My Friend Sharee Fike

Made this:

and now it is all mine!

And she can make you one too! (or anything you want really). Just let me know and I will send you her email. 

I have always wanted something like this. I love what this symbolizes. It stands a reminder to me each day that whether it is spilled milk, nail polish on the carpet or throwing up on the airplane with 40minutes left, each moment is a gift. 

Take a peek into the LDS Salt Lake Temple

Recently we went to UT. To be specific, we went to the Salt Lake Temple among other things. A temple is where a man and a wife can be sealed for all eternity. There is no death till you part. A temple is where you make covenants or promises to God. It is special. It is sacred. The hubbs and I were sealed in the Sacramento Temple. It will be three years this August.

There are many people who want to know about the temple and the ordinances that take place therein. This new display was unveiled to give people insight to the architecture of the building.

There are many rooms inside and I have not been into all of them. One added feature of the display are interactive kiosks.

you can read more about it here.

My Muddy Boot Love

Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while she mops up the floor after her husband has walked across it in his barn boots. -Farmers Wife

This is my guy. My Muddy Boot Love. I ran across this photo this morning taken a few months ago and thought, "wow, he is one cute guy!" And I have to say I look pretty good myself. 

Now, the hubbs does not have muddy boots yet (check this post out for our dream life) but one day we hope too. And oh well if it never happens. Until then, I will sing while I pick up his shoes and make the bed and do the laundry. 

Everyone has an opinion...

I am sitting here blogging. I WAS organizing my two months of coupons. When I heard "Moms need to..." and "women should..." The toddler is feeling ill (due to some shots) and is sleeping quietly on the couch. The TV is on low because when the toddler is sick she can do whatever she wants, like watch 3 hours of TV. But the shows are over and its a talk show or something and that is when I heard yet someone else telling me what I should be doing.

Seriously?!

I am a little tired of it. Not in an angry-tired. Just a real had enough-tired. I am tired of  "people" telling me what I need to do. What kind of mom I should be. And even how to raise the toddler. Blah blah blah... the list goes on and on and I am sure you can relate.

Granted, there is a fine line between "chatting with other moms" and "telling other moms what to do." (Not sure why I put that in quotations but I am going to leave it. I am sure I have a reason.

Sometimes I just get frustrated. In fact, that is one reason why changed Pediatricians. Sometimes I feel like this is a race. How early can my child read? How soon can she be pottied trained? My child is 3 and is already on the fill-in-the-blank Ivy league fast start program. Do this for shyness. Try this for picky eaters. Go here for play dates. Yep, I am a mom who is border line fed up with everyone's opinions. (by everyone, I mean people on TV or the Radio etc. I don't even know them) But I guess that is the benefit of living is this land of freedom.  Another benefit, I can go live in a cave and just not deal with any of this. I know just the place...

I was reading a mag in the bathroom last night. It was a parenting one and I generally enjoy this one mag. Partially because its a free subscription and partially because the articles are really good. But one of the features was how to make healthy dinners for picky eaters. We are parents to a self-proclaimed picky eater. However, I can't see myself buying salmon and greek yogurt for the child to "try". I know myself enough to know that if she wants to eat string cheese all day, I will say no after two sticks... and lovingly watch from a distance as the tantrum unfolds. I might even pop a bag of popcorn for it. And I am not going to grind up sugar snap peas and mix it with Mint and pasta for toddler treat. Nope. Not me. Not this mom.

So in case there are no more posts from me after a month and a day, you can assume I went to a cave. To not be told what to do or how to raise this child. To not feel like she has to be at a certain level at a certain age. We will live off berries and dried bear meat. And mac and cheese.

Maybe I should just turn off the TV. Or not get vaccines.

ps-to defend myself, we only watch three shows via Hulu.com and it was an un-ordinary event (sickly child) which is why the TV is on during the day. And I really don't feel pressured. Thank you to my friend Kelly for this little note when I remarked that I am not a real mom yet: "you are a real mom....you gave real birth. :)"

What have you discovered about your child?

Or if you do not have a child, what have you discovered about a child in your life? Yesterday, we discovered this: The Toddler has an obsession with The Carousel. Not just any carousal, the one at the Downtown Aquarium.

This means that we get to cross it off our list. (this is our ever growing list of things we want to do in Houston).

I don't want to bore you with details of our day. And by "day", I mean from 10am until 2:30pm. And while I don't want to toot my horn, I am going to on this one aspect. We got to do it all for $16. UNLIMITED EVERYTHING! TOOT TO-OOT TOOT!! It's nice to know I still got it. Even if the wallet was empty.

And that is how I know that she has this obsession. We went on the aforementioned ride a dozen times. We took turns as the parents since going around and around can take its toll on 20-somethings. The ride would stop and as we started to exit, she would run to another one. Over. And over. And over. Being first time parents we of course loved this little obsession from our own little obsession. And I got to thinking to myself and asked "self, what do other child obsess over?" "What do we have to look forward to?"

When I was a youngin' on the farm (true fact), I had a really bad love/obessesion. What was it you ask? Rainbow Bright. And two "imaginary friends" but that is a topic for later. I had a Rainbow Bright party once. It lives on as one of the best days ever lived by yours truly. The hubbs was not immune to this. (wait, that makes it sound like he had it in for RB as well.)  His childhood downfall was TMNT. Otherwise known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ask him about it sometime.

The rest of this is just pictures. Pictures that say so much more to me and the hubbs than it will to you I am sure. But I think it is supposed to be that way sometimes. Taking a picture does capture a thousand words. But being married or giving birth to the one in the picture, well, the picture then speaks a trazillion words. (yes, trazillion is a word. At least for me. And its my blog.)

When Mom is away...

Super J comes out to play! 

Now, doesn't this look like a little girl who is having fun?

and apparently she can out play the Dad.

I love this guy. I love him I love him I love him. And this one is for you. Because in all seriousness, you treat me very well and have yet to say things to me. Actually, I am pretty sure that you never will because you treat me like the queen I am. 

Brandon Osmond Photography

This last week we were in UT for the sealing of these two kids. Cassidy and Daniel. Everything was perfect and I will more pictures coming soon of the day and the reception. I wish I could tell you that I also had pictures of the star struck baby/bridal shower. I wish I wish. But my SD card is mysteriously damaged. So, until that is remedied, enjoy these gems by Brandon Osmond Photography

She thinks I am mean

While I am not nor ever have been big on enforcing rules and the like... after she attacked THE ENTIRE BAG of my favorite treat, I had to put my foot down. Although with those big eyes and even even bigger tears I did feel guilty. How a toddler can induce guilt into an almost 30 year old woman is beyond me. 

Do you procrastinate?

Taken from here: " According to Pies Steel, a human resources professor at the Univ. of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business, 95%of us procrastinate at times, with 15% to 20% being chronic offenders.

Three factors make us procrastinate: (1) lack of confidence about finishing the job; (2) boredom with the task; (3) human tendency to go for immediate reward over long-term gain. A common ploy for avoiding work at the office is reading each email, or IM, as it comes in.

How to overcome procrastination? Professor Steel believe the key is cut off distractions from the working environment. In his words, "millions of people-hours are spent making distractions as succulent as possible ... there are so many ways we could do something else ... convenient access to inferior choices is decidedly inconvenient".

.....

One comment: "Interesting, though a bit hypocritical. You do realize that with your blog you are aiding and abetting my procrastination right now, don't you? ;)"

................................................................

With that said.... I should be doing this and this. 

But I am doing this and this right now. 

Holding my sweet girls hand and cuddling together. That is what she wants me to do today. 

Daniel loves Cassidy

We had a wonderful trip to Utah. We made it there and back safely and missed the snow... I personally was very happy about that. I will the "professional" looking pictures up later but I wanted to get these up.
Whats cute about Daniel and Cassidy is that they are next door neighbors. Well they were, now they are roommates.

The were sealed in the Salt lake Temple. And while there I realized that my friend Robin Johnson was also there as a missionary! I can't believe it did not dawn on me previously. I spent every spare moment looking for her but to no avail. As the fates would have it, I saw her walking along the sidewalk as we were driving to lunch. Not one to miss an opportunity, I yelled "Robin! Its Makana!" I am sure that was not at all confusing.

The toddler enjoyed her time with the family. She is now an expert at kisses and walking in the pond. As usual, family pictures are generally boring to everyone else so here is to you posterity!