A New Baby

I'm so happy for this little girl's family.  There is nothing like welcoming a new baby into the family.  It's hard because the lack of sleep but so beautiful.  I remember just sitting there and staring at my little girl thinking that I was so lucky to be her Mom.  

I was excited to take some pictures of this little girl because it was my first time meeting her.  Audrey talked about it for days and begged me to go over.  When she finally got to hold her I think she was a little nervous, but after Aunt Jenny left she couldn't stop talking about it and asked if we could have a baby just like her.  Here's hoping girl!

As I was taking pictures I had to laugh when I saw Mary pull some familiar faces.  She looks so much like her big sisters.  Speaking from experience, I think she's one lucky girl to have two big sisters to teach her all she needs to know about being a princess and a brother to teach her how to be brave and to be there to protect her even when she doesn't want to be.  

Welcome to the family little one!

Couch Project

I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, until I remembered that the last time I did this Lisa was in charge and Mom did all the sewing. The couch needed a change.  The cushions were thread bare and I was sick of looking at the fabric  I kept saying that I was going to reupholster it, but in the back of my mind I knew better.  So one day I just ordered the fabric and like all things in my life I set out to prove myself wrong.  

It was painful.  So many things went wrong before they went right. It took a week and a half but I did it!  Obviously I had a little help from Paul.  I needed someone to staple while I pulled, but the rest of it was done purely by me....with a lot of help from the man upstairs! 

I had to start the couch project because Paul was making this beautiful TV stand(pictured below) and I didn't want my couch to distract from it's beauty.  Speaking of the TV stand, there's something about the smell of cutting wood that reminds me of my Dad and his garage.  I just sat in the garage and watched Paul work, loving the smell of saw dust.  I felt like I was a kid again watching my Dad work on our house. I made me miss my family...just a little bit.  

This weeks project done...check!  I already have a new project in mind for next week.     

I'm am so lucky

How did I get so lucky?  My life is too good with these two.  Life is hard, it always will be.  We all have things that we are going through.  My struggle right now...I have hope.  For the first time in a long time I have hope and that scares me to death.  I don't want it to disappear or get broken.  It's been broken so many times.  So, everyday I make the choice to keep it and to take one more step forward, which can be hard all on it's own.  

At the end of the day it's these two that keep me in awe of the many blessings that I have been given.  Yesterday as I was driving around, it was green and beautiful, Paul was holding my hand, and Audrey was singing sweetly in the back seat.  My heart was filled with so much joy and it was as if Heavenly Father was whispering in my ear I did this all for YOU!

His vision for my life was always better than my own.  

I am so lucky!

Library Day

 My little girl has always been a book worm.  Give her a stack of books and she'll sit there quietly for at least an hour just looking at the pages imagining what the book is about.  Then she'll always as for me to read and once I start she never wants me to stop.  It's a good thing that I love to read just as much as she does.  

My most favorite right now is the series of "Elephant and Piggie" by Mo Williams.  I love that they're just as entertaining for me as they are for her.  I also love doing the voices for Piggie and Elephant too. Someday they will all be on my bookshelf.  

My sister and I talked about only buying the best of the best for our home library.  I'm curious what your favorites are?

A Little Opera

There's an outdoor theater here that I love.  Today it had a children's opera that was about an hour long.  Audrey loved it and so did I.  It reminded me of the old days when I was the one singing  I kind of miss it.  The theater is doing James and the Giant Peach next week.  We will be there.  

We invited Jenny and the kids but they weren't able to make it until later.  After the show we had lunch with them and then we decided to finally get tickets to the train ride that Audrey asks me about every time were there.  She kept on saying how exciting it was, until about halfway through and then she wanted to get off.  Almost as if she had willed it the train stopped and they told us that they were having technical difficulties. Thankfully there were little kids in front of us blowing bubbles to entertain the kids while we walked back to the ticketing place.  

After the trains technical difficulties I started thinking about how I attract "the crazy".  This event was purely coincidental so it really doesn't count but when it comes to other things I have to start to wonder what I'm doing wrong. Paul says it's because I'm too nice, apparently the type that people like to unload the crazy on.  I'm going to start recording "the crazy" because it's kind of funny.  It would also be a really awesome thing to pass down to the grand-kids.  

Superman

Daddy can fix anything.  If she breaks one of her toys she's always quick to remind me that Daddy can fix it.  He's done it too much for her to think otherwise.  The best part of the day is always when he get's home.  She knows he's here long before he steps through the door.  

She asks him to read to her every night. She's made him read so many books at a time that he has fallen asleep while reading a few times.  Daddy also gives the best snuggles.  I'm not allowed to have a hug before this munchkin.  He must feel pretty special when he gets home.  

They have a special bond.  She loves working out in the garage with him.  She always gets frustrated when she's not allowed to be out there working too.  She hates that he goes to work.  I have to remind her often that we wouldn't have anything with out Daddy going to work.  The weekends are always best and vacations are even better.  She writes him at least one love note a day and she tells him she loves him often.  She might be a Daddy's girl and I'm okay with it.   

Continued

The last couple days of my trip I was feeling so much better.  I even got out of the house a few times.  I went to the Jungle Book with my parents and some of my siblings.  I was seriously blown away by how far CGI animation has come.  It was amazing and I really enjoyed the movie.  I also got to spent an afternoon with my Mom at work.  Audrey loved grabbing all the kitchen gadgets off the shelves and filling her basket.  She would have been happy to spend all day there and I loved being with my Mom.  I kind of miss her.  

We did dinner with Grant and Nicole and Ana, and we spend a morning and afternoon in the canyon with Grandpa Rod and Ana.  Audrey loved feeding the fish and having a picnic in the park.  To top it off we found a little section of the river near the park where the water was calm.  Audrey jumped at the chance to dip her toes in the freezing cold water and skip rocks.  She saw her first butterfly there, which I'm pretty positive was a moth but I didn't want to break the news after she got so excited about it.  She also got to see her first rainbow, which was the first things she told her Dad when we got home.

My Dad bought some pancake molds and we had cow, star, and flower pancakes. He must know Audrey well.  A regular circle pancake will never be the same.  I love having breakfast with my parents, it's one of my favorite things when I'm at their house. 

The time came to leave, we packed our stuff and even after being there for over two weeks Audrey still didn't want to go home.  We were on our way to the airport with stop and go traffic and Audrey got car sick.  I kept thinking that she might be exaggerating her need to puke.  She's never out right told me that she felt car sick.  I will never think that again.  She must have thrown up four times all over my Dad's backseat.  I was so lucky to find a few clorox wipes in my bag.  When we got there I wiped her down and changed her clothes.  Her bag smelled like puke and my hands smelled like puke, and she smelled like puke.  It didn't matter how many times I washed the both of us. Even smelling puke for 3 hours was cake in comparison to my Dad who had to give his car a makeover when he got home.  He deserves an award for the best Dad ever.  He was literally there for every crazy moment of the trip and I was so grateful.  I love him. 

I'm so happy that we got to be with family and that I was able to have surgery, but I'm really glad it's all over!