Confession....

It's true, I am a worrier. I worry about EVERYTHING! I worry about my kids, my health, my family's health, our safety....you name it I worry about it. It's exhausting, but it's me. Well, my worrying finally got the better of me this weekend, and I'm pretty sure that my worrying ways have finally earned me the

MOM OF THE YEAR

award.

How you ask? Well...Saturday afternoon Brett and I had to go and run a couple of errands. These errands would literally have taken us 30 minutes to complete. The boys did not want to come with us and truth be told it would have been nice to quickly run them with just little Ethan in tow. But, I was worried about leaving Austin home with the boys. Erik and Cameron are both extremely responsible and capable of holding down the fort and I have on occasion left them home alone for short periods of time. I have yet to allow Austin to stay home with them mainly because he LOVES to answer the door and being the worrier that I am, I am terrified that while I am gone some crazy person will show up at my door and Austin will answer the door and let said person in. This thought evokes FEAR in me like nothing else and I just can't do it.

That said, Brett decides that the boys (minus the baby) can all stay home for a couple of minutes while we go and run our errands. Immediately panic sets in and I tell Brett that there is no way that I am leaving Austin home. Brett does not agree. I decide that I will perform a test. I tell Erik and Cam that we are leaving, but that in a minute I will come back and ring the doorbell to see if Austin comes running to answer it. We perform the test and Austin passes. I try one more time (just to make sure) and Austin passes. Then I decide to go and give this a try (even though I am still worrying like crazy). Then I remember that my cell phone is in the house and there is no way I am leaving my little babies home without a way to get a hold of me, so.......(this is where the story gets good)
I realize that I don't have a key to the house on my keychain, so I ring the doorbell and no one answers. I ring it again and again and again....no answer (good boys). Then I decide to go and pound on the door in the garage (surely they'll figure out that that is me right?!) So here I am banging and banging and still no answer. So then I decide to go back and forth between front door and garage door banging and ringing the doorbell and still no answer. Finally I use Brett's cell phone (why in the world didn't I think of this sooner) and I call the kids. Cameron answers in a quiet, timid voice and I tell him to open the garage door. He does and there stand all 3 of my kids crying....I scared the living daylights out of them. They were convinced that there was some crazy person at the door (which apparently there was) and they were SCARED!!! They even said a prayer for their safety (how cute is that?) I hugged them and apologized, grabbed my cell phone and then I along with my 3 scared little kiddos (who were not about to stay home alone now) shuffle out to car to go run errands with one smirking husband behind the wheel.

So there you have it, MOM OF THE YEAR award goes to....ME!

Conversations with Austin...

Yesterday at church, Austin started Sunbeams. He is not too sure about it though and when I took him in to his new classroom he looked at me like I was crazy! He was not about to stay in there, and he instantly clung to my leg. So, defeated, I took Austin out for a minute to try to convince him that Sunbeams was going to be A LOT of fun. He then said to me:

"I don't like my new churchery (nursery), I want to go back to my old churchery!"

Then I took him back to nursery for one hour while I am the assistant nursery leader and then I sat with him during sharing time. Score 1 point for Austin. Here's hoping next week goes a little smoother. The game plan is for Brett to take Austin to class next week. Dad's not quite the pushover that Mom is.

Then today as I was cleaning the kitchen, and Austin was hanging around chatting with me he said :

"Mom, remember when we didn't have a baby, and we went to the hospital to get one and you wore those funny pajamas?!"

Oh if only it were that simple!

A new year....

With a new year, comes time for reflection. Reflection about the past year, reflection about my life, reflection about my family and with that I can always find things that need to be improved. Thus we set New Years Resolutions! As I have been reflecting on my life and things that I want to improve, there are always the usual:

Better health/ fitness
Clear clutter
Become More organized
and so on.
But as I was thinking about what I really want to accomplish this year, I wanted to think of a word that would encompass all my goals. As I was thinking on this, this particular talk by President Monson came to mind and rather than choose one single word, I thought these 3 quotes from his talk could sum up my goals for 2010:

"Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now."

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly."

"may we fill our days—as much as we can—with those things which matter most. May we cherish those we hold dear and express our love to them in word and in deed."

This talk spoke to me in so many ways. I was thinking about how important it is to not get distracted by things of little importance. I was also thinking about how grateful I am to be able to stay home and raise my children. I was thinking that it is so important to enjoy motherhood (and I thoroughly do), but sometimes I get bogged down with the mundane tasks that are part of my days. Somedays I feel busier than I should. Somedays I feel pulled in a million different directions and yes, the laundry piles up faster than I can tackle it. And the kids don't always get along and sometimes they drive me crazy, but in the midst of all that I have these 4 amazing BOYS to raise and a fabulous husband to walk through life with and I realize how blessed I am! So while I am not going to list each individual goal that I want to set here, they will all have to do with the word or rather the phrase

Find JOY in the journey!
Happy 2010!

I have a little catching up to do....

What in the world?!! Has it really been over a month since I updated this silly little blog?

We ended 2009 with a bang! It seems like there was always something going on. We spent Thanksgiving in UT with friends and family and as always, we had a great time there and a hard time coming back home.

Prior to going to UT, some friends and I bought a booth at a local craft fair to sell some of our crafts, So I was busy sewing some items to attempt to sell. Here are a few of my creations:



Simone (my Sister-in-law) and her kids came home from UT with us to play and extend our vacation for another week. After a little unexpected delay in our trip and a 2 day mini vacation in Reno due to SNOW, we finally arrived home and we had a great time with them.






Ethan turned 6 months. At 6 months he is cooing and saying da da (which Brett is loving!) and he is rolling all over the place. On Dec. 11, 2009 he discovered that he could roll from his back to his tummy. He was quite proud of his new found ability and know he rolls and rolls and rolls. He starts out on a nice blanket on the floor and within minutes he is off the blanket and playing with anything that he can get his chubby little hands on. I have quickly been reminded how clean I need to keep the floors with a little one who is semi-mobile now.

CHRISTMAS!
The boys had a great Christmas and I believe that Santa brought them nearly everything they asked for! Here they are coming down stairs on Christmas morning. Notice their jammie pants?! I finally finished sewing them (5 pairs) just in time for Christmas eve. The boys love them and wear them all the time and that makes me happy!



Baby's first Christmas:



The boys were out of school for 6 weeks! Yep, it was a long break, but so much fun! The boys were not too happy about returning to school come January and to be honest, I wasn't sure that I was ready either. There is something fun about having the kids home and seeing them throughout the day. It is also nice to not be on such a structured schedule, but then again a little structure is good and now that they are back in school I am realizing again just how much easier it is to shop/ run errands with only 2 kids in tow.

We spent New years eve and day in Napa with Jed and Kathy (thanks for having us) and it was a great way to celebrate the arrival of the new year and also end our last few days before work and school commenced. So that is me getting caught up in a nutshell and now I am ready to blog again. (assuming of course that anyone is still reading this)

And this is just for fun....this is how I found Erik last night as I went to tuck him in! So cute that it made me laugh! 3-D glasses and his new 3-D issue of Lego magazine.



Happy 2010!