A week in review

Jed has been gone this week. This week has seemed like an eternity. I will review the happenings of this week:

• Drew has had issues at school--has caused us some stress.


• Bedtimes have been extremely rough. I think teething may be the culprit?


• Tuesday I about had a major breakdown as a result of an extremely hectic day: violin lessons, visiting teaching, issues at school, disobedience, babysitter or no babysitter, mutual, being disrupted in my sleep by a waking baby who wanted to eat all night long, and no dinner until 10:00, etc. Just one of those days that come every once in awhile.


• At our Stake Standards night it was announced over the pulpit: "There is a Red Durango with its lights on." It felt like they kept announcing it over and over, like they were waiting for someone to fess up. I just smiled and the girls around me caught on. It would have been fine if I had been sitting in the back of the chapel. But I was in the front. So I waited until the opening song and tried to slip away unnoticed, but there were looks and smiles from just about every person in our ward as I walked out of the chapel! My face was red...


• Wednesday, no issues at school! We had a party together, went and picked up a pizza. I got to the car and couldn't find my wallet. Yes, that's me again...I left it on the counter inside. Oh boy.... Atleast I realized it was missing before we left.


• You know the spider talks we have been having? Just had one this morning, convincing Drew there isn't a spider as big as a lobster in his bedroom. Just after that I say, "Drew hold still!" There was, in fact, a small spider on his shirt!!!! AHHHH! I cannot have spiderphobia this early in the year, it is not good for me. Or the kids.


• Went grocery shopping earlier in the week. Got all the way through everything with the kids and.....check my purse for my debit card. Gone. Check book? Gone. Cash? ...not enough. All of the above left at home!!! Need to remember to put that stuff back in the purse whenever I take them out!! Borrowed a check from my very kind and understanding mother-in-law. Am able to take my hour+ devoted groceries home. ;)


• Lily has developed the new cutest little quirk. She sticks her tongue out and moves it from one side of her lips to the other, back and forth, while making a noise. Very funny and cute. And she copies it any time I remind her of it, so fun!!


• Had a painting party with Hannah and Madelyn. Madelyn was always very complimentary of Hannah's paintings. Cute.


• The kids are keeping their bedrooms in better condition. Hallelujah!! Not without several reminders...but, baby steps.

That is just a taste of what has been happening at our place this week. There have been crazy times, but I'm always going to have those. It's all ok. I'm just grateful the weekend is nearing and it is going to be a GREAT one at that! I will have my best friend at my side, plus, General Conference here we come!! (Just a figure of speech, we are not actually going).

Art/Schoolwork Roundup

Drew, Madelyn, and Hannah decided we should have a family art party. So, we ripped out the paints and everyone went at it. Little did I know that Jed was such and artist!! I think his apple is pretty impressive. (Sorry its crooked) And now I feel really bad because Hannah's picture is not in here!! But her picture was awesome too.

Madelyn has figured out rainbow order.

I think she is getting really good at name writing.

This one cracks me up. I found this in Drew's take home folder from school. If you cannot read it, it says: "One day me and my dad went for a ride in are gocart. My dad did a cookie. My gocart trnd over and it about kild me. and I was savd. The end." Love it, and it is a true story....a little exaggerated, but true. ;)

Another of Drew's school papers that impressed me with its neatness!

I love an excuse to party

We had some fun making St. Patrick's Day a day to remember. We had an "Irish Princess Tea Party." I'm pretty sure this was Madelyn and Hannah's favorite part of the day. I bought this awesome bread at our local grocer. With a sudden burst of inspiration and fun, this lunch went from pretty cool, to a lunch to remember. I sent the girls downstairs while I hurriedly put the tea party together. Everything we ate was grean including a green smoothie. It was just a light colored fruit smoothie with a handful of basically tasteless spinach, turning it into a pleasant green.

The girls had to find their seat by checking the labeled place settings. (Not really all that hard for Hannah, the pink booster seat was a fairly big clue). They each got a little shamrock necklace for them to wear. I totally love how there are insta-manners and fancy lingo that just naturally accompany a tea party!

Lily loved the pickles and chewing on celery.

I was going to make corned beef for dinner, but there was no corned beef around. So I made a roast and was tempted to just put corn on top to make me feel authentic....I resisted.

Last year for our SPD party the kids and I each made up one game. Since I didn't record the happenings of last year's party only two of the games remained...they were the only ones we could remember. This game is a clover hunt. The clovers have different amounts of money writte on the back, we have a $1 clover and that is the ultimate one.

Madelyn found it!

Lily searching for a clover.

Our other game is a hunt for the pot of gold filled with candy. Madelyn found it too! I think it is fun to just have an excuse to do something a little out of the ordinary, especially this time of year. The kids love it and I do too!

Out of Hibernation!!!

Today is a beautiful day!! The girls and I went outside for a heavenly spring adventure. We came across these frozen in time scissors, I thought they were hilarious. We have very little snow/ice left at our house, but this remains as one of the last chunks to melt-complete with scissors of all things.

We had some foot races. And oh boy does it ever feel great to get some life back into our legs through full out sprinting! Makes me feel alive again!

Running.

Just trimming some weeds.

We started a rock collection, not too hard for us since that is what our yard is full of. These were some of our favorites.

We skillfully made beautiful weed bouquets.

Funny thing, another pair of scissors was discovered outside, this pair was not frozen in a block of ice. Hannah was cutting the mud.

We made "cookies" out of dirt/sand that were "healthy" for our bodies. Madelyn wondered what would happen if we infused cookies with vitamins. I think she was trying to get her mother to allow "cookie vitamins" as a staple food item. No such luck, although people in the food industry are trying the same tactics.

It was so fun to play outside!!!! I love that blue sky!!!

Kids say....

I love the funny things kids say, and I just thought I would quickly jot down a couple things I've heard around our house the last couple of days.
I, in a not so genius mothering moment, was trying to encourage my two older children to keep their rooms clean in the basement by letting them know if their floors are clean, spiders won't have many places to hide. Well now I've scared the pants of my kids. So..... they don't want to go to bed. Every night we have had to have a de-scarifying spider talk. (not too easy for me, since I suffer from extreme spider paranoia) Anyway, in tonights spider discussion we talked about spider eyes. Drew didn't think spiders could see all that well because they walk right onto sticky traps. Then we talked about them having several eyes. Madelyn wondered why Drew didn't think they could see very well if they had so many eyes. I told her "I guess I don't know a whole lot about the eyesight of spiders." She quickly told me I should check out "spiders.com." Thought that was funny.
Yesterday, Drew discovered the three P's. "There's the letter 'P,' the innapropriate 'P,' and the vegetable 'P'"......thought that was funny too.
This morning, there has been beautiful blue sky, and in that sky I noticed the moon. I called Madelyn over to come see it. We talked about how funny it was that the moon was out when the sun was too. Then she kind of laughed and said, "Jesus forgot to change it!!" That was funny too.
I'm having bedtime wars tonight. Gotta go re-put some kids to bed.

Moments

I have loved the talk Daughters of God, by Elder M. Russel Ballard, ever since I heard it. The word "moments" has been on my mind lately, and something that Elder Ballard said in that talk just fits my thoughts perfectly. ". . .Recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there will be shining moments of joy and satisfaction."
That just becomes more and more true for me. I love being a mom, but there are certainly times when I feel like I am pushed to my limit, or sometimes, in my mind, I'm thinking over my limit! Some days are hard, tricky, frustrating, or sometimes I get to the end of the day and realize I did not accomplish some of those things that I really thought needed to be done that day. But even in the hardest day there is a "moment" that brings me back to what this is all about.
Moments like when Hannah asks me to "sleep" with her before bed every night. Sometimes I'm anxious for a rest from a busy day of mothering, but those "moments" with Hannah are so much fun and bring me joy. I tell the story of the 3 little pigs most every night, or sing songs with her, or tell her a story about "Hannah" and how she doesn't like her thumb. ;) She thinks that is funny. I love those times.
Moments that randomly bring a smile to my face, like when I gave Madelyn a bowl of peas. I said, "Do you love them?" She responds in all seriousness, "I'll put it in a way you'll understand, I don't like them very much!" Totally took me off guard and made me just laugh! I love those times.
Moments like when we sing the "Wheels on the Bus" song and Hannah asks to sing the verse that says the "diapers" on the bus go swish, swish, swish. That is what she thinks it says, what a funny visual....I love those times.
Moments like when Drew gives me hugs out of the blue and tells me he loves me. I love those times. Or one day I took all 3 girls, and Drew accompanied us, to get their immunizations. Drew was really worried about his sisters. He took care of them out in the hall after it was their turn to get the shots, so I could be in the room with whomever need the next shot. He was an awesome big brother. I love those times.
Moments like when Lily just doesn't want to go to bed, even though I'm beat, I still love to see her happy smiles and her total excitement of being out of bed and sharing some fun time with Jed and I. She loves to play with us at night and it is just sooo cute. I love those times.
I'm just grateful that those moments can outshine the moments of difficulty! I really do want to remember all of these "moments" with my children. Time flies by too fast to caught up in the minutia of life. I hope I can enjoy this time with my children as much as I can, because I sure do love them.

I'm on LDS.org!

I might be smaller than an ants footprint, but I'm in that blur on the stand in the choir seats!! :)

Hey, this might be my only claim to fame and I'll take it!

Julie B. Beck Regional Conference at the BYU-I Center

Babies just don't keep...

I just can't believe my little girl is growing up. Time flies faster and faster with each baby and I'm not too fond of it.

I just can't get enough of this cute little sweetie.

I really do love this stage of babyhood, but it definitely is flying by. I'm feeling really nostalgic lately. I know I always talk about how I want my kids to stay little. I just love them this way. But then I get little whiffs of excitement as I think about what they might be like when they get older....and I am excited for that too. I guess the moral of this post is (atleast for myself): just love every minute!! Of course it is hard to see some cute things and fun times pass (and of course there are things that we are ready to have pass....), but I have a hope in a fun future too!