Ode to my Momma Bear

The nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me was "You remind me so much of your mom". If it were true, it would be like a dream come true for me. I want to be like my mom more than anyone else I know. She is the most amazing person!
My mom is/was the perfect mom. She always had little games or treasure hunts for us when we got home from school. She sat down and helped us with our homework. She always made me laugh even when I came home from school crying. I knew I could always talk to her, even when I had done something wrong. She would lay on our bed at night and read us a chapter from whatever book we were reading and she always made the book so interesting that we didn't want her to stop reading and kept begging for another chapter. She made a home cooked dinner pretty much every single night...and even took special requests some nights! She taught me how to work hard and to feel proud of what I had accomplished. She taught me how to clean and how to LOVE a clean home. She taught me how to love my brothers and sisters and how to do little acts of service for them. She is the one person I think of when I think about charity. Even now, when I call home on sundays, there is hardly a sunday that they haven't invited someone over for dinner...a new family in the ward, an single mom, and elderly couple, family that goes to BYU-I, the singles branch, etc. She always wants to give and to make other people feel welcome and loved. She always made FHE so fun and even on weekends I would rather have spent time at home playing games and eating popcorn (mom's famous caramel corn) because there was never a dull moment when my mom was around.
My mom always shared her testimony. I never doubted that my mom knew the church was true. She let me lean on her testimony until I got my own. She helped me through hard times, and I knew I could always trust her. I knew that she prayed for me. I would overhear her personal prayers sometimes (or her prayers with my dad) and they would pray for all of the kids individually. I knew my mom fasted for me many times. I felt so strongly the power of her fasts and prayers when I was on my mission and I know that she helped me through some extremely difficult days/weeks/months because of her faith. My mom has always been my biggest cheerleader and always told me that I could do things that even I didn't think were possible. My mom is the kind of person that everyone wants to be around because she always makes you feel better, smarter, and happier when you are with her. My mom makes every holiday so memorable and amazing. So many of my happiest childhood memories have Kenny G playing in the background, because my mom loved Kenny G. And now I listen to Kenny every day.
My mom was a complete lifesaver for me after I had Tyler and I struggled to find my feet and feel comfortable with having a new baby. When Cameron was born, my mom cleaned my house from top to bottom and still made the dinners, took care of me, and entertained a wild and needy 1 1/2 yr old, got up with the baby every single night, planted a garden for me, etc, etc. I am still in awe at the things that my mother can do. My mom taught me to always go to Heavenly Father for what we need and have faith that we would receive the blessings.

This list doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the ways that my mom has blessed my life. My mom is simply amazing. And the only problem with that, is that I know I will never compare to what a tremendous mom she is. But I will always try. That is my goal: Be like my mom.
I love you so much mom and I am so grateful that you are my mom. I am so blessed to be able to know you and learn from you. Thanks for your example for me and for my family. Thanks for loving me and for helping me become who I am today.
I love you. Happy Birthday!

Is this possible?

I was just telling Scott how excited I am that we are almost to October and we get to go to the pumpkin patch and do all the fun fall stuff. Then I randomly found this picture of our family last year right around this time.
I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST TIME FLIES!!! Is it really possible that one year ago I had a newborn?? No way! Crazy. Crazy, I tell you!

Pen and Cinnamon

Here are a few things that Ty has been up to last week:
On Tuesday he found a pen laying around and colored on our couch cushions.
On Wednesday he took the cinnamon from the table and dumped it all over the front room.

These two things are enough to push a mom to her limits. Luckily, the rest of the week went well. I am excitedly waiting to find out what this week's adventures will be.






(Yes it was inside the toy chest too!)





(I should have taken more pictures but there were about ten of these little "ant hills" around the room. )
Just FYI...you can vaccum cinnamon up, but it will still leave a dark film all over. So you will still need to scrub the carpet down (even if you just got it cleaned last week) and you will still need to scrub the couch (even if you just finished getting the pen off of it the night before)!


Another quick piece of advice: Don't put the vanilla right next to the apple cider vinegar in your cupboard. When you are in a hurry to make smoothies for lunch, you might just accidentally grab the apple cider vinegar instead of vanilla. It doesn't taste the same.

I think

I think that no one should have to go to work; I hate being so lonely during the day.

I think that kids should come already potty trained; I have changed more dirty diapers than I ever thought was possible in a day.

I think that Christmas should be twice a year; One whole year is too long to wait and I miss it so much.

I think that sweets should be the new health food; I don't want to eat brocoli, I want to eat ice cream!

I think that when you call someone on the phone they should HAVE to answer; I have called Scotty so many times today and he hasn't picked up his phone (side effect of being alone)

I think that as soon as you lay down on the bed to take a nap, you should be able to fall right asleep; I hate laying there thinking of all the things I should be doing instead of napping and then finally feeling like I am just on the verge of falling asleep and then hearing the kids wake up from naps.

I think that every month you should be allowed to get one new item of clothing for free from any store you want; I want lots of new clothes and shoes, but I don't want to pay for them.

I think that all houses should have a yard; not having a yard stinks.

I think that every family member should have to live right next to you or on your street (or we could build huge houses and everyone just lives all together); I miss my family.

I think that chapstick and lipgloss should be edible; everytime I put in on I always wish I could eat it.

I think that it should be illegal for it to start raining two minutes into a walk to the park after it took ten minutes to get diapers changed, shoes on, water bottles, snacks, and kids all in the stroller. Yes, I think the weather should go to jail. Or maybe just get a ticket.

I think that all music should be Kenny G or christmas music; You can only imagine how I feel about the Kenny G Christmas cd I have.

I think that every person should have a little person that just wakes up from a nap and says "Can I snuggy you please?" and then gives you the biggest hug you can think of; that is what just happened to me.

Even still, my life is happy, full, and rewarding. I am a lucky gal.

EGG-citing News

We got our carpets cleaned today!!!
Why? Isn't this the second time in less than six months? Can't you keep your house clean, Rachel??

Well, apparently not.

About a week ago, I was was back in our bedroom folding laundry and looking online for a cute idea for a birthday cake for Cameron. I heard the kids laughing in the front room...I mean, really laughing hard...and thought "How cute! They are playing together!"

How wrong I was.

I walked in to find the carton of eggs in the middle of the floor, half empty, and Ty with one in his hand ready to smash it into the carpet. I looked around the room and found that we had about 6 or 7 eggs ALL OVER the family room. We had one on the couch, several covering the carpet, the wall, the door, AAAHHH! Wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't smeared them all over the floor after breaking them. Cameron was crawling through the mess, so he had tracked it all over and it was all over both of their clothes. I did get a couple pictures taken before spending my afternoon trying to clean it up....but it didn't work very well. I thought I had gotten it all, but we would randomly feel parts of the carpet that were hardened with egg yolk. Then, Scott found little drops of egg yolk splattered all over another part of the front room....and that was enough to push me over the edge and I decided to get the carpets cleaned.

Luckily, both kids are still alive :)

(By the way, when I told Scott, his first words were "I bet Cameron thinks that Ty is the coolest brother ever! Then he told me that he did that once when he was little, so we probably had it coming...I let him know that he would be cleaning up any future messes that come because of the crazy things he did as a kid!)

ONE

Has it really been ONE entire year? It feels like maybe ONE month!
We have a ONE-derful ONE year old now! Cameron is such an incredible, amazing little guy and he just keeps getting cuter and cuter every day.
We had a fun little birthday party for Cameron with our Mother's group (thanks to everyone who came and made it such a fun day!) and then we had another little party when Scott got home from work. The missionaries came over for dinner and then we had a puppy birthday cake and opened a few little presents (for which Tyler was more excited than Cameron!)
We sure love our little Cam-bam and we feel lucky to have him in our family. He has a smile that can stop the Earth in orbit! He can take pretty much any kind of fall, hit, bump, or bodyslam (thanks to Ty-ty). When he laughs, it just changes the mood of any situation. We will go to great lengths to get Cam to give us a little giggle! Cameron is such a peacemaker and wants everyone around him to be happy. Often times, when Tyler is in time-out, Cameron will crawl over to the corner and giggle at Tyler and Ty will almost immediately stop crying and smile at Cam. He has such a great spirit and we love him so much!
We are ONE lucky family!

A Family Outing

Last weekend we decided to take a little family outing to San Francisco and Alcatraz. It was fun-filled and exhausting all at the same time.
We got tickets and arrived in San Fransisco just in time to hop on the boat. Tyler was thrilled to be riding on the boat and loving every minute of the ten minute ride over to Alcatraz. In fact, he didn't want to get off and was pretty disappointed when we told him he couldn't stay on the boat. We wandered around the island and took the audio tour of the main cell building. It was actually really fascinating! The kids did great, considering the fact that they were both tired and hungry and the tour was over an hour long. We had headphones on and we were really intrigued by the history of the prison, so we might not have noticed if they weren't being great :)
After taking the boat back, we ate dinner at Rainforest Cafe...and fun restaurant with a jungle atmosphere and lots of animals all around the tables. We got a table back in a little "cave" and there were snakes that hung from the trees and big huge butterflies flapping their wings. Tyler loved it! He even got so excited when a large tree frog came around to give him a hug. We thought he would be terrified, but he jumped right down from the table and gave him a big hug.
Then I changed the kids into their pajamas after dinner and they both fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was such a fun day!



A family photo



This is a happy little munchkin


Not too far off, is it??


Three handsome devils!


Momma and Cub

Book of Mormon Challenge

So our ward relief society issued a challenge to read the book of mormon in 90 days. They gave us a bookmark and it had each day on it and exactly what page we should be up to. The challenge ended today and I was able to complete it!
I have to say, it was one of the greatest experiences I have had in a long time. I felt so strongly that Heavenly Father was helping me to find the time to read my pages. It didn't seem as hard to stay awake at night to get my reading done. It didn't seem as hard to wake up early and read and start my day. I felt like I found patience when I truly had none left to give. I felt more charitable towards others. I was just happier (most of the time :). It is really amazing to look back and see that the circumstances of my life didn't really change at all (I still have a 2 1/2 year old and a 1 yr old that really give me a run for my money) but I just felt like I had added strength and peace and desire to do good. It was a real life changing and testimony building experience for me!
I'll admit that most of the time, the Book of Mormon is not always the most interesting book to read. It wasn't that kind of book that I just couldn't wait until the kids went down for a nap so that I could pick it up and find out what happens next. But that is totally how I felt this time. It suddenly became so real to me and it was interesting to see how all the stories fit together. (Unlike other times, when I would open the book and think "Now what is going on here? Who is that person?")
It was just such a neat experience. I am so thankful that I was able to do that and it changed me so much that I have decided that I am going to make myself another bookmark and see if I can do it again before the end of the year!