Life is great!!

Life is great.  Our kids play together and love each other and life is still tiring and crazy but not as stressful and I think we're going to have a really super summer.  We went for a bike ride this weekend with all the kids in different biking systems and it all worked out.  We love our neighbors and our ward and each other so much.  We had a fabulous Valentine's Day.  Paul got me chocolates and flowers and I made a scrumptious family breakfast complete with Chilaquiles which I will now make into a family tradition.  I really love the idea of Valentine's Day being a love day for the whole family.  Looking forward to seeing what it turns into...

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Heavenly Father.

Moses is 22 months!

Wow only 2 more months until our dearest baby boy is 2 year!!??  Where did the time go, my sweet sweet Mo??  Oh Mowie how I love you!!  You and Lizzie are practically inseparable.  Thank you for being my little cuddly Mo.

• He loves to boogie and dance to a great beat with a serious face.
• He loves to eat toothpaste
• He loves baths
• He understands a lot and loves to fill in the words for almost any song I sing
• He calls Grace "Giess."  Adorbs!
• He is such a boy!  Loves being outdoors. 
• Says "ME!!" a lot
• Loves his daddy so much
• Does great in nursery
• Says a lot of words now like sometime when I get him from a nap and he's pooped he says "boop!" to me when I come in to warn me. So cute.
• Is really really good at sitting still to read books and has a great attention span for it.
• Blows kisses but doesn't smack his lips.  

Moses I love you so much!  Everything you do is precious to me. 

Grace is 8 months old

It's so fun to have this little snuggle in our lives!  We are so soo grateful for her and for such an easy third child.  It's still not easy to have three but she is such a breeze!  Truly an angel baby.  It's so fun to cuddle her and here's what else is new:

• She makes the cutest little puff or buzzy noises with her mouth
• She LOVES it when I throw her (gently) on the bed or put her upside down
• She has sooo much hair and doesn't mind when I wangle it in little hairbands on her head.  It's adorbs.
• She takes great, long naps.
• She does the "plank" and freaks out.  See below for a plank visual.
• She rolls around the room but doesn't exactly crawl yet.  Who knows.  Anyway, that's our baby Gray as Lizzie calls her sometimes.  

Gracie Lou I love you beyond words!!

• 

Lizzie makes me laugh

Scene:

Mommy and Lizzie snuggling in bed as they tend to do each night before bedtime (mommy's favorite time of day)

"Mommy is Moses a boy or a girl?"  says Lizzie.

Mommy is so surprised by this question since it is asked so earnestly and laughs and laughs.

"A boy, baby girl," says Mommy.

Oh ok.

End scene.

Our minimoon to Cabo...baby

So uh yeah pictures speak louder than words, right?  Or something like that, right?  How do professional bloggers do it so well?  It's kind of annoying.  You've gotta write and then post pics and lay it all out so pretty.  I prefer a photo dump with no explanation.  Yeah that's how I roll.  Hehe.

Buttttt..... we had a wonderful, wonderful minimoon!!  First we met up with Jared and Alyson at Disney for a day and it was only at 30% capacity (maybe cause of a measels scare??) and just such a breeze.  Perfect weather, the kind where you don't feel a thing and I just loved Space Mountain (2 minute line, btw) as much as the first time when I went when I waves 10.  Fabulous, just fabulous.  Just me and loop de loops in the stars.  Such a #tbt.

I loved the old school rides the most like the Under the Sea one.  So fun!  And Paul loved the Indiana Jones one and actually went back with Jared to do it again at the very end of the night.  The weather was perfect, you know the kind where you don't even feel it.  The Cars ride was super duper up there in the fun department and the only one I wasn't crazy about was one where you had to shoot at stuff.  Too video game-y for me.  But still so fun cause I was with my best buddy - the one and only Paul.  Paul I love you!  A mini-moon was so so great for us!  So nice to do things like stroll and hold hands and just hop in a car without getting little coats and boots and kids all buckled in.  And our sweet little ones seemed to have a great time at Grandma McAllister's.  We called every day and they just sounded happy as can be and Grandma said she just loved snuggling with all of them.  So grateful to her and that our mini moon all worked out.

The next day, Jared n Alyson dropped us off at the airport and we flew to Cabo on a lovely day.  We stayed at the Royal Solaris resort.  I liked it but will never stay there again cause I've never done an All Inclusive resort and didn't realize how much free drinking worked into it.  But the pool was lovely and the breakfasts were delicious and we went mountain biking (scaaaaary!  I can't figure out the since of it all.  The guide kept saying don't break and then Paul would say keep your hands straight etc. Felt like my first time skiing.  Yeah I spent a lot of time walking) and biked to a virgin beach and also got to pet camels and had an exquisite lunch by the beach.  Fresh mole and handmade tortillas, yum!

Then we took a boat to the Land's End arches, just the two of us.  So happy just to smile and feel the wind in my hair and sit on Paco's lap.  So happy.  Content.  On Sunday, we just relaxed and went to church and read books and walked on the beach.  Monday morning early, early we went whale watching and saw  a bunch of whales and even a two-week old whale with the cutest teeny tiny blowhole.  Then we zipped to the airport just in time to go home.  Good times, Paco.  I love you Paco.  This is feeling like a good year for us and our little family.  Life's good!

A change in my heart

This post may be hard to express and even harder to understand but there is a change going on with me.  I have been watching the Duggar's who are a family of 20 or something (I've lost count) and they are very religious and faithful and wonderful.  Their show is so stinking boring and I love it!  It just shows the intricacies of a large family and it's like a study guide for me.  I keep trying to figure out the appeal of me watching some kids go to the dentist together or making pickles and I've nailed it.  It's their mom - Michelle.  She is my hero!  She is such an incredible mom but not only that.  Here's the clincher - she does it all with a smile!  A smile!  She LOVES being a mom and gushes out joy of life and momhood from every pore.  She loves her little souls around her and I get it!  She is my role model because she has 20 kids and I've never seen her get exasperated or yell.  She just goes with it and treats each child so well.  That's me now!  I have really been working on not being impatient and just smiling and if I do have something to say, I get down on their level and look in their yes and just say it matter of factly and they obey and it's truly revolutionary.

You see, I think I've been living my life wrong.  Sad to say.  I've been playing the game.  Such a silly game too.  I didn't think I was but I was.  I wasn't playing it as crazy as some folks do but I still was but now I realize the game doesn't even matter, not one bit!  What matters - and here comes the important stuff -  is treating every single every single day like a gift and treating every single person I come in contact with like the Savior would.  Truly seeing at their level.  Truly respecting them.  Truly loving them and understanding them and - here is another clincher - not caring what they do in return.

Now I'm a work in progress.  I'm gonna have some slip ups but the slip ups don't define me.  What defines me is the person I am every day and I can begin in my home with my great children and my wonderful husband.  I can make the perfect effort every day to make them feel 100% wonderful around me and like they have someone who loves them no matter what and supports them.

I so desperately want everyone around me to leave me feeling like their life is a little better.  I want them to hold themselves a little higher every time they interact  with me.  Dear Lord, my desire is true, pure, and honest.  Please help me to accomplish this earnest endeavor.  Please help me to define myself going forward as one who loves others as the Savior loves.  Who nurtures and supports and uplifts.  I can do this!  I know I can.  And I can start in my home.  Amen!  Amen!!!

Moses is 21 months!

Your truly at 2 years old - spitting image of Mowie, I think!

Oh Moses!!  My handsome baby boy.  I love you so much!  My favorite thing to do is get really close to your face and stare at you in the eyes.  As you can tell by these pics, Moses and Lizzie are always together and love each other and have tiffs and love each other again.  The miracle of siblings, wow!  I'm still figuring that whole thing out.  Moses is doing well.  He seems happier these days unless a stranger comes by and then he seems stressed and worried.  Here's what's new with him:

• He is talking more.  He says "hot" when I bring him hot food and sometimes finishes a song I sing like "no more monkeys jumping on the _____" and he says bed
• He follows Lizzie around
• He loves the cool cars that his daddy got him for Christmas
• He adores his dad and runs to daddy when he comes home from work
• He loves cuddles so much
• He loves for me to read him books about trains or cars and it's so fun to see him being such a boy!
• He hugs Grace and loves on her and she likes it

Mowie I love you forever.  Thank you for being my son.