Here and there, this and that.

Until life settles a little it's going to just be more of this's and that's and not much in between.

A few weeks ago the Millers joined us for a short weekend so we could take in a ballgame together.

I had to include multiple pictures because with a group this size, there is no way to get it right in just one shot.

So I truly apologize to Laurie who seems to be mid-sentence in the next picture, if it means actually seeing the faces of others.  Also try to ignore the fact that it look like Haley is trying to grab Emma's crotch.  I'm fairly sure she wasn't.

We love these people so.

We have known each other for so long, and spent so much time together that I hardly know where one family begins and the other ends.  We mesh well.  And we sure have fun.  In fact, Hazel cannot comprehend that we are not related to them.  So she will call Mark her cousin until the end of time.  And that is OK with us.

We were a massive group maneuvering the crowded metro and stadium but it was totally worth it - we didn't even lose one child, all day.  Go us.

I will miss the big headed President mascots at the Nats games.

 Let me tell you how a day at the ballgame goes with 10 children.  It takes you a very long time to get there...on metro, off metro, on another metro, off another metro, get separated by crowds and take separate metros, all arrive in one place, get everyone in the stadium and to their seats, listen to the pleas of starving children for the next three hours, repeat first 6 steps.

Every time we do something like this the adults turn to each other and say, "next time sans kids, eh?" but we wouldn't really because we love them all so much. (OK, maybe we would, every once in a while.)

PS This mother of five just ran her first marathon.  She kinda rocks.

 I LOVE baseball games.

In fact, Clark and I might even become season tickets kind of people someday.

Mia must still be absolutely starving to death in this picture...or maybe she suspects that we are about to make her walk 100 miles to a different metro to avoid the crowds.

We also went with the Millers to see the Cherry Blossoms again.  Sometimes I whisper sweet nothings in Clark's ear.  We are assuming that Hazel is the little devil on his other shoulder.

(This was taken moments before Ben tried to blind his mother by throwing a frisbee at full speed into her open eye.  Good times.  Good times.)

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It is getting more and more difficult to take Jonah's monthly pictures.  

Too mobile.  

Too grabby.  

Too quick.  

Still cute.

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This week has set the ball rolling with the emotional roller coaster.  

Clark has left his Navy office for the last time.  

He has worn his uniform for the last time.

We went to the Pentagon, one last time.

We picked the kids up from school and headed down to all be there for his awards ceremony.  We actually got to go past the reception desk! I'm pretty sure the receptionist had to be on medication because having non-clearance people in the office gives her a coniption.  But we all squeezed in the conference room with everyone else, listened to a few jokes about being able to fit Clark's enormous family in one room, and listened to them praise Clark for a job well done.

That is my favorite part.

Clark is awesome.

He works hard.

He is really, really good at what he does.

And that is pretty much anything.

My favorite part about the whole thing was this:  he was sharing the ceremony with another man that is moving on to another assignment.  The other man is staying in the Navy and moving to his next sea duty.  I am tremendously grateful, for many reasons, that there are plenty willing and prepared to do so.  But it was not the right decision for us.  There was mention, more than once about the fact that Clark was choosing to leave the Navy and not continue his military service.  I love that the very reason he was leaving was super obvious and couldn't be missed.  Let me count them for you.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

  Another reason that I love this man.

I also love that they let Mia pin on his medal, and presented Haley and Abby with his flag flown over the Pentagon.

Couldn't leave with one last shot at the podium.  Especially since he was wearing argyle and looking more than a little cross-eyed.

 This is the only picture that we have ever taken outside the Pentagon-in the only location you are allowed to - in the memorial.  We thought it was well worth the walk all the way to the other side.  It is truly a beautiful memorial.

 It shouldn't go unnoticed that one of Clark's closest friends came to his ceremony too (and introduced himself as our au pair.)  He came representing all his friends that would have been there in a heartbeat if Clark had not been so modest about his special recognition - and the fact that they were all off saving the world in their super interesting jobs...Doug put the world saving on hold during his lunch hour.

The Navy has been a part of life from the very beginning.  There are many things that I will miss about being a part of it.  Just like anything, we have been grateful for the experience and grateful for the blessings of contacts and acquaintances that it has brought into our lives.

There will always be "that time that Clark was in the Navy".

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 I also like to be reminded on occasion, several times a day, how much I adore my children and their unique and entertaining personalities.  This was Hazel's reaction upon finding out that she was all up to date on her immunizations and did not, indeed, need a gazillion shots to start kindergarten in the fall.

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 And now it's time to write about the things that will make me weep as we pull away from our home in  Northern Virginia.  In fact,  I will wager that there will be tears even as I try to write about the fun afternoon with our favorite people.

These are good people.

 Dan hooked us up with another sweet tour of the capital.  This time it included lunch in the fancy schmancy restaurant where we dined on Senate Bean Soup and their famous Bread Pudding while in the company of a celebrity or two (OK just one, and it was John Kerry...but he is someone, right?)

 That's me eating the soup, in case you couldn't tell.  It's pretty famous soup, so I hear.

The memory making isn't over yet.  Our plan is to spend so much time with the people we love, and doing everything we can possibly think of, that we will be worn out, exhausted and ready to  move on.

That will totally work, won't it?  Tell me it will work.

And tune in for a future installment where the emotional roller coaster continues as I travel to Houston to check in on our "future residence".  When Clark picked me back up from the airport (from my short 20 hour trip) I cried because I didn't even understand all the stuff I was feeling.

Nothing a few dark chocolate pomegranates can't calm.

Forever Moments

When nearing a big life transition, I always finding myself concentrating extra hard on making each moment count, on creating and storing those forever moments that I wish I could remember, detail for detail.  I wish that I had time each night to sit and write a short novel on the day so that there wasn't a chance that I would forget anything.  I recently listened to a woman reading an essay that she had written on these kinds of moments.  She calls it "The Gift of an Ordinary Day" (by Katrina Kenison).  I had aspirations of sitting and penning my own essay on the gift of ordinary days, and hopefully I still will, sometime soon.
But for now I will have to do my best to make mention of them where I can so that I will never forget the weight of my baby on my lap while I nuzzle the fuzz on his head, sitting in the rocker before putting him to bed.
Watching my girls hop down the stairs of the bus before they run at me full speed.
Picking up My Little Ponies, legos, little shirts and leggings and colored pencils up off the floor.
Or their desire to curl up in our laps anytime of the day that they see it empty.
I hope that I will continue to find the gift in these ordinary days, especially as they get older and we get a little farther from those days of them coiled up on my lap.  I just hope that by savoring them now, I won't be sad that they are gone someday because I will have enjoyed it and been grateful for it while it lasted.

We go from September to March with no birthdays so when April 5th rolls around we are ready to party.  This felt like a big birthday for me because Hazel turned 5.  Five is a big benchmark in our family because to me, it's when it feels like they are not my little baby anymore.  She will start school this fall and I won't have her at home, following me from room to room, accompanying me to the grocery store, or taking the occasional nap in the afternoon on the nap couch.  In fact, Hazel has been going through a bit of separation anxiety for the last several months.  Since January she has been clinging to us and crying every Sunday before primary and every Tuesday when I drop her at preschool.  For the first couple of hours on her birthday she was very sullen and melancholy.  I finally got out of her that she was scared that since she was 5, now she had to go to kindergarten.  I explained that she still had several more months before that happened and she perked right up.  I know she will absolutely love it, I just hope we can warm her up to the idea before this fall.
This kid is easy to please.

And she is spoiled.  Clark and I finally realized that we really only had to find her one or two gifts ourselves because she would be showered in gifts from other generous souls (mainly Grandmas and sweet friends and primary teachers.)

Don't be confused...she did not turn 55.  Just 5.

I am not a huge birthday cake maker...I will make one, but it is most definitely not my specialty (I have to leave some room for improvement, don't I?)  So I was rather pleased when Hazel insisted on popsicles for her birthday dessert.  No problem.  I can do that.

We had a lovely little idea for a birthday party that fell through in the end because something else came up so we came up with an alternate plan.
Decorate the car, pick up her friends, take them to ice cream.
Done.

She has the sweetest little friends ever.  I wasn't even worried about taking six 5 year old out by myself because they are all so sweet and adorable, even after filling them with ice cream and candy.  I think she is the last of this group to turn 5, and most of them are already in kindergarten.  Maybe I should have prompted a little support group/discussion about the magic of school.

This week was also an opportunity for us to scratch another thing off of our DC Bucket List.  See the Cherry Blossoms one last time.  We were able to go downtown the day before they peaked.  I wish we could have gone the next day too because it is unbelievable how much they fill out from one day to the next, but our evening was perfect just the same.

I love pictures of my kids looking small among something immense.  It makes my heart swell.

The weather was perfect, perfect I tell you! We picked Clark up on our way and were down at the tidal basin in time for a little more sunshine, a picnic and a sunset.  This is one of those experiences that I wish I could store somewhere tangible.  There is nothing else I love more in life, than being outside somewhere scenic, in beautiful weather, with my family.  Walking along that path with them playing in and out of the trees was heaven.

I  can't help but point out that there was something unsettling about Hazel's hair all day...and then I realized it's because every time I looked at her I was picturing a velociraptor.  I guess not all hairstyles suite everyone.

They played and frolicked and ran.

It took us forever to get around the water because there were photo ops everywhere we turned...most photo ops with kids don't materialize quite like they look in your head...but it's always worth a shot, eh?

 I couldn't get a good picture because it was getting dark and we were walking but I enjoyed walking behind Clark and watching Jonah grab at the flowers.  This boy loves to be outside.  He kept staring up at the blossoms the whole way around.

And these just had to be included because
1) Jonah is getting big.

2) Someday soon we will talk about Clark being in the Navy in past terms, and that will be nostalgic, a little sad, and strange.

I also had to quickly document Easter Sunday because Haley, who loves and appreciates fashion, dressed the family.  She came up with a color scheme and helped me execute.  It is fun that she is getting older and interacting with her is changing into a very different dynamic than I am used to with all these littles.

And then something else happened.  Something really big.  We had been tipped off that Mo was receiving a calling during General Conference.  But until the Saturday afternoon session we were not aware that it was the General Young Women's President.  Even though I knew it was coming, I could not have been prepared for the overwhelming feeling of gratitude and amazement that she is my mother.  What an experience.  I was overcome by the emotion that she will be serving in this position as my oldest (and second oldest) enter the Young Women's program.  I was shocked by the calling, but not surprised one bit.  She will be amazing.  We made sure that all the girls were watching and listening attentively as they called her name, and we watched as the masses in the conference center, and hundreds of thousands more in their homes, raised their hands to sustain her and her counselors.

 Just look at them.  How can you not love them already?!

It will be an amazing few years.  I cannot wait to hear them speak and teach.  I have sat in on many many many lessons taught by my Mom over the years.  I have heard seminary lessons, Sunday School lessons, and Gospel Doctrine lessons.  She is the best teacher I have ever had.  I will never forget that the year that I truly solidified the foundation of my testimony of the gospel and of my Savior Jesus Christ, was my freshmen year of early morning seminary when we were studying the New Testament.  You'll never guess who my teacher was.  OK, maybe you can.  It was Mo.
I don't know that I have ever witnessed more preparation than what Mo puts into a lesson.  She takes the material to be taught and learns 10 times that. She spent hours, hours! a day up in her office preparing for the next day.
She is inspired.
She is receptive.
She is an example of dedication, and loving support, diligence and endurance.
She has moved, and adapted, and lifted, and changed and helped and molded and cared for 7 children and beyond as we now are doing our best to nurture our own families.  We call her for advice, and guidance and counsel though we have to be prepared when we call her to hear "well, I don't really remember all that.  It was just good."  She continues to inspire and validate and spoil.
The Young Women's program is absolutely fitting for her.  She always tells us that those years of raising us as teenagers were her favorite.  I am just touched and honored to continue to learn at her feet and hear the wise counsel and love from her and Sisters McConckie and Marriott.  When we move in June, I am fully prepared to meet with the Bishop of our new ward and beg shamelessly to serve in Young Women's.  I feel like I was just finding my groove here in our ward and I am not ready to leave these amazing young ladies.

It has also been wild and fun to see the attention that Mo is getting.  MY Mo.  She has a wikipedia page! And we are having fun watching her Pinterest following double, and triple, and quadruple.  We get to share her with the youth of the world for a while, and I am happy to do so.