Tilson is 5 months old

Oh my I can't believe how fast time flies. Tilson is growing up so fast. He has been eating rice cereal and oatmeal for a month now and loves it. He just gobbles it down. He is starting to put himself to sleep at night . . . which means it won't be long now before he will join his brothers in their room! He is also grabbing things and playing with toys and is just about rolling all over the place. He is such a good tempered baby. He hardly ever fusses unless there is something wrong. Well he has been fussing a little bit this last week, and what did he get just in time for his 5 month old birthday . . . his first tooth! Love this little guy. We all do. I was doing the dishes the other day and Ada was in the living room talking to Tilson who was playing on the ground. I went to check on them because Tilson was sort of grunting, and I found Ada with her arm around Tilson fast asleep. Tilson was just lying there happy but grunting a little bit under the weight of her arm. It was pretty cute.

Having a "Mary Moment"

Yesterday we (me, my mom, sister Sue, sister-in-law Jeanine, and brother-in-law Todd) had a garage sale. I pretty much wrote a fabulous ad on KSL which listed it as a Huge, Ginormous 5+family sale. Well, my writing skills must have been incredible because a lot of people showed up!! Okay fine, it probably wasn't my writing skills that drew them in. Anyway, I am not discussing my writing skills or the extent of the ginormousness of our garage sale. No, I wanted to share something else entirely. It was pretty busy there for awhile. My mom was taking all of the money, and I thought I would be a great daughter and go get her some food. I brought her back a big muffin and a cup of milk. She appreciated it, but then things got busy again and she didn't have a chance to eat it. And not only that, but after a few minutes I had a bit of an accident. I was adding up the totals and my mom was writing them down, and I don't know how I managed to do it, but I knocked over the cup of milk and it spilled it all over the paper that my mom was writing on! Oops. We managed to get things cleaned up and survived that mishap. When the garage sale was over I went around and was picking up garbage. I was picking up a bunch of empty soda cans and while doing so managed to accidentally knock over a full soda can. And then for whatever reason I start freaking out, "Oh fart (my cuss word that slips out on occasion)!" I then hurried and picked up the soda can and accidentally knocked it over again . . . and again. "Aah! Somebody help me!" I actually said that. Then suddenly Lamon's brother Todd came over and looked at me and said, "Are you okay?" . . . He looked a little amazed at my inability to pick up a pop can and with my screaming out for assistance."Uh . . . ya." I then said that I was just having a "Mary Moment" It is a coined phrase that I don't even know how to define, but anyone who knows me knows exactly what it means and they too use the phrase frequently. Just the other day Lamon's mom came over and said, "I have to tell you a story. I had a "Mary moment." I've had quite a few people share their "Mary Moment's" with me and I can't lie. I feel a little famous for it. It's nice to know that I am being remembered for something and that the phraseology created due to my own unique talents may just be passed down through the generations.

It's kind of funny, in High School Todd (my now brother-in-law previously mentioned) was voted Most Likely to be a Supreme Court Justice. It's been ten years since we graduated and Todd isn't a Supreme Court Justice quite yet, but he is close to finishing a Doctorate Degree from Stanford. I on the other hand was not put in the year book as being "most likely" to be anything prestigous, but I did make it on a little survey that they did one day in which different students were being voted upon based on certain criteria/attributes. And I made the list. And what was the category they put me in? . . . Most Accident Prone! All day my friends were coming up to me telling me that they voted for me. I felt so honored! :) All I can say is that like Todd. . . I am living up to all expectations of me. They would all be so proud. Here are some links of some previous"Mary Moment's" from this blog.

http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2008/10/im-still-klutz.html

http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2009/11/28x2.html

http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2009/07/hayden-did-you-throw-up.html

http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2009/04/todd-and-bettys.html

http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post.html

http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post.html

http://lamonandmarymack.blogspot.com/2011/04/holy-pants-and-pop-tarts.html

feedthefirefamilies blog & our trip to Moab

We went on a fun trip to Moab and Goblin Valley last week. And if for some reason you would like to hear about our fun adventure, you will have to check out the new blog inspired by our cousin Mandy http://feedthefirefamilies.blogspot.com ! It is a new blog to document ours and others in our extended family's adventures. Mandy is the President of the family "Feed the Fire" club which has been in operation for several years now. So tune in if you would like to see how we are feeding the fire.

Tilson's Baby Blessing

We finally blessed Tilson on June 5th. He was only 4 months old! Our bishop came up to us a couple weeks before and asked us, "Are you guys ever going to bless your baby?" And we decided that we had better do that! We are so on top of things. :) It was a beautiful blessing and afterwords I decided to bear my testimony. I asked Lamon's family behind me if they would watch my kids while I went up to the stand. So while I was up there bearing my testimony I mentioned the boys. I was talking about how the boys have alternated wearing capes for the last couple of years thinking they were super heroes. I told everyone about Super Hayden's powers the 'super run' and 'super strength.' And then I looked at my boys and told them that I wanted them to know that there really is such a thing as super power and it was called the priesthood. I told them that I hoped that someday they would trade in their capes for suits and missionary name tags and use their priesthood power to save souls and bring people to Christ. Anyway, in the midst of my testimony I locked eyes with Ada; and when I did she all of a sudden speaks really loudly to me, "Mom . . . Mom, talk about me!" It was so funny. I actually laughed. It was totally quiet in the room, and everyone could hear her. It was hilarious. After church we had lunch at our house. We ate Barbeque Pork Sandwiches, some salads, and some yummy pretzel jello dessert stuff that was pretty much wicked good. It was a nice day. I love my little Tilson! I am so glad he is part of our family.

Prayers

Prayer time is always a fun time at our house. We usually sing a song first. Whoever is called on to say the prayer gets to pick the song. And almost 9 times out of 10 they will choose "Jesus said Love Everyone" or "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam."Sometimes prayertime at our house is almost comedic. For example, it is somehow near impossible to get all of the kids to kneel at once. As soon as you think they are all ready, one of them flops their head back down on the floor. But we do eventually find a moment we can begin. If Hayden is saying the prayer he waits until he thinks everyone is ready which sometimes takes forever. Sometimes during the prayer a fight among the kids will break out because someone will blurt out, "Close your eyes" to one of the other kids, or Ada will be trying to whisper what to say to one of the older boys when they don't want help. Prayer time can be a crazy. But it can also be a pretty special time. I love to hear what they say in their prayers. Ada loves to ask Heavenly Father to bless each person in the family individually. "Bless me, B-b-b-less Tilson, b-b-b-less Mommy, bless Drew, b-b-bless Hayden, bless Daddy." And a lot of times she is worried she forgot someone so she will repeat it a couple times. Drew usually is the quickest prayer. His usually go something like this, "Heavenly Father, bless us to be good . . . and then end. Or he will subsitute "bless us to be good" with "bless us to have integrity" and then he'll end. We try to stop him before he finishes and make him think about what he is saying. Lately he has been doing a lot better. Hayden is our little deep thinker. The other day he was praying and he said, "We are thankful for our brains . . . so that we can think about the gospel." I thought that was pretty sweet. And then yesterday Hayden was praying and among other things he said, "Bless Drew that he can go on a mission when he is 19 years old, and bless Ada that she can go on a mission when she is 21." Smart boy! They are all so fun. I love watching them grow. And prayer time can definitely be a crazy, but certainly special time!!

Like Father Like Son

I can remember a time in the first year we were married that we were driving in the car and we came to a stop at an intersection. When the light turned green the car in front of us didn't go. There were honks behind us and some voices of frustration and Lamon got a little flustered and mumbled something. I had to admit I was annoyed at the car too. But wait, it only took a second to realize that Lamon wasn't annoyed at the car that was holding everyone up . . . he was frustrated with all of the impatient people around us. He then got out of the car and helped the driver push the car out of the intersection. What a man I had! I was proud. Well, things like that have happened on plenty of occasions. There was a time this last year that there was some really nasty weather. One night there was a dinner planned at Lamon's parents house for all of the adults. The roads were absolutely terrible. It had snowed a ton and it was super icy. Cars were getting stuck all over the place. Well on the way to Mom and Dad Mack's house there was a car that got stuck and Lamon pulled over and got out and helped out. It was so icy that the driver of the car actually slipped and fell multiple times. It was crazy. Well, we ended up being a little late to the dinner. But the coolest thing was that when we arrived and explained our tardiness, it came to light that each one of the Mack boys had actually done the exact same thing. Everyone had stopped and helped a car that was stuck in the snow while driving over to the dinner. I don't know if anyone else there thought much of it, but I was truly touched as I looked at those boys and my inherited Dad! They learned this attitude of rendering aid from their father. Those boys were well taught and now I was blessed to be a part of it. My boys are watching their dad now and will learn by example as well. My father-in-law is such a great man and I love him! Thank you for raising such a wonderful man! Happy Fathers Day to my Dad Mack.

One Sweet Memory

About ten years ago give or take a few months I was lying in a hospital bed in the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Weirdly enough what should have been one of the most miserable experiences of my life . . . actually holds some of my sweetest memories. I had some pains it's true, but I also had so much support from friends, family, and ward members. For the two weeks I was there, I hardly ever was alone. In fact it was kind of nice because I had never had so much "male" attention before . . . ever! All sorts of guys from my singles ward and from school were paying me visits. I was in heaven. Well there was this boy from my work that I thought was pretty cute. His name was Wes. And one night while I was in the hospital he came to pay me a visit. When he came to my room my Dad was in the middle of reading the novel Borne Identity to me. When Wes came in my Dad took a break and let him visit with me. Later after I had recovered and returned to work my boss had me come into her office and began to tell me what an effect that visit had on Wes who had since then left to California. She said that he was so impressed and amazed that my father would actually sit and read a book to me like that. He thought it was the neatest thing ever. And until then I didn't really realize that that isn't something that all Dads would do. But that is my Dad. I am so blessed with memory upon memory of my Dad telling me stories, teaching me gospel principles, playing games, and hiking with me. We would go on hikes up Rock Canyon and he would entertain me by telling me about the current books he was reading. And he could tell me the stories better than the author himself probably could. He was certainly not an absentee father. He has shaped so much of who I am, and I am grateful to him for it. I love you Dad. Happy Father's Day.