I LOVE my Life!

It's been a week since I blogged. A wonderful week. In fact, as I look over the past seven days, I can't help but think, "I LOVE my life!"

Now, for those of you who are not feeling that exact feeling right now, don't worry. There were plenty of moments in the last seven days that I wasn't so sure I did. There have been temper tantrums, direct defiance, fighting children, whining children, stressful situations, tiredness, and so on and so forth. . . But as I look back at the week as a whole, I am so grateful to be where I'm at, with the family I have, and doing the things I am doing. As my dad would say, "I live a charmed life."

So here are some of the reasons (from the past seven days) that I love my life:

1. Last Thursday, I got to drive to Cokeville (I LOVE being only 80 minutes from my parents!) for a meet and greet event for my father-in-law's governor campaign. It was so much fun to listen to him talk as well as see friends and family there.

2. On Friday, I visited my sister, Tami, in Star Valley. We always talk non-stop when we're together, and Friday was no exception. We also enjoyed taking the kiddos to Burger King for lunch (WAY COOL playplace) and playing out in the snow.

My snow angel

Connor was SO proud of his final face plant.

3. Friday night and Saturday were spent with another sister, Violet, in Rexburg. Her husband, Austin, cooked dinner and breakfast for us, and both were FABULOUS! We also enjoyed having lunch at Craigos, where Vi works, and going swimming.

Vi and the girls

4. Sunday I got to go to choir practice. Although I'm not sure I LOVE being the ward choir director, I DO love music, and I am so grateful for the support from our ward members that come and share their talents. We're singing my favorite hymn in church this Sunday, and I'm looking forward to that (although I get VERY nervous conducting.)

5. On Monday, I got to clean my house. I don't love cleaning. But I do love my house, and I really love my house when it is clean--something I got to enjoy Monday evening. I also got to go lift weights. Gotta love that! Finally, we had Tony's brother and his fiance over for dinner and FHE.

6. On Tuesday, I volunteered in Connor's classroom for an hour. It was SO much fun, and I'm going to be doing that every Tuesday now. I got my degree in Elementary Ed. and have never taught, so I really enjoy these little opportunities to get in the classroom! Also, last night, I booked our flights to Miami for our cruise this summer. SOOOO excited for that!

7. Today was an amazing day. This was my schedule: Teach preschool in the morning. Start my online class while Mariah was sleeping and Mylie was at a friend's house. I love taking classes online, and am really excited about this one. Go on a walk outside. It was a beautiful day, and I wanted to take advantage of my rare opportunity to have some one-on-one with Mariah. Come home and read to Mariah. Finish reading my book. Go to the library and get the next book in the series, which I can hardly wait to get my hands on. Go to the high school and scrimmage against the girls basketball team. BLOG. :)

My buddy for the afternoon

And so my life goes. Sure, there are challenges and setbacks along the way. But I feel so blessed to be a mom, to have a WONDERFUL husband, to have a great support system with extended family, to have the freedom and flexibility to visit family, and to have the time to enjoy some of my own hobbies, too. And as much as I enjoyed today, I can hardly wait for the next few. Here's what's on the agenda:

Tonight: Start my book, even though it's late.

Tomorrow: Go visiting teaching in the morning. Enjoy my girls in the afternoon. Make chicken and noodles from scratch--a favorite growing up that I've only made a couple times, but can't wait to eat!

Friday: Go to the temple and visit with Tony's sister and her family.

Saturday: See my sisters, Olivia and Tessa, play basketball WITHOUT having to travel far. They're playing in Lyman. Woohoo!

As I write this, I realize more and more that my life is very simple--but I love it! And so I'm wondering, what simple things do you love? If you've done something in the past week that has made you think, "I LOVE my life!" please share it with me. (P.S. Sorry if this post is a little too much like one you've read on "Seriously, So Blessed." Oh well. At least this one is true!)

Addendum to Previous Post

Sunday night after blogging about my guess and check methods, I knelt down to pray before bed and realized that my post definitely needed an addendum. Although I may resort to using guess and check for more trivial problems, such as getting my kid to take a nap, our Heavenly Father has given us some very direct help in solving much larger problems.

There is an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Ray's daughter needs to ask her dad an important question. Ray assumes that she is going to ask him about the birds and the bees, and is very nervous about the whole conversation, planning out how he is going to answer her. But then when she asks, "Why are we here?" he is dumbfounded. He has no answer for her and wishes that she had just asked about the birds and the bees. Although this was meant to be humorous, each time I've watched it (yes, more than once) I have been grateful that if my child asked me that, I wouldn't hesitate at all. I know the answer.

But I don't think my kids will ever ask me this--they ALREADY know the answer. We've talked about it. And not in a setting that I've made up to try to get this point across. No, in Family Home Evening. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father, through his prophets here on earth, has told us HOW to teach our children--by having FHE, family prayer, and family scripture study. When it comes to the testimonies and eternal progression of our children, Heavnly Father doesn't make us use guess and check, and I am SO grateful for that. Because by the time I finally found the right answer using MY methods, it might be too late.

My Honorary Degree

Okay, so I tricked you into reading this. I don't really have any honorary degree, but I think I (and every other mother out there) really deserve one. Earlier this week, in one day, I had three friends post (either on a blog or facebook) that they were having trouble getting their babies to sleep. It made me think about that problem and many other issues that we face in this crazy job called mothering, and I realized that motherhood is really just one never-ending series of problem solving. And after having been at it more-than-full-time for six years, I think I should at least have a Bachelor's Degree in problem solving. And my incredible mother, who has been in the business now for nearly 30 years should definitely have an honorary Ph.D.

I remember back in elementary school when I was learning about problem solving in math. We went over many different method of problem solving and then tried to choose the most appropriate method for the problem. I don't remember very many of those techniques, but the one I do remember is the one I use CONSTANTLY in mothering: GUESS AND CHECK. I think that every problem I've solved with my kids has been solved via this method. For example:

Mariah has almost always been a great sleeper. She actually slept 14 hours straight when she was just 4 weeks old. However, at about 6 weeks, we started having problems during the day. She just could not get to sleep. I tried rocking, I tried nursing, I tried bouncing, car rides, etc. It was so much work to get her to sleep, and then after I laid her down, she'd be awake again with 20 minutes. Finally, one day I just decided that she could cry in her crib just as well as she could cry in my arms and so I laid her in there. She cried for a few minutes, then went to sleep . . . and slept for 2 hours! Later that day, same thing. And suddenly, we had a sleeper again! I guess she didn't want any help. Guess and check!

For the past two months or so, she's been waking up once (or twice) in the night and wanting another bottle. I know she doesn't NEED one, but she didn't want to go back to sleep until she got it. I was getting fed up with this, and wondering what to do. I tried a few things, and finally remembered how well she slept at night when she was on formula. So I tried it one night. We have now had an entire week of Mariah sleeping 10 or more hours straight at night! Guess and check!

I've been struggling quite a bit with Mylie lately. She basically just wants to do what she wants to do--regardless of what I want her to do or what the consequences may be. I've tried all forms of persuasion, discipline, etc. And then this week, I accidentally found an answer. Things aren't perfect still, but it's amazing how well she obeys me when I talk with a southern accent! Guess and check.

Connor has a problem with his temper. We've done incentives such as sticker charts or quarters when he goes all day without losing his temper, we've tried punishing him--timeouts--for losing it, we've had tons of talks on the subject, and it actually is getting better all the time. However, I don't quite consider this problem SOLVED. And so we're trying something else. We had Connor set one new year's resolution this year, and HE chose to stop losing his temper. He wrote it on a piece of paper and taped it up in his room. We refer to it often and remind him that he doesn't want to lose his temper. Maybe this year and this method will be just the thing. We're guessing--and will be checking constantly.

So for you new mothers out there who are wanting some ANSWERS: I don't have any. Just try something. And then try again. And again. And eventually you'll find what works. And when you do, celebrate. But beware. The next problem is just around the corner, waiting to test your newly acquired problem solving skills.

And for you more veteran mothers, I have a question: Is there a better method than guess and check? It would really save me a lot of time and hassle if there is. And maybe if I had more than one tool in my bag, I could graduate and move onto my master's program.

Toddler in Boots

There's just something about a toddler in boots that makes me smile! Mariah is obsessed with this pair right now. I love it!

Yeah . . .

THIS

is coming off tomorrow. All I can say is HALLELUJAH!

Christmas WEEK

Tony and Connor didn't have any school this week, and so it really has felt like an entire WEEK of Christmas. Here are the highlights:

Monday afternoon, we headed to Salt Lake for our 2nd annual family Christmas trip. It was GREAT once again. We followed our schedule from last year, eating at the Mayan, staying at a hotel downtown (thank you, priceline!), seeing the lights at temple square, and swimming at the hotel. This year, we went equiped with 7 loaves of homemade bread to give to people who may need it around temple square, but we could only find 3 people to share our bread with! Oh well. The kids still got the spirit of it. Here are a couple pics of our fun trip.

Tuesday night, we got a babysitter and Tony and I went to an ugly Christmas sweater party. This is an annual event hosted by Tony's sister. And this year . . . drumroll . . . Tony won! The real vote-getter was his Christmas star belt buckle which stayed lit all night by his mini-generator, which he carried around faithfully throughout the party. (Connor was our photographer, and I guess he hasn't learned not to take a picture when somebody is rubbing their lips together!)

Tony's family all came to the ranch this Christmas, so the kids have had TONS of cousin time these past few days, which would probably keep them happy even without the presents. I won't bore you with any pictures of what they got, but they were excited. Mariah didn't care a bit about what was inside the presents, but she was completely obsessed with opening them!

My favorite gift was a surprise from Tony--a beautiful picture of the Salt Lake temple to go above our bed in my newly decorated bedroom. This picture, of course, doesn't do it justice, and the wall color still looks NOTHING like the real thing. Oh well. You get the idea.

Finally, today my entire family came over for dinner and a gift exchange here. It was so fun to have them. I really wish I would have taken some pictures, but I forgot. The highlight for me was a coupon from my dad for a trip to Phoenix with him and all my sisters this summer for a Phoenix Mercury WNBA basketball game. I can hardly wait! Thanks again, Dad!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. I love this time of year!!!

Hair Stuff

A couple quick thoughts on hair. For nearly a year, I've been suggesting to Mylie that she cut her hair, but with no success. "No, Mom. I'm growing it down to my knees!" Well, about two weeks ago, Tony said to Mylie, "I really liked it when you had that cute short haircut. It looked so cute on you." That's all it took. The next day, Mylie and I headed to the hairdresser and she got the chop. What is it about a dad's opinion of his daughter's hair that has such power? It made me think about some of my "hair" memories growing up. I don't usually remember anything specific that anybody said 15 or 20 years later, but I remember two very specific times--one on a Sunday morning before church when I was about 9 years old, and another my freshman year in high school--when my dad told me that my hair looked nice. So, dads, compliment your daughters on their hair. I don't know why, exactly, but it matters.

Secondly, I'm having a major hair dilemma. About three months ago, I dyed my hair dark. I hated it for about a week or two, then have really liked it since then (after it toned down a bit). However, it is MUCH darker than my regular, so by mid-November, I had some nasty roots growing in, which looked gray. It looked to me like somebody had emptied their vacuum right onto my part. Yuck! So, I went to my hairdresser and she touched up the roots for me for just $20, which is much better than paying full price to have it all done again. But now it's been a month, and my hair is still growing (dang hair!) and the roots are changing much too quickly. I can't decide whether to keep paying $20 every two months to keep this up, or to just go back to my regular color (a big cost all at once), and then not have to pay for maintainance. If I hated the dark hair, this would be an easy call, but I'm having fun with the change as well as the compliments (I've never had TWO hair compliments from married men before!) so I don't know what to do. Right now I can hardly wait until my little sister, Olivia, goes to beauty school so I can let her "practice" on me and get my hair done at a fraction of the cost! But until then . . . what do I do?