Muscles

When we went to my Mom's for Katie's wedding, Little Brother was there and he just bought a new pull-up bar thingy. So we all took turns trying a few pull-ups. Of course not my forte, but I was happy I at least had a little muscle bulge when I tried to pull myself up. My brothers though are pretty darn tough so they of course had big bulging muscles. My girls were very impressed! They have been comparing their muscles ever since.

Flynn Ryder

This is the frying pan that was glued to Porter's hand all of yesterday.

Upon asking the question, "Port, why the frying pan?" He replied, "Mom. I Flynn Ry." Because honestly in his head, he is Flynn Ryder. But we have moved up from the "satchel" which is really my purse, to the frying pan. I just really hope he doesn't clock someone with it!

This is the tooth that was pulled by Ms. Shawna because The Babe and I were not allowed to touch it!

Addie's first tooth. Oh, my baby is growing up!

This is the face that wakes me every morning and says..."Mom, I slept in my own bed the whole night!" **high five**

Girls Camp

So, girls camp was so amazing this year! We had so much fun. It's really hard to explain camp to those who weren't present. There is a spirit there that is different and if you aren't there to feel it then everything I say will just sound like words. It was so amazing to be there with my sister, Marie. We haven't been to camp together since we were young chics. It was amazing to spend time with the young women in our ward. They never cease to amaze me! I'm so blessed to have been a part of it all. Ms. Shawna gave an amazing fireside. It was very touching. The zip line was exciting. I thought I was going to be tough this year and not get scared, but I got up there and panicked. But thanks to Bishop Hicken I didn't have to worry about it too long. He had me zippin' down before I could really think about it. I wish I ha

d a group picture to show you, but it was taken on someone else's camera. All in all it was a great year at camp! I love those girls so much. I'm already missing them. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now that it's all over. I'm so grateful I had this opportunity.

Girls Camp

It's Here!!! Tomorrow is the first day of Girls Camp! It's when all my hard work finally feels worth it! I can't wait. I love the young women in our ward. It has been so much fun working with them! I hope that they will have a great time up there this week! I'm so excited, but still have a lot of work to get done today! See ya next week!

I love my kids!

I've been under a lot of pressure and stress and I haven't been a very good mom of late, but I love my kids more than anything in this world!

Heart Strings

Since Porter was a tiny baby, he has always liked to play with my hair. He strokes it and wraps his fingers up in it and pulls it. Especially when he's sleeping. And most nights he falls asleep in his room, but ends up in my bed by 2 am, and then he plays with my hair for the rest of the night. My friend told me not to make him stop because I would miss it someday. So I haven't fought him on it too much, but some days I really wanted to ring his little neck. Because he is truly obsessed with my hair. But I thought she was right...and she was. It's only been about a week but he really hasn't been playing with my hair in his sleep and it makes me so happy, until I think about him not needing me so much anymore because he's growing up. But the real kicker was that he fell off of my tread mill right on his head and I picked him up to make it all better and I asked him if he wanted me to kiss it. Because with every other owie, big and small, he would say, "tiss it, mom." And I would and it would instantly be better. But this time, this time I asked if he wanted me to kiss it and he said, "No. I need a bandaid." A BANDAID.....WHAT!!!! A bandaid can replace my kisses! I don't think so. But he jumped right off my lap and went and found a bandaid. When he came to me to put the bandaid on, I made him let me kiss it. And that's when I realized I really was kinda sad that he didn't want to play with my hair AND he didn't need my kisses anymore. :-( I even cried when I told The Babe about it. I just don't want him to grow up. I want him to stay little. Then today, Leighna scratched his cheek. A wound that would have been completely healed with a simple mommy kiss, but not today, he had to have a dumb bandaid!

A Day of Flarping!

This morning, Adelah came in my room and told me not to come out because she needed to write me a letter and she needed the glitter glue lid unplugged. So I waited in my room until the letter was done. She came bounding in with her newly written letter and a huge smile on her face so I read the letter, complete with glitter glue....

I had trouble with the third word, so I asked her what it said, so she read it to me, "Mom, Dad tutes a lot luv Adelah." And then the giggles started! She giggled and giggled. Of course I had to call The Babe and read him the letter. When I was done Addie insisted on talking to her dad, so I handed her the phone. I only heard one side of that conversation but it went something like this... "You do tute a lot, dad......Especially at night time......thanks for tuting Dad, I think its so funny! Love you daddy." I don't know what started the whole thing, but she just couldn't leave it alone! And then I contributed to the problem with this.....

Just so you know, this sounds really stupid, but I had no idea that this stuff really is flarp! I thought that it was just a softer form of silly putty. WRONG!!!! Ummm, the bright yellow bold writing that says "NOISE PUTTY" should have been a clue, but honestly, I didn't know! I have had flarp before, but I never knew how to make it make noise. Thanks to the neighborhood friends, my kids will never be the same! They showed them how it worked....so for the rest of the day I have been hearing strange bodily noises that are not coming from the body, if ya know what I mean!

The Babe got home just in time for dinner, so of course the kids had to show him the new stuff and since Addie already had tuting on the mind, you can imagine how that went. I was trying to enjoy my lovely dinner while all around me I just kept hearing flarping and uncontrollable laughter! The Babe made faces for every flarp the children made. Leighna told him to keep making faces 'cause it was so funny!

The Babe is playing with the stuff right now! I hope it disappears soon! :-) But my whole family is enjoying it immensely. Who knew we could be so entertained by a dollar toy!

On another note, I think I need therapy. And I think I found that therapy in a bottle....

This bottle...

I have pretty much been pouring these down my throat for the last 20 minutes! Thank you Planters, you're a genius! I do feel a little better!

Girls Camp is on Wednesday...YEAH....I'm excited. I hope it all goes well.

All right....This is me signing off!

Precious Moments

In the wee hours of the morning...around 8:00 am, I slowly rolled over. I wasn't quite ready to start the morning. I didn't have much to look forward too, other than another day of cleaning the house I just wasn't ready to jump up and get it done yet. I laid there for a minute trying to convince myself it was really morning. Next to me my son was still sleeping soundly and next to him my daughter slept soundly as well. It was actually nice to wake up before them, it made the morning quite peaceful. As I lay there trying to convince myself to get up, Porter rolled over closer to Leighna, wrapped his arm around her neck, and started playing with her hair. That is how you know he is gaining consciousness, he loves to play with hair. Leighna's response to this is what I didn't expect. She in turn wrapped her arm around Porter and pulled him closer, then she whispered in her semi-conscious state, "Oh buddy, I love you so so much I will always love you forever." My heart melted. That was the sweetest thing ever! Oh how I love my children. I love them so dearly and to hear that they love each other that way was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. But the best part was she wasn't done. After a few minutes Porter switched positions a little bit and Leighna let him get comfy and immediately wrapped him back up in her big-sister protective arms and said, "come here bud. It's okay. I will never never leave you. I'll always be right here for you." AH!!!! I just loved it! What a way to start my morning. It was a wonderful day!