Happy Birthday Jacob

Happy Birthday to our valentine baby. We love you Jacob. Thanks for bringing us so much joy the past 2 years. You are amazing.

Wonderful Life of Motherhood

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, which happens to be my sister in law,
http://tyandk8.blogspot.com/ and she just had a good post about parenting her 2 year old daughter. If you have an extra minute read her post, I am sure you can relate as a mother. As I read it I was reminded of an experience I had the other day that I wanted to share.

One thing in my life that I used to hate is grocery shopping with all of my boys. In our town you can save lots of money by shopping at WinCo, as opposed to one of the higher priced chain stores like Albertsons or Smiths. The trade off is that you end up having the most miserable experience if you have children with you. WinCo is cheap for two reasons, they don't accept credit cards and only recently started accepting debit cards, so you had to pay with cash, check, or like most people in that store food stamps. The other reason for being cheap is that you have to bag your own groceries. One more down side that I should mention is that they don't have carts that hold more than one child. I am sure that the most miserable day of my life was the day I decided that we were absolutely too poor to shop anywhere but WinCo. (I had previously shopped at other stores to use the Sky Miles credit card.) So I decided it was time to start shopping smart.

Jacob was just a few months old so I had him in his car seat clipped on to the top of the shopping cart. There was no place to put Will and Andrew so they were just roaming free as I desperately tried to collect my groceries while being a responsible parent and keeping my eyes on them. The shopping trip lasted almost two hours and you can imagine how I was feeling by the end. First I was furious because my 3 and 4 year old boys were not perfectly obedient and helpful like I wanted them to be for the past 2 hours, and Jacob was tired and hungry and screaming in his car seat. I got up to check out and still had the "bagging my own groceries" part of the shopping trip ahead of me. While I was attempting to do that, with 2 boys running amuck, and one screaming infant the checker tells me my total. I go to pay and that is when I learn that this store does not accept credit OR debit cards. My only solution was to leave all of my groceries there, gather up my children and go home crying. It is days like these that I hate being a mother.

Well the other day I was in WinCo again, making our weekly grocery trip. This time I again have my 3 boys. As we were headed to check out I saw a young mom pushing a shopping cart full of food. She had her little baby in her carseat clipped to the front of the shopping cart. Behind her she was pulling another cart with her 3(ish)year old son in it. As I passed her I saw that her face was flushed. Immediately I remembered the worst day of my life. I decided to go ask if she was ok. She assured me that she was and that she was finished shopping and only had to check out. Tears filled my eyes and I just told her that I too had been there. I was actually sort of embarassed and surprised at how emotional I became, but realized that I had just spent one hour shopping with my 3 boys in WinCo and was actually having a good experiece with my boys. What I realized was that as mothers we have plenty of days that we want to throw in the towl. We have experiences with our children that just make us crazy day after day after day. Then there comes a day or a moment that we realize how blessed we are and how amazingly wonderful these children are that we are raising and we are not sure how we got there. When was it that I started enjoying my shopping trips at WinCo? I remeber very clearly making a vow to myself that I would never set foot in that store again. But here I was happy to be there, happy to be with my children, not being bothered by the small things they were doing. I even bagged my own groceries without being bothered. And so I thank that young mom for reminding me of the bad days and promise her that wonderful days lie ahead. Life just continues to get better with these little ones and I am so thankful for mine.

My First Car Accident

Well after 28 years it finally happened for me. My very first car accident. I am fine, no damage to me, just shaken up a bit. The driver that hit me had no insurance or registration. She was also driving without a license. Needless to say she was not happy with me for getting in her way. I am so grateful my boys were not with me. I would have some explaining to do about the words coming out of her mouth.

So now we need to get our car fixed:(

Protect our Families

Put the kids down for a nap today...all 3 of them! :) I thought I would check out the latest information on proposition 8 from this blog and ended up in tears thinking about the direction this world is turning. Having 3 boys I know that as a parent it is going to be hard enough raising them to be moral in this world as it currently stands. Read through some of these articles, watch the videos and debates and it will give you a glimpse of what we could be facing with our children in the very near future if this proposition fails.

I have to say that when my 4 year old asked me the other day why a boy and a boy don't get married it infuriated me. I don't know if it was just a simple statement of observation or if he heard about this somewhere but I will not teach my children, nor should anyone else, about homosexuality at the age of 4. Instead I used it as an opportunity to teach him what I know is correct. "Marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children."

To read "The Family, A Proclamation to the World" click on this link: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=e1fa5f74db46c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1aba862384d20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____

Twin Falls Idaho Temple Dedication and Youth Cultural Celebration

Yes, that is President Thomas S. Monson and directly behind him in sunglasses, my wonderful father-in-law.

The highlight of our summer was the Twin Falls Idaho Temple Open House, Youth Cultural Celbration, and Dedication. As many of my family members have said, I can not express in words how amazing these experiences were. It only made sense in my mind that these were truly "tender mercies" from the Lord that I was experiencing.

"When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding...truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance (see 1 Nephi 1:20)." -Elder Bednar

I will forever be grateful for the blessings of this amazing summer!

Blog Resurrection!

After a very short and very busy summer I have found that blogging was last on my priority list. For anyone out there (Katy) who even checks my blog anymore I hope that this post will give you a bit of hope that I am back. I am making no promises as to how frequently I will be updating. I have reached a new and very exciting phase in my life. I have 2 boys in school. I am a room mom for Will's kindergarten class which keeps me occupied 2 mornings in the week. Our boys are involved in art classes, swimming lessons, and other activities that keep me busier than I have ever been with them. I LOVE IT! I have found that as my kids grow life just gets more enjoyable. Each new phase is something to be enjoyed. So sorry to all of you who still are in the phase of life where you spend all day at home and can find time to blog, but I am just not that girl anymore. (Please sense the sarcasm in that last line. I don't mean to offend any of you.)

Hopefully I can blog again soon about the wonderful summer we had. Most of which is blog worthy. I just need to find the time.

I am off to get the boys hair cut, and then swimming lessons. :)

Best Photo Shoot EVER!

Yesterday was the first day for the temple open house. They are having the "VIP" tours this week. Yesterday's tours included all of the missionaries from the Boise Idaho Mission. The mission president and his wife asked if I would be willing to take a photo of all of them in front of the temple as it would be the only time that all of them were together at the same place and time. I had no comprehension of how large this group would be. In my mind I imagined about 30-40 missionaries. The first group arrived and I was overwhelmed when I had to arrange approximately 70 missionaries. Just as I was feeling ok with everything the mission president's wife approached me and told me that they were still waiting for about 100 more missionaries. I honestly thought she was joking. About 2 minutes later a bus pulled up and sure enough over 100 missionaries joined the group. I have to say that as they all got organized for the photo I could not contain my emotions. Luckily I was wearing my sunglasses, but I just began to sob at the sight I was beholding. 200 missionaries gathered in front of the House of the Lord. What a beautiful sight. I felt such gratitude to these young men and women for the sacrifices they are making and for the marvelous work they are involved in. I received another confirmation in my life that I belong to the only true church upon the earth. I feel such gratitude to a loving Father in Heaven for blessing my life with such amazing experiences such as these. I look forward to the next 6 weeks of the open house and dedication for the Twin Falls Temple and the special experiences I, and many others, will have.