Sunday, March 27, 2011

Green Green Green



Green eggs, green pancakes, and green orange juice

Courtney painted her toes and legs, she was just trying to be festive

I tried to make a four leaf clover, with Laurens hair! Will do better next year

Thursday, March 24, 2011

blog

I have been wanting to come on here and post a bunch of things, but my laptop is broken and I will have to take it in tomorrow! So beware of lots of posts from pictures of us at the cabin to Andrew cutting the girls hair to all the furniture that I am playing with! So exciting, right!! So until next time!!!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Courtney Jane


I see this picture a lot!



Oh man, I love this little girl so much! She is determine to keep up and if you don't include her she freaks out! She is the most jealous kid that I know of...if you gave it to someone and you didn't give it to her, pre pair for a melt down! Right now she cant decided if she wants to be a baby or a big girl! She was potty train completely and then was having tons of accidents after brook... so I put her back in diapers, I know worse thing ever...but I am done and will do a summer potty boot camp! Whatever works, and I am not to worried about it!! Lately she has been into painting and loves to color! She is good at it, and it keeps her busy! One day Andrew was talking about what he wanted to be when he grew up and she shouted out that she wanted to be a "COOKER MAN" which I started to laugh, but every time anyone is mixing or cooking some thing she runs over and yells "I HELP"...I wont be surprised if she will be a chief or just loves to cook! Courtney is so funny at night...she screams and starts to walk to our room, and I ask her what do need? THIRSTY ... this happens about 6 times a night...the girl can drink! I put her back to bed and she is out! She has her moments and she can make me laugh so hard, the things that she says crack me up! She loves to play outside and run around...she still loves the color yellow! She is one happy little girl...most of the time! I love you Courtney and I cant believe that you will be three in a month!
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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Slow down and enjoy life

I read this on a blog and I love it! It drives me crazy that working moms make life so hard!! I hate it when they put that stress on you, and they ask you if "the stay at home mom" can watch there kids too, for no money!! Oh my gosh!!!!

.memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com/

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!
I say, let your affairs be as two or three,
and not a hundred or a thousand instead of a million count half a dozen,
and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.
~Henry David Thoreau

What if you gave up your obligations to school, to church, to just about anything else, especially when they just made you feel stressed and frantic?
What if you cut to the core everything but just the bare essentials of time commitments?What if you woke up in the morning to see an almost blank calendar staring at you in the face everyday? What if you were able to fill that calendar only with what you felt was best for your family?
What if you never felt torn in a million directions, but could "keep your accounts on your thumb-nail"?
What if you felt calm almost all the time?What if you said no to playgroups, no to toddler activities, no to endless play dates, no to so much running around?
What if you refused to feel pressured, guilty, or weird for living a life that looked quite the opposite of the way everyone at the time was living theirs?
What if you could say 'no' without following it with an apology or an excuse?
What if you were able to stand strong with constant endurance against the daily onslaught of the frantic pace of society and find a different quiet, child-friendly path of mothering?
What if, in spite of what society is telling you, you decided that the role of mother is enough work to warrant all of your time, attention and talents and never needed to be shared with less important man-made things?
I've asked myself all these questions over the course of my 16 years of parenting, and I still continue asking. What if? We have the power to change so much about our lives! I hear a lot of excuses out there, (in my own brain too!), but more than at any other time in the history of the world, we have the power of choice. We mothers are not spending time gathering clean water from the only town well miles away, or making fires to bake bread with the wheat we grew and tended ourselves. Where do we spend our time? When we complain about how much we must do, or how there is no time left in the day for the important stuff, are the mothers who have gone before us (or living in another part of the world!) rolling their eyes and laughing hysterically at us? I think they might be.
We have the power to decide what kind of mother we want to be to our children. How will your children remember you when they are older? What kind of mother do you want to be described as one day? I know, it's a question that sends a little fear into the heart of all of us. Will they say I was too stressed, too busy, impatient and angry? Will they say I seemed to spend time on everything else but them? Will they say, "I needed you then, but you were never really listening?"
Of course, we mothers are human, learning as we go, making plenty of mistakes on the way. I'd like to live though, with a little bit of contentment in my heart, that I gave this mothering thing the best shot I had. Asking and answering those hard questions reminds me of that contentment I wish for.
As I get older I've gotten braver...sometimes in great bursts of choices to say no as I wiped my calendar cleaned and vowed to keep it that way, sometimes with the regret of learning the hard way with stressful years as I split my time among too many obligations, or wishing time would move faster instead of slower ("as soon as spring is over, things will slow down and I can enjoy more..."). I have been inspired to be courageous by studying others whom I admire, who exude a peace and contenment in their mothering spirit. I have been falsely misled by my own self, quick to buy into the "how does she do it all so well?" comparison, only to find out once again, it's an illusion. (Because it is every time! Doing it all and doing the important things well does NOT exist, please know..and the price is almost always paid by the little ones that don't have a voice.) I have been way too quick to jump on a bandwagon, only to fall off and hit the ground hard, with a few bruises but a little relief in my heart.
But now more than ever, when I look around the see us all struggling with the juggling, the part that can make me pretty darn angry, is that, more than ever, we moms are supposed to, expected to, told to, demanded to, fit SO MUCH into our lives in addition to doing the most important thing in the world...raising our children.
It's enough to be a mother. Just a mother. I might be the only person that tells you that ever in your lifetime. And I might be wrong. I might be crazy. I might have been born a couple generations too late. But I think it's a darn big job that takes an incredible amount of energy, endurance, spiritual and physical strength and if we are not in the thick of it almost every minute, we should be recharging our batteries with a quiet moment to ourselves so we can jump right back in. Our children deserve a mother who is unstressed, happy, content, and PRESENT. We deserve to feel unstressed, happy, content and PRESENT....we are doing the most important job on earth.


Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.
-E. F. Schumacker

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Stole it too!

I read this on someones blog today and had to record it. So profound and meaningful."Ezra Taft Benson said, ""What does it mean to love someone with all your heart? It means to love with all your emotional feelings and with all your devotion. Surely when you love your wife with all your heart, you cannot demean her, criticize her, find fault with her, or abuse her by words, sullen behavior, or actions."What does it mean to 'cleave unto her'? It means to stay close to her, to be loyal and faithful to her, to communicate with her, and to express your love for her. "Love means being sensitive to her feelings and needs. She wants to be noticed and treasured. She wants to be told that you view her as lovely and attractive and important to you. Love means putting her welfare and self-esteem as a high priority in your life."One last quote I found interesting was, "Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is growing up." --James A. Baldwin"

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Random thoughts

Adoption...thinking about it, but Michael is ready to be done... but me...well I hate to be pregnant and it would be wonderful to have a another baby in our family...but right now we are good and happy so...this is just a random thought!

Sadness... I have been really sad the last 2 weeks...hoping it will pass, if it doesn't I am going to go to the doctor and ask about anti-depression meds, but I think it will pass!

Activities...we have way too many! I feel like we are doing to much and eating out way to much...I want to slow down and do the project that I started and finish them...wishing for more time!

Sacrifice...went to the temple this week and what stood out the most is sacrifice...I feel like everything can be a sacrifice, the good and the bad, what do you give up for the better good for you? for your family? for god? for Satan? What holds you back from you leading a more happy life? I feel like its services...I need to sever

Time...Is there really enough time? No! But what do you hold close to your heart that you make sure that you do daily and its really nothing (facebook) and then tell everyone that you just don't have the time. The one thing that I have learn most about having brook is... to love the babies I do have and make sure we are happy and to love my dear husband and nothing else matters...life goes by to quickly

like I said...so random

Thursday, March 3, 2011

California

Well it was a great trip and so full of tons of activities, can you believe that we did all that in three days? Michael planned it all and it was so much work...but it was so worth it cause we had a great time! The kids did great in the car and were very happy the whole trip...my they are getting so easy to travel with! I do have to share one cute story....When we got to the hotel, Courtney walk in and saw the beds and she started to pout, and she said "Where is my baby crib?" so we call the front desk and they bought one up! She was so happy! A few months ago she didn't want to be the baby anymore and wanted nothing to do with it, but now (oh my) she is very happy to be babied and she acts out more and it cute but she is almost three and need to grow up a tiny bit, but not to much :)

The Beach





The beach was so relaxing and fun, I am so glad that I got to see it! Michael is not a huge fan of the beach, he hates getting sand everywhere and he hates sitting in it! But I bought him a chair and we had a good day!!!
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Knotts Berry Farm




I love this picture of Michael on the bus!




Laure and I were on the Farris wheel and they were waiting for us on the ground



Michael went on this ride by himself, it looked to scary for me! Do you see him?




I love Lauren sweet face! Priceless!!!
We had a great time and the weather was a little cold but nice! The lines were short and the kids got to ride on everything and we had a fun time, even Courtney loved it! I love my new camera, I think that I got some great shots and smiles to capture the real fun!!!
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