12 years ago

Jonathan proposed to me.....I have video of the day, but no pictures (or at least none that I know of:-( )

Here are some pictures of the day before he proposed and after. We went to a Valentine Day dance for college, and then there were some several days later:-) What fun memories....I LOVE YOU HONEY BUNS xoxoxox:-)

The bottom right is me making dinner at his house a week after the proposal. The bottom left one is of Jonathan and I at one of his sisters UofU marriage housing, where we were looking at their pictures after he had proposed. FUN times!!

Finding Joy

This Motherhood stuff is sometimes tricky for me. Slowly but surely I am finding more and more joy from it. Now if you would've talked to me a couple of weeks ago, it would've been a totally different story. (growing up for fifth graders are HARD) I think I was ready to strangle a 10 year old. (no children were harmed during the process, just a mom whose head was ready to explode with confusion) I was totally feeling like a failure as a mom. I'll just leave it at that.

Since then, I have REALLY tried hard and prayed even harder to find joy in the role that I have been given to be a Mom and try to be more empathetic towards my children and their struggles.

I have ALWAYS wanted to be a mom and here I was frustrated with the job I've always wanted.

I get so caught up in my thoughts that I should be this or that way, but I have realized the past week that really all that matters to me and my kiddos is that I show them LOVE and to let the little things go. My heavens writing this I am ashamed to think how many little things I let bother me and hinder me from letting my kids be kids. I know that I am not perfect, but I am trying to be the best mom I can be to these girls that have been given to me and Jonathan. I know, slowly but surely (things take time), that if I continue to work at listening to the promptings that have been given to me, on how to raise/deal with them that things can only get even better from here on out.

I love being a mom and love the days when I can put everything in perspective.

I love waking the girls up to some silly song that I improve to, that makes them smile with their eyes closed. Then they say something like, "I'm SoOoOoOo tired and I don't want to go to ScHoOl!", and act annoyed, but then if I continue to sing leaving their rooms (off key mind you & in an opera voice, that is the ONLY way to do it) several minutes later I will hear them making up their own songs and seeing the positive about the day.

I love that I can have that kind of impact on them! I wish I would've learned that early in my mothering career, but no need to wish the past differently, because hopefully by me changing now, they will remember me as this way instead of a nagger. I am sure I will still have my moments of nagging, but lets hope they won't outweigh the moments of teaching:-)

Anna: Awesome at snuggles, always have been and always will! She teaches me to listen!
Megan: Awesome at being creative and crazy dancer! She has taught me to think outside the box.
Amanda: Awesome at being gentle. She has taught me that we should treat each other with kindness always.
Maggie: Awesome at making us all laugh. She has taught me patiences!

Addison: Awesome at making everyone happy!!! Taught me that Heavenly Father loves me!

Definitely JOY!!!!!!! Mmmm I could eat them all up:-)

Right back at ya Sista!

Exhibit A:

A little Shout out to the greatest twiner in the whole wide world.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

(She beat me to this on her blog, which I find to be hilarious, being that we both had the same idea, gotta love the twiner brains)

The things I LOVE about my twiner:

1. She listens to me when I'm having a bad day and doesn't judge me.

2. She is so confident in her role as a mom.

3. She can make me laugh like no one else I know.

4. She knows EVERYTHING about me and still loves me:-)))

5. I can trust that if I tell her something that it won't be shared to others.

6. Man she is a wicked cook. Mmmmm some good food has been shared between the two of us....we like our food.

7. She knows how to make a garden a GARDEN.

8. She is an AMAZING mom to her 5 girls and a wonderful wife. She is always consistent with her kiddos which is SO hard sometimes to do these days.

9. She is EXTREMELY thrifty with her money and ALWAYS finds these great deals on free cycle, like an awesome wood swing set and I believe a trailer and lots of other things. (I'm too lazy to do that)

10. Takes her role as a Mom and Wife seriously and finds joy in being that!

11. A true woman of God. She loves the Gospel and lives her life to serve God by serving those around her ALL the time. She is always willing to help someone in need.

I LOVE you PAM-ELA LOUISE:-))))))

Curly Q's

Oh man, did your mom ever put those foam curlers in your hair growing up??? My mom did and I HATED it.....so I vowed to never do that to my girls. Well I thought instead of doing that I would make these buns in their hair instead. These are almost a year old, but being that my hubby finally got pictures downloaded to an external hard drive and showed me how to access them, I thought it would be fun to show some (what I think) funny pictures at my attempt to give my girls curly hair with out the foamy curlers.

Well this is strange, it won't let me move the pictures around. I know it's been a while since I've posted pictures, but if I recall correctly I thought I could move them around once I downloaded them...hmmm. Well I will try to explain them even though they aren't in the order I would have put them.

So this would've been the last picture to show, the hair here has calmed down a bit from when I first took the buns out. My two feisty M's eating their breakfast wondering if they like their hair.

Chewing gum with curly hair pose......
Mags wondering "What the heck did my mom do to me" She was SO excited to get this done to her, because she wanted curly hair SO bad, but when we all started to laugh as I was taking the buns out, she became very concerned and didn't appreciate that we were laughing at her....
Meggers...I think her hair turned out the best. I think because she has REALLY straight hair naturally.

Poor Mag Pie and that crazy hair....I seriously was laughing So hard I believe I was crying.
hahahahahahah seriously what is that......
hahahahhahahahaha
TICKED OFF, probably because I was taking pictures at this point:-)))))


It totally looks like she was electrocuted:-/





I totally don't miss those mirror closet doors. What a pain to always clean! So I hope you enjoy these fun pictures and don't think I'm the meanest mom in the world for making fun of my poor innocent children and the awful hair do's I gave them a year ago:-)