A toy and T.V. free day!

I'm sure my kids think I have completely lost it! This morning as I was on the computer checkin things out the kids decided to come in the office(were they no they aren't allowed) and get into things they shouldn't(paint,patterns,books, files boxes just to name a few) while I was distracted by the computer. I came unglued, I probably could have handle it better but, I didn't, I yelled (which I don't normally do) and got myself all worked up, after I made them clean up there messes they sat in time out for a little bit. While they were in time out I kept thinking to myself "Why is it that they have a ton of toys to play with but they would rather get into things they shouldn't,things that they know are off limits?" Not only do they treat the things they know they shouldn't even be touching badly they seem to do it with everything even there toys, those toys are just thrown off to the side broken and disregarded. So I made a decision(a very unpopular decision), to lock up all of the kids toys and on top of that no T.V.!! They whined and cried and made my decision even more final.

Some of you may be thinking "why did she ban T.V. ?" because after a few tears and tantrums they were over loosing their toys and they started to beg me to put a movie in for them. This made me kinda sad, cause as much as I really don't like admitting it I use the t.v. to entertain my kids so I don't have to! I know that's really bad, but I think that all of us do it to some degree it's so easy to pop in one of there favorite movies to keep them out of the way while I get some work done. Well today as much as I wanted to we had no t.v. all day and ya know it was actually pretty nice, the kids played more with each other and seem to not argue and fight as much and they weren't bugging me every few minutes crying. They even started using their imaginations too, Ryne put her blanket over the top of the fan so that it blew outward and called it her "cave", were she put pillows and blankets and her and Kaleb laid under while Dana read them the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book.I missed that I took Ellie to the Dr. for her 6 month well check.

When I got home from the Dr. office Dana said the kids did really well, and guess what? my house wasn't a complete disaster! So one thing I learned ANGRY MOMMY+NO TOYS=NO MESS I am so pleased about that, and the kids didn't really miss them at all. So I figured wow they may earn their t.v. privilege back.........but they didn't. We had to run some errands I got back from the Dr.'s late enough that we decided that we would get something to eat and then do the rest of our shopping and we figured it would be a special treat because we haven't been eating out hardly at all since Dana and I started loosing weight. So we go to IN-N-OUT Burger, and the kids are running wild, Dana's chasing them while I am trying to order. While Dana was waiting for our order I took the kids to pick out a seat, figuring it will keep them from running all over, boy was I wrong!! It took all I had not to walk out leaving my hubby and our food! Poor Ellie was in the car seat screaming while I was chasing around the other 2 kids.Marryne is usually so good and today she was out of control. I finally put my foot down, I found a high chair and buckled Kaleb in so he couldn't go anywhere and then I told Marryne that if she wanted to watch t.v. or have her toys back she better behave and listen, wow that worked like a charm! After dinner we ran over to Wal-Mart to get some essentials, and boy oh boy those kids were horrible! Marryne was running all over the place in front of peoples carts, then she was trying to push the cart for me but really she was dragging her feet making it difficult for me, while Marryne was doing all of this Kaleb was screaming to get out of the cart and then he figured out how to climb out(he was in the main basket), so then I get another basket so I can strap him down cause that seems to be the only thing that works for him and of course he screamed and whined about it. Luckily for us Ellie was so tired that she went to sleep. After we finally paid for everything and were on our way out to the car, I told my kids that they didn't earn their T.V. or toys for tomorrow, they were both upset but ya know if that's what it takes to get them to respect not only their toys but us as parents than that's what it takes. WHEW!!I am tired just from writing about it!

On the bright side ever since we got home the kids have been angels! As convenient as it is to let the T.V. and toys entertain my children I will opt out on this one. I would rather them play together and use their imaginations then to sit in front of a T.V., they enjoy themselves more and they enjoy me more because I am not the "mean mommy" any more, We play and learn together with just our brains and bodies to guide us and it is so much fun. So I encourage you to turn off the T.V. and play with your kids.

Rut free day!

All the kids slept in this morning!! Go figure when I finally decided that I am going to get up when they do, they sleep in and so did I. We all got up at 9, but we went right to work, while the kids ate breakfast I got the laundry started, the kids started doing their chores without me even asking!! By noon we were done at least with cleaning the house, laundry is still going, the kids had lunch at 2 cause they had a late breakfast, and then Kaleb fell asleep. Dana took Marryne with him to return some movies, and Ellie is asleep the house is very quiet and clean!=) Now I can relax a little, I do need to fold laundry, but other than that I am doin good. It's amazing how when ya actually start applying yourself to things ya actually start to feel better and more energized. Even though my cold isn't gone yet and I still feel kinda crappy, I feel a lot better now that I have caught up on things.

A couple of weeks ago a hair blog that I follow had a hair bow giveaway and we won some of the most adorable hair bows ever, we got them in the mail today Marryne was so excited she told me that now she needs a new outfit to go with the bows and she wants to wear them on her 1st day of school. I decided that I could use another project to keep me busy and to keep me out of my rut, so tomorrow Marryne and I are going to go through my patterns and fabric and see what outfits we can make for school!! She is very excited and so am I plus I am sure that we will make more bows to go with the outfits, Marryne says "everything needs to match, that's just how it is mom!" so we will do our best. I will post pictures of all of our creations!!Oh yea and if ya want to see the cute hair bows we won go to my hair blog GoldyLocksandher2Girls.

In a rut =P

I have been in such a rut these past few days and it is driving me crazy! Have you ever felt that way you know you are in a rut, ya kinda know why but for some reason ya can't seem to pull yourself out of it? Well that is how I am feeling right now. I'm pretty sure the cause of my rut is mainly these 2 things 1) I am sick and feel like crap, I have no voice there for I can't really talk to anyone at the moment, and 2) it's so darn hot!!!!Me and the kids are stuck in the house which gets boring after awhile, there's only so much you can do in the house. The kids are dying to get out and be active and I am too I am not one to sit at home and twiddle my thumbs. It also doesn't help that I have been going to bed ridiculously late(12 or 1 a.m.) and waking up late(9a.m.) despite the fact that all 3 kids are up by early (6 or 7a.m.). I'm sure some of you ask what are my kids doing while I am still sleeping!? Well Marryne is really the only on that can actually get up and come out of her room, we keep Kaleb's door locked from the outside so that he doesn't get into trouble and Ellie of course just hangs out in her crib and plays or go's back to sleep until I get her up. I'm not saying I am proud of this, in fact I'm not and that's why I bring it up maybe if it's out there then I will be more motivated to get to bed early and get my butt out of bed early!!

There have been so many things I have been wanting to do with my kids this summer, and today as I was taking a bath I realized that summer is almost over Ryne starts school on the 18th of August! And I haven't hardly done anything fun with them or at least the things that I have wanted to do. So I decided that I am not going to waste any more time sleeping in or staying up late, for the next few weeks I am going to have some fun stuff planned!!Plus I think it will help me too, I really hate waking up so late in the morning I feel like half my day has been wasted and then I don't have the motivation to do anything, so I know by actually planning things out and getting excited about them I will actually do them, and hopefully I will pull myself out of this rut!=)

Pioneer Day

Yesterday was Pioneer day and we didn't really celebrate it because we weren't feeling very good, plus today was the Pioneer Primary activity day(wow say that 3 x's fast!)so we decided to just do some fun stuff today. For those who may be ask "What is this pioneer day she is speaking of?" the answer is on July 24th 1847 the first group of LDS(mormon)Pioneers entered the Valley of the Great Salt Lake,they left Navoo Illinios and traveled west, they left for the first part of their on February 4th. 1846 they journed was Iowa to the Missouri river ,they covered around 265 miles. On April 5th,1847 they began the second part of their journey from the Missouri River to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake it covered about 1,032 miles they traveled by wagons and handcarts. That's just a little bit of the history if you want to know more go towww.mormon.org. So to celebrate the pioneers and their great journey we decided to make homemade bread and butter. We had a ton of fun!!We sang songs and learned about the pioneers and their faith and srength in our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.

Ellie even helped, Marryne said "momma look at this baby she is makin butta!"

The kids loved playing hot potato with the jar of cream!
After all that shakin and dancin around we have butter.
Marryne kneaded the bread dough all by herself. She did a really great job.
Here are the mini loafs of bread and homemade butter!

A little R&R and some wiggling too!

So far this has been a pretty relaxing morning. Dana took Ryne to her primary activity day at 9 this morning and Kaleb and Ellie slept in till 10!! Which I expected of Ellie considering she was wide wake and giggling till 1 this morning!! Kaleb is running a fever and not feeling so good and neither am I so we popped in a movie and just relaxed while Ellie played on the floor being very vocal. After the movie was over I decided to get on-line and check my facebook while Kaleb got dressed, after a few minutes Kaleb comes in and tells me "baby Ellie is stuck, uh oh come mommy baby Ellie's stuck" So I follow him out to the living room and oh boy is she stuck, I laughed and then ran to grab the camera, meanwhile she was getting pretty mad, but I got a good picture!!=) That's right she wiggled right under the rockin chair, luckily no one was sitting in it and Kaleb was very worried about his baby sister that he got help right away, he was even trying to lift the chair off of her!!After I had a good laugh I pulled her out and she was still happy as could be!

Dog Pile!

Yesterday my older kids were trying to help me get work done by playing with their baby sister and keeping her happy. As I was going from room to room putting away clean clothes and gathering dirty, I could hear all 3 of them laughing and having a good time. I decided to grab my camera and have a peek at the fun. This is what I found DOG PILE on ELLIE!!!

Don't worry they aren't actually squishing her. Ryne created a kind of bridge over Ellie with her body so she isn't actually laying on her. Kaleb thought this looked like fun and decided to jump on the pile. Ya can't really tell but Ellie was having a great time and she was thoroughly entertained!! They played with her all day and tuckered her out.

Awake!
Asleep!!

These pics were taken with in seconds of each other. =)

She slept really good last night in fact she didn't wake up until 10:30 this morning!!

SUPER SICK!

I thought I eluded this sickness that's been going around in my house. I was so wrong!! As I laid in bed and stretched I took (or tried) to take a nice deep cleansing breathe through my nose, only to discover that I was extremely congested making it impossible to breathe through my nose. My daughter came in and was encouraging me to get out of bed by jumping on me and yelling in my ear, I rolled over to face her and tried to speak finding out that I have no voice only a raspy whisper, Marryne thinks this is funny and exclaims in a very cheerful voice "ha, ha, ha, ha you got sick and I gave it to you, now you can't yell at us!!". As I sat up in the bed I was hit with a major and I mean major sinus headache, so bad that I actually got dizzy and had to lay back down.

Instead of being mad I actually think that it is quite funny. Here I was apparently thinking that I was SuperMan thinking that my super powers (even if they are imaginary) would keep me from getting sick, I think I had that I am the parent I am exempt from all sickness's complex!! Anyway come to find out I do not have super powers to keep me from getting sick (although that would be nice). So far Dana is the only one that hasn't gotten sick yet, I'm sure that it's just a matter of time before he does, it's that domino effect he's the last domino standing and it is inevitable he will fall, I just hope it's after I get better cause there's nothing I don't like more than being sick and then having to take care of a sick whiny husband and 3 kids! No offence to those wonderful husbands out there but face it men a babies when they get sick, at least all the men I know!

This and That

The last couple of days I have been putting together a hair blog!! I was totally inspired by all those hair bloggers out there, I have tried so many of their styles and I sure that some will appear on my blog but I have so many of my own ideas and I thought it would be great to show them all off. Click on this Goldielocksandher2girls check it out! I just started so I only have a couple of styles on there so far,but there are lost more to come I will also start posting my hair bows that I make and stuff.

Moving on to the family, today while the younger kids took there naps I took a 2 hr bath!! OH SO NICE. I don't get to do that very often and it was wonderful, I actually fell asleep!! As I was getting out of the bath my oldest came in and started talking to me about random things(she is such a talker), when I was drying of she pointed to my tummy and said "you's need to get 2 babies in there" I of course was surprised! I said "oh really you want to have more brothers and sisters?" she replied with "not sisters just brothers!" Well that kinda surprised me cause I know she absolutely adores her baby sister so I asked her " why is that?", she put her hands on her hips let out a deep sigh and said " I want more brothers for buddy(Kaleb), so that he will leave me alone!! He needs brothers to play with I don't like to wrestle any more it messes up my hair!!!". Such a silly girl, had Kaleb heard that he may have been a little offended. =)

When Ellie got sick she created a domino affect. After she got sick Marryne came down with a pretty bad cold bad enough that she hasn't had a voice for the last 3 days and( even though the silence has been enjoyable =)) we would like for her to get better. Today Kaleb woke up with a runny nose fever and cough and he is now voice less! (again the lack of yelling and talking is nice!) Hope fully it won't last long he is super cranky when he is sick. Luckily Dana and I aren't' sick but I figure it's just a matter of time, the last couple weeks I have been "burning the candle at both ends" as my hubby would say. I haven't been getting a lot of sleep part of it has to do with the fact that I have been staying up till midnight or 1 every night just to spend some alone time with my hubby, but the other part is taking care of the kids in the night. Usually Ellie is the first to wake up and of course she cries and wakes up the other kids (it's the domino effect all over again!). So needless to say I haven't had much energy lately, I struggle just to keep up with the house work, on that note we got the kids new chore charts finished!! And they are working great the kids woke up this morning excited to go to work!! So all in all everything has been ok, Ellie is finally getting better now I just to get the other 2 back on there feet!!

Laughter, Nails and Hair!

I stayed home from church today with the girls. Ellie is still running a fever, not to mention she is miserable because of the double ear infection she has. Marryne woke up coughing and she says she has a sore throat, so despite her protests I decided to keep her from church today. She was pretty sad about it and she absolutely loves her Sunday school teacher, so after the boys left (and since the house was clean) we pulled out everything we would need for a fun filled afternoon of playing Salon! I did Ryne's hair and nails, we laughed and talked about random things it was so much fun. I even let her have a Popsicle for her sore throat =). I loved just sitting and being with her, Ellie slept through the entire afternoon! There are times when Ryne really craves my attention and I am not always able to give it to her without it being divided to the other kids, the dog and my hubby! So it was nice to let her talk to me she told me about things that make her happy and sad, and about all the people that she likes, she told me how much she loves having "momma time", and that she likes it when I do her hair "sometimes". She loves her brother, but doesn't always like the way he acts or the things he does, she loves her sister even though she cries and poops a lot because she knows that that's what babies do, she loves her daddy because they go on outings together and he takes her swimming a lot and when he gets mad at her she know it's because he loves her and wants her to be safe, she loves Hershey(the dog) because she keeps Ryne warm at night, and she loves Jesus because he loves her and she is a Child of God even though she can't see him she knows he is always there! What a wonderful day this was to here her speak of these things. Sometimes I have my days were I wonder "Why do I even try!?"sometimes it's at church and other times it just a normal day, but then I have days like this when it is very clear why! =)

Refuge

After we got back from doing some evening shopping last night we laid the kids down and sat down to enjoy a movie together, and the power went out! It came back on and we resumed watching only to have the power go out again, this time for good. I am not usually one to panic in situations like this but, I did now I don't know if it was because we had just finished watching Knowing a few hrs earlier and all I could see in the pitch black was the creepy "whisper people", or what is was but I seriously started freaking out! I was on the floor and my hubby was across the room feeding Ellie, crawling on my hands and knees I finally found him! It was super dark I mean pitch black can't see your hand in front of your face black! I sat there on the floor with my hand on Dana's lap trying to breathe and calm myself down, I try looking around thinking that my eyes will adjust and I will be able to see better, but they don't and I can't! The flashes from the lightening are making it even more difficult because I was getting super dizzy. Luckily for us Kaleb has been wanting a flash light in his room for the last few nights, so it's on and Dana tells me to go get it, I can't even move! I have no idea what I was afraid of but I couldn't get on my feet to get the flash light, so Dana hands me the baby and stands up so he can go get the flash light, again I was so scared I didn't want him to leave me even for a second! The lights flickered for a second and the cordless phone lit up across the room, I figured it was better than nothing and ran across the room and grabbed it before the light went out! I figured it was as good as a flash light at least I wasn't in complete darkness! Once I had my little light I let Dana go into Kaleb's room and get the light.

I felt a little better once we had a couple of sources of light. The kids had gotten into our flash lights so all we had was 2 the one we were using and another one but the batteries were dead. So we stumble around until we find some batteries, great now we have 2 working lights (besides the 3 cordless phones!). We figure now would be a good time to find the matches and light some candles, the only thing was is we couldn't find the matched to light our 1 candle! I told Dana that there were some in the computer/storage room, of course they are in the camping box at the bottom of the pile so we dig until we find them. Yeah we have a candle and 2 flashlights one of which is starting to die! I remembered I had a bag of tea light candles so I dug those out and we had them all over the house! I felt much better after that. The whole time we were trying to find the lights Ellie was screaming!! Once we had the lights and candles I changed the batteries in the swing and she was pretty good after that. Now it's Arizona and it's hot even at night so it wasn't long before the house started to get warm. We decided to open the windows since it was raining and windy we figured that air flow even if it is hot it better than nothing. It really wasn't that bad once we got the windows open we could see that half the neighborhood was in the street talking and stuff, I went out to say hi and to see how our elderly neighbor Doreen was doing and I also remembered that there was a flash light in the car! Every one seemed to be doing fine. Doreen mentioned that she noticed it took us awhile to get some lights and candles. I full of laughter shared my story and mentioned that the one big candle we had was almost done burning and all we had left was the tea light which were going fast! She went into her house and came out with some bigger candles!! How nice is that!? I told her to let us know if she needed anything to let us know.

Back at home I remembered our battery camping lantern, found it and replaced the batteries, so we had a bigger source of light and didn't need to rely on the candles that kept going out because of the open windows, and we could save the smaller lights for walking around the house. When we were out shopping I needed to get some batteries for Ellie's swing, it takes 4 D's. When I picked up the batteries I was compelled to get 2 more packages than I needed. At first I thought we will be fine, we aren't going to need than right away anyway but something kept telling me to get a couple more packages. So I went back and picked some more up figuring that it would be good to have spare ones just in case! When I found the camping lantern and realized that it took 4 D batteries! I was so grateful that I listened to that feeling to buy more than I needed, I could have used the ones from the baby swing but it was the only thing that was calming her down so I wouldn't have wanted to do that. I know that something was preparing me for the power outage, even though I didn't know it at the time. I am just glad that I didn't continue to ignore the prompting. =)

I am glad that the older kids slept threw the whole thing as well. It would have been a lot tougher if they had been awake. Once we had our lanterns and candles we sat in the living room on the floor around the coffee table, Dana read a book and I was busy making the kids chore charts. It was so quiet and nice, just sitting there being together with no t.v., phone or any other distractions. We talked a little but mostly just enjoyed how serene it all was. I could hear the wind blowing with vengeance, I could see the trees bending and thrashing in the wind, and I could hear our welcome sign hitting the front door. But inside it was so peaceful, we had a nice breeze going through the house, but other than that it was quiet and peaceful a refuge from the storm. Sitting there in the dark allowed me to just sit and think a lot of memories flooded my head. Some distant but other's close some good some bad. I'm sure many of you have heard people compare our life to a storm, how sometimes feels like everything is out of control grabbing in the dark for someone to hold on to, for someone that will help you. There were many times in my life were I have felt that way, were it has seemed that it's never going to pass, like things are never going to get better. But if we listen and ask there is someone there and He is more than willing to help us. Heavenly Father will send people into our lives that will help us when we need them to, like when Dana talked to me in the dark until I found him, and how my neighbor gave me some candles to help light the way through our home. We are never alone, I am so grateful for that and for all the people in my life. I honestly feel like each and everyone of you have a purpose in my life, we may not know what it is but I do believe that we all help even when we don't know that we are. I feel so blessed that my Father in Heaven has given me these wonderful people and the knowledge that with help I can over come anything, with faith and love he is my "refuge from the storm."

Giveaway!!

Most of you know that I absolutely love hair and hair accessories. I have been getting so many great ideas from a number of hair blogs that I have been following and one of them is doing an awesome giveaway go to surgarandspiceandallhairnice.blogspot.com and see all the cool stuff she has on her blog. It' so awesome and she also has some of the cutest hair styles ever. Check it out!! Oh yea and here is the latest hair style it's called a fish bone braid! I added my own little stuff in the front just to keep the hair out of Ryne's eyes! We really like this one I love this braid cause it is very unique!

Hair Hair Hair!!

So here's another style I tried on Marryne's hair today. It was pretty fast and easy and it has kept the hair out of Ryne's eyes and off her neck! Yeah for that, it's just to darn hot to have down. I got the idea from a hair blog GirlsCurls, I didn't do it exactly like what I saw but I think I did pretty good. Braids are always easy and quick and Marryne really likes the way her hair is after we take out the braids so anyway here it is!

Made in China!

Last night Marryne made us laugh, she is just the funniest little thing sometimes. It started when I pulled all of the kids toys out of the closet and sorted through them, some got thrown away and others got donated. In doing this the kids found some long lost toys and stuffed animals, among them were some little stuffed bunnies from a couple of Easter's ago. Marryne just loves stuffed animals especially bears, bunnies and cats. Anyway she had been playing with these bunnies for awhile and was loving it, after dinner she brought them over to Dana and this is how the conversation went:

Marryne: " Dad, what do this says?"

Dana: " It says made in china!"

Marryne takes the bunny back and then exclaims " Whoa!! I didn't knowed we buyed this in China!!"

Now every times she talks about wanting to go buys something it's no longer "we need to go to the store to buy this toy." it's "we need to go to China to get me this toy.!!"

We have tried explaining it to her but she still doesn't seem to grasp the concept. She will understand someday!! This really made my day yesterday even today as I think about it makes me smile.

Never Ever!!!

I found out today that you can bake bread in a crock pot on the stove!!! How is this possible you ask!? Well have I got a story for you, this afternoon I decided that I wanted to have some nice home made bread to go with my jam, simple you would think because I have made bread lot's of times, yeah well today it wasn't so simple. It all started when I could find my recipe! (yeah I know I shouldn't need a recipe, but I haven't made it in awhile and I wanted to be sure and not guess!) I finally found it at the bottom of my recipe book cupboard all crinkled up! So now I have the recipe I get everything out and got started. I put the yeast in the water with the sugar to make sure it is still good, while I was talking to Dana about the phone conversation I just had with my mom about my brother breakin his arm (that's a whole other story!=)) Marryne decided she was going to help and she promptly pour a 1/4 CUP of salt into the mixture, not only is that WAY to much salt but it also killed my yeast!! So no big deal, I dump it (much to Dana's disappointment that it got wasted. Sorry hun!!) and started again, this time I measured and put in all of the ingredients(cause Marryne was banned from the kitchen =()and I forgot the salt!! No big deal that's happened before and the bread has been just fine plus I am going to mix it with more dough anyway to do a double batch. So when I mixed the second batch I made sure I put in the salt, kneaded the dough and put it in the crock pot pot (glass or stone is better to rise dough than plastic or metal.) and set in on the stove and out of the way to rise. I am in and out of the kitchen and the dough is rising beautifully, we sit down to eat dinner and I figure after we are done eating I will make the loafs and put them in the oven. I pull the crock pot off the stove and it feels a little warm, but it was on the stove and the stove was hot cause we just got done cooking dinner so I don't think anything about it until I put my hand in the dough and find that it is very HOT. The top of the dough was fine I managed to pull enough out to make 1 loaf of bread, but the bottom half was cooked I mean really cooked, it was nice and brown on the bottom!! So still you are askin how in the world did it get cooked!? And my answer to that would be some advice NEVER EVER put the bowl of dough on the burner were the heat from the stove comes out!! That is what I did. I found all of this really funny I think someone out there really didn't want me to have home made bread with my homemade jam!! It does make me wonder though, I wonder if I could cook a pizza in the crock pot! I think I feel an experiment coming on!!! =)

Weight Loss!!

So this entry is going to be about my dear hubby Dana. He has been working really hard to loose weight since late February early March his doctor put him on phentramine to help curve his appetite,he is on a low carb diet,he cut out all soda and has cut way down on sugar, he has been swimming and going for walks everyday and he has been lifting weights.

He is doin an absolutely awesome job! He started at 385lbs and is now down to 295lbs he has lost 90lbs and it shows!!His brother Dave has been awesome in supporting Dana, they talk every week to see were they both are at with loosing weight, and I know both my parents and his have also been a great support! His ultimate goal is to get down to 230lbs, he still has a little ways to go, but he is definitely on his way to being healthier and happier!

But in the mean time I want to brag about him and just express what a wonderful job he is doin, he seriously has such good self control!! I have been loosing weight too all though mine isn't as significant as his hey it's a start I started at 189lbs and I am now down to 172lbs!! Yeah for me I would like to get down to 160lbs, so I am on my way as well, but I don't have as much self control as he does, I sometimes give into soda and sugar (especially chocolate!!). I will keep everyone up to date on the weight loss!!

Jam, Jam, Jam

For the last little bit I haven't had the desire to really cook, which is weird for me because normally I love it. But ever since I had Ellie I just haven't wanted to cook anything, Dana has pretty much taken over for me, I cook along side him I just don't plan out and execute the meals. Anyway yesterday I had a break through, Marryne wanted to make cookies, so I broke and we made the ones out of the Friend ( you saw the pictures!! =)), well that got my creative cooking juices flowing, I got really ambitious and made my own strawberry jam from scratch!!! Not only did I make the jam I hot bath canned it as well! I remember helping my mom make jam but I never really paid attention the the process. It can be a lot of work but so worth it. Both my kids were begging to have toast and jam this morning!! What an awesome feeling to know that my kids like my honest to goodness, made with lots of love jam!! My kitchen was a mess, but I had a lot of fun Dana even helped!

Nothin like cookin with Mom!

Marryne really enjoys the afternoons, because the younger kids take a nap and she gets to do fun stuff with mom! Today after the little kids were down for their naps Marryne and I read a couple of articles from the Friend, and then we decided to try the cookies recipe that they had featured Sand Dollar cookies. They turned out really good, and Marryne really enjoyed hangin out with mom and makin cookies!!

New hair styles!

I really like all the really cute hair bows, and what goes better with a cute bow a cute hair style!!When I was in high school I always tried to wear unique hair styles, in fact I made a packed with myself my senior year that I would not wear the same hair style twice that whole year, and I am proud to say that I did it, I came up with some really crazy ones, but it was nice to see them catching on! I just love trying new and different things, but now that my hair is short and I can't do a whole lot with it I experiment on Marryne's beautiful locks! Yesterday I was blog jumping and saw some really cute hair styles, I liked this style a lot since it is summer, braids are always nice it looked pretty easy so I gave it a shot and it turned pretty cute out cute (next time it will be more polished!). It keeps there hair out of Marryne's eyes and off her neck so it's easier for her to keep cool. She really liked it and I hope ya'll do too.

Self motivation

Today has been one of those days were it is very difficult for me to get motivated to do anything. The last couple of days I have been so tired, it doesn't seem to matter how much sleep I get I am still tired. Tired enough that if I sit down even for a second I would fall asleep. I'm sure my body has just been trying to catch up with me,the last few weeks have been really busy and at times trying, but still sheesh I would love to stop feeling this way! Even when I do get the work done I really don't feel all that accomplished(any one else feel this way sometimes?). I have also been having these horrible headaches, they come and go some are worse than others, the one I had this morning wasn't so bad until Kaleb headbutted me with his oh so hard as a brick head right on my nose! Lucky for me he didn't break it but he did bruise it pretty good and he knocked me silly, and needless to say it didn't help my headache. It took me a half hour to recover and even then when I stood up I could still see stars! Other than that little episode with Kaleb the kids have been fairly good for me, right now both Kaleb and Ellie are asleep and Marryne is sitting next to me singing and wondering when I am going to get off the computer! This has been one of those days that I need a serious "mommy time out" and the computer is very therapeutic for me.

The more I think about the way I am feeling the more I chalk it up to missing my family, and the sadness I feel for a dear friend all of that is depressing as it is and then when you add the heat on top of it it just seems to make it all much worse. Cause not only do I miss family and friends I can't really get out of the house, it's just to darn hot and because I can't take the kids outside to play they get board and restless and that just seems to add to my load. I was talking to my mom the other day and we were talking about some of the trials that I have over come and one thing that I mentioned was that I really relied on my patriartical blessing it gave me the strength that I needed to overcome my opsticals. And even though what I am facing right now isn't half as bad as some of the other trials in my life, I am going to take my own advice and rely on that blessing once again. I am also going to rely on Family Home Evenings and the daily prayers, now we aren't perfect and we haven't been having them as much as oftena as we should, but today is my turn around I may not be motivated to cleanse my house of all the dirt, but I am motivated how ever to cleanse my self spiritually. I know that if I do that that everything else will fall into place, I will feel and be more willing to handle all the other things. So I have challenged myself to have daily prayers, with my children and on my own as often as we feel we need them, hold family home evenings every week without fail, and to rely more scriptures to study them and to learn from them, and of course to have more faith in myself and my Father in Heaven. Now that I have declared this out loud I am very motivated to get started, wish me luck

Celebrating Independence day!

We has so much fun celebrating out freedom as a family! Dana had Friday off so we started our celebrations by going to the AJ pool, the kids had a blast, Ellie was even splashing around having a good time. We ended the day with a BBQ out our house with friends and neighbors, it was so much fun, the best thing was that the kids slept great that night!!

Saturday we went to Saguaro Lake again the kids loved it. Kaleb and Ellie had never been to a lake before so it was new to them, Kaleb was happy to learn that he could throw rocks and sand in the water and we didn't tell him no!! Dana had fun looking for little shells with the kids. Marryne collected some pretty cool rocks. We spent

a few hrs there but had to leave cause the kids were hungry and tired. We had a nice quiet drive home. Later that night we went to the high school to see the fireworks. They started the celebration with the National Anthem, it was so neat to look around me and see hundreds of people standing with there hands over their hearts supporting their country. I even saw some people with tears in there eyes. What a great country that we live in that allows us to celebrated it the way we do to get together with friends or even strangers, cause we all have one thing in common we live in the greatest country there is and we are proud of it. Even though it was a little warm we all had fun, the kids got to share a snow cone and cheer on the fireworks. Ellie seemed to be really impressed with the fireworks at one point she whined until I laid her down so she could see them better!!

During the fireworks the song God Bless America came and as I looked at my family and thought about all the wonderful freedoms we have and all the wonderful and amazing people that put there lives on the line so we can have all of those freedoms I realized that God does bless this country and it's people everyday. I just want to express my gratitude to all those who put their lives on the line for me and my family everyday, I would also like to let their families know how grateful I am to them and the sacrifices that they make as well. Thank you so much and God bless.

Theme song guy!!

Most of you have heard me talk about Kaleb and all of his theme songs, and a lot of you have heard him it is quite entertaining. He does a wide range of songs just about anything he hears once he can mimic. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized that he hums or sings a song for whatever mood he is in or what activity he may be doing. This is how yesterday went I thought it was pretty funny.

When I opened his bedroom door to let him out in the morning he stomped out of his room doing the Iron man theme song ( ya know the part in the movie when Iron Man is breaking out of the cave!?), that was quite humorous on it's own. We sat down to have breakfast and he starts to sing the Rice Crispy song (even though he was having KIX for breakfast!!). The kids played for awhile and then it was time for lunch Kaleb started singing the peanut butter and jelly song, until he noticed we were having spaghetti and meatballs then he changed it to " meatballs, meatballs and spaghetti" ( quite clever if ya ask me.) After lunch I tell him it is nap time and he starts singing twinkle twinkle little star. When he comes out of his room after his nap he is doing the batman theme song, with a little bit of iron man mixed in. Both the kids started running around pretending to be cars, I was in the girl's room changing Ellie's diaper when and I could hear the speed racer song!When it was time to clean up for dinner he started singing whistle while you work. During dinner he started singing "scooby dooby do where are you" not sure what that had to do with anything (probably cause scooby doo is always eating) but it was funny! Then it was time for bed, now of course he wasn't happy about going to bed in fact I had to literally tackle him to the floor( and in the process really hurt my toes). After I caught him I marched him to his room and as we were marching he started doing the song off of star wars( no not the one you are thinking) ya know the one they play every time Darth Vader enters the room!!I was laughing so hard I wasn't expecting that. He made my day so much better it was a lot of fun to watch and listen to him jotting down the songs he was singing and what he was doing at the time. He hasn't done it much today, he's kinda stuck on the peanut butter and jelly and scooby doo songs. Now I actually listen when he starts singing to see what brought it on! I think we have kinda turned it into a game and we all enjoy it, Marryne has even started doing it and Ellie smiles and laughs when they sing to her. =)