Pacifier {Pacie} Fairy

{Saturday} February 26, 2011

Charly . . . well . . . she LOVES her pacie. And when I say LOVE I mean LLLOOOOOVVEEES it! Well, all of them. Doesn't matter what kind, color, size . . . she. is. a MAJOR fan.

I introduced her to the idea of letting the pacifier fairy come when she turned three so that she could take all of the baby pacies to new babies. She seemed okay with the idea after talking about the pacie fairy leaving something for her behind. Mosty, I think she seemed okay with it because her birthday was a few weeks away.

This morning when I was putting her down for her nap she wanted nothing to do with it. She got up fifty three times and screamed and cried every time I put her back. I finally told her that if she got up again I would let the pacie fairy know to come early. Well, as my luck would have it, she got up. So tonight . . . guess who will be paying us a visit? That's right, the pacifier fairy. Boo.

Now, the pictures that follow show how extremely excited she is . . . tonight when she went to bed . . . not too pleased. This will be interesting.

We found a cute bag, and after we went all over the house gathering up every pacie we could find she put them all in the bag . . .

All set for the pacie fairy to come and take them.

Doing a little jig . . .

SOOO excited!!!

After the pacifier fairy came and took away her most prized possessions {really} she left her some new things to take to bed with her. A brand new, oh so soft teddy bear, and fancy Tinker Bell night gown, and some cute princess sippy cups for her "water and ice" that she begs for every night. Hopefully after tonight she'll have an easier time going to sleep without her pacifier.

Mormon Battalion Visitors Center SD

{Friday} February 18, 2011

Jeff & Jen Card came to San Diego with their family to go to Disneyland and visit with everyone . . . just a fun vacation. For the last few days they're going to stay with us so we met up with them today in Old Town San Diego to go to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. They redid it a couple years ago and made it really fun to visit.

There was a misunderstanding to where we were meeting up . . . we went straight to the Visitors Center in SD and they went somewhere else. Oops! While we waited for them to come to San Diego we did a few things . . .

At first we just thought we got there a little before them, so we watched a few short videos . . .

. . . then went outside where they have a few fun activities for the kids to do.

Building . . .

pumping water . . .

and panning for "gold".

They even got to keep what they found {too bad it isn't real!!}. Reha's find.

Hannah

Once we realized that we had a misunderstanding we decided to go ahead and take the tour and just meet up with them at the end.

Me, Hannah, & Porter hanging out at the end of the tour while waiting for the Cards to finish their tour.

It was a lot of fun. I'm glad Wade was able to leave work early to join us!!

Valentines 2011

I always love when the week of Valentines Day comes around and the girls bring home their class lists and can make a Valentine for all of their friends. It always brings me back to when I was in elementary school. I used to LOVE making all of my friends Valentines! Probably because it meant I'd be getting some too . . . ha!

Reha with her class list . . . crossing them off as she goes.

Hannah breaking her store bought Valentines apart.

Thank you, Mr. Wonka, for making my life so much easier. Will you be my Valentine? Sincerely, Lazy Mom.

Busy at work . . . about the time they got sick of writing their names neatly on so many Valentines.

They wanted to make Valentines for their friends, Kendall & Erika in Utah, so we took some "heart" pictures to print out for them.

Hannah's heart . . .

Reha's cute squished heart . . .

And Charly's attempt. She really wasn't grumpy . . . just concentrating extra hard to get her fingers just right. Good job big girl!

Heart Attack!!

{Sunday} February 6, 2011

Sunday's are always super stressful for me. There's something about getting myself and four kids ready for church that definitely puts a wrench in my "day of rest." This particular day I was really annoyed . . . no one would get ready when I asked and we ended up leaving too late to get a "soft seat." When we pulled out of our driveway Charly yelled, "Wook!!" and as the garage door was going down we all saw our sweet surprise. Someone had come to our house either that morning or the night before and gave us a heart attack. So fun and it totally changed my mood.

Thank you Eldridge's!! I know it was supposed to be a secret but one of your sweet girls spilled the beans. hehe

My CUTE Boy!!

{Saturday} February 5, 2011

I just had to post some random pictures of this cute boy. He makes me melt!

Still {Alive}

So, I did it. I took the plunge and joined a women's gym. Notice my shoes . . . my nice, new, clean shoes. Isn't it great to have new shoes? Only thing is, I bought them . . . are you ready for this? In January . . . of 2007!! Why are they clean you might ask? Because I've worn them a hand full of times. Seriously?! Time to break them in! I ran one mile and it took me 11 minutes, 50 seconds. And one more thing, it just about killed me. How do people think running is fun?! I'm really praying that it gets easier. Everyone says it does, and Wade laughs at me over thinking that the 5K we're going to run in 4 weeks is going to be hard. So we'll see. I really would love to enjoy it and be a "runner," but if it's this hard all the time, I'm not sure that I'll be able to stick with it. I did a couple other things . . . started a push up challenge, worked my skinny calves a little bit and hung out in a tanning bed for a few minutes, but that was it. I plan on going most days and getting better at running longer distances, and wearing these shoes out!

{Owning} it!

I've been stuck. For a year. Pathetic. I thought I wasn't . . . that I had "gotten over" {whatever that means} my slump after Charish passed away . . . but no. I keep catching myself in hysterics over the littlest things. The other day Charlise got a gift bag out of my wrapping box that Charish had given Hannah a gift in {that's right, I'm a re-bagger} and I about lost it because she wrinkled it. What?! So stupid that I'm still trying to hold onto anything I possibly can that even remotely has to do with her in some way. I'm in a different place than I was a year ago . . . the pain isn't so breathtaking . . . but I am still unbelievable broken. I think about her and my stomach gets in knots and my eyes well up. Can't WAIT to think about her and smile. Sometimes I do . . . especially if the girls bring her up. I try to keep things light with them and let them have their moment without me dramatizing it . . . but mostly I just get that empty feeling.

So . . . what to do about it . . .

I've been thinking a lot about things I want to improve about myself. New Years always does that to me. And the main thing I came up with . . . I have GOT to start owning things about myself . . . everything! No matter how hard life can be. I have had a lot of trials in my life . . . a lot of things that have been extremely difficult to overcome. So the way that I "deal" with them . . . I smile and pretend that I'm over them and move on. What I've learned recently is that I'm far from "over" the things that have happened to me. I. have. to. own them so that I can deal with them and move on the right way! And I know, without a single doubt, that once I get the Spirit back in my life all the way I can prayerfully deal with some old issues and be ready to tackle the new ones that are undeniably going to come.

So here we go . . . my resolutions {I know, I month late . . . but they HAVE been on my mind, just never actually wrote them down}:

1. BACK TO THE BASICS!!! Prayer, scripture study, FHE . . . all of it. How hard is that?! So easy, but I seem to make it hard. Weird.

2. Get in shape! It's been a long time since I've felt good inside . . . I mean like, going up the stairs and not getting winded, good. I'm what I call a "skinny fat girl". Can't wait to improve on this! 

3. Run a 5K. Already committed to one on March 5th . . . great way to turn 31 . . . checking off a resolution!

4. Run a half marathon . . . if I don't die trying to run the 5K.

5. Draw at least one piece a month.

6. Get in touch with my loved ones, even the ones I feel like I'm somewhat in "touch" with. Last year I made this resolution after my grandmother died . . . before Charish died . . . and just never did it. 

7. Spend more time playing with the girls and less time griping at them. I truly believe that a family who plays together, stays together.

8. Open an Etsy shop to sell some handmade things.

9. Get my personal blog and my craft blog back up and running.

10. Take more pictures and video of everything. I really wish my parents had done this . . . so while I'm doing it for myself, ultimately I'm doing it for my posterity. 

11. Come what may, and LOVE it!!

Okay.

I think that's enough. And I think the best time to start is right now. Going to join a gym and start working out in the morning. Wish me luck!!