No, it's not a wig

Thanks to Jenn who is SO awesome at hair.

P.S. Yes, that is my stalker in the background.

My lunch and what it says about being a mother

So, bear with me here. This post will be a little mushy.

As I was eating my lunch and thinking about mothers and what I could say on my blog about them I realized that what I was eating really summed it up in a nutshell. You'll see where I'm going with this. For lunch I had a salad of the following:

Leftover Feta cheese and Tzatziki sauce: leftover from the greek lunch I made for my sister when she was visiting

Chopped Apples: I bought for the kids to take camping even though they are not on sale

Leftover Mexican rice: I made for our Cinco de Mayo party

Bagged Salad: I bought on my way home last night so the sitter would have something to feed the kids while we went to the temple, although the kids decided they didn't want salad so it was never opened.

Dessert: mini chocolate treasure from Mara's teacher for putting together the music for kindergarten graduation today.

I know, weird combination. But what does this say about mothers--

1) Mothers are creative: we are always putting together school projects, halloween costumes, meals and all kinds of different things. Most of the time we are tired too. It's hard to be creative when we're tired but that's what we do. Only a creative person would think of these things to put in a salad for lunch.

2)Mothers are resourceful: we are always finding ways to make the best of any situation. Just the same as I wouldn't want any of this food to go to waste so I am throwing it together and calling it lunch, there are so many times that we are in a jam and have to figure out what we can do to keep ourselves sane and the kids happy in a difficult situation.

3)Mothers are good at time management: From my lunch today you can tell that in the last week I have 1)had a Cinco de Mayo Party 2)had a houseguest 3)gone camping 4)put on music program for Mara's kindergarten class 5)gone to the temple 6)gone shopping for all the events, not to mention all the other many, many things that have gone on. Mothers are constantly running to and fro doing everything and trying to keep track of everything.

4)Most of all-- mothers are SELFLESS: We give our time, love, talents, energies to our children. We are constantly thinking of our children, doing things for them, living for them. And not just them. Once we are mothers to our own children; we are mothers to everyone. For lunch all the things I ate were things I had purchased/made for others. Not to say that I don't do things for myself but everything I do for myself helps me to be a better mother-- getting more education, exercise, etc. helps me to be more for them. As a mother, you in essence live your life for them. I'm all for feminism but I firmly believe that you lose yourself to find yourself. As a mom, you give everything you have to your children and in the process learn so much about yourself and are actually gaining more in the long run.

Being a mother is difficult. And mothers are not perfect. That is exactly why we are so amazing. Because we are not perfect and yet are willing to try and learn and grow from the experience. I am so grateful for my own mother and all the other mothers in my life for their examples good and bad. I learn and grow from their examples.
I thank the Lord EVERY DAY for the opportunity to be a mother. Every Day!

So, for Mother's Day my gift was that I get to be a mom to these beautiful children.
I couldn't ask for more! Who wouldn't love these beauties? (These pictures are from last weekend at Bryce and Zion National Parks in Southern Utah.)

I might even be a rock star

Mara is obsessed with Hannah Montana, along with every other little girl her age. Granted she has never really seen the movie or the show (a part of one once) but since everyone else likes it, well then by golly, so does she. I know I'm a really anal and conservative mother so I won't bore you with all of my opinions on this whole phenomenon. One of the main ones is that being a rock star is not something I want my daughter to aspire to. But as I've mentioned before, nature has a strong hold on that child. Last week she sat down with Jason and had him write down her lyrics. Then he played guitar while I sang the song and made up a melody as we went. It was all I could do to keep singing because I was laughing and crying so hard. Nevertheless, for a 6 year old it's not too bad. So here are the lyrics for her song exactly as she wrote them. Maybe while we're moving we should move to LA and I can start promoting her.

"Let's See the World"

Lookin' in your heart
like everyone is noticing
Everyone can see the world
if you show them everyday

Uh-oh and what can you do for that?

Let's see the world together
(this is my favorite line)
like a team on a trampoline
Let's see the world
it's awesome to explore

Let's see the door---BYE!


Here's a picture of her from tonight. She was wearing that outfit already and posed like that without me asking. Yah, she's a rockstar.





Feel free to laugh at my daughter's expense. She'll never know.

what will you do with your money

I am so excited. We are coming into some money. That's right. Our rebate check. I don't know how much it is yet but don't worry, I've already got it spent. Since we aren't having much luck finding a house we like and I'm all eco-friendly like that I figure we'll just build one of these. . .

With a price tag of just $45,000 we could build one with our equity and use the left over money to , I don't know, maybe by a bungee cord and harness for an easier exit strategy. Apparently the builder is working on plans for a separate bathroom sphere with plumbing and electricity. We could really be living the high life when we get finished with this.
What will you do with your money?

PS For those of you who make too much to get a rebate check, please email me privately and let me know so I can leech off of you.

a different list . . .

I'm blue.

It's a combination of things but here I am.

Instead of griping and whining which I know I normally do and I'm very good at, I figure I'll try a different approach so that you all (all 3 of you!) will keep reading my blog. Many, many years ago when I was still in HS, young, optimistic and fun I started a "happy list" of all the little things in life that made me happy. I still have it, although right now I'm sure it is packed away in some box in the garage along with the rest of my life. But I know I can remember some and even if I can't there are many things I can write to go on my happy list so I can lift myself out of this funk. So here goes, 10 CHEESY little things that make me happy:

1) rainstorms

2) singing along to music

3) a baby's laugh

4)hugs

5) sleeping in

6) a good book

7) making snow angels

8) getting a long distance phone call from someone you love

9) dipped ice cream cones

10) new shoes

Now it's your turn . . .

On why we moved . . .

This post is long overdue and I'm sorry I've been such a slacker. It really isn't very exciting. Mostly we moved because of financial reasons. This might get a little technical so feel free to skim down to more interesting stuff. We bought our house with an FHA loan (3% down) so we had to pay mortgage insurance. The market is down right now but on starter homes it has stayed fairly solid. So, we could sell our home and get the equity out and use it to buy a nice home for a killer price, get a good rate, not have mortgage insurance and not up our payment by very much at all. That's it in a nutshell. But the main reason is that it was the right choice. We both prayed felt good about it and the way things went SO fast shows that it was. (From the time I mentioned it to Jason 'til when we moved out was about a month and a half.) Now we're in a pickle. We are renting and don't know where to go. It is very good that we felt right about moving and had peace about that because if not I'd be a wreck, but I'm doing okay. I'm learning to exercise my faith in God and building on my unity with my husband throughout this, so it is a good experience.

That said-- I'm happy. We are doing what we are supposed to be doing and I'm with my sweet little family and we're all healthy. For those of you that have asked, our phone number has not changed and is still the same. Plus, you all have my blog address and my email address. If you want my mailing address just email me. Otherwise, you have no excuse to not keep in touch!

Eden and her cousin

I haven't posted any pics for a while so here is a recent one of Eden with her cousin. They are almost exactly 2 months apart but couldn't be more different.

He is content to sit still, she is always going.

He is chubby, she is skinny.

He is dark, she is light.

They are both SUPER cute (of course I'm biased) and I love them! The other day they got together for the first time in a while (he has been sick a lot and his parents were in Hawaii) and it was fun to see how they loved eachother. He loved to grab her (when she was by him) and she would pull herself up to stand on him! Here are a few photos of them that I think show their personalities well.

Eden's funny face

Eden upstaging Landon

The two cute babies