My first ever Give Away!

I just came across this fun give-away game on 2 of my friends' blogs so I thought I'd share the love!
Here is the deal: The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It's my choice. It could be scrapbook related. Could be some kind of home decor. Who knows? I might go crazy and bake or sew or something.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely creative.

The catch? You must re-post this on your own blog and offer the same deal to 5 of your own lucky blog readers. So, the first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they are in will win a homemade gift by me! When you get your gift, be sure to post a picture on your blog! Oh, if you don't have a blog, just do it on Facebook.

Let the games begin!

Birthday Girl

Yesterday I turned 37...holy cow, how did I get that old? I remember when I was a teenager, even newly married thinking that 37 was SO OLD. Some of my Young Women's leaders were this age (and younger) and they were so mature. I do not feel this way. I still view myself as 28. Maybe because that was when I had my first baby and started to feel like a mature, responsible adult. But, I now find myself 9 years older than my internal age! Time goes by quickly...it seems the older I am, the faster it goes.
So, in light of time going by so quickly, I intend to make the most of it! I chose a word to live by for 2009. That word is "CLARIFY". I love the synonyms for clarify: analyze, break down, clear up, define, delineate, draw a picture, formulate, illuminate, illustrate, make perfectly clear, make plain, resolve, settle, shed light on, simplify, straighten out, throw light on. Can you see where I'm going here? I really want to simplify my life, throw light on the best things, straighten out my home and my muddled brain. I intend to make perfectly clear what my goals and my plans are and actually follow through with them. And, since my children's lives are also passing in front of my eyes at warp speed, LIVE IN THE MOMENT.

That's my plan and I'm stickin' to it!

I did have a really great birthday shared with my family and great friends. Thanks for making my day special!

des six

So, Amy just tagged me. I usually ignore tags but thought this was fast and fun and didn't require me to divulge deep dark secrets!

This is how it works: go to the pictures folder on your computer, go to the sixth file, go to the sixth picture, post it, then tag 6 people.

I don't know if you can tell what this picture is but it is of our jack-o-lanterns a few years ago.

I tag: Melissa C., Melissa S., Chassie, Rachel, Kristol, Heather

Updates

Yesterday marked the end of one of my "busy seasons" with Young Womens. The last 2 months I have been attending Ward Conferences to visit the Young Womens classes. My counselors and I have been teaching the lesson so I only had to teach twice. We decided to use the talk from Elaine Dalton entitiled "A Return to Virtue". I feel like this call is so timely as our world actually looks down on virtuous women and we are being bombarded on all sides to abandon our virtue.

A few thoughts that stuck out to me were:

"What could be more deceptive than to entice women, young and old, you and me, to be so involved in ourselves, our looks, our clothes, our body shape and size that we lose sight of our divine identity and our ability to change the world through our virtuous influence?"

"I truly believe that one virtuous young woman or young man, led by the Spirit, can change the world, but in order to do so, we must return to virtue."

We talked about standing in holy places and where those holy places are. One of the leaders yesterday said that our holy place can be inside of us and as we live a virtuous life people will be drawn to us. I realized that this greatly applies to motherhood that as we make every aspect of our lives a holy place, we will always be prepared to teach our children by the Spirit in any situation.

Our Stake President spoke about the Lord being mindful of each of us. One of the quotes that struck me yesterday was by President Ezra Taft Benson: "men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life in the service of God will find eternal life."

I love that but sometimes forget it. As I work diligently as a wife, mother, and Young Women's President, I will be blessed now and eternally. Sometimes I can only focus on the stress and busy-ness of now and not realize the blessings that are in store for me. I just need to remember that the Lord will make up the difference when I have done my best.

In other news: I finally got Sam to go to Ikea with me. For the year that Ikea has been here, he has wanted nothing to do with it. So, I was a little shocked on Saturday when he actually agreed to go. When we got there he was a little intimidated by the amount of cars in the parking lot ( he generally avoids big crowds) but as we started looking around, he realized what all the fuss was about. He actually admitted to me that he thought it was an awesome place! We ended up buying two shelving units to hold the myriad of Legos that our boys have accumulated. We needed a better storage solution (or ANY storage solution, for that matter). Curtis actually put both shelves together by himself, well, Sam had to step in a few times by for the most part, it was all Curtis!

Check him out with his completed shelf! I think this kid has a future as an architect or engineer. he loves to figure out how things work and how to put them together. He's a pretty cool kid!

Super Nanny update

Wanted to let you know how successful the sleep tactic is. If Lucy cries at all, it is usually less than 5 minutes. I really don't even have to stay in her room anymore. It took some time the first few nights but let me tell you, totally worth it!!!

9 YEARS!

Because of this sweet boy, I have now been a mother for 9 years! I can't believe how fast 9 years has gone by. It seems like just yesterday we were preparing to bring our first baby home. Now, we have a young man who is almost as tall as me! The last 9 years haven't always been easy but my life is better because of Curtis.
Here are 9 things I love about my Curtis:

1. He is my first born baby.
2. He is a great big brother to Noah and Lucy.
3. He loves being a Cub Scout.
4. He is a friend to everyone.
5. He is a great Lego builder and will spend hours working on creations.
6. He loves learning and is especially enjoying Cursive right now.
7. He has overcome some hardships the last few years and is thriving.
8. He is so affectionate and loving.
9. He has great curly hair that totally fits his personality!

Happy Birthday, my big boy! I love you more than everything!

I love Super Nanny!

I took a little blog hiatus...life was crazy through the holidays and then after, everytime I sat at the computer, I had no motivation to blog!

Part of my reason of not blogging has been my lack of sleep. Lucy slept through the night for several months, then started teething. Ever since then, she has not slept well so of course, neither have I. Over the holidays it was especially bad as she was getting her molars and was in pain for what seemed like weeks. Finally the molars broke through and I thought I could finally get her back into a good bedtime/sleep routine. Oh no, then the poor thing gets a bad cold. She is finally healthy so last Friday (when it didn't matter when the boys went to bed)I pulled out the sleep routine a la Super Nanny. I don't watch the show very often but happened to catch it a few weeks ago where a young toddler would not stay in her bed. Jo had the mom sit in the little girl's room with her back to the bed. Everytime she would get out of bed, the mom would get up without saying anything and put her back to bed. The first night I think she did it for over an hour and was exhausted but the toddler finally fell asleep in her bed. The next night was about half an hour and both the mom and the girl fell asleep. The third night, no problems at all; she went right to sleep.
So, I figure I can handle this method.
Night One: I get Lucy ready for bed, cuddle for a few minutes, pray and read a book then put her in her crib. As soon as I let go, she starts screaming! I just reassured her that I would be right there and plopped down on the floor. Surprisingly, the crying didn't bother me all that much...I just started listing all the states in my head alphabetically and trying to figure out which ones I missed. That kept my mind busy and not focused on Lucy. She was finally calming down when someone came in the room and then she started freaking out all over again! After about 50 minutes, no sleeping baby.
Night Two: Lucy takes a late nap and is up till about 11:00pm.
Night Three: Sam takes over night duty, wears his headphone to block out the crying. Lucy cries and cries and cries. After 45 mins she is screaming because someone walks by the room and is noisy so she wants him to rescue her. I go rescue her because it is a school night and past Noah's bedtime.
Night Four:tonight 6:45: Bath and pj's. Nurse for a few minutes (we are slowly weaning), prayer and then I put her in bed. We read a book, I kiss and tell her goodnight then turn the light down and sit on the floor. She doesn't cry! I'm confused so I just stay there. She looks at the book for a few minutes then lays down. She plays with her nightlight/aquarium/music box with her feet. She whines for about 2 minutes. She plays with the nighlight again. She is laying down quietly but still a little restless. Then she starts to cry but not hard. She remains down but cries for 5-10 minutes. Then, SILENCE. Then, SNORING!!!
I quietly walk out of the room. After 40 minutes of sitting in her room, I declare: VICTORY!!!

I LOVE Super Nanny!