My Magic Shoes!

I made these shoes about 4 years ago for Halloween. I, of course was Dorothy, Ben was the Scarecrow and Luke was the Lion. Luke was only 6 months old, so he doesn't remember my shoes and I have had them stored away in my closet. Well, a few weeks ago, Luke watched The Wizard of Oz and absolutely LOVED it! He wanted to watch it again, and again and again....well, you get the point. A few days later he was snooping through my closet and discovered my red shoes. Luke pulled them out with complete amazement. His jaw was gaping open as he ran to find me. He said, "Mommy, look what I found. I didn't know you were Dorothy!" I laughed so hard. He really thinks my shoes are the real thing. Luke asks me to wear them in the house and to randomly click them together. Each time I do it, his face lights up with delight. One day he insisted that I wear them-but I was trying to make dinner-so I just slipped them on so that he would be quiet and leave the kitchen. I forgot that I was wearing them and Ben came home from work. Ben took one look at me and said, "What the heck is going on?" Anyway, I have since retired the shoes. I spent many hours on those things and I want them to stay in one piece. 4 years ago I found these white dye-able shoes at DI. They were brand new and MY size. I couldn't pass it up so I painted them red and then glued each piece of sequins on the shoe and then made the ribbons for them. Every time I wear them, we end up with tiny pieces of sequins all over the house.

We need Super Nanny!!!

Notice that I am not attaching a photo? Well, that is because I thought anyone reading this could use their own imagination and picture this event in their minds. If you have children, then I am sure you have found yourself in this same setting...well...let's hope so for my sake. This morning Ben and I are extremely embarrassed and frustrated from our lovely night at Garcia's restaurant. Last night some friends of ours treated us (and our children) to dinner. The gesture was extremely kind and we are grateful to them for their kindness. We love our children very much...but being a parent can be soooooooooooooooooooooo hard sometimes. I have to remember they are 3 1/2 years old and 21 months old. Our children were well behaved for maybe ...um...5 minutes total. They sat in their chairs for about 30 seconds and then Ashlynn jumped out of her highchair and ran away screaming, "NO, NO, NO". Luke of course had to follow her and then chase her. They were both laughing hysterically and obnoxiously loud. They were jumping off the stairs, running laps around the tables and standing on chairs and having a screaming match.
At one point they took their shoes off and threw them at each other. They left their shoes in a walking path while the servers tripped over them and Ashlynn ran into a server carrying food. Meanwhile, we took turns leaving our friends at the table by themselves while we tried to control our children. I eventually put Ashlynn in the naughty corner (I love that every building has one!). Ashlynn screamed at the top of her lungs the entire 1 minute of her naughty corner experience. 60 seconds felt like 60 minutes! The naughty corner experience obviously didn't make her want to be better because she continued to be CRAZY and eventually Ben spanked her. A few minutes later, Luke took a tortilla chip loaded with salsa and chucked it across the table at Ben. That action sealed the deal...we were done with Garcia's restuarant! We said
good-bye to our friends and I grabbed my shrimp taco with 2 bites taken out of it and off we went!! I guess we just have to realize that we will never be able to GO TO a restaurant with children EVER again. Most people seem to have family members who live nearby and they can dump their kids at grandma's house while they are able to enjoy a few moments of solitude and sociality with their friends. We, on the other hand, have to pay millions in babysitting fees every time we step out the front door. A few weeks ago we even paid a babysitter while we went to the grocery store together for date night. Isn't that romantic? ...but I must admit it was enjoyable in some wierd way. So...anyway...we put the children to bed at 6:30pm last night because neither of us had an ounce of patience left! I then spent the evening reading discipline books, taking deep breaths and reminding myself of how much I really do love my children.

Tribute to President Hinckley

I know most of you have probably already seen this tribute to President Gordon B. Hinckley, but just in case one of you has not, here it is:

This one shows Glenn Beck ending his show with a tribute:
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/

It is wonderful and I hope you enjoy it.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

We just want to take this time to say good-bye to somone we love very much. President Gordon B. Hinckley died on Sunday, January 27th. He would have been 98 years old this summer. Each time I have thought of him and his passing, I find myself with a lump in my throat and I end up fighting back the tears. I feel like I need to try to express how much he meant to me. I can't describe how many times he said something that truly touched me, humbled me, or motivated me to do better. Many of those experiences are too personal to explain in this blog. In addition to the powerful words he spoke, the way he led his life spoke louder than any words could ever say.

Here are a few quotes from President Hinckley:

• "We must work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it."

• "We are all in this together, all of us, and we have a great work to do. Every teacher can be a better teacher than he or she is today. Every officer can be a better officer than he or she is today. Every father can be a better father. Every mother can be a better mother. Every husband can be a better husband, every wife a better wife, every child a better child. We are on the road that leads to immortality and eternal life and today is a part of it. Let us never forget it."

• "Believe in the power of prayer-it is real, it is wonderful, it is tremendous."

• "You have not failed until you quit trying."

• "The habit of saying thank you is the mark of an educated man or woman."

• "The Lord did not send you here to fail. He did not give you life to waste it."

• "Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality."

• "Stand as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. None of us will fully reach a stage where we can walk as He walked in this life, but we can work at it. And the more we work at it, the more easily we shall take on the luster of His image in our own lives."

Here are a few things others had to say about President Hinckley...we couldn't agree more with the words they spoke in his honor.

• President Thomas S. Monson said: "He was truly a prophet for our time. Like the Master, he devoted his life to doing good, and God was surely with him. His life was a gift to the world.”

• The Quorum of the 12 Apostles: "He was our prophet, our leader, our brother and our friend. We feel a deep, personal loss at his passing. He unfailingly demonstrated his devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose witness he was at home and abroad.
  We will miss his wit and his wisdom, his leadership and his love."

Keeping up with Luke

A few weeks ago we enrolled Luke in preschool. We were going to wait until he was 4, but we changed our minds. Luke is really shy around 'groups' of people and...uh...I can't imagine 'who' he inherited that from! I didn't want Luke to have my same phobias, so we thought he could benefit from preschool. He is constantly telling me that he wants to read and spell words. I thought he would really enjoy school for those reasons too. He learned how to write his name the first day and now he writes it on everything. He is only 3 1/2 and we are really proud of him!
I have friends (who are stay-at-home moms) who actually read novels and books at home DURING the day. I still haven't figured out how that is possible. Maybe it is because of my children's ages, but there is no way I would EVER be allowed to read a small paragraph from the mail I received that day-let alone a whole chapter in a novel or book. My children do not run off in their rooms and play by themselves. They follow me from room to room as I complete chores in our home. Luke asks me to play with him every 2 seconds, Luke asks me to make him something out of paper(like the photo above) every 4 seconds, and Ashlynn wants me to sit down and cuddle with her every 6 seconds. I feel like they are glued to me every second of the day. They have so many toys, but the only thing they want is my attention and love. I guess all this craziness means they love me! Someday, when they are teenagers, I will be the one begging them to spend time with me. Maybe I will have to follow them around the house from room to room and constantly repeat the same thing to them until they pay attention to me too!

This is what happens when my child doesn't follow me from room to room. There was 5 minutes of silence that I knew was too good to be true. I walked up the stairs and noticed a lock of hair on each step. The hair was so long that I assumed it was Ashlynn's hair. My heart sank as I proceeded with each step and yet another handful of hair. When I reached the top of the stairs, I imagined how bald little Ashlynn would be. To my surprise, it was Luke cutting his own hair. Notice the bald spot in the middle of his head? His bangs are mostly cut off too. The sad thing is that no one even notices that he cut his hair.

Snow Much Fun!

This looks like a regular snowman...
...but it's not! Luke said he wanted to build the biggest snowman EVER! We had so much fun making it. It was a good workout too! It took the two of us to lift those snowballs! They were so heavy! We have received A LOT of compliments about the snowman. People walking by, people at church, neighbors, people driving by and even a teenager walking by yelled out to me, "Hey, that's the coolest snowman I've seen."
My only regret is that Ashlynn was not with us. She was taking a nap:(

A snowcave! We have received so much snow this year!!! I remember making caves and snowforts in Minnesota when I was a little girl. Luke thought this was so cool!

This little guy didn't want to ever go in the house! The day after this picture was taken, Luke came down with croup. Poor guy!

I have to write what Luke did with the snowman after we made it. Ben and I said we were going in the house and Luke asked if he could stay outside with 'Frosting the Snowman' for a few minutes. We looked at each other and then asked Luke, "WHY"? He said he needed to talk to 'Frosting' alone and for just a little bit. Ben and I ran in the house and opened the window so that we could hear what Luke was going to say to the snowman. The conversation went something like this:

"So...you like snow?"... "I like snow too." ..."Are you cold?" ..."Do you want some more snow?" (he then put more snow on the snowman) ..."Okay, well, I am going inside to get some hot chocolate." "Bye Frosting!"

We love this little man. Luke really thinks 'Frosting' is real. It is sooooo cute!

Ben's Movie BLOG is up and running. Please feel free to check it out. There is a link with our friends who have a BLOG.