Thinking about this...

...

I can't seem to get this picture out of my mind.

The caption reads:

Fabiola Beauvil holds her 4-day-old daughter, Klaira Eliska, at the LDS Central Ward chapel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday. Beauvil went into labor during last week's quake.


It is from the Deseret News and you can see it and other pictures here along with an article about the Church's relief efforts in Haiti.

As a mother of new babies myself, this picture just really did something to me. I cannot begin to imagine birthing a baby in those type of conditions and chaos and then wondering how you will obtain all of the essentials you will need to care for them (and yourself). How to stay clean, how to sleep without fear of further harm. The stress and worry is unimaginable. Or wondering if your children, spouse, and other family members who you were separated from in the aftermath are still alive and if you will be able to find them.

While visiting with friends this morning we discussed the horrible damage from the earthquake and after shocks and the deaths on such a large scale. We talked about how scary it would be to have to experience something like this. They are reporting around 150,000 deaths at this time. Sometimes we can become numb to the numbers we hear over and over, but to put that in perspective, according to wikipedia, the population of the Tri-Cities is around 240,000. So that would be like completely wiping out over half of our people. A teenage girl was rescued after being trapped for what is estimated at 15 days despite the announcement from the Haitian government that it was stopping rescue efforts for those trapped under all the debris and rubble. That to me is a real - life - miracle.

Here is part of a statement from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter- day Saints:

"Money is not the only need in Haiti. People are frightened, bewildered, and wholly uncertain about their future. In addition to what people can do in helping with food, water, and shelter, there needs to be a calming influence over that troubled nation. We invite our people everywhere to supplicate God for a spirit of calm and peace among the people as urgent aid and reconstruction efforts continue."

Recipe For a Fun Afternoon

• Take one cute little boy
  

• Add a large bag of lego blocks
  
  
  

• Mix with some vibrant imagination

• Add a dash of adventure and a pinch of spunk

*Combine until the fun begins and repeat until completely worn out!*

10 weeks

Kale

Cooper






Kale

Cooper

*Best Friends*

Monday Morning Ramble

Why is it that the one year Riley and I both get flu shots, (the first since we were kids probably) we have been sicker than ever. Our whole family has been going through an endless cycle of the flu and it finally caught up to the two of us this last week. It has been taking a whole week for the next person to get sick which means it has quite the incubation period and must be some kind of strong bug. For the record, I will just say I HATE - HATE - HATE feeling like I'm going to throw up. I already had to spend the majority of last year being miserable and I just want everyone to be well and feel good, including myself. It brought back horrible memories of my early months of pregnancy and I can't believe that it was possible to feel that horrible day in and day out. Morgan and I got almost this exact same thing back in October, just a few weeks before the babies were born and I felt like I was dying. Riley was so miserable yesterday morning and threw up a ton. I felt so bad for him. Regardless, he managed to make it with me to Kendle's "It's Great to Be Eight" fireside at the church last night since it was so important to her. He looked horrible, but that is a good dad for you. Hopefully we are all done now and these yucky bugs can be banished from our home. I will spend today, once again, cleaning and disinfecting everything I can. I'm so thankful to my mom for coming up and helping me on Friday with the kids. She spent the night and allowed us to get an actual whole nights sleep. I got up around 8:00 in the morning on Saturday and had not even heard a baby cry. She is so good. That was the first real night's sleep I have had in over 9 months and I felt so much better that day because of it.

I have to tell some funny things about Kendle before I forget them. She has such a funny sense of humor and has since she was a little girl. Her primary teacher was telling me last night at the fireside about something that happened in their class. A few Sundays ago, they were talking in their lesson about their spirits and how they looked like their bodies. They were passing around a mirror for each of the children to look at themselves in and when it got to Kendle she said "Great - so I'm going to be stuck with these teeth?" Her teeth are kind of at what we call "the hill billy teeth stage". She's getting very self conscious about the way they look. Anyways, they thought that was funny and I could totally picture her saying it. She's also been writing these really great little stories lately. I don't know how she thinks up all of her ideas but they are really cute. She wrote one last week about a whale with polka dots that had us laughing. I'll have to post some more of them on here in the next few days if I can remember. I can't believe she will be 8 this year. After the fireside last night she is so excited to get baptized and go to Activity Days. I'm so thankful for what good primary leaders and teachers she has.

Morgan is still doing great with the potty training and having hardly any accidents. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but we just keep encouraging him and keeping him excited about it. He gets to go to pre-school in the fall, so I've been using that as an incentive by telling him that to go to school he has to go potty like a big boy. He is so excited to go to school, so I think that has really helped. Sometimes it can be quite the adventure when I am stuck feeding or putting a baby to sleep and can't get up to help him and I can hear him in the bathroom not knowing what he's doing, but so far we've only had a few mishaps. He has loved playing with his big Lego block set my mom and dad got him for Christmas. He will spend hours building towers and garages for his cars. The other day he went through them and told me all their colors. I was very impressed. He has such a good imagination and will talk to himself and play so well. He is very curious and always asking me how things work. If a toy needs a new battery, he knows where to find them and will also bring me the right kind of screw driver to fix it. I like that during the day, he will still come sit and rock with me when we have a quiet moment together. He is my little buddy.

The twins had their 2 month checkup last week and we were excited to see how much they have grown. They are the exact same length if you can believe it - 23 1/2 inches long. Also, Cooper weighed in at 12.9 and Kale at 12.5, so they are almost the EXACT same size. I think that is amazing. The doctor couldn't believe it either. So that's about 3 or so inches and 5 or so pounds in the last two months that they've grown. Wow! Guess all that food they chug down has been good for something after all. They also had to get their vaccinations - 3 shots and one orally. I hate seeing those needles sink into their soft chubby little legs. It never gets any better no matter how many kids you have. Cooper's little leg was bleeding so much it got on his little outfit he was wearing. I think he handles that stuff a little better than Kale though. Kale just wails and has this horrible high pitched kitten mewing sound. It is the saddest thing ever. I've never heard a baby cry that like before, he is Mr. Sensitive. I can't believe they are 10 weeks old today!