I'm So Excited!

I leave in 14 hours for our trip to Idaho and Utah!

I am so excited. I really, really, really need a vacation!

But I'd better finish packing if I want to leave so TTFN!

How do you watch Kung Fu Panda?

A Little Fun in Pictures

Emily has been taking more pictures. They make me happy to look at them so I am sharing them in hope it brings a smile to you!

Emily loves to take pictures of Collin.
He is always a little nervous about having her so close with a camera. :)
Collin has discovered his tongue.....


I still don't know how she gets this to happen. I know its the red light that comes before the flash but it still looks cool.


Emily handed me the camera, posed it in my hands, showed me where the button was, walked to the middle of the room, posed herself and told me, "Go". I guess its her inventive way to have a timer for her pictures. ;)


I took this one of my handsome little man! He refused to smile no matter what I did!


Daughter like father! She got out everything herself, hooked it up, and started saying, "Heyoo, Heyoo!" She got louder when no one answered. That would be how her dad says Hello to her Uncle Cade. :)

Lessons Learned

Today was one of those days that if it never happened again I would be okay with it. :)

I've never enjoyed being sick but having two kids and being sick is WORSE! I have a sore throat and with that comes feeling really tired and less patience than usual. I had every intention of being a good sport though. Emily had been invited out to Coe's to ride Tex (their pony.) I arranged to meet Landon in town at 12. (He figured he would be off of work by then.) After sitting at the bus stop for 35 minutes (11:20-11:55) I decided to call it quits head to my parents' house, feed Collin and go to the bus stop at 12:20 when I knew the bus came by. I left a message for Landon at Sears letting him know we would arrive at 1:00. At 12:10 I watched the bus drive by from my parents living room. I was in tears. My wonderful sister in law volunteered to drive us into town and off we went. She dropped us off at Sears and then everything went crazy. Landon had gotten off work a half an hour earlier and so I decided to walk to where the bus would have dropped us off. Emily had other plans..... See Emily had been perfect while waiting for the bus but on the way to my parents house she decided to play chicken with a car and I barely caught her. The car was able to stop because it had seen her but still I was NOT HAPPY! Well I think she must have been a little suicidal today because she repeated this antic TWICE on the way from Sears to the bus stop at the mall. I was feeling a little frazzled so I picked her up and carried her on my left side (she was screaming) while my right arm was holding Collin and his carseat and all other paraphenalia. I thought I saw Landon so I tried running like this and calling his name for help. Yeah wasn't him.... We waited but he didn't show up by one so I started to walk to find the car. Emily trailed behind me screaming my name. Not nice words were running through my mind. I just wanted to call it quits, go home and bury my head under the covers. Finally Emily cried out that she wanted her blankie which meant she wanted me to wrap it around her and carry her. So I did. I walked, carrying both, across the road to a big grassy area. I sat down and just held Emily and rocked her. Collin by this time had stopped screaming and was sleeping in his car seat. As I sat there holding my little girl I realized something. I hadn't lost it! I had kept my cool and because of that I wasn't in the middle of apologizing for anything. What a great feeling! As I sat there I thought, "Here I am with the chance to snuggle my little girl and enjoy nice weather. If Landon doesn't find us I will just catch the next bus home. There is no reason to be upset." And with that all the anger left.
(Landon did find us and all was well.)

I hope that I remember this lesson. It is a choice to become angry. I need to enjoy my children. And I need to realize that if it takes a little longer to get somewhere, oh well, enjoy the journey. Oh and its probably not a good idea to take your kids out by yourself when you are sick..... :)

(FYI the bus schedule just changed for the weekends. Next time I will check the schedule!)

Epiphany about Homemade Gifts

I had an epiphany the other day.
I realized that most people just don't enjoy homemade gifts. Or maybe its just my homemade gifts..... This realization started when I was talking to a friend about what to get a mutual friend as a baby gift. It was baby number three and well she has everything. I had seen this really cool bag/baby blanket online and I was sure I could make it. As I was talking about it, my friend's face formed a fake smile. I realized, nope not a good idea. I have had three friends have kids recently and about four more are pregnant. I had thought about making some leather shoes (like Robeez) as gifts. But over the last few days I have had numerous flashbacks to the looks on people's faces when I have given homemade gifts. One was a roommate from college when she got married. I didn't have any money and I saw this really cute decoration in a magazine, so I made it. I showed it to people at work and they all thought it was cute (or at least they said they did...) and so I gave it. The look on my roommate's face when I gave it to her, well she wasn't exactly thrilled. And when I visited a year later I realized she didn't have it (I'll admit I looked because I remember how her face looked.) I wish I had put what little money I had into the gift my other roommates gave. The other flashback was to when I was painting signs for a few years. I gave a few away as gifts. In my mind they are cute and the few people I gave them to, nicely hung them in their homes but now I just feel bad. I've made some baby clothes over the years, bows, wall hangings, etc. And more often than not the person they were given to wasn't all to thrilled and most never used them. I could have saved all that time.... but I have now learned my lesson. So if you have something coming up and you were worried about what gift I might be sending your way, don't be. I promise I will only make stuff for my sisters, parents and my kids. They have to love what I give them! And this is an apology out to everyone out there that had to live through this phase.
Buying stuff on sale is okay, right.......
(I still really like homemade gifts so please keep them coming! And if you are lucky to get one of my sister's homemade gifts you would change your mind about homemade gifts!)

Emmy da baby

Emily has taken to coming to Landon or I, curling up in our laps, smiling up to us and saying, "Emmy da baby." She also tries to tell me that Daddy's the baby. She loves this new game because we rock her and call her our baby. She does it for a few minutes and then goes about her day.

My Mom's Recital

I just have to brag a little. My mom has always wished she "had musical talent." (Her words) She seems convinced that all if the musical ability her kids have come from their father. She constantly pushed/encouraged us to take lessons, practice, and volunteer our talents. She drove Naomi nuts with it! :) But we all knew that she so badly wanted to do it herself. But she had talked herself into believing that it was not a dream that was attainable. A few nasty people in her life said mean stuff and she believed them, Silly Woman! Last year she joined a weekly woman's ensemble. She kept telling me she only got invited because they wanted Naomi to sing in the group and that they needed more people. Well Naomi isn't here and they still wanted her back so there MOM! Last year they sang in the music festival, this year because of illnesses they weren't able to. Yesterday was the recital. (One of the women in the group is a voice/piano teacher. She was Naomi and Matt's teacher.) Mom did AWESOME! My mom has always had a flair for the dramatic (acting). They had her do a spoken solo of a poem at the begining of one of the pieces. It was BEAUTIFUL! It set the mood for the song. I am so proud of her. She has started to overcome her self doubts and is realizing a dream she has had her whole life. She keeps talking about maybe taking some lessons from Nancy and I hope she does. I think that she is going to surprise herself and find out that maybe Naomi got some of her talent from mom! Emily was so proud of her grandma and I am glad that she came with me to watch! Congrats mom!
(My mom is on the far right in the blue shirt)

Ups and Downs

Life has been crazy for the last week. I am trying a new "diet". Its more of a lifestyle change. Its called "Fit for Life." I'm sure many of you have heard of it. My decision to make a change of eating habits was because my weight loss seemed to have plateaued. No matter what I was doing I wasn't losing inches. (I do inches because I see progress faster.) I was spurred into this decision by the fact that I had myself weighed again at the doctor's office. Landon had an appointment and so I thought why not? I'd lost 3 and half inches. That would show on the scale right? Wrong! In four weeks of working out I had lost 2 pounds! I am still 8 lbs from my prepregnancy weight and 17 lbs from my goal weight. I was devastated. And so I ate junk food for dinner...... Doesn't make sense but I did. So out came my mom's book and I went grocery shopping. Since Landon is trying to get back in shape he actually agreed to a diet of little meat and lots of fresh fruit and veggies. I am in heaven! This week's measurements haven't been anything to shout about but I'm feeling better about myself so I'm happy.

So that was the down but we've had lots of ups. As in I was worried about where the money was going to come for our upcoming trip to Idaho and Utah. Bills keep appearing and well I am only making a third of the same amount a month. But luckily my dad had some work that needed to done, we sold some possessions that we didn't need anymore and voila, we have enough for gas money and food. No spending money but that is okay. We live in a small house and really don't need anything. It is amazing how the Lord provides when you are willing to put in the hard work and faith. My garden is also plante with help from my mom and Roselynn Fluery supplied plants from her greenhouse. I am excited its my first. Hopefully things will grow!

Collin is growing like a weed! Its amazing, where has my baby gone? Today we had to move his straps up a slot on the car seat. It made me kind of sad because when we took him home from the hospital he looked so small in the seat and now he fills it. He is rolling from his back to his side so maybe he'll roll over in the next few weeks. He doesn't get much tummy or lay on his back time. His big sister wants to play with him a little too much when he is down. :) No complaints though. He loves to sit up. He sat on our futon yesterday for 15 minutes without falling over. Yikes! He loves his big sister so much he seems way to keen to grown up to be with her. And when I say he loves her I mean adores and worships. When she gets down on his level to play with him he is so happy he glows! Makes me a little jealous at times. When she ignores him the look on his face breaks my heart.

Emily has become my little grownup. We are attempting potty training! She is doing good. Not perfect but lots of success as well. I am so proud of her. It is incredible how her speech has improved and I love listening to her explain things. Yesterday she kept telling me, "Mom come. Moooom please come. Here mom, now!" She wanted me to come pet a dog at my mom's singing recital and I was reading the program. Everyone told me how cute she was. Its nice because sometimes I worry people see her as a little too adventurous and loud. She is definitely me in personality. I hope that I can teach her to be proud about that part. It's taken me years to accept myself and I hope that I can help her skip the self loathing. She started taking pictures yesterday and is already better than me. Her favourite subjects for pictures are Collin and her dad. Today she wanted to take a picture of Papa but settled for taking a picture of a picture of him. :)

Wow this has been a long post but really I just wanted to say that I love my family and am grateful to the Lord for helping Landon and I get through our tough times. Marriage isn't easy but in the end it has definitely been worth it!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Willingdon Beach

We had a picnic dinner at Willingdon beach with my parents on Friday. Matt and Ashley came by for a little while until they went on their date night. Ethan and Sariah stayed with us because my parents were babysitting. We had so much fun! My dad quite happily ran through the water park with Ethan and Emily. It was the best way to end a hot and busy week! We've decided we need to do it at least once a week. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I wish I lived in South Eastern Idaho....

Through Make It and Love It I have found the coolest blog. Her name is Brittany and she makes beautiful cakes. Only trouble is she lives in Rexburg so too far away from me to take advantage of her talents on a regular basis. But I am getting her to make me one for the fourth of July because I'll be driving through Rexburg on my way to Island Park. I wish I knew how to make cakes like this..... actually then I'd have to make them so scratch that idea. ;)
Take a look and see what I mean....

Brittany's Cake World

The best thing, if I lived in South Eastern Idaho, would be that I would be closer to both my sisters....