FIRE!

    Our joke this year was that as Mormon's we don't do a lot of what most people would consider crazy things, but on the fourth of July we definitely light things on fire. Boy Scouts always seem to be way too into explosives. Anyways, we had such a great fourth of July. We had to celebrate twice!
   July 3rd: We had a few friends from our ward over to let the kids swim, eat, and do little fireworks in our front yard. Little did we know our friend Jared loves fireworks and bought a ton of stuff for the kids. It was super fun. Emree was brave because she had friends watching her (although she did like to light her sparkler away from everyone else).  Jesse thought the fireworks were AWESOME. True Boy Scout coming your way. He did learn rather quickly to not touch the fire end of the sparkler... we warned him; he tried it anyways.

 On the Actual Fourth of July we headed to Gridley! Our good friends the Nielsens were in town from Vegas and we had to go see them. Plus, Emree worships the ground Scarlet walks on. We had a blast swimming, eating out, playing croquet, and hitting up the Biggs firework show. We seriously had great seats and got there right as it started. Fun day, Good Friends!

It really could not have been a better Fourth. :)

Just a play on words...

Today Jesse wanted some Pirates Booty. He grabbed the bag and our conversation went as follows...

J: "I want Booty!"

Me: "Okay. Do you want it in a bowl?"

J: "No. I want it in a bag."

Me: " You can't have the whole bag. A bowl or a cup."

J: (crying so hard) I don't want it in Boulder's bowl. I want it in my bowl."

It was a pretty funny mix up from my end, but not so funny to Jesse.... Boulder is our dog.

Dentist... HELP!

 I was the proudest little Mommy on Monday! Emree had a Dentist appointment and she could not have behaved better. She sat while I got my cleaning and a little work done and then when it was her turn and she was so brave. She let them take x-rays and count her teeth, brush and do every little step. I was so proud of her because she didn't once throw a fit. BUT and this is a big BUT... she has a cavity and a half (dentist's words not mine). Now I have to take her back next week and try to get her to be brave through a filling and a buckle. I am so sad. Tips and Tricks?

Attention Seeking...

    Parenting is hard. Just when you figure something out it changes. Just when you have your life under control something blows up in your face. Or at least in MY face and it reminds me every single day that I am imperfect. I often get those little yells from Emree, "I wish I lived at Sadie's house!" haha It always makes me giggle because she seems so a head of her time. Sometimes I am tempted to say back, "Me too. Why don't we go drop you off there."
    My most recent realization is that I have a large parenting flaw that needs to be fixed. I tend to give a lot of attention to the child throwing the fit and very little to the child behaving themselves. I have created a lot of negative attention seeking in my home. For example, Preschool Graduation: Emree was the only child who would not participate and stand up there and do what she was suppose to because she wanted me to cuddle her and give her  what she thought may be better attention then participating. Do you have a child that does/ did this? Any ideas? What did you do?

Today I Learned That Emree Took All The Pretty

          Okay, so maybe it was yesterday, but I am just typing it now because our internet was down for the last 24 plus hours. Anyways...

      I was tucking Emree in last night and asking her how her day was. This is always her cue to start stalling for bedtime. Even if she has little to say, she starts making up pretty miraculous stories that go on and on and on and on (you get my point). She gets sad when you cut her off and usually ends up crying. Oh to be three. We had read a princess book last night and in it there was some line about Ms. Potts thinking Belle was the loveliest of them all. That really stuck out to Emree and she said, "Belle isn't the lovliest, every princess is the loveliest." I told her she was right. Then we finished the story and that is when I asked her about her day. She started telling me about how beautiful she was. I stopped her and told her I was beautiful too. She looked at me a little skeptical. Then I told her that everyone was beautiful and had different beautiful things about them. For example, I told her she had beautiful lips, Jesse had beautiful eyes, mommy had beautiful hair (she hates me hair). She stopped me quickly. "I have beautiful eyes, lips, and hair. You might need to find something else."

Wow! Thanks Em.

Today I Learned To Cook

     This morning as we were literally running out the door to church (crossing our fingers that we wouldn't be late) and I tripped over a package on my doorstep that must have come yesterday. It was a box from my mother. Filled to the brim with items for my children; my kids were giddy as we opened it on the drive to church. "Panties!" Emree yelled. "Bubbles!" clapped Jesse. Hidden inside their treasures was the "Moses Lake Sixth Ward Recipe Book". Filled with recipes from lots of the women I love. People who are close to my heart and who I often missed. I was seriously excited. I am going to cook my way through it! Why not. I think it will be fun to cook something out of it each day until I am done.  My friend Kate did it with a professional chef's cook book, I am going to follow all my home town ladies.

            For lunch I made Heather William's German Pancakes! YUM and they took only 25 minutes from beginning to end. It was perfect. Thanks Heather!! We thought of you while we made them and missed not seeing you over the Christmas Holidays!

Here's to a New Year and New Recipes! 

Thanks Grandma...HUGs!

Today I Learned That I am Only Impatient With My Husband

Okay, maybe not only, but mostly impatient with my husband.

         Ty was supposed to be home at 1:40 today so that I could go teach a lesson. I was hoping he would be home sooner, but I had this feeling that he would stroll in last minute. He likes to give me just enough time to stress out and bicker about how I was going to be late.  Well, I hadn’t heard from him all morning (which was to be expected because he was out of service on a camp out for the Young Men), but I thought he would call me when he was on his way home. 

         1:25 rolls around and no word from Ty. I start to stress like normal and drop him a text. He calls and says that he won’t make it. I lose it. “What? You won’t make it? What am I suppose to do? What were you thinking? You tried? Well, that obviously wasn’t good enough?”  I really said those words. NOT NICE. I would have yelled at my kids; Definitely not nice. 

        Come to find out the car had gotten stuck in the snow on the way home, he had to have someone pull him out and had just gotten service. He had tried. Now, I am not trying to write this as a pity party to Danielle. I don’t need everyone to tell me it is okay. I am just stating the obvious. Had anyone else called I would not have reacted that way. I would have listened; I would have been patient and understanding. I would have told them that it was okay and that I could make it work, but it was Ty. I lost it. My husband does more for me then anyone else, He listens more, he cares more, and he puts up with more of my annoying behaviors. He deserves more.

New Years Resolution 2013:

1.   Put your hands up Jesse!

2. Face your fears Emree!

3. Be Patient with your main man Dani!!

This year is going to be awesome. Isn’t it like a cardinal rule to never ask for patience?

Today I Learned That Kids Will Surprise You

    Emree has A LOT of fears. She is scared of water in her eyes, the dark, buckling her seatbelt (that might just be pure laziness), going to dance class, doing something wrong, that she will look dumb, and DOGS.  Yep, we got a dog. I thought this would help her with her fear and the first two weeks I was getting pretty nervous. She would only stay up on the chairs or table. She didn’t want to be on the same level as the dog. When she was in one room and she didn’t know where the dog was she refused to go into another room. She even waited too long to go to the bathroom and had a few accidents. It seemed to be getting worse and Ty and I were losing our patience. I had read that fears are irrational and that you can’t rationalize away a child’s fear.  I read that you need to give them space and time and try not to use phrases that would make them scared. Key words like, “There is nothing to be SCARED of” or “ He won’t BITE you” or “Do you think he is going to ATTACK you?”  Kids can only hear the scary words in those phrases and just think… SCARED, BITE, and ATTACK. So, here I was being an informed mother and trying my best to teach her to love the puppy. IT WASN’T WORKING!!!  Yesterday we resorted to forcing her to walk on the ground and to hold the puppy and tried to rationalize with her. All the things we weren’t supposed to do. She wasn’t very happy with us to say the least.

       Today I learned that kids will surprise you. I don’t know why or how, but Emree has played with the puppy all day today. She fed him food from her hands, she walked on the floor, she let him chase her and even laughed when he licked her face and nibbled at her heels. She told me she loved BOULDER and is so happy that she got a puppy. What? Maybe it is the cough syrup speaking. She has been sick and so we gave her a little… That must be it. I will keep you posted.

Today I learned to put my hands up!

Warning: "Over-share" 

     I have a little guy that can't seem to keep his hands out of his pants. This causes accident after accident all over our house and at night when he is sleeping. Our biggest problem is he has outgrown the onesie and out smarted the zip down jammies. It has been driving me crazy pretty much all of 2012. 2013 Resolution : PUT YOUR HANDS UP! A friend of mine says they use this phrase with teenage mentally challenged kids and it allows for the result you need with out establishing shame. He is barely two and he doesn't understand how gross it is, but it has got to stop. I thought I was winning the battle today when he looks up at me from his little puddle and said, "Uh Oh Mommy!" I couldn't help, but smile at him because he is so cute (That is why he has survived this long). If it doesn't stop the accidents at least he looks adorable as he raises the roof all day long. One pee on the floor for Jesse today and one accident from Boulder. Boulder's mess was basically at our landlord's feet. Yeah for boys and their Puppies! Wave your hands in the air if you just don't care!

Starting New

I believe we celebrate the new year with such excitement because we all want a fresh start. It is a new year. It is 2013. This year my family can be better, closer together, cleaner, more organized, accomplish more, get over our fears, reach new heights, and soar. We look to a new year with anticipation. We hold off on diets and goals until the special day arrives. I am excited for this year. I am excited for what it might bring and for how I will change and grow.  Here is to a new round of resolutions and a year of blogging more. I want to write down and document those funny things that my kids do and all those lovely things I get to learn as a mom. I want to look back and remember every moment and every smile. And laugh at every silly mistake. I am ready 2013, BRING IT ON!