This blogging everyday had been fun! It's like the glad game from Pollianna. I love that movie.  Anyway, things that made me glad today:

• Jared falling asleep on me. 
• Going to physical therapy for the first time.  I really enjoyed it and I am very hopeful that this is the step I need to take for healing. 
• I took Bryan and Jared to the gym today. It was nice to watch them run around. 
• I love our diving to school talks in the morning.  We pray and read a random scripture mastery and talk about it.  We have been doing it for over a year and it had been such a great experience!
• Bryan said today, "I hate when the world moves!"
• Nancy came up to help me with the house and with the boys.  It is nice to have her here! She helps out so much and the boys just love her!
• Hyrum wrote me a very nice note. 
• Paul and I always make jokes out of his homework and laugh and laugh! 
• I got a nice phone call from Brad today.  He sounded so so happy, that makes me glad :)

Happy birthday Jared!

Today we celebrated Jared's birthday!

Jared brings our family joy and happiness everyday! He gives hugs and kisses when others are sad or hurt.  

He says funny random things.  Jared dances to music and runs fast after pestering his brothers :) he loves books and parks, animals and walks.

He loves his family and his grandma's and grandpa's.

He loves girls that baby him and cousins that pamper him. Playing catch is his favorite and he loves kicking balls around.

We are so happy Jared is in our family!

Other things that made me happy today-

My primary class! I just love those kids! Remy raised her hand in the big primary class telling everyone that she comes to church "to see sister Baxter!" Also my runaway child didn't runaway today! And Brad came to my class to help out! I love teaching with Brad! I Love having Bryan in class! He was so reverent today! 

I love watching Brad as a dad! Match madness has been a blast for our family this year! Also the boys all played keep away just before bed tonight.  It was so cute!

Also, this is on a selfish note.  But I just don't love 99.9% of all pictures of me.  I look at the picture and think, "seriously, is that what I look like?!" Anyway, I got ready for church today and thought my hair looked great and my eyelashes looked awesome so I snapped a few selfies, which I embarrassly admit I took and I actually like.  It is what I see in the mirror. And when I am 90, I will be glad that I took. 

Happy day!

What was happy today:

Stopping by my dad's for a couple hours! He had surgery yesterday and so me, Paula and dad laid on their bed playing candy crush and talked.  I had a really good time!!  And joy Jones brought over dinner! I was so glad someone is helping take care of my dad and Paula

Brigham city sunsets!

I woke up with Brad joking around about auto correct and selfies with Obama.  I love mornings when we lay in bed, in no hurry to get up, laughing about random inside jokes.

Hyrum went to a birthday party!

I went to a doctor today for my back.  It went good.  It was a doctor I have known for a long long time.  I trust him.  He recommended physical therapy, which feels like it is my best choice.

Paul lost his first tooth today!

Singing love is an open door with Hyrum!

Bryan's big grin!

Jared hugging me tight! And that he was randomly kissing my toes. Sweet boy!

Things that made me happy today!

I am going to try and blog a picture everyday or every couple of days about what makes me happy! 

This is our beautiful view from our apartment.  Grandma Baxter told me it looks like a third world country.  She's right and when ever I look at it it can be a little depressing.  So today we went to the dollar store and got some sidewalk chalk to make it happy! The boys had a blast!

I took the boys to a park today! I could only sit on the bench, but the boys climbed trees and practiced drop kicking a ball.  Jared meandered in all the grass. It was a happy moment in time!

Brad gave me a great back rub tonight! He and the boys are all enjoying match madness.

My visiting teachers are awesome! They were so kind to come today and let me complain.

Hyrum made us pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

- - -stitches- - -

Saturday night, right after family scripture study, the boys were a little rowdy. I few bags of groceries were still out, waiting to be put away.  Hyrum was laying on the floor and Jared found a can of soup.  He loves to play catch, that boy.  And he threw that can to Hyrum.  Although he was just two feet away, that can sure did some damage to Hyrum's face.  His front teeth sliced right through his lip.  His top gums were cut in many places.  Blood was clotting as it gushed out of his wounds.

We got the blood to slow and really looked at it.  Yep, this was gonna need stitches.  Of course I still called my brother Dave to confirm. At the ER, they stitched him up as I held his hands.  I told Hyrum to squeeze my hands if it hurts.  My boy didn't flinch through the shots,  stitching or all the tugging on his lips.  He was incredibly brave and strong! He got three dissolvable stitches and three blue stitches.  His lip was completely sliced about a half an inch. 

Today Hyrum got them removed! 

Before:

And during:

And after;

 

Once again, Hyrum was brave and strong. He told me afterwards how much it hurt.  That silly kid. .. he wanted to save the stitches and the scab.  So the kind nurse got tape and a tongue depressor and displayed those stitches on it.  

Bryan enjoyed watching it all down.  And telling everyone that he is already a doctor and when he grows up he is going to be a cowboy doctor robot.  And then he let everyone know how shy he is. .. What a nut :)

We'll leave off with that. 

St. Patricks Day

We have had the leprechaun in years past, green pancakes, footprints, the works.  One year we even caught the leprechaus shadow. This year.  I wasn't feeling up to that.  I found the kids green shirts in the laundry baskets and topped out at that.  We have had a lot of medical issues lately. But the guilt and desire to do something set in.  I love holidays! I had found a few ideas and recipes and made the choice to put in that effort and push through the pain for my family.  So I made a nice dinner:

 Yes, disposable dishes are a must right now.

 And I had already made a banner! Ya! I love banners! The kids loved the meal and want it as a tradition! Hyrum did a great job with the shiscabobs. Which I have no idea how to spell...

SPICY SALSA VERDE CHICKEN

PREP TIME

 1 hour

COOK TIME

10 mins

TOTAL TIME

1 hour 10 mins

A bright, refreshing and spicy green salsa recipe served over grilled chicken.

Author: Gina Matsoukas

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

1 cup basil leaves, packed

1 cup cilantro, packed

½ cup parsley, packed

½ jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 small shallot ,chopped

zest of 1 lime

juice of ½ lime

3 tablespoons orange juice (fresh is best)

salt & pepper

1 lb. chicken breasts

extra virgin olive oil for grilling

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine all ingredients except chicken in a blender.Blend until puréed.Combine chicken breasts with half the salsa mixture in a large bowl, toss to coat, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, up to overnight.Heat a stove top grill pan (or outdoor grill if it’s not 8 degrees where you are) over medium heat and grease with extra virgin olive oil.Place chicken breasts on grill pan and cook for about 5-7 minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through. This will depend on how thick your chicken is.Once cooked through, remove from grill pan and spoon remaining salsa over the top of each chicken breast.Serve with a lime wedge and garnish with cilantro.

It was delish! And Brad loved the cilantro!

Happy St Patricks Day!

Sometimes it is just nice to have someone to listen :)

I only have a few minutes.  Life is pretty busy right now.  But it has been a long time since I have just posted about everyday, same-old same-old... in other words just life.  Life isn't perfect right now, but it is full of perfect moments!

• Moments when I wake up to go hit the gym.  Jared, who had somehow found his way into mine and Brad's bed in the middle of the night, reaches for me when I get up.  He, eyes still shut, reaching both hands and leaning for me until he is almost off the pillow.  Then he silently says, "Mama?" and then pats the pillow where I was laying.  It is so sweet and something that always makes me feel so loved!  He also sings, "Basssss.......ket..BALL" over and over and over in the car!  It never gets old!
• I love watching Bryan.  He talks to everyone.  At the grocery store.  At the gym.  On the trail.  On the ice.  Anyone he makes eye contact with, he has something he needs to share with them.  I love how the people here generally aren't too busy to listen to a cute little five year old as he shares his world and perspective with them.  Bryan is also crazy about Legos and I love listening to all his manly sound effects echoing though our apartment.
• Paul is hooked on basketball right now.  He craves going to the gym and counts down the days/hours to when his Pee Wee Basketball starts.  The other day he and his friend Brenner played one-on-one before practice and I was so happy to see him light up and enjoy playing some ball with a friend! Paul also ran a whole mile the other day with me!  I was so proud that he did it, overcoming side aches and all! He impresses me!
• Hyrum, on the other hand, dreads basketball.  He isn't assertive or aggressive and is annoyed at being left out.  But that little smarty pants is always using his brain.  You see, he knows there are half the kids on his team just like him.  The kids who AREN'T the ball hog, who feel left out, who just want to go home.  Hyrum was a team captain and picked all those kids to be on his team for some scrimmage.   Which was easy, the other team captain wanted all the "good" aka "ball hogs" on his team.  SMART.  All the ball hogs on one team, and the mild, well mannered boys on another.  Hyrum said the ball hogs were all fighting over the ball between themselves the whole time.  While Hyrum's team has the best time and passed the ball around and each got to take shots!  Hyrum also goes running with me.  I love that.  LOVE IT!  He went FOUR miles with me the other day.  Although, I did have to listen to him talk about video games the whole time.  It amazed me how much they mean to him and how complicated they are.  My kids don't get to play a lot of video games, they have a mean mom :). 
• Brad makes me happy every time he looks me in the eye with a smile and pulls me in for a hug.  I sure love him and love that he loves me.  He tells me every morning how beautiful I am.  As do the rest of my boys.  Brad also just got diagnosed with diabetes.  He's got is real bad.  We are working together to eat more healthy and give him the time he needs to be at the gym.  He is so motivated to lose the extra pounds and hopefully get his health back.  I am so happy that he is working so hard and is so dedicated!  It scares the heck out of him, I think, to have hunting taken away from him :) His goal right now is to lose 20-40lbs in 6 months and see where we are at from there!  And btw...  This scares the heck out of me too...

Life is too good to be true at times when I look at those sweet, perfect moments and notice all the love, joy and craziness around me, I realize how truly blessed I am.