Make Me Better Monday-A Pledge

I'm a little late tonight, but that's okay. We've been having birthday festivities for Carson today, so that has taken a fair amount of time and brain power which I gladly gave to be able to celebrate my husband! He's so cute! See?For his birthday the kids and I went to visit him at work (actually just me, Will and Audrey-Siobhan was at school), then I got to work making his one request which was a chocolate cheese cake (delish!) and then a date for him and I to the Jazz game. We won! And I serenaded him with a rendition of Endless Love on the way to the game. No, that's not our song and after tonight I was informed that it never will be, and while he appreciated the sentiment, he still hates that song. Oh well!

Now, on to the pledge:

*I pledge correspondence everyday with a friend or family member that I haven't communicated with in a while. Stay on your toes! :)

*I've done very well getting to bed before midnight and I want to keep it up and shoot for even earlier!

*I pledge to send those thank you notes I wrote.

*I pledge to find my 5X7 envelopes and start addressing my Christmas cards even thought the cards and letters are not finished (or started...shhhhhh) yet.

*I pledge to write and finish my Christmas letter.

*I've done great with more sincere prayer but I've done better in the evening than I have in the morning. I need to change that and make them equally as good. Go check out this post on my blog for more thoughts on the subject and link to a great talk that really inspired me on the subject.

*I pledge to make one meal that I can freeze in preparation for the baby's arrival.


Me and Carson at the Colors concert in September.

I want this

I hesitate to mention this giveaway on the blog because I don't want other people to go enter and take away a chance for me to win. But it give me more of a chance to win and I want this really bad!

http://tomkatstudio.blogspot.com/

New Blog

Some of you may already know about this one, but I found it for the first time today and I'm in love! It's a sewing blog so it may not appeal to everyone, but it is super fun and I can't wait to start sewing for myself after the baby comes now that I'm so full of inspiration! Go check it out!

http://www.newdressaday.com/

She does some super cute refashions and all on the cheap! I'm so impressed with her creativity!

Make Me Better Monday-A Pledge

Last week I missed out on being able to make my pledge because there was a power surge that threw the wireless off. Then it happened again later in the week. Between those two instances plus not wanting to do a 'Monday' thing on a different day plus unplugged Thursday made it difficult to make my pledge. Then it came late today because I decided it was more important to blog about my kid than me. So without further ado, here's my pledge for this week of thanksgiving and gratitude.

*I pledge to take my time cleaning so I'm not stressing myself out but still getting things done.

*I pledge one load of laundry done each day.

*I pledge to really increase my gratitude this week and be a good example to the kids about what it means to be grateful.

*I pledge to complete some of the homemade Christmas presents that I'm making.

*I pledge to refrain from raising my voice towards that kids.

*I pledge to get to bed before midnight each night which means I have 12 minutes to get this done and get downstairs. Good thing I read scriptures earlier today.

*I pledge to enjoy the moments of silence and relaxation and send good vibes to the baby boy.

Conversations With A Cutie Pants Kid

I've mentioned that Audrey is really funny and very cute. But I've realized that she is this way without trying one bit. She is completely honest and sincere in everything she says and does, it just happens to be coupled with her signature ditziness (I say that out of complete love and and endearment by the way).

Case in Point-the following.....

Scene: The girls and I sitting on my bed while I do their hair for church yesterday. Siobhan is coloring a picture and figured out that her 'magic reveal' marker will show hidden pictures on the paper. Audrey is getting her hair done.

Siobhan: Mom! There's a waterfall on this picture!
Audrey: Mom! There's a freakin' waterfall on this picture!!! A freakin' waterfall!!!


Scene: Audrey is saying prayers before bed.

Audrey*: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for our many blessings, thank you for the food, thank you for family and friends, please bless the food (This is where she would normally stop, but she kept going) thank you I can sleep better, thank you I can be Belle for Halloween (next year she means, apparently she feels the need to appeal to the man upstairs for Halloween preparation a year in advance) thank you for money, Jesus Christ, Amen.

3 seconds later...

Mom, I said thank you for money. (uncontrollable snickers)
Me: That's a very good thing to be thankful for!

About a minute later, Daddy walks in....

Audrey: Dad! I told Jesus thank you for money! (more snickers)
Carson: Why did you tell Jesus thank you money?
Audrey: No, I asked Jesus to give us money.
Carson: Why did you ask Jesus to give us money?
Audrey: So that I can have some money and I'm going to call the money nickels so that I can put it in my piggy bank.
Carson: Well, why do want to put it in your piggy bank?
Audrey: So they'll be safe!
Carson: What are you going to do with your nickels?
Audrey: I want to buy more money!

Scene: We had cheese fondu last night for dinner and we were picking fondu forks. They all have different colors on the end so the highlight of any fondu event at our house (aside from the food) is found in picking just the right color. While we were doing this, Audrey was playing the leapster.
Me: Audrey, what color do you want?
no response....
Me: Audrey, what color do you want?
no response
Me and Siobhan: Audrey what color do you want?
Audrey: Apple juice!
Me: No what color of fondu fork do you want?
Audrey: Apple Juice.

Scene: Carson is at the grocery store with the girls and they run into Audrey's nursery teacher from church. Audrey find a piece of candy on the floor, and runs up to her teacher to show her. Her teacher takes it from her and hands it back.

Audrey: Dad, look what my teacher gave me.
Carson: Well, she didn't actually give it to you to have. She gave it to you to put away.
Audrey: No she gave it to me!
Carson: But it's not her's to give to you, we haven't paid for it.
Audrey: Yeah dad, she gave it to me!
Carson: Audrey, you're not listening to me.
Audrey: No dad, you're not listening to me!
Carson: No, you're not listening to me.
Audrey (now thoroughly exasperated and getting angry): No DAD! You're not listening to me!
Carson: Audrey, you're not listening to me.
Audrey (hands on hips looking away in anger): NO DAD, YOU'RE NOT LISTENING TO ME!

She's a funny girl and last night when Carson and I were talking about all these conversations, I almost peed my pants!


Audrey, apparently in deep thought while watching Tinkerbell and The Great Fairy Rescue at Siobhan's birthday party.

*Just so you all know, I wouldn't normally write my child's prayer
word for word, but I couldn't help myself, it was just too darn hilarious!

Current Obsession!

Siobhan has been learning all about Pilgrims and Indians in school in preparation for Thanksgiving. For some reason (and I'm by no means complaining) she is relating to Indians and is completely fascinated with the Indians. We've gotten books at the library and she asks me questions about tribes and their names and this evening, she asked me if I knew what a pow wow was. I think it's super cool that she is learning about cultures. We talked about how Native Americans in this part of the country would hunt buffalo and she thought that was pretty cool because we have been eating some buffalo meat that grandpa shot a few months ago. We also talked about how they were excellent gardeners and how much they love their families. It's been fun learning about all of this along with her and recalling some of what I learned when I was in school. Here are some pictures of the Indian outfits they made in school. She explained to me how Indians would earn their feathers in their headdresses by doing good things. She earned hers by being a good listener and a good friend. She's also very worried authenticity with the decorations on her headband and vest!

I'm really not sure why she's saluting like a soldier. We think it's because she's confusing 'warrior' and 'soldier'.

Up close you can see the arrow that she drew on her headband.

A Post That Is More Pictures Than Text-Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All pictures where I am present are super unflattering...just keepin' it real. But the kids look cute as always!

The girls got in trouble for fighting so they were sent to the couch holding hands. They were NOT happy about it!

I know I posted a very similar picture in my previous post, but I couldn't resist. He's just so cute!

Tried to snap a picture of Audrey who had fallen asleep on the couch. But Mr. Will could not pass up an opportunity to mug for the camera! Such a silly boy!

While getting ready for FHE, I snapped a few pics of me with the girls. I pledged to get more pictures of me being a mom. Whether these qualify as such, you decide.

She has a knack for making weird faces totally unintentionally for the camera. Let's just say that unless the smile is totally candid, it very rarely looks natural. But she's still adorable!

This one on the other hand couldn't really make a weird face to save her life.

7 pm Tuesday night. Not sure why she was so tired, but she slept until 7:30am Weds morning. I've found her like this a few times and it's always so cute!

Something Learned

This past weekend, our stake was lucky enough to have Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Jon M. Huntsman Sr. here for our stake conference-we were getting a new Stake Presidency (I linked these two articles because I thought they were very interesting). I went to the adult session on Saturday night which was amazing but was unable to go to the general session because Audrey and I both woke up feeling crumby. But Carson went with Siobhan and came home with some great insights. He shared the most profound and age appropriate ones with us for Family Home Evening. The one lesson that stuck out the most was when Elder Ballard talked about not raising our voices in the home. He spoke of this as pertaining to all ages in the home and all situations. He talked about parents not raising their voices to their kids, the children not raising their voices to their parents and even using a quiet voice to express excitement and joy. We all agreed in FHE that we would do our best to not raise our voices to one another and to try to use 'inside voices' as much as we can. Siobhan taught us how to grab our outside voices and throw them outside-like they do at school-so we made sure that we all sent our outside voices out the door.

Carson and I started this all yesterday and got the kids on board last night. So today was our first full day of all of us trying to keep our voices quiet and 'inside' appropriate. Let me just say, it was a amazing! The kids were so much more obedient and got along so much better! We all enjoyed our day so much and we didn't even do anything out of the ordinary. I'm not saying that I'm going to be perfect at this. Believe me, as hormonal and uncomfortable as I am, there is a great potential for slip up. But I've seen the blessings of it and I can say that for today, it worked! I will say this, I woke up needing to pray really hard for the patience and energy to be able to do interact with my kids this way. But it worked and I'm excited to try it tomorrow!!

And Now A Picture just Because It's Cute!

Siobhan took this picture of Mr. Will and I one morning after he woke up.

Make Me Better Monday-A Pledge

This week, I pledge the following:

*Write this post on Sunday night and post it on Monday morning in an effort to spend less time on the computer tomorrow.

*Wash, fold and put away at least one load of laundry each day this week. I hope that I can do more than that, but my hip is seriously jacked up right now and I'm not sure I can lug a laundry basket up and down for more than one load. We'll see!

*Read my scriptures in the morning instead of waiting until right before bed.

*Go to the temple.

*Get a baby sitting co-op going with the ladies in the area.

*Try to get up with the kids most mornings so the TV isn't babysitting them until I can get my sorry you-know-what out of bed.

*Attempt to show more gratitude.

*Use my crock-pot a lot this week! Its cooling down so the weather is perfect for crock pot cooking!

*Do my visiting teaching this week (or attempt to at least-there's so many variables that I can't control). Going into the holidays, wouldn't it be so much better to get it done earlier in the month rather than later?

*Refrain from raising my voice in anger. I find that if I really focus on that, the kids are more willing to be obedient.

*Take more pics of my being a mommy. Seriously, I have like zero!

*Spend less time on the computer! And 'Unplugged Thursday' is definitely happening!

This is my sorry attempt at getting a picture of me and Derron Williams at a Jazz autograph session that we had the chance to go to (more on that another day). You can just barely make out Darron Williams-or as he's known in these parts, D-Will- sitting at the table behind me. I got better pictures that I'll post later and really funny story about using my pregnant belly as an excuse to get an autograph! Who knew I cared so much?

Fairies!!!!

Of course, the girls wanted to be fairies for Halloween (at first Siobhan wanted to be an astronaut, but we decided on Tinker Bell instead.) I had a bunch of fun making all of their costumes! Mr. Will was going to be Paul McCartney, but then we decided that he might be more comfortable as an owl. They were all adorable!

For Siobhan we decided that as Tinkerbell, we would go with the version from 'Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure'. She's a little more modest in that she wears pants and a shirt under her dress. I'm glad we went that direction for two reasons...the dress I made was shorter than I planned and it was really cold. So it worked on all accounts. I got a shiny green button up shirt at the thrift store and turned it around so the buttons were the closure in the back. Then I used the sleeves for the boots along with twine. Then with all the scraps, I braided her belt. For the pants and shirt, I took some white long johns and dyed them green. Take a look. Her hat was made with two giant leaves from Hobby Lobby. It was fun making it!


Audrey has always loved Silvermist. So it was only natural that she would want to dress up like the water fairy. I took a little more poetic license and didn't go quite so literal. I took a really large, unattractive bridesmaid/prom dress as well as the lining from the dress. I made a basic peasant style dress with and overlay. She loved it. Again, it's not exactly what Silvermist looks like but what can you do? A three year old is not the easiest body to make a fitted dress for....especially a wiggly one like Audrey. Take a look here. By the way, their wings are from Savers and were like as big as Audrey but I got them $5 each. Can't beat that!

Mr. Will's costume was really easy and fun to make! I used this tutorial but made a few changes. Obviously, I didn't make it pink and instead of a mask which I knew he wouldn't wear, I put the face on the hood. I got the hoodie at a consignment store and then matching/coordinating fleece from Hobby Lobby. I also beefed up the wings a little bit more than the tutorial. He was so cute but wouldn't really pose for a pic.

I love making their Halloween costumes! Call me crazy for spending the time, but it's fun for me and I have always loved dressing up for Halloween so I don't mind spending the time. We went to the ward trunk-or-treat which was super fun and we had my grandma join us which was a bonus!!! We weren't able to go trick-or-treating for real because it was pouring rain when we were planning on going. But they got plenty of sugar anyway. I hope everyone had a happy (and safe) Halloween!

The Great Pumpkins!

The week of Halloween, we were going to carve our pumpkins for FHE. Well, that didn't go as planned due to the girls choosing to not clean the playroom. So we did it the next day. Siobhan got to go get a pumpkin with her preschool class and then we got a few more from Wal-Mart. (Siobhan was so proud of her cute little pumpkin!). So we had the girls design their pumpkins then Daddy and I went to work cleaning them out and carving them with the girls supervision if you will. It was super fun!

Siobhan and her cute pumpkin. She drew the face on and made sure that it had one triangle eye, a square eye and a diamond nose. She loved it!

Carson doing all the hard work. Carving pumpkins is not his favorite thing, but he was a good sport!

Audrey showing the 'angry' face that her pumpkin was making.

So proud of how their pumpkins turned out!

Make Me Better Monday-A Pledge

Kristin told me that she enjoys reading my weekly pledges, so I'm going to stick with it. Here it comes:

*I pledge to be in bed no later than 10pm every night.

*I pledge 3 square meals each day for myself.

*I pledge to 'de-Halloween' the blog hopefully sooner rather than later.

*I pledge to let the kids play outside as much as I can this week.

*'Unplugged Thursday' here I come!

*I pledge at least one post over on my other blog.

*I pledge to take more pictures of me being a mom and being myself. I noticed while I was going through some pictures this weekend, that I have virtually no pictures of myself because I'm always behind the camera.

*I pledge to eat at least one piece of fruit each day.

*I pledge to approach the Lord with some issues going on in our household. At this point, I've tried everything and now I need to go to a higher power to find some new solutions. Maybe I should have done that in the first place.