Kiddies

These have to be my favorite kids ever.

Favorite Flowers

Recently I decided to do some research on flowers. Not specifically for gardening reasons. Instead, I wanted to find my new favorite flower. Am I the only one that does this sort of thing? Realizes I've been the same for too long and wants a little change. Mix it up. For a WHILE now, my favorite flower has been the tulip. I LOVE tulips. I still love them and consider them one of my favorite flowers. But, my research has brought an addition to the fave flower family.

How many times can I say Favorite Flowers in one paragraph?

Anyway, I told Matthew a while ago that I now had two kinds of flowers that I liked. So what did I get on Mother's Day?

Orchids. I LOVE orchids. And, they certainly brighten up my tiny kitchen. I thought Matthew was great for even remembering that I liked these... he has a tendency to forget conversations that don't really matter...

I also got another kind of flower on Mother's Day that I think should be on my list.

William made this for me in Primary and was so excited to give it to me. Although, he'll tell you that his friends helped make it.

Realizations

I really think that children don't Absolutely respect their parents until they become parents themselves. I know that's true for me. Yes, I always respected my parents because they were my parents, but now it's different. Now, I respect them because I know what they had to go through to have me and to take care of me.

Especially my mom.

Why not my dad? Of course I have a respect for my dad. I have the same respect for my husband too. They are amazing men. Seeing what Matthew goes through is seeing what my dad went through too.

But, since I'm a mom and I do what my mom does, I understand her. And love her that much more for it. Being a mom is hard. It's the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But, it's the most rewarding thing I have ever done too.

I'm proud to be a mom. I'm proud to have the mom that I have.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you so much. I can't wait to see you.

I realized yesterday that this Sunday is the first time William will be singing in Sacrament Meeting. I have looked forward to this. Every time the Primary has had a musical number in Sacrament Meeting since I was pregnant with Will, I have looked forward to this. How special it is that he'll sing on Mother's Day! Can you believe that?

I took these pictures of my kids this past week and I absolutely love them.
Do you know what I think of when I see this picture??

This:

I KNOW my children are mine. I birthed them. But, at least Matthew has no doubt that this little girl belongs to him!

...just for the record, both kids are Matthew's.

Just had to clear that up.

Trying 'Em Out

Here is William putting his Sponge Bob golf ball on his super cool green tees. I thought this picture was too hilarious to pass up sharing.

We have found that his new golf clubs are a little too long for him. They'll take a little getting used to, but I think he kind of likes them. He's REALLY excited to take his golf bag out to a golf course and play - especially when my dad gets out here.

William also picked out his tees. He got a whole HUGE bag of lime green golf tees for his birthday. When he was outside playing, he wasn't able to find it. I had to point it out to him. Can you find it?



I'll give you a clue:

Here's Will hitting his golf ball. It wasn't the money shot that he hit right before we came in, but he still did pretty great. Oh, William and his golfing.

It IS Your Fault

The culprits.

I love shoes. I wish I had shoes like I used to.. one for almost every outfit. Having children and a husband who doesn't have a job, it kind of changes things. New shoes aren't a necessity, but instead a luxury. So, when I told Matthew that I needed to get some black flats because, lets face it, the 4 inch narrow heels that I have aren't doing me any favors, Matthew said, "okay."

New shoes!!

I was thinking that I could go somewhere cheap to buy some cute black flats. Which is true, for that criteria, you can. I went to target and found these cuties in the pic above that I was SO excited about.

The problem? You would figure that since I'm writing a blog about them that there would be a problem, right? Well, you ARE right.

The first time that I wore these was at stake conference with my in laws. I was sitting on the pew with my legs crossed and while we were sitting there, a smell arose. Josh and Matthew were joking about it and trying to figure out where it came from. Beef Stroganoff mixed with a little skunk. That was the smell. Not over powering, but certainly not pleasant.

I eyed the people sitting in front of us, giving them crusty looks behind their backs. Thinking that it was them and their lack of hygiene.

We endured it though. When we got home from church, we realized that the smell was now on us. It had followed us home. Disgusting. We changed clothes to go to the Townsend's for dinner. As I bent down to put my boots on, I smelled it really strong. SKUNK.

I called Matthew into our room to see if it was my boots. No, it wasn't the boots, but he could smell it too. Smell it by the shoe box.

My brand new shoes that I had just worn for that two hour meeting block REEKED. Not like smelly feet that was wearing them without socks. Not like smelly feet that was wearing them even WITH socks. They smelled straight up like beef stroganoff and skunk.

How does that happen?

"Smelly Cat" from FRIENDS keeps coming to mind, but sorry smelly shoes, this time it IS your fault.

Needless to say, I got a new pair of black flats. And they smell fine, thank you.

In Theory...

Sometimes I just jump the gun on my thinking. I think of a GREAT idea and then I do it because it's fun. I don't think about the little details that will hold me back a little. For example: decorating the flower pots with washable paint. So exciting that the paint didn't ruin the kids clothes, a little disappointing the first time it rained outside...
OR.. just recently how we had a family home evening about temples and what a great idea it is to take the kids to my favorite temple (Bountiful) and walk around the temple grounds and take pictures. Great idea in theory. Everything except the fact that the temple/temple grounds are closed on Mondays because people are doing exactly what we're doing.. Family Home Evening.
It was a little sad to drive all the way up there, but we love going for drives and I got these great shots from the mountains!!

All in all, not a total waste of time.

Lily's Polly Dolly

I've had this Madeleine doll for a long time. I never was a "die hard" fan, but I did like Madeleine. I liked the books and I think we had a couple of movies. My mom had a doll and I had this one. I've been holding onto this doll for Lily. I figured at some point she would want to have her, at some point she'd get into Madeleine. Especially since she has two girl cousins out here (Raven and Tessa) that like Madeleine.
Lately, it had seemed that all the holding onto this thing finally paid off! Lily finally got it out of the toy box and was carrying her around. Not only that, she's been SO excited to have her!! The thing I didn't understand was that she was calling her "Polly Dolly." Where did she get that?
This had been going on for a couple of days until I asked Lily why she called her Polly Dolly.
William replied, "Mom, she's not saying Polly Dolly, it's Sally Dolly."

Sally Dolly?

Then it hit me. Our neighbors recently gave us the Toy Story DVDs when they upgraded to Blu Ray. My kids have been watching the first or the second or both on a daily basis for about two weeks now. And in Toy Story, Andy's neighbor Sid has a sister who has a Sally Dolly that looks like this:

And I thought she was excited about Madeleine.