Presidential Humor

Here's a joke my husband shared with us.

A father was asking his daughter if she knew what President's Day was. She replied, "Sure it is the day President Obama steps out on the balcony. If he sees his shadow it means we have another year of unemployment." 

 photo credit

Oh Baby

Lately I have been seeking out and enjoying reading birth stories. It's probably my way of preparing for labor. You know convincing myself I can go through this again, just like so many others. I am always amazed how different the delivery of each baby can be.


I guess it's kind of that way with babies. Babies in a family often look very similar to each other but there is just little difference that make each one unique and special. Such is the case with mine. My girls were all very similar at birth. It was pretty easy to predict what they would probably look like: 

Dark hair, Dark eyes, rose bud lips and a button nose.

And some with just a little more hair. 

Then came my son.

Blond hair and blue eyes!

 I guess he needed to prove that he was truly different than his sisters in every way possible.


I can't help but wonder what this next baby will look like. Will she go back to the trend her sisters set or follow suite of her brother?

We are all excited to find out!

LOVE

 HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Yesterday we had fun with our traditional valentines dinner. 

(A day early since Tuesday's are pretty crazy around here).

I truly love these guys!

Lately I have been thinking about the word love and my family in a new light.

I thought it a neat coincidence that our relief society lesson on Sunday was "Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself"   A sister brought up how sometimes it is easier to love a stranger than it is to love someone you know. This can definitely be the case in a family.

A few weeks ago, I was reading the well known scripture about charity found in Moroni 7:44-47 The words, And charity suffereth long jumped out at me.  There are times when dealing with my children where it can be pretty hard to be patient. It can be hard to not take offense to what they may be saying. Hard to not lash back at them and "defend" myself. Lately the phrase And charity suffereth long has come into my mind when I'm frustrated with my children.

In our relief society lesson this quote was shared, "Love is not an emotion. It is a policy." by Madeleine L'Engle. I love my children but sometimes in certain situations it can be hard to feel that love at the current moment. I realized that at these times  we have to make it a policy to show love even if we may not be feeling it. Not an easy task. I left relief society with more of a resolve to make love a policy no matter the situation.

Yesterday I read this article. As I went about my tasks I kept thinking of these lines,
  
I’m not asking anyone to do any more, but if you’re already doing, doing, doing, for your children, why not try to infuse a little more love into that doing? I think everyone would agree that there’s a big difference between doing what you do as a mother simply because you have to or you feel obligated to, and doing it with the intent of blessing your child’s life and helping them to feel your love for them. 

I realized how just changing my focus mentally can make a huge difference. To think about the task I'm doing and how it shows love and blesses my child rather than the task itself. The task then no longer feels a burden and something I do that I just wish someone would show appreciation for.

Now off to show some love this day!

My Kind of Crafty

I really am not that good at crafts. Especially anything dealing with painting. I decided not to paint my sons room. Mostly this stemmed from the fact that after having all my kids help clean the walls I was exhausted. The walls really didn't look too bad and I wanted to do something else with the few weeks I have until this baby comes than paint.

After the carpet was laid, we moved my son into his new room.  He loved having his own room but I kept hearing, I hate the walls.  I admit they were pretty empty looking. I figured I would make him some fun curtains.

I ended up being able to find these and some wall stickers for less than it would cost for the fabric to make curtains. It was perfect. I didn't have to do the work and my son got something on his bare walls.

We also found a shelf. I figured I could handle painting this but ended up convincing my husband to. Once again perfect for I wasn't doing the work.

 
Besides, he really is quite good with painting. Check out this dresser he re-did a few years back for my daughters room.

It's nothing fancy but all in all we ended up with a room that Bud Boy is enjoying.

While others did the work for my sons room, I kept busy setting up the nursery (or at least transforming half a room into one).

 It's kind of fun to go through little girl clothes again!

I also whipped up these these baby bibs for some friends and our new little one. Sewing is much more my thing.

Valentine Crafting

For our latest activity days we made these. The weren't too hard and I think I might have my family make them for their teachers. Teachers always need something a little extra.


The instructions can be found here. Since I was working with a big group of eight and nine year olds I figured it would go more smoothly if things were a little more thought out.   I came up with a pattern they could use to punch the holes.

With this many holes we used a ribbon that was 32 inches long. We also didn't trim the vinyl with pinking shears and I think it turned out just as cute. This ended up being a good thing for just punching the holes was hard enough for our girls.

Ten Years

Minnie celebrated 10 years of life this week. It seems like just yesterday we were trying to stay awake in our hospital room to watch the opening ceremonies of the Salt Lake Olympics. She was given an Olympic blanket at the hospital. We had lots of time to snuggle up with her while watching the Olympics since dad had just lost his job a month before she was born.

Here's ten things about Minnie

1. Still has a very vivid imagination. When she was younger, she one day told dad, after he asked her to brush her teeth, "Will you do it for me? I can't open my eyes for I'm watching a show on my eyelids."

2. Willing to share. I think her brother gets to play on her Kindle Fire more than she does

 3. LOVES breakfast. It's her biggest meal of the day and she would eat breakfast for dinner any day.

4. Other favorite foods are Chicken Cordon Bleu, Stroganoff

And chocolate.! 

Her birthday request was chocolate cupcake 

with chocolate icing and a french truffle on top

5. Favorite color is green

6. Always up for being silly, planning some project or just hanging out with cousins

7.  Likes to read the Children's Friend and Fablehaven.

8.  Loves to color. Even at a very young age she always colored insides the lines and payed attention to detail. Her birthday request was new coloring supplies.

9. Has many talents. She currently plays the piano, sings in the school choir and dances three days a week. She can often be found standing on her head.

10. Very smart and loves being challenged but doesn't like drawing attention to herself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 to a girl whose smile always warms my heart

Current Book of Choice

My youngest two have taken to looking at their baby books. 

It has been fun to watch them as they enjoy flipping through these. 

I love how excited they get as they see pictures 

of themselves when they were younger.

It makes the effort to make these all worth it.

Everyday

I recently read an article by Elder Craig Christensen of the First Quorum of the Seventy. In this he stated,

I remember a defining moment while I was serving in the mission office in Chile. One night after dinner, my companion and I were helping the wife of our mission president clear the dishes before we went out to teach. Somewhat out of the blue, she asked us, "Have you felt the Spirit today?" Without waiting for our answer, she began teaching us that one of the most important ways of confirming that we are on the right track is by feeling the Spirit. She emphasized that, given all the challenges and distractions in life, we need daily reassurance that we are both worthy of and guided by the Holy Ghost. She invited us to never go to bed at night without having recognized the feeling of the Spirit sometime that day. 


I loved this! Feeling the spirit everyday. Confirmation that we are on the right track.

I realized feeling the spirit isn't always some major thing but is a part of simple, everyday life and we need to take the time to recognize it. It is a feeling that may come when reading the scriptures or an ensign article. It is a peace when listening to music. It is those moments when I look at my children and just marvel. I can look past the challenges and am just amazed and appreciative. It is the little thought that comes to my mind, "don't yell" when dealing with a frustrating child. And on those rare moments when I actually don't yell it is the spirit that stays with me and helps me through.

I know there are times in my life where I felt the Spirit guiding me. After reading this article, it is my goal to recognize and hopefully feel the Spirit everyday.

Groundhog Day

I love having teachers that go the extra mile. Tator came home the day before Groundhog day with all sorts of things that they had made.

Her personal preference was that the groundhog didn't see his shadow. She is so ready for spring.

She woke up Thursday morning pretty excited to see the news so she could eat these.

Did you catch that he saw his shadow so it's six more weeks winter?

I have never really understood that though, because doesn't he need sun to see his shadow? If the sun is out, wouldn't it be more of an indication of spring? Spring is more sunny days. Sun means it's warmer, right?  Of course, doesn't he see his shadow every year? Got to have it match the calendar which says six more weeks until spring; but we won't tell the young at heart.

Any way, thanks goodness for teacher's who make it a fun day. Plus, I can handle six more weeks, especially the mild winter we have had this year. I'm still holding out for at least one major snow storm. My son wants to build a snowman.