i like making marble towers...

about as much as she likes being on her stomach...

and he likes hearing her cry...

and i like wet sand in my underwear. no picture, sorry.

so why do i do it?

to see this look on his face.

great expectations

when leah first started going bezerk...about a week and a half after being born...i vented to some friends about my frustration. this baby was a hot mess and so, in turn, was i.

"all babies cry and have their fussy times" some would say. which would leave me thinking, were my expectations too high? did i have an altered perspective of what a newborn should be like?

i tried to resolve my thinking to this. that she was just normal, that nothing was wrong, that having crying spells for 10 hours (with just short naps in between) was life with a "typical newborn. " that i would just have to wait it out. until the magic age of 3 months where she would transform before my eyes.

yet deep down, i couldn't believe it. i knew that it was something else. because, guess what? i had been around other newborns before. babies that would cry when they needed something like food or sleep, but otherwise were content to just be. they would ride in the car without a screamfest, hang out in their swings without carrying on, ride in strollers without turning purple with screams. and not only that, but when their needs were met, they were comforted.

and for some reason, my baby was not.

i also knew that i did not want to live this way for 3 months if i didn't have to. i know that's not a long time in the grand scheme of life, but with a screaming newborn, it feels like an eternity.

so i started the journey of experimenting. altering my diet while nursing...then pumping and just going to formula...then switching bottles. and finally. magic. soy formula.

within one feeding of soy formula, my baby was transformed. into a sleeping, content, comforted baby.

i was grateful, but also a bit peeved. this was the second time in my life with two children that i was going to stop nursing before i actually wanted to. (the first time i was told to stop by the ped. because caleb was losing weight by solely nursing)

in all honesty, i do not enjoy nursing. i am not a mother who just loooooves it and is fulfilled by it. i find it awkward, uncomfortable, time consuming, and because i'm a very private person when it comes to whipping out the goodies, not at all convenient. but i do see the purpose behind nursing (which is my opinion is that in most cases, it really is best for your baby) and so i am more than willing to give it a go. not for me, but for my baby.

so i was truthfully disheartened when what i had to give was not helping her and something else was. but i had to let that go. because once i found that soy formula was working for her, she turned into "that baby." the one that i had seen in stores, watched as i went on walks with friends, stared at in amazement at church.

she became happy, content, comforted. and i realized that i was right. my expectations weren't too high after all. there is such thing as a happy newborn. and i didn't have to wait for 3 months to get it.

she still cries when she needs something. that hasn't stopped, but that is normal. i was never expecting a baby to not cry, just FYI. i'm not delusional. but once her need is met, she is now content.

she also sleeps for anywhere from 6-8 hours at night. she wakes up smiling, coos, kicks her little legs with joy, plays with her small toys, sits quiet in her swing, falls asleep quietly on my shoulder, goes on walks in the stroller and rides in her carseat without a peep. (not all the time, but that's okay.)

so my point is this: find what works for you. even if it's not mainstream. even if it's not what "those people" have deemed is "best." and once you find it, let go of all of your preconceived notions about what was supposed to happen and just be grateful that you've found something that works.

i'm grateful that i did. it was hard to let go of nursing...again...and wonder if i had made the right choice. but i look at these chubby cheeks, and my thriving, happy baby and i just know. i did.

the colors of my eyes

today caleb looked at me and said, "ooh, momma. your eyes are so colorful."

awwww, sweet, right? i asked him, "what colors do you see?" as you can tell by the above picture, my eyes are clearly green. so this is the answer i expected.

instead, he replies, "blue and purple."

oh, poor kid, i thought. all this time and i never knew he's colorblind. i daydreamed for a moment about the life that lay before him. mismatched shirts & ties, different colored socks, having to label all items in his closet.

"really? blue and purple? where do you see blue and purple?" an innocent question. or so i thought.

unfortunately i get thrown a curveball from mr. humiliate-your-mom-once-again.

he points to the inside of the bridge of my nose and strokes his fingers down, trailing it under my eyes. "here, and here. see momma, blue, and purple."

i hang my head and just bust out laughing. because really, in this situation, what else can you do? though what i really want him to know is that he and his sister are 100% responsible for putting those new colors near my eyes.

to put a positive spin on yet again another humiliating experience.

1) he's not colorblind.
2) when you look in my eyes you can almost see a rainbow. 3 out of 6 colors isn't bad.

episode 9: ida

so this week's episode is about ida & her son. i got to hear this story in person and was shocked because to meet her son, you would never expect this from him. he's a good-looking, exTREMELY intelligent guy who just seems to have everything going for him.

i'm so proud of ida & her family for sharing this with us. it would have been scary & overwhelming for me. what an awesome group of people.

go here to see what i'm talking about.

and the preview for next week's episode makes it look like i'm bawling at the end. um. i don't remember doing that, but who knows? maybe i did. or maybe it's just some fantastic editing. :) either way, you DO get to hear baby leah scream her heart out.

why being wrong is sometimes okay

this morning i woke up to the sound of the vacuum going. even though my thoughts were fuzzy due to my lack of sleep, my brain began reasoning the sound of the hum of the vacuum. and this is what it came up with.

1) ben has decided to spontaneously clean, just for the heck of it.

2) something drastic has been spilled and needs immediate hoover attention.

either way, i was at peace with the fact that there was cleaning going on inside the apartment, and it didn't involve me. i closed my eyes again and smiled.

a few minutes later caleb came in to get me up. i walked out of the bedroom and was surprised to see that i was wrong. the same crumbs that graced our carpets last night were still there this morning.

i slowly came to the realization that it had been our upstairs neighbors who were vacuuming during the wee hours. for a second i was disappointed. but then i decided that it was okay that it wasn't our floors being cleaned. because just the thought of it had put a smile on my face and i had woken up in a good mood.

and after getting about 5 hours of sleep, waking up in a good mood wasn't short of a miracle.

***answers to the mini DMV test:

1) b. 15 ft from a fire hydrant
2) a. 3 ft from a bicyclist
3) divided highway ends

the winner is...it's a 3 way tie between

AMY BTW M
THE HUNTERS
KRISTEN

who all got 1 out of 3 right. (though amy was the closest with almost getting 2 out of 3)

thanks for playing!

sunday school happenings

in sunday school the teacher wrote on the board:

"God's Plan Of ______" and asked us to fill in the blank.

ben leaned over to me and said,

"attack."

which immediately started me giggling. meanwhile, our daughter was working on her own weapon of mass destruction in her diaper. her rear end went of like a mini shotgun. pop, pop, pop, pop, pop! then her face went bright red and in her eyes was a deep look of concentration. this went on for several minutes.

i was glad we sat on the back row today.

now that it's over, i'll blog about it.

i have a secret. it's not a deep one. it's not a dark one.

it's a stupid one.

i let my license expire.

not a couple of weeks, not a few months. we were going on two years here. yep, i said it. my two year anniversary would have been in july. so dumb, huh? i know you're thinking, "well why didn't you just get it renewed & put the sticker on the back?"

and i'll answer you. it's because the last time i had my license renewed...in july 2002, it was before i was even engaged so i had it renewed in my maiden name. so when it came time for renewal in 2007 i couldn't just put the sticker on it, i had to go in with my marriage certificate & a copy of my social security card to get it done.

again, so what, just get it done, right? well it expired two weeks after we moved to NC to work at the group home and we never unpacked all of our boxes because we knew we weren't living in a permanent location. so i couldn't find my marriage license OR my SS card. believe me, i looked.

so then i tried to just go in & have it renewed under my maiden name. i had my SS card with my maiden name on it (of course, that's the one i could find.) but the stingy DMV lady said she needed one more proof of address...like a utilities bill...and since that was in my married name, she wouldn't allow me just to renew it under my maiden name.

then i had to order another marriage license AND another married SS card and wait for them to come. by the time they rolled around in the mail, i knew we were leaving NC in a couple of months and didn't want to get an NC license.

then when we moved to AZ, i was pregnant and i was too proud to go in & have my picture retaken with my swollen face & have to put my pregnancy weight on my card. i get it, i'm a pansy.

that being said.

having your license expired has it's pluses & minuses:

we'll start with the negative:

1) flying. i flew several times last year and basically had to lie when the airport staff would look at me & tell me it was expired. i got very good at the shocked "i was just crowned miss america" face. the wide eyes, the mouth in an "O" and a little gasp escaping.

"what??" i would say in shock. "it's expired?? oh my goodness, i can't believe it! i thought it was next year! i'll get that renewed right away. the second my feet hit the ground, i'll head straight on in to that DMV, mark my words. i am normally a law-abiding, current-license-holding citizen."

luckily they bought my story. all 4 times.

2) the monkey on my back. it was always in the back of my head. "geeeeetttt yooouuurrrr liccceeennssseee reeennneeewweeedd" like a ghost that haunted me constantly. you know how you have those things that you put off & try to forget about, but then you never really can? plus your husband keeps reminding you? blast that man for keeping me in check.

3) seasonal allergies. because the world is made up of some whacky people who will acutally take over the counter allergy decongestant medicine and turn it into illegal narcotics, they have taken these OTC drugs off the shelves & made you present a valid license every time you buy them. unfortunately ben & i both suffer from seasonal allergies & he was the only one who could get the claritin D or zyrtec D for us. we would always run out before the 2 weeks was up so he could buy more, and because my license was expired, i could never help out. i spent many itchy nights regretting my procrastination.


the positive:

1) the fear of being pulled over. some may look at this as a negative, but i say to you nay. my driving record has never been so clean. the most i will speed no matter how late i am (which i am a perpetually late person--though i feel i am a victim of circumstance---a totally different subject) is 4 over the posted speed limit.

2) getting to pull out my expired license every now and then and sigh with a smile on my face about the weight that i once was. pre-marriage, pre-babies. i would day dream about the good ol' days before stretch marks and cellulose took over.

that's pretty much all i could come up with in the positive section. but apparently it was enough to keep me going for almost 2 years. how sad.

i knew that at some point i would regret the decision to procrastinate the renewal. and i was right. i had actually said to ben before his spring break started, "my goal for your spring break is to get my license renewed." i had thought there might be a celebration of some sort from him. i didn't expect confetti and cake, but maybe just a chocolate soy milk toast to 'the end of an era.' but instead all i got was a pair of raised eyebrows.

apparently he had heard this line before.

but i was determined. unfortunately for us all, the days started slipping by. we had family come into town for leah's blessing and then WHAM! spring break was over. my goal unaccomplished. okay, so now i understand ben's lack of enthusiasm over my passionate promise.

well then i get contacted by shay (the producer for the online show) about the promotion from Ford. i was so excited about it. but in the back of my mind, i knew.

and so did ben.

the second i hung up the phone we both looked at each other and our eyes spoke the same sentence without our mouths having to open.

"i/you have to get your license renewed!!" we each thought.

after getting my marriage license and both SS cards ready (just in case) i told ben i would set out the next day. how hard could it be, right?

uhhhhh. well i failed it. twice.

once you can stop your snickering, let me ask you a couple of questions. this is what i would like to call:

the mini drivers license renewal test.

(dun dun duuuuuuunnnnn)

if you can answer all of these correctly, you will win a prize. a prize called "my love and respect." you cannot look these up on the internet, you cannot ask anyone for help. you need to just go off of what you remember when you first took the test. (which for me was 12 years ago)

1) how many feet do you need to be parked away from a fire hydrant?

a) 10 ft b) 15 ft c) 20 ft d) 30 ft

2) how many feet do you need to have beetween you (driving a car) and a bicyclist?

a) 3 ft b) 5 ft c) 6 ft d) 10 ft

3) what does this sign mean?

i will tell you the answers on my next post. i just want to know how many of YOU could do this on the fly. (i'm really hoping it's not a lot of you so i don't feel like such an idiot.) and i had 30 questions!

knowing i had to take the test i looked around on the internet to see if i could find a study guide. but what popped up cost $19.95 and said i would get a refund if i failed. no thank you.

at the DMV, after i failed the test the second time, i asked the lady at the counter if there was anything they had that i could study. she looked at me like, are you kidding me? and said "no." why not? last time i checked, this was the DMV for crying out loud. no books? i knew that if i failed it a third time i would have to pay another $25. i also knew that i was going to be walking in there the next day with the same knowledge i had the day before.

i tried my best. i batted my eyelashes, smiled and said, "you know, i'm a really good driver. just look at my driving record. it's clean as a whistle. i'm a mom who would never endanger her kids. i'm safe. can't you just let me pass? please?"

and her answer?

"see you tomorrow."

so i got home, humiliated beyond belief that i was failing a test that pimply-faced pubescent teens were passing. and with no hope of doing any better the next day.

luckily, ben found the 63-page study guide online. so i studied my brains out. and wha-lah! 100% the next day.

that's right, i said
100%.
so kiss it.

unfortunately i used my facebook status to vent a bit about my experience. when a sassy guy from my ward caught wind of my embarrassing situation, he decided to make me writhe just a little bit more and started offering money to go toward a tutor for the test. the little snot.

so even though i passed on my 3rd try, at church on sunday he and his wife presented me with this little gift.


a framed dollar bill--which was how much he started the bidding at for my tutor. just in case it's too blurry to read it says:

IN RECOGNITION OF OUSTANDING UNDERACHIEVEMENT.
THREE TIMES.

we had a good laugh...me sporting crimson, embarrassed cheeks...and i now stand victorious with a current license. (also a dollar richer, i might add.) just in time to drive a fancy car for a week.

so did i learn my lesson? you betcha.

fortunately for me the arizona license is good for like 55 years. but still, i'd like to think that even if it were sooner i would pop that renewal sticker on the back quicker than ben can eat an orange sherbert push pop.


***post your answers to the mini-test in the comment section...if you DARE!!

a switcheroo

so after being contacted by the Ford agent, i will no longer be driving this:

but instead will be driving THIS!:

a 2009 lincoln MKS.
she mentioned on the email that she hoped i wouldn't be disappointed. um, no.
i'm just now freaked out of my mind that i'm going to do some type of damage to this almost $40,000 car.
(which, sadly enough, is just under what we made in salary last YEAR...and that was our best year yet!)

starting next wednesday. thank heavens i got my license renewed!
which is an amazingly embarrassing story by the way. one that may or may not be shared. :)

vote!

hey, well isn't this cool? my sister, the blogger behind supermom central,
just got nominated for "utah's favorite mommy blogger." hooray, lauren!
so if you read her blog & appreciate all the hard work she puts into informing us, doing giveaways and setting up mom's nite out (at her own house mind you), then go here and vote for her!

congratulations laur, you deserve it! love you.

celebrating LIFE

yesterday was
caleb's 4th birthday.

i wish i could say the words "i've loved every moment of the past 4 years," but if i'm being honest, i can't. what i can say is this:

i've loved him every moment of the past 4 years.
and that is the truth.

from the moment i saw that positive pregnancy test i knew that my life would never be the same. i just had no idea what an understatement that would be.

i have spent the majority of the past 4 years worrying.

worrying about his past...should i have made other choices for him when he was a baby? been more relaxed, been more protective, given him the medicine, not given him the medicine, pushed him harder physically?

worrying about his present...is he strong enough? smart enough? am i doing enough? am i too hard on him? do i need to be more strict? do i need to let go more? why is he so bossy?

worrying about his future...will he grow up to be a good kid? or end up in a group home? will he be kind to others, stick up for the underdog? will he be the underdog? is he ever going to get taller?

and so, i made a decision. for one day out of four years, i wouldn't worry.
i would just celebrate.
celebrate the life of a boy who has stolen my heart in a way only he can.

favorite color (s): yellow, green and brown. in that order.
favorite number (s): 8 & 10.
loves: his bear, green, apple, warm, warm georgie. music. instruments. dancing. singing. reading. running. coloring. painting. cucumbers. cheese. strawberries. cantelope. making people laugh. sweet pie. mom and dad. animals, but not scary ones like snakes and bats. listening to books on cd. family home evening. playing candyland and chutes and ladders. wrestling with dad. riding his bike. friends. balloons. bubbles. making up stories with mom. watching shows. puzzles. practicing letters and numbers. picking flowers for mom. picking out cool sticks for dad. getting packages in the mail. being happy.


the celebration: normally i am the low-key mom when it comes to birthdays and holidays. (secret: low key really means "lazy and unprepared") but not this year. i realized how much i wanted this day to be special. for him. so once he went to bed, ben & i got to work. i hung signs and blew up so many balloons that i thought i might pass out. but once i saw his face in the morning, it was totally worth it.

ben made the cake again. and once again, outdid himself.

for those who missed it, here was last year's cake:

and this year's cake:

we celebrated with a party, inviting caleb's friends for swimming and pizza. we were so grateful to those who came, many of them drove a long distance.










we are also grateful for the family members who sent packages for him in the mail and made phone calls, letting him know that he is important to them.

and did his birthday wishes come true? i'll say they did.

(kanien, i found it on ebay for $16.95 + shipping) it's a toy violin that plays like 15 songs & makes him feel really cool. nana sent him a golf club set along with a toy guitar (thank you!) so both of his birthday wishes were answered.

there are multiple reasons why i love caleb. he has a kind heart. he loves to make us laugh. he adores his dad. he cries when i get hurt. (i have to hide it when i use band-aids because when he sees one on me it sends him through the roof.) he is spirited. he has an inner strength that inspires me. he loves life.

and so we celebrate him. the good, the bad, the extremely hard, the rewarding, the draining, the inspiring.

we love you, buddy. more than you'll ever know.

sunny mornings

so this is our first "real summer" here in AZ. and by real summer, i mean starting a week ago, the temps hitting over 100. by 5pm i am a sweaty, miserable crank who can barely stand to cook dinner for the fear that it will make our apartment even just a smidgeon more hot.

but it's interesting how your body adapts. because when our AC finally kicks on at 7pm (we're on an energy saving/money saving plan so everything is off between 12pm & 7pm), i start to freeze when it gets below 74. what is that all about?

aside from the hot weather outside, it's also sunny inside our little place. i love waking up to get to see this sweet, chunky, smiling face.

pure sunshine i tell ya. inside and out.

when opportunity knocks...i happily open the door.

the producer of the show called me last week to tell me she has a surprise for us. i had to turn on the camera when she told me so it could be on tape. well that footage will be awesome since i'm in my pajamas with no make-up on, so emotionally prepare yourselves for a shocker.

shallowness aside, while i was on camera she told me that ford is doing a promotion where they ask certain people to test drive their cars for a minimum of a week. then they are asked to blog about it & their experience & what they liked, etc.

well we were picked! we've had only one car for several years and i seriously am SOOOOO excited to get to have the freedom of a second car, even if it's only for a short time!

this is the car we get to test drive:

i know, right????

the ford flex. (take the interactive tour, it will blow your mind) it's a 7-seater, has a screen where you can plug in all your phone #'s and call hands-free...you can also watch yourself reverse on it! i have a feeling this feature was built just for ladies like myself who struggle a bit driving backwards. don't judge me.

so if any of you are in the area and need a ride somewhere, let me know! i'm sure we could fit your entire family in it.

you know that first couple of weeks after you turned 16 and you got your license? you were willing to run your mom's errands, pick up your little brother, or return library books just for the opportunity to get behind the wheel?

well that's exactly how i feel.

pictures to come!

episode 7: vanessa part 2

so i finally get to hear what vanessa did to get her license revoked. i have to say, this girl is pretty much perfect so it makes me feel a bit better knowing that even she makes mistakes sometimes. :) am i insecure? well, obviously! she is a great person & i like her even more now, knowing that she's willing to put herself out there so that others learn from her lesson.

next week: recent breast cancer survivor, dana. she is so amazing, i'm really excited for this one. very interesting process, i hear, once the mastectomy is over. and i'm so proud of her for letting us share in this experience.

go here if the video isn't working.

by the way, do the videos ever work on my blog?? they don't seem to be, but maybe it's just my computer that doesn't show them. feedback, please! so that i don't waste my time posting them each week.

rewards

been thinking a lot about motherhood lately.

my take on being a mom today? well, i spent 98% of my day in my "house clothes" also known as my pj's (the other 2% is when i will take a shower as soon as i'm done typing this & then will change into a clean pair of "house clothes"). ben is working overnight shifts so he came home & went to sleep while i...

did the dishes, folded & put away 4 loads of laundry, vacuumed the carpets, swept the floor, cleaned the toilets...rocked, wiped, fed, changed, bathed, comforted, disciplined, taught, tickled, wrestled, soothed, burped, listened, etc.

i guess i got a lot accomplished. yet somehow, it doesn't feel like it. i'm still in the same clothes i wore to bed last night and i haven't stepped foot out of the apartment. don't even get me started on my 12 attempts to exercise.

there are some who say that motherhood is the most rewarding job. which is what i started thinking about as my day was coming to an end. hmmmmm...rewards...think....

this morning:

"wake up momma, it's a beautiful sunny day," he's been saying this everyday to me for at least a year now. his little hands softly touch my arms. "can i come up and snuggle and watch a show with you?"

"sure, booger." and roll over to look at the clock. 5:45 am. you're kidding me. blast that arizona sun! it comes up earlier every day. he walks around and i can see his blonde chicken little hairstyle sticking up around the mattress as he drags with him his 3 best friends, bear, green and apple. hops on the bed and curls up on top of my feet.

half an hour later, she stirs. i roll over to see if she's just moving around while she's sleeping and jump a little to see her big blue-gray eyes staring back. "good morning," i say. and her face breaks into the biggest smile, lighting up from the inside. i can't help but smile back.

3 hours later...

"okay, close your hands like this," he instructs me, showing me to put my two palms together. "and close your eyes, like this." he squints. i do as i'm told.

"keep them closed." i do.

"penny, penny, who has the penny?" he chants as he takes those same little hands and slides a penny between my palms.

"okay, open your eyes."

i look around. "is it bear?" i ask.

"no..." he says, smiling.

"baby sweet pie?"

"no..."

"is it--ME?"

"YES!! YOU GOT IT MOMMA! YOU FOUND THE PENNY!! now let's play again! my turn!" we continue this for quite some time.




4 hours after that...

"can i help you do that?" he looks at me surrounded by piles of clean clothes.

"absolutely!" and we make a game out of him running his clothes and putting them in his drawers. without him knowing, i check a few minutes later to see what his room looks like. the clothes are all in the right drawers, but they're hanging out of the sides so that none of them can close. i smile, and leave it that way.


1 hour later...

i am holding her while she's drinking a bottle. both of her hands are holding on to my fingers in her vice-grip and she's staring up at me. i ask her if she's enjoying her lunch. her eyebrows shoot up and she breaks into another smile, answering my question in her own language. so sweet. after she's done eating, we enjoy a few minutes of conversation while she excitedly kicks her legs and swings her arms around.


5 hours down the road...

"momma! we got a suprise for you!" he bursts through the door after returning home from the store with ben. "it's a secret and i can't tell you what it is. but i will tell you that it's green, and it's really special." (last year's "surprise" was 2 dinosaurs. one that runs and one that roars. i was given the running dinosaur. somehow both of them ended up in his room.)

i sneak a peek when he's not looking. i see a green star wars light saber in a target bag. i get a sneaking suspicion that one's going to be joining the dinosaurs in his room.


30 minutes after that...

"good night buddy. thanks for being such a good boy today." i kiss him, twice. wrap his blanket around him tightly.

"i love you momma. i'll give you your suprise tomorrow. it's a secret. but it's really special." and he reaches his little hands up again, squeezing my cheeks. "i just love you."

"love you too, magoo."


1 more hour goes by...



she's kicking her feet & splashing in the water, content. we lift her out and i get her ready for bed, giving her a little baby lotion massage before her pj's go on. she jabbers the whole time. i hold her and she smells sooooooo good. she finally closes her big eyes and goes to sleep.

these are my rewards. they get me up in the morning, they keep me going in the middle of the day when i'm exhausted, and help me sleep peacefully at night. i know that i'm not perfect, that i'm going to mess them up somehow. i'm fully prepared to apologize for this.

my friend andrea has said to me, "you literally spilled your blood in order to bring them here to earth. you have a lot invested in your kids." and it's true. just 2 short months ago i finished 9 hellacious months of discomfort by practically splitting myself in two so that she could now exist on this planet. these little mini-adults are made up of literal pieces of me. it still blows my mind.

when it comes to motherhood, i am an absolute novice. i'm only 4 years into this and have a lot to learn. the rewards don't come in the form of money, or chocolate, or even a pat on the back with a "good job." but as i look back through just one day i see the rewards of the sacrifice that was made to get them here. they are priceless, heavenly rewards.

but you want to know what i think the greatest reward of motherhood is? being given the gift of loving them so much that i can't wait to get up and do it all again tomorrow. even if it is at 5:45 am.

hope you all have a happy mother's day.

and to my own mom?

thank you. i love you.

so glad i bought that black sweater to hide my enormous-ness.

uhhhhhh. yeah.

a junkie is born

don't judge me.

it was a long day.

decisions, decisions

so i've decided that i'm going to stop posting pictures of our family on a public blog. i'm going to set this blog to private & start a blog that will just have writing, and make that a public blog, then link to this blog so those invited can still see pictures.

confused?? so am i.

but anyway, if you'd like to keep visual tabs on these ever-changing mugs:

leave me a comment. i'll probably make the switch-over in a week or so.
don't worry, i'll walk you all through it.

utah mom's unite!

i often blog about my very hard-working sister has an awesome mom blog called supermom central.
a while ago she was recognized by a group of people celebrating mom bloggers & was able to take her family to disneyland for free to attend a mom blog conference. no fair, right?

wrong.

it is fair, and i'll tell you why.

a) because she has completely dedicated herself to making this mom blog spectacular. she hosts giveaways all the time, finds awesome crafts, and basically works really hard to educate all moms and help us to be better than we are. she works really, really hard on this blog and it paid off!

b) because she herself is a mother of 3 and does an amazing job with those 3 cute kids. and doesn't every mom deserve to go to disneyland for free? yes we do! (just not all of us get the opportunity to.)

that being said, tomorrow is "national mom's nite out" night. did you know that? i didn't, but it is! and it's about dang time we get an official night off throughout the year.

so this fabulous sister of mine has teamed up yet again to throw a party with disney parks, who has decided to hook all the utah moms up for tomorrow. there's going to be treats, crafts, games and amazing prizes. (asking myself, why do i live in arizona???)

if you're interested & want to get out to party, go here for all of the details. wish i could be there with you! have fun & give my sister a spank on the bum for me...okay, that might be weird if you've just met for the first time. let's settle for a high five, shall we?

blessings

the week in pictures.

my brother tyler & his wife kirsten visit.
we learned many life-altering lessons while they were here.

lesson 1: how to make a proper fort.

lesson 2: how to eat grasshopper cookies the right way.
sub-lesson: cake in a cup. yummmm.

lesson 3: how to have fun. nap, relax, eat good food, swim, laugh until you cry. and have kirsten give lynsey a last minute make-up lesson.

(i call this one "jesus blesses the little children.")

thanks you guys, come back soon.

after they left, the rest of the crew rolled on in. we had so much fun with them & were spoiled by their company. it was difficult to see them leave.

we utilized their hotel pool as much as we could. a lazy river, a huge water slide, a kiddie pool, a waterfall, and being served nachos as you sunbathe. who could ask for more.

we admired the muscle men...

the supermodels...

and the flotation devices.

once we were good and done with the pool, we got snazzed up for the reason behind the visits.
we blessed leah last weekend. what was supposed to be the normal church blessing on a sunday turned last-minute into a home blessing on a saturday night.
we blame the swine flu for our paranoia of crowds. of course this was before the media announced their over-coverage.

the lady of the hour.
lovely in her little cream gap sweater dress & handmade crocheted cream booties.
(even if they wouldn't stay on her feet.)

family photos.

we're crossing our fingers that the swine flu did not follow you home.
thank you all so much for making the trip out to see us.
we. loved. every. minute. of. it.