Belated Thankfulness

My heart has been full of gratitude this past week for many reasons. It all started on Sat the 22nd we had a stake temple day focusing on a day of gratitude and we were to go to the temple grounds as much as possible. We started the day with Preston taking the youth of the ward to do baptisms for the dead. Then I met up with him to do a session. That afternoon we took the kids to the visitors center to see the displays. While there we decided to see the Joseph SMith movie. It was my first time seeing the movie and it helped me to remind myself of the sacrifices that were made to have the restored gospel on the earth. I am so grateful to live in a time when the gospel is on the earth in its fulness and that I can have the temple blessings to allow our family to be eternal. I am so grateful for a husband that is always respectful and helpful. Preston is a very busy man but he does what he can to spend time with me and the kids. I am also grateful for all 3 of my kids. They have very unique personalities that make life fun and interesting. I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving. We have been with family in Eagar AZ. We drove up Thanksgiving morning and got a rare treat of a White Thanksgiving. It rained on us the whole trip until just outside of Show Low and then the snow came and it snowed until just outside of Eagar. It was very pretty.

Love/Hate Situation

Lately I have been feeling under the weather. I have had a case of the flu and a lot of things on my plate with work, family life and church responsibilities. When things get like this around here I hate it because I can't keep up with it all.

On the other hand Taylor loves it. She can get away with a lot more when I don't have the time or energy to deal with it. The picture demonstrates that quite well. She has completely destroyed her room and our family room I just didn't take a picture of that. Also she dressed herself, which whe does everyday but yesterday was different. If you can't tell, she has her underwear on the outside of her shorts, her shirt is on backwards and she is wearing her brown church shoes with no socks and on the wrong feet. Oh well she is safe, has been fed and has had a fun day with her toys. I guess that is all that matters right.

We are the Ward Halftime Show

I feel bad for the members of our ward who attend church to learn from the speakers. If they sit around me and my kids they are destined to be distracted. Last Sunday was no different. We are sitting in the middle of the chapel (literally I usually sit in the middle of the midde pew) I look down at Nathan and he is looking really droopy, he informs me that he is really tired. NOw if you have a weak stomach stop reading this post now. Then about 10 minutes later I look down and he looks like he is about to cry. I ask if he is feeling sick. He says "Yes, I feel like I am going to throw up." I say "Okay HURRY lets go, start walking I will come with you." We start to rush out , we are almost at the aisle and then Nathan stops walking. I say keep going and the man we were standing in front of says "It's okay just keep going buddy." I then realize that Nathan has thrown up a little, he looks at me with panic and embarrasment on his face. We rush out into the hall and RUN down the hallway to the bathroom. We made it. Then I grab some wet papertowels from the bathroom. Nathan does not want to go back into the chapel but I need to because Taylor and Natalie are still in there. So he stays in the foyer. I go in sit down in front of the area where he threw up and clean it up. The sister sitting there had already started to clean it up with a box of kleenexs that she had put in her bag on the way out the door to church. Bless her heart. So we finish cleaning it up and putting the kleenexs and towels in the empty box and she takes it to the garbage for me. I then gather our stuff from where we were sitting. During the rest hymn I retrieve Taylor from the family that was taking care of her 1 row behind us and then get Natalie from the family 2 rows behind us that was taking care of her. We leave to get Nathan in the foyer. Taylor asks where we are going and states she wants to stay. I then summon Preston off of the stand he comes out and gets Taylor and then she sits the remainder of the meeting on PRestons lap on the stand. I take Nathan and Natalie home. I probably should send an apology note to the speakers for being so disruptive. It was kind of appropriate that there topic was about trials we have but that Heavenly Father is aware of us and that there are people to help us. I am very grateful for all the help from the ward members that our family receives.
A couple of side notes. Nathan did not throw up or really act sick after that, although he did stay home from school yesterday. I had a dream Sat night that Nathan threw up somewhere and somebody said Welcome to Flu season. So far I am the only one that is sick besides Nathan and mine isn't very bad. That same day our pet goldfish died, but it had lasted 3 weeks and we were pretty surprised it lasted that long.

Our GREAT Grandpa Great

Today is my Grandpa 90th Birthday so I thought I would take the time to post a tribute to this great man. My kids call him Grandpa Great or Taylor it sounds more like bompa rate. She will say I love Bompa Rate. My Grandpa is probably one of the greatest men on the whole earth. He is always so loving and caring. He took care of my Grandma selflessly for many years. When I was a kid we visited almost every Sunday evening and would have rootbeer floats. It was a tradition I cherished then and now. My grandparents house was always filled with love and reverence. Grandpa's eyes are dark brown and full of love. He is thought of as a lovable teddy bear. His nickname for me was dopey. I am not sure as to why but he has called me that ever since I can remember. Up until I was quite old I would perch on the arm of his recliner everytime I would go to visit. I just wanted to be close to him. I hope that I can be even half the person my grandparents are. I am sorry to all of you who have not had the privillege to meet him he is a wonderful man.
I would like to list some of the Grandpa isms
1. "Mighty Tasty"- No meal is complete without him saying this.
2. "Head first or feet first"- He would say this to whoever was sitting in his recliner when he came to sit down. When I was about 10 years old he picked me up off the chair after saying this. He was so proud of himself with the shock he created in me that he actually picked me up. He still gets a kick out of that today.
3. " It will cost you a quarter" He says this whenever you ask a favor of him.
4. "I am going to get a bean or two" This meant he was going to get groceries.
5. "I got my ears lowered" Meaning he just got a haircut.

There are many more but I will leave it at these.

New dresses and a bad mom confession

Last week Taylor and Natalie received new dresses from their Uncle Kendall and Aunt Liz. They are super cute and we love them. Liz's Grandparents own a clothing store in northern CA it is Rebecca Raggs if you want to check them out. They have a lot of reversible jumpers that are really cute.

Okay onto my confession it is a long story considered yourself warned. I wasn't going to blog about it but it is one of those stories to remember. Last weekend Preston Natalie and I went out to dinner and a movie. Natalie's favorite kind of pacifier fell into a parking lot during the evening and was run over. Well we picked it up and put it in the dishwasher at home to clean it. THe next morning Sunday I grabbed the clean pacifier out of the dishwasher packed it in the diaper bag and headed off to church. As I think all of you know Preston is in the bishopric so I sit at church with the 3 kids by myself every week although I do try to sit by friends that can help take care of the kids if I have to leave the meeting. SO I am sitting listening to the testimonies because Natalie is asleep on the pew next to me Taylor is coloring and Nathan is just sitting there playing with the R2D2 toy that he informs me he snuck into church in his pants pockets. (I don't let him bring toys to church, hence the sneaking) Well I look down at Taylor who is sitting on my lap and she is not coloring in a book she is coloring on the white part of her brand new dress with a purple crayon. I sternly whisper in her ear Taylor JO! (yes middle name was appropriately used) Well Taylor knowing she was just middle named and therefore in trouble starts crying and screaming uncontrollably. So I quickly turn to my friend behind me and ask her to watch Natalie and Nathan while I take out the screaming Taylor so I can stop disrupting the meeting. I take Taylor to the bathroom to scold and attempt to clean her dress (no luck, but it did mostly come out with desolvit and dreft) Now here comes the confession. When I return after the meeting is over a young woman in our ward is holding Natalie as she sucks on the pacifier from the dishwasher. When I take Natalie from her the pacifier comes out and displays black around her mouth and chin. I first say what is on her face. I then realize what it is and say rather embarrassed. "THat is part of the street on my baby's face, I so do not deserve Mother of the Week award." It was rather humorous. I wonder if the phrase "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt" also applies to the asphalt?

The faces of Natalie

My sweet little Natalie really is a good baby. She is content and happy most of the time. If she is tired or hungry she will cry but that is about it. Well in this first picture she is both tired and hungry. Being the blogger addict I am I decided to take a picture of her old man frowny face instead of feeding her. Often when she frowns the sides curve down a lot more than this but after 3 times of trying to capture the best picture I gave in and fed her.

This is Natalie the next morning after a good night sleep and of course she had recently been fed. The smile is a much more flattering look. Don't you think. She also has a bigger smile then this picture shows but I couldn't capture it, I am not fast enough on the trigger.

Veterans Day

Today the kids and I went to see the Mesa Veterans Day Parade with my Mom and Dad. The parade itself was pretty boring. THey spaced the entries way toooo much. At times we waited 5 minutes until the next entry marched by. They did have a very memorable entry. They had someone march (mostly scouts) carrying a banner with a picture of one of the soldiers that died at war from Arizona. There was quite a few and I just sat and cried. That type of stuff really pulls at my heartstrings. I love this shot of Nathan saluting the flag. When a flag came by he would stand up take off his baseball hat and put his hand on his heart. It made me proud to see.There were a couple of funny things that happened while watching the parade. One is when one of the dance groups came by. One of the cute little blonde girls probably about Nathan's age was dancing near our side of the street. She did kind of a funny dance step and was looking right at Nathan, she got pretty close to the white line which we were told by many policeman we were forbidden to cross. Anyways she realized where she was and headed back to the inner part of the street. Nathan then looks at me and says "What was that all about?" It was hilarious, he could tell something was different about what had just happened but not sure as to why. So of course being the mom that I am I continued to tease him whenever any girls marched by with a dance or cheer group. He would just cover his face with his hat. The other funny thing I will post is about Taylor. We had been there for about 2 hours when Taylor was getting very tired. This is how our conversation went.

Taylor : " Mom is there more?"

Me: "Yes"

Taylor: "WHY?"

It was a short conversation but the was she said WHY? To the effect of why are we still torturing ourselves was pretty funny. Maybe its one of those you had to be there things. Sorry it neither story was funny to you but they were better in the moment.

the apple that DID fall far from the tree

My son Nathan and I are alike in a lot of ways. I won't get into specifics but our personalities are quite similar. Well I discovered one way that we are not alike during our trip to California in October. Preston had a Clark security Expo and Certified Locksmith Test in Anaheim and we decided to turn the trip into a family vacation. I love roller coasters and I have ever since I remember. So on the first day we were there I decided the first roller coaster I would go on would be the California Screamin ride in California Adventure. I had never been on this coaster before and it went quite fast and upside down. Nathan was tall enough so I took him with me on the ride. While in line he was excited I assured him it was perfectly safe and that they are always testing the safety of the ride. As we get closer to the front we could see how they countdown and then shoot you off for the ride he then starts to get a little more nervous. I again assure him that it is safe and that I wanted him to try every ride at least once, he may find he really likes it and want to go again. During the whole ride Nathan is constantly sreaming "MOM THIS IS REALLY SCARY" I felt bad after we got off the ride but figured he would forgive me and be ready for smaller roller coasters later. Well I traumatized him, the whole rest of that day he didn't want to go on any coasters at all. The next day he went on a couple of roller coasters but we had to do a lot of reassuring and he missed out on some of the really neat rides like Indiana Jones because I assumed that because I loved roller coasters he would lover roller coasters. I will admit it is my biggest regret of the trip taking him on the scariest ride the very first couple hours, but he did enjoy himself and I think he has forgiven me. Maybe when we go again in 2 to 3 years he will be more ready. The pictures really tell the story. The first one is us in line, see how happy he looks. The next one is once we actually got on the ride before it started, he is trying to be happy but you can tell he is nervouse. The last picture is of the screen of the picture the ride takes, he is in the bottom right of the screen you can barely even see his hair. He couldn't even see in front of him because he was soo short. I learned a good lesson that I need to stop living my life through my children and instead trying to see life through their eyes.

It is Official

Okay everbody I am officially addicted to this whole blogging thing. I used to just be addicted to looking at every one elses blogs but now I am also addicted to my own. I am constantly thinking about what I could post about and I take pictures of my kids doing about everything. I hope it will eventually wear off, but at the same time it helps me keep updated on pictures and stories of what my family is up too since I don't write in my journal as much as I should. Plus it is great motivation to finish my household duties and shop bookkeeping stuff so I can get to posting. ;-)

10 Years of Wedded Bliss

1998 2008

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. The ten years have gone by quickly but I also have a hard time remembering the single life, it seems I have always been married. I never thought as a teenager that I would love PMS so much. Okay I was being funny, but seriously I do love Preston very much and I am truly grateful for our eternal marriage. We have many years to come and I look forward to every one of them. I have to apologize for the pictures. I can't figure out how to use my scanner yet so I just took a picture of our wedding picture. And the most current family picture I have of us other then in the hospital is Disneyland pictures. Oh well.

Flu shots and Bribery

Yesterday I took Natalie to the Doctor for her 2 months check up and shots. Well Nathan stayed home from school because he had really bad allergies and his sinuses were causing him to be dizzy and to have a headache. He was also really tired from the allergy medicine. As we are driving to the doctors office I told Nathan and Taylor that we were going for Natalie and that she was getting shots so they needed to be good so I could focus on her. They were told that nothing would be done to them just Natalie. Well once there I decided to have Nathan and Taylor get their flu shots. Since I had said nothing would be done to them I had to pull out the bribery card. Nathan wanted to buy a toy at the dollar store, Taylor needed more she wanted a toy and an ice cream cone. Last night we went to the dollar store, at first Taylor carried around a baby doll for her choice, Nathan was taking quite a while to decide so Taylor continued to wander the store. Her final choice was Let Er Rip putty. I explained that it made tooting noises and that she would probably enjoy the doll more. Well as you can see we ended up with the putty and Nathan picked a car toy. Can you tell Taylor has an influental older brother.

Halloween

This Halloween was probably one of the most relaxing ones we have had in a long time. We went to one party where they had dinner and then we trick or treated in their neighborhood visited at the party for a while and then went home. Usually we drive to different parts of the neighborhoods in our ward boundaries to take the kids trick or treating to ward members. It was nice to not drive all around but we did get chastised a little by Nathan's primary teacher they waited until 9:00 with a big candy bar just for him and we never showed up. OOPS!! We will have to make that our first stop next year. In case you can't tell from the pictures our costumes were:Preston-Gorilla, Julie-Banana, Nathan-Iron Man, Taylor-Cinderella (I actual got a pretty tiny ponytail in her hair to make her look more glamorous, that is a huge success) Natalie-Bunny (it was quite warm that night so she was unzipped most of the night). The jack-o-lanterns this year were: One on the left was Nathans it is a ghost with BOO. The one on the right is Preston's it is the ASU Sparky. GO DEVILS

New Chapter or Midlife Crisis?

Well family and friends I am finally doing this. As you can see I set up this blog account 8 months ago and haven't done a thing since. I don't know if having my 3rd child or turning 30 or the combination has put me in a midlife crisis state. I have made some changes in my life and I guess having a blog will just be another part of this new chapter of my life. What changes you may ask. Well first of all I joined the local gym again after 4 years of no gym activity. I have a lot of exercise and weight loss to do to reach my goals but I am trying to be realistic. I have done pretty good at going. Another thing I changed was my hairstyle. I am back to having bangs after not having them for the past 7 years. I like the way they look (I will post updated pictures some time) but still trying to get used to the actual bangs. The last big change is I am trying to not wear my frumpy old t-shirts and jeans EVERY day. I am trying to look more feminine. I attribute this change to watching a lot of TLC and the show What Not to Wear is on often when I am feeding Natalie. So bear with me during this new chapter of my life. I can't guarantee great or frequent posts but I will do my best without stressing myself out.