A Season to Bask in the Light

"The heavens will not be filled with those who never made mistakes but with those who recognized that they were off course and who corrected their ways to get back in the light..." Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

May 2010 be YOUR year.

I stole this from my good friend Molly's facebook status. It really struck a chord in me because during 2009 there were many instances where I felt a bit off course and, at times, it felt as if the adversary wanted me to wallow in my mistakes and make me believe that I, or things in life, would never improve. I am so grateful to acknowledge that he was ever so wrong.

This has been a harrowing year for so many in so many ways but, for me, I will never regret nor would I ever wish it was any different. The sheer process of harrowing uproots weeds, covers seeds with rich, life giving soil that is prepared to bring forth tremendous development. The joy that comes from learning and moving forward in the face of mistakes, extracting personal weeds and basking in the light that enables nothing but rich growth and goodness is bliss.

2009 was my year for much of this and my cup runneth over for those blessings and my Savior, Jesus Christ, with whom everything is possible.

Bayou Shade *sigh*

The southern girl in me just sighs with sentimental happiness to have a kitchen color named after something that I love. I know it is silly but after trying several paint colors it is quite pleasing to realize that the bayou inspired this color choice. I really was desperate to decide on a color and I chose the color for the name.

The three pictures let you see it in different daylight. The last one was taken so I could get an opinion from some friends on if I should paint the bit of wall above the stairs the same green. My good husband has assured me that he won't break his neck painting that spot so one of these days, before the year ends, it will be Bayou Shade too.

32 Weeks

Can you believe we only have 8 wks until my due date? I am not expecting girly pie #4 for 9 wks to be on the safe side but I can't believe time is passing so quickly.

A special thanks to Tina for the dress!

You know are having a pregnancy craving...

when you say outloud "I want meatballs" in your sleep and when your awesome dh wakes up to go to work at 5am asks you if you still want some meatballs and says he will bring you a plate if you want.

I really, really love Swedish meatballs these days. Like REALLY. Hmm, thanks goodness for leftovers.

You know you are nesting when...

it's 10pm on Sunday night and you say you will go to bed just as soon as you wipe the counters down and wash the pots and pan that wouldn't fit into the dishwasher ONLY to end up decluttering and cleaning off the top of the refrigerator (the parts that you could reach anyway) and finish up a bit of Christmas decorating.

You know you are a homeschooler when...

You want a $30 pencil sharpener for Christmas, your birthday or Valentine's Day.

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Especially when I say it and it has anything to do with Math.

This week, I HATE Math. I tried to not say it. I tried to be civil. I tried to be a big girl but forget that. Who needs to be civil with something that has no feelings? I feel like the woman who is verbally abusing the teddy bear cake in the Yoplait Light commercial. Oh well, I don't care.

Math..YOU SUCK!

Vogue at 28wks pg

I am 29 wks pregnant today but here is a shot from last week. When I went in for my last checkup I was 27wks along and was measuring 31wks. Do I look big yet? ;)

This was the same day that Michaela took off down the sidewalk at church heading straight for the parking lot. I flipped my high heels off and ran full force after her. Yeah, that brought on the whole pubic symphysis discomfort on prematurely. I think I might waddle a bit more now too. LOL. But I did catch the fleeing child just in the nick of time. Is that impressive or what? I can be fast when I want, even in my round state.

Worth 1000 Words

In no particular order and apparently MUCH to big. I will fix it later. Until then, please enjoy clicking away. If anyone knows how I can fix the size without reposting all of these ALL OVER AGAIN..feel free to enlighten me. ;)


Michaela in our sunflower patch wearing a mumu Mimi got her in Nicaragua.
Olivia hamming it up after her Halloween children's choir concert.
Michaela and Maia playing in the couch cushions and wondering if they will get in trouble when Mom sees them.
Groovin' it up during the Monster Mash
Pre-trick or treating pic
This is how Michaela trick or treated this year.
24 w 5d on Halloween with O on her 7th bday
Trunk or Treating at the church
21 wks right before the gender ultrasound
O and the Muffin
The Grandgirls
Siblings
Girls Rule
Tempie and Savvy
Mimi and the Grandgirls

Determined to Create

Click this link first. Then come back and read. I have yet to figure out how to imbed the video itself onto my blog.

My friend, Kris, showed me this video a few weeks ago. I teared up when I first watched it. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Today, Sam and the girls are out on a Daddy/Daughter date. I am trying to put Christmas decorations up in our living room where the Christmas tree will be. I didn't do too much in that room last year because we went out of time for Christmas. This year, I want to do more in our first Christmas at home in this house. So I broke out all the stuff and I tried for a bit while I sang to our Christmas music. Then, I hit a wall. Then I broke out the apple pie from Thanksgiving and looked thru my Better Homes and Gardens magazine for inspiration. Then I got frustrated because I don't have the cash right now to go out and get a few more new lovely things. Then I looked on some blogs--most of them from people who have tapped into their creative side and make masterpieces all the time. That isn't me yet.

I have gotten better in some ways but I am not there there. Then I got determined. I always wonder if there is a trying to be creative, cash strapped blogger out there from whom I can draw inspiration. Then I said, I better just get everything out and do what I can with what I have got. Then I remembered this video that my sweet friend, Kris, showed me all those weeks ago. I got the urge to write. I knew that if I wrote about it, it would help me screw my determination to its sticking point and go back up there and give it another go. I cannot promise greatness if and when I ever post pictures of my decorations but I can promise that I did my best with what I had and that I am determined to get better as time goes by. Maybe this will be my year to get off my butt and really learn to sew. Until then, I will relish the fact that although I may not be great at creating lovely home decorscapes, that I am good at creating baby girls. That is most certainly worth alot of something.

Decorating for Christmas should be fun, not stressful, right?

I can't believe I just thought that!

This morning, Olivia and I were doing Math in homeschool. We were doing our addition unit review. I supplemented by doing addition flashcards regularly so that in addition (no pun intended) to learning how to add that she would also memorize those basic ones we encounter all the time.

Math has always been my least favorite subject in school. I have always struggled with it, especially if the concept was intangible to me. I always told myself I was not good at Math and that I didn't have a mathematical mind. As I got older, there are some areas of Math that I became confident in and loved, but to spend 4th grade thru 9th grade truly thinking you are a complete mathematical incompetent is crippling to one's academic sense of self. This is a mindset I have always tried to avoid passing along to my girlies.

So, when it has come to teaching Math to my girls, I have wanted to teach them in ways I wish I would have been taught and to make it tangible where possible. Fast forward to this morning, we were doing our unit review and teaching a new way to add. I thought it was a pretty cool method, very nice for the kinesthetic, visual and even auditory learners out there. It made me excited and in that moment of reckless fervor I had this thought.

I LOVE MATH!! *gasp* *disbelief* *confusion* *relief* Golly Gee, Mom has had a breakthru!
I like Math! Phew! Love it even. Nice ;) Math can be fun even when you are making out aren't doing viral titers in school (Be still my heart, I did love major and my job as a Medical Technologist) or learning fractions thru cooking (again another throbbing heartbeat).

Ok, ok,ok, let me stop wafting thru a field of poppies and acknowledge that I do understand that I am only teaching first grade Math. Just a couple days ago, a good friend of mine made the comment of not enjoying some aspects of 3rd grade Math. BUT this little breakthru of mine is building my mommy's muscles so I will be fit to meet that challenge when it comes in a couple years. Until then, (and maybe I should just whisper it but since I tend toward excitement and jumping up and down vs. reservedness--is that a word?) I LOVE MATH! Geez, did I really just say that?

Playing Catch Up

October was a full month. We found out that we are having another little girl and named her. Olivia turned 7. My belly got bigger. Olivia had her first children's choir recital and it was an unforgettably good entertainment. We hit a new roll with homeschool, we've worked hard and played hard. We LOVE it. My belly grew even more. I lost my keys. I got the MOST fabulous surprise ever when my mom and sister, Tempest showed up on my doorstep along with my most delicious niece, Savannah. I lost my check card. My mom, sister and I tried our hands at canning applesauce--quite the adventure. Olivia had an intimate birthday party with 17 of her closest friends. Sam decorated the coolest cupcakes for her party.

Then November flew in with Michaela's and my mom's birthday on the same day. I made copies of my lost keys and got a replacement check card. We took down the garden and annual flower beds. I planted lots of bulbs. My belly has grown even more and I am measuring 5 weeks larger than I am far along. I found the lost check card. I am learning alot about couponing and it is becoming a new obsession. Then we got snow. Lots of it, at least more than I thought we should the second week of November.

Tomorrow is Monday. I am taking all the girls in for their yearly checkups at the pediatrician. I haven't told them yet. Mainly because Olivia has taken to FREAKING out and worrying about whether or not she will get shots. This kid who once took shots like a champ is now the child you hear screaming HYSTERICALLY 3 examination room doors down in the ped's office. She even started running in circles away from the nurse when she walked to give her the antibiotic shot when she and I had strep this past spring. (I wasn't there but Sam tells a good story about this one.) I decided to just not tell her so she would have a decent night sleep's without obsessing over it.

I did slip up this morning and mentioned we were driving to Provo tomorrow. She brought it up about 10 minutes after I said it. We were getting ready for church when she asked about it so I pretended not to hear. THEN she mentioned it again at dinner and mused about how she hoped we weren't going to the doctor to get shots. So, while squashing inward smirks, Sam and I talked about our experiences with shots and recounted how suave and cool O used to be when it came to shots. We never really told her it was tomorrow, lest she endow us with a night of fitful, agitated sleep and nightmares.

Today, I am tired of being the Mom. I am grateful to be the Mom and there is nothing in this world that I want to do more but tonight I feel like the kid who is being forced to jump in the pool and dunk her head under the water before she is ready. Monday is coming and I just don't wanna do Monday. I don't want to keep us on track. I don't want to break the news about the doctor sometime during the drive.

I don't want to be the one to feed the girls every couple hours, only to hear the chorus of "I'm hungry" the second snack or breakfast time is over. I don't want to make the girls clean their bedroom or their bathroom, I don't want to keep Michaela from throwing dirt on the wall, from dipping play tea cups into the toilet and pouring poopy water on the floor or from dumping lavender scented hand sanitizer all over the carpet in the girls room or confiscate scissors from her hot little hands.

I don't want to send Maia to time out a bazillion times or tell her she can't wear summer skirts anymore (Yes I put them away but those stinking things have legs, I tell you!) or tell her that her shoes are on the wrong foot. I don't want to tell them to not squish or smear food all over the counters or to stay in their seat while they eat.

What do I want to do, you ask? Well, I want to be a Mom to my girls and your reply would be what, I ask? That's right, if I want to be a Mom then I asked for all this.

Ready or not, Monday, Here I come. Cannon Ball!!! *SPLASH!!*

Housewarming with Friends

We have lived in our little house for one year. I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly. As we have settled in, I have discovered that the secret to making your home feel more cozy and warm, besides the love that you share with your own little family, is having friends and family in your home.

This morning, I had a Scentsy party and after they all left and I sat in my front room, I was overwhelmed with how much more homey it felt. And it was all because my friends has been there. We laughed, ate and enjoyed one another, my children enjoyed their children and our home increased in homey-ness with each smile, hug and outburst of laughter. A couple of my dear friends from Provo came and it made my day. I love having the mix of "old" friends and new friends.

It's like a bride being initiated into her new chapter of life as a wife and a mother with the symbols of things well known & comforting and new & hope filled. Each symbol is beautiful and carries with it a certain significance. This reminds me of my friends. Each one contributes to the loveliness of my life and I am all the better for it. I am grateful to be surrounded by people who love me despite my squirks and shortcomings. I am lucky to feel safe and comforted in their presence. Even my friend, who was the Scentsy consultant, commented on how much she enjoyed my friends.

You all know who you are. Thanks for coming into my house and making it a HOME.

Lucky #4

Isn't our baby delicious? That is such a sweet profile don't you think? There is nothing like getting a glimpse at the endlessly active little one you've been bonding with all this time. At first sight, it was like imprinting. Yes, I am making reference to Twilight and the wolves imprinting phenomenon. One look at this one and I was more in love than ever. You would think that perhaps this being #4 that it might be routine but that was definitely not true in our case (or any case, I'd imagine.) There is nothing like seeing your baby and feeling the love in your family multiply and expand to encompass the new little one.
However, this was not the first shot we got of creamy baby #4.

This is what we saw at the very beginning of our u/s.

It's a GIRL!! I am incredibly giddy to have gotten a look at our fourth creamy miracle during the ultrasound yesterday. She was cute as ever and we all fell in love. We have been on cloud nine since. All is looking good with this immensely active little chick. We were pleasantly surprised that it was a girl. We just kind of figured it'd be a boy. Both Sam and I guessed it'd be a boy right before the u/s tech put the wand to my belly.

But this was the first shot we got of our baby, I looked closely and I said,"That looks like a girl to me!" and the tech confirmed that I was right. WOO HOO!. I really did want this chickie to be a girl. It works out most conveniently bedroom wise and when and if #5 comes then I like the idea of having a boy at the end because that is what I know from my own family of origin. I suppose I should admit that I am somewhat boy shy too. So,for the time being, Sam and I are the girl factory.

I asked Sam if he was disappointed at all. I thought maybe he could be, although he has remained firm that he isn't babymaking for a boy and that it irritates him when people comment that he must be hoping for a boy. I wish I had a picture of his face when I asked. He said,"No, what do I have to be disappointed about? How can you be disappointed with all these gorgeous girls?."

The funny thing is that I commented during the u/s that while my girls were definitely all girl they fit every description (minus the stinky part) of how several of my friends describe their boys. Afterwards, Maia and Michaela were playfully but really wrestling on the floor and I turned to him saying,"See what I mean?" and the u/s tech dude said," Yeah I was just thinking that. You are right. Your girls do give you a taste of having boys while still being girls."

The girls are really excited. Olivia has said it was a girl from the beginning so she is 3/3 on her predicting streak. At first, she said it was a boy because she was wanting her brother but said she knew it was a girl. From then, she straight out said it was a girl. She's good.

I did have Sam take a belly picture right before we went in but my camera hates me and I am apparently daft when it comes to properly uploading the thing, so I will have to wait until Sam comes home and does it so I can resist the urge to get cranky for the rest of the day and/or throw that dang camera into the wall. But I digress from the happy nature of my post.

Babies. Mmmm, bliss. Baby girls. *Sigh* We are thrilled. I am really ecstatic. Seriously, I did a dance in the medical suite bathrooom after we were done. We can't wait to meet her around Feb. 15th.

The Snack Master

We are supposed to be doing some homeschool but I am a bit distracted at the moment. So, Olivia is making a snack for she and Mik (pronounced "Meek") while I was down here getting ready for Language Arts. She had been up there for a while, and while I am trying to nurture independence, I had to see what she was making. My camera battery is dead but now charging so I have no picture to show of her newest creation.

She is literally writing down the recipe as I type. It is a kind of a salad. It is chopped apples (she chopped those puppies with an Ikea kiddie knife folks). So it is chopped apples, a light smattering of cottage cheese and cornflakes and graham crackers. She made some just for me and I didn't want any initially but then I went up to try some and you know you what? The flavors do actually work surprisingly work together. Who knew?

Middle of the School Day Report

There isn't a word for my current feeling right now. Imagine a sigh of relief in gratitude for finishing Music and not losing it with my Olivia who doesn't seem to want to listen today. Imagine a grumbly "I am shaking it off, I won't let this ruin the day" sort of full body shutter. This is me on my 10 minute computer break before I start lunch.

While I am here I am going to create a plan. A plan that will hopefully get us back on track. First, we enjoy our break. Then I boost our blood sugar with dinner leftovers. Hallelujah for only having to reheat. Then, I will read a favorite book to all the girls after lunch. I will put Mika down for her nap and then Maia. THEN, we will do Math. If we are still moody, I will start with Language Arts and do reading aloud time first.

I am reading "Lady Margaret's Ghost" from the American Girl series right now to Olivia. It's a good story. It was a free book Olivia won for completing the summer reading program at Barnes and Noble. We wanted Whoopi Goldberg's Sugar Plum Ballerinas but they were out of it. But we are into the book, so that will be a good start if we need it.

I don't want to throw in the towel for the day just yet because we need to learn to get thru moody girl moments like this, right? I mean we are only in for more in the future, for sure. If worse comes to worse, we can always decorate the school room for Fall, right?

Cross your fingers for me!

Partying in our Pajamas

Can there be a better way for a bunch of 4 yr old girls to have the benefits of a pajama party without the rigors of the actual sleeping over part? We don't think so. A month ago, my little Maia turned 4 yrs old!!! We had just gotten back from Louisiana and so we quickly thru together a day of birthday fun for Maia and her friends. The girls showed up at 10am dressed in their favorite pajamas. Can you say cute?

We began the party with a guessing game of "What's in the bag?" I had collected some of Maia's things and put them inside a white paper bag. Each girl reached inside the bag to feel the item inside, then, she gave clues to the others in the group until they guessed what the item was. They really liked that one.

After that, we read Maia's favorite book, I Know an Old Lady who swallowed a PIE. This is a hilarious book. If you haven't read it, you should. It's fun to read and sing some parts here and there throughout the book, the girls enjoyed chiming in during the singing parts.

Then, we had cake. But not an ordinary cake...a waffle cake. Do you know that if you put cake batter in a waffle iron you get cake waffles? Well, my friends, you do. It is delicious. We put together a wild looking cake of neopolitan ice cream sandwiches, pink tinted whipped cream and sprinkles. I assembled it the night before on a platter but it kind of shifted and went caddywompus in the freezer at night. I tried to remain calm and not panic as I had to cut, rearrange and use some leftover waffles and ice cream sandwiches to make it kind of presentable again. The sweetest thing was that during the reconstruction of her cake, Maia and Olivia were especially supportive and Maia kept saying it was so beautiful. I could have kissed that girl. I am sure I did. So we had waffle cake and pineapple juice,we sang, we ate. Yum.

Afterward, the girls played for a bit and then we opened presents. Maia's friends spoiled her and she had a fun time with that.

And then to say thank you for coming, we did a scavenger hunt for the treat bags. I did using some common or well known areas of our yard and house. It was so cute to see the girls run around our yard with some of their nightgowns trailing behind them.



So that is that. Maia. She is 4. I remember holding her little body close to me after I had just had her, I kept saying, I can't believe I did over and over again. She was my first homebirth and my only baby with a head full of hair. She was the sweetest, easiest little baby and she has grown into a dynamic, confident little girl. She is the teeniest thing still only 25lbs but she commands attention, is a leader and speaks her mind quite freely. People tell me all the time about the things she says, I really need to keep a record of the things she says. She She makes the most hilarious, surprisingly insightful and of course, embarrassing and mommy dragon provoking comments. She's a strong one, that girl. I am proud to be her mother. I am enjoying her growth and evolution into a young girl.

Here are a few pictures of her on or around her birthday thru the years that I actually have on the computer.


Here is she 10 days old
On her first birthday

On her second birthday and the cake that took longer to decorate than it did to birth her
The pictures of her third birthday are not on the computer but she had a rainbow party that year. She and her friends dressed up in their brightest rainbow colors and I made a rainbow cake. This is the picture I used for her invitations. And this was our family picture from that month.And this is one of my favorite pictures of her from this year so far. It is not your typical favorite sort of picture but I love it and it is the essence of my Maia.
Wild, confident, strong, loving and giving. That's my Maia.