A Perfect Day

Motherhood is so full of ups and downs, but today has been one of those days where my heart is literally bursting with joy.

Samuel is out of school early all week and I’m so excited! (Is it too early to start counting down the days till summer – because I can’t wait!) Today with our extra time we made yummy brownies and took them to the park to eat. It was a little windy so we were the only ones there. I sat on the grass and watched as the kids ran around. I was even able to pull out my book and read a little – amazing! I couldn’t help but think how wonderful it was they could all play and have so much fun together.

After I taught piano and Samuel finished karate, we returned home for dinner. All the kids sat around the table and no one complained. We even had a great conversation about everyone’s good, bad and service for the day. Chuck then gave a wonderful FHE lesson on scriptures and the kids were involved and paid attention. Jenna was busy, but she wasn’t screaming. My favorite part of FHE is singing around the piano. As I played and the kids sang, my heart wanted to burst. I laughed, as I always do, when we sang Do As I’m Doing and the kids took off running around the “race track” in our house. (Our house has a circular flow from the piano room into the kitchen and the kids love doing laps) Then we ate more brownies, cleaned and did homework.

I smiled as the kids got ready for bed and we all gathered in Jenna’s room as Chuck and Bella sang to her. Everyone loves to give the baby kisses goodnight. I sat downstairs and listened as Chuck sang each of the kids their song before bed. When I was in college, I wanted to marry a guy who could sing so he could sing to our kids and it still touches me every night when Chuck sings to them.

I went up to give each of the kids “treasure hunt” and tuck them in. Bella was holding a Book of Mormon and told me she needed to learn how to read so she could read the scriptures by herself. Then as I entered the boys room, they were gathered around Chuck who had his phone out teaching the boys about dwarf planets. Samuel is studying about the solar system and he wanted to know more. My heart was full again because I love when the kids show a thirst for knowledge. I love learning and I so want my kids to have that desire. I tucked the boys in bed, helped them pray and talked to Samuel as he asked me more questions. I love our nightly talks.

Some days are perfect, not because anything amazing happened but just because you lived in the moment and soaked up every part of being a mother! 

Happy Valentines

The picture pretty much says it all!

Expectations – Ugh!

If there’s one thing as a mom I keep learning again and again it’s that you just can’t set your expectations too high when it comes to the fabulous family activities you plan. Case in point:

Tonight I had a fabulous Valentines family home evening all planned. We were going to have dinner, decorate and hang hearts with what we loved about each other written all over them, frost our yummy cookies and take a few cutely decorated plates around friends each of the kids chose and then partake of yummy treats ourselves.

How the night really went. Chuck got home from work 45 minutes late, consequently dinner was nice and dried out in the oven and I was a little more than slightly annoyed. Jenna looked like she was getting pink eye and spent 30 of those minutes before Chuck got home crying and wouldn’t let me put her down. Isaac and Jenna didn’t want to eat what we were having for dinner and both of them were crying about it. Samuel and Bella got in a fierce argument just before we started FHE about whose turn it was to swing on the karate belts down the basement stairs. We sent them to the “repenting” bench to work out the argument and now we had 3 kids in tears. Finally got FHE started and Chuck jokingly told Isaac he got 2 points after he blurted out an answer when Samuel had his hand raised. Samuel stormed up to his room and didn’t want to join us. I sat there dumbfounded that my fabulous fun night had turned into a chaotic mess. If I wasn’t so annoyed it would have been humorous! Needless to say we didn’t decorate hearts with our deepest sentiments for each other written down because we were all upset with each other and we didn’t decorate our cookies either. In fact we just had to cancel FHE and get ready for bed.

To top of the evening, Bella was upstairs and came running down crying and holding her nose. Chuck kept telling her it wasn’t bleeding and she finally managed to blurt out that she had stuffed a Lego crystal up her nose. I consider ourselves lucky because this is the first time we have had an object stuck up a nose. All I could think was this is just a lovely turn of events – a trip to the night clinic to remove a Lego. But the night ended well because with a lot of effort Chuck was able to get Bella to blow the Lego crystal out of her nose.

Now the kids are tucked snugly in bed and I’ve decorated and hidden their Valentines gifts for tomorrow morning. It’s nice that things are always better in the morning!

Two!

I can’t believe my baby is 2! How quickly time seems to pass.

Jenna is strong willed and feisty. It just makes me smile to hear her cute little voice talking so much. When she wakes up in the morning she doesn’t call for mommy or daddy she hollers at the top of her lungs “IE, IE”. Isaac is always up early and it’s become his job to get Jenna out of her crib. She also hollers at Bella all day long. If Jenna needs anything she enlists Bella to get it for her. It’s so adorable to watch her run to the door calling “Daddy, Daddy” when Chuck gets home from work. We do a little cheer after we say our family prayer and Jenna has become our official leader, we laugh every time as we pile our hands on top of each other and Jenna calls out “Ewlette”, she can’t quite say our last name which is what makes it so darn cute. She loves music and will sit on my lap as I play the piano. She’s been trying to phase out her nap the past several months which has really made me sad, she is pretty demanding of all of us and it’s nice to have a little break. But she’s like her sister and just doesn’t need a lot of rest. We all love this baby of ours!

I saw this cute cake idea on pinterest and was so happy that my friend had the Disney cricut cartridge so I could use the cake machine. I used my favorite frosting instead of fondant so it’s not smooth, but it was super yummy. I even made the chocolate and yellow cakes from scratch. I just wish I would have taken a picture of the chocolate cake before I stacked the other cakes on top and frosted it. It totally sunk, which Chuck informed me was because I beat it for too long. Learn something new all the time, but when you have lots of helping hands sometimes it takes a little longer!

Happy Birthday Baby!

It was also so fun to have my brother in town. He’s a professor at the University of Arkansas so we usually only see him once a year, but he had a class in Vegas so he was able to join us for the party. We stayed up late that night laughing as we listened to all his world traveling adventures.

What a fun weekend we all had! I sure do Love my family!

Minnie Mouse

A few weeks before Jenna’s birthday I asked the kids what type of cake I should make Jenna. Isaac had a fabulous idea when he said a kitty cake because Jenna likes to crawl around pretending she’s a kitty meowing as she goes. But I’m not a huge fan of cats (I’m highly allergic and their fur makes me brake out in hives) so even though it was a great idea I just couldn’t get excited about it. Then it came to me – we had to have a Minnie Mouse birthday.

These are the diapers Jenna wears and she has decided that she will only wear the Minnie diapers. Yep, she throws a giant fit if we try and put the Mickey diaper on her. We’re talking screaming and ripping them off – major fit! Chuck and I both work really hard to try and sneak those Mickey diapers on her because really we can’t just use half the box!

At first I thought I could sneak the Mickey diaper on her if she just didn’t see the picture on the front, but apparently the backs are slightly different and Jenna can tell which diaper I have just by seeing the back. So it seemed fitting, with her latest obsession, that we have a Minnie Mouse birthday.

It’s About Time

We are so excited that Lego’s has FINALLY come out with a girls line. Chuck and I have been wondering for years why there weren’t girls mini-figures. I mean really – boys aren’t the only ones that enjoy building!

 

Bella loves constructing all sorts of amazing creations. I tell her all the time she could be a great architect someday.

Melts My Heart

Jenna LOVES my dad. She is always so excited when Grandma and Grandpa come to stay with us. I think she loves Grandpa so much because he is willing to pack her all over and she LOVES to be held. I caught this sweet moment between them this evening. Doesn’t that just melt your heart?

Wiping Away the Tears

My baby will be turning 2 this weekend and this is how we both feel about it!

Last year I was in tears as she was turning 1 and this year I shed a few tears as well. I think I’ve come to the realization that I’m just going to be a little sentimental each year as my baby gets older.

So if you see me with a similar expression you’ll know why! (Our Primary chorister was telling me on Sunday that when she went in to nursery to sing with the kids Jenna was looking at her with such disdain. I told her not to worry she gives this look to everyone!)

We are having a Minnie Mouse birthday for Jenna and I’ll save the reason why for another post. I was trying to get a few shots for her birthday invitation and this is what Jenna was giving me. Not to worry, we finally found the secret weapon – a flying baby doll. It worked wonders to bring out a bit of a smile!

I had a temporary laps of sanity about a month ago and actually thought for a few minutes we could have another baby. We were sitting in sacrament meeting and our bishop was blessing his granddaughter. When I saw that sweet baby, I couldn’t help the tears that freely flowed as I thought about my own baby turning 2 and that my arms would never cradle a precious newborn of my own. And then I thought we could do it again, being pregnant isn’t THAT bad, the kids are getting somewhat easier. Chuck looked over at me and mouthed, “Why are you crying?” When I couldn’t answer him, he got a panicked look in his eyes and mouthed, “You don’t want another baby do you?!!!”. A couple of minutes later reality hit as Chuck took Jenna into the hallway because she was screaming about something and I was left with the other kids and Isaac was being a total nightmare. I love babies and so I know my heart will always ache for a newborn to fill my arms, but alas I will just hope my sister has another baby one of these days that I can hold and cuddle! 

Now for a somewhat funnier reason for why I may look like the above picture. I was helping Samuel practice the piano bright and early this morning and decided I would provide an outstanding visual object lesson for him in regards to horizontal versus vertical hand movement along the keyboard. So I was jumping from side to side (in my mind I pictured myself looking like Jillian Michaels doing the skating move in her Shred video). Suddenly I totally slipped, my legs flew out from under me and I didn’t even have time to try and catch myself as I crashed in a heap on my side on our concrete floor. Poor Samuel obviously wanted to laugh, but because I was writhing in agony he wasn’t sure what to do. Needless to say my back has been aching all day causing me to have a giant frowny face – that concrete floor sure is hard! Chuck was so confused when I told him how I’d fallen – he couldn’t figure out if I was trying to exercise or what I had been doing. Nope, just an exciting day of piano practice!