Catching up....Kristy's Graduation

My "little" sister Kristy is officially graduated from High School! She is moving away and attending beauty school in the fall. We are SO excited for her to start this next phase of her life....but we will miss her tons. By the way, isn't she beautiful?

Safety First

(my Mom's precocious dog, Bernice. No coaxing from us...she literally thinks she's part human :-)

Flashback Friday

This flashback is dedicated to my Dad. I have just recently seen these old pics for the first time. My mom discovered a box of photos and scanned them to her computer. I am fascinated by old pictures and the story behind them. I can't believe how much my dad looks like my brother Ryan (or vice versa) in these pics. Looking at these pics reminds me of what a long road my dad has traveled to be who and what he is today. Not an easy childhood, rocky teenage years, serving in the navy, learning along side my mom to live life according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and proceeding to raise five wonderful, amazing, talented, smart...I could go on (ha ha j/k)...kids. I love my Dad and have always appreciated the relationship we have (though I did NOT want him to know that from the ages of 14-18, typical teenager). I trust his opinion and have often sought his wisdom and advice in my life. I'm thankful for the adult relationship we have, and I especially love to see him with my girls. They sure love their Grandpa and know how to break down his quiet and aloof exterior - they know he's just a big ol' teaser. Thanks for being such a great Dad!!!

New Car Seat

We finally switched Pey over to a bigger car seat. She surpassed the weight limit (22 lbs) of the infant one at like 3 months old, but we didn't switch her till around 5 months. The infant carrier is just so convenient for when they are sleeping or when you need to put them in a shopping cart before they can sit up alone. So, anyway, she's much more comfortable now...and she loves to sit in the front of the cart when we go shopping - when she does such big girl things, I look at her and think "how can you do that when you're still mommy's newborn baby?"

Oh, and after much debate and research, I picked the Evenflo Triumph Deluxe model, which is a convertible car seat (meaning rear facing first, then front facing at 1 year old) until she's 40 lbs.

Old Infant Carrier

New Car Seat - ahhhh, much more comfy...can you tell she loves her feet crossed?

Cool Baby Stuff

I've sure been on a blogging roll lately. So, today I'm writing about these little mesh things they make for babies to eat fruit or veggies out of w/o getting chunks and choking. They're great! It 'buys me' time while I'm making Peyton's actual food...I'll give her this with grapes, banana, apples, watermelon...in it and let her chew and suck the juices out. She loves it. Today I gave her nectarines for the first time. She loved it after the initial tartness (thus the pucker faces)! Check it out...

Signing Time

I just have to publicly say how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Signing Time DVD's. If you do not have them for your children, they are a MUST have. They are great for babies, 5 year olds....heck, even adults! When they are on, I find myself completely enthralled...even if it's the 50th time I've seen it! The songs are GREAT, the signs are SO easy to learn and they are SO well done. My kids ask to watch them multiple times per day...and if I sing one of the Signing Time songs to Peyton, her eyes light up and she quickly looks over at the TV, like "is it on? is it on?" If you have never seen a Signing Time, go to the website and check it out . They are well worth the money. Right now we only have #4 and #5, plus #1 of Baby Signing Time. I think there are like 15 volumes total.

Seriously, without Signing Time and Baby Einstein (which is still a favorite) I would probably never do laundry, clean the house or take a shower. So I guess I'd be a stinky, dirty, stained mess. Whew!

Dance Photo Shoot

I can't believe how "done up" the girls look (per the exact instructions of their dance teacher!). With the make-up I keep getting glimpses of my girls as teenagers - scary!

We had dance pictures taken yesterday at their dance studio. It was quite the ordeal to get them both ready. I don't ever curl their hair or put makeup on them, so I had no dea how long it would take! Thank heavens Kristy could come take care of Peyton. Between getting them ready and then being at the crowded dance studio for two hours...a baby would have been extra hard to have.

Its a busy week - they have rehearsal on the big stage on Wednesday and then the big recital they have worked for since September is HERE! They (esp Jordyn) are nervous about it, so we are going to get a special toy as a "reward".

I get a kick out of Jordyn's smile here. For her "posing" smile, she puts her top and bottom teeth exactly on top of eachother, which accentuates the lost tooth hole...and then add on RED lipstick! Too funny :-) Jordyn is dancing to "Burnin' Love" by Winonna Judd (originally Elvis) and Lexi is dancing to "Lollipop".

I Can't Figure it Out

Seriously. I can't.

I just don't get why so many brands of mint chocolate chip ice cream have gone from the shaved chips to chunk. Is it possible that some people actually prefer the chunk? To me there is nothing better than Baskin Robbins mint chip (shaved). YUMMMY

(chunk) & (shaved)

Scout Trip

Tucker went with 12 scouts on a camping/hiking/repelling trip this weekend. They drove into the Sequoias and camped overnight. The next morning they went on a 10 mile round trip hike - basically STRAIGHT up the mountain! He said it was really intense. Here are some great pics...

All the gang

Tucker repelling

Ryan (my bro was there too) on the hike. In the upper right hand corner you can faintly see the Needle Lookout Tower to which they were hiking. Can you believe this view?

Here is the tower they hiked to - high up on a cliff!

Flashback Friday

Tucker's going to freak when he sees this post, but how could I resist? Here are some modeling pics...from early 1995 (so he was 22). I found these while cleaning out the garage the other day and got a pretty big kick out of it! I guess an agent was trying to convince Tucker to pursue
modeling saying he could make a "bunch of money" and all that fluff.

Anyway as cute as these pics are, I'm sorta glad he didn't go down that avenue. But they sure make for a great story and laugh...and look how adorable he is :-)

How I Get Laundry Done

Dance, Thumbs and CD's

Peyton is napping and the girls are swimming, so I thought I'd download pics from my camera and blog for a second.

Today is "dance class day" for us. We have a drawer full of various styles and sizes of dance clothes, and today this is what they picked out. They have their annual dance recital next week, which they are excited and nervous for.

Doesn't Peyton make you want to suck YOUR thumb? She makes it look so yummy (and maybe that's because I am a recovered-thumb-sucker myself - yep, did 10 years and still have perfect teeth!). She loves her thumb.

And do you remember back in the day when it was *cool* to BUY CD's? You know, before iTunes, Kazaa, Limewire, etc where you can just download the songs you want? Yeah, well, Tucker and I were really into the whole buying CD's thing, so we have had BOXES and BOXES of CD's in our garage for quite a while. We have everything from LL Cool J to Def Leppard to Garth Brooks to Limp Biskit to Whitesnake! So, we FINALLY bought CD books to load all the CD's into so we can throw away all of the cases. I alphabetized them on the table and I'm still in the process of loading them into the books. I've been tempted to throw them away, but instead we'll get organized and then we can put them on our iPods. Fun projects!

Thank Goodness for WD-40

I really, really think it's a crime when a baby is woken up from a nap before they're ready. Peyton has just entered the phase (which will last a couple years) where getting her FULL nap is essential to her happiness and my sanity. Unfortunately Peyton and Lexi share a room and Lexi is my child that has the almost uncontrollable urge to change outfits 5+ times per day. This doesn't work well when Peyton is napping. So today I thought I could *sneak* in there and get Lexi's clothes while Pey was sleeping. Sadly, the door did a nearly inaudible squeak....but was just enough for her to stir and wake up about an hour prematurely. I tried to let her fall back asleep, but to no avail. Now, it was in no way a catastrophe to the day, but it is still a deep fear of any mother who savors every single minute of those naps to "catch up" on one of millions of things in need of catching up on! Thus the title to this post....thank goodness for a little WD-40 (or cooking oil spray if you're desparate) on the hinges...so at least the door won't wake her up again.

Now its just too bad WD-40 doesn't work on the other kids voices....

Memorial Day Fun

We had a fun evening BBQ and swimming at my parents yesterday for Memorial Day....here's the rundown!

Dad, totally in his element - the BBQ master!

What kind of dog likes carrots?

cute daddy and cute baby

Tucker never fails to do all sorts of crazy flips off the diving board...

like father, like daughter! jordyn did this at least 10 times

Hangin' out by the pool!

Mommy and daughters

We finished off the evening with my first attempt at home-made ice cream (with the ice cream maker we got for our wedding 7 years ago! yummy mint chocolate chip)

Alex and Tucker

We were lucky enough to have Alex, Janice and cute little Lex stop by last weekend as they were passing through town. It's always fun to see them - visits are too few and far between!
Tucker and Alex have been friends for around 13 years. They met while on a 2 year mission for our church in Vina del Mar, Chile and have been great friends ever since. I dug up an old pic of them...

Alex and Tucker 1993 in Chile - look how young they look!

Alex and Tucker - 2007

"Aha!" Moment

This is sort of long, but worth the read. Occasionally I will TiVO Oprah and watch it at night. I was so glad I did that today. After having a hard few days and thus feeling guilty at my disconnectedness to my children this week, I needed to hear this. It's worth reading a few times till you "get it". (I typed this up from what was actually said by Dr. Martha Beck on the show):

*******************************************************

A mother was talking about her guilt over mistakes she had made by staying in a physically abusive relationship for the sake of her children. She ended the relationship, but not before her children had witnessed this abuse. She felt extreme sadness and guilt for this and said she could see the unforgiveness in her son’s eyes. Dr. Martha Beck went on to say the following to her:

"Children model what we do to ourselves, not what we do to them. If the mother is unforgiving to herself, then the child is unforgiving to the mother and the child."

She went on to relate this story: A psychiatrist dealt with troubled patients for 20+ years, and they’d always say “I know my mother loved me, BUT..” and they’d go on to explain their problems. One day she met a really healthy man, and wondered “Gee, I wonder what a normal person’s mother is like”. So, she asked him. She imagined that he’d say that his mother loved him perfectly and made no mistakes at all. But instead he said something she had never heard before from a patient. He simply said “My mother loved life”.

The number one thing you can do to teach your children to be happy is to love your own life. And then love for others comes as a natural outpouring after that. If you raise kids and you only love them and not yourself, then they grow up to be people who can’t love themselves. They don’t treat themselves the way YOU treat THEM, they treat themselves the way YOU treat YOU.

She also suggested we try this exercise….
Imagine that you are caring for a loved one (maybe a sick child, elderly mother or heartbroken friend, etc), and imagine that you’ve tucked them into bed and later, feeling worried about them, you check in on them. You are standing there over the bed watching them sleep, feeling such compassion for them and just wanting them to feel better. When you feel all the compassion you can, imagine the person rolls over in bed, and it’s YOU. Maybe just for a second you can imagine all of the compassion you are PULLING out of yourself to give to others, imagine that same compassion directed at YOURSELF…the possibilities for your life are endless.

Happy Birthday Carly!

Today is my sister Carly's 28th birthday! Carly is the second oldest and we are just two years apart. When I see my girls play together, it reminds me of being little and the endess hours Carly and I would spend playing together. It worked well - I was the boss and told her what to do (isn't that the job of the oldest?). I think Carly soon realized that she did NOT want me to be her "boss" and told me so quite often (ha ha). Anyway, we had some rough years which included lots of bruises and yelling matches, but that all seems so distant now because we've been quite good friends our whole adult life. Carly is a strong person and has been a great mom to Alyson. I'm so proud of her for pursuing her career as a cosmetologist and becoming a very talented stylist! She's been MY stylist for, what, 8 years now Carly? I wanted to wish Carly a Happy Birthday! I wish she was closer so I could make her one of my cakes...let's see...I think I would maybe make haircutting scissors? or a blowdryer cake? Love you Carly!

The Park

Today I was a nice mom and took the girls to the park. Lindy and Lyric came with us too (even nicer pregnant mom, huh?). They had lots of fun, of course. Even though we basically have a park in our backyard, the REAL park is much more exciting! It was Peyton's first time in a swing too, and she absolutely LOVED it!

Hard Days

This week I've had the kind of days where I would give anything to crawl back into my bed, pull the covers over my head and hope it all turns out for the best with the kids! I'm sure its just a normal part of life to have bad days for no reason, but I'm a "fix-it" sort of gal, so when I can't pinpoint WHAT the problem is, it frustrates me further. I wouldn't change a thing about my life. Some days it just sounds really hard to be patient, loving, and keep a calm voice while repeating myself for the 1,000,000th time, cleaning up messes, breaking up fights...all the while trying to teach these little humans how to have manners, be kind and respectful people and balance all that with LETTING them be little kids and have fun too! It can start to feel robotic and monotonous at times. But I honestly DON'T want to be doing anything else or change my life at all, so I will just persevere when I have these days and remember "there must be opposition in ALL things" - it's all part of the plan, right?

Lex and I were snapping pics of each other today...