boo boos

Today Lilly and Josey were on the trampoline playing as there was a slight break in the clouds. After a few minutes I heard Josey crying and I carried her inside and she showed me her foot wear she needed a bandaid. She told me that Lilly had accidentaly slid across her foot with her teeth when she fell. So after I got Josey's band-aid on, Lilly of course started crying for a band-aid of her own. I thought she just wanted one because Josey wanted one. ButI pulled out a band-aid and asked her where her boo boo was to put the bandaid on. She thought for a minute and then showed me her teeth. She REALLY wanted a band-aid on her teeth! It was quite funny. We finally compromised with a band-aid on her upper lip. This seemed to appease her and she walked around with a little psuedo-mustache for a while. Such cute girls.....such a disgusting floor.

Who is listening?

So here is what I have been thinking about for the last couple of days. Have you ever stopped to think about the way you talk to your kids? I recently was in McDonald's enjoying an ever so (not)-peaceful McDonald's Playplace experience with a couple of friends. All of a sudden I hear a mom raise her voice to her son. She was standing at the bathroom with the door open and INSISTING that he "COME HERE NOW!!"

She wasn't a "Walmart mom"either. You know the ones that look like maybe they haven't showered in a few days, and their kids look like their clothes haven't been washed in weeks, and you can tell they could care less what anyone thinks about the way they are speaking to their children which isn't usually in the least bit nice (actually as I am describing a "walmart mom" I think there have definitely been times I have been in walmart that I might actually qualify in that category!).

BUT she was a very nice looking well maintained mother, as was her son. Now just out of reflex I believe many of us looked up to see what the commotion was. All of a sudden she realized that there were many people looking at her and she sort of blushed and smiled and said, "I am really sorry. I thought I was at home for a minute!" We all kinda chuckled as we all knew EXACTLY what she was talking about.

There is a mother's home tone and a mother's public tone. The public tone is MUCH nicer most of the time than the home tone. And it got me thinking, that maybe I need to reevaluate how I speak to my children not only in public but in private as well. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely don't begrudge this McDonald's mom. I have spoken to my kids in much the same way. But it was hearing it being said to another's child and realizing how harsh it sounded and how belittling it sounded that made me start to feel bad. I know that for me I get tired of kids not listening and having to ask the same thing over and over and finally there is a breaking point. But what I have realized is that that breaking point over the years has started to come quicker and quicker. It's almost as if I don't even give them the chance half the time to obey before I am making my directions "very clear". I have seen the look on my kids faces when I have barked out a command and it definitely isn't admiration or love that comes emanating back. But I can't really blame them. It wasn't love or admiration that was being shot at them either!

So this is what I have been thinking about lately and what I am going to try and work on. I really want to respect my children no matter what their age. I guess I think that there must be a way to direct and guide them without always bossing and intimidating them. I am not sure that I am going to succeed everyday, but I really want to try and stay present with how I am speaking to them. And realize that I should ALWAYS speak kinder to them not just when I think someone else is listening. I have a suspicion that the nicer I speak to them the nicer they might speak to each other. I know that I will still be getting frustrated and that they will probably 9 times out of 10 require me to repeat the phrase, "put your backpack away", but I am going to try! Wish me luck!

Where's my Grandpa Beff?!

I had to say goodbye to my mommy today. And I was VERY sad. It was so fun having my mom here for an entire week! I couldn't believe it when she told me that when she came for Maddy's baptism that she was going to stay for a whole week! The only time my mom has been able to do that was when I have had babies. And we don't exactly get to get out and do a whole lot of fun things together when you are having the baby and recovering from having the baby and adjusting to having a baby, you all know the drill. So this was such a treat to have my mom here just on a regular random week with my family. We had SO much fun.....at least I know I did! I think you had a good time mom? Like always it turned out to be quite a week with two field trips, a trip to the doctors (all the way in downtown Portland where consequently I had a mother break down moment that only a mom can understand), a mother-daughter (grandma) achievement day activity at the graveyard and we can't forget the baptism and mother's day. We also threw in lots of lunches out, pierced ears, a few trips to the pet store, shopping and a couple of movies. We definitely took advantage of our time with grandma! Unfortunately what I didn't take advantage of was my camera! I just kept forgetting to get it out all week. I am so sad about that. I finally snapped a few shots the day she was leaving but I really wish that I had taken some more. I hate it when I do that! I am glad I got these though at least. They were very cute. Here is Lilly (and check out her little piggys!) in one of the cute little outfits she got for her while she was here. Lilly warmed right up to her and was so excited when she would come downstairs in the mornings and find "grandpa Beff". It was really one of the funniest things this week. We could not get Lilly to remember to say GRANDMA Beff, it was always GRANDPA Beff. We would just laugh and laugh every time she would say it because it sounded so funny. My mom finally said she started to feel like a transvestite or something! I assured her she did not look like a grandpa! I finally decided to work on it with Lilly and see if I could get her to say grandma. So we were sitting there and I kept having her say grandma over and over again. I then proceeded to ask her a bunch of questions, what is your favorite color? (blue) how old are you? (blue) what color is your shirt? (blue) what is your name? (LEELEE) who is that? (Josey) who is that? (Maddy). And I finally pointed at my mom and said "who is that?" GRANDPA BEFF!!!!! We laughed so hard! I think by the end of the week she would call her something like grandmama Beff. But when we got back from the airport the first thing she did was start walking around the house looking for "her grandpa Beff".
You can't really see them in the picture but my mom took Maddy to get her ears pierced! She was very very excited! She has wanted to get them pierced for a while but I just hadn't felt like she was old enough. When I went on her field trip this week I started looking around at the little girls in her class and realized that about 90% of them had their ears pierced! While this wasn't the reason that we decided to get them pierced it just made me think that maybe she wasn't too young to take care of them. So we went to the mall and she was VERY brave despite Josey plugging her ears and closing her eyes and screaming every couple of seconds, "HAVE THEY POKED THEM YET?" (Josey was very disturbed by the whole process). Maddy almost backed out at the last minute but we got one earring in one side. Sadly there weren't two people there to do them at the same time, so she had get one and then get the other. I thought we were possibly going to have to walk out of the store with only one earring in, but she pulled it off and she was SO happy that she had done it. We left the store with like 10 pairs of earrings and she is very much looking forward to July when she can finally change them. My mom and I were laughing that Maddy has reached a level of womanhood. She actually invited pain for beauty!
And lastly grandma took Josey to get her snails that she has been wanting for months! We have a pet store next to a pizza place that we get pizza from often and so whenever we order our pizzas we go to the pet store and wait for it to be done. So we did this while grandma was here and of course Josey persuaded grandma to get the snails for her (there wasn't really much persuading going on, grandma wanted too). I always tell her they cost too much, but really they are only 2 dollars! I have just not wanted to buy them. But she was so excited to get her snails. Those of you that know her obsession with snails and slugs and worms, basically anything slimy and creepy, will understand how exciting this was to her. We brought them home and stuck them in the fish tank with velvet and they are actually really fun to watch crawl all over the place and clean up the water. I think I should have purchased them a while ago!

Thank you for coming, even though it got all your other daughters mad that you spent so much time up here. It was so wonderful to show you my home and Portland and let my girls spend such quality time with grandma. We need to do it more often! We already miss you and wish that you could have stayed longer but I think I might have had a hit out on me from the sistas! You are a wonderful mom and I felt so lucky that I got to spend mother's day with you and Colleen. How often do you get to spend mother's day with your mom and mom-in-law! I wish that I could have done more for you because you are truly special to me and I love you. Miss you already and....I'll call you tomorrow!

These are just some funny pictures I took the other day of Lilly. She insisted on wearing these goggles and they really made her look so funny but she did NOT want them taken off. She was running all over the room laughing and finally screaming as is usually the case.

And I just had to put these pictures up of Lilly's hair. This was after they had played in the sprinklers out back. I really don't know how I gave birth to those blonde ringlets and I am a little in awe of it and I love it!

Baptism weekend

Our daughter is an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We are so proud of her. She was so excited this weekend and has been looking forward to getting baptized for quite a while now. She looked so cute and I can't believe how old she is getting! This was her beautiful white dress that grandma Beth got for her and she wanted a yellow sash to go with it. Luckily grandma Moyes is a whiz with the sewing machine and she whipped up a perfect sash to put with it and it was gorgeous. Here she is right before she got changed.

And here she is after. She thought this outfit was SO funny!

And she kept looking in the mirror making these poses. She finally told me that Josey was going to be so jealous because she looked like princess Leah. That is what she thought she looked like in her little jumpsuit. I thought that was pretty funny!

Maddy and Daddy. Dustin did such a good job with the baptism and with the talk on the Holy Ghost. He is such a great dad and sure loves his daughters a lot. I feel so lucky to have such a righteous priesthood holder in our home that is able to do these things and able to recognize how important these steps are. He is such a great example to our girls and to me.

I think I wore the wrong color?

When we came out of the baptism to go take pictures it was raining, surprise surprise! So we had to take pictures inside the foyer. But they turned out pretty cute I think. This picture cracks me up because this is what is really going on trying to get a picture of everyone but..

we finally got a fairly good one!

This was all the family we had attend. We had Dustin's parents and my mom and my brother. We loved having them all here and really made it very special for Maddy. We had quite a few other people attend the baptism and we really appreciated everyone who came.

We are so proud of you Maddy. You are such a good example to your little sisters and I think you are an amazing young lady!

Grandma and Grandpa Moyes arrive...let the performing begin!

Grandma and Grandpa Moyes came for the baptism and the girls were so excited to be here. They flew in on Thursday so we had a couple of days by ourselves with them and we had lots of fun! On Friday we had the Kindergarten tea with moms and grandma got to join us and we were so excited about that. The kindergarten performed some songs for all us moms and it was cute and hilarious at the same time! You have to watch this video and listen to the one boy that is freakishly loud and monotone and don't take your eyes off of the kid down front on the far right. I felt bad for him but it was still kinda funny.


We got to bring our own tea pot and tea cups to use and Josey LOVED pouring her own "tea".


Afterwards we were invited to go back to the classroom and get a tour of everything and watch a cute little picture montage of all the kids throughout the year. Josey had fun playing with grandma and showing her all her favorite things in her classroom.

These little baby chicks are definately her favorite! She got to watch them hatch out of the eggs. Her classroom is a veritable animal farm! She has a bunny, a turtle, little chicks, a ladybug farm, a praying mantis egg that they are waiting to hatch, and caterpillars that are turning into butterflies. It is a really fun classroom.

And of course afterwards Josey had to take us out to the playground to show us how she can do the monkey bars....on all three sets of the monkey bars.

Later that day we headed over to the aviation museum and it was really fun! In an earlier post here I talked about the Spruce Goose. The airplane that Howard Hughes built and it is HUGE I couldn't really get a picture to show the magnitude of the plane but trust me when I say it was the biggest plane I have EVER seen! This was one of the wings and you can sort of see compared to the regular planes below how gigantic it is!


We even enjoyed an airplane flight around the museum........

just kidding! These airplane seats were the benches in the museum. The girls thought that was pretty cool.

Dustin and his dad probably had the most fun and I think they could have stayed there for days looking at everything. We probably shouldn't have brought Lilly with us......
because she was a little hard to control in this environment. But she was pretty good.
Once we found the kids play area we were good! They girls played for probably over an hour on all the planes and activitied they had.

TWILIGHT TRAILER

My sister-in-law sent this to me a few days ago and I was SO excited and I thought there might be a few more out there that might be excited to see it! It is the official Twilight teaser trailer. December 12th countdown!

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.fullscreen&videoid=33429578

I hope it is working for you because it kept stalling in the middle but the end is the best part so keep trying!

Just missin' the cousins.....

Claudia(10), Madelyn(8), Julia(6), Joselyn(5), Georgia(3), Lillian(2), and Bear(1). Apparently Beck and I couldn't quite get in synch with our babies. I was looking through some pictures today and came across this one again and it made me smile and then feel sad because I hate living so far away from my family! We miss our cousins.....ALL our cousins, even the ones not in this picture! This picture cracks me up though! I would have never thought that I would have had the SEVENTH granddaughter in a row on my side (obviously there is one missing!). They are all such beautiful girls though and at least little Bear does have a boy cousin his age, little Jeffy and Caitlyn are not in the picture. It makes me laugh though because my girls are totally the weird ones in the picture. What's up with that?

Old Time Rock and Roll

My dad sent this to me recently and I love watching my grandparents in it! It makes me smile!

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Try JibJab Sendables!

Weekend Visitors

My dad and his wife Susan came into town to visit last weekend and we were BUSY! Leave it to my dad to find more exciting and interesting things to do in my town than I know about! We hit the movies, the Cinco de Mayo festival downtown, the zoo, the farmer's market, and Multnomah falls all in two days. It was very fun and the girls had tons of fun! Here is the Cinco de Mayo festival..... Lilly rode her first carnival ride and loved it! I had to sit in the back with her in seats that were NOT made for adult legs, I didn't love it.
The girls could pick two things to do. Josey wanted to do rides and Maddy ONLY wanted to play games. And she pouted about that the whole time until she got to play her game. Can we say pre-pre-pubecent?
We then headed over to the zoo where I think we have over saturated the girls with zoo animals. The adults and Lilly were the only ones that even noticed the animals. Maddy and Josey really couldn't have cared less about the animals! They were having their own fun though and the weather was GREAT!


The next day we decided to head over to Multnomah Falls. The last time Dustin and I were here was about 6 years ago when we lived here previously. We took Maddy who was 2 and we started up the trail and decided that she was to scarily dangerous trying to run off the sides and headed home. We braved it this time though with Lilly. I guess when you only have one you don't want to risk losing them but now we have three so if one goes over the side we still have two left.......JUST KIDDING!

Multnomah Falls is this AMAZING waterfall that is like 600 hundred feet up or something and we climbed to the top with all three kids! It is like a mile and a half or something uphill to get there. Good thing the weather was overcast and off and on sprinkling to cool us off because we were all pretty sweaty and hot. Dustin especially who had to pretty much carry Lilly up and down the mountain! He was SO sore after. I was proud of the girls for making it up there though.

We finally made it up to the top. I honestly don't know how long it took us to get up and down but it was a LONG time!


We were all a little tempted to go back down this way!

Maddy was totally copping an attitude for some reason the whole weekend. I thought this picture best illustrated that.

We had a very fun weekend. Thanks for visiting us!