Fantastic Symphony

Some unexpected benefits of reconstructive foot surgery

2012-02-17T15:04:00.001-07:00

(Aside from the obvious of having other people wait on you for a couple weeks)

Wearing sweats every day. Also, an excuse not to go out, which I love.

Laying around allows for things like reading lots of books to your kids, colouring with them, doing homework with them and watching movies with them. Also, playing plants vs. zombies (the live version-we'll keep the details within the circle of trust)

Your kids find lots of cool ways to entertain themselves. They also discovered using the exercise mat to slide down the stairs. Hours of (loud) fun.

Getting to ride around Costco with one of these.

Afton walking around with one boot on all the time-trying to be like me!

Yep that's right, I got me one of these. You're jealous.

Valentines

2012-02-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

Today I made my kids bacon, scrambled eggs and fresh cut strawberries for breakfast, even with my bum foot. I also sent them to school with super cute homemade valentines and we watched Charlie Brown Valentine's twice. I sure love Brad, but since Brad doesn't believe in Valentine's Day, and I for one think it's a very worthy day to celebrate, this post is for the other loves in my life.

My friends. Since having this surgery, all of my friends have been there for me in a big way. I admire them. It's a challenge for me to serve selflessly and so I appreciate them all the more. I really think I have the best, funnest and most beautiful friends in the world. I don't feel like I deserve them. I always think Heavenly Father is making up for my friendless childhood and answering all of my desperate pleas for friends when I was little. They represent true womanhood to me.

My brothers and sisters. We grew up together, we're still growing up together. They are the people who I'm learning to be a goddess on. They are the ones who help me recognize my weaknesses, who forgive me and who I forgive, who make me look closer at myself. These relationships are the hardest for me to have, but the ones rooted deepest in my soul. I've never cried because I missed someone until my sister Rachel moved away. And nothing melts my heart like the moment I hug my brothers after not seeing them for a long time. I never feel more fulfilled than sitting in the living room talking after dinner at my Mom's, while my little brother Dallas plays for hours with my kids, and I feel proud to see how totally awesome we've all become! He he. Take that, mortality!

My In-Laws, they are my other family,and all I have to say is that I really, really, really LIKE them! Of course I love them, but I also like them! This is a huge treasure to me! We have so much fun together!!!

My Mom. After having her clean my house tirelessly and watch my kids for me for three whole heavenly, perfect days, while I was forced to sit and elevate my foot while having PMS no less, I think my Mom and I tend towards some of the same weaknesses. The only difference is that she has overcome pretty much all of them, through her faith in Jesus Christ. Her faith in Jesus is also a lot of the reason for the (hehe) awesomeness of my brothers and sisters. It is for that reason I want to be exactly like my Mom someday. Truly, one cannot say enough good things about her, but it's her faith in God and her faith in the Savior that I truly cherish. When I picture my Mom, I picture her on her knees.

My Kids. The other day I got up to go to bed and suddenly it hit me: I'm a Mom. I suddenly felt like the last 6 years were one big blur and now here I was. I looked at them sleeping in their bed and thought, who in their right mind trusted me and Brad to take care of these three little people? I think I gush enough about them on here, but I would say one of the best things about having kids is the funny moments. For example, the other day Breanna said "I'm cold, I'm going to go put on some pajamas." And Brad said "put on your warmest ones" she ran out of the room, and then quickly ran back as she asked:

"What does bestwans mean?"

We laughed all night, and from now on, pajamas will be known in our house as "bestwans"

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2012-02-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

It was so great to have my MIL here for a few days. Isn't this the best picture of Afton? I seriously love this girl. She made cookies with the kids and did my laundry and we even made it out to the zoo when the doctor finally agreed that I don't have to lay in bed anymore.

This is how we got around, except with my MIL pushing. Seriously, do I have no pride at all? Funny enough, nobody cared or even blinked an eye. Just goes to show.

Uncensored today

2012-02-03T09:51:00.001-07:00

Why I don't like pinterest: It just makes me want things I can't have, don't have time for-will never ever have time for, and aren't really important anyway. The pictures of the food always look so good. But do they taste good? Hm. Plus so many of the photos of women are so photoshopped, I guaruntee there are girls in the world right now staring at those pictures of girls in bikinis/work-out clothes going wow, what's wrong with me? (I'm not one of them, because they are so obviously photoshopped, but some girls might not know that, or know how much of an effect it can have.)

Speaking of self image.

I'm really mad because I gain weight first in my thighs, and of course by sitting around this last while I've gained weight. In my thighs. This means I get these disproportionately big thighs while the rest of me stays the same. I wish I could get like a cute little belly and chubby arms and be one of those gain weight all over people. And I don't care if that sounds ungrateful, I'm not censoring today.

While I"m not censoring, I love the new mormonad youth video, "Deep Beauty". I think it's inspiring. But, it made me feel kind of bad about myself. Plus it completely overlooks the atonement in the equation. I've been reading a lot of the Book of Mormon lately, especially Alma. And everything I read talks about relying on the Savior, repentance and the Atonement. The ones who spiritually glow, glow because of repentance, not because of anything you can do of yourself. Any young woman or old woman for that matter who ever doubts her worthiness, who has weaknesses and makes mistakes, whose husband doesn't look at her like that, who feels insecure and is maybe even straying from the path would watch that video and think "I'm not a queen. That is not me." Plus I can't stand the typical molly mormon-looking girls in the video. Very few Mormon girls look like that, and they just don't make those clothes, sheesh!

So now it's clear, sometimes I am insecure and especially around that time of the month.

2012-02-01T21:26:00.001-07:00

Reading the hobbit to the kids, after watching Dolphin Tale. Loving the bright flowers i got from Fern but otherwise pretty sick of this room. Still wearing the same clothes I was wearing Monday. My bum is numb (ha!) and I'm sick of reading the book of Mormon (gasp! Is that bad?) and writing my story, Facebook is a drag and I DO NOT see the value in pinterest at all...am I missing something?Tomorrow is my first post op appointment, I still can't walk on my foot and it's still SO swollen. But boy my kids are sweet and good. They have been so helpful and so loving to me. They are good little people, (not to mention beautiful) makes me proud. Thank goodness for my mother in law. Now I'm going to attempt to go downstairs, brads going to carry me, or something.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 2

2012-02-01T06:40:00.003-07:00

Well Brad has taken excellent care of me and everyone. He is such a good person. Yes, he may have even shown me up a little-which I think was also his goal. ;)

It felt so good to lay here and let someone else do all the work and cater to me hand and foot. All moms should have surgery at some point for this reason alone. If it wasn't for the swollen and sore foot and if I could get up and move around sometimes it would be heaven!

Day 1

2012-01-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

So I'm home from surgery and still a little loopy. I dropped my kids off at my friend Karen's house who offered to watch the kids while I was in surgery. When we got there I was nervous but okay until they said the anesthetist had called in sick.That means I don't get to be put under. Well thanks for pulling that one out of the hat at the last minute. So they gave me these pills called Atavan which I did not want to take and had to force myself to take. They said it would relax me and that I would probably sleep through the surgery or at least be off in lala land. Well, I definitely in no lala land. I was 100% conscious and perfectly aware during the hour long procedure.It's okay though because the worst parts were getting the IV in (it takes them forever, they have to dig and dig but after several attempts it was in, usually I'm experiencing this while in labor so it was no biggie to me), the freezing needles (OOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!) and hearing the sounds of the tools. Like chain saws. Being used on my foot. Anways, the surgery was over but then I sat up to move to the recovery room and bam! The Ativan hit. I was dizzy, lightheaded and tired. So I slept a bit and then they gave me some kind of painkiller which made me throw up on 4 different occasions. Lucky Brad got to see this-I hate that because I get so grossed out watching people throw up! Now I'm home in bed with my foot up, icing, kind of numb. Brad changes my ice packs, gets me snacks and water, made me a healthy dinner of lemon fish and sweet peas and otherwise is pretty busy with the little people. On the plus side, I have 3 days of not being allowed to move except to go to the bathroom. What Mom doesn't dream of a break like that? (minus the fact that I just had reconstructive foot surgery) I have all kinds of plans, ways to take advantage of this time, but so far I've just lay here feeling dizzy. I expect to be able to start doing more tomorrow. I want to:

Work on Brad's Mission Scrapbook
Finish the Book of Mormon
Read 'Remains of the Day'
Write a little story
After I feel a bit better I'm determined to do some upper body and core exercises!

More Reasons, and Afton helps

2012-01-28T20:46:00.003-07:00

I think Afton must have read my last post. Maybe she felt bad, because she's sure been helping out around here lately.

She did this for a long time

She even did under the couch

Vacuuming

Sort of starting to eat like a civilized human being

Helping to sort the laundry

(Actually, she kept picking up clothes and handing them to me. Now, I am telling the truth: Every time she handed me a piece of clothing she would clearly say- "here you go!" I was like "WOE! You talk!")

I was also very shocked when I looked in her mouth the other day and she had grown TWO of her molars! No wonder she was grouchy and demanding for so long! This poor little baby is teething and in pain!

I'm still learning to snowboard but I'm really almost there, I just have to learn to go faster. My best friend Sheila is to the right of me and she's really good. I hope to be at her level soon. Plus I love being with her because I laugh and laugh and feel young again! But I'm getting surgery on my foot on Monday so I won't be able to snowboard for the rest of the season. I can't wait until next year. We'll probably get season's passes and go all the time as a family. Brad's taken Jesse a couple of times and he's picking it up and loves it. I do think this will be a fun winter activity for us to do as a family someday, and that's why I want to learn so much. I love being active. Because I'm getting surgery on my foot on Monday I've been working out EVERY day. I've been running, doing my Lindsay Brin workouts (momsintofitness.com LOVE her), going to hot yoga, snowboarding and of course running around taking care of my family. We'll see if I'm not in a mental institution by the time I get my cast off in 8 weeks. I'm going to focus on nutrition (my biggest challenge, especially lately because I have SAD and it makes me want to stuff my face with whatever is the worst for me) and just working whatever muscles I can that will NOT interfere with my healing (which isn't much).

As for the other reasons I'm stressed out I've come up with 2 more:

1. I'm a perfectionist AND competitive. I know I should just let the house be messy but I just can't do it. I mean, not that my house is always spotless at ALL but I am cleaning all the time. I also have to feed my family healthy meals and that requires planning. I know these are good things but I do think there is a strength in just being able to let things go and do things in moderation. I'm working on that skill, but it will take a long time I think. Here's the thing, deep down I am a free spirit and really fun and spontaneous. BUT I feel like if I let go and be that person as a Mom, everything would fall apart. No, I KNOW everything would fall apart. My kids think I'm very un-fun and I'm okay with that for now because I know they are getting their homework done and bathing and getting fed and getting to school okay looking decent. I'm competitive too. This is a BAD combo because it means I am always looking at other people going "how come THEY can do it and I can't??" Also, I get my panties all tied in a knot if other kids can do things my kids can't. I stress over everything about my kids, mostly Jesse. I know it's bad, but again, I'm just learning.

2. I'm trying to do it all myself. When will I learn that Heavenly Father has so much more power than me, that he is in control and that I need to rely on Him? It was so cool, I had an answer to prayer recently because I realized that I just don't have the energy to bring a meal/watch other people's kids every time there is a need. It's hard for me because I feel like I need to be serving, but if I'm stressed out over it, I know it's not a good thing. Well, I was reading my scriptures and felt really strongly that there IS something I can do, something more helpful than a meal. I can pray!! I know it sounds simple, but this was a huge revelation to me!!! So Brad's been really struggling at work for a while and that morning I prayed for a few people in my life. I also prayed that something would click at work and that Brad would be able to figure out the stuff he was working on. So he came home from work and at the dinner table I asked him, how was work today? Did you figure it out? And do you know what he said? He said, YES! I had an epiphany and everything clicked and I got it all done. I was like, WOE! So thank-you Heavenly Father.

I've been putting a lot of time and energy into thinking lately. I know I'm in one of those phases of life where I'm learning, stretching and growing. I'm learning to THINK positively, to rely on Heavenly Father, and I'm learning some more of my weaknesses that Heavenly Father is helping me out with, but I haven't really made any progress on yet. This has been a good weekend and I will talk more about my surgery later.

My special little boy, first time snowboarding!

Reasons

2012-01-19T23:18:00.001-07:00

I've been musing on the fact that I'm stressed out and have come to the conclusion that it's related to 3 things. I am going to have to dedicate three different posts to these three things, but I will start with the most obvious and adorable:

My incredibly strong-willed, demanding, busy-busy-busy, curious and really smart little thirteen month old girl. I know I was busy and active when I was little according to reports from my Mom, but I don't know if it's possible to be as much work as this little one! Here's a small sampling of what a typical morning might look like:

6 am or so: (unpredictable): Wake up happy, get diaper changed while clinging for dear life to my teddy bear, also twisting and squirming, trying to stand up and look out the window in the hopes that I might see a squirrel (yes I know it's dark out this early- she still tries). How I love those squirrels and I get so wide-eyed when I see one, making my universal "animal" sound, a series of loud yelps, that my Mom assumes comes from the sound of a barking dog?

6:15 am or so: Refuse to let my Mom put me down. If she's not on the ball and awake already and decides she needs a minute I jump on her and hit her while she lies in bed trying to collect herself, also scare her by standing as close to the edge of the bed as possible and looking at her with an adorable smile and raised eyebrows so as not to allow her to relax.

6:30am or so: Mom puts me in my chair. Mom gives me food right away to avoid my screams and yells. Usually I get a banana and eat that while Mom makes me toast. After eating most of the banana really fast (usually before the toast is done) amuse myself by squishing, smearing, and spreading the remaining banana as high and as wide as I can. Take the toast. My Mom gives me the whole piece in hopes that it will entertain me longer as she tries to prepare breakfast for herself and the other children. Take pieces of toast and throw them (no wimpy throws here, note, these have power behind them) on the floor, followed by the cutest little "uh-ooooh" imaginable, making a lovely "o" with my mouth. This ensures my Mom still loves me.

6:45am or so: I usually finish breakfast right before Mom wants to sit down and eat. So, she washes all the banana off my face and hands, puts me down and at this point I sprint, literally sprint to the little kid table where my brother and sister are eating their breakfast. Try to make as big of a mess of their oatmeal/cheerios as possible before they move it away from me. When they do and refuse to let me make a mess of it, I cry. Then they give me little bits of it on the table. I spread it around, and eat some.

7am or so: While Mom cleans up breakfast, I work hard to undo as much of her work as possible. This is crucial. If I am not undoing my Mom's cleaning efforts, I am BORED. And you know what happens when I get bored. I whine. I make my Mom hold or entertain me. Serious setback in the cleaning efforts.

7:05am or so: My Mom works out. At this point I'm wonderful. She works out in the basement where there are toys and a brother and sister doing all kinds of interesting things. I'm wonderful for about half of her workout, at which point I start to get in her way in as many ways as possible: sitting on, climbing underneath, grabbing for weights, etc. If she happens to kick or trip on me, then she has to pick me up because I'm already tired and this makes me cry, thus ending the workout portion of the morning, to be resumed when I go for a nap (if I go for a nap...)

7:30am or so: My Mom gets me water in a sippy cup. Awesome. Drink half, spill half. Minutes of entertainment while she starts getting my brother ready for school.

7:45am or so: This is where I am being ignored and get to perform my favourite repertoire of activities. These I perform throughout the day when I know my Mom has other things to do and I am upstairs with her. They include:

- tearing pages out of books
- playing in the toilet full of pee, also unravelling the toilet paper and putting it in the toilet, then sucking on it
- pulling clothes out of drawers
- pulling toys out of the bathtub bucket
- destroying Jesse's lego creations
- also going back to see if Breanna has left her breakfast bowl (she never clears it) and dumping out and smearing the remaining contents all over the floor.

Get the picture??

I know all Moms do it and if you do it without being stressed out, I COMMEND YOU!!! But I for one am stressed out over it and as far as that goes, I love it!!! I am excited to see what this little firecracker does with all her energy and passion.

It's going to be good.

I love how she's looking at me in this picture. We love each other.

I want to be big and love trying on big stuff, especially big shoes and dresses and stuff my Mom needs to help me with. Then I'll often dance and spin in circles. She loves this.

Cookies

2012-01-06T08:16:00.001-07:00

To convince the kids that grocery shopping is a good idea I tempt them with the free cookie. Yesterday I was grocery shopping and the kids were going nuts:"Can we get a cookie now?" "Mom NOW can we get a cookie?""Is it cookie time Mom?"Repeat. Times 50. I told them a couple of times: "stop asking or we're not going to get a cookie."Representative of how my threats like this usually go, my kids continued to ask. Then something inside me snapped. I didn't get mad and threaten more (like I usually do)...I just said 'nope we're not getting a cookie." Now, usually when I say this it's nothing but another empty threat. So not really worried, my kids continued their cajoling-'one more chance? Please?' of course cause i'm so awesome I usually give in...okay one more chance but next time....But we were getting further and further from the bakery, and my resolve grew stronger with every step, thinking of how masterful my kids are at ignoring my requests, and how defiant they seem to have become overnight, and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done to convince myself that I was doing the right thing and not being heartless, but I did NOT give in!!! Even at the checkout when they were begging for a chocolate bar (and I could have justifies that because it's not a cookie) I did NOT give in to the whines and the wales and the stomping of feet!It's a new victory for me, and one I hope I feel more empowered to continue. Imagine actually following through with a consequence. I have such delightful and wonderful kids, and I'm sick of getting mad at them these days and maybe the parenting experts are right anyway. Then we got home and I made them heart shaped sugar cookies with blue icing and sprinkles, just so they know I still love 'em.

Does that defeat the purpose? :)Brad and I are on our way to the mountains today for a day of snowboarding. Thanks to my wonderful brother Derek and sister in law Katie!! Yay!!- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Oh Twelve

2012-01-02T13:23:00.001-07:00

My New Year's Resolution is to stop being stressed out. I want more time playing and learning with my kids and more time to read and not be tired. So I don't want to live up to what I think are other people's expectations of me and spend my time on the things that matter to me deep down.

Last night we got home from 2 weeks of so much FUN! First Florida, then a week in Taber with family. I woke up this morning feeling relaxed and thinking 'Wow. I have a whole day, with Brad home, and nothing to do.' By 7:30 I had eaten breakfast and finished my workout and sat down to play cards with everyone. Then it all started happening:

Laundry
Dishes
Lunch for 4
Organizing hand-me-downs
Unpacking
Taking down Christmas
Grocery List
Grocery Shopping
Library books are overdue
Dirty bathrooms
Shower
Bath Kids
Make supper
Clean the kitchen
More Laundry
Kids are fighting
Change Afton....

It goes on. I am going to work REALLY hard to not care what I think other people think I should be, because I'm so convinced I'm really not very good at it anyway. It's going to be great :)

Florida

2011-12-23T20:17:00.001-07:00

Let the memories begin!!

We went to Florida for a family holiday and to go to my brother's wedding. It was a wonderful experience, but let's be honest- tiring! I started out the holiday sick-really sick. Running around Magic Kingdom sick was not the way to start the holiday. We did every ride in the park except three. And that is a feat only possible through the help of Grandma. Yes we had help and it was awesome! We could not have done this with Afton without her! As much as I loved some moments, there were other moments when I said to Brad (quietly so my Mother-in-Law wouldn't hear) 'I would rather poke myself in the eyes than come back here again.' :D The good news is, by the end my mind was changed and I was no longer sick.

Seeing this castle light up, as per Cinderella's wish, was so magical I cried!! Even though my butt was killing me from sitting on cement for an hour waiting for the show to start...we had awesome seats and it was SO beautiful! The fireworks and Electric Parade - what more could your eyeballs want??

I think I had recovered a bit from my sickness the next day for Universal Studios because I was in heaven there! The kids and I love Dr. Seuss and we were smiling ear to ear when to see Whoville! But this was also the day we got to see.... Harry Potter World!!!

Jesse has been waiting forever to see this and it was awesome! Not a lot for kids to do and after going on the Harry Potter ride I was just heartbroken Jesse was too short for it (SO FUN!). But we got to tour the castle and drink Butter beer (YUM) complete with the moustache and ate at the Hogsmead cafe and (ssshhh) got Jesse and Breanna real wands for Christmas. Breanna loved the roller coaster. She went on it twice. The kids love anything that gives them a 'tummy tickle'. Jesse was so brave. The Jurassic Park ride is scary even for ME and he insisted he wasn't scared. Breanna was scared though-not of the huge drop at the end but the huge roaring T-Rex. Backwards as far as I'm concerned! The best part for the kids was running into their cousins. Wow were they ever excited!

The next warm sunny day we went to Hollywood Studios, where Jesse got to meet his HERO-Indiana Jones. You should have seen his face watching the Indy show. He was going NUTS! We also enjoyed Poseidon's Fury pyramid tour where all the children were crying and shaking from fear, including poor Afton.

This kid is Indiana Jones' biggest fan. Look at the face he's making in the picture. Breanna also loved it-she loves Marion and made sure to wear a white shirt and "red" pants. How did she know that's what Marion wears? Jesse's favourite ride was Star Tours, Brad's was the Aerosmith roller coaster. We also did the Tower of Terror and I was TERRified. I can't imagine how poor Jesse felt! We got to meet up with the Mason cousins again and I think the best part was the lights that night.

This was no lie, one of the most fun things I have ever done. It was so warm outside but Christmas music was playing and "snow" was falling from the sky. The lights were unbelievable. We all just danced and played in the streets. I wish the picture could do it justice but it can't. I was so happy!

Sunday we finally relaxed and went to the beach. This was also the day I had a temper tantrum. We were supposed to have a nice picnic on the beach. Jesse was obviously tired because my normally kind and happy boy was being super defiant and whiney, Breanna was sick, crying with an ear infection and during our "nice" picnic, these killer seagulls kept stealing our food and one BIT Afton's finger trying to get her food! I was a bit burnt out too because I picked up Afton and stomped off to the van, insisting we should go home. Then Breanna came and said 'I'm having fun now, can you come back?' I humbled myself and came back, thank goodness because the sand-oh, the sand was unbelievable! White and soft and yes, my next vacation will be to a white sandy beach!!! Our camera battery died so I didn't get any pictures but Jesse was running in and out of the wake making the waves "catch" him. It was so cute to watch and he was soaking by the end! Brad and I joined him and it's actually fun. We collected lots of seashells! Brad favourite moment was when a perfect sand dollar landed right on his foot. Seriously. No seriously, his favourite moment of the holiday.

This sand makes perfect sand castles!!

The next day was sea world. It had the most fun rides. Brad and I agree, the Manta roller coaster at Sea World was the funnest of the trip. Wow, what a rush!! Jesse went on his first ride alone. Brad and Jesse went on the Journey to Atlantis ride and loved it. But the best part for me was the dolphin show. WOW! You have to see that in your lifetime!!

There were lots of great lights at Sea World too and this was a pretty little tree in front of the Christmas tree light show. I loved being there on that warm night eating caramel popcorn and enjoying the music, the lights and all the amazing shows.

We had to do Magic Kingdom one more time before we left. I'm glad we did because it turns out it's SO much more fun when you're not sick! This was one of the best days. The weather was so perfect and we went on the family favorite rides- the Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean and of course, a picture with Santa! He was SUCH a good Santa! So nice and I'm pretty sure his beard was real. If ever there was a real Santa this was it.

Breanna and I danced for a long time in front of the castle waiting for the Dreams Come True show. We both loved it. She twirled and twirled and I hope felt a little like a princess.

I have to include this picture because I love Peter Pan. The shows were all so great.

In the afternoon we met up with my whole family for a family photo at the Floridian. Finally, we were all together! I can't wait to see it and post a pic. That night my sister Rachel rented a room in the Hilton for our family to get together for a Christmas celebration the night before the wedding. It was so much fun. We had a talent show first. I have such a talented family. Seriously. Sterling's kids played the piano, Rachel's family recited the entire Night Before Christmas poem (what? Even 3-year-old Evie? Uhm yes.) It's hard sometimes being related to the smartest most charming kids out there, how can one ever measure up. Especially since we rehearsed our family song over and over, had it perfect, Breanna refused to even do it and Jesse rushed through it as fast as he could so Brad and I didn't even get to sing. Haha. If I wasn't so competitive I would have thought it was hilarious. Then Russell who's studying to be a podiatrist did a full-on analysis of my Mom's poor feet; Candace miraculously unscrambled a random sentence we came up with in a matter of minutes; her husband Dave taught us all a little British jargon; my sis-in-law Katie played the piano brilliantly; my brother Derek was able to guess where any scripture was in the Book of Mormon; and my Mom read a piece of her new book. Mom I was probably chasing Afton around when Dallas did his because I don't remember it. Anyway, the best was the Nativity! They all had costumes and a part! I wish my camera was working better but all my pictures suck. This one I just HAVE to post because it was so cute how serious these kids took their part of being angels, they held their hands in the air so studiously!

Jesse was a shepherd. My favourite is when he recites that line from Charlie Brown "Every Christmas is the same, I always end up being a shepherd." The kids did such a good job. It was fun.

Last but most important, my brother Russell got married. I cried some at that wedding. It was perfection. The bride was unbelievably gorgeous. My brother cried when he saw her. They love each other SO much and I am so happy for my brother. What no one else saw was me sobbing to Brad that night. All my brothers and sisters I grew up with are married now. I miss being' us'. We went through everything together and as far as I could tell when I was little, they were my world. For some reason it hit me that that's no longer the case and I cried and cried. Poor Brad. Whatever happens my heart is forever knit with my brothers and sisters. They know where I came from and I know where they come from. Nothing will ever change that and we are all who we are because of each other.

On a less mushy note, I couldn't stop taking pictures of Afton because she was being so dang cute!!

Here they are-don't fall over, I know they're basically supermodels. I see little models and basketball players in their future!! You're not going to believe this, but even their cake was delicious!! Yes it's possible for a wedding cake to taste great!

By the end we were all tuckered out. We left for home at 4 am. The trip home took 14 1/2 hours because our plane in Denver got delayed. Imagine me, holding Afton, sitting in one of those hard airport chairs, conked right out. We must have been tired! With a little one-year-old, I'm not gonna lie we were all happy to get off the plane for the last time.

Home Sweet Home, with lots of wonderful memories!!

2011-12-09T09:08:00.001-07:00

Breanna's 4th birthday party was a lot of work but so much fun! I even made those cheesy puff balls to hang from the ceiling. It's hard to entertain 9 little girls for 3 hours, but it's also fun to see them happy. The party had everything Breanna loves: a picnic, all the colors of the rainbow, crafts, dancing and candy.

See those pretty sparkly party hats? Breanna wanted black. She's such an unusual little girl, but I love that about her. I always thought people were lying to be cool growing up when they said their favorite color was black. But now I see, I should not have judged.

The candy table. Does it look like a wannabe pinterest table or what??

Here's the video. It's super lame. I'm sad I have to be the one to do the videos these days. They are nowhere near as good as when Brad would do them.

Anway, I just feel blessed to have Breanna in our family. She's special. When she was born I remember being overwhelmed with her spirit. It felt like it filled the room and the only way I could describe it was "sweet". She still has that same spirit. I love watching her and getting to know her and I love her so much. This is her getting ready to leave for pajama day at preschool. She's been waiting years for this!

Afton turned one. She likes to walk fast and embarrass me by begging other Moms to hold her. She talks a ton and has all of the intonations down but only says a few words- hot, hat (she whispers those and they sound exactly the same and it's so cute when she blows something hot), she asks "what's that?" and "what's this?" and says "hi dad" while waving. She also likes to say "MUM!" really loud just to see if I'll look and am paying attention. Afton is definitely very passionate about life. She can hardly contain it. She wakes up in the morning with wide eyes and looks around to find something to point at and practically screams "WHAT'S THAT?" It's like she's saying Do you see that? Isn't it amazing? But it's just a door, or a blanket or a light. She likes to stack things and put things inside of things. She knows by now what she's not supposed to have and when I mess up and leave it out she studiously brings it to me and hands it over willingly with a look on her face like "here's the scissors Mom, you know I'm not supposed to have these so what are you doing leaving them out?" Her birthday was, well...simple. But she was surrounded by family and she got to devour cake and to her that's all that mattered!

Brad and I went snowboarding and it was so much fun. Then we went to the hot springs. Although I felt guilty leaving my kids it was worth it to have that time with my husband. I was so in love with him by the end of it. Yay! I get to spend the rest of forever with this hot, nice, smart guy who is in love with me and also thinks I'm pretty special.

We're ready for Christmas! It's a great feeling. Next up our trip to Florida. I'm so excited!!!!!!!

6 for the price of 1!

2011-11-06T20:19:00.002-07:00

This blog post needs to be a 6-in-1 post, because we've been sick and in survival mode so I haven't had a chance to blog at all. If you've been missing my blog posts you're in for a treat!! :D

First, Brad went to Las Vegas for 4 days. I was scared and sure missed the cuddles but it was nice to not have to worry about dinner and black socks on the floor and being able to read as long as I wanted at night! While he was gone the kids had a playdate with two of their favourite friends, Brooklyn and Jacob. I couldn't believe Breanna actually wanted to be a princess, YAY!

I also filmed this little video of Breanna playing and Brad and I can't stop laughing about it.

Then it was Halloween. I felt crafty this Halloween and so the kids and I made egg carton spiders, saran wrap ghosts, sock vampire bats (with Candace) and Pretzel ghosts. The kids liked dipping the chocolate:

Jesse said they didn't look like ghosts, but whatever they are I think they're cute!!

Trick or treating was a great success! Until Jesse threw up all over our friend's doorstep. Yep, we all had stomach flu. Yuck!

Jesse says "Engardio Lavioso" or something to cast a spell and make you float!

EWOK! I looooove Ewoks, but especially this one. See our saran wrap ghosts in the background?

Breanna made the cutest little Laura (at her preschool Halloween Party) and no I didn't make this costume, you know, as much of a sewing genius as I am...(can't believe how many people have asked me that)

Finally, it snowed!! Every year I am so excited for snow! Not this year, I don't know why. Breanna was excited though and first thing after we sent Jesse off to school she wanted to get in her snowsuit and go play. She was out there for almost an hour, and then when Jesse got home they both went out AGAIN and played for almost 2 hours!! Then I was much more excited for snow. We'll see how long it lasts.

2011-10-24T22:10:00.000-06:00

I'm totally in a sweet spot in my life right now!

My little baby girl is a nut bar! As crazy as her hair, I'd say! She's so cute and I love her to death but she makes lots of messes, BIG messes, has a ton of energy and is just go-go-go every minute she is awake. She also has a very driven personality. She knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it. Right now, she wants to walk! I don't think she is physically ready because she can only walk short distances but she does it all the time and the look on her face while doing it is sheer pride. Then the other day I casually went into another room to wash my face and forgot to close the other bathroom door. No big deal. I come back to brush my teeth and there, on the floor, is a huge puddle of pee-water from the toilet, a pile of unravelled toilet paper and my baby in the middle of it, sucking the pee-water out of the toilet paper. Ah, life.

The kids, with Jesse wearing Mr. Potato Head's hat. At the library.

Jesse's in Mandarin Immersion and counts to 39 in Mandarin about a hundred times a day. I guess he likes it. The other day my sister asked him if he has made friends in school. He said, yes. She then asked, "are they Chinese? Or white?" He said as he skipped happily away, "Nope! They're skinny like me." Haha! Jesse started soccer again and he loves it, which makes me so happy! Because I'm so competitive! He's really good and must burn a thousand calories running after that ball because he runs after it constantly-no matter where it is. Not very efficient but a good workout, as I see it. He also talks non-stop and asks questions I don't understand and makes abstract and obscure observations. I spend a great deal of my day confused.

Breanna continues to be funny and beautiful and mellow. She's just chill and I love that about her. Again, so different from me. Every day she wants to wear a dress that "dances really wide." I remember the first time she saw her cousin Avery twirl at the Christmas dance. She was barely two but since then, she's had an obsession with twirling in dresses that spin out.

Brad turned 31, thank goodness because I always feel so awkward for the month that I'm 4 years older than him! For his birthday I put his mission pictures in a scrapbook and have completed about four pages. I'm not good, but I've made a new friend who scrapbooks and I'm amazed-I like it. This is all very strange considering I have always claimed, rightly so, to be the least crafty person I know. And all I can think about is my friend Silvana right now reading this and thinking, Sarah, you've changed. Haha! But truthfully, I can't see myself scrapbooking ever again after this one is finished. Although for Halloween I think I may make cake bites for my children's school parties. What is happening to me??

As always lately, life is so good!!

Aaaaaand the Corn Maze

2011-10-16T20:48:00.005-06:00

Joy and Thanksgiving

2011-10-10T21:28:00.002-06:00

I've had about the best weekend ever! Friday was my fairy godmother day, always one of my favorite days of the month! Then Friday night I went to the temple with my husband (thanks Candace and Dave, you are the wind beneath our wings :) and felt the sweet, beautiful spirit only found at the temple. The gospel is truly 'good tidings of great joy!' Saturday I went for a run and we enjoyed a nice day at home with nothing to do. Sunday was Thanksgiving Dinner at my Mom's house and my sister came from Texas with her kids. Turkey and pumpkin pie against the beautiful backdrop of fall, wow! We had so much fun.

The Little Kid Table

Brad always talks about how sweet potato pie is the most underrated pie. So when we were asked to bring dessert to Thanksgiving dinner I told my Mom we would be bringing sweet potato pie. She insisted we also bring pumpkin pie. So Brad felt a little slighted and being the trixter that he is made a pumpkin and a sweet potato pie, told everyone they were both pumpkin pies using different recipes and made them pick which one they liked best. He felt very vindicated when everyone chose the sweet potato pie. Good one, Brad!

Hunter (my nephew, to the left) worked SO hard to help make this pile of leaves. He was very passionate about it and stood by to watch everyone jump in it. Can you sense the enthusiasm? Haha. But really, it was so much fun running down the hill and into the pile.

Leaf Fight!! Not so fun when sticks are added to the mix and YOU are the target.

Lexi being beautiful

In a tree, this does not look comfortable. So much for living in a tree, Margaret Atwood style: (LOVE this book!!!)

That time again

2011-10-08T13:13:00.000-06:00

Happy Me

2011-10-06T10:41:00.000-06:00

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I complain a bit (what's that? You have? I do it all the time? Okay). So I want to take a post to clear some things up.

I love being a Mom! It's the most fulfilling, best thing I have ever done. I love when Afton first wakes up and I pick up her small little body and snuggle her. I feel so proud watching Jesse so bravely walk to school (and then I pat myself on the back for sending him with rain boots and an umbrella, because that might seem small to you but I always forget stuff like that). I feel happy when Breanna's teacher says to me, "she's always happy, isn't she?" I love hearing my kids laugh together. Breanna is so funny and can keep Jesse and everyone laughing. I love seeing how different she is from me-she is not a people pleaser! I love that Jesse is such a good sport. He has a friend who is so rough other kids cry when they play with him, but Jesse just lets it all roll off his back. So not me, I want to shake the kid :) I love when his teacher says he's passionate about learning. I love reading to my kids. I love when I'm stomping around stressed out and mad and Jesse says something funny and then I laugh and feel like a tool. I love taking them fun places and having play dates and doing homework with them. I love cooking! I love when I give them healthy food and they eat it without me having to bribe them. I love listening to them pray at night, I love teaching them the gospel. I even love cleaning, though it takes a back seat these days. I loved seeing Afton take her first step. I love volunteering at the school. The other day Jesse got two invitations to two different birthday parties from kids in his class. After explaining to him the situation, I asked him which one he wanted to go to and he said "neither. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings." Yep, he's special.

I guess I don't mind that in this picture I have yellow teeth and lots of wrinkles.

I also love the gospel. I love the personal relationship I have with the Savior and that I can address my Father in Heaven in prayer every day, ask for things and get them. I am grateful for how the gospel asks me to be better and not make excuses for myself.

I have so much to be grateful for! Growing up poor (and I mean really poor) helps me because I never look at others who have more than me and feel jealous. I just look around at what I have and am amazed at how rich I am! I can afford rain boots and umbrellas for my kids. I have a warm home, we have all the food we need every day. We have clothing- for all kinds of weather! and cable and internet and a car that runs well and enough for babysitters and dates and other fun family outings. I love our lake and how close we are to Fish Creek Park. We have enough to pay the bills every month and some for putting kids in activities, properly dressed even (although a lot of that is hand-me-downs, I love hand-me downs). I am grateful for Brad who makes this all possible! I am grateful he is my best friend and that we will be together forever.

I am happy to be healthy and that my family and extended family are healthy.

I love this beautiful world.

So yes, I complain a lot, but deep down this is how I feel, so please keep that in mind! These things define who I am and how I feel on a day to day basis, through good and bad.

2011-10-02T21:21:00.000-06:00

I know I said I would blog every day last week but it obviously didn't happen. My brain wasn't inspired in any way to blog about anything. In fact I'm still sitting here not knowing what to blog about. We have been outside lots lately enjoying the sheer beauty of the world around us with the warm weather and all. I always wish I would have brought my camera but it's on its last legs and I get so annoyed carrying it around. So then I don't have pictures and that makes it boring.

Afton's hair is always so crazy and she's always such a mess and her clothes are always dirty, I basically let her wander around and eat rocks and sand and sticks and whatever else she comes across (except poo and cigarette butts). After I pick Jesse up from school we always stick around and play at the park for a while. I just let Afton go nuts and sometimes I get busy chatting and lose track of her altogether. People act understanding but I still feel self conscious of it sometimes. I wonder if I'm taking "free range parenting" to a whole new level. She doesn't say any words or walk or anything. She's cute though and I know she's smart she just can't be bothered.

Yesterday and today was General Conference. I know the church is true. I don't know if it's possible to listen to those talks and not know the church is true.

This was one of my favourites.

Friday night I was at Wal Mart with Brad at about 10:00 at night and there were a bunch of parents there with their kids and I was so jealous. I was like, I wish I could be the kind of parent that just didn't care! Deep down I am 100% like that. I think I'm burning out a bit. I'm just so busy all the time I can hardly enjoy life or my kids. If I don't watch it one day I'm going to snap and start homeschooling my kids and living off the grid.

Forgotten Moments

2011-09-26T21:26:00.001-06:00

Sitting downtown, waiting for the bus when a homeless man offered me a carrot after running in circles in the middle of the road. I took it and it was delicious. Climbing the fence to watch the train go by before my appointment with the therapist. Listening to this song. Walking home from school when it was so cold my thighs burned. Staying up all night in the computer room at the University writing a paper. Going to a concert by myself and riding the c-train home. Eating a whole piece of cheesecake on a date with a guy I didn't like and going home with a migraine because of it. Carrying my groceries home from the grocery store and thinking my fingers were going to fall off they were so heavy.

The time Brad drove me across the city to buy something for school. He was listening to Sublime and I realized he was the only one for me. I love him.

Casual Weekend

2011-09-25T20:51:00.000-06:00

Friday I thought I was going to go completely mental! The kids were fighting and Afton was grouchy and cried a lot, meanwhile I was busy neglecting my kids so I could get the house clean after a very busy week left it quite the disaster. It was the most amazing feeling when I left the babysitter, waved to the kids through the window and drove off with just Brad, a whole evening ahead of us just the two of us. We went downtown and jogged through Prince's Island Park where Brad usually goes on his lunch hour. I loved seeing where Brad works, now I can picture him sitting in his pretty little office doing all his financial analyst stuff. It was the most perfect evening, with the warm air and the buskers playing their happy tunes. Then we went and bought me a new shirt, ate burgers and dessert, went home and watched a movie and ate a bunch more junk food, then went to bed way too late. But I knew I would be a happier Mom the next day!

Saturday morning I had so much fun helping out with the food drive. I think Heavenly Father must be so pleased with how our city comes together on that morning to gather food for those who need it. That afternoon the family went to the lake because it was HOT! We played in the water, walked around the park and I couldn't bring myself to leave until the last minute so I was late for the Relief Society Broadcast. I wasn't even going to go because I spent the morning away from the kids doing church stuff, but I felt the spirit tell me that was the best place I could be that night. It was. Then I stayed up way too late again with Brad watching another movie. What was I thinking? I usually go to bed early and wake up early-this is how I function best and I hate it when I get thrown off by making poor decisions.

This morning we went to church. Then we came home and had a quick lunch-steamed vegetable medley topped with chicken, to make up for pigging out all weekend long. I read scriptures (the kind with pictures) to the kids until I was so tired I finally told them to get me a pillow and blanket, laid on the couch and had wonderful nap. After I woke up we went on a long walk in Fish Creek Park. As you can see it was beautiful. Brad was behind the camera, because now I've lost my pregnancy weight I don't mind being in pictures :) haha, I'm such a nerd.

We found this makeshift fort, pretty cool.

I felt like I was risking my life getting these bullrushes but I had to do it! I LOVED cattails when I was little and my kids have never touched them before. Can you believe it? I forgot how soft they are. The kids loved them.

Looking for "fish" (minnows)-I'm always impressed with how Jesse navigates "rough" terrain. He's not intimidated by it at all.

On our way out of the park we saw these, the one at the top is a fawn that still has its spots.

Tomorrow I'll be up at 5:30 to work out and begin it all again. This week I'm going to blog every day, I'm thinking just random thoughts, because walking out of the Relief Society broadcast I had this feeling that even though I'm a wife and mom and that's such a big part of my life, I'm also me. Independent of them and anything or anyone else. I like that.

New Post

2011-09-22T22:03:00.000-06:00

Sitting here chewing gum
Thinking I'm old, I don't listen to music anymore
The teachers say they really like Jesse, he's nice and he tries hard, "I'm doing my best, Mom."
But I knew that already.
I spend almost as much time complaining about how busy I am as I do actually doing something about it
But I love my life.

It's so good.

The only thing missing is freedom from my own expectations my perceived expectations others have of me
I remember now why I hated school, schools have rules
I don't like rules
Even church has rules, I don't mind God's rules, but which ones are God's rules, which ones are not? I wasn't going to grow up, but then I had a baby.

I'm working on not being angry. It's hard. But I'm learning.
We're all imperfect, we're all imperfect, so just forgive and say, whatever. In the city of Zion people won't fight or argue with each other. I want to live there. So I look on the bright side.

I went for a walk with my kids down the lane, saw a couple friends, Jesse climbed a tree, that made me happy. We swung on swings, my baby laughed, my kids played, they laughed.
It's so beautiful outside!
But I'm scared for winter.

You might think I'm trying to write a poem.
This is not a poem. This is a rush.

The End.

We Don't Need No Education...

2011-09-13T20:57:00.000-06:00

I heard that song on the radio the other day and I couldn't believe I used to listen to that song ever. How ungrateful can you be? 'Hey Teachers! Leave those kids alone!" WHAT!?! I am soooo grateful my kids are getting an education, and I am going to drill it into their heads that they should be too!

Yep, I took pictures of my kids for their first day of school. Imagine that.

Jesse did awesome his first few days...it's only now he's having a bit of a rough time as he realizes, this is every day. He came home from school after his first full day and there was a paper bag puppet he had coloured in his bag, along with a little note to ask your child the story about the puppet. Jesse told me the story of Chester the raccoon in so much detail, but in a nutshell, Chester the Raccoon was scared to go to school but his Mom kissed his hand in the middle of his palm and it stayed with him all day. After that I asked him the usual questions, what did you do, what did you play with, who did you play with etc., then I asked him, did anything make you feel scared or nervous? He shrugged his shoulders and said solemnly, "it's like Chester."

It made me realize that where I had thought this Kindergarten thing was just so easy for him, all along he was just being brave. So now before he goes I kiss and hug him several times including one in the middle of his palm that he can hold with him all day.

Breanna is going to thrive in preschool. She totally knew the drill and did everything perfectly, taking off her boots and putting on her indoor shoes, hanging up her backpack, waiting in line...I'm glad she got into the school (she was on the waiting list-my bad) because she's been watching Jesse go there for 2 years and now it's her chance! I would have felt so guilty if she hadn't been able to go.

Things have been crazy busy around here, with the start of school and the start of lessons for the kids. I have to have the kids out of the door by 7:55 am and that's fine but I also work out before that because otherwise I don't get a chance during the day.

I also feel like I'm cleaning constantly and never getting anywhere. I clean up after 5 very messy people (including myself sometimes) all day long and yet the next day I'm picking it all up again. I used to have my kids trained to put their clothes in the laundry basket and put their dishes in the sink but somehow that's gone down the drain and I am left to either "nag" or do it myself. I'm starting to feel like a maid that everyone is taking advantage of and when I ask anyone else to do anything to help I feel like the wicked stepmother. And that's weird because believe it or not I LOVE to clean!! I don't want that to change!

Does anyone have tips on getting everyone to make a habit of picking up after themselves? I SOUND LIKE AN OLD HAG! ICH!

The Last Party!!

2011-09-01T21:09:00.000-06:00

Cornfest, for us, is the last hurrah of the summer, the last party, and it is just so fun I'm telling you. So before I get nostalgic about the fact that my wonderful summer is over, let me just go over what Cornfest is all about:

Playing like crazy at Grandma's house with the cousins

Eating piles of corn. Breanna eats corn like no one I have ever seen. A Taber girl at heart!

Running in Races (and winning if you are my SIL Melissa. First girl! Go Melissa!) I ran the 5k in 27 mins Brad ran the 10k in 54 mins. Exactly the same pace...awwwwww.

Petting zoo, lumberjack games, a beehive on display and bouncy castles! Jesse remembered his bunny from 2 years ago!! He said "I want to see my bunny." So sweet.

Fun rides!! The ferris wheel freaks me out like no other ride. I'm gripping the safety bar the whole time. Breanna had a blast though.

Warm nights---no sweater needed!

More Rides!

The Chevelles-I love the part where Jesse is dancing awkwardly with his best friend Aliyah. And when Breanna's cousin Maren picks her up and spins her.

AWESOME fireworks, and then, when the kids are in bed around 11pm, going back with my hubby to dance to the Chevelles and go on the Zipper. Doesn't get any better than that for a summer sendoff!!!

But I need a better camera.

2011-08-23T20:38:00.002-06:00

Jesse's little lego Indy is pretty precious around here. He's been lost and, with prayer, found, several times. This last time he was lost for a couple of weeks in between me changing the kids' sheets and found when I stepped on him making the bed. I put him on the dresser in the kids' room for Jesse to discover. He was super happy and showed his dad. I overheard Brad talking to Jesse and he said, "you can play with Indy, but when you're done playing with him, give him back to me so you don't lose him. We want to keep Indy safe because when you're all grown up Mommy and Daddy will look at him and remember you when you were a kid. And we will probably cry." After the kids were in bed that night I heard one of the kids crying softly. I called and asked whoever it was to come to me. Silence. I called again. Silence. I called again and finally Jesse came out to me. I held him on my lap and snuggled him and asked him what was the matter. He cried some more before finally saying:

"I just want to be a kid forever!"

He went on, holding his little lego Indiana Jones in his had, "I don't want to grow up. I just love this little guy so much!"

It broke my heart! He gets it, how awesome it is to be a kid. And he is the best kid ever. He has so much fun, every day, being one protagonist or another. He really embraces childhood and life with so much passion. It makes me want to hold him in my arms and cry:

"I want him to be a kid forever! I don't want him to grow up, I just love this little guy so much!"

The most important thing to Jesse is his "friends" (his cousins). After a day at the zoo today I asked him what his favorite place was and he said, my friends are my favorite place, meaning, wherever my friends are is my favorite place. Which is why it's a little sad that one of his best friends is moving far far away to Texas. My kids adore their Mason cousins. We'll miss you guys, but we'll see you lots still I'm sure.

My Roots

2011-08-16T23:13:00.001-06:00

Saturday we celebrated my Grandad's 80th birthday. I'm proud of my family and my roots. They are all so kind and warm and beautiful, which humbles me and makes me feel like I want to be a better person.

We did a tribute to my Granddad who has obviously deeply affected all of the lives of his grandchildren. My little contribution was this:

Growing up one of my favorite smells in the world was the smell of Grandad when he hugged me. One time my Mom told me he didn't wear deoderant. So, I stopped wearing it and although I'm sure I don't smell good like grandad, no one has ever complained.

True story :) Others talked about Granddad teaching them to love nature, he being a conservationist "long before it was fashionable" (that was my Mom), teaching them how to swim (and then I remembered he taught me too! So cool!), teaching them the importance of family, etc. I only felt a little bit silly that mine was so superficial! But the thing is, I wanted to be like Granddad and that was the underlying premise. My Granddad and I, as I've come to learn more in these last few years, really "get" each other. We think a lot alike and I love talking to him.

It was truly beautiful to see my Granddad's joy in all of us. I will never forget. I am excited for the time when I am older and I can look on my posterity with pride. I also want to allow my children the opportunity to grow up as individuals because although his posterity are all so different, we are all kind and non-judgemental(if I do say so myself, haha) and that is what matters.

Another thing I remember about my Granddad, a couple of years ago at our Radium Christmas I did pushups for the talent show. I was proud, but then my Granddad got up and did *20* perfect pushups and I was even MORE proud! That is how I want to be! He was in the Army. My Mom was a classic "army brat".

My Grandparents made up a quiz for us and there were 3 teams competing for a prize. My team lost :( Probably because of me :( And I felt bad :( That I know so little :( But SO excited to hear the answers and learn more of my heritage and country. The quiz says a lot about what is important to my Granddad.

* I just realized my Mom only sent me the second and third pages and it's too late to call, so this will have to do for now!

Here is the QUIZ

There was a lot of love in that place.

My Granddad is a photographer and I so fondly remember our slideshows at family gatherings. My favorite memories as a child were in Radium with my extended family. Pleasant pictures in my mind.

I never realized until this weekend how very alike my Mom and Grandma are! My Grandma, (who never seems to age, strangely) is very matter-of-fact but also warm and loving. They both have this amazing ability to lay down the law so that no one even thinks to question. But they only use it ever so rarely. I hope somewhere deep down I have inherited some of that power :)

My Mom is the sweetest, most honest person you will ever meet. Which is why I took so much pleasure in this story I heard that day:

My Mom told her little brothers they were giving away free marbles at the store. My Uncles were so excited, they left right away and stuffed every pocket they had as full as they could get them and came home with all these marbles. Of course when Grandma found out they got in trouble and had to take them back. Hahaha! I just cannot imagine my sweet mother being so mischievous.

My poor, unsuspecting Uncles that my Mom so cruelly duped are the two men on the right in this picture. Every story my Uncles tell is funny. I wonder if it's partly because of their accent. B.C. Interior? Yes, they have an accent! Why, Mom? My cousin Ryder inherited it also, and I love it! Like music to my ears! (That's little Carter in the front, Tyrel's cutie little boy)

My beautiful family Sharon, Justin, Max, Afton (yes my Afton is named after the same person as she was!), Asher and Rachel.

Our team. The Looo-hoo-hoo-sers :( Jamie, Vanya and her little one Darren, me, Dallas and Seth. The one beside Vanya is her fiancé and I can't remember his name :/

The winners. Candace, Derek, Mitch, Lara and little Megan. I dare say Lara and Mitch might be the most beautiful couple I've ever seen. Not sure where Tyrel is but he was on this team too.

Aren't we a wonderful little bunch? Sorry for the rambling, but this was an important day for me and I want to remember it.

2011-08-11T20:52:00.000-06:00

Okay, I need to do a blog post.

What to say, what to say, what to say...

went to the lake blah blah blah, went to the zoo yah-yah, went for a run, blah-blah, reading a book, boring...(the news, not the book) had a playdate, yep.

I clean my house all the time?....

Hm.

How about some pictures of my baby chewing her food?

No?

Well, I can't help you then. This is as entertaining as it gets 'round here these days.

Oh wait! I do have some exciting news, but I'm not allowed to say anything!!!! Here's a hint though!!!!!!:

Can you guess?? :)

P.S. I can't stop thinking about and praying about this.

2011-08-04T22:41:00.002-06:00

Playing at the Temple

Eating outside the temple

On our hike up to Forum Lake we came across this stuff we haven't seen in a while and I realized quickly how much I do not miss it yet!

This long green piece of cloth is the thing I carried Afton up the mountain in. She was happy as can be the whole way, sometimes she would kick her legs and arms and just look around when she was facing forward and when she got tired I turned her around and she snuggled me and fell right asleep. I love it!

Happy Family-Jesse also didn't complain even one time! And neither did Brad, even though he carried Breanna on his shoulders almost the whole time.

Climbing up beside Forum Falls.

Canoeing on Waterton Lake after the hike.

I didn't get a picture but we went and did "beading" at Crandell Lake Campground, in a tent with 2 ladies from different Native American Tribes in the Waterton area. We made headdresses and got to see a buffalo pelt and talked a lot about Native American culture and the way it was "in the dog days" (before horses) Also, the first night we went up to Cameron Lake at Midnight to look at the stars and they were amazing. So many and so bright. But we all got ourselves in a tizzy talking about bears and were too scared to really enjoy it for long. Now I regret that, but it's funny to look back on :)

Warming my hands by the fire and wearing my favourite new camping shirt. It has a hood and pockets and it's nice and soft. We stayed in the trailer and I actually had a good sleep EVERY night! Cushy.

How Grandma took care of Afton so she didn't crawl into the water while we were at Lost Horse Creek. Yet another use for the hippy wrap, thanks to her ingenuity! :)

Lost Horse Creek-the kids had so much fun playing in the water even though the water is, I'm telling you, not just cold, F-R-eezing. And Brad and I jumped all the way in, here's the proof for posterity (Brad didn't want me to post his):

This was the highlight of our trip! Thanks to Jill and Karen for watching our kids so we could go on a date! It was SO fun!! First we climbed Bear's Hump (in 18 minutes no less) and talked a lot and just enjoyed each other. We found a secluded spot with a good view and kissed (a lot) at the top (sorry guys, but it was fun!) and then picked wild raspberries on the way down. They didn't taste very good. Then we rode our bikes into town (it was downhill and so fun!) and went and got some fudge. It was called "Grasshopper Pie"- Mint, Oreo, White chocolate and caramel all in one delicious yummy YUMMINESS. Neither of us have been able to stop thinking about it since. We rode our bikes to Cameron Falls and had a good laugh at this sign:

DANGER!! People dancing with deer!

Then we hopped on our bikes and rode back to our campsite as the sun set. There's a new path and it was SO FUN! The view is amazing and there's lots of hills where you can't help but go "Weeeeeee!"

See this bear? Yesterday we were riding our bikes on the path back into town and Jesse was on the back of Brad's on a tandem bike. This bear was walking along right beside the path! Luckily Grandma stopped to take pictures because when that bear finally stood up and looked right at us we booked it into the car until it went away. We saw about 7 bears this trip! One was a little cub stuck in a tree.

The kids had so much fun running around and playing, being free to do whatever they wanted.

I'm sure there's more I want to remember but I have to go to bed. I'm so glad we got to spend some time together as a family and I can't wait to go back to the most beautiful place on earth.

2011-07-27T07:15:00.001-06:00

I sometimes find myself defending my parenting to the social workers in my head who would try to take my kids away because I'm such an irresponsible parent. A friend of mine told me the other day that she was registered with social services. She left her napping kids in the car once while she ran into the store and all I could think was...if social services only knew....

"I'm sorry Mrs. Social Worker, my baby was screaming and exhausted and when she finally fell asleep it just wasn't worth it to me to wake her up to take my son to preschool across the street this one time."

"I'm sorry Mr. Social Worker, I do let my kids play in the back yard unsupervised, but I make sure I can always hear them!"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Social Worker, for letting my children run around at the grocery store, and yes sometimes they are out of my sight for a second. But I always call out to make sure I know they are safe..."

"Alright, Ms. Social Worker, I only bath my baby once a week and sometimes don't change her wet diaper for a few hours and after changing her outfit for the 4th time that day finally allow her to be naked."

"Yes Mr. Social Worker, I got so frustrated the other day that my child COULD NOT figure out the difference between the number 12 and the number 20 after 3 hours that I threw the workbook on the ground." (that was a particular low point)

"I know, Mr. Social Worker, I shouldn't let my baby eat dirt and sand on a regular basis."

BUT Mr. Social Worker, these kids are my life. I have no life outside my family. My world revolves around them....hey look at this cute picture of Afton sitting on my kitchen counter playing with the can opener! What's that you say? Should never let baby sit on the kitchen counter and play with dangerous kitchen tools? Would it help if I did her hair and put a humungous brightly colored flower in it?

2011-07-21T23:01:00.002-06:00

Today Brad came home from work and I hadn't even started supper. So, he asked,

"What did you do all day?"

Lucky for both of us he was joking, but it got me wondering, what would really happen if I did nothing all day. Watched TV and such. Well, it just so happens I fell asleep for twenty minutes while reading books to the kids this afternoon, and I got a small sampling, as this was my floor when I woke up:

Yes, Afton is in the pull-herself-up-on-stuff-and-get-into-everything stage. This time it was Breanna's leftover peas from lunch, her water, her entire container of yogurt spread across the floor and the dirt from the plant-less plant pot. Luckily she is also in "THE CUTEST STAGE EVER!!!!" (I couldn't help myself) because it's barely even frustrating she's so dang cute. Not to mention she was the happiest baby in the world when I woke up after letting loose on my living room. So I washed my floors, and that's what I did, Brad.

Here's my happy baby at her happiest:

Mom she is like you! When I looked at this series of pictures her eyes are closed in almost every one! Maybe it's genetic...

2011-07-20T10:31:00.002-06:00

This is why I love Calgary:

Swimsuits on the beach in the morning, thunder and downpour in the afternoon. Sunshine and backyard fun before supper, thunderstorms and rain after supper. Decide I can't go for my run and start another workout in my basement after the kids are in bed. Go upstairs for some water, see the rain has stopped.

Go for my run. Home just in time for the rain to start again.

I know I talk about my runs in fish creek park lots but they really are heavenly. One thing I love is the chance that I might see wildlife. Yesterday I was all alone down there. Except for the birds and the deer, that is. This deer parked itself right beside the pathway. That's when I stop thinking "aw, look at the pretty deer" and start thinking "oh crap. Look at the scary evil deer." I shouted and stomped my feet and did jumping jacks but this deer was not going to move (can you see her in the picture? She was actually much closer than it looks in the picture but I couldn't zoom in because I was using the iPhone). Worst of all, after all my jumping and shouting this deer did not take her eyes off of me! So it was either turn around and risk getting rained on (it had started to thunder again at this point) or pass the deer. It took all my courage to creep past that deer! I thought I was going to die, but I said to myself, if I die, I die happy. The deer didn't move but she sure stared me down.

And that is my deer story.

After the rain after my run stopped:

Summer is...

2011-07-18T20:51:00.000-06:00

Friends, cold water and cherries in the back yard on a HOT day!

2011-07-17T22:00:00.000-06:00

I think the last time my family did "family pictures" was, oh, seven years ago? So it's funny to be part of a family that seizes every opportunity for a family picture.

I like this recent one at my new nephew Evan's baby blessing, because it was the best one of the bunch but as you may note, Brad is making a face somewhat similar to the little girl in the second row, third from the right. He was trying to imitate the face she tends to make in every picture, a running family joke. (That's Heidi, I talked about her in the last post). Thanks, Brad. I love my in-laws. We have fun together.

Do you love those little red cowboy boots Afton wore to Brad's work stampede breakfast? I think they belonged to Brad's sisters when they were babies. Look at how savvy I am. Vintage stuff. Wow me. Could I have co-ordinated the outfit better? Maybe. But luckily she's cute no matter what!

Jesse loved his face-painting job, and it did look really cool. When we got home he got me a tea towel and a shoelace and a butter knife and made me put it on him like this. He cried when we had to wash it off and he also got a real black eye from Brad trying to rub off the black paint.

One of the kids took this picture of our garden and I like being surprised by all the random pictures on our camera thanks to my kids. I love our little garden so it made the cut. I hadn't weeded yet this day but I'm pretty obsessive about keeping weeds out of this garden usually.

Here's another random picture I found of me washing the dishes. Not sure who took it (and my underwear's kinda showing), but I had to post it, and I'll tell you why. I was surprised by how small my butt is! Vain? Yes. Do I want to document it for future reference? Uhm, yes!! I'm not sure if this picture is accurate but I'll take it!

Just FYI, here's a link to my workouts. I LOVE Lindsay Brin. Her workouts are amazing, she really does her research, and she comes out with a new workout every month for only $5. I started doing them right after I had my baby and was able to start slow but she is still kicking my butt 5 months later. If you want to get in shape, she is such a good resource. Trust me!!

http://www.momsintofitness.com/

I weaned Afton this week. It just sort of happened. We fed her a bottle one night and she took it so well that we kept feeding her bottles. It's definitely bitter sweet. I love breastfeeding and am going to miss it so much. Not to mention I go a LIIIIIITTTTTTTTLE bit PSYCHO in the months after I wean as my hormones adjust. Also bittersweet, I got released from my calling. I know it was time, but I love those girls so much. I hope they remember that I loved them.

So, after Young Women's camp and the roadshow (which was basically my baby, on top of my actual baby, for a while there) was over my life kind of came to a lurching halt. I'm making a new life plan and it involves mostly soaking up every wonderful summer day with my kids!!! Also hopefully more blog posts so I can stop posting the smorgasbord of pictures and random thoughts !

G'Night!

The Many Faces of Afton

2011-07-13T08:19:00.001-06:00

2011-07-11T21:55:00.000-06:00

Okay so I'm a stay at home mom with a baby, but…this was the funnest thing I've done in SO LONG!!!! This is a waterside from the Gough family reunion.

Too Much!!

2011-07-10T23:11:00.000-06:00

There's just too much to blog about! I hate the feeling of being "behind" on journaling. So instead I'm going to post one thing every day of things I want to talk about until I feel like I'm done. Here is today's:

Breanna:

With the infamous kitty! This kitty found Grandma's house and provided hours of fun.

Breanna was sick.

She wanted to be alone a lot.

At one point during the reunion she literally flittered herself away so she didn't have to go down the slip n' slide waterslide, over a hill until she was out of my sight and I had to follow her. I wondered what her plan was. She danced merrily along, picking clover and singing to herself. The same thing happened on another hillside before dinner. This time all the kids had left and I went to get her but she didn't want to go. So we sat there in the sunshine and quiet, just us. Breanna made me cookies out of leaves and grass and clover. She even put them in her pretend oven.

What I know about Breanna:

She has quiet strength

She's not one for big crowds, but loves to be one on one or in small groups, just like her Mom.

I think I will learn a lot about myself by watching her. She did NOT want to wear this number shirt and had the biggest tantrum over it! A few days later when we got home I was putting it away and Breanna saw me. She asked "do you like that shirt?" I said "Do you?" She said "No. I don't like it." Very matter of fact.

My favourite was listening to her on the drive to Taber and back from Waterton. She is like her Dad in that she is a quick thinker, witty and funny. She likes to tease Jesse and it's hilarious to watch her get under his skin! But they both always end up laughing.

Breanna loves all her cousins, but after this weekend I have a special place in my heart for Heidi who was so sweet to Breanna. She gave her a walking stick on our hike to Crandell Lake, she helped her across the log over a stream, she would always try to comfort her. Heidi is number 43 (and this is not a good picture of her, but it's the one where Breanna is least miserable!). She is really just nice and thoughtful, how I want to be.

Can you guess?

2011-06-26T20:50:00.002-06:00

Can you guess what this is?:

If you said, Jesse's new pet SWAN, then you are correct, and yes, he came up with this on his own and out of the blue.

And this, my friends, is what his pet swan does when it is mad:

Last night I was reading a book to the kids about 2 girls in a refugee camp in Pakistan who become friends and one of them gets chosen to go to America. Well, I'm reading this book and I started crying. Lame I know, but I couldn't help it! So I said to the kids, "Sorry guys, I'm not sad, I'm just grateful that we have freedom and it's sad that some kids don't..." but I couldn't stop crying! Poor Breanna just stared at me with these big blue eyes the whole time. She looked so concerned as I blubbered on. Then suddenly she broke her silence and with those seriously big blue eyes still looking so concerned she said,

"Knock-knock".

I laughed so hard.

Also the other day the kids were in the back yard playing with the water. They had been out there in their swimsuits for a long time so when Breanna came in I said, do you want to get dressed? She looked at me solemnly and said, "No. I want to stay in my swimsuit....forever."

Today we were walking with the kids at Fish Creek Park and we'd been walking for a long time when Jesse said "I'm so tired of walking!" Breanna, who's leisurely sitting on Brad's shoulders says, "If you're tired of walking, why don't you run?"

So we were at the lake the other day and there's all these teenage girls walking around in bikinis. Breanna's looking at them for a while when she says "When I get bigger I'm going to wear an unmodest swimsuit." Haha. AH! I tried to explain to her why we always dress modest and then said, "See? Mommy's wearing a modest swimsuit." She sort of nodded but gave me this look like "yah but I don't want to look like you, I want to look like them." Oh dear! :)

2011-06-24T14:47:00.001-06:00

I wish I had the time to blog every day because there's been so much stuff I want to remember lately! Like that the kids finished swimming lessons and Jesse's report card said "Amazing job, Jesse!" Breanna didn't pass and could barely do any of the skills for her level. I didn't tell her of course. But it broke my heart when we got home and she made me get tape and display it on the wall. Most of the things on the wall are Jesse's because of preschool. Poor little girl just wanted something to be proud of!

Being a stay at home mom in summer time is pure bliss. Today we went outside with sidewalk chalk and no shoes while Afton was napping and drew hopscotch and looked for spiders. The day before that I packed a picnic and we were at the lake all day. The kids never wanted to leave and I wouldn't have if it wasn't for Afton. The day before that we went for a walk to find lilacs and pick some for our table. I'm treasuring this time because summer is so short here!

First a little video of Jesse's grad song, Breanna's music lessons and Afton on the swing. Warning: Very boring for anyone not related to these children :)

Jesse has the best entry to his preschool grad if I do say so myself! He's such a goof! His preschool teacher had to "have a little chat" (she's English) with Jesse and then me a few times for being too silly and not listening. I wasn't too concerned but it is SO embarrassing to get the chat in front of the other parents in the lineup! Though I know it's not necessarily good, I adore his lisp every time he says "slippery." Watching Breanna's little hands in the you and me song gives me that tinge of-I don't know how to describe the feeling-it's like, love and happiness but also sadness that she won't be this little forever.

Here's a few pictures I like from our lake day. I didn't make them brown and white to be artistic-it was an accident :)

I felt bad because I told Breanna to go play with these girls and they looked at her and said "we're building our own castles." And Breanna looked pretty rejected!

Good Ol' Indy

Some interesting facts about Afton: She loves balls, she seems pretty nimble and likes to throw and bang things and roll balls. Also, she likes to crawl on the grass, and most babies hate it! Makes things easier for me!

Then I figured out how to turn off the brown and white and I was sad because I didn't know how to get it back and I kinda liked it.

Yes, I only ever do Breanna's hair in a ponytail. I'll figure out the fancy stuff sometime!

That's all for now!

2011-06-19T20:30:00.001-06:00

Some stuff has been happening lately. Jesse "graduated" from preschool.

Brad took this picture with Jesse's teacher Ms. Su and when I looked at it my first thought was 'if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.'

Breanna with her best friend Brooklyn at Jesse's preschool grad. Breanna and I went and got pedicures this week together. She is so fun to take to stuff like that because she just sits and causes no trouble at all.

This girl is basically my life right now. I'm pretty sure I could spend my whole day just taking care of her. She loves me, and I love her, and she has learned that when she cries, I pick her up! So she's doing a lot of crying these days. And she only wants ME! She is very smart and busy. Her personality and looks remind me SO MUCH of me, (only cuter)! Breanna is all Brad, so it's funny looking at Afton and thinking, yep!, that's my genes!

Also, Father's Day happened! I was already super tired so I was kind of dreading it, but I just wanted Brad to feel special and to have kind of a day off because he works so hard and is an amazing Dad, husband and such a good person. He's so supportive of everything I do and I didn't want him to be put to the side just because I'm busy. So I made him Blueberry Breakfast brunch and bacon for breakfast, and spaghetti and fried pork chops for lunch. With pop. This is NOT normal eating for our house so it was a big treat. I also got the kids all ready for church and let him nap for 2 hours after church while I made lunch. Okay, so I'm kind of spending father's day giving myself a pat on the back for doing such a good job of father's day, but hey, kids are in bed and father's day is OVER!! HAHA! :) P.S. He got a new job with the company he works for and we're so excited. Congratulations Brad!

This is a useless blob. This is how I feel, and that's because I am burnt right out, which means I'm not useless because I've been so busy and that's why I'm burnt out, but I still feel like a useless blob. And add to that a lot of crappy eating this week and an extra 5 pounds. This is how I feel today but I'm going to do whatever I can this week so that next week I feel like THIS!!:

And finally, I love this picture Jesse took of his Lego Indiana Jones hanging from the lamp. Jesse's just plain awesome :)

Moments

2011-06-11T23:56:00.003-06:00

Having three kids is exhausting. Favorite stress moments of the week:

1. Superstore, grocery shopping with the kids. We're at the back of the store when Jesse says he has to pee. Washrooms are at the front of the store.

2. Trying on a sports bra at the mall while Afton crawls out of the change room.

3. Driving to my sister's house to watch her kids when I turn a corner too sharp and completely demolish the tire, at which point I get the kids out of the van and start the hour-long trek home.

4. Performing the heimlich maneuver on Afton. When that was done I was shaking and crying and didn't stop crying for the rest of the night.

5. Swimming lessons, followed by an afternoon at the lake with Jesse's preschool and a crying, tired 6-month-old.

The funny thing is, probably my favorite moment of the week was looking at and smelling a lilac tree on the way home after ruining the tire on the van.

Oh, no! Nevermind. My favorite moment of the week was this:

After a long run today I was supposed to meet Brad and the kids at the river down in Fish Creek park. As I turned the corner and saw the bridge where we were meeting it started to rain. I was disappointed to see they weren't there to greet me but thought they must have turned around when it started to rain. So I kept on jogging. After a while I could see the hill to get home when I heard Brad call out in the distance: "Sarah!" I couldn't see him but I was sooo glad to hear I wasn't alone down there in that cold wet valley. A few minutes later, I saw these kids running down the hill yelling "Mommy!":

Such a happy moment!

And at the top of the hill this little one:

Preciousness.

I'm glad to be running again but I'm relearning some forgotten skills. One of them? Always cut your toenails before a run. Halfway through I could feel one of my toenails falling off and it hurt. Now it's all black and blue and getting ready to fall off. So worth it though :)

Camping

2011-06-04T18:43:00.000-06:00

Eating

Dramatic story-telling

Bullsnake! (not a rattlesnake)

Sleeping Afton

Watching the swallows build their nests

Tree-climbing

Soccer-playing

Cute little girl watching

Playing in the sand

Family Picture time

Throwing Rocks

Ready for bed

FUN!

(Thanks Mom, I'm glad I went)

2011-05-26T20:32:00.000-06:00

When it's cloudy and the sun hasn't shone in a few days, I go to my happy place:

The Children's section of the Library!!! :)

This place is next to sacred for my kids and I. My kids run in and out of the aisles laughing and playing tag and then get told, no running allowed! by the library worker, and so they have to stop. But the next time we go I let them do it again. Until someone asks them to stop. Then they play computer games. (Does that make it not so sacred?)

Meanwhile, I browse the children's books and make the most delightful discoveries. Seriously, happiness is children's books.

I found good ones this round. Like this one with the most beautiful pictures:

This is one Jesse wants to read over and over:

And this one, it's so good to teach kids that everyone has a story and not to judge. It almost made me cry.

Sometimes I even pray to find good books. Haha! To be fair, I pray about a lot of things throughout the day. I always walk out with a huge bag of books. Makes it very awkward carrying the library bag, the carseat with Afton inside, the diaper bag, and trying to manage Jesse and Breanna at the same time. Sometimes I feel like the library workers are giving me the evil eye, especially when I just paid off a $15 library fine. Tee-hee.

Then we get home with this big bag of books and I can't wait to read to my kids. Hours of bonding.

I'm so glad my Mom instilled in me a love of books. She's a writer, you know. I hope to instil that same love in my kids, but especially of the Book of Mormon. (Jesse is currently clutching a small Book of Mormon to his chest, wearing his Indiana Jones hat, and sleeping. Talk about break my heart!)

Finally, a picture: (High River parade day!)

2011-05-24T11:40:00.000-06:00

Dandelions

2011-05-22T18:59:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about living in a fallen world. Things aren't meant to be all rosy.

The other day Brad came home with a green spray bottle containing a crazy chemical called Weed-B-Gone. He went out and promptly sprayed every budding dandelion in our front yard. The next day they were shrivelled up and dead, just as he'd hoped.

Jesse was quite distraught and told Dad "you can't kill anymore dandelions!!"

Breanna has to pick some whenever we see them. She usually gives me one, which I hold onto for about a second before I discretely get rid of it.

Who ever labeled dandelions a bad thing anyway? They're pretty.

(Pictures from our walk home from church today)

2011-05-18T21:41:00.000-06:00

This is getting ridiculous! I need to do a blog post! But here's the thing, and perhaps you can relate.

I'm going along, do-de-do, living life and life is getting good. Really good. Everything seems to be falling into place making the hard work of the past year and a half worth it. I go to bed one night and eat an entire big bag of mini-mini eggs while reading a good book. Life was good! It was so good! And only getting better!

Well, I'm pretty sure Life saw the situation and went, hmmmmm...this girl needs a good, solid trial.

BAM!

One trial for you, Sarah!

I woke up the next morning feeling really groggy, exhausted, irritable, nauseous and then the stomach cramps began. Fatigue, nausea, stomach cramps. I thought maybe it was the flu but 3 weeks later, I knew it wasn't the flu. They still don't know what it is. So whatever. It's gotten better this past week so I'm back at life again. Thank goodness, because life is so, well, good.

I can't help but talk about my precious baby. She is something else, I'm telling you. She has an old soul. Sometimes my very un-cuddly, busy baby suddenly hugs me. Then she just talks to me and gently snuggles some more. Yes, we knew each other in heaven.

So now you know my excuse, I'll be blogging again. So stay tuned :)

One perfect little baby for you

2011-04-29T20:36:00.000-06:00

So here's baby Afton just livin' her life! Isn't she bright and lovely?

Remember the newborn I had almost 5 months ago? She's a newborn no longer. Although I did just get a new baby nephew! A little playmate for Afton!

I would say more but my life is very boring.

Random, because I really have no time for it to make any sense.

2011-04-10T23:31:00.003-06:00

I should not be blogging at 11:00 at night when I'm super tired but I need to post something!

I miss my friend. She is one of the best friends I've ever had. And we never talk anymore. She lives in Sylvan Lake and I'm sure she has a million new friends, because she's like that (and I am just not) but I miss her and it's making me cry. Sometimes you can have people all around and still feel lonely.

(Here's a super old one of us with Nick. The only picture of us I could find, actually!)

Life is good. Not that there's anything special about it. It's just that everything that meets my eyes in a day makes me feel happy and fulfilled. I don't feel like I could ask for anything more. Have you ever heard this song? You should listen to it. It reminds me of my family.

I'm just falling more in love every day with this little girl:

Because of things like this:

See the little pony and the zu-zu pet? A place for everyone at the picnic. She no longer wants to be a princess. Nope-nope. She is either Ninja-girl, Supergirl or Marion (from Indiana Jones). Princesses are "scared". It's okay, I never really liked Disney princesses either. Thank goodness she still loves to watch ballet and when I show her Swan Lake on youtube she's mesmerized. I think you can probably guess the source of this change. I caught an example on video:

I'm so busy with these three. I mean seriously, I'm going going going alllllll the time. It's good for me. Most days I get in: three square meals, a shower, a workout, an outing, scriptures and prayer and a bit of housework. I also read to the kids before bed and try to play at least a little every day.

Gosh I am lucky. I say lucky because, uhm, I mean it. That's all I'm going to say.

And I've basically lost my husband to snowboarding. It makes him happy and that makes me happy.

.........................
12 pounds lost-18 to go!

Now I'm stressing out because I have SOOOOO much to do tomorrow! And it's 11:30! And I have to be up by 5:30 or it's not going to happen!

Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down on Friday

2011-04-01T23:46:00.000-06:00

(Please tell me you get the title of this blog post because I posted it as my status on facebook and nobody commented.)

Went on a date tonight, (partyin' partyin', partyin' partyin') and it was great (fun fun fun fun).

There were some classic moments.

Like, the restaurant we went to had no pop! Brad asked for his usual Sprite- DENIED. That's probably because the place we went to gets everything from local suppliers and farms. For once I didn't feel bad sticking with the water. I love it! :)

(This post also includes some poor quality photos of good ol' us. You're welcome.)

I must mention the Sausage from Old Country Sausage in Raymond. Yu-um. Next time I go to Taber I might take a detour.

Dinner was the best restaurant meal I've had since this date. Fresh, light, tasty and unique!

I convinced Brad to get their mac and cheese because I'd read so many good reviews. He didn't really like it.

Then he told me I had food in my teeth (why does that always happen to you?) and looked doubly grossed out when I started picking my teeth. I wouldn't say, so much, that I'm unrefined, as free spirited? Can we say that?

Bernard Callebaut chocolate for dessert. Such creamy goodness.

After dinner we drove around Mount Royal and looked at all the big huge beautiful houses. Brad asked if I wished we had enough money to buy a house like that. I didn't even have to think about it. No. In my opinion, from our starting point if we are ever able to afford a house like that in this lifetime our priorities are mixed up. Not that there's anything wrong with being rich, but I would rather have Brad at home. And I said, we will have mansions in heaven. And Brad said, so we're getting ideas for heaven. Yes, exactly.

We went and saw Source Code. It was meh for me, Brad liked it a lot. Afton was really good for us, even though our little bug is teething and made noises all day long!

After the movie some guy calls across the theater, "Sarah?" I look up. Beard, vaguely familiar-otherwise, blank. "Oh hi! How are you?" I say, smile and keep walking. We get out of the theater and Brad says "I have to go to the washroom" and I say "no! What if I run into him!?!", glance beside me and there he is. He heard me. I will feel bad about it for a long time because I'm nice like that, but not nice enough to talk to him, I walked on.

It was a lot of work for me to plan this date, right down to details like making sure my favorite bra was clean. You really have to have good timing with 3 kids. But it was fun and worth it.

2011-03-29T21:07:00.001-06:00

Hi.

I am happy today. Why?

1. Because I got to work out this morning and therefore have all kinds of endorphins running through my brain screaming "happy happy!"
2. I also had time to eat a yummy breakfast and a big huge salad for lunch, and make a yummy supper and extra soup for lunches this week.
3. I got to practice piano. Piano lessons are one of the most satisfying things in my life right now.
4. My Mom came today and cleaned my floors and made all of the above possible.
5. My kids are sweet and love each other
6. Love that gets deeper and deeper, and Brad, who is easy to love like that.
7. My new iPad.
8. Sweet baby Afton.
9. The SUN! It came out today! It's getting warmer!
and the family went for a nice walk, in the sun, AT 6:45 pm. That's right.10. I realized today-I'm not pregnant anymore. Wow. That is a greeeeeeeeaaaaat feeling.
11. Tangled.
12. Focus on the Family podcasts. They said we are too kid-focused in our families and to start worrying more about our relationship with our spouse. I love that concept and I'm gonna use it from now on.

So there.

2011-03-24T22:03:00.002-06:00

So this afternoon Jesse says to me:

"Hunter does crafts every day."

I'm like,"How do you know that?"

"Because when I go to his house his Mom says 'Craft Time!' That means they do crafts every day."

Oh. Really. "Craft Time", eh. Every day, eh. Slight feeling of inadequacy.

I called my sister and asked her how this goes down. I'm picturing hours of planning and some serious Mormon mom talent, but to my relief she said she gives the kids a bunch of stuff-glitter and paint and stickers and glue- and lets them go at it.

It was a bit messy and involved stains on clothing and an entire bottle of glue spilt on the table, but we did it.

And for an hour or so,

we were not bored.

Take that you mean Alberta weather god.

P.S,, Rachel planned a Relief Society dinner in 2 weeks complete with French theme, yummy food, cute decorations and fun entertainment. So don't feel too bad about yourself if you don't have "craft time" either :)

Air Guitar

2011-03-20T22:54:00.007-06:00

The other night Brad had to stay late at work to finish some school so I took the kids to the Creative Kids Museum at the Science Centre and we had the whole place to ourselves most of the night! It was so much fun! I sat in a comfy chair most of the time and fed Afton while the kids played. One other kid showed up later in the evening.

Jesse LOVED this and did it for a long time. I didn't even catch his best moves. Haha! But really-he's very musical and has a great voice, he is always asking to take piano lessons and now this...looks like I've unwittingly given birth to a rockstar.
The other kid's not bad either, maybe they could start a band haha.
(Please ignore my talking-I had bronchitis (getting over it now thank goodness, but have now got a sinus infection) and didn't realize how loud I was!)

Due to my bronchitis I haven't worked out in 2 weeks. For the first 2 weeks I worked out anyway-and then it got worse, so I stopped. This means I've backtracked a lot in terms of getting my body back. Depressing, but I' starting again tomorrow-sinus infection or not!!

Powerful

2011-03-18T20:56:00.004-06:00

I want to write this before I forget. The other night I was walking home from piano lessons. I usually rush home because my mind plays tricks on me and I think someone is following me or will jump out from behind the bushes and attack. Yes, really :)

Well, this time I reasoned with myself and decided to enjoy the walk and the time alone.I looked at the moon to connect with God and nature and then it hit me.

I am powerful.

Those words came to my mind quite strongly and at first I didn't like it because of course, everything I have comes from God. I wondered if I was going a little manic. Things have been pretty crazy lately...but then I thought about it, and I wasn't crazy. It's true.

I helped God create life. I gave birth to these beautiful people. Three very important people depend on me. To love them, help them grow healthy and strong, teach them the gospel, teach them about the world, and provide a clean and happy home for them. Afton depends completely on my body to grow and live. I'm also able to support my husband so he can be continue his education successful and happy. On top of this, I am building a life for myself, continuing to develop my own talents and love life. Even if I didn't have a family, I could help and lift others. This makes me feel quite worthwhile. I feel like I'm doing a good job.

I think powerful is a good word. It replaces the sense of worthlessness often felt by survivors of abuse, as I am. Only recently do I understand things like it's not your fault and I am a child of God.

I bet you are powerful too.

Just so you really don't think I'm nuts, thoughts on gratitude (it's a rough copy I wrote late at night after losing the talk I had worked on all day, so yes I did say King Benjamin and not Mosiah...haha!)

For Rachel

2011-03-13T21:32:00.006-06:00

I'm slowly, slowly losing weight. But I eat really healthy and therefore have better hair and better skin. I also have lots of energy to work out and burn some of the (too much if you're not breastfeeding!) food I eat while eating healthy. I love food. Looooooooove it, and I eat a lot of it. And these are my favorite snacks and recipes, most of them taken from my favourite food site of all time, should be shouted from the rooftops in my opinion, whfoods.com.

Favourite Breakfasts:

Oatmeal with dried cranberries, cinnamon and toasted walnuts
All-bran cereal with a bunch of fresh blueberries (no sugar!)
Fritattas, like this one (I use ground turkey, and it's sooo yum)

Favourite Lunches:

Quinoa with salt and steamed broccoli with salt-quinoa is pure protein. It's great.
Bean and lentil salads like this, this, and this.
Romaine lettuce with a can of tuna and a dressing of olive oil mixed with lemon juice and garlic, then warmed on the stove (on low) for a minute
Leftover suppers

Favorite Dinners:

Butternut squash soup and a salad- this is so good, Brad raves about it.
Salmon-fastest dinner ever, this with steamed veggies and rice or quinoa (BTW, any of the salmon recipes on this site are delicious. I always overcook my salmon, because I like it better that way!)
Chicken- this is very good and it goes well with this salad.
Fish-this is a good one
Burritos
Chili
Asian Chicken Salad

Favorite Snacks:

Frozen raspberries
Banana, cut in half with peanut butter spread on it and sprinkled with unsweetened coconut
Apples and peanut butter
Sliced apples with almond butter spread on one side and dipped in granola (pref. low-fat, this is high cal!)
Sliced apples dipped in plain-yes, plain-yogurt
Sweet Red Peppers dipped in homemade hummus (the easiest homemade dip ever- except I usually end up eating the whole batch and that's not very healthy!)

I also eat this chocolate bar...

Some Videos For You

2011-03-08T22:08:00.002-07:00

Just a little glimpse into life these days. Busy and I love every minute! Nope, not every minute, but lots of minutes!

Teaching Jesse to skate was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done as a parent! The secret is a scarf under their arms. Jesse cried and didn't want to keep going but I made him practice and then he did it. I wasn't about to let him give up and I don't feel even a little bit bad about it!

Our most favorite form of entertainment these days: making Afton laugh!

And lastly-a balloon from Jesse's birthday party snuck out the door after Jesse today. I had no idea how much that balloon meant to him. He sobbed! And Breanna did too, but that's just because she loooooooves to cry. I tried to tell him it went back to it's family in balloon land. Apparently he's too big for that tall tale-but not too big to melt down at the loss of this balloon. He insisted it went to space. So, so much for the outside time I had planned for my kids. They came inside and I read them a book about a crab who said goodbye to his shell and moved on to other things.

Jesse's Birthday

2011-03-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while but believe it or not I had to schedule in time to do this blog post.

It was an awesome weekend!! First of all, Jesse turned *5* and had the funnest party ever! And I'm not exaggerating! We hijacked the hotel pool and water-slide at the Delta where everyone stayed for the weekend, which also happened to have an Atrium perfect for a birthday gathering. Like seriously, it could not have been more fun, mostly because of the people there!

I think someone was a little bit excited about the Indiana Jones hat and whip we got him. And who washes their kid's face off on their birthday? Hm...

Just what he wanted-Ninja Lego!

This was quite possibly the best hug ever, courtesy of Jesse's cousin Lily.

After opening presents, everyone else went swimming again. Not Jesse. He found a little spot he called the jungle and spent a quality half hour fighting bad guys.

Then we had Afton's baby blessing. Brad gave the most beautiful blessing. To the most sweetest little baby.

One highlight of the day-make that of my life-my sister Candace MADE this beautiful quilt for Afton! And the best part is, she didn't really know what she was doing and had no help. A lot of love and tears went into the making of the most beautiful quilt I've ever seen.

I had about 5 minutes to do this post so what you see is what you get. Oh and I've lost 7 pounds now!! 23 to go.

A Little Catchup

2011-02-20T23:32:00.002-07:00

Remember that thing about slowing down? Well I'm reevaluating. Going slow doesn't work either. All it does is make things build up and stress me out, and stress is causing me to not lose weight, which is endlessly frustrating. So instead I made a schedule, including daily routines, that I will try to follow to keep on top of things and keep me sane. In the meantime, one thing I feel like I am keeping on top of is most of the time enjoying life and enjoying my children, well at least after some time away from them when my sister took them for me and we went on a really fun date.

Hey Jesse, I love how you treat your little sister. I love that you teach her everything you know, including how to pretend fight bad guys. You taught her how to count, and that's why she skips the number 15, just like you do. You taught her to put her face in the water and to lay down in the bath without being scared by singing the Herman the Worm song. When I get her in trouble and she cries you look at me funny and hug her. Today you tried to teach her to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the piano, and you probably taught her the words to that song, too. Thanks for picking up my slack, buddy.

Afton is one sweet little cookie with a very friendly and easygoing personality. She rarely cries, even when I sometimes leave her on the floor on a blanket for long periods of time. She rolls over from tummy to back already and is obsessed with sucking on her hands! Jesse and Breanna love her so so much!

Today Brad had to write an exam for 4 hours so I got some time with my kids on a Sunday with nothing to do but hang out. It was seriously the richest experience. And my kids were being too cute for me not to take a few pics. I read books to them for, like, an hour and a half. Jesse is in love with Indiana Jones and I got a big book on ol' Indy from the library, as well as archeology. It's so fascinating! I should have been an archeologist I think.

The other day I was walking around in the kitchen cleaning up and saying "you know, Breanna, right now things are pretty stressful. It's hard but it's going to get easier-well, people say different but not easier, but I think it gets easier. At least it's always wonderful." And Breanna looks at me and says,

"Moo-om, are you talking to yoursayalf?"

I'm really tired and I'm going to go to bed now!

Love

2011-02-14T21:58:00.001-07:00

Okay so today was Valentine's Day and what did I do, I did nothing-oh, except laundry and grocery shopping. Brad stayed at work late today to finish an assignment and this is the second Valentine's Day he hasn't done anything for me.

I was feeling pretty bad for myself.

(I do not hate Brad or want to kill him, I just thought this was funny hahahaha!)

BUT then I realized.... I'm only feeling bad for myself because I think I'm supposed to! I realized, Brad works really hard to support our family. He's working really hard at school so he can continue to support us. He came home and loaded the dishwasher. He read scriptures to all of us tonight. He cuddles me in the morning before he leaves for work. He gets water for me when I'm feeding the baby. Sooooooooo he skips the card and flowers on Valentine's day.

I know he loves me.

But he better have something really good planned for our anniversary ;)

Oh yah and then there was this.

Memories

2011-02-13T19:24:00.001-07:00

Please excuse the bad pictures! We are not photographers and take most of our pictures with the iPhone. We went to Banff and made some really good memories as a family. I'll tell you one thing, we needed some time away!

Do you know that we live in the most beautiful place on earth? Right in our back yard. People pay big bucks and fly from around the world to get here.

First thing we did when we got there was go to the resort's giant play place! It was so fun the kids could have stayed there forever.

Brad took the kids skiing. Well, he snowboarded all day while the kids were in ski lessons/tiny tigers daycare. I struggled with the idea of teaching my kids to ski because growing up there was no way we could afford it (think single mother of 6 kids going to school full time to be a writer) and yet from the time I was in elementary through Young Adulthood, all the "cool" kids skied/snowboarded. It seemed like kind of a status symbol. I would think to myself, well, if I could afford it I would snowboard! 'Cause I love stuff like that! Anyway, Brad brought me back to my senses and I'll shut-up about it now. Oh the things I hold onto from my childhood :) Anyway, I hope sometimes we can bring a friend who otherwise couldn't go.

Ski lessons-Brad says it was pretty funny to watch. Hey, these things take time. I stayed back at the hotel room and wrote a talk on gratitude and looked out the window from time to time to see deer roaming around the grounds and a coyote with golden coat prance by. I felt the spirit really strong. I know God is real.

Out for dinner that night.

This place also had super fun waterslides but I could never catch them coming down the slide with my camera! So instead you get this picture.

I'll tell you one thing I love. Lofts. So I took a picture from the loft looking down. This is what our suite looked like after coming home from skiing and dinner and swimming. This is also Brad starting a fire in the fireplace. One of my favorite parts of the whole thing! How cozy. Don't look at his bum. Or the bacon grease all over the back of his shirt. Haha! One of our favorite things to talk about this holiday was what white trash we are. My Mom will be seriously offended by that derogatory term, but I want to remember that's what we talked about! :)

What are holidays for if not jumping on the bed? I was doing it too and it was really super fun. Especially jumping from one bed to the other. Boing!

Memories are great. They are worth it. The only thing I would change is, I would not come back more tired than when I left. Haha.

My Life in a Chaotic Living Space

2011-02-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

Everyone says Afton looks like Jesse and I have to agree.
He seriously adores her.
There's hardly a minute when she's on the floor
that he's not laying beside her,
talking baby talk and hugging her.
It's very sweet.

After church today we had a delicious roast beef dinner courtesy of Brad- Sunday dinners are always courtesy of Brad these days. Then we watched Prince of Egypt. We were watching this part, when all of a sudden we heard our little Breanna sobbing. Her tender heart just couldn't take it, and then I couldn't. I picked her up and cuddled her for the rest of the movie, and she was fine. But after the movie she went straight to the toy-box, got out her doll and wrapped it in a blanket. Then she found the wicker basket her plastic food is usually in and put the baby in there. Her own little Moses. It's interesting how kids work out their emotions with play.

And this picture is just pretty indicative of my life these days. Here I am doing Young Women's stuff in a chaotic living space.

I had a bit of a revelation this week. And this is what it was: SLOW. I guess I'm not superwoman like I want to be. It's pretty humbling to realize I'm just a normal person and can't have a blog about how I don't know what everyone's talking about three is hard, about how I can have a clean house and work out, like, super insanely hard and do my calling and cook 3 healthy delicious meals every day and practice piano and hang out with my friends and play with my 2 other kids and teach them stuff and breastfeed a baby who's up 3 times a night (only during her growth spurt, she's back to 8 hours again) and read my scriptures and travel here and there for family functions while my husband is doing a CMA while working full time and ALL on less than 1800 calories a day!! Hm. Yes, that's what I was trying to do. It didn't work and now that I see it on paper I see why, ha-ha. I failed at that miserably because suddenly on Thursday it hit me: STOP!! Before you snap and go nuts. I mean, literally schizo ape wacky coo-coo. I did. I stopped everything and made a new plan. A slooooow plan. A "diligence to win the prize" plan. And really, it's nice to know I don't have to prove anything, because I'm just a regular human after all. On Friday I got up (after a morning in bed with kids in front of the TV, I must admit) and slooooowly started picking up the now messy house. You all were right (ahem-Lindsay)... I did just have a baby, and I'll go easy on myself.

Busy and Dizzy

2011-02-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

I'm dizzy, and I think it's because of stress. I have a trillion things I should be doing right now besides a blog post but I want to write about it in hopes it will make me feel better. I think mostly I'm just tired, but I like things to be clean and organized and that is just not happening right now. My garage and my car are so dirty and messy they've entered the "kind of gross" phase. I met up with a high school friend the other day and she saw my van. I was embarrassed because there was garbage all over the floor and a box of diapers I haven't had a chance to bring in and a bunch of stuff between the seats that I need to give back to people. And it probably stunk because my kids eat food in the back and then leave the leftovers in the cup holders. My house is not that messy but I like my house spotless. I am super tired. I have to exercise still today but between taking Breanna to ballet this morning and feeding the baby I haven't had a chance. I gained a pound back today and I'm hungry all the time because I think Afton's going through a growth spurt. She's eating a tonne and not sleeping long stretches like she was. I feel like I need help. Like, hired help. Brad could help but he's also stressed out and exhausted. He's got school and work is busy and he does what he can. He's taking the kids to swimming lessons tonight. I'm going out with girlfriends and I cannot wait.

Now I see. Three is busy! And I'm dizzy.

Seeing Brad with our baby is sweet. I would say sexy but that's a bit TMI. It's sexy.

I went into my room to pray when I got a minute after ballet. I wanted to say a looong prayer. I need a long, long prayer. I said the basic stuff but Afton's fussing turned into a cry and I can't concentrate on praying when she does that. So it ended up being short. I know Heavenly Father heard me anyway. Now if Afton would just have a nap I could exercise. One thing down.

Conversations

2011-02-01T22:58:00.002-07:00

All I can say is that I love this adorable, smiley, sweet, angel of a little baby I have in my house. I love her but I do not take pictures of her. Here is a rare one I took before going out sledding and you can't even see her little head. It doesn't do her justice.

We "talk" all the time and I love our little chats. She makes the face in the picture and then she gets a serious look on her face and says "goo" and "coo" and kind of gurgles and in between smiles a lot. It's the most beautiful conversation. I sit there with my knees up and she's all scrunched up in there and we talk. I think she's an old soul. We love each other.

Every day I feel like I'm running a marathon.

Afton is going through a growth spurt, which means she didn't sleep straight through at night the past few nights. But I've been spoiled so I can't complain.

I've lost 4 pounds. 26 to go.

Pressure

2011-01-27T19:40:00.001-07:00

Today Breanna said to me, when I grow up I'm going to be a Mommy. I'm going to be a Sarah, just like you.

Jesse has a CTR Ring that he says he's going to wear until Jesus comes. And he really has been wearing it for a month straight. Who has that kind of commitment? Not me, I ate 10 chocolate chip cookies tonight.

These are real people. My real people. Jesse just told me when he grows up he wants to be a dentist and fix teeth. Last week he wanted to be Superman, because then Superman would be real ('cause yes, I told him Superman isn't real.) But these kids are going to be real people. Dentist type real people. Did I say real?

This is a lot of pressure.

Today I did one thing right. Around 1 o'clock when I wanted to take a nap or clean my house, I took the kids for a walk. (I didn't even care that Breanna's pants were on backwards). I figure if I do one thing right a day I'm not doing so bad right? Oh and I took Breanna to ballet and made soup for dinner. Three things!!

What did you do right today? Ask yourself, it's sure to make you feel better :)

The Weekend

2011-01-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

It was a perfectly beautiful January day in Southern Alberta

When two lovely people got married for time and all eternity.

Their nieces and nephews are super cute. Two of them are mine.

It was a good wedding, a Mormon wedding.

Now I am so tired I keep getting dizzy. And I ate enough to make the time and hard work I spent exercising this week completely useless.

Babies

2011-01-17T10:29:00.001-07:00

I just want to write a little about babies for my sister Candace and sister-in-law Katie, because when I had my first there were things I didn't know and these are my best tips about babies. Also after every baby I forget everything. You don't have to listen to me, I won't be offended. Yes I will. But I'll pretend I'm not!

Sleepers, with the feet. That's all you'll want your baby in because it's comfy, and it's what they look cutest in anyway.

Nursing hurts for the first few weeks!

Swaddlers. By Pampers. They're expensive but they are so soft and comfy, worth it! I always mourn the day my baby grows out of swaddler diapers.

Nose sucker thingy. And saline drops. Babies get stuffy especially if you have them in the winter, and that's the only way to clear their nose out so they can breathe! Sorry if that's gross. It's true.

Swaddle the baby nice and tight for sleep. Babies always surprise themselves with their movements and wake themselves up.

E.A.S.Y. It's a perfect little routine for a newborn because then you know what they need when they cry and their needs are always taken care of. They Eat, are Awake for a minute, then they go to Sleep and when they sleep, it's You time!

You time in order of priority (as per my Mom): Pray, eat breakfast, read scriptures and shower and get ready. Also (as per my MIL) sleep when the baby sleeps. If that's all you do all day, you've done your job! Unless you have other kids in which case you time=other kid time :)

Put them to bed when you see that first yawn and their eyes start to look sleepy and flutter. When they cry you pat them. That way they learn to fall asleep on their own. It's true, it works every time for me!

Sling- it may seem hippy but really, it's just an awesome way to be close to your baby while you're cleaning, etc. Then they fall asleep in there without a peep and it feels so good to have your baby close like that.

Trust your body! Your body will grow a healthy baby, give birth all by itself, nurse your baby all by itself and turn it into a beautiful, healthy human being. Any voices that tell you otherwise should be shut out.

I can think of more but I'll leave it at that for now. I know advice can be annoying, but just in case you want mine, I have had three really good babies to show for it! :)

P.S. My poor baby I need to start taking pictures of her!

P.P.S. Here is a little note I put on my family website the other day so you know I feel better after that last post!

Church was really good. I've been kind of stressed about my calling lately, like I was back last Sunday, then I had a meeting with one of the girls that night, then I had the activity on Tuesday, then I had a Stake meeting yesterday morning, then I taught today and I'm planning an activity for Tuesday and then another meeting Thursday night...etc. and that's on top of life itself. Anyway, so I complained about it and wrote about it on my blog. Then one girl replied and said she found that as she fulfilled her calling everything else in her life went smoothly. I was like, oh yah! I forgot about that part! So anyway, since then I've had ideas come into my mind about what I want to do for activities. I was able to get a babysitter for Saturday morning so I could go to my meeting and the meeting was at 9:00am so I had to pick up the babysitter at 8:30. Well, miraculously, I was EXACTLY on time for my meeting! That's with getting all the kids ready and out the door and the baby fed all by myself and not knowing where this lady lived and getting myself ready! It truly was a miracle. Plus I slept last night straight through from 10:30 at night until 7:00 in the morning. It was amazing and we were able to be at church on time for 9am. Then today I had to teach and I literally did NOT have a chance to prepare the lesson (but that's because I don't prepare it the week before like you do, Mom). But somehow I felt calm about it. I prepared it during Sunday school (bad I know) and not only did the lesson go amazing, but Afton slept straight through. I'm being blessed in so many ways that way and in every other area of my life too so far. I just know Heavenly Father is being like, see, it's true, you are blessed when you do your calling. Anyway, that's my church thing and we had Roast beef dinner for supper courtesy of Brad. Now Brad is having a nap and guess what? I don't even need one! Sometimes I love life!! :)

My opinion and your advice? And post edit.

2011-01-14T09:58:00.005-07:00

The other day I read on CJane's blog this post about so what if I'm fat. I agree with her underlying premise. But I still have 30 pounds to lose (I lost 35 right away-that's one benefit of being almost 200 pounds at the end of your pregnancy) and I'm going to lose it. So I ask myself, why?

1. I'm a visual person, I like beautiful things. And I think I look better when I'm thin and fit. (Brad, on the other hand, can't decide if he likes me better plump with big breasts or skinny with none :)

2. The future. I like the challenge of sacrificing now to improve my future. I want to be able to play with my grandkids and help my kids out when they are parents, just like my Mom and Mother-in-law do. Being overweight is unhealthy and leads to diseases. No fun.

3. Activity- I love love to be active. I love running, walking, dancing, hiking, playing sports, etc. and I want my body to be able to do those things. Even if I can't do them well, I don't want it to be because I'm fat and my joints hurt. Those kinds of things make my life so much more fulfilling!

4. If the reason I'm overweight is because I lack the dedication, motivation, strength and self-control to lose the weight, I would feel bad about myself. Lack of motivation and self-control are not good reasons, in my book, to be overweight.

5. This is the body I'm going to have for eternity and God wants me to care for it. It's a beautiful thing. Even when it's 30 pounds heavier and has just given birth it's beautiful. I want to care for it.

6. When I am fit I have more energy, I can do more, and therefore am able to serve my family and others better. I can play, clean, cook, shop, work more.

So I just finished my first workout on 2 1/2 hours of sleep and I am dizzy and feel like I'm going to throw up and faint. Isn't this fun. My kids "worked out" beside me and it was fun. For them at least. Ironically, my baby slept from 11:30 until I finally woke her up at 7:30 this morning. But I was having some kind of anxiety attack and couldn't sleep, even when I did sleep it wasn't well. I'm stressed out because it's like, okay, you've had your 6 weeks now it's time to get back to life! Come on, buck up! I'm a sinner because I blame it on my calling. I need an attitude adjustment/ spiritual pep talk. So even if you don't normally comment, please do. But it's hard taking care of 4 other people and myself on very little sleep, so add to that and it stresses me out. So, if you read my blog and you are a Mom, I really like advice.

Post Edit-(I've always wanted to say that!) I love the Young Women with all my heart! They had a shower for me the other night and they each gave me a gift like homemade treats and lots of free babysitting. I seriously love those girls. They just take a lot of time! :)

Funnies

2011-01-10T10:55:00.006-07:00

Jesse woke up a couple of times the other night. I asked him why and he said, "well-uhm-my leg was hurting and-" Then his eyes lit up and he got a big smile on his face. "I grew!!" he exclaimed.

I had the oxyclean upstairs because Breanna had spilt hot chocolate all over my sling. Jesse saw the container and asked Brad "is that metamucil?" So Brad was like, "What? how do you know what metamucil is Jesse?" "I saw it on a commercial."

In church yesterday we were singing a hymn and one line says "out in the desert they wander, hungry and helpless and cold." Jesse says, "why are they cold? The desert is hot." Good point, Jesse.

The other day Breanna was sitting on the floor brushing her hair and said she was not going to stop until her next birthday because she is Repunzel. She was getting a bit frustrated that her hair wasn't growing longer.

We were a couple of minutes late for Breanna's ballet last week so when she was ready I said, go to class! And sent her on her way. I was sitting talking to my friend when one of the moms said, is that girl supposed to be in class? She had been dancing away all by herself the whole time in a big open studio. That's my Breanna!

One of my favorite things about my kids is their imagination. They are always making costumes and declaring, 'I am so-and-so!' (Batman, Robin, spiderman, Indiana Jones, Batgirl, some princess or other) and all I can think is "hm...that's a bit of a stretch." I've decided this is a direct result of their being bored all the time. There are some upsides to being pregnant for nine months :) My favorite was the day Jesse came downstairs with Indiana Jones's fedora: a piece of paper he cut out in the shape of a hat, colored brown and attached a string to so he could wear it. He even punched the holes for the string. My Mom and I laughed so hard when he came downstairs with it on-so that's what you've been doing up there for so long! Then Brad helped the kids make these:

The Riddler, Robin and Batgirl.

Real fast.

We go through garbage bags like crazy around here. They make great capes. Which reminds me of the song We'll Make Great Pets by Porno for Pyros. Remember that song? There are some songs that stay in your head your entire life. Like I will never for the rest of my life say to someone "to the left" without thinking of Beyonce's song. But that's beside the point. The point is, my kids are in their pajamas ALL the time these days. Don't get dressed unless absolutely necessary. :)

Christmas Time is Here!

2011-01-10T10:10:00.001-07:00

Looks like I'm getting behind on posts but here is my Christmas one! We had the best Christmas EVER! Going to the nativity, going to see Santa, sleeping under the Christmas tree, doing a Christmas puzzle, playing all day with our new toys, singing Christmas carols and watching the Grinch and Rudolf, swimming, sledding, bowling, sitting in the hot tub, going to the movies and Uncle Matthew's basketball game with cousins, dancing at the Taber Stake New Year's party and eating more treats and chocolate and yummy stuff than we could handle! Sometimes the anticipations is the best part. We put a cottonball on Santa every day in December until finally it was Christmas Eve!

I liked Christmas Eve night, watching Elf with Brad and wrapping presents, sitting around and cuddling and staring at my baby, eating and reading.

Can you see the dollhouse in the background? That's my childhood dollhouse. My Mom gave it to me and Brad spent hours fixing it up.

The best present of all.

At Least it's a Post!

2010-12-23T10:19:00.001-07:00

I have to write this really fast I have about 2 minutes. I am a nice cocktail of emotions right now, from completely exhausted to feeling more energetic than I have in a long time to total *stress* to calm and happiness to blissful.

Right now I'm feeling quite happy and blissful together with a whole lot of stress. Brad's school is taking A LOT more time than we thought and he's really busy at work. Plus my baby's pretty sick and isn't eating well, and I have a midwife appointment today where they are going to try to give me a solution to the fact that my baby isn't gaining weight properly but there is no solution. Plus I have a bunch to do today.

But I'm so excited for Christmas. And I love my baby. And I have the best job in the whole world (being a Mom) and I've been really, really spoiled this past couple of weeks since having Afton. I love my good friends, my family, and the Saints and their hearts of gold. Thank-you for taking care of me. I haven't cooked a meal YET! :)

I love these two together. Evie is a bright shining star.

All the girls went to the Nutcracker and Breanna sat on the edge of her seat for all 3 hours of it, in awe, clapping whenever she got the chance.

On the way to the sledding hill at night.

This is random. That took more than 2 minutes. So now I might not get to shower. But there you go. A new post :)

Baby Pics

2010-12-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

I think most of the people who read my blog have seen these but I wanted to post them here too. I am so content and happy and that's what having a baby does for me. It's like her little spirit glows and fills my whole house with heaven. I am soaking in every chubby little moment with this baby. I sit there with her face in my hand and stare. That's what I love about these pictures, because I think when I look at them when Afton's all grown up I will remember how it felt to have a newborn baby.

Breanna's Birthday

2010-12-08T14:41:00.001-07:00

I know this is a bit (ahem) overdue, but Breanna had a birthday party! It was really fun to make her feel special and she soaked it all in. We mostly had family there and one church friend, I didn't want to make it too stressful, but my sisters were there to help and that made the party go really smooth. I have to say the star of the show was my niece Evie, she even kept the conversation going. They really were having conversations as they ate cake. It was sooo cute!! And I must give a special shout-out to my sister Candace who played the "real princess". She was for sure the highlight and did this only, and I mean ONLY because she loves Breanna. Haha-thanks, Candace :)

Baby Afton Ruth

2010-12-06T23:57:00.000-07:00

Baby girl, little piece of heaven, you are here!

(If you want to read Afton's very detailed birth story, go here)

Memory

2010-11-24T09:06:00.001-07:00

Lately I've realized something. Nothing makes it past Jesse. He's too smart. These are just a few recent examples.

(Jesse and his cousin Maren)

- Yesterday morning Brad promised Jesse he would bring a treat home from work. He forgot, but Jesse didn't! Brad had to turn around when he got home from work an hour late and go to the store for a treat. Brad likes to make promises to Jesse to get him to do this or that and Jesse never lets him get away with anything. We ask him how he remembers and he says "my brain works good".

- A few weeks ago we told Jesse Brad's work was having a coloring contest for little kids and he should go in it. Well, I forgot about it. Brad forgot about it. But then yesterday Jesse said to me "remember I have to color a picture for the contest?" Oh yah!

- The past few school days Jesse has worn his boots to preschool and I keep forgetting his indoor shoes. So on Friday I said, Jesse, next time you need to remind me to bring your indoor shoes to school. Of course I forgot again, but thank goodness for Jesse who on our way out the door said "Mom! My indoor shoes!"

And finally the kicker:

- Yesterday when Brad was taking a long time getting home I said to Jesse in frustration "where is daddy?"

He replied, very calmly, "I don't freakin' know where he the heck is."

Haha! Oooooooops! How were we supposed to know he was listening? :S

First Snow Day

2010-11-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

Can I just say, I love love love snow. I think it is one of God's most beautiful creations.

Breanna asked to play in the snow and I was so excited about that. I told Jesse to get his snow pants on, he didn't want to, so I said, well it's either outside or in bed. He went to bed. As you can see, I feel very strongly about my kids' outside time. Breanna went out and had a great time. About half an hour later I went into Jesse's room, dragged him out of bed and got him dressed in his snow gear myself. He went outside and had so much fun he didn't want to come in. He could stay out there all day if he had someone to play with and Breanna comes in the second her hands start to get a teensy bit cold. My kids have played outside more in the last few days than they have in a long time. It makes me so happy. I can't wait to take them sledding! I just wish I could get out there and roll around in it with them. I can't, though. I have no coat or snow pants that fit. Look at how happy Breanna is!!

Speaking of beautiful creations, look at this little boy. Beautiful inside and out. I swear he's in overdrive all the time. But then at night when Brad and I go to tuck him in he's always asleep with his scriptures open beside him. Last week was the primary presentation. Jesse was all over the place as he stood in his chair-bouncing, twisting, leaning this way and that way- but he knew all the words to all the songs and sang loud. Really loud. But in tune! He has a very nice voice.

See my puffy red face reflected in the mirror? Yes I am in my underwear. These kids are ready for church, but I didn't go to church today. Even though I wanted to. I am the never-ending pregnant woman. I look like I'm ready to have the baby by the time I'm 6 1/2 months. You can imagine the comments I get at 9 months pregnant. Like, when are you going to have that baby? It makes me uncomfortable just looking at you! I've never seen a belly like that. You must be ready to pop now! Girl, when are you due? Is it twins? Etc. Etc. I just couldn't bear it today, or to wear the same dress I've worn for the past 6 Sundays in a row. Yes, the mumu. Brad said to me last Sunday: "That dress is a bit...played." Yes, yes it is.

I am trying everything to hurry up and have this baby. Today would have been perfect. Alas. Just one teensy contraction? Please? I was overdue with both of my other children. Jesse 8 days, Breanna 10. So I'm envisioning myself missing 3 more weeks of church. Or going next week and listening to this from everyone I see in the hallway: "you're still pregnant??????????"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! :)

A Bit More Grateful

2010-11-16T09:22:00.001-07:00

This morning I woke up to a beautiful thing. The familiar sight of soft white snow covering the ground and resting on the branches of my pine tree, reflecting the orange light of the street lamps. It's a comfortable, sweet picture to behold.

Makes me think of this:

Our new favorite thing around here? Brad takes the kids outside and plays "No Bears are Out Tonight" Last night after Family Home Evening I was inside cleaning up supper and baking the cookies (thanks, Alyson!) and all I could hear was the laughing and screaming of the "villagers". Then a few minutes later Jesse came in crying. He was scared. Breanna wasn't scared but she pretended to cry anyway. They went back out and when the cookies were ready we all ate them together. That night I sat in the rocking chair and read Winnie the Pooh. It was a pretty perfect evening.

I love coming downstairs to evidence that my kids are playing:

I also found a park right by my midwives...

That has a merry go round!! Yay!

My kids are so lucky to have Grandma's house and lots of cousin friends!

I have a week and a half until my due date. Could be any day! That is if I was normal, which I'm not....it will probably be another 3 weeks, which is almost a month, if my other labors are any indication. And yes, I get rude comments at the grocery store. Ahhhhhhhh!

A week ago I wrote a long complaining post, but as you can see I really have nothing to complain about. I am surrounded by family, friends, and a church community who care and are there to support me. I deleted it when I realized I was being kinda pathetic. BUT I'm not gonna lie....I wish I had

Nothing.

To.

Do.

This is a picture of me eating a caramel apple and wishing I had nothing to do. Brad loves to take flattering pictures of me, as you can see. In it, I am wearing socks and sandals, because none of my shoes fit anymore and I can't bend down to tie my running shoes. My fingers are too swollen anyway and I have pregnancy carpel tunnel. My maternity clothes are too small and I have spilled on my shirt, right on top of my belly. So charming. Thanks, Brad. Someday I'll make a montage of all the flattering pictures Brad takes of me. Also, the flattering video. His favorite angle? Camera right in my face, angled upwards, usually while I'm eating.

Have a happy snow day!! :)

Breanna ballet

2010-11-07T20:31:00.004-07:00

I'm not sure if you can really call this "ballet" but she sure loves it and I sure love watching it!!

Halloween

2010-11-01T08:51:00.000-06:00

Because we are so stinkin' creative around here I thought I'd post our Halloween experience so you could ooo and aaah and think to yourself, I better step up my game next year.

Just kidding! But really, we did have fun even though we didn't do the traditional trick or treating. I like holidays because they mean family time and traditions. I looooove family time. We had a little party on Friday night, carved pumpkins, danced to Halloween music, decorated cookies and watched The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. My kids did well during that scary movie, but we were cuddling them really close :)

Our handy Brad carving the pumpkin with a suspicious light glowing above it.

Mmmmm icing....

Wow aren't we good.

The Bride and The Ninja at Trunk or Treat.

The Ninja kicking some butt!

Our pumpkins. One is Tinkerbell.

Now my kids are exhausted and have had too much sugar, but no time to waste, we're on to the next thing(s) and I'm not even close to being ready for all of it. And why is it that every Friday my house is clean and every Monday it looks like a tornado has blasted through it?

It's a Date

2010-10-23T20:00:00.000-06:00

One day a couple of weeks ago I realized I have never really had a lot of alone time with Breanna. And as soon as baby is here, we will really never have alone time. So I decided to take her on a date.

I was only slightly more excited to give her this dress than she was to get it. I've been waiting for weeks to give it to her. She always wants to dress up and all we have are church dresses. So today before we left I said "what dress do you want to wear?" I brought her to her closet where I had it hung up and she saw it. She was pretty stunned, but mellow and even-keeled as usual. "Uhmmm...I want to wear Snow White!"

We went to Storybook Theater and watched Once Upon a Lily Pad and ate popcorn. Breanna was so sweet- she sat very still and quiet the whole time and clapped enthusiastically after all the songs.

When it was all over the kids went and played on the set. Breanna loved it! She would have stayed there forever.

Dancing on the lily pad

She kept jumping off this "log" over and over and over.

Then of course I said, let's go get a treat. What do you want, Breanna? And guess what she picked? JUICE! So we went to Booster Juice. I even said 'cupcake?' a couple of times because Crave was just around the corner...but juice it was. I love her little personality, how pensive and thoughtful she is. How laid-back and nice she is. Just so easy to be with. So precious.

THE END

What?

2010-10-22T17:00:00.001-06:00

This morning at about 9:30am I was upstairs. My kids were downstairs watching TV. I was sneaking a piece of leftover birthday cake. As I sat there in my housecoat, my kids still in pajamas, breakfast not cleaned up, eating cake at 9:30am, I thought...what has become of me??? And I went back to bed.

What has become of me? I get very little sleep at night because I'm either getting up to pee or blowing my nose and sneezing for hours due to some strange new allergy thing that has popped up. I've gained 50 pounds so far. Most of my maternity clothes don't fit anymore. Although some of it must be water because my fingers look like sausages and my nose is huge. It hurts to roll over, stand up, or walk. In summary: HUGE, PUFFY, EXHAUSTED, HURTING, NO CLOTHES.

Yep, it looks as though I've entered that last phase of pregnancy that makes labor seem less and less scary-the just get this thing out of me phase.

On the other hand, I have so much to be glad about!!

1. I do not have heartburn like I did in the first trimester.Well, just a little, but it's not that bad. THANK-you baby!
2. It's nowhere near as bad as the first 6 months. Besides being huge, exhausted and in pain, I feel great.
3. I never have to do this again if I don't want to!
4. I only have 5 more weeks!!!! Before the due date, so really I have 6 or 7, but that's doable!
5. When this is over I get to have a baby.

I am so so very excited to meet this baby. I ask Brad every day, aren't you SO excited?

I'm In Love

2010-10-21T09:49:00.002-06:00

With a 30-year-old boy named Brad.

He's super rad.

He's a great dad.

He doesn't get sad.

He's no longer just a lad

And if I had

To make a husband want ad

He'd get the job and I'd be glad.

I could go on and on and say lots of nice things but Brad would be embarrassed and, well, it probably wouldn't rhyme.

Happy Birthday, Brad!

Vain

2010-10-14T09:18:00.004-06:00

I bought this dress at the same time as I bought my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding. There was a sign in the change room and it said something like "you're pregnant-indulge yourself." I fell for it like a sucker. Brad and I went on a date that night and I had nothing to wear so I came out in the new dress. He said "you can't be serious. You're wearing a moo-moo (sp?) on our date?" Since then he's also commented that it is a bit showy.

But I feel pretty in it. Pretty enough to be super vain and take pictures of myself in it.

A story about this very mirror: I was a strange and unusual young adult. I liked to turn up my music really, really loud when I thought no one was around. A few times someone was around. Like the time I was listening to Wu-Tang and the poor pregnant lady in the basement had to scream at the top of her lungs to get me to turn it down. And the time I was listening to Outkast and dancing all crazy-like and one of the guys living in the basement passed the window and waved. He laughed. I've never been so embarrassed ever. Well I got the last laugh because the other day Brad took the kids to the park and I was cleaning up the kitchen. So naturally I turned up the music loud (but not that loud). I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror- 7 1/2 months pregnant, hair in a big bun on top of my head, dancing away. Can you picture it?

Speaking of vanity, you know that song "You're so Vian" by Madonna? The chorus says "you're so vain, you prob'ly think this song is about you." Well, how would you feel if someone kept singing that song every time you were in the room? This has happened to me. And it's a very awkward position to be in.

Thanks and Tears

2010-10-10T22:55:00.001-06:00

Okay, first of all, my windows are NOT dirty. It's condensation and it's all on the inside...so don't judge me :) Second of all, I got something to put in my plant-pot! Not a plant, but I like it BETTER than a plant! It's a... thankfulness tree! My kids spent a long time coloring all the leaves and then every night last week we each thought of things we were grateful for, wrote on the back of a leaf and put it on the tree. I'm sooo creative, right? Okay not my idea. But I'm smart enough to know a good idea when I hear one! When I think of all the things I am grateful for I get a little overwhelmed. It starts with the gospel and plan of salvation, moves to nature and my country and family and kids and goes from there. Our prophet told us to be grateful (read about it here) so that's what I'm going to do. And believe it or not, I'm grateful that being grateful is such an enjoyable thing for me to do, and now I can feel righteous for doing it! Ha...I'm kidding...kinda.

Brad has his big CMA entrance exam on Thursday and I can't sit in a car for more than 15 minutes these days, so we didn't go to Thanksgiving in Taber this year. I wanted Brad to have a turkey dinner so we had one at our house and Brad's parents and sister came. It was so nice! And the weather was beautiful, so we were outside lots. So what if my fruit salad was actually a marshmallow salad and my buns were flat? My sweet potatoes were pretty darn perfect. Everyone else took care of the rest so I was pretty relaxed.

Funny story--I love my MIL's stuffing because it's crispy. And she always uses torn-up stale hotdog buns to make it. So in my attempt to make the stuffing as delicious as her's Breanna and I tore up hot dog buns the day before dinner to ensure they were stale and hard for the stuffing the next day. My MIL saw this and said 'you know, you can use fresh hotdog buns for this-mine are always stale because I tear them up so they dry up, I store them that way so they don't go mouldy."

Oh.

That'll save a bit of stress for next time.

Someone made me sad, hurt my feelings and such... so I've spent the evening crying. I wonder if I'm still allowed to cry over hurt feelings when I'm 33 and a Mom. It doesn't sound right, but I also wonder, when does the toughness kick in. Hopefully before my kids are teenagers. I feel better now because Brad is watching Remi videos and they are funny. I'm grateful for funny stuff.

AND in conclusion, I have to say it, I can't resist...I love love love my little kids! Thanks for listening to me gush all the time :)

How Fun is This?

2010-10-05T08:28:00.001-06:00

A Rope to swing on in the basement!

So simple yet what could be more fun?

A Warm Weekend

2010-10-03T21:05:00.002-06:00

I wanted my house to be spotless and to be totally relaxed and prepared for Conference Weekend. Then I ran out of iron pills last week (I'm anemic in my pregnancies), got a cold (that only strikes at night...am I allergic to the night air?) and that together with all the getting up to pee I do these days had me wake Saturday morning exhausted with my house not spotless like I'd hoped. Brad was gone all morning at school so I tried to enjoy conference while cleaning up/watching the kids/cooking and baking buns/fighting the urge to go back to bed. I was a bit discouraged but my Mom said, you're further along than you would be if you hadn't tried at all. Which was true. She also said I could choose not to be grouchy. I tried that, but it didn't work. I'm pretty sure some days, grouchy is kind of inevitable.

Well Brad finally got home around 2 and we ate super delicious potato soup and homemade buns and watched a wonderful session of conference. As soon as conference was over we whipped the kids into swimsuits and Brad took them to the lake for a couple of hours. It was beautiful outside, but I was so swollen and too tired to go. So I sat at the computer and we texted while he sent me pictures of the kids. Almost like being there, right?

Then Brad left to go to Priesthood session and I put the kids to bed. I was so excited because I started reading the kids their first chapter book, The Tale of Despereaux. I didn't know if they would like it but they love it and keep asking for "one more" chapter. I love sitting in the rocking chair with a pillow behind my back and the kids tucked into bed and getting caught up in the same surreal magic I felt as a kid when my Mom would read to us like that. I've been waiting to do this for years!

Sunday morning came and I woke up to blueberry bran muffins and bacon and eggs. We pulled the couch up and put the computer on the table so we could watch conference. Brad and I had about 3 naps each during the day, watched conference and spent most of the day lazing around and trying to keep the kids distracted. Then we went for dinner at a friend's and the kids had fun playing and we had a great time visiting.

So my house might not have been perfect, but there was a warm, peaceful feeling in the home which is exactly what I wanted. Even if the kids didn't get anything out of conference, I'm sure they felt the spirit it brought into our home and spending time as a family is always so nice. I also had a chance to ponder and learn and feel the spirit and repent in my heart and decide to do better. I can't wait to get the Conference Ensign and read the talks again. I love the gospel and am so grateful for the happiness it brings.

Breanna was enthralled with the Tabernacle Choir. She sat just staring.

Jesse and Daddy wrestling. Note my unmade bed and the kleenex from blowing my nose a million times the night before...Sorry....

Warm Fall Days

2010-10-02T18:58:00.001-06:00

What more can I say?

2010-09-27T15:05:00.000-06:00

I have nothing to say, except sometimes I am so happy and that I love my life and my husband and little kids and the gospel and autumn in the sun.

Eating spinach soup before church...well, not really eating it I guess...but they did...most of it.