Sleeping in a Bus and Other Random Pictures

I finally got around to uploading a bunch of images from my point and shoot camera. It's been forever since I blogged, so I wanted to share some pictures.

We had a really quiet Easter at home. We had to limit what we spent on The Princess' Easter basket (and Sparky didn't get a basket because she's too young to care), but I think The Princess really enjoyed the small gifts she received. Of course, what did she end up liking the most? The basket itself.



And here's an image of the two of us together on Easter Sunday. You'll have to excuse the leftover cupcake on her face. I was inspired by Bakerella. Amanda and her kiddos came over on Sunday night and we colored Easter eggs and made Easter basket cupcakes. Fun!!



Miss Sparky learned to crawl a few weeks ago, and that was eventually followed by learning how to sit up. She became much more adept at both skills while Grandma Rosie was here last week (we miss you already!!), and last night she finally figured out how to start pulling up on the furniture. I'd have pictures of her pulling up on the furniture, but I'm usually too panicked that she's going to fall down and bump her head, so I'm hovering over her to catch her instead of taking pictures. So the crawling pictures will have to suffice until she's better at remembering to hold on to the furniture.





This facial expression cracks me up!





We bought a lawnmower last week. I'm finally not embarrassed to have people see my yard! It looks great now that it's all freshly mowed!

The Princess decided to adopt the lawnmower box, just like she adopts every box, blanket, or stuffed animal we bring into the house. The additional clutter drives me crazy, but this box is making her so happy that I can't complain too much. She started out using it as a cave, but yesterday she drew windows on the outside (AND the inside) and turned it into a bus. She was really quiet downstairs last night, and I found her like this:



And here's a picture of the "bus" itself. I love how she has to write a literal description of all her creations.



I'll probably have more pictures to share soon. I still have to edit the images I took at the garden last week, and I'll have my new camera later this week, so you'll probably get sick of all the images I'll be sharing! :)

Read more...

Bedtime Conversation

The Princess has the most interesting conversations with her daddy when he reads her a story at bedtime. Here's the conversation that took place tonight:

Malia - Why can't I hear angels talking?

Dad - They don't usually talk unless it's about something important or dangerous. They usually talk by making your heart feel better

Malia - Oh, so when I need to talk to the angels, like when I lose something, I can pray and they will make me feel calm. Like when I lost my doll, I prayed and found it because they talked to my heart.

I love watching her faith and testimony blossom right before our eyes. I hope we can do the right things as parents to help her testimony continue to get stronger.

Read more...

Light Bulb Moment

I had a light bulb moment last night, and I wanted to share it.

The Princess has dance class on Wednesday afternoons. She loves her dance class, and I'm so grateful that we were able to find an affordable class that would allow us to provide an activity for her to look forward to during the week.

The one difficulty about the class is that we only have one car. In fact, that's one of the main difficulties about our life in general - I feel like I'm stuck at home a lot more often than I'd like to be, because it's kind of difficult to juggle the car between DH's work and home. Usually he has to come home at some point during the day and then the girls and I will drop him back off at work and pick him up later. I tend to feel guilty/worried about this, because our car has a LOT of miles on it, and I hate putting more miles on the car than is absolutely necessary - I worry that it's going to reach a point where we won't even have *one* car.

Anyway, back to yesterday. :) Dance class ended, and it was starting to drizzle outside. I put the girls in the car, and then I remembered that DH had mentioned that there was a problem with the driver's side windshield wiper. The bolt that holds the wiper at the bottom comes loose, and when that happens, the wiper won't work until the bolt is tightened. I turned on the car and tried using the wiper, and it definitely wasn't working. So I called DH and asked him how to fix it. He told me where to find the wrench, and I attempted to tighten the wiper.

Well, no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the bolt tight enough. I was starting to panic. I was in tears with DH on the phone, asking what we had possibly been thinking when we decided to move to the other side of the country with only one car and no family to call when we run into situations like this. He gave me suggestions on a couple of people to call, but I knew they were either at work or had kids at home, and I just can't stand the thought of inconveniencing friends.

So I was praying really hard that I could get the windshield wiper to work. It didn't happen. The rain finally let up, and I drove to pick up DH from work worrying the whole time that it was going to start pouring rain and grumbling inside about how silly it was to move out here with just one car. I was pretty crabby for the first part of the evening.

Last night, as I was going to bed, I was thinking about the situation again. I was asking myself why Heavenly Father hadn't answered my prayer and helped me fix the windshield wiper. I tend to doubt myself a lot, and I start to feel like my prayers are never answered. I'm doubting a lot of things right now (mostly money stuff - I hate money), and the one car situation only compounds things. As I continued to think about the situation, I suddenly had the very clear thought that my prayer *had* been answered. My "light bulb moment" was when I realized that even though Heavenly Father hadn't allowed me to fix the windshield wiper, it had completely stopped raining and I was able to drive all the way to DH's work without any problems.

It's made me realize that I need to try harder to appreciate what Heavenly Father is doing for my family. My prayers may not be visibly answered in exactly the way I'm expecting (and I'm usually looking for a very literal answer to my prayers), but He is there, and He's watching out for me and my family. I hope I can get better at realizing that and remembering it when I'm feeling frustrated.

Read more...

Blissfully Chaotic Blog Party

I love blog parties! Giveaways, contests, and all sorts of fun! Kind of makes me wish I had a bigger following so that I could host one myself. :) Of course, that would require blogging on a MUCH more regular basis, and not just about my own kiddos. I don't think I'm ready for that. I can participate in the blog parties of others, though.

Anyway, the current blog party is going on at the Blissfully Chaotic blog. Go check it out when you get a chance. If you want to join in on the fun and giveaways, it's simple.

1. Grab her party button and add it to your blog.
2. Tell others about the party by posting about it on your blog.
3. Visit her blog and sign Mr. Linky at the bottom of her blog party post.

Read more...