Reason to Believe

 I've only heard it a couple of times in the last few months, but I don't know how many times I listened to it today. I can't hear this song without crying, like almost to the point of blubbering.  I know that is such a silly girly thing to do, but it's true.  This was one of my favorite songs that I loved running to the week I ran the half marathon. Saying that I miss running terribly just doesn't cover it.  It will be at least a year before I get the okay to run, if everything else checks out.  I am working my bootey off now and waiting to see another specialist in another 6 weeks (the soonest they could get me in) about what is really going on.  I have written down a lot of my story,  but writing it is really personal and I'm not sure I'm ready to share it all just yet.  So for the 2 of you who might check this.  I am here, we are doing well, we are plugging along,  and I will try to catch up soon.  

Well, hello again.

It's been a little while and I have a lot to post, for now I'll share Miss Peanuts Dance recital from last week. She was DARLING! She enjoyed every second of being on stage and asked when she could do it again. She loved performing! Anyway, for now, enjoy. And hopefully I'll post more about my hip mishap soon.

Happy Birthday Dear Cupcake!

Happy Birthday my dear sweet and sassy baby girl!  I can hardly believe how quickly one year has passed. Aunt C (I say that, but you have 3 aunt C's?) took these darling pictures of you.   I haven't seen all the pictures yet,  but they are too adorable not to share,  you are adorable!    

Traditionally I guess I should recount the year and all you've acomplished, but what really is most important is that our family is just so blessed and happy to have you and you help us stop and smile and laugh everyday by the simple things that make your life full. 

I could watch this a hundred times,  I watched it at least a dozen while I was waiting for it to upload.  I was inspired by, mimiced this after, a video my cousin did - I'm not even a fraction as talented, but I put this together last year so that family far away could be introduced I don't know that I ever actually posted it.

 Happy Birthday!

Nuts About Pecans

Yesterday was rainy,  like all day and sometimes you get really couped up,  but this time we had a little friend to entertain us.  This friend - we go way back.  Like we have seen this same squirrelly friend for at least 5 years run along our back fence almost daily.  We were shelling pecans the other day and left the bag on the patio table.  Well, we forgot about it,  but to this little squirrel friend of ours it was a treat.  For at least an hour we watched this little guy, come back and forth taking pecans.  We were in stitches laughing so hard about his sneaky tactics.  Poor thing was terrified when my kids would squeal that he even slipped and fell off the table once.  Anyway,  if its ever raining, and you're bored,  just watch for some little critter friends.

Before&After

Most of our project is finished.  I'm so grateful that Officer was willing to help with my honey do's - look how awesome that stand turned out!  I still need to actually decorate the room with s few detail-ish things,  I need to hit a couple new flee market places I've seen, but for now I'm just feeling a little spoiled - okay maybe a lot spoiled.  After having a washer not working for a week you can imagine the mountain of laundry I have and these babies,  I think I may name them considering all they do to help me out,  took care of the mountain in just 4 loads. Thats right you heard me,  4 loads - it's a beautiful thing.   

Sunday Afternoon

The picture in the middle was my view when I laid down on the grass to hang out with the kids this afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and my kids love to play in the back yard.  Miss Peanut was investigating all the ants and leaves today and experimenting with tricks on the swings.  I'm not sure how I feel about that -  I did too many things like that and fell off way too many times -  I really don't want her to get hurt.  Such a fun beautiful girl! 

 Check.  Him.  Out!  He is so, so handsome!  I just love him, at church today not so much - it was a wrestling match for most of the day.  He is just a little curious george and into everything!

 And this little princess is 51 weeks old.  Remember how when they are little you keep track by the weeks.  She turns 1 on Saturday!  I love that I can set her down on the grass and she doesn't go far because she doesn't like the feel of the grass on her feet.  Check out how she lifts up her feet to keep it off the grass.  So cute!

Laundry is piling up.

So,  we've been having a few issues with our washer and dryer and decided it was time for an upgrade. It's almost been 1 week without a working washer and the laundry is piling up  We bought a new fancy frontloading set and I decided that before they deliver them we ought to update the room.  We decided instead of spending oodles of moo-la on the pedestals we would make them and paint the room etc.  I got brave and decided I was going to paint the cabinets about the washer,  they are primed, but I'm still a little nervous about the paint part.    Check out the pedestal that my hubby made on the right side of the picture- he's got skills. It will look awesome when I'm all finished painting it!  Its going to take a little while to get everything back together. but here is the before and in the middle.

Isn't he Handy!

I love my phone,  it takes pretty good video and its so much faster to upload.  We break into song quite regularly at our house.  This next little number has been repeated many times in recent weeks.  Everytime I hear this cute little voice I melt just a little bit.  He's just so darling!

If you didn't quite get that or aren't familiar with the shows.  He is suddenly very entertained by Handy Manny and Bob the Builder.  We go to the library each week for story time with the kids and pick out some books (and a few shows to get mom through dad's work week).  Anywho - Handy Manny and Bob are his latest request,  every week. 

Spring is finally in the air

I really hope spring is here to stay,  we've had some crazy up and down temperatures lately dropping like 40 degrees in 48-ish hours.  The other day I left to run some errands and it was sunny and snowing at the same time.    The kids are loving being outside for hours!  We've gotten the start of our garden planted and we're excited to watch it grow. 

Backyard chalk art,  transfered to bootey,  love this  lovey girl! 

Daddy is a little disappointed that this isn't some Police hat,  but they only give out sticker badges,  what do you expect?  He really is dressed most of the time, I promise.

And this darling baby, is just not a baby anymore. She will turn 1 in just a couple weeks.  This is her enjoying yummy blueberry bran muffins, with honey butter.  You know you want some. 

We had a fun Easter weekend with the traditional Easter eggs hunt.  This is the best propped up camera shot of my cute family that we got after Church. Yep it was propped up in our shrubs.  :) 

 I debated whether or not to do the Easter bunny thing, we did that growing up for a lot of years.  In the end - Pinterest of course has so many simple activites and ideas to help teach the true meaning of Easter thats what I turned to.  So we woke up and Officer made scrambled eggs (His are truly the best - my kids will not eat eggs if I scramble them.  Handsome will eat 4 eggs when Officers makes them.)  Then we had a devotional/"studied" the scriptures as much as you can with a 4, 2, and nearly 1 year old before we went to church.  I used the 12 eggs with something to remind them of the Easter story and hid the eggs for them to find. They found them and mostly Miss Peanut recounted what each item represented.  I'm always so impressed by how much they remember. 

Trying to teach my kids,  obviously led me to reflect on my own feelings about Jesus Christ,  and his attonement for us.  This is one of my favorite Easter messages from  Jeffery R Holland,  I  love his words and always find it so difficult to vocalize my own love and gratitude for, and faith in my Savior. My words will fall short, but I have faith that through his Attonement we will have the priviledge of being surrounded by those we love eternally, and along the road that leads there, he will carry us forward in difficult times and testify to us of his love for us through the Holy Ghost.  We are precious to him, and that loving assurance brings me hope and joy.     

Keeping it simple

Listening to General Conference was just what we needed around here. How about you? It is has been a really great week in our house,  no real special reason.  We've just been getting out in the yard,  getting things ready for our garden,  spring cleaning, going on walks with the kids, kids playing until they are so tired they just fall into bed at night. There are plenty of exhausting days any other week,  but this week  it  has made me grateful for our simple life together.  I love my little family. 

She's walking.

And not just walking,  I mean really it was just a couple weeks ago that she started taking her first solo steps and here she is today.  She is on the move, she wants to keep up with big brother and sister and she gets her boogie on to any music, even my singing ;)

Peek-a-boo

This little girl is hilarious,  we just love her.  But can you believe that this was at midnight one night cause she wouldn't sleep. Either way - so cute! 

This morning Handsome came into my room and said "let's get dressed."  Around his head was a springy sweater vest and he had his pants on halfway, but upside down.  I love when kids are learning to dress themselves - it's so entertaining.

Catch me if you can

That is how I feel about Handsome lately.  When I can catch him,  I love the giggly minute we have together and then he is off again.  The other night after bathtime I literally couldn't catch him, he was all over the house, so I took pictures instead - this is why:

Just a little off the comb-over.

Cupcake was looking a little shaggy and mullet-ish with a slight comb-over and as much as I know some people frown upon giving a baby a haircut, it had to be done and it is just hair and it is already in her baby book. Here is the before:

 

 And After - see, still adorable and mullet/comb-over less.  Love, love, love this baby girl!

And,  we love cookies, and learned how to say uh-oh!  It's really cute!

Preschool

This was Miss Peanut's first day of Preschool.  Such a gorgeous girl and such a goofball - I can't believe she is growing up on me.  Luckily, I get to be part of the co-op preschool and help teach once a month or so.  She loves that she is practicing writing her name more and after the first day of preschool she came home and wrote cat a hundred time because she had learned how to write it.  I'm so glad that it is coming pretty easily to her to read/ learn even some math.  I hope that continues as she gets into gradeschool.

a little of this and that.

I made these last weekend.  They were for my Dad's birthday.  It's always hard to decided what to do for the person who could get whatever he wants,  so I made homemade old-fashioned doughnuts,  one of his favorites.  I had to make extras of course and they were fantastic!  I found the recipe on Pinterest - gotta love it. I also made a turkey dinner and that was fantastic also.  My favorite part has been making leftover turkey sandwiches all all week. 

 There is something eerily familiar about these two photos,  and it's not the date they were taken.  Sadly we have been having a lot of jammie days.  We had weeks of sickness before Christmas and now seems to be round two.  Officer had it a couple weeks ago and is on the end of it, but last night was a long night for the kids.  All of them had fevers, yucky!  I hate when they are sick like that and there isn't much you can do.  So we snuggled, most of the night and all morning today. I'm so tired.

 This little princess has had a rough week.  She got her front top teeth last week and just like the bottom chompers she started biting again when I nurse her, I tried offering a bottle and she took to it pretty well, and has only nursed like once a day. Last night she was so yucky sick,  she had a fever of 102, forever it felt like, even after medicine and getting her out of her jammies.  You know how they get big and snuggling just doesn't happen as much.  She was so tired and so sick and she just wanted to lay in my arms so sleepy and finally wanted to nurse again and not bite me, so maybe we'll hang in there a little longer.  I'm realizing I will miss it.  She is doing a little better today, but still has that I feel yucky look in her eyes and she is so tired.   This was a funny thing about nursing,  just fyi - I think she is hilarious.

 This little boy has been just as snuggly with being sick too. Some days there really should be more of me.  How cute is he!?  And as I write this I realize that this is the last time I've seen that toothbrush...we have others but in the meantime I've been looking for this because it is Lightning McQueen.  Speaking of racing. Usually we watch "the letter show" (wheel of fortune) while I'm getting them out of the tub, but on Saturday - no letter show - what is a mother to do?!  I switched the channel and he saw race cars - NASCAR,  I could be wrong, I don't really know the lingo and I think I will have to know the lingo cause this little guy loves it.  He was glued to the screen, wrecks and everything, and the he cried when I turned it off. 

We have been to the library lots this year,  they have a little preschool storytime and activities, so every week we bring home new books to read.  Miss Peanut loves to read them to Handsome and Cupcake.  I'm amazed at how much they can memorize the stories.  It's been fun to read each night before bed. She is getting ready to start a little Preschool next week. I know I'm a little behind, but with her birthday and having to wait one more year till kindergarten I have put it off.  I know she is bright and will do well in school,  I'm just a little nervous about being her teacher every so often.  We'll see how it goes and we may keep it up in the fall. 

I'm hoping for a little sleep tonight.  I hope writing this doesn't jinx it.  Officer bought me this fun little toy kind of for Valentines,  kind of cause I hinted at it for the last month or so.  My sister got one last fall and now most of my family has purchased them.  Anywho - it tracks all sort of things, but one is sleep.  I know I have been sleep deprived, but once I started using this to track it I realized how bad it has been, especially this week with sick kids. It kind of makes me want to cry or discover some way to freeze time so I can catch somehow.  Anywho.  Officer and I are rarely on the same schedule. It's kind of stinky, but we are looking forward to celebrating his Birthday tomorrow. He'll be the big 32. 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!    

Wishing we could go someplace like here to celebrate, but I'll have to keep wishing.

Kid Comedy.

Today while driving home from the park Officer asked Peanut if she wanted to drive,  she said "no."  He asked "ever?" She still said "no." He asked Handsome the same question.  His reply,  yes,  and when Officer asked what he wanted to drive he said "a motorcycle."  He is SO his father's son; we are in for an adventure with him.


The other day I was getting dinner ready and I often put a show on for the kids to watch so that they aren't at my feet while I'm cooking.  When dinner was ready I told Miss Peanut that is was time to turn off the show and she said "Okay mom,  I will freeze it with the stripes."  Say What??  She learned that the button with two stripes (pause button) will "freeze" the show until later.  Okay,  that works for me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We started our day with pink pancakes,  they started off as hearts but turned into who can make the biggest pancake and flip it.  Officers family makes ginormous pancakes and I just don't ever get them flipped without half the batter slopping over my kitchen.  We ran out of batter quickly,  this was the biggest pancake I've ever flipped - its so perty and it was yummy too.    The rest of the morning we delievered "balentimes" to our friends and in the afternoon when Officer took peanut to her dance class I set to work on dinner. 

Really dinner had been cooking for a few hours already,  but I was able to keep it all a surprise from Officer.  I decided to celebrate with dinner at home this year rather than getting a babysitter and going out.  It ended up being a really fun night and Officer was really surprised.  I didn't get a picture of the table all set, but you get the idea.  I made BBQ ribs, cornbread with cinnamon-honey butter,  garlic mashed potatoes,  etc.  and cobbler for dessert. It was the first time I'd ever attempted ribs and everything was from scratch, except for the bubbly. It was scrumptious and delicious. I can't imagine trying to make it all fancy like that every day and serve courses but it was fun to surprise my Valentines.    

Family Night

We get a little cabin fever this time of year and we've bee trying to get out and go on walk more and Monday we went and played at the park and then went to dinner at this little dinner called Big Judds.  We shared this Burger - the kids were in awe - really can't you tell?  It was the biggest burger they had ever seen;  really they were too busy eating fries.

Here are some of the videos,  from his phone,  Officer took at the park, gotta love technology!

 

Once there was a snowman.

It snowed this morning.  It wasn't much, but the kids loved being able to play in it for a little while,  we have not had enough of the white stuff this year.  It is getting closer to spring though and they are itching to get outside.  It was a blistering 48 degrees the other day and we bundled everyone up and headed to the park.  The kids were in heaven!
We haven't be doing a lot of exciting things lately,  just hanging at home.  I think Officers schedule really is going to be great for now and we're finally getting adjusted.  It's been nice to be able to have friends over or go to family dinners now that Officer is home on Sundays.  We are going to  try out a little Popcorn Preschool with a few kids from the ward.  Miss Peanut will have to wait one more year before she can start kindergarten so if this goes well we might do this again in the fall for preschool.  Handsome will be the same way, so we may be doing this a lot.  The kids have loved going to the library story times and each week we bring home several books for bedtime.  I love having all my kids snuggle and read with me before bed.    I'll post some video hopefully soon,  I have lots of them to share.