SoCal fun.............

All i can say is we had a blast and it was over waaaay to soon!
We were missing half the fam but i was glad to see the other
half!

We also stopped and visited our friends that Will met on his mission in Chile. Always fun to see them!

We hit the beach a few times and swam a lot! Good food was included too. We went out to Ruby's and ate lunch with dad. Had an awesome breakfast buffet in Laguna and last but not least i got to see my bff!

When i was young our cars were two volkswagen bugs a blue one and a yellow one. I think you could kinda tell that we were from southern california when we are driving around in snow storms in Utah in not so stable cars! So i thought it was kind of cool that my grandpa had blue and yellow volkswagen vans. The picture of the woman hanging in his shop also made me laugh....oh gramps! Miss ya:)

On our way out my dad took us on a tour of Downey where i was born and also where my mom and dad grew up. I took pics of all the houses that mean a lot too me and i remember all of them from visiting every summer when I was growing up. My Grandpa Barrett passed away last fall and so they are selling the house so i had to go take pics of all the cool stuff in and around it. My Grandpa was soooo creative i love it. He made jewelry, glass windows, was so creative in the way he would write, and played the ukele (yea I just had to look up the correct spelling on google, not that smart!) He was just such a unique person. I think that is where i get my love of creating things.

Aly and Zach came all the way from Ohio with cute baby Beckham!

Now for real life........

I'm not going to lie not everything is perfect around here all of the time. This pretty much sums up the chaos that happens daily!!

 


 

Taylor is 9..........

Taylor turned 9 on January 9, 2011 so yes this is waaaaay late but i forgive myself!! Taylors birthday was on a Sunday this year so ya know Sunday birthdays aren't the most entertaining but it still turned out super fun. Nana came the day before and the Pietz family ended up stopping by to give her a present so it actually turned into a party. She wanted an ice cream sandwich cake so that is what she got!! Taylor is growing up so fast. She looks like she is twelve and i feel kind of bad because sometimes we treat her that way too. She is just so responsible, helpful, smart, witty, beautiful, kind, and thoughtful that it is hard to remember sometimes that she is only "9!" We love Taylor so much she is the perfect fit in our family.

She swims for FRAC which is the city swim team and loves it. She loves learning new things and is always asking if she can help or if I will teach her how to cook things! I am loving that:)

 


 

Davis is 6.........

Davis has been begging to have his cousin Bradford sleep over for his birthday for about six months now! I asked him if he wanted a party and the answer was "No just Bradford to sleep over." Well ok then that sounded great to me! Davis did go to school for an hour or so but I went and got him out of school early and we headed to McDonalds and he got to spend all day with Bradford. He got his powdered donuts for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch, hot dogs for dinner, and cake for dessert. Wow we got our nutrition in for the day!! We love our boy. He is such a caring, kind hearted little guy. Works hard and always wants to do a good job. Its funny because he is kind of paticular about things. He will not touch or eat any kind of food that anyone else has touched. It even has to look right for him to eat it. We are thanking Grandpa Tim for these great traits that Davis has inherited!

So sweet to his mom. He just knows when i am having a rough time and tries to comfort me. I LOVE that about him:) Love you buddy!


 
 
 
 

Creative crazy...............

Sometimes i just go into creative hibernation but a lot of times i will have what i call creative craziness. I don't even know how to explain it but once it starts it doesn't end until I get everything done that is looming in my head. A lot of times this means that the rest of the house is a little crazy and it may even mean missed showers and a couple days hanging out in my pajamas until it is done!! I kind of was in that mode from the time that I did the Creche until now. These are a few things that got done and there were quite a few more in between all of these too! Am i crazy or is this normal?!! I will settle for crazy if you say so. Yes that is Kate in the middle of all of it she is the cutest thing and i can't stand that i can't even carry her to bed anymore. More to come on Christmas, Cabo, and life!!

Rest unto Your Souls..........

This is the name of the talk i read this morning by Elder Per G. Malm from Octobers conference. Its been on my mind all day and there are a couple of quotes that I want to remember as a wife and a mom. I think sometimes as moms we get lost and worn down. Its a sacrifice, a really BIG sacrifice at times to give all your time and energy to everyone around you. Somedays are easy to be home with kids i feel at peace and love everything about it, others are hard and wearing and you may even feel the urge to get in the car and drive far really far away from the chaos!!! The past couple of years I have dwelt on it a lot and tried to find the right balance of everything. It seems i have had guilty mom syndrome over everything in the past. Maybe feeling i didn't measure up or feeling guilty for taking an hour for me to just go to the gym when i could be doing mom stuff instead. Its hard to find the right mix and just be fine with yourself, your messy closet, your kids messy face at church, being late, piles of laundry on your treadmill, your messy office that you can never get to........ok i'll stop!!! I am coming to realize that is life and you can be happy or not with it! I am a major quote person. I have them posted on my wall, mirror in the bathroom, written in journals and i keep a collection of them in a notebook. I love this one by Liza R. Snow "Women should be women not babies that need petting and correction all the time. I know we like to be appreciated but if we do not get all the appreciation which we think is our due, what matters?" I love that so basically NO whining ladies!! I feel like the lord knows what we have done and that is good enough we don't always have to be thanked by those around us....even though it is nice:)

I think the most important thing of all is kindness towards others which can be hardest with our own family. Elder Malm said in his talk "In our day-to-day actions, it is often the small and simple things that will have a long-lasting impact (Alma 37:6-7). What we say, how we act, and how we choose to react will influence not only ourselves but also those around us. We can build up, or we can tear down." Its hard sometimes but lets face it the mom has the influence to set the tone in the house. I am grateful and happy to be a mom and always trying harder to be better. I love these people! Even Will made it in the picture in the mirror!

Davis and his disappointment...............

Last night Davis would not stop begging for a ho ho. Thats right a hostess ho ho. I have some strange attraction to hostess products ho ho's, zingers, twinkies, donuts, and chocolate cupcakes. I just like them. Most people don't but i do! I always buy treats for the kids lunches. I'm sorry but you have to have a treat after lunch and dinner, just my opinion and the school can just live with it. I don't let my kids hoard sugar but i think that a treat is great. So now that I am sidetracked from the story i will continue! So I wouldn't let him have one because those were the "treats" for their lunch. He cried whined and the night was not fun. Anyone that knows Davis knows his diet consists of about 5 things and ho ho's are one of them. I told him I would put one in his lunch in the morning. So I did. He got home from school came up to me and screamed you didn't put a ho ho in my lunch along with a horrible sad cry. I mean he was really devestated that I would make him wait and then it wasn't there. I told him I did and that he must have thrown it in the garbage with the rest of the stuff! The wrapper on ho ho's is white and it blends in with the inside of his lunch bag so I think he didn't see it and ended up just throwing it away. He was absolutely devastated as if he had just done something horrible. He literally cried for an hour because he was so sad he had made that mistake and now the ho ho was gone and we had no more at home. This sounds dumb but it made me think about how life has a lot of disappointments along with the good but we have to learn to deal with the sad things too. It starts when were little and then gets a whole lot more complicated when we are older! I guess I better go buy some more ho ho's!