Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Emmy's Birth Story and My Not-Death Story

This is Emmy's story of the night she was born, but it's also my story of the night I didn't die. I struggle with that phrasing - too dramatic? - but it is accurate to how I feel. And, technically, accurate to what happened too. I am still processing that night and learning how to incorporate it into my life story. Just sitting down to actually write the words feels monumental. I hope anyone who reads this will be kind and understand that this is a step in my process and it is for me. As such, it's super long. 

[Also, I should probably put a warning here that I didn't hold back on gory details and birth terms. Also, if you have experienced something similar, this might be triggering for you.]




This was the one time when I met Emmy for a moment after she was born and before the crazy started.

Emmy was born on Thursday December 13th, 2018, at 9:00 pm, one week past her due date. At my doctor's appointment that morning, I asked to have my membranes stripped (for the 2nd time), but I was also informed that my blood pressure had gone up again. I wasn't terribly concerned because that's happened with each of my pregnancies (and I was always fine) but my midwife sent me over to the hospital to be monitored and checked for pre-eclampsia. Everything was fine but since I was dilated to about a 4 with some good strong contractions, they gave me the option of being admitted. The contractions weren't very consistent so I decided I wanted to go home and labor there (if this was really labor). (Spoiler: It was.)

We drove to McDonald's to meet up with the kids and my wonderful mother-in-law (who had picked up the kids from school on very short notice, bless her) for dinner. While we were there, my contractions got closer together and after about 20 minutes, I was uncomfortable enough to ask Tim to take me home. As soon as we got home, my contractions went from every 5 ish minutes to every 2 minutes or less. I went straight into active labor and it was intense! I could feel the baby moving down and I actually felt a distinct pop which I realized later was my cervix dilating/losing my mucus plug. At first I tried to tell Tim that we should wait a little while and that it might not be the real thing (denial, much?), but we were back in the car headed to the hospital less than 30 minutes after getting home.

I had hoped to have a natural birth again but that jump into active labor caught me off guard and I couldn't find my calm to ride out the waves. Soon after getting to the hospital, I decided to get an epidural. As it turned out (another spoiler), it was the best decision I've ever made. It took a while to get it in because of how close together my contractions were, but once it took effect, I was able to breathe and calm down and get my bearings. My doula and dearest friend Natalie arrived, my mom arrived, Tim submitted his final project for the semester, we called the girls to say goodnight. We were still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that our baby was really about to be born!

The next time my midwife checked me, I was at an 8, so she broke my water to help things move along. There was meconium in it, which was a little scary, but the baby's heart rate was holding steady. Around 8:45 pm the midwife checked me and I was at a 10! It was time! On the next contraction, I pushed three or four times, waited a sec, and pushed her out the next contraction! It was maybe 12 minutes of pushing total - I was so surprised! The cord was wrapped tightly around Emmy's neck so my midwife had me stop pushing as soon as her head was free and it took a sec to get it off. I got to hold my beautiful, slimy baby for just a minute before they whisked her over to the respiratory therapist there in the room to suction her out. It took a few minutes but she started crying and was totally fine. She had lots of dark hair that had a lovely greenish meconium tint to it, but she was completely healthy. I laughed/cried in amazement as I tried to let it sink in that she was really there and I was really done!

Or so I thought. 

Once the baby was taken care of, we turned our attention to the delivery of the placenta. The problem was, it did not want to come out. My midwife worked with it and worked with it but it would not deliver for probably close to an hour. During that time, I had two great gushes of blood (one of which directly caught my poor midwife). Finally, FINALLY, the placenta came out and the midwife was able to stitch and clean me up (small 1st degree tear in the same place I tore with my other deliveries). The placenta looked intact so we thought that was the end of it. (Spoiler: It was not.)

Shortly after that, I had a rush of lightheadedness. I let everyone know that I might pass out and they thought it was because my legs were finally down on the bed instead of up in the stirrups. They gave me an oxygen mask and I tried to breathe and stay calm. Then the pain started. On the left side, where the epidural had been the slowest to reach, I had a ton of pain. I gave it an 8 on the pain scale, and I'm generally pretty conservative about my pain scale scores. I thought maybe it was postpartum contractions, but it didn't go away and only got worse. They gave me pain meds and it only barely took the edge off. This was our first clue something was wrong. 

In the meantime, I started to feel worse in general. I had waves of lightheadedness, I was really cold, and I needed the oxygen mask. I felt terrible enough that I decided not to try to hold Emmy, and once she started to get hungry, I knew I wasn't up for trying to breastfeed. But she is the champion baby who took a bottle and drank all 30 mL of the substitute milk Tim got to feed her. (I want it noted that I am incredibly grateful for that milk and the nurses who took care of her that first night. I knew she was fine, and that helped me through the rest.)

I was also still bleeding, a lot. I couldn't see or feel it, thanks to the epidural that was still working, so I never realized how much until after everything happened. Apparently, my bleeding slowed down to a normal amount after the placenta delivered, but then started up again in waves. I was losing tons of blood. At one point, the nurses tried to draw blood from my arm and could literally squeeze only drops out. I needed a transfusion, but my midwife had left to go to another delivery (earlier when I seemed stable, not when things got dicey) so without someone in charge, things didn't happen very quickly. 

The nurses called in the backup doctor, but that took time, and even once I started receiving a transfusion (before he got there), I still felt horrible. Tim asked the nurses how long it would take for the transfusion to help and they said, "Well, she's losing blood about as fast as we can get it in her, so, not yet." 

The timeline of events is very fuzzy in my memory, because while in my head I was conscious and awake, in reality I became less and less cognizant of what was happening as I lost more and more blood. I was very focused on breathing through the pain, keeping calm, and using my voice to let people know what I was feeling and what I needed. I never really believed my life was in danger but I recognized that things were not going well. At one point, I told Tim that I didn't want to die, not because I thought it was a real possibility, but more as a "just so we're clear..." statement. Tim assured me I wouldn't die, but when he looked up and none of the nurses would make eye contact with him, he realized that it might have been a lie and that my life was in very real danger. 

I was fading in and out and trying to sleep (it was around 2 am, after all) when the backup doctor arrived along with what seemed to me to be a ton of people. Everything got loud and crazy all at once. The doctor started asking me questions to assess my coherence. The on-call anesthesiologist placed another IV (I believe I was up to four at that point, two in each arm) to get another bag of blood going but he couldn't take the time to be gentle and I ended up yelling, "What are you doing???" at him. I had taken off my glasses at some point so I couldn't really see anyone and couldn't really open my eyes anyway, so it was all just noise and chaos to me.

With the doctor there, we finally had a guess what was wrong - I had an inverted uterus, which means that my uterus had turned inside out. (Didn't know that could happen, right??) As he told Tim, he couldn't tell for sure from the initial physical assessment if that was the problem, and I would need to go to the hospital's OR to find out for sure. If he could, he'd try to correct the inversion but if they couldn't fix it quickly, I'd need an emergency hysterectomy. "Our focus right now is on saving her life," he said. 

When Tim came over to tell me what was happening, I realized he was crying. "Are you okay?" I asked, because I still didn't fully understand that I was the one not okay. He told me they were taking me to the OR. I asked if he could come with me, and he said no. I asked if Natalie (who was still there, bless her forever) could come with me, and he said no. "So I have to go alone?" I asked. He couldn't answer. 

The nurses and anesthesiologist rushed me through the hospital to the OR. (Side note: I was awake enough to think it felt like a movie to be wheeled through the hospital like that, so when we got the the OR doors and they slowed down to maneuver the bed in, I quipped, "Well this is very dramatic." No one appreciated that I still had a sense of humor but they should have!) They got me moved to the OR table and started prepping. My arms had to be out to the sides and my feet were up in candy cane stirrups. My throat was completely dry after hours of oxygen masks and I begged for some water but was told no. I was also in so much pain that I begged to be put under completely and was told no. (My epidural had gotten a boost but I could still feel the one spot that had worn off.) I was lying so flat that I couldn't breathe very well, but the oxygen mask they put on me made it even harder to breathe and I started to panic. (Thankfully they switched to a different type of mask.) 

It was 3:00 am, six hours after Emmy was born. I found out later from my medical records that they guessed I had already lost more than three liters (3,000 mL) of blood at that point (blood loss for a normal vaginal delivery is around 500 mL, blood loss for a c-section is around 1,000 mL). 

The doctor had pulled another on-call doctor from going into a c-section to come to the OR, and it turned out to be a very, very good thing. This second doctor had smaller hands (apparently) so he was able to manually reach in and push my uterus back into place. 

This was the worst moment for me. The pain was excruciating. Having your uterus pushed back into place with one hand on the inside and one hand on the outside is even more painful than it sounds. My one comfort was the nurse who held my hand and kept patting my arm, and I will be forever grateful to her for doing that. I couldn't find the deep breathing calm that had helped me for hours, and my attempts at low labor sounds turned into panicked "This hurts this hurts this hurts" cries. I couldn't thrash, I couldn't move, and I couldn't manage the pain. 

I finally turned inward and cried out to my Heavenly Father in my mind, "I CANNOT do this. You HAVE to help me." And then I "cast my mind" toward Jesus and felt, for just a moment, a kinship. I don't know how else to describe it. It was just this wordless feeling that we were the only two people in the world to know exactly what this pain felt like. And though I didn't put it into words like this until later, it was the knowledge that he had suffered that pain alone so that I didn't have to. 

Immediately after that, though it was gradual, my panic was replaced with peace. It was not the assurance that I would be okay, but it was the reassurance that I was not alone. And I saw, in my mind's eye, that the room was full of people in white, and I knew that people who loved me on the other side of the veil were with me too. The pain did not go away but my panic did, so much that I was able to breathe deeply and focus myself to get through it.  

All of that happened within just a few minutes, although it felt much much longer. The doctor was able to get my uterus back into place, remove all the placenta pieces left in there, and re-stitch up my tear. I knew the minute my uterus was restored because the excruciating pain stopped immediately.

I was stable, but there was quite a bit of care left. I received shots in both arms and they did a blood draw from my earlobe (not my finger because it wouldn't have been accurate). With each new thing, someone warned me that it might hurt and each time I just took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I'm ready." And compared to the pain I had been in, it was no problem. I started asking for information and felt (unsurprisingly) more awake than I had been for hours. My very first thought once it was over was to send someone to tell Tim I was okay. They told me they would but not yet, so about five-ish minutes later I asked again. I wanted to make sure he knew I was alright.

They moved me to a post-op recovery room for an hour. (I asked again if Tim could be there with me, and again they said no. Jeesh.) I was finally coherent enough to ask questions and chat with the nurses, even though I was completely exhausted. (Funny side note: At one point I asked what time it was and when they told me 4:30 am, I said, "Well no wonder I'm so tired!" Still didn't connect that I was tired because I'd just lost a ton of blood.) I ended up receiving a total of 4 units of blood and 1 or 2 units of plasma, plus bags and bags of pitocin (like 7 altogether). The doctors said no food or liquids until the morning, but my throat was completely parched. I needed a drink so badly, so one of the nurses got permission to give me water on a little sponge. I drank a whole cup of water that way, with that sweet nurse sponging it to me one tiny bit at a time. I'm still humbled to remember her service to me - it meant more than she will probably ever know.

Finally, FINALLY, they wheeled me back to my room, which the housecleaning staff should have won an award for cleaning what appeared to be a murder scene back to a pristine hospital room. I was so glad to see Tim, though not as glad as he was to see me since he had a much better grasp on the situation than I did. Natalie stayed with him and kept him from falling apart while I was gone, something we can never thank her enough for. She sponged me another cup of water while the nurses got me set up (one of my IVs came out!), and I finally got to sleep for a little bit before the shift change in the morning. 

There is one last piece of the story: I still hadn't held Emmy and was extremely anxious to do so. After I got to eat breakfast (almost 5 hours post OR), I tried to sleep again but I couldn't relax and settle enough to do it. So around 8:30 or so, I asked my nurse to bring in Emmy so I could finally meet her. 

When the nurse brought her in, she was so quiet I thought she was asleep, but in fact, she'd just had gunk (including more meconium) pumped out of her stomach and was wide awake but totally chill. The nurse handed her to me, I got her undressed for skin-to-skin, held her up to my chest, and just wept. I had waited 12 hours to hold my precious baby and I will never, ever forget that moment when I finally did. The nurse got us settled and then gave us some privacy. I snuggled Emmy and marveled at her, and she quickly fell asleep against me. Before long, I was struggling to stay awake myself and called the nurse to take her again. After that, I was finally able to sleep.

The process of recovering from that experience emotionally is ongoing, for both me and Tim, but I am fully recovered physically. I can even have more babies if I want, though we're not ready to face that yet. If you are still reading, bless you. This was very much more for me than for anyone else. I am still grappling with understanding what happened and have researched and learned a ton about uterine inversion, if anyone wants to know more. 

I am also still tremendously and eternally grateful to be alive, grateful for blood and plasma donors, grateful for competent doctors and nurses, and grateful for all the people who helped us out during my extended recovery. Grateful for my Savior, who walked through that experience with me. Grateful for eternal families on both sides of the veil. 

And grateful for my body. I never felt like my life was in danger because my body carried me through that experience. It sounds odd but I really felt like we were a team, my body and I. Even when I was not totally conscious, my body stepped up and was strong for me. She was amazing, IS amazing, and I am so grateful.

Monday, March 26, 2018

How To: Easter Resurrection Eggs



Resurrection Eggs are a fun way to make the story of Christ's Atonement, Crucifixion, and Resurrection more tangible for kids. My girls love it; one of the reasons we do this all week is because they beg to do it over and over (and often argue over who gets to open the last egg). I like that it helps them remember the specifics so that when we watch the LDS Bible Videos about Jesus's final days, they are already familiar with what they are seeing. 

There are lots of ways to do Resurrection Eggs, and lots of (much more fun) resources out there, but we keep it simple: twelve plastic Easter eggs in an egg carton, numbered 1 through 12. Each one holds a different item that symbolizes part of the story.

  • Egg 1 - a leaf (last year it was from a dandelion) that represents a palm leaf and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem
  • Egg 2 - a piece of bread that represents the bread at the Last Supper
  • Egg 3 - a sacrament cup that represents the wine at the Last Supper
  • Egg 4 - a piece of tree bark that symbolizes the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane
  • Egg 5 - a drawing of an angel (because I'm too lazy to get out the Christmas ornaments) representing the angel that strengthened Christ in the garden (see Luke 22:43)
  • Egg 6 - string that represents the cords used to bind Jesus when they arrested him
  • Egg 7 - prickly weeds to represent the crown of thorns
  • Egg 8 - a nail representing the nails of the cross
  • Egg 9 - a die to represent how the soldiers cast lots for Jesus's clothes
  • Egg 10 - a strip of white cloth for the white linen cloth Jesus was buried in
  • Egg 11 - a rock to represent the stone place in front of the tomb that was later rolled away
  • Egg 12 - is empty to represent the empty tomb on Easter morning


One of the best parts of doing Resurrection Eggs is that you can decide what to include - there's no one right way. We decided to include an angel and leave out the 30 pieces of silver (we would have used three dimes) to focus more on Gethsemane and less on Judas. There are lots of ideas out there and I definitely encourage you to come up with what works for your family. Hopefully this is something to get you started!

She's four and fabulous

Our Rosie turned four last week, and since I haven't been blogging since she turned one, I thought I'd do an all about Rosie post because she's one of my favorite daughters. 



Rosie is full of energy and spunk! One of her nicknames is Spunky Brewster, and she EARNS it. She has perfected the art of saying "No" over the past few weeks (pre-gaming for actually being 4, I think), but she also makes me laugh, so we're keeping her for now. She is stubborn but sweet, has an amazing memory, gets reeaaally loud when she's excited, forgives easily, and often refuses to things except on her terms. Luckily, her terms usually means once we've stopped asking her to do it - she just has to decide for herself. There are other days that she is helpful and eager to please, though they are fewer now that she's really asserting her independent four-year-old-ness. 


She loves to play with dolls, ponies, her "stuffies" (stuffed animals), and her sister's toys. She doesn't usually have an extended attention span for coloring/drawing/painting, but she loves puzzles and will happily work on them for an hour or more. She loves to read stories but is in the phase where she tends to interrupt every page to tell me what she sees, and sometimes that's find and sometimes I can't handle it. She loves to snuggle and be held - another nickname is my little "snuggle-buggle." She is soooo silly and playful, and she makes us laugh every day. She still plays silly games with me that Georgie has grown out of and still loves being tickled. 


She is incredibly articulate, clever, thoughtful, and insightful. She remembers things and brings them up (in the correct context) days or weeks later, but she also makes up words and hears works/phrases wrong and it's adorable. I love hearing her sing and we are frequently treated to spontaneous performances. She has seemingly endless energy, and still sometimes just runs around in circles to get it out. Literally. Runs in circles. 


She also is firmly and forever attached her to special blanket, called Wah-Wah or Wah-Wee. Like, if it's out of sight and she can't find it, she goes full-on screaming/crying/hysterical meltdown as if one of her limbs had just gone missing. We are working on detaching a little (like, say, enough to not bring it to school) but that thing is just part of who she is. She still sleeps with it at night and wraps one corner around her index finger, puts it up to her face, and makes a sucking noise when she falls asleep, just like when she was a baby.


When I was pregnant with her and after she was born, I had several distinct impressions that she was a gift to our family - she came when we needed her, and she chose to come when she did, even knowing that it would be hard. She was born four months after my dad passed away and we needed her joy and light to help us move forward. She has a gift for creating joy and I am grateful for it and her. 

Friday, February 16, 2018

How To: Easy and Delicious Rolls

I've never been brave enough to learn how to make bread or rolls because getting the yeast to rise always seemed super daunting. But I found a super easy recipe and after MANY attempts, I figured it out! These rolls are delicious and come together really quickly. I make them weekly, sometimes more than once a week, and they take only about an hour or so to go from start to hot rolls straight from the oven. In other words, you're welcome.

Step 1: Mix 2 tablespoons of yeast with 2 2/3 cups warm water and 4 tablespoons (or 1/4 cup) of honey. Stir until the honey is dissolved. [I like to mix the honey with the water first before adding it to the yeast.] Give it 5-10 minutes for the yeast to rise.


Step 2: Add 7 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of salt. Mix on the lowest setting until the dough comes together, then at a slightly higher setting until the dough is thoroughly mixed. [It shouldn't be too sticky, but rather pretty elastic.] Let it sit and rise for just 5 minutes or so.


Step 3: Roll the dough into balls and let them rise for about 20 minutes. [They can rise longer, but I think they are better if they don't rise too long. You have to play it by ear.]


Step 4: Place the rolls in a greased glass baking dish. Bake at 425 degrees for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on top.


The finished product! Don't they look amazing??


Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Our Easter Advent: 40 Days of Jesus Stories

You probably think it's too early to start thinking about Easter - after all, it's only Valentine's Day! - but last year, we did an Easter Advent that turned out really well, and I wanted to be sure to share it with you in time for you to participate, if you so desire. The full list of scriptures/stories/videos is listed at the end, but first some background:

Two Christmases ago, I wanted to do a 25-day advent that would help us focus more on Jesus, and so every night, we watched a "Jesus video" (the Bible videos created by the LDS Church) and we talked about the things Jesus did and the qualities he showed.  Fast forward to a few weeks later, and I kept thinking about how wonderful it was to talk about Jesus every day and how Easter should be even more of a big deal than Christmas, and I decided to put together an Easter advent. Tim helped me focus my ideas and I made a plan, and we just went for it.

And the results?

It was so much better than I thought it would be. 

Here's what we did last year (and what we'll do again this year):

- We decided to share stories about Jesus every night, starting with a few of the prophecies of his birth and going through his life until his death/resurrection. We included a handful of Book of Mormon stories and we broke down the final days of Jesus's life into several parts to meet our goal.

- We chose to do 40 days partially because 40 days is significant in the scriptures and partially because it coincided with Lent, which I usually like to celebrate. This year, Lent starts today on February 14th.

- Rather than sacrificing anything for Lent though, we decided to focus on doing service. Lent is actually 47 days long because Sundays traditionally don't count, so we decided to do stories for 40 days and service as a family on the extra 7 days. 

Here's how it actually turned out and what we learned: 

- Because we were focusing our actions on service, we ended up focusing all of our nightly stories on how Jesus served people and how he showed his love for them. Once we framed everything in the context of love and service, it went much more smoothly.

- While I initially mapped out which days were most likely to be good service days over the seven weeks, we were flexible as unexpected opportunities have come up. Some things we planned, other things we didn't, but we learned that if you look for service opportunities, you'll find them. 

- One thing that really made a difference was the Bible videos. I can't praise them enough. Even on nights when there wasn't a video to go along with the story (for example, the story of the 10 Lepers - how did that get skipped??), we ended up watching our favorites again. This year, we are adding in one or two Living Scriptures movies, but we very much prefer the Bible videos.

- Another thing that helped is that when we broke down the events leading up to Jesus's death and resurrection, I made resurrection eggs for the kids to open. If you haven't heard of this idea, here's a good example of some easy resurrection egg ideas. (I'll create a separate post about ours and what we included when we're closer to Easter.) [UPDATE: As promised! Here's our Resurrection Eggs explained.]

- I should also note that last year, we wimped out and didn't try to read the stories directly from the scriptures. Instead, we explained the story in words the kids could understand, then we watched the video (occasionally pausing to make sure they were following), and then we talked about it after and asked them questions. And then we'd usually watch it again! Because the kids are older, we plan to read the stories from the scriptures for our daily family scripture study this year.

The main thing I remember about last year was that although I originally planned this for my kids, I needed it for myself, too. I learned so much and gained insights and was strengthened through the opportunity to bear my testimony to my kids over and over again. 

I remember that one of the most rewarding moments came during church when we were about 2/3 of the way through our 40 days. I opened up the Gospel Art Book and showed the girls all the pictures from Jesus' life, and they were able to tell me the story behind every single picture that we'd covered so far. Even Rosie could tell me the stories, and up to that point, I had serious doubts that she was listening when I explained the stories in kid-speak. The whole experience made Easter better for all of us and I'm excited to try it again this year! Yes, 40 days is a long time and yes, it's a big commitment, but yes, it was absolutely worth it.

Here's the full 40-day list of Jesus stories/scriptures/videos. (Sorry it's not in a better/easier format - I couldn't get the table formatting to work.) This does not include the extra days of service, so remember to work those in before the last week. (The stories assigned to the days between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are scheduled for specific days.) And if you decide to join us or do your own version, please let me know how it turns out!


Easter Advent: Forty Days of Jesus Stories
Day 1: Prophecy of Christ’s Birth (Isaiah 9:6) 
Mormon Tabernacle Choir - World’s Largest Virtual Hallelujah Chorus

Day 2: Samuel the Lamanite & Christ’s birth in the Book of Mormon (Helaman 14:1-6; 3 Nephi 1:4-21)
[There is a Living Scriptures video "Samuel and the Sign" but it's not available online unless you have an account]

Day 3: The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38)
“An Angel Foretells Christ’s Birth to Mary”

Day 4: The Nativity (Luke 2:1-20)
”The Nativity”

Day 5: The visit of the Wise Men & fleeing into Egypt (Matt. 2:1-15)

Day 6: Jesus teaches in the temple (Luke 2:40-52)

Day 7: The baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:13-17)

Day 8: Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-11)

Day 9: The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-26)
“Jesus Teaches a Samaritan Woman”

Day 10: Fishers of men (Matt. 4:18-22)
“Follow Me, and I Will Make You Fishers of Men”

Day 11: Jesus heals a man of palsy (Mark 2:1-12)
“Jesus Forgives Sins and Heals a Man Stricken with Palsy”

Day 12: Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath (John 5:2-12)

Day 13: The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3-16)
“Sermon on the Mount: The Beatitudes”

Day 14: Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant (Matt. 8:5-13)
[No video]

Day 15: The Widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-16)

Day 16: Jesus calms the storm (Mark 4:37-40)

Day 17: Jairus’s daughter is healed (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43)
“Jesus Raises the Daughter of Jairus”

Day 18: The woman with an issue of blood (Mark 5:22-34)

Day 19: Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Matt. 14:15-21)
“The Feeding of the 5,000”

Day 20: Jesus walks on water (Matt. 14:25-33)
“Wherefore Didst Thou Doubt?”

Day 21: The adulterous woman (John 8:2-11)

Day 22: The man blind from birth (John 9:1-12, 35-38)

Day 23: The parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

Day 24: The parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:2-7)
“Jesus Declares the Parable of the Lost Sheep”

Day 25: The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)

Day 26: Martha & Mary (Luke 10:38-42)
[No video]

Day 27: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44)
“Lazarus Is Raised from the Dead”

Day 28: The ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19)
“Chapter 37: The Ten Lepers” [from the LDS media library]

Day 29: “Suffer the little children” (Luke 18:15-17)
“Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me”

Day 30: Forgiveness & the unmerciful servant (Matt. 18:21-35)

Day 31: The rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-27)
“Christ and the Rich Young Ruler”

Day 32: The greatest commandment (Mark 12:28-34)

Day 33: The widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-44)

Day 34 - Palm Sunday: Triumphal entry (Matt. 21:1-11)

Day 35: Jesus cleanses the temple (Matt. 21:12-13)

Day 36: Mary anoints Jesus (John 12:2-8)
[No video]

Day 37: The Last Supper (John 13:1-35)

Day 38: The Atonement (Matt. 26:47-57; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46)

Day 39 - Good Friday: Christ’s trial and Crucifixion (Matt. 27:11-50; John 19:25-27)

Day 40: Signs of Christ’s death in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 8:3-23; 3 Nephi 10:9-10)

Day 41 - Easter Sunday: The Resurrection (Matt. 27:57-60; Matt. 28:1-8; John 20:3-18)

Monday, January 22, 2018

Favorite Children's Books, part 1: Picture Books

My kids love books. They love being read to, they love "reading" to themselves and each other (cutest thing ever, see the photo), they love going to the library to pick out new books, they love it all. Parenting win, right?
My favorite part of this photo is that the 3-year-old is "reading" to her older sister. Love. It.

Last summer, I compiled a checklist of about 75 books kids' books recommended by other moms/bloggers/BYU Magazine, and as of this month, we've checked off all but a handful of them that the Provo/Orem libraries don't carry. This process was fun for three reasons:

1 - I really love marking things off of lists. Like, a lot.
2 - It gave me specific things to look for at the library instead of aimlessly browsing and hoping for a good find.
3 - We read a lot of really awesome books!

So in the spirit of paying it forward, and in no particular order, here are 25 of our favorite picture books! This is mainly for (but not limited to) kids ages 2-5, and some of these are geared more for girls than boys. This list has been thoroughly vetted by both children and adults, a.k.a., the kids loved them AND I didn't mind reading them multiple times. (There are many books left off this list that the kids loved but I wouldn't read more than twice. Sorry, Pete the Cat and Eloise.)

Journey by Aaron Becker - We love this book (and its sequels) with all our hearts. No words, only pictures, so it's perfect for any age. 

Nibbles by Emma Yarlett might be the kids' all-time favorite book ever. Note that this is an Usborne book. If you don't know what that means or you need a consultant, I've got a connection for you. :)

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty is another absolute favorite that I quote to the kids ("It was the perfect first try!") on a regular basis. Also makes me cry on a regular basis. A must-read/own.

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey is one that I remember reading this as a child and now my kids love it too.

Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett is a fun and silly story and we read it over and over and over.

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor - We are BIG fans of Fancy Nancy around here. Start with the first book and then enjoy all of the sequels and easy reader books.

The Adventures of Beekle, the Un-imaginary Friend by Dan Santat is one of the first books we read off of my list and it was so sweet and fun!

The Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer almost didn't make the list because I didn't want to read it more than once, but once was enough for the kids, too, because every page has a LOT to look at. This is a great one for reading once and then letting the kids peruse after that.

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt is really funny and silly! We never got sick of reading this one.

The Enchanted Wood by Ruth Sanderson - This fairy tale was surprisingly sweet and original. My kids stayed with it until the end, in spite of the large amount of text.

Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud - Everyone needs to read this book! It gave me a way to talk to my kids about kindness and empathy and even bullying in a very accessible way. Just this morning, Rosie told me I'd filled up her bucket when I helped her, so it's memorable too!



Good Night, Yoga and Good Morning, Yoga by Mariam Gates were fun ways to introduce my kids to yoga, and Georgie still asks to do yoga before bed sometimes. Winner winner.


When You Were Small and When I Was Small by Sara O'Leary have been favorites for a long time. Simple but magical stories.


What Do You Do with an Idea? and What Do You Do with A Problem? by Kobi Yamada are delightfully illustrated and creative in their approaches. I think I liked them more than the kids, but we will definitely be reading these again as they get older.

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig is a powerful story about the power of a friend. It was a great way to challenge my kids to notice who might be feeling invisible and to reach out.

Mrs. Muddle's Holidays by Laura F. Nielsen is a book that I'd like us to own at some point. The kids loved it and it made me excited to start more of our own family holidays and traditions. Very fun!

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman was one that my kids brought me to read again and again. 
The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade by Justin Roberts really caught my kids' attention, I think because they often feel so small too. It's a great story about the difference one person who pays attention can make.

Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman - My kids really liked this one, and even if they didn't quite grasp some of the deeper messages, they got the part about apologizing and forgiveness, so, excellent. 

The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth has some beautiful answers to the questions, though it was bit over my kids' heads. Another one we'll come back to later. 

Alice the Fairy by David Shannon is one that we've enjoyed for several years. It's one that has a couple of lines that made me and Tim laugh out loud the first time we read it. 

One Smile by Cindy McKinley was one of two books that we read (and the better of the two, I thought) about the power of simple acts of kindness. Always looking for ways to teach that so this was a great find.


Here's the full list without my commentary:


Journey by Aaron Becker
Nibbles by Emma Yarlett
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett
Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor
The Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
The Enchanted Wood by Ruth Sanderson
Good Night, Yoga and Good Morning, Yoga by Mariam Gates
When You Were Small and When I Was Small by Sara O'Leary
The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
Mrs. Muddle's Holidays by Laura F. Nielsen
The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman
Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman
The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth
Alice the Fairy by David Shannon

One Smile by Cindy McKinley

And there you have it! We have many more books that we could recommend but this is a good start. Leave a comment with your favorite books to read with your kids so I can start my next list!