My little Sunbeam...

A few weeks ago at church, Grace entered Sunbeams in Primary (just a fancy way of saying she's finally with the older kids at church. They sing songs, have a gospel related message and then split into classes, aka: Sunbeams.) She gave her fist talk on Sunday about how we believe in God, Jesus Christ & the Holy Ghost. Trav helped her as she held up her little picture of Jesus. As I sat in the back of the room, trying to get a picture, I couldn't help but tear up as I watched her. She was so willing, smiling and adorable. It was what I call a "Mommy Moment."- those moments when you feel like your heart is melting from all the love you're feeling. My heart was so full of gratitude for my Heavenly Father. I know I am far from where I should be, but I try everyday to live my life the best I can, closer to my Savior. (Yes, I watch SNL which is naughty, and yes, I already know where I could go if I keep watching it, so minus that, I try REALLY hard!)I am so thankful for the gospel that teaches me and my family about Heavenly Father, his Son and how to be happy in this life. My heart was so full as I watched my little girl last week. I am beyond thankful for my sweet little family.

When the kids get ahold of the camera...

Being a Mom, I seem to find treasures everyday, here's what i came asross not too long ago... my favorite is the one of her dangling legs!

Cartoon drawings & "private areas"

The girls and I were having art time this morning and I was watching Grace color her picture. It was adorable to watch her draw the face, the eyes & legs. I said, " Oh, Grace, your picture is so beautiful!" She smiled and said, "And that is his private area."
What??? Holding back my violent laughter, I said, "Oh, Grace, that is innapproiate."
Really though, I'm very proud of her artwork, it's lovely for a 3 year old- I'm just not ready to be talking to her about that body part yet! (She informed me a minute ago that that was a picture of her Daddy peeing in the potty! Oh. My. word. I might have to frame this one!)

Sparkle N' Shine's Valentine's Gift Idea...

If you are looking for a great Valentine's Day gift idea for your Mom, G-ma, sister, Mother in law, friend or self, I am reducing my cleaning rates until Valentines Day!
(So tell your husbands you don't want flowers this year, you'd rather have a sparkling clean toilet!)


1 hour of cleaning = $30.00 (instead of $ 40.00)

I bring my own magic wand & cleaning supplies and can have your home looking beautiful in no time! I can work my magic organizing any space as well!

* I will send a gift certificate to the address of your choice!
* I clean within a 30 mile radius!

Gift ideas...

Gift Idea's...

I've been working on a few fun projects lately that wanted to share with you guys incase you need any cute gift ideas!

***And I'm selling vinyl now! I have TONS of colors to choose from, lots of fun ideas!

Family Home Evening Boards= $ 8.00
Any board w/ your own saying $ 3.00- 8.00 (depending on size & saying)
Dish towels= $ 3.00
Wash Cloths/cleaning rags= $ 1.00
Clothes pins $ 2.50
Paper clips $2.00- 5.00
Felt flower pins = $ 2.50
Fabric flowers pins $ 4.00
Necklaces= $ 5.00 (18 inch ball chain included)
Keychains= $ 2.00- 3.50 (depending on beads & charms added)
Bracelets= $ 5.00-8.00 (depending on beads, charms & pictures added)
Light switch covers $ 1.50
Magnets $ 2.00 (indiv. .25 each)
Car Trash bags= $ 3.00
Beaded Watch bands= $ 15.00 (my friend Annikan makes these, they are SUPER CUTE! Go to:www.watchful-girls.blogspot.com)
Watch Face= $ 10.00 (also on her blog!)

BABY:

Diaper/wipe holders= $ 2.50
Burp rags= $ 3.50
Hair bows= $ 2.50
Baby head bands= $ 1.00
Baby head band clips= $ 1.00
Binki clips= $ 3.50
Baby wash cloths= $ 1.00
Nursing Covers & blankets= can be made. Do not have any at the moment

My happiness...

This past week there have been some HUGE struggles with a friend of mine and it has caused me to think about my life, and my past. I have dealt with depression, anxiety, OCD issues, an eating disorder, self hatred, addictions and a thousand other unpleasant things throughout my life, but somehow I survived them all. I have wanted to end my life many many times but never did in fear of hurting all those I left behind. Watching my friend struggle this past week has hurt my heart. I wanted to take away her pain, make everything better but I couldn't. All I could do was listen,and pray for her healing to begin.
I still struggle every second with a few remaining issues, mostly- depression,some OCD issues and the uncontrolable need for perfection. But over the past 10 years of my life, I have wanted to live, and when I say live, I mean, really live. I have focused on my own healing through counseling, group therapy, medication and lots of chocolate. I have walked through many "forest fires" and come out the other side alive and stronger. I have ached, cried and hurt most of my life but I never gave up even in my darkest hours when I really wanted to. I am learning to love myself more. I am trying to see me as my Heavenly Father does and at times, I still can't look in the mirror. When I am struggling beyond belief, I now turn to my husband, my Mother, my friends, my journal and my Savior. They all help me through the hurt. I try not to hurt myself anymore to punish me for something I didn't do or do well enough. I know there is more to life than just barly getting by. I know that God wants me to have a wonderful, incredible life, and I do! I just need to relax more and give myself permission to just be me. I share this because we all hurt, we all have a past and we all have things we wish never happened, but my hope is that we all get throught it, that we walk through the fire and come out the other side seeing how amazing we are. My prayer is that you will reach out to someone- anyone, in your dark moments, because the world is so much better with you in it.
To my beautiful friend, I am so happy you are still here.

My happiness:

My husbands touch
my babies
My childrens laughter
My Mother's voice
my family
amazing friends
Standing at the edge of the ocean
motorcycle rides with my Dad
chocolate
Yard sales
my vaccuum
My VW
Windex
scriptures
hand sanitizer
church
candy
music
my journal
coupons
fuzzy socks
chapstick
Michael Bolton
Non fat milk
sterling silver
my grandpa singing while he vaccuums
Grandmas crocheted blankets & dish rags
Old fashioned glazed donuts
bubble baths
The Office
fabric
scapbook paper
recycling
my red bingo sweatshirt
black sweats
food
the smell of a clean house
Advil
my dishwasher
my washer & dryer
my phone
my zebra bathrobe

...thank you for my amazing life!

Turning 30...

It's one of those things I can't control, so I just try to age happily. I am 30! Althought it feels like just yesterday that I left highschool, I did not. 12 years later, a decade with my husband, 4 kids, a house and a mini van proves that yes, indeed, I am aging!
I had a great birthday dinner with friends this past week. All I can say is I am blessed to have the greatest ones on earth. Thanks guys for a great, great night!
(Sorry Andrea that I am in front of your face & Annikan, don't you love the balloon string in yours?!)

My sweet Chelsea...

I love this girl with all my heart. Honestly, I don't think I could love her more. She's one of those friends that knows all my deep dark secrets, but loves me anyways. A friend whose seen my "private parts" while nursing a baby, a friend who adores IKEA and Target just as much as I do and calls to see if I want more napkins! She's that friend who always listens even if it's until midnight and one who always has chocolate chip cookies ready for me. She remembers the important things and loves my kids. She makes me laugh with her hilarious "grape" stories and makes me cry when I think of all that she has gone through to have a family. I simply adore her. I love evey second with her. She has an amazing ability to love, care and ask questions about your day, or week or life. she makes people feel important and loved. She has the greatest smile and is "sometimes" late for things. She loves stars as much as I do and one day I'll steal her ring with the star on it, but she'll never guess who did it. She makes amazing lasagna, runs half marathons and can make anything feel better. I am beside myself with delight that she is expecting twins! TWINS! A boy and a girl. All I can say is those babies are the luckiest tiny kids there are, because they will have the most amazing Mama in the world. (Shane will be an ok Dad. Just kidding. An amazing Dad.)I love you Chelsea.

Say goodbye...

I know this is the silliest thing to blog about, but I have REALLY weak, flimsy finger nails. I've always wanted to grow them out, but they always broke before I could get them to that "cute" stage. Cleaning houses for 10 years has made it difficult to have long nails even if I wanted to, but recently, my prenatels have been super. I decided to grow my nails out a little, just to see if I could do it. I usually have the tiniest line of white showing, so they've always been SUPER short. Even with short nails, I was always flipping my nail backwards while changing sheets or cleaning- so it just never worked out for me, until now. I told myself when they became a problem, I would clip them, so yesterday while I was grocery shopping, my pinki nail, which is super long (almost falf an inch!), flipped completely backwards and caused the most terrible finger pain of my life. Seriously. I wanted to say a swear word. But I didn't. So, after the longest blog post about finger nails, I've decided it's time to cut them, but I'm kinda sad about it. Am I crazy? It stems from never having them, but really, I'm starting to injure my children. Texting is difficult and washing hair is hard to do. So wish me luck as I say farwell to my crazy long finger nails. (Just so you know, my injured pinki is not the one pictured, it's much longer than the one shown!)

More Noodle bath fun...

Our 3rd Annual Noodle bath...

****WARNING, this 2 piece bathing suit is the ONLY one I own. Ask me how excited I was to but this baby on after giving birth 3 months ago. Not excited at all. Therefore, I am sorry for the unsightly pictures with my nursing chest, my fat rolls and any other unpleasantness you may witness. Trav was taking pictures, so sorry for the cleavage shots, just have your husbands leave the room for a minute!)

It's tradition now, every year on my birthday, we have a family noodle bath. We talk about it for months and for the week leading up to it, the kids ask, "Mommy, do we get to take a noodle bath today?" Well today was the big 30 for me, so after church, we hopped in and splashed around. I know you all think I'm crazy, and apart of me is, but honestlt try it!!! Don't judge me until you do. The kids LOVED it, like always and we had a great time. Willow just layed there floating in the water not knowing that noodles were being shooved down her tiny bathing suit! Oh the memories! Even when I'm 90, the kids agreed to come and take a noodle bath with me!

Mini Makeover...

I've needed to spend some time in the girls room for awhile now, rearranging, decluttering, reorganizing and redoing a few things (basically on a daily basis because Grace takes EVERYTHING out of her drawers while playing dress up)but really, I've wanted to spruce things up a bit in there. Here's one wall I improved this morning!

Covering my # 10 cans...

I am so thankful for my food storage, but I hate to get rid of those darling silver cans when I've used up 6 pounds of rice, so I just started saving a few for my craft stuff. When I went to cover them with cute scrqapbook paper last week, I realized the paper wasn't long enough! Darn. I didn't want to use wrapping paper because I knew I'd be handeling them often, so I wanted something a little more durable, so that's when I went to my old dear friend- my fabric stash! Using materials I already had (I definatly wish I would have used sparkly silver iron on letters though, so sad) I used my thicker canvas material, my wonderful hot glue gun that Id be lost without & black iron on letters. For one of my craft buckets,I drilled holes in each side and made a beaded handle (but I need to redo it, using even thicker wire.)
I had to recover my food cans because they were driving me nuts with their ugly labels, so although it's hard to read, they at least look better than before!)I'm still working on them, but you get the idea!

Willow at 3 months...

Willow is such a joy to have in our home. We just adore her! She's such a happy baby who sleeps like an angel, and makes us smile all the time. I just love her dimples!

Goals...

Lately, I have been so grateful for my quiet little life. Besides giving birth, things have been nice & relaxing for the past little while. Willow is a terrific baby, Trav has had a ton of time off, the kids have been mostly super, I've been able to organize closets, drawers, crafts shelves etc... , church started at 9:00 AM! I've been sewing, making, creating, I've felt insprired, on top of things (except for laundry & Grace's room. What is it about a 3 year old pulling out EVERYTHING from EVERY drawer in her room?!!)All I can say is, life has been good.I've been focusing on the postive, watching re runs of The Office & SNL (& laughing my butt off!)and spending more time with my kids. I've been allowing myself creative time and time away, but I've also been in tune to things/people around me and it's felt refreshing. (I'm still crazy though, don't get me wrong!)it's just been nice to reflect more on my blessings (like my VW that needs $ 3,000 dollars worth of work! Sigh. Scream. Wipe away tears. But, I'm grateful that my husband is letting me keep it AND put more $ into it, thanks God for making faster engines, that sold him!) With all that rambling, I do need to improve in a lot of areas:

*read my scriptures more! I'm seriuosly lacking here. And preparing for my lessons don't count!
*Spend more time playing with my babies. (Yes, that means pull out that horrid messy Play Doh and roll little pink snakes with them!)
*Talk nicer to my children/less nagging & yelling (yes, I get angry at my children).
*Have more study time or "school work" with Daisy.
* Loose 20 more pounds! Or stop eating 500 bags of Halloween candy!Either would do the trick!
*Get to the temple! Really, I'm always going to have an excuse... "but I'm pregnant, but I just had a baby, but I'm nursing, but it's hard to find a sitter for 4 kids, but, but but. I NEED the blessings!
*Cook. I HATE COOKING!Hate the time it takes. hate the mess. Hate the clean up. Love to eat. I have 6 mouthes to feed, so I better learn to enjoy it more.
*Fold laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer instead of throwing in on the floor in a huge pile while walking away, saying"I'll get to you in 5 minutes." It just doesn't happen. (Thank goodness for a husband that helps me fold laundry at 11:00 PM!)

...the list could go on for a long time, but lastly... I need to love myself more. I need to value who I am, see the good, improve the not-so-good, but love who I see staring back at me. I need to remember I am a daughter of God who has value and who is loved. I cannot change the past, even if I wish I could 500 times a day. all I can do is accept this person I am, this body I live in and where I am in my life. I have the whole world, right here in this little house of mine, and yes, even with a broken Volkswagon,tons of laundry to do, clothes I still can't fit into... I am still blessed.

Willow turns 3 months old...

Our little pumpkin turned 3 months old yesterday! I love this age because she is so alert, smiling, starting to laugh, follows me with her eyes, totally recoginizes my voice & is literrally the worlds best baby!She is happy all the time and sleeps like an angel!