Where does the time go

Where does the time go? I woke one morning this June holding a little girl in my arms that was only a few months old. Then in walks my oldest daughter... She has turned 10 today. I look at the baby girl in my arms and my other baby girl standing there before me and for the life of me, I can not figure out how it happened. I blinked. And she is half way to being an adult. I fear I will have to pry my eyes open with toothpicks in fear of blinking again and having her be that grown up.
She is such an amazing girl I keep wanting to call her little but she is not. She is so grown up... and continues to do so.




We celebrated her birthday twice this year, once with family and the other with friends. It was fun. Her friends came and we made flower clips for each of them. It was a perfect easy going birthday party and lots of fun.

Her rock star micro phone cup cakes.

Who knew my child would like cooking? I hope she continues to do so... I missed the boat. I do love to bake but not cook. She already owns more cookbooks than I did when I got married.

It will be interesting to see what the next ten years bring for her.

Who knew it could be so entertaining?

What could be so entertaining you ask? What could bring all three children to this..???
(Okay so mom took advantage of the opportunity with the picture above... it was cute.)

Something that could make the husband do this?

It also made me a very happy person. I have waited a long time. Can you guess what it is?

A FAN in the living room! Yeah. We have had the fan sitting in a box taking up space for about six months. Finally after a long wait and some begging to the hubby on my part... Some warm weather on mothers natures part. He finally installed it. Our family room faces West and gets quite toasty in the summer in the evenings when the sun is getting ready to set. This fan is wonderful it feels so nice. And who knew it could be so entertaining for the kids.

Wonderfully Caotic weekend!

This weekend was as jam packed as they come... but it was wonderful. We had way to many things planned for one weekend, however we didn't have much of a choice. Since the hubby is a weekend warrior..one weekend of every month is taken up. Unfortunately the last few months had been the first weekend of the month.. which is also the weekend we would want to bless our sweet baby girl. This month it happened to be different so we this was the month to bless her. We also decided we wanted to have a garden and in order to do that have to get the garden boxes set up. We attempted last week to get that done but did not get anywhere close. So... this was the weekend for it all.

It started Saturday Morning ... We began with the garden... It just so happened that Joy from Joy in the Garden was at the Local Store near our home so we decided to go meet joy. The kidlets were very excited. Okay so Chica was really excited and the Boy was only somewhat excited. By the time we actually got to meet her Boy was on board too. She signed our books and gave the kids some small talk of encouragement and then we were off to gather the necessary items for a garden. The Mr. had already built the boxes but we needed the soil. Of course in the process of gathering the children came across the baby chics and decided that we needed to have them. We did end up buying chics... however it was not the same they had in mind... the chics we went home with were of the sugary marsh mellow type. Much easier to care for.
Then when we got home my sister , her girl and my mother came over to visit. My sister came to town with her daughter so they could be here for the baby blessing. The girls were all giggly delight. I helped them make some flower clips and they played while the adults talked and played as well. Grandma even made some flower clips and hair bows. It was fun. Oh yes I forgot to mention while all the girls were doing fun crafty things... The hubby was out slaving away putting together the garden and the boxes and building a fence to keep the neighbors two large dogs from messing on our property and prevent them from reaching the garden (which is right up against our house... annoying dogs).
As soon as that was done we were off to my in-laws home for a blessing celebration as well as a birthday celebration. It was nice to get together and spend time with everyone. Then off for home and to bath the kids and get them all ready for the baby blessing the next day. Needless to say I was exhausted.
It was a bit hectic but the blessing went well with out any major hitches. She didn't even cry during the blessing sweet little thing. This, unfortunately is the best we could come up with for a family photo. It is pretty difficult to get four children to cooperate for a photo op.


Her auntie made her the most amazingly beautiful blessing dress. I will post more in a little bit. It was gorgeous!! Thanks to Aunt Emma.
Then off to home when my parents, my sister and her daughter came for dinner and more fun. The girls all got into making more flower clips and hair bows and just had fun being together.
It was a very nice weekend. Not a moments rest but it was quite perfect. Nothing better than doing the things we love with the ones we love. Thanks to all who participated!

Perfection at any given moment....

I saw this posted on Facebook and really enjoyed it.
I have small children... If you come over unannounced there WILL be toys from one end of the house to the other, dishes in the sink, and hell, there might even be food crumbs on the floor...But we WILL be happy, and that's all that matters to us!.
To often (I believe it is even more amplified in LDS women) we get caught up in the desire for perfection. So much so that it causes many woman to go near insane in pursuit. We look at others and see only the side they show, in some cases it may seem perfect but I am almost sure that no one has obtained perfection. So while you may look at their home and see perfection and order where your own feels like ciaos they are experience ciaos in some other portion of their life where we may feel perfection.
We need to stop comparing ourselves and our situations to others and focus on what makes us happy. For me I want a clean house and I try... but I have four children and my idea of clean doesn't coincide with four children. So for now I have a cluttered but fairly clean home. Someday I may obtain my version of clean, however at that point I may wish for the cluttered home and the sound of little children playing happily with toys. So I have to look and say, I love my children their for I can deal with the mess. We are happy. I see as close to perfection at any given moment... it is just perfection in something different than what I may have been looking for.

The Facts Of Life...

At some point it is guaranteed if you have children they will do something that will cause you to go through a few stages of emotions with in a very short time frame.... 1st stage is shock, 2nd stage anger ( Very important to employ all calming skills known at this moment, even better if said child is not home) 3rd frustration, 4th confusion and 5th this one take a bit longer to get too... eventually you will find humor in the situation.
So on Halloween I was doing laundry and even being nice enough to put away my 7 year old boys laundry.... I went with his basket of folded clothing to put them in his dresser when what awaited my was quite shocking.... I reached for his drawer and looked down to see his name so neatly carved across the drawer front not once but multiple times. Lucky for the boy he was at a friends home playing because the anger stage came quite quickly..... I was sure he should be grounded for life. So I called my husband in and sent my daughter to retrieve him from his friends home. For my husband the shock stage lasted much longer than mine. Luckily for my boy by the time he entered the door way the anger stage was phasing to the frustration phase. So with my husband there to help me manage my anger stage we brought him in to talk to him. We started prying for information on what his tool of choice for carving had been... He started out with telling us it was a half of a plastic egg (Somehow mom and dad just didn't buy that and egg was quickly destroyed) Then the realization that mom and dad meant business kicked in and he began to tell his story. His story involved a needle found on the ground at school and brought home. You can imagine the concern I felt of him finding a needle of unknown origin and bringing it home. We pressed further for a description and location of the needle. He then informed us it was red and shaped like a black widow. (We finally figured out he meant like an hour glass) It was a thumb tack. So then The next stage of confusion kicked in... While I was angry and frustrated that he had perpetrated such an act, I was worried that he did not see the danger in picking up a needle or thumbtack and playing with it. Now we were faced with the dilema of how to teach him that he should never pick up sharp objects and never deface his furniture... what punishment fits that type of behavior. The thought of grounding him forever did cross my mind... as did making sure Santa did not bring him any toys this Christmas but give mommy and daddy money instead to replace and or repair the dresser also crossed my mind. When I explained to him that it would take an entire Christmas worth of toys to replace something like a dresser the boy crumpled in tears. So we told him that he would be helping daddy sand and re stain the dresser (Which in his mind is a bit fun so further punishment would be necessary) and that he would have to do things to help pay for the time it took daddy to complete such a project (I also added some time grounded from friends just to drive the point home).
So now that the anger phase is gone I still have a bit of the Frustration phase lingering but I am starting to see the final phase of humor. This is one of those things every parent must go through and one that I will tell stories of for the rest of my life and his.... Crazy boy. I really thought by 7 we would be past this phase... but not so. So perhaps if... no when a situation like this happens to you, remembering this five stage process will help you through... just remember every one with children must pass through this part of life process some mulitple times.

Gone are the gorgeous locks....

Okay So I am sad to admit I finally caved to the pressure from my husband and my mother to tame those beautiful curls on my baby boys lovely little head. Everything was going splendid until my Step Grandfather referred to my little boy as "Daddy's little girl"... And that was the beginning of the end. I should take some consolation in the fact that I got away with it until he was 14 months old. Sadly the picture above does not do those lovely curls justice. His hair had been combed through at this point.

Surprisingly he did not lose it when she squirted him with the water. The curls are going...

No Tears or crying from baby??? Even though Mommy felt like crying. Going.......

And their gone :-( . Mommy is having a hard time letting go of those cute curls and having her baby growing up faster than she is ready.

Baby doesn't seem to mind at all. However it took 5 adults and two siblings to help contain baby so we could tame those beautiful curls. Well Daddy is happy and baby doesn't mind... so I think mommy will survive.

Back to the Grind

And so it begins again... School starts, work starts and the overwhelming feeling of to much to do and not enough time becomes amplified. So I know that every mother feels this way. At least the ones that are willing to be honest.
I am sad to say... my children start school... I even admit this while the boy is beating Chica over the head with the bag to the baby toys and arguing with her right behind me. I must be certifiable, but I am sad. They do drive me crazy at home on a regular basis, however they are my kidlets and I like having them close to me. I miss them when they are at school almost 8 hours a day 5 days a week. It seems odd to me to have my small (Relatively speaking) Children gone for most of the day instead of home with me. I guess I need to look at the upside to this... I will have more one on one with Bubbo until the new one gets here.
I guess that is another topic I needed blog... I know I am a little delayed but we are going to be having a baby at the end of January. It came as a bit of a surprise to us. It took us so long to get pregnant with Bubbo that we figured we had better start trying a little sooner rather than later