last night for FHE, we made our Easter baskets! The kids were so excited all day. Every year, we cut out part of milk cartons and decorate them into Easter baskets with construction paper! I'm sure someone with more creative talent could really put some impressive stuff into this project, but I just make it as simple as possible for myself. We always always did Easter baskets this way when I was a kid. I remember LOVING it. I think we all did, although I remember in my later years, Justin pulling out an old ice cream bucket and slapping it on the table with a "There. I'm done." haha. Maybe it wasn't as fun for teenage boys as it was for me. It saves money, but I feel like even more important, it's a fun Easter project that we all get to do together!!! :)

This year, Erin made a kitten, Zach made a Batman/Robin depending on which side of the basket you looked at, Wally made a Spiderman Bunny, Richie made a Buzz Lightyear, and Russell's was Easter eggs hidden in grass. Scott did Richie's and Russell's, and I helped with Wally's. Erin and Zach did theirs by themselves, and did a very impressive job, I might add! Lindsey was out with friends last night, but I am gonna try to talk her into doing one later. Scott wasn't super thrilled that I assigned him two of them this year, but he did a really great job, don't you think?! We all had fun, laughing and joking. Russell fell asleep in his swing at one point and Wally took it upon himself to walk around monitoring how loud we were talking. "SHHHHH! Whisper! Russell is sleeping the whole way!!" was all we heard anytime a comment was made. No tears or anything this year, just lotsa fun. :) We had Easter candy on the table for our treat, which I think helped in the excitement of it all. Scott jokingly complained about the candy I chose as he ate handful after handful. Here are some pics.... I took a pic of Zach's from each side.

My mom sent Zach a $10 bill for his birthday last week. It has been sitting in the same spot on the counter since it arrived. I kept thinking every time I passed it that I really needed to move it somewhere safe, but I was always busy and just moved things around it so it could stay.

Last night we went at a sing-along concert at the elementary school. There was a guy from the State Dept. of Education who had written all these songs about "Dimension Prevention." It was cute and I had fun watching Erin and Zach, but not cute enough for me to want to buy the CDs they were selling afterward for $10 each. Erin and Zach did not feel the same, along with pretty much every other kid there. Did they brainwash these kids? Anyway, I didn't have any money with me, but Zach begged and begged and begged to use his birthday money to buy one of these CDs. I saw my neighbor there writing out a check to buy her kids a couple of the CDs and I asked her if she would add $10 to her check for us. As soon as we got home, I promised, one of the kids would run her the money over. I knew right where the money was, on the counter, of course.

What was I thinking??? We scoured the kitchen and went through every last piece of paper on that countertop. I searched through my bedroom, the bathroom, the boy's room, the baby's room, the piano, my pockets, my wallet, and EVERYWHERE ELSE at least three times each. I could not remember doing anything with this money, but I remember wanting to do something with it so often that I thought maybe I had moved it. I finally texted my neighbor to tell her we couldn't find the money and I didn't have any cash on hand, but I would bring it the next day.

I was soooo frustrated by this point. Seriously, what is wrong with me? Why didn't I put that money somewhere safe as soon as it arrived in the mail? I left it in the worst possible spot. I am really really careful when I clean off my counter and throw things away, but all I could figure was that I had thrown it away. There was simply no other option. I was in feeding the baby and Scott was tutoring a girl on our kitchen table when he sent me this text. "Have you said a prayer? Or asked Erin?" Every time I have ever lost anything -- or anybody has lost anything for that matter -- and Erin has said a prayer, it has been found. EVERY TIME. Even when I was beyond hope that it could be found, it was found. She has built my faith immeasurably. And yet every time, I reach that point where I am sure that this time, this time, it is gone forever. Why is my faith so weak? I struggle to have faith in my own prayers at times like this, but Erin does not, which is why I think her prayers always work. Also, I think I feel that it is my own fault and irresponsibility that the thing is lost in the first place, so Heavenly Father is not going to just show me where something is that I should be able to find myself and shouldn't have lost anyway! Ugh. I dunno.

Anyway, hence the text from Scott about asking Erin to pray. I had not. I was too upset to pray or even ask Erin to pray. Too frustrated to really even respond much to his question. And being the wonderful husband he is, he let me work it out and didn't run off to ask Erin himself, which is something I probably would have done. I tell him later in the evening that I am sure I must have thrown it away because I have checked everywhere else, and he wanted to go through the trash for me, right then and there!! I can't believe the wonderful man I married. That is true love, to be willing to dig through a disgusting garbage can searching for a $10 bill your wife threw away. Anyway, I would not let him do it because I had thrown away some really gross things in there yesterday and, I assured him, I wasn't for positive sure that I had actually thrown it away yet.

Then while I was putting Erin to bed, I asked her to say an extra prayer and please ask that I would find that money. She did.

So today, honestly, I haven't thought much about it except about when I could make it to the bank and withdraw $10. I, in my lack of faith, had again given up on ever finding Zach's birthday money. But lo and behold, I was folding laundry and FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!! It was in Zach's pants' pocket. I don't even know why I stuck my hand in there today because I was not thinking about it at all. But I did, and there it was. I couldn't believe it! Even now I am amazed how this happens every single time!! I know the Lord is watching me thinking, "Ok, Shannon. NOW will you believe me?" What would I do without the innocent, perfect faith of my 8-year-old and the gentle prompting of my loving husband? I am so grateful for prayer, and that my Heavenly Father has so much patience with me. I know the Lord cares about me and cares about the things that are important to me, even if it is only a lost $10 bill.