Lucy Darling

I had the absolute pleasure of photographing my newborn niece a couple of weeks ago. I love you, little Lucy girl!!!

from frustration to bliss

Last night at home was the definition of chaos. There was fighting, yelling, crying, the house was a mess, the girls' paperwork from school was covering every space I looked at, there were unattended dishes in the sink and laundry waiting to be folded. Tension was high and we were on the verge of at least a couple of meltdowns. So we grabbed our scooters and skateboards and left it all behind us. We live right across the street from the school so it's easy to escape to the playground for a little while. 

I ran into a friend and had a lovely conversation. The kids played (mostly) happily. It was just what we needed; a literal breath of fresh air.

(I love my daughter Lily, but she didn't make it into any of the photos from last night)

The smoke from the California fires creeps over the mountains and floods the valley every evening; this is what we see every day around sunset. It's getting better and there seems to be less every night but sometimes it's so bad that it stings our eyes and makes our throat hurt. It's a nuisance and eery and beautiful all at the same time.

Kaylee

This little girl turned 8 today. 

What a special age to be!

We ate breakfast at the cafe, swam at the pool, 

and had grandparents and Auntie Emma 

over for a birthday dinner and gifts.

It was a great day.

title goes here

Maybe someday I will be better at blogging. If there is one thing I struggle with (there are MANY) it is consistency! That and I have at least one child screaming at my feet every time I try to sit at the computer. Right now there are two.

I have so many thoughts and SO MANY things I want write about and then sadly, over a few days time, the thoughts drift away. It makes me so sad when I realize that there was something I really wanted to put in my journal but I just can't remember what it was! I need to STOP.

Tonight I want to remember the kindness that my children show to each other and to me. It was Lily bringing home Goldilocks and the Three Bears, knowing that it's Mallory's favorite story to have us tell. It was tonight when Kaylee brought a tray of food to Riley as she lay in bed not feeling well. It's every day when one of the big girls sees Matthew crying and stops to play with him and try to make him happy again. It's any time one of the kids wrap their arms around me. It's when they thank me for a meal. It's when they play happily together. It's when they say 'I love you'.

Oh, I am blessed. Some days being a mom is sooooo hard, but there are blessings and happiness in every corner if you're looking for them. I feel like the more I appreciate my kids, the more fulfilling it is to be their mom.

Enough sap! Now I will show you Mallory's amazing photog skills. She loves to take pictures with my iphone. Who can blame her?

From Kaylee's 2nd Grade Veteran's Day Program

(this is but a fraction of the photos she took!)

The people seated behind us (we know them, thankfully;)) 

"I'm gunna take a picshur of my san-wich"

"I'm gunna take a picshur of you, Mom"

I love Matt Boy's face.

end.

Sunday (family) Selfie

Our Father has a family. It’s me!

It’s you, all others too: we are His children.

He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,

To live and learn here in fam’lies.

A father’s place is to preside, provide,

To love and teach the gospel to his children.

A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share

Their love for Father in Heaven.

A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,

To nurture and to strengthen all her children.

She teaches children to obey, to pray,

To love and serve in the fam’ly.

I’ll love and serve my family and be

A good example to each fam’ly member.

And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,

I’ll help my fam’ly remember:

God gave us families

to help us become what He wants us to be

This is how He shares His love, 

for the fam’ly is of God.

(source)

(listen)

A Fair Warning

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love the church I belong to. I believe that Jesus Christ is at the center of everything the Church teaches and that it is truly His church and teaches His Gospel. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and I LOVE Him.

Until now I have not used my blog as a platform to profess my beliefs, not because I'm ashamed... I'm not sure why. Perhaps because I feel like no one wants to hear about my religious beliefs.. maybe the real reason is because I don't want people to think that I'm being preachy or putting myself on a pedestal or acting like a hypocrite.

Let me be the first person to tell you that I AM A SINNER! I make mistakes every dang day of my life and I have weakness after weakness that I'm trying to overcome. I know I am not better than anyone else, but I try every day and I will keep trying every day for the rest of my life to be my better self and to become the person that God wants me to be.

I've felt for a long time like I need to include my thoughts and beliefs on my blog and preach the Gospel to my tiny corner of the universe. I don't have a lot of "readers" but that is not my goal. My goal is for my posterity and for the people who I encounter to know that I BELIEVE IN CHRIST.

I am NOT an eloquent speaker (or writer) and I'm not "learned" and I won't pretend to be. I DO have a testimony of Jesus Christ and of his Gospel and His teachings and I WILL share what I believe, as silly as I may sound to those who know more and better than I do. You can read what I have to say or you can skip over it.

You've been warned;)

tonight....

It all started when the girls decided to dump 4 different kinds of cereal in a mixing bowl. They poured some in milk and chowed down with giant serving spoons and I thought,

"Perfect. Now I don't have to cook dinner or clear the table so there is a place for them to eat."

(they were sitting pow-wow style on the floor)

Then they decided they needed to sit at the table and have more cereal in individual bowls this time and  Kaylee tipped hers and somehow spilled about a gallon of milk out of a quart sized bowl. It dribbled all over the (messy) table and onto the bench and finally onto the floor.

5 minutes later Riley dumped an entire cup of milk into my lap and all over the floor (my poor, poor floor)

 While I was cleaning up the newest mess I remembered that IT'S TUESDAY which means that the Stake Presidency is at the meetinghouse conducting temple recommend interviews and I needed to get there ASAP so I could get mine! So I threw a dress on (which wasn't a big deal since I was already pant-less, thank-you-Riley), rushed my barefooted, half-dressed children out the door and sped to the stake center. We ran into a favorite friend -Brian Atkinson- and then I had a nice visit with a lovely man named President Hayes while Brian watched my kids as they ran around the church gym. They also talked about really cool things like Maleficent and How to Train Your Dragon 2. 

I left the church building and for a few moments I felt very peaceful and very happy that my recommend is renewed.

We came home and I decided to conquer the fruit flies that are trying to take over my kitchen. So I looked on Pinterest and decided to make this really awesome concoction that called for apple cider vinegar. I carefully mixed my ingredients and left my trap in a very conspicuous place not realizing that I had left my opened brand new giant jug of apple cider vinegar in an even more conspicuous place.

Next was the bedtime routine and putting 5 kids to bed is never effortless but tonight was actually pretty easy. It just took a reeeeeally long time to get everyone potty-hands-teethed, prayed with, read to, tucked in, and sung to (I have the best job).  Anyways,  I came back to the kitchen several hours later and guess how many fruit flies my amazing trap didn't catch and guess how many my giant jug of apple cider vinegar did catch.

concoction trap - 0

brand new jug of apple cider vinegar- 1050

And I know it was that many because I counted them while they all flew in my face and up my nostrils and in my mouth and ears when I picked my jug up. 

"And then the clouds opened up and God said, 'I hate you, Alfalfa.'"

I'm just kidding. I know God loves me and that He also loves Alfalfa but I couldn't help it that my favorite line from that movie most definitely occurred to me as I recounted my evening to my sister a little while later.

and now it's 1:00am and I have precious children to wake and prepare for school in just a few short hours, so,

the end