Sometimes It's Hard to Be the Baby

Jenna is such a sweet little thing and the kids all love her, but sometimes it's hard to be the baby of the family.

Take for instance when all the kids are playing downstairs so you slide down on your belly to join them. The only problem, they don't appreciate you breaking their train track to pieces.


Solution: they stick you in a box you can't get out of. Don't worry they also put toys in the box for her to play with!

But then you decide you don't want to be stuck in the box and start to squawk loudly.


Solution: They put you back on the stairs, shut the door and throw toys out for you to play with.


Yep, sometimes it's hard to be the baby!

All Mommas Are Mean

While we were in Bountiful at Chuck's parents home a couple of weekends ago I had the greatest conversation with Bella. The two of us were together in the bathroom while I was combing her hair and this is the conversation we had.

Bella: I like that I have 2 grandma's. One grandma gives me grape juice (Chuck's mom makes her own grape juice from grapes she grows in her garden. It is very tasty) and one grandma makes me rice balls (my moms speciality that the kids love). All grandma's are nice and all mommas are mean.

Me: (trying really hard not to laugh) You think your momma is mean?

Bella: Well, grandma's they give you whatever you want. If you want macaroni and cheese for dinner they say, okay! But mammas they say, No you must eat meat!

She's got it right - She has 2 wonderful Grandma's that spoil her and us mammas have to be "mean" sometimes!

I love my Bella girl she just cracks me up every day!

An Amazing Evening & New Years Goal

I had the most amazing evening last week. It was my Power of Moms monthly Learning Circle meeting. My friend formed this group over a year ago and the other ladies in the group live clear across town. We always have great meetings, but I came away from this particular meeting so uplifted and inspired. We had such a wonderful time together as women and mothers, and enjoyed an amazing spirit of learning. I admire each of these women, they are amazing mothers.

We usually discuss articles from the Power of Moms website, but this evening we discussed an article that Julie Beck, the Relief Society General President, gave last year at BYU Women's Conference. Another one of my dearest friends gave me this article several months ago and I suggested our group discuss it because I needed their input and wisdom.

The past several months I have been feeling anxious. I guess that's the best way to describe it. I finally figured out what my problem was one evening while I was lying in bed. I struggle with transition periods in my life and I drive myself and others around me crazy during these times. A few other times in my life I have felt this same way - when I was trying to decide where to go to college, if I should marry Chuck, where we should go after we both graduated from college, if we should move from Vegas to St. George and now. My transition - it's a hard one, my baby is almost 1 and the baby phase of my life is complete. Tears stream as I contemplate what that means - tears of sadness because there will not be another newborn to fill our home with joy, tears of thankfulness because I don't have to be pregnant again, tears of joy because I have been blessed beyond what I thought was possible. But what does this transition mean for me?

I discovered how to find the answer with this amazing talk. Sister Beck raises the question "What is your mission?". In order to discover it we have to make proper choices and that means there has to be prioritizing in our lives. She said when our priorities are out of order, we lose power and we need power to discover and carry out our mission.

This has been my goal for the past several months and for this New Year to make sure my priorities, where I choose to spend my time and efforts are in line with my mission for myself and my family. Sister Beck suggested making a list with 3 categories - essential things, necessary things, and nice-to-do things. There are so many things that beckon to us as women and mothers. I was surprised when I made my list that there weren't that many things that were essential compared to the other categories. If this is the case, why is it hard to make sure I accomplish those essential things. One of the women in my group helped answer that question. The nice-to-do things are usually fun, rewarding, they bombard us from every angle, the voices calling to us are loud. The essential things do not vie for our attention, we must work diligently and seek them out.

After our meeting I felt that anxious feeling subside. I know I must focus on the essential things and that means some of my fun nice-to-dos are going to drop off the list. Some things that I would like to focus on are going to have to wait for a different season of life and that's okay. As women, we are lucky to have seasons of life where our priorities and efforts can evolve and change. Many of my essential things are summed up in a scripture I have in vinyl on our kitchen wall D&C 109:8 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

A pretty lofty goal, more like a lofty eternal journey, but one that's worth putting all my time and effort toward. I'm thankful for a group of wise and wonderful women and mothers that help me remember what is most important.

And here's the link to the article I referenced in case anyone is interested. It's a great one!
http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,9118-1-5187-1,00.html

It's 1:12 a.m. and you hear the Dreaded words...

It's 1:12 a.m. and we were awoken from our pleasant slumber with the dreaded words from Samuel, "Mom, Dad there's a BIG problem! Issac puked all over the bed." Chuck grumbles as he looks at his watch and we both roll out of bed to take care of the problem. I'm lucky to have a husband who assists in this type of situation because really I'm a wimp when it comes to puke. I have to pull out the nose plugs to keep from adding to the problem myself!

Chuck quickly pulls off all the bedding and I take care of getting Isaac new pj's, wiping him off and comforting him. The whole time I'm wondering how Bella can still be asleep in Samuel's room with all this comotion taking place. Then Chuck turns on the kids bathroom light and says, "Who puked all over the floor." It's at this point that Bella emerges from her own room and says she did.

Now here's where the story turns really good! Bella never ceases to amaze me with her indepedant streak. (Sometimes it almost kills me like when she began changing her own poopy diapers well before she turned 2.)

I tell Bella to come downstairs and I'll help her change her pj's. She then informs me she already changed her own pj's and put them in the dirty clothes - amazing huh. Then I notice a little spot of puke in her hair and tell her I'll help her get cleaned up. Chuck starts questioning her about how she could have puke in her hair if she'd puked on the bathroom floor. Then the wild story unfolds.

Bella: "It's the worst night ever! There's so much puke! I puked in my sleeping bag in Samuel's room. Then I went to my dollhouse bed to sleep and puked there. Then I puked in the bathroom."

Yikes! Yes, she really had puked in all those places and made a giant mess. A 4 year old pukes 3 times in the night, changes her own clothes and doesn't even wake anyone up to help her! Independant - Yes, but let's just say I'm extremely glad we found this in the middle of the night and it didn't sit around until morning.

So we spent 40 minutes cleaning up all these puking messes. Poor Chuck was lamenting that his mom was really good at cleaning up puke and he sure wished she was around to help with this mess. Now normally a wife doesn't like to hear that his husband wants his mom, but you know what I wanted someone to help too! Like I said I'm not good at puke!

Then Chuck decided to pull the couches onto the concrete so the kids could sleep on them with bowls and directions if they missed the bowl to hit the concrete not the carpet. I got up twice more with Bella because I heard her. Then the baby woke up at 4 and needed to nurse. I was so tired it took me until 4:30 to finish because I kept drifting in and out of sleep. Then Isaac woke up just before 6 feeling great and ready to start the day.

What a night - we all have them! I'm just super glad both kids woke up feeling great. Now just praying this little bug doesn't infect anyone else. And greatful I have a big front loading washing machine because it took me 3 loads to wash all the stinky bedding, blankets and pillows.



Little Miss Independant!

Chop Chop

This looks familiar. My brother once let a stomper truck loose in my waist length hair. It kept going and going until so much hair had wrapped around the tires it stopped moving. That was fun getting out!

Isaac was playing and then came over to me whimpering and trying to pull this truck off his head. Naturally I had to get a picture before I cut it free. I tried to unwrap the hair, but it was wrapped right to the scalp so we just cut it. He's got a nice little bald spot now. Luckily the rest of his hair covers the spot and he's a little boy so who cares if he has a bald spot!

Sisters

Sweet baby Jenna turned 11 months old today! Not sure how this happened so fast.

A few new accomplishments the past month:

* Learned first baby sign "more" - she uses this all the time when eating noodles.

* Took a few steps all by herself

* Claps and waves. We all clap and cheer for her so much that about every time she stands up she claps for herself. Super cute!

* She climbs Samuel's slide bed by herself then slides down on her belly. I'm starting to wonder if I have another Bella on my hands.

* Loves to bop around to the music and when the other kids are singing she tries to join in.

* Still no teeth and still not really sleeping through the night. Maybe next month!

Bella girl loves to help with Jenna. She is the best big sister. I keep telling Chuck if she was just a little older than 4 she could practically take care of Jenna by herself. Believe me she already tries!

A few things Bella has done with Jenna the past month:

* Tried to change a poopy diaper - she had her undressed, diaper off, mat out, wet wipes and new diaper ready. Good thing I walked in before that got really messy!

* Lifted Jenna into her crib for a nap - Bella drug in a big tupperware box to stand on and somehow hoisted Jenna into the crib.

* Wiped Jenna off and took her out of her highchair. This one really confused Chuck and I as we both thought the other one was going crazy and couldn't remember they'd got the baby down. Then Bella finally piped up and told us she had done it.

* Undress and redress Jenna in princess outfits all day long.

Most days I just hold my breath and hope Bella doesn't try anything to crazy with the baby!

I love this picture because this IS my Bella girl!

The Dreaded Day Has Come!

I've been dreading this day for 2 years!

What could possibly be bad enough that the mere thought 2 years in advance causes you grief - Church at 1:00!!! Yeah I'm pretty much dreading Sundays for the whole next year. Personally I LOVE 9:00 get up, get going, get it done.

Yeah 1:00 is hard with napping kids especially when this guy falls asleep just before we leave. It's not fun waking this one - there's a massive explosion of fit throwing! (we went to Jumping Jacks the day before and he got a little road rash on the cheek). And for some crazy reason both Samuel and Bella fell asleep during Sacrament meeting and woke up not happy. After every amen during testimony meeting Isaac asked, "We go home now".

No, but somehow we will endure!