Priceless

Lia is turning 3 next Tuesday and I have been thinking alot about it. Mostly because I love birthday parties and hers is going to be cute. We're doing a Princess Brunch with her Joy School friends and then packing up and heading to Disneyland so she can ride the Big White Mountain and eat cake at the castle! Its going to be fun!
Lia's middle name came from one of the sweetest, most talented, caring, honest, loving, funniest characters ever placed here on earth... my Grandma, Hazel Estelle. I always knew I would name my first born with one of her names.... Estelle it was. She is the reason our family has the gospel, so to me she is also a pioneer. I feel that my little Lia is a pioneer also, I am so grateful for her little spirit that I cannot even put it into words.

So I thought I would share a poem that my Grandma wrote for me when I turned 3, putting Lia's name in it though:

Our blue eyed Lia with her lovely curls,

That dance and bobble as she runs and twirls.

Her dainty dresses, all trimmed in lace

With matching hair ribbons accenting her face.

Aggressive on her bike, she races down the street

Curiously interested in all that she meets.

Alert, bright may she always be

As she is today, at the age of three!

Feb. 25, 1983

My mom just handed me the original that has been hanging in her room for 25 years, what a priceless treasure.

Finally!

So like most women/ mothers and wives.... especially the ones who stay at home, I have my struggles. I struggle finding balance... in everything. I feel like I give and give and give and do and do and do... which I know I'm supposed to do, but every now and then I like a little something for myself. Usually that is church. It is usually where I recharge my spiritual battery and get ready for the upcoming week. Well, over the last 3 years things have changed. With my calling at church I serve in the Presidency. We have about 80 kids including the nursery and it presents numerous challenges and usually leads to serious frustration for us just trying to do our jobs. Plus having my two little ones, it has been hard for me to pay attention let alone learn something. Its been beyond draining and dare I admit... not want to go to church at all!
Fortunately for me, something special rolls around and helps push me along. Today was our ward conference. I am so grateful for such strong, supportive and inspired leaders. And to top it off we had "Its great to be 8"... anything about baptisms always touches my heart.
Finally, a GREAT Sunday!

More stolen pics...

Here are some pictures I stole of my cousins wedding: It looked so beautiful! It was made to have a party like theirs!

So sad.

This is love.

I think this is the happiest my Grandma has been in a looooooong time! She was out dancing with all of us.

stolen pics.

I found these pictures on friends blogs and facebook pages. I think they are funny.
We went to d-land with Reid, Matt and Melissa in December. Billy and I get so excited when other adults come becuse that means we get to switch off and go on big kid rides. Here we are on the Tower of Terror, we ran across the entire park because it was only open for 15 more minutes and I wanted to be sure I got to go on every ride possible. Thanks Matt and Reid for running with me.
Doesn't this make you want to ride next to Billy??!

Here is Lia and her new Columbian boyfriend, Pablo. I wonder what they are looking at? I bet when Alan sees this they are busted!

One Word

It's funny, I've been reading some friends blogs and they had the same idea I did. Except I want to do it twice. They chose one word to define 2009.
My word of the year is believe. The Christmas song I listened to over and over was Believe by Josh Groban. The song and movie (the Polar Express, which I might add I watched about 1,000 times in 3 weeks... my choice) have a simple message that is stated over and over, "If you just believe." One of the scriptures that I treasure most, because I found it right after I got home from the hospital the morning after my brothers accident, is D&C 35:8 "For I am God, and mine arm is not shortened, and I will show miracles, signs and wonders unto all those who BELIEVE on my name"
To me it is basic. What are we with out our beliefs, whatever they may be? My beliefs are who I am, what I have chosen to teach my children and the foundation of my marriage.
In 2009, just believe.

The second word has to do with my resolution and my resolution is ME! I didn't want to do another year of losing 25 lbs and fail, or finish school and fail. So I chose me this year. I am going to do everything I can to make ME better.
I started walking again, the weather has been amazing and its a fun thing to do with my girls. Will it help me lose weight??? I hope so, but I know that I will never be skinny... BUT I can be healthy and walking will help with that. I also started a Zumba class, its ridiculously fun! So that is where you will catch me on Tuesday nights now.
I will continue my children's education. Lia's Joy School is back in full swing after a little break for the holidays and it is such a priority of mine. So even if I don't finish my education this year, my children are beginning theirs.
I will treasure the relationships I have now. I have always been the person to exhaust every resource to make a relationship work. And its been unhealthy for me. So this year, I'm checking names off a list. Not everyone has to like me, and I'm ok with that. I need to remember not to try so hard for that anymore. Its not just friends either, I'm talking family. And that is huge for me.
Projects, I need to realize projects take time. So I started a HUGE one yesterday and plan on it taking me about a month to complete. The girls and I have started building a garden. We worked out in the yard for about 2 hours yesterday. We had a blast, I could hurry it along, but then I wouldn't get to enjoy working with them on it. It was like therapy for me.

So there it is,

Believe & ME!

Believe me, its going to be a great year!

Should I be upset?

Case #1
This morning Lia snuck her chair over to our pantry, opened the door and stole a brand new bag of chips. While attempting to sneak them over to her seat she got the bag caught on our trash can and spilled the ENTIRE bag all over the floor. She stopped immediately and looked at the mess... looked at me... looked at the mess... then me again... then dun dun dun... started cleaning it up! But before she could throw away two hand fulls of chips , here comes Boomer running around the corner and took a flying leap into the pile of chips! Boomer is not our dog, its Sophie! You should have seen this amazing swan dive/ belly flop, it had such perfect form. I really wasn't all that upset to begin with, but after that display of pure joy I could not contain my laughter!!! My eyes well up with laughter tears just thinking about it.
Case #2
SH&%... its been my catch phrase for years now. I'm not proud of it, but I do say it a whole lot. Well, a few weeks ago Lia started saying it when she dropped something or if I dropped something. I laughed about it then (and now because really it does sound funny when a little kid cusses)but knowing that I had to stop and make her stop too. So if she would start to say it I would say "OH SHUCKS, OH NO, OH DARN, OH NUTS, OH MAN, OOOOOOOOH NELLY!" this has been working, she loves saying "Oh Nelly"... until yesterday, we were in the car and she dropped her babys bottle and she said the real word. And I said "No no, remember we don't say that word we say ...." and she cuts me off and says "No mom, I don't like .... I LOVE OH SH*&!"
again, not that upset, but laughing hysterically again.
Case #3
She has been putting up a fight getting to sleep for the last few weeks. And since she and Sophie share a room we don't like it when she throws fits and wakes her up. Well, last night right on Que she starts screaming "POTTY, POTTY, POTTY POTTY POTTY" and for those of you who have potty trained, know that if a kid says they have to go then they have to go... and who wants to clean up that mess??! So I have started to not talk to her when I go get her and take her out. I read about it somewhere, it creates less stimulation blah blah blah... SO I help her get all set up on the potty and she starts talking about "cookies" (because I don't want to write the word poop on here about a hundred times, I'm going to write "cookies")
She started talking about how the dogs make "cookies" on the grass in the backyard and Sophie makes "cookies" in her diaper and Lia makes kind of big "cookies" mommy makes kind of big "cookies" BUT daddy's "cookies" are FREAKING HUGE!-- no more ignoring that kid, I was in full blown hysterics!
So maybe its a sign that I've matured but these are things that usually might have frustrated me a little more but now... make me laugh. I must be a mom!

PS- If you want to hear something cute, ask Sophie what green means?

Christmas Morning

My gifts to the girls was dress up stuff! I'd been scouring clearance racks and after Halloween sales and stocked up on real Disney Princess dresses and Barbie dresses, wigs, crowns, shoes... all of the good stuff. It was really fun to do. Sophie with hair....

Lia LOOOOVED the whole stocking thing. She got Wubbzy and Winkerbell (Tinkerbell)... who could ask for anything more?!!! (Oh, and Billy picked out their jammies this year, he did really good!) Sophie could have cared less.

She just realized there was candy inside!

Santa brought them new baby dolls to go with their new doll toys. Its all Maclaren (like mine) I highly recommend it, its really well made and its really cute.

Sophie loved the boxes.

And this is the last smiley picture we have of her from this day. She had an accident and fell off a chair onto her face and broke her tooth (about 1/3 of it) and split her lip. BUT, I just found out about a pediatric dentist in Yucaipa that I am going to take her to. So it will be fixed soon. Poor girl. I hope she makes it to 2!

I was still out of it, so we went to his parents for dinner (I was sad, it was supposed to be at our house). We had a great time. I know this is horrible but I don't remember too much about what we got... painkillers people.

I got a sewing machine and a notions box, a dvd of my girls and magnets. Billy got a bunch of new clothes and a couple of books. And the girls got a scooter, singing bear and blocks (which they love) and I'm sure other stuff that I really can't remember. Isn't that horrible?!!

A quiet Christmas Eve

Unfortunately I was sick for all of Chritmas so we had a very quiet time this year. It started off with my mom, sister and the GMME's at my moms. We had a nice time with lots of wonderful gifts.
We made a $5.00 deal. That was our limit, of course we blew that but, it was smaller than usual but nontheless thoughtful and good.

The girls made out like bandits as usual. We made the $5.00 deal so we could all spoil them rotten. They made out with a really fun remote controlled my little pony, a giant waterslide, 2 bikes and a swingset plus lots of other loot. I'd say it was really nice!

After we were done, my mom and Erin took the girls up to my cousins to meet all of Andrea's family from Columbia. Lia met a little man named Pablo and they held hands all night. I wish I could have seen it. Billy and I went home to get things put together and make sure Santa had a way to get in. Lia was so excited and telling everyone that Santa was coming to her house.

My Magnum Opus

My cousin Alan married his beautiful sweetheart this weekend. And I was able to make her bouquet. I have never worked with orchids before, I thought it was a masterpiece. She was so happy, not just because of her flowers... It was a beautiful ceremony up at the Kimberly Crest.

Lia was the flower girl~ she melted my heart!

Billy had the camera on the portrait setting so these came out a little funky because I didn't realize it until it was too late.

We LOVE Andrea and glad she is apart of our family.

You forget how truly amazing the grounds are up at the Crest.

Billy and Sophie got to play around for an hour before the ceremony started, I think they had fun.

Lia was so excited to be the princess at the magic castle! And the cherry on top was that she got to throw petals everywhere. It was hilarious! She would walk back and throw more, it took her a long time to get to where she needed to stand. And when she reached her mark she kept throwing them!

Lia and Lorena, how amazing is Lorena's dress?!! She bought it in Milan.

Sophie lasted about 2 seconds, so I snapped these from the lower level at the koi pond.

oooops, out of order. I love this dress though.

It was a beautiful ceremony, followed by a seriously fun party. Those of you who know me, know that my family LOVES to party and we throw good ones. Their reception was amazing though. It was so much fun that my anti-social husband told my mom and sister that we should have gotten a sitter so that we could stay the whole time and enjoy it more! That is serious!!!!

A movie review....

I don't usually post about the movies I've seen (Billy used to post reviews on the side... I thought it was lame personally) but we just saw Gran Torino. I walked out of the theatre knowing that I really liked it, but the more I have thought about it, I LOVE IT!!! One of the best, well done, smart, intriguing, thought provoking movies.
My heart is still full yet broken... it took me about an hour to stop crying. It made me miss my dad. Overall, I do think everyone will appreciate this movie and its a definate must see!

Where I wanted to be New Years day... but I shopped so it was ok!

Everyone but my mom and my little family went out to the river this past weekend and played with some of GMME's toys. As you can tell, they had a blast and I can't wait to get out there with them....
Here's the truggy... its a total beast! Elise, she's gorgeous!

The two greatest sisters in the world!

Geoff and one of his favorite things.

I dont have any pics of the new Rhino, but thats what I want. Safe, fast and fun!!!