From small to little

I was looking at some old, old blog posts and came upon this one:

This morning I laid in bed nursing Grace. When she was finished she turned over and started cooing to the air. I realized that the past few days Grace has been more vocal. Cooing to who ever will listen to her. As I sat and listened to her melodic voice a thought crept into my mind, "this baby will lose and find her voice several time throughout her life." She will lose it in the loudness of 6 children, and hopefully find it again in a quiet conversation with Mom or Dad. She will lose her voice in High School to friends filling it with wild and crazy voices. Then find it again when she makes a stand for something she believes in, something that her Dad and I taught her. I will lose her voice when she goes off to college and find it again only once in a while when she calls or visits. She most likely will lose it when she is married. Lost in the world of wifehood and motherhood. Hopefully finding her voice once again with the help of friends and the gospel. It wont be the same voice. It will be strong with experience, knowledge and love. Like all things lost and found again, she will cherish her new voice and work to keep it strong and changing.

Grace was 5 months old when I wrote this.  She hasn't had a hard time at all finding her voice among 6 children.  Grace is loud, boisterous, and will share her opinion with anyone who is listening.  Quite often I will hear her actually screaming at one of her siblings, letting them know she is unhappy with her circumstance.  Grace is very articulate.  She knows what she wants,  when she wants it, and you know exactly what it is.  In the quite moments we have during the day together, she will crawl onto my lap and tell me she loves me.  Often she'll wrap her little arm and hand around my neck in an effort to get closer.

Next year Grace will begin pre-school.  I am trying desperately not to push her out the door.  I am trying to slow things down a bit and enjoy my time with my sweet baby girl.  It's hard. When my children were small the days just seemed to drag on for ever.  Now, I wonder where all the time has gone.  I'm trying to remember how gentle and small her hands feel in mine when walk from the car into the grocery store.  I'm trying to hold her when she asks me too.  All too soon those requests will die away.  The small and simple things really do matter most.

Thanks Aunt Jessica!

This week my sweet sister, Jessica, sent a package in the mail. In it was this super cute dress for Grace and a fun toy for Beckham. I didn't think the dress would quite fit Grace, but actually it fits her perfectly and she decided to wear it on Sunday.  I had to take photos so Aunt Jessica could see how fantastic Grace looks in her new dress.  Thanks Jessica, you are the BEST!!!  You always manage to help keep my kids looking fashionable!

Isabel told Grace to open her eyes while she smiled, this is the result of that.  

Grace's eyes get squinty when she smiles, another attribute she inherited from me.

House of Rock

One memory I hope to hear my children talk about when they get older are the nights that Dad would listen to his new uploaded music. On nights like that the music would get turned up loud and the kids would jam and dance till Mom's nerves couldn't take it anymore.  Did I mention that Dad would start this little ritual just as the bedtime routine would begin.  Ya, not always the best time to start jamming.  Depending upon my mood, and how done I was being a Mom for the day,  the session varied from long to super short.  


This particular session happened downstairs.  I think they were listening to an Adele song.  I love the microphones made out of playdough.  And I especially love how into the song Brent gets.  That man cracks me up.  One of the many reasons I married him.

Just FYI, Grace more often then not, looks like a Ragamuffin.  On the days that I do her hair, which is about 80% of the time, she ends up taking it out halfway through the day.  Making it look like she has a mother who could care less what she looks like.  Which is never the case.  Sometimes I feel like chopping off her long locks, but when she does keep her hair in it looks so stinking cute I end up push those feelings back down to my toes.  Until the next day when she pulls out my peices of artwork, or she plays so hard that it just simply falls out.  Which contributes a lot to her raggy look.  It will be a miracle if she and I make it to her first day of kindergarten.

I am in love with...

Sherlock Holmes







Downton Abby, you are lovely





But Sherlock is Brilliant 

Brainy is definately the new sexy
Shoot, did I just say that outloud?


If you haven't taken the time to check out the new Sherlock Holmes on PBS,  Don't delay, run to pbs.org and watch an episode. It will blow your socks off!!

 Laters!!(said in a smart british accent)

Legit vs. Legitimate

The other day while driving Jaren to his baseball practice, we both noticed that they are remodeling the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds.  The stadium is becoming quite impressive.

Jaren upon seeing this commented, "That is legitimate." 

I was like, What?  Legitimate.  You mean Legit, right? 

Jaren:  No, that is totally lame to say it that way

Me:  No way dude, legit is so much more cool to say then legitimate.  Like MC Hammer "too legit, too legit to quit."

Jaren:  Ya, that's MC Hammer

At what point as a mother did I become so uncool.  And just for the record, what is more cool to say these days?  Legit or Legitimate? 

I know there are many things I could never in a million years get away with saying.  Like "That's Sick."  I know, now, that is the new way to say, "That's so cool."  I would just look like a complete retard if I even attempted to say such a hip phrase.

Raising teens is no easy task, that's the plain truth.  Jaren raised his voice at me this morning for getting on him about being rough with his sister who apparently thought he was done with computer but whoops, I guess he wasn't.  It took me off guard since he's never raised his voice at me like that before.  I'm use to loud voices with Hannah and Isable, but not Jaren.

Jaren's new phrase these days is, "I'm so done with this."  Or "I'm so done with Hannah(insert any name of one of his siblings)".   I thought I had to learn a lot about patience when my children were toddlers.  But I have to practice that even more as they get older.  It's so much more important for me to keep a level head while stumbling through the ups and downs of everyday life with a teenager. 

On the flip side, Jaren is a lot of fun to hang out with.  He's got a great sense of humor and I can usually pull him out of a fowl mood by being the silly goofy Mom.  He bore his testimony in Sacrament meeting on Sunday and it was a moment that I will cherish for a long time.  He spoke of the Faith Walk that the youth had a couple of weeks ago.  As he came around the corner a leader said, "Whose this?  Oh a Wood boy."  He said he thought of something I tell him as he leaves to go hang out with his friends which is, "remember who you are and what you stand for."  He then remembered who he was, and that was a child of God, and a priesthood holder.  He said a few more things and got a little emotional but held it together.  I love Jaren.  He is such a great kid and a good example to his siblings.  I know it's hard to be the oldest and always having to set the example.  I know, I was the oldest too. 

Jaren with his two favorite things:

Ipod and Roman

They just keep growing and getting older!

On March 3rd Beckham Patrick was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I asked him if being baptized was something he wanted to do. He answered with a quick "Yes!".  The women in our family participated in the program.  I gave a talk on Baptism, Grandma Penny said a prayer, and Grandma Donna lead the Music.  Both Grandpa Rick and Papa Woody were witnesses.  I love that so many people took part in this special day for Beckham.  I actually had Beckham call each person and ask them to do their respective parts.  It actually was really sweet to listen to him on the phone. The only thing Beckham was nervous about was getting dunked in the water.  I think a lot of kids fear that part of being baptized.

Brent couldn't believe he was baptizing our 5th.

Just one more to go.

All the men that participated.

Deric Weiss, Rick Weiss, Brent Patrick, Mike Wood, Cory Wood, Sean Wood

4 Generation photo.

Beckham with his Dad, Grandpa, and Great Grandma Pat.

Beckham with Grandma Donna and Papa Woody

Beckham with Grandpa Rick and Grandma Penny

I really enjoyed preparing my talk for Beckham's baptism.  It was a great reminder for me of the covenants that I made when I was 8 years old.  Now that I am older those promises that I made are so much more clear.  I was reminded that I promised to act in the name of Christ.  I told Beckham that meant he should act as though Christ were standing at his shoulder.  In remembering this I hope Beckham will be kind to his peers at school, help a sad friend be happy again, and be a friend to those that don't have many.  I encouraged Beckham to get to know Jesus by studying the scriptures.  The more we get to know Him, the more we will want to become like him.  

I am so grateful for ordinance of  baptism.  I have been to many and each one has a very special spirit, I can't help but shed a few tears at each one.  I am grateful that Beckham made the conscious decision to become a member of the church.  I am proud of him and the young man that he is turning into.  He is super sweet and kind all the time.  He gets along with EVERYONE in our home.  I remember when he was just crawling.  Annika was upset about something and went to pout at the bottom of the stairs.  Beckham crawls over to her and layed his head in her lap.  At that point I knew he would be a peace maker in our home.  There is something about him that is charming and everyone loves to be around Beckham.