It's his birthday and he can cry if he wants to.

Our little Sy-Guy turns ONE today.
I can't believe it's already been a whole year.
That day, November 7, 2009, was a beautiful one.
It was quiet and peaceful and calm in our home.


A year later, our home is anything but quiet and peaceful and calm.
Simon is sassy, determined and stubborn.
He's also silly, playful and oh so! handsome.
We love our birthday boy even more than he loved his first cupcake.

I am thankful for Saturday sports

This year we have really tried simplifying in all areas. When it came time to sign the kids up for sports-- three different teams, which means three practices a week and three Saturday games, I just could not do it. Yes, there will come a time in our lives when everyone has to be a different place at a different time, but right now, I still have control over some things.

While talking with a few other parents with boys the same ages, we decided to set a time for Saturday morning sports-- for the entire family. I wasn't exactly sure how organized it would be or if my kids would soon be begging to be on soccer teams with jerseys, but I have been so pleased with the outcome. It's been a little over two months (ten weeks or so) where we've met the same families at the same park on Saturday mornings for a couple of hours. We all bring our equipment, we all stay on the field and we ALL have a good time. The last couple of weeks we've been playing flag football and the field is filled with a dozen little boys, playing on the same team as their brothers and often playing against their dads. The moms and babies usually head to the park to play (and talk) and that has been equally rewarding. It's been totally free, totally low-key and totally fun. Such a great thing for our family. Today was the last day of our rotation (until after Christmas) and I was so proud of myself for bringing my camera. But then, I got too busy playing and forgot to snap any pictures. I'm a loser, baby. So why don't you kill me.

One of my favorite talks from last General Conference was from President Uchtdorf beautifully titled Of Things That Matter Most. In it, he states, "We build deep and loving family relationships by doing simple things together, like family dinner and family home evening and by just having fun together. In family relationships love is really spelled T-I-M-E, time." It reminds me a of a quote I printed out a couple of years ago from a talk that hit home for me. I read this quote (almost) on a daily basis and it inspires me to say NO! to things that make our schedules more chaotic and YES! to everything that allows us to spend more time together as a family.

"Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all." (Julie B. Beck, Mothers Who Know, Ensign, Nov 2007, 76–78)

I am thankful for Fridays

oh boy. it's been a long week. last night I cried myself to sleep. I felt like the day was never going to end and when it finally did, I just lost it. Do you think babies can develop COLIC at a year old? I used to have a happy, cuddly little thing and all he does lately is cry, scream, pull hair and hit. He's a bully-baby.

Sometimes I wonder who promoted me to this "motherhood" job when I feel so under-qualified. I am not prepared to take care of four human beings 24 hours a day, everyday. Thankfully there is a "no-return" policy on children because yesterday I might have loaded up the wagon and given them all back.

Whenever I have a terrible, horrible no-good day, I always feel better knowing there's a weekend coming up. This time I am fortunate it's already here. I am so thankful for Fridays.

I am thankful for my blog.... post #1000

I received my first journal when I was 8. I wrote about the boys I had crushes on and the fights I had with friends. My middle school years were brutal and I have a couple of journal entries to prove it. While in high school, I kicked the writing up a notch and filled three journals solid. My college days are recorded in three others, only I never wrote a single entry about my good-looking friend Shumway until we became engaged. Odd, and very sad.

Our engagement is recorded only because I printed each and every email we sent. And we sent hundreds, living four hours away from one another. That book of emails is the ONE thing I would grab if my house was on fire (after my children, of course.) There is a lull in my journal writing from 2000-2003. I would dish out serious dough to have those years recorded. I was a full-time student, taking care of two baby boys and working overtime. I guess there wasn't a spare moment to record the crazy life we were living. When we moved away from our families in 2004, I created my own personal website to keep in touch.

It was a geocities site and everything had to be written in html.. so I learned to read and write in code. The pictures had to be small in order to fit as many on as possible and they only allowed one line of text per picture. Once the site was filled, I had to start another website. I think by the end of law school, I had ten or so different geocities webpages. I emailed out the links to our friends and family members and tried to document most of our funny stories in the body of the email. I often wondered if Aaron's siblings or my distant cousins wanted to hear about our adventures in the frozen tundra. Unfortunately, all of the benefits that came from creating those websites were only temporary. Geocities went out of business and all of our pictures and memories went with it. Blogger had begun registering blogspot addresses long before we moved in 2006, but I didn't catch on until the beginning of 2007.

We've lived in Vegas for almost 4 years and the most important events of our lives in the last four years have been documented on this blog. But my most cherished entries are not the holidays or birthday parties or vacations. My favorite posts are the mundane entries, the silly things the kids have said & the times when I've put my heart out on the line and stated that not everything about motherhood is hunky-dory. Over the past 20 years of journaling, it seems that I've picked up a pen and paper when I was feeling grateful and happy. I find myself still picking up an old fashion journal when I feel grateful and happy, but this blog has been a different kind of outlet. It's truly been therapeutic for me to write, connect with long lost friends and state my blunt (and sometimes offensive) opinion. At times, I felt very vulnerable and wasn't sure if it was worth it for me to be so open, so I took off comments and even went private for a while. Oh! the drama!

Even though I've overcome a lot of personal issues regarding my blog, it's still a sore subject to discuss with my husband. We avoid talking about the blog at all costs. Maybe it's because I post pictures of me flipping the bird or write about my visits to the gynecologist. (just maybe?) but every time I think about shutting it down completely (to please my man) I just can't do it. It means too much to me. I know that's why he doesn't ask me to stop, either. Because he knows it's an important part of my life. I am not fortunate enough to live close to any of my family, but some part of me feels like I am experiencing life with them because I am allowing them to read about and see pictures of my children frequently. I have also been able to create real friendships with people I have never met, and strengthen others who are dear to me, but circumstances won't allow us to keep in touch. This blog is so much more than a journal.

But let's not discount the fact that I have recorded lots of day to day happenings. The hardbound books we own sit in our living room and get flipped through occasionally. There will come a time-- I am most positive-- when those books will be priceless to me, and maybe even to my husband-- (no she di'nt!) For this reason, I will continue to write.

Today is a special day because this post is number ONE THOUSAND. That's right, 1,000 published posts on this blog. I am not going to list a thousand things about myself or wait until there's a thousand comments before I write again, but I did want to mention it because it's a big deal. At least to me, anyway.

So what AM I going to do to celebrate 1000 posts? First off, I wanted to say thanks to those who read. If you're out there, I am talking to you! Thanks for sticking around and loving me despite my mental problems. Thanks for commenting and making my day a little brighter. Thanks for clicking on the advertisements even though they're annoying. Thanks for keeping in touch with me. I blog for a lot of reasons, but one of those reasons is you.

Another thing I've wanted to do for some time now is update my "best of" list. The posts that are listed are old and not necessarily the best. But then again, how do I know? If you want to participate, I thought I would ask those of you who read to tell me which one of my posts you loved or which one influenced you the most. Next week, I will have a drawing and send a package to a random commenter. I don't know what will be in the package yet. You may or may not get a crazy albino child who will want to bandage your nipples! If that doesn't entice you to comment, what ever will???

I am thankful I can vote.

I love the USofA. My right to vote is sacred and I take the responsibility seriously. Nevada's race was super-duper close and I was hoping my voice would send the old man packing... I am going to come out and say that I did NOT vote for the Mormon. I have a testimony that he and his friends in the white house are going to ruin our country.

I saw a bumper sticker last week that said, "I'll keep my guns, my freedom and my money. You can keep the change." I am downright scared for what could happen to our freedoms and our constitution in the next couple of years. I worry about the country that my children and my children's children and my children's children's children will be raised in.

Not to change the subject so drastically, but I only have so much time for political banter. And that line about my children and their children reminds me of an act from Flight of the Conchords titled "Issues". It's a bunch of nonsense and doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I voted, but it's seriously funny... think about it. think, think about it.