May 19, 2009

Mother's Day

The kids each made something for me and were so excited to give it to me this morning. Garhett made a book, it started out with my name, the beginning letters were cut out of a magazine and then the meaning was next to it:

C aring
I ntelligent
N ice
D aring
I ncredible

The next part of his book Garhett answered questions about his mom; here are some of the questions.
List 3 adjectives to describe your mother: kind, caring, helpful.
Who feels: happy when I don't fight.
Who Needs: a break.
Who gives: me love.

Thanks Garhett, I love you.
________________________________________________
Trent answered questions about what he thought I liked the best and then he drew pictures of the answers. Trent is in kindergarten and just learning to spell out words, so he writes them as they sound. So precious!!

My Mom's favorite food is: Salmon
but she doesn't like: Ha
She spends most of her time doing: shopping, cleaning
Mom helps our family by: She duz wash mi cloz
The thing my Mom likes to do for fun is: go to movies, swimen
When my Mom daydreams she things about: camping
If Mom could have one wish come true, she would wish for: tralr, capen, shoden str

Thanks Trent, I love you.
___________________________________________
Paige's preschool class, made handprints with paint and attached them to this poem.

My Handprint
Sometimes you get discouraged because I'm so small
And always leave my fingerprints on furniture and walls.
But everyday I'm growing big and soon I'll be very tall.
Then all my little handprints will be hard to recall.
So here's a special handprint just so that you can say
This is how my fingers looked when I placed them here today.

Paige then wrote her name the best she could. Thanks Paige, I love you.
____________________________________________
Now for Emmett, what can I say, but today he showed me how big he was by taking steps all by himself, yes he walked. I was so excited that I started to cry, oh the progress he has made.

__________________________________________
I was very happy to be able to go to church with my family and listen to several talks on motherhood. I have missed church for the past couple of months due to sick kids, vacation, conference, sick kids and sick kids. Today has been a time of deep reflection of what it means to be a mom. Here are some thoughts that a friend and I share about being a mom.

Maker--The woman really is a maker of everything. She is a maker of the home, a maker of the food, a maker of the mood in the home. It’s amazing that when I'm happy, peaceful, and calm, so is everyone else. The days when I am not, it is incredible how everyone else is magically following my mood. Why is that? Why does the mother set the mood for the home? How come when dad comes home in a bad mood, the mood of the home isn't affected as much? Therefore, mothers have the responsibility of being happy from within, and work at making it so. As she does this, the rest of the family follows. I have found this to be a blessing, not a curse, as the Lord places much responsibility on us to be a Maker in every sense of the word.

True -- We have a responsibility to be true to ourselves and others, and to teach that truth to our children. What a daunting task that is. The responsibility, along with our husband, of teaching our kids how to be true, while also trying to be true to ourselves. It is so overwhelming, it is no wonder we get extra help from Heaven when we ask for it. And, sometimes when we do not.

Helpmeet --Eve is so valuable to the Plan of Salvation. She truly was created as a helpmeet and companion to Adam. Together, they would lead each other through life and all the problems they were expected to encounter. Adam, as the Priesthood holder, held the power to activate God's power, and Eve was created to help him use that power in the right way. His true equal. As are we. We are meant to be our husband's equal, and to teach our children in a similar manner. The Lord would have it no other way. It is our responsibility to not squander each other's power, but to share it equally. The world, in the past, told us that men wielded that power over women's heads. Now, the pendulum is swinging in the other direction, where women do not need men, and we hold all the power. That is simply not the plan of God. He created us to be equal in every sense.

Expectation -- We have huge expectations placed upon us. We are expected to teach our children how to survive and serve others in this ever increasing evil world, to be happy when our husbands come home, to be sexy to our husbands, to exercise, be healthy, serve our neighbors, get along with our family members and friends, learn a new skill, study the scriptures, be available to all of our children's demands, and of course, find time somewhere in there to actually get 5 minutes to ourselves to recharge our batteries. And yet, we miraculously find time to do it all. We prioritize and organize in every possible way. We place these burdens on the Lord, and He helps us get all of it done, many times doing about 5 things at once. A true miracle.

Recognizes -- As mothers, we recognize where we are needed, and recognize the Lord's influence on us. We recognize the Spirit's whisperings when a friend is in need, our husbands are being neglected, or when one of our children are out of sorts and sick. Finally, we recognize where our extra strength and increase of love is coming from, and we thank Him a thousand times a day because of it. We recognize the good influences and get rid of the bad influences in our lives, so that the Spirit can dwell in us.

What a wonderful time to be a mother. I am so grateful for my mother in helping me be a better mom to my children. Thank you mom -- I love you! Happy Mother's Day.

May 10, 2009

Fabulessly Frugal meets Shandy Vogt Photography

Here is a plug for two fabulous blog sites!!!

The first is Fabulessly Frugal - a blogsite that provides such valuable information on saving money with coupons and providing information on free items and other sales that you may not know about. Check it out - even if you don't do coupons (you never know you may change your mind).

The second is a very talented woman who just started in photography, introducing Shandy Vogt Photography!!! Check out her blog - she has captured such great shots. I am entering a contest to have Shandy capture my family in the outdoors. Wish me luck!!!

Two great sites so please check it out. Just click on their names and it will take you right to their blog!! Enjoy! Shandy Vogt Photography and Fabulessly Frugal.

May 9, 2009

Race for the Cure

Today was Boise's Race for the Cure. I walked the 5k with Deidra and her girls. It was a lot of fun to get out and exercise for a great cause. We were able to complete the walk in 51 minutes. Before the walk started we walked around to the different vendors for free stuff or in Scott's words "we tailgated"!



















To warm us up before the race began, they had some ladies up on stage doing jazzercise. That was fun to try and do jazzercise in a group of thousand(s) of people!














This was a funny - crazy sign: Hiking For Healthy Hooters!

May 8, 2009

Tagged - Top 8

My 8 favorite TV Shows
1- The Amazing Race
2- Chuck
3- Jon & Kate plus 8
4- What Not to Wear
5- CSI
6- Greys Anatomy
7- So You Think You Can Dance
8- The Unit

8 Things I did Yesterday
1- Cleaned
2- Laundry
3- Started reading "Happy for No Reason"
4- Paige's Dance class
5- Lunch out with Emmett, Paige, and Trent
6- Exercised
7- Dinner out with the Family
8- Alone time w/hubby

My 8 Favorite Restaurants
1- Super Taqueria (only in CA)
2- Chili's
3- Texas Roadhouse
4- Chupala's
5- On the Border
6- In & Out Burger (CA)
7- Ocean City Chinese
8- McGrath's

8 Things I am Looking Forward to
1- Warm Weather
2- Family Vacation
3- House selling
4- Friends visiting this summer
5- Warm Weather
6- Vacation
7- House selling
8- Vacation

8 Things on my Wish List
1- A harmonious Family
2- House to sell in May!!!
3- A tropical vacation
4- Our kids to stay active in the church
5- Our kids to serve missions
6- House cleaner back
7- The weight I've lost to stay off
8- Emmett to sleep through the night

Now I tag 8 people-I look forward to reading all of yours
1- Deidra
2- Laura Lee
3- Karen
4- Eileen
5- Jen McRae
6- Amber
7- Katie
8- Juliana

May 6, 2009

Preschool Fieldtrip

Well it's that time of year again - school field trips. We started with Paige's preschool trip to the zoo. The weather ended up cooperating and it was a decent day (semi sunshine). We arrived at the zoo at 12:45pm and you would have thought the zoo just opened. Our preschool and 2 other families were the only ones in the zoo. It was awesome!!!!

Here is Paige's preschool class:













Emmett enjoyed touching the wood railings and looking at the monkeys.











We enjoyed looking at the different exhibits.

Apr 24, 2009

Track Break is over...back to school

The kids are back to school - it's odd to start back to school during the middle of the week. I think we all were equally excited to get back in to a normal routine again. Trent made a funny comment this morning, he said, "Mom, we are free today." I said, "Oh yeah, what does that mean?" He said, "We get to go back to school, we are free!" So as much as we all love each other, my kids are just like me, they need a break too. In Trent's words, "We are all free!!!".

This track break began March 21 and ended April 22 (32 days). I am going to capture the break in weekly nutshell accounts, I know ya'll are thanking me cause I can be a little winded with the details. I am tired and don't really have it in me to give you all the details. So enjoy the pictures and captions and some windiness.

Week 1: Spring Break w/Grandma and Grandpa: 10 day Spring Break

Week 2:
Mom and dad return from Europe, everyone is adjusting to family life. Emmett has therapy and doctor appointments.

We made a trip to Utah for a follow-up sleep study on Emmett.

Week 3:
The kids love to go to the library. So we checked out quite a few books, videos, Wii and DS games. Garhett is starting to get excited about reading again. We introduced him to the series of Witch Mountain (Escape to, Return to, etc.).


We have the best cheap movie theater here in Boise. It is the Overland Park Cinemas. The movies have been out for awhile, but who cares at these prices: Adults $3.00; Child/Student/ Senior Child $2.00; Food Ticket* $4.00; Tuesdays - All Shows $1.00(Food Ticket $3) *Covers your admission and gets you 2 Small Food Items or 1 Large Item

We took the kids to see Pink Panther 2. They loved it! I really enjoy watching movies with my kids, cause it makes me laugh to see them laugh at the funny parts of the movie. I love it when they get it!









Week 4:
YMCA Kids Day - We enjoyed swimming







Took a drive to Stanley and Red Fish Lake. We decided to pack a picnic lunch to eat up at the lake. Red Fish Lake has a special place in Pappy's heart (Scott's father). We thought it would be fun to take a drive to a place we haven't ever been and take pictures to send to Pappy, who hasn't been there in 40+ years. Pappy would spend some summers fishing at Red Fish Lake with his Grandpa Emmett (who our little Emmett is named after). As we drove into Stanley, I noticed that all the campsites, lake entrances, etc. were closed due to snow. The entrance to Red Fish Lake was closed because of the amount of snow they still had. Mid April and the place looks like they just got fresh snow, well probably because they did!!! Darn ground hog for seeing his shadow and causing us to have 6 or 8 or 10 more weeks of snow. Scott took some beautiful pictures on our drive. We had our picnic lunch on the porch of the Stanley City Center. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly.













Scott's pictures:



To bring the break to a close, we enjoyed a free cone at the new Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop that opened up in downtown Boise. Looks like Emmett enjoyed his first ice cream cone!

Apr 16, 2009

Leaps and Bounds


Over the past 4 months, Emmett has changed in development by leaps and bounds. In a matter of 4 months, Emmett has learned to roll over, crawl, go up and down stairs, pull himself up, stand alone, and now push a cart while walking behind it!!! AMAZING!!! Our little peanut is a big boy! Along with progressing in his development, he is also progressing in his language. He can call mom and dad (at the right time), and he tries to repeat Paige and Garhett (not perfectly, but the sound is there). We are so blessed with Emmett and so pleased when he hits these milestones in his life.