Ahhh the Days of Summer

It seems as if school just ended and here we are already a couple of weeks back into it. My goal this year was to post on my blog once a month. Well, I did pretty well till April, then life seemed to go a little crazy. Who knew that teenagers were going to be soooooo much fun and work!!!! So here is the Bott fam top 10.



#1 Ward marries Darnelle Earl. On May 28th Ward remarried. It has been such a great blessing to our entire family. The girls are so happy and I love hearing them call her mom. They now have 7 children and are selling and building a house. We had the privilege of watching the girls during the honeymoon. Em taught them all about "selfies"
#2 Girls Camp, basketball camp, Summer Fun!Well, that took our first 3 weeks of Summer! Summer fun is the girls entrepreneurial adventure where we had up to 30 kids ages 3-8 at our house for two hours of creative fun. This is a picture of what me and the kids did during girls camp-Overnighter in Rexburg with Daddy. Check out that lipstick job!














#3 Every time we sing Latter Day Prophets when we reach David O. McKay, Anna says "Hay, We went to his house!" That we did as we spent family and cousin time in Eden at a really fun cabin.


#4 Emily passes her AP test!!! After a year of hard sweat tears Em gets the long awaited letter that says she PASSED! Now all of a sudden the class has become her favorite all time class.

#5 Delta puts Jake (now 2) in a seat all by himself on our way to Orlando, Florida. I say why don't we try that, it would be a calmer flight for me. In the end Delta (who wouldn't change it until we were at the desk even though we tried 4 or 5 times)moved all of us together. We had the same problem on the way back except that Alan and I got upgraded to 1st class, my parents had a great flight while Alan and I sat with two little cuties by the back bathroom. Anna fell asleep as we landed in SLC. I will leave it up to you to imagine that plane ride. But I felt like I should give the stewardess a HUGE tip before leaving because it was such a mess. Em and Ruth gladly sat by themselves far towards the front of the plane.

#6 Orlando- we visited Orlando in 2004 for our Make a Wish trip.Even though the temperatures were in the upper 90's with 90-100% humidity and I have never sweat like that before, this trip was so different and wonderful compared to that difficult trip back in April of '04. My parents came with us which made it possible to do so much more. Mickey and Minnie came alive to our whole family and I must say it was "A Dream Come True" and a "Magical Adventure".








Well, too tired to write anymore so the end will have to come later, lets just hope it is before Christmas! Love Ya All Mary

Mary's Lullaby

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This time of year I always find myself reflecting back to when our sweet Sarah was sick. It usually begins a little before the April LDS General Conference and lasts till her special May 1st day. I find myself reliving bits and pieces of the difficult decisions that we made and the memories that we tried desperately to create.
I feel so blessed to have experienced every aspect of her life. Someone once asked me if knowing what I know now about how things would end with Sarah would I make the same decisions regarding her treatment again or would I not do any treatment. My answer is YES!I would choose treatment again. We were able to enjoy 3 1/2 wonderful years with her. As you can see in the video even though we had difficult times, there were many happy times and those memories outweigh the bad times.
When I hear Mary's Lullaby I am automatically drawn back into a time when I held the sweetest angel and rocked her day and night while singing her primary songs and of course "her song". The words speak my heart. Sarah now "feels the warmth on [her] cheeks from the Son," always. Someday I hope to feel that warmth with her. But for now we carry on and feel the JOY of life today!

(The words and music to Mary's Lullaby were written by our dear friend Shauna Snell)

A Day With Anna

I know the picture is a little blurry,but they were moving targets! Anna is our inquisitive, ingenious, always busy, Houdini. By 18 months she could pick any lock, climb any height, and open any childproof bottle. However, she happily smiles as she inquisitively discovers new things. This week she covered Jake in baby powder while playing the "baby powder game." While I was talking on the phone with a friend and building a train for Jake, Anna walked  up behind me and dumped a glass of water over my head. My friend was talking and I couldn't interupt her at that moment so I grabbed a blanket and started to wipe up the dripping mess. Quietly, Anna sneaked behind me again and poured another glass of water over my head, while I was saying "uh huh" to my friend on the phone. Sopping wet I gave her the glare that all mom's know so well. She laughed at me while I was trying to grab her, but she was off and running knowing she had gotten away with it because I was on the phone. When my friend was finished I said good bye. Found Anna. Put her into the bathtub. She was kicking and screaming that she did not want to take a bath! I told her not to worry she wasn't going to. I proceeded to dump a glass of water over her head. She was screaming by this point. I asked if she liked it? She obviously said no! I told her I didn't like it either. I handed her a towel and walked off, keeping my cool, but smuggly snickering inside!

The list with Anna could go on and on. There is not a day that goes by that we don't have a major mess. Spilled hot chocolate all over the kitchen because she disobeyed, lipstick all over her sleeping sisters face, marker allover her friends face because she was putting make up on her, mascara worn to church (she did a good job of putting that on!) water messes in her bedroom, making her own oatmeal, cooking on her own, coloring over Sarah's picture and frame. Best of all though was when Emilyhad friends over friday night andI had put Anna to bed, she opened her window and yelled out at a boy "Cooper, you can't be here Emily doesn't like you anymore!" Well, that was all this week! So where was the mama during all this? Usually changing a batch of laundry, folding laundry, or vacuuming up the mess made right before! 

Oh how WE LOVE OUR ANNA JOY!!! Because even with all of these acts she joyfully loves everyone and every aspect of life.

Jake playing Ref

Jake playing football coach. The thing in his mouth is his microphone

Uggg Science Fair

Emily worked on her science fair for months. It was not a pleasant experience for any of us. Because she decided to take honors Geography it lumped her into honors Science as well, not her favorite subject even though it is mine. Painfully we helped her figure things out. Ruth was a kind sister and posed as one of her model science fair participants.

This is a picture of Emily's waxed eyebrows. I know it looks like a lot of hair coming off, but believe it or not she takes that off weekly! The little hairy monkey! This is the kind of science she loves! You take bad pics with my camera and you will be exposed!

Jake the Great!

We have late church right now which means we can squeeze in the morning newspaper before church. Jake LOVES reading the sports page. He totes it around the house (and even takes it with him to church to read with his nursery leader, Brad). All of us seem to know what the game of the night was because Jake points to the pics and tells us "baa-ball", "bae-ball", "foo-ball" then with his big bright eyes dancing with delight at his new picture discoveries he says "bat". I am still working on teaching him "golf"! At Christmas Ruth got a set of clubs and Jake was all over those. My walls have a few dings from him trying out her clubs!

Jake in his favorite attire, Emily's basket ball shoes! He likes wearing her school uniform as well.

His favorite sport, teasing his sister "Aaa"

Computer Trouble

Well,Jakedecidedtoflickoffmyspacebarbuttonalongwithsomeotherkeysonthelaptop.Itmakesitquitedifficulttotype.ButIamworkingonjerryriggingitsosoonyouwillbeabletoreadmyposts!

Life is always interesting at the Bott house! If you didn't get our Christmas Card here it is! I think that about sums up our year!

TOUCH!

Sometimes I feel like I have let technology run away from me. By the time I get all my daily jobs done I rarely have much time left in my day to catch up on technology. Well, it has definitely been one of those moments lately. We were riding home in the car and I was manning the ipod touch. How difficult could it be to touch the screen and have it manuever to where I want it. Screams kept coming from the back of the car like "mom let me have it you're taking too long!"; "mom, that's the wrong song,"; "we didn't want dad's podcast we wanted Taylor Swift!"

Where was Anna when I needed her! I guess I need ipod lessons from the three year old! She can touch and move like no one I've seen. Her little thumbs can really dance! I can't imagine speedy gonzalas when she ventures into texting!

What a good Daddy

The other day I was getting ready for the day when Anna walked in with her doll all wrapped up in a blanket. She is such a good mommy. She was showing her baby to me when Jake walked in behind her with a blanket as well. He had his football all wrapped up like a baby. He was so proud of himself! He was showing me his "baby." It was all I could do to not laugh.

This week Jake has been very sick. We are waiting for some tests to come back to find out if he has some serious infection, we probably won't know till Wednesday. We are hoping it isn't anything to worry about. Saturday morning Alan had taken Emily and Ruth to early morning basketball. They were so noisy while getting ready that they woke Jake up about 7am. I tried to console him as they were walking out the door. Finally I thought I'd try to watch something while he cried. I turned the TV on and of course it was on the Mountain channel. Immediately he stopped crying and tuned right into the football game that was blaring. "Ba-Ball" was all he could say. He settled into my lap quietly and I began watching TCU play SMU back in 2008. I must say I wasn't that interested! But he was. We sat there for a good half an hour till I decided that I had had enough of watching two teams that I didn't even know what the letters stood for. My question is this, how does he know about football!?! I hope he doesn't plan on playing the game! He is definitely getting golf clubs for Christmas!!!

Jake shaves his head

Last weekend Alan came home from Korea. He had been up for over 24 hours and was feeling the effects of jet lag. He had just showered and set his razor down. When I walked into the bathroom I saw Jake with something gray in his hand rubbing it back and forth along his head.My first thought was that he had a comb and was trying to comb his own hair, ohh how cute! Until I realized it was Alan's razor that he was rubbing back and forth. He was left with this cute little bald spot! Better him than Anna right!

Baby Bumble Bees and Footballs

Anna has been learning so much during nursery. She has a great leader, Sis, Christiansen, who teaches her all sorts of songs. I usually spend the week trying to figure out what song she is trying to sing. However, last week I understood the words to "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee, won't my mommy be so proud of me. I squishing up a baby bumble bee..." We sang the song together a couple of times. On Friday I was getting ready for the day after the kids were home from school when I heard a very loud shriek from the family room. It was Emily and so I ignored it because she usually over dramatizes everything. The screaming continued so I walked out to see what was going on. There Anna stood holding a wasp by its wings bringing it into me. She stood so proud and couldn't figure out why Emily was freaking out! I sometimes wonder who thinks up the songs that we sing to our children.

Jake came programmed to love sports. He carries a ball, bat, tennis racket, etc. around with him everywhere. We cannot get him to sit and watch Clifford or the Berenstain Bears, but when ESPN plays football, golf or tennis (women's included) he will stop what he is doing and zone in to the TV. He climbed up on my brother's lap and sat for 20 minutes just watching a football game with him. THIS IS CRAZY!!! I am definitely learning that boys and girls come very differently.