Merry Christmas from Us!!

This is our Christmas photo, sorry it is blurry, our camera is having that time of the month or something and didn't want to cooperate. :) We used our web cam.
Anyway, had a whole letter written in Word and low and behold, copy and paste doesn't work in blogger? That is silly. Oh well. We are very well and very happy in our new home. The children are growing, Grace is a normal girl, pink, dresses herself (embarrassing at times but I figure her self esteem is so high it has to be worth it!!). TD is all boy, I checked on him in nursery Sunday and he was on the floor with a matchbox car driving it; I asked the leader if that was all he ever did in nursery and he smiled and said, "Yes". Grant is still working, would love to be busier with his own house but hopefully in the spring. I got my hair cut and layered (if you couldn't tell from the pic) and am loving the wash, gel and run hair style. I am wishing I was pregnant, hoping the wishing part helps :) But, Heavenly Father must have other things in store for us! Someday I'll update with pictures! I have been browsing you'all's blogs though, I just don't have time to post comments very often :)
Merry Christmas, don't forget the real meaning of Christmas, Luke 2!

A TEMPLE IN PORTUGAL!!

Did you watch the first session of General Conference? Most of you know, but some don't, I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in the Lisbon Portugal mission. And today, our prophet announced there would be a temple built in Lisbon!! I still am trying to come down and settle back into reality. What a blessing for those people not to have to travel clear to Madrid, across a border for days to go to the temple. Maybe now the country will accept temple marriages and they won't have to be married civilly first. Can you imagine how many more people will be sealed, how many more children will be born in the covenant and what strength Portugal, as a nation even, will receive? Oh, it makes me want to go on a mission there now, again! Maybe in 40 years? I hope all you mission buddies are just as excited as I am, in fact, I know you are!

More Blessings

Since we moved and started a new job I figured we better dust of the old budget and see where we were. I was putting in what we've spent so far when I realized I paid my phone bill twice. Hmmm. I looked online at my last bill and noticed I had paid for all of June at our old house, then received a bill for all of June at our new house. (note: we moved the end of May, June should not be in the picture at all!) So I make a phone call and come to find out we were still being charged for our OLD house. Needless to say we got it all ironed out and they even gave us a 12 month discount and reimbursed all our money. So, the blessing is having and using a budget! Who knows how many months I would have been paying this bill without realizing it. (it comes out automatically so I don't get a paper bill, just an email telling me to look at it online) And, now I will be super organized at looking at, not just perusing, my bills!!

Recent Adventures

I'll start out with the nice stuff. Here is our tiny garden on our back patio. A roma tomato, a cucumber and some orange flowers we got on clearance!! We also planted some pumpkins in this little dirt patch in between the 2 driveways but nothing has popped up yet so no picture!

Thaddeus discovered Grace's sunglasses and will walk around in them like he is the coolest kid on the block, which he is! Every time they fall off he brings them back to you to put on again.

Apparently, soap is now on the menu at our house! I was fixing a boo boo on Grace and of course TD wanted on the counter as well, before I can even finish with Grace he has the soap in his hand with a bite out of it!! Thankfully most of it stuck in his teeth and he did not enjoy the flavor but got steaming mad when I tried to brush his teeth! Oh, maybe he'll remember this and never say bad words because he knows I'll wash his mouth out with soap!!

Grace has always been an artist. She was in time out on my bed because her brother was asleep and she found a pen. She poked her head around the corner and I told her she could get out and I saw this. She also vandalized her belly, face, arms and an almost perfect (for a 3 yr. old) circle around her belly button! Notice the huge 'H', that is from her name!! The part of me that wasn't frustrated was so pleased that at least she had used her letter! Then I went into my room and saw this: (again, can you see the huge 'H's'?)

I was speechless! My mom came to visit that same day and stayed. Grace showed my mom her artwork and my mom asked if I had liked it and Grace answered, "Yes!" :) We bought some spray paint.

One last thing, I got a calling and it has a little to do with cub scouts and I was wondering if any of you out there had any explanations on what they do or helps. My brothers were in scouts and I know they work for merit badges etc. but what do I do? Thanks!!!

Watch Mommy, watch.

So we all know children go through phases with their speech. Cooing to grunting and pointing to random words only we understand. Then there is the popular "me do it" and "mine" and "no". Grace's new favorite words are, "Watch me mommy, watch" She says this probably 100 times a day. Everything from chewing or drinking to climbing or somersaults. Even if Thaddeus is about to fall off the back porch she will request you watch her stand on one foot. How refreshing that she thinks she is so wonderful that she believes and requests that she be the center of the universe :)

We have been busy settling in here. We have found some new friends and new places to go. It has been raining almost non-stop since we got here so on Friday night Grant brought home marshmallows and chocolate cookies and we had s'mores in the microwave and set up our tent INSIDE. Grace thought it was awesome!!

They don't have my favorite grocery store here so I have to drive clear to another town 1/2 hour away to get to it. Worth it though. We did that today, so fun! I brought a friend and we packed my little car FULL of groceries. I am good for at least a month!

The blessing continue to flow and sometimes I think it is too much but who in their right mind tells Heavenly Father to stop blessing them? Not me! Although, we don't have callings yet so maybe the ratio of blessing will be directly related to the difficulty/time requirement of that calling? Just kidding!

Here are pics for you:

Our tent in the living room, only Grace slept in in all night long, what can I say, I LOVE my bed!

Grace's 'curled' hair for church on Sunday, poor girl, beautiful hair but it will never hold a curl! (ps. I did not beat her prior to this picture, funny shadows I guess)

One more tent picture.

I changed my mind

Okay so I changed my mind, we aren't going private. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Here are some pictures of the new place, my sister-in-law wanted to see: (Don't mind the mess :))

This is the view from our back porch:

This is the living room after coming in the door (the door is to the left and there is a wall that separates the entry-way and the living room, the book shelf sits on this wall)

The rest of the living room with 4 big windows that TD cannot get enough of, inside and out, the porch wraps around that side.

The dining room? I don't know what to call this.

There is the kitchen and the actual dining area. The counters come up to my hips, very tall!

This is the hallway and the bathroom. The front door is to the right. Those closet doors hide the washer and dryer and some shelves.

The children's room. Very big, we should be able to grow our family just fine here! (no, i'm not pregnant)

Our bedroom. Very spacious as well, although smaller than the children's room. Even with all that stuff in the middle of the floor there is still room to walk around!

This is the view to the left off the porch. Not as pretty but still a view :)

So, here goes a longer story if you want to keep reading, if you don't feel free to stop now :)

We've had so many blessings in moving. First, it took Grant's job over a month to get back to us after the interview, which, seems annoying at first but it gave him the chance to completely finish school before we had to move. So I didn't have to pack and do all by myself while he tried to do finals. Instead he finished, we packed and moved together and he didn't have to leave school and lose all those months of studying!

Second, there was road construction in front of our old house and they literally took 2 months to even get to our block and of course, they started on our block on Monday before we moved. So, Grant got some help for Monday night to get all the big stuff put in except our bed so we could sleep there that night. Well, a wonderful family came and helped me clean while the men moved and one of their older daughters suggested they pack up our bed and everything else and we sleep at their house. Well, Grant said okay and I said no way because I wanted to sleep in my own bed! So, I pouted a little and instead we went to my mom's and spent the night. Well, the next day I was going to finish cleaning but they had helped me clean so much there wasn't a lot to do, another sorta annoying thing because we were going to be stuck there for a while as Grant went to work and signed out. So, the blessing is this, on Tuesday as they were working on the road they hit the water main and broke it. I had no water for 1/2 the day and Grant moved the truck to the alley, thankfully because they would have run it over for sure. If we had been packing that truck still and washing walls we would have been in sad shape. So, all those seemingly annoying things were actually huge blessings! God does work in mysterious ways, His own ways, His own perfect ways, ways that we don't and won't understand until far in the future!!

There have been other little blessings as well but we'll leave it at that for now!! We are just eternally grateful for the outpouring of blessings upon our heads!! Even if I think they are annoyances :) It makes me think of the talk by Elder Bednar about the tender mercies of the Lord. I'm glad he was watching out for us because if it had been me orchestrating this whole move, we would have run into a lot more problems!!

We're Going Private

Leave your email if you don't think I already have it. If you have invited me to your blog, I don't have your email, just some no-reply google thing so leave it unless you are SURE I have yours.
We are all settled in at our new house and after quite the adventures concerning just about everything, we are doing well.
I'll update after I switch over to private mode. When that will be I'm not sure yet!

Life.....Changed!!

Well, we've been waiting over a month to hear from a job Grant interviewed for and they finally called yesterday and offered him the job!! So, we are busy getting everything in place to move and clean and pack and all the other good stuff that goes along with getting a new job in a place far from here! We are so excited! I'll post again when we get settled there. (if you want to know where, you'll have to email me or leave your email and I'll let you know, I'm thinking of going private after our move but who knows!)

Life

Grant and I rented a movie tonight called "Facing the Giants." Let me just say once you get past the sorta cheesy actors, it is an awesome movie, very inspiring. There is a football team at a christian school and they win about 1 game a season and the coach teaches them the gospel from the bible and teaches them to trust in the Lord no matter what and it made me almost cry a couple times!! So, go rent it!

My chubby boy is walking, he loves it and it makes me think of persistence in a whole new light. Children fall hundreds of times before they are sure footed and we 'adults' fall down once and we are done!

Grace knows almost all her letters and the sounds they make. She always wants to watch a movie and the one she picks (all on her own) is Leap Frog's Letter Factory. It is amazing how quickly she picked them up.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Grace Anne

Today is this sweet little girl's birthday! 3 years ago on a Wednesday morning at 8:49 she came into this world and was whisked away as quickly as she came. We finally got her back and she's been a blessing ever since. Here are some of my favorite things about her:

1. We play pretend and she is the mommy.

2. She always wants to share with others.

3. She ALWAYS forgives me when I get frustrated.

4. She helps me do the dishes, put away laundry and pick up.

5. She is always excited to show me what she drew or created.

6. She watches out for her little brother.

7. She sings while riding in the bike trailer, at church, and before falling to sleep at night.

8. She loves books.

9. She picks out all her own clothes.

10. She doesn't easily forget people or to do nice things for them.

That is my little girl, plus a whole lot more but you'd have to be her mother to know it all but really, you still wouldn't!!

My mom sent me this in an email and it very closely describes my life right now with Grace. Her "me do it" initiative with EVERYTHING leaves me feeling much like this teacher. Not to mention her new-found use for the word no, running away from me, spitting, crying at the drop of a hat etc. I almost feel like she is a teenager? Isn't she too young to have crazy hormones running through her body? Don't worry, I know you are dissapointed, I thought she was perfect too!!! :) But, as a woman once said, "I love folding laundry because it reminds me that I have a husband and 3 children." So, I love running after her, being spit at, cried at, told no and hearing "I want to do it!" because it reminds me that she has her own brain and her own initiative! ps. she turns 3 on Sunday!!

The cowboy Boots
(Anyone who has ever dressed a child will love this one!)

Did you hear about the Texas teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots?
He asked for help and she could see why...
Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. By the time they got the second boot on, she had worked up a sweat.

She almost cried when the little boy said, 'Teacher, they're on the wrong feet.' She looked, and sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet..
He then announced, 'These aren't my boots.'

She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, 'Why didn't you say so?' like she wanted to. Once again, she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they gotten the boots off when he said, 'They're my brother's boots. My mom made me wear 'em.'
Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.

Helping him into his coat, she asked, 'Now, where are your mittens?'
He said, 'I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots.'

She will be eligible for parole in three years.

Judge Not, that ye be not Judged

Today was stake conference. I love stake conference. Especially the adult session the night before. Well, to give some background before I go on, Grant and I are of the belief that our children WILL sit during sacrament meeting. We will not wander the halls aimlessly with a child who just learned to crawl, walk etc. just because they think it is more fun. So, as I wandered the hall today with Thaddeus trying to get him to fall asleep (10am is when stake conference starts, also is when he lays down by himself in a crib to sleep) we were constantly interrupted by other people's children wandering aimlessly down the hall. All I can say is kudos to them for even coming to church if all they do is wander the halls!

TD is beginning to walk. He'll take a few steps without thinking but if you try to make him he rebels!! Grace is so enthralled with letters right now. She can write her last name. Amazing I know (ha ha, it only consists of four letters, and one of them repeats and they happen to be some of the easiest to write!!) but, she is my daughter so I am required to brag about her!!! :)

An Inspiring Quote

I heard a Kuna Indian (near Panama) say this on the news between conference sessions. Just about made me cry.
"I don't have money, but I have eternal life."

Finally, Painting Again!

We've been sick and then last week was a birthday celebration so I skipped painting again because who wants to come over to a house smelling of oil paints and turpentine?

Without further ado, my first finished project!! I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. I already have an idea for my next one and can't wait to get started next week!

I know I didn't shade in the foot, I did it on purpose, I didn't want it to pop out, it is sorta only a background piece to the chain and ribbon, look up the scripture in The Book of Mormon and hopefully it will make sense to you and not just to me in my little head!!

Also, here is my little/big one year old! Oh time flies! I watched The Office baby delivery episode, and let me tell you, it is HILARIOUSLY TRUE (go to NBC.com and watch it, funny, funny, funny) Anyway, there is a part about nursing and I already sorta miss it! I weaned him a little early because I was so sick and miserable and wanted to take some medicine and I'm sure he would have been okay but who wants to risk it! Anyway, I put cake in a dump truck for him and Grant's cake (their b-days are 2 days apart) I made a construction site. Pics to follow below.

TD demolished his and enjoyed every minute of it! Grant enjoyed his cake too, so did I and so did the rest of our family that came :)

Feeling Good

At our house we are feeling really good, for many reasons. The first being we are actually feeling good health wise. We have been sick. Started with Grace, passed quickly to Thaddeus and then mom got a sinus infection. We are healthy now!
Second, Thaddeus is weaned! I decided I needed to take some medicine while I was sick and his birthday is a week from today so I weaned him so I could feel better. Now I have my body back!
Third, today I got a phone call from a friend at church asking me to babysit for her. She told me her daughter likes to play with Grace. It made me feel really good. There are a couple others who like Grace (and trust me enough) to ask me to sit for them. I'm glad that Grace is a good friend and not "that child", you know who I am talking about. The child in nursery that no one likes and if they call you for a play date you come up with an excuse. So, we are feeling all around good lately!!
ps. the painting had to stop when I was sick, I will try again on Sunday.

First Hair Cut

Thaddeus' hair was pretty long! So long, I could put it in pigtails! (yep, I did too!) Anyway, I cut it tonight thanks to this blog post: http://craftersguru.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-cut-boys-hair-with-scissors.html. I did a search on how to cut boys hair with scissors because obviously, he is too small for clippers. This blog popped up and she made it seem SO easy, I had to try. Here are the results:

BEFORE:

AFTER:
And as a side not, this is my 100th post! Wow, that is a lot of stuff!

Potty Train(ed)(ing)

Grace is doing great really, it is our budget that has suffered. I thought diapers were expensive and was grateful we didn't have to buy anymore. Well, now we go through toilet paper like it is candy. I feel like I need a toilet paper roll like this one:

Between going 10 times right after we put her down to bed, and just pulling it off to put it in the toilet because.....????? we go through a lot more than we used to!!

(I still wouldn't trade it for diapers though!)

Painting/Valentine's day

Here is my adventure in painting today. Above is my attempt at shading a sphere. A friend told me it was easier than a cube, she is right. Easier doesn't mean a better job though on my part :) The piece in the corner is an idea I had. I have been reading a parenting book and she repeats over and over that mistakes are wonderful opportunities to learn, I want to paint something similar to that with the rest of the quote and hang it in my children's room.

This is what I painted last week plus a leg on top. Apparently it takes more than a week for thick oil paint to dry, if you look really closely you can see the yellow streaks in the leg/foot, oh well, live and learn! I have ideas in my head what I want to paint, you'll just have to stay tuned for what this turns into!!

And our dinner. For lunch we had heart shaped pancakes. (we have church at 9am, no pancakes for breakfast!) then for dinner I made cornbread and cut it into heart shapes. I figure we can't go all out with candy and balloons but I sure can go all out with our cooking! (I know, the pancake is round, we ate all the heart ones, I just wanted to show you we dyed them pink)

ps. Grant wrote me a poem, I'll have to post it later. He is quite the writer, I think I could sell his poems and make myself rich!!

Girly Girl Essentials

Check out my friend's new blog! She sells hairbows, flowers, clips, headbands, beanies etc. for girls (I guess the beanies could be for boys too) The bows and flowers range from $1-$1.50 and the beanies are $5. They are way cute and I've seen them in her daughters' hair! There is a link at the bottom of my side bar!

Painting

I painted again yesterday. I decided I needed to do a little more practicing of the basics :) I tried to shade a cube, blend from dark to light and then I tried out going from big to small with the chain. Still not even beginner quality but I'm giving myself 10 years before I give up and quit! If you have any hints about shading, PLEASE let me know! Even if you don't paint, shading is shading is shading whether it is crayons or pencil or watercolor! ps. we are poor so I have to reuse the same board over and over, hence the beautiful blue hue from last week's project :) I am keeping the dark to light though and letting it dry to try out painting over it!

5 Little Monkeys

Grace sings TD to sleep almost every night with this song. After the first verse she gets a little jumbled. So, may we present, Grace singing, "Five Little Monkeys"

Some Pics

This is my new years resolution. I decided to start oil painting. I absolutely love oil paintings that I see and I have some ideas for paintings and want to do it. Anyway, here are my first attempts at oil painting. The blue is supposed to be a sky with clouds but apparently you have to let the first layer dry first? So I just have light blue streaks! If you know anything about oil painting PLEASE leave a comment or a hint or instructions or anything! The white on the apple is a sticker. Stay tuned for next Sunday, I will post more paintings.

This is a picture Grace made me take of her friend Weedie. I'll let you figure it out!

Grace loves her babies!! I did not set these up!

Look closely. Closer. Yes, his toes are in his face. We've been working on his naps, him putting himself to sleep and I guess he sits and then falls asleep like this!

Taxes!

I am done with our taxes!! State and Federal, and we got them done for free! Plus, I completed Grant's FAFSA application! I love the feeling of being done, no worry, no rush, just done!!
(I love businesses that allow you to view your tax information online so you don't have to wait until February to receive them in the mail!)

"What he doing, mommy?"

So read the post before this one and then come back and read this one.

I went visiting teaching today and the last house we visit is a sister who has children the same age as mine so while we visit, they play. Works great actually. Well, we finish the visit and I think to myself, it is past Grace's nap time and I had better give her a warning before we leave so we don't have a melt down. Good mothering right? Well, I tell her we have 1 minute and I help her put away some toys and I have her hold my companions hand and we wave goodbye and Grace says, "What he doing mommy?" with this look of complete confusion on her face. I think she is talking about the little boy and I get confused because he is just standing there. Then she says, "Buddy staying?" (buddy= Thaddeus) and I am jolted and realize I just almost forgot my child! Thaddeus was still in the kitchen playing, oblivious to the fact that he was being left. Now, I know you are all saying I would have realized it upon getting in the car etc. but I don't think I would have. I have been so tired lately I think I would have left him! Oh the stories I will be able to tell someday to his wife!

Grant

My children have decided that sleeping through the night is no longer the 'cool' thing to do. I don't think I've slept more than 3 hours straight for over 2 weeks now. Last night seemed to be the last straw and I could not get out of bed this morning. My wonderful husband got the kids, entertained them, fed them and stayed home from work until I got my lazy self out of bed. It is days like this that I remember why I married him! (He is working full time over Christmas break and can show up any time between 6am and 6pm., in case you wondered)
XOXOXOXOXO