Catching Up

Time just flies by! I can't believe it is the end of May. It went by so fast I don't really remember it. That's starting to become a pattern for me.....life with toddlers, I guess. I also think it's a sign that I need to slow down a bit. So I got out my Control Journal and updated it. (find out more about control journals at Flylady.net) That felt good. I wrote out all my new lists, and finally finished my section for babysitters. My sitters can now flip to this part of the page to get instructions for how to put our kids down for naps/bed, emergency numbers, how to work the electronics, and any other special instructions. What a relief! I also hired a housecleaner. That's something I never thought I would do, since I enjoy cleaning. But with Wes working extra hours, I just can't keep up. She's coming for 2 hours a week, and I get to go play with our boys and come home to a clean house. It was nice, I will definitley get used to it!

Now the newest thing that's consumed all my time.....potty training. Something I have been dreading for awhile. But now that I have dived in, I am learning that's it's not as big of a deal as I thought. I have found a method I love. It's from my paarenting bible, "The Power of Positive Parenting." I also picked up a little potty chart at Utah/Idaho Supply. It has reuseable stickers on it, and Kolton got pretty excited. He went potty immediately after we explained how the stickers worked. He's done really well' I'm very proud of him. It's starting to click, although mostly I'm taking him to the potty before he asks most of the time. He's kept his underwear dry pretty well, except when we leave home, and when he sleeps. He also hasn't go the pooping thing yet either. All in all, I think he's done wonderfully, considering I started Wednesday night, and then the housecleaner came Thursday, so we were out (and he went potty once while we were out!) Hopefully we will have it down pat in the next week or two, and in the meantime I will have to adjsut my schedule a little so I can make sure I'm home as much as possible. I will have to post a pic soon of Kolton in his big boy underwear. Thanks everyone for all your advice and support with potty training; I asked everyone under the sun about it. Once again, my OCD habit of having to know everything I possibly can about something before I try it.

We also went to my cousin's wedding today. Of course, it brought back so many memories of our own wedding day, and how lucky I am to be Wes's wife. He's such an amazing person, and I feel so blessed and lucky to get to be with hime forever (I pinch myself every day!). I love going to temple weddings, and listening to the advice and words from the sealers, and also watching the sealing itself. It's such a beautiful reminder of why we're here, and what really matters. I feel so blessed to have the gospel in my life, and for our beautiful, sweet, amazing family we've started. I love the quote, "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all." It's so true, at least for our family. We get busy with life, and things can turn into chaos pretty quickly. But within the chaos we get to experience all those special little moments, moments that make life heaven on earth. Moments that I will cherish forever. I'm grateful I got to remember that today. Congratulations, Hilary and Brian! We love you!

I Love Gardening!

I have recently begun gardening for the first time. I grew up in a family that always had a garden, and I always thought it was just one of those things moms and dads do. Wash the dishes, do the laundry, work in the garden....I didn't realize how much fun it was. I am addicted to it. Everything else gets a little neglected because I can't stay out of my yard. I have found yet another passion in my life. Gardening to me is very spiritual. There's so much symbolism to life in it. New life, growth, death, rebirth....you reap what you sow.....I'm sure there's more analogies I can't think of off the top of my head. I've always been a girl who likes to play in the dirt. Gardening is so fulfilling to me, and it makes me feel more self sufficient. I can feed my body and soul in one hobby, as well as my family. Love it!

Square Foot Gardening is new to me too. I heard my friends Melissa and Nancy talking about it. I went and bought the book, and took a couple classes at Thanksgiving Point. (This is a compulsive habit of mine: when I learn something new, I have to learn everything I possibly can about it, research every alternative I find, obsess about it some more, and then throw myself into it.) I loved the concept, and I loved the pictures of my teacher's veggies garden. I also loved the idea of teaching others this method, and all the humanitarian work involved in it. So far for me, it's been simple and successful. I'm certain it's because I've followed the directions exactly. I'm excited with what I have growing, but I also find myself sneaking more and more boxes, and more and more containers, and fitting as much as I can find room and money for in our tiny little yard. I decided to post some pics of my plants. I have a strawberry box, a corn/potatoes box, and 2 boxes chock full of all kinds of veggies and herbs. It's so fun to watch it all grow! I can't wait to harvest it! I also thought I would post a pic of my little backyard buddies: my 4 egg-laying chickens. There names are Biffie and Baby (the black Australorps) and Petunia and Ethel (the Deleware Whites). I got them solely for egg-laying purposes, but they have turned out to be wonderful pets, and we love them to pieces, along with all the neighborhood kids that drop by constantly to chase them around the yard, and snuggle them in their laps (yes, snuggle chickens). They put up with it all, and ask for more. They are very sweet. Hours of family fun, and fresh eggs....what could get any better than that?

A Day at the Park

We went to Liberty Park last week. We had so much fun! Kolton was all over the place, as usual. He loves anything forbidden. Especially things that you can climb up high on. But like any kid, he also loves the swings and the slide. Micah loves the swing, and is content to swing the entire time. He giggles the whole time, although it's hard to tell because his thumb is in his mouth. What sweet little dolls they are!

Hallie found a stick right away. She carried it around the whole time. She was happy to just play in the dirt and bark with her stick. A little different than the usually VERY adventurous Hallie, but a nice change. It made it easier, at least this time, to keep track of everyone. Joshie loved the climbing wall. It was just his size, so he could get to the top pretty easily. He spent most of his time on it. He got so proud of himself every time he reached the top! What a couple of cuties!
Nate was mischevious as usual. He wanted me to chase him the whole time. He made monster noises at me and ran back and forth through this tunnel. He knew I couldn't catch him in there. Nate is the king of funny faces. I will have to post a picture of his "shark face" sometime. It's hilarious! Oh yeah, right when we gathered the kids to leave, Nathan disappeared. Boy, it happend fast! Luckily, we found him pretty quickly - he had wandered to a different playground. Phew! He gave us quite a scare. He thought it was pretty funny of course.

I feel so lucky to get to share the experience of raising these 5, darling toddlers with my mom. How much bettter could it get than that? We are so blessed. I love being with these sweet little spirits. They share my enthusiasm for life. Everything is new, and exciting, and it's so much fun to help them discover their world! I love you guys!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I just wanted to wish every mom out there a Happy Mother's Day. I love Mother's Day. Even before I was a mom. I guess because I have always loved my own mom so much!
Anyway, I can't resist sharing the beautiful thing my sweet hubby did for me today. We rushed out the door to church, and we were going to a Mother's Day brunch with my family, so he knew I wouldn't want breakfast today. He handed me a card (which was also very sweet and romantic) and it had a list in it:

Day After Mother's Day Agenda
8:00am Wake up and snuggle husband in bed
9:00 Breakfast in bed - Crepes with strawberries and whipping cream
9:30 Play with Kolton and Micah
10:00 Shower together while kids watch movie
11:00 Shopping for clothes - $100 to spend. Eat anything you want for lunch.
2:00pm Get flowers at nursery
4:00 Tanning on the way home
5:00 Come home to a clean house and get ready to go out with husband
6:30 Dinner with husband
8:30 Relieve babysitter
10:00 Husband/Wife time!

Rules for the Day
1. No cleaning
2. No helping with boys
3. No running errands
4. Enjoy yourself!
5. Have an awesome day! You deserve it!

Isn't my husband amazing?! He always knows how to make me feel extra special. I love my kids, so I probably will want to be with them more tomorrow than my "agenda" allows. But the reason he's done this is because in our quest to pay off our student loans as quickly as possible, he has picked up 2 extra days at work, so I can never get everything done, let alone do anything enjoyable or have time for myself. I don't worry too much about it - I do what I can. But it's hard - I miss my husband, and I don't have much time. The blessing is that it's really made us stronger. Working together so hard for something has really brought us so much closer. I love and appreciate him so much! He works so hard, and he never complains. He gets home and jumps right in and helps me with whatever I'm doing. He never forgets to give me a hug and kiss when he gets home. He just gives more and more all the time. I love my husband, my boys, my family, my life!
I also love my own mother. I couldn't have picked a better example to follow with my own children. My mom is the most loving, compassionate, wise, fun, warm and fuzzy person you could ever know. I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like her. She is amazing! I hope I grow to be more like her as I get older. What an example of Christlike love and service she is! She is strong too - in every sense of the word. She has a very strong connection with the Lord as well, one that I work hard to acquire every day. She's taught me to listen more to the whisperings of the spirit, and that sometimes you really have to follow the spirit in blind faith that you're feelings are right. I am so grateful of that spiritual wisdom she has, and I hope one day I will posses that gift she has for listening to the Lord.
Today, we went to celebrate with our moms, and my mom had gifts for all of us! She said she wanted to do something a little different this year. The past couple of years before that, she wrote beautiful, heartfelt letters to each of us, telling us how glad she was to be our mom, and why she loved each of us. It made me feel so special. She is always reminding me in her own sweet ways what a gift it is to be a mom. I feel so blessed to have her, and to be a mom myself. Thanks mom! Thanks to my wonderful husband too! I love you both so much!
Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. You truly are angels.

Getting in the habit

The blog bug has bitten me again lately. I guess I haven't written in awhile because I am so computer illiterate that every time I try to add something, edit something, or even save something, everything goes wrong and I quit. But as I was sitting at my mom's house listening to my dad, little sister, and little brother explain to me what the difference was between bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes (I hope I got them all in there), I decided that it was time to get a little more compter savvy. It makes me feel really old to admit how little I know about computers. Hopefully I will pick up on it fast.
Wes had the day off today. It was so wonderful. We slept in (which I never do - I'm usually not able to fall back asleep once I'm awake), brought the boys in our bed for a snuggle, and just spent time together most of the day. We ran errands together.....well, errand. After Wal-Mart Wes and the boys were ready to go home for lunch. We also lucked out and got the boys sleeping together at the same time. Then, I got to show my hubby my cute little sprouts in my garden. I've got sugar snap peas, chard, spinach, tomatoes, and 4 kinds of lettuce back there right now. I'm excited to get on late spring/summer planting. So today we planted potatoes. I hope I did it right. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about them, and it's the first time I've really worried about my gardening because up until this point, I've been able to follow what others have done. I had to tweak this one a little, so cross your fingers for me. I also got some strawberries from my aunt Fay and they are in my front yard. They are doing beautifully, and I can't wait until they get big enough to grow some yummy berries for me!
Anyway, after the potatoes, Wes wanted to wash the cars, and I wanted to continue on with my yard. so we went our seperate ways for awhile. Then, I joined him in the garage, which is my rabbits' temporary home right now. Watching my first litter of baby bunnies grow has been so amazing! Five weeks ago they looked like little rats, but today they are darling little balls of fur, each with their own little look and personality. I have always loved animals - it's a passion of mine actually - and I feel so lucky to be married to someone who loves that about me. I also think that Kolton shares in my passion - we'll see what happens as he gets older.
After the boys woke up, my family dropped by, and all the babies (my 2 and my mom's 3) ran around the front yard chasing the chickens. It's so fun watching them all grow up together; they are so lucky to have each other.
I love days like today. There's always laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. But something about spring makes me want to be outside in the sunshine all the time. Those things still get done, but I find myself longing to get outside whenever I'm not. I guess spring is oficially here for me!
Well, I'd better turn in. Tomorrow will be a fun, but long day. My sexy volleyball-playing husband is playing in a 2 on 2 tournament tomorrow. I love watching him play, but it takes more and more energy to do so as our family grows. Hopefully they will grow to love being active and outside as much as we do. I can't wait for the day that we can all play volleyball together, or go snowshoeing or climbing as a family.