Words and Some Pictures

I feel like I am in a comfortable and fun stage of life right now. Emmy is an absolute handful, but not the kind that stresses me out to the breaking point. I went and saw a friend last night with her newborn. Now THAT stresses me out. Just looking at her precious little boy gave me anxiety. Funny thing is, it still made me want one. But OHHHHH not yet. I can feel myself growing as a mother, and I am thankful for that. I am getting better at deciding what is important to me, and what I will let fall to the wayside because it is not MOST important. Sometimes it's hard to let those things go (kids hair looking perfect, spotless floor, etc) but it also feels wonderful. A friend told me about a talk she had heard about being your own kind of best mom. The kind YOUR kids need. I am trying to do that more. Be my own best kind of mom and not worry about what I'm not.

Emmy loves to wear my bracelets and necklaces and bags.

 And oh how she loves the fridge and freezer. She makes a beeline for them whenever they are open. I can't help but let her hang out in there for a minute since she works so hard to get over there in time. Plus it's hot!

 Just a photo of a haircut Jansen got recently. I had trimmed his sideburns a few days ago (which Nate has since banned me from ever doing again and rightfully so). 

Sometimes They Get a Hold of the Camera...

What. In. The. World. ??? 

I cannot figure out how this look was captured, but apparently Jansen receives all photo credit. 

So I guess we'll give credit to Natalie for these two.

Rainy Day

These pictures are a couple weeks old, but blogworthy nonetheless. One Sunday afternoon the rain REALLY came down. Living in the absence of rain makes occasional wets days exciting. I didn't really believe I would ever need this umbrella when I bought it...but here it is doing it's job. Jansen and Natalie took it upon themselves to save all the drowning bugs that afternoon.

Emmy's Day

Emmy's birthday fell on a fairly busy Saturday, so her presents and cake got quickly jammed somewhere in the middle of the day. As of Friday night I had not bought her one toy present. I just didn't feel like she needed anything. Guilt set in though, and I ran to Toys R Us that night for a couple things. See our bedroom floor in the background? Life feels so messy right now. The kids can scatter things faster than I blink. 

We did a cake again. Even though I really didn't think we would. I dumped 80% of it in the garbage today, just like we always do.

Not just a slice for this lady. The whole cake.

The biggest compliment of all on the cake...Emmy going for seconds from the garbage can.

Emmy, You Are...

One!

Emmy, at one year old you are...

...going on 16

...melting hearts with those eyes

...not afraid of dirt and trucks

...noticing the birds, to your father's chagrin

...rockin' the post nap hair

...always willing to help mom out in the kitchen

...car trasher and backseat warrior

 ...CLINGY

...the best thing the mailman has brought us so far!!!

A Soccer Post By Jansen

here I am with my soccer ball in a cool action here ready to go to soccer (this is the first day of soccer and already a real game), and we did a little practicing before the real game. and now it is quite the thing of soccer, and our team won, but soccer isn't about winning, it is about having fun. plus, it's not important to win, but it's not good to lose.

Not Effective

Emmy likes to have a bowl and a utensil at meals now. It's not an effective way to actually get food inside her mouth, but it's entertaining. And a good life skill. And I have the pleasure of cleaning it all up several times a day. Speaking of food, I could just eat her up.

A Favorite Friday

Yesterday started off like a normal Friday. We walked to school, and by the time I pushed that big double stroller up the driveway, I was sweaty and hot. A little while later Nate called with the most glorious news. Well, nice news for us. I am sure it caused a lot of problems for others, and I hope everyone is okay. The power was out at the hospital! He was finished for the day.

On his way home he had stopped to get a brake light fixed, but then decided to just do it himself. Good thing too...it was easy and inexpensive. Natalie helped him.

I had the idea that Nate should go surprise Jansen at his school and have lunch with him. As he was walking out the door, I told him to make sure and get some pictures...but that didn't end up happening. I have just recently forgiven him. :) He also stayed through recess and spent some time helping in the classroom and reading Junie B. Jones to the class. Jansen loved it.

And then he came home to have lunch with Emmy.

We used a Groupon to try a place called Teriyaki Madness for dinner that night.

And then the best part of our day...our date! I don't think we had been on one since May. We went down to the Venetian and took a ride on one of the indoor gondolas. Usually you have to share one, but it worked out that night and I got to ride alone.

There are so many tourists and visitors in Las Vegas. Lots of them were taking pictures of gondola riders. There one was one particular spot when we were heading under a bridge that lots of and lots of cameras were flashing. I felt like Lindsay Lohan. Hahahaha.

This is our gondolier in mid-song. He had a great voice. 

Nate planned this date, so he gets all the credit. One of the main reasons we came to the Venetian was to see one of Peter Lik's galleries. We were in love. We want so badly have one of these in our home, but they come with quite the price tag, so we will just have to dream. What a fun Friday.

Just Having Fun

Earlier this year we got together for dinner with one of Nate's friends from ROTC. Our families got along so well, and we've had a lot of fun meeting up more often. The kids got a second wind late one Sunday afternoon and were pulling out all the poses.

And running and running and running through the house. This creates tired children, so we encourage it.

Casen let me take lots of pictures of his pure awesomeness.

On Labor Day we went up to Mt. Charleston. You sure learn to appreciate this kind of beauty when you don't get to see it often. And to think we had to put on sweatshirts!

We had Family Home Evening while we were up there. You know, the ones that last about 3 minutes. That's about how long we could keep the kids' attention.

I was just thankful that I had one more chance to put Emmy in her long sleeved cat shirt before she outgrows it. Who doesn't love a cat in glasses?

And there's the creepy mommy hand in the above picture. Juuuuuust in case Emmy tries to jump out of the chair. We had a wonderful night, and it was fun driving down the canyon in the dark, listening to some music, and just being together.

Jansen's Birthday

Well, he's six! Jansen thought he wanted to wait till after school and after dad got home to open his presents, but he changed his mind pretty quickly the morning of his birthday. His choices for breakfast and dinner were originally Cheerios and macaroni and cheese. Obviously food is not a huge priority for him right now. We eventually settled on banana bread and apple juice in the morning and pancakes for dinner. 

I tried my idea of letting Jansen choose a dessert for his birthday. He pretty much wanted the first thing he saw on the computer screen, an ice cream cake. Chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream. I lucked out and had a number six candle back from Nate's 26th birthday that I put on at the last minute.

I enjoy this age for sure. Much less stressful to me than an infant or toddler. I wanted to include this picture because Jansen has started doing extra jobs sometimes for money. I thought he looked so cute in this one.

Another random picture, but I snapped this one of him to remember how he likes to play Battleship right now. 

When I took Jansen in for his well visit at the doctor's, we found out he is in about the 10th percentile for his age. Not that that is a huge surprise, but we are trying to fatten him up now. I guess it's a stage, but he is becoming a more picky eater much to my dismay. He loves Hero Factory, jets, playing Angry Birds, Legos, reading about air warfare, the show Wild Kratts, listening to his iTunes songs, riding his bike, and playing pretend with Natalie. Sometimes he seems so old, but then I will hear him pretending to be a cheetah with Natalie and I know that he will still be my little boy for a few more years.

He can tie his own shoes. He finally started taking showers. He has the 13th Article of Faith memorized. One of his biggest struggles is using a nice voice. He can get pretty nasty at times. Right now the mattress is off his bed (it's the wing of his airplane) and he is sleeping right on the hard, flat wood base of the bed. He does not want it any other way and is sleeping great, so I just have to shrug my shoulders. He doesn't complain too much, but he doesn't like going to church because there are  too many other fun things he would rather be doing. He seems to be enjoying school, but his lunch bag is coming home too full for my liking. I assume he just wants to get out to recess. I love him to pieces and know this is going to be a great year.