My husband on our "in-home" date night tonight...

I suppose that after (just about) ten years of marriage there's that certain level of comfort that comes and allows one to completely relax and let loose at 9:00 at night. OR I suppose it could be that I'm no longer that fun to hang out with.

Hmm...I think I'll choose to believe my first option as I post this and hope Aaron doesn't kill me later. (Tee hee!)

Thank you.

I just wanted to pop on here to let you all know that I'm not in the depths of despair anymore (for the moment at least, lol) and want to thank you for your kind, loving and thoughtful words! Your thoughts and experiences really, really helped me. If anything else, you reminded me that I'm not alone.

Being a Mom can be so difficult, and I think that for me everything has been heightened lately with sickness and a husband who is traveling a lot more this year for work.

Anyway, thank you so much my friends!

Discouraged.

Ever have one of those days? Weeks? This weekend has been a doozie. What helps you all cope when you are down and out?

Leda just told me I was a bad Mom. Spencer told me that Daddy (whose sick in bed with a 103 temp) is way more fun than me.

I feel overworked and tired.

I have a headache. It's killer.

I've yelled at my children too much this weekend. I hate it when I yell.

Whew! How's this for an honest post? What's the phone number again for us Moms to call when we want a sick day or want to request a vacation day? Anyone have that number on hand?

Okay, so on to my sincere question and reason for this post. What helps YOU feel better when you are discouraged? Perhaps reading about how you cope or what makes you feel better can help me feel better! That's what friends are for, right?

Thanks for listening.

Spring cleaning

(I told you I was behind in blogging. This happened a month ago, but it's kinda like my public thank you card and you're welcome to look in on it)

So how many of you would be humiliated to have your Mother in law to be going through your closets, helping you to get better organized?

Um, not me! Because as I've said before, I hit the MIL jackpot and I know she's not judging me.

Before her trip out here, I was expressing to her on the phone how much I hate the dreaded "rotation" of kids clothes. You know, going through all the kids clothing...deciding what is too small, deciding what to keep, what to donate, putting the keep stuff into bins, bringing down Spencers bins from the garage for Chase to start wearing, shuffling the bins around in said garage, making room for the new bins...blah blah blah. ugh. It all just gives me a headache. And I had put it off way too long. So Shirley (being the sweet mom she is) told me, "Don't worry about it until I get there, we can do it together!"

SO nice, right?

So this is my cute mother in law, jumping into the boys closet and helping me get the tedious job done.



Lookie here! I have an entire shelf that has nothing at all to go on it!




After we finished with the kids rooms, she asked what else needed to be done. I sheepishly said that my closet needed some tending.

So we jumped on that together.

She helped me weed out things I might want to donate, and then we folded and re-hung basically everything in there. I am proud to say that nothing in my closet is hung on a hanger inside out or backwards! (I have a terrible habit of doing that)



Let's just say that by the time we were done (24 hours later) we had seriously done every closet in this house, every cupboard in this house...including the kitchen! I came down the stairs one afternoon to see that she had started on my pantry and cupboards all by herself! Yes, I know. She's the bomb.





So thank you Shirley for helping me spring clean my house. It feels so good to know that every nook and cranny of this place is cleaned out and organized. Well, except the garage...but that is SO Aarons job.

My brother is engaged!

Her name is Blythe and she is just lovely. They've been dating for a year and we all love her.

A few months ago, I was able to go ring shopping with my little brother when he was here for Christmas. He asked me to go with, and I was so honored! It was such a fun experience, and whew! Blythe loved the ring. Rob is so happy and we can't wait to welcome a new sister into this family. We're on cloud nine!

Stay tuned for the temple and the date...those minor details are TBD, but they're engaged. It just happened tonight, at the Provo Tabernacle, in the snow. She was so surprised. I've been told tears were shed by both.

Don't they make a handsome couple?

Oh wait, you want to see the ring don't you? Okay.



Perfection on all accounts, right? Way to go Rob!

Phantom of the Opera

One of the reasons my mother in law was here for a visit the last week of January was because we had tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages theater in LA. We were bummed Aaron, my Mom and my cousin Emily missed this night, but I was so happy to have my friend Malinda join us. She's a hoot! Aaron had to go on a last minute business trip, my Mom was in bed with pneumonia and Emily's baby Trey had RSV. Rotten luck, huh? We'd had these tickets for months.




We met up with my cousins for dinner at Antonio's---the best Mexican Restaurant we've tried in a long while. (click on the restaurant name for more info)



While we were eating, the owner of the restaurant (my Dad's client) came to our table and asked us if we wanted to meet Gwen Stefani who was dining in the next room over. My cousins and I were so excited! We said hello, chatted about kids for a sec and then left her alone to head back to our table where we giggled like schoolgirls after meeting a celebrity. lol

Here's my cute Aunt Joan (my dads sister) and cousin Nadine



We really enjoyed Phantom of the Opera. The music is just incredible of course, and our seats weren't too bad. Shirley and I both didn't LOVE it as much as we did Wicked, but were so glad to be able to see it.

And I couldn't post this without mentioning a special thanks to my friend Andrea who kindly watched my children for 8 HOURS (yes, 8. she's a saint) so I could get away with friends and family. I appreciate it more than you know my friend! xo

On our way out of the theater Shirley and I had to get a picture in front of the Phantom sign. A bit blurry, but you get the point and now our night of fun from a month ago is officially documented!

Valentines Day

Having your Valentine stuck in a hotel room in Colorado for work on Valentines Day really does stink...especially when he was due home yesterday and keeps having to extend, but what can you do? I'm so grateful for his job and more importantly that he loves the work he does.

So upon learning this afternoon that my hot date would not be returning home today and after allowing myself 20 minutes of self-pity, I decided to create a special night with my children.

We hit the hot tub (one of my favorite things to do)




came home and made pizza and a salad (salad not picture cause Leda ate it too fast)



then we all got "cozy" on the couch to watch a bit of Monsters, Inc. Oh, and for dessert? We devoured the homemade chocolate chip-coconut cookies we'd made for Dad earlier today. Don't worry, we saved him a few (Spencer's idea).


When I tucked them into bed tonight (for the fourth night in a row all by myself, but whose counting?) I thanked each of them individually for being my special V-day-date. And I got plenty of hugs and kisses.

Not too shabby of a night after all.

Did y'all know tulips are my favorite flower? I prefer them to roses any day...so thanks babe for my flowers in the totally cute vase.



Happy Valentines Day everyone!

One good thing

One good thing about having Bronchitis is getting to stay up late with Mom and Dad, "getting cozy" (what we call snuggling) and watching American Idol while sucking (okay, chomping) on a cough drop or two.





What a lucky little girl, eh? Poor little thing!

Boys and their toys

For Christmas, our family received the Nintendo Wii gaming system from Grandma and Grandpa. If I'm honest, I was hesitant about introducing video games into our family culture. But as the saying goes, everything in moderation and it hasn't been a bad thing at all.

Last night after Family Home Evening, Spencer insisted that Aaron and I open up (early) the Valentine cards he made for us at Kindergarten.

Was I surprised that on his Dads card, I saw this drawing?

Uh, nope!
(It's him and his Dad playing the Wii, note the spikey hair. I love it)


For those that don't know what the Wii controller looks like...



This Valentine Card made us both laugh so hard. He really does appreciate the one on one time he gets with his Dad playing the Wii for fifteen minutes or so after homework is done and the other kids are in bed. I'm glad they are building these memories together.

Father and son bonding




but with the Star Wars Lego game?



It baffles me as I find Super Mario Bros 3 my game of choice (I beat Aaron every time), but whatever, boys and their toys!

Spencer's 6th birth-DAY

Last Thursday on January 29th Spencer turned six. I know I blogged a bit on that day, but never did document our day of celebration. And as I've mentioned this is my family journal and I don't want to forget this day.

He woke to a berry pancake breakfast (his favorite) on the "special" plate,



Daddy was out of town for work, but Grandma was here to help us celebrate. We took him to his favorite place, The Spaghetti Factory in Newport Beach for dinner.




We then took the little ferry ride over to Balboa Island and had a frozen banana for dessert. Have you locals tried these to-die-for delicacies at Dad's Donuts on Marine drive in Balboa? If not, I don't know what else to say to you, but HURRY up and plan a trip out there soon. YUM.


Finished the night with a Birthday hug from his siblings. Can you feel the love?

Park Day

I'm behind on blogging. Aaron's mom was here this past week and we've been too busy playing and having fun. But today she went back home to Montana. I cried.

I have so many things to share about our week, cute pics to post, but I'm not sure where to start...so rather than be me and over analyze things, I'll just pick a day at random and start there. This is my plan for gettin' back on the blogging bandwagon, you see.

This day I'll call park day.

Last Saturday we had a picnic at the park with Grandma. It was such a warm, gorgeous day. It was extra nice because the kids were playing extra good with each other. It was one of those days where I sat back and really appreciated the fact that my children have each other has "built-in" playmates.


Picnic with Grandma


Not fighting...


How darling would this picture have been if Chase had been looking at the camera instead of pitching a fit cause he wasn't sitting next to Spencer? Ah well. 2 out of 3 looking ain't bad!