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

Pretty Boy

A few months ago the girls and I made lipgloss out of crayons and coconut oil. Yesterday Matthew decided he wanted to give it a try. He was playing with the container on the floor next to me; I never dreamed he'd get that little tub open. 

I heard a little shriek of frustration and when I looked at him he was COVERED in pink! He had smeared it all over the floor and was crawling in a beautiful oily mess. 

He couldn't decide whether he was sad or happy about it.

He was for sure tired.

 He had a nice long nap afterwards and his skin was even softer than baby soft for the rest of the day.

And he smelled like a crayon.

CRAZY Hair Day

It's Spirit Week at school and today was CRAZY HAIR day. I think it's safe to say that our expectations were met. 

Lily asked for a ponytail that stuck straight up and was covered in bows. There isn't even a bow left in our box!

Kaylee didn't know what she wanted. This is what we came up with. I tried to convince her to leave her braids sticking straight out so she had helicopter hair (see below) but she wanted them twisty. I still think it's pretty cute. Then we started talking about birthday cakes (for some reason) and she decided she wanted candles in her hair.  So here is her firecracker 'do. 

Helicopter Hair

Mallory cried when we went out the door because her "crazy hair" wasn't fixed yet. We did hers as soon as we got home from taking the big girls to school. She asked me to do "two braids that stick out like Lily's". 

Riley goes to school later than the other girls and she wanted to wait to do her hair so that she could play and not mess it up. Smart girl. She was also a fan of Lily's hair except she wanted "a ribbon that twists all the way around and a bow on top". 

We had so much fun fixing their hair today. We laughed and giggled the whole time. These silly girls are the best.

 I'm so happy they are brave enough to do this kind of stuff. Kaylee has never done crazy hair day (or crazy anything day) because she is so shy and she does not like to draw attention to herself. Lucky for her, she has a sister who was somehow blessed with an I-don't-care-what-people-think-I-just-want-to-have-fun personality and it has helped Kaylee break free from her shy chains many times throughout her little life. I am SO THANKFUL that Lily isn't too self  conscious to do these silly things. I would have never done this as a child and Michael wouldn't have either because we were both so painfully shy! I have no idea how Lily was fortunate enough to skip out on that gene but it has been of great benefit to her and her sisters!

ahhhh, I love my family

a post

We decided to take some cute pictures a few days ago. And cute they are. I love these kiddos.

ps. can you tell that we have a thing for stripes?