Owen Lately

Last week Owen turned 18 months old.  This picture is from his first day of nursery.  Mark and I were joking that it was his second big milestone in the Church.  The baby blessing is first, then going to nursery is second.  Overall all though, he has been our easiest to handle during church which is surprising because he is a busy little guy. 

He is spunky and crazy just like the rest of the family.  Owen is our sunshine.  If one of the boys is upset I have found myself pointing out something silly Owen is doing to change the mood--it works like a charm.  A few things about Owen lately:

1. He gets into everything.  His favorite is using chairs to get up to the table or counter.  Owen is usually finished with dinner first so he is down running around and if anyone gets up out of their seat Owen sprints over to climb up on the chair and try to eat or play with what he finds on the table.  He also moves chairs from the dining area into the kitchen to get things on the counter.  This is pretty dangerous since there are sometimes knives or hot stoves up there so we have to keep on our guard.  He also is now tall enough to reach into the kitchen drawers.  He'll open them up, stand on his tiptoes and reach his hand over blindly fishing for something interesting.  Also dangerous.
2. He can say several words but a lot of them are hard to identify.  He doesn't enunciate very well yet, but we are learning to decipher what he says: "dee" for drink, "mah" for more, etc.  He does have a very cute little head/full body nod.  When I ask him if he wants a certain snack or toy he will nod his whole little self and it makes me smile every time.
3. He has fast little legs and makes the greatest pitter patter sound around our house.
4. He is waking up early again, which is making it difficult for mom to have a little time to herself in the morning.  What to do?
5. He loves to read books.  He'll grab one and walk over to me then turn backwards about a foot from my lap and back up til he reaches me to drop in my lap to read.  Sweet.
6. Dallin and Adam love the little nicknames we've come up with for him.  O's is the most common.  When he's happy, it's Cheery-O's, when he's sad it's Woes.  They think it's funny when he vacillates between the two:  Now he's Cheery-O's!   Now he's Woes! 

On the brink

I feel like I am on the verge of changing my life.  My biggest fear: geting in my own way.

Deep down in my bones I know that I really need to learn how to be a morning person--welcoming those quiet, peaceful hours praying, reading scriptures, and planning my day out before the chaos of the day begins (i.e. the kids wake up.)  I tried forcing myself up early before.  I woke up at 6am but a funny thing happened and the kids started waking up earlier.  They could sense that I was looking for quiet.  I sometimes shrug my shoulders and think being spiritual and being the mother of small children aren't compatible.  I know that it's not true, but it feels that way sometimes.  It feels that way when I can't focus on the Savior during the Sacrament because I'm quieting the older two and trying to keep my toddler from screaming or escaping.  It feels that way when I miss out on the rest of a lesson at church that I really needed because Owen (sweet little guy) isn't old enough to sit and be quiet. 

I try to remember that being a mother offers different kinds of opportunities to feel close to heaven.  There is a joy in loving children that can't be felt doing anything else in this world and feeling that joy is a transcendent experience.  If you let it, it will let you feel God in your life in a powerful way.  Holding your children is a spiritual experience if you let it be one.  This especially is true when they are sleeping.

I know that I need to get some personal time to feel close to God on my own, in some peace and quiet.  I have been reading a couple of blogs of women that have really inspired me to get my life in order.  I have a lot of goals and a lot of things I want to change but my only resolution this year is to learn to be a morning person and to wake up at 6am.  It seems like it shouldn't be that hard, I've done it before when one or more of the boys have gone through a phase where they would wake early.  This time though, it will be my choice.  And if I can learn to do that I can find the peace and motivation to do anything else I want to do.  But, it will be hard--really hard--to take control over when I wake up, to find internal motivation to get out of bed instead of a crying or hungry child forcing me to rise.  Trying to change old habits is hard.

Inspired to Action:
This gal has some great insight and inspiration for getting up early to "be with God" and planning your day so you are living more consciously.  Her advice really spoke to my soul.  Subscribe to her emails and from the emails you can read her article about establishing a morning routine.

Passionate Homemaking
I first got to this site from my friend Kathryn's link to this page about making a home notebook.  I love Lindsey's wisdom.  She knows where priorities should be and writes about building a home and loving her husband and children so beautifully.  Click on "Making a Home" for some really great posts from Lindsey and other guest bloggers.  I love the ideas of simplifying homemaking, shopping, having a home notebook, etc, to free up my brain for more important things.  Some of the changes I am making are these:

I have set my alarm for 6am.
I still haven't actually got out of bed at that time, but three out of five days this week I have woken up before my kids, with time to pray, read my scriptures, and plan out my day all in peace and quiet.  Owen is a little unpredictable and sometimes wakes up close to 6am sometimes as late as 7am, but those days he wakes up early I've tried to leave him in his room so I could finish what I needed to do.  Waking early is a work in progress because this is the hardest change for me.  Hopefully I will follow through with this until it's a habit.

I have made a home notebook.
I love, love my home notebook.  It is still a work in progress and some of the sections are blank, but I am so attached to it even in the first week I put it together. 

I just started monthly menu planning and grocery shopping.
We are on the third week out of the month and all is going great. I did a monster trip to the grocery store to stock up for the month. I ended up needing another cart at checkout to take all the food to my car.  The plan is to take one big trip every month then at the end of each week stock up on things like milk, produce and maybe a couple other things that we have run out of.  I printed out a page from here and have it taped inside a cabinet with the meals: breakfast, lunch, a snack, and dinner for every day of the month.  I keep another copy inside my notebook so on Sundays I can go over it and revise the week's meals if needed.  There are four breakfasts for the week and maybe five different lunches and five different snacks, and each Monday we have the same breakfast and lunch.  The dinners get rotated monthly, though there are some that we have twice a month because they are favorites or inexpensive dinners.  On Saturday and Sunday I don't have a lunch or dinner written in.  This gives us room to eat leftovers or use up something from the freezer, etc. 

I have felt lately that my head was full of chaos. Swimming, swirling, incomplete thoughts. Too many things to think about, too many things to do that my mind couldn't focus on one thing for a second. In the past I have dismissed the thoughts of being more organized and scheduled because I thought it was too strict. Now I am realizing I need to do this to really live.  The thought of what to make my kids for lunch, for instance, no longer occupies my head.  It's on the list.  Of course sometimes we've run out of something or need to use up leftovers so plans do change, but at least we have a starting point now.  A long while before Christmas Mark and I made up a list of people we were going to buy gifts for, budgeted amounts for each person, ideas for gifts, etc.  But, when we needed the list we didn't know where it was.  For days we searched and finally found it.  The next day it was missing again.  Then, I made my home planning notebook, found the paper and stuck in the "Holidays" section.  It was never lost again.  I love how my notebook is the perfect place for all of that important paper clutter.  It clears my mind to think of other things.  I love to make lists and now I have a place to put them.  Makes me want to go hug my notebook right now.

And when my mind isn't all muddied up I am more at peace and I can be a better wife and a better mother.  I feel like I can let myself spend time with my kids when I have my day planned out better and I know where I am going that day.  Putting God first will change my life too, if I follow through with what I know I need to do.  Wish me luck, this is going to take a total brain-rewire to shift from night owl to morning person.

What works for you?  I would love to hear what you do to simplify your life.

Temple Jazz

That's right. This Tuesday, December 7th at the Mesa, AZ Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints there will be a performance by Yeah Man Jazz from 7:00-7:30pm. Jazz at the Temple. What could be cooler? I'll tell you what--Christmas Jazz at the Temple. Now that is fully awesome!

Enjoy your Christmas favorites delivered fresh in a deep, swingin' groove. The program will feature Coy Johnston on saxophone, Paul Anderson on drums, Jeff VanDusen on bass, and Julie Peterson and Erica Soelberg on vocals. And even though I will be on the piano this is gonna be a great show.

If you do miss the show you can still check out Yeah Man Jazz Christmas CDs at www.yamanjazz.com.

Hello Ladies

How are you?Fantastic!

Seeing that this blog has sadly fallen into disrepair I have taken it upon myself to repair the dis-repairedness. After all, it's nothing that a power drill and an endless supply of duct tape can't fix.

As my first contribution I offer the coolest thing I've seen this week:

So cool.

Second, you will witness the fate of those who corrupt perfectly good art forms; who confuse the general public into thinking that elevator music should be called "jazz"; who shamelessly douse us with endless pentatonic scales and cheap turn/mordent riffs. In this video metaphor the chick with the poofy hair represents Kenny G, while the bear plays the role of Cosmic Justice. Enjoy.



Good Bobo.

A Busy Day

Saturday, yesterday, was a busy day for us.  Mark and I woke up around 5:30 to get ready to go to the race.  We woke the kids up around 6am and helped them change their clothes then we all got in the car with some granola bars for breakfast.  You see, back in January for a family night we had all come up with goals.  Now, it's November and everyone else had long-since accomplished theirs.

Owen--sit up all by himself
Adam--button his own pants
Dallin--read a book all by himself

Mark--100% home teaching (many of the men in our church are assigned to visit families once a month to share a spiritual message and check and see how they are doing)

Marily--Run a 5k.

Spring went by and I didn't sign up for a race.  Of course there are no races going on in the valley in the summer and so when fall rolled around it was on my mind to accomplish what I said I would do.  I pulled down our goals list from time to time and Dallin noticed that I was the only one who hadn't accomplished my goal.  When my good friend Kathryn decided to do a 5k I knew this was my chance so I signed up and trained.  My friend Becca trained diligently with me for over a month.  She was patient with me and nice enough to go at my speed and endurance.  The last couple of weeks I did some running with a few other neighbors too.  I've never been a runner or done much running (or exercise sadly) so this was a big deal for me.

As I was running the race Saturday morning and was feeling tired and wondering why I was doing this I remembered my kids and I knew that I had to run the whole thing because that is what I intended to do and I wanted them to see that Mom accomplished her goal.  I ended up even getting 3rd in my age division, with a time of 28:28.  Not stellar, but still pretty good for my first race.  Mark stood by the finish line with the boys and they got to cheer me on as I ran in.

After the race we stayed at the event for a while and the boys got a chance to play and enjoy some free food.  I am definitely wanting to do Shun the Sun again next year.  My neighbor Monica is trying to get me to do a 10k with her in January.  We'll see.  I'm still trying to decide if I'm a runner.

We let the time get away from us a bit and we had to rush home and change for a baptism for a sweet girl named Eryn in our ward.  Mark played the piano for the service so he ran off while I got myself and the boys ready to go.  Eryn and her sister had taken some photos of our boys a couple of months ago and so the boys knew her too.  Baptisms are some of the best meetings in the church.  By the way, you might want to click on that link above because the photos are worth seeing.  Also, here's their photography website and blog if you are looking for someone who is fabulous with kids.  Both sisters had their cameras and were shooting from different angles.  At another time they each took one of the boys and got individual shots done in double time.  Plus, they were so complimentary to Dallin and Adam that they behaved extra well to please the pretty girls behind the camera.  Anyway, we love Eryn and her sister Rosemary is our neighbor and is also fabulous.

So, after the baptism we came home, changed our clothes, then went to the Fall Festival at Dallin's school.  They had a bunch of fun stuff to do--lots of bouncy things, carnival games, and some really loud techno pop.  Justin Bieber, anyone? 

The boys stood in line at jousting like this.  This is why you don't need to stand right next to your kids.  Because I am sure if we were standing right next to them they wouldn't have been doing this.

Fall photo op gone "decent enough"

Daddy and Owen

I don't normally take pictures of strangers (or post pictures of strangers for that matter), but the highlight of the Fall Festival for Mark and I was seeing the Weasley twins.  These kids looked and acted so much like them (in the early movies) it was awesome.  I don't even think they were actually twins, but they dressed like the Weasleys, had the same hairdo and goofed off like the Weasleys too.

Not great shots, but here's twin #1

And twin #2

So, after the Fall Festival we went home.  I made Mark a list for the grocery store and sent him off so I could get a little nap in before our next activity.  Remember I ran a 5k that morning?  Plus, I hadn't gotten so much sleep the night before and I was feeling quite useless.  When Mark got home we whipped up a fruit platter and rushed over to my sister's for our little niece Heidi's 2nd birthday party.  Heidi is the cutest little thing and talks and talks.  It is hilarious to hear someone so tiny saying stuff like "could I get some ketchup?" 

Then, we went home and got everyone to bed.  I fell asleep on the couch and stayed there all night.  Other than sleeping on the couch it was a good day.

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween we resurrected a few old costumes from 5 years ago when Dallin was a toddler.  We had to add a couple of extra characters of course because now we have two more little people in our family.  Thanks to a couple of friends (the Cotters and Shumways) for being gracious enough to loan the Jedi and Yoda costumes.  Next year we'll do the work all on our own--I think.  At least I did make the Yoda hat.

Hope you had a good one!

couple of things we did

To update what we've been up to:

Last month we went with our ward on a campout to Potato Lake (near Strawberry).  Made me think we need to actually get a tent to fit our whole family so we can go camping more often.  The second day a lot of people took a walk from the campsite down to the lake.

The kids had a lot of fun getting dirty in the mud.  Dallin had brought his notebook and some colored pencils.  After playing for a while he retreated to a spot by himself to sketch the lake.  He's six years old, people.  If you want something entertaining, you should ask to see his notebook sometime.  It's full of diagrams of robots, rockets, etc.  I think this guy could end up in design someday--engineering, product design, robotics--anything like that could suit him.

Myself, I've been busy with home and motherhood.  Things are busy with three kids.  After Owen was born I thought things would eventually settle down and I'd get the hang of it all but 15 months later it's still chaos sometimes.  I love it though.  Somehow I managed to do some canning lately.  I canned several cans of peaches and a giant pot of spaghetti sauce.  I made the sauce from fresh tomatoes, something I've never done before.  I've done some pressure canning before but canning the peaches in a water bath canner was new to me.

These make me proud:

I've also been working on I Heart Mesa.  We've got some plans in the works for our next step.  It's been a lot of fun to have a project like this to work on.  We're trying to get more readers and make it bigger and better.  Any suggestions?

Last night we went to the state fair.  Mark's family goes every year to see the Figure Eight Races.  Beat up cars racing round a dirt figure eight track.  Running into eachother and nearly crashing on the intersection.  Mark says his Grandma got the tradition started though I still need to hear that story.

Dallin and Shauna

 Owen and Grandma

 Grandpa, Grandma, and Adam

Cheers for now,
Marily