Sometimes.....

.....I stress out. I worry about what other people think of me.

Today is one of those days where I woke up automatically stressed out.

Why?

Well Thursdays are a busy day for me. I changed my long run to Thursdays now and I am not sure why with everything else that has to get done, but whatev. Thursday is also the "I scrub every surface of my house" day. Normally all this is not a reason to stress over. I have a system for my cleaning, I do it all the exact same way every week, so I can get it all done within about 2 hours after the kids are in bed at night (ya ya I'm OCD, I've heard it all before).

Today however is different, I have people coming over tonight. Totally not a big deal except that they will be here when I usually do my cleaning. Again, it shouldn't be a big deal, but I felt myself starting to stress this morning as soon as I opened my eyes. I worried that they would think less of me if my house wasn't as clean as I wanted.

So what did I do?

Well as soon as I rolled out of bed, I knelt down and said a prayer. "Lord please help me to not stress over things that don't matter. Help me to not take time away from my kids over things that don't matter." I felt the spirit wash over me, and I new I would be ok.

So, naturally I did all the cleaning while Blake is at school and Kade is napping. A thought kept coming in to my mind all day, "If you don't waste time, you will have the time." Isn't that so true? How much time do I spend on the computer or watching TV while the kids are napping, when I could be spending that time getting things done, or bettering myself? I know I am guilty of wasting plenty of time on things that don't matter.

Today I feel extremely blessed to have prayer. Just a little prayer this morning, changed the way I looked at the whole day, and changed the way I was feeling.

Then as if to reiterate the answer to my prayer, the Lord helped me see that the stress wasn't necessary, I needed to just laugh. Blake came to me and said, "Mommy, I had a big bless you (sneeze) this morning and huge boogers came out of my nose."
I said, "well that's pretty gross." (while in my mind I was thinking, where am I going to find these boogers, because surely he wiped them on a wall or something)
To which he replied as if reading my mind, "Don't worry mom, I cleaned my nose with a rag."
In awe I said, "well that was good, thanks, where did you put the rag?"
I swear he rolled his eyes and said as though he was explaining this to Kade and not me, "In the washing machine mom."
I just started laughing, and silently thanked my Father in Heaven for the sweet children he has given me.

Oh For the Love!

So the other day I called my husband at work and was going to give him some sarcastic comment about how I "absolutely loved" cleaning out the freezer with his exploded soda in it. I dialed the number smiling to myself and waited for him to pick up. He answered. I hesitated. And then all I could get out was.....Hi. Why does my husband have to have such a sexy (yep I said it) voice? It makes me swoon. *sigh* I love him.

Right now I am loving lots of things. Here are just a few of them...

Reading scriptures by the Christmas tree. We turn off all of the lights except for the tree lights and let the kids light the scriptures with their flashlights. They love it. And please notice how just as Adam took the picture, Kade just had to pick his nose, and then proceeded to try and wipe it on the couch. srsly. Just a few of the joys of having boys!! :)

If you can't tell, that is Kade lighting his face with the flashlight after scriptures. Love him.

Winter grass. I absolutely love winter grass. It is so green and pretty. I love the smell, and that during winter time I can lay a blanket outside and have a picnic with the boys. They love rolling around in it, and in turn I "love" getting the grass stains out of their clothes.

Baking sugar cookies with these two little tykes. There was no outside play time today because it has been raining all day so we baked sugar cookies instead. They helped roll out the dough, place the cookie cutters, and then frost and sprinkled them. It was a HUGE mess in my kitchen afterward, but well worth it for those faces. I love their smiles, it makes me melt.

Rain! It has been rainy outside for the last 2 days. Although I don't love that the rain today cut my run in half (it started raining in the middle of my run, dangit!), I still love it. I have had all of the curtains open so we can watch the rain fall, and the trees sway in the wind. I wish it wasn't so cold so we could actually go play in it. Oh well.

So what are you loving these days???

I've Changed...

So it's been awhile but here I am. My littlest "crazy" Kade turned 2 a little over a week ago. We had a birthday shindig at our house for him and his cousin Graham who's birthday is a few days before his. I know everyone says this about their kids, but seriously, I don't know where the time went. It feels like he should still be a baby, but he is definitely not. He is such a big boy and so independent. He puts up a good fight with his older but not much bigger brother. He is feisty, but also such a snuggler. He talks more than any barely 2 year old I have ever seen. For instance just this morning, I told him to stop banging on the wall because the mirror was going to fall on his head, and his response was "It not fall on my head mom, it fall on your head!" He is not supposed to be able to string that many words together! And that is just the tip of the iceberg, you should see when him and Blake are playing together, it is crazy. I love my little baby and am so thankful for him. So here he is in all of his pizza face glory on his birthday!

Cousin Graham's birthday is just 6 days before Kade's. He is so cute I could just bite him! But I won't I promise. Here is Graham opening his presents, and of course Blakers is right in the middle of it all. :)

We had a Buzz Lightyear cake for them. I don't know what is with my kids and Toy Story right now but they love it! Kade picked out the cake all on his own and was very excited about it.

The Big Kade Monster opening his presents.

A Special thanks to all those who helped and also came to the party, it was a success!


Yah so the day after Kade's birthday, both him and I got really sick. I don't get sick very often, but when I do, it kicks my trash. Thankfully, it wasn't the flu or anything like that, but it was a bad cold. Poor Kade had a high temp and was miserable, and I was miserable right a long with him. I felt bad for Blake because he had no one to play with at home when Daddy went to work. The worst part about being sick was the fact that it was Thanksgiving week and I was all signed up to run the TURKEY TROT! Kade was better within about 2 days, but of course mine lingered. I was determined to run even if I felt like crap and I couldn't breathe out of my nose. Well, I did it, but I was a little disappointed with my time.

Nicole Graham #684

Queen Creek, AZ

Age: 25 Gender: F

Distance	10K
Clock Time	1:02:08
Chip Time	1:01:05
Overall Place	1470 / 2690
Gender Place	590 / 1426
Division Place	119 / 290
Age Grade	49.7%
Pace	9:50

I actually felt pretty good running, I just couldn't breathe through my nose most of the time. As I was running, I thought back to when I was playing softball at Westwood. When we would do something wrong, or get in trouble for whatever reason, Ricedorff would make us run laps. As I would run, I would think to myself, "I hate this! This sucks! I hate running! Who would do this for fun?! Why do we have to run for punishment?" That is exactly what it felt like back then, punishment. Running was what we did when we were being punished. Now, 8 years later, I was running a 10K, for fun (I actually had to pay to run it), on a holiday!
WHO AM I?!
Then I realized, I have changed. I am not the same person I was. I remember when I was younger being scared to be a wife and a mom someday. Would I be a good wife/mother? Would I know what my baby needs? Would I be able to handle having more than one? Would I be able to handle staying home with them?
Now, I can't imagine how my life would be with out the man by my side. How I managed to snag him away from all of his many admirers I will never know, but I am grateful. I can't imagine life without my little ones. I still don't know if I am a good enough mother to them, but I do know that I love them more than anything. I will do/be anything they need me to be. I love being home with them. I love hearing their voices, their laugh, their snores. I love it all. Of course I have my moments, we all do, but those three boys are the very best part of me. And that my friends, is why I have changed.

It Happened......

The "smurf" (our Hyundai) died. Ok, so I am being a little dramatic, it didn't really die. In the last few months it broke down what felt like a million times. Adam drives super far to work and leaves waaaay early in the morning so Smurf breaking down was not an option. You have no idea the sinking feeling I had in my stomach when my phone rang at 5 in the morning. I thought Adam had been in an accident, but no, Smurf blew a gasket or something dumb that I have no idea about. So as you can imagine I was more than fed up with it and so was he. Luckily all of the crap that kept breaking were covered under our extended warranty that we bought (thank heavens) so we didn't have to pay for it. What really gets me is that Smurf was only 5 years old! It was the first car that Adam and I bought together after we got married. We were sad to see it go, but ready. We got everything fixed and sold the thing while it was still worth something. So now, let me be the first to introduce you to Adam's new baby............

We don't have a name for him yet, unless Adam has secretly named him without telling me. :) I'll have to let you know. My dear husband treats our cars like they are our children.

In other news, the other night Adam and I went to check on the "crazies" before going to bed and this is how we found them......

How cute/uncomfortable is that?! And look, they are holding hands. Precious.


FHE was a blast last night. Music was the theme! The "Crazies" are in love, and I mean in love with music. So we had a little spiritual lesson made our own shakers, and then rocked out together as a family. The big hit of the night was Adam bringing out his trumpet. The boys about died with enthusiasm when he played the first note. Then, as if the night couldn't get any better for the boys, Adam let them PLAY the trumpet. Blake was a natural, he actually made music come out, unlike myself and Kade just making a bunch of spit noises. Needless to say, the spit valve was a little disgusting to empty out afterward. Yum!

They are happy, SUCCESS!

Reverence is Golden...

I don't know about ya'll with kids but church for us isn't always very quiet during Sacrament Meeting. In fact sometimes it is downright loud. In my kid's defense it isn't just them who are loud, but still. So tonight FHE was about Reverence. We talked about how important it is to be reverent when we are at church, during prayer and scripture study. I made them little sashes to wear saying "I Can Be Reverent" and they wore them for the rest of the night.

In the end, I am not sure it stuck with them, but at least we tried, right?

Vindication

I have these dear friends of mine. We'll call them Lurae and Brian (names changed for privacy reasons). For the last 2 years they have been going through the most horrific trial you can imagine.

Countless fasts were held in their behalf, numerous trips to the Temple with them in mind, and prayers, endless prayers for them. You can't imagine the pain that they have suffered.

Today, it is over. He has been vindicated. They no longer have to worry about what tomorrow will bring. They have each other and their family and nothing can take it away from them now.

Throughout these past two years of heartache my wonderful friends have remained united and strong. Their unwavering faith in the Lord has brought them through tougher times than many of us will ever face in our lifetime. I am in awe of their positive attitude through the whole ordeal, I don't know that I would ever be that strong.

The Lord knows each of us. He knows what burdens we can bare. He knows our hearts, and hears our prayers. I have such a firm testimony of the power of prayer. I have seen the affects of it in the lives of my dearest friends.

To Lurae and Brian: I love you guys, and I am so thankful to be counted as one of your friends. Breathe, its finally over!!!

Life Is About Makin Fun

Sunday night we had a little superman fun. Just thought you would like to know. I don't normally condone jumping on my couches, but for these cuties I let it slide just this once, and joined in the fun.

Last night for Family Home Evening our lesson was on our "bodies." We talked about how important they are and what good things we can put in our bodies. We asked Blake. "what is something good for our bodies that we eat?" Blake told us, "I know! Stuffed Shells! I like those mommy, and so does my tummy." Stuffed shells just so happens to be his favorite meal. I know what 3 year old loves that and not french fries (he hates those by the way)?

So anyway, as part of our lesson, we thought it would be fun to draw the kids on paper and let them color it while we talked about the importance of bodies. All in all, it was a good FHE. Sometimes I wonder if we are ever getting through to them with Family Home Evening and scripture reading, and then we have a good night where they both participate and I realize that it is working!!! They may not understand everything, but they are listening. Hallelujah!

Showing Kade how to color in his eyes. He then proceeded to tell daddy every body part that he saw. Precious.

Kade makin his hair all spiffy. He. Is. One. Handsome. Dude.

Blake coloring his fingernails. If you look closely you can see that he made his own huge eyes. I just love it.

It was so cute watching them color the different things on there outlines. Blake told us "daddy you didn't make my toenails!" so he then got down and drew them in. They looked like claws, but its cool.

EDIT: Ya so I forgot to flip the pictures sue me!