PRICELESS

 Love seeing this little angel sleeping on my shoulder.

Priceless.

CHURCH DAY

He was a little celebrity at church today. 

There aren't that many young mothers in our ward and a new baby is pretty exciting.

He had the cutest little outfit on.

I am so grateful to friends who have been so generous in passing along gently used clothes.

Isn't he precious?
You can't tell from the picture but he smells divine.
I just want to cuddle him and inhale him.

 

I wish I had more sleep.

It is really my only complaint.

I had a dream the other night a woman knocked on my door.

She said she would take James for a few night and get him to sleep through the night and then she would return him.

I didn't know her at all.

I handed him to her and went and climbed into bed

I am not desperate enough for sleep to hand my baby over to a complete stranger, but maybe somewhere in my subconscious I am. 

 

A few mom lessons first....

 

Sierra has been a monster.

She has been screaming and yelling at me for the last two months over everything.

I would punish her by putting her in her room for a time out. It would only exacerbate the problem.

She would end up bawling and screaming about it being the worse day of her life.

We would both be burning steam out of our brains as we finally collapsed into bed each night.

 

Then first thing in the morning the monster would return.

I was nervous about waking her up in the morning.

I tried to wake her up by dancing in her room to 50's music, by sending her cat in, by sending her sister in, by bribery, but every morning it was the same.

I was met by a raging beast.

 

I kept thinking, I need to take her out of school and home school her.

My mind was going crazy trying to figure out a way to tame the monster.

 

After about a month of racking my brain, I thought you really need to pray about this.

I prayed.

 

It hit me. She wasn't eating.

Oh, I fed her, but fedding her and her eating aren't the same.

So our motto is now, "fed the beast, or fed the child so she doesn't turn into a beast."

I watch her more closely to make sure she eats all three meals before leaving the table.

I make her eat if I see any kind of monster seeping from her.

I have even resorted to putting her in her room until she eats.

IT WORKS.

Whenever she finally eats and comes out she is a new person.

As sweet as pie.

 

She is just growing and needs food. Silly mom.

 

second...

 

Sierra has these insanely hard spelling lists every week.

Studying for them is difficult.

For five months Sierra and I have spent at least an hour ever night studying for her tests.

Yes, her tests are that difficult.

Last week, I asked Nate to study with her.

She stopped wanting to study and James is really difficult in the evening, so between the two of them I was at my wits end.

Nate said, "Why can't she study on her own?"

I thought,..... why can't she. What a novel idea!

He taught her how to study on her own.

She has been studying without me every night.

She has been pulling great scores on her tests and she is doing it happily.

I think she likes the independence.

I do too.

Her father is a genius.

 

third...

 

Sierra was worked up one night about hour house being haunted.

She was so upset I have to admit I was even getting a little scared.

However, I kept telling her we weren't and she was being silly.

She wouldn't let it go.

She wouldn't go to sleep. Her bedtime is 8:00pm. It was going on 10:00pm.

I was worked up. She was worked up.

I went into Nate and said, "Can you help."

He put down his book and switched a burnt out light bulb in the hall for a new one.

She uses it as a night light.

She didn't say another word. She just climbed into bed and went to sleep.

 

All simple solutions to what felt like insurmountable problems.

Food, Independent Study, and a Light Bulb.

Someday I will get this mother thing down!

 

MUD

 She played in the mud all day yesterday.

She squished her toes in it. 

She invited her friend Alex to do the same but he wouldn't.

It was too gross.

However, he helped her make several containers filled with mud potion.

They thought it would grow critters and became very excited when they saw an ant clawing its way out of the mud.

She changed her outfit three time because I wouldn't let her back in the house covered in mud.

However, she managed to sneak by me a few times.

So, few distracted minutes resulted in muddy footprints all through my house.

I can't tell you how much mud there was.

I was thankful for my Hover Floormate.

It didn't take long to clean up, but it sure looked like we lived in a barn for a few minutes.

 

 

EYE CONTACT

5 minutes of uninterrupted eye-contact with this little boy.

Pure bliss.

 

I am still not to the point where my house is clean and there is a nice meal on the table every night.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't really there before I had James.

However, whatever chaotic state my life was in felt manageable.

If I wasn't on top of things, I could be really quickly.

Now, I have to plan to get things accomplished.

I have tried not to let it bother me that things aren't as organized as they once were.

I have tried to start counting what I did accomplish at the end of the day and not what I didn't.

 

So, I looked into my boy's eyes every chance I could and just drank in his sweet spirit.

And that means more to me than a 2 clean bathrooms and mopped floors.

NOW THERE ARE THREE

I love going to church with my little family.

I sincerely miss it whenever I am sick or right after I have a baby.

Six weeks is just too long.

I convinced Nate to at least let me and my little guy go to Sacrament Meeting.

He wasn't fond of the idea but consented.

I love that now I have three little kids.

I think they are so beautiful.

How blessed am I.

 

I read Genesis 21:6 last night.

It reads.

"And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me."

Laugh could have a double meaning in this scripture.

I love to think of laugh as rejoicing.

 I thought at one time there maybe just two little girls, which would have been fine.

So, I smiled at Sarah's words.

"God hath made me to rejoice!"

I have truly rejoiced over the last month because of my beautiful growing family.

Aren't they divine?

HIKING with DAD

 They went hiking together today.

They started at the top of the monument and hiked to the bottom.

Seven miles.

She said she complained a little.

She said she asked for a few breaks.

I don't consider that complaining but some may....

I think overall she must have done really well because they made incredible time.

She hasn't once said she is tired since she got home, but I think she will sleep well tonight.

I tried to convince Nate to take me too.

He thought the baby and Madison would be a little much.

Maybe.

 

(P.S. Looking back at pictures of my girls and their hair over the last month has been a little startling. I really need to get back on top of that.)

BABY BOY. I LOVE YOU.

 

 1 month old in two days!

What? Where has the time gone?

 

 

ROCKING BABY BROTHER

 Sierra loves to rock her baby brother when he is fussy.

 She has found a trick to quiet him when he is fussy.

She giggles.

He thinks she is a human binkie.

 This crazy girl would live in these feety pajamas if I would let her.

Sister Kay picked them up for her.

VALENTINE'S DAY

 

 Well, they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Truer words were never spoken about Nate.

He loves good food.

Good food has been seriously lacking since the ward stopped bringing us meals two weeks ago.

I have thrown together whatever I can, but I hasn't been much.

I thought certainly for Valentine's Day I can go all out.

I went to the store and picked up some things.

I came home and cleaned my kitchen, because I couldn't cook in the mess.

Then I started dinner.

About half way through I thought, "What made me think I was ready for this."

I enjoy cooking, but James screamed most of the time.

Thankfully, Sierra rocked him and changed his diaper and took care of him for me, or we would have never eaten.

I kept accidentally turning off the oven.

I know, right, who does that?

Apparently me.

After the third time you would think I would have stopped, but no.

Eventually everything got cooked and Nate came home.

He got me flowers.

We had a nice dinner.

My girls dressed up like princesses.

I love my little family.

 

Isn't that little boy so cute?

Man, I love him.

 

I guess this is about Valentine's Day...

So, I have to say...

I love his father too.

I am so blessed to have an eternal love.

He truly means everything to me.

 

I wish he would let me take his picture...

He was so handsome last night.

Maybe someday he won't be so camera shy.

AFTERNOON on the PLAYGROUND

 Finally, I can walk to school and pick up my daughter again.

Push my girls on the swing.

Run with them on the playground.

Mr. James slept the whole time.

It is fun to move after not feeling like it for my whole last trimester and two weeks after birth.

The girls are enjoying it too.

We are also enjoying the weather.

It is starting to warm up a bit.

After the fridged weeks below zero, without the sun, we are very exctied.

 

I AM SO TIRED



He is worth every second of no sleep. I love my job.

(Thanks Madison for taking this fabulous picture. You definitly are a good little photographer.)

BARBIES

 They have started to play Barbies together.

I think it is the cutest thing.

They play together all Sunday.

I love to listen to them.

Sierra will say, "Madison pretend that this is your horse and this is mine."

"Pretend this is the dungeon."

"Pretend they sleep in this room."

 

While they were playing Sierra was giving Madison advice.

Madison, "When you go to school, don't ever run away from friends. It hurts their feelings."

Madison questioned, "What if someone hits me?"

Sierra replies, "Then you stop, walk, and tell. You ask them to stop. Then walk away. If they won't stop, tell a teacher."

 

Madison may have asked that questions because some boy hit Sierra in the face on the playground last week.

She had a bloody nose.

She went to the nurse.

He said it was an accident, but followed that up with, "That is what you get for chasing boys on the playground."

Not quite sure it was an accident.

Brings out the mother bear in me.

I want to storm onto the playground and grab him by the shirt collar and tell him to leave my little girl alone.

She insisted it was an accident.

If he accidentally hurts her again, the school may hear from me.

For now... we will let it go.