When it rains outside

We are left to find our own entertainment inside.

I was giving my girls baths this morning and Gabriela requested my goggles. I initially was going to say no, but then thought what the heck. Glad I did, because I got these hilarious pictures.

A Housewife's Victory

"It's the small things in life that bring us joy," I thought today as I was finishing folding my third basket of laundry. I felt the sweet joy of success when I realized that every sock had a mate. I, looking around to make sure noone would see me, gave a big fist pump to my side. People...it's the small victories that win the war!

P.S. this is only phenominal because it rarely happens in my house.

1st Signs of Spring

That's right. You know it's spring around here when there are clothes as far as the eye can see. I actually dread the biannual clothes shuffle. Especially the spring and fall. It's not quite warm enough for shorts, but they need their short sleeve shirts. I know you all know what I'm talking about. Then there is the sorting and reshelving of all the winter clothes. My goodness, it just creates a mess. Julianne was especially devistated as she watched me packing up her winter clothes. She would just go over and yank them out, declaring "Mine!!!" and then darting out of the room.

Our Baby Turned 2 !!!

Our sweet little Julianee turned two yesterday. I'm so smitten by this cutie pie that it's ridiculous. I wanted to throw her a big birthday party, but realized that her best friends are right here in her own family. I'm her best friend for sure. She's at my side all day long and she brings me peace. Maybe that it's I'm a more mature parent now and I realize what's more important in her life than I do with the others. She doesn't pressure me to get out and do stuff like the other two munchkins do. Anyways, our little party was great here at home.

We had a Tinkerbell party. I made the cake, which turned out much better this time around.

Julianne had no problem in taking the traditional first bite of the cake!

Not real sure why Gabriela and Sophia decided to attend the party wearing their swimsuit?

Julianne got a whole slew of Tinkerbell treasures.

Her favorite being the telephone and water bottle.

Gabriela and Sophia immediately took off with the fairy figurines. But I knew that when I bought them ;)

Here's a snapshot of Julianne at age 2:

She sleeps with a Minnie Mouse doll, a babydoll, about 5 baby blankets, and now we've added the birthday bunny.

She won't get out of the bed in the morning until she hands you every one of above items. When she turns her back, I usually toss them right back in.

She is obsessed with her pacifier right now and requests it all day long.

She is speaking a lot more lately.

She loves balloons.

Her favorite toys are her babydolls.

She likes to wear winter hats around the house for fun.

She loves to eat cereal, bananas, and crackers.

She has the best smile in the world.

We simply adore this child.

I wanted to be...

As many of you know, I run a book group here in my little neighborhood. This month we are reading the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It's supposed to be an enlightening book that will change the readers lives. I feel a little intimidated already. Kind of like when a salesman shows up on my doorstep. I'm already on the defense. The story is quite simple, so simple yet profound. I feel like I've got extract the hidden meaning, like in any good metaphor. I'm only a third of the way into it, but it has already brought up an interesting point. Here's what I find interesting.

What do you believe is your Personal Legend? What was your childhood dream and destined path that was snuffed out by the world and buried under everyone elses expectations of you? Deep, no?

I've been thinking about that this afternoon. My childhood dream was to work for Walt Disney as an annimator. I saw my dream before me once when we visited MGM studios when I was in high school. There was the most amazing work environment I could have imagined. Tons of tilted desks, with oodles and oodles of every kind of coloring thing-a-ma-jigs in every color imaginable. It was like heaven for me. To have a job, where I could sit and draw and color and live in fantasy land each day as I helped create something wonderful, full of magic, for children. Oh, it makes me want to cry!

My dreams did get snuffed out by reality. I soon began to believe that I wasn't creative enough. How was I going to have a career and be a Mom. That one was like turning a fire hydrant on my little campfire. Once I got to BYU, I realized my career dreams were going to have to be shelfed for a while, because at the time they didn't have an annimation program. I also felt dishearted when annimation took a dramatic turn to the digital world. I didn't like computers and digital annimation seemed to be the future. So my little dream isn't really a dream anymore I guess.

Sad I know. But I do know that the coals are still a little warm under there, because during our trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago, I was exposed to it again. We were meandering around California Adventure one evening and happened to wander into some place where they had their last drawing class for the day. We decided to go in and oh my word, I felt like my little twelve year old self again. We sat in this ampitheater where everyone was given a drawing board and a pencil and there on the stage was THE DESK! That desk that I had dreamed about for so many years! We sat and learned to draw Winnie the Pooh. I was coveting that guys job on stage. Bless my kids heart, I was totally ignoring them. Julianne was crying on my lap and they were fighting over pencils, but I just ignored them and went into a zone. I wanted that brief ten minute moment to myself. After we were done, I asked one of the guys if I could take my picture at the desk. No joke, I really did. But I was hosed again. He told me I wasn't allowed up there, and I really couldn't bother this poor chap with my sad story. I told Miguel that I could have camped out there all day long and done class after class and would have been happy as pie.

Don't get me wrong. I love my job as a mom. I love my children. However I am a person and I do, did, have dreams of my own. I already told Miguel that if something ever happened to him and I had to support this family, I'm moving to Orlando and working for Walt Disney.

So what is your buried dream? I'd like to know.

I'm a True Blue

No I'm not talking about BYU blue this time. I'm talking about the personality colors. There are reds, blues, whites, and yellows. I'm the A typical Blue, Oldest Child personality. If you want to know how I function, just pick one of those books. Blues are emotional and all the decisions we make are based on feelings. One of the other major characteristics of Blues are that they are extremely loyal. I'm learning that this could be a down fall in my life. I'm extremely loyal to many things, i.e. brands, friends, doctors, hospitals. You get the idea. I don't like to switch it up for fear of betrayal. Like somehow I'm going to hurt my doctors' feelings if I switch to a new one. Crazy I know!

So all this is leading to a point. Looking ahead to when I have another child, I don't know if I should change doctors? I've delivered all my kids at American Fork Hospital and my doctors are across the street. This was extremely convienent when I lived just three minutes away, but now that I'm in Provo...not so much. I'm so afraid to switch. I like my doctors. Maybe it's because I'm going under the knife with c-sections, and feel like I'm branded in a way. Doctors shouldn't mess with other doctors' work. I think I would like to deliver at Orem Community. It would be so much closer for my family and since I'm there for five days, convienence matters a little more. I almost feel like a small child who doesn't do well with change. I know there are other great doctors out there.

So, tell me if I'm crazy! Convince me that you've got the best doctore around! Why do you love your doctor and have you been to others to compare them too?

I need your help!

Battle of the Month

MT. EVEREST VERSES

THE DISHWASHER

So this is my update on the triathalon. As of last Thursday, I reached my goal. I did the entire thing at the gym and hit my goal in doing it in an hour and a half. I was really excited and proud of myself. I couldn't believe I actually reached my goal!

However, that leads me to my next point. I hate to break it to everyone, but I'm not going down to do the race. Here's the story. My training partner is still going down, but she signed up to do it with her brother in-law. I was going to do it with my visiting teacher. We never train together, but we were guessing we were at about the same pace and would drive down and run the race together. Her plans changed and I was left partnerless. I wasn't so thrilled with the idea of driving back from St. George by myself and still needed to invest over a hundred dollars in gear. I just decided that I could use that money else where, say for instance, a dishwasher. I met my goal right? I did the race in my goal time, right? Does it matter that I go do it outside to earn a t-shirt? No, not really. I will love a dishwasher a whole lot more than I will ever love a t-shirt. So as for now, my racing dreams will have to wait. Maybe I'll do a 5K at some point during the summer. We'll see. Only time will tell.

Man Alive, She's Five!!!

This pretty little lady is five years old as of yesterday. We just can't believe it. We decided that she would get to have a date with Mommy on her birthday instead of a birthday party. And what a date it was!

She requested to go tot he movies. After agonizing over whether or not I should take her, we went and saw Alice in Wonderland. It was not her favorite, but more on that in another post. She was so funny about those glasses and her popcorn. She was so confident and self assured sitting there in the theatre.

We then hit up Magelbys for lunch.

And then over to Color Me Mine for some good ole' fashioned pottery painting. She loved this and so did I. She chose to paint a princess piggy bank as well as something for Gigi (her grandmother).

Her last request was to go to the "fishy restaurant." That is Red Lobster. She has a fasination with this place, and to the kids delitement, the hostess got out some of the lobsters for the kids to see and touch.

Gabriela came home from the pottery place and started playing church with her sisters. She got them all dressed up and insisted that they wear them to dinner. Miguel was a little embarassed by it, and said we would look like one of those weird pioneer families or polygamist families. I had to remind him that I doubted that people would think Mexicans are polygamists and that we were in our regualar clothes. We would be fine.

I attempted to make the birthday cake this year. I realized my artistic abilities to not cross over to the culinary crafts. Oh well, she liked it and that was all that mattered. It's the Little Mermaid, if you couldn't tell.

Julianne always seems to enjoy the cake and ice cream.

She got a new bike for her birthday present. Unfortunately she was mauled by her two younger sisters who insisted that they get a turn on the bike.

Want to Go With Me?

So, I'm really excited about something I found out today. A while back I sent an email to the Power of Mom's director (see widget on my sidebar) about their mothers' retreats. I really would love to go to one and wallahh, I get an email from her today announcing their next one. I totally believe women and mothers need a conference for (and a break from) motherhood. It's our job afterall and I love to sit and chat with moms about what works and doesn't work and just get great ideas from them. I get a little jealous and have the same conversation with Miguel everytime he heads off for training for work. Where's my training?

Anyways, I'm looking for some ladies to go with me! I love these ladies who power up the Power of Moms site and think this will be such a fun and rejuvinating thing to attend. So if you want to go, start saving, and we'll register together. Check it out here.

Santa Monica Pier

"Am I A Bad Mother?"

As a Mom I often find myself asking the same question over and over again in my mind.

"Am I A Bad Mother?"

Am I a bad mother because I never let my kids sleep in the same bed together?

Am I a bad mother because I usually say "No way" when the cashier asks me if my kids can have a Smarty?

Am I a bad mother because I give my kids carmel dipping sauce so they will eat frest apples?

Am I a bad mother because I rarely can get my kids to eat their "5 a day"?

Am I a bad mother because I let my kids strip to their underwear at a public beach?

Am I a bad mother because I never take them to the doctor over a cold?

Am I a bad mother because I hardly ever wash my kids face after they eat?

Am I a bad mother because.... you get the idea

And quite frankly, I don't think I'm a bad Mom. Maybe a little uptight, but probably pretty normal. If you have figured out a way to get your kids to eat well balanced nutritional meals including vegetables, please tell me your secret! I think most of my stress comes from feeding my kids. Saying no to sweets and trying to bribe them into eating healthy foods. Until then, I'm relying on those good ole' multivitamins to get us through.

We Won the Lottery!

Well at least the Freedom Academy Kindergarten lottery! We are pretty excited around here. Only a certain number of students are let in to the school each year, and it's done by a lottery. We were one of the the lucky few to get in. This school is a charter school that is only two blocks from our house and within our ward boundaries. Super convienient. Plus, Miguel and I are both pro uniforms. My sweet little angels will all be sporting these beauties for the next eight or so years of their life. This school goes all the way through junior high, so we can skip the scary public junior high. And the best part, once you get one child in all the others are automatically let in. So, so, excited about this. I can't believe my little Gabriela is off to school in the fall, but I'm really excited for her and all the adventures she'll have and the fun things she will learn.

Dear PMS

It's Lindsay here. I'm a little troubled by you. You never gave me this much grief during my adolescense. You have to understand, you see, that I have a lot more responsibilities now. I have people that are forced to be cooped up with me during that dreadful week that you like to come around. I'm miserable. I'm a tyrant, and I, quite frankly, want to be left alone. But, that's not an option now is it? Please lighten up, I need my hormones to stay even kill, so I don't have a heart attack or stroke everytime my kids start crying or fighting. Really. I feel like I'm going to blow a gasket everytime someone cries. It's not fair to them or to me. I'm less compassionate and less giving. Actually, come to think of it, I'm quite selfish. I really and truly want to be left alone. Noone ask me to do anything. Give me a few days and I'll be up and chipper and going full throttle, but not for that deadful week each month. All I want to do is sit watch a movie, and eat Circus Cookies. I'm like the poster child for PMS. It really didn't used to be this bad. Maybe I didn't have things in my life that would trigger such dramatic emotional reactions. Then I could at least just keep to myself, or lay in bed, or sleep. So if you could lighten up a little and show me some sympathy, that would be awesome. If not, at least point to some drugs to help me stay balanced.

Your Humble Victim,
Lindsay

Has it gotten worse for you since you've had kids? Any suggestions?

Baby Blues

I'm sure I've expressed this to a lot of you that I know. But, lately I have been so sad when I look at Julianne. My Baby Has Grown Up. She'll be two in a couple of weeks. I'm having a hard time seeing her in the right perspective. I just concider her the "baby." She no longer uses the high chair, which has been retired to the garage. That's a first in several years. And, last night we moved her bed upstairs into the big girls' room. I guess I'm just in denial. I've really enjoyed her as a baby and hate to see that go away. I love looking at her baby cheeks. I still tote her around as if she was nine months old.

I now understand why the youngest child is always the spoiled one. They will always be the spoiled one. We are definately not done having kids, but I just can't fathom the idea of that last child being the last little face I'll watch grow up. How do people do it?

But then I'm reminded how much I adore my other two kiddos and how much more I love them as bigger kids. Maybe my problem is that this is the first time I haven't had another baby. This is the biggest break I've had between kids and don't really know what to do with myself.

On a side note, I've been MIA this week in the blogging world for a couple of reasons:
1. My washing machine has torn up and I've got a laundry pile the size of Mt. Everest waiting for me. Sophia is officially out of pants and underwear!

2. I haven't had a camera that works or that has a charged battery all week long.

3. I've been trying to get to the bottom of my sink all week with the mounds of dishes that there are to wash.

4. Just simply trying to get into the routine of my life since coming back from vacation.

If I had blogged it wouldn't have been very positive, so maybe it's better that I just kept to myself. Now I'm off to go bug some friends to see if I can borrow their washing machine :)