busted!!!

So Morgan came home late last night from a three week tour.  Exhausted, he laid down and set his alarm for 45 minutes...and then reset it for another 45 minutes...and then turned it off.  In the time that he spent sleeping Colin managed to empty another toilet paper roll on the bathroom floor *sigh* and Emery created this masterpiece...

Who Said....

Who said that my oldest could grow up?

Who said that little men don't get bored while they wait for their mom to come wipe their bottoms...(little men three and under that is...)

 Who said that 8 year old girls could be so beautiful and grown up...

 Who said that relief society visiting teaching training aren't fun!

Who said that life wasn't full of fun just waiting to be experienced... You know lately I find that I am caught up in the little details of life that are stressful.  IE:  financial worries, the fact that I have been surrounded by between 1-8 kids everyday for the past 2 1/2 weeks without a break, or the fact that we didn't meet our 80% for school even though we kicked it so hard this past week... But then when I look back through my photos, I am reminded of all the blessings I have...4 kids who at times drive me NUTS!!!! but who like to sit and watch America's Funniest Home Videos and eat tin foil dinners together...  A daughter who wants to take time letting me curl and play with her hair,  group of amazing women to spend a Saturday laughing, talking and learning together...Women who are dealing with way more than I am who inspire me to hold tighter to my faith and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.   Life is most definitely not perfect or easy, but it is most definitely  worth it.

happy mother's day!

For Mother's Day, Isa cleaned and vaccuumed these two rooms!  For those of you  who don't know my house, this was an awesome treat!

 Just wanted to post the BEAUTIFUL quilts and curtains my mom in law put together for my girls rooms.  Now all I need is some artwork from my mom to frame for their rooms.  Maybe a doodled I and E  on a large canvass hint hint nudge nudge wink wink!

 Mother's Day morning. It was drizzly outside, so Em dressed for winter.  hee hee!

 Later in the day, she changed into this sassy outfit!

All in all I had a fantastic Mom's day.  The kids kept their arguments to a minimum, I felt loved, and was able to give lots of love.  I love days like that, where you cup is filled and you have enough to fill other cups as well!

Family Time!

This is the face of a happy camper.  Literally.  Em LOVES camping.  Isn't she a cute granola girl.

We decided to take a last minute campout.  I felt we needed a little family time...away from phones and computers.  It was awesome to get some time away.

 Colin  LOVED the swings.  If we weren't watching him he was heading off to the swings whether we were on board or not...

 Oops these are a little out of order but we spent quite a bit of time on the dock, just fishing, reading and chatting!

More swings. These were incredible.  They were so HIGH!!!!

I love this picture of Liam fishing.  It's so him.  Focused and patient and just Liam... He's pretty amazing!

This is another of my favorite's this time as well.  Emery's expression is perfect.  She is so beautiful and full of life.  Even in her craziest moments, when she is driving me crazy, she can turn and flash me a smile and melt away all my frustrations.

Little fisherwoman.  She loves fishing with daddy!

 Isa LOVED the water.  In fact even though there was no swimming allowed, she found a way to "fall in"  Good thing she knows how to swim a bit.  Silly beautiful girl.

Yep, I was there.  I maxed and relaxed all day.

Funny story.  Our tent flap is broken , but still closed prior to this campout.  I had just closed it and asked Liam to open the tent flap and put something inside.  He did so, but chose to open the tent without using the zipper...he found a weak spot and pulled it open.  The consequence of this action was a permanently broken zipper...  No biggie, I had lots of clothes pins and so we were able to pin it closed.  We all decided we would be good for the night.  I guess we were the only ones who felt that way.  A very kind gentleman stopped me while we were making dinner and showed me a storm front moving in on his smart phone.  He told us to batten down our hatches and I laughed and told him we didn't have any more hatches to batten down.  It took only a moment for our tent to go from ghetto fabulous to ghetto pathetic in my eyes. 

 I informed the kids that we should probably go home  and that we would have to retire the tent.  This was their response...  Weeping...

 Wailing and gnashing of teeth!   They really are quite attatched to this tent...

 Morgan took the news in great stride.  We ate dinner, fished a little more, took down the tent and went on our merry slightly disappointed way...

This last photo should have been at the top.  Love the sister hood thing...

 So all in all our campout though it ended early was a success.  The time spent with family was perfect.  Just what the doctor ordered!  I LOVE camping!!!!

random photos!!!

I just emptied my camera and found a bunch of random photos and decided to do a post.

Colin is my latest camera thief... I caught him with my camera and snapped this shot...

 Morgan takes the kids fishing in the morning sometimes.  This time he went with Em and caught something... Waste not want not right?  Below is Liam cooking up the teeny tiny fish...

 Somedays Liam makes me laugh even when he STRESSES me out beyond words!   We are using the K-12 program this year for school.  It's good, but much more demanding than what Liam is accustomed to.  So glad he found a vent for his frustrations...

 This is the Tennessee State Tree.  The Tulip Poplar.  I have lived here for almost 7 years  (yikes that's some deep Tennessee roots for me.  never thought I'd be here that long!  But I digress)  I finally understand why it is called a Tulip Poplar.  yep, I'm really not that observant...I'm working on it.  It's a pretty tree and I like the tulip that gives it it's name!

 Em and Liam both got new glasses.  Em is supposed to wear an eye patch for a month to see if there is any chance of strengthening her right eye and getting rid of the glasses.  I thought a pretty emery blue patch would be something she would want to wear and would like!  Yeah, I was wrong, she tolerates it.  *sigh*

 Emery and Isa were goofing around with paper the other day ago and made themselves some disguises.  I laughed when I asked them what they used to attatch said disguises and they answered "glue!"  Duh!  What was I thinking!

Lastly this is Colin dressed as Optimus Prime  In case you were wondering...

http://powerofmoms.com/2012/04/your-children-want-you/

The above link is to an awesome article online.  It really hit home and made me grateful for the moments I do stop and just let my kids need me.  I am definately not the most creative, trendy or exciting mom.  The good news is my kids love me anyway.  I'm working on being a better more attentive, more hands on, loving, there for you kind of mom.  For me, I know that means I need to tune into my kids a little more.  Today Emery and I went for a morning bike ride and then she asked if I would run the marathon with her next year.  (Marley her cousin ran this year and Em is all about doing just what Marley does!)  I agreed, and then I thought to myself, this will be good for me.  I hope it means more mornings out running and talking and bike riding with Em.  It made for a more peaceful day between the two of us.  She felt like I was there for her and was fulfilled.  I felt like I had more patience with her.  It was a good day.  I am grateful for small moments like that.  I want to be the kind of mom who makes those small moments for each of her kids...Little by little, I will be that mom....