Daddy's the World's Best Playground!

(He thought this picture was definitely blog-worthy)

So today I'm grateful that John is a good Dad. He was playing with the kids after work and it just made me stop and smile. They love playing and wrestling, getting thrown up into the air, or riding on the horsey. I love that he is involved in their care, teaching, and play. What can I say, he's a stud.

I've Been Tagged

So I was tagged by my friend Geri, and I've tried to come up with 6 fairly revealing things about myself:
1. I take REALLY hot showers. Whenever I shower, John thinks that I am literally burning myself.
2. I love POWER TOOLS. I'm always excited if we have a new project that requires obtaining a new power tool and learning how to use it. We have finished a basement, and pretty much remodeled our entire house. I love taking something unattractive and seeing how good we can make it look. I have yet to lose any fingers, and I've only been electrocuted a few times.
3. I have millions of MOLES. Seriously. I think I'll die of skin cancer one day because I can't keep track of them. I have moles on my belly button, inbetween my toes, pretty much everywhere.
4. I'll stay up all night READING A BOOK. So this one isn't too original, but I really do love reading. I'm pretty eclectic and will read any genre.
5. I didn't eat SALSA until I was married. Let's just say that I'm a cautious eater (Carston gets it from his mother). There are a lot of things that I still don't eat, though Heather has me beat with the sheer number of foods she obstains from, but I am slowly increasing the variety in my diet. Still though, hold the mayo and mustard and pickles, don't offer me any meat other than chicken or ground beef, and don't even think about seafood. Poor John. Good thing we go to my mom's for Sunday dinner!
6. Ummmm.... I can walk on my hands for a long time.

Okay, now I'm supposed to tag six people. Jenny, Tasha (since I know you started one!), Micaela (have you been tagged?), Karli, and I guess that's all I can think of! I'm so good at this.

A Month of Gratitude

So I'm going to copy my friend Karli and try to write something everyday that Im grateful for. Thanks for the good idea Karli! So today I'm grateful for Sister Beck's Talk from Conference: Mothers Who Know. This talk touched me when I heard it, and the thing that I really commited to was doing less. I know that sounds sarcastic. She talked about doing less things that pulled you away from your family, spending less time involved with media and more time thoughtfully involved with your family, things like that. So I have changed things in our daily routines, and I am grateful for the changes that has made in our family.

HALLOWEEN!!!

So here are the long awaited Halloween pictures (not really, but long awaited for Heather)! We had a great Halloween. Carston and Avery were into the full swing of things saying that they wanted to go to more houses. We had fun visiting all the Grandparents. Just have to say that I really missed my Grandma. It made me pretty emotional for a few days, and I haven't really broken down that often since she passed away. She always loved it when we came into her room and showed off our costumes. Love you Grandma. Anyway, after the Grands, we had fun trick-or-treating. Our last stop of the night was to visit Daddy at the Haunted Garage. John and his brother (with help from others) put up this awesome Haunted House in his garage every year. It just keeps getting bigger and better (well not actually bigger because he hasn't added onto the garage). Seriously though, I was scared. Anyway, it was a fun day, and now we just have to get rid of all the candy we collected!

The Results Are In

Who would have thought that we'd have a baby whose head is on the charts (although it is still proportionately large compared with her other body measurements)! I took Macy to the doctor for her 4 month check-up, and here are her stats:

Weight: 15 lbs. 10 oz. (89th percentile)

Height: 24.4 inches (57th percentile)

Head: 16.9 inches (93rd percentile)

She's a beautiful baby, and we love her. I enjoy being a mother. I think sometimes our society and culture imply that choosing to be a mother who stays at home with her children is a cop out. It isn't. If I wanted to, I could have a successful career, or spend my time traveling, or pursuing hobbies, or maintaining my appearance and youth, or whatever else the world might deem as more important. But I have chosen to be a mother, and I find it to be a valuable, hard, rewarding, joyful, humorous, demanding, enlightening occupation. And now I will get off of my soapbox.

One for the Mama

I always blog about my kids lives, but I decided it was time to blog about my own. I've been thinking about my weaknesses for the past few months, and I decided there were some that I wanted to turn into strengths. So I picked one to work on first. Growing up with my mom and my grandma, they taught me a lot about empathy. And there have been some experiences in my life specifically so I could have more of it. The thing I've struggled with though, is letting other people know that I care about them and am thinking about what is happening in their lives. I don't know why, but I always worry that I am going to offend them. And maybe I will. But I would guess that 9 times out of 10, people would appreciate a little love and attention. So I decided that my fear of offending others would not prevent me from showing my love for them. And I've had some pretty amazing experiences since I made the conscious decision to ignore my fear and act on the impressions I receive. Just today, something very special happened as a result of acting on one of those impressions. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know God can make our weakness become strengths , and in asking him to help us, and committing to follow his promptings instead of our fears, we are better conduits of his love. I'm grateful for that. So maybe that was all a little more spiritual than anyone wanted, but it is the thing in my own life that I am the most excited about.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

I'm a Big Girl Now

It is official. Avery is potty trained. (I will love it when words like "potty" have been eliminated from my vocabulary!) She has been in underwear for two weeks with no accidents and I am so proud of her. Potty training is one of those things that mothers hold their breath over. I think by the time I have to do it with Macy, I'll have it down to a science. Yeah right. Anyway, I am proud that she has reached this milestone. She is a cute little girl. Last night she wanted me to sing another song before bed. I told her no, and she said she wanted to sing one by herself. I went out in the hall and heard her sweet little voice, "I am a child of God...." How true. I'm glad I get to be a part of her life and have her be a part of mine.

Beautiful Babes

Here's some pictures of the kids (thanks for the harassment Heather!) We were able to go to the fire station last week. Carston went with his preschool, and the rest of us went with one of our playgroups. Poor Carston got a little freaked out so I was glad I was there. He really listens to everything we tell him. We've talked to him about fire and how it is dangerous and can burn you. They were having fire demonstrations with people putting them out (fire fighters and their hoses, and adults with fire extinguishers). I think the poor kid saw the fire and thought he was going to get burned! After more explanation though, he was okay and had fun spraying the hose with a fireman.

3 Months Old

Macy is now three months old. I love having this sweet little girl in our home. She loves to interact with us. She'll "talk" with us forever, and she has started doing the cutest little giggle. I love spending time with her. There is just something about babies. It seems irrational. Here are these tiny little creatures who can't do anything for themselves. You have to feed them, change them, help them to sleep, get up in the night with them. They poop on you, spit up on you, cry, restrict your mobility. And I won't even get into pregnancy and childbirth. All this, and yet we love them fiercely the moment they arrive. I'm grateful that we are able to have her, and I'm grateful for the love she emanates.

The Dang English Language!

So a few months ago, we decided to teach Carston to say "three" instead of "free" I had him watch my mouth and imitate me, and he totally got it. So when people asked him how old he was (before he turned four) he would correctly pronounce the word three. But a little while after I started noticing some other changes in his speech. At first I thought he was saying it on accident. He would come and tell me that he hurt his "thinger." Or that his "thingernails" were getting long. But it was no accident. When I tried to correct him ("You mean your finger"), he would adamantly inform me that "No mom, it is my THINGER." It has been a few months, and I still can't get him to give it up. There are no fingers on his body, only "thingers!" I thought it was pretty funny how he automatically applied this new language rule to other things of his own accord. If "f" was really "th", then the opposite must be true as well. It is always interesting to see how their little minds work.