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Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Happy Things of Spring

kids 4-10-2011 12-19-59 PM 

 

Baseball and Softball

Gabe baseball 4-7-2011 12-44-35 AM

Gabe and Emma started playing ball.  They both really like it.  I’ve really enjoyed Emma’s games because she is getting old enough that they are actually playing.  They even have a kid pitcher and everytsoftball2hing.  softball3It’s really fun to watch. 

 

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softball1 5-16-2011 7-33-39 PM

Easter

Easter weekend was so nice.  We had a neighborhood Easter egg hunt, we colored eggs, and the kids woke up Easter morning to find their baskets.

Mia and Abigail 4-21-2011 3-20-14 PM

kids - easter 4-21-2011 3-28-37 PM

  kids - easter sunday  

We’ve had a great spring. The kids have been scootering all over.  They are scooter-crazyGabe scooter

IMG_8692Abigail and Mom 5-16-2011 6-17-34 PM 

Stormie is getting bigger.  She’s still cute, and we still love her.stormie 4-10-2011 12-48-26 PM

  Abigail 2

Happy Spring Everybody!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Motherhood is Sweet

For Mother’s Day, I woke up to a little yellow post-it note on my ceiling that said, “Happy Mother’s Day” .    Mark had left little notes all around in random places.  They were filled with praise, compliments and sweet things.  I am still finding them here and there.  Today, as I went to use my camera,  I found a note under the lens that said, “Smile!  I love you” note 1 5-16-2011 10-00-47 PM note 1 5-16-2011 9-58-10 PM

The Kids found these notes very intriguing and kept telling me where they were hidden throughout the day on Mother’s Day. 

When Monday morning came, I awoke to an even sweeter set of notes from my kids.  note 3 5-16-2011 9-56-07 PM

I am such a blessed woman to be able to experience these little joys of motherhood.  And even more blessed to be able to share these joys with a very charming husband.   I love being a Mom.   note 4 5-16-2011 10-00-12 PM

Monday, May 9, 2011

“Mom, best friends don’t yell.”

I love Mother’s Day, and I love being a mother.  One of my greatest “mothering” faults - the thing that nags me when being praised - is that sometimes I yell.   My kids really hate it, and I hate it.   So,  I’ve been trying to work on this.  I believe that having the spirit in the home is the best solution to this.  Daily Scripture study, and prayer throughout the day helps a lot.  But there are days when I could use something else.  After some discussions with the kids, we came up with something that has worked quite well.  

cards 4-9-2011 3-02-04 PM

It’s a chart. (yay for charts)   This isn’t for the kids so much as for me.  It’s something I can do instead of yelling.  I like time-outs but as kids get older, time-outs can be very inconvenient.  I am not a fan of spanking.  It seemed the only way I could get across to my kids that what they were doing was not okay was to yell.  (and yelling “works”. They will immediately do what I say, but again, no one likes the yelling including me)    So now,  I have an outlet.   After I’ve asked my kids nicely to stop playing and get ready for bed 3 or 4 times, now I will calmly tell them to “pull their card”  instead of screaming.   

The way it works is,  the kids start out on green each day, and if they do something they should not do, they move their card to yellow, then orange, then red.   They are able to move their card up for good behavior.   If they end the day on red, they have a punishment.  

It has worked really good for me.  We’ve been doing it about a month now.   I hope to have many more days of being a soft-spoken mother. 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Wiped Out

We started off April with a great General Conference.  I love to hear the General Authorities speak.  It’s like a spiritual boot camp. 

Unfortunately by Sunday, we were all wiped out.   Gabe was so sick we ended up taking him to the Emergency Room that night.  Abigail got the same sickness on Sunday.  I think Emma and I got a little bit of the virus too because this is seriously how we fell asleep watching conference. 

sleeping conference sunday 4-3-2011 3-07-06 PM