Friday Confessional

I CONFESS....I love love love babies! I have babysat the past two days and will babysit tomorrow as well. I really enjoy it. Although I enjoy it, it makes me realize how out of practice I am. I can't believe what a difference 4 years makes. Don't get me wrong, I have the basics down and the babies are well taken care of. :) Its when it comes down to multitasking. I'm a pretty good multitasker, but I've grown out of the baby multitasking as my kids grew. I don't even mind though, I love babysitting the cute little faces. (Especially when they laugh and smile)

I CONFESS....I really miss living in Logan. When I was there I don't think I truly appreciated it, but now I wish I was there again. The main thing that bothered me was that people are too "in your face" about religion. I just personally feel that there is a time and a place. Writing scriptures on your backpack for the world to see....not exactly the place in my opinion. I did however love the view, the people, the 'out of the city' location, and just the overall feel of living there. I love visiting, but I hope to one day live there. My dream is for David to be a professor at Utah State and live up there in our dream home.

I CONFESS....my girls have one heck of an attitude. I know that I am a bit sassy, but their attitude far surpasses anything they would have inherited from me. Kadence wags her finger back and forth, they both put their hands on their hips, they both roll their eyes, a favorite phrase is "OH MY GOSH!" (said with much attitude), and they have the "MOOOOM" down perfectly for when they are teenagers. Sometimes its cute now, but it won't be long before I want to smack them upside the head when they get sassy at me. Wish me luck in a few years!

Moms and Muffins!

Today was 'Moms and Muffins' day at Kadences school. Its a day where the moms get to come in the morning and eat muffins with their kids and then go to their classrooms and read with them until school starts. Its such a fantastic idea! (Last month was Dads and Donuts) Kadence was so excited last night when I told her that I was coming, but this morning it was a completely different story. She cried all morning for no reason. If I asked her what was wrong she would just say 'I don't know.' I gave her a new shirt, nothing. I put a bow in her hair, nothing. (She doesn't usually get bows because she just ruins them) She was so upset that I thought she was sick, but she said she felt fine and she didn't have a temperature. I figured we would head to school and if she was still crying I would keep her home after the muffins. Its very unusual for her to get so sad and it usually only happens when she is sick. I sent Shelby with David to work so that I could have one on one time with Kadence and it would make it more special. Shelby was SO excited to go to work with daddy. Once Kadence and I got to the school, she perked up quite a bit. She chose a chocolate chip muffin and I had blueberry.

I had fun talking to her about school. She told me how she calls the janitor, Mr Rick, troublemaker. Then she told me how Mr Rick calls her smiley, which just made her giggle as she told me. She then told me about how she spilled her food under the table one time and then cleaned it up. I asked her if Mr Rick made her clean it up and she said, "NO, I just was playing a trick on him!" I think Mr Rick wishes more kids played "tricks" on him and cleaned up their messes. :) We then walked to class and we found her bowling ball in the hallway meaning she had met her A.R goal and could go bowling. When we got to class we sat and read. She read a book to me, then I read a book to her. I was shocked to know she could read the word "people." We read all the time at home and she is learning many words that have exceptions, but I had no idea she knew that word. I kissed her goodbye and left to pick up Shelby.

When I got to Davids school to pick Shelby up, she came out just a chattering about her time there. She colored (and got marker on her new shirt), she helped pass out papers, she "hung out for a while", and she helped David think of a princess for 20 questions. (Aurora) I had promised her that if she was good I would take her to get hot cakes at McDonalds. She LOVES them. When we got there I decided she could get an apple juice too. She was way excited because she hasn't ever had that luxury before. :)
I loved the one on one time with both girls and loved just listening to them talk about what was important to them at the time. I love them to death and can't imagine life without them.

Advice From Mama!

Dear Kadence and Shelby,

When you grow and have children of your own, (And even if you don't, adopt neighbor kids) always pack lots of snacks for church! I love having a snack picnic every Sunday at church. It helps me, as and adult, pay attention when I have a little food to munch on. Today for example, we all (Including mom and dad) had Nilla wafers, pretzels with cheese dip, and quite a few pieces of candy. It will help your kids sit through the long meeting and will help you keep from having a hungry stomach as well. If you are anything like your mom, you will get cranky and impatient when you get hungry. Packing plenty of snacks will help you get through any occasion. :)

Love you both always and forever,
Your mommy!

Advice From Mama!

Ok, this may seem a little weird but I am going to periodically add advice for my girls. It will be a regular like my Friday Confessional, but probably not weekly. I like doing the Friday Confessional for two reasons: 1) It highlights some of the honest, cooky, imperfections of ME 2) It will give the girls a little insight into some things they would probably never know about me otherwise. I don't know a ton about my parents, and think it would be fun for them to know my likes, dislikes, flaws, etc when they get older. That helps them know ME, but I thought I would also like to give them some advice. You never know how long you will be with the ones you love so I figured I would start with some advice now. I will eventually compile all of the 'advice' posts and print them off for them. It will hopefully give them somewhere to turn if they don't feel like they can ask me or if I am not around for them to ask. (Sounds depressing, I know but that isn't how I see it. I see it as a happy, positive thing)

My very first piece of advice for you, Kadence and Shelby:

Always be true to yourself. DON'T let others change who you are. It will be difficult as you grow and each phase of life will bring different challenges. Stay positive, stay happy, be kind, and love yourself for who you are. You are beautiful and as long as you are being the "Best You" you can be, you are enough! It will be hard when friends have things you don't, friends get attention from others and you don't. Maybe you don't make the team or are last picked. Maybe you see all the things other moms do with their kids. Maybe those around you seem to have an 'easier' life than you. Just know that things aren't always as they seem. Others lives will seem easier from your perspective, but we are all given our own experiences to mold us into who we are. You both are extremely beautiful women who make your mom and dad very proud every day. You both are so compassionate toward others. If you stay true to who you are and are able to feel comfortable in your own skin, life will be easier. I promise. If you are constantly trying to impress those around you, you will miss out on things that will make you truly happy. You will waste energy thinking about what others think of you and forget how YOU think of yourself. You are a perfect daughter of God, and God doesn't make mistakes.

Love you both always and forever,
Your mommy

Friday Confessional

I CONFESS....I always get super excited to go on a date with David. I don't know what it is that makes me so excited, but I don't even care. We always go to dinner and a movie. We usually eat at one of four restaurants. (Chilis, La Ferrovia, Union Grill or Famous Daves) We rarely eat anywhere else and only do if other people are coming. Well today that changes! We are going to go to a restaurant we've never gone to together. Depending on what we feel like later today, we will be going to either Maddox or El Matador. Neither place is fancy, but I am proud of us for going somewhere new.

I CONFESS....I hate this weather. Its almost good enough to take my kids outside to play, but not quite. (Their asthma acts up in the chilly temps) Its such a tease! Not to mention I hate that my kids are more wild and crazy inside because they don't get the opportunity to play outside. Shelby is much worse than Kadence which makes sense because Kadence gets to play outside for recess every day. I think they are going to drive me insane before winter is over.

I CONFESS....I love that my family can make me laugh so hard I get tears in my eyes. My kids are such funny kids and constantly say or do things that get me laughing, and my husband is pretty funny as well. I learned in stress management that "you need to laugh so hard you get worried you may pee your pants, often" The teacher said that a good belly laugh is helpful in relieving stress. I'm glad my family can offer me a stress outlet!

I CONFESS....I know this post is on a Saturday instead of a Friday. I thought of doing it yesterday, but then I didn't really feel like it. So I didn't!

Shelby's Carnival Party

Once Kadence's 'Pinkalicious' party was over I started thinking of what I could do for Shelbys birthday party. It was hard because she doesn't eat many foods and I tend to focus a party around food or sweets. I tried to think of her favorite sugar item which happened to be cotton candy. I then thought of her other favorite things which brought me to the idea to have a carnival. She LOVES popcorn! She will devour more than me every time. We thought of having hot dogs to go along with the party to give people a meal, but she doesn't like hot dogs so we threw that idea out really quick. I try really hard to make sure that each party is what the GIRL wants, not what I want or what I think others will want. Shelby had so much fun helping me out with all the little details. Every time we put something together she would say, "Sank you, Sank you Mommy!" (Thank you) She was so thrilled with it all. I tried to think of some games that were a 3-4 age level. I tried not to care if the older kids would enjoy so long as I knew Shelby would. Surprisingly, it seemed as though all the kids enjoyed it all. Shelby LOVED it all and I loved watching her, and everyone else, enjoy it. It gets stressful to carryout the plan, but its SO worth it! I have tons of pictures, but I did leave out a ton too. :)

I started out the morning by setting up for a Relief Society visiting teaching brunch. I then stayed to eat before coming home. Once home, David immediately left to get the bounce house while I tried to get Shelby bathed and ready for her big day. I do have to admit that I was a bit impatient and I may have yelled while blow drying her hair. I also may have said the phrase, "We don't have time for you to...." about a million times. When David got home and all of us were ready we headed to get the cupcakes and quickly grabbed some gas station food for lunch. I only ate half my pizza stick because we only had an hour to set up entirely before guests would arrive. YIKES! I wasn't sure we could pull it off, but we did with time to spare. A HUGE thanks to Jeffy for helping so much. SIDE STORY: While we were setting up each girl needed to go potty. I asked Jeff to take them and when it was Shelbys turn he asked if she needed help getting on the potty. She then replied, "No, just make sure I don't poop on the floor." What?! Luckily she didn't make any messes.

Here's the birthday girl excited for her friends to come!

Here are the goodies:Shelby didn't know about the bounce house and we surprised her with it the day of the party. She was STOKED!I asked my family members to run all the different games and am very thankful they were willing to so that I could enjoy watching Shelby. Here is Ring Toss and Bean Bag TossHere is the Face Painting (Temporary Tattoos) and Can the CanAnd finally, the Fish PondDespite how excited both girls were, they wouldn't go inside until David went in first.Once in, they loved it! They didn't even mind going in when all their friends were in there too.I hate that I am never in any of the pictures so I asked Jeff to take a picture of David and I. I hate pictures, but if something were to ever happen to me I would want the girls to know I was at all the fun activities so I'm trying to get better about having pictures of myself.This may have been Shelbys favorite part. She had two tattoos before the party even started.Kylah got a tattoo too!See mommy!Kadence always seems so unamused by my picture taking.Shelby fishing for a prize!This is Shelbys buddy, Davisson scooping himself some popcorn.Shelby dumped out her goodie back to check it out and here she is cleaning it up.Silly girl!This might be my favorite picture of the whole day. For those who know Grandma Neal, know how rare it is that she was participating in the games. I HAD to get a picture.A few of the friends.Grandma Green and KylahTravis and BrileeMake a Wish!She licked the frosting, then asked me to take the frosting off. She ate one bite of the cupcake and was done. She is very particular about what sweet treats she'll actually eat.Telling daddy what present she wants to open firstBaby RykerOpening Mom and Dads giftBaby Tyler playing with the balloonsGrandma Green got a tattoo too.I need to try to save this picture (I'm just too lazy right now) Grandma and Grandpa Green and Grandpa Joy.Immediately after the party we had to clean up for a funeral luncheon that was going to be at the church. After cleaning we rushed out to Layton to help Jeff get his classroom ready since he only had about 4 hours to completely set up for his first day of school as the new teacher. The old teacher was kind enough to leave almost all of his junk all over so we had a lot to do in a short amount of time. All in all it was a busy busy day, but a great day!

Friday Confessional

I CONFESS....I am getting sick of Facebook a little. I can't stand the few people who ONLY post negative things and refuse to think life is any better than dreadful. It seems like some people just aren't happy unless they are miserable. I understand that sometimes life does indeed suck, but a more positive outlook can make it a little less miserable. I have been through some crappy times and I don't think I have ever been as negative as some folks are over some seemingly minor things. I can't stand when people post vague comments like "Well that didn't go as planned" or "Hopefully this will all get better", etc. THEN when you ask about it they don't answer. I get that it may not be my business, but when you make me worry by posting on a very public site I feel that you should be courteous enough to at least share. I also don't enjoy seeing all the fantastic things other moms do with their kids and all the glorious meals they prepare day in and day out. Don't get me wrong, I post fun things I do sometimes. I just don't enjoy when every single day you are flaunting the fact that you are the ideal, picture perfect mom. In reality, you aren't. You are like me in many ways and just don't share the things you aren't great at. I don't think it does anyone a service by being half honest. It just makes them feel that they are inadequate and should be doing more. AHHH....glad I got that off my chest.

I CONFESS....I forgot to give my kids lunch today. I gave them breakfast and a snack, but then forgot completely about lunch. Good thing the snack was kind of filling!

I CONFESS....I have the most positive happy kid ever. No matter what is going on in Kadence's little world, she is SO happy. Nothing gets her down for long. She currently has pneumonia and has been coughing pretty consistently for 3 days now. You would think she would be complaining but nope! She just says "I don't feel very well" and goes on with her day. You can only even tell she's sick if you know her really well....or you hear her cough. She is a little less happy than usual, which is still pretty darn happy. She is a little less spunky and energetic, but that means she isn't jumping and spinning constantly. I am one lucky mommy to have such a great kid like her!

I CONFESS....This is going to seem like I am picking favorites after the last confession, but just know that I love BOTH my girls to death. BUT Shelby has been driving me absolutely crazy lately!! If she gets dressed she leaves her clothes on the floor wherever instead of putting them where they go, if you ask both girls to clean up Shelby puts one thing away and lets Kadence finish, she won't stop touching things she shouldn't, she is whiny, she won't listen.....the kid is driving me nuts! It honestly has just been this week, it must be something about turning 4. I'm hoping we can change all of that real quick before I lose my mind!