Short

It's been a long time coming. I do this just about every 3 years. Grow my hair out so long and then wack it all off. Every time I do this I am full of anxiety. Today was no exception. While driving to my appointment I turned on the radio and Michael Jackson's "Beat It" song was playing. Perfect! Just what I needed to get the darn nerves to calm down. It's so dumb. I know this. Don't ask me why because I have no idea. It is common knowledge that I "do" my hair once a week for church. The rest of the week it is in braids, ponytail, hat, what have you. There is some weird attatchment I have to my long hair, even though I usually dispise it. Maybe because it's such a big part of my identity as sad as that is. I've always been known as the girl with the really long hair.....that is until a chop it and start growing it back out. Some time that's gotta give though right? I mean, as I get older will I always have long hair? Maybe. Oh, and one more thing, an hour after the cut was finished and I got back in my car, the same Michael Jackson song was on. This time I was really rocking out since now the worry of my hair was a thought of the past. So here it is.

Before (don't mind my pj's or that nice calic in my hair)

and After:

Aaron is a long hair kinda guy, but says as long as I like it, then he does too. Hannah and Abigail said they don't like it.  (They actually said that. Rude huh?) Hannah pert near started crying and told me never to cut my hair again! Nate on the other hand told me I am beautiful and that he likes it. Thank you Nathan....you will remain my favorite child today. 

Some  little girl will get my 10+ inches of hair since I always donate it to Locks of Love.

9/11 Boat Lift

Don't know how I missed this, but PLEASE take the time to watch this.


America is full of good people. I'm so proud to be an American.

Happiness Is.

Happiness is having a mommy/daughter date.

Happiness is riding a tractor.

Happiness is petting cows and chasing ducks

Happiness is loving a fluffy, white bunny and seeing stinky baby pigs.

Happiness is having a goat not afraid of you

Happiness is playing in a box full of corn!

And laying down in the corn.

And throwing the corn.

Happiness is being loved by mom

Happiness is sitting on a HUGE pumpkin and making silly faces.



And happiness is ending the date with ice cream.

Thankful Thursdays

I love the idea of writing down what I'm thankful for once a week. I'm not good at doing it at all. Here' to trying one more time. One day late. :o)

-I am thankful for Fall weather. I personally feel that Utah has the most beautiful Fall.

-I am thankful my children have grandparents, both near and far, who really really love them and who make many efforts to make them feel special.

-I am thankful that Hannah LOVES to color. I was so worried that once she got into school that somehow her love of coloring and drawing would be schwelched. Three weeks later, she still loves to color. Phew!

-I am thankful for our little garden. We have tomatoes and cucumbers coming out our ears....and they are delicious!

-I am thankful that I have my kids all to myself each morning before school.

Routine

I may not be the most organized or most well put together each day, but I THRIVE off of structure and routine with my kids. Even during the summer we had to have a little structure or else I would go bonkers! With school in full force, routine is somewhat easy and more important to me than ever before.

Little did I know that most everyone in our neighbor with a child one of the ages of my kids, prefers morning preschool and kindergarten. We are sleepers over here, so we opted for afternoon. And this means I have my kids to myself everyday in the morning. Our days look like this, with very little change.

Wake up
Breakfast together
Get dressed, make beds, do hair
Devotional - Song, Scripture, Pledge, Prayer
Homework with each child - read, write, math
Piano practice for Hannah

This routine takes our morning up to about 11:00 each day. It's good. It's order. It's time well spent with my kids. Because when they get home from school, so do all their friends and they are gonzo from me until dinner most days.

I don't think.....

....he knew this was flour.

Imagination

My kids have the greatest imagination. It cracks me up to listen in on them playing and "imagining" that they are on a boat and one of them falls into the water while the other throws them a rope and pulls them back to safety. They could do this for hours.....well, at least an hour. :o) I love to hear them come up with something new to imagine. Oh, and someone is always Melissa and someone is always Aaron. Clever kids.

Today was a very very busy Saturday. I wish I could say that made me happy because usually I enjoy a day that is full of things we 'have' to do together on a Saturday, but my darn wrist is still hurting from my fall over 3 weeks ago and I was just kinda a grouch, fighting kids to cooperate perfectly so I could baby my hand as much as possible. Of course, when they didn't cooperate perfectly, I was just a grouch. Enough said. On a better note though, Nathan had a much better soccer game today. Didn't shed one single tear. Hooray! Plus, he almost made a goal. He also picked the ball up with his hands during the game. It was pretty funny.

Today was also our Ward Fall Harvest. I just have to say our ward is the greatest at putting on a party. They really do go above and beyond to make it such a fun time. What makes it so great is that everyone seems to be so supportive and creative. I mean, our neighbors even brought one of their chickens in a cage along with her eggs! There was a chili cookoff, pie contest, different pumpkin eats, and some yummy things made with zucchini. And my attempt at making a peach pie 3 times paid off because it won for best tasting pie! The pan was licked clean. There was also face painting, train rides, balloon animals, donuts on a string, bubble gum blowing contest, plasma car racing, corn tossing, country dancing performed by some of our darling young girls in the ward, and a fabulous fiddle by one of my neighbors. Really, truly, it is the greatest ward ever. So much talent. Such wonderful people. And now I am tired. G'night.

This is my favorite picture of the week. I could eat her up she is so darling to me!

Winding Down

What do you do to wind down? Read? Watch TV? Clean? Write? Exercise? I write. Most of my life I've been a fairly good journal keeper. I love to write my thoughts down. It's therapeutic to me. When my kids are down for the night and all is quiet in my house, I like to reflect on the day. Was it good? Was it bad? Did I get all the things done I wanted to? needed to? Were my kids happy when they went to sleep or were they grouchy because mom was grouchy?  I was at a meeting tonight so Aaron put them down. No doubt they were happy since daddy is way more fun than mommy, especially at bedtime.

So my reflection on this day..... it was good. Hannah had her first dance lesson today. She looked adorable. She was so excited. Nikki took her to her lesson so I didn't get to see her dance, but when she got home, she and Grace showed me all the new moves they learned. I'm so glad Hannah has Grace. I'm so grateful these two girls have each other. They are different, but they love each other. I hope they will always love each other. They each have strengths that will take them far. They each are beautiful and they each have something to offer the other. I get choked up when I think of these two girls. So much potential. So much to offer. So much to give.

They are special.

Labor Day Weekend

Our Bear Lake plans were cancelled, but the fun did not! Swimming. Splash Park. Dinner Out. Movie. Camping. Exploring. S'mores. Sleepover. Kayaking. Home. Pooped out. Messy House. Tired kids.

My favorite part was when everyone was sound asleep in the tent last night and I got a peak at everyone. Everyone I love so much. Those who made this little getaway so great! I may not have slept a whole lot last night, but my heart was so full to be sharing that little space with my little family.

 Nate and Abby were in competition for who could get the dirtiest.

The End.

Time Together

I've never been one who is afraid of change. Maybe that's because I haven't experienced a lot of it in my life and the "change" I have experienced has always been good, even if it was hard at first. With school in full force, my heart strings have been squeezing tight. I've been emotional everyday since school started. And it's been surprising to me. I hadn't realized just how much I really do love having my children home with me. Sure the fighting, the whining, the mess is very nice to be without for a few hours each day, the quiet is very very very hard to get used to. We are getting into a routine, which I love and crave. I'm organizing "time together" with each child. With Hannah in school everyday and Nate every Mon., Wed., and Fri. I now have time with just Abby. Oh, she is sweet and adorable. I wish I could bottle her cute little voice. Yesterday I asked her if she wanted to go to the store with me; just mommy and Abigail. Wowzer! she was excited. We walked around and she held my hand. She LOVED the attention and I loved spending that time with just her. In one store, there was a woman who apparently was observing us and she told me what a good job I was doing raising her. I almost cried. I want to do a good job. I want to give each one of my kids this kind of undivided attention because I know they need it and because I really do love being alone with them.

By the end of our shopping, Abby was asking for Hannah and Nathan though and could sense the loss of not having them around to play with or to be teased by. I was so happy that she missed them because quite frankly, I missed them too.

Today I get to have Nathan home with me and I wanted to have some one on one time with him as well. I put Abby down for a nap, which will be my routine so I can be with just Nate on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Nate is my movie boy. Once Abby went down he asked for a movie. That is not exactly the kind of one on one I was hoping for, so I told him that I had some very special books that were just for him and mommy to do together. They are preschool books and at first he was impressed and even a little excited to work on something together. Poor little guy though is easily frustrated. As he was tracing circles or the alphabet he would just lose it if he would go out of the line at all. I could tell this was not going to be the 'positive' activity I was looking for. We continued on a little bit longer and then I told him he could pick out a movie. Our preschool books will not just go by the wayside. It will be a good opportunity for me to help Nate channel his frustrations a little at a time.

Spending time with just Hannah is going to require more of an effort now. She is changing so much. After her second day of school she told me that there is a girl in her class who isn't very nice to her. Made my heart break. However, this is a good teaching moment so we talked about it and I asked her what she thought she could do. It kind of sickens me though, I have to be honest. I just want to protect her from everything and yet, I know she has to experience life in order to really grow. I just pray that we are teaching our kids to choose the right, to be kind, to grow into strong, and happy adults.

I'm really going to like this one on one time. I'm really going to like the time I will have to clean a little more deeply. I'm really going to like having a little time for me. But not as much as I like having them all home. Especially when they are home and playing together, and loving eachother.

I am silently laughing behind the camera.

And this is how I always want my Hannah to stay. Darling with pigtails.

To Sum up the Summer

This summer shall forever be remembered as the Summer of the Mosquito. I cannot remember a time in my life when the mosquitoes have been so unbelievably bad. Good riddance mosquitoes.....well, when you finally all die that is.

1st Day of School

Nate started Preschool with Mrs. Tecia. Same teacher as Hannah had. She is the only person I think I would send my kids to for preschool. She is gifted. She has found her gift to share with others and she does it so incredibly well. I'm so grateful my kids have her.

I think it's worth noting that this is Nate's second change of clothes before he went to school. It is near impossible to keep him clean! or smelling good. :o)

We did Hannah's hair up in curlers the night before her first day. I am in such trouble with this girl. When we were taking them out she kept saying, "Oh, I am so pretty. I love it. I'm so pretty". Seriously? What am I going to do???? She is pretty though, I have to give her that credit. She is beyond excited for school. I think afternoon kindergarten may just kill her because she was ready to go by 9:00 this morning and wasn't leaving until 12:30.

Aaron and I want school to always be exciting! Always something the kids look forward to and work hard at. He gave them each a father's blessing the night before and we chose a theme to focus on for this school year and colored it for Family Home Evening.

Taken from the Book of Mormon in the book of Alma 37:35. It now hangs in Hannah's room where we can all look at it and apply it this year. To top the night off, we each had  a slice of homemade fresh peach pie. I have to master this pie for a ward function coming up so we may be having a lot of pie in the next two weeks so I can get the crust down. It may not look the prettiest, but it is simply divine!

Here's to a great new school year!





Not His Day

This morning Nathan had his first soccer game. It started out so promising.

and this one too was pretty good.

But unfortuanetly the majority of the game was spent like this:

and this:

It could very well be a LONG soccer season. But doesn't he look so cute in his gigantic uniform?

And in his coaches arms?

It could be his only redeeming qualities after such behavior on his first game!

The End of Summer is Near

You would never guess it because it has been hotter than Hates here. But it is. Most kids are already back to school. The kindergartners have this week to do evaluations which means, I have had one more week to squeeze in as much time with all my kids at home. I have such mixed feelings about this coming school year. Hannah is so excited for school so naturally I'm happy too. Nathan starts pre-school next week as well. I will be down to one child in the afternoons. I hardly know what to think about that. These last 5 years I've craved alone time, quiet time, Melissa time and starting next week I might just get a little more of that. And now that it's almost here, it kinda makes me sad to think about. Things will never be the same now that I officially have a child at the big school. This fall is already promising to be busy with soccer games, piano lessons, and dance lessons. And actually, all of that REALLY excites me.

With my Monday report being one of the worst days ever for me and the kids, we've made up big time the rest of the week.

Tuesday: Shopping & Swimming in our Pool (Hannah has improved so much this summer)
Wednesday: Evaluation with Mrs. Rico. Hannah got the go light and her teacher said she is ready for Kindergarten.
The rest of the day was spent playing with cousins.

Thursday: Thanksgiving Point Splash Park with cousin Hayden

 Adorable, sweet, perfect baby Beckham

The trip ended with a graceful, or rather not so graceful fall by me. I came away with a scraped up hand, twisted wrist, badly bruised foot and kinked knee. Oh, and did I mention that I landed right smack in this pond? Fully clothed! Too bad I don't have a picture of that.

That means Friday, today, we are spending in doors where I can nurse an aching hand and foot. However, the festivities will continue this evening for Nathan and Aaron at a fun swimming park with Hayden and Brett. The girls and I will head over to my mom's and say our goodbye's to Aunt Carlee. We have LOVED having them home for a while and seeing our kids play so much together.

These last pictures are just things that have made me happy lately.
Chickens that come to say hello at our door each day. Almost as good as having a dog.

Kids who have a green smoothie mustache. That's right a "green" smoothie made of spinach, collard greens, chard, cucumber,(all grown in our garden this year) bananas, and frozen berries sweetened with agave nectar. Not much makes me happier than when they drink that all down, which doesn't happen often, but anything they get down makes me happy! I take that back, Nathan chugs that thing down with no problem, the girls are still acquiring a love for it.

Hannah's pictures and seeing her spell words out. This one says: McKenzie from Hannah (not sure what the middle part is supposed to say) Happy Birthday.

And then there's Abby wearing a winter hat everywhere this day in 95+ degree weather.

We have one more fun trip planned up to Bear Lake next weekend. I feel so spoiled with all the fun we've had this summer.