Best Self Photo Ever

Charlotte it turning into quite the photographer. Here's her self portrait. And here's the little beuaty she took of me the other day. Is this really what I look like to my children?
Oh well, I thought it was funny.

Stories to Tell Dan (When I see him again)

Two days ago Charlotte picked out a cute little shirt that her Aunt Rachael gave to her. It's a white button up shirt with thin purple stripes. She put it on all by herself and was very proud of the outfit she was wearing. She turned to me and said, "I look like Daddy!" And I suppose she did.

Yesterday as we were in the car Charlotte asked me, "Why does Daddy sleep at the hospital now?" I thought that was funny.

The Destroyer

My son makes messes faster than I can clean them up. Not little messes either. Messes like pooping on the floor and walking through it. Messes like emptying an entire sippy cup of juice on my comforter. And messes like destroying his crib.

I'm sure you're wondering what I'm talking about when I say he is destroying his crib. I mean he's eating it. You know how a lot of kids chew on the top bar of their crib when they're teething? My son started when he was getting his first teeth, and hasnt' stopped. He has literally chewed pieces off the top of his crib. It sort of blows my mind that he is eating his crib. Clearly we're going to have to sand the rail down and restain it for the next child, but what do I do in the meantime?

A Very Very Very Fine House

I was waiting to post photos of all our work until it was done and everything was clean. What a joke. I decided to stop waiting and just post them.

First the best before photo I could find:

As you can see the walls were peach with dark green above the chair rail. The wood was partially stripped. What you can't see is that the wall was in despirate need of resurfacing. I also didn't have a very good before photo of the bench, which was beautiful, but also partially stripped. Here's the new view as you come in the front door.


We repainted the wall a much better green. The first green we painted was beautiful, but matched nothing else in our house. This looks much better. We also stripped, stained, painted, and put down a carpet runner on the stairs.

We also installed this new hall light. Previously this hall had a gross pull string light. Now it has this little beauty that we got on clearance at Lowe's. I enjoy the area so very much now. All that is left are the details and decorating it. I hope you enjoyed the update. I sure did.

Feeling Bad For Him

Yesterday Dan woke up at 4 AM, ate breakfast by 4:30 and was out of the house by 4:45.

He was in the OR most of the day. He didn't make it home until 6:30 PM. At which point he ate dinner, his second meal for the day. He was so wiped out that he just laid on the floor at the top of the landing until it was time to put the kids to bed. I assumed he'd be going to bed at the same time.

He probably thought so too.

At 8 PM one of the women in our ward called us frantically searching for people to help her husband move them from their current apartment into their new place. They had to be out of the place that night and nobody had shown up to help.

Dan wasn't home until 10 PM.

He said he needed some water so he sat in the kitchen while I did dishes and talked his head right off. He is so patient and loving and hard working.

He's superman.

As a little pick-me-up I showed him the video of Greg dancing at the concert we went to a few weeks ago. I can't figure out how to flip the video so you'll have to tilt your head.

I think he's got some pretty awesome moves.

Patience

For the past two months or so James 1:2-4 has been circling my brain.

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

I guess it comes as no real surprise that I've been trying to work on having patience this time as well. I've been getting so upset at the crying, screaming, lonely days I've been living with the toddlers of the house and just wishing I had the self control to not be so frustrated. Because I do love what I'm doing. I love this wonderful life I have and my amazing kids. There isn't a day that passes where I'm not amazed at their lovely beings. Over and over to myself I've been thinking what is it that I'm missing? what am I not seeing here that is preventing me from being more patient with my kids, myself, my husband, and my situation? What part of my faith is being worked on?



On Sunday I was particularly focused (or shall I say nervous) about the upcoming three moths where Dan will, for all intents and purposes, be gone from our family. I was worried about trying to be on top of everything all on my own and how I don't really think I can do that. Then that scripture came again to my mind. Only this time I realized something. I don't know if it really connects to this verse, but it whispered peace to me.



I realized that patience is such a Godly trait. He has so much patience with me. These months he has not been trying to tell me to be patient with my progress, with what I'm doing, but to be patient with my children. Something, my very wonderful sister-in-law said to me while they were here on spring break in April came to me as well. She said, in essence, its hard for moms to not think of their first child as a little adult. How often I have thought of my children as little adults, getting frustrated with how much they blow things out of proportion. Of course the color of the Popsicle is important to you. Of course you care if you get to wear that shirt backwards. What the Lord wants for me is to see that. And to settle into it.



It came to me that in order for me to be where I want to be, to be patient and to have a loving home I needed to sacrifice something. I need to be able to stand back and sacrifice my control of the daily situations. In order for me to lead my family the way I want them to be led I need to focus more on serving my family and taking the time to listen to them. Because when I do I am blown away by the things that I learn from them. What a wonderful blessing it is to be a mom.

Mean Girls

My daughter has figured out the power of words. Specifically mean words. It's so disheartening to hear her say calculated things to get a reaction out of her friends. After one loooong week of trying "discipline" her about it I finally just sat down and talked with her about it on Saturday. At church on Sunday I asked the nursery leaders to keep their ears open and notify me if anything was said and then again at playgroup today and they said she was great. Hopefully that little streak was broken. It just makes me sad for the time, which I know will happen, when she's the recipient of that sort of behavior. Hopefully that isn't any time too soon.