Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day

Sam and I were talking last night, and we decided that we should start celebrating my Mother's Day on the Saturday before. Having it on Sunday just isn't working for me. Sam has been in a bishopric four out of the five years that we've had children to celebrate with, so there's never a nice Sunday morning with breakfast in bed, him getting the kids ready, etc. He's gone before the kids are even awake most Sundays, and he's there long after church is over taking care of business. Yesterday morning was so stressful for me that I was in tears when Sam was leaving for his meetings. Emmitt has been up half the night for the last few nights so I was just going back to sleep when the sun came up Sunday morning. I should have stayed awake and gotten in the shower but I was too tired since this has been happening for the last few nights. The kids and I were embarrassingly late for church. I think it was the latest I've ever been. Other stressful things happened at church that I was just too tired to take in stride. Once church was over and I was at my parent's house things felt so much better. My dad made us dinner and Emmitt took a nap. I took Emmitt to the Dr. this morning, and just as I suspected, he has a double ear infection again. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. I need the sleep.

I love being a mother because children remind us how exciting the world is. They are great at showing us how to forgive and forget. The children are always happy to see me in the morning and they love me even when I am impatient and don't feel deserving of such love. I'm so thankful that these two are mine!
The best picture I got with my two little sweeties. Obviously, Em wasn't having it.  

I've been trying to get into running again so Sam got me a new Nike watch that tracks how far you've gone and other stuff. It's a joint Mother's/Father's Day gift since we both wanted it and they're expensive. It will be nice to not have to drive around anymore trying to calculate new routes.

Emmitt made this for me in Nursery. I'm surprised he laid down long enough for them to trace him! Emmitt keeps us busy, but he has an infectious smile and endless curiosity about the world around him. He is such a tease and loves to pester Mila.

This was Mila's present to me. She told me on Friday she wanted to get me some flowers for Mother's Day. I bought these on Saturday, and then on Sunday morning I showed them to her and said, "Oh, Mila, thank you for the flowers!" She looked at me kind of confused since this was the first time she had seen them, then she covered so well and said, "They're for you Mom. Happy Mother's Day!" I love little Mila so much! My journey as a mother started with her, and she has been so patient with me as I've been learning on the job. She is the most encouraging child. She loves to tell people what a good job they are doing. Even me. Thanks Mila!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Life at Dandelion Manor

My family has a bit of an obsession with British old-timey shows like Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, etc. Our recent favorite has been Downton Abbey. All the houses in these shows have fancy names. So why not ours?  
Dandelion Manor is the nickname I gave our little house because our yard looked like this...
 Thankfully, the dandies have died down and our yard doesn't look so trashy anymore.

On this particular day at the Manor I was watching a friend's kids and we were having some fun. I found this idea for sidewalk paint on Pinterest from here. I love Pinterest! It's equal parts water and cornstarch with some food coloring. The kids had a blast with it!


Then they made me some bowls of delicious "soup". Mila kept saying, "This soup needs lots more weed. Let me find some more weed for our soup." She just meant more plants of course :)

They climbed trees. When Mila stepped down the few inches from the tree root to the ground she excitedly told me, "Mom, that was the highest I've ever been!"

Life at Dandelion Manor is good!
Read on to see all the stuff I've been too lazy to post about till now.

My Little Superheroes

They found some x-ray glasses...


some super capes...


some liquid power...

and some super helmets.
Now they are all ready to save my day! 

I can't get over how funny Mila's face is in this picture! Hilarious!

The Zoo!

Mila had been asking to go to the zoo since October. At least weekly I had to explain why we weren't going to the zoo. Finally, spring rolled around and we went.
 They were so excited!

 When Mila saw the leopard, she ran over squealing, "Ohhhh, Mom, it's so beautiful."

 We had recently bought the movie Tarzan so the kids were particularly excited about seeing the gorillas, but the cage was empty.

The monkeys sufficed and were definitely the favorite of the day.
We ended up getting a zoo pass since it will pay for itself in two visits. I told Mila that we will now be able to go any time we want. So the next morning Mila woke up and said, "Let's go to the zoo again TODAY!"

Easter

We had a very lovely Easter weekend. The weather was nice, the kids had a good time, and Mila learned that we don't celebrate Easter because of eggs. We had to work on that one for a while. We colored eggs and had an egg hunt on Saturday. Sunday we went to a wonderful church meeting, had a nice dinner with family, then went home and gave the kids their baskets.
 This was the first time Emmitt had hunted eggs. He was a pro.

 But then he took his eggs and dumped them in the garden. I had to convince him that he wanted to keep them.

 Mila had been looking forward to the egg hunt for some time and could hardly wait.

 Around this time she had been particularly obsessed with giving and getting pony rides. She asked me if I wanted a ride, but for safety reasons I had to decline. A few moments later I saw this out the window.

 How is this the best picture I have of them in their Easter clothes? They aren't even looking at me, and Mila doesn't have shoes on. 

 This "hat" is actually a toy dog's bed. He thought this was so funny.

 Mila was so careful and took things out one at a time to enjoy them. Emmitt just kept grabbing things and tossing them out until he got to this...
That was all he really cared about.