Monday, November 21, 2011

Life of a (almost) 3 year old

 

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What an awesome age.

Playtime, Breakfast, playtime, Lunchtime, playtime, Dinnertime, playtime.

That is not really exactly what our day is like but it is a lot of playing and laughing and giggling and learning, with fun meals and snacks along the way.

Since I finally got a car to go places, I was really excited about getting out of the house more. It started to almost feel like I was not being a good Mom if I did not take them on an outing or Field trip EVERYDAY. If we did spend a whole day home I started to get this feeling of Laziness.

Like, “We just stayed home today.” 

I was trying to attend lots of different things. After a few weeks of really going, I thought, her life will always be GO GO GO. Lets just enjoy staying in some days, and learning and doing fun crafts and playing together. I would love to have the life of a 3 year old, and not really have to be anywhere. Don’t get me wrong… We still go and have places to attend, and we still do things and get out, but I am really enjoying these days where I get to really teach her and have an influence on her to make sure she is prepared for when her life will be… GO GO GO.

I was attending a BYD (Bishop-Youth-Discussion) last night. The Bishop read a scripture. John 17:15.

“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”

This I completely agree with. I have always wanted to be a Mom who prepares my children for the world and not Shelter them and hide them from it all. I feel like these years before school starts are so important. This is my time to teach and to allow the Spirit to be in her life everyday. So when she does enter into the world and I am not there to hold her hand, she will know the difference between good and evil, and what is right and what is wrong. And I hope that while I have the time to be with her Daily, that I am making sure that she is prepared for what ever might come her way and she can “be in the World, but not of the World.” When we race from place to place and try to get meals on the table, unload/reload dishwasher, feed the baby, tidy up and clean, I am not so good at making sure she is being taught the things that I really want her to be. I need to sometimes take a step back from busy life and really Teach her the things that matter most. She is like a sponge right now, learning so much and really understanding the things that I am teaching her. I need to take advantage of the fact that she is actually listening to the things that I say. One day, she will not so much.

So I am not going to Shelter them and hide them from the world, we still go out like I said. I do love Play dates and outings. But I want to spend these precious days that I have with her, not racing from place to place. Becoming so busy that I don’t remember to bear her my testimony and to show her and let her know that she is a Daughter of God. I don’t want to spend hours in the car, or in the stores or in play dates. It is all good, but life is all about finding a good balance. And I think I needed to come to the reality that it is more than ok to spend a day home with my girls, playing, laughing, teaching and learning. I truly consider these days to be the best and my personal favorite.

I seriously can not get enough of this girl! She is this huge spirit in this little body and I love that we can really interact and play and reason and talk and do all the types of things that most people can do together. I was telling my friend, Anna the other day about how I have been a Mom for almost 3 years and I know that I am a Mom, but to hear a little person, not a baby say, “Hey Mom, look at this!” it just really hit me that I am a MOM!

What an awesome job I have.

 

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This is one of her favorite friends. They are so cute together and I love seeing them play. They will be Sunbeams together starting January! She is growing up!!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Field Trip to the Fire Station

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  A friend of mine set up a Field Trip to visit the Firestation just a few blocks from our house. It was fun to get to go last Friday afternoon and see the Fire Truck and spray the hose. The Fire Fighters were so nice and made it fun for the kids. Kaitlyn was scared to get in the Fire Truck, but Whitney jumped right in.(with my help of course) I think Kaitlyn was actually scared of the man helping the kids in. I didn’t think that was the reason but when she turned down spraying the hose, I started to ask her why and if she was scared of the Fireman and she said Yes. So with my help she got to spray the big hose.

 

 

One of the Moms got to sport all the Heavy Gear. I can’t imagine fighting a fire in Texas, being in those hot clothes, coming out of the fire and still being in 104 degree weather. Not being able to get away from the heat. Whew! That hose would be a traditional thing I would want to play in after all was taken care of and I got out of this suit.

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The kids above with Kaitlyn are our neighbors who live 2 doors down. We love playing with them!

 

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Playing in the hose!

 

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Family Update

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Nothing is too new with us, but I wanted for my records to write a few things that are going on with us as a Family at this time.

Alma is working hard at an Accounting firm downtown. He is up early (which he is awesome at, I am the type that has to hit the snooze button at least 3 times) He works hard and during the busy seasons even harder. He is currently serving as the Wolf Leader in Scouts and also teaches that age in Primary on Sundays. 7-8 year olds.

He does have some opportunities to continue to do his love of sports. There is basketball on the weekend along with Frisbee and after Scouts there is Volleyball.

He is such a great Dad and is so great with the girls when he is home. He really steps in and helps get them to bed and give them all the love that he can before the drift off to sleep.

As for me, I am just loving being a Mom of my two girls. They are such sweethearts and there is a lot of laughter in our home. I love making meals and cleaning the house and trying new recipes and pretending to be “Teacher Suzie” with Kaitlyn. It has been fun to just do a little bit of “school” with crafts and learning for Kaitlyn and it gives me something to do and to keep occupied with.

I am currently serving as the Young Women Laurel Advisor. It has been such a neat experience and the girls in our ward are such Spiritual Giants. It is great to be able to see these girls a few times a week and to be able to work with them. It has been a great experience preparing the lessons and being able to work with the girls and to spend time with them at Mutal each week.

I spend my days, playing and laughing with my girls, meal planning and shopping for the family, going to parks and playing outside, meeting up with friends from the Ward, and when I get the chance and my girls are cooperative, I go to the church where the Women play Basketball and Volleyball. Also, get together with my Parents, which has been such a Blessing to have them close and to not get too lonely while Alma works.

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As for Kaitlyn, she is just a barrel of laughs. She is constantly in the world of Pretend. She makes me smile all the time. She is a sweet sister always. Kaitlyn is constantly saying sweet things to everyone around her, like “I love you, Mom” and “You are my Best friend.”

I love seeing her each morning and I love to hear all the cute thoughts that have been really coming out of her recently. She is almost 3 and she is super excited to have a Birthday. She is obedient and understanding when I have to tell her something that she doesn’t want to hear. Of course we still have some fits but there are a lot of times, she just says to me, “Ok Mom” She always has imaginary friends around her. ALWAYS. There names and Dora, Diego, Boots, Rapunzel, and Gauk, and Gauka.

She comes up with Random silly made up words that don’t mean anything and she gets a kick out of it.

Recently she talks a lot about her “Wife” She is always pretending to have a “Wife” by her. “Mom, this is my wife” Not sure how she came up with that word. I might have told her that Dad is not my dad but I am his wife. Too cute the way they take some words and make them their own.

The other day she wanted Alma to do something, and she said, “You have to Dad, because you are my Dad and you can do it. You can do everything” I seriously love listening to the things she says. I need to write them down a lot more.

She has truly become my best friend.

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Lastly, there is Whitney. She is such a happy girl. She is constantly smiling and laughing. She is a cuddle bug and it is so cute. When she is on the floor just playing if you lay next to her she will without hesitation put her head against yours and cuddle in and such her thumb. It is the cutest thing ever.

She takes two naps a day. One from 9-11am and then another from 1-3pm. Give or take a half an hour on both naps. She mostly wakes up around 6:45-7am. Sometimes as late as 8:30am. Goes down around 6:30-7pm. She is sneaky though, when she wakes she doesn’t make noise. She doesn’t cry so sometimes I have to really listen on the Monitor or go check on her to see if she is awake. She just lays in her bed so content for an hour if I let her. It is hard because some mornings she is so quiet and I go peek on her and she is wide awake just playing in her crib making no noise.

She still loves to suck her thumb and she loves food. She is getting so good at really moving around but she is not crawling yet. She spins in circles and rolls all over the place and really gets around on the floor to where she wants to go. She gets up on her knees but still doesn’t seem interested in crawling. Which is ok with me. She pretty much stays where I put her and I don’t have to worry about the stairs yet.

She loves her family a ton! She really knows each of us and you can tell she just adores us all. She has a really sweet soft personality and she hardly ever cries. She loves when we take her hands and make her walk around the house. Almost every day when Alma gets home, he takes her in his arms and lays her horizontal like superman and has her chase Kaitlyn around the house. She loves it A TON! She laughs so much when Kaitlyn is around. We can’t get enough of her and she is just such a blessing to have in our lives. Hard to imagine what our life was like before we had her.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Splish Splash

 

I love that our sink is deep enough to do this:

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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

HaPpY hALLoWeEn

 

 

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I did an Angry Birds Theme for Trunk or Treating!