In which I remember what is important

I woke up the other morning and quickly realized that my prayer from the night before had backfired. Instead of blowing the massive amount of leaves from our huge maple tree into our neighbor’s yard as I had requested, the Lord had instead tripled the amount of leaves and dumped them back on my own front yard. Seeing how He can move mountains, I’m sure tripling leaves is trivial stuff.

So that afternoon, after Jace was down for a nap, Brynlee and I grabbed our rakes, the leaf blower and an mammoth amount of big black garbage bags and set out to rediscover our lawn. I quickly went to work raking and blowing leaves into a pile for quicker bagging.

Brynlee, on the other hand, ran around the yard like a wild banshee, giggling and truly enjoying every minute that the leaves had to offer. I endlessly tried to round the leaves up into one heaping pile. While Brynlee equipped with her orange fisher price rake, would push the leaf mound all over the yard again. She would run and jump into the pile, throw continuous amounts of leaves in the air and would hop on the full lawn bags as if it were a trampoline. She purposely put leaves in her hair, took off her shoes and packed them with the crispy things, and used the leaf blower as a man made wind storm.

I watched, truly delighted that she was enjoying herself, but continued in my pursuit to alleviate the leaves from the yard. I stopped once or twice to snap a quick picture, but then would return to my task. After about 30 minutes of me working and her playing something Bryn said caught my attention. She grabbed an armful of leaves, and then said, “I love this” as she threw the leaves into the air. She did it again, but this time said, “Do you love this, mom?” Smiling at her sheer delight I answered that I did indeed love that. She paused for a second then asked, “If you love it, why aren’t you doing it?”

My girl had a point. In my attempt to get things done I had ignored the opportunity to do something fun with the little girl that I cherish.

At times I find that I become so obsessed with caring for those that I love that I neglect to focus my energies on really enjoying them. With that I put down my rake and spent some time making memories with my little Brynlee. We threw leaves in the air; I grabbed her arms and spun her in circles. We giggled as we steam rolled through the pile. She threw leaves at me and I returned the favor.  For the next little bit, nothing else mattered.

The Lord knew what He was doing by tripling the leaves that day. He knows me, and He knew that I would be driven to get the task done. He knew that He needed enough leaves that when I finally came around there would still be plenty of leaves for us to play in. He knew that through my little girl He would have the opportunity to remind me of what was important.

I challenge you all to make an effort within the next few days to truly enjoy the ones you love. Put your to-do lists away, turn off your cell phones, computers and TV’s and make some memories. And I will do the same.
 

Picking Favorites

Brynlee and I made Rice Krispie Treats this morning. Here is our conversation from this afternoon.

Brynlee: “Mama, can I have another of those treats?”
Me (hesitating to tease her a bit): “Uh, I don’t know baby. Let’s see. How bad do you want one?”
Brynlee (immediately following my question): An eight, nine, twelve bad!
Me: An eight, nine, twelve bad, that’s a lot. How much do you love Mama?
Brynlee (after a two or three second pause): Probobleeee, um, a two. (Nodding as if she had definitely calculated right)

That gooey mess of heaven wins every time! (sign) But when I gave her the Rice Krispie Treat she said, “I huv you”. Bet she didn’t tell Mr. Rice Krispie Treat that.

Dizzy with excitement

I have been walking around here for the last little while like a kid in December, all hyped up on candy canes and Santa. It’s all been in anticipation of this big day. Look what opened up in my part of the world. YIPPEE! (insert image of me doing a little celebratory dance here) It’s time to start shopping bulk, my fellow bloggers.

And I deliver

As promised here are the pictures from our trip. But before I post pictures let me tell you this.

Brynlee, Jace and I had to run a few errands today. On our list of things to do was to pick up a snowsuit for Brynlee. Apparently her dad thinks that layering six pairs of pants topped with footie nighties is too big of a hassle for the 1.38 minutes she spends outside before getting too cold. We were standing in the check-out line waiting to purchase the snow pants behind a gentleman. Judging by the amount of cologne this guy was wearing he had some major after shopping plans. We are talking cologne to the level that it makes your eyes burn.

Brynlee (in an extremely loud and matter of fact voice): “Somefin stinks!” I just give Brynlee a little smile and nod in agreement as to change the subject fast.
Brynlee (after pausing for a little, still plagued by the offensive smell): “Mama”
Me: “Yeah, sweetheart?”
Brynlee (wrinkling her nose and speaking in a mid-level shout): “Did you toot? Cause somefin hilly stinks.”

And with that, here are the pictures.

Brynlee, Marie and Kate at the zoo.

Brynlee taking in all the animals at the zoo.

Me, Marie, Brynlee and little Jace is in the stroller

Jace, Marie and Maddie

The girls love Jace. Especially little Brookie. She is always going a million miles per second but pauses long enough to give baby Jace loves. Maddie kept saying, "Jace is just so cute, I can't stand to look at him."

Dad, this picture is for you. Marie asked if I would post her riding the horse on my blog so daddy could see it.

Livvie loved the petting zoo at This is the Place. Brynlee, on the other hand, wasn't that impressed by the two cows, the goat, and three sheep. She kept saying she wanted to go to the real petting zoo not the baby petting zoo.

When we were all loaded into the minivan, Brynlee, Maddie and Marie were all in the back seat. Out of the middle of nowhere Brynlee says, "I love you guys." And it's true. She loves you guys. And so do I.

Two days later and I'm still exhausted

This weekend was full of big fun for the B. Family. Well at least all us girls and Jace. Poor kid! He needs him a few boy cousins to counterbalance all the pink, pigtails, gossip and drama he is going to have to endure (just a subtle hint for my sisters).

My mom, sisters, me and the kids took a trip to Salt Lake City for a little weekend get-away. Except not really, ‘cause Salt Lake isn’t really that far away. So it was more like a staycation or a short drive awaycation. Whatever you call it, we had a great time. And aside from an occasional custody battle over very important things like a happy meal toy or a seat on the stroller, we had a fun-filled weekend loaded with all that Salt Lake City has to offer.

And when I say all it has to offer, I’m not joking. We went to Hogle Zoo, This is the Place Heritage Park, The Lion House Pantry, the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum, and the Living Aquarium. Did I mention that we did this all in one day? With six kids? We obviously live by the motto that less is NEVER more, especially when it comes to living big in SLC. And we also live by the belief that you should get the most bang for your buck. Cause we did it all for $20.00? Twenty. Dollars. People. I’m not making this up. It’s called the Salt Lake City Connect Pass and it totally rocks! If you are going to be visiting the Salt Lake area I suggest you go buy it right now. Seriously. This will wait until you get back. Go now.

And since no awaycation to Salt Lake is complete without a trip to Ikea we also found time to devote three hours stuck in the Ikea Maze of No Returning without Purchasing. And seeing how we saved so much money by buying the Connect Pass we made sure to find a little shopping time. We wanted to spend more time shopping but the nice lady that worked at Arby’s in the mall food court said she wasn’t going to watch our kids longer than two hours. Just kidding. She worked at Panda Express.

You might be wondering why we crammed so much stuff into the three days that we were in Salt Lake. Well, after the first night in the hotel we came up with an evil plan to wear the kids down to a level beyond exhaustion to help them sleep soundly the next night. The plan was in hopes of saving ourselves the humiliation of the Holiday Inn security escorting us and our six wild kids out of the hotel. The plan worked all too well, and by the end of the night kids were falling asleep everywhere. Including the food court at the mall.
  Speaking of sleeping kids, my sweet little girl is calling for me over the monitor. I planned on posting more pictures of the trip, but that is going to have to wait until another time. I know it’s going to be hard for ya’ll to sleep until I get them posted. And since your sleep is of the utmost importance to me I will try to post them soon.

The Chubby Bunny Diet

In my quest to lose the baby weight, I asked Brynlee if she wanted to go on a walk today. And is her quest to keep her mama chubby, she responded, "Nah, let's stay home and eat marshmallows instead". I think I am going to follow her weight loss plan.

Voila!

I have had a few requests to put the final pictures of Jace's room on the blog. Well, one request. Same thing. And I'm sure the rest of you are on pins and needles waiting to see the final product. Or not. Whatever. Either way here are the pictures. A big shout out to Kali for letting me use her vinyl lettering machine to make the giraffes and Jace's name above the closet. Thanks Kali Jo. Love ya girl!

The Weekend Review

I have been wanting to take Brynlee to the pumpkin patch since it turned fall outside. Come to find out we missed the TWO days that the local pumpkin patch was open. Two days. Are you kidding me? So, we went to the next best place. Good thing she’s two and doesn’t know exactly what a pumpkin patch is, or she might have been disappointed picking a pumpkin out of a huge cardboard box in front of the grocery store.
Then three days later, IT SNOWED! Way-to-go, I-da-ho! If we keep going through seasons this fast I will probably be sunbathing on the deck by Wednesday. Or probably not. Because first of all I just had a baby, and second of all I just had a baby so NO WAY AM I SUNBATHING ON THE DECK. Anyway. Spencer and Brynlee slaved all morning in the freezing cold weather to build this snowman.
Then 20 minutes of sunbathing on the deck later it was gone. So in an effort to redeem themselves they built this one.
20 minutes later.
That makes Spencer and Brynlee. Zero. Snowman. Two. On top of building snowman, we also spent the weekend celebrating the first snow day of the year with a candle-topped-blueberry muffin.
Why the muffin? Let me explain. There are so many details that make this story more interesting, but I'm sure you have somewhere other than this blog to be, so I’ll summarize.

See Spence. See Kim. See Spence and Kim meet and fall in love. See Kim get cold feet and run (stupid Kim). See Spence’s truck. See the bald tires. See the first snow storm of the winter. It’s a BAD snow storm. See Kim call Spence to see if he needs to borrow her car. See Spence agree then take Kim out to dinner in return. See Kim realize that she is indeed in love with Spence. See Spencer and Kim get married. And because of all this Spencer and I celebrate the first snow storm every year. I know…were dorks, but there are just not enough holidays in the year. We usually have a little bigger celebration that a blueberry muffin and a candle, but the first snow day snuck up on us this year and we were caught unprepared. I did give Spence a bag of Peanut M&M’s (his favorite) and some candy bars. Because we live large. And he made me this sign while I was grocery shopping.

So, Happy First Snow Day everyone. And in other big news from the weekend. Jace turned 1 month.
Time goes so fast when you are picking pumpkins out at Win-Co, making bite-size snowman, and celebrating a made-up holiday with computer printed posters and Costco size blueberry muffins.

Just can't shake the pregnancy weight

I’m sure all you ladies agree that there are certain aspects of being a woman that are inherently NOT FAIR. Like the fact that men swimsuit bottoms go to their knees, while a woman is expected to prance around something similar to her under-panties every time she ventures out to the neighborhood pool. Or how men don’t have to worry about fitting into a pair of skinny jeans, yet a woman is the one that suffers from PMS once a month that causes her to eat all the chocolate she can get her hands on.

But, honestly, the thing that bothers me the most is how quickly most men can lose weight. When Spence and I first started dating he was preparing for a powerlifting competition. He informed me that he needed to weigh-in the next day and had to lose 10 pounds by morning time. I’m sure I spoke encouraging words, but in my head I was thinking “Oh you fool, bless your heart if you honestly think you can lose 10 pounds in your sleep!” Turns out I was the fool. All he needed to do was skip the butter on his potato, have Baked Lays instead of Doritos, and not drink his regular 11:30pm chocolate milkshake and sure enough he had lost the 10 pounds.

Are you kidding me? I could be on the “cleansing juice diet” for 30 days, exercise myself into craziness, cut off both my arms and I would still have 2 more pounds to lose to hit the 10 pound mark.

But, today I think I figured out my problem. When Brynlee and I were on our 4th pretend picnic of the day I took a good look at what we were getting served.

Here is what Brynlee served Jace:
  Here is what Bryn ate:
  And here is my picnic food:
  If the donuts, the two ice-cream cones and the French fries weren’t the problem; then it was probably the bottle of ketchup and vegetable oil that I washed it all down with. Fattening? Sure. But arguably delicious! I hate to admit it but guzzling vegetable oil has always been my weaknesses! You should see what she serves me on a picnic when I AM suffering from PMS. Let me just say…it ain’t pretty.

Happy October!

Because really, nothing welcomes in the fall like BUSTY women and a little CRACK!
***Miranda, this post is in honor of you and all your fall baking and baby crying stress. Just think it could be worse; we could still be college students. I came across these pictures and couldn't help but laugh. Aaahhh the good ole’ college days that were filled with late nights, exams and pumpkin butts!! ***

We partied like it was 1999

Except for not really because it’s 2008, and did I mention that my hubby turned 30. So instead of a party we watched the 5:00 news, had an early dinner, then I gave him two Ibuprofen and some Metamucil and he was in bed before 8:00pm. Oh…I’m just kidding. His lower back and knees weren’t throbbing that bad so I just gave him one Ibuprofen. I know that 30 really isn’t that old and to the graying population out there he is still just a kid, but I’m not 70 and he is older than me so I have to heckle him a little. But in an attempt to keep him young, the kids and I threw him a birthday party equipped with balloons, streamers and party hats. Here’s Jace before the party.
Here’s Jace during the party.
And here is Jace after the party.
Obviously we know how to PAR-TAY!! And look, we made Spence a Spongebob Squarepants cake.
Don’t be too critical of the cake. I think it turned out pretty good seeing that my two-year-old sous-chef miscalculated the amount of cake we needed and accidentally disposed of the bottom right portion of the cake using her hand and mouth as tools. After some major reconstructive surgery the cake somewhat resembled Spongebob. So that was good news. In other good news the Dow was down 777 points on Spencer's brithday so I went ahead and bought him the stock market for his birthday. Thanks to the volatile market and the unapproved financial bailout it only set me back $182.76.
We love you Spencer! Happy 30th Birthday.