Mother's Day Contribution

As you know, Mother's Day has just passed. I personally, am not much of smaller holiday person. What I mean to say is that growing up, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Birthdays, etc were not that big of a deal. Not that NOTHING gets done on these days to celebrate, but just that not much is expected. Now Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter.. those are a completely different story. But looking at the meaning of these 'smaller holidays', I realize the importance of just celebrating each other. Showing gratitude for each other. Showing appreciation for those who have done wonderful things for us.

As I contemplate Mother's Day, I can't help but just thinking of women in general. Women who are full time mom's. Women who juggle a career and being a mom. Women who cannot have children, but choose to be an example to those little one's they have contact with. Women who would love to be a mom but have not had the opportunity yet in life but also choose to be an example. Mother's Day means something different to every one of these types of women, but the one thing in common is the children in our lives and choosing to be the type of woman that helps, nurtures, and is a safety zone for these little ones in our lives. What a great thing to celebrate on a day like Mother's Day.

As an individual who has not had the opportunity to be a Mother yet, I have to say that focusing on being the best Auntie has been such a delight in my life. I lovingly call all the children in my life 'my kidlets'. If I cannot be a mother yet, I will be a safe haven for those who look to me for guidance, love, nurturing, and an example of what is good, strong, and caring. My kidlets know they can turn to me for ANYTHING and I will guide them through safely and teach them the things they need in order to be good human beings. I also know that my family members know absolutely that I can be trusted with this sacred job when they are not around in moments of need. I am grateful for these opportunities in my life when they occur and cannot wait for the opportunity to be a Mother myself someday.

In looking at my own mother, this Mother's Day. I have to say that Heavenly Father has given me the greatest gift by having my mother be my mother. She is the most amazing women I know. Not only would she do anything for her children, but she has shown me the epitome of love, nurturing, caring, wisdom, self sacrifice, hard work, dependability, and constance. I could go on and on, but I'm pretty sure you get the idea. I, like most.. if not all of you, feel I have THE BEST MOM. Isn't it amazing that we all feel that way about our mothers? Wouldn't it be amazing if we all expressed that love, appreciation, and sentiment frequently to our Mothers? Not just on designated days to celebrate her.

My wish to you is the same wish I expressed to my Facebook Connections. Whether you are currently a mother, a soon to be mother, or a want to be mother, my wish is the same.. That you have a very Happy Mother's Day! I hope you know that your purpose is great. That your example is noted. That your love is felt. You are amazing women. Thank you to all who take this right and privilege seriously. :)

Funny Faces

So my kidlets and I have this thing. Ok, we have A LOT of things, but one of the things we have is taking pics of funny faces. They strive ever so diligently to one up me and my funny faces. I let them decide who wins, but most of the time I'm the winner. I guess I just have a funny face and I don't have to try very hard. Maybe I should be teaching my kidlets other things besides how to make funny faces, but I like to think I teach them TONS of things. Funny faces are just one of the many things I teach them. :) But don't you think teaching children how to laugh is huge?! I certainly do! :)




Now for my tender pics. LOVE my kidlets! Now I just need to take some pics with the rest of the kidlets and my heart will be super happy!!!

I do have to share this one story. My mom was tending these three and when it came time for them to talk with their mom for Mother's Day, my mom could hardly get them to stop playing the wii in order to talk with their mom on the phone. I asked my mom why she didn't just have them pause their game? She replied "you can do that?!" She's so cute! Anyway, I wanted to take some pics with the kidlets so I hollered into the other room for them to pause their game and come in to me. The next thing my mom and I could hear was Abby say "come on guys, TT needs us so lets pause our game." Haha. I just love my kids and choose to believe they love our time together just as much as I do. :)
(Abby, Ethan, Ryan)
















Baby blessings = tender
(Ali)


Family is really where it is at. It's so important to take the time to enjoy every moment you can with them. I love to invest my time in the little ones. To help them learn is to have meaning in life. At least to me it is. :)

Turning that Frown Upside Down

"Why do you have warts right there?" Now don't get me wrong, I KNOW I don't have 'warts' on my hand. But I simply could not figure out what my nephew could be referring to? And rubbing on my hand so tenderly. Then the light clicked. WORDS! "Why do you have WORDS right there?" I had written a reminder on my hand earlier and he could not understand why I had written on myself on purpose! :) I mean, he understood scribbles cause that is art, but words? Come on! :) LOVE the way he says his words. Sad that he's gonna be growing outta that one day. But um, I'm sure he'll be appreciative since it's not so cute as an adult.

"TT, can you not put frosting on my nose again? I don't like when people laugh at me." haha. Good thing I smoothed it over by explaining that they were laughing at ME, not him.. for being so silly and PUTTING that frosting on his nose. Hey, I couldn't help it! After his brother licked the knife, I figured it was time to stop frosting the cookies for a minute and share the love a little. Apparently one of the three didn't like the sharing. Whoops. :)

Me- "I need a kiss!" 4-yr old nephew- "I'm not your boyfriend!" hahaha. Well, there ya go! Contrary to that little dialogue, he absolutely does love me and kisses, cuddles, and snuggles me all the time. I think this is his way of choosing when he gets to do it. Which I TOTALLY support by the way. I will NEVER make a child give someone loves if they do not want to. I will suggest it, but if they don't want to..then they don't have to. It's that simple.

2-yr old niece "TT, lipstick" after she stares at my lips for a little bit. P.S. she wasn't telling me, she was asking me. So of course I whip out my chap-stick that smells like strawberries and I apply it. She then models it for me. Boy oh boy we are going to be in TROUBLE! :)

In a Child's Eyes

As a little girl, I grew up watching my older sister. She was a popular, blonde, beauty. In my eyes, she had it all.

It's amazing how life's experiences change us. How if we allow them, our experiences can either affect us for good or affect us in a damaging and unpredictable way. I don't think any one person chooses to take life experiences badly. But I truly believe we must actively make a decision to take all experiences in life and learn from them. Grow from them. The hard truth is this, we ALL experience hardships. We all have our ups and downs. But the key here is that we ALL do. No one is a victim here. We are all blessed with opportunities. The question is, are we taking those opportunities and learning from them?

As I walked into the hospital room of the ICU, I didn't know what to expect. My heart was guarded. My feelings in check. What would I see? I didn't know. This wasn't the first time I had gone to the hospital to see her. But it was certainly the first time for this reason. I felt wrong. I felt like I wasn't the right person to be there. Maybe I shouldn't have been chosen. Maybe I should let my brother handle it. As I stepped into her room, she weakly looked up at me and smiled. It was then that I was once again her baby sister. I was once again the little girl at my beautiful sisters feet, sitting with her and holding her hand. Trying to understand. You see, my sister tried to take her life last week.

Since only close friends and family read my blog now, I feel this is a safe place. I almost don't even know how to express my feelings on this experience. No, this is not something that is 'public' knowledge. However, my family could really use the prayers right now. And I truly believe there is a great power in 'specific' prayers. I would ask that you all pray for her. She needs all the prayers she can get. I thank you in advance.

Much love.

Love My Family! Even when We are Making Fun ;)

I have no other reason to post on this other than I totally crack up whenever I see these pictures. We were having some family time and the next thing I know is my grandpa is like this...

I will give him credit because he IS in his 90's. However, I look over and his wife is like this...

What's the saying? Like husband, like wife. Ok, maybe I just made that up. Whatever. :) Anyway. So as I'm taking these pics with my phone and getting the stink-eye by my mother... my brother does this for my camera...

Hahahaha. LOVE the open mouth Nick! :) Just thought those who are in the fam may enjoy these pics :)

Welcome Home!!!

Over the weekend my brother came home. We've missed him so much! We were so excited to see him that we even woke up at an insane hour, got small children ready (well some of us..not me), and got to the airport by 5:30am. Let's just say that it felt like we didn't sleep at all. OK, maybe it felt like that for those of us who don't go to bed at a reasonably early hour. Oh, and it was snowing on us as we were carting the chillin's to the hanger. Good gravy it was COLD! With all of that...it was still WONDERFUL! Hooray, Brett is home!

Ok, although having my brother home is pretty much the BEST! My favorite part was 'my kiddies'. :) They were soooo happy Uncle Brett was home! And the best for them was that as soon as they got their turn for loves, he lifted them up in a fling-hug that he does. They squeal and laugh and couldn't be happier. Of course I was standing on watching, and apparently I had a photographer documenting these moments. Hahaha. Thanks Rachel! :)

Some other funny moments of the morning were of course, with my kids. So I'm carrying Ry-ry into the restaurant to where we were going to have breakfast. There were two older ladies already sitting and observing me as I was walking in with him. This is how our conversation went down: Ryry- "What are we doing here?!" (He says in a very curious voice) Me- "We are eating breakfast here, even though it's crazy early." Ryry- "Well that's just GREAT!" Needless to say, his words and reaction caught the ladies off guard and they burst into laughter. It was pretty funny how he said it.

Next moment. My Braxie was unfortunately at the opposite end of the very long table at breakfast. He wanted TT (me) to know he could see me. So he yelled out my name. Rather than disrupt the rest of the family with Braxie's yells, I proceeded to play my blow kissing game with my sweetie. He loves this. I simply blew him a kiss and the game was on. :) He got the biggest Braxie smile. LOVE that smile!!! We proceeded with the game for the next little while until he was distracted with other things. But it's my way of letting him know I love him. I love when we are able to have moments like these. :)


Last moment to note. Ok, so E-boy (Ethan) comes walking over to my sister who is sitting next to me. He declares that he's come to give sugar. I looked down at him to see if he in fact had sugar in his hands. Lets face it, I wouldn't put it passed him. Nope, no sugar in his hands and he was most definitely not looking at me. He was looking at my sister. I nudged her because she hadn't heard him. So when she looked at him, he smiled and said again "I've come to give you lots of sugar". At this exclamation my sister swept him up and started giving him lots of loves. It was the funniest thing. Apparently whenever my sister wants hugs and kisses from Ethan, she tells him she wants some sugar. Hahaha! He was merely telling HER he wanted some sugar this time. Apparently he wasn't gonna wait for her to approach him. Good thing, I think she forgot. And we'd hate for his little heart to be broken that his aunt got sidetracked with having her brother home to remember to give loves to ALL the kiddies. Ha

Tis the Season

Wow, I cannot believe it is over. Although Christmas is over, I hope we all make a better effort to always remember Christ in our lives. That is one thing I love about Christmas, it is a time to REALLY focus on our Older Brother, His birth, His life. I love that we have a designated time to focus on Him. I'm going to try to make Christ more of a focus in my life.

On a different, lighter note... :)

This Holiday Season I've decided to experiment with baking. I've had so much fun. I really like to cook but I hate cooking when it turns out terrible. Rather than admit defeat before I've even tried, I decided that I was going to have fun baking and cooking things I've never tried before. It's been fun. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pics of them until LATE in the season, but here are a couple creations that were really yummy. :)

 
Chocolate Oreo Bon Bons! I dare you not to love them!!! :)

 
Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread

 
Crunchy Chicken Roll-ups (Now I'm hungry for this goodness, mmm)

Going to see the Lights on Temple Square is a Tradition. Not only is there so much symbolism there, but I just love to go there. Christmas just isn't Christmas unless I go to Temple Square and see the lights. It was sooo sooo sooo cold! Thankfully we went on a night that wasn't snowing, but we were freezing regardless. Brrr. I love that I'm not the only one who participates in this tradition. Any day of the week, you will find crowds of people enjoying the beauties of the lights. What a blessing.

 

 

We spent Christmas Eve at my brothers house (like we have for the past few years). We munch on lots of yummy finger foods, talk, play with the kiddies, and read Christmas Stories. This year our crowd was some what smaller than past years, but you'd never know it with the volume levels we can reach. Poor great-grandpa! lol. Boy the kiddies get so excited this time of year. I LOVE it!!!

 
This is right before Christmas Stories. They were pumped and ready to hear stories. But definitely good sports about letting TT take a pic of them. :)

 

Two of the four nerdy bro's I have. I couldn't help it. I had to post this one. It makes me giggle at my grandpa's face verses my two bro's. Hahahaha. Still laughing. :)

I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year!